Many small businesses are unaware of the development options available for their company website. As a start up or small business you don’t have to be stuck with a static site that only a technology wizard can modify. WordPress, originally built as a blogging engine for people who have zero technical background, is a fantastic option for dynamic companies that want a great looking fully functional site that is in your control. While most companies will still need an experienced WordPress developer to create the initial design and custom functionality, the site is then super easy for non-technical staff to update.


If you are a small business and have had the uncomfortable call with your web developer that they either didn’t have the time to make a minor update to your site or worse they are holding you hostage for reasons only they and their pet parrot can understand, you might consider switching over to a WordPress driven site for your company.


WordPress, for most companies, is a fantastic option for small business and start ups that don’t have a huge budget, need or want a dynamic site that can be changed in minutes by someone on staff, and can be designed with a slick intuitive customer interface.


As a full-featured content management system capable of hosting an unlimited number of static site pages as well as up to date article entries, WordPress presents a number of key advantages for business website development:

• WordPress is so easy to use that even the most tech-averse person on your staff will be up and working on it in no time.
• By being user-friendly the cost savings of not having to pay someone each time an update is needed can be substantial.
• WordPress is free. There are no charges in acquiring the software.
• Social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube integrate easily into a corporate WordPress site.
• WordPress is open-source which means that it has a massive user base and ever-expanding library of plug-ins and modifications that will allow you to upload videos, add webinars, manage complicated ecommerce and add company events and promotions in minutes.
• WordPress is mobile friendly, allowing users to view your site on the go.
• Support is easy to get and if you want additional functionality added to your system, very often you can find pre-existing plug-ins, avoiding the costs of custom development.
• WordPress is arguably the most widespread content management software in the world. This means that it will not disappear or become obsolete anytime soon.
• WordPress is built on the PHP programming language. It is non-proprietary (unlike .ASP) and as a result is free, widely used, and has excellent documentation and support. The end result is that modifications are easy and inexpensive to make.
• WordPress allows you to manage your static pages (“Services”, “About”, etc.) as well as your frequently-changing areas (“News”). This means that you will be able to post news and articles quickly but you will just as easily be able to make updates to your regular pages.
• WordPress is search engine optimized and very search-engine-friendly right out of the gate. It will automatically format page titles, page names, links, the content on the page, and so on for maximized search engine optimization. It will not be as good as an ongoing, fully-customized SEO campaign from a specialist, but it is a great low cost and effective alternative.
• WordPress is set up to automatically submit your article entries to search engines for indexing, further maximizing your online exposure.
• Because WordPress was originally built as a blog engine, you can use the same system to drive your official blog. This means a streamlined workflow and a wholly-integrated system for you.
• Site content is expandable. This means that if you add new pages to your site or remove old ones, this won’t necessitate a redesign of your site or the buttons on it (along with the associated development time and costs): such changes can be implemented easily and in real time.

If you are considering creating a new website for your company or redesigning it, we recommend considering using WordPress because of its flexibility and ease of use.


Some examples of WordPress driven company sites that we’ve done are listed below:

• Adriana Abscal - Untraditional WordPress layout that easily accommodates its international visitors with both English and Spanish language versions.
• SoTru – Robust ecommerce for an online retailer. Store is completely managed through WordPress (integrated with FoxyCart). Site design by Blind Society.
• Agilewaves – Corporate site. Ability to do featured stories, manage all areas of site, including a password protected members area.
• Trailmark Construction – Corporate site. Manage slideshow, portfolio, blog, etc. Design by Kriesi. Example of low-cost option for development (modified existing theme).

Find out more about developing a WordPress driven site for your company.


If you have any questions or additional suggestions, please feel free to leave them here, or shoot me an email at carin[at] InkFoundry [dot] com.

Agency president, Carin Galletta and Angelsmith president, Eric Oliver were introduced to Romililly Pinot Noir during a “meeting” at a local Marin County bar. After tasting the luscious 2006, the partners vowed to obsessively track down as many bottles as possible resulting in a negotiation for Romililly’s last bottles in its library. The agency partners lost that battle, but won the business.

For more information on the young Sonoma County winemakers, check them out on Facebook.

Ink Foundry was able to triple traffic to the travel website by instituting a robust conversation listening and participation program on vertical sites; engaging fans via a customized Facebook fan page; robust Twitter activity and promotion; as well as actively targeting offline influencers.

Additionally, we helped the travel website fully optimize their content by changing the posts that were originally being deconstructed after a week into a blog engine with permanent links; hired an SEO specialist; created an ongoing link building campaign and developed a content distribution strategy.

The post also lists other helpful case studies and can be found at Zajon.com.

