Twitter is a great social networking tool for social and work contacts. To help you out Blink has put together our top tips for using Twitter, from what to name your account, to understanding how business and person life overlap and how to use Twitter to help land your dream graphic design job. From why to use Twitter, what to call your account, what and how often to tweet and how to gain followers to help land your dream job. This is the guide for you:

Why join Twitter?

Twitter is a great social networking tool, it allows you to post short status updates and links to a wide range of people. It can make it much easier for people to find you online and see your design portfolio website and get to chat to you in an informal way.

How committed do I need to be to Twitter?

People who do well on Twitter post often and to a regular pattern. The exact number of tweets vary between users but you do need to be consistent to a certain degree. Posting a hundred one day and nothing for the next few weeks is unlikely to gain you loyal followers. Think of your stream like a newspaper, whether you post a few times a day or 20 times a day – you need to find a pattern that works for you and your followers and stick loosely to it.

Do I need to post constantly? Is quantity better than quality?

Quality is always better than quantity – the same as whittling down your design portfolio to the best pieces gives a better impression than throwing every piece of work you’ve ever done into a portfolio, tweets need to be interesting. If you have ten things to say one day and nothing for the next 5, space your tweets out rather than bombard the stream before vanishing. The only exception to this is if you are covering a specific event and tweeting live for the duration of a conference or event, in which case warn your followers up front of the coverage and ensure as always to post relevant tweets.

Does my account need to have a purpose?

You can tweet about yourself and your work, or cover industry events, tweet advice and be a expert resource on a particular topic or a combination of the above. Think about what interests you personally as well as what you think will interest other people following you. You need a balance of something you enjoy tweeting about and which other people enjoy reading.

So I want to get a job – should I tweet about how great a designer I am?

Well you could, but who would want to read a constant stream of adverts? You can of course post about your own career and achievements, post links when you make site updates or link to a project you have worked on you are particularly proud of. The trick is to make sure your tweets are more than just trumpet blowing. Share your work and let people make up their own mind. Better yet, write articles and helpful posts which show your expertise and tweet about them. That way you can help people and show you have a good understanding of your topic.

So can I tweet whenever I am looking for a job asking people to hire me?

You can say you are available for work, however a constant stream of ‘please hire me’ tweets is not interesting to read and will have people clicking unfollow if you do this too often. I think if you are a graduate or looking for your first job it is more approproiate to say you are looking for a job, however be careful how you word these tweets and how often you send them. If you are a junior looking to move job, be aware how your tweets look to your current employer. Remember as well that agencies will often post when they are hiring on Twitter giving you an edge to reply speedily with your CV. It isn’t all about them finding you, you can use Twitter to find vacancies to apply for as well.

So should my tweets appeal to designers? Or business owners?

Well it could be either. If you are a junior or graduate it will often be a senior designer or design director employing you so there is no reason why tweeting about design cant help you get a job directly. You can also use Twitter to read about and comment on work by companies you would love to work with. Say you want to work in a very niche area – say animal charity design, then perhaps your love of this area will come out in your tweets rather than them being about general design topics, but that will be natural for yourself as your love of the topic will be why you want to work in that specific environment.

About content… can I tweet about my nights out? Relationship breakup?

People take very different approaches to what they tweet. Some are very personal and some are very businesslike. If you plan on using one Twitter account for both personal and business use be aware that the people who want to read about how ‘wasted’ you are on a Friday night might find it funny, but potential employers may look differently on this… Equally those design tutorials you are retweeting might bore your pub friends. Which leads us into…

Should I have one or two accounts?

Well personally we recommend being wary of anything you post online which can be traced back to you. Tweeting about your old ‘hag’ of a boss or how much you drank the day before you ‘pull a sickie’ can land you in a lot of grief and once posted is online forever. You may wish to have two accounts to keep business contacts and personal chatter separate, however bear in mind people can put two and two together and view your other stream if they so desire. If you really want to let loose on your Twitter account between friends consider making your tweets private.

These accounts… what should I call them?

