What has always been most important part of marketing? It’s not being the first to use a new technology in marketing. It’s the customer.

First and foremost, the customer should always be on your mind. They are why you are in business. In addition to that, your current customer should be the one on your mind, not the one you don’t yet have. They know you, they have bought from you, and they are most likely to buy from you again, that is, unless you forget them!

At BrandQuery, our goal is to get inside the customer’s head; to understand who they are, what they do, and how they do it. This begins by taking a good look at your existing customer and learning more about them. Their age will tell you some obvious things but further digging will reveal real truths. Needless to say, don’t make assumptions. To find out who your customers really are, you will have to ask pointed questions.

Once you have defined your customer, it is important to create a message that will be meaningful to them. All of the tools you use to attract attention are useless unless your message is the right one and that it is targeted at the right group.

It’s easy to get ahead of yourself (or your customer for that matter). It gets exciting when there are new tools or new opportunities for promoting your business. But don’t jump too quick, take the time to earn a greater ROI.

Social media is getting a lot of attention. We are certainly participating and have for a while now. We also counsel our clients regarding social media or what we like to call emerging media. The biggest takeaway of social media is a greater ability to listen to the customer. If for no other reason to get into this movement, it is certainly that. Even if you are paying attention to your competitor’s audience or the industry’s audience.

Stay tuned, we will be launching a new website soon on our social media process.

And for now, keep in mind, the customer still rules!

Creating a Social Media Policy will define a straightforward path for your organization. Why is this important? As you know, policies help people in your organization understand your expectations – the simplest policy defines the workday. What time they are to arrive, take lunch and depart.

A Social Media Policy can be simple or comprehensive. Having one in place will make apparent whether its use is acceptable and, if so, what is appropriate.

Here are 10 items to consider when developing such a policy:

1. Your organization’s philosophy

Your company philosophy should translate well into your policies. If you pride yourself on flexibility, it should be reflected in the policy; the same would hold true for a company that holds its privacy close. The BBC Policy does a good job of stating their philosophy of engagement and flexibility.

2. The definition of social or emerging media

Define the scope of social media tools, what they are, and what they mean. Blogging, while not essentially “new” is still considered emerging media. Your definition should extend into all areas, from networking (LinkedIn, Facebook) to reviews (Yelp) to social bookmarking (Digg, StumbleUpon). Be detailed enough that executives and employees alike understand the various areas, yet broad enough to encompass new items that will arise in the future. In their introduction, Intel defines emerging media as “creating or contributing to blogs, wikis, social networks, virtual worlds, or any other kind of social media both on and off intel.com.” Concluding with that open‐ended sentence and spanning to include both Intel‐based media outlets as well as personal ones keeps the definition broad and all‐inclusive.

3. The definition of representative

Who do your employees represent online: your business or themselves? This can be a gray area. For example, many people include their employer on their Facebook profile. If an employee is allowed to represent the business in online discussions, have guidelines in place as how to best represent the company. Twitter is a tool where the individual’s name is often identified yet the message may be the company’s. Having a clear policy regarding messaging is very important in this case, as is a path to follow when this employee is no longer in your employ. Dell’s Online Communication Policy provides employees with guidelines to use when explicitly representing the company.

4. Discussion of/with clients or customers

Address talking about clients and customers online, what is appropriate and what is not. You should also include information about communicating with clients and customers through social media. For example, do you want your employees to befriend clients, customers or even vendors on Facebook? If not, what is your policy if a client or vendor adds the employee as a friend? CBC has a good policy surrounding this concept.

5. Sharing company information

Create parameters as to what is appropriate to share and what is not. If an employee is considering writing something about the company, they’ll likely have questions. Having a policy in place that defines suitable topics and topics to avoid will help guide the employee in their writing. Sun Microsystems keeps it simple with the headline “Don’t Tell Secrets.”

6. Appropriate language

Insist in your policy that employees be respectful, that they define their tone, and they always re‐read to ensure their messages (especially sensitive responses) are conveyed sincerely and appropriately. Since conversing online lacks the nuances of in‐person conversations, responses, posts and other forms of social interaction can, at times, be deceiving. What may be an honest response to negative criticism might come across as sarcastic or even rude if tone isn’t taken into consideration. The BBC Policy section on tone of voice addresses the sensitive nature of responding.

