Featured Workspace of Burlington’s Favorite Web Developer

This is exciting!  My first blog post for Union Street Media.  For those of you who don’t know me, I’m a Support Specialist and Junior Web Developer here at our cozy Burlington, Vermont office.  I’ve been here for less than six months and it already feels like I’ve known my colleagues for years.  We work well as a team and it shows, and one of those things that helps fuel our fire is our sweet workspace.

Recently, I came up with the crazy idea to take some pictures around the office.  This was a bold step on my part because it would truly expose how geeky we are with our Star Wars figurines on the shelves to the stick-figure post-it notes all over my desk.  My idea wasn’t completely random though; I not only wanted to show my peers where I worked, but upload the pictures into the Flickr pool for Lifehacker.com’s Featured Workspaces.  The idea of this image pool is to share your workspace with others and show how you remain comfortable, but at the same time allow yourself to push your workload from your inbox to the out.

Every so often, Lifehacker.com pulls some pictures from the pool and features them on their site.  This week, we happen to be the lucky group that was shown on the front page and it displayed our stellar work area.  This was a huge honor and we’re so thankful for Lifehacker taking the time of day to not only check out our office, but to write a story about it as well. This has been quite the Summer/Fall for Union Street Media with our previous Seven Daysies Award for Best Web Developer.

The article can be found here ,and we would love to hear your feedback in the comments about the article or the pictures.

If you would like to connect with me, you can find me on twitter or flickr.

Cheers,

Matt Sisson

Changing Media Landscape

I had an interesting phone call from a longtime client yesterday who decided to stop advertising in his local print real estate monthly for the next four months and will instead be engaging our report, recommend, revise process.  “RRR” helps our clients improve the search engine placement of their web site and generate more leads from the web.  This client understands the shifting media landscape and I was pleased to see him make his marketing investments accordingly.

The upcoming Media Convergence Conference in New York City, put on by The Economist, launched a video called Shift Happens, that helps put these changes in context.  They posted a fascinating video about the event here:

My favorite statistic: The average American teen sends 2272 text messages a month.

With numbers like that, and the often quoted 2008 NAR study that shows 87% of home buyers use the internet when making a purchase, I wonder how much longer people will continue to disproportionately spend money offline?

Real Estate Videos Work for Brian Boardman, Burlington Vermont

Union Street Media presented at the Coldwell Banker Agent Real Estate Trends & Social Media Seminar on the 16th at the Ethan Allen Club in Burlington, Vermont. Our presentation focused on utilizing real estate videos.

The presentation went very well. We received a great deal of positive feedback from participants from all over the region. Our friend and client Brian Boardman, a REALTOR® here in Burlington, Vermont chimed in to talk  about how a particular listing video help him get one of his high-end properties under contract.  It was a fun, engaging conversation!

Please contact us if you attended the session and would like a copy of our notes (or if you couldn’t make it, and would like a copy of our notes).

New Site Launches by Union Street Media

Another month has passed and we have launched four great new websites!

The first new website that we are pleased to present to the public is that of ACRE Strategies which is a real estate consulting firm focused on empowering buyers in Massachusetts. The ACRE site is a perfect example of a clean brand-building site for a new business.

The second site that we would like to introduce is that of the Burlington Legacy Project. The Burlington Legacy Project is a city government organization focused on promoting sustainable municipal growth strategies for Burlington as it grows into the future.  This is a wonderful organization that works to provide a framework for Burlington to help it maintain its vibrant urban nature and wonderful character far into the future.

Sneakers Bistro has been a Union Street Media client for many years now, so when they wanted an updated look for their website they came back to us. For those of you aren’t local and thus don’t know about this local legend, Sneakers is a fantastic breakfast and lunch spot in the heart of Winooski, Vermont. It is a fun, energetic place and that is just the thing we went for in our new design of the site. Have a look  – we dare you to look at their site and not want Cheese Grits.

The last Website that we would like to introduce is Atlantic Barn and Timber – a wonderful custom timber framing company in North Carolina. For artisans such as the people at Atlantic Barn, a website needs to support the images of their work – not distract from them. Their new site is subtly designed to be a digital extension of their truly fantastic craft.

We here at Union Street Media are please to add these sites to our ever-growing, diverse website portfolio!

Two Union Street Media Clients Win MAR Website Awards!

We here at Union Street Media are proud to announce that the results of the Massachusetts Association of Realtors annual Website Competition are in and two Union Street Media clients have received first and second runner up in the Office Website Category!

We would like to congratulate Lomenzo Properties of Dennis Village on Cape Cod who won for first runner up! This is doubly impressive as they are a two-agent office and beat out countless larger offices in their category. Their prominence is largely do to the wealth of information that they have on their website. They are  prime example of how powerful expansive, high quality content can be. Congratulations to Peter & Elaine for all of their hard work and focus!

We would also like to congratulate Northrup Realtors of Lynnfeild, Ma who won for second runner up! Their achievement is even more impressive as they only launched their new website this past spring. The fact that they have been able to add enough information and resources in that short time period is an impressive effort.

If you read the comments on why these two offices finished in the top of the pack it is clear that it is a combination of the design and functionality that we provide but mostly that our system gives them the  supporting structure to showcase their knowledge and vision of their market area. Again Congratulations to our clients for all of their hard work!

Union Street Media Client Wins Award

Union Street Media would like to congratulate Suzanne Johnson of Tilley’s Café in Burlington who has been named the winner of the Restaurateur of the Year award from the Vermont Chamber Hospitality Council. If you have not been to Tilley’s cafe we highly recommend you visit and see the amazing seafood that they cook up daily. Our favorite would have to be the Coconut Prawns!