Social media is at the forefront of the marketing battle these days…Facebook, Twitter, Ning and more are now major parts of companies, especially entrepreneurial companies, marketing plans. And then, something unfortunate happens in your organization and you're faced with a decision on how to proceed.
I’ve been following closely what Sea World is doing relative to their social media effort in light of the horrible situation with the death of one of their animal trainers. I’ve admired Sea World’s Twitter campaign…Shamu was one of my favorites in terms of following, but also in terms of showing folks how Twitter (and social media in general) can be used. Here are a couple of links to recent articles in the Orlando Sentinel regarding the Sea World social media campaign and what they’re doing now.
Sea World Impresses with Online Response to Trainers Death
Social Media Risks
Here’s hoping that Sea World will bring Shamu back soon to Twitter.
Friday, February 26, 2010
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
More on BlackboardEats.com
After yesterday’s post on BlackboardEats.com, I heard from Maggie Nemser, Founder / Editor-in-Chief of the company. I mentioned in the post that I thought the technology referenced in the article seems “very old school and could benefit from something like Twitter,” she wrote back to say that they “do use Twitter & FB and also easily encourage people to tweet & facebook our deals (which you will see when a deal is live on tue & thurs).”
Thanks, Maggie for the information. This is a neat use of technology to solve an age-old problem for restaurant owners…how to fill seats, generate buzz and still get some cash flow especially when you’re trying to launch a new restaurant or change concepts.
Thanks, Maggie for the information. This is a neat use of technology to solve an age-old problem for restaurant owners…how to fill seats, generate buzz and still get some cash flow especially when you’re trying to launch a new restaurant or change concepts.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
BlackboardEats...Now That's a Name!
Interesting story from the LA Times about an enterprising entrepreneur who is taking advantage of the difficult times facing restaurants and providing them with what they need…lots of customers. The catch, the customers are getting a big discount on the meal. While I like the idea, I can’t help but feel that the technology is very old school and could benefit from something like Twitter.
The story by Jessica Gelt…BlackboardEats Gives Foodies Discounts at High End LA Restaurants. From the article:
Founded in September by former Yahoo.com food editor Maggie Nemser, BlackboardEats has become a Los Angeles foodie phenomenon. At a time when the starved economy has sucked the fat out of the restaurant business, Nemser has created a free service designed to drive the young, hungry and food-obsessed straight into open banquettes.
The service is simple. Interested parties subscribe to the website by filling out a short form asking only for name, e-mail address and ZIP Code. Then twice a week they receive an e-mail offering an exclusive deal. For example, a free flight of wine at Echo Park's City Sip, or 30% off the bill at Ammo.Subscribers have 24 hours to request a pass code for the promotion and 30 days to redeem it. There are no fees, no blackout dates and no fine print. Most important of all, however, is that Nemser, 30, has managed to make the service feel fashionable and upscale so it pulls in a demographic that is desirable to restaurateurs.
The story by Jessica Gelt…BlackboardEats Gives Foodies Discounts at High End LA Restaurants. From the article:
Founded in September by former Yahoo.com food editor Maggie Nemser, BlackboardEats has become a Los Angeles foodie phenomenon. At a time when the starved economy has sucked the fat out of the restaurant business, Nemser has created a free service designed to drive the young, hungry and food-obsessed straight into open banquettes.
The service is simple. Interested parties subscribe to the website by filling out a short form asking only for name, e-mail address and ZIP Code. Then twice a week they receive an e-mail offering an exclusive deal. For example, a free flight of wine at Echo Park's City Sip, or 30% off the bill at Ammo.Subscribers have 24 hours to request a pass code for the promotion and 30 days to redeem it. There are no fees, no blackout dates and no fine print. Most important of all, however, is that Nemser, 30, has managed to make the service feel fashionable and upscale so it pulls in a demographic that is desirable to restaurateurs.
Friday, February 19, 2010
US Small Business Outlook 2010
Just ran across an interesting piece from Forbes Magazine, their US Small Business Outlook 2010. The summary of the report is below; to get the entire report go to: http://www.forbes.com/forbesinsights/lessonslearned/index.html
SUMMARY: Having survived what may have been the most turbulent and confusing 12-18 months they’ve ever faced, small business owners are hoping that the hard lessons they’ve had to face will provide them with the discipline and control necessary to help ensure their success.
According to the U.S. Small Business Outlook 2010, conducted by Forbes Insights in association with financial services provider CIT, small business owners are working harder and longer than ever before. The good news: they also feel they are now smarter about running their businesses and are better leaders.
Small business owners also feel they are operating in a new economic reality, one where the old ways of doing business no longer apply. Strategically, they are trying to find new ways to take advantage of market opportunities, and most expect to be running their businesses more aggressively in 2010 than they did in 2009. The study also examines small business attitudes towards planning, employee retention, marketing, and the impact of economic stimuli on their operations.
SUMMARY: Having survived what may have been the most turbulent and confusing 12-18 months they’ve ever faced, small business owners are hoping that the hard lessons they’ve had to face will provide them with the discipline and control necessary to help ensure their success.
