Skip to main content

316.263.1004

Non-Mobile-Friendly Websites Now Rank Lower in Search

Until now, Google had been politely suggesting that you make your website mobile friendly. Well, it’s done playing nice. This week it launched mobilegeddon. That’s the popular name for changes in Google’s ranking system that will significantly favor mobile-friendly websites.

So if your site is not mobile-friendly, your search rankings are going to drop like a stone. And prospective customers are going to have a harder time finding you. Difficult to sell to someone who doesn’t know you exist.

Google wants to remain the search option of choice for the growing majority of people who search the web on their mobile devices. Face it, it’s pretty aggravating to call up a regular website on your smartphone. First it’s too small to read. Then after some fussing around it’s big enough to read but there’s no context and you have no idea where you are on the page. The new rankings make it much more likely that the top sites in any search result will be easy to read on a phone or tablet.

Be Responsive

Google recommends – and we’ve been recommending for several years now – a responsive site. Responsive refers to a site’s ability to adapt to the window it’s being viewed in. That means if you view it on a desktop, it will look like a normal website. If you view on a tablet, it automatically adapts and looks as though it was designed just for your tablet. Ditto for a smartphone.

It’s easy to tell if a site is responsive. Call it up on your smartphone and see whether it looks as though it was made for your phone. Or call it up on your desktop, grab a corner of your browser window with your mouse and change the size of your window. If the site smoothly adapts to the changing window size, it’s responsive. Or you can use this Google tool to check a site’s mobile friendliness.

Good News

Here’s the good news for the aviation industry. Almost everyone is in the non-mobile-friendly boat. That means if you update your site, you’ll be well ahead of most of your competitors. And considering the inexorable increase of mobile use, there’s really only one sensible option. Make your site mobile friendly. Soon.

This column ran in the April 23 issue of BlueSky Business Aviation News.

04.22.15 · Greteman Group

Wichita Eagle; Have You Heard; You Don’t Say

“She leaves a legacy like black ink. Timeless. Classic. Irreplaceable. Her imprint remains.”

– A tribute to the late Carolyn Black written by Greteman Group’s Sonia Greteman, who did business with Black and her Donlevy Lithograph for almost three decades

The Wichita Eagle
Carrie Rengers
You Don’t Say
© The Wichita Eagle, 2015

04.20.15 · Greteman Group

Air Capital Gets a Second Chance at a First Impression

Wichita’s Air Capital status draws travelers from around the world. They jet here to meet with people at Spirit AeroSystems, Textron Aviation, Bombardier Learjet, the National Center for Aviation Research, aviation suppliers and more. In a month or so, visitors flying into the former Mid-Continent Airport will find quite a different welcome. Wichita just got a $200-million front door.

Can’t wait to check it out? Let me be your guide.

Even if you don’t see the signs that now read Wichita Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport, you’ll experience a difference. You disembark through glass, climate-controlled jetways. As you enter the gate, you step into a gleaming new, 275,000-square-foot terminal.

EisenhowerNationalExterior
Kansas City-based HNTB Architecture created this beauty. Time to fly to the Air Capital and see it yourself.

Skylights infuse the soaring interior with one of my favorite things – natural light. The ceiling looks like a giant aircraft interior. Terrazzo floors with nickel-inlaid patterns inspired by contrails create an intuitive traffic flow. Supergraphics along the concourse highlight some of the 100-plus key models of the approximately 300,000 aircraft built here, from single-seat biplanes to transatlantic jumbo jets.

Exiting the large, open security area and its public-art, cloud-like ceiling treatment, you find aviation touches throughout the terminal. From the wing-shaped swooping roofline to the moderne industrial surfaces, the entire building feels like a metaphor for aviation today.

Celebration of the Air Capital

When you land on the mezzanine you’re transported to the early days of flight through a series of six wing-shaped pods, each telling a unique story of Wichita’s colorful past and future. Research and photos range from the early birds, barnstormers, WWII to modern day. The center circular panel explains why Wichita became the Air Capital: the central location, lots of clear sunny days to fly, flat enough that pilots could land anywhere, farmer-mechanics who could fix and build anything, and the influx of oil money to invest in an emerging industry.

terminal

Two-story-high exterior walls of blast-resistant glass let light stream in while offering protection in severe weather. Take an escalator or elevator down to the main floor. I recommend the escalator. It provides an excellent vantage point for Portland, Oregon-based artist Ed Carpenter’s Ascent Decent public art. Dichroic glass panels designed to resemble interior wing spars arch overhead from taut steel cables 360 feet ­long – more than the length of a football field.

