Regarding Nutshells

As a social media manager, I spend a lot of time doing my best to relay a client’s objective, mission or message in an effective and concise manner. Each time I post on their behalf, I’m acutely aware that I only have a short amount of time to grab the viewers attention, pique interest, and stand out among an endless feed of posts the viewer is scrolling through. Interesting + concise is usually the best strategy for engagement.

Sometimes, I think about tiny nutshells when I’m working and how to pack them full of valuable information a follower might find worthy of cracking open. Filling nuts with fluff is a waste of time. The nutcracker will only go elsewhere if you don’t deliver some goodness. Filling nutshells with power and punch makes a follower glad they took the effort to follow your link. Hopefully so much, they’ll keep coming back for more.

This is at which point I realized that thinking about nutshells reminds me of Michelle Knox of Lone Red Design. Not because she’s nutty, but because she can pack a tiny nutshell like no one else.

Perhaps I should explain?

In order to exercise my daily nutshell practice in minimalism and effectiveness, it’s absolutely crucial that I understand my client’s objective in its most pure essence. Working in  social media, I have a bag of tools with which I’m able to do my work. Words, photos, relevant information and current events are in my nutshell packing bag, if you will. These tools can be mixed and matched in a variety of ways to get my work accomplished. As long as I’m not too wordy and get the point across clearly and interestingly enough, I’m successful in my endeavor.

You’d think since I’m keen on the importance of being succinct, I would be prepared when Michelle Knox of Lone Red Design asked me a few informational questions about my business during our first meeting. Although, I pride myself on getting to the heart of the matter, turns out Michelle is the Yoda Nutpacker to my Jedi Nutpacking skills. Within the first 15 minutes of our informational meeting I knew I was going to get what I came for. This was going to be a fun learning experience for me and would result in a dynamic visual branding package that would propel my business in the exact direction I was yearning to develop.

Michelle is a master of visual branding. She understands the magnitude of first impressions, the importance of initial reactions and the subtlety of subliminal connotations. She grasps the visceral operative of successful design work and her job is to get your brand’s focus across in about 2 seconds flat using only color and font. She has no time for fluff and as a business owner, I respect that. I don’t want to waste time, I don’t want to project something I’m not, and I don’t want to be an empty nutshell. I was seeking honesty, integrity and accuracy. Lucky for me, turned out to be Michelle’s speciality.

Although I had no idea how the process would take place, or how we would get from the general ideas in my head to a shiny new creation, I was certain Michelle already had me pointed in the right direction and was a few steps ahead of me. She gently led me to my own conclusions so I could provide her with the specific and essential information she needed to get started. Her inquisitive agenda is reminiscent of detective work and her questions assisted me with reigning in multi-directional ideas so I could more specifically ask her for what I needed, and what I hoped she could provide. Through this reflection, I not only streamlined my mission statement and provided Michelle with the information needed to produce some excellent visual branding ideas, but I also came to the gentle realization that I was not as focused as I thought. In the end, not only was my branding successfully aligned with my mission, but my mission itself was strengthened.

If you’re considering heading down the visual branding road, save yourself some time and just call Michelle. I’ve become a “more than satisfied” customer and a Lone Red evangelist. She will be designing my website next.  Some folks might dread such an endeavor, but with Lone Red on my side, I can hardly wait.

While I knew successful visual branding wasn’t just about a flashy logo, I didn’t realize is that was a lot about nutshells, too.