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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Weibo: The Biggest Unknown Social Media Platform

By on   /   Blog, Brand Marketing, Education and Training, Interactive Media, Social Media Marketing  

Weibo. Unless you’ve lived in China for some period of time, I’d wager that this is an unfamiliar term for you, yet as a business professional, it’s time you two become acquainted. Weibo (微薄) is the stylized Mandarin term for “microblog”, a service native to China that in recent years has ignited like a wildfire across mainland netizens, akin to how Twitter has become so common-place in the United States. By “wildfire,” I mean the most popular Weibo platform, Sina Weibo (www.weibo.com), sees over 100 million posts per day (with 503 million registered users). Since 2009, most “Western” social media

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Marketing 101 – Testing Is Imperative

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One of my colleagues recently asked me,”…out of all the categories of marketing, including online marketing, marketing strategy, ‘Web 2.0,’” yes he used “Air Quotes,” “…market research, etc., what was the most important?” Without hesitation I burst with, “Man, it’s Marketing 101 – Testing is imperative!” Many of my marketing friends might argue and profess that if you don’t have the right positioning statement, reach the target audience, timing, or have the right offer, you won’t succeed. And to that I say SURE! In fact, those are the very elements of a successful campaign that can be identified through proper

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If You Can’t Toot Your Own Horn, Why Have One?

By on   /   Blog, SPOKE News  

We love our customers. It’s evident in the time we put into every project, the quality of work we produce and the passion we have for all things that go “WOW.”  But it’s a rarity to hear anyone from CreateWOW spouting personal accolades, or “Tooting their horn” so-to-speak. It’s just not our style… Well, today, we received a blessing and a tremendous testimonial from a client of CreateWOW and we’re going to pass along her comments and let the horn-tooting resound. Because… If You Can’t Toot Your Own Horn, Why Have One? Now, this particular client, Lindsay LeMay from Numark

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Measuring Social Media Marketing & E-Commerce

By on   /   Education and Training, Social Media Marketing  

HEY, social media marketers, are you doing your job? How do you measure the effectiveness of your services to your clients? Hours billed vs. profit gained? Sure, but measuring ROI is often a tricky game. Do you take the client’s sales reports and compare them to the activity you’ve (hopefully) documented for every campaign, or do you have a tracking mechanism that works within their e-commerce workflow? Measurement is Important All of the above questions are those that should be asked when embarking on a serious social media marketing campaign. Unfortunately, many clients have yet to understand how to ask

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5 Tips On Writing Blog Posts To Increase Traffic

By on   /   Blog, Education and Training, Interactive Media, Social Media Marketing  

I’m often asked by clients and peers, “How do I (we) increase my site traffic? How do I (we) get more people to read the blog?” Well, it’s a matter of targeted marketing, brand consistency and good writing.  All of which even the BEST writers, marketers and bloggers struggle with on EVERY post.  But once a successful post formula is found, it’s like crack. You want, no, NEED to do it over and over again until your eyeballs rollback in your head and you fall to the ground in crippling ecstasy… Okay, maybe not that far, but it’s close. 🙂

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The 8 D’s Of Successful Marketing

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If I include my college internship, this September {was} my 21st year working in, on and around marketing. I’ve seen some successful campaigns. I’ve seen some pitiful campaigns. Fortunately, I’ve learned something from them all, but the most important thing I’ve learned is how to tell them apart. (Trust me, some can’t…) So what IS the difference between a successful and a pitiful marketing campaign? STRATEGY. All Marketing Strategy Is Not The Same If you walk through any marketing department or advertising agency, without a doubt, you’ll see computers, printers, scanners, cameras and all of the nifty tools that go

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VIDEO: Focus Your Social Media Marketing

By on   /   Blog, Brand Marketing, Education and Training, Interactive Media, Social Media Marketing  

Trying to control social media is like trying to drink the ocean one cup at a time. For successful marketing and communications, companies need to TARGET their social media efforts to their local level to better engage with their audience. Using Twitter Hashtags, Facebook Groups and Events as well as some common sense, the following video explains how to create a more focused social media marketing approach. Focus Your Social Media Marketing Hat tip to our friends at The Des Moines Social Media Club, including Tom Brazelton (@TomBrazelton on twitter_ and the whole @SMCDSM crew as well as a BIG

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What’s In A Social Media Name?

By on   /   Brand Marketing, Social Media Marketing  

One must be mindful of company name when joining social media outlets. Facebook and Twitter have millions of users so one assumes this tool would be on the forefront of any business person’s mind before making a huge name announcement. Alas, last week Netflix CEO Reed Hastings announced that Netflix has transformed its DVD via mail side of the business into Qwikster. This change makes sense with streaming video gaining popularity while one-day Qwikster may go the way of cassette tapes. Although, that is neither here nor there. The real issue at hand is that the people at Netflix neglected

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Social Media = ENGAGEMENT Not Numbers!

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Most of us realize by now that a big number of followers doesn’t immediately equal ENGAGED, RELEVANT or INFLUENTIAL followers, but after a recent conversation, I found this bared repeating. “A big number of followers doesn’t immediately equal ENGAGED, RELEVANT or INFLUENTIAL followers…” We had a client mention wanting to have many more Twitter followers and Facebook fans then they do presently. When pressed as to why, there wasn’t a clear answer. Social media can’t be thought of as a way to create “instant sales” but, instead, as a communication tool to truly build your brand. Companies and businesses never

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