More Than A Few Words

Whether you're working with a complete stranger or your best friend, there are a few things you should expect when embarking on a design project. Don't let the administrative stuff take effort and energy away from your redesign - go into the project with a plan.  Your designer should give you a contract, a complete set of files, branding guide, and an invoice.  Join Lorraine Ball and Roundpeg's lead designer Cherilyn Juris while they discuss why each of these pieces is so important.  More Than a Few Words is a production of Roundpeg.

Has your inbox been flooded with  “Improvements to Our Privacy Policy” emails? It isn't an accident. Most global websites are scrambling to come into compliance with the European Union's GDPR (Global Data Privacy Regulation). As Peter Wolfgram explains, even if you only do business in the US, these rules can have a significant impact on your business. For more information, be sure to check out his blog post on GDPR and small business.    

Storytelling has always been a part of marketing. But how do you tell a story in 140 characters, or with just one image?  Jason Falls thinks social media marketers need to pull back from an individual tweet and look at the big picture and define the larger brand story. Using a series of images, videos, and posts you can build a complete story of a brand over time. Listen as Jason shares examples of how companies can build storytelling into their marketing plan.   More Than a Few Words is a production of Roundpeg. 

Twitter is a social network, which means that you should be interacting with other people and brands. One of the best ways to have a conversation and meet new like-minded Twitter users is by joining Twitter chats. These chats use a #Hashtag to engage with their fanbase and keep the discourse going.  Join Roundpeg's Lorraine Ball and Your Social Media Works' Carol Stephens and pick up a few helpful tips on how to better use Twitter to develop conversation. 

Is your site showing signs of age? Like deciding when to get a new car, it may be unclear if you should throw more money at your website or go for a completely new model.  Join Roundpeg's Peter Wolfgram and Lorraine Ball as they share some thoughts about what makes a website stay relevant, and how to do it on the cheap. More Than a Few Words is a production of Roundpeg.

Keeping your things secure in the digital world can be scary. A good password can help a lot. If your passwords look like a cat walked across a keyboard, you may not be as secure as you think.  Join Roundpeg's Lorraine and Simon as they explore a few ways to bolster your web account security. More Than a Few Words is a production of Roundpeg.

Jen Edds is the Brassy Broad in charge.  She is a musician, a podcaster and the founder of Brassy Broadcasting, a podcasting coaching company.  She helps ordinary business owners find their voice on this growing platform.  Drop in on her conversation with Lorraine,  as they talk about how she got started. Spoiler alert! It begins with a group of nuns. The conversation is also filled with practical tips on how any business owner can use podcasting to put a more personal face on their business.  MTFW is a production of Roundpeg, a digital agency helping business owners use the range of digital tools to grow their business

When does 1 + 1 = More than 2?  When you are adding the power of multiple marketing channels together..  Each piece of your marketing delivers results. But when you integrate your activities so social media drives traffic to your website which converts visitors to email subscribers, who then receive very targeted email messages the results are significanltly better. David Fischer of Solutions for Growth share his ideas on how to bring the pieces together. More Than a Few Words is a production of Roundpeg.

With new details emerging almost every day about the Facebook data breach founder Mark Zuckerberg is apologizing, a lot. This isn’t the first time Facebook has had legal issues because they played fast and loose with our data. And this isn’t the first time Zuckerberg has apologized. So will his promises to do better will be enough. And if not, what will that mean for business owners who rely on the platform to build communities and reach new markets.

More than a few Words goes global as Lorraine chats with Javed S. Khan., the owner of Empression, a Marketing Services Company based in Toronto, Canada about video messaging. Just like their American counterparts, Canadian business owners are struggling with the ever changing demands of delivering exceptional customer service experiences in the digital age. You can find Javed on his website javidskhan.com, or on LinkedIn. More Than a Few Words is a production of Roundpeg.  

