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If you have a business or a personal brand, you should have a Facebook page. Facebook has the capability to give opportunities beyond expectation. Through ads, you expose yourself and your business to over a billion of its monthly active users who may also be potential customers. It’s cheaper and more convenient to advertise in Facebook compared to making physical efforts when marketing yourself and your company. Because of the same reason, many businesses create Facebook pages yearly. A year on year report said there was a 33 percent growth in the creation of Facebook business pages. As of September 2016, sixty million entrepreneurial pages already exist. This shows how intense the competition becomes among businesses in Facebook. Because Facebook is within arm’s reach even for small businesses and up-and-coming personalities, competition is getting bigger and more complicated. With a new wave of competitors comes the sprouting of fraudulent accounts and businesses who wants their share of customers. How do you keep up with millions of competitors? How do you level up your personal brand or business page? What are Facebook’s Badges?

Account verification started in May 2013 when the blue badge was introduced. It was made to verify public figures and personalities with large audiences. After a while, many politicians and celebrities used this feature. The latest one, the gray badge, which was launched in October 2015, is for local businesses with valid addresses. It was a no-brainer for companies, big or small, to adopt this one. Because people notice badges first even before seeing the contents of a page, having it gives an advantage of a great first impression. What do I get from them?

Other than that cool tick you get beside your business or personal brand name, verifying your page gets you other benefits as well. If you observe, more big businesses verify their Facebook account. The small ones should follow suit, especially when they can have that privilege. Reaching customers, partners or investors has always been a challenge for businesses. Having a badge gives you a sense of importance to potential and regular customers. Whether big or small, you and your business appear more credible. Badges set you apart from competitors. A business forecast made by eMarketer says that in 2015, 84.7 percent of companies—with more than a hundred employees and uses Facebook for marketing—will rise in number in 2016 (85.3 percent) and in 2017 (85.8 percent). If you own a Facebook page, competitors will give you a harder time when attracting customers. With a badge, you stand out among unverified accounts; fraudulent ones and even legitimate ones. Some people may have ignored you before but now that you have a badge, the chance of them being interested in you or your products are higher. Blue and gray badges have the power to attract trust. It’s the benefit brands should seek if they want career or business growth. Ads are more useful when they come from verified accounts. With a badge, you guarantee that the product in the ad has a brand they can believe in. In addition, a verified page ranks higher in Facebook’s search results. If you have one, you make it easier for people to find you and not be involved in any type of mishaps related to fraudulent accounts. A sense of familiarity opens the possibility that a person browsing Facebook becomes a potential customer, a root cause for your product’s popularity by word of mouth or an entirely different benefit. Other than being trustworthy, badges make pages more familiar to people. Each time a person encounters your page, badges tell them you are a real brand. Therefore, they will remember you or your company as one of the few trustworthy brands out of millions of business pages. Conclusion

“Parallax web design” is an intimidating term for a fairly simple concept. You’ve probably encountered it without knowing what it’s called. Parallax scrolling was originally popularized in 2D computer graphics and video games. Its aim was to create the illusion of depth during gameplay by using different movement speeds for different images. Simply put, parallax scrolling is a visual effect done by making the background move slower than the foreground. In web design, parallax scrolling holds the same concept. The different elements in a web page move independently from one another, giving a 3D effect to an otherwise 2D plane. Unlike the rest of the page, the background reveals itself at a slower pace to illustrate distance and depth. The result is a visual story that seamlessly unfolds before your eyes as you scroll down. Eric Jaffe from Fast Company describes the parallax experience as an effect that creates “a sense of animation and heightened interactive experience.” Parallax Web Design as a Trend 

