Myrtle Beach, SC- February 26^th, 2010 Interactivity Marketing announces the launch of the MurrellsInlet.com.  The site is designed to promote the Murrells Inlet, South Carolina area to both locals and tourists.  The site features business listings, event listings, blogs, a guide, contact form, and fan submitted photos.  For more information on Murrells Inlet or for advertising opportunities use the contact form on the website

About Murrells Inlet

Located a short drive south of Myrtle Beach, Murrells Inlet, the “Seafood Capital of South Carolina” has a rich history that can be traced back to Native American tribes and 16th century Spanish settlers. In the 1700 and 1800s the area was home to many successful rice plantations. Murrells Inlet also had a part in the Civil War with Confederate blockade runners using the Inlet to sneak cotton, rice, and other products to England.   The Murrells Inlet area is now home to many stores, great restaurants, and golf courses.

MurrellsInlet.com launched by Interactivity Marketing

If you attend a number of networking events for the Myrtle Beach Chamber of Commerce, gs SCENE, or another local group you probably leave the function with a  stack of business cards and ask yourself, now what do I do with them?  For many people they end up in a pile on their desk, buried in a purse/briefcase, or somewhere in the car.  If you have a Smartphone you can load them into your phone quickly without having to type in all the data, so the business card data can go with you anywhere.  To load the cards quickly you will need to download an app for your Smartphone.  The app makes your Smartphone camera into scanner.  There are currently business card reader applications available for BlackBerrys and iPhones.  SHAPE services offers one of the most widely uses and easy to use business card reader applications.  The applications allow you to review the scanned data before it is imported into your phone.  It is important to follow the exact directions for the applications such as turning off the flash to ensure the business card scanning correctly.  The applications allow you to get that stack of your desk and make use of all those connections your making!

For marketing help contact Interactivity Marketing!

Smartphones, they aren’t just for work anymore.  Now it seems everybody’s got them now from Middle Schoolers to Grandparents.  Smartphones allow you to do most of the things you to your computer without needing the computer or access to wifi.  Right now the Smartphone world is dominated by Apple’s i-Phone and Research in Motion’s BlackBerry.  With so many people now having “virtual offices” the need for a Smartphone is greater than ever.  Websites now need to be compatible with mobile browsers to avoid frustrating users.  Many major brands offer mobile versions of their website which are more stripped down and able to load faster and be viewed easier on mobile browsers.

Smartphones allow the downloading of many different types of applications for use on the phone.  One of the main application categories for Smartphones are social networking applications to keep up with social networking on the go.  Social networking giant Facebook has applications available for iPhones, Palms, Sonys, BlackBerrys, Nokias, Androids, Windows Mobile, and Sidekicks.  The mobile application of Facebook allows status updates, wall posts, photo uploading, message sending, and notifications of activity.  MySpace, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube also have applications for many smart phones.  Applications are also available for everything from Microsoft Office tools, to games, radio stations, to weather updates.

Microsoft has previously been a player in the Smartphone world, but has made a major push into the current market with the release of, Windows Phone 7 Series, a completely rebranded Windows Mobile.   The new mobile Operating Software is being introduced at Mobile World Congress 2010 in Barcelona, Spain.

The changes are invisible from the start with familiar start screen gone and it’s a place tiles that scroll and be customized by the user.  The new OS is very focused on social networking and the ability to combine multiple social networks.  In the contacts pages updates can be shown from multiple networks for the same contact. The software will also connect with Xbox Live, featuring live game and avatars.  Keep at look out for Windows Phone 7 Series devices hitting stores later this year.

Interactivity Marketing is looking for a self-motivated, enthusiastic individual to join our development team. The successful candidate will be responsible for developing websites and software using PHP/MySQL. Knowledge of good programming practices and experience with PHP is essential.

PHP/MySQL Developer:

Requirements:
* BS/BA in computer science or related field. 2+ years relevant experience considered.
* 2+ years work experience with PHP, MySQL, HTML, CSS, and JQuery
* Strong work ethic, positive attitude, and a desire to work in a challenging position
* Excellent written and verbal communication
* Ability to work on multiple projects essential

Desirable skills:
* Working knowledge of many types of XML web services
* Knowledge of Flash

About Our Company:

Interactivity Marketing is an award-winning interactive marketing agency with more than a decade of experience in engaging consumers in the digital world. We embody a group of problem solvers that use ideas, design and marketing as tools to create meaningful messages and experiences. We take the time to understand your problem, your market and your competitors’ offerings. This allows us to create custom solutions tailored to your needs. Of course, results remain at the center of what we do, so we establish clear goals early on in our relationship enabling us to monitor results and work together towards solving your marketing challenges.

