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Today I found an interesting article called “Social Media Users Who Shine in the Face of Tragedy” that was about how so many pulled together through social media on Monday in the wake of the tragedy at the Boston Marathon. I enjoyed the read and thought it brought up some interesting points.

My first thought while reading was “I wonder how long it would have taken us to find out about what happened without the help of Facebook and Twitter?” Brooke and I saw a brief, nondescript Facebook message that prompted a Google search where we found out more details of what happened – we were fully informed within probably only 10-15 minutes of the explosions. I’m sure we would have found out about the explosions eventually, but if it weren’t for that Facebook post it may have been another hour or two.

There are positives and negatives to word spreading so quickly through social media. As far as negatives go, in situations like that it seems like quite a bit of false information is spread easily. By the afternoon there were false reports that police had caught the bomber when really, it was a case of racial profiling. However, in so many other ways social media was incredibly helpful. It was really amazing to see so many people sending positive thoughts to all of those involved.

We won’t soon forget about Monday’s tragedies but thanks to social media we all came together as Americans to be there for a city in need. Here at adWhite, our thoughts and prayers go out to those affected by the blasts.

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This is the first of many social media blogs I’ll post. For the first post I decided to focus on how to create the perfect tweet or Facebook post (hint: look to your personal social media habits as a guide).

In case you weren’t aware, there is a big difference between using social media as a fun way to keep up with friends and family versus using social media as an advertiser. As if we didn’t get enough advertisements everywhere else, all the time, now we get them on our Facebook and Twitter news feeds from our favorite companies.

My job is to keep the noise to a minimum and find a way to engage customers without annoying them. In concept that doesn’t sound too hard, does it? Wrong. Personally, I don’t like to see a ton of tweets or Facebook posts from companies on my news feeds. I’m the girl who “unlikes” or “unfollows” companies on Facebook and Twitter because they post way too much. Here is where the challenge comes in: I have to try to please fickle social media users such as myself.

This is no easy task; it requires just the right amount of customer interaction, without offering too much. I’m still trying to figure out the perfect amount, and with clients in industries ranging from fast food to car care it’s easier said than done! One thing I’m excited to try is a contest. Whether it’s Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, as long as the rules are simple and the stakes are high, I know I’m in and everyone else will be too.

After all of my research I’ve found about a hundred different suggestions for how to create the perfect tweet or Facebook posts. Some sources say include pictures, others say links and still others insist video is the way to go. Looks like I’ll just have to figure that out on my own. Now I ask you: what is your favorite way to interact with a brand? Do you like to participate in contests or view photos and videos?

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What inspires you? Do you get inspired by art, outdoor activity, travel, books? I’m thinking business/creative inspiration mostly with this post.

The reason I decided to write this is because I’m thinking the places where I draw inspiration may be odd. I’m finding inspiration on tv, in books and magazines and online. These categories aren’t really odd, but I’m curious if others are like me.

I was exposed to Kickstarter in late 2011 and I go back there at least weekly to see what new projects are seeking funds. I get inspired by the creative ideas of others, whether it’s a new product or new art or new music. The way these entrepreneurs introduce the public to their ideas and try to sell the public on them is very interesting and inspiring to me. I’ve backed 12 projects on Kickstarter in the past 12 months and part of the reason I backed a few of those projects was just to be involved and get a behind-the-scenes look at the process from idea to product fulfillment.

I also get inspiration from magazines – the actual hard copies of the magazine. I do get most of my regular magazines on my iPad – Fortune, Fast Company, Ad Age, ADWEEK, Sports Illustrated – but there is something about reading the new issue of Fast Company as a hard copy. I seem to pick-up more little tidbits when I read the hard copy.

I’m also finding inspiration from Instagram, from certain accounts that I follow that show great pictures of cars or buildings or exotic places.

