If your company isn’t taking advantage of Mother’s Day this year, you’re missing out on a great opportunity to boost business and create new customers. Whether you run a restaurant, a cleaning service, or a non-profit, you can have a successful Mother’s Day marketing campaign with a little effort and creativity.

Mother’s Day is May 13th this year, so let’s get started. This guide will help you brainstorm ways to create an offer, communicate to your customers, and sell your product.

Step 1. Develop an Offer

Whether your business offers goods or services, you’ve got something people want. The first step in a Mother’s Day marketing campaign is figuring out why your product appeals to women and families — and how to make it even more appealing.

Usually you can accomplish customer interest with a discount, but don’t be afraid to get creative. A company that offers maid services and specialty cleaning supplies might use any of the following offers for Mother’s Day:

• Give current customers a 10 percent discount if they sign Mom up for a three-month cleaning plan
• Partner with another company to offer a relaxation-themed Mother’s Day gift package that includes a one-time house cleaning and a gift basket of spa-quality bath products
• Offer a gift certificate option in varying amounts that customers can easily purchase to go toward Mom’s cleaning service
• Create a Facebook contest where customers can post pictures of themselves and their moms to win free organic cleaning products for Mom

A Mother’s Day marketing campaign isn’t always directly about selling a product or service. A Facebook contest might not offer a discount or promote a specific product, but it definitely encourages people to get involved with your brand.

Step 2. Reach Out to Past and Current Customers through Email

Hopefully, you’ve made a good impression on your previous customers with excellent products and stellar services, so don’t let them forget who you are. An email campaign is a great way to reach out to past customers, remind them how great you are, and tell them about the fantastic Mother’s Day offer they won’t want to miss.

In your email, you’ll definitely want to make your Mother’s Day offer the main focus. Here are a few elements to include:

• Call to Action. Once you’ve told your customers about this great deal, give them the option to act immediately. A button or link to take them to your website is ideal; a printable coupon is another option. Having a call to action both in the middle and at end of your email optimizes clicks.
• Link Where Appropriate. It’s great if someone reads your email, but it’s way better if they actually click to visit your website or online store. Provide plenty of opportunities by linking phrases to your website. Just be careful not to over-link, and make sure you’re choosing appropriate phrases or words to create links.
• Social Buttons. Always provide ways for customers to connect with your company online, like Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and Foursquare.
• New Feature Highlights. The Mother’s Day offer should be at the top of your email, but it doesn’t hurt to provide a little variety. Tell your customers about any new products or services they haven’t heard about yet. You’re not just selling; you’re informing.
• Make it Pretty. Even if design isn’t your thing, you want to make your email visually appealing. Pictures are great ways to capture the eye of a reader. Whenever possible, remember to show, not tell. Keep the email simple. Too much going on will cause the reader to ignore your message.

Step 3. Write an Industry-Related Mother’s Day Blog Post

Email is great for connecting with former customers, but finding new customers can be more difficult. The best strategy is to let customers find you instead.

You can do this by creating quality content that people are already searching for regarding Mother’s Day. To do this, think about ways to relate your industry or product to moms and Mother’s Day. The blog post may not talk entirely about your product; you may even mention other companies and products. The key is to include a call to action that leads readers to your website.

Let’s take the cleaning company example from the first step. Here are few sample blog posts they might write:

• Better than Chocolate: Practical Mother’s Day Gifts She’ll Really Love
• Clean Up Nice: A Man’s Guide to Thoughtful Mother’s Day Gifts
• 10 Mother’s Day Gift Ideas for Workaholic Moms

No matter what, each post should always include a call to action that encourages readers to visit your site.

Step 4. Spread the Word on Social Networks

At this point, you’ve got a great Mother’s Day offer and written some quality blog posts that people will want to read. All that’s left is spreading the word! Linking to blog posts on your Twitter feed and Facebook fan page is the minimum requirement.

Here’s where doing your research can really pay off. There are quite a few successful mom bloggers out there. Jessica Gottleib (@jessicagottleib) and Heather Armstrong (@dooce) come to mind. These women are incredibly influential in the world of moms, parenting, and even style. Find out who is blogging, tweeting, and influencing in your industry. Follow these people. Tweet them. Comment on their blogs. If you join the conversation going on in your industry, maybe you can become an influencer too.

Step 5: Engage, Retain, Remember

During this process, you’ll be getting more business and more customers. Make these customers last past Mother’s Day.

On your social networks, make sure you’re engaging with people who post to your wall or mention your Twitter handle.

Consider sending a follow-up email in a few weeks specifically to your customers who bought Mother’s Day gifts. This email doesn’t have to be long or product heavy like the original, but be sure to again include links to your social sites and perhaps a link to a recent blog post. Customers will appreciate your personal, un-salesy tone.

Remember: if they have a mother, they also have a father. Same rules apply for Father’s Day.

Get to work! You have 10 days left to launch and execute your Mother’s Day digital marketing campaign. Not enough time? These same basic ideas can still be used on a larger scale marketing project. Download SAI Digital’s free ebook The Essential Guide to Internet Marketing from the sidebar to get started.

It’s important for brands to do more than just upload a catchy cover image — though that is crucial. You’ll need to customize your featured shortcut areas and make smart use of highlighted and flagged content. And don’t forget to interact with your audience; social is a two-way street.

Wondering where to start? We have put together a list of 13 brand pages to inspire you — and one more that’s a ‘what not to do.’

Landshark Lager

Love how Landshark uses its cover image! They ask fans to post a picture of themselves with a bottle of Landshark, and each week choose one to feature on the cover image as “Fin of the Week.”

Pur water filters

Pur takes a cheeky tone on its Facebook page, posting from the point of view of “water.” In addition to including a great cover image, the Pur team has developed an app that allows Facebook users to use clicks to donate water to areas that need it.

Mizzou

The University of Missouri has made great use of the, well, Timeline. Facebook visitors can learn about the history of the school since its founding in 1800 through historical photos and facts. I also like the “spirit” tab where students and fans can download Mizzou wallpapers.

Moe’s

While Mizzou uses its Timeline for real history, Moe’s has a more… creative take. Its Timeline is clever, but I don’t know how much I would trust facts like “Some worshipped the sun. The Egyptians were much smarter. They worshipped Moe’s. (1273)”

Atlanta Falcons

Atlanta’s NFL team posts regularly to their Facebook page, everything from news highlights to photos to Falcons gear. I also like their custom thumbnails on their “Fan Zone,” “Falcons TV’ and “Ticket Talk” shortcuts.

Klondike ice cream bars

You shouldn’t “set and forget” your cover image. Use it to highlight a particular product, event or season. For example, Klondike is currently using its cover image to push Choco Tacos for Cinco de Mayo.

Beauty and the Beast

Of course their cover image is great – it’s hard to go wrong with a shot from this beautiful animated movie. But what I really like is the “You Create” tab. Fans can mix and match quotes and images from the movie to create an image they can post to their walls.

Great cover images

The following pages all use eye-catching photography or graphics to sum up their brands:

• Lady & Sons (Paula Deen’s Savannah Restaurant)
• Sutter Home Wines
• Crayola
• Sephora
• Einstein Bros Bagels
• Burt’s Bees

And something to avoid: Clorox Clean-Up

If you had 100,000 fans on Facebook, how would you be using your page? Hopefully, you would make better choices than Clorox did with their Clorox Clean-Up product page. No cover image has been set, the About tab is broken and they haven’t posted or responded to fans since spring 2011. The lesson: Don’t be like Clorox. If you start a community, follow through and engage.

Fast forward to this week. On Monday, SAI Digital released the Easy Restaurant Menu Manager plugin for WordPress. It’s designed to make it simple for a restaurant owner to maintain their menu, which displays in a format that website visitors can easily read and use.

The Easy Restaurant Menu Manager plugin is available in free and extended versions. In just a few days, the free version has been downloaded more than 100 times from the WordPress plugin directory, and we’re sure the $25 extended version will be a big hit for users who want some extra features.

The Easy Restaurant Menu Manager plugin used in a WordPress theme

So what does the plugin do? Here’s a rundown of features in the extended version (a few of these aren’t available in the free plugin):

• Put items into categories like appetizers, entrees or desserts — name them whatever you want — and set the order those categories should display in
• Include a description for each item, and decide whether or not you want to display the price
• Add CSS right from the plugin, without fiddling with theme files
• Attach pictures to each menu item
• Choose single-column or two-column layouts
• Add icons to dishes to show that an item is spicy, vegetarian, a speciality, etc. — even upload your own icons
• Create multiple menus
• Include a “print this menu” link that creates a print-friendly version of your menu

Designer Sarah Tebo and developer Richard Royal worked hard to make sure the plugin looks great and functions well in all WordPress themes. It was important that the menu match the rest of the site, using the site’s own colors, fonts and styles.

Want to see the plugin in action? Check out our website for downtown Rome restaurant Harvest Moon Cafe, which uses the Easy Restaurant Menu Manager plugin to display its lunch, dinner and Thrive menus.

Or view our live plugin demo on SAI Labs.

The Easy Restaurant Menu Manager WordPress plugin joins a solid lineup of products available through SAI Labs, including the WordPress Simple Survey plugin, which has been downloaded more than 30,000 times from WordPress.org.

While Pinterest has a reputation for a more, shall we say, feminine following, the wildly successful new start-up is branching out, and more and more businesses are using it as a tool to interact with their customers and promote their brands.

The 2-year-old Pinterest is still a new social network, and using it effectively requires a certain etiquette. Here are a few dos and don’ts for using Pinterest for business.

Don’t assume your business won’t work on Pinterest.

Pinterest isn’t just bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens (though there are plenty of those). It’s elegant, highly visual interface makes Pinterest a no-brainer for restaurants and retailers. Nowadays, you can also find news sources, tech companies, universities, and even B2B businesses — all using Pinterest to engage and promote. So maybe manufacturing aluminum isn’t the most glamorous or well-suited industry for Pinterest’s users. Pinterest isn’t necessarily about selling your product; it’s more about selling your company, your people, and your culture.

Do engage with other pinners on Pinterest.

They’re called social networks for a reason. Good content by itself is not enough. Engagement is the real key to social media marketing success. By repinning and commenting on the pins of your customers, collaborators, and clients, you can simultaneously communicate with your customers, humanize your brand, and increase traffic to your site. There’s even the option to create a collaborative pinboard where other Pinterest users (your customers, for example) can pin items of a common theme.

Even President Obama is on Pinterest. His campaign team is careful to create pins that combine Obama's political platforms with the lifestyles of his constituents.

Don’t use Pinterest purely for self-promotion.

It’s even in the official Pinterest Etiquette, guys. Plus, it’s bad marketing. If all you can offer is an endless cycle of commercials, people will tune you out. If you learn one thing from this post, learn this: Pinterest is about lifestyles, not brands. Sure, in the end, you’re still promoting your brand, but the focus should be on how your product might fit into the lifestyle of your customer. The aluminum manufacturer we talked about earlier won’t see a lot of success by pinning images from their catalog. But they might drum up some interest with pictures of buildings that use their aluminum, or behind-the-scenes photos from their factory, or even a pinboard of DIY crafts made from aluminum.

Do make your visuals pull double duty.

Hopefully, you’re already creating eye-catching visuals for your company blog as part of your inbound marketing plan. No? Well, here’s a great opportunity to refocus your efforts on dynamic visual content. Think about this: each image on Pinterest includes a link to the source. If that source is your blog, you’re increasing traffic to your website simply by posting a picture. Compelling visual content like infographics will improve the quality and share-ability of your blog posts.

Don’t forget to think outside the box.

Pinterest doesn’t naturally cater to business marketing, which means the companies who use it successfully are the ones who use it creatively. Work hard to find new ways to become a part of your clients’ lifestyles. Hosting a Pinterest contest is just one way businesses can engage with clients.

Do remember who you are and what you’re about.

As you begin experimenting with Pinterest, remember that in every interaction online, you’re creating a personality for your company. Decide early on how you want your business to be portrayed, and stick to that persona. Remember when you thought Pinterest wasn’t the right fit for an aluminum manufacturer? For some clients, a fun and professional online business persona could be the deciding factor between one aluminum company and another.

Ultimately, Pinterest is just one small part of an effective inbound marketing strategy. If you need help with that other stuff — SEO, web development, web design, email marketing — contact SAI Digital to see how we can help grow your business.

History of the Project

The economic downturn was especially hard on non-profit organizations and people in the arts. That’s a double whammy for Rome Area Council for the Arts, a non-profit that has fostered the local arts community since 1976. Without a physical or digital home, RACA continued the work of fostering arts education for kids, supporting arts-related events and organizations, and hosting successful fundraisers (like Rome Beer Fest).

Recession or not, RACA will always support Rome’s artists and arts organizations, and we’re thrilled to have been a part of their vision of an online arts portal.

The SAI Digital team worked with RACA to create a new website, a renewed brand, and a fresh strategy for connecting with the arts community.

Here’s a look at our hard work:

The Brand: New Logo

When it came to re-branding a local institution like RACA, our goal was to bring something new to the table while staying true to the organization’s mission. The original logo was meant to signify the fan or spectrum of the arts in Rome, Georgia – from the Rome Symphony to Rome Little Theatre to Writers Guild and more.  While some elements of the old logo are still reflected in the new design, the addition of color makes the logo more eye-catching, and “RACA” is the focal point.

New Website and Online Web Database for the Arts

Previously, RACA did not have any web presence. That’s a daunting task for any digital marketing company, but we were excited to start a project totally from scratch. The RACA website (www.romearts.org) is designed to be bright and cheerful while keeping the attention focused on the content. To make the RACA website the ultimate resource for everything going on with local arts, we had to create an online home for everyone involved in the art community — the supporters, the venues, the members, the schools, and of course, the artists.

At its heart, the project is a custom web application with functions and features created by detailed design work and custom programming. The client can manage pages through a content management system and user-friendly database.

