How I Plan to Awesome-ize My Company's Website

As most of you already know, I’m currently in graduate school working on a Master’s Degree in Entertainment Business.  A recent assignment in my branding class asked me to look at Ad Age’s Power 150 and choose a blog to discuss its marketing mix ideas and what I could use to launch my own company’s marketing plan.  Exciting right?  (I meant that sarcastically) But then I go to the Power 150 and decide I’ll look at one of their top blogs.  It just happens to be www.chrisbrogan.com- the third most popular blog on Ad Age’s list.  So when I went to the page and I’m immediately blown away.  This guy is brilliant!! 

Everything from the color scheme to the layout of his page is much more put together than the typical blog template- no offense to Google Blogger, I’m very happy with my blog- and it gave me some ideas.  Brogan engages readers by updating his blog often; I didn’t see more than a 5-day gap between posts, giving them opportunities to subscribe and communicate with him, and he incorporates videos and pictures on his page which provides a media mix that keeps his page from looking like just a lot of reading.  Not to mention his writing style is conversational and again, it engages the readers and draws them in to what he’s saying, what he’s selling (he has logo buttons of his supporters and gives their websites.  Read 3 of his blog entries and you’ll instantly trust him and check out every product or service or person he endorses). 

When I launch my company’s marketing plan I want to incorporate practically everything I learned from looking at this blog.  I want to use a color scheme that is pleasing and provocative without being overbearing and hard to read.  I want to involve viewers by using different mediums to communicate with them.  I’ll do this by utilizing social networks and comments and reactions buttons on my company website.  Also, because of the nature of my company, I will definitely use video and photo media on the website.  The website will then achieve a level of awesome that will blow other websites out of the water.  I predict another company will copy my ideas, you know the ones I plan to copy from Brogan's professional blog.  I won't be mad.

Honestly, when I first got this assignment I was skeptical about the purpose but this was very helpful.  Needless to say, I subscribed to Chris Brogan’s blog and I’m now a total fan.

Living Before You Die~ Advice from Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs, the iconic founder of Apple, Next, and Pixar, made a commencement speech at Stanford University in 2005 that reviewed the major events of his life and how they all fit together to shape who he became and what he accomplished.  He highlighted three specific events- dropping out of college, being fired from Apple, and being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.  Dropping out of college allowed him to drop in on classes he was actually interested in, one of which was calligraphy.  Taking this class was just fun at the time but ten years later when he was helping to design the first Mac it gave him the skill and insight he needed to make the first computer with beautiful font.  After he was fired from Apple at age 30 he went through the most creative period of his life.  He founded a company called Next and another called Pixar which is responsible for the first computer animated motion picture- Toy Story.  This is also the time where he met and fell in love with his wife.  Then when he was diagnosed with cancer he was compelled to make the most of every day.  He had already been doing this as a daily checkup for himself on whether or not he was doing what he loved.  He would stand in the mirror and ask himself if today was the last day of his life would he spend it the way he was about to spend it?  He knew that if the answer was no too many days in a row that something needed to change.  Being diagnosed with a near fatal disease (one to which he would eventually succumb) gave a focused clarity to the lens through which he performed this daily ritual that he did not previously have.   

Watching this speech did inspire me.  There are huge parts of my life that I am not extraordinarily ecstatic about but I have the power to make the changes I see fit. Also, I have to believe that, like Steve, everything I experience is part of the intended plan for my existence and will ultimately come together to make something beautiful that will touch others for good and satisfy my Maker and my ambitions. 

Steve’s advice can be summed up to this: follow your gut, don’t live your life to please or imitate others, stay hungry, stay foolish.  I am going to make a conscious effort to do this everyday.

 http://www.ted.com/talks/steve_jobs_how_to_live_before_you_die.html