Marketing Muse from Silver Square

2008 in photos

This one is just because I have always appreciated the photography and 'summary' the New York Times delivers, and they didn't leave me disappointed with their 2008 Year in Pictures. Enjoy and Happy New Year.

What color is Christmas?

 

What colors do you associate with Chistmas? I pretty much don't associate Christmas with reds and greens unless they are off hues that are brighter and much more fun than the 'typical' holiday offerings. I also prefer thinking of silver or copper instead of brass or gold. A modern Christmas palette is my preference! Magenta, teal, silver, lime green and canary yellow, these are my colors of Christmas.

Enjoy a more serious look at holiday hues at the Colourlovers website. Happy Holidays!

50 questions for every business from Tom Peters

Back, back, back in my early days of career life, while working at Charles Schwab, Tom Peters was the local god. Schwabbies all around loved and read all his stuff, including me. As I think about what's next for not only Silver Square but our clients as well, I'm reminded of this 50 question list Peters wrote this time last year. It's the "Top 50 Have Yous" which are questions such as "Have you... in the last 10 days visited a client" (OK, he uses the word customer, but I cannot bring myself to use that word) and "Have you thanked a frontline employee for carrying around a great attitude … today?"

Take a few minutes and read through the list. Pick out a few and own them, do something with them, and revisit those same questions each month or quarter. See what it does for you in the next 365 days.

Go Butler... finally you have a great website, but a couple things are still lacking

I'm a Butler grad and proud of it, but for many years their website was just bad. It was behind the time and behind in the activities which speak to the individuals they were trying to attract. Finally they have kicked up their design, shared how life is at Butler through student blogs and helped most (most) of the schools create a consistent look with the university. I really like the 'Is Butler right for me' portion of the site - good job there. In my mind though, there are still at least two big items missing...

Video is where it's at for these kids. Take some time over the next few months and get some real life video going to accompany your other web 2.0 applications. Buy some kids a video camera and see what they come up with. Make it a contest and buy a student's books next semester. You don't have to spend thousands to get personal and relate to the type of kids you want coming to Butler. You just have to be real.

After the site visitors get through the grandiose Butler branding stuff, they'll want to know about academics and the information on their school's site. These are still mismatched, inconsistent, dated and just plain horrible. Help them. Quickly. The disconnect is too great. This may very well be where a potential Butler student ends their experience and holds that last bit of information in their brain as 'Butler.' Is that what you want? I don't think so since you went through the time and effort to kick up your other presence.

So, good job, kind of. You still have a little work to do.

What's with Twitter?

If you have ever been wondering exactly what Twitter is all about, and likewise wondering why you should wonder, visit "Twitter Means Business" book by Julio Ojeda-Zapata. This first chapter of his book explains why it's not just something silly, even though its name may get a few giggles.

If you're interested, drop me a line and I'll tell you just how much social networking has done for us and our clients in the last month.

What is that one thing?

You have heard me say before that reading The Breakthrough Company was one of my best reads in 2008. Now I'm going to share one of the quotes from the book that, if done, could have a big impact on your business.

"Take 10 minutes right now and ask yourself, 'What one thing should I do tomorrow that will have the biggest positive impact on my business?' And then don't stop until it's done." 
        - Keith McFarland, author

Let me know your one thing and how you accomplished it and we'll share it on a future blog.

What is it about the exclamation point? I'll tell you!

Lots of people who know me like to joke about a few of my idiosyncrasies, like my problem with exclamation points. I don't use them often, and, like to basically taunt people who do. When I use one, I use it with every honor that some English teacher somewhere will respect. I attribute my exclamation point issue both with my personality and my journalism background, but also because of the problem I have with its misuse....

I'm not a fan of false or exaggerated enthusiasm, and the misuse of the exclamation point is doing just that. It can hurt your credibility and it can hurt your brand.

