5 Mobile Web Usability Rules You Can’t Afford To Ignore

5 Mobile Web Usability Rules You Can’t Afford To Ignore written by Guest Post read more at Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing

If content is king then your website is its kingdom and no matter how great your content is, if your website is not providing the users a smooth user experience, your visitors are going to abandon it for sure!

But how can you make sure your website users get a rich and smooth web experience? This article tells you how to give your mobile web users a smooth experience. I will teach you the basic and the best of 5 mobile website usability rules that you can’t afford to miss. Follow these mobile web usability rules and craft a nice mobile web user experience to your visitors. Let’s get started!

Rule No. 1: Don’t go after every plugin you come across!

Plugins are meant to add usability to your website, but that shouldn’t turn out to be a roadblock for your users. Before you install any plugin or add-on, make sure it is worth adding and is going to add value to your website and thus adding value to your visitor’s user experience. More importantly, note that most mobile devices do not support plugins and also remember that plugins are also known for crashing, hanging and slowing down the websites and if not chosen properly, can prove to be vulnerable too. Give it a thought: Just because it is free doesn’t mean it should be in your bucket!

Rule No. 2: Use viewport properly to cater screen-friendly content

What’s a viewport?

Viewport gives web designers capabilities to decide on how to render the content across different screen sizes.

Without viewport, a typical web page will be rendered at a full, desktop width scaled to fit the device screen size. Configuring and defining viewport in your CSS allows you to choose and render web page’s size and content according to the device’s screen size, which can also be called a screen-friendly view.

Rule No. 3: Ditch the annoying horizontal scrollbar by sizing content to viewport

Horizontal scrollbar is one of the things that annoy mobile site users most. It is always advisable to ditch the horizontal scroll bar from your mobile-friendly site.

Here’s how to ditch it without changing much of your code on web pages:

1. Different devices come with different screen resolutions hence pay close attention in defining viewports for various screen sizes.
2. Also, please note that CSS pixel-wide width may also vary in viewport and hence your page content shouldn’t be dependent on a specific viewport width to render well.
3. Avoid setting up large CSS widths in absolute terms can widen your elements unnecessarily, especially on small devices. Alternatively, you can use relative width values such as width:100% etc.
4. Avoid setting up absolute positioning values that may cause the element to render outside the viewport on smaller screens. You can use CSS media queries to apply different styling rules for varied screen sizes.

Rule No. 4: Place tap targets properly; size and proximity matters!

When you are building web for mobile, you have to consider space constraint and usability for every element of the web page and this applies to tap targets (buttons, links etc.) too.

Problem: If your tap targets are placed too close with each other and are small, users will have frustrating web experience as they might end up clicking other, unwanted tap targets.

Solution: Keep button size reasonable good. Have good proximity among buttons so that users can tap them without their finger pad overlapping other tap targets.

Pro Tip: Android’s UI guidelines recommend a minimum tap target size of roughly 7mm (48 CSS pixels), compared to an average adult finger pad size of about 10mm wide.

Rule No. 5: Fonts size also matters to offer a good readability experience

And just like the distance, size too is a concern for tap targets. Too small or too large fonts can also leave your users frustrated so make sure you use legible font sizes to offer your users a good readability experience.

Here are few ways you can use to define font size in your CSS, follow the one that fits you best:

Font size can be specified via four common units: pixels (px), points (pt), EMs (em), and percent (%).

1. Pixels are “CSS pixels” and vary based on device size and density.
2. Points are defined in relation to pixels. A single pixel is 0.75 points.
3. EMs and percent are “relative” units: they are relative to the inherited size and properties of the font being used. 1 EM is equivalent to 100%.

Pro Tip: Configure a viewport to make sure fonts will be scaled as expected across various devices.

