We recently had the pleasure of being featured in The Ocala Business Journal and on Ocala.com in an article about the ever-growing evolution of marketing and advertising. Vehicle wraps are an innovative and popular way of deploying "24/7 marketing", while at the same time remaining cost effective. In the often uncertain waters of a strained economy, business owners know that every dollar counts. Checkout the article: Technology Provides New Ways of Getting Advertisers' Messages Across ...read more

As I'm sure a lot of you are aware, many businesses both large and small are getting involved with free social media networks, such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Brightkite (one that you might not have heard of) to help promote their services and to personalize their appearance. There are many benefits to using these freely available tools and I am happy to see that they are becoming more and more widely used these days. To connect with our clients and others out there that share our same passions, interests and ideas, we are taking some much needed time to extend out to such social networks and to network with others. If you would like to connect with us on Twitter, you can follow us at http://twitter.com/bbgraphics. We like to post a lot of different things, such as what's going on within our office, events we might be partaking in or spearheading, contests, interesting articles and other related snippets. What is Twitter and how do I get started? Twitter started off being a simple quick (140 character limit) update for friends, family and colleagues to see what you are doing, thinking or involved in right at that specific moment. It began as simple, sometimes completely insignificant items and has since evolved into a tool for promoting all kinds of venues and events. Heck, I've seen Twitter used as a search and rescue tool! To get you started, here are some articles that describe how to use the tool, what it can be used for and who should use it. Enjoy! Newbies guide to Twitter HOWTO - Getting Started with Twitter Getting started on Twitter - A 5-step guide for professional communicators Using Facebook as a business tool If I were to tell you a couple of years ago that Facebook is a great tool for promoting your business, you'd probably laugh and make a face like your nose just caught the scent of a soiled diaper (yuck!). But in this era, Facebook has grown from a simple friend-tracking network, into an out-of-box tool for everything from corporate giants to your grandmother's bingo group. Facebook is a free, simple alternative for people wanting to promote their business and to put a face to a name. It will help you target your audience and the beauty of it all is that a.) it's free, and b.) it's ready to go and helps you place better in search engines. Basically, you're using tools that have already been streamlined and perfected to be a definite shoe-in for search engine placement. Please beware that this will not place you at the top of search engine results, but it will definitely help. All you do is plug in the content and information you want to provide and you're set. A lot of people will say "but I already have a website," which is a great thing, but linking it to your Facebook business page is even better (and free!). Cross-linking with other websites that tie to your business can potentially help get more unique hits to your main website. If you link your existing website to a Facebook business page or mention your website in a Twitter "tweet", you're bound to get hits from those sources-which thus boost traffic to your website. The more you network, the better your chances are of being found. If things like this scare you and you're not the tech-savvy type, we would be more than happy to assist you. We are well-versed in the ways of the web and social media and can get you pointed in the right direction. Social media is a huge part of the web and no matter where you go, you're bound to see people using it. Regardless of what field they may be in or what their interests. Setting up a Facebook business page Setting up a Facebook business page is simple (I use that term a lot in this blog post and with good reason). Go to this page http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php and follow the steps provided. If you have an existing personal Facebook page, you can tie to that, or you can create an entirely new Facebook account strictly for your business. The latter is a good idea if this is a page that multiple employees within your business will be updating and managing. Also, make sure to keep your pages fresh. Keeping them fresh will keep viewers interested and it will also provide search engines with new content to index. This is a crucial part of any website and/or social networking page. Nobody likes to go to a website months later only to find that it was updated a year ago. That can give a bad impression (like you went belly-up or something) and the chances of that viewer not returning become greater. Treat it like a bakery. Nobody wants to eat old donuts! Good luck! If you need some guidance, contact us and we can work with you. If you're interested in building a new website or improving your existing one, that's what we do here at BB Graphics. We're professionals when it comes to web design and social media. If you feel like your website and/or business is a sailboat drifting in the ocean, let us be the wind in your sails! Okay, that sounded like the chorus of a corny early 90's ballad but I think you get the point. We're the WebPros! ...read more

You name it and we (probably) do it! Business lately has been increasing for us and we've got a lot on our plate at the moment. We hope the same can be said for all of you out there on the MerchantCircle universe, in spite of the economy at the moment. If you are interested in having a website created or would like to promote your business with an eye-catching vehicle wrap, we can help you out. Our new website was launched not long ago and we've taken our services and customer care to the next level. In your spare time (yeah, because we all have lots of that, right?), please take a moment to view our website and give us a call if you need any graphic design, vehicle wrap or website work. http://bbgraphics.com Thanks for reading and take care! ...read more