Wow. As we’ve discussed previously on this blog, leveraging social media as a means for 1-to-1 customer service is crucial to the existence and life of a brand. Well, Peter Shankman’s Morton’s Steakhouse story finally came true at the Blue Wheel office, but not with a 24 oz. steak… Nope, we got K’NEX!
Continue reading →

We’ve been working hard over at the Blue Wheel Office, and barely have had time for a blog post. Shame on me. SHAME on me.

Let’s update our Blue Wheel Readers of what is happening in the world of Digital Marketing.
1. Google has openly said they are integrating social into their search Algorithm. With a blatant, yet dangerous public move, Google stated that their searches now incorporate Google+ interaction. Wow, that’s weird. What about Facebook & Twitter? We can’t just leave them out, and they happen to be 8-10x’s bigger. Interesting.
Most marketing efforts need to happen from the bottom up. A true, viable, worthwhile product or service eventually takes a path of upward growth, if marketed correctly. Google is basically aiming directly at marketers and SEO experts by saying “We are implementing Google+ in SEO, and therefore, if you do not add your clients, brands, & businesses to Google+, and promote Google+, you will miss out on X% of the value you could drive from your SEO campaign”. Its really outright genius. Google aiming at SEO experts & digital marketers to grow Google+ from a grassroots level. It could work… It could very well work…
Continue reading →

Blue Wheel Media’s team is filled with talented professionals whose skills run the wide gamut of search engine optimization on through to illustration. Today, we shine the spotlight on one of the company’s top graphic design artists, Mike Schwartz, who is working towards publishing a complete collection of his comic strip, Oceanverse. While telling the story of a retired explorer, Clayton Hemmings, who decides to take up his adventurist hat again, Schwartz has created a modern-day comic with the feel of yesteryear’s pulp genre. But in order to continue the adventure, he’s asking for the public’s help.
Continue reading →

I saw a post on Mashable about tech predictions for 2012, written by editor-in-chief, Lance Ulanoff. The problem with Mashable is that it covers the now (most likely because that’s what the masses want to read: what is relevant now). Therefore, Mashable only has insight so far. To have true insight in the future, you need to monitor future trends. Thanks 118id, for that advice. In light of Mashable’s post, I will make five of my own tech predictions for 2012. Buckle up and get some cantaloupe, because some of this makes 2012 sound juicy.
Continue reading →

Beginning next year, the Google search algorithm is making yet another change. Google will begin allowing the majority of social media sites to integrate their data into Google Analytics. From an SEO and Webmaster perspective, this is fantastic news. Understanding how visitors truly engage with your brand off-site (across social networks, bookmarking communities, news aggregators, and more) will be critical for online marketers. This effort demonstrates Google’s recognition that shared content and active engagement with consumers rarely happens on the company’s own website, and instead, occurs across the various social channels and networks currently available.

Continue reading →

A lot has changed in the past 10 years. Actually in the past 1 year. I’m also sure you’ve heard this before, so I won’t repeat the rest of what the general public says. What I will focus on is how marketing & consumer conversation has changed today. Specifically why this matters to YOU, your brands, & businesses if you do not start serving your target consumer on a silver platter.

Thanksgiving can sometimes be a stressful holiday. Traveling, preparing dinner, getting the family together, etc etc. What seems to be such a lazy holiday can sometimes be a lot of work! Well Blue Wheel Media has found some cool Google sites to help you this Thanksgiving.

Top 5 Cool Google Sites for Thanksgiving:

Blue Wheel Media’s Cool Google Sites, #1 :
Google Recipes

The recipe view can help you prepare a thanksgiving meal for the entire family. Simply go to Google and use the left hand navigation bar to define your search. Type in “Thanksgiving” or “Pumpkin pie” and find websites that talk about how to make those recipes from scratch. MMMmmm home made, Google style!

Continue reading →

Content is everything. For years, marketers have been saying this very thing, that “Content is King”. Today, Content is not just king, but the entire deck of cards. The way in which information is organized will continue to play a vital role in this world. As technology continues to develop, social media continues to evolve, and search continues to perfect itself, marketers will need to think about the content they deliver and how they deliver it. Content is everything, but only if you do it right.
Continue reading →

Over the weekend I had the privilege of staying at the Elysian Hotel in Chicago. Their hotel is voted the best hotel in the country and their private residences do not fall short. Going into the weekend, reading the reviews, I had very high expectations. A hotel is a hotel, so how does the Elysian separate itself from the next?

Saturday morning I ordered room service, turned on my fireplace in my hotel room, took a picture of the scene, and tweeted it. I did not tag the Elysian or their Private Residences nor did I tell them I tweeted. There would have been no way they would have seen that tweet, unless…
Continue reading →

Learning how to do social bookmarking can be a tedious task if you aren’t familiar with the concept. Remember when bookmarks were actually bookmarks? Those tangible placeholders for paper have transformed into digital communities for links. Nowadays, bookmarking refers to the system of organizing, managing and storing resources online. If you type the word ‘bookmark’ into a Google search, traditional print bookmarks barely appear on first page results.

