We have been humbled over the last 12 years to support organizations and entrepreneurs doing great work in their communities. Clay+Group (C+G) strives to create user-friendly, sustainable solutions for all partners, especially those who manage their own website and social media. For many of our partners, there is no dedicated webmaster, social media manager, or digital strategist who have capacity to focus on upcoming trends in digital marketing and web design. After we’ve passed the torch on projects, we like to inform them about new industry trends that may impact how they engage with their communities online.
This year, I’ve decided to share the wealth of knowledge with our social media community. I know your time is precious, so I’m highlighting just three of the 10 trends we’ve noted our partners that could impact the function of your website and online engagement.
Goodbye, Flash Player. Hello, HTML5.
A few years ago, Adobe quietly announced that it is ending its support for Flash Player. Fortunately, there is a web standard called HTML5 that implements viable alternatives to Flash features. Flash has historically been one of most prolific sources of vulnerabilities for malware attacks (far more so than vulnerabilities in browsers). Beginning in 2015, C+G has used HTML5 to ensure every site we build is secure and accessible.
Not sure if your website uses Flash? Find out today. If you need an alternative solution for your current Flash site, please contact our team.
Twitter is exploring a limit to user engagement.
Twitter is releasing a new engagement feature that limits how many people can see your replies. You may be thinking that this is counterintuitive for your engagement metrics, but for organizations, it puts the true power of engagement in your hands and helps weed out trolls attempting to deceive and misinform.
The new reply feature will have four options: “Global, Group, Panel, and Statement.” Global lets anybody reply, Group is for people you follow and mention, Panel is people you specifically mention in the tweet, and Statement simply allows you to post a tweet and receive no replies. This feature is being released at a time when millions of Americans are getting their news and opinions from the platform. We’ll continue keeping track of how this plays out over the 2020 general election.
Dark Mode is your friend… but it will change user experience with email.
Dark Mode is an alternative mode on your mobile device that can be used to display mostly dark surfaces. Our phones give us the option to use the feature, but mobile apps are now automatically switching to Dark Mode in low-light environments. There are a lot of advantages to the feature, and we’ve created websites and social media graphics that work in any mode. But it’s now time to start considering Dark More for your email design. As we’ve seen in the past, an email that looks great in one app might look broken in another. Dark Mode adds yet another layer of complexity to this age-old issue, but there are various ways a developer can write flexible code that works for both normal and Dark Mode.
As you are thinking more about your #2020Vision, it is worth using this time to reflect on which strategies to leave in the last decade and what new trends can empower your business in the new decade. Whether you’ve been working with us since 2008, a new member of the C+G family, or just passing by, I appreciate your time, and I cannot wait to see what amazing things we all accomplish in 2020.