DivergingSoul Media Production

The moment all businesses have been waiting for has finally arrived: Google+ brand pages! Just recently, Google+ followed Facebook and Twitter and created a place specifically for brands and businesses to network in the social media sphere. Your business can now connect, and even “hangout” with your Circles. Are you ready to get started on Google+ Brand Pages? Here’s how:

1. First, you need a Google+ personal account to build your brand page off of. If you do not have a personal account, you can create one here.

2. Once you have a personal account, sign in here to begin building your page

3. Pick a category your business falls under. Your options are:
a. Local Business or Place (Hotels, restaurants, places, stores, services…)
b. Product or Brand (Apparel, cars, electronics, financial services…)
c. Company, Institution or Organization (Companies, organizations, institutions, non-profits…)
d. Arts, Entertainment or Sports (Movies, TV, music, books, sports, shows…)
e. Other

4. Add your business’ information.

5. Add only 10 words that best describe your business. You may add your companies tagline, a quick summary of your product or services, or any other 10 words or less you would like to use.

6. Upload a photo to use as your brand page’s profile picture.

7. Announce the creation of your new brand page to your personal circles!

That’s it! In 7 simple steps you have created a Google+ brand page for your small business, and increased your social media presence and SEO. Once you have your brand page, you can post, share, upload photos and videos, add to your circles, and host hangouts. You can even get creative and jazz up your profile with the scrapbook feature. For more information on all of the features and how to use them, check out Mashable’s “10 Tips and Tricks for Better Google+ Brand Pages.”

Take a look at DivergingSoul’s brand new Google+ page, and be sure to add us to your circle!

It is now 2012. By this time I’m sure you are already aware of the advantages a website can bring to your small business, and odds are you have taken the initiative and set one up. However, you may have come to find that you do not have the time or resources to give your website the tender loving care it needs to thrive.

Just as plants need air, water and sunlight to grow, Aaron Sperling suggests small business websites need fresh content, social media integration, easy ecommerce and maximized SEO. Read his article “4 Ways Small Business Websites Can Drive More Sales” for tips on how to drive more traffic and sales to your small business’ website using these four steps.

For further information on creating and implementing a plan for your small business website, please contact us at DivergingSoul. We have all the tools and knowledge you need to make your website a success!

Happy New Year from DivergingSoul Media!  We hope you all have a fun and safe first night.  Here is an infographic  on how people on Facebook are celebrating their NYE around the world.

As the new year quickly approaches, it’s time to look back at what 2011 has seen, and look forward to what 2012 will bring. As we look back, we can see that one area that has rapidly grown and will undoubtably continue to do so throughout the new year is social video.

Social video allows for a company to create unique content that goes beyond traditional advertising to further engage with an audience across multiple platforms. As they are “social,” these videos can be shared amongst viewers to create a viral campaign.

Hundreds of companies have started up their own social video projects, and we can definitely expect to see many more join the trend in 2012. With increasing competition, brings increasing innovations. In “What’s in Store for Social Video in 2012?” Chris Schreiber names five of these innovations that he predicts will be trending in the upcoming year. They are:

1. Integration of original branded content into broader marketing campaigns

2. More organic video experiences on sites

3. Improved earned media science

4. Widespread adoption of cost-per-view pricing

5. Dedicated social video budgets

Will 2012 be the right time for your company to take the leap into social video marketing?

Read Schreiber’s full article for more information on social video in 2012 at Mashable.com.

In our previous post we saw the research from Beyond Consultancy on consumer interactions in the digital age.  Their latest infographic is very helpful in breaking down the different consumer fields and channels of influence that they researched.  Check out the infographic below to view the different consumers and how they are influenced by online technology including search results, brand pages, facebook shares, and much more.

How do you manage your online presence in the modern day? KBSD, a firm that specializes in Digital Marketing and SEO, has put together an infographic on E-Reputation.  Whether it’s managing your brand or your own personal social media, there are some great tips here for making sure that the information you share online is the information you want to share.

Our parent company, GraVoc Associates is having a holiday giveaway and the grand prize is an iPad 2.  Visit the contest page to enter.  All you have to do is join one of their social networks (Twitter or Facebook) or subscribe to their monthly newsletter and you’ll be entered into the contest.  There are only 20 days left to enter so head over there now to reserve your chance to win an iPad 2.  Happy Holidays!

Adobe announced recently that they will no longer be developing flash for mobile devices.  Listing a number of reasons, foremost being the lack of support from Apple on their iOS, the company has stated that they will be focusing on “a larger strategic shift at Adobe” one that includes a “greater focus toward HTML5, as well as the Adobe Creative Cloud and the services that it provides.”  You can read more about the withdrawal here.

DivergingSoul Media has been paying close attention to the Flash vs HTML 5 argument since it became newsworthy in January 2010 with the release of Apple’s iPad.  Because many of the websites we built used Flash video players, we had to adapt quickly to these challenges.  We made it our mission to ensure that our client’s content was able to play across browsers and across devices.  In order to achieve this mission, we created a hybrid method for delivering video content on our websites.   This method consists of implementing an HTML 5 video player with a Flash “fall back” player.  By using the strategy, we provide “early adopters” who are on modern web browsers and devices the ability to watch video regardless of their situation while we maintain the older Flash platform for those who have not updated their browsers or who are on older devices.  Of course, which video player to use and how it is coded is just one part of the puzzle to delivering high quality video on websites.  Today, viewers expect web video to have very little buffer time and that the playback is smooth and consistent.  To learn more on how to optimize your website’s video content, contact us today at info@divergingsoul.com and we’ll be glad to help you.