TapTrend

Welcome Shallotte Presbyterian Church

Josh — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 19:39:09 +0000

We’d like to welcome Shallotte Presbyterian Church to TapTrend Website Hosting Services.

The church’s website was previously hosted on an aging server with an outdated software stack. The stack wasn’t compatible with modern content management systems and the site was suffering.

Luckily we were able to quickly migrate the site and all it’s content over to the TapTrend servers with minimal down time. Plans are in the works for additional site content updates that are now possible. Everyone’s happy!

Walgreens Uses Passbook for Loyalty Card

Josh — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 16:31:10 +0000

Some retailers have been quick to implement Apple’s Passbook application launched in iOS 6. While it’s too soon to say if Passbook will be a success, those companies able to implement it quickly will certainly see a benefit.

Walgreens has seen huge spikes in App downloads since the iOS 6 launch. The latest Walgreens App version has been highlighted by Apple in the Passbook “room.”

There’s been initial confusion on what constitutes a Passbook “Pass.” Walgreens’ allows you to put your Walgreens Balance Rewards loyalty card in Passbook, but many customers have incorrectly assumed that also means the Walgreens coupons would be available in Passbook as well.

Only time will tell if this initial confusion has turned consumers off from using Passbook, or if there will be continued adoption.

Understanding Social Communities

Josh — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 14:00:27 +0000

When building social communities, it’s so easy to believe the mantra: “Build it, and they will come.” Sadly, that’s not usually the case. Understanding the community you’re building for is much more important than how you build it. When building the Holden Beach Facebook Page, we started by understanding the dynamics of the Holden Beach community. People love living and visiting Holden Beach and have a very real, emotional connection to the place. Developing a social community gave people a way to maintain that connection. That relationship is what’s important.

Chris Grams, a writer and communications strategist, highlights this point in “Avoid the tool trap when building communities,” an article on opensource.com. He reminds us to ask “What are the values” of a community not necessarily what tool do I use to build it.

Read the full article: “Avoid the tool trap when building communities“

Marketing is a System

Josh — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 18:21:53 +0000

Marketing is often difficult for small businesses because it can feel like a broad, ambiguous field. They know they should “do” marketing, but it’s so easy to think of marketing as sales. John Jantsch, the founder and writer of Duct Tape Marketing, culled down the basics of marketing into a 7 step process that we feel gives the absolute best representation of marketing.

Marketing is a system that must be developed and improved continuously, just like a distribution or purchasing system. Below is John’s summary of the steps. We urge you to reach the full article at the AMEX Open forum as well.

Develop strategy before tactics – Base all decisions on an ideal customer and core message of difference
Embrace The Marketing Hourglass – Look at every potential prospect and customer touchpoint and design a remarkable experience
Adopt the publishing model. – Commit to producing content that builds trust and educates
Create a total web presence. – Develop a plan that takes advantage of the SEO and social media aspects of being found
Orchestrate the lead generation trio. – Use technology to create multiple ways to generate leads via advertising, public relations, and referrals
Drive a lead conversion system. – Develop a sales system that everyone in the organization can use from initial contact to results review
Live by the marketing calendar. – Make marketing a habit by establishing monthly, weekly and daily action steps

Read the full story: 7 Steps to Creating a Sure-Fire Marketing System

Client News: Server Updates

Josh — Sun, 14 Nov 2010 00:50:09 +0000

Hello friends,

We’ll be doing regularly scheduled server upgrades over the next 24 hours. This should be a seamless process with ZERO downtime for those who are hosting with us. If for some reason you do have difficulty connecting to TapTrend hosted resources, please let us know immediately.

The upgraded servers will allow us to offer new, improved services to our customers. Stay tuned for news and updates in the coming weeks.

Claim Your Customers: Social Business Listings

Josh — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 16:53:05 +0000

What’s so amazing about social media, is that it allows you to connect with your current and future customer in such a simple, natural way. Today the primary way people discover information about a company or service is through search, just as they do any other topic they’re curious about.

That’s why, when clients ask me “How do we get into social media?” I tell them “We claim your business on every service your customers are already using.” This could include your business listing and/or it’s location on Google Local, Yelp!, Facebook Places, Foursquare, or any number of other popular, business listing directory.

