We're Moving!

This is the last post on this blog account. We are moving our blog directly on to our website. You can find it here - http://www.hellotarte.com/blog. All previous posts are being transferred as well so you can always go back and read them later.

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Inspiration Monday

June 1, 2009

Unbelievable that we are now in the 6th month of 2009. The days, weeks and months seem to be flying by quicker than ever before. Don't we all need to stop and reflect and be inspired? Here is my inspiration images for this week. I decided to do an inspiration board this week. Let me know what you think.

Pugs (ready for my second one) • Vintage Chris Craft (hopefully I can get one of these for my husband one day) • Unusual veils • Treehouses (would love to have one for days I need to escape) • iMac • Field of poppies

Do you need inspired?
Let Tarte Advertising inspire you and your business.


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Cincinnati TasteCasting

So Tarte Advertising has taken on another project - Cincinnati TasteCasting - and we are lovin' it! This is a concept that was started just a few short months ago in Columbus, Ohio, and I have decided to head up the team in Cincinnati.

TasteCasting combines socially networked people and the social media platforms and applications they use to help establishments build awareness, announce grand openings, introduce new menu items, distribute special offers and encourage people to visit the establishment.

MARIBELLE CAKERY CINCINNATI
So, in Cincinnati, the TasteCasting Team has grown to over 30 team members in just a few short weeks and last night, we had our first official tasting at Maribelle Cakery in Reading. If you haven't had a cake from Maribelle Cakery, then you haven't lived. It is absolutely amazing!

Last night, 10 of us had the wonderful opportunity to meet at Maribelle and taste 4 different flavors of their new cupcakes. These cupcakes are something that have been in the development stages for nearly 6 months and just recently did Maribelle start selling them to the public. They are currently selling the cupcakes by the dozen ($38) and within the next few weeks you will be able to order them online from their website and have them delivered directly to your doorstep. Does it get any better than that?


Owner of Maribelle Cakery, Cristina Gutierrez starts by filling the team in on a little history of Maribelle and the cupcakes themselves. She tells us that her and her husband, Larry Brown, have owned Maribelle for 5 years now and just last year they converted the kitchen of Maribelle to a Kosher kitchen and everything in the cakery is now Kosher Dairy. This year, they added cupcakes to the menu and so far, they have been a huge hit.

Maribelle Cakery is known to many in Cincinnati as the premier cakery for your wedding day dessert. With some of the most elaborate designs and details that go on the cakes, it is no wonder Maribelle holds such an amazing repuation.

Recently Maribelle Cakery was named the Official Cakery Of the Cincinnati Opera! Wow - what an honor for them!

So, the 4 cupcakes that we tasted tonight were like nothing I have tried before - and I have sampled my fair share of cupcakes. In fact, I can't help but run in to Magnolia Bakery every time I am in NYC and my sister just recently hand delivered Sprinkles Cupcakes to me all the way from LA (what a sweet sister)!

The four flavors were:
• Southern Belle - Red Velvet cake with cream cheese icing

• Coco-Lava - Orange butter cake filled with Belgian dark chocolate truffle

• The Diva (created specially for the Cincinnati Opera) - White Chocolate cake filled with Madagascar vanilla bean opera cream

• Mocha Java - Dark Chocolate cake filled and topped with a Mocha icing


If I had to pick my favorite, I would actually have to pick two - the Diva and Southern Belle. I really can't decide which was better. I am not a huge chocolate lover (weird, I know), but the Mocha Java one was really quite tasty! I had asked the team what their favorite's were and everyone had differing opinions. However, I would have to say that Victor Imperi (@vimperi on Twitter) had my favorite quote of the night:

"Choosing my favorite flavor of cupcakes from Maribelle Cakery is like having to choose your favorite child - impossible."

Just a bit ago, Victor actually tweeted that he had been thinking about that statement since he left the tasting last night and now thinks it might even be harder than choosing your favorite child. :)

A huge, special thanks to Maribelle Cakery and Tina Gutierrez for allowing us to visit their Cakery and sample some of the goodness that is called cupcakes. I think everyone went home with full bellies, sugar-coated tongues and a desire to eat cupcakes from Maribelle Cakery on a daily basis.

