Got a great idea, but need some input?

Sometimes you get what you think is a great idea, but you're not positive and you sure could use a little input from the peanut gallery. Enter crowd sourcing websites. For a small fee, you post your idea and ask for feedback. While not quite as focused as a focus group, crowd sourcing sites are a tremendous source of opinion from a wide swath of folks who use the web.

For details about the concept, dial up this piece on American Express' Open Forum blog. http://tinyurl.com/bp7mf97

Quotations from some of the biggies in the Advertising Hall of Fame

At the Ryan William’s Agency, we like ad-related quotations that stand the test of time almost as much as ads themselves that are as relevant today as in decades prior. Here are a few of our favs, all from heavy-hitting members in the Advertising Hall of Fame.

“If you're trying to persuade people to do something, or buy something, it seems to me you should use their language, the language they use every day, and the language in which they think. We try to write in the vernacular." --David Ogilvy

“Advertising makes people discontented. It makes them want things they don't have. Without discontent, there is no progress, no achievement." --Morris Hite

“It takes good clients to make a good advertising agency. Regardless of how much talent an ad agency may have, it is ineffective without good products and services to advertise." --Morris Hite

“The right name is an advertisement in itself." --Claude Hopkins

“When executing advertising, it's best to think of yourself as an uninvited guest in the living room of a prospect who has the magical power to make you disappear instantly." --John O'Toole

While the team at Ryan Williams hasn’t penned a quotable line about advertising practices and philosophies worthy of the Hall of Fame-—YET—-we do have numerous award-winning campaigns to our credit that significantly increased both brand awareness and sales for area businesses. We like to think that speaks volumes. Got a question about promoting a product, a business, even an individual? Give us a call. We can help, and you may quote us on that.

Thinking Out of the Box

While the phrase “thinking out of the box” has just moved past tired status and is inching its way up toward cliché, the concept will never go out of style. Why? Because creative thinking can yield some very simple albeit very effective advertising strategies.

According to our friends in the Ad Freak department of AdWeek.com, a British farmer was denied permission to advertise his topsoil business on billboards near his farm. So he stenciled his logo on a heard of sheared sheep on the property as a way to catch similar attention (as well as perhaps subtly extend a metaphorical middle finger to whatever governing body denied the permitting).

Although this budding creative genius was able to let his mind run free, thinking creatively doesn’t often come naturally for everyone, and even for those who are naturals, the wheels occasionally get blocked. If you’re having trouble thinking out of the box about advertising or any business issue that needs a creative solution, next time try this: Jot down a list of eight or 10 random nouns, select one—how about “lamb chops” in honor of our British farmer—and think of as many characteristics, concepts and ideas relating to lamb chops as you can in five minutes. Then go back to your real issue and see if a slight temporary rewiring of your brain hasn’t taken effect. In many cases, the short exercise simply frees up the rigid thinking that has kept your creativity at bay.

For those of you with continued ad-related creative brain freeze even after this exercise, you have an alternative, and it’s called Ryan William’s Agency. Mobile warm-blooded signage might not be right for your business, but creativity is what we do; we can help you with an effective strategy and an affordable campaign.

Subtlety Sells in Online Marketing

Ever know someone in a social situation who constantly talks about himself or is always working some angle for his benefit at your expense? It usually doesn’t take too long before you begin avoiding a person like that. While you expect a salesman during a sales call to try to sell you something, most people aren’t fond of getting sold by friends or acquaintances.

Social media is largely the same way. Individuals follow on Twitter, friend and fan on Facebook, read blogs, watch YouTube videos, etc. mostly to be entertained and to garner information. If you try to hard sell this audience, it takes only a click for them to make you go away and there are thousands of others ready to take your place.

The key to social media is that it’s social. You must engage your audience in conversation. As tempting as it is to tweet about your sale or tell that person on LinkedIn to call you because you’re an attorney and can help him with his issue, don’t. Simply talk to your audience like you would an acquaintance at a cocktail party. Here are some more tips to getting your message across without hitting anyone over the head.

Offer value.
Rather than selling that person on LinkedIn your legal services, post a link to some information that pertains to that person’s issue. The more useful information you provide through social media, the more people will remember you as the go-to source for help.

Respond to negative and positive comments.
Don’t delete negative comments; respond to them thoughtfully and apologize. Deleted comments are likely to get louder somewhere else. On the flip side, thank people who post praise for your product or service. This kind of positive reinforcement makes your audience feel good and keeps the praise alive for an additional period of time.

Entertain and surprise.
Followers of social media love to be entertained and surprised. Both are great vehicles to elicit fans and followers of your message. Think of an author or pundit on television, etc. who you regularly look for to hear what he’s going to say next. You can become that person or entity to a great many individuals.

Ask questions
By posting questions, you’re inviting conversation, which keeps your message alive and stimulates your audience. One-way information is fine some of the time, but mix it up occasionally.

Be transparent.
Nobody likes a fake and that goes for businesses as well as individuals. The more you share, the more your audience will believe you and look forward to your next post.

At Ryan William’s Agency, we’re regularly tweeting and blogging and posting on Facebook and the like for a number of clients who recognize the importance of social media, but are busy running their companies, and we do it for our agency as well. It’s one of the keys today of running a successful business. (Subtle, huh?)

