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Nashville Graphic Design Agency-Client Relationships

Nashville graphic design puts in its two cents on what it takes to maintain a success agency-client relationship.

Let’s be honest; we all want to win in life. But unless you are a narcissistic, only in it for yourself, kind of person life isn’t all about you and your success. There are bigger wins to be had.

As a Nashville graphic design team we subscribe to the “One for all, all for one” mentality because we all learned back in Little League that trying to find an “I” in “TEAM” just doesn’t really work out to anyone’s advantage and working alone just isn’t as fun or rewarding. We prefer to take the high road, to be the big person in every situation, with a goal of making it a win-win for everyone. It’s no wonder our clients enjoy working with us. A win-win situation is hard to beat. But how do you accomplish such a feat?

We’ve been slowly easing our way up to the big time Nashville graphic design movers and shakers and our secret to getting there is no secret at all. It’s simply about fostering a successful agency-client relationship. When it comes to maintaining a positive relationship between a brand and its marketing agency everyone has a different recipe. There’s no one approach to ensuring a successful agency-client relationship but there is a dividing factor that sets apart the best Nashville graphic design teams from the mediocre and that’s that their ability to manage each client relationship like they would a good friendship.

Laying the groundwork for success.
Be transparent. Start your relationship off right by setting forth the expectations before you even agree to work together. This is not your project, nor is it singularly ours. It’s a collective team effort, we’re just the drivers. But that doesn’t mean our clients take a back seat! Our goal is not only to achieve the deliverables set out but to exceed them.

Success is all about managing expectations, those of our clients as well as those of our own internal team. To achieve the best results our Nashville graphic design team engages our clients and encourages them to lay it all out there from the get go. Honesty is key. Before we even talk about logistics we want to know what you want to get out of our time together and to give you the opportunity to express any initial pressing issues or concerns.

As Nashville graphic design experts it is also important for us to spell out our expectations on the project with a detailed proposal. Not only is it imperative to lay out the step-by-step groundwork for the project (the work to be done and the estimated time and cost associated with that work) but we find it’s extremely helpful to clarify the role we will play in the project so that we don’t go too far over our limits.

Making sure everyone is “all in”.
Both parties have to work to foster the relationship and keep it strong. To do that there needs to be an ongoing open, direct and honest dialogue between the client and the agency. No relationship thrives on assumptions. It’s about being honest and continuing to communicate honestly about what is and what is not working throughout the project’s duration and onward. Just like you’re trusting our Nashville graphic design expertise to help leverage your brand, it’s equally important that we can trust in you to make good on your deliverables.

Communication is extremely important in making sure that the project is done effectively and efficiently. Though our Nashville graphic design team is actually executing the project it’s your initial idea we are building the wings for so that it can fly high and span great distance. It’s our job to serve your needs but to do so successfully requires some collaboration on your part. If we don’t get prompt and ample feedback on the work we’ve done it makes it difficult for us to take the next step in meeting the outlined project expectations. We want to deliver our best but we do need your input from time to time. The more information we can provide each other upfront the better. We want smooth sailing which is why the initial pact to have open communication is so integral to the creative process and the final outcome of the project.

Nashville Website Design helps you understand the importance of updating your website.

Back in the day it used to be enough just to have a website for your company or brand. You’d spend some time with an artist collaborating on a logo and design and from there seek out a Nashville website design studio to build you a website on which to display your brand to the internet world and that was that. As long as you had some effective format through which to show or sell your products or services online you were good to go for a few years. By simply taking the time to develop an online presence you were already ahead of the game. But with virtually everything digital these days that’s no longer the case. In this “new web” world companies have to really up the ante to produce not just any content but fresh content. Yeah that might mean devoting more dollars to marketing but if you get with the right Nashville website design peeps the constant changes will pay for themselves. How, you ask? Not only do the websites that are constantly refreshing their look, updating old content with fresh new material, and improving upon their user experience get most recognized by search engines but they give your visitors and your customers a reason to keep coming back! When people search for things on the internet they have a whole slew of results to choose from and if they’re searching pretty generally it’s more likely than not they’ve already been to several websites before they land on yours. The web is so full of repetitive information. Users get bored. They want to see and learn new things and so it’s become imperative that websites deliver a sense of newness as often as possible whether it’s an updated splash page, new scrolling banner images or an intriguing piece of industry related news.

