Skybox Creative Blog

Instagram, the uber-popular iPhone mobile app that lets users edit, stylize and share their photos, added an impressive 2 million users last month, coming close to the 15 million mark. The mobile app company attributes the boom to the launch of iPhone 4 and the holidays – more party photos to share! But their growth rate is strongly outpacing the other leading mobile-based app, Foursquare. And what’s really impressive about that is that Foursquare is on the iPhone, Android, Blackberry, Windows Phone and Palm.

Sure, Instagram had its eyes set on mega-growth before its 2.0 launch earlier this year. And as we mentioned in an earlier blog, usability was its number-one improvement. Users can choose from four new filters with the 2.0 launch. And now, if you change your mind after you’ve taken a photo, you can apply a different filter fast – up to 200 times faster than in 1.0. But ease of use explains coming BACK. Why do people use Instagram in the first place?

Why? TTIUWP.

“This thread is useless without pics.” Now more than ever, with mobile devices and tablets, we are visual internet users. Everyone who’s friends with you on Facebook or following you on Twitter wants to SEE your San Diego SantaCon pics. Instagram offers this still-by-still and encourages users to comment on each other’s pics. They make it easy. And having a funny username, commenting on other users’ photos (especially with emoticons) and engaging people who comment on your photos really helps create a community of followers.

The Real Story

But Instagram does more than document activity. It lets the user tell a story. Using Instagram means participating in two key components of interactivity – creativity and inspiration. Instagram’s filters help you tell your unique story by adding emotion – a sepia filter for nostalgia, a color-pop filter for irony – and help you connect with your audience in, well, the blink of an eye. A single snapshot of a San Diego sailboat can be romantic or retro, depending on the filter. And not only can you add filters and effects, you can also easily add depth of field (something that can be tough to pull off even with more complex software like Adobe Lightroom or Photoshop).

And the best part is, you get to play around until you decide. This is really the key to Instagram’s success. They let us play, get inspired and get creative. All from our phones and all for free. It’s no wonder Apple named them 2011 App of the Year!

Instagram photos above taken by President + Creative Director of Skybox Creative, Angelina Sereno. Follow her by name or @happygumdrops!

Skybox Creative is a San Diego based Branding Agency with an emphasis on Web Design and SEO. Get in touch for a free quote on your next design project or search engine marketing campaign! info@skyboxcreative.com or call us at 619.381.3825

Skybox Creative is now located in Hillcrest:

Skybox Creative
449 University Ave. Suite 24
San Diego, CA 92103

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Once you’ve got a Facebook page as part of your social media marketing plan, it’s time to think about what to do with it. We know, from our own personal use of Twitter and Facebook that it’s all about staying active. We want to be in that news feed! And if you’re a business looking to engage customers, it’s even more important. After all, action – whether it’s foot traffic for your San Diego beachfront taqueria or “likes” on your small-business blog – means business. And nowhere is that more true than in the world of social media marketing.

But aside from posting company or product updates, commenting on industry news and answering customer questions, how do you keep your Facebook community alive?

The Social Media Examiner has recently published a list of the ten best Facebook apps for building community.

Facebook apps don’t just mean Farmville anymore. There are now tons of apps on the social media giant that help highlight top fans and helps you engage with your fans by sharing videos, photos, slides and get feedback from users. And what’s great is that, since they’re designed to be used and disseminated in the social networking world, they’re pretty easy to use.

Praise Your Customers

Everyone likes a little positive feedback – especially in social media. I mean, why else do we post our best San Diego sunset pics? We want the “likes”! A couple of the apps noted by the Social Media Examiner – “Fan of the Week” and “Booshaka” — track your fans’ activity on your page and get points or even a personalized shout out for being active.

Interaction Action

Many of the Apps in the top ten have to do with company-customer interaction. Livestream lets you post live video events to your page and even has a chat feature for interaction. ContactMe lets you customize fields for fans who want to get in touch and Constant Contact lets fans sign up for newsletters right from your Facebook page. Scribd, the company that offers document-sharing services in the real world, also offers a service for the virtual one, Scribd for Pages.

