I must fly east!

Over the past 10 years, the first decade of the new millenium I professionally, in no certain order - learned about search engine optimization, wrote telemarketing scripts, branded a credit union, learned how to email with my cell phone, how to work on a website, how to use an email marketing program, continued to use direct mail – I am still a fan of postcard mailings, used Google Analytics, hired and fired and mentored and volunteered, changed the name of a credit union, laid out many business cards, directed the production of  digital business cards, created conferences in Florida-twice in my technology industry days, directed a story for StoryCorps on NPR, was published nationally and locally and on wikipedia, spoke nationally and locally, laid out a newsletter, created a silent auction fundraiser for Boy Scouts,  voted for the Best Margarita in the Pioneer Valley, learned how to use a PDA and Skype,  owned four different laptops, five different cell phones – looking at Android OS one now,  tweeted with Peter Shankman, wrote marketing plans, wrote social media plans, changed jobs, blogged and texted, used Lotus Notes and Outlook, attended seminars and webinars, conferences and teleconferences, marketed Girl Scout cookies, served on many boards - left many, created vinyl banners and created banner ads;  and so much more; bought four digital cameras, joined linkedin, facebook, plaxo, myspace, and classmates, taped things on VCR tapes, DVR’d, burned CDs and DVDs, did live TV and radio, changed industries,  created videos, love Open Table, became a stronger alumni of WSC, placed print ads, placed Google ads,  sold on ebay but never bought, wrote hand-written thank you’s and will continue to do that, studied Catholic School marketing, raised money to help abused children and cried a lot,  use ITunes for my IPod, used AAA TripTiks, drove to Kentucky with my GPS, took a train to Chicago, flew north, south and west-but not east.  In this new decade, I must fly east!

A Weekend Of Customer Service

A weekend of customer service; you decide what is right!

On Friday I had an issue with using PayPal.  I called them.  They answered my question, walked me through the solution and made sure it was working right before we hung up.  They were determined to be helpful.  I also got a follow-up survey from the customer service rep to fill out about the type of service they provided.  Guess what, I would recommend PayPal.

On Saturday I was trying to fix my Roomba.  When I couldn’t fix it myself, I called IRobot.  They assisted me through a number of different trials of attempting to fix the mini-machine.  We finally got to a point where it should work.  When I went to try it, it turned out it needed to be charged.  So IRobot gave me a reference number and they said if it wasn’t working still after it was charged, to call back and use the reference number.  Once charged, it still wasn’t working.  So I called back, the woman apologized for all my trouble, and decided it needed a new part. She said even though it was a few months past warranty, they would send me the part free.  Guess what, I would buy another IRobot product.

But today, I called a local interior designer.  I had a gift certificate for a consultation for my home.  I had called her in June and explained I had the gift certificate and that I planned on using it.  She said fine, explained what she did for a consult and then I could hire her after if I wanted.   I told her I would call her back when I was in front of my calendar to schedule an appointment.    Well, the summer got busy, I had unexpected company for the whole month of July, then played catch up on everything in August, so I just got around to calling her back to reschedule.  We set up an appointment for today at 1:30 p.m. 

Today came and it turned out I had to be at my son’s school at 2:00 p. m.  I called the interior designer and explained I got called to my son’s school unexpectedly for 2:00 so I was going to have to reschedule.  What happened after that was one of the worst examples of customer service I have ever witnessed.  She lectured me and  said she was very unhappy that I had to reschedule, I had now done this to her twice, she had to reschedule things to accomodate by appointment today, and that she had a business to run and that the gift certificate was over a year old but she was making good on it.  I let her talk and express all her frustration with me, the customer. 

I then explained to her, that this was the first time I had to cancel and that she didn’t even give me a chance to say I could meet her later than the 1:30 appointment today.  I also educated her on the fact that gift certificates in Massachusetts legally are valid for seven years.  I then explained that as a marketing/sales/pr professional I was very taken back by her behavior towards a customer/potential customer.  I explained also I was surprised at her attitude given sales are very hard to get today. That didn’t seem to bother her.    She did say she would be willing to reschedule one more time, but I, the customer would have to definitely commit to making that appointment.  I hung up on her.  Guess what, I would not recommend her or buy her services.

Fluent – as in fluent

Questions, what is the impact of social media, what is it affecting, what is….

http://tiny.cc/GLWXG

SEO tools and resources

Hi, thanks to my friends at Aston Services, just moved out of Northampton, MA to Westfield, MA for this info. Very helpful in marketing/PR SEO tools.

http://www.webconfs.com/search-engine-spider-simulator.php

Communicate social media value to your boss!

After going through this information this morning, I actually now have a folder on my computer called ‘Social Media’. Guess it is about time. I guess this info was worthy of being saved. I often hear the question, how do I convince others about the value.

Check out the free #hubspot webinar ‘How to Demonstrate the Value of Social Media’ w @chrisbrogan – http://bit.ly/smvalue

Bucking and hiring!

Facebook bucks:  http://tiny.cc/L29WD

Portland hires:  http://tiny.cc/Cxh4b

WSJ Credit Union Marketing Tool

The Wall Street Journal handed a long awaited no cost marketing/pr tool to credit unions this weekend.

How lucky are they? …http://tiny.cc/LVV24

The Bacon Explosion

Today we can find many fantastic ways of keeping up with our changing marketing landscape. Here is a very intriguing one I was recently invited to:

A free webinar: Bacon Explosion 101: How to Create a Social Marketing Phenomenon.  According to MarketBright, “The term “Bacon Explosion” is quickly becoming short hand for “Viral Marketing Campaign”, and let’s all hope it replaces that term permanently. The Bacon Explosion was the brainchild of two of the top internet marketing minds around; Aaron Chronister and Jason Day. It was a simple idea: put a recipe for an explosively delicious BBQ dish on their site and then promote it through social media. What was not typical was the clever strategies Aaron and team deployed and which resulted in coverage in the New York Times, Good Morning America, Fox News and Air America Radio. Since launching the recipe, the BBQ Addicts website has received close to 1.5 million visitors and continues to spread all over the internet. “ 

Maybe you want to attend too!  http://www.marketbright.com/

A Call to Action

The New York Times Book Review stated that Ralph Nader’s book, The Good Fight, is fundamentally a call to action.  Last week when I attended Ralph Nader’s talk  at Westfield State College I understood why.  His first point is that we do not expect/demand enough of our government; we should ask for more.  Why sit back and not ask?  One concept was to teach civic citizen  classes as he sees a decline in understanding or caring.  He went on to discuss ‘community economic self-reliance’ – “let’s put some meaning into community,” he stated. 

His community economic self-reliance words produced a large shoutout to credit unions and discussed their importance as cooperatives of the people.  And, then he gave the example of the Schumacher Society and BerkShares, another very interesting concept. 

I can’t write here the passion in his talk but from the few sentences above, I think you get his message.  He believes we have been brought to “ouch”, yes, I think we are all feeling that pain; and believes that more of us need “fire in our bellies” so we can deter “ouch” in the future!

Prediction on the Press Release

In the free webinar by Vocus on Tuesday, Peter Shankman predicted that the press release will be gone in three years; public relations professionals will provide content to writers that they are looking for; writers will know who to contact for content; and social media will provide the rest and help this prediction along!