Social media expert and Bristol Creative Industries member Luan Wise recently delivered a series of BCI events focused on practical insights for using LinkedIn to make connections, boost your business and find work. The first was tips on optimising your LinkedIn profile.
Dan Martin summarises her brilliant advice.
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LinkedIn is one of the oldest social media networks having launched in 2003. It now has over one billion members in 200 countries and regions worldwide.
LinkedIn’s mission is to “connect the world’s professionals to make them more productive and successful”, with the vision of “creating economic opportunity for every member of the global workforce”.
Key questions to ask when building your LinkedIn profile
Luan advises asking yourself the following questions to ensure your LinkedIn profile is relevant and beneficial to what you are trying to achieve.
What will you be using LinkedIn for?
Looking for a new job
Finding new clients
Networking with peers and referrers
Staying up-to-date with industry news and insights
Who do you want to find your profile on LinkedIn?
How do you help solve their problems?
What keywords will they search for to find you?
Who would you like to be in your network on LinkedIn?
What do you want to be known for within your network?
Consider upgrading to a premium LinkedIn profile
Luan says that while there’s lots you can do with a free account, there are many useful benefits of paid accounts. Before upgrading to a paid account, think about whether the features will benefit you enough to justify the cost. LinkedIn offers a one month trial.
As a Premium Business user (currently £49.99 a month or £359.88 a year), the benefits are:
Private browsing
Unlimited search
AI features to help you write your posts
InMail credits (message people before you connect)
Who’s viewed my profile (see everyone who is looking at your profile – subject to privacy settings)
Custom button (a call to action that appears on everything you do on LinkedIn – ‘visit my website’, ‘join my newsletter’ etc)
Service page features
Business insights (Company Page)
Think about settings and privacy
Luan advises to consider your privacy settings on LinkedIn and who you’re sharing your content with. Go to the visibility section to check your settings
One section you can switch off is allowing your network to see all your contacts. Luan says:
“Leaving it switched on would be like walking into a room and leaving all of my data assets, my connections, my business cards on the table. I don’t want everyone to see so I switch it off.
“I would suggest that you switch yours off, but if you’re looking at someone else’s profile, and you’re in a sales, or business development mindset, there’s nothing stopping you having a look if they haven’t adjusted that setting.”
Choose a great LinkedIn headline
Your LinkedIn headline appears on your profile and every time you post, so make it count! Luan says:
“By default it will be the job title and company name taken from the ‘experience’ section of your profile. But job titles can sometimes can be a bit vague, and company names don’t always communicate what you do, so add a descriptor.
“For example, if you’re freelance and offer a multitude of skills, you could change your headline to say ‘I help these types of clients by doing this.’
“Have a look around LinkedIn, and see what other people have done with their headlines. Think about making a good first impression, what will appear in search results and what will appear alongside everything you do on LinkedIn.”
Use the ‘experience’ section to show how you can help
The ‘experience’ section of your profile is the CV-like section of your profile, “but unless you are job seeking”, Luan says, “reframe it to be a description of your role and responsibilities and how you can help the person that you want to be viewing your profile.” She adds:
“I would also encourage you to include a small paragraph describing the organisation you work for. If you’re part of a team, all your colleagues should use the same paragraph. Tell people what your company does, its size, its client portfolio etc, so people immediately understand what you do and how you can help.
“You will naturally include keywords that people are searching for. You can also add assets such as website links, videos, PDFs etc.”
See the ‘skills’ section as a place for current keywords
In the ‘skills’ section, which allows you to get endorsements for your skills from other people, Luan instead has switched endorsements off and uses it a place to showcase current skills that people are searching for:
“I see the skills section as a set of forward facing keywords. I don’t include all the skills that I’ve developed throughout my career, because there things that I don’t want to do anymore and services that I don’t want to offer. There are also skills, such as AI, that I’m starting to develop and want to be found for over the next 12 months.
“As I’m keeping the skills section up to date, my personal thoughts are that it would take a lot of work to get endorsements and I think there are ways that I can show evidence of my work, my credibility and my skills elsewhere on my profile.
“So my advice is use the skills section, but think about your organisation, the services you offer and your personal skills. You can allocate them to other sections of your profile as well, such as the ‘about’ and ‘experience’ sections. I personally don’t do this but if you’re job seeking or starting out in a new business and want to show more evidence, you might want to showcase them in other sections.”
Recommendations: Quality over quantity
Testimonials about you from real people are a powerful way to showcase your skills. These appear in the ‘recommendations’ section of your LinkedIn profile. Luan says:
“Recommendations add credibility, endorsement, and social proof to your profile. Ask your peers, colleagues, and clients for recommendations. Go for quality and substance over lots of people saying that you’re great.
