Cornerstone Media Group » Blog

Reality Video Online At It’s Best!

admin — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 21:40:28 +0000

Over the past few years Coca-Cola’s marketing has hit a few miss steps until recently. One of our friendly competitors in Atlanta, and I have to say, they hit a home run. What I like about it is the company engaged Coca-Cola’s brand by taking real people, in an unique setting and getting them to react with Coke’s “Sharing the Happiness”. I have to tip my hat to Definition 6 for a brilliant job! Enjoy!

Our Po!nt: Finally, a use of reality video that makes sense and tells a great story! What message can you create about your product(s) that provokes the next viral YouTube video from spreading like wild fire? Welcome your comments and thoughts!

Design Matters

Evan Mullins — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 16:33:28 +0000

People are amazed at how well Apple is doing, they are doing better now than Microsoft! I think Apple understands the power of design and this has helped get them where they are now. Apple hardware/software (since they are almost the same thing) focus very heavily on appearance and design.

Alex of Airtight Interactive points out:

Apple understands that laptops and phones are the new watches and jewelry. We are using them majority of our waking life. They define us to the people around us. They need to be both functional and beautiful. Apple products have plenty of hardware and software issues, but people are willing to forgive them since the products are so nice to look at.

He also points to the design by Andrew Kim that I love. I hope other companies get into their heads the fact that design really IS that important!

Client Portal

david.wood — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 15:14:23 +0000

As companies grow and expand they need a way to more effectively handle any and all client requests and complaints. Companies also need to do this in a manner that is both fast, efficient and prevents anything from falling through the cracks and being forgotten. All of us over here at Cornerstone have been working over the course of the last few months to provide just that, a system to manage requests and complaints in a way that we can process them quickly, efficiently and without missing anything. Systems like this are two-fold, however as both the company and the client need to embrace the solution for it to be effective and solve the problems it is intended to solve. Our new Client Portal has several benefits over the standard email or call us method of getting problems resolved. To name a few, once registered you can look up invoices, services you have, articles in our knowledge base, and view past and current support tickets. The best part is you can do all this any time, night or day (holidays included)! The Client Portal is located at: http://accounts.csmediahosting.com/

Starting August 1st the Client Portal keeps records of all invoices for hosting, domain names, and some of our other recurring services. This allows you to quickly and easily look up what is due, when it is due, and how much at any time of day or night.

Have a question about email settings? Our knowledge base is accessible any time of day or night and contains basic help on email issues and setup as well as several other topics. The knowledge base helps us out by allowing us to spend our time on issues not addressed in the knowledge base and helps you out by giving you an almost immediate answer.

Can’t find your answer in the knowledge base? If you can’t find your answer in the knowledge base, then you can send us a support ticket. Support tickets ensure that all requests are handled in the order that they are received and helps keep track of everything to ensure nothing is forgotten or overlooked. It is also important to note that support tickets should be submitted under the support department that best fits the issue you are having. This allows us to better handle requests as they are automatically assigned to the people that can actually help with the issue. The benefit for you, the client, is that you receive the fastest possible support without a chance that something will be missed as several people have access to each support department. This also saves everyone a significant amount of time over the old email or phone methods as we can gather all of the information we need from you to address the issue without missing anything.

The Client Portal also keeps track of any recurring services you have with us, such as hosting and domain names, and allows you to see all of them with their current status. Note that once you register, we will add any existing services you already have to your account. All you need to do is register! You may register for the Client Portal at: http://accounts.csmediahosting.com/register.php

Using LinkedIn For Business

Mark Treager — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 22:54:08 +0000

How to Use LinkedIn for Business

If you are not a fan of Guy Kawasaki you need to be! He is a managing director of Garage Technology Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm and a columnist for Entrepreneur Magazine. He is the author of nine books including Reality Check, The Art of the Start, Rules for Revolutionaries, How to Drive Your Competition Crazy, Selling the Dream, and The Macintosh Way. I have heard him speak at several conferences and trade shows and his style and no non-sense approach will have you asking for more

Not long ago, Guy wrote a piece on LinkedIn called 10 Ways to Use LinkedIn. It provides several great ideas about how to leverage this valuable tool.

(By the way, Guy’s list includes 11 tips, not 10. Just goes to show that there are 3 kinds of people — those who can count, and those who can’t.)

Here’s an excerpt of Guy’s article. For the complete article, visit 10 Ways to Use LinkedIn.

