For anyone looking for something special to do for the 4th of July around Nashville, below is a list of some local Celebrations. We know that it can be a real bummer for folks who live in areas where Fireworks have been banned or disallowed, such as the City of Franklin. We hope that wont discourage you from enjoying such a wonderful holiday with loved ones. After the burgers and dogs have been eaten, we suggest finding one of these local fireworks displays! Vauxite Creative wants to wish everyone a happy and safe 4th of July!

Downtown Nashville
Riverfront Park
The Riverfront fireworks show is the most popular, and for good reason! We suggest trying to make it downtown for the show, but expect a high volume of people to do the same.

Franklin
Franklin High School Stadium
Franklin on the Fourth is great! children’s activities, food, musical entertainment and a huge fireworks show. It’s from 4:00-9:00 p.m. At the Franklin High Stadium on Hillsboro Rd.

Nashville
Greer Stadium
The Sounds offer fireworks displays all season long – They follow every Saturday home game and for Independence Day too!

Brentwood
Crockett Park Concert
Crockett Park celebrates Independence Day after a Concert at Crockett Park – For more information call 371-0060.

Gallatin
Gallatin Civic Center
The Gallatin July 4th Celebration includes food, music and fireworks at the Gallatin Civic Center. This event is free to attend. Contact the Gallatin Chamber of Commerce at 615-452-4000

Hendersonville
John Paul II High School
The Hendersonville Independence Day Celebration normaly features a concert at Pope John Paul II High School, followed by fireworks at Drakes Creek Park at dark (around 9 pm). For more information on concert tickets call 615-824-2818

Hurricane Mills
Loretta Lynn’s
Loretta Lynn’s Family Campground is located in Hurricane Mills, Tennessee. It’s the home to Loretta and hosts a wide array of events during the year including a fireworks display and concert this year for the 4th.

Lebanon
James E. Ward Ag. Center
The City Of Lebanon hosts an annual 4th of July Celebration every year with fireworks. It’s normally held at the James E. Ward Ag. Center. Call the City Hall office @ 443-2839 for further details.

Mt. Juliet
Providence Marketplace
Mt. Juliet will host its annual 4th Celebration this year with fireworks and other festivities. It’s normally held at the Providence Marketplace and begins at 4:30 with the fireworks display kicking off around 9:00pm.

Pegram
Town Hall City Park
Pegram offers plenty of fun for the whole family at their annual Independence Day Celebration in Town Hall City Park. (Located at the intersection of Hwy 70/Thompson Road)

Watertown
Watertown 4th of July Parade & Fireworks
The city of Watertown offers a Parade, Food, Fireworks & more. Call the Watertown Chamber Of Commerce @ 237-0270 for more information.

White House
White House City Park
The White House Independence Day Celebration offers Food, music, crafts, games and of course fireworks at White House City Park.

As you can see, there are plenty of great events going on around the area! We hope you enjoy your 4th, and don’t forget the bug spray and the SPF 30+

How Twitter can help you in Google

As discussed in Part 1, How can Social Media help grow my Business?, Twitter can be an extremely valuable asset to your company. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is used to describe the act of optimizing your companies chances of showing up on the front page of search results. People unfamiliar with how Google works sometimes believe this process only relates to the website itself. Unfortunately, adding some code and key words doesn’t go as far as it used to.
Here is an abbreviated version of how the process works: When Google searches, it does so based on relevancy. It uses “spiders” to crawl the web and read site content. It also takes the links pointing to your site, or from it into account. The greater number of times your site shows up via links in a relavent context- the more likely your company will move up Google’s list.

A Successful Social Media Marketing campaign can also result in thousands of new inbound links to your site. Inbound links are one of the most important things that influence the rankings of your site.

Now your probably wondering why this is important in regards to Twitter. When you sign up, you fill out a profile that is attached to everything you do on twitter. This includes a website address and 160 word Bio, which is referred to by search engines that examine your tweets. Next is the different ways you can use Twitter. First, a company can get great insight if they use Twitter to ask questions. Second, It drives traffic toward your product or company. Third, people on Twitter spread your tweets by re-tweeting or replying to them. With all of this activity attached to your company, the “spiders” can’t help but take notice. Here is a great article on some Twitter SEO tips!

