Slow Your Social Media Roll

Social media can be very powerful for small businesses, but many try to do too much too quickly. Start by making a social media plan – write goals for what you want to achieve with social media, and try to keep your messaging focused on your target market.

Sometimes it can help to make a profile for your target market. How old are they, where do they live, what are some of their values. Having a detailed picture of who might be interested in your products will help you customize your messaging.

Action Steps:
- Write down the profile of your target audience. Give them names!
- Set goals for social media and keep them in mind the next time you Tweet!

Speaker Summary - Marcia Macomber, Cornucopia Creations

The advantage to writing your own speaker summary is getting to add things you forgot to say, or show samples of things you forgot to bring! Continuing along Patty’s theme of tips to help with managing the holidays, I reminded members that another product I offer individuals or businesses is custom holiday greetings cards (which I forgot to bring to the meeting). The examples shown below are my personal cards and one client’s, but it will give you a bit of an idea of what can be done with a little Photoshopping.

Ginny

Ginny Xmas Card 08

This brief example merely shows how I can dress up a non-holiday item (my dog) with holiday attire (particularly advantageous since most dogs don’t like to wear Santa hats of goofy holiday ribbons!)

 

Xmas Card 07

And the sample directly above merely demonstrates heavy application of Photoshopping with LOTS of elements that were not included in the original photography (including a fanciful vineyard view from my house and lots of decorations I’ve never actually applied to my house).

For some clients, I embellish their original logos and build upon them into a holiday theme. Here is one for Bayou Closets’ logo and holiday card:

The gator is frequently added to their promotional literature as a separate element, but it is not part of their logo. If you or anyone you know is interested in custom greeting card work, there is still time before the holidays are completely upon us. The printing cost is surprisingly competitive to the cost of off-the-shelf boxes of cards and is fairly quick in turnaround. Contact me for details.

For demonstration purposes I brought along a finished picture of my niece. Here are the “before” and “after” versions side by side. From the original I extracted the key element and eliminated scratches and poor coloring from the print before dropping in a very different background (her favorite color) to make nice gifts for the grandparents.

 

These techniques can also be applied to business photography. Here is an example of one of several print ads I designed for Sidelines, Inc. (and coincidentally, I also did the product photography since the clients hadn’t gotten the shot I needed). In this instance, I wanted to give the impression that the basket had fallen from a considerable height and had just landed. So this involved much experimentation and fanciful adjustment to achieve this effect with a still-life photo.

I showed a few other samples of work, along with examples of others’ product promotion that I deemed ‘good’ (Kraftmaid cabinetry) or ‘bad’ (a banking ad) for the execution of their design and message in print. In short, it pays to get the message and imagery right the first time. Otherwise, it is a waste of your marketing investment dollars.

Brand advertising and awareness was discussed as opposed to simply product advertising and promotion. Both are quite valuable and are most effective when mapped out in advance how you will roll out simultaneous or sequential campaigns for greatest impact in the marketplace.

The 501 Strategy...

It’s 5 o’clock somewhere, goes the old saying.

Though this is a saying that people ask in the middle of the day when wanting a drink, I believe it’s a question that anyone doing anything with mobilizing people need to ask with all seriousness.

If it’s 5 o’clock somewhere, then what happens at 5:01?

Too often, our goal is just to get to 5 o’clock. if we can just make it… we’ll be happy. Really? That’s all?

Over the past several years, I have had a front-row seat in watching some pretty amazing and huge events take place. I have also been a part of planning several meetings myself that last over a few days time. From retreats to business meetings, I have both planned them and ran them. In that, I can say from personal experience, for many of them, I was just thrilled to get to 5 o’clock.

Never once did I ask… what happens at 5:01?

Okay, great meeting, but, what will the attendees do with this experience? Generally, attendees will get pumped up and momentarily encouraged. But, by the time they go back home… it’s like playing a really bad game of telephone.

I know I said orange, but by the time it got to the other side of the room… the word was now… elephant. What? How is that possible?

In this, I am realizing how short-sighted I was. Not only was it critical to put on a quality event that stimulates thought, reflection, and change, but… I needed to spend a lot more time thinking about what that change looked like.

I needed to spend a lot more time thinking about what happens at 5:01. In other words, if my event is over at 5 o’clock, what happens next? How am I engaging people post event? How am I providing resources, areas of opportunity, action points for growth going forward… post event?

It is not enough to come into a city and put on an event, or to host a retreat,  or business meeting, and then leave.

What lasting effect will you leave behind?

In going forward, I would propose that before you launch a campaign or post an agenda, etc. about something you are planning, ask yourself one question… what will happen at 5:01 when this is over?