This was a fun experience for the whole team and we are all looking forward to getting together for more tastings in the very near future. Next up - Whole Foods in Deerfield Towne Center.


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Stand out.

This is a quote that I saw the other day. It reminds me of us - Tarte Advertising - and what we do.

"Great design stands out in a crowd."

We are different. We are abnormal.
And that's okay - because Tarte Advertising stands out in a crowd.

Want your business to stand out? Give us a call and let us help you "be abnormal".

Inspiration Monday

Monday is here again - and it came really fast! Today was so busy that I almost didn't get to this blog post - but better late than never.

May 18, 2009

Vintage Victory Garden Posters









Couture Fashion










Colorful Sushi







Japanese Fabric Patterns









Adirondack Chairs









What are you going to let inspire you this week?

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Website Wednesday - Ecojot

Sometimes I like "cute".
Sometimes I like "flowery".
Sometimes I like "bright & colorful".
Well, with Ecojot, have found all of this and more in a website design.











I will admit, some of the navigation is a little tricky on this site. However, if I look at the site only for how visually appealing it is to me, I heart this site. True, I may be a bit biased because of my obsession with all things paper, but the illustrations and the designs on all the products are fab! I have now even gone as far as setting my desktop wallpaper to one of their designs (click here for the wallpapers you can use).

Lastly, in case you are wondering - their actual products are great! Last week, I was at Eco Chic, an event that Cincinnati Magazine puts on at Marvin's Organic Gardens in Lebanon, Ohio, and each person received a goodie bag with an Ecojot notepad in it!

*PS - In case you didn't get it from their name, they are "eco-friendly" - something that is very important to me. Their products are 100% post-consumer recycled paper products.

What do you think about Ecojots website?

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Inspiration Monday

One of my friends' from college started something on her blog called Inspiration Monday. I absolutely loved the idea and asked if I could borrow the idea for our Tarte Blog. She so graciously is allowing me to give it a try here. Check out her blog for all her creative ideas - http://blog.eleveneleven.net/. Thank you Jamila!

Inspiration Monday - May 11, 2009

Designer Duct Tape







Retro Mini-Grill










Tea Time by Jorine Oosterhoff









Gorgeous wallpaper designs by Grow House Grow















Plumero Font















What inspires you?

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Website Wednesday - Agatha Group

I figured up that I am on the internet - researching, emailing, searching, reading, talking, Tweeting, Facebooking, etc at least 50 hours a week - if not more. I am always coming across websites that I love. Because my background is in design, the first thing that catches my eye about a site is the actual design - what it looks like. I thought it might be fun to do Website Wednesday every week and feature a site that I have found that I like - for one reason or another.

This first one, I am not even sure how I came across it. I am not a huge fan of Flash sites (from an SEO side of things), but there are a lot of Flash sites that are visually amazing. This is one of them. Plus, when you refresh this homepage - it changes each time!! My favorite is the little black rain drops falling.

AGATHA GROUP











I am also not a huge fan of music on sites, but I love this one. So smooth and it works with the design so nicely. The background images - big and bold - are amazing throughout the site.

The company, which I am assuming is some sort of creative agency, is in Columbia. I wish I could read more on the site - about who they are and who their clients are.

Let me know what you think about it. We love to hear other's opinions!

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EvoloDesign Website Launch

Tarte Advertising just launched the EvoloDesign website!

EvoloDesign, formerly Olde Montgomery Kitchen & Design, is a full-service interior design firm (located in Montgomery) that offers comprehensive design, premium products, and custom remodeling services.

Earlier this year, Olde Montgomery Kitchen & Design was in the midst of some internal changes at their firm - adding new comprehensive services, hiring an award-winning interior designer to their core staff and expanding their studio space in Olde Montgomery.

With such big changes, there was no better time for a complete overhaul -- including re-naming their company, re-branding their image, new logo, new print materials and website.

Tarte Advertising has completed phase one of the overhaul, which includes the new EvoloDesign website.

For more information on how Tarte Advertising can refresh your brand, give us a call at 513.984.8278 or check out our portfolio online at: http://hellotarte.com/work.html.