Do you own your contacts?  If you are building a community exclusively on social media, the answer to that question is actually no.  You are simply renting them.  You have access to them only if you play by the rules established by the platform.  So if Facebook changes the rules, you need to change your approach. In today’s conversation with Karen Leonard, we chatted about what can happen if you don’t own your contact list, and how you can move those contacts to your email list where you do control the conversation. More Than a Few Words is a production of Roundpeg.

Twitter can be hard. Having a successful Twitter account is all in the details. Love it or hate it, Twitter is a great tool for business. Thankfully we have Roundpeg's Lorraine Ball and Sam Von Tobel to help us out. Are you regularly monitoring, interacting, and posting? There are many different ways to find success on Twitter, but it all comes down to having a quality page and getting into a routine. More Than a Few Words is a production of Roundpeg.

Earlier this year, Facebook announced that they will be refocusing their social media platform on the individual. But what does this mean for businesses, small and large? It's time to start rethinking the way in which you're posting and interacting on Facebook. Join Vanessa Cabrera and Roundpeg's Lorraine Ball as they discuss how to use Facebook Live to combat the changes to the Facebook algorithm Want to know more?  Check out Vanessa's free resource: 16 Ways to Use Facebook Live  And be sure to check out the video which started it all:   Death to the Facebook Business Page?  More Than a Few Words is a production of Roundpeg.

Branding. It's not just who you are, it's how you present yourself. Is your current brand doing everything it can? When should you start thinking about a rebrand? Join Roundpeg's Lorraine Ball and Cherilyn Juris as they discussed the recent revamp of Roundpeg's brand. Pick up a few tips from the pros to start thinking about before you refresh your style. More Than a Few Words is a production of Roundpeg.  Looking for more branding resources, check out Cherilyn's Rebrand InfoGrahpic

Tune in with Lorraine of Roundpeg and Randy Clark while they explore what it means to be a good leader. Great leaders aren't born. Sure, some are born with more of an aptitude for socialization, but this doesn't mean they're naturally better off than someone more reserved. Charisma alone doesn't equate to quality leadership skill. Learn what makes a great leader with Lorraine and Randy. Randy Clark is the author of several books on organizational leadership including:  The New Managers Workbook The Manager's Guide to Becoming a Leader More Than a Few Words is a production of Roundpeg.

In today's episode, Lorraine and Jennifer from Social Media Rescue talk about what to do on social media when things go wrong.   Mistakes are inevitable. Things will go wrong.  Don't wait until the moment a crisis arises - plan a method to address unhappy customers for any mishap, be it big or small. Learn more about what Jennifer did when one of her clients was having a terrible, very bad day.    We first met Jennifer on that very bad day as we interacted with her on twitter as she managed crisis response for one of her clients. We were so impressed we wrote about how she handled the crisis, keeping her customer's customers informed and engaged in this blog. More Than a Few Words is a production of Roundpeg.

There is an old expression, that you can't put lipsitck on a pig.  Basically there are some things which are too ugly to fix with a little makeup.  Talking with Sara Mannix of Mannix Marketing, Lorraine discovered the same is true for websites. Sometimes what a customer wants to is drive traffic to their website and that won't be very effective if the website itself isn't state of the art. Lorraine and Sara talk about the good, bad and ugly of getting to the 'why' of your brand. More Than a Few Words is a production of Roundpeg.

In the second of a two-part series, Lorraine and her guest Cathy Cain-Blank of CC Marketing and Communications dive deeper into Linkedin.  If you are ready to ramp up your LinkedIn profile, this program is for  you.  More Than a Few Words is a production of Roundpeg.

Do you show up every day, knowing that you will make a difference in someone else's life? You have the potential to be that person to someone. Everyone needs somebody to lean on. Are you that person? Join Roundpeg's Lorraine Ball and Your Social Butterfly's Ellen McDowell as they discuss the One Philosophy, a book by Nancy Matthews. You can find their original session here.  More Than a Few Words is a production of Roundpeg.

No matter how interesting your email campaign is, it won't be very effective if people don't open your email. Discover tricks to command attention and drive readers to open your email as soon as it arrives in their inbox.  This is an excerpt from a longer presentation on subject lines.  You can view the entire video here.