Most of the time we can be found working away anxiously on the current or upcoming marketing plan for a client.  Other times we can be found designing and developing websites for our clients.  After all, as a Denver marketing company, this is what we do.  However, public relations should be a part of a businesses strategy as well.  Since we currently don’t offer much on the side of public relations, we figured the helpful thing to do would be to post a blog series about easy PR practices that companies can do online.  This week we focus on the press release or news release whichever is preferred by the reader.

We know that public relations is evolving.  Everyone is making the switch online, it would make sense that press releases would follow suit.  How should a company translate their traditional press release into a digital form?

There are two things that we see are key for businesses posting press releases.

1. Set up a page dedicated to the release
2. Transmit the release into a micro form based off of social media platforms

In relation to #1; just because it’s online doesn’t mean that the press release has to be done away with.  Potentially a blogger wants to write on the issue.  They weren’t on the mailing list to receive it.  If the release is accessible then it saves the company time of compiling and sending the information again if a person can simply find it linked on the company page.  This also helps with SEO implications as well.  By breaking the news on the company site first, people are more likely to come directly to the source for information.

#2 takes the focus directly to social media platforms.  If the company is in crisis, releasing a new product, hosting an event or any other thing; people are coming to their social media sites.  When a news release is posted through these sites the consumers are able to get all of the information in one easy to navigate place.  People may want just short news as well, so try and focus the message down into micro-blog form.  This helps the company to convey what has happened in a succinct way that consumers can read and move on.

The main thing that companies should realize is that public relations online is not the same as traditional PR.  This is actually what we will be looking at in the next part of the series.  In relation to news releases though, in the online world people don’t want to just have press releases shoved down their throats.  The online world is a social world, thats why platforms where people gather are called social media.  We must remember to cultivate relationships so that when we have a press release that needs to be seen we can get them into the right hands.  Next week we will take a more direct look at how we should cultivate these relationships.  What we must take from this post though is that press releases are still viable, we just need to look at them from a different perspective.

Get news out fast

There is an online function that allows for direct connection to a press release.  It’s definitely great for getting out information.  It is the QR Code.  We have a great e-book about the basics of QR Codes.

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In case you have missed it, we’ve been looking into HTML5 for a few weeks now.  First, we gave you an overview, then we did a little bit of brainstorming and showcasing the many faces of HTML5 for use in website design and internet marketing.  As we discussed previously, HTML5 is up-and-coming (and already seen in action around the web).  HTML5 is a tool that you, as a web developer, should be (at the very least) thinking about using.  To help get you started, today we will go over some valuable HTML5 resources to help you gain the HTML5 knowledge you need to make your website great!

Let’s get started…

HTML5 Cheat Sheet by Smashing Magazine: This downloadable .pdf includes all of the HTML5 tags and information on them, including compatible HTML versions, the tag attributes, and a little information on the tag’s purpose and capabilities.

Simple HTML5 Demos: We have shown you some pretty fancy things that HTML5 can do, but these demos are on the simpler (though still quite impressive) side.  These demos include things such as editable content, drag and drop features, video, and geolocation features of HTML5.

W3 Schools HTML5 Tutorial: A chapter-by-chapter guide of the history, elements, and applications of HTML5.  This tutorial is great for those who want the basics laid out step by step.

The HTML5 Doctor: A blog designed to help developers with HTML5 troubleshooting.  Posts are catered around mistakes commonly made in HTML5 and how to fix them, as well as focuses on certain attributes of HTML5.

HTML5 Gallery:  Pretty self-explanatory, this site is an online display of various sites using HTML5.  All the sites are pretty visually pleasing and should give you some good ideas for your own website!

HTML5 Infographic: Another “cheat sheet”-like page, this infographic gives you a quick run-down on the capabilities of HTML in terms of elements, browsers, and in comparison to Adobe Flash.

Coding an HTML5 Tutorial from Scratch by Scratching Magazine: A very simple, to-the-point tutorial on building a basic webpage with HTML5.  Yet another great way to get acquainted with HTML5!

