Blog
Welcome! Join us to explore our thoughts on publishing, marketing, and customer service, as well as new technologies and ideas to make your next project soar!
Feels Great To Be Eight!
Today Monarch Media turns eight! We are so thankful and happy to have such a wonderful group of clients. Our team, including the mighty Sabrina Blackwell, and our many incredible colleagues, makes this business a joy, not a job. Cheers!
Clip Happy with Issuu Clip
Issuu, a top online publishing software company, released a new feature today that has us clipping with joy! Check out this short video to see the new clipping tool in action. Issuu Clip lets you share and comment on any part of a publication that inspires you. Readers can select and share any piece of content from within a publication, dramatically extending its reach as readers distribute the content they love across their individual social networks. This means audiences will grow as new readers discover publication clips on Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and more.
I tried it using The Modern Jewish Wedding’s 2013 e-magazine and I have to say it’s intuitive and fun–especially if you are a Pinterest addict! Happy clipping everyone!
— Andrea Exter, Cofounder, Monarch Media & Consulting, Inc.
Sponsorship ROI
Has your company ever sponsored an event only to find you are amongst many other sponsor logos competing for the same attention from attendees? If you’ve been an event sponsor, you know what I’m talking about. More companies are measuring their sponsorship ROI which is challenging given the standard model of sponsorship benefits. For decades, sponsorship packages have been dictated by the event host or association: “Here is the price; here are the benefits. Would you like to sponsor?” With the resurgence of ROI, the standard sponsorship offering must change to a benefit that can be measured. Jeff Hurt goes into more detail about how the game is changing in his article “The Wrong Way To Approach Conference Sponsorship.”
Hurt introduces three things ROI-driven sponsors are looking for – “Making attendee engagement easier; making the attendee experience better; providing something that the attendee values.” If you put sponsors face to face with attendees and sales conversions occur, then ROI can be measured. It puts the sponsor in the driver seat, meaning the association has to give up some control of things if they want to continue to see sponsor dollars for their events. The question is, will this new way of thinking prevail or will the same old way of doing things prevail? I would encourage you the next time your are asked to be sponsor to apply the three points above and see if you can determine benefits that will allow you to measure your ROI. I know I will. If you have suggestions on sponsor benefits that can be measured, please leave them here as a comment.
— Chellie Thompson, Cofounder, Monarch Media & Consulting, Inc.
Earth Day Reminders
Earth Day came and went in my house, and to be honest I didn’t think much about it. I recycle, grow a few vegetables in my backyard, set my thermostat on a decent temperature, turn off lights and office from my home. As my hippie nephew says, ”My aunt composts and she doesn’t even live in 78704.” I guess that makes me a trendsetter in my neck of the woods. Then on Earth Day my 5-year-old daughter came home from school sporting a wonderfully colored picture of the earth and explained how they collected trash around their school. She even rummaged through our recycling bin collecting items of trash, which she meticulously placed throughout the backyard and then proceeded to demonstrate how they collected trash in honor of Earth Day. She found it quite entertaining and this scenario played out over and over for a good hour. Earth Day left an impression on her.
This article by Samantha Whitehorne with Associations Now talks about ways to make meetings and events more “green.” Living in Austin, we are very familiar with the term “green,” but I was still surprised by some of the statistics mentioned in this article. For example, “the Green Meeting Industry Council estimates that $12,000 is saved when water is served in pitchers instead of bottles during a three-day conference and that up to $40,000 in transportation costs can be eliminated if planners choose hotels within walking distance of meeting venues.” Who knew that such simple changes could save thousands of dollars for associations? Samantha goes on the mention a few more ideas, but I’ll let you check those out on your own. Do you currently have green practices in place for your conference or meetings? We’d love to hear your ideas!
— Chellie Thompson, Cofounder, Monarch Media & Consulting, Inc.
Print Versus Digital – Can you have one without the other?
Do I need a digital offering for my publication? We get this question when talking with our association clients, and I happened upon a good pros and cons list on OmniPress. Daniel de la Cruz sums it up nicely.
The most basic explanation to this question is this: Readers consume information differently, so having multiple options will reach across preferences, demographics and generations. Some information is better suited for print and other for digital, but have a nice mix of both. How do you determine which data is better received in print versus digital? Survey! As de la Cruz says, “Use surveys to gain understanding of how your membership prefers to consume content.” Such a simple concept. With ample online survey resources, this should be a fairly painless process, but a very beneficial one! Do you currently survey your readers? What have been some interesting survey results?
— Chellie Thompson, Cofounder, Monarch Media & Consulting, Inc.
LinkedIn: Curiosity is Key
With so many social media avenues available and new ones popping up constantly, I find myself wondering how to best use LinkedIn for business. It was curiosity that first led me to Facebook and LinkedIn and I’ll admit that today the only other social media platform I use is Pinterest.
I like Facebook primarily for personal social media. Monarch has a Facebook page, so I now dabble in the business side too. Pinterest is my personal go-to place for ideas to spur my creativity—or make me feel really bad for not handcrafting my child’s valentine cards! It made the crossover into my business world when I needed inspiration and graphics for a recent speaking gig.
And then there’s LinkedIn. I signed up for LinkedIn as my primary professional social media tool, but in reality I don’t use it like I use Facebook or Pinterest. Perhaps I don’t know its potential. Beyond researching a colleague’s profile or surfing my contacts as if in a huge electronic rolodex, what can it do for me and my business today? How do you use LinkedIn? An article recently published by Target Marketing shed some light on how to use it to prospect clients, saying that the best practice is to use a systematic approach to create attention and engagement, converting that engagement to leads. Making the leap from engagement to lead is all about one principle: Curiosity. It suggests using compelling copywriting to engage prospects. Basic, high-level resume-writing, when used on LinkedIn, reaches the masses with the hope of piquing the interest of a few.