Websites are like a highway to your business but unlike a normal highway driver your goal is not speed, it’s traffic, lots of traffic. You want people driving back and forth, back and forth via your highway as much as possible. To maintain a steady flow of traffic it’s important to make sure the highway doesn’t go stagnant. You have to maintain it, keep the views interesting so that even the most frequent visitors get a fresh perspective! With that being said, here are a few reasons why it’s a good idea to round up a Nashville website design guru to update the look and feel of your website so it doesn’t go grey and fall off the radar.

Keeping clients informed keeps them coming back.
You don’t have to continually throw a bone to a Nashville website design studio to totally revamp your website. Small changes, often, can also make a great impact. Maybe you were recently featured in an article or received an award for your services, or maybe you have a new member of your team or a big sale coming up–MAKE IT KNOWN. Take a picture, write a blurb and feature it on your home page. The more in the know clients are about the goings on within your organization, the more likely they are to check-in and visit for awhile. So show off that new menu you worked so hard on and brag about the fact that you sold over 5,000 records. Your fans want to know and those who aren’t fans yet will be impressed.

Search engines will applaud your effort.
With the power of search engines it’s a lot easier to find things these days. Google can help you find just about anything. But the key is finding the “right thing”. With the vast amounts of information and data being added to the internet each day this can be an overwhelming task. Realizing this, search engines sought out a solution to make search more scrutinizing by identifying what listings are the best and most resourceful. One determining factor they use is “frequency”–the frequency with which the site is updated. If updated often, search engines consider it a consistent source of new information and is therefore more likely to up its rankings in the search results.

Tracking what makes your viewers tick
As Nashville website design professionals we know very well what it takes to make a website successful and a huge factor is determining what attracts traffic. What better way to do that than to try different things and see what kind of response you get? If your website never changes you have nothing to measure its performance against. Web statistics are great but you don’t want to just know who’s coming to your site and how many, you want to know why. You can learn this by making simple changes and tracking and measuring your data. Don’t settle! See how you far you can go, try new things, test the waters and find out what your peak performance looks like!

Don’t let your website go by the way side! Make it a top of the list priority to freshen things up. Recruit the best of Nashville website design by dropping us a line 615.656.7488!

How Social Media Affects SEO

Nashville social media specialists know best how social media affects SEO success!

If brand awareness and the opportunity to connect with your current and potential customers and clients hasn’t been enough to tempt you into the world of social media, maybe the positive effect it has on your SEO will. Nashville social media specialists don’t lie, it’s true: social media strategies can be effective in increasing your search rank. Social media and SEO may be two separate entities but the lines between them have blurred to where they now work together, building upon one another to create a powerhouse for your brand. You see SEO is all about links and the more and more you link back to your content the more search engines like Google will take notice. Since social media is all about sharing it can be used to your advantage to enhance your SEO.

We’re happy to tell you how social media in general impacts SEO but as far as the what–what kind of content and how to implement it–that’s the secret behind the magic of Nashville social media specialists.

Social media presence is so much a part of Google’s search engine algorithms that search in itself is now becoming social. Google is taking social sharing to a whole new level of genius with Google Plus and the +1 feature. It’s a lot like Facebook’s like feature except that Google takes it one step further by keeping track of the things you have +1’d and personalizing your search experience based on what you and those in your circles have +1’d. Essentially if you and your friend both signed into your Google accounts and typed in the same exact search term you would be given different relevant results based on what your Google connections have shared or +1’d. Your location at the time of search is factored into your search results in much the same way. Pretty awesome, right?

