Tips & Tricks for a Successful Online Portfolio

At Toptal we screen a lot of designers, so over time we have learned what goes into making a captivating and coherent portfolio. Each designer’s portfolio is like an introduction to an individual designer’s skill set and strengths and represents them to future employers, clients and other designers. It shows both past work, but also future direction. There are several things to keep in mind when building a portfolio, so here is the Toptal Guide of tips and common mistakes for portfolio design.

1. Content Comes First

The main use of the portfolio is to present your design work. Thus, the content should inform the layout and composition of the document. Consider what kind of work you have, and how it might be best presented. A UX designer may require a series of animations to describe a set of actions, whereas the visual designer may prefer spreads of full images.

The portfolio design itself is an opportunity to display your experiences and skills. However, excessive graphic flourishes shouldn’t impede the legibility of the content. Instead, consider how the backgrounds of your portfolio can augment or enhance your work. The use of similar colors as the content in the background will enhance the details of your project. Lighter content will stand out against dark backgrounds. Legibility is critical, so ensure that your portfolio can be experienced in any medium, and considers all accessibility issues such as color palettes and readability.

You should approach your portfolio in the same manner you would any project. What is the goal here? Present it in a way that makes sense to viewers who are not essentially visually savvy. Edit out projects that may be unnecessary. Your portfolio should essentially be a taster of what you can do, a preparation for the client of what to expect to see more of in the interview. The more efficiently that you can communicate who you are as a designer, the better.

2. Consider Your Target Audience

A portfolio for a client should likely be different than a portfolio shown to a blog editor, or an art director. Your professional portfolio should always cater to your target audience. Edit it accordingly. If your client needs branding, then focus on your branding work. If your client needs UX Strategy than make sure to showcase your process.

Even from client to client, or project to project your portfolio will need tweaking. If you often float between several design disciplines, as many designers do, it would be useful to curate a print designer portfolio separately from a UX or visual design portfolio.

3. Tell the Stories of Your Projects

As the design industry has evolved, so have our clients, and their appreciation for our expertise and what they hire us to do. Our process is often as interesting and important to share with them, as the final deliverables. Try to tell the story of your product backwards, from final end point through to the early stages of the design process. Share your sketches, your wire-frames, your user journeys, user personas, and so on.

Showing your process allows the reader to understand how you think and work through problems. Consider this an additional opportunity to show that you have an efficient and scalable process.

4. Be Professional in Your Presentation

Attention to detail, both in textual and design content are important aspects of any visual presentation, so keep an eye on alignment, image compression, embedded fonts and other elements, as you would any project. The careful treatment of your portfolio should reflect how you will handle your client’s work.

With any presentation, your choice of typeface will impact the impression you give, so do research the meaning behind a font family, and when in doubt, ask your typography savvy friends for advice.

5. Words Are As Important As Work

Any designer should be able to discuss their projects as avidly as they can design them. Therefore your copywriting is essential. True, your work is the main draw of the portfolio – however the text, and how you write about your work can give viewers insight into your portfolio.

Not everyone who sees your work comes from a creative, or visual industry. Thus, the descriptive text that you provide for images is essential. At the earlier stages of a project, where UX is the main focus, often you will need to complement your process with clearly defined content, both visual diagrams, and textual explanation.

Text can also be important for providing the context of the project. Often much of your work is done in the background, so why not present it somehow? What was the brief, how did the project come about?

Avoid These Common Mistakes

The culture of the portfolio networks like Behance or Dribble have cultivated many bad habits and trends in portfolio design. A popular trend is the perspective view of a product on a device. However, these images often do little to effectively represent the project, and hide details and content. Clients need to see what you have worked on before, with the most logical visualization possible. Showcasing your products in a frontal view, with an “above the fold” approach often makes more sense to the non-visual user. Usually, the best web pages and other digital content are presented with no scrolling required. Avoid sending your website portfolio as one long strip, as this is only appropriate for communicating with developers.

Ensure that you cover the bases on all portfolio formats. Today it is expected for you to have an online presence, however some clients prefer that you send a classic A4 or US letterhead sized PDF. You need to have the content ready for any type of presentation.

Try to use a consistent presentation style and content throughout the projects in your portfolio. Differentiate each project with simple solutions like different colored backgrounds, or textures, yet within the same language.

