SCARSDALE, NY – October 19, 2009 – Grace Lutheran Church, a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, recently sought the help of Black Rhino Marketing to redesign its website in celebration of 60 years in service to the Eastchester and Scarsdale communities. The redesigned website found at, www.gracelutheranscarsdale.org, renews Grace Lutheran Church’s commitment to serving the community and the bonds of faith that bring people of all faith traditions together.

“As we move forward, we hope the website serves as a reminder just as the physical church did 60 years ago of what a small group of people of faith can accomplish,” said Jonathan Keske, a member of the Grace Lutheran Church in Scarsdale.

The website offers visitors a brief introduction about the history and beliefs of Grace Lutheran Church. It also provides a detailed listing of upcoming events that are planned at the church for each upcoming month. Information about the Church’s nursery school, Creative Playtime, is also available on the website for visitors.

For more information about Grace Lutheran Church in Scarsdale, visit their website or refer all email inquiries to info@gracelutheranscarsdale.org.

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Stephanie Biscow
Black Rhino Marketing
Business Operations Manager
info@blackrhinosolutions.com

At Black Rhino Marketing, we’ve had many clients/potential clients inquire about whether their website could include music. While the obvious answer is yes, of course websites can include music. The not so obvious answer pertains to whether your website should include music.

Adding music to your website can be very entertaining, however, there are a number of potential problems that come along with adding music to your websites. When clients approach us about the issue of whether or not to put music on their website, the following is our professional advisement:

1. Downloading a full song (normally between 2-5 minutes and anywhere between 4-8 MB) can take up a lot of time and use up a lot of resources. If your website already has numerous images or flash, you may want to stay away from adding music to the mix.

2. The alternative to downloading a full song is to use a 20-30 second clip of background music that plays on repeat. In my opinion, this type of audio presentation is redundant, boring, or just plain annoying for the website visitor. When I approach sites that have music like this, I either turn my sound off or leave the website altogether.

3. So what if your website isn’t flash and you have multiple pages? Someone might be jamming to your music, go to change to the about us page, and then automatically prompt the music to restart? Again, to me this is something that can be an irritating experience for visitors.

4. If your concerns are legal … This is a touchy area with music. Many people assume or don’t even realize that legal issues could be a problem when it comes to music because their website is small and relatively unnoticeable. Little does the public know, however, that there actually have been numerous cases where people have been fined for using other people’s music without the appropriate permission or license.

5. Another issue to consider is perception. People tend to be very judgmental when it comes to basically everything in life. Adding something like music to your website, that might not be suitable to someone else’s taste, gives your visitors another thing to judge you on. Lets use a hair dresser’s website for instance. Say someone likes to get their hair done to nice smooth music but because the hair dresser likes upbeat Spanish music, they put that on their website instead of soothing spa music. The visitor may get the wrong idea about this person’s hair salon based on their choice of music. For this reason, the hair dresser has now just lost a potential client. The more vague and interesting you keep your website the more people will be motivated to actually go to your shop or take action to learn or see more about what you have to offer.

I could go on about other potential pitfalls of putting music on websites, but I think you get the picture. Just a few others are public computers, browser compatibility, offending clients, playing over music that’s already playing on the clients computer, etc.

Obviously, there are exceptions to my suggestions about using music on your website. One exception of course, is if you are a musician or a band trying to showcase your music using your website. That’s a given!

Please feel free to comment !

        If your not Tweeting or updating your Facebook status to communicate with people these days, then you pretty much don’t exist (at least it feels that way).  Thanks to Myspace and Facebook, our generation has witnessed one of the fastest growing digital trends in communication via social networking sites.  I mean, we can’t make it through the day without hearing about a celebrity “Tweet,” chatting about a new Facebook post, or hearing about some other virtual announcement.  With that, I think its safe to say that we are living in a new age of communication - one which seems vital for keeping up with the rest of the world (whether its for business or for pleasure).  

         I don’t even think I knew what Facebook was until something like my second or third year in college (way back in 2004).  Seeing how quickly social networking websites have evolved, from your basic college student’s way of posting some pictures from their latest kegger or keeping in touch with old high school buddies, to this vast network of possibilities for information exchange, certainly necessitates some attention.

          I’m sure that many of us have recently experienced that, “Oh my god, my mom’s on Facebook moment!”  I know I have.   Aside from this being quite a hilarious or perhaps a nerve-wracking experience (depending on whether or not your the one upside down doing things like keg stands in your Facebook portfolio), the fact that older generations have joined their kids on the world wide web, is a prime example of how social networking has become universal.      

         So, where do Twitter and Facebook fit in with the world of web marketing?  The answer to that question is, EVERYWHERE.  Whether your a small business or a Fortune 500 Company, its time to make a name for yourself  with the help of these social networking websites.  While it might seem obvious to some, the following are just a few of the reasons why its super important to be Tweeting or Facebooking your way to success.  

1. Social media lets people know who you are, what you do and what your doing up-to-the minute. 
2. You can network your business by becoming Facebook friends with people in your industry, potential customers, or current clients, etc. 
3. You can create buzz and visibility with a Facebook announcement, event invitation, or newsfeed.  
4. You’ll be able to show and tell the world about what you can do for them by Tweeting everything you’ve been up to (do I hear virtual resume much?). 
5. You can also provide easy access to your website from your Facebook or Twitter page and vice-versa. 
6. And lets not forget that social media will help increase your SEO and rankings in Google by creating more traffic for your website with links to and from Twitter and Facebook.  

While I could go on for another five blog posts about the benefits of social media as a means of advertising yourself and your business, I won’t because its much more beneficial for you to start to get out there and experience the phenomena for yourself.  Before we go, there is one other tiny aspect of using social media to advertise that I have not mentioned …. dun dun daa … ITS FREE.  So, do your business a favor by logging in to the world of social media by making a Facebook or Twitter account today!

And after you’ve done that, come check out Black Rhino Marketing Solutions on Twitter or Facebook while your there!