You feel having an email marketing plan would be a good idea, but you’re not quite sure of how to go about it? Maybe you think that if you try and fail, it could hurt your brand so maybe I shouldn’t try at all? If this sounds familiar to you don’t panic! Lots of small business owners and individuals have the same doubts and questions you do.

When people hear email marketing they think of horrible internet spam and inboxes’ full of junk. From a business owner’s perspective  you hear some slick person talking about email marketing and start worry about the cost and time it’s going to take, will they do a good job, or worse, will I even sell any products from my efforts?!

Well, fear not. Now you can have the power of a professional email marketing system that syncs to your website and gives you the power to create, expand and succeed.

MailChimp helps you design email newsletters, share them on social networks, integrate with services you already use, and track your results. It’s like your own personal publishing platform.

+-Build A List

Build A List

Customize your signup form to match your brand, so you can share it on your website and integrate it into your Facebook page. You can even collect signups from an iPad or laptop. And importing an existing list into MailChimp is a snap, no matter how it’s formatted. Just make sure you have permission to the emails on that list before hand to comply with spam laws!

• Custom Forms
• Facebook Integration
• Chimpadeedoo
• Full Featured API

Custom Forms

MailChimp allows you to personalize everything your subscribers see, including signup forms and confirmation emails. This is great when you have specific fields you need for gathering information or sorting your customer/subscriber base.

Facebook Integration

MailChimp’s Facebook features help you make connections, add fans, and get the word out about your newsletter.

Chimpadeedoo

Out of the office? Add new subscribers, manage your lists and view reports wherever you are with MailChimp’s iPad app.

Full Featured API

Join more than 250,000 customers who use our API to sync their customer databases, CMSs and shopping carts with MailChimp.

+-Design a Template

Design a Template

They have dozens of pre‑designed templates to pick from, or use their start‑from‑scratch template builder for more customization. If you’re an HTML expert like me, you can code your own with their flexible template language. Use merge tags to personalize content for your subscribers, and integrate with services you already use to make your campaigns more powerful.

• Email Templates
• Template Language
• File Hosting
• Inbox Inspector

Email Templates

MailChimp provides hundreds of customizable email templates for everyone from beginners to seasoned pros.

Template Language

Use MailChimp’s template language to make custom templates that are easily editable by you or your clients.

Image and File Hosting

MailChimp allows you to upload and store as many photos and files as you want, free of charge.

Inbox Inspector

Inbox Inspector tests your email template by generating screenshots for your subscribers’ most used email clients.

+-Send your Campaign

Send your Campaign

Send a campaign to your entire list, or divide your list into groups and segment by interest, location, or activity. RSS‑to‑Email and Autoresponders allow you to create automated campaigns. Add Social Sharing buttons to your template, or share a link to the web version of your campaign after it goes out.

• Segmentation
• RSS to Email
• AutoResponders
• Social Sharing

Segmentation

Segment your list based on engagement, location, social stats and more, so you can tailor your message to the people reading it.

RSS to Email

MailChimp’s RSS‑to‑email campaigns automatically go out when you update your blog or another RSS feed.

Autoresponders

Create and schedule automated messages that make your subscribers feel special and encourage engagement.

Social Sharing

Increase the impact of your message when you combine your email newsletters with social networking.

+-Track your Results

Track your Results

MailChimp’s free reports tell you who’s opening, clicking, and coming back for more. They’re available for iPhone and Android too. Tweet Trends gives you insight into your subscribers’ activity on Twitter, and our Google Analytics integration gives you advanced stats on how your campaigns affect traffic to your website.

• Reports
• Mobile Apps
• Tweet Trends
• Analytics

Reports

MailChimp’s free reports analyze clicks, opens, social activity, and so much more. You can even learn about individual subscribers.

MailChimp Mobile

View reports, add new subscribers, and manage your lists with MailChimp’s iPhone and Android apps.

Tweet Trends

Get a bird’s-eye view of your Twitter followers to better understand your audience.

Subscriber Analytics

Your email campaigns could be generating serious revenue. Our Google Analytics integration shows you instant ROI results.

Have fun making E-Newsletters again!

Email marketing shouldn’t be a daunting task, especially if you are a small organization or freelancing like myself.

I enjoy using Mailchimp using a customized form and MailChimp subscriber badge in my footer area, its easy to insert and start stacking subscribers up.

