Sun Sentinel features On the Ball Marketing
Posted by John | Filed under On The Ball
So, what is LinkedIn? And how does one use it?
Posted by John | Filed under Uncategorized
The folks from LinkedIn answer that question in this video:
Check out these top 10 billboards. Each one has something special to it.
Posted by John | Filed under Articles, Photo Gallery
Ever notice how billboards tend to catch your eyes while driving down the highway?
It is amazing what creative minds can do!
Spotlight at OTB: David Lucoff, Managing Director
Posted by John | Filed under On The Ball
Who is David Lucoff?
Well let’s just say he is a guy with great passion for his job and life. He is one of the top team players, helping to make On The Ball what it is today.
David was born and raised in Tampa, FL and he attended college at Florida State, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in Marketing. He moved to South Florida in 1987.
David went on to work in the cable industry with Comcast Cable, first as a Marketing Manager eventually moving up to becoming the Vice President of Marketing in South Florida. He moved to Washington DC in 2007 and spent 2 years there working for Comcast as their Vice President of Sales and Marketing in the DC region.
David previously met Steve Nudelberg, Principal Thinker with On The Ball back in 2003. At the time, Comcast hired On The Ball to enhance their brand in a competitive telecom environment. On The Ball and Comcast had numerous success stories leveraging the launch of new products – DVR, On Demand, High Speed Internet and Digital Voice.
When David returned to South Florida from DC in 2009, he got settled in and started working at On The Ball. These days he has the chance to enjoy being able to do what he loves most, watching college football and playing Golf 5 to 6 times a month!
Besides Golf, David enjoys rocking out to Adult Alternative music while driving in his Lexus GS 350. He presently resides in Parkland, FL with his wife Ellen.
Happy Thanksgiving
Posted by John | Filed under Uncategorized
From your friends at On The Ball!
PRESS RELEASE: On the Ball Offers Businesses a Chance to Think Big
Posted by Jonathan | Filed under On The Ball
Local Marketing Company Launches Proprietary Strategic Program
Plantation, FL ( November 17, 2011) – As the holiday season approaches and a new year is in view, On the Ball (OTB) marketing is encouraging local businesses to take advantage of a proprietary program called The Big Think that will offer local businesses a chance to strategize for the upcoming year with a team of marketing and social media experts.
Located in Plantation, a collaborative group, known as “thinkers,” operates the 14-year old sales, social and marketing firm. Known for a strategic digital department, OTB prides themselves on consistently bringing their clients to the next level.
“Our client relationships always begin with The Big Think which makes us a true extension of their team,” said principal thinker Steve Nudelberg. “We take a deep dive into our clients’ organization as if we were hired as their vice president of sales and marketing and develop a strategic plan to grow their business.”
South Florida based companies that have already participated in one of OTB’s signature The Big Think strategy sessions include The Florida Panthers, Sheets Brand, Los Angeles Football Stadium, Jarden Consumer Solutions, Capitol Lighting, Tropical Roofing Products, HEARx, PlaqueWorthy and PureSuasion (Cilea Lash).
“By engaging the On the Ball team to help us create and develop new strategies for our 87-year old company we have revamped our sales structure, dramatically improved our social media presence and evolved our culture to be more sales focused,” said Eric Lebersfeld, president of Capitol Lighting. “The Big Think was a powerful and enlightening experience. It left our team inspired by the creative ideas and strategies we collectively came up with. On the Ball is helping us bring our company to another level.”
For more information on On the Ball and The Big Think or a complimentary consultation, visit www.otbthink.com, call 954.332.2200, or tweet @OTBthink.
Google+ for business?
Posted by John | Filed under Articles
When it comes to social media and a place page for your business, most individuals will think of Facebook, Twitter orYoutube. But recently released is the new business page program that is none of the above. It is called Google+ Pages for Business.
Google+ is already a growing competitor to Facebook considering their launch date of only a few months ago.
If there is a company that can make it work from scratch, it would be Google! They have turned a search engine into many things, including: a GPS mapping system, email giant, and a video dominator through their Youtube acquisition.
We will have to wait and see how it turns out, but in the meanwhile check it out.
http://www.google.com/+/business/index.html
What is SEO and why does your business need it?
Posted by John | Filed under On The Ball
When you hear the term “SEO,” what is the first thing that comes to your mind? If you answered Search Engine Optimization, then you are on the right track. If not, here are some details on what SEO is.
Quote: “Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the visibility of a website or a web page in search engines via the “natural” or un-paid (“organic” or “algorithmic”) search results. In general, the earlier (or higher ranked on the search results page), and more frequently a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine’s users. SEO may target different kinds of search, including image search, local search, video search, academic search, news search and industry-specific vertical search engines.” – Wikipedia
Why is SEO important for your business to have? The answer is company growth through sales.
The market place has really changed since the early 90’s. Most businesses have a website where clients can purchase their goods and services directly online. Without this type of store front, businesses are finding themselves getting left behind in the marketplace. Businesses who know that the internet is becoming the main shopping site for all goods and services usually have at least a Facebook page. Most have a Twitter and Foursquare presence.
Just because you have these does not guarantee that your business is going to be on top of all search engines, unless you paid them to be. Being active on Twitter and Facebook or posting a blog on weekly basis does help but it is not the full solution. A full SEO campaign is the way to grab that ranking online. It is not an easy program to do either. SEO takes several individuals working on a daily basis to even improve the page ranking, so you will be on top.
