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Grow your business with a Mobile App

July 8, 2013 by archwaywp Leave a Comment

Keeping up with technology is not just a way to get ahead; it is a vital component of business survival these days.

Fall behind the technology curve and you risk going the way of Beta videotape and eight-track tapes. App’s for iPad’s and Android phones are changing the way people live and conduct business and your firm needs to be part of the action.

Mobile app’s are new technology requiring constant monitoring as the industry continues to change rapidly. There are huge advantages to being at the forefront of mobile app use. Archway Internet Marketing can help map out a plan for your business to capture the emerging mobile app audience. By using mobile app’s wisely, you can grow your business and see increased profits.

Here are five ways that mobile app’s can grow your business:

Advertising – By having your business name and company logo prominent on your app, you have free advertising and a constant reminder of your name to clients and potential clients. It keeps your name prevalent in individuals’ minds. By being at the forefront of mobile ap use, you can put yourself ahead of your competition. With more individuals going to iPad’s and Androids every day, you have a constantly growing audience by being active with mobile app’s.
Constant access – Much like having a web presence, having a mobile app gives potential customers the ability to access your business 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Allowing people to see your products and services at their convenience is a great benefit for your company. You can give customers the option of reaching out to your business without having to go to your website.
Marketing component – A mobile app is one more way to market your business. You can cross-advertise, driving people to your Facebook page, Twitter tweets and other social media avenues and vice versa. Customers can also spread the word about your business by sharing your mobile app with friends. You can also work the mobile app to keep users informed about promotions and deals.
Business builder – People are enthralled with their gadgets. Smart phones’ popularity continues to grow. If you give people a helpful and engaging app, they will keep you prevalent in their mind. Give them something they can use – whether for business or pleasure – and they will share word about your app with others.
Revenue source – Giving customers an avenue to order your goods or services through your app can be another revenue stream for your business. In additional to your brick-and-motor store, having people buy your product at their convenience is a great way to raise your revenue. If they can get what you are offering with a few taps of their smart phone, they are likely to remain a regular customer. You can also garner revenue through mobile app upgrades that require purchase or through advertising on your app.

Many businesses have yet to get a mobile app presence. You can take a portion of your competitors’ business by being app active ahead of them. Archway Internet Marketing can show you just how to get that done.

An Archway representative can put a mobile app plan in place for your business.

Call or email us today and let our team explain how we can grow your business with a mobile app. Call 1-877-50-TWEET (877-508-9338) or email manageyourtwitter@gmail.com and let’s get working on that business app.

Filed Under: Web Development Tagged With: IPad's, Mobile App, Mobile App's

Coding and kids

June 24, 2013 by archwaywp Leave a Comment

1:54 am archwaywp +

By Christian Wilson

Traveling to 50 trade shows in the last five years, I have spoken to a lot of great coders. The funny thing is that few of them learned their coding skills in classes.

The hacking and drinking scene from “The Social Network”

doesn’t have a professor anywhere in the picture and that is pretty accurate. Coding is not a skill embellished within the walls of academia. It is a talent that gets perfected by those outside the “book smart” set.

I am not a fan of my son prepping for such coding job interviews as in The Social Network, especially because he is only 12 years of age! But getting him started now on coding can only help his future.

There is a West Coast college that costs way beyond $20,000 to get into and I am not sure instructors there teach their students how to handle The Social Network assignment – hacking and interception. I am pretty sure that if you called instructors at the college and asked “Do you teach your students ‘to gain root access to a python web server, expose its SSL encryption and intercept all traffic over its secure port … all behind a Pix firewall emulator?” there would be silence or a dial tone on the other end.

Do our schools teach:
 Python?
 Ruby on Rails?
 PHP?

Why aren’t they?

Check out higher education course syllabuses and you likely will see few mentions of these items anywhere within the classroom setting.

Why are we waiting until college to have kids get involved in coding? I believe that kids in high school, or maybe even grade school, would have an easier time reading, writing and understanding the code language. Much like any foreign language, the earlier you get students immersed in the language, the more fluent they become. Why are we not teaching code in grade schools and middle schools?

As an example, even if you just had kids play a code-learning game, like Primerlabs.com’s Code Hero (http://primerlabs.com/codehero ), an hour a week, it could mean big bucks for those kids later in life. By having the basics of code language, as well as having fun with code, they could be well on their way to lucrative IT careers. With such games, you could also find the naturals with code and steer them down more IT avenues. Activities like Code Hero let youth make their own game while learning code in the process.

