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November P2 Newsletter Featuring Inflatable Fruitcake

Filed Under: Marketing
Nov.15, 2010

Take a few minutes to enjoy the latest edition of the PeakTwo eNewsletter: The expansion to Charlotte, seasonal social media advice, and some love for new clients.

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Fear the Franken-Site

Filed Under: Website Design, Websites
Nov.01, 2010

Our brains are cloudy from too much coffee and leftover candy. (BTW, drop a Reese’s in to the bottom of your mug before the next fill-up. You’ll thank us.) One thought has managed to bubble through, based on some of our recent site-design consultation.

Quite often, when a client wants to kick off their web presence, they come to us before nary a pixel has been positioned. We get to build it from scratch, and that’s fine by us. In other cases, we’re in damage-control mode. Prospective clients have an existing site that has mutated in to an uncontrollable atrocity. It’s been on the slab too long, with dozens of interested parties chiming in on how it’s supposed to look, what it’s supposed to do, and the messages it’s supposed to communicate.

What we have in that case is a first-class Franken-site. Like Mary Shelley’s monster, it consists of somewhat-viable parts that have been stitched together, bolted on, and assembled with a haphazard urgency that makes the result a nightmare of incongruent content and conflicting functionality.

What’s the cure for such a site? Sometimes you can salvage the guts and start a rebuild. Sometimes it’s best to drive a stake through its proverbial heart and let it die.

Check your site. If you have an immediate, easy sense of what you want a visitor to learn, and what actions you want them to perform, you’re probably in good shape. A good test? Get someone who has never seen the site to click over. If they don’t do what you want within about three to five seconds, you might have a site that’s more monster than masterpiece. Might be time to go back to the lab.

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Don’t try to control all that info. Opt out to ensure sanity and stay on message.

Filed Under: Communication, News, Social Media
Oct.07, 2010

RSS feeds barrage us with refreshed information every 15 minutes or less. Our email boxes are swollen with priority messages and action-needed immediacy. Add the ceaseless torrent that is broadcast news cycle, and even the quaint anachronism of the morning paper. The flood of information and demand for prioritization pounds on you like a prizefighter.

Then, some Web 2.0 guru comes along and tells you to relax, assures you that it’s all manageable. Download a few apps. Integrate your calendars. Align your platforms. Don’t worry, they proclaim, you can control it all, account for it all, and what’s more, absorb it and ultimately benefit from it.

Bull.

The amount of info is beyond overwhelming. It’s simply impossible to keep up with every source, feed, stream and conversation. So stop trying to.

To preserve your sanity and still enjoy all that content and interaction, you need a little inverse logic. Don’t try to participate in everything. Instead, we now need to be more selective than ever. We need to skim headlines and decide instinctually whether or not the content is worth our time. If it’s not, don’t hesitate, don’t wallow in guilt — move on. Pick up the paper and check the front page. If something jumps at you, fine. Nothing? Get the weather, get the scores, then get moving.

We’re seeing too many friends, acquaintances and co-workers succumbing to social media informational overload. They’re on the verge of tears, especially when they try to balance it with all the pop culture obligations we’re also asked to absorb. You’re trying to digest a magazine article, responding to an IM, re-organizing your email inbox, updating your Twitter feed and Facebook status, and someone has the temerity to ask whether or not you saw Modern Family last night, or are digging in for the MLB division series.

We say enough. Stop trying to please everyone. Stop thinking you’re obligated to engage in every conversation. Pick the few that are most important to you; disengage on a daily basis from the unessential. That will be different for each of us, and will change constantly, but you need to do it if you don’t want to drown. We’ve been there ourselves, meeting deadlines, maintaining our online presence, finding time for social media efforts as well as face-to-face interaction. In the midst of all that, there’s also family, friendships, and that nearly forgotten concept of personal time.

Physician and wellness champion Andrew Weil recommends taking intermittent “news fasts” — weekly breaks where you don’t pick up a newspaper, access a news website, or turn on your TV at 11 p.m. Taking a few of these ourselves, we’ve seen the benefit of disengaging from all that informational stimuli. You get back in the mix with a much sharper sense of what’s important and what is worthy of your time. Give it a try, then see how you approach managing your web presence, social media participation, and informational inflow. Odds are you’ll quickly determine what can be culled, and what is really worth the trouble. Once you know what involvement matters most to you, you’re ability to manage those spaces and concentrate on generating truly relevant messages is bound to be better.

(Of course, you should still read Off-Piste . . . )

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Put Content First For Social Media Success

Filed Under: Social Media
Sep.24, 2010

We’re in the process of kicking off a cool e-commerce platform with one of our top clients. Playing it close to the vest right now; we’ll crow about it soon enough, but social media will obviously play a big part of the new platform’s awareness strategy. The good news? The client gets it. They understand what makes social media work: creating communities and giving them valuable information and insight — no strings attached.