According to the U.S. Small Business Outlook 2010, conducted by Forbes Insights in association with financial services provider CIT, small business owners are working harder and longer than ever before. The good news: they also feel they are now smarter about running their businesses and are better leaders.
Small business owners also feel they are operating in a new economic reality, one where the old ways of doing business no longer apply. Strategically, they are trying to find new ways to take advantage of market opportunities, and most expect to be running their businesses more aggressively in 2010 than they did in 2009. The study also examines small business attitudes towards planning, employee retention, marketing, and the impact of economic stimuli on their operations.
So You Want to Open a Restaurant?
Anyone who regularly reads this blog knows that I love entrepreneurship…and love food. Here is an interesting link between entrepreneurship and food and it’s found in the NY Times. They have a blog running in their business section that follows an entrepreneur who wants to start his own restaurant. The blog is written by Bruce Buschel and it’s part of the You’re the Boss blog series. And if you’re ever thinking about uttering those magic words, “Let’s open a restaurant,” you owe it to yourself to read these posts. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not suggesting you not do it…just read ‘em to help prepare for some of the trials ahead of you.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Social Media and Fed Ex
Dwain DeVille (Biker’s Guide to Business) sent over this article by Matt Ceniceros (FedEx’s Global Communications Manager of Media Relations) on 5 Things FedEx has Learned about Managing Relationships through Social Media. Right now, there is a lot of shouting out there in the media space about HOW YOU MUST RIGHT NOW GET INVOLVED WITH SOCIAL MEDIA OR YOU AND YOUR COMPANY WILL DIE! I like this piece because it provides some thoughtful ways that using social media can really help our businesses. This was posted on American Express Open Forum which is a neat resource for entrepreneurs.
Ninety-six percent of Gen Y has joined social networks. Nearly half of Internet users read a blog at least once a month. More than six in ten small businesses use social networks to answer customer questions.With statistics like this, you can see why FedEx has utilized social media – blogs, Twitter, online video, and social networks – to speak with our audience. Social media allows a large company like FedEx to act like a small company – interacting with customers in a personal, immediate way. As a member of the FedEx media relations team, I tweet and blog, help internal bloggers create and manage posts, and handle other elements of our social media activities. I’d like to share five key points we’ve learned about managing relationships through social media, because I think the lessons are applicable to companies of any size.
Social media expedites your ability to intelligently gather information.
Managing relationships effectively hinges on gathering information about feelings, perceptions, reactions and customer sentiments. Tweets, blogs, and social networks give you immediate access to focus groups in real time. A response to one of our blogs inspired the successful FedEx Office Free Resume Day this March, where we printed up to 25 resumes at no cost for job seekers. In days past, you might go to a Chamber of Commerce mixer and stroll around listening for a pertinent conversation to join. Now you can join those ongoing conversations anytime with Facebook, twitter, and LinkedIn. Social media provides an efficient and streamlined way to gather information intelligently and apply it quickly to your business.
Social media humanizes a company.
We’ve found consumers enjoy stories of events and activities taking place around our company, focusing on the FedEx team members involved. Many of our most popular social media activities are highly personal – like blogs about how ten FedEx drivers were finalists at the National Truck Driving Championships or about our efforts to rescue 500 dogs and cats from a Kentucky flood. Social media is a way to personalize your brand and make it accessible to the world. A photographer’s online samples can really come alive with a blog explaining how she made a trio of young kids sit still and smile by singing a song. Simple things like that begin a dialogue, cultivating and deepening relationships.
Social media allows you to engage in in-depth conversations.
Social media is about sharing not selling. We try to provide information and resources that are of genuine value. Our FedEx Citizenship blog, for example, allows some of brightest minds at FedEx to provide their insights into how culture, people and policy affect global commerce. Around Mother’s Day, we invited mom bloggers to tell how our services connected their families. The goal of all this is to engage people in conversations, let influencers help tell our story, and introduce transparency into how, why, and what we do in the citizenship arena. This shows customers a more complete picture of FedEx as more than a delivery company, tying that “human element” back to what we do as a business. Participating in social media allows businesses to both inform and influence the conversations.
Social media uncovers opportunities fast.
Social media tools help businesses identify and realize business benefits of real – time conversation search, along with the opportunity for immediate and direct connectivity and response. Every day, I use a free application to automatically search Twitter for entries related to the FedEx business – as a result we’ve gained customers who were asking questions about how to ship products or who expressed frustration with the shipping experience. On one occasion, I saw such a tweet at 9 a.m., our salesman arranged to meet the customer at 11 a.m., and by 3 p.m. their packages were in our trucks heading to their destination. No way could that have happened so quickly without social media. I’m not in sales, but it helped to facilitate a dialogue with the sales organization to provide a positive customer experience.
Social media simply takes you back to basics.
