I was thinking today about the industry I’m in, and while it’s not a shocking revelation, it did occur to me again how young the industry actually is. Many of the professionals in the industry (myself included), were not in this industry a decade ago. And why would they be, when the industry had really just begun–at least as we know it. But it gives light to the fact that it’s the skill sets that matter–not so much the industry, per se. Although yes, it does help if you come from a related industry. Marketing, advertising, programming, project management, copywriting–these are all areas within interactive media that are crucial to what we do–and if you’re in one of those areas in another industry, you’d probably be able to make the leap.

If you are, my suggestion is that you do a little messing around on your spare time. Figure out what you like to do, and practice it. Build a website. Run a PPC campaign. Write some copy on a blog somewhere, and see if you can use a little SEO magic to make it show up on the first page or second page of google. It’s not easy, but it’s not that difficult. In fact, I landed at the third spot on the first page of google a few weeks back for ‘Project Management Steps’ without even trying to. (No, it’s not there any more, but hey, I did it without trying). Good luck.

Without sounding too…something, I can’t stress the importance of teamwork. Not only in the sense of your coworkers helping you achieve the goals you need to achieve and vice versa, but in bringing together ideas and perspectives that, when combined (again, sorry to use this word, which I’m sure you’ve all heard plenty of times just in the past few weeks alone) create synergy. It’s what makes projects succesful, initiatives succesful, and, to go a little further, it’s what makes communities, country, and the world succesful.

But with teamwork comes personalities, egos, opinions, and every other factor you can imagine that has the potential to throw teamwork off track and away from the goals you’ve set for that team to begin with. Though not always the case, gathering groups of people, especially in business, means that you’ll often have to deal with adversity, often have to defer when you think your points may be valid, and, the true test of your understanding of situations and benefitting from teamwork–you’ll have to be able to open your eyes and be receptive to points other than yours, right or wrong.

It’s through that process that the best ideas will emerge–be it for a direct mail piece, a larger marketing strategy, creative, or even what type of venue to have for company outings. Let me stress that again: open your eyes and be receptive to points other than yours. You’re not going to be right all of the time, and I’m not going to be right all of the time. I learn from you, and you learn from me. It’s what makes the wheels turn, and what brings the good ideas to better ideas.

Rarely will you encounter that genius who’s ideas and insight and execution are perfection incarnate; rarely will you have anyone single-handedly, at least in a company of any size, be the end all be all for whatever product or service you’re hawking.

Knowing how to be a teamplayer doesn’t mean giving up your place in the food chain–it means securing it through smart decisions, an open mind, and the realization that we’re all consumers of good ideas and bad, and we’re all producers of them as well. It’s the end result we’re after by participating in a team of any size or structure–so don’t sabotage it, because you’re the beneficiary.

No, I’m not linking the two to go into any in-depth analysis today, only going to point out a truth you already know but one I thought I’d remind you about one more time: Visibility.

Blogs and social networks are great fun, great tools, and you don’t really have to be a computer geek to get into them and accomplish what your blog and social networking idols accomplish (ok, maybe you are a little geeky like me, because let’s face it, the cool kids…well, no, they probably blog and social network too, so scratch that.

Anyway, we’ve all heard how you’re not supposed to post pictures of certain things such as:

• You upside down drinking from a keg
• You streaking down main street
• You doing anything elicit
• You commiting a crime
• You…yea, you get it, YOU doing anything you’re not supposed to

The same applies to business blogs and social networks geared to business (think LinkedIn, etc). Sites like LinkedIn are used by professionals, and there’s a certain standard that has been created that LinkedIn users expect. It’s why they (and I) use the site, and anyone breaking away from those pretty strict standards gets either politely nudged (at best), or pushed aside in a business-violent manner (at worst). I probably created a term there, but you get the gist of what I’m trying to say.

Same applies in blogs. Business blogs can serve many purposes, but what you want to make sure you don’t do is anything you wouldn’t do at work, or with a client, or in front of anyone who you don’t want to insult (unless, of course, that’s the whole point of the blog, or of the entry). But even so, taking the high road is always a better bet than not. Remember, what you post today will likely still be showing up a decade from now in some form or fashion, and the negatives you throw up now could come back to haunt you.

One of the great things about software is that it opens up a world of ease to those who learn and use it to achieve, more often than not, completion of tasks that would otherwise take a much longer time to complete. That said, sorry if I am not making complete sense–I’ve been reading software manuals all day. Yes, this is where you laugh. Or chuckle. Or, at worse, give a silent nod of acknowledgement.

