Here’s a fun infographic of what we have accomplished in the last three years as a company. It highlights the total web traffic we have generated with the websites we have created, the total number of emails delivered over the last 3 years, social media influence, and the sales of digital products we have created along the way.

Enjoy!

]]> http://saidigital.co/2012/01/sai-digital-by-the-numbers/feed/ 0 http://saidigital.co/2011/12/attaway-linville-gains-new-identity/ http://saidigital.co/2011/12/attaway-linville-gains-new-identity/#comments Mon, 26 Dec 2011 19:54:25 +0000 JF Steele http://saidigital.co/?p=4032

Attaway Linville, formerly Attaway Swaim & Associates, has just launched a brand new site courtesy of SAI Digital to coordinate with its recent rebranding.

Attaway Linville is an accounting firm that offers tax, financial, and management advisory services. They began in the early 1990s as Swaim and Associates.  Originally, the firm specialized in real estate tax and IRS dispute resolution services.  After years of growth, the firm took on new partners, Swaim retired, and they expanded their services.

Web

Attaway Linville came to us looking for a way to bring their website into the 21st century. They had outgrown their 10 year-old website for several reasons. The first being the most obvious: they were no longer called Attaway Swaim and wanted a new look and feel with the new name. The second is that the former site was very aggressive in its tone, and they wanted to move in a direction that was less abrasive but still direct. The last complaint was that they previously had no way of maintaining and updating their website themselves. Because the site was over 10 years old, Attaway Linville was very frustrated and unwilling to tell people how to find them online.

The first thing to ease the overall aggressive tone was to change the color scheme from dark reds and blacks to a much lighter and more welcoming family of blues and light grays. We then updated the content to talk about the services they provide, but in a less abrasive manner.  We kept the direct approach when crafting content, but took a kinder, more open tone.

Along with the modern update we brought to the website, the company now has a website powered by a CMS that lets them maintain and update the website as often as they would like. This gives the firm the opportunity to fine tune any of the pages we helped create and also gives them an opportunity to offer clients and visitors recent news and current information. When dealing with the IRS, current information is quite valuable to Attaway Linville’s client base.

Most of Attaway Linville’s clients are those seeking aid with IRS problems. Every one of these clients has to go through a discovery process to discuss each situation and evaluate what is necessary for their claims to get resolved. Before now, the firm’s members had to go through a form with a potential client over the phone to ascertain this information. Not only was this a tedious process, but often the callers did not have the right information on hand. In order to streamline this process for the firm, and save them money by saving them time, we took their questions and turned it into a web form that visitors can fill out on their own time.  The information is then sent to Attaway Linville to let them quickly evaluate where the potential IRS difficulties are located.

Logo Design

Once the color scheme was decided upon, Attaway Linville wanted a new logo that would bring all the design elements together for rebranding. Their main request was to transform the new initials into a symbol to include within the logo. Having the initials “AL” made it difficult to not look like some abbreviation for the state of Alabama, but the end result accomplished the distinction and looks very professional.

Print Work

With the update to their website, name, and logo, the company also needed all their print materials updated to include their new identity. We designed their company brochure and IRS leaflet to match the colors and design of their website so that their company had a cohesive message, look, and feel across all their marketing channels.

So if you need IRS Assistance or general financial management, be sure visit http://atlantatax.com to see what they can do for you.

Thanks to our work with State Mutual on their website redesign, we came recommended to the Savvy Seniors association. Before the redesign, Savvy Seniors was on the verge of launching their site nationally, but it required major changes. We were able to meet their needs to quickly revamp their website to the company’s specifications in just under four days.

Easy to navigate

One of the major issues they had with the old site was that all the news articles they wanted to feature had been placed into just three main categories: health, wealth, and happiness. While these are helpful places to start, several unrelated news articles found their way into each of these categories because they were just too broad. However, because of the old website’s platform, the association had no way of adding more categories and customizing their site without the aid of the web company that created it.

Easy to update

This lack of control over their site’s content also presented a problem when the association noticed spelling errors and misinformation. The only way any changes could be made was to request changes directly from the web company and wait for them to fix the problems. The association wanted a way to fix site issues immediately and on their own terms, and that’s where we came in.

We were able to give Savvy Seniors an open-source Content Management System that allowed them to maintain their own content in a manner that didn’t involve knowing heavy amounts of programming.  We also divided the news content into the more sensible categories of FINANCE, HEALTH, LIFESTYLE, RETIREMENT, TRAVEL, and WELLNESS. These categories were then organized into a vertical navigation to make the overall experience on the site more intuitive for visitors.

Easy to monetize

Savvy Seniors also requested a way to monetize the site without being complicated or overwhelming.  We were able to set up an ad manager that allows anyone at Savvy Seniors with administrative permissions to create and change ads. This was a great addition, and it came in handy:  shortly after the new website was launched, Savvy Seniors received several requests for advertising space.

Easy to connect

The Savvy Seniors organization wanted to make it easy to connect with users outside the website. We incorporated a Facebook box that shows pictures of recent fans, and added a link for Facebook users to like or share each article on the site. Plus, site visitors can request Savvy Seniors e-mails through a simple sign-up box on the bottom of each page.

Easy to find

All of these new features were happily approved, but the association required one more thing:  findability. Before the redesign, their old site had been up and running for several weeks, but the association noticed that simply being online wasn’t bringing any traffic to their site. During the redesign process, the SAI Digital team systematically went through the existing content and instituted several best practices for Search Engine Optimization. After the launch of the redesigned site, Savvy Seniors discovered that they were receiving much more traffic, and they haven’t looked back since.