We're Abnormal

I can't tell you how many times I have had people call us and say, "I am looking for a new website. I was working with this other person and they are just so unreliable that I think I need to find someone new. It takes them weeks - if not months - to get changes made to my site. Is this normal?"

If this is "normal", then Tarte Advertising is "abnormal" and that is fine by me. One of our top priorities in our business is customer service - making sure our clients are taken care of in a timely manner to the best of our abilities. It is sad to us to get these phone calls because the potential client has a bad taste in their mouth because someone else wasn't responsible enough to take care of the job the right way, the first time.

When a client asks us for changes to their website, we let them know when those changes will be made, and most of the time the changes are complete before the deadline. We set deadlines and we stick to them.

The next time your web developer or designer or copywriter or PR person can't give you a timeline and says they will "get to it soon", nail them down. Make them give you a solid deadline and when they can't meet that deadline, think really hard about if this is the right person to be working with. If you decide they aren't, give Tarte Advertising a call and let us show you the difference.

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Cincinnati Spring Fling Logo

The Cincinnati Horticultural Society's Spring Fling Committee approached Tarte Advertising in 2007 about developing a logo for the Cincinnati Flower Show's annual after party — Spring Fling. The committee was looking for a versatile logo that could be used for years to come (this is the second year for the logo). Tarte developed a logo that was fresh, fun and could be utilized in several different formats depending on where it was being used.

This year the party is on April 24, 2009. With the musical entertainment of DJ Will and Naked Karate Girls, an array of food, drinks and over 1,600 guests expected this year. The party starts at 8pm and continues until 1am at the Museum Center at Union Terminal.

See you there!

Heart and Soul

We recently lost a client that we not only enjoyed working with, but a client that we felt had a lot of potential. There was a relatively small budget involved, but we had stretched the numbers as far as we possibly could and we were happy with the results up to that point.

For a day or two after the break-up, I thought a lot about the situation and was frustrated by the questions that kept popping up in my head.
Could we have done something different?
Did we think of the best ideas?
Should we have gone a different route?
Did we enlist the best possible partners for the account?
I went back over the past two months work (that is how long we had been working with the client) and what I came up with is this:
Tarte Advertising put their heart and soul in to that account. Everyone on the account worked very hard. We had really great ideas and I am certain that the plan that was put in place, was the best plan possible for the budget. Also, I am positive that the team that was in place, was the best team for that specific account. I do not feel bad about our work - in fact, I am really proud of everyone that worked with us on this account and the work we all did. Great job team!

We are aware that people's money is very tight right now - including ours! But no matter what the economy looks like or what the client's budget looks like, you can be sure that when you hire Tarte Advertising to work with you on your business, we will give you 100% and we will put our heart and soul in to every project!

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Website Design with Tarte Advertising

A few reasons companies come to Tarte Advertising, Inc. to re-design their website:

• Not happy with the "look & feel" of their current website
• Their former web designer or web design company no longer exists
  
• Their current website doesn't function correctly on all web browsers
• Potential clients cannot find their website because it is not search engine friendly or search engine optimized
• the website is difficult to maintain or changes/updates to their site are not being made in a timely manner
  
• Their current navigation contains dead links or doesn't make sense, etc.

At Tarte Advertising, Inc., the websites we design:

• Are professionally designed
• Are custom-designed - we do not use templates!
  
• Are logically structured & easy to navigate
  
• Look and function the same on all web browsers
• Are designed with expansion in mind
• Are developed to be search engine friendly

Browse our portfolio of website designs - then contact us to get started on your website presence.

PR and your expectations

At Tarte Advertising, we feel that Public Relations is one of the services, that when executed properly, can make great differences to a business's bottom line. However, if expectations are out of line, then the positive can be masked with negativity.

I read a great article not too long ago from Mike Schutlz. I found it to be extremely informative for our business and thought that it had some great points to share on PR and the expectations that you should have. Below is a bit of recap of what Schultz talked about along with my own thoughts/ideas that we have gained over the past few years.

Truly, you can't know what to expect in advance with PR. Sometimes a PR campaign can take off immediately with one release or pitch, and other times it can take upwards of 6 months. You can land a story in the Wall Street Journal or on CNN.com, and not have any leads from it. You can land a small blip in your local paper and generate several sales from it.

