If you like weight lifting, they got that too. Lots of it actually! From machines to free weights, you can do anything you want. Strength training is something you will be able to excel in at LAC.  I personally love the machines.  They make it easier for me as I’m currently out of shape.

One thing about LAC that we just love is the little things.  For one, they have towels available right there as you walk in that are fresh and available anytime.  Might seem like a small thing, but I love the convenience.  Two, did you know LAC has a cafe?  They have protein drinks, healthy food you can get to replenish your body, or you can just get something to snack on.  Third, LAC cares about your health and will do everything they can to make you feel comfortable.  They have a room just for women who might be a little insecure, but still want to work out.  They want to encourage women to work out and want them to be as comfortable as they can.  That’s pretty stand up! There are several trainers you can talk to to work one-on-one with somebody.  There are also classes you can join! And the staff is incredibly friendly and supportive! If you ask me, it’s the only place to exercise in Lexington!

For more info, check them out at www.trylac.com

Follow them on Facebook at Lexington Athletic Club and on Twitter at @JoinLAC

1. Customized Tabs on Facebook

Customized tabs are vital to maximizing your full potential and your social media success.  Customized tabs give you visibility, attraction, and a visual tool to help your page become more interactive and appealing to consumers on Facebook. It’s a great way to build a “mini-website” within Facebook.  You can create tabs to give people information while making visually attractive.  You can create tabs to help support contests and promotions. We use this all the time and is extremely successful.  In fact, we just set up a contest with the Gridiron Developmental Football league where we people can enter to win a cash prize and have to go to our customized tab in order to enter.  There really isn’t much of a limit of what we can do with these customized tabs. If you really want to maximize your Facebook page, you need to take advantage of this. It allows people to not only to go to your page, but it visually attracts them to you, keeps them on your page, and gives them what they need to know about you without having to go to another source where they may not otherwise.

2. Strategic Posting Plan

Having a strategic posting plan will make it or break it for you on social media. You can’t have a successful social media marketing campaign just on popularity alone.  How many times have you seen celebrities or politicians tweet or Facebook something that wasn’t strategic and it came back to bite them? It’s happened more times that we can count.  How you go about posting matters a ton and having a plan set it place will go a long way.  Phoenix Blue is very good at this and we can help you set up a plan that will expose your potentiall for all its worth and take it even higher.  Don’t believe me? Contact us today and we’ll show you!

3. Partnerships

Creating partnerships in social media can really go a long way.  This is especially the case while you’re trying to grow your pages.  It allows you to work with other companies in cross-promotions, contests, and even paid posts. Yes I said it, companies paying  you to post about them.  Each follower on your pages matter because they are people, not a number. And they like your page for a reason and probably have friends and family that could be potential followers too.  Creating partnerships with other friends and companies will double or triple the amount of people you could potentially reach otherwise.  And that, my friends, can be worth a lot of money.  So, don’t burn your bridges and take care of the people around you.  The more friends and partnerships you make, the more value your posts will have.

Let Phoenix Blue take your social media to new places you’ve never seen before.  We’d love to partner with you to help maximize the potential your social media has and take it beyond.  Social media is too much to ignore in business today and when done right, your business will see growth in lots of new ways in 2012. Contact us today!

Graphic Designer – We are looking for a graphic design intern that would be interested in gaining some great experience designing logo’s, customized tabs, Twitter backgrounds, and so much more.  With Phoenix Blue you will get tons of experience that you can use for college credit or for just experience in the field. So get real life experience and join the Phoenix Blue team!

Sales – We are looking for dedicated, sales minded, hard working sales interns that want real world experience! We do all kinds of marketing which will give you a great scale and wide variety of markets to find your niche in. Get the experience you need and join the Phoenix Blue team today!

If you are interested in joining our team and interning in something other than what is listed above, send us a proposal of why you want to intern with us and what position you would want.

Send us your resume and what you wish to intern for at info@phoenixblue.com

Follow Tom on Twitter @TomLeachKY and friend him on Facebook at “The Leach Report” http://www.facebook.com/LeachReport

We have reached the future of marketing and advertising and now it is evolving on a daily basis. Let your business spread its wings and fly with Phoenix Blue. It’s either that, or chill amongst the Dodo Birds on the rocks… and we all know how that story ended.

–Hatch–

The GDFL has 115 teams in the league all across the country and is quickly rising up.  While that seems like a lot of teams, they know that the GDFL has something to offer.  The GDFL is played like the NFL which provides an amazing platform for football players who are looking to refine and expand their skills to play professionally.  The talent pool in the GDFL is limitless with teams that are a lot of fun to watch.  They give you the best opportunity to display your skills and gives fans a chance to watch some great football during the summer.

One thing we really love about the GDFL is their mission.  They are all about bringing affordable family entertainment, reaching the youth through mentoring programs, and delivering high quality football on the field all while honoring God in all they do.  If you ask me, that’s pretty amazing.  They are also about helping out the teams as well by maximizing revenue opportunities for individual teams and instilling a sense of community pride with local talent.  It makes it hard to not like these guys when you know their heart is about helping people.  Not to mention its just fun football to watch!

So if you love football ,you’ll want to check out these guys! And they also play during the summer, so while the NFL is relaxing, you can get your football fix by watching high caliber talent while enjoying the great weather.  So definitely get on board because they are rising up and it’s something you want to be a part of!

For more information, check them out at www.gdfl.org

And definitely be sure to check them out on Facebook and Twitter!

“…Oh really what do hunt? Deer….(oh crap thats Santa)…Fish (awkward stare)…”

You can see the whole extended commercial here. I highly recommend watching it.

