1) We will do what we say, when we say it, for the price we quote you...period.
2) We will quickly and competently fix any mistakes we make relating to #1 without additional cost to you.
3) To ensure the success of a project, we will always be upfront and set realistic client expectations.
4) In order to accomplish #3, we will not be "yes men" to our clients, but will help them understand the obstacles and challenges of all projects...if that's ok with you.
5) Because of #4, we promise that behind any "smart ass" or "blunt" behavior on our end, we always have your best interest in mind.
6) To help with #5, we temper our straight-forward attitude with a fun-filled, casual environment.
7) We will not hug our clients....in public.
8) We will always quantify the worth of all our work to the client so that they know how much value we have brought to their business.
9) Left blank intentionally.
10) If our services do not lead to growth in your business, we will ritually abuse ourselves like Trappists monks.
11) Because 10 isn't loud enough.
Fat Atom Internet Marketing is a member of the Return Path Certification program as a Safe sender. We are part of the largest, most respected email certification program in the industry.
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Believe it or not, we still find a lot of skepticism while we are talking to business about the future of marketing and social media. “I just don’t believe we can sell on Facebook”, and similar comments arise frequently during strategy building conversations. We at Fat Atom Internet Marketing realize that, at present, social media isn’t as big or as reliable a marketing source for many businesses as the hype would lead you to believe. However, we also believe it is MUCH bigger than skeptics give it credit for, and it is definitely GOING to be much much bigger. If your business isn’t getting ready for it now, you are going to feel blind-sided later. Take a look at these current statistics:
In May 2010, U.S. consumers spent an average of 6 hours, 13 minutes a month using social networking websites. As of April 2010, Globally consumers spend an average of almost 6 hours
As of May 2010, Facebook is the #1 social networking site in the U.S., with a unique audience of 125.2 million visitors
In May 2010, the average U.S. worker spends nearly 5.5 hours a month visiting social networking sites at the office and much of that time is spent visiting Facebook.
As of May 2010, 55% of U.S. adults online have 1 or more social networking profiles.
75% of the active U.S. Internet households visit a social networking site (May 2010). Globally, it’s 74% (April 2010).
Here is a big one: As of Q1 2010 more than two-thirds of global consumers seek online product reviews, recommendations from discussion forums or social media sites when making a purchase decision.
In our own experience, we have seen Facebook advertising overtake Google advertising for lower cost-per-conversion and higher traffic for several of our clients. Email is still ruling as the #1 closer for sales, but using social media is important for keeping email lists growing instead shrinking.
If we were to describe in business terms, we see social media as largest resource to grow the top of your sales funnel. People don’t necessarily buy a product or service from Facebook or Twitter, but they do get introduced to your company and start listening to what you have to offer. It may be hard to grasp since social media doesn’t always have a direct line to sales, but business who foster their online communities will be thankful they did in the long run as they find they have a larger pond to fish in.
Here at Fat Atom we’re constantly looking for ways to improve and become masters of the internet. We're constantly looking for ways to better our clients' websites and increase usability and visitor engagement. Sometimes though, we're so busy focusing on our clients, we forget to do the same for ourselves.
Take "Our Team" Page for Instance. It was a single page with our team listed vertically, which worked great for the time that we used it. However, as our team grew and the list of people longer and longer and longer, we realized the amount of scrolling our visitors would have to do was wearing out their mice.
So we decided to revamp it entirely and since we don't take ourselves TOO seriously here at Fat Atom we decided to have fun with the whole process.
If you’re familiar at all with the Arts and Design district of Carmel, Indiana at all, there’s no doubt you’ve seen the various statues through town. They’re everywhere and if you’re anything like us, you’ve probably thought at some point that some policeman was actually trying to stop cars from crossing The Monon Trail. Well instead of just letting those wonderful statues stand outside all by themselves, we decided to go out and interact with them. Each Fat Atom Member found a statue and created their own interaction with them. The results are pretty fun (if we do say so ourselves). Go ahead and check them out at the Fat Atom Team Page and let us know what you think!
A lot of bloggers and "industry experts" have tried to define or declare the birth of Web 3.0, and so far, I haven't bought it. However, with Facebook's announcement of their new API "Open-Graph", I finally believe we have seen the beginning if the real Web 3.0. I believe this for two main reasons: First, it will intimately change the structure of information on the Internet. Second, it will be a self-motivated change driven by market demand simply because people will want more of it. What excites me the most is how it will change the market and the way we do business online, and in real life, forever.
A Brief History of Web 2.0
When the Internet first started reaching the masses, websites and content was sorted by categorization. Yahoo first made a name for itself by it's "catalog" of websites where millions of websites were grouped into easy to find categories. This worked for a while until the massive amount of information and content coming to the web became impossible, both conceptually and due to lack of man power, to keep in neat and tidy categories.