This depends on how you plan to use your account. Is this account about you (personal), you (as a designer), your company or a specific purpose? For example: Say you are logo designer… maybe you want to tweet exclusively about new logo designs and logo design events as a resource for other designers, you may want to call yourself something very different to if the status updates are about yourself.

For personal accounts you may want to use an internet handle, something familiar to friends but not your actual name. This avoids the issue where an employer googles your name and immediately sees all your personal tweets, this can be avoided by using the private setting on Twitter BUT as well as it being potentially troublesome in future to tweet under your full name, it can be potential beneficial to use it for business tweets for exactly the same reason. If your name googles and brings up relevant intelligent tweets on graphic design, this can be beneficial to your career. You can also use your business name if you want to setup as a freelancer and create a professional image.

If you want to work for another company you can also use a name such as YourName_Design or similar to take advantage of keywords. For any Twitter name we would say as a general rule: avoid cheap puns, avoid terms that may be misconstrued, avoid swear words or drug words (it may be funny to your teenage mates… but your employers might think differently) and remember the name needs to give the impression you set out to achieve. If you are an email design expert then EmailExpertLondon might be perfect (as long as your tweets ARE about email) so brainstorm ideas before you set up that account.

So, I have a name, an account and I am tweeting regularly… how do I get anyone to follow me?

Part of the fun of Twitter is that people will stumble over your tweets and add you. There are of course a large number of ways you can gain and keep followers. Firstly: Share your @name and URL on appropriate sites and forums in your signoff, add it to your email signature, put it on your business card, add it to your Linkedin page and website. You can also often add widgets to your site to show recent tweets which can be a great way to gain new followers.

The other most important thing is to realise Twitter is a multi-directional communication tool. It is designed as a way to talk to other people. Rather than write tweets and expect everyone to retweet and link to you, retweet pother peoples content if you think it’s great. Send the occasional FF (follow Friday) list of @names of people you follow and think your followers would like. Talk to people. Add people relevant to you who you want to read about. Twitter is more than a tool to shout into the net and more of a way to talk with others.

OK, so now how do I get a job?

Tools like twitter help build your online presence. They can provide a way for you to soft-sell yourself to potential employers by talking to them in an informal setting. Tweets can also provide a way for people to easily stumble upon and share your work with a very wide audience. Twitter (and indeed anything else) are just useful tools which can help people find you and show your expertise and elements of your character to potential employers.

At Blink we have had 3 projects come in to date directly due to our Twitter account. However we have no specific targets for sales via Twitter or heavy game plan for pushing people from followers to leads. People can tell a salesperson a mile away and sales copy is as boring to read as it is to write. If you decide to use Twitter as part of your plan to land your first graphic design job remember to use it as just part of your arsenal, still put effort into your all important portfolio, website, CV and how you present yourself at interviews. And above all, have fun!

Note: Graphic property of QuickCert

Many websites, including some very influential brands, went on strike this week in protest against the proposed SOPA and Protect IP (PIPA) acts. These acts plan to give new and unrivaled powers to the American government to take down and block any website they feel violates intellectual property or copyright laws more than 10 times in 6 months and jail the site’s owners for up to 5 years. A further contraversial aspect is the idea that this would give the US government and rights holders would have the right to seek court orders against any site accused of “enabling or facilitating” piracy, i.e those sharing links to or seeming to promote sites which they deem infringes the acts. Search engines will also be legally forced to remove listings of any of the sites deemed in infringement of the act. Is this the start of the ‘Great FireWall of America’?

Site’s such as Wikipedia, Boinboing, WordPress, Flickr, Mozilla, Reddit, Wired and many more started controversial strike action yesterday blacking out their sites and replacing them with a strong anti SOPA and PIPA message. Sites such as http://sopastrike.com/ sprung up to share ways to black out websites with site owners as well as a list of other sites on strike.

The acts allow anyone found owning a site which streams copyrighted material without permission or sharing links to such content to be removed from the web in the US. This would see America creating it’s own ‘Great FireWall of China’ as it intends to use the same ISP immunity technique which would effectively make them “disappear” from the internet. They will be able to do this based on ‘credible evidence’ which makes it tempting for sites to falsely report rival companies. Something they say they will screen for but will in practice be very hard to implement.

