Joel Krehbiel Joins Flint Hills Design
We’re proud to welcome Joel Krehbiel to Flint Hills Design!
After graduating from Bethel College (KS) with degrees in mathematical sciences and physics, Joel went on to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to earn a Masters of Mechanical Sciences and Engineering degree. He then spent a year in Monteiro Brazil, working with the Mennonite Central Committee’s Serving and Learning Together (SALT) program.
Joel brings an amazing analytical mind to the Flint Hills Design team, and will be in charge of taking our web analytics work to the next level. He will also be working to help us to design more effective marketing campaign strategies, structured for easy measurement and analysis.
The Hive!
It took a little while, but we’re finally moved in to our new offices:
106 W 24th St C North Newton, KS 67117We’re hopeful that the new space will give us a chance to bring a new level of attention to our work and facilitate some of our larger collaborative projects.
Oh, and we love to grill for all of our friends and clients so please stop by to see us!
The Process Communication Model
Over the past week, both Abe and I had a chance to learn the Process Communication Model–a very intriguing tool developed to enhance the effectiveness of communication. The training was taught by Nate Regier of Next Element Consulting.
The Process Communication Model (PCM) acknowledges the idea that different kinds of personalities respond to different styles of communication, and provides the tools necessary to identify those personalities and deliver your message in a way that recipient will respond to.
As a skeptic of most personality models, I went into the training with a relatively closed mind. But through the course of the week I became increasingly convinced that this model has much to offer for practical application, whether or not you believe all of the tenants set forth (I should say that at this point I have no reason not to agree with everything that was taught!).
One of the most intriguing aspects of the model is its ability to predict behavior. It was amazing to witness everyone in the room light up when one person would start to explain scenarios from their personal or professional lives and the rest of the participants would be able to essentially finish the story for them, having never met any of the characters involved!
I would recommend working with Nate Regier of Next Element Consulting to anyone who is interested in improving their communication and relationship management skills.
Growing Your Social Media Presence
While still young and often misunderstood, social media has quickly grown to become a very valuable (some would say necessary) tool for businesses of all shapes and sizes. Most groups we work with are anxious to “leverage the power of Facebook, Twitter, etc.”
However, I’ve found that many groups have a very shallow understanding of these tools–mostly name recognition from an article proclaiming the miraculous power of social media and demanding all business get involved right now!
I think that many businesses (and individuals for that matter) can benefit from joining conversations online, but I always encourage learning about the options and ways to most effectively utilize the tools before simply diving right in. Perhaps more importantly, you need to understand how much work will be involved in maintaining your presence.
Gardening Metaphor
In addition to common sense, I’ve found that a gardening metaphor can be useful in helping to understand the requirements of a successful social media campaign. In a recent blog post, David Armano provided a very easy to remember and understand version of the gardening metaphor. He breaks it down into three parts:
- Seeding
- Feeding
- Weeding
To add my own explanation to his memorable framework…
Seeding involves
- Identifying your goals and the best tools for the job – choosing your plant varieties
- Setting up accounts and creating initial content – planting the seeds
- Beginning to engage others in the conversation – root stimulator
Feeding involves
- Creating content that provides value to your prospective readers – watering your plants
Weeding involves
- Monitoring your efforts, and removing those that seem detrimental to the health of your campaign – weeding and pruning your plants
Of course, no gardening metaphor would be complete without identifying the fruits of your labor! As in gardening, the payoff can be truly rewarding. Cultivating loyal followers who find value in your offerings can easily be translated into improvements to your bottom line, by establishing your expertise in a field you may realize that opportunities find you rather than you needing to seek them out, and perhaps most importantly, you may find that the effort you put in is multiplied through the natural process of growth!
Cherries from our orchard
Free as a Business Model
I enjoyed this interview with Chris Anderson on his latest book Free: The Future of a Radical Price. For many of us working in the digital world, the ideas in Free aren’t necessarily new, but he does present them in a clear way. I think that “freemium” can be a very effective business model for companies capable of producing worthwhile digital content and should not be ignored in marketing efforts.
Anderson is providing an unabridged audiobook for free; the abridged version is available for purchase.
