Just because life has seemed to hit the pause button, it doesn’t mean that you (or your future) has to. There are plenty of ways you can still equip yourself with the skills you will need to graduate and apply for jobs in the future.

You had plans for you summer, whether it was an amazing internship, a freelance job, applying for jobs upon graduation, or something else entirely. But with COVID-19 turning the world upside down, many of those dreams and goals have come to a screeching halt. You want to graduate ready and prepared to start your career, but now that your summer (and much of your school year) has been taken away from you, you are left wondering what to do.

Luckily, we have some great tips and tricks to help you to fully take advantage of this time at home. Just because life has seemed to hit the pause button, it doesn’t mean that you (or your future) has to. There are plenty of ways you can still equip yourself with the skills you will need to graduate and apply for jobs in the future. These suggestions can help you develop yourself, your network and your portfolio.

Develop yourself.

Many of you have spent time during the quarantine working on yourself by delving into hobbies, exercising and spending time with your family (or feeling the pressure to do all of these while juggling school and the effects of a global pandemic). We understand that there is a anxiety around coming out of quarantine better than before. We’re feeling it, too. But we want to encourage you to try do develop yourself in at least one area while at home, and we have two suggestions for how you can do just that.

1. Learn a new skill

There are thousands of tutorials on YouTube, as well as learning platforms like SkillShare and Lynda. You can learn a new skill (or improve on one) in a platform you are familiar with, or you might want to learn a totally new program. A few skills that we suggest nailing down before you graduate are:

• Learning the basics of animation in After Effects
• Getting skilled with the pen tool in Illustrator
• Touching up a photo in Photoshop (blemishes, teeth, flyaways, etc.)
• Removing a background (or extending it) in Photoshop
• Mocking up a product/logo application in Photoshop

2. Watch design talks or pick up some books on design and get inspired! We have a few suggestions listed below:

• Brand New
• YouTube
• Creative Mornings
• TED

Develop your network.

When you hear the word “networking,” you probably picture a room full of people in suits with nametags and painful small talk. Because of this outdated perception, your instinct may be to think that networking only applies to businesspeople and that it won’t help you in the design world, but that is far from the truth.

Networking is simply communicating with people in your desired field, job or company and developing relationships with those people. But developing your network is so much more than just adding people on LinkedIn. While networking is a continual process, we have two tips that can be utilized right now and will serve you well in your time as a student.

1. Build a list of your favorite companies that you want to apply to, either for an internship or full-time job upon graduation. There are a lot of things going on when you graduate, so it is best to start keeping track of your desired companies before it is time to apply. Linked are a few resources you can use to build this list.Ask yourself these questions to narrow down your search: Where do you want to live? What type of work would you like to do? What size company would you like to work for? What type of work do you like? Following these companies on LinkedIn and Instagram help to give you an idea of their culture and the type of work that they produce.
2. Reach out to a designer in the area (or in your desired field) to find a mentor during the summer. They can give great advice on applying for jobs, reviewing your portfolio and more.

Develop your portfolio.

Having a good, clean portfolio is the single most important part of applying for a job. While it is helpful to have that network in place, your portfolio can get your foot in the door and get you noticed, and many times, it will be the main reason that you are hired. We as designers are constantly developing our portfolios as we grow, and being a student is no exception. It is important that you improve and develop old projects as you gain knowledge and improve your designer’s eye. We have listed a few suggestions below (and these are often things that come up in portfolio reviews).

• Try to replace all of your studio photography with mockups when possible. Unless you are a master photographer and craftsman, it is very difficult to get beautiful pictures of your work. Mocking things up will allow you to have more control, and the work will look more cohesive in a portfolio.
• Clean up old work. Fix typos, extra anchor points, kerning, etc.
• Update old projects and make them better. Go back to a project that you loved, and use your current knowledge and expertise to refine and elevate your work. Would it work better if it had a different typeface? Color palette? Illustration?
• Expand on those projects by adding things like an ad campaign, packaging, additional products or animation. This will help to position you as a designer who understands brands and how they work as a system. It will also bring your work to life and give viewers an idea of how your designs could live and work in the real world. Brand New is a great resource to see how some of the best agencies present their work.

