Cement Marketing

On the Launchpad: Arena District

2012-05-11T21:30:51Z

We are incredibly excited to announce the launch of the new ArenaDistrict.com. We built the site in less than four months, spending about two of the four months on development. The site is one of the first mobile responsive Websites in the central Ohio market.

What is mobile responsive? Read all about this exciting new interactive development tactic here, or visit ArenaDistrict.com. When you’re there, click on the lower right hand corner of your internet browser, then drag the screen in, smaller and smaller. First you’ll see the iPad or tablet version of the site and finally, you’ll see the iPhone or smart phone version of the site.

The site responds to the visitor’s device automatically. But it’s developed within one Website, not a separate set of mobile sites. This presents a huge cost savings to our clients and guarantees the site will be scalable to whatever comes next.

ArenaDistrict.com has between 15,000 – 17,000 unique visitors per month and of those, 25% are viewing the site on a mobile device.

Top 3 Reasons Why Pinterest Matters

2012-03-28T19:17:20Z

1. Pinterest is a game changer.

The first true example of the perfect marriage between search and social, Pinterest is a collection of (largely photo driven) pieces of Internet content first discovered (search) and then re-shared or “pinned” (social) by the person who found the content and then by others (the pinner’s followers).

Imagine a human filtered Google, with all of the content neatly filed in beautiful folders by their human caretakers. The most popular pieces of content fly through Pinterest faster then the speed of light, while others wait, patiently, to be discovered but all the while are cherished by their “pinners.” Each pin is one piece in a series of personal collections by the pinner, called boards. These boards include anything from boards on vacations, fashion, recipes and inspiration. The Co-Founder of Pinterest, Ben Silbermann, when speaking at SXSW Interactive explained the origin of the site came from his passion for collecting things as a child.

Rumored to have over 14 million unique users, but logging in at 11 million (what’s the difference really?), Pinterest is growing as quickly as its pins go viral. And as more male users join the largely female base, the boards are becoming more varied and creative. The Fake Mitt Romney account, for example, features a pin of a yacht on a board titled “Great Deals.”

The stats speak as loudly as the chatter about Pinterest at the water cooler, in the line for groceries or in the board room.

Thanks for the infographic, InternetMarketingInc.com.

#2 If your site isn’t optimized for Pinterest, this is what happens.

Someone, like me, arrives on your site. In this case, Converse.com. The visitor finds something she or he wants to share with friends and hits the “Pin It” button on the top of their Internet browser…

But this is what happens.

The pop up says, “Sorry, couldn’t find any large images or video on this page.” Or, in the case of Versace.com, the visitor goes to pin something and they are presented with every product within a category or on the Website:

Ideally, you want Pinterest users to have a seamless experience between your site and their board. Less is more, but a little bit of more is okay. 100+ pairs of sunglasses more – too much. Just a few options like this are better.

And the pin option looks like this:

Why does this matter? Because not only do Pinners see your site through this lens, so do Facebook users when they share a link and need to select a thumbnail image and so do search engine spiders, crawling your site and determining your rank for certain keywords. The more clear, concise and accurate you are about what you are displaying – the happier your human site visitors and the search engines.

Where would you be without either? In a cold and dark corner of the Internet universe where very few people are actually visiting your site.

#3. Still think Pinterest doesn’t matter? Which looks more appealing and engaging to you?

A search on Facebook for “Columbus, Ohio”.

A search in Google images for the term “Columbus, Ohio.”

Or, a search in Pinterest for the term “Columbus, Ohio.”

Did you notice that engagement ring second from the left in the top row there? That’s a post by a local business, Worthington Jewelers.

Still scratching your head, or just want to know more about Pinterest and why it is a game changer? Come to our free workshop on Pinterest for Business on April 26th. Here are the details:

Pinterest for Business
Make the most out of Pinterest for your business or organization.
When: Wednesday, April 25th, 2012 – 3:30 PM – 5:00 PM
Where: Cement Marketing offices, 15 E. Gay Street, Suite 2A, Columbus, Ohio 43215
Free entry includes food and spirits.

Please RSVP on Facebook.

Facebook Timeline Switch Looming

2012-03-26T03:19:54Z

On March 30th, Facebook will automatically switch every brand page to the Timeline format, whether the business likes it or not.

With the deadline looming, Cement Marketing has been meeting individually with clients to switch pages over to the new format. The most significant changes likely to affect your page include:

1. The new cover photo. You’ll have to spend time and consideration choosing a photo that communicates your brand message without a direct call to action to your Website or to viewers to fan or like you. Your cover photos should be 851 x 315 pixels.

2. Pinned posts. Facebook’s new timeline allows brands to pin a particular post to the top of the page for seven days. We expect many brands will use the pinned post and the cover photo together. If the two were to compliment each other they would make quite an impression.

