All blogs require some level of design, but it’s generally speaking not all bloggers are designers. It’s been something of a pleasure to spend some time perusing the best graphic design blogs out there. Within the blogosphere, the role of a graphic design blog can fulfil a number of functions. For the “casual passer-by”, the abundance of prettiness and generally “eye candy” are a great way to while away an hour or two. For the “design-heads”, there’s plenty of information on good practice, including tutorials, guides, techniques and pointers to developments within the industry. And for PRs, getting your artwork picked up by the design community can be a great way to spread the word further.
Here’s a look at 6 of the best:
The Big Daddy
Creative Review Blog
Creative Review is the blog of the magazine that covers it all if you’re looking for anything related to visual communication. For graphic designers this is essential reading, collating new designs to inspire, providing topics for debate and keeping up to date with relevant news. For marketers looking to see ways in which good design can provoke discussion, this is required reading. And for me and you, Creative Review pick the cream of good design, presenting it in neat, readable chunks.
The Bit of Both
Spoon Graphics
Spoon Graphics comes at the subject from a more relaxed angle, featuring less commercial and more fun stuff. Heck, I even found myself poring over a collection of designed My Little Ponies. However, the “Weekly Favs” feature provides links to tutorials, among other goodies, that are invaluable to the budding designer.
The Industry Insider
Mark Boulton
Mark Boulton is a graphic designer who works with some big name clients and speaks as an authority within the industry. His text-heavy site is aimed squarely at those within the industry.
The Treat For The Eyes
AceJet 170
Ace Jet 170 is the blog of Richard Weston, a graphic designer who works implementing brands and corporate IDs. His blog is a record of the ‘stuff’ that he finds on his everyday travels. Which, given his eye for gorgeous design, means that this site is a treat for the eyes, taking in everything from stamps to book covers to nature photography.
The All-In-One
David Airey
David Airey’s blog feels like a kind of one-stop shop for graphic designers featuring, as it does, tips for finding relevant jobs, creative resources, tips and links to a myriad of resources for designers.
Belle & Boo
Belle & Boo is a great way to spend some time cooing over cute design and lovely illustrations, which these two girls have a great eye for. They seek out the best and often the most twee examples and present them on this simple, nicely presented site.
Any others that you think should be included here please let me know – it would be interesting to hear what you think?
About the Author
Paul Barnett
Paul Barnett is a Social Media Analyst for Social Media Library, responsible for developing the content within Social Media Library. Paul lives in a world of blogs, blogs and more blogs, scouring the web and plucking out the juiciest information he finds. Previous to this, he worked as a Music Press Officer. He is also a freelance writer, writing for TV and editing a music title, SWN Magazine.
Paul blogs extremely infrequently about stuff that he does and once blogged about cheese, maybe he will do again some day. Follow him on Twitter @paulbarnett1.
Since the introduction of Gutenberg’s Modern Printing Press, the last 500 years has seen an influx of a number of different communications platforms that allow individuals to collaborate in and affordable and accessable manner. Progession in technology around this area had remained somewhat consistent with the introduction of affordable postal services in the 1840′s (in the UK), advancements in telecommunications pioneered by Alexander Graham Bell and facsimile devises which dominatied the 1980′s. This all changed with the widespread use of electonic communications and even now some of these are becoming somewhat dated.
It has been mentioned recently that it has been some 40 years since the introduction of electronic mail (commonly known as e-Mail) and with the plethora of other options available online it is becoming apparent that this too is becoming dated. Platforms designed to cater for particular needs, such as Conversation (Instant Messaging or for short IM), Document Collaboration (wikis), and real-time and borderless communications (Twitter).
Whilst all of these platforms have become somewhat commonplace of desktops and saved browsers around the world, the fact that they all act autonomously of each other makes the user experience challenging. Take my personal situation for example in that every morning I open my GMail, Outlook, Google Docs, Hootsuite (Twitter) and Wave every time I login, calling for a need for collaboration across communications platforms.
The limitations of current communication platforms
Email
Email
Like conventional postal services when you send a message via Email there is no guarentee that it will make it successfully to it’s destination, however, it’s not just human error that is at fault. As technologies have developed into new areas surrounding communication, so to have the technologies surrounding email with programs to identify SPAM and firewalls. Another limitation that surrounds is the fact that user provides feedback in a thread format or as attachment making it hard to compare to the original points and contribute in the original location where the point has been made. This process of reviewing threads or multiple documents is very time consuming as it involves a number of tedious task that could be solved within a unified solution.
