Happy Holidays to all!

Have a safe and joyous holiday season!

This Halloween, if you’re in the mood to see ghosts, watch zombies, play with werewolves, converse with vampires and hang with superheros, all while taking in some great live Halloween music from a local band, and enjoying food, games and other entertainment, then come Friday, October 28th, there’s no other place you should be than Scare in the Square! And the best part is, there’s no admission to attend!

Below are the highlights, but you can get full details with directions, times, parking info, games, entertainment and food vendors at www.scareinthesquare.com.

- So, when is it again? Friday, October 28th, 2011.

- And what time? 5:30 pm to 9:00 pm.

- I forgot, where is it? Market Square in downtown Knoxville.

- How much does it cost to attend? It’s $0, that means no admission whatsoever! But you should bring a little money for some of the food and entertainment vendors.

- So, what is this Scare in the Square all about?? Glad you asked! Check it out…

• Live Music by Bedtime for Dracula
• Live Performance of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” by Momentum Dance Lab
• Candy Crawl on the Square
• Costume Contests with Prizes
• Pumpkin Carving Contests among downtown businesses
• Face Painting by Royal Magic Events
• Magic Show by the Pressley Brothers
• Fortune Telling by Wisdom Wagon
• The Paranormal Sensation with special guest appearance by Eunice Hatfield
• 2 Haunted Bounce Castles (will close at dusk for safety purposes, so come early!)
• Kid’s Halloween Games
• Spooky Photo Booth from Memories in a Flash
• Creepy Critters from the Knoxville Zoo
• Food Vendors, including Bread of Heaven BBQ, Scooter Doo’s Hot Dogs, and Rita’s Italian Ice
• And much more! Much, MUCH, more…

So, if you’re 10 months old, or 10,000 (you know, like Vampires), then you should come check out Scare in the Square, and bring your friends, family, spouse, and anyone else you think has a cool costume!

Don’t forget, mark your calendars for Friday, October 28, 2011, from 5:30 pm to 9:00 pm, to come celebrate Halloween in a fun, family-friendly atmosphere on Market Square in downtown Knoxville.

Aside from having lots of valuable information about their company, a modern business website has a specific call-to-action instructing visitors to fill out a contact or quote request form, called a conversion form. Since many businesses aren’t available by phone 24/7, an online form allows a prospective customer to reach out and start a conversation any time at their convenience.

In recent years, social media has become a very important part of an overall internet marketing strategy. There again, the website is a destination point for traffic originating from social networks, where the owner hopes to convert that traffic into leads. It’s also a common trend for business websites to link to all of the social networks they’re part of so people can learn more about their customers, employees and corporate culture.

We recently created Slamdot Circle, a free Facebook-driven application that helps small businesses connect with each other and spread buzz about their companies through recommendations. Businesses are promoted on the Facebook Wall of the person who recommends them, so all of their friends can see. We developed this application to help our local customers connect and do business with each other.

Phil Williams chatting with Sean:

Phil Williams and Daniel catching up:

We had a great conversation about a number of topics, from mobile and web-based apps, website design and marketing, social media, SEO and more. Here is the full, uninterrupted podcast if you want to check out the entire segment:

The acronym NAP stands for Name, Address, and Phone number. Meaning your proper business name, your primary business address, and your primary business telephone number. These three pieces of information are vital your success, both online and offline, but especially in the world of web marketing.

The reason they’re so important is because there are hundreds, even thousands, of online directories and websites that will aggregate information to create a listing or profile for your company, and a lot of them feed from one another. So you may have listings for your business in mulitple directories, but with a slight variation on your business name, or a different phone number (such as an old one), or different addresses. Because of this, your online presence is spread out and disconnected. Ideally, you want to have one consistent way to present these 3 key pieces of information about your business so they will match in every place possible, increasing the power of your brand and company online.

So, make sure your business name is consistent. This means picking between ABC Business, ABC Business Incorporated, and ABC Business Inc., then using the same format every time, over and over, in every place possible. Also, update existing websites where your business name may be listed differently so it’s correct.

The same is true for your primary address and main business number. Pick the ideal one that is OK to use across the web, and begin to consistently use it.

Making your NAP consistent will benefit you heavily, and it’s something we always recommend to our customers. If you need help or have questions, please get in touch with us to see what we can do for you!

• Notifications when fans interact with your page or posts
• A place to showcase photos along the top of your page
• A news feed for your page
• The ability to Like and post on other pages as your page