Follow my blog for more insightful articles: https://cristianweierick.wordpress.com/

Twitter: @weierick

This article is brought to you by Toptal and Edited by Cristian Weierick

How To Get Employers To Notice You With A Visual Resume

Today I would like to talk about visual resumes vs. traditional resumes. Some corporations these days truly believe that when an applicant takes the time and effort to create a visual resume, the applicant truly cares about his/her professional appearance as well as making a great impression. Corporations believe that someone who takes the time to create a clean and well-designed visual resume is a person that strives for success.

Visual resumes have many advantages and disadvantages. Some of the advantages of a visual resume are creativity, visual resumes allows the individual reading to see everything clearer, visual resumes are structured in a set order, visual resumes have a great visual impact and visual resumes provide a great amount of information in a brief yet very simple way.

Now, some of the disadvantages of visual resumes include an increase in dishonest information. The chance of the individual lying on his/her resume is much higher on a visual resume than on a traditional resume. Another disadvantage is that creating a high quality visual resume would cost money, as you may have to pay someone to create it for you or purchase the software that allows you to design a visual resume. However, there are online tools available to us that allow us to create visual resumes such as re.vu.  Complex visual resumes are not for every job and are limited to the jobs an individual may be applying for. Some employers are set in their old-school ways and may find a complex visual resume harder to read compared to a simple visual resume or a traditional resume.

I personally believe that a simple visual resume would be appropriate for just about any job. Simple visual resumes with a color theme of no more than 2 or 3 colors and a picture of the applicant could go a long way when applying to any job when compared to a traditional and visually boring resume. Highly creative complex visual resumes are mostly appropriate for jobs in relation to art and design. Graphic designers and creative web developers could benefit immensely from complex visual resumes, as these are a way for artists and designers to express their creativity. Most modern companies or corporations are more than likely to understand the creative message complex visual resumes deliver.

Digital Marketing vs. Traditional Marketing

It’s no secret that marketing has been around for hundreds of years in one way or another. I personally believe that marketing has been there since the very first day humans began trading things. We all have come a long way since then, but not only have we advanced technologically, but marketing has also advanced in many ways and big part of it is owed to the many changes and advances in media and technology, which allows marketing methods to be improved as we have become more efficient at telling our stories and delivering our brand’s messages.

Traditional marketing is slowly dying due to the many advances in the digital age. At a point in time, newspapers and phone books were solid media or marketing channels on which business owners could advertise their products or services. However, this is rapidly changing as more people look to the internet to satisfy their information thirst rather than reading newspapers, magazines, or going through phones books in search of local listings. Many business owners found a huge amount of success by advertising and placing ads through these mediums in the past, but this is no longer the case in today’s world as dramatic changes have taken effect and advances in technology have made these channels no longer the most effective mediums to advertise our products or services.

It is no secret that many traditional marketing methods have completely been faced out by the “king” of the digital revolution: “The Internet”. Business owners understand the importance of advertising their brands online in order to grow their businesses. Most business owners who are not comfortable enough to venture into the world of Internet marketing are still utilizing newspapers and phone books to send their company’s message, but unfortunately these mediums can no longer deliver this message to their prospects and customers efficiently.

Business owners must focus big parts of their marketing efforts into social media and Internet marketing. The Internet is the greatest medium to deliver your company’s message and build your brand. Be sure to target your audience, do your research before placing ads all over the web aimlessly. The most important aspect to digital marketing is to have an online presence through a website and through the use of the many social median channels available to us at no cost.

A great marketing tactic marketers have been using recently is “Social Proof”. This method eases the mind of worried customers by allowing them to become more informed and of course, more comfortable, which later translates into an online purchase. The facts are clear, 70% of Americans read product reviews before making a purchasing decision online and 63% of consumers claimed that they are more likely to purchase a product if the website provides product ratings. With that being said, the use of social proof is a must if you want to grow your customer base by influencing them into making a purchase online.

5 Essential Core Principles of Interactive Design

Interactive design is a software development process, which later allows humans and computers to interact with each other through a media interface. Interactive media is the integration of digital media, which includes combinations of electronic text, sounds, and moving graphics, into a computerized environment or device that allows us to interact with the data. This type of media is not to be confused with multimedia. We must understand that the interactive sector has rapidly evolved through many stages and these terms mostly reflect a stage that gets surpassed.

