The Impact of Social Media & Blogging

It seems ironic to talk about blogging on our blog, but it's almost the holidays and I'm feeling a little feisty. To those of us who champion social media and thought leadership as a means to reach your audience, the benefits are so obvious that they can be difficult to explain.

Thanks to the smart people at Volinsky Consulting who created an infographic that easily explains the benefits of an online media strategy that includes good SEO, blogging, thought leadership and social media.

Check out this clip or view the full infographic.

Deck the Halls! And the Walls?

Our gift to you this year is custom wallpapers for your desktop computer, mobile device or tablet. We hope you enjoy them, there's one that's sure to fit your Holiday mood whether it's Bah Humbug, Merry & Bright or just enjoying the Cold Weather (or not enjoying it so much). Feel free to share these links with anyone who could use a little Holiday cheer.

Happy Holidays from e!

Brrr!

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Bah Humbug

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Merry & Bright

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Snow

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Music Video or Game? Maybe Both.

Have you ever seen a music video that was interactive? Androp's latest release for their song Bell is part game, part user experience and totally fun. You simply type in a message and the game takes letters from your words to create a character that you can control through a series of environments. In our experiments, your character could be a horse, dog or a giraffe, depending on what you type. 

While jumping scorpions, running from tarantulas and dodging rhinos is fun in it's own right, the real beauty of the video game is the way the animals are cleverly crafted from letters, in real time. Watching those letters explode, then reorganize themselves after a collision, could keep me entertained for hours. 

Try it for yourself by visiting www.androp.jp/bell/.

Browser Trends: Chrome is Winning

It's been growing in popularity faster than Mozilla's Firefox and has now become the world's second favorite browser. *

Personally, it's become my favorite except for the fact that there's only a light version of Firebug (which I use a lot for development). So I end up using two browsers — Firefox for development and Chrome for everything else.

* Browser Trends December 2011: Chrome Becomes the World’s Second Favorite Browser
* StatCounter.com

Lucy Takes Root

Brand ID for New Napa Valley Restaurant

Reflecting Executive Chef Victor Scargle’s locally-sourced organic approach, the modern logo is simple and stunning. The menu system’s natural wood textures and elegant typography enhance the restaurant’s farm-to-table style. With the fresh menu changing often, all restaurant menus are kept up-to-date by utilizing a Word template system, then printing in-house on preprinted stock. Experience the brand first hand by stopping in at Lucy Restaurant and Bar in the Bardessono Hotel, Napa Valley.

Going Mobile

Global mobile traffic data grew 159% in 2010, nearly tripling for the third year in a row.* Capture your market share with a website designed by Effective Design Studio. We develop responsive web solutions that maximize our client’s marketing reach. A responsive website is a web solution that elegantly scales to the format of the viewing device–desktop, tablet, or mobile device — with striking results.

Our latest web launch is a new responsive website for Seattle Dances!, a Plymouth Housing Group annual fundraising event now in its third year. With a 397% increase in mobile device usage over last year, the Seattle Dances website needed redesigning to improve access anywhere, anytime. The new responsive website maximizes online donations and voting opportunities for fans supporting their favorite dancers — all from their mobile device. Additionally, the website is built on a WordPress platform with built in content management tools, allowing Plymouth staff to make ongoing updates throughout the event season.

Before you begin developing your new website, talk to the professionals at Effective Design Studio. Responsive web solutions for the growing Mobile market.

* Cisco Report

Team e!

Holly and Kristine were able to meet up over the Thanksgiving break in Arizona for a local "Turkey Trot" race.

Having fun on the run

Here at e! we're always looking for ways to quantify our success, but Kristine Svehla-Brown takes it to the next level. This year she cycled, ran, and swam in five long distance events, including two 70.3 triathlons. Add up the distances of her races alone, and they're equal to driving from Vancouver, B.C. to Salem, Oregon.

What keeps her motivated? Well, her finisher medal in the shape of Texas is a favorite. And swimming in the clear blue water at the Chelan Man Olympic triathlon is still fresh in her mind. But really – it's the endorphins of training along with the opportunity to do many events with family and friends that keep her signing up for more.

And apparently it can be contagious, as our own Holly Perkins just completed 11 weeks of training and rocked her first Seattle 1/2 Marathon on a very soggy Sunday after Thanksgiving!

Kristine is not sure what's exactly on the docket for next year, but she's thinking of putting her first full marathon on the list. Perhaps Holly is crazy enough to join her?  (Hint, hint?)