A summary of Projects and Writing for July 2010
I am having a great deal of fun developing new partnerships and new ways of developing support for my clients. Some highlights from this month:
- A series of articles on how to get the most out of old-school promotional tools for your business.
- A partnership with Lynne Robson of JoeyToes design that delivers a complete branding and logo package for small business.
- Management articles about how improv games can teach us a lot about how to really understand what teamwork means.
- And new this month, a list of my favourite online business, management, and social media links and articles… read on!
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Read my Facebook Business Page for Management & Marketing Info…
Social Media for Small Business. A social media strategy is a powerful marketing tool. I explore Social Media tools like Blogging, Facebook, Twitter, and show you the right ways to use them. The 7th article in the series asks Why Tweet?
Village Square Marketing. 4 short articles that review promotional tactics as old as village markets, blacksmiths, and ditches for plumbing. If you aren’t maximizing these, you are missing opportunities to connect with customers. The second article shows that if you can get them talking, you can get them buying. Read here.
Ever wonder what ‘branding’ and ‘personal branding’ are all about? Check out my series Professional Branding & Social Media. The first article asks ‘why brand?’ Done right, a branding strategy focuses a career or an organization so that every component is lined up to create maximum sustainable impact. Follow this series to find out how.
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Branding by Design Branding & Logo Development Service
Starting a new business? Taking an existing business to a new level?
Establishing and promoting your brand are the key factors in your success. Proper branding can save you thousands of dollars. Find out how…
Proper branding can increase your sales. 75% of purchase decisions are based on emotion. Read here to see how a proper branding strategy and logo design can “bring you into the emotional loop”.
With Branding by Design from JoeyToes Design Ltd.and Clemens Rettich you get:
- Definition of your visual brand: fonts, colours, images
- Up to 3 logo concepts and a final logo ready for print & web
- Professional or Business Brand Report: a written summary of your brand to guide social media profiles, and future marketing and promotional projects.
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Blog Articles Four articles on Small Business Management:
- Supporting Change in Aggressive Workplace Behaviours Have a valuable employee who can’t control their temper? Anger is a natural emotion that has its place, but rarely in the workplace. When we respond to injustice, disrespectful behaviour, or threats, our anger can be a useful tool. However, uncontrolled anger or aggression only lead to more conflict and have no place at work or at home. Read more…
- Actors’ Nightmare (Or Fake it ’til you Make it!) Who says great communication isn’t rocket science? They’re wrong. Whether it is as an actor, dancer, or musician, the nightmare is the same: you show up, a performance starts, and you suddenly realize you are the only one in the performance who doesn’t know their part. You play along gamely, making stuff up, hoping nobody in the audience or on stage notices. Read more…
- Yes, And… What is the only acceptable response when you really want creative growth? Even when someone else (of course it’s never you!) makes a completely unhelpful suggestion, a skilled facilitator will always use the “Yes, and…” response to keep the process moving forward. Even if it is only being used to gently guide a group out of left field while still respecting the ‘crazy’ contributor as a team member, yes and is always more effective. Read more…
- You’re On! Ready? How good are you at stepping up when you are tapped? Sometimes your team just gets something going and someone quits. They get sick, they get promoted, they quit… whatever. Then a new person steps in. At that moment two things get tested. Read More…
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Great Links & Great Reads
My picks for some sites and articles that are useful or provide food for thought:
- United Airlines Inconsistent Service: System Or People Problem? A thought-provoking post by one of my favourite management writers, Bret L. Simmons “How do you explain the very inconsistent service experience I had with United Airlines today? Is this a crappy people problem, or a crappy system problem? I know how I would answer that question, what about you? For an upgrade that costs so much money, why would United Airlines make an $8 benefit an issue? Or is the problem the interface between T-mobile (providing the WiFi service in the lounge and the wording for the login) and United Airlines that caused the confusion in my expectations?” Read more…
- WordPress 3.0 Has Arrived If you are a blogger or support businesses through social media or web development, this is an important announcement from Mashable. Read more…
- Five Branding Secrets of Lady Gaga and Apple “With speculation about the upcoming tablet saturating the media and a certain exuberantly attired singer about as omnipresent, the fact that both Apple and Lady Gaga have mastered the branding game is pretty self-evident… These two wildly different brands actually use some of the same techniques and principles to achieve their status as kings (or queens) of their respective spaces. And these are tricks you can use for your personal branding as well. What are they?” Read more…
- ONLINE BUSINESS TOOLBOX: 230+ Tools for Running a Business Online Another very useful article from Mashable. A nearly-comprehensive list of good online tools to support the running of your business. Interestingly though, Tungle, a great Canadian startup that allows online scheduling for multiple participants, didn’t make the list. A mistake. Read More…
- CEO, Transform Thyself Want to transform your organization or the behaviour of your team? Start with yourself! “The self-aware leader can recognize his own emotions-positive and negative-and he knows the triggers for when he is hijacked by them. He recognizes his own sources of meaning, and how to use them as fuel. He explicitly designs his network and he watches his sources and uses of energy, recognizing how much energy it takes to catalyze an organization. Are you self-aware? Try these questions on yourself or on your team and let us know the results:” Read More…
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Preferred Partners…
Business Networking & IT Solutions
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