In agency searches some obsess about agency size. But I believe our agency is the perfect size.
When you’re our size you are selective about your clients – the expectation is a long-term relationship. We want to work with clients whose business we can be successful in building. We have not ever resigned a client to attain a larger competitor.
When you’re our size you can tailor the working relationship for each client. We don’t force our clients to use a proforma process, rather we tailor our working relationship to meet our clients’ operational needs.
When you’re our size you can adapt to changing needs more easily. We’re not a tanker, slow to turn around. We’re a speedboat. So, if your needs change, we can do what is needed quickly.
From an agency our size, you get strategic thinking and lots of resources for execution. But, you only pay for the resources you need.
When you’re our size you don’t spend a lot of time managing “staff.” Instead we spend our time to find experienced, versatile and curious people who can add value to your business. At re:group we are all accountable to our team, there is no place to hide, so a bad hire is gone in weeks not months.
At our size, we still can all fit in one large conference room. In fact, we all have lunch there every Monday and talk about our business. It is a part of our culture and it keeps us all on the same page. So if our client has a problem, our entire team is thinking about its resolution.
And, when you’re our size and are privately held, shareholder expectations do not dictate our expectations. We do. Our expectations are that we will engage in your business, use our professional skills to help you achieve your goals, be paid fairly for our efforts and have a good time doing it.
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Last week I attended a kick off reception for the Maker Faire that will be visiting Detroit and The Henry Ford Museum this summer. I will admit, my immediate impression of the Maker Faire is that it was just a chance for people to show off the stuff they built in their garage.
However, I learned that inventors, entrepreneurs, and visionaries are at the core of this event.
The speakers stressed the importance of trying new things. Of experimenting and tinkering to find solutions and discoveries. In this day and age this is more important than ever, and when it comes to the social web, this is equally important.
Social Media doesn’t fit into a box. It is an organic medium that constantly evolves.
This requires us, the handlers, to tinker and experiment with it.
There are many pieces that make up the social web and it requires a bit of discovery to find the best solutions for your clients. Now this may go against the grain and it is fair to say that clients may not want to pay you to experiment, but there really is no other way for it to work.
Social Media is not the silver bullet solution. It is but one component of the overall branding and marketing strategy. And though it may seem like a waste of time to experiment, the social web pays back those who take the time to discover its strengths. Like the inventors at Maker Faire, their value is in finding what works through trail and error. By taking the time to discover solutions, they invent and create things that couldn’t have happened without going through that process.
Throw it against the wall. Pay attention to what sticks and build off that.
That is not to say that you shouldn’t discount the importance of strategy. Social Media will eat you alive if you play with it blind. You do need to outline objectives and goals of what you want to accomplish using social media.
Just don’t forget that within that well defined and outlined strategy you leave room to tinker.
Image taken by Jon Wisby
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social media Tags:
detroit,
goals,
maker faire,
michigan,
social media,
social web,
strategy
Even in these days of all-online-all-the-time, sometimes it’s just good for the soul to actually get together with friends, co-workers, relatives
and others who share some common interest or goal.
Earlier this month, I participated in the Relay for Life in Redford. I walked in memory of my brother, who was only 55 when he lost his battle with lung cancer. The relay is a 24-hour event and a person representing each team must be walking on the track during that period. The weather certainly did not cooperate – most of the evening it was pouring rain. Eventually, when tornado sirens sounded, the organizers sent everyone home to return in the am.
It may have been wet, but the weather did not put a damper on the spirit of the event. We celebrated 83 survivors and we remembered 652 loved ones. A lot of money was raised by 30 teams in the fight against cancer: $70,991 and still counting! My team came in second place. With only 12 members, we raised close to $6,000!
I have lots of generous co-workers, friends and family to thank who helped me contribute to this amount. It felt good to get involved and to try to make a difference! You should log off and try it sometime.
Posted in
events,
general,
social media Tags:
Cancer Society,
charitable events,
Relay For Life,
social interaction
Never has it been easier to make video.
Technology has made this happen. Just about anyone with a flip cam or phone can grab footage, add titles with some free editing software, post it to YouTube (also free), and away you go.
As far as entertainment goes, the value factor can be extremely high. As far as the waste your time factor goes… it can be even higher. But the value in this medium is the immediate access it provides. Access into communities, individuals, thoughts, expressions, art, music, culture, and everything that makes us human. Video helps connect us on this human level that is not only gratifying but incredibly important.
When it comes to your business or organization this can play a huge factor in bringing your message across. Video ranks as one of the highest traffic drivers for Google. Just today I came across that Facebook is up to 20 million video uploads a month. The ‘viral’ potential is there.
However, like all mediums that touch the social web, it requires a very humanistic approach. Posting only commercials and your ads won’t work. But will work is experimenting. Remember video is a collaborative effort. It require both you and an audience to connect.
This can only be done by organic experimentation and the courage to try new things.
Take a look at what YouTube and Guggenheim are doing.