However, there are a few things that can help to determine the success, or failure, of a PR campaign.

1. How interesting is your story? This will make a big difference to the media, prospects and buyers. Take a step back and asses how interesting your content really is to people other than you.

2. Are you (or your agency) implementing your PR tactics properly? Are you talking to the right people, sending releases and by-lines to the proper journalists at the right time? Avoiding mistakes is crucial in determining success in your campaign.

3. Are you being realistic with the financial investment of your plan? Many people think that PR is free, but that is not exactly true. It is true that you don't pay for a story in the paper the way you pay for an ad in the paper. However, if you have only given your agency enough to write and distribute one local release, then your chances of gaining something, such as a lead or a sale, are minimal. If you budget enough to put together a strategic plan that will last over a period of time, then success is much greater possibility. Work with your agency to figure out how much is realistic to be investing. If you are doing it yourself, be realistic about the time you need to invest. Your time is money.

4. Have you been working at your campaign for long enough? Stay at it - sometimes it can take a while. Keep in mind that even though you land one or two stories, it doesn't mean you are going to get your next two immediately. Be patient and stick with it.

5. What kind of relationship do you or your agency have with the media? In the PR world, relationships are everything! Realize that journalists at most media outlets are receiving many releases and pitches every day. A good agency or PR pro will know who to contact and how to contact them. How will they know this? Because they have built a relationship with the media and know what they are looking for.

6. When you look at the rest of your marketing efforts, how strong are they? How often are you blogging? Are you sending out regular email newsletters? Is your sales collateral and website up to date? PR typically can't stand alone without other marketing efforts (we believe it goes the other way too - marketing can't work without some PR). Why spend time and money driving traffic to your website when the content is dated and no longer pertains?

7. How strong is your brand? A publication is much more likely to publish a study from Harvard Business School than from Jimbob's Community College. This is something that can take time, especially if you are a small business, but the more you work at it and the more you keep the media informed on what you are doing, the easier this will get.

8. Consider what else is going on in the media at the time of distribution or the event you are promoting. Is there an Election taking place that is filling most pages of the paper? Is someone important coming to town that the media will need to interview? Is the economy in a slump (this is important for right now)? Has the media published a similar story recently? All of these things should be taken in to consideration.

Above all, do not expect to know what is going to happen or how it will all pan out. You have to just jump in with two feet and go for it. PR can, and will, work and knowing what to expect will help you not become frustrated when things don't go the way you thought they would.

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25 Things You MIght Not Know About Tarte Advertising, Inc. (and its owners)

1. It was started in 2006 by two best friends, Audrey Keyes & Jen Casperson.

2. When Tarte opened their doors, they only had one client, Marvin's Organic Gardens.

3. Tarte's first promotion involved baking lemon tart's and hand delivering them to potential clients. People thought they were so good that a few even asked Tarte to quote out making more for them.

4. When Audrey & Jen moved into their first office, before even unpacking everything, they realized that there wasn't going to be enough room and they had to move into a new space that same day.

5. Audrey & Jen both have degrees in Graphic Design. Jen from Bowling Green State University in Ohio and Audrey from Savannah College of Art & Design in Georgia.

6. Neither Audrey nor Jen had ever truly designed a website before opening Tarte Advertising.

7. The most popular service at Tarte Advertising is website design.

8. Tarte Advertising helped two of their small business clients hit the $1 MIllion in sales in 2008.

9. Tarte Advertising is an all Mac-based office. Every computer in their offices are Macs.

10. On "Bring Your Dog To Work Day" in 2008, there were 2 pugs and 1 mini dauchston in the office having a blast!

11. The name "Tarte" was a name that Jen dreamed one night. It doesn't have any "real" meaning to the word.

12. Audrey has a 4 year old daughter, Ainsley, a husband, Rick, and a 6 year old pug, Sophie. Jen has a boyfriend, Phil, and a 14 year old shitzu, Sophie. They both had their Sophie-dogs before they even knew each other.

13. Audrey always knew she wanted to have her own business. Jen never thought about it before she met Audrey.

14. Tarte Advertising's two favorite statements are "do the right thing" and "be proactive".

15. There is almost always music playing in the offices at Tarte. Sometimes it is Kanye, or Asia, or Britney. Sometimes it might be A Flock of Seagulls. Always a great variety.

