Knoxville’s Blue Media Boutique Merging with Efficience

Interactive Firm to Become Division of Knoxville’s Second-Largest Software Developer

Knoxville, Tenn. – Efficience, Knoxville’s second-largest software development and consulting company, announced today its merger with Knoxville-based Blue Media Boutique, an interactive creative services firm.

The Blue Media Boutique brand, established in Knoxville in 2008 and led by Tori W. Rose, will become a trademarked division of Efficience to provide user experience and interface design for Efficience’s custom application software.

The two companies began working together in 2011, with projects that included such clients as Radio Systems Corporation, Innovative Events and SellBuytheRoom.com.

Efficience will maintain Blue Media Boutique’s web development, interactive marketing and social media strategy services for Blue Media’s existing client base and will continue to grow this new side of Efficience’s business.

“Our two companies already had a relationship in place, with Tori’s team creating stronger user-experience / user-interface solutions for several of our clients’ software programs,” said Efficience President April Cox. “We now will have the benefit of Tori’s team fully engaged with all of our clients at the appropriate stage to make sure they get the most functional applications with strong, intuitive design.”

According to Rose, the merger represents a unique pairing in the regional marketplace.

“Among local interactive and web design firms, there are few that offer the vast level of in-house developer and quality assurance talent that our team offers, now combined with Efficience,” Rose said.

“Before, there was occasional business that I had to turn away because of how complex the back-end piece might be to a website development project, for example,” Rose said.  “Now, no project will be too large for us.  We’re no longer stuck in a small-to-medium range of clients, whether by quantity or size of project.”

Rose’s team of eight creative services, graphic design and social media professionals will join Efficience’s team of 50, which includes software developers and technical staff based both locally in Knoxville and in Efficience’s office in Puducherry, India, which employs all full-time employees.

Key clients of each firm have recently included, for Efficience: Coca-Cola, Ritway, and the West Virginia Department of Education; and for Blue Media Boutique: Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Dominion and The District in Bearden.

More information can be located at  www.efficience.us.

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Download the release here.

BlueOut Knoxville: a charity event you don’t want to miss!

Want to give more than $5,000 to your favorite charity and have a great time doing it? On September 29th, 2011, Knoxville is going to be a BlueOut! Bluegrass, Blue Moon, Pabst Blue Ribbon, BBQ and Bleu Cheese Cole Slaw.

BlueOut Knoxville was born out of a collaboration between two of Knoxville’s most involved social media creative marketing firms. During Social Slam ‘11, Tori Rose of Blue Media Boutique and Jeremy Floyd of Bluegill Creative discussed opportunities to break the traditionally competitive mold of local marketing firms and consider opportunities to work together for good. A few weeks later they reached out to Margaret Slattery at Blue Frog Creations to bring a video element to the table.

The result. BlueOut Knoxville—a charitable event to close summer one last sunny afternoon with beer, BBQ, and Bluegrass.

The way it works:

1. Between August 1, 2011 and August 31, 2011, nominate (via this form) and vote for your favorite charities.

2. On September 1st, the top 3 charities with the most votes will be named the blue ribbon finalists.

3. Between September 1st and the September 29th (the night of the event), votes may be purchased for $1.

At 8:30 pm on the night of BlueOut Knoxville, the winning charity will be announced!

Get involved today!

• Vote for your favorite charities.
• Don’t see your favorite on the list? Nominate them.
• Like our Facebook page.
• Follow us on Twitter.
• Buy tickets to BlueOut Knoxville! Seats are limited to 200.

QR mistakes to avoid (from Mashable)

Although QR codes are becoming more and more popular with our clients, many are still learning, and some are actually learning from their mistakes. The following Mashable article outlines five big mistakes to avoid.

The biggest takeaway—put yourself in your client’s shoes. Is your campaign message compelling enough that you would pull out your Smartphone? And, would you be happy with the the pay-off behind the code?

Tell us what your QR campaign is doing. We want to hear from you!

Mistake 1: Not Testing the Code

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Common sense right? Until you’re able to read a QR code just by looking at it, you should always test the proofs with a variety of smartphones and scanning apps before you release a campaign.

This is the simplest way to spot scanning problems. For instance, a small placement (less than an inch) will often be too dense to scan if you’ve encoded a longer URL, but using bit.ly or goo.gl to automatically generate a short URL QR code is an easy fix.

Since QR codes feature up to a 30% error correction rate, there’s flexibility for creative branding and tweaks. But if the designer accidentally overdid it, test-scanning is an easy path to being the office hero that day.

For example, the above image is taken from “15 Beautiful and Creative QR codes.” While visually interesting, I’m fairly confident this isn’t scanable.

