Building Fans Early

One company that I'm very much impressed with on the Marketing tip, is Apple. Clearly I may be a little biased as I blog this from my new MacBook, but as a loyal fan way BEFORE the cool iPhone came out, I've been watching them build their brand pretty closely for over five years now. And who doesn't love those commercials with the Mac and the nerdy PC guy? Simple, honest, funny. Brilliant.

When I was debating on whether to get a Mac or a PC back in college, it was pretty clear that I would be the outcast from the Communications department if I were to even think about getting anything other than an Apple laptop. All the computer labs had Apples and all the PC-users resided in the Business and Math buildings. I can't tell you how many hours I spent completing homework assignments for my Advertising classes using my awesome white iBook. It was a great computer.

Fast forward to today and as I was visiting the Apple store this morning, I was greeted by a bunch of rowdy little children. So cute! They were all wearing yellow T-shirts (much too big for them) and they were all on the field trip of their lives - the Apple Store. Ok, that might be biased, too, but I know I would have loved it at 6 years old. They were laughing and giggling and chatting excitedly. Everything you would want your potential life-long customers to be doing at a very, very early age. :)

Their teacher was explaining to them how to use iPhoto, a super-easy software program for your pictures that comes on every new Mac. Literally, these little kids were doing it all themselves. (By the way, Mac is short for Macintosh. Which is a kind of apple. Brilliant, right? Branding. Love it.)

If these kids can do it, you can, too! Don't be scared of computers and technology. Embrace it and watch the success come to YOU! It'll be as easy as A-B-C! But don't forget to smile. ;)

My First Video!

I've been so busy helping other people grow their business that I'm just now getting around to promoting mine! Lots of people are asking for my help now, so here's the beginning of a wonderful adventure. I'll be giving FREE advice about how to use all these cool social networking sites.

Check out my YouTube channel "MarketingMadeEasy" and let's have some fun with Social Media Marketing!

Feedback is appreciated (please be gentle!)..haha.

At Last

Finally got my long-time awaited new laptop! I had been using my fantastic white Apple iBook G4 since my college days and although it is still a great computer, it's considered a dinosaur in my eyes for what I'm trying to do online these days. I needed an upgrade. Quick.

As a very loyal person, this also rings true in my computer choices. Once an Apple fan, always an Apple fan. Pretty much. I should buy stock...

Special thanks to my Santa, John, who came through and gave me my early X-mas present so I could get the ball rolling faster. :)

Above: me with my Personal Shopper, Charlie, and my loot! I highly recommend setting up your FREE Personal Shopper program before you go into the store. You can do this online at www.apple.com. It saves you time from waiting and waiting to ask a few questions if it's busy in the store. He even checked us out right there with his mini-cash register!

(This blog is brought to you by my new Macbook. I'm in love.)

Discovering Yourself

Last night I had the wonderful opportunity to meet a fellow Bradley University family member who was looking for some career advice and tips on how to break into the PR/Marketing industry. She is just about to graduate college and head off into this big, bad world of total responsibility and is considering the big move to LA. When her sister (a friend of mine and also a BU alum) contacted me to let me know that her younger sister was going to be in Los Angeles during her spring break and she wanted to meet up with me, I was so flattered. Have I really accomplished enough already to have a mentoree? Wow, apparently so, as I just received a wonderful email from her thanking me for my time and invaluable information that I gave her over dinner last night. We had a great time and I love seeing people go after their dreams.

It was only a few short years ago when this was me. I also took my Spring Break, Senior Year, to come out to Los Angeles for a second trip that year, to make absolute sure that this was where I wanted to start my career. I met with fellow BU alums, too, and picked their brains with my questions. After a resounding, but silent, "Yes!" came to me as I flew back to Illinois, I knew that opportunities would be endless in the the City of Angels. I could not describe the intense feelings of excitement and anticipation (ok, and a little fear!) that I was feeling, but I was ready to conquer the world.

Sacrifice, tears, joy, hard work and darn-near bloodshed have gotten me to where I'm at today, and it's only the beginning. Today I am so empowered to be given the opportunity to make a positive impact in other women's lives. I was born an entrepreneur, and know that it's so important to live your dreams and not just talk about them. I want my story to become one of inspiration and motivation. I believe I'll start writing a book to include all the details because it's no easy feat to be here every day. But as for right now, I'm happy to know that I've helped someone find direction and I look forward to paying it forward again as so many have done before me.

This was the quote at the bottom of her email. How perfect, don't you think?

"You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. What you'll discover will be wonderful. What you'll discover is yourself." - Alan Alda

You may not have to physically re-locate across the country, but do what you must to fulfill YOUR destiny.