16. Jen's favorite part of her job is designing for a client that has given Tarte a blank slate to design with.

17. Audrey's favorite part of her job is brainstorming creative ways to market the client's products/services.

18. You can almost always find Rice Crispy treats in the kitchen at Tarte Advertising.

19. One of the most interesting and unique client's that Tarte has ever worked with is Justin Poole Sculpture. JPS is a mannequin designer and was featured on Dirty Jobs while Tarte was working with them.

20. The newest service that Tarte Advertising is offering is Social Media Management and it is quickly becoming one of the most popular.

21. Tarte changed its branding completely after a year and half in business. It was well worth the time and energy.

22. Tarte offers an incredible internship for college students during the summer. It is a hands-on internship and even includes going on field trips to places like local printers and on photo-shoots.

23. Audrey's younger sister, Whitney, works for Tarte a few days a week.

24. Tarte Advertising has a pool of about 20 different freelance designers all over the country that they work with on various projects.

25. Jen and Audrey both agree that starting Tarte Advertising was one of the best things they have ever done in their life and are very excited for what the future holds for Tarte.

Non-Profit Brochure Design

Jean Cadet's Restavec Foundation is a non-profit agency that provides relief and advocacy for enslaved children (retavecs) in Haiti. Currently, over 300,000 Haitian children live lives of a restavec — the system known as "restavec," a Creole word meaning "stay with" — these children work for wealthier families in exchange for shelter. Restavec children are often physically, emotionally, and sexually abused. They are denied education, are unpaid, undocumented, and unprotected.

Jean Cadet's Restavec Foundation sought the help of Tarte Advertising to develop an engaging brochure that would raise awareness of this atrocity happening just 100 miles off the coast of Miami. For more information about this foundation, and how you can help, visit: www.restavecfreedom.org.

It Takes Time

If you are just starting to do some advertising for your business, or even if you have been doing it for a while and are just starting a new campaign, one critical thing to keep in mind is that "it takes time". It takes time for people to take notice of your efforts and then once they do, it takes time for them to react to your call to action. Unless you are offering something that no one else anywhere offers, that is free and normally costs a lot, or is something that your target needs immediately because of unexpected circumstances, then don't expect instant results. It takes much more than running one ad in the paper or running 1 day of radio spots. It takes time. Think about all the ads you see and hear every day. How many of them do you actually react to immediately - after seeing or hearing it once? If you need help figuring out how to advertise and what to actually expect from your investment, call Tarte Advertising, Inc. We will help you put together a strategic, realistic plan for your business or campaign - but it still takes time.

Make It Count

In the past, we have had small businesses come to us and say, “I have $1000 – what can you do for me”. When this happened, we had to think twice and really consider the question. It wasn’t whether or not we could do something with their money, but rather, can Tarte Advertising, Inc. get a return off the money that the client was investing.

Tarte Advertising wants to make a difference for our clients – that is our goal – and if we do not think it is achievable, we will let you know. It is only fair.

If we take our client’s $1000 and purchase online ad space or we take our client’s $1000 and do a small direct mailer – will the client gain something from it? Will they get new customers? Will they sell more products? No matter who it is and what their needs are, we want to be sure that we are making it count – for everyone involved.

Do What Makes You Money

Let’s start with this statement: You are in business to make money – to make a living. For most people in business, this is the main goal, or at least ONE of the main goals.

You have a passion for what you do – which is a great thing. But, does your passion actually make you money? Is your passion one of the key areas in your business that is bringing in dollars and enabling you to receive a weekly paycheck?

If you are finding yourself in the same boat that many are in right now with the economy, loosing money or just not making what you were a year ago, maybe it is time for you to take a look at your services or products and figure out exactly which ones are making money and which ones aren’t. For some, this can be a very difficult and eye-opening experience because you may find out that the one thing in your business that you truly love – your passion – may not be making you any money. Actually, it could be making you lose money.

Once you go through your products and services (and possibly even employees) and find what is making you money and what isn’t making you money, the next step is the hardest. You must take action and do something about the things that are not making you money. In times like these, for many, major adjustments must be made in order to stay in business.

