Pemaquid Communications

It’s that time of year again, when people take a look back at what they’ve done and take a look ahead. Some, including Yours Truly, still even make New Year’s Resolutions.

Seth Godin has a great post on his blog today that fits right in with that theme. He says people should think about what they’re doing right now and ask themselves if they will be proud of themselves 15 years hence. Do we think these are crazy days? Godin says that’s nothing new:

So stop thinking about how crazy the times are, and start thinking about what the crazy times demand. There has never been a worse time for business as usual. Business as usual is sure to fail, sure to disappoint, sure to numb our dreams. That’s why there has never been a better time for the new. Your competitors are too afraid to spend money on new productivity tools. Your bankers have no idea where they can safely invest. Your potential employees are desperately looking for something exciting, something they feel passionate about, something they can genuinely engage in and engage with.

If times are going to be crazy no matter how you slice it, says Godin, Why Not Be Great?

Sounds like a good Resolution to me.

Leo Burnett, the great ad man, had the same idea, which he put this way:

When you reach for the stars, you may not quite get them, but you won’t come up with a handful of mud either.

And Donald Trump said:

As long as you’re going to think anyway, think big.

To paraphrase The Donald, if you, like me, are going to build Web sites anyway, think big. Stretch a little bit this year:

• If you’re still coding layouts w/table structures, learn some CSS (Your Clients will thank you because their sites will be easier to update and maintain)
• If you’re still creating design concepts that depend on embedding a lot of images into each Web page, again, learn some CSS (Clients will appreciate that their pages are dramatically smaller, load more quickly and use much less bandwidth - bandwidth costs money)
• If you’re not yet writing valid code based on Web Standards, start (Clients will thank you when it becomes easier to maintain the look and feel of their sites across different browsers and operating systems
• If you haven’t learned about Web site accessibility, start reading up on it, and apply to your sites (your Clients, and their Web site visitors with visual and physical disabilities, will thank you for being mindful of their special needs)
• If you think it’s more important to bring people to your site - (search engine marketing) - than it is to keep them there - (Web site design and usability) - please think again (if you don’t, your Clients’ competitors will thank you for sending customers their way as they flee a hard-to-use site)

Here’s wishing you a happy, productive - and Great! - New Year!

Are you like me? Always late on the draw sending cards around the Holidays? We’re here to help.

Pemaquid has designed a Facebook app called Jenny’s Cards (you must have a Facebook profile to view). You can use it to send a little last minute Christmas cheer to all your friends (all of your friends are on Facebook, right?)

In addition to Holiday cards, you can send your Facebook pals Birthday cards, Thank Yous or just-plain-simple note cards. The card graphics are done by annie|catherine designer stationery, a Pemaquid Client whose site we redesigned earlier this year.

We rolled out this app after Thanksgiving for two reasons: to test how “infectious” this type of viral marketing can be, as well as to help a Client promote their products (there are links to the annie|catherine Web site in the app).

So far folks from Far East Asia to Down East Maine have used the app (Facebook has 50 Million + members worldwide) and annie|catherine is seeing traffic flow from the app to their site.

Done right, Facebook apps are an excellent way for businesses to extend their brand.

Common Good Ventures is a team of experienced business people applying their professional expertise, their networks and their passion for change to help strong nonprofits realize their potential to accomplish even more for Maine. It’s the kind of work that’s sometimes called venture philanthropy.

CGV came to Pemaquid looking to increase the level of interactivity on the site and find unique ways to enhance the non profit advisory services it provides so well offline.

The result is the Virtual Springboard, an online component to the 90-minute forums where each month a non-profit comes prepared to present a specific challenge to a group of business people and hear their “quick-hit” ideas.

Virtual Springboard allows Common Good Ventures to ‘extend the conversation’ surrounding each month’s forum, allowing panelists (folks who help advise) who aren’t able to participate in the physical space to do so online, as well as to more easily share the ideas generated at each session.

CGV staff are able to update the Virtual Springboards and many other parts of the site on demand, using the Pemaquid Content Manager, Pemaquid’s content management system.

Other features include a Photo Gallery that shows CGV staff and Springboard panelists at work (also handled through the Content Manager). It’s a great way for them to easily showcase what a Springboard - or “Volunteering your Mind” - looks like.

Common Good Ventures’ President, Kristin Majeska, says of the project:

Pemaquid has been wonderful to work with, providing us with many creative ideas.

Well, right back at cha, Kristin. It was wonderful to work with you, Diane Oberbeck, Neal Williamson and all at Common Good Ventures. You and your panelists certainly have many creative ideas of your own! We’re glad to be a part of your success.

A tip of the cap to the Dream Team: Jamie Peloquin (Design Concept), Jennifer Ecker (Web design) and Sarah Hines (Creative Services Coordinator - a.k.a. ‘Air Traffic Control’). You guys rock so loud my ears ring!

On the search engine marketing front, Google has announced the newest, fastest-growing search terms for 2007. So, up on the chart, with a bullet….

• iphone
• webkinz
• tmz
• transformers
• youtube
• club penguin
• myspace
• heroes
• facebook
• anna nicole smith

OK, class, what I’d really like to see is someone using all those new vocabulary words in a sentence.