Category: Blog

Simplicity is a trend that will never turn old-fashioned. It means to keep off unessential details and focusing on the core message. To pack the heart of your communication using the maximum care. And to deliver to your target just that few words that really make a difference.

Going along with the need of optimizing resources, time and (why not?) budget, the modern web design techniques allow to build stunning micro-websites which occupy just a little more than the “extended” area of a monitor.

Not just that. In many cases, the effort of organizing contents in just one page and avoiding them to look “flat” drove as results extremely creative solutions, both in terms of graphics and usability. Sometimes preferable even when the resources optimization isn’t a priority!

So… are you already thinking about going online with a one-page website? If contents you wish to publish are not too many and too complicated, maybe this is a good solution. Have a look at some tips that will make your corner-on-the-net standing out from the mass.

Improve User Experience

Simplicity is the best way to reward users with a pleasant time on your web page. In one page it is possible to arrange information a way that people can find them at the first sight. It’s also possible to set a basic navigation system, pointing to the key areas with no need of scrolling. Avoid to complicate what it’s easy by nature. Keep your

layout as clean as possible.

Focus on quality

You won’t have to deal with huge amounts of contents. But you’ll need to catch people’s attention at the first sight. Concentrate on small details that make the difference between a nice web page and a great web design. No margin for errors, imperfections and small bugs. Check the few lines you’re giving more and more times. Test everything before going online.

Exercise creativity

Packing a one-page website is like furnishing a single-room apartment. If you want it to be a comfy but funny space, you need to think out of the box. Try to figure out a detail that makes it different. Find unconventional solutions to arrange the layout. Come out with something that will stick in people’s mind. Get your change to impress!

Min maintenance, max standards

A small space is easier to keep tidy. But it takes very few to look messy. So, even if you opt for a one-page web solution, don’t undervalue maintenance. Keep some minutes to update information, when required. Check access data and monitor the SEO situation with regularity. One-page websites are capable of great performance… so, ask for more!

Today we’re trying to help you in making a check-up of your Social Media Marketing strategy. Fast to monitor, fast to fix if needed. Let’s go!

1. Premises, plan, goals. Do you know where are you going?
Market, in any business sector, is too competitive to reward rough-and-ready strategies. When you decide to invest in Social Media Marketing, you need to know where you are going: what communication needs are you challenging, what kind of activities are you planning to promote, and most of all what goals you’d like to reach. Write down your plan, briefly. And keep it as your guideline.

2. Myself, my product, my business. But… what place does your client stay?
The power of Social Media consists in being a platform that facilitates dialogue. Any dialogue, to be effective, requires the participation of more than one actor – in this case, you and your target. A good Social Media Marketing strategy should avoid excess of monologue, inviting instead to interaction, discussion, participation. So… don’t behave as you were at your small stall in a crowded market. Don’t shout out your product as it was an overall must-have, but offer smart solutions to people’s everyday problems.

3. Keep it tidy, update and polite. Customers will thank you.
You profile on Social Media is like a widow in a shopping mall. If it’s well organized and eye-catching, people won’t resist to get in. Think about it. And start arranging your web presence “in style”: keep data and contacts updated, renew contents and pictures with regularity, choose carefully the best you can show about your business. Give a coherent rule and limit about topics and tone-of-voice that really spread a positive image of you and of your company.

4. Professionalism rewards. Experience too.
It will come the time when you’re too busy to take care of your Social Profiles personally. A common mistake is to undervalue the importance of your business’ image on Internet, thinking that anything is good to keep people involved. Try to avoid loss, at the time you need help to manage your Social Media Marketing: young and “web mother language” human resources can be great in proposing new and out of the box activities. But without a solid expertise in the sector, it will be difficult to direct efforts towards goals. What about outsourcing part of the work to a specialized agency?

5. Look at the web-world around you. Monitor reviews and… rumors!
When you reach popularity, of course, people will start talking about you. And the Social Media marketplace is not an exception. Save time to surf around the web, to observe and listen voices from the community. Maybe somebody is talking about you, in positive and negative terms – don’t forget that opinion makers are influent among your target. Pay attention in fulfilling positive expectations, and in overcoming (with elegance) negative comments.