But what does Google care about all these social shares and likes? Google likes traffic-rich sources just as much as it likes informative, SEO optimized content and social media helps point to what’s relevant among internet users. You don’t have to be a Nashville social media specialist to realize that if people didn’t think something was interesting or relevant they wouldn’t like it, share it, re-tweet it, pin it or +1 it. It didn’t take long for Google to catch on to the power of social media either. With this being said, if you have a big social media following or share something that a lot of other people then like and re-share, Google will see you as an important influencer and will be more inclined to boost your search engine ranking. And if Google’s paying attention then it’s got to be important and round and round the circle goes!

Have we sparked your curiosity? If you’re looking to build a social media presence for your company or brand, rumor has it we’re the best Nashville social media specialists around! We love new friends so give us a call 🙂

marketing agency Nashville 2013 marketing predictions

Tune in to tune up your marketing plan for the new year with the best marketing agency Nashville.

It’s that time of year again–the holidays–and though they’re belly full with warm sentiments and the endless inpour of sweet indulgences that just seem to greet our mouths at every turn, these final weeks leading up to the new year can be a heavy load to carry. While Santa is making his list (hopefully he’s got that well underway by now) and checking it twice, companies worldwide are in the 4th quarter home stretch–feverishly working long hours to get projects wrapped up for their clients and new products out to launch, all before that big disco ball comes elegantly crashing down over Times Square and glasses clink to ring in the 1st of the new year just a little over a week from now.

As we get ready to switch out our heavily scribbled on 2012 calendars for the brand spanking new 2013 (a number that stands invincible against the Mayans…sorry guys, you can’t always be right) we at the best marketing agency Nashville begin to focus our thoughts forward on what the next year holds. Some of us stroke our chins or twirl our hair in wonder, while others gear up, buckle down and analyze the year past in order to forecast what lies ahead. Of course, like the pig-flying, creative influencers we are, you’ll definitely find our desks deserted and us busy at the drawing board in this next week and on into the new year.

Sure maybe it’s too premature to predict what the year 2013 holds, what the marketing industry will look like, who the big players will be and what is and what’s not going to be effective, maybe our predictions and game strategizing won’t prove true at all, but we’re willing to take the leap of faith and prepare our tool box for what we think we’ll need to effectively captain the Creativetopia ship and navigate the waters for our clients. At the very least we’ll have prepared ourselves to the best of our ability. After all it’s better to have a starting point then to dive into the new year blindly. From there it’s all about casting the line, pulling up anchor, seeing how the water flows and hoping that once we’ve passed GO we can collect some money for ourselves and our clients.

Right now we all want to be the next global YouTube sensation, the next hot product people are clawing over at the store and news anchors, bloggers and high profile corporate identities are raving about, or to be voted the most thought provoking, innovative marketing agency Nashville. When drafting our New Year’s resolutions, we set our sights high but what will be the key in achieving them? Here’s a little taste of what we think is on tap for 2013:

Content without context is mute
There’s been a lot of push this year in the marketing realm for quality content. According to the pros (your favorite marketing agency Nashville included), content for content sake won’t get you too far. We’ve seen a shift already this year as marketers focus more on producing good, useful content and not just a compilation of words and ideas spammed with keywords. Going forward, the key to effective SEO is about writing with a goal in mind and identifying that goal before you even begin to tap away at the keyboard. We need to ask ourselves: Am I writing with a purpose? Who is the target audience? What are my biggest traffic sources and top performing posts? What are the best keywords to optimize for?

Big Focus on Big Data
Big Data has been a trending topic for over a year now but we believe 2013 is it’s big calling. There’s tons and tons of data sifting through the digital realm, all coming from a diverse range of sources including social media sites, digital pictures, location data, etc. All of our gadgets and devices are constantly generating data pertaining to our on and offline activities. Big Data is essentially a compilation of all this information. Now that’s a gold mine for anyone who can get their hands on it especially for marketers whose jobs depend on knowing their customer base well enough to predict their behaviors. In 2013, as new software increasingly allows for better collecting, sifting and sorting of this data, solutions will emerge that offer big data applications to help with day-to-day marketing campaigns so that marketers like us can can gain a better understanding of our target market and therefore develop much more effective ways of reaching them.

