Today, we’re going to get to know Travis Lovins. Travis began work at Element Fusion in February of 2008 and currently serves as a Senior Internet Consultant. Travis works directly with Element Fusion’s clients to deliver custom website design and marketing services that meet each client’s needs. Here’s a bit of my interview with Travis.

Me: How did you get started in your sales career?

Travis: When I was in college, I worked at a golf course part-time during the school year and full-time during the summers. The job required me to constantly interact with people and I really enjoyed that aspect. I realized then that I needed to find a career that allowed me to meet new people and not sit behind a desk all day. I studied marketing and sales was a big focus in that curriculum.  After graduation, I worked a short stint for AT&T and realized it wasn't for me. Then I found Element Fusion and here we are.

Me: What do you love most about being an Element Fusion Internet Consultant?

Travis: I get to meet people from all over.  A  lot of people think Element Fusion is simply focused on the Oklahoma City market, which is not true.  We actually have clients in all 50 states over 30 countries.  Every person I talk to has their own unique personality and unique ideas.  I love it.  I really enjoy getting to know so many different people and sharing ideas with them.

Me: What makes you unique in the way you go about meeting a customer’s needs?

Travis: I am not afraid to go the extra mile to make sure the client gets exactly what they need.  I don't feel like this is a characteristic that only I posses, but something exhibited by the entire Element Fusion team.  Every person on this team has worked extra hours to make sure that we uncover every potential roadblock or opportunity that may be encountered during a process. We make it our goal to provide the best service for the client and if Element Fusion is not the best fit, we'll do what we can to find the right resources for them.

Me: Can you share with us one of your best “sales tips?”

Travis: Be honest and practice proper business ethics.  I don't care what industry you are in, this should be your #1 personal requirement.  Many people can see right through a lie.  I don't feel that this should only apply in a person's work setting, but in their day-to-day life as well.  If you choose not to be honest and practice good ethics, it will catch up with you.

Me: What advice do you have for anyone who wants to grow their skill in or pursue a career in sales and Internet consulting?

Travis: It really helps to have a background in marketing or some sales experience.  A lot of people do not realize that when you develop a website for a client, that site needs to be tailored towards their target audience.  You need to be able to study the market trends that the client faces and get a good feel for how their "ideal prospect" will react to and engage the website.  I believe when you truly understand their target market and goals, you have a much greater chance of delivering a product that will meet their needs.

All marketers would say that a business needs to be where the customers are. That’s why there are ads in magazines, commercials that run on TV, and huge billboards that stand over highways. The internet is no different. Your business needs to be there.

If your business is not on the net, you risk losing customers to your competitors who are.  Having an optimized website is definitely a best place to start but that’s not all you can do. There’s also social media marketing.  Having a presence on social networking sites is important because your potential customers are likely already there.

Here are 4 simple rules to follow for your social media marketing efforts.

1. Be smart. Figure out what you want to accomplish with your social marketing and work towards that goal. If you are a corporate entity, behave as one. Make sure your online persona matches your offline persona. Anything and everything you do on these social networking sites could potentially be viewed by the world.
2. Be competitive. Check out what social sites your competitors are on. If they are on Twitter, see what they tweet about and who’s following them. If they are on Facebook, check out how their page looks, what they write about, and what kind of pictures they put up. Getting an idea of what your competitors are doing can help you decide how how to approach things. And seeing how they handle and mishandle interactions can help you develop your own strategy as well.
3. Be interesting. While keeping your public image in mind, try putting interesting and fun things on your profiles.  Let other users know that there are real people behind your company so they can feel more connected to you. Write about events, conventions, conferences, site updates, blog posts, and other social things, but try to stay away from controversial and highly opinionated topics.
4. Be nice. This can mean a lot of things so I’ll make it simple -- being nice on social sites means not spamming people. No one likes an overt promoter of themselves so don’t do it. It’s not only counter-productive, but it can even get your accounts shut down in some cases. Read the terms and services of any site you sign up to so you know the rules. On Twitter, you may need to avoid following too many people at once; on Youtube, perhaps you shouldn’t create outbound linking in comments; and the list goes on. If you’re going to participate in discussions, always have good intentions. Be helpful and don’t just use the opportunity to shamelessly plug your own product.

