Two Websites I Use Frequently

1.http://www.m3post.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=64
   
    . Effective because it is easy to navigate around the site and easy to find what you need, especially because of the search bar.
    . The design is very simple for a forum. Some forums can get very confusing and complicated.
    . I come back because it is something i am very interested in. Forum members are awesome.
    . I think they could add a new design but keep the effectiveness.

2.http://rastaclat.com/

    . It is effective because it is easy to find what you want. Being able to sort through dates and certain categories, you will find what you want very quick.
    . The design is simple and very clean.
    . I come back to this site because it is a great product and i love purchasing from them.
    . A thing that can be improved is the way you sort out the products.

Week Three: Aesthetics, Design & Branding

www.ford.com - Problems
1. Homepage is very crowded and bombards you with pictures and text. Hard to navigate around
2. Loads slow when you click on some of the links due to the fact that there is so much that needs to be loaded.
3. Text is small and hard to see on some of the pages.
This website could easily be improved by focusing on having separate pages for separate vehicles instead of having them crowded on the first page.

http://swagelok.com/ - Problems
1. Text is very small throughout the whole website
2. No place on contact
3. Some of the links on the website could definitely be bigger due to the fact that you cannot see them and no name of the link shows when you hover over it
They could definitely improve the text for the writing and also the text for the links. You really do not have an idea what you are clicking on.

www.toyota.com - Good Website
1. Very good size text and very simple design
2. Easy to navigate around and be able to find out the information you need to quick
3. Pictures were clearly marked with the most important information you need to know
The way you can navigate in ease through the website is key to someone who wants to get on and get off right are they find the information that they need instead of looking for minutes trying just to get there.

www.apple.com - Good Website
1. Beautiful mix of colors and easy navigation links
2. Videos on the products that you are looking at and detailed descriptions
3. Easy to find and contact apple directly through a chat or by email or phone.
Design is very key to apples website since they are a company that is looked at very highly. The simplicity to the website is incredible and the colors make the website beautiful.

Five examples of business websites and the social media they are using

1.http://www.symbolicmotors.com/

Bottom left corner of the page, FaceBook, Twitter, YouTube, Blogger, Ebay, Instagram, Tumblr

2.http://www.rastaclat.com

Bottom of the page, FaceBook, Twitter, Instagram, Mailing List

3.http://www.activerideshop.com/

3/4 of the way down on the right side of the page, FaceBook, Twitter, Tumblr, YouTube

4. http://www.alexanderwang.com/

Bottom right corner of the page, Facebook, Twitter, Mailing List

5.http://www.ysl.com/

Link on left side of the page, FaceBook, Twitter, YouTube

Communicating with businesses

Communicating with a business is not always easy. If the business you are trying to communicate with is well known, you can just imagine how many emails they are getting daily. Having multiple ways to contact a business is always helpful. Social media would definitely make it easier to get noticed and it would also make resolving problems much faster in my personal opinion. I have had multiple successful experiences connecting with a business through social media. I sent numerous emails to the company that I was trying to contact but they would always take forever to respond and to be honest it gets very frustrating. I finally took the social media route to get in contact with them and they got back to me within a few hours. There are of course going to be some positive and negatives from the social media aspect, but most of my experiences thus far have been very positive and it has made connecting with business a lot easier.

What's the best social media website?

In my social media experience there are definitely website that are geared towards business and also some that are geared towards personal use. I would have to say that Facebook is geared towards personal use. If i had to chose which social media network i would say is the best for business it would either be Instagram or Twitter. I say instagram because you can post pictures almost instantly and advertise your new products that are coming out. I would also say Twitter due to the fact that you can interact with and respond to customers very quickly and that makes for a lot of help and questions that need to be answered quickly, and also for other customers that may have had the same question.

Template Choice

As i was looking for a template to use for my blog, i didn't really come across any that just really stood out to me. I'm more of a simple person when it comes to looks for websites and also for blogs. When they get too complicated everything starts to look cramped together and that it just the look that I am personally not going for. Simplicity is the key to brilliance for me. When you are able to navigate around your blog and others simply, that makes everything much better and of course faster. When you are searching for a link on a blog and you cannot find it, you may get frustrated and just leave that blog and this is something you don't want as a blog operator.