I’m dedicating this Friday’s post to my new favorite company, Love Sac. Aside from the fact that I think their marketing is genius (their bags say “Lovesac.com is not a dirty website”), they offer a quality, flexible product. We went the Love Sac store in Tysons Corner, VA, because my parents were showing up for a visit the next day and we had no furniture in the new house. I needed seating and I needed it fast. First, I must say that the young hipster that helped us was incredibly knowledgeable and accommodating without being pushy. He seemed like he really believed in the product and I drank the Kool Aid. My husband was a little more skeptical, but soon bought into the shpeel.
We went into the store planning to purchase one Super Sac. After the presentation, we were so convinced that this was what we needed that we bought the Super Sac AND a Sactional (Love Sac’s version of the sectional) called the Movie Lounger. Total cost - a little over $2000.00. But here’s the thing, the Sactional can be configured in a variety of ways that I found very practical. The covers are also interchangeable for all products, so you can change the look and color of the room without having to buy new furniture. The covers can also withstand the slobbering, kneading and jumping of dogs which was critical for us. The covers are also machine washable. All, in all, we are sold.
We were a little concerned about fitting the furniture into the truck. No worries. The Super Sac is vacuum sealed into a cube-shaped bag that weighs about 90 pounds. It was heavy but would easily fit into any car.
I dragged it from the car and up the stairs and began to unpack the heavy cube. Unpacking consists of unzipping the bag, pulling out the heavy plastic sealed sac and pulling the plastic off. It’s interesting because the foam on the inside is essentially still in one big block.
So, you get to spend the next 2-3 hours “fluffing” the sac per the instructions on the outside of the bag. Fluffing consists of digging your fingers into the foam through the sac cover and pulling the foam apart. Then you flip the sac over, rinse and repeat. At first, you don’t think that its ever going to fluff up, but the circulation of the air helps the foam inside to expand.
It was a good workout and my fingers and arms ached. I ended up with a blister on my finger from perpetual fluffing, but within about three hours the foam within the sac was completely broken up.
It wasn’t particularly easy or as fun as the website or directions claimed it would be, but all in all, it wasn’t horrible and we did get immediate seating.
Here, you can see that Max truly enjoys the Super Sac.
We covered the Super Sac in the “Earth” Microfiber cover which is working perfectly. Love Sac recommends that you “chair” the sac before you sit in it to help give it the sustained form of a sofa.
We LOVE our Super Sac and highly recommend it for anyone looking for a quality, functional piece of furniture for any room.
Next Friday, I’ll chronicle the set-up of the Sactional. It’s uber groovy. Have a great weekend!
I’ve been talking to my PR peeps about our strategy for 2009. With the economy in the gutter and donors holding back on giving, its going to take some creative ideas to make a nonprofit stand out in a crowd. In a nutshell, I want GoodDogz.org to become a household name, in a positive way, whatever it takes. We promote, a lot, and yet I still meet folks from our area that have never heard of us. And it drives me nuts.
I am a huge fan and advocate of edgy advertising. I started thinking about marketing campaigns that I notice - good and bad - and what I notice about them. Here’s what I came up with in no particular order:
KY Yours and Mine - OK, here’s the thing. KY Jelly is one of those things that you are afriad to look at in the grocery store for fear that someone might see you. And most people won’t buy it without wearing Groucho Marx glasses. But, IMO, this KY Yours and Mine campaign has almost destigmatized the use of the product. I think that it gives you that “these normal people buy this stuff, why can’t I?” feeling. And that’s power.
AT&T - Some of these commercials are better than others, but I have a sick enjoyment for the morbidity of this commercial. If only he had AT&T, he wouldn’t be…well…dead. Again, kind of weird and controversial. I like it.
Aspercream - “You bet your sweet aspercream!” ‘Nuff said.
True North Nuts - This commercial was never meant to be funny. But the complete miscommunication of the words “nut snack” made this commercial an internet gold nugget.
