There are 845 million users connecting with their friends on Facebook, 150 million Linkedin members networking with industry colleagues, and now recently people are using in-house social networks to collaborate with co-workers. More than 80 percent of Fortune 500 companies use Yammer.com, a private social network for companies launched in 08’. Yammer is “a new way of working that naturally drives business alignment and agility, reduces cycle times, engages employees and improves relationships with customers and partners.” (yammer.com)

Altimeter Research released a report stating more companies are starting to use enterprise social networking sites, like Yammer, but still many don’t realize the potential to strengthen existing workplace relationships and create new ones.

Corporations are slowly figuring out the value of in-house social networking.

“Many business leaders are at a loss to understand what value can be created from Facebook-like status updates within the enterprise,” Charline Li, founder of research firm Altimeter Group. “Some organizations have deployed social-networking features with an initial enthusiastic reception, only to see these early efforts wither to just a few stalwart participants.”

Social networks do not have a large learning curve because the majority of people already use Facebook, Twitter, etc. etc. However, there just hasn’t been a dominant enterprise social network platform causing all workers and companies to automatically jump on board—unlike consumer social media networking (Facecbook.) This leaves a GIANT opportunity for an enterprise social networking company.

As CNN Money quotes, “What Facebook did for friendships and LinkedIn did for industry connections, enterprise social networks can do for a company’s workforce. It’s a big market waiting for someone to conquer it.”

Have you jumped on leveraging the power of social networking yet? Contact Stellar Blue today to hear more about utilizing sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest for your business!

Six reasons why your company should have a blog

Blogs….

1. Allow you to freshen up your site with updated content
2. Are an inexpensive way to build up your Internet presence
3. Drive traffic to your site
4. Allow companies to connect with potential customers
5. Provide readers with interesting content that builds trust. Customer’s trust for your company will become a lead and the lead will become sale.
6. Produce authentic information, customers love to learn new and helpful information

Do you have a blog that is not embedded into your website? The difference with having a blog embedded on your website rather than having followers follow a link to another site is that your visitors are leaving your site and giving traffic to the blog site. We at Stellar Blue do not think that is fair! Why should a host site be getting your visitors? Let us help your company set up a blog on your website that will serve all your needs.

The more practice you have, the better your skills, timing and overall play will improve, which in the end will lead to wins or in company terms sales! Blogging helps a company build an online community by allowing costumers to comment and interact on blog posts. If you want to know more about what subjects to write about, how often to blog or who should be your writing your post, check out Stellar’s blog post Helpful Blog Q & A for all your blogging needs!

If you are interested in creating a company blog or if you are in the avenue for a website revamp or any mobile application services Stellar Blue is here to serve you. Contact us today!

Consumers use smartphones for Internet browsing, connecting with friends on social networks and watching videos. 39 percent of smartphone users are on their phones while going to the bathroom, 33 percent use their phone while watching televisions and 22 percent are on their phones while reading the newspaper. While the statistics are shocking there is something to be taken away from this, consumers are always on their phones!

So how do you set apart your website through the congestion of sites that consumers are searching through daily? How do you separate your company from the online clutter to be recognized as unique?

With recent spikes in smartphone usage it is important for businesses to grow with technology. By the year 2016 mobile searching will exceed desktop searching my 27 billion annual queries. As the amount of searching on mobile devices rises so will advertising opportunities. Advertising is projected to increase from $400 million in 2012 to $3.2 billion in 2016.

Does your business website allow your customers to easily navigate around your products and services? Does your website transfer onto mobile phones? If your answer is no it is time to check out Stellar Blue’s custom design websites.

No business should overlook the impact of mobile devices. Being one of the fastest growing online marketing channels mobile can be integrated into marketing.  Check out Stellar Blue for your website and mobile needs.

If you are in the market to spice up your website, create your very own mobile app or freshen up your Internet marketing check out Stellar Blue today! 

Leaving the Atlanta airport I saw a man walk up to security and swipe his iPhone (which was already in his hand) on a scanner taking 3 seconds to proceed. I waited for the guard to verify and scribble on my boarding pass for seconds longer, curious to why the man blew right pass me and only showed his ID. I asked what he did and the guard said, “Digital boarding pass.” BINGO! Welcome to the future of air travel.

In 2007 Continental Airlines started testing what was then a new technology: allowing passengers to receive an electronic boarding pass on their phones. Four years later, it is finally gaining traction. With a growing number of travelers carrying smartphones, such as myself and the rest of the Stellar Crew, the era of paperless boarding passes may have finally arrived.

