MINDSCAPE

Contrary to popular belief, the “thrill” of social media has not gone away; if anything, it’s in full swing! I know this because of the increasing amount of questions that we receive from prospects and clients about social media. One of the most common questions I receive from people is how to get more fans/followers. I’ll be honest with you- it’s a question I’ve thought about for a long time. I’ve researched ways to build your fan base, talked to numerous social media folks, and observed what other brands have done trying to get an idea of what the best tactics/strategies are to build a fan base. There are a lot of ideas out there on how to do this, but I still find it difficult to determine exactly what you can really do to build your fan base.more

Google Apps for Business is a great solution for companies that want email, calendar and documents hosted in the cloud by Google. Mindscape, where I work, has used Google Apps for Business for a number of years now. It allows me to have aaron [at] mindscapesolutions.com as my email address. What it did not allow in the past was for me to access tools like Google Reader, Checkout, Picasa, and a number of other popular, ancillary services from Google. What I could do, however, was create a second Google account using the same aaron [at] mindscapesolutions.com address. This account had to have a separate password, but as a standard Google Account, I had access to those other Google Services. I wasn’t interested in using my work email to access those other services. So I made it even more complicated. My wife runs her own photography business, www.branderphoto.com. I use aaron [at] branderphoto.com as my personal email. It’s also a Google Apps for Business account. So, when I wanted to access Google Reader, and Checkout and Analytics and Picasa, I had to have a separate aaron [at] branderphoto.com account, with a different password, to access those accounts.more

I had a meeting with a company that doesn’t have a website. Yes, businesses like that do still exist. Even in a day where it seems like you can get a website just about anywhere. They believed that they had to sell online in order to justify the investment in a website. I’m here to tell you there are many, many things a website can do for every business.more

You may have heard that Google+ asked businesses to wait before creating a business profile on the new social network. This is because they are working on some kind of platform or design specific to business use. For those of us frustrated by various businesses use of persona profiles on Facebook, this is great news. It means that Google+ will integrate businesses from the beginning, instead of creating something as an afterthought. Since it looks like it will be a few weeks before we’ll see a business feature in the new platform, I thought it would be fun to share my “wish list” for features I’d like included in this new design. Google- are you listening?!?more

So I finally got into Google+…. YAY! Now what? Here are my thoughts after 24 hours of using this new service. Due to great timing and luck, I FINALLY was able to get in and start using Google +, the newest social media platform from Google. Since I’ve been clamoring for an invite to the exclusive social networking site, you can imagine how excited I am that I actually got in! Now I am the envy of all my peers, also clamoring for an invite, while I get to bask in Google+ elite glory….. I obviously did a lot of research before joining this service so the process of signing up was no surprise to me. When you first start in Google + you are prompted to create “Circles” to organize your friends and contacts. If you are not familiar, the concept of “Circles” is actually pretty cool- Google understands that how we interact with each social circle of our lives can differ greatly. For example, the language and actions you use with your close friends is very different from how you behave in a professional work environment.more

new Facebook Tabmore

Content is the core of any website. Duh. Content is the meat of your website. It gets the message to the audience, hence, it is the most important part of your site. But there are many – too many – marketers who do not understand the critical value of content. Please read carefully.more

**CLICK LIKE ABOVE!**more

I read recently that nearly 78% of all users check email on their mobile device. That got me thinking about email marketing and mobile devices…how can we improve deliverability? And how can we make emails easier to read for subscribers? Are you registered with different organizations and businesses who send you regular email messages? How many do you read on your phone? What do you see when you read messages on your mobile device? Those that are mostly text are a lot easier to read, aren’t they!?more

Not sure how often you should communicate with your customers? Our sales and web marketing expert, Rebecca Dutcher, shares her thoughts.....more

You may remember that I wrote a blog a while back about why you should set your business up on Facebook as a "fan page" instead of a friend account. And, you may remember my follow up blog about HOW to transition over, where I detailed steps on how to complete the transformation from a friend account to a fan page. These steps were very long and tedious, but at the time was the only way to make the switch. However, I discovered yesterday that there is an easier way. Before, businesses were setting up accounts incorrectly as friend pages. Often times, they built a large friend base before realizing their mistake. However, they were not converting them to fan pages because the process was so difficult and tedious. Facebook FINALLY woke up and realized they needed to make it easier to make the transition from a friend page to a fan page. And thus, I give you your one click option to make the switch..... WAIT though, before you click, read my notes about the conversion first so you know what to expect.more

MINDSCAPE is pleased to be a part of the City of Grand Rapids Mayor's 50 program. This program is designed to give 50 local high school students an opportunity to intern for local businesses. As part of the program, the student receives a paid internship with up to ten hours a week for six months. These students apply to be part of the program and are selected by the business based on interest, talent and skills. In addition, the students receive comprehensive training to prepare them for the business world prior to beginning their internship. Devin Rittenhouse, the first of our Mayor's 50 interns, wanted to share his thoughts on his experience at MINDSCAPE for 6 months. Devin is a junior at Rockford High School and recently turned 16 years old. He wrote a blog so we could share with you- click "read more" to check out what he wrote!more

