Carla is the Digital Marketing Manager and designated Tweeter at Ideasbynet. She began her time here working in the Production Department so she can offer plenty of advice about sourcing whatever you may desire from the land of Promotional Gifts.
Carla could be described as someone who employs the motto: "work hard, play hard" and is always up for a shimmy after work on a Friday. Other interests include reading and music, she has made it her mission to complete 100 new books in 2012 so this summer she is likely to be found carrying them knee deep through mud at various music festivals.
You can get in contact with Carla through the following channels:-
Email: carla@ideasbynet.com
Twitter: @CarlaFroggatt
Google Profile:
Google+
A Beginners Guide To Blogging (Step One: Don’t Blog)
Starting a blog has never been easier. Sites such as WordPress, Tumblr and Blogger have made it much more accessible, in fact, it seems like everyone is having a go and sharing their two cents. And why not? In addition to being a fantastic form of self expression, blogging offers an array of opportunities to anyone looking to take that first step on their chosen career path. It allows you to showcase your knowledge, passion and personality to the field you aspire to work within. However, it is not as simple as picking up your pen and starting to write.
Blogging is a reciprocal process: people won’t listen to what you have to say until you listen to what they have to say.
The Secret to a Successful Blog
Amongst regular bloggers you are likely to find people talking about ‘engagement’. This may seem a little off topic as you might expect the way to a successful blog would be to create lots and lots of great writing (this of course does help!) However, unless you have a community of people who are interested in and want to interact with your work, it can easily get lost in the massive ocean of content already floating around the internet. This is why engagement is crucial.
Chinese New Year 2012. How Will You Be Celebrating?
HAPPY DRAGON YEAR! (Photo credit: faith goble)
Chinese New Year or The Lantern Festival, as it is known in China, falls on 23rd January this year. I for one, will be hosting my own party in honour of the event and I encourage you to do the same, it’s the perfect pick-me-up for anyone suffering from the winter blues.
2012 is the Year of The Dragon, which is arguably the most powerful sign and signifies luck. The Dragon is the fifth sign in the Chinese Horoscope, the others are rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog and pig. I’m very proud to be a tiger, however, if I had to switch I would probably choose the Dragon! Famous Dragons are Joan of Arc, John Lennon, Salvador Dali and Al Pacino. A pretty impressive list, I wonder who will go onto join it this year? (Beyonce’s new baby missed out by less than a month!)
Promotional Products to Help You Keep Your New Years Resolutions
2012 is now upon us and as we enter my least favourite month of the year (does anyone like January?!) I thought I would share some of my aims for the year ahead. I was sat contemplating my return to work yesterday and the post Christmas blues began to kick in. I came to the conclusion that I had two options: 1. Go into hibernation or 2. Make some goals for the new year to motivate me through the January slump. As tempting as option one was I decided to browse the internet for some inspiration. I came across an extract from Woody Guthrie’s Journal where he pledged to make not one, but thirty three resolutions. Feeling inspired I sat down and began to draft my own set. I soon a had a varied list of goals including:
Number 9. Try lobster
Number 17. Complete one act of kindness each week
Number 24. Wear more bright colours
As well as these more obscure intentions, my list also includes a number of resolutions which I’m sure will be similar to many of your own. I am fully aware, however, that even with the best of intentions it will not be an easy undertaking to stick to them. So for everyone else out there looking to make a change in 2012 I have compiled a list of products designed to help you stick to some of the most common resolutions.
Do Coca Cola Have a Monopoly on Christmas?
Image via Wikipedia
We recently sat down to brainstorm some potential blog ideas for Christmas and a popular suggestion was themed adverts. After much debate we only came up with Coca Cola and Toys R Us as examples of campaigns that have achieved any kind of longevity in public memory. (We excluded the endless supermarket and furniture retailers claiming the cheapest EVER prices!) It made me realise how synonymous Coca Cola have become with Christmas. For example, how many people have said to you “It’s not Christmas until I see the Coca-Cola Advert (Holidays are coming…)” I must admit that I was very excited when I got a call to say the Coca Cola truck had turned up Sheffield! (If you haven’t caught a glimpse of it yet, it’s on tour until 23rd)
Could ‘one’ use social media to create a powerful personal image like Margaret Thatcher?
