Networking and Social Media

Keeping up with the Sheep and Seagulls

Jeff — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 11:06:13 -0800

Last week Chris challenged me to try out a new web browser for a week. The browser is called Flock and it's available as a free download for Mac or PC.

Based on the popular Firefox browser, Flock takes the next step with keeping users constantly connected to their favorite social media. Whether you're into Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, Hulu, MySpace (for real?), or any other social networking site, Flock has a way to keep it in your face at all times. To get started you just open Flock and enter your various usernames and passwords for sites you want to stay connected to. Flock adds these to a sidebar that displays updates from all of your friends, recently added pictures and video, or even just links to news stories. You'll also get a home page with a more detailed view of all this info (see the screenshot below).

There are a couple of things I really liked about Flock: it was really easy to connect to my various networks, eveyone's updates are aggregated into the same feed, and grabbing an RSS feed or media stream from a page was simple and quick. On the other side though, all of this constantly-updating information is a huge distraction. I'd log on to check my email and spend 30 minutes on Facebook, or I'd start to check my bank account only to find 10 new stories about a soon-to-be-released video game. While I wasn't particularly productive while on Flock, I always knew what everyone else was up to.

The one thing that really bugged me was that the default search was set to Yahoo. Now, I don't want to get into a "religious" discussion here, but let's just say that I generally prefer Google 100% of the time. However, a quick search (on Google) revealed that Flock is endorsed by Yahoo.

Long story short, Flock is great if you love social media. Why don't you take the challenge: try out Flock for a week and let me know what you think!

MSU Promotes Web-Forward Thinking

Jeff — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 06:56:05 -0700

Last week I went to Michigan State University's WebDev Cafe with a few other GreenLiters. The Cafe is all about getting web-forward thinking in to the MSU community and promoting the university's web initiatives. As a recent MSU Telecommunications grad, I was excited to see that the event was being held in my old stomping grounds, the Comm Arts building.

One of the most interesting topics was the new design and branding of MSU.edu, the university's main website home page. Four years ago when the site was last redesigned, a big web trend was to have as many links as possible on any website's home page. Today, it's almost the opposite - you want to present a few clear link choices in order to not overwhelm the user.

Though not finished by any means, the new design concept has a clean navigation, lots of white space, a large branding photo, and links to social media. These are all great ideas that are in line with current web trends, and I really like their new focus on usability. I'm excited to see the final version of the new site, which will likely launch in the first half of 2010.

I also want to give a shout-out to our friends and business partners who presented: Adam Henige from Netvantage Marketing spoke about how Search Engine Optimization can improve your business, and Julielyn Gibbons from i3 Strategies discussed the impact of social media on the way we communicate.

IgniteLansing 2.0

Jeff — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 10:42:19 -0700

A bunch of people from GreenLite and our parent company Artemis Solutions Group attended IgniteLansing 2.0 on Friday and it was a blast! The old Temple Club was decked out with dark lighting and looked amazing despite being under renovation.

Check out Steve Jencks's award-winning presentation about how to survive being in a B-movie:

Brian Azar also presented with a mixture of serious and humourous advice on surviving marriage:

We also want to congratulate Chris Bachelder from Artemis, who gave a presentation on the leadership of the creative class. All of the speakers' presentations are posted on IgniteLansing's YouTube channel.

Are you a bosshole?

Kate — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 17:26:39 -0700

I stole this teaser from the October 2009 issue of Entrepreneur Magazine, which lists East Lansing/MSU as one of the top 10 Best College Towns to Start a Business. (Note to curious potential bossholes: This blog has nothing to do with the teaser--just a shameless attempt to get your attention...please indulge me....)

I would absolutely agree with this rather surprising declaration that East Lansing/MSU is the place to be, especially after attending the IgniteLansing-2.0 event held on Friday evening. One could definitely sense a buzz in the air. Something is happening here?! I felt as though I was living in Seattle and it was the beginning of the the grunge era. We're on to something. We know it and it's just a matter of time before the world knows it. Okay, I'm getting a bit out-of-hand, but seriously, how cool was this event. Let's all continue to strive for change, to be passionate, and to dare to share our experiences and insights.

