Category — Strategy

So many people tweeted me wondering why I was vacationing in Ukraine, kidding me about borscht (which wasn’t that bad), asking where Ukraine is and if I had relatives there.

I have no family there, had never even heard of the Dnieper River, and I’m not a history buff.

Nonetheless, I learned so much from the AHI Tavel trip. It was planned as an education with small alumni groups from Dartmouth, Johns Hopkins, Colby College, Northwestern and the University of Washington plus a few stragglers like us.

There were also several hundred Europeans aboard, mostly from France, Germany and Spain.

The best part of the trip? The people in our group were all very pleasant and well educated, the kind of people who like to learn just to know new things! We enjoyed daily lectures from the cruise staff, a Kiev University Professor who talked about politics and the head of Russian studies at Dartmouth. We also visited so many places we’d all been reading about since our childhood. In addition to Kiev, Sevastopol, small river towns and the fascinating Odessa, three side trips stand out:

· Yalta, where Churchill, Stalin and Roosevelt decided how Europe would be divided after WWII. I wanted to sit in Churchill’s chair but had to settle for just touching it.

In a way, this was where the Cold War began as Stalin made promises he had no intention of keeping.

· A secret underground submarine base right in the port of Balaklava. The Soviets built it into a mountain in the late forties at great expense and a few months after they finished, the new subs were too long to fit in it. Central planning at its best.

· We had lunch with a family in their home in the middle of nowhere on the banks of the river where we toasted them with Ukrainian Moonshine they’d cooked up themselves.

As a marketer, I couldn’t help notice that:

1. All Ukrainian street stalls seem to sell the same stuff from Kiev to Odessa: the same plates, dolls, paintings, shirts, etc. One creative person would own the tourism souvenir market if they created unique branded items.

2. The people selling in stores and stalls need help in dealing with European and American customers. They could be a lot more customer friendly. Their first and only answer to everything seems to be “No”.

3. I saw very few Ukrainian brands. Maybe that’s because of the Russian mindset. Based on what I did see, Authentic Ukrainian Moonshine might be an idea.

This was the original gate to the city of Kiev

I missed you while I was away. As always, please feel free to send any questions, ideas, etc. Or leave a comment here.

I’m not sure how long ago I met Suzanne Beecher, but we were in our office on Madison Avenue then…and she’d set up an appointment…and was on my schedule.

I walked toward our board room, and the smell of fresh-baked brownies wafted around the office. People were peeking out from their desks, wondering if someone was baking. People who usually stay huddled behind their computer screens were appearing outside the board room to see if we were getting Duncan Hines as a new account.

But there she was, Suzanne Beecher, blonde and smiling and carrying a huge box of brownies for everyone. She was definitely my kindred spirit.

She told me then she was starting a new venture, an online book club…talking about different types of books and perhaps getting libraries to sponsor her business…so she could email her reviews each week to her readers.

It sounded a little far-fetched to me, but I figured if anyone could do it…Miss Enthusiasm would. Well. 350,000 people now read her DearReader.com and her daily column. She’s homespun, down-to-earth and funny and when she writes you feel like she’s writing only to you. She reminds me of Fanny Flagg.

We’ve talked on and off over the years and 2 years ago, I was visiting Sarasota and invited Suzanne to meet me for lunch. She did, and it was delicious to see her…and she told me she was going to write a book about her life, and add some recipes…and some photos of her family. We dropped her at her home, met her husband, Bob, and I missed her as we drove back to Miami.

Well, last month I received her new book (in uncorrected reader’s proofs), and she asked me to give it a read. I just loved it, like I do her. It’s her story of her own dreadful kind of upbringing, her challenges in life with illness and business. And, the whole time I’m reading it, I’m thinking I’m sitting at that little café in Sarasota yakking with her again.

You get a snapshot of her life as a little girl, and cooking when she was eight, while practicing singing her backup part to the Monkees. Then years later when she met her husband for the first time as she hobbled around with one leg in a cast and the other taped in an ace bandage.

