This year, Divertido is proud to Sponsor WordCamp Edmonton 2011 happening November 18 and 19th. TYK2YRBUGKRT  Wordpress enthusiasts unite, to discover and learn how to better utilize the WordPress platform. With an expected attendance of over 80 people, there will be a variety of people there, from first time bloggers, professionals, content creators to savvy developers.

We are pleased to be a sponsor this year – as we believe that knowledge is power!

“What is WordCamp?

WordCamps are casual, locally-organized, non- profit conferences covering everything related to WordPress, the free and open source personal publishing software that powers over 25 million sites on the web. WordCamps come in all different flavors, based on the local communities that produce them. In general, WordCamps include sessions on how to use WordPress more effectively, beginning plugin and theme development, advanced techniques, security, etc. The types of sessions typically seen at WordCamps can be viewed on the WordCamp channel at WordPress.tv.”

TYK2YRBUGKRT

Burberry’s “Tweetwalk” Delivers to the Masses and Challenges Fashion’s Old Guard

Burberry outdid itself again. This time the venerable British brand is staying one step ahead of its already digitally-advanced self by working a partnership with Twitter to tweet backstage photos of each and every look in the collection before livestreaming its London Fashion Week runway show. It’s also make select items (coats and handbags only) available for purchase immediately after (through September 26). And just like that, a 155-year old company challenged the establishment and disrupted the power of the elite coterie of editors and retail buyers to deliver the latest style.

The “Tweetwalk” allowed avid followers an exclusive, up-close view of Burberry creative director Christopher Bailey’s Spring/Summer 2012 collection replete with rattan woven trenches and clutches in saturated hues. Twitter promptly blew up with #hashtag comments from Austin, TX to Instanbul about the clothes, no costly airfare to London (not to mention a coveted invite to the runway) required.

For those addicted to Facebook, the show was livestreamed on Burberry’s FB page in HD. And the company retained popular photographer Mike Kus to take shots during the show. Kus’s 123,135 followers were encouraged to see the pics immediately on Burberry’s Instagram stream. For those who missed it ‘live’ the photo montage will later be made available on iTunes through its on-demand service.

Buying Burberry’s latest goods online, however, is proving to be a little more difficult for desk jockeys trying hard to place their orders ahead of the fashion pack. The site was slow at times throughout the day and at press time was completely inaccessible. What’s more, having the video open in the browser made some other tabs I had open, crash.

Despite these small glitches, Burberry is certainly poised to add more sales worldwide, if not on this collection’s $3000 clutch handbags, then certainly as a result of increased brand recognition. Burberry’s already sitting on soaring sales. For the first half of 2011, the London-based company reported total revenue of £367 million, up 34 percent with double-digit growth in retail (retail revenue was £245 million up 49 percent) and wholesale, in all regions and all product categories.

Images via Burberry.com and on Twitter

Article by Lydia Dishman via Forbes.com

Social Media is taking off in a big way – particularly in how Airline companies are using it to improve customer service. What used to be hidden concerns from disgruntled customers are now turning up online through social media channels like Facebook and Twitter. Airline companies, like many companies through-out the world are benefiting from social media in the sense that we can now respond to these concerns before they escalate.

According to Porter Gale of Virgin America, “Virgin America’s social media marketing has redefined how people look at branding. In an industry where consumers feel “nickel and dimed” at every turn, where travellers are weary and tired, and where cost is the bottom line, Virgin has made a huge name for themselves.

Why? Because they care. Because they listen to their clients. Because they do things a little bit better than the other guy.” – via Inman News

Take a look at this info graph provided by Mashable – we may all want to take similar cues in our social media like these airlines have.

Pedigree in New Zealand came up with a fun and brilliant way to discover who your next best friend could possibly be – for real people to matching real dogs that need adoption. Using face recognition technology, discover who your best dog match is through this interactive mini-website. Maybe the saying is true, that the best fits for dog’s/humans is having a “similar look” to one another. Check out more info here!

We had so much fun working with the Rouge team to create a website that was both stylishly appealing and super “easy” for them to edit themselves. Through customized modules, the Rouge team can modify virtually all elements of the website with a couple clicks of a mouse.

