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User experience has become a buzzword when considering both site design and SEO. In plain English, user experience, or UX, as it’s commonly referred to, relates to all that your users experience when they interact with your organization online, primarily via your website. This includes everything they see, hear and do as well as the emotional reactions elicited.

On the Internet, where content is king and the kingdom is crowded, potential customers have many options. By improving the overall online experience, the most successful businesses (think major online retailers, social media sites featuring advertising) have learned to leverage the time potential customers spend on their site, which leads to greater satisfaction for the customers, and increased sales for the business.

However, creating a good user experience is sometimes compromised if SEO becomes the primary consideration. According to UK-based Mosaic Digital, a digital marketing and website development agency, this is because user experience (UX) and SEO are often considered two distinctive disciplines requiring separate approaches.

When well integrated and thoroughly planned out, the benefits of ensuring good user experience are numerous, including:

• An increase of sales and online conversions

• Improved perception of your brand or company

• Improved rank in search engines, including Google

• Reduced customer frustration and turnover

Having a plan for your website is the first step; partnering with a skilled and knowledgeable I.T. firm is the next. By utilizing powerful and diverse web design technologies including Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and Dreamweaver, along with XHTML/DHML/HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript/jQuery, and more, the team at Kinetik I.T. is your partner in making a great custom website. 

We build websites to reflect your organization’s personality, maximize your client’s user experience, and support your online marketing goals. To learn more about custom websites, and a wide array of other services and products, visit www.Kinetik-IT.com or follow Kinetik I.T. on Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter.

There are more reasons than ever to think before you post: in addition to cyber-thievery, hacking and identity theft, a growing number of recruiters and employers check social media to assess potential candidates. In a global survey, however, Microsoft found that only a small percentage of respondents said they actively manage their online reputation, such as editing or deleting information, writes Jacqueline Beauchere, Microsoft Chief Online Safety Officer, in a blog post.

With so much of our interactions and activities taking place online, it is imperative to maintain an understanding of your online reputation. But most of us aren’t aware of the tools available to do this. In fact, according to a 2013 Microsoft survey of online safety habits, respondents from around the world reported that they did not use many of the key technical tools that are available to help them manage their online reputations:

• 19% of respondents edited or deleted info to protect their online reputation.

• 15% used search engines to monitor and manage their personal info online.

• 10% used a service to edit or delete information about themselves online.

• 31% took the time to get the latest info for protecting their reputations online.

Precisely because so many are  lax about monitoring their reputation, the associated problems are widespread: it’s estimated that the worldwide financial and productivity losses in 2013 came in at $1.4 billion, and 16,300 cumulative years required to repair the online damage to personal reputations.

In an effort to educate the public, Microsoft suggests taking charge of your online reputation, by discovering what's on the Internet about you, periodically reevaluating what you find, and taking proactive steps to cultivate an accurate, positive reputation. Of primary importance is keeping sensitive details—all of which could be used to defraud, impersonate, or find you—private, or only sharing very selectively. 

Microsoft also recommends thinking before posting pictures, videos, or comments online, asking yourself if what you’re about to say or share could tarnish your reputation, or be misconstrued. A rule of thumb: don’t post anything you’d only say to or share with a close friend. 

The Internet is a part of our everyday lives, whether we’re connecting with our social circles, applying to a school or a new job, or even looking for a mate. Now more than ever, it’s important to pay attention to what’s online about you and take steps to cultivate a positive persona—both personally and professionally.

To learn more about web hosting, and a wide array of other services and products, visit www.Kinetik-IT.com or follow Kinetik I.T. on Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter.

In the past several years, productivity has become a huge sector of web-based, mobile, and desktop applications. And it’s no wonder: with more work coming at us, and the same 24 hours in a day, we need a way to list, prioritize, and track our own accomplishments, as well as those of our colleagues, third-party vendors, freelancers and contractors. The challenge can be finding an application that is robust and versatile, but that also suits the needs of your business. This is especially true in the instance of job-tracking applications. 

Custom-built job-tracking applications take all elements of workflow into account, so your business can efficiently and effectively track each step in the process. For example,  a business in the home-improvement industry may need a job-tracking desktop application that can inventory the entire process from the sales call, ordering the product,  performing the install of the product, to the customer followup. Information is recorded into a database, and can create automatic email alerts or reports when one task is completed, and another is ready to be performed. 

At Kinetik I.T., after 25 years of developing myriad types of custom software applications for businesses in all industries, we understand that the one size fits all approach doesn’t work for every business. To truly customize our product for your needs, we practice various software development methodologies. By choosing a methodology that suits the scope of the project—agile or spiral methodologies, for example—we are able to avoid unnecessary lag time in the software development life cycle, and to deliver a system that will help your business operate more efficiently.  

And we speak from experience, not only in helping other business streamline their processes, but in doing the same within our own organization. Whether you need an enhanced for a product currently in use, or you’d like to develop a complete custom software solution from the ground up, learn more by visiting us at www.Kinetik-IT.com or follow Kinetik I.T. on Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter.

As a child, we all loved hearing stories at bedtime, and, even adults without their own children are familiar with the pleas for “just one more!” As adults, we also love a good story—just look to the success of social media and the prevalence of click-bait headlines. We don’t want to click, and yet we want to see what’s on the other side, we want our curiosity satisfied, our questions answered. 

In business, stories are told through branding. Entrepreneur.com defines your brand as your promise to your customer, telling them what they can expect from your products and services. Your brand also differentiates your product and services from that of your competitor, and is derived from who you are, who you want to be, and who people perceive you to be.

As with any good story, there are best practices in telling yours. In a recent Harvard Business Review article, JD Schramm, Ed.D., of Stanford’s Graduate School of Business shares his steps in storytelling. 

Parachute in, don’t preamble. 

The best storytellers draw us immediately into the action. Think in terms of what you can offer your audience—that’s what they want to know. A catchy tagline, a witty tagline, a website that delivers.  

Choose first and final words carefully. 

First impressions, as we all know, are vital. Take advantage of the impact of your words to create a powerful image of your business that will stay with the customer—and keep them coming back.

Follow the “Goldilocks” theory of details. 

Somewhere between a 15-second Vine, and TLDR, you’ll find just the right amount of info to offer your customers. Don’t make them search, or guess to find what they’re looking for, but also don’t give them so much information that they won’t follow through. 

Consider the power of poetry. 

Similar to the Goldilocks idea, saying less can sometimes be far more effective in relating your ideas. If a potential client has to wade through too many words, they may miss the meat of your message. 

Know your AIM. 

Based on an idea outlined in Mary Munter and Lynn Russell’s book Guide to Presentations, ask yourself the following questions to determine your AIM: 

• Who is your Audience?

• What is your Intent?

• What is your Message? 

Making these determinations in advance ensures your message is clear, your audience is appropriately addressed, and your action is inspired.

In order for a company to be seen, heard and known, it’s imperative to create a great corporate identity to brand your company and start building familiarity and trust. From creating a brand that will boost your marketing goals and developing create new logos or revamping old ones, Kinetik I.T. will jumpstart your story with branded business cards and brochures, as well as product packaging and other branding collateral.

To learn more about branding, and a wide array of other services and products, visit www.Kinetik-IT.com or follow Kinetik I.T. on Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter.