When describing the thing you’ve built for the last five years, you’d be amazed at how tricky it can be.  When I started CloudSpark in 2005, I was determined to work with clients I believed in and to create work that was focused on building our clients’ brands and bottom lines. Nearly as important to me, I struck out to create a new kind of agency.

I started as a solo practioner – taking on clients and work, partnering with other talented solo practioners or freelancers when the work required it.  With hard work, clients I called partners, and a few well-placed risks that earned us accolades, I found more work than I could handle. I leaped over the hurdle and made a hire.  Now a couple of years later, we’re rockin’ it as a small team, and I’m focused on creating a better agency experience for my team of Sparks and for our clients.

But I kept running into the same barrier – how do I characterize my agency in an industry that loves to categorize (and rank) itself around size and affiliation?  I’m no longer a true solo practioner. We’re not a boutique PR agency, that label is typically used when an agency specializes in one industry. We’re not an independent agency which has a huge variance in team size, but really could be any agency that’s not part of the eight largest agencies in our industry.  And well, the term agency, just seemed too generic…like a bad sweater some relative sent you that’s a size too big. And scratchy. 

So what are we?

We’re a microagency.  We’re a small core team of experienced, deeply talented, and hard-working communications professionals.  We scale up by bringing in freelancers or experts as needed to serve our clients.  We’re not tethered to a single address, instead choosing to work virtually.  When we need to, we meet on a regular basis at a beautiful office in an upscale  glass and steel building in a nice part of town.

I’ve spent the past month testing out the label with my team, but also with people I meet. It seemed to intrigue them and just as importantly, it seemed ‘right’ to me. So today, I’m putting ink to paper, pixels to screen, and declaring it for the world to know: we’re a microagency.

We’re big advocates of finding ways to visually tell people your stories. Why? Because most of us learn and retain information better when it’s presented visually (and reinforced with spoken word). Kelsey Ruger at Moleskin (@moleskin) has a great way of sharing the importance of visual story-telling.  To help those of us who might be art-challenged, Kelsey offers this terrific presentation on how to reconnect to the creative, drawing parts of your brain. Knowing their audience, they’ve laid it out in easy-to-understand, step-by-step process.  You know, for those of us who are more linear and left-brained. Or for any of us who ever got a “D” in art class.  Ahem.
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For a follow up from our ealier presentation, Social Media 101, I presented a second session at today’s PRSA/GA Annual Conference in Atlanta, Ga. More conceptual, this session was focused on discussing the forthcoming trends, some of which like Real Time and geolocation are already happening.  While the audience was PR professionals, these trends are certain to impact brands and bottom lines in the near future. After all, it was only 3 years ago when people were saying, “What’s this Twitter thing about?”  Like my earlier session, I used the new Prezi format, which won rave reviews from the audience.

Oh, and if you’re really geeked now, check out Akoha, a company that blends geolocation with good deeds, and augmented reality app Layar which let’s you see, what you don’t see,  and keep your eyes on other companies pushing the envelope of what’s possible. Or drop a note here and let us know who those companies are.

Today, I presented at the PRSA/GA Annual Conference in Atlanta, Ga.  This presentation to PR professionals focused on providing the basics of social media – definitions, demographics, and details – they would need to enhance/advance a company’s brand.  It was also the first time I debuted the new Prezi format, which won rave reviews from the audience.

What else would you add?

I’ll admit it, we tend to like the technical, complicated, and nerdy parts of our world. It’s a great communication challenge to take something incredibly complex and be able to explain it simply and concisely. We keep a regular mantra of simplicity behind all of our communication efforts – it’s even the subject of the first book we recommend to all of our clients. 

But even the best communicators can get “lost in the details” or get caught ”over-explaining” a particular idea. So when we came across this quote from @eskimon on Twitter, well, we just had to put it on our team’s whiteboard and share it here:

So take this quote and keep it where you need it most.  And if you have a great tip for keeping it simple, feel free to share it here. We may just put in up on the team’s whiteboard.