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From time to time, it is good to reflect on things of a creative nature.
While the team here at Rise is certainly technically proficient in a great many fields in the digital realm, we are also creatives and necessarily so, fueled in a quest for perfection by a range of mediums including oil painting, figure study, guitar and ukulele, Swing dance, traditionally animated feature films, and Tango Nuevo and neo-Appalachian Folk/Swing/Blues music. Thus, inspiration can strike from anywhere at the Rise office.
Such is the case for the topic of this post. While reflecting on our last blog post, in which we ran Brand Manager Dawn Borglund’s thesis paper through Wordle to create the image we used, Account Executive Assistant Audra Montgomery decided to run her own blog through to find out what her most used words were. Intrigued by the results, she asked her teammates what their favorite words are with the ever important appended query of “and why”. (The Wordle image above is the result of every blog post Rise has written ... ever, for those who were curious :))
So, team Rise, what is your favorite word ... and why? :)
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Ian Sholtys, UX Strategist, QA Maestro, and Animated Feature Connoisseur
Content. That's what it's all about. If you don't have something worth sharing, then why do you have a website? Even if you're just offering a seemingly bland service like data backup, you still need core values, a brand and a message. If not, there's nothing to make you stand out from the competition and stick in people's minds.
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Albert Volkman, Lead Developer/System Admin, Drupal Wizard of the 7th Level, & Barefoot Runner
Code: because it represents a challenge and a sense of order ... both at the same time.
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Dawn Borglund, Brand Manager, Transmedia Goddess, and Window Gardener Extraordinaire
Relationships. If we look at how people have always done things, it’s been based on relationships. A shop wouldn’t lend credit to a stranger but to clients they knew and trusted. In the digital world, we have to compensate even more to build those relationships because the medium is inherently impersonal. Everything I do at Rise can be boiled down to helping my clients achieve stronger relationships with their clients. Everything else is about the how. How do we build relationships? Our gift and passion as an agency is in the digital world. Through that medium, we get our clients in front of their clients (SEO, outreach, etc), start the conversation (website, social, brand message, etc), and facilitate the growth of the relationship from there (newsletter campaigns, content posts, etc).
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Frank Candamil, Visual Designer, Jack of All Trades, and Local Foodie
Readability. I enjoy this word for the variety of its implications. It can be applied specifically to a property of typography which defines whether something is legible and/or decipherable. It also extends to disciplines in print, web, and code/mark-up to suggest “interesting” or “pleasant”.
Ken Ingraham, Brand Manager, Speed Demon, and Improv Aficionado
Experience. It's a noun and a verb. To me, it means everything that is life, for only a living being can experience, or have an experience. No computer can do it (yet). And everything we know, feel or perceive in any way must be experienced in order to truly know what it is and what it means. The only thing greater is the thing that is experienced with another person.
Stephan Barrett, CEO, Designer, Soccer Player
Earned. “Earned” fundamentally changed marketing today. Before, companies could buy attention in media outlets like TV, Radio, and Web. With the advancement of the social voice, you can't buy your way into a relationship with your audience. People's BS meter is on red alert and if you have the wrong intentions, you're sunk. Today, you have to earn that relationship. And now it all comes down to your strategy. How are you going to do it?
Audra Montgomery, Account Executive Assistant, Singer, Dancer, Theatre Geek
Collaborate. First and foremost because it always makes me think of Vanilla Ice's classic 90s rap tune, Ice Ice Baby. But seriously. Collaboration has proved itself to be vastly important whether one is dealing with theatre or with the digital world. In theatre, the very nature of the medium requires collaboration. As important as the actors are, they cannot carry an entire show. There are multitudes of specialists backing them up at every turn from the lights going up on the opening scene to the scenery they act upon, the costumes they act in, and the microphones they deliver their words through. Having been privileged to work in multiple disciplines during my undergraduate studies, I fully appreciate every piece that goes into making a show work. The same is true for building beautiful websites that work - it requires a huge collaboration from the first strategy meeting with clients to the final touches on design and continuing into building a client's social marketing and outreach efforts. Like the song says, to make things work beautifully whether it's a new musical or a new website, you must first, "Stop, Collaborate, and Listen."
So, what's your favorite word ... and why? :)