Speaking of buildings, for the first time ever I seem to be paying attention to architecture. Not so much the architecture around me on a daily basis, but what I see online and on tv. I love seeing shows on HGTV that show loft apartments, cool beach houses, unique commercial buildings, etc…

One of the shows on HGTV that really helps me think creatively after I watch it is Home by Novogratz. There is something about the way they use different textures, colors, art, etc… that I can directly relate to and utilize at work.

Well, after re-reading this, maybe my sources of inspiration aren’t all that odd. Even though I’m not the art director or graphic designer here, I do concept a lot of the ideas we present to our clients and I do need to know what works and what doesn’t from a design standpoint. So I’m constantly seeking inspiration and places where I can see different designs – different uses of colors, textures, etc…

I need to travel more, read more books and watch more documentaries though, so I’ll get on that soon. MAN, I sound old..!

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What is the next thing? I bet we all wish we knew. It’s not impossible to predict, but it is impossible to get ahead of it. Facebook was hot, then Twitter, then Foursquare, then Google+ and now it’s Instagram. I’m probably missing a few in there (LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest, etc.) and I may even have them out of order, but you get the idea and for now I’ll just focus on these five.

So what is next and should any of these be focused on more aggressively than the other – to promote your business and engage with your customers? Here are just some of my general thoughts on each of these, both from a personal and business perspective.

–Facebook – I’m not a big fan of Facebook personally. However, I do see a place for it in small (and big) business promotion. One negative I want to point out for small businesses though is that Facebook is in full control and you, as the client or user, have very little control. Facebook can change their rules anytime they like and you have to quickly adhere to those rules or else. For example, when they changed business profiles to the timeline format, I believe you had 30-day’s notice… Unfortunately some businesses don’t even post every 30 days… Facebook does have the most users of any social media channel and I still think it’s a great way to engage with your customers on certain topics, hold contests, have casual banter, etc..

–Twitter – I LOVE Twitter and this social channel is now much more widely recognized than it was a few years ago. Major broadcasts often reference hash tags and enable the viewing audience to participate in the event in some way via Twitter. I find that Twitter is excellent to find news, investigate products or services, engage with others consumers, share opinions and much more. With promoted tweets it’s become much easier for small businesses to get some added exposure, but it’s still not the best marketing channel for small businesses

–Foursquare – Foursquare is having some trouble as of late and is losing popularity before some even knew it existed. I think it’s a cool way to tell friends where you are and subtly remind them that they should be there too. I find that my restaurant clients get the most benefit from it, but sadly these clients do not utilize it enough. Overall this social channel is good for loyal customers of a brand and if those customers are influencers, then it can be pretty effective. I like how Foursquare can provide specials and tips about certain things at a location. I hope more people come around to it, but for now it’s doesn’t seem to be a major channel for the small businesses I deal with

–Google+ – Google+ is here to stay, whether you like it or not. I don’t actually think that much customer engagement is taking place here yet, but it will. Small businesses need Google+ for search engine reasons, if nothing else

–Instagram – Instagram is another social channel that I love, but the business uses for it – or at least the small business uses for it – are not easy to determine yet. It appears to be more of a personal social channel, if that makes sense, and it skews to the younger crowd. However, Instagram users are growing by the day, it’s a visual medium and it’s one people and businesses need to pay attention to

The key with most of these social channels is that you never know where your customers are going to come from. As a small business you may not be able to effectively utilize each of these, but you have to know what they are and you have to make assumptions about which channels your audience will be paying attention to. Brand impressions are still brand impressions, no matter how you get them, so keep that in mind when using these channels and thinking “what am I getting from this?”

So what’s next? I’m not sure, but I know this. As a small business marketer, we have to constantly be aware of what is happening and quickly determine what will last, what will work for our clients, etc… and then learn how to use it or we’ll get left in the dust by some other provider who’s paying more attention. We can’t let that happen!

