At Mindshift Media, we specialize in innovative online media campaigns and solutions for all of your visual communication needs. Our award winning team create an effective digital marketing approach, incorporating cutting-edge tactics and results driven strategies. We look forward to helping you achieve the success you deserve!
Produced by: Mindshift Media in association with STVP
What is Unsocial?
Unsocial is a great new mobile application that connects you with business professionals in your proximity that you need to know.
Why do I need to use Unsocial?
unsocial facilitates your business in several ways... It enables you to take your brand mobile, and broadcast who you are and what you do to business professionals in your proximity. Connecting you with the business professionals you need, and the professionals who need you. unsocial provides you with detailed lists of professional events in your area where you can maximize your brand.
Mindshift Media Produces Video Marketing Campaign for River Forest Financial
CONTACT RIVER FOREST FINANCIAL TODAY!
There has never been a better time to get started with foreclosure investing.
Experts predict between 1.5 and 2 million properties will go through foreclosure in the next 12 months creating a huge marketplace for savvy investors with funds. Are you ready to get in the game and get your share?
Buying foreclosures offers great investment opportunities, but it's a lot of work. For investors who want to participate in the opportunities presented by distressed real estate, but without all the effort, River Forest Financial sells the fully-documented notes that they originate. These investors enjoy an easy and safe double-digit return on an investment that's secured by real estate at nearly double the investment.
In the past, every business needed three things, a good product, a convincing sales pitch and a willing customer. With people doing more and more business online, that list of three has been steadily growing. The latest addition for the successful online business is multimedia. Having something like streaming video on a website is a must for every business wanting to be taken seriously.
Here is a sample of our home page introduction video, which greets visitors to our website and showcases a short flash video about our business and services.
In today's tech savvy world the importance of multimedia can not be understated. Online video can sell products, promote a business, benefit an organization, tell a story and improve the effectiveness of any website. That may sound like a lot for such a simple addition but video is the most powerful tool in the online marketplace. It can help sell products by offering customers a preview of the items they are interested in. Apple does this with all its products both before and after they are released. That way people can get all the information about an item before they buy, and get help using a product they may already own. When people can see the item before they buy, it builds a feeling of credibility that is missing from much of the online marketplace. This also helps to promote a business. Anyone can put up a website so consumers are looking for a professional, well presented company. A streaming video or motion graphic is just the thing to greet customers and welcome them, while also helping assure them that they are dealing with a legitimate company. Building consumer trust is just the beginning. Video and motion graphics can do so much more to promote a business. This is because they stick with customers long after they have left the page.
People remember 20% of what they hear and only 30% of what they see but a whopping 70% of what they hear and see! That means advertising and marketing money is much better invested in something more than just a simple banner add. People encounter hundreds of those each day and most consumers can’t remember a single one. Customers will remember more from a 3 minute video than they will from a huge block of text. That means company names and contact information are much more likely to be remembered. This benefits the entire organization by spreading the world about the company and helping people remember its message and goals.
The addition of multimedia is about more than just selling a product. It is about selling a company and its ideas. The right video and motion graphic can tell people the story of a company or instantly give consumers a window into what a business does. The possibilities are limitless and growing every day. It is the perfect investment for any company hoping to convey passion, excellence and professionalism along with information.
Sample Online Video Marketing Campaigns presented by:
Flash Video Marketing Campaigns for Websites
Business and Corporate Multimedia Marketing
Promotional Video Marketing
Television Commercials Streamed to your Website to Market Your Business
Non Profit Video Marketing
Blog Posting By: Tyler Griffin, Creative Director - Mindshift Media Written By: Brad Girtz - Mindshift Media Blogger
There are plenty of people out there advocating social media. It has been touted online and in the press as the next generation of communication. This very blog has dedicated many articles to the subject. Despite all that, some companies are still on the fence about social media.
