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San Diego freelance copywriter Anne McColl shares tips and insights on copywriting, running a small business, marketing trends, writing websites, and design.
My sketchnotes for Social Media Marketing World were featured in an article for Social Media Examiner about how to live Tweet and event to drive traffic to your website.
It pretty much sums up the benefits:
Drive targeted traffic to your site Showcase your services Generate product buzz Capture the attention of journalists Connect with influences
The sketchnotes I created last year for Social Media Marketing World #smmw14 were featured this week in an article on Social Media Examiner: 26 Tips for Improving Social Media Examiner.
My sketchnotes illustrated a creative use of Slideshare. Of course, I always want to bring people back to my site but by putting the sketchnotes out on Slideshare, the collection has racked up almost 30,000 views, something that would never have happened had I only posted them on my site.
How to have a brilliant year. (With a nod to James Altucher who I had the honor to sketchnote at TEDx San Diego.)
You can also download this infographic in a handy dandy 1-page book!
Happy writing!
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I had the great honor and pleasure of sketchnoting the TEDx San Diego conference. Previously I had attended the 2010 and 2011 TEDx events. (But when the event was moved to the Saturday during the holiday season I couldn't make it!) With 700 attendees, this event was much larger than the first event of 150 attendees but was able to reach a much wider audience.
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The National Retail Federation hired me to sketch their Shop.org Merchandising Workshop at the lovely Terranea Resort. It was a fast two days. Big takeaways: share data with your whole team. And video, video, video!
I use the Brushes app on the iPad to create all of my sketchnotes. It took a while to master the app to be able to move fast. I work without a stylus for greater accuracy and control. (Probably because I am always losing them—great holiday gift idea for me.)
You can see more sketchnotes here.
So I attended the big social media fest once again—Social Media Marketing World 2014 #smmw14. It's held here in San Diego so it is silly not to go. Some interesting takeaways
I had great success with visuals standing out in Twitter feeds building on success from last year. Next year that strategy will be flooded. And when it came to sketchnoting, using a much fatter brush for font emphasis is a quicker way to go rather than block letters.
Here is the entire collection:
It was another two days of creativity and community at the Y Design Conference. My two favorite speakers were our local heroes. Architect Rob Quigley spoke ever so eloquently about keeping true to original intent whille designing the new Central Library. And Ron Miriello shared his take on life/design/life with the enthusiasm of a beginner tempered with the wisdom that only comes with experience. There is always the reacurring theme of become your own client and create your own projects.
I presented to copywriting class at The Art Institute-San Diego and shared this slide (a creative way to emphasize the importance of planning and the creative brief.)
Then I realized I was only focusing on the creative process. There is a lot else I do, I spend so little time actually writing. When you perform a craft for a living, there is a whole lot of business around the craft.
So basically, the NFL will come after advertisers if they use the copyrighted name "Super Bowl." Here's a few creative alternatives for marketers.
And thanks to the Internet, I can catch all the ads the day before.
I collaborated with Fandom Marketing on New Year's Resolutions for Marketers. Which one of these are you guilty of?
Yes, many of these are based on real life. (Not the cat memes!)
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Well, some people try to write a book in a month. Me, I'm an interactive copywriter so I'm pretty sparse with my words—I'm going to write a word a day. Here, they are, my favorite words, one a day.
Yep, it's always changing. Remember when AOL was leading edge? And AltaVista? Get ready.
Thank you Internet, it's so much easier to share information. But now there's too many cat videos and insightful quotes floating around, we now we need a filter. This is what I try to remember when I share. (Okay except when it comes to Star Wars.)
_________________________
Happy sharing.
In a highly publicized move, Yahoo! redesigned their logo with design efforts led by CEO Marissa Mayer. She says in an article in Ad Age:
"On a personal level, I love brands, logos, color, design, and, most of all, Adobe Illustrator. I think it's one of the most incredible software packages ever made. I'm not a pro, but I know enough to be dangerous :) So, one weekend this summer, I rolled up my sleeves and dove into the trenches with our logo design team"
Obviously, Yahoo didn't design their new logo in-house because of economic reasons.
Oops. I forgot to add in the price of pizza.
See a big version here.
The UXSpeakeasy group consistently has great programming (and beer.). This month's event covered how to cultivate a design culture and featured Chuck Longanecker of digital-telepathy. The event was held in their new space that formed housed one of my favorite places, the Hive. Chuck shared how digitial-telepathy has evolved over the years. What's a design culture? It's more than having a foosball table or lunches on Friday. It starts at the top and engages every aspect of the company.
This was a challenging session to sketchnote, so much wonderful information coming out at once. Graphic facilitator extraordiaire/Stick Figure Strategist Jeannel King was also there and sketched. I glanced over her shoulder and it was fun to see how differently we interpreted the material. I asked her for suggestions on how to represent Soul. (She is amazing because she uses marker and pen while I do more with the iPad.)
See the big version here.
A presentation I gave as a freelance copywriter at the Art Institute San Diego.
The San Diego Ad Club sponsored an interesting forum on creativity and agencies. Is creativity still king?
In a short word, yes.
There's more people producing sites and video and blog posts. More volume. More crap. It's easier than ever for a great idea to stand out, if only people see it.
However, the days of a copywriter and art director going off to a room to concept for a week are over. This whole working in a silo has to end.
But on the other hand, someone has to steward the idea through production. Creative by committee tends to produce watered-down ideas.
What's your experience?
Social Media Marketing World hosted by the folks at Social Media Examiner came to town for a few days. I created sketchnotes and sketch tweets during the sessions and tweeted them out. All visuals were created on the fly using the iPad and Brushes and Over apps. One surprising theme – don't discount your email list. It will be the most profitable.
Tonight was the kickoff reception for Social Media Marketing World at the San Diego Natural History Museum. What do you get when 1,000 social media marketers invade a collection dinosaur bones and fossils? All of these images were created live on mobile devices.
It's funny how every Y-Conference seems to reflect an underlying theme. This year's was that side projects and pro-bono work can lead to other assignments. Wayne White spoke how he played with puppets and that led to his work on Pee-wee's Playhouse. Brian Singer shared his many side projects including 1000 Journals. Eric Thoelke shared how doing work for the local opera company evolved step by step into more client work. And Josh Higgins shared how his pro bono poster work led to working with the Obama Campaign.
Below is a selection of images that I live tweeted during the conference including sketchnotes of presentations and highlighted quotes. All design done live during presentations. (Yeah, I felt weird, one of the few non-designers in an audience of designers tweeting designs but all very much of the moment.)