7. Personal use at work

What are employees allowed to do during the workday and during breaks? You may see no issue with them using their personal computer or cell phone to blog, check e‐mail or monitor their social networks during lunch. What about monitoring throughout the day? You’ll want something in place to address this. It is also an appropriate area to communicate your position on the use of company equipment for personal social interaction when it does not relate to the organization.

8. Following the guidelines

Communicating your process is ideal. Having your guidelines accessible so your employees can refer to them at will is important. You may wish to post them online, on a company wiki, or as a downloadable PDF on your intranet. Or you may simply want to store them in a PDF on the company server. The advantage to having them online is that it gives your employees the ability to reference them easily from home if they have a question while engaging in social media on personal time.

9. A point person

Your employees will likely continue to have questions about whether an item is or isn’t acceptable according to your policy. This should be expected as emerging media and its use is new. Select a point person who can help employees with gray areas that will inevitably arise. This person should have a solid understanding of the company philosophy, a grasp of social media, and its impact. The point person could be the same person who manages and moderates your business blog. If you have a PR department or person who manages PR within your organization, they would also be a perfect choice.

10. Disciplinary action

Consequences should be stated clearly. Many companies include a scope, from limited disciplinary action to termination of employment with possible legal action (for strict breaches). IBM leaves this open with “there are always consequences to what you publish” in the policy section titled Use Your Best Judgment.

Final note ‐ transparency is important. Maintain oversight and utilize available tools for monitoring. And, like your company, the new should evolve over time.

It’s 8:45am on a Monday, and I need an espresso. I needed it ten minutes ago. Now, I’m a bit of a coffee snob (this is Washington, after all) so I want only the best. A fairly new transplant to Skagit County and up for a bit of a change, I need to know a few close-by spots. In situations like these, I turn to Yelp, a social resource that allows users to rate and review businesses. It began as the place to find the hottest restaurants in the city. It expanded to include businesses of all sorts, in all areas.

To give you another example of how this works, here’s a scenario. I was at the base of the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle over the weekend and wanted a hip coffee shop to camp out at for a few hours – a place that had style and free wireless connectivity. I pulled up the Yelp application on my phone, did a quick filter for coffee shops that had wireless internet and were located within 0.3 miles of where I was at the time, and selected the one with the highest rating. Then I watched myself navigate the streets of Seattle on Google Maps toward the coffee shop of my dreams (in this case, Victrola on First Hill).

Opportunities for small businesses exist with sites like Yelp, but so do potential problems. In my opinion, the opportunities far outweigh the problems. We’ll discuss a few of each here.

Opportunity 1. Listen In: Monitor

In a large city, it’s not unusual for a popular restaurant to have upwards of 200 ratings. In a small town, 20 can be a good thing. The ratings, out of 5 stars, can tell visitors where to go and where not to go. Big city, small town; wherever your business is located, it’s important to know what people are saying about you. Yelp makes it easy.

Opportunity 2. Take Action: Improve

Per the norm when reviews are involved, not everyone has a good rating. But with a site like Yelp, companies can pinpoint their problem areas and take the necessary actions to correct issues that may exist, thus winning back the loyalty of customers that may have initially given a bad review. Making changes made based on feedback from sites like Yelp can assist you in improving your business and providing the products and/or services your customers demand.

Opportunity 3. Let It Be Known: Promote

Walking around Seattle, I began to notice something: select businesses (restaurants in particular) with high Yelp ratings promoted the fact with a Yelp sticker near their door. It told people to check them out on Yelp and see what others were saying about them. With a data plan for your phone, you can do so instantaneously. Now, imagine placing a Data Matrix Code next to a promotional Yelp sticker that links straight to your Yelp profile, making it even easier for potential customers to see you online. Pretty cool.

Reading a Yelp forum, there appears to be questions surrounding how a business gets a Yelp sticker. However, the Yelp Blog noted back in March that these stickers are sent out quarterly to businesses with “a bunch of reviews and an average rating over 3.5 stars.” Since we have a friend at Yelp, we can answer any questions you have through her.

Opportunity 4. Communicate: Engage

Yelp allows businesses to create a business account from which they can edit their profile, provide users with special offers, and email or respond to reviewers. If someone writes a negative review and your company makes improvements based on the review, contact that individual and let them know you were listening and that because of their review you took action.

