Six years post-launch, Art’s site was still providing him with a professional web presence, but was becoming outdated in a landscape of ever-evolving web trends. Additionally, Art recognized the need for his site to serve not only as a customer service tool but also as a lead generator.

Through a Design Refresh, we were able to upgrade the sites conversion and search tools, property detail views, and overall functionality. Our Design Team made sure to incorporate some of the imagery and essence of Art’s old site into the new one to maintain Lake Farm Realty’s consistent vision and identity.

By choosing to combine his Refresh with a Dedicated Internet Marketing package post-launch, Art will see data driven, ongoing optimization to maximize the impact of the new design. Our Internet Marketing team will be focusing on expanding the reach of the site to pull in new visitors who can take advantage of the improved forms, tools, and ultimately the professional, personal service Lake Farm Realty offers.

Lake Farm Realty (version 2.0) is a great example of a site that’s been updated to reflect changes in technology and design without losing sight of the company’s overall goals and personality.

Original Website

New Website

What is Pinterest?

It’s a visual-based site which allows users to create boards (think virtual bulletin board) and “pin” items of interest to them.  The idea is that you can separate craft ideas, products you love, etc. into categories using different boards.  You can also “re-pin” things you find on other people’s board and save them for later.  Pinterest has become a very popular social media site that allows people to save projects, home-improvement ideas and the like for later, in a magazine-style layout.

How Does This Affect My Brand?

While brands are just beginning to play around with the idea of promotion and sales on Pinterest, it proves to be successful for those who are tapping into its specific market and engaging with users.  It turns out that brands who post images on the site have dramatically increased traffic to their blogs and websites.  But don’t think that posting any old picture will influence people to click; you have to post something relevant, tag it appropriately, and give your followers a reason to check it out.

How Should My Brand Use Pinterest?

• Post relevant, creative content that your demographic would be interested in.  This could be anything from recipes using your product to your staff’s favorite vacation spot.
• Make sure all images are attractive.  Because Pinterest is image-focused, all of your content should be visually interesting.  Posting a tiny, blurry picture won’t drive any traffic to your site or influence people to learn more about your company.
• Don’t only post your own products.  While images of your products might help drive traffic to your site, you should also mix it up by pinning DIY projects and other items that would be relevant to your customers.
• Show some creativity!  Don’t simply post images of your office or your employees, show your brand’s fun side.  You can still think outside the box while maintaining your company’s professional image.

So while it may not be clear how your company fits into the Pinterest scene yet, you can still play around with it as a brand development tool.  Many sites are using it to show the personality behind their brand and its employees.  Either way, it is another great social media tool that could potentially drive traffic to your website, so take a shot at it!

Gardener's Supply Facebook Page

As of March 30, 2012, Facebook will be switching the layout of all pages not yet on the new Timeline format.  This should not be a surprise if you log into your account regularly—Facebook has been posting alerts about the change for weeks.  Most likely, you’ve noticed some of your connections’ pages have changed in appearance as they’ve switched over.  As of next week, all pages will have this same style.

The instructional videos that Facebook put together are informative and easy to follow, and I recommend watching them.  Allyson Locke’s earlier post “Introducing Facebook Timeline Brand Pages” also provides a good overview of the changes.  For those who need a quick cheat sheet on the most important changes and new features to be aware of as we approach the switch-over date, read on….

1. The Cover Photo.  
The new layout includes a “cover photo,” which is a large image spanning the top of your page. Your profile image, which will continue to appear next to any comments or updates you post on Facebook, will show in an inset box in the bottom left corner of your cover photo.  While your profile picture should be an image that represents your brand, such as your logo, the new cover photo gives you room for some creativity. Use a fun or offbeat photo if you’d like, a picture of your staff, or your office or your town if your business is locally focused.  Ideally the cover photo is visually interesting and engaging while reflecting your business in some way. (Some good examples: Cabot Creamery Cooperative, Green Mountain Coffee, Gardener’s Supply)
2. Tabs and Landing Pages.
  Be aware that Facebook no longer allows you to direct visitors to a customized landing page, such as a sale announcement or intro message. Your wall will always be the first thing people see, and from there they can click through to any tabs you’ve set up, if they choose (they’ll appear beneath your cover photo, to the right).
3. Milestones.  
The new format allows you to track important events in your company’s history as “milestones.” To add a milestone, click “Milestone” in the status box.  Facebook will ask you to start by adding the year that your company was founded. From there, you can add whatever significant events you’d like to share with visitors.  You can also now edit dates on posts by hovering over the top right corner of the post, clicking on the pencil icon, and selecting “Change Date.”
4. Pinning Posts.
  If you’ve posted something that you would like to remain at the top of your timeline, even as you add new posts, you can now “pin” it.  Your post will stay pinned for 7 days (unless you un-pin it) and then drop to the place it belongs in your timeline. You can only have one post pinned at a time. 

