Tag Archive for: Rhode Island

Newport Interactive Marketing

Spend Wisely: Big-Brand Insights to Move YOUR Needle

June 2019

As we enter the 2020s, it is now undeniable that digital marketing and social media are going to be at the forefront of business. Actually, that’s already the case, and if you’re not already optimizing your digital marketing strategies, then that means you are getting left behind.

 

But it’s not too late!

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NIM’s panel of marketing experts are here to demystify the social media age and help you understand how to take advantage of digital marketing and SEO to make your business more successful.

 At this NIMRI event, you will learn about:

  • Current successful digital and social strategies, and what to focus on going into 2020
  • How big brands apply the fundamentals – which affordable tools can inform personas and solve customer problems
  • Affordable tools and achievable tactics
  • Overlooked opportunities
  • The power of Facebook and ads and local SEO
  • Utilizing influencers – what lessons can we learn about connection and messaging?
  • And, of course, get your answers!

Top experts are here to answer your questions and provide New Media insights – and since it is always evolving, there is always more to learn! Join #NIMRI at Spend Wisely: Big-Brand Insights to Move YOUR Needle on June 20th from 6-8 PM at Innovate Newport, the former Sheffield School on Broadway is open!

 

 

Meet Ronni Kenoian

Ronni Kenoian is the marketing manager for leading travel insurance comparison site InsureMyTrip. She oversees the digital marketing of the InsureMyTrip brand, including consumer insights, content strategy, paid search/social advertising, social outreach, and earned media strategy. She also has been intimately involved in a number of new product ideas and development efforts and has been closely aligned with customer needs. Given the demonstrated power of big data, Ronni also leverages the company’s current capabilities to help reinforce the brand. Ronni believes merging creative and technology into cross-functional teams and roles is essential to better executing a winning marketing strategy with long-lasting results.

 

Meet Kevin Vine

Kevin Vine is a digital marketing strategist and he is currently Director of Marketing for Level Ex, a start-up that creates mobile, AR and VR games for physician training using state-of-the-art video game technology and cognitive neuroscience. Previously, he was head of Customer Experience at Collette Tours, and prior to that he led the web, social and mobile teams at Dunkin’ Brands. His experience also extends to consumer insights, content strategy, communications development and, of course, he is always keeping his fingers on the pulse of new and emerging trends and platforms. 

 

 

 

Meet Ana Raynes

Ana Raynes is a thought-leader in the fields of social media and content marketing. Her creative mind led her to study at the London College of Fashion, after which she co-founded the Internet fashion startup Smart is Cool. Raynes has been a motivational speaker as well as an expert in e-marketing, including social media, content marketing, and information technology. She is currently the Vice President of Content Marketing at Didit. She oversees the content marketing needs of agencies and clients across multiple platforms. Raynes also does strategic planning, business development, and strategic growth for social media and SEO. She maintains relationships with bloggers and influencers to keep up with current trends, and to help with her own campaigns.

 

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Newport Interactive Marketing

Web marketing specialists welcome traditional marketers, small businesses, and beyond for quality education and great networking … right here in Newport!

 Newport Interactive Marketing is

sponsored by Angles & Insights & Designated Editor

Newport Interactive Marketing

100% networking with PRSA, AMP-RI, and Newport County Chamber Connections

Whether you’re a start-up company or the oldest non-profit in the area, meeting new people & networking can be key. You may find that one person who can build a partnership with your brand, offer essential marketing intel, or connect you to the biggest name in your field.

Join us for an evening of networking and scenic views with the Public Relations Society of America, the Rhode Island chapter of Advertising, Marketing, and Public Relations, and Newport County Chamber Connections. 

Missed this great talk? Learn more about video & visuals and more via the NIM media library!

Become a NIM $upporting member, if you aren’t already, for access to the vast video library of past presentations and watch from your device at your convenience.

