Whether you’re a small company with a can do attitude, or a Fortune 500 company with a 20 person company that will debate the merits of serif or sans serif font, you can create a strong brand identity. Or a bad one. And there have some very public successes and failures in the digital sphere lately.

A great case study for a successful logo change would be Starbucks. As much as some may disdain the massive coffee chain, they’re obviously doing something right. And their brand equity is right up there with the major players – Starbucks could probably be called a major player themselves.

With their logo changes over the past years, especially, anyone with internet access can look up Starbucks and see their reasons for the logo redesign, and if you dig a little deeper, you can see all the research that they did in order to make these seemingly minute changes to their logo – though this time, Starbucks decided to drop their name entirely from the logo – focusing on the siren and the curves of the logo instead.

Interestingly enough, their extensive research shows that rounded logo designs are more appealing (somehow, I’m not sure of the research exactly) to much of the Asian market, which is where Starbucks is looking to expand the most in the coming years.

The changes to the Starbucks logo, and thus the Starbucks identity were well thought out, well crafted and not drastic – plus, Starbucks has the staying power to bounce back from the unhappiness from loyal customers that usually arises after any kind of brand repositioning.

The Gap, on the other hand, failed. Back in October 2010, Gap unveiled a new logo – as idsgn.org state quite succinctly, “Gap has built a solid brand since its humble beginnings in 1969 as a Levi’s and record store. So why trade that for Helvetica (and an awkwardly placed square)?”

From the way in which the public outcry of the new logo was handled and the response that was given by Gap, it seems like there wasn’t any particular thrust behind the new logo of Gap – it was just “more modern.” That is not a good enough reason to change the immediate identifier of your brand – especially one such as the Gap that has been around for decades. Gap did not seem to be entering new markets or adding new features to stores, nor did they really seem to be in fiscal trouble. So this redesign was completely out of the blue.

In reaction to the outcry, Gap initially offered to actually go with the reaction of the masses and crowd-source their designs for a new logo. Which was kind of a bad move, as it offended many in the design industry, because they would be offering their time and talent for free to fix a logo for a company when the ultimate original wasn’t broken. Gap gave the impression that their choice was not well thought out or well researched, and the American public reacted appropriately. All because of a logo change. Imagine that! Later in October Gap announced that it was returning to the original logo.

It goes to show that a logo is incredibly important, and even seemingly small changes can completely change your brand image. Whether you’re a small company or a large conglomeration, a brand identity and a logo and the ramifications of changing one cannot be ignored.

photos courtesy of Starbucks and Huffington Post

Anthony is a freelance writer, working with companies ranging from environmental lighting to industrial manufacturers and everything in between. He has always been fascinated with digital society and culture, making note of how brands permeate the landscape.

Then Facebook programmed spiders to read users’ messages and Wall posts and comments. Facebook started selling “targeted advertising,” much like Google’s Pay-Per-Click program, to businesses. The software scans for particular keywords and phrases and places “relevant” ads on those pages, much the same way Facebook itself places Friends suggestions based on friends of friends.
Facebook users dislike this invasion of privacy. There is no opt-out function available. Facebook users close their accounts and look elsewhere.

Add to that exodus, Facebook is eyebrow-deep in worry about Google+, currently in beta testing. The response to beta testers’ invitations to join the beta test, Google had to discontinue the invitation process after only one day: They were overloaded with responses in the tsunami response to get an account.

Nothing Facebook has used or has acquired recently even slowed that flood to Google+.
Just think what’s going to happen when Google+ is live.
Yes, while there is still a significant number of Facebook users, you should maintain a presence there. But reading the ad copy on the Walls, marketers, expand your social network marketing efforts to cover all bases and close all gaps. Twitter, the next in line for succession of reign, is tweeting its way to the throne room, and businesses are beginning to fine tune their quick marketing tweets. Don’t be left behind. Get your tweets in order and grab your market share.

