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Dec 22

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Vermont Small Business Social Media Services Made Simple

Just Say No To Mediocrity.

When a potential Vermont small business client approaches me with ample buzzwords, excitement and expectations for taking over the internet in his or her industry or location thanks to social media my first task is to get a read on whether their goals are in line with the amount of time, effort or money they plan to allocate to reaching those goals. 

Often times since many social media tools are free, there is a sense that it’s cake. Magic will happen automatically with little effort, time or skills. All they’ll need to do is show up at the party and promote their business. If only it were that simple. Many are initially staring at a recipe for mediocrity and little results for their efforts. Or worse, potentially wasted efforts that get abandoned down the road. I start to fix this right away. Read more

Dec 17

Happy Holidays From the Kaufman Family! (video)

Sorry USPS. 

We changed our mind. After a few weeks of talking about taking a special Christmas photo of our daughter Kaylin in order to print and send Holiday cards, we did this instead. Used the various photos and point-n-shoot vids on the home camera. It’s greener, makes for a memory reel to watch for years, and features the most popular member of the family that everyone wants to see. Happy Holidays!

Read more

Dec 11

newsflash
1 Comment

*NEWSFLASH* Press Releases Should Get You Press

Be Relevant.

Recently I did some press release work for Mt. Abram Ski Area in Maine.

The announcement is getting some nice coverage helped along by attracting Associated Press interest. (Link is now out of date – but it was to many mainstream news outlets covering this news announcement, helped along by AP pickup.)

If your news releases are mostly netting you a few internet cut-and-pastes, then consider some professional help. You likely need to refine your message and timing to be more useful to media outlets. It may also be time to strip your marketing copy from your media relations.

Bonus tip: don’t oversend press releases turning your brand into more of an annoying pest rather than a trusted source. Restraint is a key component of media relations in today’s noisy news climate.


Contact info and testimonials. I’m for hire ya’ll.

Dec 5

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Testing Out New Equipment – Vermont Video Solutions

Cameras don’t make videos. People do. Well, sort of.

I just recently got my hands on a new Canon XA10 and have outfitted myself with three different microphones, a new tripod and found a used camera bag that will hold all the cords and cables as well. There’s always a learning curve when you upgrade to new equipment and the fastest way up that curve in my experience is to watch tutorials and put the equipment to use in the field. We are now underway!

Tight editing keeps viewers watching.

I generally have three primary deliverables as far as video is concerned:

  1. Marketing driven storytelling that focuses on turning unstaged real life and real people into tightly edited and entertaining videos across your online channels. Any topic.
  2. Business overviews to allow for customers to “press play” on your homepage and learn it all.
  3. Newsy segments from either a journalistic or branded point of view. Read more

Dec 1

Kaylin displays her LEGOS
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Vermont Toddler Officially Enters LEGO Period of Development

FOR SATIRICAL RELEASE

Vermont Toddler Announces LEGOS as Next Phase of Master Development Plan

New strategic direction aimed at establishing market dominance in motor skills, color identification and improving quality of construction

(December 1, 2011) Moretown, Vt. – Further establishing herself as a market leader in the toddler development industry, Kaylin Kaufman, 14 months, of Moretown, Vt. is making official her dedication to LEGO products as part of her Master Development Plan (MDP). This mutually beneficial relationship is slated to continue through at least 2014 with an option to renew based upon the parental purchase of new LEGOS.

Kaylin displays her LEGOS

The next phase of Kaylin's MDP - LEGOS.

Read more

Nov 29

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Naming Your Video For Relevant and Ongoing SEO Results

Pressing record is step one.

You did it. You made a video. You’re going to put it online and the world will be your oyster. Not so much.

Youtube is a search engine of its own and one that holds very high regard in the older brother Google. It’s basically two search engines. Not able to get first page penetration for your site on Google for your desired keywords? You may have better luck getting first page via a video or at least good ranking in video search results. But how?

