Here are 4 steps you can take today to become a better leader in the workplace:

Say Good Morning

The last thing you want as a leader is someone who feels they can slack off or disengage. So don’t let them! Say hello in the morning. Make sure every team member feels involved and appreciated. When each member feels like an integral part of the unit, team morale improves. Improved morale translates into improved performance.

Keep an Eye Out

Good leaders learn as much as possible about their teammates—their strengths and weaknesses, hopes and worries, even their interests. Keep an eye out for anything one of your teammates might find useful or interesting. If you find something, send it their way! Attach a short personal note like, “hey, thought you might like this.” Show them they’re on your mind, and that you’re willing to help them however, whenever.

Say Thank You

When a teammate or partner does a good job, let them know! Try sending a handwritten thank you or congratulations to show you’re appreciation. They will want to do their very best for you again in the future.

Stay in Touch

It’s critically important to keep your teammates plugged in. Steady communication helps keep the unit organized and focused. Teammates need to know who is doing what, and how they can help each other. Nobody is in this alone! Regular email correspondence to discuss questions, concerns, offer feedback and brainstorm is an effective way to build constructive working relationships. Oh, and be sure to hit “reply all” for messages relevant to the group. You don’t want to make anyone feel left out!

Follow these steps to make sure you and your teammates are performing at your peak!

This information originally appeared in a Business News Daily post by Deborah Sweeney.

image via

A recent video dubbed “Adland Girl” has been going viral and is essentially a social commentary on everything women hate about advertising. From the “muffin girl” who can’t escape cupcakes to the “ditzy girl” whose life basically consists of pure moments of elation resulting from yogurt, the “superficial girls from Adland” are a go-to guide of what NOT to do:

The answer is simple; your desired customer is savvy. She knows more than you think and she is less shallow than you think. A company that has hit the sweet spot of understanding women and their desires, while maintaining authenticity, is Dove and their “Real Beauty” campaign.

Dove could easily take the superficial route, praying on women’s fear of getting cellulite and wrinkles. However, some genius in their marketing department had a crazy notion. To not tell the people they want buying their products that they are ugly. Instead of scaring them into purchasing they have established a reputation as a brand that cares about their customer.

Their most recent video is a perfect example of this and women are loving it. In the three minute piece we are introduced to a forensic artist who begins sketching women based on their own descriptions (without seeing them). We hear snippets of their accounts such as, “I have a pretty big forehead.” Next he draws them based on descriptions of people they just met.

The most heartfelt moments are when the women are shown both sketches. The drawings based on the others’ descriptions are beautiful and resemble their true appearance almost eerily while the versions they described themselves are distorted and cartoonish. It’s a revelation for the women in the video as well the ones watching it. It ends simply with “You are more beautiful than you think” then, finally, a Dove logo. There is not one product placement and it’s the first and last appearance of their logo.

This is how you establish credibility. This is how you continually develop a brand that is respected and revered. This is how you get customers for life.

1. Write Meaningful Content: Make sure your content is relevant and time worthy for your readers. Nothing will kill your blog like lazy or regurgitated writing.
2. Know Your Audience: Immerse yourself in your target audience’s online community. Learn their jargon, interests, questions and concerns. Then shape your content around them.
3. Give to Get: Reciprocity is alive and well in the blogosphere – join the conversation. If you want meaningful comments, leave meaningful comments. Link to other blogs, build relationships with your peers and show you’re someone worth associating with.
4. Use Keywords in Post Titles: Include the words most associated with, and used by your target audience, in your blog titles. Search engines place significant weight on titles. So do readers. Make sure you’re including terms your audience will search for, even if it means sacrificing a bit of creativity. Wit won’t always get results.
5. Use an Overview: Begin your post with a keyword rich overview, then focus your copy around that overview. By narrowing your focus and emphasizing keywords, its more likely you’ll reach your target audience.
6. Share: Just because you wrote it, does not mean they will come. You’ve got to bring your message to your audience. Share your posts through various social media platforms and include the necessary “share” buttons to your posts. Your readers can be a useful asset for driving traffic and building awareness.
7. Use Your Own Domain: Using your own domain name provides credibility. Many readers are suspicious of blogs generated through mass blog domains i.e. wordpress and blogspot. Using your own domain also means complete control over the software and setup of your blog. As your blog grows, you’ll find that flexibility is vital as it allows you to expand the scope of your blog.

