Digital Design News, Trends and Information

Social Marketing VS SEO For Two Personal Websites In 2010

Fri, 08 Jan 2010 19:36:16 +0000

Is it possible for a new website to grow and survive without being ranked on a search engine? I believe this is going to be the number one question for 2010. With the tremendous growth in popularity of social sites and social networking in 2009, traditional search may be seeing the beginning of the end of its highly placed relevance. I am not saying search engines are dead, that would be a dumb statement to make. What I am saying is social networks have become a popular way to recommend products, services and ultimately a business website. To see if my thinking is on the right track I am going to start two websites this month and will not perform any of the standard SEO practices. Each site will be launched and then using my personal social networks, I will attempt to get the word to spread throughout each demographic that each site is target toward.

By the end of the year I hope to accomplish several things by doing this:

Prove to myself that social network marketing is better than painstaking SEO.
That my social network will spread the word to my friends social networks and so forth.
That social network marketing can garner enough traffic in each niche to generate income via affiliate programs and Adsdense.

I would like to hear your opinions on social marketing versus search engine optimization.

Restaurants and Twitter the Perfect Match For Keeping In Touch With Patrons

Tue, 22 Dec 2009 16:52:09 +0000

The restaurant business is the perfect match for Twitter marketing. In a nutshell, Twitter can be used to send lunch discount coupons, special event listings and to inform customers of what the daily lunch special is. Privately owned restaurants seem to benefit the most from the use of Twitter as a way to spread the word about menu offerings. My favorite bbq joint has a large Twitter following and each day I get a message with either a discount coupon code or something telling me about a special dessert or side item. It is a great way to keep in touch with your clients and keep your restaurant in front of them. Even if you only use Twitter once a week you can still benefit from this form of marketing. I know of one restaurant owner who uses Twitter to advertise on Tuesdays which for him is historically the slowest day of the week. His philosophy is better to make 90% of a sale than no customers at all.

What has your experience been with using Twitter in your restaurant business?

Mom and Pop and Digital Media In 2010

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 18:04:48 +0000

Digital media and social network marketing is no longer a game for the big companies of the world. Any business no matter how small can benefit from the use of digital media from promoting their business to offering special incentives to current and prospective customers.

It really isn’t a difficult process and just about everything you need to launch a successful digital media marketing campaign is basically free. For most small businesses there are three tools that can be used to start online and digital marketing.

A blog that showcases your products or services will give your customers a way to see what is happening with your business. A daily or bi-weekly update highlighting a product, special or services will help you to show everyone what you are all about. Cost – Free (by using a blogging platform like Blogger) or if you prefer something a little more robust you can set up a Word Press based blog which will require a domain name and hosting which should not cost you more than $140.00 per year.
Even if you are in a small rural community you can use Facebook to your advantage by supplementing your blog entries with daily entries about products and services. You can also mix business with fun on Facebook by posting “non sales” information such as tips on how to do things, or even talking about daily life in your store. Just don’t get overzealous and start posting a dozen sales oriented entries each day or you will lose friends faster than you can count them. Cost – Free. Facebook is a free social networking platform that takes about 10 minutes to set up. It may take some time to develop online relationships but in time you should start to see an increase in business from your Facebook relationships.
Twitter is another way to keep in contact with your customers in a quick and easy format. Unlike Facebook you are limited to 140 characters so the message is short and to the point. Restaurants can really benefit from using Twitter by sending daily discount coupons to their followers. For instance ABC Barbecue might offer a 10% discount on a full rack of ribs on Thursday. So on Thursday morning they send out a Tweet with a code and the customer who might not have gone there for lunch opts to go because of the discount. The result is a sale that might not have happened. Twitter can be used to send out daily or weekly discount coupons or codes to as many followers as you have. Of course if your message is really good it may get re-tweeted and then your potential increase in customers goes way up. Cost – Free Twitter is a free social networking platform that takes approximately 10 minutes to set up. Like Facebook it will take a little time to grow your contact list, but by offering quality savings and information you will see your contact list grow quickly.

These three simple steps will help any business, no matter how small, to increase their exposure to the community and to increase sales without a huge financial outlay.

What has your small business experience been with digital media marketing?

How Small Business Can Benefit From Using Social Media To Boost Sales

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 17:24:20 +0000

This article is for beginner social networking marketers and business owners new to social networking. Just about everyone is on either Facebook or Twitter these days. After all it appears that these two programs have become the interpersonal communications channel of choice. In other words it has replaced the telephone. Social network sites are definitely a great way to keep in contact with friends and family on a daily if not more frequent basis. But if you are a small business owner, sites like Facebook and Twitter can add a whole new deminsion to y0ur marketing efforts and proper use of these networks can result in an increase in sales.

