Below is a fun, parody of ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas, written in Sage Island jargon! Enjoy and happy holidays!

‘Twas the night before a site launch, when all through Sage,
The whole production team was working in quite the rage.
The site was designed, and built with care,
In hopes to drive many business leads there.

The meta data was nestled, all snug in the right spot.
While visions of qualified traffic danced as a marketing thought.
And the SEM team had on their thinking caps,
Of just how to bring in qualified traffic, and not traffic crap.

When out in the hosting department arose such a clatter,
The whole team sprang from their chairs to see what was the matter.
Away to Stuart and Brandon they flew in a flash,
Only to find out the server had temporarily crashed.

Not to worry, we were told, it will be fixed A-S-A-P.
Then the site was back up, and everyone jumped with glee!
When, what to our marketing eyes do we see,
But an awesome launched site, functional with J-Query.

Built in a content management system, so lively and slick,
We knew at the moment, our marketing skills did the trick!
More rapid than eagles, the qualified traffic then came,
And Google analytics was tracking, calling keywords by name!

Now Conversions! Now Pageviews! Now Bounce Rate! Now Unique Visits!
On Referring Sites! On Traffic Sources! On Time on Site! And on New Visits!
To the top of organic search! To the top of the search wall!
Now, convert away! Convert away! Convert away all!

And then, in a twinkling moment, we read from our stats,
Our hard work paid off and we were due a “congrats!”.
For the site was truly a success, increasing that ROI,
The client was pleased (and we were, too—we won’t lie).

And we smiled proudly, but went straight back to work.
We filled out our timesheets, then turned with a jerk–
We heard the phone ring, a potentially new client we hear…
Another project to start, with a deadline so near!

So we sprang to our computers, and to our team gave a whistle,
And away we all worked like the down of a thistle.
And you’ll hear us exclaim, as we dove into our new, fun, project task,
“Thank you for your business. If you ever need marketing services, you need to just ask!’

We have partnered with the Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina this holiday season to raise awareness and donations for those at risk of hunger in our area. This organization has been providing food for people  in 34 counties in central and eastern North Carolina for over 30 years.

We are counting on the power of social media to help us do it!  Help spread the word by sharing this blog post, our Facebook Event, or Tweeting about it with the hashtag #SageIslandFoodBank. We have a drop box in our office and welcome financial donations as well in the form of checks made out to: Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina.  For every five items you bring or $5 you donate, you are entered into our raffle for the chance to win a sweet prize. We will be posting updates and more information on the Sage Island Facebook Page.

We were excited when long-time customer The North Face Breckenridge (Breck Gear) came to us for guidance in social media marketing! As you know, there are a number of Social Marketing tools one can use to reach out to potential product buyers around the United States. Our end goal for Breck Gear was to help increase qualified traffic to the company website through social media tools. By exploring this new marketing opportunity for them, we ultimately helped them reach a broader audience through the use of two simple, yet powerful social tools: WordPress Blog and Facebook.

WordPress Blog:
Breck Gear already had a blog through Blogger in which they frequently updated content, which was awesome, but it was completely hidden and not accessible from the website; it was also at a third party domain rather than the site domain. By being so hidden, this already established blog wasn’t giving Breck Gear a chance to showcase their posts. Our suggestion here was to build a link between the blog and website (as shown in the navigation on the site), reskin the blog in WordPress (to have the blog match the look and feel of the site) and build the blog under a directory in the domain (to ultimately give the site’s domain ‘credit’ for all that blog content).

Facebook:
Here, again, Breck Gear was a step ahead and already had a Facebook page, but we had a few suggestions for improvement. First and foremost, we suggested adjusting the account name from ‘Breck Gear’, to ‘The North Face Breckenridge’ to allow us to capitalize on the North Face association. We then suggested a creative landing page and efforts to get at least 25 ‘likes’ in order to create a vanity URL for the page.

Since our suggestions on the blog and Facebook page, Breck Gear has really taken off and are currently working on building out the photo gallery, adding videos and linking posts from the blog to the Facebook page. In the future, once they have a solid following/community, they can have fun creating a Facebook campaign or contest. I encourage everyone to check out their new blog and Facebook page and leave a comment!