“Think about who you want to be named on your profile, and what they can say about you to add to your story.”
Use the ‘about’ section to tell your career story
Luan says the ‘about’ section is a brilliant place to bring everything together, tell your story and explain why people should connect or work with you.
“This isn’t a CV-style personal statement. I want to see your career story. I want your highlights. I want to know what you’ve done and who you’ve done it for. If you can name drop, then name drop. Tell me what you’re doing now. At the end, put a call to action.
“You will naturally include keywords, and you can keep it up to date to reflect why you are using LinkedIn at any given point. I change my ‘about’ section often, depending on what I’m looking for and what I’m working on.”
Key actions
In summary, Luan’s key tips for creating a great LinkedIn profile are:
Focus updating your profile on your primary purpose for using LinkedIn
Write your profile for the people you want to attract
Use keywords for discoverability
Keep your profile up-to-date and reflecting your current work
Consider a Premium Business account
You can connect with Luan Wise on LinkedIn here, follow Bristol Creative Industries here and join our LinkedIn group here.
BIMA star James Hobbs appointed Head of Tech at Aer Studios
Aer Studios, a leading creative technology studio in the South West, is thrilled to announce the appointment of James Hobbs as Head of Technology. Hobbs, who brings a wealth of experience from his time at Dyson and Great State, joins at a time when Aer Studios also announces a new trio of practice leads, including Max Waring (Front End), Jon Chard (Back End), and Aaron Bushell (DevOps).
Hobbs’ appointment comes shortly after the addition of Lucy Rees, Head of People and Culture, further strengthening Aer Studios’ leadership team. These strategic hires mark a significant step in Aer Studios’ growth, as well as its commitment to excellence and innovation in the creative technology sector. Last year it secured a coveted place on the BBC Digital Design Roster.
Notable career achievements for Hobbs include a six-year period at Dyson, where he successfully led the global digital technical team from its inception to over twenty members. At Great State, Hobbs was instrumental in driving the company’s technology strategy, leading an engineering team delivering multi-award-winning work.
In addition to his impressive career achievements, Hobbs has been recognised in the prestigious BIMA 100 for Sustainability, underlining his commitment to sustainable practices. This aligns perfectly with Aer Studios’ 2024 BCorp certification and its ongoing efforts to prioritise sustainability in all aspects of its operations. Aer Studios won its own prestigious BIMA Award in the Innovative App category in October 2023.
“James’ appointment comes at a time when Aer Studios is gearing up for growth,” said Tom Harber Managing Director at Aer Studios. “His experience and values fit perfectly with our ambitions. With James on board, we’re excited to amplify our efforts and lead the charge in transforming the tech industry into a beacon of sustainability for the future.”
“I’m delighted to have joined Aer Studios,” said James. “It was immediately clear from my initial conversations with Lucy and Tom that Aer Studios have a deep focus on people and planet, both of which are really important to me, alongside delivering outstanding work for clients.”
Hobbs’ arrival at Aer Studios is set to propel the company towards new heights, enhancing its technical capabilities and reinforcing its commitment to sustainable practices. With a cross-capability leadership team in place, Aer Studios is well-positioned to lead the industry in creative and sustainable technology solutions.
About Aer Studios
Aer Studios is an award-winning creative technology studio based in the South West of England. Its mission is to create meaningful digital experiences that have a positive impact on people & planet. Partnering with leading brands in the public and private sectors, its clients include Warner Media, Cartoon Network, BBC, Dogs Trust, Diabetes UK, CNN, History Royal Palaces and GOV.UK. With a particular focus on employee experience, Aer Studios ranked in the top 100 best workplaces and best workplaces for wellbeing by the Great Place to Work awards.
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Neighbourly, the giving platform which connects businesses with local charities and community groups across the UK and Ireland, has teamed up with Microsoft to launch a campaign to bring together corporate volunteers with the charitable sector, with the aim of helping to reduce admin burden and address the growing digital divide.
Through the DigitalBridge campaign, launching this month, charities and community groups in Neighbourly’s network, from youth charities to food banks, will be able to access support through Neighbourly’s corporate network, with volunteers from around twenty businesses including Virgin Media O2, Hays, Overbury and Morgan Lovell, Motability and Redcliffe & Temple BID helping charities with a range of digital challenges as well as facilitating access to AI resources to help them expedite administrative, strategic and creative tasks.
The campaign comes as research shows that spending less time on administrative tasks is a growing need for charities and that two thirds of charities are interested in making the best use of emerging tech such as AI and ChatGPT. In Neighbourly’s most recent community research, 64% said they don’t know where to start with Gen AI or haven’t spent any time on it. In 2023 the Communications and Digital Committee also highlighted high levels of digital exclusion amongst citizens, with the rapid shift towards online services deepening disadvantage for those who remain offline.
