An Interview with ‘Social Media/Blogger of the Year’
At the end of October, Hammock Founder/CEO Rex Hammock was named 2009 Social Media/Blogger of the Year at a large downtown gala hosted by the Nashville Technology Council. The rest of us at Hammock were especially impressed that Rex’s “trophy” is a Gibson electric guitar and that only 10 organizations or individuals received one — two went to HCA and one to Nissan USA. However, it didn’t surprise us that Rex won — he’s been blogging since the Paleozoic Age and tweeting almost that long. (His Twitter account is @r if that gives you any idea.)

However, we think it probably surprised a few people who don’t know Rex that someone over 25 years old won a social media award. But then, most people don’t know that Rex’s approach to social media is not just about being up on the latest online fad. It’s about innovating new approaches to achieving measurable business objectives for our clients. To help you understand why the judges awarded Rex such an honor, we asked Editorial Director Jamie Roberts to interview him about the award — and social media in general.

I was honored last week to have been asked to serve as the vice chair of the American Business Media’s Custom Media Committee. I’ve been a member of the committee for a few years, working alongside colleagues to promote the value of custom media to business and professional clients, agencies and consultants. The committee also conducts relevant research and establishes best practices for for business-to-business custom media.

Hammock is a longtime member of ABM, and Rex is currently serving on their Board of Directors.

I’m looking forward to working alongside Joe Pulizzi of Junta42, chair of the committee. Stay tuned for news of our new initiatives!

If the results of a recent Forrester Research Study are accurate, email marketing in the United States is expected to reach $2 billion in 2014. It’s easy to understand why email is one of the preferred tools of the day given the economic climate of the last year. It’s cost-effective and delivers a high return on investment.
At Hammock, we not only advise our clients on their email newsletter efforts and are involved in their development and execution, but we also have our own monthly email newsletter about the work we do for our clients.
Here are five testing tips that we use each month to make sure our latest issue is ready when we hit send:

As soon as media planners returned from the long Labor Day weekend last month, media planning began in full force for 2010. Hammock Inc. provides advertising sales management services for some of our clients and part of that work includes the creation of media kits. That’s why we started working on 2010 media kits back in the spring.
We’ve noticed that the economy has impacted some of the buying behavior of advertisers who run in the magazines we publish for our clients. One way the impact is most visible is that rather than committing to a full year of insertions, for example, some advertisers are buying on a month-by-month or quarter-by-quarter basis. While advertisers might not buy a full year of media by the end of 2009 for 2010, we still include all editorial information for the year in the 2010 magazine kit.

Many of the clients we work with are associations, and so we are always monitoring research about the latest trends in associations. The type of challenges our association clients are facing right now are closely tied to the state of the economy. That’s why having in-depth knowledge of the latest research about the economy helps us serve our clients best by being able to create solutions that solve their problems in the context of the economic environment.
One of the sources we consistently look to for research is the American Society of Association Executives. This week they released an update to their Beliefs, Behaviors, and Attitudes in Response to the Economy study conducted six months ago about the attitudes of more than 7,000 association members on the state of the economy and how it has and will influence their behavior.

Associations can use focus groups as a valuable research tool. They are often used to test new initiatives or concepts with a sample group of members before rolling them out to the association. Before your association dedicates the time and resources to a focus group, be sure to review our five tips:
State your goals
It’s important that you are clear about what you want to accomplish with the focus group before you start the project. Get input from key decision makers and use their input to structure the development of the focus group.

Now that we’re about to enter that time of year when our gardens are at their best–and most plentiful, recipes are in high demand. That’s why I was so excited to come across Mark Bittman’s brilliant article “101 Simple Salads for the Season” this week. Whether you are a vegan or a carnivore, Bittman provides innovative ideas for how to inject interesting flavors and combinations into your kitchen. I already made recipe #2 in the vegan section–the salad of tomatoes and peaches. It took less than 5 minutes to make and was divine. Now my only fear is that I won’t have a chance to experiment with more of the recipes before the fruits, veggies and herbs go out of season. Take my lead–print Bittman’s article today and keep it in your kitchen so that it’s handy the next time you are staring at your pint of tomatoes, wondering what to do with them.

Association members are increasingly turning to association websites for news, networking and resources, which is why tracking these visits is fundamental to managing a successful site. Here are three reasons why it’s so important for associations to have Google Analytics running on their sites:

At Hammock we support partners who, like us, have a heart for the environment. Today we congratulate printing partner Quad/Graphics on receiving LEED certification for their manufacturing facility and headquarters in Sussex, Wis. Quad prints MyBusiness magazine for our client the National Federation of Independent Business.

This environmental accomplishment is part of an ongoing effort by Quad to transform all of its manufacturing sites to green buildings. The U.S. Green Building Council created the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System to set standards for environmentally sustainable construction.
We applaud Quad’s commitment to the environment and wish them luck on their green mission as they continue to work to make their nine other facilities LEED-certified too.

On Tuesday, May 5, in the wee hours of the morning, Barbara and her husband, Fielding, welcomed little Elizabeth Reed into the world!

She weighed in at just under 9 pounds and measured 21 inches long. We all welcome her to the Hammock family!