Jason – Clix

The Human Side of Business Development

Jason — Tue, 06 Dec 2016 11:32:47 +0000

Every marketing agency works with businesses, and Clix is no different. We are most effective when a business seeks growth and learns to leverage the resources and the tools available in our digital marketing mix. However, businesses aren’t ran by faceless entities, but by men and women who want to provide for their families and support their employees.

Our business development team understands that in order to grow your business, it is our job at Clix to understand the human side of the work you do. We get to know your leadership team and learn what drives you. Our team discusses your products or services and what makes you stand out from the crowd. We want to know your goals and are willing to adapt to the changes in your goals over time, often adjusting our strategy when necessary. Using digital marketing and the various tools and software available to us, we create strategy that focuses on what our partners need and want from their business.

The human side of business not only needs a dynamic team to work as your marketing partner, but a willing and open minded client that understands the expectations we have in place for them. We thrive on communication and make the best progress on campaigns where there is a collaborative creative process. We love coming up with creative solutions, and we’re most successful when our clients are engaged in the ongoing process of improving their campaign. At Clix, we are ready and willing to listen to the concerns you have about the progress of your campaign.

The benefits of collaboration go beyond the business itself. As your business grows, the employees and families who have contributed to your success also see the ways in which their success is affected. Communities can benefit from the human side of business growth because companies can better contribute and give back to them not only through jobs, but through charity events and fundraising sponsorships.

Digital marketing offers up your business to potential growth you may not have envisioned. You might find yourself having to hire more people to keep up with the number of leads you get per day because your local citations have been standardized and the content on your website is a robust resource. You may find customers tell you the information you provide on your social media platforms enticed them to call, or the follow up emails you are sending through marketing automation provided them customer service no one else has. And to think this can all begins with simply becoming a partner with a robust, adaptable, and knowledgeable digital marketing partner.

If you have a desire to make your business better through tapping into the potential that digital marketing provides, you can go far. But you also need the right partner who will be transparent and honest with you along the way. Clix is that partner and has the track record to prove it. If you have questions about any of the services we offer, don’t hesitate to reach out.

The post The Human Side of Business Development appeared first on Clix.

The NFL now using tablets on the sideline.

Jason — Mon, 04 Aug 2014 16:17:06 +0000

During Sundays Hall of Fame game between the Buffalo Bills and New York Giants, Microsoft Surface 2.0 tablets were allowed on the sidelines for the first time in the NFL.

This may not be as ground-breaking as when the National Broadcasting Company earned a spot in pro football history by becoming the first network to televise a pro football game on October 22, 1939 but it’s certainly a step in a new direction. Microsoft created what it calls a Sideline Viewing System that allows NFL teams to review photos of plays instantly on the sidelines and up in the booths.

According to Foxsports.com:

Each team is given 25 tablets, 13 for the sideline and 12 for the coaches’ box.
The tablets will operate on a closed network, which will protect information from being hacked.
Images from each play will upload in five seconds, instead of the 30 or 40 seconds that it took for a paper printout.
Teams will have the option of using paper instead of the tablets if they wish.
However, if for some reason the tablets fail to work for one team, they will be taken away from the other team in the interest of fairness.

The quality of the images is substantially better than a print-out. In USA Today, I saw where New York Jets coach Rex Ryan recalled, “Sometimes with the old paper printouts, you’d get them back and you’re like, ‘Man, what is this?'” “This should be a lot nicer and the quality a heck of a lot better,” he said.

According to the AP, the tablets will be locked in a temperature-controlled cart when not in use and operate on a secure network so no one can hack in and intercept the images. Coaches and players will be able to draw on the tablet, which means that the next generation of broadcasters should be significantly better at telestrating.

I’m not sure if there are any negative implications to having this technology available and quite frankly, I can’t think of any right now other than one of the tablets simply not working, however, you have similar circumstances with the past and still current option of black and white print outs. I do know that you won’t see any NFL teams or players using Twitter or Instagram on the sidelines as players and coaches won’t have access to Twitter or other social media on the modified tablets.

