Team ICND travelled to the busy little town of Savannah, GA where they were warmed by the southern charm, hospitality, and great culture of the 2013 Eastern VRMA Conference.  There, ICND wooed the crowd with sunglasses, coozies, pens, notepads, and a wealth of information about interactive marketing.  With lots of rave reviews such as:

"I recently attended the VRMA Eastern Conference in Savannah, GA this past week and had the pleasure to meet the InterCoastal Net Designs team. They were energetic, and knew the business very well which was refreshing to see at the VRMA vendor showcase... I just wanted to reach out on behalf of our company..., to let you know how professional your team was. A great product, displayed, and delivered very well. Loved the sunglasses!"

Thank you to all of those who stopped by our booth and shared your needs. We're excited to, once again, be a part of the Vacation Rental Managers Association and hope to be even more involved in the sessions about website design, booking engine integrations, and online marketing.   Be on the look out for your account team to be contacting you and starting to grow your relationship with ICND.  We look forward to seeing you all again!

At InterCoastal Net Designs, we talk to new clients all the time about growing their social media presence the right way.  Focusing on a strong and consistent posting strategy is the best way to engage users and develop these client relationships; but how do you get them there in the first place?  While there are a number of different strategies, one of the most successful is running a contest.

Elements to a Successful Facebook Contest

1. Obey the Rules - There are so many little rules that most people don't know about. The fine print can result in your Facebook page being deleted - consult the ICND experts!
2. Make it Easy to Enter - Sometimes contests can be confusing!  How do I enter? How do I vote? How do I increase my chances of winning? How do I share it? - These should all be very easy to understand and made simple to maximize results.
3. Make the Contest Mobile Friendly - Here at InterCoastal Net Designs, we've seen as much as 70% of new fans come from a mobile device during a contest.  That's a big chunk of the pie to miss out on.  Don't use one of the generic Facebook apps that are on a tab on Facebook, while they are mobile friendly, they do not see near the results as building out a mobile specific page.
4. Use Effective Posting Strategies - This is key to getting your contest to go viral. Take notice of what time you are posting, including a link to the contest, encourage sharing, tagging your page, and using an image.
5. Get a Big Prize - This is a no brainer, the bigger the prize the more people will be enticed to share your contest.
6. Encourage Sharing - You must encourage fans to "LIKE" & "SHARE" - Don't require it (that's against Facebook terms) but no one says you can't encourage it!
7. When in doubt, Call InterCoastal Net Designs - We've had some tremendous success with contests targeting quality fans that are interested in what our clients are offering growing over 50k fans in 3 weeks.  If you want to experience the best results when running a Facebook contest, let's talk!

We're excited to be launching so many successful contests for our clients and we'd love to help you grow customers, outreach and succesfull campaigns through Facebook contests. 
 

When I was fifteen, my first job was working at an ice cream parlor one summer. It was for 5.75 an hour and sometimes I was paid under the table. The work was fine, and it was a great introduction to customer service; especially how people react when their ice cream cone isn't as full as their older brother's. Little did I know that I should have been in my room playing with computers.

This week, seventeen year old Nick D'Aloisio sold his mobile application, Summly, for 30 million dollars to Yahoo!. D'Aloisio, developed this application when he was fifteen from his parent's home in London. Summly is an app that aims in providing concise news taken from hundreds of sources to smartphones. This new algorithm allows news stories to be summarized in a succinct manner, giving readers the choice whether or not they want to expand the story or not. 

When asked in an interview about this development, a Yahoo source stated, "It started with an insight -- that we live in a world of constant information and need new ways to simplify how we find the stories that are important to us, at a glance."

This ever-changing world of receiving news is rapidly evolving. In the last 5 years alone, we have witnessed a remarkable change in how we access information. The Internet, and its real-time updates, have challenged reporters to provide the most accurate and up-to-date information within seconds not days. This is also a good metaphor for entrepreneurs (remember that Harvard dropout and his little website?). Furthermore, this information that reporters are sharing must have enough of an appeal to make users want to read further.

Nick's youthful aspirations seen to fruition is just the latest example of how age is but a mere number. While all the talk (and rightfully so) will be on Nick these upcoming weeks, the next Nick D'Aloisio is already out there developing something we all will want. We just don't know it yet.

What is good to see is that Nick plans on finishing his final year of high school as to maintain some semblance of normalcy. Fortunately for him, he doesn't have to find a summer job.

