Social media has made significant changes to the marketing landscape since its rise. Elias St. Elmo Lewis in 1898 pioneered the AIDA sales funnel which is still a fundamental lesson taught to marketers everywhere; social media has given new meaning to each phase’s  function during the purchasing process. Awareness, Interest, Desire and Action are the four cognitive phases consumers follow when going through a high-involvement purchase (a car as opposed to groceries). New world technology and social media have amplified these four phases to lend more influence on a buyer’s decision.

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Tags: Action, advertising, Advocating, AIDA sales funnel, Awareness, Desire, E. St. Elmo Lewis, Facebook, Interest, marketing, social media, Twitter
Posted in Articles, News & Press Releases, Online Marketing |

For those of you who don’t know, your Facebook account has an email address that will send emails directly to your messages folder. Many people do not use this feature and in attempts to change that, Facebook has gone ahead and done you the service (or disservice) of hiding your primary email from your Facebook page and replacing it with your @facebook.com email.

“It’s annoying for people like me who do a lot of connecting with friends, fans and coworkers on Facebook” says Jerry Montano, a Hollywood-based musician who uses Facebook to connect with his over 5000 connections. “I purposely have a social-media-only email to keep track of those I contact through social media and I like it that way.”

How does this affect you? Well if an old coworker or childhood friend gets a wild hair and decides to find and contact you, they will only have your firstname.lastname@facebook.com to send you a message. This can pose issues for those who do not use social media too often as message may go unchecked for a long period of time.

For those like Jerry and others who want to change back their emails to their original it’s a fairly simple process to change back, to do so do the following:
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Tags: blog software, change, change settings, criticism of facebook, Facebook, facebook account, facebook change, facebook features, facebook page, jerry montano, online social networking, social information processing, using facebook, web 2.0, world wide web, your facebook account, your facebook page
Posted in Web Design |

Don’t get me wrong, as someone who has a background in marketing, I think it is imperative that most companies have both a website and an active social media platform working in conjunction with each other. However, from a pragmatic point of view, many companies must decide whether to invest their online time and resources more into a large-scaled website with many bells and whistles or a well-attended social media front that engages their target audience on a daily basis. This article will explore which of these two online marketing methods is best for your company. (more…)

Tags: a social, customer engagement, Facebook, internet, media platform, media strategies, media v, online social networking, social, social information processing, social media, social media platform, social media strategy, social network service, sociobranding, using social media, web design, website, your social media
Posted in Online Marketing |

As I am sure you are aware, Pinterest is being talked about in every coffee shop, hair salon and boutique from here to the Tatooine. But for those uninitiated, think of Pinterest as like twitter for photos and videos, but with a fun layout. Not only does your Pinterest wall show pictures and video from all your friends and followers in a scrolling box, Pinterest creates a captivating interface that posts pictures and video everywhere; up, down, left, right, all over your screen. Upon creation of your account, Pinterest will ask you your hobbies and interests and automatically connect you with relevant and frequent posters of content that fits your tastes. You can filter these posts (or pins) by topics or fans, thus allowing you to find things you are looking for instantaneously or just browse around and see who’s looking at what. Pinterest welcomes new content and is a viral hotbed for interesting and fresh content. (more…)

Tags: advertisement, advertising, brand, business, communication design, Facebook, fun and easy way, fun layouts, graphic design, marketing, Pinterest, product, product brand, product promotion, reacher, small business, social media, target audience, Twitter, your small business, your target audience
Posted in Web Design |

Content used to be king around the Internet, but nowadays context is the new sheriff in town. When writing something for an audience, it’s good to be an expert in the particular field, as a matter of fact many times it is imperative. Marketing Consultant Paul Tobey uses this diagram and explanation to describe the difference between content and context:

“Above you’ll notice that inside the bowl is some water and that water represents the content of the bowl. Your content is your experience and knowledge that you will share with your audiences. You’ll also notice that if your bowl springs even the tiniest of leaks, what happens to all your content? It leaks out – all of it.

So, what is more important that the content? (more…)

Tags: blog, blog optimization, Blogging, Branding, Facebook, google, Online Marketing, optimization, social media, website traffic
Posted in Online Marketing |

My dad runs a successful business. And he has done so without stepping foot on the Internet. How has he done that? (more…)

Tags: blog, blog hosting services, build your online, building, building online presence, e-commerce, easy, Facebook, internet, marketing, media, media platform, Online Marketing, online presence, online social networking, presence, quick, social information processing, social media, social media platform, social media portal, social network service, spam, Twitter, web 2.0, your online presence, your social media, youtube
Posted in Online Marketing |

Tags: allows users, eyeballs, Facebook, google, limited release, losing steam, Mashable, months, online social networking, quick lose, released last month, social information processing, social media, spend less, todd wasserman, users, wall, web 2.0, web design
Posted in Articles, News & Press Releases |

It’s a hard job trying to convince 750 million people to change their day-to-day habits. Just ask anyone from The American Cancer Society, or the people at Google+.

If you’ve been catching up with social media news recently, you would know that Google+ is beginning to roll out business and corporate pages for its new social media platform. Facebook has long since used this as lucrative means for businesses to interact with their customers. Naturally Google+ is going to jump in too, but is this how they can catch up with Facebook. If you read our previous blog, you would know that Google+ is going to have a hard time catching up with Facebook’s 750 million active users, which in itself makes it hard for the new platform to get up and running. How will it try and get you to switch? Three words: (more…)

Tags: Consumer intent data, Facebook, google, Google plus, marketing, social media
Posted in Web Design |

Internet giant Google has started releasing it’s Google+ platform to the general public via invites for over a week now and is rapidly gaining headway in ways that its predecessors, Google Buzz and Google Wave, could only have dreamed. And with the new Google+ expansion to allow businesses to create profiles, we may see a platform shift in social media with the coming years. Should Facebook be scared? Lets weigh the situation for a second…
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Tags: Branding, Facebook, google, Google plus, marketing, social media
Posted in Web Design |

You want to create a place online for your customers and clients to get together…

So you’ve set up a plethora of social media platforms online. You’ve got a Facebook, a Twitter, and you’ve created a blog. Now what? How do you let people know you exist here? Here are a few tactics to get your going and how to maintain (and build upon those relationships). (more…)

Tags: blog, email lists, Facebook, marketing, Online Marketing, online social networking, social media, Twitter
Posted in Articles, News & Press Releases, Online Marketing |