What does your colour choice say about your brand?

Understanding colour meanings (both positive and negative), and how they relate to your target audience (age, class, gender) will help you create a stronger brand.

In anticipation of our official launch of Write on Track next month, we have been working away behind the scenes tweaking things like our brand logo. So, we thought it might be helpful to all of you who are in the process of designing your blog, website or new brand image, to be aware that your choice of colours can have an impact on how your brand is perceived.

Here is a handy infographic which will help you determine if the colours you choose reflect your brand and appeal to your target audience.

Your step-by-step guide to making the switch to the new Facebook timeline for brand pages

Do you manage a Facebook page for your brand or company?

If so, you will have heard that today Facebook launched its new look timeline for business pages.  Are you wondering how you can make the switch over to the new Facebook timeline for your brand?

If you have already changed over to the new timeline for your personal profile on Facebook, some of the changes will already look familiar to you. You have until March 30th to switch over – so there is plenty of time for you to plan how you want your new page to look (and see what other brands are doing with theirs).

Here are some things for you to start thinking about in preparation for the change over.

1. Which image will you use for your cover photo?  Choose the most striking/visually appealing image you have – a large banner type images will work best.

2. Choose a new profile image – another great picture which tells your brand story and sets you apart from the competition.

3. Prioritize the apps, likes and images you wish to appear directly beneath your cover photo (these will appear as thumbnails).

4. Update your Information/About section – make sure all your details are correct and you have included the url to your company’s website and any other contact details you want viewers to have.

Although you have until the end of March to make your changes, expect to see most brands jumping straight in over the next few days. And if you like to see yourself as an early adopter and/or are eager to get started on your new look, here is a link to a step by step guide from Facebook on how to switch over the new timeline for business pages.

Facebook have also published a handy checklist (see below) to help you make a smoother transition.

Don’t forget to let us know how you get on with your new page changes. We want to see how wonderful your new timeline looks! 

What is Pinterest?

Have you been hearing people talking and/or tweeting about pinterest and wondered what on earth is it all about? Well, we’re going to do a number of posts on pinterest here this week and in this first post, we’re introducing the concept of pinterest to you.

What is Pinterest?

Pinterest is like a virtual online pinboard. Imagine you are getting married and moving into a new house.  It would be like having pinboards all around your office or room, one board would have cut-out pictures of wedding dresses from magazines, another might have bridesmaids dresses, another wedding shoes and you might have numerous boards with pictures to help you plan your dream kitchen, your garden, your living room and your bedrooms in your new home. But instead of having them in a scrapbook or on a wall mounted pinboard, you can access them in your own pinterest account online.

Within Pinterest, you can have as many pinboards as you like on as many topics as you like.  You can follow other people and they can follow you.  You can repin any pictures you find that you like.  It really is a true eye candy store.

True pinners post pictures that they find and love, pinning pictures that resonate with them, picture that they would use to inspire their wedding, their new home, their garden, their dress style, their cooking, their baking or anything else they love.

When you go to the pinterest site, you will see a series of pictures. Each picture will tell you how many times it has been repinned (that means other people like it so much they have shared it on their own boards), how many likes it has received and how many people have commented on it.

You can download the ‘Pin’ button on the site and it will sit neatly on your bookmarks bar. Everytime you see a picture on a blog or a website that you would like to include in one of your boards, you simply click on the ‘pin in’ button, select the board you wish to put it in, add a comment and it will stay on that board until you remove it.  You can also opt to share that pin on twitter and/or facebook. Each picture should carry the original source and I’ll write more about that in a post later in the week.

If you would like to follow some video instructions, then do have a look at this video by Amanda of Spiderworking.

You can apply to join pinterest but that does take some time. It is much quicker if you know a pinterest user and ask them to invite you. All they need is your email address.  If you would like an invite, do leave a comment below and we will send you one. You can find me on pinterest here too.

I’m sure we’ll think of various “pinterest’ topics” as we move through the week,  our posts will include tips on using pinterest for your business, the “do’s and don’ts of pinterest”, how it can increase the traffic to your website, and more.  If you have any questions, do ask and we’ll answer them in our final post on Friday.

Don’t miss out on this simple branding opportunity

Are you missing out on this branding opportunity?

This quick branding tip comes via Brian Jeffrey and I had one of those now why didn’t I think of that moments when I read it.

When I’m presenting, the back of my laptop display is usually facing the audience, so I made a large color copy of my company name and logo and pasted it on the lid of my laptop. Not only does the audience get to see it during the event, but my laptop stands out when going through airport security and no one is likely to mistake it as theirs.

Would you use your laptop as an opportunity to brand your company?