hah

We just got added to the Alltop site, which is awesome. Apparently they’re letting just anyone in these days! I mean, nevermind that it took months of pleading and multiple bribes consisting of first-born children and/or large quantities of alcohol (note: we do not condone the use of children as currency).

In all seriousness, though, this is pretty cool! We’re all pretty excited to be included.

You can look up the RSA Blog in the marketing topic.

Alltop loves us long time is a post from: RSA Blog

Robert Sharp & Associates was fortunate to attend the first annual MarketPlace event in Huron, SD.

The event, which is scheduled to take place the next two years, was hosted by the Center for Rural Affairs and the South Dakota Farmers Union.

The purposes of MarketPlace is to unite local business owners and entrepreneurs in South Dakota and provide them with insight, education and a chance to network and learn about other resources from across the state.

We had several good conversations with people from all walks of life and all areas of the state.

One of our most unique encounters was with a woman from a small town north of Phillip; she owns a bed and breakfast called Missile Inn. As the name suggests, Missile Inn is located near an old missile silo. Sadly, however, guests do not stay in the abandoned shaft. The B & B has six different rooms, all decked with paintings, trinkets and artifacts the owner and her family have collected over time.

We also attended several breakout sessions and seminars. Through these experiences we learned helpful advice from industry leaders. One of the sessions, “20 Killer Marketing Ideas That Will Build Your Business,” was especially helpful.

From all the speakers, discussions and networking with South Dakota business owners, here are three most important things we took away.

1) Business is alive and well in South Dakota – what recession? SD business owners are fighting through the difficult financial times facing our country and most of them are coming out successful. This doesn’t just include established businesses, many small businesses are opening and finding a way to make it work.

2) The feeling of community is strong – even though we knew many of the vendors and business owners, there were still some new faces. The friendliness and love we received from total strangers was astounding. This wasn’t an event where businesses pushed their products at other people. There were no sales pitches or contracts – just an open environment to learn and grow.

3) Technology is at the forefront of business – the degree of attendees tech skills ranged from very advanced to complete novice but one thing was consistent in the minds of everyone who attended: technology is essential to marketing your business and product. Many of the session talked about social media’s influence on business. It was neat to see the openness and reception to technology that many people aren’t native to, or necessarily familiar with.

If you would like to join us at the 2012 South Dakota MarketPlace event, check the Center for Rural Affairs website or contact the South Dakota Farmers Union.

2011 MarketPlace promotes business in South Dakota is a post from: RSA Blog

We’ve come a long way since 2007, with incredible growth in the SEO/social media portion of our business. It didn’t come without a healthy dose of challenges, but that’s what we’re all about and we’re still going strong.

What we do isn’t easy in this changing world of Pandas and Zaarly’s; each new update or piece of technology brings a fresh challenge to our doorstep. Our task is to stay on top of it all *and* bring our clients with us. So we’re always reading, always experimenting, forming new strategies, brainstorming with the rest of RSA, attending seminars, trying to figure out the best approach, the reason for that traffic spike, or how to turn an apparent failure into a success or at least a lesson.

What we hear more and more often from clients themselves are things like, “I know it’s important and I have to do it at some point…,” or, “I noticed a drop in traffic when I stopped SEO,” or, “Every website should be optimized for search engines,” are becoming more common. Business owners and marketers are getting it – an invisible website is an invisible business.

So what’s the hang-up? Usually it’s budget. No one wants to throw thousands of dollars at something they don’t understand the mechanics of – even if SEO seems necessary it can still look like a bunch of voodoo.

That’s why we try to take the mystery out of it all. We tell you exactly what we’re doing and why, and show you the results.

Inside RSA Search & Social is a post from: RSA Blog

RSA’s print department is like a well-oiled machine, a machine that runs on variety and creativity. Our passion is providing clients with top-notch designs and superb customer service. We thrive on the day-to-day challenge of conjuring fresh ideas for effective graphic design. No two projects are ever the same – and we love that! Here are some of our latest endeavors:

