I met with the president of an association last week in Washington DC that finally gets “it”. And I knew it the moment I walked in the door. The receptionist was cheery and professional but with a great personality. The office was bright, lots of glass and had a contemporary vibe. And on the reception [...]

Too often, when companies are looking to fill an open position, they become overly focused on the “hard skills” and experience of the candidate’s resume. Where did they go to school? What is their degree? How many years of experience? Where have they worked? And probably the most flawed barometer of all: What is their [...]

I had a wonderful meeting yesterday with a prospective new association client that once again reinforced the fact that custom content is the key to any social media campaign. One of the first questions we heard yesterday and often hear from other organizations is “we have a Facebook and Twitter page but we’re not getting [...]

Okay, stick with me for a couple of minutes while I develop the background needed to make my point about small businesses. I commute two hours every day and I couldn’t exist without my XM satellite radio. I have to admit that I spend most of my time listening to national sports talk shows, CNN [...]

It’s time to shift gears. 2010 is not a continuation of 2009. After slugging our way through 2009, 2010 has started with a bang. In the past two weeks, we have seen an outpouring of new business opportunities from both existing clients and from prospective new clients. It’s encouraging that the interest and excitement is [...]

Here’s a tough dilemma for any business owner: is there ever a time when should you say goodbye to client? Never. For the past fifteen years, my first response to that question has been—never voluntarily say goodbye to any client. You work to hard to get clients. You invest a lot of extra hours—beyond your [...]

The new January 2010 issue of the Harvard Business Review has a fabulous article called Rethinking Marketing. It is a must read article for all chief marketing officers but even more so for agencies who make their living by supporting marketing initiatives and have seen their traditional advertising business continue to erode. The article correctly identifies [...]

It’s funny how much one trade association differs from the next. We work with multiple trade associations and keep pretty close tabs on the entire association sector. Like most for-profit companies, associations had very difficult year in 2009. Many of them continue to face difficult times in 2010 as two key revenue streams, membership and [...]

Once again, traditional advertising agencies and their weekly trade magazine Advertising Age have proven that they just don’t see the marketing changes that are sweeping them into irrelevancy. This week’s issue (1/4/10) of Advertising Age focuses on “Ad Land”  and the changes and trends that will continue to negatively affect traditional agencies in 2010. Much [...]

It’s finally here. The first workday of 2010. Like many of you, I’m not sorry to see that 2009 is gone and behind us. It was a year filled with struggle, fear and doubt for all business executives and owners. Growth strategies were thrown out the window and replaced by a hunker-down mentality that froze [...]