Boston, MA, March 10, 2010 – In a strategic partnership designed to complement and expand their service offerings, Transmyt and Solidus Editorial Solutions have joined forces to provide customers with a one-stop shop for web development, web content and blog writing, social media integration, copywriting and editing and e-mail marketing. The enhanced service offerings allow both organizations to bring another level of expertise to the table for their customers.

“We are excited to combine our talents to create a comprehensive solution for our clients. At Transmyt, we have the ability to create the web, blog and social media presence for companies, but the challenge is having the client provide us with content for the website and making sure that they remain consistent and current with their blog and social media activities,” says Jeremy Mays, Founder and President of Transmyt. “With Solidus as part of the team, we can now offer clients the option of having us create the content or simply edit the message they are sending to their customers.”

Businesses are still trying to grasp the changes that are occurring in traditional marketing. The top-down message approach is no longer effective. Consumers have the ability to communicate directly with companies through social media and the web and are driving how and where they receive marketing messages. Participating in social media and having an effective website to keep a business in touch with its customers and show thought leadership in its field is a new approach for many business owners, and one they are struggling to understand and implement.

“Our ability to help companies create clear and concise messages, be it in their website, blog, Twitter or Facebook pages, offers tremendous value to customers who want to focus on running their business, rather than worry about creating fresh content,” says Steve Boudreault, Managing Partner at Solidus Editorial Solutions. “We are excited to help businesses clear the smoke and confusion surrounding the Web 2.0 world, teach them how to participate in the conversations taking place online and create a presence for themselves on the web. Our partnership with Transmyt strengthens our ability to provide a cost-effective, turnkey web solution for our clients.”

About Transmyt
Transmyt is a direct response online marketing agency dedicated to helping our clients find new business and increase profits through the development of lasting online marketing campaigns. Part interactive and creative studio, and part strategic consultancy, our agency possesses the knowledge, technical understanding, and creative vision to provide you with memorable campaigns that yield measurable results. We specialize in web development, e-commerce, blogging, social media integration, e-mail marketing, and lead generation.

About Solidus Editorial Solutions
Solidus Editorial Solutions provides a multimedia approach to brand enhancement that includes proofreading, copyediting, copywriting, blog writing, and editorial consulting. Our staff has extensive experience in multiple venues including research, medicine, education, advertising, business consulting, and media, and is backed by a management team of editing and writing professionals with 30 years’ combined experience in the business of communication. The basis of all of our client relationships is respect and trust. We earn your respect by setting high standards and delivering results in a timely manner. You will come to trust us with all of your written work because you’ll know that you’re working with the best in the business.

Step 1: To start
Log into your personal Facebook account. If you do not have one, you need to create one. From your existing Facebook Page, click on ‘Advertising’  on the bottom of any Facebook web page. Click Pages and then Create a Page.

Step 2: Pick a category and name
Pick the category that best fits the description of  what your company offers. Don’t worry if you don’t find a perfect fit, but pick the closest match since you won’t be able to change your category. The name of the Page should be the exact same as the name of the business, organization, product, band, or individual it represents. Click “Create Page.”

Step 3: Add a profile picture
Click “upload a picture” near the top and upload the graphic or photo that best represents you. Make sure that your brand is clear even as a “thumbnail,” since the image will appear at that reduced size throughout the site (for example, on fans’ profiles and on their friends’ Home pages).

Step 4: Add information
Click “Add information to this Page” underneath the profile picture and enter as much basic and detailed information as you can. The fields available will depend on your Page type. The more details you can add about who you are, what you do, and when and where customers can buy your products, the more successful you will be.

Step 5: Make it rich and engaging
Like user profiles, Pages have multiple tabs. By default, your Page has a Wall tab for you and your fans to share content, an Info tab for you to share business information,and a Boxes tab for application modules. You can choose to devote entire tabs to several Facebook applications, such as Photos, Reviews, and Discussion Board. In addition, applications built by outside developers can choose to use Page tabs.