After all, it can be hard to understand the true power of sites life Facebook or Twitter, when huge corporations like Apple or CNN are using them. Social networking may be good for them but it could also be that they are just so popular, that people will seek them out wherever they are. That being said, there is one example free from any corporate celebrity or huge budget, that example is a 21 year old college student named Elise Hall. Using a campaign based largely on Facebook and Twitter, she was just elected to the Oklahoma State House of Representatives. Needless to say, before her political campaign, Hall was a fairly ordinary college student. She had not political war-chest or fame to catapult her into public office, just a computer and the drive to succeed. Using Facebook and Twitter, Hall beat out her opponents.
She did all that while still studying and attending classes. By regularly tweeting and organizing her supporters via social networks, Hall was able to enlist an army of followers. In fact, her cunning use of social media not only got her elected, it got her on CNN, a feat any good business owner would love to replicate. This means two things, a promising political career for Hall, and another good reason for every business to get involved with social media.
Blog Posting By: Tyler Griffin, Creative Director - Mindshift Media Written By: Brad Girtz - Mindshift Media Blogger
Businesses are always looking for new ways to communicate with their customers. Whether its advertising, market research or consumer feedback, every company is trying to better understand their client base. Unfortunately, most businesses overlook the easiest and most underrated method of communication,the blog. Blogs are one of the best ways to spread a message and get people to respond. In fact, there are ten great reasons for every company to create a busy business blog.
1: Its quick and easy. There are a number of great free blogging services that make it very simple to set up a blog. Once the initial blog site is up, it is just a matter of keeping it up to date with interesting articles.
2: A good blog can grow into an amazing advertising and marketing machine and requires as little as a few hours a week to keep up to date.
3: It provides easy access to company news. A blog can inform customers about sales, product information, events and even company news. It can also provide a great deal of information for other businesses and potential investors.
4: A blog is search engine friendly. Many search engines like Google look for “key words” in websites. A blog can provide thousands of key words. That means it will come up more often for more searches, thereby guiding more potential customers to a businesses website.
5: Blogs mean easier customer access. Customers will be better able to contact the company and share their views. A good blog also makes the company seem more open and accessible, even if it is not.
6: A blog makes the company look like an authority or expert. By writing about a subject on a blog, a business looks like they know their field and are an authority on the subject. That gives customers confidence and can boost sales.
7: Blogs increase brand awareness. Businesses want their name to stick in a customers head. The more times people see or hear a name, the more likely they are to associate that name with the service the company provides. A blog helps link a company’s name to its product in the minds of consumers.
8: Blogs build Rapport. A good blog is written in a more informal style than tradition news. That means customers feel like they know the company. They are more likely to trust the produce and make a purchase.
9: Blogs help gain insight. Customers are fickle creatures and often the only way to find out what they want or like is to speak with them directly. By allowing comments, blogs provide that vital link between customer and company. A blog also allows businesses to track which posts get the most hits and which are most popular. That means more market research data all for free.
10: Blogs answer questions. A good blog answers customer questions before they have to call or email. That means less stress on the customer service department and makes the company look good.
These ten reasons are just the tip of the iceberg, blogs can do much more for any company. With a little work, a blog can even draw in a loyal base of readers which means more sales and free advertising. As long as it is updated regularly and full of good information, a blog is marketing machine. It can be harnessed to work 24/7 pulling in new customers and funneling them towards a businesses website. That makes blogging more powerful and relevant than ever.
Social Network Marketing
We Make Your Identity!
Consumers are flocking to blogs, social-networking sites and virtual worlds. Mindshift Mediaoffers Social Networking/Media Marketing solutions as well as custom designed blogs for your corporation or business. We utilize award winning script writers to write columns and blog postings about your business, and we look forward to helping you achieve the success your company deserves! Our passion combined with your potential drives us to see our clients succeed in the online marketplace!
Each time apple releases a new product, there is a fanfare of advertising and interest. The iPhone had people waiting in lines around the block, the macbook air had everyone marveling at the thin, sleek design, and apples latest creation, the ipad, had the Mac faithful camping out just to get their hands on a product that was dubbed, “magical”. While Apple is great at generating interest and drawing big crowds for a products release, the real test comes after the hype dyes down. For instance, the iPhone became a huge hit while the macbook air struggled to live up to its press, and now it is time to see how the ipad fared. The initial sales were good, more than 2 million sold in the first two months. It seems no one could resist the sleek look of the iPad, and who could blame them. After reading dozens of reviews on tech sights and the online marketplace, I have yet to find one negative thing said about the iPads looks. So if you are looking for the latest tech fashion accessory, get down to your local apple store and buy, buy, buy. But for those of us looking for more than apple arm candy, the ipad does have its detractors. In fact, it seems people fall into one of two camps, they either love it or hate it.
