Social Media for Small to Medium Size Business From Blast creative and Brenda Segna

Social Media Marketing is one of the most valuable tools for small to Medium size businesses. If you aren’t taking advantage of social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, then you could be losing sales, potential clients/customers.

Your business needs to be where the people are at and the people are on Facebook and Twitter. According to Mashable.com, Facebook is predicting that their 500 millionth member will join next week. That’s 500 million people that you have an opportunity to network with and market too!

Did you know that you can design your Facebook business page as well as your Twitter page to stay consistent with your brand? It’s true, you can run contests on Facebook, have an enewsletter signup, have an rss feed for your blog, have a shopping cart; the possibilities are endless!

If you are wanting to implement Social Media Marketing for your business, then contact Blast creative and Brenda Segna today! We can assist you with all of your marketing needs as well as design your Facebook and Twitter pages! Take your business to where the people are and let us help your business/network grow!

5 Writing Tools No Internet Marketer Should Be Without

Writing compelling content is difficult at the best of times. You have to use a target audience’s hot buttons, emotions, and deepest needs to convince them to buy. But, unless you’ve got a real knack for this type of thing, it just isn’t as easy as it sounds. Thankfully, there are a few tools that can make it a whole lot easier.
Fair Warning: ‘easier’ does NOT mean these tools create ‘foolproof’ copy! (A hammer only works when you miss your finger!)

Once you’ve identified YOUR target audience, you need to learn from them, and who better to learn from than one of them? These Social Networks and searches make it easy to find someone in the perfect target market, learn a bit more about them, gather ideas, and see what the product or service’s competition is up to. You’ll even find it easier to write or sell because you can pretend you’re selling to one of them.

One of the best ways to learn how to write better copy is to practice writing and reading someone else’s sales copy. So, when I find a good piece of copy, I clip it and put it in on my desktop! Then, I can write them out and get to learn how to improve the results of my copy. These bits can also act as a guide while providing you with ideas for handling certain situations. Lastly, it’s also a good idea to keep information about the various products, services, and their competitors as well as examples of good titles and ideas.

ReadPlease

Finding mistakes is tough enough, but things such as awkwardly worded phrases can be almost impossible to find unless someone else reads the copy to you. That’s exactly what ReadPlease does. It’s robotic sounding, but you’d be amazed at how many mistakes you can catch with it.

Whether you choose an online whiteboard, or the more freeing real-life version, writers need a spot to track site structure, concepts, facts, and develop ideas. And with the freedom of a whiteboard, there are no limitations. Trust me, after using one to structure a piece of copy, you’ll wonder how you ever wrote something without it. (It’s also good for jotting down quick notes, but so is Sticky Notes, if you’re interested.)

WYSIWYG, Keyword Analyzer & Email

Off all the tools listed here, I rely on these three the most. The online WYSIWYG makes it pretty easy to code up your text and leaves it nice and clean. The keyword analysis tool is one of the select few online you can use to calculate keyword density simply by copy and pasting.

Your email program can also be extremely helpful. Now, I know you’re going ‘duh’, but it’s actually a great code cleaner. You see, MS Office has a habit of loading text full of useless code that seems almost impossible to get rid of. To fix this problem, email the file to yourself. Then, preview the file in the email program, select the text, copy, and paste it wherever you need it. You’ll find it keeps the HTML without all the junk.

Oh! One last thing! I’m testing out a Firefox addon called ‘After the Deadline’, which is a spelling, grammar, and style checker. You might like it!

Web Design and MySpace Design, What’s the Difference?

The biggest difference between a web site design and a MySpace Design is that a MySpace Design is used for social media and is more for SEO, search engine optimization and Internet Marketing versus being the front door of your business.

If you think of your web site design as the front door of your business, your MySpace page is your radio or newspaper advertisement. You’re virtually advertising your business in your social media network, adding specials and deals on a daily or weekly basis. It’s a great way to get news out there about your business.

The biggest difference in the design aspect of a MySpace page is that the MySpace page is a template that you add CSS, a cascading style sheet too. And a good MySpace designer will keep branding in mind and design your MySpace page to flow with your Web site design as well as your business if it’s brick and mortar. Branding is very important and you want to make your visitors feel like they are at home.

