Shawn Graham

Shawn Graham partners with small businesses to create, implement, and manage performance-driven marketing strategies. His knowledge base includes media relations, business development, customer engagement, web marketing, and strategic planning. You can follow him on Twitter @ShawnGraham or learn more at www.shawngraham.me.

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11.27.13 | 6:09 am

This Black Friday, Remember: Your Customer Service Doesn’t Have To Suck

There’s lots of technology that helps give your customers a better experience–use it!

10.18.13 | 5:48 am

The Next Evolution In E-books

Get ready for digital tomes that are a lot more immersive, and a lot less simply scanned in.

09.24.13 | 6:00 am

Why Great Logo Design Is Only As Good As The Story Behind It

When it comes to your brand identity, don’t settle for a half-baked narrative.

Shawn Graham

This Black Friday, Remember: Your Customer Service Doesn’t Have To Suck

There’s lots of technology that helps give your customers a better experience–use it!

The Next Evolution In E-books

Get ready for digital tomes that are a lot more immersive, and a lot less simply scanned in.

Why Great Logo Design Is Only As Good As The Story Behind It

When it comes to your brand identity, don’t settle for a half-baked narrative.

5 Golden, Press Release-Free Keys To Building Successful Buzz For Your Startup

Who needs a fancy pants PR firm, anyway?

Why Specialized Spinoffs Are The New Big Box Stores

Costumer service or convenience? With Dick’s Sporting Goods’ strategy to spin off specialty retailers under their big box umbrella, a sign of retail’s future.

To Be Entrepreneurial, You Must Learn From Successful Entrepreneurs

You can read all the books you want on how to build a booming business, but when you get right down to it there’s still no substitute for having a chance to hear firsthand from people who’ve actually done it.

Exhuming JC Penney’s Failed Marketing Makeover For Leadership Lessons We Can All Use

The iconic, 111-year-old retailer ditched nearly everything former CEO Ron Johnson attempted during his short stint in charge. Good call?

Can Apps, Body-Heat-Detecting Cameras, And Other New Tech Save Customer Service?

Innovations being tested by Walmart and McDonald’s, among others, could go a long way toward fixing the shopping experience, starting at that backed-up checkout line.

When It Comes To Marketing, You Are Not Your Customer

You might dress like your customer, shop like your customer, or even act like your customer–but you’re always going to see things through the eyes of a marketer. Here’s how to remedy that.

The Telecommuting Genie Isn’t Going Back In The Bottle; Here’s How To Strengthen Its Magic

Yahoo caused a stir by ending its work-from-home program, but telecommuting is definitely here to stay. Here is how you can make it work at your company.

Why Invasive Marketing Will Come Back To Bite You

Marketing is becoming more and more pervasive, both via mobile and on physical structures–but ultimately, it will only annoy your customers. Here’s how to do it better.

Managing Customer Service In The Age Of Instant Gratification

Customers now look to social media as a direct line to customer service. They want to be heard–and they want immediate answers. Is it possible to make everyone happy?

5 Smart Sources For Finding The Best Startup Talent

Broad job postings just mean more work for you, sifting through a bunch of resumes that don’t fit the bill. There are smarter options.

The Key To Successful Cross-Channel Marketing

Investing in a single integrated platform, adding headcount, and making sure your staff possess the right skills are all hugely important. But just like marketing during the days of Don Draper, your ultimate success will come down to the customer experience you create.

Bye Bye, Chia Pet: For Holiday Office Parties With Heart, Shop Commerce For A Cause

The coworker gift exchange is typically a sad march of meaningless and forgettable trinkets–Chia pets, coffee gift cards, vanilla-scented candles. But the spirit of giving is entirely the point of startups like CharityGiftMarket and DoGoodBuyUs.

Roambi Helps Make Mobile Data More Useful, And Memorable

I never thought big data could be visually stunning, but thanks to Roambi that’s changing. Their focus on UX and UI design is helping to transform the way businesses access, consume, and communicate complex information.

It’s Time To Rethink Human Resources, The Key To Employee Morale

Human resources needs get back to what it was intended to be–attracting and retaining the best employees, creating a healthy work environment, and fostering career growth. If and when that fails, employee morale usually isn’t too far behind.

Why Your Presentations Lack Depth, And What You Can Do About It

If you’re feeling blah about your next presentation, try some new tools to create a better sense of context.

ShineBIG Helps Creatives Tell The Story Behind The Art

When it comes to tools for making it possible for patrons to interact with and interpret art, many museums and galleries still rely on a lot of low-tech options. But new platforms like shineBIG allow creatives to tell the backstory of their work in their own words.

Forget Big Data–ReadyForZero Helps Tackle Big Debt Using Little Data

While most big companies are busy focusing on “big data,” for those faced with massive amounts of student loan (currently estimated at more than $1 trillion) and credit card debt, it’s the “little data” that matters the most, and can be the most overwhelming.

Ideas

A device that can pull drinking water from the air just won the latest XPrize

This program wants to build a new tech workforce in West Virginia

This fundraiser to make sure Native Americans can vote in North Dakota is smashing its goals

Entertainment

Super Deluxe, where many comedy creators got their start, is shuttering (again)

Why the new Blumhouse Halloween film is a hit

Jonah Hill makes a personal directorial debut with “Mid 90s”

Co.Design

This Weather Channel viz drops you into a raging California wildfire

Trump’s latest tweet is a crime against data design

Barbara Kruger was making the art we need today in 1990

Fast Company

This is the easiest way to make your LinkedIn profile stand out

A device that can pull drinking water from the air just won the latest XPrize

Goodbye, Google+: A eulogy for the last great social network