But you also want those posts to show up automatically on your LinkedIn profile, right? So here are a few steps to make sure all your LinkedIn connections know what a thought leader you are. (Or at least that you’re publishing regular blog posts.)

LinkedIn makes it easy to add an RSS feed to your personal or company pages. Each time you publish a new blog post or news piece on your website, it will also be published in LinkedIn.

We are often asked how to do this, so we’ve compiled some easy to follow instructions for both your personal account and your company page.

How to Add An RSS Feed To LinkedIn Personal Account

1. Copy the URL of your blog or news feed. This can be found by clicking on the RSS icon on your blog or website. It should look something like this: http://feeds.feedburner.com/yourcompanyname or http://yourwebsite.com/feed.

2. Log in to your personal LinkedIn account.

3. Hover cursor over “Profile.” A dropdown menu will appear. Select “Edit Profile.”

4. In the edit profile area, scroll down until you see the “Applications” section. This may be at the bottom of your profile. It may be higher. Select “Add an Application.”

5. In the applications area, select the WordPress application by clicking on the blue title.

6. Select “Add Application.” Be sure both boxes for display on profile and LinkedIn homepage are checked. They are by default.

7. Paste your feed url in the text field. Be sure “Show all recent posts from your blog.” is selected. It will be by default. You will then see how your feed will display. You may need to select “Save.” If you do not see the “save” button, you have successfully added the feed to your profile.

8. Verify installation by selecting “View profile” from the drop down nav under “Profile.” You should see your new WordPress blog widget displayed on your LinkedIn profile. To move the placement of the widget, select “edit profile” from the drop down nav and you will be able to select the widget to drag it higher or lower on your profile.

How To Automatically Publish An RSS Feed To A Company LinkedIn Page

1. Repeat the above instructions for getting the feed URL for the blog you want to display on your company LinkedIn.

2. Login to either your company page or your personal page (if your personal account is set up as an admin on the company LinkedIn). Open the Admin tools drop down menu in the right hand corner, and select Edit.

3. Once you are in the Edit screen, scroll down until you find the box called Company Blog RSS Feed.

4. Now simply paste the RSS Feed URL for your blog into that space and click Publish. Your blog posts will now appear as updates on your company LinkedIn page.

And there you have it. Your blog posts will now show up automatically on your LinkedIn when you publish them to WordPress. Still have questions? Ask us in the comments, or get at us on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn. Happy blogging!

How to Stop Sending Spam DMs to Followers

1. Change Your Password

Self-explanatory. The problem may be simply that someone got your password and is sending out DMs or tweets using your name. This should be the first thing you do. (Also, if your computer or mobile device gets lost or stolen, make sure you get online and change your social media passwords.) If you’re having trouble logging in, you may need to request a password reset through Twitter support, and then re-secure your account.

2. Check Your Applications

Go to your settings, and choose “applications.” You grant access to applications when you use your Twitter account to comment on blogs or new stories, use your Twitter account to login to another site, or when you link your Twitter directly to another social network like Instagram. Somewhere in your Web rambles, you may have authorized an application that has now gone rogue and is sending DMs from your account. If you know which application the DMs are coming from you can click “Revoke Access” and block them from sending messages on your behalf.

3. Secure your connection

Double check that you are using Twitter on a secure connection. Go into your settings, and choose the “Account” tab. Scroll to “HTTPS Only” and check the box.

You may have been using Twitter on an unsecured network, which makes it possible for people to hack into your information, allowing them to do things like send obnoxious DMs to your followers. Using HTTPS keeps your info more secure, and can prevent viruses from accessing your account.

If you still can’t get the spam messages to stop, contact Twitter Support.

Mysterious @Replies

If you’re constantly receiving @replies that are just your Twitter handle, a bunch of other handles, and a suspicious looking link, that’s spam, so report it. First, go the the spammer’s profile. Click the person icon. This brings up a drop-down menu. Now, just click on “Report @username for spam.” The same goes for @replies you receive about free iPads, acai smoothies, etc.

