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Using Social Media to Grow Your Business

Digiwize — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 21:42:58 +0000

It’s nearly impossible to read about marketing recently and not hear some guru talking about social media and why your company needs to take advantage of it. Social media, networks and the tools behind them are a fantastic way to promote your business, connect with customers and drive traffic to your website. Like anything else, if you want to see results, you’re going to have to put in the time, effort and possibly money. More importantly, you need to get knowledgeable or hire someone to help you understand what it takes to use social media to grow your business. The bottom line is you need to have a strategy or plan of attack to make it happen.

Knowledge
The first thing you really need to understand is how social media works. I’d recommend learning all you can about social media websites that can help you. A few that come to mind are Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Digg. Understand that not all social media sites are good for businesses. Likewise, learn about the various tools that surround social media, like blogging, RSS feeds, podcasts, viral video, user-generated news, widgets and wikis, just to name a few. It’s easy to get overwhelmed with all the lingo and various tools, but remember, you don’t need to use them all. Most importantly, realize that your social media marketing is only as good as your strategy or plan of attack, which we cover below. For example, many social media websites are specific to your industry and are a better resource than the more generic, large ones where you may get lost. A good example of a smaller social-networked website is ImageKind, a community for creating, buying and selling high-end framed artwork.

Time and Effort
Social media marketing isn’t like the old days where you simply buy some ad space and hope for the best. The objective behind social media is getting out there, joining websites that have similar interests with your business and partaking in the conversations. It’s an ongoing commitment that requires time and resources.

Plan of Attack

At the heart of successful social media marketing is strategy. I would offer these four areas to concentrate on:

Audience:
Not unlike traditional marketing, your target audience is the key to a successful campaign. What social networks are your clients visiting? Do they read blogs and share in conversations? Are there industry specific websites? How about groups in Facebook or LinkedIn? Go to where your audience is and start a conversation.

Goals:
Now that you know who you’re going after and where to market to them, what are your goals? Is it to drive traffic to your website? Or is it simply to get your company’s name out there for brand recognition? Concurrently, you must understand your audience and build goals that are realistic and possible. Knowing what your audience is looking for is fundamental in reaching your goals.

Tools and Tactics:
Like we mentioned above, there are many social media tools and ways to engage and communicate with your customers and clients. Choose those that you believe will work best with your goals above. For example, maybe you’re a food company targeting teens. You might consider building a fun Facebook game that allows the audience to have a food fight with their favorite “branded” food products from your company.
Integration:
Social media is most likely not your only marketing channel. At least it shouldn’t be. If possible, look at ways to integrate you social media marketing into your broader marketing plan. For us at Digiwize, we created our own Content Management System, called Brightegg, and built a social networked of designers around it to help grow it.

For some great resources on social media marketing, see below:

Build a Better Landing Page

Digiwize — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 19:35:03 +0000

It’s amazing how many companies and advertisers use Google Ad Words, then direct their traffic to a lame, useless homepage that doesn’t capture the visitor’s attention or help convert him or her into a viable lead or sale. What is a landing page you ask? It’s a customized web page that visitors are pushed to, either directly or from a link (see example). Land pages should be focused and capture a visitor’s attention by offering a particular product or service that aims to convert him or her into a sale or take some form of action that will ultimately lead to a sale. So, let’s look at some bad examples followed by some good ones. In the below example, we focused on the key word “windows” from Google Ad Word visitors.

The bad, lame and just-plan-ugly landing pages:

Example one:

The main problem is the user is taken to the company’s homepage and supposed to figure out where to go next. There’s no call to action; no form to fill out or even a pricing guide. And while design is not as important, it can have an impact on the brand and say a lot about a company. In this case, the design is old looking and doesn’t represent the company well. Moreover, the messaging is weak and doesn’t effectively provide actionable steps or incentives that could help the user make a better choice.

Example two

Where do I start? This company doesn’t even take you to a page that looks like it has anything to do with windows, although they mention it in the ad. The main messaging focuses on aluminum products, so users are instantly just confused and left wondering why they were even brought to this page. Like the example above, there is no call to action or focused messaging intended to convert the user. How about at least some images of windows, links to windows and pricing? The design is not helping their cause either.

The good, effective and attractive landing pages:

Example one:

This is a landing page, not just a webpage or homepage. Notice how there’s limited navigation or links to click on. The main call to action is a short questionnaire on the right side to help narrow down the visitor’s choices and push him or her to submit a form. The look and feel is inviting and the messaging clean and informative.

All good landing pages have first and foremost, a call to action that is targeted to a specific audience. Often times, the call to action can be a free offering or a free download or something that entices the visitor. If you’re selling a product, that’s your call to action. Good landing pages are streamlined and targeted directly to match the visitors’ expectations. If a user clicks on replacement windows, don’t take them to a page that shows doors and windows and other products. Take them to a customized landing page. Good landing pages look professional, clean and free of links that could potentially take your visitors away from the page. Good landing pages use short, effective copy writing that either asks or answers questions, like: “Are you tired of paying big money for car insurance?” or “Save 50% on these quality shoes – purchase today!”