Sprinkled with her grandma’s favorite recipes, she writes about her wonderful magazine that she had to walk away from, and her overnight stay with her grandson in the hospital, and life, in general.

What happens to Suzanne, happens to all of us. And the difference is she gives and shares more of life and love in her book than we often can. That’s why you’ll love this special book.

Buy it at amazon.com today and take it to the beach, or read it in your comfy chair. You’ll feel like you’ve just caught up with your best friend. Then buy lots more copies for your friends and family, as I am.

Suzanne called last week to see if I liked the book. I said I did so much, I was going to even try one of her recipes for my company last weekend. (I have a plant in my oven), as I never cook. So, I did ask her how I sift flour, or if I needed to.

On Monday she asked how my cooking went (afraid that she’d heard about a blazing fire in Miami). I told her no, not yet. Maybe this weekend I will try that marinated flank steak though. I’ll let you know how it works out.

Last week my friend Keith Fletcher of the South Florida Interactive Marketing Association called to invite me to a marketing conference with an intriguing title: Social Media/Legal Mashup. He wanted me to hear Gaida Zirkelbach, a lawyer, speak about social media. A lawyer?

Keith told me that she’s fascinating and I’d learn a lot. So, I went. And she was great. My first clue was that half the room was filled with lawyers taking lots of notes. If I ever have a problem, I’ll just call Gaida fast. She’s great. I wish I had a transcript of her presentation but I took notes, too, and here they are:

· Kim Kardashian said that she’d never use Dr. Siegal’s cookie diet, and would never do an unhealthy diet like his. Dr. Siegal filed a lawsuit and you can read all about it here: Kardashian Article

· Apparently the Ann Taylor Company gave a gift to people who blogged nicely about the company. According to the FTC, you must disclose that to readers. I already knew that. A few years back we did a program for American Express auto insurance. Instead of a traditional sales letter, we used a thank you letter from a happy customer. Our creative director edited it, and we sent the writer a small gift from Tiffany’s. We also added this: “I didn’t get paid for this letter, and my original letter was edited but these are my words. The advertising agency sent me a gift from Tiffany’s to thank me.”

· Gaida (and I) encourage you to read The Digital Milennium Copyright Act.

· Gaida covered a lot of ground quickly. She told us about a woman who spoke badly of her boss on Facebook. Her boss then fired her on her blog. I’ve noticed that people talk freely on Facebook and don’t seem to think that employers or associates might read it. They will, and do!

· There was a fascinating story about Houston’s employees who were griping on Yelp. One of the bosses had gotten onto the site using someone else’s i.d. The employees sued him for “invasion of privacy”.

· Gaida urged us to manage risk in social media by putting together policies for employees. She mentioned the Communications Decency Act, and her parting words were “think before you print”. I think she meant think before you post.

Late one night I was tweeting about my sick cat, Mortimer. One of my followers said that she didn’t care about my cat, and why would I think anyone would? This was followed by a firestorm of people tweeting support for Mortimer. They probably “unfollowed” her.

It amazes me that when I’m in a large group, I almost always hear the same three comments about Twitter:

· Twitter is for kids, mostly following celebrities.

· Who cares what some people are eating for dinner?

· I tried it for a few days, and thought it was like talking to myself.

So many people try Twitter and never go back. That’s like trying to be a doctor and dropping out after BP 101.

When I was growing up my Mom and Dad would never allow quitting. When I signed up (and paid up) for baton twirling lessons, I had to stick with them even after my twirling with fire almost burned out the gym, sort of like Carrie.

Twitter Quitters had short attention spans. All Social Media practitioners are always testing new platforms, engaging with new people and using it everyday.

In fact, I’m just trying Gowalla today, Foursquare, too.

I don’t want to have Twitter as my one area of expertise. Using all the Social Media and connecting them will multi-purpose my content and increase my luck!

