Happy Monday!
Posted by Jonathan | Filed under Humor, On The Ball
Get your engines started… It is Monday!
Have a great one from the OTB Team
The power of Geo-Location
Posted by Jonathan | Filed under Articles, On The Ball, Social Media/Networking
Geo location is becoming an everyday subject in the social media world. With companies like FourSquare, GoWalla, and now Facebook tracking consumers every move, this creates a powerful tool for brands to tap into. Brands have the power to see when customers check into their locations.
On the Ball is tapping into these tools for one of our clients, HearUSA. Every time someone checks into one of their 200+ locations, @HearUSA thanks them and asks how their experience was. It provides valuable feed back for the brand plus it creates another touch point between HearUSA and the customer.
You can follow HearUSA on Twitter here
Looking for a new Marketing Intern
Posted by Jonathan | Filed under On The Ball
On The Ball is a Plantation, FL based marketing firm. A fusion of marketing and sales professionals, we work to help companies increase revenue with strategic thinking. On The Ball has been in business for 12 years and is looking to expand our marketing department as a result of recent growth.
For more information about On The Ball, check out:
Website – http://www.otbthink.com
Twitter – http://www.twitter.com/otbthink
YouTube – http://www.youtube.com/otbthink
Facebook- http://www.facebook.com/otbthink
Position: Marketing Intern with the opportunity for advancement
Qualifications:
Must be able to work in a team environment and be organized, punctual.
Support On The Ball Account Managers with client engagements
Aptitude for handling administrative details
A passion for social media
Experienced with using Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, etc
A marketing, advertising, PR, or journalism background is a plus
Shared Tasks and Responsibilities include:
Support day-to-day operations of the agency
Developing social media strategies and campaigns
Social network account management
Finding and/or creating quality industry content
Assisting with YouTube video production
Researching new social media tools
This is a great opportunity for recent college grads to get their foot in the door of a growing department within On The Ball Marketing.
Please email your resume to GetOnTheBall@OTBThink.com
Top 16 Unusual Foursquare Badges
Posted by Jonathan | Filed under Articles, Social Media/Networking
Badges are, for many users, one of the main benefits of the app, driving competition among friends, co-workers, and even enemies. Whether the badges provide a real-life benefit or just bragging rights, users go crazy to figure out how to unlock the latest ones.
We talked to Foursquare’s Lead Designer, Mari Sheibley, about the stories behind some of the most unusual badges in their collection. It’s only fitting to showcase 16 of the most unusual badges here today since Foursquare launched with exactly 16 badges back in the day. Without further ado, please enjoy this collection of interesting badges, ranging from rare and retired, to quirky and puzzling.
1. Mr. Bill
This badge was created by interaction designer Eris Stassi in celebration of her beau’s birthday. David Bill, the lucky birthday boy, and CTO at CoTweet
, said that his friends nicknamed him Mr. Bill as a joke, with reference to the Mr. Bill character on Saturday Night Live from the ’70s and ’80s.
To unlock this badge, you had to attend Bill’s birthday party at Dave’s on July 2, 2009. As Stassi put it, “The best gifts are happy experiences. And what would bring a smile to his face more than realizing his checkin earned him a badge specifically celebrating his birthday and general awesomeness?” Hat tip to Stassi for giving one of the best, and geekiest gifts of all time.
Sheibley explained the specificity behind the badge: “In very special cases we’ve created one-off badges for friends who have been big supporters of Foursquare. This was the first of these ’special friend badges.’ ”
2. PK JG 2010
Another instance of a “special friend badge” was the PK JG 2010 badge, which celebrated the marriage of Paul Kermizian and Janelle Gunther on June 26, 2010, at The Montauk Club in Brooklyn, New York. Those who unlocked the badge now receive free drinks for life at Barcade, a bar arcade in Brooklyn which Kermizian co-owns.
3. The Graduate
This badge was designed to be unlocked at the 2010 Stanford Graduate School of Business graduation ceremony, which took place on June 12, 2010. Why? Tristan Walker, VP of business development at Foursquare, would be receiving his MBA. With Tristan’s Foursquare bot suited in a mortarboard cap and decked out in Stanford colors, this badge would have been an amazing surprise for attendees checking into the ceremony. Unfortunately, the badge wasn’t activated in time. It’s the thought that counts.
