Increasingly, brands are becoming hip to Twitter. I normally follow my favorite brands to keep track of promotions, events, and news. Recently, I decided to use Twitter to complain about a bad shopping experience.

On Tuesday evening I received a limited edition Chanel lipstick from Saks Fifth Avenue (Twitter handle: @saks). I was about to try it on to show off to my Twitter pals, when I realized the lipstick was used! Immediately, I took a photo of the product, and tweeted the following:

So @saks sends me the rare Chanel Super lipstick. About to try it on & notice it's been used. Super #fail http://twitpic.com/1n2b5a

The next morning I received a Direct Message with instructions to email them about the situation. We exchange emails. In less than an hour, I'm informed that I will get a refund for the order, and that they will ship me a replacement. Pumped up about it, I tweet the world:

Shoutout to Douglas from @saks for helping me with my Chanel lipstick dilemma. Quick, quality customer support! Thanks again!

Hours go by, I'm about to leave the office. Another representative from Saks calls me up and tells me that they've located the product in their Greenwich location, and an associate would drive to my house and deliver it to me that evening!

And yes, I received the product (brand new), delivered by Elizabeth, who coincidentally had her mortgage done by my fiancé.

 

Today is the last day of the #140conf in NYC. #140conf is an event which looks at what Jeff Pulver calls “The State of NOW” - the emerging real-time Internet and the effect on both business and people.

There was an excellent presentation by Melinda Emerson, (Twitter: @SmallBizLady), on Twitter and Small Businesses. She says, "If you're not seeing success with Twitter, you're not using it right." Here are some key takeaways:

1. Know your target niche customer. You need to communicate consistently with that customer. Make sure your content connects with them.
2. Participate in Twitter chat
3. Give to get: Use a 4:1 ratio - promoting other people's content to your own. Give them enough and soon enough your customers will sell for you. 
   
4. Use @ replies - Communicate with your customer - don't just retweet (RT) their tweet, send them a message about why you like their content
5. Use Auto Direct Messages. I'm not a big fan of Auto DMs, especially when it's impersonal. Melinda says Automatic DMs are okay if used properly. Don't provide a link to your website. Give real information - Introduce yourself and say what you do.

5 reasons why small businesses fail:

1. They don't realize what running a business is going to be like
2. They don't save enough money before starting the business. Keep in mind, there will be no paycheck for 1-2 years
3. They don't focus on target market
   
4. They have no network. Remember: "Your network is your net worth"
5. You need to know your financials/budget

Finally, Melinda suggests each business owner have their own theme song. What would yours be?

 

Last week, Flightpath hosted the New York Social Media Roundtable event "Social Media and the Travel Industry." In front of an audience of 200+, four panelists who excel in their own corner of hospitality, from blogger to hotelier, public relations maven to travel agent, detailed their social networking plans and how it has driven them to success. 

Top takeaways from the event include:

1. TweetDeck is the simple Twitter client that is rated tops from panelists, unanimously. It's quick, painless platform makes for easy posting and reporting. Foursquare, however, is a new fav and being adopted by the travel elite ast hey city hop. Custom profiles are worth looking into.

2. The guests and visitors of a hotel are the story it should be promoting. The building is nothing without the heart and story of each guest that walk through the door. By promoting the user experience and each guest, you create a community ofboth locals and visitors.

3. Using a dash of personal voice can spice up the tone of your accounts. Instead of taking cues from press releases, personify your venue account. Pulling back the curtain to ocassionally reveal the source is okay, as well. People expect a knowledgeable base behind their favorite establishments.

4. Brush up on your regulations. As a blogger you might feel the need to cash-in on every free trip and stick up a posting, but the FTC is regulating your ability to do so. Keep an eye on what you legaly can and can't do. And as a venue, be selective in your search for press. To ignore your standards not only cheapens the reviews of great journalists but weakens the experience of the "average joe" who pays his bill and also has a voice.

5.Find the method that works for you and beware of spreading across too many channels. Be resourceful in one station- the platform that best shows off your prowess. A blogger might have great insight on video with a simple iPhone camera, while a hotel blog best showcases the talented staff within it's walls. When you findthe channel that highlights your assetts, you don't need to attach more than one networking site, becausey our information will spread for you.

To view more takeaways, follow the event Twitter stream #nysmrt. For more information on the event, to view photos, and find links based on tips shared, visit nysocialmediaroundtable.com or facebook.com/nysmrt. 

