2010 Annual Report Covers

The annual report season has come to an end. Barker Design has added the Quality Systems Inc. Annual Report and the Signature Bank Annual Report to our online portfolio.

Barker Design has a strong team of designers, project managers and proofers that help ensure that your annual report is of the highest quality, on time and on budget. We create quality annual reports that companies and shareholders can be excited about.

Contact Barker Design for information on how we can help you company produce a great annual report. Call 303-843-0766 or send us an email.

RMCMI Website Screen Shots

Barker Design has deployed RMCMI’s (Rocky Mountain Coal Mining Institute) website utilizing HTML5, CSS3, and a Content Management System (CMS) by Sitefinity. Also the website uses Facebook Comments and page sharing widgets to help promote RMCMI’s mission.

Website: http://rmcmi.org

About RMCMI

RMCMI is a nonprofit corporation dedicated to the promotion of western coal through education. Member states are Arizona, Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, Texas, Utah and Wyoming. The Institute is proud to claim members from throughout the United States, and from Canada.  Membership is diverse and includes individuals from both surface and underground mines, equipment manufacturers, service/supply firms, utilities, coal transporters, law firms, government, universities and colleges, financial institutions, and others interested in supporting the industry.

About Barker Design

To learn more about our business, products and services – visit our website or online portfolio. Call us today at (303) 843-0766 or send us an email, we look forward to helping you with your graphic design and web development needs!

Home Page of Google's HTML5 Rocks Site

Here is a great HTML5 slideshow by Google at HTML5 Rocks showing off the new features of HTML5. View the slideshow here: http://slides.html5rocks.com/#landing-slide

Keep in mind for most of the features to work you will need the a browser such as Chrome, FireFox or Safari.  See Google’s disclaimer below:

Google places are now an important part of the search process, displaying on the search pages giving your business more presence on the web

The first step of the process is to claim your Google Places page. After you have claimed you page by either verifying/claiming a current listing or by creating a new one, the verification process is quite easy. You will have the option to verify your business by phone or by mail.

Barker Design's Google Places Page

Optimizing Your Listing

To begin, add your businesses basic information including the business name, address, phone numbers, website address, and other items like business hours and categories.

1. Business Name – Add your business name as it is represented in the offline world. Don’t include taglines, phone numbers, URLs, or other words that aren’t in your official business name. Don’t try to be “tricky”. Learn our more by reading Google Places’ Quality Guidelines.
2. Address – Add your address (no PO boxes are allowed). Use the actual address and not things like cross streets or local terms for your location. There are enough tools like directions to help the user find your location. If you have multiple physical locations create a listing for each location. If you have just one physical location but you service multiple areas or cities, there is an option to add your services areas. Do not create “fake” location for each service area.
3. Phone Number – Add your phone number. It is better to use a local phone number rather than a call center number or 800 number. You can add these later as alternative numbers.
4. Web Site – Add your website URL. If you don’t have a website you can still have a Google Places page. Don’t use redirect pages or special landing pages. Again, keep it simple and don’t try to get fancy.
5. Business Categories – Select your business categories. You can select up to 5 categories. Make sure your first one is an option suggested by Google and is the one that best describes your business. Continue with the other categories with either a Google suggestion or your own keyword. The more accurate you are categorizing your business the better.
6. Company Description – You have only 200 characters to write your business description. Include your services and try to use your keywords, but don’t use keywords to the detriment of being clear and concise. If someone asks you what your business is and does, your answer is what you should say in the company description.

These are just the basics to get your Google Places page started. You should also look at claiming or creating your location pages on other services such as Bing, Yahoo Local, Yelp, and other location based services.

Barker Design is experienced in helping your company create a successful Google Places page and creating great websites with mobile functionality to help convert visits to leads. Contact Barker Design at 303-843-0766 or send us an email.

Screenshots of the new website for MedData

Barker Design has deployed MedData’s website utilizing HTML5, CSS3, and Content Management System (CMS) by Sitefinity as well as utilizing webfonts to give this website an exciting fresh look and feel.

