Accessibility, or a11y for short, is all about making sure your website is a welcoming and inclusive space for everyone, regardless of their abilities. At its core, accessible web design ensures that people with disabilities, such as visual, auditory, cognitive, or motor impairments, can perceive, understand, navigate, and interact with your website without any hiccups. …
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A thoughtful, effective website can elevate your school district’s digital presence and build trust with your community. When redesigning your website, you may be tempted to have your new website provider migrate your content over 1:1—but website migration is a fantastic time to re-evaluate your website content, design and navigation to ensure it’s an enticing, …
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“My favorite part of a project? Watching a brand come to life,” said Kelly May, CEL Design Director. “After all the hard work of research, brainstorming and focus groups, watching the brand develop and grow is incredibly rewarding.” Whether it’s a rough sketch on a napkin or refreshing an existing brand in need of expansion, …
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with Kelly May“
Accessibility is about making sure that everyone can participate and contribute, regardless of their abilities. It’s about creating an inclusive world where everyone can access information, services, and opportunities. At CEL Marketing PR Design, we are committed to accessibility. We believe that everyone, regardless of their abilities, should be able to access our products, services, …
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What is alt text, and why should you make it a priority in your web content? Here’s a quick, real-time demonstration to explain what it is, how it works and why it’s important for both search engine optimization (SEO) and
accessibility. The demo is already underway. It began a moment ago, when you first clicked …
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Today is a pretty important day at CEL. It’s Global Accessibility Awareness Day and we pledge to continue to help provide web accessibility for all! What? You have never heard of Global Accessibility Awareness Day? That’s OK, because today is the day to learn about this awareness campaign. Now, if you’ve never thought about website …
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Web Content
Accessibility CEL Public Relations, Inc (dba CEL Marketing PR Design) is committed to making this website accessible to all visitors regardless of disabilities and is continually working to increase its
accessibility and usability. https://celpr.com strives to conform to Web Content
Accessibility Guidelines, Level AA. These recommendations outline how to make website content accessible …
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Thank you for attending our Gold Mine session on Accessibility at the 2018 NSPRA Conference. Sorting out the website ADA compliance guidelines and requirements can be a daunting task for even the most seasoned school district communicators, but there are navigational steps to the accessibility puzzle. Whether or not your district has received a complaint, …
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Are your school website landing pages making the grade? While school websites are brimming with valuable information, the way you design your landing pages can turn casual visitors into engaged members of your school community. Let’s explore how a strategic approach can help your website truly shine. “Strategically designed landing pages transform casual information-seekers into …
Continue reading "Making Valuable School District Landing Pages"
When sharing information online, it's tempting to simply upload a PDF and link to it on your website. While PDFs have their place, especially for print-friendly versions of documents, they fall short in the digital space in several key areas. Before we lose you, we understand there is a place for print documents like PDFs, …
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At CEL Marketing PR Design, we know that effective communication is at the heart of every successful school. Whether managing the school website, creating a newsletter, or interacting with your community on social media, the right tools can make all the difference. These five Chrome extensions are tools and resources that we love for enhancing …
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Back To Our Work MADISON METROPOLITAN SCHOOL DISTRICT School Mental Health Marketing: MMSD's 5 to Thrive Success The Madison Metropolitan School District (MMSD), Wisconsin's second-largest public school district serving over 25,000 students, faced rising youth mental health concerns. They sought to increase awareness and
accessibility of their school-based mental health and well-being services. Our response …
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Before a new school year starts, consider crafting social media templates to save time, ensure consistent messaging and branding, and foster a positive connection with your families and staff. 1. Welcome Back or Countdown Templates Set a positive tone for the new school year with welcome-back or countdown posts that direct families to your back-to-school …
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For school districts, having clear and accessible board policies ensures your community can easily access information that governs the district. Too frequently, districts rely on Google Docs or PDF for publishing policies but neither are found when using the search feature on your site. Further, providing policies solely in PDF format is not compliant with …
