It’s finally starting to feel like spring in Northeastern Ohio and I’ve got lots of work to do around my yard and home in preparation of summer. Sometimes I can get overwhelmed thinking about what to do first, but I love the rewards of opening those sparkling clean windows and smelling the fresh spring air.

Most people look at managing their corporate brand in the same way. They know it’s time to take their image to the next level, but are afraid of the cost and time involved to make it happen.

Here are three great tips to shake out any brand cobwebs and give your corporate image a fresh look.

1. Examine your logo – Are you embarrassed when you look at it? Does it look dated? A professional looking logo is essential to your company brand. It works with your website collateral and other marketing efforts to set a professional corporate tone. Updating your logo is a great way to tell customers you’re successful and understand the importance of staying relevant. However, a professional corporate logo does not tell the whole story.
2. Navigate your website – Hopefully you’ve taken the time to promote and get traffic to your site. After all, the whole point of building a website is to get your message out, but don’t stop there! Make sure visitors want to stay and return once they’ve found you! Keep things simple, easy to navigate, beautiful, well written and updated! If information is out-of-date, links don’t work and your site can’t be viewed on mobile devices, what do you think goes through a viewer’s mind?
3. Join the conversation through Social Media – Okay, I know what you’re thinking. I don’t have time or the resources for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest or any other social platform. I get it, but you need to build an online community around your product or business and keep it constantly updated. Most of your customers have accounts and its a great way to make meaningful connections with people who are curious about what you do. Plus, your presence and contributions help you look current and relevant in the minds of your customer base.

Even the most successful companies need to tidy up their image on a regular basis to stay current and meaningful to customers as markets evolve! Don’t be embarrassed of your brand and hide it in a closet, collecting dust or you may be forgotten!

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The more you know your customer and listen to them, the better you can tailor messages and offers to them that they really want. This seems like such a common sense approach, but you’d be amazed how often it’s overlooked by many executives.

Department store chain J.C. Penney was recently reminded when it tried to reinvent itself to attract younger, wealthier shoppers. In the process, it alienated its loyal customers and caused sales to plummet!

When J.C. Penney’s suffered a steep drop in sales due to the changes, they started to ask for customer feedback. They discovered that customers wanted the same trusted brands, great style and affordable prices that they always loved about J.C. Penney. Their new TV spot tells shoppers they’ve been heard, apologizes and pleads with them to come back.

Another example is Kodak which failed to recognize the future of digital images and cameras. They foolishly believed that their loyal customer base would never leave them so they ignored and missed amazing opportunities.

There are many ways to get to know and analyze customers through basic market research, but don’t stop there. To see a more complete picture, talk to customers directly. Take the time to understand their needs, wants, attitudes and behavior. This will make them feel appreciated and valued.

All team members should hear the customer’s voice and be able to communicate back to management about any problems, needs or expectations. Direct customer engagement is the best way to look for patterns, preferences and important changes in trends.

Ask questions and focus on what the customer is really saying. Don’t make assumptions because you might make a serious mistake just like Kodak did. Problems or complaints should be dealt with immediately and be ready to adjust to what they want including changes in technology that they may not even know they need.

It’s much easier to keep a customer than replace one. More than ever, it’s important to know what your customers are feeling and especially what they are sharing.

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Businesses need to realize that most people learn, understand and share information by seeing something, not just reading or hearing. This is especially true when there is a lot of information or data that is difficult to understand. With the growth of smartphone and tablet use, we expect information to be at our fingertips.

As busy consumers, we are also demanding corporations respect our time and resources. Since content marketing is now a part of most successful advertising strategies, creating cutting edge and relevant content for blogs and social media can be a struggle over time.

Graphics or infographics can help your prospects quickly process and digest information in an interesting and captivating way. Plus, readers will be more likely to share an infographic with their friends than a long and wordy blog article.

Infographics are graphic visual representations of information, data or knowledge that present complex information quickly and clearly. In newspapers, infographics have been used for years to show weather, timelines, cartoons, maps and signs. On the web, you’ll be pretty familiar with infographics if you hang out on Pinterest.

As an example, below is a map that we created for a client that uses infographic techniques to visually explain a complex program they created to help work through relationship conflicts.

Even as an adult, I am a visual learner who often remembers faces before I do names. So, let’s skip using any more words and Click Here to view an infographic which explains exactly what one is!

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Have you checked out Pinterest for your business? It’s visually appealing format features products in such a way that users don’t even realize they are being marketed to. The site offers many options to share and promote products. For example, the Pin It Button and Pinterest Widgets allow users to pin webpages and share their own sites as well.

As time goes on, research is proving there seems to be a high conversion rate in the number of people who have pinned virtual bulletin boards of images on Pinterest and then made a purchase. Even more surprising is that statistics are showing offline purchasing to be stronger than online!

Pinterest even offers opportunities for visually boring and unappealing products. The format of the site allows brands to offer content that expresses a lifestyle associated with a brand. For example, a ball point pen in itself is fairly ordinary, but shown on a beautiful desk along side a colorful mug and family picture at the beach can invoke a lifestyle that is associated with such creative imagery.

