The Power of the Twitter Machine
Today saw the official launch of www.rebeccanewman.co.uk for the talented Yorkshire based classical-crossover soprano. The launch not only reflects a fine example of the type of website re-design we do here at design dpi but also the power of social media, in this case how to use the Twitter Machine properly.
Every Wednesday evening at 20:00 the Twitter Machine hosts the business-to-business #YorkshireHour, a most frenetic hour where the lovely folk of Yorkshire get together, promote their wares and have a general natter about all things business in God's own county... Yorkshire. It's worth noting that not only is #YorkshireHour a great medium for B2B marketing, but it is also a platform for us to offer free impartial advice when approached or when we see an interweb related question. It's what it's all about in our opinion.
It was one such #YorkshireHour in June when a couple of direct messages were received:
And so began the initial contact with Rebecca. After taking plenty of time to fully appreciate Rebecca's thoughts and ideas, not to mention understanding what she ultimately wanted from her website re-design, a full development proposal was drafted. Don't forget, Rebecca already had a successful website up and running which she had completely built and maintained herself, so not only did she have a keen eye for design but also a rudimentary knowledge of all things web design in general.
After our early consultations we were both in agreement that a number of the high-end classical-crossover stars websites left the end-user somewhat wanting, we both expected to see a higher quality of website from some of the worlds most famous opera stars? Rebecca wanted to make sure her ever growing fan base were not left with the same feeling after visiting her new website, and to ensure such was the case Rebecca employed the feedback from a number of her loyal fans throughout the build.
Initially there were three fully functioning concept designs created for Rebecca's re-design. We generally like to furnish our clients with a selection of concepts based on our initial discussions. This process then evolves naturally based on client feedback after reviewing the concept designs. In Rebecca's case she took elements from two of the designs and asked for them to be fused together to see what they looked like. We literally tend to hundreds of similar client requests during the design phase no matter how big or small as we appreciate that until the client has physically seen the changes on screen, it's hard for them to visualise what such changes may look like even if it requires reverting the changes back to the original.
This evolution of the concept design is probably the most time consuming part of any development, and as such is a decisive part to any website build, so this critical stage shouldn't be rushed. If your website doesn't start with a strong foundation you'll be forever 'sticking on plasters'... besides, we want to ensure all our clients are more than happy with their final website design from day one, it's something we take great pride in achieving, no matter how long it takes.
Like all concept designs, the ones for Rebecca's re-design were password protected on our development server, but should you be interested in reviewing the progression from the three initial concepts to the final site design please don't hesitate to get in touch and we'll furnish you with the login details.
The power of the social networks put simply can't be ignored, not only did Rebecca's lead come via the medium of Twitter... there have been many others through Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, watch out for the next example to appear on the blog, although we won't be holding our breath on a lead from Google+ anytime soon. The advantages of the social networks to business doesn't need any explanation, but there is also the side benefit of hooking up with some genuinely interesting, engaging and lovely people, with Rebecca being no exception.
Please visit Rebecca's website and don't forget to listen to her amazing voice, better yet why not buy her debut single Il Mio Cuore Va featuring the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra on iTunes or Amazon? All profit goes to the RNLI Lifeboats charity.