Most people use LinkedIn to ‘get to someone’ in order to make a sale, form a partnership, or get a job. It works well for this because it is an online network of more than 40 million experienced professionals from around the world representing 170 industries. However, it is a tool that is under-utilized, so I’ve compiled a top-ten list of ways to increase the value of LinkedIn.

Increase your visibility: By adding connections, you increase the likelihood that people will see your profile first when they’re searching for someone to hire or do business with. In addition to appearing at the top of search results (which is a major plus if you’re one of the 67,000 product managers on LinkedIn), people would much rather work with people who their friends know and trust.
Improve your connectability: Most new users put only their current company in their profile. By doing so, they severely limit their ability to connect with people. You should fill out your profile like it’s an executive bio, so include past companies, education, affiliations, and activities. You can also include a link to your profile as part of an email signature. The added benefit is that the link enables people to see all your credentials, which would be awkward if not downright strange, as an attachment.
Improve your Google PageRank: LinkedIn allows you to make your profile information available for search engines to index. Since LinkedIn profiles receive a fairly high PageRank in Google, this is a good way to influence what people see when they search for you. To do this, create a public profile and select ‘Full View.’ Also, instead of using the default URL, customize your public profile’s URL to be your actual name. To strengthen the visibility of this page in search engines, use this link in various places on the web. For example, when you comment in a blog, include a link to your profile in your signature.
Enhance your search engine results: In addition to your name, you can also promote your blog or website to search engines like Google and Yahoo! Your LinkedIn profile allows you to publicize websites. There are a few pre-selected categories like ‘My Website’, ‘My Company,’ etc. If you select ‘Other’, you can modify the name of the link. If you’re linking to your personal blog, include your name or descriptive terms in the link, and voila! instant search-engine optimization for your site. To make this work, be sure your public profile setting is set to ‘Full View.’
Perform blind, ‘reverse,’ and company reference checks: LinkedIn’s reference check tool to input a company name and the years the person worked at the company to search for references. Your search will find the people who worked at the company during the same time period. Since references provided by a candidate will generally be glowing, this is a good way to get more balanced data.
Increase the relevancy of your job search: Use LinkedIn’s advanced search to find people with educational and work experience like yours to see where they work. For example, a programmer would use search keywords such as ‘Ruby on Rails,’ ‘C++,’ ‘Python,’ ‘Java,’ and ‘evangelist’ to find out where other programmers with these skills work.
Make your interview go smoother: You can use LinkedIn to find the people that you’re meeting. Knowing that you went to the same school, plays hockey, or shares acquaintances is a lot better than an awkward silence after, ‘I’m doing fine, thank you.’
Gauge the health of a company: Perform an advanced search for company name and uncheck the ‘Current Companies Only’ box. This will enable you to scrutinize the rate of turnover and whether key people are abandoning ship. Former employees usually give more candid opinions about a company’s prospects than someone who’s still on board.
Gauge the health of an industry: If you’re thinking of investing or working in a sector, use LinkedIn to find people who worked for competitors-or even better, companies who failed. For example, suppose you wanted to build a next generation online pet store, you’d probably learn a lot from speaking with former Pets.com or WebVan employees.
Track startups: You can see people in your network who are initiating new startups by doing an advanced search for a range of keywords such as ‘stealth’ or ‘new startup.’ Apply the ‘Sort By’ filter to ‘Relationship’ in order to see the people closest to you first.
Ask for advice: LinkedIn’s product, LinkedIn Answers, aims to enable this online. The product allows you to broadcast your business-related questions to both your network and the greater LinkedIn network. The premise is that you will get more high-value responses from the people in your network than more open forums. For example, here are some questions an entrepreneur might ask when the associates of a venture capital firm come up blank:

‘Who’s a good, fast, and cheap patent lawyer?’
‘What should we pay a vp of biz dev?’
‘Is going to Demo worth it?’
‘How much traffic does a TechCrunch plug generate?’

Our Po!nt: This is one of the best social mediums for making contacts and generating opportunities for you business. Let us know what you thought about Guy’s article.

The iPad – Why and Why Not

david.wood — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 17:34:03 +0000

With Apple’s recent announcement and release of the iPad there has been a lot of hype over their latest product. In all the hype over the iPad there are people, both Apple fans and non-Apple fans alike that say you shouldn’t buy an iPad. Conversely, there are those that say you should. Most of their arguments leave people wondering whether or not they should buy an iPad. Simply put though, there are several key points that can help anyone make a decision about whether or not they should buy an iPad.

Some of the reasons to buy an iPad include the reasonably large touchscreen as this is something that most netbooks and laptops do not have. Another reason to buy an iPad is that the 3G version can access the web from virtually anywhere as long as you can get a cellphone signal. You also aren’t locked into a long-term contract like you would with most any other mobile web-browsing device.