There are thousands of things that we can all do during quarantine. We know it because the pressure is coming at us from all sides telling us what we “should” be doing. We know it’s hard. If you can focus in on these tips, you will be able to use this time to grow and challenge yourself, but also set expectations for yourself and home in on what you want to achieve. It’s okay if you need to take a break or if you have difficulty starting or finishing a task. The most important thing is that you are trying and working towards something.

COVID-19 has been a struggle for all of us, and even more so for students, but remember that we are here with you, we’ve got your back, and we want you to succeed as much as you do.

This Mother’s Day is like no other in recent memory. With social distancing and sheltering in place, it’s a difficult year to connect with our moms and mother figures on a day that should be all about connecting with each other.

If your work is like ours, and working remotely has become the new norm, you spend countless hours popping in and out of Zoom meetings. You click a link in a meeting invite and join a grid of coworkers without question, ready to discuss the next topic on your agenda.

We decided to use that to our advantage and surprise our employees with unexpected video chats with their special someone. We set up fake meetings, scheduled them throughout the work week, and when our employees logged into the meeting, they were face-face with MOM! What happened next—the surprise, the joy, the emotions, the laughs, the tears—well, you just gotta see that for yourself.

Probably the most unique perspective on this project was that of Catherine May, our Producer/Director who played moderator on almost every mom call and got to see all the connections happening first hand.

Producing this video was truly a special experience for me. Being relatively new to Telegraph, these hours on the phone with my coworkers and their special someone allowed me to view them in a much more complex and dynamic way. I feel closer to this team than I could have ever imagined, and I was so impressed with each of the raw and authentic approaches to the surprise calls. I’m thankful to work with a team that takes advantage of special moments like these and embraces them to their fullest. I realize that it was such a privilege to witness these conversations, and I feel very lucky to have learned so much about the human experience from each of these individuals.

How Designing an Accessible World Creates an Innovative Society

A few months ago, LEGO announced they were unveiling a new line of colorful bricks specifically designed to help the visually impaired and blind learn the Braille alphabet. Philippe Chazal, treasurer of the European Blind Union, stated there is a staggeringly low number (roughly 10%) of visually impaired and blind people who know how to read traditional Braille. The goal of these LEGOs is to teach children the Braille alphabet in a fun and engaging way, as studies have shown that the visually impaired who know how to read Braille are often more engaged members of society and have better employment opportunities.

A simple yet stunning innovation for a common toy that has been around for decades raises the question: “Why didn’t I think of that?” Since a vast majority of the population is seemingly able-bodied, it is all too common for the creators of products, websites, books, and more to treat designing for people with disabilities as an afterthought. Take the LEGOs previously mentioned for example; originally marketed as an interactive toy for children, but later reinvented as a learning tool for the blind.

But what if we as designers and innovators reversed that thought process and began designing with accessibility for all in mind? How innovative would we be as a society if we began to think about how everyone, able-bodied and disabled alike, had to engage with what we produced? We might be led to believe that designing with disabilities in mind will lead to boring or uncreative solutions, when in actuality, it’s just the opposite. Accessibility is a cornerstone of innovation and creativity.

Say, for instance, you get done shopping, your cart is full, and you’re making your way to the car in the parking lot. You go down the curb ramp, unload, and sit in your car facing the store. Next, you see a mom of three using that same ramp for her stroller. Then a biker rides up to the bike rack. Everyone utilized that ramp in one way or another, but that ramp was specifically created for someone in a wheelchair to access the store. This is what is called the “Curb-Cut Effect.” It illustrates how things that are designed and created for vulnerable groups of people, such as the disabled, often end up benefiting everyone in the long run. This very same idea can be applied to some of the advanced technologies we use today and are in the process of creating.

