The Ultimate Branding Tool

Branding is a familiar and necessary marketing tool in the communications world.  But perhaps the most important thing to brand is oneself.  A website provides an effective and simplistic format for an individual to brand oneself and that is what I'll aim to do in my webpage.  

I seek to create a digital portfolio with the hopes of achieving many future goals I have set.  My site objectives are to produce a searchable website that showcases my communication skills necessary for a career after graduation.  I would like my site to display writing samples, my resume, and work samples from previous courses and internships to display my proficiency in communication studies. 

With aspirations to be a press secretary on Capitol Hill, my audience is any potential employer in a Congressional office in Washington, D.C.  They, as the user, will need to be able to easily navigate my site in order to quickly determine my potential as an employee.  My audience would need to know a little about myself, including education level and previous experience, in addition to what programs and platforms I am capable of working with.  Most importantly, I will need a way for users to contact me with questions (and potential job offers!).

The scope of my website is important as I begin to build it from the ground up.  I could embed a professional Twitter account, Instagram, and LinkedIn page to showcase social media skills.  A contact form and my resume are definite necessities for a successful webpage.  I also would like to include writing samples from previous internships, which include public relations blog posts, social media posts, and press releases.  Other work samples would include papers written on the topic of government from my political science classes.  Digital media can be provided from the slideshow created in Digital Communications in addition to photos taken while on a study away trip which visited 13 countries in 108 days.  Displaying photos can show my abilities to use Photoshop professionally, as well as capture important moments.

Here are a few website designs that were really aesthetically pleasing to me!

I like this Pilates Site's social media icons in the top left corner.

The simplicity of Stapleton's site exudes class and creativity!

Jason James's portfolio displays his subcategories uniquely.

The design of A Naturally-Aged Story invites their audience warmly.

People, People, Lots of People!

People are good for a multitude of things.  One of those things is intelligently reading webpages for their needs.  Redish describes how “Writing Web Content That Works” is crucial in creating a webpage.  The audience is hands down the most important part when making a webpage so you must understand them before you start.

Seven steps to understanding your audiences: (3)

1. List your major audiences.
2. Gather information about your audiences.
3. List major characteristics for each audience.
4.  Gather your audiences’ questions, tasks, and stories.
5. Use your information to create personas.
6. Include the persona’s goals and tasks.
7. Use your information to write scenarios for your site. 

Above is a homepage from Epic PR Group based in Alexandria, Virginia.  Originally, I sought the webpage because it wasn’t very functional, was difficult to navigate, and was extremely hard to find what you were looking for.  But to my surprise, the website has completely been redone since I have interned for the public relations firm.  The navigation bar at the top of the page provides shortcuts titled ‘Who We Are,’ ‘What We Do,’ ‘What We Think,’ ‘What You Need to Know,’ and ‘Contact Us.’  Overall, I think the redesign is mainly positive.  What else does the site do well?  

Despite a redesign, I still think their website could use a bit more of a user-friendly interface.  There is no search bar and it isn’t obvious at a first glance that Epic is a public relations firm.  They do provide a unique ‘Stay Informed’ form at the bottom, but who knows what you’re really signing up for?  What other improvements do you think Epic could have made?