Here’s our round-up of what we’ve been talking about this week, from Twitter character counts and equations that make designing CTA’s easier, to increasing your lead generation with Linkedin sales navigator.
Elena, Account Executive at F6 Agency
Tweet or treat?
Despite being one of the most well-known and talked about social media platforms, it’s known that Twitter is struggling to not only acquire new users, but also retain its current ones. Twitter’s business strategy has been questioned many times over the last year. In return, we have seen a number of initiatives such as introducing Twitter moments, contemplating the increase of number of characters allowed in a tweet, or creating a new algorithm for the tweet feed.
The last attempt from the company is to exclude attachments such as pictures, videos, gifs, or links, from the 140 character limit. Although I’m really happy to hear this, I don’t think it will help acquire new users, it may just help keep its current users happy. Although I use Twitter on a daily basis, I think there are serious user experience issues with the platform and radical changes should be made for it to survive.
Have you Reddit?
This week, Reddit has introduced of a thread embed button, which makes it easier to seed its content across the web.
For those not familiar with the platform, Reddit is a community where people share their thoughts, opinions and knowledge across a wide range of topics. Sections such as ‘Explain like I’m five’, where users break down complex topics into a simple explanation, have proven to be very popular. Although the platform is totally user focused, some brands have managed to break through and successfully run advertising campaigns on the site (although I wouldn’t recommend doing so without a thorough understanding of the platform).
The interesting thing about this platform is how it has built a community based on content, which is what a lot of brands are trying to achieve with their content marketing efforts. Although industry experts are discussing the benefits of the new button for brands, I’d advise marketing executives to explore the platform and see how users interact and how threads become popular before making any advertorial attempts.
Sian, Creative Artworker at F6 Agency
T = a + b log2(2 D/W) might be the answer to why people aren’t clicking on your CTA
When it comes to interaction design, Fitt’s Law is one of the most famous theoretical foundations of user navigation design. It’s an equation that can be used to prove a few obvious things about the placement and design of interface elements.
One is the larger a target, the faster a user will get to it. If less precision is needed to click on an area, navigation times will decrease. Generally we want users to get where they want to go as fast as possible, and navigation or clicking on a button shouldn’t feel like a chore or an impossible task. Furthermore, and most surprisingly for most people, users want to get off your site as soon as possible; they’re often there to complete a specific task, and if that task takes too long they won’t stick around or be coming back.
This doesn’t mean you can make your CTA as large as you want. Firstly a massive CTA is going to break the visual balance, take up valuable space, and just look ridiculous. Furthermore it’s worth noting that button size and usability have a non-linear relationship, meaning at a certain point, an increase in size will no longer make much difference to usability.
How designers at Google are utilising that little space between the glass and the display on your phone
It’s been a few years since Google released its guide to a visual language it named material design, but this video is making the rounds again.
And it’s a good video for so many reasons. Not only does it explain the thinking behind material design (how and why surfaces work, and exploiting that space between the glass and the LCD on your phone), but shows a process that gives a formula to how the most creative and successful projects are often run, with an emphasis on practical observation, experimentation, and collaboration, and an overall an ethos of ‘let’s just see what happens’.
Candice, Managing Director at F6 Agency
Increase your Lead Generation with Linkedin Sales Navigator
This week I’ve chosen to highlight a great tool for Lead Generation. One of the key things clients mention to me is that they want to generate new revenue, but find challenges when it comes to generating quality leads, selecting and implementing the right tactics to generate new opportunities, breaking through the noise, getting the attention of the right decision makers, measuring and tracking efforts, the list goes on. Social Selling with Linkedin Sales Navigator is a powerful tool. All my clients that use it highly recommend it!
Social selling leverages your professional brand to fill your pipeline with the right people, gather insights, and build strong relationships.
The importance of customer centricity
Think audience first. It’s important that brands do something that resonates with their target audience. Most companies believe that they are customer centric, or at least try to be, but get it so wrong.
An inspiring brand and a great example of doing it right is Airbnb. Airbnb takes its ‘Live there’ motto one step further by offering downloadable PDF city guides on top places to eat, hang out, and amuse oneself in any location.
These guides are more than maps and directions to the best coffee shops. They use graphics to visually bring cities to life and make them seem more accessible, more liveable.
These colourful and creative PDFs are a great reminder that brands should think beyond just creating blog posts or web pages. Visual, interactive, and usable content (even without Wi-Fi) is still key.
Airbnb is doing a great job at creating a positive customer experience and a customer centric brand.
