Simple Set-up for Promoted Tweets and get one for free?

Have you tried out Twitter Promoted Tweets? Twitter started testing Promoted Tweets over a year ago and when I investigated I immediately believed it could be a worthy option. Unfortunately I couldn’t get the budget allocated. I’m sure many other marketers have had similar experiences. But now it seems like you might just be able to give the Promoted Tweets a whirl before asking for a big chunk of budget.

Go to http://analytics.twitter.com

Step 1: Select your target audience.

 

Step 2: Define what you want to promote.

Step 3: Select your budget.
(You need to select a Promoted Tweets daily budget and a maximum bid per engagement, plus a Promoted Accounts daily budget and maximum bid per follow.)

Step 4: Pay up!

Have you already tried Promoted Tweets?

If you’ve already tried Promoted Tweets please share some of your insight in comments. Include your Twitter @username so we can stay connected there too.

Let’s hope Air France does better in the AIR than on the WEB

I like Air France. I like British Airways better though to be honest. But to get to the point, Air France seems to struggle with the concept of the customer journey when it pertains to the web. Perhaps your luggage handlers can take ages at CDG to get our baggage to us, perhaps it is our cultural differences that causes to perceive many of your employees as rude and uninterested in ‘customer service’. (Oui, je sais. Service clientele n’existe pas en France!). A little while ago, I received an email from Air France announcing a contest for tickets to Colombia in the subject line.

Do you see any mention of the contest in the body of the email? No.

When I clicked through from the email I still did not see any reference to the contest:

So it appears that those responsible for email marketing at Air France understand nothing about building trust and creating a customer journey. This is a big fat #fail on their part.

Do you find you have less patience and can very quickly lose trust with companies that send these types of emails. Have you received any blatantly false marketing emails lately? Please share your perception/reaction in the comments section. I’d love to read about your experiences.

Update 7/18/2013, 1:31PM:

At least Air France seemed to have figure out their mistake:

The Power of Online and Offline Networking

Back in my younger years I had the opportunity to work with some great people at Transamerica which was then a Fortune 500. There I learned that there is great value in meeting other people – often to learn from their experiences – after all it takes a village. When I worked for Wells Fargo bank and Citibank all business bankers were encouraged to attend networking events. The experience was extraordinary. Because of this I got to ride on top of the Wells Fargo Wagon in a parade, waving at the crowd (on one of Los Angeles’ few rainy days). I was invited to attend a ribbon cutting event for the Cambodian community center in Long Beach. I assisted the Friends of the Colorado Lagoon to get a grant from Wells Fargo bank and was invited to a fund raising dinner. When I was working in investments my manager agreed to pay for me to attend Los Angeles Town Hall. There I had the privilege of meeting, shaking hands and talking to Ambassador Turki Al-Faisal of Saudi Arabia. I had the opportunity of meeting Torie Clarke the author of Lipstick on a Pig who was also once  Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs. (It’s a great book about how we live in an era of authenticity – I admire her greatly!) I had the most amazing experience being that I was studying political science, philosophy and economics – to meet the most amazing Chuck Hagel. The firmness of his handshake, the straight in the eye look, and the powerful discussion with him will be forever implanted in my mind. Chuck Hagel was a US Senior Senator and although I’m very liberal in my views if I was an American and he ran for President I would have a difficult time not voting for him even though he is Republican!

In 2006 I was asked by my employer to give a presentation to my peers in presentation training on the power and utility of networking. Ask many MBA graduates and they will tell you that the value of a network is priceless (sorry Mastercard).

I guess networking became nature or maybe more appropriately, natural to me. When I moved to Paris in 2007 I found that finding a flat was very difficult. But alas through networking with American expats I found a flat in St. Germain dés Pres and had the privilege of living in one of the most prestigious neighbourhoods in Paris. (Don’t be too jealous, my flat was the size of a Chistian Laboutin shoebox!) When I moved to the UK and considered whether I wanted to work for a company or continue being a marketing consultant my amazing business coach Suzie Sharpe advised me that in the UK, networking is paramount, especially for expats like me.

