Being that New Years is on Friday and I begin my travels back up north the following day, PFCD will be taking a break until next Tuesday, January 5th. Unless some major calamity occurs (say a scenario that involves the statehouse being a transformer), I will not be blogging and Sunday Twitter Favorites will begin its tenure on the blog the following Sunday. You are distraught, I know. I love you, blogosphere. Stay safe, no drinking and driving. Hope that ball doesn’t roll like cheese down a hill.

XO,
PFCD

I’ve been sloppy with this blog. I admit it. So I’ve decided a new format of going about it. Instead of the irregular posting, I’m going to share gems I find from the web and twitter in all-encompassing categories.

National Politics gems in one post, NYS gems in one post, I’ll be returning the Twitter favorites as a once a week Sunday tradition, and a thread about policy, be it foreign or education, environmental, etc, etc. They won’t be a daily occurrence, I’ll post when I feel I have enough articles to warrant a post. Each link will be accompanied by a quick little commentary-laden blurb.

I hope you all enjoy this and I hope it makes the blog easier to follow and more enjoyable.

Update: I also expanded the Blogroll on the side. Enjoy!

While this blog will still discuss Albany political issues when I feel like it (personally feel the climate here is stale currently–maybe I’m just tired after my first serious election period), but I felt the name of the blog needed to be changed in order to accurately represent what I want to do with this blog–be a voice from the Capital District about the issues regarding the state as a whole.

And ‘7th Ward’ part was just ambiguous. (Not to say ‘Capital District’ isn’t, but you aren’t the boss of me. =P)

I hope you continue reading.

It was interesting weekend. Here’s what I thought was fascinating on the internet for at least two days of my absence. I’ll give my opinion on the NY-23 developments (AKA big wtf moment) later Monday.

amprog: Former PM Tony Blair and Education Sec. Arne Duncan discuss school-community partnerships at CAP: Stream live at 1: http://bit.ly/1glv5h

dccc: Owens neck-and-neck w/ Palin-endorsed candidate in Tuesday’s election; needs $3K to get out vote. Contribute: http://bit.ly/2MoNe1

MayorMattRyan: Thanks to Building Trades Council, Broome Tioga Federation of Labor AFL-CIO, Teamsters Local 693 & Working Families Party for endorsements!

SenJeffMerkley: Jeff Mapes writes about Senator Merkley’s role in public option negotiations: http://tinyurl.com/ykugdmu

GregMitch Early look at upcoming flick on Plame-CIA leak case w/Sean Penn, Naomi Watts: http://www.eandppub.com/

The blog chat feature will be live at 12:55GMT so you can participate in chat and commentary during the final race of the season, the inaugural Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE BLOG CHAT PAGE

The blog chat feature is now live so you can participate in chat and commentary during qualifying for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE BLOG CHAT PAGE

Wow! It sure has been a long time. So much is happening at Federal News Radio. We are working really hard to make our site more user friendly. (Comments are always welcome!) So let us know what you think!

The newest feature I want to tell you about is something I affectionately refer to as the FederalNewsRadio “dump” page. While it sounds silly, it really is a good word to describe what we have created.

We noticed that we really didn’t have a place where all of our stories could live once they were removed from our “Today’s News” section. While you could find all of these stories if you searched hard enough that didn’t seem like a good system to continue. Now, all FederalNewsRadio content is being housed in one central location. You can get to our “More News” section from our homepage. Click on the More News link at the bottom of the Today’s News section or click on “More News” in the Newsstand dropdown menu at the top of the homepage.

We launched a new site for the Commercial Association of REALTORS New Mexico (CARNM) today!  Very cool site with lots of fun features.  Check out the events calender and integration with the Commercial Realtors property listing site.  We also designed a fancy new logo for them!  Looking good CARNM.

The CARNM is an association of REALTORS® and real estate affiliates specializing in commercial real estate throughout the state of New Mexico.

Federal News Radio has created a Special Reports section on our website for some of the longer, multi-part series that you’ve been hearing on the air. Amy Morris just started her Beneath the Green Dome series where she’s investigating how the Capitol building has become more environmentally friendly over the past few years and how your agency can benefit from what the Capitol has already done.

We also continue our SAMMIES Tracker series where we interview each of the 30 finalists for the Service to America Medals given out in September. These federal employees are chosen for their extremely innovative and life-changing work and each has a very unique story that Federal News Radio is bringing to life.

You won’t find these stories anywhere else so be sure to check them out!

