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Devils and Details

Posted on May 2, 2012 by Matthew Williams

“A synonym is a word you use when you can’t spell the other one.” ― Baltasar Gracián 

Growing up, I developed a reputation as a word nerd. I was a big reader and took great pride in learning new words. More specifically, I enjoyed learning to spell new words.

My affinity for spelling is both a blessing and a curse. On the bright side, I’m pretty tough to beat at Scrabble and Words with Friends. It’s also not uncommon for family members to call, ask me to spell a word, then hang up the phone. I suppose I’m being used as a living dictionary, but I don’t mind.

However, there is a downside. Despite being an otherwise gentle person, misspelled words make my blood boil. I’m convinced every time a word is misspelled, an angel loses its wings.

After years of therapy, I’ve learned to cope with the fact that not all people care about the beauty of properly spelled words as much I do.That’s why I’ve stopped correcting the spelling in my friends’ text messages and Facebook updates. However, when it comes to business, I’m a lot less forgiving.

A few weeks back, Starbucks announced its foray into the juice business. They unveiled their new venture with a press conference and a sign featuring the tag line: “most fruits and vegatables are fat and cholesterol free.” If you’re not sure what’s wrong with the slogan, read it again. If you still don’t get it, realize I am judging you.

The misspelled Starbucks sign.

To cap things off, on a recent shopping trip to a Fortune 500 grocery chain, I was greeted by signs trying to sell me marshmellows, beef kobobs, and pineapple chuncks. As the cashier rang up my purchase, I wept silently.

I couldn’t have been the only been the only one to notice these things!

Poor spelling isn’t necessarily a sign of poor intelligence. It’s easy to rush and make simple mistakes. However, there is something to be said for being detail oriented, especially when trying to get someone to spend money at your establishment.  We only get one chance to make a first impression. While Starbucks has built up enough brand equity to overcome their hiccup, lesser known companies can’t afford to be so sloppy. If proof reading isn’t your cup of tea, find someone who drinks it up on a daily basis.

Poor spelling may not be illegal, but in the court of public opinion, a guilty verdict can be extremely costly.

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Four Blogs for the Price of One

Posted on April 26, 2012 by Todd Muffley

Writing isn’t my thing. I have a short attention span and go down many paths to get to one written blog, so this week I am going to share the four ideas I had, but didn’t finish, so you can see what things I think about writing.

How Do You Reach Your Prospects?

 I live in an apartment complex that the majority of the occupants are of the under thirty crowd. So when the mailman decides to stick the newspaper circulars in the mailbox, this is what you get: a giant mess.

This isn’t a one-time occurrence either; it happens each week. The cleaning crew has to hate Thursdays…so it got me thinking, if this is happening here, how many times are these advertisements and coupons discarded across the country. Is your message getting through to your prospects? How do you know?

However You Pronounce It…They Are Really Funny!

This is how you pronounce it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dErjFPTarc.

Now what are your favorite ones?

 

 

Where Do People Spend Their Time Online?

Nielson did a study in the fall of 2011 that showed some very interesting stats. What surprised me is how relevant email still is (as far as time spent on it) and how low the percentage was for video/movies. The report also went on to say that more time is spent on Tumblr than Twitter…which is also interesting. With the take-off of Pinterest, I am anxious to see how that plays a role in the way we use the Internet in the future.

The Power of Saying and Hearing “NO”

 

Part 1 – Just Say It

It is freeing to say the word “no.” How many times do you regret saying “yes” to someone’s request? Why did you? Didn’t want to hurt that persons feelings? Think you would come across as mean? I contend that people don’t say “No” enough. (need some good pyscho babble here)

Part 2 – Love to Hear It

The biggest pain I have in sales are those people who are wishy-washy…you know the types, “Call me back in 3 weeks” or “We are potentially interested” and you have to love the, “We just need more time to decide.” I have learned that the decision to not make a decision is a decision. I have also learned that I like it when people tell me “no” over not making a decision. I know where I stand when I get a “no” and I can respect that.

