Orange Juice

The Bluegrass Hospitality Group (BHG) and Inbox Orange were recognized on screen Wednesday at the 2010 ExactTarget Connections Convention as a nominee for a Subscriber’s Rule Award. Best Buy took home the award but what a great honor to be in the same space!

Best Buy does an amazing job with sending relevant and targeted emails. If you are looking to follow a company that does it right, sign up to receive their email communication through Best Buy Reward Zone. Recently I purchased a new printer and within 24 hours I received a thank you email asking me if my questions were answered, directed me to the Geek Squad for assistance on set up and a link to a survey to evaluate customer service. Timely and relevant.

Best Buy is a proven leader in our industry and we’re proud to be a close contender!

Read our case study to learn more >

Don’t gag, but I have to share. We were so excited to be featured in the Valentine section of the February 2010 edition of the cool skirt! Lexington magazine. You can read the copy that accompanied the photo below:

Jackie and Bill, the marketing minds behind the Lexington agency Serif Group, have been wild about each other since their Wildcat days. The two met in 1994 as UK advertising students, married in 1997, and today share life, office space, two sons (ages five and nine) and a commitment to community, volunteering their time together at Lighthouse Ministries.

Jackie: “Bill is my knight in shining armor. His chivalry makes me feel special, and his interaction with our boys melts my heart. I’m so blessed to have found my perfect match.”

Bill: “Jackie is my best friend. I love spending time with her and I’m blessed that I get to work with her. I remember the first time I met her—it was love at first sight.”

And Kelli Patrick mentioned that first meeting in her From the Editor segment on page 10:

“Jackie Powell remembers the second time she met the man who’d become her husband and how she complimented his “photogenic” memory because he remembered her name (she was mortified the next morning to realize she’d meant “photographic”).”

With a background and a passion for graphic design, I often share in the joke with other designers that knowing how to use the software doesn’t make you a designer. Sometimes you can pass as a designer because you pleased the person who hired you, but your design may not have worked effectively.

What’s a designer to do? Nothing, really. All we can do is educate our clients and the public on the value of good, professional graphic design. Although your customers may not ask for it, they react to it. And if done with good commercial sense, your business will benefit from it.

When it comes to social media, many of the arguments are similar. Using Twitter, Facebook and YouTube for business does make you a social media marketer—but it doesn’t necessarily make you an effective one. Knowing the tools will help you be an effective social media marketer.

And while knowing the tools is an important aspect of social media marketing, using good engagement practices and solid marketing principles will go much further than knowing how to upload a link to your Facebook page. Fortune 500 companies and small mom-and-pop corner stores alike are using these social platforms to reach new and existing prospects. But are they doing it effectively?

Sales Pitch

So I had to be going somewhere with this, right? Yes, I admit this is a sales pitch, but my pitch won’t be for everyone. After all, my personalized session for social media consulting is an on-site session—here in Lexington. For those reading this who aren’t willing to travel in for the on-site session, I encourage you to look for a marketing agency in your area that can help you navigate the tools of social media, and educate you on the best practices. Or, contact me and we can organize a Skype session.

And for those of you who live here or are coming to Lexington, Kentucky in the near future I hope you would consider scheduling a time I can advise you on using the social media tools effectively and introduce you to best practices. Find out more information about my social media jumpstart session.

Twitter and Facebook for business: an introductory workshop

Do you want to know how to use Twitter? Should you use Twitter for business? How can it help you and not overwhelm you? We’ll address these issues in our introductory workshop for users just getting into Twitter and Facebook for business.

This workshop will give a basic overview of Twitter and some great tools to help you leverage its power to keep your finger on the pulse of your industry, and monitor what people may be saying about your company or industry. We will also introduce you to common Twitter etiquette and suggested best practices.

Even if you have a small business you can effectively use Twitter as a personal tool to network with others and engage in meaningful conversations.

Facebook is a great tool for connecting with old friends, but did you know that it can be an effective way to spread word about your business or organization?