The more rich content you add, the more ways users can interact with it and spread that connection to their friends. Post photos of products, employees, and customers. Add video clips of your bar or restaurant in action. ‘Behind the scenes’ content often works well. List an event for your grand opening or in-store sale. Write a note about upcoming promotions. The choices are yours and all these features are free and unlimited.

You can also add applications by outside developers to customize your Page further:

• A restaurant might add the Reservations application to let users book a table without leaving the Page.
• A film might add Movie Times and Tickets to help users find nearby screenings—again, without ever leaving the Page.
• A small business owner might add the Visa Business Network application to connect with peers.

Thousands of applications are waiting for you. Need help? Browse other Pages in your category to discover applications that will help serve your customers.

Step 6: Publish
Click the “publish this Page” link to share your Page the with world. Unlike a phone book listing or website, this public profile has the power to let your customers engage their friends on your behalf.

Optimize your Page’s performance by clicking the “Edit Page” link and setting a variety of controls. For instance, you can control the default landing tab for users who are not yet fans of your Page. You can also choose whether or not to allow fans to share Wall posts, photos, and more; allowing these will enrich your Page and increase its reach across Facebook.

To link to your Facebook Page from elsewhere around the Web, use a “Find us on Facebook” badge. Don’t forget to become a fan of your own Page! Share it with friends by clicking the “Share” button in the lower left of the Wall or Info tab.

Step 7: Update Regularly
Updating your Page regularly with fresh photos, upcoming events, and the latest promotions means your Page won’t just look like a profile, it will feel like one, and that will keep users coming back. Facebook users are used to getting information sorted by what happened most recently. If you keep your Page active, which you can do through mobile integrations and applications, you’ll find that your fans are more engaged and more interactive.

You can also send some or all of them messages by clicking “Send an Update to Fans” in the upper-left of your Page (under the profile picture). Updates are useful for sending out announcements like promotions, sales or events. For more information on how to use Pages, visit Facebook’s help section.

Need more help? Watch This Video Produced By Spotlight Communications:

Be Simple and Creative
like Benson’s for Beds. Their Mattress Dominoes World Record Attempt video has racked up around 830,000 YouTube views. There is nothing fancy about it. Benson’s employees simply form a human-and-mattress dominoes chain that extends throughout their entire warehouse. The video is playful, has a humorous ending, and makes Benson’s for Beds look like a great place to work (and makes you feel good about spending money with them). This is not a high quality or expensive production. Benson’s just made a statement using the products they work with in their warehouse.

Develop a Series of Videos to Keep Viewers Coming Back
just like small home appliance maker Blendtec’s “Will it Blend?” videos. Each video uses a simple formula: blender + common object (that you wouldn’t normally put in a blender) = viral video hit. The first video has over 3.8 million views since 2006. So far the company has created over 90 videos with this same theme. While it may seem ridiculous to put your iPhone into a blender, these videos do away with the typical sales pitch and apt for a wacky and goofy sales pitch to show off the blender’s biggest selling point – its power.

Don’t Make an Outright Advertisement
Viral viewers know the difference between the real deal and an outright ad, so don’t risk losing them. Try not to think in terms of sales pitch, mission statements, boiler plates and service listings. Rather try to show what your product can do, versus telling the viewer about it. The Sony Bravia serial videos “Domino City,” “Bouncy Balls” and “Play-Doh” make simple use of the Bravia’s best quality – its bright colors. You can become so engaged with the vivid scenes that you don’t realize it’s an advertisement until the call-to-action at the end: Buy the television.

Keep it Short
Fifteen to thirty seconds is ideal. Just ask HP. Their 30 second ad spot for the HP Photo smart features a hip soundtrack, and shows off its use of technology with the Google Maps app.

Ultimately, your video content will drive your visitors back to your site over and over again.  While your video should have a strong concept, don’t spend too much time agonizing over it. Your concept should not be forced because it fits your brand. Rather, your brand should fit into a great concept.

