1: Work on Engaging Material & Promote Discussion

-Reaching out and engaging with your audience

2: Respond to People Directly

Folks want to engage with you, but you have to engage them back. 

3: Be Visual

Take advantage of photos.

4: Show Transparency

Remaining transparent allows people to actually know about your brand rather than knowing of it.

5: Add a Blog

gives people a peek through the curtain. 

6: Participate in the Experience

show your willingness to network in a social atmosphere.

7: Have a Solid Identity

you should be thinking about the business coming across as if an actual person is operating it.

8: Move Past the Product

For branding purposes, it’s about appealing to a niche, not about selling to one.

9: Add a Personal Touch

You can find a lot of personal data on sites like Facebook & LinkedIn, and you can target specific users. Taking the time to send someone a personal message, or even being personal with your fans in a group message, shows a lot of character. Using names helps a lot too.

10: Put the Effort In

release quality content.

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One of the most effective new marketing approaches out there is content marketing. According to the Content Marketing Institute, over 85 percent of brands use it, but less than half believe they're good at it. In many ways, content marketing is even more important for small businesses.

So what, exactly, is content marketing? Why is it important? And how the heck do you actually do it? I asked three experts to weigh in: Michael Brenner, head of strategy for NewsCred and a Forbes Top 40 social media marketer; Neil Patel, co-founder of KISSmetrics and Crazy Egg and a featured expert in Kauffman's Founders School; and Shelly Kramer, founder and CEO of V3 Integrated Marketing, who has been recognized by Forbes as one of the top 20 best marketing and social media blogs.

A Layman's Definition of Content Marketing

"Content marketing is a way for a business owner to educate your customers and potential customers about your products and services," says Patel. "The goal is to offer tips, help, and education about anything that can be helpful to a customer. This kind of information can be shared in the form of blog, white paper, webinar, video or social post. The opportunities are endless."

Why Should Small Businesses Invest Time in Content Marketing?

"Small businesses should be even more focused on content marketing than larger brands," says Brenner. "Small businesses don't have the luxury of massive budgets that are over-weighted in ineffective advertising. But they also need to drive brand awareness and leads with limited resources. Content marketing is a great way for small businesses to do both."

The bottom line is that smaller businesses should invest in content marketing because it can generate awareness, engagement, and leads. Ultimately, content marketing can do something even more meaningful for businesses, Patel says. "Good content marketing builds trust. And if someone trusts you, they are more likely to buy your products and services and more likely to tell their friends and family."

How Does a Small Business Marketer Start?

First, Brenner says, "Start by identifying the business goals, who you are targeting, what value will be created for the customer, and what value will be created for the business." Second, Patel says, "Get inspiration by asking potential customers. Reach out to them and ask, 'What do you want me to blog about? What are problems do you have? What can I help you solve?'

Finally, Kramer suggests developing a holistic plan. "Write down your strategy. The key is to tie your overall business goals and objectives into your content marketing strategy," she says.

What are the 3 Biggest Mistakes Small Businesses are Making?

Kramer says the biggest problem brands have is not minding the three legged stool--an integrated marketing strategy that includes SEO, social media, and content marketing. "SEO, social, and content all have to work together in order for you to be successful, and all too often marketers don't yet understand this," Kramer says. "You can't have success with content without a robust presence in the social media space. And you can't have great SEO success without understanding the role that fresh, relevant content and social media channels play. There is great content being published on corporate blogs on a daily basis that no one ever sees."

How do You Break Through the Clutter?

Breaking through the clutter is as simple as the 3 Vs: Volume, Value and Variety. "You cannot just publish a couple of times a month and hope that it moves the needle," Brenner says. "So it starts with this notion that you need to be present in our always-on, always-connected world. The second thing is value. Your content has to be good. I always recommend brands identify what they want to talk about (the topics of conversation surrounding their brand) and then make every effort to produce as much valuable content around those topics as often as possible," Brenner says. "The final tip is about variety. People (and search engines) reward those brands that deliver value in multiple ways. So think about text-based articles, videos, SlideShare presentations, research reports, and all the different things we consume across the digital, social and mobile Web," he says.