You can check out all of the redesign work furnished by SAI Digital at savvyseniors.com.

Enjoy! The Magazine is a periodic publication for the residents and businesses in Northwest Georgia. The magazine was founded in 2008 by Advertising Dynamics, Inc based out of Rome, GA. Over 10,000 copies are distributed freely at businesses, restaurants, and other public venues in Rome, Cartersville, Calhoun, Cedartown, Rockmart and other nearby areas.

Web Needs

When the client first came to us, they expressed three things they wanted this new site to achieve for their magazine. The first was to highlight the great features and events from the magazine online, the second was a way for users to see and interact with the magazine on the website, and the third was add some value to their advertisers with some online attention.

The first was the simplest of these requests. We were sure to include large, bold sliders on the homepage to highlight each major feature article from each current edition. We also included a calendar of events section that the client can manage and update on their own with each new edition.

PDF Viewer

The magazine viewer was much trickier, but in the end our team found a great solution. We discovered the solution with the aid of the powerful web platform, Scribd. If you are not familiar, Scribd  describes itself as, “the world’s largest social reading and publishing company.”  They have created an easy way to share PDFs across the web and mobile devices in a very stylish presentation. Easily the greatest asset about this platform though is that every document uploaded is search engine friendly. This allows everything that is included within the magazine can be found through search terms.

Our team took their powerful platform and seamlessly integrated with Enjoy! Magazine’s website. The client can easily upload every new issue from the backend of the Enjoy’s website and once uploaded, the issue will automatically post to Issues page on the website. All with one click of a button. Users can then browse through each issue using the Scribd platform and never leave Enjoy’s website. A truly simple and painless process for the client to easily manage on their own.

Advertiser Index

The last requested feature was another fun one. Enjoy wanted a way to add value with their website to those that graciously advertised in their magazine. Opting for something much better than just a list of names, we came up with the idea of having a database of advertisers that included name, location/directions, contact information, and any type description companies would like to include. Many of their advertisers do not have websites and often suffer from not being able to be found online. With this handy feature on Enjoy!, not only do companies gain exposure in their ads, but also increase their findability and presence online.

The most powerful feature to this added element is that the Enjoy can update this list themselves. The database has a separate portal on the backend and the client can easily add and subtract advertisers as needed.

Be sure to check out all the action at myenjoymagazine.com today.

It came as a collective shock when it was announced that Steve Jobs, tech innovator and business leader, lost his battle with cancer on Oct. 5, 2011. It is still very hard to imagine a world that Jobs will not continue to revolutionize and tinker with as he sees fit. There’s no denying the impact Jobs has had on technology that we interact with daily. The computer mouse, flash drives, PIXAR, and the many gadgets and software put out by Apple in the last 15 years make it clear that Steve Jobs made one of the greatest impacts on how the world operates and communicates. Jobs was perhaps one of the greatest innovators since Gutenberg.

Besides being a pioneer for the advancement of digital technology, he was also a pioneer in business.  Jobs found success with the products he engineered by doing business differently. His was a way that wasn’t driven by selling the cheapest possible product in the fastest way possible, but by giving people quality products that streamlined their own usefulness. This gift is something that we can all carry on to help his legacy thrive long after the iPods, iPhones, and iPads become obsolete.

How did he make this happen? Well, according to Jobs himself, it was through these key methods:

Being Great

“Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren’t used to an environment where excellence is expected.”

What made Steve Jobs great was that he never settled for a mediocre product. If Apple was going to make it and Jobs was going to promote it, then the product had to be great. We can take this practice into any business or industry. Why be in business if not to provide clients and customers with great products and services? Don’t just have a business exist just to have one, but look for ways to set yourselves apart and provide advantages and opportunities that no one else is providing. Look for ways to make things better than they currently are.

Always Keep Getting Better.

“I think if you do something and it turns out pretty good, then you should go do something else wonderful, not dwell on it for too long. Just figure out what’s next.”

In order to be great, you must always look for ways to improve. Just think if Steve Jobs stopped at the Macintosh personal computer in 1982, or if he stopped innovating altogether after being pushed out of the company by the Apple board in 1985. Think of where technology would be today if he had stopped when he became part owner of a new startup called PIXAR, or if he had stopped when he created the software for NEXT (which brought him back to Apple). Or what if he stopped when they came out with the candy colored iMacs? What if he had stopped when they created the iPod? The iPhone? We can also say this about the iPad and a countless number of things. He never stopped looking for new challenges to take on and refine. Without this sense of getting better, we would be without a myriad of technologies that have shaped our world.

“I think we’re having fun. I think our customers really like our products. And we’re always trying to do better.”

There are always ways to improve. You’ll never know how much you can continue to improve your business or products unless you keep trying to discover new and different ways to do things that may or may not have been done before. Never think that you’re done once something has been created; there will always be ways in which to improve it, whether that be the process, the product, or the platform itself. Jobs taught us to never stop the process of refining because there will always be better things to discover along the way.

“A lot of companies have chosen to downsize, and maybe that was the right thing for them. We chose a different path. Our belief was that if we kept putting great products in front of customers, they would continue to open their wallets.”

The computer, the cell phone, the tablet: these were things that existed before Apple created their products, but they’re also things that were greatly improved and continually enhanced by Steve Jobs and Apple.

