So, we’re finally moving the blog to a real url, and the process of designing the new look, structure and navigation has begun.
Before we get too far with the design brief, since you are the ones reading my stuff, it makes sense that you, my readers tell me what types of features and design you would like to see in The BrandBuilder Blog v4.0. This is your blog after all. You’re the ones reading and consulting it daily. It should fall to you to let me know how I can make it better. I just work here.
So if you could change something about the site, what would it be? A more contextual layout? A more searchable archive? More pretty pictures? A TBB store for white papers, training videos, podcasts and Chico swag? Printable TBB paper dolls? Should certain categories of posts have their own space (like R.O.I. or management tips)? Don’t be shy. Hit me with your ideas. Anything goes.
Let’s see what this little crowdsourcing project turns up. 🙂
Note: TBBB v4.0 design will be handled by the amazing folks at freshID.
Brand Building and Online Marketing Blog 
I would love to see it fully searchable by keyword not just subjects. I also would like a more contextual style/layout. Other than that I’d say keep up the good work!!!
We’ll work on that. Thank you. 🙂
Harry, what do you mean exactly? Olivier has search on this blog now (search for ‘brand identity’ and you get his posts.)
Do you mean tags?? Just trying to figure out what you mean by “searchable by keywords”?
more cowbell
We’re bringing lots of cowbell.
We are NOT bringing lots of cowbell. LOL!
More cowbell? Pffft, who needs that . . . It’s gnomes this place needs. Magical, happy, dancing gnomes. Too bad the Oompa Loompas are under exclusive contract with that Wonka nutjob….
In all seriousness, the one thing I’d change is a reorganization of the outside content links. I like seeing who you’re interested in, which blogs you follow, but it’s tough to tell where each of the areas points. For example, I’d add a section called “My Top 20,” the places that you go the most for inspiration/cool takes/insider info/just plain interesting stuff.
Great points. Okay, so…
1. Gnomes. We’ll add those.
2. The blogroll is going to change. First, it won’t be on the main page. Expect it to take on more of a “resources” structure in its own section.
3. The site will have a little more info on what I read, watch, listen to, play with, etc.
Sure.
Howzabout, following that “Elastic” Reference a few posts back, a section solely focused on Metrics (Yeah, R.O.I… T.C.O… Overall Monetization Rebuttal Arguments to the integration/extension to the newer Media Technologies, etc..)… and with a broad approach, so both individuals (Oompa Loompas) and corporations (Wonka Nutjobs) can both benefit?
Seems like you’ve found out that for many of us, the concept may not only be mistifying at best, befuddling at worst, and in many cases, what is being actually measured may bring us back to that “Blind Men and an Elephant” allegory?
As ultimately it is a major deciding factor across the spectrum, and you seem to enjoy explaining/educating us about it, yeah, here’s a vote for a special tab/section on ROI… Go Metrics!
Otherwise, seems like you got all the bells, whistles, cowbells and whatnot…
I mean, r u havin’ Chico open up a Zwazzle.Com site?… that’d be coo, as after all, he’s been hard at work for all this time, so why not honor his efforts with some brand extension paraphernalia? (…which may also lead to a section on how Oompa Loompas may start their own confection business, blah, blah, blah… ) and if that also leads to better marketing/packaging of the overall educational experience, definitely worth exploring, in this day of self-publishing (i.e. MagCloud.Com), on demand printing and custom embroidering…
[THUMBS UP]
Anyway, just chiming in… Crowdsourcing rocks!
We’ll look at the ROI section. There’s already an smROI.net, so we have something to work with already.
And yes, Chico… We’ll have fun with that too.
Roger, looking into smROI.net, thanks for the Coordinates.
Looking forward to Chico’s additional forays into brand extensions.
… so where’s the ‘subscribe via email’ on that one? or should we hook up only via RSS?
Just curious, definitely the content is worth following/researching into.
Tks.
Left a comment, still would like to subscribe via emaill
(and when you get to do a makeover of that one, font was a wee bit tiny, IMHO)
Thanks.
Some kind of virtual white board section, so this kind of crowdsourcing can take place on a regular basis, for whatever reason.
I lovez some white paperz.
Also, a map that shows where in the world you are at that time. Would be cool.
We’ll have… something like that. The superspy satellite tracker app will come later though.
Dude.