The People: Artist Profile and Online Gallery

Art is really about the people who make, see, and share it, so our job was to create a place for local artists to promote their work. Artists (like potter Lisa Brown Ingram) can create and edit a profile that includes a bio, work samples, and links to websites and social media profiles. Even better — arts organizations (like the Rome Little Theater) can do the same! The artist spotlight on the home page automatically refreshes each time someone visits the page, giving attention to lesser-known artists. RACA envisioned a way for any artist to use the web to get exposure even if they don’t have their own website.  Now every artist can easily have a link to share to their work that can be found by anyone on the web.

The Events: Online Unified Arts Calendar

With so much going on in Rome’s arts community across more than thirty arts organizations, a unified calendar is a necessity. RACA’s web calendar is designed for both artists and art lovers. Upcoming events can be easily browsed by date or category. Though RACA’s administrators maintain the calendar, any web visitor can submit an event, so go ahead and schedule that poetry reading.

The Connection: Strategic Social Media Integration

What is art without people to appreciate it? We set up a Facebook page (over 180 fans and counting) where RACA can interact with the individuals, promote events, and make announcements to the community. We’ve integrated social media into the website itself. Users can “like” events or even share them on Twitter. And with MailChimp email marketing integration, it’s easier than ever for RACA to communicate with Rome’s artists and art lovers via email newsletters, automated calendar feeds, and more.

The How: Web Development Technology Involved in this project

• Ruby on Rails web application framework
• Rackspace cloud files to host all user uploaded data (photos, video, and audio)
• HTML5-powered video  and audio player
• Twitter bootstrap for widgets
• Asset Compression to bundle Javascript files into one file and CSS files  into one file for faster load times across the site.
• Integated MailChimp email service with site
• Incorporated CoffeeScript, a language that compiles to javascript

If your organization needs a redesign or even if you’re starting from scratch, Contact Us. We’d love to hear about your project.

When it comes to web design, SAI Digital is happy to serve whatever’s ordered. A downtown staple since 1999, Harvest Moon serves up home-grown Southern food with a twist. (Try the Wicked Pimina Dip!) The colorful, art-filled restaurant is both folksy and modern — perfect for a casual lunch with friends or a gussied-up night on the town. But Harvest Moon’s old, clunky website didn’t reflect the restaurant’s Southern charm.

SAI Digital worked with Harvest Moon to create an easy-to-update, easy-to-navigate website that’s just as beautiful as the restaurant itself. Here’s what we cooked up:

Cohesive Web Design

We’ve updated the site’s design with fun colors and fonts that reflect Harvest Moon’s branding and casual, modern atmosphere. The navigation bar up top makes it simple to find everything from menus to contact info. Along the bottom, you’ll find ways to connect with Harvest Moon on social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and Foursquare.

Daily Special Widget

Announcing today’s special is now even easier than writing “Fried Chicken!” on a chalkboard. SAI Digital developed this custom widget so restaurant employees can easily announce daily menu changes online. Enter in the soup of the day just once, and the change is updated throughout the entire site.

Check out today’s special in real time:

Today's Special

#1 Philly cheese steak , onions, bellpeppers, mushshrooms, provolone, Avocado Ranch on a hoagie roll with choice of side #2 Buffalo chicken sandwich with fried tenders, cheese, bacon and Buffalo sauce-------- chicken & Rice Soup

Functional Menu Manager

Once upon a time, Harvest Moon’s web visitors had to download a PDF just to see the menu — and Harvest Moon had to upload a new PDF every time the menu changed! To answer this problem, SAI Digital created a Menu Manager plug-in that’s available for download. Now customers can view the menu without ever leaving the website. On the back end, it’s easy for restaurant staff to add or delete menu items, update prices, and add descriptions. On the front end, it sure is pretty.

Online Catering Portal

Harvest Moon is more than just a restaurant, so we made sure the new web design highlights Harvest Moon’s growing catering business. This helpful web form makes it easier than ever for Harvest Moon to connect with potential catering customers.

Easy Announcements

Harvest Moon’s new web design was not complete without a space for news and announcements. The News section allows Harvest Moon staffers to create posts about menu changes, new hires, special products, parties, and events.

Ready to get your company’s website up and running? Contact SAI Digital today to see if our team of experienced web designers and developers is right for the job.

The United Way is a worldwide nonprofit organization that helps communities help themselves. Here in Rome and Floyd County, United Way partners with many different people and organizations to tackle the issues that really matter to Romans.

United Way Rome's Old Site

The Issue: United Way staff could not easily update their website.
The Fix: By implementing a content management system (CMS), United Way employees can add blog posts, campaign updates, and news items without knowing a single bit of HTML code.

The Issue: The website’s design was less than eye-catching.
The Fix: We weren’t able to give the site a full redesign within the project budget, so we focused on modernizing and freshening the look by using bolder, brighter colors and streamlining the content.

The Issue: The website didn’t link to the agencies supported by the United Way.
The Fix: Instead of a bulleted list without any links, the Who We Help page now has the logos, links, and contact information for all the agencies that receive United Way funds.

The Issue: An email address was the only way web users could contact the United Way.
The Fix: This new contact form means it’s simple for web users to reach out to the United Way — and now UW can track which contacts find them through the Web.

Technologies Involved:

• WordPress Content Management System (CMS)
• Custom CSS/HTML styling
• Google Analytics for ongoing traffic analysis

The team at SAI Digital had a lot of fun with this project. One thing we learned from the United Way: even small changes can make a big difference.

Does your organization’s website need a revamp? Talk to us to find out if SAI Digital could help with your project — whatever the budget.

Instead of flyers, trade shows, and telemarketers, companies use social media, blogs and search engine optimization (SEO) to engage their customers. Now the customer finds the company, instead of the other way around. It’s called inbound marketing — and it’s effective.

Just how effective is Inbound Marketing?

Our team at SAI Digital recently attended the Hubspot webinar exploring actual data about the usefulness (and the cost) of inbound marketing. Here are just five ways that inbound marketing can help you increase business and save money.

1.  Lower Cost Per Lead

Inbound marketing isn’t just a trend. The data showed that since 2010, companies that primarily use inbound marketing techniques pay 65 percent less per lead than companies that mostly use traditional outbound marketing like direct mail, trade shows, and telemarketing. Think about it: memberships to social sites like LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook are all free. Blogging has an even better cost-to-lead ratio. You may even find that participating in your industry’s blogosphere makes your company more influential in your market.

2.  Increased Inbound Marketing Budgets

Inbound marketing is a proven low-cost technique, according to the data. Because of that success, marketers continue to increase how much of their budgets are spent on inbound marketing. The average budget spent on social media and blogging has jumped to 21 percent this year from just 9 percent in 2009. In contrast, marketers have decreased how much of their budget is spent on outbound marketing. Consumers are learning to tune out those outbound messages. Instead, buyers head to the Web to find the products and information they really want.

3.  Higher Conversion Rates

Leads generated through inbound marketing channels are more likely to become real customers. Search Engine Optimization (SEO), which helps people find your website faster and more easily, has the same lead-to-customer conversion rate as direct traffic. This means inbound marketing can be just as effective as someone walking right into your office.

4.  Level Playing Field for Small Companies

Low-cost inbound marketing helps small businesses be competitive with large companies. It used to be that only huge companies could market themselves on a global scale. Now, even small businesses can become part of the international market by joining the industry conversation, whether it’s on LinkedIn, Facebook or a company blog.

5.  Custom Strategy Vs. One-Size-Fits-All

You can easily customize inbound marketing to reach your customer base. LinkedIn would be a great tool for a B2B software company, but a local bakery would find more success on Facebook. Whether it’s a blog or a YouTube channel, there are options out there that allow you to engage with people who want what you have to offer, no matter your industry.

Inbound marketing is a simple idea, but it’s not always easy. SAI Digital’s experienced digital marketing team can help you on your way to engaging customers with your own content. Contact us and we’ll help you get started.

Facebook announced this week that all brand pages will be moved to the new Timeline format on March 30, 2012. (Don’t know what Timeline is? Take a look at Butterfinger’s great brand Timeline for an example.)

So what does this mean for your business? Here’s a look at the biggest changes coming to the Facebook brand pages:

No default landing tab: You can no longer assign a custom tab as the default view for new visitors to your page. Your cover photo and Timeline content will have to be compelling enough to get new users to click the “Like” button. However, if you’re linking to your Facebook page (such as from your website) you can still link directly to a particular view or app.

Changes to custom tabs: Your old custom tabs, now referred to as “apps,” will still work on the new Facebook Timeline. But there are some changes. First, with the sidebar gone from your page, users will no longer see a list of everything available. You’ll need to highlight the most important apps by setting them to display just under your cover photo. Apps can now be 810 pixels wide, an increase from the previous maximum of 520 pixels, which should allow designers to be even more creative with app designs.

Pinned posts: Want to make sure a certain item or message is always visible at the top of your timeline? You can pin the post so it’s the first thing visitors see when they come to your page.

Messages: You can now communicate with your Facebook users via private messages, a great thing for customer support requests. However, they will have to message you first, so be aware you won’t be able to send private messages to all your users.

Admin panel: Community managers should like this one. The new admin panel makes it easy to see new likes, read new wall posts and read private messages from users, all in one place.

These are a lot of changes, but luckily you can preview what your brand’s Timeline will look like before it goes live. Go to your brand’s page, and you’ll get a message on how to start the preview and take a tour of the new features. You can also read more about the changes here.

You don’t have to figure out the changes alone. SAI Digital’s experienced staff can help get your brand page ready for the new Timeline transition. Get in touch and we’ll work with you on a plan to maximize your Timeline’s impact and grow your audience.

European Home Designs is the exclusive source for bedding and linens from Henredon Furniture.

The European Home Designs staff wanted an easy way for potential customers to browse available products, while allowing only approved retailers and designers to view the price of each item. Approved users can set their own markup rate, allowing them to browse the site with their own customers, showing a customized final price.

The centerpiece of the site is the directory of Luxury Linens bedsets, collections of high-quality, coordinated bed linens. Bedsets are available in standard sets, with optional add-ons like footwarmers, sheets and pillows. Each bedset listing shows price and SKU information for the standard sets, individual items included in the sets and optional add-ons.

The SAI Digital developers even created a way to show swatches of each fabric in the collection. Fabrics can also be browsed individually by color, making it easy for potential customers to find the exact look they want for their custom designs.

Here’s a quick look at the features in the Luxury Linens by Henredon website:

• Users can register as designers or managers/buyers, and once approved can view item prices
• Each bedset includes information on the standard set, individual items and optional add-ons
• Fabrics can be browsed individually or as part of a bedset
• Worksheets for creating completely custom bedding and linens can be downloaded from the site
• Registered users can upload completed worksheets
• European Home Designs staff members get alerts when a new user registers and when a new worksheet is uploaded
• An admin dashboard makes it easy to add new products, update prices, approve users and view uploaded worksheets

VenueDog is a web application for finding and sharing events in Rome, Georgia.  Its database of events and venues is a combination of staff-curated and user-contributed content.

Check it out here

The SAI team has been hard at work on this project for several months, and we are thrilled to finally open it to users. Each member of our staff contributed to this project, including developers Sean Brewer and Richard Royal; designers JF Steele and Sarah Tebo; and our CEO, Tricia Steele Seifert. Every one of us is super proud of the work we did to bring VenueDog to life.

SAI Digital built the app from the ground up, from planning user flow to designing the interface to building site features.  Collaborating with our investors, we developed the site’s branding and implemented lots of great functions and features for site users.

Here’s a quick rundown of some of the features we built into VenueDog:

• Events can be browsed by category, date, venue or search
• Each local venue has a profile page with photos, social media links, description, map and hours
• Users can sign up via Facebook or simply by creating a username and password
• Events are sharable through Facebook, Twitter and e-mail
• Registered VenueDog users can save events to their profile and choose to get e-mail reminders on a by-event basis
• Users can add their own events to the VenueDog database
• Venues can be managed by authorized users, so each location’s officials can add new photos or update profile information
• The site’s advertising platform allows for easy ad maintenance, from uploading new creatives to scheduling start and end dates for each ad
• Advertising analytics reports detail impressions and clicks for each ad or advertiser

The SAI Developers used many modern technologies to build VenueDog, including Ruby on Rails, RVM, nginx, MySQL, SASS, Coffee Script, jQuery, Twitter Bootstrap, Facebook Connect, ad tracking, PAAS Engine Yard, Mail Chimp, Cloud Files CDN, HTML5, delayed_job, Asset Compilation, git, capistrano, Google Maps API, Google Places API, Google Analytics and TypeKit.

The site was built with an eye to the future; we anticipate that within a year, VenueDog will be in 10 cities around the Southeast.

VenueDog is the result of more than 450 hours of planning, design and development. We truly believe the app will help folks discover more of what makes Rome such a great place to live and visit.

Using drawings provided by the client, we put together a simple, hand-drawn black and white site with pops of color. The idea was to make it feel like a scene sketched on a piece of paper. We carefully chose the fonts and colors to complement this aesthetic.

The most exciting part of the site is the custom animations created by developer Sean Brewer. Using CSS, jQuery and sprites, Sean was able to create two animations requested by iSee Stories: a ‘poof’ effect when clicking to view an example video, and a curtain-opening effect leading to an HTML5 video player. He chose this method, instead of the common Flash software, to make the animations viewable on any device (Flash doesn’t display on some mobile platforms, including the iPhone and iPad). Sprites are also lightweight, so they take less time to load and don’t eat a lot of bandwidth.

In addition to creating their website, SAI Digital also helped brand the iSee Stories social profiles, including Smug Mug, Tumblr and YouTube.

So go check out iSee Stories to see how they can create a video for your business, nonprofit or personal milestone. And if you’re interested in web animation using sprites, visit spritely.net.

Bootstrap is great, but there will be times where I don’t want to use everything. Recently, I needed to implement a modal dialog box. It didn’t need to be complicated and needed to look nice. Bootstrap has one, and it fit all of my criteria. Alas, I can’t just shove a gigantic CSS sheet that overrides (probably) everything I have already implemented on an existing app.

Fortunately, Twitter Bootstrap is written with LESS. LESS is a superset of CSS that adds all kinds of gorgeous dainties (Variables! Mixins! Nested Rules!) to CSS that makes life in Webdevland more awesome. Bootstrap is modular, so it can be easily modified to remove components that aren’t needed.

