Category Archives: Culture

Blink and You’ll Miss It: How a ‘Made You Look’ Banner Can Hijack Attention in 0.05 Seconds

Made You Look Banner / Cover / Masthead design

You have just 0.05 seconds to grab someone’s attention on social media* before they scroll past, making design your most powerful tool to stand out.

That’s why I created the “Made You Look” banner/cover/masthead, a bold and eye-catching header perfect for all my social media platforms. The design uses primary colors—blue, red, yellow, and a touch of green—alongside a stark black-and-white contrast to ensure it stands out in a crowded digital space.

Why Primary Colors?

Primary colors are the building blocks of the color spectrum, universally recognized and emotionally evocative. Blue conveys trust and reliability, red demands urgency and passion, yellow radiates optimism, and green adds a sense of balance and the urge to GO! Together, they create a visual harmony that’s impossible to ignore.

Color Wheel

In the “Made You Look” banner, these colors are arranged in a geometric layout inspired by modernist art**, giving the design a timeless yet contemporary feel. The black outlines and text provide a sharp contrast, ensuring the words pop against the vibrant background, while the gray section adds a subtle balance to avoid overwhelming the viewer.

The Importance of Grabbing Attention First

On social media, users scroll through endless content at lightning speed. If your header doesn’t stop them in their tracks, your message—no matter how insightful—will go unnoticed.

LinkedIn Page Cover Image for R. Michael Brown. Let’s connect!

The “Made You Look” banner is designed to do exactly that: halt the scroll.

See More [R. Michael Brown, Marketing Consultant]

Home-Based Businesses are Exploding!

Today, 50% of U.S. businesses are home-based businesses. That number increases to 60.1% when looking specifically at non-employer firms, or companies that don’t have any employees.

Add the number of employees that work from home and it changes the perception of a home. Buyers are now overwhelmingly looking at how their home can function as a business.

When selling a home, consider how that home will meet the buyer’s needs to operate a business there too.

We bought our property with that in mind and are getting ready to launch our home-based business in our new town Lake Placid, FL.

Our need was to have a property big enough, pretty enough to operate an art studio, hold occasional events, and have amenities already in place for our business.

We found it on Lake Huntley, a 1.2 acre lakefront home with 2 dozen oak trees, dock, and a shed we could convert.

See More [R. Michael Brown – Freelance Writer and Marketing & Communication Consultant]

Sebring in the Spotlight with HGTV Hometown Makeover

The Sebring Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) approved an agreement to participate in a TV show’s makeover of the downtown Circle Park Drive area with the network proposing to spend about $1 million and the CRA pitching in $1.35 million.

Downtown Circle Sebring, Florida
Downtown Circle in Sebring, Florida

Show hosts Erin and Ben Napier of Home Town Takeover has been renewed for season 3, and they will be taking their renovation expertise to Sebring. Their original and still running show is Home Town, which has eight seasons on HGTV, starting in 2016.

“Home Town Takeover” previously stopped in Wetumpka, Ala. in Season 1 and Fort Morgan, Colo. in Season 2.

See All the News & Other Media About Sebring’s Hometown Makeover as it Unfolds [R. Michael Brown]

Unlocking Customer Insights: Do You Truly Know What They Want?

Understanding your customers/clients goes beyond just knowing their names and basic demographics. It’s about comprehending their needs, desires, and pain points. 🤔

How well do you know what they truly want? Listen closely to their feedback, engage in meaningful conversations, and conduct interviews to unravel their preferences and expectations, follow them on social media and see what they post. Surveys rarely work. Interview!

Remember, it’s not always what you think they need; sometimes, it’s what they’re longing for that truly matters.

See More Including Case Study [R. Michael Brown Marketing Consulting]

Why You Don’t Like A Recording of Your Own Voice

Speaker Rébecca Kleinberger. Researcher from MIT Media Lab

Your voice is indistinguishable from how other people see you, but your relationship with it is far from obvious.

Rébecca Kleinberger studies how we use and understand our voices and the voices of others. She explains why you may not like the sound of your own voice on recordings and the extraordinary things you communicate without being aware of it.

Your Mobile Device Reception is Worse – Here’s Why

By R. Michael Brown, Freelance Writer.

No cell service? Here's why...

Your mobile device reception is getting worse. In an era where smartphones, and Internet of Things (IoT) devices, are extensions of our daily lives, the invisible infrastructure supporting their connectivity—cellphone spectrum—is facing a critical shortage. The exponential growth in wireless devices and our insatiable demand for faster, more reliable connections has led to a scarcity of available spectrum. This shortage has important implications for the future of telecommunications.

To understand why there’s no more cellphone spectrum available, we must examine the complexities of spectrum allocation, usage, and the challenges faced by the telecommunications industry. But first, see the results of a J.D. Power user report completed this year.

On average, between April and June of 2023, U.S. cellphone users reported that out of every 100 times they tried to use data, text, or make a call, they had problems 11 times. That’s up from about nine problems per 100 connections in most of 2020 and 2021.

Reason: Demand Explosion – Finite Spectrum – The Future….

See More [R. Michael Brown Feature Story]

‘It’s Totally Unhinged’: Is the Book World Turning Against Goodreads?

For Bethany Baptiste, Molly X Chang, KM Enright, Thea Guanzon, Danielle L Jensen, Akure Phénix, RM Virtues and Frances White, it must have been brutal reading. All received scathing reviews on Goodreads, an online platform that reputedly has the power to make or break new authors.

‘I’m sorrier than you’ll ever know’ … Cait Corrain.
‘I’m sorrier than you’ll ever know’ … Cait Corrain. Photograph: Daphne Press

But the verdicts were not delivered by an esteemed literary critic. They were the work of Cait Corrain, a debut author who used fake accounts to “review bomb” her perceived rivals. The literary scandal led to Corrain posting an apology, being dropped by her agent and having her book deal cancelled.

It also uncovered deeper questions about Goodreads, arguably the most popular site on which readers post book reviews, and its outsized impact on the publishing industry. Its members had produced 26m book reviews and 300m ratings over the past year, the site reported in October. But for some authors, it has become a toxic work environment that can sink a book before it is even published.

See More [The Guardian]