Creating a Yelp account for your business will allow you to…

• Communicate with your customers– privately and publicly
• Track how many people view your business page
• Add photos, a detailed business description, up-to-date information, history, and specialties
• Announce special offers and upcoming events
• Recommend other businesses
(referenced from the Business Owner’s Guide on Yelp)

Engaging your customers and reviewers in this fashion can help create loyal fans of your business and boost your word-of-mouth marketing efforts. Here’s a tutorial on how to set up your business account:

Problem 1. Poor Ethics: Malicious Behavior

Sites like Yelp, which are based on reviews, struggle with the user generated content (UGC) effect. How do you distinguish negative reviews from those that are malicious and those that are valid? How do you tell the difference between a manipulative positive review and an honest one? While Yelp has a system in place to remove what they view as manipulative reviews, it’s unclear what the specifics are behind the algorithm. Either way, inaccuracies are inevitable. An article in the New York Times notes:

“[Yelp] operates on the premise that reviewers tend to be truthful and that greater accuracy will emerge from more reviews.”

However, in rural areas where fewer people participate on sites like Yelp, one malicious review that slips through the cracks can drastically affect a company’s overall rating, positively or negatively.

Problem 2. Myth versus Fact

In February of 2009, the CEO of Yelp wrote an article titled 9 Myths About Yelp. Deciphering the myths versus the facts of Yelp can be difficult, especially if you’re a business owner that feels wronged by the rating/review company, or just a skeptical consumer. This article will at least allow you to decide for yourself.

Countering The Problems With Yelp

One of the more consistent issues I’ve encountered in my research pertains to the final myth. Creating a Yelp account can help alleviate this problem, but there seems to remain a disassociation between Free Speech (see Myth #7) and Business Voice (Myth #9). The issue is with erroneous information within customer reviews on Yelp. The good news is that, with a Business account, you can now respond to reviews as well - this is a feature that was not always available.

Again, here’s a quick tutorial on how to use Yelp’s business owner tools. They also give some good tips in responding to customers. Any response should be well thought out; after all, your customers will be reading what you write, so write constructively and considerately.

Hot Spots near Downtown Mount Vernon

For locals, here are a few of downtown’s highest rated restaurants:
• The Porterhouse: 4.5 Stars, 8 Reviews
• Skagit River Brewery: 4 Stars, 18 Reviews
• Pacioni’s: 5 Stars, 1 Review
• Empire Ale House: 5 Stars, 1 Review

Most of these restaurants have only a few ratings, and in some cases just one. Like the place? Create an account and write a review.

That being said, I just noticed Same Old Grind has one review and a 4 star rating. I read it, marked the review as useful (other options include “Funny” and “Cool”), checked out the picture the reviewer took (looks pretty neat in there), and am making a mental note to check it out next time I’m in need of a good Americano. Later I think I’ll head home and contemplate what to write for Il Granaio Italian Restaurant’s first review.

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If you’re creating your first blog, especially if it’s for a business, there are a few essential tips you should consider as you move forward. Basically, the tips I’ll provide today surround generating effective content, from general blog writing tips to the broader topic of instituting a process. Many may seem common sense, but they’re important to keep in mind nonetheless.

5 Tips for Generating Business Blog Content

1. Write what you know.
2. Write what will engage your audience/customers.
3. Dictate oversight and process.
4. Include more than just words.
5. Prepare for the launch.

Now for some explanations…

1. Write what you know.

You know your business, the industry and the new developments within… so write about them. This seems obvious, but it makes sense. The point is to demonstrate that you and your company are experts on your subject matter. After all, it’s why you’re in business. That being said, blogging is much more subjective than, say, journalism. Subjectivity is a path to wander down carefully, which is why tip #3 is important. However, do not confuse subjectivity with not being factual – it is just as important for bloggers to fact check as it is for journalists, especially when it comes to blogging for your company. The subjective factor is all about building your expertise and demonstrating your knowledge of the subject matter.

