Just got an email from adoptasky.org. It looked like spam but the subject line interested me, Adopt A Sky Project, so I kept it in my follow up folder only to open it up just recently. The point of the site is to bring attention to saving our environment, more specifically, our air. Startling stats, strong visuals and the possiblity to buy a piece of the sky (on the website) is an unusual and pointed way to bring interest and visitors to the site. Take a look and buy, buy buy (it’s free) so you can save our skies.

Speaking of websites, one of our clients has put out an RFP to redo their website. Instead of creating a website for them, we are working as consultants (our choice) to help them weed through the process. Because of our work, the new (or old, may the best agency win) web developers must provide video capability, a blog (which is already up and running), SEO, and other interactive elements for now and for the future. Nothing too crazy here…you would think this is pretty common stuff at this point but you would also be amazed at how many web developers say they can do it all yet they can’t. Some only know flash so SEO is compromised, some do a great design but the backend is dated the minute the site is live, some know web development and think the blog application is the same but it isn’t…the list goes on and on (trust me, I have experienced this firsthand). With all of the options available on the web, the designers are falling behind (not all of course) and relying on old platforms and non existent stat packages which is not OK.

When shopping for your new website, you must ask for SEO (search engine optimization) in all of its forms, a blog if you have the time, video if you can make it happen and an eccommerce element that is designed well and easy to navigate. The world moves quickly so you have to catch up…that is what our clients are paying us for. Advice, choices that have room to grow and a design that is streamlined with the corporate branding! This is what we provide for our clients!

We are very happy to bring on our newest client Sweet Rexies which is a small candy store with big ambitions.

Sweet Rexies, with a floor-to-ceiling wall of sweet delights, is much more than a sweet shop. Nanci Lewis, owner, has made this family destination in Norwalk, CT into the #1 Birthday party venue for kids (the numerous awards speak for themselves). Nanci has also provided us with funky high quality gifts and clothes for our children in addition to expanding into the corporate sector as well as weddings by providing clients with everything from favors to gift baskets that are over the top fun.

Big plans are in the works for Sweet Rexies that include online adventures and cross country hikes so stay tuned and see what is next for this candy store that is so much more!

Ever produced a corporate video that has a consumer pull? We have and it’s on the Bigelow Tea blog here.

Well, I would like to say that for this very brief moment, we at Creative Concepts can take a breath. We have caught up from the Business Smart Tools Conference which was very exciting, we have reached out to many present and future clients, and we are sitting back and watching a bit to see where we are going and how we are getting there…summer is good for that.

One trend or direction for us started with blogging and is now moving towards social networks. In my mind, they are one in the same with a slight technical difference. I am a huge fan of blogging as many of your know. It is a place where the corporate sector can provide solid content for their fans, they can control the messaging which is a big deal for the more dated mind set of managing the image every step of the way, and the walls are removed between management and the customer through the comment section. So cool…a web tool with legs to stand on!

I believe social networks have the similiar mindset. Now when I say social networks, I mean like myspace, facebook, linkedin and such and when I refer to “working” social networks, I don’t mean posting an ad on the homepage and hoping people get it although many ads on the homepage of myspace are pretty cool. What I mean by “working” social networks, I mean reaching out to new friends/contacts, I mean entering the forums and speaking for the company we represent (with full disclosure of course). We submit questions and answers in a low key way, we are part of the group…we aren’t out selling, we are truly making friends. It takes a lot of work and attention to detail but in my mind, it is the best way to reach out to a whole new generation and a whole new group of people period.

Many of the conferences I have attended don’t talk about this stuff (I have heard a lot about viral marketing and digital ads) but our clients are very interested in the concept of online communities. Business wants to talk to their people, and our clients (and potential clients) want to be a part of a group much like the people on the social networks already.

It’s all very interesting and it keeps us on our toes.

I am off now to visit with TheNewsMarket which is a video distribution channel that in my mind, so far anyway, makes sense!

