Your Marketing Toolbox

Brushing the dust off the blog

Editor — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 15:14:53 +0000

It isn't often that I feel like I need to share something here, but when I hear or see something as powerful as the following quote, it is worth it.

“The promise of technology, the reason that people fall in love with the Internet and get so excited, isn’t because you can move to California and make a fortune,” Silbermann said last week when he was in Des Moines for the Thinc Iowa conference. “The promise of technology is this idea that no matter where you are, where you come from, what you’ve done, your impact can be magnified all over the world.”

Ben Silbermann at Pinterest was the amazing delight of the ThincIowa conference and especially due to this insight published in today's Des Moines Register (albeit five days late). Ten years ago, with a handful of friends, we started something here that grew passionately throughout the state, partially due to technology and mostly hard work.

Kudos to Ben – keep it up. Keep dreaming and DOING everyone.

I owe Josh Fleming an insighful blogpost

Editor — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 11:54:44 +0000

What do you do when you’re marched into a room and told that your job has been eliminated due to no fault of your own? This has happened to me and my decision was to invest and reinvent yourself. Change is constant in life, and no different in the business world. The time is now to prepare yourself for change and train yourself to adapt to the evolving environment.

Nineteen years ago, I was a surly bike mechanic, happy to toil over my work and not be bothered by people. But when the season ended and I wasn’t needed anymore, I found a way to invest and reinvent myself as a salesperson. I asked the manager for help, watched, listened, and learned over the course of seasons, and developed into the number one salesperson and eventual manager as well. These lessons have not been lost on me as I continually reinvest and reinvent myself in the business world, most recently as Marketing Manager at Clifton Gunderson CPA. I can teach these skills to people and show them how to grow as well, because I’m the Marketing Mechanic. (Actually, I pay the guys at Rasmussen Bike Shop and Bike World to work on my bikes, now.)

I’ve been friends with the Admaverick since the ice age at the Des Moines Register. We’ve seen a ton of changes since that time in the advertising and marketing world, in our friends and families, and moreover, our careers. Here’s how you can reinvest and reinvent yourself – it’s not easy, nor will it happen overnight, but a continued responsibility:

· Be Creative – bring ideas, insights and excitement to the table. Each of us have a niche, a cause, a hobby that keep us sane and happy. Use that as leverage to think differently and get outside of that box we all complain about.

· Networking – ask for help if you’re not comfortable, but start with friends and work out from there to develop new friends, peers, referrals, and more. Give of yourself and you will receive much more and appreciate it as well!

· Education – whether it is a lunch & learn, or graduate degree, continue to challenge yourself and invest. (BONUS – if you do this, you’ll likely engage in the previous two bullets!)

· Volunteer – find a cause you’re passionate about – anything less and you’re lying to yourself. I’m a Crohn’s patient since 1999 and have run annual fundraisers for the cause. I’m a huge advocate of Des Moines’ downtown, so am active in the Des Moines Downtown Chamber of Commerce. (EXTRA CREDIT – you may be able to engage in THREE of the previous bullets with this one!)

It is never too late to start – the hardest step is that first one. Looking back over the past thirteen years of my professional career, I see the groundwork was set by watching my parents with school, church, and community. After the requisite high school sports, band, orchestra, and theater, I became very involved with my fraternity, Lambda Chi Alpha, Homecoming and VEISHEA at Iowa State University. Various mentors at The Des Moines Register, Storey Kenworthy / WorkSpace Inc / Business Furniture Warehouse (guess who got me this job?), the Davis Brown Law Firm, and now Clifton Gunderson CPA have helped me navigate my professional career. Friends at the Iowa Association of Business and Industry, Technology Association of Iowa, the Des Moines Downtown Chamber of Commerce, Western Gateway Business Association, MarketWISE, and Breakfast of Champions, have helped me expand my network and friendships exponentially. What I’m saying is, it doesn’t hurt to ask for help. Des Moines is one of the best places in the world to connect as we’re ONE DEGREE OF SEPARATION from anyone you want to meet or work with.