Part of how we’re building the brand has to include establishing a sense of trust among the consumer audience. That notion applies to just about any commodity, especially in a market saturated with options. We all know that consumers are overwhelmed with options, not just in terms of what to buy, but in terms of how they shop in the first place. How will we get people to go with our client? By building trust. And how’s that happen? By ensuring people get value from their experience with the client’s platform, whether or not they actually follow through with a transaction. The key to making this happen: informative content.

We’re building a deep archive of guidance and insight that will help those who visit the site hoping to learn more about products and make informed purchases. Lowest price isn’t enough. Fastest delivery isn’t enough. Creating confidence for someone that they’ve locked down real value is what will get them to click through. The web presence — the site itself, it’s Facebook presence, Tweets, etc. all will be rich with information as well as offers. And both are just as beneficial to consumers.

You don’t have to launch an e-commerce site to benefit from that mentality. Regardless of the product or service you’re pushing, people appreciate learning something just as much as they appreciate getting a good deal. Access your expertise. Give away some of the insight that helped you become an expert in the first place. Whether that’s in a detailed weekly blog post, or a steady stream of Tweets to articles that echo your point of view, you’ll build a following, establish trust, and get the genuinely valuable attention you want.

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The Strong Case for Small-Audience Blogs

Filed Under: Social Media, Writing
Aug.30, 2010

When launching a blog, whether for personal or professional interest, emphasis is often on building the most expansive audience possible. In many cases, that way of thinking is right on the money. But blogging can be more than a means of broadcasting personal POV or sharing thought leadership. It can also be a way to keep a tight circle of stakeholders up to date on a particular project or area of interest.

We’ve had good success with clients and friends who aren’t interested in creating a massive following, but instead see the value in keeping a small but significant audience aware of production-cycle progress, the launch of a new initiative, or even to manage conversations regarding a shared effort.

Often, these blogs are hidden from general searches — not necessarily private, just below the radar. It’s an easy measure to take, and it gives those invited to follow — and contribute to — the blog a feeling of privilege and exclusivity that can be tremendously powerful. Instead of trying to build anonymous readership in the thousands, they appreciate the advantage of specific readership in the dozens. Something to think about in terms of how you can approach, author, and manage the blog component of your web presence.

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Eventually, I Started Reading the Vomit Bag

Filed Under: Marketing, Social Media
Aug.24, 2010

In one of our favorite films, Planes, Trains & Automobiles, marketing exec Neal Page loses his cool and gives shower-curtain ring salesman Del Griffith an earful about how dull his stories are. His thesis: ” . . . when you’re telling these little stories, here’s a good idea: Have a point. It makes it so much more interesting for the listener.”

This is no new realization, is it? Social media experts consistently urge users to concentrate on content. Adoration of the new medium lasts only so long. In fact, that message itself has become stale. Plenty of social media experts are still droning on about the need to offer valuable content. Let’s move past that and consider it as understood. Everyone knows that outreach has to possess worth for the audience — a modicum of insight, direction to deeper content, newsworthy specifics, etc.

The next hurdle? Making it a habit. That’s something we’ve helped a few clients with of late, and we’ll be discussing further in the near future.

In the meantime, let’s give Neal and Del some love.

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Silly Rabbit – Site Optimization is A Lot More than Design

Filed Under: Website Design
Aug.03, 2010

A frequent conversation we have with clients and prospects concerns their desire to increase the visibility of their web presence, and our recommendation that they repurpose and refine both the look, content and functionality of their cornerstone site. Some are, unfortunately, quick to dismiss these efforts as superficial. They say, “So you want to re-skin the website. Okay.”

This is a profound oversimplification. Design, while critical, is just one component of full-spectrum site visibility strategy.

Remember the Saturday morning cereal commercials we all loved as kids? Some hyperkinetic cartoon character would push sugar-coated euphoria on us and a tableful of bug-eyed tots would rock back in their seats, downing crunchy contentment by the spoonful. In the midst of the madness, Sonny, The Silly Rabbit, Cap’n Crunch, or whomever would offer a brief aside: “Part of this complete breakfast.” Then there would be a one-second shot of an idyllic morning meal — the cereal itself accompanied by toast, juice, milk and fruit — resplendent on a checkered tablecloth.

That’s website optimization. The design itself, the pretty colors, animations and effects — those are your cereal. Tasty, sweet, lighter than air. What gets visitors to the table and keeps them satisfied? The experience. And it requires intelligent User Interface accounting for where everything — graphics, blog posts, sharing buttons, copy — is positioned on the page. This attention to positioning is designed to “activate” the visitor. It engages their eyes, mouse and brain to create a more immersive, and thus memorable, experience. It’s the kind of engagement that gets people to come back because your brand gets burned into their mind. And oh, guess what – if done correctly, it improves organic search results. Which mean you can get found for something other than your company name. And that’s the wholesome goodness.