PHOTO: Ink Foundry Client, Palms Casino, Las Vegas
PHOTO CREDIT: Terran In Virginia

Ink Foundry launched the new market fresh, chef driven restaurant last week. The single location store opened to record sales.

Acting as the company’s in-house marketing team, Ink Foundry quickly deployed a public relations and social media marketing campaign prior to the concept launch. Phase two of the program will include a brand advocate program, hidden influencer campaign, email marketing, continued engagement with primary gatekeepers as well as on-premise events.

A corporate communications identity package, including a new website, is being developed by El Segundo, Calif-based visual communications firm Group 22.

Since 2006, DoubleTake Marketing has transformed baggage carousels at 23 North American airports with its patent pending AdSpressive Graphics and a variety of creative, out-of-the-box campaigns for clients including Toyota, Harrah’s, and Overstock.com.

In addition to reaching nearly one million travelers who check bags daily, the DoubleTake Marketing platform offers a breakthrough advertising placement that provides a potentially interactive experience for the viewer. A creative Harrah’s campaign transformed a baggage carousel at Kansas City International Airport into a larger-than-life roulette wheel, prompting travelers to bet with each other on which number and color their bag would land.

DoubleTake Marketing was created when one of the company’s founders, Michael Gleeson, was waiting for his luggage and realized that everyone was staring at the carousel. DoubleTake Marketing was created to capitalize on this dull waiting time by introducing vibrant, moving ads directly into consumers’ lines of vision, offering travelers unexpected boredom relief and advertisers prime access to an ideal, affluent demographic.

For more information on DoubleTake
LinkedIn
• Zack Clark, co-founder and CEO
• Michael Gleeson, co-founder
• DoubleTake Marketing
Flickr
• All Photo Stream

YouTube
• Durability
• Fox News
• Baggage Carousel Advertising Install Process

Facebook
• Facebook.com/DoubleTake Marketing

After more than four years of working on joint client accounts, Angelsmith, Inc. and Ink Foundry have created a strategic alliance. The companies will marry Angelsmith’s design and technology expertise with Ink Foundry’s marketing capabilities to create a powerhouse team.


Effective immediately, Eric Oliver, President of Angelsmith, will assume the role of Chief Technology Officer for Ink Foundry. In this new role he will advise clients on technologies that add value to their brands; develop websites, blogs and applications to help clients better access social networks; and recommend and build solutions to expand a brand’s digital footprint.


The strategic partnership allow Ink Foundry to offer a wide range of cutting edge, technology-based social media solutions to its clients including website development, platform-specific application development, banner ads, ecommerce, and comprehensive email marketing campaigns.


Oliver is a huge proponent of using open source, low cost, high quality technology to power small business websites.


“It doesn’t need to cost an arm and a leg in order to look professional and function properly,” states Oliver. He adds, “For example, we can use the free WordPress blog engine to power corporate websites, which makes it easy for businesses to manage their sites, sets them up for future scalability, makes them visible on mobile devices, streamlines the search engine optimization process, and allows us to rapidly deploy in a matter of days.”


Founded in 2001, Angelsmith has a wide range of category experience, excelling in gaming, entertainment, travel & tourism, and restaurant industries. Some of the company’s clients include THQ, Disney, Namco Bandai Games America, and Sony Pictures Entertainment.

Eric’s Bio

The article, 48 Guerrilla Marketing Tips, written by Linsey Knerl, gathers together some great advice from well-respected marketing, public relations and social media professionals across the United States.

Ink Foundry’s tips that were included in the article are:

1. One of the items that we find missing from most small business marketing plans is analytics. A free tool for tracking site traffic isGoogle Analytics. Before any business can access a guerrilla marketing tactic they need to understand their baseline to gauge whether or not the effort is working. Analytics is free and easy – there is a great tutorial on the Google site and a bunch of YouTube “how to” videos that can help a small business owner understand how to use it.
2. If you plan to distribute offers via Twitter and send out informational tweets, set up two accounts. And define what each account will be doing in the profile and through periodic tweets: One will only send offers and the other will provide category information, general “behind the scenes” info on your company, etc. You can use the second account, however, to drive traffic/interest to the offer account — but do it sparingly. Many people don’t want relentless sales offers coming through. For the “offer” account, create offers that are specific just for the channel you are distributing them on. If you have a link back to a page, make sure the page addresses the offer immediately, don’t make people search through your site for it. Make it special — only offer it to your Twitter followers, Facebook Fans, etc. This will increase conversions!

Some additional articles on how to build your social media footprint can be found by clicking the links below:

• 9 Tips For Responding To Negativity On Social Networks
• Best Practices For Brand and Blogger Disclosure
• 11 Top Tips To Build Your Twitter Following

We know you wouldn’t hire someone without experience, a client list, references and no proven track record, and finding the best partner agency of any type can can be challenging but especially perplexing if you are new to social media.

