Good news – find your position

No more excuses now on why jobs are not available. Learn how to find it.

Colorado employers added 1,500 payroll jobs in October from the previous month, and the state’s unemployment rate eased to 6.8 percent, its lowest level in nearly five years, the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment reported Friday. Read the story in the Denver Business Journal.

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An Effective Business Social Media Plan Needs Everything In Its Place

Do you ever think that your business digital media marketing plan is very similar to a place setting at dinner?

This is a typical picture to show the proper way of setting the table. These  same details have value when your marketing coach plans your business digital media presence. Looking at your entire plan laid out like this table setting helps sort out all the components and helps us focus. Some items will only be used for special occasions, similar to the cake fork or the wine glasses, and with everything in its place, we are more likely to connect with our target customers and clients.

Marketing Coach Carol Naff

Internet Marketing

 

So, let’s review your social media place setting:

The plate  is the central component to any well laid table, the plate represents your business website. It contains the meat and potatoes of your services, products, mission, vision, and values to any prospects that search the Internet for your business.

The salad plate is also an important component. In the food world, it holds life-giving vegetables. While in the social media world, it represents a regular enewsletter that also provides life-giving information to help your prospects and customers. A regular enewsletter that offers valuable articles becomes a must read email that is received by prospects and is also a great way to keep your name in front of your network.

The water glass: They say we can live without food far longer than we can live without water and so that is why the water glass represents our existing customers. We must keep them informed and never take them for granted. They sign our paycheck and are also the source of referrals, testimonials, and repeat business.

The fork is the tool we use to consume our food and it represents YouTube. By 2015, 65 percent of all Internet traffic will be video. Video is a great way to feed our prospects information, humor, and examples of how to best use our products and services.

The napkin keeps us tidy. As a blog in our media plan, it provides tidy bits of information that shares our expertise, provides insights into our values, and gives us our voice. Not used by many (a sleeve sometimes is used instead), the blog is a great way to flood the Internet with our company name associated with key words, which aids in expediting search results and driving traffic to our website.

The bread and butter plate may not be used at every meal but is still a great staple in our social media plan. It represents the press release, which is still a valuable tool to keep our name in the news and also online. Create a monthly press release and submit to online directories and email your prospects.

The knife: cuts our meat and also cuts through to find the decision makers on LinkedIn. Four-out-of-five LinkedIn users are the decision makers for their company. This is a great tool for slicing and dicing information as well as building your business network.

The teaspoon is small in size and represents Twitter – just a spoonful of information for your readers. Use it frequently to share and learn from your community.

The soup spoon: we use the soup spoon for larger portions of information like we’ll find on Facebook. However, we don’t want to overindulge.

The salad fork: goes with the salad plate. Just like enewsletters, articles published online are a great way to share information, demonstrate your expertise, and keep your name in front of prospects. Consider writing articles to be published on other websites/blogs/online magazines to reach your target audience.

Cup and saucer: Just like the cup is circular – so are your centers of influence. Like the hub and spokes of a wheel – they reach out to an ever-expanding network to help spread the word of your services to their network. Make sure they understand your primary purpose and your ideal customers so that they can properly refer you to customers most likely interested in your services.

Red wine is a tasty beverage for certain meals. Direct mail is the same; a marketing option for certain messages. You may choose to use direct mail on occasion in conjunction with a special offer to local consumers around your location.

White wine: speaking of special offers, our white wine glass represents those special offers you might present to your online community such as a Facebook special discount, a Twitter coupon, or a free download in exchange for an email address.

Cake fork and dessert spoon: rarely will we see these utensils on the table, however, they have a definite purpose. Social media tools like the #hashtag allow you to feature a specific product, service, or event using the sort tool for all your content. Not only can you include the #hashtag in your communications but you can encourage others to use the #hashtag as they prepare to attend your event or use your product. It is a great tool and will most likely be used sparingly.

Place cards: finally, just like important information is on a place card, make sure to keep your name and contact information front and center on your marketing collateral such as your business cards, flyers, brochures, or email signature. This helps consumers know how to reach you when they need your products or services.

Butter knife: That spreads your message with a consistent brand across all these communication avenues.

Although you can have a meal with just a plate – it is far more efficient if you also have utensils, glassware, and napkins available to help you enjoy your meal more completely.

