Then it happened. The bell rang and the stock climbed from 37 to 45 demonstrating the optimism, excitement and lofty expectations for this social media behemoth. The people rejoiced, the birds sang and you considered punching your stockbroker in the face for not getting you in at that initial price. All was right with the world, that is, until reality set it. The smoke cleared, the dust settled and people no longer saw Facebook as this incredible utility that allowed them to connect with their entire 2nd grade class. Rather, now it was an overvalued, overhyped tech company with insufficient revenue and unfulfilled growth potential. The fairy tale was over. The notion that our big blue savior was going to change the face of business (and make all of us stupid rich in the process) was dashed. Our dreams came crashing down to Earth, bringing the stock price along with it.

Of course, we don’t share this parable as part of our yearly stock analysis (that comes out in May). Rather, it is to share the lesson that just because something is popular online does not mean it’s a good business. In fact, the opposite may be true. The global competition and democratic nature of the Internet mean that people will always be able to find a better price, faster shipping, cheaper gift-wrapping or cheatier codes for The Sims. It is the world’s largest marketplace and you’re competitive advantage needs to be strong and profitable or your stock price will also become the punch line of (some probably very unfunny) jokes. The question is when will people stop overvaluing tech start-ups just because they are the shiny new toys and start treating them like underdeveloped businesses. The answer is right around the time Zuck rang that opening bell.

This is the reality for the next generation of Internet companies. Now that this online fad has established itself as a bit more than the next slap bracelets, we no longer need to remind ourselves to take these companies seriously. Rather, we need to remind ourselves to take these companies lightly. We can’t just declare every site with more than 17 users the next Facebook, because they could just be the next… well… Facebook. We need to evaluate these companies as legitimate business ventures and not be dazzled by the fact that they have the limitless potential of the Internet until they learn to harness that potential into some cold hard cash.

As we learned from Facebook, the Internet is a great place to be cool. It is also a great place to make some money. The challenge is doing both to make the Wall St. guys happy while still appeasing the 1 billion people who log on to your site every day. It’s a challenge not just for Facebook but also for companies looking to utilize the social network to achieve their own goals. Companies need to be as accommodating and adaptive to the ever-changing landscape of social networks as much as the networks themselves. They need to identify the right way to position themselves and communicate with their followers that keeps their investors smiling and their fans none the wiser. This balancing act is no easy task. It takes research, strategy and, perhaps, a little bit of Jane.

The post Too Online To Fail appeared first on Jane Creative.

Jane Creative is looking for a creative, outgoing and social media savvy candidate with a passion for writing and fashion. The person we hire will be responsible for managing vendors, interfacing with clients, conducting online research and writing for social media and blogs.

It also wouldn’t hurt if the candidate:

+ Was familiar with all social media platforms including but not limited to Tumblr, Facebook, & Twitter

+ Fancied themselves a strong and clever writer

+ Had 1–3 years experience in fashion and/or marketing

+ Was proficient in Photoshop

+ Loved dogs and candy (not a joke)

If you or someone you know fits the bill, have them reach out with resume and cover letter to jobbyjob@janecreative.com.

The post We Want A Junior Social Media Coordinator, Please appeared first on Jane Creative.

To see this big picture, we need to go way back in time to 1998. Back in these glory day, it was a safe assumption that someone was checking out your website (if you had a website) on a big ol’ desktop computer that likely arrived in a cow-spotted box and ran Internet Explorer for all your AOL needs. Needless to say, times have changed. Not only is there a litany of new web browsers like Firefox, Safari, Chrome and Opera, but there are a number of new devices for people to view the Internet on such as tablets, mobile devices, and even some way too fancy televisions. If different browsers and devices weren’t enough to complicate matters, varying screen sizes from 12” laptops to 27” behemoths also serve to complicate the web design landscape. Point is, what was once a single canvas game is now a graphic design nightmare.

