Member Spotlight |
In addition to your job title, tell us a little bit about what you do/your company does.
Rhythm Creative is a one-stop shop for marketing assets and strategy. I believe that creativity and efficiency aren’t opponents but teammates in clear and memorable communication. Services I provide include photography, videography, branding, web design, and consulting.
What is your favorite part about your job?
In short, the variety. When I started Rhythm Creative in 2020, every article I read and podcast I listened to instructed me to do one thing — pick a lane. Determine what one thing you want to provide and one type of client you want to work with, and don’t deviate. But variety and freedom were two of the main hidden treasures I was looking for back in 2020, so I said screw it and just started doing whatever I could for whomever I could. Four years later, I’ve learned a lot, including that if you’re passionate enough and have a dream, it’s worth throwing logic to the wind.
What made you decide to join Forge?
Honestly, I was weary from working at our dining room table and desired some boundaries for my work. I found that and more at Forge.
What is your favorite thing about Forge?
That’s hard to narrow down, but my top three are the environment, the people, and the aroma from the automated air-fresheners that greet you right when you step off the elevator.
What is your favorite spot/place to work at Forge?
What are your favorite tech tools to get your job done or keep your life organized?
1. Productivity –
Otter.ai for meeting note taking and synthesizing
2. Videography – I’ve been using
Frame.io for video reviews and approvals, and it’s been a game-changer
3. Gear – I have a DJI drone that I film with, and it’s honestly just super fun
Is there a product you cannot live without?
The notes app on my phone
What is the last show you binge-watched?
What is your ideal weekend in Birmingham?
Social Media |
Measuring brand growth is difficult but it can be done! Jacqui Jones, Founder and CEO of One Degree Marketing, wrote this blog post framing how we should think about our social media likes and follows as business owners.
Social media marketing has become the number one way to market a business.
Especially for small businesses, because social media is low-cost, often small business owners want to measure the success of their business on social media follows and likes.
Brand growth can include social media numbers. But, it should never be your full picture. Not sure if you’ve noticed, but banks don’t deposit “likes.”
So, how else can you measure business success?
Revenue
First things first, are you profitable? Notice the question wasn’t, “are you making money?”. But, instead, are you profitable? Even if you’re making lots of sales, that doesn’t mean that you’re turning a profit.
So, don’t hurry past this measurement. If you barely see a profit, it’s time to consider a different pricing strategy or cut cost. Pricing as a marketing strategy as well, making revenue, is a great way to measure success.
Finding that your social media presence is generating revenue is a wonderful feeling. But, not every brand is solely after revenue.
Engagement
It’s wonderful to have many likes and follows. However, proof that you’ve married the right audience with the right content is shown in engagement.
Don’t be disappointed by low audience numbers. If you have high engagement, you are doing well.
As social media platforms have evolved, we have learned that social media engagement is the epicenter of success.
Having high engagement means you have created community, likely through consistency and purposeful content.
Consider these two measurements as greater than likes and follows. They both prove that you are in the right place with the right audience providing the right content.
Forge News and Updates |
We love having the whole Bham Now team coworking out of Forge! They wrote this story on the history of Bham Now and why they choose to office in our coworking space. Read on!
Even if you’re a longtime fan of Bham Now, we bet you don’t know the story behind the company, what we do, who we are and where we’re headed. I sat down with Cindy Martin, Bham Now’s Founder and President, to get the scoop. Yes, I work there, so I’ll tell you the real story. Read on for all the details.
1. How Bham Now came to be.
According to Cindy Martin (CM), “Bham Now is Birmingham’s modern media. Our mission is to help connect people in Birmingham and to help celebrate the city’s renaissance by reflecting all the positive energy that’s happening in the Greater Birmingham Area.”
Where’d you get the idea for Bham Now?
CM: We saw a need in the marketplace from two constituents.
One is the general populace—I was continually hearing people say “I don’t know what to do in Birmingham; I don’t know where to go to find out what’s happening in Bham.” There was really a desire to know “how do I get involved.”
On the business front, we saw a need for local businesses to share their messages using content (storytelling, video, behind the scenes tours) because that is how consumers respond today. But businesses don’t necessarily have the resources or acumen to create content in a way that resonates or know how to measure effectiveness.
So we pieced those two things together to create Bham Now.
Much of the team works out of Forge now, but how did you start?
CM: At the very beginning, we all worked out of our houses. It was a handful of interns from local colleges and me with some tech support from my husband.
Planning for Bham Now started 4 years ago.
I had lots of media and internet business experience over the past 25+ years, and had given a lot of thought to what would be the next big wave in digital media.
Bham Now: In case y’all didn’t know, Cindy was CEO of AL.com from its founding in 1997 to its merger with state newspapers in 2012.
CM: When I spoke with a few people whose business acumen I respect, their input was “you don’t need a business plan; just start doing it.” This was some of the best advice I got.
What made you choose to grow your team at Forge, and how has that shaped the business?