Those who love the iPad rave about its brilliant and crisp screen, ease of use and portability. These people use the ipad primarily for light web surfing, checking email and watching videos. As for the people who hate the ipad, their main concerns are the price, lack of flash player, inability to connect devices, problems with file transferring and the need for another computer.
The information contained in the reviews sheds some light on what the iPad can and can not do, and who should buy it.
First of all the iPad is great at playing movies and surfing the web. Its quick sleep/awake feature means there is no time wasted waiting for a computer to start up, and with 3G it offers good directions and a perfect way to stay connected and supplement light computing needs.
That being said the iPad is not perfect. The lack of flash player is a huge drawback. Nearly every review complained that the iPad lacked the ability to handle sites that use a lot of media. That means anyone who watches streaming video or wants access to all the videos on sites like YouTube is out of luck. There are also some hardware concerns with the device. There is no USB or fire wire ports on the iPad which make it impossible to connect things like a standard keyboard, mouse, mobile phone or other device. It also means anyone who wants to transfer data to or from the iPad has to go through itunes. That can be tough and annoying. Finally, one of the biggest problems iPad detractors have with the product is the need for another computer to use it. While it may seem like a laptop killer, the iPad has to be connected to a computer to update and download new items like podcasts. In other words, The iPad must be regularly synced with another computer to function at its best.
We want to hear your feedback on this incredible advancement in the history of technology. Do you own an iPad? If so, what do you like/dislike about the iPad? What are your favorite features of the iPad? When the next version of the iPad is released, what features would you like to see implemented to the new iPad in the future?
We want to hear your feedback....the Apple iPad, Disappointment or Success?
Blog Posting By: Tyler Griffin, Creative Director - Mindshift Media
In the world of social networking, one name stands above the rest. Facebook. It is the undisputed champion of the social scene, a monolith in the market. That makes it very hard for any newcomer to survive. With 500 million users and a net worth of about 33 billion dollars, the giant is certainly not going out without a fight. Despite all that, one company thinks there may be a few chinks in Facebook’s armor. The David facing off against the Facebook Goliath is called Diaspora.
Loosely translated, diaspora means the spreading out of people. This new company aims to take advantage of two things, the first is Facebook’s privacy problems. Not long ago, there was a tremendous outcry when Facebook started changing its privacy settings. People were often confused by the new settings and many users felt their information was not being protected. Since then, Facebook has simplified its privacy controls but there is still a fear that the company will try to make more profiles public. That is good news for Diaspora, which describes itself as a “privacy-aware, personally-controlled” social network. Their goal is to give users more control over what information is shared and who can see it. That means users can choose who can see what on an individual basis. For instance, Your boss, won’t be able to see that hilarious picture you took of him at the office christmas party. The second innovation that may help Diaspora succeed is the fact it is open source. That means the company allows people to access the code that runs the programs. In laymen's terms, anyone can see how the program works. That gives apps creators and other software developers more access and means there may be more games and other customizable creations for the individual account. Diaspora is set to be released on September 15th. So far the company has raised more than $200,000 dollars. Among the initial investors was Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. With plenty of capital and some luck this new upstart could give Facebook a run for its money.
Do you think this is just hype, or a successful business venture?? Do you feel Diaspora can compete with Facebook? Let us know what you think about this new business and idea!
