What I am talking about here is your email address. Even if you don’t have your own website, which you should, you should have your own email address. Why should you be advertising AOL, Yahoo, Hotmail, GMail or any other email provider instead of yourself? It is a very simple matter to set up a rule with whomever your web host is to forward any mail that comes to your domain’s mailbox to the mailbox you are currently using. In other words, if your domain name is “mydomain.com” then you could have “president@mydomain.com” as an email address that simply forwards to your current account on AOL, Yahoo or wherever. And as long as you make sure to set your return address in your email program to “president@mydomain.com” no one will ever be the wiser.

Another thing you can do is map multiple address to a single end account. This means that you can make your small business seem large by having different addresses like “support@mydomain.com”, “humanresources@mydomain.com” and “complaints@mydomain.com” all as valid emails, but in reality they just go to your one main account. This is great for a growing company because as those positions actually come into existence the address can just be re-pointed to the new hire. The outside address never changes.

And that brings up another reason to do this email mapping. How many times have you changed email providers? Perhaps you moved out of Comcast’s area and now use AT&T. So your email address changed. Or maybe you simply outgrew the smaller residential service and needed a truly robust solution. Whatever the reason, every time you change your email provider then your customers need to be notified, your business cards need to be changed, your letterhead has to change, your website has to change… well, you get the picture. But, if you use your own domain’s email addressing, then you are always in control. If you move email providers there is no problem. The pointer for “president@mydomain.com” is redirected from “me@comcast.net” to “me@att.com” and nothing for your customers, vendors, or other contacts need to change.

What does all of this cost? If you own your own domain name or website you are probably already paying for it. If you need someone’s help to do the work there may be a small charge, but it would be very small. Of course there will be that initial change when you let all your contacts know your new email, but you can tell them that this will be the last time you will ever do so. What a relief to everyone involved. And, from then on, when they see your emails your brand will be reinforced – and you will be advertising yourself instead of someone else.

Just when you thought you were getting comfortable with running your business Facebook page, they have done it again, and changed it all….

The new Timeline layout that was previously introduced for personal profiles is now being rolled out for business pages too. And you have until March 30th to get your page updated. There are literally hundreds of informative blog posts being published on how to do this, so we won’ t be doing that here (although if you are looking, DTW recommends Mashable’s guide).

We think that the new page layout may actually be a very good thing, mostly because using it wisely can make your brand page on Facebook much more effective, instead of just a stopping point along the way for your audience. The biggest effects are really all about IMAGES. Just the salient points:

1. You need a good “cover picture”. This is the big one that goes across the top of the page, and is not the same as your profile image. There are quite a few rules, mostly about what the cover image cannot contain, so read up carefully and get a good one  (or two or three). This is a huge amount of screen”real estate” and makes the immediate impression, so use it wisely. If you can, get a professionally designed image that really gets your message across.

2. Learn how to manipulate where  posts appear. You can “pin” and “highlight” and both these tools also affect how attached images display. You can use your timeline to really tell a story about your brand.

3. Custom apps are still good tools; learn how to feature them and upload custom images that will make them noticeable.

4. Your customers can now “Message” you instead of just posting on your wall – and any new direct line of communication can be a great customer relations tool.

For further information, check out these guides from Facebook:

http://ads.ak.facebook.com/ads/FacebookAds/Pages_Overview.pdf

http://ads.ak.facebook.com/ads/FacebookAds/Pages_Product_Guide_022812.pdf

http://www.learnfacebookpages.com/ (this one is a video for all you visual learners).

The site has been developed in DotNetNuke to take advantage of the robust community features that will be coming into play over the next few months. Please keep checking back as this promises to not only be an exciting website, but a fantastic initiative for the Lowcountry.

As of December of 2011, Google Chrome is the second most used browser, falling only behind Internet Explorer in popularity. With over 25% of user across all platforms using it, it might be of benefit to spend a little time looking at ways to take better advantage of it. So, get a cup of coffee (or Diet Coke), check for all available updates, and then go to The Always Up-To-Date Power User’s Guide To Chrome.

This guide, put together by the fine folks over at LifeHacker, will help you get this most of what is fast becoming the web’s most powerful browser.  The text and videos include:

• Interface Tips and Tricks
• The Most Time-Saving Shortcuts
• Customize Chrome’s Settings
• Enhance Chrome’s Functionality with Extensions
• Master Chrome’s Secret Features

A few minutes spent review the tips and tricks in this guide could really make your time spent with Chrome more productive.  Oh, and if you want to see my shiny chrome, just check out Catherine.

www.angeloakpet.com

Last week saw the launch of another DesignTechWeb featured website.

Replacing an older site, Angel Oak Animal Hospital needed an updated design that would be easy to maintain, and within their small business website budget. Using some stock photos and personalized images from the staff, DTW worked with the business owners to develop a design that was stylish and yet flexible, with expansion options that would meet their needs for the future.

The site ties in the practice’s Facebook presence, and also begins them on the road to developing their website as a communications tool with their clients, with a strong blogging platform and RSS feeds.

Attendance is free, there is free food, door prizes, and great conversation!

The slides from the presentations are posted on SlideShare.

First, realize that your Google+ page will not have a recognizable URL. Instead of the pretty URL like Facebook gives you (after a certain number of “likes”), you will have something like https://plus.google.com/b/117917786821926763293. In addition, there can be multiple pages with the same company or organization name. What this means is that there actually is no big rush because no one can sit on your name. Unlike a dot-com name where only one can exist, there really is no limit to the number of “Acme Company” pages that might exist. The real downside to this is that it is going to create confusion when Google+ users are looking for you – how will they know which page is really you? To deal with this, when you create your page, make sure that you brand it consistently with your company, that you put in your one true company URL and that you provide lots of clues, like location and 10 word tagline, as to who you are. This will help searchers quickly spot you by logo, by location or tagline.

Second, the ownership and management of a Google+ page can not be transferred from the person who originally created it. At this time, it cannot even be shared. Until Google changes this it is extremely important to consider who creates the page. You will want a generic company email tied to the page. If you have a marketing firm create the page with their email, and then you part ways with that firm, the page would legally be theirs. The same would be true if it was created by an employee with their own email and then they were fired. So be careful.

Finally, a company page can not circle or follow, or even tag or mention, a person until that person has included them in a circle. This is to keep companies from spamming people. You will need to get people to follow your company by promoting your page through your website and emails and by personal recommendation within personal Google+ circles.

There are obviously many more things to consider when setting up your page for your business or organization, and this will be a constantly changing and evolving platform. We will do our best here at DesignTechWeb to keep you up to date and let you know about important developments. In the meantime, feel free to ask questions and let us know where we can help.

Swallowtail Architecture and Design

Swallowtail Architecture & Design is a new firm with offices in both Charleston and Toronto. We were happy to work with them to come up with a design that portrayed the elegant style that want to portray in all their work. As the company grows the site will be expanded to include a client portal for ongoing collaborations, a project management component, and a gallery.