Microsoft is supporting the programme through the provision of online training resources developed specifically to help build knowledge and access learning pathways so that charity employees can use technology to drive greater impact. Employees from businesses in the Neighbourly community will utilise and signpost these resources as part of their volunteering activities, to help build confidence and skills in key areas. Charity staff and volunteers will also be able to take learnings to provide practical support and digital skills to beneficiaries.
Volunteer opportunities will run throughout June and into the summer, tying in with and celebrating other major volunteering calendar moments such as The Big Help Out (7-9 June).
Neighbourly has been working with Microsoft since 2023 as part of its Entrepreneurship for Positive Impact (EfPI) programme which supports tech businesses and entrepreneurs that are addressing urgent social challenges.
Charles Eales, UK Social Impact Lead, Microsoft Philanthropies, said:
“We’re excited to be working with Neighbourly on this important campaign aimed at bridging the digital divide and empowering charities with essential digital skills. At Microsoft, we believe in the power of technology to drive positive change, and through initiatives like this, we can be really targeted and help make a meaningful impact in communities where the need is greatest.”
Bev Sykes, Founder, Just Good Friends, said:
“Our small charity would be really interested in learning more about AI and chat tools. We know we need to get more digital skills to take us further – we’re struggling to move forward in certain areas because of our lack of knowledge. I’ve done some initial reading about AI and it sounds interesting but I need some help understanding how it can be best applied.”
Steve Butterworth, CEO, Neighbourly, said:
“As a platform dedicated to fostering meaningful connections between businesses and local charities, we’re proud to collaborate with Microsoft and our valued client partners on this innovative volunteering initiative, through which we hope to reach at least 1,000 charity employees. By harnessing the power of corporate volunteers and technology, we aim to empower charities to navigate the digital landscape more effectively, ultimately driving greater impact and inclusivity within communities.”
Fiasco Design, an independent brand and digital studio based in Bristol, is delighted to announce several significant promotions across the agency as it marks its 14th year in business. Growing from a team of two to 15, the agency has delivered impactful work for major brands such as Microsoft, Just Eat, Miro, Vertical, and Good Energy.
At the heart of Fiasco Design‘s success is its people; a diverse team of 15 creative thinkers and doers, who are committed to making a positive impact on the businesses and people they partner with. “From day one, we had the belief that great ideas could come from anyone, anywhere. Our work is the result of a collective effort involving teams of passionate, determined individuals. Giving everyone a voice has been crucial to our growth,” says co-founder Ben Steers.
This belief in the potential of all team members has fuelled the agency’s growth and has been vital in allowing those who started as interns and juniors to advance into significant roles, thereby shaping the agency’s culture and output. “Our focus on cultivating an inclusive environment where contributions are valued at all levels has shaped our culture and meant our people stay with us,” adds Ben.
This commitment, along with growth across some key areas of the business, has led to a series of promotions within the agency:
Chris, who joined two years ago as Associate Creative Director from Bristol-based agency Mr B & Friends, has been promoted to Creative Director. Known for his leadership and balanced approach to strategy and creativity, Chris has become an invaluable member of the senior management team.
Julia, starting as a junior designer in 2018, has climbed the ranks to Senior Designer and now steps up as Design Director. Her integral role in so much of the studios output over this time, underscores her professional growth and undeniable talent.
Marj, who began as Studio Manager in 2017, has moved up to Project Manager and now to Senior Project Manager. Marj has been instrumental in developing the Accounts team and nurturing the agency’s culture, now leading the agency’s project work, content offering, and workflow.
To further support the agency’s growth and ensure its financial stability, co-founder Ben Steers will transition from Creative Director to Executive Creative Director, and Jason Smith will take on the role of Director of Finance.
“Despite the challenges of the past year, we are optimistic about the future and new opportunities. These promotions are not just well-deserved; they are pivotal in helping us achieve our future goals,” concludes Ben.
At a Bristol Creative Industries keynote event in March, we were joined by Drew Benvie, founder of global social media agency Battenhall. He shared insights from the company’s 11th annual social media trends reports. In this post, Dan Martin summarises Drew’s brilliant talk.
When it comes to social media, Drew knows his stuff. At the age of seven, he taught himself how to code on an Amstrad CPC 464, and in 2006 he was the first to coin the term ‘social media’ on Wikipedia. Drew founded Battenhall in 2013 and now employs 120 people in the UK and overseas.
Opening his talk, he said:
“There are more places than ever to commit your time and your advertising money, so it’s important you know where to invest. You could stick to a few but the average person in the UK is active on six social networks. In India, it’s 10. If you’re trying to reach your target audience, you have to do more than ever before to really stand out.”