While this post may seem like the ramblings of a madman, I offer that it isn’t much different than the usual fare on Advmaverick, except for the fact I’m just a little better looking than the editor.

See you around and keep investing and inventing!

P.S. How did I get this new gig? All of the above and LinkedIn.

We Need To Talk @dmcityview

Editor — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 18:20:28 +0000

Hi Cityview -

I've been a reader and fan of your publication through the years (even while I worked at the Register). My Wednesday ritual for as long as I've been in Des Moines has included you, a cup of coffee, and a few laughs.

The featured articles and Civic Skinny are a must-read for many reasons, but one of my favorite parts of Cityview is interacting with Jim Duncan (www.twitter.com/fooddude). I'll see him at the local restaurants and farmers markets, dishing on the best restaurants, freshest produce, and leading chefs in the community. That presence in the community speaks volumes for the strong relationships you've built over the years with quality writers engaging readers, advertisers, and businesses personally.

Since you've been on Twitter, I was hoping to spend more time together, share more great places to explore in DeMo, but all I hear are crickets, not tweets.

Not to be cliche, but can you hear me? Twitter is a conversation and a way to share all the great things our social community has to offer. If you want to chat about it over a cup @marscafe, you can find me @marcthollander.

Sincerely,

Marc

Coupon clipping? Come on! #julysavings

Editor — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 23:11:10 +0000

Coupon clipping is for old ladies, an artifact of the past… a relic of shopping, if you will. It is definitely not something I thought I'd be talking about.

Well, Friday was grocery day and I knocked $10 off a $60 bill at the new Fareway in Clive. Target was nice enough to give me a $5 off a $50 grocery order, so I figured I'd save a little more at Iowa's best value grocery store. I've been clipping since the new year, and have found that some days are better than others.

Some tips I've gleaned in the past few months

Still focus on shopping the outside of the market. I try to fill my cart with fresh fruits, vegetables, whole grains, meat, cheese, dairy, plain yogurt, eggs, then fill in with the canned products we need.
Stick with what you'd actually use. I don't use coupons for crap we usually pass on anways.
Double up, only if you need it!
The Des Moines Register has tons of coupons in the weekend editions. Not always the best, but always worthwhile. (Figure it pays for my subscription).
Online has great coupons for manufacturers that you use regularly.
If you're a member of Costco, you get monthly coupons in the mail. Again, stick to rule #2.

Monthly savings: $20
Annual savings: $240

MidAmerican Budget Billing & Energy Audit #julysavings

Editor — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 19:11:38 +0000

Today I made the call I swear I'm going to do every winter – get in touch with MidAmerican Energy to get set up on monthly budget billing and schedule an energy audit. Since we moved into the money pit in 2005, I've been aghast at the heating and cooling costs of this home (in addition to other nefarious problems that we won't go into).

It has always been great in the spring and fall to open the house and have super-low energy bills, but during the hottest and coldest months, we get blown away by the magnitude of the expense. Budget billing has been way overdue. From the sound of the program, they have 3-6-12 month reviews to even out the expense and the option to pay the amount overdue at the end of the period or have it rolled into the next year.

After completing the billing call, we scheduled an energy audit for the end of July. I'm going to guess that one hour is where I get enough information (and hopefully some free stuff) to make up for today's $0 savings day. (Although, I'm reducing my stress level by setting our budget straight.)

July Savings Total:
Monthly Savings: $10*

Annual Savings: $120*

* Results of energy audit may affect this outcome.

July 1: -$10/mo savings from @dishnetwork #julysavings

Editor — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 19:03:53 +0000

This will probably qualify as the silliest thing I've done online in quite some time, but I figure with the heat of the summer, it is time to cool off some of the bills we have coming due. The goal of this project is to spend a little time every day looking for ways to save money, cut expenses, and perhaps make a little money as well.

Thursday, July 30, I logged into our Dish Network account and chose the FREE HD FOR LIFE promotion and upped our contract to 24 months to realize the savings. Now, this isn't exactly the best way to save money, but we get the value of at-home entertainment from Dish and enjoy the Food Network, VS, Sirius Radio, and the kiddie channels. Besides, the Tour starts this weekend, so I can't exactly cut my Lance fix just yet.

