Agency Update

It's been a little over a month since I signed on with a Marketing and Public Relations Agency and I thought I'd post a quick update about how things have been serving many Gods compared to being in-house with one brand.

On the upside, I love working on projects rather than ongoing initiatives.  I'm sure that will eventually stop being such a great thing, but for now I am fully believing that variety is the spice of life. 

I also really love having so many brands at my disposal.  The client voices are all different, which means I really get to stretch myself as a professional and utilize all of the tools in my toolbox.  I always did love a good challenge!

I love, love. love my teammates.  I honestly couldn't be happier about the dynamics in the office or the way we all work so well together.  Yes, we all have our individual strengths and weaknesses, but together our synergy is undeniable.

I am really excelling in project management, or so I tell myself.  I have already taken over as the lead project manager for one of our clients, and I really enjoy being on top of everything all the time.  It makes my life much easier when I have to interface with the client directly and I really hate the unknown so this is the perfect solution.

So far, the only downside (and it's pretty big) is that I have NO personal life.  I usually work through my lunch, and I can count the number of times I actually left after 9 hours at the office on 1 hand... which means I am regularly working 9+ hour days.  This week, it's been 10, but who's really counting?  I miss going to the gym during the week, spending quality time with Hunter, and not being so damn stressed.  I was less stressed when I was unemployed than I am now that I am employed - go figure!  

I keep hoping that this is partially just because I'm still new and getting the hang of everything, but a lot of our Account Directors are regularly pulling more than 9 hour days and they've all been there 2 years or longer.  I think it's definitely all about managing your clients well... I certainly think I'm still working that out.  If this week has taught me anything, it's do not schedule multiple deadlines for multiple clients over the span of three days.  It will drive you insane. 

5 Ways Small Businesses Can Boost Their Google Analytics

There has been a lot of talk about how Google's Hummingbird algorithm had changed Google Analytics over the last several months.  I can find a lot of high level conversations between industry gurus, but there hasn't been a whole lot of basic nuts and bolts that is easily understood by laypeople.  In fact, a friend of mine asked me just the other day if I could explain SEO and Google Analytics.

So what does Hummingbird mean to small businesses?  Hopefully not a whole lot if you're engaging in above the table, white hat SEO.  Hummingbird is meant to reward user-friendly, frequently visited websites.  How do you ensure your website meets those criteria?

1. Write engaging, helpful content that your readers can easily comprehend.  Regular Joes don't speak in tech-talk, they don't understand industry-specific acronyms, and they certainly can't handle pages with solid blocks of text.
2. Make sure your website structure makes sense.  Think about your website from a user's perspective.  What will they search to find each page?  From the landing pages, what questions will they have, and how can you provide clear links to that information? 
3. Links should go to pages, not photos, whenever possible.
4. Draft a strong call to action (CTA) on every page so that prospective clients know what you want them to do and how they should do it.
5. Put articles and white papers about your subject matter on your website.  It's better when you commission these documents yourself so they angle the products and services you want them to, but third party content will serve your purpose.  Customers trust white papers more than any other type of content.  If you position yourself in the same line as "unbiased" professionals, you're more likely to sway the masses.

Gradually and then Suddenly

Every so often, as I have said before, Seth Godin posts something on his blog that perfectly captures my current predicament in life.  He's done it again.

I'm finally catching on to my new job, almost a month after being hired by one of the prestigious Marketing & Public Relations agencies in Orange County.  And although I've been feeling really overwhelmed as I learn a new corporate culture, team, agency mentality, I find myself realizing that if I focus on one day at a time, suddenly things aren't so tough.

Today I gave a presentation with our Agency Principal, Agency Director and Account Director.  They trusted me to draft and present some of the PowerPoint slides.  And it wasn't that scary.  Yes, I obviously had a couple of butterflies since it was my first time, but I had my ducks in a row and I knew what I was doing.  I would never have thought I'd be able to do that a mere 4 weeks into a new job.

Just like Seth says,

"Trust is earned, value is delivered, concepts are learned. Day by day we improve and build an asset, but none of it seems to be paying off. Until one day, quite suddenly, we become the ten-year overnight success."

Talent

Mitch Joel wrote an interesting blog post about talent earlier this month, Let's Face The Cold Hard Truth About Talent.

It's interesting because Mitch argues that the 10,000 hours rule, made famous by Malcom Gladwell's Outliers book, isn't true.

And I think Mitch may be right.

I knew so many girls who practiced water polo just as much as I did, who were just as dedicated, who wanted to be good just as much as I did.  But you know what?  They weren't as good as I was.  How do you account for that?  

It's talent.  I have a gift for athletics, especially sports that require hand-eye coordination and not a whole lot of foot speed on land.  

Blogging for Business

Pop Digital Marketing created a great infographic explaining the blogging to businesses.  They cover everything you need to know about blogging: benefits, best practices, topic development and promotion.

How Many People See Your Content?

Mitch Joel published a really interesting post on his Six Pixels blog, (Almost) No One Is Seeing Your Content.

As a marketer using social media as a platform for dissemination, nearly nothing scares me as much as the idea that my message is lost and never reaches my intended audience.  The unfortunately reality is my fear is most likely a reality.

"We used to tell ourselves a very powerful narrative about how the cream always rises to the top, and the struggle that most brands face when it comes to content marketing and social media is that they struggle to find a true sense of human-ness in the content that they are creating... so many brands actually have great content, but have a sub-par content distribution strategy where the vast majority of the work resides behind their own walled garden."

Mitch makes the rather disappointing observation that despite the money and time brands pour into social media marketing, their messages are filtered by third parties (the platforms themselves) and are often never seen by their fans and followers.  

As a marker that really bursts my bubble.  As an individual it is even more upsetting.  I hated when Facebook decided that it was only going to show certain people in your newsfeed based on who you interacted with most frequently.  The whole reason I am friends with people on Facebook is so I can follow along with their lives as much or as little as I want to.  I now am completely cut off from several of my connections and might not even remember that we're Facebook friends.  I was so much happier when I could control my newsfeed by "show more" and "show less" and specifying what kinds of news I wanted to see, e.g. (relationship status updates, photos, etc.)  The sad part for me, is that the social media platforms are so worried about becoming irrelevant they keep tweaking their algorithms and I worry they are going to end up like Joan Rivers' face... too altered too remotely resemble what they started with, which was what drew the users in the first place.

Time Management Maximizes Efficiency

I have been meaning to write this post for a month and I keep putting it off.  I guess that's partially because I have been following the advice in this post by Mitch Joel on Six Pixels of Separation, How To Run The Best Day Possible.

Mitch says there are five keys to maximizing your efficiency:

1. Focus on your unique ability as much as possible
2. Control your schedule
3. Put your butt where your heart wants to be
4. Be resilient in everything you do
5. Network by being helpful to others first