Zer0 to 5ive’s Marcello Figallo, principal-creative director, and MaryBeth Sheppard, principal, were quoted in the BtoB magazine article, “Making Sites More Social.”

The article discusses the newfound importance of social media integration to a website’s success, but warns that the use of social media should be carefully strategized and maintained.

“Companies should use social media [in a way] that makes sense for the goals of their websites,” said Marcello Figallo, principal-creative director at Zer0 to 5ive Media. “When you’re setting out to build a site, you must have a perspective of what visitors are going to get out of visiting it.” For example, Figallo said, if the company’s goal is to get people to spend more time on its website, then its social strategy should focus on keeping them there as opposed to a plan that might send them to other sites via social media links.

“The potential for integrating social media into a website is enormous, particularly when a company sets up a really great social media program and follows through with it,” said Marybeth Sheppard, principal at Zer0 to 5ive Media. “A website is definitely not a “set-it-and-forget-it’ kind of medium. That’s really critical with social media; it’s not short-term. Don’t [start a social media program] just because some execs thought it was a good idea. It needs to be maintained.”

Check out the full article, featuring advice from industry experts, here. What do you think companies should consider when implementing social media tools on their websites?

Follow MaryBeth (@MB_Sheppard) and Marcello (@Zer0to5ive) on Twitter and share your thoughts!

Every August, I feel the end-of-summer blues and come Labor Day, I am over them – energized by the Fall sprint for sales, lead gen, brand building and awareness. I love the adrenaline that comes with taking a tally of the year so far, but knowing that there are four great months left to make an impact. Have you ever wondered why there are so many conferences, trade shows and new product launches in the Fall – it’s because this is a great time to re-engage – and our prospects and customers are ready to pay attention. There is electricity in the air.

Last summer, we launched the award-winning Popmoney payments service for CashEdge, but it was the momentum and marketing support that we rolled out last Fall that really made the difference – webinars, HTML emails, ongoing media relations, speaking opportunities, online engagement, demos, etc. The result was literally hundreds of leads, top-tier media coverage and the buzz that comes with the engagement and awareness of an entire industry that was ready to engage and pay attention.

This September, we are preparing for the launch of a major innovation in healthcare, the launch of a new brand for a client, a new day in cash handling, new solutions for food safety and the ongoing drum beat of HIV/AIDs awareness and testing.

I can feel the excitement in the air and the sense of urgency ramp up as business closes its doors on the summer, customers and prospects send their kids back to school and Fall begins.

Zer0 to 5ive recently added another award to our extensive list of accolades. This time it was the industry coveted PRSA Silver Anvil! Considered the icon of best public relations practices, the Silver Anvil is awarded annually to organizations that meet the highest standards of performance in the industry. Symbolizing the forging of public opinion, the Silver Anvil recognizes successful programs that incorporate sound research, planning, execution and evaluation.

0to5 won this year’s Silver Anvil in Integrated Communications in recognition of their work on CashEdge.Inc’s innovative “Popmoney” campaign.

The campaign was a tremendous success exceeding all goals and ultimately resulting in tremendous media coverage, seven new customers and a pipeline of hundreds of prospects. The campaign achieved more than 250+ million media impressions, including more than 150 articles, 25 interviews, 5,000+ release postings, 85+ tweets and retweets.

Our special thanks goes out to CashEdge Inc. and everyone who helped make this campaign such a smashing success!

By the Zer0 to 5ive Team

by Katie Cannon

Creating a website can be a fun and inspiring project, but can also become a headache if the right steps are not taken. Having an online presence is more important than ever. With more individuals beginning the buying cycle online, an easily findable, informative ans functional website can make a world of difference.

At Zer0 to 5ive, we find developing an effective website is a tightrope walk between creativity and delivering up to the standards mandated by your client. Remember you have been hired by your client and the ultimate creative vision is their’s. This does not mean you cannot be creative or engaging. Communicate the client’s key messages in a professional, yet original and innovative way will help set your site apart from the millions of other .coms in the space.

