News from our space

by Frank Scotti, Chief Idea Officer

It’s pathetic that people with little or no actual helpful knowledge or beneficial experience in their field will label themselves an “expert,” with the sole intention of personal and financial gain, and at the detriment of their customers. In these “experts” defense, though, they have so little knowledge that they actually believe they know everything. These people deserve a flick to the back of the head. Stop it. You’re stupid.

So what defines a person as an expert in his or her field? How do you become an expert in your field, and how do you know if someone is an expert? There is much more to mastering a skill than merely having done it for a long time. Because you have 20 years of driving experience does not make you an expert driver. Knowing how to make spaghetti does not make you an expert cook, nor does tweeting make you an expert in social media.

The hallmark of an expert is intuition. Let me elaborate…helpful and applicable intuition…backed by years of experience and success. While proficient practitioners can intuitively identify problems, experts can also intuitively solve them. They tap into their vast pool of knowledge and effortlessly identify patterns, applying solutions in context to solve problems.

In short, you don’t become an expert. You evolve into an expert. The expert title is bestowed upon those who have vast, practiced, and constantly evolving knowledge in their field. The expert title is also reserved for those who innovate and explore boundaries with positive outcomes. We give these people cool nicknames like Hammerin’ Hank, The Axman, The King, The Chairman, The Duke, Stormin’ Norman and Papa.  We look to them to continue to dazzle, innovate and inspire us. And each time they do, they confirm their status, and nicknames.

To find an expert, look for those who are doing, not just talking. Look for individuals who are solving problems, not just identifying them. And look for those who are considered experts in their fields by others in their industries, not just self declared. Then don’t stop at simply asking who the experts are, but also why they are considered the experts.

by Caitlyn Arigo, Assistant  Navigator and marketing newbie.

Wednesday.  Who really likes Wednesdays? It’s the middle of the workweek so we’re stuck in the thick of it all, but at the same time the weekend is waiting  ahead, teasing us.  As a means to improve Wednesdays here at Whizbang we began wine tasting on a weekly basis, coining the term “Winesday.”  Each Wednesday we end our day by tasting a new wine and writing reviews.  This helps us discover wines, allowing us to share the wines we love and warn people when we find those sour grapes.

This weekly ritual has resulted in a wine collection in the office fridge, of partially opened bottles.  Because this collection keeps expanding weekly, wasting perfectly delicious wine, Frank decided to add a new rule here at Whizbang.  He decided there will be no more half bottles of wine lying around the office – “If it gets opened it gets drunked!”  Yes, he said “drunked.”

Hopefully we all like the wine enough this week that we won’t break this new rule in the first week!  I wonder what the punishment would be… shots of tequila?

Stay tuned for more office observations from the marketing newbie.

PS – If you’d like to see our “Winesday” reviews go check out: http://www.recipemarketing.com/blog/category/winesday-tm/

Last month on our blog we went over the delicacies of Facebook friendships and this month we’ll be going over the ins and outs of building your Twitter following and followers as promised. Ready? Lets do this:

1. Be Prepared. Before you start “following” fellow Twitter users make sure your Twitter profile page is full of interesting posts and articles. There’s nothing worse than having people actually visit your page and have it be blank or dull. So take a lesson from Scar (Lion King) and be prepared!
2. Slow and steady wins the race. You don’t want to have an overwhelming following to follower’s ratio. Which in simple terms means you shouldn’t follow a lot more people that are following you. You usually want to have those numbers pretty close to each other to avoid users thinking you’re a spammer.
3. The magic number. Once you follow 2000 users, Twitter doesn’t allow you to follow anymore unless you have a certain number of users following you back. Twitter hasn’t officially released this “magic number” yet but the social media department at Whizbang has discovered that the magic number is indeed 1800 followers. So in order to have the ability to follow more than 2000 users you have to have at least 1800 users following you back.
4. Quality over quantity. Now that you know the magic number, it’s important to know that it’s not a race so don’t rush to get 1800 followers by any means necessary. I would take 1-quality contact over 10 meaningless follows any day of the week. So please don’t loose focus of your target market.
5. Cast your net wide. The more active you are on Twitter the larger your online presence will be so use as many re tweets (to repeat a tweet someone else has posted on your profile to give them credit), hash tags (hash tags are keywords with #’s in front of them. They create track records and or another way of creating a group on twitter.), direct messages (the option to message someone directly and privately so as to have a personal connection with them.), and twitter lists (lists groups together friends of yours that have something in common, it’s a great tool!) as you feel necessary. Those organic follows will start adding up in no time!
6. Have fun! I hate to be cheesy, but Twitter is actually a lot of fun when you get the hang of it.

