Final Piece Consulting, LLC

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I think Buddy the Elf signifies what is inside a person. Honestly I believe that’s why the movie Elf resonates despite it being another Christmas movie with many of the same tropes and themes of any other Christmas movie.  That and the insanely funny Will Ferrell.

We want to be innocent again. We yearn for those days when we could experience things for the first time.

You stink. You smell like beef and cheese! You don’t smell like Santa. – Buddy the Elf

There’s a kid inside us all that would come out if it wasn’t for responsibilities like providing for a family, paying a mortgage, growing a business, etc.

I think that’s why the holiday season means so much to everyone. No matter what your religion, this time of year allows that little kid deep down to peek his head out. Even if it is only for a few days.

We spend so much time moving as fast as possible that we rarely take the time to sit back, reflect and appreciate our friends, family and clients.

I personally know that I wouldn’t be where I am today without those aforementioned folks.

• My wife gave me the courage to step out on my own despite all the reasons not to do so.
• My friends have supported me by sending me business whenever they can.
• My clients have trusted in my vision for their business and chose to spend their marketing budgets on that vision.

2011 was a wonderful year for me, my family, my business and for many of the clients around me. There truly aren’t words to express my gratitude towards those folks, and I can’t do much more than offer this thank you.

I think that’s why I love Buddy the Elf so much. He doesn’t need to wait until the holidays to show how grateful he is for the people around him. He just does it all the time.

Hopefully the kid inside me will make sure I do that more in 2012. I know I’m happy to see him right now.

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My first intern at Final Piece Consulting just scored a full time job at a great firm in the Triangle.  I’m not going to lie, when she told me about landing the job I think I had my first ever “proud father” type moment. The purpose of hiring an intern to work with me was not to simply lighten the workload or to have someone around just to do busy work. I wanted someone hungry to learn and absorb information about social media that I could teach while refining my skills as a leader.

Based on what she sent me after the internship – not only was I smiling and proud – I felt like I had bettered the lives of two people, teacher and student.

As someone with a full-time job and out of college for two years, I’m sure I wasn’t the typical candidate who would apply for a part –time internship. However, after two years in a job where I felt creatively stifled and after months of receiving rejections from jobs I applied for, I found the posting for the Final Piece internship.

Although I had experience in journalism and public relations, I realized that I didn’t have extensive experience in social media. Through the interview process, I discovered that this particular understanding was something that many potential employers were looking for. Final Piece offered me this and more!

Right of the bat, one unique attribute I noticed with working with Matt was the flexibility with not only my schedule but also my workspace. Despite my full-time job, Matt was able to work with me on both meeting and assignment schedules. Furthermore, our meetings and discussions did not take place in stuffy conference rooms but rather in the comfort of the neighborhood bookstore.

From our first meeting, Matt was very open about wanting to educate me on what I was interested in; whether that be the ins and outs of Google Analytics or the vitality of search engine optimization. I was also given the opportunity to participate in projects relating to each of Final Piece’s diverse and exciting clients which enabled me to understand, not only WHO the target audience was but HOW to reach them. These projects included media outreach, handling and maintenance of social media accounts, social media reporting, and various writing projects. In fact, I now have a wide variety of writing samples (blogs, web copy, etc.) to provide to future employers.

One of the key things I took away from this internship, especially in regards to social media, was the importance of generating interesting content that is relevant to the intended audience. So many times, there is a tendency to post or tweet just for the sake of consistency without giving much thought to the quality of the posted content.  This can, in turn, disengage those that you are trying to reach.

Wrapping up, everything I set out to accomplishment with this internship, I did. But it was only through the hands-on experience and guidance provided to me by Matt. Now, after adding my newfound social media and marketing experience to my resume, I’ve actually scored the job that I was looking for – talk about paying off!

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So, you are a small business owner. You know you need customers, cash flow and a product or service to sell. Once the particulars of that to-do list are figured out, not too far behind needs to be the creation of a website for your new company.