Inbound is, well, in!
As a term, outbound might sound much more forceful but it’s the idea of going inbound (inbound marketing that is) that’s really gaining our attention. While just a few years back marketing automation was the hot tactic, today inbound marketing is the way of the future. The whole notion of scheduling a message to go out on a routine basis via an email or marketing database sounds nice (and easy at that!) but 2013 is about really nurturing leads through relevant content, value-added offers and social engagement. We don’t to want spam our customers or make them feel like they’re talking to a machine. The inbound marketing approach is to earn people’s interests by drawing them in with captivating informative content instead of buying their attention. In order to deliver the ultimate customer value, marketers need to be sure not to lose the most integral piece of their marketing strategy–the client customer relationship.

Marketing with a Game Face
As the best marketing agency Nashville, we believe experience is everything. Everyone loves games–they’re fun, they’re engaging and there’s usually some sort of incentive. With marketing being all about the user experience, marketing professionals have been using games to their advantage for over a decade to advertise related products and services. In 2013, the whole notion of “gamification” is going to reach new heights. While we will continue to see product placement in online games, marketers will be taking their message to the next level by building it into a complete interactive experience that really sparks consumer attention and makes marketing enjoyable instead of something they absolutely dread and try to avoid. The idea behind this new more interactive approach to how marketing is deployed and consumed, is to increase the probability of content sticking in the minds of consumers. If you’ve seen the awesome capabilities of HTML5 you’ll certainly understand what we’re talking about.

GooglePlus and Google Authorship is key to SEO ranking
“But none of my friends are on Google Plus!” Yeah, yeah we’ve heard it before but if you know anything about the inner workings of the internet you’ll see that everything works very much hand in hand. For years SEO and social media have been slowly intersecting to form a bigger entity referred to as “social search”.  Basically social media and SEO are working together to push content.  With Google as the biggest content and SEO powerhouse, and you trying to rise to the top of the first Google page search for your industry, it would be foolish not to hop on the platform early…whether your friends are there or not. By building out a Google Plus profile and setting up Google Authorship, Google will recognize you in more ways than one and will therefore slowly begin to trust you as a quality source of content and help you stand out from the other search results. You already have one friend waiting for you–the best marketing agency Nashville would love for you to join our Google Plus circle!

Thank you to all of our clients for being so great! Have a wonderful holiday and happy New Year! If your company or brand is looking to boost its online presence in 2013 Creativetopia–the best marketing agency Nashville–is happy to help you kick your marketing plan into gear! Hit us up at the first of the year 🙂

search engine optimization nashville

Let the best marketing agency Nashville help you drive your message with good SEO.

When it comes to marketing your brand message, good SEO is the difference between leisurely cruising down the road and a full throttle race to the 1st place finish line.

Putting out original content is hugely beneficial if done in the right way but in order to be effectively heard you have to first be aware of what people are listening for. This can be a big challenge for a lot of companies especially since people approach the search bar in many different ways when consulting Google for the answer to a question or when looking for a particular product or service. The key to effective web marketing is to figure out precisely what your customers are searching for and what search terms they are using to hunt down the information–a puzzle that involves diving deep into Google trends and analytics for the solution. Unless of course you can read people’s minds, which we hear is a pretty tough feat. Lucky for you, the best marketing agency Nashville is here to help you figure out the necessary pieces needed to develop an SEO strategy that will work to tame the waters of the world wide web and satisfactorily steer your target audience to your website.

So how do you make your message stand out in the obscure ocean of content that encompasses the world wide web? With so many search terms floating around, you need to figure out how to most strategically narrow in on your target audience. After all, the more narrow your field of trajectory, the more precisely you can aim and the more likely you are to hit a bull’s eye. There are many ways to go about this but for starters you must take the time to study the search behavior of your target audience in order to uncover hidden frequently searched terms (those that receive significant traffic but generally have little competition in comparison to some of the broader search terms). These gems will make for some serious marketing sweet spots. Perhaps you are already a seasoned keyword detective and SEO guru and we’re just preaching to the choir here, but if you are unfamiliar with the nature of keywords and optimization techniques (which many people are), the best marketing agency Nashville is an expert at digging up these word beacons and would be glad to do the researching and strategizing on your behalf.