Think about this example. Nancy had a card shop that she sold her homemade cards in. Making cards was her passion. Even though she never sold tons of her cards, she still loved doing it and was convinced that one day her cards would “catch on”. Because of this, she also had to sell other designer’s cards, small gift items, specialty paper for scrap-booking, and miscellaneous nick-knacks. Nancy had never really figured the exact time and cost that went in to each card that she made. She just priced them competitively with the other cards she sold. When Nancy’s business started struggling, and she had some extra time on her hands, she sat down and figured up her best and worst selling products and also figured the real cost of her own cards that she was making. The results were astounding to Nancy. She found that the price of cards she was making needed to be increased by nearly $2.00 each in order to make money off of them. However, if Nancy were to mark them up that much they would be the most expensive cards in the shop, and Nancy knew that her cards wouldn’t sell for those prices. Even though making cards was her passion, the other reason that she had the card shop in the first place, was to make money. If Nancy continued to dump money in to making her own cards, her business would not only continue to struggle, but would eventually fail. The hard decision was made and Nancy stopped making cards. The extra money that she was using on her own cards, she took and put in to advertising. Within three months, Nancy was able to hire Tarte Advertising, Inc to build a website and start running some ads/promotions in a few of the local publications, something she had never done before. It wasn’t an overnight, quick fix, but after 8-9 months, Nancy was definitely able to tell a difference. It was a tough decision, but she knew she had to do it if she wanted to stay in business. Nancy is still hoping that once things pick back up with the economy she will be able to start making and selling her cards again.

If your goal is to make money, do the things that make you money – or do something different.

A Well-designed logo should...

- Promote brand recognition and awareness

- Set the tone for your business (and its products)

- Look professional

- Last a lifetime to solidify your brand in the long-run

- Aimed at target consumers

- Reduce well -- a logo should hold its integrity, even when reduced to an inch

- Work well in black and white, as well as grayscale -- not just in color

- Establish an impact and the perception of a higher level of credibility


Need a logo for a new business venture? Do you want to update your current logo to make a lasting impression on customers? Browse the Tarte Advertising portfolio to see samples of our logo design.

50 Ways Marketers Can use Social Media to Improve Their Marketing

This blog entry from Chris Brogan is a great list of ways to utilize social media to further your marketing and advertising efforts. Need help? Contact Tarte Advertising, and we'll get the ball rolling for you!

