What can we learn from all of this? Vegas is motivated to sell, reinvent, change with the times and continually put their products out there. Sometimes as marketers we can forget these things when times are good and competition is scarce. Competition in this town is never scarce and it shows in how aggressive everyone fights over a dollar. We should stay hungry and even if the competition isn’t breathing down our backs we should perform like they are.

I have also been exposed to several marketing messages on different channels. Billboard cars drive by, cards are handed out, banner ads show up on the web and word-of-mouth are just a few. Vegas is a perfect example of how to hit people at several touch point and hammer your message and brand into the minds of potential customers at a point where they are willing to listen. How can you do the same? Where are your customers when they need to hear your message? Is the message you are putting out there the right one for each channel? Ask yourself questions like these and stay ahead of your competition, never fall behind.

Many business owners don’t consider how social media will integrate with their website or why they would even want it to. At Reversed Out we have a variety of clients representing a broad range of ages, experience, industries and feelings about social media. Talking to them we typically recommend some Facebook, Twitter, Youtube or even Flikr presence for several reasons. One is that all of these sites offer powerful back-links to your website from credible sources. Back-links are crucial to your search ranking and are a must have for any company that wants to be found through search engines.

Another reason why Facebook is a good idea is that it adds updated information dynamically to your website through widgets that Facebook has created and can be easily added to your site. This option is only valid if you have an active community on Facebook. In the words of Face book the platform enables you to make your website more social. You can use their Social Plugins, such as the Like Button to drive user engagement with a single line of HTML. You can use the Activity Feed Plugin to show users a stream of the recent likes and comments from their friends on your site. You can use the Recommendations Plugin to show personalized page recommendations to your users based on the likes and comments across your entire site.

Working with a web design firm that brings these things to your attention and build a scalable website that builds these options into your new site strategy is important. So many clients think of Facebook as something that doesn’t really apply to them but given the two reasons above and the fact that we live in an ever increasing social web everyone needs to get involved. It requires time, but done correctly on your website can be automated to work for you and your business.

• The design doesn’t match your branding and customers were confused
• The template was not build for their content. The content had to be retrofitted to the design of the template
• There are licensing agreements with some templates that restrict what you can do with them or include their info on the site that show it’s a template
• Their developer had to understand the original programmers code to go in and make adjustments
• The template was actually built years ago and technology has changed
• The template broke when images or too much content was added to places that were not flexible
• Images were used on important items like the main navigation and links. Google doesn’t like that.
• Template designers are not SEO experts and most template sites are bad for SEO
• Many templates use Flash which Google can’t read and iPad and iPhone users can’t see. Also you can’t update the flash yourself and it’s a memory hog.
• Since images were used in the navigation this are has a fixed width and no other items could be added without design and development help
• Design and not functionality was the intent for the template so the user suffers
• Good user experience strategies were not employed and many unneccessary items needed to be moved or removed
• The whole template and all of the work done needed to be scrapped and the client wanted to start over the right way

Our recommendation is to not even use a template option as a quick fix at first. When you launch your brand it needs to represent your company and be designed with your content and good user experience in mind. Also as technology changes you want your site to be written the right way so that things don’t break. Using a great developer with current experience should be your goal.

Doing a quick fix template causes you more problems than it’s worth by giving you something that hundreds of other people could be potentially using too. Templates are also not very flexible and you end up spending more time trying to change one then if you had started with a fresh design in the first place. Just like hiring your brother in law to fix your roof, using a template will just cause you headache and you’ll end up redoing it anyway.

We can help you rethink your brand and produce a logo that you can be proud of, that’s unique to your business and one that has a story behind it. People will remember the logo and tie it to your story much more so than a generic brand or something that is similar to another brand.

The simpler the better sometime. Your logo should look like a logo and not an illustration. Too many elements in a logo can obscure the message and make it difficult for your audience to remember. The simpler the better when creating a logo. It’s not finished when their is nothing more to add but when there is nothing more that you can take away and still understand the concept.

Take pride in your logo, have a professional work through the process with you and have a logo that’s as unique as your company.

Another wonderful resource is Designers Toolbox. This site has everything a designer needs it seems like. Do you ever wonder how your design will look in Firefox on a 1024 setting? Download a template and drop in your jpg and see where the page will fold. You can also download psd’s of web browser elements like radio buttons, input fields, etc.

Take a look at these two resources and let me know what you think.

