Ottawa & Calgary Web Design + WordPress + Drupal + Social Media + iPhone Apps | Armadillo Studios Inc.

Being that Team Armadillo is unapologetically proud to be Calgarian, we thought it was time to do something a little special for Stampede. So what better way to celebrate the greatest outdoor show on earth, then to create a new set of Desktop Wallpapers.

So for everyone’s enjoyment here is the 2010 Edition of our Calgary Stampede wallpaper collection. (By the way these new wallpapers predominantly feature Veer’s custom Calgary Font and GoMedia’s Western Vector Pack.)

Real Pancakes contain Bacon

Download: Zip File with 1920×1200 & 1600×1200 formats
Download: 1600 × 1200
Download: 1920 × 1200

Mini Donuts… Sugary Carny Crack

Download: Zip File with 1920×1200 & 1600×1200 formats
Download: 1600 × 1200
Download: 1920 × 1200

If you have any other slogan suggestions, feel free to leave a message in the comments. If they’re funny enough, we’ll make another batch of wallpapers.

Happy Stampede Everyone

It is with great pleasure that Armadillo Studios announces our new Facebook Fan Page.

As you can see our new Facebook Fan Page is a fully customized site, which aims to show the playful side of Armadillo Studios and to also demonstrate the potential power of the Facebook Fan Page. We built all the elements of the Armadillo Studios landing page using FBML (Facebook Meta Language), a new cannon of design code which allows page owners to dramatically enhance the Facebook experience for their fans.

But Why Launch a Fan Page Now?

Some of you may be asking, why is a Web Design and Social Media outfit only jumping on the Facebook Fan Page bandwagon now?

To answer that, let’s look quickly at the Facebook platform.

When Facebook first started gaining some traction with the college crowd, it created a unique subsection for people to organize called Groups. As everyone now knows, Groups allow up to 5,000 users to band together to show their admiration for a wealth of topics. But the major flaw, with Groups, is that it was quite difficult to connect with your followers. Without a constant level of interaction between groups and their followers, most groups faded into the distance.

Now fast forward to the beginning of 2009 and Facebook is set to launch a new system called Fan Pages.

Fan Pages are Group pages on steroids – no limits on membership, the ability to post new content directly into your fan’s activity stream and the ability to customize the layout. When they first launched many organizations made the switch instantaneously, but one of the hidden elements of the new customizable elements was the ability to create new pages using FBML (Facebook Meta Language).

In recent months, FMBL has undergone a series of dramatic enhancements to the point where those who are familiar with the language, can now utilize this new tool to fully customize the Fan Page experience.

FMBL and The Future of Fan Pages

It’s because of the evolution of FBML that we felt it was time to create a new identity for the company on Facebook.

With FBML, organizations can now build a unique identity on Facebook which is akin to their own goals – something that will standout from the competition. These tools now allow users to create their own mini-web sites within Facebook. And with the unprecedented growth of Facebook in certain demographics, it is now more important than ever to make a great first impression.

Because of these developments, we believe that Facebook Fan Pages are going to be a powerful new tool for companies and community organizations. And while we think our own page is pretty darn fan-tastic, here are some examples of what can be done with Facebook Fan Pages:

• The New England Patriots
• Bullfrog Power’s – Pay More For Energy Campaign
• Gerry Loves Records – An indie record label out of Edinburgh
• Victoria Secret

So don’t just take our word on it, some of the biggest players in the internet industry are already taking note.

Fan Pages & Your Company

The beauty of Facebook fan pages is that they can built for a fraction of the cost of a regular web site and they also allow you a direct connection to your fans (via streaming your updates directly in to your fan’s stream). So if you like what you see with our own Facebook Fan Page, send us a note at info@armadillostudios.ca.

If you get in contact with us to develop a Fan Page by July 15th, we’ll give you an introductory discount of 20% on our development rate.

In early July, Armadillo Studios was approached by the Calgary Downtown Association, in conjunction with Tag Advertising, to help jump-start the online campaign for the new Getdown.ca web site.

The goal of the Getdown.ca project is to help create a new web site that would inform Calgarians of the great events going on Downtown. Our roll in the project was to help develop and guide a social media strategy for the newly launched site. Through a combination of on-site training and hands on work, Armadillo Studios worked tirelessly to help kick start Getdown.ca into a viable element of the Calgary online community.