My modified Bootstrap includes only the CSS styling for the UI/Javascript components. You can find it here. If you’d like to use it, clone the repository and include the bootstrap-js.min.css stylesheet and the Javascript components you want in your HTML and you’re good to go.

You can customize Bootstrap yourself. It’s simple. You will need to install npm and LESS first.

Installing npm and LESS

npm is a package manager for node. Other than installing it, that’s about all you need to know about npm for this exercise. It won’t set nuclear missiles on a trajectory targeted to your house. I promise. If you have the latest version of Ubuntu, you can open up a terminal and install npm with apt-get:

sudo apt-get install npm

If you’re aren’t on a recent iteration of Ubuntu and you’re on a modern UNIX-like platform, you will need to install Node.js before you install npm (unless you already have it of course), most likely by building it. It’s not complicated, but it’s probably beyond the scope of this article. You can find full instructions here, but if you’re lucky all you’ll have to do is extract the tarball or clone their git repo and run ./configure && make && sudo make install inside the the parent directory of the extracted archive.

Assuming you have Node.js installed, the following line will work given you have curl installed and have Node.js installed:

curl http://npmjs.org/install.sh | sh

If you get some error about permissions issues you may have to do:

curl http://npmjs.org/install.sh | sudo sh

Windows and OS X users apparently have it even easier. NPM is included in the Windows and OS X Node.js installer package. To install NPM on Windows or OS X, djust download and run the Node.js installer package for your respective system. You can download Node.js from their website here.

Follow the instructions. If everything installed successfully, you should have a copy of npm installed on your machine.

Now we need to install LESS. npm makes this easy for us. Pop open an ice-cold and refreshing terminal and run this:

npm install less

If everything went as expected, if you haven’t been paying attention this always means successfully, then we’re almost setup to start hacking on Twitter Bootstrap.

Making Modifications to Twitter Bootstrap

We need a copy of Twitter’s Bootstrap repository, which is hosted on Github. I’m assuming you have Git installed. If you don’t, go install it right now. You can either fork it on Github or clone it to make your modifications only local to your machine. For this tutorial, let’s just clone their repository:

git clone git://github.com/twitter/bootstrap.git

Now, you should have a directory named bootstrap containing its project files. The files we interested in are located in the lib directory of the bootstrap project. This directory contains all of the LESS files needed to generate the bootstrap CSS. Open up bootstrap.less and you should see a bunch of imports. It looks like this:
/*!
* Bootstrap @VERSION
*
* Copyright 2011 Twitter, Inc
* Licensed under the Apache License v2.0
* http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
*
* Designed and built with all the love in the world @twitter by @mdo and @fat.
* Date: @DATE
*/

// CSS Reset
@import “reset.less”;

// Core variables and mixins
@import “variables.less”; // Modify this for custom colors, font-sizes, etc
@import “mixins.less”;

// Grid system and page structure
@import “scaffolding.less”;

// Styled patterns and elements
@import “type.less”;
@import “forms.less”;
@import “tables.less”;
@import “patterns.less”;

Since I just want the UI components, namely the modal box, I only really want the patterns.less file. Since the patterns.less file references variables and mixins in variables.less and mixins.less, you must keep the references to these files. Remove all references except variables.less, mixins.less, patterns.less My modified bootstrap.less file looks like this:
/*!
* Bootstrap-js @VERSION
*
* Copyright 2011 Twitter, Inc
* Licensed under the Apache License v2.0
* http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
*
* Designed and built with all the love in the world @twitter by @mdo and @fat.
* Modified by @seabre to remove everything except what is needed for the extra UI components.
* Date: @DATE
*/

// Core variables and mixins
@import “variables.less”; // Modify this for custom colors, font-sizes, etc
@import “mixins.less”;

@import “patterns.less”;

Save the file. Now we need to build it. You can build this two different ways. You can either build it directly with LESS, or you can use make. I’ll show both.

Building with LESS

Run the following in a terminal within the lib directory of the bootstrap project:

lessc bootstrap.less > my-customized-bootstrap.min.css --compress

You can also leave out the --compress flag if you don’t want minified CSS:

lessc bootstrap.less > my-customized-bootstrap.css

If you want to keep the original bootstrap.less file and create another one for your modified bootstrap, you will have to use this method unless you customize the Makefile. You can use the Makefile I edited as a reference in my project if you wish.

Building with Make

Go to the parent directory of the bootstrap project and run:

make

It will generate bootstrap.css (not minified) and bootstrap-min.css (minified). You may find this method easier.

This should get you going on modifying Twitter Bootstrap. You should include a note in the less source about your changes and that it was you who made them. This is a requirement of the Apache license.

Tuggle’s has been in business in Rome since 1990, and in that time has moved from a primarily brick-and-mortar operation to selling almost exclusively online. Most of those sales were coming from eBay, however, and the store owner wanted to sell directly to customers.

Using the popular open-source shopping cart system Magento, we were able to implement a functional, easy-to-use, secure store without breaking the bank.

Here are some of the features we incorporated into the Tuggle’s web store:

• Large, eye-catching photos on the home page that show what’s possible with wallpaper
• Featured products feed on the home page
• Shop by category, price or manufacturer
• Volume discounts for customers purchasing a large number of a particular item
• Display how many of each item are in stock
• Show both the MSRP and Tuggle’s lower prices
• Multiple photos for each item in the store

After we set up the design and functionality of the store, the Tuggle’s staff has been busy adding new products, including wallpaper, murals and decals. So head over to Tuggles.com if you need to spruce up your walls!

viagra

Here’s a fun infographic of what we have accomplished in the last three years as a company. It highlights the total web traffic we have generated with the websites we have created, the total number of emails delivered over the last 3 years, social media influence, and the sales of digital products we have created along the way.

Enjoy!

]]> http://saidigital.co/sai-digital-by-the-numbers-4133/feed/ 0 http://saidigital.co/sai-digital-by-the-numbers-4133/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/saidigital/wKbe/~3/9gcg3p3wnOU/ http://saidigital.co/attaway-linville-gains-new-identity-4032/#comments Mon, 26 Dec 2011 19:54:25 +0000 JF Steele http://saidigital.co/?p=4032

Attaway Linville, formerly Attaway Swaim & Associates, has just launched a brand new site courtesy of SAI Digital to coordinate with its recent rebranding.

Attaway Linville is an accounting firm that offers tax, financial, and management advisory services. They began in the early 1990s as Swaim and Associates.  Originally, the firm specialized in real estate tax and IRS dispute resolution services.  After years of growth, the firm took on new partners, Swaim retired, and they expanded their services.

Web Design & Development

Attaway Linville came to us looking for a way to bring their website into the 21st century. They had outgrown their 10 year-old website for several reasons. The first being the most obvious: they were no longer called Attaway Swaim and wanted a new look and feel with the new name. The second is that the former site was very aggressive in its tone, and they wanted to move in a direction that was less abrasive but still direct. The last complaint was that they previously had no way of maintaining and updating their website themselves. Because the site was over 10 years old, Attaway Linville was very frustrated and unwilling to tell people how to find them online.

The first thing to ease the overall aggressive tone was to change the color scheme from dark reds and blacks to a much lighter and more welcoming family of blues and light grays. We then updated the content to talk about the services they provide, but in a less abrasive manner.  We kept the direct approach when crafting content, but took a kinder, more open tone.

Along with the modern update we brought to the website, the company now has a website powered by a CMS that lets them maintain and update the website as often as they would like. This gives the firm the opportunity to fine tune any of the pages we helped create and also gives them an opportunity to offer clients and visitors recent news and current information. When dealing with the IRS, current information is quite valuable to Attaway Linville’s client base.

Most of Attaway Linville’s clients are those seeking aid with IRS problems. Every one of these clients has to go through a discovery process to discuss each situation and evaluate what is necessary for their claims to get resolved. Before now, the firm’s members had to go through a form with a potential client over the phone to ascertain this information. Not only was this a tedious process, but often the callers did not have the right information on hand. In order to streamline this process for the firm, and save them money by saving them time, we took their questions and turned it into a web form that visitors can fill out on their own time.  The information is then sent to Attaway Linville to let them quickly evaluate where the potential IRS difficulties are located.

Logo Design

Once the color scheme was decided upon, Attaway Linville wanted a new logo that would bring all the design elements together for rebranding. Their main request was to transform the new initials into a symbol to include within the logo. Having the initials “AL” made it difficult to not look like some abbreviation for the state of Alabama, but the end result accomplished the distinction and looks very professional.

Print Work

With the update to their website, name, and logo, the company also needed all their print materials updated to include their new identity. We designed their company brochure and IRS leaflet to match the colors and design of their website so that their company had a cohesive message, look, and feel across all their marketing channels.

So if you need IRS Assistance or general financial management, be sure visit http://atlantatax.com to see what they can do for you.

We’re pleased to announce we have launched the new Bussey’s site, and we couldn’t be happier with the results.

The first step was the design process, which really was a collaborative effort with Mr. Bussey. Here’s what he wanted:

• A rich design that evoked earthiness and nature
• Colors to match his brand, which is brown and green
• A focus on fresh flower sales
• Easy access to information about wedding flowers
• A prominent place to spotlight sympathy and funeral flowers

After we settled on a design, it was time to start building the store. Since Bussey’s was already selling online with the national flower brand, the client understood how to use e-commerce. But there were some special considerations unique to the floral industry we had to take into account. Here’s a rundown of some of the features of the Bussey’s online flower store:

• Shop by occasion, type and price
• Ability to specify delivery date and add a card message
• Choose standard, deluxe and premium versions of floral arrangements
• Offer storewide coupons, or coupons on specific products or categories
• Home page banners to highlight holiday flowers
• Wish lists and wedding registries
• Address book so customers can easily save addresses of those they often send flowers to
• Powerful reports and analytics for site administrators
• Secure payment processing

Soon after launching, Bussey’s was able to shut down their previous template-based website and switch to using the new site exclusively, and had great success offering a 20% off coupon on Thanksgiving flowers.

If you need flowers to mark a special occasion or send your condolences, or if you’re looking for a great local provider of wedding and bridal flowers, check out the new Bussey’s Flowers, Gifts & Decor website.

We are excited to attend this year, and we hope to bring back information, inspiration, and ideas to better serve our clients. It should also be one interesting road trip!

You can learn more about conference here.

While our office will be closed through Tuesday, Nov. 15 – Thursday, Nov. 17, we’ll still be available to our clients via email. Normal business hours will resume Friday the 18th.

Follow us on twitter or follow the event for real-time notes from the conference!

• Device recognition. Accessing the site is simple. Thanks to device recognition, there’s no need for bank customers to memorize a separate web address. In addition, we designed the mobile version of the site to be visually appealing and functional, whether it is accessed from an Android phone, a Blackberry, or an iPhone.
• Concise, drop-down menus. Mobile users can access any portion of the site from Personal Banking to Investment Services in a single window. This cuts down on load times and keeps you in the same browser window, eliminating the need for constantly going back and forth between windows.
• Quick contact information. We also added the ability to call River City Bank right from the webpage. Rather than searching through an entire menu for contact information, it’s right there at your fingertips.
• Custom Design. Our designer expanded on the same theme of the web version, giving the mobile site continuity and reinforcing the bank’s brand image.

If you’re like most of us here at SAI Digital, you have several online profiles scattered around the Web. There’s your Facebook page for sharing with family and friends, your Twitter feed for having conversations with a larger circle, LinkedIn for work-related networking, Tumblr, Instagram, Foursquare, Flickr, YouTube… the list can seem endless.

So if you want to tell people where to find you online, what do you do?

This is where About.Me comes in. Launched in December 2010, the startup gives users a way to create colorful, personalized splash pages that pull in activity from their various social profiles, all at an easy to remember URL. The service has proven popular with everyone from bloggers to job hunters, and got an early vote of confidence from AOL, which acquired About.Me just days after it launched.

This video from About.Me explains a little more:

All About About.me video

Here’s how it works. You sign up for an about.me account and connect it to your online activity. Right now, you can add connections to Twitter, Facebook profile, Facebook page, LinkedIn, Tumblr, WordPress, Blogger, Posterous, Flickr, Typepad, Foursquare, Formspring, YouTube, Vimeo, Last.fm, Daily Booth, Instagram, Behance, Fitbit and Github. Plus, you can add links to other sites online, such as your personal website or the website for your business.

You can also write a small block of text to give visitors an introduction to who you are and what you’re about. For example, on my About.Me page, I talk about  my skills in web and print design, while our graphic designer JF Steele is more short and sweet with his introduction (which includes the fact that he’s a fan of cheese; as far as I know, he’s not talking about campy TV). A new college grad may want to use this space as something of a cover letter for prospective employers. There are several great fonts you can use to really give it a personalized look.

Finally, you’ll choose an image to use as a background for your page. You can use one of several great pre-loaded designs, or you can upload your own.

The result is an attractive, personal page that cuts the clutter of your online persona and makes it easy for people to learn more about you. Your About.Me dashboard will provide stats about visitors to your page.

Here are some examples of great About.Me pages. You can find more in the online directory.

Easy to navigate

One of the major issues they had with the old site was that all the news articles they wanted to feature had been placed into just three main categories: health, wealth, and happiness. While these are helpful places to start, several unrelated news articles found their way into each of these categories because they were just too broad. However, because of the old website’s platform, the association had no way of adding more categories and customizing their site without the aid of the web company that created it.

Easy to update

This lack of control over their site’s content also presented a problem when the association noticed spelling errors and misinformation. The only way any changes could be made was to request changes directly from the web company and wait for them to fix the problems. The association wanted a way to fix site issues immediately and on their own terms, and that’s where we came in.

We were able to give Savvy Seniors an open-source Content Management System that allowed them to maintain their own content in a manner that didn’t involve knowing heavy amounts of programming.  We also divided the news content into the more sensible categories of FINANCE, HEALTH, LIFESTYLE, RETIREMENT, TRAVEL, and WELLNESS. These categories were then organized into a vertical navigation to make the overall experience on the site more intuitive for visitors.

Easy to monetize

Savvy Seniors also requested a way to monetize the site without being complicated or overwhelming.  We were able to set up an ad manager that allows anyone at Savvy Seniors with administrative permissions to create and change ads. This was a great addition, and it came in handy:  shortly after the new website was launched, Savvy Seniors received several requests for advertising space.