To pin a post: Hover over the top right corner of the post and select the pencil icon, then “pin to top.”  A yellow flag-like icon will show in the top right corner of the post, as long as it is pinned.
5. Starring Posts.
  If you’d like to highlight certain posts, you can star them by clicking on the star icon that appears as you hover over the top right corner of a post.  Starred posts will expand across both columns of your timeline so that they stand out.
6. Admin Panel Updates


.  Facebook has also added some features to the admin section that make it easier to view information about activity on your page. While I won’t go into detail about the admin updates in this article, I do encourage you to click on the “Admin Panel” button at the top right of your page and explore.

When you’re ready to upgrade, simply log into your Facebook business page.  If you haven’t already switched to Timeline, you’ll see a message asking if you’d like to preview your page with the new layout.  Facebook has made the upgrade process extremely easy.  Take some time this week to learn about the new features, select or create a great-looking cover photo, and turn on the Timeline!

Have any thoughts, reactions, or great ideas you’d like to share? Please comment below.

At the heart of what Google does, is ensure that quality results are shown for searchers. Part of the drive behind the Panda Update was to eliminate not only duplicate content but also “thin content” that has little or no value.

What Is Thin Content?

At the core, thin content is basically not enough information on a website page. Content needs to have enough to it to engage a visitor and drive them to take action. When a site page doesn’t engage or answer primary questions, it fails. It is hard to answer most questions effectively without writing an average amount of text. The same goes for action. There needs to be enough trust gained via the text to make the action worthwhile.

Since it is hard for Google bots to gauge quality from a human perspective, Google uses a rudimentary approach and measures the amount of words on a page. Although no one but Google knows the exact amount of text to have on the page to look good to the bots, the 300-500 word mark is a good number to target. This is based on what works for regular blog posts to be effective with SEO as established by Copyblogger and others.

Author Seth Godin at PDF 2007 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Crutch of Website Authority

On the flip side of content are people like the marketing guru Seth Godin, who is fond of short posts that provide ideas or information without taking too much of his or the reader’s time. If Seth Godin has a post with 83 words of text, he is not going to expand it to at least 300 words just because it is best for search engines.

Keep in mind though that Seth Godin’s website has established authority with Google so it is easier for him to have shorter pieces without affecting his site overall. Until website authority is established, it is best to provide at least 300-500 words of text as an easy guide. This is the easiest way to measure your content at the outset. After a page has been up for awhile, you should be able to get some indication of how successful that content is from such metrics as bounce rate and time on site.

How To Avoid Thin Content

In truth, it is anyone’s guess as to the “right” amount of text to have on a page. However, to get a visitor to trust what you are saying and have your primary answers be effectively understood by most people, you need a couple of paragraphs of solid text. If your page only has a sentence or two then you need to expand upon it.  Don’t just add fluff, but really get at the meat of what you want to say.

Every website will be slightly different but a basic guide at the outset is 300-500 words. After awhile you should look at analytics to get a better idea of how your page is actually performing. Some indicators include bounce rate and time on page.