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Mistake 2: Getting Too Fancy With Text

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Image courtesy of Yiying Lu.

If your goal is to get people to a mobile web experience, you should only ever encode a short URL. Don’t include any plain text, since many barcode scanners (even gold standards like ShopSavvy) won’t tease out the link. If you’re hoping a user will copy/paste on a mobile device, don’t bet on it.

Think of the QR code as a physical hyperlink that every barcode scanner should be able to immediately “click.” If your QR code requires the user to do much more than point and scan to arrive at the intended content, you’re probably doing it wrong.

Take the image above. I love the Olsen twins as much as the next guy, but these QR codes result in the oft-problematic text string + link combo. Fail bonus: The site consistently turns up invalid security certificate errors.

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Mistake 3: Serving up Non-Mobile Pages

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Your QR code scans successfully but you’ve pointed the user to a standard desktop website, when 99.9% of QR codes are scanned by a mobile device. Fail.

Get acquainted with HTML5 to give your mobile web app that native app feel. You can either hire a developer to build your mobile site or use a non-technical modular CMS (content management system) like Paperlinks if it suits your campaign objectives.

This Coca-Cola QR code’s heart is in the right place (the MyCokeRewards program) but the resulting non-mobile website is all but impossible to navigate.

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Mistake 4: Putting QR Codes Where There’s No Data Signal

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Where your ad will run is just as important as how you implement it.

Tesco’s recent QR code “grocery store” in a Korean subway worked great because those platforms have Wi-Fi. This is not the case in the U.S. Placing QR codes in locations without Internet access is a sure way to make your audience upset. Make sure you know where the ads will be, and if possible, run tests to make sure they are visible and will still work.

For example, the Red Bull campaign QR code above was in a New York City subway, so I have no idea what it does.

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Mistake 5: Not Offering Enough Value

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This point is highly subjective but also probably the most important. The proper mindset is to reward the user for scanning your QR code. This “reward,” however, will change depending on what you’re trying to promote.

Try to avoid redundancy (a digital copy of your flyer), irrelevance or dullness (your company’s street address). Take the above image. The U.S. Marine Corps. QR code promises a cool experience but instead leads to a wallpaper download and a commercial.

When coupled with a clearly articulated call-to-action near the QR code, we’ve found the most compelling campaigns tend to offer one or more of the following:

• Exclusive rich media, videos and photos
• Exclusive or time-sensitive access
• Free downloads or swag
• “Instant Win” contests
• Special offers, coupons or gifts
• “Secret” information
• Deep integration with social media to activate viral loops

A Lawyers Take on Social Media

Recently, we have had numerous law firms contact us with an interest in social media. This is a fun challenge for us, given the clients do not know much about social media and wonder why they should have a social media presence in the first place.

This article and video we ran across are very helpful in explaining why law firms should take social media into account. It is not common to find a previous Public Relations specialist working for a law firm; Vivienne Storey’s perspective is definitely something to take into account when faced with this issue.

75 B2B Facebook Marketing Tips from Social Media B2B

One of the blogs we follow and really enjoy, Social Media B2B, recently compiled a list of the top 75 Facebook tips for B2B marketers. We’ve blogged before about the importance of compelling content within the social media space and really engaging/interacting with your audience. We’ve also posted about the need to align your SEO efforts, driving traffic back to one spot (your Facebook page, your website, your blog). With those two things in mind, take a look at the list below for great ideas on how to get great results from your business Facebook page.

Liking the Page

1. Ask your staff, customers, vendors, and partners — who already know you and like you — to “Like” your Facebook page first. (source)

Facebook Content

2. Share lots of photos, and ask your fans to share photos. Facebook’s Photos remain the most viral feature of its platform. (source)

3. Write for the newsfeed, not for your wall. (source)

4. Don’t worry about writing too little. (source)

5. Be strategic and pay attention to signal vs. noise. (source)

6. Write posts that encourage sharing across the network. (source)

7. Boost your comments by asking questions, but stay away from simple Yes/No answers. (source)

8. Mix it up a little between videos, photos, questions and information (source)

9. Use the 80-20 rule to determine how much other people’s content to post versus your own. (source)

10. Use @ tagging strategically. (source)

11. Target by location or language. (source)

12. Tailor your content to mobile users. (source)

13. Diversify your team’s voices. (source)

14. Open the door to user content — but not the floodgates. (source)

15. Keep posts 80 characters long or shorter. (source)

16. Don’t Be Afraid to Show You’re Human. (source)

17. Have a Unique Voice. (source)

18. Diversify Your Content. (source)

19. Post original and relevant content. (source)

20. Post industry articles and blog posts fresh from your newsreader. (source)

21. Share exclusive, behind the scenes information. (source)

22. Write simply and plainly. (source)

23. Think mainstream for content. (source)

Analyze and Optimize Content

24. Use Edgerank to find your best & worst days. (source)

25. Monitor which posts attract the most Likes and comments (eyeball), and use Insights – Facebook’s own analytics tool – for data. (source)