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Google Provides Tools For Charting Information

Posted on April 16, 2012 by Aaron Knirk

Google’s developer tools include a set of charts that you can access a couple of different ways. One of those ways is to construct a URL that contains the data and formatting you’d like to be used in the chart. Use that URL in an img tag and you’ll see the chart you defined. I’ll be walking through an example of building a basic pie chart. You can find all the information on this toolset here.

Begin with the base URL:

https://chart.googleapis.com/chart?

After the ‘?’, it accepts a number of settings in the format of <setting_name>=<value>. Multiple settings are separated by an ‘&’. The order of the settings doesn’t matter, but it’s usually helpful to keep related settings next to each other. The first setting we’ll use is the one that tells Google what type of chart we want to use.

cht=p

The the ‘p’ means we want a pie chart. Now we’ll define the size of the chart.

chs=350×200

Now, if we add some data for the chart, we can pull it into an image. We’ll use ‘t:’ in the ‘chd’ setting to indicate that we’d like to use plain text to define the data.

chds=t:40,88,23

Let’s put what we have so far into an image. Remember, we need to separate each setting with ‘&’.

<img src=”https://chart.googleapis.com/chart?cht=p&chs=350×200&chd=t:40,88,23″ />

That’s great, but some labels would help, so let’s add the ‘chl’ setting. Each label defined here should be separated from the others by a ‘|’. That’s a pipe, or vertical line, not a capital ‘i’. The labels need to be listed in the same order as the data they represent, so using 40, 88, and 23 from above, we’ll say the chart is about customers, and so we have 40 walk-ins, 88  saw our ad, and 23 referrals. A ‘+’ should be used in place of a space in any URL.

chl=walk-ins|saw+our+ad|referrals
<img src=”https://chart.googleapis.com/chart?cht=p&chs=350×200&chd=t:40,88,23&chl=walk-ins|saw+our+ad|referrals” />

That’s better, though it might be even better to put those labels into a legend and have the pointers showing the values of each slice. We’ll keep our values for ‘chl’ and reassign them to ‘chdl’ to put them in a legend and we’ll make a new ‘chl’ with the values of ‘chd’.

chl=40|88|23
chdl=walk-ins|saw+our+ad|referrals
<img src=”https://chart.googleapis.com/chart?cht=p&chs=350×200&chd=t:40,88,23&chl=40|88|23&chdl=walk-ins|saw+our+ad|referrals” />

 

That covers the basics. There are many different configurations you can play with and several different chart types. You can keep it simple, or get into the advanced options. And, as usual, Google has provided us with a convenient playground to help experiment and learn the tools.

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The behaviors you choose will impact your attitude

Posted on April 9, 2012 by Sally Bauer

At Fat Atom my title is Director of Business Development which is a long name for Sales Rep. I have been in some sort of sales role since the beginning of time.  Or at least since I graduated from college. Most of the companies that I have been part of have been large corporate companies who have provided me with many sales trainings and product knowledge courses taught by the gurus of the time.  I learned and read content from the best.  So when Todd (the owner of Fat Atom and my boss) said we were going to start a sales training program, my thought was “OK, I am sure that I can learn something.” You could say that I am sort of a “geek” when it comes to sales training and motivational techniques.  I like them.

It is Monday morning and time for our first sales training session.  I am charged with getting Isaac and Kyle to class, as they are not as used to such early morning activities.  I think I actually got on their nerves a little since I was so wide eyed and excited about our class.  Class went well; I can’t say that I was learning a lot of new information right away but I was remembering the basics.  It is easy to lose sight of the basics.  It was around the third week of class when I heard something that sunk in.  We were talking about attitudes, behaviors and techniques. 

You behavior really does affect your attitude!