In a 2015 Ted Talk, Chieko Asakawa, a blind Japanese computer scientist, tells the audience the story of how she went from being an independent 14-year-old to completely blind and dependent on those around her. In the mid-1980s, Asakawa began developing the technology for a digital Braille editor and digital Braille dictionary. Because this technology was developed, it led to further developments, which many people unknowingly use when they read a digital book on their tablet or computer. She says, “And this is not the first time this happened, because history shows us accessibility ignites innovation.”

Asakawa also later developed the Home Page Reader in 1997. This technology rendered web content and outputted it to a synthesized computer voice. This groundbreaking technology allowed the blind community to navigate the Internet, simplified the interface, and gave them opportunities to experience the world around them through a computer. But the benefits of Asakawa’s development don’t stop there. Because she created this technology, we can have Siri read a text message back to us, listen to a cookbook recipe in the kitchen, and have Alexa tell us what time it is. These are all tasks we as a society have grown accustomed to being hands-free in our everyday lives, and we often forget that it originally developed for our convenience. This was designed so a disabled person can be more integrated into society, but because it was needed, we can further enjoy all of its applications today.

Even today, we are still finding ways to innovate our technology to improve accessibility for those who are disabled and, in turn, finding new ways to widely utilize it in our daily lives. Currently, a Swedish company called Tobii is developing eye-tracking technology that allows quadriplegic people to control a computer with only their eyes. According to Tobii, the eye tracker technology sends out infrared light that is reflected by the human eye. Then a camera detects these reflections and uses a series of filters and algorithms to determine where to place the cursor on the screen. This wildly innovative technology opens up a whole new world of possibilities in using computers and television, making it more readily accessible and allowing quadriplegic people to become more independent.

While eye-tracking technology allows disabled people to use computers, the data and research of its implementation have a number of benefits for the overall internet community.  For our industry, it can be used as a means of market research. Because of the instinctual and unbiased nature of eye-tracking technology, researchers can better understand consumer and user behavior on a website. It shows them what elements naturally attract the most attention and what areas were ignored, essentially recording the entire user experience in a more precise manner. This type of research can be used to create a better website and app layouts, functionalities, and improve overall user experiences and interaction, making websites more effective, intuitive, and enjoyable all around. It can also show design flaws and methods of use that may have been overlooked in creative development. And it won’t just stop there. This technology can continue to be developed and adapted into our society in a number of ways that haven’t even been explored and eventually may become a vital part of day-to-day life.

There are many more innovative parts of our society that have come from meeting the need of a disabled member. Think about how you may use subtitles while watching a show in a noisy environment, how you may enjoy a soft-grip handle on your potato peeler, or even how legible and eye-catching a large wall graphic is. These are all day-to-day developments that were created because a disabled person saw a need in their life for it. If we began to design our world with accessibility for all members at the forefront of our creative process, we can easily create a world around us that benefits everyone and is not only inclusive but innovative.

Hello Generation Z – we welcome the 21st century’s first born! For the numerous brands seeking to attract this group; here’s what you need to know about this consumer demographic to position your company for success.

If you were to paint a broad picture of who Generation Z is, it would be this: they’re young, decisive, smart and just a little bit vain with plenty of buying power. In just four short years, this demographic will make up nearly half of the U.S. population. While Generation Z shares some similarities with Millennials, the group has some vast differences too. Particularly in their expectations of brands and how they interact with them. Generation Z is poised to make a big impact on the consumer buying space.

Who Is Generation Z?

Loosely characterized as those born after the mid-nineties, Gen Z is maturing in a world where the veil of normalcy has been pulled off. As a result, today’s teens appear to be more level-headed and realistic about the world they live in compared to previous generations. Analysis from the Cassandra report shows that:

71 percent of Gen Z respondents expect to experience significant failure before achieving success. 40 percent say they see failure as an opportunity to try again. Just like generations before them, Gen Z’s world view has been shaped by incredible political and historical events. This generation is growing up in a post-9/11 world. They’ve felt the impact of The Great Recession; watched the unfolding of corporate scandals including Lehman Brothers, Bernie Madoff, Volkswagen and Turing Pharmaceuticals (to name just a few). They have witnessed the legalization of same-sex marriage along with the nomination of America’s first black president and subsequent nomination of its first female presidential nominee.

