West Virginia Development Office – Department of Commerce Film and :30 Commercial

Pikewood Creative had the pleasure of working with Stonewall Group and the West Virginia Department of Commerce in the summer of 2011 to complete a business development video and :30 commercial to use in their business recruiting efforts, showcasing why West Virginia is best positioned to serve as home for a variety of business operations.

For two weeks in June, we traveled all over the state filming executives from several companies, large and small, to interview them about why they enjoy doing business and having their operation in West Virginia. We interviewed staff from Coldwater Creek and DuPont Washington Works in the Parkersburg area; the team at BrooAlexa in Charleston, and the team at Renick Millworks in Renick; executives at STaSIS, Quad Graphics, and the Macy’s Distribution Center, all in the Eastern Panhandle; and we came closer to our home in Morgantown to film the President & CEO of Azimuth in Fairmont. Those who are new to the state talked about how proactive West Virginia was in helping them decide to bring their businesses to the state, and how much help the Development Office and Small Business Administration have been as their businesses grow and expand.

They also spoke in great detail about the proximity of West Virginia to the east coast markets: the ease of travel for both business meetings and events as well as for shipping their product. Jay Petre from Renick Millworks even refers to West Virginia as “the hub” of the east coast!

Not only did we conduct interviews at each of these companies, but we also captured their workers in action through days of b-roll footage filming – everything from race tracks to construction sites to chemical plants to distribution centers to high end word working. It was exciting to see how much business activity happens on a daily basis in West Virginia!

We also filmed lifestyle and family shots all over the state. We captured farmers markets, scenic historical streets, a train station, a race track and casino, lots of dining and shopping, an outdoor concert and scenery at Coopers Rock and the campus of WVU to name a few. For a business considering a move or a start up in West Virginia, the staff at those companies will never want for activities outside of work.

The :30 commercial debuted to a national audience during the 2011 Greenbrier Classic. The video and the :30 commercial both won Addy and Telly Awards for 2011.

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WordPress is easy to use
It’s often said that if you can edit a Microsoft Word document, you can edit a WordPress website. You don’t have to be a web designer to update your content. Updating a post or page is effortless thanks to the built-in visual editor in the WordPress dashboard. The interface is easy to navigate and everything is organized in a way that makes it easy to find.

WordPress is flexible
Wordpress is completely open source which means there is a worldwide community of programmers and designers working together to add more features and functionality to WordPress. Add-ons, or plugins, can be easily installed in the WordPress dashboard area to further enhance your website.

WordPress will save you money
Another advantage of being open source is that there are no setup or installation fees. WordPress is free of charge and basically serves as a blank canvas for creating professional website designs. Many advanced features can be added to your website by installing free plugins that were coded by professional programmers – which also include frequent security updates.

WordPress is SEO (Search Engine Optimization) friendly
WordPress is the most SEO friendly among all content management systems and allows full optimization through its features and SEO plugins. Matt Cutts from Google says, “Wordpress takes care of 80-90% of (the mechanics of) Search Engine Optimization”. With much of your website being optimized automatically you can spend more time developing better content for your users.

WordPress is here to stay
In August 2011 WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg announced that 22% of new active websites in the U.S. are powered by WordPress, and 14.7% of the top million websites in the world are taking advantage of what it has to offer. As the number of WordPress-powered sites continues to grow, so does the number of developers who are making it a better and more robust content management system.

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The LeanIn video player is the first of its kind to allow viewers to respond to what they’re watching by adding comments and creating notches on the video’s timeline. This allows new visitors to quickly see the most talked-about parts of the web video without wasting time trying to find the good stuff.

LeanIn has some features that I think will enhance your web video as well as encourage interaction on your website. Here are 5 things that are exciting about this new social web video concept:

1. Social Data

Find out which parts of your web videos work, and which parts don’t. You’ll be able to get refined statistics by analyzing comments, notches, and “likes”. The LeanIn Dashboard also provides more in-depth information so you can really to get to know your viewers.

2. Brand Your Video Player

LeanIn lets you embed videos from external video sites, like YouTube, while allowing you to customize and brand the player. This helps keep your identity consistent all over the internet.

3. Promote Social Media Interaction

Just because you have lots of “likes” on your company’s Facebook page doesn’t mean those people are actually coming to your website. By allowing video comments to be shared with LeanIn on Facebook and Twitter you have the opportunity to reach an entirely new audience.

4. In-stream Advertising

The LeanIn video player shows comments and activity from your friends on a real-time ticker while you watch your video. You can like their comments, see what they’re saying on other videos, and more, without leaving the player.

5. Get More Views

Since the LeanIn player gives a bird’s-eye view of video content, viewers can quickly find things that interest them and discover more of your web videos in less time. This will also give them more satisfaction since they are only watching things they find appealing.

If you haven’t already, head over to LeanIn and take a look. This is just one of the exciting new social media products that will create unique, enjoyable social web video experiences for your internet users.

http://www.reelseo.com/leanin-social-video-player/

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