The Ultimate Social Media Cheat Sheet

February 6th, 2013 by Taryn Casey

I came across this great 'Ultimate, complete, social media sizing cheat sheet" from Luna Metrics. You'll find a simple text list of the pixel dimensions at the bottom. Save this sucker on your hard drive and never Google ‘Facebook cover photo size’ again.

Why digital needs to be at the heart of communication planning

October 22nd, 2012 by Taryn Casey

Are you a marketer who really 'gets' digital but works in an environment that doesn't? Or are you a lucky marketer who has been charged with developing and driving a digital approach from scratch? If you are either carry on to read Part 1 of a 2 part series on integrated planning  in the digital era.

 

Many large companies are in the throes of re-invigorating their  approach to communications planning. An approach that should have at its core the understanding that their existing ways of working and current briefing practices no longer reflect the communications landscape that consumers live in, or indeed the way branded communications  is consumed in that environment.

Recently, I read Anthony Young's Brand Media Strategy which speaks about finding inspiration in the digital world and the value in adopting core digital marketing principles to help shape new thinking. Some digital best practices that should be applied across  communication process are:
 

• Consumer targeting: digital media allows a granularity in approach to consumer targeting, which in turn allows for a more precise allocation of spend by consumer subset or by context and the subsequent ability to cut waste in advertising. Creative applications need to leverage this level of granular access to consumers, by matching the creative messaging to its environment. If content is King, context is the Prince in waiting.

• ROI: the rise in popularity of interactive media has been driven in part by the fact that we can now establish metrics and track performance at the outset of campaigns. Used along side softer analog metrics such as brand measures and ad awareness allows marketeers to have a more dimensional view of how a brand is performing.

• Integration: to develop effective online campaigns, digital best practice demands the integration of all subsets of services such as insight, search, media and creative from the outset - to work together to deliver a powerfully integrated campaign idea (not just the implementation of it). This logically should extend to ATL, BTL and experiential planning.

• Real time optimization: the new thinking that digital advocates is that marketing communications can, and should, be tested, tweaked and reapplied in real time using insights and metrics as an evolving process.

• Participation and involvement: the technologies inherent in the digital landscape allow marketeers to engage consumers in the truest sense and so marketers should seek out opportunities for their brands  to really deliver creative ways to involve, entertain and be useful in the lives of our consumers.

In the second post of this series, I'll bang on about beautifully expand on this new communications planning approach, along with ideas on how marketers can make this happen in their own organisation.

Until then....

Can web design be unique?

July 11th, 2012 by Taryn Casey

Now being the non-confrontational type, let me point out firstly here that I'm not accusing anyone of actually copying a website design of ours. We will excercise some courtesy in that regard, and follow the adage of you are innocent until proven guilty. And so readers, this is where you come in - you get to play judge and jury.

Away back in 2010, I drove Birdie Web Design quite mad as they designed and built a site for our clients Beechwood Dental. We wanted something fresh, contemporary, informative and above all, easy to navigate. The results have worked very nicely for us  (thank you very much Birdie Web Design). And so fast forward two years when our client was contacted by a peer who asked why they had let another dental clinic use exactly the same web template as they had? And the answer of course is a) it wasn't a template, it was bespoke and b) no permission had ever been given.

Let's assume that the owners of the site, Blessington Dental were unaware of what their web design company, EuroSite Solutions has done, and instead present the case in this virtual court of law to let you readers decide whether there is a case to be answered or not:

M'Lord I present exhibit A. The homepage of the Beechwood Dental website:

And M'Lord, I present Exhibit B. The homepage of Blessington Dental Clinic.

Your honour. I rest my case.

Let's watch this one unfurl with interest....we'd love to hear opinions on the best course of action to take!

5 Top Tips to help you with your online content plan

May 1st, 2012 by Taryn Casey

One of my favourite quotes is 'The main currency of online marketing is excellent content delivered in the way people demand" (thank you David Meerman Scott . In this blog, I won't attempt to cover all of what that means, but what I will do is give you some tips on how to start planning the online content it refers to.

Creating content on a topic that you are passionate about tends to flow more easily, but what about when you are trying to create content for a service, product or company that you a) know less about or  b) may personally be less passionate about? It's harder right? Staring at a blank screen thinking 'What are the key content themes? What are the audience going to be interested in?" or even 'How they hell can I make this stuff interesting?'

