Squeak of the Week

On my morning pilgrimage to Starbucks this week, my stomach began sending me some signals… FEWD! NOW! (in the Mike Myers voice from “So I Married An Axe Murderer)

Starbucks for years has had an assortment of pastries and donuts ready to infuse carbohydrates into your bloodstream, and more recently they’ve dipped their hand into the breakfast food basket offering oatmeal (don’t get me started), english muffin sandwiches, tortilla wraps and such. The concept is solid. I’m coming there for coffee, why not offer food? So I obeyed my hunger pangs and picked up the Chicken Sausage Wrap. Score?

Jack Squat

Starbucks has been a mistress of mine for years. I wake each day jonesing for her dark elixir. So, I’ve tried just about every donut-frappuccino-latte-concoction they have. At times I’ve ventured out and sampled many of the breakfast products, but found them lacking and oh so bland. The purchased wrap would be no different. One bite. Done.

After my rant to my fellow workmates I pondered why Starbucks venture into uncharted waters of breakfast cuisine (*cough* Money). For me, and many brands (and people) fall prey to this, why expand your offerings – and if you do, why put out sub par products? (Obviously, Starbucks intention wasn’t to shoot a brick.)

The expression, “Jack of all trades, master of none” comes to mind. I found a better translation in Mandarin… yes, Mandarin, “All trades known, all trades dull.” And who doesn’t remember that old Esperanto saying, “he who chases two jackrabbits catches none.” By offering “everything” are you at risk of offering nothing? Possibly. It’s true that having a single focus allows you the luxury of honing your craft.

That said, I am and will forever be a Starbucks Man, but just their coffee. Coffee is the one thing they do well and when I think of that morning fix, I think of Starbucks.

Do fries come with that shake

Just this week, while out to lunch with @mugrad, he suggested we visit Five Guys. Not having sampled Five Guys goodies… um, wait. They do burgers and fries – so we went. The “burgery” boosts white walls with red trim, a full view of the grill and modest tables and chairs. @Mugrad gave me the insiders scoop on how to order. The menu is clean (not counting the grease) and simple. What you see is what you ingest. Burger eaten. Burger good. Burger, very good. They do burgers. They do burgers exceptionally well. It made this consumer take note. I didn’t find their brand suffering from an identity crisis. Instead I found a company who knew who they were – they make burgers… really well. Burger (good) is as burger does.

So, being good at one thing is… good. And just because you are, doesn’t mean you should make really bland chicken sausage wraps.

New Creative Department series, “Meeting the Newb“, Part II

Introduction

Hi again!  As you all know, I am new to The Creative Department as a Brand Coordinator.  Today, I’d like to introduce my first client, ProKids, a nonprofit organization that advocates on behalf of Hamilton County’s foster children.

I knew I had landed an awesome gig when I learned of our newest pro bono client.  We are donating time to ProKids’ marketing and strategy efforts for 2012.  It is important to me to “give back” to my community; and I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to lead these efforts on account of CD.

I’m especially pleased with leading ProKids’ account knowing the controversy that surrounds the “working for free” mentality.  Here is an AdAge article that shares supporting arguments on why agencies should donate their time and services to nonprofits.

Left to right: Jennifer (ProKids Community Director), Jonathan (CD Sr. Interactive Media Strategist), Chris (CD Sr. Business Strategist), Katie (CD Graphic Designer), David (CD Brand Leader), and Stacey (CD Brand Coordinator). ProKids Young Professionals happy hour at Arnold’s Bar and Grill.

So, what’s the big deal?

This year in Hamilton County, over 2,000 children will be abused and neglected to the point of removal from their homes and placed into foster care.  Many assume that the county is taking proper care of these children.  The Child Welfare League of America recommends caseloads between 12 and 15 children per worker.  Nationwide, the average caseload for a child welfare worker is twice the recommended number.

What many don’t know about the foster care system:

• Children in foster care are 10 times more likely to be abused than children in the general population.
• Less than half of foster children graduate high school, only 38 percent find a job within 18 months of leaving the system, and only one in eight graduates from a four-year college.
• A child is nearly twice as likely to die of abuse in foster care as in the general population.
• Take for instance, the two year old foster child, DeMarcus Jackson of Cincinnati, who was fatality beaten two months ago.
• Almost half of foster children will spend at least two years in care, while almost 20 percent will remain in the system five or more years.

