Long Hashtag Gripe: #iOnlyHave140characters

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I have a hashtag gripe.  While I love that brands are embracing social media and making custom hashtags for us to follow and engage with them, why must some of them be so long?  I only have 140 characters!  I was watching TV a few nights ago and saw a KFC commercial that illustrates this point.  I was admiring their use of branding throughout the entire commercial, to include a custom hashtag on the chicken bucket that was in the background.  At the end of the commercial, they used the custom hashtag to ask #HowDoYouKFC?  All I could think about (because I don’t eat KFC) was, why is the hashtag so long?  You can’t even use it in your sentence structure to help cut down on the number of characters.

I felt it would have been better to ask that question in their marketing materials (online, offline, media, etc) and have people respond with #iKFC or something else short and/or that could be used as part of a sentence.  The less characters a hashtag takes away from a tweet, the better.  The responses would allow for more freedom and creativity.  “#iKFC at my super bowl party…” might be a response for the hashtag example.

KFC is not the only example I have seen of a brand using what I consider to be a super long and cumbersome hashtag.  I think sometimes in an effort to be creative and on trend, brands sometimes forget about the actual consumer.  They want us to engage with them, they want to grab our attention, but in the case of these long and cumbersome hashtags, they are making it difficult for us to actually execute this.  For me personally, if it is difficult, I will lose interest and not do it.  Make it easy and I will say, “sure, why not?” #NoMoreSuperLongCustomBrandHashtagsIn2014

When the Boss Gets Sick: Part 2

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Yesterday I talked about how I use auto responders and auto reply emails to notify clients and potential clients that I am out of the office.  This is a great way to notify people that I am out, but not so great if a client has an emergency that they need taken care of.  This is where a back-up plan comes into play.  I have two back-ups that are still in theory/idea form, because I have not needed to utilize them.  One is a virtual assistant and the other is a relationship with other freelancers that do the same thing I do.

For the most part, freelancers get along with each other and some in similar fields work together and help each other out when needed.  Some send overflow work to each other and others step in when someone is sick or unable to facilitate their client’s needs.  While we are technically competitors, in my own my mind, we are not.  In my field in particular, I feel that each designer has a particular design aesthetic that shows in their portfolio and body of work.  Design is often subjective.  What appeals and looks great to someone, may look dreadful to someone else.  There is a reason why my client’s choose me and a reason why others choose someone else.  For that reason, I do not see my fellow freelance graphic designers as direct competition.  Plus, I also believe that what is for me, is for me and what is for them, is for them.

I respect them and their work and when I work with other freelancers on their client’s projects, I am careful to try not to appear like a separate entity if I have direct contact with the end client.  Recently, I played a back-up role for a freelancer (really, she is an agency) that needed to take a leave of absence for a new bundle of joy on a couple of projects.  She had a team of back-ups that stepped in to keep her business running smoothly, clients happy and work flowing while she was out.  It was kind of awe-inspiring for me to see how the relationships she had developed and fostered turned into something that was kind of beautiful.  All of us lending a hand to help someone like ourselves, a small business owner that needed to take time off.  I hope that if I had a similar need, the relationships I have developed would do the same.

My other back-up idea is more for communication and admin purposes: a virtual assistant.  All of my client files are stored in “the cloud.”  My theory is that if a client had an emergency and needed to have a file sent, something looked up, information, etc., that could not wait until I was back at work, a virtual assistant could help to facilitate those needs.  My theory is that they could use one of the (many) email addresses I have set up and I could include this address as a point of contact for emergencies in the auto responder email.  Because my files are in the cloud, I could give them access to look up information or send files to clients.

Thankfully, I have not had to put any of these theoretical plans into action, but it does make me feel good to know that there is a plan in case I need it.

Do you have any plans in place for running your business when you cannot physically do so?

When the Boss Gets Sick: Part 1

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I do not get sick very often, but I recently fell ill to the point that I needed to take some time off from work.  The great part about being the boss is that you do not need to file a vacation request or ask for sick leave.  However, the awful part about being the boss in a one-person firm (freelancer) is that if you take a break, the business may have to go on hiatus with you.  Of course this depends on the type of business, business model, etc., but in my case, the business was on break.

It happened the week of Christmas, so it was fairly easy to take the week off to recuperate and I had only planned to work 2 of those days before falling ill.  Although working as a freelancer I am a one-person entity, I do have a few things in place to help me out in case of illness.  One is fairly simple; my auto responder emails.  The bulk of my business comes from two places: through my website and via referrals.  Referrals either contact me directly, via email or through my website.  The first point of contact from me for inquiries through my site and referrals is via email and this is where an auto responder comes in.  When I am sick, on vacation or out of the office for an extended amount of time, I turn on my “out of office” email auto responder.  This lets those that contact me directly via email, know that I am out of the office and when I expect to return.