We enlisted the help of some of Calgary’s up and coming writers as well as active and influential members of the yycTwitter Community to populate the new site with great content. We also provided customized social media training sessions for the Downtown Calgary team and applied an organic growth strategy for the Twitter campaign. In addition, we tailored Downtown Calgary’s Twitter and Facebook Fan pages based on Xpan’s & Tag’s elegant web site design.

During our tenure, the Getdown.ca project has grown by leaps and bounds. Since handing the project to Downtown Calgary earlier this month, GetDown.ca continues to grow. We’re pretty proud of the work we did with Downtown Calgary and here are some of the simple stats for the project.

• The Downtown Calgary Facebook Fan page has broken the ever-so popular 100 fan check point. The page continues to evolve as Downtown Calgary begins to utilize different elements of Facebook’s Fan pages to improve communication with the Calgary community.
• The Getdown.ca blog has published over 60+ posts about the Downtown area. Covering everything from Downtown’s own Stylocity week to the flagship *atomic Bubble Tea shop to the latest plays from Calgary’s Theatre scene.
• The Downtown Calgary Twitter account grows at a positive and organic pace, with new users joining regularly.

Not bad for a 4 month period.

Anyways, we’d like to thank Downtown Calgary & Tag Advertising for the opportunity to work with them on the GetDown.ca project. We know Downtown Calgary’s Social media influence will continue to grow as it is in great hands. And last but not least, a big thank you goes out to all the local writers who helped launch the GetDown.ca project. Without their content none of this would have been possible.

A month ago Shel Israel swung through Calgary on a promotional stop for his latest book, Twitterville. Intrigued by his previous work, Naked Conversations with Robert Scroble, Half of the Armadillo team attended his talk to see what Shel had to say about on twitter. Shel spent the evening doing what he does best; regaling the audience with anecdote after anecdote about the growing importance of Twitter for business (and to a lesser extent society). Needless to say, very few attendees of that event left without a copy of twitterville under their arm.

Shel is a gifted story teller and Twitterville is nothing short of enthralling and inspiring. From a business perspective if you are looking to properly explore the world of Social Marketing, in particular Twitter, consider picking up a copy.

See Twitterville easily overshadows the plethora of other Twitter books, because it is an honest look at the evolving community, from the viewpoint of someone who truly cares. Shel enthusiasm clearly demonstrates his appreciation for the subject material. His business anecdotes have an intimate feel to them, due to the relationships he has built with the major protagonists in each story. Within each chapter he is promoting and championing businesses that understand Twitterville and are pushing it in a positive direction. More importantly, he showcases the people behind these successful accounts, who are leverage their own generosity and compassion to further the community and their own bottom-line.

In a sense, the basic take-away from Twitterville, revolves around the divide between the personal and impersonal. As Shel notes throughout the book, the downfall of many business strategies on Twitter are routed in the impersonal and archaic broadcast tactics many companies are familiar with. Where businesses are seeing favourable results on Twitter, is when they shift their focus towards a more involved and open two-way communication strategy. Shel’s philosophy is that Businesses will succeed on Twitter only when they are personable. And he leverages many examples throughout Twitterville; from the success story of comcastcares to scottymonty and his ability to suppress Ford Ranger Fan-club backlash to the small business success of Houston’s coffegroundz.

That is not to say that Twitterville is only for the novice twitter user. Rather Twitterville is an important read even for the most seasoned of power users. From his own personal ideal That Twitter is the Place where People Act The Most Honest to the concept of Lethal Generosity, Shel is able to show Twitter’s evolving ability in a different light. In addition, Shel’s business cases and anecdotes are well researched and provide even experienced marketers with ideas and concepts to work with or bring to their clients. That is not to say that there aren’t any remedial chapters intended for the novice users (the Last Chapter is dedicated to the basics of Twitter and there is a detailed chapter geared towards the darker side of twitter).

It’s easy to be sceptical of the magnitude of literature popping up regarding the business opportunities within the Twitter community; the technology is far too young for anyone to truly comprehend the future ramifications of the tool. But Twitterville is a fantastic first step in that direction. It is a book which is chalkful of insightful ideas and positive concepts, that showcase ideas that promote the community rather than exploit it.

If you are small business looking to engage with your clients on Twitter, take the time to seek out Twitterville.

Update at the bottom of the article

It is well known that one of the major industries to really embrace the Twitter phenomena is the Airline Industry. The first company to truly leverage Twitter in to a profitable business model was the successful low cost carrier Jet Blue. Since then there has been an explosion of carriers trying to reach out to customers and promote a variety of special ‘twitter’ deals. From major carriers such as United to low cost carriers like SouthWest Airlines and the aforementioned JetBlue, but until recently none of the Canadian based carriers have leveraged the service.

