Grab your cameras and start shooting! The Maple Grove Moments Photography Contest is a great way for you to show how special our community is! Everyone is encouraged to participate — residents, business people, and students attending school in Maple Grove.

Entries are accepted starting June 1st, and the contest runs through July 17th so you can also share your Maple Grove Days photos.
A 1st, 2nd and 3rd prize photo is selected in each of the four categories, as well as recognition in the youth category for those under age 18!  Photos must have been taken in Maple Grove in 2008 or later and can depict any of the four seasons.

Categories:
• Going Together (people, neighbors, friends, family–talking, working, learning, playing, living, volunteering—e.g., kids in the backyard, birthday parties, shopping, volunteering, eating out, working in the garden, students getting on the school bus, neighbors talking in front of their home)

• Going Strong (celebrating our community with events/activities/recreation/ arts/culture —sports, community celebrations, gathering places—e.g. Farmers Market, Town Green, Maple Grove Days events, National Night Out block parties, art fairs, plays, concerts, sports games, any recreation)

• Going Natural (parks, landscapes, plants, flowers, weather/sky)

• Going Wild (wildlife, birds, animals, including pets)

The City is proud to partner with Prime Advertising & Design, Inc. for the contest. Photos submitted may be used on our websites as well as in area-wide publications such as City newsletters, Parks and Recreation brochures, Residents’ Guide, etc.

Monetary prizes will be awarded in each of the four categories with winners being invited to a future City Council meeting to receive their recognition. In addition, all photographs will be displayed at the Government Center and on the City of Maple Grove website. Winning entries will be published in the fall 2013 City of Maple Grove newsletter.

The complete photography packet is available on the City of Maple Grove website , call to request at 763-494-6002; or pick up at the Maple Grove Government Center, 12800 Arbor Lakes Parkway.

Check out Last Years Winners:

2012 Winner in the Going Wild Category by Connie Garritsen

2012 Winner in the Going Together Category by Jennifer Bourn

2012 Winner in the Going Stong Category by Rich Moll

2012 Winner in Going Natural Category by Stephanie Sauer

2013 Youth Winner by Amiyah Boradway

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Last week, the City of Maple Grove and Prime Advertising were presented with the 31st Annual Northern Lights Award of Excellence, sponsored by the Minnesota Association of Government Communicators for the City of Maple Grove’s website redesign! The new website was designed to easily highlight city announcements and features and includes a large graphic area to showcase events, residents and the beautiful city. With a customized content management system, each department is able to manage their respective areas of the website, allowing web updates to be published to residents quickly.

Since going live last year, residents have been enjoying this new, easy-to-navigate website and the City is seeing a large number of visitors, averaging over 40,000 per month.

The design and development of this award-winning website could not have been done without the hard work and contributions from both the Prime Advertising team & the City team. Thank you all for helping to make this new city website truly…Excellent.

View the live City of Maple Grove website here. You may also see additional websites that Prime has designed and developed by visiting our web portfolio.

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The idea of an Italian Import business has been something that the founder, Joseph Pietrafitta, has been thinking about for a number of years. His Italian heritage and the culture of his ancestors was very important to him, spurring his many trips to and from Italy. The craftsmanship and artistry of the Italian people attracted him and became a big part of his home in the United States. With this came the idea of bringing some of the beauty that Italy has to offer to the United States.

A product of Joseph Pietrafitta’s love of Italian artistry, Pietrafitta Imports was established in 2012 and launched its official website in February of 2013. The new e-commerce site was custom designed and built by the Twin Cities web design firm, Prime Advertising & Design, to feature the 1000+ imported Italian products available for purchase anywhere in the world. The many products offered by Pietrafitta Imports have been personally selected by Pietrafitta as he has traveled throughout the country. Handcrafted by artisans from the Amalfi Coast to Naples to the Tuscany region of Italy, they are all one of a kind with no two pieces alike. “I wanted it to feel like they were actually visiting Italy while they shopped,” says Roclyn, Prime’s graphic designer for the Pietrafitta project. “This was definitely one of my favorite design projects. Our goal was to create an upscale/classy feel that reflected the high quality of the products, which was done with a selection of elegant fonts and colors. We used a color palette reminiscent of the colors found in the beautiful artisan pieces such as oranges, yellows and greens.” The new site features multiple high quality images of each product, a simple, fluid check-out process for guests and a user-friendly e-commerce system for product inventory and order management.