Once you’ve configured a viewport, implement the Google’s following recommendations:

1. Use a base font size of 16 CSS pixels.
2. Adjust the size as needed based on properties of the font being used.
3. Use sizes relative to the base size to define the typographic scale.
4. Text needs vertical space between its characters and may need to be adjusted for each font. The general recommendation is to use the browser default line-height of 1.2em.
5. Limit the number of fonts used and the typographic scale: too many fonts and font sizes lead to messy and overly complex page layouts.

The mobile is altogether a different sphere than a traditional web experience and so are the needs of your mobile web users. Going after traditional web guidelines won’t help you much on your mobile web domain. Apply these usability rules and recommendations given by Google and you will on your way to cater a smooth and silk web experience to your mobile website users!

Moin Shaikh an open source tech lover. By profession, he is a social media manager, webmaster and web analyst for an Australia-based IT firm – Intesols. He looks after analysis, design & development and promotion parts of websites. I also contribute for Mozilla Firefox. Love to blog and tweet often! Connect with me on Twitter @moingshaikh

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Hail Damage Roof Leads by LeadHustler.com

All of our Hail Damage leads and Storm Damage Leads are created using telemarketing in how they are produced in the affected area of your choice(city, town, or by zip code).We buy raw call list and can contact both commercial and residential owners to call for you as soon as the storm hits and till its completion.
All of our storm damage leads are 100% exclusively made for you and NOT RESOLD and we even will use your companies name and can let owner know your rep by full name from your company will be meeting with them. All of our calls are tape and verified and can be sent to you upon request.We generate interest and gather all the necessary info in order for you to know the address of the home/business and the home owner name and a set a date and time.
All of our leads are audio recorded so they can be check and verified by our quality control team before they are sent to you and are available to you for review as well if there ever is a problem or discrepancy on an appointment we will send you the tape to listen to the call.
Hail Damage Roof Leads
872 S Milwaukee Ave # 207,Libertyville, Illinois 60048

Call 888-309-0411

How and Why Periscope Might Make Sense for Small Business

How and Why Periscope Might Make Sense for Small Business written by John Jantsch read more at Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing

Click to watch this archived Periscope recording from Katch.me

Over the last few years, I’ve seen one of my roles as the practical beacon for new technologies and trends that I believe small business owners can make use of.

I don’t report on new technology just because it’s hot as much as try to figure out if there’s a way to apply its value to make life better for the typical small business owner.

One of the newer and increasingly talked about social technologies is something called Periscope.

Now, I’m guessing you can tell from the headline of this post that I’m still lukewarm in terms of recommending it, but I did want to share my thoughts on it.

What is Periscope?

Essentially, Periscope is a mobile app that allows you to easily live stream video to other Periscope users or on the web via a link. The app is owned by Twitter, so there’s a tight integration into Twitter and every live stream can push a Tweet so people are alerted to the “scope.”

Now, live streaming is not new and pretty much any Google+ Hangout can be pushed to Twitter, so what we really have here is convenience that relies on the mobile device – both key to adoption of tech these days.

A few social media experts have certainly jumped on it as a way to expand their “guruness.” I mean everyone knows the best way to be considered a thought leader in social media is to be the first one with a course telling people how to profit from a new social network. Of course, it helps if most of your course and value comes from relentless self-promotion. (For those who cannot read sarcasm – that was it.)

Here’s the deal – always. When looking at new network, technology or platform the only test you must pass in order to consider it this: Will you be able to use this new network to add value to your relationships with your clients. If yes, then dive in.

From what I’ve seen so far there are three kinds of videos going on Periscope. Complete self-promotion, total goofiness and some cool behind the scenes looks.

The first is mostly the social media gurus running three or four scopes a day spent mostly on telling other people how to be gurus on Periscope. (You can spot them through their generous use of emojis ) The second consists of very bored people talking about what they did on their walk today. The third, however, is where I believe the potential for Periscope lies.

Live, raw, unscripted videos can send a very strong brand message and let people see how stuff is really done. I think that’s where you can use video and the ease of this platform to build relationships with your current community.