Adam

We understand that mobile is important and mobile users want access to information quickly. Your full-blown website doesn’t always work for the web so we’ve come up with a better solution. Since we already give you access to change almost anything on your website, this new solutions easily integrates with your content. We designate certain areas like your blog and any other important information to be dynamically added to your mobile site. As you make changes to these areas in WordPress your mobile website is also updated. We also add in your social media content like the wall from Facebook and your recent tweets on Twitter. If your customers check in on Foursquare than we can add that too.

This service changes the game and sets us apart from our competition. We’re also adding couponing services so that you can allow printable coupons, limit and track the number of downloads as well as receive reports on redemption. Our CPG clients are in love with this idea and we are working hard on building this into the Facebook pages we create increasing likes which drive leads. More to come on our Facebook efforts soon.

To learn more about any of our services and out wholesale package prices please contact us today.

Here’s a way to save on your site design and maximize your budget. For WebMediaExpert.com and LikeSocialMedia.com, Reversed Out has designed both sites using the same template but different content. Both sites offer great tools to educate business owners and others interested in social media and the digital industry.

Both sites drive users to the paid services offered by social media expert Michelle Hummel. Much of the site only needs to be developed once and graphics simply need to be replaced by the developer. Since they are the same size on both sites, names can be the same and just replaced in the images directory. Minor CSS changes need to be made but they are very minimal.

Basically the second site will only cost a fraction of designing a brand new custom website. Think of your own business and how this same strategy can be used for your additional services or affiliate network.

Both site designs are approved and entering the development phase. LikeSocialMedia has added tools that are being developed in PHP and other web technologies. These tools will be in beta and available shortly after the site launches. Keep following the activity on our blog and see how our process works.

Thanks to Michelle for allowing us to share the progress of both projects.

Michelle Hummel of WebMediaExpert.com is partnered with Reversed Out and we exchange services. She provides us with all of our social media support and we reciprocate the favor by offering all of our expert web design and web development services. We have noticed a major trend lately and that is custom Facebook pages, Twitter backgrounds and graphics on other social media services like YouTube, Ning, and blogs. I mostly want to write about the boom in Facebook business pages over the last couple of months.

This seems to be a trend that is spiking for us and Michelle. The power of Facebook as a social network and its ability to multiply your message through your friends, their friends, etc. has led to excitement in the business community. Since it is fairly cheap to build a few custom tabs on your Facebook page it seems small business marketing spending has shifted from websites to Facebook pages. Facebook pages are only a couple hundred dollars to create and are quick to deploy. Not much code needs to be written for a custom Facebook page and design is much simpler because site architecture, content management system install and hosting are not things you have to consider much.

This is even more important if your business does not already have a web presence or if your site is in need of a major redesign. While your site is being designed and developed a great looking Facebook page is a good idea. This will incorporate your new site design elements and prepare users for the new site. It can also be a way to increase traffic and offer a more professional, progressive appearance to your brand.

Of course as a web company we would never write off web designs and the importance a great looking, properly functioning website plays into your company’s marketing mix but this Facebook thing is definitely here to stay.If you are interested in learning more you can always contact Michelle Hummel at WebMediaExpert.com for a free analysis of your current social media strategy. She will be happy to suggest winning ways for you to get noticed across the web.

We compensate our resellers with 15% of the total sale. Once the client is sent to us we handle everything. All you need to do is get them in the door by explaining how Reversed Out is different. Read through the site and see for yourself. Our agency model is a change from anything else out there and we save businesses real money! We don’t outsource creative like some web businesses and employ talented people here in the U.S. that need to make some extra income, you included!

This offer won’t last long and we have a limited number of resellers for each market. We’d love to tell you more so act now by filling out our request form below.

Because of this I have intentionally started to reach out to this crowd. We have even expanded our reseller program to include developers who allow us to manage the creative phase of their projects. A friend of mine, Gerard Sychay has invited me to join his Cincinnati Coworks office space. This is a great place and is full of developers because Gerard is a developer and probably reached out to other developers. He would like to get people from other disciplines like PR, Social-media or copy writers to join in the fun. I love the co-working concept where professionals in various but supporting disciplines go in together and rent office space. It’s also a great way to network, especially when they need a web designer in-house.

Even better could be the camaraderie and support you get from the other members. So many small businesses need the mental support and cheer-leading from their peers. Cincinnati Coworks is a place where that can happen. I anyone is interested in supporting Gerard in his new venture and renting some space feel free to contact him. There are two full-time office spaces available and a few part-time ones too. If you want you can even just stop in for a day or two and start working, I’ll be there Tuesday.