So, after I completed day one, I tweeted about the project and @DishNetwork responded with a cool message from them. Very cool to see them engage the customers on Twitter via CoTweet.

http://twitter.com/marcthollander/status/17494195288

July Savings Total:

Monthly Savings = $10

Annual = $120

LinkedIn Groups Updated

Editor — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 13:55:49 +0000

Will LinkedIn be a better place for business connections? To build "Connections That Count" with the Des Moines Downtown Chamber of Commerce, we've dipped our toes into our WordPress site, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.

Based on the response and interaction so far, we've seen more followers and interaction on the Twitter account, a decent number of "likes" in Facebook, and decided to remove restrictions to LinkedIn a few weeks ago to let anyone join. (Sheesh… social media being open, I hear?) We continue to live in the ecosystem we've created, and see that it will truly take a village to raise this child. Thankfully, we've got a great friend like Suzanne Hull working over our LinkedIn page.

With the new functionality for Groups in LinkedIn, we may see a migration of users and discussions to LinkedIn. What kind of value would you expect from a Chamber – member benefits? Networking? Discounts? Job opportunities? All of these are relevant and just pieces in the puzzle to help every member (and future member) get connections that count.

Check out this cool video on the updates http://learn.linkedin.com/groups/ from everyone's favorite business social network.

Still don’t believe in LinkedIn? Read it and Weep

Editor — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 14:18:32 +0000

I'm going to assume if you're reading this, you're on LinkedIn.

But are you maximizing LinkedIn's potential? I advocate organically growing your contacts through LinkedIn if you're just dipping your toes into professional social networking, but there are other ways to get involved, too.

Ask questions of peers – how are they dealing with a current issue?
Comment on other people's status.
Recommend people for the great work they've done for you.
Introduce people who should know each other.
Check your keywords – whatever you do should show up in your bio 10-15 times.
Make sure you have a full bio and resume. Seriously, don't just be a finger puppet.

Let me know if you have any questions – I'd love to help make things happen for you.

Check out this article for some great insights to where LinkedIn came from, where it is going, and how it can help you.

http://money.cnn.com/2010/03/24/technology/linkedin_social_networking.fortune/

Social Media Top 10 List

Editor — Fri, 21 May 2010 13:21:07 +0000

Happy Friday y'all!

Here's a nugget from my buddy, Jayne Navarre - right on target once again about social media being SOCIAL.

###

Here are the top ten things having an incomplete profile or five connections says about you:
10 I don't know what I'm doing on this social networking thing.
9. I don't know why I'm on this social networking thing
8. Someone else told me to do this social networking thing.
7. I don't care about this social networking thing.
6. I don't care if I connect to you or anyone else on this social networking thing.
5. I forget why I went to law school.
4. I don't have anything worth saying.
3. Your relationships with me is not important enough for me to complete this profile.
2. I'm a terrible networker and would rather be watching TV

And the number one thing you will communicate is:

I AM LAZY!

Think about it…agreed?

###

Here's the goal – have the Social Media 101 chat with a few people each day. Mention how you're making connections that count and having REAL interaction.

Have a great weekend!

LinkedIn Updates: Personalize Websites and Follow Companies

Editor — Mon, 17 May 2010 13:58:52 +0000

If you notice the fine print for the bio of Ryan below, you may see that he has "Advertise on LinkedIn" listed under his websites instead of the standard "My Company." I found a tip on how to make the change on your personal LinkedIn page in this blogpost. Check out tips #1 and #3.

Along the lines of making LinkedIn more valuable for you, consider using keywords throughout your biography. Look at your Davis Brown attorney bio and see which words show up the most and make sure you use them regularly in your LinkedIn bio. Here are my stats:

Marketing: 26

Sales: 12

Advertising: 9

Social Media: 3 (something must be wrong there)

If you missed it already, LinkedIn now allows you to follow companies. The reporting is pretty cool and I think some value is to be seen from tracking what your friends and competitors are doing here.