Spirit AeroSystems CEO Larry Lawson seemed as thrilled with the terminal as the rest of us. Spirit stepped up big time as presenting sponsor of the dedication gala and other events celebrating the about-to-open terminal.
Spirit AeroSystems CEO Larry Lawson seemed as thrilled with the terminal as the rest of us. Spirit stepped up big time as presenting sponsor of the dedication gala and other events celebrating the about-to-open terminal.

On the main floor, Allegiant, American, Delta, Southwest and United ticketing areas sit to the west; baggage claim to the east.

Basement conveyor belts transport luggage – accommodating golf-club-size bags – while TSA explosives-detection machines scan away.

A covered exterior walkway leads the way to the airport’s first-ever parking garage. It houses rental-car services on the main level, covered parking on two levels, and uncovered parking on the top.

Why the Change to Eisenhower National Airport

Wichita’s current public terminal opened in 1954 when Dwight Eisenhower was president. A grassroots campaign 60 years later led to a renaming. Aviation actually played a major role in our 35th president’s legendary life.

As WWII Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, he had final say on how to use thousands of warplanes (many built in Kansas). He was the first president to have his pilot’s license. The first to ride in a helicopter. The first to fly in the jet called Air Force One. He propelled the world into the space age by establishing the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). He signed the act that created the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

President Eisenhower grew up in Abiline, Kansas, but he lived his life on the world stage. Fighting for peace. Laying the groundwork for innovation. We like Ike. That said the airport code for Wichita Eisenhower National Airport will remain the same – ICT nationally and KICT internationally. No change to IKE.

From There to Here

Victor White
Victor White

Talks for the new terminal began in 2002. Our agency, Greteman Group has been involved since 2004 – leading the selection of the public art consultant and creating the history of Wichita aviation displays. It has the distinction of being the oldest project in our shop. And, while it proceeded in fits and starts – following the economy’s ups and downs – we never lost our passion for it.

Victor White, Executive Director of Airports for the Wichita Airport Authority, says he essentially has had two jobs since coming on board in 2005 – managing the existing airport and planning the new terminal. When you fly into Wichita, I believe you’ll agree that he’s done a great job. I’m hoping you’ll enjoy the outcomes of our role as well.

This column ran in the April 16 issue of BlueSky Business Aviation News.

04.14.15 · Sonia Greteman

Wichita Eagle; Have You Heard; You Don’t Say

“Looks like I better leave the long dress with train at home.”

– Greteman Group executive vice president Deanna Harms on what she’ll wear to this weekend’s gala for the new airport, which sent a “walkability” advisory about unfinished and potentially dusty areas

The Wichita Eagle
Carrie Rengers
You Don’t Say
© The Wichita Eagle, 2015

04.10.15 · Greteman Group

Wichita Eagle; A sneak peek at Wichita’s new Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport

The following is an excerpt from the Wichita Eagle’s coverage on April 9:

Wichita last opened a new terminal in 1954 when Dwight D. Eisenhower was president. Now – 61 years later – Wichita will have a new airport named after the man fondly called “Ike.” To say the new Wichita Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport is a bit different than Mid-Continent Airport is an understatement.

Click here to read more about the new display at the airport terminal: A sneak peek at Wichita’s new Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport Wichita Eagle Kelsey Ryan © Wichita Eagle, 2015

04.10.15 · Greteman Group

Be a Better Writer

Not everyone can be a great writer, but everyone can be a better writer. Whether you’re drafting a press release about a first-generation, game-changing aircraft; a profile introducing your new CEO; or an in-depth feature for your company’s in-house newsletter, pause a moment. Consider your potential readers and what they most want to find within your prose.

Who, What, When, Where, Why

Follow the basics of information gathering. Deliver the facts, the supporting justification and what it all means. Tell readers why they should care. Is this zippy new plane going to reduceWriting-GraphicXtras_03-04 their flight departments’ operating costs or shave hours off travel time? What turf does it claim in the competitive landscape? Spool out this critical data clearly. Don’t make your readers hunt.

Know Your Stuff

Take the time needed to get it right. Write with authority. The late New York Times columnist David Carr said, “It wasn’t that I wanted to be a writer: I just didn’t want to be stupid.” Research your facts. Find more if you’re lacking. Talk to those in the know. Respect your readers enough to not give them short shrift.

