This event is not open to the public and you MUST RSVP to be allowed in. You may RSVP on our Facebook page here or also on our website here.

We are expecting a large crowd so please arrive at anytime. There will be plenty of parking nearby if our parking lot gets full. You may want to either arrive right at 4:00 or wait until 5:00-6:00. We will be open from 4:00-7:00 so you don’t have to get here right at 4:00 (there will be plenty to go around, we promise).

We look forward to seeing everyone and wish you a very safe and happy holiday season.

Those words: “Above the fold.”

It was a myth that I thought had been debunked and sent to the annals of history, a myth never to be repeated. But every year, even in the high-tech times of 2011, just a year shy of the world’s supposed demise, I still hear the myth.

For those who aren’t familiar with the concept of the fold, it’s a belief that people will pay the most attention to what’s printed on the front page a newspaper. Perhaps that’s still true–I don’t know, I’m not a newspaper publisher–but somehow this belief got translated over to the nets. People believed with conviction that everything on their homepage had to be jammed all the way to the top, that no one would scroll down below. So in the early times of the internet, designers complied and shoved navigation, headlines, links, content, and ads all the way to the top, and you’d look at these websites and think they were about to explode.

But then the debunking process began. Most notably, famed usability expert Jakob Nielsen found in 1997 that, yes, people do scroll down on the homepage. His own words were, “[W]e have seen that most users scroll when they visit a long home page or a long navigation screen.”

And yes, you read that right: 1997. This conclusion was formed almost 14 years ago. Yet the myth still somehow prevails even today.

And if you read that study, you’ll see that the myth was formed in 1994 (maybe not a myth then) out of a recorded behavior of people not understanding the concept of scrolling. That’s because the internet was a brand new thing in 1994–so new that there were more people reading newspapers than there were looking at webpages.

So folks, this is why I cringe whenever I hear those three words, “above the fold.” It’s a concept founded in 1994 that was subsequently debunked in 1997. People do scroll; it’s been studied and confirmed. And yet were now two new decades away and there are still those subscribing to the myth.

Whack-a-Myth

Image Source

Another great study on the fold was done by Milissa Taquini at Boxes and Arrows back in 2007 (yes, 10 years after the myth was originally debunked). The basic premise of the article is that people are still scrolling, but there’s also some useful guidance on when the fold is relevant. The best advice from Milissa (and a basic rule of thumb as she notes) is “that for every site the user should be able to understand what your site is about by the information presented to them above the fold.” That doesn’t mean cramming everything at the top; it means just making sure those bare essential items (like who you are and what you do) are instantly visible when someone views the site.

I have a feeling this myth will keep popping its ugly little head up from time to time, and I’ll continue to keep kicking it back down, because that’s all it is: a myth.

Our official move date is Monday, November 14, 2011. As of that date we’ll be fully operational in our new headquarters. We are very excited to be the newest business to relocate to Prince William County in Northern Virginia.

Our new address is:

10515 Crestwood Drive
Suite 103
Manassas, Virginia 20109

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Coles District of Prince William County

Coles District is one of the seven magisterial districts of Prince William County. The website features a blue and brown theme uniquely adapted from Prince William County’s official website. The design contextualizes the geographic location of Coles District by subtly incorporating local maps.

Functionally, the site’s content management system streamlines both news and event publishing. The home page features the latest of these two areas, enticing the user to stay abreast of  the district’s happenings. Finally, the website also offers an online means of subscribing to the district’s newsletter and viewing an archive of past editions.

Visit the launched site!

Lensis Builders

Lensis Builders specializes in all aspects of residential home improvement. Lensis needed to re-frame their online content to showcase their work and survey interested home owners. Inspired by the architectural elements of the industry, the website has a vertical navigation and large icon based text links that connect to key conversion opportunities and social network platforms.

Throughout the site, photography from Lensis projects are highlighted above the fold of each page and through section oriented galleries. Several forms were created to empower users to begin thinking about potential projects and share their thoughts with Lensis employees.

