CSIT 155 Week 3 Part B

     One of the things that goes into developing a brand is the emotional response you want someone to have when visiting your website. A website isn’t just there to give your customer information, but to link a sort of mood to your product. Good companies are aware of this. When I went to the Apple website, I not only got information on their products, but I also absorbed on an unconscious level that Apple products are sleek and cool.

    What gave a brand an identity for me was the visuals on its site. The sites that featured their products front and center often left me with a more lasting impression of who they were when I got to the site. When I got to the website of the company called “Gates N Fences”  I did not absorb it’s branding as well, because the photos of its projects were so small, and looked cheap. Meanwhile if I went to Apple, I got high resolution images often emphasizing the new features of its latest electronics. Gates N Fences may have put more info on their front page with text, but the text didn’t burn into my mind the way the images from Apple did. 

I think another thing companies that have a good brand do well is synthesize messaging, despite having various products. I’m going to use Apple again, since I think they brand themselves so well.  Selling watches and a streaming service sounds completely different at first, but Apple manages to turn them both into a cohesive part of their company with branding. On their website they accomplish this not only with the Apple logo, but by giving both of the pages for these products similar designs. Your mind never wonders how these two products meld together. You don’t question it much at all. 

It’s also important that a website has some cohesion with their social media account. I’ve used Apple enough, so I’ll use Wendy’s for this example. When visiting the Wendy’s website, not only does it make you hungry, but the colors and the imagery give off a sense of fun. The social media account does this too, with posting a bunch of memes and giving snarky replies. There isn't a sense from the customer that someone hijacked the social media account, even if it is a bit weird.

I don’t own a business, but if I had to make a fictional one it would be a book selling business. I would probably try to mimic Apple and put giant images of books front and center on my website so people wouldn't forget what my company did, no matter the name. I’d also make the social media account friendly, not snarky or clever like Wendy’s. Books are often associated with a sort of intellectual heft, so maybe I would play up on that angle as well, with intelligent (looking) people reading books on my ads.  I don’t know every specific detail I’d use for a site or ads, but overall I’d want to give the feeling to someone using my site that they just met a smart and entertaining person. 

Blogs I Commented On for 2B

 Sean Conti

Andrew Estelle

Regina Tompkins

Week 3 Part A: Aesthetics, Design, and Branding

 National Parks Service

https://www.nps.gov/index.htm

This is a website I have mixed feelings about. I don’t think it’s the best, but I don’t think it’s the worst either. One thing I have mixed feelings about is the font. On some images the font is well used, I think on the header image they wisely put the phrase “Hispanic Heritage Month” against a dark, opaque box rather than purely against the image, which wouldn’t have worked. The text below in the subheadings is a bit too small for me. The hierarchy of the site, while it draws the eye clearly, could be designed better. At the bottom half of the site are two images titled, “Find Your Park” and “Discovering America’s Story” that catch the eye and look like they should be on top of the site. The site’s ease of use is mixed as well. When you click on some links it takes you to succinct information and other times the link will take you to a search engine. 

I think this is an ok website, but it could use some improvements. I wouldn’t be turned away from using the National Parks Service by this website, but I wouldn’t be drawn in either. I think the concept of this website could be improved with more emphasis on how special the parks are. There should be all sorts of impressive imagery on the front page, but most of it currently is very small. I think a basic reorganization of the page should happen too. 

Gates N Fences

http://gatesnfences.com/

I think out of all of these examples this website might be the most flawed. It’s a downright ugly website that doesn’t fulfill the C.R.A.P.H.T.E.D criteria. A big problem with the way this website is designed is its hierarchy. Where is my eye supposed to start and then go from there? It seems to draw my eye towards the images of fences in the middle, then towards an image of a welder on the left, and then from there, my brain sort of short circuits and is pulled in a bunch of directions. The typography is also much too small and sometimes hard to see when it turns different colors. Contrast is not used well, only the black on the green at the top makes the text stand out. Everywhere else the contrast is muddled. 