Safety and purpose on social media
Social media is ubiquitous. Eight out of 10 people who use social media do so actively. Brits spend 75% of our working day looking at a screen of some sort, with teens spending around 5.3 hours a day on social.
But over the last year, Drew said, various things have happened, such as “the implosion of Twitter” following Elon Musk’s purchase of the platform, “that has made me feel that safety on social media is an important thing”.
“Social media is now toxic to many, whether it’s the stuff that we see that should be taken down, or the actions from one user to another that are allowed unfettered on social media.”
A million posts are removed by Meta every day, Drew said, while TikTok employs 40,000 people to moderate content.
Amid all this, social media owners are appearing in front of regulators around the world, as governments look to bring in new legislation that regulates social media.
So what does this mean for brands? Drew’s advice is:
Know who’s influential and work with those who are going to help you protect your brand.
Build a community that’s supportive of what you’re doing.
Know which channels are the best for your brand.
Think global.
Be careful with spending money when it comes to advertising.
AI helps to speed up creativity”, and you should think of it as “your brainstorm buddy”, Drew advised.
You can already use AI features on social media platforms to create or improve content, but Drew said “there is an important balance between making something authentic because it is created by a human and harnessing the power of AI to speed things up when you need to”.
He continued:
“I’m an advocate of using AI to augment what you do, not replace it. Get it to do the stuff that you shouldn’t really spend time doing.”
Drew said consider AI as your “brainstorm buddy”. He recommended experimenting with AI tools, such as ChatGPT and Google Gemini, and see which work best for you. Remember that AI isn’t just for generating content, you can also use it for tasks like analysing data.
As an example of AI in action with creative content, Drew shared a campaign using AI that Battenhall delivered for a client.
The children of employees at General Electric were asked to draw what they thought their parents did for a job. Battenhall then used AI to create images based on the drawings that were used for social media posts.
On LinkedIn, the content delivered the top-performing post for the whole quarter, more than doubling the benchmark engagement rate for the quarter. In addition, the campaign contributed to a 12% increase in the number of new followers (month on month).
Drew warned that brands should also be aware of the ethical, regulatory and legal issues around AI such as who owns the content you produce using the technology.
Life after Twitter
The fallout from Elon Musk buying Twitter led to an exodus of users signing up for other social media platforms. Many people switched to Mastodon, the open source social network, and Meta launched Threads, an app linked to Instagram which became the fastest to reach 100 million followers.
“There are 35 social networks with over 100 million active users [see some of them on page 7 of the ‘Life after Twitter’ report] and endless niche communities. That is my biggest learning from what has happened to Twitter. Niche is now good. It’s ok to be small.”
The biggest beneficiary of “the carnage at Twitter”, Drew said, is LinkedIn. It reported a 41% increase in volume of content between 2021 and 2023.
Drew’s tips and insights for LinkedIn are:
Cultivate a good following on LinkedIn and connect with people.
Live video content is popular on LinkedIn.
LinkedIn helps to make brands more personal with many senior leaders in businesses active on the platform
Use the power of the people you work with and activate them to engage with and share your LinkedIn content.
But the most important tip for choosing where to engage on social media, is pay attention to your audience and where they hang out. There’s no one size fits all.
“Be really analytical. Figure out what your audience does, where they spend their time, what trends they follow.”
Entertainment and being unhinged on social media
“TikTok calls itself an entertainment platform, not a social network, and it’s a places other social media platform are trying to emulate.”
Drew said TikTok has shown to brands the power of being entertaining. “I think every brand in 2024 has the ability to be more entertaining.”
“Any brand can do anything on social media. People expect a brand to be a person, to have a voice. The unhinged, entertaining and educational stream of content coming through on platforms like TikTok is creating opportunities for even the most boring brands to be entertaining, informative and educational.”
Drew said the three ways brands can be entertaining are:
Getting into pop culture
Leaning into lifestyle
Being educational
One example of an entertaining brand that is “completely unhinged” is Duolingo on TikTok. “My kids want to spend their pocket money on learning languages on Duolingo beause the owl is so engaging.”
For an example of good educational content, Drew recommended Channel 4 on Threads.
“What makes social media content work is engagement, sentiment uptick, and visibility for people that are hard to reach. Entertaining content achieves on all those fronts.
“Think about how you can tell stories and answer questions. People want to learn new things. Think about the niches users might want to know about that are linked to your brand. Even with something a bit more corporate, there’s a story to tell and an audience looking for answers. Consider various different channels to reach your target audience.
“To create content that’s right for you, think about your brand personality. Place yourself in your audience’s shoes, and don’t be afraid to either stay in your lane and do one thing well, or branch out and try lots of different things. Social media is all about experimenting. Post things. Delete them. Start a channel. Let it go. That’s all fine.”