Here are a few tips I have learned from experience that can help you take your website development to a new level:

• Connect with your client. Get into their mind – what are they looking for? What image and message do they want their website to convey about their company? Connecting with the client from the start is crucial – getting on the same creative page as your client will save you countless headaches down the road and make each stage of design, development and implementation a breeze. Ask them for sample art, photos and other sites to draw inspiration from

• Luckily, there are millions of new Web 2.0 features available for free to no cost. Investigate what features and widgets would help you best achieve your client’s goals. Think about what you can provide to your client that will keep visitors engages. What can you present that will make your client standout in the marketplace? How can you help give your client the WOW factor? Consider social media, embedded videos, click to chat, rss feeds blogs… the list goes on and on.

• Your home or landing page is the first page a consumer sees and without engagement, site visitors will quickly abandoned the site. This is why creativity is so important. Being able to engage or interest the visitor immediately will go a long way. Think outside the box and have fun with the design. Yet, keep in mind that the website should still come across professional, clean and innovative.

• Communicate with your client. Make sure you understand what they want and how they want it done. Website development is a long process – not having a set communication method will only make the process longer. A timeline is crucial during the site launch preparation. Have weekly update meetings to ensure you and your clients are on the same page and creating a friendly repartee with clients can help plant the seeds for future working opportunities.

• Keep it search-friendly. Now-a-day’s an overwhelming number of consumers search through today’s major search engines. If you are building your site in an outdated language implementing other elements that impede search engine rankings, your site will be impossible to find, this means you are missing out on some major dollars! Come download our FREE SEO white paper to learn more about how you can garner visibility on search engine result pages.

• Provide ongoing customer service – it’s all about the experience, and working well together. Your job is not done after launch. A good web-development team will continue to be on hand to assist with any potential bugs, upgrades or staff difficulties.

• Double check all of your work! No website should ever be launched without making sure all your i’s are dotted and t’s are crossed! Use all the resources available to you to proofread site content. Provide internal links to appropriate pages and be sure that every page can be found every time.

If you understand the importance of communicating and connecting with your client, then you should have no problem designing and launching a website together successfully!

Katie Cannon is a Marketing Strategist ant Zer0 to 5ive

Try as I might, I couldn’t resist clicking on the link last week that seemed to be showing up everywhere I turned. It felt like every other tweet on Twitter included a link to B.L. Ochman’s post debunking the six myths of social media. I tried to avoid it because it felt, to me, like yet another post aimed at stirring up debate in the social media echo chamber.

I was correct in it being a hornets’ nest for the Twitterati. Where I was wrong was thinking that I should try to avoid it. B.L. wrote a great post that sparked more than 95 comments on BusinessWeek.com. One of those comments was mine (once you’re sucked into the conversation it’s hard to escape):

Mike Maney, Feb 19, 2009 3:58 PM GMT
“While maybe not perfect (on the pricing), B.L.’s take on the involvement required to do social media right is spot-on. It’s not only tough to do well, but it takes time as well. The issue I have is that social media is (and should be) just one component of a larger communications strategy. And that’s where the discussion of campaign pricing and involvement falls down. Companies should be looking at pricing/commitment in the context of their overall programs rather than silo’ed campaigns.”

There’d be no shame in thinking the basis of this post was about debunking social media’s six myths. However, there’s a bigger lesson to be learned from B.L.’s post. My comment above — a 20-second, brain-to-keyboard thoughtburst — is this morning the featured comment in the “In Your Face” column now running on the front page of BusinessWeek.com. What started as a quick dash of commentary turned into visibility for the 0to5 brand. Was visibility what I was trying for? Not consciously. I was simply adding what I thought might be good fuel for the conversation.

Do you use your expertise and experience to advance conversations happening within your sphere of influence? If not, what’s holding you back?