WordPress has quickly become one of the most popular CMS systems on the planet and has a community of millions that actively use it and support it.

Although it has countless advantages, many of them are boring to the average consumer.  We are going to list the 3 here that we think make WordPress such a great tool.

1. WordPress is Scaleable – You can start your site small and easily grow it without great additional expense.  This will allow your business to take advantage of low development costs initially, and not have to re-invent the wheel as your company grows.  Need to add a few pages?  No problem with WordPress, you can do it yourself in the back end.
2. WordPress is Stable – Because WordPress is open source and supported by such a large community it is very stable and very secure.  This helps small and medium sized businesses save costs and time.  You don’t need to worry about hacks, and site failures.  your site will work on all browsers and all operating systems.
3. WordPress is SEO Friendly – Almost every website needs to score well in Google.  WordPress was developed with SEO in mind.  With dynamic URL’s and SEO friendly code your site will have a distinct advantage right from the start when you choose WordPress as your CMS

All in all, WordPress is a great choose for your small to medium sized business.  At Pacer Design Studios we custom design WordPress sites for customers everyday and can help you decide if WordPress is right for you.

Call us today at 724.709.7261 or fill out our quick and easy information form to find out more.

If you don’t think that your business website is accomplishing anything, then you should ask yourself these 3 questions:

1. Does my site clearly and concisely describe what my business does or sells?
2. Can my website be found easily in Google and other search engines?
3. 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.

Pacer created a custom WordPress site for them that allowed them to easily upload blog posts, video posts and engage their community of users.  The site also features their twitter feed.

Make sure to check the site out at www.radiochumps.com

First, I’ll give a basic description of what’s going on for an individual who knows nothing about web design/development, then move into the how to section.

Recently, Facebook has made a lot of changes to their API – which means that some old functionality has changed – like using a page tab to take you out of Facebook. Of course, Facebook wants to keep you on Facebook, but sometimes, you want people to leave Facebook to view YOUR site.

With the new timeline layout, there are now 4 spots for applications and what used to be called page tabs, but you can really only highlight 3 main items (as the 4th spot is reserved for your photos).  This makes whatever you choose to place in these 3 positions a bit more important (others appear but are hidden by a drop-down button).  One possible choice for one of these links could be a link to your website, or a specific promotional page on your website.

As you can see, on the Pacer Facebook Page – we added our own images and custom pages to these spots.

These are also available on fan pages too. Other items that could go into these 3 spots could be apps that link users youtube, twitter, or games, or a number of different things.

So how can we trick Facebook into doing this? One very simple and overlooked solution to this problem is a redirect – but not just any redirect – a javascript iframe parent window redirect! So what does that mean?

Basically, Facebook will let you develop your own html and css pages, and slap them in an iframe within Facebook – the limitations here is that the viewing area is restricted to about 520px or 820px (820px is a new addition with the current changes to Facebook), which is a bit limiting. You need to create a facebook application to do this, and basically all the application does is tell Facebook to display your page inside of the viewing area in Facebook.

We can take this and use it to trick Facebook into directing us to our websites. Any code written within the Iframe will be executed, so with the right code, you can tell your browser to change the parent window (needed because you are in an iframe – a child window if you will).

Now for the meat of the tutorial…

Step 1:  Make a page on your website that contains the redirect code.

-Make a file called something like… fbredirect.php and upload it to your server.

-Write this code inside of this page – be sure to replace YOUR_SITE with your actual website URL.

<script type=”text/javascript”>
window.top.location.href = “https://www.YOUR_SITE.com”;
</script>
<p>If you are not automatically redirected here is a link to <a target=”_blank” href=”https://www.YOUR_SITE.com”>YOUR_SITE</a>.  Opens in a new tab or window.</p>

-The HTML link is there just in case someone happens to be browsing Facebook with JavaScript turned off, it’s always a good idea to have a backup plan, however, this code should almost instantly redirect someone to your website.

Step 2: Create the Facebook application for the homepage

-Go to developers.facebook.com – click the apps tab along the top. Then click create a new tab (in the upper right corner).

-You need to add 2 sections the app on facebook area, and the page tab section on the create an app page.

-Canvas URL and Secure Canvas URL – these are for your redirects, the first link below is the canvas URL, and the second is the secure URL:

http://www.YOUR_SITE.com/fbredirect.php/

https://www.YOUR_SITE.com/fbredirect.php/

-These link to the file we created in step 1!

-Page Tab Section

Page Tab Name: What you want to appear as text underneath the photo on your Facebook page.

