A Few Thoughts on Wedding Invitations & Typography
I had posted this on my personal blog a year or so ago and stumbled upon it again today. The above invitation is personal, fun and very clean cut. It tells the story of the couple in a humorous way…without a “not this story again…” feeling.
When thinking about your invitations, you have several main goals. The first and most important is to convey they necessary information clearly and concisely. You don’t want your guests confused about the attire of the event (casual? formal?) and you want to make sure they can read all of the information (date, location, directions, etc.).
The next thing you’re probably thinking about is your style. These style elements will also help convey the tone of the wedding and to do this, you will use everything including colors, fonts and the layout itself. If your wedding is traditional, you’ll obviously want a more traditional wedding invitation. If you’re having a relaxed beach wedding, you’d want your invitation to convey that. But how?
While there are numerous elements in an invitations, the typography is one of the most fun elements of the invitation. It also plays a major role in both of the main goals mentioned above. Obviously, you want to select a font that your guests can easily read, otherwise, you’ll end up with late and losts guests. Additionally, you’ll want one that ultimately matches your style.
Typography can be utilized in the design as the main event (as it is in the invitation above) or it can simply accent the colors and additional designs to bring the invitation as a whole into one amazing piece. This decision will also be determined by the style of your wedding: More traditional wedding invitations will follow the simple and straightforward text style accented by other design elements (photos, graphics, textures, etc.). Now, I’m not saying you couldn’t heavily use typography for a traditional wedding, but the execution of this would be different from say, a casual brunch at a hip city restaurant.
The invitations and ‘Save the Dates’ are the first impressions your guests will have of your wedding. So, the first thing you need to think about is, “What do we want our invitation to say? How do we want our guests to feel after they view the invitation?” Once you understand the answers to those questions, you can begin to look at different fonts and consider what types of feelings they are conveying to you (stuffy? casual? complicated?). When these answers begin to line up, you know you’ve found a font that matches your style.
To see the full invitation from above, click here.
We have 1 follower on twitter. Is it good practice to follow that person? (She also made a lovely comment about the product. Should I have tweeted her to say thank you?)
Quote from a Client from Hell
Show Your Appreciation
The above quote is from a blog called “Clients from Hell”. The blog documents comments from actual clients that sounds pretty ridiculous…and at the same time, if you don’t know the industry, they are very valid questions.
Several things struck me about this quote. The first being that the company had one follower on Twitter and wanted to know if it was good practice to follow that person. Based on the fact that the person made a positive comment, following back is a good idea. Not only will the person feel good that a brand they enjoy is following them, but this will allow you to interact with them more often (responding to their tweets if relevant). It’s really up to you who to follow and how many you want to follow. If you are following too many people and find it hard to keep up with your feed, you can always create lists to allow you to break users into smaller groupings.
Going back to the “1 follower” part, this might seem sad, but at the same time, the next comment really makes it the opposite. ”She also made a lovely comment about the product.” If you have a single follower that is commenting to you via Twitter and providing you praise, that is better than 100 followers who want nothing to do with you. Twitter isn’t about the number of followers, but the quality of followers. Do they respond to you? Do they ask questions? Do they make suggestions? The idea is to build community and positive brand awareness, not social numbers.
The next question was, “Should I have tweeted her to say thank you?” Yes! It’s often a great idea to retweet the comment and include a thank you in response. This way, you’re showing others the positive comment while strengthening your relationship with the person who is currently praising your brand. If the tweet is too long to retweet, then singling them out with a thank you will also provide positive energy to that relationship.
Twitter can be intimidating. A lot of consultants out there might scoff at questions like the ones above. It seems like they forget all too quickly that at one point, they were wondering and asking the same questions, and that they are very honest and valid questions.
A lot of folks are intimidated by social media. That, or they don’t really see the usefulness of social media. Then, they think about how well their direct marketing is costing them…and how much social media wouldn’t cost them. Obviously, there are positives and negatives to using social marketing and traditional marketing. The thing that some people don’t really consider, though, is that you can create a blend of the best of both marketing worlds.
Now, I love social media…and I hate it. I can not bring myself to blog, tweet or do anything like that on the weekends unless it’s pretty hilarious or important. Honestly, I barely check my email because the weekends and evenings are my times to unplug. I think that’s why I enjoyed the above poster so much - it’s not just about clicking the “LIKE” button, it’s about actually clapping your hands and being there.
Obviously, I love social media because I work as a social marketing consultant. While I think social media can have a profound impact on a business’ growth, I also think that it needs to be combined with the human touch when possible. Yes, yes, humanizing your social accounts as much as possible is one of the goals, but nothing really beats that personal interaction of being at the store, attending the event and being in the moment.