Yes, these commercials are funny to some and stupid to most, but at the end of the day…we remember them and that’s what really matters.
I’m using my Friday this week, to admit that I’m terrible at time management and vow, publicly, to a plan for next week. Maybe this will help you as well.
“How much time do you spend building your social media brand?” This question came up as part of the Social Media Primer I participated in on Wednesday. And it’s a totally valid question. When you start talking about all of the cool tools available and the engagement required - it seems like an incredible time suck…and it can be. Just yesterday, I planned to catch up on business reading. Instead it turned into a day of tweets, Facebook and blogging. And it happened quickly. So to put some perspective on the time that I spend vs. the time required…I’ll map it out.
I run Twhirl all day in the background to keep up with tweets on Twitter. This is probably a bad idea and I think I’m going to stop doing it. It is distracting and cuts into time that I should be doing other things. So, to guess, I probably spend a total of an hour checking Twitter alone.
I check Facebook every time I see an update via email, so that probably turns into .5 hours per day. And most of the time, the update has nothing to do with business.
I usually check LinkedIn once in the AM, so I’m OK there.
I blog for several different blogs and I do this throughout the day. So, let’s say 1 hour for blogging on any given day.
I follow-up on any updates on the GoodDogz.org NING community when needed.
So, as you can see, although I think I’m great at time management -I’m not. In fact, this is pretty bad.
Here’s my goal for next week - we’ll see how it goes and I’ll report again on Friday.
8:30AM to 10AM - Check Facebook, LinkedIn Groups/Q&A, AM Twitter, Email, 1 Blog Post and HARO (I’m not an early riser so 8:30AM is about the earliest you’re going to get out of me.)
10AM to Noon - Work on proposals, prospecting or client work
Noon to 1PM - Lunch
1PM to 2PM - Business Reading (this is something that I cannot seem to make happen so I’m going to schedule it into my day)
2PM to 4PM - Client work
4PM to 5PM - COB Followup on Email, Outstanding Issues
Next week I don’t have any meetings written in stone so barring anything unforseen, I can make this work. So according to my plan, I’m going to spend 1.5 hours on social media building next week. We’ll see.
I’m in the process of learning how to shoot, edit and publish video. Somehow, through 13 years of web development and marketing, I managed to avoid video altogether. It’s a long overdue endeavor and I have to admit that I am enjoying it.
Video helps put a personal spin - a face - on your company, organization or message. For me, video means that I can bring my thoughts, in my own voice (and face), to my blog… and ultimately… to you. My hope is that although we may not live in the same neighborhood, we can work together and share ideas like we’re next door neighbors. I’m a nice person - let’s get to know each other. =)
So, that brings me to Viddler - my new favorite tool. I shot some video, saved it and thought…uh…what do I do now? One my my friends had suggested that I try Viddler. Viddler allows you to shoot video through its website using your webcam, encode it and post it directly to your blog. You can also upload video for encoding. And, like, YouTube, you can share your videos with the world.
I’ve found Viddler very easy to use and so far it does exactly what I need. For the record, I bought a Logitech QuickCam Pro 9000. It was about $59 after a $20 rebate.
So, prepare yourself for more video of me than you could ever have hoped for (or wanted). And, please share your ideas for using video to promote your message. I’d love to hear from you.
Lately, I’ve been working with clients looking for domains for their websites. Some of the ideas that have been passed around have been creative to borderline scary. Here are a few quick tips to keep in mind when choosing a domain name for your business or organization…
Keywords - Try to include a relevant keyword in your domain. This will increase your rankings within search engines. It may be difficult, but its worth doing if you can.
Branding - Do what you can to find a name that matches your business name or brand. If you are branding yourself, I highly recommend purchasing your name (i.e. www.bethjbates.com). This will increase your SEO as well as promote your personal brand.
KISS - Keep your domain as short and sweet as possible. The rule of thumb used to be less than 13 characters, but since domain sales have become a booming business, its a lot harder to find concise keywords. Avoid hyphenating your name if you can. Try to choose a domain that you can easily verbalize either in a conversation or on voice mail. If you have to continually spell it, you may want to think again.