4. The Prom King
The Prom King badge is yet another secret badge created for a Foursquare teamster. Sheibley gave us the details: “Co-Founder Naveen [Selvadurai] threw a giant prom-themed party for his birthday this past February in the auditorium of a children’s school in downtown Manhattan. We wanted to make a badge for him (it was a secret) as a present. Anyone who would check in to the location that night would unlock it. Unfortunately, it didn’t get put into the code in time, and it’s never been unlocked.” We’re sure Naveen would have won Prom King either way. (more…)
Are you Brand Building Out of Order? A Cautionary Tale
Posted by Jonathan | Filed under Articles
This article demonstrates is why it is so important for clients to understand how to work with an agency. Many times, clients are in a rush to see physical results that are not necessarily the most important aspect of the work being done. Branding a company or product does follow a linear path, and tools created out of order can be ineffective and “clichéd,” as the article states. This leads to inefficient dollars spent for work that is rushed. Clients should trust in their agency, be clear on the process and understand that quality is more important than quantity when developing a brand.
As a content marketer, you want to dive in and start work immediately. You know it’s best to lock in a brand position but you wonder: is this so important?
Consider: would you build a skyscraper with no blueprint, do a heart by-pass with no diagnosis?
Here’s the story of one Chicago-based private-equity firm with whom I worked that I’ll call Gaga Capital. They learned the hard way what can happen when the work is done out of order.
Their Problem: No Compelling Story
Gaga Capital had been in business for 15 years, but their marketing efforts were off course. They had a solid track record, yet no compelling corporate story. As a result, principals weren’t closing deals as the industry became more commoditized.
They had to slow down. Discover what they stood for. Get serious about branding.
Mistake #1: Isolated Market Research
Gaga hired a market research firm to look at competitors and talk to Gaga staff about internal brand perceptions. Good first steps. But, the research firm was not hired to develop a strategic positioning. They offered a few casual ideas. i.e., Gaga should lead with being “women owned,” which is unique in financial services. However, without a positioning--what the brand stood for relative to core attributes–this clever suggestion for helping Gaga stand out was neither strategic nor relevant.
Mistake #2: Design Before Positioning
Gaga then hired a design firm to create the look and feel for a new web site. Again, they were branding out of order because design must follow strategy. Positioning should give birth to verbal content, which should then give birth to visuals and design. Designing without a strategic blueprint is like building a bicycle without knowing the age, height, sex, and bank account of the potential rider.
The designers created clichéd business images–skylines and conferences tables, standard for many financial web sites–and the first drafts were lackluster.
Changing Course: Starting With Strategy
Gaga realized there was something missing. They hired a qualified brand-positioning firm, and the work started over. While some of the initial research findings were used, the new branding firm again interviewed principals to unearth Gaga’s real story.
The branding firm rooted Gaga’s competitive value in its unusual corporate history, and how it nurtured relationships with portfolio companies.
The Right Next Steps
With the new positioning in place, Gaga scrapped all design efforts and approached theirbranding effort in a logical order:
- The branding firm developed verbal content, messaging, and a tag line.
- With strategy and content in place, designers chose a visual theme for the site.
- Designers created a new logo to express Gaga’s true attributes.
- A press release focused on Gaga’s new identity.
- The firm wrote a capabilities brochure.
If Gaga had started with a positioning statement, the natural branding sequence would have saved them countless dollars and months of work.
Welcome to the team: Kristine and Vivian
Posted by Jonathan | Filed under On The Ball, Social Media/Networking
On the Ball would like to welcome two new faces to the team, Kristine Nadal and Vivian Shettlesworth. Kristine is our new marketing coordinator and Vivian is our first social media intern. Here is a little bit about them:
Kristine Nadal
Hello I’m Kristine, a recent graduate of FIU with a bachelor’s degree in communications/advertising. After graduating from college I did a marketing internship with an event planning company. I’ve lived in South Florida for 13 years and I absolutely love it here, including the ridiculous heat. I’m a big fan of all things creative and I love listening to different kinds of music, although I’m most fond of rock. During my free time I enjoy playing video games on my PS3 and watching all genres of movies, especially sci-fi, fantasy and horror movies. I’m very excited to be joining the On The Ball team as the marketing coordinator and I look forward to contributing my knowledge and experiences to the company’s success!
Vivian Shettlesworth
Vivian is a native south Floridian with a love for swimming, crafts, food, and Pilates. She typically spends her free time with her big family at their grandparents’ lake house. In December 2009 she completed her BBA in Marketing at Harding University in Searcy, AR. With past experiences in social media, creative development, and finance, her current goals are to network with those she can learn from, further develop and refine her skill set, and to one day travel through Europe eating lots of fantastic foods.