Time your tweets. If your target market is another business, tweet during their business hours. If your target market is the individual consumer, time your tweets to their lunch hours, after work and just after their evening meal. Work across time zones if you offer national service or are branding.
Always, always, always include a URL to a direct-load page on your website. Use a shortened URL if necessary. WordPress provides it in their Edit Post dashboard, and sites like tinyurl.com and bit.ly.dom also provide provide permanent shortened URLs. You can reuse those versions, but rephrase your tweets—you don’t need a paid account!

Follow anyone and everyone related to your business. Follow their followers and create lists for highly targeted messages. Answer tweets; retweet those your business finds interesting. Be personable but what potentially offending tweets—always be PC in your messages.
Use social network management programs like Tweetdeck or SocNet research tools like Backtype and Topsy.
Take every opportunity to improve, widen and broaden your social network presence on every social network site available. Time is money, and wasting either is a business sin. Get to where your customers are—and will be in the future.

Article written by Sara Woods from Coupon Croc, the number one resource for businesses who are looking for an Argos discount code to save on the newest electronics, office supplies and more.

Today those in retail will rarely operate solely from a store. The Internet has opened the doors to multiply sales, and in some cases, has become a necessity in order to ensure the survival of the business.

In addition, the cost of marketing your product or service has dropped and today, having an online presence is an absolute necessity.

When we talk about an online presence we refer primarily to three things: your positioning in the search engines organic listings (SEO), your social media presence and your utilisation of pay per click marketing.

The three forms are highly unique, yet ultimately interlinked. Having a significant presence in any one of these three marketing forms will inevitably impact upon your presence in other areas online.

So which area do you focus on?

Whether social media, SEO or PPC stands as the most effective marketing form for your company depends upon you product, service and target market. However having a presence in all three is ultimately a good thing.

You may find the services of an online marketing company or pay per click agency can help you to establish which marketing form will be most cost-effective and have the biggest impact for your company.

Keywords are key:

One of the first steps an online marketing company and a pay per click agency will take is to establish the best keywords for you to use.

Keywords relate to what people search for online and having the wrong keywords will make it very difficult for your customers to find you.

The right keywords will be those that are searched for frequently, while having minimal competition from others in your field. If the right keywords have been chosen, you will find that you climb the search engine positions more quickly, and incur lower costs in a pay per click campaign.

If you want to increase your online presence, you must work with the right keywords. For instance, if you sell DVD’s and choose to work on the keyword ‘DVD’ you are unlikely to achieve much success due to the vast competition for that keyword. However something such as ‘cheap DVD’s’ or ‘buy DVD’s’ may garner more success since they eliminate sites which simply talk about DVD’s such as forums, review sites and blogs.

Market yourself:

While a page one position on Google and a big pay per click budget are all well and good, social media offers a very effective and (mostly) free means to market your company and communicate on a personal level with your customers. In addition, having a big presence on the most popular social media outlets will inevitably affect your organic search rankings; boosting your presence online even further.

Getting a social media campaign started is easy. Getting it right is not. There is an endless array of information available to you online if you wish to teach yourself how to execute an effective social media campaign. However, an online marketing company can help set-up, control and monitor the campaign on your behalf; if you wish to benefit from the experience of a company who have been there and done it many times before.

This post was written by James Harper on behalf of Boom Online Marketing. James writes on subjects relating to online marketing and business.

While we generally think of LinkedIn as a social networking site for professionals and business people, there are some tricks you can use in order to use it as a method of spreading the work about the products/services you have to offer.  When used in this way, LinkedIn can practically act as a form of free advertising.

There’s actually an option to pay for adverts on LinkedIn and the system works in pretty much the same way as the Facebook adverts system.  However, even if you haven’t paid for premium membership on LinkedIn (and, to be honest, most people find that it’s not necessary), there are ways of using LinkedIn without having to pay for these adverts.

