5 Tips to Be Pinworthy
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Friday, 31 August 2012
Wednesday, 13 June 2012
Facebook Integration for WordPress
On a recent Facebook Blog, we found some great information regarding the latest Facebook Integration with WordPress.
WordPress publishers can easily integrate Facebook features, such as social publishing and mentions, through the new Facebook for WordPress plugin to your website.
WordPress publishers can easily integrate Facebook features, such as social publishing and mentions, through the new Facebook for WordPress plugin to your website.
The plugin was built by Facebook engineers in collaboration with open source partners, and makes it simple for anyone to make their WordPress site more social – no coding required. The plugin will also work on mobile and support internationalisation.
Social Publishing
Once the plugin is installed, you can cross-post content published to WordPress to your Facebook Timeline and the Facebook Pages you manage. You can also mention the names of Pages and friends as you post to further distribute your content.
WordPress Widgets
The following social plugins are available as WordPress widgets:
• Activity Feed: Shows readers their friends’ activity on the site, such as likes and comments.
• Recommendations: Gives readers personalised suggestions for pages on your site they might like, as well as a Recommendations Bar option to give users the option to add content to their Timeline as they read.
• Customizable Like, Subscribe and Send buttons.
• Comments Box: Makes it easy for people to comment on your site and post back to Facebook, and includes moderation tools. The plugin also features automatic SEO support for Facebook Comments, so search engines can index them to improve your site’s visibility.
An easy way to connect with your audiences while providing users with more engaging and personalised experiences. The plugin is available for all sites on WordPress.com VIP as well.
WordPress powers 16.6 percent of the web, from The New York Times to People Magazine, and attracts more than 600 million unique visitors each month. We hope the plugin makes it possible for WordPress content to be shared even more widely among people.
For more information please do let us know on 01743 467700 and we will do our best to help.
Friday, 27 January 2012
Appointed Website Developer - Starting March 2012!
Here at Shrewsbury's Design Agency Verve - we are very proud to announce that we have appointed an incredibly experienced, hard working and knowledgeable Developer who specialises in e-Commerce to join our growing team.
Being such a strong, dedicated and talented team, we knew it was crucial to find the right person for this role. We may not have found such a golden egg without the fantastic work of our friendly and reliable neighbour, C2 Recruitment. In their hard working and professional approach they have managed to find us the perfect candidate to fit all of our requirements - we can't have second best here at Verve!! :-)
With such an incredible year coming up, we are really looking forward March - come back soon and we will be revealing more!
Being such a strong, dedicated and talented team, we knew it was crucial to find the right person for this role. We may not have found such a golden egg without the fantastic work of our friendly and reliable neighbour, C2 Recruitment. In their hard working and professional approach they have managed to find us the perfect candidate to fit all of our requirements - we can't have second best here at Verve!! :-)
With such an incredible year coming up, we are really looking forward March - come back soon and we will be revealing more!
Friday, 13 January 2012
Junior/Graduate Website Developer
At Verve Graphic Design & Marketing, Shropshire, we pride ourselves in having such a strong, dedicated and talented team, and with many exciting plans for 2012 we are on the hunt to recruit another outstanding Website Developer to complement our Shrewsbury based Web Design team.
Responsibilities will include doing the back end and front end development of our websites. Skills required include:
• PHP/My SQL
• Apache Web Server
• Unix Administration
• XHTML, CSS, Javascript, J Query, Ajax
• XLM
• Experience with CMS, such as Wordpress, Drupel, Joomla, etc
• Experience with CMS, such as Magento, Open Cert, Prestashop, etc
• Database administration (majorly MySQL)
The successful candidate must be able to display creativity and flair within strict deadlines and take projects from concept to completion. This is an excellent opportunity to get heavily involved in some very exciting and groundbreaking website builds using the latest technologies.
Experience should include:
• Previous experience in a web design related field/subject
• Experience of working in a target driven environment
• Excellent understanding of the internet and web based applications
A portfolio of existing websites you have been involved in producing would be distinct advantage.
Qualifications and Skills:
• Degree in related field
If this is the perfect role for you or someone you know - please contact us straight away, we'd love to hear from you!
Boosting your Social Media Literacy
We have found the below 5 steps targeting business owners to boost their social media literacy - and boost their business!
1. Understand that relationships with customers, staff, suppliers, distributors and other business contacts extend beyond the four walls of your office. Whether you agree with the idea of social media or not, millions of people around the world use social networks every day and if you own a business, social media literacy is a must.
2. Engage with customers on social media. Accept customers as friends, followers and connections. You can always set privacy options to limit what you share with customers, but keep the engagement flowing by connecting with them on social media.
3. Have a Facebook Fan Page for your business. Invite customers to “like” your page and offer an incentive to do so. Include content-rich articles. Have contents. Create an online culture that will help customers get to know and love you, your products, services and business.
4. Connect with your team online. There are differing opinions out there among human resources professionals about whether managers should connect with staff on social networks, but the point is to create, then cultivate, healthy relationships with your staff that will build trust on and off line amongst you all.