This website definitely does not come off as professional. It looks like it was made by a time traveler from the 90s. I definitely would not want to use this business based on its website.  A big way this website could be improved would be to reduce clutter. There’s way too much text on the main page which could be broken up and put on separate pages. The links on the left-hand side of the website should be categorized better as well, with none of the subcategories showing. I would make the intro webpage emphasize the product they are selling more with an automated slideshow. 

Apple

https://www.apple.com/

This is a well-designed website. The front page is simple and emphasizes its most purchased products. The hierarchy of the site is very well done. I’m never really in doubt of where my eyes should go. My eyes are first drawn to the text of the first image and then the header, from there I scroll down to various new products emphasized with large imagery. The text is easy to read as well. It’s in an easy-to-read font, and there isn’t a lot of upfront information; the sentences after the subheadings read like teasers to the link you click on. The use of repetition is well done on this site. Each image of the product with text mostly matches the one below it. Then comes a break in the middle where the images of products are broken up into quadrants. It’s repetitive, but it doesn’t let itself get tedious. 

This website does come off as professional and it makes me want to purchase a product from their business. I think it’s because of how sleek the photographs are as well as because of how clear it is on what it communicates. What does Apple sell? You absorb all that information within about 10 seconds of getting to the site. Where do you want to go if you want to purchase something specific? That isn’t in doubt either as the links on the top are clear and unambiguous. 

California Center for The Arts

https://artcenter.org/

I thought this website was pretty well designed and my quibbles with it are minimal. One of its strengths is repetition. You can clearly tell when you are on a new section of the main page due to the format changing. Below, “Find Your Center” is a series of similarly designed links for different uses of the arts center. The same is done for a section called “Featured Events.” Navigation of the website is easy due to the reasons I mentioned above. The titles of links are also clear and concise. The depth of content is well done too. Each link takes you where you need to go without it becoming a maze. The website is filled with succinct information to peak curiosity and it has links to its social media accounts.

This website does come off as professional and piqued my curiosity about the California Center For the Arts. I think it has a nice aesthetic design. It’s clear but doesn’t come off as simple. The imagery in the header image of the website was a nice touch too. It gave me all the resources I needed in a very clear way.

Lessons Learned

I think a big takeaway for me looking at these websites is that a website can be just as important as a well-made (or poorly made) ad in determining whether you use a business. I feel more interested in buying from Apple and going to California Center for The Arts after visiting their sites. On the other hand, I have no interest in using Gates N Fences. Whether I liked a website was often determined in seconds. My brain unconsciously knew whether I would like to stay before I consciously knew why. The most important reasons for me staying on a site were whether it was aesthetically pleasing, whether it was clear on what service it was providing, and whether it was clear on how to navigate it.

Week 2 Part B - Business Research

 Electronic Arts

https://www.ea.com/

Electronic Arts is a video game publisher and developer. They are an international corporation and the second biggest gaming company in North America and Europe. 

Their social media links are at the bottom of their main page. Their social media use is actually much larger outside of the links on the main page. They seem to have one for each video game they are currently updating or for franchises that are in development. 

On their Facebook page, they seem to post about once a week. They hardly interact with their customers. On Twitter, their account is much more active, posting and retweeting almost every day. On Instagram, their activity seems to revolve around updates about their games, so posting is really sporadic on that account. For their numerous game accounts, the posting is much more constant. I will make a comparison below.

The last date for their posts (Main Account): Facebook - August 26, Twitter- September 1st, Instagram September 1st.

Last date for posts (Apex Legends): Facebook - September 3, Twitter - September 7, Instagram - September 3

Followers (Main Account): Instagram - 3.3 million, Twitter - 6.1 million, Facebook 4.5 Million

There is a lot of overlap in how they use their main accounts. If you go to different sites for their main accounts you will find similar announcements with similar wording on the same day. There is a slight difference between the accounts though. On Twitter, they are more active and will retweet the accounts of their games in order to get people to follow them. On Facebook, they will just post content from their main account. On Twitter, they will also drop a meme-style joke every once in a while, which seems to be something they don’t do on Facebook. EA on Instagram seems to use more screenshots compared to Facebook, where they concentrate on posting videos.

