As Blue Fountain Media continues to win awards for making results-driven website designs, our CEO Gabriel Shaoolian has become in high demand as a public speaker. He’s offered his insight as a featured speaker at the Business Design Institute, lecturing at Paper NYC’s classes, and with the NY Entrepreneurs Business Network.  Most recently Gabe was invited to Madison Square Garden as a featured panelist during the Greater New York Chamber of Commerce’s annual Business Expo, where he spoke how social media can make an impact for both established brands and small businesses.

“If you’re not active in social media, and someone will Google your name, chances are whoever wrote something bad about you will come up (instead of you)”, Gabriel Shaoolian told attendees of the New York Business Expo. Their panel discussed variety of issues, especially online business strategy, goal setting and measuring the results of online marketing campaigns.

Participants in the event focused on the strategic opportunities and practical tactics created through social media, especially as they apply to businesses of across every market. In comparison to traditional advertising, Gabriel Shaoolian pointed out the contrast between entrepreneurs and established brands. “If you want to generate brand loyalty online, you’ve got to put content out there that’s useful to your visitors,” he pointed out, answering the audience’s questions about how to best use these new tools to grow their business.

(more…)

A great website called Single Startups, features successful, passionate, single, and most of all cool CEOS and entrepreneurs across the country. When Single Startups asked Blue Fountain Media’s CEO, Gabriel Shaoolian to discuss his personal and professional philosophies- he was happy to oblige.

The Single Startups interview with Gabriel gives terrific insights into why he has been able to make Blue Fountain Media one of the fastest growing web design and online marketing companies in the country.

Here is an excerpt from the interview:

(more…)

TakeYourOwnPath.com

Blue Fountain Media CEO Gabriel Shaoolian has been identified by Dell as a Business Trailblazer on Dell’s TakeYourOwnPath.com website. Dell’s Business Trailblazers features “the stories of those rugged individuals that have made their way through the labyrinth of business and found their own path to success.”

Read Dells’ profile of Gabriel Shaoolian at TakeYourOwnPath.com

On March 25, Blue Fountain Media CEO Gabriel Shaoolian was a featured speaker at the Business Development Institute’s Seminar: Social Reputation Management, Protecting & Strengthening Your Brand Across The Social Web.

(more…)

Founder of NY Entrepreneurs Business Network (NYEBN), Andrew Wong, was looking for an expert entrepreneur that can speak about the value of online marketing – once he met Blue Fountain Media’s CEO Gabriel Shaoolian, the search was over.

On Thursday, April 1, 2010 Gabriel Shaoolian will be the keynote speaker for the NYEBN Spring seminar. He will be covering “How to Get The Most out of Online Marketing” in front of eager small business owners and entrepreneurs in New York City.

Thursday’s event will focus on how to build your online business and how to market it efficiently and wisely. Gabriel’s seminar is very beneficial for businesses of all sizes because he gives key advice on their online business strategies – the rights and wrongs and how to build a better online reputation.

If you would like to learn more about this event and want to RSVP, Click Here

Last week, Blue Fountain Media was a featured sponsor, as well as guest speakers at the Social Reputation Management event hosted by the Business Development Institute at the CUNY Graduate Center. Both Gabriel Shaoolian and Director of Marketing, Alhan Keser, gave wonderful insights about online reputation and the science of SEO. Other featured guests were GM, MasterCard, Pitney Bowes and Tyson Foods.

When Inc. was looking for an expert on making websites for businesses, they gave Blue Fountain Media CEO Gabriel Shaoolian a call.

The interview with Inc. reporter J.J. McCorvey covered a variety of issues relating web design and web content. Here’s what Shaoolian had to say on the subject of putting a “human face” on your company website:

Another thing that is commonly omitted from business websites, Shaoolian says, is executive or management information. “People want to know who they’re dealing with,” says Shaoolian. “Who’s responsible for this company, and who are the team players?

To read the entire story, Click Here

In recent weeks, Blue Fountain Media’s experts have been interviewed  in The Wall Street Journal, SmartMoney, Crain’s New York Business, and Crain’s BtoB.

Blue Fountain Media’s Founder and CEO, Gabriel Shaoolian, was interviewed by Crain’s Business to Business on the subject of online reputation management. The interview first appeared online on March 10, 2010.

Here’s an excerpt:

HOS: What should companies do about negative comments?

Shaoolian: If there is controversy about your company on the Internet, deal with it head-on. Everyone makes mistakes. How you deal with the mistakes can make all the difference in the world.

If you know the identity of the persons making the complaints or criticisms, try to personally engage them. Get to the root of the problem—be candid, open and apologetic. If you’re at fault, fix the problem. People really do appreciate when a brand is responsive.

If there has been a major problem with an entire product line, then keep people informed about the steps being taken to fix the problem and how affected customers will be treated. This is a great opportunity to include a “Message From Our Chairman/CEO” landing page, where the negatives can be turned into positives.

In the past few weeks, senior BFM executives have also been featured in The Wall Street Journal, SmartMoney and Crain’s New York Business.

To read the full interview, go here.

Gabriel Shaoolian, BFM’s Founder and CEO was interviewed by Crain’s New York Business (March 8-14 edition) and the interview can be found online here.

With BFM experiencing explosive growth, Shaoolian provided his keys to making great hires… and avoiding bad ones.

Here’s an excerpt:

Vague responses or yes-or-no answers weed out about half of the applicants, he says. “I want people who are passionate and articulate,” Mr. Shaoolian notes. “If people can’t communicate a clear vision of what they can contribute, I don’t want them talking to clients.”

For those who pass that first screening, Mr. Shaoolian has devised further tests. He asks designers, for instance, to explain how they would improve a given Web site.

“We want people who understand that the point is to grow the client’s business, not just to look prettier,” he says.

Shaoolian has also recently been featured as an expert columnist on YoungEntrepreneur.com.

YoungEntrepreneur.com has chosen Blue Fountain Media Founder and CEO Gabriel Shaoolian as an expert contributing columnist on their blog. Today marks Shaoolian’s first article, Online Reputation Management: 6 Steps to a Rock Solid Online Reputation.

Check back twice each month for the latest installment of Gabriel’s YoungEntrepreneur articles. He will be covering a range of topics relevant to doing business on the web, including web design, e-commerce, online advertising and search engine optimization.

As the Founder of Blue Fountain Media, I want to wish our clients, our staff and our good friends a very Happy New Year.

2009 was a watershed year for Blue Fountain Media.  This past year saw us double in size, expand offices twice, and bring in many new areas of expertise.

The year saw us work with a wonderful group of clients- both old and new- on a variety of interesting and challenging projects.

Some of the highlights of 2009 include:

• Blue Fountain Media was awarded  a 5-Star Dun and Bradstreet Rating
• We won awards for design, marketing and e-commerce
• We earned recognition by the Web 2.0 Expo as the embodiment of “The Power of Less”
• We were singled out by About.com’s Google expert for our SEO expertise
• We successfully delivered sophisticated projects for clients like the NFL, OppenheimerFunds, Granite Transformations and the United Nations.

We are looking forward to ever greater success in 2010.

Again, wishing you all a very happy and healthy new year!!

Gabriel Shaoolian
Creative Director