Tag Archives: Twitter

Jan30

Dreaming Big

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Dreaming Big

If it weren’t for the kindness of one old man at a Burger Heaven many years ago, I might never have had the courage to start my own business. It was a very scary and exciting time in my life. I left my high paying corporate job to start my own business in my living room.

Our agency in South Florida

Most people thought I was out of my mind to leave the security of a great job (with a son to support and parents in need), but I went with my feeling anyway. Besides I did think that someone “upstairs” was watching over me and telling me to take a chance. In order to win BIG, you have to risk BIG. Walking away from that fancy corporate job was the best decision I’ve ever made.

Dianna Huff, my dear Twitter friend, contacted me recently to tell me she was compiling an e-book featuring 23 stories of women (including me) who have gone after their dreams. The book was created to inspire women to overcome obstacles and fears in order to live their best lives.

This book will inspire you!

These extraordinary women are from all walks of life including accomplished entrepreneurs to a triathlon participant who experienced a debilitating accident. The commonality among these women is that they said “Yes” to dreaming big.

All of the proceeds from her book will be donated to the Girls Fight Back foundation. GFB provides personal safety and self-protection education to women and girls across the world.

Please support my friend Dianna and the Girls Fight Back foundation. To purchase the book, please visit her site: profitablefemaleconsultant.com

It will be the beginning of good karma for you too, as this has been a labor of love. To learn more about the extraordinary women featured in this book, please visit them on their websites linked below:

Sarah B Girrell Dianna Huff
Amy Clark Karen Jones
Carolyn Clayton Susan Nolte
Andrea Cohen Terri Rylander
Crystal Coleman Gwen Thomas
Mary Cullen Wendy Thomas
Maura Fine Belinda Wasser
Elle Draper Sandi McCann
Debi Hammond Erin Weed
Sarah Henderson Clare Hovan
Jamie Wallace Rachel Cunliffe

 

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Oct17

Marketing: 5 Lessons I learned from Food Trucks

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Marketing: 5 Lessons I learned from Food Trucks

Food Trucks have been popping up all across the country. Everything deliciously sinful is on a truck. From cake shakes and fried Oreos to ginger Brussels sprouts & Short Rib Sandwiches¬…

When food truck lineups started, even better, one opened up right in front of my Alma Mater, Johnson & Wales University. The BTTR (Biscayne Triangle Truck Round-up) Miami Food Truck Events, usually about 35 trucks, get together once a week.

My friends and I have been going practically every week, and the crowds keep getting bigger. At first, it was mostly college students, and then people from all around the city started showing up.

And that made me wonder. “How did all these people hear about this?”

I decided to investigate! I started watching the trucks, more important asking questions. I came up with some surprising answers. Here’s what they do great, and what they could do:

1. They create a stand out brand personality.
The truck owners put a lot of thought into coming up with a creative name, and overall theme. The decals and truck design can make or break them. Some keep it simple and focus on making good food; others go crazy with characters and graffiti-like design. Just like in any business, standing out from your competitors is key.

2. Most of them get the word out with Social Media.
Food Truck owners use Facebook and Twitter, since they move around a lot, so people can track them down. (A lot of my friends hear about Food Trucks on Twitter or Facebook, and read reviews on which ones are best.)

3. About 75% of Food Trucks I saw have QR codes.
While people stand in line they usually have their smart phones in their hand. Food Truck owners ask them to scan the QR code to follow them on Facebook and Twitter, so they get the latest updates.

4. Missed Opportunity?
I noticed that some trucks have 4” X 6” Flyers with QR Codes linked to Facebook, Twitter, their website and phone number. Why aren’t the owners asking people to sign up for an email list? Missed opportunity? Why not collect their information and send them updates once a week about upcoming events.

5. Reviews! Reviews! Reviews!
Like most people, I have favorite Food Trucks. I’m obsessed with this mouthwatering, scrumdiddlyumptious (no real word can describe how good it is) Short Rib Sandwich. I talk about it on Facebook and my friends have all tried it! A lot of people post reviews on Yelp or their own websites, so it’s a good idea to encourage customers to review your business. Some trucks have a decal asking customers to review them on Yelp.

