The Definition Of Web Usability

To implement an intuitive layout on your site that makes it easy for visitors to find what they want, you need to understand what web usability is and how it works. Defining web usability is simple: it’s how easy an interface is to use and how much of an impact it makes on the user. The five qualities of web usability are defined by useit.com

Learnability: How easy is it for users to accomplish basic tasks the first time they encounter the design?

Efficiency: Once users have learned the design, how quickly can they perform tasks?

Memorability: When users return to the design after a period of not using it, how easily can they reestablish proficiency?

Errors: How many errors do users make, how severe are these errors, and how easily can they recover from the errors?

Satisfaction: How pleasant is it to use the design?

Following these five rules will force you to think from the visitors’ point of view which is something we designers tend to forget. It’s easy to forget the end user during the design process as we instinctively know where elements are and how they work. These five rules will help you change your mindset and give you a fresh perspective on your website is viewed and used.

Following Best Practices

Following best practices and paying attention to the small details is one of the most fundamental aspects of web usability. A lot of great online resources exist and to cover every single one of them would probably spawn a series a books. This blog posts only covers some of the important best practices but you can learn more from Trip Wire Magazine and Desizn Tech.

Color

Color makes a huge impact on design, even more so when designing with usability in mind. Designers use color to express that status of certain elements such as visited links and differentiate call to actions. Using color in a way that helps the user understand the changed state of an element is critical for visitors to understand the user interface of your site. An example would be a visited link changing from a light blue to a dark red indicating the user has clicked on that link.

Hierarchy

Hierarchy plays a huge role in web usability. Visitors need to know a structure exists that sorts content by importance. While body copy, case studies and blog posts might be important as a whole, you have to consider what users want to see first. When hierarchy is used effectively. Visitors can scan the site for the information they need. On the issue of visitors leaving your site after they find the information they need is where “Call To Actions” come in to play. Using effective copy is one way to retain visitors coming in from search results and converting them in to leads.

Things You Should Not Do

Not making common usability mistakes is just as important as focusing on a usable layout. There are many do’s or don’ts and covering every single one could span an encyclopedia’s worth of material. Focusing on content and how it’s displayed is one of the most important aspect of website usability.

Making Content That’s Hard To Read And Scan

While you may like your site design and consider it a work art, the amount of time a visitor scans a site won’t be adequately convey the quality of your work (unless it’s horrible). Instead, they’re looking for the information they want. Making text scannable will help visitors stay on your site. They’ll be please they found the information they need and leave or become a returning hit.

Putting Important Information In A Banner

People are exposed to as much as 1,000 brands in a day. To deal with this overload of information, we tend to filter out anything that remotely looks like an advertisement. That’s why putting important information in a banner, despite its visual appeal, may work against you. Visitors immediately blocked out banners whether it looked like an ad or not. This is called “Banner Blindness” and it’s a real problem marketers have to deal with. Avoiding the banner format for critical information users need will prevent it from being mentally filtered.

Trends That Users Exhibit

Understanding how users respond to navigation techniques and which visual elements work to guide visitors through your site is important. Following trends that users exhibit will help fine-tune your layout. Understanding your users will give you a better understanding of how your website is being used, how it’s perceived and what needs to change.

Users respond to human elements

A study done by Usable World revealed something interesting: people respond to human characteristics and features. This study demonstrates visitors immediately looked at a baby’s face and then focused on text the baby was looking at. Using human elements effectively will help guide visitors through your site as they scan through body copy or media. If you have a face looking off the page, visitors will follow the implied line created and wander away from what really matters: the website.

The Two Second Rule

There is an unofficial rule that visitors will make the decision to continue browsing within http://www.usabilityfirst.com/glossary/2-second-rule/" >2 seconds. Designing with the two second rule in mind will force you to make important navigational elements and content stand out. Keep in mind that within this short timeframe, visitors will only scan elements and text that stands out.

There are so many things to cover when it comes to web usability it can’t possibly fit in one blog post without diluting the overall message of this post. I’ll be writing more about web usability and how it can help your business but in the mean time, continue the conversation on Twitter and Facebook to learn more about best practices and what web marketing experts would recommend.