Today, I would like to talk about the 5 essential core principles of interactive design and why they are not only important, but also absolutely necessary when developing interactive media. These five essential principles of interaction design; consistency, perceivability, learnability, predictability, and feedback helps us focus on crafting better solutions, experiences, and designs. Let’s take a deeper look at each of these principles.

1. Consistency

People are sensitive beings, specially when it comes to change. We must ensure that persistent elements remain in the same place and make sure they retain the same appearance while adhering to the same grid layout and proportions on the screens of digital experiences. When these elements move and change appearance without a purpose across these pages or screens, they become immediately noticeable.

This core principal not only applies to the appearance and placement of objects, but also to their behaviors. When these objects begin to behave differently under similar conditions, it causes a great deal of confusion to the user and forces him/her to take a new approach or learn a different way to complete his/her task. Consistent designs in both appearance and behavior will allow users to stay focus on their tasks without distracting or surprising them with unexpected changes.

2.  Perceivability

People are aware of the opportunity to interact with interactive media. As interface designers, we must avoid developing hidden interactions, which decrease the usability, efficiency, and user experience of interactive media. In other words, people should not have to guess or look for opportunities to interact.

When developing interactive media, users should have the ability to review an interface and identify where they can interact. We must remember that not everyone experiences and interacts with interface in the same way others do. Make it a habit to provide hints and indicators. More like, visual cues such as buttons, icons, textures, textiles, etc. Allow for the user to see that these visual cues can actually be clicked or tapped with their fingers. We should always take into consideration the usability and accessibility of our interactive media and how the user sees and perceives the objects in the interface.

3. Learnability

Another very important core principle is the ability to easily learn and use an interface after using it for the first time. Remember that engaging interfaces allow users to easily learn and remember their interactions.

Learnability makes interaction simpler and intuitive. Even simple interfaces may require a certain amount of experience to learn. People tend to interact with an interface in similar ways they interact with other interfaces. For this reason, we must understand the importance of design patterns and consistency. This allows the user to avoid having to learn something new and will give him/her a sense of achievement. They will feel smart and capable of grasping and utilizing newer interfaces, allow for them to feel confident while navigating through the interface.

4. Predictability

Great interaction design sets accurate expectations about what will happen before the interaction occurs. We should be able to show users an interface and ask them a series of questions before they can actually interact with our devices or interfaces. For example, we should be able to ask them – what do you think you can do here? or – what will be the outcome if you select or touch this?

We must ensure that the opportunity to interact is perceivable and in order to do this, we need to make sure the context is meaningful and sets the proper expectations. In order to pull this off we must ask ourselves – “Where are the interaction opportunities in our interface?”. It would be very effective to use demonstrations, instructions, and previews. Keep in mind that interactions must be well-focused and task oriented.

Educating people on how to interact with the interface helps them understand the functionality and constraints, as well as the outcomes or results.  They key lies in observing the user interact with the interface. By doing this, we can determine if they understand it and if they are able to navigate their way around easily. This helps them predict outcomes and get familiar with the interface.

Random interactions, guesses, trial and error, failure to make consistent progress toward a goal and even the failure to interact at all, typically mean that the opportunities for interaction are not perceivable, meaningful, or predictable.

5. Feedback

Feedback is critical when developing interactive media as it provides acknowledgement of the user’s interactions as well as information about their outcomes. Feedback allows us to answer a series of questions such as: what can we do next? or, what is our current condition or status? and even allow us to know when we have completed or have finished a certain task.

Feedback should complement and facilitate the experience. Be sure not to interrupt the user while engaged in a task and never to withhold feedback when the information may be needed in order to proceed or keep moving forward. Feedback must be noticeable and meaningful.

Always remember that these five essential principles work together to form a system, and they are tied together by observation, interaction, understanding, and the transfer of knowledge. When meaningful feedback is provided, users will understand how their actions led to certain outcomes and they will learn how the interface works. Essentially users become faster and stronger learners.

10 Ways to Get Promoted at Work

Throughout the years I ‘ve heard so many people complain about how they have been working so hard but can’t seem to get ahead or land a promotion. The problem is that they believe their bosses are the ones at fault for this. See, what people don’t realize is that their career survival depends on meeting their supervisor’s agenda and not their own. People tend to blame everything and everyone else before taking a deep look in the mirror and trying to figure out what it is that they are doing wrong, or how they could do things better.