When a page is performing well then you can generally leave it alone.

www.stowewine.com

Stowe Wine & Food Classic

The Stowe Wine and Food Classic, held annually every June in Stowe, Vermont. It’s a one-of-a-kind event that brings together winemakers, chefs, farmers, and suppliers from around the state. The event caters to a wide audience including wine aficionados, foodies, and everyone in between. Wine pairings, food tastings, cooking demos, and seminars are only a few of the attractions that makes this event popular and help the organization continue to support local charities and causes year after year.

www.dumont.com

The duMONT Company

The duMONT Company, LLC, has been designing and manufacturing precision broaches since 1945. Minute Man® Broaches are recognized all over the world for quality, durability, and engineering detail.  As the largest manufacturer and supplier of Push-Type Broaches in the United States, they offer broaches to a wide variety of businesses through a vast national and international distribution network. Their wide variety of products includes broaches, one-pass keyway broaches, internal hole broaches, and keyseating broaches. They also offer special design and application broach services for non-standard sized keyways and internal hole broaches.

www.semiprobe.com

Semi Probe

With over 60 years of experience, SemiProbe’s innovative probing, inspection, and testing solutions have helped customers in a wide variety fields including MEMS, nanotechnology, photovoltaics, and optoelectronics. Their patented Probe System for Life offers innovative solutions for companies around the world including universities and government research labs and uses on a modular architecture that can be adapted to meet varying applications and process requirements including R&D and production.

www.champlainfarms.com

Champlain Farms

Champlain Farms is a locally owned and operated chain of convenience stores in Vermont and New Hampshire. Their stores offer a variety of goods and services to customers. The website allows site visitors to search for locations and see the latest news and specials. Their site features an employee section that allows them to monitor requests and resources.

www.bostonrising.org

Boston Rising

Boston Rising’s mission is to end the cycle of poverty once and for all in Boston. By investing in programs and leaders who have the same vision, Boston Rising successfully mobilizes and invests resources to benefit the surrounding communities. With their new website, Boston Rising can now showcase their successes to better promote their causes and share information.

www.champlainvalleyheadstart.org

Champlain Valley Head Start

The Champlain Valley Head Start mission is to provide high quality services to help children and families to thrive and to reach their full potential. They promote the health, safety and well-being of children, and maintain strong collaborative partnerships to meet the changing needs of children, families and communities.

www.go2omara.com

OMARA

OMARA is a non-profit booster club that was founded to support the athletes, families, and coaches of Okemo Competition Programs and Okemo Mountain School, as well as lend administrative, logistical and financial support to the programs themselves. They raise money through annual member dues, fundraisers and socials, individual donations, and ad space.

Ted Adler, Founder and President of Union Street Media, added, “We have long admired the good work that Webfodder has done on behalf of their real estate clients.  By acquiring Webfodder’s real estate clients, Dan can once again service the clients he has worked with over the past twelve years.  We thank the Webfodder team for their help in bringing the deal together.”

Webfodder’s clients will be able to take advantage of Union Street Media’s real estate website and Internet Marketing package.  Union Street Media’s integrated solution combines MLS listings data and essential website tools into a single, easy to use platform. Our real estate platform enables clients to efficiently drive their marketing strategy with management tools for content, mobile sites, listings and lead management plus analytics and reporting. Dan and the rest of our management team will help Webfodder clients implement strategies that help them get found and sell more homes through the web.

“Union Street Media has a truly amazing and talented team. As someone who has worked with real estate websites for many years, I can honestly say that they know what it takes to make a Realtor successful in the digital world. Working with this group of professionals, who are completely dedicated to the industry and their clients, is nothing but inspiring!” says Dan Kompass, Business Development Manager.

We’re excited to bring these clients onboard and give them access to some of the most advanced website tools available to Realtors in New England. The acquisition will not affect client websites or services. Union Street Media will be working with Webfodder to provider ongoing service and maintenance during the transition.

Company Contact:
Dan Kompass
dkompass@unionstreetmedia.com
802-865-3332 ext 110

Your Company’s Timeline

The biggest change to Facebook Brand Pages is the new timeline or history feature.  It will list any activity that has occurred on your profile since you created it.  This means any posts you have created and anything your fans have posted on your page will show up.  You can also add in any past milestones your company has experienced, by date.  This gives you the option of telling your company’s story and evolution over the years.

Cover Photo

The Cover Photo gives brands a new way to enhance their Pages.  Similarly to Google+, you can display your logo, images of your staff members, or new products.  There are some guidelines however; you cannot use it as a promotional billboard. Facebook rules specifically restrict any sales, calls to action, or contact information. You will also not be able to reference any Facebook features, so no more arrows pointing to the Like button. Facebook wants this to be completely about your brand’s image and nothing else.