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In today's digital world, a growing reliance on mobile devices underscores the importance of optimizing websites for mobile access. Whether through mobile-first design, which prioritizes the mobile user experience, or responsive design, which ensures adaptability across different devices, websites must cater to a mobile audience to remain competitive and user-friendly. Understanding the distinction between mobile-first …
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Rachel Skinner (RAY-chuhl SKIN-ner) Integrated Marketing Specialist 🧩 Word Game Whiz | ✈️ Global Explorer | 🏐 Volleyball Enthusiast Meet Rachel Skinner, a dedicated Integrated Marketing Specialist with a meticulous and organized approach to her work. With a keen eye for content optimization and a passion for ensuring processes are clearly defined and followed …
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SERVICES Tailored for Your Success The Right Fit for You Your success, your way—explore our service menu and handpick the solutions that align with your vision. CEL develops creative, effective and lasting communication, marketing, public relations, design, strategies, branding, and websites for organizations and schools. Integrated Marketing We function as your in-house marketing partner, helping …
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A DIGITAL HOME Website Design & Development Transform your online presence into a powerful asset for your business or school. Our team combines creativity with technical expertise to deliver stunning, user-friendly websites that captivate audiences and drive results. Whether you're looking to refresh your current site or start from scratch, we're here to help. From …
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Is your school website enticing and useful, or more like navigating a maze blindfolded? Modernizing your website and staff intranet isn’t just about looking flashy; it’s about making life easier for families and staff. We asked Chelsea Janke, Vice President of Integrated Marketing at CEL, to provide her top six tips for an effective school …
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Customer service is more than being polite and helpful; it’s about elevating the customer experience. While some individuals naturally excel in this area, others can cultivate these qualities with the right guidance and support. Here are four key traits to look for and nurture in your customer service team: The Greeter: A warm and …
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Building a strong and trusting relationship between schools and parents is crucial for the development of students. School principals can establish this bond through effective communication. These seven tips will ensure your communications are practical and valuable for your school community. Communication is the cornerstone of any successful partnership. To ensure efficient and streamlined communication: …
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Whenever school breaks roll around, we promise ourselves that we’re going to chip away at our to-do list. Sometimes, it’s hard to know where to start. We’ve got your back with 12 quick wins you can accomplish over school breaks. Review and Update Website Content Your school website is more than a virtual space; it’s …
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As we bid farewell to another remarkable year, we’re revisiting the wealth of insights, discoveries, and stories that graced our digital pages throughout 2023. We strive to make our blog a hub of knowledge on topics that matter to our community. In this 2023 year in review, we’re not only highlighting the top-performing blogs that …
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What Does Your Font Say About Your Organization? Font selection may seem like a minor decision in the grand scheme of your designs, but the truth is, it’s like choosing the perfect outfit for your brand. CEL graphic designer Anna Ingemann shares her insights on font selection, revealing they’re more than just pretty letters — …
Continue reading "Type Tales: Navigating Font Frontiers"
The enrollment landscape isn’t what it was five years ago. The competition for enrollment marketing has expanded far beyond the traditional boundaries of local charter schools, private schools, or neighboring public schools. Schools now find themselves in a digital age where they not only compete with their geographical neighbors but also contend with online schools …
Continue reading “Help! My Superintendent Wants Ideas to Market Our Schools”
Balancing Nostalig and Innovation Are you familiar with pull-to-refresh on your mobile device? What about the meaning of “swipe right?” In the early days of digital design, developers often prioritized skeuomorphic design to ensure users could interact with their programming. But as comfort and experience with technology increases, many companies are moving away from skeuomorphic …
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Creating accessible content is at your fingertips with alt text! With alt text, you’re creating more inclusive content and significantly impacting search engine rankings, increasing your website’s accessibility and content visibility. “We’re sculpting a digital realm that embraces everyone, fuels inclusivity, and propels us toward an interconnected future,” says Andrew A. Hagen, integrated communications coordinator …