Putting into practice the collaboration/access combo, they are providing a contest in which anyone around the world can submit a video to be selected for their YouTube channel. 200 entries will be chosen and from these 20 will be selected to be viewed in the Guggenheim museum.
You can read more about the contest here.
Companies should consider videos. Just remember to be human about it and you’ll see the collaboration effect. The results will be access into the viewers world.
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social media Tags:
art,
brand,
business,
communication,
creativity,
culture,
expression,
marketing,
technology,
video,
youtube
Vacations are important.
There are lots of articles and scientific studies that show that vacations make you healthier, happier and more productive. Vacation even helps you live longer. But soooooo many people seem to think that taking vacation is “slacking” or something to be ashamed of. Others do go away, but never actually unplug and get away from the stresses of work.
Not taking vacation doesn’t mean you’re a harder worker, a better employee or a more dedicated team member. It means you’re not recharging your batteries enough to get to your maximum productivity. It means you’ll be crankier, more likely to get sick and less likely to have a happy home life. All of which translates into a worse employee, not better.
Take your vacation. You deserve it, you’ve earned it and you need it. As someone very wise said, “Nobody ever says on their death bed that they wish they’d spent more time at the office.”
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general Tags:
health,
productivity,
stress,
vacation
I was recently interviewed by Sarah Worsham for her podcast show, Sazcast.
Our discussion revolved around the use of social media and communities, how brands need to leverage this space, how they can do this, and which companies are doing this well.
We also talked about the importance of taking part of the offline engagements like #Tweetea, Refresh Detroit, and Social Media Club Detroit to compliment the online activity.
We also provided some resources for anyone new in the social space.
You can listen to our conversation here.
Also feel free to subscribe to the Sazcast on iTunes.
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social media Tags:
#SMCD,
#SXSW,
#tweetea,
brand,
brands,
business,
communities,
detroit,
gm,
michigan,
refresh detroit,
social media,
social media club detroit,
urbane apartments
Don’t be afraid, go ahead and launch that new site now.
This is just a moment in time, and while you pick at and perfect it, time is marching by and so are your prospects. No matter how long you take, or when you launch, it won’t be long before it needs to change. A good website constantly changes as its environment evolves. Staff changes, new products/services come on stream, features change, visitors have new needs and the list goes on. Today’s websites are not those tightly structured and packaged ones created in the 90’s. Rather, they are sleek and agile frameworks designed for future change.
Just think, it was not very long ago sites added blogs, Facebook and Twitter links, RSS Feed features, so who knows what’s next? Even if you think your own web information will cease to change (and I doubt it), you can be certain that the world around you will. So go ahead, step off the ledge and launch that new site today – and you might want to update that content management system while you’re at it!
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search,
social media Tags:
blog,
search,
Web,
website
Anyone who tells you otherwise doesn’t truly understand Social Media.
Social Media is communication, and though I’m not a history major, I’m pretty sure people have been communicating since the dawn of time. Cave paintings were the first blog. Hieroglyphics the first tweets. We’ve always strived to communicate and have our message heard.
Communication is social media.
By communication I am referring to the internal desire to share stories, our history, news, what excites us, and what frightens us. These are human connections that drive our offline relationships, and it is the same connections that make up the social web.
The internet is simply the tool we use to communicate, and now technology has allowed us to break the 3rd and 4th walls into a new realm of connecting. You can talk to you neighbor down the street, or someone on the opposite side of the globe. Social Media defies geographic limitations.
Technology has enabled this to happen. But again, technology is not social media. Twitter, Facebook and other tools are inventions of technology. But they are just the instruments we choose to share our voice. The goal is still connecting. When Twitter disappears, rest assured we will find another way to connect.
So again, the tools are new, but they are not Social Media. Social Media is communication, and this is not new.
I keep harking on this because I’m very passionate about communication and what the Social Web is capable of. I don’t like to see companies or organizations fall into the deep side of the pool because they didn’t take the time to discover the rules that govern the social web.
Just remember the rules of engagement and honest communication that govern our offline relationships, transfer online. If you can get away from thinking of the digital landscape as bulletin board, you will be in a better position to humanize your brand. Then you will be able to connect with a far bigger audience than you imagined thanks to the social web.
Now that is something new!
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social media Tags:
advertising,
advice,
blogging,
blogs,
branding,
brands,
communication,
digital landscape,
facebook,
relationships,
social media,
social web,
strategy,
technology,
twitter
Last week I was very fortunate to speak at Tedx Lansing, an independently organized TED event. The conference showcase some of the regions brightest minds including, Bob Fish, Allie Merrick, and Karl Gude.
I wanted to share my passion I have for not only our region, but for Michigan as a whole. We’ve done a great job isolating ourselves, but now it is time to tear down our garden walls and reclaim our brand.
Below is my presentation. All presenters can be found at TEDx Talks.
Posted in
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branding,
communication,
conferences,
events,
lansing,
michigan,
movement,
passion,
ted,
tedx,
tedxannarbor,
tedxdetroit,
tedxlansing