With social bookmarking, individuals can save their favorite pages, share them with others, and make new discoveries with recommendations based on their interests. For businesses, learning how to do social bookmarking can be extremely beneficial. Social bookmarking sites have the ability to spike traffic to your site in ways you can’t imagine. With time, a single blog post can be responsible for thousands of unique visitors a day. One of the best ways to promote viral content is through the aggressive use of social bookmarking, but first, you need viral content.

Is your content share-worthy?

Continue reading →

Permission marketing is extremely relevant in this day and age, but why? What makes permission marketing so much better than rest?

Everyone is familiar with that annoying saleswoman… the one that follows you around and won’t leave you alone. The banner advertisements that flash in your face. The mail in your mailbox that you never signed up for. Consumers have changed the way in which they search and receive information. They have the power to fast forward television commercials and ignore traditional advertising efforts that they do not wish to hear. Why not deliver messages to people that actually want to hear them, so the message is received in a good light and proper attention is paid?

Continue reading →

Whether you run a small flower shop or a bustling downtown boutique, it’s become essential to use Foursquare for businesses of all sizes. In 2010, the geolocation application reported a staggering 3400% growth, logging over 6 million users and 381,576,305 check-ins. Earlier this year, the company revamped their service to make it easier for the little guy to compete with national brands for Foursquare visibility. If your business is new to the service, here are some helpful tips on how to get the most out of Foursquare.

Continue reading →

A friend of mine yesterday said (while frustrated with her new iPhone 4s), “I think I’m going to switch back to the blackberry.” I told her I was allergic, and she should be too. In light of this comment, and the continued similar comments, here are 5 ways you can save the battery life of your iPhone 4 and iPhone 4s.

Continue reading →

When it comes to developing your business’ presence online, the second most important piece of internet real estate after your company website is your company Facebook profile. To fully take advantage of the gargantuan networking site, your business will need to make a Facebook landing page. As one of the only customizable profile elements on Facebook, you can leverage the versatility of this landing page to raise your brand’s prominence and ultimately generate business. Incorporating a landing page into your Facebook presence will increase the chances of converting a click to a “Like” by 200-300%, if done correctly.

First, as is the general rule of thumb on the internet, looks are everything. Anyone who visits your company Facebook profile is a potential customer or client. These potential customers will form their initial impressions of your business superficially. The more unique and professional your presence is, the more authority you will be perceived to have. But even after you’ve piqued their interest, you’ll need more than just a flashy graphic to establish a relationship with your potential customers.
Continue reading →

Sure, there is truth to the old adage that content is king. But design certainly makes a strong case for a place beside content on the throne. Let us tell you why design matters:

Credibility

Design has an important role to play in building a brand’s reputation and credibility with consumers. You only get one chance to make a first impression. When people visit your website, most won’t go through a fact-finding expedition to figure out your Series A numbers, who your investors are, and what your story is just to decide if your company can be trusted. Initial trust is a gut-feeling. The easiest way to put your company on that path is via well-executed visual design that shows you put some effort, and money, into delivering a first-rate and satisfying experience to your customers. They will notice. Ignore design and you risk creating distrust of your business from day one, and driving up that bounce rate.

Branding

There’s no such thing as a ‘neutral’ brand experience. This little word is kicked around a lot and its meaning is often confused. Your company’s ‘brand’ is how other people feel about your company. Put another way, it’s what your customers say about you, not what you say to them. You might even call it your company’s personality. For example, what do you think about Facebook? That’s their brand. If Facebook has done a good job, what you think will match up with what they want you to think, also known as their “brand values.” Every interaction between your company and your customer affects your brand in a positive or negative way. Well-executed visual communication can go a long way to providing the right takeaways.

Emotional Connectivity

Design is one of the only ways you can connect with your customers emotionally. Design allows you to deliver visceral experiences that can affect people. Recent advances in neuroscience, specifically using Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (FMRI), have shown that people tend to act on emotion, then back it up with reasoning later (if at all). This revelation has spawned a whole new marketing movement, known as emotional branding. The vehicle is pure design. Continue reading →

I am proud to announce that we have finally figured out how to cure our nation’s deficit problem after a night out in Royal Oak, MI.

Saturday night I went out to “RO” with a few of my buddies. After a great night at 5th Avenue, I paid my tab and began walking back to my car. On the way, I met my Designate Driver, a service that drives your car home, with you in it. I gave my friends a goodbye only to turn around and hear the Royal Oak Police come full lights & sirens, right at me. “Is this guy coming for me?”… “What did I do this time?”, I asked myself.
Continue reading →

Creating infographics seems to be all the rage these days, but why even take the time to turn a 6-minute article into a 6-hour data visualization? We all know that a picture is worth a thousand words… but in this case, even the simplest infographic can be worth a thousand leads to your website.

