Nielsen, which is solely responsible for getting your favorite TV show cancelled because they let the networks know how few people were watching, have increasingly focused their hard-hitting data collection on social networking. Check out their State of the Media: Social Media Report for Q3 2011 for the latest research confirming everything you suspected all along. It's both eye opening and informative, though it will do nothing to bring back Arrested Development.

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While reading The Charlotte Observer the other day, I came across an article about a respectable doctor in Charlotte who did a not-so-respectable thing. (I’m not naming any names as I enjoy my current status as a lawsuit-free citizen.) As I’m shaking my head in disbelief, I notice that 23 people have clicked the Facebook Like button. I am then left to wonder, what exactly do these people like about this? Do they like this doctor? Do they like what he did? Do they like that this controversy was brought to light? Or is it possible that we, a socially-connected society, are becoming addicted to Like .

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When Florida-based Cornerstone Community Bank decided they needed to redesign their website, they started their search where most people do: Google. Search “web design for banks” and it’s not hard to see what happened next. One community bank in search of a company who could help them redesign their website and one guy who happened to be named Banks running his own digital agency. All it took was Google to bring us together.

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“Words are not much valued on the Internet, perhaps because it features so many of them.” So says the New York Times in a quote I took somewhat out of context. The Gray Lady, of course, has spent nearly a decade trying to navigate the relationship of words and the Web (not to mention how you actually manage to make money off them). While newspapers and other publications haven’t fared so well on this front, there are a number of companies who have figured out how to make words pay. It turns out, when you have a distinct, recognizable brand voice and you match it with copy people actually want to read, it’s suddenly a lot easier to sell them a garage door opener or half-priced yoga sessions.

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On March 18th, at the esteemed National Conference of the American Copy Editors Society the Associated Press made a bombshell announcement that quickly reverberated through new and old media alike: E-mail was officially losing its hyphen, effective 3 a.m. EDT Saturday, March 19.

It was the hyphen drop heard round the world. News outlets reported a collective sigh of relief from English majors who felt not just absolved of their sins of de-hyphenation, but a sense of hope for a future where the word Internet need not be capitalized. It was, for some of us, a big day.

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Disappointed in the cheese and cracker spread at that last baby shower you got dragged to? Still indignant over the cash bar at your friend's wedding? Have we got a party for you. Studiobanks is celebrating our big office move to Penman Street with an Open House on May 26, 2011. Will there be food? Like, we'd throw a shin-dig without it. Will there be drinks? Heck yeah, there will! Cut out of work a bit early to attend this "important client meeting" and check out our new office space.

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Change your GPS and update your digital address books, Studiobanks has up and moved its offices! Don’t worry, we’re still in the same general area; we’re just a tad over a mile from our old digs. Our home base is now Suite 310 of the historic Electric Supply and Equipment Company Building at 421 Penman Street. Classy!

Why the change? Two words followed by many exclamation marks: more space!!!!! We’re now occupying 3,500 square feet which means we can all stretch our arms out in either direction and NOT hit someone else in the face. Good news for office politics, bad news for office pranksters.

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On April 15th, students from UNCC, CPCC and the Art Institute descended on Studiobanks for an AIGA sponsored tour, making our firm the most popular spring break locale this side of Fort Lauderdale. Banks and Alexis regaled a group of 20 design students and professors with stories from the front lines of digital design and explained how, as a digital agency, Studiobanks differs from traditional ad agencies.

Check out the fun on our Flickr stream and take a moment to enjoy the delightfully innocent smiles of tomorrow’s overworked, sleep deprived designers.

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