We work very hard to show what makes our clients special when planning their marketing strategies. They all have great stories to tell and it’s our job to make sure they are seen, heard, and remembered. This past week, one of our clients, White’s Lumber, came to us with a great story that we wanted to share with you.

White’s is a family-owned lumber and home improvement business that has been serving the communities in and around Watertown, NY since 1892. We were absolutely amazed by this rarity, and wanted to express it to the general public in their branding. After much research and collaboration with White’s, we arrived at their new tagline: “Quality Across the Board”. We understand the importance of establishing a good brand and expressing it in everything our clients do. White’s Lumber has embraced theirs wholeheartedly, always providing ‘quality across the board.’ How did we know we were conveying this message successfully? Check this out…

A customer had come in to pay for an order at White’s Lumber and wrote out a check for his bill. After reviewing it, one the store’s accounting staff brought it to Brad White, the owner. The check writer had gotten the name wrong. Who had he made it out to? Not White’s Lumber, but “White’s Quality.”

A question we often ask new clients is: how do you express your company’s brand? Does it reflect what you do or does it get lost in translation?

We’re proud of our clients and the work we do for them, and events like this let us know we’re telling their stories well. Now if only they could cash that check…

This will be the first in a series of interviews we’ll be conducting this year with folks who are leveraging the power of social networks as a part of their overall marketing strategy. Enjoy the videos.

Part I – Connections to Contact

How is your business implementing social as part of its overall marketing or communications strategy? Leave us a comment.

The Pepsi Refresh Project will call on users to submit to Pepsi ways that they can refresh their communities.  Will it pay off?

It’s interesting that their flagship drink will not make an appearance at this year’s game. I wonder if after all these years paying big bucks for :30 TV spots (though sometimes very creative) they still see a bounce in revenue based on those buys. If not, then putting that $$ behind a Social Media campaign may be a good decision that stretches those dollars over a longer period of time than the ads – if it is executed correctly.

Pulling the spots also may be a byproduct of a couple of tough economic years, or a big brand playing up corporate responsibility (is good the new green?). Regardless, the move itself has generated a lot of free attention… What do you think the buzz that this story generated is worth?

2010 is sure to see tons of brands big and small move toward relationship and experience based marketing. And if the $20 million price tag of their Social Media campaign holds, Pepsi is no doubt one of the players who are betting big on their community.

We love dogs. In case you couldn’t already tell, check out our employee profiles. Stop by our Agency on any given day, and you’re likely to be greeted by one of our employees’ dogs, regular visitors to the office. We’re like one big family here, and our dogs consider this one of their homes. So when we were looking for a local cause to support, we naturally thought of the Humane Society.

We know many people have had a difficult year, so animal shelters are receiving more unwanted pets and fewer donations. We consider our dogs members of our own families, so we want to make sure our friends at Stevens-Swan aren’t forgotten. We hope this inspires you to give to (and even better, visit) the Stevens-Swan Humane Society, or another charity of your choice, this holiday season.

This year, we’re making our donation in memory of my 12-year-old lab Hannah (pictured), who passed away after many years at my side and as a friend of all of us at the Agency.

The Stevens-Swan Humane Society (SSHS) of Oneida County is a private nonprofit organization that provides a safe haven to all domestic pets that must be surrendered, are stray, abandoned, homeless, abused or injured. They serve as a shelter for nearly 5,000 animals each year.

They’re located on Horatio St. north of Riverside Center, can be reached by phone at 315-738-4357. More information is available on their website at www.stevens-swan.org

To make a long story short – everyone’s Google results for a specific term, say the TV show “Lost” will be different when using real-time search. Everyone’s. This is because if you are selecting Latest Results, you’re jumping into the world of real-time which will include updates from Facebook and Twitter that are using those keywords. Check out this sample query for AT&T.

Notice anything? If you guessed that ‘sentiment is now reflected in Google results’ – you win. Who doesn’t win in this situation? AT&T. Regardless of what AT&T does with any of their PPC buys or SEO their search results page now is going to be trumped by sentiment in large part gathered from Social Media networks. And right now, sentiment towards AT&T is at almost an all-time low. If I were someone who was making a purchasing decision regarding a new cell phone, checking Google’s real-time search would certainly have an influence in that choice. And that’s big.

So where is this all going? Google is obviously looking to capitalize on the growth of social search. Will this make traditional search engine optimization less important in the world of real-time? As an advertiser, will I run into the possibility that a PPC Google Ad for my product will show up next to a Tweet that’s tearing it apart?

Check out this short video direct from Google.

This is one big example of why businesses NEED to be aware of what’s being said about them and engage with their customers on social networks. With Google now in the social search game (and with 70% of the search volume being done on Google), sentiment in real-time has the potential to make or break a brand.

Have you used real-time search yet? Will you? More importantly, what do you think this means for traditional SEO? Leave us a comment and let’s chat.