Creative Concepts

We are so excited to announce that we have expanded into the Netherlands.  Why the Netherlands?  And what does expansion mean?  Ok, one thing at a time so let’s first get to why we chose the Netherlands.

Nicoline Maes, Director of Business Services (and most recently Director of Business Development/Netherlands as well), moved with her family from the Netherlands to the U.S. in 2006 and in 2007 came on board to Creative Concepts.  At this time, Nicoline began working on developing our client reporting tools and then added working with David Borzo to the mix where the two became a very effective content management team.  Together David and Nicoline have managed our writer assignments and schedules as well as having developed content topics while editing drafts of blog entries, Facebook updates and more.  While Nicoline was helping to bring success to our clients she became a true believer in the power of social media as well as our other services: public relations, design and branding, events and video production.  When the opportunity came for Nicoline and her family to go back to her homeland in the Netherlands, she happily made the move and took with her the goal of expanding Creative Concepts internationally.

We spend a lot of our time researching and imparting our wisdom (and experience) about social media, client news, blogging and mobile updates along with some interesting teen insights. What we don’t spend enough time doing is asking you questions and getting to know you better which we will be doing more often going forward.

So today is the first poll of many and we are curious to know more about your blogging quandaries. As a blogger representing a brand or your own site, there are many challenges associated with keeping an interesting, informative and entertaining blog so please answer our questions or add your own thoughts so we can learn from you or even answer some of your questions.

Thanks for your time!

You should follow us on Facebook and Twitter!

Even if you’re a great writer, you may struggle now and then with how to structure a blog post to make sure your key points are getting across.  Here at Creative Concepts we help clients strategize about and write blogs daily, and we’ve learned a few tricks along the way which help us to get important content front and center.

Keep it short – or only as long as it needs to be

Why struggle with a long post if a shorter post will work?  While some business blog posts average in the 750-1,000 word range, many are quite successful at around 500 words.  If you can explain what you want to explain in fewer words, do so, and your reader will get to the point more quickly.

img credit: dichohecho (flickr)

Keep posts focused on one primary topic

If you find yourself starting to describe a second or third topic, step back and determine whether you can break the post into two or more posts.  A focused post will have a greater chance of getting read all the way through, so your key content will more likely get noticed.

Use headers, bullets, or other organizing tools to make important content stand out

Posts are easier to read if they have markers to break up the content and help draw the eye to important parts.  Using headers will help to highlight the key points you’re making (as in this post), as well as help search engines to find keywords within your post (if your headers include keywords).  Bullets can be used to similar effect – anything you put into a bullet will be more easily readable and noticed even if someone is skimming through the post.

Include an image near the top of the post

Sonia Simone from Copyblogger says, “Images are steroids for your headline.”  Using a great image will help draw readers in and focus on your content.  Look for images which are either literal – directly related to your content, or evocative of your content with a concept or theme.

Put time into your title – then think about it some more

As the old journalism adage goes, you should put 50% of your time into writing the article and 50% into the headline.  The same holds true for blog posts.  If you get the right title it will draw your reader in and help them to focus on your content – but the title has to match the content.  It can’t be too broad, too punny, or too blah. Additionally, a keyword-rich, focused title will help with search optimization.

How do you keep blog posts focused and help your readers quickly get to your most valuable content? We’d love to hear from you in the comments.

You should follow us on Facebook and Twitter!

When you’re the top specialty tea company in the United States, you reach a lot of tea lovers.  Our client Bigelow Tea is using social media — from Bigelow Tea’s Facebook (and, yes, MySpace) pages to their YouTube channel, Bigelow loves to share their tea knowledge with the world.  (After 65 years in busiess, they know a thing or two about tea.)

But how often do their customers have a chance to share what they know with each other?  Normally, it’s not easy.  Fortunately, we at Creative Concepts are helping Bigelow Tea bridge that gap.

Last month, the Bigelow Tea Twitter account asked its followers if they had any tea tips worth sharing.  The results were instructive, and they formed the basis of a helpful blog post that allowed Bigelow’s fans to learn from one another.

This isn’t Bigelow’s first foray into customer connectivity.  Earlier this year, they hosted their first Bigelow Tea Social in New York City, where bloggers and foodies alike came together to talk tea (and get their fill of free samples).  How was that live event conceived of and managed?  Why, on Bigelow’s blog and Twitter account, of course!

And while tea is obviously a communal drink to begin with, Bigelow Tea isn’t the only company finding new ways to bring their customers together.  Our client Ecover celebrated their 30th anniversary of creating ecological cleaning products with a live event that united green bloggers, media-makers and innovators, all of whom swapped stories and tips until the party ended.  How did we at Creative Concepts help Ecover organize this event?  With a Facebook contest hosted on Ecover’s blog!

