Nine year old Caine Monroy loves arcades. He spent a summer in his dad’s used auto part store building a cardboard arcade with games and prizes. Caine paid meticulous attention to detail to every part of his arcade, down to security PIN codes on each game, prizes for winning and a staff t-shirt he designed.

Caine’s very first customer loved the arcade (and the value of a fun pass) so much that he wanted everyone to know about it. So he went to work on spreading the word to all of his friends. Who told their friends. You get the idea.

While there are many marketing stories to be told from this, what we love most is how Caine’s optimism, perseverance, and passion for his arcade resulted in a happy customer willing to tell his friends.

Facebook Timeline Overview for Brand Managers

By: Ashlee Richards (_ashleer)

Well, folks. They’ve done it again.  Just as you thought your brand’s fan page was completely built out and finally at its peak, our good friends at Facebook threw us another change-up. They like to keep us on our toes, don’t they?  You can gripe and moan all you want… maybe even threaten to delete the account, but we all know that’s not going to happen. So take a few moments to shake your fist angrily at a photo of Mark Zuckerberg (ready… go), then just accept and adapt… mainly because you have no choice.  By March 30th all pages will be automatically updated to the Timeline layout.  You only have about a week left to preview and tweak before you publish, so you better get on it!

When I was asked to write a post about Timeline for pages, I thought “What can I write that’s not already out there?” But then I realized what I had looked for, but haven’t come across yet… a short, sweet, to the point, synopsis of what to expect with this whole Timeline thing and how to efficiently update the brand pages I manage.  Let’s be honest, we are busy people, and we don’t have time to scour multiple 50-page white papers and blog posts to uncover the 3 pages of actual information! So what I’m going to do is take everything I’ve learned via research and trial and error, and lay it out for you in a  comprehensive format that may be easily referenced.  We’ll go over the major effects that Timeline will have on your pages, and how to take advantage of those changes.  We’ll take a look at a couple of Timeline pages done well, and I’ll provide some great (and free!) resources you can use to optimize your page.

Continue reading »

Congratulations and a big shout-out for Ashlee Richards, newly certified as a CSMA (Certified Social Marketing Associate) for Eilert Communications! Ashlee earned the designation through years of experience in social media, hours of study and passing an exam required by the Department of Education for Certifications of the eMarketing Association. The eMarketing Association is an international association of marketers committed to the advancement and excellence of marketing in the digital era.

What does this mean to you? Our commitment to excellence and continual learning in our field means you receive marketing excellence. Certification demonstrates competency and commitment to social marketing as a science, and to continuous education in the field. Ashlee’s commitment to excellence is reflected in this certification.

Congratulations, Ashlee!

We don’t normally take political stands here at Eilert Communications. Two bills in front of Congress and the Senate, however, got our attention. And not in a good way.

SOPA, the “Stop Online Piracy Act” goes up for a vote in the House next week. The Protect IP Act (PIPA) goes in front of the Senate next week. The intention is to “protect intellectual property rights” and “go after online piracy”. We are all for protecting intellectual property. After all, we are in the business of building brands and identities. But these proposals are not the way to do it.

Both proposals go well beyond that intention and venture into the territory of censorship and government selection of which businesses stay in business. One analogy being used that we think is fitting is shutting down the auto industry because a bank robber drove away from a robbery in a car. Continue reading »

Do you make these marketing mistakes?

Common marketing mistakes business owners make can cost valuable business opportunities and serious money.

Over the years, I’ve heard countless business owners voice regrets about spending marketing dollars for no return. As they say “hindsight is 20/20”. Most stories reflected common mistakes. This list highlights the top 7: Continue reading »

Last year I discovered my staff had not learned goal setting in school. To my shock, this appears to be the norm! (which gets into another issue with our education system, but I digress).

Thirsty for new tools that helped them, everyone embraced the new knowledge and picked it up quickly. And, of course, results began to happen.

Tip: our approach included happiness in every area of life – not just work. This made a big difference to the team. Most comments sounded like this: “This is a view of success I like! Most of the time it’s just about money & more stuff.”

The steps.
Here are the steps I take: Continue reading »

Last week, I wrote about the basics of crafting a feasibility study to test a new business idea before investing too much time and money in it. This week, we look at what a feasibility plan might look like.

What does a feasibility plan look like?

There is no “set in stone” format for a feasibility plan. Good plans are on paper or digital – and some great plans have sketched out on the back of napkins (literally). Here are two suggested outlines of information you will need: Continue reading »

Have you ever spent a lot of time, money and energy on a “great new idea”, but wondered later what you ever saw in it? New business ideas are exciting. After all, they are new!

One way is to do a quick feasibility study to test the idea. Feasibility studies serve three key purposes: Continue reading »

Expert presenters have a #1 rule: know your audience. Before crafting any type of presentation, first understand who will be listening, why they are there, and what is important to them. Continue reading »

Everybody loves a story. Stories help us understand and identify with situations and people. Continue reading »