Articles
City of Shoreline Quick-Start - Mel DePaoli Presents Leveraging LinkedIn and YouTube
Join the business community at Quick-Start on Tuesday March 17th, 2015 from 12:00 to 1:30pm at Shoreline City Hall, 17500 Midvale Avenue N. for the first of a special 2 part series.Quick-Start Shoreline is presented by Shoreline Community College Small Business Accelerator and the City of Shoreline. These workshops are designed to be helpful for start-up, existing or potential business owner…
Who wants to be “Monetized”?
Every brand has multiple tribes: your target market, your clients, your employees or your vendors, all of them work with you and follow you for a set of reasons. I spend a lot of time working with companies developing an understanding of just who their tribes are, how to communicate with them, and how to grow these multiple tribes.Loyal tribe members are often referred to as having brand loyalty. What is critical to understand is they will not be loyal to you because you paid them, twisted their…
How to Craft Amazing Brand Names that are Sticky
Have you noticed that naming a brand is one of the hardest aspects of branding? Good brand names have a certain "stickiness" to them. This "stickiness" is what makes them memorable and repeatable. It also makes your competition go, "Damn, I wish we came up with that!" But the wonderment of creating that "stickiness" and identifying the perfect brand name doesn't come the second you tell it to. Instead, it usually takes time, intention, and willingness to consider what you never thought of before…
Social Media Leadership at City U Seattle
City U Seattle presenters.On Wednesday, October 15th 2014, over eighty community, business, and education leaders converged on City University of Seattle to celebrate the new School of Applied Leadership (SAL). The breakfast celebration was full of energy as leaders collaborated, learned from each other, and networked along with celebrating the School. The Leadership conversation began at this breakfast.
One of the goals of the new School of Applied Leadership is to be a catalyst for leadership …
#IceBucketChallenge: Unplanned Viral Success
Before I was challenged, I was in a meeting with the Executive Director of a nonprofit and I was asked for my thoughts on the Ice Bucket Challenge from a branding perspective. The gentleman I was meeting with shared his surprise that it was not created by an agency and how quickly it took off. To him, while it is a great and admirable success, he didn’t…
What Do Technology, Sociology, Psychology, and Social Media Have in Common?
"Social media is more about sociology and psychology, than it is about technology" ~ Brian Solis.
While I agree with the concept of this quote, overall, I disagree. You can spend all your time studying sociology and psychology--have them mastered if you will. This studying will only make you book smart. You’ll have the ability to see trends in case studies and get a feel for what will probably happen in this situation or that.But what happens when you actually interact with real people? What hap…
There is More to Building Your Brand Than Just the Initial Marketing
What strategies are you implementing to ensure your customers are using your product, reusing your product and then purchasing your brand agai…
Do customers really want a relationship with your brand?
Relationships are supposed to be reserved for friends, family and colleagues…also known as people! The exception to this is technology. The better technology gets, the more we ar…
Achieve Social Media Success: The Reasons to Consider Outsourcing
Social media isn't a standalone entity in your marketing strategy; it's a vital component, an amplifier that complements your overarching goals. It's not just about establishing a presence; it's about crafting a comprehensive marketing strategy that directly connects marketing goals to your company goals, it's about fostering connections, and truly understanding and engaging with your audience.
Consider this: You don't need to be omnipresent across every platform. Choosing 1-3 platforms that re…
Learning from Another Brand's Customer Service Mistakes
Has your company ever had a problem with dealing with customers? We all have "off days" and do make mistakes.
Over the last few weeks, there has been a lot of chatter about a major cable and Internet provider that made “headline” news when a customer recorded a call to the company’s customer service center. All the customer wanted, was to terminate his service...a simple request, blown horribly out of proportion! The customer service agent proceeded to ask questions as to why the customer would…