North Coast Media, LLC

6 blockbuster films worth exploring

By Kevin Yanik, Senior Editor

I spent several off-days over the holidays and the past couple weekends at the movies checking out the latest flicks Hollywood has to offer. Most of my movie experiences were good ones and films I’d highly recommend. Here’s a breakdown of six movies I saw over the last few weeks:

“13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi”

This emotionally gripping film tells an apolitical story of the Sept. 11, 2012, terrorist attacks on U.S. compounds in the Libyan capital. Not a dry eye will walk away from this Michael Bay-directed film that offers vivid details from the perspective of the Americans who experienced the attacks.

Grade: A+

“Concussion”

I expected this to be a football movie first, but “Concussion” is really the story of Dr. Bennett Omalu and his journey from discovering chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) to convincing corporate America (the NFL) to accept his work. Will Smith puts forth some of his best work here as Omalu.

Grade: A-

“Creed”

Rocky meets Creed. Rocky beats Creed. Rocky beats Mr. T. Rocky beats Drago. Rocky wins street fight. Rocky makes comeback. Rocky coaches Baby Creed. After six Rocky movies you might be asking yourself what a 65- or 70-year-old Rocky could possibly offer the big screen in a seventh go-around. Well, the Philadelphia-bred fighter has one round left in him in “Creed,” which is worth a watch if you generally have enjoyed the Rocky franchise.

Grade A-

“Daddy’s Home”

This film starring Will Ferrell doesn’t hang with “Anchorman,” “Old School” or “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.” But Ferrell and co-star Mark Wahlberg have a good comedic chemistry. If you liked “The Other Guys” starring Ferrell and Wahlberg, you’ll get plenty of laughs out of “Daddy’s Home.”

Grade: B-

“The Revenant”

I haven’t seen every movie nominated for the Academy Awards’ Best Picture, but I’d be surprised if another nominee bests this Alejandro González Iñárritu-directed picture. Leonardo DiCaprio is fantastic as usual, and the outdoor cinematography is worth the price of admission alone.

Grade: A+

“Sisters”

This is no “13 Hours” or “Revenant,” but you shouldn’t expect an award winner here. The movie, starring Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, offers a few laughs, but the plot tires quickly as most of the movie is one big over-the-hill party.

Grade: D

Kevin Yanik joined North Coast Media in 2012 and has worked in B2B media for more than seven years in various editorial positions. Kevin is a Cleveland native and a 2006 graduate of John Carroll University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in communications.

Components of a great résumé

By Joelle Harms, Senior Digital Media Content Producer

It’s most important to set yourself apart form other applicants. You both will most likely have similar backgrounds, so use the tips below to make yourself stand out.

Writing style and appearance play a large role in an employer picking your résumé out of a pool of applicants. For jobs you currently hold, use active words like “analyze” and “train” as opposed to “analyzed” and “trained” for jobs you have previously held.
Tailor the description of your job for each job you apply for. Chances are, the employer is looking for someone with specific experience and quality. Look at the details in the job description, and think of ways your past employment applies to those details. List out the important ones.
Format your résumé as you would any other professional written document. Keep the paper size as 8 inches wide by 11.5 inches tall. Keep the margins at 1 inch on all sides, and the font size should be no smaller than 11 point.
A basic serif or sans font is recommended for legibility and professional appearance. The most common standard fonts for résumés are Times New Roman, Garamond, Helvetica and Arial.
Color is acceptable if the job will require some creative work. It’s best to avoid color to play it safe.
One page is usually enough for a résumé, although if you’ve been in the same industry for 15 or more years and have held many jobs, it’s OK to go over one page in length. But, keep in mind that if you are summarizing your job duties that apply well enough, you should have no problem keeping it to one page.
Cover letters should be included along with your résumé. It’s a good idea to present who you are and why you want the job in your own writing.
If you’ve left off a couple jobs due to space or inapplicability, make sure to keep a list of all of your previous jobs for the interview.
Make sure there are no mistakes. I mean none. Take each sentence or phrase, copy it into a text editor and run a spell check on it. It pays to double (or triple!) check. Send it out to a few friends or colleagues that are willing to look it over to see if you missed any mistakes. Use your network to ask for help.

If you have any problems creating your resume, or you just want to perfect it, find professional help. There are some online tools that will help you, such as Monster and About.com, but a simple web search will help you find professionals in your area.

Résumé components

Name and contact information (phone number and address)

Make sure your contact information is large enough to notice at the top of your résumé. Enlarging the size of your name may help your name be remembered.

Résumé objective

This should be different for each job you apply to. It’s obvious your objective is to get a job at ABC Company, so tell the employer what about you will help you succeed in this specific position, at this specific company. “To obtain a head __________ position at a company” is not a good objective. A better example might be: “To use my three years of experience decreasing company expenses by 12 percent as a __________ to succeed as a ___________ at ABC Company.”

