tech

August 15, 2011 by Nathan Hughes

Guide to Social Advertising

There is a lot of information out there about social media and how to use it to promote your business. I read a lot of write-ups on that and enjoy learning about social media — as you can tell with my involvement as a Founding Board Member of Social Media Club of Richmond/SMCRVA (website Twitter Facebook page).

Since the focus of this blog is not primarily social media, I try to keep that talk to a minimum. Once in a while I come across something that I just can’t help but share. This guide* from Eloqua struck me as particularly useful and to-the-point:

[slideshare id=8838937&doc=eloquagrandeguidetosocialadvertising-110812150816-phpapp02&type=d]

Speaking of social media and SMCRVA, be sure to check out this month’s SMCRVA event where you can meet and greet Richmond’s best connected social media folks and hear our esteemed speaker, Amber Naslund:

On Thursday, August 18, SMCRVA is giving Richmonders a unique opportunity to listen and learn from Amber Naslund (@ambercadabra), world class social media pro, blogger, VP of Social Strategy for Radian6 and co-author of “The NOW Revolution”.

Be one of the first 180 to buy a ticket and receive a free copy of Amber’s new book, thanks to The Hodges Partnership and Hodges Digital Strategies.

Buy tickets here (and quickly, so that you can be sure to have a copy of Amber’s book waiting for you at check-in!)

*Funny coincidence, I first saw this guide because of a tweet from Amber’s co-author, Jay Baer. See? Everything comes full circle.

May 19, 2010 by Nathan Hughes

How walkable is your neighborhood?

As a follow-up to yesterday’s post about the distance that Americans will walk, and how to make areas more walkable, I am calling back to an older post from just over 2 years ago: “Who would want to live in the city?”

There is a website, Walk Score, that I came across some time ago that jumped to mind when I was thinking about how people are trending towards more walkable lifestyles. I ran a few addresses through their system to get the Walk Score. The first one is our office in the Museum District, the others are houses or apartments that we manage (and that are currently available for rent).

* Bandazian & Holden office, 604 North Sheppard Street — Walk Score 86 out of 100
* 1809 Lakeview Avenue (near Byrd Park/Hollywood Cemetary/VCU) — Walk Score 49
* 16 N 18th Street #3 (Shockoe Bottom) — Walk Score 89
* 2002 Cedar Street (Church Hill) — Walk Score 75

So what’s the walk score for your address (home or work)? Do you agree with the score, or do you think they’re overlooking something that makes your neighborhood more walkable than the score would imply?

March 29, 2010 by Nathan Hughes

Google LOVES Richmond!

Or they will, if we do things right…

There is a contest underway from Google where the stakes are high: one or more communities somewhere in the USA will be the test market for Google’s high-speed fiber network. Here is the teaser from http://gigarva.com (who, in turn, took it from Google’s site, where it no longer seems to appear):

Google is planning to launch an experiment that we hope will make Internet access better and faster for everyone. We plan to test ultra-high speed broadband networks in one or more trial locations across the country. Our networks will deliver Internet speeds more than 100 times faster than what most Americans have access to today, over 1 gigabit per second, fiber-to-the-home connections. We’ll offer service at a competitive price to at least 50,000 and potentially up to 500,000 people.

The nomination phase is over, and now we need to get everyone in Richmond (and anyone outside of Richmond that wants to support our efforts here) talking online about why Google should pick us! The next step of the process is going on now, and Google has been releasing updates on where each of the top nominated communities stand. The winners of this phase are being determined based on the online buzz that each community generates around their nomination (see Google’s recent analysis of the data so far in this .pdf file).

Here is Richmond’s official video for the promotion of the program. I think they did a great job with it! [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkZ78Y_TiyA]

Do I have your attention now? Good, because here is how you can help:

Become a fan of 1GBforRVA on Facebook & write posts on their wall
Find blogs that mention it and leave supportive comments (*ahem*…this one you’re reading is a good start!)
Write a post on your own blog/Facebook/Myspace about why Google should pick Richmond
Follow @1GBforRVA on Twitter and interact with them there
Tweet about why you think Google should pick Richmond and reference @1GBforRVA at the end
Find a local online forum and talk about the 1GBforRVA initiative. Start discussions
Make videos about why Google should pick Richmond and post them online
Talk to your friends and family about the 1GBforRVA initiative and encourage them to participate

It doesn’t have to be anything complicated, and maybe you just have time to leave a single comment here or on 1GBforRVA’s Facebook page, but even that will help. Google is looking for an active online community that wants them to come here. (if you’re short on ideas for why Richmond is a great choice, check this out)

Let’s show them that Richmond can rally behind a common cause and that when we want something, we make it happen.

Ready? GO!

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