So, what’s the point?

Infographics have the ability to transform a boring collection of statistics, facts and figures, into a stunning masterpiece that you won’t be able to keep to yourself. Upon finding a great infographic, the reader is overcome with a thrill of discovery- almost like an adrenaline rush, triggering desire to share. The viral nature of these graphics is the key- by creating one that people want to embed on their own site or share via social networks, the original source of the infographic receives links (aka your site). This ‘link juice’ will not only increase traffic to your site but raise brand awareness and increase search result rankings in a creative way. The custom design nature of the infographic allows for sponsored branding with official company logos, taglines, and more, making it a win-win for everyone involved.

What kinds of infographics exist?

Continue reading →

According to recent news, the much anticipated iPhone 5 will be able to find you a hot new girlfriend. Well… Sort of.

According to mashable, the new iPhone 5 will be a first of its kind, sporting Artifical Intelligence (A.I.)… and yes, it is going to change everything. Called “Assistant”, this new A.I. will be able to find you a cab, book dinner for 2 at a sexy restaurant, and maybe even find you a hot new girlfriend. How does it do it?

In Feburary of 2010 and Siri was released, the largest A.I. project in the world. This software had the ability to link natural spoken language to machine learning. Apple bought Siri two months after its release for $200 million.

No doubt will Apple start gathering data on how consumers spend time on their iPhone.

But the key of Assistant is that it will learn. It will take your requests and output answers based on natural behavior patterns. So if you ask for a Table reservation at a club for Friday night, or dinner for two at a romantic restaurant in NYC, or a private plane from Miami to Ibiza, then Assistant could very well take you to a place where you find your next wife.

As the digital world continues impacting our lives right down to every last menial nook and tedious cranny, the gap created by this modernization could be a good place for your company to connect with customers… the old fashioned way.

Our sentimental attachment to the past is often a subconscious one. We don’t usually think about it unless we’re reminded of “the old days.” And though most things have become unquestionably more efficient in the last decade, there is a physical element that just can’t be recreated for a digital world.
Continue reading →

Clients are often unfamiliar with the variety of Facebook advertising campaigns available to them. It’s important that they understand the differences in approach for each Facebook campaign. Below, we take a closer look at three of them.

1. A “Like-Building” Campaign
With this effort, the idea is to establish a community. The ideal client is one that has few existing Facebook fans. The call to action therefore is to “like” the page, not buy something or redeem a coupon. The purpose of a campaign like this is for A. social recognition, and B. to establish a community of your target demographic that you can then interact with.
PROS: You get a high “like” count.
CONS: You may not sell your product or service.

2. A “Direct Response” Campaign
This campaign is to directly elicit a response from someone (i.e., submit an e-mail, buy something with a credit card, or sign up for something). Since the intention is to acquire the customer, the call to action is not to “like” the page, but to “sign up” or “redeem this coupon” or “buy this product” etc.
PROS: This is a good test of “Is social advertising right for my product or service?”
CONS: Not that many “likes”.

3. A “Brand Awareness/Management” Campaign
These types of campaigns are good for bigger clients, ones that have over 50,000 organic fans on Facebook OR ones that already have a big name in their industry. The purpose of these ads is to serve impressions. We don’t want click-throughs, we just want that logo or that brand image popping up on everyone’s page worldwide (or region specific) as many times as possible. We want to tell the world that this brand is special and we can reinforce this with Facebook ads.
PROS: Low $ amount spent.
CONS: Low CTR, low “like” acquisition.
Continue reading →

Its very simple: Facebook mimicked Google+ Circles.

Facebook always had friend lists. It gave the user the ability to make specific lists of friends so that inviting or messaging them was easy. But back then only 1 type of person really used this type of Facebook filter, Party & Event planners.

Now the friends lists have become synonymous Google+ Circles, easy to use for everyone.
Continue reading →

If you have an iphone you’ll know what I’m talking about. If you don’t, well… I think its time for you to learn. I was playing with instagram in my office yesterday, taking picture of Curiousgeorge trying to pimp him out and then it hit me. How amazing would it be if instagram could add the same artistic touch that it does with photos, to VIDEOS.

I immediately started searching my iPhone’s App Store and came across a bunch of apps that could do this (damn I thought I had another billion dollar idea). But fine, I was happy. After some research I realized the next Instagram could very well be an InstaVIDEO App.

Below are a list of some of the main video effects apps in the App Store and their respective prices. I will show you some examples below of Blue Wheel Media‘s favorite Video effects app by far: 8mm Vintage Camera. Continue reading →