The site also features a blog that adds a dynamic layer to the content. With the blog, the site becomes a resource to current and potential clients. It provides a medium for conversation through the comments, an opportunity to share site content to other platforms and new content for search engine crawlers. Behind the scenes, the site is also steeped with organic search engine optimization.

Visit the launched site!

Cavendo & Prince William County

Developing a comprehensive web strategy for our clients is what gives us satisfaction. Headquartered, in a top place for business and job growth, we have projects underway that we cannot wait to share! Stay tuned for our next round of site launch highlights.

Browser iterations improve security, increase functionality and become more standard compliant to ensure a more accurate display. Ultimately, we here at Cavendo want you to experience the best that the web has to offer! Below you’ll find links for the most popular browsers. Please, take a moment and be sure that your browser of choice is up to date!

• Windows Internet Explorer
• Mozilla Firefox
• Google Chrome

Plugins & Browser Related Software

• Adobe Flash Player
• Java

Many browsers by default (or via their settings) have the option to be automatically updated. Unfortunately, every user will not be able to run the latest version of every browser because browser versions are relative to operating systems. However, running the latest version available to you is always a best practice! IE 6 is a huge nuisance for web designers and developers since it doesn’t support a lot of the most modern programming and design approaches. Thankfully a lot of online services and companies are terminating support for IE 6 (we are already up to IE 9 now after all!), so we need to keep the trend going.

Get the most out of your online experience and encourage others to do so as well. Hopefully one day the Internet will be IE6 free!

Overall, user experience has been steadily improving. From Netscape and Internet Explorer V.1 at dial-up speeds to Mozilla Firefox and Internet Explorer V.9 accessed via fiber-optic and wireless cellular networks — the web now has the capacity to be dynamic, interactive, media rich and aesthetically engaging.

So, what does this mean for my business?

The standards and expectations for the user experience has blossomed from email based portals to social media enriched, e-commerce enabled, web presences. Businesses can no longer compete online with websites that serve as internet tri-fold brochures! Consumers scour the web through search engines and use online resources to make purchase decisions. These ever increasing, savvy users, need to be presented with websites that are built on evolving industry best practices. Consider the following areas:

Aesthetics

When is the last time you redesigned your website? Subtle web trends emerge and raise the bar for the look and feel of online properties. These shifts happen every couple of years largely through the improvement of underlying development languages and browser implementations. Most websites do not need annual overhauls but remaining user friendly and graphically relevant should be of priority to a company concerned about the impression online visitors have of their business. Consider the following business that invested in minor aesthetic adjustments:

Original

Updated

Overall the visual impact of the site was elevated with simple design changes that continued to convey the character and integrity of the company.

Freshness & Optimization

Businesses can offer resources or maintain blogs to provide new content to users and search engine crawlers. New, original content makes your site a more viable commodity to your target audience and can often exhibit your industry expertise. Fresh content is a professional commitment to being an asset to current and potential customers as well as algorithmic ammunition to return well in search results.

With the emergence of multiple options for content management systems, updating content on a website does not have to be relegated to a web firm. This freedom empowers businesses with the tools to maintain a fresh web presence. In 1999, unless the core mission of a business changed, the website did not need to be updated. Today, frequent updates encourage return traffic and repeat conversions.

While keeping fresh content at the forefront of your business online marketing plan, also be sure that your web pages are structured with search engine optimization in mind. Content can be organically keyword rich so that people searching for information related to your content, can find your business online. Web pages can also be improved to highlight these keywords in places that search engines can index.

Social Integration

Buzz words ablaze, Facebook, Twitter, Google, LinkedIn and many more online properties are leveraging and creating relationships both niche and broad. Traditionally, businesses have been networking monoliths at their core, to maintain professional relationships, land new contracts and spread the word about their ventures. The challenge now is to relate these innate marketing sensibilities to the online world of ratings, Likes, Follows and +1s. Here are a two tips to keep you on track:

1. Participate in your customers’ platforms of choice. Find out where your customers are relating, create a profile and ENGAGE. Participating in communities where your customers (present and potential) are engaging is as important online as it is offline! On the same token, creating a social network profile and not participating within that community can work against your business. There’s nothing worse than stumbling across a business you’ve heard about on the platform of your choice and realizing that the business has never posted, commented or responded.
2. Use your website as a hub. As your business extends its glocal reach and expands to numerous online platforms, be sure to add linked icons from each platform to the header, footer or sidebar of your website. Also remember to direct traffic back from each of these platforms to your website. This can be done by directing a customer’s question to a resource on your site or by continuing a dialog from one platform to a discussion within the comments of a blog post on your site.