The post The NFL now using tablets on the sideline. appeared first on Clix.

No Facebook Phone but How About Facebook Search?

Jason — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 15:02:57 +0000

Admittedly, Mark Zuckerberg has made it known that his biggest roadblock with Facebook is monetizing mobile. Over the past few months, it has been evident that shareholders “share” that same concern. On May 17, 2012, Facebook’s initial public offering (IPO) was a lofty $38/share. Now, it’s a measly $20/share (give or take). Unfortunately, Facebook’s stock price was driven by speculation and historical growth. However, as the world changes, the question is, “How much will Facebook change/evolve with it?”

There are probably a plethora of very smart people who work at Facebook, but how does one company so vast make ends meet between mobile and $$$? In a video featured within an article on CNN Money (clixbee.com/mobileistough), Zuckerberg mentioned that forecasting the next 3-5 years of Facebook meant constructing a tangible plan for mobile.

Let’s hypothetically explore this topic for a moment. What kind of plan would you throw out on the table if you were sitting next to Zuckerberg inside of Facebook’s Palo Alto’s headquarters?

Would You:

Exclaim, “Hey Mark, let’s go ahead and charge users for something like… oh, highlighting posts!”

Then rebuttal: Okayyyy, maybe not… Forgot about New Zealand. How about we clutter Facebook with advertising then charge users to use a “clean” Facebook? I mean, everyone is already so darn invested in the thing…

Counter: Alright, so I’m getting a little warmer… What if we created a search engine to compete against Google and its Ads?

Let’s say, you were the one that convinced Zuckerberg to enter the search fray – you sneaky devil. Granted, there are over 1 billion searches on Facebook per day (most of them not related to business), however Zuckerberg and his team see an opening here. What better way to beat Google at their own game than to leverage social information. In this regard, Facebook has a heck of a start. Think of it this way, Facebook already has business pages with vast amounts of information on engagement, history, employees and so on…

Today, a search engine is no longer just about finding the right website for you (getting you from point A, Google, to point B, website). Gone are the days where 10 sites show up on Google’s first page with minimal distractions in hopes of providing you with just a “better experience”. Thanks to advertisers, distractions increased, Google’s revenue went up and the search engines had to change. How do you milk the most out of a huge cow? Add another. This is where I connect the dots. Enter the “middleman” (point A.5, a business page). This business page, Google + Local for example, will allow users to stay on Google longer and get their answer faster (i.e., a phone number, email address, list of services, products, etc.). Ultimately, more time on site = more money.

This is where Facebook has it made. They already have developed business pages within a social network that is actually… social. We have the Yin and Yang of search. Facebook has the social element ready for shipment (Facebook) but an undeveloped search engine (Yin). On the other hand, Google has an undeveloped social element (Google +) with a search engine ready for shipment (Yang). It will be interesting to see where Facebook will go in years to come, but if I were a betting man, search may be the key cog in how successful Facebook will be in the future, especially in regards to mobile.

The post No Facebook Phone but How About Facebook Search? appeared first on Clix.

3 Ways to Generate a Strong Twitter Presence

Jason — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 17:32:54 +0000

People use Twitter for a variety of different reasons. Companies want to establish brand awareness, celebrities want to promote themselves and college students want to share their every move. Whether it is for personal use or your business, Twitter is a great platform for creating conversations.

From a business perspective, creating a strong Twitter presence can be tough starting out. There are some easy tips to follow that can help you establish your brand and get people talking about you (in a good way, of course!)

Twitter has been around for about three years now, and has skyrocketed to where is it now. Some companies might be afraid that it is too late to jump on the Twitter wagon, but in reality the amount of time you have been a member on Twitter is irrelevant. People that joined Twitter right when it got started may think they have a better advantage than the people who are just now signing up. The time isn’t what matters, it’s about the conversation you are creating. It doesn’t take three years to build up a following and finally reach the point where people are engaging with you. It could take three days if you have something worth talking about.