No More Tabs

One thing that companies have already started complaining about is the change to Apps and Tabs.  With the previous Facebook Pages you could create a Landing Page which listed sales or promotions and could even link to your website.  The new layout doesn’t allow that; visitors are directed to your wall instead of a Welcome or Landing Page.  You can still provide these tabs, but they will be featured in a much smaller way that people will need to click on to see (pictured below).  This makes it a little trickier to draw attention to announcements about events or sales.

*Hint: Your tabs will have unique URLs that you can attach to social media icons or include in emails. 

Admin Features

Another change is the way you can interact with your brand’s page and your customers.  Now you can see, in better detail, the performance data of your page.  You can find out how you’re doing with helpful charts and in-depth information.  Another beneficial feature is the ability to speak directly to your customers via private messages.  Your customers can now message you with questions or feedback and you can respond back without making anything public.

What You Should Do

I know that’s a lot to take in, but don’t panic, Timeline won’t be mandatory for brands until March 30^th.  The first thing you should make sure to do is delete any old posts that you don’t want to show up in your timeline.  Then, find a high-quality image for your Cover Photo and begin adding any basic info you can about your company’s history to your Timeline.  The in-depth research stage will take a while, so don’t dive into the project just yet.  Try to understand the basic features before delving into that.  While some of these changes may not seem helpful or beneficial to your brand, they are meant to help you interact with your customers more closely than before.

What do you think?  Will Facebook Timeline Brand Pages really help you connect more personally with your audience?

Would the real Michael please stand up? (Source: CA Technologies)

There is a reason a book has no duplicate pages and a machine has no duplicate parts. They’re not needed.

This is just how search engines view content. It’s not very usable or informative for search results pages to contain multiple copies of the same thing.   This is why your website may not be listed if a search query turns up other pages with content exactly like yours.  However, there are grey areas to this, and you may not be aware it’s even happening to you.

What You Need to Know

Here are some of the main types of duplicate content that can occur on a website and what you can do to avoid them.

1. Copyright Violation

> What It Is: Using content that is not yours or free to use
> Severity: High
> Consequences: Potential lawsuit and blacklisting from search engines
> Remedy: Just Say No to Plagiarism.  It’s always best to write unique content, but in cases where you want to reprint someone else’s content, remember to credit your source and pay fees where necessary. (And don’t expect the version on your site to show up in the search results.)

2. Thin Affiliate Sites

> What It Is: Examples of Thin Affiliate sites include websites created simply out of product listings.
> Severity: Medium/High
> Consequences: Some professionals have observed that Google’s slap on the wrist for this is penalizing 50 places in the search results, without being blacklisted (unless link farming is at play).
> Remedy: The rule of thumb here, is that if the affiliate site is not offering any new content, then it is deemed to be ‘thin’. Therefore, try to offer something up front such as reviews, blog posts, tips etc.

3. Massive Duplication

> What It Is: Intentional or otherwise, multiple copies of the same page
> Severity: Medium
> Consequences: When search engines start to sense foul play such as spam tactics, a site runs the risk of being penalized in the search results. If over 70% of your content is duplicated this could trigger the alarm bells with search engines.
> Remedy: Simply try to avoid it. Write additional extra unique content, on pages that are the same or very similar, to reduce the impact of this happening. A good way to avoid duplicate pages when you are switching to a new website domain is with 301 Re-directs, which tell browsers that a page permanently moved from one URL to another.

4. Unintentional Site Architecture / Pagination

> What It Is: Multiple versions of the same content such as long and short versions, product sort orders, etc.
> Severity: Medium
> Consequences: This one is less obvious and often only developers can make a fix. There is a risk that search engines won’t crawl your entire site efficiently. A typical example is sort orders on product pages such as price, review rating, etc.
> Remedy: Talk to your web developer about using correct canonical tags, so only 1 version of a page is indexed. Google’s Matt Cutts defines this as “the process of picking the best URL when there are several choices.” So help them out.

5. Snippets

> What It Is: Often, summary content for menu pages
> Severity: Low
> Consequences:  So long as these are part of a larger page of content, this should not be an issue with search engines.
> Remedy: Mix up your snippets and keep them relevant to the larger picture.

