MINDSCAPE

Online marketing success has an ever increasing importance to your business’ success. For a lot of businesses this is known, but it’s hard to be effective since the web is evolving at an exponential rate. As online marketers, we have found digital data to be one of the primary keys to grow such success. Due to these benefits of data, more data is being created and analyzed every day. Now we are in an era where the term “big data” is a common term in everyday business. With the vast amount of available data points, we have realized that watching all of them is inefficient and can cause more harm than good when just one of these data points experiences significant change. To combat this fear, we have developed computed aggregates of metrics that represent one, more complete metric. It’s easier to watch and tells a broader story. This may seem like a new approach or that we’re masking the details unnecessarily however, let’s remember that this is not a new method. The stock market has done it forever and at such a success level that the DIJA, NASDAQ, and S&P 500 have continuous coverage on every news outlet.more

Imagine Sit back, take a deep breath, and imagine with me for a moment. Imagine that you could read the minds of anyone with whom you came in contact. You could read their emotions and their motivations. You would know what they wanted to hear and exactly what to say. You would understand what they wanted to achieve. You could take all of your insights and combine that with the person’s surroundings; you would know what they were doing, where they were currently and where there were headed, if they were using a mobile device, and a myriad of other small details. If they asked you a question, you could take all of this information and respond in a way that would perfectly meet their needs at that moment. If for some reason you didn't meet their expectation, you could know that and change your response. Wouldn't this be great if communication worked this way?more

In Part 1 of this series, the understanding and reasoning behind unique context and intent was discussed. Through some feedback, it became apparent that the most intriguing parts of the article happened closer to the end where I started to hint at the applied use of this theory. I thought there would no better way to help others than to show an example of this taking place. So for this part of the series, we will breakdown Google's site structure for its own product – the Nexus.more

There are many times when presenting a solid Content Strategy to our clients that some confusion sets in when they don’t find the details on the exact direction for writing a post, or insight into how many followers they will gain on a particular channel. Yes, social media is a huge part of the efforts, but it is important to look at them separately.more

All too often - and way too much in my opinion - I read the top online marketing articles referring to keywords being lost and no longer available inside of Google Analytics. Coincidentally, after those articles are a few articles about writing good content. These two concepts are intimately related. At some point, I expect the masses who bolster these “keywords are gone and we’re all going to die” articles into my view will move beyond that narrow view of search marketing to fully understand the interplay between keywords, intent, and content. Until then, and for those of us that look to the future, here is a glimpse from behind the magic curtain.more

Think about your day. How much of it looks like the day before or two weeks ago? We truly are creatures of habit, often more than we’d like to admit. Now think about a change you’ve tried lately. If you love change, maybe it was something major like a new relationship or a new place to live. If change isn’t really your game, maybe it was a new restaurant for dinner or a new way home because of road construction. Sometimes change is forced upon us and we must react. This often causes us the most stress, especially for those of us that like to be in control. Other times, we get to make the change ourselves. We see a new opportunity and we seek it out. This often causes adventure or new experience which may lead to something else we never thought would result.more

With all the news regarding the disappearance of keywords from Google Analytics, there is a lot of commotion in the SEO world. At MINDSCAPE, we don’t think there is reason to be all that worried. A few years ago, when Google began to make clear their intention to decrease the importance of keywords and raise the importance of content, we were confident that our time-tested approach to web development and digital marketing was right on target. For our partners, we have always focused on keyword research (for volume and relevance), and on building a site map that assigns one primary keyword “theme” per page. For those with whom we partner, this means two things:more

Think of the scenarios in which you begin the dialogue with a question (just like this post). Maybe it’s an interview with a potential candidate for a critical role at your organization. Or maybe it’s an initial phone call with a potential candidate describing the services your team can offer. Or maybe it’s a question you ask yourself as you complete a project. The majority of our effective interactions with people involve meaningful questions. Listen for this in your next few discussions. Then listen for the questions people use to get to the heart of the needed conversation. Are they the right ones?more

That might be a tough one to answer. You’d like to say “yes,” but you need to really effectively reflect to know the true answer. And why do you care, anyway? How often do you hear people say…I don’t care what other people think about me. The truth is, they do care and they should.more

Ever felt the pressure to come up with a good idea? A really good idea? Because it was going to be the difference maker for your career; significantly increase your course grade or impress someone important to you.more