Updating your Twitter every five minutes telling people that you just brushed your teeth is not going to motivate people to follow you. You must engage with them, not yourself. People will be more interested in how you can contribute to their social presence rather than read about what you do on a daily basis.

When it comes to Twitter, quantity is not better than quality. Although tweets do come and go quickly, it doesn’t mean that you need to send 3,000 tweets a day just to get seen. People will remember you more if you tweet about something interesting rather than blowing up their twitter feed with constant tweets. By repeatedly tweeting non-stop it can turn users away and cause them to unfollow you, because they quite frankly are annoyed and have had too much. Don’t set a goal of sending X amount of tweets per day. Your goal to get a stronger Twitter presence should be to tweet quality content each day that people will be interested in. However, there is nothing wrong with tweeting often if the content is great.

The type of people you follow back can reflect what kind of Twitter user your company is. Don’t just follow back users who you think are “important.” People of importance may be considered as celebrities and big shots in your industry. These big wigs have so many followers and get so many tweets each day that it is unlikely they will notice you as a follower. The average user who is interested in your company is a better option for who to follow, because they recognize you are following them back and are more likely to join in on your conversation.

A red flag can pop up when you have hundreds or thousands of followers, but you only follow 10 people back. This can show that you aren’t interested in the conversation and just want to gain a lot of followers. It is good to have a pretty even amont of follwers and people you follow. Twitter is a two-way conversation, so don’t just expect to get replies, make sure you reply back too.

There is no actual science when it comes to Twitter and how to create a strong presence, but if you build an identity and stay true to that people will follow.

The post 3 Ways to Generate a Strong Twitter Presence appeared first on Clix.

4 Chrome Extensions Every Social Media Enthusiast Should Know

Jason — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 14:18:46 +0000

Google Chrome 15, the newest version of the Chrome web browser was released earlier today.

Its no secret – my life would crumble without Google. And though I haven’t come to rely on Google’s web browser as I have some of its other tools, I have developed a deep appreciation for it.

As a Google junkie, I love to explore and test the different tools Google Chrome has to offer, and some of the best tools come from its huge selection of extensions. Though not all of the extensions I’ve tried have blown me away, here are a few extensions I as a Social Media Strategist couldn’t live without.

Hootsuite is an integral part of my social media management toolbox. It allows me to monitor and update each of my client’s twitter feeds simultaneously.

A huge part of managing a client’s twitter account is updating it with relevant content. These updates often contain links that their followers would be interested in. Here’s where the Hootsuite extension comes in. Rather than copying the link and pasting it into Hootsuite, the extension allows you to tweet the link through Hootsuite without leaving the page or copying any URLs.

Simply click on the Hootsuite extension button in the top right corner of your browser, select the appropriate twitter account, type your message, and tweet!

While Hootsuite allows you to quickly share or schedule content to be shared, ocasionally, you’ll want to save content to share or schedule later. This is where Evernote comes in. Evernote is a great tool for saving and organizing links, images, ideas, notes, and almost anything else you can think of.

Like the Hootsuite extension, the Evernote extension allows you to save content to Evernote without leaving the page. Again, simply click on the Evernote extension button, clip the desired content, add a description, tags, notes, etc. and continue browsing as usual. When you want to return to the content, again, open the Evernote extension, find the content and open it from there.

Even with Hootsuite and Evernote helping me keep my tabs organized, I am notorious for having an excessive number of tabs open. Hey, when you’re managing several social media accounts, you have be a good juggler. Unfortunately, I don’t always work from the same computer. Sure, I could open each tab one-by-one, but with the TabCloud extension, I don’t have to.

TabCloud saves groups of tabs so you can quickly access them from any computer. Simply click on the TabCloud extension and hit the save icon next to any open tab grouping you’d like to save. Then, when you move computers, open tab cloud and click on the tab group quickly open all saved tabs.

