Syl Wilson Marketing Chosen as Prime for FDS Head Start New Website

Recently, Syl Wilson Marketing was chosen as the prime website design firm for Family Development Services (FDS) in Indiana. The former website had a clunky back-end making images slow to render. The main menu was very hard to navigate to find the core items needed. We re-designed the site with a mobile friendly version, new and improved navigation and also provided content development services. We are proud to say “Welcome to your new online home, FDS!”

This was a fun project from the start to the finish. We were able to interview current employees and staff to get to the core values of the company. FDS is a head start program, they are doing amazing things for the community and we are PROUD to have been a part of this amazing journey. We look forward to partnering on future projects.

View the site online

Morning Cup of…Facebook?

I got to wondering today. “What’s the first thing normal people do in the morning?” I mean..for me, it’s wake up, log into Facebook and see if I have any messages, then see what everyone else is chatting about (there could be some happening news ya know), then check to see if my fan page has any questions or leads. After that I hit up Twitter…This process lasts for about the first half hour of my morning before I ever leave the house. So I started to wonder…Am I the

Taking a roll of the dice with social media for business

I have been off the scene for awhile as far as blogging goes, but that is a good thing for me, it means that I have been a busy bee. What I would like to do is share more life experiences with you as I have learned quite a bit about the corporate and private business regarding social media marketing. Have you ever wondered why a particular business isn’t on Facebook? How about Twitter? Well, over the last few months, I have been helping small businesses and a few large ones understand the value of social media and how it can improve their bottom line. The results have been very interesting to say the least.

Case Study #1

Small Business starting off. Wants to get brand recognition and thinks they can do it via email blasts in one of those “Free” services. (I know…this one drove me nuts).

When the president of this company asked me how I could help him with his email blasts, I asked him what he currently is doing. He had subscribed to a free service that allowed him to send email blasts, but only a few at a time. He wanted to know what I thought about paying a service to send his email blasts. First question I had for him was “What’s your website look like?” He had one, but it too was with one of the “Free Services” that offer template style websites. All of this is fine, but when you want to get the word out to the masses and appear to be a viable company, you have to

Diary of an addicted Facebooker and Tweeter

Every now and then it’s fun to post something rather hokey…so I am going to post one of the reasons that makes it fun for us to market using Twitter, Facebook, and other social networking sites. Enjoy!

March 10 8:00am

Dear Diary,

I woke up and saw I had two new tweets. @holyroller wants to know if I am single and @mydadspants asked me if I could hang out this weekend…I have no idea who these people are, but I knew I had to

Why privacy on the internet is laughable

People keep talking about you can protect yourself online if you delete certain profile pages on these free online public data searches. Well, that’s just laughable to me. The only way to protect yourself is to

How are you using your Facebook and Twitter Lists?

I had an interesting conversation with my boss the other day. For those who don’t know, my boss and company I work for have been adamently against the use of social networking for business from day one. Well, now that they know that I have been using Twitter for us and gained about 100 strong leads (which are about to close for orders totally over $500K) they are very interested in what I’ve been up to. He wanted to know how we could leverage Twitter for an upcoming trade show. His concern was how we could target certain states. Lucky for him, I had already

My mouth has been taped shut on Twitter..

I find myself getting questioned about many of my tweets and status updates on Twitter and Facebook lately. Social networking used to be so much more fun when you could make a joke and people would laugh “LOL” or just comment with fun loving remarks. I will admit, I have always tried to steer clear of anything political or religious only because I believe that is usually a little different in social networking. If you make a statement that most of your “friends or followers” don’t agree with, well you are just setting yourself up for a bunch of criticism. Never mind that whole “Freedom of Speech” thing that we used to love to call America’s finest quality..Just tie me up and tape my mouth closed instead!

But here’s the deal, I think some of my followers, friends, and such, are just taking things I say too literally. I will give you an example. The other day on Facebook I said, 

What happens to your page when you delete it from a social network?

I have heard a lot of people tell me that they are frustrated with Facebook changing the layout or Twitter because their tweets are being indexed in google. So they tell me they want to delete their page. At first blush, this sounds fair and good. But then when you think about it…what happens to

Sending DM’s to multiple Twitter users…YES YOU CAN!

Amit Agarwal, tech columnist and professional blogger (and quite possibly a genius for figuring my personal social media frustration out), has just posted one of the best kept secrets (in my opinion) regarding Twitter DM’s (Direct Messaging) and how to send them to multiple folks at one time. This is HUGE for those of us managing several Twitter accounts for business when we’re trying to reach a specific demographic.

Now, I know I have spoken about a lot of different Twitter strategies in previous posts, but this one might be at the top of the list!

A link to his insightful post is below:

For the full story, click here.

Twitter background tips for business

If you are trying to create a Twitter background for your business, then there is help! You can hire me! Just kidding. As much as I would LOVE your business, it’s really not that difficult. I have given steps in previous posts, but I keep getting folks asking me for more tips. So here you go guys:

1. If you have a website, you need to make sure the basic design of that site is followed through on your Twitter background before you even think about starting. (remember, consistency is key)
2. It’s fairly important to have a good photo editing or paint type of software. I use Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop, but any will do such as Corel, Paintshop Pro, etc. I have even heard of people using Paint (yes, the free thing that you get with windows!).
3. You’ll want to keep the design easy enough to understand what it is you do or what your product is by just glancing at the page. The same rules apply on Twitter as they do on a website. You’ve got about 4 seconds to hold a persons attention before they’ll move on. So, be clear on what your purpose is.
4. Use a photo of yourself, your business, or your products within the design. People on Twitter have gotten “hip” to spam, and we know that if there isn’t any photo of yourself..well…you’re probably spam. So if you wonder why folks aren’t following you back, try adding a photo..if it works, leave me a comment please.
5. If your business is to sell apples, then SAY THAT! Don’t have a design with hearts and balloons. Remember, you’ve only got 4 seconds, use them wisely.

If you’re still having trouble, you may want to consider hiring someone who can lay your page out for you. Keep in mind the prices can range from $20 – $200. But what I always say is you get what you pay for, however, if you can find the right starving artist…you might just end up with some of the best designs you ever saw! (No, THAT is not a shameless plug for me!) If you need some inspiration, visit my portfolio and feel free to be “inspired!”