While working is not always going to be similar to your favorite busch garden’s field trip when you were seven, it shouldn’t be something you consistently dread. A lot of what we associate our job with is not necessarily the work at hand, it’s the people you work with; the respect and appreciation acknowledged, your room for growth, and the overall company morale you face every day. It’s the company’s culture that can make or break your commitment to your job.

Having worked in different industries with varying jobs, I have been subjected to some of the best and worst company cultures around. I have been at Epicom for three months now, and this startup is definitely one that understands the importance of company culture.

Every employee’s time, opinions, knowledge, and strengths are all identified and recognized on a daily basis. Regardless of their position at the company, every voice is heard equally and with high regard. This recognition allows the company to grow together and compliment each other, which is exactly what the staff is doing. Different traditions are also in place such as “New employee Lunch” and “Wednesday Pint Night” to help employees bond and get to know each other. It’s not only the effort given by the company, but the time, principles, and values that form it. These steps are what so many companies forget to take with their employees.

Everyone can go to work, and everyone can do their work. But it’s the desire to grow and build with a company that only your company culture can create. Going the extra mile regardless of the feat is only something someone is willing to do when they identify with their company. A company’s culture is always subject to change as the business grows, but such as Christmas and Easter, somethings sustain even with time. If you don’t want to finish last in this growing economy, remember to create a company culture you would want to wake up for every morning.

One of the most exciting aspects to the internship so far has been my involvement with our  events. Located in the heart of downtown, Epicom is dead center to all the amazing events the city has to offer. Everything from SXSW to presidential parades can be witnessed from our office windows. Being outgoing by nature, I was excited to dive right in and help out with our upcoming events. However, I learned extremely early that organizing and managing a working event is not the same thing as attending your friend’s BBQ and bringing potato salad. While it’s supposed to be fun, there are important aspects to planning and organizing it that can not be neglected or ignored. It would take more than one trip to HEB to acquire all your materials, and more effort than I had initial thought.

Having made mistakes in the past, I am consistently trying to improve my methods of planning, organizing, and managing my events. In hopes of working towards more improvement, I decided to compromise a list of my top 5 tips that have helped me stay prepared and on top of my event planning. While nothing can guarantee a stress free and perfectly executed event, you can do everything in your power to be prepared!

1. Start Planning Weeks Before

Create a timeline leading up to your event. This will give you room and time to make corrections and delegate tasks to specific individuals rather than piling everything onto yourself at the last minute.

2. Stay ORGANIZED

Whether its a week before the event, or the day of the event always stay organized. Once you become disorganized you become subject to problems and miscommunication.

3. Involve Your Team

Ever hear the phrase, “Rome wasn’t built in a day?” Well it wasn’t built alone either!! Involve your co-workers, and your teammates. They’ll most likely be willing to help out and will end up attending the event, so make it a group effort!

4. Pack Extra Materials

More is always better, and that is definitely true when it comes to company events. Bring as much marketing materials and promotional products as you can because you would rather have too much than not enough!

5. Contact the Venue

Contact the venue before the event and get a feel for the environment you will be in. Ask questions such as what you should expect, or if there are any specific details you should know about. This will get rid of some of those last minute surprises!

While these tips can’t prevent a catastrophe from occurring, it can help you be more prepared. Managing an event can be difficult and stressful, so avoiding some common issues before the event can definitely help ease your worries! These tips have definitely helped me in the past, so breathe easy and know as long as you plan and are prepared, half the battle is won!

Having, hosted from our offices last year, I was excited to participate in hosting a table at the Capital Factory. Collaborating with my Marketing Manager, Amanda, I am able to help organize all the efforts behind our company, and it has been a really exciting process. The event is held this Thursday, between 5 – 9pm, and while my curiosity about SXSW is still higher than ever, my excitement for this event is more than equally matching. I am extremely excited to be attending this event, and while I can’t wait to for my friend to fall in love again this year, or swear to become the next Tarantino, I first and foremost cannot wait to be at the Startup Crawl this year! Hopefully I will see you there!

And while I was extremely excited to begin strategizing and collaborating with my team, there was a part of me that was extremely nervous. It has been awhile since I’ve had the wide range of responsibilities this internship allots me, so I didn’t even know where to begin. And even before starting I had to brush up on my social media skills and marketing software knowledge. So as you can imagine, I felt like I was juggling swords while simultaneously balancing on a tightrope. Trying to learn all the recent updates in twitter, linkedin and every other social media avenue, as well as learn the characteristics of all the current softwares and integrations at the same time seemed almost impossible.

But with determination and motivation comes hard work and progress. I began immediately and everything else seemed to fall into place. In the field of marketing, managing your time appropriately is extremely essential in the flow and function of your company. Not only because it helps to navigate your efforts, but also because it creates the atmosphere you subject to your clients and your staff.

Below, I have created a list of the 5 most essential tips I found helped me manage my time and my marketing efforts. These factors played an instrumental role in organizing my work ethic, my thought process, and how I attacked and accomplished each goal.

