Archive for October, 2011

With Social Media, Focus on your Story.

Sunday, October 30th, 2011

When you’re thinking about how you use Social Media, doesn’t it seem like a huge question as to what to talk about?

This is one of the concerns often reported to us. People aren’t sure what they should be posting, blogging and tweeting.

At Placemaking Group our advice is to stick to your message! Your brand message is the key to your social media. Your job as a marketing professional is to keep the brand message clear and consistent. In the many social media avenues (LinkedIn, Facebook, blogs, YouTube, etc.)  it’s easy to get distracted. And, of course, when a question comes up, you have to field it. But, when you are posting and blogging make sure you are telling your company’s story.

Mike Ogden, Digital/Senior Writer, Marketing Communications Specialist at PlattForm Advertising, keeps it to 3 points… (more…)

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Posted in Marketing, SEO, Social Media | 1 Comment »

Open Leadership: How Social Technology Can Transform How You Lead

Monday, October 17th, 2011

Can open leadership, using social media as a prime tool, help you to get your team and clients together with your plans for the future of your company?

As I mentioned a couple of months ago, I had the pleasure of giving the lunch keynote talk at The Institute for Social, Search & Mobile Marketing (ISSMM) Executive Roundtable. And a big part of the pleasure was getting to listen to Charlene Li lecture and facilitate the meeting. Charlene is one of the true experts in how to effectively use social media. Her original book, Groundswell, is a best-selling primer on the subject. Open LeadershipNow her new book, Open Leadership, is a great place for CEOs to learn how to use social media to be more effective leaders.

She begins by letting you decide if you’re willing to run your company using open leadership. If you’re not, then social media won’t help you. But if you are, then you’ve come to the right place. She gives some great examples of open leaders, including Captain Michael Manazir, who helms the nuclear aircraft carrier USS Nimitz. She shows how an effective leader must be open, even when running an aircraft carrier! She describes the benefits of openness with numbers, including an ROI. (more…)

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Posted in Marketing, Social Media | 1 Comment »

Make Your Downtown Famous with a Seven Step Marketing Plan.

Sunday, October 9th, 2011

How do you make your Downtown Famous? How do you get visitors to shop and eat at the restaurants? How do you get businesses to move in?

California Downtown Assoc.

Miriam Schaffer and I are going to be giving a talk about those issues this week at the California Downtown Conference in Riverside, CA. If you haven’t registered for the conference yet, there is still one day, so do it!

We at the Placemaking Group have had the privilege of helping to make many downtowns famous. When we start the process, one of the first things we do is to get the group who hired us to understand that there are specific things that make your downtown different from the downtowns of neighboring cities. Sometimes if you’re too familiar with your own downtown, you don’t even realize the differentiators. That’s where we come in. We’ll talk to the people walking in your downtown. We talk to the businesses that are there. We’ll listen to what is said and what isn’t said. (more…)

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Posted in Advertising, Issues Management, Marketing, Publicity, SEO, Social Media | 2 Comments »