I have my son creating a blog this summer just so he learns the fundamentals of coding. While giving him some coding knowledge, it also will help him with his reading and writing skills. Plus, it starts getting him ready for that Facebook interview in nine or 10 years (minus the shots I hope)!

Filed Under: Blog, Local Internet and Archway News, Web Development Tagged With: Code, Code Hero, kids, Primerlabs.com, Social Network

Presence on foursquare can round out social media efforts

June 15, 2013 by archwaywp Leave a Comment

3:37 am archwaywp +

Having a presence on foursquare, which has both an app and website, can drive more customers to your business.

Users turn to foursquare to find out about businesses in an area and to get reviews of a business from friends and experts. By being on foursquare, you can reach new potential customers and develop relationships with existing clients.

There are 33 million foursquare users and 1 million businesses already having a presence on the social media tool. You need to join the crowd. Users give their take on a business, can see if friends are there now and how many friends have frequented the establishment. Patrons give tips for future patrons on the best items that a business has to offer.

For your business, you can use foursquare to promote specials and give deals for individuals checking in on foursquare, as well as give a brief synopsis of your business and offerings. You can also provide vital information like your address, telephone number, hours, website and Twitter name. A map is also provided to help individuals locate your establishment.

Increase your connections to potential customers by being a part of foursquare. Not sure how to go about doing that? Let the experts at Archway Internet Marketing do the work for you. Archway’s experience with social media can get you up and running on foursquare and other tools in no time. Archway can monitor foursquare and other social media tools for you and make your presence felt so that new foot traffic continues to come into your store or business.

Archway can coordinate the foursquare tools that can increase your business’s presence and boost your bottom line. Keeping a handle on what is being said about your business on foursquare and other social media is a time-consuming effort. Archway can show you ways to capture a larger audience with foursquare tools – or Archway can even handle the foursquare and other social media responsibilities for your firm.

Promote news about your business, lets residents know about upcoming events and offer discounts through foursquare. You can also set up a Foursquare Special to attract and reward visitors to your establishment.

Checking the numbers is something foursquare – and Archway – can do for you. Get analysis of just what foursquare is doing for your business. The analytical information from foursquare will show you who is checking out your business and who is checking in from your business. You will get demographic information about who is talking about your business and what they are saying, not just on foursquare, but on other social media as well.

What if you do not have a bricks-and-mortar storefront? Are you out of luck for generating business through foursquare? Absolutely not! There are tools available that let you have a foursquare presence as well. You can launch a page for your business whether you have a storefront location or not. Connect with fans and grow your fan base with a foursquare page regardless of where you do business. Capture fans browsing for information on what you are provide. Like a burger joint offering free T-shirts for foursquare users or a breakfast eatery offering free sweet rolls for foursquare patrons, you can offer deals for foursquare users frequenting your business as well regardless of your address or location.

Whether you have a retail store, restaurant or service-oriented business, foursquare provides you with ways to boost your client base. A strong foursquare presence can drive more people to your business and get them to buy more items, providing more income for you.

Let the experts at Archway help you with foursquare and other social media tools. Call 1-877-50-TWEET (877-508-9338) or email manageyourtwitter@gmail.com and let Archway help develop your marketing strategy through foursquare and other avenues.

Filed Under: Blog, Social Media

A2bskateboard shop

June 11, 2013 by archwaywp Leave a Comment

4:11 am archwaywp +

By Christian Wilson

Filed Under: Local Internet and Archway News

WordPress Camp and Bees

June 8, 2013 by archwaywp Leave a Comment

9:02 pm archwaywp +

By Christian Wilson

Filed Under: Local Internet and Archway News, Uncategorized Tagged With: Wordpress

Instantly increase your firm’s social media profile

May 30, 2013 by archwaywp Leave a Comment

4:46 pm archwaywp +

Being “liked” used to be something you hoped for when passing a note with “yes” and “no” boxes in homeroom. Now being “liked” is vital for you business.

Tweeting used to be something an annoying parakeet did while you tried to sleep. Now it is a way to get news out about your business.

Social media is all the buzz these days, but what tools do you need to reach the customers you want? Where and how do you start? The amount of options out there can make your head swim.

The experts at Archway Internet Marketing can help you find your way in the growing maze of social media outlets. We can get you started or fine-tune your efforts, if you have already ventured into the social media waters. Archway representatives can set up systems for your business that keep you prevalent on key social media tools.

Here are some of the key social media outlets Archway can help you be a part of:

– Twitter: Use 140 characters to send a message out about your business. Once you are tweeting (sending updates to followers), there are several tools and apps, such as Tweetdeck and Tweetie, that can strengthen your Twitter presence.