According to the Transport Security Administration, “The paperless boarding pass pilot enables passengers to download their boarding pass on their cell phones or personal digital assistants. This innovative approach streamlines the customer experience while heightening the ability to detect fraudulent boarding passes. Each paperless boarding pass is displayed as an encrypted two-dimensional bar code along with passenger and flight information.”

As of March 2012, the boarding pass pilot was operating at 110 U.S. airports with nine airlines: Alaska, American, British Airways, Continental, Delta, Lufthansa, United, US Airways, and Virgin America.

“We’re becoming a much more digital society,” said David Staas of JiWire, a mobile media channel that works with many airports. “So using smartphones for paperless boarding just completes the circle.”

Most carriers offer two ways to get an e-boarding pass: you can choose to have one sent to your mobile device (via e-mail or text message) when you check in online, or you can use an airline app to check in and your boarding pass will appear within the application. When you get to the airport, simply display the boarding pass bar code on your screen to be scanned when needed.

Smartphone apps and digital everything is more than a movement, it’s a future lifestyle and custom. We’re starting to see it every day. Our phones are glued to our hands and the convenience of apps, particularly a boarding pass app, makes “traveling” through life easier.

Interested in creating your own app for your business or vamping up your internet marketing? Call Stellar Blue today! We love talking digital.

Wearable computing is a broad term. Technically, a fancy electronic watch is a wearable computer. “But the ultimate version of this technology is a screen that would somehow augment our vision with information and media,” according to a blog from the New York Times.

Over the last year, Apple and Google have secretly begun working on projects that will become wearable computers. One idea is a curved-glass iPod that would wrap around the wrist; people could communicate with the device using Siri, the company’s artificial intelligence software. But, if you think about it, Apple is already encouraging us to wear our ipods on our wrist—just check out the Nano model. Looks like a watch face! 
Michael Liebhold, senior researcher specializing in wearable computing at the Institute for the Future in Palo Alto, Calif., predicts that the next step in technology is the blurring of the real and virtual worlds. Over the next 10 years he envisions that people will be wearing glasses with built-in screens and, eventually, contact lenses — with working displays.

Google has already jump-started Liebhold’s vision with its glimpse of “Project Glass,” sleek wrap-around Internet-connected glasses.

Wearing the glasses could turn the Internet into a tool in the same way that our memory is a tool now, making the line between human and machine blurred.

The possibilities are endless, just think: What if you could instantly see the Facebook profile of the person sitting next to you on the bus? Read the ingredient list and calorie count of a sandwich by looking at it? Snap a photo with a blink? Look through your wall to find out where electrical leads are, so you know where to drill? Have the directions to your destination appear literally before your eyes?

These glasses can do anything a smartphone or tablet computer does now —and then some. Google’s “Project Glass” also poses challenges to safety, privacy and fashion sensibility. Further, Constant Twitter feeds, and weather updates from “always on” smartphones are already leaving people with a sense of information overload. But at least you can put your smartphone away. Having all that in front of your eyes could become too much.

Google has not given prototypes out to the public or announced when we can first buy our “Project Glasses,” but the company tends to come out with new products fast. It is estimated about six months to a year before broader tests are coming, and a year or more for the first version of the product.

“It’s coming. Whether Google is going to do it or someone else is going to do it, it’s going to happen,” on technology analyst Rob Enderle said. “The question is whether we’ll be ready.”

Don’t fall behind in this fast pace world of technology. Talk to Stellar Blue today to learn more about mobile strategies, social media optimization, or any digital marketing needs!

If you are a B2C company and are playing with the idea of creating a mobile application now is the time! Keep reading to learn three reasons why it is important to join the smartphone movement and how Stellar Blue will work with you to create a mobile application that is right for your business and your customer!

Cell phones are not only for calling anymore. Customers are constantly integrating smartphones not only to shop but also to take care of their banking needs, check email, get directions, play games and the list goes on and on. With the upgrade in phones customers expect their phone to perform complicated tasks wherever they go going whenever they want.

1. Mobile Devices Often Trump Computers

The accessibility of smartphones is the reason for the recent popularity in mobile shopping. Whether you are at the store or at work making that impulse purchase is easier. Another reason may be because employees prefer to do personal browsing and web shopping on a mobile device rather than a computer is because often the computer they work on is attached to a corporate network said Jinal Shah, digital strategist at JWT.

2. The Mobile Experience is Good

Majority of smartphone users say their device experience is either “excellent” or “very good” because it is more convenient to pull out your phone on the subway to purchase Lady Gaga tickets then waiting at line at the box office.

3. But it Still Needs Some Work

We are aware of the convenience that comes with smartphones, but there is room for improvement. When users use mobile devices for shopping they are finding it difficult to navigate and there is a lack of product information in shopping apps. Shah said the biggest consumer obstacles is mobile web security, these uneasy feelings must but be addressed before mobile shopping reaches its fullest potential.

