CDG Interactive Blog

Local searches account for 20% of searches on computers and 40% of searches on smartphones, according to Google. And those numbers are projected to keep growing. If your business’ online presence isn’t optimized for local search, you are missing out on customers who are looking for you.

Luckily, it’s not that difficult to fix. You just need to post a few key pieces of information in the right places.:

• Your address
• Business hours
• Phone number
• Website URL
• Photos of your business

CDG’s clients have seen great results from optimizing for local search. A Zumba and yoga studio located in Sterling, VA, Fit Body ‘n Mind, made these changes and saw changes in their traffic within two months, including:

• an increase in referral traffic from local sites including Yelp (100% increase) and MeetUp.com (164% increase)
• an exponential increase in search traffic that did not include their name (from 9 to 200)
• an equally remarkable increase in search traffic that included their location “springfield, va” (from 5 to 114)

What these statistics tell us is, that prior to optimization, customers had to know they were looking for Zumba and Yoga Studio by name. Post-optimization, people who searched on “Zumba in Springfield VA” or “Yoga in Northern Virginia” we finding our client.  So, how do you get similar results? Read on.

Continue reading "Four Easy Fixes Guaranteed to Help Customers Find You on Local Search" »

CDG is looking for volunteers for user testing during the week of September 4^th. We’re looking for female volunteers who are politically engaged and interested in women’s/feminist issues and social justice. We are seeking at least 2 participants under the age of 30 and at least 2 participants between the ages of 35 and 50. The test will take no longer than 1 hour, and will be conducted remotely; you’ll need access to a phone and to a computer with Internet access. We will schedule a time that is convenient for you, but the tests must be conducted during business hours between September 4 – 7.

You will receive $25 for your participation. If you or someone you know interested in participating, email Elizabeth@cdginteractive.org or call 202-872-9500 for more details. 

Nearly a year after launching Google+ pages for brands and businesses, the search giant continues to roll out changes to the way these pages work.

Two of the changes announced recently fulfill a long-standing request from brands—custom URLs—and a prediction we and others have made previously—merging of Google+ pages for local businesses with their Google Places listings.

Here’s what you need to know about these 2 changes to Google+ pages for your business.

Google+ Page Custom URLs

Currently, all Google+ pages (and profiles) have lengthy, impossible-to-remember URLs, such as this: https://plus.google.com/b/100984478133254575364/100984478133254575364/posts. (That’s the CDG Interactive Google+ page—circle us, won’t you?)

But Google has announced--in a post on its Plus page, appropriately—that it is beginning to roll out the ability for brand pages to select custom URLs, similar to the functionality currently available for Facebook pages.

However, in order to have access to this functionality when it’s made available to everyone, your Google+ page must first be verified.

There are two ways to do this.

First, you can request verification for a Google+ page via this form.

One major criteria to take note of: When you use this process, Google requires a “substantial” number of followers (i.e. people who have circled your page), although it does not define what that number is. Even if you meet all of the other criteria for a verified page, the verification request will be denied if your follower count is too low.

Alternately, if your page was created in the category of Local Business, you will see an Unverified marker at the top of your page. When you hover over that, you should see a Verify Now button. Click that to begin the verification process. (Full instructions for verifying a Local Business Google+ Page.)

(Not sure if your Google+ page is a Local page? Go to your page and click on the About tab. Local pages have addresses at the top of the information and a small Google Map of the location on the right side of the page.

Google+ Page and Places Merging

This brings us to the second change, the merging of Google+ Pages for local business (which Google calls Google+ Local) with their Google Maps Place listings, which began back in May.

According to Google, when the verification process described above is completed, “Existing listing information on Google Maps will now be merged with your new Google+ Local listing.”

Even if you don’t go through the verification process, if you have a Google Place, it will be converted to a  Google+ Local page automatically at some point this year.

Now what if you already have a Google+ Business Page but it isn’t a Google+ Local Page? (How’s that for confusing?) As of right now, there’s no way to join a non-Local page and Place together, but we expect this may change in the future as Google clearly wants to eliminate Places altogether.

Also unclear at the moment is what happens when a business has both a non-local Google+ Business Page and a Google+ Place. The Place listing will get converted to a Google+ Local page, but will that leave you with two Google+ Pages for your business, one local and one not?