I wrote on this tool not too long ago, so I will be brief. InboxQ is a great tool for establishing yourself as an expert in a certain field on Twitter by helping you find people asking questions you are able to answer. The inboxQ extension makes finding questions fast and easy. For more on InboxQ, see my blog post on earning tweet-cred with questions.

What’s your favorite

Though I consider myself a Google junkie, I know I’ve only scratched the surface on useful extensions. What’s your favorite Chrome extension?

The post 4 Chrome Extensions Every Social Media Enthusiast Should Know appeared first on Clix.

Apple Loses Founding Father

Jason — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 04:08:18 +0000

Approximately a day after the iPhone 4S was announced, founding father of Apple, Steve Jobs, passed away after a long battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 56. Jobs believed to be nothing less than a visionary and innovative businessman behind all of the various tech gadgets and services that Apple has provided over the years. From Lisa to Macintosh to Pixar and beyond, Jobs played an unparalleled role in the success of the Apple’s brand.

The online marketing world we know today would not be in existence without the minds of people like Jobs. Social media, SEO, branding, and every single online marketing strategy were all touched by Jobs during his lifetime in one way or another. So, tonight we pay our respects to the legacy of an icon who has surely advanced the way we think and interact with one another.

The post Apple Loses Founding Father appeared first on Clix.

Twitter CEO to Wage War on Cybersecurity (in 140 characters)

Jason — Tue, 31 May 2011 14:51:49 +0000

A note to anyone who thinks social media does not have a significant impact on our society – and yes – they are out there — President Barack Obama is calling up Twitter CEO Dick Costolo to join the National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee.

Costolo is joining Scott Charney, corporate VP of Microsoft’s Trustworthy Computing Group, McAfee President David G. DeWalt, Jamie Dos Santos, the current president and chief executive of Terremark Federal Group, and Lisa Hook, the president and chief executive of Neustar.

And the mission? They are to oversee the availability and reliability of telecom services and cybersecurity in the US, which is critical to our national security, as many believe that the next world war will be waged in cyberspace. The Pentagon has formally recognized cyberspace as a new domain in warfare, which has become just as critical to military operations as land, sea, air, and space.

Obama continues to reach out to Silicon Valley – mentioning both Google and Facebook in his most recent State of the Union, and dining recently with the heads of Google, Apple, and Facebook.

The post Twitter CEO to Wage War on Cybersecurity (in 140 characters) appeared first on Clix.

Have a Nice Day! Can Social Media Make you a Happier Person?

Jason — Mon, 23 May 2011 16:49:53 +0000

If done right, social media can lift your spirits and the buoy the people around you, according to Psychology Today. It should be informative, engaging, and fun – for both you and your readers. In a social network, happiness spreads among people up to three degrees removed from one another, which means that happiness is literally contagious via social media. And your avatar matters! There are “clusters of connections” i.e. groups of people who smile in their profile pictures, and “clusters” of Droopy Dogs who don’t. So surround yourself with happy people and get rid of the sad sacks – because it rubs off on you.

Using social media at work to make people happy is becoming more widespread, and more accepted. And happy people are more productive people.

As if shoes by themselves didn’t make me happy, one of my favorite companies, on-line shoe retailing genius Zappos.com is committed to selling shoes the happy way. CEO Tony Hsieh is a master of happiness. His dedication to happiness flows in a number of directions – toward his employee base, as well as outward toward his customers. He is a master of how to engage social media in ways that foster happiness for a variety of stakeholders.

Heish tweets at least once a day, and uses a “happiness strategy.” His hope is that messages fall into one or more of four categories (ICEE): Inspire, Connect, Entertain, or Educate — all of which are somehow related to happiness. This means that he spends a lot of time saying “no” to requests for tweets that don’t further his mission to make readers happy.

How Does it Work at Zappos?

