The Tendo View

Insights and analysis for your strategic communications

Insight archive

  • 4 tips on free keyword selection tools

    11/08/10 • (0)

    Using keywords in your Web pages is the best method for boosting your SEO rankings, which makes the selection of those keywords very important.

    A lot of fee-based and highly effective tools exist to help with this task. But for smaller organizations with smaller budgets, fee-based keyword selection tools might be out of reach. Luckily… Continue reading

  • Increase email ROI by decoding metrics

    11/05/10 • (0)

    Guest blogger Mary Carse is a freelance consultant who, after 25 years of marketing experience, has come to the conclusion that interpreting data and metrics is the “secret sauce” to successful digital marketing. Mary is not a data geek, but she believes there is more art than science to data interpretation. You can contact her

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  • Videos that pack a punch

    9/07/10 • (0)

    We’ve been thinking a lot about video at Tendo. For example, what makes a video engaging, what’s the right length, and when is it even appropriate to use video? My colleague Bill Golden just wrote a post about do-it-yourself video, and he has some good tips to share.

    While it can be tough to… Continue reading

  • Visual design terminology: Talk the talk

    9/06/10 • (2)

    Jargon is an expected component of any specialized field. But visual communications is, I feel, a special case. Many of us have to deal with visuals in some aspect of our jobs, even if we aren’t actually designers or users of design tools like PhotoShop.

    Unfortunately, I’ve noticed a lot of garbled use of… Continue reading

  • How to collaborate better with designers

    8/31/10 • (0)

    For many people, the most fun part of creating a website or publication is the visual design aspect. I know it is for me. It’s what I call “fun” creativity (as opposed to “not so fun” creativity, such as trying to transform a product data sheet into an interesting and engaging article for readers).

    And yet because visual design… Continue reading

  • B2B social media: Is it marketing or what?

    6/15/10 • (1)

    B2B social media seems to be on everyone’s minds these days. EMarketer.com reports that B2B marketing activity on social networks is estimated to increase 43.3 percent in 2010, while spending is estimated to increase by $54 million in 2014 (up from $11 million in 2009)[1].

    Despite these robust estimates, B2B marketers have lagged behind B2C marketers… Continue reading

  • How do corporate websites coexist with social media strategies?

    5/24/10 • (1)

    Following on from his controversial post of 2007 suggesting that corporate websites were irrelevant, social media guru Jeremiah Owyang told attendees at the recent GilbaneSF content management conference that corporate websites as we know them may not survive into the future.

    As organizations begin to seed and continue customer interactions on external social networks… Continue reading

  • Content strategy Q&A

    5/18/10 • (2)

    Content strategy has come of age. While consumers continue to embrace social media and emerging Web channels and turn away from traditional media, large corporations are being pushed into a more direct relationship with their customers. Along with LinkedIn and Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, corporate websites are becoming the main channel for this new relationship

    Continue reading

  • Avoid PowerPoint abuse

    5/14/10 • (1)

    Do you have PowerPoint skills? Can you size images and auto-create charts and graphs from Excel spreadsheets? If so, you might say that you indeed possess PowerPoint skills. It may even be listed on your resume as a job qualification. But if your definition of PowerPoint skills doesn’t extend beyond use of the software program… Continue reading

  • Traits of an engaging blogger

    5/13/10 • (3)

    Your organization has a blog. You’ve even got some employees who are eager to put pen to digital paper and produce content. But there’s a difference between blah content and the “I’m-subscribing-to-this-blogger-because-he’s-got-interesting-views” content. The writer of the latter often attracts regular readers, engages readers in conversation (not only on his or her own blog, but… Continue reading

  • Minting customers with infographics

    4/15/10 • (0)

    Imagine trying to explain the concept of deflation, the oil economy or how the Federal Reserve works so it’s easy to comprehend for the financially illiterate. Oh, and it must be interesting and you can’t use more than a Web page worth of space. That’s the type of challenge the folks at MintLife face day… Continue reading

  • Less is more with YouTube redesign

    4/06/10 • (2)

    I have to admit, I never got the fascination of YouTube. What I didn’t understand was how my friends, and the masses in general, discovered these video gems. Really, my trouble with YouTube was that the site was hard to use. For me, it was like walking into a thrift store. I knew there were… Continue reading

  • 3 keys to conversational marketing

    3/10/10 • (0)

    Gone are the days when marketers could produce slick creative campaigns, then sit back and control a brand message through one-way mediums such as TV, radio, and print. The advent of new communication platforms and applications has created the opportunity for conversation between consumers and the brands and products they purchase.

    This conversation is… Continue reading