4 Powerful Words

I need your help.

Those four monosyllabic words pack quite a bit of power in a small space.  How did you feel the last time someone asked you for your help?  I’d wager that you felt something akin to pride, confidence, appreciation, or generally good – in other words, it probably was a positive emotion.  How did you feel the last time you were struggling with something and reached out to someone you trust for help?  Again, I’d bet it was in the positive realm, especially once the collaboration began.

It's an Idea Room SessionSome of us are “wired” to ask for help more easily than others.  Some of us view the act as a sign of weakness.  It is a gift.  Using those four words (or similar ones) benefits the person asking, the person being asked, and most importantly the organization and/or customers being affected by the problem which needs to be addressed.

Marketers, struggling with some aspect of a campaign?  Ask your sales teams for help.  Their insights will undoubtedly uncover things you didn’t think about.

Managers, ask your employees.  You face problems everyday which could benefit from input from outside the management sphere.

Dentists, ask your teams and your patients.

I think you get the gist of what I’m trying to say here.  There is power in what may seem like vulnerability of asking for help.  You’ll feel better.  The person you ask will feel better.  You’ll grow closer as a team.

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Facebook Ads: Are you up to spec?

For all my fellow marketers who are boldly going where almost everyone else is going I am sure you have realized by now that Facebook has made a change to its specs for ads.  If you haven’t noticed, the gist is that smaller is the new small:

  • Copy will now be limited to 90 characters (used to be 135)
  • Images must be kept to dimensions of 99 x 72 (from 110 x 80)

So now is prime time to evaluate your current and future Facebook ad campaigns.  How much can you say in 90 text characters?  Quite a bit, if you’re creative.  As if it weren’t painfully obvious before, it should be now:  simplicity, focus, and clarity of offer/reason are of utmost importance in this ad medium.  Get creative and get clear about what you are offering or otherwise trying to accomplish with your Facebook campaign(s).  Real estate just got more limited, so use it wisely.  And if you’re not currently testing your message, shame on you.  These new specs (and the Facebook medium itself for that matter) are practically crying out for some good ol’ A/B testing.

Time to see how much you can say, or rather how focused you can be, in a smaller and rapidly more cluttered space.

What successes have you had with advertising on Facebook?  What do you think of their new ad specs?

Special thanks to Lanmark360 for bringing this change to my attention.

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2011 in review

Well, I’m getting there.  The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for The Dunn Show.

Here’s an excerpt:

A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 1,100 times in 2011. If it were a cable car, it would take about 18 trips to carry that many people.

Thanks for reading and here’s to a tremendous 2012!

Click here to see the complete report.

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