Last week Old Spice proved that a great social media marketing idea can go a long way.

Old Spice came up with the idea to have tweeps ask the “Old Spice Guy” (aka actor Isaiah Mustafa), ANY question they wanted to. They recorded Isaiah’s response and posted 87 short and hilarious videos to YouTube. A simple idea and yet it generated nearly 6 million views in less than 24 hours.

Old Spice’s Twitter followers increased 1,000% and they now have over 600,000 likes on Facebook. Successful? We think so.

Here’s one of our favorites: The Old Spice Guy responding to Kevin Rose (@kevinrose) the founder of digg.com and wefollow.com

Click here to view the Top Ten Funniest Old Spice Guy Responses.

Nicely done, Old Spice Guy. We salute you and your “wildly handsome face parts.”

Follow us, Like us, or Subscribe for more graphic design, web design, and social media tips!

It’s hard to believe there are still people our there who don’t see the benefit of social media, but there are always going to be skeptics.

Today, one of the best things you can do for your company is get started using social media. It’s a great way to build creditability with the public, let the real voice of your company be heard, and get real opinions from real customers.

In February of 2010, Chadwick Martin Baily in Boston, Mass did a study to really find out the value of social media for businesses. They asked over 1,000 adults (ages 18 and up) if they were more likely to buy from or recommend a brand they follow on Facebook and/or Twitter. The answer was yes.

The image below shows how 51% of adults are more likely to buy from a brand on Facebook. For Twitter, that percentage went up to 67%! And those numbers are even higher when it comes to recommending those brands who are using the social media websites.

To view the complete study details click here.

With results like that, well over 400 million active users on Facebook (see Facebook’s Statistics page) and over 100 million Twitter users, why wouldn’t you put your brand out there?

If you’d like to set up a meeting and learn more about how your company can start integrating social media into your marketing plan, please contact us today!

Follow us, Like us, or Subscribe for more graphic design, web design, and social media tips!

There are so many social media websites out there – how do you decide which one is the best for you? While most of them are different, there’s one common goal: allowing people to connect globally and communicate with one another. Whether you want to reconnect with old friends, network for your job, or just let people know what you’re eating every day – there’s a social media site that’s perfect for you.

That’s why our twtpoll this month is “Which social media site is your favorite?” Vote now and leave comments to let us know why!

Follow us, Like us, or Subscribe for more graphic design, web design, and social media tips!

It isn’t every day you can get a bunch of web designers out from behind their computers and into one room, with one exception, Converge SE.

“Converge SE is a two-day conference featuring speakers and workshops that will both energize you about your own niche and also tune you into how other fields are innovating for the web.” [Source: Facebook]

Of course, some of us have to man the fort here at Lenker Design, but we’ve sent representatives from our Web Design department to experience Converge SE first hand. Our Lead Web Designer, Clint McKoy, will be tweeting live from the conference (follow him at @clintmckoy or look for our retweets on @lenkerdesign).

For more information on Converge SE visit their website or follow them on twitter @convergese

Follow us, Like us, or Subscribe for more design news!

These days, a potential customer doesn’t even have to meet you before they decide if they’re going to use you or not. They can get all the information they need from your online presence. That’s why we always ask our clients: “What does your current website say about you?”

For a limited time we’re offering 10% off any of the following services:

• Custom Website Design
• Blog Design and Setup
• Search Engine Optimization*
• Social Media Marketing Setup & Plan*

Contact us to get started on making your online presence heard today!

Offer ends 7/30/10. This offer is only valid for one time use per client. May be used on one or all of the services listed above.
*10% only covers the first 3 months for these selected services.

Follow us, Like us, or Subscribe for more special offers!

In a world of 1,000 search engines – which one do you turn to the most? Why did you pick that search engine over all of the others? Leave a comment on our blog to voice your opinions! Voting ends 6/30/2010 @ 11:59PM.

Follow us, Like us, or Subscribe for more helpful hints!

Need help getting started with a website design? Download this website template and all the hard work is done for you! This template works on IE7, IE8, Firefox, Safari, Chrome, and Opera.

Coherence Website Template includes:

• Modern, Elegant Design
• jQuery Image Gallery and Slideshow
• Fully Functional Contact Form
• 19 Social Media Icons
• HTML Files
• Photoshop Files

View Website Demo.

Download Files Here (File Size: 58.9 MB)

Follow us, Like us, or Subscribe for more freebies!

Can anyone else believe we’re half way through 2010? It feels like New Years was just yesterday!

First, we’d like to thank all the amazing photographers for submitting their favorite photos for us to showcase during National Photography Month! And a special thanks to photographer Ryan Rombough for submitting a guest blog spot! For that, we’re naming you The Lenker Design Photographer of the Month! View Ryan’s portfolio here.

Now onto June! This month we’re throwing our focus back to Web Design and Development! On June 25th-26th, Columbia SC will be hosting Converge SE, a conference for web professionals. The conference will include speakers from MailChimp, Freshbooks, Yahoo! Developer Network, and more! We’ll be sending out some of our web designers to tweet live from the event.

