The Social Media Holy War

Posted on February 13, 2011 by

Recently, I spoke at a conference where I got to hear from Eric Weaver, a brilliant digital marketing strategist who makes simple, but profound, observations about the impact and future of social media tools. In his presentation, he referred to the “Social Media Holy War”. It was an attempt to define the 2 sides of the discussion with one side talking about how social media is essential as a tool to influence and drive the market’s discussion and the other saying that social media is ultimately useless because it is impossible to track ROI. The extremes unfortunately drive the conversation. Social media gurus claim you have to tweet and post about making the bus on time while the other side says that social media is a fad. There is some truth to both arguments, but each position can claim some legitimacy. Facebook has over 600 million users worldwide and Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and other social media tools are continuing to carve their respective niches. Many businesses, however, continue to invest millions in their social media strategies, resulting in poor returns. What do you think?

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Local SEO And Big Google Changes

Posted on January 5, 2011 by

It has been an evolution to watch how Google handles results for locally-based searches. The challenges for getting a site optimized for a local search were already significant, but it has now taken on greater importance.

If you do a search for “columbus florist” (and if Google assumes you mean Columbus, OH), you can now see the local listings appearing as if they are organic listings. The only thing that differentiates them from organic listings is the Places info (image, address, phone number and map icon) that appear underneath the listing. These are Google listings on steroids!

It used to be that if you could get on to the first page of organic listings (around fifth to eighth position) where you would share the space with a list of ten very compact local listings, you could see some improvement in your traffic. Now, with this new layout, the local listings take up an enormous amount of real estate, while only four of the original organic listings make it onto the page. If you are in fifth to eighth position, you can forget about it.

This will dramatically increase the importance of optimization for Google Places. It also seems to give more strength to content-heavy sites like directories where there are local results.

 

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GravityFree Wins International and Local Accolades For Web Design

Posted on March 26, 2010 by

GravityFree and The Ringling International Arts Festival were recently awarded two International Davey Awards for Excellence in Interactive and Web Design for the 2009 RIAF website. GravityFree also won two Gold and one Silver ADDY Awards for The Ringling International Arts Festival website. The RIAF website can be viewed at 2009.ringlingartsfestival.org. GravityFree is currently designing the website for the 2010 festival.

“It’s always thrilling to have your team recognized for outstanding work, and it is a great opportunity to showcase the innovative work we’ve created through collaboration with our clients,” says Scott Heaps, owner of GravityFree.

When the American Ad Federation of the Suncoast announced the winners of the coveted ADDY Awards, honoring creative excellence in advertising, GravityFree was also awarded several other top awards. In addition to the RIAF awards, GravityFree won an Amy Award for Best Interactive and a Gold ADDY for LakewoodRanch.com.

GravityFree also created an award winning interactive campaign for rock legend Rudy Sarzo. The campaign promoted Sarzo’s biography, Off The Rails: Aboard the Crazy Train in the Blizzard of Ozz, chronicling his adventures as bassist for Ozzy Osbourne. Sarzo’s biography was designed, published and marketed by GravityFree. Off The Rails attained #1 status worldwide for rock biographies on Amazon using only social media and the website as promotional tools.
These award submissions will now go on to District level consideration for agencies representing Florida and the Caribbean.

Davey Awards:
The annual International Davey Awards honors the achievements of the “Creative Davids” who derive their strength from big ideas, rather than stratospheric budgets. The Davey is sanctioned and judged by the International Academy of the Visual Arts, an invitation-only body consisting of top-tier professionals from a “Who’s Who” of acclaimed media, advertising, and marketing firms.

ADDY Awards:
The awards recognize the “best of the best” in the industry by awarding winners in virtually all forms of advertising. The awards attract more than 60,000 entries and are regarded as one of the largest advertising creative contests and the only advertising competition that includes three rigorous levels of judging: at the local level, regionally and then nationally.

About GravityFree
GravityFree is a full-service digital agency that’s been helping its clients win awards since 1997. Offering web development, interactive design and web marketing, for clients ranging from local business to the Fortune 500, GravityFree is the source for successful digital solutions. For more information about GravityFree please visit www.gravityfree.com.