Here at Blink we are in favour of protecting copyrighted material from abuse, however, as stated by Steven Fry; “Art flourishes in ages of soft copyright & dies with none or over-strict copyright”. No real understanding has been made in this bill that many areas are grey when it comes to copyright infringement.

Quite often sharing something not for profit is a neutral or good thing rather than a clear cut crime. Ever uploaded a music video to Youtube to help promote your favourite band? A movie trailer of an upcoming movie? Or shared a link to such material? These videos are not being sold by the copyright owners and you are not selling them. In fact this is free marketing for the band/film in question something they should be happy to know they were reaching a wider audience. AMV’s are another grey area, these are home made music videos using animated materials from TV shows by individuals to create their own piece of video to their favourite song. Often they list the animations used and the band responsible for the music – technically copyright infringement but also an artistic expression and free viral marketing for the music and shows. Another very grey area are fan-subs; Small groups of people band together, faithfully translate TV shows with no subtitles and release in their native country and share the files at no profit, many also remove their files if an official version is released. These acts seem to allow a certain degree of interpretation which could potentially make the ‘perpetrators’ of the above and those who shares links to their sites criminalised and have their sites blocked without trial.

The internet is rife with people illegally sharing movies and music against the will of the copyright owners, it is also full of people sharing grey area media, linking to sites which may contain either or the above and young people linking to all these sites. Some are definitely malicious, some are definitely not, many are in between. Either way, everyone deserves a fair trial and chance to have their say and correct their actions before being punished.

These are just some areas to think about and we hope these bills go through some serious revisions before they are passed. We feel they are too all-encompassing and heavy handed. We hope a compromise can be met which not only helps protect copyright holders from infringement but also upholds free speech and implements a fair system of investigation and punishment for any guilty parties.

Supporters of the bills include television networks, music publishers, movie industry bodies, book publishers and manufacturers.

Critics include Google, Facebook, Twitter, Wikipedia, Yahoo, eBay, LinkedIn, AOL and Zynga.

You can read up more on SOPA and PIPA at the following links:
BBC explaination on SOPA and PIPA
BBC article on the blackout protests

Here at Blink we have chosen to become a corporate sponsor for I CAN as our chosen charity for 2012. As of today we have adopted the word ‘Blink’ as part of I CAN’s Adopt A Word charity scheme. By adopting a word as a corporate sponsor we are able to help I CAN with their mission is to ensure no child who struggles to communicate is left out or left behind in school.

Why I CAN’s work is important:

The ability to communicate is a fundamental life skill for all children and young people. Without these skills, children will struggle to learn, achieve, make friends and interact with the world around them.

In classrooms across the UK, there are over a million bright children who are anxious, frustrated, isolated and misunderstood. They have an underlying problem communicating which is largely invisible. The potential of these children is masked by their communication barrier. The right help can unlock it.

In an average class there are 2 or 3 children with communication difficulties that will often persist throughout their lives. These difficulties cannot be prevented. And children with them need lots of help to join in and learn. There is no magic cure, but with the right help, their outcomes can dramatically improve.

In socially deprived areas there can be more than 17 children in each class with language skills below average for their age. In extreme cases, some start school with the language skills of a 2-year-old. These difficulties can, for the most part, be prevented. And, if identified early, they can be fixed.

Why Blink has chosen to sponsor I CAN as our chosen charity for 2012:

We wanted to support a charity championing one of the most important aspects of our business… communication.  From discussions between us and our clients, to the way our design work communicates a clients message to their customers, communication is at the heart of what Blink does.

On a more personal note, Bex White, Blink’s founder, grew up in a time where dyslexics like her siblings were heavily discouraged rather than supported.  Once being told by an English teacher it was a ‘made up disability to make lazy children feel better’, making I CAN’s work a cause close to her heart.  Thankfully times have moved on, but understanding of how to teach children with communication difficulties still varies greatly from school to school.  I CAN seemed the perfect choice to help the next generation get the most from their learning.