Gone Phishing

At this point, most of us have seen those phishing @replies. They come from a friend, and say things like “OMG! Is this you?” or “Look at this crazy video of you!” and include a link that–you guessed it–causes your account to send the message out to your followers. You get them because your friend clicked on the same link. Most of us have wised up to that scheme, but keep your eye out for others. Think about how they get you to click on those links: they’re provocative and emotional, and elicit an almost knee-jerk desire to click. Don’t fall for it. Don’t respond to suspicious users, or click on links that come from sources you don’t know. Use common sense! And again, if you get stuck, contact Twitter Support or check out our many blog posts about Twitter.

Are you following us on Twitter? No spam, just lots of Vital goodness!

Meet Pinterest

First of all, you need to be invited to use Pinterest. If you want an invite, shoot an email to your most stylish female friends, or anyone planning a wedding. There’s probably a good chance they’re using it already, and they can invite you. (Pinterest seems to be very much still a girls’ club, but I think as it gains cred as a sharing space for design, photography and art, we’ll see the demographics even out).

You’ll need to set up an account. You can choose to link with your Facebook or Twitter account or leave it separate. You’ll create a user name and password, and then Pinterest will prompt you to select from some areas of interest (Design, Architecture, Film/TV, Women’s Fashion, etc.)

Once you select these, Pinterest will automatically set you up to follow some users in those categories. If you set up your account through Facebook, it will also add any of your Facebook friends who also have their Facebook and Pinterest accounts linked. You can always unfollow these users later.

Start Pinning

The next step is to create your pinboards. Pinterest will prompt you to create five boards (you can have as many as you want, this is just to get started). You can categorize these any way you like. I made one for design inspiration, one for fashion, one for DIY projects and one for books I’m reading. Next, you’ll want to add a “Pin It” button to your bookmarks tool bar. In Firefox and Chrome, all you have to do is open your bookmarks and drag and drop the “Pin It” button onto the toolbar. You can now use this button as you’re surfing around the web, to “pin” things to your pinboards. When you find something you want to pin, just click the button. Pinterest will open up a page asking which item on the page you want to pin and which board it should be pinned to. The whole interface works very smoothly, and only interrupts your Web browsing for a few seconds.

Find People

If you selected some areas of interest when you set up your account, your homepage will already contain some pins. If you like these users, do nothing, but if they don’t fit you, just unfollow their pins by going to their page and hitting the big unfollow button beneath their profile picture. You can also choose to follow only certain boards by a user.

Make Connections

Now is the time to start thinking like a social media marketer! Pinterest is a great forum for creatives like interior designers, photographers, fashion designers and retailers…the list goes on. Start finding accounts that are similar to you, and accounts that could be potential sales leads. What does a potential sales lead look like on Pinterest? Well, that depends. If you’re a clothing designer, you want to be looking for people like fashion bloggers and editors, buyers for stores and other people talking about fashion and design. If you’re a wedding photographer, start following wedding magazines and the many, many Pinterest accounts that are devoted to wedding planning.  (You get the idea). If you understand Twitter, you can understand Pinterest–in fact, Pinterest is a lot like a visual version of Twitter. You want to be pinning your work and things that inspire your work, and you want as many people as possible to see, like and re-pin your posts–especially your original ones. Curate the pinboards you follow, and use the comment and re-pin function to engage.

We love that Pinterest is intensely visual, making it a perfect place for creative people like designers and photographers to share their work. It also makes it incredibly easy for people to share your posts to their followers, which means it’s easy for something to go viral. Pinterest doesn’t have the widespread base that Twitter or Facebook gives you, but depending on the kind of business you have it might actually be easier to target your audience through Pinterest. For example, if you’re a florist who does a lot of weddings, you’ll find that Pinterest offers you a huge community of potential sales leads that’s already curated for you. To see some local businesses doing cool things with Pinterest, check out Gus & Ruby Letterpress, Concetta’s Closet and Pixels and Pulp.

