Swordfox RSS feed

Sick of sharing?

Thu, 13 Jun 2013 13:23:08 +1200

Let's make today all about you.

Instagram - yet another social network that when used for enhancing business, relies on 'sharing'.

We work with businesses that are excited about getting on the social media bandwagon, others glaze over and sigh "not another *bleep bleep* social media outfit something-a-rather".

We are here to share (excuse the pun) how YOU can integrate social media into a part of YOUR working day and to make it FUN. It's important to remember that life is a journey, not a destination.

Sending a newsletter, following up on a phone call or organsing a snippet on the radio - sounds like traditional marketing channels and a little lack lustre in comparison to the new kids on the block.

Instagram is a super cool way to share and market your business through pictures. Pictures, that through the flash of an Instagram filter, transform the ordinary to the amazing. Because of this, businesses are finding it a lot funner to market to their audience. Funner? Is that a socially acceptable word?.....never mind it's about pictures today.

We hear your next question...what on earth can I take photos of on a regular basis?
Here are a couple of examples

1. If we were a vineyard...

It's Tuesday, we're just back from lunch (cheeseboard & Pinot of course) and we'd like to have a bit of fun with our marketing. So we lay out bottles of wine to spell the name of our company. It looks cool, it reflects the quirkiness of our brand personality, it contains our product and it's an interesting way to project our business to the market.

We simply take a photo on our iphone, choose a filter to transform the image into a kind of 'professional' looking image and share it. We love how you can make the image look like you're a s*&t hot photographer. And whats-more, that you can connect Instagram to Facebook so any snaps you do take can be automatically posted to your Facebook business page. Brilliant, just got a few likes already, we're feeling the brand love.

What you take the photo of would depend on the brand personality you are wanting to project, however you'll get the picture (excuse another pun) of what we're trying to illustrate here.

"Make it interesting, make it relevant", would be our one piece of advice if we aren't able to talk all day.

2. If YOU were a bank...

We're going to turn this one round on you.

Given the industry, we admit this seems immediately challenging.
However, and most importantly what we can share with you is, a large portion of bank's customers use Instagram and the majority have Eftpos cards and bank accounts.

The Instagram stats in order are:
- Teenagers aged 18 to 24 years (approx 34%)
- Young adults aged 25 to 34 years (approx 33%)
- Young teenagers aged 12-17 years (approx 20%)

We believe it's possible to market as a bank via Instagram. What would you take photos of? We'd love to hear your ideas (feel free to comment at the end of this article).

Record Sales

Let's be realistic - once you share a photo, we're not promising your phone will start ringing off the hook and sales will go through the roof. The kind of reaction from viewers you should be looking for, whilst endevouring to build your brand, are...

"Ooooo....
- that's cool
- that's interesting
- that's funny
- i love those guys and...
- I've just got to share this with my friends who might not otherwise see it

Play on emotions, sow a seed and work to grow the brand image inside them.

There you have it...

Instagram - a social media platform that you can integrate into your business week and have fun in doing so.
Go on, embrace the change. It'll be as good as a holiday.

If you're wanting to get started on Instagram and need some help? Call us!

Swordfox thrives under immense physical & mental pressure

Mon, 25 Feb 2013 11:45:14 +1200

5 days, 450kms, 2 hours sleep. The ultimate physical & mental test on the human body. What a stellar performance from the Swordfox 2012 team, finishing 5th place overall in the Orion Health GODZone Adventure Race 2012.

Currently, Team Swordfox are undergoing intensive training & apparel branding for their 2013 adventure. We wish them well and appreciate your outstanding support.

Tune in 8th - 16th March.

Mobile Websites

Thu, 7 Jun 2012 15:31:24 +1200

Do you have a mobile version of your website?

A huge number of searches nowadays are from mobile devices, of these searches 1 in 3 is for local content. So we build mobile sites that highlight the important aspects of your business for those viewing your website from a mobile device & make it easy for them to take action.

Find out the importance of a mobile website for your mobile audience.

View our mobile website portfolio.

Fresh content made easy

Fri, 9 Sep 2011 12:43:00 +1200

We all know keeping your website & various other content streams up-to-date is a laborious task despite having an easy to use CMS.

Swordfox have developed modules for TripAdvisor, Facebook & Twitter that automatically take content from these feeds & displays them on your website. The content is up to date & integrated in a way that search engines can index as fresh content.

TripAdvisor

Provides user contributed content: As long as the reviews are not negative, this is the easiest option as it requires no work on your behalf.

Example: Wanaka River Journeys

Facebook & Twitter

Each wall post or tweet that you add will automatically show on your website. Facebook wall posts also include photos which adds a bit of variety.

Facebook Example: Thunder Jet Queenstown
Twitter Example: Rabbit Ranch

If you're interested, get in touch & we can implement the best option on your website.

Compatibility with smartphones / iphone and ipad

Thu, 19 May 2011 16:45:08 +1200

We've just released a new CMS feature on foxyMS (Connect) that allows editing using the Textile (markup language) when the ContentEditable attribute is not available.

This means that users of smartphones, iphones or ipads can now update content when they are away from their computer.