You may actually find that you can turn this into new leads, but I think the real value is building community.

There are a handful of useful features for community building, sharing and learning. But, there are also some goofy gamification elements that in my view actually devalue the tool.

You can build a following, push your live scope to Twitter and interact live with participants as you record. I love these features, but you can also vote or “like” a scope while viewing by tapping the screen and giving a stream of hearts out during the broadcast. Watching people ask for these hearts like candy is pretty silly so try to look past this popularity contest feature.

After you complete a scope you have the option to save it to your phone’s photo roll for future use as the archive on Periscope only stays available for 24 hours. I understand why that might be necessary from a platform standpoint but I think the full archive of your scopes could have lasting value so I recommend adding a tool called Katch.me so you can build a library and even embed the scopes as I’ve done above.

Again, there’s nother revolutionary about the technology, but the ease of use is what might make it take hold.

What could you post on Periscope?

You can post anything, so the real question is what would add value to your community? What would make someone take note of the value you deliver? What would help your stand out in a way that would make people want to join your community?

My friend Michael Port shot his recording the audio book for his upcoming book. Now he’s a known expert, but there was something very real about watching him do interesting work.

Anyone can show the office staff interacting, show how their product is made, or do candid interviews with clients as a way to showcase the human elements of the brand.

Consultants should consider doing live Q and A session on a schedule. Mini webinars are sure to be a hit on Periscope. My guess is that brands will start holding press conferences on Periscope. Events will certainly tap the portable nature of this network to promote event happenings. Look for large scale announcements to start cropping up.

Imagine new product demos and even customer service via Periscope. The face of a real human interactive live via video could be powerful for brands. I can’t imagine it will be long before flash sale promotions come to Periscope.

Some other considerations

If you have a large Twitter following already and you like doing video Periscope might make total sense. If you have already have a large following in other networks, you could certainly use this tool as a way to create a greater connection as long as you promote your scopes.

If you’re not that active in social media, don’t enjoy talking into a camera phone and are a bit nervous about anything raw and unscripted, don’t give Periscope a thought – there are other things to work on.

How to get started

• Download the IOS or Android App
• Create your username
• Connect to Twitter
• Find some people to follow and watch a dozen or so to get the hang of it (Periscope will suggest from your Twitter following.)
• Fire up the app and start recording (others will find your)
• Create a name for your session that’s very compelling – it’s the ad for your scope
• Once you start recording you can flip the camera by double tapping the screen
• To end a recording swipe down and hit the stop button

Of course now comes the hard part. How can Periscope technology help you add value to your existing and future client relationships?

I plan to run regularly scheduled scopes talking about marketing related tools as a way to connect with even more folks that choose that platform and like to participate in a more interactive experience.

I would love to hear your ideas on using this new technology.

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Choosing The Best Mate

Get the Penguin Method Here http://penguinmethod.info

Do you keep choosing the incorrect partner? Have you taking the time to know yourself so that you can choose the mate that is best for you?

Read More »

The post Choosing The Best Mate appeared first on Instant Infatuation Formula.

10 Simple Ways to Generate Blog Post Ideas

10 Simple Ways to Generate Blog Post Ideas written by Guest Post read more at Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing

Brainstorming blog post ideas off the top of your head only goes so far. Thankfully, there are a number of ways to get into your reader’s mind to generate post ideas you know will be helpful and relevant.

Here are ten simple ways to keep your blog post ideation machine cranking:

1. Hop on a call with readers.

A quick 10-minute phone call can provide tons of ideas in a short amount of time. Plus, you’ll get the actual language your readers use to articulate what they want to learn and their problems that need solving.

Here are a few questions you can modify for your own business:

• What are the roadblocks you are facing with [insert your topic] right now?
• What [insert topic] problems have you or your team researched recently on Google, books, or blogs to learn more about?
• What are you curious to learn more about with [insert topic] here?

