VISIT OUR BLOG: 5 BILLION MINUTES

Archive for the ‘Technology’ Category



Maura DeBartoli

06/25/2010

Your Feat Defines Our Success
12:10 am by Maura DeBartoli

When developing an integrated online marketing strategy, we’re going to do it right and we’re going to do it differently.

Building a foundation means not only designing and building a website, but replicating the charisma in you, with content development.

Think you’ve got momentum? Our team has built communities of hundreds of thousands, and brought them together in joined efforts. We rev well.

One truth: Email marketing is still one of the most preferred outlets for candidacy, grassroots organizations, and nonprofits. IWS can check that box with confidence. Consistent donor success? Web applications? iPhone Apps? Check, check, and check.

Above all though, one of the most fun and attractive things IWS is fortunate enough to own is our 12 foot tall, 18 foot deep green screen. You can create whatever and be whoever you want with it!

Naturally, online video viewership has been growing exponentially year after year – just over 66 percent of users engage with video content online, and is projected to be just shy of 80 percent by 2014.

“This shift will be propelled by a combination of technology integration, demographics and a growing comfort level with the idea of watching video hosted on Websites,” says eMarketer’s senior analyst.

Our editorial and production team members are fantastically proficient at what they do, and will tailor it to you. Our gift is a backstage pass. Enjoy.

1 Comment

Andy Forwark

03/03/2010

How To Easily Use Non-Web Safe Fonts In Your Designs With Cufón
01:23 pm by Andy Forwark

As a frontend developer, I don’t do much design work. I am usually handed a design and asked to build out the HTML and CSS before handing it off to the backend developer. I’m given the design, open it up in Photoshop, and as I go through and make my edits, I will sometimes notice headlines with fonts that are not safe for the web.

If you use an image to replace those headlines, it hurts the site as far as the SEO goes, right?. Wrong. Using CSS there are plenty of ways to keep the markup for the web crawlers, and the viewer will still see the design with the correct font face. To do this, you just us a simple image replacement technique with CSS, probably ten different ways to do it. These techniques work great, but what happens when your client asks you to change that headline to something else? You have to then go back to Photoshop, edit that piece of text, re-save the image, and then update your CSS with the new image name. Sounds like a lot of work to change one line of text right?

Allow me to introduce my new friend, Cufón. Cufón is a JavaScript library that renders a font file into a script that allows you to replace HTML elements on a page with that specific font file. Pretty slick right? Now when your client asks you to change the text in a headline, you only have to change it in the HTML, instead doing all of that other work!

So, whats the browser compatibility? The good news is that it works in IE6. Need I say more? And, yes the standards too (Firefox, Safari, Chrome). You can see a full list here.

One more note worth pointing out is that if the user has JavaScript turned off for some reason, then they wouldn’t see the pretty font face, but they would still see the heading on the page. So for the next project you get, don’t stress because your designer used non-web safe fonts, go ahead and try it out — it’s easy to implement into any site. You can “see” Cufón in action at The Visual Click, or over at Press75.

Do you have any secrets to add or other pieces of advice? I would love to hear your thoughts.

1 Comment

Sarah Trees

02/25/2010

Get the word out with CoveritLive
07:01 pm by Sarah Trees


In today’s world, users want the breaking news at their fingertips, and CoveritLive (CiL) is the latest software application that makes this possible. Whether you’re a political candidate hosting a Q&A session or a news station covering the President’s State of the Union, CoveritLive can get the word out to your audience. CiL was built to handle multiple users at once – and by multiple I mean in the hundreds of thousands. But that is not the only amazing feature; here are a few of others:

  • Stream live video
  • On the fly translations
  • Reader Comment API – client’s can setup their own chat application and reader can comment from mobile phones or external chat rooms
  • RSS feeds – provide readers with writer and event feeds
  • Moderators or Writers can cover their event from their iPhone, Blackberry or smartphone
  • Publish up to 12 Twitter Accounts
  • Invite up to 25 panelists to provide commentary
  • Integrate 3rd party software like YouTube, WordPress, Twitter
  • Branded templates – Viewer window templates allow you to add your logo
  • News Flash and Scoreboards
  • Manage readers comments
  • Create a Media Library
  • Embed Large photos
  • Deploy Quick Polls for your readers
  • Advertise

What would be the cost for such a cool tool? You’d be surprised at how inexpensive this software is. There are three different pricing structures: Basic, Ad Supported and Subscription. The basic package is free of charge  and there aren’t any ads and up to 5,000 unique readers a month are allowed to view your live event. Ad Supported is also free, but serves ads, and after 45 days revenue sharing is possible. The last package is a one-year subscription, which contains no advertising and costs $400 per month.

