Mindfly Website Design Studio

Social Media comes in all shapes and sizes, but the best part is that social media is free.  It is the viral spread of information through fans, partners, friends, tweeps, video, blogs..the list is long.  Social media has taken on a whole new meaning since its inception in 1997. What began as a way to meet people online and stay in touch with old friends has grown to include business marketing, customer service, and reputation management. So why should you care?

The blogosphere is becoming the land of opportunity for businesses across the web.  Social media is opening up doors where traditional media could not.  Social media allows for businesses to actively communicate with, interact, and market to clients.  Although I’m actively involved with social media on a daily basis, I’m always amazed by the creative ways people use the blogosphere.  One of my favorites is from Pizza’zza.  A follower reports an #epicfail (she forgets to turn the crockpot full of meat ON before leaving). Pizza’zza responds with a direct message. Now, granted, I’m unsure as to what the DM included…but my guess was a coupon or a meal. Now tell me that’s not smart! Not only does said follower get a bonus, Pizza’zza gets a client AND the rest of their followers believe that if they had ruined a meal, perhaps they too might enjoy a little perk from their favorite Bellingham pizza shop.  Pure genius if I do say so myself.

So why use social media? Uh, the first reason is that it’s FREE! Did you catch that? F.R.E.E. Naturally, I assume your next question will be “what’s the catch?” And, of course, there is a catch. But it’s not terrible! Gaining the most out of social media requires a bit of finesse, a bit of knowledge and a lot of time.  That’s where Mindfly comes in.  There are many people boasting about their social media prowess and their ability to market you to the world, but seriously folks it boils down to effort and energy.  The ability to maneuver around the blogosphere and tap into all of the available social media networks can take your business to new heights and Mindfly is here to help.

This post is for those medium sized business websites' that are active enough to need a dynamic website and the ability to make changes on the fly.  This post is also for those medium to bigger websites' that are not quite active enough to justify hiring a team of designers, developers, and web marketers.  But mostly, this post is for the companies out there that want the best and most productive website for the money.

From my own experiences, most business decision makers choose to outsource the most arduous web development tasks on their own site.  More and more I see small business owners having a pal handle the graphic design aspect of their web project.  I mean I understand saving some coin and I respect trading services, even the dollar bill is just a promissory note that you will be giving the accepting party a goat or chicken eggs at some point.  The problem I run into over and over again is confronting a CEO with the issues that their website is having.  They answer, "Well we have an internal web design and marketing team that handles that".  That makes my job difficult, why you ask?  I am calling the business because I see areas of their site that can be improved, either through SEO, Internet Marketing, and/or Design.  At the point of hiring, the business owner obviously placed some eggs in the new hires basket and the reason they hired this gal or guy is because they themselves know little or nothing about the web.  So I will put it bluntly, wait no I won't. 

Let us talk numbers, I was playing hang man the other day and found out that music is the universal language, in business it's money.  So let’s talk money.  It is rare to find someone in the online industry that actually excels at both web design and web marketing.  So, right off the bat, you must hire two folks, one to handle the design and development and the other to scuttle around and market.  How much do you pay them?  Minimum wage in Washington State is $8.55 an hour in 2009, 40 hours a week, you do the math.  Now you have one or two people handling your website design and internet marketing.  The problem isn't this, because it is great to have your own personal footprint.  The problem of not outsourcing is that you are already paying top dollar for services that chances are, your new employees are not providing.

Imagine the website and search engine marketing juggernaut you could rally with $44,000 a year! Top shelf! Top of the line baby!  Now I understand the snake oil factor and the companies out there that spend more time promising than producing.  But apples to apples, chances are if you go with a top web design firm that has proven itself over time you'll hit that homerun.  In the long term this will save you money.