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Political WordPress Themes

Posted on November 7, 2011 by nancy_mace

In case you haven’t figured it out yet, we heart WordPress, especially for political websites.

For a number of reasons, WordPress is a great platform not only for blogs, but businesses too! It’s open source, search engine friendly and best of all, user-friendly.

For this reason, we also recommend WordPress for political campaign websites. So why WordPress and what makes the perfect political wordpress theme?

Here are five tips for your next political website:

Content is king: Branding, search engines, and generating buzz content is imperative; Create a site that is updated on a daily basis with new content, posts, articles, news; give people a reason to return to your site.
Widgetize: Widgets are everywhere these days, it’s easy to use widgets to add social icons, video streams, and of course, content; as your website evolves throughout the life of the campaign, widgets will help you move content around more easily.
Social Media: Incorporate a Twitter Feed, Facebook Like Box and of course your social icons like Flickr, YouTube, RSS and others to help increase exposure to the campaign branding, messaging and more.
Donations: A large donation button on the homepage, and every other page for that matter is a must. Make it prominent and easy to find. There are many options for online donations. You can take the pricey route and go with a Complete Campaigns type of service, or find services that are more user friendly and priced better at places like Piryx, Your Patriot and others.
Call to Actions: We recommend two very important call to actions on every site, the email sign up form and a volunteer section. Building lists of your advocates and arming your volunteers with information are key to any campaign.

To receive a quote on your next political campaign website, contact us today.

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Mace Group’s Adrian Grimes to Present at Teen Pregnancy Workshop

Posted on September 21, 2011 by nancy_mace

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Summerville, S.C. – September 21, 2011 – The Mace Group’s Adrian Grimes will present a workshop to high school and middle school students on teen pregnancy at the 19th Annual Beaufort County Youth Conference.

This event, held at the Technical College of the Lowcountry in Beaufort, S.C., is a day-long event filled with informative workshops, competitions, prizes, lunch and entertainment.

The theme for this year’s conference is “Believe in Yourself…Don’t let Negative Opinions Affect You.”

The youth conference is sponsored by the Beaufort County Alcohol and Drug Abuse Department, Beaufort County Department of Social Services, Technical College of the Lowcountry, Beaufort Memorial Hospital, and several faith-based
organizations and area teenagers.

About Adrian Grimes
As a Partner with the Mace group, Adrian Grimes focuses her efforts in public relations, online communication and social media marketing for a variety of clients. One of her passions is character-based educational programs for youth. She and her husband facilitate and present at youth conferences, workshops, rallies and other assemblies.

About The Mace Group
The Mace Group, LLC provides public relations, web and design services to all types of organizations including businesses, non-profits and political candidates and causes. For more information, visit www.macegroupllc.com.

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Media Contact
Lauren Robirds
lauren@macegroupllc.com

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The Mace Group Names Adrian Grimes Partner

Posted on July 12, 2011 by nancy_mace

Grimes to lead Charleston, S.C. business development efforts and online client communications

CHARLESTON, S.C., July 13, 2011 – Veteran communications professional, Adrian Mitchell Grimes, is joining The Mace Group as Partner.

Grimes, with more than 20 years of experience, is joining The Mace Group from The office of Congressman Tim Scott (R-South Carolina), where she served as Assistant Director of Communications. Prior to that she served on Scott’s Congressional campaign and spent years in corporate communications and as a news producer and public affairs director in television broadcasting in South Carolina (WIS-TV & WCSC-TV).

“Adrian is very strategic in her marketing approach, and she is a proven leader in her own right,” said Nancy Mace, President and Founder. “She brings a wide breadth of experience to the table including grassroots organizing for a number of political causes.”

Grimes will lead business development efforts for The Mace Group in the lowcountry and across the state of South Carolina. She will also continue to work with Scott’s re-election campaign.

“I’m excited to build on the proven successes of The Mace Group,” added Grimes. “Nancy Mace is a first-rate business executive with a passion for contributing to the successes of her clients and I am excited to be a part of her team.”

To learn more about Grimes, please visit http://macegroupllc.com/about.

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Media Contact
Lauren Robirds
lauren@macegroupllc.com

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Surveys and Thought Leadership

Posted on July 11, 2011 by nancy_mace

Sometimes businesses (large or small) may not have a lot of product releases, or announcements as a means to reach out to and build relationships with media. And it can be difficult generating news when there is nothing new to report. So why not expand your marketing with thought leadership that matters?

There is a lot of planning that goes into conducting a survey. The Martino Flynn Blog suggests setting a goal and picking an interesting, neutral topic first. We also suggest doing a thorough literature review to better understand previous studies in your space.

Second, if possible, use a third party vendor to implement your survey. Third, analyze your results and develop collateral to spotlight the research. Collateral might include a news release, survey report, landing page, eBlast, blog material.

Out of this industry survey, you will generate a report of the findings. Manicured charts and graphs visually convey your results and even have a second intended purpose: branded for the sales force.

It’s important to determine the statistical sample size of your survey for your results to be reliable. National sample sizes start around 400 depending on the size of the audience. Also, we suggest paying attention to how you word the questions in your survey so it doesn’t lean towards a particular answer.

Conducting a well-planned and thought-out survey can produce astonishing results and showcase your business as a leader in its industry. It all starts with sound research!

To learn about how The Mace Group can help you conduct your next industry survey, contact us.

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Five Non-Profit WordPress Themes

Posted on March 10, 2011 by nancy_mace

These days it’s imperative for non-profit organizations to have a dynamic website for several reasons. Whether it’s to solicit donations, gain volunteers or raise awareness, the website needs to immediately grab visitor’s attention and explain who they are.

