Social Media has definitely become far greater than just a trend. Advertising & marketing agencies across the world are working hard to get their clients on the social- media-map, especially on those social media sites who’ve had their fair share of time in the limelight: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, Myspace, and Linkedin.

There is no question corporate America took a little time to get on the social media bandwagon. Since then, the social media buzz has exponentially grown with large corporations and many a small business owner’s finally giving in and “getting it”; however, in today’s economy, what CEO truly has the extra time in the day to invest in the development and management of ALL these accounts to ensure that their brand is made known to the millions of users? Definitely, not very many. With so many other things fighting for their attention, companies need someone they can entrust their corporate identities with across the entire social-media-board.

Here in lies a social media management company. Their job is to get your company where it needs to be, how it needs to be there, and spread the word ‘round. If you did a Google search for “social media management companies”, you’d get back “about 75,700,000 results [in] (0.32 seconds)” (as noted by Google when this search is actually done). The problem is: How do you know which company is the best fit for you?

We can sit here and spend hours developing a technical list of do’s and don’ts in social media management, but we are not. If you really are interested, do a Google search .
You’ll find many an articles and checklists pertaining to this topic. What you won’t find is anything about what we are deeming to be the most important thing in social media management:

Ultimately, you need to be in control of all your social media accounts even though a third-party company is managing it.

What does that mean?
Well, to keep it simple, the kind of company you want managing your real-time social media presence is the kind of company that sets up all of the social media accounts with a real email address and basic account information that belongs to your company AND shares all the login credentials with you. Basically, you want to do business with a company that gives you complete control of your social media accounts.

Why is this so important?
Let’s answer this by telling a short story.
Once upon a time, there lived a business owner who had no idea what social media was but knew that his company needed to “get with the program”. So, as any wise business owner would, he did a Google search and hired the first social media management company that seemed to be legit at a wholesale price. The business owner was elated that he was able to take this elaborate task off his list of things-to-do.

Months passed and the business owner wasn’t completely happy with the success management of his social media accounts. He felt that the social media accounts were not being used to their best potential.

So, one day, the business owner and the social media management company had to part ways.

The next day, the business owner decided that he would need to hire another company to manage all the social media. So they tried their best to get in contact with the previous social media management company in order to obtain login credentials for all the of business owner’s accounts, but were unsuccessful with every attempt. The new company was left to jump through many-a-hoops to regain control of these accounts.

The moral of the story: Be sure that you have complete control of all of your social media accounts from the get-go. Yes, eventually you can get all of your login credentials back; but it takes a lot of unnecessary time and effort.

At Blackdog Advertising, we make sure to educate ourselves with the latest best practices of the social media world as a rule. Our most important goal is for you to be in complete control of all of your social media accounts. Among other best practices, we set up every social media account with credentials that we decide on as a team and include you in the process.

So, if you’re looking for a social media management company, please do your homework and make sure of one thing: You need to be in control of it.

The time is now.

Social media is steadily becoming the top way for businesses to achieve brand awareness and promote engagement with existing and new customers alike. And why shouldn’t they? Social media networks are where the people are. Studies show there are over 400 billion active users on Facebook; Twitter contains approximately 19 million users; there are 100 million YouTube videos viewed everyday; and now with the latest phenomenon, Foursquare, which has 1 million active users and steadily rising, it’s hardly arguable to NOT be involved as a company.

Yet a recent study has concluded that the largest 100 of the Fortune 500 companies are still a little slow to jump on the bandwagon. Some have added a Facebook or Twitter page but very few have integrated themselves through all the major outlets:

• 65% have active accounts on Twitter

• 54% have a Facebook fan page

• 50% have a YouTube channel

• 33% have corporate blogs

• 20% (inclusive) use all four platforms

The reason for such hesitation is primarily due to the lack of ROI. Even though there are some tools to track these figures such as Google analytics, the key is finding trends and tracking them back to their origin. For example, a Facebook post or a Twitter tweet are keys in measuring ROI. Considering that social media is still in its infancy, the perfect formula for such a method has yet to be established.