Well on many occasions I have had at least one of those thoughts. But do you know what? It's really quite easy if you use some of these tips that I have used, and continue to use, to collate and generate content.

1. Collect marketing bumpf:
Yes believe it or not, there is finally a use for all that dross that you get in the so-called 'goody bags' from a conference or expo. Don't throw them away, read through and take notes on what your competitors are selling, and how they sell it. Use the keywords or solutions they posit to trigger some content ideas for your own creations.

2. Revisit your company website:
Read through each and every page of the site, and make note of the headings, sub headings and videos, white papers and any FAQs that are already there. Repurposing what has already been created can save you time and money. For example, is there a long but fairly dull corporate video sitting idly in the About Us section of the site? Start editing it down it down to short and easily consumed video stings about interesting elements of the company (make sure to tag the videos though, and rename them appropriately). From a 2 minute corporate - yawn - video, you could easily get at least 3 short snappy clips like 'What we love about our being located in Dublin' or 'A personal greeting from our CEO' etc

3. Keyword research:
Assuming you have at least 5 keywords about the business, brand or product you are writing about, go and put them into your Google search bar, and scroll through the results to see what other people are writing about, or asking about. It may just validate what you already thought, or it may trigger some new thinking for content themes.

4. Visit a forum or group discussion:
Search for forums or discussion boards where your consumers or customers may already congregate and note what they are talking about or asking questions about. On a B2B level, you could visit professional networking sites like LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/home and search for relevant groups. See what they are asking and talking about and use these ideas to help piece together your content plan

5. Finally, ask a real person:
Online research is all very well, but sometimes the most effective way to find out what content would really be of interest, is to seek out a member of your target audience and very simply, ask them! Clearly, it makes sense to pick someone that you already have a good relationship with and/or someone who could tell you straight up the things that frustrate them about getting information. Ask them questions like 'What challenges to you face in your industry?', 'How often do you watch video content online?', 'What questions do you get asked most in your job?'.

So I hope you found the tips of some use to you. Do you have any other tips that you use and would like to share?
 

Is Social Media the new helpline?

April 5th, 2012 by Taryn Casey

I was recently delighted to be asked to present at a Global User Day conference hosted by Alemba, a leading UK IT Service Management consultancy, on the topic of 'Is social media the new helpline?' and with their agreement, I have summarised the key takeouts of my presentation. If you are non-believer who thinks that social media has no role with ITSM you should read on....

Confusing definitions

Social Media is not Facebook. It is not Twitter. Nor is it LinkedIn, Flickr or You Tube. Social Media is people using Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Flickr and You Tube. Social Media isn’t even a conversation, it’s where the conversation took place. We know that Social Media is not just about the number of followers, or fans a company has. As important as this is, is how you engage with & talk to those fans.

A unified voice

Essentially social media uses technology to convert static one-way communications into dynamic and ongoing conversations about things consumers find important. Social media outlets like Facebook and Twitter allow service providers to converse with communities of customers and users, as opposed to talking at them.

We're all ears

BUT Social Media is not just about talking. Listen to your target market to find out what they are saying about you, or indeed your competitors.
One of the greatest benefits of Social Media is the opportunity to tune into what people are saying about you and your organisation  - usually far more valuable than customer surveys.

‘Social Customers'

They are characterised by their age, and their lack of patience in following traditional methods and/or channels of customer care and support. The social customer crowd surfs for opinions, often adopting them as their own. They are quick to make their disdain public online and can often be more vitriolic if dissatisfied because they are online – a shield if you will.

What's the role of Social Media within ITSM?
On a macro level, it's to compliment and extend the core function of ITSM in 3 ways:
1.The opportunity to engage and communicate better with its customers
2. The ability to benchmark real end user satisfaction or dissatisfaction of your end user.
3. Framework to crowd source to find the root cause of the problems.

In short Social media should bridge the communication gap between the IT service provider and it’s consumers – and IT people already have the discipline to use these tools.

But is there a value to using Social Media within ITSM?
Thanks in particular to twitter, customer experience management is making an abrupt U-turn. More companies now are monitoring Twitter and other online social channels and responding in real-time - often within hours or even minutes. They know the power of social media and the capability of bad news to spread like wildfire. They also recognize the opportunity to influence the message by jumping into a conversation sooner rather than later.

