Sprocket Websites - Blog / News / Updates

Henry County Energizes their Web Presence

Content Management Contains Costs

Kate Gingold / Tuesday, December 4, 2012 0 6292 Article rating: No rating

Henry County, Illinois may be known for the recent wind energy project within their boundaries, but staffers are producing their own “cloud energy” with help from Sprocket Websites.

Committed to getting government communications and resources into the hands of their constituents, Henry County stores information “in the cloud” for both citizens and staff to access at www.henrycty.com.

Elegante Salons Celebrate with New Website

Transforming with a New Skin

Kate Gingold / Tuesday, December 4, 2012 0 6140 Article rating: 5.0

While Elegante Salons and Day Spas recently enjoyed congratulations for 40 years in business, Kay Smith and her husband Dale are already looking forward to the future by launching a new look for their website at www.elegantesalons-spas.com. The Smiths have long worked with Naperville web developers Sprocket Website who were delighted to create a fresh new look and functionality for Elegante.

NetWORKing

DIY Sprocket Solutions

Breanne Bannon / Wednesday, November 28, 2012 0 5632 Article rating: 5.0

This article has been updated on 5/15/2019 with the article entitled "NetWORKing: The Most Powerful Business Tool"

Networking is work, let’s face it. If you’re new to the game, you’re walking into a room full of strangers and trying to sell your business. In reality, you’re trying to sell yourself. You are the face of what you’re representing. Therefore, you’ve got to network confidently and often. It’s OK, wipe off your sweaty palms and listen in. The first time I went to a networking event I was more than slightly terrified. I’m not a shy person by any means; so, I can only imagine what it would be like if I were. I felt a small victory every time I exchanged a business card. My total count for the end of the night? About 6. Laugh away, but I felt a rush of confidence after that event. I think the idea of walking into a room full of people you don’t know and having to approach each one of them is more than a little unnerving. One thing that I don’t doubt, however, is that networking is invaluable. It is an amazing tool for small businesses to meet the community, find other businesses who might be able to use their services, and make their name recognizable. Word of mouth and a face to a name is a powerful tool in the business world; connections often prove priceless. So, I say to you –chin up, head high, gather your wits, and say hello.

Ex-pert: n. Knows More Than You

The Sprocket Report

Kate Gingold / Monday, November 26, 2012 0 3850 Article rating: No rating

Casey Anthony in the news and a Thanksgiving Day chat got us thinking about internet browsers. We think about browsers so our clients don’t have to. Is your web expert thinking for you?

Sweet Deals

DIY Sprocket Solutions

Breanne Bannon / Wednesday, November 21, 2012 0 3936 Article rating: No rating

With Black Friday coming up the day after tomorrow and Cyber Monday just around the corner, I thought I’d let you all in on a sweet little deal I like to call Merchant Warehouse. Before starting on my Sprocket journey, I had no clue who Merchant Warehouse was or why it was super important to have such a great company for payment processing. Now I realize it makes all the difference in the world. Forget, for a second, about the loads of other benefits MW offers –let’s skip to the obvious benefit, they guarantee that they will save you money. Literally, if they can’t save you money by switching to them, they will give you $100 for your time. I’d be hard pressed to find a company that works that hard to make sure that the customer is happy. One thing that I’ve found when dealing with them, they care if the customer is happy.

Facebook Frenzy

DIY Sprocket Solutions

Breanne Bannon / Wednesday, November 14, 2012 0 5278 Article rating: No rating

This article has been updated on 4/18/2019 with the article entitled "Beginners Guide to Facebook Marketing: Using Facebook to Benefit Your Business"

With over one billion users, Facebook is by far the top social media network. There’s no point, really, in me rambling on about why Facebook can be a great tapped resource to your business – with one billion users, it speaks for itself. There may be, however, a few ways to use Facebook for your business that you might not have considered before. If you’re new to Facebook, these are a few tips for your business marketing that you might not yet know about. If I put my little disclaimer stamp on this post it would read, “Note: I’m still navigating my way around the deep Facebook waters myself. These are a few tips I’m looking into now and hoping that they might bring me a little more success.”

Are Your Customers Mobile?

Seeing is believing, and you'll make your website mobile too!

Kate Gingold / Tuesday, November 13, 2012 0 4377 Article rating: No rating

Since surveys show that 54% of us check our phones even when lying in bed ( Lookout.com ), the chances are very high that your customers are mobile users, too. OK, lying in bed doesn't sound very mobile, but they're using their mobile phones then. Think "convenient", "personal", "handy." Then think, "is my business ready for them?" Take a look at these statistics – and this cool way to display them!

Lights, Camera, CONTENT

DIY Sprocket Solutions

Breanne Bannon / Wednesday, November 7, 2012 0 5419 Article rating: No rating

This article has been updated on 3/21/2019 with the article entitled “Keep Your Website Content Fresh to Stay Searchable"

When planning out how you’re going to pull your website together (and even after you already have it all together!) remember something very important, the content on your site is absolutely one of the most important components. I’m not going to pretend that all of you know what SEO means, because I didn’t know what it meant before either. SEO is search engine optimization. Basically, search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc. are out there scouring the web trying to find some relevant, fresh, and substantial content to fill their searches with. What does this mean for your business website? UPDATE YOUR CONTENT, do it often, and keep it relevant to what your customers are looking for.

DIY Sprocket Solutions

Breanne Bannon / Wednesday, October 31, 2012 0 4916 Article rating: 5.0

Ok, so not so spooky really. It’s Halloween which makes me, inevitably, think of one thing: TWO MONTHS OF MAJOR HOLIDAYS START NOW. What does that mean for your business? Sales! Promotions! Deals! This is the time of year where everyone decides to splurge a bit while trying to save a buck. This is the perfect time of year to hammer out details for a great seasonal deal. If you haven’t even been considering one yet, it’s definitely not too late. Most sales don’t start till the end of next month anyway. You’ve still got time!

3 Things for all Website Owners to Consider

Kate Gingold / Tuesday, October 30, 2012 0 4291 Article rating: No rating

You're involved in running your business and don't have time to spend worrying about how to make your website look good on mobile devices. We get that. But there are some basics that deserve your attention.