The best thing WilsonMcGuire Creative did in 2011 was the website for the launch of the restoration of Pinehurst No. 2 (PinehurstNumber2.com) and the print, broadcast and online campaign for 2012. The good news is, Pinehurst is the client that (1) we worked hardest for and (2) paid us the most. So we got THAT part right.

We did some other things right as well. We changed our business model. With online work steadily increasing at the expense of direct mail and collateral, in 2011 we finally restructured our processes, pricing and job codes accordingly. So now we can charge appropriately for all that time we’re spending on content, social media, banner ads, HTML emails, in-stream videos and Google Adwords search campaigns. With all the changes in media, marketing and retail in the past 5 years, if your business model hasn’t changed, it probably should.

We created and launched a new website (http://www.wilsonmcguire.com/) for ourselves. (This is a massive undertaking for an agency because when you make your living doing marketing and websites for others, you rarely find the time to do it well for yourself.) And we wrote, designed and built the whole thing in less than two months! Now we just have to change out the content regularly. All of the sites we build these days allow for the clients to change their content themselves. If your site doesn’t, maybe you need a new one, too.

We sent our artists and writers to a creative conference on interactive design. We were exposed to the best speakers and practices in the field. We picked up a few new tricks. And we all came away newly inspired and invigorated about what we do for a living. Our strategists went to an internet summit as well. It was a little on the dry side. But one speaker, Gary Vaynerchuk (Thank You Economy), gave an hour-long talk on social media that made it all worthwhile. I can’t show you the exact presentation, but THIS ONE he did at another presentation is close. (FF to the 9:30 mark. Warning: explicit language). It’s amazing how a single person can change the mood of an entire summit. We should bear that in mind at the next dull meeting we attend.

We got our Google certification. When you’ve spent as much time and money as we have on Google Search and Display campaigns for the past five years, you might as well get credit for it. So Kathryn got tested and Google approved. And we can now officially claim that Google thinks we know what we’re doing.

We added a couple of new faces to our creative team. Chris Bormann brought some solid design skills and a get-it-done attitude to our team. And Darwin Hadley, a coder and self-proclaimed technology geek, became our official “go to” programmer. By adding Darwin to our already strong rolodex of talented programmers, we’re able to offer clients a consistently high level of quality and service while keeping costs to a minimum.

We created a Google+ page (another day, another business page). And, more importantly, we separated my personal WilsonMcGuire Twitter account (@LWilsonMcGuire) from our WilsonMcGuire company account (@WilsonMcGuire). This provides the double benefit of (1) allowing other WilsonMcGuire team members to tweet for the company and (2) keeping my 19-year-old son and his profane friends’ tweets off our corporate page. (Good idea).

We signed a 3-year contract with The Wyndham Championship (thanks, Mark!). Last year, we re-designed their website (so they can update all the content themselves). They had a great year in 2011 with some of the biggest names in the game participating. And, for the first time, technology allowed us to create digital outdoor boards which changed regularly with updated scores, standings, etc. Who knows what we’ll be able to do by this summer? But with Webb Simpson returning to defend his title, we’re hoping for an even better 2012.

We were hired to conduct a membership survey, photo shoot and branding campaign for Prestonwood Country Club in Cary. The home of the SAS Championship, Prestonwood really is “where Cary comes to play.” And if you live anywhere near the Triad, it’s worth a visit (and a membership). This membership drive was a great success largely because local print ads were supported by a Google Search and Display campaign.

So what did you try in 2011? What will you try in 2012? Every business has to do something. Because when the whole world is moving forward, you can’t afford to stand still.

It all starts innocently enough. You build a website. You have to — it’s your digital front door. However, to get folks to return to your website, you need to freshen it repeatedly with new content. Daunting, but you can commit to that.

A blog will help freshen your site. This is where you write SOMETHING every week – it almost doesn’t matter what as long as you populate the page. This is called content. And content, we all know, is king.

Then, you sign up for a Facebook page. It can be a more casual spot than your website, you think. A conversation area. A “behind the scenes” look. You can get folks to “like” your business and, Wa-La, you have a captive audience at your disposal. FREE. You can get opinions, share yours, etc. It’s great. But then they start offering “Fan Gate Pages” and “Tabs.” Suddenly it’s turning into a mini-website that needs to be fed.

Then, along comes Twitter. This serves as your megaphone to shout out your latest news to the masses (or the few) who follow you. It’s kind of like posting your Facebook status, but it has hash tags and stuff that make it easier to start, follow and get in on conversations. Plus, if you’re under 21, Twitter is new and cool and Facebook is so yesterday. It’s all about followers now.

Of course, you’re also on LinkedIn. You can’t neglect to build your network. It’s a great place for sales leads and job seekers. And, you can monitor not only who knows whom, but also who exaggerates the most on their resumes.