I would propose knowing the answer and have already developed the 501 strategy. Why? For this to be sustainable, don’t you need on the ground leaders who take ownership? Don’t you need boots on the ground at 5:01 ready to mobilize, engage, reinforce, build up, connect, train, and act?

Sure, it’s great to train these leaders up for action during an event. But, I would argue that you are training them to be reactive. But, at 5:01, we need them to be proactive. And to do that, you better have thought through your 501 strategy from the start.

Otherwise, we miss massive opportunities to transition mountain top experiences to life level applications. When we miss that opportunity, experiences can rarely stick.

In the book selling world for so many years, I often wondered… what happens when that guest walks out of the store with that book? Now, some might say… it’s just a book, relax. On the contrary, I believe the power of a good book and the connection that can be made with a good story. In this, what would happen if we developed a 501 strategy for that guest in particular to a specific book to help them dig deeper as to how that story can apply to their life?

Just getting our guest out the door with a book in hand is a great thing. But, getting them out the door with a book in hand …and a resource for us to walk together in reading that book after they leave the store is greater.

I had an opportunity to do this once with New York Times bestselling author, Paul Young for his book, The Shack.

For sure, we sold a ton. We also heard both sides of thought about the content of the book. Some was true and some was not true. But, instead of leaving it alone, we decided to develop a 501 strategy for our guests. In this case, we sat down with Paul and interviewed him. The result, a free website was built using wordpress. On this website, we posted the entire 120 minute interview with Paul.

Does anything say you care more about a guest than a post sale or post event ongoing engagement with them? Not just follow-up, but engagement.

Isn’t that what’s at the core of what I am trying to convey with the 501 strategy? I’m not interested in how you are going to follow-up. I am interested in how you will engage. don’t be confused, they are two different postures.

Conventions or large public gatherings should have 501 strategies too. And like selling a book, what is more important? Getting people to the event or what the people will do… post event?

Sure, sweep into a city and throw a party, in the process, pump the local economy up. But, what is the lasting effect? Is it sustainable? does it translate? Of course, you need to sell books or get people to an event to plant the seed of your message. But, how will that seed then grow?

Building a seamless 501 strategy is perfect soil to watch this come to fruition.

Anyway, just a few thoughts. Sorry for the ramble.

You follow? What are you planning? What are you selling? What does it look like in action?

It’s 5 o’clock somewhere… what happens next?

The Brands With The Best Stories Win

Our Fresh team met with a potential client a few months ago.  This firm tried several marketing plans in the past that have cost them thousands of dollars, but produced minimal results.

This time we were pitching them on a Social Media marketing plan specific to their online storefront.

Their virtual storefront is their only presence – all online and they serve clients throughout the entire US market from their small physical location here in the Northwest.  Their client list reads like an A-List of firms – you would recognize all of them.

The conversation locked up when they struggled with the idea that a web-based buying experience could really make that much of a difference to their bottom-line.  (This conversation happened before Amazon.com’s most profitable quarter ever!)

An idea hit me to take a risk with this thought – I asked everyone in the room, including the Fresh team, what Seattle restaurant was their favorite place for a fine dinner.  Daniel’s Broiler for their nightlife and view, The Edgewater Hotel for it’s view of the sunset and fireplaces, the Salish Lodge for it’s ambiance, location near a waterfall, character, Third Floor Fish Cafe for its location on the water and so on.

Not ONE PERSON said anything about the food.  !?

When we go out to eat isn’t the food the most important thing??

That’s not the case.  Casa Bonita in Denver is legendary because inside transforms into another world.  You’re inside a structure so heavy that when it was built it began sinking into the ground from the weight of the concrete.  Inside looks like you’re dining outdoors in Acapulco, Mexico complete with a starlit sky, divers plunging off of high cliffs into water below, volcanic rocks, caves, mud pits and a city center of stores.

But the food at Casa Bonita is cafeteria quality at best.  You don’t go for the food.  You go for the experience.  And we see other models of this around the country including the Rain Forest Cafe (a step up from Casa Bonita fare) and at the Jordan Commons in Salt Lake City.

It’s the customer experience, the buying experience, how people feel about your brand that’s most important.

All of the Seattle restaurants mentioned above have fantastic food, but … our favorite place for exquisite dining in Seattle?  It’s called Tropea and it’s in a little strip mall in Redmond.  But the FOOD is simply fantastic.

Let me rattle off a few other brands you may have a gut feeling about – Starbucks, Nordstroms, T-Mobile, Marriott, Zappos.  These brands are not the lowest price, but they have award-winning customer service and experience.

The potential client I spoke of above is a Fresh client today as this illustration was a turning point for them.

Brands who can tell their stories win.  Are you ready for us to help you tell your story?