How much Twitter is too much Twitter? As you know, Federal News Radio has begun feeding many of our RSS feeds from our website to Twitter. But now the question becomes how much is too much? How many tweets per day is normal? What is overwhelming or even annoying to the people following us? Any suggestions would be welcome!

When consulting with companies that are looking to build a company website I am always amazed at how limited the requirements are compared to what is possible with pretty standard tools available today. The average CMS can do so much more than what it is used for not to mention the vast possibility for customer involvement in making data that is typically available in point of sale systems, ERP systems etc. available in an interactive format on line. Think about how great it would be if your entire product catalogue is dynamically updated on your website with different clients having access to different bits of information. Or perhaps you just want your client to use your website to place orders (as opposed to online selling) with your website acting as a logistical tool; notifying your clients of order processing via a sms or email etc. Imagination is the only limit – yet most websites are still a mere on line brochure. So If you could change your site; what would you add?

Check out the first FederalNewsRadio.com Podcast Update bringing you the latest information on what’s going on behind the scenes at Federal News Radio. In this week’s edition we bring you some exclusive news from our web team. So check it out!!

Download Podcast

Those of you who are following FedNewsRadio on Twitter may have noticed over the last few days that the number of tweets from us has increased significantly. We are now automatically feeding many of our RSS feeds to Twitter (using Twitterfeed) including RSS feeds from each of our daily shows (Federal Drive, In Depth, and Daily Debrief), our columnists, and weekly shows like Ask the CIO, Agency of the Month, Ask the CHCO, and Federal Security Spotlight. More will be added in the days ahead. The RSS feeds for these shows are located right on each of the individual show pages so feel free to add them to the list of feeds you subscribe to as well!

As promised a few days ago, RSS feeds are now available for each show. You can find them on The Federal Drive, In Depth, and Daily Debrief pages.

On a separate note, we have also added Chris Dorobek’s latest blog entries from the Dorobek Insider to the Daily Debrief page.

Hope these small changes are helping you navigate our site that much better.

Federal News Radio will soon have RSS feeds for each of our shows – The Federal Drive, In Depth, and The Daily Debrief. You’ll be able to subscribe to each of your favorite shows to follow what guests they have on each day and what stories they are talking about. A much overdue feature if you ask me!

Federal News Radio now has an RSS feed for its Top Stories (what we call our Today’s News section). Go to our homepage and look directly under the Today’s News section in the center column. This feed includes the stories our reporters are following, the interviews our anchors are doing, and stories from the Associated Press. It’s all the news we think is the most important at any given moment!

Comments are now available on FederalNewsRadio.com. Whooo hooo! We have also added an RSS feed to our Today’s News section. Hope you enjoy!

Have you ever gone to a website and been totally confused? It happens to us all, but have you ever wondered what the root of this problem is? It’s not always because the web designer doesn’t know how to write XHTML very well. Sometimes a site is bad because it was simply designed poorly. This could be compared to a builder of a house who really knows how to put a house together well, but has bad ideas of how a floor plan should look. What if a toilet was installed in the center of the kitchen? This doesn’t mean that he is a bad builder, but it does mean he’s a bad designer. I see the same problem every day on the net. Bad websites are often the result of bad planning on the part of their creator. A good website should have the following simple features. They should have a clear and easy to follow navigation bar. It should be the first thing people see when they go to your site, so it had better be easy on the eyes. Each page of the website should have a clear and defined purpose that is described by the navigation bar. If a person clicks on “about us”, they expect to see some profiles about the owners of the company. Don’t tuck your profiles away in some hidden corner of the website where a viewer wouldn’t expect to find them. Colors can play a big part in any website’s effectiveness. Have color’s that are appropriate to your business. If you have a poor sense for color schemes, have someone help you that is good at it. Often I have found that if a person has a good sense of fashion or is a snappy dresser, they will be better at picking the perfect colors for a website. This is a bit of a simplification however, and this skill can be learned over time; so if you don’t have it right away keep trying and you’ll get it. The last feature that I’ll mention that’s very important is exposure. This may not be so much a feature as it is a quality. Your website needs traffic for you to pick up business. Simply having a website with no traffic is like putting up a billboard in the middle of the forest. No one will see it so what’s the point? Having good keywords (words that will lead people to your site when they type them into a search engine) for your site is important. Having alternate sources such as blogs and social networking profiles can really draw in the traffic to your site. One such source of social networking that is very popular these days is Twitter, but there are many others. Most of these are free, so it makes no sense not to use them.