Interactivity Marketing helps industry leaders, both large and small, build great brands by creating engaging experiences in the digital world. We believe the future of marketing is not about recycling Print Ads or Billboards. Marketing is about harnessing the social and immersive nature of the digital world to build memorable experiences with consumers and empowering those consumers to share your brand with each other. We are known to push the limits and generate the results you have only dreamed about.

For more information, check out http://www.InteractivityMarketing.com

Please submit resumes, samples of your work and salary requirements to:
Careers@InteractivityMarketing.com

****NO PHONE CALLS****

Interactivity Marketing announces the addition of a new staff member, Brandiann Gaston as creative director.

Brandiann Gaston joined the staff in February 2010.  Brandiann who grew up in the Myrtle Beach area is a graduate of Socastee High School.   She graduated cum laude from Coastal Carolina University in 2007 with a degree in art.  Brandiann has previously done design work for GS Magazine and The Brandon Agency.  While Brandiann was at The Brandon Agency she won numerous awards for her design work on the 2008 Pirateland Campground outdoor campaign.

Are your website pages up to speed?  Website speed can not only annoy visitors, but now can affect how your page is ranked in Search Engine rankings.  Google has just released its newest search version, Caffeine.  This new version has added page loading speed and refreshing speed to how websites are ranked in Search Results.  The goal of Caffeine is to help the web “go green.”  Faster loading websites mean less bandwidth is used, thus less energy is used.

Increasing the speed of your website can also benefit your business.  Pages that load faster have higher rates of user retention.  In our high-speed world users don’t want to have to constantly wait for pages to load or to refresh with updates.  Increasing the speed can also save money by using less bandwidth.

There is currently no single action that works to make every site faster.  To make the site faster there a combination of different things the webmaster or website developer can do to increase the speed.   To increase speed changes need to be made in the following areas: server settings, javascript, css, images, cookies, content, and html.  A few of the settings that need to be changed are optimizing images, configuring entity tags, removing unused css, and avoiding url redirects.

For help getting your page up to speed and optimizing your Search Engine results contact Interactivity Marketing.

Coupon usage is up across all economic classes and ages in the US.  Online and printable coupon usage is up even more, growing over 300% in the first half of 2009.  Coupon use tends to grow during tough economic times especially for people for the middle to upper class who in better times might frown above coupons.  Has your company created an online or printable coupon for your business?  Before you start creating a coupon online there are a few things to consider for creating the coupon and for sites to post the coupon on.

Your first step to creating a coupon is to decide on the deal or discount you want to give.  Make sure to be clear with the discount and the date or dates the coupon is good.  If the dates are not set clearly problems and negative feedback may arise from customers.  Also be clear on where it can be redeemed if you have multiple locations or both online and physical locations.  Coupons can be created for only a specific group such as Fans of your business’s Facebook page or only those who receive your E-mail marketing messages.  The incentive of coupons can be used to gain more fans Facebook or to grow your E-mail marketing database.

For your coupon to be successful it must be distributed.  After a coupon is created you can post it on your business’s web site craigslist, local.com, Facebook, Twitter, or in an Email marketing message. In addition to just posting the coupon on the sites you can encourage friends to retweet or repost it as their status to gain more exposure.  Other ways to gain exposure would be to write about the coupon in a blog, purchase a banner ad advertising your coupon, or use a social shopping site such as GroupOn.

For help on creating coupons or promotions for your business contact Interactivity Marketing.

Have seats for a flight, seats for a show, or rooms open for tomorrow or the weekend?  Why not use social media to help fill those openings?  With the current economy more people are doing things last minute if they feel they are getting a good deal. One example of an airline using social media is JetBlue who has created a separate Twitter account, Cheeps, just for last minute deals.

A few ways to use social media would be:

• Post on Twitter a special rate that requires a code
• Link the special to a webpage with the code already entered
• Use Facebook fan page updates to post specials
• Use custom tabs within Facebook pages to allow registration or code generation
• Allow online registration

Things to Remember When Setting deals

• Set a clear time frame the code can be used or customers may try to use later on
• Be clear on your Twitter account or Facebook fan page that you will be posting specials to sell rooms and seats so they expect this and aren’t bothered by it.

For help on using social media for airlines, shows, and hotels or any other type of marketing contact Interactivity Marketing.

Interactivity Marketing just launched a new website in Myrtle Beach http://www.MyrtleBeachVisitors.com.