New Blog Design

The eagle-eyed amongst you will notice that things are looking a little different around here. That’s because I’ve decided to freshen things up a with a new responsive design. You’ll see the new template looks like that of a newspaper. This is entirely deliberate and there are several compelling reasons for this:

1. Looking like a media company
For the past five or so years I’ve been busy challenging clients of all shapes and sizes to ‘think like a media company’. As a result of this counsel I thought it made sense if my blog looks like a leading media company, as well as trying to think like one.

2. Homage to the media
I’ve been told that I’m something of a news junkie (must be my PR background), so by having a blog which looks like a media company, I like to think that in my own small way I’m paying homage to the quality media. Imitation is the most sincere form of flattery and all that.

3. Deepening engagement
The new design is dynamic, visual and engaging. I’m keen to keep people on the site and entice them further-in with even more interesting content. There’s a lot going on, but the design really pushes the viewer to read more and stay longer on the site (the initial web analytics suggest this is true).

4. Responsive design
With the explosion of web traffic from mobile and tablet devices, upgrading to a responsive website really was a must. The new design is very intuitive and I must say looks really strong across a range of devices.

5. Greater impetus
2013 seems to have been the year that many of the blogs I have followed for several years have ceased operating or taken a hiatus. I’m determined not to be one of them and hope the new design will bring fresh impetus and increased commitment to blogging.

I also really like the design. Over the coming weeks and months there’s undoubtedly going to be a few bugs which need ironing out and improvements which are yet to become apparent that i’ll need to make, so always, your patience is much appreciated. In the meantime I’d be delighted to hear your initial thoughts on the new look Social Web Thing.