Sprinkle Incentives Throughout

Once you’ve hooked readers, keep pulling them through with regular rewards – quotes, anecdotes, insights, little-known facts. It’s not enough to have a grab-them-by-the-throat lead and big-payoff close. Place interesting content along the way, like breadcrumbs leading home.

Banish “Excited” From Your Vocabulary

This may seem trivial, but it’s a sore spot. I never want to see the word again. Ever. Since the first CEO said, “I am excited to announce our new [fill in the blank],” that statement has been used a centillion times. At a minimum. Come up with something fresh, meaningful and unexpected. At a loss? Find inspiration in the words of aviation legends. Notice the lack of highfalutin words. They kept it short and snappy. And so should you.

  • E.M. Laird spoke frankly about how his factory responded to all its orders in the 1920s, saying “Everybody went wild.”
  • Beechcraft founder Walter Beech summed up his company’s product line with this simple sentence: “We sell transportation.”
  • Clyde Cessna cut to the chase saying, “Speed is the only reason for flying.”
  • And Bill Lear, one of the most quotable aviation CEOs of all time, reduced his accomplishments to these memorable lines: “They said I’d never build it; that if I built it, it wouldn’t fly; that if it flew, I couldn’t sell it. Well, I did, and it did, and I could.”

Every Platform Deserves Good Writing

Yes, you only have 140 characters for Twitter and feeding the social-media beast can feel like tossing coal into a furnace that burns faster than you can shovel. But whether your audience consumes your content online or off, you need to create professional content. You need to get it right. You need to make it worth readers’ while. And I promise you. A Lear-like quote will get shared more than an “I’m excited.” Any day.

Exclamation Points Scream “Amateur!”Writing-GraphicXtras_03-02

Punctuation gives us pause. Literally. A period signals the close of a thought; a comma, a needed break. An exclamation jolts you. Get slapped with several in a paragraph, and you feel abused. They signal a flailing about. A failure to communicate your point by words alone. An exclamation mark for anything less than “Fire!” rings of desperation. This applies to your corporate social media, too, by the way. Writing-GraphicXtras_02-01

Ask Others to Edit Your Work

You cannot find your own mistakes. Ask someone whose opinion you trust to read your content for clarity, grammar and all-around readability. And take suggestions graciously. You asked for input. No need to get all defensive. Once your flushed face cools, you’ll no doubt realize that she’s actually right about that convoluted sentence you labored over for an hour. Attack it again. You’ve heard the phrase, “Kill your darlings.” Do it. Writing-GraphicXtras_02-03

Grind It Out

Writing takes work. I hope this practical advice helps you become a better writer. Because I truly want to hear what you have to say and might miss key points if you package them poorly. As you wrangle ideas, you can still inject some word play. Langston Hughes said it best: “Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly.”    

This column ran in the April 9 issue of BlueSky Business Aviation News.

04.08.15 · Greteman Group

Wichita Chamber Member Minute

Sonia Greteman, President and Creative Director, Greteman Group
316-263-1004
1425 E. Douglas Ave., 2nd Flr.
Member for 25+ years
Interviewed March 2015

Please tell us a little bit about your company.
I founded our firm in 1989, with two other designers. After a couple of years, my two partners went their individual ways, and I pressed on with our core team adding writers, strategists, and marketing. Through the years we’ve steadily grown, adding both staff and capabilities. Our reputation for concept-oriented creative driven by spot-on strategy sets us apart. Clients turn to us for full marketing, advertising, PR and digital. They span the globe – from Fortune 500 companies to start-up entrepreneurs.

Our Air Capital location led us to specialize in the aviation industry, starting with that first call from Learjet almost 25 years ago. We’re privileged and humbled to work with some of the world’s leading aircraft manufacturers, flight support and aftermarket services. To name a few: FlightSafety International, Bombardier Business Aircraft, Signature Flight Support, Dallas Airmotive and USAIG. We also support such creative clients as the Kansas State Fair, Royal Caribbean Cruises, Verus Bank and IdeaTek. We thrive on the variety and the challenge.

What do you find most valuable about Chamber membership?
The chamber’s investment and commitment to retain our young minds. We need to keep our community workforce vibrant, involved and contributing to the greater good.

What is the best thing about doing business in the Wichita area?
Wichita’s status as Air Capital of the World delivers advantages at home and abroad. We support some of the most respected brands in the aviation industry. Not all of our clients have their headquarters in Wichita, but many have outposts here.