How Do You Know if You're Successful?

When you're putting your content out in the digital world--via YouTube, Twitter, your blog, the list goes on and on--how do you know if your content is actually successful? Patel offers three specific steps: First, track views. Second, use Google Analytics, a free measurement tool. Google Analytics will show you how much these pieces of content are driving traffic back to your site. Third, check to see how much search traffic you're getting. Visitors will link to it from their sites and you will also notice that it ranks in Google or Bing and you will start to see more search traffic.

"You have to give it time. Don't expect great results in three months or six months, but you will see traction," Patel says. "Within the first three months you should see more traffic to your site. Within a year, you should start to see good results and an opportunity to monetize traffic on your site."

Where Do You Go to Learn More About Content Marketing?

According to our experts, the best online resources are Content Marketing Institute, Kauffman Founders School, Hubspot, MarketingProfs, and of course Patel's QuickSprout, Kramer's V3Blog, and Brenner's NewsCred. And for a longer read, check out Content Rules by Ann Hadley and Youtility by Jay Baer.

What are your favorite places to go to learn about content marketing for startups? Message me and let me know.

http://www.inc.com/anita-newton/what-exactly-is-content-marketing-and-why-do-you-need-it.html

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One of the most interesting projects that a graphic designer can take on is designing a logo. It can be daunting (and stressful) to come up with logo options based on market research, and stumble upon some "design magic" through the exploratory process. Narrowing it down to a final approved logo and then seeing it out in the world can be a very rewarding experience for a designer.

However, most of the time, a logo is not enough. Large organizations with layers of management require a thorough brand identity system that provides a unified vision and tools that help everyone build the brand. But before we dig in, let's define the difference (and relationship) between a brand, an identity and a logo.

Brand vs. Identity vs. Logo



• A Brand (or Branding) refers to the perceived image and subsequent emotional response to a company, its products and services. It also represents the conversation that customers are having with each other about the company, and how that spreads. My favorite definition about brand is the one Seth Godin gave: A brand is the set of expectations, memories, stories and relationships that, taken together, account for a consumer’s decision to choose one product or service over another. If the consumer (whether it’s a business, a buyer, a voter or a donor) doesn’t pay a premium, make a selection or spread the word, then no brand value exists for that consumer.

• An Identity describes the visual devices used to represent the company. Identity systems are a visual components package that is paired with style guidelines and used as a framework to ensure the corporate image is cohesive and consistent. Some of the visual devices that leverage the brand elements and style guidelines are as follows: stationery, marketing collateral, packaging, signage, messaging, and digital projects, among others.

• A Logo is the central, identifiable visual element that helps customers discover, share and remember a company's brand. Usually it's in the form of an icon (mark or symbol), logotype, or combination of the two. The main purpose of a logo is summed up nicely as the five principles of effective logo design in this Smashing Magazine article.



Phase 1: Research, Vision & Design Brief



This phase should be as thorough as needed — depending on the depth of research and size of the company. It's the most crucial part of the overall process, and should result in a design brief that guides the rest of the project.

Below is a list of foundational questions and key dynamics to explore and document through qualitative and quantitative methodologies. (Note: This is only a quick overview of the most complex part of this process.)

• How is the brand perceived against competitors in the market for products and services you're looking to provide?

• What is the positioning statement of your brand? Answer the what, how, to whom, where, why and when questions.

• What is the heritage of your product type, and the origin(s) of it's ingredients and fabrication process?

• Who is your audience? Are they digitally savvy? Where will your products/services have contact with them? How do you want that contact experience to make them feel, take action and think about your brand?

• What values & beliefs should the brand have about the business and it's mission in the world? If the brand was a person, what would it's personality be? How would it look, act and talk?

• What benefits do you want customers to associate with your brand? What is the vision of the brand that you want to create?

• Other brand image concerns: market awareness, emotional associations, value to the consumer, brand perception vs. consumer behavior, changes desired in the brand-consumer relationship over time.