To think of it another way, site optimization is a complete vintage auto restoration and build-out, from the engine itself to the high-gloss frontend flame job. Maybe we aren’t doing things right if we can’t get folks to see past the need for pretty paint. If that’s all they want, or if that’s all they think site design should be, you have our sympathies when you end up with a great looking ride that doesn’t make it out of the driveway.

If you really want your web presence to work. If you want it to pull in visitors and be an engine that builds your brand and your business, we humbly suggest moving past breakfast-cereal design to consider a more fulfilling, and ultimately more nourishing, approach.

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The Difference Between Social Media Monitoring and Measuring

Filed Under: Social Media
Jul.30, 2010

Great piece in Mashable yesterday concerning the importance of “monitoring and measuring” your brand with respect to its social media presence. Author Maria Ogneva notes that there are a host of tools up to the task, but makes the important distinction that each of them can vary substantially in how it gets the job done (e.g. approach, methodology, metrics, depth of analysis, channels measured, reports and UI).

As Ogneva explains: “In your search for the right tool(s), you should be looking to both monitor and measure your brand on social media. The two terms are used somewhat interchangeably, and although there is some overlap and similarity in business goals, monitoring and measurement are distinct processes.”

She also makes expert distinctions between the definition of monitoring and measuring. “Monitoring,” she notes, ‘is the process of continuous and immediate discovery of conversations with the purpose of learning, engaging, helping and collaborating . . . measurement is more concerned with metrics over a specified time period. Whereas monitoring answers the question ‘Who is talking about [insert keyword] right now and what are they saying?’ measurement answers questions of ‘How did my keywords perform over time?’, ‘How does that compare to my competitors?’ and ‘What are some trends I can glean to make my product more usable by these people who are giving me feedback?’”

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Taking it to the Next Level In Charlotte

Filed Under: Marketing
Jul.13, 2010

Things have been going well for us in the NOVA/DC area, but we’re not the types to settle for prominence in just one major metropolitan area. That’s why PeakTwo is proud to announce the opening of our next outpost in Charlotte, North Carolina. We can already boast a strong core of clients in the area: Mercury Global Advisors, AtoZ.com, and Focus Physical Therapy & Fitness. Word’s apparently getting out that we’re good at what we do, and we’re racking up even more referrals. Being there makes good business sense.

So here’s the plan: Michael Granetz, our intrepid founder and CEO, will be heading down to Charlotte for a few months to get things underway. All you South Riding golf buddies can stop sobbing; Mike will be back regularly, meeting with clients and schooling you on the links. We have to remind him that accumulated frequent flyer miles can’t be used to defray greens fees. Partners Jay Ferrari and Joan Latta-Fernandez will keep things under control back at home base.

The expansion is underway and should be established by the end of the summer. See you down in Charlotte!

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Let’s Make it Official: Welcome JLaF

Filed Under: News
Jun.22, 2010

PeakTwo recently named Joan Latta Fernandez vice president of client services. Fernandez, a former director at Oracle Corporation and Versatility, Inc., brings proven team and project management experience to the company. According to founder and CEO Michael Granetz, this ability is especially welcome as the three-year-old agency grows beyond its startup status.

“Joan has worked with PeakTwo as a consultant for the past two years,” Granetz explained. “She has helped us cultivate healthy client relationships, provided valuable management insight, and been vital to business development. We’re very pleased that she will be able to contribute this expertise full time.”

Working in the software industry for almost a decade, Fernandez specialized in supporting sales  efforts, ensuring a prospective client’s needs were the best fit for specific software solutions. Particular product familiarity included call center automation and customer relationship management. The organizational and client-management responsibilities parallel her role at PeakTwo.

“The entire project and client management skill sets translate well to the marketing and media industry,” Fernandez explained. “I’m also enjoying the creative challenge inherent in the web presence development, social media campaigns, advertising and awareness efforts that constitute the PeakTwo sweet spot.” Fernandez added that she is pleased to have found a role that applies her skills to these opportunities. “Marketing is less structured than software development. It’s rewarding to be part of the creative process while serving PeakTwo clients.”

PeakTwo is an independent marketing and media agency headquartered in the DC Metro area specializing in milestone-driven awareness efforts. PeakTwo defines milestones as major organizational events such as launches, mergers, new product intros, acquisitions, relocations and new hires. Adept at web presence development, social media, media outreach, promotions, and advertising, PeakTwo concentrates on generating milestone awareness while freeing client management to concentrate on day-to-day business demands. Visit  peaktwo.com to learn more.

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