Archive for the ‘Tumblr’ Category

 

The Importance of Design

Friday, October 7th, 2011

On Wednesday evening, we all received the terrible news that Steve Jobs had passed away.  Whether you were on Twitter, Tumblr, or Facebook, your news feed was probably filled with notes about one of the greatest minds of our generation.  Even if you aren’t a fan of Apple products, you should know that Steve Jobs influenced how we interact with nearly every piece of personal technology today.

It wasn’t enough for him to simply produce a product that got the job done.  He wanted to give it a sense of elegance and ease of use, even if the user didn’t notice at first glance.  Take the iPhone, for example.  Before it came along, smart phones were clunky and not very user friendly.  Now, look at any smart phone outside of the iPhone.  They all look very different from the old design, but very similar to Apple’s. 

It’s not hard to figure out why this happened.  Apple products are beautifully designed, and Steve Jobs’ attention to detail was second to none.

To give you an idea of how much attention Jobs paid to the details of the user experience, check out this excerpt from a blog post I recently came across written by Dustin Curtis:

I’ve been wondering why Apple chose to make the iPhone 4′s screen 3.5-inches when other comparable phones with Android and Windows Phone 7 have larger, more inviting screens. When you first see a phone with a 4-inch or larger screen, it seems like a much better experience. I thought it was a technical decision, and it could be, but since switching to an Android phone— a Samsung Galaxy S II, the “best Android phone you can buy, anywhere” — 15 days ago, I have realized another huge downside of larger screens: when holding the phone with one hand, I can’t reach the other side of the screen with my thumb.

Touching the upper right corner of the screen on the Galaxy S II using one hand, with its 4.27-inch screen, while you’re walking down the street looking at Google Maps, is extremely difficult and frustrating. I pulled out my iPhone 4 to do a quick test, and it turns out that when you hold the iPhone in your left hand and articulate your thumb, you can reach almost exactly to the other side of the screen. This means it’s easy to touch any area of the screen while holding the phone in one hand, with your thumb. It is almost impossible to do this on the Galaxy S II.

This is an example of one of those design decisions that you don’t usually notice until you see someone doing it wrong. It’s one of the things that makes Apple products Apple products. (Click Here to follow Dustin on Twitter)

After reading this, you realize that Steve Jobs and crew did EVERYTHING for a specific reason.  Every piece of technology was refined over and over again to ensure that the user had best experience possible.  As Dustin said, you often don’t even realize why something is designed a certain way until someone else does it wrong.

Jobs not only left behind amazing pieces of technology, but also an incredible example of how to produce things that other will use.  As we move forward, it’s important to remember this as we present our brands and personalities to others on the web.

For example, are your tweets eye-catching, or are they a jumbled mess of hashtags and bit.ly links?  Do they beg your followers to answer your call to action, or do they create a sense of subconscious frustration as someone attempts to sift through the clutter? 

Is your blog designed to give a visitor a great experience, or is it designed to include as many ads as possible? 

Finally, did you simply link your Twitter account to your Facebook page so that you only had to update one service?  This shortcut results in your Facebook page showing hashtags and @replies, which have nothing to do with Facebook.  It’s annoying to your followers, and they take your updates less seriously knowing that they weren’t the original intended target.

So, as you remember all of the wonderful things Steve Jobs gave the world, remember also that he left an incredible example of how to present a brand to the world.  Put yourself in the consumer’s shoes, and pay attention to how you are perceived from their point of view.

How Olympus is Utilizing Tumblr’s Finest Photographers

Saturday, October 1st, 2011

Tumblr recently announced an interesting partnership with camera manufacturer Olympus.  When I say interesting, I really mean GENIUS.

Take a look at the email below that was received by several of the top Tumblr users:

If you haven’t seen the Olympus PEN yet, it’s a DSLR/compact point-and-shoot hybrid.  The idea is to give you the portability of a point and shoot while giving you the benefits of a full size DSLR at the same time.  Here it is:

Tumblr is a social media site that thrives on photography.  Many independent journalists and photographers use the platform to showcase their work, and some of them have thousands and thousands of followers.  Obviously, Olympus hopes to capitalize on that fact.

Sure, it’s smart to send a camera to influential photographers so that your camera gets a some publicity, but that’s not what makes this campaign so genius.

One of the most difficult things to do in marketing is trying to specifically target the influencers in your field.  Olympus realized that Tumblr has already done this for them.  If you want to know who is influencing photography today, all you have to do is take a look at the Photography Spotlight within Tumblr.  There, you’ll find established photographers alongside up-and-comers that show real talent.  These people take amazing photos, and thousands of people want to emulate them by finding out what techniques they used and what equipment they work with.  Now, Olympus has their personal contact information.

You can bet that Olympus will do everything they can to turn these influencers into raving fans for their cameras by sending them marketing pieces, invites to events, and freebies.  They’ll also find out where they live, what age group they belong to, and other places they hang out online to try and identify others just like them.  It’s an enormous opportunity and a fantastic utilization of social media.