Dottem

Book Review – Social Media: ROI

tonjac — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 12:00:26 +0000

Social Media: ROI by Olivier Blanchard (@thebrandbuilder) was quite an education for me. I took eight pages of notes and can’t possibly cover anything but the highlights here. All I can say is, if you want to know how social media will benefit your organization, you need to read this book.

I personally love connecting on social media, and I knew it would benefit my organization, I just didn’t know how to talk to my boss about it without it sounding like a vague task with unquantifiable results. Mr. Blanchard gave me what I needed to at least start a discussion in language my boss would find meaningful.

We’re a non-profit and much smaller than many of the example businesses in the book, but the concepts definitely scale. Mr. Blanchard stresses that social media should not be an add-on, but an integrated mechanism that amplifies an organization’s functions (his words, my summary). You have to know the difference between goals, targets, strategies and tactics. Only then should you start to determine how to use social media. It’s pointless to say, “Facebook is popular. We need a page.” Do things in this order instead:

Goal (desired end point)
Target (specific value assigned to goal with an infinite time frame)
Strategy (plan of action to achieve goal)
Tactic (means by which a strategy is carried out)

So it might look like this:

We want net new customers
100 net new customers in Q1
Use Facebook to increase reach and conversion
Discount coupon for new connections

If you skip to #4, you have no way of knowing whether your efforts are helping meet your business objectives. His point is clear: ROI is about DOLLARS. You have to prove that your efforts result in dollars and this book shows you how to do that. It’s not a magic formula – you have to use your brain and you have to use your people skills to get your people (all of them) involved. He talks about that too.

And he shows how Frequency, Reach and Yield are affected by these same social media efforts. And he shows how all of your departments can benefit: marketing, sales, customer service, PR, product management, HR, crisis management … You name it, it will benefit.

This book shows you why you should integrate social media into your organization and how to manage it. But social media is about human interaction: it won’t work if you don’t put you into it. It’s up to you to figure out which tactics work best for you (after you nail down the first three things of course). Your people need to be involved (all of them). But it’s not enough for you to know that each of you can and should be involved – you have to want to. If it’s someone’s chore, it will fail and your customers will see right through it. If you do it right, your customers will want to help you. How cool would that be?

My colleagues and I have a lot of work to do and I can’t wait to get started!

I’d love to know if you’ve read Social Media: ROI and what you’ve implemented because of it.

Advice for a CEO

tonjac — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 23:01:58 +0000

Tomorrow morning I am advising my organization’s equivalent of a CEO on getting started with social media. I have my thoughts, which will be a future post, but I want to make sure I’m not missing anything major.

What would you include on the list of essential examples, resources and advice?

Lunch Tour: Heros Sports Lounge & Pizza Co

tonjac — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 02:09:42 +0000

This is the other post I procrastinated on, so it’ll be basic too. Heros has a nice atmosphere – it’s probably a lot of fun during sporting events. There were a lot of yummy-looking things on the menu. I ended up splitting a pizza with my son – new to the lunch tour. That was a treat too – love hanging out with him! We had a sausage & pepperoni. It was tasty, but a little skimpy on the sausage, which is my favorite part so that was a little disappointing.

Picky Eaters Index=1 Lots of things to choose – you’ll do fine here

One Hour Limit? Two thumbs up!

Meet New Peeps? My son Adam was new to the tour

Here’s their official website

What’s Yelp say?

What’s this lunch tour thing about, anyway?

Lunch Tour: Charlie Brown’s

tonjac — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 01:45:25 +0000

I am a terrible human being! I’ve become lazy in reporting on my lunch tour stops. I promise to do better. I’ve been to two places in the last two months, but they were so long ago that my next to posts are going to be relatively skimpy. My apologies. And again, I’ll do better. I promise.

Way back in January, I went to Charlie Browns. What I remember is good, regular food. Hamburgers and some other things. There’s a Modesto Bee article that gives more details. @seaners was there and I think we talked a lot about life and work and stuff, so it was all good.

Picky Eaters Index=1 Burgers and salads – you’ll do fine here

One Hour Limit? Two thumbs up!

Meet New Peeps? No, not this time

What’s Yelp say?

What’s this lunch tour thing about, anyway?

Help My Fun Project

tonjac — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 19:52:52 +0000

I’m helping to plan a simple lunch event for the employees where I work. The planning team wanted something a little fun, so we decided to create & celebrate our own nonsense holiday – much like Festivus.We’re calling ours Plain Ol’ Chuck Day.

I need your help with part of the backstory.

I made a simple blog where I posted the legend of the holiday, and am in the process of adding posts that tie in to the pieces of the tale. As part of the printed invitations, we’re sending the employees to this blog, and I would LOVE it if there were comments from people they don’t recognize, reinforcing the existence of this holiday.

THIS IS WHERE YOU COME IN!

Read The Tale first so you know where all this is coming from. Then …

Please comment on as many posts as you can – share your memories of past Plain Ol’ Chuck Day celebrations, turnip recipes or facts, fondue recipes or accessories, yummy or interesting breath mints, your favorite really odd music.

The invitations are going out Monday, Feb. 7, that’s in THREE DAYS! You need something fun to do on Friday afternoon, right? Or this weekend while you’re sitting in front of the TV or at your kid’s practice. Then tell everyone else to do the same thing.