By this point I had already begun to deploy a social media marketing strategy for Oshyn. I think my good mates there will agree that this strategy raised brand awareness, and drove a massive increase in website traffic. I decided to go to meetup.com to look for events in London to attend and I luckily found Last Thursday CMS. Lucky, because I met an amazing group of people and have since met many other people through their network both online and offline.

By being active in social networks I have had the opportunity to chat with well known authors, VCs, marketing consultants and many people who specialize in the technology of my employer. I have met amazing people that I never would have otherwise met, where we have been able to talk about how to do great things or have simply become friends.

I have learned that truly we are all people. We all do “some things” the same way. We’re humans regardless of what title we hold, where we were raised, and no matter how much we have in the bank. Being able to network with people from students, to politicians, to Senior executives enables great learning opportunities and in fact many opportunities you might otherwise be oblivious.

The greatest thing I have learned in networking is in the value of learning from others. And as an added benefit, it is nice to have the ability to contact experts when you need one.

“The way of the world is meeting people through other people.” – Robbert Kerrigan

“It isn’t just what you know, and it isn’t just who you know. It’s actually who you know, who knows you, and what you do for a living.” -Bob Burg

“The richest people in the world look for and build networks, everyone else looks for work.” -Robert Kiyosaki

Goodbye Linkedin Answers!

Well this comes as no surprise (really): Linkedin Answers is closing down on January 31, 2013. On July 28, 2011 I posted this blog post – mostly out of frustration with the dire state of Linkedin Answers. This shut-down follows Events having closed down in November. It’s really no surprise. There are quite a few times I have monitored Answers by RSS feeds to respond to Questions I could. However, I frequently found that the quality of the Answers section was poor due to vendor-responses. For example, if someone asked a question about the best CRM software for a small business – they would likely find the answers were dominated by people selling CRM software. Sometimes the Answers were just plain dumb! Though I’m still disappointed that Answers is shutting down because sometimes there have been great Questions/Answers/Discussions like “What’s the basic difference between MVC and ASP.NET”.

(Which is BETTER? Answer? There is no Best.)

Where will people go now? Well despite being dominated by some ‘leaders’, KHE on MarketingProfs is a great resource for marketers. I’m sure those in technology will spend time on Quora and Stackoverflow. Also, I found this post about other websites where you can asks questions. If you try any, let me know!

Starbucks UK Facebook Photobooth Album Turns into a Tax Discussion

Social Media. It’s highly misunderstood by many…still. Yet, something that makes Social Media so amazing is how it shifted power and gave people a voice. Whether companies, politicians, people, organizations and so forth want to listen or not is entirely up to them. Nobody forces you to use social media. Well, perhaps your customers might. 

Last night we were watching Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares and talking about the Yelpers who had many negative things to say about this purveyor’s hamburgers. Yet the feedback was taken as vindictive criticism and further perceived as a ploy to send the restaurant out of business. I had to laugh. I once wrote a negative review about a business down the road and the owner’s husband found me on Linkedin and asked me to change my review because they believe it is negatively affecting their business (oh that’s another story). I understand the Yelpers…they’re people with an opinion and an outlet to share their views with other people…go there it’s great….don’t waste your money. Funny enough humans seem to enjoy peer-to-peer feedback. 

But what happens when you’re a big multi-national accused of not paying your fair share of taxes? Well Starbucks UK is sponsoring a skating rink in London. They have a nice café set up and have decked the seasonal halls with a fantastic photo booth. I was just looking on Starbucks UK Facebook page at the photo album and their good intentions have turned sour. Disgruntled tax payers have been posting their displeasure in the album’s comment section. 

Ah the glory of Social Media for the people and the nightmare for any company’s PR department. How do you respond? Maybe Starbucks should whip out their smartphones and upload a photo of their tax payments along with justification documents. Of course they won’t. But people who don’t read the newspapers, or watch BBC, with social media even those not keenly interested in business news, those who just wanted to see if their photobooth pictures were in the Starbucks UK album will likely know that Starbucks UK is accused of not paying their taxes. And they just might be influenced by those who say they won’t do business with a multinational in the UK that isn’t paying their due part…

PingPong Facebook Page has the Best CTA ever!