 

100% Networking at Newport’s Best Sunset Spot

On July 30th, Newport Interactive Marketers held our annual networking event on the Rooftop of the Hotel Viking, Newport’s Best Sunset Spot, which overlooks Newport Harbor. Unfortunately, we were a bit short on sun but that didn’t stop our #NIMRI members. It was an extraordinary success despite the downpour and having everyone huddled together under the tent just made the networking easier!

Our annual rooftop 100% networking event was co-hosted by:

Here’s some of our favorite moments from that rainy night:

NIM members networking under the tent 2015-07-30 19.26.04

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All the lovely snacks provided by @HotelViking!

All the lovely snacks provided by @HotelViking!

Such an amazing giveaway! Lucky #NIMRI member Pieter van Gool won 2 tickets to the Newport Jazz Festival and he had a blast!

Such an amazing giveaway! Lucky #NIMRI member Pieter van Gool won 2 tickets to the Newport Jazz Festival and he had a blast!

 

 

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Jameson on the rocks at a rainy #NIMRI. #NewportRI   A photo posted by Drink Newport – Newport, RI (@drinknewport) on

The rain couldn't dampen these #NIMRI members spirits!

The rain couldn’t dampen these #NIMRI members spirits!

 

 

And here’s our lucky winner at the Newport Jazz Festival! 

Many thanks to our venue sponsor Hotel Viking

How Can URI’s Business Concierge Help Your Brand?

Newport Interactive Marketers partnered with the URI Business Engagement Center (BEC) to explain the valuable resources available for businesses at URI.

Think of Katharine Hazard Flynn as your concierge if you have a question about how to work with interns, sponsors research that could become product, or host an event at URI.

Think of Katharine Hazard Flynn as your concierge if you have a question about how to work with interns, sponsors research that could become product, or host an event at URI.

Leading the new Business Engagement Center, Katharine Hazard Flynn, serves as the University of Rhode Island’s connector to the private/nonprofit sectors, helping brands leverage URI’s resources for the betterment of the state.  A Brown alum, she also has significant finance experience in senior positions at Prudential Bache, Alex Brown & Sons, Toronto Dominion Securities, and Societe General.

Think of Katharine Hazard Flynn as your concierge if you have a question about how to work with interns, sponsors research that could become product, or host an event at URI.  Flynn discussed how the BEC was created to give businesses a place to come and connect with URI.  This center was modeled after successful programs such as University of Michigan’s BEC.

In addition to the BEC, URI also has another new initiative, the Small Business Development Center. The center is primarily for small businesses to get counseling and financial support in variety of different counseling mechanisms.

The BEC acts a one-stop destination for business owners to connect with the university. Through the BEC businesses can be connected with URI’s students, faculty, equipment and facilities. Here are some of the resources the center offers.

Find Talent

The BEC’s main goal is to increase industry engagement. URI wants to connect their students with jobs, internships, and faculty research. Some 60 percent of the university’s students are from Rhode Island. According to Flynn, this means that students want to stay here, work here, and thrive here.

The BEC is able to connect businesses with students from all disciplines including business, engineering, healthcare, arts and sciences, technology, and many other fields.

Sponsor Research

Whether you have a manufacturing issue, new product concept, or business challenge you’d like to do research on, URI can help. URI student and faculty researchers have experience working with businesses and can help you solve these issues. Use the BEC to aid you in accessing URI’s research expertise.

Develop Your Workforce

The BEC provides customized workforce training and skills development to help you achieve your business goals.  It offers opportunities to help your staff polish their skills as well as specialized training programs. Here is the full list of training programs the Business Engagement Center offers.

Facilities & Equipment

URI has facilities perfect for accommodating small and large groups. Its meetings rooms range from small meeting rooms to auditoriums accommodating up to several hundred people, and everything in between.

URI also has equipment that can be a valuable asset for businesses.  From the 3-D Imaging capability, to equipment in URI’s Sensor and Surface Technology Lab in chemical engineering, its equipment can fit the needs of many different businesses.