Once you’ve nailed down those keywords, you’re one step closer to an effective web marketing strategy but now it’s figuring out how to utilize those words to your best advantage. That’s right, how you implement your keyword findings is the other half of the battle. Not only do you need to pinpoint the keywords your target audience is typing into their search engine, but you then need to strategically place those keywords within the body of your own content in a way that Google will be most apt to pick up on them when crawling your site. Image alt tags, meta tags, H tags and links all help to optimize your blog or website layout so that those search engine spiders can crawl your website correctly and bump you up to a higher ranking.

There’s absolutely no reason to settle for page 6 of Google search results.  With the best marketing agency Nashville working as your SEO guru your message can be a beacon among the vast amount of content related to your industry and your marketing initiatives will no doubt sky rocket as a result! Trust us, the juice is worth the squeeze.

Thanksgiving is so close we can practically smell it! As we wrap things up at the office and begin to prime our bellies in anticipation of the grand feast approaching, we thought we’d take the time to share with you some things that, as marketing and design professionals, the Creativetopia team is thankful for this year.

The new office buildout. Though he’s still going at it, our Forward Paradigm Facilitator and his crew have come a long way in building multiple brand new offices so everyone can have a separate work haven in order to achieve optimal productivity.

Our killer 80 inch screen TV. It really brings that extra wow factor to the work we present to our clients and makes for great entertainment during our Friday fun lunch!

Creativetopia’s new website design. Believe it or not it was just some 6 months ago that we treated ourselves to a complete makeover which boosted our SEO and therefore increased our overall brand flexing ability.

Nashville’s G4E Conference. In April the Creativetopia team had the amazing opportunity of attending Nashville’s G4E where we were let in on some cool and trending Google secrets. You know us great marketers are always ahead of the curve!

Giant whiteboards. Our first choice medium for brainstorming new brand strategies and designs.

Dual Mac Screens.  For better, faster, stronger design concepting and creation.

Basecamp. This web-based project management and collaboration tool makes it easy to keep track of our many projects as well as constantly communicate with our clients so that we don’t miss a beat.

Our Keurig machine. Mmm. Just the smell of a fresh morning brew gets those creative gears spinning and a few cups later has us chugging through the day like the little engine that could.

Social Media. Yo what’s the word? Social media let’s us know what’s up with our clients, our fans and other industry professionals. It also allows us to share with the online world what’s going on behind the scenes at Creativetopia. After all, online engagement is a key marketing initiative these days.

Google Calendar. So we can keep track of all important things Creativetopia such as deadlines, dates with our clients and each other’s birthdays.

Google Analytics. Helps us to gauge our SEO effectiveness so that we can make better marketing decisions.

WordPress. For its easy to use interface and intuitive content management capabilities, its popularity among Google and other search engines, customization and multiple user capability!

Our new Olympus E-PL1. Get ready because this multi lens baby is destined to snap some amazing photographic memories!

Turtle Anarchy. Our new found local liquid creative inspiration. Will work in favor of the Olympus.

And most of all our AMAZING CLIENTS. We have awesome clients without whom we would not have the valuable opportunities and experiences we need to grow professionally as marketing and design professionals. Thank you to each and every one of you! From the Creativetopia team to you,  have a wonderful Thanksgiving filled with family and friends and quality grubbin’! Oh and in the spirit of Thanksgiving if you haven’t already ‘Liked’ our Facebook page please do so and get your friends to hop on the Creativetopia bandwagon!…tell them you’ll save them some pumpkin pie or something.

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Is your marketing strategy outdated?