Two solutions became popular, and later the standards, as the new ways of handling all the data on the web: tagging and user-contributed/collaborative content. Tagging, manually and automatically with keywords, allowed us to quickly dump content onto the web and then call it up later in whatever context we needed. By opening up websites to be collaborative, websites became large hubs of useful (more or less) and rapidly updating content. So was born Web 2.0... it gave us blogging, social media, sites like Wikipedia, and made keyword-based searching (Google) our primary method of navigating the Internet.
So Here Comes Web 3.0... And Facebook is Leading the Charge
In all the speculation over what Web 3.0 is, I think is always came down to one question, "What is a better method of surfing the Web than keywords?" Digg, Technorati, Reddit, and the like have all started to answer that by developing social-surfing, where content across the web is propagated by the recommendations of others based on common interests. However, they have lacked the popularity and common acceptance needed to revolutionize the Internet.
Facebook has seen the solution slowly emerge as it has grown, focusing on people first and content second. While having strangers on the Internet sharing content may be nice, having friends and family share content is golden. Even now, Facebook has already begun to surpass Google as the preferred way of experiencing the Internet. With the announcement of Open-Graph, Facebook has introduced the technology that will push the Internet over the edge into Web 3.0, and crown social connections as the new form of surfing the web.
What is Means for Your Business - SEO is Dead! (Well... dying anyway)
Up until now, the Internet has been a bit awkward for business. Optimizing websites for search engines, like Google, has forced us to use campy and inhuman verbiage, absurd business names, and whore ourselves for links, all in the hopes of appeasing the gods of search engine rankings. Web 3.0 means that the human element will now have a more powerful place on the Internet for business.
Open-Graph will allow websites to incorporate a myriad of social features at all stages of user interaction. Communicating with your visitors, getting to know your visitors, and having your visitors spread the news about you online will become more and more like a real life store front. Of course, having Facebook as the "mothership" of this revolution is a bit scary. We can only hope, and reasonably expect, that other companies will pick up on this new direction. Just like Facebook wasn't first to social media, I don't think Facebook being first now means it will be the best in the end.
Just like real-world businesses have always grown best by word-of-mouth evangelization, now that method will return as the best way to grow your business online. Making genuine connections with your online customers will become so much more important than how well you rank for a couple keywords. Businesses who like keeping a distance from their customers will be the biggest losers, while businesses who love connecting with their customers will be the biggest winners.
Gathering in the Fat Atom offices on Tuesday, several employees and myself made the short trek to The Palladium at the Center for the Performing Arts in Carmel’s City Center. After a few seconds of wondering where we were to enter, we were led to a myriad of construction trailers where we were met by Mike Anderson of Shiel Sexton. The Executive Director of the Arts Center, Steven Libman, also joined us during our brief orientation and hour long tour through the unfinished Palladium. Upon entering the scaffolding clad interior of the building, we were impressed by the attention to details and massive amounts of plaster being used. The 1,600 seat concert hall, we were guaranteed, would not have a bad seat in the house as they are using state of the art acoustical accommodations including an adjustable glass canopy system made of large shapes of glass to help direct the sound. After touring the stage, dressing areas and entry halls, we began the climb up the construction stairs to the top of the dome, stopping along the way not only to catch our breath, but to hear more fascinating facts about the building. Once at the top, we were able to touch the ceiling, take some pictures and enjoy views that few people will ever experience. After our descent down the stairs, our gracious guides continued to answer my teams questions and return us safely back to the construction trailers.
The Palladium is the first of 3 buildings planned for the Center for the Performing Arts. A 500-seat and 200-seat theater as well as an outdoor amphitheater are planned to be built in the City Center by the end of 2012. The Palladium’s grand opening is slated for January 29, 2011. Hope you can join us there!
The SocialMedia Examiner has posted a great article on 5 reasons you should be marketing on Facebook. Each point is covered with quantitative data from studies done throughout the web. Please click here to read the entire article.
Here are the 5 reasons listed:
#1: Average American Spent 7 hours on Facebook in January read more...
#2: 44% of Social Sharing on the Web Is Driven by Facebook read more...
#3: Facebook Yanks Number 2 Spot From Yahoo read more...
#4: “Faking It” on Facebook Is Rarer Than Previously Imagined read more...
#5: Facebook Boosts Sales and Customer Loyalty read more...
So here is what happened. We, Fat Atom Internet Marketing (fatatom.com), did a Facebook fan page for one of our clients. The site took off like a rocket, hit almost 50,000 fans, and then we wake up one day to find Facebook had taken the page down. They sent no warning, had already validated our page, and offered no explanation later. We sent support requests to Facebook for almost 2 weeks, everyday, afterward, and they have yet to get back with us. Thousands of dollars were spent on this campaign, and now they are all gone.
