Welcome to the new Socialmedia.biz

Redesigned site has a renewed focus on business objectives

For the past several months we’ve been working behind the scenes on several changes to our site that I’d like to share with you today.

First, some quick background: I’ve been blogging since May 2001, when there were about 50,000 blogs worldwide; today there are a million blog posts created every day. In 2005 we switched the name of this blog from New Media Musings to Socialmedia.biz, before hardly anyone knew what social media was. But there was something in the air, and it was big. In 2009 I brought in a number of amazing partners to work with, both to provide some leading-edge thinking around the major social networks and the changes wrought by emerging media — but also to work with on consulting projects for major brands and business clients of all sizes.

Since then, my partners Chris Abraham, Ayelet Noff, Christopher S. Rollyson, Deltina Hay, David Spark and new partner Carla Schlemminger have shared where we think this train is heading, as new networks (I’m looking at you, Google Plus and Pinterest) crop up and new tools emerge to turn noise into signal.

That, I think, is why when you type “social media” into Google, this site comes up high in the results, even with thousands of social media sites out there. (Until last week we were No. 3; now, after the redesign, we’ve dropped a notch or two. What’s up with that, Google?)

New look and a new approach

The new site offers more — and a bit less:

• We’ve trimmed down, losing some of the widgets and gadgets from the sidebar and footer, which were nice eye candy but which were slowing down the site, while retaining some old favorites like the social media jobs board in the footer.

• To make things even zippier, we moved from HostGator (so long, we won’t miss you) to WPEngine as our hosting platform.

• We purchased a TypeKit license to make the typography pop.

• We moved to a versatile new WordPress theme, twentyeleven.

• We have a new Clients page, Team page and Services page.

• We jettisoned thousands of our oldest posts while keeping the best. (Thank you, Twitter, for transforming blogging from short bursts to more substantive entries.)

• We recently launched a Socialmedia.biz Facebook page — please come like us and join the conversation there.

• And, most importantly, we have a new business focus, which you can see on our new front page — and we’re eager to hear from you about how we might help with your strategy, online presence or campaign.

What do you like or hate? What should we be doing differently? Drop me an email at [email protected] and tell us what you think.

And do tell me if anything looks awry — we haven’t tested it on all browsers and platforms (but if you have a really old browser, some things may look out of kilter). Thanks!
JD Lasica, founder of Inside Social Media, is also a fiction author and the co-founder of the cruise discovery engine Cruiseable. See his About page, contact JD or follow him on Twitter.