2. Send a survey asking what folks want to learn.

Using a tool like SurveyMonkey, ask your readers the same list of open-ended questions in the above phone call example. You could create this as an automated email to new people who sign up for your blog digest update or as a one-time send to the existing readers on your opt-in subscriber list.

3. Research Google autosuggest results.

Open an “incognito window” in your web browser and do a Google search of topics you are interested in writing about. When you do, Google will autosuggest keyword phrases people are already searching for. These are perfect for modifying into blog post titles.

For example, let’s say you are a winery who is interested in generating more blog post ideas. When you type in “how to wine” into Google here’s the autosuggest results you see:

You could write a post called “The Beginner’s Guide to Wine Tasting in Napa” or use the direct phrase for a piece about “How to Wine Taste in Napa.” By using what people are actually typing into Google, you will increase your chances of ranking in the search results.

4. Peruse what people are saying on social media.

Twitter, Facebook, and other social media channels are a goldmine of information. Do a search of your target topics and see what people are saying about their problems, needs and wants. From there, turn those into blog post ideas.

5. Browse Amazon book reviews.

Find the top 3-5 books on Amazon that cover your blog post topics and/or you know your readers love. Look at the written reviews and keep your eyes peeled for a) what people learned and b) what they are still interested in learning about the topic. You can write a short, informative post to fill in their knowledge gap.

6. Study what’s working for similar bloggers.

This isn’t about stealing or copying, it’s about seeing what readers of other blogs in your industry are responding to, then putting your own spin on it with your own unique voice and language.

7. Discover keyword volume using Google.

The Google Keyword Planner gives you the volume of searches for keywords and phrases and can also be used to generate new keyword ideas.

For example, our team is focused on the “customer journey” which gets an average of 880 searches a month. After plugging “customer journey” to get new keyword ideas, here are the results:

Posts that could be created from this list are “Everything You Need to Know About Customer Journey Mapping” or “How to Understand the Customer Decision Journey”.

Get the idea? Transform the keywords in clickable, irresistible blog post titles.

8. Check out questions people are asking on Quora.

Quora is a popular question-and-answer website. And there is a lot of questions on Quora. One estimate says there has been nearly 11 million questions asked and that number is growing daily. Similar to the other strategies in this article, search for your blog topics and take note of the questions people are asking and repurpose them into blog posts.

9. Read the table of contents in industry books.

Take a “look inside” books about your topic on Amazon, specifically at the table of contents. Chapter titles are meant to draw people in and can spark inspiration for your own post ideas.

10. Share what your company is learning.

People love learning from companies they like. What are some insights your team has learned recently? What’s a strategy you’ve implemented that’s been successful? Share it with your readers.

Brian Sun runs the blog at Autopilot, a marketing automation platform that helps small business owners automate the customer journey, visually. Check out Autopilot’s most popular blog post, 7 Lead Nurturing Secrets to Turn Strangers into Customers.

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Auto Repair in Tomball, Texas

Just imagine speeding down the highway. Just imagine the sun on your face and the wind on your hair. Just imagine the feeling of being one with your car and the road as well. Feels great, doesn’t it? This time, imagine trying to slow down your descent however finding out that your Rover brakes do not work. Now that would be a great misfortune.

An automobile’s brake system has been continually refined and redefined for over a century. Automobiles without brakes would not a great thing for drivers and passengers would be very much prone to accidents, collisions, and crashes. The modern automotive brakes system has now become extremely independent, dependable, indispensable, and very efficient. All these are due to the experiences of drivers and innovations of automobile experts.

The Rover brake system of an automobile generally consists of disk brakes. They are mounted and installed in the front and rear ends of the automobile. The disk brakes, or also known as drum brakes, installed in the rear is connected by a system of tubes and hoses. These then link the Rover brake at each wheel and connect them to the master cylinder. If a person looks more closely into an automobile’s brake system, he would be able to discover that there are other systems that are connected to this system. These other systems include the parking brakes, the power brake booster, and the anti-lock system.