In order to get ahead in the workplace we must do some deep soul searching and improve our soft skills. These skills are critical for integrating work with our life goals, making decisions, taking risks and maintaining high ethical standards.  If we fail to incorporate these soft skills to our lives in the workplace, we’ll begin to sound just like the people I mentioned earlier who are always whining and complaining about their careers and their bosses. This is the reason why I have chosen to write this article today. Not only will this help you get ahead, but if you are one of those people who struggle to climb up the ladder, after reading this you will know what to do to change things around and become a rising star.

1. Self-Inventory

Just because you are talented and passionate about your work doesn’t mean that you will succeed at it. At least not without doing some self-inventory first.  Think about the tasks you like doing and the ones you don’t and what kind of interests or talents you would like to incorporate into your work life. Think about how your strengths and weaknesses might impact career choices. Look for ways to improve and be sure to ask for feedback from others. When you take a deep inventory of yourself you can identify the areas in which you’re great at and apply them, making your more efficient at everything you do.

2.  Be Punctual

Nothing shows that you are a reliable and dependable person more than showing up to work on time every time. But I will let you in a secret that can help you obtain that desired promotion a little bit faster. The secret is being the early bird. Although we are aware that punctuality is critical for survival in the workplace, showing up early will really get the attention or your boss and his/her higher ups. Remember that nothing says that you care than showing up for work 30 minutes to an hour earlier from time to time, especially if you have a big project or a deadline to meet.

3. The Right Attitude

We all know that attitude affects a person’s behavior and their results. Nothing gets you farther in life and work than having a positive attitude. When you are energetic and passionate about your work, others will notice and they will become infected with it as well. It makes the working environment enjoyable and your tasks will seem to become easier to accomplish.  Maintaining a positive attitude will help you and others discover new ways of thinking and allowing more room for creativity. Developing this thinking process maximizes your ability to succeed so be sure to apply it into everything you do.

4. Listening

Believe it or not, this is one of the most important soft skills to have and the one we tend mess up the most. The problem lies in our urge to interrupt and giving our two cents right away before allowing some to finish a sentence. If we do not listen carefully to the instructions that are given to us, we will simply fail at getting the job done right in the first place. Be sure to keep an open mind and listen attentively to get the total meaning of what someone is telling you. Also, be on the lookout for nonverbal cues and ask the right questions at the right time.  Remember, cutting somebody off while they are speaking is not only disrespectful, but it can also ruin your career and keep you from excelling in the workplace.

5. Say the Magic Words

I am sure most of us can relate to this as we can remember our parents telling us at an early age to “Say the magic word” every time we asked them to get something for us, whether it was a cookie from the cookie jar in the kitchen or candy bar at the local grocery store. The use of the magic words Please, Thank You and I’m sorry must be part of our daily routine and believe it or not, many people fail to utilize them more often than they think. Be aware that in not doing so, it can sink your career fairly fast and even destroy partnerships and cause you to lose clients. Incorporate these magic words in your daily verbal and written communication and you will just see how far they will take you.

6. Be Honest

Integrity plays a huge part in how far we get in life. Keep in mind that no wealth of position will long endure unless is built upon truth and justice. Many have cut their careers short by taking small things such as office supplies from work without permission. This is simply unacceptable in any workplace and creating a bad reputation for yourself by stealing is something that will haunt you and follow you for the rest of your life. Avoid temptation; be honest and just no matter what. The higher power will reward you in many ways for doing so.

7. Handle Your Critics

Let’s face it, there is no doubt that books are judged by their covers, and even though our parents told us not to judge someone by the way they look, people are often criticizing others at work. From the very moment we walk in to the very moment we leave the building, someone is criticizing absolutely everything about you. Although dressing for success is important, reacting in a negative manner because of a negative comment for a co-worker proves to be very ineffective when trying to resolve a situation.  When being judged by others, the best thing to do is absolutely nothing – that’s right, I said “absolutely nothing”. The last thing you want to do is feed into their negative thoughts or comments and become consumed by them to the point where it will affect your job performance. Remember that no one cares about your career more than you, not your boss, not your co-workers. Learn to handle your critics by ignoring them. I personally believe that this is the best conflict resolution technique to deal with them.