Let’s face it, with the advent of new media such as social networks, smartphones, tablets and the WWW in general, the world of marketing and advertising just doesn’t work quite like it used to. Traditional techniques and marketing strategy don’t have the same kind of impact they did a decade ago. Heck, social media strategies are changing everyday it seems with the FB ‘Like’ no longer serving as the golden ticket to social media marketing success.  In order to make the same lasting impressions, you’re going to have to get with the times which likely means you’ll have to broaden your scope and tweak your game plan. Charles Darwin knew what he was talking about when he made the observation, “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.” What worked this year likely won’t do the trick in 2013 so make the changes necessary or risk watching from the sidelines as your competition skyrockets–the choice is yours. Not convinced? Here are just a few signs it’s time to update your Marketing Strategy.

1. SPAM: If you don’t eat it, don’t feed it–People’s inboxes fill up quickly enough as it is. With all the daily deal sites and blogs I subscribe to I can barely keep up. Believe me targeting random users through unsolicited email advertising is going to do nothing but irritate current clients and give potential clients a bad first impression of your brand. You want to be the expert, not scream desperate.

2. Cold Calls Get You Nothing But A Lot Of Cold Shoulders–Once again, contacting people at random to try to get them to buy into your business sounds a lot like begging. Even if your business is tight on resources, you don’t want to let people onto your desperation. Plus, people are busy. Unless they are expecting a call they probably aren’t going to answer and you can almost forget about leaving a message because it’s pretty much guaranteed they won’t call you back. It may be impersonal but that’s the reality of the digital world we live in.

3. You’re Still Stuck on Snail Mail–Speaking of the digital world, unless you’re sending out thank you cards, invitations, or a really epic piece of print collateral you should not be wasting your marketing dollars on mailed advertising. If it’s not eye catching or there is no type of perk involved your efforts are likely going to see nothing but the depths of a trashcan (as sad as that truth is).

4. Inconsistency–If your marketing is all over the map in content and/or  frequency you’ve got a problem. Make sure you have a solid sense of who your target audience is and what message you’re trying to convey. Maybe your product or service has many benefits but if you’re too wishy washy in your advertising you’ll confuse people and quickly lose their interest. You can highlight different aspects of your brand but just make sure that no matter what you are talking about you are being YOU. In addition, it’s important to remember that because technology has allowed us so much accessibility, we can’t just shut off at random. Develop a schedule for your marketing strategy so that you’re not leaving your audience hanging.

5. Promotion Over Quality is the Name Of Your Game–No marketing campaign, no matter how great, can fix a broken brand. You won’t get far by simply claiming to offer quality products and services. You have to make sure you can deliver before you go boasting to the world. If you don’t have something unique to bring to the table people won’t hold interest for long so make sure you have a stable brand strategy in place as a foundation for building your marketing strategy.

6. Your Social Media Efforts Lack Humanity–If you’re taking a traditional advertising approach to social media you’ve got it all wrong. Social networks were designed to connect people on a more personal level, to give them a place where they can engage in more casual everyday conversation. Just because Facebook has a “News Feed” does not mean that you should use it as a universal loudspeaker. It’s called a “social” network for a reason. The idea is to create an ongoing back and forth interaction between your brand and your audience so save that complex industry jargon for press releases and let your brand’s personality shine through fun, engaging conversation.

Don’t wait until 2013 to update your marketing strategy. Get ahead of the game and contact us today. We’ll help you figure out your strengths and your weak points and from there come up with a plan that fits the specific needs of your brand.

The Land of Creativetopia

So what’s with the flying pig associated with everything Creativetopia? It’s all over our website, our print collateral and we’re constantly posting all over the social stratosphere about all things pig (particularly bacon which we realize is rather odd). Outsiders look at him with curious skepticism and our clients have begged us to let them in on the secret behind this seemingly strange icon so we’re finally here to divulge the long awaited story behind our friendly  porker.

(Drum roll please)

Let me start by saying that this pig is no ordinary pig though I’m sure you already gathered that from his wings. You see, this pig is a symbol of perseverance, of overcoming odds.

