The Ocean Agency

We are big nerds readers here at the Ocean Agency. Yes, there is a recent blog post about how much Jacqueline loves her Kindle (proof of nerdiness). So to further our reputation as voracious readers and content lovers, here is some of the content that inspires us everyday.

You probably read some of these blogs already, and there may be some others that you haven’t heard of. They all get the Ocean Agency seal of approval however. We realize that there are thousands of great and worthy blogs out there to be on this list, these are just the ones that we pay special attention to. This is by no means a complete list, but we think it’s a pretty good one.

(one of our designers, Nick, reading away)

At the Ocean Agency the interactive marketing department and the interactive design department are separated by a wall. The room of designers is 100% male, and the interactive marketing department, minus yours truly, is 100% female. In the latest round of applicants for our interactive marketing and copy-writing internship, all were women. While this evidence is anecdotal, at best, it begs the question, why is our office split along gendered lines? It also raises a larger question ( inspired by a recent post on DShan’s blog): Do men and women use social media differently? Why?

Image via Audible Marketing

Happy Friday all!

It has been a busy week here at the Ocean Agency. Here are some interesting creative web design links that our web design firm will be thinking about this (hopefully) sunny weekend.

It was widely speculated that Microsoft would unveil their new search engine, Bing today. Alas, they have been completely overshadowed by Google who unveiled the first looks at their “Wave” platform today.

Wave will combine email, instant messaging, live editing of documents and online photo and video sharing all on one platform. This has the potential to really shake up the internet world. This is a developing story that is definitely worth following. TechCrunch has a full analysis and interviews from the Google developer conference. A preview of wave can be viewed here.

Beyond this huge news in the internet world, here are some interesting links that deal with creative web design:

1) Darren Rowse, who runs problogger.com, writes on SitePoint about sneeze pages for you blogs. Most blog posts go unnoticed once they leave the front page or recent stories tab. A sneeze page is a great way to show off your archives.

2) From PSD/Tuts (Photoshop tutorials),  has 45 step by step photoshop tutorials to create interesting websites. While you should always leave web design to the expert design firms, these tutorials are great for creating simple individual web pages, or to give you or your business ideas of how you want you web page to look.

3) For those developers out there, here is a great article on SixRevisions.com about how to speed up web page response times. Really helpful tips.

4) From Designer-Daily, 11 ways to increase your RSS feed subscribers. Great suggestions to increase your visibility as a blogger, writer or designer.

5) Lastly, for those who enjoy Hulu, but want a more television like experience, TechCrunch reports that Hulu is launching a desktop application. This means that you can now browse hulu with you computer remote. I recommend hooking up your laptop to your TV with an HDMI cable and enjoying hulu on the big screen. A new labs section also launched on Hulu today, so be sure to check out the new features as they go live.

Enjoy your weekend!

According to The Blog Herald, one of the biggest trends in blogging currently and in the coming year will be authors blogging to sell their book. We’ve noticed this on sites like KyleBeachy.com, where Chicago-based writer Kyle Beachy blogs and compiles his social media presence (he’s good– Twitter, Facebook, GoodReads, Last.fm and Flickr to boot). 

While it may seem like published authors might look down on the unedited, unregulated form that is blogging, they are overwhelmingly taking to it for business reasons. For the promotion of their published materials, writers are tapping into their market through social media and a developed web presence. British writer Kate Hardy explains, “Blogging means that readers get a glimpse into the ideas behind my work — whether it’s an awards do, a research trip or random musing. It also updates my website frequently to bring readers back; I use it to interact with my readers and my publishers can use it on their website as a publicity tool.”

Similarly, although it may not seem like most intuitive venue to promote your business, blogging may be a valuable resource for your company. Almost every industry has a niche audience on the web. You can enhance your customer service and relationships with your users, while also tapping into new markets that have eluded you until now. Blogging is a key element to online business development– well written, long form content proves your authority and builds confidence in your readers.