FastPivot’s Two Responses to Haiti Earthquake Crisis

Posted on January 16, 2010
Filed Under FastPivot Partners, charity and community outreach | Leave a Comment

The recent earthquake crises in Haiti has prompted FastPivot.com President Matthew Ledford to act locally and internationally in two distinct ways:

1) As a memorial and symbol of hope for the Haitian earthquake victims, FastPivot.com will observe Martin Luther King Jr. Day and his vision for a peaceful tomorrow in service to others. FastPivot.com President Matthew Ledford has officially named this Monday, January 18th, 2010 a paid “service” holiday for FastPivot.com employees.

“Following Twitter’s lead, we are giving our team a paid holiday off Monday to go and make a difference by serving their community,” said Ledford.

Photo: Martin Luther King Jr.

In honor of MLK Day, FastPivot.com employees will unplug from their work on custom Yahoo Stores and other e-commerce store design, build, and development projects this Monday to help others within the FastPivot.com home office community of Asheville, NC and throughout other satellite cities in the USA.

FastPivot.com staff have been encouraged to check Serve.gov for a complete listing of area community service projects currently needing help.

2) In addition to offering community service on MLK Day in response to the Earthquake Crisis in Haiti, FastPivot.com is also initiating a 1+1=4 Matching Gifts partnership with Salesforce.com Foundation to raise an anticipated $500,000 for immediate relief to Haitian earthquake victims.

FastPivot.com employees who donate just a dollar to the Haiti relief efforts through Salesforce.com Foundation will in essence be multiplying their charitable efforts by four; so one charitable dollar instantly becomes four charitable dollars, five becomes twenty and so on! The amount of love and relief that can be multiplied here is incredible!

How it works: Salesforce.com Foundation matches the initial FastPivot.com employee dollar given, then alerts FastPivot.com of the employee donation. FastPivot.com in turn gives Salesforce.com Foundation another dollar to match that employee donation. Saleforce.com Foundation then matches FastPivot.com’s employee match donation.

“It is gratifying to see the outpouring of individual and corporate generosity building. What if all the small businesses in America agreed to match the donations of all their people so foundations like Salesforce could meet their foundation goal?,” FastPivot.com President, Matthew Ledford challenges.

FastPivot.com Suggests Blogging in WordPress

Posted on January 14, 2010
Filed Under Ecommerce | Leave a Comment

There’s no new advice in saying that every business should have a blog, but often businesses start a blog without putting much thought into what type of blog they are starting. FastPivot.com suggests using WordPress over the others out there for a variety of reasons.

Before going deeper into those reasons, let’s look at the difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org.

According to the WordPress Support Page: “WordPress.com is brought to you by some of the same folks who work on WordPress, the open source blogging software. WordPress.com utilizes the same WordPress software which you can download at WordPress.org. With WordPress.com the hosting and managing of the software is taken care of by the team here at Automattic. With WordPress.org you need to install the software on your own server or with a 3rd party provider.”

The WP Support Page also features a nifty pros/cons section on WordPress.com vs. WordPress.org. Our paraphrased version is as follows:

WordPress.com

Pros:

Free & easy set up.
Back ups, upgrades, spam filter, security etc.included.
Blog saved via hundreds of servers so crash is unlikely.
Auto-post back ups.
Residual traffic from tags/blogs of the day.
Secure login (SSL).

Cons:

Limited to standard templates. CSS is open to edit, but can’t do custom themes.
Hack block on PHP code.
No plugin uploads.

WordPress.org

Pros:

Can upload plugins and themes.
Complete control over code.

Cons:

Need paid web host; normally less than $12/month but higher traffic could cost thousands.
Requires technical knowledge.
Spam filtering, backups, & upgrades are your responsibility.

The top reasons why FastPivot.com developers think WordPress.org is the best blogging platform out there are:

The blog can be skinned to match any theme.
Since the blog can be made an actual part of an established website, Google indexes it quicker (vs. stand-alone blogs like blogger.)
Complete control over building your own plugins.
100% control over all code running on your site.
Code is immaculate.
It’s open source without having links all over the place saying it was built by word press staff members.
It’s a full content management system.
Capable of running an entire website off WordPress, not just the blog.

FastPivot.com developers have launched many leading custom Yahoo! Stores and other ecommerce websites with fully loaded WordPress blog integration. Contact FastPivot.com now to get started and to experience REAL WordPress success.

FastPivot.com to Present & Conduct Web Site Audit Consults at IRWD 2010

Posted on January 12, 2010
Filed Under Ecommerce | Leave a Comment

This year’s 2010 IRWD (Internet Retailer Web Design & Usability) Conference will be held from February 15-17 at the Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress in Orlando Florida.

This highly anticipated annual event is featuring 43 expert speakers and 35 exhibiting companies. According to the official IRWD website, this is “the perfect niche event for anyone responsible for the development and sales performance of retail web sites. Why? Because it focuses exclusively on issues that are at the core of web performance and provides practical tips for improving online sales with better web designs.”

Conference officials suggest that at no other time in history have so many expert speakers assembled to address web design and usability, as it relates to online retailing. Moreover, attendees are reassured that speakers were not selected based on commercial consideration.

