Facebook has just unveiled a new feature called Facebook Places. It’s based around the same idea of “checking in” to places you visit, usually using an app or a web browser on a mobile phone. This idea has already been explored by products like Foursquare, Gowalla, and SCVNGR. The difference between these services and Facebook’s implementation is users: Facebook just passed the half billion mark for users, and there’s a very good chance that you already use Facebook to promote your business through a fan page. Additionally, Facebook Places is already available and prominently displayed on the Facebook iPhone app (which has over 100 million active users–a fifth of all Facebook users), as well as being available on the touch.facebook.com mobile site for other GPS-enabled phones.
Facebook Places can be an excellent way for business owners, especially businesses like restaurants, bars, and the like, to promote themselves. When a user checks in with Facebook Places, it shows up in their friends’ news feed like a status does. You can also tag other friends that are there with you:
Notice how the business name shows up in the feed item. Not only does it notify the user’s friends of where they are (possibly drawing more people to the business), it’s also an implicit endorsement for your business.
Facebook Places will do nothing for your business if you don’t encourage people to use it. The Facebook Help Center article for “Places for Advertisers” has several helpful tips, including how to set up your place page and how to claim your place so you can manage the address and other information. The Help Center article for Places is also a good place to look for general information. Running promotions or offering incentives for people who check in is another way to encourage people to use Places. The service is still very new, but the chance that Facebook will eventually allow you to run promotions or targeted advertising for Places users is fairly high. Starting to plan now will help you to be ready when that time comes.
Filed under: Internet Strategy, Mobile Applications by Jarett Millard Be the First to Comment
On Saturday August 21st, I have the honor of presenting at the Association of Bridal Consultants Regional Meeting. The event is being held at the Renaissance Hotel at the World Golf Village. My topic for the presentation is Internet Strategy, which essentially means that I will show the attendees how to use the Internet to grow their business. I will touch on making sure that their website is optimized for search, developing a solid SEO strategy, focusing on good website content (content is king!!), using social media, pay per click marketing and other web based business tools. Joining me in the presentation is Chris Kennelly of Kennetic Productions. Chris is a video expert and when you think of dynamic web content, video is at the top. I am really looking forward to the sessions.
The meeting is only 1 of 3 major events I have planned for that day. Starting at 8 am, my son Kyle and I are going to help the Downtown Council get ready for the Jaguars by painting the Paw Prints down Adams Street. The Paw prints start near Main Street and go almost all the way to the newly minted Everbank Field. After the meeting, Kelli and I are attending the first preseason home game with the Jaguars taking on the Miami Dolphins. We are season ticket holders and when we are not building websites in Jacksonville or implementing search engine optimization, we really love going to the games.
Filed under: Internet Strategy by Joe Lemire Be the First to Comment
Most internet users practice and expect www in URL’s whether typed into an address bar, linked in an email, or given via word of mouth. Some have broken free from this and learned including www is not always necessary. User-friendly websites take this into account by allowing access using the both options. Three examples include bing.com, google.com, and yahoo.com. Click on any of these three non-www links and notice the browser loads the appropriate website with “dubs.” If your looking to establish a non-www to www redirect for this purpose or to maintain good search engine and website practices, here are instructions for websites hosted with Internet Information Services (IIS) version 6.
First, create the non-www IIS website. The host header for this website needs to be domain.com, without the “dubs.” For this website’s Home Directory, choose “A Redirection to a URL” and enter a value of http://www.domain.com$V$Q. The $V$Q argument after the domain will collect and redirect additional path information such as directory and file name. Lastly, for “The client will be sent to,” select “The exact URL entered above” and “A permanent redirection for this resource”. This website will receive non-www requests and send them to the www website.
The non-www IIS website will send request to the www website, including additional path information.
Second, create the www IIS website. The host header for this website needs to be www.domain.com, with the “dubs.” For the website’s Home Directory, choose “A directory located on this computer” and assign the appropriate directory. This website will receive redirects from non-www requests and from www requests, making it the de facto website of the two IIS websites.
To get everything working, the website’s DNS needs to be updated. The primary A Record and the www A Record need to point to the IP address of the computer that IIS is installed in. Once the DNS has been updated and is propagated, the non-www to www redirect will work!