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Back To Our Work STAFFORD MUNICIPAL SCHOOL DISTRICT From Best to Bold: A School District Branding Journey Developing a brand that resonates with students, parents, teachers, and the school board, while also embodying your mission, vision and values can seem overwhelming. However, through our MissionIgnition™ branding process, we successfully transformed Stafford Municipal School District (SMSD) …
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Running from September 15 to October 15, Hispanic Heritage Month honors the rich history, traditions, and contributions of Hispanic and Latino communities in the United States. It provides an opportunity to recognize and celebrate the diverse cultures, languages, and achievements of individuals with Hispanic heritage. The observance originated as a week-long celebration in 1968 and …
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Welcome to the world of Canva, where creativity and efficiency collide to transform the way you communicate in education. Make the most of your Canva for Education account to enhance visual communication, foster creativity, and streamline administrative processes. Canva is like a Swiss Army Knife, offering a wide array of features and templates to cater …
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In today's fast-paced digital world, human communicators can struggle to keep up. Communication tech tools are invaluable; they allow you to synthesize and share information across multiple platforms more quickly, engaging your audience and building a positive reputation. Whether it's managing social media, optimizing email campaigns, or improving website
accessibility, we’ve compiled a list of …
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Our school partners are blazing trails with website upgrades, enrollment campaigns and inspired branding. We’re giving a big round of applause to our partners who recently earned National School Public Relations Association (NSPRA) awards for their effective strategic communications work. Join us in exploring their award-winning work and help fuel the CEL-ebration. Enrollment Campaign Salina …
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Summer break provides a perfect opportunity for school communicators to reflect and refresh their file management habits. An organized file management system saves time, reduces stress, and improves productivity. Master Your File Management Habits To improve your file management, develop good habits during the summer break. Consistency is key to staying organized and stress-free throughout …
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Back To Our Work FOX VALLEY VIRTUAL SCHOOL Branding to Connect, Empower and Grow Your Schools Launching a new virtual school in a crowded market—Fox Valley Virtual School (WI) is a free online public charter school governed by Menasha Joint Unified School District. Serving Wisconsin students and families from 4K to 8th grade, they aim …
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Whether your summer plans include the beach, the cabin, or a staycation, don’t forget to carve out some time to enhance your website. This is an ideal time to review and refresh your content, ensure your website is accessible, showcase testimonials or reviews, tidy up old information, and perform a thorough website audit. By focusing …
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Your brand is more than your logo – it’s the sum of how your internal and external audiences perceive your organization. It’s how others describe you. Brands must evolve to fit changing expectations, at the same time staying true to core values. So, as you develop, evolve, and maintain your brand, how do you ensure …
Continue reading “The Power of Brand Consistency”
Workforce shortages. Burnout. Retention. Turnover. Hiring. Unrealistic Job Demands. You are not alone if you feel like you’ve been running on a hamster wheel for the last few years. Unprecedented levels of employee burnout emerging from the pandemic — combined with a national mental health crisis and labor shortages in most industries — are prompting many …
Continue reading “Five Employee Well-Being Strategies Your Organization Needs”
Workforce shortages. Burnout. Retention. Turnover. Hiring. Unrealistic Job Demands. If you feel like you’ve been running on a hamster wheel, you are not alone. It’s time to take a breath and think about workplace well-being. Unprecedented levels of employee burnout — combined with a national mental health crisis and labor shortages in most industries — …
Continue reading “Five Essential Employee Well-Being Strategies”
Take a minute to look at your personal inbox. What’s sitting in there that you haven’t looked at yet? A coupon, a bill or two, and undoubtedly a few spam emails about car warranties or tropical vacations. People get dozens of emails daily and must sift through them to find important messages. School-to-home communications are …
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Back To Our Work Relationships Are the Secret to Enrollment Marketing Success When the leaders at Salina Public Schools noticed changes in enrollment numbers and birth rates, they didn’t wait to act. This central Kansas district of more than 6,800 students got to work with CEL as their partner, developing a dynamic “Greatness Grows Here” …
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Andrew A. Hagen (An-droo HAY-gun) Integrated Communications Coordinator ☕ Coffee Aficionado | 🐕🦺 Dog Dad | 🎨🌈 Color Coder Meet Andrew A. Hagen, Integrated Communications Coordinator, who brings a meticulous approach to every project. With a love for organization, color coding, and efficiency, Andrew ensures that every detail is strategically important, leaving no stone unturned in …