Submit. That is the word that most companies want us to click when we fill out a form. Of course, subconsciously, who really wants to submit?  There are different definitions for the word submit but surely there are better choices?

I made this case a few years ago when I was a consultant at Oshyn, Inc. and we changed a form to say “Download” which was exactly what we wanted people to do.

Such buttons on forms present the final obstacle between the person supplying the information or not. This button is a Call to Action (CTA). Do you really want people to submit? But instead of asking someone to “DO” something why not make it a little more fun. Ping Pong (www.pingpongdimsum.com) used a Call to Action which begs for agreement from the person completing the form on the Ping Pong Facebook Page:

 

Yes! 

Linkedin Cannot Enforce an Element of User Agreement?

Recently, I was contacted by a birth relative who I wish to have absolutely no contact with. My response included “…I would appreciate it if you never contacted me again.”

I blocked this person’s email address. And foolishly thought that would be the end of that. Then this person sent me a contact request on Linkedin. So I emailed Linkedin and explained the situation asking if there was a way to prevent this person from sending further requests.

After all, Linkedin’s User Agreement states: 

 

And yet, this was the response I received: 

 

Am I really asking too much? I’ve been a member of Linkedin since I was invited in 2005…but now in light of recent events my only recourse was change my settings after being a member for 7 years, so that only someone with my email address can send me an invite? And since this person has my email address, this meant the only way to block them, was also to change my primary email address. (By the way, I have no idea how they obtained my email address in the first place). 

 

In the Linkedin User Agreement it does state that they have the right to terminate someone’s profile for breaching the User Agreeement…

 

What do you think? Do you think Linkedin should have some way to block individuals? 

 

PS – a big giant hug to Twitter for making it easy to block people. 

 

With LivingSocial Beauty is the Beast

I first discovered LivingSocial about a year ago. Every morning I receive a bunch of emails announcing current deals. LivingSocial is smart for putting each deal into a separate email – of course this way even if your eyes glaze over, you might still notice something that interests you.

But it seems Beauty is the Beast. I’ve used different types of services and had some great experiences except with beauty-related services.

Here are some examples:

I saw an offer in June for a Shellac manicure. I decided to buy a voucher since the business was not too far from my work. I have called many times since the day after I purchased my manicure and either a) nobody answered the phone, b) I was told there were no available appointments or c) I was told I would be put on a waiting list and called if there was space available. Is it any surprise that You Little Beauty has been all booked in December and will not accept the vouchers after the expiration date?

 

Now see how it says Three-Week manicure? I since learned that either You Little Beauty of LivingSocial misrepresented what was being sold. According to CND which makes Shellac…its a 14-Day manicure…

 

Its a manicure…but according to the voucher fine print (those lucky enough to get an appointment if they do exist) must arrive with their nails all clean and ready to go…

 

When I most recently called a week ago to try and make an appointment, as soon as I said I wanted a Shellac manicure I was quickly advised that they were booked up because the offer was expiring and they’d call me if there were any cancellations. The kicker is that I had not said anything yet about having a LivingSocial voucher…

 

I had also purchased a certificate for Kajree in Highgate for eyebrow threading and a head massage since I really am on the hunt for a place that does good threading in London. (Oh yes Los Angeles, you spoiled me!) I called the business several times, tried visiting in person and emailed and never receive an answer. From April to October, you can imagine this is pretty frustrating. As the expiration was approaching, I emailed LivingSocial and soon after I received an email from Kajree saying to call them. I still never managed to get in touch. It’s too bad because I really did want to find a place nearby that does threading. For the cost of £12 I gave up.

 

 

So why am I yammering on my blog lately about good service and bad service? Well because we’re in a time where people think alot more about value. I’m starting to feel like the money I’ve spent on un-redeemed LivingSocial vouchers will outweigh the savings. It seems to me I’m taking a gamble. This is terrible for LivingSocial because with all the money they surely spend on marketing, why would you want to be faced with these service failures? Well I did a small Google search and it seems like LivingSocial has some dissidents: http://www.sitejabber.com/reviews/www.livingsocial.com

 

So what do you think? Do you think that LivingSocial should refund certificates if the service offered is misrepresented like a Three-Week Shellac manicure?