Here are some examples:

Meeting space and planning

Equipment Usage

BEC Success Stories 

Although new, the BEC has already partnered with many local business. One example is their partnership with the Pizza Gourmet. Co-Owner Jack Parente approached the center to help him create a better, and safer, grill for his pizza crusts. Hazard connected him with with professors at the engineering school and five seniors. They are now working on a capstone project to help improve Parente’s grill. The owner has been thrilled by the students’ discoveries and suggestions.

Another example of the BEC’s success is its YMCA partnership. When the center was approached by the YMCA looking for students to provide physical therapy, the Y was not disappointed, connecting with the URI physical therapy department for and  interns.

Lastly, the BEC has helped to connect GTech with writers from URI. Not only does GTech utilize members of URI’s writing and rhetoric majors as interns, but the global giant also often hires these students after graduation.

URI’s BEC has helped a wide range of businesses find what they are looking for.

Looking for help with any aspect of your business from internships to research? Be sure to URI’s Business Engagement Center Executive Director Flynn.

 

Perry Fagan

What Is Corporate Strategy?

Newport Interactive Marketers took a broader approach to its usual new-media focus to welcome Harvard Business School’s approach to developing a strategy for your brand.

NEW STRATEGY GROUP Founder P. Lawrence Fagan earned an MBA from HarvardNEW STRATEGY GROUP Founder P. Lawrence FaganBusiness School, where he spent 11 years researching corporate and organization strategy, six years as a member of the HBS research faculty.

While at HBS, Mr. Fagan contributed to the development of a general theory of organizations and authored numerous business case studies, several of them bestsellers. Subsequently, he worked nine years as a strategy leader causing breakthroughs for clients in diverse industries and geographies with Monitor Company, HBS Executive Education, the Corporate Learning division of Harvard Business Publishing, and independently.

What Is Corporate Strategy?

Strategy is an integrated set of choices an enterprise makes to create a unique and valuable position in market space.

Unfortunately, employees seldom know or understand the corporate strategy.

A study in Australia found that 70% of the company doesn’t “get it” when their CEO talks about strategy.

According to Fagan, we are living in strategy’s dark age.  We are so busy with daily tasks that we don’t see the big picture and to develop something that is effective. You must see the big picture.

 10 Fatal Misconceptions About Strategy

  1. Striving to be the best
  2. Strategy is goal-setting
  3. Strategy is innovation
  4. Being all things to all people
  5. It’s  your boss’ problem
  6. Strategy is secret
  7. Only abstract
  8. It’s academic
  9. Having one doesn’t matter, execution does
  10. It’s a form of measurement

Strategy and Purpose Are Not the Same

  • Purpose: Our call to action
  • Values: Our beliefs and code of conduct
  • Vision: The immediate future we are creating for the company
  • Strategy: The choices we make to build unique and valuable positioning in our markets, enabling us to win.
  • Metrics: How we track the performance

The Universal Structure 

  • A goal that is singular, time-delimited
  • A clear advantage to customers, in specific geographies with a winning proposition
  • Activity Set – degree of vertical integration, interlinked activities

The Key to Strategy

  • If you can’t turn a goal to action, it doesn’t exist
  • You must offer something unique and different: If you’re for everybody, you’re for nobody
  • You’ve identified a set of problems on customers’  behalf and owning those problems for them – that’s the key!

How to Be Different

  • You must always be different. Different in ways that matter to your target customers.
  • Deliver reliably on your offering. Don’t say one thing and deliver another. Be reliably different.

 What Is Your Winning Proposition?

What is uniquely yours to say?

Paint a portrait to the customer to articulate your value proposition.

For example, what is the unique winning proposition of Coke Zero?

First, determine Coke Zero’s unique qualities and the target audience.

    • Zero calories
    • For people who like Coke
    • Dieting, health conscious

Now, craft your unique winning proposition Only Coke Zero gives you zero calories with the same great taste.

Don’t miss monthly #NIMRI gatherings.

Must-Have WordPress Plugins

On Tuesday, August 13th, WordPress expert Matt Medeiros highlighted “Must-Have WordPress Plugins” to the Newport Interactive Marketers audience at the International Yacht Restoration School.