If you’re looking for more information MailChimp has compiled a fantastic resources area which can give you great insight into specifics areas of the MailChimp system, email marketing and related marketing information.

Feel free to subscribe to my Mailchimp newsletter below and learn how the process works (and get some cool newsletters sent to ya, spam free, in the process)!

The post MailChimp: The King of Email Marketing appeared first on Virtually(Creative).

Everyone keeps raving about how great social media is to help continue your marketing efforts. It’s true as well, plenty more people could see and connect with you on social media than just by seeing your marketing material using traditional means physically. But what about using social media to help find the people who didn’t see your marketing efforts? What if there was an easy way to use the power of social media’s networking potential to help you in generating quality leads for your business and really make that sales team work.

I’m talking about Customer Relationship Management (CRM). This nifty framework and technologies help to improve the interactions companies and businesses have with their clients and customers.

The post Social123 The way to Lead Generation! appeared first on Virtually(Creative).

Layar is the world’s easiest way to add digital content to print media. A self-service web application letting publishers infuse static pages with interactive digital experiences.

This is by far one of the coolest app’s I have seen in a long time. It lets publishers pack extra content into newspapers, magazines and other print content all by just running the app and holding it up to the item to scan. Looking to get that “Harry Potter” effect to pictures, this app’s publishing platform lets you do it!

Take a look a the video, leave a comment below and let us know which version you run and what you like to augment!

Download for your Smartphone:

The post Layar – Augmented Reality Media appeared first on Virtually(Creative).

I’m surprised Social Media is a still a popular buzz term 12 years later (Facebook was 2004)! But coming to accept that it’s all here to stay, I’m still astounded that some small business, individuals and some larger companies as well have a hard time seeing the marketing power and potential social media has. I have been including more social media connectivity for clients on their websites and utilizing many web tools & Apps to help maximize my efficiency (and you can too check out 5 must have social media mobile Apps) and realized that when I was finished putting together my social media packages, they would help guide someone with minimal knowledge how to better get more results from specific networks they were interested in.

So I have compiled my methodologies and created a package that I can now customize to your specific business!

My comprehensive social media plans are perfect for:

• Training new employee’s on your social media policies, procedures and expectations (even if you don’t have one right now).
• Adjusting social media campaigns to fit business goals.
• Getting the most out of Social Analytics, Metrics and Reporting.
• Creating daily routines targeting best usages for each social media site.
• Professional Account Setup for all social networking sites in a campaign.

Nielsen published a study stating 79 percent of large corporations are leveraging social media to engage their audience, build buzz, establish relationships, foster communication, improve products, and cultivate long-term brand awareness and consumer trust. All of which can help the bottom line in the end.

With so many networks to pick from having a properly branded, comprehensive and complete plan of attack helps:

• to focus your content to networks relevant to the industry
• your employee’s expectations, daily online routines, marketing plan execution
• the boss (you) keep track of metrics, reporting and employee’s content across all networks

Inside this comprehensive campaign package 6 major social networks are covered and features include:

+-Facebook

• Engagement plan that captures the SMM goals of the company
• Profile/Page Optimization
• Professionally designed landing page (iFrame/FBML) to encourage LIKE conversions
• Effectively posting key information that will be easily visible on the “wall” and the walls of the clients followers
• Increasing exposure and establishing brand recognition
• Insights analysis

+-Google Plus

• Establishing setup of Google+ for Business
• Implementing the +1 button with the Business page
• Generate followers and segment them in to specific “circles”
• Leverage “hangouts” and train clients how to use this feature to conduct meetings online with clients and potential clients
• Effective information sharing and how to improve search engine rankings and page authority with Google+
• Analytic analysis and evaluation
• Create a coordinated strategy that complements company accounts on other social platforms

+-Twitter

• “Tweeting” to establish a presence and build brand reputation online, and responding to tweets
• Generating a strong “follower base”, where tweets will be primarily communicated
• Engaging tweets with appropriate lists, hashtags & @mentions
• Gaining exposure by “following” reputable industry members / business
• List Management of your followers (into Leads)
• Posting relevant articles found online that relate to your business / industry
• Create a coordinated strategy that complements company accounts on other social platforms

+-LinkedIn

• Establish the clients profile that includes all information comparable to a resume
• Create and manage completion of profile through addition of services, careers
• Analytics analysis
• Network with key professionals found in the industry and in the general working environment
• Properly communicate with followers and build upon personal and brand recognition
• Create a coordinated strategy that complements company accounts on other social platforms