It’s not about Social Media saving an IT department or organisation; it’s more about providing a much-needed channel of communication.
There are currently 3 main areas where social media can add value to an IT Support operation. Service desk, Customer feedback and Problem Management.

Service Desk

There are already systems offering Service Desk and incident management applications that are integrated with Social Media systems, that allow users to for example, Tweet incidents and receive updates. This is a simple but effective way of increasing the channels open to communicate with a service desk, as well as providing a wider variety of ways for Service Desk to communicate back to its customers.

Customer Service
If you don’t know what people are saying about you – how can you fix issues and rectify communications and image? IT departments can be proactive and use social media as an opportunity to build a rapport and ongoing debate with its customers – for example by broadcasting out is successes, providing information on services, downtime, product tips etc. Use social media to amplify your success stories!

Problem Management
Many social media users are already using the medium to get help (rather than using their own support desks) and for example tweeting out their issues and looking for support. IT departments should take note and use social media to look to a wider group to get their incidents fixed. Problem management processes can limit the visibility of issues and it may be that someone outside the pre-defined support path has a quick and simple answer to a problem. Of course IT needs to be better engaged with its customers to make sure that they don’t get bypassed.

The risks
The risks associated with social media are similar to any misuse of company brand, or lack of personal responsibility and professionalism – people make mistakes and can say and do stupid and damaging things. The risks and potential impact can be high given that information can be transmitted to millions of people in seconds.

It's all about process
Organisation need to have social media policies to make guidelines and boundaries clear to define for example what can be said and by whom. Public sector organisations have a duty to maintain records of their communications and all companies need to protect their brands and define what is and is not acceptable.

The ITSM challenge
Major organisations are spending millions with a new wave of software vendors who claim to monitor your social media outlets.  
As ITSM vendors, you should be putting them out of business! You already have the tools to do this and a mature framework (ITIL, most usually in this country).  Bring the disciplines of your framework, supported by your software to the Customer Service department.  Avoid “Sudden Forum Death” by putting SLAs on your forums.  Log every thread as a new Incident and ensuring that responses are delivered in a timely manner.  Turn your updates into Tweets
 

A blog placeholder!

February 16th, 2012 by Taryn Casey

There may actually be another blog coming soon...believe it or not.

The Year 2011 - A review of Digital Learnings

January 5th, 2012 by Taryn Casey

2011 was a great year professionally - with excellent clients and fantastic projects. No stonking great disasters but as always, there were some learnings.

We review our year every year, but this time - for the first time - we decided to share. How lucky are you? Here's hoping you pick up some tips to help your 2012….

1. Strategy:

• It's always all about context. In this regard, online doesn't differ from offline marketing. Before you do anything, make sure that you have done your research. Know who your competitive set are and what they are up to. Know your consumer or business target & know where they live online (and what motivates them).
• Don't throw every piece of buzz technology into your plan to prove that you are 'current'. Google + or NFC are not strategies, they are online tools. And they just might not be right for your brand or service.
• Understand the role of digital in your marketing mix. Although more and more budget is being assigned to digital, it's rare that a brand will be marketed only in the digital space. Ensure that  all other marketing channels are working together to deliver the goods

2. Customer Journey:

• As distinct from UX this simply put, is all about mapping. Think about how & where your customer will find you online. Think through also what they will see when you get them to land.
• Make sure to really leverage any other marketing channels (print, PR, ATL) to drive traffic to your site/page/profile.

3. Facebook:

• It's a veritable Pandora's Box for marketeers so choose your functionality wisely.
• Make sure you include Wall Editorial as part of your campaign and app planning process. Not referencing your app/promo on the Wall is missing an obvious trick. Develop editorial themes that complement whatever is happening on your promo tab.
• Page customisation is vastly under utilised as a branding tool. Profile pics and featured photos are really valuable real estate - use them.
• Quick and easy customisation can happen via 3rd party application sites. Do your research before you agree to spend €€€€ on newsletter sign up pages or Twitter feeds. Best practice apps comes from Wildfire, Buddy Media and North Social.
• Keep you FB promo to a max of 6 weeks (preferably 3 wks) and the longer the duration, the more important it is to have regular giveaways & instant rewards for your fans to keep momentum building.