– Facebook: While originally a way to keep up on the activities of extended family and old friends, Facebook has become a way for businesses to connect with customers and potential clients. By being “liked” by a Facebook user, a business can let that user know of business news and special offers. When using Facebook, if easily distracted by shiny objects, you can go with Facebook Lite, which keeps your Facebook page to just your News Feed, Birthdays and Events.

– Blogging: Having a blog is a great way to let customers and clients know of new happenings and offerings. You can start a conversation on a topic in your industry and connect with individuals that way. Blogs can help put a face on your business. You can let customers see your human side, which can pay huge dividends. Don’t have the time to write a blog? Archway can provide ghostwriting services for you.

– Blog comments: Once you establish a blog, the comments area is a way to gauge feedback from customers. You don’t always get honest answers in face-to-face meetings with customers, but blog comments are normally pretty straight-forward and honest. If you do allow comments on your blog, you or someone designated as the webmaster needs to keep a watchful eye on the site. Spammers looking to sell their own products are more than willing to post non-related links on your site, gumming up the works. Also, watching the site for libelous and inappropriate comments is vital. You don’t want your site to be taken over by ranters and crackpots. Using Disqus, a popular communication system, can boost the number of comments on your websites.

– Photos: We are a visual society. Keeping people’s attention is vital, if they are going to spend time at your website or talking about your product. Flickr Creative Common Search is a great way to find usable photos for blog posts. Instagram is a growing presence in the social media market. The Instagram app gives you a way to promote your business by showing people events and opportunities at your firm. With Instagram, you promote through images, not words.

– YouTube: Expounding on that visual society statement, we are crazy about videos. Whether it be an adorable kitten sleeping or a goat chiming in on Taylor Swift songs, we love to watch moving objects. You can have a YouTube presence, posting video of events your business sponsors or maybe give a how-to demonstration that can generate traffic back to your website.

– Foursquare: A free app that provides personalized recommendations on where to go and what to do based on an individual’s past choices. Getting involved with Foursquare can generate business. You can offer deals to users nearby your business or who have interests that fit your business profile. There are more than 30 million people worldwide who have downloaded the app and more than 1 million of them use the Merchant Platform, which can include your business.

The experts at Archway Internet Marketing can help devise a social media plan for your business. Call us at 1-877-50-TWEET (877-508-9338) or email us at manageyourtwitter@gmail.com and increase your social media profile.

Filed Under: Social Media

Google plus tools aid businesses

February 18, 2013 by archwaywp Leave a Comment

7:09 am archwaywp +

Google plus is providing opportunities for businesses that other web access points do not.

Two of those opportunities are Hangouts and Communities. But just what exactly are these tools and how can they be beneficial to your business?

The experts at Archway Internet Marketing can explain the tools to you and in what ways they can specifically boost your business. But here is some basic information about the items:

Google Plus’ Hangouts give you another meeting tool, another way to connect with staff in other offices or clients across the country. Communities give you a way to connect with people sharing an interest, people who could use your product or service now or in the future.

Hangouts are video streams that let multiple people chat live at the same time. It is a huge advantage to using Google+ and one of its biggest selling points. The video streams have been improved since Google plus was instituted, making it a better business conference site. As long as you have at least 150 kilobits per second of bandwidth, you can connect to a Hangout.

There are also Hangouts On Air, which allow Google plus users to broadcast hangouts to many viewers. That web-access avenue has also been tweaked. Now when the host is the only participant in the Hangout On Air, the filmstrip of faces below the screen will go away.

A rapidly growing trend is Google + Communities. The Communities act similar to Groups on Facebook. Google + Communities are only a few months old, but have captured the fancy of those who are active on plus. It enables them to share information with individuals with similar interests.

Communities can be a boon to your business as Communities provide a key way to interact with potential customers, enabling you to connect with people who have a vested interest in your products. Having an interested audience is a huge benefit to businesses and a definite way to increase sales. By being involved with a Community linked to your product area, you are much more likely to sell your goods and services.

While the temptation is there to hawk your product continuously – and that alone can boost sales some – being part of a Google + Community gives you a great way to interact with customers and potential customers and build clients for the long haul, not just one-time sales. Google plus and other social media avenues should not be used simply as advertising venues, but more as ways to connect with current and future customers.

Communities give you a great way to increase attention of your brand and services. Communities are straight-forwarded gathering places and people in a Community that matches your business are definitely potential customers. Once you have established yourself as a trustworthy source of information, people in the Community will be more more willing to listen to sales pitches. Again, a soft sell is definitely better. You are still looking to generate relationships more than just one-time sales through your efforts.