Until next time!!

Well between working on the conference and managing clients, we have been busy but happy.

The most exciting client news is that Bigelow Tea has a myspace profile.  We discovered that the 2nd highest referring source to the Bigelow Tea website was myspace and so we wanted those already on myspace to have a Bigelow destination.  Between the groups/forums, announcing events and just getting to know new people, it has been a joy and well, a little addictive!  We look forward to welcoming many more into the Bigelow online community.

Now news about the Business Smart Tools Conference.  As I was reworking the agenda for about the millionth time yesterday, I got this rush of excitement.  Outside of organizing this event and be involved on that level, I couldn’t wait to attend the conference.  Panels/Speakers will speak about Trends, Past and Future, New Media Business Basics, Corporate Video for a YouTube Era, Second Life, a Virtual Existence for Business and The Real Story, Does New Media Work for Business featuring GE, Xerox, Economist.com and GM.

Now with a light lunch and a networking cocktail party to follow, it doesn’t get any better than this!!

Go to www.BusinessSmartTools.com to register….space is filling up!

Went to Podcamp NYC and had a great time.  Talked about all the reasons why a company should blog:  search engine optimization, reach out to new and old clients and create a community, auto PR when bloggers like your product/service and finally blogging as a crisis management tool.

Well last week, one of my clients, Bigelow Tea, used their blog for just this reason, to manage a crisis. 

I felt that a well established blog with loyal readers would be the spring board for keeping the lid on the media and would prevent clients from loosing faith when managing a serious situation.  This still may be so, but what I observed with Bigelow is that the blog was used first as a communication tool.  Their first official statement hit the blog and the press took notice from there.  Statements going forward were posted on the blog and these weren’t corporate speak statements.  These were heartfelt, behind the scenes, I am doing the best I can, statements from the co-President Cindi Bigelow.  You may not have agreeed with her (and many didn’t) but you had to hand it to her, she laid out her dilemma honestly and was responding directly to the blog comments and emails pouring in from the main website.  The fact that Cindi had the blog to communicate and reach out to others on her own terms was what helped Bigelow Tea get through their situation honestly and humanly which, and time will tell about this one, should only bring loyalty from old and new clients!

The second interesting thing about the blog as a crisis management tool was that many didn’t even read what Cindi said, they came to speak their mind based on what they heard in the press (and the press didn’t get the story right half of the time and you would know this if you read the blog entries).  It was the one place where the commentors weren’t censored…the one place where they could go to vent and they knew they were being heard.  A community was created as divided as they were.

So my belief in blogs is deeper than before.  Blogs, in my mind, are not just a “new” media tool or a social networking pastime…this is real stuff that is here to stay.  A forum and a tool whose mere structure is, will and should be the backbone of every web presence for the corporate sector!

Our local Connecticut Post reported today on how to use a blog for marketing purposes featuring the Bigelow Tea blog and the Cruise Resort & World Travel Inc. blog with a couple of words from Creative Concepts.

Check it out here.

Well this week and last have been bustling and fun!  Here are some of the projects and visits with present and potential clients:

First we did a major hustle and got the Cruise Resort & World Travel blog up and running.  We announced an award and posted a press release while Nancy, the blog owner was traveling in Viet Nam, Bangkok and Singapore and posted her observations.  We have information about Nancy, contact information for booking a luxury travel vacation and a press page with links.  We have a blog roll that supports the visitors’ need for travel information from flight stats to where to work out in the US when traveling.  Look for more to come with this exciting blog from an luxury travel agency owner who knows and experiences the world!

For a site that I thought was maintaining status quo, one of the principals called with vim and vigor and wanted to rev things up…letters out to customers, expand the topics of the blog posts, reach out to peers….it has been easy to support The Orthodontic Center, a site that supports 2 blogs where both blogs have a different agenda and different readers.

