Blog by @PaulBiedermann

Brand First! Then Power Up with Visual Content

3/31/2015

To take full advantage of the visual revolution when marketing your business or product, it’s important to have a visual content strategy — and that starts with your brand strategy.

Producing and sharing visual content itself won’t do it. The difference is the same as someone who throws a ball around every once in a while vs. someone who is focused, trains hard, and competes with a clear goal in mind. That wins championships. If you want your business to win its own “championship,” you need a strategy.

Strategies take work, for sure, but they give your work meaning and ensure that the effort pays off by moving your business in the right direction. It all starts with having a clear vision of who you are and what you’re trying to accomplish, because you can’t get where you want to go without that. Furthermore, your brand identity is more than just sticking a logo on an image and calling it a day. Instead, it means creating a well-designed, comprehensive visual presence that is also on strategy — unifying and powerfully reinforcing itself at every marketing touch point along the way: online and offline.

The slideshow below takes you through the process — I hope you enjoy it and if you do, please share with others. It can also be embedded in your own posts.

Creating an effective visual content strategy that’s driven by a solid brand strategy isn’t easy, but it’s the only way to make a real business impact. Otherwise, you’re just throwing another inspirational quote graphic or funny cat image at a wall and seeing what sticks. It won’t.

I can help.

Brand First! Then Power Up with Visual Content from re:DESIGN

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Other articles that may interest you:

Good Design Is Never As Easy As 1-2-3

It’s a Brand New, Brand YOU, Visual World

Visuals, Schmisuals — Here’s What Your Business Really Needs to Pop

[INFOGRAPHIC] 12 Reasons Your Business Needs to Get Visual

12 Reasons Why Your Business Needs to Get Visual

12 Ways A Visual Strategy Powers Business

Science Proves: It’s Time to Get Visual

Is Your Content Strategy Visual?

Time is of the Essence. So is Your Brand!

Article by Paul Biedermann

Photo illustration work: Paul Biedermann, re:DESIGN

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Is VCO the New SEO? Say Hello to Visual Content Optimization

12/30/2014

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Is VCO the New SEO? Say Hello to Visual Content Optimization

It’s no secret that visuals are exploding. They’ve always made an indelible impression, and now the online world is finally catching up. From advertising to movies and culture in general, nothing quite touches us like the power of the visual. It also happens to be in our DNA. We’ve always been a visually oriented society but for many reasons, the web has lagged behind. That is changing, and it’s changing in a big way.

How wonderful is it that, as the web continues to grow up, we are increasingly being smacked in the face with the immediateness of big, luscious photography, illustration and video! Mobile has only served to hasten this progress, as nothing communicates quite so clearly in a tiny space as well-chosen visuals. Words don’t stand a chance against the power of the visual in that space. Visuals grab our attention at the smallest of sizes — perfect for our mobile world — and say in one shot what many words would struggle to say half as clearly. They are also easily linkable and clickable, whisking us away to wherever we need to go next.

BUT NOW — the time is ripe for Visual Content Optimization (I coined that!) — because now we can search with those same visuals! Check out Google Search by Image and Pinterest’s Guided Search.

What about traditional SEO?

Keywords you say? After all, they have been the mainstay of good search engine optimization, as well as being the perpetrator of far too many websites overloaded with textual gibberish in hopes of capturing the pinnacle of almighty Google. I don’t fancy myself an SEO expert by any means, but now as we glide through the web, clicking on visuals here and there along the way, we are more likely to find what we seek through those same visuals rather than the accompanying text. In fact, today’s smarter web and smarter computers have made advances that allow images, even complex images, to be found through search — with nary a keyword in sight. Can I get a “WOW?!!”

Semantic technology expert David Amerland goes deeper into how all this works, but it’s clear that this shift will become an increasingly powerful driver of traffic for search queries.

Another way our visual digital experience is growing up, is through image recognition technology which is beginning to transform the way we shop — both online and offline, as we snap pictures to assist in our purchases while retailers capture valuable insights about shopping behaviors. Service industries such as hotels are taking note too — mining customer data while driving consumer engagement.