2. Write what will engage your audience/customers.

Make sure each post is written in an engaging way – invite feedback, encourage comments, and respond to them when appropriate. Connect what you know from tip #1 with what will actively engage your audience. After all, they will need a reason to visit your blog, and better yet, frequent your blog. And as with any messaging you deliver, it must be tailored to the proper audiences. Knowing how your audience interacts online and what points of interest they may have in your company are important factors in generating effective content. Use this to build curiosity.

3. Dictate oversight and process.

This is one of the more important items you will tackle, and possibly among most difficult to solve. An upper-level manager should ultimately oversee the blog, but (depending on the style of blog and the company) this individual should rarely be the sole content developer – after all, management is already quite busy.

There are a few traits instrumental in finding the right fit for your other company bloggers:

• They must be knowledgeable about the company, industry and audience.
• They should already exist in the online universe and, if possible, the blogosphere.
• They shouldn’t be afraid to write, and write correctly.

Developing an oversight process includes setting parameters for editing and proofing. Anything risqué or out of the norm and any outlying or outlandish opinions have a greater chance of being axed if multiple eyes read and review the content during a tracked editing and proofing processes - and that is a good thing! At BrandQuery we have a process that we recommend for all company blogs we create. In advance of this post going live, it passed by three individuals other than the author for edits, recommendations, and comments. This process may seem arduous but it does a few things; it allows others to chime in on the topic and it creates an opportunity for a correct use of language and information.

4. Include more than just words.

Just as websites are unrecognizable in comparison to their early counterpart, so are blogs. These days, it’s important to include more than just words. This includes the following:

• Optimized imagery with descriptive and relevant alt tags.
• Audio and/or video when appropriate.
• Strategic article titles for SEO purposes.
• External links to other sites to define terms, list other relevant articles, back your material, etc.
• Internal links to related topics.
• Widgets (See below for description).

These items give your blog a dynamic aspect that keeps things interesting. The last item, widgets, deserves further explanation, and I plan to write a post about it in the coming weeks. A widget is a section of code that can easily be inserted into HTML. They can allow you to easily add your recent Twitter posts (tweets), include a countdown, list your most-viewed posts, and more.

5. Prepare for the launch.

The best way to prepare for the launch of your business blog is to familiarize the bloggers with the writing process. The benefit is twofold: writers begin generating content, which acts as a backlog of material for the blog, and they get used to writing for the company on a regular basis.

Ideally, you should get in the habit of maintaining a comfortable backlog of material to post. My recommendation: develop 5 to 10 posts in advance of launching, and schedule them accordingly (one per week, two per week, or whatever publishing duration you dictate in your strategy). Determine an appropriate and comfortable backlog of material that works for you. This will help when you’re busy and don’t have as much time to write.

When you’re ready to launch, publish your introduction post announcing your company blog to the world, and then in quick succession publish a few additional posts from the backlog to give your audience a taste of what’s to come. Two to three posts should do it. Then continue at the schedule decided upon.

That’s It For Now…

Sure, oversight and preparation are not instrumental in generating effective content for your blog, but having a strict process in place and being ready to launch with a backlog of material can create good habits, which in turn facilitate content generation. And for first-time bloggers, facilitation can be the key to success.

I titled this post Business Blog Strategy: Generating Effective Content, but these same tools can be applied to your other online outreach tactics, from Twitter to Facebook.

Rembember…

Our final words of wisdom (and this may sound a bit odd, as our last post was in August): Continue to update your blog on a regular basis as it’s an integral part of managing a business blog, maintaining current readers, and gaining new followers. If you don’t have time, have someone fill in for you. The key is to be consistent in your posts; having a defined schedule will help.

Enjoy the holiday!

The plan was to grab sushi at a local restaurant near the Portland airport. As we set it in motion, a friend mentioned that she was baffled by the fact that the restaurant at which we were planning to meet did not have a website. That comment got me thinking about small businesses and how important it is for them to be connected to the online world.

Here are some basic facts that demonstrate why web presence is important for small businesses.

1. Your Customers Are Online

With today’s technology, having a solid online presence is becoming imperative for small businesses. Your customers are online constantly – especially those with 3G phones and other highly connected mobile devices. People are turning to the web and mobile device applications to find what they’re looking for both close to home as well as on the road. This sort of connectivity extends far beyond what was available five years ago.

