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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

Toss Out Your Social Media Metrics—Focusing too much on adding “fans” for the sake of boosting your social media metrics can do harm to your bottom line. This post talks about why businesses need to look past the numbers and pay more attention to connecting with customers.

Analytics
When Data Becomes a Consumer’s Best Friend—When it comes to buying a new TV or laptop, how do you do your research? This post talks about the science behind Seattle-based Decide.com, which helps you make data-driven decisions to optimize consumer electronics purchases.

Content Strategy
4 Steps to a More Strategic Approach to Content Management—Informative post for businesses trying to sort out which new social media platforms they should pay attention to. These straightforward tips provide insight into how to position content to handle whatever comes next on the web.

Projectline Posts
Google+: The (Not So) Little Engine That Could—In this post, Projectline social media consultant Brian Johnson looks into the potential future value of Google+.

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.

In 5 to 10 years, I don’t think we’ll be going to a dedicated site to do our social networking. It will be more ubiquitous than that. All of our devices will use the behind-the-scenes connections, and our online lives will be served up to us. I think this is what Google is going after—the long-term plan to establish those connections so that it can tie them into TVs, phones, tablets, and whatever other Google-connected devices we have by then. And as the article mentions, if Google+ can take advantage of the interest graph rather than the social graph, content sharing will become much more common. Your social graph is made up of people you know, like friends, family, coworkers, and neighbors. Often, those people share your interests, but sometimes they don’t. Your interest graph is made up of people who share your interests. You may or may not know them in real life.

I think this makes sense and I hope it happens. Isn’t the point of social media to keep us better connected to the people we know and>/i> to the people who are interested in the same things? Isn’t the point to make it easier for us to find the information we’re interested in? Is this the goal of Google+? Can Google tie it all together and just serve us content without the need to visit the Google+ website?

It looks like Google+ is doing just fine; the company recently gave Google+ an overhaul and announced that it has 170 million Google+ users. My prediction is that, in the near future, people will be using Google+ and not even know it, much like Google’s Android mobile operating system. For example, say you just fired up a video chat with your friend. It might be that Google is powering that video chat with Google+. That is how Google+ will continue to grow and expand.

In the grand scheme of social networking, I don’t think much will change with the continued growth of Google+. People are still going to use Facebook and Twitter, while they “use” Google+ at the same time. How does the saying go… a rising tide lifts all boats?

Are you a regular Google+ user? We’d love to hear your take on the future of Google+.

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.

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.

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?

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!

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.

Business Intelligence
End the Chaos: A Better Approach to Business Intelligence—This is a good piece about the bigger picture of business intelligence. Sometimes BI talk can get bogged down in numbers, but the author talks about collaboration for better business intelligence.

Big Data’s Big Problem: Little Talent—The buzz word du jour in business intelligence is big data. I think this is a refreshing article that doesn’t just look at the issues of unstructured data, but looks at the people who work with the data. You need smart people who can connect dots not just run spreadsheets.

Projectline Posts
Storytelling with Numbers—Tried of just seeing glazed eyes from her friends and colleagues, Anna Strickland wrote this blog post to show just how important data is and how cool it is. This is a great little read.

Projectline Volunteer Recap—Early spring has been a busy month for Projectline volunteer efforts. Carole Majouyrk wrote this recap post to collect all of the great things Projectliners have been working.

As part of Projectline’s mission to have a positive impact on its community, the team at Projectline’s European headquarters has joined forces with Volunteer Centre Westminster (VCW) to help increase awareness of the organisation and expand its volunteer base. Projectline will be offering expertise, such as social media consulting, case study production, and newsletter development, pro bono to VCW on a monthly basis.

Established in 1986, VCW works with anyone who wants to volunteer in the City of Westminster (their services cover the seven boroughs that make up Central London) and any organisation that wants to involve volunteers in these areas. Many of Projectline’s clients live and work in this area, providing an additional tie between Projectline and VCW.

“Volunteer Centre Westminster was the perfect organisation for our UK office to partner with in their volunteer efforts. Because the Projectline team is somewhat geographically distributed, volunteering remotely using the marketing skills they have at hand will allow a greater impact. We are happy that the administrators at VCW feel that they can use our services,” says Anika Lehde, Vice President at Projectline Services, Inc.

Projectline’s initial project was to review and make recommendations on a draft email survey that VCW plans to send to partners to gain more understanding of the value its services provide. A second project is now underway to produce case studies on the various initiatives that VCW has run. Projectline is committed to providing consistent time and effort each month to help VCW increase exposure of its volunteer opportunities.

