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Imaging Specialists’ Trip to the Musuem

We’re shining a spotlight on the Alleghany Historical Museum! Since the Museum’s opening in 2009, a regular feature of the award-winning AHGS newsletter has been “What’s New Old at the Museum?” In preparing this feature, we’ve photographed items to include. The current newsletter only reaches members of the Society (membership’s only 10 bucks a year), and old newsletters are available online.

We wanted to expand on that feature and make the information available to even more folks. Watch the video below, over on YouTube, or catch it on Alleghany Community Television. ACTV will use the footage as filler between programs, so it will have a huge potential audience- currently around 5000 homes!

Contact us if you’re in need of commercial photography services.

(Sorry the animation’s a little choppy on YouTube!)

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All Signs Point to a Banner Summer!

We’ve been covered up with banners and signs this Spring! And we want to keep it that way, so all through July 2012 banners are 15% off!

Below are pictures of some of our recent projects.

Saturday, be sure to attend the Lion Club‘s Sparta Fest at the renovated Community Auditorium and go to the Alleghany Farmers Market. Sunday, support Cornerstone Youth and Sparta Presbyterian Church. Hit Mis Arados for some great Mexican food. Meet the folks at downtown’s newest shops, Alleghany Golf Carts and Vintage Vincents. If you get lost, find the Courthouse and head a few feet west to the You-Are-Here sign the Sparta Revitalization Committee has posted.

Or, cross the street and come in the store. We’ll help you find your way. There’s a lot of activity in town. We appreciate the chance to be involved!

If you need a sign or banner for your next event, project, celebration, reunion, (whatever!)  Call Claire at 336-372-3002 or email for pricing.

Banners

2-sided 34″ x 12′ 2012 Sparta Fest Banner for Sparta Lions Club

16″ x 10′ Sparta Presbyterian Church Banner

34″ x 10′ Banner for Alleghany Farmers Market

Farmers’ Market, Sparta Fest, and Sparta Presbyterian Church Banners, and Alleghany Quilt Guild Yard Signs
Yard Signs

Cornerstone Youth will “flamingo flock” your yard!

Flamingo Flock at A Cut Above (336-372-7007)
Printed Signage

Detail of downtown map

Downtown You-Are-Here Sign on North Main

Detail of churches drawn by ISI for downtown map.

Donation “Thermometer” for improvements at the Alleghany Community Auditorium

Corrugated plastic panels in cases at the auditorium entrance featuring donors, vendors and playbills.

Design for corrugated plastic donor panel.

Alleghany Cares, Absher Flooring,  Alleghany County Schools, Bill Troiani, Truline Truss, Blevins Building Supply, The Dance Place, Daniel Caudill, Gerald Davis, Horton Cabinets, Imaging Specialists, Jason Williams Construction, Kevin Spurlin, Robbie Todd, Tristate Components, Trojan Playmakers and Sparta School Maintenance Crew
Sponsor Panel
Window Decals

Door Vinyl at Mis Arados (336-372-1414)

Alleghany Golf Carts (336-657-1212)

Window Decals Sign at Vintage Vincents – 32 West Whitehead St. – Just a block from the Courthouse

Vintage Vincents window decals
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8 Popular Social Media Services: Reasons Your Business Should Be There or Beware

Folks are always talking about getting more business online, and the next step after launching your website is getting traffic across it. You could have the best info or the best product out there, but if nobody knows about it, nobody benefits.

Of course, results in search engines are based on your site’s key words and content. And links to and from related sites are important, too. Lots of incoming links signify that your site is THE best resource or store (or whatever)- especially if those links come from bigger, high-traffic sites.

Our advice is to ALWAYS point people to your website where your PDFs, policies, contact info, contracts, forms, product info, etc. are available to the public. If all your data is in one place, it makes it easy to edit or update or add to.

But what about Social Media? Wouldn’t it be great to reach potential customers online, on facebook or twitter or any interactive site? How about adding your own event photos or video demos? Or giving your customers (clients, patrons, etc.) a forum to meet and discuss your services?

If your website is your virtual storefront, social media is the virtual sidewalk outside where you can meet new people, and develop customer relations. Social Media can introduce and invite people to your site. Good relationships always brings more traffic to your store- virtual or otherwise.

Here’s a quick breakdown of eight popular social media sites, how they work, and how they might work for you.