How about a clean, simple call to action to friend, follow, fuggeddaboudit somewhere towards the top of the page?
Lose the avatars for each platform and maybe relocate industry associations to another page altogether. I’m sure such associations play a role in what you do and how you do it, but I get a sort of show-off vibe when I see stuff like that. I keep coming back – and suggest others visit – because of the content, the engagement, and the conversation – not because some group I don’t care about (what have they ever done for me) counts you among their members or rates you #3 out of their Top 150.
OOOOoooooooo. Now I *have to* subscribe! :yawn
Might be a good idea to put your blogroll on it’s own page too. Would it be too much to ask for a bit more info on each? Like, who would benefit most from subscribing and how that site is unique compared to all the other internet marketing sites out there?
Definitely a good idea to put your white papers and e-books on their own page as well. The Chico Commemorative Resource Library or something.
Maybe make the home page more newspaper-like and less blog. A week’s worth of stories presented on a single screen, mostly above the fold. Today’s headline should be prominent, but showing other articles right there with summaries could lead to more reading.
Hope I haven’t come across like a choad. Totally dig the site. Even if you don’t change a thing, it’s fine with me. I’m here for the content and the conversation. I can tune the rest out. 🙂
Cheers!
Great suggestions.
Okay. Just re-read my comment and I’m a choad. Sorry.
If you didn’t believe in those groups, associations, and other authors, you wouldn’t present them so prominently on your main page. Given my opinion of you, it’s MY loss if I don’t take the time to explore each and ever one of them.
Thing is, my list of “dailies” – the sites I make a point of reading every single day no matter what – is very slim. I barely have time to read here, comment, read Valeria’s site, wish I could comment (technical difficulties), and so on.
Maybe I’m the quintessential lazy consumer. What’s in it for me. There’s no way I’d have time to check out all those sites, let alone subscribe and keep up with what they’re talking about. Even so, it might do me good to do so.
Kinda hoping you might be able to put a little more info to each so that people like me could better connect with the folks we need the most.
That’s all. I’m just pissy because someone scheduled a webinar for 1030A MST, but didn’t take daylight savings time into consideration and now my whole morning is jacked.
😛
😀 Been there. But look, all of your suggestions are good. I’ve added them to the list. 🙂
1) I worked on Subservient Chicken. I could offer some suggestions in that vein.
2) Branding Missives: Length is expected. Don’t be bashful; not that any of us think it’s actually possible.
There’s my $.02. Break a $1?
The Olivier Blanchard photo gallery
Isn’t that just called “the internet”???? snarf. 😛
lol.
I can’t wait to spend serious time hanging out with you guys face to face one day soon 🙂
Scott
Okay. We should be able to play with flickr there.
In additional to structural organization by category, best of, most popular, etc. I think it would be helpful to readers if you also had content structured by skill level — I believe it Armano had a post about this — specially when it comes to helpful people who are new to a topic understand the basics.
Other than than, more cowbells.
That’s a good idea. We can color-code it too. I have an idea for that.
Congrats on undertaking this redesign. A few thoughts from me:
1.BB DNA: First, hope it doesn’t lose it’s personality and home grown feel (and I mean that in the best way). Blogs def. give you license to loosen up a bit beyond the confines of more biz-like sites and your personality and style definitely comes through. Hoping you find a happy medium between the two. (I trust you will).
2. Seeking & Easily Finding/Connecting: Keep in mind that not everyone that visits the site is ‘a regular.’ I tend to opt for easy and simple to understand structure and navigation (and leave bells and whistles for making music). Things like how to subscribe for feeds, follow you on social networks, sign up for email (if applicable), follow all of your other content (youtube & vimeo channels, flickr, etc) and of course contact think should be pulled together in a more standard location and design. Finally, differentiating between organizations and causes that you personally support or founded, and have ongoing stake in should be highlighted (i.e., Likeminds).
3. Spread the word: (probably obvious) Additional sharing tools conveniently placed at each post (in addition to comments) –Twitter, FB, L-In, Google Wave, social bookmarks, etc
4.Content/Subject Hiearchy: Some type of visual tag cloud or listing might enhance search and seems you’ll have space if the blog roll is being consolidated into its own section. This could also be used for categories/topics of posts (not just keywords)
5. The Old Archives: If you do stick with this as a side bar nav. element, perhaps consider displaying just the most recent year and enable a drop down (or open) menu of blog posts for each month for easier access. Anything older could be neatly stored under a ‘More’ and not need to be revealed on the page as default.
