All the recent changes to Facebook have business people scrambling to learn how to make the best use of these new tools. If you want to make changes to your Business Page, but are at a loss, start with this video created by the Facebook team. You’ll learn how to customize the look of your Page using new features like cover photo. If you don’t want to tackle making these changes yourself, give us a shout and we’ll help you.
When you come to our office, we’ll offer you coffee. And we’ll advise you that, unless you don’t care to sleep for the next week, you DO NOT want to select a k-cup from Andrew’s coffee bin (think espresso extreme). That’s why we always have a variety of options — because we know there’s no such thing as one-taste-fits-all, any more than there’s one-thought-fits-all, or one-size-fits-all.
We especially understand that about our clients. That’s why we treat every single one of them, their products, and their markets as truly unique–even when they’re in the same field. Because, in fact, no two are alike. Everything we do is customized directly to each client, their needs and their goals.
And just as there is no one-size-fits-all client, there is no one-size-fits-all advertising and marketing agency. I’m bringing this up because in a world where shoppers often select by lowest price or loudest impression, we get requests for proposals that are often obviously scattered to any and all agencies within shooting distance, irrespective of specialties or experience.
If you’re in the market for an agency, let me explain why this is not usually the best approach: Sure, you’ll probably get many responses with as many different pricing structures. And that’s because you’ll be getting skills and specialties from all over the board. Without knowing what each agency’s strengths and weaknesses are, you may wind up selecting a low bid from an agency because they’d be happy to use you to cut their teeth on getting into a new area. Or perhaps you’ll fall prey to the “bigger equals better” misconception. Maybe you’ll be happy with the results from either end of this spectrum. Maybe you won’t.
It’s easy to avoid a mismatch with the proper leg work. First, compile a list of no more than a dozen local agencies (think about including recommendations from business associates, a web search, and the yellow pages). Then visit their websites and look at their services to make sure they offer what you’re looking for. Then look at their work to see if you like their design esthetics. Then, just as importantly, read their “About Us” page. Every agency has a philosophy that shapes not only their in-house culture but how they view their work and their clients. Now cull out the obvious poor fits, and continue whittling until you have a short list of about three or four. Now you’re ready to ask for proposals and meet with those agencies.
If it comes down to a large vs small agency, consider that if a small company retains a sizable agency, it most likely will not be getting that agency’s top talent. Yep, the executives of those large agencies will woo you with a sleek presentation that may win your heart and tempt your wallet. But they won’t be the people who will work on your business. They’ll most typically assign your work to their least experienced team, keeping their hottest talent for their high rolling clients. On the other hand, if a small company chooses a small advertising agency, it may have access to the agency’s owner, rather than just those handling the account. A big company may require a sizable agency that can provide a greater range of in-house services than smaller agencies, which is why it’s important to first determine what exactly a company wants from its advertising agency.
At the end of the day, you need to be able answer these questions:
If you can answer yes to all of them, then you’ve found your agency.
Anyone responsible for SEO (Search Engine Optimization) knows that Google plays it close to the vest when it comes to revealing how they rank sites, so when Google does talk about such things, we web administrators listen. In this short video, Google answers the question: “If you were an in-house SEO, what 3 things would you make sure you had included in your 2011 strategy?”
Because I spend most of my waking life researching and working on the internet, and because I have better things to do than spend time investigating each site's safety beforehand, I let WOT do the heavy lifting for me. While I know that technically this plugin has nothing to do with marketing or advertising or design or even web development, I do consider web safety as part of the work I perform with every website I build. So I wanted to share a tool that will help keep you, your kids, and your computer safe from the nastier side of the internet.
While you can grab the download from CNET.com, I recommend that you download directly from WOT, where you can select from any of these browsers.
Here is CNET's review:
As wonderful as the Internet is, it has its seedy underbelly, too: Web sites that will rip you off, spam your e-mail account, infect your computer with malware, steal your identity, expose your kids to inappropriate content, and all kinds of other bad stuff. Wouldn't it be great if you could somehow know about other people's experiences with particular Web sites? That's the idea behind WOT, or Web of Trust, an online community that lets people share their Web experiences via extensions for a variety of different browsers. We tested the Chrome version of the extension and it did not disappoint.
Using WOT is incredibly easy. Like other extensions, it appears as a small icon to the right of the browser address bar. The icon changes color depending on the quality of each particular Web site you visit, based on other users' ratings. A dark green icon means you're in the clear, while a red one is cause for serious concern; orange, yellow, and light green cover the areas in between. Sites are rated on four metrics: Trustworthiness, Vendor Reliability, Privacy, and Child Safety. Clicking on the icon lets you view a site's rating in each of these categories and enter ratings of your own. WOT doesn't require registration, but if you choose to register you can take advantage of additional features, such as the capability to create a profile and write comments on sites' scorecards. We surfed around to several popular Web sites as well as a few shadier ones with WOT enabled, and its ratings seemed reliable to us. One particularly bad site really set off WOT's alarms, and it displayed a warning message that we had to click through in order to access the site. We especially liked that the WOT icon appears next to site names in search engine results, letting you know whether or not a site is safe before you click on it. The extension is supported by plenty of online documentation and there are lots of options for customizing WOT's behavior. Overall we were quite impressed with WOT and we think it's a great collaborative way to help ensure Internet safety.
WOT installs and uninstalls without issues. We highly recommend this extension to all users.
I couldn't agree more!
