MonjesMedia

As a student of Communication, my interest in all things digital spurs my passion for social media. In his new book, Paul Levinson provides a rocket paced overview of the newest of new media tools penetrating our society.
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web design for ROI

As we all know, the Web serves many purposes to millions of users all around the world on a daily basis. From school children doing research in Senegal, to the youth chatting away in cybercafés in countries throughout Asia, each user has a specific goal he or she wishes to accomplish online.

Among the most popular uses of the Internet, lies one which many can not ignore – eCommerce. According for Forrester Research, “US online retail reached $175 billion in 2007 and is projected to grow to $335 billion by 2012.” It goes without saying that with such a steep growth curve, it is within an organization’s best interest to invest in online commerce in an effort to create the best user experience possible.

My latest read, Web Design for ROI, addresses design issues unique to eCommerce sites. Authors, Lance Loveday and Sandra Niehaus have divided the material into 10 easily digestible chapters which provide specific design guidelines for landing pages, home pages, category pages, detail pages, forms and the checkout process. Along with UI design issues, the authors include key metrics to look out for and provide resources for further reading.

Although I am only seven chapters into the book, I already feel like I’ve gotten my money’s worth from the purchase. It’s reference material like this that keeps designers at the top of their game and users whipping out their credit cards (even during a recession).

Two great reads on Email and Social Media Marketing

In today’s media saturated market, connecting with your audience has become more challenging than ever before. It is estimated that we are exposed to as many as 3000 marketing messages per day. I don’t know about you, but I can’t possibly wrap my head around that much information in a week, let alone one single day. My latest reads, “Email Marketing – An Hour a Day” and “Social Media Marketing – An Hour a Day” offer outstanding overviews of email and social media marketing, how they can proliferate your message and how they can be implemented within any organization.

Written by, Jeanniey Mullen and David Daniels, “Email Marketing – An Hour a Day” has proven to be a fantastic introduction to the principles of email marketing.  Covering such concepts as email design, landing page design, segmentation, and trigger emails, Mullen and Daniels provide the reader with a solid roadmap to email marketing.  From compiling your email list to statistical tracking once your email has been sent, Mullen and Daniels cover all of the elements critical to developing  a top notch email campaign by anyone’s standards.

While email marketing may significantly increase revenues, the power and utility in social media marketing is not to be overlooked. Just three chapters into the book, I am now looking at Twitter, Facebook,  and YouTube from an entirely different perspective. “Social Media Marketing – An Hour a Day” begins with explaining the foundation of social media marketing, then goes into preparing for and executing your campaign across a variety of media channels. From defining the construct of social marketing to explaining the metrics and defining ROI, author, Dave Evans provides a comprehensive resource for launching your own successful social media marketing campaign.

Both books can be purchased on Amazon via the links below. Enjoy!

EMAIL MARKETING – AN HOUR A DAY
SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING – AN HOUR A DAY

Photo courtesy of NPR

While taking in my daily dose of NPR stories this evening, I ran across a fantastic story on photographer, Julius Shulman. As a designer, I have a deep appreciation of photography and architecture.  Shulman, who masterfully brings architecture to life through his work, has been a long time favorite of mine.  Julius Shulman’s thoughtfully laid out images reflect his intimate relationship and understanding of the subject and world around him at the very least. Shulman has created a multitude of iconic images.  The photograph above is entitled, Case Study House #22

To learn more about Shulman’s work, give the story a listen (or a read) at NPR.org.

With all of the buzz surrounding Twitter and Facebook lately, I feel compelled to share a video I recently came across on YouTube, explaining what social media is, in layman’s terms. While watching the clip, please keep the following question in mind: What is social media?

Although you may think you know the answer to this question, you may only be partially correct. To most of us social media is a way to connect with friends and family. To organizations, however, it represents an entirely new way of communicating with potential customers in the marketplace.

A well run social media campaign can save an organization millions of ad dollars each year. Social media and eMarketing campaigns hold a tremendous advantage over traditional media channels; trackable metrics. With it’s ability to connect, along with it’s ability to be tracked, social media is an arena that your business can no longer afford to avoid.  Enjoy!

During the early AM hours last Sunday, inside a dimly lit server room somewhere in the ether, Skittles.com made the switch from a conventional candy retailers site to what can be described as a social networking hub.

