Angie's List® Adds Doctors;Continuing the Conversation

Kiplinger’s calls Angie’s List, “a virtual backyard fence—with talk about the dry cleaner, the drywaller and everything in-between.” Now Angie’s List is soliciting members’ feedback on medical professionals so it can compile ratings in 55 categories, ranging from allergy/immunology to vascular surgery.

Not long ago, managed-care gatekeepers limited open discussion and selection of physicians. The move toward consumerism is changing all that.

Adding medical categories to Angie’s List revives and amplifies people’s ability to seek opinions from neighbors. To its credit, Angie’s List advises members that its ratings should be used only to gain perspective on healthcare decisions.

Patient-experience rating sites are proliferating rapidly and have quickly overtaken efforts to quantify and publish accurate outcomes data. Angie’s List has earned a rightful place among healthcare information resources, as long as people realize the best healthcare decisions are made when we balance our physicians’ advice with information on service experiences and outcomes.

Does a grading physician in tandem with tradesmen signal decreasing respect for the training, experience and skills of physicians? Or, as Kiplinger's suggests does it help improve healthcare by providing a mainstream forum where patients can share their experiences?

No matter how you feel about consumer-generated ratings, the discussion now includes doctors and healthcare. Red Lizard Creative can help you take part in the conversation with a positive and proactive approach.

'Tough love' for the advertising industry

As longtime members of the American Association of Advertising Agencies, otherwise known as the 4 A’s, the Lizards recently attended their national conference held in Laguna Niguel, CA, where advertising and communication experts provided some “tough love” for the advertising industry.

The conference focused on how the advertising industry needs to stop worrying about the rapid changes in the industry and strategically move forward with the challenges. As a forward-thinking, creative agency, the Lizards already consider themselves agents of change, and therefore embrace the evolving advertising landscape.

We understand that change makes people nervous, but we are here to help. As agents of change, we ask our clients, “what keeps you up at night” and then we create solutions to solve their business problems. These solutions 9 times out of 10, involve change.

In developing creative campaigns, we create communications, pathways and avenues to move people to act and make decisions and it’s our job to make sure those people act in a way that is positive and relevant to our clients and their businesses.

As speakers talked about how agencies need to change and adapt to the shifts in media, technology, and consumer behavior, we feel good knowing we are constantly changing and adapting to the marketplace to support clients’ needs.

And of course, we have made conscious efforts to learn as much as we can about the many new facets the digital world, such as social media, online networking, and interactive and are successfully applying the strategies to our client’s needs.

The Spirit of Listening

Often overlooked, listening is a critical aspect of business. Whether you’re selling a product or service, garnering new business or retaining current business, listening is a marketing strategy repeatedly left in the dust, behind its more popular alternative - talking.

In an age of conversational marketing, businesses are jumping online, but ignoring the customer’s voice. As professionals, we are eager to offer tips, strategies, advice and punch lines – but many of us are forgetting to stop and listen to our customers. Competition can be fierce, therefore businesses need to spend a significant amount of time listening to what their customers want, feel, need and know. This marketing strategy, when used correctly, can be a competitive advantage.

Savvy professionals know that listening to consumer’s voices includes everything from a face-to-face meeting to a phone call to a blog posting about a product or service. Listening is a simple tactic to gather valuable information from customers, manage the relationships and learn how to make better brand decisions. In today’s world of consumer control, it greatly benefits businesses to honor customer’s voices and serve them better by listening to what they have to say. Hint: This helps create brand loyalty.

So, in the spirit of listening, we want to hear what you have to say. Do you have a burning question about:

· How to make your brand memorable in the customer’s mind or how your brand can capture market share?

· Do you have a compelling idea that needs to be shared?

· Ever wonder how to position your company as an expert or leader in your select industry?

Ask away and the Lizards will do their best to entertain your brewing questions and comments. Speak up! We love to listen.

Social media and meaning

What does social media mean for corporate communicators, consumers and influencers? 

A recent webinar focused on the industry’s new social media release and how to present its format to journalists and bloggers so they can effectively relay messages. 

After some debate between a panel of bloggers, entrepreneurs and communications professionals, the consensus was reached that the social media release isn’t a new kind of communication that needs to be presented, it’s an evolution of traditional marketing.
Social media, whether it’s a news release, a blog, or a YouTube video, gives communicators a new way to share information and facilitate conversation with their many audiences and their influencers. It's a complementary tactic that can make communication more complete.

Because the social media space is new and can be unfamiliar, many consumers don’t use it, don’t know how to use it, and don’t care to learn. But those same consumers continue to flip through magazines and be intrigued by a compelling, creative advertisement. We have an abundance of avenues to reach our targeted audiences/consumers. It's a great time to start conversations and keep them going.