Instant Messaging
Instant Messaging (IM)
Instant messaging attempted to solve the lack of conversational feeling to email by providing a lighter and faster exchange of short messages. The introduction of IM was a sensation with millions of people exiting chat rooms to build there own network of trusted contacts in which they could communicate online. Over time, the interest in using IM has reduced, if you have experience with IM then you know how slow and dumbed down it can be. Sentences longer than 7 words hinder the sound and natural flow of the IM etiquette so only certain sort of conversations can be hold (e.g with friends). Also, the general lack of expression within the language used within short messages often leads to misunderstanding or bland conversations (despite the emoticons).
Wiki
Wikis
Wikis, in comparision to Email and IM, above, offer some revolutionary ideas and applications into effective document collaboration and have proven to be very popular over the past few years. In short, anyone can edit anyone’s text, a concept that can un-nerve those individuals that are not accustomed to the art of wiki-writing. This freedom to edit an publish other work has clashed with permacy of traditional communications. From the origins of communications be it Eyptian Geoglyphs to Emails, messages are authored and untouchable. With the unexpected success of Wikipedia in organizing the world’s knowledge, the average user is now habituated with the benefits that wikis offer with such concepts becoming an inspiration for projects such as Google Docs and Google Wave. What is important to understand here is however, wiki’s as we know it do not enable conversations (but then, they never intended to).
Twitter
Twitter/Microblogging
Twitter has been one of the pioneering web based applications available within Web 2.o/Social Media. Allowing you to connect with the whole world within a very light structure and in real time, its search functionalities are game changing and its approach to open source code has seen +2,000 clients improve the user experience of the service enormously (e.g. Tweetdeck, FriendorFollow, Trendsmap to name a few). and yet, the 140 constraint that gives Twitter its power impedes it to be used in document collaboration or message interchange.
Wave and Raindrop, why should you care?
The power of collaboration offer benefits on both an indivudual and corporate level. On an individual basis, using a tool that collaborates your communication can make you more organised and save you time allowing you can focus on more pressing tasks. From corporate level, time is money, simple as that. Both Google Wave and Raindrop, both still in beta format, as starting to help people visualise how they can change the way in which they engage with others and highlight the importance of Social media and Twitter as “Information Networks”.
What is Google Wave?
To help you understand how to use Google Wave effectively I have embedded a video below that will help you give you a handle on what it’s all about, alternatively check out Completewaveguide – a great wiki document that will help you become a wave expert in a few hours.
No other product available, either web based or installed on your computer offers that functionality that is seen within Google Wave. beyond a word processor. You can use Google wave to chat with your girlfriend, collaborate in any sort of project with people based in Japan and Peru or debate with the world in public waves. There are so many uses of wave as one can imagine by adding extensions (gadgets and robots in wave’s lingo) and using your lateral thinking.
What are people saying about Google Wave?
From my own personal research, Google Wave is not being widely accepted – perhaps the world just isn’t ready yet?
I believe that the deteriming factors that are affecting its success are:
Wiki functionalities are distressing for a lot of people
The software can be somewhat challenging to operate
Steve Rubel, VP of Edelman and blogger at Micro Persuasion can be found saying “the basic conclusion I came to is that, for all of its wonders, Wave is a mess”, a strong comment from one of the influential early adopters of social media. Of course, for every Steve Rubel, one can find thousands of indviduals that can intuitively see the commercial benefit of such a platform once Wave is publicly released. Personally, I am already enjoying using the service both as an individual and as a company, for instance Social Media Library is using wave for many areas of its internal communications.
There are loads of applications of Google Wave for both individuals and businesses – a number that will inevitably increase as a Google Wave API is released for developers to create add-on’s to the service.
What is Raindrop?
When compared to Google Wave, Raindrop is a simpler, better grounded product. Raindrop is a communications platform with a focus on smart filtering that channels all your existing communication platforms into one, including your email, Twitter, facebook and any other API-based communication client. Raindrop uses a custom built algorithm that prioritizes your important emails and @messages over your newsletter notifications, allowing for better organization of content which subsequently provides better time management. Like Google Wave, you will also be able to see pictures and embed videos & apps into the messages you create. For a a quick understanding I have sourced this short video:
Despite being less ambitious than Wave, Raindrop may be a winner since Mozilla Labs have been able to respond to existing needs in the market (a rest from a packed inbox and the urgent need to merge all our web-based communications in the same inbox).