How is ProKids helping the situation?

About ProKids

ProKids was founded in 1981 and is part of the National CASA Association.  This private nonprofit ensures Hamilton County’s foster children receive safe, permanent, and nurturing homes.

ProKids recruits and trains volunteers known as CASAs (Court Appointed Special Advocates) to operate as activists for these children.  If you’re wondering who becomes CASA’s, check out the “I am for the Child” campaign video from National CASA.

ProKids also provides leadership and education to the community by creating specialized programs such as Building Blocks for children ages 0-3 years old, Steps to Peace (STOP) to address family violence, and CASA University training program.

PKYP

ProKids recently launched ProKids Young Professionals (PKYP) to provide younger people, with limited time and money, a way to help out.   This year, 19,000 children across the U.S. will turn 18 and “age out” of the system without ever finding a permanent home.  PKYP members can volunteer to support these young adults’ transition into the “real world” by assisting them with college applications, writing resumes, and apartment hunting.  You can also partake in fun networking events like the one pictured above at Arnold’s Bar and Grill.

Ready to Help Out?

Find more ways to get involved by visiting ProKids’ website and stay up-to-date on events and volunteer opportunities by liking ProKids’ facebook page.

Whether you work at an ad agency, law firm, accounting firm, etc. there are many worthy organizations and causes that could benefit from your pro bono services… get out there and make a difference!

Hello, blog world

My name is Stacey and I am the “newb” here at The Creative Department.  My role is Brand Coordinator and simply, I help manage clients’ accounts.  I become the expert on the client’s business, an active participant in strategy development, and I maintain the relationship between the client and the agency. Besides working at CD, I enjoy riding my bike through town, eating my fruits and vegetables, and hanging out with my scrappy cats Frankie and Bonnie.

Frankie

Bonnie

How did I get here? 

I am a proud graduate of Northern Kentucky University where I studied abroad in England while also traveling to France, Scotland, and Ireland.  I’ve worked in quite a few marketing departments from local public radio station WNKU 89.7, to one of the Nation’s top zoos (yes, the Cincinnati Zoo), to The Princeton Review in Irvine, CA.  I was introduced to The Creative Department through a friend and former manager whom I’m forever grateful for.

Scotland

Cincinnati Zoo

I remember driving my airconditionless Sebring (AKA the “Michael Scott Mobile”) to Over the Rhine on a scorching August day for my first visit with The Creative Department.  Stepping inside was a breath of fresh air (literally) and one of the coolest office spaces I had ever seen.  First of all, the lobby welcomed me with a bathtub turned coffee table (AKA The Tubble), a telephone booth complete with a superman costume, and an antique elevator the size of my bathroom.  After lunch, my tour of the office followed with brightly colored paint, neon signs, and delightfully, quirky décor.

Michael Scott Mobile

Superman Telephone Booth

As for the employees and my future co-workers – just as quirky as the décor and as witty as their advertising.  I was in love.  I had known the people and the space for a mere hour and a half, but already felt oddly comfortable.

It was nice “meeting” you

I’ve been here a little over four months and am still ecstatic that The Creative Department has so warmly welcomed me to their team – I think I’ll stick around for a while.  Look for my next post about ProKids, my first client and CD’s 2012 pro bono client.

SUMMARY: A simple – and FREE — way to update your WordPress blog, Twitter timeline, and Facebook page using a social bookmarking service like Delicious or Diigo. 

Many personal and company blogs fail not only because it’s hard to find something to write about, but it’s also difficult to find the time and the people to keep it up-to-date.

Yet for some reason it’s easy for us to find time to share content with friends, family, coworkers, and even clients by emailing them links to interesting articles, videos, and games or even posting on Twitter or Facebook.

If you visit this blog regularly, you’ll notice on the left, we have posts (like this one) where we found the time and the energy to write. But in the center column, titled “Seeds of Inspiration,” you’ll see a bunch of short posts, which are essentially links to stuff we found interesting elsewhere on the web. If you click one of the links it will take you to that site.

For a company, this is a great way to show how you and your coworkers think. It shows what you enjoy and appreciate. And it keeps the content on your blog fresh, which Google likey.

Journalist and fellow blogger, Jeff Jarvis, said, “Write what you know best, and link to the rest.”

So I’m going to show you how to link to the rest by syndicating interesting content across the web using using a social bookmarking service like Delicious or Diigo.