We heart WordPress over here. Not that it’s the only website platform, but it certainly can be a great vehicle for those looking to get online, quickly and cost effectively. Not to mention the fun and fancy widgets that come with it!

So, non-profits are no different, and in fact are a great type of website on WordPress.

Grabbing attention isn’t the only thing the website needs to do. Smashing Magazine outlines best practices for nonprofits include being user-, donor- and volunteer-friendly. It’s also important for non-profit organizations to integrate social media.

Socialbrite provides beautiful examples of themes for other types of non-profit organizations.

After reading, searching, and exploring the internet, we wanted to share a few of our favorite WordPress themes for non-profits:

1. Outreach Child Theme by StudioPress

2. Boast by Woo Themes

3. Live by Organized Themes

4. Non-Profit Theme by Organic Themes

5. Agency by Organized Themes

If you are interested in learning more about our services, we are happy to discuss custom WordPress design options for any website operator.

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Small Charities, Big Difference in Haiti

Posted on February 8, 2011 by nancy_mace

When the 7.0 magnitude quake hit Haiti 13 months ago, Childspring International was in La Gonave, off the coast. It’s executive director, Rose Emily Bermudez, recalls the event in an interview she conducted with Jonathan Serrie at FOX NEWS.

Since her return, there have been remarkable stories of compassion from organizations like Childspring. Recently, the micro charity began collecting medical and food supplies. They hooked up with private pilots from Win Aviation and have been helping provide those supplies to the people in Haiti.

Check out Jonathan’s story and the dramatic footage of the pilots touching down in a remote part of Haiti. We’re proud of our participation and volunteerism with Childspring and proud of the work they do in communities around the globe.

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Praise for In the Company of Men

Posted on January 28, 2011 by nancy_mace

I always appreciate comments I receive in regards to my book In the Company of Men: A Woman at The Citadel (Simon and Schuster, 2001). I especially enjoy hearing stories about knobs who’ve read the book or whose parents read the book to help prepare for their child’s send off to The Citadel. I’ve gathered some recent, and especially kind words. I really just want to say it is a pleasure and an honor to be a part of the long gray line.

I just read your book and felt compelled to write. My daughter is currently a knob. Thank you for blazing the trail.
- Citadel Mom

Thank you for having the courage to attend and graduate from The Citadel. I admire you and the other women who are our Alumni. I can’t tell you how much grief I received from my fellow alumni when I took the position that women should be able to attend The Citadel. It is good to see that you are successful. Keep up the good work.
- Citadel Alumnus, Class of 1979

Have you read a book lately that touched close to home, if so what was it?

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SC-Based IBHS Research Facility Tests Hurricane Force Winds

Posted on January 20, 2011 by nancy_mace

In case you missed it, former South Carolina Insurance News Service Director, Allison Dean Love, is now heading up The Institute for Business and Home Safety (IBHS) public relations efforts in Chester County. IBHS opened its $30 million dollar facility in October. It recently showcased hurricane force winds in a giant wind tunnel.

Hats off to Love for an impressive public relations endeavor captured by media around the country … From Jonathan Serrie at FOXNews:

A wind tunnel big enough to hold a small neighborhood unleashed hurricane force winds — all in the name of safety. The 21 thousand square-foot test chamber is part of the Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS) Research Center… The test facility, located in rural Chester County, South Carolina, is funded by the insurance industry and can simulate hailstorms, wildfires and category 4 hurricanes.

For those of you that do not know Love, you ought to meet her. She is a talented PR guru based out of Columbia, South Carolina.

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SEO 101

Posted on December 28, 2010 by nancy_mace

First things first. Now that you have a website, you know that it takes a lot of work to drive traffic to that site. But there are many different ways people can harness technology to help grow a following. The goal for many websites is to not only drive traffic, but to keep people interested long enough to return for a second or third time, or if you’re lucky, repeat visitors.

We’ll start outlining a few simple steps you can take today to start search engine optimization or what we geeks call SEO.

It’s all in the name. Be smart with the URL you choose. For instance if you’re interested in being number one for “Jane Doe” snagging the URL www.janedoe.com will help.
Who’s not on WordPress? If you’re on WordPress, go ahead and download All In One SEO plugin. This will help optimize website page/post tags and key words that people use to find your site.
Heavy Meta. Meta tags are important but not as important as they used to be.
Give me the keys please. Be consistent with tagging, as long as the key words you’re using relate to the content. If you want to be found with the key word “Jane Doe” be consistent with writing content about Jane Doe and tagging it appropriately.
Content is king. Continuously and consistently update your content. Frequently. Give people a reason to return.
See you on the links! The more websites that link back to you, the greater your rankings at Google, the higher ranked or higher trafficked sites that link back to you are better than smaller websites with less traffic. You can do this a number of ways; first, start by linking to other websites, blogs or sites that accept trackbacks. Avoid pay to play when it comes to linking.

Case in point, we had one client that was ranked 23 on Google search engine when we started taking these SEO steps. Within a few weeks, they were #2 for the specific key word searches we were after. The second ranking was the highest possible spot for this website.

Until you are getting the kind of search rankings you want and until you increase traffic to the level you want, it never hurts to use Google Adwords for both textual ads and graphical web ads. A great bang for your buck! More on that later.

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Recover Our Youth Gets a Refresh

Posted on December 15, 2010 by nancy_mace

We launched a new website and splash pages for South Carolina’s Recover Our Youth by Excalibur, LLC. The splash pages can be seen at Avalonia Group Homes and Excalibur’s home page.

We really enjoy focusing on a variety of clients. 2010 showed a mix of consumer, nonprofit, grassroots and political websites. this was our final project for the year.

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