Here are this week’s top BtoB PR and marketing stories:

Twitter unveils new ‘business-friendly’ design
from BtoB Magazine
Twitter has redesigned its Web interface and updated its mobile apps to help businesses attract more attention to their brands.

Customer Metrics: Measure What Matters Most to Customers
from Business | Business 2 Community by Christopher Brown
The real drivers of these business outcomes are customers. So the obvious question becomes what customer metrics should I be tracking to make sure my business metrics continue to head in the right direction?

HOW TO: Update your new Twitter header image
from Sarah’s Faves
Did you know there’s new social real estate available? It’s over at Twitter and it’s called a header. Your new Twitter header is visible on your personal profile page on mobile apps for iPad, iPhone, Android and twitter.com.

Delving deeper into social data
from BtoB Magazine
In a study released earlier this year, BtoB found that 32% of b-to-b marketers consider themselves to be “very” or “fully” engaged with social media marketing. That was up from just 21% a year earlier.

5 Tips to Creating an Infographic People Actually Want to Read
from Social Media Today
Unless you’ve been living under a rock (or still have WebTV like my grandparents.) you surely have across at least a few infographics over the last couple years. Here are five tips on how to create a great infographic.

Content and community is still PR’s sweet spot
from PRWeek US
There’s no doubt that managing and producing content is one of the engines driving the growth of the PR industry – it is also causing the large agency networks to consider how they address content within their holding companies.

12 essential SEO tips you likely don’t know
from Ragan.com
If you think link building, writing content, and keywords are all you need to know about search engine optimization (SEO), wake up. While these factors are extremely important, there is much more to SEO. I want you to consider how you can tweak your website or blog using these SEO tips:

How Pinterest can boost your press release results
from Ragan.com
Pinterest is taking over social media. Why not? It’s fun, highly addictive and newly announced as the third-most-popular social network in the world. It’s creeping up on Facebook with 11-plus million users. How can you use that popularity to expand the reach of your press releases? Try these tactics:

Content Marketing 101: 8 steps to B2B success
from Marketingsherpa Blog
Content marketing as an effective tactic is gaining a lot of attention in the B2B marketplace. Read on for an excellent eight-point breakdown of how to get started with content marketing.

How to Turn Targeted Sales Leads into Opportunities
from Business | Business 2 Community by Matt Ford
Even in B2B situations, the brain’s right lobe should likewise be the target of your messaging strategies. This means you really have to humanize your approach down to a more personal level and not focus purely on cold logic and reason.

For our 2012 team outing, the Atlanta office packed up early one Friday afternoon for Arketi’s Iron Chef competition at The Cook’s Warehouse.

Each team received the same pre-set menu but was encouraged to use the recipes as guidelines and be as creative as possible. The judges selected the winning team based on the final presentation plate and a brief overview of the meal given by one member of each team. To see all the action – and who won – check out the photos below.

Welcome to the Arketi Iron Chef competition

Too many cooks in the kitchen? No such thing

Jim working on his team's hot crusty buttermilk biscuits

Mike chopping some veggies for his team

Sami peeling veggies for the ratatouille

Jackie preparing the ratatouille for the oven

Mary Rose and Jamie making sure they get the recipe just right

Is Rory getting secret tips from our head chef?

Mike's team

Wave hello to Rory's team

Sami's team and the Arketi Iron Chef winners

Final presentation of the winning dish

Messaging that resonates with your audience is a foundational element when creating a successful PR or marketing campaign. Even when developing corporate messaging, the idea that your audience identifies with it is vital. That means while it’s nice to have your executive team support the message it’s truly more important to ensure buyers are motivated by your message.

We do this religiously with clients by testing messaging – yes testing – with our clients’ customers, prospects and even buyers who decided to buy from a competitor. Armed with this research you are better able to craft and launch a message that will move the market. To understand more about  customer and prospect research in the positioning and messaging process, check out this video by my colleague Sami Jajeh.

On a recent outing to the grocery store I encountered a sample of messaging that made me laugh and feel good. Admittedly, I am not the target buyer of Zurn’s HEU (High-Efficiency Urinal) – yes you read that right. However, I can admire their messaging. Below is a wall plaque extoling the environment virtues of this product. It makes the buyer’s customers, and likely the buyer, feel good about this environmentally-friendly product.