Since this applies to us, we’ll be keeping an eye out for additional information on this particular scenario.

Help With Google+ Pages for Businesses

If you have any problems during the verification process or other functionality with Google+, try asking questions on the Google and Your Business product forum; they’re often answered by Google employees or other highly knowledgeable users.

Our social media for small business site, PowerUp Social, also has several articles on using Google+ to promote your business.

Update April 10, 2013: Google is rolling out a completely updated dashboard for Places that better integrates management of merged Google+ Local pages. The following articles provide additional detail:

• 10 Things SEOs SMBs Should Know About the New Google Places Dashboard
• Google Upgrades Google Places Dashboard
• Google Places Dashboard Update
• Visual Guide to the New Places for Business Dashboard

For custom consulting on creating and using a Google+ Page or any other social media platform, Contact Us to find out how we can help you today.

CDG Interactive is looking for some new talent – specifically a User Interface Developer. Know someone or want to apply? Send your resume and links to jobs@cdginteractive.com.

User Interface Developer

CDG Interactive is looking for a User Interface Developer to join our technical team. We’re looking for someone with a demonstrated understanding of how quality software and services are designed and constructed. We want you to think as much as you code.

What You'll Do:

• Implement user interfaces for websites and applications using HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript and related client-side technologies.
• Work closely with the design and development teams to deliver an excellent user experience for all of our work.
• BS or MS in Computer Science or similar discipline, or equivalent experience.
• Expertise in HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript and W3C DOM.
• Ability to cleanly implement a UI across different browsers (IE8, Mozilla/Firefox, Safari).
• Experience in UI development of content-based applications such as blogs, photo albums, email, content management systems, etc.
• Experience implementing standards-based web application user interfaces.
• Demonstrated understanding of how implementation choices impact user experience in terms of browser compatibility, accessibility and performance.
• Strong work ethic.

What You Need:

• BS or MS in Computer Science or similar discipline, or equivalent experience.
• Expertise in HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript and W3C DOM.
• Ability to cleanly implement a UI across different browsers (IE8, Mozilla/Firefox, Safari).
• Experience in UI development of content-based applications such as blogs, photo albums, email, content management systems, etc.
• Experience implementing standards-based web application user interfaces.
• Demonstrated understanding of how implementation choices impact user experience in terms of browser compatibility, accessibility and performance.
• Strong work ethic.

What Will Set You Apart:

Here's what will make you stand out and get you the job: 

• Experience integrating rich web interfaces with server-side code.
• Technologies: jQuery mobile; XML and Web Services; Internationalization.
• Ability to learn. Candidate must show they can adapt to the rapidly changing technology landscape.
• Demonstrated willingness and ability to work and lead in a fast-moving dynamic team-oriented environment.

About CDG:

CDG is recognized as an industry leader in the creation, implementation, and marketing of interactive environments that enable our clients to grow their business. Our innovation efforts are focused on achieving our clients' goals through user-centered design. In all aspects of its work, CDG seeks to help our clients deliver high value to end-users.

Working at CDG, you’ll find we’re serious about what we do, but we don’t take ourselves too seriously. Perks and benefits include: generous vacation leave, health insurance (with flexible spending account), Metro-accessible office, casual dress code, free soda and snacks, and the best-looking co-workers in the DC-Metro area. Interested? Send your resume and links to jobs@cdginteractive.com.

The recent severe thunderstorm event (aka the derecho) that raced through a large swath of the Midwest and Northeast on June 29 left millions without power--and very unhappy about it. Many of them took to social media, especially Twitter and Facebook, to express their displeasure with their utility companies. (Just check the accounts for @pepcoconnect or @domvapower for a sampling of customer sentiment.)

Responding to unhappy customers on social media is always challenging, but that challenge is magnified in a crisis or other severe event. Even if you’re not a major utility responding in times of natural disaster, any business would do well to be prepared to respond if a crisis hits. That’s why you need a crisis communications plan for your social media accounts.

Here are 5 tips for using social media platforms as part of a crisis communications plan.