“The cure for Apple is not cost-cutting. The cure for Apple is to innovate its way out of its current predicament.”

Never Be Too Afraid to Fail.

“Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly, and get on with improving your other innovations.”‎

Not everything will be a success, but everything is always an opportunity to learn how to make things better. Never be afraid of never having another great idea. Success is a constantly moving machine. You must push to stay forward thinking so that you are not left in the dust. Stifling innovation is always a good breeding ground for complacency. Jobs and Apple had many misses, but they all helped to bring better ideas and projects to the table.

“Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice.”

Most experts called the original Apple TV a bust for the company, but that bust turned into a success four years later when they re-envisioned their concept and released their next version. They didn’t give up on this project and made a better one because of it.

“Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose.”

Taking risks in business is paramount to success. You have nothing to lose because there is an end to everything, even your own life. But by creating something that is greater than yourself, you can live on through your innovations. There’s nothing stopping you.

The End User Should Drive Everything You Do, So Surprise Them

“For something this complicated, it’s really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.“

Whatever business or industry you’re in, you are selling products and services that others can’t create themselves. This makes you the expert in this field or industry and gives you the advantage in seeing how to make your product even greater to those that need it. Think through the end users’ experience of what you’re providing, and see how you can anticipate meeting needs before the end user can. This one of the things that made Steve Jobs the legendary pioneer that he was. He was intuitively and acutely  fixed on user experience and concentrated on how to streamline technology to make it instinctively easier and intuitive for the consumer. No one knew how much easier their lives could be with the world’s greatest traveling computer and phone until Steve Jobs and Apple created it.

“You can’t just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them. By the time you get it built, they’ll want something new.”

The best way to do this is to identify two to three of the biggest problem areas that you or your customers run into the most.  Think through each of the ways in which these areas can be improved, prevented, and planned for. Implementing change in these problem areas will show your clients that you are working hard to make their experience better and you will be rewarded with loyalty and repeat business.

“This is what customers pay us for–to sweat all these details so it’s easy and pleasant for them to use our computers. We’re supposed to be really good at this. That doesn’t mean we don’t listen to customers, but it’s hard for them to tell you what they want when they’ve never seen anything remotely like it. Take desktop video editing. I never got one request from someone who wanted to edit movies on his computer. Yet now that people see it, they say, ‘Oh my God, that’s great!’”

Surround Yourself with the Best and the Brightest

“My model for business is The Beatles. They were four guys who kept each other’s kind of negative tendencies in check. They balanced each other and the total was greater than the sum of the parts. That’s how I see business: great things in business are never done by one person, they’re done by a team of people.“

There’s no way that Steve Jobs could have made any of the innovative products on his own. He needed a highly competent team that could turn his ideas into a reality.  Jobs has never taken sole credit for anything, but rather credited the collaborative process in order to get to the end goal. Build a support team that can collaborate effectively to pushing innovation in your business and industry. If you find yourself  hitting a wall, look for ways to bring more diversity into the mix so that more viewpoints can be seen. People with different backgrounds and specialties will always bring a new and fresh perspective  to any ideas on the table. Just be sure it is the kind that breeds productivity and not chaos.

“Innovation has nothing to do with how many R&D dollars you have. When Apple came up with the Mac, IBM was spending at least 100 times more on R&D. It’s not about money. It’s about the people you have, how you’re led, and how much you get it.”

Success on the scale of Apple’s is difficult to come by, but these tenets are key ingredients for success in our modern business world. As with most things Steve Jobs has touched, probably the most powerful advice he gave was in this simple but direct admonition:

“Stay hungry and stay foolish.”

AVFN is a federal grant-funded project designed to bring better and faster technology to Northwest Georgia and Southeast Alabama. The Network will provide the opportunity for large capacity, high speed broadband availability within the network area of Northwest Georgia and Eastern Alabama. AVFN will encourage business development and benefit a variety of users throughout these regions including government agencies, educational institutions and medical facilities. With AVFN, the region will have competitive, top-tier broadband service that any company can use to provide connectivity to its clientele without the high cost of privatized networks.

We were pleased to have the opportunity to educate not only the residents in the proposed service area about the incredible opportunity that is forthcoming, but to help potential vendors from across the US apply for the ability to offer broadband access to a wider client base.

The site itself was intended to be simple in design and function, and the overall look and feel reflects the modern feel of the project as a whole. The main goal of the site was to supply important and detailed information and resources for news agencies or other researchers who may need more in-depth information about the AVFN project. At the same time, the site also needed to provide details about the grant itself for general public knowledge, and what this project would accomplish.

Our staff was able to filter and generate the entire site’s content from the AVFN Grant proposal and study. We also created several FAQ pages to answer some common questions that the general public might have about the project in order to clearly define what the project will provide and how it is funded. For potential vendors, we built an admin portal that allows vendors to register and view up-to-date RFPs. Our programmers built a versatile content management system to allow the staff of the AVFN project easily upload RFP PDFs. When these PDFs are uploaded in the admin panel, they are automatically updated on the front-end of the site that registered vendors can access. We also built a messaging system into the site that alerts any registered user of new and updated RFPs.

We also created an interactive map that allows user to see the broad scope of the project. The map highlights areas that are already developed and those that the are coming thanks to AVFN.

If you are curious about the AVFN project, visit the site to see the unique opportunities coming to the Northwest Georgia and Eastern Alabama area.