Let me prove my point on two cases that come to mind: 

1. I was helping with a campaign for someone once, and within the same paragraph, they used five exclamation points. Five. I happened to like this candidate and thought the use was a bit much. I said so and explained my point to the campaign director, which was, you're making the candidate's entire platform seem uncredible due to your overuse/misuse of exclamation points. We don't need five; let's maybe use one. They came around, but...the very next ad they requested guess who showed up for the party?
2. Sometimes, just for giggles, I'll look through the real estate magazines. Sorry Realtor pals, but you guys are some of the worst at overuse and misuse of my friend the exclamation point. Is well-maintained! and Needs Updates! really exclamation point worthy? Again you have made me all but cancel out anything that you're saying is Beautiful! and Must See! just because you're trying to oversell me on everything. It's not all that great. You're bringing down your credibility and doing your client a disservice in selling their home.

In general, exclamation points are great when you mean them and when used only when appropriate. The more you use them, the more you chip away at your credibility and your educating/selling goals of your piece. Don't shoot yourself or your company's image just because you don't know when to stop your use. If it's genuine, use it. If it's not, don't.

There's a reason it's called social networking

Have you ever given any thought to the term 'social media'? While chatting this morning with Kyle Lacy, I realized lots of people don't really (still) get social media.... and here is why. They are missing the fact that you have to be social.

Just like in the real world, you attend a networking event and get the most out of your time and effort if you take steps toward meeting and greeting as many people as possible. The social side of our day-to-day life is just as important as your social persona in our virtual worlds. Talk it up, meet people, devote some time to the craft and interact. You shouldn't have any surprise to the fact that the more you mingle, the more you know, the more you can give and the more you can receive. Very simple facts of life - no matter how you describe your environment.

The point:  Be Social. If you're not, you're not getting social media. 

New site better answers the question "What do you do?"

We have many clients who come to us with that very old question - how do we get people to know what we do? Well, first, you have to decide what it is that you do.

Sesco Group recently launched a new website that helps them better tell their story, better answer the question of what they do. Their very first paragraph puts it out there loud and clear:  We help you overcome your property’s environmental challenges quickly and at minimal cost to you. How does that sound? Do you immediately know if what you need fits in this company's scope of work?

When you allow yourself to say what you do in a concise and direct manner, sticking with one "thing" you are already selling to your audience. You're saying "we do this" and we can do it for you. You're making an impact and getting your message through the clutter. As a sales person for the company, you're able to determine if your prospect is a good fit for you in a shorter amount of time. Who doesn't want a shorter sales cycle!? You're also spending time on prospects that are more relevant to your bottom line as a business. Shorter time and more money. Hum.... I like that.

As we prepare for a few meetings next week to help more clients through this same scenario, I challenge you to consider how you can sharpen your message and increase your sales potential. If you think you have any gaps, I can help you close them.

Pat, pat, pat

Everyone once in awhile you do a job very well done and you're proud of your accomplishments. While this happens often for us (shy, I know) it's not as often that we promote our work (bad, bad, bad).

Introducing the new Pete the Planner website, videos and GreenCandy.com. These sites deliver useful and relevant information for the generation Y audience and the parents who dearly love them. The new Pete the Planner site was built to move away from the stylish yet hard to maintain image-based website to a new, sleek and streamlined site that the client can udpate on his own. Adding his podcasts, radio shows, news articles and keeping his blog up to date all takes him just a few minutes each.

GreenCandy is a completely new brainchild we helped Pete form and then turned it in to reality. The site delivers big impact for subscribers to learn all they need to know to get their financial house in order. Once you're in the site, you get a funny video that describes each pod (what we call the topics, which include things like debt, investing, risk management, etc.) and loads of super cool and useful worksheets that help generation Y tackle their financial goals.

Check it out and consider giving GreenCandy as a gift to your loved one for the holiday - it's a fun, interactive site that teaches you about money like you've never seen before.

When you're reading to create your own subscription-based site, videos and web-based marketing plans, drop us a line.