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combining the brightest minds
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Actionable Insights from Experience

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Blog

5 Ways to Start a Conversation on Twitter – And Keep it Going

By ideba | May 20, 2013

Some analysts argue that traditional business conversations are happening less frequent today than they once were, but in other ways today’s technology is creating new styles of conversation that extend around the world - take Twitter for example. It enables conversations between you and your followers and can drive real engagement for your business. For any company looking to join the “Twitter conversation,” here are 5 tips to help you get started:

1.) Introduce yourself! Just because Twitter is an internet medium, that doesn’t mean your followers don’t want to know who they’re talking to. @Dell includes a side bar with pictures of the staff that are tweeting to the account. For your company, try tweeting behind the scenes pictures, introducing new team members, and sharing your own thoughts every so often. It’s nice to know who is behind the keyboard.

2.) Tell an interesting anecdote. It’s important to be engaging on Twitter and to keep your followers entertained and informed. Create a catchy title and link to articles that are relevant in your industry. For example @WholeFoods tweets great recipes with the tag #WFMdish, while @Huffingtonpost keeps users up to date with daily articles which drive traffic to their website. Your business can follow suit by linking to any blog posts or news releases you have and monitor news accounts for interesting articles to share with your followers.

3.) Listen. @DeltaAssist is replying to tweets 24/7 to help travelers with questions or concerns about the airline’s services. @EMCProven retweets updates from followers who have passed their IT certification exam and publically congratulates them! Let your customers know you are listening by answering any questions they have. Reply with positive comments and mention followers while thanking them for their support. Your followers will appreciate being acknowledged and heard.

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Work

Denali HP Microsite

Category: Consulting

Client’s Pain Point
“How can we communicate the benefits of HP networking to our clients in a competitive market?”

Ideba’s Approach
Built an HP Networking specific microsite, with video evidence and other value-added content, highlighting the benefits of HP over competitors. The microsite is scalable, modular (to accommodate evolving content from HP) and seamlessly integrated into denaliai.com

Results for the Client

  • Recognition at the annual HP Partner event
  • 3.1% visitor rate of all Denali site traffic over its first full month (more than triple the typical vendor microsite traffic of Denali’s Motorola, Citrix, and other partner sites –which typically average less than 1%)


go to site 

FortisBC Mt Hayes Event

Category: Consulting

Client’s Pain Point
“The good news is we want to celebrate the completion of our new $200M-natural gas facility.
The bad news? It’s in a remote location, you’ll need the approval of multiple decision makers and you have 4 weeks to execute.”

Ideba’s Approach

  • Planned, coordinated and oversaw logistics and collateral needs during an abbreviated 4-week timeframe
  • Provided comprehensive event direction, management and production – including vendor sourcing and management


Results for the Client

  • A flawlessly executed event featuring over 200 senior client executives, First Nations representatives and local community leaders
  • Collateral pieces are now permanently displayed on-site and throughout corporate offices

FortisBC Testimonial Video

Category: Marketing

Client’s Pain Point
“More and more of our customers are asking for proof that we can deliver integrated geoexchange solutions for multi-unit and multi-building developments.”

Ideba’s Approach
Planned and executed a series of testimonial videos that provided an un-scripted view of the energy system in action with real-world customer success stories

Results for the Client

  • More Geoexchange development inquiries, and thus, revenue opportunities
  • Videos influenced and elevated the quality of press for the customer’s up-and-coming development and provided valuable content for case studies and event presentations

 

Tsuwassen Spring video | Summit Pointe video | The Hudson video

FortisBC Sales Enablement Materials

Category: Marketing

Client’s Pain Point
“Everybody – the public, our customers, our employees – thinks we’re just the gas company. How do we get them to see we’re now so much more than that?”

Ideba’s Approach
Developed a set of customer-driven, customer-focused sales tools:

  • Project overviews
  • Modular presentation slides for sales use in 1-to-1 and 1-to-many situations
  • Developed internal reference guides to support sales process and drive increased consistency
  • Created and directed demand-generation campaign to support sales efforts


Results for the Client

  • Consistent Sales message now being delivered internally and externally
  • Increased sales of Alternative Energy and Integrated energy Solutions, creating a back-log of orders for fulfillment

Microsoft Virtualization Research

Category: Research

Client’s Pain Point
“Why are there so many queries into our Product Management Department – with more all the time? What’s influencing our customers’ licensing decisions?”