Actually, it’s not so bad. But it got me thinking. While we do use a variety of software programs to get done the things we need to get done, such as everything Microsoft ever puts out (excel, word, powerpoint, project, access, etc.) (no, I’m not going to mention Vista), we also ocassionally end up using new software that we’ve either never heard of, heard of and had no contact with, or heard of and tried to avoid. It’s times like these that I don’t look to the future to solve but the past. It’s sort of like financial planning–we know we need it but no one ever really teaches us it as we grow up (I know, I can hear you yelling either a) When we were growing up certain software didn’t exist, or b) Many of the software programs extant today ARE being taught to kids in school. Well, good. Good for those kids, I suppose. But in the land of Me, I want more of a quick fix than anything else. Maybe a quick IT doctor visit where I’m injected with the knowledge to not have to read printouts and dictionary-length software manuals that are standard issue in the brains of kids today. But I’m probably asking for too much. Well, at least I can blog about it. That’s something my folks probably think is a space creature from some far away Sci-Fi flic.

Today, I just thought I would share some of the companies that are headquartered in Atlanta and in Georgia, as well as some in Seattle, and Washington, to build up your trivia knowledge. Can you guess which ones are located where (without looking it up)?

Hope you’re having a great mid-week Wednesday.

UPS

AT&T

Home Depot

CNN & Turner Broadcasting

Coca-Cola

Aflac

Microsoft

Amazon

Starbucks

There are a great many factors and inputs into managing a successful project, none more important than the communication aspect. Without clear, constant, effective communication with all stakeholders–internally and externally, the likelihood of project success will not be very good.

How do you achieve communication success while managing your project?
The first thing you want to do when managing your project, at least from a communications perspective, is draw up the communication plan, even if you’re not going to be sharing it with the project stakeholders in some form or fashion. The plan will help clarify your communication efforts for you; i.e., once you’re in the thick of the project, the communication plan will help ensure that you are getting the right information to the right stakeholders at the right time. The communication plan helps you ensure consistency–you’ll know when you’re to reach out to stakeholders, when they’re to respond back to you, and it will ensure you’re minimizing the opportunity for miscommunication.

While I won’t go into all of the documents that are part of the communication process–the project charter, the milestone chart, the SOW (Statement of Work), the project plan, project schedule, organization chart–these documents will normally be readily available for stakeholders, either on paper (less and less these days), or on a sharepoint site or soft copy somewhere.

Internal Communication
Communication with your project team is critical. Not only is it important to clearly assign what needs to be done, it communicates the WHO that needs to do the work, the With Who (meaning what team members should be coordinating their efforts, including alternative plans if ‘Plan A’ doesn’t work out quite as it should, the main internal project sponsor (likely You, the PM), the HOW–email, daily/weekly meetings, conference calls, etc., and a few other factors intrinsic to executing a successful project.

External Communication
External communication–that is, communication with your client, the project sponsor, and any other project stakeholder who is not part of your internal team, needs to be done consistently (not only in terms of timing but in terms of format–email, hard copy or soft copy, etc, professionally, and as often as needed. As long as external stakeholders believe they are being kept in the loop and appropriately informed of the project’s progress, the project will run smoother and the client will remain happy–given everything else is running smoothly.

I’ll be writing more in the coming months on all aspects of Project Management, but the above communication aspect of projects can’t be overlooked, ignored, or minimized. A project is not a project unless there is communication, and depending on the size of the project, it will be dead in the water unless the flow of communication is consistent, effective, and reaches all stakeholders–internal as well as external.

Wikipedia’s definition of Project Management: Project Management is the discipline of planning, organizing, and managing resources to bring about the successful completion of specific project goals and objectives.

My experience lay in websites, sharepoint sites, multimedia and creative in general, but project management can apply to many different industries. Projects have a beginning and a definite end–if not, what you have going on is a process.

There are varying PM (Project Management) methods, but they primarily revolve around scope, quality, time and budget. Project Managers are professionals who make sure the project is completed, i.e., they manage the project, though they likely do not actually ‘do’ the work required towards completing the project.