Image via Wikipedia
As we rapidly approach 2012 (I’m still wondering what happened to Summer?!) we are about to be hit with the traditional wave of films hoping for Oscar success. The one which has particularly caught my eye this year is the hotly anticipated biopic ‘The Iron Lady’. Meryl Streep is set to immortalise Margaret Thatcher on the big screen; a portrayal which is already causing some media controversy as the story is told from the perspective of the present day Maggie experiencing a series of flashbacks / hallucinations from her life. Controversy aside, I will be interested to learn more about the woman who has had an ongoing media presence since before I was born.
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn. A Merchandise Dream?
Unless you have been hiding under a rock for the past six years you will have be unable to miss the global phenomenon that has become The Twilight Saga. So far the films have generated over $7 billion dollars, the soundtracks have made close to $50 million and merchandise sales are estimated at $500 million. As a self proclaimed ‘Twi-hard’ I am very much looking forward to Friday when the first instalment of the final film ‘Breaking Dawn’ hits our screens. That saying, not everyone is as enamoured with the series as me, there are a fair share of ‘Twi-haters’ out there too, (I was going to insert a link here but I don’t want to encourage support for them!) It can definitely be said that from a marketing perspective, this franchise is a PR dream, whether people hate it or love it, everyone is talking about it.
Top 5 Favourite Websites
As the internet continues evolving, it seems more important than ever that companies stay up to date with what users want from a website. After contemplating what brings me back time and again to sites, I compiled a list of my top five websites. Some are fairly new whereas some have been around for a while and despite being a rather diverse selection, two factors kept appearing as I mulled over why they stood out to me: design and utility.
One of the most exciting discoveries I have made of late has been the up and coming Pinterest. Pinterest is a visual bookmarking tool, co-founded by Ben Silberman, Paul Sciarra and Yashwanth Nelapati, which offers a unique way to save images and videos you like as you browse the web. They combine this with a social element, enhancing the user experience by encouraging members to follow each other and share their creative ideas. People are encouraged to ‘re-pin’ each other’s findings, comment, ‘like’ on Facebook and tweet. Currently, a referral is needed to join re-enforcing the feeling of community they promote. After receiving your referral, members create a profile and select topics they find interesting which helps determine people they would like to follow. The next step is to create your own pin boards filtered by theme, for example fashion, technology or food. Another cool aspect is that anything pinned is linked back to the original source which maintains credit for that site and gives the user easy access to the rest of the content, for example, a member might pin an image of a cake baked using a certain recipe but would need to return to the site to find the details. This website is still in its infancy but with an expanding community of creative people sharing ideas I think there will be a lot more to come from Pinterest.
Chocolate: the tastiest promotional give-away? Take a bite of this billion pound industry!
As a self confessed chocoholic I thought I would use National Chocolate Week (which I am already using as an excuse to devour copious amounts!), as an opportunity to write about my favourite treat.
The earliest record of this national favourite dates back to 1100BC when it was most commonly consumed as a beverage by the people of Mesoamerica. Christopher Columbus is believed to be responsible for bringing chocolate to Europe but the first chocolate bar dates back to Joseph Fry who created a moldable paste from the traditional drink in 1847. The chocolate market has gone from strength to strength and is currently valued at £3.6 billion for 2010 in the UK alone.
National Childrens Book Week: get children excited about reading by designing their own bookmark
This week is National Childrens Book Week and as the big sister of two under seven year olds I know how difficult it can be to get them away from the lures of modern technology to sit down with a book.
They have access to unlimited TV through Sky Plus, a wide array of games on the X Box and both my sisters seem to be more proficient with an iPhone than me! (see below!)
I started thinking about ways to make books as exciting as all the gadgets they have at their fingertips. After chatting with various friends of mine who have gone into the teaching profession, I discovered that stickers and gold stars are still a winner in the classroom and I also found this interesting blog from Reading Rewards (check it out at www.blog.readingrewards.com). These both reassured me that the incentives didn’t have to be flashy and expensive.
Trick or Treat? Some Ideas for Halloween
As September draws to a close this week, I’ve begun to see the enquiries trick-le in for the most notable event in October: Halloween. As a die-hard fan of summer, this is one night which brightens up the cold winter months for me. Although it is still not as big here as over in America, the influx of American film and TV seems to be aiding it’s rapidly growing popularity. Sheffield, for instance now annually celebrates ‘Fright Night’, featuring rides, market stalls and street entertainers across the city centre. Last year attendance hit more than 40,000. Follow this link for info on how to get involved this year.
So with increasing interest in Halloween, now is a great time to get involved and throw a themed event or party! Dig out your Rocky Horror DVD for some fancy dress inspiration and have a look at some of these ideas on how to make your party spooktactular! Read more…
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