web 2.0

Andrew Miller of YourSearchAdvisor.com made a fantastic presentation at WordCamp in Richmond last week.  Here’s a summary of Andrew’s best practices for optimizing search. Read the rest of this entry »

One of the buzz topics last week was Security & Safety. The issue is URL shortening services. Read the rest of this entry »

Jump in, the water is hot.  We don’t just surf the internet anymore, we dive deep, immersing ourselves in information, interaction and community. Here are some staggering statistics that show how many people spend a majority of their time on the internet.

• there are 2 billion Google searches a day (source)
• there are 78 million YouTube videos online (source)
• over 100 million YouTube videos are viewed per day
• 346 million people globally read Blogs daily (source)
• 77% of active internet users read Blogs
• Facebook has 175 million users from 170 countries (source)
• Facebook users have an average of 120 friends
• the fastest growing demographic of Facebook users are 35 years old & older

The old economy may be drying up, but the new economy is awash in opportunities. Need a lifeboat? Give us call.

The new television isn’t made in Hollywood. The new television doesn’t need Time Warner or NBC.

From a viral Trader Joe’s ad that’s had 340,000 views on YouTube to TateShots from the venerable British museum, people are watching TV in a new way. Read the rest of this entry »

For a couple of years, we’ve been struggling to transfer our experience making broadcast television into a lower-cost web video model. TV commercials can cost $10,000 per second to produce. But shouldn’t real filmmakers be able to make quality content with just a camera and a laptop?

In our new video for Luxe Apothecary, a lot of techniques we’d explored came together in one perfect No-Budget Video (NBV) project. Our experience may be a model for others and has already inspired interesting discussions and new assignments.

The development of an effective No-Budget technique can bring television-quality web video to businesses and content producers of all sizes. Here’s what we learned. Read the rest of this entry »

Almost every business benefits by using photos to help tell their story. Increasingly, businesses are turning to Flickr as the perfect channel for serving their pictures. Read the rest of this entry »

Not too long ago, we railed against the limited functionality of Facebook Pages for business. But all that is in the past. Facebook Pages now look and behave like Profile Pages, enabling true two-way interaction with your customers and fans. Read the rest of this entry »

Malls, mixed-use developments, shopping centers - call them what you will, they dot the landscape of America.

Many of the larger developments have websites. For the most part, they’re pretty awful. So, when we were asked to produce a new website for North Hills, a mixed-use development in Raleigh, NC, our goal was to help bring the category into a Web 2.0 world.

Two months after the launch, we have every reason to feel we’ve achieved. Stats are great, everything works, and best of all, a continuing content stream is beginning to bloom. It’s interesting stuff, too - stories, bios, pictures and video.

So here’s a checklist of things we think a contemporary mall or mixed-use website needs. Read the rest of this entry »

Brilliant piece from McKinsey:

“Six ways to make Web 2.0 work”

http://tinyurl.com/afouxt

Ever wonder about all the buzz surrounding Facebook, Twitter and other social networks as marketing channels? Here’s a brief summary. Read the rest of this entry »

I’m really digging Smashing Magazine http://bit.ly/15OVJ

All kinds of trends, inspiration, tools and tricks for web designers.

We continue to install WordPress for clients at an ever increasing pace. But we stopped calling it a Blog. Read the rest of this entry »

This week, I’m going to be a guest on BeanCast along with Duane Forrester, Senior Program Manager at Microsoft and Bill Green, author of the popular and entertaining blog Make the Logo Bigger.

BeanCast is produced and hosted by Bob Knorpp.

North Hills new website is live. We’ll tell you the big secret: it’s got actual content. Read the rest of this entry »

Facebook is the new hot ticket in marketing. We’ve already covered advertising on FB, but what about Facebook Business pages? Read the rest of this entry »

Poor AOL. They’ve been a step slow and a day late for almost a decade. The one bright spot was AIM. They were the big name in instant messaging and everybody else was playing catch-up. Read the rest of this entry »

Ah, the power of syndication! My post from a few weeks ago about Advertising on Facebook has been re-blogged on Active Rain.

Read the rest of this entry »

Our roads and bridges may be crumbling in America, but our information infrastructure is growing like kudzu. One of the most interesting new developments is the expansion of advertising opportunities on Facebook. Read the rest of this entry »

Both MySpace and Facebook have beefed up their offerings for advertisers. Today, we’ll talk a little about M/S because it has the more robust interface. Read the rest of this entry »

There are thousands of social portals on the internet, from massively mainstream to fantastically fringe. But lately, three social networks have emerged as must-haves for business people in a Web 2.0 world. Read the rest of this entry »