The rise of creators
Drew said that the fatigue that many people have with influencers and the creation of content about something they are paid to say is good has helped bring about a creator culture:
“There are more people creating more things with more creativity on more platforms more often. Creators provide opportunities for any brand because your niche is out there somewhere.
“A creator’s goal is to produce high quality, authentic content. For that, they want to work with brands. If you find the right ones, they are usually cheaper to work with than influencers, you can do more meaningful projects with them, and they tend to be more authentic.
“A creator might have a smaller audience than an influencer but they often can do more with less. They also might not ask for money if there’s some other type of value exchange such as early access to a new product.”
Instagram and YouTube are the most popular platforms for creators, but delve into any channel and you’ll likely find a vibrant creator culture, Drew said.
Other networks to explore include spontaneous photo sharing app BeReal, communication platform Discord and livestreaming community Twitch. Private communities, such as Facebook and WhatsApp groups, are another format worth looking at.
For Earth Day, the team at Something Familiar have taken a deep dive into sustainable website design. Looking at what it truly means, common pitfalls and how to start making more eco conscious moves – without losing sight of your brand identity.
How can digital designers make choices to minimise their environmental impact? In this blog, we explore what actions we can take to create websites that are both engaging and better for the planet.
What is sustainable or low carbon website design?
Sustainable website design is all the noise these days, and for good reason. Historically, web design practices have failed to consider the environmental consequences of maintaining a website. With an average of 1.76g of CO2 emitted per page view, the cumulative impact becomes significant. For instance, a site with 100k page views per month emits approximately 2,112kg of CO2 annually! A car travelling 8,000 miles emits roughly the same amount of CO2, which is mad. *Source
So what exactly is Sustainable web design?
It refers to the practice of creating websites with minimal negative impact on the environment, both in terms of resource consumption and emissions. This approach considers the entire lifecycle of a website, from design through to development, hosting, maintenance and user interaction.
On top of environmental impact, sustainable design also involves two other important aspects:
Social Responsibility
Practising user-friendly accessible design, paired with respectful, inclusive content ensures it’s suitable for a wide range of audiences.
Economic Sustainability
Taking this considered approach during the design phases could also streamline the development process, and minimise the page processing power. Ensuring the site is lightweight, future proof and built to last.
As cliche as it sounds we need to make a change. But how do we meet our green goals – without compromising our brand impact and website design?
It’s all about Sustainable Design Considerations
In this article we are focussing on the first phase of a website lifecycle – the initial design decisions you can implement to minimise your site’s environmental impact. This phase seems to be an area where little discussion is currently focused, but it comes hand in hand with development, so decisions made here are crucial.
We’re here to put you onto a few tips and tricks so you can get practising sustainable web design in no time. You’d be surprised what can be achieved through strategic design decisions.
Here’s are some things to consider when approaching your new sustainable website design:
Over-application of ‘best’ practice.
Yes you can remove video, and yes you can use system fonts… but should you? We don’t want to lose the soul of your brand as a result of this practice, so remain conscious about your objectives. Keep it chill.
Set your objectives Addressing what needs to be done to improve your impact at the end of a project can lead to non-optimal solutions – think first.
Do your research Design-focused resources for sustainable impact are few and far between, so when you come across design inspiration that’s also incredibly sustainable – save it and share it.
Carbon calculator hype
Yes, these are helpful and insightful, but it’s important to not prioritise your score over experience or business objectives. Also at the time of writing, these calculators seem to only measure initial page-load, which is not always an accurate reflection of page size.
To summarise, and maybe over simplify this topic, having a low-impact website typically means stripping things back. So using smaller images, removing video, less content on a page, avoiding multiple fonts etc.
But how can you do this without diluting your brand? It’s a challenge that we have been facing so we created a methodology that aligns impact and expectations.
Determine how far you want to give your website a green glow-up.
At Something Familiar, we’ve adapted a tiered approach to sustainable web development – The Gold, Silver Bronze approach. By understanding your business positioning and communication priorities we can build a sustainable website, without impacting your brand presence.
We’ve sourced some excellent example websites to see where they fall on our scale. All of these websites demonstrate excellent design and brand impact, but offer varying levels of sustainable web design.
GOLD: Lean and Green
Those who have achieved sustainable website zen! Exemplary brand communication and aesthetic, whilst upholding impressively low page weight. Sacrifices are evident in the absence of motion and video, with minimal utilisation of photography, opting primarily for a typography or vector-based design approach. However, these sacrifices are executed with meticulous consideration and attention to detail.