To better understand the difference, Matt explained the relationship between a website, WordPress, and plugins in this analogy:

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Website : iPhone

WordPress : iOs software

Plugins : Apps

Before installing, make sure that your web host can support a lot of bandwidth in the long run. Once your web host is set up, do thorough research on any plugins you are considering for your site: read reviews, check the number of installations and the dates of the most recent updates.  Staying up to date for safety’s sake avoids malware, site lag, and loss of data.

Free and Premium versions are available. Although free ones are great because they’re “accessible, fast and free,” Matt pointed out that there is a difference between Free and Premium—Premium is better.

Premium plugins have more features, better quality, great support, longer product cycle and higher compatibility. If you get what you pay for, it’s worth paying for premium plugins for contact forms and e-commerce.

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Matt Medeiros explains the effectiveness of WordPress plugins

In addition to explaining the basics, Matt also shared his favorite WordPress plugins:

  • Ultimate Coming Soon Page
  • Redirection– great for transitioning domain change to WordPress
  • Yoast– WordPress SEO and Video SEO
  • BackWPup-Wordpress backup plugin
  • BackUp Buddy– premium version of BackWPup
  • Gravity Forms– premium, very powerful; creates contact forms and can create users
  • W3 Total Cache-“cache-ing” helps server, which ultimately helps drive the bottom line for business
  • Paid Membership Pro– available in free version and premium version
  • Responsive WordPress Slider by Soliloquy
  • WooCommerce– E-commerce plugin, also provides extensions for shipping
  • bbPress– “be all, end all” discussion platform for WordPress
  • JetPack-“a single plugin that does a thousand things”; it has its own analytics and has the capability to cache images and speed up load time
  • WPtouch– premium mobile version of WordPress site
  • Powerpress– the only one for podcasts

**Can’t find a plugin you want? Matt advises to have a developer create it

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Thanks to the International Yacht Restoration School and Bridge Liquors for hosting!

Newport Interactive Marketing

Networking, Drinks, and Views Over Newport

On Tuesday, July 24th, #NIMRI hosted its annual networking event on the rooftop of Hotel Viking. Professionals from Rhode Island & across New England enjoyed a summer evening in Newport & connected with new faces.

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A big thanks to the staff at Hotel Viking for making the event possible!

Better Business With Better Internet

At this #NIMRI event, a panel of local officials and hi-speed broadband experts discussed the significance of bringing fiber optics to Aquidneck Island. The Aquidneck Island Broadband Project is initiating speed tests around the Island and raising awareness among the community about fiber optics. This alternative serves as a faster and more efficient system than older broadband networks.

Meet The Panelists

  • Stuart Freiman– Director of Broadband at the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation, and Program Director of Broadband Rhode Island
  • Andrew Cohill– President and CEO of Wide Open Networks and Design Nine. He is a broadband architect who has worked with many communities to build out similar successful projects.
  • Matthew Wainwright– Technology Director for the Town of Middletown, 2nd VP on the GMIS International Executive Board, BostonSIM Providence CIO Roundtable co-chair. Also, a key stakeholder in the Aquidneck Island Broadband Project.
  • Paul Carroll– Economic Development Director for the City of Newport and supporter of the Aquidneck Island Broadband Project
  • Ron Corriveau– Vice President of Business Development at COS Systems AB,

In the United States, more than 1,200 communities have fiber optics. Plus, Google is deploying gigabit networks in over a dozen more communities across the nation. The panelist’s engaged the audience by expressing the benefits of fiber optics and encouraging others to support the initiative for better Internet on Aquidneck Island.

Missed this great talk? Learn more about video & visuals and more via the NIM media library!

Become a NIM $upporting member, if you aren’t already, for access to the vast video library of past presentations and watch from your device at your convenience.

Newport Interactive Marketing

Analyzing Google Analytics With BU Instructor Jay Murphy

 

Missed March’s NIM Analyzing Google Analytics?

Jay Murphy dug into Google Analytics, showing NIM attendees how they can see who is coming to their websites and engaging with them. With this valuable information, brands can provide more specific information that attracts a greater number of followers.