What Generation Z Cares About

Consequently, Gen Z thirsts for honesty, candor and social good. Nearly 80 percent of teens surveyed by sparks & honey reported that they are concerned about world hunger; children around the world dying of preventable disease and man’s impact on the planet. It’s no wonder they prefer to shop with brands that exhibit some sense of corporate social responsibility.

Gen Z is also one of the most open and accepting when it comes to gender and racial equality. This is the generation that’s given rise to terms like “gender fluid” and “gender queer”. Notable Gen Zers like Kristen Stewart, Miley Cyrus and Ruby Rose are emerging as role models for a generation that eschews labels when it comes to gender and sexuality.

They’ve also grown increasingly diverse and tolerant of different races and ethnicities—and will expect as much from the brands they support. By 2020, more than half of American children are expected to be part of a minority race or ethnic group. A figure that is slated to grow as time passes.

We're in the National Museum today and my Gen Z brother upon seeing this painting: "Oh look, a meme!" pic.twitter.com/5E2TepdDvB

— thysz (@thysz) May 22, 2019

The Generation Z Consumer

How much buying power does a Gen Zer really have? JWT Intelligence reports $44 billion annually. This group’s purchasing power extends to their parents’ buying decisions as well. About 93% of Gen Z parents say their children have at least some sway on their family’s spending, including:

• Apparel
• Electronics
• Entertainment
• Toys

It’s estimated that Gen Z spends one in ten of their dollars online. In fact, access to internet is huge when it comes to this generation. Considered the most connected, Gen Z is used to accessing what they need on-the-go. No surprise since nearly three quarters of American teens ages 13 to 17 have smartphones and go online daily.

Let’s be honest. Super Bowl ads just aren’t that super anymore. They used to be one of the few opportunities for brands to reach tens of millions of viewers at once and become a topic of water cooler conversations everywhere. 1994 was the first year a 30-second spot in the Super Bowl hit a price tag of over one million dollars. The estimated viewership at that time was around 90 million people. By 1999 that price had doubled for an audience of 84 million, and by 2010 it was over three million for an audience of around 106 million. Today, a 30-second spot runs over five million dollars,  yet television ratings have been on a steady decline since their peak in 2015. While the cost has continued to increase, the value has started to decline and many big brands are bailing. Here are five possible reasons why:

Content Overload

We live in an always on, always connected world where we are all constantly bombarded with content and conversations. If you’re reading this blog, for example, let me just put that into context for you. In 1999, there were a mere 23 blogs on the internet. Not 23 million—23! By 2006 there were over 50 million blogs and today there are over 2 million blog posts every day. Now add in all of the social media platforms, podcasts, streaming services, etc. and our ability to access all of that from our smart devices.

Super Bowl ads used to be like throwing a huge boulder into calm waters where brands could make big splashes and get all eyes from a captive audience on them. Now, it’s still a huge boulder (a 5-million-dollar one) but today it’s more like throwing it into rough seas. There’s still a splash, but it quickly gets drowned out.

Ads vs A.D.D.

We live in a 24-hour news cycle society where even the most mind-blowing event or story can only hold our collective attention for a short period of time. What was the topic of discussion a week ago? Three days ago? This morning? What chance does one 30-second ad have to cut through the clutter and make a lasting impression worth the price of admission? Not to mention our behavioral ADD. Right now, you’re probably reading this on your phone, ignoring everything and everyone around you. That’s probably not unlike your experience during the Super Bowl. You might have been at a party or a bar, with friends and multiple screens, subject to countless distractions. In 1999, no one was checking Instagram to see how many likes their photo of nachos had while those coveted commercials were on.

There’s just no such thing as “undivided attention” anymore and isn’t that why you’re buying a Super Bowl ad in the first place?

More Eggs. More Baskets.