The way forward

So what does all this mean for marketers and business owners? As the web continues to become more visual, brands will more heavily rely on using images to build authority and expertise. It also means that businesses will begin visually “listening” to their markets and their competition by looking at images. As stated in VentureBeat, “images have surpassed text as the currency of choice in social conversations.” Indeed, the power of the visual keeps getting stronger.

Since visuals strike us more viscerally and are so immediate, I suspect this will bring even quicker results and an even faster web experience. And what’s more, all those cluttered, verbose, word-saturated pages inspired by the SEO of before, will be increasingly replaced by visually-rich pages instead. My math says that every thousand words can now be replaced by one picture. Well, maybe not quite, but you get the idea.

So what to do? Rather than focusing purely on SEO and the more traditional text-driven web, it would be wise to start focusing more on VCO. It should be clear that having a smart visual strategy and good, quality, unique design will become increasingly valuable to digital marketing strategy, and businesses that have any hope of being found on Google. Likewise, it’s never been wiser to turn to a design pro to build your visual digital identity from the ground up. The semantic web will demand it.

Article by Paul Biedermann

Featured image courtesy of Pixabay.
Photo illustration work: Paul Biedermann, re:DESIGN

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Good Design Is Never As Easy As 1-2-3

11/5/2014

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We like rules. Rules bring order to our world. Rules give a prescribed list of steps for what needs to be done and how to do it. We like to think that if we simply follow a set of “x” rules then we will be rewarded with “y” results. No muss, no fuss.

We like tools. Tools help us do stuff. Tools provide the means to execute and build something — they are also highly learnable. We think that with a little practice, we will soon be able to produce the same things that others produce with the same tools. Practice makes perfect.

A lot of the world works this way. We follow a recipe and with the right ingredients, the result is a delicious rib roast. We follow a schedule of required courses and with the right amount of credits we earn a degree. We follow the instructions from IKEA and once we match them up with all the pieces, we soon have a nice new set of bookshelves (albeit, a missing screw or two).

Art is different. Rules may help us learn and guide us to craft something nice or produce a facsimile of something we like — but it’s usually just another mediocre “whatever it is.” Paint by numbers.

When it comes to something more, rules leave us wanting. The basics are good to know, and “rules” are good guideposts, but nothing very compelling was ever produced by just following the rules. Indeed, breakout work requires breaking the rules.

Designing for the business world also requires more

Much more. Design for branding, marketing, and any type of visual communications is a blend of art, business and science (with a healthy dose of psychology thrown in). Design doesn’t come from tools, software or the dime-a-dozen apps so readily available on our phones these days. Design that commands attention, is on-brand and gets a response isn’t found in a book or a box — and you can’t simply log in for creative intuition. Design that brings real business results only comes from talent, training and experience. Years of it.

In this age of hyper-blogging, pop-marketers and link bait headlines… “5 Easy Steps This” and “10 Quick Ways That…” we are barraged with quick fixes and promises that all you need to do is read one hot blog post or sign up for the latest webinar or ebook and success will soon be yours. Oh… we soooooo want to believe this. After all, we all want the magic ticket and it’s the culture of awesome, right?

But then we realize, of course, there are no shortcuts to success.

Rules have a place and everyone loves a hot tip, but they only skim the surface. This has never been more true than when it comes to design.

Let me explain…

Say yes to good design and tango through the clutter.

Design

There are so many how-to’s and manuals on the steps to good design, as if all one needs to do is follow a recipe to bake a good design. Well, it doesn’t quite work that way.

Even experienced pros fall into the trap of mimicking the tools and techniques of someone they admire and want to emulate. There may be educational value there, but it can also be the road to becoming the next cheap knockoff. Much can be learned from tracing someone else’s drawing — but it will always be just that, a tracing. Nothing more.

Shape, line, texture, scale, contrast, proportion, balance… these are the building blocks of design and are all important. Typography, photography, illustration… but more important than all that is HOW it’s done. Is symmetry inherently bad? Is justified type a no-no? What about small white type on a dark color? Should the design be flat or dimensional with drop shadows? Simple or busy? These types of matters are discussed and debated all the time, and the latest trends will undoubtedly contradict last week’s trends. But what really matters is, is it good and does it work?

