Jon Stewart Taught Us The Importance of Authority and Authenticity

I, like many of my friends and colleagues, was sad to hear that Jon Stewart will be retiring from The Daily Show. To be honest, I had no knowledge of the show prior to college and assumed that Stewart had been a part of the program since it’s inception – which isn’t true.

Sonia Simone, co-founder and Chief Content Officer of Copyblogger Media, posted an insightful blog on the brand’s website explaining why The Daily Show has succeeded where other news programs have failed. It comes down to two things, which Jon Stewart and the team at The Daily Show taught us time and time again – authority and authenticity are critical in 21^st century marketing.

Simone labels Stewart, “a content marketer of ideas,” and identifies his product as “a critical, unsparing approach to politics and current events coming from a particular point of view and set of beliefs.”

She goes on to identify five things that Steward does exceptionally well that can be used by marketing professionals in any industry.

Read Sonia’s post on the Copyblogger Blog here.

Elements of a Killer Digital Portfolio

I recently dove headfirst into the world of digital self promotion and started a Squarespace website to house my digital portfolio. There are lots of great platforms available to creative professionals, and if Squarespace isn't for you, check out Behance, Coroflot and Carbonmade.

After a lot of research into how to make a killer digital portfolio, these are the 8 must-haves for digital portfolios:

1. Claim Your Vanity URL. It is so easy to acquire vanity URLs there's no excuse for not pointing one at your digital portfolio. To be easy, make your URL your name if possible.
2. Showcase Your Creative Style. Your digital portfolio should reflect your style and personality, so make sure you choose a design template that you feel comfortable with. Text, colors and images can be used to convey your personality as well. This is a great way to stand out against other applicants.
3. Be Consistent. I hadn't quite pulled all of the pieces of Top Shelf Digital Marketing together when I decided to launch a digital portfolio and it inspired me to create a logo to give all company materials a unified theme with a cohesive look and feel.
4. Create Clear Categories. Some people organize their work by brand, something that works well if you've got renowned clients. Some people organize their work chronologically, which is great if you're an entry-level applicant without much to show. Since I'm not currently targeting global brands or a specific industry, I decided to showcase each skill with a variety of projects from several clients.
5. Be Your Own Client. Remember that a well-organized digital portfolio will be easier for potential clients and companies to view, ultimately making a better first impression for your personal brand. Treat your digital portfolio as you would a client project, identify your target audience and be strategic about how you'd like them to experience your work.
6. Use Your Latest and Greatest. Choose the very best samples of your work, from the biggest brands you've supported over the last five years. Exceptions can be made if you have an exceptionally impressive campaign or project that is older.
7. Show Versatility and Adaptability. For each skill you'd like to showcase, show versatility, breadth and depth by giving several different examples. For example, try to use examples of your work from a variety of clients, unless you're targeting one specific industry. Also, don't stick to one kind of example, copywriting could include press releases, advertorials, infographics, marketing materials, website text, etc. 
8. Use Strategic Copywriting. Yes, digital portfolios are heavily reliant on visuals. But text is also a powerful tool and should be used to convey additional details such as e-newsletter open rates, website analytics, social media engagement statistics, etc. 

3 Tips for LinkedIn Recommendations

LinkedIn recommendations aren't likely to make or break a career opportunity for you; however, the professional networking site is without a doubt a resource for people who are considering job applicants. With that in mind, my philosophy is to take advantage of every avenue available to make a great and lasting impression - including requesting LinkedIn recommendations from colleagues, coworker and clients.

Here are the three tips I follow when I'm requesting recommendations:

1. Be Timely - The best time to ask for a recommendation from someone is when your work is top of mind, this goes for digital and print mediums. As soon as you know someone's happy with the project you completed, reach out via phone, email, or LinkedIn's "Ask for recommendations" tab. Being that some people don't often check their LinkedIn account and the email they receive alerts on may be different from the one they check regularly, it doesn't hurt to request the LinkedIn recommendation via phone or email and follow up with a request through LinkedIn itself.
2. Request Strategical Recommendations - Plan your recommendation requests to showcase the range of your work. Ideally, you'll garner a couple of solid recommendations for each of your areas of expertise. If you have 'holes' focus on requesting recommendations that will speak to your strengths in those areas.
3. Manage Your Recommendations - Now that LinkedIn lets us rank our recommendations, make sure you put your best ones front and center. Just like with a digital portfolio, you want to showcase the skills that you are focusing your career on with the best possible recommendations.

