Alan's Blog

The Question Over the last few days I’ve written and re-written this post probably a dozen times. I’ve gone through so many different versions it’s not even funny. Now, you’re probably wondering, “what on earth could be giving you so much trouble?” Well that’s a great question. Recently I’ve been giving a lot of thought to what unique value I’ve received from my education here at Brigham Young University.  In other words, what’s so special about coming to BYU instead of any other school in the world? As I’ve thought about this question, I’ve considered the cultural diversity, unique viewpoints, world views, and much more that BYU has to offer. And yet, every time I finish a draft focusing on one of those truly great things BYU has to offer it’s never felt quite right. A quiet voice in the back of my mind whispers, those are all good, but there is still something you’re missing. Then the other day I was talking with a friend I hadn’t seen since Freshman year. A frie

In today’s world Social Media is  important , there's no denying this fact. Whether it’s our personal lives or work lives social media is ever present. When used well social media can bring help us keep up with our friends, inform the public about important issues, or even connect us with people we've never met in person before. Social Media is a very powerful tool. With that in mind it's important to know how to use Social Media to help achieve our own personal goals and objectives. I'll specifically focus on using Social Media in a work setting but many of the principles I'll talk about carry over to our personal lives as well. Additionally, keep in mind that the how and why often together when it comes to social media.  Two-Way Possibly the biggest and most important thing to understand about Social Media is that it's a  two-way  form of communication. While I may post a picture on Facebook others are free to comment and let me know their thou

Earlier this week I was reading about setting up a digital marketing plan and thought I'd share just a couple insights from what I learned. The very first, and possibly most important thing, is to set clear goals and identify potential challenges which could keep you from achieving those goals. The best way to do this is to ask questions, lots of questions. If your working for a client try to learn everything you can about them. Don't be afraid to ask tough questions, having an in-depth and honest first meeting can be the difference between a successful campaign or one that just all right. If you're designing the campaign for yourself then clearly define what you want and anything else that might be relevant. Make sure it's written down and clear. While you are your own client and that provides you with certain advantages when it comes to understanding the vision of the campaign, it's still not an excuse to cut corners when it comes to laying the groundwork. A

Recently I've really been finding more and more value from blogs and podcasts. Things, that before last month, I didn't feel much desire to spend my time with. Now I regret not taking advantage of them earlier, there's a lot of good stuff out there. For example, this week, as I read PPC Hero I learned all about the benefits of hiring a PPC agency or team even if you (or your company) already have one in-house. Generally speaking, companies with a PPC team tend to think they don't ever need to hire outside help because their team already knows the company and is best equipped for company needs. However, this reasoning is flawed, even with an in-house team there is still a lot of benefit to bringing in an agency in many scenarios. Just think, you recently started a large project and suddenly everyone is working overtime to meet a deadline. By hiring out you can limit or even eliminate that overtime. The agency or team you bring in wouldn't replace your team, rather

Have you ever tried to a promote an event on Facebook? I have, and I've noticed one of the biggest struggles can be getting the word out about your event. Thankfully Facebook provides ways to advertise your event before it happens. Even better, Social Media Examiner has a detailed guide on how use those tools to get the biggest audience you can for your events. I've put the link at the end of my post but I figured I'd share one or two things that I personally found useful from their excellent article first. One of the very first things you should do is create an event hashtag. I know, it seems obvious, but this little thing can go a long way towards promoting your event. Keep it short and keep it simple, but try to create your hashtag so it accurately represents either your event or personal brand. If you want to get a little more creative, you can even even run a competition leading up to your event that uses your hashtag in some unique way. For example a photo contest o