Other apps can help you manage updating content and scheduling posting. For the rest of the top ten, check out the article. Or, for a deeper list, check out Top 75 Apps for Enhancing Your Facebook Page.

Skybox Creative is a San Diego based Branding Agency with an emphasis on Web Design and SEO. Get in touch for a free quote on your next design project or search engine marketing campaign! info@skyboxcreative.com or call us at 619.381.3825

Google makes over 500 changes to its search algorithm every year, keeping Search Engine Optimization pros and web marketers on their toes. It’s hard to stay on top of what the search engine is up to. Recent changes, though, have been much publicized. Local searching – finding San Diego-based businesses if you’re in San Diego, for example – has gained importance as people access the internet on mobile devices. But now, precision in internet searching – and so in search engine optimization – is showing up in new ways.

Fresh Content

We’ve always known that new, current content on your website is important in ranking high in Google’s search results. But now it may be even more important. First, search results will include more text from your website, not just headers and menu. This means the more relevant content you have on your home page, the more meaningful your search listing will be to users. Google also recently tweaked their algorithm to check for levels of freshness for each user query. This will be used in combination with detectors that can tell whether sites are official, and thereby yield more authoritative results – official sites will rank even high in their search ranking. So people can’t game the system by simply throwing up new copy. Users can also specify date ranges in their search, with Google yielding only results relevant to that date range. All of this means that if you’re a San Diego retailer, you might want to consider homepage updates or blogs to keep ranking high for local searchers.

Verbatim Search

Another interesting change at Google is the “verbatim” search choice. When users select this, Google won’t suggest spelling corrections or alternative “close” search categories.  Verbatim searchers will find results that match their spelling (correct or not), tense (past, present, etc), exact verb form (“run” or “running”), and number (singular or plural), while using all of their search terms. This means that if you REALLY know what your customer wants, and you REALLY know the way they talk about it, you’re at an advantage.

Search engine optimization is an ever-changing part of marketing and Google’s secrecy can make it even harder. But when they DO let out some clues about algorithm changes, it’s worth taking a look.

Skybox Creative is a San Diego based Branding Agency with an emphasis on Web Design and SEO. Get in touch for a free quote on your next design project or search engine marketing campaign! info@skyboxcreative.com or call us at 619.381.3825

We love, love, love social media! What better way to gain favoritism with search engines, gain brand awareness and have fun!

Follow us on tumblr. here: skyboxcreative.tumblr.com

Or add your username in the comments box below and we’ll follow you!

“Green” is practically a brand in itself. It’s a label put on products from lightbulbs to SUVs that always brings with it its own design considerations. Images of palm fronds and panda bears used to say ecology, but now, with the green explosion, companies are looking for less literal, more creative ways to say they care about the planet. The San Diego web design and branding firm, Skybox Creative was brought in to bring the brand to life.

We approached their branding from a holistic perspective taking into account everything from product name – “Save me” which is short for “Save Mother Earth” – to their logo design, packaging design and temporary landing page/web page. Each one of our design choices support the feel and philosophy of the company.

Simple Design

Skybox Creative chose a clean, simple and (literally) green design scheme that underscores the company’s eco-friendly message. Their logo features smooth lines, a friendly font and creative use of batteries inside the lettering. The tone of the company is clear – the lower-case lettering tell us that they’re young and fresh and the clever use of batteries inside the letter “m” speaks to a fun and friendly attitude. Their tagline, too, “Save a battery. Save the planet.” is short and sweet – see how simple their green solution is?

The web design color choices underscore the simplicity of the product and the mission. A white backdrop with green and charcoal lettering makes for an easy to read, clean website.

Custom Info Graphics

Save Me’s website makes great use of fun, friendly graphics. We created custom “How it Works” illustrations that are bold and completely stylized to match the look and feel of the brand. Save Me’s overall message that saving the planet can be easy is clearly communicated throughout the brand materials. The illustrations are clean and simple, like the rest of the company’s design. And the Info graphics – the single icons against green circles anchor the page with color, without veering from the clean and clear design look of the company.