As you can tell, it's complicated. Two agencies who I think do a good job with their brand research are Landor and Fi. It shows in the way that they describe their completed work as challenge-and-solution projects.

The Design Brief

It's important to have a design (or creative) brief if the brand identity project is bigger than one designer doing work for a small local business. A design brief should contain summaries from the research phase, such as: target audience(s), messaging objectives, values and mission of the brand, and the brand's products/services offering. It should also include budget, project schedule, file formats for delivery, and other practical needs.

If you're looking for tools and help on how to write a design brief for a brand identity project, explore the following: Freelance Switch Brief Tips, Link List and Logo Design Brief, 99designs, Just Creative, and FreePDF Templates.

Phase 2: Logo, Identity, & Guidelines



After the research phase is complete and a design brief has been created, it's time to start designing the logo and identity system.

The Logo

There are many ways to start designing a logo, but most often times you'll see designers begin by sketching out dozens if not hundreds of iterations on paper. The process of getting concepts down on paper and then iterating on those ideas can unlock new directions to explore and final solutions that you wouldn't have normally arrived at when starting on the computer. After selecting your best sketched concepts, you should start iterating on them digitally.

Here's a peak behind the curtain of a few logo concept sketches as they became final digital solutions:

Firefox Logo by Martijn Rijven of Bolt Graphic, art direction by Wolff Olins



ITV logo by Matt Rudd of Rudd Studio



Greenpeace Airplot Logo by Airside



The Identity System

The identity system usually starts after the logo is complete. The purpose of the identity system is to form a systematic visual language around the logo — one that compliments the design thinking of the logo and offers a family of useful, flexible elements that will help to design marketing and business collateral. Here are some examples:

Fortaleza 2020 by Guivillar



Handsome Coffee Roasters by Ptarmak



Patina Restaurant Group by Mucca Design



The Style Guidelines

The style guidelines contain and prescribe the logo usage rules, typeface system, color palette, layout guidelines, and more. They exist so that others can create design collateral and marketing materials that will have a cohesive look and voice.

Style guidelines have traditionally been produced as print and web-ready PDFs. They're the core of the identity design, and usually accompany the logo, templates, fonts and other resources packaged together to make designing for the brand easier. Style guidelines are in-depth rules about logo usage, styling, and layout, and are always interesting to browse through.



Here are a few style guidelines of popular brands: Skype (pdf, brand page), BestBuy (Euro Guidelines), BBC, Adobe, Apple, Google, and Walmart. Looking for more? Dig into this list by Logo Design Love.







These days, the documentation that a designer must deliver has a heavy digital skew, with an emphasis on development-ready files, such as Style Tiles, Element Collages, Style Prototypes, SASS documentation, a Logo/Brand download page, among others.



Don't forget to check out our simple Creative Market brand page, and download the logo if you want to promote and share Creative Market.

Phase 3: Monitoring & Rebranding

Lastly, after a new brand identity has launched, it's important to monitor and care for it, as it's a living and breathing thing that interacts with your customers. Honestly, that's a loaded statement as there are many ways to properly care for a brand. Regardless, over time, if your target audience shifts, the market evolves, or the brand's products and services change, it may be time for a rebrand. The main challenge with rebranding is trying to maintain familiarity and consistency so that your customers will remember you.

There are two really awesome sites that give an inside look when prominent brands get rebranded: Rebrand and Under Consideration's Brand New. Here is a quick sampling of their short before and after case studies:



1. Emma, 2. Bishop of London, 3. Apple Worldwide Developers Conference 2013, 4. Cancer Research UK, 5. Google SketchUp, 6. oDesk

Resources for Brand Identity Design

If you're starting a new brand identity or rebrand project, here are some Creative Market resources that might help get you started.

