We wouldn’t be such a successful Raleigh web design and internet marketing company without you. You are our friends, clients, and social networking lifeline.

The past year has been fun. We created a ton of new websites, added more awesome developers, web designers and SEO experts to our team, and expanded our network of clients and partners.

We have big plans for 2012 and would love to share them with you. Sign up for our newsletter, join the conversation on Twitter, or keep up with our antics on Facebook.

Have a joyful New Year!

Cheers,

All of us at TheeDesign Studio

Our marketing and web design team here in Raleigh is working hard filling your website and internet presence with holiday cheer (and search engine friendly keywords). But sometimes even hard working elves need to take a break and share a laugh…

Internet marketing efforts can fall into two holiday categories: Naughty and Nice. Here are a couple examples of both to help you assess, is your marketing Naughty or Nice?

Naughty List

• Boring Content

If you aren’t keeping your website and social media content fresh and interesting, you are wasting your time. A common marketing mistake for businesses is that they believe they should talk only about themselves and their achievements. This might be interesting to you and your staff, but can be boring to your audience.

It is more valuable to your marketing efforts if you can tell your audience what you can offer them. How you can make their lives better or easier. Useful or entertaining information is much more interesting than self promotion.

• Christmas Spam

A holiday ham can be tasty, but spam is a different story. No one likes spam messages regardless of the time of year. However many businesses abuse the holidays as an excuse to send excessive amounts of email promotions. Being too pushy or spamming with your internet marketing can have the opposite effect of what you intended, as your would-be consumers start to opt-out of your messages or blacklist you as a spammer.

Nice List

• Holiday Keywords

The holidays are a great opportunity for marketing your products or services as gift items. Including keywords like “Christmas” or “Gift” can help your target consumers find your products easier as they are searching for the perfect gift items for loved ones. If you are a bakery for example, you could add the keywords “Christmas cupcakes for holiday parties” or “gifts for bakers.”

• Spreading Social Cheer

Wish your Facebook fans a Merry Christmas. Take some time out of your busy day and write personal thank you messages to clients on their Facebook wall. Make someone smile for the simple joy that it brings. People trust brands with good intentions and respond well to messages that don’t have an alternative or hidden agenda.

NC State Fairgrounds Fireworks

“Presented by The City of Raleigh Parks and Recreation Department in collaboration with the NC State Fair. Free Admission! Free Parking! Gates open at 5 pm. Activities at No Charge 5:30 – 9 pm! Fireworks at 9:45pm. Food vendors available. Come on out Monday – July 4!” More Info

State Capitol Festivities

“Enjoy Independence Day at the State Capitol on Monday, July 4. For the second year, a naturalization ceremony for some 30 new citizens will take place on the Capitol steps at noon.

From 11 a.m.-3 p.m. visitors can enjoy free musical performances, historical and military displays, carriage rides, kids’ activities and a reading of “The Declaration of Independence.” The Raleigh Concert Band and instrumentalists Gail Leonard and Chris Anderson will perform patriotic tunes.” More Info

Joel Lane Open House

“The Joel Lane Annual Independence Day Open House on Monday, July 4 from 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm. This free event will feature re-enactors who will demonstrate various aspects of colonial life, and visitors will be able to participate in chores such as churning butter and carrying water in buckets. There will be old-fashioned crafts and games for the children and lemonade for all. The garden in its full summer glory will be on view, and herbs from the garden will be for sale.” More Info

Koka Booth July 4th Celebration

“Celebrate our nation’s 235th year with patriotic favorites and the Triangle’s biggest fireworks display. This FREE event includes a performance by the Cary Town Band followed by the North Carolina Symphony. Kids activities, ice cream eating contests, picnicing and fun abound at the annual holiday event!” More Info

Durham Bulls Game

“Celebrate patriotism and civic pride with Durham Parks and Recreation and the Durham Bulls. Attend the game or come just for the fireworks. The game begins at 6:05 p.m. – gates open for general admission at the end of the 7th inning.” More Info

Whatever you choose to do this Fourth of July, we at TheeDesign Studio hope you enjoy your day! We’ll be back tomorrow, so don’t hesitate to call us at 919-341-8901 or fill out our inquiry form on our website and we’ll contact you!

Instead of conducting a survey of a limited number of individuals, IBM analyzed social media to conduct their research on trending Memorial Day related topics. After their analytics software scanned hundreds of thousands of posts, mainly on Facebook and Twitter, they found that the percent of people posting about cancelling their trip has dropped from 2.8 in 2010 to 1.6 percent this year. These posts were recorded in the sixth month period from Nov. 20 – May 20 of 2010 and 2011.