Practice, practice, practice.

How do you get to be a Social Media expert? Same answer. And I haven’t practiced nearly enough. Nonetheless, more than a few companies and associations have asked me to speak to them about Social Media. I suppose that’s a good sign – they’re becoming aware of the issue.

Direct Marketing and Branding have always been my major topics and a few years ago I began including thoughts about Social Media in speeches but I’m still no expert.

I’m not even sure who is. We’re all learning and practicing and just when we think we’re close, someone throws a monkey wrench into the works, like Facebook’s new privacy challenges.

Whenever I mention any social medium – Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. – odds are that dozens of people in the audience will know a lot more about it than I do. But I still practice. I’ve been practicing yoga for years and although I’m probably better at tweeting than at downward-facing dog ruminating on the topic remains a stretch.

Of one thing I am certain: if we don’t keep learning about the strategies that work and those that don’t, we’re just stunting our growth.

The real joy of the Social Media arena is that it is dynamic and the halls are filled with people who can teach me new things every day. But if you ask me to speak at your association, don’t invite me as an expert but as someone who is enjoying the practice!

P.S. About 30 years ago, National Lampoon magazine sent a writer tricked out as a tourist to Central Park West (8th Avenue) in New York, a few blocks from Carnegie Hall. The “tourist” asked hundreds of passersby “Excuse me, how do I get to Carnegie Hall” and two thirds of the people answered “practice, practice, practice.”

This was the topic of my speech at the FDMA last week.

When AJ Morales called and asked if I’d speak—I said “No”!

Why? Because, every time I do we get every supplier in our area calling for business. We’re a small group, and spending that time and preparing the speech—usually makes new friends for my agency and that’s good—but it eats up a lot of time.

AJ Morales called back a few weeks later and said I’d help members if I taught them the right way to engage people and get business.

So I relented and did!

Then he changed the venue from the Westin hotel to Johnson & Wales University. I told him attendance would drop like a rock (because people including me)—don’t know where it is.

He said 80 people would show up or he’d eat his hat. I told him I’d bring the hat. Here’s AJ eating his new Yankees hat.

And the group was great! The bonus was there were many students from the University who are taking the Direct Marketing course there. The great professor,
Mr. Mark Neckes is shown here with me.

Hope his students intern with us this summer!

This was my leave-behind from the speech,
the ten steps to getting new business:

I once sent out a tweet that asked how many of my followers read the newspaper every day. A few told me they read it online, and one lady tweeted she reads her Pennysaver every week.

That is a scary thought for me, because I get nervous when people don’t read. Most of all, I feel sick to my stomach when I think people aren’t curious about things going on in the world, or new ideas, or innovations. Just plain curious is good.

Twitter is great that way. If there is breaking news, someone is always tweeting about it, and I hear it first on my Tweetdeck. I can also test all kinds of things on Twitter:

1. Ask people about something, with a link to show it (people read tweets with links).

2. Ask for advice. Recently I was throwing my new iMac into the ocean as I couldn’t get it to work because the monitor showed vertical colored lines. As soon as I tweeted about it, 5 or 6 people told me the computer was dead period. Take it back to the store.

3. I make friends on Twitter with people who share my point of view. Many people who I’ve had conversations with on Twitter have come to visit us, or called me, and when I visit a city…I get many invitations for coffee and lunch to meet in person.

4. For business, because of the huge numbers of people on Twitter, I can do a tweet and invite people to come to our Facebook page and enter a contest. They do come and then I can send them to a website to sign up for a newsletter (and get their email addresses).

5. If I want to find people who are lawyers on Twitter, I can go to twitter.search.com or simply press #lawyers and find all lawyer mentioned in the last 10 minutes or an hour.

The opportunities are endless to use Twitter as the driver to take people to your website, or blog, or E-zine. It’s got great possibilities…and I’m sure you’ll think of new ones for your business!