Just how big a deal is social media? Check out the new statistics on social web use.

Lately it seems like everyone is Tweeting or Blogging or posting videos on YouTube. Even the people who have held out until now – the unsocial – the late adopters – are now converts to the social movement.

Just how big is the social media audience? The new social media statistics for 2010 are now in and, no surprise, they’re big.

So now that you know how big the online audience is for your product or service, all you have to figure out is how to get them to notice you.

Check back for more tips on turning social media into sales.

Still going round and round with your social media marketing plan?

We field the question on a daily basis: How can I promote my business through social media?

Even smaller businesses recognize the importance of tapping this exponentially growing marketing channel, but social media remains an enigma to most business owners. Sure, their face is on Facebook. Their business is linked on LinkedIn. Maybe they’re even Tweeting or Blogging about… stuff.

But, is all this time spent socializing actually getting them anywhere? Where exactly does the rubber meet the road on the social media pathway? When does it translate into leads and then into sales?

As in real life, socializing in the online world can take up a lot of your time and get you, well, squat for your efforts. Learning to streamline your social media effort so you don’t waste time is key to managing a successful campaign as is driving all the social butterflies you collect to one main destination: your company’s website.

I attended a luncheon last week where Lindsay Dicks, CEO of CelebritySites laid out an easy formula for both streamlining your social media and getting results from it. Her Circular Marketing concept takes the “round and round” out of your social media by basically implementing a round and round approach to it.

The Circular Marketing concept takes one message and reformulates it into several social media friendly formats (Blog, Press Release, Podcast). These messages are then distributed through social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter and syndicated services. Links to these posts are posted on the company’s website and the links from these sites post back to the company’s website where the original content resides.

It sounds complicated, but is remarkably simple and thanks to Lindsay, we’re now in the know on how to make Circular Marketing work for our clients.

Wanna take a spin?

Mind your manners, Miss Twitterer.

Don’t eat with your elbows on the table.

Use your napkin!

What do you say to Mrs. Johnson for the lovely gift, Joey? Joey!

Hey, no cutting in line!

Most kids are beat over the head with reminders about their manners on a daily (sometimes hourly) basis. Yet, with age does not always come courtesy. Case in point, the car that refused to get in the long line waiting to turn right and chose, instead, to scoot up the left side and demand to be let in at the front of the line.

Hey! No cutting in line!

Most business professionals maintain a modicum of manners in their normal business dealings. Receptionists ask you to “hold please” or politely request “may I take a message?” Salespeople know to show up on time for business appointments. Bosses can usually expect employees not to whisper or pass notes in meetings… usually.

Yes, Miss Manners is still a powerful force in the business world except, it seems, in the world of social media. Business professionals who wouldn’t dream of sharing their opinions about Obama, Roe v. Wade or the war in Afghanistan over lunch with a client have no qualms about blogging or Twittering those same opinions to the world. Social Media can be a powerful way to build your business, but not if potential customers are turned off at their first experience with you.

Minding your manners when interacting in the social media world is not much different than in the real world, as Rohit Bhargava points out in his article “10 Ways to Improve Your Social Media Kharma.” Maximizing your social media impact just requires remembering a few things mom taught you.

Always tell the truth.

Make sure to say “thank you.”

Don’t talk behind people’s backs.

And for heaven’s sake, no blogging at the dinner table! Were you raised in a barn?

What’s everyone Twittering about?

Everyone’s abuzz about social networking lately. Last year I got LinkedIn and now my 132 contacts and I are all part of the human daisy chain of “who do you know who knows someone who knows somebody I want to meet?” I figure if I add enough contacts eventually I will indeed find that Kevin Bacon is just six degrees away.

I joined Facebook and last month a friend from elementary school dropped in to chat online. She’s a physicist now. No wonder she always beat me at Parchesi.

Once of my colleagues recommended Jigsaw last week. The service is aptly named. If you can put the pieces together and figure out what they do, you’ve earned the right to be on Jigsaw.

Even the bars are getting into the game. Harry’s Banana Farm in Lake Worth has someone on staff who should be in the copywriting business. Last week their sign read “You Twitter My Space and I’ll Google your Yahoo.”

Signing up for social networking sites is easy enough, but once you’re there, then what? Can social networking really benefit your business?

The answer is yes. To be successful at it, though, you’re going to have to change the way you think.

The best example of a successful marketing effort using social networking came from a colleague in another market. His firm had been hired by a company that was launching a new product. This product was purported to age wine through the use of magnets embedded in a round base surrounding the bottle of wine. Skeptical? So were a lot of potential customers.

My colleague, an avid Twitter user, put a Tweet out to his network talking about the product and questioning whether or not it really worked. Before long, he was receiving lots of Tweets telling him how wonderful the product really was. He rebroadcast the positive responses and news of this new product has now spread far and wide in the Twitter community and beyond. The product is getting huge publicity and it all started with one little Tweet.

That’s just one example of how social networking can be a powerful tool in promoting your business. You just have to figure out how to best use it. Keep trying. Kevin Bacon is closer than you think.