 

 

 

https://creativemarket.com/blog/2013/07/23/designing-a-brand-identity

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黑卡

專攻晨昏攝影的 丁健民 ，透過與各地前輩的請益學習，以及跟親朋好友的鑽研分享，這幾年累積了不少使用黑卡 的經驗。他致力於追求畫面上的每一處細節，希望可以將眼前所見的美景，真實呈現在每位觀者面前，因此除了精進搖 黑卡 的技術，在後製疊圖的部分也下了不少功夫。

易犯的黑卡使用錯誤

以拍攝黃昏來說，從有太陽到沒太陽，再到色溫、夜景出現，不同情況需要裝減光鏡與否，還有不同倍率減光鏡使用時機上的差異，或是在海邊在山上、有雲海沒雲海，刷黑卡的狀況也都不一樣。例如拍101這種城市夜景，在天空藍色溫慢慢消退、地景燈光漸盛之際，我就會由上往下把黑卡慢慢刷下來，而不是由下往上，但很多人還是蓋一半在那邊搖，可能地景有開燈的地方就爆了，而高空已經快要沒有色溫的區域就會變得很黑，所以搖黑卡的方式需要針對不同時間和地點去做改變。

比較特殊、具有挑戰性的拍點

一般來說，海邊是比較理想的拍攝環境，它有一條很明顯的地平線，方便你去藏卡線，相對比較困難的就是高山的地方，像潭腰或五分山，山巒起起伏伏，照平常的方式搖黑卡就會看到山黑一半。這個時候我會配合狹縫黑卡去做處理，或是多次的去刷黑卡，再配合後製疊圖避免這個情形發生。

黑卡之所以有不同的刷法其實都是因地制宜的關係，而我到不同的地方取景會碰到不同的前輩，他們在那邊拍這麼久了，無疑都是箇中翹楚，自然會有因應該處地形地貌的搖黑卡方式，多跟他們請教就會學到不同的處理方法。

▲搖黑卡的方式會針對不同的時間和地點改變，但概念仍是相通的。

有關狹縫黑卡

狹縫黑卡的概念就跟相機上的快門簾是類似的，黑卡上的這條縫可以針對畫面上高光低光不同區域，隨著移動的快慢來做曝光時間長短的控制。它可以處理的狀況很多，舉一個很明顯的例子就是大湖公園，在拍攝日出的時候為了不讓拱橋的部分變成剪影，就可以用黑卡上的這條縫，先在橋身和橋的倒影那塊區域上下來回，讓這個區域多曝光一點，最後由下往上抽起來，就可以讓拱橋和背後山脈都呈現出細節。

▲製作狹縫黑卡要選用塑膠材質才不會有毛邊，不然縮光圈拍攝時會在畫面上拉出一條一條的線。

▲上圖：沒搖黑卡；下圖：使用狹縫黑卡。配合狹縫黑卡拍攝的大湖公園，拱橋不會變成剪影，細節依然可見。

後製疊圖的處理方式

後製對我來說不是為了無中生有，最主要的宗旨是希望我的作品可以更貼近現場看到的狀況，把細節層次處理的更豐富、更完美，並帶有個人風格，這才是我後製的主要目的。有些人會排斥後製，一來可能是因為部分比賽禁止後製，或是覺得一曝完成才叫真實，但我覺得要考量的是後製這個做法的意義是什麼，而我後製只是為了要讓照片更貼近現場狀況，讓不在現場的人也可以透過照片看見我眼前的美好風景。

▲在不同的攝點與其他玩家交流分享，也有助於黑卡技術的精進。

雙黑卡

除了狹縫黑卡，丁健民也跟編輯分享了雙黑卡的拍攝方式。雙黑卡其實是一種修飾的手法，當畫面下方是湖面或水面這種容易高光過曝的場景，可以再用第二張黑卡由下往上遮住這塊區域，讓它少吃點光來呈現更多細節。其他像是在不厭亭拍芒花，或是去六十石山拍金針花，凡是畫面下方有會反光容易導致過曝的景物，都是雙黑卡可以運用的範例。

▲雙黑卡的使用情境。

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1) import raw file

2) select the pic>click on create virtual copy (x2)
3) select 1 "virtual copy", click on increase 1 stop exposure, another "virtual copy" for decrease 1 stop exposure
4) select all three pic, right click export> photomatrix pro
5) click ok in photomatrix pro

now you can adjust in photomatrix pro if wanted.

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