Contact me at mike@freshconsulting.com or on Twitter at http://twitter.com/mikewhitmore

All the best,

Mike

O cateringu

Catering (jak chyba każdy wie) polaga m.in na organizowniu przyjęć, posiłków..
Jakość wykonania świadczy o firmie cateringowej, dlatego też każda z firm cateringowych stara się zaprezentować najlepiej jak potrafi. Stąd też wielki naczisk na dobrze wyszkolony personel.

W ostatnich lat następował wzrost dobrobytu w Polsce, stąd też zwiększyło się zapotrzebowanie na usługi cateringowe. Oczywiście popyt na catering istniał od dawna, widocze to było szczególnie w wiekszych miastach- np. catering w Warszawie, jednakże duży skok “zapotrzebowania” usług cateringowych dopiero niedawno można było odczuć.
Wszystko układało się bardzo dobrze, do momentu kryzysu. Niestety kryzys ekonomiczny swój odcisk niczym stygmat położył także na wszystkim co okresla się słowem catering oraz gastronomią.

W tej chwili firmy z branży cateringowej odczuwają spory kryzys… np. catering Warszawa ma kilka już na wpół upadłych firm. Najbardziej dotkliwie skutki kryzysu w cateringu odczuły młode firmy.. nie mające dużej ilości referencji, które zapewniłyby im klientów na ich usługi cateringowe.
Niestety jak to mówia business is business.

Heart-shaped chocolates and buns of gouda

It occurred to me while reading the Sunday newspaper recently that the stuff in the ads and the stuff in the editorials don’t jibe. This is blatantly evident at any time of year, not just Christmas. The tinsel won’t be off the living room floor before we’ll be greeted at every turn of a page and every store-front with smiling Victoria’s Secret models tempting us with heart-shaped chocolates and grapefruit sized bottoms.

Next, it will be green thongs for St. Patrick’s day, exemplars of the runway offering Easter finery, size 2 and under of course, followed by a couple of months worth of string bikinis.

The complimentary side of the coin is an endless barrage of TV presentations featuring early middle aged machismos who, but for the grace of Viagra, would be mere helpless noodles. If all it takes to look like THAT is a little dysfunction, hell, it might be worth the inconvenience!

Meanwhile, plain brown wrappers everywhere peck out diatribes of anti-sexuality as money changes hands at warp speed in the marketplace. Women who haven’t seen size two since ninth grade, if ever, wax indignant about being sex-objects. They should be so lucky. Men who couldn’t bench-press their own shoes snort disapprovingly while secretly enjoying every tease commercial and print ad.

Like it or not, mating season is year-round for the human species. Pheromones fill the air, idealized female’s presenting carefully accentuated characteristics of sexual attractiveness, and rock-solid young males who shave before every meal and exude surplus testosterone fill the fanciful field of vision. Yet, any man who dares to ogle is a “pig” and any woman who shortsightedly purrs at the image of the handsome jocko selling the car that “turns you on” instantly falls off the moral dado in the estimation of her peers doing the same thing more discreetly.

If it is so foul, why does it take an orgasm to sell everything from a pair of living room curtains to a cheeseburger? Who’s selling and who’s buying? The answer is we all are, but we’ve developed this façade of disgust like PITA people secretly enjoying a good steak.

It’s really quite amusing when you think about it. I’ve never seen a gorgeous woman with legs all the way up to her ears complain about being pleasing to the eye, and I’ve never known a man who was offended to overhear himself being referred to as a “hunk”. On the other hand, I do notice a lot of lard butts loitering about the lingerie, and I’ve been guilty of looking at the spandex in the sporting goods store as though an intense stare would miraculously allow me to actually wear the stupid things without looking like an oversized Gouda cheese.

I think the only society ever to be successful at accepting their natural functions as healthy and downright fun were the Tahitians of Margaret Mead fame, but we “civilized” them a long time ago.

Domuz Gribi, Ergenekon, Güneydoğu ve Medya...

Şu günlerde gündemimizde üç öncelikli konu var. Domuz Gribi, Ergenekon ve Güneydoğu… Bu üç konuda olaylar geliştikçe ülke olarak hala kurumsal bir devlet olamadığını görüyoruz. Çünkü neleri, ne zaman, nasıl, niçin, ne şekilde yapacağımızı hala bilemiyoruz. Yani kurumsallık sınavımız devam ediyor. Grip mi olacağız aşı mı ? Aynı anda iki farklı savcının aynı konuyu ve belgeyi soruşturması ne kadar normal ? Güneydoğu’yu doğuya mı yoksa batıya doğru mu açıyoruz ? Birilerinin İmralı’daki kişinin gelecek seçimler de milletvekili olması için çalıştığı doğru mu ?