Practical concerns: How will it look big? Will it hold up very tiny? Can it be etched? What about embroidery? Does it speak to my audience? Is it affordable?

Context is everything.

Color

It’s widely understood how different colors affect us emotionally and even physiologically. Science backs this up — blue makes us feel calm, red gets us excited, black makes us somber… but that only takes us so far.

Vastly more important is how those colors are used and in what context. Colors are affected by other colors around them.

I’m sure you’ve seen many exciting designs with black backgrounds where bright colors pop off like a ball of energy. That is anything but somber. Black can also express elegance and sophistication — far from anything foreboding.

Red is energizing, but it can also be ghoulish for it is also the color of blood. Pair it with black, and it can be powerfully stimulating. It could remind one of Russian constructivism or even the Third Reich, but black and red also happen to be the colors of Milton Glaser’s iconic I Love NY logo. The feelings and memories that colors arouse all depend on context — externally and internally, for we all bring our own experiences to how we interpret the world.

The Cleveland Browns have notoriously ugly team colors — by popular consensus, brown and orange are no match for the aqua green and orange of the Miami Dolphins. But tell that to a Browns fan. That’s their team, man! And loyal fans are color blind when it comes to their teams — what matters more is this almost symbiotic relationship of those colors to their team. The colors associated with a particular brand matter.

Practical concerns:
Will a color be legible if printed on another certain color? How will it reproduce in print vs. online? What about fabric? All are different but important considerations when it comes to working with color.

Context is everything.

Putting them together

Design and color together produce a creative cocktail where any variable can vastly impact the outcome of the finished piece. Now any rules prescribed for each have become even less relevant, because… context is everything.

Throw in the added complexity of having to make the design communicate something, for marketing or other communications purposes — and the additional elements of audience, target market and brand have been introduced. All will impact how people respond to your overall design, and how both color and design will be used to reach your desired goals. Words are added. Sorry, but a trivial list of rules just won’t suffice, and the superficial results will not only be ineffective but could also be downright detrimental to your business.

Good, effective design is not something to be taken lightly. The talent, practice, training, experience, passion and yes, intuition of a dedicated pro will get your design and your business where it needs to be. And sometimes that means breaking the rules.

Article by Paul Biedermann

Featured image courtesy of Nesster via Creative Commons.
Photo illustration work: Paul Biedermann, re:DESIGN

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It’s a Brand New, Brand YOU, Visual World

10/16/2014

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It’s a visual world and images touch us in a direct, visceral way unlike text can alone. They make us happy, they make us laugh, they make us inspired — they can also make us deeply sad — all in just a fleeting glance.

Recent neurological studies prove through brain imaging how we respond to visuals unlike any other media: we pay attention to them, we believe them, and we remember them. Powerful stuff!

Now, take a look at today’s media landscape and the busy, distracted, hyperactive world we find ourselves in. What are the three things you — as a company, businessperson, or job seeker — need to do most? Get noticed, communicate your value and make a positive impression that is remembered, right?

Visuals to the rescue. And they show up great on our smartphones too, where so many of us now spend our time.

The power of the visual

A strong visual presence that clearly demonstrates who you are and what you want puts you head and shoulders above the rest — you know, all those websites and social media profiles you click through, not to mention the mountains of faceless resumés that recruiters know so well. But take note of the word “strong” — a weak visual image won’t cut it. There is lots of amateurish visual noise vying for attention too, so the key is rising above that. Joining the tide of mediocrity won’t cut it.

Now is the time to use the power of the visual — and not just to be seen, but understood and remembered too. There’s no doubt that a smart visual strategy will help give you the competitive advantage you seek.

A well-designed visual presentation brings clarity to who you are and what you do. This is so important in a time when you are fortunate if someone takes even a few seconds to decide yay or nay, assuming you have attracted their attention in the first place.

