Technological and cultural trends are quickly pounced on by marketing pundits and presented to the business community as the latest-and-greatest-thing to incorporate into a marketing strategy. What we tend to miss is that not every trend is appropriate for every market. Here’s a great example: It’s 2007, and Campbell’s marketing consultants are salivating over the metrics on blogging trends. Naturally, they launched an…  Full Article >

Everybody is on Facebook. Everybody. If you’re not on Facebook, your absence isn’t felt. I’m not trying to be rude, it’s just THAT big. Predecessor MySpace tanked hard after it was bought in 2005 by media mogul Rupert Murdoch. That syndrome was labeled “MySpace fatigue,” and Facebook was predicted to follow suite. It didn’t happen.…  Full Article >

Like Rome MM years ago—Google is now THAT powerful. They knew it would eventually happen. It’s why their internal slogan has always been “Don’t be evil.” Google is so ubiquitous, it’s achieved that rarified status of being both noun and a verb, and in the world of science fiction, lies somewhere between George Orwell’s big brother and…  Full Article >

Search engines like Google and Bing have crossed the halfway point—the majority of their traffic is coming from mobile devices. The Meridiansix portfolio sees about 40% mobile traffic. More mobile devices are sold everyday and mobile traffic is poised to be the 2/3 majority format for internet consumption. What does that mean to you? Your website will have to become responsive…  Full Article >

Usability is one of those things you don’t think about until something goes wrong, a technical failing or a non-intuitive structure. Like this: At my office on the second floor, there’s a couple of doors leading into the parking garage with the big, square handles that are meant to be pulled. If you grab them and…  Full Article >

Anyone can get hacked. If you don’t believe me, here’s a list high profile websites that have been recently compromised: Premera Blue Cross, Chick-fil-A, Sony, U.S. Postal Service, Staples, Kmart, Dairy Queen, Home Depot, Jimmy Johns, J.P. Morgan, Yahoo Mail, Ebay, AT&T, Neiman Marcus, UPS, Apple iCloud, Microsoft, NBC, Twitter and the U.S. Government who…  Full Article >

“He’s not dead, he’s just mostly dead.” Compared to conventional print marketing, paperless marketing is cheaper, easier to target your audience and transparent in it’s effectiveness. You can actually tell if someone has clicked on your ad, opened your newsletter or visited your website. When you place an ad in your local newspaper or in…  Full Article >

Content marketing is the “heavy lifting” of self promotion; but of course, nothing worthwhile comes easy. Content marketing means generating unique content that’s interesting, educational, informative or advantageous to your audience. It could be text, photos, audio recordings, videos or (more likely) a combination of media. It can be unique content, republished content, research, opinion or…  Full Article >

Today’s design trends are a bit of a surprise to me. Although they feel right and make sense, they’re just not what I would have predicted 10 years ago. That’s probably a good thing. Trending fonts are more conservative. The economic downturn triggered a fallout in the use of ultra-thin, euro, extended, graffiti and “hip” fonts. They implied a level of self…  Full Article >

The first time I met Kathrin, she was interviewing me. Her client was a multinational company who needed everything from brand refinement and a new website, to a cloud-based project management database and archive. Kathrin developed the specifications, shopped it out and picked Meridiansix to do the work. Even though the project was complicated, it ran smoothly. Kathrin was…  Full Article >

Adam’s a bit of a know-it-all. Skipping grades in secondary school, studying the classics in college when most people were still wondering who to ask to prom. He won first prize at the state fair for a watercolor painting and used the money to buy his first electric guitar. Three years later he was playing that guitar on…  Full Article >

Ben’s one of those guys who’s almost too smart for his own good. He’s the kind of person that understands things with half an effort, while the rest of us strain and contort ourselves into comprehension; the kind of intellect that studies math, physics and biochemistry at university with no intention of actually entering the scientific…  Full Article >