Be Memorable - Don’t let the guidelines deter you from being creative. If the obvious domain isn’t available, think of something that will grab the attention of your clients or constituents. There is a pizza place around the corner called Anthony’s, but their domain is “nobodydoughsitbetter.com”. Hard to spell but kind of catchy.
Extensions - There are so many extensions available now that it’s hard to know what to choose. If you are a commercial business, do what you can to get .com. If you are a non-profit, I recommend buying both .com and .org.
Register Your Domain Now - Even if you are still planning your website, buy your domain(s) now. If you don’t - it may be gone.
Consider More Than One - Consider purchasing common misspellings, alternate spellings, an abbreviated domain, etc. You can point them to the same website.
With some thought and a little luck, you’ll find a domain that is effective, simple and creative!
This morning, I was invited to participate in a panel entitled “Web 2.0: Beyond the Hype” for professional service firms. The panel was hosted by Hinge and included two other lovely colleagues - Tracy Betts and Jen Sterling. We focused on objectives, assumptions, validation, technology selection and results for your social media campaign. Here are the take aways:
Objectives. Almost every business starting a social media campaign has the main goal of gaining exposure for their message. While exposure is a byproduct of social media, your objectives should focus on user engagement, not only from customer to business but also customer to customer. No matter what your objectives are (and they may vary depending on your needs) always remember that engagement is key.
Assumptions. In this case, assumptions refer to the theories you have about your audience. Who are they and more importantly, where are they? Are you targeting a younger crowd who are frequenting Facebook or MySpace? Is your market business professionals who may be on LinkedIn? Define your market and think about where they spend their time - both socially and professionally.
Validation. So you think you know where your audience spends their time? Go there. Spend some time within the space communicating with the folks who “live” there. If your theories are correct, you’ll find the most effective properties to target your campaign. If you are wrong about your assumptions, you may need to do more research to determine where your audience is on the web.
Technology Selection. Based upon your audience and their online habits, determine what tools are best for reaching them. Don’t overwhelm yourself. Start small with one or two tools. Use them in different ways. Experiment until you find the tools that meet your ultimate objectives. And don’t be afraid to push one tool aside and try another. At the end of the day, you want a toolkit that suits your needs personally and meets your business goals.
Results. Where applicable, use tools like Google Analytics to track your metrics. Track qualitative as well as quantitative results. Are you seeing new members in your communities? Has the dialogue increased between you and your customers via social media? Are you getting more interest from the media? There are many ways to gauge the success of your social media campaign through both figures and general evaluation. Find the best metric for your business and track it over time.
The podcast of the event should be available shortly, so I’ll add the link as soon as its live.
I just got out of a 3 1/2 hour session brainstorming tag lines for Balance Technology Group. My brain hurts, but a lot of great ideas were generated from the group. When we created the tag line for GoodDogz.org - it was totally organic and we came up with it in about 20 minutes - Choose wisely. Choose for life. It just clicked and totally spoke to our mission. But, normally creating a tag lines isn’t always that easy and there are a lot of different perceptions of individual words, much less tag lines themselves. Should a tag line express what you do or should it invoke emotion? Should it do both? What words should be avoided (the consensus in this particular session were words like innovation, evolution and inspired)? How long is too long? How similar can a tag line be to another company’s line without getting sued? =) There is a lot to think about.
What tag lines speak to you? My favorite has always been from a port-o-potty company in Florida which was “#1 in the #2 business.” Humorous. Relevant. Priceless.
Last week we talked a little bit about getting over the fear and trust issues associated with having an identity online. Facebook seems to always come up as a sticky point for folks who are uncomfortable talking about themselves on the web. Here is a great post from the blog Valley Wag called What Employers Look for on Facebook. I think that it sheds some light on what seem to be logical actions to avoid and the word “Employers” can easily be substituted with “Clients” or “Business Partners” or “Constituents”. According to the post, only 22% of employers even use Facebook when assessing potential applicants. So, with a little common sense and the proper use of the privacy settings, Facebook can be a fun, friendly environment for building friendships and business relationships.