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The Florida Public Relations Association Wins Best Website With The Help of GravityFree

Posted on August 21, 2009 by

Sarasota, FL – The Central West Coast Chapter (CWC) of the Florida Public Relations Association (FPRA) was recently recognized during the FRPA’s 71st Annual Conference, held at the Boca Raton Resort & Club on August 10, with the state’s award for “Best Chapter Website”. Fifteen chapters of public relations professionals competed for the coveted recognition which was judged by an independent panel of technology and communication experts. This win marks the third year in a row that the CWC has won the “Best Chapter Website” award.

Florida Public Relations Association

Florida Public Relations Association

As acknowledged communications leaders within the FPRA and local business community, the CWC wanted to ensure their website would communicate their extensive events and benefits to members and non-members alike.In partnership with digital agency GravityFree, the CWC began the new website in 2008. “We wanted to help in building something that not only reflected the CWC’s public relations expertise, but also would bring direct value to their members”, said Scott Heaps, President of GravityFree.

The new website provides extensive information about the public relations profession, as well as upcoming events and presenter bios. The Job Bank, along with helpful advice from the Job Hunting Tips section assist PR professionals in developing their careers. The website offers endless opportunities for professional growth and presents the information in a way that is easy to find and beneficial.

The Central West Chapter of the Florida Public Relations Association is a network of innovative, passionate, and ardent PR professionals and associates, who are an active part of the oldest statewide public relations organization in the country and one of the largest and fastest growing chapters in the state.

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The American Advertising Federation Awards GravityFree Gold In Florida and the Caribbean

Posted on May 16, 2009 by

May 16, 2009, Orlando, FL – The American Advertising Federation – 4th District ADDY Awards Gala was truly a red carpet event to remember. The advertising industry’s best and brightest were on hand to celebrate outstanding work from throughout Florida and the Caribbean.

Give Project Snowman a try!

Give Project Snowman a try!

GravityFree was proud to receive an Gold Addy from amongst Florida and the Caribbean’s best firms. The interactive “Project Snowman” was a very unconventional twist on the build-a-snowman concept. The project leveraged the incredible skills of GravityFree’s team of developers and their creative director’s outstanding vision. “It feels great to be recognized for our work, we put a lot of sweat and tears into Project Snowman and we appreciate the nod”, said Sean Lamberger, GravityFree’s creative director. “Having carte blanche to create this project made it an absolute blast.”

The AAF-Orlando chapter hosted the event at the World Center Marriott, but it was the entire state of Florida that continued to reassert itself as a regional hotbed of advertising creativity with the list of winners spanning the District. Everything from TV and radio spots to print ads and viral campaigns received kudos, but of the over 1550 entries submitted to the District competition, just 109 would win Gold ADDYs on this night.

Sponsored by the American Advertising Federation, the ADDY Awards honor excellence in advertising and cultivate the highest creative standards in the industry. It is the largest creative awards competition in the advertising industry. Because it is the only three-tiered competition, it is commonly agreed that it is the toughest advertising award to win.

About the American Advertising Federation
The American Advertising Federation (AAF), headquartered in Washington, D.C., acts as the “Unifying Voice for Advertising.” The AAF is the oldest national advertising trade association, representing 40,000 professionals in the advertising industry. The AAF has a national network of 200 ad clubs across the country. Through its 225 college chapters, the AAF provides 7,500 advertising students with real-world case studies and recruitment connections to corporate America. The AAF also has nearly 100 blue-chip corporate members that are advertisers, agencies and media companies, comprising the nation’s leading brands and corporations.

The AAF – 4th District is comprised of 25 local federations throughout Florida and the Caribbean representing over 2,000 members.

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Baryshnikov Arts Center Chooses GravityFree To Create Ringling International Arts Festival Website

Posted on April 20, 2009 by

Sarasota, FL – Digital agency GravityFree was chosen by New York’s Baryshnikov Arts Center and The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art to provide an engaging online experience for the inaugural Ringling International Arts Festival, Oct. 7-11, 2009.

With the incredible range of international artists scheduled to perform at the Ringling International Arts Festival it was imperative to allow the audience to interact with and learn about the artists. To share the message with various audiences GravityFree utilized many forms of digital media including a website, social media and targeted email. “We wanted to extend the rich color and impact that these artists bring from their mediums onto the web. Our main goal, with such an eclectic group of artists performing, was to deliver an engaging message to wherever the audience wanted to receive it, whether that be through a website, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter or via email. We don’t expect the audience to come to us, we listen to them and deliver the message wherever and however they request”, said GravityFree founder Scott Heaps.

