"Business Creative" Web Design

Stu Macik, Broken Sky Studio Web Design & Development, Branding, Marketing, and Technology Solutions

Another new project launch from Broken Sky Studio LLC this time for Linda Lupatkin of  The Imagemakers, Ink! LLC in Denver, Colorado. This project is a unique visual design with 3D style custom graphics and entirely hand coded with valid, semantic HTML5.

On the sites “Accolades” page a very cool background hover effect is utilized to highlight each testimonial from the others to make it easier to read since we had to use a smaller font size on the testimonials to fit them to our preferred page height.

Thanks Linda!

-Stu

Another new project launch from Broken Sky Studio LLC this time for Jo Myers of Jo Myers Real Estate in Denver, Colorado. This project is a clean custom design with custom graphics and entirely hand coded with valid, semantic HTML5.

One interesting aspect of the project was that we wanted an easy way for Jo to be able to add her listings to the site herself as she needed without using a CMS (content management system) which would have been overkill on this site. We did a little “out of the box” thinking and came up with the idea of using Tumblr for her listings since Tumblrs “photo” post turns a set of photos into a very nice slide show. Add a text post after the photos and the listing is complete.

If you’d like your next website project to use some out of the box” thinking. Give us a call at 303-800-7617, we’d love to hear from you.

Stu Macik, Broken Sky Studio Web Design & Development, Branding, Marketing and Technology Solutions

I love WordPress. So much so that I decided a while back to use it as my primary blogging platform. It’s absolutely the best when installed on your own domain and I recommend it without hesitation to all of my clients who want to add blogging to their arsenal of web marketing tools.

I also love Twitter. It’s become a “must use” in my opinion for any small business because of it’s ability to “instantly” disseminate information to potential customers and clients as well as the fact that all those tweets are now being indexed by Google.

The problem that I was running into is that there are a lot of times where I want to post a tip or some advice for small businesses that’s too long to tweet and too short to blog.  What’s a Web Marketer to do?

Well, the answer my friend is Tumblr. Tumblr flat out rocks at being the “in between” Twitter and a full blown blog. I can’t say for sure if that’s what the Tumblr guys were aiming for, but what they’ve come up with is an incredibly useful tool that I’ve now started to integrate into my clients web marketing portfolios.

Tumblr’s interface is incredibly intuitive (not to mention gorgeous) and excels at getting you up and running with a “Tumblog” in a very short time. Just fill out a few information fields, pick your theme, and start Tumblogging. You can even host your Tumblog on your own domain, if you choose, just like WordPress.

The free themes for Tumblr are very nice indeed, much nicer than say WordPress.com or Blogger themes. The premium themes are some of the best I’ve ever seen for any blogging or CMS platform, check out my Tumblog for Broken Sky Studio to see one of the premium themes in action.

Bottom line? You’ve got to check out Tumblr as a marketing tool for your small business. In my mind Tumblr, along with WordPress and Twitter have become the holy trinity of Blogging tools for small businesses looking for exceptional results from their online promotional efforts.

-Stu

Stu Macik, Broken Sky Studio Web Design and Development, Denver, Colorado

Ok, I know a lot of you small to medium sized business owners out there are still a little dubious about using social networking to brand and market your business. I mean, you’ve been doing ok without it so far right? Well, as Dylan opined, the times they are a-changin’.

Social Networking has become a powerful tool for businesses to brand and market their products and services and Twitter, in my opinion, has become one of the linchpins to success.

How is that you ask? Well, in a word Twitter is “instant”!

Instant product updates!

Instant services updates!

Instant sales updates!

Instant specials updates!

Instant customer feedback!

And if your Twitter feed is embedded in your website you can update your site with any information you want…well…instantly! In this last scenario, you don’t even need “followers” for Twitter to be an effective tool, it can simply be used as a mini content management system to update your website. You could even do it from your mobile phone.

The most helpful aspect of using Twitter now though is that Google search indexes Twitter posts almost immediately. What that means is that your tweets are searchable so that potential customers can find out about you and your business through a Google search that brings up your tweet or Twitter profile. This is very cool and powerful as well as a great way to expand your “footprint” on the web beyond just your website.

At Broken Sky Studio we provide Set-up and Consulting on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google Buzz and others as well as Blogs (WordPress, Tumblr, Blogger and more) . We can develop a multi-tiered social network branding and marketing strategy for your business.

We can also incorporate social networking into your new website to help you realize all the benefits of these compelling marketing tools that can help grow your business. Visit us at Broken Sky Studio Web Design and Development today and give us a call. Let us show you what you’ve been missing.

-Stu