So, we’ll add “write curious copy” to our to-do list for LinkedIn and see if our rolodex in the sky brings us any new leads. How are you using LinkedIn? Share your ideas with us!
— Chellie Thompson, Cofounder, Monarch Media & Consulting, Inc.
Making Infographics Memorable
While infographics are not a new way of expressing information and data, it seems that their popularity is rising among associations who previously published information in written form. We are certainly seeing this among our clients and encouraging them to do infographics in a thoughtful, memorable and meaningful way.
Associations Now shared a great article titled, “Tell Your Story Visually with an Infographic,” on the use of infographics. Quoted in the article, Nicole Lampe, digital strategy director at Resource Media on NTEN: The Nonprofit Technology Network’s blog, says a meaningful infographic answers the questions who, what, why, and how. In addition, she says that it can be “social media solid gold,” especially if you can pinpoint what compels your audience to share, like or tweet.
Both articles above are terrific resources for identifying your audience, creating the right data, a spot-on graphic and a solid way to reach them. I’m definitely taking notes!
Need a little inspiration? How about some graphic elements to get you started thinking? As I was looking for my own inspiration recently on Pinterest (where else?), I found a great FREE infographic template sure to get you thinking about ways to illustrate your latest annual report, media kit analytics or publication readership statistics. Enjoy!
— Andrea Exter, Cofounder, Monarch Media & Consulting, Inc.
Happy Belated 2014!
It’s mid-January! How did this happen? The holidays this year were a blur — a good blur, but a blur nonetheless. We started 2014 on a very positive note adding a new client to our current list, and one we are hopeful will become another great long-term partnership further solidifying Monarch’s place in the small-business world.
So, before we roll into February, we want to take a look back at 2013 and say THANK YOU to the clients we worked with last year. Without you, we wouldn’t be the success we are today!
Thank you for placing your trust in us with your projects,
Austin Bar Association; Austin Bar Foundation; Ballet Austin Guild; Mantra Marketing; Modern Jewish Wedding; Momentum PR; San Antonio Bar Association; SoCo Women’s Chorus; and Texas Community College Teachers Association.
It was a great year and our clients enjoyed some well-deserved success:
In June, Austin Lawyer was recognized for the first time by the State Bard of Texas with the award for Outstanding Newsletter in the annual state bar awards program. We are honored to be a part of their awesome team!
And in late 2013, The Modern Jewish Wedding’s annual e-magazine went to print this year!
On the home front, we were honored when Monarch Cofounder, Chellie Thompson had the privilege of speaking at both Freelance Austin on “Setting Your Rate” and the Women Communicators of Austin Annual Get Smart Conference on “Missing Your ROI: How To Recover the Project.”
THANK YOU again and we hope your 2014 is off to a terrific start!
The Unplug Challenge
At a recent sporting event it became very obvious that our hands are no longer the ending point of our arms. The new ending point is the electronic device attached to the hand. It was truly amazing and maybe a little scary to see almost everyone sporting a smartphone. I feel we are entering into a time where having everything literally at our fingertips through a few clicks on a smartphone will be detrimental to our genuine relationships and our health. I’m just as guilty until recently.
I work from home and found myself going back to my computer at night because I didn’t want to “miss” an email or when I wasn’t at my desk I’d have my phone next to me, constantly checking email. What did I realize? The unlimited use of technology was causing me unnecessary stress. It was leading to anxiety, sleep issues and high blood pressure. Plus, and probably most importantly, it was taking me away from my family. As a small business owner, I felt like I had to be available to clients 24/7, but I realized I too can set limits—just like when I was employed by a company.
Now when my workday is done, which is usually around 5:30 p.m., I turn off my computer and I put my phone on a shelf. I make it a point to not check email or social media at night. I took back family time and focused on wonderful conversations with my daughter and husband. I’m not anxious and I sleep better. My blood pressure has leveled off because I’ve learned to keep work to the hours during the day when work is appropriate.
But what if you want to unplug in the grander sense, go on an extended vacation or fast from technology? Well, Fast Company’s July/August 2013 cover story, had a terrific article on just this with some clever ideas on what to do in order to truly “unplug” when you need a breather.
So my challenge for you as we head into the holiday season is to unplug. Turn off the computer at 5:30 p.m. and put your phone down. Focus on those you do life with outside of work. Watch your stress levels decrease, and have a relaxing holiday season.
— Chellie Thompson, Cofounder, Monarch Media & Consulting, Inc.
Are You Using Native Advertising?
When I first heard the term native advertising, I’ll admit I didn’t know exactly how to define it. According to Wikipedia, “native advertising is a web advertising method in which the advertiser attempts to gain attention by providing content in the context of the user’s experience.” I think the most obvious native advertising we encounter is through Facebook, as their advertisements populate our news feed. This article, Advertising Groups Struggling to Self-Regulate Native Advertising, published by Associations Now explores how the Federal Trade Commission is viewing native advertising. If you are using native advertising as a revenue stream, you’ll want to read this as it may affect how you label it.
I am sure there will be further regulations coming down the line where this concerned. If you do use native advertising for your website and or blog, have you found it to be beneficial? If so, please share your experience with us.
