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In honor of our brand-spanking new website, we thought it might be a good time for a contest! Hit us up with a comment for a chance to win two free tickets to the Sixth Man Jam on Monday December 19^th. The event takes place at the United Center from 5:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

We are all about Chicago teams at The Ocean Agency, and when the lockout ended, we had a mini-celebration. The Bulls already have the reigning MVP, now it’s time to get back to the finals.

If you are like us, then the Sixth Man Jam is right up your alley.

You’ll have the opportunity to:

• Take photos on the court, team benches and with the 6 NBA championship trophies.
• Shoot some hoops on the United Center court.
• Meet Derrick Rose, Joakim Noah, Carlos Boozer, Luol Deng and the rest of the Bulls, as well as John Paxson, Gar Forman, Tom Thibodeau, Bob Love, Stacey King, Bill Wennington, Sidney Green and Randy Brown.
• Hang out with Benny the Bull and the Luvabulls.

Post your name, email and your favorite Bulls moment in the comment box below. It’s pretty simple.

Winners will be randomly selected and notified by email on December 18th.

Submission Deadline: December 17th at Midnight

Why you need a Corporate Culture?

Well, this is good question. I think many business owners feel they have to create a corporate culture that follows the type of guidelines and all the perks that a culture similar to one like Google or Southwest. But, this is not true. Every office has a corporate culture you just have to define and understand what your company’s is.

Yes, your staff should feel needed, wanted, and appreciated.

This might sound like you have to give your staff the world but you really don’t. Your staff just wants to feel like they have value and they matter. Doing something as simple as holding a staff meeting each month empowers your employees with a voice and gives them a chance to make suggestions. This can actually make a huge difference. I read in one article that an owner lets his employees write down something that was good or bad that happened that month and they get to throw the paper at him. It may sound strange but it’s definitely an ice breaker and starts the conversation.

Business owners should always be transparent with their clients and the same goes for your employees.  Communicate with your employees about company goals, good or bad. Together, create a future map somewhere in the office as what you are aspiring to be as a company.

Create rewards for your employees! No, you don’t have to spend a ton of money doing so. Plan companies outings each season, organize monthly happy hours, play games in the office, incorporate summer hours (there have been statistics that this increases work productivity during the week), or even just bring in bagels or donuts on Fridays.

The office environment is also very important. Get rid of cubicles and create pods or group work spaces instead. This can create motivation and a more relaxed vibe, as well as better communication between co-workers when working on projects. Add a relaxation area where your employees can go to eat lunch or just to get away from their desk for a few minutes. Use bright colors, magazines or books, or even add a TV to the area. If employees enjoy their office environment they won’t be ready to drop everything and hurry to get out at 5pm on the dot.

Benefits

Yep, benefits are a part of a company’s corporate culture. Anything that an employer provide to their employees such as health and dental insurance, vacation days, employee of the month or bonuses, transportation discounts, etc can all be incorporated into your corporate culture plan.

The little things

I think it’s important that you gain respect from your employees but can be on their level. Play by the same rules as they do. Just because you’re the boss doesn’t mean you should be walking in a noon every day. Recognize and reward your employees when it’s called for. This also shouldn’t always be monetary. I read in one article that an owner creates fun and different titles for each employee such as “Director of First Impressions” which are more personal and can better describe the person. “Director of First Impressions” would be a great title for a Director of New Business Development or for someone with my job since I’m the Office Coordinator. Encourage bonding among staff and yourself. Let them get to know you and you them. Ask a few employees how their weekend was or about their family. It’s really the little things that make them feel important.

Your mission statement

Every company should a mission statement. It’s what you do and who you are as a company. If you don’t have one, this is an exercise that you can do with your employees.

Here are a few examples of mission statements or motto’s from Fortune 500 companies.

The right employees

To build a good culture you need the right employees and dependable employees. This starts with the hiring process. You don’t always need the most experienced person you need the person with the right attitude, passion, and work ethic. For more on this please read this blog, The 5 key characteristics of every new hire.

I hope by reading this post you can better understand the importance of corporate culture and how you can start incorporating some of these beliefs and values into your office.