12 Ways a Visual Strategy Powers Business

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Sharpen your visual strategy

Once you have defined the core essence of your business and message, you should then tailor your communications and online presence in a simple, visually unique way for maximum impact. No matter how qualified you might be otherwise, creating the right visual appeal will not only help you land new business or that new job, but land the right kind of business and the right job for which you are best suited and that brings you the most personal satisfaction.

Companies and marketers have long known that brands with the sharpest sales pitches and the most dynamic visual presentations differentiate themselves from the competition and sell the most product (all else being equal, of course). Similarly, solopreneurs and job seekers who brand and market themselves — defining their own unique “story” and then pairing that with a smart visual strategy — win the day.

In today’s competitive environment, it’s all about brand “you.” Sounds a little strange, I know. But much like your favorite brands that you reach for every day, now is the time to package yourself so you leap right off those shelves of relative sameness — you now have your own shoppers to entice!

Applying traditional branding principles to ourselves is a relatively new concept, but it does not mean being disingenuous in any way — far from it. It is about taking all you are and polishing that so you present the best version of yourself, and making sure the focus is where it belongs. Merging your core message with the right visual strategy does nothing to change the essence of who you are, it simply improves the odds that people will get to know the real you and take the action you seek.

As the saying goes, you only have one chance to make a first impression — so creating the right visual impression speaks volumes. Just as we know quality when we see it, people recognize that you are a quality business or person if that is the impression you give them and you have the goods to back it up. Much like putting on your best suit for an interview, smart communications and a good looking visual image work the same way, especially when you can’t be there yourself.

Consistency is key

One final, critical ingredient — be consistent. In order to make an impression that is noticed and remembered, that same message needs to be continually driven home, clearly and succinctly. This means tying both your online and offline communications together so you present one unified image, no matter where they may be seen. Mismatched communications that don’t hang together create a confused, disorganized, unprofessional message. Mixed signals fracture your image rather than enhancing and reinforcing it.

A laser-sharp, visually-powerful brand is the single most important step you can take to reach, excite and inspire people to take action — and hire brand “you.”

This post first appeared on Liz Strauss’s Successful Blog
Article by Paul Biedermann

Featured image courtesy of morgueFile.
Photo illustration work: Paul Biedermann, re:DESIGN

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Design is Not About You or Me, It’s About Them

9/24/2014

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Design is Not About You or Me, It’s About Them

Design is more than a client’s personal likes and dislikes. It is more than your favorite color or how you just painted your new kitchen. Design is also more than something that goes in a designer’s portfolio.

These scenarios are all too common, and all too wrong. Design should always be about the end-user: your customers, your market, your audience.

So a certain degree of objectivity is necessary if one is to utilize and practice design successfully. Throughout all the design disciplines: marketing, branding and communications design — web design, product design, exhibit design, interior design… design serves a purpose. Yes, good design usually looks nice too, but its primary value and reason for being is to service a need:

• Design makes things more easily understood, providing the value of clarity.

• Design gets your business noticed, providing the value of existence.

• Design tells your story, providing the value of comprehension.

• Design makes your content accessible, providing the value of relevancy.

• Design makes things feel and work better, providing the value of comfort and expediency.

• Design produces a desired response, providing value. Period.

Good design keeps the end in mind

Let’s face it, most people really don’t know what they want when it comes to design. On the other hand, there are some who think they know exactly what they want. And that is where trouble can stir.

It would be easy for a designer to just give a client “what they want.” No muss, no fuss, and it makes the client happy. But that’s not what good designers of integrity do — and good clients know that design is bigger than themselves.

Design is a process

Good designers work hard to ensure a process that arrives at the best, most effective solution for the particular problem at hand. Sometimes preconceived notions can get in the way, and those need to be bridged — or occasionally, “fighting the good fight.” But keep in mind that a good designer always wants what’s best for the project and not for their portfolio (or ego).

We all have the software to be creative because creativity is not about the software.

Good design either communicates an idea, influences an emotion, makes something function better, or inspires a particular action. But design does not just “happen” and it is certainly not done in a vacuum. It requires the engagement of an involved client who partners with the designer for a successful outcome — each bringing their unique strengths, talents and roles to the table. Expecting a designer to just disappear after the first meeting and magically reappear with a fully-realized design that perfectly solves the problem at hand is the stuff of pipe dreams. A certain amount of back and forth is required to enable the path to discovery and arrive at a design that most effectively accomplishes its objectives.