1. Prioritize and Organize

Nothing is more essential than prioritizing. Everything cannot get done immediately. But it is important to organize and outline which tasks must be done first. Then you can create a list of other tasks that need to be accomplished by level of importance. Organizing your thoughts as well as your tasks is the first step. Once this is done, now you have something tangible you can look at as a reference, rather than running around with a million thoughts and not a single record of any of them.

2. Find a Source/ Outlet for Scheduling

The wonderful world of the interweb offers you a way to simplify almost anything. There are numerous outlets and programs out there to help make your day more efficient and useful. Find these and use them! For instance, I use Hootsuite to help schedule my social media announcements, as well as Basecampto organize my to-do lists. While I also have written to-do lists on my desk, everyone knows these can vanish just as easily as they were created. It is helpful to have something tangible, online and available at any time. There are also many other programs out there to help you manage some of your marketing efforts, and to consolidate your thoughts as well as your materials.

3. Motivate Your Team/ Your Office to be Involved

There is nothing more helpful and resourceful as group effort. Your co-workers are there to help you, so use their input and their advice. By involving your co-workers you get a wider range of support and intel. Don’t expect them to create your marketing campaigns, or write your press releases, but during your weekly meetings, mention your progress or some of your ideas, and ask if they have any suggestions. Everyone’s efforts only works toward benefiting the entire company. People are also always willing to give their opinion on a subject or matter, so use this to your benefit! Having other people’s recommendations and opinions may save you time consistently altering your material.

4. Create Quality Material

Everyone knows quality always wins over quantity. When it comes to marketing, the same applies. People would rather have quality materials exposed to them, than a million different useless and annoying marketing efforts thrown their way. So when it comes to drafting your strategy and your actual materials, make it count! Put purpose and effort into what you’re creating. Don’t just create a newsletter to have one. If your marketing efforts are lacking quality, they will feel as though your products and services are as well. So whether you are writing for your blog, creating a brochure, or organizing a drip campaign, make sure your work has quality and substance behind it.

5. Keep Measuring Your Efforts

Lastly, measuring your efforts can pinpoint exactly what is working, and what needs improvement. The essence of marketing is to engage your customers, and to consistently acquire and retain them. But if your approach is not working, or your targets are misplaced, how will you know unless you gauge your efforts? Paying attention to what is not working, can help steer you into the direction of what is working! There are numerous websites that can help you monitor these efforts. Google Analytics, Alexa.com, and Compete.com are just a few out there that can help you know how your websites are doing and what content visitors are focusing on. Besides these, there are many other useful resources out there that can help you improve your marketing efforts and become a more successful marketer!

Overall, closing up my third week, these 5 tips have helped me to manage my work as well as organize my efforts. It is hard to sit back and collect your thoughts, but it is necessary. Staying organized and creative are all extremely important facets to marketing. Regardless of your workload, it is important to stay focused and remember your goals. These 5 tips definitely have worked for me these past few weeks. While it may still be hard at times to maintain a balance, having a key strategy and organizing your efforts can definitely help you effectively manage your marketing!

One particular customization that really caught my eye, is Epicom’s newest integration with Quickbooks. Being a current MBA student, accounting is a course you become all too familiar with. Once you begin to understand all the facets of accounting, including organization, efficiency, and time management, you realize just how incremental they are to the functionality of your business.

This week, I found that Epicom was able to create a way to make the average accountant’s life easier. By integrating your SugarCRM software with your Quickbooks data, your are easily able to sync together invoices, quotes, products and accounts. This not only enables you to combine your information, but also allow you to view all your Quickbooks information within SugarCRM.

Now, some people may not understand just how essential this app can be. But if I have learned anything at all, it is that time is money, and the more efficient you are with your time, the more efficient you can be with your clients! So that annoying step of having two entirely different softwares open, and trying to juggle that with your constant buzz of emails is now cut in half!

Learning that Epicom customizes SugarCRM software was one thing, but actually being able to see the difference the integration makes is another. Meeting my fellow Epicomer’s and coming to fully understand the work, training, and effort that goes behind each integration, app, and customization has been such a great experience. The work behind each development truly makes each client’s experience more effective and enjoyable. I am excited to learn about the many more apps and integrations the team will create. As for now, this tech talk and integration is one I look forward to sharing!

I am extremely excited to become an Epicomer, and cannot wait to see what the future holds! I know SugarCon is just around the corner, and I am excited to see what the company has to present. I am continuously learning CRM and all the magic that happens within it, but with Epicom as my guide, and Sugar as my new found friend, I am sure everything will be great!

What is Social Media Marketing?
Countless times I have heard professionals speak about social media marketing as a branding and marketing cure all. “It’s a promotion strategy!” FALSE. Social media itself is not a “strategy.” Rather, platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, and the like offer an outlet for communication, making them powerful tools for strategic planning. The impact of the plan comes from having something to communicate.

Before delving into the social mediasphere, you need to answer a few questions.

-What is the voice of my business? (Think Barbara Walters or John Stewart?)
-Who is my audience? (Stay at home moms or professionals on-the-go?)
-What am I trying to say? (“This is what I had for lunch today,” or trending topics in tech?)