Here are a few examples of how small businesses (even in rural areas) can benefit from social network marketing:

Make your FB/Twitter followers fill special by offering special prices or discounts to them only. For example let all your FB friends know that for “today only” you have 15% off of xyz product with free shipping.
Are you restaurant owner? Send out daily specials to your Twitter followers. A simple 1 liner such as “bbq rib plate 9.99 tomorrow only” is a great way to not only let your customers know they can get a special on ribs but gives them time to plan for that special lunch by working it into tomorrows schedule.
Use FB to link to a special landing page on your website that is not available to the general public with a discount coupon or special membership club they can print out and join.
Introduce your newest product or service with a FB/Twitter blast….. let everyone know that you have something new then ask your friends and followers to reTweet and pass along to their FB friends

These are just a few basic methods of using social media to increase your sales………….. try them and see what works for you. If you have success please let us know and will post your story and a link to your business………….

Remember – word of mouth is the best advertising and social networking is the best word of mouth method around.

My Graphic Design Website At LogoDesign77

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 18:13:04 +0000

While DigitalDesign77.com is my blog about everything from graphic design, to seo, website design, social networking and all things digitally oriented that catch my eye, I do my work at LogoDesign77.com

My work includes logo design, banner ad design, newspaper and magazine advertisements and other general graphic design work. Please take some time and visit my work site ……… thanks.

Study Sketch Of Tree Branch

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 00:50:03 +0000

This is a sketch I did of a tree branch with that had some rope and chains hanging.

Saturday Digital Design Link Love

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 15:05:49 +0000

During the past week I have visited quite a few digital design and marketing websites. A few of them really jumped off the page for providing great design resources and inspiration.

I hope you will find these websites as great as I have. Enjoy

Job Interview Questions Include Asking How Big Is Your Social Network Contact List

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 14:52:46 +0000

Is your social networking contact list important enought to land you a job? How do you respond when near the end of your interview you are asked if you have a large personal social network? This is a question I have been thinking about for several weeks. A friend of mine who is about to graduate from college asked me to help him develop a “social networking profie” as part of his overall resume development. He is a business major and while he is fairly internet savvy he says he still doesn’t understand the whole idea of social network marketing. I asked him if they discussed it in any of their classes and he said no. He went on to say that most of his instructors were older and “not really into that whole internet thing”. How sad to know that after all the money and time he has invested in his education that he is not up to date on what is happening in the real time world of marketing.

So we are going to start to build his “social network” as well as develop his online persona. One thing I told him staight away was that personal social networks are just what the name implies. The key word is social, not sell or solicit or do business with… Social networks are a way of keeping in touch with friends and family as well as others in the same line of work as you are. With that in mind we set up the three basic accounts; Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. I explained that these accounts needed to be built naturally and evenly. By that I meant “no adding 100 people a day” to each account. In fact I explained that for now he just needs to forget the reason he is starting in social networking and just have fun. I went over the advantages and differences of each of the accounts how they can all eventually be leveraged (in the correct way) as a future list of potential business contacts or a referal system. But for now just spend a little time each day “playing” on Facebook and Twitter and maybe once a week on LinkedIn. The most important thing is to develop relationships with those contacts.

It will be interesting to see how his online social networking persona develops over the coming months. Graduation is in May 2010 so by then he should have a good sized network in place. Will a potential employer ask him about it? Possibly. Will he be obliged to tell his potential employer about his social networking contact list? Not really. Companies are always seeking new ways to market their products and services and personal references have always been the best way to accomplish this and in today’s digital age social networking is the way to do it.

What is your opinion on employers asking about your personal social networks?

Back From A Necessary Hiatus

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 15:51:22 +0000

Over the past couple of months I have been on a necessary hiatus from blogging. Unfortunatley this could not be avoided and each of my sites has suffered from my absence. But whats done is done and I am now able to resume my blogging and website administration. Lesson learned – if you think you are going to have to take time away from your web work, try to find someone to step in periodically and update and manage your site(s) for you.

InstantShift.com Is A Great Resource For Designers

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 18:30:29 +0000

In my never ending search for inspiration and instruction in the art of digital design, I visit a lot of websites. Everyone once in a while one of those sites will jump out as being a truely spectacular resource. InstantShift.com is one of those sites. I originally found the site via a tweet a couple weeks ago and on a quick glance bookmarked it for a later look. WOW, when I did get around to checking out the site I was completely blown away. InstantShift.com has quickly become one of my favorite sites. It is a huge source for inspiration and the resouces they offer cover a lot of subjects. The Showcases section would probably have to be my favorite as they highlight the very best in design. I am continually amazed at the quality or work and design that I see and it only serves to make me want to be better at what I do.

Thanks InstantShift.com for having such a great website.