And it’s not just great local businesses taking advantage of Pinterest. Check out these seven brands who are burning up Pinterest with their marketing awesomeness (post via @hubspot).

In addition to that, people who pin tend to pin a lot. If you come up with something that people on Pinterest like, you’ll have many passionate “pinners” sharing your work all across the site. Pinterest definitely won’t work for every company, but we think that for a certain types of businesses it has incredible potential for social media marketing.

Are you using Pinterest, either personally or for your business? Do you find that it helps you generate leads, find interesting companies, or something else? We’re just getting started on Pinterest so we’d love to here how you’re using it and what you think! Tell us in the comments or talk to us on Facebook or Twitter.

The profile means that your Facebook page won’t just be a little slice of what you’ve been doing in the past few weeks or months, but rather a broad overview of your whole life. That means you’ll probably want to spend some time polishing up that page before it goes live. Here are some tips for getting your Timeline spiffed up before Facebook makes the complete switch.

1. Choose a cover photo

You can get as creative as you like here. The cover photo will be the large picture that dominates the top of your page, while your traditional headshot profile pic will be smaller, situated in the left hand corner. Keep in mind that you’ll want to choose an image that looks good as a wide, short image–portrait-type shots won’t look good here. For some really creative ideas check out this post on Mashable.

2. Scrub a dub dub

The new profile means it’s easier than ever for people to look at your whole life, or at least your life since you’ve been on Facebook. You already know that your social media presence is important, and that you shouldn’t be posting inappropriate content where your grandmother or potential clients are going to see it. And sure, now you use Facebook to post pictures of your vacation and your kids, but those shots of you doing a kegstand could still be floating around in the recesses of 2005. That’s the kind of stuff that won’t stay buried once you have the Timeline profile. Keep in mind that it’s going to be easier than ever for people to see your older posts, and do a thorough scrub of your profile.

Take down those embarrassing status updates or photos, or just hide them from your Timeline. Click the pencil icon next an event to hide it or delete it.

If you have memories you want to keep just between friends, you can customize who sees an event by clicking the friends icon next your name on each event. You can select a list, only you, or customize exactly who has access to this event on your Timeline.

3. Fill in the gaps

You can also take this opportunity to have some fun filling in the “scrapbook.” Timeline gives you an opportunity to post events – moving, traveling, a new job, changes in relationship status, etc. – and to include photos and tag friends in these events. Take a quick trip down memory lane and fill in the big events in your Timeline with tags and photos. The map function is a lot of fun as well. You can add trips to your Timeline, noting the date you were there and who was with you, and then add an event photo. Also take the time to be sure that your employment info is updated and that all the dates are correct. You can give important events top billing on your Timeline by clicking the star (right next to the edit tool we just covered).

4. Add life before Facebook

If you want to, you can go even further back in your Timeline and add events that happened before you were on Facebook, and add photos to those events. If you want to get really literal with your Timeline, you can add baby pictures, wedding pictures… anything you like. We recommend getting all the stuff that’s already on Facebook in order first, then moving on to your pre-Facebook years if you’re feeling ambitious. If the photos are already on Facebook, just choose “Change Date” to change the date from the time it was uploaded to the time it was taken, or upload old pictures directly onto your Timeline.

(That’s me on the left in the aqua polyester, circa 1996.)

You should take at least a little time to look at your new Timeline and get comfortable with the new format, because Facebook chooses which photos and updates are important mainly by looking at the number of comments and likes something receives. Those might not be the things you want defining your profile. Although Timeline means that there’s more stuff on your profile at once, it also makes it much easier to regulate who sees what.

So take some control of your page. Have fun with it!