Website: http://www.meddata.com

About MedData

MedData is among the nation’s leading providers of medical billing services. For the past 30 years, MedData has solidified its leadership position within the billing sector by expanding upon and redefining the typical revenue cycle management processes of coding, billing and collections.

MedData’s unified medical billing services extend to physician groups, hospitalists and staffing groups. The company serves 2,000 physicians across 150 facilities throughout the U.S., having built a national presence by becoming experts at the state level.

About Barker Design

To learn more about our business, products and services – visit our website or online portfolio. Call us today at (303) 843-0766 or send us an email, we look forward to helping you with your graphic design and web development needs!

For years designers have used the 960 Grid System which provided a streamlined work-flow of commonly used dimensions. Now Less Framework 4 has improved upon the 960 Grid System by incorporating mobile devices such as iPhones, and iPads allowing a website to adapt to the users device.

The Donut Maker website as seen on a iMac, iPad, and iPhone.

The idea is to first code the Default Layout (992 px), and then use CSS3 media queries to code several child layouts: 768, 480, and 320 px. The Default Layout will be served to any browsers that do not support media queries, whereas the child layouts will be served, as appropriate, to browsers that do. They will also inherit all styles given to the Default Layout, so coding them is very fast.

Barker Design has recently designed the donutmakerdenver.com website utilizing the Less Framework 4 approach. Try it out by visiting the Donut Maker’s website on your computer, tablet, or smart phone. If you don’t have a mobile device, grab the bottom right corner of your browser and reduce the width of it. You will see the website “adapt” to the width of your browser.

For more information about upgrading your website to adapt to mobile platforms contact Barker Design at 303-843-0766 or send us an email.

1. Fear: My customers aren’t using social media sites, so marketing there would not work.

Reality: Although 20% of small business owners have this fear, eMarketer research shows that nearly 60% of U.S. internet users – a total of about 127 million adults – use social networks once a month, and that number will grow to about two-thirds of all Internet users by 2014.

Additionally you don’t want to be playing catch up in a couple of years. Remember when websites first began to gain popularity, many business owners had the same reasoning that their customers were not online so why should I be. Also Facebook and Twitter utilize page names just like company websites utilize domain names that are easy for their customers to remember. The same is true for Facebook and Twittter, starting your pages before your competition can get you an easy to remember page name.

2. Fear: The learning curve is too high. I have to know how to use it before I get started.

Reality: The best way to learn how to use social media for marketing is to begin using it personally first. Test the waters of social media by opening a Facebook profile for yourself, and then, learn by using the site to connect with friends and family. Next, join the pages of your some of your favorite brands and local businesses and look closely at how they are using the platform to connect to consumers. Then, once you’ve got the hang of it, starting a Facebook page for your business is an easy next step.

3. Fear: I don’t know what to say. What if I look silly or stupid?

Reality: Using social media for marketing your small business can seem intimidating at first, but the good news is that what consumers really want to hear from brands is valuable information they need related to their products or services. So to build a great social presence, you just need to talk about what you know best – your business! For example, share tips and tricks about how to get the most out of your products.

Chances are you already have a web development company working with you on your website marketing updates. Ask about how they can help you manage your social media marketing campaigns and what to messaging to post.

4. Fear: If I’m active on social media, it will give people a platform to complain about my business.

Reality: Consumers are already talking about your business online. By choosing to use social media to market your business, you are choosing to participate in that conversation and not let other people control what’s being said about your business online. Plus, if you do receive feedback on your business via social media, it could help you improve your business and create brand advocates by listening and responding to what customers have to say.

This is very true, either you can engage or ignore your customers reviews and comments. Additionally there are ways to control the conversation. Begin by not allowing comments on your Facebook page as you get used to marketing with these new tools. Then slowly open the conversation up. Often the social media world seems very large and daunting, but with experienced marketing professionals, they can help your company take smaller steps towards social marketing.

5. Fear: Using social media could invade my privacy.

Reality: You get to choose how much information you post about yourself online, and what you share publicly with others. You can keep your personal social media presence separate from your professional network if this is a concern.

