One of my favorite things about my role at Strategic Blend is keeping up with clients, and seeing what they’re up to, how they’re using their digital properties, and watching them grow!

Some examples of recent innovative uses come from Drivin N Cryin, Karli Whetstone (and her new site theme), and The CO

DNC

Drivin N Cryin is a great example of motivating your community in a time of crisis/tragedy.  In a blog post dated Sept 13th, Drivin N Cryin took to their website with the following message:

Between 3:45am and 6am on Saturday September 11, Drivin N Cryin’s tour trailer containing their stage gear was stolen from the La Quinta Inn at x-169 on I-75 in Macon, GA. The black Quicksilver Racing 5×10 trailer held the band’s guitars, amplifiers, drums, merchandise and stage production gear. A complete list can be viewed here: http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=5912085821&topic=15178#topic_top and photos can be seen here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=235150&id=5912085821. 3 items have since been recovered at a pawn shop in Atlanta, GA. The person responsible for pawning these 3 items has been identified as Atlanta resident Reginald Ellis. More information on Ellis can be found here:http://www.drivinncryin.com/thief/.

Drivin N Cryin would like to thank their friends, fans, the Georgia music community and the Atlanta/Macon media for the outpouring of support and assistance. For 25 years, you guys have been the best fans. We are truly grateful.

Not only is this horrible for a touring band, but especially for a band that’s been on the road for 20+ years.  Taking a look at some of that gear will make any music fan tear  up.

Using social media (and not to mention craigslist, hilarious!) to showcase the gear stolen, adding a page to the site to help catch the theif (that rotten bastard).  The general response has been overwhelming.  Bringing an entire musical community together in the search for their stuff, and, more importantly, getting the word out that they’d been robbed, someone was pawning their shit, and THIS IS THAT DUDE.

A great use of WordPress, a great use of facebook, and a good strategy in a time of panic.  DNC, may all your stuff be found, may it all be in one piece, and may they put Reginald Donta Ellis in a cell UNDER the jail, and never let him loose.

Karli Whetstone

Karli’s career has been steadily progressing, and she decided to give the site a new look!  What I feel is a more grown up / sophisticated look and feel.

In addition she’s also begun blogging.  And unlike this blogger…. she’s diligent.   Rarely missing a day to update you on what’s going on in her world.  It’s very “daily diary” in nature, and is currently the most popular section of her site.  Between that and a persistent twitter feed, her fans know what she’s up to every day… and that will pay off in spades!

A loyal, devout, and connected following is a very powerful thing!

The CO

The CO are one of my favorite artists we’ve worked with.  They just GET IT!  They have integrated every portion of their digitally owned properties into a really robust site.

Troy’s Blog is filled with some great video updates, quick quips and stories… and most importantly, his passion for giving back to the world around him.

Collin’s Blog has great introspection, and images.

Not to mention the great video blog on the general band blog page

Much like Karli’s site, you really get a sense of who these guys are, and what they’re up to!

So here’s to you guys…. I hope to continue learning from you, growing with you, and helping find success with you.

Many sites with great potential end up living up to their expectations.   They utilize the technologies provided them to the utmost using every possible widget, social network, free/paid SEO optimization tricks, and, in some cases, a full on marketing team.  The content they provide is compelling and engaging, and I want to return to the site, because I know each time I’ll learn something new about the brand.

Some used their site to as more of a “Billboard” for their brand, but gave little else in the way of news and information.  A few of these sites fell short when it came to the content on their site; information was disjointed, there was no clear focus, no direction, and what resulted was a bit of a mess.   These sites typically give you a tidbit or two on the brand, ask for little in the way of a call to action and send you on your merry way.

A few of these sites fell short when it came to the content on their site; information was disjointed, there was no clear focus, no direction, and what resulted was a bit of a mess.  There was structure and layout, the opportunity to have a compelling site that urged me to return, but somewhere along the way the content got stale, or the core message was diluted.

There is obviously a spectrum of sites, from great to befuddling.  More times than not a site is defined by content.  What are you trying to say about your brand and how do you convey that message?   What makes a site “sticky” (makes you want to return)?  What makes you want add to the “bounce rate” (get outta there fast!).   Succinctly put, what does your content say about your brand?

The most important function of a site, is less about layout and more about content.  Finding content is extremely important, but you can find someone to assist with where the content pulls into the page.  Once the user has figured out where they’re supposed to look for content; what are you saying?  when did you say it?  how am I supposed to take this information and act upon it?

What: Make sure your messaging is clear and concise.  It needs to keep a consistent tone and theme.  If you’re a sophisticated business, don’t have a top news item that is jovial in nature.  If you’re a comedy tour, don’t be all button down business.  Know your tone, convey your brand, and keep with the theme.

When: The most compelling reason for a user to add to your “bounce rate” is to see the most recently updated item dated July 2009.  Regardless of how well you’ve conveyed your message you’ve already told the user your site is not important to you.  People rarely go back to sites that they know won’t change.  There’s a reason Facebook is the most trafficked site on the internet: constantly updated and changing content.

How: Now that a user has visited your site and taken in your content, what are they supposed to do with it?  Have you given me an easy way to share the content on your site (via Digg, RSS, etc), Have you asked me to make a purchase or sign up for a mailing list?  Always be thinking of the end user, and how to direct them to action.

Keeping these things in mind when updating the content on your site can lead to a great deal of success.  The combination of quality layout and great content will result in a higher probability of a repeat visitor.  Repeat site visitors are more likely to become fans or customers, and those lead to revenue.