1. Respond quickly. If you wait too long after someone mentions you on Twitter or posts on your Facebook page, it looks like you aren’t paying attention or don’t care. No, you can’t spend 24 hours a day monitoring your account, but respond quickly when you are, and let followers know when the account will be unmonitored.
2. Be authentic. Don’t just give the same canned response to negative comments; vary it so your account doesn’t seem like an unfeeling robot.
3. Be polite. This can be a tough one, especially if thousands of people are venting virtual invective at you, but as with ordinary customer service, responding in kind will only escalate the communication. Keep it simple and keep it calm. “We understand you’re frustrated and we’re working quickly to resolve the situation.”
4. Be transparent. Give us much detail as you can, as soon as you can. Once followers realize you aren’t trying to keep information from them, they’ll be more understanding.
5. Have an end game. How will you continue communicating after the crisis passes? What will you share with customers to let them know how everything was resolved and what you plan to do to prevent or mitigate such an event in the future?

Remember, too, that your social media universe doesn’t just consist of Twitter and Facebook. If you have a YouTube channel, check for comments there. Ditto for other profiles your company has, such as on LinkedIn or Yelp. Don’t be afraid to call for help, either. If the level of response becomes too much for you or your team, augment your resources with a communications professional who can not only provide additional people power, but the experience to respond appropriately and quickly.

If you don’t know how you’d respond to a crisis, or who would be on your incident team, you need a social media crisis management plan. CDG Interactive can guide your brand through the process, from pre-incident preparation to response management and coordination to post-incident conclusion. Contact us today.

CDG Interactive wants to make Friday the 13th your lucky day this July.

As part of our Social Summer, we’re hosting an even bigger follow-up to our June 1 Tiki Bar kickoff with our Lucky 13 Happy Hour—make that happy hours—from 5 to 8 p.m. on July 13.

In addition to an (almost) endless supply of adult beverages and snacks, we’ll be hosting games of chance.

And one lucky attendee will have the opportunity to win at least $12 million. (OK, so you’ll actually win a lottery ticket worth millions, so we can’t guarantee you’ll go home richer—but did we mention the open bar?)

Just join our MeetUp group to RSVP then join us on the 13th. Rabbit’s feet and four-leaf clovers optional.

It’s no chance that CDG Interactive helps our clients convert site visitors and app users to customers. We can help you optimize your conversion, too. Contact Us to change your organization’s luck today.

[Note: Some links lead to pages containing profanity and are Not Safe For Work (NSFW).]

Image credit: theoatmeal.com

It might seem like outrageous comic website The Oatmeal, and online fund-raising for nonprofits have little in common. And they didn’t—until this week.

The result is a case study about for nonprofits on social media monitoring, message amplification and word-of-mouth-marketing. And what a colorful little case study it is!

It all started last year, when Matthew Inman, the comic artist behind The Oatmeal, wrote a blog post complaining about a website called FunnyJunk, that had been posting his original content without permission or attribution.

On Monday, The Oatmeal revealed that he'd received a cease-and-desist letter from a lawyer for FunnyJunk, indicating that he had defamed the website and used the blog post to boost his own search engine rankings. [Editorial comment: Huh? How exactly does that SEO strategy work?] The letter concluded by saying the Oatmeal would be sued unless he paid $20,000.

In typical irreverent fashion, The Oatmeal’s response was to instead start a campaign to raise an equivalent amount of money—and donate half to the National Wildlife Federation (NWF) and half to the American Cancer Society.

He created a fund-raising campaign on third-party site Indiegogo and alerted his 602,000 fans on Facebook and 275,747 followers on Twitter. The fund-raising page itself was shared by visitors through embedded social sharing links: 4,500 likes on Facebook and over 1,000 tweets on Twitter.

It raised the $20,000 in 64 minutes. Within 24 hours, the campaign had surpassed $100,000. At the time of this posting, donations are nearing $153,000.

It's an incredible show of support for Inman and his site and, of course, a nice windfall for the charities he chose to support. But what larger lessons can non-profits learn from the story? Here's what I think:

• Social media is about listening, not just talking. This campaign is raising funds for two non-profits—neither of which were involved in its creation or even notified before it was launched. But the NWF paid attention and by the next day had posted grateful responses on Facebook and Twitter.
• Your fans can amplify your message. Keep the story of your good work visible and fans will help you spread the word. Give them opportunities to share their participation with you with others. Stay top of mind and you may be the organization chosen to benefit from an independent fund-raising campaign.
• New audiences can be found anywhere. The Oatmeal’s campaign was funded by over 7,000 contributors. Many of them may already have heard of the NWF and the American Cancer Society but some may have not. Another recent example comes from popular comedian Louis C.K. Last year, he independently released a downloadable concert video for $5 and contributed a portion of the profits to 5 charities, including The Fistula Foundation, a less well-known cause to which he had a personal connection, granting them one of the widest audiences they’d had to date.