Inspire and Be Inspired: Through tweets, a great article, or a thoughtful quote. Inspirational thinkers include @theseantourage, @gretchenrubin, and @workhappynow on Twitter.

Connect and Be Connected: Understand the people who are in your industry and their need to talk with each other, and put them in touch – employees, vendors—anyone who can benefit from knowing each other. Be a connector.

Entertain and Be Entertained: Make time to laugh or smile. Hsieh wrote “Instead of getting an iPad, I now use my iPhone with a giant magnifying glass attached to my face,” which got over 300 retweets.

Educate and Be Educated: Find articles and blog posts and share them with your readers on topics that they will find interesting.

How do you use social media to make the people around you happy? Is social media making YOU a happier person? Share your story.

The post Have a Nice Day! Can Social Media Make you a Happier Person? appeared first on Clix.

Bounce Rate

Jason — Thu, 19 May 2011 18:11:39 +0000

Boing, Boing, Boing. The Dreaded Bounce.

Spring in your step is a great thing, but bounce on your webpage is online revenue suicide. What is bounce rate? It is the percentage of single-page visits or visits in which the person left your site from the entrance (landing) page. So what does this mean for your site, your company, your on-line presence, and your ability to make money on the Internet? Everything.

SEO is a waste of money if your visitors are leaving your page faster than a gaggle of 14-year-old-boys at a Barry Manilow concert. Research shows you have about 6 seconds to get them to stay (on your website – much less for the Barry concert).

Bounce rate tells you a lot of important things:

Everyone searching on the Internet has a question. How well does your site answer their question?
How are users measuring your site in terms of quality?
Does your site “look” trustworthy and legitimate at first glance?

Landing pages need to be compelling, tailored to your users, and useful. Your site needs to look like you have a real, trustworthy company – a place that is going to keep its promises and take care of me, my purchase, and any problems I might have along the way. It doesn’t matter if you are running your business out of your mother’s basement – but your website can’t LOOK like you are.

What to do?

Write better headlines.

One of the easiest ways to get users to stay on your site and poke around is with engaging headlines that answers the QUESTION. (remember — everyone searching was looking for something). Make sure your headline has the most important keyword, and it is close to the beginning of your headline.

There are a lot of terrible sites on the Internet – and searchers are savvy. Make sure your readers know that you are one of the good guys upfront.

Putting most critical keyword in your headline lets your readers know within a split-second that they are in the right place, and they are more likely to keep reading. Remember the golden rule of website usability – “Don’t Make Me Think.” Spoon feed your users and they will thank you.

Don’t Sell.

Talk to your users like a friend, not like a cheesy salesperson. They are more likely to trust you, and keep reading. Don’t forget – the bounce clock is ticking. Think about your product or service from the customer point of view – the BENEFITS it provides to the customer – NOT the features. Benefits answer the question “What’s in it for me?”

Create Great Content.

The best thing you can do is to create compelling content that is readable, clear, and answers the question of your users. But that is not enough – your content needs to SOUND like your users as well – in terms of tone, voice, and language. Use words that your readers use – so they feel like they have come to the right place.

Don’t make them think. And don’t let them bounce.

The post Bounce Rate appeared first on Clix.

Google Places With Hotpot

Jason — Tue, 17 May 2011 03:04:20 +0000

Google’s recent addition to its local search product lineup is called Google Places with Hotpot.

From Google:

Hotpot is a new local recommendation engine for Google Places, powered by you and your friends.

You tell us the places you like — restaurants, cafes, book shops — and we’ll recommend new places to you the next time you search. Start rating and reviewing now @ www.google.com/hotpot

Google Places with Hotpot

According to Google Product manager Mat Balez, over 20% of Google search queries have local intent.

As such, Google plans to integrate ratings and reviews from Hotpot users into its database of 50 million places.

With enough user participation, Google foresees creating a more informed local search experience – one that turns all of its users contributions into a recommendation engine for all searchers looking for that special local place in Google.

The post Google Places With Hotpot appeared first on Clix.