Maybe Kermit was wrong. Maybe it IS easy being green. At least Save Me makes it look that way.

Skybox Creative is a San Diego based Branding Agency with an emphasis on Web Design and SEO. Get in touch for a free quote on your next design project or search engine marketing campaign! info@skyboxcreative.com or call us at 619.381.3825

With nearly 80% of online Americans using blogs, Twitter and social networking sites, social media provides a unique opportunity for businesses to reach and embrace their customers beyond traditional media, allowing businesses to define and communicate with a specific niche market. Business owners should no longer be asking if they should use social media, but figuring out how. We’ve put together a list 5 major factors to consider while creating and maintaining social media in your marketing and communications plan:

1. Know Your Customer:
Social media has nothing to do with you and everything to do with your audience. We have given way to a digital society and with all demographics using social media in almost equal portions, there is no typical social media user. That being said, all social media users do not frequent the same sites making it imperative to get to know your customer and find out which platforms are best for reaching them. Go where the attention is; visit forums that apply to your business and get involved posting and answering questions. This will not only create a following, but give you insight into specifics about your target market. Once you’ve defined your niche, keep thinking about your target, listen to your customers, and refine your content accordingly.

2. Start Small:
Social media is a never ending commitment that requires time, energy and effort. Instead of attempting to tackle every platform at once, realistically choose one or two that are the best for reaching your market. Establish specific business goals and objectives and define who will be responsible for keeping activity going. Do a little bit often, constant activity even in small quantities is much more effective than showing up inconsistently.

3. Be Personable:
Social media doesn’t equal self-promotion. Posting and tweeting exclusively about the company isn’t going to produce results. Let your customers in to show your humanity. Offer advice, information and be the conduit between your audience and valuable content and resources. Before you link to content, make sure it is relevant and adds value to your audience. Be social, comment and help others by asking questions, stimulating conversation and responding thoughtfully.

4. Measuring Success:
Relationships, trust and credibility are not built overnight, so be patient. Focus on who is engaging and grow your community from there. Rather than trying to acquire a whole new customer base, use social media to build relationships with existing customers. A loyal, devoted start will lead to organic growth and a stable future. SPAMMING= No Traffic, you wouldn’t sell out your friends, so don’t sell out your customers.

5. Get Help:
It’s impossible to be an expert at everything, so don’t hesitate to hire a social media expert to help in maintaining your social media presence. Remain involved by communicating what voice you want portraying your brand and by delegating what content and information is discussed. Don’t be afraid to respond and comment even if you are not responsible for the main content.

Skybox Creative is a San Diego based Brand Consultancy with an emphasis on Web Design and SEO. Get in touch for a free quote on your next design project or search engine marketing campaign! info@skyboxseo.com or call us at 619.381.3825

Understanding SEO can be quite a task, and making it work is even more challenging. We’ve compiled a list of the top 10 best free SEO tools to help you understand your site, how it ranks against competitors, and the power of keywords, anchor text and back links. Watch this quick video and start crafting a strategy to boost your rankings on search engines!

SEO Tool #1 Google Keyword Tool
www.adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

Research is key, this step requires a bit of time, but it’s worth it’s weight in gold. Provided by Google, this tool allows you to research your industry keywords to learn about local and global traffic statistics.

Now, what does your site look like to search engines in terms of SEO?

SEO Tool #2 SEO Website Grader
www.websitegrader.com

SEO Tool #3 SEO Blog Grader
blog.grader.com

SEO Tool #4 Check Backlinks & Anchor Text
www.bluebacklinks.com

SEO Tool #5 Search Engine Spider Simulator
www.webconfs.com/search-engine-spider-simulator.php

SEO Tool #6 Alexa Ranking (Worldwide Rank, Search Analytics, Audience Stats, Etc.)
www.alexa.com

SEO Tool #7 SEO Book – Free SEO Tools (These SEO tools can be used for ongoing website analysis and stats.)
www.tools.seobook.com

Next, it’s a good idea to asses what your competition looks like. (You can use the tools above as well as the tools below for this purpose)

SEO Tool #8 Spy on Your Competitors (Learn About Competitor Keywords & AdWords)
www.spyfu.com

SEO Tool #9 Search Engine & Directory Submission Tool
www.ubl.org

Once your ready to move forward with an SEO strategy, these tools will hep you with search engine & directory submission as well as PR article distribution.