Twenty years ago, if a brand decided to pony up for a Super Bowl spot, they were all-in on 30-seconds of something exceptionally creative that would get people talking. Now, brands realize that the actual live airing is just one campaign component in the bigger picture. Ads are released weeks prior to the actual game. Microsites and social campaigns surround and support the primary spot. And, increasingly, the entire purpose of the actual 30-second spot is to drive traffic to an external channel for more content. More and more, brand’s have employed this tactic as a way of combating the ADD of consumers and squeezing as much value as they can out of the Super Bowl spotlight by creating peripheral content and campaigns. While this may help brands get the value out of their investment, it certainly waters down the impact Super Bowl commercial breaks used to have. It’s becoming rarer that brands create a singular moment that we all experience together during the actual game.

What’s My ROI?

Big Boi may have been the halftime entertainment, but Big ROI is what keeps brands coming back for more. Digital marketing has made advertising so data-driven that advertisers expect an exact measurement of the return on their investment, and data supported insights on how to optimize their efforts moving forward. Analytical insights have become almost as valuable to brands as actual impact. It’s much more difficult to nail down the exact impact of a traditional broadcast spot or target your exact audience. This is one more reason why we’ve started seeing Super Bowl ads leveraged as just one cog in the marketing machine surrounding the event.

The “Sharksucker” Tank

Speaking of Big Boi, when he rolled up to the halftime show in a #Cadillac, guess what car brand was lighting up on Twitter? I wonder how the big Super Bowl car sponsors like Toyota, Audi, and Mercedes-Benz felt about that? This is what I call the Remora effect. A Remora is a fish that attaches itself to a shark and lets the shark carry it around doing all the work while it feeds off of the scraps left over from what the shark eats. They’re often referred to as the “sharksucker” fish. Social media has given brands (that are not paying huge amounts for air time) the opportunity to actually take over the consumer conversation. Oreo famously took advantage of this during the 2013 Super Bowl blackout. That is scary to the “shark” brands of the world paying gobs of money to be in the big game. Even Bud Light, one of the primary sponsors of the Super Bowl gave an opening to competitors Miller Lite and Coors Light with its campaign about not using corn syrup in its recipe. The National Corn Growers Association jumped all over that, taking to social media to voice their disappointment in Bud Light and giving thanks to Miller and Coors. Videos of corn farmers pouring Bud Light down the drain even showed up on social media. Noticeably absent (again), was Apple, the brand that started the “Super Bowl commercial” phenomenon with “1984.” Funny enough, that commercial only aired once on national television and is still talked about today because of the impact it had on a captive audience.

The bottom line is, the Super Bowl is still one of the most watched and most talked about events every year and will continue to be for the foreseeable future, but the game has definitely changed—at least off the field—and unless you’re willing to play that game too, the worth of a one-time Super Bowl ad simply cannot hold its value over time.

Actors win Tonys.
Athletes win gold medals.
And creative professionals? We win Addys.

Trust us, there is nothing more satisfying than walking away from the ADDY Awards with a signature gold or silver I-beam trophy in hand. The annual ceremony, hosted by the American Advertising Federation of Birmingham, gathers together agencies and students from all over Birmingham to recognize and honor those who are setting a stand for excellence in Birmingham. We were blown away by the amazing talent in our city and left feeling inspired for the year to come!

This year was an exciting one for our agency. We not only took home two gold ADDYs for our work on the branding and photography of Sloss Tech, but we also snagged a silver for three website designs including Sloss Fest, Kalu Yala, and the Women’s Breast Health Fund.

OH and we are excited to announce that our very own Kenslie McGuire was recognized as Birmingham’s Photographer of the Year for her work at Sloss Tech!

What’s best about events like the Addys is getting additional exposure for our clients, validating the work,  and celebrating our talented employees. Winning for clients like the Women’s Breast Health Fund, which was a true passion project for our whole team, is extremely gratifying. And with Sloss Tech going into year three, having that recognized also means a lot to our team who puts so much into that event. The icing on the cake this year was our extremely talented photographer, Kenslie McGuire, winning best of show for photographer of the year. That certainly came as no surprise to anyone at Telegraph who sees her work on a daily basis, but it’s great to see her get recognized on a larger scale. We couldn’t be more proud of our work or our team.