We also have some great freebies in store for you this month as well as web design tips for your business! Stay posted!

Follow us, Like us, or Subscribe for more helpful hints!

As part of National Photography Month, we wanted to allow one of our favorite photographers to write a blog about their experiences with photography. The photographer we chose was Ryan Rombough. Ryan attended the Savannah College of Art and Design and graduated with a BFA in Photography. Currently, he lives in Salt Lake City, Utah specializing in outdoor sports, hunting, portrait, and nature photography. Enjoy this special guest blog entry by Ryan Rombough.

——————————————————————————————

People often ask me what is the favorite photo I have ever taken. I think those who ask want to know which photo I think is most successful: which has the best composition or lighting. Truthfully, what lands a photo in my ‘favorites list’ is not so much it’s visual impact or technical excellence (though it helps), but more based on the experiences I had while obtaining said image. I can’t tell you the settings I used to capture an image I took yesterday, but I can look at any photograph I have ever taken and tell you where I was and what I was doing when I took it. This is a big part of what draws me to photography- it acts as a visual memory storage of sorts. So, here are a few of my favorite memories, with photographs to go with them.

Major Exposure

In climbing/mountaineering terms, ‘exposure’ is the term for the heights that the climber is subject to, or has the potential to fall down… which is why I think it makes for a perfect title for this image. I took this 2 years ago while I was hiking Pyramid Peak, one the deadliest of Colorado’s 14,000+ foot mountains. This is a steep snow slope near the summit, which was by far the scariest part of the climb. My climbing partners said I was crazy because while they hurried across, keeping one hand on their mountaineering axes which were stuck in the snow above them to act as an anchor if they fell, I stopped in the middle of the slope, one foot directly in front of the other, and held my camera above my head to capture this image. It was dangerous, but I felt in control the whole time, and it was the most dramatic way I could think of to show the exposure. If you tilt your head so that the right side of the image becomes the bottom, you will see what I was seeing.

Dodging Traffic

The owners/drivers of this truck are friends of a friend who are trying to break into the off-road racing circuit, and are looking for sponsors. We went out one afternoon to take some photos to help make their pitch to potential sponsors be more eye-catching. For this specific shot, I had the truck drive right at me over some large bumps. I had a problem, because the camera was messing with my perception, making it hard to tell how close they were getting to me. My solution was to have a friend stand behind me, and tap me when the truck was getting close so I knew when to run out of the way. Oh, and did I mention, to ensure they were getting airborne between bumps, they were driving 70mph straight at me.

Here is a video taken from inside the truck. The quality is not that great, and the outside is pretty over-exposed, but at the 20 second mark, you can see my friend and I run out of the way at the last second. Exciting!

Hunting Fail

I photographed an archery elk hunt in the mountains of Colorado last year. This shot was taken on the evening of the last day of a tough, week-long hunt. The model’s name is Joel. We were walking back to camp, and Joel had conceded that he was done with his hunting trip, and he would not get a chance to shoot an elk. We stopped at this location to do one last quick photo shoot. We were talking loudly, I had my camouflage off, and I was using a flash. Suddenly we heard a noise. We looked over, and there was a large bull elk standing 40 yards away, seemingly just being a spectator of our photo shoot. We froze, but the elk trotted away. Once the elk was out of sight, Joel went after it in an attempt to sneak back up on it, but he never saw the elk again. I found this so comical because we spent a week of sneaking quietly up and down rough terrain in an attempt to get close to some elk, but that doesn’t happen until we are totally unprepared and not trying to be quiet or invisible at all.

Thanks to Lenker Design for giving me the opportunity to write a guest blog, and for promoting photographers all month long for National Photography Month. I love hearing people’s thoughts on my work, good or bad, so feel free to email me. If you enjoyed the photographs I have shared here, you can see more on my website and on my own personal blog.

——————————————————————————————

Follow Ryan on Twitter or become a Fan on Facebook.

Follow us, Like us, or Subscribe for more articles on design, photography, and freebies!

Photography can be used in so many different ways. Here are some ways you may want to consider using photography in your next designed pieces:

1.) Website Design – People love looking at photos, so why not keep them on your site longer by adding a photo gallery?

2.) Business Cards – Why leave the back of your business card blank? Add a photo that relates to your job.

3.) Advertising – Most people these days don’t take the time to read. Grab their attention and make your point in one amazing photo instead of a paragraph of text on a 1/4 page ad!

4.) Brochures – Would you stay at a hotel that didn’t show photos in their brochure? I didn’t think so.

5.) Direct Mail – Want to reach more potential customers? Send Postcards featuring your work or product!

6.) Large Displays – Have a 10×10 booth at a local trade show and need to grab everyone’s attention so they’ll stop at your booth and not walk past? Print large displays with photography of your product or lifestyle photos to add emotion.

These are just 6 examples, but the ways you can use photography in advertising and design are endless. Get creative and grab attention! Contact us and let us know how you’d like to add photography into your marketing collateral.