Step 1: Grab Your Feed

At the Creative Department, we use Delicious, but you can use whatever social bookmarking site you like, as long as they provide RSS feeds for the stuff you bookmark. The reason you need an RSS feed is because it is the secret sauce to updating our blog, Twitter account, and Facebook page.

Let’s look at my Delicious account. On the right hand side you can see the public and private RSS feeds for my bookmarks. But I don’t want to share EVERYTHING on our blog, this is MY personal Delicious account.

Again, if you look at my Delicious page you’ll notice that a lot of my bookmarks are tagged with ‘cd’.

I do this because THESE are links I want to share with the Creative Department audience. And on Delicious, every tag ALSO has an RSS feed. If you add a slash and the tag, ‘cd’, to my RSS feed, you get the feed for everything I’ve tagged for Creative Department. You can add whatever tag you want to your posts to differentiate them from your personal bookmarks.

Step 2: Syndicate It

Now to publish this feed to your Twitter or Facebook account, we need a syndication service. We use dlvr.it, but twitterfeed provides much of the same functionality.

Simply create a new Route, add your Delicious RSS feed as a Source and connect it to your Twitter account and Facebook pages as destinations. The nice thing about dlvr.it is that it allows you to schedule the days and times your feed items post. That way you don’t overwhelm your followers with tons of posts. Dlvr.it also tracks how many clicks you get on each service.

To publish our feeds to our WordPress blog, we use Charles Johnson’s FeedWordPress plugin to syndicate (again, just enter your Delicious RSS feed and select the keyword(s) and category(ies) you want news feed items to post to) and Justin Tadlock’s Query Posts widget to show these specific posts in the sidebar.

Step 3: Relax

And that’s pretty much it. Now you have bite-sized fresh content coming into your blog and social media accounts for doing what you normally do when procrastinating writing that next long blog post – surfing the web.

A client of ours recently asked us to Search Engine Optimize (SEO) their website for a long list of keywords. Due to the nature of their numerous offerings, we could have easily taken a “mile wide and an inch deep” approach. The result would have been that their rankings wouldn’t have performed well inany search.

The Creative Department tends to target even less words – up to five Primary keywords (usually 3-5) and several potential Secondary keywords. We do this for the following reasons: 
[Note when we say ‘keywords’ we usually mean ‘key phrases’ e.g. “digital agency” or “Cincinnati digital agency” = 1 keyword].

• The success of the Primaries is what success is ultimately measured upon. If we’ve ranked the website toward the top of the first page, we’ve succeeded. Depending on the market, it may make sense to place Secondaries on tertiary or landing pages, but not to the detriment of the Primaries. Once you place the Primaries and appropriate permutations thereof, there often is little room left on a given site. If you have five primaries, you might have ten or twenty plus permutations to also take care of.

• In the same vein, it comes down to room within Meta Tags, Page Titles, etc. These have to be in a certain order and length, and most of these tags can barely fit three, much less five, keywords. Note that we will also need to have these keywords in the rewritten URLs and, of course, permutations thereof. Does you site even have ten or more main pages?

• In order to succeed we will need to get links for these Primaries. For example, within a given Link Building campaign, let’s say you plan to obtain 1000 links. With five Primaries, you can choose to get 200 links for each keyword (or some combination thereof). With ten Primaries, only 100 links, and so on. There is only so much ‘link juice’ to go around at any given time – it should be focused on your Primaries.

• As with most advertising campaigns, you cannot take a shotgun approach with SEO. This is not like PPC where you can target hundreds of words at will and overnight. Advertising campaigns must have a targeted purpose. For example, you cannot say everything to everybody all at once. Similarly, Google will get confused as to what your site should really rank well for. After appropriate research and careful writing of tags, we will plant the seeds and, over time, they grow into what we desire.

• After performing proper keyword research, often there aren’t more than five Primaries that represent substantial, qualified organic search traffic ­ especially in your software market. There may be more, but they will represent a fraction of the potential traffic and therefore, by definition, are Secondaries.

• Lastly, once we win with the initial keywords, one can always start to introduce more. By adding specific landing pages, sub-domains, and micro-sites, more space can be added to target more words (while leaving the originals alone).

In short, pick your battles. A website can target a lot of searches poorly or a few really well. Since your site will not obtain traffic unless it’s on the first page of results, the trick is to identify the most important keywords to win with. If you win at those, move on to the next ones.