Page Tab URL: The same  URL of above with /?app_tab=true after it.

http://www.YOUR_SITE.com/fbredirect.php/?app_tab=true

Page Tab URL: Same as above with HTTPS.

https://www.YOUR_SITE.com/fbredirect.php/?app_tab=true

Step 3:  Allow Your Facebook Page to use the App you just created!

NOTE: Here is a link to facebook’s tutorial on adding page tabs – this process is described in detail there.

http://developers.facebook.com/docs/appsonfacebook/pagetabs/

-Use this link below in your Address Bar, but replace YOUR_APP_ID with your application ID from the Application you just created, and YOUR_URL with http://www.YOUR_SITE.com – of course you’re replacing YOUR_SITE with your actual site URL – but sometimes it can be confusing which URL you want to use – is it the URL of the APP – no, it’s the URL of the site you want to redirect to.

http://www.facebook.com/dialog/pagetab?app_id=YOUR_APP_ID&next=YOUR_URL

-This brings up Facebook in your browser.  You will need to select the pages you want the application to show up on (your personal page or any number of fan pages you have access to).

-After you select the sites, hit Allow – and you are done.  If you did this correctly, your app will show up on your Facebook page.  If you have a few apps already, you may have to use the arrow and switch out the position of it so it appears in one of the main 3 spots.

-Now you’ll notice that the application has no picture!  This is an easy fix.  Click the arrow to expand the application area.  Now when you hover over an item, you’ll see that you can edit (the little pencil marker in the upper right) the item. Click edit settings, then add/change the custom image associated with the tab to a custom graphic.

Congratulations – that’s it!  If you have any questions about this process, feel free to leave some questions in the comments below.

Although many firms are pushing their clients away from Direct Mail, we continue to promote it as a very good supplement to your digital efforts. The information we show below, continues to reinforce that strategy.

According to a recent survey conducted by marketing services firm, Epsilon Targeting, direct mail, especially when combined with other marketing tactics including email and social media sites, is still the number one choice among the over 4,000 survey participants.*
Here are some of the findings of that survey:

• Direct mail is the channel of choice for the 18-34 year old demographic.
• 37% of U.S. consumers believe traditional mail offers more privacy than email.
• Checking the mailbox is a source of enjoyment cited by 60% of the U.S. consumers.
• Consumers prefer personally addressed mail to unaddressed mail.

This study further proves our practice supplementing online marketing strategies with traditional means of marketing such as Direct Mail is a winning formula.  But our customers already knew that.

If you need help putting together a complete and comprehensive marketing strategy, call us today at 724.709.7261

*“Consumer Survey Results Reveal Direct Mail Is Most Preferred Channel for Receipt of Brand Communications,” Epsilon Targeting, http://www.epsilon.com/download/consumer-survey-results-reveal-direct-mail-most-preferred-channel-receipt-brand-communication

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.

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.”

Step 1:
Landing pages – a nice and easy way to make your Facebook page stand out from the rest.  Facebook gives you the option to add html and css code to an iframe within your Facebook page – internet code jargon aside – the general idea here is that we can create a totally customized page for when someone comes to your Facebook page.

Even better is that we can separate it between people who like your page, and people who haven’t liked you yet.  So new visitors can be directed towards a big like button, and given information relevant information and attention grabbing graphics to get them to click it.  Individuals who already like your page can be directed toward contests, promotions, or just about anything else you could think of to keep them engaged and interested in YOUR page.

Step 2:
Facebook applications – get your users involved.  Facebook applications can do any number of things, most notable are Facebook games.  Most notable about Facebook apps is that it can give you a way to interact with Facebook News Feeds and Notifications.  Integrate your blog with your Facebook page and get your name out there by showing up on the News Feeds of the people who use your app.

Step 3:
New uses for page tabs – page tabs can take you to custom pages (like the landing pages described above), and are located in the sidebar where your wall, info, links, etc. usually are.  Facebook tries to keep you ON Facebook though, which gives people an incentive to go back to checking out what their friends are doing (or other infinite ways to waste time on Facebook), instead of being interested in your content.  Well there are ways to direct people out of Facebook and to your site, using the page tabs.

Note:
At Pacer, we customize your experience.  Other programmers may use existing apps to build custom pages for you.  Their apps may be existing apps re-purposed to fit your needs.  The issue here is that these pages are often riddled with branding and advertisements for sites that are not yours.  The icons, logos, or links attributing to the source of the app have the potential to draw individuals away from your site.  At Pacer, we brand products with YOUR brand.