Last week we heard from Justin Levy that Workshifting.com was listed on Social Media Examiner as one of the top 10 business blogs and why they are successful. We are so proud that one of our clients’ websites were listed and even more exciting, one of the reasons Social Media Examiner rates it in the top 10 (besides the great writing and staff) is due to the design.

Another addition to this seemingly growing series of how other industries can help the social web grow up, this one takes a walk with photography. I have quite a few friends who are photographers whether by profession or hobby many traits and habits extend pass their disposition. I began looking at how we can take the basics and learn how to interact with the social web more effectively.

Lately it seems as if the market for social media 101 and 102 have hit critical mass, unfortunately I think it’s just beginning to grow. Everyone will get into the business of telling you how to leverage, game, manipulate, and pendulate wants against needs. The more we become a “friending” society the more we need to be reminded that we are still human. Yes, there are ways to help nudge or further expose a desire into a “friending” action but the incessant documentation and rules for social media needs to find a plateau. This isn’t to say that those who are creating materials for those just becoming acquainted with social media are wasting their time or creating useless chatter amongst the internet. It does seem, however, that we are wanting to abandon our humanity for something more enticing. This happened with the advent of email and email newsletter campaigns, still heavily used but often tossed to the side for more social fields, email has been through this and maybe we should learn some lessons.

Social media sites are all the rage right now which means many people are diverting their attention from email newsletters to things like Twitter and Facebook. Spending time on social media is not only a sound business decision but you can see real return from it. That doesn’t mean that we should be ignoring our email newsletters.

For too long people have been chasing email newsletters hoping to see real movement for their sales. Many have now abandoned their newsletters because they feel they can see more action in social media. Too many people confuse endless chatter with actionable/meaningful conversations. I’m not saying to ignore social media but you need to focus on your email newsletter.

Staying cutting edge and breaking the norm is the bloodline of New Marketing Labs, a premier digital marketing, strategy planning and social community engagement firm. Coffee House Ideas was tasked with designing an updated logo and website to better display and explain how New Marketing Labs helps their clients move the needle. New Marketing Labs was started by Chris Brogan and friends with an aggressive approach of doing marketing differently, they wanted a website that exhibited the passion for excellence and human interaction through marketing.

Our goal was first to establish a logo that quickly explained and communicated the professionalism and creativity New Marketing Labs exudes daily. There were many options to choose from but together we developed a logo that was easily identifiable and didn’t fall into the “Web 2.0″ category, which is fatiguing the industry. As we began development on the website we felt a need to add more science elements into the design but didn’t want it overbearing and confusing for the user to know what the company does. We added the double helix in the header background to achieve this more technical aspect of the website to communicate that New Marketing Labs is a company that experiments but with exacting measurement and adjustment to achieve goals. Next, we designed large bold text statements to at the top of every page to immediately explain why the user is on the page. Our goal with the homepage was to provide a textured background to add depth due to the amount of information that needed to be communicated. New Marketing Labs desired a landing page that quickly explained who they are, what they do, who they work for, and what they’re doing now; we felt we were able to accomplish this effectively. New Marketing Labs’ goal was for users to quickly understand what the agency does and how they can help businesses in social media. Stand by for updates on the success of NewMarketingLabs.com.

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