We made it our challenge to get to A+. 94% cleaner of all web pages globally on the website carbon calculator (a real challenge when you want to show off everything achieved in the last 12 months)
Our stickers go a long way to inject personality. Light little Lottie Files to compliment each chapter, SF style.
We used a low code page builder, Bricks Builder, built with clean bloat free code.
Our use of video was minimised by looping short autoplay clips rather than playing entire video content.
First visit from Beacon – CO2: 0.131g / SIZE: 420.56 KB
SILVER: Sustainable standard
Could this be the ideal equilibrium? Introducing distinctive and captivating features that depart from typographic and flat styling, incorporating depth and distinctive Javascript interactions and animations. Meticulous attention is given to the utilisation of video and highly optimised images.
Flayks
https://flayks.com/
Portfolio site of designer/art director Félix Péault
Design notes:
The layout is incredible and highly engaging. This is partially due to super confident use of typography – it does a lot of the work in place of heavy media.
Video is used strategically, and only plays when within your viewport.
Basic in terms of sustainability, but bespoke in terms of design impact. These sites offer incredible experiences to their users and have won Awwwards for their work, but this comes at the sacrifice of page weight. Keep in mind though that these sites have different objectives and are aimed at a smaller audience.
The dynamic apple-esque landing page serves up a really enjoyable experience to scroll through.
It’s media rich and interactive in order to convert – but also helps to sell the storytelling piece about Bearbrick ‘finding its voice’.
The on scroll animations and high quality assets are necessary to reflect the price point associated with collectable culture. Also helps to reinforce the value of the Medicom/Bearbrick brands.
First visit from Beacon – CO2: 7.307g / SIZE: 19.45 MB
So what action can you take?
Here’s some simple design-focused moves you can make now to start reaching green glowup. Ideally, these should all be actioned or considered at the beginning of a project.
Variable fonts
Reduce the amount of fonts being loaded on your site. A variable font ecompasses a slew of weights within one file, vs. the old days of loading 5-6 heavy separate files.
Be strategic with media
Beyond compressing/optimising your media, think about its value and positioning. Immersive images and video assets should be saved for key parts of communication.
Make things move
Elevate your website’s storytelling with scroll stopping motion. If you haven’t already, check out our Motion Manifesto, trust.
To further this point, ramp up typography to really push how tone and messaging can be delivered without relying on heavy media.
Main character: mobile
Designing mobile first might not be your thing, but regardless of order – get your mobile design optimised. Cater to accessibility on small devices to make the experience just as beaut.
Make accessibility breezy
Get Stark (plugin) involved in your design process to eliminate any accessibility risks. It’s a lovely little plugin in Figma you can use to review typography, palettes and contrast. It’s all aligned with the WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) too.
With all this in mind, think about where your website to sit on the sustainable spectrum. Ultimately, the outcome is reaching a happy medium that meets objectives, delivers a killer experience and practises sustainability.
People buy people… and people are made up of stories.
Studies have shown that 55% of people are more likely to buy a product if they love the story behind a brand.
But why do brand stories matter? What makes a brand story compelling and engaging?
What is a brand story?
As a business, or individual, your brand’s story should be a complete picture of who you are and why you do what you do – what is your mission and vision.
It encompasses the facts of your brand, but also the feelings created by your brand. It should be the foundation of every aspect of your content marketing. Without a brand narrative, your marketing will be typically vague and inconsistent.
Notice how we’ve not mentioned what you do here.
In his book and hugely popular TedTalk, Start With Why, Simon Sinek argues that most organisations communicate from the outside in.
They start with what it is they do, before going into the how. They rarely address the why. But the why is so important when it comes to telling stories and leveraging human appeal.
Sinek argues that inspired leaders and organisations communicate from the inside out, starting with the why, and then moving to how, before finally addressing what it is that they do.
“With everything we do, we aim to challenge the status quo. We aim to think differently. Our products are user-friendly, beautifully designed, and easy to use. We just happen to make great computers. Want to buy one?”
This example, from Sinek, concisely shows this process in action. It is a reference to Apple and the way it starts with Why in its communications.
The theory emphasizes that people don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it.
By starting with the “why,” organisations can differentiate themselves from their competitors, attract like-minded individuals who share their beliefs, and foster a loyal customer base or following.
This is where storytelling comes into play.
Why does brand storytelling matter?
Brand storytelling is an art form that can be traced back to as early as 1895.
This was when a farming magazine called ‘The Furrow,’ leveraged compelling brand stories as a way to connect with their target audience.
John Deere’s magazine is considered to be the first example of corporate storytelling. But since these early days, brands have continued to recognise the amazing power that stories have.
Fundementally people like stories, because they can create emotional connections with them. This connection then creates brand differentiation, humanisation, memorability and engagement.