If a person steps on the Rover brake pedal what actually happens is that he is actually pushing against the plunger found in the master cylinder. By doing such action, it forces the hydraulic oil or brake fluid to go through a series of tubes and hoses to the braking unit at each wheel. The concept behind this is that hydraulic fluid, or any other kind of fluid, cannot be compressed. By pushing the fluid through the pipe, this produces the same action and reaction of like pushing a steel bar through a pipe.

However, the main difference between the hydraulic fluid and a steel bar is that the hydraulic fluid has the capacity to be directed through many twists and turns on its way to its destination while a steel bar has no capacity to do so. Upon going through its own maze, it arrives back to its original location and state so that it could be used once again. What is essential, though, is to keep the liquid free from air bubbles. If there are air bubbles in the liquid this actually slows down and reduces the vehicle’s braking system’s efficiency. If this actually happens, the entire braking system must undergo a bleeding where the air can be removed. Each wheel cylinder and caliper has “bleeder screws” that facilitate the release of any air in the fluid.

With all the attention to details that the Land Rover and Range Rover company gives to the vehicles that they manufacture, it is only fitting that Land Rover Parts and Range Rover Parts offers top of the line brakes and brake system parts that will match Land Rover and Range Rover brake performance. Land Rover Parts and Range Rover Parts’ online store has everything covered when it comes to brakes and parts of the brake system.

All-Pro Transmissions Tomball, TX
22818 Commercial Ln.
Tomball, TX 77375
281-205-7373
http://www.all-protransmissions.com/

Hail Damage Leads

Hail Damage Leads http://www.haildamageleads.com

Looking for Qualified Storm Damage Leads, hail damage appointments, roofing telemarketing leads, hail appointments, Roofing Leads, Hail Appointments, Hail Damage Leads with homeowners in storm damaged areas? We just wanted to give you important information on how our exclusive hail damage appointments and live transfers leads are made and how our system works. This will not only help you get the most out of the program but allows you to hit the ground running so we can be the best lead vendor you have ever used before and you will get the highest return on your marketing investment. This campaign is fast, furious and a dash for cash! We can get you on the most damaged areas Hail Damage Leads in a matter of hours that being said we only offer prepaid packages on a first come first serve basis.
http://www.leadhustler.com

All of our Hail Damage leads and Storm Damage Leads are created using telemarketing in how they are produced in the affected area of your choice(city, town, or by zip code).
We buy raw call list and can contact both commercial and residential owners to call for you as soon as the storm hits and till its completion.
All of our storm damage leads are 100% exclusively made for you and NOT RESOLD and we even will use your companies name and can let owner know your rep by full name from your company will be meeting with them. All of our calls are tape and verified and can be sent to you upon request.
We generate interest and gather all the necessary info in order for you to know the address of the home/business and the home owner name and a set a date and time.
All of our leads are audio recorded so they can be check and verified by our quality control team before they are sent to you and are available to you for review as well if there ever is a problem or discrepancy on an appointment we will send you the tape to listen to the call.

Massively Expand Your Audience with Guest Posts

Massively Expand Your Audience with Guest Posts written by Alex Boyer read more at Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing

photo credit: typewriter via photopin (license)

You’ve written a great blog post. It’s timely, poignant and well written. Most of all, it is stuffed with valuable information for your audience. What if I were to tell you that you should share that post with another blog and publish it as a guest post? You would probably call me crazy and ignore my advice.

When you work really hard on a piece of content it is easy to be possessive. “I want my best post to draw traffic to MY blog, and my blog alone!” But posts like this can do even more for your blog and business on another blog. It can expand your audience in ways that your blog alone can’t.

Why Submit a Guest Post? 

Guest posting on established blogs and outlets is a great way to spread your influence among their already established audience. If your content speaks universally or even to a niche of their audience, you’re likely to get some eyes on that post you maybe never would have been able to reach before.

