Writings from Force 5 Basecamp

10/06/09

Facebook isn’t just for keeping up with old friends and family, sharing photos, and finding lost classmates. With over 125 million users worldwide your business can benefit greatly from this social networking giant. Mari Smith, Facebook for business guru, and author of 10 Reasons to Use Facebook for Business, has stated that millions more will join Facebook in the coming

10/01/09

Working in a team environment can be an inspiring experience. However, an efficient team workflow doesn’t just form itself. An organized system and rich toolset are often a few ingredients in a well-oiled team workflow machine. One of those ingredients may be named Google Wave. Google this week is rolling out a developer preview of it’s new product called Google Wave.

09/17/09

Force 5 presented to the Michiana Chapter of the National Tooling and Machining Association last week. The Presentation was on “Brand Development in new Economy.” Vice President of Force 5, David Morgan gave the presentation while President Deb DeFreeuw and Director of Client Development Andrew Fletcher led the discussions. “Brand Development for small and medium size businesses has taken on

09/14/09

-David Morgan, Certified Brand Strategist, Force 5 American clothes are making a comeback. In the Sept. 7 issue of Brandweek, there was an artiticle about “made in the USA” clothes becoming cool again. It seems that the research shows that we are buying American made products over cheaper products. Sixty four percent of those surveyed said that buying American brands

09/09/09

-Deb DeFreeuw, Certified Brand Strategist, Force 5 The title of this article seems to have mutually exclusive terms – “Buying” and “Friends” An article in Advertising Age September 4, 2009 reported on a company offering to sell you friends for your  Facebook and Twitter Account.  Amazing! The Brisbane-based firm, USocial, offered this week to sell Facebook users 1,000 friends for

08/18/09

Force 5 was featured in the South Bend Tribune Business Weekly. To read the complete article click below. Treasure hunt – Companies should search deeply in quest to develop their brand, South Bend Tribune Business Weekly

07/30/09

Amazon.com Widgets

07/29/09

This article was in the Harvard Business Review–authoried by Bill Taylor.  It reinforces the position that we have at Force 5.  Recessionary times demand stewardship, to be sure.  You need to be careful–but there is a difference between sinking the boat, missing the boat, and rocking the boat….Read on….Good Article. By Bill Taylor Harvard Business Review 11:45 AM Monday May

06/05/09

My Friend A.J. Fox at Ad-ology Research sent me some interesting facts that his firm conducted regarding reducing advertising during this recession—the botton line?—not  such a good idea!  Here are some facts from the study: Nearly half of U.S. adults believe that a lack of advertising by a retail store, bank or auto dealership during a recession indicates the business must

05/20/09

  (What you really need to know and understand about brand development) There’s a lot of talk about Brand, Branding, and Brand Development. Its all important, and its all straightforward. The problem with most companies in regards to branding is that they haven’t taken time to understand the differences and more importantly, why they need to develop their brand. Defining

04/20/09

As a website owner it’s important to understand website analytics. How many people are going to your website? Are they reading what you have to say? Are they buying your products? There is only one way to know. Good site analytics. The problem is there are so many statistics available sorting through these numbers can be a daunting task. Below,

04/20/09

In the past few weeks, we’ve (Force 5 Media) seen several articles on dealing with marketing and advertising in a down economy. In fact, studies have been done since the early 20’s dealing with recessionary times. The conclusion? Companies should maintain advertising and marketing during a recession. The studies in the 20’s-40’s-50’s and 60’s shown that during recessions, almost without exception sales