This name change has been in the works for some time, and we are happy to share the events that led to this transition.

The company began as a traditional marketing agency with an emphasis on social, but we quickly found that the expanding digital market created extensive needs that were not being filled by other local companies. Late 2009, we decided to focus our efforts solely on those avenues that were digital and measurable.  Since then, we have matured as a company to offer web development, email marketing, social media engagement, search engine optimization, as well as digital advertising. We have developed new types of customers through the development of several custom web software plug-ins.

While our direction became clearer and clearer, our name continued to limit us or stereotype the company as a traditional print marketing agency. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with traditional print marketing agencies–it’s just not our style.

So why SAI Digital? Not only is it an acronym of our former name (Steele Agency, Inc.), it serves another purpose. A sai (pronounced sigh) is a short-range Japanese martial arts weapon, chosen for its effectiveness and precision. We like that reputation. Its three-pronged design provides a visual image of what we offer:  integrated web strategy, custom coding projects and innovative software.

When you hear our new name mentioned, know that we’re still the same company looking to solve problems and deliver creative solutions to any digital marketing needs any business might have.

Looking forward, we see tremendous opportunities for growth.

Feel free to have a look around our new site. We’re always open for feedback and new ideas. Let us hear from you!

We are excited to share our recent work of creating a highly functional website for Outdoor Living Studio based in Rome, GA. 

Outdoor Living Studio is a team with over 30 years of experience in designing the perfect outdoor living spaces. They create custom packages for each of their clients, turning the outdoors into exciting and relaxing atmospheres. Apart from designing and building each unique space, Outdoor Living Studio adds creative finishing touches with landscape, furniture, pottery, and other outdoor garden accessories.

When the team at OLS approached us about their website, they already had a clear vision of what they wanted the site look like. In fact, they worked with a contract graphic designer to create a mockup of the website look and feel. We were excited to start work on this project because they had already accomplished one of the big hurdles of the development process.

After a few tweaks, we were able to easily create a custom website based on the work they had already done, but we were also eager to find ways to mirror their home studio on the web. If you ever had the privilege of visiting their unique space, you know that most of projects they provide to their clients are on display when you visit their office. Visitors can tour the space to get ideas and visual aids of how projects they want might look and feel.

We ultimately settled on creating the same visual atmosphere online with unique photo galleries on almost every page. This function allows users and potential clients to see visual examples of all  various and impressive projects they have produced, and they can do this all from the comfort of their computer screens.

The interesting challenge with the photo galleries, was that OLS wanted the ability to  manage the website themselves after it live. This meant that all the photo galleries could be managed by someone other than a programmer. We built a back-end dashboard that easily allowed the client to maintain it on their own.

The law firm of White, Choate, Watkins and Mroczko, LLC is located in both Cartersville and Calhoun, GA, and provides representation to local and national business and individual clients throughout North Georgia and the metropolitan Atlanta area. The firm’s attorneys practice in all levels of State and Federal Court.

The law firm’s six practicing attorneys provide legal advice to their clients in virtually all aspects of Civil Litigation, Personal Injury, Workers’ Compensation, General and Commercial Litigation, Civil Rights, Criminal Law, Residential and Commercial Real Estate, Zoning and Land Use, Estate Planning, Family Law, Wills, Probate, Corporate and Business Law and School Law. By providing their clients with a full range of services, they are able to support them in almost any legal situation they may encounter.

The website project provided a great opportunity for the company to redefine themselves on the web. Having a website that was closing in on 10 years old, they constantly felt hampered and stifled by the limited use and outdated look & feel of their old site. All the Firm’s information was out of date and the site’s content had very little information that was helpful to anyone in need of their services.

With our help, the firm now has a fresh, modern look that they can easily maintain over time.

The first change was enlisting the help of Sabrina Wilson, of Blue Dawn Photography, to take contemporary photography of the attorneys, staff, and office building. These images were the driving force for the new site and they accent every page with views that are familiar to everyone who knows and has worked with WCW.

For the attorneys, we were able to flesh out their own pages to include more accurate and defined resumes, as well as integrate information from around the Internet about each lawyer. This includes each lawyer’s Martindale-Hubbell rating, their LinkedIn profiles, and a downloadable v-card so you can quickly and easily add each lawyer’s contact information to your electronic address book. We also included a photo directory to allow future and present clients to easily find each lawyer at WCW.

SAI Digital also worked with the firm to develop a more comprehensive listing of the firm’s Practice Areas on the website. Not only can users see a more accurate and defined Practice Area, but within each Practice Area category is a helpful sidebar list of which practicing attorneys can most help them with the specific need; a valuable asset to anyone who quickly needs to find what they are looking for.

The site also features a news portal that is maintained and updated by WCW itself.

So be sure to visit wcwattorneys.com to see if you can find the right attorney for you!

We are excited to share that we have received the 2010 All Star Award from Constant Contact^®, Inc., the trusted marketing advisor to more than 400,000 small organizations worldwide.  We were considered one of Constant Contact’s 2010 top performers and most prolific user of its tools, within Constant Contact’s email marketing, event marketing, social media marketing, and survey products.

“We are so proud to be recognized for our efforts in growing our clients’ businesses through email marketing,” remarks president and CEO Tricia Steele Seifert, “each member of our team has shown a commitment to quality writing, email marketing best practices, and integration of technology in our client campaigns and that work has paid off.”