It’s a process — and that means working with a seasoned design professional who has the knowledge and expertise to get it done right. Even so, it can get messy. An experienced designer knows when to correct course and right the ship. This could mean taking a step back and requesting more information, or even an impassioned plea to reconsider a viewpoint or decision that would have serious implications on the final outcome.

In those instances when the designer finds their attempts falling on deaf ears, they have four basic options:

Throwing up their hands and just giving the client what they want, compromising their own integrity and professional reputation.
Going the extra mile, making yet another effort at convincing the client to do the right thing. Pushing and pulling and hoping that the give-and-take still leads to a suitable compromise that makes everybody happy — and the client gets what they need for the betterment of the project, not just what they asked for.
Attempting to ram their work through, sacrificing all hope of an amicable relationship and future business.
Walking away — giving up completely, compromising their relationship with the client and ensuring they will never see any future projects.

We’re a nation of skimmers. Clear, succinct writing and good design are more important than ever.

Number two is clearly the best option, and hopefully the compromises aren’t such that they destroy the integrity of the design and the project. Yet many a designer has gone this route only to end up at options one, three or four — none of which are desirable.

Too many clients, however, would sadly be satisfied with option one. I’ve found that compromising the work for the sake of the client’s “wishes” might make them happy initially — after all, they got what they asked for — but it most likely won’t give them what they need. A well-considered design solution that makes real business impact over the long haul is what truly makes a client happy, even if it wasn’t what they first expected.

The key is developing the client/designer relationship to everybody’s satisfaction, so the process can be allowed to proceed fruitfully. It can take time, but with time, comes trust. And when that happens, design for both client and designer can be a mutually rewarding process indeed. There’s always the chance of a few bumps in the road along the way, but I encourage everyone to work through the process together and get on with it — utilizing design to achieve a common goal: amazing things for your business.

Article by Paul Biedermann

Featured image courtesy of Pixabay.
Photo illustration work: Paul Biedermann, re:DESIGN

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Visuals, Schmisuals — Here’s What Your Business Really Needs to Pop

8/18/2014

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Visuals, Schmisuals -- Here’s What Your Business Really Needs to Pop

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There’s been a lot of talk about the importance of the visual lately, especially for social media sharing and online marketing. Heck, I’ve been one of the leading protagonists! But what seems to be missing is that this means more than just slapping up an image and calling it a day — it takes a bit more to get attention for your business and create influence.

In fact, with all the visual noise now, you are probably already feeling that something more is needed to have any hope of making a dent in today’s noisy digital ecosystem.

So what will make the difference for your business?

1) A unique voice
It starts here — differentiating yourself from what others are doing so you alone stand apart. This, of course, begins with your product/service offerings and lies at the foundation of your business strategy — but then it also needs to carry through how you present yourself everywhere your business is seen: your website, your social media pages, email marketing, blog posts, e-books, newsletters, business cards, mailers, posters, and so on.… both online and offline. The most successful businesses aren’t afraid to stand alone for what only they can provide, forging a new path.

2) A strong brand image
Beyond just visuals, your business needs to take that unique voice and create a strong brand/design strategy that infuses everything you do. Your words, your tone, your visual style— all define your brand and should look and sound like they come from the same company. Your branding should inform your visuals, instantly connecting them with your business. There’s a lot of mediocrity out there — a high-quality, professional business image will do wonders to set you apart and get the attention you’re looking for.

3) A smart, consistent visual strategy
A cohesive game plan with a unique voice and a wonderfully visualized brand identity seamlessly brings this all together, continually reinforcing itself across all media. This ensures strong brand recognition so that over time, people immediately know it’s you no matter where you are seen.

Remember: anything worth doing takes effort

It takes planning. It takes time. And yes, it may also take a budget. But isn’t creating an effective strategy that will generate real results for your business worth it?

