"Chuck MacLean from Timberline Signs Hanging The New Fishnet Media Sign"

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Ours is a gorgeous, brand new sign from Timberline Signs in Rye, NH.

Chuck MacLean from Timberline took excellent care of us and made the perfect sign to hang outside our door in Commercial Alley.

The new sign is just the beginning… stay tuned for photos of our ongoing office expansion. That’s right, Fishnet Media is growing.

Thanks for the beautiful sign, Chuck!

What do we mean, comparing a social site to a Skinner Box? The premise of a Skinner Box is that behavior is modified and changed by positive or negative reinforcement doled out at irregular intervals based on a subject’s actions within the box. Facebook acts as a Skinner Box for social and purchasing behavior, and it works so well that it is starting to effect real world behavioral changes and changes in how we view long-held social norms like privacy.

By having multiple calls to action within the Facebook experience and offering a variety of rewards online and off (as well as punishments – just look at people getting phished or fired from their actions on Facebook for an example) Facebook is altering our behavior online. That includes how we interact with friends, family, news, work, shopping sites, and games (look to Angry Birds for another example of Skinner in action).

How do you feel, as a social network user, about networks like Facebook altering your behavior through repeated use? Do you see this behavior modification happening on other sites? Do you think it is harmless or harmful? Have you applied behavior modification techniques to your own business web sites?

Jonathan comes to us with a solid background in visual design, working with a variety of companies and agencies throughout his career. He is a graduate of the University of New Hampshire and the Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design.

A NH local, he brings a fresh perspective to the team. A self described whiskey and PBR lover, coffee snob, dog person, treasure hunter, photographer, and urban outdoors man Jonathan will be a great fit with our active, fun, and smart Fishnet Media team. We’re looking forward to working with him.

Connect with Jonathan on LinkedIn and on Twitter. Or talk to the whole team on Twitter.

One concern with displaying your email addresses as clickable links has to do with little programs called bots that are designed to comb the internet and gather displayed email off of websites for use in guerilla marketing (this is called scraping). Even though this practice is frowned upon, and technically violates a number of ICANN email marketing rules, it still happens. This practice is a major cause of spam (Have you gotten an offer you can’t refuse from a Nigerian price lately? Chances are this is why.)

One way to defeat the scrapers is to have great spam filters in place in your email program. Another way is to list only an “info@yourcompany.com” address on the site itself to accomodate people who don’t want to fill out a contact form and use it in tandem with a contact form. Sometimes people come to your site in a hurry and don’t want to take the time to fill your contact form out – having one email address available handles that issue easily.

A third way is to hard code your emails as hidden. If you use WordPress, you can install two plugins to mask that single email (or any number of emails) from scrapers as well if you find that you prefer having the emails displayed: PHPEnkoder and EmailEncoderBundle.  It’s possible to have your web developer hide emails from scrapers on other types of sites as well with a bit of coding. We thought we’d share these WordPress plugins as an easy do it yourself option for many people using that popular tool.

There are other advantages to using a contact form that have nothing to do with defeating spam, however. Having a contact form gives the customer a chance to outline their problem or need in greater detail, and allows you to collect the information you need from them to research the issue before getting back to them as well. If you add in the option to opt-in to your newsletter, a contact form can also build your email list (and your email list is where much of the marketing gold is hidden).

What is CISPA?

CISPA differs from SOPA and PIPA, the last law you may have heard about online, in that it doesn’t deal with piracy. It is focused on cyber security. It also differs from SOPA and PIPA in the way it was pushed through Congress rapidly – lawmakers wanted to avoid the kind of internet backlash that prevented SOPA and PIPA from gliding through as expected. Note: it has not yet passed in the Senate.

You can read more about the details of CISPA at Gizmodo and at WebPro News. We thought we’d pull out the main thing we think you should approach with caution that becomes a looming issue in the revamped version of CISPA which the House brought to the floor this week.