What’s a fair solution for dealing with vendors who sell LivingSocial vouchers and then avoid redeeming them by being “fully-booked”?

 

 

WOW! Your way to repeat clients, kudos and referrals

What makes a consumer happier than great customer service? Great customer service is memorable. There are so many ways that a company’s employees can bury all the great efforts that have gone into creating a great product or delivering a good service. And these days it seems like bad or oblivious customer service is the norm. So when I experience great customer service, I find its worth sharing. In each story there is a lesson to be learned.

Create an experience…even for the smaller sales.

A couple weekends ago, I was out holiday shopping. I had two missions: one to buy a little office gift with a small price point and the second to buy a little gift for a friend just for the sake of a smile.

At Ted Baker in Covent Garden I found the perfect mug for gift #2. You see my friends are moving to Amsterdam and Angelo is starting a fantastic new job. I found a mug that said, “Ted says don’t get bugged out.” How cute! I went to the register to pay and had to wait a few minutes for a larger more Ted Baker-ish transaction ahead of me. When it was my turn the lady apologized for the wait, asked if my mere simple little purchase was a gift and offered to wrap it up. To me the treatment was just as if I was buying a £300 dress. Fantastic job Ms. Ted Baker service-extraordinaire!

After leaving Ted Baker I headed around the corner to investigate the new Kate Spade store. I love Kate Spade bags: simple with attitude. I went in the store and was greeted with a smile. A few minutes later I was gently asked if I needed help finding anything. I answered no, I was just looking around, but added perhaps I might find a gift for my office gift. The sales lady pointed out a few cute things. I was completely honest that while I was happy to exceed the price limit my office had set (its pretty low) I still couldn’t buy something extraordinary! She smiled and continued to offer suggestions of small yet cute items. I ended up buying a little gift. And you know what? They put it in a gift box, wrapped up with ribbon and asked if I wanted a card to go with it. Rock on Kate Spade!

Later on I purchased a gift for a friend online at http://www.gift-library.com/ It arrive a few days later. I opened the package and thought, “Oh its perfect!” And guess what? It had a defect. I discovered the website via American Express, so I tweeted my disappointment. I immediately emailed the company’s customer service to let them know the problem. Within an hour they emailed me and called me and offered to send a bike courier with a replacement within the next hour. WOW!

And even American Express kept up their side of the great customer service story…

People Can Make Your Brand

I’m horrified whenever I hear people say that a customer is not important. I’m horrified, particularly in this economy, when people act indifferent toward customers. Business today is about people. It’s so easy for people to define your brand and your brand value based on their experiences and perceptions. Why? Because they have a voice, the can talk about you online…the good and the bad. And you’re silly if you think what they’re saying doesn’t matter.

Recently I a link popped out on a Tiffany ring I have. It’s diamond ring. I was kind of disheartened because its the second time this has happened. And though I know philosophically “things” don’t really matter that much, this ring matters to me. I decided to embark on a journey to abandon a career in investments/banking where I had a pretty decent salary, company car, benefits to boot and a certain amount of stability. I left this career to go back to Marketing…my love. But not just to go back to Marketing. I decided to go on a global adventure where I would live in a new country, learn to speak French and complete my Masters degree.

One day while on this adventure I walked by the Tiffany & Co. shop-in-shop in a department store in Paris. It was early in the day and there weren’t that many patrons. The employee noticed I was wearing a Tiffany Seville necklace (a Christmas present from one of my closest friends). He offered to clean it. While he was off polishing up my cherished necklace I was happily browsing and saw an absolutely beautiful diamond ring with a very original design.

I decided that I was going to buy this ring when I was awarded my Masters degree. And that every day this ring to me would symbolize and server as a reminder that I can do anything I put my mind to.