But what really caught my eye was the accompanying tagline and visual treatment. Now it’s too easy to insert a sting of clever comments and double entendres here, but at the end of the day the wordplay and imagery Zurn used quite simply hits the mark.

“Stand Up For the Earth” with gentleman figure (located at the bottom right-hand side).

With a quick Google search I found this was part of a PR effort launched in 2008 by Zurn. I think it was clever, colorful and drove home a message with meaning.

Next time you’re out and about, take some time to admire the customer-centric messaging that your talented communication colleagues are putting out in the market. You never know where you’re going to spot one that hits the mark.

What if achieving success was as simple as being happy? While we are wired to believe that happiness stems from success, psychologist and author Shawn Achor argues that the reverse is true. According to him and other experts that study happiness, work will become more productive, enjoyable and rewarding if we find our happy place.

The author of The Happiness Advantage delivers this message in his TEDxBloomington presentation that the Arketi account team viewed earlier this year. Achor states that 75 percent of our job success is predicted not by intelligence, but by our optimism, social support network and the ability to manage energy and stress in a positive way. To achieve this, we must rewire our brains to think more positively.

One way to do this, Achor explains, is to keep track of three things that you are grateful for each day. In just a two minute span of time repeated 21 days in a row, it is possible to train our brains to think more optimistically and more successfully.

Following the presentation, each Arketi account member received a small notebook to do just that. I’ve been writing down my three gratitudes each day and have continued doing so past the recommended 21-day period. For me, this exercise has been easy to implement into my daily routine, and I truly feel as though my overall level of happiness has increased as a result.

I encourage you to give this exercise a try! If you’re a team leader, consider sharing Achor’s presentation and help to make your employees happier. In just 42 minutes, you can unearth a happier and more successful you. And that return on investment is definitely worth it.

Last week, Arketi participated in High Tech Ministries’ Serve@Work “Building a Better Beginning” project.

The Arketi team helped with an “extreme home makeover” for Sheltering Grace, a shelter that provides a Christian home, life training, and resources to homeless expectant mothers and infants.

Arketians assisted by:
Sanding, priming and painting the kitchen cabinets
Replacing the insulation and left siding of the house
Painting newly installed siding
Building a wooden shed in the backyard
Installing a French drain
Repairing the bathroom floor and installing new appliances
Landscaping around the front and back of the house, including laying sod
Repairing the fence around the property

See our handiwork in the photos below (we can build more than websites and PR/marketing campaigns) and visit Arketi’s Community page to read more about our outreach programs.

Here are our top 10 picks for this week:

Five Trends B2B Marketers Need to Understand to Succeed in 2012
From MarketingProfs
Chris Chariton explains why marketers should focus on content creation, online marketing and technology.

5 ways PR can lead to new business
from Ragan.com
So how exactly does PR help you generate leads? Take a look at these five tactics.

Study: First impressions of a website form in less than a second
from Ragan.com
When viewing a website, it takes users less than two-tenths of a second to form a first impression, according to recent eye-tracking research.

Infographic: 22 ideas for creating irresistible content
from PR Daily
Copyblogger created its first-ever infographic with 22 ideas for creating content readers will love.

The New Newspaper and PR: Relationships Still Crucial
from Authentic PR Counsel
The new model can be positive for PR professionals, providing they understand the reporters and their beats, be honest, be forthright and provide facts and information that make it easier for reporters to tell their stories.

The most recent (and incredibly impressive) Facebook stats
from PR Daily
The average Facebook users spends 20 minutes on the site per visit. Fifty-three percent of users are female, 43 percent male. There are 2.7 billion “likes” every day.

The latest (and most fascinating) stats on Twitter
from PR Daily
First, Infographic Labs highlighted the big numbers Facebook continues to put up in the infographic, Facebook 2012. Now it’s Twitter’s turn, with the aptly titled, Twitter 2012.

3 ways to use the right keywords in your copy
from Ragan.com
It’s important to identify which keywords a company should try to rank for, but what do you do with them once your pay-per-click campaign is live and you’ve optimized your website?

Speakers: 7 ways to gain new business
from Ragan.com
I’ve come up with seven ways for you to gain business from your speaking engagements.