Upon visiting Skittles.com, users are taken directly to the candy maker’s Twitter stream. In lieu of any conventional form of navigation, the user is instead greeted by a widget-like console which floats directly on top of the Twitter stream itself. Users can click on links reading: Home, Products, Media, Chatter, Friends and Contact; which in turn link to Skittles’ profile pages on Wikipedia, Flickr, YouTube, and Facebook.

In what is being viewed as an intelligent and innovative move within the social marketing and E-marketing communities,  Skittles is essentially speaking to its audience using the language of its audience.  While doing so, Skittles is aligning itself with some of the Web’s hottest and best known brands. Through simple brand associations, Skittles is letting the public know that they not only get them, and feel them, but also that they are one of them.

While the concept is very good, the execution leaves a bit to be desired. From a Web usability standpoint, the widget-like navigation is a little obtrusive. While users can minmize the component, there is no way to recloate it to a different part of the screen. On most sites, this covers up the top left quadrant of the page, which usability studies show, is one hot piece of web real estate and often where very important information can be found on sites across the Internet. Please, Skittles, add “drag and drop” functionality to the component and you’ll improve what is already a very strong social makeover.

Although I personally don’t believe Skittle’s latest campaign reflects a website architecture  that will be widely adopted by other organizations, I do believe it recognizes the importance of connecting with members of the community, on a never before seen level. Skittles definitely gets it. Kudos to you!

Since we’re on the topic of Twitter, the time has come to pay homage to CelebrityTweet.com. Thanks to the recently launched site, it is now possible to track a plethora of celebrity gossip on Twitter from one convenient location on the web. Catch up with celebs from all corners of the entertainment world including, television, movies, sports, and yes, politics.

The site has some truly innovative features such as a tweet tracker which tracks not only the number of tweets sent in a day, but also who they were sent by. Users even have the option to reply to any tweet directly from the website.

So, the next time you’re in the mood for some saucy celebrity verbiage slips from the likes of Steve Jobs and Kevin Rose to Ryan Seacrest or Britney Spears be sure to check out CelebrityTweet.com

It appears as though members of congress have yet to get accustomed to new social media tools and the immediacy with which they allow us to communicate. As illustrated in this short news clip from CNN.com, it is of paramount importance to think twice prior to sending words which you think are wise…at the time.

Greetings and salutations everyone and thanks for dropping in. As it has officially been eons since my last entry, I sincerely hope there’s no animosity, which may reslult in unreasonable gestures of frustration such a vegetable throwing or anonymous postings of my mobile number in online chat rooms across the web.

Rather than bore the living &%#! out of you with a long, rambling post, I thought I’d keep it short and sweet with a short list of what’s new here at MonjesMedia.

MONJESMEDIA.COM REDESIGN
Over the past few weeks or so, I’ve been busy here in my hidden digs pushing pixels into what is now, MonjesMedia.com V. 2. While staying with the same color palette, you’ll notice a cleaner, more user friendly interface, navigation  and newly designed logo.

Upon further exploring (if you’re a code junky) you may have noticed the use of PHP include files for the top nav, side nav and footer sections of the site. In addition I’ve incorporated a nifty little accordian menu in the portfolio section, which utilizes the JQuery JavaScript library (I think I’m addicted).

Did I mention portfolio? It appears as though I did. As you’ll see, the portfolio section is divided into five sections  (Web, Print, Multimedia, Banner Ads and Promotions and Photogrpahy.)

Some featured pieces you may want to check out include the following-
Web Design:
MSN Real Estate
MSN Autos – Maserati Center
Tucson Bridal Expo
Learn and Save
Iview Studios

Print:
Logos
92.9 The Mountain

Banner Ads and Promos:
300 x 250 Banners
Cadillac Giveaway
Suzuki Giveaway

ESCAPE FROM THE DESERT
As many of you may have noticed, I did indeed make a speedy getaway, re-locating from the desert city of Tucson, AZ to the Pacific Northwest. The reasons for doing so were many. I’ve settled in quite nicely and am quite frankly, super-glad to call Seattle home.

I spent the first 5 months here working as a UX Designer with Miscrosoft’s MSN division and am now taking on freelance projects in Web Design and Online Media.

THAT’S ALL
In closing this first post in over, well, let’s just say WAY too long, let me say that I’ll do my best to post much more frequently. Keep your eyes open for posts on topics ranging from design and photography to marketing and media -  in all it’s various channels.

Until next time!