With all these different screen sizes, browsers, resolutions and devices to worry about, what is a graphic designer to do? Panic and cry seem to be two popular options, but we’d like to introduce a third approach: responsive web design. This increasingly popular practice allows website content to adapt to the context (screen size, device, etc.) in which it is being viewed. To go into a bit more detail, a site will resize and reformat its basic elements to fit snuggly within the screen it is being viewed on. So what might appear as a three column site on your 27” iMac could appear as a single column site on your iPhone, with the three columns stacked as one. The design and layout are completely fluid, which those of us who paid attention in 10th grade chemistry learned, means it fits within the container it is placed.

Responsive web design is clearly the hottest thing since Justin Bieber posted a Ryan Gosling meme on his Pinterest account, but, if you dare to believe it, its only getting hotter. The iPad 3 has people whose VCR’s still flashes 12:00 talking about retinal displays and its only a matter of time before the general public starts critically evaluating how sites render on tablets and mobile devices. When this time comes, are you going to be alright with people thinking your website is outdated and difficult to navigate. If yes, then sit back, relax and enjoy your slow decline into irrelevancy? If no, then it may be time to for you to Meet Jane.

The post Responsive Web Design appeared first on Jane Creative.

Google, and all other search engines (big up Altavista) provide the big glossy map in the middle of the shopping mall. They give you the giant red arrow that says “You are here” and tells you where the nearest American Eagle can be found. They are your guide. Your online Sherpa who will help you summit the great peaks of the web to find whatever video you want to watch or Justin Bieber poster you want to bid on.

The issue arises when you’re friendly mall guide starts taking bribes. Thanks to a cleverly transferred $20 from JCPenny (hypothetically speaking, of course), your guide will walk you to their location instead of the Banana Republic, who actually has the exact Jeans you are looking for. Is this unethical or should you know better as a patron of this gigantic shopping mall? It’s a touchy subject that services like SEO and SEM are forcing into the spotlight.

By purchasing adwords or manipulating the algorithm search engines use to give you the answers you’re looking for (SEO), marketers are essentially bribing the mall guide. They are using tricks and cash to redirect your search. The results you see when you search “skinny jeans” are no longer the best sites, but the highest paying ones, regardless of whether the money went directly into the hands of the search engines or indirectly towards purchasing backlinks. Put simply, the search engines have sold out and you can’t trust the results they are giving you as the best results. It’s a sad reality, but a reality nonetheless.

So what now? Well, as someone who uses search engines (which it’s fairly safe to assume you are) you just need to be more critical of the results you get. It may take Google .25 seconds to produce your results, but you should give those results a few more seconds to see which of the options is really the right one for you, rather than just clicking the top link. As a website owner, it seems your only option is to keep up with Pennies and do your own SEO and SEM campaigns. Like it or not, the Internet now accepts bribes, and if you’re not slipping $20’s of your own, your site will be banished to oblivion or worse… Page 2. Of course, running SEO and SEM campaigns can be complex, meaning you could probably use a Sherpa of your own to help guide your campaigns. If that’s the case, it’s time for you to Meet Jane.

The post The Internet Now Accepts Bribes appeared first on Jane Creative.

The error in this belief is the disregard for the fact that social media fills a genuine need in the online realm; it gives people an identity. By creating a Facebook account, someone is not just looking to reconnect with the kid who sat next to them in 4th grade social studies, they are taking the identity they’ve created for themselves in the real world and recreating it on the Internet. It’s not a virtual identity; it’s you.

Once you exist online, the Internet becomes a very interesting place. You can connect with thousands of people and influence them to start a revolution or not buy a certain kind of toaster. In essence, social media has democratized the Internet and returned power to the hands of the people. It has changed the way we interact and changed the way companies do business. Long story a bit longer, social media is very important and is not going anywhere.

All that said, social media is a fad. That’s right, we said it. It’s a fad. A big stinking trend that will in time fade. There will be a point when old folks no longer get a kick out of saying “tweet” and news broadcasts will no longer insist on signing off with “don’t forget to Like us on Facebook.” However, this will not be because Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, FourSquare, or even Friendster (fun fact: Friendster is at present the largest social network in Asia) will cease to exist. Rather it is because these social networks will become so integrated into our daily lives and business operations that they won’t be worth giving specific mention.