Tomeeka Farrington is the owner and principal at Spotlight Communications. A Strategic Public Relations Company Located in Boston, MA.

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I have admitted to you that I am a

The philosophy of networking, be it web-based or face-to-face, is to get out there in the world and make meaningful connections. And for a business developer like me, I need to convince my connections that I’m likable, reliable and that I offer a service of value.

LinkedIn is my own personal database or customer relationship manager (CRM). Just like any organization, I use ‘my database’ to manage my prospects, clients, and referral sources—though on a much more individualized level.

LinkedIn is ideal for professionals who want their personal reputation to impact business growth. It’s all about who I know, and who they know. Since you asked, as of today, I have 314 LI connections (and growing), and they provide access to a network of 2,604,400+ professionals. This is not including the LI Group members that I can contact directly.

I use LinkedIn to stay on my prospects’ radar, during the time when we’re not networking face-to-face.

• When you use LinkedIn, I want you to come across people you want to connect with, and I want you to notice that you are separated by 2 degrees, ME. This increases my value.
• I also what you to see that we share similar connections, and thus, I must be good people.
• I want you to see my profile and recommendations and have confidence in my abilities and reliability.
• I want you to notice that I’m attending credible events.
• I want you to think that my status updates and blog posts are clever and that they provide value to you.
• Finally, I want you to question your marketing strategy and think: “let me call JoAnne for advice.”

Wikipedia sources offer that “Interactive Marketing refers to the evolving trend in marketing whereby marketing has moved from a transaction-based effort to a conversation… interactive marketing is the ability to address the customer, remember what the customer says and address the customer again in a way that illustrates that we remember what the customer has told us.”

LinkedIn helps me maintain my connections, get to know each of them better, facilitates conversations and helps me interact 1:1. It has become an invaluable tool in my career.

Please reply with your LinkedIn success perspective so I can share our stories with my hesitant friends.

NOTE: Who owns the LinkedIn profile, the company or the individual? That’s debatable; LinkedIn’s User Agreement states that the individual owns it and it’s nontransferable. Thus it’s important that your social media policy clearly outline parameters for LinkedIn business use; I also suggest that you develop a systematic procedure for transferring contacts made on behalf of the company to the company database. Please feel welcome to weigh in on this as well.

So why  put them on your site?
Whether its pictures, blog posts, webpage content, products or a funny status update from Facebook, your information is important. Allowing users to act as an extension of your communications efforts is one of the best ways to get your message spread both far and wide. Harness the power of your users and turn them into automatic brand evangelists by installing Chiclets.

The reader who shared this content from our blog had a collective of 605 connections between Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, giving exponential growth to the broadcast and publishing capabilities of our content.

Try sharing this article from our blog using the Chiclets below.

It’s important for me to be able to articulate who I’m targeting, and have a clear vision of who our ideal client is. If I understand who my target is, I can help my referral network to understand.

At a recent BNI meeting our presenter supported this premise by suggesting that we refine our 45 second schpeal to increase the instances and quality of referrals. Before her presentation, I might have said “an ideal referral for me would be anyone who is in need of full-service marketing support.” Who comes to mind? Anyone?

To best leverage my referral network, I need to remove vague terms like “anyone,” “small businesses” and “full-service” and replace them with more specific descriptors.

Because of my professional background, I think one of my strongest niches might actually end up being accounting and professional service firms. Thus, an ideal referral for me would be someone in the Accounting industry, more specifically within a CPA firm, the marketing director or partner, at Doe CPAs PC, Jane Doe, Managing Partner. Do you know Jane Doe or someone that can introduce me to her? If you don’t know Jane, are you thinking of people like Jane that you can introduce me to?

Now, this schpeal may change weekly, or depending on who I’m talking to, but I can increase my referral success by having someONE specific in mind when asked.