Issue 1: Ammendment 6, added by Quayle and Thompson

Would limit government use of shared cyber threat information to only 5 purposes:

1) cybersecurity;
2) investigation and prosecution of cybersecurity crimes;
3) protection of individuals from the danger of death or physical injury;
4) protection of minors from physical or psychological harm; and
5) protection of the national security of the United States.

The concern here is that the vague language in this Amendment to CISPA effectively negates the 4th Amendment of the United States Constitution and has direct consequences for the average internet user beyond the scope of relevant security. If you are like the rest of us, chances are you use Gmail, YahooMail or HotMail or send emails to someone who does, search for things on Google or Bing, have a Facebook account where you share your candid opinion on topics of the day, a Twitter account to discuss news and other topics, and more. You definitely have a website for your business, take online payments and generally conduct business online.

The vague language in which CISPA is written means that your business and personal online documents and candid remarks can be spied upon at any time. This makes doing business online a challenge in an age where people are increasingly living and working in an online environment. It creates a kind of Catch-22 for businesses – you need to be online to find success, but being online may soon carry inherent risk from a government that has repeatedly demonstrated no grasp of internet technology.

Call your congressman to protest CISPA passing in the House, and call your Senator to prevent it passing in the Senate.

President Obama has said he will veto the bill if it lands on his desk, however, the more people who become aware of it the less likely it is to get that far.

Our hope as a team is that through our donation of time and talent we can help promote and attract people to this important event and help St. Jude take another big step forward in the fight against childhood cancer. Cancer touches the lives of so many children, chances are every person reading this post has a friend, colleague or family member who is struggling with the fight against childhood cancer.

The 2011 Give Hope Run was the top participation run/walk for St. Jude in the USA with more than $75,000 raised for St Jude Children’s Hospital. This year’s 5K run/walk will take place on Saturday, April 28, 2012 at 8:00 AM at Burdette Park in Evansville, IN.  If you are interested in participating, you can visit the event website at www.givehoperun.org to register.  You can also make a donation online or download a form to donate via mail from the event website.

St. Jude is the only pediatric cancer research center where families never pay for treatment not covered by insurance. No child is ever denied treatment because of the family’s inability to pay. The generosity of companies like Fishnet Media provides hope to children across the country and around the world who are battling cancer and other deadly diseases and helps St. Jude doctors and scientists continue their important work of finding cures and saving children.

We’re so pleased to reveal the new website we created for the NHSPCA! Being able to give the NHSPCA a great platform where the animals that need loving homes can find homes that need loving animals makes us happy.

As you can see below, the original site was difficult to navigate. This made it hard for people to see the animals looking for homes. It also meant that people wanting to fill out the adoption form, ask questions, make a donation or share the NHSPCA’s needs with their network had to work hard to make that happen. No website should be hard to use.

We made big improvements in the site overall, and added the kind of features that make connecting with the shelter, helping the staff and helping the animals much easier to do.  By adding clear calls to action, call outs for contact information and social sharing, bringing the focus to the animals that need our help and making sweeping design improvements, we believe the shelter will be able to better help its animals and get the kind of support from our community that will keep it thriving.

Make a plan: What are your goals and objectives for the year?  By identifying these, along with some hard metrics, you will have a framework to keep you on track and help you achieve your goals.

Know your audience: By studying their online behavior you will learn how they are searching for you and where. Once you identify this, you can focus your efforts on making sure to create relevant and compelling content to increase your online visibility in these places.

Try it, fix it, try it: The key to any social success it to revisit what you have done and measure your success against your goals.  If the content does not seem to be resonating with your audience, try something different.  This will help you to hone in on what type of content works best and then you can focus on creating similar content.

TIP: Try social video!  Social video ad campaigns enable people to opt-in, rather than interrupting them. Viewers select the videos on their own in return for virtual goods or currency, and advertisers pay for views on a performance basis. A recent study that analyzed over 7.9 million social video views found the average social video campaign to deliver an astounding 30.1 percent of additional media value above-and-beyond the media spend.

Give them what they want: Social has opened the floodgates of customer feedback, providing a great opportunity to find out what customers really think of your brand.  Use this free focus group to your advantage to shape your offerings to match what they are looking for, and you will increase the likelihood that they will give you their business.