Switching from the pros of an iPad to the cons, we discover several reasons that may influence someone not to buy an iPad. One of the primary reasons most people say you shouldn’t buy an iPad is the fact that Apple does not let you install Adobe’s Flash Player. Flash is used for most web-based videos and in several games and applications. Luckily, YouTube can work without depending on Flash and with many sites converting their Flash elements into HTML5 there will begin to be fewer and fewer sites that rely on Flash, but that is still a long way from being common. Other reasons not to buy an iPad include the fact that you are limited to what is in the app store, unlike a netbook or full laptop where you can install virtually any program; you are limited to Apple’s pre-approved applications.

Finally, there is the cost factor. Most netbooks will cost between $200-$400 whereas the iPad costs between $500-$700 for the Wi-Fi only version and $630-$830 for the version that includes the option to have 3G service. You can buy a fully functional laptop with a lot more power, flexibility and storage space for about the same cost as an iPad.

Bottom line though, should you buy an iPad? This is a question that will have a different answer for everyone depending on what his or her individual needs are. Some people will want to buy an iPad because they don’t have a laptop or they want a lighter device to carry with them to work or school. Others will view it as a device that while cool duplicates the functionality of a device they already own. For someone like me that already owns a laptop and an iPhone, it would be impractical. However, there are many people out there, both in school and work environments alike, that could potentially benefit from buying an iPad. At the end of the day, it comes down to you taking what you know about the iPad and what your technology needs are and deciding if you should buy one or not.

Facebook Facelift

adrian.dunegan — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 14:39:59 +0000

If you have a Facebook account, chances are you are a fan of something or someone. But, if you’re hesitant to join in the social media hoopla (don’t worry, I was too) here’s how fanpages work. When you set up a Facebook account for a company, you actually create a fanpage, where Facebookers from all over the world can become a fan of your company and suggest their friends become fans also. Any status updates from your company show up in the newsfeed of all your fans. You can use this to make fans aware of specials, introduce new products or use special Facebook fan only discount codes!

Many national companies have utilized fanpages, such as Macy’s, McDonald’s and Coca-Cola. However, not everyone has an attractive fanpage. What makes these companies stand out from everyone else? These companies, and several others, have integrated a section, such as the company homepage, About Us or Contact Us pages right into Facebook. You can check ours out here!

Not only can you have your homepage be a part of your Facebook fanpage, but you can also have all of your fans and fans-to-be default to particular Facebook tabs. For example, many fans-to-be are directed to the homepage or About Us tab in the fanpage, while actual fans are directed to the fan comments tab or a tab introducing new products or specials.

So, how is it done? Facebook uses a special language, FBML (FaceBook Mark-up Language) to code the insertion of your website page. There is a special application in Facebook (FBML app) that translates the code of your website into FBML so your content can be viewed in Facebook. You can search Facebook for the application and follow directions or, if you are anything like me and this stuff is just way beyond your realm of geekiness, call us at Cornerstone and one of our gurus would be happy to help get you set up with an appointment for your very own Facebook Facelift! (no surgery required!)

Progressive Maintenance for the Web

matt.kamsler — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 16:18:20 +0000

One Sunday evening I sat down after a long day of yard work and house cleaning. I contemplated the fact that yet another weekend had passed, and I spent it doing work. Weekends are supposed to be for resting and doing things to enrich your lives, not work. I do that every day of the week. That was the day I vowed to start a progressive cleaning schedule and take small segments of chores and perform them throughout the week.

I take 20 minutes and vacuum the floors one evening, and then I am free to relax. In the morning I may collect all of the trash in the house and take it out to the garbage. That night I tackle another chore.

Long story short, I have not only regained weekends to do what I want, I have a cleaner house and better-looking yard. The best part is it stays like that all week. No more last minute rushing to clean up before a guest stops by. Through teamwork my wife and I get a surprising amount done for a couple both working full time demanding jobs, and we have the weekends to spend time together not cleaning.

So what does this have to do with websites? After regaining control of our house and free time, it was then that I realized I could do the same with my productivity time at work. A website can be systematized like my house. If a website is broken up into tasks, you can take small chunks and progressively make changes. Instead of doing a complete overhaul, you make small changes on a consistent schedule. You may update the news one day, then update a small part of your SEO strategy the next.

Search Engine Optimization actually works best in a progressive maintenance cycle. Instead of shocking the search pool by making large changes all at once, you make small changes here and there and see how the search engines react. If an SEO strategy does not pan out, you have lost traction on just one page, not the entire site.