How To Write Great Copy

Writing great copy not only motivates readers to take action, but also inform search engines of what your site consists of. However, taking a poetic approach and writing a Shakesperian epic is the absolute worst thing you can do. while it may make a great blog post, it won’t fly with Google which stops reading after a certain amount of characters.

There are a variety of resources you can tap in to learn about what makes web copy tick and how it influences visitors. A personal favorite is Smashing’s eBook “How to Write Great Copy for the Web.” I’ve read this eBook multiple times and it comes from a great site – Smashing Magazine – which is an amazing resource for designers, bloggers and programmers alike.

Using Call To Actions

A Call To Action gives users the incentive to complete an objective. Most commonly used with e-commerce sites, Call To Actions can used on any kind of website that requires user interaction. Recognizing what action you want a user to take is the first step in crafting a Call To Action. If you’re running a blog, you may want readers to subscribe. An e-commerce site will call for users to purchase a product. An information hub will want users to share their content. Knowing what you want to accomplish with your site

Who To Turn To For Copywriting

Girard Brewer wrote how much of an impact effective copy can make. It will either entice visitors to take action or turn them away. If you don’t know how to write copy that persuades and entices users or which keywords to use, where do you turn?

Choosing the right copywriting service is essential to creating effective copy that generates results. However, most agencies only focus on one aspect of the process: writing. DigitalEYE Media integrates copywriting in to advertising and social media campaigns.

That means the copywriting we do for our clients is very tightly integrated with SEO keyword research and optimization. The great thing about this is the advertising and blogging campaigns we create are integrated in SEO keyword research to ensure consistency in the image created for our clients online. The end result is consistency in content that generates results: increased page views, conversions and more loyal followers

What advertising agency can do that? Talk to us on Facebook and Twitter to learn more about how much of an impact copywriting can make on your site.

How To Tag A Page Or Friend In Your Status Update

If you’ve ever replied to someone publicly on Twitter, then you’ll know how to tag a friend or page in your Facebook status update. Typing the @ sign followed by the first letter of the page or friend you want to mention will bring up a menu of possible selections.

Why It’s Great For Brands On Facebook

Encouraging users to tag your page is a great way to generate interest through word of mouth. Friends trust what their friends suggest or promote on Facebook. It’s very easy to track who tagged or mentioned your page by searching for it on Facebook then selecting “View All Results” then “Find Posts By Everyone/Friends.”

Special thanks to the staff for coordinating the event!

Simplify!

Many social media campaigns fail before they even take off. Most people think that by simply signing up for Facebook and Twitter accounts and sending out updates, they’ll have an effective campaign. On the flip side, people inundate themselves with a plethora of social networks they want to target yet have no specific goal in mind. The most effective way to operate is to simplify your campaign. Ask yourself: what do you want to accomplish and who do you want to reach? If you’re marketing a new kind of business suit that is extremely light and comfortable to wear when it’s hot, you’ll obviously want to target businessmen that can afford this kind of technology. Where do you think your target audience will be? Hint: it’s not Facebook. Try LinkedIn, a social networking site tailored to professionals, in order to be really effective.

Drawing up a battle plan of whom you want to target and which social networks may cater to that demographic gives you some more control. Just because social media is intangible doesn’t mean it can’t be used effectively. Don’t get overwhelmed, just simplify!

Interact and Follow Up

You’ve got the networks you want to use in order market your new suit all figured out, now you’ll have to interact with people and follow up with them. If you’re messaging a man who travels to Spain frequently, make sure he knows why he should use your suit the next trip he takes (don’t forget to mention that it’s wrinkle resistant) and why it beats suits from Armani (you’re bound to save some money). Don’t spam him, but don’t forget about him either; follow up with him by finding out how he likes the suit and any improvements he would make if he were in your position.

Social media is a two way street, it is best utilized when you use it to create a conversation, particularly when that conversation is about your product. Social media transcends the normal advertising experience by creating a personal and imitate relationship with the clientele you are trying to sell to and breaks down some barriers. It forces you to be human which creates trust in your audience.

