A Creative’s Toolbox, Part 2: The Workspace

* Lots of natural light, to keep energy up

* The right coffee mug

* A good mix of old and new, vintage & fresh, because creativity is found where they meet

*Keep it organic

* Make it yours so you feel comfortable

* Keep sources of inspiration–books, art, music– on hand.

* Keep your “reason why” where you can see it. This can be a vision board, a goal list, personal manifesto . . .

*Have a good ergonomic setup.

* Have a relaxation place away from your computer where you can brainstorm, read, chat with clients, etc.

Sources

Six desk tweaks to change the way you work and maximize your creativity. Fast Company

14 STRATEGIES FOR CREATING A WORKSPACE THAT KICKS ASS AND KEEPS YOU CREATIVE. Paid to Exist

Kickstarter 101

*Be sure your project is just that–a project, with a definite beginning and end.

* Tell your potential backers what how the project will serve thier needs/interests/desires

*Keep your video short–under 4 minutes if you can

*Establish credibility with relavent qualifications, testamonials, links to previous work, press, etc.

*Keep backers updated as you project progresses

 

Sources

“5 Project Crushing Kickstarter Mistakes and How to Avoid Them” crowdfundingdojo.com

“What Kickstarter’s Million Dollar Projects Have In Common” crowdfundingdojo.com

“Nine Essential Steps for a Killer Kickstarter Campaign” mashable.com

 

The power of interaction

One way to create memorable action–and interaction: give a community a gift to share. Give them something to gather around and create together. Enough structure so it functions, enough freedom so that they can make it theirs. How can we leverage this from a marketing perspective? How do we create campaigns that give people what they crave most–positive interaction with other people?

Inspiration: Freespace, a San Francisco project created with public funds that turned a large warehouse into a free workspace for one month, pulling in creatives of all persuasions to create &
collaborate.

Yes, freelancing is hard

For when the freelance creep of doom is chilling your spine, a little reminder that you’re not alone:4 Terrible Things I Learned About Freelancing in 2013 by Charles Webb

Hearst Company’s Troy Young on making digital work for the publishing industry

Craft your message to fit your media. In an interview with Fast Company, Hearst Company’s new head of digital, Troy Young, explains is why sometime the best way to preserve a brand is to let it have a few different faces. In the seven months since Young has taken it over, cosmopolitan.com has doubled its traffic. Check out the interview for insights into how old media can stay fresh.

2013 user demographics for key social networks

Pew’s 2013 user demographics for Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Pinterest.

Instagram has the second-highest daily usage rate, after Facebook, 63% and 57%, respectively. Pinterest lags, remaining female dominated, with 33% of online females using the site, and only 8% of online males. However , keep an eye on this app. With it’s image-heavy format, ease of use, and clean organization, it holds potential to serve many demographics, can they be persuaded to engage (and some rebranding may be in order). Like google+, Pinterest may be a creeper.

Social Media Metrics

You’ve got all your social media data, now what does it mean?

Once you know your social media objectives you can decided which have significance for you. Below are some of the commonly used metrics to get you thinking.

Acquisition

Activity

Reach

PTAT (People Talking About This)

Post Virility

Engagement Rate

Repins

Kred

Sentiment

Bounce Rate

Referral Traffic

Share of Voice

Sources:

Six Metrics All Social Media Marketers Should be Familiar With. Ignite Social Media.

Five Social Media Metrics that Your Business Should be Tracking. The Next Web.

It’s Time to Start Tracking the Right Facebook Metrics. Business Insider.

Five Social Media Metrics you Should Be Monitoring. Social Media Today.

 

What Worked in 2013

Facebook

Top 50 brand pages 

Twitter

Lessons from the NYT’s social media desk

Vine

33 best videos, according to Mashable

Online Video

Best viral videos

Advertising

Co-create ranks the best ads 

Top marketing trends, according to Socialmedia Today

Managing Social Media and SumAll

Managing social media presence means knowing what’s working and what isn’t. There are several applications available for tracking your social media traffic. Which to choose? Hootsuite is the most popular, and in  addition to providing analytics lets you post to multiple platforms at once and schedule posts. It’s got bells and whistles, but is it the best service?

SumAll.com, still in beta, presents in a streamlined and elegant format that is very visual– beautiful to look at and easy to use. This app also tracks your online revenue, so that it’s easy to see correlations between online activity — say, a tweeted special — and sales. This service is clearly the work of a very good marketing team.

The website is still glitchy, so hold on to Hootsuite for the time being. But sign up for SumAll while it’s free, and keep an eye on this beautiful app as it develops.

As an additional perk, SumAll’s blog offers some great beta for mastering the social media playing field.

Here’s a peek of the chart SumAll started for my instagram account:

 

Your business needs to be on Google +

Your business needs to be on google +. Yes, it’s a network in its infancy, arguably still mostly the territory of computer nerds, and when you post there it may seem an empty shout into a void. But if you care about SEO, you need to use google +. This is because the ubiquitous search engine google uses google + to index. Pushing new content through google + is an easy and elegant way to boost you SEO. Clever move, google.

SEO aside, google + has seen a 58% increase in users in recent months, now claiming over 300 million active users. Compare that to twitter’s 230 million and Facebook’s 1 billion. Nothing to shake a stick at. Google + is business oriented and an essential part of your online marketing plan.

How to go about using google + is a topic for another post.

Sources:

 “Google’s Social Network Sees 58% Jump in Users”. USA Today

“How to Breathe Life into your Google Plus Profile” . Search Engine Journal