+-Pinterest

• Create a defined strategy in leveraging Pinterest to present business identity
• Develop consistent approach for relevant, compelling visual and written content
• Strategically plan the optimal number of boards and organizations of pins
• Optimize posts for SEO gain
• Differentiating Pinterest presence from those of competitors
• Create a coordinated strategy that complements company accounts on other social platforms
• Foster connections with notable account holders to expand reach

+-YouTube

• Profile and Channel Creation and Design
• YouTube Channel Optimization
• Upload and management of videos
• Optimization of titles, descriptions and tags
• Continuously search for innovative and new material that can be posted to gain maximum exposure within the clients industry
• Construct a structured plan to generate many “subscriptions, “views” and “comments”
• Create a coordinated strategy that complements company accounts on other social platforms

So, what are you waiting for?! Get your business where it needs to be today with a personalized social media campaign specific to your business! This version is aimed towards smaller businesses with a tighter budget but still want to use social media as part of their marketing plan.

Purchase on Freemarket.com

The post Freemarket.com Social Media Service Accepted appeared first on Virtually(Creative).

=== Virtually(Creative) Login Theme ===
Contributors: Vip3rousmango
Donate link: http://www.virtuallycreative.ca/contact/
Tags: Admin Theme, CSS, Login Theme
Requires at least: 3.0
Tested up to: 3.3.1
Stable tag: 0.2

This is my first plugin which simply changes some Login layouts without damaging the original, default layouts.

== Description ==
This is my first plugin! The purpose is to override the default login.css with a custom themed login.css safely so you can revert
back to the original default WordPress login just by uninstalling the plugin!

The changes made by this plugin turn your login page into a light-based theme with a repeating background image. It DOES NOT replace the Login WordPress logo by default.
This is to keep the most amount of WordPress functionality intact by not breaking any additional themes which override this function natively using a
theme-based control panel.

== Installation ==

1. Upload `custom-admin-theme` directory to the `/wp-content/plugins/` directory
2. Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress.

== Frequently Asked Questions ==

= Can I customize the colours of the plugin? =

At this point, no. Not unless you edit the plugin login.css itself.

= Can I customize the plugin using a Plugin menu? =

No. There is no plugin menu for customization at this time.

== Change-log ==

= 0.3 =
*Changed from dark to light theme. 

= 0.2 =
* Option for Logo Image replacement via CSS

= 0.1 =
* First version is born!

== Upgrade Notice ==

= 0.3 =
Changed Style-sheet  to light themed login using a textured background .jpg

= 0.2 =
Includes a Logo Replace just upload “alt-logo.png” to “../wp-admin/images/” folder.

= 0.1 =
This version themes the login section of the WordPress back-end (…com/wp-login.php).

Download Custom Login Plugin

The post Custom Login Theme Plugin -Updated appeared first on Virtually(Creative).

Small Business Owners and freelancers alike want to have the upper hand using applications that help them get work done efficiently and effectively and working in social media is no different.

At Virtually(Creative), I’ve helped small businesses grow quickly with our marketing and social media strategies. I use a number of social media apps myself to help manage the relationships with my audience across the social web and for clients. I’ve spent countless hours going through the App Stores of all 3 major services (Blackberry, iPhone, Android) and I’ve come up with these top 5 applications plus a bonus application.

These apps are designed to enhance your brand image, manage communication, and drive engagement across social media. You may even get more “Likes”, but remember that’s just the starting point. Using these app’s you will be able to quickly and efficiently check live metrics across the social media landscape and gather quick reporting and results to help focus your daily marketing routine.

HootSuite (Social Media Management)

Klout (Social Media Influence Tracking)

Bit.ly (URL Metrics & Reporting)

Quicklytics (Google Analytics)

Pages (by: Facebook)

These aren’t by any means the “be-all and end-all” of social media mobile apps, I personally have about 20 on my iPhone that I use regularly and maybe will expand this post upon a later date. But if you feel I’ve missed some critical ones, please add them using the comments below!

————–
Bonus:

TweetDeck App
-If Hootsuite is too much and you just want a Twitter Dashboard (Web)

The post 5 Must have Social Media Management Apps appeared first on Virtually(Creative).

Recently, I’ve landed a fantastic position being able to teach 16 – 18yr old public school students the power and importance of social media through a 7 week pilot program. It focuses around the major social networks and best usage practises, the importance and power of metrics, information and privacy and how to increase engagement and community involvement not just online but also offline.