10 Tips for Corporate Blogging
Posted by Jonathan | Filed under Articles, Social Media/Networking
In a world where small businesses with corporate blogs receive 55 percent more traffic than small businesses that don’t blog, companies should be taking note on how to improve their blogs, attract more readers and get more results.
But still, a lot of companies with corporate blogs seem to be bogged down in uniformed policies and simply aren’t thinking outside the box. Afraid to take on colorful personalities or step a bit outside of their company’s happenings, many corporate blogs employ an official tone announcing the play-by-play updates of company news. This is just one mistake that businesses are making in the blogging world.
There is a laundry list of issues that need to be addressed when it comes to improving corporate blogs, but here we’ve narrowed down the key elements that companies should focus on. Here are 10 tips for corporate bloggers hoping to make a positive splash in their communities.
1. Establish a Content Theme and Editorial Guidelines
When creating a product or service, you must be able to define the value that it’s bringing to consumers. In the case of a blog, you need to clearly define the focused theme that your team will follow. Choose a blog name and theme that fits well with your company’s expertise, but don’t be afraid to branch out into a larger space. Your blog should provide pertinent information for consumers interested in your area of business.
Once you’ve chosen an area to cover, create a set of editorial guidelines that your bloggers will follow. Guidelines can include appropriate verticals and topics to cover, as well as how and when posts should be written.
A clear goal and theme for your blog will make it easier for users to know what to expect. For example, Dogstuff, an online shop for canine gifts, toys and supplies, hosts a blog called Dog Blog. The blog is simple and to the point, and it’s more than evident that the blog is about dogs. The theme is specific enough for readers to understand what they may find, but it is such a broad topic, that almost limitless posts are possible.
2. Choose a Blogging Team and Process
Choose a team of core bloggers to begin your blogging adventure. Select individuals that are knowledgeable and comfortable writing about the areas you would like to cover. Also, it’s key to choose people who write well and have a great online presence.
Train your bloggers on the editorial guidelines and decide what type of writing and editing process you would like to put in place. Some companies prefer to elect an editor or group of editors to have a final look at all blog posts, while other companies allow their bloggers to publish directly. Figure out the level of comfort you have with your blogging, editing and publishing process and implement a procedure that works well for your team.
OTB Comment: Think of your blog as if it is your company’s newspaper
3. Humanize Your Company
A company blog is an opportune place to let down your hair and get to know your customers. Think of it as a conversation between people, not between a brand and one person. In order to have a conversation, you need two people — a blogger and a reader.
Give your corporate bloggers the freedom to be themselves. Encourage them to have their own personalities and writing styles. This type of diversity is more representative of your company than any monotonous tone that you could manufacture on your own.
Always keep in mind that your blog is about people connecting and conversing with people, not a corporation. Throw away that “corporate” concept, and you’ll be ahead of most.
OTB Comment: Allow your employees to have regular columns
4. Avoid PR and Marketing
If maintained correctly, your blog will act as a repository of real analysis and opinions provided by your company’s fine employees. The type of insight and expertise that a blog can demonstrate is far more useful than any PR pitch that you could post. Stay away from trying to sell your readers. There are appropriate venues for that, and your blog shouldn’t be one of them.
Continue to add to the conversation, adding value for your readers. Your opinions will be priceless. And for the times that you don’t have an opinion on an important topic, gauge your community’s opinion by taking a poll or interviewing key people.
Lululemon Athletica, a yoga-inspired athletic apparel company, constantly adds value to its community through its blog by providing posts on topics that their core followers would appreciate. Some of the most recent posts were on how to do a handstand, protect the lower back, and explore a new city.
Readers will get a taste of the massive knowledge bank available at your company. Take your mind off of marketing, and you’ll find that the analysis that you provide sells your company better than a press release ever could.
OTB Comment: Instead of avoiding PR and Marketing all together, On the Ball recommends the 80-20 rule. Only 20% of the articles should be to boast about your companies success… Your audience only knows what you tell them!
5. Welcome Criticism
Oftentimes, corporations shy away from opening up their websites and blogs for commenting and interaction, because they are afraid of the harm that criticisms may cause. Make it a policy to welcome criticism, thinking of it as an opportunity for feedback and improvement. There are lots of ways to deal with negative feedback, so don’t be afraid to open up to your community.
6. Outline a Comment Policy
Be aware that if you open up your blog for full feedback (which you should), you will get a variety of comments — constructive, complimentary, hateful, and spam. Be prepared for everything. Create a comment policy that your team can follow, and make sure everyone is on same page. Outline the types of comments that should be responded to, deleted or passed along for follow-up.