If you didn't go to our Spring 2013 Online Marketing Workshop in Myrtle Beach, SC, you missed out on a great time! The workshop was held at the ITT Technical Institute of Myrtle Beach where we found the space plentiful and staff very helpful. A big thanks to Courtney DePaul for her support of our workshop. We opened up the event with friendly registration by Summer Adams as she gave everyone an itinerary and USB key of all the presentations to take home.

Before entering the room, we invited our guests to participate in a fun photo booth prepared by our designer and photographer, Chris Campbell. Team ICND had fun with the photo booth as well. For more photos and fun check out our Facebook album and be sure to "Like Us". As the sessions took place, we had great one-on-one interaction with our guests and speakers. It was a collaborative effort of presentations and Q&A. We hope to do more follow-up on the topics: SEO, PPC, Social Media, Email Marketing, and Responsive Web Design with additional whitepapers for download on our website. For more information, please visit our website www.icoastalnet.com or contact your Account Manager. by: Vanessa Humes

InterCoastal Net Designs was recently contacted by the folks at Google to be a participant in their Google Engage program. We are excited to partner with Google in this exciting new program that's specifically for companies like ICND. The benefits from this program are great for both ICND and our Pay Per Click or Google Remarketing clients. Our PPC team now has a direct line to Google and if there is ever an issue or question about a client's Google Adwords account, we have a contact at Google that will help us immediately. ICND can now learn through access to Google's online courses, webinars and events. Lastly, any new Pay Per Click client of ours can receive a $100 Adwords coupon towards their account. That's a great jump start to your online marketing campaign!

We feel honored to be apart of Google Engage and we're already starting to see the benefits! Google Engage is specifically geared towards helping small business agencies. ICND prides itself on its 14 years of small business experience, and the Google Engage partnership is a sign of our success in the online marketing industry. If you're interested in trying PPC now is the time because we a have limited amount of $100 Adwords coupons! Contact our staff to learn more.

When it comes to online marketing, having a strategy is key. However, if you're not an internet marketing specialist it can be an overwhelming task. InterCoastal Net Designs is excited to announce their new partnership with the Clarion Hotel of Myrtle Beach. We recently launched not just one campaign for this well-reknowned hotel, but three! Clarion chose Pay Per Click, Social Media Marketing and a kick-off social media contest to stay at the top of mind of their client base.

We often tell our clients, if you want quick results, then PPC is the way to go! Our PPC specialists are experienced in managing accounts that result in ROI and high quality scores, and in the long run a projected lower Cost Per Click.

And if you're still in the dark on social media, it's safe to say your company is dropping the ball! We are excited to take over Clarion's social media marketing and foster brand awareness and client engagement for our new client! ICND is also handling the ins and outs of a social media contest for Clarion. We recently saw one of our client's company pages grow from around 1,500 fans to 40,000 in the span of a week! With Facebook's current algorithm in place, this kind of growth ensures that your brand will be all over the Facebook newsfeeds of your potential clients. When it comes to the vacation rental industry, fans are engaged with scenic photographs and the promise of the perfect getaway and Facebook is the place to start dreaming! We can't wait to see the results of the Clarion Myrtle Beach contest.

If you feel like your company isn't getting the online attention it deserves, it's time to nail down an online marketing strategy. Any combination of our services from SEO to social media will increase the visibility of your brand and the combination of campaigns is sure to bring home the bacon.

Thanks Clarion, ICND is thrilled to start this partnership which is sure to be a success!

Can you guess when we took over this client's Social Media?

The InterCoastal Net Designs Social Media team recently took over the social media account for a company in Myrtle Beach South Carolina in the vacation rental industry.  After working with the client to put together a contest and content strategy, we were able to put together an incredible contest that reached over 1 million people, gained over 10,000 fans and generated a significant amount of revenue in just 1 week.

More details to come on this exciting contest and what exactly it produced for the client, but I think it's easy to say that it has been a successful contest with very good ROI!

If you're struggling to find the benefits in social media and want the ICND Social Media team to produce ROI like this for you, contact our team today to see how we can help!

How would you like to convert sales on Facebook at 40% less costs? - No brainer, right?  Well let us introduce you to a brand new option introduced by Facebook last week and how ICND can leverage this for you RIGHT NOW!