6. Fear: I’m afraid my employees will misuse social media on the job.

Reality: Some of the biggest concerns about using social media for business involves how to navigate employee use. But, the fact is that employees can – and do – use social media whether or not your business is marketing itself online. Having a social media policy in place is a good way to ensure that your business is protected from potential issues of employee use and that employees know how to best use the tools. If you want to allow employees to use social media to promote your business, make sure that you provide them with guidelines on how to present themselves – and your business – professionally online. There are a number of online resources in addition to services you can use to create a social media policy for your small business.

Many company’s do not give employees access to the business pages and simply give control to the head marketing manager allowing employees to funnel content through a control point and only allowing them to comment on company posts.

7. Fear: I’m busy running my business and I don’t have enough time to do social media well.

Reality: Many small businesses struggle to balance the need to have an active presence in social media and the existing demands on their time. Luckily, there are many tools and resources you can use to help you manage your social media presence. For businesses interested in maximizing their web presence, outsourcing social media marketing can be a time- and cost-effective solution. Are any of these fears keeping you away from using social media marketing for your small business? Have any other concerns kept you up at night? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments, or share them on our Facebook page.

About the Author: Tiffany Monhollon writes about social media, marketing, and small business success as the lead blogger for ReachCast, a service that helps local business owners develop their web presence.

These are just a few of our comments about this great post on social media marketing. Visit Barker Design on Facebook and Twitter.

Learn More
If you are interested in learning more about how Barker Design can manage ReachCast Pro Web Presence Services call 303-843-0766 or Contact Us.

Barker Design offers unique solutions for your company and brand. We have both programmers and graphic designers working under one roof which allows us to provide your company with a great tool-set for your marketing and design needs.

Snappy Quilts Postcard, Flyer, Business Card and Logo

We started with their logo. A strong logo is vital for every company. As part of our process we discuss how the logo will be used and design it accordingly. Will it be a strong logo on printed pieces, on a website, as a Facebook and Twitter profile image, and as a sign for your store.

From there the initial promotion items for their upcoming grand opening were produced and distributed. (Snappy Quilts Grand Opening is on March 10-12, more information here) Flyers and postcards were mailed to their leads as well as a quick splash page created while their website is being fully developed.

To learn more about our business, products and services – visit our website or online portfolio. Call us today at (303) 843-0766 or send us an email, we look forward to helping you with your graphic design and web development needs!

Coupon Promotion

Another way to promote your Facebook page is to offer a coupon on that is only available to your Fans. Barker Design can help you create a coupon for your company that asks people to “Like” your Facebook page in order to print out the offer. Barker Design can configuring your Facebook page to display the coupon to your fans.

Try it out here with one of our clients, if you live in Colorado there are some great deals on Kitchen Kompact cabinets from Kitchens of Colorado.

Visit http://www.facebook.com/kitchensofcolorado to see how the coupon system works.

A new visitor is prompted to "Like" your page to receive a special offer

Once the visitor "Likes" your page they can enter their email address to get the coupon

The user can then print the coupon, an email is also sent with a link to the new Fan

Promote Your Facebook Page With Print Materials

In your place of business create small cards that can be placed at your reception desk or around your retail outlet inviting customers to visit your facebook and twitter pages. By reminding your customers about your online presence can help increase your fan base and connect your customers with your social messaging campaign.

Some other traditional ways to promote your social media campaigns:

• Add your Facebook and Twitter page URL’s to your email signature
• Add your Facebook and Twitter page URL’s to your proposals, print advertisements, stationary, and everywhere else you put your web address

These are just a few ideas to promote your social medial marketing campaigns. Contact Barker Design at 303-843-0766 or info@barkerdesign.com for more information on how we can help you market your company on the Internet.

The new investor relations landing page featuring stock and news information

Today Barker Design has deployed the Investor Relations section for Spicy Pickle Franchising, Inc.

Utilizing PHP and MySQL technologies, Barker Design created an investor section for the Spicy Pickle’s website allowing the Company to provide important information to current and potential investors. A Content Management System (CMS) was created to allow the company to easily post new pages and content to the investor relation’s section of their  website enhancing productivity.