Here are a couple of examples of companies that utilize CoveritLive:

PhilliesNation
General Motors
NBA – The Boston Celtics
CBC National Post

No Comments

Jessica Carlson

02/03/2010

2.2 million “HAITI” texts to 90999 later…
01:44 pm by Jessica Carlson

4290095017_5395137a0d

One of the most catastrophic natural disasters in recent history has been met with more than $22 million in $5 and $10 text-message donations, an unprecedented show of charitable giving made possible by the ease of small-scale mobile donations. And beyond these times of need, micro-support is gaining traction as a straightforward, accessible way for everyday people to support the causes they believe in, finance promising new businesses, and make their creative visions a reality in small, easy steps. – AdAge

Years ago, during a time of need such as this, most would have directed people online to make quick, easy and secure donations to help provide support. Raising funds online has now become the norm, and as many politicians, political groups and non-profits have demonstrated that it can lead to unprecedented success. However, taking that trend of pervasive, efficient donation campaigns to the next level is doing so via text messages.

The devastating situation in Haiti has demonstrated the widespread effect that a text message donation campaign can have on mass support and charitable giving. Many are attributing the huge success of the campaign to the fact that the barrier to entry is so low; most can afford to lump on an extra $5 to $10 to their phone bill, especially for a cause that they believe strongly in, and it takes all of thirty seconds to donate. It doesn’t get much easier than that.

As the AdAge article points out making micro-donations easily accessible, especially via mobile phones, opens completely new doors to reaching new and diverse audiences. And, with over 75 percent of the US population using cell phones, it only makes sense to take it to the mobile playing field.

Photo: The U.S. Army

No Comments

Brian Michael

02/02/2010

Is this Blog Post Any Good?
10:10 am by Brian Michael

The answer to the question in the title will hopefully be yes, but it probably depends on who you’re asking. It also depends what they consider a “good blog post”; in other words they all have different measures of success. The same is true with any Web site or online project.

Measures of success obviously can vary from project to project, but they can also vary within a project. In most cases there exist three levels of measures, for our purposes we’ll call them primary, secondary and tertiary.

Usually primary measures of success relate to an offline activity. Although some people may spend more time in front of a computer than away from it, there is still a real world out there – a world that revolves around exchanging money, voting, construction and other human activities. Thus some examples would include making a donation on a mobile phone, getting people to vote for a particular candidate, or winning approval for a new hospital. One or more of these are usually the “problems” a client will have when looking to partner with another firm. These are easily the most important measures of success.

Secondary measures have to do with the activities that lead to one of the primary objectives mentioned above. Since primary measures involve a serious commitment on the part of the end-user, a gradual process of building up to the ultimate goal is required. These nodes of engagement could include participating in an online poll or survey, posting a message on a Facebook Wall, or forwarding an email.

The way to judge the likelihood that the secondary actions will be taken by supporters remains the hard data of the tertiary measures. These indexes – like pageviews, open rates or Twitter followers – are the things successful managers follow on a daily basis; and their analysis will uncover trends among your audiences.  This will in turn allow you to optimize campaigns to drive up the response rates measured in the primary and secondary goals.

Taking a step back we have seen that measures of success directly correlate to a campaign goal.  Measuring those goals can be done on a variety of levels in this case primary, secondary, or tertiary.  These levels could also be called Offline, Engagement, and Indicators, respectively.

The goal of this post was to pass on some knowledge for the offline world, I hope it is measured as a success.

1 Comment

Paul McKay

01/21/2010

Grocery Shopping On Your iPhone
04:50 pm by Paul McKay

iphone

Each week like clock-work, a flimsy plastic bag full of supermarket circulars inevitably ends up at the front door. You know what I’m talking about. Those bags that pile up with coupons that you trip over Sunday morning. Our clients Vertis Communications and Nash Finch Co. were looking to reduce the psychological and environmental damage of the never-ending stream of shopping circulars when they hired us to create an iPhone application for the Family Fresh Market brand of stores in Wisconsin. *iTunes link

The IWS-developed app has several features — all of which are managed by a custom content management system that allows the market’s supplier to publish specials in real time. Customers who download the app can easily check what’s on offer in the Fresh Meat, Produce, Deli, Fresh Bakery, and Floral aisles whether they’re at home or pushing a shopping cart around the market. With a simple flick of the finger, you can even add these items to a shopping list along with anything else you need to pick up at Family Fresh.

Users also benefit from Well Balanced tips which aim to help make healthy decisions easy. For instance, buying low sodium varieties of canned vegetables and rinsing them thoroughly is a quick way to lower your salt intake.

Creating a branded app like this is an excellent way to offer customers something they can use while also streamlining communication to them. eMarketer claims close to 75 percent of consumers with iPhones use apps. With this trend clearly growing, it’s safe to say that a relevant or entertaining iPhone app could build a stronger connection with your customers.

No Comments

Sarah Trees

01/08/2010

Mobile Devices – New Opportunities to Reach Your Customer
07:51 pm by Sarah Trees

A recent report from eMarketer shows that having content accessible from mobile devices/networks is becoming increasingly important to end users of these devices. Mobile device manufacturers are challenged with where, how and when their users want to consume content. With the creation of netbooks, e-readers, gaming devices and super intelligent smartphones – users are craving more and more fresh content. Users of smartphone devices surf the Internet 3 times as much as regular mobile phone users.

