Author Archive

Congratulations to Ellen Gibson of Professional Writing Services! She won the Sony Walkman Water Resistant 2GB MP3 Player that we raffled off to those that participated in the up close and personal social media consults we had at the Androscoggin B2B Trade Show! It’s a neat MP3 player because it has no wires to tangle up! It was carefully selected by our Media Team Leader, 16-year-old Zaq Stiles. It’s got to be good if a 16 year old musician selected it, right?!!

If you’re in need of professional writing services give us a call or shoot an email over and we’ll connect you with Ellen!

And Ellen, it was a pleasure working with you at the trade show.

Best wishes and enjoy!

The Core Zero Creative Team

Photo Credit: Mainely Portrait Photography

Core Zero Creative, your one-stop shop for Maine Web Design & Social Media Marketing Workshops in Maine had a WHOPPER of a day over at the Androscoggin B2B Trade Show Thursday! First of all, Thank You to the LAEGC, The Chamber, and all the businesses and people involved to make this event happen each year. What a wonderful statement of commitment to our economy and local businesses! It was our first year there as an exhibitor and we could not have been more delighted with the experience. We brought a crew of 5 to “work the show” and that really paid off. We all got plenty of face time with visitors as well as enough down time to stay sane. Those that chose not to stay sane spent their free time walking the show visiting other booths, sharing the insanity. And eating cookies. And other good stuff. I may still be touched…

With over 200 vendors plus their crews, and over 2,500 visitors… 3,000 people… what a great day to network and get the pulse on who’s who and what’s what here in Lewiston-Auburn and the surrounding areas. (Not to mention getting to sleep all day Friday!) I highly recommend taking a day out of your busy schedule next year to attend this show. You will be glad you did!

If you really want to know what you should be doing online my recommendation is to network in a real and authentic way. We’re not talking about networking like you see at your local chamber of commerce meet-ups where people whip out business cards and throw them around like ninja stars, but networking as in:

• Finding a networking community that shares your interests (and yes, this can be a Facebook page, LinkedIn or a handful of Blogs).
• Making sure that everyone connected in the community has shared/similar values.
• Adding your own value (insights, news, etc…) that helps to elevate to the community and the participants.
• Do much more for others before asking them to do something for you (I think Chris Brogan’s rule is perfect: do twelve things for others before asking them to do one thing for yourself).
• Don’t ask for business, but try to find business for everyone else.
• Plug into the community. Sincerely. Get to know your neighbors and be helpful.

It’s not sexy and it doesn’t add to your bottom line… today.

And that’s why so few people do it so well, and those that do it very well are the true rock stars of their industry.

That’s what you should do online.

Many thanks to Mitch Joel for this post!

The countdown to 5-10-10 has completed and the BIG DAY has officially arrived! Eric Bryant (that’s me) is now the acting full time Marketing Director of Core Zero Creative! Unbeknownst to many (archaic word alert!) in addition to my role at Core Zero as a WordPress Web Designer, Social Media Marketing Strategist & Trainer, and Internet Marketing Guy, I’ve also worked as an IT Specialist for the past 25 years managing corporate computer systems and networks. As millions turn to Web 2.0–the social web–as a means to promote their businesses, products, services, organizations, and causes, Core Zero’s steady growth has made it both possible and necessary for me to come aboard full time, leaving the IT field behind. This year companies will throw billions of dollars at engaging people in web-based conversations around their brands and causes, and getting people to friend, follow, link to and talk about them.

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It’s no coincidence that Facebook launched a new real-time search engine on the same day that it bought FriendFeed and Google announced a new infrastructure project aimed at speeding up its indexing time. Make no mistake about it: people that know search believe that there’s gold in real-time and social data, and Facebook’s blockbuster acquisition of FriendFeed was a lob squarely across Google’s bow.