“Special thanks to the Divertido team, for such an amazing job you’ve done for us and our NEW web site. Your team was amazing to work with, very understanding and extremely personable. We will be recommending you everyone we know! Starting with the launch of our web page. Thank you again from all the staff and management of the New Rouge Resto-Lounge and RoseBowl Pizza!” – Sam M.

Based in Edmonton, Alberta, Advanced Housing Solutions is a new company with deep roots in the off site construction industry. With over three decades of experience behind them, the Advanced Housing Solutions team takes pride in providing clients with the most comprehensive service in Western Canada. Working with the Advanced Housing Team to showcase their Manufactured Modular Home products was a true pleasure. We loved provide the guidance and advice to propel their website online.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Many of the key elements of search engine optimization will continue to be essential in the ranking game. This includes updating your meta-descriptions (which can be done directly via your Redman Workstation), as well as the very important elements of inbound linking and back-linking.

Social Media Optimization (SMO): When social media is implemented correctly into your overall online marketing plan, social networks like, Facebook and Twitter can be used to their advantage of helping you attract and convert leads. Social media is fantastic in the way that you can measure and track your business in the online social sphere.

Tip: Remember to have your social media networks promoted on your company website via an icon – or even better through live feeds of your twitter or a Facebook “Like” box.

What Remain’s To Be Essential? Content – Like the popular saying goes “Content Is King” and truth be told, it will continue to reign as the lead advantage when it comes to the online world. When writing the content, make sure that it is relevant, interesting and sufficient in respects to fulfilling the prospects appetite for information.

While updating and enhancing your content may take time – in the long run, it will always be worthwhile. If you don’t have the time to focus on enhancing your website, we at Divertido can help through our professional search engine friendly copy writing services.

Remember - It is important to be open to adapting to the new medias – as it can provide unexpected and exciting opportunities for your business.

Owning a business revolves around providing a service or product that people or a group of people need. Typically, the greater the number of customers that know what you offer and the advantages of it, the greater your earning potential can become.

Building a relationship is about being approachable, accessible, knowledgeable and helpful to others. Just because you are building a relationship with a potential client does not mean that they have to become your next “best friend”. You want to establish a relationship in which your clients know that they need and want to rely on your skills to achieve their own goals.

The art of relationship building should be practiced with everyone, all the time. Bring a smile to people’s faces by saying “Hello” when you walk down the street. Try to send e-mails just to see how some of your acquaintances are doing. Continue to remind people of what you do and how you can help them.

Your goal is to sell your value to each and every person! The more people you meet and get to know, the better you’ll do. Typically, traditional marketing takes at least 7 contacts or views before your message registers in their consciousness. Once it does register, it only takes a matter of seconds for people to decide whether they want to buy or sell from you or not. When meeting in person face to face, you have a better opportunity to express your individual strengths and become memorable.  Always show people your ‘A’ game.

Your website can serve an unlimited amount of clients with relevant info about your business without you having to be present in person.  Once contact info is captured, communication is key.  Communicate with each lead on your website as quickly as possible. They may contact you today but can be gone tomorrow as people will typically choose to do business with the person with whom they actually build a relationship with first or better.

@Font-Face and Live Text versus Images

Traditionally in web design if you wanted to dress up your fonts beyond  Times New Roman or Arial you needed to jump into Photoshop and create that content as an image. While this looks great, search engines can not see this information as literary content, and therefore have no idea the subject matter of your site. Back in the day search engine ranking was not as sophisticated and therefore there were ways into tricking the search engines to ranking your page. This  is not necessarily the case anymore and therefore utilizing any and all methods of optimization is advantageous in making your website stand out from the crowd. Thankfully we no longer need to rely on only images to utilize non system fonts in our web designs and achieve visually stunning text. How do we do this? Face Fonts!

What is @FaceFont?

With the utilization of Face Fonts we are able to host non-system fonts on the web and allow users to access them while viewing out websites. With the combination of FaceFonts and new CSS3 text effects, we can achieve some very dynamic and stunning text styling.

Example

Two  great examples of websites that utilize live text well  are  www.findcalgaryrealestate.ca and www.polarissells.com

I want to use @face-font

The basic implementation of your css will look something like this:

@font-face {
font-family: 'YourFontFamily';
src: url('fonts/your-font-file.eot');
src: local('☺'), url('your-font-file.woff') format('woff'), url('your-font-file.ttf') format('truetype'), url('your-font-file.svg#webfontVGQMH9n0') format('svg');
font-weight: normal;
font-style: normal;
}

The above code will have to be altered for your specific font and the file locations but that should get you started.