• Identify sponsors and stakeholders
• Make sure you have a “Champion” in management
• Figure out the goals of the project, and the associated deliverables
• Plan
• Create a methodology
• Secure reliable resources
• Create the team that will participate
• Communicate constantly will all stakeholders
• Establish metrics that are clear and concise
• Don’t fall behind

Following the above steps doesn’t necessarily guarantee success, but it absolutely helps to make sure you’re doing your best. I’m not going to go into each of the above steps–I think they’re pretty self-explanatory, at least if you’ve managed projects in the past, even if you didn’t have the kind of success you wanted.

For more detailed information, check out the below sites:

About.com’s Management section
BNET
Project Steps
DM News
Tech Republic (A webcast; the presenters illustrate five basic steps in Microsoft Office Project Standard 2007 to create a plan for the business projects.

Happy Friday!

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Not sure what to do when it comes to email marketing? Many of us do our email marketing in-house, but many of us don’t. We go through the process of getting our list, segmenting, breaking down by title, perhaps location, do some vetting to make sure we see what our email recipients see, get our in-house designer or vendor’s designer to create a pretty email–don’t forget the call to action!, etc.

And we all know why we use email–it’s cheaper than direct mail, you can track it better than direct mail, and you get the results in a lot faster than you would by using other marketing techniques. You just have to make sure you follow a few musts.

Make sure you segment. Figure out who your prospects are and who your customers are, and don’t email-bomb all of them with the same message–because they aren’t the same audience. You prospects may know who you are, but they don’t know as much as your current customers. Treat them like prospects, and you’re going to drop their opinion of your business fast.

Do some testing if you have a big enough email list. Some audiences respond to flashy, fun emails, while others respond to dry, factual information when it comes to business emails. Test different emails according to tone, and track the results so you can improve the next time around.

Focus on what’s important to customers–not to you! This is all about you providing what the customer and prospect want, not what you have and what you can provide. Get that across in your emails, and you’ll have a better chance of getting that business.

Remember, while the above is primarily about B2B, much of it also applies to B2C.

Level2wo can help answer any B2B email marketing campaign questions you may have, so feel free to drop us a line.

You’re either in it or you’re not. Google AdWords have been around now for so long that if you’re not aware of what it is or how to use it you probably never will. Well, maybe I shouldn’t say never, but if you’ve been around them for a while, it’s hard to imagine people who haven’t been.

You learn things if you have been around AdWords. You learn how to tweak, and you learn how to improve, and you do so by going through the trials and tribulations, making the mistakes (often costly), so you can best optimize your spend (the end result).

Below are a few tips to help you navigate your way through Google AdWords. The tips are in NO WAY organized in any particular order–even though I, and many of you, will likely view them in your head in a particular order. I just haven’t done so here.

1. Landing pages
Landing pages are the trap in your Google hunting. If you’re going after bear, your bear trap better work. If the spring is flimsy, all you’re going to do is shock the bear a little…but you aren’t going to trap it. What do I mean? Well, it’s simple. The google ad is meant to get the user to click the ad–and the landing page is to get the user to take that action, whatever action you want them to take. If your landing page isn’t any good, say bye-bye to the action, i.e., the sale, the lead, the whatever.

2. Analytics & Conversion Tracking
Without these two tools, you’re just shooting into the sky and seeing what falls down. Google offers them free–so take advantage of them. They help you figure out the performance of your campaigns, keywords, and how much your conversions are costing you.

3. A/B Testing
Comparisons help you improve. Try different A/B tests to optimize your campaigns. Then, when you’ve improved your campaigns, do more A/B testing. And after that, do some A/B testing. Get the hint? It’s all about improving what you’re doing. Test landing pages, keywords, images, positions, etc.

4. Focus
Keywords and keyword phrases that are generic and searched more mean that you’re going to have a lot of competition. The key here is to focus. Focus on certain, specific keywords and keyword phrases for which you want to reel them in–them being your customers or prospects. Google has its own keyword research tool, and there are others out there that you can find pretty easily.

5. Use Google’s Tools
Google is Google for a reason. They also have tools that will help you improve your campaigns–and the trick here, my friends, is to actually use them. What are those tools?

• Geographic Targeting or “Geo-targeting”
• Day Parting/Ad Scheduler
• Google’s ‘offline’ tools, such as TV, Mobile, Radio, etc.
• Budget Delivery

There’s plenty of resources for Google AdWords if you take the time to read up on them. They’re helpful, and if you learn better over a certain format, Google has likely got it for you–video, text, interactive, etc. Search Engine Marketing is a quick way to compete with the big boys. You just need to know how to play the game.