Well, that’s a nice little synopsis. I could go on but there are already tons of great articles on the subject. See below and good luck.

Case Study: Nzymsys

Digiwize — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 21:16:22 +0000

Nzymsys pioneers the latest advances in natural enzyme technology to develop distinctly more effective enzyme-based products. The result is better performance and safer, green products. Prominent advances include state-of-the-art enzyme stabilization and advanced pathogen-specific engineering. Nzymsys products satisfy a wide range of needs, including all-purpose cleaning, indoor air quality, mold prevention and removal and industrial odor controls.

Background:

Nzymsys was looking to redesign its current website to more accurately reflect its brand in order to position themselves more effectively for their two target audiences: industry and consumers. Concurrently, the company realizes the need to be able to sell their products directly online and required an ecommerce system with a shopping cart. Finally, Nzymsys is looking to use their website more effectively to gain leads and send out email marketing campaigns.

The Solution:

Nzymsys was very clear that they wanted something bold; something that would compete against its competitors and represent the green movement the company so clearly represents. That’s exactly what they received, in addition to a website that was much lighter and clean, making better use of white space. Concurrently, it showcased a new Nzymsys brand by using less heavy content and more copywriting, such as bullets and product pictures.

The website was built in Digiwize’s award-winning content management system (CMS) called Brightegg. With Brightegg, Nzymsys is now able to manage its website without having to know any programming or design programs. The system was designed specifically for businesses and gives Nzymsys personnel the ability to add and manage all content, images, navigation, upload PDF, Word and PowerPoint presentations and add smart forms to collect data. Moreover, it comes with a full blogging system, Google Analytics as well as a handful of other features.

Finally, Digiwize built Nzymsys a shopping cart to easily sell, manage and marketing their totally organic, green products online.

» View the corporate website
» View the ecommerce website

Benefits:

A New Online Brand
Digiwize worked with the management team at Nzymsys to rebrand the company, making it more modern, friendly and in sync with the company’s “green” messaging. The end result is a visibly stunning website that helps Nzymsys compete more effectively, market their products more easily and increase awareness to existing customers with greater control and precision.

Two New Websites:
Digiwize worked with Nzymsys to build a new corporate website on the Digiwize CMS platform called Brightegg and also built an ecommerce shopping cart for the company to sell their products online. Both websites are search engine friendly, can be easily managed without any special software or in depth technical know-how.

A Trusted Partner:
Nzymsys’ decision to choose Digiwize was instrumental in forming a trusted relationship between the two companies. Both companies agree that collaborating on future projects is something to pursue and look forward to doing together.

Case Study: UConn OTC

Digiwize — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 21:15:07 +0000

The University of Connecticut’s Office of Technology Commercialization’s (OTC) main objective is capitalizing on Connecticut’s investment in world-class facilities, research and people to support the formation of new technology companies and jobs. OTC is comprised of four programs that collaboratively work to spur innovation and entrepreneurial activity in Connecticut.

Background:

The OTC turned to Digiwize to redesign their website, but perhaps more importantly, strategically plan the direction, brand position and technology used to make their website a viable, useful tool the program could use to promote their messaging, expert researchers and pull the four programs together to more effectively position the organization to key target audiences.

The Solution:

In order to begin a cohesive, tangible redesign encompassing the above direction, a clear strategy was laid out. This process involved planning the user experience, navigation and interface design. Digiwize also planned for the growth of the site, both from a technical and marketing position, making sure the site would scale up successfully as the traffic and marketing initiatives grew. Finally, Digiwize worked with members of OTC, interviewing a multitude of faculty, staff, students and looking to existing “log files” to understand the current traffic of users coming to the site.

One of the main goals of OTC was a unified brand with each of the four programs differentiated with its own look and feel. While they each needed to look similar, they each needed to standout and present their own mini-brand. Therefore, the final look and feel of the website was designed to be clean, simple and professional. The main objective involved modernizing the site, making it a vibrant and comfortable destination for visitors.

The new OTC site was built and developed on the a content management system (CMS). Moving the site to CMS gives OTC staff (students, interns, faculty) the power to manage their entire website. No software is required. Some of the main features that Digiwize provided are the ability to add / delete pages, administrative controls, multiple editors, smart forms for collecting data, insertion of images, files (PDFs), videos, podcasts, Flash and RSS publishing. It comes with built-in blogging, Google analytics for measuring traffic and automatic site structuring to control the navigation and customer experience.

» View the website

Benefits:

A Killer New Website:
The ultimate benefit for the OTC is a new, vibrant website that effectively targets key audience members with important messaging about the programs and its expert researchers.

One Cohesive Brand:
Digiwize created a consistent, modern website that effectively ties the four distinct programs of the OTC together while concurrently providing a new platform to build future messages, targeted web pages, videos feeds and a blogging platform to share news, stories and build a more devoted following.