In the midst of helping one of our Sonoma County winery clients build its internal social media marketing department, we realized there are many unanswered questions about how to identify social media expertise.

We’ve created this list to provide a baseline that you can use to find qualified help for your effort and provide a better understanding of the multitude of elements that contribute to social media marketing success.

In addition to sharing our professional experience, we reached out to other respected agencies in the category to get their input and reviewed Social Media Group’s request for proposal template that they were generous enough to share.

However, before you get started looking for either a social media agency, consultant or building an in house team, establish your goals so you can identify the specific skill set that will help you achieve your objectives. Strategic planning? Content creation and strategy? Blog development? Tweeting? Robust Facebook presence? Use your marketing strategy to guide you to the pros who have the experience your winery needs.

At a very basic level, if you want to establish expertise it makes sense that the practitioner has mastered the tools. Dave Kerpen, CEO of theKbuzz, sums it up nicely, “If an agency isn’t practicing what they preach, how will they be able to help you with your social media strategy? Check out an agency’s Facebook Page, Twitter account, company blog and YouTube channel before committing to them.”

Below is a list of questions to help you establish whether an agency has the social media experience to help your wine label move the needle in the marketplace. In addition to the questions, ask for real life case studies, social media references and have them provide evidence of success.

1. What is your primary use of social media?
   • Unless you’re hiring an entry level person, if their primary use of social media has been for personal use, thank them for their time and send them home.
2. Give me specific examples of how you’ve used social media channels to market a brand?
3. What are some of the most important elements of a successful social media marketing effort?
4. What is the most challenging element of social media marketing?
5. Do you have an agency blog? How long have you been blogging?
   • If they aren’t blogging, they don’t understand the format. Send them home.
6. How should all of the social media channels work together?
7. How would you integrate our existing website, email campaign, other external communication efforts into a social media program?
8. How would you respond to a negative post on YELP or other SM channel?
   • Our recommendations for responding to negative social media posts are here.
9. How has your process of influencer engagement changed since the FTC blogger/brand disclosures went into effect?
   • If they don’t know, consider this a massive red flag that could cost your winery its reputation as well as lots of money.
10. What would make a social media program fail?
11. What percentage of your total business is dedicated to the agency’s social media practice?
12. How many of your employees primary function is social media?
13. Which clients on your client list do you perform social media services for?
14. How long has your agency provided social media services?
15. How much experience does your staff have with digital wine influencers?
16. Ask for links to senior social media staff profiles on social sites (i.e. Linkedin, Twitter, Facebook…)
17. How to you ensure both agency and client compliance with legal requirements?
18. What is your plan for monitoring the online conversation about our winery?
19. How do you assess which mentions require immediate responses and which do not?
20. How do you measure social media program success?
21. Do you offer social media training services for clients?
22. What internal processes do you have in place to ensure that your staff are kept current on social media innovations and best practices?
23. Please describe your experience working with brands on the following platforms and tactics:
    • YouTube or other video sharing sites
    • Blogs
    • Content Management System (CMS) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
    • E-mail newsletter campaigns
    • Facebook groups or pages
    • Facebook Apps
    • Other social networks and social networking tools
    • Twitter or other forms of microblogging
    • News sharing sites (i.e. Digg, Reddit, etc.)
    • Photo sharing (i.e. Flickr)
    • Other content sharing sites (i.e. Scribd, Slideshare, Delicious, etc.)
    • Social Media press releases (SMPRs)
    • Forums
    • Real world events such as wine dinners organized via social media (e.g. Tweetups)
    • Ratings/Customer service sites (i.e. Yelp, ePinions, etc.)
24. What is your process for identifying influencers within various social media channels?
25. What criteria do you use to determine and define “influence”?
26. What is your outreach process for engaging with digital influencers?
27. How have you integrated influencer outreach with traditional communications and/or marketing campaigns?

Let us know if you can suggest any additional questions.

- Carin

- Carin

Please vote for the person who you believe deserves to get their social media career started as the next Ink Foundry team member.

We reduced the list down to three from our initial intent to have 10 for you to vote on.  In the past we’ve received hundreds of email resumes; but when we ask individuals to create a video resume, the applicants dropped significantly.  Our take on it?  When you ask people to do something exceptional, like create a video resume, only the exceptional step up.

Deadline: Voting will close at midnight on Friday, Feb 12.

Round up your friends, professors, family, fans and followers and get them to vote with you!

Lauren

Rachel

Tyler

PHOTO CREDIT: April Zosia

If you would like to know more about Ink Foundry’s social media marketing employee hiring process via video application, check out our original post, The Resume Is Dead. And let us know if you have any questions.