Once you’ve joined LinkedIn, the first thing you need to do is to complete your Profile in as much detail as possible.  You can actually list all your websites here (with hyperlinks) which is really useful.  If you have a blog on your website, or if you blog about your business and its products or services, you can use one of the apps that will pull in your blog posts to your Home page automatically.  Likewise, if you’re using Twitter to spread the word on your company, you can also get your tweets pulled into your news stream.  LinkedIn seems to have followed Facebook recently in becoming much more “social” – this makes it much more powerful as a means of connecting with business associates and prospective clients.

Once your Profile has been sorted out, the next thing you need to do is to join some groups.  There is a tab for Groups on your Home page.  You need to search for groups using key words for your business activities and join a few of the most useful looking groups.  Most of the groups allow you to join immediately, although some of them will have to approve your application to join.  This usually takes no longer than 48 hours or so, usually much quicker than that.

Don’t join too many groups as you will find yourself with a stream of news and email notifications (if you have opted for these) that is a bit overwhelming and hard to keep on top of.  Just join a few and then start browsing the discussions that are going on within the groups to get a feel for the type of social interaction that’s going on.  Once you’ve become au fait with the topics that are being discussed and the types of people discussing those subjects, it’s time to start joining in the conversations.  Maybe you have an answer to a question that somebody has asked, or perhaps you can bring some sort of insight to ongoing discussions.  If you post a comment that adds value to the discussion, you can be pretty sure that people involved will have a look at your Profile and perhaps click on your website link.  Perhaps there’s a problem being discussed and your company can offer a solution with one of its products/services.  Jump right in and describe the solution, posting a link to the appropriate page on your website (practically a free advert).

As you engage more in these discussions in your groups, you might want to start a topic of your own.  Check that the topic has not already been started (by doing a quick search in LinkedIn) before posting and then fire away.  One great way of starting off a discussion about your company and its products/services would be to post a link to a particular page on your website, asking for advice on any enhancements your company could add to the product/service featured.  This will not only increase visitors to your website, but it’s a great way of engaging with prospective customers and finding out what their expectations and needs are – a free way of conducting a bit of market research.

So, if you’re in business and you’re not already on LinkedIn – sign up now – it’s a great free online resource that you can use to gain attention for your company.

The writer Debbie frequently writes about various business and social media topics including guidance for small business on topics such as foreign exchange.

Charity Events

Especially in the light of a recession, consumers look up to businesses which are able to give back to the community. A local business which sponsors charity or other community related events also benefit from all the exposure. Business owners can ask members of the staff to come up with blog posts related to the event that they have just participated in. Or host an event which benefits the entire community and then blog about everything from the preparation stages to the execution. Think about it this way: by opting to help the community, you also help yourself.

Commentaries 

The internet is the best place to go to when you’re looking for another person’s opinion or if you’re itching to air your own opinion. As a business, you should seek to establish yourself as an authority in your field. The easiest way to gain credibility is to give out your comment about current events which relate to your field. Make sure however that you are not just writing something just for the sake of having something to post on your blog. Make your opinion sensible, well-substantiated and helpful.

How-to 

With all the information that consumers can access with just a click of a button, almost everyone has become a do-it-yourself person. Empower your customers with the ability to fix and create all on their own (with the latent motive of having them purchase the equipment and materials to do so from you). Post how-to articles of topics that are related to the items that you are selling. For instance, if you sell kitchen supplies then write cooking related how-to articles. What’s great with this approach is that advertising your goods is done in a very subtle manner avoiding that all-too-familiar experience of putting off customers because of aggressive marketing. 

Chris Marentis is an experienced marketer who enjoys writing about what he has learned in over 25 successful years in business and currently specializes in Small Business Internet Marketing and internet marketing for local business

According to a recent study conducted by Gartner, 75% of shoppers rely on social media to influence their shopping patterns. How is that for taking shopping to the next level!

Let’s take a closer look at the benefits you can see from using social media sites as part of your marketing plan.

1. Your customers are already there

Traditionally online marketers had to search for their customers. With social marketing, you’ve already found them.

Take Facebook as an example. With some simple linking, you can now embed your shopping cart directly onto your Fan page – VendingBox is an example. For your customers, that means they can browse and purchase your offerings directly on your page without ever having to leave Facebook. No question, the fewer steps they have to take to purchase your product, the more likely you are to make the sale.