Ideba’s Approach

  • Conducted worldwide qualitative research study, involving 1-to-1 interviews
  • Provided detailed analysis of findings, identifying gaps and opportunities
  • Offered actionable recommendations for how the client could decrease the number of queries coming into their PM team, and improve its position in the desktop virtualization space


Results for the Client

  • A double-digit reduction in the number of queries coming into PM team
  • Newly-identified internal subject matter expert for future leverage
  • Incremental qualitative data that can be leveraged to improve future Windows 7 marketing campaigns

VicTrans Website Development

Category: Consulting

Client’s Pain Point
“Victoria’s automotive repair market is so competitive and drivers are now so well-informed. We need to improve our web presence to connect with our customers and help attract new business.”

Ideba’s Approach

  • Led/conducted multi-tiered qualitative and quantitative customer research, and carried out online research to guide recommendations
  • Developed new customer-friendly content, optimized for search engines
  • Created webpage design and navigation that caters to known customer needs
  • Developed social media strategies to reach and engage multiple customer demographics


Results for the Client
With the website live and other core aspects of the Marketing Strategy in place, Victoria Transmission & Auto Care was able to realize the best quarter in the history of the company, in terms of revenue.

Watchguard Security Pays Campaign

Category: Marketing

Client’s Pain Point
“We have a channel incentive program in place, but there seems to be a lack of awareness of the program, with many partial sign-ups, and incomplete registrations.”

Ideba’s Approach

  • Developed integrated, direct response campaign with multiple touch-points across various media, including: html emails, postcards, posters, Web banners, and social media
  • Focused on the simplicity of participation and high potential for reward
  • Created scalable foundation elements to support future waves of the campaign in 2012, based on learning from 2011


Results for the Client

  • Double-digit increase in new registrations in the Americas
  • Significant decrease in the number of incomplete registrations
  • Extension of campaign into EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Asia) in Q4, 2011 and Q1, 2012 based on success in Americas

WatchGuard Seminars in a Box

Category: Consulting

Client’s Pain Point
“We need a consistent approach to recruiting, planning, marketing, and tracking seminars and webinars”.

Ideba’s Approach
Leveraged Marketo® software, created a “Seminars in a Box” campaign, which included a consistent messaging framework, value proposition, event best practices, technical instructions, communication plan and cadence, registration forms, and post event surveys. In addition to these tools, Ideba created industry-specific web banners, recruitment emails, follow ups, and more.

Results for the Client

  • A consistent approach to event management, resulting in:
  • Reduced time required to create materials
  • More targeted and effective messaging, using a consistent tone and manner
  • More qualified leads, to fuel new business development
  • Increased traceability of the value of event expenditures

Providence New Pregnancy Care Model Testing

Category: Consulting

 Client’s Pain Point
“What are the perceived benefits and barriers to acceptance for a new team-based pregnancy care model?”

Ideba’s Approach
Conducted a research study including 1:1 in-depth interviews with 33 women in the Portland area and online surveys of 75 women to include both commercial and Medicaid insurance populations.

Designed multiple surveys to accommodate different respondent groups which were then analyzed accordingly to present in-depth findings.

Results for Client

  • Reduced sample size requirements to decrease study costs by 33%.
  • Research results identified key marketing actions that were required for the model to be adopted, such as increased education on how the program worked and information to counter existing misconceptions.

Cooper Pacific

Category: Research & Marketing

Client’s Pain Point
“As we continue to recover from the impacts of the 2008 economic downturn, how can we facilitate investor retention and growth?”

Ideba’s Approach

  • Qualitative research to understand clients’ pain points, which led to a marketing strategy with increased emphasis on regular, personalized communication to inform/educate investors.
  • Leveraging research to create a new value proposition, messaging framework and brand guidelines to drive consistent communications.
  • Executed investor Open House as a part of broad effort to engage customers at a one-to-one level, and encourage open dialogue.