Thank you so much! You are all awesome!

Now go read The Tale. It deserves to be told.

Waiting for a Spotlight?

tonjac — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 00:57:16 +0000

Photo by Tobias Steinhoff

Before you are two equally compelling choices, each with comparable risks. You’ve been waiting and asking for a spotlight to descend from the heavens to reveal the correct choice. But it doesn’t come.

What do you do?

How long do you wait?

Today I pickedup Visioneering by Andy Stanley and So Long, Insecurity by Beth Moore. I’m hoping to clarify my future and make sure it’s not my own self-doubt standing in the way of my decisions.

But I’d really like to know what you do when your spotlight doesn’t show up …

Lunch Tour: Barking Dog Grill

tonjac — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 16:40:59 +0000

Photo courtesy of Yelp

One word: Yum! I had a basic burger with bacon and cheese. It was really good! Disappointed not to have fries, but I guess they had a good excuse: their fryer had caught fire. The potato salad they substituted was good though, so it worked out. They often have live music in the evenings – it felt like it would be a great venue for that. Will have to plan a return trip.

The company was great – thanks to Aaron (@crescentmodesto) for the momentum behind this lunch. Nice to catch up with some folks I hadn’t seen for a while and I met the human behind @modspeedtrap. This will only mean something to those who were there, but THIS is the Rocketman – do you see the resemblance?

Picky Eaters Index=1 Burgers, dogs and salads – you’ll do fine here

One Hour Limit? Two thumbs up!

Meet New Peeps? Check! Already mentioned @modspeedtrap. @crescentmodesto & @cvrtvnews aren’t new to me, but they were new to the lunch tour. @seaners is pretty much a regular now

Here’s their official website

What’s Yelp say?

What’s this lunch tour thing about, anyway?

Lunch Tour: Firkin & Fox

tonjac — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 16:20:39 +0000

Photo couresty of Rick Breslin

I’ve waited too long to post this, so there won’t be too many details – maybe that’s not a bad thing, as I have been known to ramble.

Firkin & Fox has a nice atmosphere for lunch – probably even better at night. I was craving traditional fish & chips and they did not disappoint. It was maybe a tad greasy, but not too bad. Decent proportions, a nice, crispy batter and good french fries – I’d order it again. The waitress got the job done, but nothing more. Kind of like a non-personality, if that makes sense.

I didn’t meet anyone new, but had good conversation anyway. I missed out on meeting @badmsm because of my lack of planning. Sorry! Next time for sure!

Picky Eaters Index=1 You’ll do fine here.

One Hour Limit? Two thumbs up!

Meet New Peeps? Not this time.

Their official site

What’s Yelp say?

What’s this lunch tour thing about, anyway?

Now THIS is Customer Service!

tonjac — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 20:13:19 +0000

My husband is an avid Pepsi drinker. At a restaurant, when he orders Pepsi and is met with “Is Coke okay?” he’ll grimace and carry on and give the server a good-natured bad time. “Ugggh. Welllll, okaayy. If I have no other choice I guess I’ll settle for Coke. But I’ll tip really big if you go get me a Pepsi somewhere.” It’s usually met with a chuckle and life goes on.

Well, today life changed at the Red Robin in Turlock. He just called me from the restaurant to say that his server, Brandi, sent someone across the street to buy him a Pepsi! This has never happened before and it made our day! Thank you, Brandi, and thank you, Red Robin, for allowing an atmosphere of freedom for your staff to exceed customers’ expectations.

He’s still at lunch, but I can assure you, he will be leaving her a nice big tip!

Lunch Tour: The BBQ Station

tonjac — Sat, 25 Sep 2010 19:23:39 +0000

Yum!

This is the kind of place where you know the food will be good as soon as you walk in. There’s not even a sign with the name on the outside yet. It’s decorated simply, with huge old gas station signs and other antiques. Half a ’48 Plymouth (I think) is mounted on the wall. Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture so you’ll have to go see it yourself.

The focus is on the food, as it should be. It’s been open about five weeks according to Damon, the very friendly [owner?/manager?] who visited all the tables.

The menu has the basic BBQ offerings like ribs and chicken (plus a chicken salad if you want something a little lighter.) I had the 1/4 chicken with fries – excellent! Others had the BBQ chicken hoagie with beans, and the 1/4 chicken with greens, which they said were very good. Each of our meals was $7, and the amount of food I got was just right for lunch. I’d definitely go back again.

They also do catering and delivery (to downtown locations). They’re open just for lunch right now, from 11 am to 2 pm. Damon says they start cooking every day at 3 am! That’s dedication and I really appreciate it!

I also had the pleasure of meeting Bob and Sharon, who blog about restaurants in Modesto. Very nice folks. And they care about supporting local small businesses. Give their blog a visit.

Picky Eaters Index=1 You’ll do fine here. (I usually don’t even like BBQ sauce – sacrilege I know – but I loved this!)

One Hour Limit? Two thumbs up! My schedule was tighter than usual, but even with a room full of customers, we were out the door in about 40 minutes.

Meet New Peeps? Check!

What’s this lunch tour thing about, anyway?