Name that puppy with a purpose. We’ve all seen “Yellowbus.mp4″ video titles being uploaded and shared by well intentioned marketeers. After the time is spent concepting, shooting, editing, rendering and uploading, missing the final step of dressing up your video with a keyword relevant title, a description with a link to your website and lots of relevant tags, means the overall ROI of your time and effort is being compromised. Don’t compromise yourself. That’s bad. Read more

Nov 26

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10 Email Marketing Tips – Think Like Your Recipient

Send Them An Email They Will Open.

 Regardless of the shnazzy graphics, marketing copy and calls to action you bake into your one time or ongoing email marketing campaigns, your time and effort could all be for not if you are not willing to think like your recipient prior to deployment. Send an email you might open yourself (if you were your audience).

  1. Open rates are low. You want them to be higher. Edit yourself. Be interesting, relevant and brief in the subject line. This is not a spot for repeating the name of your company (it’s in the from field anyway), but rather to make the reader curious and expecting more than an advertisement. Read more

Nov 18

Do Facebook Better

10 Quick and Easy Facebook Fixes For Small Business

Do better.

We’ve all seen them. Brands that could/should have valuable and growing online tribes that are equivalent to third party marketing bullhorns. Sadly, the simple realities of how social media operates is not part of that brand’s delivery in the online space. Offering direct tips to help them can even be seen as threatening, so it just marches on. We’ll talk about obvious fixes for email marketing, twitter, your blog, your video and your website in future posts. Let’s start with Facebook content.

  1. Post less. Once per day max. Twice if you have actual breaking news to fit in. Relevancy drops due to over posting meaning your info is seen by less and less of your fanbase. Read more

Nov 16

Vermont Marketing Solutions

Modern Marketing in VT – Strategy – Delivery – Training

Marketing has changed.

Are you riding the new wave of opportunity effectively and in a resource smart way?

Traditional marketing agencies are great for long term projects like brochure creation/distribution, managing ad buys and re-brandings. What they do less well is help your business evolve into the new relevancy based marketing climate built upon quick thinking and ongoing multimedia communications.

What wins online is targeted listening, ongoing relevancy and speed. It’s noisy out there. Only relevant brands stay top of mind and gain market share.  This requires one of two systems in place.

  • A capable person or team dedicated to and skilled at piloting your content initiatives and building relationships within your customer base and influencers/media.
  • Hiring someone to train your staff and/or do it for you.

Integrating this effort into your overall marketing strategy is modern day marketing and PR. It’s not just posting stuff to your social sites. It’s about building relationships with customers, media and influencers and growing the number of all of them. A bedrock business goal you’ve likely had since day one. It’s worth doing well. Either to catch up to your competition or get ahead of them. Having profiles and posting stuff is better than not, but it is the lowest common denominator. You’re better than that. Let’s get you a purpose and the tailored means to dominate.

I bring 10 years of content marketing and PR experience both as a freelancer and marketing manager for some of the nation’s largest ski areas. I’ll open up my brain for your business for the low cost of lunch. Maybe there will be a reason to work together, maybe not. Let’s find out.

Businesses that I work with typically select one of these services:

  • Half day staff training sessions on various modern marketing topics.
  • Social media development/management. Content, voice, advertising, updates.
  • Web video production.
  • Press release strategy and writing.
  • Marketing budget analysis.
  • SEO guidance and blogging purpose.
  • Crisis communications and change management consulting.
  • Marketing and communications solutions tailored to business.

See the “about” page for contact info and testimonials. Then let’s eat. Your business will thank you.

Nov 11

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2011 Boston Ski and Snowboard Hype Mission via Storify

  1. “
    Unplugging and loading up. Follow @skisnowexpo for live coverage from #bostonski. Will commence in a few hours.
    Alex Kaufman
    November 10, 2011 9:09:47 AM EST
  2. “
    See you There RT @Kaufmanwithak Unplugging & loading up. Follow @skisnowexpo for live coverage from #bostonski. Will commence in few hours.
    Tim Kelley NECN
    November 10, 2011 9:28:07 AM EST
  3. “
    Just a heads up to @necn @bostondotcom @bostonskiupdate Read more
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