8. Deflect Gossip

For many, there is not a better pass time at work than gossiping and trying to find out personal information about others in the workplace. This bad habit not only turns you against your colleagues or co-workers, but it will surely stop your career right on its tracks. Gossip is bad for business altogether as it will distract you from doing your work and completing certain tasks. No workplace is immune to it, but learning how to deflect it and staying out of it proves to be imperative for career success. Stay positive and focused on your own success and stay away from infectious gossipers.

9. Take Initiative

More than often, we are presented with opportunities at work in which we can go the extra mile. However, most fail to take initiative out of pure laziness. I can already visualize what they’re thinking – “that’s not my job” or “I’m about to get off, someone else will take care of it”.  This type or poor thinking is the best way to keep you in the same position you’re currently at; stuck. Take initiative to go the extra mile and to get involved in other projects. This will get you noticed by your boss and the higher ups and your positive attitude and hard work will be rewarded in the long run.

10. Treat Everyone with Respect

No matter what position you hold within your organization, be sure to treat everyone equally. From the doorman to the janitor, people always remember the nice things you say to them and the good things you do for them. You will be amazed at how some of these employees in the bottom of the chain can help you become successful within your organization. A simple hello or a smile goes a long way and help you generate some positive buzz in the workplace.  You never know when you may get locked out of your office or drop something on your way to lunch only to find out that the janitor had an extra set of keys to help you open your office and the doorman noticed you’ve dropped your wallet and was kind enough to pick up and return it to you right on the spot.

These are some basic soft skills that can help you get ahead in the workplace and applying them on a daily basis is the key to professional growth. If you really think about it, these are not so difficult to incorporate in our every day routines. Not only will these enhance our lives in general but also it will make us feel great about ourselves and make our jobs a whole lot easier. By bringing these skills with you everywhere you go, you will soon begin to inspire others to do the same and toxic environments in the workplace will soon disappear.

If you take your career serious and would like to succeed, I highly recommend the book: THE HARD TRUTH ABOUT SOFT SKILLS by Peggy Klaus.

Flash or HTML5?

Currently there is a lot of hype in the industry about how HTML5 will be phasing Adobe Flash out of the game for good. These two technologies serve the same purpose and there is an ongoing battle between about these two technologies as we speak. There is no doubt that HTML5 can be used as an alternative to Flash, but Flash is not going to leave the scene just yet, and definitely not without a fight.

To better comprehend what I am talking about here, we need to understand how these two technologies work. HTML5 is a markup language used for developing and building websites and is the core technology of the Internet. HTML5 is the latest version of the standardarized markup language and it has many new syntactic features. These include video, audio and canvas elements. HTML5 also allows for integration of scalable vector graphics.

Flash is a multimedia and software platform mainly used for authoring of vector graphics, games, animation and rich Internet applications. Flash is mostly used to stream video as well as audio. Flash also plays an important role in Internet marketing by allowing marketers to embed advertisements and interactive multimedia in websites and landing pages.

Flash revolutionized the World Wide Web with is innovative functionality as it was one of the first technologies to combine animation with video capabilities on web pages. In November 2011, Adobe announced the withdrawal of support for Flash on mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. Adobe understands HTML5 is the new kid on the block and they have committed to aggressively contribute to this rich and intuitive markup language. Adobe claims that 98% of all desktop computers have downloaded their Flash software. At the same time, there are many developers and companies refusing to abandon ship and stopping the use of Flash altogether.

A recent study shows that 99% of desktop browsers support the Flash Player while only 82% of browsers support the HTML5 canvas element. When it comes to 3D hardware acceleration, Flash Player 11 has an 81% audience penetration while WebGL is currently supported by roughly 53% of desktop browsers.

When it comes to file and asset distributions, compiling SWFs allows us to share our Flash experiences and re-host them as a single file. This has proven to be critical for Flash based games. On the other hand, however; HTML5 assets have to be loaded as individual files, which means hosting and HTML5 file management requires more attention.

As I mentioned earlier, Flash no longer supports mobile browsers allowing HMTL5 to gain more momentum and get ahead in the mobile industry. The HTML5 canvas is supported by just about all of today’s mobile browsers and mobile operating systems have also gained a great deal of support thanks to Android Chrome.

If you are not sure which route to go when designing a website on either Flash or HTML, I would personally recommend HTML as the better choice in terms of Search Engine Optimization also known as SEO which is a strategy that can help your website rank higher in popular search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing.  A Flash based site needs to be supported with an HTML site in order to reach a desired page rank on search engines since content presented in Flash cannot be indexed by most search engines.