HTML Living Standard: If you’ve got the time to get in-depth, this frequently updated “living standard” of HTML has all the ins, outs, and in-betweens of the latest version of the language.

Canvas Element by Dev.Opera: An excellent explanation of how HTML5 works to create Javascript graphics with the canvas element.  This is one element of HMTL5 that offers a great array of creative possibilities for spicing up your website design!

The WHATWG Blog: Need to stay up-to-date?  This blog offers frequent updates on the going-ons of the web world and the newest breakthroughs with HTML5.

In conclusion, we hope we have given you a good toolbox to begin your HTML5 adventure with!  Get started, and we hope to see you soon around the HTML5 Gallery!

Free e-Book: Website Fundamentals

You have a website, but is it getting found? Find out what you need to know about website fundamentals in our free e-book.

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Yes we are a Denver Marketing agency however, marketing and public relations at times work hand in hand.  Some small businesses lack the funding to hire both a marketing firm and PR firm.  This upcoming blog series will look at how business owners can make sure that they have a PR structure in place.

As any good marketing firm should, we ensure that our marketing fits directly into what the business we are assisting wants.  We make sure the plan fits into their corporate vision and ethics.  However there are times when marketing agencies focus strictly on marketing and may miss the big picture.  There are also times when the marketing company simply wants to know what the company they are working for is focused towards.  Instead of having to take the time out of their busy small business schedule, if the company already has that structure and plan in place they can simply pass it on to the marketing agency to work with.

Also it is always beneficial for a company to know its direction.  Not that company’s lack direction just sometimes it needs to be clarified for everyone to see.  Things like what business model it wants to fit into, how it wants to brand itself, what it wants to support (and all other things PR related).

This is how marketing and public relations cross over.  When planning out things for a business, the company should make sure that their brand is reaching the audience it wants to reach.  The company should also ensure that they are endorsing other businesses with their same values.  These are just a few of the future PR moves a company should make in order to help avoid any public relations disasters in the future.

In avoiding PR disasters, having a plan will help with other web based things as well.  Companies with public relations structures in place develop stronger search engine and content optimization.  Once again another place where public relations and marketing cross.

In the upcoming weeks we will look at how to structure press releases for social media,  differences between public relations and PR 2.0, video news releases, blogging, community management/customer service and micro-media.  Some of these topics we have covered before and we will reference back to, however this will be unique in that it will all come from a public relations perspective.

As we take this journey into the public relations side of online business we will see simple things that can help a company go a long way in planning for the future.  So stick around and see what can be learned, if there are any questions, please post them in the comments and we will work to answer them either directly or through one of the upcoming blog posts we have planned.

Get a head start

We have a social media for business e-book available for download.  Reading this as we go through this next blog series will definitely help get a company prepared for understanding online business better.  This will help with developing a good public relations plan.

Download Here

A couple of weeks ago, we gave you an overview of HTML 5.  Today, we want to give you some more big ideas to help you use HMTL 5 in conjunction with CSS3 and Javascript techniques for catering Denver Website Design to your advantage!  In turn, this should help you optimize your Denver marketing tactics.

So, let’s talk ideas and capabilites.

First off, panoramic imaging.  That’s right, with CSS3, Javascript, and HTML5, you can build your own panoramic VR screen.  What this means is that you can stitch together a series of images to create a panoramic image that can be scrolled through as though you were spinning around in a circle.  If you’re confused, see this Safari Technology Demo.  Now, let us note that CSS3 is the main coding language used to help build a VR on your webpage.  However, HTML5 helps make it possible to upload and exist!  Normally, software to create Quicktime VRs of panoramic stitched images can cost hundreds of dollars.  However, with some research on coding, and some trial and error, you can create VRs for free.  VRs are great for any sort of visual marketing.  Being that a VR image is very interactive, especially if your image creates interesting content, viewers will be drawn in to navigating around an eye-catching VR image.  VR images are great for real estate sales (a virtual tour around a house), and would also make an excellent addition to marketing for restaurants, hotels, etc. (i.e. “here you can see our restaurant’s beautiful mountainside view, and private dining room.”)

