Every individual has experienced the pain and suffering that goes along with a web page that opens as slow as molasses. Often times, the frustration of how long it takes deters you from even wanting to see whats on the page. Thus, businesses whose online IT infrastructure do not support quick page uploads can really effect their bottom line. Check out the infographic below to see how loading time can have negative side effects for your company!                                               [...]

Ron Johnson, CEO of JC Penney, is in the hot seat due to a $552 million reported Q4 2012loss and the company’s core customers taking flight into the arms of competitors. Sales were down during the crucial holiday season by 28% year-over-year. In 2011, Johnson rode in on his white horse from Apple, set to completely revamp the stagnant Penney brand. He worked under Jobs as the SVP of Retail Operations where he pioneered the experience of the Apple retail storeand the Genius Bar. Before that, Johnson was vice president of merchandising for Target and responsible for the booming success [...]

Charlottesville is very Zen today with the arrival of the Dalai Lama in downtown Cville. Earlier today there was a huge line waiting outside the Paramount to see and listen to his holiness, and at 1:30pm EST he held a public talk at the nTelos Wireless Pavilion on “Beyond Religion: Ethics for a Whole World.” In celebration of this exciting Charlottesville event, we wanted to share with you our own Zen points on marketing so you can find your own online enlightenment. Do one thing at a time In the world of marketing, we are no stranger to multi-tasking. While this [...]

Recently we discussed some best practices for responding to customer’s tweets on Twitter, encouraging you to respond to the good, the bad, and the ugly. By monitoring what’s being said about you on the internet and communicating with your customers, you can quickly turn a non-fan into a fan, and an already-fan into a super-fan. I recently learned about the perfect example of this type of excellent of online service. Chobani, who we’ve already highlighted as a company on Pinterest who is getting it right, is also killing it with customer service via Twitter!  A good friend of mine, who [...]

Good websites are the heart and soul of any company’s success. They tell you customers about your services and how to contact you.  But how do you make your website great? These basic tips allow you to show your company’s personality and create a great environment for your potential customer. Color: Does your company have a cool logo or very specific colors? Integrate these into your website design in a creative way. A popular technique is to use the colors of the company logo as the background and text of the website. Customer will more easily recognize a consistent pattern/color/ [...]

If you’re on Twitter, you’ve most likely noticed a shift in subject matters this past week. The Olympic games have taken over prime time, my go-to news websites, and now, my Twitter feed. Since the Beijing games, social media usage has increased dramatically all-around, which has naturally lead to more online coverage for this year’s competitions. So far we’ve witnessed good and bad practices by athletes and audiences on Twitter- it could be beneficial for businesses to pay attention to these practices to learn how to tweet like champions. See below for tips on how to use Twitter as an effective [...]

As a company, you should already have a Twitter account, but it is important to remain active on this site as well. Twitter is a great way to keep in touch with those who love your product and those who have an issue with your product. To take advantage of Twitter you need to be responding to the good, the bad, and the ugly tweets. Responding to tweets is a great way to show that you care about your customers. Here are several major companies that are actively responding to their customers in a great way! They all have different [...]

Point. Click. Record. It sounds easy enough, but screencasts, a video of your screen with a voice over, are a little more complicated. Screencasting is not a new tool, but it is definitely an underutilized and misused tool. There are many great sites that make screencasting easy enough for the user but if you don’t know how to take advantage of the site or the video, they can fall short for you audience. Screenr is a popular free screencast web-application. One of this site’s greatest assets is its ease and simplicity.  Simply click the large button that says “Launch screen [...]

Videos are a great way to make your online campaign more visual and interactive. Companies can use videos on their sites to draw in leads by showing not only the services offered, but also, the company’s personality.   1. Webinars: Webinars are a great way to draw in an interested crowd. A webinar allows you to reach a much larger audience than an in person conference and is much less expensive than travel and conference fees. With a specific topic, only those who are truly interested in your product will take the time to watch your webinar live. They can [...]

With the world of social media growing and revolutionizing at the speed of light, the community has been seeking a metric to measure social influence. As the first social media barometer of its kind, Klout has emerged as that sought after metric. Not only does Klout have an impact in the virtual world, but it can open doors and rack up perks in the real world as well.   Beyond measuring social influence, businesses and companies can reap the benefits of having clients and customers with high Klout scores. Airlines have been some of the first businesses to tap into [...]