6. Where in the world is Olivier: Consider a side bar calendar for you, maybe, of your upcoming events (“Meet you”). Seems people here are eager to keep track:)
7. Love the idea of aggregating white papers, video clips, e-books, podcasts, etc. and those are great related links for posts.
Sorry to blather on. Much luck with this redesign. Look forward to seeing it all evolve.
This was so good! Thank you for taking the time to think about all of those features and sharing them here. I love that you started with DNA. I agree that the homegrown feel illustrates the authenticity of the site – although it currently looks a little too homegrown. 😀 I really want to strike the right balance between clean design, a smart array of features, and keeping things from looking too professional. (Too rigid, in other words.) It still has to feel like home instead of a five-star hotel. I totally get it.
Item #3 is something I look forward to. The lack of sharing buttons until now has been frustrating. 🙂
2 is a given. 7 is pretty easy. 6 will be an evolution. I may use a widget for now and something a little more fly later. We’re thinking about how to do 4 and 5 without cluttering the design.
Keep it simple: Thesis.
http://diythemes.com/
Great out-of-the-box look. Easily manageable. Rocks SEO.
Thesis is pretty fly. Thanks, man. 🙂
Jami, Thesis is nice for straight up blogging, but we are going to make Olivier’s life a whole lot easier and this site will be a combo business/blogging site, so we like to do something a little more visual and in a different structure than Thesis gives us out of the box. Sort of like our own http://freshid.com (the multi-purpose use, not the design!) or Chris Brogan’s company site http://newmarketinglabs.com.
Since Olivier is at heart both a writer AND brand manager, not to mention soon-to-be-author, I’m looking forward to making his site match his energetic personality and reflect a little more pizzazz. 🙂
If I had a Pizza restaurant, I would name it Pizzazz.
1. I’ll confess that I haven’t read past the first several comments because I’m on a tight schedule.
2. I’m typically a lurker here and a feed reader, but I pop over when you put up presentations, so I am around from time to time.
3. My biggest complaint (that sounds harsh, doesn’t it!?) is the 2007-esque sidebar, it’s widget heavy and text heavy, there is a more organized way you can rock this out 🙂
4. A new font package is a must… I would call the current fonts here vintage in the era of fast moving technology. Even if the titles and H2s were a more modern font and the size was one point larger on the sidebar text you choose to keep.
Can’t wait to see what y’all come up with!! LOVE what you do here! 🙂
Excellent suggestions. Added.
Great to see you not… lurking. 😉
Olivier,
I love these kinds of crowdsourcing experiments. 🙂 You’ve gathered some clever and sharp suggestions, but FWIW, I’ll add my two pence:
I agree with the calls for “white papers” so far; I’ve recommended many entries from this blog to my colleagues, and something more compact that can be shared with management, et al. would be immensely valuable. Remember how you talked about making a PDF of the Nestle/Greenpeace articles? That stuff is platinum.
Also, I think some “chunking” of your content would be great. There are so many tough choices offered in the sidebar, other pages, etc. that I have a difficult time knowing where I should go for my specific interests.
Good luck, and I look forward to seeing TBB: the Next Iteration.
Mike
I like Thesis too… Several blogs I frequent use it 😉
Olivier,
I liken following you here to spelunking with you as a guide-an exhilarating adventure, the reward of negotiating challenging pitches and turns that you make easier to navigate, light shone on the unseen network connections after following some seemingly wild rabbit holes.
It’s in your DNA and training to be quick and agile, the rest of us, maybe not so much. I love this space you’ve created and mapped for/with us. I appreciate the challenge of keeping up with you, sometimes I get lost when I return, try to retrace steps. You’ve moved on. (I don’t read, absorb, connect as fast).
The content is amazing, I could use a newer map; signposts, routes, resources easier to share with others along the way.
@RaynaNYC nailed it. And, yes, gnomes.
Thanks for sharing the value of pushing the edge and making sense of it.
Diane
Stronger brand visuals (though you have a good core). Case studies and testimonials might be helpful. Keep up the good work.
Mike-
Great suggestions. Thanks!
I think men want more pictures : )
Whatever you do with the site, I know it will be awesome.
Take care Olivier