Meeting Recap - October 20, 2015

John Risdall opened the meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance and gave the invocation. 

 

President Dana introdced her guests; Sister Ruth Ellen Rebelein and Janet Ampe, both of whom have been visitors in the past.  John Risdall introduced Tracy Henry, a Senior Digital Marketing Manager at Risdall Marketing Group and today's speaker.  Since he was here, Tracy made a pitch for the Irondale Youth Hockey Association, of which he is the current president.

 

Dana announced that we made the front page of the October 16th edition of the Sun Focus community newspaper.  The photo shows Jeff Benson, on behalf of the New Brighton Rotary Club, presenting a check for $1,000 to Community Emergency Assistance Program (C.E.A.P.).  Our club has been a consistent supporter of CEAP and it was great to have our support recognized in the local paper.  Linda LaFond deserves the credit for getting the article published and she says that we should also expect to see the photo in this Wednesday's New Brighton Bulletin.  Way to go, Linda!!!

 

Dana reviewed the list of upcoming programs, which can be found on the left side of this page.

 

Don't forget the Foundation Celebration, Saturday November 7th, 5:30-9:00PM at the Holiday Inn East (note the venue change).  Gerry tells me that 16 of us have seats reserved! Get the details here.

 

Jim O'Brien had successfully avoided wearing the birthday hat for over 2 months, but everyone must pay the piper, even those who try to weasel out of it by trying to claim the "over 80 exemption".  Nice try Jim!  Jim is shown below.

The finemasters efficiently vacuumed up any loose dollars with a combination of happy fines and a political quote table quiz.  What will those politicians say next?

 

Our speaker, Tracy Henry, identified the five types of online marketing strategies that are available to help businesses and organizations get their message to potential customers.  According to Tracy, the five types are websites, search engines, social media, awareness and email.

 

Websites can be effective but they must be functionally sound and have "credibility" for todays web-savvy users.  For Tracy, credibility means usable, attractive and, most of all, mobile friendly since 30% of all website views are from mobile devices.

Search has become the replacement for White Pages, Yellow Pages and the Encyclopedia.  Careful content management and search engine optimization are essential to be noticed in this competitive area.

Social Media is valuable as a means of, as Tracy put it, "amplifying" your message.  FaceBook is useful for personal and B2C communication.  LinkedIn is best for professional and educational communication.  Tracy described Twitter as the vehicle for timely and newsworthy communication, while Pinterest is best for inspiration and creative communication.  When asked which of these four social media avenues would be best for the purpose of attracting new members to our Rotary Club, Tracy suggested a combination of FaceBook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Awareness involves the placement of clickable ads or messages designed to direct the user to your website.  These are often referred to as "click bait".

Email methods include e-newsletters and ads that are "targeted" to an individual's search profile.

 

Tracy wrapped up with the basics of online marketing:

-Ensure that your website portrays credibility and is mobile optimized.

-Claim and optimize your Google business listing.

-Create and configure appropriate social media accounts.

-Post content to social media daily.

-Track your results.

 

Check out the Risdall Marketing Group website at http://www.risdall.com/   Dana and Tracy are shown below.