The Pope has spoken, and he says you should blog

January 24th, 2010

You probably think that headline is a joke, but it’s far from it. Mashable reported that Pope Benedict XVI has shared that the cultural shifts have come and it’s time to reach out in the social media world. The Pope himself has launch social media efforts and wants others to follow. Here is an expert from his original message:

“The spread of multimedia communications and its rich “menu of options” might make us think it sufficient simply to be present on the Web, or to see it only as a space to be filled. Yet priests can rightly be expected to be present in the world of digital communications as faithful witnesses to the Gospel, exercising their proper role as leaders of communities which increasingly express themselves with the different “voices” provided by the digital marketplace. Priests are thus challenged to proclaim the Gospel by employing the latest generation of audiovisual resources (images, videos, animated features, blogs, websites) which, alongside traditional means, can open up broad new vistas for dialogue, evangelization and catechesis.”

Social media is defintely here to stay. It can be a perfect outlet for your message, with one of the key phrases of the Pope’s message being:  “exercising their proper role as leaders of communities.” Use these wonderful outlets to see how you can speak to and engage your community. If you want more on this topic, I’ve listed a few other posts as reference:

Raquel Richardson
marketing, social media
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Big, fabulous ideas you take and use how you like.

The Social Media Revolution

October 30th, 2009

I spent yesterday teaching two, two hour social media seminars. I started off each with the video below. I was surprised only two people from the whole day had seen the video, so I am putting it in our blog for everyone to view. You’ll want to take the four minutes to watch this. It has some hard-hitting facts to show and tell how social media is happening right now, and how quickly this revolution came to be.

I hope it inspires you to take some action on your own social media learning curve. Get on, listen and interact. Relationship marketing is back.

Watch the video.

Raquel Richardson
social media
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Catch Jeff Heinzmann on Silver Square's Intimate Invasion

Creating an Experience

September 11th, 2009

One of our services is the Market Snapshot. This service builds up to an hour presentation of recommendations our client should do to propel their business forward with marketing – to ultimately be the market leader. We did one of these presentations yesterday with Meridian Design Group, a 25 year old salon with locations in Carmel and in the heart of downtown Indianapolis. Most of their main business IS an experience service that each client gets once they walk through the Meridian Design Group door. To hit home on this experience approach, we used two specific items in our presentation to bring home the idea.

First, we took a trip to Target and found little hair clips. These clips worked as the base to hold name tags for the six individuals coming to the presentation from their management team. On each of their name plates, we placed an experience we wanted each of them to individually embrace and work on each day of their job. That way, among the six of them, the full experience they want to ensure happens in their salons will take place. One will work on beauty, another laughter, and yet another relaxation. It was a nice way to bring home a big point, and, hopefully add to their experience.

Next, one of our presentations was to begin a Hair TV project where the stylist’s introduce their personalities and passion in to the history of hair. Typically people are a little hestitant when it comes to video, so we pulled out our Flip camera, took a minute video of each of them telling what they enjoyed most about Meridian Design Group, and then immediately showed them the result. They were suprised at the level of quality and realized, hey, this is doable and really fun.

So next time you’re thinking about what you want your clients to experience, try to go one extra step and make that experience happen for them. It will be noted and make the result much, much better.

Experience name tags for a market snapshot presentation.

Experience name tags for a market snapshot presentation.

Raquel Richardson
branding, business smarts, marketing, social media
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Mix it up!

July 30th, 2009

On Monday, July 24th, on the Today show, this video was shown about a wedding couple/party rockin it down the isle. It was so fun to watch I have to share it here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WVI1Xc6Z2Q

Really, though, what this tells me is that anything goes. The Internets (love saying that word) has truly opened the door for us all to see how others live, how others buy, learn what people read, understand how people relate, and mix and mingle with people who are like-minded but that you never would have met in your otherwise daily life. The door is more open than ever before to be your own leader, do your own thing and march to your own drum.

Take this in a business snapshot. How can you twist it up? In your business, what is the typical way you would ‘walk down the isle’ and how could adding a twist change the experience for your clients? It’s definitely worthy of considering, and even trying, and I dare say, it’s even now perfectly acceptable. Mix it up!

Raquel Richardson
branding, business smarts, just for fun, marketing, marketing & sales, social media
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Big, fabulous ideas you take and use how you like.

Get Back on the Road Roundup

June 5th, 2009

Silver Square recently unveiled Get Back on the Road, a website where business owners can ask marketing questions and get a response from seasoned professionals.  The site has had a lot of activity this week.  Here’s a quick peak at what’s new.

Now that I have videos how do I distribute them?
There’s a lot you can do with videos.  If you’re just uploading them to YouTube, you’re missing opportunities.

How do we brand ourselves as generalists?
You don’t have to specialize in a particular industry to develop a sophisticated brand.  Everyone has a story.

Why should I focus on my brand?
Developing your brand isn’t a task that you can mark as complete and forget about.  As your business evolves, so must your brand.

Have your own marketing questions?  What are you waiting for?  Get your ask going.

Clay Mabbitt
branding, marketing, web
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Catch Jeff Heinzmann on Silver Square's Intimate Invasion

What’s On Your Business’s Facebook Page

June 4th, 2009

As I was updating Silver Square’s page on Facebook today, it occurred to me that some of the people who follow our blog might appreciate an outline of what we’re doing with our Facebook page.  Everyone seems to get that Facebook is a big deal, but it isn’t always clear how to use it for your business.

Your goals should be exposing your business to new eyes and giving your loyal fans interesting updates.  Here’s a breakdown of what you can do on each tab of your Facebook page.

Wall

On personal Facebook profiles this area is commonly used to leave status updates.  You’ll often read about what someone’s eating for lunch or who’s getting under their skin that day.  On a business page, this is an ideal area to make announcements.  If you get mentioned on another web site, put a link to it here.  Unrolling a new product or service?  Shining a spotlight on one of your referral partners?  It goes on the wall.

We recently did a mini-promotion where the first 50 people to become our fans on Facebook and sign the wall with the words “give me the twitter guide” would receive a free download of Using Twitter to Boost Your Bottom Line.

Info

Here’s where you can include contact information for your business.  There isn’t much detail here, but it’s the type of information that someone discovering you for the first time on Facebook would want to see.

RSS/Blog

We use a Facebook application called Social RSS that lets you add a tab to your Facebook page for your blog.  The page loads a little slow, but it automatically keeps this section populated with our latest blog posts.  We have it set up to pull posts from our main Silver Square blog as well as our blog where we answer your marketing questions, Get Back on the Road.  This allows new visitors to see the content that we are regularly creating (and hopefully decide they want to regularly follow our blogs).

Events

What kind of events should you add to your Facebook page?  Open houses, seminars, client appreciation dinners, public relations appearances, and launch parties are all good candidates.  One of the advantages of adding the event to Facebook is that it is easy to send a notice about the event to all of your fans.  We list all of our free Twitter seminars.

Videos + Photos

Here’s where you get to show a little personality.  Include candid photos and videos that you shot on your cell phone.  Obviously you wouldn’t want to upload anything that will reflect poorly on your business, but social media sites like Facebook are ultimately about connecting with people.  Give your fans a face or two they can put with the company.

You can also include examples of your work.  We have several photo galleries of the creative we’ve developed for past clients.

More?

Facebook is designed so that you can customize your page.  You can use applications (like Social RSS mentioned above) to add more tabs.  If you’re using Facebook and have some favorite applications, sound off in the comments.

Clay Mabbitt
branding, social media, web
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