— Seth Griffin, Creative Director

Looking back on all we accomplished, we couldn’t be any more proud of her team. Our work relies heavily on our amazing clients who push us to think outside the box and to think more creatively. We can’t wait to see what our team comes up with next!

Learn more about each of the projects
that took home ADDYs below!

PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR, Kenslie McGuire

SLOSS TECH PHOTOGRAPHY CAMPAIGN, Gold ADDY

Category:  Elements of Advertising
Credit:  Seth Griffin, Creative Director; Kenslie McGuire, Photographer; Josh Weichman, Photographer; Alex Kistler, Project Manager.

For the past two summers, we’ve partnered with TechBirmingham to create a new technology festival called Sloss Tech, which kicks off the beginning of Sloss Music and Arts Festival. This year’s keynote speaker, Casey Neistat, was no stranger to the spotlight and offered up some amazing photo ops for our team. They were able to capture Casey signing posters in his dressing room and casually eating a Steel City Popsicle outside the Lyric Theatre. We are so proud of our photography team for their hard work on this project for bringing home a gold ADDY for the campaign and also Kenslie for being awarded Photographer of the Year.

Sloss Tech was such a great day. To see our team working together was such an empowering feeling. I’m so glad I got to document Casey’s first visit to Alabama along with Josh Weichman and Seth Baird creative directing the shots as we went.  It’s great to be recognized for your years of practice and even better to have met such great humans along the way.

– Kenslie McGuire, Photographer

SLOSS TECH, Silver ADDY

Category: Out-of-Home
Credit: Seth Griffin, Creative Director; David Hildebrand, Associate Creative Director; Mark Jamroz, Director of Strategy; Jin Kim, Senior Art Director; Seth Baird: Videographer; Erin Mosher, Videographer; Kenslie McGuire: Photographer; Josh Weichman: Photographer; Rebecca Terrell, Digital Media; Tyler Davis; Digital Media; Brandon Green, Digital Media; Alex Kistler, Project Manager; Trey Jackson, Developer; Alex Kistler, Project Manager; Kevin McClendon, CEO

Not only were our photographers recognized for their work at Sloss Tech, but our entire team took home a silver ADDY for pulling off the biggest technology festival in Birmingham! From the website design to the digital advertising to the event management, it was all hands on deck to make Sloss Tech happen. We are so proud to be a part of this event and we can’t wait until next year!

SLOSS FEST WEBSITE, Silver ADDY

Category: Online / Interactive
Credit: Seth Griffin, Creative Director; David Hildebrand, Associate Creative Director; Alex Kistler, Project Manager; Trey Jackson, Developer.

Sloss Music and Arts Festival is one of the most exciting events to happen to Birmingham. For this year’s festival, we were tasked with giving the website a fresh new look that would catch the vibe of the festival and the eye. Our designer went to work to give the site a colorful gradient with bright white lettering.

KALU YALA WEBSITE,  Silver ADDY

Category: Online / Interactive
Credit: Seth Griffin, Creative Director; David Hildebrand, Associate Creative Director; Alex Kistler, Project Manager; Trey Jackson, Developer.

It was an exciting year for the world’s most sustainable modern town! Not only did we watch the institution grow from a handful of students to 150 for the summer semester, but they also were the subject of a Viceland documentary titled Jungletown. From brand to business strategy, we’ve done a lot with Kalu Yala over the years ( you can read about our CEO’s partnership with Kalu Yala’s founder here) and we were very excited to be recognized for our work on their website. The desktop and mobile design allow potential interns to easily access information and learn all about what they will be doing during their time in Panama.

WOMEN’S BREAST HEALTH FUND WEBSITE,  Silver ADDY

Category: Elements of Advertising
Credit: Seth Griffin, Creative Director; Mark Jamroz, Director of Strategy; Laura Wright, Project Manager; Trey Jackson, Developer; Kenslie McGuire: Photographer.