• Dakotah Steakhouse menus, billboards, print ads and table toppers
• South Dakota Lottery game POS and banners
• Jolly Lane billboards and newsprint
• Sturgis Rally magazine ads
• Sioux Empire Fair event guide and newsprint
• Black Hills BBQ Festival billboards and posters
• American Sprayed Fibers Inc. logo
• Casa Real mailer, restaurant and bar menus
• Reptile Gardens posters, brochures, billboards and van wrap
• MyTown.kotatv.com logo
• Security First Bank annual report and brochure
• South Dakota Community Foundation annual dinner collateral materials
• Wyoming State Fair event guide, billboards, newsprint and magazine ads
• Western Dakota Tech car wrap
• Ramada Inn & Suites rack cards and billboards
• Wheel Jam posters and print ads
• Rapid Transit outdoor signage
• McDonald’s signage and billboards
• Coupongous logo
• 24/7 Intoximeter brochure

Our expert team truly enjoys helping clients keep their print projects and brands consistent, yet fresh. Far too many times we see brands using a variety of fonts, colors and logos from one design to the next, making for an inconsistent design and confusing brand. We know it’s tempting to try designing everything on the cheap, but realize when you hire us you are hiring a team of professionals who eat, sleep and breathe design every day.

Ask our clients, then become one. We’ll make sure your product or service is highlighted in a uniquely creative way.

- Justin Mather, Print Production Director

Inside RSA Print Production is a post from: RSA Blog

The RSA web development team has been hard at work creating highly optimized, effective websites. We have many exciting sites we’re currently working on:

• City of Huron
• Scotchman Metal Fabricating Solutions
• Dawes County Tourism
• Kelly’s Frozen Yogurt
• CD Hopkins Financial
• Bridges to Buttes By-Way
• Murphy’s Pub and Grill
• Knecht Home Center and Mead Lumber
• RCS Storage
• Lehman Trikes
• Casey Peterson and Associates
• Waste Connections of Denver
• Faith Veterinary Clinic
• Sioux Empire Fair
• Wyoming State Fair

Also, coming very soon to the web, fresh from our team’s creative fingers:

• South Dakota Farmers Union
• Powderhouse Lodge
• Radiant Systems
• International Metals

We are also excited to announce our newest service offering: mobile websites! We’ve been creating mobile sites since early 2010, and would now like to offer it as a standard service. RSA can produce the mobile version of your website, which usually contains fewer graphics and more text, quickly and inexpensively.

We’re currently working on mobile sites for the Ramada Tropics Resort, Des Moines, and Ramada Sioux Falls, having just completed our own mobile website.

We’re always developing new, effective solutions in our creative and interactive departments, and our business is always growing and evolving. We have our clients to thank for that. Keep up the good work, everyone, and thanks for your business!

- Tony

Inside RSA Web Production is a post from: RSA Blog

In March we welcomed Rodrick Feggins as the newest member of our video production department. An accomplished motion graphics professional from San Antonio, Texas, Rodrick brings knowledge and skill in 3-D graphics, compositing and motion graphics that bolsters and expands RSA’s capabilities and quality of work.

Another addition to our team includes the Canon 5D mkII HDSLR camera, recently used in two pieces for the South Dakota Lottery and the Downtown Association. Videos shot with the Canon have the cinematic look and feel of Hollywood, and the camera’s depth of field draws the viewer’s attention to the most important images in the production.

Click here to view the embedded video.

On the creative side, we produced outstanding television commercials such as the Black Hills Stock Show’s “2011 Generic“. As you’ll see, this graphics-intensive piece captures the depth and excitement of the Stock Show.

RSA’s production team recently traveled to Gillette to produce a commercial for Casey Peterson and Associates’ new Gillette office called “Trust.” In this commercial, you’ll meet the Gillette staff and hear some of the most common reasons CPA’s clients trust them to help with their businesses and personal finances. You’ll notice here, as well, that when shot with the Canon 5D, the images bring a simple beauty to the commercial not usually seen in local television.

As our video production department takes on new and exciting projects, we invite you to stop by and meet Rodrick or see some of their outstanding work. And maybe while you’re here, you can quiz us on how we can help grow your business with a new video and our other creative services. From television and radio commercials to training and long-form videos to simple web videos, we have the experience and the team to take your current messaging to the next level.

- Jack

Inside RSA Video Production is a post from: RSA Blog

[This guest post from Nancy Marshall Communications in Augusta, Maine, was written by Matt Rideout, Internet Account Coordinator and Social Media Strategist, and originally posted on the Alliance of Marketing Communications Agencies blog.]