We've moved

Thu, 12 May 2011 8:08:39 +1200

Swordfox is now creating from a new studio

The Station Building, Level Two
Cnr Camp & Shotover Streets, Queenstown

View Map

Our contact details and postal address remain the same.
Love from the team at Swordfox

Worldview with foxyMail

Fri, 1 Apr 2011 12:46:11 +1200

Worldview gives you real-time live mapping of your email campaign & your recipients activity.

It shows you who is opening it, clicking links, forwarding it to their friends, liking it on Facebook or mentioning it on Twitter.

All this comes free when you get a newsletter or EDM designed & produced through Swordfox & foxyMail.

Facebook Ads Case Study

Wed, 19 Jan 2011 14:19:16 +1200

Have a read of this interesting Facebook Ads Case study that we came across on Facebook of all places.

The Roxy Theatre

When Nic Adler started advertising on Facebook in February 2010, he was looking to crank up the volume for his Los Angeles music venue. Located on famous Sunset Boulevard, The Roxy Theatre features bands from all over the world across all different genres of music, ranging from acoustic to hard rock to techno. By running ads on Facebook, Nic, owner of The Roxy Theatre, was able to increase the number of people who connected to The Roxy Theatre Facebook Page by 65,000 in only three months, giving him 65,000 new people whom he could easily update about the venue’s events and engage with its unique culture.

Nic wanted to position The Roxy Theatre as a leading venue in the entertainment industry. Plus, he also sought to increase its overall ticket sales. After years of using traditional forms of advertising, the venue also decided to use Facebook to build a larger international audience.

When setting out to increase the number of people who connected to the theatre’s Facebook Page, Nic thought it would be best to advertise The Roxy Theatre’s Facebook Page itself. He included strong calls to action and used specific Likes and Interests targeting related to the genre of the band being promoted in the ad. For example, when Nic created an ad for the hard rock band, Guns N’ Roses, he chose Likes and Interests such as: ‘Alice Cooper’, ‘Guns N’ Roses’, ‘Anthrax’, and ‘Judas Priest’. He also included compelling text that featured the band name and event dates. This combination allowed Nic to create a high-performing ad that caught his audience’s attention.

In addition to creating strong ads, Nic also took advantage of The Roxy Theatre’s Facebook Page to post status updates multiple times each day. He featured questions, links, and updates that encouraged engagement among users connected to the Page. These status updates now drive over 4 million page views and 9,500 interactions per month.

In just three months of advertising on Facebook, more than 65,000 people connected to The Roxy Theatre’s Page. It is currently one of the top nightclubs/venues on Facebook. Furthermore, it has since set and reached a goal to obtain 100,000 connections by December 2010.

Today, more than 126,000 people have connected to The Roxy Theatre’s Page. It looks forward to marketing new events this year and continuing its success with Facebook Ads.

Websites launched in December

Tue, 28 Dec 2010 21:59:42 +1200

We've had a busy month with the rush before Christmas and have launched 3 great websites & 1 micro-site, all of which and as usual we are very proud to be associated with:

Millbrook Resort (www.millbrook.co.nz)
Luxury Accommodation in Queenstown New Zealand including world class spa and conference facilities.

Jetboat Extreme (www.jetboatextreme.com.au)
Gold Coast Jetboating, Australia's Number 1 jetboat operator.

Kavourorachi (kavou.eu)
Extra Virgin Olive Oil company based in Greece.

Millbrook Realty (www.millbrookrealty.co.nz)
Micro-site for Millbrook Resort, a McGrath Project.

Swordfox on the Green

Fri, 17 Dec 2010 15:10:38 +1200

Our work-do at the local lawn bowls club. There were lots of technical and creative game plans to say the least.

Spotlights on Swordfox

Fri, 17 Dec 2010 11:50:50 +1200

We're excited about our newly installed spotlights on Swordfox.

Sweet as!

Mon, 13 Dec 2010 16:26:34 +1200

Today we invested in some branded Swordfox cupcakes. Many thanks to Cherry Blossom Cakes for your craft - it's not all about looks, they taste great too!

Christmas Close Period

Thu, 9 Dec 2010 10:17:22 +1200

Ho ho ho - it's Christmas time again. We wish a safe holiday for each and every one of you. We will be taking a short break, closing on Wednesday 22nd December 2010 and re-opening on Thursday 6th January 2011. Should an emergency arise during our close period, we can be contacted on helpme@swordfoxdesign.co.nz.

This is new!

Tue, 7 Dec 2010 10:30:00 +1200

Hello to you all!

After many months of hardwork and inclusion of our new projects into our online portfolio, we're proud to show them all off, ON OUR NEW WEBSITE!!! We hope you'll find it easy to navigate and that we'll impress the pants off you with our projects.

If there's anything you don't like about our new site - don't be shy, tell us, and we'll take it on board.

We do hope you like!

New website for Millbrook Resort

Wed, 1 Dec 2010 13:19:05 +1200

We've just launched the new Millbrook Resort website.

It incororates some cool features such as a 3D carousel that highlights the main sections of the resort. Keep a look out for the new features coming early 2011.

Check out the new look at www.millbrook.co.nz.