Are you doing something cool, creative or hilarious with your Timeline cover photo? Whether you’re repping your favorite sports team, sharing a vacation picture or doing something totally wacky, we want to see it! Take a screen shot of your cover, send it to us at socialmedia@vtldesign.com and we’ll feature the best ones on our Facebook page. (Just be sure to let us know if you don’t want your personal info visible.)

1. YouTube

It’s the second-most searched site on the Internet, after Google. And guess what, Google owns it. If you can do a good job sharing your brand story, video can be powerful for creating a fast connection with your audience. You can even create a branded company channel that jibes with your website and other social channels.

Video can also be a great way to put faces and voices to your brand, and embedded video is a great way to give your blog posts a boost. Plus, when it’s done well, it’s very engaging.

2. LinkedIn

Think LinkedIn is just for job searchers and corporate climbers? Think again. If your business is B-to-B, a dedicated LinkedIn page is a must. You can set up a company page that includes individual tabs for your products and services, allowing visitors to check out your offerings without even leaving LinkedIn.  You can set up targeted landing pages for users from particular parts of the world or job titles. Your business blog post can be integrated into your page,  and  you can post status updates that show up in the update stream of your followers just like you see the updates from your connections. Plus, it’s another search result opportunity for your company.

3. Instagram

Instagram, a photo-sharing app for iPhones, has more than 12 million users (as of Oct. 2011) and 100,000 weekly downloads, according to co-founder Kevin Systrom. Instagram lets users set up accounts and share photos other Instagram users can see. Users can follow each other, like  they can on Twitter. The app has cool filters to make your photos look retro or, well, just better. The simple app has gained legions of devoted fans (potential clients for you). But the coolest part? Comments are searchable via hashtags and Twitter handle mentions. Another important element? It’s mobile–the new frontier for marketing. Check out Kanon Vodka for a brand that’s using Instagram well.

4. Pinterest

If your business sells things online to consumers, Pinterest is the place to be. This social sharing site (with a corresponding smart phone app) lets people share your products on their pinboards so their friends can see what they’re into. For example, it’s a popular practice for brides-to-be to set up pinboards for their weddings, sharing the dress, theme, location, napkins, lights, etc., that they’d like to see at their wedding.

Not surprisingly, many indie fashion retailers have also embraced the technology (Check out Brooklyn-based Of a Kind to see a cool Pinterest page). For a brand, it can be a great place to connect by sharing company culture, brand character – all those quirky things about brands and companies that really make up the relationship we have with them. Also, if images of your products are out there and people are pinning them on their pinboards,  that can add up to a big boost in the number of eyeballs on your products.

5. Reddit or StumbleUpon

These two bookmarking sites allow you to share sites, blog posts or other Web pages that you’re interested in. A popular topic on Reddit or StumbleUpon can bring an instant spike in website traffic. It can also give your company a good place to connect with audience members who have similar tastes or appreciation.

6. Google+

Google+ provides a new place for brands and businesses to connect with their audience. It’s brand-able in that  you can share your logo, images, location, and company thoughts, products and services. It’s not going away and its influence on search (at least in Google) probably can not be exaggerated. A lot of brands have set up pages, but many aren’t using Google+ to its full potential. We say stick with it!

Keep in mind that not all of these sites are going to work for everyone. Be realistic about what media your products and services will translate well into, and choose your social networks accordingly. It’s better to have three well-maintained social media accounts than fifteen orphaned ones. Confused? Whether you’re looking for social media marketing, SEO, custom landing pages for social sites, custom Twitter backgrounds….you name it, we can help! Contact Vital today or connect with us on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn

We all know the convenience of RSS feeds can’t be beat. They allow you to get the news you want sent to you, rather than visiting different sites. Using RSS feeds as part of an online marketing strategy to keep your audience connected – and returning to your website – has become pretty common.

Email service provider MailChimp provides a great tool to send your feed from a blog or news page to create an automatic email newsletter, but you can also use this RSS-to-email service to set up your own daily email of RSS feeds.