See our corporate sponsor page on the Adopt A Word site here.

Want to help children with communication difficulties get a head start in life?:

I CAN accepts both corporate and personal word adoptions. Personal adoptions give you the chance to own a bit of the English language for just £15. All proceeds help children who struggle to find the words they need to communicate. You can adopt as many words as you like or give words as a gift to friends. You will recieve a certificate for your word and the knowledge that you are helping a good cause.

Adopt your own word and help children today at http://www.adoptaword.co.uk/

Become a corporate sponsor:

Corporate sponsors help I CAN with not only their financial donations, but also help spread the work of the charity through their network. If you are a manager of a company or think your boss might want to find out how they can help I CAN please send them to the corporate sponsor pages here.

Find out more about I CAN and the work the charity does at http://www.ican.org.uk/

In everyday life surprises can be a lovely thing, in business however they usually mean that you and your client have different ideas about key areas of your current project. This often leads to you needing to charge more than your quote to finish the work, or working at a loss to deliver the completed project in a way which satisfies the client. The good news is you can easily help ensure the only surprises are when the client sends a ‘thank you’ box of chocolates to reward a job well done.

So, how do you achieve this? Simple; clear communication and always putting everything in writing.

> Have you read their brief and clarified it?
Many clients give short written or verbal briefs, write down what you understood from these and confirm them in an email to ensure you are both on the same page.

> Have you quoted clearly?
When you quote for a project always let the client know either the number of hours or the included number of designs and revisions included to keep things on budget. That way if the client asks for more rounds of amends than on the quote you can let them know the additional cost and avoid surprises for them when the invoice comes in later.

> Have you agreed to hand over full copyright to the work?
When you quote on work including illustrative and photographic services ensure you have stated for each item whether the client is buying the full copyright or a licence to use the images. If possible give them both options on your quote so they can make a call. Also, do explain what the terms entail and if selling a licence let them know if it is exclusive or time limited.

> Has the client given you an NDA? Have you read if fully?
Many clients will get you to sign an NDA agreeing not to disclose the work or any sensitive data they give you. If the wording doesn’t clearly state either way always ask if you are ok to use the project on your portfolio after it launches. Most companies are fine with this but it is polite to check before doing so.

> Have you broken larger projects down into stages with milestones?
Give the client a heads up on where the key signoff points are – this avoids them asking for major design changes during the development phase of a site or asking for a redesign of a flyer when you have already prepared it for print. If they still need these changes you can then explain you have to redo a stage and that it incurs an additional cost and give the client the choice to proceed or keep with what was agreed.

> Do you take deposits? Need payment on one milestone before starting the next?
Then include that in your quote – break down the project with dates and payment amounts so the client is expecting to receive the work and invoice at that time. They can be ready to sign off the work and send payment so you can both keep on track and the client can be clear when their actions are required.

> What else do you need from the client?
If you need assets from the client state them clearly and the dates you need them by. When the date approaches send a friendly reminder to the client to politely let them know the assets are essential to the deadline and ask if anyone else at the company can help if your contact seems too busy. If they miss deadlines on signoff or assets submit a new series of dates so their expectations are up to date.

> What are the deliverables? Have you spoken in layman’s terms?
List the deliverables in a way the client can understand. Include tech speak where necessary but accompany it with a basic description of what this means to the client. The deliverables need to both clearly state what you are delivering and what that means. A client may not think they need a backend ecommerce system, but they may wish to sell products online! This also applies to print work; if you are supplying print ready PDFs the client needs to know they need to either come back to you or to purchase the Indesign files and have a designer on hand if they need it altered at a later date. Similarly with logo design let the client know if they can edit the file fully or whether you are supplying multiple versions such as a one colour version or horizontal and vertical variants. Stating things clearly ensures the client knows what to expect beforehand, which can only be a good thing for all concerned.

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These are just a few of the more important aspects of managing client expectations and projects. I hope they help you keep your projects on track. If you have any more ideas to add or any personal experiences which relate to the points above please do share them below.