Guest posts can also help with search results. If a guest post of yours gets viewed enough, it can show up highly in searches for your company or name. This means more of the top results are related to your business, and there is less opportunity for your competitors to move up in the rankings. If the article is timely and the outlet is well-respected, you’ll even get listed in the all important “News” list of Google search.

Follow The Rules

Every website accepting guest posts has a different process. Some have a less structured system that requires you to reach out to and establish relationships with their bloggers and editors much like you would when pitching a news story. Others that accept guest posts on a regular basis may have a strict policy. If this is the case, be sure to follow their instructions to a tee. You don’t want your post to be ignored simply because you didn’t format it correctly.

In addition, many guest post outlets will have content calendars that help guide their themes every month. Don’t try to shoehorn your topic into one of their themes, instead find the theme that fits your topic best. Your post can wait (unless it has a specific news angle) so it doesn’t need to be published right away.

Speak to Their Audience

Ideally, when identifying guest post outlets, you’ll want to find outlets with audiences that are close to yours. By finding these outlets, you won’t have to spend as much time adjusting the content to speak to their audience, and more of their readers are likely to begin to follow your blog.

But this doesn’t mean you must stick to blogs that only cover your subject matter. You can expand beyond your immediate industry, but be sure to make your post relevant to the audience of the blog on which you’re guest posting. If you’re going after a marketing blog, be sure to approach your subject with a marketing angle.

Share, Share, Share

Once your new guest post is live, you must be willing to share all across your social channels. Get your audience to embrace your post and the outlet. The publisher will do the same.

In addition, be sure to follow up with the publisher once your post is live. You’ll want to get information on how many shares and views your post got. That way, you can use these stats as support for your guest post pitches in the future.

Ready to start guest blogging? At Duct Tape Marketing, we publish guest posts weekly. If you are interested in reaching a small business marketing audience, you can apply to guest blog here: http://www.ducttapemarketing.com/blog/contact-duct-tape-marketing/

Alex Boyer is a Community Manager and Content Ninja for Duct Tape Marketing. You can connect with him on Twitter @AlexBoyerKC

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Tomball Transmission Repair

The automatic transmission system is simply one kind of transmission system for a car or vehicle. The other type is the manual transmission system. Now, the main difference between the two is that with the automatic transmission system, you would not have to change your gear ratios for the system would do the thing for you as your go about driving your car. In fact, it simply means that the gear ratios would be done by the system itself as unlike the manual transmission system, you would be doing this task yourself manually.
https://www.google.com/maps/d/embed?mid=z6NGbCIo2pFk.k6tCBBzVuye4

Part of your car’s automatic transmission system is the automatic transmission fluid and this is also known as the ATF. According to automobile experts, it is important that you do check this regularly, at most every month. However, if you do feel that your automatic transmission system is not shifting gears as smoothly as before, then it is recommended that you do check your car’s ATF.

To check your car’s ATF, you should first park your car on level ground. Then start up your engine. You should also leave the gear in neutral or in park. Have a little patience while your engine warms up.

When you have achieved so, try to locate the ATF dipstick. This is usually located at the back of your car’s engine. You would know it is the ATF dipstick because it is much shorter compared to the engine oil dipstick. Pull the dipstick out and remove it. Then, wipe it off clean using a rag. After that, put it back in the engine and push it all the way. Then remove it again.

It is now time to scrutinize the dipstick tip. You would see that there are actually two marks there – one is for cold readings while the other is for warm readings. You should set your sight on the one marked ‘warm’. You should see that the ATF should come up until the line that has been marked ‘Full’. If not, then it is time to add your ATF for your car. http://www.all-protransmissions.com

https://www.google.com/maps/d/embed?mid=z6NGbCIo2pFk.k6tCBBzVuye4" width="640" height="480">

5 Online Assets That Are Worth Your Time

5 Online Assets That Are Worth Your Time written by Guest Post read more at Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing

You know you need online assets, but which ones are really worth your time? I asked myself this question as I prepared to launch my company, HipHire, which is a new platform that connects companies with quality part-time candidates using a unique matching system.