But the movement is catching on. Take Pepsi for example: There’s something to be said when a Fortune 500 company skips placement in the Super Bowl commercial craze and opts for a $20m social media campaign instead. This marked the first time in 23 years that Pepsi did not have ads during the Super Bowl. That’s a pretty big deal; especially when Pepsi spent upwards of $142 million dollars in Super Bowl ads over the past decade.

In its place, Pepsi has launched a social media campaign called the Pepsi Refresh Project, which began January 13, 2010. The premise of this campaign is to stimulate the Pepsi community and others to submit ideas to Pepsi on innovative community projects. Their social media campaign is also for the social good and people are definitely getting excited about it. Currently there have been 33 grants approved to date with over $1.5 million in funds given to selected community projects. This big brand is giving back in a big way and people are elated to see a big company take such social initiative.

The market is definitely changing and as the famous American writer, George Gilder stated, “in embracing change, entrepreneurs ensure social and economic stability.” However, social media marketing may not be for everyone or every business. It definitely depends on your brand and your brand’s target audience; but here at Blackdog, we believe that a majority of businesses would definitely benefit by having some type of social media presence.

What are your thoughts on this shift in advertising? Do you think Pepsi is leading the way for more Fortune 500 companies to get involved in the social media revolution?

Announcing our new website…10 years in the making.

I’m sure you’ve heard of the old expression about the shoemaker who was so busy he did not have time to make shoes for his own children. Well, let’s just say our feet have been bare for quite some time. In a major case of not practicing what we preach, we allowed our corporate website to go without any major updates for…wait-for-it…TEN YEARS!  As you can imagine this is a tad embarrassing for us. Particularly since we have designed several hundred websites over the last decade. What can I say, the customer always came first leaving our ancient website to whither on the vine.

After much hard work, plus lots of the latest in web programming, video & social networking capabilities, we are proud to announce the launch of the new BlackDog website http://www.blackdogadvertising.com .

Some additional things you may want to check out:

• Meet our creative Team | Click Here
• Find out about how we got started | Click Here
• Take a tour of our studio | Click Here
• Check out our clients | Click Here
• Visit our portfolio and check out some case studies | Click Here
• See our pretty pictures | Click Here
• Graphic Design is not dead and we have the samples to prove it | Click Here
• Did you know we are Google Certified | Click Here

Less is more.

One of the greatest artists of the 16th century, Michelangelo is best known for two of his masterpiece sculptures: David and The Pieta. And although he insisted that painting was not his profession, his ceiling frescos at the Sistine Chapel are considered some of the most influential works of art in history. During the early months of work, Michelangelo came to realize that the compositions of his first three panels were crowded. One of these

was The Great Flood; it lacked the simplicity which he came to master later on with one of his best known panels: The Creation of Adam.

My point simply is what we can learn from this versatile Renaissance man. Michelangelo was better able to visually tell a story with less elements as he progressed with each panel. As we take on our next project, whether creating a new website, a mobile-friendly interface or a corporate brochure, think not how to fill every square inch but how to utilize your space aesthetically and functionally to achieve its ultimate purpose. By doing so, I think that you will find that less truly is more when it comes to visual communications.

Stop using these fonts immediately people.

Okay, let me first say that I have used each and everyone of these type faces. Some are considered “classics”.  I won’t mention any names, but even one of our clients uses number 6 on our list in their logo. Number 7 on our list was the title font for the movie Avatar and didn’t seem to hinder the highest grossing film ever…$2,467,962,011 and counting! But, I guess the many years of seeing these fonts used and overused (sometimes used all at once on the same page) has made my love turn to..well let’s say a strong dislike. Without further delay, the top 10 fonts that make us cringe…

Don’t feel too bad for these ugly fonts, people love and use them every day…
and if you see these people please tell them to stop!