We are particularly proud that 3 of the 15 Ignite Lansing speakers work for Greenlite/Artemis (Brian Azar: The Care and Feeding of Sue; or how to keep your woman happy, Steve Jencks: B-movie Survival Tips, and Chris Bachelder: Design Thinking and the Leadership of the Creative Class). A special shout-out to Steve, our designer extraordinaire, this was his first public-speaking engagement and he won his division. Nice job, Steve!

How Social Media can Fuel your Success

Rachel — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 08:47:52 -0700

It is a hot topic everywhere today, but what can it really do for you? Social Media is a great way to connect with your consumers or potential consumers than ever before. It not only inspires discussion but gives you a face to your company, displaying the person behind the interior walls. There is no reason to be afraid of it and it can launch your company into success. The best part is that it is FREE, making it hard to think of reasons not to jump into social media.

It is important to use a social media strategy that is right for you and your company, you need to realize what your company represents and how social media can enhance the consumer experience for your company. It gives what advertisers and businesses have always wanted, an easy and accessible way to establish a relationship with people who use or may want to use your product or service. Relationships are key in this realm, and you must provide those who interact with you something of value for thier time. One major thing about any relationship as everyone knows is communication. Social media is a great way for you to enable a conversation with those whom interact with your company. Other ways to give value for those who take the time is to inform them on interesting topics they may care about, or you can even entertain them, either way you have their attention. It is important to know what is out there in terms of social media and get involved in the ones that really work well with your company's vision and goals.

Social Media is not only a way for you to connect with your consumers but also allows you to connect with your employees inside your company. This often can inspire great ideas and allows for collaboration in a different setting which engages workers. This helps to create a community and personality within your own company that not only inspires your own employees but also generates conversation for consumers.

Not every social media strategy has been prosperous endeavor, take Heinz Ketchup for example they set up a video contest for users to make their own commercials and got many entries that took the company in jest and could have devalued the brand just to try and engage users. The way to engage consumers is revolutionary but you are not in control, its the users who are. Something bad can go viral just as easily if not more than good news. While you may not be able to control what goes on, you may be able to influence it by making tactful decisions.

As social media is becoming more omnipresent in the business world GreenLite offers a way for you to integrate your social media sites with your Website. This allows your own blog to be updated along with your Facebook account; easy access to your Twitter account and even display your most current updates on your website; show Youtube or Vimeo videos right on your site. We hope in the future to even establish more ways to assist you in having a presence in the social media that circles around your website.

Claim Yourself

Rachel — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 09:00:19 -0700

Technorati Profile

We have recently claimed on our blog on Technorati.
Technorati itself is a collection of blogs across the internet, and
gives the ability to quickly search for a topic and get a blog post of
your choosing. They even track the popularity of blogs and put them
into a ranking to see what blogs everyone is reading. Technorati really
takes what blogging is to heart in the fact that blogging is a
conversation between you and whomever visits your blog, not just a
listing of all the search able blogs like Google blog search.

Heres a few reasons why you should be using Technorati:

(1)
The ability to search, Technorati is a great tool for not only allowing
you to search for trends, and news but also to search for your company
and see what people may be saying about you, in the blogosphere.This
includes the top 100 list of the most popular blogs called the
Technorati 100.They even call themselves "a viral focus group", for all those PR people and marketers out there, knowing what people are saying about you is essential.

(2) You can create your own profile there. This allows you to
have easy access to your favorite blogs and allows you to organize
them.

So go out there and claim your own blog, and your own identity in this growing world of the blogosphere.

Glancing at our CSS

Rachel — Mon, 18 May 2009 09:12:38 -0700

Recently Greenlite has been featured on a website called CSS glance, because of our high quality and inventive CSS design. We are excited to be apart of such a groundbreaking website itself. CSS glance is the first Italian website dedicated to creating a database for well-designed websites with good CSS across the world. They offer 2,695 websites available for inspiration.