4. Twitter:

• Don't employ a follow strategy, use an engagement strategy instead. Follow based on relevance and genuine interest.
• Forget about the number of followers you have. Focus instead on quality conversations and accessing interesting content as well as providing it. The followers will follow!

5. Online Advertising:

• The rules of offline apply to online media buying. Do your research (we mainly use comscore), know your target & base your media buying and site selection on consumer insights.

6. Writing for Online:

• It's about the edit, edit, edit….and then some more editing. Walk away for 30 mins before you 'submit' and then do a final re-edit.
• Grammar School please! Informal or colloquial language is obviously ok. But it doesn't let you off the hook for bad grammar and typos.

7. We love Metrics:  

• As your spend on online increases, the powers-that-be will be asking you what your ROI is right? Metrics for online activity abound - use them!
• Set your targets pre campaign/activity launch but base them on either industry benchmark (e.g. Google's doubleclick) or previous activity you have run. Then track weekly or bi-weekly.

And now, as we spread our SuperHero powers into the Year 2012, we wish you Health, Happiness & Enjoyable Work (in that order).
 

The Laziest Social Media Blog Ever

December 6th, 2011 by Taryn Casey

It's true, this *is the Laziest Social Media Blog Ever. But this is not just a lazy blog post, you may also consider it a lesson in 'How to update your blog in 2 minutes flat'.

Mainly, we just liked this infographic and wanted to share:

When does relaxation annoy you?

November 8th, 2011 by Taryn Casey

As part of some recent client research we came across an interesting report positing that content read on mobiles should differ hugely from regular web content.

We've summarise the key take outs here for you:

• Writing for mobile readers requires even harsher editing that writing for the Web. Mobile use implies less patience for filler copy.
• The great paradox: Most consumption on mobile stems from  a need to 'kill time'. Favourite time wasters include gossip sites, games and sports.
• Mobile users are in a hurry and get visibly angry at verbose sites that waste their time. Also, it's twice as hard to understand content on small mobile devices as it is on bigger desktop screens, making wordy content even more despised.

So how can users simultaneously want to kill time and yet get annoyed if their time is wasted? The solution to the conundrum lies in the fact that even relaxation is purposeful.

According to information foraging theory, users seek to maximize their cost/benefit ratio. That is, people want more thrills with less interaction overhead.

In summary:

• Filler = BAD. Proving the need to focus mobile content even more tightly than content for desktop websites
• Cut the fluff. In particular, ditch the blah blah verbiage at the start.
• Defer background material to secondary screens that are shown only to users who explicitly ask for more info. Such additional content supports people who have extra time on their hands or an exceptional interest in the topic.
• When writing for mobile users, heed this maxim:

If in doubt, leave it out.

The full research paper can be read here from the acclaimed Nielsen Norman Group (led by the 'guru of Web page usability' Jacob Nielsen)

This leads us nicely on to the do's and don'ts of writing content for the web...so stay tuned.

You know you’ve had a good holiday when you forget passwords

August 12th, 2011 by Taryn Casey

During a recent well-needed break away from TarynCasey Towers, we toodled off to a rather dodgy looking Internet Cafe to check in with the online bank, and emails (yes, we left ALL technology behind). Having left our laptop at home (clap hands) and therefore had no built-in password keeper, guess what happened? Lo and behold our physiological memory had been wiped clean of all passwords. It's amazing how sun and sand can overwrite a brain cache isn't it? Of course, after some trial & error we got everything we needed, but it made us want to share some tips & tricks we heard to manage your online life. We hope you find it useful.

You already will know the more obvious dos and donts to choosing a password such as:

    ▪    Don't use common words or phrases linked to your identity such as your name or birthday.
    ▪    Go for random letters, numbers and special characters for a password that's tough to crack.
    ▪    Keep them to about eight characters
    ▪    Don't use the same password for lots of different account or sites.

BUT here are some other interesting options we have learnt:

1. Remember, remember: Use a simple system so you never need to write them down - lifehacker.com has a great method: choose a base password and a base number, then use a combination of them with elements from the names of the websites themselves to create passwords that are different for every account  but easy to remember. For example, if your memorable word is MAGIC and the favourite number is 21, you then always add the the first three letters of the service name, and you password for Amazon would be MAGIC21AMA, and for Tesco, MAGIC21TES. You could also add special characters for extra security, such as #MAGIC21AMA#.