Parallax design didn’t become popular for no reason. Professional designers and laymen alike saw how this design can improve websites and drive better return on investment (ROI). Here are some of the features that pushed this trend to the top.  Novel Design Parallax design became a big hit because it offered a fresh experience to users. It depicted something that they’ve never seen before in traditional websites. Users loved it because it piqued their interest and aroused their curiosity. Interactive Experience Another reason why parallax design caught fire is that it brought users to the next level of interactive online viewing. Users had to scroll down if they wanted to unveil the succeeding events. This feature made users feel like they were entering a new frontier of web experience. Depth and Animation When parallax design became a trend, website owners were eager to try it out. It’s possible that every web and presentation designer at that time worked on at least one project involving parallax websites. Websites were redesigned to achieve a sense of depth and animation.  Storytelling Approach Everybody loves stories. When websites assumed the form of a visual narrative through parallax design, users immediately got hooked. It was a good way to connect with the viewers in a way that traditional websites couldn’t. Extended Page Visits Since parallax design encouraged viewers to scroll through an entire page of images, viewers spent more time browsing. This increased traffic and engagement in parallax websites. The more time visitors spend in a website, the more likely they are to respond to the call to action. Credibility and Professionalism Parallax design boosts credibility. People are generally impressed with well-designed websites because the quality of a site manifests a company’s brand and work ethic. Parallax design can make a website look appealing—that’s why people gravitate towards it in the first place. The Inevitable Decline of Parallax Design

Every trend must come to an end, and parallax design is no exception. People eventually realized that this trend was many things, but it wasn’t the ideal fix for everything. Like most trends, it had to pass. Here are some of the things that brought its downfall.  Slow Load Times Parallax designs are typically implemented using JavaScript, and that can be inconvenient since it could affect a website’s speed. In turn, the website’s search rank is compromised and it loses valuable traffic. Stunted SEO Most parallax websites contain only one page, which is detrimental to search engine optimization (SEO) because it limits the number of meta information, H1 tags, URLs, and internal links that can be included in the page. As such, the website’s performance and visibility in search engine rankings are inhibited. Incompatibility with Mobile A parallax design appears broken when viewed from a mobile device. It’s a bad business move to implement this design when a significant portion of your traffic comes from mobile platforms. Distraction from Content  Unless you properly implement it, a parallax web design can distract your viewers from the core message. Your viewers may get lost amidst the design. Parallax effects may be impressive at first glance, but they’ll be downright destructive if your viewers can’t find the information they’re looking for. Answering the Question of Usability

Social media opens numerous opportunities for learning. There’s a whole trove of knowledge that you can unearth just by probing into the past and examining old strategies. Past trends can shine a new light on how you perceive social media, allowing you to understand more clearly what strategies worked before and what are likely to work today. If you’ve been in the digital marketing environment for a while, you’ll agree that branding in the new era is a challenge without a measured solution. In a landscape where everything goes, only one thing is for sure: Innovations that break through culture stick around. The social media atmosphere is so fast-paced that no single brand stays at the top for too long—you must up your ante to remain competent and relevant. Social Media Trends to Explore

After much deliberation, we’ve rounded up five of the most revolutionary trends that have recently dominated the social media landscape and are likely to continue shaping its fate in the next few years. 1. The “Crowdculture” Phenomenon Before an idea goes mainstream to officially become a trend, it must come from somewhere first. Most of the time, trends are a product of cultural innovation, which means that they blossom from the fringes of society—from marginal circles that are usually unheard of. From these small groups, the mass media would pick up would-be trends which will subsequently diffuse to larger audiences. This entire phenomenon is what Cultural Strategy Group Founder and President Douglas Holt calls as “crowdculture.” There are two types of crowdcultures: subcultures and art worlds. Subcultures can revolve around any topic—from red velvet cupcakes and Lucy Pevensie to 3D house printing and Jimmy Carr. Before, subculturalists had to meet in physical locations, but thanks to the technological innovations of our time, they can now convene in virtual platforms. Art worlds are just like subcultures, except that they are limited to artistic circles composed of writers, musicians, designers, cartoonists, filmmakers, and the like. Artists come together to bounce off ideas and improve their craft, often resulting into some kind of creative breakthrough. Targeting crowdcultures is a crucial step in chasing after trends and ultimately staying relevant. 2. Omnichannel Marketing

