Websites — Barbara Saul and what she gets up to most days!

How to use Canva

Images really lift a blog post or a web page, attracting the eye, breaking up the text, and generally enhancing the whole page. I can spend far too long finding the right image but now Diana, the Social Butterfly, works with me on thesecan – she is brilliant and so I asked her to pen a guest post about the tool she uses – Canva.

I’m not a graphic designer and often found it frustrating that I couldn’t just create stunning and engaging designs to go with my social media and blog posts. Graphic designers are not cheap, and nor should they be, they have spent time and money learning their skill, but most of us freelancers and small businesses just can’t afford to pay out for fancy graphics for everything we do.

Canva has been around for a while now and I was extremely excited to discover it as it opened up a whole new world of creativity for me and others like me. It’s a fabulous tool for creating graphics, social media posts, blog artwork and even posters. It’s so difficult to get hold of images for your social media and blog posts without spending a fortune, now we can just make our own.

Did I mention you can do pretty-much everything you need for free?

Here’s a step by step guide to getting started on Canva…

Choose your template size.

Canva are ever so helpful in that they have the exact size template that you will need for whichever social network you want to post it to. You can also pick sizes such as A4, infographic, eBook cover and you can create custom sizes too using cm’s, inches or pixels. When your design is ready you can download it as a PNG, JPEG or PDF to suit your needs. The world is your oyster.

Select the background template.

When you have chosen your size, you get to choose from a huge selection of ready-made background templates, look for the free ones but if there are none that take your fancy, the paid ones are only $1 each. You can make cards, posters, quote graphics, ads, photos with text the possibilities really are endless.

Here is a ready-made quote template for you AA Milne fans out there…

Customise your own background.

Here is where we start to really create. You can choose a plain coloured or patterned background or you can choose icons, art, photos, whatever you like to get the look and the message you want.

Make them as simple or as complicated as you like, match them to your business colours to create consistent branding.

Here’s a simple design for a blog post for example…

Add your photos.

If you are promoting your business and you have your own photos then showcase them by adding text, calls to action etc and share on your website and social media. Alternatively you can download free photos from websites such as Pixabay and Pexels, just make sure they are free for commercial use. There is also a huge choice of both free and paid images on Canva itself to choose from. Top tip: use the photo grids (under elements) to get the sizing right and to add multiple images.

Here’s an example of a Pinterest post using a free Canva image with some text customisation…

Tweak it and download.

Make your finishing touches by changing text, colour, size, positioning, background, images or whatever you need, then simply download as the type you need, PNG is good for social media and blogs, and add it to your Facebook page or wherever its new home is! Don’t forget that posts with images are much more engaging than those without and now we have no excuses not to add them!

So what are you waiting for? Get creating and I would love to see what you’ve made using this guide….show me your creations and I’ll give them a share for you.

Find me at thesocialbutterfly.org.uk or on Twitter @soc1albutterfly.

Include access details on your website

It probably seems obvious that including access details is important – how to get in to your building/where the entrance actually is, where to park, any limitations that need to be considered. And of course I could come up with a sexier title than above, such as “How to welcome more people to your event or shop or…” and “Stop making life so … difficult” – well, perhaps not that last one, but… I’ve tried to not rant in this post because this morning’s adventure highlighted some really useful stuff which may just be useful for you too, dear reader, if you can wade through it 😉

For most people getting into a building is not an issue. We can generally walk to wherever the correct entrance is, or park somewhere close enough and walk, or know where the bus stops are or train stations. Or if you’re not open when your website says you are we can just go to the next cafe. You get the idea – it’s easy.

I’m just getting used to the idea of being “disabled” – it is rather strange, quite frankly. I can get about with my stick and rollator (called Dolores) to support me and I understand my limits – after a certain distance it hurts more and that uses up a lot of energy which I need to consider for the rest of my day and week. But I can get about, more so now that I have a blue badge – since getting this I am indeed enabled to do more, because I don’t have to factor in the distance to park – it is unexpectedly positive and opens up a world of activity for me. I’m determined to be active again, in the community, networking for my business, in all ways possible, and anyone that makes this easier for me is more likely to get my business and attention. But why is this important – does it matter when we’re not talking about that many people? Well there are more of us than we might imagine:

General demographics
There are over 11 million people with a limiting long term illness, impairment or disability. The most commonly-reported impairments are those that affect mobility, lifting or carrying. The prevalence of disability rises with age. Around 6% of children are disabled, compared to 16% of working age adults and 45% of adults over State Pension age.

[bctt tweet=”Include access information on your website, make it easier for visitors to do business with you, buy from you, whatever it is you want from your visitor. ” username=”babssaul”]

If you include access information on your website, it is easier for anyone to visit you, do business with you, buy from you, whatever it is you want from your visitor. There is no reason why you’d not want my business, or my attendance, so why not make it easier, why not include that wider market

Today I went to my first networking event in years, and since becoming so mobility impaired. I was determined and keen to get out there again, to dip my toe into the business networking world. The office I went to had loads of disabled parking bays, which was encouraging, but then a high kerb with no obvious way to get past that – I’m sure there must be a dropped section, but I could not see it, so just how does a wheelchair user get in? I can get Dolores down such obstacles but for a wheelchair user I really could not see how they were supposed to get into the building. Anyone who wants to rent office space there or hold meetings or visit – might they want to be accessible to all visitors? I certainly do so today was not a waste of time having now learned that it’s not an option for office rental for me. I had come unprepared with the correct floor of the meetup and the receptionist was not aware, so I went home, having used up a good deal of today’s energy, but at least having understood that I need to be more certain of where I’m going.

