Workshed Inc: Building websites, building community

Workshed Inc: Building websites, building community

[twocol_one]Workshed Working it Out[/twocol_one] [twocol_one_last]The Vancouver Business Journal published their Business Spotlight about Workshed!  Both the author (Jodie Gilmore) and photographer (Buck Heidrick) were enjoyable to work with and did a nice job of conveying what we’re trying to do for our clients.
Read it on the VBJ site here: Workshed Inc: Business Spotlight
Read the pdf version here: Workshed Inc: Business Spotlight – pdf[/twocol_one_last]

Email Marketing Made Easy

The Importance of Email Marketing (and how to do it well)

Owning a business and being a parent have a lot in common. Effectively communicating with your children and your clients is essential to maintaining good relationships in both areas. Unfortunately, regular meaningful conversation is often the first casualty when we get busy. An email newsletter is one way to communicate with clients and still get your work done. [Note: We do not recommend sending an email newsletter to your kids]
An email newsletter can be a great addition to your client communication and marketing strategy, provided you follow a few simple guidelines. (more…)

How Google+ killed Facebook

How Google+ killed Facebook

“What?” you ask. “I was just on Facebook this morning, chatting with my 362 friends and updating my status!” There’s no need to grab your phone and sound the alarm. Facebook is still alive and well. So are Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Instagram. “But you said Google+ killed Facebook.” Ok, so maybe it was more like a poke in the eye than murder, nevertheless:

Google+ just might be the most important social network of them all.

Sure, you’ve heard of Google+ and possibly even checked it out. Then, like many other people, you went back to playing Candy Crush on Facebook. Why? Because EVERYONE has a Facebook account, and it was easier to use than Google+. Not only was Facebook more familiar, the first versions of Google+ were wonky (like many early Google releases).

But my Facebook page has 4652 likes!

Admittedly, when I see a Facebook page with 4,652 likes I sometimes think to myself, “WOW! That business is popular!” Popular is great. It can be an important measure of influence, but it’s not necessarily the best one for attracting paying customers. You’ve probably heard that social media is an essential part of marketing for your business. So how is it possible that Google+ could be more important than Facebook? Ask yourself one question (or query if you prefer technospeak). What do you do when you need to search for something? Do you post it on Facebook and wait for your friends to respond? Nope. You G-O-O-G-L-E it.

Google has become a verb.

So here’s the not so well kept secret that you’ve probably never heard and why Google+ is likely more important to your business than Facebook. Google’s search algorithm favors Google+ content. Your Facebook posts aren’t even captured by the Googlebots (Thanks Zuckerberg). Just like the Dad who gets his slacker kid into an Ivy League school, Google LOVES Google+, it’s nepotism at it’s finest. There’s no point in complaining, it’s their search engine, they make the rules. Now that you know the rules, how can you make Google+ part of your marketing strategy?

Find out in the next post.

If you have questions or need to grow your business, contact us; it’s what we do.

A Fresh Coat of Paint

A Fresh Coat of Paint

A fresh coat of paint.

workshed logoWell by now the word is out, Workshed is under new ownership…and look what they did to the logo and website!

Sure, we could’ve left things as they were, worked less hours, ate a few more meals, but then would it really be ours?  We love the tradition of Workshed, the way the name evokes (for us at least) feelings of craftsmanship, service, and small town values and it was important to demonstrate our own style and perspective.

Plus the new office is in downtown Washougal (as a Camas grad Joe cannot utter the phrase go Panthers!) so for fun we brought out the orange in the logo and website.  It’s very much a work in progress, but go ahead and pull it up on your phone or tablet.  It should (assuming everything is functioning properly) automatically resize itself to fit your device.  Web nerds call this a responsive design and we think it’s crucial for businesses on the web.

Why you ask?

Just think how often you look something up on your phone.  Maybe you like long load times and pinching, zooming, and scrolling all over.  The people that track this sort of behavior say most people don’t and that it means lost revenue.   How a website looks on a mobile device is one of the questions from our “3 Question Website Review,” if you want a copy just click the button.

3 QUESTION WEBSITE REVIEW

Let us know how your site measures up to the quick review, we’d be happy to help with any changes you need.

Just Launched: Zookbinders.com

Workshed is proud to announce the launch of another new web site, this time for Zookbinders, a manufacturer of quality, hand-made photo albums for professional photographers. We programmed the site build out and programming on behalf of our Seattle agency partners, SDM Marketing and PBR Design, who did an amazing job on the marketing direction, graphic design, creative direction and content.

The site makes use of several current technologies, such as AJAX, Javascript/jQuery, PHP, MySQL and Flash. The site also makes use of our own content management tool, Pegboard, so the client can keep their content up-to-date without the need for a web developer.

Check out the site:

http://www.zookbinders.com