If you look through the Communities and don’t find one that fits your product’s genre, start your own Community, and make it public to increase your audience. The experts at Archway can help you set up your own Community and monitor it for you. If you start your own Community, make sure to tell other Google Plus users about it, as well as clients and potential clients connected to you on other social media avenues, like Facebook and Twitter.

Many people turn to Google Plus Communities to get more information or questions answered in a certain field. Make sure that you share your expertise with the Community audience so they turn to you as an expert in that field. No better way to get a potential customer to your site than to answer one of their questions by pointing to information already posted in a blog on your website. You can also use Community discussions as fodder for your website’s blogs or articles.

Let the marketing experts at Archway help you with these Google + tools. Call us at 1-877-50-TWEET (877-508-9338) or email us at manageyourtwitter@gmail.com and let us help with your marketing efforts through Google Plus.

Filed Under: Social Media

SHARPENING THE SWORD IN A SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

February 8, 2013 by archwaywp Leave a Comment

9:10 pm archwaywp +

Christian Wilson has more than 20 years’ experience in the sales world, the last seven of which have been in digital advertising sales.

Customer relations management tools have changed greatly with technology in the last 20 years, he noted. When Wilson first started making sales calls, he used the telephone, pressing numbers dialed off lead cards that were nothing more than cards printed out with people’s name, address and phone number on them. Then he moved into a professional company that paid for a service called Tele-Magic that would allow the computer to know whom he dialed. It then let him collect all the client’s information in a database and, with one click of the mouse back in 1995, allowed him to create a piece that would be mailed out to the client.

Flash forward 18 years and Wilson is working with many different CRM tools. For the past five years some of these have been Act, Salesforce, Sugar CRM, Cam Card Business Card Reader software and Goldmine. Not much of a fan of Apple over the years, Wilson’s first computer was an Apple II Plus, but since then, he has been a PC guy all the way. He still has an Android phone. Then Wilson purchased his wife an iPad for Christmas.

He thought it would be nothing more than a glorified toy. Then he started using it for work one night just to see if there was any CRM technology on it. He chose one app that was simple to use and simple to get started on for the next day. He found it unbelievably simple, able to put into practice all the things he had learned. All the CRM tools he had used in the last 20 years were on this device. He has used an iPad every day since.

Wilson has also used a number of accounting software tools since starting his business four years ago. QuickBooks, Quicken, Excel spreadsheets and now the digital world accept payments. He keeps track of personal finances with Mint and banks with Chase online. The coolest software Wilson says he has found for tracking business expenses and invoicing has got to be Xero.

Wilson has found that it is very simple to reach out to these companies whose technology he is using. He reaches out to them on Facebook and via phone. He does this not to just thank them for being great companies, but to see if he can “sharpen my business sword” through them.

By asking each of the companies to allow software components to work together or to get components to work in certain ways, Wilson has found it could make his life easier.

He said that every company is not going to be willing to do this. He said to reach out once per week to companies providing your sales-related technology and asking them to sharpen your sword for you is a logical step. This idea 10 years ago would simply not have been done because it would have gotten you nowhere, Wilson said. No company took “customer complaints,” or more appropriately “customer suggestions,” very seriously, he noted.

But today, in an ever-changing marketplace, more companies are growing out of efficiency. Great ideas are making our world fantastically simple, Wilson said.

With everyone walking around with a mobile computer in their pocket, Wilson said it is worth considering on a monthly, if not weekly, basis for each and every salesperson, no matter what their status in any organization, to reach out to technology companies. Wilson said by going to these firms with questions and suggestions it can help sharpen the individual’s business sword.

Filed Under: Local Internet and Archway News, Social Media

Google+ Community get your domain now!

December 7, 2012 by archwaywp Leave a Comment

7:55 pm archwaywp +

There is a new way to grab a hold of a large community and be able to really drive traffic to your site! We will be working with large numbers of companies and already am working with 3 large very customer facing companies and restaurants that are always looking for new ways to help out the community. We have also partnered with many of the most High Tech companies to be able to bring our clients to the best venues.

https://plus.google.com/u/1/communities/117925441699672835647

Filed Under: Blog, Social Media

Funniest print ads and commercials

November 3, 2012 by archwaywp Leave a Comment

7:54 pm archwaywp +

Companies have come up with some amazingly funny and creative ways to get us to remember their products in 2012.