In conclusion, these two technologies play important roles in today’s world. Both technologies are fantastic tools and developers must understand that taking sides will not take them very far. I absolutely love playing with Flash and the entire Adobe Creative Suite Master Collection. Although HTML5 is currently king with mobile browser support, HTML5 just can’t compete with Flash when it comes to advanced animation.

5 Essential Core Principles of Interactive Design

Interactive design is a software development process, which later allows humans and computers to interact with each other though a media interface. Interactive media is the integration of digital media, which includes combinations of electronic text, sounds, and moving graphics, into a computerized environment or device that allows us to interact with the data. This type of media is not to be confused with multimedia. We must understand that the interactive sector has rapidly evolved through many stages and these terms mostly reflect a stage that gets surpassed.

Today, I would like to talk about the 5 essential core principles of interactive design and why they are not only important, but also absolutely necessary when developing interactive media. These five essential principles of interaction design; consistency, perceivability, learnability, predictability, and feedback helps us focus on crafting better solutions, experiences, and designs. Let’s take a deeper look at each of these principles.

1. Consistency

People are sensitive beings, specially when it comes to change. We must ensure that persistent elements remain in the same place and make sure they retain the same appearance while adhering to the same grid layout and proportions on the screens of digital experiences. When these elements move and change appearance without a purpose across these pages or screens, they become immediately noticeable.

This core principal not only applies to the appearance and placement of objects, but also to their behaviors. When these objects begin to behave differently under similar conditions, it causes a great deal of confusion to the user and forces him/her to take a new approach or learn a different way to complete his/her task. Consistent designs in both appearance and behavior will allow users to stay focus on their tasks without distracting or surprising them with unexpected changes.

2.  Perceivability

People are aware of the opportunity to interact with interactive media. As interface designers, we must avoid developing hidden interactions, which decrease the usability, efficiency, and user experience of interactive media. In other words, people should not have to guess or look for opportunities to interact.

When developing interactive media, users should have the ability to review an interface and identify where they can interact. We must remember that not everyone experiences and interacts with interface in the same way others do. Make it a habit to provide hints and indicators. More like, visual cues such as buttons, icons, textures, textiles, etc. Allow for the user to see that these visual cues can actually be clicked or tapped with their fingers. We should always take into consideration the usability and accessibility of our interactive media and how the user sees and perceives the objects in the interface.

3. Learnability

Another very important core principle is the ability to easily learn and use an interface after using it for the first time. Remember that engaging interfaces allow users to easily learn and remember their interactions.

Learnability makes interaction simpler and intuitive. Even simple interfaces may require a certain amount of experience to learn. People tend to interact with an interface in similar ways they interact with other interfaces. For this reason, we must understand the importance of design patterns and consistency. This allows the user to avoid having to learn something new and will give him/her a sense of achievement. They will feel smart and capable of grasping and utilizing newer interfaces, allow for them to feel confident while navigating through the interface.

4. Predictability

Great interaction design sets accurate expectations about what will happen before the interaction occurs. We should be able to show users an interface and ask them a series of questions before they can actually interact with our devices or interfaces. For example, we should be able to ask them – what do you think you can do here? or – what will be the outcome if you select or touch this?

We must ensure that the opportunity to interact is perceivable and in order to do this, we need to make sure the context is meaningful and sets the proper expectations. In order to pull this off we must ask ourselves – “Where are the interaction opportunities in our interface?”. It would be very effective to use demonstrations, instructions, and previews. Keep in mind that interactions must be well-focused and task oriented.

Educating people on how to interact with the interface helps them understand the functionality and constraints, as well as the outcomes or results.  They key lies in observing the user interact with the interface. By doing this, we can determine if they understand it and if they are able to navigate their way around easily. This helps them predict outcomes and get familiar with the interface.

Random interactions, guesses, trial and error, failure to make consistent progress toward a goal and even the failure to interact at all, typically mean that the opportunities for interaction are not perceivable, meaningful, or predictable.

5. Feedback

Feedback is critical when developing interactive media as it provides acknowledgement of the user’s interactions as well as information about their outcomes. Feedback allows us to answer a series of questions such as: what can we do next? or, what is our current condition or status? and even allow us to know when we have completed or have finished a certain task.