Anyway, getting back on track, with the season getting busy, you need to sit back and ask yourself, are you really taking advantage it? And you don’t need Santa in your commercials in order to do so.  Here is what we think you need to do in order to really get what you want this holiday season.

1. Social Media

If you aren’t on Facebook or Twitter at the very least, you’re missing out big time! Facebook and Twitter alone can bring you so much its ridiculous. If you want your information to get out quick and in an efficient way, this is a great way to start. And the beauty is, if your social media is handled right, you won’t have to do much and let the viral marketing begin.  Gotta love Facebook and Twitter.  Also take advantage of customized tabs on Facebook! It’s so frustrating to me when I look at a company page on Facebook and there is no tabs, no information, and they are completely wasting their full potential!  Did you know that you can sell things through those tabs? As in make money and profit? Turns out that you can do that and its highly, highly recommended! Take advantage!

2. Deals, Deals, Deals,

Everywhere you look during the holidays, there are huge deals on most products. And companies do it because…well..its a good idea.  When people are buying things at such a rapid pace, it’s smart and very effective.  Here is the kicker. How you market those deals maters a lot.  For one, see #1 above.  Secondly, have your website updated with your deals and have online only deals.  Nothing will drive your online marketing and online business more than having web only deals.  It’s hard for me to say this since I’m not the biggest of fans, but The Home Depot generally does this really well! Thirdly, make commercials that have Santa selling cars.

3. It’s about people

If you focus strictly on business and forget why and who you are marketing too, you are missing the whole point.  And as a business, you want to humanize yourself to people.  Giving a personal touch can go a long way in marketing.  That’s what Phoenix Blue is all about.  It doesn’t matter if it’s social media, commercials, or deals, if you don’t make it personal to people, you’re going to miss out and miss out big during this time.  Take advantage of not only being smart to make more money, but take advantage of being an influence and building your brand in a way that changes the authenticity bar.  Set it high and you’ll be blown away by how much it changes your business this season.

In 2009 I started working for the Horse Racing Radio Network (HRRN)  which is based here in Lexington, KY and I started learning a ton and really falling in love with the sport. HRRN is owned by Mike Penna and is one of the best stand-up guys I know. He’s very good at broadcasting and getting people excited about the sport and what’s going on.  His co-host is Jude Feld who used to be a trainer and has some amazing insight into the sport. They have a weekly radio show on Saturday mornings at 8AM called the Equine Forum. It’s a great show to learn more about horse racing, gain some great insight on how to bet and what to expect from the horses. I know 8AM is early on a Saturday! But it’s worth getting up and listening to the show for a few hours! These guys are awesome and I promise you won’t regret getting up to listen to them! They also travel to broadcast the biggest races during the year. You can hear them at all the Triple Crown races, the Breeders’ Cup World Championships, and everything in between.  And they are very entertaining and fun to listen to! So many times I’ve heard of people turning off the sound to a TV broadcast and listing to HRRN as the audio as they watch certain races.

I’ve loved getting to work with HRRN! These guys are awesome and even as an average fan of the sport you will really enjoy it! So if you want to follow horse racing or even are just interested, give these guys a shot! Check them out at www.horseracingradio.net, on Facebook at Horse Racing Radio Network, and on Twitter @HRRN!

Here recently, I had the wonderful opportunity to attend a meeting held by the Lexington Fashion Collaborative. LFC is a non-profit organization  made up of all sorts of artists who have the passion and gall to show their creativity through design and fashion. Hairstylists, Make-up Artists, Photographers, Designers, Models, and anyone aspiring to do something within the fashion world meet collectively and discuss the upcoming events and whatever is on their minds, really. As soon as I walked in and and strutted my stuff across the wooden floor of the Lexington Arts Center, I was greeted with the smiles and waves of friends and strangers alike. I listened to everyone introducing themselves, and as they explained what they do… some with day jobs and some full time into fashion. Everyone seemed excited to talk about themselves, except for my beautiful friend Keisha who was sick and kinda sounded like Justin Bieber, so I followed suit and talked about Phoenix Blue and how I love fashion and football (unusual combo, I know lol). After we all had finished talking about ourselves and bragging politely about how awesome we are, we got down to business… talking about how we could HELP each other as the fashion community and how we could help others that were less fortunate around us. I loved the vibe that was buzzing about the room and how thick the atmosphere had filled with the love and compassion that we are built to express. Ideas flew around as hands shot up and people spoke their minds… never to mention their own needs, but to what was needed by others. It was absolutely amazing and it made my heart super happy.

 ”For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, ³⁶ I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.”

Phoenix Blue will be supporting the LFC in any way or fashion (lol) possible and we would like to encourage you to do so as well. If you have any questions, please feel free to Email us or go to the website of the Lexington Fashion Collaborative or contact them via Facebook .

Today, social media is such a huge tool that you don’t want to miss out on. I’ve seen businesses make sales just on Facebook alone. At some restaurants, you can get a reservation using Twitter.  One of the biggest things I’ve ever seen on social media is Macy’s $1 Million Makeover contest.  You can check out the intro video here: http://ow.ly/7yad6

The contest was completely done on social media.  You had to enter on Facebook in which thousands and thousands of people entered.  Voting for the contestants selected was all done on Facebook and Twitter and all marketing efforts was done solely on social media.  It became a huge success just using the power of social media.  And while I realize Macy’s is a big corporation, it’s a great example of the power social media has.

Social media will grow your business.  It’s important so invest in it.  Take the time and money to pour into this and I promise you will start to see some amazing results! I leave you with this article.  Great article on a company that went from no social media to realizing how vital it was for them.  Check it out: http://ow.ly/7yaI8