When was the last time you heard a company say “Yes, we have a telephone” or “sure, we receive mail?!” These services and utilities are in this day and age taken for granted and they should be. You can’t be a legitimate business and not have a mailing address. The same will soon be true for social media. The luster will wear off, the new car smell will fade, and what will remain is a basic consumer expectation that you have and properly maintain a Facebook page, a Twitter account, a YouTube channel and/or whatever other social media channel is right for you. Of course, picking the right social media channel for your company can be difficult, and managing the properties can be overwhelming , so when you’re ready to be on the right side of the social media fad, it’s time for you to Meet Jane.

The post Social Media is a Big Old Fad appeared first on Jane Creative.

Some of the responsibilities of this position include:

+ Conceiving of, and executing, digital marketing campaigns

+ Managing vendors and overseeing project

+ Determining promotions and managing promotional calendars

+ Coordinating projects and working with creative staff

+ Drafting and editing blog posts/product descriptions and other written materials

+ Maintaining website content (relax, you don’t need any programming knowledge)

+ Making our lives easier

1-3 years of marketing experience would be nice, especially in the fields of search, affiliate, blog, and email marketing. An interest in emerging media and fashion wouldn’t hurt either. Must love dogs (not kidding).

If interested, please send resume to jobbyjob@janecreative.com.

The post Yup, We’re Hiring A Junior Account Exec. appeared first on Jane Creative.

It’s not entirely clear to what degree Facebook accurately reflects the realities of its users, but surely profiles can flatter or shame those whom they are supposed to represent. The pictures might be the most obvious example (keg stand candids come to mind), but sometimes its an ill-conceived status update or even an ill-conceived affiliation (Steven “Likes” Mel Gibson), but information a user chooses to share creates a virtual identity and permanent file that will live as long as the Internet, which we think is going to be at least another month or so.

For our millennials the serious implications of Facebook over-sharing start in their senior year of high school, when everything they’ve ever done apparently seems to matter. The increasingly picky universities are doing a little Facebook stalking of their own and the kids with weak privacy settings are seeing the rejection letters fly in. Now, as this generation enters the nightmare that is the job market, they will once again learn about the damage a virtual existence could have on one’s actual existence. Yet unreserved online social networking persists.

The children are our future, and so too are their social habits. While that can sound scary, it may also be the dose of pragmatism that we all need. If we had access to the Facebook photo albums posted during the college days of today’s politicians we might just be forced to take on more realistic standards for the folks who run Washington (and not to mention ourselves). Thanks to social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, and Foursquare, everyone’s dirty laundry is airing in public, meaning it might be hard to criticize your neighbor’s soiled skimpies, when they can look out the window at your dirty draws flapping in the wind. Point being, at one point, we’re all young and stupid, and just because there’s a video of it, doesn’t make the actions captured any more condemnable or out of the ordinary. Who knows? Perhaps the social network revolution will change the way we look at candidates, allowing us to focus less on who did or did not “inhale”, and more on those secondary considerations we call the issues.

Special thanks to contributing Writer Alanna Vaughns

The post Facebook Never Forgets appeared first on Jane Creative.

While the original JANECREATIVE.com, which was built on a shoestring budget and a litany of still unreturned favors, had its charm, it too needed to grow up. To speak technically, we tearfully packed the bags, exchanged hugs and sent the kids off to college. We rebuilt, remade, redesigned, rebuffed, removed, and reworked the old site to make a new sleeker, smoother and sexier site primed to take on the world.

For those of you keeping score at home, here are some of the changes that we made:

• As you’ve probably realized by now, we’ve cleaned up the blog, making our diatribes a bit easier to enjoy
• The clients section has been upgraded. We offer lots of samples of the work we’ve done for you to marvel at and enjoy
• You’ll notice most of the playful animations have gone the way of the Do Do. We liked them too, but the site was starting to get mistaken for a progressive preschool. (R.I.P. the ducks)
• We’ve added the Facebook Like button to every page, so you can give the thumbs up to the pages you like the best
• We added some bios to the site so you can meet the brains behind the beauty
• We added every way under the sun for you to Meet Jane, from LinkedIn to a Google map
• We’ve updated our list of services so you can determine how Jane can help you
• Last but not least, we’ve added some of our favorite quotes to the footer of every page so you can get to know what makes us tick

The new JANECREATIVE.com is the second best way to learn all about Jane and figure out just what is with those drops. For the best way, well, you’ll just have to reach out and Meet Jane yourself.