With the advent of social media came a strategy that brands were quick to leverage: multi-channel marketing, the process of connecting with users in two or more platforms. However, shortly after this introduction, another strategy was developed to pull it all together: omnichannel marketing, where brands can not only engage with consumers through various platforms but can do so all at once. In other words, you can have a traditional physical store, but also have a website, several print ads, a couple of promotional events, and accounts in all social media platforms. You’re basically in every customer touchpoint, reinforcing top-of-mind brand awareness. 3. Social Influencers and Peers Brands are realizing little by little that most consumers don’t really appreciate business-related content in their social media feed. They care little, if at all, about actively engaging with brands in social platforms. Social media is where people relax and have fun—it’s where they communicate with one another and form circles around their interests. Social media is where they talk about their favorite things and favorite people. That’s why in order for brands to garner any attention, they need to leverage influencer and peer marketing. As Influence-Central CEO Stacy DeBroff said, “These influencers will powerfully inform and guide us in our consumer decisions.” 4. Live-streaming Videos

Social media opens numerous opportunities for learning. There’s a whole trove of knowledge that you can unearth just by probing into the past and examining old strategies. Past trends can shine a new light on how you perceive social media, allowing you to understand more clearly what strategies worked before and what are likely to work today. If you’ve been in the digital marketing environment for a while, you’ll agree that branding in the new era is a challenge without a measured solution. In a landscape where everything goes, only one thing is for sure: Innovations that break through culture stick around. The social media atmosphere is so fast-paced that no single brand stays at the top for too long—you must up your ante to remain competent and relevant. Social Media Trends to Explore

After much deliberation, we’ve rounded up five of the most revolutionary trends that have recently dominated the social media landscape and are likely to continue shaping its fate in the next few years. 1. The “Crowdculture” Phenomenon Before an idea goes mainstream to officially become a trend, it must come from somewhere first. Most of the time, trends are a product of cultural innovation, which means that they blossom from the fringes of society—from marginal circles that are usually unheard of. From these small groups, the mass media would pick up would-be trends which will subsequently diffuse to larger audiences. This entire phenomenon is what Cultural Strategy Group Founder and President Douglas Holt calls as “crowdculture.” There are two types of crowdcultures: subcultures and art worlds. Subcultures can revolve around any topic—from red velvet cupcakes and Lucy Pevensie to 3D house printing and Jimmy Carr. Before, subculturalists had to meet in physical locations, but thanks to the technological innovations of our time, they can now convene in virtual platforms. Art worlds are just like subcultures, except that they are limited to artistic circles composed of writers, musicians, designers, cartoonists, filmmakers, and the like. Artists come together to bounce off ideas and improve their craft, often resulting into some kind of creative breakthrough. Targeting crowdcultures is a crucial step in chasing after trends and ultimately staying relevant. 2. Omnichannel Marketing

With the advent of social media came a strategy that brands were quick to leverage: multi-channel marketing, the process of connecting with users in two or more platforms. However, shortly after this introduction, another strategy was developed to pull it all together: omnichannel marketing, where brands can not only engage with consumers through various platforms but can do so all at once. In other words, you can have a traditional physical store, but also have a website, several print ads, a couple of promotional events, and accounts in all social media platforms. You’re basically in every customer touchpoint, reinforcing top-of-mind brand awareness. 3. Social Influencers and Peers Brands are realizing little by little that most consumers don’t really appreciate business-related content in their social media feed. They care little, if at all, about actively engaging with brands in social platforms. Social media is where people relax and have fun—it’s where they communicate with one another and form circles around their interests. Social media is where they talk about their favorite things and favorite people. That’s why in order for brands to garner any attention, they need to leverage influencer and peer marketing. As Influence-Central CEO Stacy DeBroff said, “These influencers will powerfully inform and guide us in our consumer decisions.” 4. Live-streaming Videos