Work history

Your relevant jobs, yes. Your dishwashing job in high school, no. List applicable jobs you have held, or ones you have held for longer periods of time after your education. Don’t leave out periods of time by skipping a few years, just take a look at your past jobs and see if any of your duties will directly apply to the job you seeking.

Education

College or high school, if it applies. Any other certifications or continuing education can be listed here (or in its own section if there is more than one being listed.) If you have a college degree, there’s usually no need to list your high school.

References

List at least three references on a separate page. It is OK to note “references available upon request.”

GPS World Europe editor chairs session at Munich Summit

GPS World Europe Editor Tim Reynolds chairs the session GNSS and Sciences for Life at the Munich Navigation Satellite Summit, which will be held March 1-3.
Reynolds is director of Inta Communication Ltd. and a long-term Brussels observer writing on many aspects of European government policy and implementation for a range of clients and publications. He is the contributing editor for GPS World’s new quarterly e-newsletter, EAGER: the European GNSS and Earth Observation Report.
The annual summit, held in the historic Munich Residenz, is an conference with global impact dealing with satellite navigation. The one-of-a-kind convention of high-ranking worldwide speakers from industry, science and governments provides the participants with a broad overview and different perspectives on the latest developments in the field of GNSS.
Reynold’s session, GNSS and Sciences for Life, will cover maritime search and rescue (SAR), precision agriculture and livestock management, personal fitness and emergency medical attention.

Other sessions include:

GNSS Program Updates — Global systems, chaired by Hank Skalski, Department of Transportation, DOT Liasion to Air Force Space Command, Peterson Air Force Base, USA
GNSS Program Updates — Regional and augmentation Systems, chaired by Dr. Todd Walter, Stanford University, CA, USA
GNSS in the Southern Hemisphere and Equatorial Regions, chaired by Prof. Vidal Ashkenazi, Chief Executive of U.K.-based Nottingham Scientific Ltd, Nottingham, UK
Precise Positioning Technology in Agriculture and Forestry, chaired by Dr. Herbert Landau, Managing Director, Trimble Terrasat GmbH, Hoehenkirchen, Germany
Legal Issues of GNSS Timing, chaired by Dr. Ingo Baumann and Dr. Oliver Heinrich, Partner, BHO Legal, Cologne, Germany

Plus, expect a brand-new conference format for this session:

The GNSS Knowledge Triangle: Tying the Knot Between Education, Research and Industry, chaired by Dr. Fabio Dovis, Associate Professor, Politecnico di Torino, Turin, Italy

The summit is part of the efforts of the Bavarian government and the cluster on aerospace and satellite navigation to stimulate applications and services in this high-tech field.

5 ways to use social media for page view optimization

By Allison Barwacz | Digital Media Content Producer

There’s no doubt that social media is an efficient outlet for news dissemination. And why not? Platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are easy to use, inexpensive (if not free) and connect you to a lot of people. Social media encourages conversation, rather than stifling it, and doesn’t present any limitations. That’s why it’s an important tool for generating page views, whether you’re a personal blogger, magazine writer or social media manager. With that in mind, here are some steps for optimizing page views using social media.

First, ask yourself these questions, writes Daniel Newman in Forbes, before posting:

Who are we engaging with?
What platform are we using?
What type of content are we using?
What are our bigger goals?
How can we measure our results?

Once you’ve answered these questions, keep these tips in mind:

1. Post on all platforms.

Make sure you post on all of your available platforms. Use Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest or whatever outlet relates to your business. Make sure your posts are consistent across the board, using your brand’s voice.

2. Share, share and…share.

It’s simple: The more an article is shared, the more page views it’ll get. Even if the article is posted on your company’s social media pages, don’t be afraid to share, retweet or even comment on the post. Utilize your own social media accounts to share your work and encourage your co-workers to share theirs — after all, who doesn’t want their own work to be seen?

3. Engage.

Use your social media platforms to build relationships with readers. Professionally respond to their comments, whether you agree with them or not, in a timely matter. Either way, keep in mind: Any response is good. It helps build brand identify, recognition and your brand’s following.

4. Personalize.

A unique feature that many social media platforms offer is the ability to personalize your posts. On Facebook, you can add images to the posts you share. You can edit the headline of the post, as well as the description under the photo. On Twitter, you can add hashtags, which will help you key in on your target audience. (Note: It’s important to look up potential hashtags on Twitter to see how often they’re used.) Use these tools to be creative and set your brand apart from others sharing similar information.

5. Repost.

Don’t be afraid to repost your articles. Use a web analytics service, such as Google Analytics, to determine which of your posts generated the most page views, and repost those articles with new teasers and hashtags. Use the engagement/impression data from the duplicate posts to determine what types of posts your readers best respond to.

Things to know when media planning

By Scott Gebler, Marketing Manager

Know Your Audience.