The post Introducing the New JANECREATIVE.com appeared first on Jane Creative.

Another of these unquestioned life lessons is the notion that good things come to those who wait. You’re told this in many different ways (some that even rhyme), and as a quixotic young’n, you take it in stride. And so you wait. Patiently. Quietly. Holding on to your Pacman ghost-shaped ticket until your number is called and you can approach the counter and order your deli meats. This virtuous patience is not necessarily a bad thing either. It maintains order and keeps people calm and orderly when stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic or awaiting a 120 second ride on Splash Mountain. In fact, the only real drawback with telling people to be patient, is that it completely contradicts human nature. In our heart of hearts, we want things fast and now. We want same day delivery, instant rebates, and movies on demand. Everything needs to be at hand, easy and delivered at lightning speeds. More often than not, we repress this nagging desire when in public in the interest of playing well with others, but there are certain times when we just let the impatient tiger out of the cage.

One of these instances is when we’re sitting in front of our computers. Whether it be Googling recipes, ordering sneakers or watching a YouTube clip our tolerance for delays goes right out the browser window. The simple fact is that when people browse the Internet they are allowing their primal instincts to run wild and their consciousness to stream. Their searches come from the gut and are rooted in raw selfish desire to buy, play, engage and learn. They don’t want to be told to wait or that your awesome flash site is “Loading 45%.” They want what they want now, and if you cant offer that, then they’ll perform a search for someone else who can.

This is not to say that there is no room for flash or any other fanciful means of presenting information on the web. Rather it is to suggest that companies need to be selective with when they decide to offer their content in the indirect, pretty way vs. the straightforward, get ‘er done way. They need to take a good hard look at their target visitor and determine what content these people will wait for and what they want right away. It’s a deceivingly trying decision, but when you’re ready to take it on, it’s time for you to Meet Jane.

The post Impatience is a Virtue appeared first on Jane Creative.

Allow us to explain: when evaluating a company’s relative success on Facebook or Twitter, the easiest thing to do is look at the big, busty numbers on the page and say they are doing a good job or a bad job. For instance, if Company A has 17 fans, and 8 of the 17 are employees and/or relatives of employees, it’s easy to assume they are doing a poor job with their social media. Similarly, if you look at the fan page of Company B and they need scientific notation just to fit all the digits of their fan count on one page, it’s rather easy to jump to the conclusion that they are doing a good job with their social media. These assumptions are the source of unbridled jealousy and raw envy felt in conference rooms around the world, and just like seeing 70 home runs hit in a season, can be extremely misleading indicators of aptitude.

The number of fans, followers, subscribers, friends, buddies, viewers, contacts, comrades, amigos and any others social network statistic that you may come across on the Internet are only as valuable as they are effective. Sure, Company B might have millions of fans on Facebook, but that doesn’t do much for them if all their fans are single, elderly men in Wisconsin and they are a manufacturer of silk kimonos. The point is that it’s not enough to just have a lot of fans; you need to have a lot of the right fans. This fact is something that can’t be determined by just looking at the big numbers on the screen. You need to go a bit deeper to know the truth.

So when it comes to social media, keep in mind that size doesn’t matter. It doesn’t hurt, but it also shouldn’t be the goal of your marketing efforts. Amassing fans or followers for the sake of keeping up with the Joneses or Coca-Colas, is a foolish pursuit and a waste of good competitive energy. If you really want to set an ambitious goal for your company, aspire to have a ton of the right fans. Make sure there is not one person who falls in your target demographic and who owns a computer, who isn’t a fan. Make your fan page something so cool, intriguing, interesting, rewarding and/or compelling that they’re willing to sign up for Facebook just to become a fan. This is clearly a challenging pursuit that should probably be left to the experts, so when you’re ready to get a whole lot more of the right fans for your business, go ahead and Meet Jane.

The post Don’t Sweat the Numbers appeared first on Jane Creative.