Following these simple rules will help you in your social media marketing. Of course, there’s a lot more to learn as well so if you have some good tips or questions, please leave them in the comments.

Happy marketing.

Stacey Clermont is an Internet Marketing Specialist at Element Fusion.

Today, we're going to get to know Vivian Hoang. Vivian has worked at Element Fusion for more than two years as an Internet Marketing Specialist. She is responsible for creating and implementing Internet marketing programs that help Element Fusion's clients get real results online. Her expertise in SEO, PPC and other Internet marketing strategies bring great value to the clients she serves.

I asked Vivian a few questions to help us get to know more about her. Here is a bit of my interview with her.

Me: How did you get started in the field of Internet marketing?

Vivian: In college I was involved in several student organizations and I learned to create and optimize websites for these groups and for other personal projects. My major in communication studies also helped give me a background in marketing. I became more involved in Internet marketing after joining the Element Fusion team, where I continue to help businesses with their search optimization and marketing goals.

Me: Can you tell us a little about what you do in Internet marketing and how it helps businesses?

Vivian: As an Internet Marketing specialist, I work with businesses to help increase exposure and visibility to their company’s products or services through search engine optimization, advertising, and other resources. By leveraging the Internet and creating effective marketing strategies, businesses can establish themselves in their niche online, and become more visible to their visitors and new customers.

Me: What do you love most about being an Internet Marketing Specialist for Element Fusion?

Vivian: I love working with a fun team and great clients. I love being able to work with a diverse range of businesses to help them achieve their Internet marketing goals and increase the reach of their target audience.

Me: What is your favorite search engine and why?

Vivian: My favorite search engine is Google, not only because it is the largest in the search world, but also because they provide their users with the most relevant information without all the noise and spam that you find in other search engines.

Me: Would you recommend Internet marketing as a career choice? What advice do you have for someone who may want to pursue a career in Internet marketing?

Vivian: Internet Marketing is a fun and fast-growing field, and it’s a great career choice for anyone who loves being challenged and learning new things. Since search algorithms are constantly changing, it's important to stay on top of industry news and trends, and translate that into profitable strategies for clients.

Yesterday, a few of us attended the Innotech eMarketing Summit here in OKC. Element Fusion was a sponsor of the event and our own Andrea Decker moderated the opening panel discussion on creating social media strategies. Attendance this year was even stronger than last year, and the presentations were, for the most part, stronger as well. I was excited to see this event bringing some great content and discussion to Oklahoma City.

At the same time, my experience at the eMarketing Summit simply reaffirmed a belief I've operated under for years. That is, there's really nothing new under the sun. Time after time, the presenters knowingly or unknowingly drove home the point that the rules governing eMarketing and social media are really the same rules that have been employed for traditional marketing and other strategies for a very long time.

For example, the opening panel discussion focused a lot on how companies shouldn't just launched blindly into social media campaigns, assigning lower-level employees to handle communication through Twitter or Facebook just because they are "young" and know how to use the Internet. On the contrary, communication through social media channels is just like any form of communication for your company and it needs to be handled with careful attention to detail and tone.

Also, Christi Day from Southwest Airlines (a highlight of the event) gave a look into how her company uses social media. One minor point I noted is that Southwest doesn't have any "Twitter guidelines" for their employees. Rather, they have "leadership guidelines" that apply to their employees in all aspects of life. This simply reinforces the idea that regulating how your employees communicate on Twitter is really no different than regulating how they communicate through any other channel. Companies should set expectations for their employees across the board, not just on Twitter.

Finally, the recurring theme from most all of the presenters (and the theme you are likely to hear from any speaker on these issues) is that all of the fancy tools in the world won't really help your business or your website if you don't have something of value to offer your visitors. Content is king and it has always been king. Using Twitter doesn't make it more likely someone is going to want to read your stuff if that stuff isn't attractive and valuable in its own right. This is a very significant point to remember.