1. Add social bookmark links to your most important web pages and/or blog posts to improve sharing.
2. Build blogs and teach conversational marketing and business relationship building techniques.
3. For every video project purchased, ensure there’s an embeddable web version for improved sharing.
4. Learn how tagging and other metadata improve your ability to search and measure the spread of information.
5. Create informational podcasts about a product’s overall space, not just the product.
6. Build community platforms around real communities of shared interest.
7. Help companies participate in existing social networks, and build relationships on their turf.
8. Check out Twitter as a way to show a company’s personality. (Don’t fabricate this).
9. Couple your email newsletter content with additional website content on a blog for improved commenting.
10. Build sentiment measurements, and listen to the larger web for how people are talking about your customer.
11. Learn which bloggers might care about your customer. Learn how to measure their influence.
12. Download the Social Media Press Release (pdf) and at least see what parts you want to take into your traditional press releases.
13. Try out a short series of audio podcasts or video podcasts as content marketing and see how they draw.
14. Build conversation maps for your customers using Technorati.com , Google Blogsearch, Summize, and FriendFeed.
15. Experiment with Flickr and/or YouTube groups to build media for specific events. (Marvel Comics raised my impression of this with their Hulk statue Flickr group).
16. Recommend that your staff start personal blogs on their personal interests, and learn first hand what it feels like, including managing comments, wanting promotion, etc.
17. Map out an integrated project that incorporates a blog, use of commercial social networks, and a face-to-face event to build leads and drive awareness of a product.
18. Start a community group on Facebook or Ning or MySpace or LinkedIn around the space where your customer does business. Example: what Jeremiah Owyang did for Hitachi Data Systems.
19. Experiment with the value of live video like uStream.tv and Mogulus, or Qik on a cell phone.
20. Attend a conference dealing with social media like New Media Expo, BlogWorld Expo, New Marketing Summit (disclosure: I run this one with CrossTech), and dozens and dozens more. (Email me for a calendar).
21. Collect case studies of social media success. Tag them “socialmediacasestudy” in del.icio.us.
22. Interview current social media practitioners. Look for bridges between your methods and theirs.
23. Explore distribution. Can you reach more potential buyers/users/customers on social networks.
24. Don’t forget early social sites like Yahoogroups and Craigslist. They still work remarkably well.
25. Search Summize.com for as much data as you can find in Twitter on your product, your competitors, your space.
26. Practice delivering quality content on your blogs, such that customers feel educated / equipped / informed.
27. Consider the value of hiring a community manager. Could this role improve customer service? Improve customer retention? Promote through word of mouth?
28. Turn your blog into a mobile blog site with Mofuse. Free.
29. Learn what other free tools might work for community building, like MyBlogLog.
30. Ensure you offer the basics on your site, like an email alternative to an RSS subscription. In fact, the more ways you can spread and distribute your content, the better.
31. Investigate whether your product sells better by recommendation versus education, and use either wikis and widgets to help recommend, or videos and podcasts for education.
32. Make WebsiteGrader.com your first stop for understanding the technical quality of a website.
33. Make Compete.com your next stop for understanding a site’s traffic. Then, mash it against competitors’ sites.
34. Learn how not to ask for 40 pieces of demographic data when giving something away for free. Instead, collect little bits over time. Gently.
35. Remember that the people on social networks are all people, have likely been there a while, might know each other, and know that you’re new. Tread gently into new territories. Don’t NOT go. Just go gently.
36. Help customers and prospects connect with you simply on your various networks. Consider a Lijit Wijit or other aggregator widget.
37. Voting mechanisms like those used on Digg.com show your customers you care about which information is useful to them.
38. Track your inbound links and when they come from blogs, be sure to comment on a few posts and build a relationship with the blogger.
39. Find a bunch of bloggers and podcasters whose work you admire, and ask them for opinions on your social media projects. See if you can give them a free sneak peek at something, or some other “you’re special” reward for their time and effort (if it’s material, ask them to disclose it).
40. Learn all you can about how NOT to pitch bloggers. Excellent resource: Susan Getgood.
41. Try out shooting video interviews and video press releases and other bits of video to build more personable relationships. Don’t throw out text, but try adding video.
42. Explore several viewpoints about social media marketing.
43. Women are adding lots of value to social media. Get to know the ones making a difference. (And check out BlogHer as an event to explore).
44. Experiment with different lengths and forms of video. Is entertaining and funny but brief better than longer but more informative? Don’t stop with one attempt. And try more than one hosting platform to test out features.
45. Work with practitioners and media makers to see how they can use their skills to solve your problems. Don’t be afraid to set up pilot programs, instead of diving in head first.
46. People power social media. Learn to believe in the value of people. Sounds hippie, but it’s the key.
47. Spread good ideas far. Reblog them. Bookmark them. Vote them up at social sites. Be a good citizen.
48. Don’t be afraid to fail. Be ready to apologize. Admit when you’ve made a mistake.
49. Re-examine who in the organization might benefit from your social media efforts. Help equip them to learn from your project.
50. Use the same tools you’re trying out externally for internal uses, if that makes sense, and learn about how this technology empowers your business collaboration, too.

Time for a makeover!

When you look at your marketing materials for your business, how do you feel about them? Are they tired and worn out? Do they represent who you are the best way they possibly could? Are you in need of an update – a fresh look?

Take a good hard look at what you are using to promote your business. Look at everything from your logo to your business cards to your ads and your website. Make sure they are the best representation of your brand and your business.

If they aren't then maybe it is time for a makeover – or even a full, face lift. What worked 10 years ago, might not work anymore. Don’t let your potential customers get the wrong impression of who you are, just because you haven’t kept your “looks” up-to-date.

Not sure if your materials are out of date? Take a look at your competition and see what they are doing. Ask people around you that you trust to give you honest opinions. Find a great agency (like Tarte Advertising, Inc) that will help you assess the situation and offer you suggestions of what direction to move in.

If you were looking tired and worn, wouldn't you want a makeover too?

Logo Design in a Nutshell...