7. Get Social
Make sure your blog is open for comments and utilizes share tools, such as Facebook, Twitter and Digg. Share tools allow your users to pass along your content. Why not allow your readers to promote your work?
Put forth an effort to respond to comments or forward them on when a specific employee could offer the best expertise in that area. Make sure each employee maintains a personable tone when responding to comments, so that readers know that your bloggers are genuine.
Lastly, if you haven’t done so already, implement a social media strategy for your blog, creating the appropriate profiles across social networks that your readers and customers are active on. Usually, Facebook and Twitter are a good start, and YouTube is a must for video-sharing. When you post on your blog, announce the new post on your social networks and ask for your readers’ opinions on the subject.
Promote your social presence on your blog, by implementing links, buttons and widgets that link to your social profiles. This will enable readers to stay connected with you across platforms. Whole Foods’ blog,Whole Story, for example, displays its social links prominently at the top of the blog.
OTB Comment: Building an online community is not a one way street both internally and externally. Encourage your employees to comment on each other’s blog posts
8. Promote Your Blog
Just as you would promote any other company initiative, get the word out about your blog. Share the URL on your website, social networks, business cards, e-mails, and advertisements.
Without promotion, building an audience can be difficult. Get behind the quality work that your team is putting into the blog and promote away.
OTB Comment: We recommend making it easy to allow your community to share interesting articles from your blog to their communities. Sharethis.com makes a great plugin for WordPress!
9. Monitor Mentions and Feedback
One way to get a pulse on your blog and its effects on the community is to monitor mentions and feedback. Set up Google Alerts for your brand, blog name and any keywords that might be relevant. Search onTechnorati and Twitter for those set terms.
To make things easier with Twitter, set up custom search columns in a Twitter client, such as Hootsuite,Tweetdeck or CoTweet. The columns will update in real time, keeping you up-to-date on brand and blog mentions at all times.
Getting more sophisticated, you should look into social media brand management tools, such as Radian6, for monitoring keywords across social sites.
10. Track Everything
You’re probably accustomed to tracking everything, and your blog is no different. If your blog is a page on your website, make sure your current web analytics tools are set to track all the same data that it monitors on your website. If you don’t currently have a web analytics tool, check out Google Analytics, a free analytics tool with an easy-to-use interface.
At the minimum, make sure you’re tracking site traffic, where referrals are coming from, and traffic-wise which posts are doing best. Learn from the data and adjust your blogging guidelines accordingly.
For all of the bloggers out there, which tips would you add to this list of corporate bloggers rules to live by?
article via mashable
On the Ball and Chris Bosh
Posted by Jonathan | Filed under Articles, On The Ball
Steve Nudelberg, Principle Thinker at On the Ball, was recently quoted multiple times by the South Florida Business Journal in regards to Chris Bosh joining the Miami Heat. Check out the full article here http://ow.ly/28mwl
How Social Media Has Radically Altered Advertising
Posted by Jonathan | Filed under Articles, Social Media/Networking
Social Media creates another medium for brands to create touch points with consumers. The key is to reach your target audience and keep them coming back…
Social Media started out as a bit of a novelty — a playground for the “geekerati.” But it has taken hold as a game changing force that will reshape advertising at its very core.
It’s time to move past debates about traditional media co-existing with social media. Madison Avenue should see social media as a wonderful, if not disruptive, gift. It should run hard to catch up with the consumer, let go of legacy business models and build something better.
My career in advertising started in February, 1965, right in the middle of the Mad Men era, and I am fortunate to still be doing what I love. Just when I thought I’d seen everything over the past five decades, along came social media. Here I am at age 67, cheering for change and eager to be a part of it.
To put things into perspective, it’s helpful to look back at the impact that TV had on the ad business in the mid 60s and draw some parallels with where we are today.
That Was Then
When I arrived on Madison Avenue, the growth and expansion of television advertising was hitting its stride. An explosion of mass, controlled, “broadcast out and shout” communications was changing the face, function and finances of advertising. Madison Avenue embraced these changes in a big way and leveraged the power of television to launch a golden age of advertising.
Creative people started seeing short-message story telling as a valued currency just as creative departments promoted collaboration between art directors and writers. TV production departments also grouped together producers, directors and technical specialists into collaborative teams.
The client/agency relationship deepened as agencies took on proactive roles. Research also changed, and put more emphasis on measuring both the rational and emotional components of messaging. (more…)
HAPPY NATIONAL SOCIAL MEDIA DAY!
Posted by Jonathan | Filed under Social Media/Networking
