Interesting article on the American Express Open Forum today:

“Dell is a shining example of a brand that has managed to turn their Twitter presence into both a customer service and sales outlet. Dell may be a big corporation, but the story behind the $6.5 million they’ve raised from their Twitter presence is one that shines a light on a road to success that any company, regardless of size, can learn from and emulate. “   Read the full article.

Is your businesses’ social networking plan making a profit or just costing you time?

Facebook’s battle with Google to become the largest site on the internet is heating up, as the site became the most visited website in the United States for the third time in a one week period. On New Year’s Day, Facebook was able to surpass Google as the most popular website in the United States based on recent data from Hitwise. The trend is clear: Facebook is on the fast track to becoming the largest global internet site.    Read the full story.

Recently Karl Plato from Pacific Bow Butts contacted us to become his new webmaster.  During the course of  Karl (Plato)’s discussion with Karl (techdog) Johnson, beachdog.com was introduced to Randy  Soleta from Lismore, MN.  Randy is a distributor for the Pacific Bow Butts line of archery targets in the Northern Plains States of MN, IA, IL, NE,  ND, SD and  WI.

Beginning with only a simple logo and a desire to have a clean, professional, and easy to use web site, beachdog began design ideas.  Keleigh took the simple design and evolved it into a wonderful header logo that the client simply loves.  The rest of the site was designed with simple color blocks which reflect the traditional target incorporated into the logo.

The site structure was relatively simple with 4 archery target products offered. along with a quotation form, available for Parks or Ranges who are requesting a price quote for larger quantities of targets.  We were even able to provide the ability for Northern Plains States Distributors to take online payments for custom quoted orders through the use of a specialized PayPal payment plugin.

During the course of the training process Randy remarked that he would benefit with a simplified tutorial in some kind of document.  This made sense to Karl (techdog) as well; too often clients understand things during the training session but do not use their new skills quickly or often enough and so forget how to do things.  So Karl (techdog) created a very simplified Word Press Tutorial/Instruction Sheet.  As time permits, Karl (techdog) will expand on the Tutorial.  Sabrina created a video Tutorial series for another client which is now available on YouTube.

It was a pleasure to work with Randy and, while he will be the first to profess he is not much of a computer person, he asked questions and understood the answers and wasn’t afraid to learn about something new.  That’s really all we ask of our clients.

Take AIM at your future and expand your web presence in 2010.

Harney County Save A Stray Rescue [HCSASR] has been working to find homes for pets in Eastern Oregon for some time and recently filed paperwork to become a legal non-profit entity to further their work.  Planning a “Santa Paws” event, including pet photos with the big guy, founders came to us in need of business cards to distribute at the event.  They had settled on a color palette and a couple of tag lines, and they knew they wanted paw prints in the design.  Keleigh came up with a number of design concepts and this one was chosen to refine and print:

The cards weren’t even off the press when a dog hoarding situation near Burns, Ore. turned into one of the largest case of animal neglect in Oregon’s history:

Eastern Oregon dog hoarding situation with over 100 dogs in minus 15 degree weather with no shelter.  Over 70 rescued with another 50 still looking to be saved.

Of course, HCSASR was on-site, working with the authorities and the dogs’ owners, to get the dogs fed and out of the horrific conditions. They needed a way to streamline getting information to the media and to the public.  So, we kicked into high gear and www.harneycountysaveastray.com was born:

It is still in need of some paw prints and a few other details, but this fast launch does what it needs to do:  It allows multiple people to update information and add photos as well as gives the media access to the information needed to spread the word and get help for the dogs.

Pacific Salmon Charters is getting the word out that both the spring Salmon run and the summer Chinook and Coho runs returning to the Columbia River have an outstanding outlook for 2010.  Also fisherman should not forget the bottom fishing, Halibut and Sturgeon fisheries and the live bait Tuna, all of which can be fun and action filled charter trips.

We recently produced 10,000 Pacific Salmon Charters tri-fold brochures –and Uncle Milty doesn’t spend money on brochures if there’s no reason for folks to come.