Last Monday night, Mike Mitchell, a 27-year-old freelance artist living in Los Angeles, tweeted a link to a poster he created in support of Conan O’Brien. The poster—which has become the official face of “I’m with COCO,” the quasi-official campaign in support of Conan O’Brien against NBC’s decision to restore Jay Leno to the nightly 11:35 slot—bears more than a passing resemblance to Shepard Fairey’s iconic image of Barack Obama.

I recently spoke with Mitchell about the viral image that he created. “I woke up the next day and it was crazy,” Mitchell said, “I was getting contacted by all of these media outlets and being flooded.” In a matter of days, countless people, including Conan’s staff, started using the image as their avatars. Mitchell doesn’t know how it spread so fast.

As it turns out, the “I’m with COCO” image was promptly picked up by another Conan supporter who created the “I’m with COCO” fan page on Facebook. (Mitchell was then added as an admin.) The “I’m with COCO” page—which facetiously, albeit plausibly, describes itself as a “Religious Organization”—has garnered over 250,000 supporters in the past week, far outpacing anything in the Leno camp. If you were to hit “Refresh” on your browser any night last week, you’d likely see the number of COCO fans increasing by 20-30 in a matter of seconds. Over on Twitter, the web’s other bellwether of now, data compiled by Trendrr and featured in Advertising Age showed that chatter and sentiment on the site leaned heavily in favor of Conan from January 9th to January 16th.

That Conan would appear to be more popular on social media sites is not surprising given that these sites are more popular with young people and Leno’s audience tends to be older. What is surprising, if not perplexing, is that NBC has chosen the older demographic over the one traditionally favored by advertisers. (That’s still how television networks are supposed to make money, right?) Fox, which employed Conan O’Brien as a writer for “The Simpsons” and may be courting him again, must be toasting right now to the NBC debacle.

History repeats itself, sort of. Back in 1992, NBC’s decision to tap Jay Leno, and not David Letterman, to fill Johnny Carson’s coveted chair reminds us that the network is no stranger to “Tonight Show” drama. The difference between then and now, however, is that the audience is not a faceless Nielsen rating: it’s connected, vocal, and in typical web fashion, very opinionated.

The online campaign for Conan will not reverse the decision of NBC executives. Still, moving forward, it will probably cause the big networks to think more carefully about how their audiences might respond—especially when that audience is armed with social media—before making big decisions. I asked Mike Mitchell what he saw as the goal of the “I’m with COCO” movement, which has moved from the internet to staging ‘rallies’ in various cities, and he offered a humble response, “I’d like NBC to look at it and maybe think that they’ve made a mistake.”

 

 

 

If the Internet has proven anything, it’s that the underdog has a fighting chance when his message is crowd-sourced.

Mom-and-pop operations no longer have to bow down to the Big Guy because they don’t have the wallet for TV campaigns or box store events. By simply logging on and putting some work into a Social Media campaign, they can reach new customers, pass savings along to establish consumers, and create burgeoning brand identity. One of the best examples of an independently run biz taking advantage of this, is a West Coast artist named Natasha Wescoat.

Refusing to fall victim to the starving artist stereotype, Natasha uses Social Media to establish brand recognition for her art business. She is present on all major outlets: Twitter, MySpace, Flickr, even Ustream, Vimeo, and Etsy. She calls out to her fans on these outlets and offers them specials like Name Your Own Price art auctions, easy e-commerce portals, blogs, and a live studio cam.

Natasha opts to engage with fans and followers in her own voice too, not a formal tone carefully crafted specifically for business or media relations. And, her art isn’t the only subject up for grabs. While she tweets about studio time, swapping hair color, and scouring for lunch, you see so much more than the medium and product- you meet the artist.

Keeping the consumer love going after the check clears is important. Natasha does this by welcoming remarks via Twitter; her handle is called out clearly on her colorful cards. Plus, she includes an extra hand-mirror adorned with her trademark art. A simple thanks for buying from her. 

In absence of fancy billboards and TV campaigns, Natasha has made a name for herself and her creations. There are plenty of other independents out there, too, spending their time concentrating on optimal customer service, giving the consumer a sense of friendship and control, and total brand transparency.

After all, aren’t you are more apt to buy from people you like, when you know what you’re getting, and when you’ve made the decision that you need it on your own?

Photo Credit : Chris Farina - Top Rank (no other credit allowed) copyright 2009  

I am a huge boxing fan - I know when fights have been set up, when my favorite boxers are in the news, what the odds are in sports betting, and the list goes on and on. How do I find out my information? Good ol' Facebook and my favorite social tool, Twitter.