Stellar blue will work with you to make a mobile application that works with your company’s needs. As consumers become more reliant on mobile devices it is becoming necessary for the company to fulfill wants and needs. Let Stellar Blue help you with creating an application that easy and accessible to use.

To learn more about mobile shopping or what is next for the mobile market contact Stellar Blue’s crew today!

I would like to take this time to personally introduce myself  as a new member to the Stellar Blue Crew’s technical team serving as a Production Assistant. I am eager to begin this new and exciting career in web design and development and look forward to both the challenges and rewards this position has to offer.

My pursuit of beginning a career in computer technology began back in 2000 when I graduated from Fox Valley Technical College (FVTC) and received an associate degree in Computer Programming / System Analyst. After 10 years of working directly with customers, either in a management, associate or support role, the opportunity arose which enabled me to go back to school and pursue once again, a desired career in Information Technology. Within two years, I completed all the required core courses within the curriculum for three additional associate degrees and will be graduating this May, 2012. I am currently enrolled as a full-time student attending FVTC and will receive associate degrees in Web Design & Development, Network Specialist and Computer Support Specialist.

My main job responsibilities as a Production Assistant with Stellar Blue include the ability to maintain outstanding product knowledge and communication skills; continually expand my knowledge of Internet and web programming technologies; maintain a proficient knowledge of Photoshop and Dreamweaver; and to maintain a working knowledge of PHP, HTML, CSS and JavaScript.

I look forward to working with a team that shares the same passion and drive as I do by ensuring our customers receive quality products and services while providing exceptional customer support.

I would like to introduce myself as the newest member to the Stellar Blue team as the Internet Marketing Assistant focusing on multi-media channels. Everyday new media makes advances to merge with traditional media sources; my position at Stellar Blue will be to connect the two media outlets through writing and multi-media platforms.

In the spring I will graduate from UW Oshkosh with a Journalism degree and Public Relations emphasis. From my internships and course work I have worked on multiple social media platforms, writing assignments and design projects. I am excited to put my education to the test as I head into this fast moving transition of new and traditional media.

When media is changing everyday it is important for Stellar Blue and their clients to be growing with the change. My favorite thing about multi-media is that no two days are alike. With a passion for writing and being a fanatic for social media I am ready to hone my skills and education and make an impact into the industry.

I am thrilled to learn, grow and contribute to Stellar Blue Web Design in the fast changing multi-media world.  And look forward to the challenges and rewards that will come with this position.

It is a very exciting time for me as I’d like to introduce myself as one of the new Programming/Web Development interns for Stellar Blue Web Design. In the position of Production Assistant I will help develop cutting edge websites, work on internal Stellar Blue projects, and provide support for pre-existing sites.

I started my education at UW-Platteville as a Computer Science major. While at Platteville, I studied the languages Java, C++, and COBOL. From there, I decided to switch focus to Web Development. I’m currently in my second semester at FVTC doing just that. While at FVTC, I’ve studied XHTML, CSS, JavaScript, as well as PHP in an independent group. Along with different programming/markup languages I’ve acquired experience with Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and Dreamweaver.

The web field is constantly changing. It’s this changing atmosphere and seemingly unending opportunities that draws my interest. I’m very excited to delve into this field with Stellar Blue, and I look forward honing my skills while creating innovative and cutting edge products at Stellar Blue Web Design.

Thanks,
Chase

Learn more about the Stellar Blue Crew.

I would like to introduce myself as one of Stellar Blue’s new website production assistants. For many years I have worked as a commercial photographer and graphic designer in the Great Lakes area. As the Internet developed, I realized I wanted to be a part of this growing revolutionary digital industry; more than just providing ‘pretty pictures and graphics’.

Two and half years ago I returned to school at Northeast Wisconsin Technical College to increase my skill set in Web Design and E-Commerce.  My course work has intimately familiarized me with the many coding languages used to create dynamic websites including HTML(5), CSS(3), JavaScript, PHP and SQL.   And the entire Adobe Creative Suite of applications including Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Illustrator, InDesign & Flash.

Other course work has included Emerging Web Technologies, Web Campaign Management and Online Search Strategies.  All great information I’m eager to apply in the real world.

I graduate with an Associate Degree in May 2012 and am excited to become part of the Stellar Blue team to provide our clients with the best internet solutions we can provide. More specifically, we will provide solutions that will effectively, creatively and economically serve their needs and goals. And continually keep our clients current with developing trends and technologies that will continue to help them succeed.

Outside the office I enjoy Scuba Diving, Door County, outdoor activities, and anything to do with the Great Lakes.

Thanks,
John

Learn more about our team!