Track Your Return on Investment

Return on investment for social media marketing is the hardest factor to track for any campaign because there are so many kinds of metrics you can factor in and not many people are quite sure how to do it. Using the advice of simplifying your social media campaign can really help you track ROI. When you were first conceptualizing your battle plan, you should have realized your ultimate goal — to generate profit or interest in your product. If your investment is “X” amount of dollars, you’ll want at least “X” plus $1 so that you won’t lose money on your campaign. You can very easily track your ROI using Google Analytics.

Google Analytics allows you to create tracking URLs that show where visitors come from and whether they buy something from your online store or even participate in an action that leads to a sale in the future. If your site received 1,000 visits per month before you started your social media campaign, and you only add 80 more visits per month from social media sites, ask yourself how many of those 80 bought a suit? If it’s your original investment plus $1, it’s effective but has room to grow.

If 10 of those people bought a suit at $400 that’s $4,000 generated just from social media — a profit of $1,000 from a very low number of people visiting your site or e-store. This means your campaign has room to grow and even while it’s in its infancy, it’s already making you money.

Using social media along with your current marketing campaign doesn’t have to be difficult. When you simplify things, you can interact with anyone and make it a genuine, personalized experience. Even more important, tracking ROI is easier when you simplify the process and clearly state your goals early on. Now that we’ve broken down some of the concepts of creating a great social media campaign, we’d like to know how you can implement these tactics. Maybe you have more questions? Either way, visit our Facebook or Twitter and let us know, we can’t wait to hear from you!

HootSuite

HootSuite is one of the best web apps for managing your business’ Twitter account. It allows you to manage multiple Twitter profiles, track analytics and schedule updates. Hoot Suite’s multiple account management makes it easy to visualize data from every Twitter profile you manage for your company, which is useful when measuring feedback and making sure you don’t send Tweets to the wrong profile. Scheduling updates eases the burden of having to remember to push out content at a specific time later in the day or week.

HootSuite is very intuitive to use and is well worth it for a business looking to use Twitter for promotions, updates and monitoring feedback. It’s simple enough anyone in your marketing department can use it effectively and since it is a web app, it is available on any Internet-connected device.

Mozy

Businesses need data backup solutions and Mozy provides just that. The company provides a secure backup service for data and is integrated easily with any computer or setup. It’s also smart enough to not back up data that has already been pushed to Mozy’s servers, making your backups more intelligent. The plans are great, offering 2 GB of space for free and 5 GB a month for only $4.95.

Mozy is a great alternative to Dropbox, but it is geared towards business use. While a pricing plan exists for consumers, it has a lot of great features business are looking for in a data back up solution such as encryption, security and ease of use.

SlideShare

Have you created the perfect slide show to use at a presentation? Why not use it to promote your company online? SlideShare is the world’s largest community for sharing presentations and documents online. Users can upload documents and slideshows then embed it anywhere just like a YouTube video. SlideShare makes it easy to promote your business and send important information to your employees through the site’s built in social networking features.

Document uploading is great as well if you don’t have a company blog or want to embed docs for marketing. If your business wrote a white paper, you can upload it and instantly reference the material wherever you are by bringing up a link. If you’re at a conference and want to show clients your company’s pricing plans, you can not only do so from your computer but also email it to them so that potential client can reference that information.

GoToMeeting

GoToMeeting reinvents the meeting by hosting it online. It takes the concept of a conference call and applies screen and document sharing to your meeting. This creates a very interactive and dynamic environment for business users and clients. Since it is a web-based application, it bypasses the hassles associated with desktop Apps that have to connect through a restrictive corporate firewall

GoToMeeting is extremely useful to showcase your presentation in real time to a client and give a visual presentation about a new product to shareholders and employees. Audio chats are supported making it a great corporate alternative to Skype.

Web apps for your business can be practical and flexible. HootSuite, Mozy, SlideShare and GoToMeeting can change how your company disseminates information and promotes itself. These are great tools that are very easy to use and deliver on benefits.

Making your workflow mobile and ready on-the-go will improve your efficiency, your work and your lifestyle. Being tethered to an office or even a home office can feel suffocating eventually, being able to pick up your laptop and leave or pull out a tablet and still accomplish the same work will make you feel liberated

Mobilizing Your Data

The most important part of your on the go lifestyle is making your data mobilized by uploading it the cloud. The cloud is classified as data stored on a server that can be accessed in real time, at any time. Google, Apple, Amazon and Microsoft all offer these kind of services that sync data between your desktop, laptop and mobile device. Here’s the 4 best services any mobile warrior will love

Dropbox is one of the best (free) tools at your disposal for syncing data. You’ll be able to sync files between your laptop, phone, desktop and any other device in between.

