Dec 14, 2023
Celebrating 15 years of eTips
Branding | Digital | Social
Fifteen years ago, we tapped into our subject matter experts to document tips & tricks and answer frequently asked questions that we were getting from our clients. Since then, it has expanded into a platform for everything from reinforcing branding fundamentals to testing new technologies. Our team did a deep dive on the eTips analytics to pull our most popular. Drum roll please, as we reveal our top eTips:
15. QR Codes are dead, long live SMS
Back when Microsoft shut down its proprietary QR code reader service, we heralded the end of this tech. Little did we know a pandemic and Apple’s native camera integration would bring the QR code roaring back to popularity.
14. 10 Steps to the Perfect Visual Brand Identity
Years ago, we took the time to answer several frequently asked questions about visual branding. We still get similar questions when working with someone new, even today. And the tips in this article still hold up.
13. What’s the difference between AR, MR and Spatial Computing? Here’s why you should care.
When Apple launched ARKit, the Microsoft Hololens was still in vogue and the Magic Leap One came out, we were fielding tons of questions (and doing lots of polite corrections) about the differences between augmented reality, virtual reality, mixed reality and spatial computing. A lot more people must have had those questions, too, because this is one of our site’s top articles.
12. Damage Control for Bad Press
We wrote this article and a cheat sheet on the topic to help our clients navigate an emerging world of blogs, review sites and other sources of potential bad press. A lot has changed in the intervening years, but all that time has really just made online reputation management an even more important consideration for every business.
11. Does Google AdSense make sense for your blog or website?
Once upon a time, it wasn’t clear what sites should and shouldn’t be ad-supported using Google AdSense. Moreover, many people at the time didn’t even know you could simply add advertising to your site through Google.
10. Sell that first augmented reality project: Our 8-step guide to getting it done and getting promoted
This eTip turned into a full-blown how-to article. We wrote this around the time of Starmark’s 40th anniversary, and we have it on good authority that the tips in here have launched several new AR projects in the last five years.
9. Sponsored Editorial Content: The Blurring of Earned and Paid Media
Back before the ubiquity of Doctors hate her for this one weird trick, it was important for Starmark to educate our clients about the pros and cons of native advertising and sponsored content. From the vantage point of today’s internet, it’s hard to imagine a time before we took those blurred lines for granted.
8. 5 ways to build yourself as a brand
Brand is a topic that will get any marketer waxing philosophical. So, of course, this was one of the hot topics we tackled in the early days of eTips.
7. 6 Tips for Avoiding Nausea in Virtual Reality
In addition to being one of our most popular and helpful articles, our tips for avoiding nausea in VR article was the first eTip where we created an accompanying YouTube video.
6. Understanding Your Hierarchy Of Social Media Needs
It’s funny to look back at this, with all that has changed, and realize that many of the elements in this article still form the basis for a solid social strategy. The format, channels and considerations may be be different today, but the basic theory of this article holds up pretty well.
5. Focus on what consumers want with a focus group
Starmark has always been a research and data-driven organization. So it’s no surprise we tackled this topic early (eTip #26, believe it or not).
4. Social Influence, should you care?
With the advent of social media influencers as an industry, there are a whole host of new professional-grade tools to map and place value on social influence. But it’s fun to think back on a time when Klout was the end-all, be-all of social influence.
3. How to do Vanity URLs right
To this day, this simple article is one of our site’s top performers. It just goes to show that vanity URLs are just as important today — and just as hard to get right, apprently.
2. 9 Ways to Create Exclusivity
Another tip from our first couple years of eTip publications, this one is another fun testament to the fact that as much as things change, some advice is pretty durable.
And, the most popular eTip is:
1. 5 Key Features of the Facebook Timeline
Though the value of this eTip may have been lost to years of subsequent UI updates, we are proud to have performed our duty to inform our fellow internet denizens about what mattered most when Facebook first rolled out its Timeline update.