Here’s some news you can really take to Hart!

MFX Partners Creative Director, Brock Hart, recently spoke at Communitech—a local organization driving the growth and success of Waterloo Region’s technology sector through leadership, connections and promotion—about Social Media Marketing Strategy for B2B (business to business) as part of Communitech’s Business Development and Senior Sales peer-to-peer series, which are scheduled on the very first Wednesday of every month.

In his talk, Brock spoke about the important steps to take and the tools to use before diving into social media implementation. “Do your homework before diving in—you’ll only drown in the massive social media ocean,” he said, along with his other recommended steps:

1. Listen: Locate your customers—where are they and what are they talking about?

2. Look: Seek out small and focused industry forums/groups and find out what topics are top of mind. Where does your consumer spend time online?

3. Know: What are your brand strengths? Pinpoint your social media business objectives. What social media tools will you use?

4. Plan: Ask yourself what product or brand do you want to push?

Here’s an important final message from Brock: “Your customers might not be online right now, but they will be. So if you don’t have a social media strategy, you may want to get started before you are left behind.”

For the full low down on Brock’s talk, please check out Wanda Eby’s post on the Communitech blog. And don’t forget to attend the next Communitech’s Business Development and Senior Sales Peer-to-Peer talk.

It looks like putting in hard work and extra hours really does pay off! MFX Partners’ very own Senior Designer, James Bisch, had his submission selected as a feature in the inaugural Provisional Showcase newsletter for the Registered Graphic Designers (RGD) of Ontario.

MFX Partners’ very own Senior Designer, James Bisch’s, submission to the R.G.D.’s (Registered Graphic Designers of Ontario) was selected as a feature in their inaugural Provisional Showcase newsletter (P.S.), which debuted on June 24, 2010.

The newsletter is sent quarterly and read by thousands of RGD members, sponsors and non-member subscribers, and it showcases the most impressive works from R.G.D. and Provisional R.G.D. members.

James quietly made his submission (a project he worked on for MFX Partners) a month ago. His work was selected along with 4 other impressive projects by the R.G.D. panel—including Bob Hambly R.G.D. (co-Creative Director at Hambly + Woolley), Karen Oikonen R.G.D. (Associate Creative Director at Up Inc.) and Jennifer Schelfhaut (Manager, Creative Services at TD Bank Financial Group).

You can view James’ selected submission on the R.G.D. website.

Alison joins us this month in a new position as Director of Client Partnerships. Since starting on July 5, 2010, she has been working closely with Account Director, Lisa Grogan (as she prepares for her maternity leave). While at MFX, Alison will be nurturing her own business relationships and contributing to the overall strategic direction of MFX Partners

Alison brings a wealth of communications and collaborative experience to the team at MFX Partners. She acted as Director of Partnerships for the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) where she organized the Centre’s development, communications, marketing and built CIGI’s partnership program to enhance their global organizational ties. Prior to CIGI, Alison held the role of Executive Director for Forum for Young Canadians and also worked for Forum’s American sister program, Presidential Classroom and the Canadian Embassy in Washington and for Members of Parliament on Parliament Hill.

MFX Partners recently helped our friends at Aecon, Canada’s largest public construction and infrastructure development company, design the concepts, key messaging and overall look and feel around their recent internal IT solution rebrand, which launched on June 24, 2010. This new branding—included a new solution name, tagline and logo design:

IT Gateway: Connecting People with Solutions

This replaces the former Aecon IT ‘Helpstar’ solution and represents a large internal project for Aecon, who came to the decision to rebrand after gathering internal feedback about the IT department. Even though the perceptions were generally positive, Aecon decided to use this as an opportunity to promote what IT does at the company—highlighting the single, easy-to-use IT Service Desk; improved IT staff training and access; the new transparent reporting process for all requests; and promoting the fact that the IT department can be a strategic partner if brought into the project process early on.