Ever seen the movie “Hackers”? Computer programmers can be “different” sometimes, and their terminology for computer stuff can reflect that. Today we’ll be looking at different sorts of search engine optimization “hats,” as they are called, specifically black hat and white hat search engine optimization. Call them yin and yang or good vs. evil. Each hat has its own culture of followers, code of ethics, as well as its plusses and minuses.

One of the most important factors affecting the ranking of your website in search engine results is the number of links that point from other websites to your website. The more high quality links pointing to your site, the higher your site will show up in search engine rankings. Google will assume that because all of these websites are linking to you, that your site must be a great authority on its subject. Nancy Marshall likes to say that it’s like a person in real life. If a person has a lot of important and popular friends, then people will assume that person is also important and popular.

Chances are you have seen an advertisement or received an innocent-looking email from someone promising something like “Page 1 Results for only $199 per year!” There are a lot of search engine optimization (SEO) firms out there promising the same results for what seems like an incredible price. Is this too good to be true? Yes and no.

These cheap SEO firms usually need to employ a “black hat” (here we go with the hats again) strategy in order to boost the ranking of your website… And I use the term “firm” loosely; it’s most likely one guy living in his parent’s basement. Black hat techniques are those that are not approved of by search engines as ethical optimization techniques.

The most common form of black hat SEO involves spamming links to your website across thousands of other websites. These are websites that the SEO Company owns or that they have hacked, yes, hacked. Many black hat SEO firms are run by hackers that exploit security flaws in people’s websites (websites that are usually running outdated and insecure software). Hackers fill these websites with machine-generated and keyword-rich content; content that is confusing or useless to people, but still indexed by search engines.

As Google works non-stop to refine their search algorithm and filter out junk and spam, it’s only a matter of time before these backlinks are rendered useless. Thus black hat SEO firms must continuously spam your link or your ranking will start to drop rapidly.

You’ve heard of that old saying, “slow and steady wins the race,” right? It certainly holds true for search engine optimization as well. White hat link building is a slow and steady process of acquiring back links on legitimate websites with contextually relevant content. One or two of these high quality backlinks can be worth more than thousands of low quality spam links. Best of all, these high quality links continue to mature and become worth more over time.

So how do you tell if your current search engine optimization company is providing you with high quality links? Yahoo site explorer is a great tool that will allow you to see all of the inbound links coming to your website, and then you can click and see for yourself what those pages look like. If you own a hotel, are your links coming from a few dozen travel websites and travel blogs? Or are your links coming from hundreds of websites full of garble and random machine generated content like “printable map coupons for your Thanksgiving dishwasher.” Depending on how much you are paying your SEO firm, you may be surprised, or not.

Search Engine Optimization and Hats is a post from: RSA Blog

[When asked to write a post for the RSA blog I thought, hey I'm not a writer - and what was I even going to write about? Think Justin....think! Then it happened, my WDT intern Pierre (his name has been changed to protect his innocence) walked in and said "what's goin’ on?" And just like that I had a topic. I tried to get Pierre to write this, but he's lazy and doesn't prioritize very well. You know, he puts school and his job before his internship. Silly intern. Anyway, here's my masterpiece…]

Don't forget my coffee

We love us some interns!

Each year many brave souls apply for various internship positions here at Robert Sharp & Associates, and each year we select a few candidates who show us they want to learn and are excited about what they can do. When they show up for work, we show them what an ad agency is all about: sex, drugs and Facebook!

An internship at RSA starts with you getting me coffee and a Taco John’s breakfast burrito (relax, I’ll pay every third time) and ends with REAL world experience. Rather than just filing and other menial tasks, you’ll attend important meetings and be encouraged to participate in discussions. You’ll be shadowing a professional and actually doing real agency work. Whether it’s brainstorming a creative idea to promote a product or helping to maximize the most out of a budget (or the coffee grounds), you’ll gain valuable experience during your time here.

Internship Opportunities

Is it cheap labor for us? Maybe. Is it a great opportunity for you? Absolutely. We have internships available in account management, graphic design, audio/video production and event management. There is plenty of room for growth, and we like to bond with our interns. Some have even been known to work here after they graduate.

Just like our team here, we like our interns to be a well-rounded bunch. There is no mold to fit into when it comes to our agency – just read our bios. Do you love motorcycles? Are you a bookworm? Obsessed with online gaming? It doesn’t matter. As long as you have a passion for what you do (and a 4.3 GPA), you are welcome here. That’s right, we only accept smart people (insert overly-used acronym here).

