Don't Forget To RSVP To Our Whole Brain Holiday Bash It's not too late to reserve one of the best seats in town for the annual Appleton Christmas Parade on November 25 at the Weidert office high above College Avenue. Click here to RSVP. Our Whole Brain Holiday Bash will include tasty hors d'oeuvres, cocktails, pizza and treats, so bring the whole family ... the more the merrier! The Bash begins at 4:30 p.m. (parade starts at 6:20 p.m.) and lasts until the end of the parade. Notes From The Right Brain Tips From Our Creative Director Meg Hoppe Creative Director | Principal Any professional services organization - lawyers, physicians, realtors - thinking about taking a group shot of all their people wearing their best outfits and stiff smiles should reconsider. Typically these overly posed shots appear so small in your ad or brochure that no one is easily identified, and very little if any personality comes across to the audience. Instead, work with a photographer to get relaxed, un-posed shots of your people in natural lighting and real environments. On a similar note, only feature a photo of your building in marketing materials if it's for sale. Or unless your office is in such a widely recognized and admired national landmark that it gives you considerable cache. Your audience cares very little if at all where you go every day; they want to know why they should work with you or buy your product. Welcome Welcome to the first edition of Synapse ... Your Whole Brain Hot Sheet, Weidert Group's e-newsletter for the NEW North sales and marketing community. We'll be compiling a combination of original content and articles we've previewed from other sources as a way to keep our network well informed on marketing trends, industry news, technology developments, and approaches to business development. We'll be publishing Synapse every six weeks, so please feel free to let us know between issues if there are subjects or stories that you want us to pursue. We also invite you to let us know when we've provided something of value. We're here to serve our network, and this will have value when you say it does!  When The Going Gets Tough, Tough Marketers Get Going Featured In: The Post Crescent 11/17/08 Greg Linnemanstons President | Principal Back in January, when we were faced with what seemed like a relatively typical recessionary slowdown, I wrote a Market Smart column that advocated taking an aggressive marketing posture as a means of growing market share ("Hints of Recession Should Not Mean Pulling Back on Marketing", January 28, 2008).   In this economic environment the most popular question asked online in blogs and forums, in one form or another, is "What marketing advice can anyone offer to defend or grow business in these conditions?" Read the full article Trend Watch: LinkedIn Just five years ago, most social networking took place at country clubs, happy hours, church picnics and around the office water cooler. Today, the term usually refers to the two most popular online destinations: Facebook and MySpace, networks that started as phenomenons with teens and college students but have quickly spread into the grown up world. In a little more than four years the two sites combined exceeded 230 million unique monthly visitors worldwide. Read the full article