This trend defies demographics including age, as users of all ages are flocking to social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. Large, clunky, space consuming phone books are quickly becoming a thing of the past; after all, it’s easier to hop online and do a quick search on Google, Yahoo or Bing, or do a quick search using the appropriate mobile application.

So your customers are online… why aren’t you?

2. Directory Listings Are Not Enough

Online directory listings are nice in that they quickly give the viewer options. After all, they are the modern version of the phone book – a barebones list of what’s available. But they occasionally include erroneous information like out-of-date phone numbers, old addresses, and broken links to expired websites. It is important to monitor the directories in which your business appears, ensure they’re up to date, and correct them when changes occur.

However, even with all listing information correct, consumers often need an added push to commit to choosing your company over the next. Mere presence on directories is not enough as the directory listing is a far cry from an adequate gauge of the business in question.

3. A Well-Designed Website Can Mean More Customers

When it comes to the final decision, having a modern web presence can absolutely be that tipping point. The term simple here does not necessarily mean basic. It does mean the site should be easy to find and easy to navigate; and you should be able to do this without breaking your budget.

Being easy to find and easy to navigate includes:

- User-friendliness
- Search engine optimized
- Visually appealing
- Organized & uncluttered
- Modern in layout & functionality

If you’re a restaurant, there are a few basic elements to include. Adorn your site with clear, quality photos of your most popular dishes and include sample menu prices. The site should reflect the atmosphere inside your business – utilize a complimentary color scheme and feature imagery from inside and outside your restaurant, highlighting what makes it a unique and desirable meal destination.

Just as important as creating a site that compliments your business is informing your potential customers how to find you. Pull an interactive map from Google Maps and put it on your contact page so viewers can easily get directions if they’re unfamiliar with the area. Add your days and hours of operation and include a phone number and email address so people can contact you with questions or make reservations.

And don’t forget to make sure your site works well on various web browsers and phones. The latter means using minimal (or better yet no) flash.

4. Search Friendliness Is Imperative

Obviously, a small business must think about how to reach its customers online. Search friendliness extends beyond mere web presence. While web presence can be the deciding factor, the consumer must first find your website. There are a few tips that can help:

- Search Engine Optimization
- Directory Listing Management
- Map Optimization
- Relationship Building

SEO can help boost your site on various keyword searches, but it can require regular and time consuming maintenance as search engines regularly alter their search algorithms – those web crawlers that scour the web and rank pages. Ensuring you utilize the words individuals may use to find you in the body copy of your site can help, as can minimizing flash elements (especially in the navigation).

The next two include the optimization of directories and maps listings. Having a website linked to from a directory or reviews site can mean a consumer giving you their business rather than your competitor. Spend some time to make sure the information is correct and has all the components needed to assist your potential customer in giving you business. Adding your business to Google Maps and optimizing it by highlighting specific search items may give you key rank positions in these searches.

Relationship building is the next topic.

5. Your Customers Can Help Spread The Word

The first four tips are all about creating and enhancing your online presence, but there’s a force out there that extends far beyond what you can do alone. Once you’re out there, you can now begin focusing on and developing an interactive strategy that will get your fans to do additional legwork for you. The nature of your business, the demographics of your audience, and your goals and objectives can help dictate and define this strategy. But without an initial presence, activating your audience will be much more difficult.

This area includes everything from blogger outreach to encouraging ratings and reviews. Blogger outreach for restaurants could mean searching for local bloggers that frequently or even occasionally write about food and seeing if they’d be interested in writing a review of your restaurant. It could also mean finding local raters and reviewers on sites like Yelp, which collect ratings and reviews of businesses like restaurants, and encouraging them to come down. You could even link to your Yelp profile from your website.

Why Web Presence Is Important: A Summary

These days, we as consumers are turning more and more to the web to find what we are looking for, a trend that is magnified by the growing popularity of highly connected mobile devices like 3G and 4G phones. Having a strong presence via a well-rounded and well-connected website can help small businesses turn potential customers into regulars, and it can be the launching pad to turn the regulars into die-hard fans who will help you spread the word.

Back to the beginning: my friend and I ultimately decided to forego the restaurant and instead met at Ikea. Had the restaurant maintained a viable online presence, we may have enjoyed a nice sushi lunch.