Blog Posted by: Tyler Griffin, Creative Director - Mindshift Media Written by: Brad Girtz - Mindshift Media Blogger
Anyone who has ever worked a crumby job knows, Long hours, angry customers and ungrateful supervisors mean stress. It starts as a knot in your stomach and grows until it feels like you are being pushed from all sides. When it gets too bad, most of us just quit, a few even manage a nervous breakdown, but there is a rare breed of employee who takes it a step further. Rather than bending under the pressure, they push back in an office space esque explosion. It is everyones dream to leave their crumby job in a blaze of glory, and on August 9, Jet Blue flight attendant Steven Slater did just that. The trouble started when Slater was hit by a woman's bag while she was removing it from a luggage compartment. Slater asked the woman to apologize and remain seated until the plane had stopped, but she refused, calling him a Mother F*****. In response, Slater got on the planes PA system and gave the customer a pice of his mind. He then grabbed his luggage and two beers before deploying the planes emergency evacuation slide.
Slater escaped down the slide, ran to his car and drove home. Just hours later he was arrested and charged with criminal mischief, reckless endangerment and criminal trespassing. If convicted of all these charges, he could face up to 7 years in prison. That has not stopped people supporting him though. Slaters myspace page and various news articles about the sliding steward are full of accolades for his one man walk out. In addition, Jet Blue released a statement saying, “at no time was the safety of our customers or crew members at risk.” The Jet Blue flight attendant has struck a chord with Americans and the world. He is more than just the rebel we love, Slater had the guts to do what most working class people can’t... quit with style. He may have burned a bridge, but my god it was one hell of a fire.
Steven Slater currently has a staggering 212,000 fans on Facebook. Some of those fans even donated money to help pay for his bail to release him from jail. Less than one week after he slid down an airplane's emergency shoot, JetBlue flight attendant Steven Slater has received an offer to host a reality TV show in which he helps unhappy workers quit their jobs in creative ways. TMZ reports that “According to well-placed industry sources ... Stone Entertainment— a powerhouse in the reality TV world — is going after Slater to host a show in which various disgruntled workers quit their jobs in extravagant ways.”
Blog Posting By: Tyler Griffin, Creative Director - Mindshift Media Written By: Brad Girtz - Mindshift Media Blogger
Pat Tillman gave up his professional football career to join the Army Rangers in 2002—and became an instant symbol of patriotic fervor and unflinching duty. But the truth about Pat Tillman is far more complex, and ultimately more heroic. When the government tried to turn his death into war propaganda, they took on the wrong family. From her home in the Santa Cruz mountains, Pat's mother, "Dannie" Tillman, led the family's crusade to reveal the truth beneath the mythology of their son's life and death. Narrated by Josh Brolin and featuring candid and revelatory interviews with Pat's fellow soldiers as well as his family, Amir Bar-Lev's emotional and insightful film not only shines a light on the shady aftermath of Pat's death and calls to task the entire chain of command but also examines themes as timeless as the notion of heroism itself.
Blog Posting By: Tyler Griffin, Creative Director - Mindshift Media
Anyone with online video, dreams of the day their creation will go viral. It is like winning the world cup and super bowl at the same time. A tiny investment in video is suddenly the most talked about thing on the web and everyone is watching it. Unfortunately, there is no guarantee that any video will hit it big online.
People have spent vast amounts of time and money on videos that have fallen flat. That having been said, it takes more than lots of luck to be the next big online sensation. Mindshift Media recommends the following important rules to consider when attempting to produce an online multimedia campaign that will ultimately go VIRAL!
Rule 1: Make a video for people who are bored at work. There are hundreds of millions of people around the world sitting at a computer with nothing to do. They surf sites like YouTube looking for funny or interesting videos and sharing them with friends. While the idea of so many slacking employees may scare any good business person, it has created one of the best and most lucrative avenues for viral videos. By creating a video these people will want to share, companies can tap in to a pool of viewers larger than that of any major television networks.
Rule 2: Use what Jonah Peretti (CEO of Buzzfield) calls “The Mullet Strategy”. That is, business in front, party in back. Keep the front page of your website serious and put all the crazy silly stuff in back. That way the site still looks professional but there is something fun as well to keep people coming back.
Rule 3: Brands should use big seed marketing. That means anyone trying to sell a brand needs to spend some money. By making a really good campaign/video and paying to have it in a few high profile places, social media will pick up parts of the video faster and businesses can get the viral boost they crave for free.
Rule 4: Target the maniacs. The goal of any good viral campaign should be to target people like Lady Gaga, Kanye West and Perez Hilton, because they are the people who get involved and stir stuff up. When they rant about something or get involved with a product, the world knows. The web is run by maniacs and when they speak, consumers listen.
