Digital media with a Smirk, and success

Mike Koehler, of SmirkNewMedia, and #clarkclass

Mike Koehler of @smirknewmedia closed out our media professionals for #clarkclass 12.0 this fall, bringing honest advice, humor and experience in the world of journalism.
He's a former newspaper journalist who went from sports to agency work and then started out, "with a used laptop and no clients in a coffee shop" a few years ago. Now he leads on of the most successful firms  in the city with eight full-time employees and eight part time scattered around the county, with some big clients. He wanted to form a company that he'd like to work for.

Here's the link to SmirkNewMedia.SmirkNewMedia.
He won't hire people who don't know AP style, because of writing being so important. And he offers unlimited vacation. He wants his employees to travel, because that makes them smarter.
Here's a recap of what he said, from our students' debriefing, , dutifully recorded by @madison.sturgill.

·      Writing is key and essential

·      The more you can specialize the more opportunity

·      He built his business by connecting on twitter

·      Don’t put pointless content

·      I hate motivational quotes-- they are like packing peanuts for social media

·      Website is clean

·      Traveling the world can make you a better and smarter person – that’s who I want to hire

·      Puts virtues and violations on website

·      He had two things that they pay attention to. They know what they know and do what they do

·      Inconsistency kills engagement

·      Know what’s happening and how that changes your strategy

·      Being able to tell a story through print and visually is the difference between good and bad people

·      Being able to tell clients' story well

·      We are the used car dealership of digital marketing

·      Digital content is just as important as written content

·      Change gears, shift beyond the transaction, start connecting

·      Take initiative

·      He has to motivate people our age to get things done. Don’t need to be motivated

·      We got the name for our business like we picked names for our kids. On a long trip and by elimination