Social media: bringing companies and customers together — with the emphasis on together.

Ecover’s 30th Anniversary party in NYC. Photo by Kate Eisemann

Despite the impressive track record that comes with being a 30 year-old international brand, our client Ecover is still facing one big hurdle when it comes to increasing audience awareness in the United States:

They weren’t here first.

While Ecover was establishing their brand of ecological cleaning products in Europe before they ever crossed the pond, competitors like Method and Seventh Generation were becoming the common names that people in the US tend to think of as “clean and green.”  And although Ecover has effective partnerships with retailers like Whole Foods, they’re still seeking new ways to connect with potential customers who might not even know that they exist (yet).

So, yes, Ecover is on Twitter. And yes, Ecover is on Facebook. And yes, Ecover has a blog.

But when Ecover celebrated their 30th Anniversary in November, they saw an opportunity to connect with those bloggers, tweeters and Facebook fans in a whole new way: in person.

We at Creative Concepts helped Ecover create a “30 Under 30″ contest to celebrate the contributions of America’s young eco-innovators. The contest’s winner, Ryan Arnold, was announced live in New York City on November 10th at Ecover’s 30th Anniversary party, held live in the Environment showroom in Manhattan. Ecover also partnered with EcoStilletto, who organized a green blogger panel during the event which focused on the future of sustainability.

The result?

Increased brand awareness, compelling conversation and positive post-event coverage on blogs and Twitter alike. Plus, Ecover CEO Mick Bremans got to meet dozens of young eco-minded entrepreneurs and media makers who are passionate about the future of sustainability which was a great opportunity for him and the finalists!

This kind of personal connection can be started online, and we certainly expect it to continue online long after the event is over.  But no matter how electrified your Facebook community is, nothing replaces the power of face-to-face communications to build tangible relationships.

Are you building relationships that bridge the gap between the online and offline worlds?

Need help building those bridges? Join us on Twitter or Facebook!

When our client Ouidad first launched their blog, they — and we — thought we knew exactly whom its readership would be: smart, savvy women who take great care of their curls and feel passionate about looking good.

It turns out we were half-right.

Yes, the blog attracted exactly the kind of readers we anticipated. But it also attracted a number of readers we didn’t expect, including teens, men and moms on the go. It also appealed to non-English-speaking readers in search of curly-haired tips, and African-American readers interested in more reliable hair care solutions.

So we adapted.

We helped Ouidad create new blog posts on the subjects their readers asked the most questions about. We broadened the blog’s focus to include tips for men, teens and kids (or, more specifically, their moms). And we now regularly include posts written in (or translated into) Spanish, to better accommodate Ouidad’s multilingual audience.

Our lesson?

Good companies support the customers they already know they have; great companies find ways to accommodate the customers they never knew existed.

Do you know who your customers are?

(Are you sure?)

What’s your favorite way to “discover” new customers? Tell us on Twitter.

A recent article about a social media-savvy Domino’s Pizza franchise in Chicago proves that even a bad customer experience can lead to positive opportunities.  In this case, it revolutionized the way this particular pizza shop interfaces with its customers and manages their expectations.

It also reminds us of a story about our own client, Bigelow Tea, and how they turned customer frustration into customer loyalty.

In January of 2007, fans of Bigelow’s Fruit & Almond tea were having trouble finding it in stores.  Confused, they went to the website and learned it had been discontinued.  Because one ingredient had become difficult to acquire, and due to Fruit & Almond’s relatively low sales (compared to their top-selling teas), Bigelow had opted to cease this flavor’s production.

Now frustrated with Bigelow’s decision, Fruit & Almond fans turned to the first interactive channel they could find — namely, the comments of a completely unrelated Bigelow Tea blog post — and asked for help.

After receiving a litany of impassioned comments on the subject, Cindi Bigelow blogged the economic reality of the Fruit & Almond decision and apologized for the inconvenience.  But, having also seen this situation as an opportunity, Cindi realized that Fruit & Almond tea just might be worth saving.

Bigelow already had enough ingredients to make another 400 cases of the flavor.  They used that announcement to buy their R&D department time to concoct a new recipe that could be produced cost-effectively while still satisfying the flavor’s fans.

Today, Fruit & Almond tea is still available, but exclusively online.  And, in a pleasantly ironic twist, it consistently ranks among Bigelow’s top-selling flavors in their online store.