What are people saying?
Despite being in a very early stage, Raindrop is wooing many web developers and other early adopters looking forward to an early release.
“#Raindrop is the next generation of communication client” is only of many praises that one could see in Twitter.
Conclusion
There is a need in the market for a comprehensive web-based communication solution and it seems like both these products could change the way we communicate. The winner of this battle is still up in the air and open to debate. My predition would be that Google Wave would be a more dominant player in securing dominance within this field as they come under the Google “PowerHouse” which seems to have bottomless pockets and has invited developer to contribute making the tool more maluable to the users requirements.
But if Twitter & Facebook can live together, perhaps Wave & Raindrop can too. Let me know your thoughts…
Xavier Izaguirre joined Social Media Library in November 2009 working as part of the Research Team. Prior to joining Social Media Library, Xavier completed a Masters Degree in Marketing and Communications at Westminster University, London. An active user of Social Media platforms, Xavier is very passionate about new trends in communication and Social Media Marketing contributing towards a number of online campaigns within the Educational Sector.
One area that we have been dedicating a lot of research time to over the last few months has been the fashion blogosphere. Traditional magazines are no longer leading the way when it comes to spotting trends, let alone creating them – rather there are hundreds of blogs both in the UK and further afield with their own unique take on the fashion scene, offering enormous potential for fashion brands and PR agencies to create a social media buzz. Whilst many of the blogs cover all areas of fashion generally, some cover specific areas, from jewellery, to hair, to makeup and beauty.
Professionally Run Blogs
One excellent example of the genre is Nonstop Mama, run by former Beauty Editor of the Telegraph, Jenni Baden Howard. Its strapline is “time for you, every day” – ambitious perhaps, but this blog seems to be designed as a magazine to take on the enormous women’s print sector. It’s loosely aimed at mothers – with a strong fashion and beauty focus, but blog articles on parenting and shopping thrown into the bargain. There is a strong focus on product reviews – and with dedicated features on gifts, bargains and giveaways, the whole blog is very consumer orientated. Jenni herself is truly a Nonstop Mama; I had a brief conversation with her which was abruptly halted by the sound of a very young superhero crashing into the kitchen table. Jenni told me that she is actively looking out for PRs and brands to get in touch with her in order to help her generate content for the blog. Her professional journalistic background is reflected in the way the site is run – with a clear audience and consumer-driven content. There are many other professionally-run blogs similar to Nonstop Mama within the fashion scene – the SHOWstudio blog, written by a collective of designers, photographers and fashion insiders, for influential photographer Nick Knight’s website, is an excellent example, while fashion entrepreneur Imran Amed is the brains behind international fashion news magazine The Business of Fashion. Meanwhile blogs like Style Bubble and Street Peeper also have a powerful influence on consumers, print journalists, buyers and designers alike.
Brand Engagement within Social Media
The most forward-thinking fashion brands are exploring the social media space too and TopShop, as ever, are leading the way. The Inside Out blog is a classic example of how brands can use social media to generate word of mouth. The blog has a relaxed feel – very low on branding, but very high on content. On average there is a new post every day – covering a range of lifestyle areas: not just fashion, but music and modern art are also touched upon, as well as anything trendy that comes their way. They are not afraid to give their take on the fashion scene in general, rather than a purely TopShop product focus. Readers are, in essence, being given something for nothing; high quality content, without the feeling of having advertising rammed down their throats. Yet any subscriber to the blog is having the content they read micromanaged by the TopShop writers: a PR dream.
Another example of a brand-led blog is the Canadian Spa Boutique who have a busy and product dominated beauty blog.
The underground: where to find the cutting edge viewpoints
Perhaps the most interesting feature of the fashion blogging scene is the huge non-journalistic contingent. The emphasis on amateur blogging within the fashion scene is perhaps reflected in the fact that the majority of fashion blogs, while beautifully put together, use the Blogger platform, rather than the WordPress platform favoured of more serious bloggers. Bloggers – from designers to models to fashion students – are digging to find an alternative look, getting busy with cameras and creating their own fashion shoots, with the fruits of their labours posted on the blogosphere. Photographer Gemma Booth, for example, uses blogging as an outlet for her work, while The Style Rookie is charmingly written. There is a real sense of cutting edge fashion within these blogs that is one step ahead of the print magazines; certainly judging from comments on many blogs, they readership boasts an impressively of style-savvy readership. The hunger that many of them have to be demonstrating the latest trends offers real opportunities for fashion brands wanting to create blogger relationships.
