Featured Posts:
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3 Things Your Website Must Do
All websites are not created equal..here are 3 things to make sure yours is working Continue reading
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How to Prepare for Your Company’s New Facebook Timeline
On March 30th, all Facebook business pages will switch to the timeline Continue reading
Category Archives: Featured
3 Things Your Website Must Do
Posted on March 23rd, 2012 by Jason Bumblis:
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All websites are not created equal. Somehow, in 2012, many people still do not understand the value of a website for a business. A website is the only advertising that you do that works 24 hours a day, 365 days a year for 2-3 years.
If you don’t think that your business website is accomplishing anything, then you should ask yourself these 3 questions:
- Does my site clearly and concisely describe what my business does or sells?
- Can my website be found easily in Google and other search engines?
- Does my website integrate my online marketing strategy to generate leads?
If you did not answer an emphatic “YES” to all 3 of the above questions then you are not using your website to its potential. A properly designed and optimized website should be a powerful lead generation tool for your business.
Once people visit your website you have between 5 and 8 seconds to convince them that you can help them. If your message is not clear and concise, you will lose that visitor. If you keep that visitor on your site, your lead gen strategy must go to work and capture their information.
These things are all easily remedied by professionals like us here at Pacer Design Studios. We can sit down with you and review your current site at no charge. We can then help formulate a plan that will help you get the most out of your most important marketing tool…your web presence.
How to Prepare for Your Company’s New Facebook Timeline
Posted on February 29th, 2012 by Jason Bumblis:
Facebook has once again thrown a wrench into the online marketing efforts of thousands of businesses everywhere. Starting on March 30th, 2012 all business pages will be making the transition to the “timeline” look that was rolled out for individual pages this past fall.
What does this mean to you? The Bad.
All of the work you had done on the sidebar is going to be essentially wasted. The customized tabs you created will disappear. You can also no longer set a default landing page either, which is a bummer.
How can I take advantage of this? The Good.
The timeline image is going to be a great opportunity to build your brand. This is a large piece of real estate that will present a very real opportunity to present information to the client.
This is going to really allow smart marketers a better platform to brand their products/company.
How can Pacer Design Studios help me with Facebook?
We can help work with you to make sure that when March 30th hits your business will be ready for the change. We can help you understand how to get more out of your new timeline look than your competitors.
Call us today at 724.709.7261 to set up your consultation.
Talent Network Launches New Web Presence
Posted on February 23rd, 2012 by Jason Bumblis:
The crew at talent network, inc in Moon Twp is always staying a step ahead of their competition. When many of their competitors are just starting to embrace the web as a marketing tool, TNI has launched a new version of their website, accompanied by a streamlined mobile version, a branded blog and matching social media.
The new version of the TNI site, www.talentnetworkinc.com, allows them to properly promote the various comedians, corporate speakers, musical acts and casino party offerings that they serve up to their hundreds of satisfied clients. The site is built on a WordPress platform which allows the staff at TNI to quickly make changes to their roster. It also incorporates a feed from their extremely popular blog, www.talentnetworknews.com.
The mobile version allows both current and potential clients the ability to browse the impressive roster that TNI represents while on the move. This gives TNI a distinct advantage in today’s mobile world.
Pacer Design Studios not only created the new sites for TNI, but also created new logos for both TNI and their blog, Talent Network News. Pacer then went one step further and helped TNI brand all of their social media efforts with custom graphics for twitter, facebook, youtube and more.
Talent Network prides themselves on the promotion they do for their clients, so they also had Pacer Design Studios custom build their Facebook page. This allowed them to showcase some of their more popular clients, while at the same time showcasing some of their capabilities as promoters.
Frank Murgia, TNI’s Media Director worked closely with Pacer throughout the process and had this to say “We feel it is very important and beneficial to redesign, rebrand and optimize our online platforms every two years so as to stay ahead of our competitors and on pace in the ever-changing algorithms of the online sandbox. We feel this provides a more user-friendly experience to our clients and expands the online reach of the artists on our roster.”