It was said that your behaviors can control your attitude.  Even though I am Director of Business Development for Fat Atom, I am still out there cold calling potential prospects.  I know that I have to make numerous calls in order for one of my calls to turn into someone wanting to take the next step, but some days I am not in the “mood” to make calls.  I understand it can be a major interruption in someone’s day when they pick up my call, and they let me know that, too.  Call me stupid or naïve as a sales person but seriously, Fat Atom could really help any of the companies whom I call.  It is unfortunate that many of the people I call don’t see this but I realize we can’t help those that don’t want help.  So, I still have to make my calls. 

I also know that I have a choice to make calls or not make calls. I realize that if I don’t make the calls I won’t get the very cold response, “No, thanks we are good to go with our marketing.”  At the same time I feel horrible not making the calls because I feel I have let my team down.  I know that once I start making the calls I feel so good and one call leads to another, even though sometimes I sound like a blubbering idiot on the phone, occasionally there is a match. 

I have learned from the Sandler Sales Training recently that behaviors can control your attitude and I have found that is so true and it relates to many other things besides just my sales calls. I use it in my everyday life.  Because I am a working mom I feel best when I am able to get my workout done early in the morning.  If I can control my behaviors to get up and go my attitude is so positive it can carry me through the day. But I have the choice to choose not to wake up and get that extra hour of sleep.  I won’t feel as good, but I have that choice.

I also know that if I can control my eating behaviors I feel amazingly healthy, and again my attitude is positive and carries into the next day.  It seems so simple and refreshing to know that I have the power to choose my behaviors.  I can choose to not allow someone that is too busy to take my call seriously to affect me; after all, as my Sandler trainers say, we are actually looking for companies that we can rule out.  At Fat Atom we are not trying to take over the world, we are choosing to stay small and strong, so we do have to pick our clients carefully.

But think about this:  The behaviors you choose will impact your attitude, which will impact how you act and the outcome of your day, week, years, etc…

The good news is that I have learned a few more Ah Ha’s in my Sandler Sales Training that I will share in my upcoming blogs.

Categories: Business We Like To Grow At Fat Atom Leave a comment

Don’t Kneecap Your Company’s Online Marketing

Posted on April 2, 2012 by Fox

or, The Importance of Having an online MARKETING strategy.

It is fairly common to not have a cohesive, thought-out online marketing strategy that includes all possible dimensions. Unfortunately, that is essentially the same as shooting your online racehorse in the knee before the Kentucky Derby. Please don’t kneecap your marketing racehorse. Follow this (non-exhaustive) list of tasks the experts at Fat Atom suggest as must haves in each area of your online marketing plan.

Site content and design – Your site is the core from which all else grows.

  • Ensure the site has cohesive branding and an appropriate level of polish.
  •  Make the menu structure easy to navigate and as lean as possible 
  • Write site text that sells the business not as competent, but also trustworthy, eliminating hesitation
  •  Include text that creates a sense of urgency to push for an immediate conversion (phone call, form, etc.)

Conversion rate optimization – Double your conversion rate and double your number of leads.

  • Have multiple conversion points, including phone numbers, whitepapers, email drips, newsletter signups, and contact forms
  • Include pushes to convert at the top and bottom of every page
  •  Have conversion points (phone numbers, links, or buttons) on every page
  •  Ensure conversion points are graphically prominent 
  • Have simple forms that are easy and quick to fill out 
  • Use uncluttered landing pages and squeeze pages for campaigns
  • Use A/B page tests and multivariate testing to find what works best

SEO – Want to show up for more than your company name? SEO is the gift from Google that keeps on giving.

  • Recognize that SEO is competitive – you can literally dominate the competition 
  • Use keywords that are chosen carefully taking into consideration relevance and KEI 
  • Devote attention and funds, typically 5% to 30% of total online marketing costs, to SEO
  • Recognize that SEO is a marketing function, not an IT function 
  • Have an SEO-friendly site architecture, such as WordPress with All in One SEO installed 
  • Have compelling, keyword-rich content 
  • Develop and promote link bait 
  • Recognize that rankings take time and effort to improve 
  • Develop inbound links from quality, relevant sites
  • Avoid services that promise thousands of links, a #1 ranking, or that charge less than several hundred dollars
  • Demand detailed reports on work done by SEO services

Online Advertising – Powerful if done correctly. A great way to burn through your budget if done poorly.