Secondly, the capability to build iPhone apps with HMTL5.  According to some, digital marketing is moving more and more towards the great realm of mobile marketing.  We think that’s good news: new opportunities, new mediums, new technology platforms.  However, to make our classic marketing techniques effective, we are going to have to adapt a little bit.  A great example of HTML5 use for a webpage that works on an iPad is the Every Time Zone app.  This app is designed to convert your current time zone to another time zone of your choice.  Pretty handy when you’re traveling back and forth with two, three, or eight hour time differences.  The developers also released an article on the app, which you can view here.  The article explains some problems that the developers ran into and how they ran about encountering them and using HTML5′s features to the iPad’s advantage, including:

• using a ‘touch’ event whenever possible, and ensuring that these events could apply to iPad touch capabilities as well as a desktop or laptop browser mouse.
• not using images
• avoiding some CSS3 add-ons such as text-shadow and box-shadow

Lastly, we would like to point out that HTML5 can offer a whole new realm of animation capabilities.  For a great example, see this project: CanvasMol.  This is an interactive HTML5 animation that builds molecules, which is incredibly intricate and cool!  Normally, we would assume that to make something of this magnitude you need Flash or Processing.  However, with HTML, it is possible to build projects like CanvasMol and The Attractor.

So, what are our main points that you can brainstorm ideas around today?  HTML5 can go mobile, can be interactive, and can animate without an imaging program.  If you haven’t started using HTML5 yet…what are you waiting for?!

Free e-Book: Social Media for Business

You have a website, but is it getting found? Find out what you need to know about social media for business in our free e-book.

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Change happens, we have to learn to accept that.  As a Denver Marketing company we are constantly adapting, preparing for the next change in the online world.

This week iOS5 was introduced for Apple users.  A few weeks ago, the new timeline function was introduced for Facebook.  Both of these updates deal with integration functions.

With iOS5, Twitter is now integrated in a way that allows for practically anything a user sees can be tweeted.  Here on the side we have posted an example of what this new tweeting function looks like.  [Pictured] We are tweeting from our account, a link of our website (which is mobile friendly).  Yet another way life is “simplified” through mobile technology.

At the bottom of this post we have attached a picture of how integration has taken place on Facebook in a new manner.  Spotify has been integrated with Facebook to share music socially.  Essentially allowing people to see what an individual is listening to via Spotify (with their permission of course).

What are the implications for business?  These new updates, bent on integration are telling us a string of things.  People want interaction and the ability to share things. After all, it’s called “social media” for a reason.

If social media and its users are becoming a more integrated, sharing community we have to ask ourselves, as company’s, what are we doing to fulfill the users needs?

We have come up with a quick check list of things every company can do in order to connect with users.  These ideas aren’t limited to the thought of integration but could realistically be implemented at all times.

• Produce/share content users will share
• Produce  content relevant to consumers
• Produce content with multiple uses
• Relate to consumers on a personal level
• Be an interactive company

These are simple things that company’s online should already be working towards.  There is an underlying meaning though when it comes to capitalizing off of this new found integration.  First, we know company’s want to be talked about.  This new integration (with even more business related stuff in the works, not simply entertainment for Facebook) allows for people to talk in a quicker manner about a company.  Second, company’s want this to be positive conversation.  If a company is producing the content and knows what the consumer wants, then when people share the content it will be positive.  Third, company’s want to build and maintain community.  Relating to consumers on a personal level and being interactive will always illicit a positive user experience.  With new integration features, this positive experience will be shared quicker.

Just like Twitter has become integrated into iOS5 and Spotify has become integrated into Facebook, a company should want to become integrated into the consumers lifestyle.  Taking the steps to make sure consumers are seeing a company’s activity as shareable and conversational, will help a company become integrated into the consumers everyday life.

If you have any ideas on how a company can become integrated into the consumers life please share as a comment!

Integrating into Inbound Marketing

Inbound Marketing is a great way for businesses to integrate consumers into a company.  Here are some success stories from our Inbound Marketing customers.

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