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Why Responsive Design Is A Must in 2013

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Like the new digs? Open up on your smart device and see why responsive design for your website is a critical must have in 2013. What’s the stat? Oodles of peeps use smartphones and mobile devices to surf the net, and it’s only getting higher. (How’s thCalculateat for exact data to encourage your transition?)

There are websites that look good on a tablet; however, when you begin scrolling and navigating, the site really isn’t built for the small screen of an iPhone.

Going responsive means a few things:

  1. Your masthead has to fit snugly within the width of a smart device (regardless of its size). When someone logs in to the website, the masthead has to look normal; when they log in to a smart device, the masthead scales to fit and also pops on that smaller screen.
  2. The sidebar is invisible on a smart device. With a responsive theme on WordPress, the calls to action and badges and radio buttons stack up in the middle of the screen.  On the desktop, they appear off to the right as usual.
  3. Careful thinking has to be incorporated into a responsive theme. When designing a website in a content management system like WordPress with a custom theme or existing skin or template, you toss up the sidebar without a worry.  With a responsive approach, ordering of calls to action and what goes on the sidebar are mission critical.
  4. You need to engage with a developer who knows what the heck he or she is doing. There is way too much back-end tech required to push the engine of a website. Code is required for anything you do; a content marketer or social media pro cannot ever master all that code.
  5. You do need to understand what goes on behind the scenes of a website. Even when you’re publishing in content management systems and what you see visually on the dashboard is what appears live, the code is right there.
  6. Don’t get left in the cold; get your site responsive so when people begin to surf your site will feel more welcome than the other clunkier site with poor navigation and tremendously obnoxious scrolling.

Websites should always be updating; tweaks to sidebar, refresh of design/color and plug ins, navigation and share bars or comment systems. These are things most bloggers can update on their own, and should.

Afraid of tech like me? Embrace your fears and get your fingers dirty; that way you can better direct the show from the stage instead of in the wings.

 

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Content Marketers Need Web Designers And Developers

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My head is swirling from reviewing free- to-premium WordPress website templates and reading blog posts from designers and developers sharing tutorial about how they love Genesis, Thesis and think Headway is good but has some catching up to do.

Then there’s Elegant themes that look amazing, but Scott Quillin over at New England Multimedia won’t work in any of the above. Instead, he has one of his own secret premium themes he insists is #RockHot (which I won’t share with you).

I’ve been blogging on two blogs for almost three years (that’s nothing in the scheme of things). But, in that time, I’ve played with free themes, Headway, and Thesis enough to know that I suck at designing a website or blog. Heck, I’ve even launched a few websites in Go Daddy’s Website Tonight software (and they looked half-way shabby).

What I’m trying to say is this, Peeps:

Content marketers, like me, cannot design a website; nor can they develop its back end.

Get my drift? We can’t do it.  All we can do is change the font and the color of a leaf, but we can’t design a website all by ourselves.

It frustrates me extraordinarily that I can’t do this…even though I told Craig McBreen in comments at his house that I ban “I can’t” from my household. If there’s an obstacle in front of me, I climb it.

This time, though, to climb over the designing and developing of a website, I would need to go back to school somehow. I would also need to become a detail person and enjoy the tedious nature of graphic design.

I hate designing PowerPoint decks for that reason; I don’t make things look pretty very well. I’m a slap-the-paint-on-canvas kinda gal and call it abstract art; in fact, I have one of those on my mantel that I’m pretty in love with (‘cuz I slapped some acrylics on canvas and stroked the brush back and forth in a rainbow-esque fashion, and I really liked it).

I digress.

There’s so much more that goes on behind the scenes of a website or a blog that we can’t see and don’t know about. That’s why you have to hire someone to join your team and make it happen. But, you have to direct them to design and develop what you want; you need a vision for what you want to appear on that blank canvas.

About every six months, you have to go through this exercise with your website and stir the pot.

That time for all of us is about now, and here’s why:

Responsive design is the current trend, today; right now.

Making your website responsive means it will work on a smartphone or tablet or e-reader. When you visit a website and all you do is scroll from side to side to find the nav menu, then you know that site is not responsive.

Did you know that big data is telling us more people will visit your website from a smart device than from a PC? The data are showing that uptick; are you ready?

 

Thank You, New England Multimedia

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This is a shout out to my business partner, New England Multimedia owned by Scott Quillin and Michelle Quillin.

To prove the power of social media to enhance your business, here’s a story about how business can be done and gets done via Twitter. I met Michelle on Twitter several years ago. She began blogging with me at The SMB Collective in a group blogging experience that is just shy of getting relaunched. I spoke with her husband, Scott, perhaps once.

Because I’ve known Michelle more than two years via social media channels (or the interwebz as they now say), I know more about her business, their combined values, and most of all their integrity. Each of us comments on the other’s blogs, Facebook pages, tweets, LinkedIn, and we’re now following one another on Pinterest, too.

With all that interaction and earned knowledge of one another’s habits, they required no further vetting when I wanted to integrate my blog into my website (finally).  And, so, with an email saying I needed to launch a project, we made it happen.

Together Scott and I worked to identify my needs, and within two weeks (as he promised) I now have a fully integrated website and blog. I’m thrilled with the process, with Scott’s knowledge, the fact he made me a priority, and the fact he kept to deadline. He listened to me, and adjusted design elements to make me happier, and we plodded through blog plug ins with both of us learning more about plug ins than we expected.

If you’re a small business or a large one, I absolutely, positively recommend New England Multimedia to be part of your team. If you’re not sure, ask me to tell you more. There’s nothing better than a client testimonial turned into a blog post.

I’m excited for the potential this new site offers my business.  Thanks to New England Multimedia, I’ve found a fabulous new trusted business partner to grow with.

(Image from their Facebook page.)