Building a successful blog takes consistent effort over time but mastering these basics will help get you the results you’re looking for… and you won’t have to pay a dime.

Tags: American Executive Centers, SEO, blog, blogosphere, keyword, domain, social media, target audience, conversation, share

We were fortunate enough to host this group in our Old City office to answer concerning questions all college students in the pr/media field have and give them insight on our average workday. What an impressive group of committed young, articulate PR Professionals! Why is it that we are challenged with finding new young talent in Philly and these kids are leaving today to go back to school? The next generation of marketing Super Stars need to be here!

President David Neff with NABJ students

• Of the 20.9 million Super Bowl-related tweets sent during the game, about 30% were about the commercials

• GoDaddy.com led the way with total tweets with their “Who’s Your GoDaddy?” spot, garnering 290,000 reactions on Twitter; however only 14% of those tweets were deemed “positive”

• Conversely, Tide had the highest sentiment rating, with 86% of Twitter reactions to their “Montana Miracle Stain” ad being “positive”

• Chrysler spent the most of any brand, estimated at $15.2 million, but had the highest Cost Per Follower and Cost Per Tweet ($14,000 CPF/ $179CPT)

• Calvin Klein came in at 9th for total spend, but had the lowest Cost Per Follower and Cost Per Tweet ratios ($740 CPF/ $24 CPT)

• Taco Bell scored in the top 3 in all Twitter criteria, (CPF, CPT, followers gained, sentiment) and their hashtag #LIVEMAS was used 2669 times

All information courtesy of Whispr Group, via Mashable.com. See all stats here: http://mashable.com/2013/02/04/super-bowl-twitter-numbers/

As far as our professional opinion as a branding agency:

• Budweiser’s “Brotherhood” commercial definitely had the biggest “Awww” factor, bringing a number of our female colleagues to tears.  Also, kudos for casting the ideal “every-girls-type” actor for the lead role.

• GoDaddy.com made the most noise on Twitter, but their Cost Per Follower came out to almost $7,000. This company pushes the envelope every year, but it is unclear as to whether being outrageous is part of their brand identity or they simply disregard their image when producing their commercials.

• Taco Bell’s “Viva Young” ad was unanimously decided as the funniest here at Neff. Old people, tattoos and tacos; somehow it just worked. Also, their Twitter ROI was the highest of any brand, proving there is more to being ridiculous than simply being ridiculous. (We’re looking at you GoDaddy)

• The NFL’s “Leon Sandcastle” commercial was a big hit with our avid football fans; the casual fans, not so much

• It was definitely cool to have a regional feel to the advertising blitz.In the later part of the game, there were ads from Gwynedd-Mercy College, Belfor Restoration, The New Jersey Lottery and a Century-21 commercial that was produced by a Philadelphia advertising agency.

And how can we forget the blackout! Oreo was the biggest winner here, tweeting this very timely photo (see below) just minutes after half the lights went out at the Superdome. The piece got 12,000 retweets, and all that without having to pay for another expensive commercial. Victory!

Well thankfully The Greater Philadelphia Tourism and Marketing Corp hired a firm to conduct research to figure out exactly what the perception of Philadelphians is. Chill, you can check out the findings here (http://philly.curbed.com/archives/2013/01/15/if-philadelphia-were-a-guy-what-would-he-look-like.php) thanks to our friends over at Curbed Philly.

So basically, in the span of six years Philadelphians went from being blue-collar, beer guzzling, nondescript dudes (the prompting question was in regards to imagining Philadelphia as a male, sorry ladies), to a college educated, sports fan who throws back everything from brews to bourbon.

Anyone who lives or at least spends a lot of time in Philadelphia has no doubt felt a cultural shift upwards in the recent years.  Whether it be the foodie craze that has put this city on the map for much more than cheesesteaks, or the fact that Philadelphia is a mainstay contender for top craft brewing city in the US annually (no jokes, http://www.esquire.com/the-side/feature/best-beer-cities-philadelphia#slide-4), there was a tangible feeling that America’s original capital was stepping up its game.   It’s good to know that the perception, or Philadelphia’s brand identity, if you will, is following suit.

