There is an event in the works for the end of June.  More details on that as plans are finalized.  In the meantime, check out the SMC website, Facebook fan page and follow the group on Twitter!

Website

Facebook

@smcbalt

Also, take a peek at the Promotions Director…

These boxes are a unique and personalized way to collect card gifts at weddings instead of a bird cage.

Take a look at Marni’s work at http://creativecustomcardboxes.com/

If you would like to see the whole media kit, please send a request on our “Contact Us” page!

Dave will also be doing a daily video journal so that fans can keep track of where he is and the progress he has made.

The tour will actually begin March 29th when Dave visits Duke University.

For more information on the tour, visit www.davetieff.com.  You can also become a fan of the tour’s Facebook Fan Page.

Below are a list of sponsors who have made this tour possible:

Split Ends Salon
Zuhowski Engineering
CBM Accounting
Lures Bar and Grille
BB Bistro
Green Polka Dot Marketing
Reilly Benefits, Inc
Chesapeake Houseworks (Kitchen and Bathroom) 443.829.5339
Rich Reilly Insurance Agency
Pattern Theory Creative

We wish Dave luck as he embarks on this journey!!

I say “nuts to that!”

When looking for people with whom to do business, it’s natural to be drawn to someone similar to you.  You want to work with people who have complementary values, style, personality, etc. (notice I said complementary, not the “same”).  This is no different than meeting someone and developing a friendship.

I am a firm believer that the same principles apply to all relationships for them to be successful, whether a friendly relationship or business one.

Communication – Start with being honest.  Always be up front and open.  Express your intentions initially.  Communication is a two way street, so make time to listen.  You’ll be surprised at what you learn!

Accountability – Communication lays the groundwork for this aspect of a relationship.  It’s imperative to decide what each person in the relationship is accountable for, and deliver that.  If you can’t follow through on something, work together to create a way to rectify the situation.

Respect – Don’t take one another for granted.  Always keep in mind that your friend needs you as much as you need them.  No one is more important.

I’m proud that I have had the chance to truly become friends with many of my clients…and I wouldn’t have it any other way!

…now back to work friends.

As you move forward in 2010, keep in mind:

Branding starts internally, but is ultimately determined by your customers and the masses.  You may have what you consider great branding, but it’s how people perceive it that give your brand its true meaning, and in turn, true worth.

Marketing avenues, such as social media, allow you to keep an eye out for what people are saying about your brand and engage with them.  With a good product/service and great customer service, hopefully all that will be said will be good.  This allows you to further strengthen your brand.

In the instance that something negative is said, you now have more control than ever to approach the situation and diffuse it.  Show people that your company takes an active interest in improving and engaging with customers and prospects.

The #1 way to face negative comments about brand is to engage in order to rectify the issue or negative experience.  Social Media has allowed for companies to monitor and manage their brand.

One example of this brand management is with Dominos.  The pizza chain was listening when people spoke negatively about their pizzas.  They took action and created the New Pizza.  You can learn more about this at: http://www.pizzaturnaround.com/

Like the New Pizza or not, one thing is clear, Dominos is working on brand management.  But as I mentioned in the beginning, it’s how people perceive your brand.  You can try to “re-invent” pizza, but if it’s still a not-so-great pizza, the negative brand recognition will come back to haunt you.

You have to start by making sure your product/service lives up to the branding you have created.

It’s a fluid process of creating your brand, living up to it and interacting with people about it in order to reinforce it.

Yet, this is precisely what a business achieves when obsessing over social media tools. Instead of creating the message first, the strategy-sessions often involve perfecting a formula for social media output. How often to tweet or how many tools to implement supersede the issue of which message to broadcast. Obsessing over the tools is counterproductive. It is the subject, words, and overall message of the conversation that create the engagement.

It is easy to mistake social media for the containers of social media. To be effective, think of social media from the inside out; obsess over your message before even approaching the tools.

Consider Mel from Stalefish Board Company; the owner of a skateboard shop in Bel Air, Maryland. Mel set up his Facebook page after realizing his MySpace page was not creating the conversations it had in the past. Migrating from MySpace, he was able to easily gain about 300 fans over the span of a month or two. To boost his presence he decided to hire professionals to create a video that clearly explained the vision he had for his shop. The video spread like butter on a hot bagel. Mel gained an additional 500 fans in about three days. More importantly, fans were commenting on the video and sharing it with their friends.