These are incredibly important elements not only for building brand authenticity but for keeping a steady pipeline of engagement in a world where a lot of businesses are pushing a product or service.
Web or Funnel?
As more people are driven to make connections online, more brands and businesses use that online presence for reach and engagement.
This kind of activity would previously have been referred to as the marketing funnel. But that’s something of an outmoded term now.
The funnel is now more of a web.
The sheer volume of marketing communications coming the way of a consumer is staggering. From Google Search, to Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, Blogs, News and more the consumer has never been bombarded with more information.
The term web is quite an apt one in this sense. Because the web of social and marketing comms is now so laden with competition, it easily becomes overly exhausting for the potential customer.
All it can take is one element of that web to break, for the whole thing to fall down.
A lot of brands have a story to tell. But the only way to create a story that will resonate with your customers is to understand the art of storytelling.
Storytelling: back to basics
Great stories are considered as such for several reasons. They take you on a journey. Great stories are relatable, they can inspire, engage, can even affect change. A good story is always:
Entertaining
Emotional
Relatable
Memorable
Believable
Engaging
Simple
Successful brand storytelling always has several key elements that create a compelling narrative.
An authentic story will help you articulate brand messaging, brand values and your brand’s mission.
Finding your voice
How can you leverage the power of storytelling for your brand? Let’s start with the basics
Define your brand
Before you can tell your story, you have to know your story. Many organisations try to tell their brand story before they understand who they are and why their audience should care. It’s much easier to tell your brand’s story when you figure out:
Who you are
What you do
Who you do it for
Why you do it
How you do it
Why you’re unique
An essential part of any brand story starts, as you’d expect, at the beginning.
What is your brand’s purpose, why do you do what you do? Why does your brand exist in the first place?
Identifying the answers to these questions will help you understand more about your brand. Once you establish your own brand’s identity, you can begin to tell your story.
Create consistent messaging
It’s important to have a clear and consistent message that emanates throughout your communication. But try to stay clear of sounding like you’re selling something… show, don’t tell.
When you show who you are as a brand vs what you’re selling, you’re creating that emotional connection and brand differentiation. So, when it does come the time to drop a sales message, you have that preexisting engagement and customer motivation.
Get to know your audience
You can really only achieve this if you know your audience. To craft a compelling story that will speak to your customers, you need to properly understand them.
What motivates them, what inspires them, what moves them
Ask yourself who your customers are and why they should care about your brand. Define your buyer personas and think about the kinds of stories they want to hear.
Understanding your audience is imperative to not just your brand story, but your marketing strategy as a whole.
Shape the narrative
With your messaging shaped and your audience profiled, it’s time to define your narrative.
How do you want your audience to react? Do you want them to feel entertained? Informed? Educated?
Understanding these points will help you form your narrative and allow you to paint a picture of the kinds of stories and content that you should be producing.
Telling an authentic brand story goes beyond the ‘about us’ page on your website.
Instead, it’s interwoven into every aspect of communications
You’ll find that great brand stories are permeated through a brand’s social media posts, blogs, emails and website.
In today’s competitive and crowded marketplace, brand storytelling has become a powerful tool for companies to create meaningful connections with their customers, differentiate themselves, and establish a strong and memorable brand identity
Do you want to experience the value of great storytelling? Talk to the team at AMBITIOUS to discover how we can get more people talking about your brand [email protected] or call us on 0117 905 1177.
Algorithms are everywhere.
They decide what we see online, they dictate what search engines show us and the content we receive.
They’ve certainly changed the way the world does business and if you’ve spent any period of time online, you’re likely to have seen the term ‘beat the algorithm’ get thrown around. There is a notion, particularly in content terms, that beating the algorithm is what you need to do to get seen.
But how much of this sentiment is actually true?
Exactly what is ‘the algorithm’
It’s a somewhat ominous term. The notion of a central intelligence pushing Instagram, LinkedIn and TikTok feeds. A machine that decides what Mob recipe you’ll see on Instagram this evening, what witty social media meme LinkedIn will feed you on your lunchtime scroll.
It’s not quite Skynet. But it is a set of rules and parameters to decide on the following:
1) What content to show to each individual user in their feed
2) How to rank and order that content in the feed
3) When to display that content to the user
Now ‘the algorithm’ looks at a lot of different factors and variables when making these decisions. It looks at users previous interactions, the types of content you’ve been engaging with, post time, engagement signals and the ‘perceived quality’ of the content itself.
So it’s doing quite a lot before it serves you your content.
The goal of the algorithm is to keep each user engaged and satisfied by showing them more of what they want to see… in theory.
But we all use social media and we all know that theory and practice are two very different things. This is why content creators cannot simply rely on techniques that “beat the algorithm” in any particular moment… it’s a mercurial, constantly shifting beast.