The same is true for your online marketing presence. The more complete your efforts across the web, the more likely you will be to be found. The more options consumers have, the more they learn about your abilities, your experience, and your personality.

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Be Connected

Marketing Coach Carol Naff

Connect

Tomorrow will not be like today. Today you will experience the slowest rate of technological change in your lifetime. Tomorrow, it will be faster and the pace of change will continue to increase. Managing this change and learning to adapt will separate the successful from the extinct. Adapt or die.

The Pace of Change is Relentless

Before last year’s Media Tech Summit, I wrote that there are two types of people: connected and not connected. Even just a year ago, you could be not connected and still find success. That’s no longer true. Tomorrow will not be like today, just like last year is not like this year. If you think the gap between last year’s tech and this year’s tech was huge, just wait until next year. Read more…

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Apps for smart phones and iPads

Just what is an app, anyway? How can you make a smart phone even better? Easy! Add amazing new features with apps, small programs for smart phones.

Adobe reader

The new standard for paperless document transfer using your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch

Adobe reader gives you the ability to make your PDF DOCS FILLABLE. THIS APP ALSO ALLOWS Y OU TO HIGHLIGHT, UNDERLINE, ADD COMMENTS, AND MORE

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Best Apps for Students to Stay Organized at School and Home

Marketing Coach

Best apps

Organization is a pivotal skill that can be difficult to master, especially for children and adolescents. While there are thousands of productivity apps available for the iPad, only a precious few capably keep children organized in the classroom and at home. These five are the best: Shelly Palmer, Helping You Succeed in a Connected World.

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Teamwork from Serff Creative Group

A great team can accomplish everything

It takes the right people to get the job done effectively and efficiently.

When working together, a great team can accomplish every challenge!

These are some key areas to insure your team is the best it can be!

  • Identify the strengths of each team member
  • Communicate to build a powerhouse team
  • Embrace conflict because isn’t necessarily a bad thing
  • Take good care of your clients as a top priority

Read more here.

At Serff Creative Group, we have a choice of highly skilled web developers, copywriters, photographers, videographers, SEO optimization companies, printing vendors, technical illustrators, and other creatives to meet your needs. We would love the opportunity to bring together the team that will work most effectively for you!
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Spice up your writing

Every writer strives to make their articles and blogs interesting. It needs to be captivating and interesting enough for your reader to want to read the entire article. Better yet, write with enthusiasm and intrigue. Write with enough excitement so your reader wants to click on your links. Be creative. Don’t use words that the average person doesn’t know the definition. Okay, Ezine Articles came up with this list. What do you think?

Marketing coach, Carol Naff

Words to know

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Number 1 Job Skill

Marketing Coach Carol Naff

Likability

What’s the crucial career strength that employers everywhere are seeking — even though hardly anyone is talking about it? A great way to find out is by studying this list of fast-growing occupations, as compiled by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Sports coaches and fitness trainers. Masseuses, registered nurses and physical therapists. School psychologists, music tutors, preschool teachers, and speech-language pathologists. Personal financial planners, chauffeurs, and private detectives. Each is expected to employ at least 20% more people in the United States by 2020.

Did you notice the common thread? Read More from the contributing writer at Forbes Magazine, George Anders.

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Blogging Resources

5 lessons cats teach us about blissfully mindless blogging

This New York Times article offers a multitude of samples of blogs on many topics. To get the feel of Web logs and blogging, visit some of these sites. Most blogs carry links to other blogs on related topics or that the author likes (known as a blogroll). New York Times

You’ll find Collections and Rankings with a list of most linked-to blogs, news feeds and blogs by topic, trends, and most visited blogs. Take a look around at blogs.

 Cyberjournalist.net looks at the effects of the Internet and new technology on the media.

Another resource with ideas for improving your blog is here.

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Content for Social Media

How in the world can I get people to listen? Of course, you and I both know that content is key. Content is not the king of social media marketing, but it certainly is the starting point that drives conversations, action, and results. Having and executing an effective social media content strategy is the difference between your brand being in social media and getting results in social media.

The purpose of using social media is to drive traffic to your website. You will not get clients or sell books because of your content on social media. But it will make a difference in your Internet presence.

Read an interesting article here on social media content

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