1. Create your blogging strategy. Every blog must begin with a plan. You should first define your blogging goals, whether it is for branding, product promotion, industry news, communication, or sales. In order to be successful, you must stay consistent with your goals throughout the life of your blog.

2. Use a variety of fresh content. It is crucial to keep your blog posts exciting. Include media in your posts to maintain your reader’s attention. Never just promote yourself. Write about what your viewers want to read.

3. Keep it short and to the point. Feel free to keep your blog posts around 200-250 words. These days’ people don’t have the time or the attention span to read a lengthy, drawn out blog post. Most of the time you can say exactly what you need to say in a simple and concise post.

4. Keywords, keywords, keywords! Always include important keywords in your post title, linked within the body of your text and in the tags of your post. Make sure to keep your tags under 10 so that you don’t clutter the subject matter. You can also add keywords within your image alt text to enhance your ranking within search engines. Using your most important keywords throughout your blog post will help tremendously with SEO.

5. Remember to link. Try to find a place to link to the pages with important information on your site, such as your homepage or contact page. If you would like to expand on ideas, you can offer links to other posts that you have written that may support the content of your post. Internal linking is always a good thing. It is also good to cite the authors of any source of information you have used. Those links are greatly appreciated, and will eventually be paid back to you.

6. Communicate with your readers. Add a poll or a survey to your site to find out exactly what it is your viewers like to read. This will help you determine the right content to provide and will encourage readers to not only interact with you, but with each other.

7. Always respond to comments. Your readers will most likely have something to say about the content you post. Make sure to answer their questions, give additional insight or information and provide any additional resources they may need.

8. Find the right schedule. Make sure to post in a routine manner; never too often and not too sporadic. You will quickly find out which time of day and days of the week get the most hits by looking at your site analytics and demographics.

9. Never ignore the numbers. Take advantage of analytics, it will provide you with all of the insight you’re ever going to need. You can track every visit from hundreds of different angles. It will be the best source for learning who your viewers are.

10. Maximize all social media resources. Promote your blog posts on all of your social media channels. This will spread your content and reinforce the information you are trying to share. It also makes it easier for people to find your site.

We recently launched BoomCo, LLC for our iOS Application Developer, Ricardo. This site (built in a WordPress platform) has a clean, sleek, high-end look and feel—perfectly complimenting its target audience: those with Apple gadgets. This site includes a simple structure and navigation, allowing for ease of use. Additionally it includes a Blog to promote client testimonials (coming soon) that feeds to Ricardo’s Facebook Business page. Finally, perhaps the most fun feature of the site is the neat ‘slide to unlock’ interactive graphic on the home page—go ahead give it a shot…you know you are curious!

ASR Marketplace
August 13-15, 2010
San Diego Convention Center, San Diego, CA

Buyers looking for the latest products for the upcoming season know exactly where to find them — at ASR. Twice a year the Surf/Skate Lifestyle and Fashion industries invade San Diego to conduct business and preview lines for the upcoming seasons. ASR tradeshow provides an authentic and efficient forum for buyers, sellers, media, and the investment community to conduct business and move the action sports industry forward. It’s the platform that unites brands of all sizes with an unmatched national and international buying audience.

Mike Duncan, Sage Island’s CEO, will be presenting three different seminars during the show.

The Board Retailers Association (BRA) hosts Survival of the Fittest – BRA Retail Certification Programs August 12th, 2010. Retailers are encouraged to take advantage of the trip to the trade shows by attending a full-day of certified retail education focused on current market issues facing specialty retailers.

Strengthening Your Website’s Presence through an Integrated Marketing Plan
Presented by: Mike Duncan, Sage Island Marketing Agency
10:00 am on August 12th

Your website is a critical component of your business. At a time when online competition has never been so fierce, it’s crucial to have a marketing plan for your website that drives results. This seminar, presented my Mike Duncan, CEO of Sage Island addresses the necessity of a well designed, innovative site, and how to properly market it through a hands on  approach of planning, analysis, and optimization. Mike speaks to the art of  SEO and PPC tactics and how to  expand your brand on the web to drive results.