CM: Kim Lee was getting the Forge co-working space started about the same time as Bham Now. Our younger team members wanted a place to meet up and collaborate and Forge was the perfect solution!
It has offered Bham Now a beautiful, motivational and collaborative environment right in the middle of the downtown action. You can tell from all the pictures in this piece and from our Instagram how much fun the team has exploring all things Birmingham. Forge is the perfect launching pad for all that.
Since Bham Now has been growing so much, it has allowed our rent expense to grow as we add people which is a huge benefit for a start-up company.
You don’t always know what your needs will be 2 or 3 years down the road. Forge provides options so you can grow as your business requires without taking on too much too soon.
2. We’re passionate about Birmingham.
CM: There’s a lot to love about Bham Now.
First, sharing the resurgence of Birmingham with new food, new bars, new jobs…Amazon coming to town…there are so many positives happening right now in the Greater Birmingham area. Instead of focusing on negatives such as crime and politics, we focus on what’s up-lifting. This positive energy begets more positive energy.
Second, supporting local businesses, being out and about and meeting so many business people in the Birmingham area—established as well as up-and-coming businesses. There’s a lot of joy from that and being able to provide a service they wouldn’t have otherwise. We’re locally owned and operated so we’re deeply invested in Birmingham’s success.
3. Bham Now is backed by a dynamic, creative and diverse team.
CM: I love working with our team. We have lots of young folks—watching them grow and having them be part of the development and growth of the company is rewarding from a career development standpoint.
Bham Now currently employs 19 people. Four work in business development and the rest are content producers, including writers, photographers and videographers.
4. Bham Now’s reach and growth are impressive.
CM: We reach over 30% of the Greater Birmingham market, which means more than 300k people in this market visit us every month. We have over 134k social followers.
The growth year over year has been tremendous, and we continue to look for talent to grow the team. We look for people who care about Birmingham and have a passion for media and creative excellence. A sense of humor helps too!
We have a unique business model. Part of the goal is to build a sustainable local media model and to create new jobs in Birmingham. So far it’s working.
5. Bham Now connects Birminghamians, businesses and organizations.
CM: Bham Now combines two constituents’ needs: the Greater Birmingham populace who wants to know what’s going on, what’s opening, how to get involved in local businesses and nonprofits, and the business community’s desire to share their story with fun, engaging content. We do all this in a way that reaches what we call “millennial-minded people.”
We have a pretty broad definition of “millennial-minded.” We’re referring to anyone who’s active, out and about and involved in Birmingham. We’re also thinking of the actual Millennial generation, which is poised to have the most spending power of any other group of people in the population across the country.
They’re also the future leaders, forming what Birmingham will be in the coming decades. While I’m not a millennial, I thought “why not partner with millennials who are up and coming and give them access to do it even better, with more knowledge, more resources and more info than we had.”
6. Our content provides value to Birmingham and to our clients.
Bham Now: One of the things you might not know about Bham Now is that we have a unique combo of about 30% “sponsored” and 70% “earned” media.
Sponsored media includes paid offerings where we work with clients to produce particular content campaigns for them. Earned means it’s not backed by a particular company. Here’s what Cindy had to say about these offerings:
CM: We’re continuing to expand Bham Now’s offerings to provide more value to the Birmingham population and to our clients. Examples include multimedia campaigns, with a full-time videographer (you can see him above, jumping into the rooftop pool at Forge). You can’t ever say you have it (marketing and media) with a checkmark. It’s a constant evolution and learning process, and I really enjoy that.
Our campaigns are more than an article—each Bham Now sponsored campaign is uniquely crafted for the client, backed by expert photography, videography and social media presence. Plus, it gets the secret “pepper sauce” of creativity from the Bham Now team.
There’s a lot of work across all of Bham Now’s distribution channels. We manage each of them uniquely to communicate with the audience in a way that’s meaningful to them. It’s different on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and in our newsletters.
Our 100% Google rating means that Bham Now’s content jumps right to the top when you search for something to do in Birmingham. It is also a benefit to our sponsors who see their content from Bham Now live through Google for a long time. And, 60% of our traffic comes from non-social media, which means it’s coming from Google, Apple News and directly to our site.
This is a really important point and distinguishes us from social influencers. In fact, one of our national clients came to us because the marketing software they use showed that Bham Now has the largest engagement across all channels plus the added benefit of search engine excellence.
Currently we have over 60 active clients on Bham Now, from local makers to large businesses like EBSCO to tourism companies like Gulf Coast Convention and Visitors’ Bureau.
Because of this range, we have offers that cover the gamut, from one-time social campaigns to multi-year media consulting and execution.
7. You can get involved with Bham Now, too.
Bham Now: Of course you can follow us on any or all of our channels: Facebook | Instagram | LinkedIn | Twitter | Newsletter. Hint: You gotta try our newsletter. It’s fun and includes puppies. 😉
Write to us with story leads, to ask about sponsorship opportunities, or to let us know you’d like to work with us at hello@bhamnow.com.
If it’s exciting for Bham, you’ll find it on Bham Now.
