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Fall 2013 Events

There are several community events coming up. We’re glad to be involved in them!

Tonight & Tomorrow – Nov. 1 & 2 – 6:30 pm – The murder mystery dinner theater, The Fourteenth Annual Genealogy Society Meeting and Potluck Supper by Vicky Town presented by Alleghany Community Theatre, will take place at the VFW Hall in Sparta. Proceeds will benefit the Alleghany Historical-Genealogical Society, and the Northwest Regional Library System, to which the Alleghany County Public Library belongs. Tickets are $20 each.

For this event, ISI printed programs, designed flyers, and put together the cast board. (Most of ISI is also volunteering, as club members.)

Tuesday, November 12 – 6 pm – Claire Halsey will give a presentation on ancestry.com & rootsweb.com at the Alleghany County Public Library.  This is a free event, but the Library appreciates advance registration.

Saturday, November 23 – 11 am-2 pm – BookFest in Sparta – Regional authors will be appearing for book signings at downtown shops.  The complete line-up will be announced soon. This is a free event, but the authors & store owners appreciate purchases. ISI is the sponsor of BookFest.

Friday, November 29 – Grand Opening for Sparta Revitalization Committee‘s Christmas Tree Gallery, next door to the Chamber of Commerce. ISI, with other downtown businesses, will have a tree. The Tree Gallery will be on display through Christmas, with free admission. This event is part of the Good Neighbors Choose Local campaign. For GNCL, we printed bumper stickers & tent cards for regional businesses.

Saturday, December 7 – 3 pm & 8 pm & Sunday, December 8 – 3 pm – Christmas with Elvis – Wayne Euliss will perform at the Priser Theatre (22 South Main Street) in downtown Sparta. Tickets are $12 each, with limited seating. To reserve tickets, call 336-372-2039 and leave your name and number. For this event, ISI printed designed and printed table tents and tickets and designed flyers.

If you have an event, need marketing materials, or want help with project branding, contact ISI.

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Does the ACTV Test Pattern Look Familiar?

American Indian from original RCA Test pattern.

The new station ID on Alleghany Community Television might look a little familiar to you if you’re a little older, and it might look familiar if you’re a little younger- but, probably, for different reasons. We generated a “retro style” test pattern from the old, RCA pattern, found here, but enhanced it to fit a more modern 16:9 ratio.

We created the new graphic using Adobe Illustrator and based it on a public domain version we found online. That version, as well as the original from RCA, features a familiar American icon, the native-American, Indian Chief. According to Wikipedia, “The original art work was completed for RCA by an artist named Brooks on August 23, 1938.” The test pattern helped technicians to “fine-tune” sets for many years.

But we modified the drawing (a little) for display on ACTV. Intending no disrespect to our native-American ancestors, we’ve removed the model’s head-dress and added an Alleghany High Trojan Helmet.

Alleghany’s Trojan cousin at ACTV.

ISI has been working with ACTV to build animated videos for the station and its sponsors, using supplied art or the customer’s specifications.

Take a look at the new Station ID and see more in our online, video portfolio here.

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ISI Receives Awards at 72nd Annual Meeting of NC Society of Historians

The 72nd Annual Awards Ceremony of the North Carolina Society of Historians was held in Mooresville, Saturday, the 19th of October.

Out of 642 entries, 564 were declared eligible for judging and, of those, just 83 were declared winners. Eight of those (almost 10%) came home to Alleghany County!

From Imaging Specialists and Star Route Books, Four Brothers in Gray, the story of the Proffit family of Wilkes County, North Carolina, and their struggles in the Civil War.

Imaging Specialists won a Paul Green Multimedia Award  for our Trip to the Museum series, which we prepared for Alleghany Community Television. We also won a Joe McLaurin Newsletter Award for the AHGS Newsletter we publish and a Willie Parker Peace History Book Award for our book, Four Brothers in Gray.

The Historical Society‘s series, Alleghany Memories, won another Paul Green Award and for four episodes that featured members of the Walter Frank Osborne, Jr. Deatachment 1298 Marine Corps League, they won another.

The Tale of Clyde from Stratford Oaks Tales, 2013 NCSH Award Winner.

Dr. Suzanne Mellow-Irwin won a Clark Cox Historical Fiction Award for her book, Stratford Oaks Tales, The Tale of Clyde and Zach Hamm won for his illustrations. Imaging Specialists publishes the Stratford Oaks series.

Hannah Tucker also won a Joe McLaurin Newsletter Award for The Southern Tribune, a newsletter she produces for General JEB Stuart SCV Camp #1598. 

ISI also nominated others in surrounding counties. Writer, film director, and photographer Kelley St. Germain won for his Visions of Ashe: Mooshine documentary. It was developed for Skybest Television. The Blue Ridge National Heritage Area, partnering with the NC Arts Council, published the Blue Ridge Music Trails Guidebook, which won a Paul Green Multimedia Award. The Madison County Arts Council DVD, Four Master Fiddlers, also won. This program has also been broadcast on ACTV.

We couldn’t be more proud to have been associated with these projects!

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Limitations of Social Media Marketing

We recently saw this story on Social Fixer and want to share it with our readers.

If you aren’t familiar with Social Fixer, it’s a browser extension that “fixes” facebook. It changes how the site is displayed in a user’s browser. Social Fixer doesn’t do anything to harm facebook or alter the site – it only changes the way user-generated content displays.

Not long ago, Social Fixer’s page was suddenly “unpublished” by Facebook. It was totally removed. The page was not a small one- it had 34,000 “fans” and had been growing for years. They weren’t spamming people. They hadn’t violated the terms of service. There was no advance notice, or warning of any kind. No “stop doing X, Y, and Z.” No feedback on how to change.

Luckily, the business owner is able to contact his users in other ways, including through the extension itself. It’s just more difficult.

It’s important to remember that, while Facebook is a good way to stay in contact and find new potential customers, it is not a public service.  It’s a business. And with no traditional  customer service, user complaints don’t seem to be very effective. At any rate, this fellow’s appeal was ignored.

Facebook profits from the content you share across it. The more time a visitor spends at their site, the more money they make. They “mine” the data people enter, including everything from the time they spend, to their browsing patterns, to their likes and their associations with other users.

Your goal with facebook may be to find new people- and there is a world of potential on facebook- but your facebook and social media marketing strategy should be similar to your traditional marketing strategy. The number of “likes” you get rarely equals the number of sales you close. Neither does the number of subscribers to a newspaper in traditional advertising.

All advertising- whether it’s across a social marketing site, like Facebook, or in the daily news- should point your potential customer to your own site or store, where you have control over your message. Facebook is a valuable tool when used correctly, but it cannot replace a professional, secure site that you control. Your business should be the only one to benefit from your relationship with your customers.

Check out the whole Social Fixer story, and this follow up post. It’s really interesting.

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Good Neighbors Choose Local

ISI is working with the Chamber of Commerce & Sparta Revitalization Committee on their shop local campaign. We’re volunteering several services – designing the logo, putting together a television ad for ACTV, making a facebook page that others in the Chamber and on the Committee can update.

The slogan of the campaign is “Good Neighbors Choose Local.” This isn’t just about shopping local or supporting your friends who own stores downtown (even though they’re pretty great folks).

“Choosing Local” is about building your community, in all the ways. It’s about choosing to be involved. In volunteering, in churches, in clubs, in recreation. Obviously, it would be wonderful if we had a very strong local economy. But it’s just as important to have strong local relationships.

We’re very proud to be associated with this campaign.