So, if you weren't able to make the summit, this is a message you can take away — embrace new tools and learn how to use them, but don't expect them to be a replacement for all of the standard, common-sense approaches to communication that you've hopefully learned over years and years.

Oh, and just one more thing. My favorite moment of the day was when one of the morning presenters made an off-hand remark that went something like this: "Sometimes we get so caught up in these newer technologies, we neglect the more traditional tools like blogs and email newsletters." I love it that blogs and email are now so stodgy they are being called "traditional." Here's to rapid change!

Did you attend the summit? What did you think? Leave us your thoughts in the comments.

Element Fusion is happy to be a part of the 4th annual Innotech eMarketing Summit, coming up on November 4th, 2009 here in Oklahoma City. One of the sessions will be presented by our very own Andrea Decker. Andrea will moderate a panel discussion entitled "Lessons Learned from Internet Marketing Experts," featuring insights from Mike Koehler, Tiffany Monhollon and Chris Wilson.

The Summit includes a line up of other great sessions as well, including a Featured Luncheon presentation by Christi Day, Southwest Airlines Spokesperson and Emerging Media Specialist. She'll be speaking about how Southwest has used social media channels to continually evolve its communication and customer connection strategy. Plus, there are several other sessions from great speakers on topics such as "Top 10 Extreme Social Media Promotion Hacks," "Five Essential Tools for Improving and Measuring New Media Marketing Results," and more.

Several of our team members will be at the Summit all day and we are really looking forward to it. If you'd like to join us there, we can offer you a special discount price. Use promo code FUSION9 and you'll get a special price of $59 per person for the full day summit, which includes your lunch. Get full details about the event and register online on the Innotech eMarketing Summit website.

Hope to see you there!

The online design magazine, Smashing Magazine, has once again featured one of our products in a recent post. Their February 3rd article entitled "Clear and Effective Communication in Web Design" features the LightCMS marketing website as an example alongside a few other excellent websites and web products. Take a look at this extremely thorough article and scroll down to section 4.1, "Prioritize" and you'll find LightCMS.

Thanks to Smashing Magazine for the mention. We appreciate it!

As we've mentioned a couple times already, Element Fusion is planning some appearances at upcoming conferences this year. In preparation for those events, we've started putting together some trade show materials to take with us to the exhibit halls.

Today, we received our new retractable banner stands. There are four of them, but we likely won't ever use all four at the same time. Rather, they are designed to function interchangeably with each other. There's one for the Element Fusion brand, two for the LightCMS brand, and one for our SkyCMS brand.

When they're not being used at trade shows, they also make nice decorative pieces around the office. I've included some photos below so you can see where they are currently displayed.

In case you are interested, the printing and production on these was done by PostUpStand.com. I found this group to be extremely helpful in their over-the-phone pre-sales work and extremely fast in their turnaround time (48 hours plus shipping time). Plus, their pricing is really fantastic and the quality of the products we received has met our expectations, at least so far.

The two LightCMS banners are currently hanging out in the developer room.

The Element Fusion and SkyCMS banners have found a nice home in the conference room.

It seems everyone is selling cheap these days. Every commercial I watch on TV talks about how the product or service they're pitching can save you money. Savings is finally cool again.

Here at Element Fusion, we're just like everyone else. When the market starts to contract, we're going to enter a cost savings mode as well. However, one budget we won't touch is marketing.

Marketing is critical to bringing in new business, yet it's often the budget that businesses start chopping first. These businesses theorize that cutting all  costs outside of business operations will help them survive. This sounds logical, and in extreme situations, it might even be necessary. However, I'd argue that without marketing, you're not going to have business operations to support for very long.

Available for download

What you need is a way to increase marketing exposure without hurting your bottom line. So, we've created a free, two-page resource with some ideas on how to do just that. You can download this document at the link below. Please feel free to share it with others. Enjoy.

• Download 6 Ways to Increase Marketing for Little or No Cost by Element Fusion