SEO Tool #10 Press Release Article Distribution
www.prnewswire.com

Knowledge is only half the battle! Once you understand the status of your current site and have a better understanding of what you need to do, it’s time to hire experts to handle the workload so you can get back to business.

Overwhelmed with information? We’re here to help. Contact us today for a free SEO quote.info@skyboxseo.com or call 619.865.8881

In case you needed further incentive to create a Facebook presence – outside of their 800 million active users – the social network has announced that starting in January, 2012, they will be offering free ads to small businesses. Teaming with the National Federation of Independent Business and the US Chamber of Commerce, Facebook will offer up to $10 million of free advertising to 200,000 small businesses – or $50 each.

Part of the program will be teaching small businesses how to leverage Facebook for eCommerce. Users will be able to learn how to build a Facebook page and how to create a paid ad campaign. These campaigns can include display ads and “Sponsored Stories”. This is Facebook’s program that allows, say, a skate shop in San Diego to highlight videos posted by one of its customers using their product. These lessons will be offered through a series of webinars and live on Facebook’s cross-country road show that they’re organizing with the help of states’ Chambers of Commerce. Details on Facebook Tour ’12 will be announced down the road.

The eCommerce possibilities of the social networking site are pretty impressive. It’s a marketing tool that can show off your videos or feature your special offers and discounts. It can also serve for real transactions: hotels, restaurants and basically any service company can take reservations. And for customer service – both showing customers love and showing attentiveness to their complaints — Facebook is truly great.

You can get some ideas from small businesses that are maximizing Facebook at the Social Media Examiner 2011 Small Business Facebook Pages Awards.

This is practically a risk-free opportunity for jumping into eCommerce. When it costs nothing, you’ve got nothing to lose!

Like.

Skybox Creative is a San Diego based Brand Consultancy with an emphasis on Web Design and SEO. Get in touch for a free quote on your next design project or search engine marketing campaign! info@skyboxcreative.com or call us at 619.381.3825

No mobile application has made iPhone users feel more talented – or attractive — than Instagram. Vacation pics on San Diego beaches or brunch photos of awesome pancakes become instant masterpieces on Facebook and Twitter. And now, with its eyes set on growing from 10 million users to 100 million, Instagram’s launching version 2.0.

With the boom in photography-based mobile application development, Instagram made its number-one improvement is usability. Increased speed and instant effects – filters, tilt-shift effects, rotating the photo — make this version of the popular app all about instant gratification. You can apply every photo effect before even snapping the shot. And if you change your mind after you’ve taken a photo, you can apply a different filter in a flash – up to 200 times faster than in the original version of the mobile app.

There are also four new filters: Amaro, Rise, Hudson and Valencia that riff on the popular theme of old-style film with color that pops. Seventies San Diego or fifties pancakes, anyone? For more on the specific changes and tech specs, check out the reviews on Mashable and TechCrunch.

Classic all Over Again

Diane Arbus’ famous “Child with Toy Hand Grenade in Central Park” with Instagram App filter

Instagram is one of the most popular mobile apps for making regular photos look like classics, but what about applying it to already-recognized masterpieces? One site, Mastergram takes the mobile application where it may never have been developed to go – classic photos. Photographers like Cindy Sherman, Robert Capa and Diane Arbus get the filter treatment for good . . . and for bad.

Instagram has developed a tough reputation to live up to, but the latest version of the mobile app may do just that. With the market quickly flooding — and mobile application development happening at breakneck speed — that’s a feat in itself.

One final note… in case you’re wondering, there’s still no word on developing the Instagram application for Android.

Skybox Creative is a San Diego based Brand Consultancy with an emphasis on Web Design and SEO. Get in touch for a free quote on your next design project or search engine marketing campaign! info@skyboxcreative.com or call us at 619.381.3825