26. Track the Performance of Your Posts. (source)

Calls to Action

27. Treat your Facebook “Like” button or link to your Facebook Page like any call to action – make it easy to spot. (source)

28. Encourage others to share your calls to action, so they show up in their newsfeed. (source)

Tabs and Landing Pages

29. Make creative use of Tabs. (source)

30. Choose a “landing tab” wisely. (source)

31. Have calls to action on your landing tab. (source)

32. The landing page should be relevant to the ad driving visitors there. (source)

33. Offer incentives. (source)

34. Keep it up to date. (source)

35. Provide interesting content. (source)

How and When to Post

36. Watch Your Post Frequency and Timing. (source)

37. There is a short window of opportunity to gain traction with an update. (source)

38. Be careful with automated posting services like NetworkedBlogs or syncing updates through your Twitter feed. (source)

39. Establish a regular schedule for your brand’s Facebook updates. (source)

40. Post towards the end of the week (source)

41. Weekends are more Facebook sharing friendly. (source)

Audience

42. Know your audience well, and when you make a mistake, quickly own up, do right by your audience and fix the problem. (source)

43. Don’t forget to send an update to fans. (source)

44. Allow your fans to tag photos on your Page. (source)

45. Put Your Fans in Charge Every Now and Then. (source)

Interaction off the Facebook Page

46. Integrate Facebook outside of your Fan Page, on your website, in as many places as you can. Create more compelling opportunities for people to buy your product based on their friends’ Likes. (source)

47. Find synergy with other organizations and entities, and then work together to promote each other’s Facebook pages so that everyone benefits. (source)

Optimize Your Facebook Page for Search

48. Link to your Facebook page from your website home page, using your brand in the anchor or alt‐text. (source)

49. Use your brand name in your posts. (source)

50. Get links to your Facebook Page by driving social engagement and “likes.” (source)

51. Use Facebook Shares and Likes to improve rankings of any page on your website. (source)

52. Interlink your directory pages with parallel Facebook pages. (source)

53. Integrate your website broadly with Facebook Social Plugins and Facebook Connect. (source)

Facebook Advertising

54. Restrict ads to people that don’t Like your Page. (source)

55. Invest in sponsored stories – they work. (source)

Resources

56. Find the resources to respond to your fans questions and inquiries. (source)

57. Accept you won’t work a 9-5. (source)

Miscellaneous

58. Assess the business value of your Page. (source)

59. Hold real-world events. (source)

60. Make use of “Add to My Page’s Favorites.” (source)

61. If you have a physical location, use Place Pages and Deals to drive traffic through your doors. (source)

62. Respond to comments. (source)

63. Polls delivered directly to users’ news feeds are not only effective in their reach but also in their ability to drive engagement. (source)

Facebook Mistakes

64. Broadcasting Content. (source)

65. Not Investing Adequate Time. (source)

66. Being Boring or Predictable. (source)

67. Failing to Learn About Facebook Mechanics and Tools. (source)

68. Violating Facebook’s Terms. (source)

69. Assuming People Go To Your Fan Page Versus Seeing Your Posts In Their News Feed. (source)

70. Expecting Welcome Tabs To Get You Lots Of Fans. (source)

71. Overestimating Apps and Tabs. (source)

72. No Budget For Ads To Acquire Fans. (source)

73. Posting In A Self Centered Way, Not Trying To Get Likes And Comments. (source)

74. Not Optimizing For Impressions And Feedback Rate. (source)

75. Over-Selling and Hard-Selling Without Conversing Or Arousing Desire First. (source)

Kidney Donor found through Twitter

I saw this report a few weeks ago and have been remiss in posting about it. Better late than never. From NBC’s Today show, here’s an inspirational story of a Mayo Clinic patient with kidney disease who received a life-saving transplant after her daughter made connections with a volunteer kidney donor through social media:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/43107631#43107631

Staggering Mobile Statistics

We attended Social Slam today in Knoxville and had a blast! We learned many different uses of social media and many helpful tactics.

Christina Kerley, one of the keynote speakers and one of the world’s most respected authorities on mobile marketing, showed this video of remarkable statistics about mobile marketing.

Did you know that 60% of all Internet usage is spent on social networking sites?

Are you part of the 70% of smartphone users that sleep with their smartphones?