It’s not very often in agency life that you come across a project that is meant for you. When the Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham came to us over a year ago (you can read all about the process here), we knew we had to deliver something unique that would leave an impression on the communities they serve. We are very proud to share their story through an interactive website that documents each milestone that made the Women’s Breast Health Fund what it is today!  You can see the living documentary at wbhflegacy.org/

Instagram announced this morning a new feature called – wait for it – Instagram Stories. You heard that right. Sure the new feature is almost an exact replica of Snapchat, but we aren’t complaining. Here are a few reasons why Instagram Stories will be better than Snapchat for business marketing.

It’s Public

If your business is on Snapchat, you understand the pain of gaining followers. You have to be intentional about marketing your username. And while your customers may search for you, it’s highly unlikely that they will find you among the million of users. Instagram stories, however, are available for everyone to see, as long as your profile is set to public. This makes it easy for your customers and potential customers to see what you’re up to!

No More Overposting

One of the main reasons Snapchat Stories is so popular is because users can share without overposting. While users may only post once or twice a day on Instagram, they can post an unlimited amount on their Snapchat stories without fear of annoying their followers. So why is this important? Imagine you were a clothing store and just received a huge shipment of items that will hit the store later that week. Rather than bombarding your Instagram followers will 100 images of the new arrivals, you can now just upload them to your Instagram stories. It’s a win-win because your followers can still see the items, but on their own terms!

It’s All on One Platform

If a user follows your business account, they are interested in you! Of course users want to see beautiful imagery, but they are also interested in the authentic moments of your business. That’s why following brands on Snapchat is so intriguing. Snapchat allows users to see those behind the scenes moments that aren’t perfectly crafted. Instagram now gives users the best of both worlds with curated photography mixed with candid moments all in one place. It doesn’t get any better than that!

What are some ways that you foresee Instagram Stories
being beneficial for business? Let’s talk strategy at @Telecreative

If you’re a marketing director or website content manager, you might be wondering what SEO or Search Engine Optimization is all about and whether it’s “for real” or just another upcharge your agency or web development company is trying to pop on you to add more charges to your bill.

We’ll be honest. You don’t have to do SEO, but if you don’t you’re missing the “O” part of SEO – that is, your website will not be “optimized” for search engine. In other words, you’ll be on the worldwide web, but no one in the world will be able to find you.

Don’t think it matters? Take a look at this:

5 Cold Hard Facts:

• Searching for answers. 76% of internet users use a search engine for find local businesses.
• Google is still king. Links in the second position receive 10.1%. Links in the third position get 7.2%, and links in the fourth position get 4.8%. Links below fourth average under 2% of click-throughs.
• Google is king. Links in the top position of a Google search query page receive 18.2% of all click-through traffic.
• Google still rules. Google sends 90.6% of traffic. Yahoo! Sends 3.78%. Bing sends 3.72%. After that, no one else matters.
• Your website is in a worldwide haystack. Search engines don’t know a good site from bad the way you know a good site from bad. They rely mostly on relevance and importance. They look at your site like a good party. If a lot of people are coming and going, staying and commenting, the search engine will look at your site and rank it higher.

5 things you’re doing wrong.

• Use of iFrames. In some cases it makes sense to pull content directly from another site. For example, let’s say you wanted to pull a content stream from CNN.com. While they may offer an embed code you can copy and paste on your site to feature the streamed content, you won’t gain any SEO value for content hosted within iFrames.
• Ironic copy. Search engines are smart and they’re getting smarter all the time, but they don’t understand irony. If your headline says “Home to Georgia’s Best Peaches,” but the article is about a resort in Costa Rica that serves peaches from Georgia, the search engine will be confused.
• Content behind logins. Search engines cannot register to see your page or fill out online forms. If you have a registration barrier to content, a search engine will not be able to cross that barrier and will not know what you have on your site.
• Duplicating pages. Some Content Management Systems (CMS) will end up posting duplicate pages by default. Aside from confusing the search engines, having a site with loads of duplicate content can dramatically impact the perceived quality of a website.
• Hiding content in plain sight. Videos, graphics, and logos are important elements that keep your site interesting to users. However, putting all your content in a graphic (.jpg or .png) or in a video format, means that search engines cannot find it. Users might like it, but it’s invisible to search engines. Instead, try to provide as much content as possible in textual format.