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For some reason small businesses these days feel the need to have multiple marketing groups helping them achieve their objectives. I wonder how many plumbers these companies have. Do you think they have one plumber to fix the toliet and another to fix the shower? I know that niche specialization is required for some things, but how segmented do you need to get/be?

I believe that small businesses need to find trusted partners who can help them with everything they can’t (or shouldn’t) do themselves. But, the fewer vendors you have the better. If you are a small business you already have numerous vendors to deal with it – your landlord, office supply company, payroll company, your bank, etc… just to name a few.

As a marketing provider to small businesses, adWhite has to be able to perform a wide range of services. In fact, our range of services is perhaps too wide, but we do it becuase we believe it helps our clients. I’m bringing this up becuase more and more I’m running into clients who use us for design and/or strategy, but then they print on their own and get certain online services from other vendors (website hosting, social media services, etc…), etc… I can understand why this happens, but I’m urging small business owners that read this (I know there are a few people who may read this at some point, even if it’s becuase they can’t sleep – I’ll take any readers I can get) to do this:

–concentrate on your core business

–outsource tasks you can’t perform on your own or in-house OR don’t have the time to handle yourself or in-house

–find trusted vendors and allow them to handle everything in their domain – marketing, office management, accounting, legal services, etc…

Don’t hire one firm to design your website and then another to maintain it and yet another to host it. Don’t hire one firm to manage your HTML emails and then another to help you with social media. Don’t hire one firm to design your direct mail pieces, another to print them and then another to mail them.

It’s not that complicated and there are many full-service firms out there – like ours – that can complete the full marketing task for you, under one roof, with one set of personnel. This will ensure consistency in the effort, it will help you better manage the process, and it limits the amount of moving parts you need to monitor.

I know I’ve over-simplied this “argument” but hopefully the point is received. Some segmentation in vendor selection is wise, but utilizing too many vendors in the marketing process is not necessary. Let your plumber fix your toliet and your kitchen sink, he can do it!

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I’m not sure what made me think of this, but it could be the impending holidays. Anyways, I can remember having life goals in the past, but then they quickly switched to professional goals. I think I’m finally ready for them to switch back to life or personal goals now.

For the purposes of this discussion I’m defining life goals as graduate high school, go to college, get a good job, get married, have kids, buy a house, etc… I can remember thinking that way. But, I became a business owner in 2002 and by that time I had already accomplished many of my basic life/personal goals. I then transitioned to more professional goals – achieve X in sales, grow gross profit by Y year over year, etc… I never lost focus of my faith or my family and I believe I kept my overall priorities in order, but my goals and objectives became strictly business focused.

Maybe this is natural, I don’t know. Or maybe I’m shallow and I’ve been focused on the wrong things these past 10 years. Or maybe my business is finally at a place that allows me to think about me and my family again and not be so concerned with daily or monthly or even annual business targets. Again, I don’t know, but I do know that I’m back to focusing on life goals and I’ve simplified my professional goals.

Professionally, I’m just concerned with earning a good living, doing good work that is appreciated and adds value (some value – depending on how you define value), creating a stable, safe and rewarding environment for my employees and leaving the world (or at least my community) in better shape than I entered it. Nothing too complex, right?

But for personal goals, they have shifted. I’m now thinking about how can I provide my children with varied and valuable life experiences that will benefit them in the future. I want to see them graduate high school, go to college, get a good job, get married, have kids, buy a house…and then I want to experience all of that for my grand children too. Perhaps this is a little early to be thinking about all this (I’m 40 – I know, shocking isn’t it), but something has happened to me recently and that’s where my head is at. Basically I’m writing this to say that all of the sudden, even though I’ve always been very focused on my family, I’m prepared to start the new year not thinking about the new sales goal for 2013, but what will I do this year to improve my chances of realizing my life goals – my new life goals.

Feels kinda good, I’ve got to say.