Before you can find the best channels to reach your audience, you have to know exactly who they are. Sit down internally (or with your client) and assess your audience down to the last detail. What are their demographics? Where are they physically located? If you’re B2B, what industry or industries are they in? What kinds of companies do they work for? What are their specific job titles?

Write everything down, condense it, and circulate it throughout the company for more input and ideas – a worksheet like this can be more helpful than you might think in determining what media channels you will need to look into.

…Know More About Your Audience.

Take it a step further – ask yourself:
•   What matters to my audience?
•   Why should they care about my product/service?
•   Why should they choose us over the competition?
•   What media are they really paying attention to?

You might end up discovering that the features/benefits you think are important don’t really matter to your audience – or that they’re not actually interested in the media channel you prefer.

A good media partner (like North Coast Media {ahem}) is probably already gathering this kind of information through audience surveys, polls, or third-party audits. Ask for it.

Know Your Budget.

“That’s all I have to say about that” – Forrest Gump

Know that Bigger isn’t Always Better.

A lot of times, the first instinct will be to lean towards the media with the largest audience number. While a lot of times that’s great, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you should ignore a channel with a smaller audience. That list might be half the size, but double the quality.

Again, ask the media provider if they have detailed audience insights.

Know Your Schedule.

Once you’ve set your media plan, make sure you’re prepared to follow through on it. Sure, you’ll know the space close and ad materials dates, but be sure to build in plenty of time for the design, production, review, revisions, re-review, re-revisions, re-design, etc. of your advertisement. Putting in all the time and effort on a well thought-out media plan… and then having to knock out a rush job ad in 2 days is not the way to go.

Know How You Performed.

There are a number of simple, inexpensive ways you can track the effectiveness of your advertising. Create a trackable vanity toll-free number for a particular ad or per channel (Dial800 and CallFire are two options). Direct your audience to a special landing page. Create special URLs. Use a trackable URL shortener (like Bitly). Provide unique coupon codes or quick response (QR) codes.

When the year – or whatever length of time your media was planned for – is over, these will be invaluable in helping to determine which ads and media channels worked best.

It’s also important to remember that these performance metrics aren’t perfect, though. If you prescribe to the theory that it takes between 6 and 13 marketing “touches” before you generate a sale or lead, there’s probably no way of knowing whether the ad you’re tracking is the first, sixth or thirteenth.

An open letter from Cleveland Browns fans to St. Louis Rams fans

By Bethany Chambers | Digital Operations Manager

Dear Rams Fans,

Go ahead, let it out. You feel hurt. You’ve been betrayed. Your team is moving for sunnier pastures and warmer waters. Forget all the history you have, The Greatest Show on Turf, the Super Bowl victory, the agony at the feet of Adam Vinatieri.

The logo you once wore with pride — “This is my team.” — now means something much worse, a symbol of a traitorous owner who would pick a stadium over the people in it, a local boy blinded by glitzy new digs into selling out the very friends who filled his old dome every Sunday for 20 years.

We get it. We were once in the seat you are in, watching as our heart was torn out leaving a giant concrete void in the center of our city.

Art Modell opted to relocate the Cleveland Browns to Baltimore in 1995 without so much as waiting for the citizens to vote to remodel Cleveland Stadium, much as Stan Kroenke lied to you about his intention to stay.

The unfaithfulness hurts just as much as the upheaval.

Ask the fans in Anaheim who mourned the Rams’ move out your way in ’94. They know what it feels like to be left with just baseball and hockey (which many of you likely don’t consider a sport).

A photo posted by L.A Rams Fans (@l.a.ramsfans) on Oct 30, 2015 at 10:33pm PDT

But here’s where we have some advice for you that differs from conventional wisdom: Don’t fight it, and don’t try to get another team. It doesn’t work. Cleveland filed an injunction to keep the team in the city and season ticket holders banded together to file lawsuits, much like the one filed by your fellow fans just yesterday.

You know what we got from it? The Cleveland Browns name, and nothing else. It was an empty win. Is that really what you want? A Rams name that actually started here in Cleveland in the 1930s? We didn’t think so.

An expansion team won’t replace the champions you lost. On the contrary, it will be like getting a Marc Bulger for a prime Kurt Warner. We went from legendary teams led by Otto Graham and Jim Brown and Bernie Kosar to a long list of players as unmemorable as they were unhappy. We made a deal with the devil to get an expansion team. The price we paid? To start every season with a new 22-year-old quarterback and Draft Day as our Super Bowl.

A photo posted by Brokaw Inc (@brokawinc) on Sep 18, 2015 at 9:38am PDT

Just as Kroenke will have the equivalent of a big new house in Inglewood with no furniture, a new team for St. Louis will be a shiny new jersey without the heart. You’re better off if you keep your memories…and start watching hockey.

Yours in defeat,

Cleveland Browns Fans