Facebook has always been in a position to take a lead in real-time and social search because of the sheer amount of data the site has collected about what people are doing, the things they’re interested in, and what their social graph looks like. About 15 months ago, Paul Buchheit, the founder of FriendFeed, actually wrote that the human link data at sites like Facebook “could ultimately be more valuable than the link data from the web” that Google’s search engine is based on – someone just needs to mine it. Now he may have his chance.
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The social media scene is demanding your company’s attention. Regardless of what your product or service area is, the social media network is talking about it, and you’d better be listening. What should you do about it? Here are some great social media networking tips to help you along the way. Whether you’ve just started or you’re still thinking about it, check them out. Be sure to add your own tips in the comments section and and let us know what you think!

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Here’s a Q&A Quickie on Social Media that’s sure to delight. It’s from an interview with Joseph Jaffe, President of Crayon, and best selling author of many books on advertising and new media.

Question: Can you share some tips for companies trying to make sense out of defining a social media strategy?

Answer:

• Don’t cede control completely to your consumers. They don’t want it. Meet them halfway. Partner with them. Work with them.
• Marketing is not a campaign; it’s a commitment. If you want lifetime relationships with your consumers, you need to invest in them–genuinely–for life. Begin with investing in what we call “commitment to conversation”.
• Learn to deal with negativity. You want the love, but can’t deal with the hate. Criticism is not your enemy; apathy and indifference are. Any negative response from consumers (whether by blog, e-mail or customer service inquiry) is a cry for help and an acknowledgment that they care enough to reach out to you.
• Think strategically. Define a social networking strategy. Invest in well-structured experimentation. We distill this into a very real and workable number: four. Four experiments over a calendar year. Is one experiment per quarter that unrealistic, or irrationally exuberant? I think not.

Onward & Upward!

Eric Bryant

A good start to describing a Content Management System (CMS) is to describe the experience of using one. At Core Zero Creative we design websites in a database-driven content management system (CMS) that allows our clients to easily update and manage the content of their websites. They can do this using any web browser from any location, and it requires no software to be downloaded, purchased, or installed. Each user within a company or team can have their own login and be assigned permission to edit various parts of the website content including the text and images. And the best part yet is that this can all be done with no technical expertise needed, and certainly no HTML or web programming knowledge—at all!

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A blog is a type of website (or a section of a website) where articles, pictures, and/or other items of interest are “posted” on a regular basis. Blogs are typically organized around a specific topic, be that a person, an idea, concept, computer program or type, political or social topic, scientific area, well… you get the idea! There are endless blogs out there. A person who posts these articles is said to blog, and is called a blogger. Here’s another core blog topic: your company and its people, products, and services.

The ongoing articles added to a blog are called blog posts. Posts are sorted into categories, searchable by tags, displayed in reverse chronological order, and archived over time for easy search and retrieval. The word “Blog” is a concatenated form of the words web and log. Get it?

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Date: October 17, 2009
Start Time: 9:00
End Time: 12:00
Location: Androscoggin Chamber of Commerce
Register here
Description: The content has the potential to literally launch your business (and profitability) by showing you how to get started building a Social Media Presence. Not only on the Internet, but also in your day-to-day interactions with customers, clients, and prospects. Businesses using Social Media Marketing and Appreciation Marketing are seeing astronomical increases in customer retention, repeat business, and referrals and I’ve designed a 3 hour seminar that jump starts you in both areas.

The seminar covers two major topics: Social Media Marketing and Appreciation Marketing. Social Media Marketing is the act of using social influencers, social media platforms, and online communities for marketing, publication relations, and customer service. Social Media Marketing tools include Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Blogs, Digg, Delicious, and hundreds more.

Appreciation Marketing is in and of itself as powerful as Social Media Marketing. It’s about being fresh, creative, and unpredictable in a positive way. You separate yourself from the masses when you take the time to communicate something personal or memorable to a client or prospect. Appreciation Marketing is the act of building someone else up. It’s about standing out from the crowd, being different, being amazing, and making someone’s day. I’ve also got a great digital new-school twist on an old-school marketing technique for you.

Upcoming Dates: Check our website for other available dates.

Registration Info: The seminar fee is $49 payable to Core Zero Creative. Advance registration is required.

If you have any questions at all please contact us at 207-212-2432 or send email for more info and for available dates and times.

Presented by Eric Bryant – Core Zero Creative