Launch of Composure Marketing

I am proud to announce the launch of my new venture, Composure Marketing, a new age marketing agency that helps companies expand their presence online and off. I have consulted on various projects ranging from content creation for corporate websites and blogs to social media integration and engagement and as a result decided to launch this new business venture. As marketing platforms grow, Composure will help companies navigate the changes in new media and establish its clients as industry leaders. Our strength is in evaluating objectives and aligning them with creative strategies to reach potential customers and retain existing ones.

All of our services follow a simple process: Listen, Connect, Track and Analyze. Regardless of the project, we approach each one with diligence in first understanding our clients’ objectives, developing an effective marketing strategy and targeting the right audience. Our services include Content Creation, Social Media Marketing, Traditional Marketing, PR and Coordination of Website/Blog Development.

I work with a talented group of individuals to help clients create effective marketing strategies that get the job done. If you are interested in working with a company that takes the time to listen to your story and communicate it to the marketplace, get in touch with us today for a free consultation.

You can also connect with us on Twitter or check out our Composure Marketing Blog!

I will no longer be posting blog posts to New Age of Marketing and PR. Please follow me at Composure Marketing for marketing updates and discussions.

Article on Lead Nurturing Featured in NYREJ

Article about Lead Nurturing featured in the New York Real Estate Journal about How to Nurture Leads and Build Lists using Social Media. I had written a blog post about it earlier this month and it got picked up by the publication. Let me know your thoughts.

How to nurture leads and build lists

View more documents from NatashaAttal.

How NOT to Bill Your Customers - Marc Gordon Video

I have become an avid Marc Gordon fan after connecting through Twitter and watching his videos at Marctv.net. He discusses topics ranging from copyright laws to Tiger Woods - quite an eclectic mix but always with a marketing lesson to be learned. Recently he made a video about how a hotel gave him a bill that was confusing and seemed to have items he didn't order - it turns out the bills at this hotel (Sheraton in Niagara Falls) are not tabulated for customers to understand but instead designed to be understand by the internal billing department at the hotel for accounting purposes.

The obvious lesson here is make sure your company keeps their internal processes internal and gives customers information they can actually understand. Customers don't need to understand your internal processes nor should they have to - if they did want to, they'd fill out a job application to work at your company.

It’s not just a bill, it’s my feakin’ holiday from marc gordon on Vimeo.

Marc can be found on Twitter - @MarcGordonDotCA

He also the Founder of Four Word, a marketing company with a wide variety of services.

Are Airlines Forgetting About Employee Feedback?

This week I flew from New York to Paris with a 4 hour layover in Pittsburg and while the service on the Delta International flight was good, the responses from the flight attendants I got regarding some complaints were shocking. The plane was clearly outdated and when I made a comment to the flight attendant she said "Voice your opinion through the social networks or give Delta a call directly because they don't listen to us when we tell them." 

As companies become more accountable for their business practices and levels of customer service through online communication channels, it seems Delta has shifted their focus to direct customer relations and forgotten to listen to employees for valuable feedback. Flight attendants are the ones who spend the most time with passengers and can offer valuable insights into preferences and customer satisfaction. The fact that the flight attendant did not feel like her opinion mattered does not create a great work environment.

When the volcano eruptied occured in Iceland and my flight got cancelled, Delta answered my question via Twitter when I was having problems getting through to them by phone. I was very pleased with their turnaround time on responding to me. If only their own employees could feel the same way I do about giving them feedback. At the end of the day, whether changes are made or not, customers AND employees want to know that they are being heard. Your employees are usually your best asset - keep them happy and motivated to help you succeed!

Have you experienced this type of response from airline employees? Please comment with your opinion.

You're Going to Call Me WHAT?! Changing Your Twitter Handle

A Twitter handle is the username that people see on Twitter when they look at your profile- mine currently is @natashaattal. The great thing about Twitter is that you can change your handle at any time without losing your mentions or followers. Beware though because once you switch handles, your old one is up for grabs so make sure to immediately lock in your old name (instructions on this below).

Since I noticed several people that I follow changed their Twitter handle lately, I decided to dedicate this post to how to change your Twitter handle and 3 reasons why you may want to change it.

(pic found on google images

How to Change Your Twitter Handle:

1. Choose a new handle name that will work best for how you want to market yourself or your brand. Hans Kullin has written an informative article on Strategies for Choosing a Twitter Handle that should be helpful.

2. Log in to Twitter, click on Settings and enter your desired new handle in the "username" field. Twitter will tell you if that username is available or not.

3. Once Twitter accepts your new handle, enter a password and click Save.

4. Sign out of your main (the one you just edited) account and then Sign Up for a new account. This will be where you set up a new account with your old handle username.

5. In the new account (where your old handle is used), post a tweet saying something along the lines of "I have moved to @X. Please follow me there for updates."

*You may also want to announce to your followers prior to making the change that your handle will be changing shortly. People love a heads up.

Reasons to Change Your Twitter Handle:

1. Recognition: Many people originally joined Twitter with their common online username or possibly a random name (remember the good old days of aol instant messaging and trying to conceal your identity?- my "crypted" name was Tashu0284). Changing the handle to your real name or personalizing it to what you tweet about is a great way to redesign the way you market yourself or your brand and allow people to find you online.

2. Personalization: Some people like to tweet as a brand and others like to tweet with their personal brand attached to it. Tweet with the name you want to be known for - often times that is by tweeting as yourself. For now, that is what I have been doing but it is different for everyone depending on the way you want to be perceived.

3. Develop a Professional Profile: You may have started tweeting with your name and have since built a following around linking to your business or blog. In this case, if you want to focus more on the business, you can change your handle to your business or blog name if they are available. I suggest keeping your name in the profile even if you switch the handle.

Thanks to Jordan Reid from Ramshackleglam Blog for the inspiration for this post. Her name changed from @JordanBerkow to @ramshackleglam a couple weeks ago and I figured it would be a good topic to discuss. If you like lifestyle blogs, make sure to check hers out. She is great!

Let me know what you think about changing Twitter handles and any success (or failure) stories!