Google Docs takes the traditional word editor and sticks it in the cloud. Documents, presentations and spreadsheets are all editable, instantly saved and accessible anywhere from the cloud.

Log Me In lets you log in to your computer to retrieve a presentation or document you may have forgotten. You can even control your computer from the web interface, shut it down to save power and provide on the go tech support.

Basecamp lets you work in a team and coordinate projects. It’s a very clean project manager and will let you visualize your tasks and accomplishments in so many different ways.

Point 2: Maximizing Your Mobile Gear

Now that your data is in the cloud and accessible wherever you are, it’s time to choose your mobile armory. If you’re still using a desktop, consider buying a tablet or Netbook as a second device. The most important thing to keep in mind; is this device suitable for my needs, will it sync with my data and will these Apps work for me? Buying a tablet like an iPad or an Android smartphone requires you to conform to its user interface and almost bond with it. If you aren’t personally happy with it and it can’t perform to your needs, consider purchasing a Netbook and using Web Apps instead.

Point 3: Finding The Right Spot To Setup

The Coffee shop is the paradise of mobile freelancers, on the go businessmen, and quite certainly, you. It has everything, free Wi-Fi, great coffee and comfy seats. Finding the right Coffee shop or even work area isn’t as easy, you may deal with overcrowding or worse; no power.

A new service called Coffee And Wifi will help you find a coffee house that has free Wi-Fi for you to use while you enjoy your latte. Public libraries typically offer a quiet environment, power and occasionally free WiFi. However, being cooped up inside defeats the purpose of being a mobile freelancer. What I like to do, and what can spice up your freelance work, is choosing a random spot to work in. This could be a park, comfortable area in a mall, parts of the beach, anything that doesn’t have you in one spot for more than a few days.

The mobile office is easier than ever to create. Cloud services make your data accessible anywhere; devices can reach in to the cloud and improve your workflow.

You know your business can’t just wing it on Twitter, you need a strategy. But how do you get there? A lot of social media advice revolves around confusing, high-concept buzzwords: There are only so many times you can be told to “listen” and “engage.” Concrete advice can be hard to come by, and while this guide won’t tell you what you need to tweet, it will provide you with the real questions you need to ask in order to craft a Twitter strategy for your business.

1. Choose Your Audience

Here is a quick example: Look up at least 10 of your customers on Twitter (a quick name search on Google can turned up their Twitter profiles). Once you’ve found some, look at who they’re following and who they talk to. These people could also become part of your audience. Look at how they describe themselves and what terms they talk about. Use those keywords and terms to find like-minded people.

The goal here is not to find everyone you’d like to interact with (that would probably be next to impossible), but to find people who might fit into your audience. Try to pay attention to who has influence in your audience. For example: who are people talking to, about or retweeting? Who do they seem to ask for advice? Once you have a decent group, move on to step two.

2. Understand How They Speak

• Look up what people are saying about your company. Are they saying good things or bad things? Are they asking for advice about what product or company to choose? Are they giving feedback about their experiences after the fact?
• Do the same for your competitors. Note if your competitors are jumping in or influencing any of these conversations.
• Notice the way your audience talks. Are they generally formal or informal? This will be very different depending on the companies you are tracking and the people you attract. It’s always good to match the tone of your audience.
• Look at what your audience shares and retweets. What kinds of links and articles do they like? What kinds of terms and ideas get them excited or annoyed?
• Note any hashtags or other ways your audience connects. Look up those hashtags to see if they have any real traction (if they’re all spam or if people are really using them to connect).

3. How Much is a Twitter Lead Worth?

This is a bit more theoretical but it’s an important step that many companies forget. The reason you’re involved with Twitter isn’t just to say you’re there, it’s because you’re looking for a good return on investment. So what is it that you’re after? It might be as concrete as sign-ups and sales or as ephemeral as buzz and brand awareness.

