It’s January again, the holiday spending spree is over for most people, and it’s time for marketers to do some re-evaluation as we start gearing up for the spring. In the midst of the holiday hullabaloo, it can be easy to lose sight of the bigger picture in terms of branding and purposeful marketing. So now is the time to take a deep breath, look at your brand image, and determine where you need to step up your game. If you’re ready to kick off 2014 with a smarter branding strategy, start with these five resolutions:

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Many people often say, “I wish I volunteered more,” or “I wish I could somehow give back to the community.” Often, people simply just don’t know where to look for volunteer opportunities, and the idea becomes pushed back into their minds once more.  The nonprofit, government-funded organization Volunteer Texas, one of our newest clients, makes volunteering a more viable reality. Ultimately, the organization makes it easier and more cohesive for people to volunteer all across the state. Volunteer Texas connects both residents and out-of-state volunteers to opportunities throughout Texas.

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It’s no secret the web has grown – but just like it’s hard to see change in yourself, it’s hard to see it online until you really look at the big picture.  From 1984-2013, the web saw huge changes in terms of users, as well as socially and technologically speaking. Just to see how much it’s really changed, take a look at the infographic below hostgator coupon , thanks to whoishostingthis.com. From 1984 to 1998, the Internet had grown to 50 million users. Since then, it’s grown to 2.7 billion users (39% of the world’s population) and counting. The implications of this, as well as the rapid increase in mobile use, are overwhelming. And let’s not forget about the growth of social media – Facebook, since its launch in 2004, has since grown to over 1 billion users. These numbers should speak for themselves – take advantage of them, and make the most out of your online presence, because people do notice. Some experts even say that by 2020, everyone will be online. Prepare yourselves.

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Social media marketers spend their time studying sites like Facebook to determine how the content they post can garner the most visibility. So when Facebook announces a major rollout to the news feed algorithm, the social media marketing world gets turned upside down, especially when those changes mean the current way of doing things has to be drastically altered.

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Ahoy, matey! Pirate Energy, a cocktail-inspired line of energy drinks, has partnered alongside the HMG Creative team to create a highly custom ssh client , energetic and industry-disrupting web experience. A division of Blue Matrix Labs – the brainchild of Kendall Harter – Pirate Energy brings the party to your taste buds with five tasty, healthy and outright exciting energy shots.

In an effort to break into the market in a revolutionary way, we crafted a carefully formulated digital experience for Pirate and its customers. At the nucleus, a responsive, informative and user engaging site with custom animations and an easy-to-navigate user experience. But the site wouldn’t be as enthralling if it wasn’t for the compelling copy. Aligning ourselves with the party theme of the brand, we used a tongue-in-cheek approach to content creation. Using hilarious pirate innuendos, we created informative product-specific copy while portraying the quirky company culture and instilling it into the readers’ minds.

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Have you heard of drip marketing? To give you a real-life reference, the phrase comes from “drip irrigation”—the agricultural process of watering plants and crops with a small amount of water over a long period of time. Hopefully I haven’t lost you yet, because when applied to marketing and sales it’s a lot less boring. Essentially, with a drip marketing campaign, short, quick bursts of sales content are sent out (for example, via email) over a designated period of time. Drip marketing contrasts to bombarding customers with an overload of marketing material that they’d most likely toss to the side, or send right to spam. Still confused? Check out this infographic for ideas on how to launch your own drip marketing campaign.

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Did you know that 66% of Americans ages 24-35 own a smartphone? How about that 75% of Americans bring their phones to the bathroom? Although this may seem like too much information, it’s something to consider when making the decision to go mobile. Today, everyone is connected to their device. Why not take advantage of that common statistic and make your website available to them wherever they are? And if those statistics didn’t get to you, what if you knew that in 5 years, mobile is predicted to be bigger than the internet? Would you reconsider making your site mobile friendly? Whether you choose to create a native mobile app picks, create a separate site specifically for mobile or use responsive design (we’d recommend the latter), get out of your 20^th century funk because mobile is the future.

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Website development has come a long way since the days of the text-heavy, flash-infused websites of the ‘90s. The rise of mobile devices, tablets and social interaction online has created a whole new world for web developers—a world that has created the necessity for innovation and a new way to synchronize the user experience across a variety of platforms and devices. It’s called responsive web design.

What is Responsive Web Design?

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When you think about WordPress, your mind may automatically drift to blogging. Indeed, WordPress started out as a blogging platform—but since its inception it has emerged into much more than that. With the addition of more and more features, WordPress has become a fully functional CMS (Content Management System). A CMS enables the end user to make changes to their site on an as-needed basis; regardless of how tech-savvy they are or how much HTML they know.

So, wondering what makes WordPress so great?

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We all know the seven deadly sins, but did you know there are sins of the social sphere, too? Keep in mind that while there are many tips for what to do on social media, there are also just as many things you shouldn’t be doing. Don’t let yourself become a victim of these seven sins. If you do fall victim, don’t worry—you can always change your behavior and improve.

Let’s take a look at seven social media sins that could wind up damaging your online presence if left uncorrected.

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