There's a big fight going on tomorrow, the 14th - Firepower: Manny Pacquiao v Miguel Cotto. I'm sure you've heard of it through traditional media, your friends, or through various Social Media platforms. Top Rank (Twitter handle: @trboxing; Tumblr: http://trboxing.tumblr.com/; Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/trboxing) is the promoter for both fighters. They've done a great job in building their brand in social networks and, not to mention, getting fans pumped up for the main event. They provide exclusive content for their fans and recently launched a contest to increase the number of followers. For every 50th Twitter follower, Top Rank selected a random follower to win an autographed poster of the two fighters and a qualification for the grand prize: an autographed glove, tickets to watch the fight "Closed Circuit" and a chance to meet the two fighters.

I think Top Rank executed their campaign well, and they even had a creative way to select the winner of the grand prize. I won't give it away - check it out: http://bit.ly/1Vr5kS 

Another way to keep fans tuned in on the events leading up to the main event was the use of the hashtag #firepower. The most recent event was the Press Conference on November 11th. For those who could not watch it live, in-person or while viewing it on hbo.com/boxing, people on Twitter could search for #firepower and get the latest news as it happened (I'll admit, I was contributing too). I'm sure people will continue to use the hashtag for today's weigh-in at 6pm ET and continue it during and after the fight.

So who are you betting on?

In their book Groundswell, Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff define the social media explosion that includes Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter, etc. as:

A social trend in which people use technologies to get the things they need from each other, rather than from traditional institutions like corporations.

Sports fans are an insatiable bunch when it comes to news about their favorite team. I personally click on the NFL link at ESPN three or four times a day as if it were a refresh button, even though I’ve already read all the articles there.  The search for other sources has now led me to twitter.

NFL fans will remember Chicago QB Jim McMahon’s use of his headband in the mid-80’s to send messages. Imagine if he had access to Twitter (Commissioner Rozelle would probably have had a cow)! 

I have been following Shaq (@THE_REAL_SHAQ) on Twitter for about 9 months now.  While his tweets haven’t added tremendous value to my life, it is cool to be connected to  a larger than life figure and one of the top 50 players in NBA history.

I’ve met NBA legends MJ, Dr. J, Rick Barry, Moses Malone (fo, fo, fo - I wonder if he would have tweeted that in '83) and Magic Johnson, but I have actually tweeted Shaq during a game I attended in Washington, DC this past season. 

So, when I bumped into him at the All Star Game in Phoenix on my way to the NBA Technology Summit, I was able to say, “Hey Shaq, I’m one of your followers.”  Shaq, if you’re reading this, thanks for autographing my son’s jersey while we were in Phoenix!  Rumor has it Shaq found out he will be playing with the King via Twitter. 

Pro athletes have been taking to Twitter, as have imposters of them; hence the use of “real” in Shaq’s twitter handle. Bogus twittering has become such an issue that a new site – Athletestweet.com – has emerged, making sure athletes are who they say they are on Twitter.

I learned about the new site while reading about my Philadelphia Eagles on ESPN’s nation blog for the NFC East, which had a link to Ashley Fox’s article, “A case of athletes’ tweets” on Philly.com (http://tinyurl.com/mcbcmj) . When I wrote this blog, according to the article, the only Eagle who has been certified by the service is “Macho” Harris.

According to Fox, none of the leagues have specific policies that address Twitter and the nature of micro blogging in this format. Athletestwitter.com and a site I just learned about today from Bill Sobel’s blog (http://tinyurl.com/lsuqny), jockipedia.com,  seem like exactly what Li and Bernoff are talking about when they indicate organizations are not prepared to deal with this groundswell.

Considering the recent firing of Dan Leone for talking a little trash via Facebook for letting Brian Dawkins fly away (see my post: http://tinyurl.com/ljg6el), it will be interesting to see what “Macho” and the other Eagles tweet about going forward.  Will the Eagles bench, fine, or fire players for bad twitters? I guess we will find out soon enough. 

I’d like to follow the President's example and post my own Fathers Day thoughts.   I don’t have Parade magazine but I do have the Flightpath Digital Insight Blog.  And I was feeling good Sunday after a nice brunch with the Lindgren Family. So here it goes.

My son, Travis and I watched the election with awe and wonder. I can recall the president calling out to fathers in America asking them to take more responsibility. We silently contemplated the meaning of that statement; as we watched the president speak in Denver from our respective couches in our dorm room like apartment. 

Like the president, Travis has grown up in a single parent household (with supportive grandparents). I wondered how life will change for him when he is a father one day because of the technologies that helped get President Obama elected.

I often tell people when I arrived at Penn State, in 1990 as a Freshman, I was not issued an email address. When Travis was born I set aside school and went in the Army. When I returned in 1994, everyone had an email account. I got mine jkb107@psu.edu. In many ways I was blessed with a son and email (which proved to be the gateway to my decade long career in the digital world).