Whether it’s a tweet, a status update, or a video; the social media magic-trick is to make the message human and portable. Human in that it contains a genuine message devoid of propaganda while using the customer’s vocabulary. Portable in that it has a need to be shared. Mel’s video was true to Mel, true to Stalefish, and true to the customer experience at Stalefish.

The takeaway from Mel’s experience is that he didn’t waste time worrying about whether MySpace or Facebook was better or how many times a day he should write a status update. He simply chose the page where he saw his customers hanging out and spent his time crafting the conversation. His video gave his true fans a powerful tool to promote Stalefish to their friends.

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Nikc Miller works at Render Perfect Productions in Baltimore.  Nikc specializes in consulting small businesses and entrepreneurs on how to increase their visibility by using video and multimedia. His free ebook Ten YouTube Tips For More Traffic In 2010 is available at www.myrender.com.  Follow Render Perfect Productions on Twitter.

In today’s competitive marketplace, there are leaders and there are followers.

Here’s how to determine which one your company may be:

Leaders are accepted as the best in their industry without having to tell their customers and prospects such.  They have excellent brand recognition, online presence, and social interaction.  Their name alone can conjure up thoughts of superiority and quality by all who hear it.

Followers tend to remind their customers and prospects constantly of the fact that they are one of the leaders, the best, etc.  They tend to spend less time listening to what people are saying about them and spend more time trying to tell people what they want them to think about them.

What to take away from this post:

Actions speak louder than words.  Being a leader goes a lot farther than saying you’re a leader.  If you work on improving your products and services, there won’t be a need to tell everyone how great you are.  After all, a happy customer is one of the best ways to market/advertise.  Customers will tell others of your excellence and be a more reputable source in the process.

Clients will often have an answer, or at least a direction, to what the strategy should be for traditional media. When asked about strategy for social media, clients rarely have anything to say. According to a recent study released by Weber Shandwick, Fortune 100 companies have embraced social media, but that is as far as it goes. They have no idea what to do with it or how to use it effectively. If the best companies don’t know how to leverage things like Twitter, what should small businesses be doing?

The best recommendation for lost companies is to use social media to be social. The underlying strategy of social media is at the root of all good business: great customer service.

Examples of this have flooded social media. There is a CEO of a Las Vegas hotel who commended a blog post about a employee of a hotel that did a fantastic job. A CEO that answers his personal cell phone at 3:00am because his personal cell phone is posted on the company Web site. A company that sends its products to Tweeters that seem to be having a bad day.

At the heart of social media, especially Twitter, is engagement. And engagement is often the conjoined twin of customer service in the consumer’s mind. So engage away. It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, the actress that plays Dee (@katlin_olson) Tweets in character with her fans. Locally, bar owner John Ruesing (@bad_decions) engages his loyal followers and bar stool jockeys on a daily basis.

The point being that customer service and engagement can be achieved with social media on a level that has never been achieved before. If you are a business wondering what you can do with social media, just talk to your consumers. It might not boost your bottom line right away, but the long term branding and loyalty that are being achieved are well worth it. The benefits of social media are often overestimated in the short term and underestimated in the long term.

Any business can join the digital wave by utilizing Customer Service 2.0. All you have to do is pay attention with what your consumers are doing and respond accordingly. No matter how great your advertising is, it will never compare in effectiveness to how great your customer service is. But remember, they always say that the best thing to kill a bad product is great advertising. Social media is no different. Whatever customer engagement or customer service you offer online, you better offer in person.

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Luke Gibson graduated with a B.S. in Communication from Boston University in 2006 and spent the next two years working in Beantown. He moved back to his roots last year and is now launching his career in Baltimore. Passionate about all aspects of the advertising industry, he freelances for clients on a wide variety of projects ranging from brand planning, to graphic design to Web site development.