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From interactive websites to integrated campaigns that increased enrollment, our school partners are developing innovative projects that resonate with audiences. We applaud all of our school partners who received National School Public Relations Association awards in July. Learn more about their award-winning strategic communications work — and help us keep the CEL-ebration going. Enrollment Campaign …
Continue reading “CEL-ebrating Our 2022 NSPRA Award Winners”
Effective communication is an essential element of business leadership. In good times and in difficult times, leaders are called to acknowledge, reassure and build hope. And the most effective leadership today requires trust — with your employees and with the people, families and communities your organization serves. Trust can be tricky to measure, but it …
Continue reading "Building Trust Is A Leader’s Piggy Bank"
Millennials are often known as a high-tech, high-convenience generation. When it comes to your school website, does it make the grade? Create a website experience that engages prospective families and current users. Small changes can make a big difference in the user experience, even without the budget for a total overhaul. Why Your Website Matters …
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Redesigning your website’s 404 error page (which signals broken or missing content) can be a quick win for your organization. Read on for best practices and learn how to transform your 404 page into a more useful, more beautiful (yes, really!) and more professional part of your website. Page Not Found Preparing to launch a …
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Back To Our Work SAN DIEGO COUNTY OFFICE OF EDUCATION Content Consolidation Enhances Website User Experience When the San Diego County Office of Education (SDCOE) started its website project in 2019, the communications team had no idea that a pandemic would derail the plans and launch timeline. They paused their website work and instead turned …
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Back To Our Work LAUNCH YOUR FUTURE HERE Enrollment Marketing for New Code Academy As a growing number of parents sought more robust, flexible online learning options during the COVID-19 pandemic, Bloomington Public Schools had an opportunity to boost awareness about its online offering. School leaders partnered with CEL Marketing PR Design to rebrand and …
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Back To Our Work Cotter Schools Visual and Digital Brand Expansion Rooted in the Catholic faith and founded more than 110 years ago, Cotter Schools is located in Winona, Minnesota. Its mission is to challenge students to achieve their full potential, create community and use their lives in service of others. Cotter Schools began a …
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They might not admit it at a staff meeting, but many marketers and communication teams actually love creating Canva digital designs just as much as their non-designer colleagues. After all, any design tool that allows us to create a quick-and-easy social media graphic in 10 minutes or less gets a thumbs up. What marketers and …
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Back To Our Work Be Seen. Be Heard. Be Bold. Branding for SoWashCo Schools Unity and student voice—South Washington County Schools believed their existing branding wasn’t highlighting these important values. The suburban district of almost 20,000 students encompasses 24 schools, just outside of the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro. CEL partnered with South Washington County Schools to …
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School social media is one of the most important communication tools. However, with new social media trends developing daily, even the most effective communications teams can struggle to establish and execute a coherent communications strategy. As trends come and go, a few fundamental strategies will be your key to ongoing engagement and success. Keep it …
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Your new school website just launched! Let the confetti fly. Sound the party horns. And as the samba line moves through your office, ask yourself...will this be the best day of the website's life? No doubt, it’s a huge day and a tremendous accomplishment. But if you think of your website as moving through a …
Continue reading "The Life Cycle of Your School Website"
Back To Our Work New Website Fuels Growth for Vitals™ Aware Services As Vitals™ Aware Services prepared to expand its reach to national consumer audiences, CEL redesigned and launched the company’s website for increased engagement, better
accessibility and faster performance. More distinct color contrasts, larger font sizes and consistent image alt tags were used to …
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Vitals™ Aware Services"
Your website is the first point of entry for many families into your district. What kind of first impression do you want to make? Earlier this year, Finalsite CEO Jon Moser shared the benefits of great school website design. See why investing in a quality website this year may be the right choice for your …
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On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) a global pandemic. In the weeks and months that followed, school communicators and leaders have worked endlessly on COVID communications and response plans. In our conversations with leaders, we talked about a 12-24 month sustained crisis with no return to normal. We …