So, while you’re creating social marketing plans and thinking of the next tweet or Facebook post, consider not only what would make your client or customer come visit you, but how you’re going to make that a special experience for them.
Obviously, there are a lot of completely amazing and utterly terrible parts of the internet. I myself love memes and one-dayt-shirts. One of the things that I don’t typically jump to when thinking about positive things on the internet is the promotion of transparency.
The internet is one place where you can pretty much find out anything about a company, product and much more. You can read about their politics, how they treat their employees and what issues they have their hands in. The reason this is such a great aspect of the internet is because it means that companies now have to hold themselves to a higher standard. We know when you make a political donation. We know when you disrespect your employees or your customers. Not only do we know, though, we talk.
One of the greatest aspects of the internet is the ability for users to share reviews of a product. YouTube has “unboxing” videos of new products so we can see them in action. Yelp.com is a website dedicated to reviews of restaurants and other establishments. Users have Twitter, Facebook and all sorts of other social networking sites that they use to voice their opinions. Do you really think in this day and age that you’ll get away with lying to your customer? Not telling the truth to them? Using fancy language to mislead them? We’ll find out, and when we find out, it probably won’t be a great situation for you.
Basically, all companies need to be upfront with their customers. There’s no sense in trying to trick us anymore. If we feel like we’re being tricked or disrespected, we won’t bother with you besides a negative review (a negative campaign if you’ve really done something to upset us). Honesty is respected, now more than ever. We are closer to brands emotionally than we have ever been before and when we find out those “natural cut” fries really don’t have much “natural” about them, we’ll let our voices be heard.
So, do you know what your customers (or past customers) are saying about your company and products? Further, do you know what you can be learning from them?
Note: I’m a brand advocate for some of the brands I use. Not a brand advocate in the sense that I get paid to talk about a brand, but if I like a brand, I will let my voice be heard. While I work in the field of social marketing, I look at it from the perspective of a consumer. Sometimes, I get a little passionate.
I call myself a Social Marketing Jedi for a few different reasons. Obviously, I help companies create social media strategies that benefit their business whether it is through customer service or understanding and engaging their customers. The other reason, is that I love Star Wars. No joke, I might have a couple of Star Wars tattoos and have probably dedicated a bit too much brainpower to random Star Wars knowledge.
I would never call myself an “expert”, though. I’ll be honest: I know quite a bit about social media, but I don’t know everything there is to know about social media. Chances are those “experts” don’t either.
So, why do I call myself a “Jedi”? Isn’t that the same as “expert”? Not at all, actually. A “Jedi” follows a path and there are several ranks. There are Younglings (Jedi-in-training), Padawans (apprentices to Jedi Knights or Masters), Jedi Knights (disciplined, experienced), Jedi Master (successfully trained a Padawan to Knight). Basically, calling myself “Jedi” has nothing to do with my expertise, but rather the sense that you are training, learning, always seeking improvement. I feel as if the term Jedi can be applied to any position. It’s more of a mind-frame, a dedication to the subject you choose.
I don’t mean to knock on “experts” but really, if you’re an expert on a subject, chances are you don’t need to call yourself that. Others will instinctively call you that based on how you’ve helped them or displayed your knowledge to them. I don’t necessarily trust people who call themselves experts because, as I’ve stated, it’s extremely rare that a person knows all there is on a topic. It takes a strong person to admit they don’t, and those who can’t admit it, are just in denial.
The next time a social media “expert” (or any other “expert” for that matter) calls you for a meeting, decide for yourself how much of an expert they really are instead of just agreeing with their title.
My goal for the last few weeks was to post an entry in the Sprinkled Media blog each day of the work week. I’ve done pretty well, only missing a day or two each week. It’s not for a lack of trying, either. Sometimes, surprisingly, I just don’t have much to say. Well, scratch that, I don’t have much to say on the topics I’m looking to discuss.
When I write an entry, I usually look at current news and other blogs and see what catches my eye and sparks a fire. Some days, though, I’m just not feeling it and don’t find anything that really makes me want to write. Today was one of those days until I thought, “hey, I could just write honestly about why I’m not writing.”
I’m a writer and even though I’m 27, I’ve been writing since age 8. That’s nearly 20 years. I started writing fiction and poetry in the third grade and my passion took off after 8th grade. I wrote short stories, screenplays, poetry, novellas and more. I couldn’t stop the writing. I had notebooks filled with story ideas. I felt that I could only write on a computer because ink, paper and flesh could never keep up with my thoughts. Then, I earned my B.A. in Writing from Ithaca College in 2006…and didn’t write for 4 years.