A few months ago I decided that Twitter just wasn’t working well enough as a content aggregator. I follow a number of design publications through Twitter to keep up with their latest articles. I also follow funny feeds like Kenny Powers, Funny or Die and about 300 others. So my design content gets lost. (Argue the case of custom lists all you want, they’re just not practical.)

The next tool I tried was a web app called NetNewsWire. I spent an hour or so subscribing to all the blogs I wanted to read and it worked out just fine. After about a week, I had stopped checking the app. I even set it up to open whenever I turned on my machine. Still never looked at it. I just couldn’t work it into my routine.

So my need to read relevant design articles festered for a while, until I came across MailChimp’s RSS tool. I already knew about the RSS-to-email campaigns. That concept was novel and works for a lot of people. But I don’t really want to get five emails every morning just to see what a couple pubs wrote about. That was what I thought until a brand new Vital Design email marketing project introduced me to this badass new feature called feed merge.

Feed Merge

The possibilities here are endless. Before, you could only subscribe to an email consisting of posts from one feed. Now, you can pepper one email template with as many feeds as you want. I will detail how to accomplish this below, but for now just think about the possible applications of this. Exciting, right?

Create a Design Digest

The first idea that popped into my head was to aggregate all of the publication feeds that I wanted to read each morning. So I sat down, plugged in the RSS feed URLs into the code that I detailed below and set up the email to send to me every morning.

I can now wake up each morning and have a brand new email sitting in my inbox – which I DO actually check everyday – containing the two most recent articles from each of my favorite publications.

No more running News Feeds every morning. Now everything I want is sitting in the one place I do check everyday: my inbox.

How It Works

With a simple short code users can drop entire entries from any blog they want into an email. Plus, the number of sources is unlimited. Just drop in this code wherever you want the RSS feed to appear:

*|FEED:Feed URL [$count=Number of Posts Included]|*

Feed Merge Individual Items

If the default layout of the basic feed merge isn’t looking as clean as you would like, you’re in luck. The shortcode below will allow you to break the feed up into individual elements. That way you can actually have some aesthetic control over what you’re displaying.

*|FEEDBLOCK:URL|* *|FEEDITEMS:|*
INSERT INDIVIDUAL ITEMS HERE
 *|END:FEEDITEMS|* *|END:FEEDBLOCK|*

For a full list of individual items available in shortcode form – plus a much more in-depth tutorial on how to use this feature, head to the MailChimp support page.

Get Clever

Creating a simple and customized digest is just the tip of the iceberg with field merge. I took a real world problem and used this feature to fix it. To me, it’s a game changer. We now have the ability to:

1. Build a custom designed eblast with infinite dynamic content sources.
2. Aggregate relevant content the way YOU want it to be display and delivered.
3. Give your readers a wider range of related content during your outreach.
4. Build a daily relationship with your readers that adds value beyond your content.

If you’re curious about this feature or would like your clients to see a digest like this come from your company, contact us here. Questions or ideas? Please comment below.

Sign Up for the Vital Design Digest: Graphic Design Edition!

As you move around the Web today, you’ll discover sites that are blacked out to protest this legislation, which is currently on hold. Need an obscure name or date? Sorry, Wikipedia will be blacked out. Want to read blogs? WordPress will be “censoring” blogs too. Jonesing for a picture of a talking cat? Sorry, the “I Can Haz Cheezburger” people are on strike too.

So yes, it’s a big deal. Here’s why.

SOPA stands for Stop Online Piracy Act. It has been shelved for the time being in the House, waiting for legislators to “build a consensus” before taking a vote. The Senate is also looking to pass similar legislation, called PIPA. (That’s the Protect IP Act, not the curvaceous Middleton sister.) All of these high profile sites care about SOPA because it would allow copyright holders, as well as the U.S. Department of Justice, to get court orders against websites they accuse of copyright infringement.