If you live or work near the City of Westminster and are interested in learning more, follow VCW on Twitter. To learn more about Projectline and its commitment to community, follow Projectline on Twitter.

For more information on this story, contact Anais de Bourayne at Projectline or Dawn Newton at Volunteer Centre Westminster.

Sometimes when I tell people I work in data and analytics, I can actually see them stop listening. While I rapture on about how exciting it is to enable tracking of views, to the clicks and downloads of our client’s product or event pages, their eyes glaze over and their shoulders begin to droop. I get it. I really do. Data often seems big and foreign and too complicated to warrant our attention. It isn’t something most people feel a connection to.

It’s for this reason that I’ve been so interested in the emergence of a fresh type of data: personal analytics. Scientist Stephen Wolfram recently posted a blog that details the extensive records of his life he’s kept since 1989. The data is rich and tells a much deeper story than one might expect of a coordinate or bar graph. In these graphs, you see his life: his habit of staying up until 3:00A.M., the trip he took to Europe in the summer of 2009, and the break he takes for dinner with his family each evening.

Dan Meyer has collected similar data, compiled yearly into his “Annual Report” and animated into a video clip that I highly recommend watching (see below). His report, which at first glance is not much more than a collection of lists of the beer he drinks and friends he texts, shares a quality with Wolfram’s data—although narrow in scope, they are expansive in terms of insight. There is much to gather and derive from the information presented, even if at face value it seems mundane or trivial.

Wolfram and Meyer are storytellers. In my role as a Campaign Desk Coordinator at Projectline, I am also a storyteller. Our clients might spend countless hours and millions of dollars on their marketing, but it is up to us to turn that effort into something measurable. While we certainly aren’t creative with the numbers, it does take a creative mind to discern the best way of tracking and assessing results. One of the exciting ways we’ve been doing this lately is with the use of Combination and Redirect URLs. My team generates these links, which enable us to paint a picture of the effectiveness of a given campaign. This journey is immensely important to our clients, who need to know how to best spend their limited budget to drive event registration/attendance or trial-offer downloads. In the same way that Wolfram and Meyer are tracking their lives, we are tracking the lifespan of a campaign. Discovering the story within the data—and giving that story a voice—is one of the most gratifying parts of my job.

Maybe data analysis isn’t glamorous, but what it lacks in superficial sparkle, it makes up for in deep, well-earned patina. Reach out to me on Twitter or send me an email if you want to wax poetic about data with me. Or, to learn more about Projectline Marketing Operations, click here.

Each month, a group of individuals (both Projectliners and friends of Projectline) come together to put their skills to good use by volunteering at a local organization. Each organization and the tasks we complete are different, and meet different needs within the community.

In February, we saw our largest turnout in over a year as we rolled up our sleeves and sorted clothes at the West Seattle Helpline’s donation center. More than 25 individuals lent their energy and determination to the effort. The result? We finished the sorting and organizing in half the time! This project directly supported the West Seattle Helpline Clothesline program, which provides support to families in need of clothes. For more information about the other services that this organization provides, please visit http://www.wshelpline.org. http://www.wshelpline.org.

March reunited our volunteers with Northwest Harvest, a non-profit food bank distributor operating statewide in Washington with a network of over 325 food banks, meal programs, and high-need schools. The food bank receives bulk donations that require sorting and repackaging before they are distributed. Our volunteers worked alongside volunteers from other local organizations to sort and repackage food, which will be distributed to those in need. To learn more about the mission and advocacy efforts of Northwest Harvest, visit http://www.northwestharvest.org.

In May, Projectline volunteers will assist the Northwest Organization for Animal Help (NOAH), which is dedicated to stopping the euthanasia of healthy, adoptable, and treatable homeless dogs and cats in Washington State. Volunteers will be doing a variety of things, including trimming branches, landscaping, raking leaves, cleaning the kennels and parking lot, and other general chores. They’ll also get a chance to visit with the animals, of course.

While the time commitment and energy needed to participate in our events is minimal, the combined effort of our volunteers makes an impact on the organizations we support, and on the community at large. If you’re thinking of volunteering, please watch for future events or contact ivolunteer@projectlineinc.com to find out how you can get involved.

There’s still time to sign up for our May outing at NOAH. If you’re interested, please RSVP on our Facebook page.

“No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.”
-Aesop