For a few months now, my friend Jeff Bell has been bugging me to use link tagging in my social media postings and e-mails I send for the company. He’s all hopped up on his recent Google Analytic Certification and LOVES to tell me about the cool analytics tools available in there. (Yeah, I know, SNOOZE FEST, but he’s my bestie so I try really hard to pay attention!) Anyway- he kept going on and on about all the benefits of using link tagging to track driving traffic to the site. He’d say things like “you need to use link tagging because…” Every time he did this, my A.D.D. would kick in and I’d start to notice something shiny! Nonetheless, he’d diligently keep bringing the topic up harping on me about why I’m not using them more in social media postings and I’d continue to change the topic or find something shiny to pay attention too.more

Is email marketing still relevant? In a word, Yes! Email marketing is still a key connection point with your customers and prospects. With the influence and immediacy of Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and other social networks, email marketing is how you can provide valuable information to your prospects and customers. Email’s can include information that they’ve opted in, and asked you to share with them. Social media is still incredibly important, but in this post, I’m just talking about email.more

NOTE: This is a follow up to my recent blog about the differences between a friend page and a fan page. It happens for many reasons: You hired someone to handle your social media who didn’t know what they were doing and they set up your business as a “friend account” on Facebook. Or, maybe you were just getting started on Facebook and weren’t sure what you were doing, so you set up your business as a friend account. Or maybe you did it intentionally, because it’s easier to build a fan base and interact on Facebook as a person (SHAME ON YOU!). Regardless of the reason, after reading my last blog about the differences between a friend page and fan page, you know you need to change your business over to a fan page. But how do you do this?more

I’ve talked about this before- the difference between a friend account and a fan page on Facebook, but for some reason, I don’t think that the message is getting through. So I’m dedicating a rather long blog to discuss this topic is detail with the hopes of educating everyone and putting an end to this issue.more

Written by Christina Torri, Social Media Coordinator for Mindscape at Hanon McKendry Lately, I’ve noticed a lot of new brands popping up on social media. I’m not talking about “big names” brands, but the “little guys” who are FINALLY realizing that social media can help to build brand awareness and connect with their customers. However, I get the feeling that someone just told them they should “make a Facebook page” and so that’s what they did. Although I appreciate their willingness to try something new, what they don’t realize is the mistakes they are making could be damaging their brand, instead of improving it. Here are the 4 biggest mistakes that small business make on social media, in my opinion.more

If you have the most amazing company in existence, a product that can fix everything short of bringing world peace, and you are offering those solutions for FREE … it does you absolutely no good if nobody knows you exist. When I look back over the 12 years I’ve been involved in the online space I can think of many times that companies have approached us and wanted to “create a new website.” The challenge with an emerging industry is the lack of knowledge on exactly what it takes to be successful. We’ve done our best to let clients know once the website is created, there are far more things that need to happen to make that website a successful online entity. This blog post will clearly lay out some tactics, that if applied, will help dramatically increase the likelihood that your website will bee seen, and your wonderful solutions discovered. Foundation Once you’ve determined exactly what you’d like to accomplish with your online presence, the first step is to utilize the vast amount of information online to get to know your “buyers” very well. I’m not simply talking about identifying demographic information, I’m talking about truly getting into their heads to determine what they truly want, what barriers stand between them and your product, what influencing factors exist, and most importantly the exact language they speak. Your goal should be to find people and companies who are experiencing a certain set of problems of which your company can provide a solution. If a company knows the name of your company already, they’ll most likely be able to find you online. Since this is the case you should put your focus on not only identifying the set of problems that would lead someone to search for you, but most importantly identifying the way these seekers speak and will refer to the solution they are looking for. It’s important to spend some time doing some keyword research with a tool like the Google Keyword Tool or any other keyword research tool, to determine the problems that are searched for the most, and how the seekers refer to that particular problem. If you take this time, you’ll have the ability to strategically position your content in the search results on multiple platforms. Although it is much easier to simply fire up the computer and hack away at your keyboard, if you are looking to show measurable results, it’s necessary to spend the few minutes it takes to ensure you are creating relevant, compelling content that is highly sought after.more

From the emergence of location based applications like Foursquare to the rapid growth of Facebook to over 500 million users, no one can argue that social technologies exploded into mainstream staples this year. Looking back at the year in review, we saw many advances in the way we experience and interact with the web. While I don’t have a crystal ball, I do have some ideas of what the future of social media will look like. And, I predict that 2011 will continue the evolution of social technologies and become a hub for the entire web. Here are a few highlights of what I think 2011 will bring for us in social media:more

The holiday shopping season is upon us. Retailers are clamoring for the hottest deals, promotions, and attractions to gain your business. Given the huge focus on e-commerce this month, it seemed appropriate to provide a review and analysis on a huge national brand with an active online presence. There are many sites to choose from, but we decided to focus on Best Buy’s website, www.bestbuy.com.more