Separated from his family at birth and sold to a strange farm in the backcountry of Middle Tennessee, Ringo was on his own from the time he was a little piglet. He knew little of himself or where he came from, but despite these uncertainties he was always friendly and kind to everyone he met. He had a heart of gold and, like most of us, wanted more than anything to feel a sense of belonging. But for whatever reason, whether it be ignorance, blind hatred or jealousy, the other animals on the farm just would not accept him. In fact, they made it their job to make Ringo an outcast. No matter how nice he was and how much he tried to make friends, they all looked at him with disdain and disgust. There wasn’t a day that went by that he wasn’t reminded of what a filthy, sweaty, lazy, stupid, know nothing hog he was. And though he knew deep down that he really was worthy of happiness, it was hard to fend off the constant insults stoning his confidence.

That is until one day, while on one of his long strolls, he happened upon a beautiful clearing, across from which and not too far in the distance lay a world of wonderment. He began walking towards it, across the clearing, faster and faster until he was running. But pigs are supposed to be slow moving no? He was just as surprised as his legs sprang up from the ground, carrying him swiftly to the epic sight in front of him.

When he arrived he looked up to find himself surrounded by a most whimsical place–he’d reached Creativetopia, a land where even the most unimaginable things are possible. Before he could even catch his breath, the other animals were greeting him, all smiles, and offering him a plate of French truffles–a delicacy he’d always dreamed of delighting in.

It was here at Creativetopia that Ringo realized his true potential, all because he was given a chance. Free of ridicule, it wasn’t long before he came to understand that everything he’d been told he was, he wasn’t at all–except a pig of course. Besides his new-found ability to run up to 11 miles per hour, he proved himself right that he is no hog. In fact, he is actually quite a good sharer for someone who never was taught nor given the chance to share anything with anyone. And he discovered that, although he may “sweat like a pig”, he certainly isn’t grossly smelly because, as a matter of fact, pigs don’t sweat. All these things he was led to believe about himself were nothing but faulty stereotypes.

Creativetopia gave him the freedom and confidence to discover all the things he is capable of. He’d always had inklings of ideas but now thoughts pop into his head a mile a minute before he can even write them down. This land of understanding cast all his doubts aside and replaced them with a new sense of self and belonging. He felt for the first time in his life that he had purpose. He was on top of the world, the future his to hold. Creativetopia gave him the gift of opportunity, a chance to grow wings and fly above all his prior feelings of self doubt. And from that 30,000 foot view this is what he realized…

He isn’t just a pig in rural Tennessee, he’s someone capable of making an impact, with a road of opportunity at his feet. Whatever he dreams he lives and like us creative humans, he’s a big dreamer.

You see, in the land of Creativetopia where true potential is found, even the unimaginable can take flight.

How Social Media Affects SEO

Google Authorship is very important and if you’re a small company trying to gain web presence you should be producing content–intelligent, interesting, original, meaty content–that’s going to stand out proudly on the first or second page of Google search results.

However, the fact of the matter is it’s getting harder and harder to come up with truly original ideas, especially with the advent of social media sharing. Because solid gold ideas are becoming rarer and rarer to come by, when you do dig one out of the creative sandbox you want to own it. That’s not asking so much is it? While you wouldn’t think so, the problem with the internet is that it doesn’t have strict enough rules when it comes to authentication. Plagiarizing is not penalized like it is in school and in the world of publications. If you’re creating great content chances are there’s some internet creep somewhere who at one point or another ripped off your cleverly crafted words and pawned them off as their own. Now after you’ve worked really hard to produce good work, that’s a huge slap in the face. The worst part is there’s little that could be done to solve this “authentication challenge”, that is until the Google geniuses came up with a new process called Google Authorship.

Google Authorship…the plan that online content creators have been waiting for–is a new process that allows you to mark your territory and claim ownership over what is yours in the digital realm. Doing this helps Google distinguish your original content from the second hand versions. Not only will this help boost your click-through rates for your content, but it will also help you build AuthorRank with Google’s algorithms. Simply put, Google will start to recognize your content as original, highly trusted reading material worthy of high search engine ranking, giving you the exposure you deserve.

Now that you understand a bit more about why Google Authorship matters to your online business marketing strategy, here are the 4 simple steps you need to take in order to claim the Google Authorship credit you deserve.