Other features are Stock Quotes, Press Releases and SEC Filings with data provided by QuoteMedia. All information is updated every 15-20 minutes. In addition, the investor relation’s content is written and managed by Pairelations LLC.

Visit the Spicy Pickle Investor Relations Website at: http://www.spicypickle.com/our_story/investor.html

For more information about Website Development by Barker Design please contact us at info@barkerdesign.com or call 303-843-0766.

As an all-volunteer organization, the Cancer League of Colorado depends heavily on philanthropic support to fulfill its mission. By charter, all gifts received by the Cancer League of Colorado are used in the year received to fund preliminary research needs (seed money), supporting the community’s most promising research and service efforts. The charter prohibits a charitable endowment.

For more information about Website Development by Barker Design please contact us at info@barkerdesign.com or call 303-843-0766.

Here is my favorite Super Bowl commercial this year, The Volkswagen The Force Ad (Darth Vader Ad) Although I like quite a few of them this one by far connects to my life and family the most which makes it my favorite.

Overall the commercial is very simple without any seductive girls, no tools, no misogyny, nobody being hurled through plate-glass windows or off the wall antics. It connects on a simple level incorporating Volkswagen into your daily life.

Over the years VW has been very innovative with their advertising, utilizing honesty and humor from the very beginning. Here are a few early classic advertisements by VW.

I am biased though my son has done the same thing, I only wish I had started my car like that with a remote start.

Vote on your favorite Super Bowl Commercials at YouTube.com/adblitz

Here are some of the features Barker Design can implement with the Sitefinity CMS for you company’s online marketing needs.

Sitefinity 4.0 brings usability to the next level

Sitefinity is a powerful CMS platform offering many enterprise features, and simple, easy-to-use online administration for managing your website. The new revolutionary User Interface is very task oriented and simplifies the user interaction with the system.

Includes the SEO tools to help you optimize website content

Sitefinity includes SEO tools to ensure that you are getting the most of your website via improved discoverability among search engine results.

Measures the effectiveness of your online strategy and helps you manage customer experiences

The integrated Analytics module allows marketers to leverage traffic statistics, usage information and visitor profiles to better understand your site visitors and to improve your online presence. You are now able to optimize your website content and better respond the needs of your audiences.

Includes a content mashup service

Draft, schedule, publish, expose, aggregate and mashup content from various sources, external websites and blogs all within the Sitefinity interface. Sitefinity 4.0′s publishing system is designed to publish, expose, consume, aggregate, and mashup content.

The POP 3 publication pipe, allows you to publish content to the website directly from your e-mail inbox. Additionally the Sitefinity Twitter connector allows you to set a one click property, which publishes your content on Twitter through the Twitter account you have selected.

Allows you to optimize your lead generation process

With the advanced Forms module, which comes out-of-the-box with Sitefinity, you are able to collect information from your site visitors, which will help you better profile your website content to successfully convert leads.

You can easily create registrations, surveys, questionnaires, and applications with the flexible Sitefinity form builder without the help of the IT department. By using drag and drop widgets (text boxes, multiple choice, checkboxes, etc.) you can create a new form and define which fields are required without writing a single line of code.

You are free to experiment with different forms to optimize your lead generation process.

Guarantees accessibility and complete control over website content

You can access and manage your website via the Sitefinity interface from any browser in your own language. The system offers the widest cross-browser compatibility in the industry and the interface can be easily localized to your language.

Sitefinity’s html editor produces W3C and Section 508 compliant content and your website visitors with special needs will be able to easily navigate and review the presented content.

Ensures easy integration with other business software or systems

Sitefinity 4.0 brings unprecedented abilities for connectivity and integration with all kinds of systems and Social Media. The Web CMS is easily integrated with CRM systems, business applications, marketing automation platforms, digital asset management, e-commerce and analytics solutions.

Is infinitely scalable

The system is designed for the enterprise, making it easy for your company to expand your website as your company continues to grow.

Over the past few years we have been utilizing the Sitefinity Content Management System developed by Telerik. We have created custom templates, modules and other custom items built on the Sitefinity CMS. From design & planning to deployment and hosting we have provided great websites with a user friendly CMS for our clients.