 The main interactivity for EA seems to come from their game accounts though. Although these types of accounts have fewer followers than the main accounts, people are more likely to respond, since they are more narrowly tailored for fans. 

Wendys

https://www.wendys.com/

Wendy’s is an international fast-food burger chain. It’s a very large business with 6,711 locations. 

The social media that they use are Facebook, Twitter,  Tiktok, Instagram, and Discord. The social media links are at the bottom of their main site. The Discord link is in their Twitter bio.  They use Instagram about once a week. They seem to use Facebook less, sometimes spacing posts around 2 weeks. On Twitter, they are very active. They reply to tweets almost every hour. 

The last date for their posts: Instagram - September 2nd, Facebook - September 2nd, Twitter - September 7 (15 minutes ago)

Followers: Instagram - 1 million, Facebook - 8 million, Twitter - 3.8 million, Tiktok - 1.2 million, Discord 52,591

Wendy’s on their multiple accounts seems to lean hard into the Gen Z internet subculture. They’re very into funny trending memes and co-opt them for their own ads. The account on all platforms is genuinely more personable than most company accounts if they reply to you. They often reply in a snarky way to customers which can be fun. Commenters often compete to get the account to respond to them. Wendy’s seems to use Twitter the most. When they get complaints they often reply in a more formal manner to the customer.

Cox Internet 

https://www.cox.com/residential/home.html

Cox Communications is a cable, internet, telecommunications, and home automation service provider. They are a national company and have 6.5 million subscribers.  Their social media accounts are not featured on the main page of their website and I had to use Google to find them. 

The social media that they use are: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram

The last date for their posts: Facebook - September 7, Twitter- September 3, Instagram - September 7

Followers: Facebook- 966, 267, Twitter- 47,000, Instagram - 15, 300

On Facebook, they put out ads and promotions, as well as respond to customer complaints. On Twitter, they post ads, tips, and polls. They interestingly don’t respond to feedback on this account like they do on Facebook. On Instagram, they post ads for their services, as well as events that they are sponsoring. On all of these accounts, there seems to be an effort on the part of the company to make it look like they're a part of your community. They post tips for going back to school, post ads about the dangers of cyberbullying, and post ads about how they sponsored the Olympics. 

The Washington Post

https://www.washingtonpost.com/

The Washington Post is an American newspaper.  It has around 3 million digital subscribers as of 2020 according to its own reporting, which makes it one of the top newspapers in the country. Their social media accounts are curiously not on their main page even though they are very active.

The social media that they use are: Facebook, Twitter,  Tiktok, Instagram, and LinkedIn

The last date for their posts: Facebook - September 7, Twitter - September 7, TikTok September 3rd, LinkedIn- September 7. 

Followers: Facebook - 7 million, Twitter 18.2 million, Instagram - 5 Million, TikTok - 1 million, LinkedIn 1.5 Million

There’s a remarkable amount of homogeneity across their accounts. Almost all of them, excluding TikTok, are used for breaking news and op-eds. Their posts all follow the same format with a headline or summary in text with a link to an article below. On Twitter, they tag the journalist who wrote the article.  Their accounts on Facebook and Twitter are especially active and they often send out multiple links hourly. They post less regularly on LinkedIn, but it’s still used in the same way. Their TikTok account is very different as it’s used to market the paper to a younger audience. On that account, they post short, humorous skits about what is going on in the world, rather than straight news. 

Rob’s Jalapenos

https://www.robsjalapenos.com/menu/

Rob’s Jalapenos is a Mexican food chain in San Diego. There are two restaurants in San Diego county. They have a Facebook and Instagram account. Neither of these accounts can be found on their main website. They have not posted from either account since 2020. 

Followers: Facebook - 12, Instagram - 56

The last date for their posts:  Facebook - May 21, 2020, Instagram - May 2020

They used both of these accounts pretty much the same way. On their pages, I saw the same links, posted on the same day. They posted information on how to get delivery, covid guidelines, and deals on food. They did not respond to customers as there were not that many people responding. The restaurant is still in business, despite many restaurants around them having not lasted,  but they seemed to have arrived at the conclusion that a social media presence was not worth the effort.  Maybe they’re just content with Yelp reviews. 