2. Reap the benefits of a social experience

Shopping has long been associated with socializing. Yet with the advent of online shopping, at-home purchasing took over. Online shopping was becoming an isolated experience, which was not particularly a good thing for sales.

Enter social media sites. Suddenly shopping has become a social experience once again. Online stores need to benefit from this shopping explosion.

Here’s how Facebook works.

By installing some basic links into your Facebook shopping cart, you can enable people to share their purchases on their individual profile pages. In turn, these links are displayed on friends’ newsfeeds where others are free to offer their own comments and recommendations.

Make things even better by offering special Facebook-only deals. With these deals your customers can share those deals among their friends, and on and on. Talk about bringing social commerce to a whole new level!

3. Encourage your customers to buy more

Facebook’s powerful “like” feature allows customers to endorse or recommend products they like. These endorsements allow an online marketer to take advantage of particular popular products by offering similar products.

A “like” is a serious vote because it is directly shared with friends. After all, what better endorsement is there than a vote from a friend? In fact, a “like” can direct a related customer to a product they didn’t even know existed.

Kirsty LaVier is editor for Shopping Cart Reviews, the leading shopping cart information website.

The first thing to do is to upload an appropriate logo. It is a fact that visually appealing graphics have more long-lasting memories on people than their dull counterparts. This is something that will help people to remember your Facebook fan pages.

In addition to that, there is the issue of regular postings. If you just create Facebook fan pages and leave it at that, you will have not achieved anything. You must ensure that it is always buzzing with activity. This is the only way to keep people interested and hooked to it.

You have heard of the saying that content is king. If your Facebook fan pages are lacking in content, it will seem to people that you are not serious. They will reason that even the creator is not serious, so why should they? Better still; link it to other sites with similar subjects.

If a site is good, and it can be linked, do it. The more you make your pages known, the more you will get visitors. If you are doing business, ensure that you do not link it to pages with negative connotations. Those things will drive people away from your Facebook fan pages.

Creating Facebook fan pages is a powerful tool for marketing. If you are running a business without one of these features, you should think of creating it. With a firm set up and enough buzz you stand to get many people interested in your company. The more interest you create the higher your chances of getting more customers.

The good news is that you can add your own customized applications to Facebook fan pages. This will aid you further in your drive to increase traffic to your website. You will no longer rely solely on articles optimized for search engines. Many people use Facebook fan pages for this purpose and succeed.

When you interact with fans on your Facebook fan pages, they get a feeling of individualized attention. If you can raise interest in your business, fans are likely to be more loyal than regular customers. There is no one who does not like personalized attention.

About the author: Claire Jarrett runs Marketing By Web, who offer PPC Management and AdWords Training

Sexy New Hardware 

At this point, it’s a lock that the new iPhone 5 will have the dual-core, 1.2 GHz A5 ARM CPU now inside the iPad 2. It’s a logical move for Apple, as the A5 provides the kind of muscle many have come to expect in a mobile device. If you like iOS now, you’ll like it more with A5 running the show. Despite the lack of Flash, the web-browsing experience afforded by that kind of computing power will be faster, slicker, and more responsive than you thought possible. In addition, the iPhone 5 will most likely boast an 8 Megapixel camera that provides damn-near SLR-level picture quality.

Software Goodies

The iOS platform, a variant of Mac OS X, has performed admirably over the last few years and has set the standard for user experience in a mobile device. Things are looking to get more slick with the release of the iPhone 5. The boys and girls from Cupertino are as always tight-lipped when it comes to what we can expect, but the smart money says we’re in for some surprises. Apple’s own web page about the coming iOS 5 is cryptic at best, but they promise over 200 new features in a total overhaul of the standard iOS platform.