Easy to connect

The Savvy Seniors organization wanted to make it easy to connect with users outside the website. We incorporated a Facebook box that shows pictures of recent fans, and added a link for Facebook users to like or share each article on the site. Plus, site visitors can request Savvy Seniors e-mails through a simple sign-up box on the bottom of each page.

Easy to find

All of these new features were happily approved, but the association required one more thing:  findability. Before the redesign, their old site had been up and running for several weeks, but the association noticed that simply being online wasn’t bringing any traffic to their site. During the redesign process, the SAI Digital team systematically went through the existing content and instituted several best practices for Search Engine Optimization. After the launch of the redesigned site, Savvy Seniors discovered that they were receiving much more traffic, and they haven’t looked back since.

You can check out all of the redesign work furnished by SAI Digital at savvyseniors.com.

Enjoy! The Magazine is a periodic publication for the residents and businesses in Northwest Georgia. The magazine was founded in 2008 by Advertising Dynamics, Inc based out of Rome, GA. Over 10,000 copies are distributed freely at businesses, restaurants, and other public venues in Rome, Cartersville, Calhoun, Cedartown, Rockmart and other nearby areas.

Web Needs

When the client first came to us, they expressed three things they wanted this new site to achieve for their magazine. The first was to highlight the great features and events from the magazine online, the second was a way for users to see and interact with the magazine on the website, and the third was add some value to their advertisers with some online attention.

The first was the simplest of these requests. We were sure to include large, bold sliders on the homepage to highlight each major feature article from each current edition. We also included a calendar of events section that the client can manage and update on their own with each new edition.

PDF Viewer

The magazine viewer was much trickier, but in the end our team found a great solution. We discovered the solution with the aid of the powerful web platform, Scribd. If you are not familiar, Scribd  describes itself as, “the world’s largest social reading and publishing company.”  They have created an easy way to share PDFs across the web and mobile devices in a very stylish presentation. Easily the greatest asset about this platform though is that every document uploaded is search engine friendly. This allows everything that is included within the magazine can be found through search terms.

Our team took their powerful platform and seamlessly integrated with Enjoy! Magazine’s website. The client can easily upload every new issue from the backend of the Enjoy’s website and once uploaded, the issue will automatically post to Issues page on the website. All with one click of a button. Users can then browse through each issue using the Scribd platform and never leave Enjoy’s website. A truly simple and painless process for the client to easily manage on their own.

Advertiser Index

The last requested feature was another fun one. Enjoy wanted a way to add value with their website to those that graciously advertised in their magazine. Opting for something much better than just a list of names, we came up with the idea of having a database of advertisers that included name, location/directions, contact information, and any type description companies would like to include. Many of their advertisers do not have websites and often suffer from not being able to be found online. With this handy feature on Enjoy!, not only do companies gain exposure in their ads, but also increase their findability and presence online.

The most powerful feature to this added element is that the Enjoy can update this list themselves. The database has a separate portal on the backend and the client can easily add and subtract advertisers as needed.

Be sure to check out all the action at myenjoymagazine.com today.

Presentation to the Economic Development Committee of the Greater Rome Chamber of Commerce.  Listen to the audio version here. 

What Does Technology Have to Do with My Business?

As the owner of a company that builds digital technology, I am, obviously, ecstatic about the upcoming Spectrum of Technology Symposium hosted by the Greater Rome Chamber of Commerce. It has been especially enjoyable being a part of envisioning the conference this year and watching it grow over the last three years.

But let me tell you what I’ve seen digital technology, like the types we’ll be exploring next week, do for all kinds of other businesses.

I have seen many reasons to be encouraged by the use of digital technology in Rome & Floyd County.

• In the last three years, I’ve seen a manufacturer become of aware of the way the web worked to organize and retrieve information and use that knowledge to increase their business and hire additional sales staff, an in-house sales manager, and more than twenty hourly employees. That same company has invested in manufacturing technology that has made them competitive with international companies.
• I’ve seen a financial institution make use of enterprise cloud technology in partnership with on-site servers to save money and increase security and uptime. I’ve seen that institution use an awareness of how their customers used mobile to access their financial information and implement a mobile-friendly website to decrease the amount of time a customer has to wait before getting to the information they want. They did that without spending the standard $25K plus for a native mobile application, because they were able to make an educated decision between a native application and a web application meant for mobile use based on knowledge of how these different types of technology worked and what would meet their customers needs at this time.
• I’ve seen a health-focused non-profit organization successfully implement web applications to manage forms and tests in order to eliminate 80+ hours of manual entry each semester — allowing those employees to be more productive, more engaged with actual service of their constituents, and to reduce error in processing hundreds of medical students arriving to or growing out of our county every week.
• I’ve seen that same organization and a hospital utilize enterprise cloud technology and custom web applications to manage the EMR access assigned to each of those medical students in a way that streamlines the HR operation, reduces error, and improves the experience of that student at the hospital, allowing the recruiters to focus on the important thing — training doctors and retaining the best to add to the local economy.
• I’ve seen a insurance company be the first in its industry to offer direct access to medicare supplement insurance via an online application and policy management tools which have changed the role of the agent and kept more jobs here.
• I’ve seen a local flower shop, wallpaper distributor, interior designer, and others use cloud-based services, web applications, software-as-a-service, and other digital technologies increase business capacity, lower costs, or provide functions and tools to the customer that make the local business competitive with larger, national companies. In many cases, this increase of productivity and competitiveness allow that business to bring on additional part-time or full-time staff.
• And in the life of my own business, I’ve been able to start from literally nothing to become a company that utilizes enterprise level software-as-a-service to manage payroll, transparent billing of customers, financial reporting and projections, and hosting of our client data in a way that has allowed us to double annually, remain profitable, and grow to a staff of six full time employees with benefits with one more being sought currently.

On the flip-side, I have seen many things that discourage me.

• I have seen high school and college students in our area who know nothing of these technologies.
• I have seen colleges allow the elimination of a Computer Science major in a time when software engineers have an unemployment rate of close to zero.
• I have seen individuals scoff that my company can even exist in Rome, Georgia, because they don’t recognize the way these technologies can be used in the life of businesses of all sizes and industries.

I have seen the incredibly inspiring and the downright disappointing.

And based on what I’ve seen, I believe that every person interested in growing our local economy, increasing our capacity for jobs across different sectors, or educating our kids to be sure they are competitive when they enter the job market should make it a priority to be a part of the conversation at this year’s Technology Symposium.

I believe that every provider of business services – attorneys, insurance agents, accountants, consultants should use the Symposium as an opportunity to become better able to serve their customers.

The truth of the matter is that health, manufacturing, and digital technology are intrinsically tied to economic development goals, the potential for businesses in our area to expand markets or do what they do more efficiently, and directly responsible for the next wave of innovators that we are raising and recruiting.

I hope to see all of you — and your coworkers, staff, and supervisors next week, joining in the conversation at this year’s Spectrum of Technology Symposium.

It came as a collective shock when it was announced that Steve Jobs, tech innovator and business leader, lost his battle with cancer on Oct. 5, 2011. It is still very hard to imagine a world that Jobs will not continue to revolutionize and tinker with as he sees fit. There’s no denying the impact Jobs has had on technology that we interact with daily. The computer mouse, flash drives, PIXAR, and the many gadgets and software put out by Apple in the last 15 years make it clear that Steve Jobs made one of the greatest impacts on how the world operates and communicates. Jobs was perhaps one of the greatest innovators since Gutenberg.

Besides being a pioneer for the advancement of digital technology, he was also a pioneer in business.  Jobs found success with the products he engineered by doing business differently. His was a way that wasn’t driven by selling the cheapest possible product in the fastest way possible, but by giving people quality products that streamlined their own usefulness. This gift is something that we can all carry on to help his legacy thrive long after the iPods, iPhones, and iPads become obsolete.

How did he make this happen? Well, according to Jobs himself, it was through these key methods:

Being Great

“Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren’t used to an environment where excellence is expected.”

What made Steve Jobs great was that he never settled for a mediocre product. If Apple was going to make it and Jobs was going to promote it, then the product had to be great. We can take this practice into any business or industry. Why be in business if not to provide clients and customers with great products and services? Don’t just have a business exist just to have one, but look for ways to set yourselves apart and provide advantages and opportunities that no one else is providing. Look for ways to make things better than they currently are.

Always Keep Getting Better.

“I think if you do something and it turns out pretty good, then you should go do something else wonderful, not dwell on it for too long. Just figure out what’s next.”

In order to be great, you must always look for ways to improve. Just think if Steve Jobs stopped at the Macintosh personal computer in 1982, or if he stopped innovating altogether after being pushed out of the company by the Apple board in 1985. Think of where technology would be today if he had stopped when he became part owner of a new startup called PIXAR, or if he had stopped when he created the software for NEXT (which brought him back to Apple). Or what if he stopped when they came out with the candy colored iMacs? What if he had stopped when they created the iPod? The iPhone? We can also say this about the iPad and a countless number of things. He never stopped looking for new challenges to take on and refine. Without this sense of getting better, we would be without a myriad of technologies that have shaped our world.

“I think we’re having fun. I think our customers really like our products. And we’re always trying to do better.”

There are always ways to improve. You’ll never know how much you can continue to improve your business or products unless you keep trying to discover new and different ways to do things that may or may not have been done before. Never think that you’re done once something has been created; there will always be ways in which to improve it, whether that be the process, the product, or the platform itself. Jobs taught us to never stop the process of refining because there will always be better things to discover along the way.

“A lot of companies have chosen to downsize, and maybe that was the right thing for them. We chose a different path. Our belief was that if we kept putting great products in front of customers, they would continue to open their wallets.”

The computer, the cell phone, the tablet: these were things that existed before Apple created their products, but they’re also things that were greatly improved and continually enhanced by Steve Jobs and Apple.

“The cure for Apple is not cost-cutting. The cure for Apple is to innovate its way out of its current predicament.”

Never Be Too Afraid to Fail.

“Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly, and get on with improving your other innovations.”‎

Not everything will be a success, but everything is always an opportunity to learn how to make things better. Never be afraid of never having another great idea. Success is a constantly moving machine. You must push to stay forward thinking so that you are not left in the dust. Stifling innovation is always a good breeding ground for complacency. Jobs and Apple had many misses, but they all helped to bring better ideas and projects to the table.

“Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice.”

Most experts called the original Apple TV a bust for the company, but that bust turned into a success four years later when they re-envisioned their concept and released their next version. They didn’t give up on this project and made a better one because of it.

“Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose.”

Taking risks in business is paramount to success. You have nothing to lose because there is an end to everything, even your own life. But by creating something that is greater than yourself, you can live on through your innovations. There’s nothing stopping you.

The End User Should Drive Everything You Do, So Surprise Them

“For something this complicated, it’s really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.“

Whatever business or industry you’re in, you are selling products and services that others can’t create themselves. This makes you the expert in this field or industry and gives you the advantage in seeing how to make your product even greater to those that need it. Think through the end users’ experience of what you’re providing, and see how you can anticipate meeting needs before the end user can. This one of the things that made Steve Jobs the legendary pioneer that he was. He was intuitively and acutely  fixed on user experience and concentrated on how to streamline technology to make it instinctively easier and intuitive for the consumer. No one knew how much easier their lives could be with the world’s greatest traveling computer and phone until Steve Jobs and Apple created it.

“You can’t just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them. By the time you get it built, they’ll want something new.”

The best way to do this is to identify two to three of the biggest problem areas that you or your customers run into the most.  Think through each of the ways in which these areas can be improved, prevented, and planned for. Implementing change in these problem areas will show your clients that you are working hard to make their experience better and you will be rewarded with loyalty and repeat business.

“This is what customers pay us for–to sweat all these details so it’s easy and pleasant for them to use our computers. We’re supposed to be really good at this. That doesn’t mean we don’t listen to customers, but it’s hard for them to tell you what they want when they’ve never seen anything remotely like it. Take desktop video editing. I never got one request from someone who wanted to edit movies on his computer. Yet now that people see it, they say, ‘Oh my God, that’s great!’”

Surround Yourself with the Best and the Brightest

“My model for business is The Beatles. They were four guys who kept each other’s kind of negative tendencies in check. They balanced each other and the total was greater than the sum of the parts. That’s how I see business: great things in business are never done by one person, they’re done by a team of people.“

There’s no way that Steve Jobs could have made any of the innovative products on his own. He needed a highly competent team that could turn his ideas into a reality.  Jobs has never taken sole credit for anything, but rather credited the collaborative process in order to get to the end goal. Build a support team that can collaborate effectively to pushing innovation in your business and industry. If you find yourself  hitting a wall, look for ways to bring more diversity into the mix so that more viewpoints can be seen. People with different backgrounds and specialties will always bring a new and fresh perspective  to any ideas on the table. Just be sure it is the kind that breeds productivity and not chaos.

“Innovation has nothing to do with how many R&D dollars you have. When Apple came up with the Mac, IBM was spending at least 100 times more on R&D. It’s not about money. It’s about the people you have, how you’re led, and how much you get it.”

Success on the scale of Apple’s is difficult to come by, but these tenets are key ingredients for success in our modern business world. As with most things Steve Jobs has touched, probably the most powerful advice he gave was in this simple but direct admonition:

“Stay hungry and stay foolish.”

Because it was such a big project, our Beer Fest sponsorship involved several SAI Digital team members. We created digital and print marketing materials for the festival, including a website, social media, branding and advertisements. Here’s a detailed look at our Beer Fest project:

Digital

• Created the Beer Fest website, with a rotating banner solution to highlight sponsors
• Managed Twitter and Facebook profiles
• Designed custom tabs for the event’s Facebook page
• Branded the Twitter page
• Implemented online ticketing program

Print

• Designed a new logo
• Designed event t-shirts
• Created banners, fliers and posters
• Designed print advertisements
• Worked on various marketing materials for sponsors

Media

• Radio advertising
• Radio interviews

Throughout our design process, we wanted to emphasize the art of beer. Creating the new logo was the first step in that direction. The logo, with its brush strokes and paint splatters, is meant to feel like real art. Taking a cue from the logo, the website features a canvas texture and old-style typography.

