Seeing the interest skyrocket in kayaks, stand-up paddleboards (SUPs) and rowing sculls, Kevin Kirkland turned the success of one watercraft business, Lake Geneva Marine, into the opportunity for a second. Mr. Kirkland’s passion is being on the lake, and his love of non-motorized watercraft made it clear what was to come next.

Fontana Paddle Company’s mission is providing non-motorized watercraft to enthusiasts on one of Wisconsin’s most premier inland lakes, Lake Geneva. For over a century, Chicago, Milwaukee, Madison and Rockford vacationers have enjoyed Lake Geneva’s clear waters and gentile shores. Today’s thriving lake culture not only supports motorized boats, but the quickly growing popularity of silent sports.

Fontana Paddle Company offers watercraft and equipment rentals, lessons for the first timer as well as the expert, tours for individuals and groups, a pro shop to get gear of your own, and a storage or put in service that will allow customers to keep their gear maintained and ready without the hassle of transport.

Mr. Kirkland came to Signalfire in early June, 2010 with a plan to have the boats in the water before July 12th. Fontana Paddle Company needed a brand, full marketing materials, a website and a complete social media setup. Given the compacted timeframe and the volume of creatives, Signalfire hit the ground running. Developing both the brand and the website concurrently, his completed materials were all online the week before the scheduled launch.

Fontana Paddle Company’s dynamic, self-maintained website was built on the newly-launched WordPress 3.0 platform. The client will have the capabilities to not only manage the content (text and images) on the site, but will also be able to add pages and new stories over time. With smart, dynamic navigation, the site will grow with Fontana Paddle Company’s service offerings.

With marketing materials and branded apparel into production before the launch, Signalfire dove into the social media setup. Signalfire kept their personnel and their ability to share their passion of non-motorized watercraft in the forefront when developing a strategy. By creating a custom landing tab on the Facebook Fan Page, a branded Twitter background, custom avatars (profile icons) and a complete Foursquare business venue setup, Fontana Paddle jumped into the social media waters head first. Look for location specials on Foursquare, news about lessons and tours on Facebook, and keep in touch over Twitter.

The success of Fontana Paddle Company demonstrates Signalfire’s ability to develop engaging brands in many mediums. From logo design to turn-key web development and from print design to social media strategy—Signalfire is your best choice when launching a brand from the ground up!

Social media is constantly being qualified for ROI, stickiness and reach, but how many of your indicators are looking at the destination of social media? How does your website work for or against your social media presence? Let’s look at this from the perspective of high school physics or just a need for speed.

Speed Versus Velocity

Good social media and poor social media is similar to comparing speed and velocity. Without getting into a huge physics discussion, speed is a distance traveled over time. Miles per hour, a rate of travel we’re all familiar with, especially those of us with speeding tickets. A business can pump out volumes of tweets, Facebook entries, etc. None of it will matter without a destination—a direction.

Velocity is commonly confused with speed. While speed is a rate of travel, velocity is a rate of travel and direction. This is critical to keep in mind when bringing the analogy to a business’ social media. All the social media outreach won’t convert to real customers until you give them the ability to connect with your business. The destination (direction) on your website becomes critically important. The question you need to ask: is my website ready for social media?

What Makes a Social Media-Friendly Website?

In the dawning age of social media, a website has never been more important. A website becomes the hub for your entire brand. Imagine an airport concourse or rail depot—site visitors coming in from all manner of locations. Some may come from organic searches based on your products or services, some may come from social media looking to read an entry on your blog, and some might come from email marketing wanting to learn more. All are there to interact with your business.

Interacting with your business’ website brings it back to the main question: is your website ready? Do you have an easy to navigate product or service section? How easy is it for readers of your blog to contact you to hire? How easily can that marketing email recipient purchase the widget you featured? These are questions that may be asked ahead of significantly diving into social media.

What are some recommendations associated with a social media-ready website?

• Keep your blog or news directly on your site and not on a separate domain.

• Navigation should be clear, comprehensive (don’t hide pages), and consistent throughout the site.

• Clearly show your social media connections. Give site visitors plenty of options to connect to your brand.

• Develop a keyword vocabulary and use them to tag your pages, posts and products effectively. Effective use of blog categories will go a long way.

• If you have a blog, FAQ or products—include a search box.

• Link all the time. If you mention a product or service you offer in your blog or social media post, be sure to link it!

• Be easy to contact with your phone number, email link, or email form. If someone contacts you, get back to them the same business day.

As your business begins to venture down the rewarding path of engaging new consumers with social media, don’t forget to give them a destination or a venue to continue the brand experience. Social media becomes an even greater brand force when it is given speed and velocity.

The Village of Fontana on Geneva Lake awarded Signalfire a web development contract to develop a site promoting a proposed lakefront building. This building project will be going before a Fall, 2010 public referendum on whether or not to develop this community facility.

Understanding the budget and time requirements, Signalfire coordinated with one of the Village of Fontana’s committees to develop a content managed site that could be updated and changed by either Village personnel or Signalfire team members. Choosing a premium template concept as a launch point, Signalfire customized and branded the site specifically for the building project. A vast amount of meeting minutes, legal documents and conceptual art had to be coordinated and effectively presented online. Additionally, the committee asked Signalfire to develop all of the content ranging from describing the vision of the project to the history of the property—even the nuances of TIF districts and other financing.

The finished product features a past, present and future vision of this stunning project. It is our sincere hope that the citizens of Fontana will see this as a valuable community resource that will enhance their community for generations to come. Please visit the site to discover more.

Does your business need a website? Contact Signalfire to see how our web strategists can get you started towards turning your website from a cost-center into a profit-center.