2. Use password management software: These applications sometimes come pre-installed on your computer (such as Apple's Keychain) or you can buy them, such as Critical Mass v2.02 (free to download fro Zemerick Software). This lets you store all you passwords in one secure place where you can organise passwords into categories. Data files are encrypted and the application itself is password-protected - so you'll have to remember that one!

3. Store your passwords online. If you use an online service such as Passwordsafe.com or passpack.com (both are free to sign up for), you can access your password database from anywhere in the world.Your data is encrypted before it's passed across the internet, and it's also stored in encrypted form online. A lot of services advise you not to store highly sensitive information such as bank account passwords. Most online databases are backed up every four hours.


Our favourite is the SYSTEM recommended by Lifehacker: Choose a base word and a base number, and mix them with the website name.

So now, go book a holiday - somewhere remote. And don't bring your laptop - we dare you!

I like Gin.

May 30th, 2011 by Taryn Casey

It's been a while since we liked a TV ad enough to blog about it. So just because it is Monday really, we'll share our new favourite with you...

How to deliver a great Digital Marketing campaign

May 10th, 2011 by Taryn Casey

We have a very clear view on this. You cannot deliver a successful digital marketing campaign without understanding the core principes of delivering an offline marketing campaign first. You need a Digital Strategy.

You can be a specialist in SEO, or PPC, or Email marketing or even web development but does this mean that you can deliver a digital marketing campaign for a brand? No.

Because a digital plan of activity will not deliver for your brand - unless it is underpinned by the same sound principles & rigours of Strategic Planning that you would apply to any 'Traditional ' brand marketing campaign. In other words, you need a Digital Strategy.

In it's most simplistic form, the 'Digital' in Digital Marketing refers to the use of online tools and channels to deliver your comms plan. And it is here that you will see the importance of using marketing fundamentals to build your digital marketing programme. In order to define your Digital Strategy you need 5 things:

Your marketing objectives:

• what your brand or business objectives are [set your online KPIs accordingly]

Your target audience:

• who you are talking to [how & where your target lives online helps shape your media buys]
• what your key consumer insights are [key emotional triggers & motivators inform your digital creative route]

Define your digital platform:

• what change you want to effect with your consumer [choosing the right digital platform is crucial to ensure you effect that change]. In your early planning stage your list will be provisional & can be distilled down later but could include any of the following: 

  ▪   Sites: Landing pages, microsites, websites, white-labeled sites, SEO, blogs, CRM, games

  ▪   Social media: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube

  ▪   Affiliates: WOM, bloggers, sponsorships, advertorials, forums and interest groups

  ▪   Outbound communications: Email, Newsletters, RSS feeds

  ▪   Mobile: applications (iOS, Android OS, Blackberry OS), SMS

  ▪   Promotions: Coupons

  ▪   Paid media: display ads, text ads, pop-ups, integrated video ads, page take-overs, SEM, game placement, interactive television

 Best practice guidelines: 

• what are the latest trends online & what are the latest best practices? what are your competitors doing currently? We use a variety of resources for our clients, such as reports from DoubleClick and MediaMind.

Define your KPIs:

• Understand how you will measure success. Select the key measures that will let you know how you are doing. Include a mix of five to eight indicators, including both leading and lagging indicators.

Much like a traditional marketing process, get the strategy for your digital marketing plan in place ahead of briefing or agreeing your media, creative, social or search initiatives. If you don't? Quite simply you won't get meaningful results.

Don't say we didn't tell you….

In our next article we will talk more about executing this digital strategy once it is agreed. Stay tuned!

Search is Sexy!

March 11th, 2011 by Taryn Casey

Imagine if you will, an awesome digital party where UX, SEO, ECommerce, & Social are all 'hanging out' in the uber cool VIP roped-off area. But hey, who's the dorky, nerdy guy unsuccessfully trying to get in? Why it's Paid Search. He's the dude that no-one thinks has credentials cool enough to want to be around.....

And yet like most Nerds, we at TarynCasey.com have a real soft spot for him. Why? Because say it loud and say it proud, "Search is Sexy'. Yes, it's true - and not only is it Sexy, it's also absolutely pivotal to your Digital Strategy.