Results for the Client

  • Dialogue with investors via mail, email, one-to-one meetings and an Investor Open House, has driven engagement; and acknowledgment that Cooper Pacific has not just weathered the economic downturn, but has done significantly better than many other MICs.

 

Clients

  • Avaya
  • BMW
  • BMW Portland
  • Cisco
  • Clinicient
  • Cooper Pacific
  • Denali
  • DTI
  • EAI
  • Fortis BC
  • Huxley Construction
  • Iovation
  • Island Floor Centre
  • Microsoft
  • NECI
  • Providence
  • SAP
  • Symantec
  • Tom Harris
  • Victoria Transmission & Auto Care
  • Watchguard
  • WickinnishInn

Expertise

Video

We develop animated and live-action video for product demonstrations, customer case studies, and educational stories.

Sales Tools

We build the hard-working sales advisors, configuration tools, and interactive widgets that drive customer engagement and leads.

Social Marketing

We craft conversation strategy, design and infographics for social platforms that extend your marketing and build customer interest.

Customer Insights

We learn what your customers need to improve marketing, from purchase and usage through support and satisfaction.

People

When you engage with Ideba, you work with senior professionals. Our consultants have deep experience, specializing in technology, and understand the importance of driving measurable results and ROI.

Meet Team Ideba: Click the LinkedIn icons to learn more about each of us, or the star icons to find out what has caught our attention recently.

David
Sly

President

Aaron
Baldwin

Design

Michelle
Clarke

Consulting

James
Rice

Digital Experience

Sandra
Augustin

Design

Courtney
Swartz

Consulting

Stephanie
Vanterpool

Research

Eric
Gall

Writing

Lee
Sumner

Research

Mark
Salow

Consulting

Kay
Sze

Design

Community

Ideba strongly believes in supporting the communities where we work and live with education initiatives, activities that promote local businesses, and best practices to support the environment.

Victoria

Ideba is pleased to give back to the city which houses its Canadian Corporate office. As a proud sponsor of Urban Development Institute (UDI) Capital Region, Ideba recently hosted The Portland Tour, inviting Victoria-based developers, city planners, as well as the mayor of Victoria, to visit with peers in Portland.
The tour’s goal focused on better understanding trends and dynamics in the development of commercial and residential real estate as it pertains to the environment and sustainability. Ideba continues to support UDI through oversight of the Communications committee and sponsoring a number of regional events.
Within Victoria, Ideba also helps University of Victoria (UVic) Bachelor of Commerce students develop and fine-tune their skills with mock interviews, internship opportunities, and co-op student placement. Ideba is thrilled to have recruited a UVic student for an internship opportunity that will transition into a full-time job at Ideba upon completion of her studies, and will be looking to do the same again next year.

Portland

For the past two years Ideba has partnered with JPMorgan Chase to provide backpacks and school supplies to local public schools that serve low-income elementary students. Ideba and JPMorgan competed with over  50 local Portland companies to see who could pack backpacks the fastest. This year, the Ideba/JPMorgan Chase team was victorious, packing at a rate of 1.67 seconds for each bag. With these donated resources, each elementary student received his or her own backpack full of school essentials to support his or her studies for the upcoming school year.
Ideba continually engages with Portland State University (PSU) to offer internships and career building opportunities for recent and soon-to-be graduates. In the past year, Ideba hired two PSU graduates.

Seattle

Upholding its commitment to the environment and the community, Ideba has volunteered time to work with Habitat for Humanity, a global organization that supplies shelter for people in need. The entire Ideba team, including employees from Victoria, Seattle and Portland came together in the Puget Sound to spend the day helping build an eco-friendly home as a model of the sustainable “home of the future” around the world. In a day’s work, the team was able to install paneling in the walls of two rooms, complete the ceiling of one entire room and create 26 cement bricks to be used by Habitat for Humanity at a later date.

Contact

Portland

Address: 620 SW 5th Avenue, Suite 705, Portland, OR 97204
Tel: (425) 638-3797

Victoria

Address: 26 Bastion Square, Suite 203, Victoria, BC, V8W 1H9
Tel: (250) 590-6764

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