Constant Contact looked at the following criteria when selecting this year’s All Stars: frequency of campaigns, high open and click-through rates, low bounce rates, mailing list sign up tools, use of reporting and analysis tools, and management of client accounts.

“The Constant Contact All Star Awards are our way of recognizing our customers that have successfully used Constant Contact to market their [clients] companies,” said Gail Goodman, chairman, president and CEO of Constant Contact, “We have some of the most committed, passionate customers out there and we’re proud we can be a part of their continued success.”

Read more:RN-T.com – Steele Agency Inc named one of Constant Contact’s 2010 All Stars

Sydney Adair

Sydney Adair has joined its staff as a writer.

Adair will write, edit, and proofread client website, email, and social content to ensure consistency in style, tone and quality of the client project. Steele Agency is Rome’s only digital marketing agency specializing in web software development, trackable cross-media campaigns, social media and digital advertising.

“Sydney has the ability to quickly learn new information and communicate with a particular audience or market in mind,” said President & CEO, Tricia Steele, “she brings to our client projects a command of language, excellent research skills, and a natural understanding of social media.”

Adair previously spent two years as a paralegal at the law offices of David and Rosetti LLP in Atlanta where she was responsible for maintaining client files and preparing documents relating to worker’s compensation cases.

Adair received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Government from Berry College in 2008. She is continuing her education at Berry College where she is working on a second degree in French. While at Berry, Sydney participated in the Berry College Viking Crew, was the vice president and head delegate of the Model United Nations, served as a resident assistant and volunteered at the Gunby Equine Center.

Sydney’s hometown is Macon, Georgia, but she currently resides in Rome.

Read more:RN-T.com – Adair joins Steele Agency Inc

If not, don’t worry. Google has delivered a simple solution to help you understand what the internet is and how to use to it. In a simple to read and understand format, Google has developed an e-book to answer all of these fundamental questions and a few more.

Let me introduce you to “20 Things I Learned About Browsers and the  Internet”. It is simple to follow (especially with all the fun illustrations like the one here), but comprehensive enough to educate children and adults alike about the inner workings and makeup of the internet.

Along with the simple understanding of how the Internet works, this e-book also help you understand online security by properly protecting your data from vicious virus and hacking attacks. It also explores the advantages of cloud computing where your data can exist unharmed no matter the amount of hardware damage your personal computer might sustain. Making this a must read for any and every Internet user. To read or browse this extremely helpful Internet tool, simply visit 20thingsilearned.com

Crumbley will manage accounts payable and accounts receivable as well as assist in quoting and client management for the digital marketing agency specializing in web software development, trackable cross-media campaigns, social media, and digital advertising.

“Julie brings a vast experience in a professional service environment requiring hourly time tracking, intense focus on meeting client deadlines, and problem-solving, which will allow us to better meet the needs of our growing client base,” remarks President Tricia Steele, “We couldn’t be more excited that she has decided to join the team.”

Crumbley previously spent five years as paralegal for the litigation department of Cox, Byington, Corwin & Twyman where she was responsible for maintaining clients’ files, accounts receivable, and preparing legal documents. She also managed the apartments owned by East Fourth Partners. Prior, she was paralegal at Hine & Twyman, P.C following five years as data entry auditor for American Security Group in Rome.

Crumbley received her Paralegal Certificate from Berry College. She also attended Coosa Valley Technical College where she received a degree in Computer Programming.

Julie and her husband, Chris, reside in Kingston and have three children, Jacob, Alex and Luke. She attends Hollywood Baptist Church where she and her husband teach the three-year old Sunday school class.

Read more:RN-T.com – Crumbley joins Steele Agency Inc as office manager

I remember many years ago when I first heard the word blog. It was my freshman year of college, the year was 1 BF (Before Facebook), and my mass communication professor just kept talking to the class about how blogs were changing the world and revolutionizing the internet. I didn’t know what he was talking about, but I didn’t want to be the only one to admit that I was clueless. So I just assumed he was talking about some sort of tech-y way for businesses to talk about themselves more. It took three more classes before someone finally confessed to our professor that we didn’t know what he was talking about. That day, not only did we all learn what a blog was, but we have never been the same since: blogging and other digital obligations became routine for individuals and groups of all kinds.

Now, blogging did not start out the way I first imagined it – by companies – but it has become a cornerstone of business presence on the web. It’s true that we have covered this topic in the past (which you can find at the bottom of this blog), but it is so crucial to your company’s identity on the web that we have to continue to talk about its importance. And here’s why:

Findability

SEO has increasingly become the most important way to stay visible online, and there’s no better way to increase your visibility than with a business blog. Your content is how search engines find your website and the more they can find you and your relevant content, the more search engines will display links to it. So talking more about your services and features will bring more people to your site based on the amount of content that makes you easier to find by those searching for them.

Authori(bili)ty

So now you have people coming to your site because you’re able to be found easily,  but you should also look for ways to create content that people find valuable so they continue to want to go there. As you write and publish relevant content about your industry, your visitors start to see your website and company as an authority on . Creating that sense leads to brand loyalty and customer confidence in your products and/or services.

Shareability

Content that people can find and find value in these days tend to get passed around. Social media provides an incredible opportunity to interact and introduce your company to an audience that you wouldn’t have been able to be reached on your own. Thus creating a larger brand awareness than before, and a way to promote your business and generate more valuable leads.

