How Leaders Can Mitigate “That’s Not My Job”

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thats not my job service industry management

“That’s not my job” Where did that phrase even come from? Now, I may be a “man of a certain age,” but when a company is building a customer-centric workforce, the words “That’s not my job” should NEVER cross a team member’s lips. Is this a by-product of downsizing? Corporate America has lost its sense of loyalty to its employees, forcing a loss of loyalty and pride of job from its employees.  Workers are carried along on the wave of “each man for himself”, afraid to extend a hand for fear of having it bitten. Whatever happened to the “One

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Diving Into SEO – A Visual Guide

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SEO guide

Our clients love this SEO visual guide. We think you will too! SEO guides are abundant and ever-changing.  Some are useful while others tend to create more confusion than help. With our clients, we’ve created a simple SEO visual guide to help them in Web site development and management. The guide offers a unique perspective to working with your Website as a “Landing Zone” for those jumping into Google (or other search engines) to search for your products or services. At the 10,000 foot view, you have the basics: Do your keyword research Creating a sitemap.xml for your site Submit

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VIDEO: Local Search Optimization and What to Do About “Hawk”

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local search listings google

The recent release of Google’s Algorithm update, “Hawk,” has raised some questions about the best practices for local search optimization. Businesses need to make sure they are properly optimizing their web sites for local search. With Hawk, a basic correction for 2016’s Possum changes, business can take advantage of local search optimization strategies. The video below goes through some of the high-points of the recent update as well as offers a handful of local search optimization and organic search optimization tips and best practices. If you’re properly maintaining your Web site with good, on-site content, utilization of best practices for

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The Most Important Digital Marketing Question You Need to Answer

By on   /   Blog, Interactive Media, Marketing, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Strategy, Technology  
digital marketing company in des moines iowa

Do you want to understand digital marketing, or do you want someone to handle it for you? It’s an important and honest question. It can help you decide where your time is best spent and what’s most important to you. We have clients that know they need digital marketing, but don’t understand what it is, where to use it, and how they’ll find value. It’s important for us to educate our customers on what digital marketing is and how to measure its value. We should note that not every business will use digital marketing the same way, nor will they

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Good SEO and Our Godly Misconception of “Time”

By on   /   Blog, Education and Training, Marketing, SEO, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Strategy  

You want what? In less than a week? Give me a break!” — God. Alternate title: “An Act of God Can’t Get You To The 1st Page of Google Any Quicker.” Okay, duck and watch out for stray lightening bolts…  Here we go. I blame God… yes, GOD for the misconceptions of time so prevalent in the business word today. Seriously, stay with me here… If God can create the Earth, the wind and sun, the plants and animals, and all we see, feel, and touch in 6 short days, why can’t your marketing team do something about getting you

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4.5 Tools To Get Digital Marketing Right

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des moines digital marketing tools

This is the industrial age of digital marketing. What’s hot today will soon be yesterday’s cold fish. It seems like just a short 12 months ago, we were working on Vimeo engagement strategies and backing off email campaigns. And now, well, email is back on the table and Vimeo is no more than a greasy skid mark on your iPhone. Digital is fickle at best. But as new tools and new technologies are developed, the opportunities to build customer connections are better than ever. Digital marketing is still marketing. It’s just a variety of new tools that make it different

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Facebook’s Little Advertising Shell Game: Why You Should Do More Than Boost Post

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facebook advertising tips

It’s tempting. There it is, click it. “Boost Post.” – C’mon, BOOOOOOOST IT…  Everyone is doing it. I triple-dog dare you! Or… should you take the leap with bigger Facebook Advertising strategies? Yes, it’s the Facebook Advertising one-click answer – like peer-pressure. In one simple click, you purportedly get a “boost” to your business post; promising more eyes, more action, and more customers.  But if you’d paid attention to recent changes on Facebook, you would have witnessed the “Business Management” interface updates as well as the focus put on actual Facebook Advertising through the platform. Considering the abundance of recent

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Finding The Right Digital Marketing Agency Partner

By on   /   Blog, Interactive Media, Marketing, SEO, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Strategy  

Is partnering with a digital marketing agency the right choice for you? Call it what you will, Digital Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Search Engine Marketing; unless you have experience in marketing and specifically navigating the digital landscape, do you have the time to do your job AND build / manage an acceptable digital footprint? With the ever-evolving nature of digital marketing, as a partner the right digital marketing agency (web agency, social media marketing company, search engine marketing company, etc.) can focus on emerging trends and technologies where your brand can best be presented and engage the customers you want

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A Day of Brand Marketing and Digital SEO Discovery

By on   /   Blog, Brand Marketing, Branding, Education and Training, Marketing, SEO, SPOKE News  
andrew b. clark spoke communications des moines iowa

Boy, did I miss the days of frequent public speaking. At one time, I had as many as 2 speaking engagements booked for each month of the year (2005, 2006, 2007). While I was starting up SPOKE Communications (previously CreateWOWMarketing), it was a great way to hone my marketing and branding processes through “Live Engagement and Research” and build a resource for client development for the business. Of course, it’s a true testament of the love I have for what we do at SPOKE when I get to stand in front of a group to share marketing communication tips, tricks

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VIDEO: Quick SEO Tips for Speedy Ranking Success

By on   /   Blog, Education and Training, Interactive Media, Marketing, SEO, SPOKE News, Strategy, Web Video  
SEO tips marketing des moines iowa

Are there SEO tips for better search rank that actually work? For a lot of marketers, search engine optimization (SEO) is a mystery. From small businesses looking to make a bigger impact through SEO to mega-corporations doing their best to dominate search position, just HOW to achieve better search rank in Google, Bing and other search engines is often a challenge. SPOKE Communications works with clients to achieve the best success possible through content marketing strategies and organic search engine optimization. We’ve seen some tremendous successes as well as experienced the challenges mentioned above, but through some tried-and-true SEO practices,

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