The Blog - Page 13 of 30

Sept. 20th is NFRC's 10th Annual 5K Race, 1 Mile Walk & Family Fun Day

By Tara Urso
September 8, 2014
Uncategorized

This year, insight180 is supporting the National Family Resiliency Center (NFRC), a Columbia, MD non-profit organization, in their annual event, 5 for Families. Five for Families is a 5K Run, 1 Mile Walk and Family Fun Day at the Lakefront in Columbia, MD, directly across from Columbia Mall near Clyde’s Restaurant and the newly opened Petit Louis. All ages are invited to participate with awards and trophies given out to winners in various age categories. You can register for the 5K run or 1-mile walk on active.com.

How to Keep Your WordPress Website Safe

By Bethany Howell
August 26, 2014
website

Breaking News: Security Breach

It seems like every time I turn on the news there is a headline such as “Twitter Hack Breaches Thousands of Accounts” or “Security Breach Exposes 4.2M credit, Debit Cards.” With all these major consumer hackings lately, security has become a big tech topic in our everyday lives. According to a recently released Harris poll, three of five US adults who are online say they feel vulnerable to being hacked. I think the reason is that most people aren’t sure of the best way to keep their information and websites safe from this type of activity.

The Power of the Personal Touch

By Wendy Baird
August 6, 2014
insight180 newsletters,marketing

One of the beauties of summer is the chance to disconnect from technology every now and then and reconnect with old friends. I had such a chance a few weeks ago when I went to visit my best friend of 40 plus years. We always seem to be able to pick up wherever we last we left off and immediately get to laughing, reminiscing and catching up on one another’s lives. At one point, we were sharing fond memories of our days at girl scout camp as my friend was preparing to send her two pre-adolescents to scout camp in the coming week. My friend is such a devoted and thoughtful mom, she was already planning notes and care packages to drop in the mail so that each of her children would have something to open during their days at camp.

Why SEO Basics Aren't Enough

By Tara Urso
July 23, 2014
SEO

As a branding and design firm, we often need to address the topic of our clients’ SEO more than you might think. The truth is, SEO does not just mean relevant keywords, content and link building. The SEO field gets more and more complex as Google’s algorithm becomes more sophisticated.

The Ultimate Cheat Sheet on File Formats

By Bethany Howell
July 17, 2014
Uncategorized

As a designer, I am constantly asking clients for images to help me better promote their brand. Whether it be their logo or photos of their staff and/or events, it’s not at all unusual that I receive images that are unuseable, and when I try to explain why, clients often seem stunned or confused. After all, the images are digital, so can’t they just be converted? Often, the answer is no, they can’t. File formats exist to serve different circumstances for use, which by nature, makes them not right for all uses and circumstances. I hope the following “cheat sheet” helps to clear up some of the confusion.

What You Need to Know About SEO, 2014

By insight180 team
June 30, 2014
blogging,content,insight180 newsletters,SEO

How you rank with search engines is an important part of building a successful business. But the active tasks of search engine optimization (SEO) are very different in 2014 than they used to be even just a year ago.

Digital vs Offset Printing

By Bethany Howell
June 27, 2014
design

Have a new design project and aren’t sure whether to use digital or offset printing? It’s not always easy to know which way to go. Every design project is different, so the answer varies from project to project. It isn’t just a matter of cost, there are many factors to be considered before choosing digital or offset for your printing needs. In order to make an educated decision, it is important to understand each method, as well as the advantages and disadvantages of each.

Newsjacking Strategies and Pitfalls Live Chat

By Tara Urso
June 26, 2014
content,marketing,strategy

I was honored to participate in Scribble Live’s chat, “Newsjacking Strategies, Pitfalls & tips.” Some awesome marketing experts gave their advice on the subject. See the thread below!

June Logo Design Round-Up

By Tara Urso
June 16, 2014
branding,design,logos

Check out these logo design changes for June 2014.

Disney Channel

Contrary to our post about the, “Less is more” logo trend, Disney has given their logo a refresh but, has yet to adopt a flat design. With the type logo no longer surrounded by the box and mouse ears, Disney opted to make the ears smaller and incorporate it into the type logo itself. I think this makes for a much cleaner, distinctive, high quality logo.

3 Brands That Do Crowdsourcing Right

By Tara Urso
June 9, 2014
social media,strategy

With social media, there are some tactics that stand out and have a large return on investment. For some brands, crowdsourcing can be the key to creating conversation, reaching beyond a current target market and creating brand loyalty, trust and strength.

Logos: The Less Is More Trend

By Bethany Howell
May 19, 2014
branding,design,logos

“Less is more” has become a pretty strong trend lately in the world of logo design. More and more brand facelifts are sharing a common theme: simplicity. To name a few just in the past couple weeks, Netflix, Paypal and Avery have followed suit. Take a look:

The Social Media Dimensions Blueprint

By Tara Urso
May 19, 2014
design,facebook,social media,twitter

Originally on Social Media Today.

Social media dimensions are constantly changing. With every tweak or page layout change for Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Google+, YouTube, etc., social media marketers must stay up-to-date to get the most out of their social profiles. When creating images for social media, making sure you know the correct sizes for cover/header images, profile images and more, is essential.