Blog Posts

Designers are pretentious. We’re also arrogant. We’re belligerent. We wear black-framed glasses and spike our hair for no other reason than because we’re supposed to. We have a pre-defined sneer for every occasion, and we affix them to our mugs with unabashed pride. We’re ornery, ill-tempered, cantankerous snots with permanently sour attitudes that seep into and corrode everything we do while negatively affecting every person we come into contact with.

That’s a stereotype that’s not totally unfounded, but it’s also not entirely accurate.

The mobile app. It’s sexy. It’s slick. Everybody wants one.

It’s no wonder. When you see the unbelievable success of games like Angry Birds raking in cash by way of millions upon millions of downloads, you’d be a fool not to tap into that market. Right? It’s the new gold rush. It’s the de facto way to make a name for yourself and promote your product to an enormous audience that continues to expand in size every second of the day. It’s not just that you want an app; you need an app. You need one now. RIGHT NOW!

Maybe.

Companies large and small often benefit from publicity because it raises awareness and lends credibility to their brand. However, publicity isn’t always easy to come by because it requires you to create a newsworthy hook and attract the interest of reporters. Here are a few things you can do to become newsworthy and generate publicity for your organization.

What comes to mind when you see the BP logo? Being “green?” Conservation? A sunflower-shaped beacon of energy that casts its loving rays of nurturing warmth over you, knowing that by filling your car with BP’s syrupy, magical goodness you’re making the world a better place? That you are, in fact, saving the world?

Nearly one year ago this week, an oil rig located 50 miles off the coast of Louisiana exploded into flames, killing 11 workers. As a result, millions of barrels of oil gushed into the Gulf of Mexico over the course of three months, and the event became known as the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history.

Finding yourself unable to stop snacking on unhealthy foods at work? Join the club. The office environment breeds trouble with the amount of stress, longs days and people leaving calorie-laden snack food out to share with everyone. If you’re ready to get back on the wagon, here are five tips to help you curb your on-the-job snacking habits.

How do you establish a solid presence on the web? Again, it’s not a hard-and-fast formula. Everyone has different needs and objectives. But there are common foundational elements that go into building an effective and engaging website for your business. The following ten tips will set you on the right path.

You’ve probably noticed those odd little black-and-white squares with what appears to be digital gibberish packed within their frames popping up in magazine ads, Best Buy stores and billboards. Those are QR codes, or quick response codes. They’ve been around since the mid-nineties when they were initially used to track automobile parts during the manufacturing process, but we’ve only recently started to see them appear in marketing and advertising campaigns. They’re continually becoming more common and more popular as marketers and smart phone users alike reap their benefits.

The emergence of social media has opened up a world of opportunity for nonprofits to build stronger connections with key stakeholders and broaden their reach. But when it comes to going digital, limited time and resources leave individuals at many of these organizations feeling clueless and overwhelmed. If you work or volunteer for a nonprofit, and you’re serious about using social media to your full advantage, here are eight things you need to know before getting started.