During teaching these classes I’ve noticed teachers pop in and out of the classroom or stay after students have left to pick my brain on how to better use social media to:

• connect more with their students
• get students to participate more in and out of the classroom
• pay more attention to negative content that could hurt or hinder your social networking

With school policies to restrict laptops and smartphones into the classroom these could be considered the new upgrade to the chalk and chalkboard, the paper and pencil, the keyboard and word document but teachers I’m finding are having a hard time brining social media into the classroom.

With the current influence of social media on our daily lives it’s silly to think that our current education system doesn’t have classes geared towards social media and teachers teaching from modern tools like a tablet or smartphone.

Just recently OnlineColleges.net released this nifty infographic (pictured below) for teachers to better understand how much social media is used inside classrooms now and how they can glean the benefits of connecting their teaching styles with everything social.

Take a look and leave your comments below and if you know any teachers who could benefit from this please share!

The post Importance of Social Media for Teachers appeared first on Virtually(Creative).

What are Social Media Dashboards?

Social media is inescapable, even if you don’t want to use them websites in 2012 want you to connect via: everything. In the landscape of web 2.0 websites having social media connections aren’t even a second thought just expected. Clever social media icons pepper footers and top bars of websites everywhere; and the expectation is you have the accounts to connect to and use them. Before 2008, having multiple accounts, or many pages started to make managing your social persona quite the time consuming task. Thankfully we have two answers to help manage everything social, glean awesome insights into your online influence and all from an easy to manage, central “dashboard”.

*Note: This post might contain some affiliate links. Don’t be scared! That just means if you like what you see and purchase something, you’ll help me out too, and it’s really appreciated.

so·cial me·di·a dash·board ::

An “all-in-one” tool which sync’s a user’s social media accounts/information/metadata for easy management from a single, web based control panel. Ranging from free to premium Social Media Dashboards allow individuals or teams of individuals to manage from single up to an unlimited number of social media accounts all inside a single location.

A major contender in the social media dashboard scene, Hootsuite beautifully organizes your social media accounts into Tabs, inside each tab you can add a stream. These streams come from your connected social media accounts and its completely up to you how you want to customize the look and display of your dashboard.

If you’re looking for a different approach then check out Sprout Social, with all the tools you need in one powerful package. Sprout Social emphasizes the four components of social media effectiveness; Monitoring, Engagement, Measurement and Growth. In addition to communication tools, Sprout Social offers contact management, competitive insight, lead generation, reporting, analytics and more – all in a package that’s intuitive and easy to use.

+-Dashboard

• Complete social progress at-a-glance
• Engagement & Influence Scoring
• View Top performing Posts
• View follower demographics
• Everything you need in one place

+-Monitoring

• Track relevant keywords
• Filter results by news, blogs, etc.
• Competitor & industry tracking
• Article & Blog monitoring
• Never miss an important message

+-Analytics

• One click PDF & CSV reports
• You choose what to report on
• Group-level reporting
• Track campaign effectiveness
• Integrate Google Analytics

+-Publishing

• Send to multiple networks at once
• Schedule messages
• See optimal send times
• Integrate RSS/Atom feeds
• Track message performance

+-Discovery

• Find perfectly targeted customers
• Monitor competitor activity
• Search Twitter bios by keyword
• Discover customers by interest
• Increase targeted Twitter followers

+-Management

• Create groups & add users
• Control access for each user
• Assign tasks to team members
• Create notes on tasks
• Get sent message stats

+-Mobile

• Never miss another conversation
• Assign tasks to team members
• Cross-post updates from anywhere
• Monitor your brand
• Publish/schedule messages

+-HelpDesk

• Full Zendesk® Integration
• Turn messages into support tickets
• Track and resolve tickets
• Respond to customers directly from within Sprout Social

+-CRM

• Add notes to contacts
• Add/edit contact information
• Set reminders per contact
• View contacts’ social media presence
• See all past history with contacts

Conclusion

Both HootSuite and Sprout Social offer features that benefit anyone looking to master their influence and connectivity online. Personally, after using both platforms simultaneously I would have to say I’m leaning towards Sprout Social, but only ever so slightly. I love both for different reasons. I enjoy Hootsuite’s organization of streams on the homepage and the ability to customize my reporting outputs give kudos towards Hootsuite, but the reporting layout of Sprout’s metrics and their light-themed dashboard layout I just find more pleasurable to look at, and when you spend as much time as I do using the services it starts to make a difference. Also, Sprout Social’s “Discovery” features personally gives it a leg up against all other competition. Knowing who isn’t following you but is influential in your network is a fantastic metric to help you connect better and achieve higher quality followers.