The New England Patriots Facebook Fan Page offers hard core Pats fans the opportunity to join team-related discussions, and stay up to date on highly anticipated games and events through a team calendar. Users can also take advantage of interactive features by sending virtual Patriots gifts to their friends, answering the Patriots Poll, and participating in Fantasy Forecasts. The Pats’ social network presence enables them to connect users who are already congregating on Facebook, and to capture another audience demographic. Smart social media marketing strategy? I think so.

Spending only $11,000 to produce the movie Paranormal Activity, Paramount Pictures generated more online buzz than the upcoming Twilight sequel New Moon. Instead of using a conventional trailer, Paramount opted to make a short clip that showed early viewer reaction to test screenings. With virtually no marketing budget, the movie became abuzz through word-of-mouth and college town tweeters. So, the producer launched ParanormalMovie.com, where thrill-seekers demanded local movie theater owners screen the movie. Once 1,000,000 demands were made, the movie opened across the country. The Paranormal Activity Facebook Fan Page was a key part of that success, enabling fans to purchase tickets, compare haunting reactions with other moviegoers, as well as recommend the movie to their own social networks. Following 2-weeks of nationwide midnight only sellouts and fan frenzy over the limited release hit thriller, Paranormal Activity earned Paramount $7.1 million in its opening weekend, showing in just 200 theaters.

Coke lovers Dusty and Michael were thirsting for a Coca Cola Fan Page, so they created their own. The page was such a hit that Coke’s director of worldwide interactive marketing contacted them, and assigned a team of employees with the task of monitoring the page, along with supporting and enhancing the page without intruding on fans. Here’s how Coke shares their Facebook marketing experiences: (1) Facebook is a particularly useful tool if your product or service has an emotional appeal to it. (2) The secret is to let the Facebook fans do the talking. (3) Facebook isn’t a marketer’s silver bullet, it’s simply an accessory in the marketer’s toolbox. Coke’s strategy seems to be working; their fan page has now hit 3.7 million!

And what would Facebook be without its own Facebook Fan Page for self-promotion? Not to be outdone by Coca-Cola, the page currently has an impressive 5.4 million fans to date.

As brands catch on to the power of Facebook marketing, we’re likely to see a lot more of these fan pages cropping up. Contrary to popular belief, Facebook is not just for college students. These specialized pages offer a ton of business benefits, including the chance to build an online community, a boost in search engine rankings, and the best part of the Facebook fan page? It’s free! If your organization doesn’t have a fan page yet, then perhaps it’s time to create one. Need help getting started? Contact us.

See our contact page for a great example of a simple and effective form –

http://transmyt.com/contact/

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JoAnne Starks,

August as business development manager atTransmyt Marketing, and in this role, my primary strategy has been to complement traditional networking with social media networking.

And, I have been networking my butt off… participating in BNI (Business Networking International) groups, attending events with Chambers of Commerce, the Downtown Women’s Club, Mass Innovation Nights, Meetups, lunches with connections, and myriad other networking clubs.  And to complement this I’m blogging, on LinkedIn all day, facebooking, and now tweeting (Jeeze Louise).

This morning (at the butt crack of dawn) I sub’d at a BNI meeting, and I’ll say, I’m conflicted about BNI.  I’m not moved by the 7am weekly meetings or the board room style.  But I do like the non-compete environment and the business referral tracking system (they really quantify their effectiveness).

The Big Idea: In this morning’s meeting, I had a deja vu thought all over again, and I’d like to share it with you so that we might iron it out—and we might become super rich like Dr. Ivan Misner (the Founder & Chairman of BNI).

Basically, I plan to make an effort to come to events with a “money in, money out” proposition.  I know that this isn’t always possible, but this morning I decided that for me:

Money in: I need referrals to people who are looking for marketing services (strategy, creative services, web site development, email marketing, newsletters, social media optimization, blogging and content development, etc.).

Money out: I need help establishing a college savings plan (529 Plan?).  I also presently need Auto/Renters insurance. Is there currently a (cult) system or algorithm that can optimize this sort of referral concept?  I’d like to leverage my network for these solutions and inquire about your “money in, money out” situation.

Please comment.

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