For those serious about improving online sales, be sure not to miss Keynote presentations by Lynnette Montgomery, Vice President, Direct Marketing, Performance & Nashbar and John Thompson, General Manager, BestBuy.com.

Other top speakers are John Ware, Director of E-Commerce Design, Advance Auto Parts, Anthony Svanascini, President of AmericanEagle.com, and Matthew Ledford, Co-founder & President of Fastpivot.com.

Fastpivot.com’s Matthew Ledford will be covering “LIVE REVIEWS: Helping customers find the treasure at your site” from 4:00PM-4:45PM with Tom Funk, Vice President of Timberline on Day Two: Feb. 16, Main Conference.

LIVE REVIEW BREAKOUT: “Site navigation is all about helping customers find what they’re looking for-and discovering what they didn’t know they were looking for. It’s a tricky balance, but retailers who have mastered the two uses of navigation are among the most successful in the online world. This live, on-the-spot review session will examine sites that attendees volunteer from the floor for such elements as ease of navigation, what functions the navigation serves and how intuitive a site’s navigation is to customers.”

A special team of Fastpivot.com experts will also be available during the entire IRWD 2010 conference to examine attendee websites using the FastPivot signature AUDIT evaluation system. A cornerstone of this unique AUDIT approach is the One Second site stickiness factor: If you don’t draw them in One Second or Less, you’ve lost them! In minutes, we will tell you what improvements your site needs to PASS the FastPivot.com AUDIT.

To avoid long lines, attendees may schedule an AUDIT consult appointment prior to the conference. Contact Fastpivot.com now to make your reservations.

Why Build a Yahoo! Store?

Posted on January 9, 2010
Filed Under Ecommerce | Leave a Comment

According to Google Analytics, one of the top FastPivot.com keyword searches is “Store Design.” This tells us that for many business owners, the first question usually asked isn’t “why build an online Yahoo! Store,” but “what online store should I build?” However, right along with this high ranking search phrase and other similar generic ones like “e commerce store,” “build online store,” our visitors have searched specifics, such as “how to build yahoo store,” “yahoo store templates,” and “yahoo store design,” so much that they also fall within our top ten keyword searches.

While would-be online store owners do review what’s out there before going with a Yahoo! Store, many eventually turn their sights toward Yahoo! Stores because they are well known, user-friendly, dependable hosting, affordable, and easily customized by experts who can be conveniently found on the Yahoo! Merchant Solutions Partner Directory.

Although Yahoo! Stores make it affordable and easy for brick and mortar businesses to create an e-commerce site fully loaded with basic templates, debit/credit/paypal payment systems, free marketing features, real-time analytics, processing and shipping centers, etc., FastPivot has found that top stores (see our portfolio) realize more success by using a team of experts to help with rtml programming, shopping cart programming/solutions/security, and to customize basic Yahoo store templates. After receiving help with these Yahoo! Store upgrades, owners generally see significant increases in traffic and conversion.

As a Yahoo Small Business Partner, FastPivot.com is listed in the Yahoo! Merchant Solutions Development Network Directory in the following areas: Advanced Site Design and Set-up, Marketing Services, Advanced Features, and Merchant Training. To reach FastPivot experts directly, visit the Contact Us page for phone/email information.

What the Theory of Social Validation Means for Social Media Marketing

Posted on January 8, 2010
Filed Under Ecommerce | Leave a Comment

Psychology Today published a September 2009 piece titled The Theory of Social Validation, which boils down to the fact that “you’re not great until someone says you are.”

The real life implications of this pillar of wisdom is not something to be taken lightly, even if it is the case that each one of us can be great on our own terms without the need for a pat on the back from others. Consider which books, from the loads actually published each year, actually ascend to top ten bestseller lists: the ones with good reviews from the press, from vocal readers, and even from self-generated buzz via traditional marketing and social media channels.

This doesn’t mean it’s easy to go around tooting your own horn on Twitter, YouTube, Facebook etc. to become popular, but it does mean that the social media medium is a tool where validation for an unknown product can happen in minutes.

One thing to remember, however, is like in the real world, product(s) must be great to keep people talking. And if it’s only mediocre or lacks in some way, it will be publicly criticized or even worse, completely ignored.

The most valuable social validation happens when reputable people recommend or suggest you or your product to the world through personal reference, review, or public acknowledgement. Befriending those influential people via Twitter and Facebook and getting them interested in what you’re doing is paramount.

When Twitter tweets or Facebook posts are re-tweeted and recommended by those with clout, the response reverberates throughout the social media construct at such a rapid pace that by the time it begins to fade, your brand has gained exponentially in recognition and consumer confidence. When it’s time for another marketing blast, even more friends and followers will be on the lookout for your product news.

Social validation can wisp into any decision maker’s ear to whisper it’s well known coercion : If everyone else is doing it, let’s just go with it too…besides, how can so many other smart, capable people be wrong? But be assured that while a Twitter tweet, Facebook post, or even a YouTube video can travel light speed in the minds of the populace, once is rarely enough to make a lasting effort.

FastPivot.com social media experts suggest creating and implementing a social media marketing road-map strategy to achieve consistent, long-term results. Reach them via the Contact Us page to get started.

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