There is also an auto responder/reply email attached to each service inquiry form on this site.  Depending on the form that is being filled out, an auto reply email goes out to the submitter of that form either with additional information about the service they are inquiring about or a time table for when they will hear back from me.  If I had needed, I could have set all of the forms to send out a reply that I was out of the office due to illness for a specified amount of time.  Because of the way I have my business set up, the types of replies that form submitters receive, and the fact that it was a major holiday, I did not make this change.

While I was out for a week, because of the Christmas holiday, it did not have much of an impact on my business.  Auto responder emails are a simple and easily accessible tool that most solo-preneurs can use.  Tomorrow I will talk about the back-up plans that I have.

My New Year’s Resolution for 2014

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new-year-resolutionLast year I made a couple of business resolutions that I came pretty close to achieving.  This year, I am making a resolution that is both personal and business related.  My resolution for 2014 is to make more art…  For some, this might sound weird because I am a graphic designer and for some, what I do for a living is art.  However, I want to make more art outside of my graphic design.  Prior to becoming what I call, “a real adult.”  I use to paint, shoot photography and draw.  I have been creating since I was born.  As a baby, it was with words (babbling).  As a youngster, crafting and drawing and in college, I began painting and experimenting with photography.  Somewhere in my adult years, it stopped.

It may have been the stress and responsibility that comes with being an adult, paying bills and trying to just exist.  A few years ago I started back crafting and creating, but not making art.  This year, I plan to make more art.  I am not sure what form the art will take, it may be painting, drawing, mixed media or photography.  Whatever the form, I plan to do more than I have done currently.  I think it will be beneficial because I will be exercising and stretching my creative muscle in a different way.  I think it will also make me a better designer.  This is why I consider this to be both a personal and business related resolution.

 

Doing Something for the Benefit of Exposure May Not be Worth it

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Providing a service or product for free for exposure, or spending money on something for the sake of the exposure, is often a glamorous lie.  In most cases, exposure does not actually pay any bills and most bill collectors will not accept it as a form of payment.

I feel new businesses and up-starts fall prey to this more often than established businesses do.  The more established businesses may have already encountered a few glamorous exposure lies and new businesses are often targeted.  When I first started freelancing during my college years, I was approached a lot about doing graphics for free with the promise of the exposure it could bring me.  After I graduated, I moved to Atlanta and struggled to get my feet wet with my freelance business there.  Finding clients was my biggest hurdle.

Because I was still relatively new to not just the city, but also the industry, I was met with offers of designing, again for exposure, rather than a monetary payment.  Slim budgets, just needing something temporary or right now, were often the reasons given.  Having something I designed in front of lots of people, etc and/or having my name or logo listed and credited with the work would “expose” me and bring me more business.  At least, that is what I was often told.  I do believe that in some cases, the person pitching this to me really believed what they were saying.  I believed it to and ended up doing a lot of free work that did not net me a dime.

From a business standpoint, it was a loss.  What I do takes time and effort and I charge for that time and effort.  Doing it for free, was basically a donation to someone else’s dream and cause.  The reason why I did not net from the exposure is not because I didn’t do good work, but because the audience I was being “exposed” to, was not my demographic.  It was not the audience that would most likely use my services.  I highly doubt that someone received a club flyer and said, “Hmmm…although I am a struggling college student, I am going to hire the person who made this flyer to create my brand identity for the company I don’t have.”  I received exposure, but not to the right people.

It has been a long time since the last time that I was approached to do something for free, for exposure.  However, a few months back, I was pitched by the marketing department of a local news station to purchase advertising space on their website.  “It will be great exposure and put your brand in front of more people,” I was told by the marketer.  It sounded glamorous, and like something I might be interested in doing at first thought, but as I began to ask more questions; I realized that it wasn’t really that great.

I would receive a business page on their site and one web ad.  When I asked where the ad would be on their site, I was told it would be buried somewhere deep in an obscure part of their site.  Not their words of course, but the reality of where it would be in my eyes.  I asked if the traffic numbers he told me applied to that page…he did not know and needed to ask a supervisor.  The final answer was, no.  The business pages did not have those quoted traffic numbers either and the video that would appear would be hosted on their YouTube channel and not mine.  All in all, there was no value that I would gain by paying for this advertising.

It made me realize that although I was no longer being approached for free work in exchange for irrelevant exposure; I had reached the next level of being asked to pay for irrelevant exposure.  The glamorous lie was no longer free.

Have you ever been approached to provide a product or a service in exchange for exposure?  Did you benefit from the exposure?