Rule 5: Companies need to always be pushing themselves and looking for new customers and new markets. The moment they stop, so does the companies growth. The same is true for any viral video. The moment people stop pushing it, the video flops.
These five rules are by no means a guarantee that a video will go viral, but they are the result of a decade of hard work and research from many successful corporations and Fortune 500 companies. They may not always work, but ignoring them is a good way to loose the race to go viral.
Blog Posting By: Tyler Griffin, Creative Director - Mindshift Media
Android phone users may be in for a shock on their next phone bill. Google, Androids creator has identified the first “malicious app” for its popular phone. This phone virus is disguised as a media player but once installed, it sends text messages to a premium rate number. The viruses creator then collects the money from the premium number. That means big charges and little recourse for those affected. This booby trapped app was discovered by Kaspersky Labs and is spread by text message. The message tells users to install a 13KB media player app. The virus or “trojan” is called Trojan-SMS.AndroidOS.FakePlayer.a. Currently, the virus is most common in Russia but because it is spread via text, android users in the U.S. and elsewhere can also be targeted.
A spokesman for Google says users can take steps to prevent their phones from being infected. First, read the permissions screen before installing. This screen tells users what the app has permission to do. Second, only install apps you trust and finally, be especially cautious when installing applications outside the Android market.
Blog Posting By: Tyler Griffin, Creative Director - Mindshift Media Written By: Brad Girtz - Mindshift Media Blogger
20 years ago, anyone with a question went to an expert. Then came the internet, and people began to use giant search engines like Yahoo and Google to find answers. This gave people access to far more information, but lacked the personal approach and security you got from asking a known expert. Without knowing where information originates, it can be hard to see bias or know how credible the source really is. That is the premise behind a new search feature on Facebook called “Questions”.
The option allows users to post questions to other users of Facebook. That way not only do you get an answer to a question, but you know where, or better yet, who the answer came from. The option is being offered to a small selection of Facebooks 500 million users for now but it will be available to a wider audience soon.
Some online analysts see this as a direct challenge to Google, but it is more likely to be a threat to search engines like ask.com and yahoo answers. Facebook can not match the searching and indexing power of google, instead, it will use its vast network of social contacts to help answer questions. That means it will not provide the immediate results provided by Google, but it may give users better answers to more specific or specialized questions. It could also prove a great way to find knowledgeable professionals. One day businesses may even use Questions as a sort of pre interview phase to vet potential employees.
Either way, web users now have another choice in the ever growing number of specialized search engines.
Blog Posting By: Tyler Griffin, Creative Director - Mindshift Media Writter By: Brad Girtz - Mindshift Media Blogger
Commuting may be one of the most loathed chores in human existence. It is an act totally devoid of any fun, excitement or meaning. You get in a car and endure a tedious drive alongside several thousand of your fellow commuters. But what if you could avoid all that by sending someone to work in your place. That is the idea behind Anybots new telepresence robot named “QB”.
The robot may look like the lovechild of a roomba and a mic stand, but the QB has tremendous potential. It uses a video camera, still camera and speaker/mic to remotely interact with with anyone in range of a wi-fi signal. That means an engineer in Chicago can oversee production in a factory in Japan without having to travel there. The robot can be remotely controlled from any computer and sends live streaming video back to the user. It also allows the user to talk back and forth through the QB. The robot even projects the users voice like a live telephone connection. That means people can manage projects, attend meetings and collaborate with colleagues without ever boarding an airplane. The QB gives them a robotic presence anywhere in the world. More importantly, the robot is unobtrusive enough to work in any office. at 5 feet 6 inches tall and weighing about 35 pounds, It is a big improvement over its heavy, cumbersome predecessors. That means people will not be forced to dive out of the way every time the QB rolls by. The robot even has an 8 hour battery life, the same length as a normal work day. This makes it invaluable in todays global marketplace. Trevor Blackwell, CEO of Anybots, says the $15,000 QB will be in every major office in silicon valley within a year. It ships in Fall, 2010, so don’t be to surprised if the next person you find looking over your shoulder is doing so from across the globe.