The Voice
Did you watch this season? So good. Anyway, the new generation craves a connection with everything. They don’t want to just buy a sweater. They want to buy a sweater from a label that they identify with. Social media allows for that identity connection. When it comes to corporate tweeting, it’s important to figure out how you want your company to present itself on the web. While your online presence is young, you have time to play around with this.

Warning: sales tweets lose followers. Sales tweets are just like spam. “I love reading SPAM mail,” said no one ever.  All business, all the time is boring. No one is trolling your twitter to read about your ROI. Social media allows your audience to see that your company is made of real people. I’m not saying tweet office gossip, but don’t be afraid to tweet about office outings or give a shout out on an employee’s birthday. Consumers want to know they are doing business with actual humans.

Even a B2B business needs to engage its audience. This includes RT (Retweeting), responding to Tweets, contributing bloggers from various departments, and overall interaction with the audience. Businesses, like people, love being noticed, mentioned and praised. Flattery will get you far in the world of social media.

An Audience of Who?
It may prove to be more useful to figure out who you are trying to preach to before you stand up to the podium. If you’re marketing for a tech company, chances are retweeting stay at home mommy bloggers isn’t improving credibility (unless you work for Diaper Genie). Figure out your market and who is making the decisions. Chances are, that’s who you are trying to reach.

Tell Me Something Good
Nothing is more annoying than a pointless text.
Sender: “Hey, what’s up?”
Recipient: “Nothing”
Sender: “Cool”

If you don’t have anything to say, you’ll flat line. It’s meaningless and over all, obnoxious. This is where companies can fail in terms of social media. “No one is clicking through to our blog!” Are you putting out meaningful content? Not all the content has to be earth shaking, but it should have a reason. Don’t overlook the power of repurposing content, as well. Maybe a blogpost from a few months ago deserves some updates for reuse. Regardless, content should have a reason: to inform, to educate, to entertain, to promote etc.

Additionally, if your lag time between blog posts is longer than Jessica Simpson’s pregnancy, don’t expect many returning readers. Readers not only want fresh content, they want frequency. During a scholarly survey I took of seven friends via gchat, 100% said they spend the first hour of work reading  industry related blogs and newsletters. If you don’t update regularly, people forget about you and stop frequenting your site.

If you walk away with one beacon of knowledge, remember this: social media is not a “strategy” on its own. For an effective strategic effort with social media, know who you’re talking to, what you want to say, and how it needs to be perceived.

First assignment: “So SXSW is this weekend. Can you start interacting with other companies involved in the event on Twitter? Follow them and make us seem, like, fun?” Done. Did I mention we were hosting a skeeball party? Yeah. My second assignment was to live tweet during the entire party. I was planning on doing that anyway, so why not?

But what does Twitter have to do with CRM?  Social media is no longer “emerging” into the business world. It’s here. It is the fastest source of news sharing and Twitter is the most common B2B social media platform, making it perfectly sensible for a CRM firm to have a presence there. Twitter allows businesses to have a personality and connect with current and potential customers and clients. It is a free tool that, when used properly, can increase sales, product awareness, customer interaction, and brand identity. You can just be a CRM firm, or you can be the CRM firm that is looked to for Tech news updates, company consulting, software services, market leading, and the like. Twitter is a powerful tool that should not be overlooked or taken for granted.

I am very excited about the upcoming projects I will be working on. Not only will I be learning a lot but the expectations of me are higher than I anticipated which is a great feeling (I have a problem where I want to always be needed and relevant so this really motivates me).

Oh, and by the end of my live tweeting during the skeeball party, the Chicago Skeeball League started following us on Twitter. Potential CRM customer? I think so. Obviously my job here in done and a corner office with my name on it is in the near future.

A little over a year ago, plans were made in preparation for Epicom’s growth. In foresight that 105 W. Riverside Dr, Suite 230 – a humble office fitted for few – would soon provide a space too limited, the hunt for a new office building began. Ten empty spaces were explored, considered, and voted upon, until finally, a gem was discovered in the heart of downtown. 211 7th St., Suite 110 was being used as an unkempt charity storage. Piles of unused children’s toys lay below the high, debris cluttered ceilings. Burnt and broken electrical currents hung off of the raw, forgotten walls and flimsy hollow pipes that led to nowhere glimmered in the light that shone through the floor-to-ceiling windows. The potential was unmistakable.

The toys were cleared, remnants were demoed, and in late September, Epicom proclaimed this space its new home with the signing of a new lease.

Epicom is no cookie-cutter corporation, so its home should not reflect a typical 9-5 office. 105 W. Riverside Suite 230 sheltered a collaborative working environment where everyone belonged to the same room. The only offices were distinguished by open doors. Every person brought on board adds to the culture with their own characteristic individuality and every person prompted by the pleasant working vibe is dedicated to see the company grow. Though small, the community is tightly knit and welcoming. This atmosphere had to be reflected and maintained in the new space so that it could continue to resonate with existing employees and those new in the years to come.