Every week, a majority of the DesignWorks digital team gets together on Friday morning to talk about news they found important or interesting that week, tips & tricks we think can be helpful to clients and prospects, a couple jokes, and enjoy a cup of whatever feels right for a Friday morning. We can linger on certain topics for a while, so "Drinks & Thinks" is a boiled down version for you to enjoy.

On My Mind This Week:

Is your timeline cover purposeful? Is it updated to reflect the most recent changes Facebook made to it's layout? Does it still look good on mobile? There's a lot of thought that factors into a good timeline cover.

Most pages publish new timeline covers for holidays and season changes, but is that enough? Depending on your industry and services/product it may make sense to have a set of timeline covers ready to deploy at any moment. For example, if you own a roofing company, have a timeline cover handy at all times in case of a hail storm in your service area. That way, as soon hail is reported, you can deploy an event-specific timeline cover that is extremely relevant to potential customers (I also recommend having an entire 8-10 day campaign for time/event-dependent scenarios like this).

This idea can be applied to so many industries and never leave the topic of weather: car dealerships (hail sale), insurance professionals (claim info/process triggered by large storms, hail, floods, etc), emergency services (education, resources after a devastating event), power/cable/telephone companies (info on downed lines, service failures, etc), real estate consultants ("Your house that for sale just got hail damage, what do you do now?") - this list can go on and on. While the 8-10 day campaign will fill users in, the immediate acknowledgment of the issue at hand via timeline cover establishes authority and attention to detail from the moment a potential customer looks into your services.

To-Do: 

Rethink your timeline cover. Do you have several on hand that can be immediately deployed if something important to your industry happens? Would doing a new video-based timeline cover be beneficial to your business (check ours out on our Facebook page)? Find the best use for you timeline cover, and then redesign it so it serves a purpose greater than being eye-candy.

What's up with the team:

Aaron

drinking: Aqua Hydrate

interesting article:  Facebook Using AI to Wipe Out Terrorist Accounts from Entrepreneur

Favorite Social Media Platform & Why: 

-Platform: I spend an awkward amount of time on Reddit. 

- Why: Once you get passed the default subs and into communities that genuinely interest you (with good mods), Reddit can be a deep pit of good conversation and ideas from room design to insight on ethereum. And, if you venture deep and often enough, a lot of what ends up being popular/viral on Facebook and potentially the news can be found on Reddit long before most other places.

Caitlyn

drinking: water cooler water

article: FACEBOOK UPDATES SAFETY CHECK FEATURE TO ASSUAGE FRIENDS AND FAMILIES’ FEARS from Digital Trends

Favorite Social Media Platform & Why: 

 - Platform: Twitter

- Why: It makes me laugh SO hard and it's what I find myself scrolling through when I'm bored.

Taylor

Out!

Kristen

Out!

Kelsey (one of our interns!)

drinking: diet, gluten and dairy free iced water

Favorite Social Media Platform & Why: 

 - Platform: Instagram

- Why: It's easy and keep up with everybody. It's quick and fun and the pictures are pretty. Also, very generous with likes.

Joanna (another one of our interns!)

drinking: office coffee

Favorite Social Media Platform & Why: 

 - Platform: Reddit.

- Why: Because it's the front page of the internet! It's the first place I go to find out news on anything!