Jason Grass, MBA

K Grass Business Consulting

Newmarket, NH 03857

Phone: (603)292-5716

E-mail: jgrass@kgbusco.com

Website: www.kgbusco.com

The explosion of social networking sites has made it easy for business owners to place their company in the thick of things.  Sites like MySpace, Facebook and Twitter allow business owners to reach out to their clients in a more casual and relatable way.  While these mediums may allow for more personal communication, keep in mind that consumers face an onslaught from marketers and if your messages aren’t reinforcing your brand identity, you’re likely to be quickly forgotten.

There are quick and easy ways to create continuity for your business online, even if it spans across a variety of platforms.

• Rely on your logo. Your logo is the face of your business, so make sure it’s out there for people to recognize.  While it may seem like a fun idea to mix things up an use different images for different profiles, it will simply create confusion.  Make it easy for your customers to recognize you.

• Take advantage of the customization features.  Many of the platforms like MySpace, YouTube, Vimeo and Twitter offer you the ability to personalize your page – and this is another great way to reinforce your brand standards.  So while your customer may have found your business page on YouTube, they still can feel at “home” on a page that reinforces the themes, colors and images that represent your business.  Here are a couple of examples of pulling elements together for different platforms:
  • Historic Home Designer, Lynn Taylor: Taylor Made Plans.com, Myspace.com/TaylorMadePlans, YouTube.com/TaylorMadePlans
  • Capitol Recording Artist, Emily West:  Myspace.com/EmilyWest, Emily West on YouTube
  • Local Baking Company, East Side Cookies: EastSideCookies.com, ESC on Twitter

• Personalize your message.  The great thing about the social networks is that you have a very specific audience.  If you’re using an industry-specific networking site, customize your message to that market.  If your audience is in specific area, use Twitter or Facebook to target your message to those customers.
  • East Side Cookies uses their Twitter page and ESC on Facebook page to let customers in Nashville know where they’ve made the latest delivery so they can easily find the freshest cookies in town.

These are just a few starter tips.  Also sure to check out the help sections of the site that you’re using to see what other features they’ve created for businesses to have a more dynamic presence, and if you’d like more assistance, always feel free to contact us at Brady Mills Graphics.

Consumers are spending less.  That’s hardly a novel headline in this economy, but just because spending is down, it doesn’t mean wallets are completely sealed shut.

Bazaarvoice commissioned a survey of 800 U.S. consumers to learn about what factors have the greatest impact on shoppers during the decision-making process.  Not surprisingly, 61% of respondents acknowledged that online resources can sway them as they’re making purchases.  Factors like “user ratings and reviews (77%), and recommendations based on other consumers’ purchasing or browsing behavior (66% and 65%, respectively)” played heavily into their final decisions.  This data reflects that word-of-mouth is alive and well online – even among people who may not even be on the same continent.

What does all of this mean for your site?

Make sure you’re allowing online shoppers to get involved!  Make it easy for them to leave reviews and ratings.  Incorporate systems that intuitively know when to suggest products or link to purchase histories of other shoppers.  Brett Hurt, founder of Bazaarvoice, explains it simply, “companies have a tremendous opportunity to provide online shoppers with authentic, user-generated content that is proven to build confidence, increase satisfaction, and drive sales.”

It’s an easy step that can have a far-reaching impact.  Work with your web designers to find ways to incorporate more user-friendly features and you may just find that you’re creating a loyal (and growing) consumer base.

The last couple of years have been a great opportunity for the Brady Mills Graphics team to work with all types of clients. In order to better showcase our work with these great businesses, we’ve redesigned our portfolio. With the newly formatted portfolio, users can search by client as well as by industry or services provided by BMG.  Check out our clients – corporate and not-so-corporate – from Nashville as well as across the country.

The newly designed portfolio can be found at: http://www.bradymills.com/portfolio.php or you can sneak a  little peek below!

Brady Mills Graphics Portfolio

Axcel Internet Technologies, a Chicago based web development company, now offers Text Message Marketing as a new potenial medium for your company to boost it’s sales.  Text Message promotions can be used ini conjuction with your website to provide new features and value to your customers.

You customers could opt to receive order status updates to their cell phone for a purchase made online.

Website visitors could sign up for special sms coupons to be sent right to their phone.

A nightclub could send out drink specials or updates about entertainment.

A restaurant can offer alerts on its website for special meal promotions and new menu items.

Even non profit organizations, such as schools, could use mass text messages for school cancellations.

The examples are endless, and using SMS through your website is surprisingly affordable.

Give your website a boost, and differentiate yourself from your competitors by offering SMS to your customers.

Contact Axcel Internet for more information.