In the days before United Fresh 2013 San Diego, most are busy wrapping up last minute travel details, working through long to-do lists and scrambling to get out of town. We will arrive at the convention center next week and instantly be carried away by the dizzying pace of trade show booths, parties, events, meetings and activities that literally happen every 15 minutes. I’ve learned that spending a few minutes of planning before the trip always makes for a more fun, less stressful and highly productive experience.

After all, the whole point in attending a tradeshow like United Fresh is to return from the trip fully inspired, totally recharged and better connected to the industry. While you’re packing, scrambling and tending to last minute show details, I offer you my very own list of things that I absolutely, positively, surely will not miss at this years show. Be sure to check out the official website United Fresh for specific information. Some of the events I’ll be attended are invitation only and have extremely limited seating.

EDUCATION: The Impact of Social Technology on Food Culture
Social media has dramatically changed today’s food culture by influencing how consumers think about, talk about and experience food. Consumers are now active participants, looking to bloggers and online opinions to expand their culinary horizons and make purchase decisions. Hear insights and recommendations on how companies can leverage social media to build meaningful and profitable relationships with consumers.

2013 New Product Award Finalists: Lil Snappers & Pumpkin Pie Baking Kit
Once I hit the tradeshow floor I’m going to check out all of the 2013 New Product Award Finalists. The two that I’m most excited about is our client Sunkist Growers Lil Snappers at booth 828, and AMF Farms Pumpkin Pie Baking Kit.

United Fresh Opening Party Aboard the USS Midway Aircraft Carrier
What better way to start off the convention week than with an unforgettable adventure aboard the USS Midway. Explore one of America’s longest-serving aircraft carriers as you stroll the flight deck with a spectacular view of San Diego’s harbor. It’s the perfect place to relax with friends and catch up with business contacts.

MSNBC’s Morning Joe Duo to Give Fresh Political Perspectives
Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, co-hosts of MSNBC’s Morning Joe will deliver their signature off-the-cuff commentary at the Thursday General Session of United Fresh 2013. United Fresh proudly welcomes the popular morning show duo for a candid conversation on the current political landscape and how it affects the produce industry.

Retail Merchandising Strategies that Engage Customers
After 20 years advising retail supermarkets on how to engage customers, Harold Lloyd knows a thing or two about merchandising strategies to drive sales. In this interactive session, Harold will share practical insights and proven merchandising strategies that he’s gathered from researching thousands of customers in retail stores nationwide. Come learn why customers shop where they do, what influences their purchases, and simple but effective tactics that will expand their shopping time, increase sales and change buying behaviors.

Visit our Get Social page for an inside peek at the conference and to learn more about all things produce.

Around a year ago, we began to meet officially in an open forum setting, to share our projects and the things we’ve learned from them. This evolved into weekly meetings, and the forming of a team. Then we formed our basic core drive, the heart of this extended marketing team: act as a trusted extension of our clients’ online marketing departments, producing results that directly and positively impact on our clients’ business objectives.

On our website, we state what we’ve gleaned from the expression ‘you are what you eat’: We are what we market. You won’t find a more dedicated bunch than the SiteLabbers — we truly adopt our clients’ industries and products as our passions.

You’ll see us wearing banana hats, sharing new citrus varieties in the kitchen, proclaiming our love for avocados to anyone who will listen, or riding the bikes of our client, Electra, in the parking lot. You’ll find us making the recipes from our foodservice clients (it’s hard to stare at delicious food all day long and not be inspired … and hungry). We can say without doubt that we truly are what we market.

So without further ado, we’d like you to meet the minds behind this ever-evolving, collaborative effort and their roles on this team.

Mike Zemans – Chief Experience Officer

Next stop: Christmas Tree Trimming Championship

Consults on SEM and user experience. Most often, the last word on any project that goes out the door. Google (or “G” as he calls it) is his best friend. Always wins the annual pumpkin carving contest.

Matt Parisi – Online Marketing Account Manager

In a rare moment of not being physically harmed

Account Manager for Sunkist, Oasis of Hope. A source of abundant SEM knowledge; a PPC expert who manages all SiteLab PPC campaigns. Matt gets things done and works well with absolutely anyone. 5 year veteran. Consistently injured due to extracurricular sports, where he brings the same drive to succeed.

Katy McClelland – Client Services Director

If you ever need help escaping from motorcyclists in 1930

Commonly answers to the name “Boss Lady”. Sanity for all account managers, and perhaps all SiteLabbers. Also the voice of reason and the voice for all SiteLab clients, always performing the balancing act between what’s best for clients, their customers and the agency. She’s an encyclopedia of client history. Owns chickens, rides in a motorcycle side car like a superhero side kick.

