1. Reflect. What worked for you in 2011? What didn’t? Take the time to reflect on everything from successful slogans to disastrous tweets.
2. Get feedback. Ask your clients what they think.  Look at your business from a different perspective and see what you can do better.
3. Try a branding master cleanse.  Don’t be afraid to admit something isn’t working and lose it.
4. Leave time to learn. Look at your competitors and your industry. Is there anything you can learn? Are they using something you aren’t?
5. Be social media savvy. These days, everyone has a facebook and twitter, but using these resources effectively is a different matter.  Make sure your social media has a defined purpose.
6. Know thyself. New Year’s can often prompt the impulse for drastic overhauls (bought that gym membership yet?) but make sure to stay true to who you are as a brand. If you don’t know who you are, make that your number one priority for 2012.

If you are having a hard time wrapping your head around these resolutions and how they affect your business, give us a call. We are more than happy to help out.

It is hard enough worrying about Account Receivable, Payable, Profit Margins, Payroll, etc… Let us worry about the rest. We specialize in delivering holistic brand-experiences that will set you apart from the competition.

We live in a digital world with a fluid-marketplace and that is why we are here. Contact us here or call 678.358.3326 to tell us about your business.

Then Jobs held up a little white box.  At the October 2001 Apple Developers Conference, Jobs announced the iPod and our lives were forever changed. The original iPod allowed us store up to 1000 songs, revolutionizing the way we looked at music and expanding the role it could play in our day-to-day lives.  The iPod was technological light-years beyond 90s gadgets such as the Walkman, primarily for its ability to store and play music simultaneously. Subsequent iPod generations brought the ability for games (brick, anyone?), photos, and videos.  You could even scrawl your name on the back in a warranty-voiding engraving.

In 2007, the iPhone followed, bringing email, web browsing, music, video, and games all into one device. The advent of the App Store the following year literally put everything from investments to pizza delivery within the touch of a button. Through the simplicity of such choices as 16GB or 32GB, black or white, Verizon or AT&T, Jobs made technology personal. Now, days after the announcement of the iPhone 4s, this is our world today:

At Vehicle Media, we aspire to bring these same Jobsian principles of simplicity and integration into all the work we produce.  Companies that service only one of your needs are, perhaps, still in the age of the Walkman.  We believe you shouldn’t have to search from company to company for services you could get in one integrated package.

This site has been a pleasure and we can’t wait to get it off the ground. Stay tuned for details.

Let’s face it: 500 million people didn’t jump on the Friendster bandwagon but nearly a decade ago these guys were way ahead of their time.

“Starting May 31, 2011, Friendster will be shifting from a social networking site to a social entertainment site which will focus on gaming and music. The accounts are unchanged and still existing. However, all the photos, messages, comments, testimonials, shoutouts, blogs, forums and groups that the users may have now will no longer be part of the account by May 31, 2011^[38]. An exporting tool is provided to back-up the information of the user account. This tool has an ability to export photos to Flickr and Multiply.”

What is next for Friendster? Well, they aren’t quitting – just reformatting. The new site will be positioned around “social entertainment”. What is social entertainment, you ask? We’ll tell you this summer. Rest assured, Friendster isn’t closing down shop; they are just rearranging the furniture.

At one point in my life, I remember when America Online was the absolute biggest kid on the block… every few months I would get a 3.5 inch floppy disk in the mail with the newest version of AOL. It was great; about $19.95 a month (thanks mom and dad). My friends all had profiles, I had a buddy list and could connect with all my friends (although it totally sucked that no more than 2 users under one account could be online at the same time).

Sound familiar? Well, either the masses weren’t ready for it or AOL missed a few fundamentals in execution… regardless, the “former child-star” of the internet is making a go at social media.

AOL is to purchase recent startup web site About.me – launched this last week. The site, similar to Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn allows users to make a profile page and connect with their peers.

It’s going to be really interesting to see if AOL can catch up in an increasingly saturated market.

I like to use the analogy of New York City vs. Burnt Corn, Alabama (yes, there is actually a place called Burn Corn and I use to hunt there as a kid). A place like New York City can only sustain it’s population of  over 8MM people because they have 3 major airpots, 2 train stations, subways, seaports, highways, bridges, helipads, tunnels, interstates, numerous streets and avenues – you get the picture. On the other hand, Burn Corn, Alabama  has a population of under 300 people that has been stagnant since I was there 10 years ago. Reason being is there are nothing but dirt roads, old wooden bridges and no street lamps or stop lights. This type of infrastructure is not good for growth. I realize Burn Corn doesn’t have an appealing name, but it’s biggest demise is the fact that it lacks any access points to find out how many resources it has to offer.

So here are some tips for increasing traffic to your website which will increase brand awareness and revenue:

SEO – “Search Engine Optimization will always be recognized as an important and crucial tool for those who are trying to increase website traffic on their webpage. Search Engine Optimization is a mixture of actions, including keyword usage and keyword placement, that help a website to rank high on search engine results. The higher that a website can rank on a search engine results list, the more likely it is to get high traffic numbers.”
Backlinks – “If you are trying to increase website traffic you need to get into the business of Backlinks. Backlinks are links to your website that are found on other websites. There are multiple ways for a website to go about getting backlinks. These websites can backlink on their own website and then ask those websites to do the same for them. Alternatively, doing so is to buy backlinks through marketing service providers. They pay websites to offer your link as a backlink on their website, giving you the links you need to drive traffic to your website through other websites.”
Basic Advertising - “Basic advertising campaigns are still an important marketing tools for websites who are looking to see a greater amount of traffic. These advertising campaigns may not give as good a return as other forms of marketing, but are still beneficial when executed properly. Avoid pop-up advertisements – they are view as being intrusive and may actually repel possible visitors.
Redirection - “If you are looking to increase website traffic you need to make sure that you are doing what you can do get people to your website. One avenue is to get paid link redirection. Link redirection takes links that are now dead and redirects visitors to your website. This strong marketing tool makes it simple and easy for your website to see targeted traffic.
Basic paid advertising and marketing is a good way to increase traffic flow; however, your marketing campaigns won’t always get the results you hoped for. It’s is essential to take advantage of other traffic driving tools like SEO and redirection. A combination of all these techniques to increase the numer of visits to your site, increase brand awareness, and fatten up that top line.

We turned on comments in case you want to rip us apart for being so lax.

If you haven’t yet, click here to check out our work…

Still in its nascent stages, social media has enormous amount of influence, and it’s momentum is growing exponentially. There are five trends major industry trends that you should you should keep your eye on.

1) Location based social networks like Yelp and Foursquare allow users to log in and tell people where their eating lunch, give reviews, etc. Twitter has also enabled it’s technology to inform people of the location from which they’re tweeting.

2) Group buying allows consumer to participate as a group and take advantage of discounts on products and services. Some of the more well known sites are Groupon and LivingSocial.

3) Mobile platforms are being used as a way to advertise and inform consumers on new releases, specials, etc.

4) Another mobile application that’s blowing up is the ability to make payments using your phone. This comes in handy for several small businesses.

5) As social media’s presence widens, businesses social policy tightens. Whether its the SEC/FINRA enacting rigid restrictions and regulations on information released using Facebook and Twitter, or business limiting staff from posting too information that could threaten the company’s reputation.

Click this link to read the full article on 5 Social Media Trends to Watch.