Winner:

.

The post Dashboard Wars: HootSuite vs Sprout Social appeared first on Virtually(Creative).

Why Cloud File Storage?

Online cloud storage isn’t anything new. In fact, users storing their personal files online has been around for many years; over and above emailing attachments to yourself. Although many contend to host your plethora of digital “stuff” on a secure cloud, few have maintained their promises of: storage size, transfer speed, file security and platform-availability.

Being a freelance web developer I constantly sync files across my phone, tablet, netbook and home desktop. Meeting clients and doing development in several locations, being mobile is critical for me. Using a USB or any physical type of file transfer medium would feel ridiculous at this point in the amount of time I would waste waiting for files to copy over and worrying if I have enough space for the files on my transfer device in general or trying to keep track of which devices had which files.

Thankfully, with cloud hosting server architecture becoming the predominate hosting method for any-scale solution, it seems natural that file storage would benefit from the cloud computing revolution, and boy did it ever. After trying several services I found my favourite, Dropbox. Recently however, a new contender entered the race and is stirring the cloud quite a bit.

Every morning I’m greeted by a little blue box in the corner of all my devices. Usually, there is a green check-mark letting me know everything is synced and all files can be accessed from the device I’m currently looking at. Any file you save to Dropbox also instantly saves to your computers, phones, and the Dropbox website. What drew me in was the list of features Dropbox provides:

• 2GB of Dropbox for free, with subscriptions for 50GB & 100GB available.
• Your files are available from Dropbox website.
• Dropbox works with Windows, Mac, Linux, iPad, iPhone, Android and BlackBerry.
• Works even when offline like a regular folder on your device.
• Dropbox transfers just the parts of a file that change (not the whole thing).
• Manually set bandwidth limits — Dropbox won’t hog your connection.

Simple sharing, done right.

Shared folders allow people to work together on the same projects and documents. You can invite friends, family or teammates to a folder. It’ll be as if you saved the folder to their computers and you can see other people’s changes instantly. Create photo galleries, video folders, and book libraries view-able by anyone you choose just by sending a link to any file in your Dropbox using the online folder (found on the website).

Security

Dropbox protects your files without you needing to think about it because Dropbox keeps a one-month history of your work. Any changes can be undone, and files can be undeleted. This is a live-saving feature! All transfers are over Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and AES-256 bit encryption. Sweet.

Unlike other cloud-based storage solutions that simply copy your files to the cloud, Bitcasa gives you infinite storage on your desktop. Yes, that’s right. Infinite Storage. While Dropbox is a fantastic service, I’m just an individual user.. with a lot of digital “stuff”. More that just the 100GB than Dropbox has to offer. It was this reason alone which tempted me to Signup for Bitcasa Beta.

Infinite Storage? Check.

Cloudify any folder on your computer to make it infinite. It’s that simple. A few clicks and you can now save as much data as you want into this folder without running out of space. No more upgrading your disk drive or running out to buy external storage drives, of which I have several before I knew about Bitcasa.

Anytime Access

With Bitcasa, you “Cloudify” all your data, including entire external drives if you feel like it, and access it from any bitcasa compatible device (currently Windows and Mac OSX only). Your data is intelligently streamed from the cloud and does not take up any space on your device and you can share your data with friends and family, instantly!

Using a different storage method to Dropbox, Bitcasa transcodes and streams all your data. Folders you share with friends and family show up instantly on their desktops. They do not have to wait for entire files to download or “sync” in order to enjoy your shared content.

Lots of Security

Bitcasa encrypts all your data before storing it in the cloud like Dropbox. Safely store all your digital “stuff” without ever having to worry about them getting into the wrong hands.

Final Thoughts

Even with the idea of infinite storage, I still will still be using and enjoying Dropbox for a while – it’s a great service which I continue to use daily. Once Bitcasa shines out of it’s Beta release stage I will review it further as to what I’ve been able to test so far. It is a very promising Cloud Storage System. Bitcasa is someone to keep an eye on as they continue to innovate and grow their method of cloud storage.

The post Storage Wars: Dropbox vs. Bitcasa appeared first on Virtually(Creative).