Ringling International Arts Festival Website

Ringling International Arts Festival Website

Utilizing dramatic photography and video gives interactive insight into the festival’s performances. This helps visitors begin planning their attendance using the online schedule and ticketing system. Information about the Ringling Museum and it’s facilities is also provided to help visitors discover the exhibits awaiting them in addition to the festival. Out-of-town visitors can learn more about Sarasota’s diverse community and get help planning their trip. News media looking for press information, as well as organizations looking for sponsorship details, will be pleased to find the information they are looking for neatly tucked into the captivating visuals highlighting the festival.

“GravityFree’s online vision and passion for the project was incredible,” said Dwight Currie, Associate Director of Programming at the Ringling Museum. “In a very tight time-frame, they created a presence that perfectly conveys the power and creativity of the Festival.”

Brought together through a unique collaboration between The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art and the Baryshnikov Arts Center of New York City, GravityFree is pleased to be a major sponsor for this first-time event, featuring more than 100 artists from all over the world. “We couldn’t be more thrilled to sponsor such a ground breaking collaboration”, said Heaps. “We are also pleased to be working with SRQ DAILY to publish a series of artist’s profiles to introduce their readers to the performers that will be performing at the festival.”

To experience the website, sign up for announcements about the events or to participate in their online communities, visit www.ringlingartsfestival.org. Tickets are available online and at the box office.

—————-
The Baryshnikov Arts Center (BAC) opened its doors in New York City¹s Hell’s Kitchen in November 2005. BAC serves as a creative laboratory, meeting place, and performance space for a vibrant community of artists from around the world. BAC is also dedicated to building audiences for the arts by presenting contemporary, innovative work at low or no cost to ticket buyers. The organization recently purchased a 299 seat theater in the performing arts complex, which will undergo renovation in 2009 to be transformed into the state of the art Jerome Robbins Theater. Scheduled to open in 2010, the theater will serve as an organic extension of the existing center, featuring multi-disciplinary work, emerging talent, and international artists, and including artist-centered activity that fosters creative exploration. For more information about the Baryshnikov Arts Center, please visit: Baryshnikov Arts Center

The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Florida State University, is one of the largest museum / university campuses in the nation. It preserves the legacy of John and Mable Ringling by educating and enabling a large and diverse audience to experience and take delight in a world-renowned collection of fine art; Cà d’Zan, the Ringling historic mansion; the Circus Museums; the Historic Asolo Theater; as well as the historic architecture, courtyard, gardens and grounds overlooking Sarasota Bay on Florida’s gulf coast. For more information about the Ringling Museum of Art, please visit: The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art

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The Nation’s Largest Florists See Green On Valentine’s Day Thanks To GravityFree

Posted on February 25, 2009 by

Local Sarasota Web Design Firm GravityFree created a winning Valentine’s Day marketing package for several large florists across the country for one of their most important holidays. The package used behavioral targeting to offer previous buyers unique products and offers based on their buying trends. Also included was an enhanced homepage design and email marketing targeted to each recipient’s buying preferences. Their results outperformed the industry trends of double digit loses most florists experienced during the Valentine buying season with some florists experiencing double digit gains.

“It was a big part of our success,” says Walter Knoll of Walter Knoll Florist in St. Louis, MO. Walter Knoll Florist is one of the largest independent florists in the country with well over $1 million of sales online in 2008. Walter Knoll has engaged GravityFree for their Mother’s Day holiday as well. “I was happy to be pushing the technology forward,” continued Knoll whose email conversions increased 90% over last year’s holiday.

FlowerManager Holiday Homepage

FlowerManager Holiday Homepage

The goals of the package were to increase the average sale price of online buyers and to increase sales among existing customers. The behavioral targeting helped match products to buyers so that premium buyers would be offered premium products and economy buyers would see a more affordable set of products. The improved homepage helped increase the amount of each sale at a time when consumers are typically spending less. Additionally, effective email design increased sales among past buyers with targeted messages.