By knowing your goals and performing your due diligence to produce relevant and meaningful digital content, you have the ability to effectively drive brand awareness and ultimately impact your bottom line. Let Fishnet help you create a plan and drive it to success.  Want to try social video?  We can help with that too.  Contact us today!

WHAT YOU GET TO DO

• As part of the Creative Team, you will participate in visual design, user experience design, asset creation, and general graphic production through both the Creative and Development processes.
• Under the lead of the Creative Director, you’ll participate with all members of our team in brainstorming sessions to help define strategies and creative concepts.
• You’ll contribute to an environment built on innovation by keeping up-to-date with inspiring creative and technology, while sharing what you learn with the team. Innovation, quality, and attention to detail are all critical aspects of this role and you’ll constantly aim to deliver a flawless end solution.
• You will work effectively and efficiently as part of a team, staying composed under pressure and managing your time while being aware of the limitations and realities of both schedules and budgets.
• You’ll be responsible for providing clear communication to your team, as well as planning, documenting, and testing your work.

WHAT YOU NEED

• This is not an entry-level position. Applicants must have a BS degree and relevant industry experience, working with national brands, working in an agency/studio setting, and within a team environment.
• With extreme proficiency in Adobe CS, you’ll work with creative lead from the Creative Director to ensure a visual strategy that is consistently applied across all aspects of a broad range of projects including web, print and mobile.
• You will possess a solid understanding of general design principles, grid systems, and typography, with specific focus towards digital.
• You should be comfortable with basic front-end web development, capable of coding XHTML, CSS, and JS, with a clear understanding of what is and isn’t possible online.
• You will participate in a range of tasks including photography sourcing, jQuery animation, video editing, and motion graphics.
• In addition, you should also be familiar with 3rd party platforms such as Content Management Systems, Blog platforms such as WordPress, social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter and eCommerce platforms such as Volusion. Experience with marketing or advertising is a plus.
• This is a full-time, in-house position; applicants must live in, or be willing to commute to the Portsmouth area.

To apply, send an email to careers@fishnetmedia.com with your PDF cover letter and resume, as well as 3-5 recent creative samples including a description of your personal contribution to each. A personal online portfolio or blog is preferred; please send your URLs along. Inquiries with no work samples will not be reviewed.

No recruiters, agencies, or phone calls please.

We will be happy to hear from you!

WHAT YOU GET TO DO

• You will collaborate with the Creative Team to scope, design, build, and test public-facing websites and applications.
• You will design and implement databases in systems such as MS SQL Server and MySQL.
• You’ll interface directly with clients to define project requirements.
• You’ll contribute to an environment built on innovation by keeping up-to-date with inspiring creative and technology, while sharing what you learn with the team. Innovation, quality, and attention to detail are all critical aspects of this role and you’ll constantly aim to deliver a flawless end solution.
• You will work effectively and efficiently as part of a team, staying composed under pressure and managing multiple simultaneous development projects while being aware of the limitations and realities of both schedules and budgets.
• You’ll be responsible for providing clear communication to your team, as well as planning, documenting, and testing your work.

WHAT YOU NEED

• 5+ years experience developing web applications, working in a fact-paced setting, and within a team environment.
• Experience implementing and customizing third-party CMS platforms (ie. WordPress, ExpressionEngine, Kentico etc.) Portal applications and e-Commerce platforms
• Expertise in HTML/DHTML, Javascript, client-side libraries such as jQuery, relational database management using MySQL and SQL Server, API integration (ie. Salesforce.com)
• Familiarity with source code management tools and bug tracking applications
• In addition, experience with project management and web server configuration and management is essential
• This is a full-time, in-house position; applicants must live in, or be willing to commute to the Portsmouth area.

To apply, send an email to careers@fishnetmedia.com with your PDF cover letter and resume, as well as relevant code samples. A personal online portfolio is preferred; please send your URLs along. Inquiries with no work samples will not be reviewed.

No recruiters, agencies, or phone calls please.

We will be happy to hear from you!