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Note: This article was originally published on
Freelance Advisor on 21st Sept 2011.

See the original article here.

Blink Design Studios Ltd is now a whole year old. Yes, a year ago this month we rebranded, renamed and encoroprated into the shiny company you see today.

This is just a little post to say ‘thank you’ to all our clients. Also wanted to say thanks to all those who have supported the business since its tiny beginnings and have been there to watch it grow into something so much more.

Also, times like this remind us that this is still only the beginning and that Blink has a lot more potential and growing to do!

So, here’s to the last fabulous year and also looking straight ahead to all the great things in store in the future.

Thanks guys!

With competition fierce between companies to win business, customer service is one of the most overlooked weapons in your arsenal. I read many articles about growing a business, many of which point out that referrals and word of mouth often generate the best leads, yet they still tend to stick to tactics designed to winning new clients.

Customer service is something which you should think about all the time.

If you get this right, you will always succeed in business and build an invaluable network of people who think you are great at what you do (which is worth its weight in gold). If your design work is top notch but your bedside manner has people running for the exit, a designer offering better customer service will find themselves with a new client sooner rather than later. This is true of projects where alternative designers cost the same as you, but also of companies that cost more. Example: If you had a choice of a coffee from a seller who was rude and made you dread entering the shop versus a cup costing 10p more from someone who smiled and chatted each time, where would you shop? And when it comes to more important and long term provider/client relationships this becomes true to a much larger scale. Companies have to feel comfortable working with a designer and good customer service is at the top of the list for ensuring you are that person.

A Client needs to trust that the designer cares about the project, is on the ball and can deliver good results. If you take 4 days to answer an email asking for a project update how will they feel you have treated the rest of the project? It sounds obvious, but it is surprising how many people forget how important the client is and to treat them how they themselves would like to be treated. I should point out I am not talking about becoming a ‘yes man’ here but rather that whatever you have to say, you say it with both your and the client’s interests in mind. Example: Can’t do the additional work on the site as it would mean they miss their all-important launch date and blow the budget? Let them know the time and cost implications and offer it as a potential future project after the launch – saying this can actually show you care about the client’s project and know what you are doing more than saying ‘yes’ and then trying to deal with the consequences.

So, what are our top tips for customer service?

- Always answer and acknowledge emails and calls from your clients. If you don’t know the answer or need more time let them know when you will get back to them and do so on time.

- Make your quotes and invoices clear and easy to understand – blinding the client with jargon or vague words will only lead to confusion on both sides.

- Set realistic deadlines and then always meet them. If something unexpected occurs call the client as soon as possible to apologise and agree a new deadline. If you cannot complete the work and the deadline is both urgent and imminent – take reasonable steps to help the client find another provider rather than leave them in the lurch.

- Be polite! Always remain polite and try to understand their point of view even if your answer is no. If someone is abusive simply say you will speak to them another time and exit the conversation. You can never know why someone is being rude and what is happening in their lives, politeness or walking away are the only two ways to deal with any form of rudeness.

- Be clear and do reiterate points when needed. If you assume the client knows what you mean and recalls a phone conversation from a week ago you will inevitably find discrepancies between your and the clients expectations. Follow up calls with an email to give them notes on what was decided and any deadlines. This also means you have the information in writing which can prove useful at a later date for you and the client.

- Send regular updates and requests. Been working on something for a while? Be sure to send the client a regular short update letting them know you are still on track, asking for any additional or outstanding items and generally touch base and keep them in the loop. If they ask for additional work or hours which will affect their overall cost then keep them up to date with a running total of how much they have spent. Remember, this is their project too.

- Received a complaint or seen negative remarks online? Talk to the person – their complaint may be valid or may be due to a miscommunication. Ignoring or defending aggressively only adds to the fire. And, if you are wrong, always admit it and apologise; to err is human, to get defensive is just plain daft.

- Not spoken to a client for a while after you have finished their project? Send them a follow up email or call them and ask how they are getting on. You never know, they may need a few more pages on that website or those flyers re-printed.