So if your company hasn’t starting blogging yet, no fear. Right now is just a good time as any to start talking to the world about your great company.

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RCB's old website

Over the course of the last few months, we’ve pulled our collective brain power and skills together to bring River City customers an effortless and more inviting website, including:

News Portal/ Email Alerts

The major addition to their site was a news portal, appropriately titled Bank Notes, that River City Bank can now use to inform and update customers on the latest banking and financial information to glean tips and insights from River City Bank’s distinguished experts.  Since many customers are logging into their e-banking daily or weekly, a regularly updated news section is perfect to offer relevant information that changes over time.

Corresponding with the news portal, we retooled River City Bank’s email newsletter to highlight the articles available in Bank Notes. Along with the now quarterly email newsletter, customers can sign up for specific email news alerts including: Business Briefs, Economic Outlook, Financial Planning, Trust & Estate Planning, Saving Smartly, and Identity Theft Protection.

River City Ramblers

Another integral part of the website that has been developed more thoroughly is the River City Ramblers page. For those that don’t know, River City Bank has a senior world travel club that any River City Bank member over 50 can join. Along with an up-to-date calendar of yearly events and most recent newsletter, we developed a custom Google map detailing every stop the Ramblers have made along the way and where they are heading soon. We also couldn’t make a custom map without including a unique Rambler Flag map marker to make it extremely easy to see their travels.  This section will grow over time to include memoirs, photo galleries, and planning tools for members.

Homepage

The biggest change and developed area of the website is the homepage. Here are the best and most useful new features:

• Easy to find log-in for account holders and bank customers.
• A Calendar of Events that automatically pulls upcoming dates for bank holidays, future events, and River City Rambler travel days.
• Custom icons to bring attention to River City Ramblers, Switch to River City, and Join Our Mailing List
• “Did you know?” information box. River City Bank has so many amazing features (like refunded ATM fees and same day deposits, to start)  that it only seemed natural to help inform customers and visitors. So, every time you visit the homepage, you’ll learn something new about what makes River City Bank different.
• All the most recent articles from Bank Notes feed directly onto the  homepage under their respective categories.

Artwork

Another unique feature River City Bank offers is their impressive space and interesting ad campaigns which we couldn’t help but to incorporate into the site.

To help draw attention to River City Bank’s inspiring architecture, the talents of the lovely Sabrina Wilson of Blue Dawn Photography were employed.  She was able to integrate the visual impact of the physical location with their new online presence.

We also decided to pull inspiration from a SMART checking ad campaign and use customized piggy banks as a continuous theme throughout the site to celebrate all of the diverse ways to save, invest, and spend with River City Bank products.

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So if you’re a River CIty Bank customer or not, we invite you to explore their site and look and all the unique features that we had a hand in enhancing. And who knows, River City Bank might just be the place for you (and we think it might!)

Blue Ridge Area Heath Education Center (AHEC) is a non-profit organization that serves a variety of functions and is run through federal and state grants as well as private contributions.  In order to continue growing their resources, they must constantly collect and report data on the people and organizations they serve.  We saw immediately a deep need for online forms and databases that would allow routine processes to be performed by their users and seamlessly integrated into the internal database saving time and preventing error.

A glimpse of their old website

The client estimated that developing this system saved them approximately 80 hours of labor each semester, or about 160 hours a year, and while we love building really cool things that look great, this fact filled us with more satisfaction than anything else.

The Blue Ridge AHEC site contained many database-driven elements including:

• multi-level access and data entry/maintenance roles,
• user communication and reporting tools
• real time database interaction by non-technical users
• multiple security and referential validation systems
• online forms importable to client local database
• file storage and retrieval
• online quizzes with performance review and results storage and sorting functions
• embedded multimedia included videos and slideshows manageable by non-technical staff
• search functions by keyword, category, and other fields as needed.

In 1984, Owens Sporting Goods became “The Team Specialist,” offering customized sports uniforms, apparel, footwear, and equipment for baseball, football, lacrosse, basketball, soccer, wrestling, volleyball, and softball teams. They have also become one of the Southeast’s Elite Nike Team Dealers. They also provide in-house designing, screen printing, and embroidery, proving that Owens Sporting Goods can truely outfit any team from head to toe!

The sight features a simple setup that will grow over time. For now, the site includes a exciting image viewer that helps capture the excitement of sporting events and games. It also features a dynamic calendar of events highlighting deadlines, holidays, and general information. There is also a blog area  that will feature a host of guest writing coaches to connect with other coaches all across the Southeast.

The New Brinson-Askew.com website

We are overjoyed to announce that the newly redesigned, Brinson-Askew.com has officially gone live.

The law firm of Brinson, Askew, Berry, Seigler, Richardson & Davis, LLP was founded in 1975 in Rome, GA. The Firm provides representation to regional and national business and individual clients based throughout North Georgia and the metropolitan Atlanta area, so it was important they they project a professional image and a site that can be found easily through search.

The Firm’s nineteen attorneys practice in all levels of State and Federal Court, with experience before the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia located in Rome and both personal and firm accomplishments that went overlooked on their old website due to navigation issues.

This three-month journey resulted in a website transformation featuring an updated look and feel that is highly navigable and user-friendly. This multi-user, scalable, content management system highlights Attorney and Firm accomplishments, works with an extended web presence to reach greater traffic and increases findability through the use of optimized content and appropriate metadata.  We coordinated new and contemporary photos for the professional staff with the help of the lovely Sabrina Wilson of Blue Dawn Photography.