Feedback should compliment and facilitate the experience. Be sure not to interrupt the user while engaged in a task and never to withhold feedback when the information may be needed in order to proceed or keep moving forward. Feedback must be noticeable and meaningful.

Always remember that these five essential principles work together to form a system, and they are tied together by observation, interaction, understanding, and the transfer of knowledge. When meaningful feedback is provided, users will understand how their actions led to certain outcomes and they will learn how the interface works. Essentially users become faster and stronger learners.

The New Standard In Entrepreneur Support

Last year I was able to become part one of the most mind-blowing events I have ever attended. What I was able to take away from this one of a kind event was something I haven’t been able to learn anywhere else, not on the web and definitely not in any other entrepreneur or Internet marketing events or seminars.

This event takes place in San Diego California and it is by far the most addictive and revolutionary event I have ever attended. The San Diego Entrepreneur Summit is an industry defining conference that is believed to set a new and unique standard for entrepreneur support. Their mission is quite significant and brings over 20+ executives, CEO’s, founders, visionaries, venture capitalists, and industry experts to discuss they key trends shaping the startup world. “This is where BIG ideas come to life,” says founder Matthew Valdespino. On a recent interview, he explains these ideas are shaped by the dynamically changing economic landscape where winners today will be game changers in the future and new startup entrants with unique offerings can easily become success stories almost over night.

He believes that bringing like-minded individuals together under one roof creates what he calls a “startup revolution”, where entrepreneurs through a greater sense of ownership and global impact are increasingly shaping the startup world and the fortunes of startup companies.

This event focuses on exploring in which ways current startup leaders are adapting to the rapidly changing entrepreneur landscape, the opportunities for new emerging and game changing players, which business models are best position for strong and rapid growth in today’s rapidly evolving marketplace, and how entrepreneur adapt to the new age of technology and business, where they can have greater control.

This year, the conference will be taking place in San Diego California on November 16 -17 in Downtown San Diego at the W Hotel and I could not express to you all enough how excited I am to attend this event for the second time. The theme of this year’s conference is “Scaling, Acceleration, and Growth.” As entrepreneurs we all know that money is attracted to speed and this is an area that challenges some of the best of us, from first timers all the way up to the ladder.

The conference will be keeping the same great format as they did last year. There will be 6 lively panel discussions and 3 inspirational presentations. These panels were an enormous hit last year as they were packed with tons of juicy tidbits of wisdom, great stories, educational information, diverse points of view and an immense amount of specialized knowledge which you cannot obtain elsewhere.

November 16 – 17 – A 2 day meeting of the minds, designed as a forum to exchange ideas and experiences from entrepreneurial visionaries

1. Panel Discussions – Exploring a wide range of topics entrepreneurs face in the marketplace. From team building, marketing, to customer service – we look at how we can make and break business goals.

2. VIP Workshops – Learn from Leading Coaches & Consultants – Techniques & Formulas guaranteed to powerfully move you forward.

3. Keynote Speakers – Sharing riveting stories on overcoming challenges as an Entrepreneur.

4. Networking – We work hard – and we play hard. Get to know San Diego’s Entrepreneur community and experience San Diego’s hottest nightlife.

“Our goal is to bring together our rich community of business owners to create & discover how to powerfully move forward in business. Together we can support San Diego’s Entrepreneur Growth.”

Join us RIGHT NOW on Facebook.

For more information visit www.sdesummit.com.

We look forward to seeing you at the 2013 San Diego Entrepreneur Summit this year!

Challenges Of Non-Profit Organization Marketing & How To Overcome Them

It is no secret that marketing for non-profit organizations can present a lot of challenges. The problem is, marketing is easily ignored in the non-profit world. The reason is, most non-profit leaders believe that their good work will market itself. This in fact is a very unrealistic assumption. Research must be made on their part in order to deliver an effective marketing strategy for their organization.

Non-profit organization marketers must understand these challenges and defend the position or their organization. They must apply a strategy that will position their organization for success. While reading this post, you may be asking yourself – how exactly do we push our organization’s mission closer to success? Well, in order to achieve this we must answer this question with the following questions:

How is our program different from other profitable and non-profitable organizations?

What exactly do we want our organization to be known for? 

Why is our mission important?

The key lies in these three questions and getting the answers right will determine the success of non-profit organizations.