by Ellen Curtis, Creative Commander

If you are in marketing and or breathing, there’s no way you haven’t heard about the massively pervasive and successful Old Spice advertising campaign. I’m sure there are millions of marketers doing as I am now writing blogs about how Old Spice did it. (A google search shows there are 1.7 million results on those key words, “Old Spice Marketing.”)  All you really need to do is to go to the source: the agency that created it. http://bit.ly/bWygXp.  I’m sure there are millions of CMO’s asking their agencies to give them an “Old Spice” campaign. So how do you “Spice” up your marketing.

Look at your advertising. Now look at Old Spice advertising. Back to your ads. Now back to their ads. Sadly, your ads don't look like their ads. But they can if you follow these three simple steps.

1. Have a great idea. Of everything that is written about the Old Spice campaign, the most obvious point is missing. It started with a great idea. It’s simple, like all great ideas. “Smell like a man, man” doesn’t get any more basic.
2. Share it smartly. While the viral video portion of the Old Spice campaign has garnered most of the attention, Old Spice used both traditional media (TV and print including couponing) as well as social media (Youtube, Facebook and Twitter) to reach out and engage their target audience.
3. Execute it brilliantly. Using a celebrity isn’t new. But the choice of Isaiah Mustafa, actor and former wide receiver in the NFL, was an exceptional good one. And of course, the writing and art direction was top notch. Notice all the parody spots on Youtube (919 last count). Imitation is indeed flattery.

by Frank Scotti

You know when you are really depressed, upset, or just feel beaten up and worn out, and all you want to do is hide your head under the pillow and hope all the bad stuff goes away. I hate to be a buzz kill here, but the bad stuff doesn’t go away.

I have talked with hundreds of business owners who are hiding their heads under their pillows, waiting for a better economy, better sales, lower taxes, cheaper healthcare, lower cost of goods, higher profit margins, more customers, higher spending per customer. Here’s the good news if you are one of these business owners. You can make the bad stuff go away, but not by hiding your head under the pillow. You have to get off your ass and work twice as hard for half as much. Because if you don’t, your competitors will, and probably already are. I am speaking from experience with our own businesses, as well as our clients’ businesses.

How have we done this for our clients? Here are a few tips. Be relevant. Identify customers needs and offer a product or service to address those needs. Customers have put their wants on the back burner. Also address other things that your customers may be looking for like added value, more personalized service, bulk discounts, easier access, more open dialogue. Be engaging. You should already have a very good idea of who your customers are and where to find them. Now start engaging them. Talk with them. Share experiences, offer ideas and inspiration for your relevant product or service. Be memorable. Now is the time to take advantage of severely reduced media costs and opportunities. But make sure it is relevant and engaging. Simply running an ad will not necessarily going to get you remembered. Running a relevant and engaging ad will. Be actionable. Let your customers know that you want to solve their needs with the most enthusiasm and appreciation. Ex: Whizbang loves helping companies improving customer loyalty and experience to increase sales. Please call us and find out why you should be excited in this economy. Be flexible. Just because you have always done business a certain way is no reason to continue. If you can’t get to where you want to be going straight ahead, then right turn, right turn, right turn, right turn. Think outside the pillow. In other words, act like an entrepreneur again.

There are no rainbows and unicorns under your pillow so stop burying your head there. Move forward and make things happen. If you need help, call us. We’re always here.