Of course, creating great-looking posters and websites doesn’t mean much if no one buys tickets. We worked with TicketBud to offer tickets online; it’s easy for festival-goers to buy, and easy for Beer Fest organizers to keep track of sales. And you know we love QR codes, so we’re pumped that the tickets include QR codes to be scanned when ticket-holders enter the park.

Our custom Facebook tabs — which include a countdown, ticket information and beer list — encourage fans to buy tickets, and we’ve been using Twitter to spread the news about the beers available. This is one modern event!

We hope that our contributions will help make this the most successful beer festival yet. RACA is a great organization that promotes local artists, so if you haven’t bought your ticket yet, what are you waiting for?

Dr. Lavonne K. Fore is one of Rome, Ga.’s most popular orthodontists. As tech geeks, we were impressed by her state-of-the-art practice on North Fourth Avenue. Did you know Fore Orthodontics uses a fingerprint sign-in system? Or that patients can play video games while they wait? It was clear after visiting Dr. Fore’s office that her website should be as fun and modern as she is.

The website we created for Dr. Fore is bright and cheerful, in shades of blue that complement the newly-updated Fore Orthodontics logo. The design focuses on letting prospective patients know why they should choose Fore Orthodontics, while also making it easy to find resources about orthodontic treatment. From the front page of the website, it’s easy to learn about Dr. Fore’s qualifications, see examples of common bite problems and read about treatment options for everyone from kids to adults.

After the design was complete, we optimized the site for search engines, so Dr. Fore will appear as high as possible in search results from sites such as Google and Bing.

But our work with Fore Orthodontics wasn’t limited just to forebraces.com. We also helped them launch a YouTube channel, where they have been busy adding videos of their patients talking about their braces. We customized the Fore Orthodontics YouTube page, got them started by uploading some videos and taught the staff how to add videos and optimize their tags and descriptions to be easily searchable. In the short time the page has been active, it has gotten nearly 2,000 video views.

The patient testimonial video on the Fore YouTube channel was created by SAI Digital, with music and title screens. We edited lots of footage of patient interviews to best highlight why patients should choose Fore Orthodontics.

On the other side of the social media realm, we created custom tabs on the Fore Orthodontics Facebook page. Dr. Fore and her staff were already active on Facebook, but they wanted to include information about the practice for those not familiar with them. Now, when non-fans visit Facebook.com/ForeOrthodontics, they see a custom page that explains the benefits of Dr. Fore’s practice, along with contact information and easy access to a map to the office. Other tabs we created include a before and after photo slideshow of several Fore Orthodontics patients, and pictures of the types of braces Fore Orthodontics offers. We also integrated their YouTube account, so new videos automatically display on their Facebook page.

Working with Dr. Fore and her staff was a real pleasure. They were excited about learning to update their new website, and enthusiastic about working with social media like Facebook and YouTube.

So if you’re looking for a great orthodontist with a passionate staff, visit ForeBraces.com. And tell ‘em SAI Digital sent ya.

Three years ago this week, I walked into City Hall and bought myself a business license.  It was a move out of necessity as I had learned just two days prior that my salary would disappear in a week. It was August 2008, and no one was hiring. However, I was sure that I could find a handful of restaurants and local businesses that would hire me to do what I was good at:  sell events, design promotions, or fill a dining room or shop floor.  I refused to talk in “we” because the “company” was just me working from my house and Panera.

I knew what I believed in and before I made an official dollar, I wrote a philosophical statement (now, of course, it must say “we”).  I conceived of a web presence where the site itself was just the hub, the engine that would drive content and interaction in many different places. I took my stand on the side of permission-based email, authentic reviews, and fearlessness in the face of negative response.

And slowly but surely, people began to trust me, but more important to my mortgage company, they began to hire me! There is no thrill like the first signed contract. I will forever be indebted to the clients that took on the risk of a gal with a vision and some skills.

As the projects and ideas grew, I found smart people and the space to fit them (albeit extremely tight until now).  The thing I’ve learned is that it’s not really the clients that make the business a success, but the team. I am honored that my brother and brilliant designer decided to move states and give me a chance. And I’m the luckiest woman
in the world to have five extremely gifted, problem-solving innovators not who are constantly thinking of ways to improve and explore for both our company and our client projects.

The accomplishment of having grown during a recession and have the ability to provide meaningful jobs and benefits belongs to a community that celebrates local business, a Chamber of Commerce that works tirelessly to support start-ups, and to the established business leaders willing to give new ideas and new methods a chance while still offering their own wisdom in the face of challenges.

Today, we cut the ribbon on a new building where we can again double, and where, in the meantime, we can offer start-ups the shared office space and resources they need to begin the growth process. I am humbled by the last three years and cannot wait to see what the next will hold. Thank you to all who made it possible.

Chieftains is a museum of Cherokee and Native American history in Rome, Ga. The museum is housed in the historic home of Major Ridge, one of the signers of the Treaty of New Echota, which resulted in the forced removal of the Cherokee along the Trail of Tears. In fact, the Chieftains Museum/Major Ridge Home is one of only a few private entities to be certified by the National Park Service as a site on the Trail of Tears.

Major Ridge is the “face” of Chieftains, and the museum staff wanted to make sure his history was front and center on the website. But it was also important that potential museum visitors could easily find information about operating hours and admission. Our design was able to include both a focus on history and a focus on visitor information.

The centerpiece of the website is a dynamic calendar of upcoming events at the museum. Using a content management system, Chieftains staff can create calendar entries that automatically display on the events area of the homepage. Plus, the program will make a page for each event, with more details about time, location, admission, etc. They can even set up recurring events to show up every week or every month. And once an event is over, it automatically gets removed from the website.

In addition to sharing information about upcoming events at the museum, the Chieftains staff wanted to be able to post news articles about special exhibits, promotions, fundraisers and more. Our staff set up a blog area on the website and trained the museum staff to create and update articles.

Chieftain Museum's Previous Site

The museum staffers working on the website were thrilled with the simplicity of the events calendar and blog areas, and have already added several new events and articles to the site.

SAI Digital didn’t just create a new design; we also helped organize the large amount of content that was on the museum’s old site. By breaking up the content into shorter pages and subpages, we made it easier for site visitors to find exactly what they need on the site, whether that’s information about field trips, facility rental, Cherokee history or becoming a museum member.

Chieftains is a neat place with a lot of history, and a great resource for Northwest Georgia. We were very happy to help the museum create a website that encourages more visitors and more members, and shares the rich history of local Cherokee culture.

AVFN is a federal grant-funded project designed to bring better and faster technology to Northwest Georgia and Southeast Alabama. The Network will provide the opportunity for large capacity, high speed broadband availability within the network area of Northwest Georgia and Eastern Alabama. AVFN will encourage business development and benefit a variety of users throughout these regions including government agencies, educational institutions and medical facilities. With AVFN, the region will have competitive, top-tier broadband service that any company can use to provide connectivity to its clientele without the high cost of privatized networks.

We were pleased to have the opportunity to educate not only the residents in the proposed service area about the incredible opportunity that is forthcoming, but to help potential vendors from across the US apply for the ability to offer broadband access to a wider client base.

The site itself was intended to be simple in design and function, and the overall look and feel reflects the modern feel of the project as a whole. The main goal of the site was to supply important and detailed information and resources for news agencies or other researchers who may need more in-depth information about the AVFN project. At the same time, the site also needed to provide details about the grant itself for general public knowledge, and what this project would accomplish.

Our staff was able to filter and generate the entire site’s content from the AVFN Grant proposal and study. We also created several FAQ pages to answer some common questions that the general public might have about the project in order to clearly define what the project will provide and how it is funded. For potential vendors, we built an admin portal that allows vendors to register and view up-to-date RFPs. Our programmers built a versatile content management system to allow the staff of the AVFN project easily upload RFP PDFs. When these PDFs are uploaded in the admin panel, they are automatically updated on the front-end of the site that registered vendors can access. We also built a messaging system into the site that alerts any registered user of new and updated RFPs.

We also created an interactive map that allows user to see the broad scope of the project. The map highlights areas that are already developed and those that the are coming thanks to AVFN.

If you are curious about the AVFN project, visit the site to see the unique opportunities coming to the Northwest Georgia and Eastern Alabama area.

This name change has been in the works for some time, and we are happy to share the events that led to this transition.

The company began as a traditional marketing agency with an emphasis on social, but we quickly found that the expanding digital market created extensive needs that were not being filled by other local companies. Late 2009, we decided to focus our efforts solely on those avenues that were digital and measurable.  Since then, we have matured as a company to offer web development, email marketing, social media engagement, search engine optimization, as well as digital advertising. We have developed new types of customers through the development of several custom web software plug-ins.

While our direction became clearer and clearer, our name continued to limit us or stereotype the company as a traditional print marketing agency. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with traditional print marketing agencies–it’s just not our style.

So why SAI Digital? Not only is it an acronym of our former name (Steele Agency, Inc.), it serves another purpose. A sai (pronounced sigh) is a short-range Japanese martial arts weapon, chosen for its effectiveness and precision. We like that reputation. Its three-pronged design provides a visual image of what we offer:  integrated web strategy, custom coding projects and innovative software.

When you hear our new name mentioned, know that we’re still the same company looking to solve problems and deliver creative solutions to any digital marketing needs any business might have.

Looking forward, we see tremendous opportunities for growth.

Feel free to have a look around our new site. We’re always open for feedback and new ideas. Let us hear from you!

Before I go into why I didn’t like the book, I want to first talk about some of the positive aspects of it. The author was a little misleading when he says that you’ll be building applications without learning another framework. That’s not exactly true. CherryPy, a web framework, is used. It is a very minimal framework, but it is a web framework nonetheless. I honestly think that the format of this book was influenced more by the lack of availability of a large web framework like Django for Python 3 and not meant to “save” the reader from learning a framework alongside web application development. Even if the lack of availability of frameworks for Python 3 is the true motivation, I think it’s a great idea to teach building web applications without all of the nice abstractions you would have with a huge fancy framework. This aspect is what I really loved about this book.  For instance, the author walks you through building your own ORM. I’ve never actually read a beginning web development book that had their readers build their own, but I think readers that follow through with this exercise will definitely have an easier time when they move on to something like SQLAlchemy.

Although I liked that the author walked readers through web development at a low-level, there are some issues with the book that ultimately led me to the decision that I could not recommend it.

One of the biggest issues I had with the book are the walls and walls of dense Javascript. I felt like I wrote way more Javascript than Python going through most of these projects. In the Preface, the author states that only an introductory level of Javascript is needed. While that may be true, if you finish all of the projects in this book you will have more experience developing Javascript than building web applications in Python 3. The amount of Javascript used was unnecessary and I feel someone with an introductory knowledge of Javascript would be very intimidated with the amount of Javascript strewn throughout the projects. Large amounts of HTML are encountered as well, which could have been reduced if the author had introduced some kind of templating system.

Another issue I had with this book is that I don’t use Windows, and this book is geared toward people who use Windows. All instructions given for installation of the various software packages are for people using Windows. The author gives you enough resources to figure out what you need to do if you’re using Linux or OS X, but why not include instructions for all three, or even just Windows and Linux? It wouldn’t have taken long to include instructions for both. The reason only including directions for Windows wasn’t a good idea, other than the fact that I don’t have an extra Windows machine laying around in my house, is that I’m not so certain that intermediate Python programmers looking to learn web development are using Windows.

Finally, I think that some of the projects are too difficult for people new to web development. Chapter 2 was especially unusual. I know it’s rather cliché now for web development tutorials to do this, but I think it would have been best if the author started out with building a blog. It’s stupid simple to do, you can use it to easily illustrate as many web development concepts as you want, and it gives the beginner something that they’re familiar with.

While I found the exercises helpful for people wanting to learn Javascript, the title suggested I would be working with Python 3. This was disappointing. Coupled with the fact that I feel that many of these projects are too difficult for people wanting to get started in web development, I cannot recommend this book for beginners. Ultimately, the goal of the book was to teach web development to beginners. It did not reach this goal.

If you would like to preview or purchase Python 3 Web Development Beginner’s Guide, it is available on Amazon.

We are excited to share our recent work of creating a highly functional website for Outdoor Living Studio based in Rome, GA. 

Outdoor Living Studio is a team with over 30 years of experience in designing the perfect outdoor living spaces. They create custom packages for each of their clients, turning the outdoors into exciting and relaxing atmospheres. Apart from designing and building each unique space, Outdoor Living Studio adds creative finishing touches with landscape, furniture, pottery, and other outdoor garden accessories.

When the team at OLS approached us about their website, they already had a clear vision of what they wanted the site look like. In fact, they worked with a contract graphic designer to create a mockup of the website look and feel. We were excited to start work on this project because they had already accomplished one of the big hurdles of the development process.

After a few tweaks, we were able to easily create a custom website based on the work they had already done, but we were also eager to find ways to mirror their home studio on the web. If you ever had the privilege of visiting their unique space, you know that most of projects they provide to their clients are on display when you visit their office. Visitors can tour the space to get ideas and visual aids of how projects they want might look and feel.

We ultimately settled on creating the same visual atmosphere online with unique photo galleries on almost every page. This function allows users and potential clients to see visual examples of all  various and impressive projects they have produced, and they can do this all from the comfort of their computer screens.

The interesting challenge with the photo galleries, was that OLS wanted the ability to  manage the website themselves after it live. This meant that all the photo galleries could be managed by someone other than a programmer. We built a back-end dashboard that easily allowed the client to maintain it on their own.

But Amazon also is popular with website owners, who can make money through the retailer’s Amazon Associates program.

It’s a simple concept: You place links to Amazon products on your site, and Amazon gives you a cut of the money spent by shoppers who follow those links. The amount you get depends on the number of sales you refer to Amazon, starting at 4 percent and going up to 8.5 percent.

Linking to Amazon

Amazon has an easy tool to help you customize product links.

Building Amazon Associates links is easy. Once you sign up, every time you visit Amazon you’ll see their “Site Stripe” at the top of the page. Just navigate to the item or category you want to promote, and click “link to this page” on the stripe. Then you’ll get the HTML code to add the link.