Myspace
was one of the earlier social sites (well, friendster was earlier), and is arguably past its prime for most uses. During the height of its popularity, folks were starting to get concerned about  predators and the safety of its younger members. It was a pretty ugly place on the web for a while, then became sort of a joke when so many people left. But it’s finding a new niche in the music world- it is used by bands these days, as an online music service. Fans make custom playlists without having to buy the songs, and listen any time, online. They have the option to purchase songs for download.
Pros:
Lots of people use their old accounts to listen to music online. Bands can post music and reach fans, while bypassing conventional methods.
Cons:
There’s little real interaction on Myspace, from member to member.

Facebook
is giantic, now. It was started for use at one college, then spread to other schools, then opened to the public. It’s had a better reputation for online safety than Myspace, but a terrible reputation for dis-respecting users’ privacy settings. Underage users, false accounts, gratuitous nudity, etc. are prohibited and there are ways to report offensive content.
Tons of people use Facebook (900 million active users). Folks talk to each other and play games and post personal info including photos and video. Many independent sites, like newspapers, require Facebook accounts to comment or sign in.
Pros: Having a business presence on Facebook can make your company more accessible to the public. You can easily post a message that your fans can see instantly. Sales and promotions reach the people most likely to take advantage of them.
Cons: When you advertise on Facebook or promote your Facebook page, you’re also promoting Facebook’s service. They make money off of you making money. They benefit from your work. Facebook mines and sells data from users, their content and traffic.

Google Plus
is a relatively new social network. It has a good clean look and some cool features- but there’s no one on it. Maybe we should say “there’s no one on it, yet.” Maybe it won’t really ever take off. Right now, all we can say is that it has a good infrastructure.
Pros: The very best feature of Google Plus is the Hangout, a video chat function that will accommodate several users in one chat. And while there are very few users currently, many people already have Google accounts, for youtube or gmail. Users can simply set up the Google Plus feature to participate in the Hangout.
Cons: It’s difficult to encourage users to participate in something that, well, seems lame. Right now, Google Plus does, because there are so few users. But like anything else, get some passionate folks involved and it will grow.

LinkedIn
is a business-centered site. It’s essentially allows access to your acquaintances’ resumes. You can see what projects they have been involved in, what their work experience has been, what they’re planning to do in the future.
Pros: LinkedIn shares news and job opportunities in your field, allows you to post job openings, and is generally concerned with employment and staffing issues.
Cons: Not a whole lot changes there. LinkedIn might help some people looking for work, but it probably isn’t even their best resource. Also, when you’re out of work, your friends and acquaintances likely already know. There isn’t much of a mechanism in place to learn about people you don’t already know in a professional capacity.

Twitter
is a super popular site. It’s simple – users post (very) short messages about anything. Users follow each other, “re-tweet” comments, message and reply to each other, instantly comment on something a brand or celebrity has done. Pure communication, it’s like community texting.
Pros: Most of the communication is public and instantaneous. Everyone sees situations unfold, forms their own opinions, and expresses them.
Cons: Most of the communication is public and instantaneous. Everyone sees situations unfold, forms their own opinions, and expresses them.

Pinterest
allows users to graphically bookmark images, projects, inspirations, ideas, jokes, and fashions. Posts and images are “repinned” and commented on and shared from person to person. Think of a bulletin board filled with items gleaned from the internet.
Pros: Art or work you produce can be shared and passed and promoted easily.
Cons: In recent months, Pinterest has been in the news because of copyright issues surrounding the way their site works. Items that are posted or “pinned” are copied to the Pintrest server. They are, in effect, illegally copying copyrighted material. It’s mainly a technicality issue, though, because if they weren’t copying the images to their own server, they would be impacting individual sites’ bandwidth. Problems only really arise when an image is pinned or posted, with an incorrect source.

Industry Messageboards
(or forums) are powerful sites where users can comment or converse in “threads” or chains of messages about specific topics. Messageboards are useful when troubleshooting a difficult issue.
Pros: It can be a really good move to join and contribute to an industry messageboard, if you know what you’re talking about. And they’re a great place to let your customers help each other with common problems. How do I change the belt on my dryer? Maytag doesn’t tell me, but they offer a forum for dryer know-it-alls to show their stuff.
Cons: It can be a bad move if you’re looking for help, under a professional account, for something you should probably already know about. Messageboards have their place, but consider using different usernames for times when you can be the expert verses times you’re stuck and confused.

