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    Posts Tagged ‘relatonships’

    Instructions For The Triggerpuller

    Thursday, July 29th, 2010
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    There’s a lot to be said for collaboration.  It’s helpful to have another set of eyes and a different perspective.

    But only one person can pull the trigger.

    Go ahead and decide who that’s going to be before you start.  You’ll save everyone on your project time and headache, which saves the business money (which is why we do this).

    There’s a lot more to a marketing strategy now that in the past.  The parts and pieces make it possible for there to be a lot of different places and ways to launch.  Better be able to trust the person responsible for it.

    Establish tone.  Create style.  Be consistent.  You need to instill confidence in your co-workers just as much as you do in your clients.  There’s no way to do that through constant consensus.

    If you can do that with the people that you’re working with/for, your work is going to be better.  No question.  You’ll have eliminated micromanagement from your workflow, because you’ve trained yourself (and your team, and your customers) that your decisions are good ones.

    Here’s a path to making that happen…

    1.  Workflow.  Make sure everyone involved in the project understands that you’ll be the one hitting “publish”.  Whatever path you need to take to get there, try to make it as straight as possible.  Too many cooks spoil the copy.

    2.  Fight flexibly.  Content marketing is a process, not an event.  If consensus does move away from your direction, consider the reasons for that.  There’s a lot of room as triggerpuller to include other people’s ideas while still maintaining the integrity of the piece.  That’s one of the reasons the triggerpuller job is so great: you’re the ultimate ally.  But be ready to fight for something you need.

    3.  Take responsibility.  You make decisions based on how you see the marketing landscape, and guess what?  You’re going to make a mistake.  You’ll read something wrong, upset the wrong person, publish typos.  Worse, you’ll do it on behalf of someone else.  Oosh.  When it happens, be ready.  Own up to your mistake.  Then get ready to pull the trigger again.

    What do you think?  Small biz trigger pullers out there, what’s your take?

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    Posted in Content Creation | No Comments »

    How Do You Make The Switch?

    Friday, April 16th, 2010
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    A small business that I know pretty well made a big mistake last week.

    Here’s what they did:  they hired a person to do their social media marketing.

    Not a mistake on its face, right?  Right.  Having someone in a full time position to manage social media at this point should be obvious.  And if it’s not, you’re reading the wrong blogs.

    It’s so obvious, in fact, that for most small businesses, the marketing department and the social media manager should be the same person.  The ubiquity (one of my favorite words, and a good name for a band BTW) of social media is such that to separate it from the rest of your marketing strategy is, well, dumb.

    Back to our business at hand:  they hired a person to manage their social media marketing.  Nice.  Good job, small business that I know pretty well.  Way to go.

    Until I found out why they hired her.  She’s gen Y.  That’s it.  No experience other than having gone through high school with an ever-present facebook chat window open and an unlimited texting plan.

    How bad a decision is this?  Catastrophic.  It’s like hiring your high school newspaper editor to design all of your print ads (no offense to the high school newspaper editors, current or former, but c’mon- that piece you did on how the fruit cup didn’t contain cherries last week wasn’t exactly the NYT).

    Or hiring someone to run your shoe store because they’re bipedal.  The point is that an internet age does not an internet marketer make.

    Here’s how to switch:

    -Embrace Social Realize that marketing socially is better than marketing traditionally.  For small businesses, this is an absolute open-and-shut case.  Over the long term, the ROI is better, the research is better, the metrics are better.  At its core, it’s a better model for your business, because small businesses are about connections, and so is social media.

    -Get Familiar Do some research on the space before you make any decisions.  It’s said that the internet is an echo chamber, so maybe it’s ironic that the loudest echo is this: listen.  Listen to what marketers are saying about the direction that social media is taking.  Get familiar with the strategies and tactics.  Once you understand a bit about how the gears turn, you can make decisions based on information vs. what’s all this hubub about the Twitter.

    -Be True To Yourself Just because marketing is going digital doesn’t mean you have to all of a sudden become a geek.  Your company has a personality.  Lucky for us, that’s social media marketing’s strong suit.  Copywriting isn’t dead, but it’s looking a whole lot more like the text you sent your sales team.  Transparency is a bitch for most older businesses, especially the levels of transparency needed for good social media marketing.  Anyone that tells you any different isn’t looking hard enough.

    -Continuing Ed The big problem with most small businesses is that they’re static.  Marketing may get a new look each season, but the tactics are exactly the same.  Social media marketing is different.  It’s a space that changes fast, and your HPIC (Head Poster In Charge) should be changing with it.  And so should you.  The cool part is that, digitally, this can happen with amazing ease and grace if you let it.  It’s a matter of recognizing change and preparing for it, not just reacting to it.

    Put another way:  Everyone is aware of social media.  Not many people understand it.

    When you make the switch, be positive that you’re on the right side of that fence.

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    Posted in Digital Marketing | No Comments »

    Best Ideas Of The Week, 2-1 to 2-5

    Friday, February 5th, 2010
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    Actually, I’ve got to rename this post.

    This week, it’s only going to be one idea.  The only thing to show this week is that the future is here.sixthsense14 by LynnBarry

    Pranav Mistry is an inventor.  Or an engineer.  Or a User Experience designer.  It’s hard to say:  the bio on his website starts off, “Nothing can be and can not be one and at the same time and I am, I am Pranav Mistry.”

    I don’t know what the hell that means.  But I kind of feel that way every time Pranav opens his mouth.  The things he talks about are brilliant in a way I don’t think I’ve ever been exposed to before.  It’s like he just plucks his dreams out of the air, and then builds them for everyone to share.