GravityFree has over 50 of the largest independent florists in the country as clients who use their FlowerManager website and business management software. ”It worked really well for us,” said Keith Riewe of Bice’s Florist in Ft. Worth, TX, who also hired GravityFree for the coming Mother’s Day holiday and uses their FlowerManager software.

As the economy is faltering, florists are struggling like other retailers to find new online opportunities for increased revenue. “Now is not the time to pull back on marketing,” says John Barron of GravityFree. “It becomes more important than ever to try innovative and measurable ways to increase conversions and reach out to past buyers.”

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To Blog or Not To Blog

Posted on December 26, 2008 by

After working with many different clients to help them launch their corporate blogs, it has become apparent to me that there is no easy answer to the question should a company blog or not. That different companies have vastly different goals goes without saying, but even normal metrics for blogs such as visits, rss subscriptions and comments cannot always be applied in every circumstance to determine whether or not a company should commit to writing a blog. I want to describe three different case studies that may help show why different blogging strategies can achieve success without relying on the same metrics.

Continue reading →

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Happy Holidays!

Posted on December 17, 2008 by
Project Snowman

Project Snowman

We hope your holidays are full of joy and merriment. The folks here at GF have created an unconventional holiday card for you to have fun with and send to your friends. Just click on the postcard above to get started having fun.

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Legendary Tennis Coach Nick Bollettieri’s Blog Nominated Best

Posted on December 15, 2008 by

Sarasota, FL – Tennis coaching legend Nick Bollettieri recently launched a blog at www.nickstennispicks.com which has been nominated for Best Tennis Blog by On The Baseline, the largest, independently-owned professional woman’s tennis news website in the United States. The winner is determined by the most votes among 6 nominees including the Sony Ericosn WTA Player Blogs and will be announced January 1, 2009. The blog was created by GravityFree, the Sarasota Web Agency who developed Nick’s own personal website, www.nickbollettieri.com.

The blog features Flickr photos of tennis celebrities as well as RSS feeds and averages over 25,000 visits per month. It is referred to regularly by Sports Illustrated.CNN.com.

Nick's Tennis Picks Blog

Nick's Tennis Picks Blog

The content of the blog is focused around the five major tennis tournaments: French Open, US Open, Australia Open, Wimbledon and Sony Ericsson. The blog is linked to from other major sporting media outlets such as SportsIllustrated/CNN.com and TennisNews.com. Sports writers, journalists, enthusiasts and others can subscribe to the blog through RSS feeds and even opt to receive real-time blog updates via e-mail and Twitter throughout the day.

“Nick Bollettieri used GravityFree to maximize interactivity between him, the pro-tennis world and the public,“ says David Portnowitz, Multimedia Coordinator for Nick Bollettieri. “GravityFree is very knowledgeable and turned it around quickly. Now we’ve got an online ‘match’ going on that is fun and exciting and informative!”

As with Bollettieri’s website, GravityFree helped to structure the blog to be as user-centric as possible, making it easy to navigate and easy on the eyes. The blog matched the website in its design, but stands on its own. It is content rich and includes various types of media within it, such as video, audio and photographs. There is also opportunity for advertising on the blog.

The Bollettieri team came to us and said, “How do we make a blog work for us?” says John Barron, GravityFree’s Director of Internet Marketing. “This was a great opportunity to leverage a variety of online tools to engage an audience and at the same time promote the strong Nick Bolletieri brand.”

About Nick Bollettieri
Nick Bollettieri is one of the most influential people in the world of tennis and a legend who has transcended the sport. In 1978, he founded the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy (NBTA) in Bradenton, Florida. The NBTA was the first full-time tennis boarding school to combine intense training on the court with a custom-designed academic curriculum. The Bollettieri approach not only builds athletes on the court, but more importantly, Nick’s high expectations of each of his students prepare them for a successful life off the court as well. It was this proven method that Nick used to coach nine #1 players in the world – Agassi, Becker, Courier, Hingis, Rios, Seles, Sharapova and Venus and Serena Williams.

In 1987, Nick expanded his vision when he joined forces with IMG to turn the Tennis Academy into a multi-sport training facility, now known as IMG Academies. Located on over 300 acres, the campus at IMG Academies now trains over 12,000 junior, collegiate, adult and professional athletes annually, including families and corporate groups, from over 75 countries.

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