Filed under: Web Hosting by Chris Edwards Be the First to Comment
It is important to factor in screen resolution when designing a website. This is especially true when developers design in high resolutions while most surf the internet with average screen resolutions. This begs the question, what is the most common resolution used by the web surfing public? We reviewed our website statistics from last month to get an idea.
Screen resolution statistics for elykinnovation.com, July 2010
In July, 21% of our visitors had a screen resolution of 1280×800, 16% had a screen resolution of 1024 x 768, and 11% had a screen resolution of 1280 x 1024. These three screen resolution groups represented the majority of our visitors. If we were to redesign our website this month, our design would be friendly to these resolutions, which it already is!
Filed under: Website Design by Chris Edwards Be the First to Comment
| Do you have a Google AdWords account and have been confronted with the question on what network(s) to advertise on? Your options are the Content Network and the Search Network. So, what’s the difference? |
Content Network Example
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Content Network
Google’s Content Network is a very large group of websites that partner with Google AdWords to display ads on their websites. This partnership allows advertisers a greater reach on the internet and affords website owners extra income for advertising real estate. Ads are displayed on websites where the ad is relevant to the website’s content or theme. Advertising on the Content Network gives advertisers a wider reach to their audience, but measuring the response becomes difficult with limited reporting. |
Search Network Example
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Search Network
Google’s Search Network is the search engine where organic results are listed based on a user’s search. In the same manner, a user’s search will list the relevant ads. The most common portal of the Search Network is Google’s home page. Other portals include the Google Search bar sometimes found embedded in a browser or non-Google website. Advertising on the Search Network provides thorough reporting to measure your markets behavior but limits the ads to user-based searches. |
| Now that your educated on Google’s Content Network and Search Network, there is more to learn with Google AdWords or other pay-per-click programs. Let us help! Our experience can establish and maintain a successful marketing campaign, provide training, and hand you the reigns in good time. Give us a call! |
Filed under: Pay Per Click Marketing by Chris Edwards Be the First to Comment
Blogs allow business owners to interact with their visitors and increase their website visibility, especially with regard to search engines. Now that you have a blog on your website, how do you proceed? We have found creating blog topics and content writing are common roadblocks for new bloggers.
The first obstacle is writer’s block and you don’t have to be a writer to get it. Keep a sticky note nearby and pen down ideas during your work week. Revisit them later and decide which idea you can blog about the best. This will usually be a specific topic that you have detailed knowledge on. You will be surprised on the many ideas you get! We blog about several topics from information we learned in our industry such as web design trends or about a specific website project we completed. The scope of our blogs range from easy-to-understand such as content writing to very technical issues such as a specific Yahoo Search Marketing problem. Sometimes they are completely off topic such as “pimping” a grill, just for fun! We have learned that “blogger’s block” usually disappears once you get the hang of it.
Coming up with the content is usually the second obstacle for new bloggers. Content is a huge factor in getting ranked in search engines. But do not ignore the human visitors to the blog. Write content for visitors first by making an appropriate title and provide clear, supporting content. Include quotes, pictures, and movies to supplement the point. Eventually this will be published to the internet so polish it up! Then, determine what keywords are appropriate to the particular blog post and include them in the content where it makes sense and will not confuse the reader. Including relevent keywords can help your website in search engines. Avoid “spamming” keywords in the content- if a visitor feels spammed, the search engines can recognize it too and penalize you with lower rankings.
If you can get past the writer’s block and can develop relevant, keyword-rich content, your blog is well on its way to effectively communicating with your potential and current customers, in addition to showing search engines you mean business!
Filed under: Internet Strategy by Chris Edwards Be the First to Comment
The post-thunderstorm haze of clouds makes an interesting filter for the evening’s setting sun. As I got the camera out, storms still lingered just past the south bank of downtown Jacksonville and into the Orange Park area leaving the north bank in an eerie amber glow. It may not be the cheeriest of images, but I love this calm after the storm feel and wanted to share this picture with you. If you don’t see your screen size below, send us a message, and we’ll make one just for you!
Filed under: Cool Stuff by Brandon Be the First to Comment