We now spend more than half of our day consuming media.

It has been forecasted that in 3-5 years, mobile phones will be the “first screen” internet device.

Enjoy  the video, we did!

YouTube Marketing Mistakes

Over the past couple of years, we’ve been delving into the world of YouTube. With our clients, we use YouTube to post testimonials, demonstrations, tutorials and other informational clips. We are constantly brainstorming and discovering new ways to use this new and highly-effective social media tool, so this article by Mashable has been helpful to us.

Mashable recently released an article on the Top 5 YouTube Marketing Mistakes Committed by Small Businesses. This article contains advice from three top experts on video marketing and how they recommend avoiding these top five YouTube mistakes:

1. Having Unrealistic Expectations

When small businesses upload a video, they believe that in order for it to be successful, it must be viewed by millions.

“Remind yourself that having a video go viral is a notable success, not the norm,” says Matt Smith, director of strategy at digital agency The Viral Factory.

No matter how good the video content is, you can’t just upload it to YouTube and wait for viewers to watch it. Businesses need to have a strong and well thought out promotion and distribution plan.

We use other social media outlets, such as Facebook and Twitter, to share YouTube videos.

2. Thinking Small

Keeping realistic expectations is important, but don’t weigh out the possibility of your video going viral just because you’re a small business.

“There are plenty of small brands that think they need to be a Nike or an Adidas to be successful in social video,” says Sarah Wood, founder of social video distribution and engagement company Unruly Media. “This is simply not true! Any brand, large or small, can score a hit in social video.”

3. Treating a Viral Video as a Commercial

Don’t limit your video content to an ad on a limitless new media outlet.

“When you go into online video with the understanding that it can do more than just sell a product or service, you’re already ahead of the game,” says Justin Gonzalez, social media strategist for Bars+Tones, creative video agency.

YouTube is a social media site where people want to engage in fun content, so don’t limit your company to the old sales pitch style.

4. Putting All Your Eggs in the YouTube Basket

“Youtube My Facebook” from Cedric Vella on Vimeo.

YouTube is one of the biggest social media platforms, but definitely not the only one!  We try and use YouTube as much as it seems fit, but for some of our clients, YouTube is not the best social platform.

“Businesses that want to leverage the word of mouth potential of social video need to focus away from just YouTube and explore the world of social video that exists beyond YouTube, Twitter and Facebook,” says Wood.

5. Basing Success on View Counts Alone

Most businesses upload content on YouTube and anxiously watch the numbers increase and wish to get 1 million views. Although achieving 1 million views is impressive, you can’t base your success on the number of views; meaningful engagement is what matters. Of course we love seeing our number of views increase, we like to watch for comments for viewers, which can give much more feedback and be much more meaningful.

“Sometimes marketers get bogged down in looking at the metrics and trying to determine whether the number of video views really made a difference in the bottom line, or whether it was just enough to build buzz around the product or service,” says Gonzalez. “When you can clearly define why it’s necessary for your business to be on YouTube, you’re ready to move on to the next steps.”

Keep these YouTube mistakes in mind as you begin experimenting with it as a marketing tool.

Get LinkedIn for business

I’m getting more and more questions from clients about the value of LinkedIn, so perfect timing for this Mashable post that hit my inbox this morning. I, personally, am not as active in LinkedIn as I am in Facebook on a daily basis, but I absolutely see its value. I’ve connected with several business professionals in my industry and the groups I subscribe to provide a fantastic networking space online. And, unfounded or not, I do believe people take me and my business more seriously in the LinkedIn space. Here’s what Mashable reports:

LinkedIn recently passed 100 million users, meaning its population is bigger than most countries. But what kind of country would LinkedInLand be? An old, rich, well-educated one.

According to the infographic below, created by Online MBA, 68% of LinkedIn users are 35 or older, 74% have a college degree or better and 39% make more than $100,000 a year. As those stats illustrate, although LinkedIn may not have the buzz of Facebook or Twitter right now, it has an enviable demographic base. The company also is profitable, fast-growing and expanding into new lines of business like news aggregation. As LinkedIn prepares to go public this year, here’s an overview of the phenomenon that Reid Hoffman created 8 years ago.

The Blog Tree

Eloqua and JESS3 collaborated to develop “The Blog Tree” – the world’s first visual depiction of the interrelationship among marketing blogs.  It’s both a blog list and an infographic.  It’s both practical and playful.  It’s both something to use and something to muse.

The Blog Tree takes a holistic look at the marketing blogosphere.  All bloggers are interconnected in some way.  Growing.  Morphing.  Adapting.  Writing is alive, and so too is The Blog Tree.    - from the Eloqua Blog