Due to the tremendous support and success of last year’s event, Barcelona Creative Group has decided to host our 2nd Annual Open House and Food Drive. We invite you to join us as we “talk turkey,” help those in need and celebrate Thanksgiving (the most American of holidays) with clients, business associates and friends. Date: Monday, November 23rd Time: 5:00pm to 7:00pm Where: 12416 S. Harlem Ave., Palos Heights, 2nd Floor Holiday appetizers and beverages will be served. This year we will be supporting the Palos Township Emergency Food Pantry. We hope you will help by bringing a non-perishable food item. Thank you. Items needed: Canned Vegetables, Canned Soups, Canned Fruits, Canned Tuna or Chicken, Macaroni & Cheese, Spaghetti Sauce, Applesauce, Fruit Drinks, Toilet Paper, Kleenex, Paper Towels, Toothpaste & Toothbrushes, Hand Soap, Dishwashing Soap and Shampoo & Conditioner. RSVP Here… For more information or questions please contact Juli Barcelona or Monica Crites by email at juli @barcelonacreative.com or monica – Read the full article
“I just wanted to thank you for the work you have done this year on the website. I really really appreciate it very much, and your work is a big reason why we have had a good year. I hope you have a good Thanksgiving, and I wanted to let you know you have done a great job. Thanks again!” – Brent J. Metz, Hooked Up Installs “A huge THANK YOU to you and your team for making headway on this! This has made a nervous client much more relaxed going into this primary shopping season.” – Randy, Technotribe “LakeShore Branding, specifically Chris Cambell, developed and maintained the web site for the Greater Homewood Party. They took a very plain web site and provided a top notch web site including a photo gallery, video and updated content as soon as it was sent to them. We received many compliments on the web site and would highly recommend them to anyone – Read the full article
You ever heard of something called BuddyPress? If not, well – you should. Established in 2008, Buddypress is a publishing platform for connecting all your social media streams and networks together in one self-hosted and WordPress-powered site. You can use it as a social network for your family, your university, your school or college, or your class; as an internal communication medium for your company or organization; as a network for connecting people with the same interests as you have; or as a socially dynamic site centered around your new product or service. For more uses, check out this BuddyPress showcase. Like WordPress, BuddyPress is an extremely flexible and versatile solution, especially for those who are looking to grow their businesses and brands via social media marketing. Its features include: Global, personal, and group activity streams where you can view all your comments, status updates, mentions, favorites, and notifications, among many others; User groups that you can choose to be public, – Read the full article
Aspiring musician? Budding young artist? Aspiring novelist? These days, it’s not enough that you have your own album, creative portfolio, or published book. You have to have a website, too. It may not seem fair to be a one-man (or one-woman) team and to have to develop your own website and market your product to your audience, but that’s just the way it is. If you’re determined to succeed, you might as well go with the flow and start building your online presence. One of the best ways to do so is by using WordPress, our favorite content management system here at Lakeshore Branding. Not only is the entire platform easy to use; it’s also fully customizable, and it evolves in accordance with today’s Web standards. Now, we understand perfectly your desire to have a website that serves as an expression of yourself (and your work), and that’s why we came up with this list of the best WordPress themes – Read the full article
With all of the commotion that goes along with a business, sometimes the easiest things are forgotten. Even worse, sometimes the easiest things can become complicated because after all—is anything about your company really easy? As it turns out, creating a logo is one of those rare things about your company that will turn out great results without a ton of work. Just ask Google. A logo is part of your company’s branding, which consists of everything a company does and everything a company is involved with including mission statements, customer guarantees, Internet marketing efforts, and taglines. If you have creative people on your side, you should be able to come up with a logo or tagline that is ready to hit the Internet in successful, viral fashion. I dare you to try and think of a major company that does not have a logo. Everyone is reaping the benefits of logos because they have proven to be potentially very – Read the full article
So, you’ve finally decided to join the social media stream and now you’re looking for more creative ways to market your business. So far, you’ve built your Facebook page, a LinkedIn group, and your newly launched corporate blog is receiving a lot of positive feedback from readers. There is one more thing that can boost productivity: social media applications. These apps can boost your marketing efforts and make the process even more efficient. Here is a breakdown of the five most popular social media apps that you can use to accelerate your marketing success: Networked Blogs Join an online family of over 500,000 blogs and build an active community around your own blog. With the Networked Blogs Facebook app, you can: Import the blog feed to your Facebook profile Share your posts with a huge community of bloggers Gain massive visibility Promote your blog on Facebook The first step is to add your blog to the Networked Blogs via Facebook. Once you – Read the full article
A number of the world’s biggest businesses and brands are using Twitter. Chances are, they’re also using Facebook. And their employees are using LinkedIn, to connect with other professionals. How do you, as a small business owner, set yourself apart from the competition? Obviously you’ll have to be more creative with leveraging social media, and with finding alternative platforms where you can engage with customers. You’ll have to seize overlooked opportunities for marketing, or create these opportunities where none exist. Start by knowing there are other social networking tools in town. Like Flickr, for example. Okay, so we can almost hear you say it. Flickr? Really? How do you use that for marketing? Um, isn’t Flickr a picture community for hobbyists and photographers and artists? Just like Vimeo is a video community? And doesn’t Flickr explicitly say that you can’t use the site for commercial purposes? All of the questions above have a point, but that doesn’t mean you can’t – Read the full article
It’s been around, but up to this day, when people think of Moo (at Moo.com), there’s a good chance they might associate it with domestic livestock. That’s why we here at Lakeshore Branding thought of outlining the top reasons why we love Moo, a great card creation service that doesn’t at all have anything to do with cows. Founded in 2004, Moo is basically an online print business, specializing in the creation of high-quality business cards and related products. The service is catered to businesses and professionals, but it is equally great for designers, freelancers, bloggers, photographers, and anyone else who has to personally introduce himself or herself in some form and situation to another human being. In short, Moo is for everyone. As a creative online communications agency, Lakeshore Branding is always on the lookout for great ideas and inspiration for the Web. But no matter how much we love the Internet, we still can’t put it in our – Read the full article