Enter Google+. It’s not really filling a void. It’s kind of like Facebook. Actually, it’s EXACTLY like Facebook. It’s part of Google’s World Domination Plan. Kill Facebook with “circles” instead of “groups.” They already OWN you with their search engine, “places” and gmail accounts. So you can’t ignore them. You NEED a Google+ page. What if it becomes “the place to be” and your business isn’t there?

Then, there’s the “about.me” page. Have you done yours? It’s a place where you can post what you are all “about,” including all your links to all the other pages you’ve created. Which brings us to your Klout score.

Do you have one? A Klout score? At Klout.com? This site takes into account how many followers, friends and people there are in your network and uses your social media activity to measure your social “influence.” It’s absolutely addictive. When I first checked my Klout score, it was a 12. Downright depressing. (By comparison, my teenage son’s was a 39.) Once I dialed in, I quickly reached 40 (thereby achieving my goal of surpassing my Twitter-loving son). Thus far, that’s the only benefit I’ve derived from this. (Duh! We know how influential we are (or not). We don’t need a score for that.)

Which brings us back to the new business page offering on Twitter. I think I’ll skip that one as a Christmas gift to myself. I’ll continue to monitor the social media landscape as it evolves. Eventually, we’ll see if Facebook becomes passé, if Google+ survives, if Twitter continues to gain followers and if Klout scores ever gain traction. But this holiday season, I’ll spend a day or two visiting with friends and family in person instead of checking in, tweeting or posting. Facetime, if you will – without the technology. Now that’s what I call a happy holiday!

While I agree that content is certainly what draws people to a site, I happen to believe good design can keep them there. In a way, online design is still like the wild, wild west. Unlike traditional media, you have limited control of how your website will appear. Browsers, software, and hardware-types all work slightly differently and affect what the end user sees. Your site design might appear one way in Microsoft Explorer and altogether differently in Safari or Chrome. It might perform perfectly on a Mac and go haywire on a PC. In short, there’s a whole lot more to go wrong.

In web design, a site’s functionality (the user’s experience) is first and foremost in importance. Even content is irrelevant if it’s not delivering. This means a huge shift in thinking for us creative types.

We have to be more than artists and writers. We have to be students of human behavior. We have to become increasingly “in tune” and intuitive. It’s not enough to come up with pleasing designs. We have to get into the heads of our target audience and understand how they use the web before we sketch out the first idea. Copy can no longer just be “well-written.” It must be gathered, analyzed, organized, grouped and appropriately crafted for online consumption.

Interactive design is not about a “look.” It’s about an experience. It’s about engaging your customers and inspiring interaction.

Google.com may not look like much. But I would argue that it is beautifully designed in its simplicity. There are no extra bells and whistles. And the user knows exactly how to use it upon sight. The more utilitarian a site is, the less important the design may be. But it’s human nature to be attracted to good design. If we weren’t, fashion wouldn’t exist. Galleries would be out of business. And Rosanne Barr would be just as attractive to men as Halle Berry.

It takes time, but we eventually improve the design of even the most utilitarian items. Stoves and refrigerators are now stainless steel. Baby pacifiers are designed to look like lips. Cell phone covers come in a million different designs. Even televisions, which were simple black boxes for more than 50 years, are now flat screened works of art. Even the most functional websites will benefit from good design.

In marketing, we’re just beginning to push the limits of what we can do online. Design may not drive interactive advertising, but as an integral part of the user experience, it can determine whether that experience inspires and engages your customers – or drives them away.

A creative’s primary job is to sell – online or off. So bring us your ugly websites. And let us turn them into selling machines.

Maybe I’m just spent from doing all the other things I have to do. Or maybe I fight it because this is supposed to be my daughter’s job. Oliver is, after all, HER dog. But, for the life of me, I can’t seem to manage to train him. I realize this is not his problem – it’s my responsibility to be consistent. I’m supposed to crate him, to take him out to the same place each time to do his business, to take him on a walk every morning and every evening. I’ve read “Caesar’s Way.” The problem is, I can’t seem to bring myself to do it.

I don’t want to get up early to walk a dog. I want to sleep as long as I possibly can. I fenced in my backyard so I didn’t have to go out with him when he needs to “go.” (Unfortunately, he would go out but still preferred to use the bathroom indoors.) I even take him with me to work most days because I can’t bear to leave him in a crate for 10 hours. Again, my problem, not his.

At work, I’m self-motivated. I want to do a good job for my clients. I want to stay in business and earn a good living. I make “things to do” lists every day. And I do the most dreaded thing first so I KNOW I’ll get it done. Enter, my new hardwood floors in the bonus room where Oliver has traditionally had most of his “accidents.” Helloooooo, motivation.