But as June 28th, Calgary based WestJet has launched it’s own twitter account with a series of free flight give-aways. The company which has built it’s reputation on exceeding the service expectations of customers and coupling that low cost fares, is one of the great examples of corporation that can really leverage twitter.

With this press release, it does look like WestJet is kick starting their service with a great campaign by giving away free flights to a random group of initial followers. This is a simple way to create a viral buzz and garner a solid base of followers. It also looks like Westjet is going to send out special tweet deals like their American counterparts have. Which are both great steps for building a great following.

Unfortunately, there is a gaping hole that WestJet is not addressing. Now this is based solely on their press release, but it does seem that they have ignored the important aspect of customer service.

As noted in a variety of articles and blog posts on the topic of the Airline Industry’s usage of twitter, the truly successful companies such as JetBlue and SouthWest, have really improved customer relations by utilizing twitter to quickly respond to customer questions and issues. These companies have used the tool to engage their customer base by answering questions, helping with reservations, and addressing customer service issues. Which in turn has enhanced their corporate image and provided real-time friendly face to the customers.

Below is an example of the success of JetBlue’s campaign:

Morgan and I exchanged a few emails and I learned that Morgan is behind JetBlue’s tweets, and not a bot, and that Morgan is very well informed on social media ethics and aware that corporate use of Twitter can be tricky. I am impressed that Morgan was watching Twitter closely enough to sense an issue, responded quickly, apologized, and removed the two of us from @JetBlue’s list. This served as a demonstration of the company’s active participation in the Twitter conversation, its willingness to course-correct, and of the new speed of social media with which corporations have to contend.

Good or Bad, WestJet’s adoption of Twitter is a great step for the full integration of social media into the consciousness of the Canadian Public.

So Kudos is in order for WestJet.

Update: Shortly after launching the article and linking it on Twitter we received this fantastic response from WestJet.

So we’ll gladly enjoy our fine steaming slice of humble pie and completely applaud WestJet. If anything, this little exchange further shows the importance of not only leveraging twitter to promote your products, but to also use it as a real-time customer relations tool.

The buzz about twitter in Calgary is starting to take off. Over the past few days twitter has been a feature cover story on FFWD, The Calgary Herald , The MetroNews and started to hit a breaking point with a segment on CFCN’s evening broadcast. With local media outfits like CTV, CBC and the City of Calgary embracing the platform Calgary is about to become overwhelmed by the Twitter movement.

So how can your business take advantage of the wealth of new users based in Calgary?

Tips Before you Start

Your first impression on Twitter is far more important than any other first impression online.

When a follow notification is sent to a user, the first thing people judge is your home page – the look of your homepage, the types of tweets you’ve published and the ratio of followers to following. This combination of information will provide users with the justification on whether to add you to their following stream.

The thing to remember is that unless people follow your twitter account, your tweets are going to fall on deaf ears. Noise and tweet pollution are becoming a pet peeve with most users at the moment and as the community grows this is going to become a stronger issue for many. So your first impression is critical to the success of your Twitter venture.

Simple Tips To Get You Started

Our first bit of advise is to take your time with the process. Do not rush into creating an account.

Really think about why you want to use Twitter to connect with potential customers and what you hope to get out this account. Before you start searching and connecting with local Calgary twitters post 5-7 tweets with valuable information. Provide users a welcome message, an introduction, a link to features about your company in the local media, maybe even a couple of specials discounts, or even photos of your storefront on flickr. Just make sure you have some interesting content for people to look at when they first land on your homepage.

The next bit of advice is to be patient and persistent. Tweet regularly and engage in conversations with your followers. Don’t expect the community to embrace your business and grow without putting in some effort.

So how can you use your Twitter account to help your business in Calgary?

Twitter Consulting Sessions For The Calgary Market

Members of the Armadillo Studios Team have been early adapters of Twitter. Over the past two years we have been following and watching the trends. With the media attention given to Twitter in the Calgary Market, we’ve decided to share our experience with local businesses to help them make the most out of Twitter and to bring something to the local Calgary Twitter community.

It is because of this that we are offering Twitter Consultation Sessions.

These sessions provide the following:

• 1 hour Twitter Consultation Session with your company to brainstorm the goals for setting up an account.
• We’ll provide training (on etiquette and proper usage), tips on how to find customers and help create a list of specific ideas on how to interact with your potential audience.
• Information regarding the Latest Tools and Applications to enhance your businesses’ Twitter Account.
• Customized graphics package for your Twitter Account. (includes a customized Background Image with detailed information, A customized Avatar and Matching Layout Color Scheme)
• A customized Tip Sheet for your own reference.
• Tips on how to integrate your Tweets into your Corporate Web Site. (Integration with your current site is an additional cost.)
• Follow-up 20 minute session (2 months later) to see how we can better utilize your account.

