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”:http://twitter.com/roger 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”:http://enrique-gutierrez.com/2008/11/social-media-marketing-donts-and-dos/ 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”:http://traackr.com/blog/?p=36, 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”:http://twitter.com/about 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”:http://www.oblogn.com/2009/02/01/social-media-expert/ list of Quantitative metrics for determining a Social Media expert or Mark Havenner’s article on “Measuring ROI of Social Media – Another Perspective”:http://seowizardry.ca/The_Wizards_Blog/measuring-roi-of-social-media-another-perspective/

Armadillo Studios is excited to announce we have now adopted “Paypal”:https://www.paypal.com as a new form of payment for all of our client transactions.

Not that this is a relatively new concept, but in effort to improve our clients bottom line and our own; we are excited to give our clients this avenue of payment. While, we will still accept the tradition methods or payment; here are some of the benefits to our clients by using Paypal.

# *Convenience and Speed* – Instead of mailing or arranging a time for a drop off, you can now pay the remainder of your invoice online through any major bank account or credit card.
# *Take Advantage of your Credit Card* – We understand that finances with small businesses or start-ups can be a rocky road, but with Paypal you can now clear your invoice instantly through your Credit Card. Even better you can use this transaction to gain some valuable Business Reward points for Travel or other expenditures.
# *Paperless Transaction* – In this green age, sometime it’s nice to do all that we can for the environment. While this won’t dramatically change the world, this is something we can do to limit the amount of Paper used in a transaction. Because Paypal is an online transaction, you will receive an email detailing the entire transaction.
# *Security* – Paypal is an “industry leader”:https://www.paypal.com/ca/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=xpt/Merchant/popup/WaxAboutPaypal-outside and an internationally renowned client for secure transactions.

Starting February 1st, Armadillo Studios will be implementing Paypal as a new method of payment. If you would like to move forward with this form of payment for all transaction, please contact us.

Armadillo Studios is proud to announce that we will be participating in two very important Industry events in the 08-09 calendar.

First and foremost, Armadillo Studios is heading back to Austin for “SXSW Interactive 2009”:http://sxsw.com/interactive. This will be our second straight SXSW and third overall. We’re looking forward to seeing some old friends and getting involved in the international Interactive Community.

Secondly, we will be attending the Calgary Events for “National Media Digital Day”:http://www.irefreshforcontent.com/learn-more.html this Thursday. This includes a meet and greet hosted by “Digital Alberta”:http://www.digitalalberta.com/national-digital-media-day-september-25 and also the “10th Edition of DemoCamp”:http://barcampcalgary.com/2008/09/23/democampcalgary-10-this-thursday/. It should be a great evening and hopefully it brings some much need exposure to our growing local industry.

So if you happen to be in Austin in March of next year or better yet happen to be at Melrose this Thursday, pop by and say hello. We’ll be glad to see have a chat.

We’re pretty sure that there are dozens upon, dozens of articles dedicated to this topic. And we’re sure advice on building and purchasing a web site has been covered at nausea by “dozens of companies”:http://www.cairril.com/articles/webdesigner.html. But we here at Armadillo Studios thought we’d provide our own little spin on the topic. So here is the first part of our three part series:

*Shopping For a Web Site? Six Useful Tips for Businesses Looking to Set-Up a Web Site.*

1. What Should You Look for in a Designer/Studio?

First and foremost when looking to hire a Web Designer/Studio, you have to remember that you are not paying for the Web Site itself, but for your _Design Studio (or Designer’s) experience and time_.

This is probably the biggest conceptual block we run across when people inquire about our services.

It is a given that most of our economy functions by paying for physical products. For example, a basic white T-shirt has universally accepted cost of about $15 dollars, so you expect to pay anywhere between $10-20 dollars for your basic run of the mill white T-Shirt. If you pay $1.50 for the T-shirt you know its bad quality and you would only pay $200 for a white T-shirt if it was something really, really special.

Unfortunately, Web Site Design is *a service* rather than a product based industry. Sure your Web Designer/Studio will produce a product (_A Web Site, Business Cards, Banners, etc.,_), but the price you’ll be paying is for the _service the company provides_, rather than the web site itself. While that might appear to be the same thing as the T-Shirt examples, the truth is that they are two different ideas.

So with that in mind, a web site from a large established design firm is going to cost you far more than the same web site from a struggling freelancer. It could be the same amount of pages, content and functionality, but again you’re paying for *their* experience, expertise and time.