You can also reap the benefits of a MySpace page by using it as your blog. You can link to your site and provide valuable information to your customers and help to increase the page rank of your site all at the same time. If you have a web site, you should really consider using social media as a viable tool to helping your business to grow.

Web design and MySpace Design go hand in hand, like peanut butter and chocolate! They both taste great alone, but together they are divine! For more information on web design or web copywriting, please contact BLaST creative today!
A few MySpace pages designed by BLaST Creative include:

Tarantino Pizza

Mamacita's Cafe

BLaST creative

Papis Grill

Meredith Haberfeld Coaching

MySpace for SEO and Web Marketing

Teens and young people have been using MySpace for years. For many, it truly is their social circle; they spend hours cruising their sites and their friends’ sites. Businesses are now catching on to the marketing explosion that is taking place in cyber space.

“I opened my pizza place and just wasn’t seeing any business during the lunch hour,” says Jay Frichtl, owner of Tarantino’s Pizza. “I had a MySpace page designed and within 2 days I had a waiting line outside my front door. My parking lot is now full during the lunch hour. The kids are literally lining up out on the street to get in.”

A MySpace page can drive traffic to your front door, literally. The page should be designed with branding in mind. You want your page to resemble your home website or business. You can offer specials or deals. You can communicate with your customers and your customers can leave unsolicited comments about your business. It’s a great way to generate “New” business.

You can post comments or not. Millions of people are on MySpace every single day, ever single minute; you can get the word out about your business quicker than any other media ploy!

I set up an account to design a page for a Mexican Restaurant, Mamacita’s Café, and before I even confirmed the email address after registering it I had a hit from someone asking about the restaurant. It was that quick.

To design a MySpace page costs between $100-$200. They are easy to maintain and provide a great backlink for your web site. MySpace is a win-win for everyone.

A few MySpace pages designed by BLaST Creative include:

Tarantino Pizza

Mamacita's Cafe

BLaST creative

Papis Grill

Meredith Haberfeld Coaching

At BLaST Creative we are certified in Internet Marketing and can assist you with all of your Internet Marketing needs. We design MySpace pages with usually a 1-2 day turnaround time. For more assistance, please contact BLaST Creative.

BLaST Creative Web Design

So you’re wondering how BIG to make your web page or even how BIG a web page actually is?

Truthfully, a web page can change size depending on the computer that you use to look at it. The different size screens on computers affect how a web page is displayed.

Screen sizes are measured in pixels with the smallest ones being 640 pixels wide and 480 pixels high (640 x 480). These screens are become obsolete, the majority of computer screens today are 800 x 600 or 1024 x 768.

So where does that leave you? Well, the first decision that you need to make when it comes to web design is how to make your pages.

If your page is bigger than your visitor’s screen, then they will be forced to scroll to see all of your site. Most people don’t mind scrolling down, but you don’t want to make this a habit and it’s best to avoid it if possible.

Basically, it’s important to decide on the width of your web pages. If it’s too wide, your visitor will have to scroll horizontally.

Most web designers choose to design for 800 x 600 screens, so they design the page at 770 pixels wide or less, leaving space for the scrollbar.

For more information about web design or seo services, contact BLaST Creative.

BLaST Creative Web Design

In our world of advanced technology web design can be done cheaply, you can purchase templates that have already been designed and in matter of a few hours have a page up and representing your business. Or you could utilize the services of reputable design studio like BLaST Creative Web Design and rest assured that you have a unique design that was created just for you.

Your web site is the front door of your business, web design is everything, yes it may cost a little more to receive a well designed site, but you want to put your best foot forward for your customer.

You want people to come back to your site, to come to your business, you want to be original and unique. You want them to be hooked by web site design so that they will walk into your business or purchase your product.

Do you have a logo? A logo can help to identify who you are, it provides people with instant recognition. Having a logo on you marketing applications as well as your site can assist in promoting your web site.

Do you have an advertising budget? Consider splitting your advertising budget and adding web marketing to your list. Do some pay per click advertising, press releases, and blogging. These call all add to you web site, increase revenue and provide you with a better ROI on your investment, which of course include the little extra that you paid to have quality web design for your site.

Well that's all for this week, come back next week and learn more about web design brought to you by BLaST Creative Web Design.