A Twitter Consultation Session costs $135 (+GST) for the full package. If you are interested in this offer please email us at info@armadillostudios.ca, call us at 403.467.2914 or of course contact us on twitter: @armadillostudio

If you’re looking for the hot catch phrase for 2009, look no further than the term Social Media Expert or Social Media Marketing.

The Internet and the Web Design Industry is a buzz with this new term. While a select few are championing themselves as leaders in the Social Media field, many predominate members of the Web Design Industry are shunning the two terms and working to create a compressive definition.

We’ve been following Roger Kondrat’s twitter feed for the past little while as he explores the topic and has dug up some interesting links. These articles have got the proverbial hamster wheel spinning a bit for the Armadillo Team and we would like to point out two extremely important ideas (or warnings) about Social Media from articles that Roger has posted.

So have a quick look over these two tidbits of cautionary advice and insight before looking at Social Media Marketing for your business.

What Truly Defines someone as a Social Media Expert?

Enrique Guiterrez’s article on Social Media Marketing don’ts and do’s has a series of important points to consider when approached by a Social Media Marketer, but the most important seems to be that a true Social Media Marketer is not just an avid user of Social Media, but someone that will be able to explain how they will utilize Social Media to get your customers engaged.

Many so-called Social Media Experts seem to be championing their followers, links or the size of their own audience as proof of their Social Media expertise. But this is alone odes not qualify some one as a true Social Media Expert. Instead these so-called experts should be detailing and justifying the various campaigns they have launched, the successful reinterpretations of brands for social media they have created and the business effects on their client’s campaigns.

As Enrique puts it, an expert who champions their audience will do nothing more than create an Echo Effect in regards to your product. What you need to find is someone who understands Social Media and can think out side of the box. This individual must be able to look at a product and find ways to manipulate the most popular Social Media applications or sites to increase a products brand.

They should be able to explain your audience and then dissect what sort of applications or sites that audience utilizes that you could benefit from by having a presence.

Can Your Company Take advantage of Social Media?

Our answer is a resounding Yes!.

We here at Armadillo Studios believe there is great potential in Social Media Marketing; especially in the undeserved Southern Albertan market.

But as pointed out on Traacker’s list of 10 simple rules to tell who you are talking to, it takes some understanding and patience to get true value out of Social Media Marketing.

As the article mentions, Social Media Marketing should be a relatively inexpensive venue for promoting your business’ services. You do not need a large budget to get involved in Social Media Marketing; instead you need time, commitment and the persistence to let it grow. Many So-called Social Media Markters are championing large advertising budgets and fast ROI on their campaigns.

In reality, these campaigns are relatively inexpensive and require a little bit of time to foster to fruition.

For example a Niche Bakery could set-up a free Twitter account to update clients on the specials for that week. Or create a free fan page on Facebook to notify their subscribers of specials, products or even some home made recipes. The only investment the bakery truly needs to create a community is a small amount of dedicated time to constantly update their Twitter/Facebook accounts, some energy to reach out to potential clients and a web site as a focal point for the community. As you can see this sort of campaign is relatively inexpensive (As signing up for most Social Media Networks requires zero investment costs), but it does require time and patience to foster a loyal community.

While it seems relatively easy for a Bakery to take advantage of Social Media, what about a legal firm? Facebook, YouTube and Twitter are all great communities, but none of them necessarily fit the professional image of a Legal Firm. But a true successful Social Media Marketer will still be able to leverage other tools such as a Published Professional Article feed, LinkedIn Company page or other legal related communities to help showcase the Legal Firms Expertise.

While both examples are on different ends of the business spectrum; both campaigns require minimum monetary investment and time.

Are Social Media Campaigns Worth it?

We here at the old Armadillo Studios believe and champion Social Media and the tangible benefits that it can potentially bring to our clients. We have been working to launch integrated campaigns, but are not ready to call our selves fully-fledged Social Media Experts. We put together this little article to caution others before they get caught up in the excitement of social media and provide some information for potential clients.

If this topic interests you, please read Aaron Roe Fulkerson list of Quantitative metrics for determining a Social Media expert or Mark Havenner’s article on Measuring ROI of Social Media – Another Perspective