Jenn Barber – Senior Marketing Manager, Social Media

Liebt auch spätzle

Passionate about social media. Background in business (supply chain management), started in digital marketing as producer, then account manager; dabbled in web design, programming and copywriting. Nuts about social media and started the “department” 4 years ago. Pins on Pinterest like she’s on fire, is a Flint Coney Island Hot Dog enthusiast.

Sarah Johnson – Marketing Project Manager & Developer

Also has a wicked swagger

Sarah’s title doesn’t do her justice. Something of a ‘Jane of all Trades’ at SiteLab, switching from development, writing and design, sometimes all in the same day. She’s a savvy writer who writes the social media, website, press content and more for Sunkist, Eddie Osterland, Master Sommelier and Oasis of Hope. Is crazy for citrus, and ridiculously good looking.

Kari Embree – Marketing Coordinator – Social Media

What happens when you give people a sunny window office and too much water

Jenn Barber’s new right-hand woman. If you want to get social, talk to Kari. She’s all about social media platforms, tools, and tips and tricks AND she’ll recommend a great place to eat and drink when’s she done geeking out with you. Quick witted as a fox, excellent dresser.

Erin Adler – Marketing Account Manager

Is also a bucket enthusiast

Erin has her finger on the pulse of email and mobile marketing. She manages Hass Avocados, Central Garden & Pet, and all sign-up forms and emails that leave our servers. She’s an anti-spam wizard who insists on (and gets) perfection. She’s a music lover and also a lapadar…lapedaris…she is an artist who cuts stone, gems and minerals into neat designs. She’s not just a member of the San Diego Lapidary Society, she’s the club president.

Each person you’ve met here today performs a very important function in the team. We’re growing and evolving every day, but this groups forms a very strong foundation and launch pad to a future filled with exciting, cutting-edge projects. Find out what they can do for YOU and your projects — contact us today.

An Inside Peek at Our Weekly Team Meeting

NEW WEBSITE LAUNCHES
This week we launched a new website for Sunkist called Lil Snappers™ (you know, for kids). Things you may not have known about this project – the site uses the open source .asp CMS called Umbraco and includes fun stats like “the world’s largest apple peel was over 172 feet long”.

Congrats to the entire team who worked on this site over the past few months, job well done!

WELCOMING A NEW SAN DIEGO CLIENT
We are very pleased to announce our new client, Cell Applications, a local biotech company whose products help research institutes, biotech, pharmaceutical, and consumer product companies make medical breakthroughs. Looking forward to partnering with them to take their digital marketing to a new level in 2013.

AVOCADOS ARE GREAT WITH EVERYTHING
Last but not least, a new video was launched on behalf of the Hass Avocado Board, it’s a great example of how existing footage can be made more engaging with graphics and editing!

What are you celebrating this week? Let us know!

Last night Ms. Sarah Johnson came out of retirement for a performance in a holiday ballet recital, so in honor of this momentous event we’ve chosen her as the subject for our interview today.

Q: What do you look forward to most about coming in to work every day?
A: That would be my smiling coworkers, nay friends, and the super cool projects I get to do. The coffee is pretty good sometimes too.

Q: Just what is it that you do here?
A: My title is officially a mouthful, I have to go back to my [email] signature to remember what it is. [pulls up email] Marketing Project Manager & Developer (and content writer, cheerleader, I sometimes restock the printer, and I bring in fresh fruit to keep my coworkers from getting scurvy & that’s about it.

Q: What are some cool new things that you do here that you haven’t done previously?
A: I keep coming back to working on cool promotions. I’ve always written about food but people actually listen to me now. Since coming here I’ve become a citrus expert and banana freak.

Q: So, are you a good dancer or not?
A: No, terrible. I can do the Slinky [makes what we assume to be an attempt to signify holding a wily slinky with both hands moving them up and down] I can do the Lawnmower, the Bus Driver, and the Roger Rabbit, and I do a pretty good White Girl Dance, you know [proceeds to snap fingers to no beat and bite lower lip, which we must admit, we do not "know"]

BONUS QUESTION:
Q: How do you spell Changement?
A: Jeupnpioux [note from the interviewer, at first I was questionning whether or not Sarah was a true ballerina since she got the bonus question wrong, but in all fairness I did get a D in high school French so it's possible that I butchered the pronounciation. Pardon moi.]

Ballerina Sarah in action juggling scurvy fighting oranges

This blog post comes to you from SiteLab’s very own La Jolla Shores beach in sunny San Diego, CA.  It’s been a bi-coastal and fast-paced twelve months of helping clients launch online marketing initiatives for me this year. 

As I reflect on a year of changing technologies and new trends. I am grateful for the wisdom gained pitching the projects that built brands, generated leads, sold products and improved bottom lines. 

 It is with this practical knowledge that I offer my very own Online Marketing Reflections and Predictions. I hope you enjoy reading them as much I enjoyed writing them—it is my wish that these “pearls of wisdom” bring value and prosperity to your organization in the New Year.

