Here’s a little humour for all of you the next time you deal with a professional photographer. Chances are, you’ve probably asked one of these questions (or several). One thing I can tell you, from personal experience, a lot of people try to tell professional photographers what to do. Try to let photographers do their job.
Hey, Photographer, can you do this…?
February 8, 2012 By Leave a Comment
The most important but forgotten question in marketing
February 7, 2012 By Leave a Comment
A marketing or communications plan can be like an octopus. There can be lots of tentacles going in many different directions. You jot down notes. You hash out ideas. And you go around and around in meetings that never seem to end.
Almost everyone talks about the first necessary component of marketing anything, be it a product, service or event. That component, of course, would be: Who is the intended target audience?
But here’s the question that is often forgotten when developing any marketing or communication plan: “For us to call this a success, what results are needed?”
10 ways to give your Twitter account a fast tuneup
January 26, 2012 By Leave a Comment
It’s easy to forget the little things when you’re tweeting up a storm. One of the most forgotten parts of any social media account is the need to continually review your profile wording and how you are best putting forth your brand. So take a few minutes and start putting your Twitter account through a little tuneup.
Here are 10 easy things to do on your Twitter account today:
Watch those files sizes! (Some of your audience may be on dialup)
January 19, 2012 By Leave a Comment
If you are an organization or small business based in a rural area here’s a dose of reality: some of your audience may be on dialup Internet. Yes, as prehistoric as that may seem, dialup still exists today. Just take a drive out into the country and ask. There’s a lot of pain out there when a big file takes forever to download on someone’s email.
Why most businesses can’t ignore teens on Twitter
January 12, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Sadly, far too many businesses today are still dismissing Twitter as a useless tool with little value. These businesses will often point to tweets by teens as an example.
Here’s what a business owner recently told me: “I do have to wonder what “VALUE” and what impact promoting Twitter does …. I wouldn’t get caught up in that culture personally.”
The business owner used a specific example of a tweet by a teen: “$84 dollars later “well there’s a nice t-shirt”#happybirthday bearf—–.”
A new hyper-local startup that’s designed to make a difference for small businesses in community where I live
December 30, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Giving back is something that many of us hold in high regard today. In the communications business, especially when you’re based in a rural community, you hear many stories from small businesses. Many of these stories are the same: the same old traditional marketing approaches aren’t working any more. The other dilemma? Marketing budgets are limited. So, what do you do?
Simple communications failures that can hurt your small business
December 29, 2011 By Leave a Comment
The other day I decided to surf the web and call around to inquire about dinner reservations for New Year’s Eve. A few things immediately stood out. Some restaurants have let their communications efforts fall way, way by the wayside.
Ontario Ginseng Growers Association website launched by WorkCabin Communications
December 24, 2011 By Leave a Comment
The Ontario Ginseng Growers’ Association’s new website has been launched by WorkCabin Communications. Prior to the new site, OGGA was relying on an outdated and extremely rudimentary CMS (Content Management System). The overall design was also outdated. It was far too complex for OGGA to manage by itself.
WCC set out to create a superior dynamic design with far more visual appeal. Ginseng is traditional and revered herb, so it was also essential that the overall design remain elegant and respectful, given the large traffic received from visitors in China. The colour palette chosen for the new site also better reflects earth tones which complements the essence of ginseng farming.
The site will soon be linked to a future OGGA website built specifically for the Chinese market.
The new Canadian website is based on a WordPress CMS. The association can now easily update its own website, grower and buyer lists, thereby reducing the previous expense of outsourcing all website maintenance work.
WorkCabin Communications is pleased to deliver an exciting new website for the Ontario Ginseng Growers’ Association.
Small businesses: The BIG risk behind using Facebook as substitute for website
December 19, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Anyone can try this experiment. Oh, um, wait a minute! Many of you probably have done it. If the results annoy you, you are not alone.
Social media experts often do tests where they attempt to engage big brands in discussion on social media. The results are usually less than flattering. Media tends to be the worst, according to one recent study, responding to only one per cent of wall posts. Overall, the study found only five per cent of wall posts ever receive a response. That’s bad. How bad? On a tool called social media, it’s viewed as being ignorant.
Customer service failure: When companies forget about the power of social media
Social media is an incredible tool for companies and businesses to showcase their public relations expertise at dealing with customers. On the other hand, used the wrong way, it can be a public relations bomb (and for all you hipster language folks, I don’t mean da bomb, or any other bomb in a good kinda way).
Take this example of a US woman who recently purchased an electronic device from BodyBugg and soon discovered it to be defective. She emailed the customer support department (the company includes email as an option to reach them for support) twice within a week and did not get a response. Frustrated, the customer took her anger to Facebook.
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