February 2013
2 posts
Small Business Owner: Does The Weather Have You...
Hey there fellow small business owner. Does the weather have you stuck at home? Thinking of the 1.83x10^5 things you have to do at the office? Forget them all.
Write. Yes, write.
Your website is in desperate need of fresh content. Remember that awesome thing that happend at the end of last month? Your future customers want to hear about it and how you can make it happen for them, too. Sure,...
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Signalfire Teams with Area Businesses and Economic...
Imagine four years out of high school… one person is over $50,000 in debt, without experience, and hunting for a job. The other is well into a career making serious money—and his employer is footing the bill for education. College isn’t the golden road to success we were led to believe and new options are on the table.
Signalfire produced three web videos promoting manufacturing as...
January 2013
1 post
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Sturgeon Bay Visitor Center's 2013 Guidebook is...
We’re thrilled to see our sixth edition of this Signalfire-designed publication head off to press at J.B. Kenehan Printing. Sturgeon Bay Visitor Center is responsible for promoting tourism and business in the only year round city in the thriving tourism destination of Door County, Wisconsin.
Congratulations to Signalfire’s Art Director, Jodi Heisz, and the rest of the team. The...
November 2012
2 posts
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Running Your Content Marketing Like a Gold Mine
I have a confession. I love the gold mining shows on TV. They appeal to me because it shows that a bit of vision, smart planning and hard work, tossed in with a touch of luck, can produce rewards. What I love even more is that the same logic that yields success for mining gold will yield success in content marketing. How? Let’s look at some principles of gold mining.
Start Recovering Your...
Last Chance To Sign Up! Brick and Mobile: Retail...
Traditional brick and mortar retail locations often feel many online developments don’t apply to their situation and many times they’re right. However, the rapid rise of smart phones, tablets, and other portable devices are changing the way consumers shop. People are creating and storing shopping lists, scanning product bar codes to compare prices, and accessing coupons and promotions all on...
October 2012
1 post
Matthew Olson to Speak at WFMA Fall Workshops
Wisconsin Farmers Market Association has invited Matthew Olson, president of Signalfire, to lead both of the Fall Workshop breakout sessions on Saturday, November 10, at Titletown Brewery in Green Bay, Wis.
The first breakout session will discuss farmers markets utilizing social media tools such as Facebook, Twitter, and Foursquare to improve exposure. The second breakout session will involve...
September 2012
4 posts
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Content Curation vs. Content Development: The Two...
Content marketing is one of the hottest trends in marketing for very good reasons!
Demonstrates your brand’s expertise by sharing knowledge and insight
Provides helpful, useful data or information to your interest community
Establishes both trust and value in your brand
Search engine boosts don’t hurt, either
Where do over-tasked business owners or time-indebted managers find the...
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Content Marketing as a Vital Investment
Traditional marketing says you are the right choice, but content marketing shows your company is a dependable investment. Content marketing is critical for small businesses because it effectively builds brand awareness, allows for more customer interaction, drives in leads, brings in visitors, improves SEO results, and improves your customer retention rate. There is no doubt that a solid content...
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Content as a Commodity
We all have our favorite websites. Some sites are for news, some are for commentary, and quite a few are just for personal interest. The list of favorites is getting longer, more specialized, and more personalized—and it′s the content on those websites that keep us coming back.
Essentially, content has become the base commodity of the Web. And just like every other consumable commodity, an...
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“Traditional marketing and advertising is telling the world you’re a rockstar....”
– Robert Rose, Author of Managing Content Marketing
July 2012
2 posts
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Fall Seminar Series Returns With Small Business...
Join Signalfire’s Matthew Olson on Wednesday, September 12th at Harbor Shores on Lake Geneva for the first of four FREE Breakfast and Learn seminars from Lake Geneva Economic Development Corporation.
Blogs and content play a critical role in your company’s efforts to generate new business and spread brand awareness. You are connecting and engaging with your audience and building a...
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Google+ Pages Comes to Hootsuite and Small...
Hootsuite has just announced the social media dashboard will now support Google+ Pages updates for all users.
For many small businesses, using a social media dashboard like Hootsuite, TweetDeck, or others is the best and only way to stay on top of social media. With Hootsuite’s addition of Google+ Pages (not individual accounts, yet), many of these burgeoning brands can now more actively...
June 2012
3 posts
4 tags
Leading Plastic Manufacturer Launches Website...
Signalfire was contacted by Continental Plastic, a leading international plastic manufacturer of artificial insemination products and accessories, for a new website. Continental Plastic was just four weeks away from launching a revolutionary new product line at one of their major tradeshow events—and they needed a new website to pull off the launch successfully.
Continental Plastic needed a...
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Mobile Friendly vs Mobile Optimized vs Responsive...
Making a website mobile ready is pretty high on the request list for businesses and organizations developing a new website. However, there is a flurry of terms surrounding mobile. Mobile friendly, mobile optimized, and a newer term: responsive design. What is the difference between them? Why is it important?
Last fall Peter Sondergaard, senior vice president at Gartner, a world-wide IT analysis...