The old Brinson-Askew website

The site now features a highly functional news area that any of the attorneys can update with ease. We connected the news article categories with the Practice Area pages, so that when visitors are searching through the practice area portion, they can also find relevant news from the firm’s work in that area. This allows the newsworthy information to be found in many useful ways on their site.

With our extended connections, we were able to locate a writer with legal experience to update fifteen practice area pages that had lived without content for many years, saving our client time and optimizing content for search friendliness.

We built a custom blog area for the Worker’s Compensation Employee practice area. This is consumer-driven area of law, and the firm now has a more direct way to reach out to those who need information, education, and a trusted attorney to represent them well.

We consulted with interested attorneys on LinkedIn profile optimization so that each attorney is able to can be more easily found through search engines. We also built a contact form that can ensure we convert that increased web traffic into viable leads.

So visit their site, take a look around, and who knows… you might just find the lawyer you need today.

5. Swag Branding

Everyone loves free stuff, and corporate branding of free merchandise is nothing new.  Leave-behinds or take-ways or whatever you want to call them have always held a vague prospect of getting your company in front of new people.  By placing QR codes on free promo merchandise, the person receiving it has more ability to interact with your company and more of a reason to share your merchandise with others so they can also interact the product (and you have a chance to see just how many and how often and for how long that product’s marketing life lasts.

Since many companies have not taken advantage of the QR revolution, using this technology now is both advantageous and informative.  More people will eagerly scan the QR codes so they can participate in this fun and inventive technology if you include simple directions.

4. QR’d Product Catalogs

Many companies rely on large product catalogs to show all that they offer.  Recently, many of these have begun seeing a real advantage in incorporating QR codes into every product they sell.

A QR-sprinkled product catalog does a few things: one, you can offer up-to-the-minute information about product availability if you sell customized products; two, you can notify production if you see that a certain number of items has been scanned frequently preparing for orders;  and three, product catalogs can be printed less often.

The other obvious benefit of this feature is that it creates a whole new avenue for customers to interact with a company. Viewers can share product information and samples with anyone all over the world all with a simple click of their phone, recommending products or  making the decision to purchase more convenient, timely and social.

3. Artwork

Since the image of the QR Code can be adaptable it can also be made to include logos or specific images and even video. This function helps create an extremely creative marketing art piece.

For example, the Pet Shop Boys released the single, Integral, in 2007 in protest to the British government proposing a national identity card concept. The single featured a QR Code as the single’s artwork that linked to a website that informed the user of ways to counter this proposal. They also included a moving QR Code into their music video that anyone could snap with their phone and be directed to the same website while watching their TV.  Regardless of their political agenda, it was very successful in raising awareness of their cause, and can be for anyone else too.

2. QR Billboards

Recently marketers in Britain have started dabbling with the successful marketing strategies Japan has had with simply displaying QR Codes on billboards. The photo featured here was for a DVD release for the movie, “28 Weeks Later”. While this advertisement could have done so much more with its code link, its presence did make the DVD release much more popular than expected in that area because it got people talking.

The great thing about its presence is that it creates buzz regardless of the consumer’s knowledge of the technology. For those who do know what it is and how to access it, the QR image lets them interact with your product and website. For those that don’t know, a web address or simply the company name will lead to many search attempts to find out what is going on with the advertisement.

1. QR Buildings

Now this is certainly not for every business (!), but what one company has done in Japan is truly one of a kind. In 2009, The N Building was unveiled in the Tachikawa district of Tokyo. The

Photo: Omori Yuki

whole side of the building facing the street is one large QR Code. Once the image is caught on your phone, the outside facade disappears and leads to a variety of extremely unique and intriguing functions: information on shops inside,  reservations for stores and restaurants inside, and special coupons only available to those who have captured their building’s image. The most impressive function? Speech bubbles of employees working inside who are twittering, as well as the ability to see where they are blogging from within the building (and track them if they are moving and, say, tweeting on a mobile device!). It is a very creative and interesting new idea that has quickly made this a very popular destination within the community. To see a quick video about this building, click here.

Click here to read an informative article about what a QR Code is and other ideas of how to use them.

While twitter is very simple to use, it’s features are a little hard to understand at first glance. So we’ve put together a rather practical guide to make even the least computer savvy person a twitter expert.

A Tweet.

This is the primary function of twitter. It is simply a 140-character post that allows you to describe things you’re doing, voice opinions on issues or share information that is deemed valuable. The “tweetbox” is the very first thing you see after logging in, and certainly the most interactive tool on twitter. If you find it hard to know where to start, answering the question “what am I doing?” always helps breaks the tweeting ice.

Follow.

Underneath your “tweetbox” is where you’ll see your tweets and any other tweets of people you elect to follow. To follow someone, simply search in the “Find People” section and click on their profile. On their profile, there will be a button that says “follow” directly underneath their picture. Simply press that button and return home, and magically their tweets will populate on your homepage.

Most industries have large lists of twitter profiles that publish information specifically related to the business you are in or want more information about. To find these lists, simply type the specific industry followed by “twitter lists” into a search toolbar like Google, and simply “follow” the tweeters you find relevant to you and your market.

@Reply.

As kcnn.org explains it, “twitter is a text-only medium, but it’s also intended to support back-and-forth conversation. Consequently there are a few clunky code-like conventions that let you tell Twitter what kind of message you’re tweeting, so it can get processed correctly. The most common and powerful of these is the @reply.”