If your product in itself is beautiful and appealing, that’s even more reason you should be on the Pinterest platform. You will have an advantage from the beginning due to the fact that the site focuses on imagery.

It appears that there has been a large shift towards media sites such as Pinterest. People are getting more and more tired of Facebook and headed towards this site and others like Instagram. This is because we are a visual people who respond to pictures instead of words.

While Facebook does have options for uploading pictures, it is not the main focus. The simplicity and flow of sites and applications like Pinterest are very interesting to users and allow any brand to share and organize images in a visually appealing way. Stay alert to these social media changes and use them to the advantage of your business!

Take a look at how we use Pinterest to round out our social media strategy here and call us anytime for additional ideas.

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If you’re like most businesses these days, social media has become an important tool to engage customers. Just like choosing a domain name, a username on any social media account reinforces a brand’s identity. Every trademark owner should register their trademark as a username and create their own pages on social network sites.

Usernames are chosen on a first come, first serve basis. If your business name is common, you might have a hard time securing it as your own. It doesn’t matter if you are a celebrity, small business or large corporation, you should be protecting and monitoring your brand on social networking sites to determine if a trademark is being used without your permission.

Many social media sites have set a verification process to prove if the person or business named as the account holder is authentic. Typically only public figures such as celebrities, athletes, or politicians are asked to verify their accounts.

Facebook does not offer any form of badge to show proof of an account being verified where as Twitter does. Pinterest verification is different because they are offered to anyone with a business account. The verification is set up so that users can take advantage of the Pinterest Web Analytics that identifies which pins are driving traffic to a website and which ones are generating sales.

There is no guarantee that any verification mark can stop others from setting up fake accounts and misrepresenting a corporate brand or celebrity. It happens all the time. For instance, anyone can cut and paste a Twitter verified badge image onto their custom header. It looks legitimate but is fake. You can tell the difference by hovering your mouse over the Twitter blue check mark. If it’s real, a pop-up will read “Verified Profile” confirming that the account has been verified by Twitter.

The landscape of social media has challenged brand owners to revaluate their thinking from traditional intellectual property laws. When Coca-Cola discovered that two fans had created a page on Facebook, they contacted them to partner with the company to manage the page instead of taking legal action. The page is now one of the most popular on Facebook and its original fan creators are prominent features of the page!

Most social media sites have their own terms of service and allow trademark owners to report any trademark violations through their websites. However, there are always new loopholes that users can find and attempt to use successfully. It is important to be proactive and research your own company on these social media sites to ensure that it is being represented as you desire.

You have worked hard to sustain your company and brand name, don’t let social media ruin that; stay alert!

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Facebook has once again made changes to its policies; this time it applies to cover photos for pages on Facebook. The change has created more relaxed rules, making the cover image policy more consistent with the guidelines related to ad images.

Prior to these changes, Facebook page cover photos were limited. They could not share contact information and deals or prices. They were prohibited from using ‘likes’ and ‘shares’ or using calls to action. But, these restrictions no longer exist! This is a major improvement for Facebook business pages, because besides the profile picture, the cover photo is the first thing the viewer sees.

There is still one major limitation listed in the new guidelines which says that the images can include no more than 20% text. But now, Pages will be allowed to share their personal contact information in other places besides their “about” section. They can even add arrows pointing from the cover photo to any of the Facebook features.

Anyone wishing to promote their page on Facebook is likely to be very happy with these changes. However, for the average Facebook user, this increase in advertising will likely become irritating and overwhelming.

I have personally heard many people express dissatisfaction with the constant changes to Facebook. The media has also started to report a reduction in use by some Facebook members. This negative reaction from consumers clearly demonstrates how advertising can go wrong, especially on social media websites. Increased noise and traffic is affecting all aspects of social media’s effectiveness.

While it may seem like a good idea to make use of these relaxed guidelines, one must be cautious of alienating users in the process. Facebook page owners and managers need to make professional and intelligent decisions on how they will make use of these changes if they wish to retain an audience which respects them. Don’t exhaust the freedom!

For more information, read the official Facebook Page guidelines.

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The simple and honest answer is no. No one can intentionally create a story which becomes so popular it’s shared across the Web.

Viral content, whether it’s a video or post, spreads because the internet community chooses to share it. The viral phenomena is based on a behavior that’s been present since the beginning of time. It’s human nature to be preoccupied with the lives of others and gossip.

Most successful viral campaigns evoke strong emotion and strike at the heart of a certain online demographic. Familiarity and entertainment mixed with a little luck can increase your chances, but not guarantee that any content will organically spread. Both positive and negative triggers can work, but keeping the message short will help.

Some marketers believe there is a specific formula to viral success such as knowing how to navigate social media channels with SEO and pay per click techniques. That would mean anyone could do it.

Not every business brand can pull off creating interesting content that grabs the attention of millions. Some products and services are not meant to reach a large audience.

Probably the best way to discover why or how viral content works is to look at successful examples. Jon Cozart’s “After Ever After” viral video parody of Disney is one recent example. Posted to YouTube under the username “Paint,” on March 12, his video has gone viral with over 3 million views.