From Matthew Broderick bringing back his “Ferris Bueller” character to hawk Hondas to dogs destined for a television showdown that might make Maury Povich blush, advertising has definitely made us laugh this year.

Many of the side-splitting commercials were part of this year’s Super Bowl telecast, combining celebrities and spoofs for memorable spots for millions of television viewers.

The year’s top print ad were sans celebrities,but that did not have them taking a back seat in the humor department whatsoever. Their stark, one-page images definitely got the attention of readers, the goal of any advertisement.

Here’s a look at the top 10 print ads and commercials so far in 2012:

Print Ads

“Spending too much time with the wife?” – Clemenger BBDO Melbourne gets the point across about the manliness of Foster’s beer with this ad. Pictures of couples with very similar outfits and hair-dos carried a strong message about how much more manly Carlton Mid and other Foster products are than other beers.

“Real Date” – A Brazilian print ad for the O Fio Brier Bar humorously targets the phony world of online dating, urging potential patrons to “Get out of web affairs. Have a real date.”

“Dogs have issues too” – It would seem somebody at the Johannesburg-based Ireland Davenport agency saw one too many episodes of “The Maury Show” before working on this ad. The only thing that appears to be missing from the ad for National Geographic Channel’s “Dog Whisperer” is Maury Povich bellowing to the male golden retriever eying the spotted pups, “Duke, you are not the father!”

“Frozen Meat” – When you are the only provider of garden fresh baby food, nothing screams it like Godzilla-size killer chickens invading a town. The Lithuanian baby-food producer Marmaluzi generated a memorable and funny ad with this ‘B’ movie spoof.

“The Wine List” – Creating a full-page ad with nary a piece of art is tough to do, but Colenso BBDO, Australia, pulls it off masterfully with this beer ad playing on the fear of any man who has taken the wine list to try and impress. Its ad also swirls around the idea in your brain that DB Export Dry is a sophisticated beverage.

Commercials

“Cape Cod Chips’ A Flock of Seagulls” – This is an example of why Al Gore invented computer-generated imagery (or was that the Internet?) A flock of seagulls rocking A Flock of Seagulls’ “I Ran” on a beach? Classic. This 30-second spot has so much awesomeness, it bears repeat viewing. In your replays, notice the lighthouse, which is identical to the one on the Cape Cod bag, in the background and the drummer going all Hollywood and knocking a cymbal of its stand. Thank you, Al Gore, this ad rocks!

“Charlie Sheen’s Reborn” – Everyone is “winning” when they see this ad for a Bavarian beer being sold in the Netherlands. Charlie Sheen pokes fun at himself in the spot as he leaves rehab promising never to be back again. However, on the way home, he thinks he is hallucinating as everyone he sees – including a pregnant woman and a police officer – are drinking beer. Sheen is so perplexed at things, including a beer bash being thrown in his honor – that he freaks out and fires off the ‘F’ bomb (a line Sheen likely didn’t need to rehearse). Everything finally makes sense in Sheen’s world (if it ever really does) when he eventually sees that what everyone’s drinking is Bavaria Global’s new alcohol-free beer, Bavaria Lemon.

“Matthew’s Day Off” – Matthew Broderick brought back his “Ferris Bueller” character in this Honda ad for the Super Bowl. Broderick takes a cue from his inner Ferris and fakes a sick day during a movie shoot. He then traipses through the city on an escapade, including a trip to the race track and singing in a Chinatown parade, that would make Ferris proud. Adding to the commercial’s humor and charm are modern day versions of the economics teacher and the parking lot attendant’s Ferrari-like handling of Broderick’s CR-V.

“Toyota reinvents everything” – Toyota had its own stellar showing Super Bowl Sunday with this ad which notes after reinventing the Camry, Toyota personnel just kept on going. They reinvented the police officer (above) to also give back rubs, couches to be made of bikini-clad babes or bathing suit-wearing, chiseled guys (the choice is yours), and drapes made of pizza. Like a politician, the ad fails to give any facts, such as what exactly has changed with the Camry, but after babes, back rubs and pizza, do you really need to know?

“Chevy Camero graduation gift” – Chevrolet made its own mark on the Super Bowl market with this ad of a starry-eyed graduate looking right past his parents’ gift and thinking a neighbor’s Chevrolet Camero was his surprise. The commercial was actually written and produced by 26-year-old filmmaker Zach Borst who won a contest Chevy conducted for its Super Bowl ad. He used friends for actors, locations and camera help. The grad commercial topped nearly 600 submissions for the competition.

Filed Under: Print and Video, Promotions