Aesthetics

True to their reputation as masters of showmanship, Apple can always be counted on not to tip their hand before the time is right. Unless a demo phone gets away from them by accident, of course. But the word on the street is that the iPhone 5 will feature a radical new design that is sure to turn heads once it’s released. They can’t make the thing any slimmer, so this one’s a real mystery. Perhaps they’ll introduce a Swiss Army Knife that pops out the mini-USB port. As we near the release date, which may be as soon as September, one can only guess. But here’s a hint: curved glass on a 3.7”, edge-to-edge display. Pretty sweet, right?

In Conclusion…

Apple’s great at keeping the rumor mill spinning at full speed. It’s not that the company relies entirely on marketing to move their wares; it’s more that they know how to put on a good show. They understand that presentation is everything, and that having what is quite possibly the best product on the market is everything else. Apple doesn’t play it as close to the vest as they’ve done with the iPhone 5 unless they’ve really got something. Unfortunately, we’re just going to have to wait it out to see what they’ve got. But if history is any guide, get ready for some fireworks when the iPhone 5 drops this fall.

Jessica Bosari writes about gadets and technology for Technology-Colleges.info. The site helps students find the best schools for computer forensics careers and other computer science fields.

If you use an email application like Gmail or Yahoo! Mail, or utilize Google Docs, then you are already using cloud computing, at least on a small scale.  I’ve recently increased my use of the cloud system by using DropBox to store my documents. This application syncs everything I put in the “box” between various devices; I don’t have to move documents manually or email them to myself as I move back and forth between my laptop, desktop and mobile phone. This type of application also allows me to store photos, video and music, and share them with others with a click of the mouse.

At this point, the question probably isn’t if cloud computing will be in our future, but to what extent it will be significant? Right now, one of the biggest concerns – perhaps slowing down the growth of the cloud, is privacy concerns. In theory, users will be able to determine how much of their personal information in the cloud will be public and how much will be private. In practice, the experience many users have had with Facebook’s rapidly shifting and confusing privacy standards make all of this a bit less straightforward. Users will have to be assured that their private information, especially financial information, will be completely safe and not constantly subject to the vagaries of the host application.

Business has already embraced cloud computing to a great extent. It’s a boon for smaller businesses that can’t afford or don’t require their very own server. They can simply store everything online for a fee based on the amount of space they use. It’s also a good solution for companies who have employees out on the road or working from home, as is increasingly common. With good security procedures in place, employees can access their work and all kinds of data from multiple locations and devices. It also means that businesses no longer have to purchase and manage huge, expensive software applications like CRM (Customer Relationship Management) or ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning). They can access these functions online and use only the parts that apply to their business.

The idea is that the cloud will eventually understand what you are doing and what you want and will be able to predict your behavior. It can then offer you information, products and applications that are tailor-made for you. Some may see this as sinister, but most likely even more will see it as a convenience. The implications for data mining and sale of this information are far-reaching, and a lot remains to be sorted out before cloud computing will be as wide-spread as many hope. At the fast rate it is progressing though, it will become increasingly influential, if not completely ubiquitous.

After Google’s demo of the web-based version of the game on Wednesday’s I/O conference, Angry Birds was launched in the Chrome Web Store. Angry Birds is currently a free demo that can be installed in the browser of your Mac or Windows computer.

The game runs very well. Adapting to the mouse-based version is very easy, especially when using a multi-touch trackpad. In most cases, a click is the equivalent of a single touch. To shoot the birds, hold down the trackpad button, and fire away.

There are only two levels, first and second, which are available on other platforms. The second level is made specifically for Chrome, and has Chrome’s logo throughout the animation.

The HD version is awesome, and there are only minor hiccups while playing. I was also able to perform several tasks within the Chrome browser, without crashes; and was ready to go when I came back to it’s tab (if you are playing on a MacBook Pro, it could get really hot while you playing).

Even if you have already downloaded Angry Birds in one of the many platforms which are available, it is a fun experience to play within the browser. All online games are not new, the platform has clearly evolved to attract developers who want to make games that use complex graphics and strong movements.

If you haven’t installed Angry Birds in your Google Chrome browser, head over to the web store and give it a try. Don’t blame me if you get addicted!