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Finding Inspiration from the Window Washers

Inspiration can even come from window washers.

Inspiration can even come from window washers.

You have heard the saying, ‘Inspiration can come from the strangest places.’ Well, I can completely agree! As someone who writes a good bit for clients, sometimes you just need a new perspective. A new way of looking at something that can help make the piece that is being communicated even more interesting and compelling.  You want to dive deep to bring out the reasons that your target audience needs to pay attention to this information.

This is where the window washers come in. You have the same product, service, or the same ‘view’ from the office window.  But, on a regular basis, it is important to take a step back and clean the windows. Look at the product, service, or ‘view’ from a new perspective.  Pretend it is your first time seeing the product or service.  What is your “first” reaction?

Your reaction may be that this product/service needs to be revamped.  Maybe you were going down the wrong path.  Or, just like a new element can be added in to the landscape of your view out of the window, there may be something new with your product/service that you are not paying attention to.  This may be something that should be highlighted in a better way.

So take a note from the page of the window washers. Every so often, take a step back for the sake of clarity. Let this fresh perspective guide you in freshening up your marketing and communication efforts.

In the comments below, let us know where you find inspiration.  You never know, you could give someone else the idea that they need to finish their project successfully!

Get out your Social Media Yard Stick

In marketing, we all know that you are going to hear the phrase, “what is my ROI?”  What is the return that I will get for placing my money into this form of advertising?  It is a hard question to answer when talking about social media.  I am wondering if we are deep enough into social media to be able to properly measure the tool.  I think there are many that are doing a great job at generalizing the data that they receive.

One important factor that companies, be they small or large, need to realize is that social media is for the point of being social.  You can not continue to push the same old information that you have pushed in traditional media.  In order for social media to be successful, one must jump in and engage with an audience that may very well already be talking about your brand.  If your brand is not being discussed, think of ways to get on the minds of your possible customers.

In actuality, there are many tools that can be used in combination to figure out if you are hitting the mark with your current social media campaign. In researching ROI tools for our clients, here are a few that we do not mind recommending:

Radian6 – This tool is not the cheapest for a small business owner or a nonprofit to use, but it is extremely useful in all that it is capable of measuring.

Lithium Social Media Monitoring – This one is really easy on the eyes because it is based on the look and feel of Google. Lithium measures a variety of negative and positive signals that can give you a great overview to deliver in any upcoming presentation.

Trendrr – Many consider this to be very web 3.0 in its make up. This gives the user real time data that it gathers from microblogs, searc, social, and even video.  Many that we have spoken with love the location based specific data that they are able to obtain almost instantly.

If you have any ROI tools that you are successfully using, please let us know.  We love to share this information with our readers in the hopes of helping those that may be in a rut with showing their return on investment.