By putting your website on a progressive maintenance schedule, you will have a cleaner site that is much more dynamic and fresh. You will get into the habit of seeking out errors and inconsistencies as you break your site down into smaller chunks. Major design changes will be a much smoother transition when the time comes. You will drive your users to revisit your site more often to see ever-changing content. This will give you the opportunity to target more conversions, and in the end you will have a much more successful business.

Cornerstone Media Group, Inc has maintenance plans tailored to allow you to do just this. Contact us to learn more about how we can help you regain control of your productivity and put your website onto a progressive maintenance plan.

WordPress Is Not Just For Blogs!

Mark Treager — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 17:33:58 +0000

More people already use WordPress to power their blog than any other blog software and most do not know that WordPress is a powerful Content Management System (CMS) too. In reality, WordPress is an awesome tool for actually managing your website as well. When I tell people about this, they often ask me for some examples of non-blogging sites using WordPress, so I’m want to show some that really stands out.

I wanted to showcase a good selection of sites that I can point them to for several really great examples of just how flexible WordPress is. Some sites just look good. Some are examples of famous celebrities, companies, or organizations. WordPress can be used for serious projects that can go big scale, we are highlighting the most popular brands that are using WordPress. Here are a few of the sites that inspired us. There’s no particular order here.

Nikonfestival

A video contest website from Nikonfestival.Those are 140 seconds or less videos. Powered by WordPress

Icondock

Icon Dock is a project from N.Design Studio. Offer stock icons in vector and pixel format that you can quickly snap in your projects to speed up the development. Just see how the arrangement of content has been made using WordPress.

Typographica

Typographica is for review of typefaces and type books, with occasional commentary on fonts and typographic design. Another awesome example of WordPress as CMS.

Creativeawards

Creative Ad Awards is one of the best advertising archive, serving all the advertising fan and others who need it. You will feel comfortable here, because of WordPress customization.

Good

GOOD is a collaboration of individuals, businesses, and nonprofits pushing the world forward.This website is an ongoing exploration of what GOOD is and what it can be.

Champagnewarehouse

Ugsmag

It’s an independent Hip Hop magazine featuring interviews and a daily news feed with underground rap videos, audio and free album downloads. An amazing use of WordPress as CMS. It makes us think that power is in the hands of developer. You just have to mold WordPress according to your needs.

Flickout

You can watch the best new HD movie trailers for upcoming releases and movies in theaters. Get movie reviews and more all in super High Definition.

Typechart

For preview and compare web typography while retrieving the CSS,Browse typographic files.

Thesalonhair

Kmxus

Website is for selling karts and their accessories.

Camachocigars

A brand website for cigars and where to buy those things with events and VIP club.

Nowplaying nokia

Website for Rihanna fans all over the USA are sitting with their Nokia’s at the ready to buy tickets for the US leg of her tour.

Healogix

Healogix is a global health care marketing research and consulting firm created to meet the needs of executives facing real development and marketing decisions.

Platinumgames

Platinum games is powered by wordpress.Developed in conjunction with cnp_studio.

Popculturetees

Featuring new designs from the hottest retailers and indie artists, tips ‘n tricks, and interviews from industry experts.

H-mag

H-mag is a high-end luxury magazine for the Hoboken market.They are having blogs ,events and news section too.

Inbound pass

IOKON Media is creative collective that specializes in Digital Media and Marketing.

College crunch

Probar

Andyroddick

Official Website of Andy Roddick, a very famous tennis star. It is also powered by WordPress.

Cornerstone Media Group

Did we mention that our corporate site is done in WordPress! Kind of cool isn’t it!

Our Po!nt: WordPress is no longer reserved for just social media. It has grow from a small free software application into the sort of power house brand that becomes generational. Use WordPress for your next website makeover.

I Should Of Checked Them Out!!!

Mark Treager — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 15:41:38 +0000

Lately I have been getting phone calls from former prospects that decided to use another firm to design and develop their website only to hear things like, “I should of checked them out before going with them!” …”I wish I had researched their track record online.” “Should of pulled a Better Business Bureau report on the company I used, I would of never used them if I have.” “Should of called their references.” And many other comments about the horrible experiences they have had and how the price looked good going in but there was always up charges that often times made the price higher than even our original proposal.