Lessons Learned

I think one of the things I learned from this is how much easier it is to have a sort of muscular social media presence if you are a big corporation. I’ll compare Wendy’s to Jalapenos since they are both restaurants. It’s very hard for me to see Jalapenos, when it was briefly alive on social media, ever using it like Wendy’s. I think it would simply be too expensive for them. Using social media takes skill and practice. Clearly, Wendy’s was able to hire a whole group of people that are very funny and have what it takes to make posts go viral. I don’t think the Jalapenos owner would have had the money or time for this type of activity. So the account was used for official announcements and deals only. 

Another thing I learned is that a good social media presence involves using each platform differently. Most of the corporations I studied, realized that Instagram should be focused on images and Facebook for video. One of them realized that Twitter is great for retweeting accounts that you own, so you can cater to a diverse customer base.  On LinkedIn, it’s best to leave out snarky humor or memes. TikTok is best when you aim for younger users. 

I think the worst sin that companies can commit on these websites is to come off as cold. Almost all of the companies I listed, tried to avoid this. Cox, even though it was the most distant and least personable of the accounts I studied, tried to make itself look like it was helping you by tweeting out tips and polls. EA tweeted out events you could participate in and asked you questions. Wendy’s acted like a clever gen z college student. A lot of the accounts also responded to complaints in a sympathetic manner and directed customers to formally file a complaint on their official website. I think the Washington Post was the rare exception to this rule, due to the nature of the company. News draws interaction on its own,  it doesn’t often need a personality. 

Week 2 Part A: Communication Between Business & Consumer

     Social media often makes it easier for a problem to get solved for a customer if it's especially egregious or widespread. I think this style of communication, between the customer and the company, differs in multiple ways from those of the past. One of the biggest ways that it is different is that there is a sort of entertainment aspect to complaining to a company over social media. Often, the best thing that can happen to a dissatisfied customer is for their post to go viral. So they often make complaints or write reviews at a slanted angle. Reviews or complaints are now a community experience. No longer are you alone on the phone complaining to customer service, but you go to review sites to upvote reviews that matched your experience. Reviews are also now done by amateurs. Gone are the days where professional food critics and product reviewers had a stranglehold on public opinion. Anyone can be influential on the internet. 

From the reviews that I read on Yelp and Google, a lot of them seemed very polarized. It was pretty normal to see five-star and one-star reviews side by side. Some reviews had lengthy and useful feedback, but a lot were very short and vague. If you see enough bad or good reviews on a site, they do tend to get under your skin even if they aren’t useful. I probably won’t enter a business with as much of an open mind if I’ve read reviews of the place. 

I usually only write reviews if a business does not have that many reviews and I like them. I’ve never actually written a negative review online. If a company gives me a bad experience, I usually will just upvote a view similar to mine. I do try to be fair in my reviews. When I do write reviews, I usually leave concrete details that people interested in the business or product may find useful. I don’t say whether something was good or bad without giving several reasons why. I try to temper my mood for my reviews.  Four stars is probably the score I have given out the most

I don’t own a business, but if I did, I would probably only respond to good reviews or the ones with useful feedback. If someone goes out of their way to thrash a business in a review, without leaving concrete details that illustrate their point, I would not want to engage with that person. I guess what I’m trying to say is that I would engage someone from the company account if I thought the person was coming from a place of good faith. I would probably start writing from a place of gratitude or sympathy, depending on what the review said. 

I left some short reviews on Yelp for a couple of good restaurants that I’ve eaten at over the years. I found it a little difficult because I haven’t eaten at either of them recently. One was Hunan Chinese Restaurant in Rancho Bernardo. I mentioned a positive experience with the staff and recommended eating spicy food from the menu. I gave them a rating of four stars. Another place I gave a review was a restaurant in Poway called Thai Ladle. I gave it five stars since I really liked the food and had some good memories there with friends. I recommended people get the Pad Thai if they didn't know where to start.