Creative Brainstorming
I forgot how much I like to brainstorm creative ideas with a group, and it was really cool to be a part of a session last night at the digital marketing company I work for. I hope we end up doing this more in the future. Because I have worked for myself for a while, it’s been a while since I have been in a formal brainstorming session. I did lead a few for an online casino that I worked for a few years ago and also at an agency back in 2000.
I was reminded of some great tools for running a brainstorming session and I wanted to post some of those here.
Brainstorming session setup:
1. Choose a facilitator – It is important that someone is in charge of leading and enforcing time limits in order for the session to stay on focus and on time.
2. Pick a comfortable environment – It is important that the brainstorming session is held in an environment that is comfortable for everyone involved. Good brainstorming sessions depend on free-flowing ideas so it is essential that the comfort level is high.
3. Whiteboard or flip chart – It is essential to have a tool for capturing the ideas as they come. Software or a word processing application can also be used.
4. Variety of participants – Brainstorming works best when a wider variety of people participate. For this reason it is recommended to invite people from many different areas of your company or group.
Brainstorming rules:
1. Define the issue – It is important to clearly define the issue you are trying to solve so that ideas will be on target. Creative brainstorms start with phrases such as: “In what ways might we…?” or “How could we…? These challenges should be concise and clearly related the defined issue.
2. Set time limits – Time limits are essential in order to keep things on task. Sessions should generally run from 15-30 minutes. Going over this amount of time can lead to over-thinking an issue and wild creative that will not effectively address the stated challenge.
3. Start brainstorming – Ideas should start flowing with everyone participating. The key rule should be, “there are no bad ideas.” It is important to not put down any ideas until after the session has concluded. There will be plenty of time for scoring ideas later. It is best to keep the atmosphere open and creative.
4. Choose a shortlist of ideas – Once the time limit has been reached, the group should go over all of the ideas and create a list of the top 5 ideas that came out of the brainstorm.
5. Score the finalists – Depending on the criteria, each idea should be given a score between 0 and 5.
7. Pick a Winner - Add up the scores and pick a winner.
Filed under Online Marketing by jeff | Comment (0)Interactive Marketing Consultant – Jeff Ownby Accepts a Job
Well, I think I found the perfect job for me. I am expecting to accept a position with a digital marketing company in Chicago that is building out a new Interactive Marketing deparment. This means we won’t have to relocate and I get to do what I enjoy doing best; all sorts of projects for really good clients. Yep, Jeff Ownby is accepting a position.
There really were a lot of job options for me with the Internet still booming, even while traditional advertising companies are looking to downsize right now. It seems like I turned down at least 3 SEM ( search engine marketing) positions a week. I didn’t want to get pigeon-holed into search. I also decided not to pursue a few other out of town postions including one with Dell in Austin. We’ll get to warmer weather eventually. (It’s 10 degrees here in Chicago today)
The point at which I was sold on this new position was when they told me there may be instances when a project comes in that nobody really knows how to handle and we just have to figure it out. They also told me they don’t have a specific job description for me since they are not 100% sure how this new group will be evolving.
Sold!
I can’t imagine a better situation for me. I have spent the last 7 years “figuring out” all the interactive marketing I have done.
Filed under General Posts, Online Marketing by jeff | Comment (1)Search Engine Optimization – Jeff Ownby Knows What He’s Doing
I ( Ownby ) have been doing search engine optimization (seo) since about 1996, long before the majority of marketing people even knew what this meant or the importance of it. I guess I was a web 2.0 guy in a web 1.0 world. It was really hard to get gigs doing this back then, and now it’s a matter of fighting against the agencies and design firms who sell this service into their existing clients even though they don’t do it well.
One thing that has always killed me was not having great rankings for my OWN keywords in my industry. It wasn’t because we couldn’t do it. It was more the result of not having any time to do it because we were so focused on doing it for our clients. It was the classic case of the cobbler’s kids who didn’t have any shoes.
In October, we decided to focus a little more on our site for the term search engine optimization. It’s now Decemember and I just noticed some increased traffic coming in from this term. I checked in MSN ( and Live.com, which is Windows default search engine) and got a great Christimas present for the company – a #4 listing. Here is a direct link to the listing if it still shows up.
We’re still not showing up well in Yahoo and Google, but these things usually start in MSN and then move to the others as you build up your strategy.
I’m so glad we finally spent some time in our own house and got some good results.
Filed under Online Marketing by jeff | Comment (0)