Internet users are shifting toward mobile
Posted on February 2nd, 2012 by Jason Bumblis:
Anybody that reads this blog already know this, but internet usage is shifting more and more towards the mobile realm everyday. If your business is not taking advantage of mobile websites, then you are undoubtedly losing money to a business that is.
Morgan Stanley analysts charted the most important online trends and have made their prediction for the future of the internet. One of the more relevant predictions was the dramatic shift towards mobile web use.
Morgan Stanley’s analyst believe that the mobile web will be more widely used than the desktop internet by 2015.
What the heck is mobile web?
The mobile web represents any device you use to browse the internet other than your desktop computer or laptop. Mobile devices have smaller screens and render web sites differently than other devices. Obviously your smart phone is a mobile web device, but so is your Ipad, your Kindle and your Android tablet.
Studies show that when your website is optimized for viewing on these devices, visitors stay on your site longer and are more willing to make purchases.
What can Pacer do to help my business take advantage of the mobile web?
We can create a mobile version of your site that will be optimized for viewing on various mobile platforms. We can consult with you to decide if it is time for your business to have an APP in the APP store.
Although your mobile web site will run off the same content as your current site, their are several things you can do to optimize your content for the mobile web.
Did you know that video accounts for 69% of mobile data traffic? That seems like good motivation to get some video on your site, and Pacer can help you with that.
The shift towards mobile is still in its early stages, and you can still get in early enough to take advantage. The trend is being driven by better devices and increased data coverage, and those 2 things are only going to continue.
Take advantage of this exciting opportunity today!
New JimKrenn.com is live!
Posted on January 17th, 2012 by Jason Bumblis:
Pittsburgh Comedian/Entertainer Jim Krenn tapped Pittsburgh web design company, Pacer Design Studios to design and launch his new www.JimKrenn.com.
Voted 14 times as the Top Entertainer in the City by Pittsburgh Magazine, Jimmy is recognized throughout Western Pennsylvania as the host of Pittsburgh’s top-rated morning show on 102.5 WDVE-FM. He also makes frequent television appearances and does several Standing Room only concert performances yearly.
Pacer Design Studios provided Jim Krenn with a custom design that incorporates a blog for Jim to connect with his thousands of fans. His throng of fans can also now leave comments on each story allowing them to speak directly to Jimmy.
Pacer coordinated a photo shoot with Jim, allowing them to get many great new shots of the local comic. The behind the scenes video of that will be coming soon.
Jim is also in the process of having Pacer create a custom facebook fan page as well. His official fan page can be viewed at http://www.facebook.com/jimkrennfanpage
Be sure to like Jim’s page, and to check back soon to see his new design.
To see more examples of web design by Pacer Design studios check out our portfolio
Google Gets Personal With Your Data
Posted on January 11th, 2012 by Jason Bumblis:
Google’s new “Search Plus Your World” rolls out today, marking the most radical change ever in how Google serves up your search results. The new results now not only find content out there on public websites, they also display content that has been shared privately through Google+.
The new format went live today, and will start showing up for everyone over the next few days. You can tell if you are seeing the new format because you will see an image like this:
HOW IT AFFECTS YOU
Google has been using personalized search results since 2005, with updates in 2007 and 2009, but this is a whole new level. For instance, when you type in your friends name, their Google+ profile will appear right in your search results. When you search for a photo of say, “Bermuda”, any photos your friends shared of Bermuda will come up first. If your neighbor shared a photo of his dog named Bermuda, that would appear.
The personalized results will also creep into your search bar via the autocomplete predictions as well.
For instance, for most users, a search for “chikoo” would show links about and photos of an Indian fruit. But for friends of Google Fellow Mr. Amit Singhal, it would also show photos and posts about his dog, Chikoo. A search for a sports team would show, in addition to the usual links, conversations about the team among a user’s friends on Google Plus.