Achieve even more with Twitter!

If you thought that SEO was the only reason your company needed Twitter, think again! Twitter is a great way for any company to connect with employees and customers on a more personal level! Twitter Search is an amazing way to see what people are saying about your products or services. Use the reply function to answer questions!

Follow us @ twitter.com/vauxitellc

When we sit down with a client, one of the first questions we ask them is, “What is the status of your Social Media campaign?”. More often than not, we discover that the client has done little in terms of social media marketing. Companies spend money left and right advertising on radio, television and even print. But with the introduction of Social Media, many of companies have “fallen behind the eight-ball” in terms of advertising and marketing. Social Media Marketing is about more than having people “like” you on Facebook, or “follow” you on Twitter- and that is why are writing this series!

The first place to start in any Business is the end. That bottom line. Social Media is the same way (if you use it for anything other than entertainment). You start by identifying what you want to achieve with Social Media. Do you need to increase revenues? Reduce costs? Get new customers? Then you call Vauxite…

The question that is on ever business owners mind, “is Social Media really that important?” Well, I consider having access to nearly 400 Million users, and a fast, easy, and FREE forum where your company can create and share content (( important )). A Successful Social Media Marketing campaign can also result in thousands of new inbound links to your site. Inbound links are one of the most important things that influence the rankings of your site. It’s easy to see how social media can be a great way to improve your rankings.

We will be going more in depth into how companies can better utilize the Social Media Sites: Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. Make sure to  you check back for part two when we talk about how Twitter can help grow your business!

Franklin, Tennessee is a charming southern town. It is the type of town that you can just park your car and walk around for hours. You can cool off with some frozen yogurt at Sweet Cece’s in the summer or grab a slice at the Mellow Mushroom if your feelin funky! It’s places like the Franklin Mercantile Deli and Dotson’s that have given the town that unique feeling of home for Vauxite. But the town always seemed like it was missing something… Anyone familiar with Franklin, TN probably knows the history of the Franklin Theatre. If not, here it is. Having personally moved to the area after the closing, I cannot speak on the theatre conditions before it was shut down. However through asking, I found that it was in very rough shape.

But an amazing thing happened- after closing in 2007, a movement to “Save the Franklin Theatre” began. The town rallied to raise the historic landmark from the dead, with a new vigor that seems to have revitalized the streets themselves!

The night of the Grand Opening, the Vauxite team headed downtown for the festivities. The girls even dressed for the event! They had King Kong and the Wizard of Oz playing on huge screens right out in the street. There were vintage cars and parents shared old memories with children, while making new ones. It was everything small towns are made of. The next morning, Al and Kristin took their young daughter to her first movie ever. They saw Charlotte’s Web, the last movie to play in the theatre before it closed.

The next night, Vauxite hit the town again to see Casablanca. It was a great time and the theatre is beautiful! We encourage anyone who has the chance to visit the theatre, to do it often! This town has a new heart, and we should all be thankful for the work that the Heritage Foundation and Williamson County have done.

Being a crack musician, when I opened up my computer and found the Les Paul Google Doodle Guitar on Google’s homepage (say that 5 times fast!) I immediately thought “Wow this is awesome!” I started out with a rendition of Come As You Are by Nirvana. Then I did Adam’s song by Blink 182 (click here to hear it). I thought to myself this is so appropriate for Nashville. Forget how much work productivity went down all over the world, I’m surprised the Music City didn’t come to a screeching halt. As the day progressed and I mixed web design work with monitoring the Google Doodle Guitar news feed it became apparent people really got into this. So, I thought I would share some of the best ditties I heard come out of the doodle…

Hey Jude on Google Doodle Guitar

Here Comes The Sun on Google Doodle Guitar

Blister In the Sun on Google Doodle Guitar

Can’t Take My Eyes Off Of You on Google Doodle Guitar

Paparazzi on Google Doodle Guitar

I just read an article that told how companies like HP are willing to sell printers at a 30% discount. Sounds great right? The problem is that to make up for it, the same companies are selling replacement cartridges at 1000% markup. HP printer sales also makes 3 times the amount of their computer sales. Kodak printers on the other hand produce the highest quality images, while selling ink at a quarter of what the competitors do. Read the article here.