The evolution of any industry or society is not a foreign concept, so as the web evolves, leverage it for your profit!

First up: The Tour

Anyone can get a tour of The White House through their Congressman or other officials. I’ve heard wait times can be quite high and you have to make your way to Washington, DC, to get a tour. Well, we were bumped right to the top of that list and given access to the full self-guided White House tour upon our arrival. As an added bonus we had our wonderful host, Kori Schulman from the White House New Media team, on hand to guide us through the tour. If you have never been on a tour it’s well worth your time. Even without a host there are countless uniformed Secret Service officers on hand who are very friendly and a wealth of knowledge on the history and nuances of The White House. The tour consists of the East Wing and the Mansion itself (sorry, no West Wing access).

(Thanks @kellyanncollins for taking this pic!)

Meeting with Macon Phillips (@Macon44), White House Director of Digital Strategy

Our first official meeting of the day in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building (EEOB) was with Macon Phillips to learn about the overall strategies the White House is employing in social media. Our discussion was centered around the three digital media strategies the White House employs:

1. Amplify the President’s message.
2. Make The White House accessible.
3. Increase participation in government.

Meeting with Aneesh Chopra (@aneeshchopra), U.S. Chief Technology Officer and Assistant to President Obama for Technology within the Office of Science & Technology Policy

After our lunch break we settled into another conference room at EEOB and moments later Aneesh Chopra appeared for our scheduled meeting. I was personally excited to meet Mr. Chopra since we have many friends in common in my local business community (from his days as Virginia’s Secretary of Technology). We learned a lot in a short amount of time from the nation’s CTO, so much so that I didn’t even have time to take a picture! Here are some of the highlights:

• The White House is committed to supporting “High Growth Startups” by modernizing and simplifying rules created by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and SEC to include better support for “crowd funding.”
• There is a major push for Internet-ready classrooms and broadband across the country. The National Wireless Innovation & Infrastructure initiative is getting a renewed focus to accelerate next generation wireless Internet access to all parts of America.
• The nation’s CTO and CIO have been ordered by the President to launch the BusinessUSA platform within the next 90 days. The program is designed to provide a portal with one-stop access to all of the essential resources entrepreneurs need to interface with the federal government.
• The White House is committed to focusing on open innovation as an “impatient convener” to step in where needed to effect progress with science and technology.

Preview of the new “We The People” petition tool coming to the White House website

I’ll be honest, I hadn’t heard of this new tool yet (probably because it hasn’t been released yet) but it looks very compelling. In this age of “e-Government” and breaking down the barriers between citizens and elected officials it can sometimes be difficult to get the attention of the right people. The forthcoming “We The People” product is an online petition tool designed to do just that: break down the barrier and get you right to the top. The concept is really simple: you create an online petition based around an issue that’s important to you. From there you can broadcast to all of your friends and contacts via social networks, email, etc., and gather signatures (online, of course). Once you reach 5000 signatures in the first 30 days you are guaranteed a response from a White House official. We were told most issues that met the threshold would be routed to the appropriate policy officials for follow-up at that point.

So stay tuned and check it out when “We The People” goes live!

Grand finale: Meeting with White House Press Secretary, Jay Carney (@PressSec)

As if we weren’t already having an awesome time at #WHTweetup our demo of We The People was cut off and we were told to gather quickly for the trip to The West Wing. A few elevators and staircases later and we were in the heart of the White House executive offices. As we entered Mr. Carney’s office he quickly admonished my calling him “sir” and we knew this would be a light hearted and informal briefing. We were also joined by Brian Deese, Deputy Director of the National Economic Council, who could answer more of our technical questions on the proposed American Jobs Act (state by state impacts here). The entire premise of our meeting with the Press Secretary (and our entire day overall) was to serve as a follow-up to the President’s speech to a Joint Session of Congress the night before (Thursday, September 8, 2011). Of course as soon as I received my invite I polled my business and Twitter contacts/followers for their questions about the speech and the employment market in general. Thankfully I had received some great questions (along with some of my own) so I was elated as we learned we’d be meeting with the Press Secretary to get a chance to have those questions answered. Not knowing if we’d be joined by hundreds others or a small intimate group (like we ended up with), I came prepared nonetheless.