Depending on your goal, try to figure out how much each person is “worth.” This almost certainly won’t be an exact number, but you should get a general idea. For example, if you’re doing B2B sales and a sale is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, you’re going to have a very different strategy than a company with millions of users that makes its money from advertising.

4. Set A Goal and Track It

Setting a goal is just the start of your strategy, you also need to track it with metrics. Choosing metrics does not just mean tracking your follower count because the count isn’t always a totally accurate measure of how many people are paying attention to your account.

There are obviously different approaches depending on the size of your fan base. If you have a large audience, you might not be able to put a lot of time into each lead. Your overall goal will likely be about brand awareness and creating buzz for your company. You should consider metrics that capture overall influence such as retweets, blog posts and clicks.

If you have a targeted audience, each lead probably carries more value. You overall goal will likely be to generate new leads. You should consider metrics like sales, email sign-ups, @messages, direct messages and clicks.

5. Define Your Approach

• How formal or informal do you want to be?
• Should you include buzzwords or hashtags?
• How much effort should you put into reaching out to specific followers or finding new ones?
• What kind of links and content should you share?
• Can you do any special offers or campaigns on your account?
• What’s the style of your company? You have know your company’s message and define its personality. Your followers will appreciate the authenticity.

Any Twitter strategy is a perpetual work in progress. Just deciding that you need a strategy is an important first step that will have you thinking about what and why you tweet. The key is to keep experimenting: Twitter is ever-changing and to succeed on it you need to be flexible, but you also need to know where you’re headed.

With more than 9 million posts and comments in two days, Google Buzz has stormed the web like a swarm of locusts. An array of strong features, integration with Gmail and lots of press have turned Buzz into an overnight phenomenon.

If you’re like a lot of us, you’ve suddenly found yourself using your Gmail even more than you already were. Spending so much time in Gmail and Buzz, though, inevitably takes away from your Facebook () and Twitter (), and who wants to sacrifice their tweeting and Facebooking?

Luckily if you’re a Gmail user, you don’t have to sacrifice either, even while you’re browsing your e-mail or your buzz.

Gadget Integration Is Your Friend

“The key was using Gmail Labs feature at the bottom of the list called ‘Add any gadget by URL’. This allowed me to add these 3 features to my Gmail sidebar.”

By utilizing third-party gadgets, he transformed his Gmail into a place where he could access his Twitter, Buzz and Facebook straight from his Gmail. Here’s how:

Step By Step: Integrating Your Social Media into Buzz

2. Now go to Settings –> Gadgets. Here you’ll find a place to add Gadget URLs.

3. Add the TwitterGadget App. Any iGoogle gadget will do actually, but the best one in our opinion is TwitterGadget, a fully-functional Twitter service for iGoogle and Gmail. This lets tweet from the sidebar or open up your Twitter with all of your tabs intact. It even supports multiple accounts.

To add it, copy and paste this URL into Gmail’s Gadget settings: “https://twittergadget.appspot.com/gadget-gmail.xml”

4. Add the Facebook Gadget. In the same way you added TwitterGadget, you can add Facebook to your Gmail. While Google has an official Facebook gadget, it doesn’t play nicely with Gmail, so we suggest using the app Ari Milner users: Facebook Gadget by iBruno. It will expand into the rest of your Gmail for easy Facebook management.

To add it, copy and paste this URL into Gmail’s Gadget settings: “http://hosting.gmodules.com/ig/gadgets/file/104971404861070329537/facebook.xml”

5. That’s it! Google Buzz, Facebook, Twitter, and Gmail are now all wrapped up into one. Pretty nifty, no? Let us know about your experience in the comments.

And the same works when you want to get more fans on your Facebook page – offer the visitor a deal or some content that is only available to fans.

This can be done with an fbml tag called visible to connection.

This tag is wrapped around the special content that you want to only be available to your fans. It can be a video, a free ebook, a coupon – anything that you can think of that people will want.

Here’s how you do it.

Only fans can see the content within the tags. Super easy, right?

Keep in mind that this is an incentive. It is not to hide sensitive information. If someone views the source code of the page, which is a huge mess on Facebook, they will be able to find it. It’s an incentive and will encourage people to become fans but isn’t exactly the height of security.