Luke Gibson | @oldbaystyle | www.lukegibson.com | lgibson84@gmail.com

One of the most important things in email marketing is setting and meeting the expectations of your subscribers.  When people sign up to receive email newsletters and correspondence from your company, they are expecting to get these emails on a consistent basis (not just every now and again).  One way to help set this expectation is to send out a verification email once they have opted to receive your emails.  This verification email should include exactly what it is that they signed up for and how often they will be receiving emails.  Once you set the expectation, you will need to meet it as well….no more back burner for email marketing!  You have to make email marketing an integrated part of your multi-faceted marketing approach.

Often times, people don’t know what to email their customers and prospects about.  There are so many topics you could cover: big client wins, events you will be attending, news releases, new marketing collateral (white papers, case studies, etc.).  The goal of email marketing is to not only keep your company “top of mind” among customers and prospects, but also to create some sort of “call to action.”  This call can be something as simple as reading the email, or as involved as attending an event or making a purchase with your company.

Also keep in mind that no one likes to receive text heavy emails.  Emails should be aesthetically pleasing.  Include relevant graphics, charts, and links in your email to enhance them.  Send the type of email that you would like to receive!

Building nice looking emails doesn’t have to be expensive either.  There are a number of reasonably priced email software platforms that you can use:

Constant Contact
Exact Target
Emma
iContact

These platforms let you build HTML emails easily and quickly.

For more information on how to make email marketing an effective part of your marketing approach tweet, call or email us!

It has been called the evolution of email in which the “wave” is shared by all people on it.  All people on the wave can add content to it real-time, so you see typing and additions as they happen…which is cool, but it’s nothing that chat platforms haven’t had for years.  There are link features and widgets that make a wave more than just a chat box though.   The best thing about the wave is that there isn’t a chain like in normal emails.  It’s one document (wave) that all can edit and see at the same time.

So why would people need this?  Well, one person I polled described Google Wave as “the answer to a question that no one asked.”  Which besides being clever, may very well be true.

With the invitation only way Google is getting people to use Wave, it’s very exclusive.  I asked a few people that are waiting for an invite why they want Google Wave:

“I’m always looking for new ways to communicate and share ideas with friends, family and co-workers. From everything I’ve read, Google Wave looks like the next evolution in digital communication… email to Instant message to Google Wave.” – @blaiel3

Another person said “I want to jump on the bandwagon and be in the cool club!”

With it being invitation only, the people that don’t have it, really want it.

One of my favorite Tweeters/GMail chat buddies/marketing contacts, Luke Gibson (@oldbaystyle) offered his thoughts on Google Wave:

“The largest problem with Google Wave is that right now, it is only operating as a glorified message board or online forum. Part of this is because Google launched the program the same way it launched GMail: invite only. The reason this worked for GMail and not Wave is because those with GMail could still interact with everyone else online with an e-mail address. Wave on the other hand is somewhat like the Marines- the few, the proud. The tech-geek in me loves having the exclusive Google Wave; I just don’t have anyone to talk to. It has not worked it’s way into my daily startup routine- Facebook, e-mail, twitter. And even when I do logon to Wave, no one else I am connected with is online. The work implications of Google Wave are obvious, but until everyone in the company has jumped on the Wave, the endless possibilities of social media’s next big thing are still a pipe dream.”

I couldn’t agree more!  Similar to Luke’s story, when I logged into Google Wave for the first time I had only 3 contacts.  I am now up to 8, but it’s still not even close to the number of GMail contacts I have.  This means that people with Google Wave are losing interest because they lack an audience.

“As of right now I have 17 contacts and it seems to not be widely embraced by any of them. I have invited many of my co-workers and I’ve seen some of the advantages of using this collaborative tool, but certainly haven’t have the opportunity to put it through the paces–I’m hopeful that will happen in the near future.” @phintch (who is also one of my faves!)

This brings about the question of how Google Wave will be used, personally or professionally.

@patrickomurphy makes a point:

“Great potential for business but not so much for personal use.”

I suppose time will tell whether or not it’s a tool that I use with friends or business contacts…but one thing is for certain:  If you’ve watched the 80+ minute video, they show you all sorts of cool things that Google Wave can do, but after playing with it for a couple of weeks now, I have never used Wave to that extent, nor have most of the people I’ve talked to about it.

I would love to hear more thoughts and comments about Google Wave.  Please feel free to post anything below to add to this post!