If this isn’t on your radar in 2011 then you may as well not start your business (in my humble opinion). It doesn’t matter if you are a painter, insurance salesman, artist, photographer or CPA – you MUST have a website that is easy to find, easy to navigate and one that sufficiently showcases your business offerings and personality.

Now comes the hard part – should you pay the money to develop your site on HTML pages or use the WordPress platform?

This isn’t an easy question to answer in that it ultimately will depend on your individual needs, but I firmly believe that a customized WordPress website can offer up a lot of great advantages and at a much lower cost.

1) Enhanced SEO – Your email signature, business card and marketing materials should all point to your new website, but more importantly you want people to find you that otherwise never would if the website didn’t exist. That is what the Internet is for, right?   You can optimize an HTML site, sure, but it is extremely time consuming for a web developer/designer. As far as what the “Ruler of the World” Google tells us – HTML websites and WordPress websites are looked at the same. In my experience however, WordPress sites tend to outrank HTML sites early and often. Google, Bing, Yahoo and every other search engine want updated content that is relevant to search terms, and since WordPress is “technically” a blogging platform you immediately have an advantage.

2) Ease of Use – There is nothing worse than a clunky CMS (content management system) or one that takes you an hour just to upload a new photo.  With HTML sites, the quality of your CMS typically depends on how much you are paying for your website. WordPress has a relatively robust CMS system that is open source and can integrate with MySQL, PHP and others.  There will still be a learning curve for website owners that have never used WordPress, but I am willing to bet money that it is much smaller than a cheaply built CMS. Plus – if you want to add new pages to your site, switch up navigation or add a new logo you can do it without having to even look at any code!

3) SPAM! – I will tip my hat to HTML sites in that they are typically more secure. It is much easier for the Prince of Zimbabwe to get your credit card number on WordPress. I will say though that there are many new and expanding plugins that a good WordPress developer can install to protect you at a much greater rate than ever before.  If you are using a decent developer – your site should be safe using either HTML or WordPress.

4) Plugins - The one word and major reason WordPress continues to get better and better every day and I have fallen madly in love with it. Developers continue to make great plugins that are free or extremely cheap. Just don’t forget to donate sometimes to help the cause! Would you rather be able to add a new contact form, post a video and integrate your social media accounts with one click or design the functionality on your own each time?  Of course you can do that in HTML if you want, but again we are talking about ways to have a great website for a small price.

So in conclusion, if you are a small business owner I highly recommend you go with WordPress for your website. You will not only get a great looking site that ranks high and has great functionality, but you will have the ability to maintain your website without having to always pay a developer.

But enough about my opinion – what do you think?

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If you have any questions about whether or not a WordPress website would be good for your business – feel free to add a note in the comment section or contact us!

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I’ll go ahead and admit this is shameless self promotion before I even start. But more than that, it is a man proud of something he has nurtured since inception and seen grow and become something he is supremely proud of.

While I have been working with a bunch of great clients already – this is the first major project under the umbrella of Final Piece to officially launch.

The great people at Mate1.com and I came up with a comedic concept to build their brand online. As everyone in this industry knows, ideas and concepts come and go, so when you get one that sticks and you think it may have legs, there is a certain thrill and excitement to it.

That idea then generated a partnership (with the Weasel Pauly Shore no less), video storyboards, awesome creative,  PR strategy, a website and many late nights at the office.

While the contest has just begun and doesn’t come to a close until 1/15/2011, meaning there is a ton of work to still be done, I thought talking about how proud I am of the launch would not only be therapeutic as I prepare for step 2 but also allow me a second to sit back and make sure I enjoyed what has already been done. Too often we race, race, race and never take a chance to appreciate ourselves and the people around us.

So if there is anything you can do for me – just check out the website and let me know what you think.

At the very least, take this opportunity to appreciate some work you’ve done recently and are proud to have worked on before racing to your next project.