What have Foster Web Marketing and DSS done for YOU lately?

What have we done for you lately? Learn about these great new features in DSS!

Your DSS team has been busy over the last few months - and we finally realized that we needed to share the great updates we've made to DSS with our clients! Here is the first - very long - list of changes you'll see in DSS right now. Check back frequently to this new library category (DSS Releases) to see more new features and upgrades that you can use! Got a great idea for a feature? Send the DSS team your thoughts by visiting our DSS Feedback page!

1. Call tracking integration with Total Census

If you have a trackable toll-free or local number from Total Census or The ROI Guy (this includes those of you who received a free toll-free number with your Foster Web Marketing website), you can now see details of these calls right in DSS. Not only that, but you can listen to recordings of your calls as well!

Here's how to view your call information in DSS:

From the left sidebar menu under Site Admin, select "Website Reports" and "Web Contacts". The Web Contact page will display.
Calls will display in the log with "Contact Type: CALL" and leads will display in the log with "Contact Type: LEAD". Click on the "View Complete Message" link to access a link to the call recording.
From the Contact Detail page, click the CallAudio link to listen to the call. A separate browser tab or window will open, and the audio player on your computer will play the recorded message.

Important notes about call tracking information in DSS:

Information from Total Census / The ROI Guy is loaded into DSS each night around midnight. Calls that you receive each day will be seen in DSS the following day.
Call recordings will expire after about a month.

(Wish you had a trackable toll-free or local number? Contact us to find out how easy it is to set up!)

2. New cutting-edge video encoding in EVM!

This one is huge! We have subscribed - at no extra cost to you - to an industry-leading video encoding service used by companies like MTV, Hurley, PBS and others to handle the tricky task of video encoding. Their software can encode hundreds of video codec and container combinations and all popular source video formats including .mov, .avi, .wmv, .mp4, .3GP, .3G2, .mj2, .m4v, .flv, .mpg, .flv H.264, .flv VP6, .asf and more... wow!

If you've been frustrated by the video upload process in the past, give it another try. You won't see much different in the DSS EVM module, but you will have fewer problems uploading a variety of video formats.

3. New social media share buttons

While reviewing our site load times, we noticed that the third-party code we were using for social share was adding precious seconds to our page load times. So, in an effort to continually improve, we replaced this inefficient code with streamlined Google +, Facebook and Twitter social share buttons.

These buttons appear at the bottom of every page on your site. If you'd like them to also appear at the top of your content, shoot us an email at tickets (at) fosterwebmarketing.com and we'll take care of it for you. Over the next few weeks we'll be improving the styling of these buttons, so stay tuned for more updates. Please note, if you have custom social share buttons on your site, this change does not affect you!

4. Ever wanted to add a header or footer that was specific to a practice area? Now you can!

We received a request from Rick Shapiro at Shapiro, Cooper, Lewis & Appleton Law asking if there was a way we could add keyword phrases to every piece of content in each practice area. We went over our options and came up with a great solution - giving our clients the ability to add practice area specific headers and footers to their website. We just implemented this change, so now you can go into DSS and create a new header or footer that you can attach to every piece of content in one practice area with just two clicks!

How to add a header or footer to every item of content in a practice area:

Go to the Edit Practice Area page in DSS and select a header or footer from the drop-down list where you see "Apply a header (or footer) to the top of pages associated with this practice area".
Once you save your changes, you'll see this new header or footer associated with all content types in that practice area (i.e. news, library, blog, FAQ, video).
You can stack headers and footers, too. If you were to use every header and footer available to you, here's how they'd look:
- Page Headline
- Practice Area Specific Header
- Content Header
- BODY CONTENT
- Content Footer
- Practice Area Specific Footer
- Global Content Footer
- Global Footer

Let us know if you find any interesting ways to use this feature, such as adding a practice area specific set of keywords or a practice area specific book footer or contact info to a specific attorney or phone number.

5. Switching between a rich text and plain text editor for DSS content pages

This feature won't appeal to all of our users, but if you've ever tried to add plain text to your site (for example, if you're pasting in code for a third-party application), you may have wished you could do this. Now you can.

There is now a "Switch to plain text editor" link above the rich text editor box on every content page in DSS.

6. Did you purchase a content plan from FWM? You can now track it in DSS!

As many of you know, we offer a variety of web marketing and content plans for our clients. Once you sign up, we set up DSS to track your monthly content so you can see how much of each type of content you've purchased each month, and how much was done.

Want to check on your content plan?

Click on the Content Log from the left menu bar.
The Content Log for the current month will display.
Content and videos loaded by FWM count towards the totals.
The rest of the Content Log features work the same as always - you can view a content breakdown for each month the site is live, and you can search a specified date range to see all content added.

Did you purchase a web marketing or content plan and you don't see this feature set up yet? Contact Customer Service and we'll take care of it.

7. Correct Video post dates

Have you ever added a video to EVM and wondered why it showed up with a post date of 01/01/1900? We've fixed this, so now if you don't enter a post date (which many users don't, if they want the video to post immediately), the post day will be the day you add the video.

Got a great idea for DSS or need help with one of these new features or another DSS issue? Please call us at 1-888-886-0939 or fill out a contact form to tell us all about it!