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Logos love the spotlight. They’re almost always in a place of prominence. They span the entire range of communications, from sales collateral to banner ads and ballcaps. And then of course, there’s the common question, can we make the logo bigger? Well, we have news for your logo. Sharing the spotlight makes it even more …
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Back To Our Work Anoka-Hennepin Schools One of Minnesota’s largest school districts, the Anoka-Hennepin School District serves 38,000 students and 248,000 residents in 13 suburban communities north of Minneapolis and St. Paul. The district had previously updated its web presence in 2014, and in 2020 it partnered with CEL to upgrade all of its web …
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An effective school website is crucial to the success of your district. It is the first point of entry for many prospective families, faculty and staff as they search for districts. First impressions only happen once — and your website is an opportunity to make it positive and lasting. Communication with current stakeholders also depends …
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The final month of 2020 is drawing to an end. As you create your New Year’s resolutions, evaluate the website you want to have in 2021. And also, consider five website design practices to leave behind in 2020 and what you can be doing instead. Larger Headers Website design has shifted fully to mobile-first, and …
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Back To Our Work Osseo Area Schools Engage Communities With New Web Presence For Independent School District 279 – Osseo Area Schools, launching new websites districtwide presented the perfect opportunity for engaging families, staff and community members more effectively and efficiently. The district enrolls 21,000 students and spans 29 schools or learning centers, and each …
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Back To Our Work 37 Websites for District 196 District 196, also known as Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan, is the fourth largest district in the state of Minnesota with 30,000 students, 4,000 staff and 35 schools. Efficient communication with families is vital, but leadership recognized they faced several major challenges due to an online presence that had …
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You’ve heard it…Zoom Fatigue…and your boss says we need to pivot and make our most successful annual event virtual! (UGH) Who isn’t holding virtual events these days? Better question…is anyone doing them well? Can you really achieve your goals? It takes planning and ingenuity, and YES, we’ve had great success with marketing virtual events during …
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Kelly May (KEL-ee MAY) Design Director 🐾 Animal Lover | 🌿 Nature Nerd | 🐶 Dog Mom Meet Kelly, our talented Design Director who brings brands to life with her keen eye for detail and passion for crafting captivating brand aesthetics. With Kelly on your team, you gain a creative visionary who understands the …
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Keep your audience engaged and your customers happy with a few simple website maintenance tips. Here’s a 5-Point Inspection to keep your website working hard for you. How we navigate the web is evolving rapidly. So, assuring your website is mobile-friendly, optimized for search, ADA compliant and designed for the user experience (UX) will help …
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If your organization receives federal funds or if you sell to federal agencies, your website needs to be ADA compliant. This includes (but is not limited to) alt tags on images and hyperlinks, closed captions for videos, and ensuring downloadable documents are accessible. Downloadable documents saved as PDFs can be made accessible by using Adobe Acrobat …
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You may ask yourself, how can Flickr benefit a business marketing strategy? Maybe you have pictures of products, services and other portfolio work that you want to display. Whether that means you display it on a conference room TV, on a blog or in a Facebook post. Flickr allows accessibility, sharing and organization with your …
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How do you maintain and sustain your brand in the marketplace? If you look at the land of the giants, there are common threads sewn into a history of consistency and clarity of message. The big brands know who they are and what they promise and they stick to it, from the visual to the …
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Last week, Facebook announced posts would now have an embedding option for users. Following the example of Twitter and their own Instagram, Facebook is now allowing users to share a post containing a video, pictures or hashtags by using an embedding code. What does this mean for your online marketing strategy? This feature will give …
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Throughout the recession, businesses of all sizes have been forced to increase their efforts to provide quality customer service to their clients. A strong and successful business may be passionate, hard-working and humble, but one key to keeping clients satisfied is accessibility. Clients want to know they will be addressed immediately or within a few …
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Social media is an incredibly convenient communication vehicle and a powerful business tool as well. One of its greatest features is its accessibility. You can Tweet, text or post from just about anywhere – at home, at the mall, in the car – as long as you’re not driving! As the Star Tribune reported today, …
Continue reading “Social Media is a Helpful Tool – But NOT Behind the Wheel!”