Once the campaign concludes, the Oatmeal will no doubt post more updates, giving these charities further opportunities to interact with his thousands of fans.

You never know where the spotlight on your nonprofit may come from, but you can be prepared to shine when it does.

CDG Interactive provides social media strategy and management; Contact Us today to find out how we can craft your social media plan. Our training site, PowerUp Social, teaches small to medium businesses how to harness social media for marketing and promotion.

Today marks the launch of VisionAware.org, a website designed by CDG Interactive for the American Foundation for the Blind and Reader's Digest Partners for Sight. VisionAware.org is devoted to providing much-needed resources, support, and information to adults adjusting to vision loss, as well as their families, caregivers, healthcare providers, and social service professionals.

To ensure that VisionAware.org would have the broadest appeal to the widest audience, CDG worked with AFB and Partners for Sight to develop a fully accessible and intuitive environment for all users. Because VisionAware.org is a member of AFB’s extensive family of sites, we leveraged many of the design elements used on our recent redesign of AFB.org. The consistency in design and navigation layout promotes a continuity of brand and user experience.

Given the extraordinary amount of valuable content on the site, CDG also guided AFB and Partners for Sight through a comprehensive content strategy and IA process, including several rounds of user testing. Our goal was to ensure that the site’s overall structure not only provided ease of navigation, but provided a curated experience to users who had little-to-no experience with the subject of vision loss. The new VisionAware.org includes extensive cross-links, highlighted content, sidebars and other methods to help users discover additional helpful resources.

CDG is proud to continue to develop sites that are highly effective for all users, and prove that accessible design is not only attainable, but desirable.

Need an accessible digital solution? Contact CDG.

All non-profit organizations using social media share at least one goal: using these platforms to both reach and amplify their audience.

Whether you’re looking to increase awareness of your mission, gather signatures for a petition or drive online revenue—donations, tickets, sponsorships, membership—the more people you reach, the better.

This goal becomes complicated when your audience largely overlaps with (or is possibly even the same as) other organizations that share your mission.

It’s especially complicated for arts organizations whose audience is usually geographically constrained as well. The pie being sliced is an even smaller one.

So how should arts organizations interact with one another in social media?

If you follow other arts and culture organizations, even share their messages, are you sending potential ticket-buyers away to a competitor, or does amplifying the arts community overall grow the base of customers for everyone?

Chad Bauman, director of marketing and membership for the Smithsonian Associates, and formerly of DC’s Arena Stage Theater, has addressed these questions in posts both on his own blog (here and here) and for DC Theatre Scene.

In them, he argues for a collaborative effort for DC’s theater arts community in both production efforts and in marketing.

As he points out, it is only to the benefit of theaters to work together to expand the pool of audiences. More theatergoers overall means not only more individual ticket sales but more potential season subscribers, a theater’s most valuable customer.

For our part, we’ll be asking other DC area arts and culture organizations how they tackle these issues of competition and collaboration in our next PowerUp Social Media Roundtable this Wednesday, June 6, at 8:30 a.m.

If you’d like to join us for this morning of networking and shared learning, Contact Us to sign up.

We’ll be following up later this week with a blog post to share what our attendees had to say about leveraging social media in the DC performing arts community.

Harness the power of social media to promote your business or organization. Get started today at PowerUp Social, our online learning center for social media marketing.

Your Turn

• How does your organization use social media to grow your customer base?
• Does your industry foster collaboration or competition?

First they predicted heavy thunderstorms, starting in the late afternoon. Then the tornado warnings came.

It wasn't exactly the best weather for a DCTech Meetup in and around Dupont Circle--dubbed Digital Dupont.

But as one of the host locations, we fired up the Tiki Bar anyway, and were happy to welcome a steady stream of dedicated networkers throughout the evening.

And we look forward to meeting more new faces the rest of our Social Summer as we host additional gatherings.