1. Shazam

It’s a favorite of Jeremy (project manager), Frederick (graphic designer), and Hayley (content developer). They all like this application to download music and to tag and share it with friends. Jeremy says, “Because it stinks when you hear a song and don’t know who it is. Plus it helps you win music trivia games.”

2. Emergency Radio

Emergency radio is also a favorite of Jeremy, our project manager. There was one Friday where the guys in the office listened to their emergency radio application throughout most of the day (while they worked hard of course!).

He also added: “I’m nosy and like to know the crazy things going on in this city.”

3. Pano

Marvin (creative director) really enjoys the Pano application to take panoramic photos. He loves photography and is actually pretty good at it!

4. Kindle

Jacqueline (online marketing manager) doesn’t have an iPhone, but if she did, she would definitely love the Kindle application. If you knew her, you would know why this would be her favorite– she LOVES to read!

5. Yelp

Most everyone here at the office enjoys the Yelp application, which they said “always answers that question when your with a group of friends and everyone says “where should we go? Lets go somewhere new!”

6. ebuddy

Frederick loves ebuddy because i gives you “aim, yahoo, gchat and Facebook all-in-one for free!”

7. Ocarina

Hayley enjoys Ocarina because it “turns your iPhone into a wind instrument. I mean, who doesn’t love that?”

8. Pac-Man

Jason’s (director of business development) favorite is Pac-Man because “It’s a classic! But make sure you use the swipe controls.”

9. Chipotle

The new Chipotle application is an office favorite. The Michigan Avenue location is really busy at lunch. You can order and pay from your phone and then pick it up without the wait.

10. Word Warp

Word Warp is another favorite of Frederick– “For when I feel like being smart.”

So there you have it our Chicago web design and interactive marketing agency’s favorite iPhone applications. What’s your favorite and why?

1. BestBuy.com
At Bestbuy.com save $300.00 on a 47″ LG TV with a special price of $999.99.

2. Hotels.com
Looking to get away for a weekend to cities such as San Diego and Los Vegas, hotels.com is doing a special on hot hotels including the W for only $99 a night but you have to book today.

3. Threadless.com
Shop online at Threadless.com and get cool tees for only $9.

4. JetBlue.com
Would you fly Jet Blue for only $9? Well you can book today and it will cost you only $9 each way from Boston to Baltimore. I don’t know if this will help any of our Chicagoans but it’s a great deal.

5. AltBay.com
This is kinda fun if you can a spare $9.99 today. Go to altbay.com which is a site that features a different deal each day, but today when you order you can get a mystery prize. They are saying this will only happen once this century so hurry there now before they are all gone.

6. Kohls.com
Shop for fall clothes for yourself or the famly and Kohl’s and get .99 shipping on your order.

7. Restaurant.com
Looking for gift cards for an upcoming birthday or event? Restaurant.com is having a huge sale with 99% off your purchase when you enter in the code NINETY.

8. Travel Zoo
Want to spend a week in Europe?  Spend 9 nights in Italy, visiting Rome, Florence and Venice, for $999. Includes flights, hotel, and rail transportations between the cities.

9. SEO Group
The best deal on the web is from our own company, www.seogroup.com. If you sign up today for online marketing or interactive marketing we will waive our initial fee of $999 to only $9.

CEO Mark Hoplamazians and Hyatt Hotels is using Twitter to enhance their guest’s experience at all of their hotels around the world. He envisions HyattConcierge as a resource to “to ask questions, book spa appointments or dinner reservations, and make special requests. We hope to use this customer service channel in a way that enables us to be more responsive, enrich the guest experience, and deepen guest preference for Hyatt. I believe the creation of HyattConcierge makes us the hospitality industry leader in the use of this technology and reflects our desire to communicate with guests in ways that are relevant and useful to them.”

This approach for Hyatt is really attracting lots of fans with currently over 6,00o followers. From reading their Tweats you can see travelers posting questions about local attractions, questions about a certain hotels, dinner reservations, upgrade requests, even asking about local movies that are playing or events happening in a certain town they are traveling to. Since Hyatt Hotels is an international chain, the people behind the scenes at  HyattConcierge need to be able to constantly update their Twitter, be extremely knowledgeable with areas and attractions all around the world, and able to help guest with requests at all times.

So how can hotels in Chicago follow suit?… Here are five techniques to help you interact with your guests on Twitter.

• Stay up to date with travel and news, you want your followers to come to you first to get information on things like travel tips and hotel specials.
• Post all hotel events and local events happening in Chicago, as well as ideas of things to do in Chicago for not only tourist but for locals.
• Post things from your blog or link or follow another travel blog, give your fans fun things to read like top 10 strangest hotels.
• Giveaways. People love free stuff.  For example, post a travel trivia question and whoever answers first gets 20% off a booking.
• Don’t forget to tweat back to your fans, try to respond to every questions or every positive comment.

Hope everyone in Chicago and around the nation has a great holiday weekend and happy travels!!!

Here are some ideas to incorporated “green” practices into your office.