Contact Barker Design for information on how we can help your company with your website marketing by adding a CMS to your website.

This sounds neat but the one thing I can’t do is pause live sports games. I can’t stand knowing that I’m watching a sports event in the past. I guess I will have to record the whole game and check out the ad later in greater detail.

Also check out this site to watch past Super Bowl Ads: http://superbowl-ads.com/article_archive/

Source: http://mashable.com/2011/02/02/angry-birds-super-bowl/

Angry Birds will land at the Super Bowl, according to a recent report.

The popular mobile game from Rovio will be advertised during the big game on Sunday, according to Advertising Age. The spot will have a special treat for fans: an embedded code that Angry Birds players can use to access a special level in the game.

The spot is the first manifestation of Rovio’s marketing partnership with 20th Century Fox, whose Fox TV arm is airing the Super Bowl. The studio is releasing an animated film called Rio. Users who watch the Super Bowl ad and reach the special level in the game will be entered into a sweepstakes. The grand prize is a trip to Rio de Janeiro to see the movie’s premiere on March 22, when theAngry Birds Rio app based on the movie will also be released.

According to the report, a Fox rep said this is the first time a Super Bowl ad is designed to be paused and looked at frame-by-frame to view an embedded code. Reps from Fox and Rovio could not be reached for comment.

1. Change Your Social Avatars & Build Awareness for a Cause
2. Create a Valentine’s Coupon or Deal for Twitter and Facebook Followers
3. Share a Social Media Customer Appreciation Valentine
4. Host a Valentine’s Day Video Contest
5. Show Love to a Local Charity for New Fans and Followers
6. Bonus: Get More with Integrated Campaigns

Read the full article from ReachLocal here >>

Build your social brand awareness by printing postcards or signage that can be displayed at your store promoting your Facebook and Twitter pages. With today’s online printing postcards costs practically nothing to print and can direct people to your Facebook and Twitter sites getting your company more followers and fans.

The more fans and followers you can have, the more direct contact you will have with your customer base as well as helping your websites organic SEO. Google is now placing more emphasis on Facebook likes and Twitter followers in determining your organic search placement. Visit us at BarkerDesign.com to learn more.

Companies looking for greener methods as well as more cost effective ways to deliver their message to shareholders and potential investors are finding video a great solution. The cost of printing has turned some cutting-edge companies in this new direction. These videos are available 24/7, accessible to social media outlets and are not limited to a set print quantity for distribution.

Here is an example of Marriott’s 2009 Video Annual Report

Although I don’t think that completely cutting out the front section of annual reports is 100% beneficial, complimenting your annual report with a video presentation I believe is a great idea. Utilizing technologies like QR Codes can easily allow people to directly link to your video presentation from your printed annual report reinforcing the content and financials with your video messaging.

Barker Design has years of experience in developing annual report, websites, and project managing video productions. Contact Barker Design and we will not only design and produce a great annual report, we can help you bridge your investor messaging into today’s new technologies.

Facebook places shown on the iPhone by Apple

Facebook Places is very much still in its infancy, but the more you think about what it does or can do, the more marketing potential there seems to be. Reading reviews from your friends that were or are at a particular location seems very promising.

People tend to try new things and places with people and friends who have already visited a particular location. Now if you were always wondering what a place was like you can read people/friends comments. If you were wondering which of two restaurants are busier you could potentially use Facebook places to see who had more checkins.

Ultimately it is a referral from a previous customer to all their friends, and who better to refer your company to a new customer than a friend of a previous or current customer. Again, this is another example of the importance your web presence will be in the near future.

Here are some simple steps to get started posted by Mashable.

1. Find, create and claim your Place Page. Search nearby Places to find your business; if it’s not already added, you can add it manually. You then need to “claim” your business so you can edit relevant information.
2. Merge Facebook Places with your Facebook Page. This ensures that anyone who has “Liked” your Facebook Page will be connected to your Places Page; it enables you to manage offers, links, status updates and more from one location; and adds new features such as maps and checkins to your main Facebook Page. This at the time of this posting is only available to some places.
3. Encourage checkins. Use your existing social media vehicles to promote your presence on Facebook Places and even consider signage at your physical location. Consider spicing up the competitive spirit of your work force by encouraging employees to check in when they come to work, too.
4. Reward customers for checking in. Just as you might run an offline seasonal sale or special offer, take advantage of third-party tools to run specials and reward customers who check in with discounts, coupons or deals.

