The ebb and flow of design trends always seems to navigate towards and away from simplicity. Today, simple is hot. Flat is hot. Depth, texture, and complex are all out and Facebook is following the trend with their new logo release. They removed the lower bar that gave it a sheen for a minor 3D effect and are now bleeding the “f” off the bottom edge. It’s also a little larger than before. It’s clean, plain, and simple. It’s very 2013. The new logo can be downloaded from the site. Reactions have been positive from around the blogosphere. While beveling and depth are often used to denote a clickable button,…

This is a topic that has been covered so many times that one might wonder how it keeps popping up. The reality (from a content perspective) is that Facebook posting best practices is the gift that keeps on giving. It’s frustrating to businesses and annoying to bloggers, but at the end of the day there’s one simple truth: whatever worked yesterday may not work today but may work again tomorrow. That’s Facebook. It’s social media in general from a business perspective. There are three dynamics at work and they rarely do more than lightly influence the other two: Facebook and other social media sites…

One of the most important lessons you can learn in Facebook marketing for your business is that you can have a much greater impact on your performance online through Facebook by focusing on what’s happening in the real world. Facebook is virtual, but that doesn’t mean it has to focus on the virtual world. Make it real. If your business is out there doing things in the real world, you have plenty of potential Facebook content to post on your page (as well as you other social media pages and profiles). Do you participate in charities and local events? Do you sponsor a little league team? Do you have a monthly…

“Never” is a bold word. It is absolute and endless. To say that something can never happen is one of the most ignorant things that someone can say (or blog) in public. Thankfully, I tempered my statement with the word, “may”. “Impossible” is word that is similar to “never”. I’ll invoke it now: it isn’t impossible for social media to continue in one form or another indefinitely because of its nature. As long as there are humans, there’s a good chance that there will be some variation of social media. It’s a hard cat to put back in the bag. The folks over at Dashburst put together a graphic that explains five…

In many ways, infographics help to fulfill one of the important promises of the internet in general and social media in particular. When done right, they present a lot of useful and interesting data in a format that is visually stunning and easy to digest. They can be used to inform the world about things in ways that no other medium besides (arguably) video can accomplish. Rather than reading a long article or a numbered list of facts, infographics visualize important, interesting, or entertaining aspects of the world in an extremely sharable format. That was the promise, at least. The reality…

More companies are looking at ways that will enable them to go green with their marketing efforts. However, their motivation isn’t solely driven by the want to improve the environment. These organization realize that the green movement can be good for business. From email communications to social media campaigns, the digital channel has made it easier than ever for companies to conduct their business in a more eco-friendly manner. And perks such as the following benefits are what’s driving change for many of those that have decided to sing a new tune:   Reduced resource consumption…

“I sit down at the computer and think of things to post on social media.” This is the problem. It’s the challenge that faces many companies as they try to explore new ideas to post about on social media. They have “social media time” set aside, and while this is good to schedule and maintain, it also allows people to miss some of the best opportunities available in social media. It’s what happens in the day to day affairs of a business, the things that come to us when we least expect it, that really makes for strong social media posts. Businesses all too often try to come up with their social media posts while…

Social media is allowing a whole new generation to emerge. With young adults and children taking over social networking sites, it shows just how advanced our youth is today. They are using social media to their advantage, connecting with people (of course, as we all do), but they are also using it to promote themselves in numerous ways, turning themselves into a media entity. Recently, AXA has released a fascinating study showing how children these days are using social media to build their own personal digital brand. It seems that they are realizing more and more that they have the power to shape…

There was a time when an unhappy customer was an unhappy customer. Best practices said to deal with their concerns, empathize, try to fix it, and if you couldn’t move on. Today, the last step has changed thanks to social media. Customers are empowered to be able to voice their concerns to a much wider audience than ever before. The old saying was that an unhappy customer will tell 10 people. Today, they can tell 10 thousand with the click of a few buttons. At the very least, they can tell their friends, family, and co-workers by simply posting their disgust on Facebook. The game has changed. This infographic…

It seems to have crept into every nook and cranny in our daily lives. It makes sense that social media would start to have a dramatic influence on sports, the way that players interact with fans (and the media), and even who will be anointed as the next big star (regardless of actual play on the field). That’s the premise behind this infographic from KT Tape that comes to us via Raleigh Toyota. Click to enlarge. …