But links aren’t the only way to earn money through Amazon Associates. The site also offers widgets (interactive blocks that you can feature in your site’s sidebar, for example) and the aStore, which lets you “sell” Amazon products on your site.

First, widgets. Some are personalized, and let you hand-pick products to feature. Others can showcase Amazon’s daily deals or a search box. There’s also a widget that automatically chooses products to display based on the content of your site. The widgets come in many sizes so you can use them wherever you want on your site.

To spotlight even more products, you could set up an aStore. You can define categories, choose products and customize the look and colors to match your site. Plus you can add widgets to show things like your customers’ wish lists or related products.

Getting paid

The 'daily deals' widget is one option for referring your site's visitors to Amazon.

After your site’s visitors buy on Amazon, how do you get paid? You have a few options. You can choose to receive your earnings as an Amazon credit, or get money through direct deposit or check. Payment is issued monthly.

The Amazon Associates site has detailed reports so you can track your earnings, as well as see what your site’s visitors purchased.

Who should use Amazon Associates?

Most people who publish online can find a way to monetize their site with Amazon Associates.

If you’re a new mom who blogs about raising a baby, you can include links to the products you find helpful. Or if you’re a movie or TV buff with an entertainment site, you can send your readers to Amazon to buy DVDs.

But it’s not just bloggers who can benefit from Amazon Associates. Take, for example, a small business that does in-home computer repair but doesn’t have a retail location. The business website could include an aStore of software or accessories that the owner finds helpful. Or, a school could use an aStore to sell summer reading list books, school supplies (organized by grade level), musical instruments for band members or even uniforms. The school could also share its “wishlist” and allow parents and others to donate books, supplies or other needed items.

A step further

Amazon Associates is an easy way to start making money with your website, but Amazon has other tools you could use.

You can sell your items through Amazon, either as a professional or individual. This is like the reverse of Amazon Associates; you provide the product, and Amazon takes a cut of the sale.

An affiliate program with audio book website Audible (an Amazon partner) lets web publishers make a commission on each person who signs up.

You can even use Amazon e-commerce software to set up your own web store.

As Web Designer,  Sarah will help clients conceptualize digital projects and work to produce the perfect content management system, landing page, or email template to meet their goals.  As a former editor, she will be invaluable in post-production quality assurance – making sure functions, punctuation, and words are all in order.

For the last decade, Sarah has worked in the world of print journalism as the Rome News-Tribune, where she served (among other roles) as Web Editor. Managing a multi-user, around-the-clock publishing machine gives her an enormous set of skills that will translate naturally to client project design, training, and support.  She has lived and breathed deadlines for over a decade and doesn’t like wasting time on projects.  This trait is a perfect complement to our philosophy of sticking to timelines (and to be honest, she’ll probably make us better at it!).

Her technical skills include hand-crafting sites in HTML and CSS, as well as designing for and using modern content management systems. She also has experience in print design, as well as extensive text and photo editing.

And while she may be a new “official” full-time staffer, Sarah has designed several projects since the company’s beginnings including: Rome Boulevard, RJ Fricks, Outdoor Living Studio, The Season Events (in a weekend!), Profile Extrusion catalog, and State Mutual Insurance Company print materials.

While Sarah is the only non-caffeinated member of the production team, she adds major cool points for her love of video gaming, playing Fantasy Football, and nerdy book series’ like The Hunger Games and DiscWorld.

Empire Avenue is The Social Media Stock Market. Launched by a Canadian team of designers and developers in February of 2010 as an invite-only service, the last few weeks have brought a surge of virtual shareholders from all over the world. On some level, Empire Avenue is more than a game; it’s also a social media tracker and tool that can be used to improve one’s social media skills and etiquette, or make attempts at social media experiments.

When first signing up for Empire Avenue, it strikes anyone familiar with social media as nothing new. You’ve got your avatar, your ticker symbol (which works as a delightfully interesting take on the username), your bio, and links to your other social media accounts. What’s truly different is how you interact with users on the site. Unlike Facebook, it’s not about who you know. Unlike Twitter, it’s not about what you say. With Empire Avenue, it’s about what you do.

Your share price is directly related to how you interact with others over the web, and how they respond to you. Not only are internal actions on Empire Avenue rewarded, but actions of those in your Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flikr, and LinkedIn networks are beneficial to you as well. Obtaining new followers, uploading and rating videos, getting likes, comments and @replies all help your stock price.

The goal of Empire Avenue is to amass wealth in the virtual currency of Eaves while increasing your own stock value on the site. Like the real Stock Market Exchange, prices and value of stock are subject to change, and often. During the learning curve, don’t be surprised if your stock value seemingly plummets despite your social media activities. What’s the trick to keeping that stock on the rise? After a month of experimenting with the game, I think it’s safe to say that consistent, valuable interaction with Facebook friends, Tweeting and Re-Tweeting, and investing in other Empire Avenue users is key. In the beginning, I found that I was prone to going “off the grid” every weekend and then returning to my regular updating and posting routine at the beginning of the week, and that seems to have hurt my share price. Just keep in mind that it’s an experiment, and it’s something that can add an extra element of fun to your social media experience.

As for the conversation aspect on the site itself, I find that there are two extremes:  the polite silence of investing and/or recommending another user, or mass amounts of notifications through the Empire Avenue communities and their highly populated chat rooms. There are the occasional wall-like shout outs; however, it’s not so much of an ongoing conversation between users as it is a social media timeline of your activity across other sites. After a day or two on Empire Avenue, it seemed as though the context of interaction between investors is not wall-driven, and mainly consisted of buying and selling virtual stock.

I mentioned that Empire Avenue may also turn out to be a great tool for training users in social media etiquette. Spammy users with tweets of “buy me! buy me!” do not get bought. The group as a whole virtually punishes other users for acting inappropriately. Sure, it is courteous to purchase shares in someone who just invested in you, but expecting that they automatically do so or passive-aggressively reminding them with a shout out on their profile to “invest in me, too,” comes across as rude. In fact, posting such updates seems counter-intuitive to the game itself. Begging people to buy your stock does not add value to any of your social media interactions, nor does it prompt a discussion. But tweeting about a blog entry for Empire Avenue…now there’s a thought.

In my opinion, Empire Avenue serves mostly as a gauge for your social media interactions and a reward system for valuable content rather than an actual arena for discussion. It’s more like a network that facilitates finding people to interact with over other social media sites . That being said, our entire office finds  it to be highly entertaining; we are hooked! Check it out for yourself to get in on the fun! If you create an account, give us a shout–we’re always looking for new ventures to invest in. A few of their recognizable brands include Ford (e)FORD – Ford was one of the first and soon to release a virtual product for sale -  Rackspace Hosting (e)RACKSPACE, AT&T (e)ATT, as well as Dell, Inc. (e)DELL. And if you’re curious about the more in-depth rules of Empire Avenue, check out their rules and FAQ pages.

The company itself was newly formed within the last year. The management team brought together a combined 7 decades of experience  working in the manufacturing aluminum cable trays. During that time, they saw majors ways in which they could improve production and customer experience. When their company was bought out and sold, they decided that now was the time to start their own company and implement innovative and improved manufacturing processes and products.

These product improvements include unique interlocking clamps, one-size-fits-all cover systems, and state-of-the-art welding technologies. They also made great service improvements with short lead times, detailed packing labels, and pre-shipment pictures to easily ensure that every product ordered is clearly defined at all times. A new and helpful improvement for all involved.

To mirror these ground-breaking improvements, the founders of USP approached our team with several requests that were sure to make for a challenging project, but end with great results and reflect their innovative manufacturing processes and products. Overall, USP needed a site that would speak to everyone involved in their trade:  business owners, contractors, architects, and engineers. This is because while the contractor or client will be the one paying for the product, the electrical engineer is the one who must select and submit product specifications for approval.  They needed to appeal to both the decision maker looking for value, and the engineer looking for high function and access to specific data.

They also needed features on their website to include:

• Interactive US map of sales reps and distributors
• Access to NEMA, UL cable tray standards
• Datasheet Manager
• Online PDF Briefcase

These needs were all met, but one of the most complex parts of this website was the development of USP’s online database of data sheets for all trays, covers, connectors, and components manufactured by the company. USP boasts almost 400 standard products and is also able to expand their catalog numbering system on-the-fly to accommodate custom part orders.  Our team responded by building a visual navigation path and a database of documents that anyone at USP can easily update with a simple PDF upload.  Using an API, the database controls were integrated into the content management system so that the USP staff has the ability to easily manage updates themselves and all in one place.

When a PDF datasheet is uploaded onto the website from the backend admin portal, it not only uploads the PDF that users can then add to their briefcase and download, but it also converts the data into a jpg image to conveniently and automatically display the information onto the individual product page uploaded on.  A javascript magnifying glass was also constructed to allow customers to zoom in on the areas of detail.

Using cookie management, users are able to navigate the data sheets and save to a briefcase without registering. They can then gather all needed documentation and download as a single zipped folder of desired datasheets complete with proper cover sheet for order placement. The resultant PDF preserves writable fields so that customers can indicate their own specifications for order and permit approval.

As products are added or changed, USP has the ability to expand and modify all documents without hassle or programming knowledge. This is extremely important for a growing company!

This was definitely one of the most complex, custom designed sites that SAI Digital has created for a client. We are extremely proud of each of the unique features on the site, from the overall design and branding to the custom-created database. Check it out and see for yourself what we can do when a client has a big dream at USTray.com.

The first change was enlisting the help of Sabrina Wilson, of Blue Dawn Photography, to take contemporary photography of the attorneys, staff, and office building. These images were the driving force for the new site and they accent every page with views that are familiar to everyone who knows and has worked with WCW.

For the attorneys, we were able to flesh out their own pages to include more accurate and defined resumes, as well as integrate information from around the Internet about each lawyer. This includes each lawyer’s Martindale-Hubbell rating, their LinkedIn profiles, and a downloadable v-card so you can quickly and easily add each lawyer’s contact information to your electronic address book. We also included a photo directory to allow future and present clients to easily find each lawyer at WCW.

SAI Digital also worked with the firm to develop a more comprehensive listing of the firm’s Practice Areas on the website. Not only can users see a more accurate and defined Practice Area, but within each Practice Area category is a helpful sidebar list of which practicing attorneys can most help them with the specific need; a valuable asset to anyone who quickly needs to find what they are looking for.

The site also features a news portal that is maintained and updated by WCW itself.

So be sure to visit wcwattorneys.com to see if you can find the right attorney for you!

Formerly known as Langston Lighting, Langston Creative Systems has expanded their repertoire of electrical services. Branching out from their specialization of indoor & outdoor lighting, Langston Creative Systems is a full-service design and wiring team that offers home entertainment, office technology, Solar Energy, and centralized system management solutions as well.

With over 10 years of combined experience, Langston Creative Systems is a team of electrical wiring experts who also pride themselves on giving the perfect artistic touch to any home entertainment, business space/conference room, solar power equiping, or home/garden lighting. They are able to create a functionality or feature for any lighting, security, or entertainment needs.

The Website

This website posed interesting challenges when meeting the CEO Sean Langston’s two requests in the design of the site. The first was to appropriately highlight the impressive aesthetic works created by Langston Creative Systems. The second was to create a website that stood apart from most of their competitor’s fairly standard websites. This led our team to the idea of creating an entirely unique and custom website that is modern and driven primarily by large, sweeping imagery that highlights a range of impressive services offered at Langston CS.

Each page on the website features a full-screen “hero” image that clearly and effectively portrays the type of work you can expect from Langston CS. We brought the navigation bar to the bottom of the page to emphasize the impressive imagery. We also created small description boxes on each page to complement each image rather than compete with it.

As our pièce de résistance, we fulfilled Sean Langston’s additional request for visually appealing and animated elements to greet visitors when they arrive at the welcome page. Instead of hindering the site with clunky flash elements, we opted to use a simple Java script to make Langston CS’s logo turn in opposite directions while visitors remain on the page. This simple, yet dynamic enhancement really brought the whole website together, and is a feature we are immensely proud of.

Branding Logo and Identity

In addition to all of the web design, we had the opportunity to create the new logo for Langston Creative Systems and design their business cards. While we typically do not offer logo design, it was hard to pass up helping rebrand such a great business. Much like the website, both the logo and the business cards were created with the intention of setting Langston CS apart from their competition and making a statement as bold and impressive as the projects they create.

Check out their website, fully designed by SAI Digital, at langstoncs.com or become a fan on their facebook fan page (created and managed by SAI Digital).

The news from this weekend is unprecedented in 9 1/2 years, as is how a majority of the world accessed that news. Social media replaced main stream media for one of the most high-profile breaking news stories ever. In fact, according to Business Insider, several tweets broke the news: one, an unofficial and stunned update from Keith Urbahn, and a handful of others who live in Abattabad that were tweeting about the events in real time without knowing their significance.

From a personal point of view, after I received the initial text about the news, I relied heavily on Huffington Post, Twitter and Facebook for my updates. It didn’t occur to me that some might find that unnatural; I didn’t want to listen to the banter of newscasters and anchors as they groped for information while we all waited for the President to make his announcement. Social media provided the ability to effectively filter out news from banter as people posted links and updates while allowing people to participate in an ongoing conversation with their networks as the events unfolded.

Not only did social media provide users with a friendly filter, it provided us with a direct connection to each other. Seeing how others reacted to the very same news created a sense of virtual connectedness. Tweets and Facebook updates ranged from conspiracy theories, comedic commentary, tearfulness, and cynicism. There was an outpouring of gratitude to our military, a sense of wonder about how this was pulled off undercover, and of course the class clowns demanding a “long form death certificate.”

We were able to live-stream the President’s announcement, and then we turned to our friends and networks with shock, thoughtfulness, and/or criticism. Not to mention that this flurry of activity occurred when most of the working US was getting ready for bed! We didn’t have to wait for the morning edition or the hot topic discussion around the water cooler. We had access to entertaining, informative and witty banter almost instantly after the event. As Matt Zoller Seitz pointed out on Salon.com, even in the streets at Ground Zero and the White House, attendees were tweeting, Facebooking, texting and sharing news updates with their fellows via smartphones and iPads.