Now, that doesn’t sound so awful, right? We all know you’re not supposed to steal music, videos and software. Here’s the catch: these court orders could prevent online advertising and commerce, keep the site in question from showing up in search results, and even force ISPs to block the site entirely—even before the allegations of copyright infringement have been substantiated. An accusation alone could potentially shut a site down. It’s the Internet equivalent of being held without bail.

Supporters of the bill say that it’s needed to clamp down on rampant copyright infringement online and to protect intellectual property. Some of SOPA/PIPA’s biggest fans are from Hollywood, and tired of having their TV, movies and music stolen.

The bill would make streaming copyrighted content a crime punishable by up to five years in jail for 10 instances over six months. (Sweating yet?)

Opponents, including Google, Facebook, Twitter and other Internet giants, say that the bill goes way too far, violates the First Amendment and would hamper creativity, free speech and the overall openness of the Internet community.

In the Wikipedia announcement of the blackout, Wikimedia editor Kat Walsh wrote:

“[K]nowledge has to be published somewhere for anyone to find and use it. Where it can be censored without due process, it hurts the speaker, the public, and Wikimedia. Where you can only speak if you have sufficient resources to fight legal challenges, or if your views are pre-approved by someone who does, the same narrow set of ideas already popular will continue to be all anyone has meaningful access to.”

The Internet is a community that allows an incredible amount of sharing and communication, and gives a voice to quite literally anyone with an Internet connection. As Web designers, bloggers and social media geeks, we believe that’s important. Many of your favorite websites are blacked out today because SOPA/PIPA would change the face of that community irrevocably, curtailing the free flow of information, ideas, and yes, cat pictures that makes the Internet so cool in the first place.

What do you think of SOPA/PIPA? Is it a good idea that goes too far, or something out of “1984?” Are you doing anything to protest SOPA today? Exercise your First Amendment rights and tell us in the comments!

We’re proud of our claim to fame as the first in the nation primary (that’s what that #FITN Twitter hashtag you’ve been seeing stands for), and in honor of that, we took a look at what marketers like us can learn from the top three finishers in the New Hampshire primary. Read on to find out how to take your marketing strategy from nobody to nominee.

First: Mitt Romney, 39.3%

Getting ahead takes some cash.

Romney has taken plenty of flak for being extremely well-financed by corporate contributors – perhaps not quite the man of the people some voters are looking for.

But there’s a good lesson here: having (or raising) the money you need to do something right is important. When you’re looking at your marketing budget, set aside enough money for a quality website and regular maintenance, a blog and any other features that are standard in your industry (e-commerce, etc.).  This is not the place to decide to do it yourself unless you are a web design pro. It’s worth investing the money to get a quality product, because in many cases your website is the first impression people get of your company.

Second: Ron Paul, 22.9%

Going viral will take you places.

Ron Paul’s second place was a triumph. Considering Romney’s New England roots, the primary was being called a race for second place. Paul’s showing was nothing to sneeze at. He pulled down 23% of the vote, and almost half of young voters who turned out voted for him.

Paul’s campaign has been largely grassroots. Without corporate sponsors or much media attention in his corner, he’s relied on activism and small donations of private citizens. His message connects with a growing faction of voters and they want to share it with their friends. If you want your content to go viral, it needs to be something people want to share. How do you do that? Start by making it cooler, funnier, more interesting or more useful than what the other guys are doing. Or by listening to the questions your target market is asking.

Third: Jon Huntsman 16.9%

Handshakes still matter.

The Huntsman campaign was disappointed on Tuesday, but the third place/17% finish is still a testament to the power of face-to-face interaction.

Only weeks ago, many New Hampshire voters didn’t have a clue who Jon Huntsman was, but a late surge of support gave him enough votes to justify staying in the race. Huntsman’s campaign was entirely focused on New Hampshire, and he made over 100 campaign stops across the state. Lacking Romney’s clout and Paul’s viral appeal, Huntsman had to rely on old fashioned shoe leather—getting out, meeting New Hampshirites and earning his votes one by one. Now, just replace “votes” with “sales leads,” and, well, you get the idea.

