Christine DiGiovacchino » NDG Communications, Inc.

It’s been quiet on our blog lately, but we’ve been busy behind the scenes and we’ve got big news!

We recently launched the NDG mobile site, so now you can see what we’re up to on your smartphone or tablet. You’ll even notice a new client on the roster, Orleans Homes.

Orleans has had a tradition of building and delivering outstanding homes since 1918 and we are thrilled to be working with a company that focuses on a “simply happy” customer experience and building fantastic homes.

Of course, the NDG staff has been hard at work bringing these exciting new changes to life and we’re pleased to welcome two new members to the team: Art Director Ola Elrefai and Proofreader/Junior Copywriter Sean McKenna.

With a summer this hot, we can’t wait to see what fall has in store for us at NDG.

In celebration of National Bike Month, we wanted to recognize our resident cyclist and fellow NDG team member, Steve Wilk!

Steve first started riding seriously in 1988. Shortly thereafter he joined the Oxon Hill Bicycle and Trail Club, as well as the Snow Valley Spring Water Team.

Although he used to race, these days Steve prefers the occasional century ride. Last fall, he participated in the Sea Gull Century, a hundred-mile ride throughout the scenic roads of Wicomico, Somerset, and Worcester counties on Maryland’s Eastern Shore.

Unlike other sports, cycling doesn’t require a tremendous amount of skill or investment to get started, and it has great health benefits. It’s also an easy way to reconnect with the community, all while helping our natural environment by reducing our carbon footprint.

For Steve, the greatest benefit of cycling is being able to meet new people and see new things!

Click here to learn about other members of the NDG team.

On Friday, several NDG Communications team members and I attended the Mid-Atlantic Marketing Summit on Intelligence & Insights on the Future of Communications at Gannett headquarters in McLean, Virginia. We learned some interesting new things and found affirmation about the effectiveness of tactics we’ve begun to employ for our clients—and ourselves.

For example, when it comes to online content, presenters reinforced the importance of micro-targeting—the more focused and relevant the conversation, the better the engagement and response. Make your messaging so specific to your target audience that they not only read it, they start to see themselves in it.

In terms of social media engagement, we were reminded of just how critical it is to talk to and about your prospects. Research has shown time and again that when companies talk about themselves, engagement drops. But, talk about your buyer—what’s important to them, what’s trending in their world, what keeps them up at night—and watch engagement go up!

Click here to learn more about the event.

As we continue to explore social media marketing, I got to thinking about Klout—a service that measures your social web influence and scores you based on your Facebook and Twitter activity.

The service has many benefits. For brands, the service identifies your most influential topics and, more importantly, helps you build brand awareness by connecting with more influential people.

In addition, you can offer influencers a perk, then—assuming they like it—they will likely spread the word through their social networks. Since people generally value others’ feedback and recommendations over traditional advertising, that social share is great for your brand.

Currently, the makers of Klout are working to measure activity on Facebook pages, YouTube, Instagram, Tumblr, Blogger, WordPress, Last.fm, and Flickr.

Klout is not the only service out there measuring social web influence. There’s also Kred and PeerIndex, to name a couple. Click here to read about similar tools.

Curious to know which homebuilders have the most Klout? Click here.

While the number of social networks continues to grow, only a few of them have unique value to you and your clients.

The latest one on our radar—“Pinterest”—is a great example of just such a network, and here at NDG, our “pinterest” was sparked right out of the gate. This unique photo-sharing website allows users to “pin” images to theme-based boards, which can be shared and commented on.

Instead of tearing pages out of catalogues or bookmarking countless websites, now you can store images quickly and easily on Pinterest just by adding them from your web browser.

But Pinterest isn’t just for personal use. Companies are using it for design inspiration and brand promotion—you can capture and share the essence of your brand and company culture through pictures, hold contests, and observe the types of people that are liking or repining your pins.

Who are the early adopters? West Elm, The Today Show, and Travel Channel are already on Pinterest. Will you be next?

Click here for 5 Hot Tips for brands on Pinterest. Or, click here to learn how to use Pinterest to boost consumer engagement.

NDG Communications, Inc.

Author Archives: Christine DiGiovacchino

Some Exciting New Changes for NDG

Celebrating National Bike Month