  • Use the right platform to reach target audience, whether Google, Bing, Facebook ads, LinkedIn, Stumble, or banner networks 
  • Have carefully chosen network, geographic, and demographic targeting
  • Understand and optimize all campaign settings 
  • Use the correct bid level to get the most quality leads for the lowest price, including using automated rules if possible 
  • Utilize attention-grabbing ad headlines and designs
  • Have compelling ad copy with a strong call to action 
  • Send visitors to uncluttered conversion-optimized landing pages 
  • Use retargeting ads, segmenting if possible 
  • Have keywords, ad text, and landing pages aligned to increase ad quality score
  • Recognize that online advertising is a marketing function, not an IT function

Social Media – People are talking about you. Join in the conversation.

  • Have and use your #1 social media tool, a blog
  • Make your blog articles useful, easily shareable, and interaction inspiring
  • Enable blog update notifications by email, Facebook, Twitter, and RSS 
  • Build a Facebook community
  • Establish credibility and provide for customer feedback with Twitter
  • Interact with potential clients using LinkedIn 
  • Generate content for your site and viral marketing with Youtube
  • Have other people do your marketing for you virally with Pinterest

Analytics and Reporting – Important if you care about things like ROI.

  • Have all possible tracking in place, including Google analytics, Google and/or Bing webmaster tools, and other tracking providers as appropriate 
  • Track all conversions on all pages, across as many platforms as possible 
  • Use click maps or heat maps where appropriate 
  • Track all external campaigns possible with QR codes or unique URLs that forward to the site with tracking codes
  • Install a dynamic phone number system that substitutes phone numbers on your site based on visitors’ source or a tracking code 

Not sure if your online marketing strategy has any holes? This marketing grader (not  related to Fat Atom) does a decent job of assessing your site and may find areas that were overlooked.

Categories: Business Internet Marketing SEO Leave a comment

There Is no I in Team

Posted on March 26, 2012 by Derek Adams

As the newest member of the Fat Atom Marketing team, I had a thing or two to learn to get up to speed with the rest of the bunch.  The biggest and probably most important thing I needed to learn was how to work in a functional team environment. Now, I have worked in plenty of dysfunctional teams mostly when I was in college, but I had never had to work with a small team in my professional life before coming to Fat Atom. It had always just been myself working and just handing work over to the boss when it was completed. I had never really had to closely collaborate with a project manager and marketing director day in and day out before (like I do at Fat Atom Marketing). There are a lot of moving parts involved in a productive and functional team and I had a lot to learn.

There is no I in team...we work together constantly for the benefit of our clients. (Team 3 Mile)

First and foremost I learned there is no I in team. Having to update each team member on the status of current projects and letting them know when they were completed was new to me; so was team brainstorming and strategy sessions. I had largely done all of this on my own up until I was hired a few months ago. I’m not going to lie; I struggled. I had always treated my design work like my baby. I didn’t want to hand it over to anyone because I thought they would just screw it up. I wanted to do all the work and get all the glory, but as I have learned, that was not a productive way of thinking.  I had to learn that constant communication is vital to making sure a client’s project is on track and going in the right direction. Also having team members to bounce ideas off of and collaborate with makes the end product ten times better than if I just worked on it alone. I had to learn to trust and depend on my team members because without them I would be lost and overwhelmed. I quickly realized that my teammates are not my classmates of the past. These people are experts, not amateurs. Where I struggle, they thrive, and vice versa. Letting go of all the control was difficult, but after doing it I thoroughly realized why teams exist. We collaborate, brainstorm and come together to make the best for our clients.  And clients always get our best, because there is no I in team, and certainly no I in Fat Atom.  

Categories: Fat Atom We Like To Grow At Fat Atom Leave a comment

Being A Leader: Awakening The Possibility And Inspiring Others.