While the vast majority of design and development firms similar to us, do great work and the vast majority of customers are extremely satisfied, some firms will use the old “bait and switch” tactic to get your to sign up with them knowing full well that the one price you thought you would pay at the end was never their intent. Some of the firms using this method are recognized by such companies as Inc. magazine and other trade publications as the best at what they do. One such company has had 600+ complaints registered by the BBB against them alone. Please note that all but 8 of the 600+ complaints have been resolved. Interesting was the fact was that once this company’s BBB rating dropped to a C, they no longer used the BBB as a reference source. The bad thing is that many small businesses that are signing up with these sort of firms that don’t have the money to waste or can find it hard to recover their original investment in the project should it go bad.

So what is a small business to do?

Do your homework!
Call all of a firm’s references that they list on any proposal.
Ask those references the good, bad and the ugly of doing business with them.

When I’m investigating a company I want to do business with I will always ask the question, “If there is a problem, how do you solve it?” Let’s face it no one is perfect all of the time, including us, but I have found that over the last 20+ years how a company handles a problem usually gives me a pretty good window as to what it’s going to be like working with them long term.

After you ask enough questions that your are comfortable with your top two or three firms you are considering, next turn to the Web for websites that will give you some answers on just how good other people think your top firms are doing like WikiPedia (yes you will be surprised at the results), RipOffReport.com and Complaints.com to name a few.

Our Po!nt: If the price looks to good to be true, Run! No matter what firm you are considering to take control of your web presence, small or big, be sure to call references, search the web for complaints, examine a firms work and spend time getting to know the company you are going to be working with for what could be many years to come. The end result of checking on the front end? A great ROI on whatever you spend and a design company dedicated to your success long term. We always welcome your comments and thoughts.

Does Internet Explorer Have A Future?

Mark Treager — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 14:31:32 +0000

Bad news for the last hold outs and good news for the rest of us! Finally IE6 share rate has fallen and now it has under 5% in the U.S. top 12 browser list according to StatCounter – you may have heard of this fact from the news during the past couple of days. We can almost hear from power browsers and developers from all over the world shouting “Finally”!

Definitely despite all those bad things that you may find by googling IE6, it was a true epic event in for the millions of Microsoft fans and other people that have any sort of relation to the web. Everybody will agree that it is really a notorious browser – even Wikipedia can’t find better words than these: “This version of Internet Explorer is widely derided for its security issues and lack of support for modern web standards, making frequent appearances in “worst tech products of all time” lists, with some publications labeling it as the “least secure software on the planet”. With all of the new capabilities of the today’s Internet it’s needless to say more .

The main reason for its popularity was the Microsoft’s browser policy (remember that old case when IE was a part of Windows software). But now we can ask a reasonable question – is it really bad that one of IE versions is going to become a part of the web history? Actually it’s obvious that even Microsoft is glad that IE6 is finally going down but what about other IE versions? Here is latest data about Top 12 browser versions as of the period of May 2010 – those are the global stats where the IE6 share remains rather high unlike the U.S.

Source: StatCounter Global Stats – Browser Version Market Share

The fact that IE holds leading positions in this list is not really sensational; it is more interesting to know why it is this way? You have to remember that Internet Explorer was pre-installed on all Windows OS! It was determined to be unfair, and Microsoft was fined, but now everything is changed – Microsoft now gives you a freedom of choice. So what’s the trick? The secret is simple – time and updates. Windows is one of the most popular OS in the world and of course advanced web users and web developers like us are not the biggest part of IE target audience. There are many rookies that actually don’t know or just don’t care what software to use for web browsing that will enhance their user experience.

Anyways IE6 (along with Vista and few other products) has taught Microsoft that they should be more careful in creating new software versions and products. The lesson was obviously learned and as the result is Windows 7 as well as many interesting things about the forthcoming IE9. It is necessary to remind you that Internet Explorer 9 will support HTML5 and CSS3, and provide access to all of the latest Web technology for enhancing the user experience.

Our Po!nt: It’s clear that IE is alive and kicking. But it’s a good thing that there are alternatives such as Firefox and growing popularity of Google’s Chrome. IE will never become a browser for intermediate and advance users. Microsoft really has nothing to worry about as a huge piece of Internet audience will stick to it for years and years. That’s the equilibrium, IE version of it. As always we welcome your thoughts and comments.

Cornerstone Media Group » Blog

Reality Video Online At It’s Best!

Related Posts:

Design Matters

Related Posts:

Client Portal

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Using LinkedIn For Business

How to Use LinkedIn for Business

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The iPad – Why and Why Not

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Facebook Facelift

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Progressive Maintenance for the Web

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WordPress Is Not Just For Blogs!

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I Should Of Checked Them Out!!!

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Does Internet Explorer Have A Future?

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