Travis and his generation have always been associated with advancments in technology, as opposed to Gen X’ers like myself. I had a walkman, an analog TV, Atari and the Commodore 64. He has two ipods, an HDTV, a Wii and an Xbox.  And of course; he has grown up with the internet. We had a land line growing up he has had 4 mobile phones.

And they use all this technology at once: these kids can play xbox online, speak to the other players via a headset, text message via cellphone and use Facebook, all the while listening to a video on youtube.  They can even text message with their phone in their pocket while pretending to pay attention to a conversation with an adult.
 

Parenting in this fast paced world of technology is challenging for two parents, let alone one.  I participated in a study while at Penn State that became a book: The Single Parent Resource by Brook Noel (to date this is the only book in which I have been quoted – page 230). The book was designed to provide guidance to single parents on everything from how to save a little money, to getting back into the dating game, and how to juggle work, play and family time. The book never contemplated the explosion of the internet and its partners in crime at MTV Networks. 

Freud said that technology creates the necessity for its own conveniences. He would need no telephone if there were no trains to take his son hundreds of miles away. We would need no telegraph if there were no ships for overseas voyages. What would Freud have to say about text messaging, Facebook, Twitter and the places those technologies take our sons and daughters?

One of the key jobs of a parent is to help keep their kid focused. When my son messes up, I try to use the ancient technique of grounding him. However, I forget there are so many access points to circumvent this archaic notion of punishment. For example, in school they have computers in the library with access to Facebook and Myspace. Not to mention, most kids now have access to the internet on their phones.
 
But there are pluses to this technology. I can often be found showing off video of my son playing soccer or hoops via my own Facebook account. Some parents actually “monitor” Facebook to see what their kids are up to. As a Gen Xer, this seems too big brotherish for me, but I understand the temptation. I have also participated in conversations with him and his friends on Facebook, which is always fun.

We spend a lot of time at soccer tournaments. This weekend for the first time I saw that Twitter announcements are being used at a major tournament.  While I won’t be Twittering or sending a Facebook message to my own father, who will get a phone call (on his cell phone) I suspect it won’t be long before we will all be following and communicating to our millennial children primarily through digital means. 

Hopefully we can find ways to enjoy life with them as we all ride the groundswell. Like the children themselves, the digital technologies they are growing up with are consternating and amazing all at once.  We love both and yet they frustrate us at times.  I feel fortunate to be working at an organization that is focused on "Bringing It to Digital" because I am involved in helping brands leverage the technologies my son uses everyday. 

PS - Son, I love you and I admire your courage. Being your father has been a great joy and the most rewarding challenge of my life.

PPS – Dad, thanks for being there. No matter what stupid stuff I did in my analog world.
 
Happy Father’s Day!
 

 

On Monday, Hyatt's CEO announced their new Twitter strategy - a concierge-Twitter service @HyattConcierge. As of the time of writing this blog post, they have 1,211 followers (including me). 

So what's this service about? Just think of an online concierge at your service 24/7 ready to answer your travel questions and requests before, during, and after your stay. You can ask for restaurant recommendations near the hotel, schedule a massage appointment, and more.

I think it's a spectacular idea. A hotel concierge listening and actively helping its guests (and even potential guests). It's more convenient to just send a tweet (via a mobile device, app, or the web) than to pick up the phone and dial an 800 number. And you can also view the @HyattConcierge public timeline to see if your questions have already been answered, or if you need ideas.

Other hotels that have a Twitter account to tweet everything from room renovations to responses to customer inquiries to rate specials include Marriott (@MarriottIntl), Tablet Hotels (@TabletHotels), DoubleTree (@doubletreehtls). What makes Hyatt Hotels Twitter account stand out amongst other hotel chains' Twitter accounts is the understanding of the use of different Twitter accounts. There are several Hyatt Hotels Twitter accounts - one on a specific chain location, one on Careers, and one for their Concierge. As what our Social Media Manager, Kate Miltner, has pointed out in last week's BDI roundtable, your Twitter account can't be a one size fits all. People may tune out, or even feel spammed. If your business is a large company, you need to create a different Twitter account for each type of product you have. For example, one for PR, Customer Support, News Releases, etc. 

Read more about Hyatt and their Twitter: http://content.usatoday.com/communities/hotelcheckin/post/2009/05/66927973/1

When it comes to business tweeting, there are certain Dos and Don'ts that can make you or break you. I put together this document for the Flightpath office so that everyone can use our Twitter (@flightpathny) effectively, whether from the office or at an event. Hopefully you'll find it to be enlightening.