Keeping with tradition the person sitting generally where the AP sits got the first question. We continued around the room with a range of very good questions with everything from whether the American Jobs Act has a chance of passing to bantering over the lack of a Foursquare venue for the Press Secretary’s office (@JustinHerman from our group challenged Mr. Carney to the mayorship for his own office). I was able to ask a compiled question from myself and my contacts really digging into the specifics of the proposed tax credits, incentives, and other aspects of the jobs bill. I was also concerned (as were many of my contacts) about continued strains on the liquidity market. Here’s what I learned:

• There are various tax credits that will be available effective upon signing of the American Jobs Act. They consist of:
• $4000 credit for hiring anyone who has been unemployed for six (6) months or longer.
• $5600 credit for hiring an unemployed veteran.
• $9600 credit for hiring a disabled unemployed veteran.
• The portion of payroll taxes currently at 6.2% will be cut immediately to 3.1% for next year (on the first $5 million in wages in a company).
• Increases in payroll won’t be subject to payroll taxes. This is a great incentive to give employees a raise and it applies to any taxable wage or benefit.
• Discrimination against currently unemployed persons will be prohibited. We learned that a lot of employers will just overlook anyone currently unemployed in favor or someone changing jobs.
• The SBA has seen an increase in lending and there will be a renewed focus to shift those lending dollars and capacity for construction jobs and projects (in line with the President’s push for infrastructure improvements). This will include an increase on SBA bond guarantees as well.
• The combination of tax credits, SBA increasing guarantees, and government spending on major infrastructure projects ($50 billion will be sent to localities right away at signing) should help to increase liquidity, especially for small businesses.

Overall the White House is looking to employ a few very specific incentives targeted almost exclusively for small businesses (in this context those with a wage base of $5 million or less). I was pleased with what I saw in the proposed jobs bill and feel it gives some short-term stimulus to perhaps take some more risks and speed hiring decisions or capital improvements. We learned that a lot of the incentives passed into law in prior years, currently at risk of expiring, should be renewed as well.

All in all it certainly appears the White House is paying attention to the specific needs of small businesses and entrepreneurs. They are really trying hard to create a better environment to restore confidence, provide access to capital in many ways, and ease regulation and red tape. Having the chance to see the inner workings of our Executive Branch of government gives me renewed confidence in the great country we call home. It was all made possible thanks to a team of very progressive, creative, and consummate professionals at the White House Office of Digital Strategy and New Media, including our amazing host Kori Schulman (thanks Kori!). Stay on the lookout for future White House Tweetups by following The White House twitter account at @WhiteHouse (rumor is there may be a really, really cool Tweetup being planned involving the First Lady!).

“Let’s Make Jobs!”

As a small group of us exited the White House grounds we felt a wave of responsibility to put our new knowledge and connections to use. One of us summed it up in three simple words: “Let’s Make Jobs!” While we all laughed at the spontaneity of it, I couldn’t help but feel empowered and confident in our ability to work through these interesting economic times backed by the nation’s Chief Executive himself thanks to #WHTweetup.

Additional Coverage:

• Forbes.com: Your Questions Raised at The White House Tweetup #WHTweetup (by @camillawebster)
• Glittarazzi: Who’s Who White House Tweetup Roundup (by @kellyanncollins)
• 4Tunate: White House Tweetup Event with Press Secretary Carney and Other Members of the Obama Administration (by @QuatroMama)

Everyone seems to have their own interpretation of “how to use Twitter,” but I have one real and very cool personal use: Twitter got me invited to The White House for an official briefing. Thanks to Twitter I’ll be spending all day Friday, September 9, at The White House getting a personal tour and participating in a briefing by White House Press Secretary Jay Carney.