As much as we enjoy a happy ending, we love it even more when it reinforces our core business belief: Listen to your customers.  If they care enough to complain, it means they want a reason to keep coming back.

Politics — and political correctness — are tricky things.  Everyone’s entitled to their own beliefs, but when a business becomes associated with a political sound bite, those beliefs can create a PR problem.  (See our previous post about what PR can’t help you do in a crisis.)

Back in 2007, Don Imus made a now-infamous remark about the Rutgers women’s basketball team.  As the news media swirled around the controversy, his sponsors (including our client, Bigelow Tea), were caught in the middle.  They each had to make a choice: continue to sponsor Imus’s show, or retract their sponsorship as an ethical statement?

After considering all possibilities, Bigelow did something all too rare in the business world: they led with their gut.

They publicly denounced Imus’s statement and disagreed with its sentiment, but they also continued to support him.  It was a fine line to walk, supporting an individual while disagreeing with a particular choice he’d made.

Needless to say, the public took aim at Bigelow.  Their blog became a clearing house for all kinds of opinions, from people who admired Bigelow’s judgment to those who vowed to never buy Bigelow again.  The noise got so loud, even mainstream press, like CNN and others, visited the blog to research Bigelow’s position so they could then interview Cindi Bigelow, President of Bigelow Tea, about the company’s decision.

Had Bigelow acted differently in this case, they might not have needed to make a public statement.  They might not even have needed to mention their choice at all.  But with our support and guidance, they opted to use the two-way channel of their blog to speak directly with the people most concerned about the incident, and to understand exactly why their choice may or may not have upset their potential (and existing customers).

In the end, like most tempests in a teapot, the Imus issue was resolved and the public turned their attention to newer, shinier controversies.  Meanwhile, Bigelow Tea’s own market share continued to grow, with the exposure — both positive and negative — from the incident doing little to curb their long-term sales.

And when Imus landed a new radio show, Bigelow was there to sponsor him again.  In fact, Cindi Bigelow herself was part of the Imus Radiothon this past week, helping to raise money for children battling cancer.

So… do we all make mistakes?  Absolutely.  But we also make good choices, too.

When judging a person — or a brand — it helps to take the whole of their actions into account.  And with the reach and permanence of social media, it’s easier than ever for discerning consumers to research the brands they’re interested in and decide for themselves which companies are worth supporting.

In a recent post for Social Media Today (SMT), Tactical Transparency author Shel Holtz makes the case that traditional PR can still be just as effective of a marketing resource as the hot new grassroots options like “trusted peers” and word-of-mouth.  The catch?  In Shel’s view, traditional PR needs to start operating a little more… non-traditionally.

Holtz advocates newly-popular concepts like acting transparently, forsaking astroturfed messaging, etc.  Common sense, really.  It should go without saying that PR agencies ought to engage people in ways the people themselves find meaningful, rather than using new tools to reinforce old, erroneous and ineffective messages.  And yet… why have Holtz and countless others had to go out of their way to say it?

The popularity — and, in some ways, the mere existence — of books like Holtz & John C. Havens‘s Tactical Transparency and Chris Brogan & Julien Smith‘s Trust Agents would seem to signal that audiences now crave a return to authenticity in media.  But how did the practice — or the perception — of PR ever stray so far from these principles to begin with?  Why is social media heralded as an antidote to unsavory, top-down control of a company’s messaging?  And how have common sense observations about the need for honesty become so resonant?

It’s flattering to believe that social media is somehow immune from the excesses (or improprieties) that have become associated with the black hats of PR.  But that’s a false sense of entitlement.  If we’re all smart, the next stage of social media’s integration into mainstream messaging will focus less on how new messages are spread and more on what those messages are actually saying in the first place.

When we saw one of our clients, Bigelow Tea, mentioned in The Twitter Book (by Tim O’Reilly and Sarah Milstein) as a positive example of how businesses should use Twitter, we were ecstatic.

And then we realized we’d stopped taking our own advice.

In the book, O’Reilly and Milstein applaud Bigelow Tea for using conversational tweets to direct traffic to their tea-related blog posts, rather than those generic “New Blog Post: Topic X” auto-tweets, which most users have now begun to subconsciously tune out.  Naturally, we were pleased — until we realized the Twitter Tools plugin we’d just installed on the Bigelow Tea Blog was doing precisely what The Twitter Book had lauded us for not doing, all because we hadn’t double-checked the plugin’s default checkboxes.

So we disabled it.  (The auto-tweet part, not the whole plugin.)  Our lesson?  Sometimes a compliment can help you find even more ways to improve.  (And, while you’re at it: make sure you double-check the details…)