I’m not a narcissist, but I tend to get on my soapbox about personal branding because I think its so darn important. I run into a lot of folks that are literally “scared” to be themselves online and I think its a shame. I recently spoke to a woman that was surprised that I always write under my own name online. And I was surprised that she was surprised.
I understand the notion of the internet being a scary place. There are a lot of unscrupulous people out there doing unspeakable things. But, in terms of having an online presence, I think its important to get ahead of the game.
Just like in Talladega Nights - when the team branded Ricky Bobby’s car “ME” because he had no sponsors? He didn’t need sponsors because he (or at least the people around him) realized that HE was his brand. You are your brand whether you are a freelancer or work for someone else.
A few things to remember (and I apologize in advance if I’ve said this before…):
Be yourself. It’s OK.
Keep private information private. I probably put more information out there than I should, but I keep a careful eye on what’s being said about me.
Set-up a Google alert on your own name or your user name. I have Google alerts for my name, my user name that I tend to use and my company names. Each day I get a little email from Google advising me of what’s being said about me. If I need to address something, I know where to look.
Talk about your strengths, loves, dislikes - be a real person. At the end of the day, businesses want to do business with people. Show the world that you are a real person and engage in the online activity that you love. Don’t be afraid to talk about what you’re doing offline - online.
Engage, engage, engage. Get a Twitter account and tweet about your interests. Get a Facebook page and talk about the things that are important to you. Check out NING communities that are pertinent to your interests. And remember, most social tools and communities have privacy controls, so if you want to limit who can see your info, use them.
Here are a few good resources to help you better understand personal branding.
Over the next week, I’ll be sure to further explain some of the points that were discussed during the session. So if you are a writer, please be sure to subscribe to my feed.
I hope that everyone that attended the conference took home some helpful nuggets and perhaps a little inspiration. PLEASE feel free to contact me or participate in this conversation if you have any questions at all. As you may have noticed, I love to talk and love helping folks even more! Enjoy!
Promoting Yourself Online (Freelancers and Staffers)
Understand what you’re passionate about and pursue projects that are complimentary
The more you write online – the more you build a reputation
Over time, brand yourself as an expert within your space or company
Manage your personal brand (don’t be afraid to put yourself out there, in the online space -use your real name but don’t forget to manage your presence; be yourself)
Beth consults with businesses and non-profits on social media tool selection and strategy and helps her clients find effective ways to leverage these new mediums to meet business goals.
Why Social Media?
Social: seeking or enjoying the companionship of others; friendly; sociable; gregarious.
Media: the means of communication, as radio and television, newspapers, and magazines, that reach or influence people widely.
People need to be seen and heard. The world of social media provides a platform for people to communicate, engage in social movements and share ideas. It enables them to relate to each other in ways that they have never been able to before.
I believe that social media helps level the proverbial playing field between the "big" guys and the "little" guys in terms of marketing, fundraising and public exposure. Anyone can get involved, engage and excite their audience via social media outlets. But you need to have a plan.
Subscribe
We were a little concerned about fitting the furniture into the truck. No worries. The Super Sac is vacuum sealed into a cube-shaped bag that weighs about 90 pounds. It was heavy but would easily fit into any car.
I dragged it from the car and up the stairs and began to unpack the heavy cube. Unpacking consists of unzipping the bag, pulling out the heavy plastic sealed sac and pulling the plastic off. It’s interesting because the foam on the inside is essentially still in one big block.
It was a good workout and my fingers and arms ached. I ended up with a blister on my finger from perpetual fluffing, but within about three hours the foam within the sac was completely broken up.
Beth consults with businesses and non-profits on social media tool selection and strategy and helps her clients find effective ways to leverage these new mediums to meet business goals.
;){kind=link}