Doug Bartow of id29's presentation for SMBTV #12 Designing for Social Media.

1. Designing for
Social Media
in a few painfully easy steps.
Doug Bartow // @id29

2. 1. Social Media is Simply a Tool.
Yes, it’s true. Don’t confuse this medium
with your message. If your visual brand and
communication strategy aren’t working as
hard as they should for you, using social
media will only expose this weakness to the
world in a potentially big way.

3. 2. Design is Simply a Plan.
Sort out your visual brand and clearly
define your objectives and what constitutes
success—and failure—before embarking
on any marketing campaign, including
social media efforts.

4. 3. Social Media is so Easy.
Social media networks like Facebook,
Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram are
incredibly popular because they are
entertaining. Using social media to promote
your business or organization shouldn’t feel
like pulling teeth, it should be fun.

5. 4. Social Media is so Difficult.
Social media outreach requires research,
effort and a good deal of bravery. To build
and keep a following and gain social traction,
you need to provide a stream of original and
engaging content. Where’s that stuff going to
come from? Yeah, you’re going to have to
write it. #gasp

7. 5. Hard Work and Common Sense
are Totally Underrated.
Technology brings transparency and parity
to competitive business, but it will never
replace hard work and using basic common
sense to help you avoid common pitfalls and
move forward.

8. Common sense, defined.

9. 6. It’s all about Customer Experience.
Access to social media has handed
consumers the tools to control the market.
Consistent design across all your customer
touchpoints adds credibility to your brand
story, and is a critical component to building
long-term brand loyalty and repeat business.

11. 7. Embrace the Negative.
A brand is often described as a promise you
make with your customers, but that promise
will be tested if you’re active in social media.
Deleting negative comments is never a good
idea—rather respond quickly and thoughtfully.
Be authentic and treat people fairly, even the
haters. Being real will never go out of style.

13. A recent Mountain Dew crowdsourcing campaign that went horribly wrong.

14. 8. The Future is Mobile.
Designers: don’t sweat the details of your
Twitter background jpegs or Facebook
cover images, as fewer users are viewing
that desktop version in lieu of using mobile
devices for their social media consumption.
This trend will continue for ever and ever.

15. 9. Optimize Your Content.
It’s not enough to simply have a blog,
Facebook page or Twitter account. You need
to have a good blog, an engaging Facebook
page and an active Twitter stream. Use them
to talk to real people, not ‘targeted
audiences.’

16. 10. Things that Suck in Social Media.
Hey, it’s not all milk and honey. Here’s a few of my personal
social media pet peeves I try to avoid whenever possible:
Pictures of your dinner, Klout, social media gurus, message board trolls,
social media mavens, BranchOut requests, finding my fave username is
already taken, evil clowns, sponsored tweets, pictures of kittens,
Facebook invites to events 3+ hours away, the term ‘disrupt,’ forced
log-ins via Facebook, #pointlesshashtags, TwitLonger, 4sq check-ins at
your house, pictures of puppies, when I accidently sign my name ‘Douf,’
Flash websites, LinkedIn spam, fucking QR codes, CAMPAIGN.
SLOGANS. SEPARATED. BY. PERIODS. LIKE. THIS., ‘best practices,’
gratuitous lyric drops, G+, pop-up ads, pop-under ads, your detailed
marathon training schedule, anonymous blog comments, most parody
Twitter accts, designerds who make lists of things that suck, etc...

18. Balzac the Clown is so sad.

19. #FAIL: The written instructions are always longer than the URL they replaced.

20. Simple.

21. 10,000 volts QR code
Scan with Care, crash with
your camera app open.
Undeniable visual proof: QR codes will kill you.

22. A brilliant exception?

23. www.xtranormal.com #NSFW #LOLZ

24. www.xtranormal.com #NSFW #LOLZ

25. Thanks.
Doug Bartow // @id29
www. id29.com
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