Here at Mindscape, we often get contacted by people who find us online by looking for “creating an online buzz.” Yes, we can help you do that. I love having these conversations because it gives us an opportunity to talk to lots of really unique organizations, from musical artists to technology start-ups.more

I had the good fortune to attend Drupalcon in Portland, Oregon this year. This series of blog posts will recap what I learned while attending the Business + Strategy category of sessions.more

Being a newlywed, I receive a lot of advice from friends, coworkers, family, and even complete strangers. Usually, the advice comes whether I want it or not. However, of all the advice I’ve received, the phrase that has stuck with me the most is, “communication is key.” Having been married now for almost a year, I can’t express how valuable that advice is, and will continue to be, throughout our lives together. If you can’t communicate with those closest to you, how can you expect to be successful in a world where communication truly is….key.more

Confidence! If you’re truly confident, you follow it with an exclamation point, not a question mark.more

I had the good fortune to attend Drupalcon in Portland, Oregon this year. This series of blog posts will recap what I learned while attending the Business + Strategy category of sessions.more

Is your business using Vine, yet? Did you know businesses are using Vine? Click to watch the MindscapeTV episode about Vine! Vine is a video app that allows you to record a six-second clip. The short clip will loop, creating a gif, which can then be shared on Facebook and Twitter. Your video clips can either be six consecutive seconds, or you can stop and start as much as you please until you’ve reached your six-second limit (which is a fantastic invitation to create videos reminiscent of stop motion).In case you’re not familiar, Vine is considered to be an app from Twitter, but it actually started out as a three-man company before Twitter acquired it in October of 2012, before it even went live. Twitter officially launched Vine in January of 2013 and it quickly climbed the ranks to become the #1 free app on Apple’s App Store within six months of its acquisition. Should you be using Vine? Twitter seems to care greatly about Vine, and its users are constantly on the rise. So, where does that leave businesses? Is Vine beneficial for everyone, or just pet owners, parents of small children, and amateur video enthusiasts?more

We've been working to solve a puzzle on webTRAIN for a while, and we're happy to let you know that we are rolling it out this week. Tablets and smartphones make up a large portion of web surfers now, and it's growing every day. The problem is, they rarely have the same internet speed available to them as desktop users. That means the large, amazing image on the front of your website takes an awful long time to load up on a phone or tablet. We've been able to get around this issue on a couple of specific sites through some hard work and javascript magic. But what we really wanted was a way to send the correct image size to all devices without having to do something special to each image.more

If you haven’t heard, Mike Jeffries, CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch is currently embroiled in yet another major PR gaffe for his 2006 quote: “In every school there are the cool and popular kids, and then there are the not-so-cool kids. Candidly, we go after the cool kids. We go after the attractive all-American kid with a great attitude and a lot of friends. A lot of people don’t belong [in our clothes], and they can’t belong. Are we exclusionary? Absolutely. Those companies that are in trouble are trying to target everybody: young, old, fat, skinny. But then you become totally vanilla. You don’t alienate anybody, but you don’t excite anybody, either.” Alas, this isn’t yet another blog about how his company is contributing to bullying and eating disorders.more

I’m not sure I ever realized the value of “team-building” until I came to Mindscape. As our company has continued to grow from 12 people when I started to nearly 30 now, it’s more important than ever that we like each other. I don’t just mean as colleagues, but as people too. Mindscape has created a culture where this is possible. Each year, we go on a company trip that brings us together as an entire group. What I wanted to do was take that to a smaller level just for the people on my specific team. So we headed out to a Project Management conference in Chicago. Considering that my group is made up of 3 men and me, it was a little daunting for me as a new, female manager. I am definitely happy with how well the trip went and how much everyone seemed to get out of the seminar. Here are some of the things I took away from it both as a new manager and as a PM.more

I’m going to let you in on a little secret about the internet. It isn't real. Yes, you can log on the internet and it will show you things. You haven’t imagined it. In that sense, it’s real. But it isn't real like a car or a building or a plane. Those objects can be touched. Those objects have to be built. And those objects are not easy to change once they are in use. Product recalls are what happens when “real” products have to change. On the internet, it’s a whole different story. One day a website has just one page, the next day there are a dozen. One day something is broken, the next day it isn't. One day you can’t build a thingamajig, the next everyone is thingamajigging.more