Happy Holidays,

Lori Barber

REFLECTIONS…

Smaller Budgets meant Back-to-Basics for Most

The uncertainty of the 2012 economy forced many of my clients to put robust website development and sexy redesign projects on hold. So, to get the greatest bang for their shrinking budgets, the wisest move was to prioritize Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Why?  Because aligning their website’s navigational structure and content to the language of one’s audience positioned our clients to grow long-term market share of ultra-qualified potential customers—something that PPC, online media, or fancy graphical site redesigns can not provide.

CMS Tools Just Keep Getting Better

Open Source technologies and mainstream Content Management tools such as WordPress, and Drupal continued to provide a wider variety of development options for many clients. Readily available plug-ins, themes and widgets replace long, expensive and highly custom development cycles. Hooray! It’s now much easier (and more cost effective) to add social media sharing, ecommerce, email marketing and the like to your website.

Pull Marketing is “The New Black”

Marketing activities that encourage your prospects to seek you out because you have something of value to offer them was a welcome 2012 trend. Pull marketing activities are all about building relationships and include tactics like blogging, podcasting, content marketing and old-fashioned networking. Think of it as the law of attraction for the Internet…where you freely incorporate all the personal components of your brand. By engaging with your target audience to attract your biggest fans, you ultimately PULL them in, create loyal evangelists and drive sales. Gone are the days of “hard-sell” sales tactics.

Reach Your Customers Where They Are

“Reach your customers where they are” was my 2012 mantra! Today’s consumer does not pick up the Yellow Pages, nor do they turn on the radio to find the products or services they seek. Rather, they whip out a smart phone, tablet, or simply check out the latest reviews from the comfort of… well, anywhere. Your clients are connected, mobile and highly social! It goes without saying that Social Media projects were on the rise again this year.

PREDICTIONS…

Content Will Continue to be King

Yes, producing original content is time consuming, expensive and requires a HUGE time commitment. I predict most organizations will have to make creating original content a much higher priority next year. Why?  Because producing content of value (no matter what industry you’re in) is the new, evolving centerpiece of Digital Marketing. Get Ready! It’s time to blog consistently, live-and-die by an editorial content calendar and finally commit to sharing great content.  Just do it.

Responsive Design Should Be On Your 2013 Radar Screen

Day by day, the number of users trying to access your site on a smartphone or tablet grows and grows. Responsive web design represents a fundamental shift in how we’ll be building websites in the New Year so one single site can serve audiences on all devices, as well as centralize one’s search authority to a single domain and set of URLs. Responsive Design requires web visitors to do less resizing, panning, and scrolling, hence boosting everyone’s user experience as well. It’s going to transform the Web into an all-singing, all-dancing, all-devices party, where we can access any information located anywhere in the world. If your website is more than 2 years old, 2013 is the time to invest in a new Responsive Design. Otherwise, you might be missing out on a very large segment of your target audience.

Your Customers Will Want You to be Human

Today’s consumer would much rather “talk to” a person instead of being “talked at” by a brand. Finding the right social media voice—one that aligns with the language of your customers, and provides ongoing value—is one of the most important things your organization will do in 2013.  Be prepared establish a social media persona for your brand and have real people respond to your clients using real profiles in social media next year. Live Twitter Chats, robust content marketing, storytelling in 140 characters or less, and perfecting the ability to gracefully admit that you’ve made a mistake will help humanize your brand in the New Year.

Hi. Where do you come from?
My hometown is San Luis Obispo, but I recently came from The Pew Charitable Trusts in Washington DC. People have often heard of it because they sponsor NPR programming.

What title have they bestowed upon you here at SiteLab?
I’m an account manager.

Shown here: account managing it up.

What did you do in DC, and what are you looking forward to doing here?
I worked on our web/media team, working with our public policy staff. It was non-profit. I worked on content development, email messaging, PPC, infographics, imagery, web updates. I’m looking forward to working with clients and seeing their marketing strategies reach customers. But also looking forward to getting back into agency life. And the location is nice!

If we were to inform you that this was actually just a front for Hogwarts School of Wizardry, in which house would our sorting hat place you?
Not Slytherin! That would be admitting I was evil! Gryffindor, for sure.

Safe choice. I’m sure they already went through this in the interview, but how are your Quidditch skills?
They must have missed that question. (Ed: Really? It was the first question they asked me.) My Quidditch skills are lacking, but apparently my Alma mater, Berkeley, now has a Quidditch club.

(Matt chimes in: “UCSD does too! It’s just a bunch of kids running around on brooms. It’s not cool.”)
(Ed. note: Matt’s opinion on what is cool does not reflect the opinions of SiteLab Interactive.)

Welcome aboard, Kim