5 things you’re doing right.

• Effective title tags. Okay, so we’ve all done a search online. We’re then presented with a page full of results. Within that page are short, abbreviated descriptions. As we said, short. You’ll notice that the description is cut off at the first 65-75 characters. So it’s best to convey that key information in those first 70 or so characters. Get to the point, quickly. Everyone appreciates it.
• Indexable content. Put your most important content in HTML. Flash, Java, images and video formats are not indexable by search engines. That does not mean you shouldn’t have those elements. It just means that the majority of your important content and keywords should be in an HTML text format.
• Video attracts viewers. Websites with videos are 53% more likely to rank on Google’s first page. While it is dangerous to put all your website’s content in a video, you can optimize the content of your video by putting a transcript on the same or other page. Your visitors may not read it but the search engine will.
• Keywords are key. Using keywords related to the topic of your site vastly improves your search engine scoring. Relevance is key to keywords, too. For example, “new cars” might be one of the most highly searched words on the internet, but sprinkling those words into your content will not increase your search engine score if you sell cakes. Before creating content for any site, Telegraph Creative starts with keyword research that identifies the most important keywords to make sure that we include those words in the content as part of the creative process.
• Correctly linking pages. Linking to pages within your site is the way you can tell Google which pages you deem most important. Generally, the more times a page is linked to the more authority that page is given by Google. Furthermore, internal linking provides you with the ability to provide topical relevance to the search engines. Whenever linking to other pages on your site, make sure to link with keywords or key phrases that are similar to the phrases you want to rank for in Google.

It’s pretty typical. What we at first resent, we come to see the value in. New technology often follows a pattern similar to the five stages of death. First, we deny it, then we’re angry about it and eventually we accept it. Most new technologies go through this because they disrupt our sense of normality. Some never make it to acceptance (remember Google Glass?).

So what about retargeting?

Once we get over the creepy notion that advertisers can follow us around the internet, many have come to accept it as a preferred alternative. At this point, most people who use the internet know they’re being tracked and we accept it as the price we pay for the convenience the internet offers.

The simple reason we find advertising messages annoying is that because so many are served as an interruption to the programming we are receiving. They cut into TV shows, break up sporting events and ruin the flow of a movie. And if we’re not in the market for a car, (or whatever the ad is about) the message is even more annoying. But what if you were in the market for car? Suddenly, the message is a little more interesting.

The problem with traditional advertising is that it’s just a game of luck. As the saying goes, they’re shooting the pellets into the sky and hoping the birds fly into them.

Retargeting is just the opposite. It identifies a marketer’s target by tracking online activity. It then follows them with ads based on their interest.

So, if I’m interested in golf, I’ll search and read stories about golf. My browsing history will indicate that interest and retargeting will follow me with advertising for items related to golf. I’m less inclined to view such messages as an interruption as they are clearly based on my interests and, in fact, may enhance my knowledge and enjoyment.

The Art of Retargeting

As with most powerful tools, they have to be used responsibly to be most effective. Even though you have the knowledge, you can push it too far. So here’s three simple retargeting tips:Don’t push it. Even though you know a prospect’s interest, don’t over-do your retargeting. As this study from Rapp Media indicates, 3 times or less is the magic number

• Don’t push it. Even though you know a prospect’s interest, don’t over-do your retargeting. As this study from Rapp Media indicates, 3 times or less is the magic number

• Don’t be lazy. If you’re going to retarget, don’t show the same ad over and over. You have 3 tries. Get it right.
• Be relevant. Feed them information that is relevant to their interest.

When used properly, retargeting is a powerful tool that leads to direct results. Contact Dewar Gaines for a presentation of a case study on how we have helped our clients see outstanding results through retargeting.