Posted on March 19, 2012 by Steven Musngi

Throughout my life I have never seen myself as a leader. This may be due to me being an introverted person. If I ever thought of myself as a leader, it was a leader by example. In football terms, I saw myself as more of the Marvin Harrison or not the typical wide receiver type of leader. Doesn’t say or talk much, but is an intelligent player, works hard and at the end of the day lives up to his potential.  Someone who lets my work do the talking. Whatever play is called I go and execute it to the best of my ability.

In the three months as my new role as Marketing Director, I have had to act more like a quarterback: having a strategy and knowing what plays to call to put the team in a position to win. Being a quarterback means being more vocal and showing the enthusiasm and passion to inspire my team, much like Drew Brees and his pregame ritual chanting back and forth with his teammates to get hyped to play for a win.

A leader’s job is about awakening the possibility in other people. They are meant to inspire others and not exert their authority and power over another because they have the position to do so. As Benjamin Zander stated in his video on music and passion, to know that you’re awakening the possibility is when you know their eyes are shining. As a leader, if the people you’re trying to lead don’t have shining eyes, then who are you as a leader? Who are you being?

As Marketing Director for Team 3 Mile, am I there yet? No. I DO know that I’m putting in the work, am heading in the right direction and WILL get there. I do see my teammates eyes shining from time to time. It’s my goal to get their eyes shining everyday and awaken to their full potential. And I not only want to get my team’s eyes to shine, but other people’s (family, friends, clients, etc.) as well. With the current sustainable leadership intensive training I’ve been taking, support from my coworkers and other things I have planned in the future, I hope to inspire others and help them reach their full potential.

Categories: Communication Fat Atom Leave a comment

A bark conquers a meow…for now

Posted on March 12, 2012 by Katie Wickham

Many of my friends and coworkers know that I love cats.  Just love them.  Growing up with two friendly and funny felines started my love for these creatures, but Disney movies solidified it with “The Aristocats” and even mean Lucifer in “Cinderella,” pulling my heart strings of affection. And now I can tell all of you out there on the Interwebs that I, Katie Wickham, love cats!

I LOVE cats. (This is Darcey.) But for now, a bark conquers a meow.

I think it is quite funny then that my personality has been called something akin to the (sometimes) archenemy of my favorite creature.  A dog.  Not just any dog though, a pit bull.  Yes, I have been called a “sweet and flowery pit bull.” The sweet and flowery tagged on for good measure I am sure, but this is the personality description my boss has given me as account manager.

I have to say I agree with him and here is why.  As Account Manager for Team 3 Mile it is my duty to sniff everything out and be in the know for my team’s clients as well as for our team.  My sniffing may come in the way of a lot of questions but I am just making sure we are walking in the right direction, if you know what I mean.  It is also my duty to guard my territory.  In this sense, my territory isn’t just the Team 3 Mile backyard but our clients’ backyards, too. I guard my team and client’s time with great care and I may bark back if you get too close to the fence.

Furthermore, I am a dedicated companion who will stick by my team’s and clients’ sides through thick and thin. I am there with the ability to cheer my team up with a silly trick or my client with the right words (or sounds) of encouragement.

These may not be all the reasons why my boss has called me a “sweet and flowery pit bull” but they are the ones I am going to stick with for now.  Cats will always be better in my mind, but I’ll heal to this description and continue barking in support for my team and clients.

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Letters to Mr. IT: Update Approaching!