"Social media” can seem like a complex world of diverse and daunting technology. But the technology is fairly easy to learn if you spent some time with it. Social media is really just another channel to tell people about your business. If you read any of the top online influencers like Chris Brogan, Mack Collier or Dan Schwabel they all give insights on how to be “social” and personal online. They tackle many of the issues we have in face-to-face communication, but how to translate the learning’s online. So ask yourself, is my goal to generate immediate leads or keep in touch with existing customers? Your answer inevitably suggests what type of social media channel to utilize – be it a short tweet, lengthy blog or online video. Or perhaps a mix of social and traditional media outreach to reinforce and compliment each other. Social media takes work. But from the energy and focus has paid off by enabling stronger and deeper relationships. If you want to share some ideas, let me know -- I’m always ready to discuss, tweet and listen.
Ninety-six percent of Gen Y has joined social networks. Nearly half of Internet users read a blog at least once a month. More than six in ten small businesses use social networks to answer customer questions.With statistics like this, you can see why FedEx has utilized social media – blogs, Twitter, online video, and social networks – to speak with our audience. Social media allows a large company like FedEx to act like a small company – interacting with customers in a personal, immediate way. As a member of the FedEx media relations team, I tweet and blog, help internal bloggers create and manage posts, and handle other elements of our social media activities. I’d like to share five key points we’ve learned about managing relationships through social media, because I think the lessons are applicable to companies of any size.
Social media expedites your ability to intelligently gather information.
Managing relationships effectively hinges on gathering information about feelings, perceptions, reactions and customer sentiments. Tweets, blogs, and social networks give you immediate access to focus groups in real time. A response to one of our blogs inspired the successful FedEx Office Free Resume Day this March, where we printed up to 25 resumes at no cost for job seekers. In days past, you might go to a Chamber of Commerce mixer and stroll around listening for a pertinent conversation to join. Now you can join those ongoing conversations anytime with Facebook, twitter, and LinkedIn. Social media provides an efficient and streamlined way to gather information intelligently and apply it quickly to your business.
Social media humanizes a company.
We’ve found consumers enjoy stories of events and activities taking place around our company, focusing on the FedEx team members involved. Many of our most popular social media activities are highly personal – like blogs about how ten FedEx drivers were finalists at the National Truck Driving Championships or about our efforts to rescue 500 dogs and cats from a Kentucky flood. Social media is a way to personalize your brand and make it accessible to the world. A photographer’s online samples can really come alive with a blog explaining how she made a trio of young kids sit still and smile by singing a song. Simple things like that begin a dialogue, cultivating and deepening relationships.
Social media allows you to engage in in-depth conversations.
Social media is about sharing not selling. We try to provide information and resources that are of genuine value. Our FedEx Citizenship blog, for example, allows some of brightest minds at FedEx to provide their insights into how culture, people and policy affect global commerce. Around Mother’s Day, we invited mom bloggers to tell how our services connected their families. The goal of all this is to engage people in conversations, let influencers help tell our story, and introduce transparency into how, why, and what we do in the citizenship arena. This shows customers a more complete picture of FedEx as more than a delivery company, tying that “human element” back to what we do as a business. Participating in social media allows businesses to both inform and influence the conversations.
Social media uncovers opportunities fast.
Social media tools help businesses identify and realize business benefits of real – time conversation search, along with the opportunity for immediate and direct connectivity and response. Every day, I use a free application to automatically search Twitter for entries related to the FedEx business – as a result we’ve gained customers who were asking questions about how to ship products or who expressed frustration with the shipping experience. On one occasion, I saw such a tweet at 9 a.m., our salesman arranged to meet the customer at 11 a.m., and by 3 p.m. their packages were in our trucks heading to their destination. No way could that have happened so quickly without social media. I’m not in sales, but it helped to facilitate a dialogue with the sales organization to provide a positive customer experience.
Social media simply takes you back to basics.
"Social media” can seem like a complex world of diverse and daunting technology. But the technology is fairly easy to learn if you spent some time with it. Social media is really just another channel to tell people about your business. If you read any of the top online influencers like Chris Brogan, Mack Collier or Dan Schwabel they all give insights on how to be “social” and personal online. They tackle many of the issues we have in face-to-face communication, but how to translate the learning’s online. So ask yourself, is my goal to generate immediate leads or keep in touch with existing customers? Your answer inevitably suggests what type of social media channel to utilize – be it a short tweet, lengthy blog or online video. Or perhaps a mix of social and traditional media outreach to reinforce and compliment each other. Social media takes work. But from the energy and focus has paid off by enabling stronger and deeper relationships. If you want to share some ideas, let me know -- I’m always ready to discuss, tweet and listen.
Monday, February 15, 2010
IP Law for Startups
In reading through the Ask the VC blog, they mentioned an interesting new blog related to the law and the entrepreneur that’s called IP Law for Startups: Lessons on trade secret, trademark, copyright and patent law for entrepreneurs. Its author is attorney Jill Bowman and she puts it, “Most law blogs speak to other lawyers. That’s not the case here. My goal is to speak to entrepreneurs and explain intellectual property law issues in clear, easy to understand language—at least to the extent possible given the nature of legal mumbo jumbo.”
Given that the recommendation comes from Brad Feld and Jason Mendelson, it looks like a blog that we should be reading.
Given that the recommendation comes from Brad Feld and Jason Mendelson, it looks like a blog that we should be reading.
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