Time & time again we have seen clients 'tagging' on Search to their digital campaign, much like an afterthought. A tick-the-box item which tends to operate in a silo, independent of all other channels of the online campaign. If your online media and creative have robust insights backing them up, so too should your paid search. But how?

In 5 Steps, this is how:

Step 1: Who is your target? Go back to basics, and look at your marketing plan. Define your demographic for this campaign and WRITE it down for your search analyst. [eg females, 20-35yrs]

Step 2: What are your core strategies for this campaign? Again, write them down. Set up separate accounts and name them according your core strategies. Separate accounts means easier budget assignment and reporting [eg Establish leadership in Widget market / Drive preference in Trade Channels].

Step 3: Set out the objectives under each strategy - and psst if you have more than 3 objectives for 1 strategy your plan is wrong! [eg launch new widget / sell online / push multi-buys]

Step 4: List out your key search phrases for each objective. Think like your consumer [eg. 'best widget' / 'best offers for widgets' ]. Your search analyst will use these to run keyword research, expand your keywords out for you, & help you write your ads.

Step 5: Assign budgets by campaign objective. And by that we mean weight your budget according to the importance of search to each of your objectives [eg. a 'sell online' objective would merit a heavier spend than say, 'launch new handi-pack' because it can translate and be tracked to an actual sale conversion.]

Try this approach and we promise you 2 things:
Thing1 = Your search analyst will set up a great search campaign for you because he/she now also has a brief to work to, just like all your other channel partners.
Thing 2 = Your search programme will now make sense in the greater context of your Campaign and done properly will really deliver for you.

See, we told you Search was Sexy.

When your brain is too fried to blog.

January 31st, 2011 by Taryn Casey

A quick Master Class in how to keep your blog regulary (ish) updated.

It goes like this:

Step 1) Stare at blank screen.

Step 2) Revert to using a link to a video posted by a long standing pal who has scaled the dizzying heights of the creative world in New Youk  -> that's you Marc Lucas.

How to add your blog to Technorati

January 17th, 2011 by Taryn Casey

One of the things we promised ourselves at the start of 2011, was that we'd use our blog to debunk some myths about digital marketing - in a practical way. By showing you step-by-step. So to start with in this article, we'll show you just how easy it is to register your own blog with Technorati.

If you didn't already know, technorati.com is basically a search engine for blogs. Lots of blogs. And you want to be on it because why?.....

Well, with a database of over 1 million blogs if you are successful in adding your blog you will:

a) have a better indexed site and blog

b) have the potential of being included in the top blogs OF THE WORLD (yes, we are shouting!). Of the WORLD! But like most things in life, if you are not in - you can't win.....and who wouldn't like a bit of global recognition (or at least traffic)?

So how? Easy peasy, just follow these steps:

• Go to Technorati.com and if you are not already a register user, simply join up and fill in the online form (it's free).
• Once you have your account set up, click on your account details and scroll right to the bottom of that page, where you should see a box called 'My claimed Blogs':

• In the box where you are asked to Start a Blog Claim, make sure you are putting the url of your blog feed (for example I use Feedburner). Hit 'Claim'.
• You will then be issued with a validation code by Technorati. This is to simply make sure that you are who you say you are, and that you are the rightful owner of the blog.
• Once you have this code, go the CMS of your blog and add the code into any page of your choosing and save it. For obvious reasons, perhaps go to an older blog post so that a random code is not quite so noticeable.
• DONE! It make take a few days, but Technorati will now validate your claim by taking a crawl through your blog account in search of your validation code.
• The approval process for us took about 5 working days.
• And the final step? Make sure to write interesting and relevant content so that not only will Technorati list you  - they may even rate you!

You're welcome!
 

Ho Ho Ho - A Merry Christmas to you all!

December 22nd, 2010 by Taryn Casey

We have used a photo of a fat turkey, simply because Christmas at TarynCasey.com is all about 2 things:

FOOD + FAMILY

And to remind us what Christmas is all about (but told via Social Media), here is a clever little digital-ditty courtesy of the good people at Ex-Centric. Enjoy....

Whilst we prepare to cook, feast and loll about for a few days, we would like to take this opportunity to wish all our clients, suppliers and partners a VERY relaxing and wonder-filled holiday.

A fine set of briefs.

