Flosites

Facebook, blogging, sharing and commenting are all vital parts of your interactive connection with your clients.

Currently Facebook is not only the largest social network that was ever created (probably time waster as well) but with the help of many wordpress plugins (EG WPBook) this functionality allows you, your friends, and followers integrate and understand what you are promoting or trying to communicate easily from your blog to Facebook.

Recently Facebook updated its method of comment integration, called Facebook Comments.

So what is the point? It sounds good to have your comments integrated to Facebook, as to most it is just good functionality, but before you connect your online presence fully to Facebook, we wanted to list a few pros and cons for doing so.

Pros

• Get Connected. Integration to the most popular social network, connecting both your online presence and theirs together through an easy read to use comment system sharing both comments from Facebook and your blog together. Its a great way to attract more or new commenters to your posts.
• Connectivity. Your readers can also directly comment using an aol, hotmail man or yahoo account.
• Stop unwanted commenting. There is no need to worry about mystery comments, or to moderate, approve or to delete inappropriate comments as Facebook not only weeds out spam comments, but people must be signed in and to be an identity to even comment. This is beneficial to not deal with unknown or unpleasant comments on posts for your business or against your clients.
• Social Commenting Relevance. Facebook shows the most relevant comments from every user and relocates them to the top of the comment list automatically, optimizing the awareness and interaction for commenting.

Cons

• Customization – If you have invested in a fully custom blog/blogsite Facebook comment integration can be a bit of an eye sore. Of course this varies on your color palette you have for your site. But on the pro side, having the comment area look like a Facebook comment box, will help the interactive functionality for users to understand what it is, and may attract more comments.
• Multiple Accounts – Facebook comments do not allow commenting with a google ID, and a twitter account. Why this doesn’t work is a mystery, but for now its a one time choice, Facebook integration, or twitter.
• Old comments – you will have to say good bye to these, as the plugin doesn’t allow a smooth integration of existing comments to the new Facebook commenting plugin that overrides your comment section, meaning you should start from scratch with your comments.

Conclusion

So what is the verdict? In general apart from losing your existing comments and stylization options, Facebook for your business PR is a must. However, it is not essential and depending on how you market your business the choice may be beneficial, but if you want to harness the potential to increase your number of comments, or socialize with your followers, clients and visitors, Facebook comments are a superb and easy way to do so.

Here are a few examples of blogs that we have integrated into Facebook:

• http://atrero.com
• http://dpphotography.co.uk
• http://jasongroupp.com

Would you like to be next? Drop us a quick email.

So what exactly is a Blog Site?

You have probably heard about them several times, and have a general idea as to what they are, but still many people do not know the options and flexibility of a blog site, generally because of how the old setup for a portfolio and blog used to be.

The first blog sites, where essentially a blog with galleries. The layout was a blog, the galleries where either html or flash, usually from a drop down… which is still a great solution, if your primary model of gaining clients is through blogging, but still showcasing your gallery portfolios. However, since wordpress has progressed and will continue to adapt and change options over time, the new concept of a blog site, is more of a portfolio style site, but the blog will be within it, in the same layout.

Now what does that mean for most people:

- You may keep the conventional marketing technique of having a site, and a blog separately, but for management it is all one system.

- Improved seo, as everything is in one place, linked to each other from the home page to the blog.

- Mobile Friendly, as everything will be html, and connected it will allow for seamless viewing on mobile devices, or if you plan to take it a step further, being on a wordpress platform you have many third party plugin options to convert your site to a full mobile version.

- Flexibilty, with your blog site on wordpress it will allow many options over time to upgrade, and add new plugins to improve your social media, seo, and over time being able to update your design theme on wordpress will be more cost efficient, and save time in development, without having recreate your content as long as you keep the same functionality.

All in all a blog site is a very smart solution if you want to bring everything under one roof, to be easy to manage, enhance your google juice, and adjust with upcoming trends which being on WordPress will allow you to do this easily.

Flosites Offers several Blog Site Packages, and our most popular all in one Package which are separated as follows:

So there you have it, a broken down list of the portfolio blog site options, as well as the all in one Package. For those who really want to revolutionize their visual branded business with a new logo and portfolio blog experience online, the all in one package offers every client that.

If you are interested, check out a few of our all in one client examples:

Ed Atrero

Perez Photography

Robert Wagner photography

Jared Rey Photography

Tony Ku Photography

Benjamin Scot Photography

Chantelle Moore Studio

For a while now, we have been debating whether to create this new package or not, as it is something very exciting and fresh for us as a challenge, yet at the same time it is a creative risk. Although, our goal is to create a completely custom designed blog as a surprise for a client who knows their brand and can portray it to us to successfully enhance that with our skills. Over the last few years we as a creative agency have created a style that many people have came to love and adore, which has been a tremendous compliment for us as designers and developers so here it is, we accepted it and want to share it with you! Of course we would love to hear your thoughts and questions as at the end of the day, it is you who help us shape our business, so we would love to continue to do the same for yours.

So… what is Project Eureka then?

It’s rather simple actually which we will explain below in points, but if you have questions feel free to email, call us or drop us a line in the comments below.

1. Collection and Planning

With any branded or interactive project planning is always key, as it can easily lead from having a triumphant project or an utter flump. In this case, planning is the key, although this package differs from the regular packages as it will be completed in a short time frame, and will skip a lot of the feedback phases which come with the standard packages, therefore trust is key. It is vital that you provide us with as many details, specifications as possible as once we have received the details and confirmed what we will create together there is no turning back.

