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Flat Design

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Flat Web Design – Simple, Uncluttered and User-Friendly!

Everything comes full circle, even web design. You might not have seen it yet, but there’s a brand new trend in town, and its called is flat web design. It’s sweeping the industry, and the thing is it’s actually been around since Microsoft introduced it in 2006.

So exactly what is it that makes a “flat” web design?

Flat design is seen as simple, bright solid colors, a lot of white space, and the absence of drop shadows, gradients, and textures that have been a major element of a web designer’s arsenal for some time now. Often typography plays a prominent role in flat web design. Flat web design is a “smooth” solution whose aim is to eliminate as many decorative elements of a “3D” type look as is feasible.

Why the rebellion from 3D to flat design?

[Read more…]

How to Use Twitter Hashtags in Your Small Business

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Anyone Know the Right Way to Use #Hashtags?

Know what a #Hashtag is? If you’re not a social media maven, and especially Twitter, you might not have a clue what a #hashtag is. No need for that being the case any longer. A hashtag is a # followed by a word or phrase to perform a number of functions. Twitter users attach hashtags to tweets as search conventions, a method of categorizing, and marketing tactics. #Hashtags can also be used in other social media platforms.

Some #Hashtags basic guidelines

Make sure the keyword you are using is not in use elsewhere, or you may be in for a major surprise. This requires doing a little research (a search on Search.Twitter.com) to find out if that keyword will be a wise decision. Also, don’t use misleading #hashtags, even with seriously trending keywords. This will most certainly not work in your favor. And above all, proofread before you create that #hashtag, lest you become a victim of your own hashtag.

4 Ways to win with #hashtags

  1. Make your #hashtags short and direct – Making it brief and direct is the best approach to win with #hashtags. If you wish to combine more than one, fine, but be sure not to string together a small army of them, as that will actually annoy your readers and label you an amateur.
  2. Make them #hashtags to remember – Remarkable #hashtags are much more likely to be shared widely. Give consideration to this and you just may get your wish and have it go viral.
  3. Use them on multiple social media channels – A #hashtag isn’t much use if it’s not shared. Although started on Twitter, #hashtags have become employed across multiple social media channels including Facebook, Google , LinkedIn and Pinterest. This can help to instill the #hashtag into the minds of their audience.
  4. Make use of keywords – When possible, work in your brand or major keywords. It is not always feasible, so choose judiciously.

Creating and employing memorable #hashtags can keep your brand and conversation before your social media audience, and help perpetuate your campaigns. Give it a try today!

Does SEO Work

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Signs that your SEO is working

It’s easy to feel left out in the dark when it comes to understanding how effective your SEO campaign is. Even though many believe SEO is akin to voodoo, there are several tips and tools you can utilize to see exactly how well you (or they!) are doing.

3 Tips for checking the progress of your SEO

Getting search engine visitors? — The entire point of SEO is to improve the chances of your site getting a larger share of visitors from organic search.

Are your pages ranking? — If you can’ find your pages on the first few pages of Google for the keywords you’re going after, there is work to do.

Does your site convert? — While oodles of visitors is good, they’re nothing but a drain on bandwidth if they aren’t providing the desired result, whatever that happens to be.

3 Awesome Tools you can use!

[Read more…]

How to Get More Referrals

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How to Get More Leads

Want more client referrals? Here’s how!

Most businesses are always looking for ways to find more client referrals. However as outlined by GrowThink.com some 58.6% of us don’t even take the time to request them! This isn’t something that takes place automagically, but instead is the offspring of a clear, targeted strategy used consistently. To help you catch the vision listed below are seven easy methods for getting more client referrals, faster and easier than you might have believed possible!

  1. Recruit your best customers – Your best customers could be your best option, because they are already fond of what you do don’t need enticement to refer you to their circle of friends. You simply need to ask them! [Read more…]

Website Homepage Mistakes

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Top 15 website faux pas

Sometimes it’s about what you don’t do as much as it is what you do. This can ring particularly so with regards to your website. There are many things that can send visitors screaming into cyberspace to escape these grievous flaws. Let‘s find out if any of these sound familiar to you.

  1. Not possessing a clear objective – According to DinkumInteractive.com a user has to know what the site is about in 4 seconds or they’ll click away. [Read more…]

Daily Deal Sites

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Are Daily Deal Sites Down for the Count? Not So Fast!

Are Daily Deals Dead?You’d believe from all the hate that’s been reported about daily deal sites, and the way they are now all history as an effective way to market your local business, we wouldn’t like them either. You’d be wrong. There’s an awful lot that goes into making daily deal sites enhance your local business, and a few well-publicized failures, shouldn’t end up being the reason to avoid using the daily deal model. As a matter of fact, when you take a close look, the lion’s share of these “failures” had plenty in common, particularly a obvious misunderstanding of exactly how to run a daily deal promotion, poor negotiation of their deals, and not keeping track of their customers redemption and spending. Given that they had unbelievable fails in these areas, is it any wonder they failed?

[Read more…]

How to Protect Your Online Reputation

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Protect Your Online Reputation in 5 Simple Steps

We’ve all seen how fast word travels today, and nowhere is that more important to your small business than in the world of your online reputation. What took you several years to build can be ruined in seconds. In case you’re not up to speed on why exactly your online reputation matters so much, let’s look at a few statistics. Cone Communications has found that a full 89 percent of consumers view online channels as trustworthy sources, and that 80 percent have actually changed their decision about purchasing after taking a look at a negative review. Not only that, but your own social media accounts is where the action is! The Society for Communications Research tells us that another 72 percent report researching companies through their social channels prior to making purchasing decisions, and 59% use these same social sites to let the world know about their frustrations about you and your customer service.

[Read more…]

Using Social Media to Recruit Talent

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Using Social Media to Recruit Talent Effectively

Utilizing Social Media as recruiting tool offers many advantages, but if used incorrectly you could be spinning your wheels. We find this article written by Leona Matson of webrecruit to be right on target. There are definitely some challenges to using this method effectively and we believe Leona covers some of the most important topics very well.

If you’re responsible for your small business’ recruitment, then the chances are that you have at least considered using social media to attract and source talent. [Read more…]

Green Marketing

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Is it time for your business to go green?

Earth day come once again, and it’s a great time to look at how Green Marketing can be a effective way to appeal to environmentally conscious consumers. This is not just a wise way to conserve our precious natural resources, but it has become a hot political and social topic in our communities. The most obvious reason to embrace Green marketing is to manage our available resources with an eye toward good stewardship. Nonetheless, you would be wise to keep your business’s public image in mind simultaneously, because the image it projects can be a deciding factor for many people these days. Many will opt for an eco-friendly choice over another company that doesn’t practice Green marketing on principle alone.

How to attract and appeal to socially conscious consumers [Read more…]

Newsletter Effectiveness

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An E-Newsletter – Your own inbox magazine!

Many people are under the impression that the e-newsletter is a tool from earlier times, when we were all connected to dial-up Internet via AOL and “surfed” the web like a herd of turtles with Netscape. Even though the e-newsletter has been in existence a long time, it is still a very important tool that you will do well to employ. This is perhaps even more true today than before. Anytime you can communicate more effectively and connect with your customers in a meaningful fashion is a useful one. An e-newsletter is an extremely good approach to use, build authority and effectively drive sales. The Direct Marketing Association informs us that every $1 spent on email marketing creates $40 in revenue. Aweber reveals that 77% of small business owners report increased revenue by using email.

Not your grandmother’s e-newsletters anymore! [Read more…]

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