- Need more work? In a competitive area? Why not offer your current clients a small discount for them and their friend if the friend takes up your services.

All of these things lead to happy customers and repeat business, which is the easiest and best way to grow your business and good reputation. As many of you will know, there is no better client to work with than a happy one and if someone is a repeat customer it is usually because they are happy. Simple eh? Not only that, but a happy customer is the best sales person you can every have for a number of reasons. Firstly, they are not on the payroll which has the benefits of their being free (yay), but also that anyone they mention you to will know they are unbiased and genuine in their praise. Secondly, if they like you enough to recommend you to others they will also come back for more business themselves either with their current employer / project or their next one.

Overall, just treat your clients fairly and how you yourself would like to be treated. If you take these as your basis you will soon find yourself with more repeat work and referred clients than you can handle – all without costing you a penny.

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Got any good stories of how good customer service has helped your business grow? Have any extra tips to add to our list? Add your comments below.

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Note: This article was originally published on
Freelance Advisor on 6th July 2011.
See the original article here.

We have finally gotten around to the beta launch of the Blink Facebook page. The page will offer regular updates and news links as well as fan exclusive discounts and offers. Facebook is also a great platform to use to talk to our customers and find new designers to add to our books. So, whether you are looking for someone to design your companies new logo or website or are a designer or coder looking for a new agency to work with, hit the ‘Like’ button today and show you care!

Need your own company Facebook page designed? Get in touch for a free quote here.

It’s an age old question: How to deal with late payments?

Dealing with clients who miss payments or pay late can put a strain on the relationship between designer and client and are something I am often asked about by those new to working for themselves . One method of addressing late payments is to charge interest on the amount due. However, this can put a strain on the relationship with the client, and while appropriate and necessary for some clients, is definitely a last resort approach to dealing with unpaid invoices.

Here is my checklist of things to think over before resorting to charging interest on your invoices:

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Firstly – are you entitled to charge interest?:

Check your original invoice:

- Are your payment terms clear?

- Did you clearly outline that interest will be charged, when and how it would be charged and the amount?

Check all other paperwork – is there any reason they are late paying?

- Do the terms on your invoices match any PO order attached to it? If you agreed to a PO which states 45 days and your invoice says 30 days you will want to update your invoice (This has happened once to me, thankfully they phoned and corrected me politely so things went smoothly).

- Check your emails – has there been any mention of deadline extension on the invoice or questions regarding payment you needed to clear up which have caused the delay? Also check your spam folder and voicemails just in case.

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Secondly – if you are entitled to charge interest, is it in your interest to do so?:

Have you explored all other options?

- Phone the client and check they received the invoice and ask if everything is ok BEFORE the due date is up. Perhaps they just need a few more days as the person who signs off the PO invoices has just been taken ill or needs to ask a few questions. The buzz word ‘pro-active’ is the one to go for here.

- Send them a gentle reminder email saying that the deadline has passed and ask if there is anything you can do to help. Maybe they are having cash flow issues. Remember, suppliers who go in guns blazing are likely to be paid after those who offer an installment payment plan over a longer period and are more understanding of their needs.

- Is this their first offence? Long term clients are good for business – if this is the first late payment why not just ask them when they can pay by and waive your normal interest charges in this case. It is likely they will appreciate the respect you have for their relationship with your business as well as gently remind them to meet future deadlines.

- Are you caught up in red tape? Sometimes your contact is in a battle with some kind of internal red tape issue with their accounts team and the last thing they need is suppliers calling them demanding payments they are trying to send. Ask for a name to call in accounts and deal politely with them directly. Your main contact will appreciate it and it avoids any confusion when messages are relayed between multiple parties.

- Call them or ask to meet with them. Many people prefer to deal with a person rather than a set of automated emails reminding them they are late. It is likely this can be talked out.

- Do you have any other projects on the go for this client? Any about to start? Perhaps explaining that the unpaid invoice is affecting current and future work might be a good opening statement as it outlines why paying you helps them.  It can also be a good way to gently nudge the client into paying. This is a soft sell way to chase the invoice but also ensures you only have the one invoice to chase as well. This can be combined with any of the other tactics to help manage the amount of outstanding credit with the company.