So, how did I pull it off? Earlier this week I noticed a tweet on the official White House twitter account:

Not one to pass up an amazing opportunity like this I quickly went to the website and completed the short and simple form. Aside from name and basic information I had to provide (in 140 characters, no less) a reason why I should be invited. I gave a very simple reason along the lines of being a small business owner and looking forward to the opportunity to bring my concerns directly to the top — those in charge.

Well, late Wednesday afternoon I notice an email pop up in my personal account from an address from the Executive Office of the President. Enclosed?

After submitting the required security information I continued to receive very thorough communications from the White House staff regarding timing, procedures, and what to expect on the briefing day. To my pleasant surprise I was informed to make a day out of it and expect to spend almost the entire day on the grounds at the White House. It seems that the staff is very excited to give us not only a briefing with Press Secretary Jay Carney (@PressSec) but also meet with White House Director of Digital Strategy Macon Phillips (@Macon44) and U.S. Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra (@aneeshchopra).

Looking forward to a fun and productive day at The White House! Follow the action on Twitter on the #WHTweetup hashtag or my timeline at @jarehart!

So, if you were thinking about the value of Twitter, here’s one really good example of how Twitter can open doors for you. This experience only reaffirms what I always have thought about Twitter: it’s simply another communications tool, but so much faster than any other method and it gets you straight to the source.

Some of my observations on the new features include:

• Favorite tweets are now shown in Activity. For example, if someone I follows ‘favorites’ a tweet of someone else that now shows on the Activity page (see the screenshot). This is hugely valuable since I’ve been a very long-time user of the Favorite feature as a way to flag tweets for various purposes (e.g., not enough to Retweet, something notable or something to read later).
• New following activity is available. Sure, perhaps it’s Twitter stalking but there’s a lot of use in seeing who your following is also, well, following. It doesn’t (yet) show who’s unfollowing who, but at least you have more insight into the new “cool people to follow” are.
• @username is now more than mentions. Finally, you can see all of your true Retweets in one spot. If someone does the old school “RT @username blah” you will see that as a mention, but now if someone uses the ‘new’ Retweet those will show as well all on one page. Also, new followers are listed on the new @username page so you can quickly see who your new posse consists of.

All in all these are incredible valuable and simple changes to the Twitter interface that I feel boost your ability to be interactive and use the platform in even more contextual and useful ways. What are your thoughts on the new features?

If you’re not following me or Cavendo yet (or you’re new to Twitter), get to it!

There are several incentives for every business to devote an hour of productivity to creating a verified, media rich Google Place listing. First, Google Places is free. Though free is not always good, in Google’s world, free services (i.e., search, email, maps, etc.) are powerfully leveraged. Google gains from indexing and relating information and your business will garner more online exposure. Second, Google Maps and Google Places are happily wed. Controlling your Google Place listing will improve Google Map results with complete location markers and place labels. Finally, Google Place listings can receive ratings and reviews. Of course, positive responses will speak to the daily effort your business invests into operating in excellence and even negative reviews will allow your company to shine through attentive customer service and satisfaction. Ultimately, these benefits are more pertinent to companies with local target audiences and geographically based products and services.

Let’s get started!

Take the Place Page Tour
Learn about the actual structure and content of a Google Place page so that you will be prepared to populate your listing.

Claim: If you do not already have a Google account designated for business use, you will have the opportunity to create one. Remember, if you use Google personally, you will still want to create a separate account for your company so that other employees can access company related services without viewing your personal information. To claim your business you will need a Google account and your company’s primary telephone number.

Customize: Edit (or add) your listing according to the information and photos that were reviewed in the Place Page Tour. Use an email address associated with your business domain (i.e., info@yourbusiness.com).

Verify: “Only business owners or authorized representatives may verify their business listings on Google Places.” Verifying your listing will prevent others from editing it in the future.

Need more help? Read through the Google Place User Guide. Also, if the setup was a breeze and you’re ready for a challenge, incorporate Google’s optional and custom attributes to further enhance your listing. Now, get listed and get found.