“Parallax web design” is an intimidating term for a fairly simple concept. You’ve probably encountered it without knowing what it’s called. Parallax scrolling was originally popularized in 2D computer graphics and video games. Its aim was to create the illusion of depth during gameplay by using different movement speeds for different images. Simply put, parallax scrolling is a visual effect done by making the background move slower than the foreground. In web design, parallax scrolling holds the same concept. The different elements in a web page move independently from one another, giving a 3D effect to an otherwise 2D plane. Unlike the rest of the page, the background reveals itself at a slower pace to illustrate distance and depth. The result is a visual story that seamlessly unfolds before your eyes as you scroll down. Eric Jaffe from Fast Company describes the parallax experience as an effect that creates “a sense of animation and heightened interactive experience.” Parallax Web Design as a Trend 

Parallax design didn’t become popular for no reason. Professional designers and laymen alike saw how this design can improve websites and drive better return on investment (ROI). Here are some of the features that pushed this trend to the top.  Novel Design Parallax design became a big hit because it offered a fresh experience to users. It depicted something that they’ve never seen before in traditional websites. Users loved it because it piqued their interest and aroused their curiosity. Interactive Experience Another reason why parallax design caught fire is that it brought users to the next level of interactive online viewing. Users had to scroll down if they wanted to unveil the succeeding events. This feature made users feel like they were entering a new frontier of web experience. Depth and Animation When parallax design became a trend, website owners were eager to try it out. It’s possible that every web and presentation designer at that time worked on at least one project involving parallax websites. Websites were redesigned to achieve a sense of depth and animation.  Storytelling Approach Everybody loves stories. When websites assumed the form of a visual narrative through parallax design, users immediately got hooked. It was a good way to connect with the viewers in a way that traditional websites couldn’t. Extended Page Visits Since parallax design encouraged viewers to scroll through an entire page of images, viewers spent more time browsing. This increased traffic and engagement in parallax websites. The more time visitors spend in a website, the more likely they are to respond to the call to action. Credibility and Professionalism Parallax design boosts credibility. People are generally impressed with well-designed websites because the quality of a site manifests a company’s brand and work ethic. Parallax design can make a website look appealing—that’s why people gravitate towards it in the first place. The Inevitable Decline of Parallax Design

Every trend must come to an end, and parallax design is no exception. People eventually realized that this trend was many things, but it wasn’t the ideal fix for everything. Like most trends, it had to pass. Here are some of the things that brought its downfall.  Slow Load Times Parallax designs are typically implemented using JavaScript, and that can be inconvenient since it could affect a website’s speed. In turn, the website’s search rank is compromised and it loses valuable traffic. Stunted SEO Most parallax websites contain only one page, which is detrimental to search engine optimization (SEO) because it limits the number of meta information, H1 tags, URLs, and internal links that can be included in the page. As such, the website’s performance and visibility in search engine rankings are inhibited. Incompatibility with Mobile A parallax design appears broken when viewed from a mobile device. It’s a bad business move to implement this design when a significant portion of your traffic comes from mobile platforms. Distraction from Content  Unless you properly implement it, a parallax web design can distract your viewers from the core message. Your viewers may get lost amidst the design. Parallax effects may be impressive at first glance, but they’ll be downright destructive if your viewers can’t find the information they’re looking for. Answering the Question of Usability

Parallax Web Design: Is It for You?

“Parallax web design” is an intimidating term for a fairly simple concept. You’ve probably encountered it without knowing what it’s called. Parallax scrollingwas originally popularized in 2D computer graphics and video games. Its aim was to create the illusion of depth during gameplay by using different movement speeds for different images. Simply put, parallax scrolling is a visual effect done…

Parallax Web Design: Is It for You?

“Parallax web design” is an intimidating term for a fairly simple concept. You’ve probably encountered it without knowing what it’s called. Parallax scrolling was originally popularized in 2D computer graphics and video games. Its aim was to create the illusion of depth during gameplay by using different movement speeds for different images. Simply put, parallax scrolling is a visual effect done…