3. Milestones. Brands have the opportunity to tell their stories with milestones. Add a photo to each milestone for maximum impact and engagement. Dimensions for milestone photos are 843 x 403 pixels.

4. No more default landing tabs. This is a big one that has received a lot of outcry from some brand social managers. However, we can still send our Facebook advertising to Facebook landing tabs and we have more space. Brands can choose between narrow (520 pixels) or wide (810 pixels).

There’s much more including increased friend activity for fans on business pages. Click here to download a must-read PDF on Facebook’s Timeline by TechCrunch.

Also, please join us for a free informational workshop on Facebook’s Timeline Switch this coming Tuesday on March 27th at 3:30 PM in the Cement Marketing offices at 15 E. Gay Street in Downtown Columbus. RSVP here.

Account Directors are Useless

2012-03-26T03:20:27Z

It’s a bold statement, we know.

But here we are saying it – Account Directors are a waste of a client’s budget. The Emperor has no clothes. None. We swear it. Wondering why Account Directors are useless?

It goes a little something like this:

Client: “We just aren’t getting the leads we want from our marketing efforts. What can we do to turn it around?”
Account Director: “Oh, we’ll make it happen. You know we can because we ‘fill in ridiculous over-inflated agency propaganda here’. Just let me meet with the creative teams to find out.”

Why have a middle man who is essentially hired to bridge the gap between you, the client, and the people who actually can make a difference to your bottom line? We’re assuming you’ve all played the telephone game and it never turns out well.

At Cement Marketing, we offer our clients a completely new organization chart.

Rather than sending the client through an Account Director who then meets with the creative teams who then churn something out that eventually makes its way to the client (after the Account Directors have a hack at it), we have what we call “Project Strategists.”

Cement Marketing’s Project Strategists are completely and thoroughly immersed in their area of expertise–Web Design and Development, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Search Engine Marketing (SEM) or Pay-Per-Click (PPC) or Social Marketing. Because project strategists know their area of interactive marketing inside and out, our clients save time and money because their point person can answer their questions directly.

It seems like such an obvious and simple concept to us, but then again, most of us were born in the 80′s and all of us, except for a scant few, have never worked at traditional advertising agencies. It means we get to start from scratch with a model that works.

Here’s what it looks like:

Each Project Strategist hears the client’s needs and produces a strategic plan, which is then (after client approval) sent directly to our team of copywriters, link builders, developers and designers. Tell us if you see a spot in this formula for an Account Director. Maybe there is something the big agencies know that we don’t.

Meet your Cement Marketing project strategists here.

How we start every RackSpace CloudSite project….

2012-03-16T18:37:20Z

We used to run into problems with RackSpace’s Cloudsites when we would start a new project because the dafault setup doesn’t give enough memory to run WordPress with a lot of plugins. So we started adding this to the .htaccess of each project at the start:

php_value memory_limit 128M
php_value  upload_max_filesize  16M
php_value  post_max_size  16M

Welcome to Cement’s Code Posts

2012-03-16T18:24:59Z

You are now in the nerdy code zone of the Cement Marketing site. The SEO and Dev team from Cement will be posting code here occasionally that we think will be helpful webmasters.

Thanks and more will be coming soon!

Talking about SEO in Athens, Ohio

2012-03-16T18:52:56Z

We’d like to express a sincere “Thank You” to Athens Business Remixed for inviting us to speak at their February Lunch and Learn series. Talking with entrepreneurs in Athens is always refreshing because the spirit of innovation and values-driven community is fully represented in their entrepreneurs.

We chose to present about two different topics that are trending right now: Local SEO, and SEO Worst Practices. The reasons why we chose these topics are:

SEO Worst Practices

One of the most common problems we see with incoming clients are previous SEO firms who have done a bad job. Maybe the SEO firm just didn’t keep up with changing strategies and tactics. Or maybe they oversold and under-delivered. Whatever the reason, Cement Marketing is on a crusade to educate businesses about what they should expect from their SEO provider and how to audit their SEO firm. We hope that savvy clients demanding excellent results will push the industry forward.

Local SEO

Local SEO is a lot of fun right now. Why is Local SEO fun? Because the effects are seen quickly and Local SEO is something most business owners can tackle on their own. We offered up some tips for improving your Google Place that can be implemented in just a few hours.

We’ve included the slides from the presentation below. If you represent a group that would like to hear us speak, please let us know. Or if you are a business who would like to be found more often on the web, contact us.

SEO Worst Practices and Local SEO Tips

View more presentations from Cement Marketing

Happy Birthday, Columbus.