We think it is very irresponsible of Facebook, who is still young in the professional world, to treat paying customers like this. Facebook is a great place to grow your business online, but behavior like this is downright terrifying. Business need to have confidence that they are safe investing money in Facebook.
We created this video to express our frustration and confusion.
If you have had this happen to you, please leave a comment and help us spread this video around the web!
Let's face it: whether we like it or not, Facebook is one of the easiest ways to keep up with our family and friends. Plus, many of the applications in Facebook are fun and can be used as a break or stress reliever for some of us. However, not all of us are interested in the same applications! If you are missing photos, links or updates that you are interested in because of the many Farmville, Mafia Wars or other application notices that you receive, you'll be relieved to know that there are two ways that you can turn those application notifications OFF!
The first way is simply to click on the "Hide" button next to the notification that you want to hide. The button is hidden, but if you move your mouse to the right of the notification, it will be visible. A box will pop up which allows you to choose whether to hide the application only or hide all of the person's posts. The images below will show you how this process works.
The second way you can hide application notifications is to change your notifications settings. Click on the "Account" button located near the top right-hand side of the screen. From the drop-down menu, choose "Account Settings". This will pull up the "My Account" page. Choose the "Notifications" tab at the top. You can scroll down the page to change the notification settings for various applications. When you are done, be sure to click the "Save Changes" button at the bottom.
Now you can read the updates from your friends and family without the distraction of applications that you don't use! Enjoy!
Consider this: It wasn’t until 1997 that the Internet reached 50 million users in the United States. Facebook gained over 100 million users in the U.S. from January 2009 to January 2010, marking a 145 percent growth rate within one year, according to research by digital marketing agency iStrategy Labs. If you’re a business owner that hasn’t embraced social media networking as a major component of your success strategy, it’s due time to hop onboard.
“When you’ve got 300 million people on Facebook, that’s a huge business watering hole,” says Lon Safko, social media expert and co-author of The Social Media Bible: Tactics, Tools, and Strategies for Business Success, of the site’s global reach. “The profile is like an index to your company.”
While Facebook has become the most popular social media site, there are plenty of others for your company to explore. LinkedIn, for example, houses 55 million professionals seeking jobs, employees, or basic business or networking opportunities. MySpace, which allows users to tinker with music, themes, and HTML code, is targeted toward youth and teens. All of these sites have one primary thing in common: the profile.
The user profile is generally what distinguishes social networking sites from other social media platforms. It helps set the stage for building relationships with people who share the same interests, activities, or personal contacts, as opposed to primarily disseminating or digesting information feeds. This also means social networks enable companies to invite audiences to get to know its brand in a way that traditional forms of marketing or advertising can’t.
But what, exactly, are the methods that businesses should use to effectively leverage the burgeoning userbase of these sites as a tool to grow their companies? The following pages will detail what to do – and what not to do – in order to maintain a viable presence in the realm of social networking.
Read the rest of this insightful article from Inc.com's J.J. McCorvey HERE. It's great for those new to social networking, but also a great refresher for the more experienced.
Fat Atom is relocating to the Carmel Arts and Design District and will debut it’s new 12 W. Main Street office during the Arts & Design District Valentine’s Gallery Walk. Fat Atom chose to relocate its office from the "Meridian Corridor" to the Arts and Design District in an effort to become an active partner in the community. Fat Atom Owner/President Todd Muffley feels as though the Arts and Design District is the right place for small businesses to grow and prosper, "In my opinion it’s a win-win situation, we want to be where the people are and with the city’s emphasis on downtown development the people are going to be in the Arts and Design District."
During the February 13th Valentine’s Gallery Walk, Fat Atom will debut its aerosol art mural commissioned by Central Indiana’s FAB Crew. Fat Atom will also present the work of local artist Hannah Hoyt who specializes in garden photography and acrylic paintings that showcase abstract fantasy and surrealism.
Tours of the Fat Atom offices on February 13th begin at 5 P.M. and will run through 10 P.M. For more information about the Valentine’s Gallery Walk visit the Carmel Art and Design District website at www.carmelartsanddesign.com.
Ben of the FAB Crew paints the Fat Atom aerosol art mural at the new 12 W. Main Street office space.
Consider this: It wasn’t until 1997 that the Internet reached 50 million users in the United States. Facebook gained over 100 million users in the U.S. from January 2009 to January 2010, marking a 145 percent growth rate within one year, according to research by digital marketing agency iStrategy Labs. If you’re a business owner that hasn’t embraced social media networking as a major component of your success strategy, it’s due time to hop onboard.