When I decided to embark on my global journey I wasn’t sure how I was going to fund it. I worked hard. I saved everywhere I could. I knuckled down and only bought things I needed. It turned out that on this journey I would have to live in a tiny little shoebox called a Chambre de Bonne in central Paris, give up most things I owned to save on storage, give up the luxury of having a car and juggle working 40 hours a week as a marketing consultant while doing studies full time for my masters degree (and learning French and adapting to a new culture). It seemed a ring was a good reward! Especially this ring.

Six months after I purchased the ring it had to be repaired. Can you believe it? A Tiffany & Co. ring needing repair after 6 months? After another amount of time it needed repair AGAIN. And this is where people can make a difference.

In August 2011, I brought my ring to Tiffany & Co. for repair. I was assured it would be repaired by September 3rd. I was pleased because I was leaving for Paris on Sept 8th for a wedding and wanted to wear my cherished ring. I hadn’t received a phone call or email from Tiffany & Co. by Sept 3rd but I nevertheless I went to the store that day to pick it up. After waiting 10 minutes I was told that its repair status was unknown and it was not back in the store. The employee said she would call on Monday (Sept 5th) to give me an update. On Sept 5th she called to tell me it was ready. I left my office and hurried over to the store to pick it up before they closed at 6pm. When I picked it up I noticed that there was turquoise lint all around the edges of the ring from a polishing cloth. Now if there was lint stuck to it, it seemed it would also get caught on cloth fibers while I wore it. I asked the employee about this and she responded, “Is the link repaired? Can you sign the pick up form?” I asked my question again about the link and like a recording device she repeated her question. After a few tries, I signed the form and left a little disheartened. I’ve bought many items of jewelry at Tiffany & Co. for myself and for gifts (and I’ve been there a few times to buy Tiffany & Co. polishing clothes and polisher to make sure my items are in tip top condition). And by marketing terms I’m an aspiring customer. When I can afford to buy more expensive Tiffany & Co. pieces you can be sure as **** I will. I love Tiffany & Co. It’s probably my favorite brand in the world.

Fast forward to September 24th, I came home from the office and noticed something horrifying. There was now a crack 2/3 rds of the way across the band near the diamond setting. Frustrated and worried I would receive shoddy service if I went back to the same store, I went on Facebook and posted on Tiffany & Co.’s Facebook wall and “Liked” Tiffany & Co. in the process.

And then I received the following email response…

All the email included was my original text….nothing else. Yes I was disheartened more. And I wrote back and didn’t receive a response. Even more disheartening!

But today I set off back to the store. At the service desk I was greeted by a different employee who not only listened but responded with CONCERN. We sat down at a desk and she checked every detail of the ring. She measured the size. (Both things the original employee did not do). She completed the repair form in great detail and acknowledged the defects. Then she said magic words, “At Tiffany’s we want you to be happy.”

Thank you!!!!!!!!!

When I left the store, I stopped at a counter and asked if there was a manager on duty. The poor guy looked a little taken-aback. I quickly explained to him and another employee the short version of my situation and said I just wanted to make sure that the manager knew that the employee who had just helped me had restored my image and confidence in Tiffany & Co. I wanted to make sure that she was appreciated for being a stellar employee. Then they smiled (relief) and said they would be sure to pass along my praise and were glad that she had taken good care of me.

People can make or break your brand.

Hopefully the outcome will be good and I’ll be able to update with good news!

Do you have a great example of how an employee can make or break a brand?

 

Update: October 18th, 2011

On Friday October 14th I received an email that my repair was at the store. On Saturday I arrived and was quite disheartened by the repair. It was nothing like that I would’ve expected from Tiffany & Co. I sat there looking at the ring and all its defects. But on the bright side Tiffany & Co. decided to replace the ring with a new one. Finally I was happy. But I kind of wondered to myself, “When my ring broke 6 months after purchase, shouldn’t it have been replaced then?” That’s up for debate I guess. Several people suggested that my blogging and use of social media led to its final replacement. I don’t know. Only Tiffany & Co. knows. What really matters is that in the end, Tiffany & Co. was true to their history of service and finally came through: I’m once again really happy and delighted.