Atomicdust Helps Monsanto Reinvent Their Blog
Earlier this year, Monsanto asked Atomicdust to re-imagine the hub of the company’s social media presence, the Monsanto blog.
A big part of the project was to bring the blog up to date both technically and visually. This was all to support the company’s new social media strategy, transitioning to a more proactive, informative approach, rather than simply responding to negativity.
We found Monsanto’s new approach to social media refreshingly transparent and realistic. They’re well aware of their critics and are willing to respond with meaningful education and information.
Technically, the blog was already built on WordPress, a platform we know quite well and use to build most of our websites. It was a fairly seamless process to maintain all existing content and migrate it to an updated version of the software.
And because WordPress is open source, it was easy to for us to take over from their previous developer. We didn’t have to learn any proprietary code or processes to get the job done. Openness is one of our favorite things about WordPress and the main reason we recommend it to our clients.
Visually, we wanted to push the site toward a more modern image of agriculture and science. Our goal was to appeal to today’s American farmer, who is the primary audience for the blog. To do so, we designed the blog so each post could take on a personality of its own, with large images that authors could upload or choose from a predetermined library.
Our custom, grid-based WordPress theme places each element on a grid, giving everything a clean, organized look – while leaving flexibility for posts of widely varying length.
Along the way, we discovered that most farmers access the web from their mobile devices, many from their air conditioned tractor cabs. So we designed the website to be responsive, meaning it automatically resizes and rearranges its content based on the user’s screen size.
This eliminates the need to build separate mobile versions for iPhone, iPad, Android, Windows Phone 7 and whatever other devices are on the horizon – and makes the blog accessible to all.
So how did it work? Here’s what our client had to say:
“We had two problems with our corporate blog. A change in direction and strategy required a change in design. And we had a complex technical system that made administration a challenge. We asked Atomicdust to look at both and develop solutions.
I couldn’t be more pleased. The design is not only beautiful, it also fits our strategy for the blog and overall strategy for online media. And the administrative problems were completely resolved – administration of the blog is the simple process it should be.”
Glynn Young, APR, Fellow PRSA
Director, Online Strategy & Communications
We believe corporate blogs and social media are the modern voice of a company. Done right, they become a reflection of a company’s culture, shared through stories that educate, and connect brands to their audiences.
At Atomicdust, we were happy to work with Monsanto to develop a beautiful and functional website that enables them to express their brand in new ways.