Several months are gone, since some representatives of the Kilimanjaro Native Co-operative Union (KNCU) and the PharmAccess Foundation visited Twenty4’s office for the first time.

We remember that meeting not just as the beginning of a great collaboration, but also as one of the most challenging deals involving our creative team and our digital media department during the last year: the development of an application to educate people in rural areas about health, and to assist field operators in creating awareness about micro insurance programmes.

Finally the product has been released, and lots of pictures taken in the backstage are on our desks – nice memories for the staff who worked in video and  photo production, as well as during the usability tests… but also an incredible feedback for the developers who coded the application, staying at office in Dar Es Salaam!

Discussions and debates about how technology could improv development are every day more frequent. This topic is one of the mainstream trend in our market, in Tanzania, as well as in many areas of East Africa. This is the reason why we think that our experience could be interesting, as an attempt to make advanced health services more accessible and effective in a large number of rural communities.

We worked thinking about the final target, mainly farmers approaching digital media for the first time. The application that we created is a rich multimedia presentation working on Android tablets, which are the equipment provided to the KNCU’s staff traveling around the villages to educate people about the micro insurance plan.

Internet connections are not available in many of these locations, so we arranged the application to work offline. Besides, a certain percentage of the target is composed by semi-illiterate adults, so we kept the interface very simple: just a few words, big icons and a large use of videos, cartoons and images. This way, we also minimized the time and effort needed to train the field workers.

The photogallery is worth more than too many words. And the portrait of an old farmer learning about health using the mobile application is the best reward for all the Twenty4’s professionals who worked on this project!

On the other hand, beside top-level cases history, we see a large quantity of nice fanpages… which never gain the visibility that they deserve!

Most of the times, the cause is any lack on the page management side. A brief check-up can be easily done, because ingredients of a successful Facebook marketing are just a few and very simple.

Here you are a checklist, where you can pass through to “empower” your brand’s strenght on the web.

1. Do you know who you’re talking to?

One of the most common mistakes is to assume that people “on the other side” is exactly like you. There is a big difference, instead: you’re the seller, they’re potential buyers. Perspectives are different and expectations are often opposite. Try to think if the way you’re presenting your content is a way that people using social network

This is modern life: less paper, more digital. Our laptops, smartphones and tablets are the “boxes” where we store everything we need, in terms of information and contents.

It’s a quiet day here at Twenty4’s Digital Media department. Some coding, creative meeting… and time to try out some apps.

We got the right mood to play a bit around the topic, today. If mobiles are becoming extensions of ourselves – we thought – is it possible to find apps that somehow “amplify” our 5 senses?

Well… the challenge is open. After a bit of web-surfing, we have our list. 5 “senses oriented” apps, some useful… and some just funny.

This is the big difference in using Social Media at a personal or at a business level! When time is money, it’s evident that all the resources spent in growing and managing a social network need to be financially rewarded on the medium and long term.

Social Media for business are not meant to “make friends” but to “engage customers”. And this is the big challenge. Researches highlight that, on the average, less than the 1% of sale convertions happen directly on social network websites.

It means that, while the web panorama is evolving day by day, some milestones don’t change. The major point of sales conversion is the ecommerce or the website of a company. The main point of access to a company’s website is in many cases a corporate blog.

So, where do Social Media take place in the sales process? What is their role? Let’s try to explain, in 5 simple steps, how to generate sales using Internet.

Facebook: the map of your social relationships

Maybe you’re not aware of it, but your Facebook profile tells much about the way you interact with people around you – from your conversation topics, to your attitude towards any kind of social activity. It suggests what you like to share to the public and what you prefer to keep private. If you like to focus other people’s attention, or if you’re more disposed to share and discuss. Pretty more than a game! So, put some order over there: organize lists of contacts, set privacy permissions, choose what to show publicly… keep it nice and informal, but avoid excesses and overstatements.