If you’re still not convinced, let me tell you about the MOST important benefits of having a well-conceived visual, branding, and design strategy…

With something that important, isn’t it wise for your business to think smart/quality, instead of fast/cheap? There’s no doubt that using visuals is important — but like so many things, it’s not just what you do, it’s how you do it. After all, prolonging business success and losing sales is far from fast and cheap.

I welcome your thoughts in the comments section below. And if you’re ready to get going and pump up your business’s brand image with an effective visual/design strategy, I’d love to talk to you — you can contact me here.

Article by Paul Biedermann

Featured image courtesy of Pixabay.
Photo illustration work: Paul Biedermann, re:DESIGN

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12 Ways That Good Design May Elude You

8/11/2014

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Good design is present even when you might not be aware of it. This may be counterintuitive to what most people think, because design is not about decoration and just making things look pretty. There is that too, but design runs through our lives in everything we see and do. When you go for a drive, do your shopping, watch TV, grab a magazine, visit a website, use a bottle opener… you get the picture — design is there.

The best design supports whatever it is we are trying to do, creating seamless, annoyance-free experiences. Good design aids and enhances experiences, never detracts from them. Good design is about function in all of its forms.

Indeed, the most noticeable design is usually bad design — those all-too-common occurrences when you made a wrong turn because of bad signage, pinched your finger using a cumbersome tool, or searched in vain for something on a website when time was short. You certainly noticed the design then! And it sucked.

Here are twelve things good design does by staying out of the way.

1. Aids comprehension
Text in the right typeface and formatted the right way evokes just the right feeling while delivering the information you need — quickly and effectively. The same is true for how a communications piece is designed, how an exhibit is set up, or how the dashboard on your new car is organized. Good design makes things easily understandable.

2. Leads you on a journey
An effective design guides your eye around a page so you see things in the correct sequence, from most important to least important. Any good website, brochure, sales kit, or any other well-designed work creates a hierarchy of information and content that we absorb intuitively in the order it was intended.

The best design is there when you are least aware of it.

3. Tells a story
Good design has a beginning, a middle and an end — first introducing you to an idea, then fleshing it out, and finally resolving itself at the end. Websites tell a story, brochures tell a story, and even a logo tells a story: first capturing your attention, then identifying what it is and leaving you with an indelible, lasting impression.

4. Directs an action
Oftentimes, design is meant to influence you to do something — fill out a form, click a button, buy something… you get the idea. Done well, this process is natural and seamless.

5. Elicits an emotion
A design in the magazine with the photograph or illustration that strikes just the right chord steers your mind and sets you up emotionally for the rest of the messages on the page. The same is true for a company’s brand identity — the feeling we have for Disney is much different than what we may have for a company such as GE, for example. Good design makes us feel what we are intended to feel.

6. Points the way forward
Design leads you to things — signs tell us where to go, symbols point out the nearest restroom, and all kinds of graphic devices are used to highlight what cannot be missed.

7. Makes an immediate impression
Good design exudes a feeling of quality and professionalism. The materials used are just as important — they are tactile and an influential part of any design — use the wrong ones and your credibility is shot at the very first interaction. Handing out a flimsy business card printed on thin paper stock is no different than a limp handshake. Keep that in mind at your next business event.

8. Frames the really good stuff
White space puts your focus where it’s supposed to be, guiding the eye along the way. It’s not often that so little can do so much. Likewise, the empty negative space within a logo is just as important as the solid elements around it. In good design, nothing really is something.

9. Casual perfection
The seductive nature of a loose, informal design or illustration style can lull you into thinking it was done easily or haphazardly. It wasn’t. But carefree design is extremely inviting and makes us more receptive to the messages it contains.

Less is more in good design. In bad design, less is just less.

10. Facilitates a function
A beautifully elegant product design is seamless — it makes you not even notice it’s there, yet you know life would be more difficult without it. When’s the last time you thought about a paper clip? That humble design has certainly stood the test of time.

11. Leaves things alone
The beautifully designed coffee table book with luscious aerial photographs of Europe draw you in — because the design got out of the way. Too much design would have been a distraction.