A peculiar thing has taken place in Seattle. One of the world’s corporate giants has decided to test out a new image. Another big re-branding you say? Not this time. Not quite, at least. Its more of an UN-branding.

Starbucks (you know that little coffeehouse on every corner?) is turning its attention away from the global market momentarily. Now, the local, independent coffeehouses sparsely populating neighborhoods throughout Seattle (and possibly other metropolitan areas) are the target of its latest marketing ploy. Instead of the old-fashioned business tactics of lowering prices and/or creating better products to compete, Starbucks is abandoning its name and all related imagery and by-products at one Capitol Hill location. I assume this is all in hopes of capturing the interest of new & former customers.

What was just another Starbucks branch will now be known as 15th St. Coffee & Tea. Everything is changing. Except the coffee. And ownership. It is attempting to transform this location into something more of a lifestyle destination, like other indie coffeehouses around town. Coffee, tea, beer, wine, and even live music, poetry readings, and other in-store (and un-corporate) events are planned.

While this has understandably raised more than a few suspicious eyebrows around town, its hard to deny that it is a smart move from a marketing perspective. They are, I’m sure, just doing what they feel needs to be done to meet shareholders’ expectations to invigorate their brand and generate some sales in a neighborhood where they may be losing to some of the hipper alternatives. I’m just not sure Capitol Hill (or anywhere in Seattle, for that matter) is the right market for such a test.

Seattle is arguably the birthplace of the country’s (world’s?) coffee obsession. It goes without saying that Seattle knows its coffee. Coffee is embedded into our daily lives here, and because of that, it’s something we pay special attention to. So when Starbucks makes a move, we watch with scrutinizing eyes, especially given the area’s love/hate attitude toward the hometown giant.

Most of the bitter taste surrounding this move stems from Starbucks’ blatant… shall we say… borrowing from its neighbors. The company has gone out of its way to mimic other trendy spots in its decor, from light fixtures to seating to storefront paint. This has left several local shop owners slightly irritated. When some of the individuality of your business is copied, it tends to diminish the appeal for all parties involved. Maybe the imitation would be less conspicuous if it weren’t implemented so close to the source.

I can’t help but think that in another market, this would be a much more successful and less attention-garnering venture. Then again, any press is good press so the saying goes… Seemingly, their choice of one of the hippest and most independent-minded neighborhoods in Seattle reduces their chance of success. On the other hand, the audience for what they have planned is in place, and with all that money behind the makeover, who knows who might drop in for a cup and “improvised” acoustic set of yet-to-be-released songs.

I guess we’ll all just have to wait and see how this unbranding plays out. There may be enough independent spirit to go around in this town after all. Let’s just hope the coffee’s good.

No doubt you’ve heard the buzz. The ads are everywhere. They’re hard to miss; my favorites are ‘the cure one’ and ‘the bar one,’ both embedded directly below this paragraph. Then there was the live bing launch, the bing-a-thon, on Hulu featuring several famous individuals including the amazingly funny, Fred Willard. All boast cures for the ailment Search Overload Syndrome (a clever play off SOS).

As attractive as all of this may be, the real questions are as follows: Does bing have any advantage over the well-established Google? Will it steal market share from the dominant Google and Yahoo engines? And what effect will it have on Search Engine Optimization?

Bing is a product of Microsoft. As we saw with the launch of Zune, the company puts a lot of ad dollars behind creative and positioning, which is smart. They’ve definitely come along in the creativity and attractiveness of their computer-based ads – and this coming from a Mac user!

It’s obvious in these ads that bing has its sights set on viably competing with Google and Yahoo with the strong desire to take away a decent chunk of search market share. Bing also has plans to pull in a bigger portion of the online ad market. So far, it seems to be working.

And, as Google has transcended the mere brand to become part of everyday language (it’s is often used as a verb), Microsoft is already attempting to do the same with bing.

While some note that little has changed from Bing’s predecessor, they are, no doubt, making adjustments on a regular basis. Point in case: BrandQuery. Early on, we showed up only on a search of the combination “brandquery” with no spaces. A week later, we appeared (and have since maintained a first page, #2 spot) on a “brand query” search, and last week we magically appeared in the first page, #8 spot on the “query brand” search, a search string which we have not optimized the site for.

