I hear the terms “best practices” and “think-outside-the-box” quite a bit, from colleagues, to vendors, to clients. The problem is, even though I hear them in the same sentence, they are exact opposites. “Best practices” is a set of standard to be applied to any scenario, in other words: a cookie cutter solution, or an off-the-rack suit. “Outside-the-box” thinking is a new solution not based on existing standards, a custom suit. While I often find that clients and vendors say “outside-the-box”, they don’t really mean it, they mean something clever that is still very much in-the-box. I get it. I don’t blame them, an economy like the current one isn’t exactly a fertile place for people to take risks.

“Best practices” is a bit more disturbing. The term is being used as a value proposition or a differentiator more and more. The problem is that the world has changed. Social media has changed it. I’m not talking about Twitter and Facebook, or any of the technological aspects of social media, I’m talking about users. How a consumer interacts with a brand or vendor has changed, not just online, but in every facet of their lives. Consumers want communications on their terms. Users won’t just watch your commercial and go to your stored to make their purchase. They’ll Google for reviews, they compare prices, they’ll tweet for feedback, they jump to another brand because they had a better mobile site or switch stores because they got a coupon in the mail that day. People understand the power of the Internet and understand that they can get personalized attention. That understanding has led them to be more critical of customer service not just online or by phone but in brick and mortar stores.

How do you stand by “best practices” when there is so much diversity in the abilities, needs, and desires of your audience? How do you do it when your brand is not like other brands? I read a recent blog on “best practices” that claimed the optimal screen size for a web site’s design should be 1024×768. Well, my mother’s computer would only support 800×600, my go to web browser is 320×356. So, which is  the standard? The fact is, none are. Lazy developers, designers, and marketers like to fall back on “best practices” so they don’t have to do the work of getting to know their audience, or to avoid developing multiple options for different audiences. This blog is set up for 1024×768 as well as 320×356. That’s because I know my audience has a fairly new computer (2-3 years old) or a mobile device.

This is just an example of the problem with “best practices” from a technical web design standpoint, now think about social media. Twitter has a great deal of trouble telling us how many active users they have. Some access Twitter via www.twitter.com, others through any number of third party sites, desktop and mobile apps, and some through SMS. If this creates a nightmare of technical issues, think about the millions that use Twitter, their interests, their lifestyle, their content, their intentions, their networks. Think about the idea of transparency. That’s a big buzz word among social media experts. It is claimed to be one of the tenants of social media best practices. I just had a lengthy discussion (lengthy for Twitter anyway) with another Boston social media strategist about content of social media. He claimed that venting publicly about your insecurities was a sure way to lose business. In that respect, transparency is not a best practice, clearly you should not be transparent about your insecurities. But as another user commented, this is hypocritical. The originator of the comment claimed that it was fine for Twitter but not for a corporate blog (though Senator McCain would probably disagree with transparency on Twitter being okay). Even just in this one opinion there are significant differences in what is considered best practices on Twitter and best practices on a blog. However, if you’ve found that being honest and open is actually goof for business, how does best practices apply? It doesn’t.

The fact is that everyone is becoming a marketer, if not for their business, then for themselves. And everyone is a consumer, even businesses. Each has to define it’s own strategy according to it’s audience, goals, mission statement, desires, etc. What works for some on Twitter doesn’t work for others on Twitter. Your Facebook widget isn’t going to work on QZone. What feels comfortable for some individuals and brands in social media, doesn’t sit well with others. A soft-sell marketing strategy works for some industries but not others.

So, take your “best practices” and put them back “in-the-box” where they belong because some times you DO have to reinvent the wheel.

                          

Failing to Plan = Planning to Fail.

Don’t fall into the trap of jumping into a campaign or execution without proper planning. Engine East wants to make sure the proper research has been done and a cohesive plan is laid out first. If you don’t have one, that’s our specialty. Even if you plan on taking execution in house or to another agency, let Engine East help insure that you have a proper plan of attack.

When you’re ready for us to help you strategize, Connect With Us!

                          

The Devil is in the Details.

Engine East is proud of the fact that we can conceive it and create it. Engine East’s designers have won awards for web design, video production, mobile design, direct mail. We’ve had great success stories that have included fantastic, measurable ROI for non-visual execution in social media. We don’t just dream it, we build it. The following is a list of our executional services:

Traditional

• direct mail
• corporate identity
• corporate and sales collateral
• brand guide development
• presentations
• signage
• advertising
• direct mail
• trade show environments and collateral
• copy writing

Video

• television commercials
• trade, event, and internal video
• show titles
• web video
• web streaming setup and management
• 3D and 2D motion graphics

Online

• web site design and development
• email campaign design, content, and execution
• SEO
• online ads
• Flash presentations
• landing pages
• mobile design
• games
• press releases
• copy writing

Social/New Media

• branding elements
• online and video assets
• social network site and channel branding and management
• widgets and apps
• ARGs
• experiential campaigns

When you’re ready for us to help you execute, Connect With Us!

                          

Measure Twice. Cut Once.

Marketing communications, especially in the online world moves quickly. What worked last year doesn’t work this year. What worked last week wont’ work today. For all of the strategizing and planning, it is important to continuously measure results. It allows you to constantly tweak your engagement to take advantage of new opportunities, trends, and to avoid pitfalls.

When you’re ready for us to help you measure, Connect With Us!

                          

Social Media is not the be all and end all of marketing. Despite it’s current buzz, it is not new and shouldn’t replace traditional marketing as much as it should augment it. Not all marketing should be “part of the conversation”. Television, radio, direct mail and aspects of online marketing are all very effective ways to spread your message, all of which can of course be reinforced with social media.

At Engine East we know social media and we know traditional and online marketing. Our team has won awards for video, PR, web, and mobile campaigns and projects. When the strategy calls for one-to-many marketing, Engine East can help you like it has helped our other clients.

When you’re ready for us to help you broadcast, Connect With Us!

                          

One-to-one marketing is as old as language. The technological advances that brought us to Social Media have not changed the game, they’ve just made it easier to manage and measure. Engine East is not new to Social Media, since Social Media is not new. Our team first leveraged Social Media in the mid-90s. We’re happy that it’s buzz among brands is making it an easier sell and the tools are making it easier to track.

When your brand is ready to undertake a social media strategy, whether it’s a short campaign or to develop your brand guide’sSocial Media guidelines, Engine East is here to help. We’ve helped clients like Reebok, Vermont Teddy Bear, NBC, Kabloom, and the Boston Bruins launch themselves successfully into the Social Media environment and we can help you to. Social Networks are like foreign countries: to navigate them smoothly you need to understand the culture and the language. We speak Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, Ning, FourSquare…..

When you’re ready for us to help you converse, Connect With Us!

                          

There has been a long misconceived notion that companies controlled their brand. A company can control the intent of it’s brand, that is to say, how they market themselves, what they stand for, and how they want to be perceived, but that is all. Perception is in the hands of the public. Whether you think you’re the best in your industry or not is based on where your customers put you on a scale of 1-10. You may intend to be thought of as green, but the press may find otherwise.

So, it is how you manage your brand’s intent that counts and the best way to do that is to listen to what the public is saying about you. Because, they’ve already been talking about you, for a long time. Social Media provides companies with an excellent first hand opportunity to measure their brand’s perception in the eyes of consumers and the media.

When you’re ready for us to help you observe, Connect With Us!