Lessons from a 25-year old Youtuber
Speaking of beasts…. Mr Beast aka Jimmy Donaldson. It might be a name that you’ve heard.
If you haven’t MrBeast is the world’s most successful YouTuber. Over 116,000,000 subscribers and a net worth of around £500million. It’s safe to say he is making the most out of content creation.
Some might say MrBeast is ‘beating the algorithm’ but is he really?
Search for MrBeast and what you’ll find alongside his insanely well-performing content, is adjacent content titled something along the lines of “We’ve stolen the secret to MrBeast content.”
The irony is, that these videos don’t have anywhere near the levels of reach and engagement that MrBeast does. Despite them claiming to have unlocked the cheat codes to the internet and here’s how you can be the next YouTube multi-millionaire.
If it worked, why isn’t everyone doing it?
To actually game the system and ‘beat the algorithm’ would require you to do nothing other than live in the trends section of every social channel, 24 hours a day, reacting and making content totally on the fly.
Now Jimmy Donaldson has the capacity and the resources to do this. But he’s also spent years honing his craft and getting himself into the position he is now. What Jimmy does, isn’t hacking or beating the algorithm, he makes content that he knows people are going to watch.
Jimmy didn’t ‘beat the algorithm’ Jimmy spent years studying virality and learning what content his audiences liked to consume. He put in the hard yards and now it’s paying off.
And that’s the real crux of the algorithm argument… you can’t cheat a content strategy.
Building consistency over time
Successful content is a skill that is built over years… it simply does not happen overnight.
Of course, you may find the odd piece outperforms or maybe even goes viral – which might happen once in a blue moon. But to build any level of consistency will take time… and patience.
So rather than put your focus into ‘overcoming the algorithm’ focus instead on what your audiences want to see and hear. Play the algorithm and you might have a bigger audience, but is it the right audience?
Build it and they will come, right?
Focus on posting quality, relevant content!
By focusing on creating engaging content that is relevant and valuable to your audience, you will put yourself in the best possible position to build a loyal following.
By using data analytics and algorithmic information, you can make conscious decisions as to what formats and types of content are performing best at any given time. Leveraging data can help you create more effective content.
All roads lead back to making the kinds of content that your audiences want…
Be entertaining
People don’t want to watch boring content. It sounds harsh, but it’s true.
They’re too time-poor and bombarded with content from every possible angle. Your content might have the best call to action, but if it’s too dull or not engaging from the outset, the viewers are never going to make it to the stuff you really want them to see.
Engage
Don’t be a monolith, engage with your audience.
Don’t disable the comments and don’t leave clear questions and engagements unanswered.
Content strategy is much about creating a community than it is actually creating the content itself. Engaging with your audiences will heighten the likelihood of them remaining engaged with you moving forward.
This is probably one of the few areas where the notion of ‘gaming the algorithm’ is actually applicable. Replying to comments and creating engagements in the chat will actually boost your ratings in the algorithm. If it sees comments, it thinks ‘people like this, I’m going to show it to some more people.’
You might be able to ride the crest of a wave now and then. Jump on a trend, see a spike in engagement. You might, if you’re really lucky, go viral.
But these are temporary. They’re fleeting moments,
Ultimately there is no hack, there are no algorithmic cheats. There is no quick fix. You just have to put in the hard yards.
Navigating a new content strategy can be a daunting task and getting an experienced agency on board can help guide you to create a new content plan that will see success for your brand, so get in touch now
Mentor Digital is delighted to announce an expansion of our Digital Marketing services and the launch of a newly designed section of our website to showcase our new and improved offering across SEO, PPC and analytics.
Since adding ex-Google Strategist Dan Watt to our ranks as Digital Marketing Director last year, we have seen fantastic growth in both the amount and scope of digital marketing projects that we are working on for our clients.
Whilst delivering best-in-class, SEO optimised websites in Umbraco has been part of Mentor Digital’s offering for many years, our expanded offering sees us providing expertise across the entire digital marketing spectrum. Our services now include:
Paid media: including media planning and forecasting, campaign auditing and campaign build and management across paid search, paid social, video and display.
SEO: including website auditing, technical SEO, content strategy and production, inbound marketing and SEO migration consultancy.
Analytics: including Google Analytics 4 auditing and setup, Google Tag Manager auditing and tracking implementation and bespoke, real-time Looker Studio reporting dashboards.
We’re excited about what the year ahead will hold for our digital marketing team and our clients alike as we continue to expand our portfolio of work. If you would like a no obligation appraisal of the current SEO performance of your website, or an expert assessment of whether you could be spending your digital media budget more effectively, don’t hesitate to get in touch with Dan and his team.
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