Not yet sold, I still find it pretty easy to say I’m impressed. Much is yet to be determined as to how their algorithm works from an SEO standpoint as I have not yet begun testing through BrandQuery projects or personal projects to see how keywords in headlines, page titles, navigation, and the associated content affect search placement, but I will say that I’m excited to begin!

Still, in select searches, items which one would think would show up in a simple query prior to any optimization, do not appear on the first page. Additionally, select searches are yielding a few bizarre results. As time passes, it will be interesting to see how bing reads various changes to a website (from page titles, to headlines and image tags, and even simple alterations in the body copy), if external links to a site increase a site’s rank, as well as how a strong presence elsewhere on the web (i.e. social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn) affect rank placement.

Ultimately, will bing truly be an early cure for Search Overload Syndrome? Each day brings me closer to the seemingly imminent answer of yes.

In developing your company’s Twitter strategy, there are a few things to keep in mind that will help your brand come across effectively. Here is a list of five simple Twitter account recommendations:

1. Avoid Excessive Over/Under Tweeting.

When I scan the tweets of my friends, I gaze over them quickly, pulling the notable ones and ignoring the rest. Items I look for include recognizable faces, those that frequently tweet catchy or humorous quips, and random items that stand out. However, when there’s a string of five or ten consecutive tweets from a single individual, I tend to ignore the entire thing. Even if it is someone I otherwise adore. Beware of excessive tweeting; it may adversely affect your quality followers. Likewise, on the opposite side, who will follow you if you do not tweet?

2. Refrain From Over Linking.

SEO 2.0 recently posted a blog entry titled Hey Marketers On Twitter: It’s Not A Link List. He has an excellent point. Dropping too many links can cause disinterest. Include a link-less tweet or two between link tweets. I could, for example, tweet each time a new post goes up on FensePost, my music blog, which would mean two links per weekday and occasional links on weekends, but I only tweet the ones about which I feel very strongly. Along the same lines, refrain from excessive RT (re-tweeting someone else’s tweet), #hashing (twitter-based topic groupings), etc.

3. Don’t Be Faceless.

When I blogged about Business Via Twitter, I mentioned a few companies that base their tweeting on a strictly defined strategy. Visiting Comcast Cares in retrospect, I’ve noticed a few changes. The first and foremost is this: a person named Frank Eliason. Give your Twitter a face by putting a real live person in charge of it. While this doesn’t necessarily mean putting a “face” in the icon, doing so gives your company twitter account a more personal connection with followers.

4. Expand Your Focus.

Strategies like focusing on promotions and incentives can work well for large companies like Dell, but smaller companies may run the risk of succumbing to the aforementioned linking issue if all they do is tweet promotions. Include tweets that are industry specific, or that your followers will appreciate. In other words, if you have a defined strategy, stick to it for the most part but include some more personalized elements.

5. Enhance Your Page

Along the lines of “adding a person” to your twitter account, there’s one item all the companies mentioned “Business Via Twitter” have in common: they do not have standard Twitter templates. They’ve all added their own uniquely branded backgrounds. They have a recognizable icon that appears aside their tweets — often an individual or photograph that relates to the brand.

To back our words, we enhanced our Twitter page with a fresh new look a few weeks back. The background image was taken in our office and the user icon is the famed BrandQuery cell developed during our time as BMR Design+Advertising. If you’re on Twitter, feel free to follow us!

When you’re in the advertising/marketing business, you view things like watching television a little differently. I’ve found myself paying more and more attention to commercials and advertisements over the years, making mental notes of what works and what doesn’t, at least from my perspective.

I’m amazed at how many times I think to myself… “Do people really believe that?” or… “What does that have to do with (enter product here)?” or even… “What are they selling me, a product or its packaging?”

The first thing that comes to mind is a series of commercials Coors Brewing has run in which the apparent selling point for their beer is a can printed with thermo-sensitive ink. So there’s no more guessing about when your beer is cold…. apparently just picking up the can is no longer an accurate enough method. I was mostly intrigued that the container for their product was the focus of the ad, not the actual product.

This must be a growing trend in the beverage industry. Ads boasting about things like lined cans to preserve flavor, a so-called “Taste Protector Lid” and “vented” cans for faster, smoother pouring/consumption have been popping up lately. It makes me wonder, are people choosing what they consume based on whether they like the product or what is used to deliver it?