Any standout Marketing Ideas you’ve seen? Please share your thoughts and comment below.


Guest Blog Post from
Rachel Rodriguez
LGMG Account Exec.

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Jul28

Joy in using Social Media (and in presenting with my friend, Amy Africa).

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Joy in using Social Media (and in presenting with my friend, Amy Africa).

One of the great things about speaking at the annual Merit Direct Coop is that I get a chance to learn new things. I also get to meet some of Merit’s clients and to enjoy the beautiful Renaissance Westchester Hotel.

And this year there was a bonus! I got to share the keynote with Amy Africa and spend a little time with her. The fact that it was her birthday made it even better.

Amy spoke about Mobile Marketing, expertly, as always. My topic was “Everything you need to know about Social Media for B to B companies”.

Some of the things I said might interest you:

I· You can develop a Prospect Database through Social Media. Merit Direct is a great List Company and they know better than anyone else that all kinds of businesses are building their own databases. Twitter and Facebook can help. A lot. Twitter has places for you to create your own lists and segment your audiences. You can also create a landing page on Facebook that ask your friends or fans for their email addresses so you can send them updates or offers.

II· Social Media makes it easier to access people in charge. You can begin a conversation with almost anyone on LinkedIn, Twitter or Facebook. I’ve chatted with people online that I‘d never get to talk to if I called. There’s no gatekeeper and people logon to social media when they have time.

III. You can maximize your own content. Use it for your blog, white papers, etc. and broadcast it with links from social media. It’ll get you out to a larger audience.

IV. Talking about your company in all of these places, you can develop a large brand, even though you might be a small startup company. At the Merit Direct Coop, I was delighted to meet one fellow I’d been talking to online for a while. I thought he had a large company. Turned out it was a startup! Goes to show you what you can do with a social media approach.

V. And … You can also communicate with your customers along the buying cycle.

You might also want to consider this:

- The B2B buyer cycle is complex

- The offerings are more sophisticated (what they can do
and on what scale)

- B2B buyers are curious about how a product can make life easier and business better (mistakes can be costly)

- to win a B2B sale you first have to build trust, demonstrate how reliable your product is, and show how it is suitable

- determine each customer’s perspective, and mirror their concerns with benefits

- B2B buyer cycle will always require thoughtful consideration, due to the sophistication of the offerings.

- With targeted online experiences we can shorten the length of time between first contact to signed contract.

A chart of some Conversion Metrics

When I spoke on the exact same topic at the Merit Direct Coop a few years ago, we had a nice crowd. This time there was a lot more people, and we were in the ballroom. B to B sees the power of Social Media.

Happy Birthday, Amy.

Celebrating with Amy Africa (@AmyAfrica)(EightbyEight) and friends; Barbara de la Riva (@bdelariva), Linda Pickering, and Joanna Brandi (@joannabrandi)(Customer Care Coach)

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Jun3

Marketing: Five lessons from my recent American Airlines misery

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Marketing: Five lessons from my recent American Airlines misery

Last week’s post (and subsequent Tweets) elicited responses from some nice people at American Airlines, one of whom is a VP at American Eagle.

They refunded our airfares (we never did get to our final destination) and, all in all, were very pleasant in resolving a lot of my concerns. It took them a while.

Lesson 1: Handle complainers fairly and promptly and you’ll probably get them back as customers, happier customers.

Along the way, a lot of my blog and Twitter friends tweeted and emailed about their AA problems. I hope the airline, at least for its own sake, does its best to help them out. If I owned AA, I’d get helpful people online and on the phone immediately.

The problems I heard about (as well as my own problems) rarely had anything to do with bad weather or mechanical problems. We’re all grownups and we know that stuff happens. The problem is always the way a company handles customers’ issues. It’s a lot like the bigger problem politicians always seem to create after they’re caught doing something stupid. The inevitable dissembling, outright lying and tap dancing for the media – the spin – cause more problems than the original offense.

Lesson 2: Tell the truth.