12. Seduces you
You know that retail showroom with beautiful lighting and soft music that showcases the product, elevating it to hero status? Unbeknownst to you, you are being romanced — perhaps even aggressively seduced.

So the next time things are humming along, you may not even be aware that design is there. Good design gets out of the way — even as it provides the key ingredient that makes whatever you’re doing seem so right. Indeed, that is the very reason you missed it in the first place.

Are there any other things you can think of as evidence of good design? Any bad examples that drive you absolutely crazy? Let me know in the comments.

This post first appeared on 12 Most, the best list site on the web.
Article by Paul Biedermann

Featured image courtesy of Pixabay.
Photo illustration work: Paul Biedermann, re:DESIGN

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Create Unique Content and Own Your Business Niche

7/15/2014

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Create Unique Content and Own Your Business Niche

Risking failure to be stellar is better than ensuring mediocrity by playing it safe.

Sharing other people’s content on social media is nice, but the best content sharers are content creators. Makers. Producers. Originators.

It’s one thing to cover that ’80s band on stage with a bad wig at the local fair — it’s a completely different thing to perform a song you’ve written and then share it with the rest of the world for the first time. If it’s good, people will snap to attention. If it’s not so good, well… people may head to the side area for a corn dog, but if it’s really, really good? You could soon find yourself on a much larger stage with a vastly larger audience.

Whether it’s a great song, a witty visual, an interesting article, a compelling video, or an innovative dance routine — making something new that only you could have made captures the imagination and sets you apart from the rest. Heck — being original is what moves the ball forward on the field of human civilization.

Rise above the noise

As social media continues to evolve — and as all media continues to evolve — the noise quotient goes up. Everybody is a publisher these days with the potential to reach a vast, global audience within a matter of seconds. What you do with that incredible opportunity is up to you. It’s quicker and far easier to just share what other people have created. Most people do that and that’s fine. But if you want to separate yourself from the crowd, the best way to step it up is to use your own special talents and create original content for your niche that others will want to share.

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If that sounds challenging, it is. A bit risky? Maybe. But it is also incredibly gratifying — not only to carve out your own unique space in this always-on, 24/7 online world of ours, but also to have produced something original — perhaps evolving into a broad body of work that could only have come from you. Hone those latent talents! Take a creative writing class, practice your on-camera skills or learn to draw!

Be yourself, be different

The important thing is to be original! That’s always preferable to going down a path of relative sameness. When you write a blog post, fuel it with passion and take an angle that’s different from what others are doing, even if the topic is a popular one. When you create an infographic, draw a diagram in the sand and photograph it to create your image — anything to be different! Some of the content that has the biggest potential for going viral isn’t necessarily the most polished, but it has a good idea and oozes originality. People love that!

Now that many of us have been on social media for a while, I sense that people are starting to rethink things a bit.

Where is the best place to put your time?
How can you most effectively manage the online presence you’ve worked so hard to establish?
Things change — how do you keep it all going, especially as more people are vying for attention online with no end in sight?

Being unique is contagious: once you color outside the lines, you’ll never go back.

Stay on strategy

Of course, it all starts with what you are trying to do and defining your business objectives — then developing a strategy that will best reach the people you need to reach, solidifying your brand. This includes fortifying your efforts with content that will get noticed, get shared, and drive the results you’re looking for.

But if you’re interested in real business results, and not just high follower counts of dubious relevance, producing original, unique content and developing relationships is the way to get there. And if you don’t possess the skills to create a specific type of content, that’s fine too. The most successful businesses source the talent they don’t possess themselves to bring their content to life and power their brands — anything less presents a less-than-professional vibe to the world that should not be taken lightly, for it is a reflection on you and your business. Mediocrity is rampant, and sometimes we need to put the ego aside and make an honest assessment of where our time and skills are best spent.

Keeping an eye on the bigger picture and how to achieve real benefits for your business over the long-term should always be central. Yet, to my continued surprise, there is far less talk about content creation and an over-abundance of talk about the tactics themselves — advice on how to use social media, the hottest online tools, SEO, etc. is everywhere — necessary and important, but mostly irrelevant when it comes to producing the kind of meaningful content that will truly make you stand out and get noticed.