Any one of these tips alone isn’t a marketing plan. For an effective marketing strategy you may need all three of these tactics, and more. Think of your ideal marketing plan as a super-campaigner: Smart investment in quality, viral appeal and face-to-face engagement.

Now, get yourself some social media know-how and a graphic designer to help with those presidential good looks and your marketing strategy could be on its way to the White House! (Or at least South Carolina.)

Tired of hearing about red states and blue states? Come check out the orange state! We can help with all your Web design, graphic design, social media, SEO, PR and copywriting needs. We’d love to hear from you by phone or email or on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn. Was your vote heard in the primary? If not, you get another chance here. What do you think about our assessment? Got more ideas? Comment below.

It’s nothing personal. We get it. As a busy NH web design firm, we know it can be tough to come up with fresh ideas for blogs when you’ve already got a lot on your plate.

But we also know creating content that is useful, interesting or just cool—content people want to share—is one of the most effective ways to get more eyeballs on your site (that’s SEO) and more sales leads in your inbox. It’s a new year, and it’s time to inject some new ideas, fresh faces and punched-up content into your business blog. Here are a few ways to get started.

Get your team involved

If you’re the only person generating ideas and content for your blog…stop! Talk to your colleagues and toss ideas around together. Enlist someone with useful expertise to do a how-to post, like this, or an FAQs post, like this. You might even find that people from your community and circle of business contacts would like to guest blog on your site, collaborate on a post, or be interviewed for a post.

Do you have a satisfied customer who talks your business up to all his/her friends? Ask if he’d like to write a blog post about his experience with your company. (A caveat: too many different voices can muddy your branding. Is your blog supposed to be serious? Conversational? Authoritative? Cute? Be sure everyone contributing to your blog knows the answer to this question.)

…And your readers

Strive to write blog posts that encourage discussion, sharing and collaboration. If you have an engaged readership, you’ll find that their questions and comments give you new ideas for other blog posts. If one commenter has a good question, write a blog post answering it–chances are many other readers may have the same query. You can even put out a call to action, asking readers and social media followers to send you questions they’d like to see answered, and then write a reader FAQ post.

Think about things a lot of readers might not know about your industry and write a post debunking myths or simply “ten things you never knew about____”.  Write a blog post sharing an experience (ex. “how we finally took the leap into social media” or “our big move to the new office” ) and ask readers to share their own stories. This is not your personal blog, obviously, but you still want people to feel like there’s a human being behind the words.

Don’t limit yourself to text

Make a video—a tour of your office, a step-by-step tutorial, a Q&A session with a knowledgeable person (or, uh…a member of an alley fight club)—and post it on your blog. This doesn’t have to be TV-ready stuff. Most digital cameras shoot video that appears in decent quality online, and small video cameras like the Flipcam are affordable and easy to use. Two simple rules for shooting good amateur video:

1. Keep the camera steady. Get a tripod, a coffee can or a cardboard box–whatever.
2. Get shots of people doing things, not just staring into the camera and talking. We told you it was easy.

Don’t know how to edit and upload the video you shot? We can almost guarantee you know someone who does. (Try your nephew.)

You can also add galleries of still photos to your blog using tools like Flickr, Picasa or Photobucket—great for sharing pictures from events, candids from around the office or shots of an exciting new project. Adding multimedia elements like video and photos to your blog enhances the human side of your site: readers will feel like they have faces and voices to go with names. Before posting, include a brief text explanation and don’t forget your SEO keywords.

Take your creativity for a walk

Artists, writers and musicians know that creativity isn’t a lightening bolt or a muse whispering in your ear: it’s a muscle that needs regular exercise. We know you’re busy, but if you want to bolster your blog’s general oompf, take a little time each day to browse the Web in a focused way. Look at what other companies in your industry and companies you admire are doing on their blogs, and spend some time looking at creative inspiration sites like the ones listed below. You aren’t looking for stuff to copy, you’re looking for things that inspire you to make something new, different or better. (Note that very few people get their creative “aha!” moment from Facebook or videos of kittens in top hats. We’re talking about actively searching for inspiration, not promoting procrastination.)

