Communication
SEC Weighs in With Social Media Guidelines
by Kelly Lucas, marketing and social media manager Not long ago we wrote a post on FINRA’s social media policies for those in financial services. The financial services industry has always had pretty specific rules about testimonials, recommendations and advisory. When social media came along, it created the potential for serious regulatory violations. FINRA…
Read MoreGoogle Grades on Spelling
by Sarah Warlick, copy editor Spelling, meh. Spellcheck will fix it. My people will handle that. Google doesn’t judge…or does it? As it happens, it does, and the relative quality of your spelling and grammar will be reflected in your website’s page rank on the world’s most powerful search engine. Spelling correctly so that…
Read MoreCorporate Lingo, Christmas Style
Stupid corporate lingo never rests, even at the holidays. As a continuation of our series on Stupid Corporate Lingo (Parts 1 & 2), we would like to offer you the 12 Days of Corporate Christmas from the site Words, Pictures, Humor. Author Drew Dernavich has crafted one merry image for the rest of us to…
Read MoreDeathbed Regrets and Choosing to be Happy in 2012!
by Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk, president This is the time of year when most of us take stock of how we’ve done and where we are going. I encourage our clients to do this on a regular basis, but the end of the year just naturally makes us all want to take a look at…
Read MoreThe Grammar Geek Goes for Broke
by Sarah Warlick, copy editor The flurry of excitement surrounding BBR Marketing’s series on the niceties of grammar and punctuation has been gratifying in the extreme. We knew there were a slew of people who cared desperately about such matters! So now that we’ve got our language lobes all limbered up and are bursting…
Read MoreSarah Addresses Readers’ Grammar Gripes
by Sarah Warlick, copy editor or grammar geek, whichever you prefer It seems that a lot of people have specific grammar gripes, as well as areas where they’re unsure how to navigate. Perhaps we were each looking out the window in English class on different days. In response to some great comments and questions…
Read MoreAvoiding Common Writing Mistakes
by Sarah Warlick, copy editor, BBR Marketing Writing is a basic cornerstone of business communication that most of us do every day. We’re judged on our ability to write clearly, and even though it’s not fair to gauge our professional abilities by our writing – who but a grammar geek has time to learn…
Read MoreClose the Deal with a Great Bio
Who are your favorite vendors and business partners? Are they the ones with the best professional pedigrees and impressive lists of degrees and designations? Or are they the ones with whom you enjoy working, who have your best interests at heart while at the same time having the skills needed to do the job?…
Read MoreThe Power of Proofreading
We all do it. Some more often than others. We are embarrassed when we are caught at it too. What am I talking about, you ask? Mistakes in your writing. Some may be small, like poor comma placement. Others can be big, like an incorrect word or bad subject-verb agreement. Even worse, misspelling a…
Read MoreHow to Change your Facebook News Feed
by Kelly Lucas, marketing and social media manager I opened up my Facebook account this morning to find a great many of my friends and family kvetching about the new layout. At first I got a good giggle out of it. I mean, aren’t we used to changes on our social networking sites? They…
Read MoreWhat I Learned about Identifying and Preventing Fraud
Late last week, I was privileged to attend a breakfast briefing sponsored by one of my clients, Berman Fink Van Horn, entitled Identifying and Preventing Fraud in Business. I’ve worked with a few forensic accountants in the past and always find this topic interesting. This session was no exception. Richard Plansky and John Slavek,…
Read MoreDon’t be Afraid to be an Expert
We typically try to share handy tips or unique marketing ideas in this blog. We occasionally crawl up on a soap box and share an opinion, sometimes try to amuse you with things like stupid corporate lingo or ask others to write guest posts. But this week, I’m going to share a lesson I’ve…
Read MoreDoes This Make My Butt Look Big?
Sometimes, it pays to ask a friend or colleague for an honest opinion. The resulting answer may sting a bit, but in the end, you are saved from potential embarrassment and can put together a better alternative with the information you receive. Which brings me to the topic of today’s post, Website audits. When…
Read MoreGetting Positive Results from Negative Feedback
by Kelly Googe Lucas, marketing and social media manager I think it’s safe to say no one really likes to receive negative feedback on a service their firm provides. You put a lot of time and effort into creating and delivering services as perfectly as you can, and then someone comes along and pulls…
Read MoreWhat We Learned from Anthony Weiner’s…
…social media faux pas. Raise your hand if you are sick of hearing about Anthony Weiner’s, let’s just say, Congressional member. I don’t expect this to die right away; it’s just ripe for comedic analysis. Which got me to thinking…what lessons can we in the business community, and especially those that are active or…
Read MoreSome Simple Tips for Creating a Website
We’ve been working on the new BBR Marketing website for a few months now as we have time between client projects. Frankly, we have built quite a few websites lately for our clients, so ours should be easy, right? Not as much as you’d think. With that in mind, I wanted to provide a few…
Read MoreHow to Write a Great Creative Brief
by Jay Musselwhite, Jaymus LLC As many of you know, I partner with a variety of talented vendors to deliver what my clients need. Jay is one such vendor. So when I saw his article on writing a creative brief, I wanted to share it with you. While we hope you pick BBR Marketing for…
Read MoreTips on working with the younger staff at your firm
I meet with a lot of accountants and attorneys, and I’m starting to hear a consistent concern. Who is going to lead our firm once we retire? And why is this younger generation not rising to the opportunity to grow with our firm? This is not only coming from the Boomer generation, but even from…
Read MoreBBR Marketing Takes on Stupid Corporate Lingo, Part 2
Okay, seriously. Please don’t tell me that anyone uses these words seriously or in mixed company. Though I do remember being in a conference room where everyone was asked to open kimono when I was working for a dotcom in California. Thankfully, no one did. With my head in my hands, I offer the second…
Read MoreThe Lost Art of Letter Writing
by Kelly Googe Lucas, Marketing and Social Media Manager, BBR Marketing When I was interviewing for jobs out of college, I made a point of sending a hand-written Thank You letter to each person with whom I had met. If I talked with seven people at the same firm, I sent out seven separate letters.…
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