Designers

Web 2.0 for Young
Graphic Designers

Purpose

The following Web2.0 marketing plan will outline the strategy and tools for a starting graphic designer. Specifically, how to get business exposure, acquire clients and generate income.

I wrote this strategy as an assignment for a Web 2.0 Marketing class. It was originally written for my sister Dana who is a young graphic designer living in Israel.

Strategy

Dana should start by building an online presence for her business. Her online presence will serve as a hub where she can present her portfolio and share information. Since Dana needs a quick way to generate cash flow, she can sell some of her existing designs using free online designer marketplaces. One of the benefits in a web 2.0 marketing plan is that the upfront capital costs are lower than in the past, making it easier to enjoy the network effects (A.Shuen, Web 2.0 Strategy Guide).

Online Tools

Develop a complete website. The cost will be as minimal as buying a domain name since Dana will be the one designing it. Partner with a coder to develop the technical aspects of the site and in return design one of his/her projects for free.

Make the designs available for purchase online. Sign up to services such as PayPal and Visa Bill Payment to provide a secure online purchasing option. These services have no setup fees but they charge, on average, 2.5% for each transaction.

Create a Flickr profile. Flickr can be used as you main portal until you get a website. The Flickr account will be used mainly to display designs, but also to have people rank or comment on them. Having people’s provide feedback on the designs will build credibility, and also inform you which designs are more popular and why. Finally, you can connect with other designers through Flickr to exchange ideas, learn about the competitors and stay updated on new tools.

Dana is an active user of Facebook. I created a Facebook photo album presenting some of her work. Once I shared the album with my network and her network, the album was visible to more than 600 people. I would not suggest starting a Facebook page unless Dana is planning to advertise the page. From my experience, she will get better results if she starts a Facebook group. In any case, updating the photo album and making it public will give her more exposure.

Twitter is not as popular in Israel as Facebook, but it is definitely picking up. It is more popular with the Israelis who have lived in the US or are doing business with the US.

Since graphic design is a global business, there really shouldn’t be any limitation for Dana to promote herself globally. The time investment in twitter is very little and the follower numbers build up quickly. She should open an account and send tweets with links to her designs. Some of her tweets can include special promotions. Thomas Schlijper is one example of a photographer who I thought did a great job using twitpic to promote his work.

Email campaign – Dana should create an email campaign to let her network know about her new business and ask them to forward the information to people they know. She can create a “free emotion icon” gift or “free calendar desktop background” and include them in her email. The call to action would be – “get a price offer” by email or phone.

Graphic leftovers sale and online graphic design marketplaces

One great and fast way to create revenue is to sell some of the designs that Dana is not using. Digg’s best article on this topic found a list of 40 websites that had the same idea. I couldn’t find any good website that offered this service in Israel, but as I mentioned before, graphic design can be sold globally in web 2.0. Here are the three websites that had the best fit for Dana’s business.

Graphic Leftovers - This website is a year old and has 800 members and 1000 designs. Their pricing modules are $1, $3, $5, $10 and $20. The sign up process is fairly easy and they pay designers 51% of their art’s sale price, a high margin compared to other websites I looked at (istockphoto pays 20-40%)

Graphicriver – This website is has more than 160,000 members. It pays artists between 40-70% of the art’s sales price. Their pricing modules are: $1, $3, $5, $10 and $20. The sign up process is fairly easy - in other websites you have to submit your work for review or create a whole themed design, whereas here you just upload existing designs.

Logobash – The site pays designers $180 for any logo that gets picked by a client.

Dana should also publish her work in Israeli forums and groups linking back to her Flickr account.

Jobi and BDN are Israeli websites, which provide a small business directory in Israel. As a business owner you can create an online business page for free, and include your portfolio and price range. Clients who are looking for a graphic design project that is around your range will be provided to you as leads. The Jobi website’s fee for two years of publishing is 200 NIS (equivalent to $47). BDN takes a percentage off the job cost. This is a great, inexpensive way to find leads. I chose these websites over others since they represent a wide range of small business services from handymen to catering services. Hence, clients are more likely to use this site as an appointed internet source.

Measurement

In order to measure her success Dana can use the Flickr statistics option to count views. She can use Google Analytics once she decides to create a website and measure the site’s performance. If she would use tr.im to shorten her tweet links, she could also measure the click-through rate. She can count the number of leads she receives from the Israeli directories sites. She can count the number of times her designs were downloaded in the “graphic leftovers” site. Finally, she can count the actual sales - paid projects she gets from Web2.0 channels.

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The Power Of Social Media In One Word - Synergy

The power of social media in one word is synergy. Creating new, greater value, from the sum of shared information value. (@alook_t) or in other words: it's leveraging the crowd to create something that wouldn't have been created by a single person or company (@PolkGulchHaiku)

By now, a large number of online marketers get what social media is about, but it’s still hard to provide a quick explanation of the power of social media to other people.

