Your Personal Marketing Accent

Marketing Musings

Every individual has some sort of accent, whether in their native language or that of a language they’ve learned; even Seattleites have an accent, albeit a very slight one. Regardless, there is something unique about how each and every person communicates.

When learning a new language, people usually pick up the accent of the region in which they’re living. I experienced this while learning Spanish in southeastern Spain while sharing an apartment with students from five other Spanish-speaking countries. I acquired distinct inflections unique to both the region I was in and the people I was spending time with.

OK—so how does this relate to marketing? People at Projectline come from a vast array of backgrounds. We all apply the inflections we’ve gained from our education, professional training, and outside experiences to our work. The rich diversity of these experiences helps us better translate our clients’ vision into marketing success—whether we’re assisting with content strategy, facilitating customer communities, or analyzing campaign data.

For me, the joy of marketing is that, much like language, it’s a dynamic, ever-evolving discipline. And, just like mastering a spoken language demands an appreciation for nuance, proficiency in marketing requires the ability to become conversant in its many genres. By creating a team that blends knowledge of the different categories or dialects of marketing—a team composed of people from all around the world who have different marketing skill sets—we’re able to flexibly meet a wider spectrum of client requests.

Projectline makes a distinct effort in recruiting individuals who can bring a unique accent to the team, creating opportunities to expand the shared knowledge we apply to every client engagement. Just as if I had learned only one dialect of Spanish, I wouldn’t be able to communicate as effectively with Spanish-speakers from different parts of the world, so do we emphasize a holistic approach when it comes to marketing fluency.

Fortunately—for both our clients and our work environment—each of our employees brings his or her own marketing accent to the table, providing the dynamic marketing flair that Projectline is known for. What kind of accent are you contributing to your company?

Chat with me about this or any other b2b marketing topic on Twitter @_samantha_smith.

Picture of the Week: Projectline Welcomes a New Recruiter to the Team

Pic of the Week

Every weekday morning at 10:42 am, our team is invited to send in a picture of where they are, what they’re doing, or who they’re with. We post our favorite picture from each week and share its story here.

10:42 May 7, 2012 - New recruiter, Crista and Laura in the Bellevue office

Meet new Projectline recruiter Crista (Saunders) Osher! She’ll be helping find new amazing Projectliners in Philadelphia, Seattle, Toronto and beyond. If you are a Marketing or Business Intelligence professional, you should connect with her on LinkedIn to get personal updates on open positions.

Weekly Roundup: 5/11/12

Marketing Musings

Welcome to the Projectline Weekly Roundup. We know that the week can move pretty fast. Since Fridays sometimes offer a chance for a breather, we wanted to share links to some of the articles we liked this week. As always, we’d love to get your take, so feel free to leave a comment or chat us up on Twitter. Happy reading and have a great weekend!

Weekly Roundup

Customer Engagement
7 Rules to Responding to Customers Online—Get tips on how to move beyond simply monitoring for brand references and replying with scripted responses. This post lays out the ingredients for an engagement strategy that’s focused squarely on improving the customer experience.

Social Media
Facebook to Brands: You’re Posting Stuff Wrong—Good reminder that, while it’s good to cultivate an authentic voice in social media, it’s important for businesses to keep comments relevant to the products and services they provide. Want to drive up “likes” and “shares?” Keep your posts fun and genuine, but don’t stray too far off topic.

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Google+: The (Not So) Little Social Network That Could

Marketing Musings

I’ve mentioned Google+ here and there on this blog, and I’ve used it a bit too, but I’m still a Facebook and Twitter guy (and increasingly a Pinterest and Instagram fan). I read an article a little while back that talks about how Google+ is actually doing OK in Google’s eyes. This is interesting because if you spend any amount of time on the Internet, you’ll no doubt hear Google+ as the punch line to many jokes. For example, if somebody posts to Google+, does it make a sound? In my experience, there’s some truth to these jabs. I’m connected to a good number of people in the social media world, but I don’t know very many Google+ power users.

The TechCrunch article poses another idea as to why Google+ is doing OK. Maybe Google only needs Google+ for the behind-the-scenes connections it creates between people. You don’t necessarily have to interact with somebody to make your connection to that person valuable. I am connected online to people I’ve never met and don’t communicate with, but the connection is still valuable. I’ve often wondered what Google+ is good for and I’m not sure I have an answer, but I do think I understand why Google might not care whether or not people spend tons of time on its social network.

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Projectline Awards First International Volunteer Travel Grant

News

In late January, Projectline announced its first International Employee Volunteer Travel Grant as an extension of its local volunteer program. Each year, the grant will give two Projectline employees the opportunity to travel abroad to help with a cause near and dear to their hearts.

Projectline’s first grant winner is Jessie Morris, a marketing consultant who has been with the company for nearly five years. “As soon as I heard of the opportunity, I knew it was something I had to do. I’m so excited and grateful for the opportunity Projectline has given not only to me, but to the people who will benefit from this volunteerism and the Projectliners who will receive this grant in the years to come. This is truly a unique opportunity and shows Projectline’s dedication to changing the world,” she says.

Jessie will be flying to northern Tanzania in July 2012 to volunteer with the Tamiha Foundation, a local nonprofit organization dedicated to addressing the HIV/AIDS epidemic and related issues. Tamiha serves its community with an orphanage, a vocational school for women, and HIV/AIDS awareness and support programs. Watch the video that Jessie put together to understand the importance of the work Tamiha is dedicated to.

In addition to volunteering in Tanzania, Jessie will be running her first full marathon to raise some much-needed money for the foundation. “It’s crazy to think about how such a small amount of money can go such a long way,” she says. “When you consider that it costs only US$150 to feed all 100 children at the orphanage for one month, it’s hard not to want to make a positive change and support the programs that are dedicated to changing so many people’s lives. Any amount—small or large—helps.”

To make your positive impact, please learn more about Jessie’s efforts and donate by visiting Hitting the Pavement for Tanzania.

Picture of the Week: Food for Creativity

Pic of the Week

Here at Projectline, we’ve recently started a project to capture all the places we work and bring together our team around the world. Every weekday morning at 10:42 am, our team is invited to send in a picture of where they are, what they’re doing, or who they’re with. Each Monday, we’ll choose our favorite picture of the previous week and share its story here.

10:42 May 1, 2012 - Client in the office for brainstorming meeting

Last week we had a guest in the office for some focused idea generation. This cadre is happy because they just found out that they could order lunch and have it delivered. It’s the little things. How do you keep up your momentum and focus when you need to be creative?

Weekly Roundup: 5/4/12

Marketing Musings

Welcome to the Projectline Weekly Roundup. We know that the week can move pretty fast. Since Fridays sometimes offer a chance for a breather, we wanted to share links to some of the articles we liked this week. As always, we’d love to get your take, so feel free to leave a comment or chat us up on Twitter. Happy reading and have a great weekend!

Weekly Roundup

Customer Engagement
Happy Customers Tell Their Stories—Live and In Person—Casey Hibbard wrote a great post about how best to use customer references in presentations. This a critical part of any customer reference program.

Social Media
SEO and Social Marketing Resources—This article provides some good links to other articles that talk about using SEO and social media marketing to build your business. Poke around some of the links, I’m sure you’ll learn something.

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