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MM List
Below are just a few services and products we think are really keen.
Unfolding the Napkin
As a follow up to The Back of the Napkin, Dan Roam has released Unfolding the Napkin, which offers exercises and illustrations to inspire those of us who tend to think, create, plan and solve problems with the click of a pen and the nearest piece of paper.
Banning the Bag
Last Friday, Portland Mayor Sam Adams released his plan to ban the use of single-use plastic bags in Portland. Fred Meyer announced on Sunday that they will stop using the bags beginning in August 2010. This on the heels of the BP oil well finally getting capped gives us three reasons to cheer! This Oregonian editorial says it all.
Readability.com
If you find yourself unable to finish reading articles online due to a tangle of ads or tiny fonts, check out www.readability.com.
Readability™ is a simple tool that makes reading online easier by removing the clutter around what you're viewing.
Unleash Your Inner Artist
If you know you have a Pablo Picasso or a Coco Chanel living inside you, take advantage of this 12-week tele-workshop, that you can take at your convenience. Based on Julia
Cameron's The Artist's Way, this workshop includes a one-hour session with life coach Mindie Kniss.
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Calendar
Now - September 1
Oregon Zoo
Concert Series
Every Wednesday and Saturday (and a Sunday or two) until September 1 expect to see first-rate acts playing outdoors at the Oregon Zoo. Chris Isaak (on Aug. 14) and Cyndi Lauper (on Sept. 1) are highlights.
July 23 - August 8
PDX Bridge Festival
"Celebrating the bridges that connect us all," this event really does have something for everyone. Highlights include the Kick-Off Party, Brunch on the Bridge and the Bridge Tours with Sharon Wood Wortman.
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Greetings!
Even a sunny, rose-colored-bespectacled optimist has to admit that we're living in difficult times. But in all of the frustration over oil in the Gulf, high unemployment rates, and a sluggish economy, remember that the sun effects your mood and that this is time of year to soak up as many rays as possible to tide you over for the rest of the year.
Okay, well, I know it doesn't work that way. But we live in a great city with tons of entertainment options. Get out! Hike! Bike! Go to a festival or outdoor concert! Attend a Mad Men Premiere Party! Heck, even walking all over downtown (with a quick stop for drinking chocolate at Cacao) is a great way to re-charge your batteries.
If you're looking for ideas for local summer events, check out my last issue here. In the meantime, I hope you'll read this issue, chock full of useful information about motivating yourself to blog (see Put an End to Blog Guilt below) and updating your website with a favicon. (Don't know what a favicon is? See Question of the Month below.)
I hope you enjoy this issue of The Medium.
regards,
:: kristin schuchman ::
mixed media marketing communications
kristin@mixedmediapdx.com
503-754-2636
P.S. Keep in mind that I
will give anyone who refers business to Mixed Media a $25 Bipartisan Cafe Gift Card. (Yes, you can use it on pie.)
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Question
of the Month:
What is a favicon and how do I make one?
A favicon is a tiny icon that shows up on the tab for a website that indicates what web address you're parked on.
Their length and width are equal, typically 16 pixels by 16 pixels, and they can be anything that is discernible in a small size.
When designing your favicon, keep it simple. Your logo is a good place to start!
Why should you have one? Well, when those of us who tend to multitask have more than one tab open in our website browser, it helps us readily find your site again. It also gives you some polish and distinction, which is always a plus.
Here is a plug-in that you can download for free in order to enable Photoshop to save an icon with an .ico extension.
Once you've created your favicon send it to your webmaster to upload. (It may take a day to actually show up so be patient.) If you are your own webmaster, refer to this article about how to incorporate a favicon into your HTML code.
If you need help implementing or coming up with an idea for a favicon, call us at 503-754-2636. We're happy to help.
Have a question about marketing or PR? E-mail me at kristin@mixedmediapdx.com, and I'll try to answer it in a future issue of The Medium.
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 Put an End
to Blog Guilt
Nine Ways to Motivate
Yourself to Blog
by Kristin Schuchman
Feeling blog guilt? That's what I call that nagging suspicion that you should be blogging but haven't managed to do so. It's right up their with overeating guilt and not exercising guilt in its ability to stress you out.
In the May issue of The Medium, I gave you six reasons you should be blogging. If you've decided that you want to blog but haven't managed to muster the enthusiasm to do so, I'm offering you nine ways to motivate yourself to blog:
1. Much like exercise (but much less strenuous), it works to reserve a set time each day to blog, even if it's as little as 15 minutes. Even if you don't write a post every day, take time every day to write down notes about what you would like to blog about. For example, today I read that Fred Meyer Stores are going to stop using plastic bags in their stores beginning in August, so I jotted it down. Some time this week (hopefully tomorrow) I will include a post about it on my blog.
2. Find someone to keep you honest. Again, like exercise, having someone to check in with who will consistently keep after you to blog will help. And don't make it your laid-back Bill Murray-esque friend. Make it your won't-let-you-slack-off Sandra Oh-ish friend.
3. Read publications that inspire you, whether or not they directly refer to your industry. Along with How magazine (for graphic designers) I read Real Simple, Sunset and Portland Monthly to get ideas and inspiration.
4. On that note, keep a folder of ideas in the form of clips from magazines, newsletters, and newspapers as well as online publications. (I keep a hard-copy clip folder in my file cabinet and an online clip folder in my email program.)
5. Start out microblogging by setting up a Facebook page for your business. It takes about five minutes and allows you to easily add links and photos and gives you a built-in audience of your friends, colleagues and family.
6. Invite other business owners to blog for you once a week or once a month.
7. Include mini-interviews -- just send 5 to 10 questions to someone whose business you admire and ask him or her to respond in about a week. Ask them to send a photo or a logo graphics.
8. Send out an email once a month to your "sphere of influence" asking them to send you ideas each month. Be specific in your request. For instance, if you run an accounting business, ask people to send you ideas for organizing their receipts. Tell them you'll be writing a post about it on your blog and would like their feedback. People love for you to ask them their opinions, and, if nothing else, it will serve to reconnect you with someone you haven't connected with in a while.
9. Once you start your Facebook page, use it to garner ideas for your blog posts (and your e-newsletter). If you run a catering business, you could post an update asking people to share their favorite picnic food in the summer or their favorite comfort food in the summer. (My answers for both would be fried chicken.)
Follow me on Twitter: www.twitter.com/mixedmediapdx
Kristin Schuchman owns a marketing consulting business called Mixed
Media. Find out more at www.mixedmediapdx.com. |
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