5. Develop a Social Media Policy with your staff. Notice that did not read “for your staff”. Engage and empower your staff in conversations about social media. If you are not entirely convinced of why social media is useful for a business, ask your staff to help you. Rather than imposing rules on them about what they can and can not post and how they must or must not interact with others, engage them in conversations about what makes sense for them, for you and for the business.
Wednesday, 11 January 2012
Social Media Strategy - Increase Social Engagement
Engagement with your audience is one of the great advantages of social media marketing, but creating meaningful conversations is as much an art as it is a science. Engagement increases brand loyalty and public conversations can serve as free advertising.
Contests and Promotions
It is crucial to know your audience and provide content that is valuable, useful or interesting to that audience. One of the best ways to get the social customer engaged with your brand is to give something they want through contests, promotions or vouchers. Apparently, 65% of people who follow brands on Facebook are looking to score a deal. The business is out there, you just need to be there with a promotion and get the business - simple.
Ongoing Social Engagement
Contests and promotions are likely to serve your social engagement well, but as always, a variety is essential for a successful campaign. Therefore special promotions need to be balanced with interesting and useful content. Asking questions, doing the unexpected, and empowering your most passionate followers are three ways that businesses can enhance ongoing social engagement and loyalty, which eventually leads to more customers and increased sales.
Elaborating on the three ways to enhance ongoing social engagement…
Keep Asking Questions
This may seem obvious, but many businesses continue to post about their products and services without asking their followers or fans for feedback. Asking your audience questions not only shows you value customer feedback, it is also a great way to learn insights from and about your fans.
Do Something Unexpected
Few brands have the guts to try something unexpected and even fewer can be successful at it. One “Do-Something-Unexpected” story is Magic Hat. They sent out an e-newsletter to promote their Number 9 beer for the brew’s sixteen-year anniversary. The email was written from the point of view of a proud parent, poking fun at the beer entering into adolescence. The email was so bold, funny and captivating, the audience could not help but read on.
Empower Your Most Passionate Users
Finally, empowered fans will promote your brand and spread the word of your business. They are ultimately your number one asset. We want to encourage businesses to find out what it is about their brand that ignites their fans’ passions and by 'fueling the fire' you can build a loyal following for your business too.
Contests and Promotions
It is crucial to know your audience and provide content that is valuable, useful or interesting to that audience. One of the best ways to get the social customer engaged with your brand is to give something they want through contests, promotions or vouchers. Apparently, 65% of people who follow brands on Facebook are looking to score a deal. The business is out there, you just need to be there with a promotion and get the business - simple.
Ongoing Social Engagement
Contests and promotions are likely to serve your social engagement well, but as always, a variety is essential for a successful campaign. Therefore special promotions need to be balanced with interesting and useful content. Asking questions, doing the unexpected, and empowering your most passionate followers are three ways that businesses can enhance ongoing social engagement and loyalty, which eventually leads to more customers and increased sales.
Elaborating on the three ways to enhance ongoing social engagement…
Keep Asking Questions
This may seem obvious, but many businesses continue to post about their products and services without asking their followers or fans for feedback. Asking your audience questions not only shows you value customer feedback, it is also a great way to learn insights from and about your fans.
Do Something Unexpected
Few brands have the guts to try something unexpected and even fewer can be successful at it. One “Do-Something-Unexpected” story is Magic Hat. They sent out an e-newsletter to promote their Number 9 beer for the brew’s sixteen-year anniversary. The email was written from the point of view of a proud parent, poking fun at the beer entering into adolescence. The email was so bold, funny and captivating, the audience could not help but read on.
Empower Your Most Passionate Users
Finally, empowered fans will promote your brand and spread the word of your business. They are ultimately your number one asset. We want to encourage businesses to find out what it is about their brand that ignites their fans’ passions and by 'fueling the fire' you can build a loyal following for your business too.
Friday, 6 January 2012
Advertising Your Business Effectively
At Verve Graphic Design Shrewsbury we found an interesting statistic that, as per the BBC experts, we see over 500 advertising messages every day. An incredible number here, so how many of these do you think you could you recall on your way to work? Not many? Me either!
500 advertising messages every day may sound like an unusually high figure but advertising can so easily wash over us, instead of doing what it’s intended to do, that is, grab our attention. So often, nowadays, advertising acts more like a garnish to our everyday lives. We are aware it’s there, sitting on the side of the plate - but we’re just not interested in taking it in.
In order to make an impact with your business it is crucial that your business identity, website, flyers, etc, that is, all marketing materials you have will:
a) Stand out, and
b) Communicate your Unique Selling Point to potential customers in those few seconds you have to impress them
We are extremely determined and passionate about our work to achieve both of these points when creating designs for our clients, whether it is for their business identity, website, flyers, or advertisement in a magazine. We work closely with our clients to gain their full concept to ensure we effectively create the perfect design that will stand out and communicate their business' USP successfully.
We're based on the outskirts of Shrewsbury, in Shropshire, please give us a call to discuss any of your business design requirements as we'd love to assist.
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