Marketing Places, Spaces, People & Ideas

Posts Tagged ‘business development’

Start with WHY – and Win

January 22nd, 2010 by Mandy Vavrinak

List posts have their place, and I know they are good for traffic. I’ve written them, too. But our super-connected world and the constant flow of information seems to be driving us to oversimplify complex subjects and interactions. By creating lists. Lots of lists. In some cases, lists of lists.
I’m not against all lists… I [...]

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Posted in Marketing, Public Relations, Small Business, Social Media, Social Media, Writing | 3 Comments »

They Buy Because We Use These > Brand Audit, Pt 2

January 4th, 2010 by Mandy Vavrinak

By now, you’ve completed all the steps in part 1 (previous post) and have a mountain of data…. random bits of impersonal knowledge. Next, we need to add some human insight to the data, season with some business sense and a dash of intuition and we’ll develop actionable information.
Talk to your customers. Especially your best [...]

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Posted in Economic Development, Interesting Stuff / Other Things, Marketing, Small Business | 1 Comment »

DIY Brand Audit for Small Businesses

December 28th, 2009 by Mandy Vavrinak

This is the first in a series of posts about how Small Businesses can perform a Do-It-Yourself brand audit. A brand audit is a good idea for all businesses, but unless you have many locations, lots of employees, multiple campaigns across multiple channels… you can do at least a preliminary one on your own. Here’s how:

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Posted in Marketing, Small Business, Social Media | 5 Comments »

UPDATE: Social Media Project with FOX23 Tulsa

November 12th, 2009 by Mandy Vavrinak

We’ve now completed two full weeks with the team at Fox23 Tulsa, and its been a whirlwind. With station newsroom schedules, our team of Ron Hudson, Cindy Morrison, Mike Henry, Sr., and myself deliver four presentations each week to Fox23 employees. Fox23 News Director Todd Spessard and the rest of the leadership team at Fox embraced the idea of elevating their social media interaction to a new level and have been incredibly supportive as we’ve worked together.

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Posted in Marketing, Small Business, Social Media | 2 Comments »

Does Place Still Matter?

September 16th, 2009 by Mandy Vavrinak

I’ve been thinking… perhaps Florida’s definition of “place” is too narrow, though, to apply to today’s socially-connected world. Perhaps the new organizing unit is knowledge…. where it lives, how its found and accessed, and then how it can be acted upon. Maybe now it’s all about what you can do in a SPACE rather than in a PLACE. Today’s spaces are not defined so much by walls or physical boundaries as they are self-sorted, self-elected affinities. I am part of several “spaces” online and also offline, nearly all of which I’ve chosen belonging

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Posted in Cities & Towns, Economic Development, Marketing, Retail Growth | 3 Comments »

Forget The Strategy Vs. Tactics Debate

September 7th, 2009 by Mandy Vavrinak

FIRST: Forget the debate over whether Social Media is a strategy or a tactic. We (practioners) tend to spend a lot of time arguing this point. Why? If the answer to this question changes the implementation, then it matters. If it doesn’t, well, then it doesn’t.

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Posted in Marketing, Social Media | 7 Comments »

Making Social Media Matter For Business (Pt. 2)

August 2nd, 2009 by Mandy Vavrinak

Part two of my Making Social Media Matter for Business series, including a list of great resources and my thoughts on what works in this marketing space for business users.

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Posted in Marketing, Small Business, Social Media | 5 Comments »

A Primer for Cities on Retail Development

July 23rd, 2009 by Mandy Vavrinak

Co-authored by Rickey Hayes and Mandy Vavrinak
More and more cities and communities are realizing that growing their retail base wisely is an integral part of any balanced and long-term economic development strategy. Not every city can support extensive retail; overbuilding in some categories and areas has contributed to today’s economic woes in the retail sector. [...]

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Posted in Economic Development | No Comments »