Advertising trends have changed. No longer is online advertising considered an additional, inexpensive way to reach out to customers. Internet marketing is now a necessity and any company that chooses not to market online is committing corporate suicide. Potential customers use the Internet to find product reviews, to learn about new services, to complain about the poor service they have received, and to get general information about everything from light bulbs to Lamborghinis. If your company isn’t taking advantage of online marketing, your company is at this very moment losing customers and destined for failure.

You've got what you think is the "perfect" website:

• It loads quickly: Check.
• It looks clean and professional: Check.
• The color scheme is appropriate to your business: Check.
• It's coded correctly and you don't have too much Flash: Check.
• It has plenty of attractive and industry-appropriate images: Check.
• No one sticks around long enough to buy your products and/or services: Check.

We all remember those websites from five or more years ago that relied heavily on Flash technology to give them a little extra ZING. Unfortunately, that zing will now make a website virtually invisible to search engine crawlers! Times they are a-changing all the time in the world of web design and especially SEO, and it's essential that when you consider your own website you look seriously at web design vs. usability and visibility. Putting an effective website on the net today involves so much more than just a pretty face: it has to keep the needs of the user plus SEO in mind at all times. Here are some guidelines: 1-2-3.

WIworks recently announced a new Facebook contest directed at 501c 3 charities. The premise of this contest was to have loyal followers recommend a charity for entry into the contest, We featured that charity on our Facebook page and then created a custom application in order to begin tabulating votes for each one, real time and showcasing the results in almost a leader board fashion.  This custom voting program can be seen at http://apps.facebook.com/wiworks/fb_contest_vote.php. The charity then rallies all of their followers, board members, donors and anyone that is a supporter and has them vote and then spread the word.

The past 3 years have brought unprecedented change to every business in America and around the world. Financial meltdowns, no-confidence votes and about every other conceivable variable has been thrown at us. In the face of this sweeping "change or die reality" each of us has been required to step out on the edge of our comfort zones and go places we have never been before.