Blog Posting By: Tyler Griffin, Creative Director - Mindshift Media Written By: Brad Girtz - Mindshift Media Blogger
Starting an online ad campaign is an involved process, especially for the inexperienced. Advertising is a specialized field with its own series of challenges. Simply deciphering the jargon can seem impossible. To understand how a good ad campaign is run, it is important to know how to analyze a campaign.
The first step is locating the target audience. Find a website with plenty of traffic, that caters to the target audience. This is like finding a good fishing hole, it may take a few tries but eventually you find a good place. Once you have found a suitable site to advertise, you will need to run an advertising audit. This means looking at every part of the advertising campaign to see what is making money and what needs improvement. First, look at click through rates. This is the number of people who actually clicked on the ad and were redirected back to the advertised website. These numbers give you initial indications of how the ad is preforming, but they can be deceiving. For instance, they do not take into account accidental clicks or people who clicked on the ad, only to immediately leave the site.
To better understand an online ad campaign, advertisers must move beyond click through rates and look at engagement rates and overall ad performance. Engagement rates are the number of people who actually navigated around the site, commented on products, and/or purchased a product. In short, they spent time with the site and its content. These numbers should have a direct correlation with the overall ad performance. Sales should go up in proportion to the number of people clicking through and engaging with a site. Along with these tools, advertisers should be using “intent to purchase studies”. This is a complex term, meaning a study taken before and after an ad campaign, that looks at the target audiences willingness to buy a product. The goal of the study is to gauge any change in the buyers opinion of a product due to an advertising campaign.
Intent to purchase studies provide, what is possibly the most reliable data to understand the effectiveness of an online ad campaign. Using these tools, even a first time advertiser can better understand how to improve and tailor their ad to increase revenue and maximize effectiveness.
Zeekee Interactive Experiences Success with Online Multimedia Marketing Campaign
(Produced by: Mindshift Media and STVP)
Blog Posted By: Tyler Griffin, Creative Director - Mindshift Media Written By: Brad Girtz - Mindshift Media Blogger
A research project from Intel can turn any surface into a touchscreen. Instead of propping up a tablet or putting a touchscreen computer in your kitchen, picture yourself tapping on the counter top to pull menus, look up recipes and add items to a shopping list.
According to researchers, this new system can turn any wall into a touch screen computer. There are no major renovations needed, Intel’s system uses two cameras and a small projector and the entire device is no bigger than a large cell phone. One camera identifies colors and shapes while the other measures depth. That gives this new form of computing a distinct advantage over traditional PC’s.
Not only can it use any surface as a touch screen, it can identify objects it sees. That means it can find recipes based on the food on a counter, identify objects without a lengthy search and create a virtual interface that is more tactile and user friendly. Soon we may be accessing recipes while we cut up raw chicken, looking at gardening tips on the side of a greenhouse or searching for that perfect song to sing along with while we shower. If Intel succeeds with this new device it will completely revolutionize how people interact with computers both at work and in their homes. It will also make computes more ubiquitous.
People will be able to access information about a city on the side of one of its buildings, learn about different plants and animals in a virtual class room and interact more naturally with the machines that surround them.
Keep your eyes open for touch screens on the side of buildings, in classrooms, or even in your office! Check out this new video from Intel on their latest invention!
Blog Posting By: Tyler Griffin, Creative Director - Mindshift Media Written By: Brad Girtz - Mindshift Media Blogger
Mindshift Media is an interactive multimedia agency located in Bellevue, Washington. From promotional multimedia campaigns to social networking solutions, we provide our clients with many tools needed to succeed in today's global marketplace. Our unique and comprehensive approach to advertising enables us to accommodate a variety of clients, including businesses, organizations, non-profit’s and individual’s. Mindshift Media includes a tight-knit group of experienced multimedia professionals. We enjoy working with results-oriented businesses and ambitious entrepreneurs.
At Mindshift Media, we specialize in results driven online media marketing campaigns and innovative ideas for creative advertising for local, national and globally based companies. We look forward to helping you achieve the success you deserve.
Posts