Ten Ways for Retailers to Improve Website Presence
Presented by: Mike Duncan, Sage Island Marketing Agency
Saturday, August 14th at 11:00 am

In the ever changing world of retail, competition has never been more fierce. Your website is a critical component of your business. This seminar teaches a fully integrated marketing approach leading you through the basics of a well designed, innovative site, and how to properly utilize e-commerce solutions. Learn how to build and expand your presence on the web to drive sales and maximize your bottom line.

Leveraging the Power of Social Media
Presented by: Mike Duncan, Sage Island Marketing Agency and Danny Keith, Santa Cruz Skate and Surf Shop
Saturday, August 14th at 2:00 pm

Over the last few years, social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter have gone from college networking sites to marketing powerhouses. Businesses today tap into Facebook to reach their audience in more targeted, local, and efficient ways than ever before.  This seminar, presented by Danny Keith, owner of the Santa Cruz Skate and Surf Shop, and Mike Duncan CEO of Sage Island, teaches the latest tactics and applications that elevate social media from self promotion sites to professional lead generating tools.

In the past year, social networking websites like Twitter and Facebook have shifted from kid stuff to major marketing tools. With about 5,000 new accounts created each day, Twitter is the fastest growing social network on the Web and the third largest.

Twitter is a great way to reach out to your target audience for conversation, marketing, and customer service. But social media outlets require a big time investment, and with ROI still not certain, many businesses choose to invest their time elsewhere.

Here are some of the key points for business owners who want to use Twitter to their advantage but are short on time:

Determine a strategy.

Twitter allows users to follow information in real time. That means instant access to your customers to listen to what they’re saying about your brand, share information with them, and offer instant customer service. Decide which of these objectives you want to accomplish, and develop a strategy to achieve it.

Choose your audience.

Build a network of customers, competitors, strategic partners, experts, colleagues, and other people within your industry circle. Start following them to get their attention, and maintain constant conversation.

Choose your tone.

While traditional marketing is formal, Twitter allows you to converse with your network casually and personally. Don’t just focus on marketing and PR, and don’t automate your conversation. Automated direct messages and tweets make followers think you’re a robot. Social media works best when it involves people connecting with people. Talk to your customers, listen closely to what they’re saying, and keep it casual.

Decide who will represent your brand online.

Twitter and all social media is an online representation of your brand. Be careful when choosing who will represent your business and how. Whether it’s the CEO, an employee, or an in-house community manager, be sure they’re putting the right face on your company.

Start talking.

Initiate conversation about your brand, listen to what people are saying, and be proactive in responding to @ replies and direct messages. Offer information that customers and other people in your network will find interesting — not just marketing and PR messages. Don’t toot your own horn too much, and don’t bombard users with links or repetitive marketing messages. Just like any conversation, these common mistakes will make you boring or annoying to followers.

Twitter tools

Build your network:

Twitter Search (search.twitter.com) – Search for your brand name and key phrases associated with your industry to find users who are interested in you and your products.

We Follow (wefollow.com) – User powered Twitter directory helps you find users that may fit in your network.

Just Tweet It (justtweetit.com) – Another Twitter directory where you can find followers.

Mr. Tweet (mrtweet.net) – A Twitter networking client that helps you discover new people in your industry, find relevant followers, and track usage stats.

Use Twitter:

Tinyurl.com, bit.ly, is.gd and countless other URL shortening services shrink long URLs to Twitter-friendly sizes.

Monitor your conversation & brand:

TweetDeck (tweetdeck.com) – The Twitter client of choice for many busy users, this free program allows you to track your feed, specific searches, and replies in one window.

TweetScan (tweetscan.com) – Alerts you when users mention your brand and related keywords.

TweetBeep (tweetbeep.com) – Google alerts for Twitter. Set it up to tell you when people are talking about your brand or industry.

Twollow (twollow.com) – Auto-follow users who mention your brand or products to build your network.

Qwitter (useqwitter.com) – Notifies you of the last tweet you sent before losing followers. Great tool to find out what you could be doing to turn off followers.

Twitterless (twitterless.com) – Graphs your followers and tells you who stops following you.

Engage your users:

TwtQpon (twtqpon.com) – Create coupons for Twitter to give users incentive to follow you.

StrawPoll (strawpollnow.com) – Poll your followers to find out what they think about your brand and pertinent questions related to your industry.

TwitPic (twitpic.com) – Share photos of new products, office antics, and other cool stuff they may find interesting.