I spoke to my old writing professor, Doc Ock, about 2 years into this drought. His advice was not to force it. So, I didn’t. I didn’t worry about it. Each year my “write a short story” New Year’s Resolution went unfinished, I just shrugged it off. Now, I know a lot of New Year’s Resolutions go unfinished, but each time I left it on the list and thought, “maybe this is the year.” No pressure whatsoever.
I still felt bad, though. Guilty, somehow. All of that inspiration seemed so far in the past. All of those dreams somehow managed to disappear. That person that I was, that writer, was gone. A writer writes. I wasn’t. I wanted so badly to write, but it wasn’t there. It’s like a piece of myself I had known for so long was misplaced.
The dream of writing never left, though. I’d openly tell people I had not written in years, that it was something I was dealing with. That I was okay with it and that I was following the advice of a trusted mentor. I patiently waited, sitting in front of a computer with a blank word document from time to time just to see what would happen. Then, last year, the rain came.
I started to write again without even realizing it. I wasn’t writing poetry or short stories, but short non-fiction pieces. I had started a baking blog to record recipes and the same passion that was pumped into my fiction pieces several years ago was now channeled into my personal baking stories. I’d sit and write about Chocolate Cream Pie and be completely satisfied with the story, the writing itself and the adventure as a whole. The writer’s high returned.
I think about it now, that writer’s block. Four years is a long time to spend without your favorite hobby and the warm blanket that surrounded you throughout high school and college. While it was embarrassing and frustrating to misplace something that was so dear to me, I somehow managed to accept it and strengthen other areas of my life. I earned my Master’s Degree in New Media Studies and started my own business. Sure, I’m still working on the latter and figuring out all that comes with it, but that’s a story for another day.
In the end, if you can’t write one day, don’t force it. If you can’t write one week, don’t force it. If you can’t write one year, wait four and maybe things will change. Just don’t force it. Producing writing that you think is crap won’t remove that block any faster. Finding other outlets to connect with others outside of your writing will force you to evolve, taking you to the next step in your journey, whether that includes writing or not.
Still Wondering If your Small Business Should be using Social Media?
Tech.Inc.com posted a great infographic from One Lily that has some statistics regarding business, audiences and social media use. Some of the points really stood out to me…so here are my thoughts!
One point that I really appreciated was that people care more about how their “social graph” (their social network) ranks products and services rather than how Google ranks them. What does this mean? While SEO is important and it’s great to have your website rank highly for your keywords, it’s not the end-all-be-all to your business’ success online. If you’re ranked #2 for your most desired keywords, but your social word-of-mouth is negative or non-existent, that #2 ranking won’t stand for much. Users want recommendations from people they know and trust first and foremost, not a search engine’s algorithm.
Another great observation is that the fastest growing segment on Facebook is 55-65 year-old females. Of course the youth of the world jumped on Facebook first, but as Facebook has cemented it’s place within our society, older generations are rapidly joining and connecting with old friends, distant family and more. While at one point you may have said “my target demographics don’t use social networks,” this incline in older users may have you rethinking that non-existent strategy.
It’s important to realize that each industry must make social media their own. A method that works for one industry, may not work for another. The first attempt at using social media by an industry might not be the best, either.
I worked for a real estate company in their technical department a few years ago, when Facebook was just a toddler. We were not into social media at that point, though I had suggested it, and the first step we took into the social world was to create a blog. What was the blog about exactly? The company! The blog just contained press releases about the company. While it makes sense to use press releases as material for a blog, companies should know by now that it’s not about you, it’s about your customers.
It appears that the real estate industry has gotten on board with social media, though, as the numbers are showing that 84% of Real Estate Professionals are now using social media. Not only are the agents online, but they’re right alongside their audience. Realtor.com came out with a mobile app that allows users to view homes easily from their phone with traffic rates rising significantly on Saturdays and Sunday (days homes are most likely to be viewed). This makes it much simpler for a user to connect with a real estate agent on the go and setup a viewing of a listing.
So, what does this all mean? The real estate industry is catching up to their audience. Their goals are in line with the needs of their consumers for the most part and the smartest agents will understand that video components can help them get more listings (check out the full infographic). This is a perfect example of an industry listening to their audience and taking the necessary steps to use social media to connect more easily with them.
Think about what your customers: What would make it easier for them to connect with your business? What can you offer them to allow them to keep in touch with you and promote a mutually beneficial relationship? Answering these questions and considering your audience can lead you to possibilities that will take you steps ahead of your competition.
To see the full infographic, check out Mashable.com.