New York artist David Kassan, 33, paints his life models using a simple $7.99 app called Brushes.

Seeing this makes me think of where apps could go in the future for graphic designers. Could a popular graphic design app influence the precise nature of current desktop design applications to be more free and loose when fingers are used to layout a project rather than a mouse and menus?

Could hand held tools be used again with tablets connected to large monitors? Brushes, calligraphy, and other artistic tools have always been incorporated into programs like Adobe Photoshop, but they never had the hand crafted feel of the real thing.

I have always liked the “digital” style that computer design tools have brought over the years with layered affects, transparencies, and other filters and effects, but combining computers and the forgotten tools of the trade would be welcome in my opinion. (especially in web design)

Matthew Carter designed fonts for Apple and Microsoft, specifically Georgia and Verdana to be read on monitors. At the time computers lacked the power to generate complex curves found in traditional type fonts. Using graph paper the fonts were created at the pixel level and are read on millions of websites today.

Geraldine Hoff Doyle was a young factory worker in Ann Arbor, Michigan in 1942. A United Press photographer was to make her one of the most recognisable faces in poster art, now known as Rosie the Riveter.

The image was sent to Pittsburgh artist J. Howard Miller, who was commissioned to create a series of morale-building posters to inspire factory workers. The result was We Can Do It! – a poster encouraging other young women to join the war effort by taking on jobs vacated by men called to the front.

Is your company able to schedule your press releases, events or other news items for posting to your website?

Is your business located in California but you wish your releases could be posted at 8am Eastern Time and you don’t want to wake up at 4am in the morning? Not to mention working on the weekends.

Contact us to learn about how we can help you integrate scheduled releases onto your website with an easy to use content management system with scheduling to make your job easier.

Happy New Year from Barker Design!

Some sites Barker Design has used it on are; International Minerals, Montclair Bikery, and Bright Beacon.

BUBBLE WATCH: New Hedge Fund Uses Twitter To Pick Stocks

Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry | Dec. 22, 2010, 1:54 PM

Well, you knew this was coming eventually. A new $39 million hedge fund will use sentiment analysis on Twitter to pick its trades, Bloomberg says.

The founders of the British hedge fund, called Derwent Absolute Return, say they have an algorithm that can analyze sentiments on Twitter and has been successful at predicting good trades.

We’re not sure what joke to make here. Finally a business model for Twitter? A sure sign of a bubble? But where? On Twitter? Or on the stock market? Or both?

Interestingly, the story doesn’t mention StockTwits, Howard Lindzon’s real-time stock discussion platform which tracks stock discussions on Twitter. It would be ironic if StockTwits was less good than Twitter at predicting stock movements.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/new-hedge-fund-uses-twitter-to-pick-stocks-2010-12#ixzz18s90sxHC

I am not sure if this is the best way to pick stocks but it does point out the growing importance of the social networks and how people are trying to leverage it.

Will this make monitoring your web presence and social integrations more important?

If new ways of analyzing the comments and posts on social media sites continues to grow as it has in the past few years, companies will need to begin to take control of their social profiles and the conversations about their company, products or services. (especially if peoples sentiment on twitter influences stock purchases)

At this point no one knows where the internet will take us, but a lot of people are integrating ways to leverage the social network to their advantage.

If twitter monitoring like this works how do they filter false tweets or take into account stock manipulation?

This has been done through blog posts being posted and re-posted on the internet through media outlets pushing down prices. For example, you can read this article on cnnmoney.com. A technical glitch that was not reported quickly caused Apple’s stock to fall ten points the week before the iPad announcement.

Conclusion
There are going to me many new ways the social network will be used in the future, from stock predictions to keeping in touch with friends and family. People are trying every day to find a new way to use this information so keeping track and monitoring your social profile will be come more important every day.