We're thrilled to have been a part of the formation of Red Chair Architects, based in Knoxville and announced yesterday. Here's what the Knoxville News Sentinel had to say about the merger:

And what about that unorthodox name? Cockrill said the team worked with a Nashville marketing firm called Locomotion Creative.

"I charged them when we first got started 'I'm going to set a goal that you cannot meet, but I want to achieve an iconic name of the firm that begins to rival the Nike swoosh or the McDonald's arches,'" he said.

They've got plenty of work to do before reaching that level of brand awareness, but Cockrill said red is a color that demands focus, while a chair is a component of architecture with a human scale to it.

Cockrill added that in conversations with employees about the name, he told them "if you like it or don't like it you're going to ask about it because it's so different. And they agreed."

Read the full post here: http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2012/jan/04/community-tectonics-cockrill-design-planning

I recently came across a great article by Six Revisions on how to optimize your site for Google Panda. Panda was an update to Google’s search engine algorithm in early 2011 and there have been many updates to Panda since then. The article discusses the following tips to make your site be seen as high quality in the eyes of Google Panda.

• Design for engagement and user experience
• Use proper spelling and grammar
• Focus on quality content
• Avoid too many ads
• Avoid duplicate content
• Less is more
• Ensure high-quality code

Read the full article and see the description for each tip over at Six Revisions.

Pay per click advertising works through search engines to place an ad on the top or to the right of the results feed for certain key terms. The ad normally consists of a title, short heading and a short promotional blurb about the deal or company. Google AdWords is Google’s program that controls your search terms and places your ads in results. For more information about Google AdWords you can watch a great video below.

The great thing about the pay per click program is that you don’t actually pay until someone clicks on your ad. It’s helpful to not have to pay a monthly fee whether or not you are getting traffic. Instead you determine an amount to pay for certain keywords per click. Pay per click advertising is only worth it though if the sale gets from click to close. For the businesses that make a sale this means that customers are usually directed to their site for about 5 cents each, depending on the price of the keyword.

Pay per click advertising is even better than high search engine rankings because the ads can go up in just a few minutes while changing your web page content to improve your rankings, even with the help of a search engine oriented text company, can take weeks.

Pay per click advertising campaigns can be very effective if your ad is well written and if your target site helps to complete the sale with the customer. Without these elements, pay per click advertising can get very expensive and is simply a waste of your valuable time and money.

A little over a month ago I wrote a post about why you should care about Google+. At the time that I wrote that article Google+ was just for personal use and was actually discouraging businesses from signing up yet. Everything has changed now, though, with the launch of Google+ Brand pages.

The brand pages look similar to an individual’s profile but they also have a box by their name that symbolizes they are a page, along with a 10 word description about the page. Some companies were very quick to get the brand pages and have some great customization with it so far. A few examples of my favorite designs by brands are by The Muppets, Coca Cola, and by Google itself.

I found two great tutorials online that show you how to create a Google+ Brand page as well how to create a profile banner to complement your branding.

So as a business owner already spending time on your social media presence with Facebook and Twitter, why should you also set up a Google+ Brand page? There are some key differences between the social networks that you should evaluate and see if they are beneficial to your target audience.

• Google+ is more content driven— Facebook is full of games, happy birthday messages and photos of friends and family, which make it more of a personal social experience. Google+ on the other hand is more professional and focused on informative content.
• Live audio/video chats— Google+ has hangouts that directly engages fans and can provide exclusive content. The Black Eyed Peas recently hosted a session backstage prior to a concert that allowed the fans to connect with them and tell some insider secrets of the band. The Muppets are another great example of a hangout and you can actually see the highlights from their hangout session below.

• Integration throughout Google— Google recently added +1 buttons into their Image Search so that there is a deeper integration with Google+, Places, Maps, Web and Image Searches.

Ultimately, it is up to your target audience and where they are that determines what social platforms you join. So do your research on your target market and make sure you are constantly marketing toward them.

As a tribute to our hard-working, blue-collar neighborhood, we’ve spelled out our name on the wall in our reception area with letters that come from a different business in Nashville’s Melrose area.

Ah, but which businesses? Let us know what you think on our Facebook page.