Before this, though, I had tried the more obvious entrance, where I thought I was supposed to go, but that did not open until later, so I was in the wrong place – my fault, but I’d parked at street level so that I could check a cafe’s meeting room across the road, with a view to hiring this for training workshops, and as their website had stated they opened at 8.00am I figured it was worth the walk over to visit that. Except they do not open at 8.00am. So that extra walk, short though it might be and of no matter to most people, was another wastage of energy. It must be hard to understand how such awareness of one’s own energy matters, how it can make such a difference. Anyway – I moved the car to where I believed the venue entrance must be (which was not) and then realised where I probably did need to be and decided to spend a bit more energy in checking that. Someone should make a game about this, all this talk of energy levels and stuff… Well, I did not remember the floor I needed to go to, thinking it was at a business space on the floor below and the receptionist did not know about the event I was asking about. So I gave up then and came home, back to work. Not a total waste but a bit of a shame, really.

One of the most important books for anyone with a website has long been “Don’t Make Me Think” – about how to make it so simple for your website visitor to find exactly what they are looking for. Perhaps we now need the same approach to any venue to which we want to welcome anyone. So as well as people not having to think about where to find what they’re looking for on your website, go further and include anything that might be helpful for people visiting your office, cafe, venue, shop.

My venture out today has not encouraged me to get out there more, but I will because I’m determined, but will I go back to that particular meetup, I’m not sure. Aside from today’s waste of time and energy, the accessibility was not great and that puts me off – I’d rather go somewhere that is accessible for everyone.

It would be so easy to include more detailed instructions on how to get in, for the receptionist to know of an event going on – it’s left a bad feeling and a sense that some of us don’t actually matter enough for it to be made easy. Of course that is not true, it’s just not been thought about. And I did not used to be this unprepared, I must admit – I’d always plan and know exactly what I had to do – but it’s different now. I have less time available and there is apparently more preparation needed for a disabled person. And the people who see what needs to change are not the people with the energy to spare. Well my clients will be aware, they will know to include such simple information on their websites, because, well, why not? It matters.

What do your visitors need to be aware of? Perhaps have a think from a different perspective and offer tips and information to make it easier for them. Have the correct opening hours on your website. And if a wheelchair user needs to park somewhere in particular in order to get in to the building, include that information – it’s so simple, really…

How does your site look on your mobile or tablet?

What does your website look like on a mobile phone, or on a tablet, an iPad or some other less than “normal” sized screen?

Do you know? Do you care? Well, you should, if your website or blog is expected to earn its keep.

I wrote about this some time ago over on Birds on the Blog: “Does Your Website Look Big on This?” and the situation has of course evolved in leaps and bounds. Many more of us now use phones or tablets to access the web, and your website needs to look good on these handheld devices, I suggest.

For WordPress users this can simply be a matter of upgrading to a theme that is responsive. What that means is that the design responds to the size of the device with which it is being viewed. A simple way to see what your, or any, site does is to make your browser window smaller by dragging one side in – see the video if you’re not sure what I mean:

Go ahead, see what your website does within a smaller width screen…

If you are now filled with horror at what you saw, fear not. As I mention earlier, if you use WordPress you can either upgrade to a responsive theme that will work on pretty much anything, or add a plugin, such as the still useful and popular WPTouch.

If your website is not WordPress-based, have a word with your web designer to see what they suggest. Of course I’d recommend you consider moving to WordPress, for the ease of content management, the security available and for the flexibility. But then I would 😉

It is easy to not realise how dated a site can become, this site has only just been upgraded to a responsive theme, another by StudioPress’ Genesis range, after I tested it myself last week – gulp! #cobblersshoes

If you’d like me to take a look at your website, let me know…

Everything within 3 clicks

Firstly, I am making the leap and using the word “click” without being concerned that it deters those visitors who do not “click”. By now we all know that click equates to “follow the link by your preferred means”. I will explore that on Birds on the Blog to see what a wider audience (no offence!) thinks too, but for now…

: Image by raneko via Flickr

I was chatting with a long-standing client and realised that my assumption that everything on a website is available within 3 clicks perhaps needs a mention. For so long usability has been essential to any website I work with that I forget to mention something that is to me fundamental.

So it’s worth reminding ourselves that on any website the information that your visitor wants should be available within 3 clicks.

Now with my preferred method of building websites these days, WordPress, that is even easier – we can use categories and even tags to assist with the ease of usability. But even so, a little planning can make a huge difference to your visitor’s experience. And that matters – well it does if you want something from said visitors. Keeping It Simple still rules!

Updating your website’s copyright date

One of the annual website maintenance tasks for early January can be to update the copyright notice on your website(s). This is obviously not urgent and can certainly be included when your website is next updated (you do update your website regularly, don’t you!), however some eagle-eyed visitors may just be impressed to see 2009 added to your copyright notice early in the year, so for something pretty simple, I think it’s worth doing.

Now of course this can be automated with some simple scripts, codes or even manually with whatever find and replace functionality your software has – I’m not going to go into the options as each of you will likely have a different set-up, or prefer doing things in your own way. Though one simple example is to add the following php code to your footer, if you just want the current year noted (do a Google search for other methods):

I like to include the date range – from the year of creation through to the present year (i.e. copyright © 2003 – 2008) – demonstrating how long the website/page has been live as well as it being current. And to do this manually – it’s a good chance for a quick review of the page and to do any minor tweaking that may be helpful – we all need that now and again!

Of course if your site is based on WordPress, something I will be encouraging many to do if that meets their needs, then this may well be taken care of for you automatically by the theme’s code – though that you can change if you are so minded – and if you are then you don’t need me to tell you how!