Philly is on the rise and the proof is in the pudding…or more appropriately, that DogFish Head 60-Minute IPA you’re sipping on.

From both the perspective of the consumer and the retailer – sales seem to be mutually beneficial.However, holiday retail sales were a huge disappointment for 2012. Not only did they come nowhere near where they were projected to be but they showed the slowest growth since their initial decline on the heels of the 2008 financial crisis. It should have retailers scratching their heads about the benefit of huge sales like Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Active-wear heavyweight Lululemon takes a different approach. Not only have they developed a line that is beautiful and functional but also a brand that is synonymous with a lifestyle their customers want. Their products are also, in a word, expensive. Cute, stylish yoga pants are pretty seasonless, right? So why not get something from last year in their sale section? The answer is because you can’t. Lululemon sells 95% of their inventory at full-price. Even when their numbers aren’t where they want them to be, it’s a strategy they’ll never stray from.

In addition to a lack of discounts and sales, they don’t open many new stores or use software to gather shopper data. But how do they get customers without these types of marketing promotions? Lululemon focuses on their patron’s shopping habits by having their workers listen to their likes and complaints in-store, rather than using “big data” which gives a “false sense of security, according to CEO Christine Day. Day personally spends six hours a week herself doing drop-ins at a variety of locations to observe shoppers and use their feedback.

However, the biggest and simplest sales tactic used by Lululemon is to sell to their niche through scarcity.

“Our guest knows that there’s a limited supply, and it creates these fanatical shoppers,” said Day to The Wall Street Journal.

In general, it works. In the last nine quarters, over the course of three years, the company’s sales have rose 30% or more from the year before; in the last year their stock has doubled. Lululemon uses the basic economic principle of supply and demand and it’s so simple, that it just might work.

Since our founding in 1987, Neff Associates has served a vast array of industry sectors with initiatives ranging from media relations and social media to advertising and branding on both the regional and national level. The company, founded by David Neff, currently services clients as diverse as Hutchinson Plumbing Heating Cooling – the Delaware Valley’s largest HVAC provider, REX 1516 – a Southern-inspired restaurant on Philadelphia’s South Street, and Wurzak Hotel Group – a hotel developer and operator for the newly opened Sheraton Valley Forge as well as Westin Mt Laurel and Hilton City Ave.

Some of the Neff Team Celebrates 25 Years

On December 11th, Neff Associates celebrated our 25th anniversary at client Del Frisco’s Double Eagle Steakhouse in Philadelphia. The lively event is sure to go down as one of the best parties of the holiday season. Guest like Howard Eskin, Marc Summers, Mike Jerrick and Sharon Pinkenson packed into the private vault space and bar area to cheers Neff on the huge accomplishment. Here’s to our company’s  26th year and making 2013 the best one yet!

Happy New Year from everyone at Neff Associates!

“If you are searching for a single wine to go with the whole meal – from cheese ball to pumpkin pie – then you really can’t beat a lighter bodied, earthy, slightly fruity wine with softer tannins such as come from gamay. Gamay is the grape found in Beaujolais, whose wines are a bit more fruity and a bit less acidic than their Burgundian neighbor with its Pinot Noir.

But, since it is a celebration, why not have three wines!

Try a great sherry with appetizers and cheese and crackers – how about a bright, slightly apple-y, manzanilla?

As for the main meal, lots of wines would be good with turkey; the sides are the tricky part. Again, gamay/beaujolais would work with most. My mother’s traditional bread-stuffing of sausage, sage, and celery is at home with an austrian red, and I love them all: St. Laurent, Blaufrankisch, Zweigelt. A chestnut stuffing – with all that great earthiness – works the same way and would be very happy with a wine from Italy’s Piemonte, like Dolcetto.
If you are having mushrooms in any quantity, get a local wine from near Kennett Square – preferably Stargazers Vineyard’s Dornfelder. Those vineyards close to the mushroom center-of-the-universe have palpable mushroom and umami characters.

Perhaps your family uses an oyster stuffing? Try a fun and classic Soave from northeastern Italy, or a more saline Assyrtiko from Greece.

What about pumpkin pie? Skip the whipped cream and pair it with a barrel-aged bourbon.”

—Jill Weber

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