At Strategic Blend, we advise and guide clients to optimize their content, build a clean platform to display the content, and discover ways to monetize the fan/customer after they’ve been attained.  We strive for complete optimization of every site, letting the message (content) of the brand speak for itself.  While we are adept in making the site beautiful in appearance, it is our fervent belief that quality content will build a loyal fan/customer base.

If you’d like help on optimizing your content, let us know!

If you are new to web design, maybe you are thinking: “Why do I have to limit to that small set of fonts? I have a large collection of nice fonts in my computer.” As seasoned web designers already know, browsers can use only the fonts installed in the same computer, so it means that every visitor of your web page needs to have all the fonts you want to use installed in his/her computer. Different people will have different fonts installed, thus the need for a standard set of fonts.

The list
First, a few introductory notes:

• The names in grey are the generic family of each font.
• In some cases the Mac equivalent is the same font, since Mac OS X also includes some of the fonts shipped with Windows.
• The notes at the bottom contains specific information about some of the fonts.

1 Georgia and Trebuchet MS are bundled with Windows 2000/XP and they are also included in the IE font pack (and bundled with other MS applications), so they are quite common in Windows 98 systems.

2 Symbolic fonts are only displayed in Internet Explorer, in other browsers a font substitute is used instead (although the Symbol font does work in Opera and the Webdings works in Safari).

3 Book Antiqua is almost exactly the same font that Palatino Linotype, Palatino Linotype is included in Windows 2000/XP while Book Antiqua was bundled with Windows 98.

4 These fonts are not TrueType fonts but bitmap fonts, so they won’t look well when using some font sizes (they are designed for 8, 10, 12, 14, 18 and 24 point sizes at 96 DPI).

5 These fonts work in Safari but only when using the normal font style, and not with bold or italic styles. Comic Sans MS works in bold but not in italic. Other Mac browsers seems to emulate properly the styles not provided by the font (thanks to Christian Fecteau for the tip).

6 These fonts are present in Mac OS X only if Classic is installed.

Perhaps I woke up on the wrong side of the couch this morning. Maybe my coffee is too strong. Or maybe SonyBMG is so stupid about their online marketing efforts that they deserve to be ridiculed first thing the morning… every morning, until they stop damaging their own artist brands.

Case in point:

I’m a new superfan of a band called Low vs. Diamond. They played ‘The Tonight Show with Jay Leno’ last week and just plain knocked me out. (This is why God invented TIVO, by the way.) They have a decidedly English vibe about them a la The Verve and/or The Kooks, but hail from the good ole US of A.

But to my point- I became a fan, wanted to learn and hear more, and made the mistake of visiting their official website to do so.

The first thing on the page is a banner promoting, not my new favorite band, but Epic Records. Clearly, they want me to click on the dropdown lists of artists I DIDN’T just come here to learn more about. Next is a link to “Videos.” “Low vs. Diamond videos?” you may ask. No. It’s a link to the “Videos” page on MyPlay.com, where Bow Wow, Daughtry and Alicia Keys are currently making an appearance, but not even a mention of the band I’m here to see.

Wait! There’s more!

Next up is a link to “Shop.” And you guessed it… It’s a link to the MyPlay store, where Michelle Williams is front and center. John Mayer, Neil Diamond and Billy Joel all make the list… and again, the band that sent me here is no where to be found.

Get the point? There are also links to contests, newsletters and an invitation to surf the web courtesy of Google. They make money on those searches, by the way. Sending visitors to ‘not this site’ is a very profitable business for young artists, I’m sure.

All of this and I haven’t even made it 5 centimeters down the page.

I won’t speak to the design aesthetic of the site as those things tend to be more about personal taste than “right vs. wrong.” I will note, however, that the links in the middle of the page that display news, tour dates, bio, etc, are not the same links, with the same headings, as those that appear at the bottom of the page. Those links take you back over to “MyPlay,” where the band’s bio reads, “… iTunes offers fans an opportunity to purchase the band’s upcoming self-titled album months before its release this summer.”

10 brownie points to the person that can spot what’s wrong with that statement. (Hint: the band has already released their album, summer isn’t months from now, and biographies shouldn’t contain date-relative statements if they aren’t going to be updated frequently. Obviously it’s been at least “months” since this version was posted.)

And as if all of this weren’t enough to convince labels to get their heads out of their arses, the band’s site contains banner advertising, which I guarantee doesn’t earn them enough money to justify the dilution of their brand. Kenny Chesney literally takes more screen space on their Dates page than the promo of their own album up top. (Screen shot below.) I can’t make this stuff up, folks. It’s such an insult to the artist’s own brand it should go without saying, but it doesn’t help Epic, either. How much do you think they spent on the market research that led them to believe that Low vs. Diamond fans had any interest whatsoever in Bow Wow, Alicia Keys or Kenny Chesney? I’m guessing they spent zero dollars on that research, but did pay a high six figure salary to the marketing executive that thought this label-wide strategy was a good idea.

I’m probably not doing myself any favors by railing on a company affiliated with my past and potentially future clients, but this stupidity MUST be stopped for the sake of these artists and their fans. Why bother having an “official” site at all if you’re just going to spam it up, neglect it and insult the people visiting?

And to think… they truly believe that “copyright infringement” is the reason artists have a harder time making a living in today’s world than they did just a decade ago… but that’s another can of worms.

Visit Pinky’s latest venture: http://musicmarketing.ning.com