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!

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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

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It’s time to get excited about advertising! Here at Prime, we always say, “Sight, sound and motion create Emotion.” A good advertisement may make you think, laugh or shock you, but above all, it leaves you with a memory of the brand or product. The retrieval of that memory during a customer’s search process is what separates your brand or product from your competitors. Get inspired by the collection of wonderfully creative advertisements we’ve gathered below.

 

FedEx

 

Heinz – No one grows Ketchup like Heinz.

 

Clorets – Eliminate bad breath

 

 

The Fitness Company

 

WWF – Give a hand to wildlife

 

 

Australia Post – Personalize Your Post

 

 

FedEx Kinkos – Office Products

 

 

BBC World News – See both sides of the story

 

 

Fraich Frites – Granny’s Fries Without the Granny

 

 

Play-Doh – Safe no matter what you make

 

 

Nikon – Detects up to 12 faces

 

 

Yoga Center

 

 

3M Security Glass

 

 

 

 

Collection courtesy of Jim Strutzin, Smashing Apps, and Hongkiat Lim.

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Need a good laugh? Google Analytics has released several comical YouTube videos, showing realistic depictions of everyday user experiences online. From the often frustrating online check-out process, to the confusing search engine searches we have all experienced.

Watch Google Analytics In Real Life – Online Checkout https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=3Sk7cOqB9Dk

Watch Google Analytics In Real Life – Site Search https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=cbtf1oyNg-8

Watch Google Analytics In Real Life – Landing Page Optimization https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=N5WurXNec7E

These videos have created a lot of buzz in the past few months. Despite Google’s call to “Discover what your customers are looking for” at the end of the “Site Search” video, most existing Google Analytics users are familiar with the “not provided” keyword result that represents the majority of the keyword search data logged in Google Analytics. For those of you who are not familiar with the “not provided” phenomenon, the graphic below is a screenshot of a typical Google Analytics report showing what keywords users searched to find your website:

Above, you can see that the majority of keywords searched to find this user’s website are located under the “not provided” category. About one year ago, Google announced that it would encrypt any search data of users that were engaging in Google Search while logged into their Google account (Gmail, Google+, etc). Encrypted searches represent the “not provided” category shown in Google Analytics. When the announcement was made, the “not provided” category only represented a small percentage (2%-10%) of the total keyword results in Google Analytics; however, sites are now seeing 50%-60% of keyword data “not provided.”

It is interesting to see Google Analytics putting such an emphasis on its users’ ability to view what customers are looking for, with so much important data unavailable through their services.

Have an opinion on this? Let us know what you think by commenting under this blog! Prime Advertising and Design offers web analytics, search engine optimization and social media services. Learn more at www.PrimeAdvertising.com.

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