6. Slogans

> What It Is: Taglines for branding often found in a website header or footer. If it’s text on a page, it can end up looking like duplicated content.
> Severity : Low
> Consequences: The repetition of a primary key phrase that you want to perform well for, could dampen it’s performance and result in the ‘wrong’ landing page being served up in search results.
> Remedy: Use your slogan in an image, in a header, so that it can’t be spidered by search engines. Use it once as a text link either on the home page or an about page in most cases, especially if it contains target keywords.

7. Duplicate Title Tags

> What It Is: Using the same keywords across title tags
> Severity: Low
> Consequences: Using the same keywords across title tags is called keyword cannibalization, whereby search engines have to choose between multiple pages to serve up in the results page.
> Remedy: Make sure you have unique titles, Meta Data and page content. You can also ask your developer to hide pages from being indexed by adding a NoIndex tag to particular pages. Also watch out for printer-friendly pages, which are built with session IDs in the URL so these need to have a NoIndex tag.

I’d appreciate any comments, counter points or other examples I might have missed!

Richard Ting | Image provided by Stephen Mease

During Richard’s presentation, he showcased  projects from R/GA and how Social Media played a huge part in their client campaigns.  Liz’s presentation focused on the process of identifying a problem within a community and finding a solution to implement.  After Rich and Liz gave their presentations, our last presentation was from the Vermont Agency of Agriculture Farm to School.  Their presentation set the stage for our full day group activity.

The primary goals each team aimed for:

• Increase economic development in Vermont’s food and farm sector.
• Create jobs in the food and farm economy.
• Improve access to healthy foods.

There were a total of six teams which were all named after vegetables.  I was on Team Arugula. We worked in our team to come up with a solution which met the goals of the Vermont Agency of Agriculture Farm to School using information provided in the presentations.

Here are the steps process of what our team went through to  come up with the winning idea!

Liz Gerber | Image provided by Stephen Mease

Step One: Find A Problem To Solve

Every team was given a packet that we’d use to help us follow a standard process.  The first step was to consider a problem to solve. We had to write three “worth improving” statements about Localvore/Farm to Plate issues.  I consider there to be problems with the attitude of elitism around Localvore, the lack mobile development for CSAs, and the flexibility of CSA drop-offs.

Step Two: Dig Deeper

We now had to describe the target user, their needs, their wants, and what their desired outcomes were?  For me, I was described as a young professional living in Vermont.  My needs were described as wanting a more accessible way to gain knowledge about CSAs.

Step Three: Define Your Point of View

We defined our point of view by filling out pre-constructed sentences that we’d bring back to our teams.  My statement was:

“Chris, a young professional in Vermont is constantly finding himself asking what’s for dinner and how can he eat better.  He needs a way to access information about Localvores and CSAs. However, there currently isn’t a mobile solution that provides information.  It would be great if CSAs could send out push notifications to his phone when they are delivering near by.”

Step Four: Ideate: Generate Alternatives To Test

We designed quick product sketches that defined what our solution would look like to the end user.

At this point, as team Arugula, we voted on which of our individual solutions was the best and spent the rest of the day working on it.

My mobile app idea was voted the best.  The runner up idea was also a mobile app solution similar to mine.  Therefore, working as a team on the two ideas, we hashed out the specifics of our solution and made sure that it met the goals of the agency.

Team Arugula | Image provided by Stephen Mease

The Winning Idea

The solution that my team came up with was a mobile application that not only provides knowledge of Localvores and CSAs, but also provides a new distribution process.  The two factors that my team kept going back to during our discussions were how currently when consumers don’t always know how to cook some of the items or what to do with them.  The mobile app would not only  provide a wealth of knowledge about the food being delivered but the user could also schedule drop-off times.

At the end of the day we had the winning solution. The take away really is how just given a few hours, a team of complete strangers are able to work together and quickly hash out a solution.  I personally hope this is the first of many #BTVSMB Social Hacks!

For more pictures please check out Stephen Mease Picasa album.

Update: Check out one of Union Street Media’s client, Fresh Tracks Capital as Cairn Cross recaps his thoughts right here.  Cairn and I were also partners for Team Arugula.