One of the crucial pieces in advertising is tracking what is working and measuring the effectiveness of each piece.  Until now, so many brands have questioned the benefits of social media and if it actually leads to an increase in sales.  This new conversion tracking on Facebook (OCPM) has been available to some of the big brands for a while now but it has just been opened to everyone.  Beta tests have shown a decrease in conversion costs by 40% when using this new OCPM method versus what almost everyone uses now on Facebook. (The CPC method)

How does it work?

ICND can create a conversion tracking pixel for your Facebook ads.  This needs to be placed on your website on your designated "conversion page".  Once the pixel is set, we are able to go back into the Facebook ads manager to set a budget and create ads using this optimized CPM method.

Cross Device ROI Measurement with (OCPM) on Facebook

One of the really exciting things about this new pixel tracking with Facebook is the fact that it's the ONLY solution available that can track when users view ads on one device (like a mobile phone) but then convert on another computer.  This is incredibly powerful for a cross-platform ad campaign!  Further, OCPM conversion tracking works with all Facebook ads and sponsored stories along with all of the powerful targeting options.

Interested?

Schedule a time to learn more or get started with the ICND Social Media team to leverage this brand new tool for your business today!

If you've called InterCoastal Net Designs or emailed Support over the past month or so, then chances are you've worked with one of our newest team members, Gabriela Leggett. Gaby jumped on board while Summer Adams has been out on maternity leave and the ICND crew is grateful for the work she does here!

Gaby was born in Bolivia, South America. Both of her parents are Bolivian, however, she grew up in Miami Beach, Fla. Gaby's lived all over the place, including Peru, Canada, Rome and D.C. Gaby's husband is from the Ocean Isle Beach area and her family moved here after he finished school at the University of North Carolina. Gaby has her Associates in Science from Brunswick Community College, and she finished this in just one year! When Gaby isn't assisting clients on the phone, you can find her doing Crossfit, traveling, baking or spending time with her two children. ICND is lucky to have a hardworker like Gaby on board, please welcome her to our team!

The highly anticipated event from Facebook and the long overdue announcement has arrived - Facebook is launching a search engine!  In this blog, we're going to uncover exactly what it is and how your business can find it useful.

So what exactly is "Graph Search"?

Think about it as more of a structured search that relates to us as individuals than just a keyword that you would typically search on Google.  Graph search is built in a way that it will encourage us to get recommendations from friends and friends of friends, and to find people within Facebook who share your interests. This connection is a strong endorsement style, personalized result, unlike anything else you can find on the web right now.

If you've worked in-depth with Facebook ads, you already see the incredibly valuable data that this social network holds.  The precise interest targeting you're able to leverage is absolutely incredible and and it's important to note the value in this data when it comes to the new Graph Search.  Marketers that know their clients best will be rewarded!

What information is used in "Graph Search"?

The type of information that you will be able to use to enhance your search on Facebook includes: Interests, Photos, Checkins and Likes.  Think of the power this holds when you consider the value of a referral!

What do businesses need to keep in mind?

Engagement is STILL key - Your page's social graph will determine visibility in search.  So businesses that can successfully engage with fans to create more likes, comments and shares will benefit the most and come up in the most search results.  Optimize your edgerank and news feed optimization to increase engagement and the number of "people talking about" your page.

What else is new?

Integrated Bing search results.  Bing already owns approximately 16% of the search marketshare - this further integration of Bing with the social giant could be a big opportunity for growth.  There are 4 sponsored results that come at the top and 2 sponsored results at the bottom (Bing search is used when the placing a "web search" within the new Facebook Graph Search. The organic listings seem to take social signals into account such as people who have liked and shared the page.  Pages with more likes, engagement and "people talking about" the page seem to have higher ranking in this Bing web search - reasonably so!

What does Facebook Graph Search NOT do?

Graph Search does not search for status updates or posts at this time, although it is on the future plans according to Facebook. It will only pull personalized results for your friends and "friends of friends" as well as broad search results for everyone - you cannot opt out at this time although you can significantly increase privacy.

Summary:

1. Likes are valuable - Run contests, engage fans, encourage sharing of your page and continue to integrate social with your other marketing efforts.
2. Content is King on Search - Build up more content on your page and optimize it for search. Graph Search is still very new so begin testing and learn what "works".
3. Engagement is key - It always has been with Social Media and always will be.  Your post frequency, timing and optimization will increase this significantly so stay focused on engagement and the number of "people talking about" your page.

