Design To The Finish Line

A Santa Rosa Web Design, Graphic Design and SEO Blog

Monthly Archives: January, 2010

Date: 2010.01.29 | Category: Santa Rosa Social Media - SEO | Response: 0

My assistant is always using Facebook and tweeting her status, why can’t I just learn social media from her?

Social media for your business is a very different animal from social media for diversion. Would you hire your mom to take your wedding photographs just because she uses a digital camera, and likes taking photographs?  Clearly, for something as important as wedding photographs, you would want to hire a professional – someone with experience who understands where missteps happen with wedding photography.

The same can be said for hiring a professional social media consultant, or expert.

A professional can guide you on the right and wrong ways to use social media.

Yes, there are wrong ways to us social media – just ask any college graduate who put all his drunk frat photos online and is now trying to land an office job.

Because there are lots of ways to embarrass yourself on Twitter and Facebook by revealing too much. Does your assistant really have the business savvy to understand friendly-but-not-too-friendly business networking?  Can your assistant assess the networks you may want to be a part of;  the ones which won’t work for your business; and the ones that would be a complete waste of time?

Will he/she be able to keep you current with the ever-changing face of social networking?

And what about your online voice?

Your online voice (or personality) is how you want your company to appear to the world.

This online voice is not only part of your overall brand, but it becomes an interactive experience for a business when social media gets added to the mix. One of the first questions a professional social media expert will ask a business owner is, “Who is the voice of your brand and what will they share with the world?” The answer is a very important decision in and of itself.

It’s important for a business to dedicate time towards creating a social media personality outline.

There are multiple identity combinations that businesses might use to increase brand visibility and converse with customers.

Can your assistant teach you this?

If not, don’t despair.

Santa Rosa Web Design company Forward Motion Studios can help you find the right social media voice and platform to share your company brand. We also teach classes in Social Media 101 for Businesses.  Stop by http://forwardmotionstudios.com/socialmediaseminar.html and registered to be notified when we will be holding our next series of classes.

You can also call us at 707-578-1390 to schedule a private social media consultation.

Just remember to learn social media fundamentals from a professional, then find what works best for your business and apply it!

The FMS Team of santa rosa web designers

About Forward Motion Studios
Forward Motion Studios™ is a Santa Rosa Web Design company that builds, hosts and supports custom websites for businesses. This includes simple, brochure-like web pages to highly complex, software and database-driven eCommerce websites with B2B shopping carts.

Contact us for a free estimate / consultation by calling 707-578-1390.

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Date: 2010.01.22 | Category: Santa Rosa Social Media - SEO, Santa Rosa Web Design | Response: 0

Internet marketing has become a very time-intensive project for most businesses and SEO Consulting is a new position in the web design industry to handle this problem.

It used to be easy for a business website to get found in search. A web developer might place a few lines of meta tag code in home page and submit the site to the popular search engines. It’s not so simple anymore. The internet is just too big.  But there are steps you can take to help drive traffic to your web site.

Santa Rosa Web Design Firm Forward Motion Studios offers the following 10 ways to drive traffic to your website -

  1. Make sure to name each one of your pages using a keyword phrase people will use to find your business.
  2. Offer values on your web site for your ideal client. This can include recommendations, tips, coupons, valuable information and links to other web sites.
  3. Provide a get-updates email subscription box.
  4. Use keywords in the text content of each web page. They work best when they fall at the beginning of sentences and appear higher on the web page.
  5. Each web page should have a title which includes a keyword phrase at least once.
  6. Conduct periodic contests through your web site and announce the winners on your site too, or have a contest for only those people who subscribe to your newsletters through your website. Announce the winner on the site – as well as through your email newsletter.
  7. We cannot emphasize this enough to our clients – be sure to put your business web site address on all your printed literature which means :  business cards, letterhead, the top left of your envelopes below your business address, all brochures, monthly newsletters, e-mail signature, and on any print or online advertising.
  8. Join social networking sites like Facebook, Meet-up, Yelp, and Twitter.  Provide valuable insights and always sign everything off with your web address.
  9. Join local networking groups like BNI, Toastmasters and Rotary and always make sure to mention your website when you present and socialize. Invite members to join your email marketing list.
  10. Hire Santa Rosa Search Engine Optimization Expert Forward Motion Studios Web Design to handle your search engine submissions for you!

Web site SEO fine-tuning can be time-consuming because it is painstaking work that takes specialized knowledge.

For this reason, we offer our valued clients the opportunity to sign up for a monthly maintenance plan for a small fee.  We work diligently to insure your website gets found in search.  This is very different than a company who promises to get you on page 1 on Google, which isn’t possible to guarantee. 

The more important point is: are the people who are going to buy your services finding you in search?  And if not, what can we do about that?

Call us today and we’ll rock your search.

707.578.1390

This we promise.

The FMS Team of santa rosa web designers

About Forward Motion Studios
Forward Motion Studios™ is a Santa Rosa Web Design company that builds, hosts and supports custom websites for businesses. This includes simple, brochure-like web pages to highly complex, software and database-driven eCommerce websites with B2B shopping carts.

Contact us for a free estimate / consultation by calling 707-578-1390.

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Date: 2010.01.15 | Category: Sonoma County Graphic Design | Response: 0

Why do you need to hire a professional graphic design firm?

Hiring a professional graphic design company to do your branding sends a message to your prospective customers that you value your business enough to invest in it yourself – and they should too.

The importance of professional graphic design often involves results whose effectiveness can’t easily be measured.

But if you don’t value your own business enough to invest in professionally branded marketing materials, how can you expect strangers to trust what you say is the value your services – and be willing to pay you for them?

Professional graphic design provides

  • A consistent marketing message that makes your business look professional, reliable and strong. The right graphic design speaks to your target audience, inviting them to do business with you because your message clearly conveys that you are the right business for them!
  • Value. Because you are hiring a talented, trained professional graphic design company, our work does not come cheap. But as the saying goes in this business, “Don’t confuse cost with value.” In the world of marketing, good graphic design can make the difference between success and failure. The difference of opting for an outstanding graphic design firm verses a mediocre equivalent usually only increases the costs 5 – 7 % or less. Is the right marketing message worth that difference?
  • Permanence. Like a timeless piece of art, the ideal graphic design taps emotions which stimulate visual appeal, and etches your business identity into memory. Why do you think Nike can get away with just placing their check mark brand on a shoe? You instantly know it’s Nike, but have you ever thought why?

When a professional graphic design is combined with targeted copy that speaks to your target audience with an irresistible call to action, your business will begin to reap the benefits of bringing the right clients to your door!

Why not call us at 707-578-1390 for graphic design proposal today?

The FMS Team of santa rosa web designers

About Forward Motion Studios
Forward Motion Studios™ is a Santa Rosa Web Design company that builds, hosts and supports custom websites for businesses. This includes simple, brochure-like web pages to highly complex, software and database-driven eCommerce websites with B2B shopping carts.

Contact us for a free estimate / consultation by calling 707-578-1390.

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