Their mission is not only to enthuse design across the Internet but also to show that creative design can follow the standards imposed by the Internet. The creators are Roberto, and Andrea, who are both Italian web designers. They really focus on showcasing websites with designs that surpass the ordinary and into the extraordinary.

As when art met function in architecture, it is now true for web design. The unique graphics and eye-catching design is all supported by the easy flow and functionality of a good website. This is what Greenlite hopes to recreate in our own designs.

Introduction

Rachel — Wed, 13 May 2009 07:46:17 -0700

My name is Rachel Macauley and I am an GreenLite intern for the summer. My tasks this summer include increasing the use of GreenLite’s current social media sites and seeing what other potential sites to overall expand the companies online social presence.

Social Media is key for any business today. Not only does it allow you to contact with colleagues and clients, it also gives you a connection to your consumers that has never been seen before. Creating your profiles and building your network is only the first step in any social network. What really takes the time and the effort is actually using the sites and putting out useful information. This is what really builds the relationship between you and the consumer.

As I delve into this internship I hope to bring GreenLite into a whole other level, where their past, current, and potential costumers can interact with them on a personal level through the use of these social networks.

SWSX Live: A Few Highlights

Mandy — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 04:48:31 -0700

SXSW is a different type of conference - a merge of the most creative minds of the interwebs, film and music all in the little heart of Austin, TX - check out the official conference site.

Here's a few highlights, organized by keywords...

TWITTER

This word is spoken in every 3rd sentance down here. Each session has a hash mark for people to tweet questions/comments to, the speakers pull them up on the projector. Follow me on Twitter @mandymesser and hash #sxsw on Twitter Live Search to stream all live public comments!

Inspirational

Gary Vaynerchuk. What he stands for is being true to yourself, finding 100% happiness, doing the things you love, working extremely hard, being a "hussler", and absoloutely wringing the most you can out of life! Check out his talk here, be cautioned of his language: SXSW Video

Interesting

Talked with a few representatives from the UK Trade & Investment company. They help support start-ups from the US branch out to Europe by assisting with anything from taxes in that country to finding talent to tips on business models, etc. It's free for US companies.

Pink

John, Founder of Hug Nation, a San Diego-based street team who goes out and gives people hugs on the streets and video tapes them. His drive for this comes from his passion for his grandpa's spirit!

Impressive

Met two guys from RealGeeksRide who are getting ready to ride across the US on bikes to talk with local governments about ways to improve the bike-friendliness of their city. 55 miles a day, 75 days long, starting at the east coast ending with a group ride from Portland to to west coast.

Creative

The unique use of vehicles - rapping out of the trunk; selling shoes out of a blue van; selling tacos out of a yellow van.

Funny

Texan history is a large part of Texas elementary school curriculum. I was informed by a Texan that Texas can secede from the US at any time because of the wording that is in its agreement with the US. A little bit of research found that the wording that is built into the Texas constitution allows for a more loose interpretation of its connection with the United States than other states, but it's not as easy as it sounds.

"We're proud to be American until we can secede."
Austin Lounge Lizards, satirical Texas music group

Eye-Opening

That the majority of the people here work their day job to support what they're at the conference for. It's a true group of idealists!

B2B Email: How to Get the Response You Want

Lorely — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 06:40:29 -0800

While the ROI for all commercial, non-email related online marketing is about $20.19 (according to the DMA study "The Power of Direct"), email marketing's ROI averages about $45.65. Although profitable, the problem is not many people like receiving commercial email....8 out 10 broadband users say they delete most of it without even reading it and 6 out of 10 say that most commercial email offers nothing of interest.

So how to use B2B email effectively? A few simple best practices can help:

Use your company name in the "from" field or better still, ensure that is coming from someone who matters in the company.
Personalize content as much as possible by segmenting the email's content
Include something of value or unique: perks, white papers, reports, etc.
Make it short and focused. Respect your audience's time.
Try to engage the audience with interactive polls, quizzes or by other means. Heavy text is not very appealing.
Make it easier for the mobile users: have a "click here to read on your mobile phone " feature.
Beware of the frequency. I believe receiving too frequent communications is probably what causes most people to get annoyed with b2b email.