Box Scores, Jan. 25-31: “Fun, Courting Clients and Emotional Truth”
It’s another exciting Monday morning, which means we’ve got another exciting set of Box Scores to help you get this week started off right. The best posts from the blogosphere gathered right here for your reading and learning enjoyment. So read up, tell us what you think, and let us know what we missed. We’re here for you.
Oh, and don’t forget to take a look at the OTA Sessions site when you get a chance. If you haven’t registered yet, you’re gonna want to do that. Anyway, on to Box Scores!
Bottom line? The post is worth reading. The action steps recommended are worth taking. Immediately after you finish reading the post. So read up on Drew McLellan’s insight and advice and then get in touch with your clients or potential clients, whether that’s to say hello, to drop them a quick recommendation, or simply to make sure you don’t miss out on some business. You’ll be glad you did.
-“How Well Do You Know Your Audience?”
As Jason Falls puts things over on his Social Media Explorer blog, “It’s easy to assume we know our audiences.” It’s true. Assuming we know our audiences is easier than doing the research it takes to know for sure. This is a friendly reminder to make sure you really know your audience. Read the full post to see what we mean.
Because Mike is Mike, it’s hard for him to go more than a few weeks without including some link or post involving Marvel Comics. This great post comes from Vice President, Executive Editor Tom Brevoort. The post centers on getting past the flash and flare of action and focusing on what’s more important in telling a story: emotional truth. As Tom puts it, “that’s my 2010 goal: push back towards the fundamentals of striving to find the emotional truth of the stories and the characters…” How many companies could take a page from this thought process to tell their stories (or their clients’ stories)? It’s not the tools, it’s the people behind them that matter.
-“20 Ways to Up Your Blogging Fun Quota”
This Problogger guest post from Christie Burnett doesn’t just apply to blogging. It actually can apply to a lot of our daily business functions. Part of the “Work. Play. Do Good.” Deep Bench philosophy involves play. Whether it’s advice like “Draw: Put pencil to paper or pen to tablet and say something with illustrations, instead of words” or “Inspire: Source relevant inspirational quotes to share with readers,” Christie’s thoughts show that, beyond blogging, businesses could use creative ways to approach problems and ideas.
-“Dating Rules for Courting Your Clients”
This post is very applicable to the very folks that make up our beloved “deep bench”: freelancers and other small agencies. The folks at Men With Pens help point out how to choose the right clients and not fall into the “temptation to work for demanding or low-paying clients because [you] need the money or are afraid [you] won’t get better clients.” They have plenty more good advice in this post, so read up and be sure you’re making the right decision when you take on your next client.
We’ve tried to cover quite a few areas in this week’s Box Scores. From knowing your audience to comics to taking on clients, we tried to give a good mix of great posts from the past week. We hope you got as much out of these posts as we did, and we’d love to hear what else you have to offer. If you’ve got another post to share or just want to compliment us on a job well done, leave a comment below or drop us a line over on our Facebook page. We’d love to hear from you.
And one last thing: we won’t call it a shameless plug because we don’t feel there’s any shame in it to begin with, but we will drop you a prideful plug one last time to check out the OTA Sessions. You seriously, seriously won’t regret it.
Photo (“Audience of the Open Ocean”) c/o David Goehring. Thanks David!