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Tried everything? How to charge interest and what to do next:

If everything has been tried and you feel that interest is the solution, set a new deadline, offer them a week to settle the account and then start charging interest. Ensure you have made the terms and amounts clear and then invoice for the interest from that point on.

- Be polite at all times – adding interest gives the client another invoice to pay and dealing with it calmly and politely will give you a much higher chance of the amounts being paid promptly. Do explain your perspective, but ensure you paint the situation in more than just black and white terms.

- Look over their account. After this project has been settled, perhaps you will want to ask for a larger deposit from them at the start of projects or perhaps even payment up front in order to continue the relationship. I would advise trying to maintain a good relationship with them and using these methods rather than cutting off late paying clients. Assuming they are a good clinet in other respects, remember their cash flow situation may be temporary and asking for upfront payment solves this issue whilst maintaining a good relationship.

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Overall. I would say to always clearly outline your interest charges and policies on your invoices and terms of service. Saying you charge interest gives you that as a potential leverage tool, but does not mean you have to do so. Try to see things from the client’s perspective and remember that you need your clients as much as they need you. Also, if a payment is just a few days late – consider if that extra few pounds are worth all the hassle, paperwork and bad karma it may cause between you and a good client and only use interest as a last resort.

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I hope this helps and if you have any questions or experiences to add please post them below.
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Note: This article was originally published on
Freelance Advisor’s Money Monday on 14th Feb 2011.
See the original article here.

We have a new article up on Freelance Advisor today.

If you are a small business of a freelance designer and want to know more about how and when it is in yoru interest to charge interest on late invoices this is the article for you. Packed with tips and advice from our own experiences here at Blink we hope it will help you when it comes to actioning overdue invoices.

Read the whole article ‘[Money Monday] When is charging interest not in your interest?’ On Freelance Advisor now >

Help us give the right advice: What would you like to see Blink articles and advice on? Get in touch by sending us a message here: Contact us.

We have taken a look at the Labour and Conservative sites so far to explore a little about how well they have managed to intergrate social medial and sharing into their user experience. Next up is the Liberal Democrats website.

The Liberal Democrats front page design: Bright and user friendly but how social are the Lib Dems?

Blink and you missed it. Right down on the bottom right hand side of the 3 column design are generic logos linking to the social pages for the party. I can see why they have tried to minimise the social aspects on this front page as they have a lot of information and many buttons and clickable areas present. However, the social links could have been presented as a footer with the most recent posts / tweets pulled in – or perhaps as small modules similar to the other content on the side panels of the page design. The rest of the page is really clear and interesting - it’s a shame their social links could have been so much better by comparison. Yes the logos are clear – however, they could have been a lot more engaging and felt more part of the experience to encourage visitors to actually click and engage. The Lib Dem Network has a lovely small module which gives people an idea of the content and a call to action to join – perhaps Facebook, Youtube and Twitter would have benefited from the same level of attention to detail.

When we delve more into the internal pages of the site we can see that the social sites were really added on at the last minute and the share functionality is completely absent, only the logos on the right hand panel are used on any pages at all and they link simply to the party’s pages rather than offering a way to share the content. Facebook like buttons would have been great on the news articles, policy reviews and downloadable content as well as Youtube new videos. Share to social would have ben beneficial on almost all pages. They often have some great call to actions to keep people engaged and to download content or read more online – however the visitors ability to share this with others would involve them telling someone by word of mouth. I really think that share buttons being added to the news and blog would bring more traffic and comments to their articles and encourage more of an open dialogue between the site and the visitor.

After my first review of the Labour website’s use of social media and now the Lib Dem site,  I have to say that the Conservative site still wins hands down for the front page and just squeezes first for the inner pages again with Labour second and the Liberal Democrats still looking at the starting line. Perhaps their next site update will contian a few updates to their social capabilities as they do have content to share and an engaged user base to use the functionality.

Seen an update to this site online? Used the site and have an opinion on how they work? Let us know by commenting below.

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