Content Management:
The new OTC website is now on a Content Management system that allows OTC personnel control of their website, including page navigation, uploading of videos, images, files and pod casts as well as administrative controls to add editors and subscribers.

Careers

Digiwize — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 20:49:17 +0000

Digiwize is always looking for talented web designers, developers and online marketing pros. It’s kind of like dating… we’re looking for chemistry, a good match, and those who work hard, like to smile, stay positive and consistently improve themselves. The quote below sums up the attitude we’re looking for:

“I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” Michael Jordan

Technically Savvy Web Designers

We’re looking for talented web designers who are very familiar with Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) to work on an exciting new projects.

Candidates must be an expert in CSS-related design as well as a purely talented web designer. Candidates must also have a good understanding of basic PHP programming.

Experienced candidates who can provide samples of work only. Other requirements include:

Must be a self-starter
Must be able to critically think
Must love the web and understand the latest web 2.0 trends (social networking, RSS, blogs, tagging)
Must have an outstanding portfolio to show off
Nice to haves: experience in Wordpress and / or other CMS systems, SEO knowledge and Flash experience

If you’re a talented, hard working web designer who wants to be part of a cool, explosive, local company, then email us your resume to info [at] digiwize.com

Digiwize
One Technology Dr.
Tolland, CT 06084

Content Management System

Digiwize — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 18:54:12 +0000

Brightegg is a powerful web-based Content Management System (CMS) designed to give our clients an easy way to manage and update their websites. With Brightegg, it’s a snap to add and manage all content, images, navigation, upload PDF, Word and PowerPoint presentations and add smart forms to collect data. Moreover, it comes with a full blogging system, secure client pages, administrative controls, google analytics as well as a handful of other features to help grow your online presence.

Brightegg Features List

One-Click Design Change: You can change the entire design of your website using our one-click design change feature. How? Simply give us a new design and we’ll get it up on the platform for you to make the change with the click of one button.
Build For Custom Design Integration: Brightegg is flexible and specifically built to work with sophisticated, professional website designs. Design how you want and our system works with the design you provide us.
Customizable Components: Easily customize your website by adding your logo, slogan, site information (meta tags), company contact information, contact form and footer information in one easy to maintain area.
Website Builder / Manager: Our website builder / manager is our crown jewel, allowing you and your company the ability to build, manage and market your website. You will have virtually complete control over your website, with the ability to add and manage content, layout, images, video, users, forms and much, much more.
Administrative Controls: Administrative Controls are where you control the behind-the-scenes operations of your site. For example, you can add editors, change settings, site information and much more. Plus, you control what areas of the site your editors have access to, making it quite powerful.
Multiple Editors: Editors are provided a username and password and given permissions to make changes to your website.
Integrated Full Website Search: Brightegg comes with a built-in search feature so that your visitors never have a bad experience on your website and can always find what they’re looking for, each and every time.
One Step Publishing: One step publishing allows you to publish new and existing pages in seconds. This allows you to create URLs to give friends over AIM or email quickly and effectively, all from an interface specifically designed for quick publishing.
Forms Builder/Capture Leads: Easily add dynamic forms to your website to capture leads and collect information from your site visitors. Our forms builder is smart and extremely flexible, allowing for creation of forms via a graphical interface. Collected form data can be submitted to an email address, a dedicated database or both.
Automatic Site Structuring: Our dynamic layout handles the presentation, including the navigation. Clients have complete control over the site structure and can easily make changes using a drag and drop feature.
Built In Blog: Take advantage of our blogging platform and create a new blog in minutes. The best part is your blog will look and function seamlessly with your website, making updates, RSS feeds and building your own online community a cinch.
Google Traffic Statistics: Google offers the best in website statistics and provides a number of advanced features. Whether you just want to know how many visitors are coming to your site or want to run an advanced marketing campaign, Google Analytics is perfect and integrated with Brightegg.
RSS Publishing: When you post content to the pages on your site, Brightegg makes it easy to syndicate that content for news readers. Create unlimited RSS feeds and keep your audience up-to-date on your latest news and product announcements. Of course your blog will also have it’s own RSS feed.
Dedicated Customer Database: Our clients are given a dedicated database for storing vital prospect and client data gathered from your website using our form builder feature. This data can be easily exported for effective email-marketing campaigns.
Secure Client Access: Create a secure, private area that only your clients can access. Can also be used to password protect individual pages throughout your website.

University of Connecticut

Digiwize — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 16:12:51 +0000

Services Provided:
Creative Direction, Web Design, Development, Content Management, Wordpress

Description
The University of Connecticut’s Office of Technology Commercialization (OTC) was looking to build one cohesive brand from their four programs, concurrently taking their website to the next level by using a variety of techniques like blogging, video and RSS feeds. A Content Management System (CMS) was also used and built to the exact specifications the OTC required in order to manage and grow the site over time.

» View the website or
» Contact us to learn more