Last week, I sent out two tweets asking ”How do you explain Social Media and its power in 140 characters or less?” Some of the responses I received were:

• “social media is defined as "20 minutes into the future..." @ct1904
• “by restricting ourselves to 140 words we have actually time to reach out and meet many more people “@SmartDataCo
• “it's all about the conversation and speaking WITH not AT people” @PolkGulchHaiku
• “A fun way of globally connecting people and ideas” @carolw

In a recent survey I conducted with my Marketing Research project team at the University of Berkeley, we asked “what is the best definition for social media”. 61% of the respondents said Social Media is a two-way communication approach aimed at sharing information and creating discussion.

I asked “How do you describe social media power in one word?”

• “1 word is tricky: I keep thinking of compounds such as groupthink, crowdsourcing, ideavector”@hacool
• “Social Media in one word: Conversation” @PolkGulchHaiku
• “its like a KILLER…what i mean is highly effective / powerful / severe .... to bring up our thoughts, share”@saravananr

Synergy for businesses and their communities



This is what we like to call a “win win” situation. Every individual has their own set of needs and information. When forming into a group, individuals contribute to each other’s knowledge and build an even greater knowledge base.


Communities then gain enough power to challenge existing business services, products or policies. So the group has more knowledge and more power together than that of the sum of all individuals. Consequently, businesses have much more information and insights with the community, than they have without it. Finally, groups have more resources and influence with the business, than without it.

The power of social media for businesses and their communities in one word is synergy. Creating new, greater value, that was not there before.

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How My Mother Became Internet Savvy

First, Let me say - I probably have the coolest most beautiful mom in the world. Yes I love her. In the last year my mom learned how to write emails, use links, chat on windows IM, search online and lately - even how to make a video conference.

I have been trying to get her to learn how to use the internet for more than six years. During that time her computer was not even installed, covered with a blanket under a table. So what made her be more open to the net? How did this change of behavior happened?

First step - Computer location
When my mother moved, she had her own computer installed in the living room. Until then she was using my brother's computer which was in his room. The computer kept sitting with the blanket cover waiting for attention.

Second - Job requirement
My mother is a kiddengarden teacher. They started introducing computers to kids in her class and she felt she had to at least learn how to turn the thing on and off. Also, her manager started sending updates over emails and teachers’ forum. That is when she decided to set up her first email address. She started surfing the forum, posting questions on line and waiting passionately for the magic reply.

Third - Language
Most of the operating systems in Israel are set to English as default. My mother is not as comfortable with English as she is with Hebrew. Once she had the Hebrew version downloaded to her computer, everything looked much more intuitive for her.

At this point all the fears and doubts were totally forgotten. She is sending job search links to my sister, searching for a new oven online, viewing her salary online, and chatting with her daughter in San Francisco. Just last night she was so excited to find rubber pants on “the internet”.

Video conference –
Our first video conference was so moving, we both cried a little. Remember we live so far away. In the second call I showed her my house and we danced together like we used to do back home.

I guess there are so many different reasons why the older generations do not like the web. I believe we just have to make it more intuitive for them. We should encourage them to experiment by showing them all the cool stuff they can find online.

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Video Creation For YouTube - Tips For Marketers

Videos are becoming more and more popular as educational and marketing tools. If you are an online marketer, you know videos are hot but you may not be sure of how to optimize your video production marketing wise. Here are some tips I learned using Camtasia Studio 6 software.

1. Use the word “Video” in your file name

When you save your project or upload it to the web, include the word “video” in your file name and description. This will make your video appear better on video searches.

2. Brand your video

Add branded slides to your video. Open the video with your company logo and the video title. Introduce yourself, your title and the company while the first slide is shown. Add a closing slide with the company logo and have your contact information there. If you are making a power point slide, you can simply save it as JPEG image

and import it to your video editor software.

3. Use the focus option

You should make sure your video has the best quality possible. I will give you some technical specifications in the next bullet point. However, even if you create a high definition video, YouTube will compress it and turn your video into a Flash file, which reduces the quality of the video. In order to make sure the video looks clear on YouTube, you can use the Focus option using “Zoom n-Pan”. Avoid creating extreme zoom changes; it can get confusing if you keep “jumping” from 100% zoom to 30%. I like to use 80% zoom for the majority of screen shots and I adjust to even lower zooms when I want to show small areas on my page. In any case, try to create subtle transitions between zooms.

4. Record and produce with best quality options

The new Camtasia version has all these standards as the default option. If you are using an older version, make sure to choose the following specifications:

When recording – change your area dimensions to 1280*720. This is the HD standard.

Then Go to tools> Options >

1. Capture tab > save file as AVI

2. Video tab > change to Manual > change to 30 frames per seconds

3. Audio tab > change the source according to the equipment you are using

Start recording.

Camtasia will open the editor’s project settings – choose recording dimensions

When Producing

Choose custom production settings> next

Choose AVI file> next

Choose 30 in frame rate per second, go to Audio format – choose 44.100 kHz, 16 Bit Stereo> next

5. Make it short and sweet. People are looking for videos since they have a shorter attention span, so give them what they were looking for. Get to the point quickly and avoid repeating yourself.

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