.FontClass {font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; line-height:normal; font-family: 'YourFontFamily', sans-serif;}

This is how you can call your defined font in a basic css class.

For some great @FontFace resources and actual fonts check out:

http://code.google.com/webfonts – google host a number of fonts that you can reference directly off of their servers. Although this library is currently limited, as with all things google it will no doubt be the definitive force in the @facefont world in the not to distant future.

http://www.fontsquirrel.com/ – Font Squirrel allows you to take any font you have on your local machine and upload it to their website which then converts it into the proper formats, and gives you neat and tidy code for easy implementation into your website.

The Twelve Most Common Mistakes in Advertising

1. The desire for instant gratification. The ad that creates enough urgency to cause people to respond immediately is the ad most likely to be forgotten once the offer expires. Such ads are of little use in establishing the advertiser’s identity in the mind of the consumer.
2. Trying to reach more people than the budget will allow. For a media mix to be effective, each element in the mix must have enough repetition to establish retention in the mind of the prospect. Too often, however, the result of the media mix is too many people reached without enough repetition. Will you reach 100% of the people and persuade them 10% of the way? Or will you reach 10% of people and persuade them 100% of the way? The cost is the same.
3. Assuming the business owner knows best. The business owner is uniquely unqualified to see [his/her] company or product objectively. Too much product knowledge leads [them] to answer questions no one is asking. [Their] on the inside looking out, trying to describe [themselves] to a person on the outside looking in. It’s hard to read the label when you’re inside the bottle.
4. Unsubstantiated claims. Advertisers often claim to have what the customer wants, such as “highest quality at the lowest price”, but fail to offer any evidence. An unsubstantiated claim is nothing more than a cliché the prospect is tired of hearing. You must prove what you say in every ad. Do your ads give the prospect new information? Do they provide a new prospective? If not, prepare to be disappointed with the results.
5. Improper use of passive media. Non intrusive media, such as newspapers and yellowpages, tend to reach only buyers who are actively looking for the product. They are poor at reaching prospects before their need arises, so they’re not much use for planting a reticular activator or creating a predisposition toward your company. The patient, consistent use of intrusive media, such as radio and television, will win the heart of the customer before their even in the market for the product. Tell them why; wait for when.
6. Creating ads instead of campaigns. It is foolish to believe a single ad can ever tell the entire story. The most effective, persuasive, and memorable ads are those most like a rhinoceros: they make a single point, powerfully. An advertiser with seventeen different things to say should commit to a campaign of at least seventeen different ads, repeating each ad enough to stick in the prospects mind.
7. Obedience to unwritten rules. For some reason, advertisers want their ads to look and sound like ads. Why?
8. Late-week schedules. Advertisers justify their obsession with Thursday and Friday advertising by saying “we need to reach the customer just before they go shopping.” Why do these advertisers choose to compete for the customers attention each Thursday and Friday when they could have a nice, quiet chat all alone with [them] on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday?
9. Overconfidence in qualitative targeting. Many advertisers and media professionals grossly over estimate the importance of audience quality. In reality, saying the wrong thing has killed far more ad campaigns than reaching the wrong people. It’s amazing how many people become “the right people” when you’re saying the right thing.
10. Event driven marketing. A special event should be judged only by its ability to help you more clearly define your market position and substantiate your claims. If one percent of the people who hear your ad for a special event choose to come, you will be in desperate need of a traffic cop and bus to shuttle people from distant parking lots. Yet your real investment will be in the 99% of people who did not come! What did your ad say to them?
11. Great production without great copy. Too many ads today are creative without being persuasive. Slick, clever, funny, creative, and different are poor substitutes for informative, believable, memorable, and persuasive.
12. Confusing reactions with results. The goal of advertising is to create a clear awareness of your company and its unique selling proposition. Unfortunately, most advertisers evaluate their ads by the comments they hear from the people around them. When we mistake mere response for results, we create attention-getting ads that say absolutely nothing.

Source:  The Wizards of Ads – “Turning words into magic and dreamers into millionaires”

Copyright 1998 by Roy H. Williams