The Cyphers Agency is proud to announce an important addition to our team! Jocelyn Rimbey has been working as an intern in our Word of Mouth (WOM) department for over six months, and has been instrumental in our success. We decided she was too good to just be an intern, so we’ve hired her full time! Her official title is now “Word of Mouth Coordinator.”

Jocelyn went to Ohio University in Athens, Ohio (not to be confused with Ohio State University). She majored in Creative Advertising and Branding, with a focus in Marketing. She loves accents, bows, French hats (see below) and coffee. Among her many WOM talents, she’s  especially good at writing blog posts.

As a Word of Mouth Coordinator, Jocelyn will be responsible for spreading the word about our clients. This can involve developing blogger relationships, posting on online forums, managing ambassador programs, guerilla marketing, running flashmobs, or any other creative ideas we come up with. We are constantly impressed with her writing, creative thinking, proactive attitude, and eagerness to learn.

Congratulations Jocelyn, we’re glad to have you!

Here are a couple of pictures of Jocelyn so you all can get acquainted:

Bonjour, dear ad friends. Sorry that we have been away for a while. We have been quite busy with client work, which we are very okay with!

We just wanted to give you the heads up that you can check in on us anytime you want. You can see what we are working on, what secret talents our employees have, and what your account executive looks like, if you are trying to put a face to the name you speak with on the phone all the time (or if you just want to be creepy). It is all here on our blog and in our Flickr photo stream. So feel free to check up on us every now and then. We don’t mind. Spy away!

Today just so happens to be The Cyphers Agency’s twentieth year in the biz. Over those 20 years, we have grown and changed, both figuratively and literally. So to celebrate, we are enjoying some old stories and cupcakes!

Here are some stories that have been bouncing around:

“…I remember that year when we swiped that rock star creative guy from the agency downtown and Bob our HR guy acted like we were going to get some old Sicilian message (e.g. fish wrapped in newspaper) sent to our office”

“…I remember when one dude accidentally cut his head and we found out that another employee got queasy at the sight of blood and he hid out in the bathroom until all evidence of the accident was cleaned up”

“…I remember when Julianna told a media rep that she loved them at the end of a business voicemail. ‘I love you. No, wait, I don’t love you. I don’t know why I just said that’. Now THAT was a priceless moment”

“…I’ll never forget many years ago, our first major agency review. We were up against several of the big names in Baltimore and DC and we rocked the pitch. It was then I knew we had arrived!”

Needless to say, we are a very unique crew here at The Cyphers Agency, and I mean that in the most loving way. Sometimes, it can get a little crazy around here and strange things happen. We roll around on a scooter to get from department to department, and we have yoga balls in our office that are used more for throwing and bouncing than exercise. We play music and eat chocolate (a lot, in the WOM department). But mostly, we simply love what we do, and we look forward to doing it for another 20 years.

Our Director of WOM, Andrew Krebs-Smith, recently went to the Blog World Expo in Las Vegas. Below are notes from a session on Social Media for Business to Business (B2B) clients.

Often B2B companies find it hard to enter the social media space, because they see it as a direct-to-consumer method of communication, which doesn’t help their corporate client audience. But social media has something for everyone, and this panel underlined the value of social media for B2B companies.

Most of all, social media is valuable for B2B companies because it is all about creating and strengthening relationships. As most salespeople in the B2B world will attest to, making a sale involves much more than just having a product that people want to buy. When B2B client relationships can involve multi-million dollar deals, and long-term relationships, the purchases/agreements are not made on a whim. Rather, they inv0lve creating a relationship, not just between companies, but between people.

So how can social media help? Teach your salesforce to leverage social networking tools (LinkedIn, Twitter to name a few) to create and maintain relationships with clients, prospects, and anyone in-between. This also lets all the salespeople within a company know what each person is up to, so efforts aren’t duplicated and networks are maximized. Make sure to track these efforts through your CRM tool so that you can assess return on invesment (ROI), cost-per-lead (CPL), and other key metrics.

So how do you get the ball rolling? Bring together interdepartmental team to hash out differences, get everyone on the same level, talk about situation, etc. Talk about best policies, talk about what is recommended, allowed, and how social media can help achieve your business objectives. You don’t want employees neglecting these powerful tools, but they need to have specific goals and training on how to use them so they aren’t spinning their wheels trying to figure everything out.

And please, PLEASE don’t just use these tools for blatant promotion. These tools can be harmful if you abuse them and see them as just another place for your corporate message. Someone on the panel had a great analogy: “[you] don’t walk into a cocktail party and say ‘hey! buy my book!” Instead, give your prospects value. Share your resources with customers. Use these tools to keep in touch with customers and give them support.

The question is no longer IF B2B companies should be using social media, but rather HOW, WHEN, and WHERE. Any questions? You know where to find us.

Speakers on this panel: Kipp Bodnar, David B. Thomas, Kyle Flaherty, Mica Viehamn

We would like to officially welcome Howard Mont to The Cyphers Agency as the new Vice President of Sales and Marketing. He will be leading the agency’s business development team to create new client relationships.

We don’t like to brag, but Howard is pretty awesome, and we are pretty lucky to have him. In his 40 years of professional and entrepreneurial experience, he has worked at and owned a number of prestigious firms, including Ackerman, Mont, White, a full service advertising agency in New York City. He is more than passionate about what he does and really knows the biz.

Aside from his professional experience, Howard also loves to cook, and doesn’t hesitate to give us culinary tips and advice. If only he would cook lunch for us every day…

We are happy to have Howard (and his huge ring) on our team here at The Cyphers Agency. We look forward to working with you!