We have already observed social media “in action” during other major world events such as Egypt’s revolution and Japan’s earthquake and tsunami. Watch out Main Stream Media:  We might not have time for pundits we don’t know when our friends can become the pundits we trust. Do you think we’re one step closer to becoming a global network of reporters via social media?

Related Stories

One Twitter User Reports Live From Osama Bin Laden Raid
The Most Interesting Tweets About Osama Bin Laden’s Death

We are excited to announce that we have become Authorized Resellers of Tucows domains. Tucows is a highly respected wholesaler of DNS and other Internet services to ISPs and web hosting companies worldwide.  They were among the first group of thirty-four registrars to be accredited by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) in 1999, and they now manage over 10 million domain names.  Tucows is also an active participant in Internet governance, working to maintain fair practices across the board. As an official reseller of Tucows domains, SAI Digital has placed itself on the forefront of international web business. There are several benefits from this strategic partnership which we can pass along to our clients; with a Tucows domain, you can rest assured that your site and domain name are protected.

Commitment to Fair Business Practices

Tucows is committed to fair business practices, which is why we at SAI Digital chose to work with them as a reseller. Their company motto is “to exceed the expectations of our customers and deliver the highest quality standards in every aspect of our business.” When you purchase a Tucows domain name, it becomes your unique property. Think of it as your little slice of the Internet, all to yourself. Because it is your property, you can do whatever you want with it, without fear of Tucows reclaiming your domain name for their own purposes. Tucows does not impose restrictions on where you host your domain name; if you want to change registrars, you have that ability without any extra fees. If for some reason you are unable to renew your domain name, Tucows promises a 40-day, no-questions-asked domain name rescue. During this 40 day period, you won’t have to pay any extra late fees; the normal hosting fee is all you need to restore your domain name. This is very different from the policies at companies like GoDaddy or Network Solutions – they find every way to charge you to access and control your own domain.

Read the full company philosophy!

Top-Notch Security for Less

Through Tucows, SAI Digital is proud to offer our clients extensive web security. For one, privacy registration comes standard.  No extra charge to keep your ownership identity away from pesky solicitation.

Even further, our clients can enjoy security features from nationally recognized companies such as VeriSign and Trustwave at 30-40% less than the cost of the same security features from other retailers.  ”This brings more value to our clients by providing some of the highest security features available today at a lower price,” states Tricia Seifert, SAI Digital CEO.

Domain Webmail

Whether you need to receive mail on your work station, your cell phone, or anywhere, we can offer superior email account hosting.  Your domain webmail access will be completely branded with your logo, and we can setup your email to also be sent to a variety of devices.

Variety of Top Level Domains

Through Tucows, SAI Digital also offers a wide variety of top level domain extensions.

These include:

.com, .net, .org, .info, .biz, .name, .mobi, .asia, .tel, .co, .me, .tv, .ws, .au, .ca, .de, .eu, .nl, .uk, and .us.

Contact us today to get started with your Tucows domain!

In 2007, Mrs. Lynch began planning and putting on events such as conferences and weddings, and the business has definitely grown since then. Now, with over 20 associates, The Season can coordinate multiple events for the same date, all with finesse, professionalism, and style.

The complete site redesign was requested in an emergency situation by The Season. They had a crucial event which required a dynamic web presence, and needed their site up and running within a week. Our team at Steele Agency was able to transform the site from a static HTML based site into a dynamic, database driven content management system within the span of 5 days. We at Steele Agency then trained her staff on management of their website, such as adding blogs, managing the social media aspect of the site, and best practices for search engine optimization.

The Season approached our team with a particular design layout they preferred for their business and target market. With the time constraint, we were able to match their vision with a pre-designed CMS theme which we then further customized. This is critical, as The Season was working with a limited budget, but also needed a site that they could update and manage remotely.

A few features of the site include a blog for updates on etiquette, community happenings, and featured services for a range of events thrown by The Season. Also included are photo galleries, event summaries, and location information for those looking to plan an event.

Check out all of the updates and features at theseasonevents.com.

When customers post comments on Consumer Affairs, whether good or bad, the comments remain on the site forever.  As we’ve said before, it’s best to respond positively to your customers’ negative comments, rather than sweep them under the rug. Dismissal can often be read as a form of admission and an unwillingness to change, even if that is not the case.

Consumer Affairs states specifically on their blog article addressing such SEO Scams:  ”since its founding in 1998, [Consumer Affairs has] had a policy of not removing complaints.  Companies have always been welcome to post responses but, once posted, complaints are there indefinitely.  We do not accept payments from companies seeking to have complaints removed; in other words, we don’t take bribes.”

SEO firms are unable to remove negative comments or complaints from the site. If your business has hired an SEO firm and they are  generating  ”fake” positive comments to bury the negative comments, it should be noted that such activity  is illegal, not to mention bad business practice.

Consumer Affairs and similar sites are pro-business and pro-consumer enterprises. They are a resource for consumers and businesses alike. Have a little faith in your customers to do more research, and don’t be afraid to put a positive spin on a negative comment with an apologetic or helpful reply. Your SEO firm should give you direction as to how best to reply to naysayers, but they should never tell you that they can get rid of the naysayers entirely.

labs.saidigital.co – WordPress Simple Survey

In the perfect marketing scenario, this is a fate reserved only for spam emails. However, if you’re not careful with your subject lines and how often you send your emails, your well-intended marketing emails could look no different from those dreaded spam emails to servers and readers alike.

This doesn’t just happen overnight, however. If your business emails are perceived as spam, there is a large series of events that could lead up to blacklisting. Read on for a few pointers on how to avoid readers and Internet Service Providers from flagging your emails as spam.

Mail and Newsletter Frequency

When creating a new email list or planning for an established one, it’s best to pick a frequency for sending those emails and stick to it. Too many emails in a week or month could lead to the readers themselves flagging your emails as spam. If you are going to send emails to your mailing list weekly, once a week should be perfect. Information can always be stored for next week; it’s all about prioritizing your content. Once a month is good for businesses that have a lot of spread out events, and once a quarter is great for those that just want to update their customers on what’s going on with the business in general. The bottom line:  pick a frequency that you can deal with, and one that your readers will appreciate, rather than dread.

Subject Lines

Many times, readers will decide what to do with your email based on the subject line alone. Short, sweet, and relevant are the three big keys to remember when writing your subject line. Keep all of these in mind when developing your subject line.  In many ways, the subject line should receive just as much attention as the content of your email. Creative subject lines are good, but those with relevance go farther in the long run. If you can blend the two elements of creativity and relevance, then all the better. However, if it’s going to be creative, it needs to be relevant to the content of your email, not just a stand-alone, catchy subject line. A subject line that doesn’t match with the rest of your email content will more than likely disappoint your readers.

In addition to the construction, creativity, and relevance your subject lines need, there are always a set of words that you should avoid, no matter what. Think of what spam looks like; they’re trying to sell you something, right? Or there’s always a catch.  You may say, ”But my content is different! My readers can use context clues and figure out that I’m not a spammer.” That may be true of your readers, if it gets that far. Machines don’t use context clues to sort your emails from spam:  they use keywords. At all costs, avoid the following:

1. Free. This includes phrases such as “free offer,” “free gift,” and “free consultation.” You might be offering something free or free with purchase in your email, and this may be relevant, but there are more clever ways to say it. These days, people take the phrase “no such thing as a free lunch,” to heart, and “free” sounds more like a trap than a good deal.

2. Brand new. Nope, no, it isn’t. Even if it’s a brand new deal, even if it’s a brand new center or location you’re advertising, anything–do not use brand new. It’s very tempting to use, especially if it’s true, but just avoid it. Instead, try “Company announces renovated location.” The phrase “brand new”  just leads to skepticism–and the spam folder.

3. Profit, investment, gift certificate, offers, savings. Basically, if you would see it in on a piece of junk mail, don’t put it in your subject line.  Again, you may be offering all of these things to your readers, but your subject line is not the place for these announcements. It’s fine to have this in your content, but for subject lines, try something such as “Company says thanks during customer appreciation week.”

4. Exclamation points! This is one of the biggest triggers of spam email! Yes, if you’re announcing something exciting about your business, it can be tempting to add an exclamation point to the end of your subject line. It’s best to avoid the punctuation; if something is exciting, then your readers will understand that through context. That being said, definitely stay away from the use of multiple punctuation marks or symbols as well. Email subject lines with !!!, $$$, and ??? are dead giveaways for spam–make sure that your marketing email doesn’t fall into this category by avoiding them.

Here are two lists of spam keyword triggers that we have found through a little bit of Internet research. Feel free to print these out and keep them handy when crafting your subject lines.

THE WORST OF THE WORST

THE “PROBABLY SHOULDN’T USE THESE” LIST

Remember, when in doubt about whether or not an email could be flagged as spam, use your instincts. Sometimes we can get bogged down in business lingo that we don’t realize we could look a little “spammy” to a potential customer or client. It’s always best to re-read and get a second opinion (especially where subject lines are concerned). What do you think? Is there anything you can’t stand about spammers that you would add?

Look for an update in the next few weeks regarding building, growing, and maintaining your readership!

Remember in  A Christmas Story when Ralphie worked so hard to get his Secret Society decoder ring from the Little Orphan Annie radio show? After weeks of anxious waiting, and missing out on the daily “secret message” (which to a kid appeared very important) Ralphie is finally able to participate.

The radio show comes on. He is ready and poised with his decoder. The announcer starts reading numbers. Ralphie anxiously records each number and painstakingly decodes each one.

B-E    S-U-R-E     T-O    D-R-I-N-K    Y-O-U-R     O-V-A-L-T-I-N-E

“Ovaltine?! A crummy commercial?! Son of a bitch!”

He feels jipped, connived, taken advantage of.  He has put so much energy into getting the device only to be sold to?!

Here’s the deal.  This is how a lot of QR marketing these days is treating its scanners. People see a cool thing in a magazine, go find the app as instructed, download it, and scan the code…. only to arrive at A HOME PAGE?! In less time, they could have just entered the website address into their phone.  They have wasted not only their time, but they have been taken advantage of.

So, don’t be an Ovaltine commercial.  Make sure to give your QR scanner some VALUE. Make sure the page they land on is ready to be seen on a mobile device. Make sure it offers something they couldn’t get by just going to the web address. And give them a way to participate, to respond, to interact.

We are excited to share that we have received the 2010 All Star Award from Constant Contact^®, Inc., the trusted marketing advisor to more than 400,000 small organizations worldwide.  We were considered one of Constant Contact’s 2010 top performers and most prolific user of its tools, within Constant Contact’s email marketing, event marketing, social media marketing, and survey products.

“We are so proud to be recognized for our efforts in growing our clients’ businesses through email marketing,” remarks president and CEO Tricia Steele Seifert, “each member of our team has shown a commitment to quality writing, email marketing best practices, and integration of technology in our client campaigns and that work has paid off.”

Constant Contact looked at the following criteria when selecting this year’s All Stars: frequency of campaigns, high open and click-through rates, low bounce rates, mailing list sign up tools, use of reporting and analysis tools, and management of client accounts.

“The Constant Contact All Star Awards are our way of recognizing our customers that have successfully used Constant Contact to market their [clients] companies,” said Gail Goodman, chairman, president and CEO of Constant Contact, “We have some of the most committed, passionate customers out there and we’re proud we can be a part of their continued success.”

Read more:RN-T.com – Steele Agency Inc named one of Constant Contact’s 2010 All Stars

The experiences the user has while interacting with your website, email marketing, social media page, mobile site, or web application often directly determines the success of your advertising and marketing. If the user finds your information layout inconvenient,  slow, or unhelpful while interacting with it, chances are they will quickly move on to a company that has a site that is simple and easy to use even if you are the best option. The effort to stay on par with your competitors and convince users that you truly are “the best in the business” hinges on how you implement the term “The User is King” within your internet marketing strategy.

Some businesses might say that they have no need for this type of strategy because they don’t advertise on the Internet, but they neglect the fact that their website is a marketing and advertising tool in and of itself. A business’ website is the main portal for their customers and clients, and if users can’t get what they need from the site quickly and easily, it’s not doing its job. So if your company has (at the very least) a website, here are 3 things you must do to stay competitive:

Thou Shalt Understand Thine User Experience

When browsing through your website, it’s important to think like one of your customers. If you don’t enjoy spending time on your own website, chances are users do not either. If you’re not sure whether or not your site is user friendly, try asking yourself some critical questions. Is all of the information easily accessible? Is the layout confusing or does it encourage a natural flow? Is contact information easy to locate? Do all of the links work? These points may seem like common sense, but it’s easy for them to be forgotten in the foray of getting your message across. If these questions and answers aren’t getting attention, neither is your message that you want your visitors to receive. Take a moment to look at your site with a critical eye to find where improvements can be made.

Another large part of user experience is providing opportunities for the user to interact with on your site. A mass of static pages can be overwhelming and does little to keep visitors on your website. Installing plugins and widgets on your site can encourage users to find what they need easily and prove to your customers that your website is relevant to their needs. When your business give users reasons to find your website useful, they in turn will ultimately share their discoveries with others which turns them into marketers for your company.

Think user experience isn’t all that important?  Tell that to Digg.  They were kings of social news until they completely overhauled their website, but forgot to think about what the end users wanted and enjoyed about their original design.  As a result, a vast majority of Digg visitors went elsewhere to find what they wanted because Digg’s redesigned site no longer served their needs or added to their enjoyment of being on their website.

Thou Shalt Remain Accessible

In addition to user experience, it’s important to think about how accessible your site is to visitors. With the advent and popularity of smartphones, it’s critical to know how compatible your site is with mobile devices and multiple web browsers. With extensive reports coming out that in five years web access will be almost completely dominated by mobile platforms, it’s important that you don’t get left in the dust. More and more people want their information on the go, and if you’re not giving them the ability to access your site from anywhere, they won’t be giving you their business.