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There are reports in the news today that many Twitter accounts have been hacked (Possible Twitter Hack Prompts Big Password Reset Call). We personally know of 4 or 5 people whose Twitter accounts have been hacked in the last couple of weeks. This is a good time to remind our clients that it’s a good idea to change your account passwords for all online accounts frequently, and if you have a Twitter account, it would be advisable to change your password now as a precaution.

Never use the same password on multiple accounts. Never use common dictionary words or names as passwords. It’s best to use a random string of upper and lower case letters, numbers and symbols — here’s a good one for example: eH4Vj8&g%8

In this day and age where we all have so many passwords to keep track of and so many cases of hacking, I recommend a program called Roboform. It keeps all your passwords for you, saving them whenever you sign up for a new account online. When you return to the Web site where you need to login, it fills in your username and password for you. It keeps your passwords in an encrypted database – you just enter one password at the beginning of the day to login to your Roboform and you’re set to go and your passwords are safe. I’ve been using it for years and I don’t know how I could do my job without it. There are some other cool features but one I use a lot is the random password generator. It’s the best way I know to come up with a secure password for a new account quickly and easily. Roboform works on Windows and Macs and even iOS devices, Android and BlackBerry.

Safe computing everybody!

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The Woodlands, Texas has been fortunate enough to host an Ironman event each of the last two years. On Saturday, May 18, 2013, the Ironman Texas will make it’s third stop in our “little” town and I for one couldn’t be happier.

No, I’m not an Ironman, but thanks for asking. I’m barely even a weekend warrior. So I’m not excited beacuse I plan to participate, becuase I doubt I will ever come close to participating in an event like this. I just like beer and burgers too much! I’ve had friends and some family members participate and I thoroughly enjoyed cheering them on from the sideline and that was tough enough for me. I’m mostly excited becuase I believe large events like this are a tremendous way to bring exposure to our town. As a business owner in the area and a resident of The Woodlands, the positives that go along with this event far outweigh any negatives.

I’m bringing this up now becuase I had an interesting discussion on Twitter about this event shortly after it was done this past May. The discussion was between myself and two other supporters of the event. One of the others was an actual participant in both of the previous Ironman Texas events. The third participant was a fellow local business owner who had a spouse participating for the first time. The discussion was about rumors that residents did not want the event to return becuase of the traffic issues it causes.

We had all heard some minor complaints about this from a very small number of people, but when Ironman failed to announce the date and the registration opening for the third event, we all became concerned. Had something happened at the event to make Ironman not want to come back? Was The Woodlands pushing back or changing their feelings about the event? Was the vocal minority causing so much trouble that Ironman had decided to seek a new location for their annual Texas event?

None of these turned out to be true, I don’t believe, and Ironman Texas announced the next event and all was well. It seems like the delay had something to do some red tape involving permits between the organizers and our community.

So, crisis averted in my eyes at least. Well, maybe not crisis, but it’s a good thing it’s coming back in my opinion. However, in an effort to put a positive message out there from a fairly uninvolved third party and as a form of a preemptive strike against future objecters to these kind of events, I want to outline my case for why it’s worth the small bit of hassle it causes residents of The Woodlands for this one day.

THE CONS
–increased traffic congestion on a busy Saturday in mid-May
–more crowded restaurants and hotels during a possible prom and/or graduation weekend
–businesses on the race route face difficulties with deliveries, employees arriving and departing and customers being able to access them

THE PROS
–extrememly positive economic impact on our entire community (more crowded restaurants, hotels and retail stores of all kinds)
–businesses on the race route get increased business and exposure if not during event, then before and after it
–worldwide “brand” exposure for The Woodlands throughout the entire Ironman and fitness/athletic community
–residents have front-row access to world-class athletes
–local participants (of which there are many) get to sleep in their own beds

There are many more pros I could discuss, but it feels like I’m arguing against myself. Therefore I’m only mentioning a few of the most obvious ones becuase I believe the point is clearly made with just those.

Thanks Ironman Texas, keep coming back! You are good for me and my community in many, many ways!

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