Happiness Is Contagious In Social Networking

Today I found an article from the LA Times that helps approve my Blog Title: "Marketing Makes Me Smile."

Some smart folks at Harvard have studied over 5,000 relationships and how their level of happiness on social media sites affected the rest of their networks. Apparently, happiness is contagious as they found that knowing someone who is happy makes you 15.3% more likely to be happy yourself!

Interesting article. Click on the link below for all the happy details, and keep smiling out there. :)

http://articles.latimes.com/2008/dec/05/science/sci-happy5

How To Do Social Media Right In 2009

Check out this SlideShare Presentation - a very deep and detailed look at the future of social media. I like their case studies with Zappos and Ford - two companies using social media the right way to build their brand and keep their customers happy.

How To Do Social Media Right In 2009

View more presentations from Marta Strickland.

Bullseye: Finding YOUR Target Market

Lately I've heard lots of people talk about how confusing it is to find their target market and so I thought I'd share some thoughts.

First, everyone must understand that this is not an option, but a requirement in doing business. Those who think that everyone on the planet could use their services are way off course. They say "If you're targeting everyone, you're targeting NO ONE." And it's true. Now, perhaps your service or product could be used by everyone. You still need to just focus on one core group, and life will be much easier and far less overwhelming. For small businesses in particular, this needs to be strongly looked into.

Major brands even have their own definition of their ideal customer, but also have the marketing budgets to promote on much larger, national levels by purchasing TV commercials, magazine ads in People, or appearing on Oprah as a sponsor which allows them to reach as many people at once as possible.

These details you need to know about your target market/customer are comprised of two things: demographic information and psychographic information or personality or lifestyle information. (Demographics included any hard facts such as the first three below.)

Here's a list of questions to ask yourself in looking for your target market:

- How old are they?
- Where do they live?
- Are they married, single, divorced, widowed, third-marriage?
- What is their profession and annual income?
- Where do they go on vacation? How often do they travel?
- What is their favorite TV show? Magazine subscription?
- Would they spend time online or choose to read a novel for liesure?
- Would you find them on a Friday night at Chuck E. Cheese, Red Lobster or Morton's Steakhouse?

The more specific you can narrow down your target, the easier it will be to find them and then proceed with the rest of your marketing strategy. But if you don't know where to look, you'll end up wasting WAY too much of your precious time. Do spend the time to really delve into who these fantastic customers of yours look like. This research is pivotal in your success and will travel through all aspects of your marketing plan. It will determine how you talk to them, where you place advertising, how much they will be willing to pay for your services and more.

If you need any help with this, please contact me. I LOVE figuring out target markets!

Twitter is Taking Over!

Tweet. Twitter.

These aren't just two really cool words. But they're also powerful tools to use as marketing strategy for your business.

Twitter is the latest and greatest social networking website. Less complex and perhaps more effective than a MySpace or Facebook. It's the short, condensed version of these similar sites and still allows you to upload your picture, create a mini-profile and bring some of your personality to it.

To "tweet" is a verb - the action you take to write what you're doing in under 140 characters - about 2 short sentences. This can be done from your computer or your cellphone. (Several companies have created software that allows you to update all of your social networking sites at the same time so you don't have to log into each one. I use Hellotxt. So convenient.) It's then broadcast out to your network.

So why should you "tweet"? Answer: To take advantage of an extremely viral social platform where people have the choice to "follow" what you're doing. This is also the modern day version of building your database. In other words, it's an opportunity for you to build more relationships, bring value and take the chance to get the word out there about who you are and what services or products you can offer. And it's fun!

Join Twitter, then please opt to "follow me" if you like and I look forward to returning the favor by following you back and learning more about you!

Tweet-tweet for now...

It's Just the Beginning

Today changed my life so much so that it inspired me to set up a blog. I'll tell you why in a minute.

I know about blogs. I understand about blogs. I read blogs. I help others with their blogs. I critique blogs. Heck, I even set up my own 7-yr-old son his own blog some time ago and he has way more posts than I do at this point!

So why not? What's been holding me back?

Well, it's simple. I've been too scared to share. To share my thoughts, my feelings, my ideas, my concerns...for fear of (gasp!) what someone else might think. Enough of that.

Today it was made abundantly clear that I possess valuable information about Marketing and I constantly share it with others, so why not put it out there for more to hear? I love to write and for those who know me, they all know that my calling has been to become an exceptional Marketing specialist.

A blog is a very powerful way to connect with others who are interested in hearing the above list of thoughts, ideas, etc. This blog will have a mixture of personal and business info, and I hope that you will find little gold nuggets along the way to help you in some way, shape or form. I look forward to hearing about YOU now!

God Bless!