Soon after the launch of the new website, the company opened its first store-front location in Maple Grove, Minnesota. The shop is teeming with beautiful handmade Italian goods, including hand-carved and hand-painted jewelry, artisan ceramics and pottery, specialty gift ideas and authentic Italian home décor. Stop by their Maple Grove location to view their large selection of Italian imports in person, or just to visit with them about their love for everything Italian!

Filed under: prime clients, prime news, small business, Uncategorized, web design, Websites | No Comments »

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Did You Know:

• YouTube is the second largest search engine, behind Google.
• Your video on YouTube also has a 50% higher chance of showing up over text on Google.
• Having a video on YouTube it is working for you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week

These are only a few reasons why creating video and publishing it YouTube can help grow your business’s online presence, and ultimately – revenues.

Prime’s social media team recently attended a webinar by YouTube expert James Wedmore, called “Creating an Unstoppable Brand on YouTube,” in which the power of YouTube was emphasized as a tool for businesses to create relationships and send more traffic to your website. According to the webinar these are some helpful hints to keep in mind when using YouTube and making videos for your brand:

1. Be Consistent

Post like your blog is a T.V show. T.V shows come on the same day every week. Although making weekly videos may not fit in your schedule, be consistent, if it is monthly than make sure to stick to it.

2. Provide Content that is Valuable to the Customer

Make videos that answer you customers’ questions or give them new information that maybe many people don’t know. Do research, look up to see what people are searching about in your industry. Also look at your competitors, are they creating videos, if so are they answering what customers want answered.

3. Optimized your Videos

Don’t just post your videos on YouTube, make sure they are optimized.

• Have important keywords in the title.
• Fill out the description as if it is a miniature blog, putting in those same keywords.
• Add tags; the webinar suggests having 4 – 6 relevant tags.
• Complete the transcript of the video. In the video, make sure to use the keywords you are trying to come up for. YouTube reads every transcript.

4. Create Quality Videos

The last piece of advice from the webinar is to have someone professionally produce your video. The quality of your videos reflects the professionalism of your business. If you post company videos that are shaky and poorly edited, users may assume a correlation between the poor quality of your videos and the quality of the services or products your company provides.

Here at Prime we offer Video Production Services. With Video there is so much that can be done; it’s not quite the same as the old cheesy T.V commercial from yesteryear. Prime’s video production services can put your business in the spotlight. Sight Sound and Motion create Emotion.

Our Video Production Services Include:

• Pre-Production Planning which can include creative meetings, scripting services and production scheduling with project manager
• Video Shoot at location of your choice
• Post-Production Services including video editing, graphics, music and voiceover talent
• Hardcopy Files including MOV. WMV and YouTube files

If you are interested in learning more about our video production services, please contact Lex Zwach, Prime’s Senior Marketing Consultant at 763.315.6439 or lex@primadvertising.com!  www.primeadvertising.com.

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Plain text posts rule:

The most popular posts are short, friendly and conversational. Your text posts are more likely to be displayed to people right away and for a longer amount of time.

Links make stories less viral:

Although posting links to articles can help to share more information with fans and friends, Facebook’s exposure algorithm doesn’t seem to like the idea of making users work so hard (or encouraging them to stray from Facebook.com).

Images encouraged:

After plain text posts, images are the most exposed type of posts. A great way to help your new post gain exposure is to attach an image to it. This could be as simple as taking a screenshot of your post, or the article you are referencing, and including that image in your post. Keep in mind, the ideal dimensions of a fan page picture is 403 pixels by 403 pixels.

Comments are stronger than likes:

While likes are a great way to show popularity, Facebook’s ranking algorithm lends greater exposure to posts with comments. Encourage readers to reply and create a dialog by including phrases like, “What do you think?” or “Comment below with your own opinion!”

To read the full article posted by Daniel Sharkov, “5 Ways to Beat EdgeRank and Bring More Exposure to Your Facebook Page,” visit www.reviewzntips.com.

Want to read more? Below are some of the most recent articles about Facebook for Business:

  How to Optimize Your Social Content for the Facebook Mobile App

  Getting Started with Facebook Home

  4 Facebook Advertising Updates you Must Know About

Filed under: advertising, facebook, marketing, social networking | No Comments »

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