May 2012
4 posts
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Groundbreaking Electronic Recycing Facility...
Signalfire did a four week fast track website development and tradeshow campaign for DP Electronic Recycling, an Elkhorn, Wis., recycling company specializing in end-of-life recycling (e-waste), asset management, data destruction, and electronic purchasing options. DP Electronic Recycling had an urgent need to build a new site. With the launch of their new revolutionary product made from...
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7 Questions To Ask About Designing A New Business...
Asking Yourself These 7 Questions Will Save Time, Money, and Frustration!
You’ve decided you’ve got to “do something” about your website. Now what? Designing or developing a new website should not be started without some serious examination. We recommend spending some time assessing your own online efforts, talking with your best as well as your newest customers, and investigating the online...
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Non Profit Animal Shelter Launches New Brand and...
Signalfire launches a new brand and website for the Lakeland Animal Shelter, a non-profit animal welfare shelter located in Elkhorn, Wisconsin. Signalfire developed an engaging new logo and supporting brand materials as well as an intuitive, welcoming, interactive user experience for the Lakeland Animal Shelter website.
Signalfire chose to design a user interface design to become the central...
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Politics is like Business: Whoever Tells the Best...
How well are you telling your story? Google+ might have opened the platform for politics, but it still gives businesses, organizations, and now politicians a great challenge. Relevance.
For politics as much as business–whoever tells the best story wins. Businesses, organizations, and even political parties are now competing for relevance in every customer, constituent, and compassionate...
April 2012
1 post
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Signalfire Launches Website for Chicago...
Signalfire has launched a new corporate website for Franklin Development Trust, Inc., a Chicago based project management, construction management, and construction services company.
Franklin Development Trust chose Signalfire, to develop the new site. Signalfire’s goal was to create a website design that would commuicate the experience and expertise of Franklin Development Trust in the highly...
March 2012
1 post
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Digital Content Manager Alison Rudig Joins...
As Signalfire expands the team does as well. Alison Rudig joins the team as Signalfire’s first Digital Content Manager just as Signalfire begins offering strategic content services.
“Content is a critical part of our clients’ brands,” President Matthew Olson said. “Expanding our services to include copywriting, web content development, and article writing will give our clients the ability to...
February 2012
6 posts
3 tags
Content as the Consumable Commodity of the Web
We all have our favorite websites. Some sites are for news, some are for commentary, and quite a few are just for personal interest. The list of favorites is getting longer, more specialized, and more personalized—and it′s the content on those websites that keep us coming back.
Essentially, content has become the base commodity of the Web. And just like every other consumable commodity, an...
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Flickr Cuts Off Pinterest: Proof Positive That...
VentureBeat.com released exclusive news that Flickr will be cutting off copyrighted images from Pinterest. While a lot of Pinheads may be upset, it is a critical move for digital content owners everywhere.
Images, text, and video are the most fundamental commodity of the web. Content is what powers the web and what keeps an audience engaged. Flickr’s move to protect the ownership of...
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Want People to Return Your Emails? Avoid These... →
Next time you write an email subject line, think twice about the words you’re using. Loading your message with words such as “confirm,” “join,” “press,” or “invite” is not a good idea if you want a response, says data from Baydin, the makers of email plugin Boomerang. Baydin recently extrac…
“I find it funny that during school we hated to write papers. But in the...”
– Matthew Olson
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January 2012
2 posts
6 tags
Small Business Social Media Basics at Lakeland...
Signalfire’s Matthew Olson has been invited to speak at the Lakeland Builders Association’s monthly Breakfast and Learn session 7:30 am on Tuesday, January 31, 2012 at their offices in Elkhorn, Wisconsin. Focusing on “The Hug, The Handshake, and The Hot Cup of Coffee” Matthew will discuss the role social media plays in small business marketing and customer service.
To...
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Small Business Social Media Basics (Part 1 of 3)
Signalfire’s Matthew Olson speaks at the November 18th Lake Geneva Economic Development Corporation’s Breakfast and Learn session. Discussing social media basics for small businesses, Matthew makes the makes the analogy that Facebook is like a hug, Twitter is a handshake, and LinkedIn is the same as sharing a hot cup of coffee.
This video covers Part 1: The Hug (Facebook).
December 2011
2 posts
3 tags
Don't Like Receipts? NFC to the Rescue!
For many consumers, the idea of Near Field Communication (NFC) as a payment vehicle is more than a little intimidating. Yet NFC doesn’t have to be used only for mobile payment processing. Check out this fantastic idea to eliminate those easy-to-lose, quickly fading strips of paper.
How nice would it be to have receipts simply stored on your mobile device… now if we can tie this into...
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Free Breakfast Seminar: How to Use Location Based...
Did you know customers are “checking in” to your business every day on social media and might be sharing their thoughts and impressions with thousands of interested friends and acquaintances? What might be billed as a game to the public can mean serious benefits (or perils) to your business. What is location-based social media? How can you get involved? What are the benefits? What can you do to...