This function allows you publicly communicate with specific users. By adding the @ symbol before the twitter username, you can publicly reply to another tweeter or direct your tweet in their direction.

The great thing about this feature is that it allows communicating with not just the person you’re talking with, but everyone else that is listening in on the conversation. So if someone has a question or concern, your answer or response may also satisfy someone’s need. It also allows more people to join in on the conversation and participate with you and your company.

This information is to the right of your tweetbox.

DM (or Direct Message)

With matters that need to be address in a private setting, there is a function for that as well. Instead of the “@username”, use a lower case d then a space than the username, like this: “d[SPACE]username”. Make sure the d stands alone so twitter can distinguish the tweet as a direct message, and ensure that only the person you’re writing to is the only one that sees the message.

RT (or Retweet)

To “retweet” is to repeat/quote someone’s tweet: When you come across an interesting tweet and you want to publish it as your own tweet – so that people who follow you can see it too – you retweet it.

To do this, simply write RT space then @username, so like this “RT[space]@username”. You are not sending the person you’re retweeting a message, it just let’s the person know you are sharing their content with others.

So with these simple functions understood, you are well on your way to conquering all there is to know about twitter and how to use it. Looking forward to seeing you there.

Be sure to check back later for more information about advanced twitter functions coming your way soon.

We start by examining one tool that has the ability for dynamic growth and impact of one site in particular and that is- twitter. You may have or have not heard about this site, but with close to 19% of all Internet users using this medium according to a Pew Internet & American Life report, it’s difficult for some to see business potential. Of course, to understand its potential, we first must establish what it is exactly and how to best use it for your business.

First off, Twitter is a social media site. Social media as searchenginewatch.com defines is, “a category of sites that is based on user participation and user-generated content.” However, while they share these same qualities, they’re different in their approaches on how to share information.

Twitter describes itself as a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to “one simple question: What are you doing?” That may sound vague and unclear so think of Twitter as mashable.com describes it: just conversation in a new shape and being able to listen to the conversation of others in new ways.

While the Age of Information is in full swing, there is often an overload of information as opposed to timely, relevant information for the person attempting to stay current with what’s going on in the world. Twitter filters this information by allowing for only the pertinent information to be seen. It does this by limiting the number of written characters to 140 for every post. With such little amount of writing space, it forces users and businesses to expose the meat of an idea and often with links and sources to offer more defined details.

Generating such specific content, Twitter gives users the chance to see only the information they value and can easily stay current with what is happening in that chosen field or market.  This presents a great opportunity to use Twitter to connect your business to its clientele.

“When you combine messages that are quick to write, easy to read, public, controlled by the recipient and exchangeable anywhere, you’ve got a powerful, real-time way to communicate. And real-time communication is turning out to be ground-breaking for users and businesses alike,” www.business.twitter.com.

Look out for our next installments >> “The Twonderful Tworld of Twitter”

To be followed by>> specific examples of successful business strategies on Twitter.

As the war of Operating System dominance wages on, Microsoft is taking a new approach to solidify itself as a premiere but-not-so innovative company. Their plan: blatantly copy Apple’s computer store experience and brand it as their own.

Before the end of October, Microsoft plans on opening two new Microsoft Stores in Scottsdale, Arizona and Mission Viejo, California alongside the release of Windows 7 due out Oct. 22nd, cnet reports. Why these locations? Well, apart from placement in high-end, high-traffic malls, these areas are already home to popular Apple Stores. And according to Todd Bishop of Techflash, the plans to intrude on Apple’s location space will not end there. With the recent hire of Apple’s former real estate head, George Blankenship, as a consultant we could see this trend occurring wherever an Apple store has already located itself.

But location duplication is only the beginning of the Microsoft strategy. As plans for Microsoft Stores progressed, Jim Dalrymple of the Loop reports that Microsoft has been approaching several Apple Store Managers about making the switch and coming to work for the new Microsoft Stores. Promising the potential Apple defectors with “significant raises” and even paying relocation costs (provided that the defectors bring with them more knowledge and fellow Apple employees). This is nothing new since Microsoft was apparently trying to lure iPhone developers to their company earlier this year according to Leander Kahney from the Cult of Mac.

With the new employees, the one piece of knowledge they will not need to provide is the Apple Store appearance; Microsoft already has the Apple Store layout down and isn’t going to change a thing. Well, except the job titles. The Stores will feature similar areas that include: different areas for Windows Mobile, Windows Media Center, Windows 7, and netbook; Regular demos and events; a special Microsoft shopping bang; and a “Guru” Bar (as compared to the Apple “Genius” Bar) where customers can get answers from Windows experts. The one addition Microsoft will also include is the hosting of birthday parties.

Though the store setup will be similar, the air in which things run will seem a bit different. Apple has taken great strides in promoting their stores as “more than just a retail store”. They refuse to allow employees to feel that retail is all they provide. With job titles like Concierge, Personal Shopping Specialist, and One to One Trainer, Apple empowers their employees and leads them to feel their jobs are about more than just selling a product. However, Microsoft has chosen to inflate this feeling as it simply and uncreatively includes “retail” in every job title available for hire.

So what’s the motivation behind all of this? It may better market share, but it could also be Microsoft trying to put to the test Steve Jobs’ fond saying: “good artists copy, great artists steal.” Hopefully, Steve Jobs and Apple will enjoy the flattery.