Non-profit marketers must market and communicate for mission impact. This means that organizations must orchestrate a sustained and well-designed marketing campaign for their mission. A great example would be the case of MADD, their entire marketing campaign separates alcohol consumption from automobiles and the success was measured in the many lives saved and a decrease in the percentage of drunk driving death related accidents.

The use of social media marketing can also help non-profit organizations deliver their message, but we must keep in mind that social media marketing is not for every organization. If the goal of a non-profit organization is to try to change individual behaviors in people, then investing in social media marketing is a must do.

Another important aspect of non-profit marketing is the branding of the organization. Non-profit organizations benefit immensely when focusing a big part of their marketing strategy in brand building. Branding your organization will help you get recognition and helps you build trust and a positive reputation. This is very critical when positioning your organization’s mission for success.

In order for non-profit organizations to develop a successful marketing strategy, they must understand their audience and deliver an inspirational and motivational message with an effective system of delivering their message to the target audience.  You must develop a well-conceived marketing strategy and strategically implement your plan in order to succeed.

Reference:

David Williamson (2009). Marketing & Communications in Nonprofit Organizations. Center for Public and Nonprofit Leadership Georgetown University.

How To Capture Leads On Your Facebook Fan Page

Today I would like to show you a neat little trick I’ve had up my sleeve  for quite a few years, I will teach you how to capture leads on the world’s most popular social networking platform, but first I would like to talk a bit about social media marketing.

The power of social media is undeniable and it extends across the globe. It is no secret that social media is the fastest way to spread the word about your product or services. Many businesses are taking advantage of the many benefits that social media has to offer. With social media, businesses can share their brand’s message, increase visitors to their website and increase exposure. Effective social media marketing strategies can place your brand or services right in the face of your target audience. Social network platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Instagram, and LinkedIn are at the top of the list when it comes to social media marketing. These social networking platforms make it possible for businesses to gain new customers and referrals, build credibility, build a fan base, retain current customers and gain customer loyalty.

Social media is not going anywhere anytime soon, in fact; it is expanding and growing everyday. New social media apps are often being released to the mobile market and we are seeing more and more people accessing the web and their social media profiles via smartphones.  So, with some many people accessing the web and social networks, what exactly are we doing to capture leads through these social media networks?

Well, as marketers we can track traffic that comes from our social media profiles to our business site through web analytics, but not many small businesses are capturing leads via social networks. Why is that? Well, with most social media platforms we are somewhat restricted to what we can do to our social media profiles. We cannot change the layout, or make changes in the functionality of our social media profiles because we are restricted to access the code tomake such changes. Most businesses just focus on utilizing social media to build and expose their brands and services while driving traffic to their sites rather than finding ways to capture leads.

Two years ago I was looking for ways to capture prospects or potential new customers through my Facebook business account profile, but I could not alter the code to my profile and make changes to it like we used to be able to with MySpace. I was a bit frustrated so I turned to Facebook for Developers which enables anyone to build social apps on Facebook, mobile and the web and it also allows companies and businesses to customize their business pages to a certain extent, but I still had a hard time trying to capture leads on Facebook so I decided to do some research on my own on how to make this possible despite all its restrictions. Well,  I was able to find my answer and I will share this information with you. I would like to clarify that this technique has now been going around for quite a bit and quite many are now aware of it, but I still don’t see many businesses implementing this as a part of their social media marketing strategy.  I personally believe this is an extremely powerful technique that should be taken advantage of, but at the same time this is not for every business.

The truth is, there are now many ways to add forms to your Facebook fan pages and capture leads; you can now install Facebook apps that allow you to integrate web forms. This is very similar to the technique I started using in early 2011. One quick and easy way is to install and embed the Wufoo application and form on your page and easily collect your data from your users. I personally like to use the Static HTML iFrame Tabs application, but whichever app you decide to go with, out of the many apps available out there, be sure to stay focused on your lead capturing and social media marketing goals . Be sure to do a little bit of research and look for an app that best suits you and your company’s marketing strategy.

I would now like to invite you to watch my video demostration below which will show you step by step how to implement this technique and allow you to  start capturing leads on your Facebook biz/fan page.

It is our job as Internet marketers to constantly look for new and innovative ways to market our products and services. Even if we face certain restrictions from social media platforms or search engines, we must keep looking for legal and ethical ways around those restrictions in order to push our products and services farther.