There is an avalanche of content flooding the social streams — day in and day out — much of it looking the same, rehashed over and over again. It has only just begun. The time to focus on creating original, unique, valuable content is now.

It's also a lot more fun.

What are you doing to create your amazing content?

This post first appeared on Liz Strauss’s Successful Blog
Article by Paul Biedermann

Featured images courtesy of Pixabay.
Photo illustration work: Paul Biedermann, re:DESIGN.

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[INFOGRAPHIC] 12 Reasons Your Business Needs to Get Visual

5/8/2014

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Infographic 12 Reasons Your Business Needs to Get Visual Infographic

The shift to the visual is evident everywhere we look, in all media — the infographic below explains why.

A good, strong visual married to a good concept — with the right strategy and the right words — wins every time, especially in today’s busy, noisy media world. One thing is clear: visuals and all that traditional creative expertise brings to the table has never been more important for capturing eyeballs, expanding brand influence, and getting people to act.

Infographic 12 Reasons Your Business Needs to Get Visual

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The brain processes visual information 60,000 times faster than text.

Visuals satisfy our short attention spans and distracted lives.

Visuals tap into our primitive selves, inspiring powerful emotions.

Article by Paul Biedermann

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Cheap, Freebie “Design” Tools Are Not Really About Design At All

4/16/2014

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Cheap, Freebie “Design” Tools Are Not Really About Design At All

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They’re slick. They’re cheap. Their sales pitches look convincing. And there are some very well-respected people promoting their services. But they have absolutely none of the virtues of what REAL design brings to business.

Dragged and dropped, templated, clip-arted, cheapo do-it-yourself “design” tools do not really produce design at all — at least not the type of design that can truly transform your business and take it to new heights. They are Trojan horses — fakes, frauds — cake decorating applied to something that should really be taken a lot more seriously: your business.

Now, that’s not to say that there isn’t a place for what those tools have to offer — there is. But only within the larger context of a professionally planned, strategic design and branding program. They can be helpful in extending an established brand and design strategy, for day-to-day activities such as creating images for a blog or to share online.

But too many people seem to be playing around with those tools and using them as the foundation for their entire brand image. And unfortunately, it is not likely to be a good one. There is no consistency from image to image, poor branding and amateurish typography to name a few. Most importantly… the strategic component is completely missing!

The images don’t fit in with a bigger design and branding strategy that determines how the individual pieces fit into the larger puzzle. The result? A fractured brand that does nothing for your brand other than raise questions in the minds of your intended audience and business prospects. That’s a huge no-no in a distracted world where time is limited and clarity is key. Plus, your images look like everybody else who is trying to save a buck. Not exactly the answer to one of the most common business challenges in today’s world — carving out your unique corner amidst all the noise.

If you truly understand all that real design can do for your business — I don’t think you would waste time going down those paths. Sure, it can be fun, but shouldn’t that be left to things other than something as important as your business? I don’t know about you, but I think of arts and crafts as something you do on a rainy weekend — not the foundation of your business branding, marketing and communications.

One of the biggest benefits of working with a real designer is the holistic approach we bring to your branding and marketing — using good, custom design to create a cohesive program that not only stands out, but clarifies your business in an instant — visually unique, across all your channels. We interpret information and distill it down to its essence, and then communicate that in a visual manner that people will understand in a glance, driving it through all your communications — online and offline — all the while influencing behavior to achieve your business objectives. Only REAL design will do that, because nothing ties your content back to the vision you have for your business like good design and a smart visual strategy. It may cost a little more, but the dividends are more than worth it — just ask anyone who’s done it.

Time is slipping, slipping, slipping… slipping away… the more time you spend playing around with the latest, greatest freebie tool and not engaging with the power of real design are more missed business opportunities.

So stop wasting precious time that your business will never be able to recoup, and start working with a professional designer who has the knowledge, experience, talent and strategic outlook to get you where you need to go. Arts and crafts can wait for later.

Article by Paul Biedermann

Featured image courtesy of stock_xchng.
Photo illustration work: Paul Biedermann, re:DESIGN.

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