Posted on February 27, 2012 by Jesse Johnson
Dear Mr. IT, I heard a rumor that Apple is releasing some crazy new software thing, again!  What new, incomprehensible features should I begin preparing to mis-understand??!?! Sincerely, Musing Manic Metathesi-OS-phobic (fear of OS changes)   Dearest M Cubed, For Mac geeks new and old, any OS release announcement should be a time to celebrate!  A time to remember data lost, and features gained, to reflect on those things that we hold most dear and the reasons we think of ourselves as being so much better than all those Redmond fans out there. It’s true, earlier this month, Apple announced that this summer users will be treated to the next great OS release from Apple: Mountain Lion.  Much like Snow Leopard was to Leopard, Mountain Lion is more of a finishing touch suite to Lion.  Lots of new features that, more than anything, complete the vision Apple had for Lion but was waiting to see if users were ready for. That vision is centered around unifying the experience between iOS (what runs on iPads, iPhones and iPod Touches), and Mac OS.  Not only does your data sync seamlessly through the cloud, but now the same apps you enjoy on your mobile device are featured on your Mac as well. To help alleviate your ultra specific phobia, let’s take a look at some of those fear inducing features that should help to simplify, rather than complicate, your life.

Messages: Always be chatting

Wouldn’t it be great if you could text friends, coworkers and family right from your computer screen?  Then, when it’s time to leave, you’ve already got the conversation on your iDevice, ready to stay with you and keep the conversation going.  Well that’s what Apple hopes to do with Messages (already available as a beta here). Simply start the conversation on your phone or computer, and it moves seamlessly between them, keeping you in constant communication with all those people cool enough to be in your contacts.  It only requires an AppleID, which you already have if you own an iOS device.  That’s it, no muss, no fuss.

Notification Center: Never miss a beat

Arguably the most important update to iOS 5 last year was the Notification Center.  No more missing emails, texts or any 3rd party notifiers, it’s all in your face, all in one place.  It even pops up on your sleeping device’s screen, and a quick swipe takes you right where you need to go. Now that same notification will be available on your Mac, keeping you endlessly abreast of every possible update in a handy sidebar, and essentially eliminating the need for Growl (honestly I won’t miss it, but I know a number of fellow Mac nerds that will) and other notification apps on your Mac.

Airplay Mirroring: Embarrassing content instantly on your TV

This is possibly the least important update in Mountain Lion, but it’s the one I’m most excited about.  The AppleTV will now act as a wireless bridge to your TV from your Mac.  No more cables, no more strange third party devices.  If it’s on your Mac, it’s on your TV, and it just works.  I can’t think of a better way to share presentations, home movies and the occasional LAN party.

Gatekeeper: You shall not pass!

Alright Mac users, we’ve been plugging the “can’t get viruses” line for too long.  Don’t get me wrong, I literally sold thousands of Macs while working for Apple, and said it every time.  People, especially those leaving the Window’s world behind, love to hear it.  To a certain extent, it’s true.  A virus is simply a malicious program, and those made for Windows (which are by far the most common) can’t run on a Mac, for the same reasons any other Windows program can’t run on a Mac.  However, that doesn’t mean nasty little hacker-nauts out there haven’t written such software for Apple’s OS. As sexy and slick as our OS is, it’s still vulnerable to attack.  Granted, the only outbreaks have been when users knowingly installed software from unconfirmed and poorly researched sources, but it has happened.  Apple’s response to this, after much silence and chagrin, is Gatekeeper. It’s job is to ensure that you know where things are coming from when you install them, and if you can trust the source.  In keeping with its proprietary tradition, Apple is now promoting an “Identified Developers” program, wherein developers register their software with Apple, and are given an ID to let users, and the OS, know that it’s safe to install whatever they’re offering. Personally, I think this is a good system.  It’s not quite as effective at protecting your Mac as something like ClamXav or MacScan, but it’s better than nothing.  It gets to the heart of protecting you from attacks: the source of the software.  By letting you know when something is installed, and whether or not that developer is registered with Apple, you can get a better handle on what’s worth putting on your Mac.

In conclusion…

Mountain Lion looks to be a lot of fun, and worth the upgrade.  In the mean time, have no fear of OS updates.  We heroic geeks who roam the halls and offices of your corporate buildings stand ready to fend off the demons of confusion and ignorance who lurk in the seedy underbelly of software updates and sudden hardware failure. In Woz we trust, Mr. IT
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