Keep it simple
Last weekend, I attended Confluence Conference in OKC, a conference for bloggers and digital influencers in Oklahoma. I’ve been to enough conferences at this point that most of the information wasn’t really anything new, but I think it’s always valuable to hear things again and look for a new perspective.
An underlying theme that I noticed, that probably wasn’t intentional or even something that anyone else got out of the event, was the idea to not get too creative — which is a pretty crazy thing to get out of an event full of creative people.
I think we tend to overcomplicate things as creatives. We want to have the memorable site navigation, write the catchy blog post title, and use the most clever writing to describe who we are. But the truth is, if your audience doesn’t get it, you’ve failed, no matter how creative or clever you are.
Cooper House discussed blog design strategy — and not once did they say your blog design elements should be the star of the show. In fact, Erin specifically said you should NOT get too creative with design — we all have certain expectations when we visit websites, and you only have a few moments to get readers to do what you want them to do. You want people to contact you? Say that. You want people to subscribe? Don’t hide your follow buttons in your footer because it looks cuter there. Form follows function, always.
Kelly from Design Crush spoke on growing your online community, and she discussed being specific with your post titles. Creative post titles may be fun for your current readers — but how are you going to get new ones if they don’t understand what you’re talking about? Being clear and specific sets an expectation for new readers and gives them a reason to return. Plus, being specific helps with SEO, so when someone out there is searching for something you offer, they can easily find you. Think about what people may search for to find you.
Kathleen from Braid Creative talked about personal branding (and you can actually sign up for Braid’s ecourse on the topic right now — I highly recommend it!). How does she suggest keeping it simple? Use your own words. This simply means that you should write how you talk and say things you would normally say. Yes, the stereotypical blogger voice is cheery and overuses the word “lovelies” — but that doesn’t mean you have to. You don’t have to come up with the most creative way to say something — just say what you mean, just as if you were telling a friend. The right people will naturally like you for you.
How do you keep it simple?