About the Writer
Eoghan O'Neill
Eoghan O’Neill is a Social Media Analyst for Social Media Library. Responsible for developing the content within Social Media Library, Eoghan spends his day darting between reading blogs and Twitter posts from around the world, and with his nose deep in spreadsheets! Prior to joining Social Media Library he worked within Arts Marketing for a leading arts trust and is a Physics graduate from Imperial College, London.
On the 23th of September 2009, Google launched Sidewiki as “an easy way of sharing insights between webpage visitors”. If you haven’t yet installed, look no further than this link.
What is Google Sidewiki?
Simply put, Google Sidewiki is an add-on that lays beneath the websites you visit and can be expanded to either read the existing comments, publish your own views or both. I’ve found a short video that explains the process really well which can be found below:
The idea of making the internet a dialogue is no new concept, having been a contributing factor to the development of the Social Web. Sidewiki allows a standardised and in-context way of providing feedback in pages. This feedback dilutes the differentiation between web creator and web user and shifts the balance of power towards the consumer.
What are the Commercial Implications of applications such as Google Sidewiki?
The Power of the Referral – Applications such as Sidewiki, which offer the consumer the ability to seemlessly publish information, be it positive or negative, can have a catastopric effect on a companies sales. Understanding how to develop strategies to cope with this free spech economy will become a detremental factor to sucess.
Adopting to Change – There are a number of Consultants that come from the “traditional school” of Public Relations that find it hard to adopt the Social Media applications into there current skill set. Focused solely on message control and spin, the desire to ensure a high standard within the wording and grammar used within media outreach, that can some what mask the bigger picture of a Social Media arsenal. A recent article by PRWeek reported unfavourably the launch of Sidewiki with the headline Google sidewiki could damage corporate brand reputations deeming the application as a “fresh hurdle and a “social media challenge”.
The “Set in Stone” Effect – The concept that yesterday’s news lines today’s waste paper bins does not stand true within Online Media which Google making historical data readily available for niche terms. Comments are not just thrown away, the provide a paper trail which can easily be found within Search online and many months later can pose a threat to either yourself, your product or your company.
How can you Google Sidewiki it to your benefit?
Personally, I believe that what Google have created with Sidewiki has given businesses around the world that ultimate tool to build brand advocacy, engage with your target market and monitor activity about your brand online. I’ve included below some of the key benefits that can have the most dramatic effect on your business:
Become an Early Adopter - Simply speaking, get involved, don’t wait for your competitors to gain a presence and have the challenge of competing with them at a later date. Take this breathing space in time to understand how/if your customers use this service and develop an approach around this future platform so that when others catch up your will be best placed to own the market and overshadow the competition.
Define your Target Consumer – Having a stong body of advocates that support your brand can take you a long way. As it stands, going out of the way to make a nice comment in your wiki can assist in building this (I spend a precious couple of minutes each day publishing on Hootsuite.com and I would only do it for very few websites)
Take an Alternative Approach- Building on point #1 within this section. Using Google Sidewiki within your Social Media Marketing strategy offers an opportunity to standout in the marketplace and become an innovator within your industry.
Build your Profile – From both an individual professional standpoint, having influence online is key as it ensure’s that people to listen to what your saying – Its what get you to the top of search.
Understand the Structure – Google Sikiwiki uses a hierarchy of comments which is worked out through an algorythm that factors in attributes such as user feedback from you and other users (like the Digg system), previous entries, post frequency to name a few (Click here to read more on this). As a user it is important to understand this structure when monitoring this framework but also how to use this structure to your benefit.
What does the future have in store for Google Sidewiki?
The mear movements of Google change the way in which the world operates, take for example Google’s recent interest in the real estate market – an interest that made Rightmove’s shares drop 10%. Google raises an eyebrow and the world shakes, but, what about Orkut, Google’s attempt at Social Networking – it flopped.
I have done a little research on how Google Sidewiki has been received and it seems that Twitter activity is very scarce compared to that of Google’s other priorities: Chrome and Wave. The charts below illustrate this with the launch of Wave and Chrome accounting for over 1% of all tweets compared to those in the hundreds for Sidewiki.
Google Sidewiki
Google Chrome
Google Wave
In my experience, when Google launch a new product onto the market they follow a very specific process producing the following outputs:
Supporting Official Blog for the Product
Supporting YouTube Video for the Product
Global Press Launch
Exposure at a Google Event
A really nice logo
When I compare the launch of Google Sidewiki to some of the other products that have been launched by Google recently it would show a lack of support. There is no supporting blog created to showcase it’s functionality to interested readers nor major press launch to create buzz online around the topic.
