If you've been following the recent NBA Draft, you'll know that this year's consensus number 1 pick was none other than Kentucky's Anthony Davis. If you don't recognize his name then you might've, at the very least, have caught a glimpse of what arguably makes NBA's latest talent, an easily recognizable figure.

The Unibrow.



Now in our day in age, a unibrow is not the most favourable look one can don. But what's great is, Davis has turned this normally negatively viewed attribute into a positive. He's fully embraced the look, and not only that, he's taken full advantage of it from a personal branding perspective. He's even gone as far as trademarking some catchphrases such as "Fear the Brow" and "Raise the Brow" for all sorts of merchandising opportunities.

Gotta give Davis' business sense, he's already thinking long-term and he has yet to play his first NBA game.

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Here's a CNN article regarding his trademarks.

Here's an interview from the Jimmy Kimmel Show of him discussing his look and his brand.



Rene Tan
Graphic Designer
Mystique Creative

What is a LinkedIn Company Page?

It’s a centralized location where millions of LinkedIn members can go to stay in the loop on company news, products and services, business opportunities and job openings.

For a business, it’s the opportunity to:
• Tell your company’s story
• Highlight your products and services
• Engage with followers
• Share career opportunities
• Drive word of mouth at scale

For millions of professionals, a Company Page is a place to:
• Explore companies of interest
• Get the latest company updates and industry news
• Research products & services
• Learn about job opportunities

Here's a step-by-step on how to set one up:

1. Log into LinkedIn and click on Companies.

2. Check to make sure that your company does not already have a profile by searching for your company in the search box.

3. Click the Add a Company link.

4. Fill in your company name and your email address at the company. The email address must be at your company's domain name.

5. Click the box that verifies you as an official representative of the company and click Continue.

6. LinkedIn will send you a verification email to the email address you input in step 4. Find this email in your email inbox and click on the verification link in the email.

7. The link should lead you to a screen on LinkedIn.com asking you to confirm your email address. Click Confirm.

8. LinkedIn will ask you to sign in again under your primary LinkedIn email address (which is the email address you use to log into LinkedIn – it does not necessarily have to match the company email that you entered in step 4). Fill in your log in information and click Sign In.

9. Once you've signed in, LinkedIn will redirect you to an editable version of your new company profile. Here, you can edit information about your company. We recommend the following settings:
a. Set Company Page Admins to Designated users only. Otherwise, anyone with an email address at your company would be allowed to edit your company profile, and you do not necessarily want that. Make sure you add at least one designated user (type your own name into the box) or else LinkedIn will throw an error.
b. Upload both a standard and square logo. When you create the square version of your logo, make sure that you find a way to crop a nice part of your logo out that will work well as a 50 by 50 image. Don't just resize your current logo to 50 by 50 if it ends up squishing any part of the logo.
c. Write a company description that is keyword-rich. The unpublished character limit for a LinkedIn company description is 1500 characters. You want to write a description that is as close as possible to this character limit without going over. Make the best use of the space that you have.
d. List your company specialties. This is a great place to use keywords that are important to your business that you know potential customers will search for.
e. Fill in your company's Twitter ID.
f. Fill in your company's blog RSS feed URL. This will enable your company's blog posts to appear on your LinkedIn Company Page.
g. Under News Module settings, keep "Show news about my company" selected.
h. In the right column, fill out Company Type, Company Size, Company Website URL, Main Company Industry, Company Operating Status, Year Founded, and Company Locations.
i. Click Publish when you are done.

10. Note If you get the error "We're sorry, but there was an unexpected error. Please try your request again." and clicking Publish again does not work, open a new tab in your browser, navigate to the Companies page on LinkedIn, search for your company, click edit, and re-input all of the information by copying the info from your original browser tab.

11. Once you've set up your LinkedIn Company Page, you can add Careers and Services. We highly recommend adding a list of your products and/or services. Adding just one product or service will add a new tab to your company page called "Services" that will allow LinkedIn users to see a list of your products and services. To add a new product or service, go to the Services tab and click the "Add product or service" button and fill in all relevant information.



Frank Beecham
Mystique Creative

From our friends at HostPapa…

We know that communicating with your customers isn’t as easy as it looks and picking the right platform is even harder.

To help you make the best decision, here are the pros and cons of both email and social media marketing.

Toronto’s city council has banned plastic bags throughout the city beginning in January of 2013. What does this mean for Toronto businesses and what will they ever do? The answer is adapt. A business that is too stuck in their ways and refuses to adapt will eventually cease to exist. It’s a dog eat dog world out there and a business must adapt and change to the changing world around them. Toronto is an increasingly environmentally friendly city with Green Bins being implemented in the early 2000’s. This ban is simply the next step forward for a large city with a green thumb and a plastic bag problem. Businesses need to think of the positives associated with this ban on plastic bags.

1) People love “Green” businesses. You look better in a consumers eyes because if they buy your products they feel better about themselves. If they feel better about themselves they now associate that good feeling with your products.

2) Larger businesses can work out the kinks of a plastic bag ban much earlier than their competition in other cities. Your business is now a first mover. When the ban is implemented in other cities, and it will be, you will be two steps ahead of the competition. If you’re a smaller company you can benefit from the increase of options for plastic bag alternatives that large companies will create.

3) If you previously had your company logo plastered all over your plastic bags your company will no longer be associated with the trash on the side of the road. Remember people generally don’t see who littered the plastic bag, they just see your company logo and environmentally destructive trash.




4) Brown bags have many advertising options. A great idea is to print coupons or other promotions directly onto the brown bag. Since it’s paper, customers can easily cut out the coupon. This is just not possible with plastic bags, plus they can’t hold themselves up like brown bags can, making your branding more visible.

5) Reusable bags are an amazing way to advertise. It’s a walking advertisement and because it’s a cool reusable bag you can count on customers using it multiple times which increases your brands exposure. Brand exposure is worth much more than the cost to supply a reusable bag.



So there you have it, there are some really great reasons for not using plastic bags. Research your customers, the options your company can afford and move forward, because kicking and screaming isn’t going to help your overall image or the planet.

Need some help? Give us a Call!


Carolyn Jobse

Production Manager
Mystique Creative

Wordstream has posted an infographic titled “Breaking Down Google’s 2011 Revenues?” Is your industry listed among the top 10 that spent the most on Google Ads in 2011? And, are you also bidding on the 5 commonly used keywords? If so, you may want to check out the average cost per click.

If your business operates in any of these industries, as noted in the article, there's enormous potential for you. Let me know if we can help you reach it.




Paul Bies

President,
Mystique Creative