Bu üç konunun ortak noktası nedir ? Medya… Çünkü tüm gelişmeleri medya üzerinden özellikle de gazete mecrasından takip ediyoruz. Hem de medyanın verdiği şekliyle. Başka şansımızda yok zaten. Peki bu kadar önemli gündemlere rağmen ülkemizde gazete tirajları neden hala 4.4 milyon adet  ve artmıyor ?  Basın Reklam Platformu yeni kampanyasını şimdi yapmayacaksa  ne zaman yapacak ? Domuz Gribi, Ergenekon ve Güneydoğu konularında haberler yeni değil biliyorsunuz. Ama hala neden aynı soruları soruyor ve kafa karışıklığı yaşıyoruz. ?

Örneğin Domuz Gribi; kurumsal ve sağlıklı düşünebilen ülkelerde şu anda bizdeki kadar panik havası neden yok ?  Hürriyet’te Eyüp Can’da yazmış. Ben de somut eklemeler yapayım. Çok yakınım Amerika’da hem de Meksika sınırına yakın bir bölgede. Sürekli iletişim halindeyiz. Ama o bizden daha sakin ve temkinli. Bu Amerika’nın H1N1 virüsü karşısında kayıtsızlık ve panik arasında sakin bir yöntem izlendiğini doğruluyor. Oradaki gelişmeleri özetlerken bizimde sakinleşmemizi ve medyanın bize yansıttıkları karşısında daha sağlıklı düşünmemizi kolaylaştırıyor. Neden Sağlık Bakanlığı ilk kez bugün gazetelere bilgilendirici reklamlar vermeyi akıl ediyor ?  Neden reklamların üzerinde aşı ile ilgili bilgi yok ? Medya mensupları neden hala her önüne gelen uzmana  aşı olacak mıyız diye soruyor ? Grip yayılana kadar  kararsız kalanlar, aşıların gelmesiyle hem de sağlık bakanlığı ile birlikte neden harekete geçtiler ? Ama ne hareket geçmek. Kamuoyunda panik havası estirecek kadar. Ailelere çocuklarını okula göndermemelerini sağlayacak, sıvı sabun ve alkollü mendil satışlarını bir hafta da patlatacak kadar. Önce aşıları sağlık personeline yapacaklarmış biliyorsunuz. Acaba rica etsek sonra da bizim medya mensuplarına yaparlar mı ? Bu şeklide kaç kişi yaptığı haberin ve yorumun arkasında durduğunu da öğrenmiş oluruz.

Sonra şu meşhur Ergenekon davamıza gelince. Belge sahte mi değil mi ? İmza yaş mı, kuru mu ? Neden 4,5 ay beklendi ? Belgeyi sızdıran kim ? Hükümet gündemi saptırarak nereye gidiyor ? Belgeye kağıt parçası ve komplo diyen medya mensupları da neden birer birer özür yazıları yazıyor ? Üçüncü kez zor durumda kalan Genel Kurmay Başkanımız  neden hala suskunluğunu koruyor ?  Acaba ne yapacak ? İstifa mı edecek yoksa başka kurbanlar mı verecek ?  Yoksa hiç bir bakanın veya Başbakan’ın istifa etmediği bir ülkede o da sonuna kadar görev de mi kalacak ?

Güneydoğu’nun sonunda açılımı yapıldı ?  Bu muydu açılım ? Diyarbakır da 100 bin kişi nasıl toplandı ? Organizasyonu kim-ler  yaptı ? MHP lideri gençleri sokağa dökmeye mi çalışıyor ?  Neden İmralı’ya deniz yoluyla yüzbin kişi de biz topla-ya-mıyoruz ? Binlerce şehitimize, milyarlarca dolarımıza ve 24 yılımıza mal olan bu sorunumuzun yeni açılımı konusunda acaba Kurtuluş Savaşımız öncesinde o bölgeyi paylaşan ülkeler ne diyor ? Amerika PKK’nın banka hesaplarına koyarken neden bu kadar geçikti ? Bu konuda niçin bize destek oluyor ? Avrupa neden açılıma ılımlı ?

Bu soruları çoğaltmak mümkün ? Yanlış anlamayın bunlar medyadan çok sokaktaki vatandaşın soruları ? Diyeceksiniz ki medyamız ne iş yapıyor ? Bu sorular daha önceden ilgili kişilere sorularak cevapları bulunamaz mıydı ? Mahalle muhabbeti yaptığını itiraf eden medyamız, kendi problemleri ile uğraşmaktan toplumsal refleksleri zayıflamış görünüyor. Yoksa hala bu kadar neden kafamız karışık olsun değil mi ?