It’s best to find a studio/designer that you feel comfortable with. Explore their portfolio and previous work. Visit the sites they have previously built. Look to see how active these sites are? Are the current customers using these sites on a constant basis? Search the designer/studio’s name in your favorite Search Engine. Do they have any published articles or blog posts that explain some of their philosophies?

*Armadillo Tip*: _The business cards of any potential studio/designer are a great gauge of the type of product you can expect._

_The swankier and more detail orientated the appearance of the business cards the greater likely hood of a decent product. Rounded corners, imaginative colors, a good stock quality, and a nice finish will demonstrate their commitment to detail. Also be sure to check their email address. Is it a generic email address (hotmail.com, gmail.com, or yahoo.com) or is it a company email address. A studio/designer with their own domain and email address is more likely to provide you with a great product. Plus, if they can’t even create-up their own email account, what makes you think they’ll be able to set-up an account for you?_

2. So How Much Should You Spend on a Web Site?

The first thing you’ll notice about every _studio/agency web site_ is that they *never* reveal their rates and or have a *fixed price for a web site*.

It may seem like that we only do this to be elitist and mysterious; but the truth of the matter is you can’t put a standard quantitative price on our industries services.

For example a four page web site can potentially require far more billable hours than a 10-15 page web site. It all depends on the features, layout, requirements and design. Therefore most reputable companies won’t provide a flat rate, but will charge a hourly rate based on the requirements.

Does that answer the question? Not really? Okay.

So if your looking for a good quality web site, one that will let you standout above your competition, expect to pay somewhere in the *thousands rather than hundreds*. Be very weary of any company that promises a site and hosting for $500. It will be a waste of money, a major headache and you’ll eventually have to contact a more established studio/designer in a few months.

Trust us on this we’ve rescued a few clients in the two years that we’ve been operational.

*Armadillo Tip*: _If you need a web site and you don’t have that much money to spend, we suggest that you stake out your nearest Art College/Graphic Design school._

_Hey! Art school is expensive and those plus those kids are dying for experience. They’ll be able to provide you with some high quality work for a little bit of cash and another piece to bump up their portfolio_.

The 2nd article in this series will discuss “The Difference between Flash & HTML web sites and What Trends you need to know about”:https://www.armadillostudios.ca/shopping-for-a-web-site-part-2/.

Here’s a quick question for small businesses to consider; why is the news of “Roger’s decision to finally support the iPhone in Canada”:http://www.reportonbusiness.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080429.wrogersstaff0429/BNStory/Business/?page=rss&id=RTGAM.20080429.wrogersstaff0429 important news for your business?

Well, ponder this. Apple’s iPod popularity over the past few years has been well document and it’s dominance on the portable music market in Canada is undeniable. With Roger’s decision to finally support the iPhone in Canada, Apple seems poised to once again alter the dynamics of the prosperous Cellular phone market. But more importantly for the iPhone to work, there needs to be a major shift in wireless cell phone data rates in Canada; thereby making it cheaper and easier for people to surf the web on the their cell phones.

It is this element of Rogers’ announcement that is critical news for your business. As data rates decreases and the technology for cell phone based web browsing grows; users will be doing more surfing away from the comforts of home or their office. Instead, users will be surfing the net waiting for flights or on their daily commute. Heck they could be checking their email while at a concert or twittering their friends about the night’s activities.

With one of the highest rates of broadband usage in the world, Canadians already spend a majority of their time surfing the net. Whether it’s at work or at home. Simply put – we are a wired nation. Now with reduced cell phone data rates, the ability to surf the net from any location will allow users more time to browse the internet. That’s where it be comes imperative that your web site is designed with cell phone browsers in mind.

No mater what type of business you run, your web site needs to be compatible with all browsers. More importantly *your web site* must be compatible with Safari and Opera browsers (The common iPhone browsers) and mobile devices in general. The best way to ensure your site is compatible is to have it developed in Web Standards or in an HTML/CSS combo. A complicated Flash web site will not function as well in mobile browser and will not provide users with the information they need. While a CSS/Web Standards based site will still provide both regular desktop users and mobile users with the information they both need.

Armadillo Studios already builds our web sites with mobile devices in mind. But as the demand for the iPhone increases we will be moving towards “enhancing our sites”:http://www.bittbox.com/general-web-design/have-a-website-its-time-to-add-a-webclip-icon/ to fully embrace mobile technology. If you are interested in adapting your web site for the mobile web, give us an email at info@armadillostudios.ca.