You will be provided with a list of functionalities, and layout styles to choose from if you are unsure of certain aspects for your blog, however providing a concise and exact page list, and image sizes for example is very important.

Styling and colors are also key, especially if your brand is a versatile mix of various shades, so deciding on which color you would like your base color to be is vital.

Once we have collected all the good stuff, we will have a meeting (or a few) via phone or a video chat to discuss the style and ideas fluently before we lock the project into motion, which then leads to the exciting… or nail biting stage of the surprise hidden design and development…

(Note, we do not recommend this package if you do not know your business, or brand direction.)

2. Design and Development (Surprise)

During this rather anxious stage of waiting and not knowing what to expect, you will have to start preparing your content for the blog and sub pages ready for when you see the final package.

3. Finalisation and Tweaks

Finally after your anxious wait, we reveal the curtains to show you your new custom designed blog. Our goal is that the final product will be a complete surprise, and in terms of “surprise” a joyful one! If however, you have some requests, changes don’t stress, the package offers 1 full set of changes and tweaks, to core areas such as custom fonts, colors, backgrounds, minor navigation changes, form changes and basic changes to functionality and transitions.

We do have some others options if you would like further additional changes which would be outside of our package offering but will make sure that at the end of the process you will be satisfied!

Of course, after all the bells and whistles are tweaked, you will have a well polished blog, ready to make your friends envy you and stop your viewers attention in a quick glance. We will then happily transfer any old blog content to your new blog, and get you all ready and setup to launch!

So here it is! Project Eureka, and yes, we are pretty proud about it! We genuinely hope that you too will love it! and as with anything, we are here to answer any question or doubt you may have!

Contact us for more details!

(Please Note; Due to the nature of the project, if you sign up you agree to understand our terms and conditions with the design and setup flexibility, and therefore no refunds will be provided under any circumstances, as we will promise to do our best to create the project package correctly as to any approved communication and decisions, therefore we recommend this package exclusively to those that either fully trust our style and design, or for those that know exactly what they would like a surprise result for their brand.)

There’s this saying I cherish “There’s life, and then there’s work”.
Adopted from one of my favorite television characters EVER, Don Draper in Madmen epitomizes civility and control in the context of client and creative. What I love about this saying is that it reminds me every day that I choose to be this involved in my career, and I need to be aware of the pressing need to balance my time between my passion and my responsibilities the best of my ability.

Working for yourself includes a lot of minute details that are taken for granted in their significance in the beginning stages of building a business. These details, while most probably overlooked during the daydreaming phase– but made all too pressing by the daily grind of reality,  create the differences between past times carried out by individuals, and businesses run by professionals. I make no mistake in informing those I work with, both clients and colleagues, about the hiccups in my day to day activities that could influence a future work schedule.

I can remember a few months ago  I was mid client meeting- talking to a wedding photographer on skype in regards to the blog design. I told her I would be right back, and within minutes, I turned around from my computer to see my cat chewing on his back paw, with bloody evidence all around the living room. Of course I had to excuse myself, and told the client of the emergency, and she of course understood. How could she not? I communicated the situation, we had an exchange of horror stories dealing with the “wonders of pet ownership”, and the schedule was tweaked accordingly.

If I had not been mid meeting, and the opportunity to quickly address the situation with my client had not been readily available, would I be so quick to write an email? No, but at the end of the work day, I would set aside the 5-10 minutes to clarify any changes I would have to make. As I’m sure everyone could tell you by now, I am a huge prophet for communication. How can you know if people don’t tell you? Which brings me to my last point about all of this: Providing people the opportunity to empathize.

Over the past couple of years with working with Flosites, we have run into a handful of clients who abandon the process– for whatever reason they may have. In the optimistic outlook of things, most of the clients come back a week or two later with the sincere hope of explaining that they were overbooked, stressed for the holidays, or dealing with the unexpected and unfortunate tragedy due to sickness or loss, and we at Flosites will always understand- on the other side of the computer is a person!

The problem occurs when the emails/explanations are not sent, or equally as bad, they are sent 2, 3, or 6 months later. . After a particularly frustrating case of this happening, I thought long and hard about how I could explain what it felt like to be on the receiving end of all this. I often strive to imagine what someone else is going through, so in doing so I came up with the analogy, and I hope it explains my point from another perspective.

Follow my brain for a moment, will you?
Imagine that you are working with a bride who has just emailed you to book you as their wedding photographer. You accept their down payment, maybe you’ve had an introductory meet and greet, maybe you never have a meeting and have just been emailing each other back and forth- whatever the case may be, the bride has stopped responding. You’ve made a few attempts to reach her, but you are starting to get busy– new clients come in, with new meet and greets, plans, schedules and meetings. Six months down the road you get a phone call from the overwhelmed bride, demanding to know why you aren’t there, photographing her wedding.
Like the old adage dictates- you bring that horse to water, but you cannot force him to drink. The same holds true for people.

The best that I can suggest for these situations, for anyone who may have a hiccup in the road, reach out.
It may sound too vulnerable to share the inner goings of what’s happening to someone you are working with, but it’s always better to err on the side of caution. You may feel uncomfortable broaching the subject, but you are also allowing the possibility (and in all honesty, the total likelihood) of the other person empathizing with your situation, settling the anxiety and pressure of work so that the individual can deal with the problem at hand. Provide someone with the opportunity to understand where you are coming from, and see how easy it is to have others work around it. Like I love to say, there’s life, and then there’s work.

Until next time!
jne