image source: Poloirid Icons 1.0

Efficiency in anything basically means running lean and trimming out the extra fat.

At the university, my new media students learn the concept that “less is more” when designing interfaces for creating web pages. As most graphic designers involved in interactive design will attest to, when you’re creating a web interface, you want to eliminate the clutter. It’s all about visual communication. You want to visually communicate only the point your trying to get across to your user and nothing more. No clutter.

This type of design seems easy because people assume that simple is easy… but it’s a far cry from easy. Telling the story your want with the fewest words is no easy task. (Look at me for example, I’m already rambling with this article!)

Ok let’s bring it back to social media

You have a business. You want people to know about your business. You heard that social media is the key. You start signing up…for anything and for everything. Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Youtube, Google+ …the list goes on. With every sign up, a new account, new settings, a new learning curve, time away from your business, time and money spent away for perfecting your product and servicing your customers.

Let’s trim the fat.

Step 1: Profile your business and yourself.

Figure out what kind of business you have and what your own strengths are. That might help you focus on what type of social media services might really help you. I mean really think about it. Does a mom and pop 99c pizza shop really need to tweet? Do their customers really need the extra media noise of 99c pizza news streaming into their smart phone? And how much can you tweet about pizza, a good deal on pizza, pizza recipes, or best practices in digesting pizza? I know pizza. Continue reading →