PERSONALIZED SEARCH RESULTS NOW INCLUDE:
- Listings from the web
- Listings from the web, boosted because of your personal behavior
- Listings from the web, boosted because of your social connections
- Public Google+ posts, photos or Google Picasa photos shared with you
- Private or “Limited” Google+ posts, photos or Google Picasa photos shared with you
While it may freak some people out seeing personal information in their Google results, you must remember that these are not public results. They are results personalized just for the person viewing them. If private content has been shared with those people, that is visible. If it has not been shared, it is not visible.
PUBLIC CONCERNS
This new system seems to have an appeal to certain people, but in the broader scope it seems to have generated more concern than anything. Right off the bat the anti-trust comments are everywhere because now it seems that Google is giving search preference to its own social network. Obviously Google and Facebook are not friends anyway (since Facebook partnered with Bing), but now Twitter and other social services are concerned that their information will automatically be pushed below Google’s own network results…which is a no-no.
“We think that’s bad for people, publishers, news organizations and Twitter users,” the company (Twitter) said in a statement.
SHOULD YOU BE CONCERNED
As with nearly every social media, it is very easy for someone with access to private content to re-share it publicly, whether intentionally or not. So if you share a photo of Grandma sleeping on the couch on Google+ and forget to mark it private, it could potentially show up for anyone searching Google.
DO I HAVE TO SIGN UP?
Unfortunately, Google chose to not go down the Opt-In route, but rather the Opt-Out option. You can go into you search settings are on Google and choose to permanently opt-out.
“I think this is a much better experience, at the end of the day,” Singhal said, explaining why the default change was made.
CONCLUSION
Overall, I think that the marriage of public and private data is an obvious one, and everyone could see it coming. I think there are some security concerns that will startle a few people, but for the most part people will adapt to it and learn to like it.
I think this will almost force Facebook and even Twitter to come to the bargaining table with Google and try to get their services included in the same fashion.
It is nice that Google allows you to turn this off, which will help some people avoid it, but long term I think this is the future of search.
The way Google+ is integrated into this gives it a distinct advantage and only further strengthens our stance here at Pacer Design Studios that search engine marketers cannot ignore Google+.
Do you want an APP…or just a mobile website
Posted on January 5th, 2012 by Jason Bumblis:
I am constantly approached by customers who want us to write a custom APP for their business. Are you someone who wants an APP? Here are 5 questions that you need to ask yourself before you plop down the thousands of dollars needed to create your own custom app.
- Will you give the app away for free or sell it? If you give it away it will get more downloads, but people are very quick to delete an app they got for free because…well, it was free. Selling it costs you a cut if you put it into the APP store, plus it will get in less hands than if it was free.
- Are you prepared for the cost? APP’s cost thousands of dollars to develop, are you ready to spend that? Mobile websites can often be developed for a fraction of the cost based off your current website.
- How will you update it? If the data that needs constant updating, then you need to plan for that. One distinct advantage of a mobile website over an APP is that it pulls the data from the same place as your regular website, which means you do not have to spend extra time updating it.
- How are you going to market it? An great APP is not going to download itself. You will need to spend money promoting your APP. A mobile website gets promoted every time you promote your website, so their is no additional cost. Your mobile website will spider in the search engines too, your APP will not.
- Is your APP the next big thing, or just something additional for your customers? If you have the next big thing on your hands then good for you. Go for it, be committed, market the heck out of it and see where it leads you. If you just want something else for your customers that is great as well. It is important that you set your expectations and go from there. If your APP is an add-on to a service you already provide, then don’t expect to get rich off of it.
Make sure you have looked at all the solutions first. A mobile website can more times than not solve the same problems that an APP can at a fraction of the initial cost and with less up keep. If you eventually find that a mobile site is not enough, you can always add an APP, while still keeping the mobile site and all of its benefits.
APPs are great things. It is funny how something we didn’t even know about 5-6 years ago is now so important in our lives now. If you do your research and set reasonable expectations, then an APP can be a nice addition for you and your customers.
Contact us at Pacer Design Studios and we will set up a free consultation to help you plan out your mobile project…app or mobile site.