While all these gimmicky packages are quite creative on their own, it what’s inside the package that matters. Cheers!

The atmosphere of a business can be described as the sensory items that a company utilizes to communicate their brand’s physical space. Where is the business located in the community? How do the interior and exterior visual elements – color, lighting, layout, etc – complement the brand? What are you trying to say to the customer by the music playing in the background?

Recently I was in a grocery store and noted that the songs playing, while popular and quite recognizable, were also very dated in a fifties to seventies, overly upbeat sort of way. To me, the communication was simple: Get your groceries and get the heck out of here! The second message was: Always remember your iPod.

Being one entirely obsessed with music, I pride myself in crafting “the perfect” playlist. I’ll regularly spend three hours tossing together themed mixes of fifteen to twenty songs, or the same amount of time attempting to create the seamless set of tunes that blend together flawlessly. (For example, I have the perfect transition from math/noise rockers Battles to glam pop Of Montreal, a highly unlikely combination that would otherwise appear ludicrous.)

When creating a playlist for your company it is important to keep a few things in mind.

1. Remember the artist.

First and foremost, any music you play in your business technically requires you pay some sort of licensing fee to play it. There are a few licensing companies out there, but the most well known is ASCAP. Working hand-in-hand with ASCAP can get you over the major legal hurdles.

2. Remember your audience.

Remember, you are creating something for someone else – your target audience. In Nick Hornby’s High Fidelity, Rob doesn’t really “get it” until he realizes that making a mix tape for Laura is really about putting together a compilation of music she would like – the same goes for your company’s playlist. You must ensure the music compliments your audience, in that it would be something they would enjoy. But that’s not all…

3. Remember your company.

No, I’m not talking about the music you like. I’m talking about your brand, your product. What are you communicating to your audience in the music that plays over the speaker system? Not only must this music tailor to the audience, it must also tailor to your brand, as well as the “atmosphere” of your business – the sensory items like visual features and textures and smells. Associating these elements can be difficult, but they’re also very important. This is the exact reason “Great Balls Of Fire” just wasn’t cutting it while picking up cheese and tortillas.

4. Remember your industry.

There is reason behind mentioning industry. I’ve noticed some commonalities between businesses within the same industry, and things that also don’t work for these businesses. Here are some elements to keep in mind, and some industry-ish trends…

Youth fashion retailers are notorious for picking up the latest trends, from the flashy and obscure to the more mainstream, depending on the type of audience that shops at the store. Fashion in general will tend to be a bit more edgy. Fashion also allows a bit more emotion to extend into the playlist, where other industries would play it a bit safer by focusing on simple upbeat background music. Last year, the more youthful retailers would have played “Electric Feel” by MGMT or “Hearts On Fire” by Cut Copy, while the year before it was “Young Folks” by Peter Bjorn & John. I have a sneaking suspicion that this year’s hype will (at least partly) surround Empire Of The Sun.

Grocery stores and banks will tend to play it safe and simple, since their audience is very wide and diverse. The music is always non-offensive, generally focused on being something you could easily ignore; something in the background, mostly upbeat. It also tends to be a bit more modern and contemporary. Another reason it felt awkward to shop for groceries while “Great Balls of Fire” played over the speakers – and a bit too loud at that.

Restaurants vary their playlists depending on the type of food served. I was in a Japanese restaurant the other day that had Spanish TV playing while the speakers broadcast modern hip hop (there are always blatant exceptions to what should be done). Those that feature food from other cultures are best when they feature soft, appropriate music from that culture as opposed to something classified as modern native – it makes for a complimentary atmosphere. I wouldn’t mind hearing the latest pop from the top of the charts while eating an American burger, but not while dining on sushi or Italian.

This brings me to another item. Speaking with Matt on this subject, he mentioned hearing the same John Mayer song in five different stores in the period of a single day. Playing recognizable music is good, but sometimes it’s best to use a known artist’s lesser-known work.

These are all merely items to ponder – creating an identity is a large portion of transitioning a company, the other part is ensuring you are communicating the proper message to your audience in everything you do, be it the business papers that represent the brand, the office layout including lighting and colors, or even the background music customers hear as they walk through the door.