8 ways old blog posts can drive traffic
from Ragan.com
Here are eight simple ways to tune up yesterday’s blog posts to serve today’s
traffic and search engine optimization needs.

In 2011, Arketi has was able to help families, individuals and companies from Greater Atlanta to Uganda and Afghanistan.

As a firm, Arketians collected with boxed and canned goods for the Atlanta Community Food Bank during its annual Arketi Turkey Day Food Drive. Employees filled up bags and the donation barrel to the rim during October and November. The food bank then distributed the groceries to low-income families in Metro Atlanta and throughout North Georgia.

Arketi also gathered snacks, toiletries, baby wipes and other items to send to troops at FOB Shank located in the Loghar Province of Afghanistan.

Another way employees helped out is by contributing to Hands of Love – an organization that improves the lives of children and their families affected by the humanitarian crisis in Uganda. Arketi “adopted” three children there and provided each of them with school supplies, clothes and a Christmas gift.

In 2011, Arketi gave “in-kind” offerings to several non-profit organizations, such as High Tech Ministries and HealthMPowers. Arketi provided public relations, event coordination support, design services and more.

Arketians supported clients with their community service programs, as well. For instance, Arketi staffers joined Knowlagent at the MUST Toy Shop, operated by MUST Ministries – a local non-profit organization that provides shelter and services to persons in crisis.

MUST’s store gave parents an opportunity to “shop” for items for their children with a volunteer personal shopper. Thanks to the MUST Toy Shop and volunteers, approximately 4,500 children delighted in opening presents on Christmas morning.

Arketi has been able to give back to the community in these several ways to help make the past year brighter for so many deserving people. Visit Arketi’s Community page to read more about its outreach programs.

Over the weekend, the Arketi team celebrated the holidays together at Ray’s on the River with delicious food, drinks and company. Celebrating their first winter holiday with Arketi were several new team members along with Arketi veterans, family and friends.

As tradition, Arketians brought a wrapped gift and participated in “bad santa”  by opening and/or stealing a present.

After all the stealing, we then confess to which funny, useful, or pampering present we brought.

Check out more holiday photos on Arketi’s Picasa album. From our team to yours, have a wonderful holiday season and an exciting new year!

Last night, Arketi Principal Sami Jajeh was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2011 TAG Tech Marketing Awards.

This award recognizes well-known individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the Georgia marketing community. Sami has been at the forefront of using technology to achieve marketing results and deserve recognition for their outstanding achievements.

Sami on the big screen

Sami’s career began in computer science, giving him a technology understanding to help clients “cut through the clutter” and create a compelling customer-centric value proposition. His career spans almost every aspect of creating great companies, but the greatest portion of his career has been spent in marketing, business development, and entrepreneurship – ranging from IBM to co-founding two start-ups.

Sami is very involved within the technology community serving on the boards of the Technology Association of Georgia, the Technology Executives Roundtable, the TAG Marketing society, and the GRA/TAG Business Launch and Excalibur events. Sami is also very active in High Tech Ministries. Sami has an MBA from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and a BS in Computer Science from University of California, Berkeley.

Sami's acceptance speech

The 2011 TAG Tech Marketing Awards was held November 17, 2011 at the Defoor Centre where Atlanta’s tech marketing community gathers to celebrate the past year, and to recognize certain individuals and their accomplishments.

Getting recognized at the 2011 Tag Tech Marketing Awards

Congratulations to Team Arketi!

2011 PRSA Georgia Phoenix Awards winners

• PRSA|GA Phoenix Marketing Business to Business Program – Seeing Green at Black Hat (Arketi Group with Stonesoft)

Heather Pritchett from Stonesoft with Meredith Mobley from Arketi Group

 

• PRSA|GA Phoenix Direct Mail/Direct Response Project – RelayHealth Rides Wave to Lead Awareness (Arketi Group with RelayHealth)

Tamyra Hyatt from RelayHeath

 

• PRSA|GA Phoenix Writing – Trade/Business News Release –The Network Announces Quarterly Corporate Fraud Index (Arketi Group with The Network)

Mary Rose Macaranas and Jamie Cwalinski from Arketi Group

 

• PRSA|GA Certificate of Excellence Technical Writing Trade/Business Media –Brand Velocity the “Go To” IT Transformation Expert for CIO Magazine (Arketi Group with Brand Velocity)