I’ve decided, come hell or high water, I’m going to whip this dog into shape. I’m getting up early to take him for a morning walk. I’m taking him out on a leash to make sure he uses the bathroom where he’s supposed to. I’m crating him every time I go out. It’s only been a week, but he’s responding very well. Not one accident so far.

Seems I’m learning how to be consistent in training my dog. I guess you can teach an old dog new tricks.

I’ve been behind people in line at the grocery store who check out a buggy full of food without ever once talking to the cashier. I’ve heard people talking on their cell phones in stores, classrooms, cars, restaurants, bathrooms, libraries, even church. The drive through lanes at both my pharmacy and my bank now have signs in the windows that say “please hang up your cell phone before approaching.”

It doesn’t end with talking. At the theater, cell phone screens glow like lightening bugs as text-messaging-teens distract viewers from the movie. Instant messaging, Facebook, Twitter and chat rooms decrease productivity in almost every office. Daily.

My kids find it socially acceptable to text others while in a conversation with me. I’ve made it a rule at my house not to allow cell phones at the dinner table. I should probably carry that rule into the conference room as it’s becoming increasingly common for people to take cell phone calls or text in the midst of a business meeting.

It seems the cell phone has become an appendage that we cannot do without. We carry it with us wherever we go. And it controls us more than we control it. While I love the convenience and total access of my i-phone, I also like to disconnect from it now and then . . . like when I’m at dinner, in a meeting, on a date, in a conversation or on vacation.

No conference call is as good as a face-to-face meeting. And no text symbol can compare to a smile on someone’s face. So the next time our cell phones start making noise – in the store, in the office or anywhere else – I hope we listen to the person in front of us first.

A web site, on the other hand, doesn’t seem to have a deadline. It can forever be pushed back. And, because it’s perpetual, it can always be added to, modified or refined.

Our first line of defense is to control this inevitable spread is our site map. We put a lot of time constructing the architecture. We organize the information in a logical manner and get client approval on this map before proceeding. Oftentimes, we have to revise our estimate at this stage (our second line of defense) – as clients frequently add more or change navigation.

Only after the site map is approved do we move into design. We get the homepage design approved and that sets the course for the rest of the site.

Like the Tarheels against just about everybody this year, we sometimes go through a few rounds when we begin designing the main navigation pages before each is to the client’s liking. But when we finally get there, the rest of the site should be pretty easy. The problem is, this is usually when clients remember things they didn’t think of before. “Oh, we need to add a page about XYZ.”or “What if we. . . ”

That means another estimate. Nobody wants a new estimate so the negotiation begins: “Can’t you just add that one page/data capture/graphic. It’s really important to my boss, my secretary, my mom. . .”

And so the scope continues to creep. . .

We would love to make every website an animated masterpiece. Unfortunately not every budget allows that so we have to make tough decisions. Like choosing who will go to the final four, we have to define the end goals upfront and make every decision from there. Each addition or revision should be weighed by whether or not it helps the site meet its objectives. If a suggested change doesn’t help the site meet its objectives, it should be left behind like Butler left Pittsburgh in the third round.

With the increasing number of marketing dollars moving from print to online, ad agencies are creating banner ads instead of outdoor boards, web sites instead of brochures and Google display ads instead of print ads. The issue is, the banner ad specs are not exact from one web site to another. Each site on which a banner ad appears requires unique animation requirements. So the amount of work required to create a series of banner ads is much greater than the amount of work required to create a series of outdoor boards.

Take Google, for instance. Google prefers you provide eight different size options for each banner ad in order to maximize the frequency with which your ad will be served. So one banner is suddenly eight banners – and that’s just for one placement.

This is forcing agencies to change the way we price our work. “Programming” has become the new “printing” – a hard cost that we pass on to our clients. We estimate the programming costs based on the scope of the web site or the number of different banner ad executions. So while printers may be far less active these days, ad agencies are busier than ever. We just have to charge for this increase in work so, we’ll still be here tomorrow.

NOTE: The author’s NCAA bracket just fell to 86%. Luckily, her company is still running at 110%.

While we don’t all have a speech problem, most of us have something we’d like to overcome. Whether it’s a vocal problem, a fear of public speaking or just a condition – like a receding hairline, a scar or a weight problem – that makes us self-conscious, most everyone has something to overcome.

Obstacles are the rule, not the exception. And some are harder to overcome than others.

I once worked for a man who made King George the VI’s condition look like a cakewalk. This man had Tourette Syndrome, a neurological disorder characterized by repetitive, involuntary movements and vocalizations called tics. He cursed and flailed. Even handing me a piece of paper was a physical ordeal. He held it out and his arm moved up, down and around violently. I had to literally jump in and take it from him. Somehow, despite it all, he owned and successfully ran his own advertising agency.