    His latest invention is called SixthSense.  I don’t know if I can describe it any better than this:  Science fiction is now science fact.

    What I mean is, now, everything is “interactive”.  If you look at a wall, you can send email from it.  Or leave a message on it, digitally.  Or take a picture of it with your fingers.  Really.  This exists.

    It’s a combination of a camera, a projector, and computer operating system that a user wears around their neck.  The camera track hand movements on the interface, which is projected onto, well, anything.  That means that not only can you see your computer screen anywhere, but everything becomes a computer screen.

    Think about that for a second.  A piece of paper.  A basketball.  A hairbrush.  Computers.

    In a sense they’re just objects, still and yet.  Until you see how a piece of

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    Posted in Inspiration | No Comments »

    How To Introduce Yourself With Social Media

    Wednesday, January 20th, 2010
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    We talk a lot about the conversation.

    But one question a lot of business owners have is, “How do I join?”  That makes sense.  Business owners usually sell things to the people they’re talking to.chat room by iboy_daniel

    Or at least, they did.  Now, it’s not up to the business owners to sell as much as it’s up to the consumer who to buy from.  I can buy a $200 import guitar from anywhere.  Everyone has a sale, everyone can ship to my door.  What makes you so special?

    What makes you special is I know you.  You came to where I was and introduced yourself.

    There are more than a few good ways to find conversations about what you do.  But once you find them, it’s best to spend some time reading up on what people are talking about there.

    If it’s a message board, read the notes from the moderators.  Check out the people who post a lot.  If it’s a comments section on a blog, read past entries.  Try to get an idea of the audience.  Take some time to hear what people are saying.

    Why?  Because it’s possible you’ll be stepping all over the conversation if you don’t.

    You’ve been listening, so you should get an idea of how to best introduce yourself.  It doesn’t have to be a formal “Hello”.  And this isn’t a post about etiquette, necessarily.  But there should be a few cues you can take from the people already taking part in the conversation.

    And if you can’t, it might not be somewhere that’s worth your time.  In general, places online where the conversation is “noisy” isn’t a good place to make a suggestion, say hi, offer something, etc.

    It’s a rule that the more anonymous a conversation is, the less helpful it tends to be.  In other words, stick to conversations where people are who they say they are.

    That’s who you want as a customer.

    Also, be humble.  Acknowledge that people have been contributing to the conversation for a while before you showed up.

    Along that same line, be honest.  Tell people who you are, and what interest you have in being there.  One caveat:  Don’t sell.  Ever.  Almost.  We hammer this point here pretty regularly, so I won’t go over the finer points in this post.  But instead of selling, just be helpful.  Okay?  Great.

    That’s what you showed up to do in the first place, right?

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    Posted in Social Media | No Comments »

    Starting a Project? Enter With Mind and Eyes Wide-Open

    Monday, March 30th, 2009
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    As small business owners and managers, there are few things more exciting than entering into new projects. Whether it’s marketing, product development, or company expansion, there’s just something exciting about taking a step toward building your business.

    I often see businesses enter into web design or digital marketing projects with incredible enthusiasm and expectations.  And rightfully so.  A carefully planned and implemented design or marketing project can have a profound impact upon your bottom line.

    However, it’s important that businesses understand that entering into a project is literally entering into a relationship.

    For that relationship to be successful, just like any of our successful personal relationships, give-and-take and effort are a requirement. Signing a contract doesn’t signal the end of the client side of the equation, just as the final set of deliverables signal the end of the agency side of the equation.

    If you’re building a new online project, you should know what you’re getting into.  Here are some tips for those entering a relationship with an agency:

    • Designate a point-person for the agency (and stick to it). Nothing is more frustrating for an agency than to receive contradictory feedback from multiple sources.  And nothing is more frustrating for a client than to have their feedback unknowingly trumped by someone else within their own organization.  Get everyone on the same page by assigning a project manager to make the final call.
    • Gain an understanding of the objectives of your various departments. Does Sally in accounting have specific things in mind for the design project?  What information will marketing need to provide? Get the participants together and work these issues out internally, with guidance from your agency.  That way, your point person can provide feedback with a unified voice.
    • Have confidence in your agency. Is the agency asking your team questions to help uncover objectives? Are they giving advice and feedback based on your suggestions? Or are they simply nodding, grinning, and agreeing as if to say, “yes, yes, just sign the check” ?  Expect reputable agencies to provide blunt advice, and back it up with information from research and past experience.
    • Communicate and Stay Organized. Keeping open lines of communication is important.  Have budget constraints changed the scope of the project? Communicate it to your agency; don’t simply allow them to “find out”.  Express your expectations.  For example, do you want weekly updates on the project progress? If so, let them know.

    Additionally, if you’re providing content, photos, video etc., be consistent in their provision. Expecting an agency to keep track of random emails, randomly delivered CD’s and to have them “pull” content shows lack of preparedness and organization.

    Many agencies will utilize some form of project management software or guidelines. In doing so, clear paths to deliverables will be spelled out for both sides while also keeping communication, files, notes, milestones and more in a central, easy to access location. If your agency provides you with a project management solution, utilizing it will make the project much better for all involved.

    Any project is a process and a relationship. Entering with a clear understanding of what you are getting yourself into, along with an open mind, will ensure you obtain the results you expect.

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    Posted in Marketing, Partnership, Web Design | No Comments »