Well, today’s post isn’t exactly my favorite and though tough to find joy in this it is necessary.  This will be the last blog entry coming from Chatterbox Marketing.  Many of you know Chatterbox Marketing is a 2 person company, equally shared by Nathan Smoyer and Jason Heisey.  We are both moving in different directions with regards to our careers.

While the ride at Chatterbox has been short lived, it has been an incredibly awesome and exhilarating ride!  Thank you to all of our family, friends, clients and colleagues could not possibly suffice…..but in this case it’ll have to do.  Your support has been incredible whether in the form of “you can do it” or dollar bills, it was all greatly appreciated.

So now what?

Well, Nathan will be looking to join forces with your company.  He’s pursuing a career in marketing and most excited to work with companies that find great importance in working with the community, social causes and innovative products.  Of course, his Pie Fight will go on and he’ll be offering consultation services with social media, PR, email and other digital strategies.  He can be reached by email at NateSmoyer@gmail.com.

As for Jason, he’ll be spending much of his time working for Seneca High Adventure Christian Camp and in West Virginia. He’ll also be continuing to design and develop websites for small businesses and non-profits, as well as creating motion graphics for video productions in Lancaster, PA. You can keep following his work at www.behance.net/jasonaheisey .

THANKS!

THANKS FOR EVERYTHING.

Today’s post is a list of the applications I keep on my phone and that I use most often.  The questions of “What network should I get on,” and “I need to get connected but where do I start,” frequent my ears.  The use of mobile applications often allow for those who are constantly on go or traveling to keep in touch and keep their business visible through social media marketing channels.

honestly this is the worst phone i've ever owned!

Jumping straight into action:

• Facebook – Facebook from my phone is rarely ever done for anything business related.  Although updates must go out for clients and responses to comments can be done – Facebook is way unfriendly to my un-awesome Samsung Intercept.  More often than not Facebook on mobile is great for checking when sitting at the doctor’s office, while on the road (Not promoting texting and driving here), or when walking near someone that you want to avoid so you look down at your phone and find something to read.
• Twitter – Twitter for the Chatter Guy has always been about finding cool new people to connect with.  Boy oh boy was it fun to read about the #Earthquake that rocked from North Carolina all the way to NYC while hitting Pittsburgh to New Jersey.  One of the best features I use on my phone while surfing Twitter is I click on a lot different links to read the info or if the title sounds interesting, then I share the page via email so I can read it later when in front of my trusty MacBook.  Otherwise, mobile Twitter is one big powwow with my pals.
• Youtube – This application on the phone can be so FRUSTRATING!  Mostly because not all videos are mobile friendly (same frustration is shared with Vimeo).  Youtube is a great channel for someone who does not have cable.  It can provide just that bit of video entertainment with political news updates, pie videos or just random stuff like Nyan Cat.
• Foursquare - Admit-tingly I do not check in places very much.  In fact – I quite rarely check in.  Not that there aren’t often good incentives to do so or that I don’t like it.  My phone really is a hassle with checking in because I have to manually turn on the GPS and then check in.  Using check in applications IMO is a public service to the maximum.  Leaving reviews, recommendations or condemning a place is a great way for visitors to know what they may be in store for when they visit said place. *hint* This means if you have a brick and mortar store or location, you may want to explore LBS and their benefits.  Read here for another related post.
• Places – PERRRRFECT for road trips.  As many of you know, the Chatter Bus is always on the road.  This weekend its Indiana University for promotional marketing and then to Washington DC for…well, the heck of it.  When trying to find places, say a coffee shop, all that is needed to do is search for “coffee” and…BAM!  The neat thing is it ranks businesses that have reviews or positive ratings above others even when they are further away.  *Hint* Get your business a review today.
• Get Glue – When reading a book, watching a TV show or watching a movie, checking in is the thing to do.  Again, I admit I’m not much of the check in kind of person, but I do with books.  The application also helps me find other business related reading material to what I’ve checked in to previously.  Its a easy and direct way to find other people online who share very similar interests very quickly!
• Google + – Its on my phone and thats about it.  I occasionally check it and have left like three or four comments.  Photo sharing is seamless with my phone, which is what I greatly appreciate more than any other feature.  Ultimately, at this point it does not serve a ton of relevance for me.  I’m going to wait it out.

What kind of applications do you use?  Have you experienced technical issues that prevent you from using any social media mobile applications?  As always, harass on Twitter at @boxochatter.

I (Nate Smoyer) have received a little bit of friendly advice and guidance from friends and those from my professional circle about my writing abilities over the years.  Today, I explain why I write the way I do and why I appreciate most criticism, but at the same time I don’t care.  As most other posts, I’m going to compile a list:

• You have multiple typos
• The sentence structure is a little off.  You may want to think about how you phrase that.
• Can you find a better word?  That doesn’t give the an eloquent description.
• You may want to find someone to help you structure your paragraphs
• TOO MANY COMMAS! <—I’ve heard this since grade school.

With all this great concern over my writing ability how can I possibly say “Tough Cookies”?  Its simple.

There’s passion in my thoughts.  In everything I do I commit to putting my energy into it.  As a person who see’s big picture, I’m not one to get hung on minor details.  So, extra, commas, two lettres misplaced in a word or average paragraph structure is something I don’t care about.  Its my voice you are reading.  I misspeak all the time.  But its just my way of communicating.  Coming from the guy that prefers to work in jeans and a t-shirt, maybe wear boots, spike his hair and arrive to client meetings on a Harley – this can’t sound surprising to you.

Unfortunately, I recognize the potential barriers non- C.S. Lewis writing abilities can have on my readers.

I concur spelling and grammar mistakes can sometimes hinder others from grabbing the full message out of something.  It can be distracting and sometimes force others to read sentences more than once in order to grab the concept.  Well – tough cookies.  I prefer to take the Gitomer approach to my writing.  I will continue to strive and write my best, but I will not stop or startle my creative process for grammar expertise. *Note, as Robert Kiosaki once pointed out.  You need not be a best writing author in order to be a best selling author.

To drive home my point and show you how much I care about rules and following themes, I’ve posted a photo of cupcakes instead of cookies just to demonstrate that’s just the way it is.

these are death cupcakes. aka - tough cookie cupcakes

There only last thing I must address in this post is how I handle content creation for clients.

Your tone, attitude and brand approach is not the same as mine most likely.  Therefore the creative process is much different.  Chatterbox has copywriters on hand to work with english grammar authorities to call upon when projects call for such elite backup.  Our creative process that reflects the brand of Chatterbox is a bit reckless, sometimes changes on the spur of a moment and keeps even us on our toes.  We do that because we like to do that.  I LOVE it!  This is one of the few blog posts you’ll see that is directly dealing with a reason behind our madness.  But rest assured, our clients needs come above all other things.  So when a client requires very close detail on every word and sentence – we have professionals for that

To find out more about my professionalism and abilities, I encourage you to connect with me on LinkedIn and read the endorsements left by others.  Don’t expect to see the prim and proper.