While HipHire’s concept and our platform are new, the way we get in front of our best customer probably feels familiar to you. Skim through this list and you’ll see that we use opt-in offers, blogging, social media and more. You’re likely already doing most of these things to market your own products and services.

But is it working?

In the tech startup world, being able to launch and gain traction quickly is hugely important. To make sure I was spending time on the online assets that were truly worth it, I did a combination of hypothesizing, testing, tweaking, and testing some more. This process led to rapid adjustments when things weren’t working, which meant more efficiency and better success in the end.

If you’ve ever wondered if your online assets were worth the time you’re putting in to them, here’s how to start testing.

Landing Pages with Specific Opt-ins

HipHire has two main business segments—companies looking to hire and candidates seeking part-time jobs. Instead of creating one opt-in offer for each audience, we created multiple opt-ins, each with their own specific landing page.

For example,

• Our landing page for the Founders Club targets an elite group of Kansas City businesses who benefit from choosing HipHire early.
• Our landing page for candidates seeking part-time summer jobs speaks directly to the needs of that particular job candidate subset.
• We even created a landing page and opt-in offer specifically for you (yep, you!). Knowing what we do about the readers of this blog, we created something you’d find useful.

This focused approach makes readers feel you’re speaking directly to them. We tested a lot, and as we’ve fine-tuned this niche marketing, we’ve seen greater conversions.

Blog Content and Community

photo credit: pexels.com

In the months leading up to our launch, we provided information for job candidates and companies looking to hire. Even though our platform hadn’t launched yet, we kept in touch and kept people coming back to the site.

With the blog, as with everything else, I tested. I kept a close eye on analytics. When something didn’t work or when we found a vein that engaged people, we rebuilt the editorial calendar based on that knowledge. Being willing to change gears saves time and money by shifting energy from non-productive actions into profitable directions.

Social Media—Personalized

photo credit: pexels.com

Social media is about real connection.

I learned this lesson by trying to grow my number of Twitter followers. I followed 100 businesses in my target market each day. I had ditched using automated responses, so when somebody began following me back, I found relevant information about the person or company to create a personalized reply. I got creative, taking a picture of a handwritten note or making a video.

One person wanted to Skype to learn what I was doing because they were impressed that they received a custom message from me. This blew me away. The simplest level of communication and nobody is doing it? That strategy started adding 50 followers a week, but it wasn’t just numbers. Twitter became about real engagement and connection.

Personalizing each tweet may not be scalable, but focusing on quality personal connections makes a difference.

Mobile Ease

photo credit: pexels.com

Our target market lives on mobile devices. We needed to go beyond mobile accessibility for the HipHire platform. We needed mobile ease.

One of the ways we did that was to show HipHire users that we can really deliver before asking them to set up a profile. We streamlined the profile process: type in a few key details (name and the like), then click, click, click, submit.

Making sure your site views correctly on a phone is pretty standard, but have you made your process simple for mobile users?

Visual Content

photo credit: pexels.com

People want to know what the product looks like. They want to visualize themselves using it. That was a challenge for HipHire in the beginning because we started building awareness for the service before our platform was live. We got over this hurdle by providing “sneak peeks” throughout the process.

Since our audience was likely to be mobile, we showed mobile screenshots. This use of visual content demonstrated how clean and simple the process really is and helped build excitement as we neared our live launch.

To make your online assets really worth your time, focus on three Cs: customize, connect, and (when testing shows you should) change.

What tweak to online assets has been the biggest change maker for you?

Brian Kearns is an entrepreneur and the founder of HipHire. He’s passionate about connecting employers and workers who share a vision of the ideal workplace culture. He believes that the key to finding quality part-time people is through a better employee fit.

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