I want to end this post with this quote “Don’t create employees, create teams who pitch in, come together and complete together what needs to be done. Create an organization that rewards innovation through pay, play, praise, promotion, and recognition.”

Share with me, I would love to hear how you or how you will incorporate a corporate culture into your office.

Before you make you business promotion, advertising, or messaging go “viral” you first need to understand why people share online content.

To elaborate on this chart, let’s work with an example:

Let’s say that you own a dive bar and have created a humorous 15 second video that promotes your bar. At the end of the video there is a coupon “password” that will get people a free pitcher of beer on a Monday night. Beyond questions like “is the video entertaining” or ” is the coupon effective” you need dig a little deeper and get at the motivations for online sharing.

Where are people going to share this information?  How will sharing impact their percieved value among their digital networks? To make matters more complicated, everyone utilizes their online networks differently, and shares accordingly.

When you share a piece of content it means something. We all know that “sharing is caring”, but with online content sharing is usually more about caring about yourself and your image than anything else.

So next time you’re looking to make a branded piece of media and you want people to share it, make something that will make the sharers look and feel cool, intelligent, and in the know. Don’t worry, you don’t have to come up with it all on your own, The Ocean Agency can help you out.

For more great discussions of “viral” campaigns check out these other posts from The Lost Jacket, and  Big Spaceship.

Remember a couple years ago when the term “Social Media” was foreign to all of us. Now, everyone and their mother (literally – my mom friended me on Facebook last week) is on the bandwagon trying to get the hang of this Social Media thing.

It’s become much more than a tool to stay connected with your old high school buddies, or to update your friends on what you ate for dinner last night. Social Media has become a regular part of our daily lives, and for businesses, an integral part of their marketing and PR strategies.

So with everyone on board – how does a business stand out from the rest? At the end of the day – Social Media is about forging, nurturing, and promoting relationships. The one on one connection Social Media allows between businesses and their consumers are allowing small businesses to not only compete with larger corporations, but thrive and succeed where the competition falls short.

Here in Chicago – there are a lot of businesses who “get” Social Media –
Threadless
Foiled Cupcakes,
GroupOn and
Grubhub to name a few.

Our generation is wise to the corporate act – and very rarely do we buy into a straight up sales pitch. This is why, when it comes to online advertising, we’re seeing more affiliate geo-targeted campaigns rather than pure Google ads. Businesses that get it focus on building a relationship first, helping us realize that there is a need or want there, and then acting on it.

Mari Luangrath, founder of Chicago-based Foiled Cupcakes, connected with me as a friend. She followed me several months ago and since then, we’ve become good friends both on and offline. Not once did she sell me on her product – not once did she throw a sales pitch my way. She focused solely on building a genuine relationship and friendship with me. Now I’m days away from signing a contract to have Foiled Cupcakes cater my wedding.

So what can business learn from this? What’s the take away? Here are some basic takeaways to implement into your Social Media marketing strategy:

Be personable

This is above all the most important thing. As a representative of your business, yet also a “regular” person – there can be a delicate and sometimes difficult balance between your personal and professional self. The trick is to not let the balance beam sway to heavily in either direction – you must represent your business but also be yourself. Be someone people want to talk to – even if you’re selling running shoes, it’s OK to talk to your community about the Lady Gaga concert last weekend. When you become a “real” person instead of a corporate identity, people will forget you’re even trying to sell them something.

Know your audience

A critical piece to the puzzle is knowing your audience –and spending a lot of time LISTENING to their conversations. What are they talking about, what are they interested in? Take note of who’s talking to who and what they’re talking about, before jumping into the conversation yourself. Listening is key, but taking action at the right time by monitoring your communities behavior is even more important.

Invest in social media

Social Media isn’t something you can throw in as an afterthought. To be successful, you need to be present and engaged. Whether this means hiring an online “Community Manager” on your staff (a growing trend amongst businesses) or outsourcing your Social Media Management to an outside firm, you need someone who can and will be engaged in the community and actively involved in conversation. With Social Media, the old adage is true – you get what you give.

The point is simple – relationships are the foundation of any good business and Social Media allows us as individuals and businesses to establish those relationships easier than ever before. Connect first, sell second – a simple recipe small businesses are using to dominate the local market.

What businesses can you think of that are “doing it right” with Social Media?