If you would like to work with the ICND team to leverage the new Facebook Graph search, manage your social media presence or utilize some of the extremely powerful advertising options available, contact your account rep or get in touch with the ICND Social Media team today!

A North Carolina native for most of his life, Drew Pearson feels right at home with his move to Ocean Isle Beach, NC. Did we mention that the InterCoastal Net Designs team couldn’t be happier to have him? Programmers are essential to what we do here – everything from entire website development, to daily support tasks has to be addressed by a programmer. We foresee great things in 2013 and an additional programmer is the perfect jumpstart to this.

When he’s not working hard on our client’s websites, he’s usually exploring his love of photography. In fact, you can check out some of his work here. He also has a 5 year-old son, Miles, who he greatly enjoys spending time with.

Drew’s experience with computers dates back to age 5, when he can first recall using one for the first time. It’s this kind of passion and interest for the job that ICND loves about Drew! When asked what he’s enjoyed most about the ICND team so far, Drew said, “The people! What a great and friendly, staff. I really look forward to working more with them all. I also just really like the business itself, the attention paid to clients, the growth, and the fact that there are always new and exciting projects/challenges to work on.”

There is no doubt that Google+ Pages are making a big splash in the internet marketing world, especially with it's increasing impact on search engine results.  The platform has definitely lacked something to be desired though in the minds of most marketers.  The level of engagement a page could have with users has been very limited, until NOW!

Google announced today that business pages now have the ability to engage with all users, even if they haven't added your business page to one of their circles! This is pretty huge for marketers trying to engage and target users by area, topic, keywords and more.

Another announcement was made today that Google+ will be releasing a new analytics platform soon.  This will be similar to Facebook's insights, but I wonder how it might be tied into Google Analytics.  This analytics platform is slated to be launched "in the coming weeks."

Google is poised to connect the dots better than any other company with the data they have from  Search, Chrome, Android and now Google+.

Clients often come to us for website design and development needs, basically anything online! However, people overlook how essential print materials are for the entire branding process. We recently launched a website for Valor Motor Company, however, the recent print brochures and business cards that InterCoastal Net Designs created are a necessary supplement to their online marketing efforts. Potential clients often look to the web for quick information, however, having a business card in hand can create a sense of relationship and push the customer to call or swing by the office. Please check out the recent print materials we created for Valor Motor Company, assisting their complete brand development efforts. SEERngv is Valor Motor Company's cutting-edge car that runs on 100 percent natural gas. ICND oversaw the production of the brochure for this environmentally-friendly vehicle.

Contact your Account Manager to learn more tips for complete brand development. ICND is your one-stop place for full marketing efforts.

InterCoastal Net Designs partnered with long-time client, Sloane Realty Vacations to design and implement a tab on Sloane's Facebook. This is a new app that ICND published which will allow Facebook fans to book properties directly from the Sloane Vacations Facebook page.

This new app is highly recommended for our vacation rental clients, as it provides the customer with an incredibly easy booking experience. The tab even includes several links to the website and mirrors the Sloane Realty Vacations brand. However, this type of app can be used for any of our clients for marketing purposes. Restaurant - why not allow fans to make reservations? Golf Course - let clients set a tee time online. The possibilites are endless.

What we did was took the booking page already created from their new site, adjusted the width of the page to size with Facebook. To make it appear correctly without scrollbars or anything, we created a new app for Sloane - this is not using a free generic Static HTML app.

This is a perfect example of how creativity, programming expertise and tailored marketing efforts are just three goals that ICND strives for with its clients. Contact your Account Manager today and ask what we can do for you social media presence.

What better way to engage with fans than by celebrating the holiday season via social media? Check out our social media efforts for Seaside Vacation Rentals on their Facebook page. InterCoastal Net Designs highly suggests a social media rebrand once a quarter in order to keep fans and clients interested in the company and its news. The Christmas rebrand for Seaside Vacation Rentals is a high-quality example of how to incorporate outside events and holidays into a marketing campaign. Not to mention, people often associate the holidays with vacationing. What better time for a vacation rental company to demonstrate holiday spirit than with photos, custom designed graphics and special prices on Facebook?

ICND highly recommends to its clients that they either begin incorporating the holiday season into their social media efforts or start thinking about a potential rebrand for the New Year. Clients are always encouraged to keep future marketing efforts on their minds and our team is here to handle creative ideas and implementation of all strategies. Other great tips to consider for holiday social media efforts include festive logos, promotion of local charities and engaging with users through asking holiday plans and memories.