Forbes Home Page Redesign

By Beacon News | Published July 16, 2012 | Categories: Digital Marketing

I enjoyed the following article "Inside Forbes: 'Aha Moments' From Our New Home Page" this week and thought I'd share a few thoughts/observations:

• Social media ("The breadth and depth of our home page changed dramatically with the addition of the Most Popular stack")-- We at Beacon are seeing social media become of vital importance in virtually every software development project we are now starting.  If you aren't considering social media in every customer touch point, particularly your corporate website, you are missing critical opportunities to engage your customer!  Beacon can help, particularly with our "Social Media Marketing" services.
• Writer profile information ("Accomplished by including the journalist’s photo under all home page headlines. Then, upon roll over, you get an enhanced “info card” about the writer")-- Very cool!  I'm not exactly sure where I'll recommend this to my non-media clients, but I'm keeping it in mind for just the right opportunity...  Perhaps a roll-over balloon on a university site whenever a professor is mentioned in an article or news that shows their expertise, contact info, etc?
• De-clutter the home page ("It invites engagement, not the brain freeze caused by home pages with a sea of 400-500 links")-- AMEN!  Though I recognize the politics of the home page are very delicate, it is so important to engage your visitor to click deeper into the site rather than presenting them with hundreds of links and gobs of text content to choose from on the home page.  The writer says that the comments have been 100% positive on this "clean and simple" approach, and I applaud them for accomplishing it!

What are your thoughts about Forbes new home page?  Please share!