I was talking to a west coast friend last night. His name is Dwain and he’s an online whiz. He suggested that maybe American Airlines shouldn’t even be involved in social media. They’re not dedicating enough resources to it. He might be right; as near as I can tell, AA has two people working on Twitter and, apparently, neither works on weekends. Again, if I owned the company, I’d have more people, with some company clout, ready, able and, most of all, willing to help customers solve their problems.

Lesson 3: Don’t bring a knife to a gunfight.
Above all, don’t do what AT&T does – threaten customers who have problems. I found this unbelievably ham-handed and so will you: econsultancy.com

Lesson 4: They’re your customers for crying out loud. Treat them badly and they’ll tell two friends who’ll each tell two friends, and sooner or later one or more of them will eventually tell the whole world … which they can do just by typing a few words and hitting “Post”.

On my AA debacle-trip, I was traveling with a friend. Neither of us racks up hundreds of thousands of miles in the air every year but we do fly a lot, perhaps 40 flights a year between us. Nobody in the Chicago airport the night the debacle went down, seemed to understand that we, and probably a lot of our fellow passengers, represented significant business – and that’s not counting all the people we influence.

Lesson 5: Know you’re customer. Get gate people and phone people to look us up and react accordingly. Treating everyone fairly is a good idea; treating really good customers fairly is a great idea.

How do you think American Airlines and companies like them should handle the complaints they get – given their tiny social media presence? Please let me know, because maybe we can help them and ourselves.

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Mar21

I Tweet therefore I am.

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I Tweet therefore I am.

I went to a Gilda’s Club luncheon yesterday with about 150 other women, only three of whom I knew. We were all there to help Gilda’s Club raise money to support people living with cancer.

It was a lot fun for a good cause but I was mildly distracted by an odd thought that kept recurring throughout the afternoon: This is a lot like Twitter. It hit me just after we got there. Some people had bought whole tables so, of course, we couldn’t sit at them. I joined a table with mostly strangers. It was like Twitter only with Twitter, my computer is the table.

I like to meet lots of people.

Just as with Twitter, I talked to some people I know but mostly I looked forward to meeting the people I’d never met before. On Twitter, I follow new people all the time as long as they aren’t spammers, bots or think frequent cussing is cool. A friend tells me you’re cool on Twitter only if you follow few and have thousands who follow you. With me, it’s the more the merrier. Recently I had a party in my apartment with about 60 people for dinner.

You never know when you’re meeting a prospect.

Occasionally one of those all-business types will ask “Why do you waste your time with all these people if your objective is to build your business?” They’d never understand my real reason so I usually tell them some version of a true story I blogged about a while back – selling a fully loaded Ford Explorer to a blind man: Who would think you could sell a car to a blind man?

The idea of course is that you never really know. It’s why I follow and enjoy people like @aviationartlife. If you build a network of friends, good things just happen. Or not.

Reciprocating and “giving first” works.

I get a kick out of retweeting interesting or useful information so that people can enjoy it or use it, too. And I always thank the people who Retweet my comments. It’s Twitter courtesy.

Marketing is my passion.

Many of my tweets are about my business: marketing, branding, getting measurable results for programs. So when I read a great article in a marketing magazine, I find it online and then provide a link to it. Last week I mentioned a Harvard Business Review article and one of my followers said I was stretching him out of his “comfort zone”. Made me laugh.

People come from Twitter into my “real” world.

I get to know some of my Twitter friends so well that they begin to mail me information about themselves or their companies. Then they call to make an appointment to visit. Joe Blumenfeld of @JoeBees vitamins, and a few weeks ago @theflaggagency ‘s Chuck Flagg dropped by on the way to a cruise.

(Chuck Flagg pictured on the left, Joe Blumenstein on the right.)

So like Gilda’s Club, Twitter can help people do great things. Sometimes it’s that huge protest in Egypt, sometimes it’s as ephemeral as reading celebrity Tweets. Most of all it is a place to begin relationships with lots of people who just might someday become friends for no reason at all, except that they like you! ?

What is your Twitter philosophy?

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