If your site can’t be viewed or takes too long to load on a mobile device or a popular browser, chances are that user is going to move on to a different site out of convenience. If you haven’t looked at your own site on your personal mobile device lately, now is a good time to check it out. Put yourself in your client’s shoes and ask:  Can I easily find the information the visitors are looking for? Is anything broken or not working on the mobile platform? Is it easy to navigate from one area of the site to the next? If any of these questions are difficult to answer, it’s time to develop legitimate mobile version of your website.

Not only should your mobile website have what people are looking for, but if you’re advertising your business you need to use unique landing pages for every ad creative. Whether you’re advertising on the radio, tv, in print, or around the web, you can incorporate the use of unique landing pages in your ad campaigns. Creating these pages for your site allows visitors to access exactly what they’re looking for from the ad that brought them to your site.  Landing pages offer specific information without the hassle of sifting through multiple pages of unrelated subjects.  No sales pitch would make customers dig for information; and neither should your website when used in advertising.

To Thine Own Customers Be True

This year, it’s customer service that is going to set you apart from your competitors. Service is one element of cyber business that can easily be lost behind a computer screen, but don’t let that happen to your company. Elements of customer service in the real world easily translate to the digital aspect of business.  It’s important to remember old school customer service etiquette when dealing with web-based clients.

Using sites such as Facebook to connect with your customers is a great way to provide top-notch service.  Whatever comments are made, good or bad, use the opportunity to respond to your clients in a positive and helpful manner.  Doing so will show your transparency as a company and build brand loyalty.  Dealing with negative feedback in a positive way is a mark of strength for your brand or company. Customers appreciate prompt and courteous service, and now more than ever, it’s easier to oblige them.  Doing so without criticism will definitely help your company grow.

You can also reach out to your customers via e-mail newsletter. This medium is now the most convenient way for many people to access information about your company, deals, and events.  Embracing e-mail marketing may be the best thing you can do for the promotion of your business. Not only do you stay in the forefront of your customer’s minds via their inbox, you give them the opportunity to forward that e-mail to potential customers as well.

Does your business lack brownie points in any of these areas? 2011 should be the year to consider making these things a priority.

ActionView::Helpers::FormTagHelper
check_box_tag(name, value = "1", checked = false, options = {})

For some, the check_box_tag is lacking, especially given the high standard set by much of the rest of Rails forms.

Here’s a straight-forward way of doing a checkbox group from a array in a model. Multiple checked values are stored in one database cell (shown as “db_category” here).

model
serialize :db_category, Hash

#constant array for check box options
CATEGORIES = ['Category I', 'Category II', 'Category III', 'Category IV', 'Category V']

_form
<% cats = Model::CATEGORIES.map{|k| k } %>
<% cats.each do |c| %>
<%= check_box_tag "model[db_category][#{c}]", "1", @model.db_category.include?(c) ? true : false %><%= c %>
<% end %>

index
<% cats = Model::CATEGORIES.map{|k| k } %>
<% @model.each do |c| %>
<% cats.each do |tc| %>
<%= tc.db_category.include?(c) ? '"' + c.to_s + '" ' : "" %>
<% end %>
<% end %>
#outputs selected list with each entry in quotations and a space in between

database
--- !map:HashWithIndifferentAccess
Category I: "1"
Category V: "1"

Note:
@model.db_category.include?(c)
will not run on a nil @model.db_category, meaning if the database for @model – column :db_category is empty, the check for inclusion of c will crash. Therefore check for nil and output false for all categories on new or empty.

<% cats = Model::CATEGORIES.map{|k| k } %>
<% if @model.db_category != nil %>
<% cats.each do |c| %>
<%= check_box_tag "model[db_category][#{c}]", "1", @model.db_category.include?(c) ? true : false %><%= c %>
<% end %>
<% else %>
<% cats.each do |c| %>
<%= check_box_tag "model[db_category][#{c}]", "1", false %><%= c %>
<% end %>
<% end %>

Worksite Fail

The Worksite Fail blog of the C&R website is an attempt to bring humor to the community-at-large and while educating the public and business owners about flagrant violations in a workplace environment.  We feel that this blog also brings a sense of community to the website; it is a special area where auditors and business owners alike can get together and share a chuckle while making the workplace a little safer for everyone involved.

Integrated RSS Feeds

A special feature of the C&R website is the use of the integrated RSS feed from the OSHA website.  Press releases, updated policies, and upcoming OSHA events are all posted in a to-the-minute display within site sidebars.  Not only is this feature useful for employees and auditors within C&R Compliance, but it makes the website a hub for other businesses as well, increasing client and potential client interaction.

Email Newsletter

In addition to the design, structure, and execution of the C&R Website, Steele Agency also manages a comprehensive email newsletter for C&R Compliance.  The use of email allows the company to stay in regular contact with their clients and interested parties, maintaining and building their market and client base in one.

Company Branding

Our team at Steele Agency started with a single company logo for C&R Compliance and developed an entire product brand. All design elements of the C&R website are integrated with various elements of company business and marketing.  Web and email design were streamlined for a polished effect to tie it all together.  A custom power point presentation header was created for C&R, streamlining all presentations to clients and potential clients for an impressive, polished presentation.  Company brochures and literature were also published with the brand designed by Steele Agency to reach out to potential clients in a printed format.

Future Development

SAI DIgital continues to work with C&R Compliance to create other high-tech features for their business.  We are currently developing an online database for company and client documents.  The database will connect the administrative departments of both C&R Compliance and their clients, allowing for a more streamlined chain of communication.  The end goal of the project is to have a functional,  scalable site with online document management that can be accessed from a desktop computer or an on-site mobile device.  In effect, this will be a full-scale software system for audits, inspections, client communication, and policy updates.

SAI Digital took the vision and brainstorming of a company and turned it into a reality, with more to come.  View the website here, at crcompliance.com.

Sydney Adair

Sydney Adair has joined its staff as a writer.

Adair will write, edit, and proofread client website, email, and social content to ensure consistency in style, tone and quality of the client project. Steele Agency is Rome’s only digital marketing agency specializing in web software development, trackable cross-media campaigns, social media and digital advertising.

“Sydney has the ability to quickly learn new information and communicate with a particular audience or market in mind,” said President & CEO, Tricia Steele, “she brings to our client projects a command of language, excellent research skills, and a natural understanding of social media.”

Adair previously spent two years as a paralegal at the law offices of David and Rosetti LLP in Atlanta where she was responsible for maintaining client files and preparing documents relating to worker’s compensation cases.

Adair received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Government from Berry College in 2008. She is continuing her education at Berry College where she is working on a second degree in French. While at Berry, Sydney participated in the Berry College Viking Crew, was the vice president and head delegate of the Model United Nations, served as a resident assistant and volunteered at the Gunby Equine Center.

Sydney’s hometown is Macon, Georgia, but she currently resides in Rome.

Read more:RN-T.com – Adair joins Steele Agency Inc

Site Features

Steele Agency created several new features for RJ Fricks Voila! to create a social and marketing image for the company.  We provided a space for print articles featuring the design talents of Ramona Fricks and her team in the Company News section.  These articles showcase the final product that RJ Fricks Voila! offers, as well as providing a space for reviews of the team’s work.

Future clients can also check out  a gallery of work by Ramona and her team on the Our Work page.  Here, clients can get ideas from Ramona’s past designs, and potential clients can get a feel for the range of design styles that RJ Fricks incorporates into their spaces.

To integrate a complete web presence for Fricks,  Steele Agency also created a Facebook page and a Twitter Feed for the company.  These pages allow the company to communicate with their clients on a regular basis.  Announcements of new collections and upcoming events are the highlight of these pages, improving the functionality of the Fricks web presence.

Virtual Room Building

One of the more exciting features of the site is the integrated E-preview software.  With this console, users can go into the Fricks online catalog and choose furniture by dimensions, room type, or style.  The furniture the user chooses can then be placed into a virtual room planner.  Inside the room planner, the user is free to move furniture and accessories around, while keeping everything to scale.  This is a great tool for designers and their clients to visualize the final product.

Upcoming Features

We still have a few things in the works for this multi-use website.  A fun feature that we’re planning to release soon is a “Where’s Ramona?” page.  Ramona Fricks travels all over the world, moves her team into a client’s house, and after a few days:  Voila! The Fricks team completely changes the look and feel of the space.  For this feature, we plan to integrate Google Maps to the site, where users can click on the map and see before and after photos and videos via Flickr and YouTube.  This exciting avenue for customer interaction and connection will be a great way for users to get the full Fricks experience!

Be sure to take a look around the RJ Fricks Voila! Website, and tell us what you think!  We’re proud of our work, and we hope that you enjoy browsing the gorgeous designs and spaces that Ramona and her team have created.

Slick Web Presence

Kuglar needed a site that would display his credentials and contact information for opposing counsel and interested parties in a slick, impressive manner. Our graphic designer worked directly with the attorney to create a new logo for the firm, which we then integrated throughout the site. The website is a mix of modern design with old-school functionality, something that Kuglar was insistent on. From the main page of the site, viewers are able to navigate to a variety of other areas without a lot of hassle.

Site Functionality

Not only does the Kuglar Law website promote the firm to potential and  future clients, it is also a  functional platform for current clients and opposing counsel.  It is imperative that Kuglar’s credentials and experience are accessible to opposing counsel, courtroom officials, and members of the press during the discovery and trial phases of various claims.  We presented all of the necessary information in a clear, concise manner, while still keeping in tune with the modern feel of the site.

Other Features and Future Development

While it’s often said that “necessity is the mother of invention,” in the case of Kuglar Law, LLC, it might be fair to say that “necessity is the mother of development.”  Kuglar needed the site to be live within 24 hours after his initial request for a web presence, and we were able to deliver.  All elements of design and functionality were taken into account, as were the client’s request for a modern look and impressive feel to the site.  We also developed a LinkedIn page for Craig Kuglar, Esq., to further solidify his web presence.  The website itself is database-driven, and we are working with Kuglar Law, LLC, to develop future updates and portals for Firm and Client use.

If not, don’t worry. Google has delivered a simple solution to help you understand what the internet is and how to use to it. In a simple to read and understand format, Google has developed an e-book to answer all of these fundamental questions and a few more.

Let me introduce you to “20 Things I Learned About Browsers and the  Internet”. It is simple to follow (especially with all the fun illustrations like the one here), but comprehensive enough to educate children and adults alike about the inner workings and makeup of the internet.

Along with the simple understanding of how the Internet works, this e-book also help you understand online security by properly protecting your data from vicious virus and hacking attacks. It also explores the advantages of cloud computing where your data can exist unharmed no matter the amount of hardware damage your personal computer might sustain. Making this a must read for any and every Internet user. To read or browse this extremely helpful Internet tool, simply visit 20thingsilearned.com

Integrated Online Quotes and Online Application

Dynamic Product Map

State Mutual Insurance covers people all over the United States; however, not all products are available in all areas.  To remove confusion from the process of purchasing medicare supplement products , Steele Agency created a Dynamic Product Map of the United States which shows product availability.  Now, users can easily see what products are offered in their state with a simple rollover, as well as when products are expected to be available in their state.

 

Plan Comparison Charts

Search Engine Optimization

So, what happened exactly?  On Thursday, October 7, 2010, customers in GAP’s online store were greeted with a new logo. The iconic denim background was reduced to a gradient square of color in the corner of the image, and the skinny jean font was replaced with bold, black letters. With little more than a Facebook update on GAP’s fan page, a new identity was launched (GAP’s Facebook fan page). In the hours that followed, the results proved to be mixed:  some fans of the company were legitimately angry, others indifferent, but the common thread was confusion (here’s a spot-on open letter from design firm Mat Doplhin).

Amidst the plethora of Facebook comments and Twitter jabs, GAP attempted to turn the tables with another Facebook update announcing the open-sourcing of the creation of a permanent new logo.  They received a range of responses from sarcastic clip art to genuine design concepts. Finally, on Thursday, October 12, 2010, less than a week after the new logo’s launch, the old logo reappeared on GAP’s website. In addition, the president of the company, Marka Hansen, stated in a press release, “We’ve learned a lot in this process. And we are clear that we did not go about this in the right way. We recognize that we missed the opportunity to engage with the online community.  This wasn’t the right project at the right time for crowd sourcing. There may be a time to evolve our logo, but if and when that time comes, we’ll handle it in a different way.” From GAP’s recent mistake, large and small businesses alike can take away several lessons.

First:  Don’t underestimate your customer’s ability and willingness to identify with your brand. While unassuming, the old GAP logo had been around for over twenty years, a fact which they continued to repeat on their Facebook fan page, and that resonates with their consumers. Whether your business has been around for twenty years, two years, or two months, chances are your clients will recognize your logo. Consistency, while often underappreciated, can be the key in some cases.

Second:  When making changes, gradually introducing them to your customers can go a long way. Imagine if GAP had posted not only one Facebook update (if they were truly trying the viral marketing route), but several updates leading up to the big unveiling. A simple “Be on the lookout for our newest online addition…” might have peaked everyone’s interest rather than immediately inviting criticism.  This way, buzz is still generated about the upcoming change, but in a more positive and anticipatory light.

Third:  Be confident in your changes and stand by them. Unfortunately, critics abound in the viral community. However, as a business owner or marketing director, if you feel that it truly is time for a change and that it will positively influence your business, fear not! Like GAP, no one is immune from criticism. By giving in to the pressure of an angry few, GAP has lost creative time and money spent on their new logo. If you are confident in the services offered by your business, and that the image you present to your customers is spot-on, then the detractors will eventually lose their steam. Granted, small businesses might not generate bad press releases over a simple logo, but change in any capacity is often met with resistance.

Whether this was a stunt or a legitimate “whoopsie daisy” logo recall, one thing is for sure:  GAP’s name is definitely out there in the marketing sphere. Essentially, the new logo created media buzz and brought consumer attention to the company. It also sparked and possibly reignited a fierce sense of brand loyalty among its customers. After all is said and done, isn’t that the best outcome that any change in business could possibly have?

labs.saidigital.co – WordPress Simple QR Code Creator Widget

See the Joomla Extensions Directory Listing.

Info

Install the module, and create and enable a mod_simpleyoutubelist. Then select a width and height, by default these are – width: 100% (of containing division), and auto (browser-calculated height). Adjustments can be made in percents or pixel values.

Download

LICENSE:
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED “AS IS”, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.