But “Shouldn’t I first create a Facebook Page?” I’m asked. Sure, that’s important, but I say it’s more important to claim the pages/listings your customers are already visiting and using before creating another page you’ll be promoting yourself.

If you have questions on how to utilize social media for you business, we can help. Email us at info@taptrend.com today.

Socialize Your Brand

Josh — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 23:42:28 +0000

One of the most important processes we follow here at TapTrend is our approach toward social media development. We call our approach “DEE.”

DEE stands for Discover, Engage, and Evaluate and it is our “secret sauce” in repeatedly executing successful social campaigns and programs. It’s really not much of a secret. In fact, it’s drop dead simple. Here it is:

We use this process in all our social media projects. Facebook. Twitter. YouTube. Yelp. Foursquare. Google Places. Linkedin. You name it, it’s been used on it. It’s used repeatedly through the setup and management of our social programs–rinse, lather, repeat.

Trend: Businesses Quickly Adopting iPads

Josh — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 19:28:44 +0000

A new report by Forrester Research is analyzing the adoption of iPads in the enterprise and how they’re changing business processes.

Forrester’s Ted Schadler looks at over 200 businesses that are utilizing iPads and discovered three key ways they’re being used:

1) Replacing Laptops- For employees that primarily use laptops for email and web browsing, the iPad is a more portable, ideal solution.

2) Replacing Paper- Instead of caring large amounts of paper around the office, many are using tablets to access dynamic, up-to-date documents only to inform meeting discussions.

3) New Uses- iPads are commonly being used in ways previously not anticipated by IT administrators and staff. Examples include use of them by sales staff to instantly customize customer orders.

We’re seeing these trends not only being reported by the enterprise IT community, but also forward-thinking education and medical institutions. If you’re interested in educational use of iPads specifically, Fraser Speirs’s blog is a favorite of TapTrend. Fraser is documenting his schools experience deploying iPads to every student at his school.

Overall, the tablet form factor is radically changing the day-to-day lives of enterprise employee and the accessibility of information. We’ll only see this trend continue to grow as other tablet manufacturers ramp up production and release their own solution.

TapTrend offers custom iOS and Android application development and can build business solutions to optimize your business.

A Metamorphosis

Josh — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 20:45:22 +0000

At some point, most companies go through a point of metamorphosis… Some earlier than others.

Over a year ago Scott Brewster and I started TapTrend as a summer project to build creative, entertaining mobile apps for the iPhone platform. Since then our team has created a number of products, most for 3rd party companies and brands.

But over the past few months, we realized the company needed to go into a new directions in order to survive in a rapidly changing mobile software environment.

To that end, Scott will be producing much of the current TapTrend products-in-development under a new brand, where he can optimize resources used in his other ventures. Going forward, I will be focusing TapTrend to better serve our clients under a digital agency model that includes web, social and mobile platforms.

I’m excited to say, the small, flexible team at TapTrend is already working on some exciting brand development work that we’ll be sharing soon.

I look forward to sharing much more in the near future. Until then, please be patient with us as we transition into our new reality.

-Josh

Job Posting: Social Media Copywriter

Josh — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 16:03:41 +0000

Social Media Copywriter
Part-time / 5-10 hours per week

TapTrend, an energetic software development company, is seeking a part-time copywriter to manage their social media communications. As a TapTrend copywriter, you will be responsible for developing a unified company voice and projecting that voicing into all primary social media channels. You’ll also engage with relevant community members, share important industry news with company fans, and hone website and marketing messaging.

Responsibilities:
- Compose, edit, and proof content for social media platforms (ex. Blogs, Facebook, Twitter, Wikipedia)
- Post approved content to relevant platforms
- Monitor and engage in brand-related conversations on social media sites and relevant blogs
- Will also develop copy for print and online marketing such as emails, websites, & online advertising

Requirements:
- Bachelor’s degree in communications, English, or journalism
- Mastery of Facebook, Twitter, WordPress, and Wikipedia functionality a must
- Marketing, public relations, or business-related copywriting and proofreading experience
- Adept in self-managing and communicating in a distributed-work environment
- Technologically savvy and quick to learn new platforms