Here are some of IBM’s findings in a trend cloud from 2010:

Compare to this year’s Memorial Day trending topics:

Last year, fuel costs were staying around the mid to upper $2/Gallon range, and this year, we have seen an increase of about another dollar/gallon. It is surprising that more tweeting Americans are focused on the holiday itself as opposed to the rising gas prices, last year.

Kerrie Holley is an IBM Fellow and the Chief Technology Officer of IBM Global Business services. Holley explains, “As a marketplace of ideas and opinions, the Web can appear raucous and chaotic at times – but there is insight contained in all that data. A better understanding of what people are saying online can help retailers, hoteliers, transportation officials and others with the extremely complicated process of forecasting demand.”

We love to see social media implemented in such a way that can truly give a remarkable insight into popular opinions. What do you guys think about IMB’s results? Join the conversation on our Facebook page!

The past year has been a big one. We moved to our new location off of Glenwood Avenue (5206 Hollyridge Drive), built our awesome green screen studio, hired some great new team members, and expanded our network of friends, clients and partners. Over the past year we have grown as a company and individuals, making us better equipped to fully serve our clients with the highest level of talent and service. We are excited about where we are at the end of 2010, and even more excited about what’s to come in 2011.

We have a lot of big plans for 2011 and we would love to share them with you. You can sign up for our newsletter, follow our twitter, or just check out our blogs on our website.

Thank you, again, for all of your support. Have a happy and prosperous New Year.

Sincerely,

All of us at TheeDesign Studio

So, what did we do on our Fourth of July weekend? Sure, we all had the cookouts and fireworks that everyone hopes for on the Fourth. Interestingly enough, my fiance proved that fabrics made in the 70’s were most definitely not flame-retardant, and he built a huge bonfire with cushion covers made of polyester and cotton as fire-starters. It brought back memories of fire safety classes where I was taught about non-retardant cottons being dubbed “nitro cotton”. Boy, they weren’t kidding on the “nitro” part! Thankfully, the only thing we ended up “cooking” over this fire were a little bit of our eyebrows as I’m sure those cushion covers probably had some toxic chemicals in them.

But what happened to the TheeDesign Studio while its diligent staff was out playing with fire and explosives? Well, we were working to open our brand new office! Our fearless leader, Richard Horvath, spent countless precious Fourth of July beach hours painting, building, refitting and supervising the construction of our new office on Glenwood Avenue. With a brand new, state of the art, green screen studio, an open team-fostering floor plan for our developers, and plenty of space to keep growing with our ever-expanding clientele, we are looking forward to moving to our new site by the end of the month.

We look forward with excitement to the move and the things in store for us at our new location. So, as you see, instead of the sad ending of those school papers you remember writing as a kid, this one has a happy ending. Stay tuned for more updates on our move and any other excitement that is sure to come our way!

Hopefully we can all enjoy this time of year and be thankful for our friends, family and loved ones.

However, we do realize 2008 has not been the best year for everyone; but we do know we can help make this year a better year for your business. Now is the time to revamp your internet marketing strategy in order to put your company in front of more prospects customers who are interested buying your products and/or services. Now is the time to work on a strategy for your online success.

At TheeDesign Studio we are committed to our clients and will do everything in our power to make this year a record year for your company through a better online marketing plan. Give us a call and let 2009 begin!

TheeDesign Team would like to wish a Merry Christmas to you, your family, and your beloved!

Make this day special, then do the same the whole year and so…

The Team of TheeDesign Studio would like to wish a very Happy Thanksgiving Day to all of its customers, business partners, supporters, and website visitors.

Be Careful, Do NOT Over-Eat!

We will be back this upcoming Monday to provide you high quality customer service during the holiday season as well as always.

What About The First Thanksgiving?

The first recorded Thanksgiving ceremony took place on September 8, 1565, when 600 Spanish settlers, under the leadership of Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, landed at what is now St. Augustine, Florida, and immediately held a Mass of Thanksgiving for their safe delivery to the New World; there followed a feast and celebration. As the La Florida colony did become part of the United States, this can be classified as the first Thanksgiving.

El Paso, Texas, has also been said to be the site of the first Thanksgiving to be held in what is now known as the United States, though that was not a harvest festival. Spaniard Don Juan de Oñate ordered his expedition party to rest and conducted a mass in celebration of Thanksgiving on April 30, 1598.

Though many more competing claims exist, the most familiar story of the first Thanksgiving took place in Plymouth Colony, in present-day Massachusetts, when 90 Wampanoag Indians and 52 English colonists gathered for a three-day harvest feast in the fall of 1621. This fact is proved by a letter that was written by a colonist, Edward Winslow to a friend in December, 1621.

More than 200 years later, President Abraham Lincoln declared the final Thursday in November as a national day of thanksgiving. Congress finally made Thanksgiving Day an official national holiday in 1941.