BLaST Creative Billings MT Web Design

Lara Tallman and Brenda Segna both started separate business ventures, trying to run businesses from home. Lara, a graphic designer and Brenda, a professional writer, but it wasn’t long before the two realized that clients wanted something from both of them.

From Lara, they wanted marketing and web design, from a graphic designer and from Brenda they wanted marketing and web content written by a professional writer. In searching marketing businesses it was hard to find the combination of the 2 types of professions. Thus, BLaST Creative LLC was formed tapping into a market niche of professional writing and graphic design.

For over 20 years both ladies have worked respectfully in their fields of expertise. With requests from friends and acquaintances streaming in for both ladies, to create a logo, or write an ad or mission statement, the requests have been numerous and both ladies knew that it was time to start charging for their services which has turned into a full-time Marketing and Design company.

Their business, BLaST Creative LLC, now keeps both ladies busy. “I used BLaST Creative for the re-design of my web site and they did an incredible job,” says Bonnie Vezain, owner of Carriaged Away. “Our old site took a long time to load and we just weren’t happy with it. With the redesign it loads in under 5 seconds, the design is better than anything we could have hoped for and the writing is an added bonus.” (www.carriagedaway.com)

This dynamic duo has not only created web pages, but maintains and writes medical blogs for numerous Internet Sites. “I own a web design business but cannot write,” says Ali Jahangiri. “Writing and design go hand in hand and you need both elements in order to succeed. We’ve outsourced the majority of our Blog content to BLaST Creative and are very impressed with the writing style and format. The turn around time is excellent and we couldn’t ask for better quality, the numbers of hits to our sites verify that we made the right choice. We went through numerous writers before stumbling upon BLaST Creative, we are very, very happy with their services.”

Prices vary for the writing, but customers pay a $1750 retainer for the web design with the balance of BLaST Creative’s $3,500 fee at the project's completion. In the beginning, clients are asked to define their ideal site.

“We tell them to brainstorm about the aesthetic they'd like to see,” Lara said. “Find sites they like, sites they don't like. What are their favorite colors, what do they imagine their site looking like, what is their idea of the perfect site? Do they want something modern or basic or do they want us to be creative?”

After Lara reviews their notes, she gets to work on the basic elements of a company Web site: a logo, a template for headers and footers, and the technical mechanisms and visual appearance of the content area, where product images are displayed.
Brenda starts with interviewing the client to find out as much as she can about the business to begin writing the copy for the site.

They both work with clients to develop the five printable items that come with their basic design package; things like business cards, fliers, Web banners, gift certificates, letterheads or stationery. A project's start-to-finish timeline is usually around two months, Lara said, and clients walk away with the copyright.

Lara says that aside from her and Brenda both being creative people, the three things that stand out as primary assets in a crowded field: the professional writer/designer combo, personal experience with running an e-commerce business and dedication to customer service.

Sharing with clients efficient, productive ways to streamline a small, online business, from shipping and marketing to optimizing a site for online search engines, is all part of the expertise that BLaST Creative has to offer.

Brenda works from Billings and Lara from Salt Lake City which works well for the two and their clients come from all across the United States and they are even writing web content for sites in Panama!

What Brenda has discovered is how many people telecommute in our world today. “The other day I was on a conference call for a project that I am collaborating on, there are 5 of us working on this project, one person lives in Las Vegas, one in Reno, one in New York, one in Seattle, and me in Montana. And it was no big deal, we all contributed our parts and it ran very smoothly.”

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics there are now more than 18.3 million homebased businesses in the United States. With more and more people searching for the opportunity to work from home.

“I enjoy working from home,” Lara said. “I can fix my sons breakfast in the morning and I’m here when they get home from school in the afternoon. I can be a full-time mom and still work full-time too! It’s the best of both worlds!”

BLaST Creative LLC has never advertised, but often attracts clients from across the world after they encounter our work.

“Brenda and I work well together because we each have our own distinctive craft’s and we aren’t stepping on each others toes,” Lara said. “Brenda writes and I design, it’s a good combination.”

For both Lara and Brenda, BLaST Creative LLC has been a good business venture. Neither expected the onslaught of business that has incurred and both are happy with being able to work from home, on their own timeline, and have the freedom that comes with owning your own business.

If you are interested in learning more about web design, web marketing, SEO or article marketing please email me for further information.