Why it’s important to know who is following you

Knowing who is following your business online offers unprecedented advantages. With this information, you can clearly identify your target market as well as the customer base  you are trying to reach. You can then implement new strategies to find and attract  potential customers you have yet to reach.

Need to know more about Google Analytics? Sign up for Jay’s workshop at the Chamber of Commerce in Middletown, R.I. [Date Change: JUNE 6]

Google Analytics is a free tool that will enhance your marketing strategy. Jay covers all the basics as well as how to interpret the results and how to make solid business decisions from the data. We we’re able to explore advanced topics like how to setup features such as:

  • Dashboards
  • Integrating with Google AdWords
  • Goals and Segments and more.

This program is free, and it gives you great insights into your website traffic and marketing effectiveness.

Navigating Google’s powerful, flexible and easy-to-use features lets you see and analyze your traffic data in an entirely new way. With Google Analytics, you’re more prepared to write better-targeted ads, strengthen your marketing initiatives, and create higher-converting websites.

If you have a website and you don’t leverage Google Analytics, you’re throwing money away!

Build Your Brand With Award-Winning Book Coach

Book coach lisa tenerThese days, whether it’s Google+ or SEO, the concept of authorship is abuzz. Award-winning book coach Lisa Tener shares her strategies, tips, and insights to a packed room.

Writing a book isn’t for everyone — but many people who think they’re not writers find out that they have a book in them after all.

This month’s Newport Interactive Marketers inspired audiences to figure out whether a book is for them and, if so, how to write one that’s worthy and worthwhile — without a lot of stress or pain. In fact, we found out how it can even be an exciting and fun process.

Should I write a book?

  • How to know if writing a book is for you
  • 5 compelling reasons to get started now
  • 3 keys to get past overwhelm and make it easy
  • Your critical first 3 steps

Ways & Reasons to Write a Book

  • To reinvent yourself, establish your credibility by writing a book
  • Helps focus your brand and vision
  • To get known as an expert in your field
  • When you research something, write something on it, you then become the expert

How to brand it

  • Using a catchy, to the point title, that offers a solution to the problem of your market: example: The Creativity CURE by Drs. Carrie and Alton Barron.
  • “Complimentology”: think about your publicity for the future: what are you and what is your brand?
  • Include tip lists: 5 things to ____________ OR 5 reasons why ________________

Ways to write your book: Tips From Lisa’s Course

  • 8-12 weeks to have a  draft or a proposal.
  • Fill in the holes later (research, interviews, etc) … get the concrete down first.
  • Write what you know, or interview experts if you are new to the field.
  • Passion — write what you’re passionate about.

Ways to Publish

A traditional publisher will take care of final edits, layout, cover, and distribution. However, you’ll still need to market and sell your book. In fact, it’s generally a good idea to hire a publicist as well, because publishers rarely get their authors much publicity. However, do get references as you can waste a good deal of money on a publicist if you are not careful.

Self-Publishing can be a cost-effective way of writing and selling your book, especially using websites like Amazon to market and sell your content.  When self-publishing, make sure to use professional resources to design, edit, and market.

Questions Answered!

What channel do I use to publish?

People are reading paper! If you’re going to be speaking anywhere, it’s ideal to have a physical version to sell. It almost always makes sense to have both e-book and a physical copy.

What’s the important thing to remember about blogs? And what’s their appeal?

They’re up there forever and sometimes the conversation continues years beyond the date of posting. Blogs can be interactive, which helps you understand what your audience wants (helpful in book writing) and also connects you to your audience and develops a relationship.

What’s the “Bestseller formula?”

  • A strong title and topic, of course
  • One that resonates with a large audience that wants and needs what you have to offer.
  • Marketing: everything from great design and cover to executing a strategic plan for reaching your audience (which means understanding where they “hang out”—online and off line.

Lisa Tener‘s Book-Writing Classes come in virtual and in-person options.  Click here to learn more.

Don’t forget to attend next month’s NIM event: Social Media Insights, What Works.