One of the biggest things that SEO is able to do is coincide with your marketing plan. When you use keywords in your ads (print, tv, radio, online, etc) you are able to make the key words work with the SEO search results. But only if you are on top.
For example (fictional story for illustration purposes):
Big Bread is a manufacture of wheat and white bread in the southern United States. Big Bread want’s people to buy their brand because they are local, family friendly and offer fresher bread than their competitors.
Big Bread decides to hire a marketing firm that can do everything in one bundle. The firm creates a plan with SEO about “Local Fresh Bread” and implements this into their advertising outlets. When consumers in their targets areas hear/see/view these ads, they remember “The Only Local Fresh Bread” and will more than likely search out the site.
The issue with ads and consumers is that they remember the item but not the company name. They will head to Google in an attempt to find the product. The consumers find “Big Bread” in the top search result (thanks to the SEO)which is the only bread company offering Fresh Local Bread in the Southern US.
The consumers find out where the bread is sold and they buy it. After experiencing this bread being the best they have ever had, they head to Facebook (or other outlets) and post about how happy they are with the bread. This, included with the already implemented SEO project, leads to even higher ranks on the search engines and again leads to more sales. This is what equals growth for the company.
So now that you know what SEO is, why not get it working for you?
On The Ball offers this service and more to building your business beyond the website. Contact us today for a free no obligation consultation on what your business can do to grow.
Sources: Wikipedia.com, Goggle.com webmaster tools (seo growth), brightlocal.com/blog/about-local-seo
How Apple and Google have changed the Social world
Posted by John | Filed under Uncategorized
Twitter and Facebook are widely known as the “leader” of the social media world. Almost everyone you meet will say “look me up on facebook” or “follow me on twitter”.
However the social media platforms have always been more of a PC way of communicating. Think back for a minute, were you on your Nokia black and white text phone sharing on facebook?
As far back as I can remember there was not much on your cell phone. At one time it was huge to have text messaging on your cell. However, that changed and with it came a whole new approach to social media.
Apple introduced the iPhone, a machine which allowed you to do more than just text, call or make instant messages. This is the first phone to have a desktop class web browser. Now, you can “tweet” about an event that was happening in front of you rather than snap a picture and post it when you get home. You can add that person who you’re sitting next to on facebook and instantly learn everything about them.
A huge change in how we did things occurred after Apple’s iPhone. The invention of Foursquare, an application built off being mobile, allowing you to “check in” at local establishments. Eventually this turned into a full blow business model for these establishments by offering coupons for checking in or becoming the Mayor of the place for the most check ins. (When you check in at an establishment frequently during a month and you acquire the most check ins, you’ll become the Mayor of that establishment on Foursquare.)
Of course other cell phone companies attempted to copy this concept Apple introduced, but the only one who stuck out was Google. They created the Android operating system, a system that is similar to windows programming. Android allows phone companies to build off this operating system, creating major competitors to the iPhone such as the HTC Evo 4g (Sprint)/HTC Thunderbolt (Verizon) and the Motorola Droid.
Both systems are similar and different depending on how you like your phone to act but, they both open the channel for instant online communications. Applications are being built on a daily basis for instant mobile communications through the web.
Just a few years ago text messaging was the biggest option for your cell phone. Now there are millions of options with Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and Foursquare being the largest used applications. Social media will never be the same. You don’t have to go home on your pc, just post with your phone. Truth is, instant mobile communication is on the verge of becoming the largest form of online communication in the world.
So enjoy that tweet about the bird sitting in a tree or that new friend you’ve added at the bar, but remember to give thanks to the pioneers who opened the door.
Capitol Lighting Newsletter: Ken’s CEO Corner
Posted by Jonathan | Filed under Articles, On The Ball, Steve's Corner
EXCERPT FROM THE CAPITOL LIGHTING NEWSLETTER:
… We have engaged Steve Nudelberg and his company, On the Ball, to help guide us and steer our ship. He has kicked off our management realignment which we are calling Capitol University with a managers meeting in Florida and New Jersey. They were great successes and we all emerged invigorated and excited to meet our new challenges. Ch-ch-ch-changes. Our meeting last Tuesday was in East Hanover. There was an aire of energy and change in the room. At the same time there was a sense of family, stability and permanence. Steve asked each of us to say how long we have been at Capitol Lighting. The answers (10, 12, 20, 30 years) are astounding for anyone other than Capitol people. This is normal for us. I looked at all these people with the portrait of my great-grandfather hanging behind them. My Father, Uncle, Cousins and Brother were all in the room. I could not be any prouder to be part of such a company let alone the CEO. I thought of a line from Eric’s Best Man speech at my wedding. He said, “Just as things should change, things should stay the same.” I was getting married and our family dynamic was changing. Eric, Joanie and I would no longer live under Herman and Adele’s roof. What Eric knew would stay the same were the bonds of love we had built. Those are permanent. I was thinking how appropriate that line was for what we are going through in this economy and our company. We can keep our family values, work together, and treat our customers right. We can keep our experience and knowledge of the industry and how to get things done. We can have a long view and not let short term setbacks break us. Yet we can assume new roles and find new methods to deal with our challenges. We can take on new partners and adopt new skills to achieve our goals. Get ready to run. Lace up your shoes, pick up some new tools but keep your old friends and family close. Ch-ch-ch-changes, look out you rock n rollers. Here comes TEAM CAPITOL!
Steve Nudelberg (left) from On the Ball (5 months with Capitol) and Hy Goldman (right) (70 years with Capitol Lighting)