Blogging
allows you to post anything on your own site, or through a service provider, like Blogger or WordPress. Blogs are a simple way to increase the content of your site, using your own words.
Pros: Comments can be used to engage readers. Automatically-updating RSS feeds allow readers to follow your site without having to remember to check it often.
Cons: With a blog, it’s important to keep it up to date. Nobody returns to a site that isn’t updated  or is obviously behind the times.

With social media, like so many other things, you get out of it what you put into it. Personal interaction with the customers is intrinsically rewarding, but it should make good business sense to go to the extra trouble.

It is important to remember, the reason these services are free is because most sell your information- demographics, habits, patterns, etc.- to advertisers. That is the extent of their business plan. As long as you remember that you’re their resource and not their customer, keep safety and privacy a priority, and don’t spend time you can’t afford to lose on these sites, you might consider using them professionally.

These are just a few of the popular social media options available. Tumblr, YouTube, Yelp, MeetUp, Reddit, StumbleUpon, Instagram, Flickr, FourSquare, and Wikis are a some others that we’ll talk about soon.

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Alleghany Production Brings Down (to Help Rebuild) the House!

The Trojan Playmakers’ production of Uncommonly Noble, a brand new play by Cheri Choate, was a successful fundraiser for the newly-renovated Alleghany Community Auditorium, April 28th. ISI helped with graphics including logo design, flyers, TV slides, programs and DVD art.

DVD art for Uncommonly Noble, performed  in the new Alleghany Community Auditorium by the Trojan Playmakers on April 28, 2012. The production will be broadcast on Alleghany Community Television.
DVD art for Uncommonly Noble, performed in the new Alleghany Community Auditorium by the Trojan Playmakers on April 28, 2012. The production will be broadcast on Alleghany Community Television.

If you missed it, the show was video taped by Charlie Scott of Alleghany Community Television and will be broadcast later this month on Alleghany Cablevision and Skybest TV. Imaging Specialists is currently working on titles and credits for the TV production. DVDs will be available.

This production was a real home-grown project. The Playmakers collaborated with many area businesses and organizations to assist the Friends of the Auditorium in their efforts to rebuild and repurpose the old Sparta School Auditorium.

Making it all look easy was a cast and crew of hard working area elementary, middle and high school students who (we’re sure) will be involved with many more such productions.

Among those who donated time and effort were Director- Dyani VanHoose, Producer-  Jeremy Halsey and Alleghany Community Theatre, Appachian Woodwright, James Maynard, local craftsman, Gracen Lucas, Mary Jane Watson from A Perfect Image Hair Design who helped with makeup, Chris Davis of Studio Redwood– sets and set design, Paula Joines of Wilkes County Theatre– wardrobe, Ashe Community Theatre, Shelley Williams- costumes, Bill Troiani- sound, Jim Williams- lights and the Production’s Sponsor, Alleghany County Schools.

Imaging Specialists is proud to be a part of this extraordinary production by Cheri and her Trojan Playmakers.

The newly, rebuilt stage at the Alleghany Community Auditorium with stair-step safety lighting
The newly, rebuilt stage at the Alleghany Community Auditorium with stair-step safety lighting
Slide for Alleghany Community Television.
Ad slide for Alleghany Community Television.
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Tea Time Recipes Available Again!

The much sought-after Dirty Fingers Garden Club cookbook, Tea Time Recipes, originally published in 2004 and out of print for many years, is available once again! Now you can learn how to make such delicacies as Cherry-and-Cream Scones, Strawberry Pound Cake, and Lavender Blueberry Soup.

The DFGC meets at (and owns) the “Meeting House” in Piney Creek. The Meeting House was originally built in 1875 for the Piney Creek Primitive Baptist Church which was established in 1825.

“Being the oldest church in the area the early church grew rapidly and exerted great influence on the lives in the community. The names of most of the early settlers and their families are recorded on its books. During the months October to January 1857-1858, the church received 86 new members.”

History of Alleghany County, 1859-1976

Tea Time Recipes from the Dirty Fingers Garden Club in Piney Creek, North Carolina.

The club hosts their celebrated English Teas at the newly-renovated structure throughout the year. The recipes in the book are the best of the best dishes from these well-loved events. For tickets, contact Sara McMillan, Glenna Gambill or anyone in the Dirty Fingers Garden Club! Groups are welcome.

Proceeds from the book go to the Dirty Fingers Garden Club, a member of the Garden Club of North Carolina, for their many community projects and events.

The recipe book is available from The Sparta Store, both online and in the shop at 3 North Main in Sparta.

Got a great cookbook idea for your organization? Contact Imaging Specialists, today!