At this workshop we will show you how to set up your business most effectively on Facebook, and introduce you to other tools to get the word out about your business to local users on Facebook.

We will also briefly discuss other social tools to assist you in managing multiple accounts, as well as what people are saying about your business on the internet.

Cost to attend is $50 and seating is limited. Register today!

First workshop- 10am-1:00pm  on May 12th  sold out

Second workshop- 10am-1:00pm on May 27th 

Offices of Serif Group and Inbox Orange

207 East Reynolds Road, Suite 210, Lexington, KY 40517

The last hour will be a casual and informal lunch conversation. Lunch will be provided by Corky’s Ribs and BBQ.

Advertising & graphic design agency, Serif Group, has office space available. The office is located on the second floor of 207 East Reynolds Road, Suite 210—between Nicholasville Road and Lansdowne Drive.

Amenities include: conference room, contemporary décor, utilities included, convenient location, a spacious, free parking lot, lots of sunlight, kitchen area, and a private office space. See photos on our Facebook page.

It would be an ideal location for an independent professional looking to move out of their home. Rent is affordable and includes utilities. For more information, contact Jackie or call 859-271-0701.

Join us for an Orange Open House at the offices of Serif Group and Inbox Orange to celebrate the first anniversary of Inbox Orange, an email marketing firm.  Please drop in and visit on Wednesday, January 7, 2009 from 4-7 p.m. We will enjoy catering by Corky’s, drinks, and networking—and don’t forget to grab a swag bag of goodies provided by our clients before you leave! Click here for a map and driving directions. 

One more thing …

In keeping with the Christmas spirit. If you live in the Lexington area the local Ronald McDonald House needs your help. As you may or may not have heard, the Ronald McDonald House had a flood in their house due to a leaking fire sprinkler system on Monday. As a result, many, many gifts collected for sick and hospitalized children were ruined.  If you would like to help the Ronald McDonald House out in this critical time of need, they have asked for folks to help the House with either gift cards to stores like Kroger and Wal Mart or to simply consider making a financial contribution. There was quite a bit of damage to the room they had the toys in and they will also need to replace some or all of their board room furniture.

Dang, Shaun Ring made us look GOOD!

We were so excited about having a story about us in last week’s issue of Business Lexington. We couldn’t believe it when we got our copy in the mail and saw that our photo was featured on the cover and the table of contents! Talking about exposure that money can’t buy. Bill and I are grateful for the opportunity to work and live in such a wonderful community. Thank you Smiley Pete Publishing, Kathie Stamps and Shaun Ring Photography. (BTW, the week before the story came out Shaun ran a very creative promotion using Twitter and Facebook which resulted in our professional photos. I highly recommend you check him out as his photography is just as outside-the-box as his marketing.)

Yawn.

No surprise here. The Herald Leader’s parent company is again dropping staff. Check out the story here, from none other than the Herald.

Another interesting article about the recent fate of newspapers from ClickZ.

More people are gone at the Herald. Does that mean their news gets better? Are they outsourcing jobs overseas?

This is not the first and it won’t be the last. Paper cuts

Rolling Stone Magazine just annouced that they are reducing the size of its magazine to better accommodate newsstands. I’m sure it has nothing to do with the fact that people aren’t reading magazines like they used to or the fact that postage and printing prices are on the rise.

If you look across the landcape of the old media (TV, radio, newspapers) they all have had trouble gaining traction with modern technology. Broadcast TV has had to deal with declining eyeballs since the 80s when cable has diluted its stranglehold on TV advertising. With the introduction of the Tivo and other DVRs, networks aren’t sure what to do. Local TV is also scrambling.

Local radio have to deal with iPods and satellite radio and the Herald-Leader, who used to be the only print game in town, is scrambling to catch up to groups such as Smiley Pete with niche products like Skirt and web portals covering every niche possible.

If you haven’t already, upgrade your company web site. Let customers create a dialog with you. Communicate to them with a mutli-channel strategy including a mix of the old media and a healthy dose of the new media.