Whether you’re representing your company or yourself, it’s important to be easily recognized by a photo or image.

Think about big brand campaigns… whatever they do, their colours, fonts and graphics are the same throughout. How many times have you glanced at a billboard, web banner ad or commercial and immediately know the company because the name even appears?

Across the web when we’re Tweeting, liking things on Facebook and commenting on blogs, there are many opportunities to attach an avatar or profile picture. There are two important things to remember on this:  Read more... (313 words, 1 image, estimated 1:15 mins reading time)

Something interesting happened last week when we were recruiting for a web programmer.  We had gone through our interviews and reduced the candidates to 3 and we were getting close to choosing our candidate.  We chose our candidate and he was pleased with our decision and he said that he was excited about working with our team.  He mentioned that he had been following our Twitter account and our blog posts and got a really good feeling for the expertise we had and it made him comfortable in making his decision  to work with us.  Read more... (187 words, 1 image, estimated 45 secs reading time)

I recently met with a prospect and we were reviewing their website in the meeting and he said something to me that stuck in my mind.  He said that when they got their website developed they told the website developer exactly how they wanted the site to be laid out and that is how they setup the website.  I thought to myself that does not make a lot of sense, sure the customer knows what content they want in the website but what does the client know about how to organize the content and provide navigation on the website.  Read more... (313 words, 1 image, estimated 1:15 mins reading time)

It’s been over a year since the Bing search engine launched.  It’s done fairly well, often beating Yahoo! in terms of market share; not surprisingly, though, it doesn’t come close to Google.  However, lots of people are considering Bing to be a positive alternative to Google.

Including Facebook.  Facebook may not be the first place you’d go to do a search, but if you’re looking for something on Facebook, whether or not Facebook itself has results, it offers web results served by Bing.  See the screencap below.  Read more... (217 words, 4 images, estimated 52 secs reading time)

We have a competitor in Winnipeg that advertises all over the city for professional websites for $599.  Every time I see this sign I think first of all this is a lost leader if I ever saw one.  I am sure they get you  in there and try to up sell you, they must?  There is just not enough hours to produce a site with quality that actually pays for itself with online sales or leads.  Then I read this article that really hit home on what you need to produce a high quality website.  This article is a little technical but really describes what skills truly go into a professional website that pays for itself and more.  Read more... (1628 words, 1 image, estimated 6:31 mins reading time)

Everyone in business has dealt with an upset customer.  With the introduction of the Internet, dealing with customer complaints has become even more important.  Businesses must understand the severity of what one bad online comment can do to your business.  When dealing with upset customers here are some tips to follow:  Read more... (274 words, 1 image, estimated 1:06 mins reading time)

1. Listen closely to the person and do not overact or get emotional.
2. Be clear and honest at all times. Sincerity will win you a lot of points.
3. Take the criticism as a learning experience and be happy the customer cares enough to tell you.

I just love Facebook advertising.

Contextual advertising has become more and more specific as the web grows and evolves. Thanks to Facebook, it’s gotten more detailed than ever. Facebook profiles contain TONS of information about a user. Age, sex, marital status, education level, job title, interests, activities – you name it, you tell tell Facebook all about it. And this has become an advertisers dream.

If you haven’t ever created an ad for Facebook, I highly suggest you jump on and start the process – you don’t need to pay anything. Take a look at just how specific you can get:
 Read more... (184 words, 2 images, estimated 44 secs reading time)

When we first started our company tweet strategy I was asking myself what am I going to tweet about.  Our strategy called for 1 tweet minimum per business day.  However as I started our strategy it became easier and easier to find the 140 characters of content I needed.  The first tactic I use a lot is tweeting what I read, most of us read a lot on our industry and their is natural knowledge that is tweet able.  When I read a statistic, an announcement or something that I think may be interesting to the people who follow our twitter account I am quick to tweet.  Including a short URL to allow ease to read the full article is effective.  In addition I tweet about our company news – new hires, new clients etc.  Read more... (257 words, 1 image, estimated 1:02 mins reading time)

In February, I spoke at a luncheon for the Advertising Association of Winnipeg.  Today, I spoke at a luncheon for the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce.  I had decided to use the same presentation with some tweaks, knowing the attendees would be very different (they were).  I figure, an hour two should get this presentation where it needs to be.  WRONG!  So many changes have occurred in the past 3 months, I spent several hours updating copy and screencaps to reflect the very latest.  Read more... (262 words, 2 images, estimated 1:03 mins reading time)