1. First you’ll need to round up all of the Google Plus profile page urls associated with your website or blog.

2. Next you’ll need to map the Google Plus profiles of each of your authors to the content they contributed to your online publication. If, let’s say, you’re on a WordPress platform, the simplest way to go about this is to log into each writer’s user page. In the Author tagline field you will enter the words “Follow him/her at” and then paste the corresponding Google Plus link, adding “?rel=author” to the end of the url. It should look like this: Follow her on Google Plus

  • *A few things to note:
  • The “Author tagline” is not labeled the same across all WordPress themes so you might have to do some playing around with the various fields to see which one does the trick.You’ll want to be certain that the name you use on your site or blog exactly matches the name on your Google Plus account.
  • You’ll want to be certain that the name you use on your site or blog exactly matches the name on your Google Plus account.

3. Then you’ll need to instruct your contributing authors to go into the Edit Profile section of their Google Plus page. When they scroll down they should see Contributor to. Here they will enter Add custom link and type in the url of the blog or website. Click Save and you should be all set! *However, like we said, some WordPress themes are not automatically configured for Google Authorship in which case will require the use of one of the following plug-ins: Google authorship for multiple authors or WP Google Authorship plug-in.

4. Finally, it’s time to check to see if all is in working order. To do this follow this link Structured Data Testing Tool and enter the url of one of your articles or blog posts. If your author photo appears in the results then you’re on the path to start staking claim on that content you put so much blood, sweat and tears into.

If the above steps give you any trouble or if you’re in need of other hints and techniques to boost your SEOCreativetopia can help you maximize your online presence! Reach us today–we’re happy to lend you our professional skills to get you ahead of the SEO curve.

Graphic and Web Designers--What Makes Them So Valuable

Great graphic and web designers can make all the difference.

One of the most important truths of design is that good design is meant to look good, however it cannot be called a good design if it does not communicate your business’s objectives. After all, if you’re going to spend the time and money to get all dressed up you might as well have something to attribute your good looks to. Graphic and web designers are responsible for transforming your business goals and philosophies into a successful visual statement.

What makes graphic and web designers so valuable is their unique ability to join together creativity, inspiration and empathy to craft progressive solutions to problems. For people currently working with or looking to hire a graphic designer, it’s important to clearly communicate your objectives. Designers have a creative process they go through in order to produce a high quality product that’s going to have a competitive advantage over others like it. Usually when someone decides to hire a graphic and web designer it’s because they like their work and have faith in their ability. With that being said, it’s important to trust their creative instincts. Jumping to conclusions and putting too many limits on the creative process will likely disrupt the designer’s flow and hinder their creative capacity.

Emotions speak to creative people in an unusually significant way so if a design is going in a direction you’re unsure about then help the designer better understand what emotion you’re trying to play to. Good graphic and web designers are equally good communicators. They have a knack for drawing upon the feelings, needs and wants of others, summing them up to form an all encompassing meaning and then translating that idea into something that can be seen. Simply put, it’s the designer’s job to come up with the visual solution to the feeling or message you’re looking to convey to your audience. You’re hiring them for their ability to do just that so instead of directing them to “make that bigger” or “move that over there”, let them take the reins in the implementation of your vision. The fact of the matter is that a seemingly small request such as changing a color or font can often throw the entire design off kilter. It’s important to remember that designers are experts at color, fonts, spatial relations, etc. so it’s best to leave the design solution to their well trained eyes…that is if you don’t want the final product to wind up looking as unkempt and nonsensical as Britney Spears back in her head shaving days.

If the design is not seamless, the message sure isn’t going to be either which is why it’s important when working with a graphic or web designer to understand the value they bring to the table. Good designers help guide the client’s vision, their principal purpose being to transform that vision into a visual statement and trademark. They surrender their head (their ability to strategize), heart (their ability to understand and empathize) and hand (their fine-tuned craft) to their client and the creative process.

With the best graphic and web designers Nashville, we at Creativetopia are adept at balancing these considerations of design and the client’s goals so that working with us can yield a product that our clients can be happy with.