Next I was on to visit Ruth Ridgeway whose site is about to go live next week so check back on this link.  Ruth is a hard working feisty event designer who knows how to please her clients and make something out of nothing when it comes to a party.  Her site is awesome…we are about to add some video so bookmark her site for future visits.

I then worked through the details of two more sites that are going to be awesome…both have blogs, both communicate well with potential site visitors…stay tuned…you know I will tell you something when there is something to show.

And to add to all of this, I went this week to visit a potential client.  The principal is bright, energetic and creative but still afraid of what a blog is and can do (search engine optimization, crisis management, networking to name a few!).  Many in the corporate arena think a blog is dangerous and out of control.  Dangerous, no, out of control, yes, in a great way. 

Take a look at the Bigelow Blog.  This is a prime example of a corporate blog hard at work and working well for the company (500% increase in visitors from last month).  The President (Cindi), the VP Sales (Bob) and the VP of manufacturing (Dean) all contribute to the blog plus we back them up with studies and web finds on the benefits and facts of tea.  They have a strong community outreach plus they were a featured weightloss team on ABC Primetime live…all fodder for the blog.  The fact that Joe Torre, Phil and Chris Simms drink Green Tea doesn’t hurt either…Bob blogs about them especially when they came to headquarters recently for a visit.  A corporate blog requires the CEO or head of the organization to be open with a sense of adventure and dedication and that is Cindi Bigelow to a TEA!  She is ready to head out the door to bring on new customers…stay tuned for more exciting developments from Bigelow Tea.

All of this coupled with the excitement of the Business Smart Tools conference which is coming in May.  Amazing and knowledgeable speakers plus demo companies (tech startups that are geared toward business) and the BST angel award where judges award the one start up that shows the most promise with consulting time from management and tech gurus…it is truly a show to behold and one that has solid content where you walk away satisifed and well fed with information that can change how you work today.  Check out the Business Smart Tools Blog for updates.

We at Creative Concepts have been busy with the best yet to come…look for more adventures in the not so far future.

For those of you who are in the midst of overseeing and guiding the corporate blog, has anyone ever put on the blog a “how to” section?  As we have pulled out of the gate with the Bigelow Blog, many of the visitors who are coming over from the main Bigelow website have never seen or been active on a blog.  The first way to alienate anyone is by presenting something that no one understands and so we have posted a “how to” section to help explain the many facets of the blog (entries, comments, how to comment, categories…).  It is a simple thing but necessary.  As we all become more immersed in this online world, don’t forget that there is a large majority of people out there who don’t get it or maybe they get it but they don’t know how to work it!

Speaking of this premise, this is the idea behind the Business Smart Tools Conference.  Business people everywhere have heard of blogs, podasts, RSS, and many other online tools, but they may not know how to use them when it comes to futhering their corporate strategies.  We provide the speakers who are in the thick of things, we provide a time to learn, we provide a time to chat and connect, we provide live demos of upstart companies who will make a difference in the corporate arena.  We do all of this in one day, in 6 hours, in Connecticut.  Who can ask for anything better than that!!

On a more local note than Disney, I headed over to the offices of the Fairfield Metro Center for a light cocktail party this evening.  What a project that is going to be between corporate and retail and a train station…it will change Fairfield in a great way!

Ran into a good friend, Michael from DesignSite.  He and his buddy Joe are making it big with podcasting in the music industry…more specifically Capitol Records.  They created The Pet Sounds 40th anniversary podcast series.  It got a crazy big number of hits on iTunes..check it out.

It has also been a big day of blogging and websites.  Working with a host now where we are having problems uploading a simple blog design for a corporate client.  They are working hard at solving the problem but come on..my client is waiting…other solutions are waiting in the wings on Friday that is for sure.

Bigelow Tea sent out an email blast today to 49,500 of their biggest supporters….56.41% of the visitors to their blog were new today…love those multi level communications to get the word out…blogging, email and search engine press releases (those are coming)…you can’t get any better than that.

Ok, I am done for the day!