Setting the Stage for this Website in 2016

Welcome to this humble website of mine.  Now that we are back and recovered from the holidays, I wanted to set the stage for what you can expect to see at this website this year.

First, the name.  The URL: ScottHoward.me was not my first choice when I launched this site in 2011.  Sounds a bit egotistical with that dot me after my name but the dot com version was taken as was dot net.   

ScLoHo was my online identity for several years and continues on multiple social media sites like Twitter and Instagram and other places.  ScLoHo is a way to distinguish myself from the other Scott Howards in this world and even here in Fort Wayne, Indiana. It’s a mashup using the first two letters of my first, middle and last names.  Google “ScLoHo” and nearly everything that appears is probably related to me.

But back to the future…

5 days a week I will publish a new article.  One day will be a sales tip curated from a newsletter I get from RAB.com.  Mondays, like yesterday is when they will appear.

The other 4 days I will publish articles I wrote with an occasional article from others.  They will mostly dealing with marketing, and media with some personal articles too that have nothing to do with those topics.

Have you ever been asked, “What’s your WHY?”

Early in your career, you may not know, or even if you do know, it can change.

Now as a 50 something year old, my why is pretty straight forward.  I want to help people make smart decisions regarding their business marketing.  That is the primary theme of this website.

I have been given permission by the company I work for and our consultants to write and share information that our competitors would be terrified to share publicly.  As a matter of fact, I once worked for another radio station in Fort Wayne that prohibited me from sharing this kind of info online.  It was hand-written into my  contract by the station management.

While my background is in radio broadcasting, I have also worked with other old school media including print and television, plus I spent time working full time in the website development world and social media marketing world.  Add in time away from all of this media stuff and living life as a plain old consumer who worked a couple of jobs where I punched a clock and you’ll begin to get the full picture. (Yes, I was paid to drive a forklift and operate a thermoformer.)

I’ve sat on all sides of the media and marketing universe.  Served on the Board of Directors for 7 years with the American Advertising Federation.  I’ve seen the ignorance and arrogance of advertising agency people, but also have found several that I respect too. Unfortunately they are in the minority.  The same is true with others that I have known who sell advertising.  There are a few good ones that are trust worthy, and the rest, well God help you if you have to deal with them.

I am not all that wise and knowing all by myself.  I have been blessed to have meet with hundreds of business owners over the past 30 years who have told me their stories and together we learned what works marketing wise and what to avoid.  I read a lot too. One day I’ll share some books you might want to read to gain some insight like I did.

So this year, I will give you insider info on WOWO radio and the Fort Wayne radio market; marketing principles that you can apply to any business; share some stories from my advertising partners and the continuing adventures and misfortunes that some people experience.

You can subscribe and have this pop up in your email, you can follow on Twitter, or Facebook even LinkedIn will feature some of these articles.  And if you need help, have a question or want to discuss anything, feel free to contact me.