• Use recycled materials for copier paper, toner cartridges and marketing materials.
• Set up a recycle program in your office
• Use energy efficient light bulbs
• Use green cleaning products in your building
• Start steps to become a LEED certified building

After implementing these practices you can now use a variety of “green” icons on your website to represent those changes. Here is a sample of some of those icons you can use. (You can download them at istockphoto.com)

Our interactive web design agency can help make your website more environmentally friendly and assist you in how to incorporate these icons into your existing design.

If you wondering what social media is all about and why you should or shouldn’t jump onto the social media bandwagon, watch this video and see for yourself…

[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]

So, what are your thought on social media, do you think social media is just a fad?

[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]

Inglorious Bastards wasn’t the only movie affected by Twitter, becoming clear that District 9 had an increased number of ticket sales because of the positive tweats, although it had more of a negative effect on the movie Bruno.

Most everyone you know is using some kind of social media site. Now think about YouTube, and the impact video are having on companies, the media, and everyday people. Many popular videos are viewed over a million times; often they are posted to other sites and some even make it to the news. As a Chicago web design company we always follow the trends to see what people are doing in our industry and we love checking out videos related what we do. Our agency recently found a “competitor” video that we would like to share with our followers. Trust me, just watch the video.

[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]

Why do you think this video gets so many hits?

Along with the traditional acts from the Golden Knights, Tucker, and The Thunderbirds there will be a new act added to the air show this year. Pilot Chuck Aaron is going to fly and attempt back flips, 360-degree rolls, and a combination of both, in a Red Bull helicopter. Pretty intense stuff! If you are interested in finding out more information about the other jets that are participating in the show this year you can find the list here.

Hope everyone has a great weekend; It’s going to be a hot one!! Enjoy the show.

Let me know what you think of the list and check out why these companies are on top of their game in the Twitter scene.

1. Ford and Scott Monty who is Head of Social Media at Ford Motor Company. Currently to date Scott has 27,781 followers who can keep up on motor trends, find out what Ford is up to with new developments and when new cars will be available. Also Tweeters can talk with each other and share car pictures, stories, and even concerns.

2. Jet Blue Airlines has an impressive amount of followers with 1,023,917 to date. Why are people so drawn to them? Because their goal is to “make ourselves available, help whenever possible, and to show that our brand is built by real people who care about our customers.” Not only can customers express their concerns or get questions answered by Gigi, Lindsey, Laurie, Alex, and John, Jet Blue is constantly providing followers with information on such as hot deals, contests, and updates from the companies blog. This one has got my attention and I think I will start following…

3. Southwest Airlines is 100% into the social media with 442,359 followers and similar to Jet Blue with instant customer service, travel deals, and contests. You can also find Southwest on Facebook, LinkedIn, Flickr, and YouTube. I bet there are some great YouTube videos, since Southwest is known as the fun airline.

4. Who is your cable provider? Well if it’s Comcast forget calling and sitting on the phone waiting for representative to help you. You can now contac them through Twitter where they have agents standing by 24/7 waiting to help you with questions or concerns. With over 33,000 followers you will see that the tweets are help answers like this one “@ThinkComp I would be happy to email the info to you. My email is frank_eliason@cable.comcast.com“.

5. Home Depot is using Twitter with 11,213 followers asking questions about projects, products, or even what to do when a hurricane is on its way. So when you need some advice on home products, weather concerns, etc, Sarah the Corporate Communications Manager for Home Depot is there to help.

6. Brad Nelson who is the guy behind Starbuck’s Twitter loves getting the feedback from customers and helping with questions. With over 271,410 followers to date I’m sure he has a lot to keep him busy. How does he do it? By using Tweetdeck, “It’s great. Everything you need to see at once: DM’s, replies, searches, and trending topics. Also, spending time on it. The more you keep up, the more manageable it is.”

7. Would you believe that even Kodak is using Twitter, with over 11,000 followers to date. Jennifer Cisney is Kodak’s chief blogger and keeps busy by also updating the company blog, Facebook, Youtube, Flickr, and Delicious. Sounds like a great job to have.

8. CEO Tony Hsieh for Zappos is known as a celebrity on Twitter. With an impressive 1,122,576 followers Tony will always respond to every tweet. The only time he won’t respond is if he doesn’t have cell phone reception. That’s extremely impressive, check out their Twitter and you will see some pretty entertaining Tweets.

9. Wachovia is using twitter to improve its customer service. Matthew Wadley who is behind the companies Twitter account wants to help their customers and  over 4,000 followers by assisting and answering questions during these hard economy times.

10. DELL has over 8,000 followers and Richard Binhammer of Dell ( no title) enjoys tweeting with his followers and answering questions about computer technology, and to sharing advice. Richard explained that he has “…no title at Dell, for the past two years because I have been focused on listening, learning, and engaging with blogs and others in social media.”

Our web design firm was thrilled to work with the Nuts on Clark family. For more information on what we did for Nuts on Clark and how we can help you increase online sales please visit our new website at www.theoceanagency.com.