Describe your business’ most recent success.
Our most recent success is also the longest in the making – and that’s the creation of monumental displays that tell the story of Kansas aviation. They populate the waiting area and concourses within the Wichita Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport terminal, opening this May. We started the project in 2007. Yes, right before the big recession. So, the project has had a number of starts and stops.

To what do you contribute your success?
Our people. Our passion. Our commitment to beauty and telling stories from a different point of view. We stand out, have an opinion, cut through the sameness, hire bright motivated people and treat our clients with the upmost care.

What is your favorite Chamber event, program, or service and why?
Honors Night celebrates exemplary business people, community commitment and architectural achievement. I invariably know the recipients, so it’s an evening feting friends.

What is something people may not know about you or your business?
I’m an outgoing, creative person who likes to be involved in many things out and about. But I also really like to dig in and work. I design, write and sweat the work in the trenches with our team.

Our interactive leadership may be something the average person doesn’t know. Early in our agency’s history we were one of the first to provide turnkey websites and we’ve continued to stay at the forefront of digital solutions and channels – responsive design, search-engine optimization, data-driven marketing, email campaigns, social-media management, you name it.

What one word best describes the Chamber?
Booster

Where do you see your organization in five years?
Greteman Group will continue as a nimble, innovative team. We have young ambitious team members who burn to create, and we give them the platform to launch ideas out into the world. The communication tools we use may look quite different, but our customer-first, never-settle-for-mediocrity philosophy will not change.

What about your business are you most passionate?
Solving challenges for our clients – growing marketshare, boosting sales or changing perceptions – puts a bounce in my step. Our Ascend planning process provides a platform for developing a value-based, results-driven marketing approach and compelling, move-the-needle creative. Whatever the marketing channel – online or off – we serve as a trusted, proven partner. I find that incredibly rewarding.

On a scale of 1 to 10, how strongly would you recommend Chamber membership to a colleague?
10 – Anyone with a business – small or large – should belong to the Chamber. It offers something for everyone. And all benefit.

Favorite app?
My iPhone FlightTracker keeps me on top of flight delays, cancellations, gate changes, you name it. It tracks flights in progress so my husband knows when to expect me home.

Favorite business book?
“First Break All the Rules” by Curt Coffman

Complete this sentence: “When a customer walks into my business, they can expect…”
…to see their name on a reception desk sign, a smile on our faces, gorgeous locally sourced original art and a go-getter attitude.

If you could have any meal delivered to your doorstep right this second, what would it be?
Some fresh delight my husband conjured up from our garden.

If you could have the answer to any question, what would you ask?
Where’d you bury the treasure?

Is there anything else you would like to include?
The friends, art and aviation community we’ve cultivated keep us going and smiling.

This Member Minute can also be found on the Wichita Metro Chamber of Commerce website.

04.03.15 · Greteman Group

Wichita Eagle Featured Business Person: Donna Grow

From movie posters to flight safety manuals, Grow has helped get a lot of content into the hands and minds of the people it’s intended for.

“I really don’t have a degree in design,” she said. “I just kind of fell into it right out of college.”

The Conway Springs native attended a secretarial college after high school, then got a job as a typesetter in the graphics department at Boeing. She moved to Los Angeles with her husband at the time, Dawayne Bailey, a guitarist who played with Bob Seger and Chicago. While there, she worked for an ad agency that made movie posters for Warner Bros. and MGM.

After returning to Kansas, Grow worked for a couple of printing companies, then spent 11 years at Sullivan Higdon & Sink, eventually helping start its in-house production unit.

“And that’s how I started doing that – production art,” she said.

She’s worked for Greteman since 2000 with one break. Her main client is FlightSafety International, for which she helps produce print and online materials, graphics for trade show booths and more.

“It’s a big brand,” she said. “We’re putting out a lot of different media other than print, so I really just review it all and make sure it’s all within their brand.”

Grow attributes her success in a field she never formally trained for to working with “some really great art directors. I guess I have an eye for it.”

Grow has four grown children. She enjoys reading, dabbling in interior design and walking for exercise. In fact, she walks to and from work every day, no matter the weather.

“I just feel so much better,” she said. “As you get older, you have to try a little harder.”

© The Wichita Eagle 2015

This column, written by Joe Stumpe ran in the April 2 issue of The Wichita Eagle.

04.02.15 · Greteman Group