What are the odds of that? Running an advertising agency is impossible enough without a stammer or Tourettes. But how do you win business, develop strategies, lead employees and run a business when your body refuses to follow even your simplest instructions?

He did it. Every day. And he wasn’t a monarch. He was a simple businessman with a lot of heart and determination. He didn’t have a speech therapist at his beck and call, but he had a loyal staff. And every member of that staff left a little wiser than s/he arrived.

So the next time you feel you’re not up to a task, think about the monumental obstacles you DON’T have to overcome. It might make the ones you do look a little more surmountable.

Her sudden inability to communicate inspired fervent communication within our family. Father, sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins and friends were calling and texting and i-chatting and visiting throughout the diagnosis. The surgery was scheduled. Surgeons sliced into my mom’s head, peeled the skin back from her face, chiseled out a circle on the left side of her skull (near the eye) and removed the tumor. Then, they put it all back together again.

The tumor was benign, thank God. And it’s gone for good. I hope the lesson, however, is not.

We get up each morning and think our plans are important. We think the work we do matters. We think our presence at every meeting is vital.

When you find out your mom’s (or your dad’s or your husband’s or your child’s or your) health is in danger, the meeting you thought was so important is suddenly irrelevant. Nothing matters except your loved one’s health.

When we’re healthy, we take it for granted. We don’t give it a second thought.

When we have a serious health problem, however, we can’t think about anything else.

It’s true what they say: Our health is all we have.

After the surgery, my mom’s biggest concern was that she didn’t remember what she’d gotten any of us for Christmas. She was worried that, in her unclear mental state, she’d confused or forgotten our gifts.

Not one of us cared in the least, of course. We had already received our gift: our mother was going to be ok. And, God willing, we’ll get to celebrate many more Christmases together.

So here’s to our health in 2011. May we treasure it for the gift it is every single day.

I feel a bit like a mouse on a treadmill, continually working but not really going anywhere.

Will I still be feeling like this in 2011? Will you? And, more importantly, does it matter?

Let’s look at the facts.

Fact #1: Money is a necessity. You and I have to work in order to buy food, clothing and housing. (Ever tried bartering at Harris Teeter? It’s frowned upon).

Fact #2: I am still in business – which is more than a lot of companies can say. We have survived the recession thus far. We’re making a profit. We’re doing good work. And, if history repeats itself (as historians tell you it will), this business will continue to grow.

Fact #3: I am projected to stay in business. I have business on the books well into next year. Yeeeee-ah! I’m pretty darned excited about that.

Fact #4: As technology changes, so does our business. So while the treadmill may not change, I do get to enjoy a change of scenery along the way. That keeps things exciting.

Fact #5: I still love what I do . . . so I don’t dread going to work. And I get to spend 8-10 hours a day doing what I enjoy.

The bottom line is, companies grow and shrink. Clients come and go. Money is won and lost. And while you may feel like you’re going nowhere on that treadmill, year after year, time keeps ticking away. Day after day, hour after hour, second by second — you get the idea. . .

So the question is, are you enjoying what you’re doing with the limited time you have? As for me, I’d have to say, “Hell, yeah!” And that makes my treadmill a pretty cool ride.

It’s not just my son who’s experiencing his share of disappointment this year. For many, two-thousand-ten has been another year of disappointments. If the recession ended in 2009, it neglected to notify most American businesses. Clients are still hesitant to spend money. A continuously evolving media environment is causing publications to close left and right. And, last I checked, people are still losing their jobs.

Not exactly “rainbows and butterflies.”

On the other hand, it’s when adversity strikes that we find out who we really are. For some, streamlining actually strengthened their organizations. The need to cut costs exposed staffing weaknesses. For others, current underutilized resources were used to improve future efficiencies. In our office, for instance, we used downtime to re-examine our processes, organize our photo libraries and increase office efficiency.

Some businesses’ losses were others’ gains. Home phone services are declining, but cellular phone sales are at an all time high. Ad media sales are down but interactive advertising sales are breaking records. Housing sales are in a slump, but low interest rates have created a refinancing boom.

Lemons, meet lemonade.

My son, who “lived” to play soccer, was initially devastated by his injury. After a couple of days, however, his attitude shifted from a sports focus to a focus on the future. He’s been studying his school work in the evenings. He interviewed and was hired to work at his high school’s campus financial institution. And I actually caught him studying for the S.A.T. – something he’s never done.

Turns out the right attitude can turn an athlete into a student, a loss into an opportunity and a failure into a success. So while 2010 may not be the best year for business, it’s certainly not the worst. So maybe those of us who are lucky enough to remain in business should take a cue from my 17-year-old son. Let’s quit feeling sorry for ourselves and make the most of it.