And if you’re feeling truly stuck, don’t aimlessly surf the Web or stare at your computer screen in frustration, get moving! Taking a walk around the block or doing some yoga poses can unclog your right brain and get those creative juices flowing again. It’s science.

A few sites to visit for outside the box inspiration:

TED Talks – Like having the world’s best and brightest as your cool college professor. Sort by theme to find the inspiration you need.

Dribbble – “Show and tell for designers.”

Visual Thesaurus – Spiff up your sentences with this inspiring, playful tool.

Pinterest – People all over the web post what’s inspiring them today on virtual pinboards.

Co.Design – More great design inspiration.

GOOD – People doing interesting, important or just plain cool things to help out the planet and the people who live there.

What do you do when you need a little creative spark? What sites do you visit? And how are you planning to spice up your blog posts in 2012? Tell us in the comments, and happy blogging! As always, feel free to contact us with any questions (or if you’re interested in the raw video of the #Alleycam fight club).

Being a Web design company, we might not be able to change the world, but we can certainly help. In Paula Abdul’s words, “Our gift to you is the stage, what you do with it, is your gift to us.” (Yes, you did just read that – shout out to Paula for her wisdom this season on the X Factor.) We build the stage for many great organizations who spend their time and energy helping others.

To give back to our most giving clients during this holiday season, we’d like to share their stories. Be inspired, be moved. Heck, go ahead and donate even.

Northeast Passage

NEP empowers individuals with disabilities to define, pursue, and achieve their therapeutic recreation and adaptive sports goals. Founded in 1990, NEP is now a program of the College of Health and Human Services at the University of New Hampshire. Hiking, golf, quad rugby and cross-country skiing are just a few of the sports made available to people with disabilities through their efforts.

With a staff of certified therapeutic recreation specialists and a variety of volunteers from UNH’s recreational therapy and outdoor education programs, Northeast Passage has a passionate team that is constantly searching for ways to bring more recreation opportunities to people with disabilities. NEP opens the door to a world many felt closed.

And to that end, they even rent equipment. Their rental program makes it affordable to try it before you buy it. All of Northeast Passage’s programs give people with disabilities and their families the opportunity of choice and freedom they deserve. Check them out www.nepassage.org.

IMEC

The International Medical Equipment Collaborative is one of the leading organizations in the world bringing equipment and supplies to people in need across the globe. Their mission is to transform impoverished communities around the world by providing equipment and supplies to doctors, teachers, and farmers so they can better serve their communities.

IMEC’s programs also help the environment while helping the poor. Donations of used equipment from doctor’s offices, hospitals and other medical facilities that would otherwise be discarded are packaged into medical suites. With new supplies supplementing when necessary, suites contain everything needed to turn an empty room into a fully equipped hospital room. Recently, IMEC has begun to provide maternal/infant/pediatric medical suites as well as sets of tools and equipment to small family farms. The organization plans to expand into other services as well, going far beyond medical equipment. This is truly an organization that makes a difference! Check them out www.imecamerica.org.

And we would be remiss if we didn’t give a holler to all our nonprofit clients… Clean Air-Cool Planet, Conservation New Hampshire, Cross Roads House, Greater Portsmouth Chamber of Commerce, HubFamilies, IMEC, New Hampshire Film Festival, Northeast Passage, Portsmouth Community Radio WSCA-FM, Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, Southeast New Hampshire Habitat for Humanity, UNH’s Citizen’s Health Initiative. Thank you for all of your dedication and hard work. We appreciate the effort and passion you put into your organizations and our community.

We hope you’ve been inspired to do some good. There’s a whole lot to be done.