Good luck!

Something to Consider

It's no secret I really love Seth Godin's microblog and here's another one of his posts I liked so well I'm reposting:

They're your words, choose them

You've seen the signs:

ABSOLUTELY NO CREDIT CARDS.

NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR LOST OR STOLEN ITEMS.

BATHROOMS FOR PATRONS ONLY.

Guess what? There's no legal requirement that signs have to make you sound like a harsh jerk in order to carry weight or to inform the public.

To keep our prices as low as possible, we only accept cash. The good news is that there's an ATM next door.

Careful! We'd like to watch your stuff for you, but we're busy making coffee.

Our spotlessly clean restrooms are for our beloved customers only, so come on in and buy something! Also, there's a public bathroom in the library down the street.

In fact, you might find that when you speak clearly and with respect, you not only communicate more effectively, but people are less likely to blame you when something goes wrong.

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.

6 Tips for Successful Email Marketing

Email Marketing can be a quick way to reach out to a large group of people when it's done appropriately.  As with all digital marketing, email marketing requires a clear set of goals, strategy for achieving the goals and a plan for measuring success.  If something isn't working, make changes and measure again.  

If you're struggling to find success with your email marketing campaign, here are six best practices for email marketing:

1. Take the time to format a nice template for your recurring email marketing efforts.  Not only will it help your readers identify what you're communicating - monthly newsletter, industry alert, etc. - it will also reinforce your brand's professionalism. 
2. Graphics and formatting will only go so far, content generation is the key to successful email marketing campaigns.   Your audience wants to receive information that's interesting, useful and relevant to them.  If you email campaign isn't successful, it's probably not because of your formatting, graphics or the time of day you sent your message.  In the words of Seth Godin, "Don't waste time looking for a better pencil--learn to write better."
3. If you have to choose between having "Dear [name]" on your emails or not having personalized emails at all, go without the personalization.  There is nothing that turns readers off faster than seeing your sloppiness and laziness in the very first line.  If you're not willing to take the time to go through your list and check the contact information for every individual it's unlikely your readers are going to spend the time to read your email.
4. Avoid fancy HTML images and use text in your emails wherever possible.  Yes, the HTML looks very polished, but your readers have to download the images in order to see what you're trying to communicate.  Create content that is easy to digest and doesn't require work on the part of your readers.  Additionally, if you're going to archive your work online, text is SEO friendly whereas graphics need to be properly tagged to appeal to search engines.
5. Before you ask me to do something for you, ask yourself if it's fun, if it's worth my time and if I'm going to being compensated appropriately.  It's unlikely you'll get a high rate of participation if the answer to two out of those three questions is "no". 
6. Set expectations about how often your readers are going to hear from you and what you're going to say, but most importantly, live up to those expectations.  If you're publishing a monthly newsletter, send it on the same day of each month, e.g. (the first Wednesday, Second Tuesday, etc.).  If you're sending out a security alert email, have a criteria for how serious something needs to be before you send message out.  

8 Tips To Maximize Your Facebook ROI

Some businesses are social media marketing mavens while others are scrambling to catch up.  Facebook recently put together a list of eight best practices they find most successful local businesses are doing on Facebook.  Although the tips were probably written for B2C social media, almost all of these tips can be used for larger companies and 2-7 even apply to B2B marketing strategies, so take a look at these tips and good luck in your Facebook marketing!

Eight Things Successful Businesses Do on Facebook

Fight Club

Here's a new take on the very popular "Everything I Need To Know About Social Media I Learned In Kindergarten" post.

For your entertainment:

Everything I Know About Social Media, I Learned From Fight Club.

Side Note: I don't actually like Fight Club.

Social Media Really Is Like Kindergarten

I wish I knew the original source of Everything I Know About Social Media I Learned In Kindergarten.  This is not a new concept, and I did a lot of digging before I settled on a link to share.

This is the best list I could find:

All I Needed To Know About Social Media I Learned In Kindergarten: 15 Social Media Tips