2012-02-14T19:09:23Z

We are huge fans of Columbus. In fact, we love Columbus so much we wanted to shout it from the rooftops. We chose our windows instead.

As all things begin, our Columbus eCard started with a question.

“How can we tell Columbus we love her?”

And then an idea.

“A sign, we could make a sign, take a picture of us holding the sign and then share it on Facebook.”

But what would it say?

“Happy Birthday, Columbus.”

Sure that would work.

“But, how do we make it about the viewers? How do we make it about Columbus and everyone who lives here? How can they engage with our idea?”

The result: a hand painted social message, Facebook update or Tweet saying, “Columbus, 200 Years of _______.” You fill in the blank.

The idea was simple. We would take the picture and then give viewers a chance to add their own message digitally. To us it was clear. After all, we live and breath social and search – and we don’t just say that…

So, we bought the supplies and started painting.

Next we had to figure out a) where to hang it and once we eliminated the street and opted for windows we had to b) figure out how to pass the sign from window to window. This was when the real team building kicked in.

Brad Spencer, our SEO strategist came up with the brilliant idea of rolling up the sign, taping rope to the corner, tying keys the rope and then tossing the keys and the rope from window to window. Then we passed the sign to each other.

First Sara Bradley, our SEO copywriter and then to Jessie Eckert, our social marketing maven.

And then to Eric Katz, our superhero developer, who had to keep it from blowing away,

And then to Brad and Madeline, our awesome intern.

The whole thing created quite a stir on Gay Street. Cars were stopped, bystanders were video taping and as the sign unfurled only to reveal

a blank space – they couldn’t quite figure it out. How is this going to go online? They wondered.

Here’s how.

And thank you, Columbus. Without you we wouldn’t be here and we love you for that because we love what we do and wouldn’t want it any other way.

We now offer Responsive Design

2012-01-23T20:55:49Z

An overwhelming majority of websites aren’t built to display nicely on mobile devices like iPhones, android-powered cellphones, or tablets like an iPad. These mobile devices do their best to display desktop websites, but zooming and panning around a website built for a desktop computer isn’t ideal for your mobile customers.

The growing trend of web users coming from mobile devices has presented a challenge to designers and developers. We all want websites that will look great on essentially three different sized devices:

Desktop Computers
Tablet Computers, like an iPad
SmartPhones, like a iPhone, Android Phone, or Blackberry

How can this be done? Meet “Responsive Design“.

“Day by day, the number of devices, platforms, and browsers that need to work with your site grows. Responsive web design represents a fundamental shift in how we’ll build websites for the decade to come.” - Jeffrey Veen

What is Responsive Design?

Responsive design is a design and development approach that allows one website to morph to fit nicely on many different sized devices. It’s easier to see examples than to explain, so let’s see some responsive designs in action:

The design on the left is what an iPhone user would see. The design on the right is what a large desktop user would see. The in-between sizes are for small desktop computers and tablets. If you are curious to see more examples, check out mediaqueri.es.

Why Should You Go Responsive?

The business case for a responsive design is clear. Mobile and tablet user growth is fast and accelerating. It’s expected that mobile users will outnumber desktop users in the next one-to-three years. You want to engage mobile users if you hope to keep your competitive edge online.

Cement Marketing Offers Responsive Design

Our commitment to keeping clients ahead-of-the-curve is what sets us apart. As part of this commitment, we are proud to offer responsive web sites. Contact us if you are curious about how a responsive website can help your business. We can explore your business and determine if a responsive website makes sense for your online presence.

Social/SEO Drink & Learn

2012-01-06T16:01:55Z

Join the Cement Marketing social and SEO strategists for our first Social/SEO Drink & Learn.

On the fourth Thursday of every month, Cement Marketing will host free drink & learn sessions for our clients, friends and colleagues. Join us for cocktails and walk away with insider tips and tricks on making your social and SEO campaigns as successful as possible.

January 26, 2012

3:00 PM Session
Are You Listening? The top free tools you should be using to monitor what people are saying about your brand.

Led by Cement Marketing Social Marketing Strategist, Jessie Eckert – discover what free tools you should be using to monitor the social conversation about your brand.

4:00 PM
Blackhat SEO: What You or Your SEO firm should NEVER do.
Led by Cement Marketing’s SEO Strategist Bradley Spencer, this session is for any one interested in or currently working with an SEO firm. We’ll arm you with today’s best practices for an effective SEO campaign.

5:00 PM
Happy Hour
Stick around for our Social/SEO Drink & Learn Happy Hour. Meet your new friends from the workshops and network with Columbus SEO and Social Marketing experts.

The event is completely free.

The only thing we ask – if you are attending, please invite at least 5 of your fellow Facebook friends to the event. RSVP and invite others here on Facebook.