Social Media Consultancy London

Père Lachaise Cemetery – Paris – Jim Morrison

Visiting Paris’s largest cemeteries on a romantic Parisian break may seem slightly morbid to most people, but as a Doors fan in my younger years, I jumped at the chance to pay my respects to the legend himself Jim Morrison.

Pere Lachaise was established in 1804 and covers a massive 44 hectares. Alongside it’s spectacularly Gothic crypts, Haussmanian burial chambers and ancient mausoleums also lies the resting place of Oscar Wilde, Chopin and the eccentric and incredible, Edith Piaf. The cemetery itself is still up and running today.

I have to admit I was concerned about how respectful it really is to be taking photos in a cemetery, but as this is one of the most visited cemeteries in the world I had no concerns as the place was quiet literally flooded with tourists.

There are multiple entrances but we got off the underground at Pere Lachaise and then it was just across the road. There are multiple entrances with maps of the main historical points of interest.

The cemetery is literally like a maze and it took us a long, confusing walk before we found Jim Morrisons grave. Unfortunately, due to past vandalism and fans removing the iconic bust on top of his grave, it is now completely surrounded by metal railings.

The grave itself is nestled behind others and it was nice to see so many other people there with flowers still paying their respects nearly 45 years after his death. A rather poignant piece was a copy of his red and white beads draped across the top.

I found the whole experience serenely beautiful, and would definitely recommend it. The architecture is incredible and in all honesty, I felt it was strangely comforting that this place is not forgotten about with the bustle of tourists and locals bringing life to the place.

I left feeling a lot more comfortable than when I first arrived and passed by another pair of Jim Morrison fans in their 40s carrying white roses on my way out. It seems Jim STILL has a hypnotic hold on people after all these years : )

The Most Beautiful Cafe in Paris – Au Vieux

It has to be known as the most beautiful cafe in Paris, with multiple photos cropping up on Instagram and Pinterest. But it wasn’t until my Eurostar trip to Paris last weekend that I realised this floral, picture postcard cafe was only a 15 minute walk away, just nestled behind Notre Dame!

Obviously jumping at the chance to see it in person, we booked a quick lunch to test out the local cuisine, and it didn’t disappoint.

The restaurant/cafe was built in 1512 and used to be home to the head priest of Notre Dame. You can still see church relics on the wall, oddly nestled next to images of Parisian topless showgirls!

The printed menu reminded me slightly of some of the other nearby cafes which are complete tourist traps with extortionate prices for mediocre food, but this was nothing of the sort. It was in fact one of the best meals I have had in Paris! We picked the smoked Salmon which was perfectly cooked in a cream and butter sauce, delicious!

Even though the cafe is well hidden down a lane just of the one of the main Islands boulevards, I’d suggest booking early for the best photo opportunities.

You can contact the restaurant and book on this number, and don’t worry if your French is under par like mine, they speak English : )

Contact – +33 1 40 51 78 52 – 24 Rue Chanoinesse, 75004 Paris, France

Does Your Website Have These 6 Essential Elements?

‘75% admit to making a judgement about the credibility of a website based on it’s website design.’

Isn’t that a scary thought? Luckily, with so many free website templates on sites like Wix and WordPress, including plugins to cover everything from a Twitter feed to a subscription box, gone are the days where web designers can charge an extortionate fee. The market is just far too competitive!

For example, you can hire a website designer for as little as £25 an hour on Upwork! But for the startups and entrepreneurs who would like to test their creative abilities and create their own, let’s take a look at my top essential elements all websites should have.

A fantastic homepage is broken down into 3 elements

Content
Tech
Visual design

Ideally, your homepage design needs to captivate your visitors, educate them on your brand and encourage them to click onto other pages.

The 6 Essential Elements Of A Website

‘Above the fold’ is a term meaning the first page your visitors will see when they land on your homepage. This is why it’s so important to make the design as clutter free and user-friendly as possible.

Social Media Buttons – Social media buttons placed at the top of your homepage allow your users to see you regularly engage and have a social media presence. When it comes to followers, numbers are vital, and a company that has built up thousands of followers tends to be viewed as more trustworthy.

About Tab – I would recommend this to be the first tab on your homepage. What do you do? How does your service and product differ from others? What are the benefits to the customer? More importantly, what is your vision and why have you decided your product/service could make such an impact on a possibly over saturated market?

Font – Fonts have been proven to greatly influence how a visitor feels about your brand. I remember our I.T tutor at school drumming into us that a formal letter had to be in the font of ‘Arial!’. Thankfully we are a lot more opened minded today and instead value the ability to make a font unique to our brand. Just avoid using too many writing styles on your homepage. Try to use bold or headers to make your point instead.

The Pop up – Pop ups have the ability to create warm leads, or have your visitors leaving the page within 10 seconds out of annoyance! I recommend setting your pop up to appear at least a minute after the visitor has landed on your platform.

The aim of a pop up is to create warm leads by visitors adding their email address and subscribing to a monthly newsletter. You can then market special offers on a monthly basis to try to close the sale down. After all, they were interested enough to sign up to you in the first place, you’re halfway there!

Pricing – A recent client told us they had searched the internet for an idea on how much it would cost to purchase a social media package. Out of the 10 websites they visited, only one was transparent enough to show their prices and as luck would have it, that site was ours – Designated PA. Worrying about your competitors seeing your pricing is one thing, but having potential customers leave instantly as they do not want to email or call is quiet another.

Contact Details – Have you lost count of the amount of times you’ve searched high and low for contact details on a site, just to find them in small print at the very bottom of the page? Surely the point is to make you as accessible to potential customers as possible? Think about creating a separate tab for your contact details above the fold.

Are you concerned how user friendly your site is? How about the quality of your visuals and your content? Get in touch with our digital marketing team today and let’s create a unique and user friendly platform that sets you apart from your competitors.

Contact – Info@designatedpa.com or telephone us on +44 (0)207 952 1460