Final Thoughts
The idea of an annotated web is bound to cath on eventually as a progression of the web 2.0 concept – even Sidewiki skeptics would agree on this point. We are moving towards a less anonymous internet – a desire of the game changers such as Seth Godin. Some would say that this exposure of thought online will make the net a more enjoyable and reliable experience, but offers the opportunity to be manipulated for the greater good of others. Even if Sidewiki flops, the need still remains and annotation will remain increasingly present and contextual.
Let me know your thoughts? I’d be interested to hear what you think?
Xavier Izaguirre joined Social Media Library in November 2009 working as part of the Research Team. Prior to joining Social Media Library, Xavier completed a Masters Degree in Marketing and Communications at Westminster University, London. An active user of Social Media platforms, Xavier is very passionate about new trends in communication and Social Media Marketing contributing towards a number of online campaigns within the Educational Sector.
It has been somewhat commonplace within the communications industry to mail merge hundreds of journalists at once via an email merge when trying to pitch in stories to mainstream media. Normally, due to restrictions in time, Consultants have been prone to send out via BCC – a practice that is heavily frowned upon within Social Media communities.
An inability to personalise your pitch can have a catastrophic effect on how your brand or client is perceived online. There are number of blogs online such as The Bad Pitch Blog that serve to highlight to the world the practices of poor pitching online giving the necessary motivation to spend the time to personalise your pitch, engage with your audience and maintain a relationship with your target media.
Take this outreach from Microsoft to Neville Hobson (Head of Social Media Europe at WeissComm Group) as a reminder to use a personalised pitch. Neville recieved an impersonal email from an agency working on behalf of Microsoft’s latest search venture Bing. Neville really summed up his perception of this pitch by the tone of his comments – “…such an impersonal approach is hardly a message that would persuade me to do anything other than click the delete button in Outlook”. But in fact, he did more than clicking the delete button – he blogged about it, reaching a huge number of PR’s and publishers and creating a negative perception on Bing’s account handler.
The Personal & Personalised Pitch
When it comes to Social Media outreach having “traditional” press releases for use within pitching news stories have been somewhat faded out of PR practice. This paradigm of change has started, and will continue to redefine what works when outreaching social media influencers.
In my opinion, a personal and personalised message works best.
However, after my last post, a number of people have asked me, how do you personalise your pitch effectively?
6 Tips to help you make your pitch more personal, ergo, more effective:
• Be Human - If there is nobody behind your message, the social media influencer will be under the impression that they are dealing with a machine. Think about your frustration when talking to the cinema hotline trying to tell an autocue what you want to see.
• Create your own Social Media Profile – By creating and engaging within social media platforms (such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn etc) this activity gives your recipient full disclosure on who (s)he is talking to.
• Take your Time – If you need a release out there tomorrow you’re in trouble! Generally speaking when conducting Social Media outreach I tend to start one month in advance. If the social media influencer hears about you for the first time, chances are your email will wind up in the trash or on the next blog post. Instead, comment on his blog, retweet her best tweets, list him with you on Twitters list regarding your common areas, recommend him-her on #followfridays or organise some sort of online event in where he would want to participate.
• Take an interest – Make it clear that you have read the blog, and match a product angle with the blog’s niche. Be able to find many angles so you may appeal many influencers for the same campaign.
• What’s in it for me? It’s always good to remember that bloggers, unlike Journalist and not normally paid for their efforts but maintain their presence for the love of it. There’s no harm in warming a relationship with random incentives which can range from offering links, blog promotion, sneak previews, recognition, invitation for blogger events or product trials
• Speak the lingo – As we speak, new ways of contacting, gathering and sharing will emerge, so wear your creative hat, understand the changes in language and keep your finger on the pulse with development.
I hope this might help! Let me know what you think – Is there anything that you think I’m missing? Are there any other great examples of Social Media outreach gone wrong? – I’d be interested to hear your thoughts…
Xavier Izaguirre joined Social Media Library in November 2009 working as part of the Research Team. Prior to joining Social Media Library, Xavier completed a Masters Degree in Marketing and Communications at Westminster University, London. An active user of Social Media platforms, Xavier is very passionate about new trends in communication and Social Media Marketing contributing towards a number of online campaigns within the Educational Sector.