It’s a melting-pot

Many unique personalities have come through these doors. A variety in attitude and style is what we want. We like the free-thinking and detail-oriented creative, as well as the OCD project manager with the loud boots. It takes all types of pieces to put this puzzle together, and once you think you have it done, the picture changes and it’s a whole new puzzle.

So be welcome, all applicants, and don’t forget the coffee and tacos.

Shaping the minds of tomorrow is a post from: RSA Blog

Analytics? Bounce rate?

What language are they speaking?

I have to admit, I thought I might need a passport and a pocket dictionary on my first day at RSA. That day I attended several meetings with the search engine marketing team, and most of the words buzzing around me sounded like a foreign language.

I’m the first to admit, I’m a search engine marketing (SEM) newbie.

I applied for the interactive marketing specialist job at RSA because writing skill was included in the job description. That sounded ideal, since I love writing and studied journalism in college. Little did I know the job encompassed so much more, and I’d be grasping to understand parts of it.

I’ll let you in on a few of the secrets I’ve learned.

Luckily for me, I’ve discovered that writing is an integral part of what an SEM specialist does. The main goal is helping clients’ websites appear higher in search results when people look for them on Google or Bing.

We help clients improve in search results by writing and distributing press releases and articles that link back to their websites. Making sure the article contains pertinent keywords that people search for doesn’t hurt, either.

However, writing skill is certainly not the only skill require for success.

A significant part of SEM involves analyzing statistics to measure our efforts and recommend a course of action. This process is also known as analytics. After a few days of hearing the term described — and referencing my pocket dictionary — analytics started to click in my completely non-analytic brain.

Analytics measures everything from the number of visits to a website to its top traffic sources. We can tell clients with 99 percent certainty whether someone from Australia visited their site, or if most folks came from right here in South Dakota.

We can even tell clients how long – down to the exact second — a visitor stayed on a website. This is also known in the industry as the bounce rate.

Interestingly, the SEM team can tell when a person decided to leave a client’s website because they’d either found what they were looking for, or left for another reason. Maybe the site’s music was annoying or too many ads popped up. Though we can seldom tell the exact reason a person departed, we can hypothesize – and help a client fix the issue. We’ll do all we can to ensure site visitors find what they are looking for.

Before starting at RSA, I was unaware that so much information could be gleaned about website traffic — and that SEM jargon is indeed its own language. Although I’m still learning the ins and outs of SEM — and still have my RSA passport handy — everything sounds more like English now. I also know that the knowledge I’m gaining is invaluable to our clients.

It’s vital to be able to show them how their efforts are paying off. So much more work and analysis goes into the how than most would ever realize. But hard work leads to great rewards when we type a keyword into Google and see that a client is ranked No. 1.

–

Photo courtesy of Danard Vincente

Confessions of an SEM newbie is a post from: RSA Blog

Have a nice cup of ANGRY BADGER!

Change is hard. How many times have we heard that? Change is hard because it involves risk, effort, and some level of emotional investment. We don’t like that stuff – it’s uncomfortable. We fear it (This is one case where “it’s more scared of you than you are of it” doesn’t apply).

The status quo is predictable. It’s controllable. It doesn’t involve any new or extra effort. We like that stuff – it lets us coast and enjoy what we have. It’s all warm and fuzzy. Curl up by the fire with a good book and a cup of status quo. Oh yeah.

But the status quo can change. And when it does, you find you’re holding an angry badger, not a warm cup of goodness. Suddenly you’re looking at the same risks and efforts, but less time to figure it out. Better to embrace change before it embraces you and grinds you into dust (Or scratches up your arms and poops on your carpet). Better to see it coming and adapt.

So many businesses are stuck in their current rut, not realizing this was never meant to be permanent. The world changes constantly, and it’s not waiting for you. Being a well-established brand isn’t good enough anymore (Hi, GM. Oh hi, Yahoo…didn’t see you there). You’ve been successful doing things one way, perhaps, but that success doesn’t secure your future.

Adapt and grow, or be overrun. That’s always been the reality of business, it’s just become much more apparent these days where change happens much more quickly and on a grander scale.

So publish that website. Write that blog. Start your new company. Try out Twitter. Buy that cool, new phone. Hire that new team member. Take a risk, people. No one ever got anywhere by sitting around. Well yeah, unless they’re in a car.

–

Photo courtesy of cpoke

Change is Inevitable – Be Adaptable is a post from: RSA Blog