So what types of content and marketing messages are best suited for delivery on smartphone devices? We can look at what many of the fast-food chains like Qdoba Mexican Grill have done. They have started mobile loyalty programs. Qdoba says they have seen good results from their mobile campaign, they claim an average rate of redemption on their coupons at 16% and as high as 40% in some college locations. Locally, I have noticed this trend as well with Jack in the Box and the Phoenix Suns. Whenever the Phoenix Suns score 99 points or more users who have signed up with the Suns text club can receive 2 free tacos. You could take your ticket from that night’s game into any valley Jack in the Box and redeem them for the free tacos. This is genius. The Suns and JIB (Jack in the Box) have figured out how to not only get more business but to build their customer list. And who doesn’t like free tacos?

Photo: nardell

No Comments

Maura DeBartoli

01/05/2010

A minimalist approach: Social Entrepreneurs
06:05 pm by Maura DeBartoli

spaceball

Those owning and working for small to medium sized businesses are predisposed to have a lot on their plate. The focus tends to be on keeping up with client work, internal to-dos, etc. and it can be difficult to develop and manage an active social media strategy. Discussed here are a few low key & low maintenance things to think about, and hopefully will spark a few ideas that really make sense for social media.

Does what you do tap into people’s passions? Remember that social media is a vehicle for sharing special interests! Encourage your audience to comment on or contribute to blogs, share photos of events, products in use, etc. People will inevitably converse about their leisurely pursuits… Bonus.

What can you show off? It’s OK to sometimes! If you’ve got a product that you can demonstrate or talk about in a video, do it on YouTube. If your company has a great portfolio (or potential), show that off with a dynamic website or a Flickr account and sit on it. If you specialize in services, get the audience involved and encourage that they share their experiences on the social media sites. There’s a niche somewhere.

With that, are there identifiable niche communities that regular customers or clients tend to naturally congregate? What advice can you offer in your area of expertise?

Small business owners and entrepreneurs have an advantage in that you can establish yourselves online, while listening in. You don’t want to completely overlook traditional ways to expand your business. Meaning, promote social media efforts both online and off – even something so small as putting your twitter handle on your business card can have great impact.

While you’re in the trial and error phase, track and measure – minimally. No need to be nitty-gritty about metrics if you’re starting small. But, keep track of sales. Have they increased? Set-up a Google Alert. Who’s talking? Above all, ask for feedback and have fun!

Image: jjsala

No Comments

Jessica Carlson

12/09/2009

The Nanci Fund: A Case Study in Building Communities for Good
01:12 pm by Jessica Carlson

nanci_01_09

“You may never know what results come of your action, but if you do nothing there will be no result.” – Ghandi

The Reasoners, a now family of five, have much to be thankful for this holiday season. You see, a few months ago, Craig and his wife, Leeann, were entrenched in the Columbian legal system, attempting to adopt twelve-year-old Nanci Parra.

They met the young girl at an orphanage in Columbia while visiting the children they were adopting – Brayan, age 13, and his little sister, Tatiana, age 8. The adoption process, should have lasted only a month, but due to special circumstances, Craig had to stay in Columbia for four months, allowing him and the family to bond with the shy and sweet, yet blossoming young girl. Both Brayan and Tatiana made it safe and sound to the Reasoners’ home in Phoenix, Arizona. But the thought of Nanci could not escape the new family.

Working with IWS on a pro-bono basis, the Reasoners decided to create an online village that could help pay for the expenses to give Nanci a home and a better life. The generous supporters helped Craig and Leeann bring her home, and they recently finished up the final stages of paperwork and they have all safely made it back to Nanci’s new home. Their adoption costs for all three children was expensive, but thanks to supporters, they were provided with some relief in the cost to give Nanci a home.

At IWS, we’ve always strongly believed that we all have a responsibility to do more good. Max Fose says he often takes on pro bono work because he believes that, “…We all have a responsibility to give back. We’re fortunate enough to be in a position that we can, but even if we weren’t, we would do whatever we could.”

To find out more please visit the Nanci Fund. To find out what we else we’re doing to help the community this holiday season, be sure to follow us on Twitter.

No Comments

Brian Michael

11/30/2009

Awesome Excel Add-On
11:40 am by Brian Michael

In the email marketing world, you often find yourself inheriting lists of contacts for email delivery on behalf of clients.  Besides ascertaining the origin these lists (opt-in, matched file, etc.), it is important to do an initial cleansing of the lists.  This includes removing duplicates, filling in missing data and removing erroneous data.  If you have a person responsible for database administration he or she could probably get this done by loading the lists into a MySQL, SQL, or Access database and running a few scripts.  However, this person may not understand the specific logic that the data must follow (i.e. this type of record trumps this type), because it is often not known until someone actually rolls up their sleeves and starts digging.

So when you need to manipulate data using a fine point rather than the broad brush of database scripts, Microsoft Excel is a natural solution.  However it has its limitations in terms of sync-ing multiple lists.  Thankfully, DigDB is a useful Excel plug-in that allows you to do much of your data manipulation yourself.  Its website also features step-by-step instructions for common tasks like de-duping lists.  Check it out, it’s pretty cool and extremely useful.

No Comments

« Older Entries