November 30th, 2010 by Taryn Casey

When was the last time you had cause to buy some new advertising creative? Or PR? Or web development? Or SEO?

And did you write a brief for the suppliers of the service? Or did you wing it with a verbal brief?

Now, we're not saying that every new piece of work needs a written brief  - in fact, we admit we are rather old school in that regard, having cut our teeth in the world of  big brand companies such as Georgia Pacific & Coca Cola  - but we recommend hitting the keyboard for a few reasons:

1.     Clarity of thought:

Articulating what your objectives are, who you aim to 'speak to', and what your key insights are, helps to de-fuzz your own thinking.

2.     Manage expectations:

Make sure nothing gets lost in translation between you as the client, and the agency/supplier. Often the people you have briefed directly, re-brief their own internal creative/design/developer team. The phrase ' Chinese whispers' springs to mind. We say:

A written brief transcends subjective translation of a verbal brief.

3.      CYA:

This is an acronym for the highly technical phrase "Cover Your Arse". Imagine the scenario -> you have spent a considerable amount of time putting your written document together -> briefed the agencies/suppliers -> waited for a response on the brief. Then, the result is a response which is completely off-brief and has not addressed the key objectives stated.
Frustration? Annoyance? A shouty boss? It's not a solution, but at the very least you can now refer back to the black & white - and use it to bash them on the head metaphorically (actually literally too if you wish, but don't say we told you to).

So, what are your briefs like?

It’s Friday & we all need a laugh.

November 26th, 2010 by Taryn Casey

We know we need to get around to serving up a 'proper blog' (whatever that is) one day soon.....

but in the meantime, we thought this might make all you depressed Irish folk chortle  - just a little bit.

Go Bridie Greene. Go Bridie, Go Bridie (cue stir the cake batter dance movement)

Big Friday Up to John Fahy of RTE for providing the ammunition material that was needed.

Happy Friday.

Fun Friday

November 19th, 2010 by Taryn Casey

On a rare afternoon off, we got caught up in the fun of an Irish Flash Mob..... a haka flashmob no less. 

Turns out our friends at OceanPR organised the stunt to promote the micro bewery Messers Maguire.

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We're sure that a sport psychologist would now predict the Kiwi's get thrashed by Ireland - we've stolen their power - now that we Irish know how to Haka!

Happy Friday.

Top 10 Learnings from the Dublin Web Summit

November 2nd, 2010 by Taryn Casey

If you were too late to sign up for a ticket to the recent Dublin Web Summit (or indeed, didn't want to fork out the €340 that the ticket cost) we have summed up our notes on all 13 (yes, 13) speakers. Of the 7 parrallel streams, we attended the Social Media & Marketing one.

Truth be told, we could be smug and tell you that there wasn't a huge amount of new news heard over the course of the day. But in reality, we like to believe that if you concentrate hard enough, you will always pick up a least one nugget of a learning. Even if it's presentation style or lack of it. The fact that the broadband connection was intermittent at best, meant that we couldn't play on our phone/twitter/facebook.... and as result listened just a little bit more. So hurrah for bad connectivity!

From Vanessa Fox, CEO of NinebyBlue

• There is no such thing as a homepage anymore. Every page of your site is the homepage.
• What the search results page SAYS is important.
• Solve the searchers problem

From Joe Cosgrave of Joe's SEO

• Don't ever fake reviews. You WILL be found out. Just like:
• Don't EVER rely on the technology for your presentation working. LInking live to sites is a high risk strategy {even at a web event}. Make sure to have some good, old-fashioned screen grabs of the sites as back up.

From Krishna De of Marketing Mentor

• Ensure that you have a Business page and not a personal FB profile. And, shhhh....apparently you can change your profile name without losing fans.

From Alicia Navarro, CEO of Skim links

• Forums are making a comeback! Er, they never went away. We humbly suggest a re-read of a blog we wrote last year about our love of Forums.

From David Sowerby of Straker a translation company

• The Chinese consumer is most likely to get annoyed if the site is not in their own language.

From Kirstie McDermott co-founder of Beaut.ie

• Look for smart angles & respect your sources.

The founder of Klout

• We all have a value as an online influencer.
• Businesses (especially hospitatlity) are increasingly reviewing potential customers by the Klout ranking and tailoring their service accoringly.

Did any of you attend? Did I miss anything in my notes/observations?