Cozart approach is unique because he seems to understand the dynamics of creating videos that go viral. His Harry Potter spoof from last year received nearly 13 million hits and his Lord of the Rings spoof, over 2 million. He admits that his latest video was the most difficult to make so far and took him more than a month to record the audio.

Do you have a favorite viral video or ad? Share with us in the comments section below.

We’ll be taking a break from writing to celebrate the real meaning of Easter, one if not the greatest single event in the history of mankind! Check back on April 12th.

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Instagram and Facebook have both taken photo-sharing to a whole new level. With the recent backlash and user revolt over Facebook’s purchase of Instagram and their bid to win rights to sell users’ photos to advertisers, Google+ may win the future of social media.

Photographer John Butterill is capturing and sharing tours of popular locations all over the world using smartphone technology with Google+. His “Virtual Photo Walks” utilize the Hangout feature in Google+ so that people, in their circle of friends, are able to visit and interact with smartphone enabled photographers.

Mr. Butterill uses his iPhone, Google+ Hangouts and a modified shotshoe mount for a Gymbl iPhone case to sit atop his camera so he can stream the virtual photo walk. Users on Google+ Hangouts can guide and communicate with the photographer from any location. They see the same view the photographer does in real time.

Think of the possibilities! These Virtual Photo Walks are not just for those who are hospitalized or housebound, but also for those who need a break from their world or just a different way to interact with others. It could be a game changer for marketers and open the door to businesses who want to keep their story and brand constantly refreshed and new.

You don’t need to be a professional photographer to create a Virtual Photo Walk, but you do need a Gmail and Google+ account. It would also help to spend a little more on a better data plan or make sure you’re in WiFi. For those who are less tech savvy or may not want to purchase the Gymbl, there’s always Duct tape:)

Go to www.virtualphotowalks.org for more information on how you can volunteer your time, learn how to set up a streaming rig and watch one of John Butterill’s Virtual Photo Walks.

If you’re not familiar with Google+ Hangouts which has the ability to shrink the world, click here to learn more.

How do you see your business using Google+ Hangouts?

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Have you heard of the photo/video sharing and messaging craze, Snapchat? Snapchat is a smartphone app that allows people to share photos and messages that automatically delete in a matter of seconds.

The Snapchat app was created about two years ago and is available on the iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and Android devices. It’s pretty easy to use. Just take a picture or video, then select how long you would like someone to see it. Set a time limit from 2 to 10 seconds and then select as many friends as you want to receive the image.

From an adults perspective, Snapchat seems very dangerous because it’s a perfect way for teenagers to send naughty pictures with text messages to each other. However, young people see this as a kind of online version of passing notes to each other that no one else can see.

Many younger users feel they are being spied on through Facebook by family members, employers, teachers and admissions officers at universities. That’s one of the reasons Twitter has become more popular than Facebook with young audiences and Snapchat is so appealing.

They’re also very sensitive and aware of the permanence online sharing of content has on their future employment. Images can’t be tagged and live forever on Snapchat like they can on Facebook. Or can they?

Snapchat may offer a false sense of security. Images can still be saved by capturing a screenshot or by taking a photo with another camera before the image and message disappears. The sender is alerted if an image has been captured with a screenshot but no one would know if it’s been captured by another camera!

Social media is constantly evolving and its ever-changing landscape of platforms still seems like a huge experiment. My advice to businesses and professionals is embrace the change, understand where your audience hangs out, always try new platforms, use common sense and never take anything that happens on social media too personally!

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Hashtags are used across multiple social media channels including Twitter, Instagram and others, except Facebook, to start conversations. On Twitter, they are easy to search and clickable so users can see the group of all conversations that use the same hashtag.

In the beginning, Twitter and its users took the hashtag mainstream as a way to gather information under one thread for a more targeted experience instead of searching through hundreds of random and unstructured tweets. For example, one of our clients created the hashtag #18to25 to talk about important subjects related to this age group.

Adding the # in front of the words, with no spaces, allows you to search relevant Tweets to either share your knowledge or get answers. The beauty is that hashtag searches are in real time and updated as they are Tweeted.

People have finally realized that simply having a large number of fans or followers might look good but is not a valid measurement of successful engagement in social media. Hashtags have become a vehicle for companies to start and engage conversations instead of begging us to follow them.

They have also become a unique branding tool for businesses to help get content in front of audiences. Going back to our example above, #18to25 is a program developed by the Portage Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition whose main purpose was to create a website about health information for the 18-to-25 year old age group.

When they were thinking of a name, they knew they wanted to include some aspect of social media and the hashtag was a perfect fit. People within that age group are encouraged to search out their health and lifestyle information and share with others. Charene Creative designed the logo and website specifically targeted to this age group.

Hashtags are a great way to create a buzz and conversation around an event, new product or service and anyone can create one! Just make sure it’s relevant to your message and not already in use by searching for it on Twitter. If you find it’s already taken, create another.

Share with us how you incorporate the hashtag into your conversations on social media to get people talking about your company.