November 2011
5 posts
3 tags
Door County Coffee Roaster Launches Custom...
Signalfire is proud to launch a custom Facebook landing page for Door County Coffee & Tea just ahead of the busiest shopping weekend of the year. Signalfire designed, implemented, and provided creative marketing guidance for the promotion.
Signalfire worked with Door County Coffee to deliver the customized page as well as a geographically targeted Facebook advertising campaign. Going one...
AniseSmith: Coca-Cola tests NFC-enabled vending... →
anisesmith:
Via Scoop.it - NFC
NEW YORK – A Coca-Cola executive at ad:tech said the beverage giant is piloting a program with Google Wallet where consumers can use their mobile device to pay for a drink at 200 of its vending machines across the United States.
During the “Brands and Innovation –…
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Lake Geneva Business Launches New Logo and Fresh...
The Challenge: A local 30-year office equipment sales and service company needed to shake up their sleepy market image and clearly establish themselves as a regional market leader with an ambitious sales growth plan.
The Connection: Knowing they needed a complete marketing makeover to hit the ground running, they contacted Signalfire, a full-service creative marketing agency that specializes in...
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Chicago Law Firm Hires Signalfire for Website and...
Woodvale Partners is a unique Chicago-based law firm that successfully combines legal expertise and international business experience. They needed a new website that showcased the strong background of their legal team and helped them “stand out” from the thousands of websites in their profession.
We started from the ground up: designing a new logo, business cards and letterhead, and setting up...
October 2011
3 posts
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QR Codes Are Failing Because of Marketers →
QR codes have been floating on the edges of mainstream for a while now. While the technology and platforms are primed for the explosion, nothing seems to be happening.
If QR codes fail to take off, we, as marketers, are to blame.
Read the article
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Content, Context, and Customers: The Next Stage in...
As social media continues to permeate the marketplace, and more businesses choose to socially connect with their interest communities, the amount of “clutter” in a person’s social media stream has reached intrusive levels. Brands and organizations can run dangerously close to being the social media version of spam and being tuned out altogether. As we’re seeing with Google+’s Circles, Facebook’s...
September 2011
2 posts
2 tags
Signalfire's Location-Based Promotion Gets...
Big thank you to Foursquare’s Follow Friday blog for highlighting Signalfire’s promotion of Sturgeon Bay Visitor Center’s Sturgeon Around the Bay. Signalfire combined a Foursquare List for a walking tour and QR codes for sharing information about each of the artisan-created Sturgeons.
Learn more about Signalfire’s work with Sturgeon Bay Visitor Center
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WordPress for Business Websites: The Perils of...
WordPress and other open source content management systems might be more of a siren’s song than most business owners realize. Sirens were creatures from Greek mythology that lured sailors to their doom with their beauty and song. The lure of “free” and free, readily available themes and plugins can often hide the larger security and reliability perils surrounding this blogging platform.
Content...
August 2011
1 post
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Combining QR Codes and Foursquare in Door County...
Signalfire is always looking for fun, effective ways to help clients make the most out of social media and the web. The Sturgeon Bay Visitor Center in Sturgeon Bay, Door County, Wisconsin holds an annual street art auction, Sturgeon Around the Bay, to raise funds in the tourism promotion of Door County’s largest city.
Seventeen sculpted sturgeons are placed around the shopping districts of...
July 2011
6 posts
4 tags
How Will Google+ Impact Your Business?
In late June, Google entered the social media race (for a third time) with a Facebook-like social networking platform called Google+. Whether businesses like it or not, Google+, sometimes referred to simply as G+, will join the main tier of social networking platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Foursquare.
While not public, you need to receive an “invite” from an existing user to...
Google Accelerates Google+ for Business Test... →
Already using Google+? Follow Mashable News for the latest about the platform’s new features, tips and tricks as well as our top social media and technology updates. Google, which had initially planned to test business partners on Google+ in the next “few months,” is moving more quickly with t…
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Heather Harris Joins Signalfire as a Graphic...
Signalfire, LLC, a fast-growing full service brand and marketing agency in Delavan, WI recently hired Heather Harris, who joins the firm as a part-time graphic designer. Servicing clients throughout the Midwest, Signalfire specializes in integrated brand strategy, web and graphic design, and brand-level social media platforms. Owner and President Matthew Olson stated, “Graphic design is an...
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Restaurateur Making A Music Festival Splash with...
Original Article: Zaffiro’s making virtual splash at Summerfest By: Stacy Vogel Davis
You didn’t think Joe Sorge would set up his first Summerfest stand without trying out some new social media experiment, did you?
Sorge’s recently formed company, Hospitality Democracy, put a Zaffiro’s Pizzeria booth in the Ethnic Village at Summerfest this year, replacing Edwardo’s Natural Pizza....
June 2011
9 posts
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ICANN Approves New Top-Level Domains, So Prepare... →
A handful of not very descriptive top-level domains, such as .com, .net, .org, as well as country-specific TLDs are what the web is currently made of, but this is about to change drastically. ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), the international authority over top-lev…
