Last night, with the help of Working Mother Magazine (@_workingmother_) and Axiom Public Relations (@AxiomPR), we Country Inns & Suites By Carlson (@CountryInns), co-hosted a TWITTER Party (#WMme).Country Inns donated the grand prize (a 2 night stay, $300 airline certificate, and a $100 Visa gift card), and at the end, Working Mother Magazine picked one lucky winner as the recipient of "The Ultimate Retreat" package.
We generated a lot of buzz using the hashtag #WMme -- lots of conversations about how to indulge in "me time" as a working mother; how having kids has changed the concept of "Me time," etc.
What was fun, to me, about this conversation was to see a lot of like-minded women from across the country come together to relate about a topic near and dear to everybody's hearts: how do you maintain balance as a "woman who does too much." I don't even HAVE kids, yet I constantly feel like one of those women -- I cannot even imagine what it will be like to maintain this lifestyle once I (someday, hopefully!) add kids to the mix. There was a lot of laughter, and everybody who participated walked away feeling like they'd made a lot of new friends - myself included!
I think women often feel very alone in their feelings and frustrations -- like, it's not very "nice" to express how much being a working mother stresses you out; how much you love your husband and kids, but sometimes just want to run away from it all. A theme I heard expressed a lot last night was how "Me time" doesn't even have to be anything fancy -- sometimes a gal just wants to be alone with a glass of wine and the remote control -- or a bubble bath and a good book.
Many of them expressed that even being alone with the laptop for an hour or two -- to blog, tweet, and IM to their hearts content - was a heavenly idea.
My takeaway: in this big, wild, wide world, technology can bring us a little closer together; make friends out of strangers, and provide a little bit of anonymity that is sometimes required in order to be really, truly honest with each other. And that reaching through the wires to express a shared sentiment, fear, joy, or curiosity makes this crazy place seem a whole lot more managable.
Tweet that.
~Jessica
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Rule #1: Be Present
The first rule of blogging -- which I've clearly broken already -- is this:
Don't start a blog, promote it, and then allow it to languish. You must be updating frequently, with relevant and engaging material, or you will lose your audience.
My recent background is in digital in-store media, managing a project that displayed entertaining, engaging, educational, and informative content across Best Buy's most expansive and prominent real estate: their HDTV display.
The same formula applies.
If you fail to update -- to surprise and delight the consumer -- the consumer stops looking, listening, and caring.
Conversely, you don't want to inundate your consumers with too many messages at a too-frequent pace. In the blogosphere, this isn't as big of an issue, as content typically flows into a feed reader, or the individual must go seek out the content. But in forums such as twitter, facebook, myspace... where your messaging sort of "invades" everybody's personal space, it can be overwhelming and, frankly, annoying. For example, I recently "unfriended" a company that sent me so many promotional messages each day on Facebook that my own identity was lost within the content of my own wall.
What's the right mix?
A wise social media guru first advised me, "Spend about 2 hours on Twitter a day, at least to get started and make your presence known."
Two HOURS a day? Really? In the context of a personal account, I can't fathom taking two hours to message the "tweeterati," about my exercise habits, what I ate for breakfast, or how my braised lamb shanks turned out last night.
In the professional context, however, I get it -- you are building relationships out of NOWHERE. When "Country Inns Emily" starts engaging mommybloggers via twitter to discuss their travel experiences, there isn't a relationship there yet. There's no trust, no context, and no personality until "Emily" creates it out of thin air.
Spending time tweeting means the beginning of a bond between women, spread out across the country, engaged in like-minded media practices, who have never met face to face, yet suddenly have a bit of a relationship.
At the same time, the customer service implications are pretty intense -- 2 hours a day means that I can easily search out and respond to any customer service issues (good OR bad), quickly and efficiently. In a country where, frankly, we have come to expect bad service, to say that this will "surprise and delight" the customer is a grave understatement.
And then there is the piece about entertaining and educating -- people who search for travel tips are LOOKING for travel tips. And as twitter evolves from "a fun toy to play around with" to "the web's biggest user-generated search engine," the ability to share informative tips, fun tricks, and educational links is massive. And that means that, at the end of the day, the persona of Country Inns Emily is equated with that of the friendly, hospitable, fun travel expert, who just wants to help you enjoy your vacation.
Don't start a blog, promote it, and then allow it to languish. You must be updating frequently, with relevant and engaging material, or you will lose your audience.
My recent background is in digital in-store media, managing a project that displayed entertaining, engaging, educational, and informative content across Best Buy's most expansive and prominent real estate: their HDTV display.
The same formula applies.
If you fail to update -- to surprise and delight the consumer -- the consumer stops looking, listening, and caring.
Conversely, you don't want to inundate your consumers with too many messages at a too-frequent pace. In the blogosphere, this isn't as big of an issue, as content typically flows into a feed reader, or the individual must go seek out the content. But in forums such as twitter, facebook, myspace... where your messaging sort of "invades" everybody's personal space, it can be overwhelming and, frankly, annoying. For example, I recently "unfriended" a company that sent me so many promotional messages each day on Facebook that my own identity was lost within the content of my own wall.
What's the right mix?
A wise social media guru first advised me, "Spend about 2 hours on Twitter a day, at least to get started and make your presence known."
Two HOURS a day? Really? In the context of a personal account, I can't fathom taking two hours to message the "tweeterati," about my exercise habits, what I ate for breakfast, or how my braised lamb shanks turned out last night.
In the professional context, however, I get it -- you are building relationships out of NOWHERE. When "Country Inns Emily" starts engaging mommybloggers via twitter to discuss their travel experiences, there isn't a relationship there yet. There's no trust, no context, and no personality until "Emily" creates it out of thin air.
Spending time tweeting means the beginning of a bond between women, spread out across the country, engaged in like-minded media practices, who have never met face to face, yet suddenly have a bit of a relationship.
At the same time, the customer service implications are pretty intense -- 2 hours a day means that I can easily search out and respond to any customer service issues (good OR bad), quickly and efficiently. In a country where, frankly, we have come to expect bad service, to say that this will "surprise and delight" the customer is a grave understatement.
And then there is the piece about entertaining and educating -- people who search for travel tips are LOOKING for travel tips. And as twitter evolves from "a fun toy to play around with" to "the web's biggest user-generated search engine," the ability to share informative tips, fun tricks, and educational links is massive. And that means that, at the end of the day, the persona of Country Inns Emily is equated with that of the friendly, hospitable, fun travel expert, who just wants to help you enjoy your vacation.
Tell me -- what are your biggest tips and tricks for tweeting to the masses? How much time do you invest in this? What is your expected ROI in terms of time invested vs. brand awareness generated?
Off and tweeting,
~Jessica
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Ready, Set, Get Social!
Welcome to my little space on the web -- after several years of learning about social media and the blogosphere via my own personal blogs (about running, weight loss, and advice for helpless men on how to decode crazy women!), I've landed a marketing position that has somewhat evolved into a social media position. While I've quite well versed in this area, I'm learning something new everyday -- and thought I'd create this space to talk about social media insights, developments, learnings... and most importantly, learn from those more skilled and experienced in this area than I!
I must note right upfront that I work for Carlson Hotels Worldside -- but the opinions expressed on this blog are not necessarily that of CHW, or of Country Inns & Suites By Carlson. I won't be sharing proprietary information, or anything that the general public cannot see. I WILL be talking about the social media space generally, and perhaps sharing what I've learned from "best in breed" as I've familiarized myself with this industry.
For now -- I encourage you to check out Country Inns & Suites By Carlson's new blog, Talk of the Country, and to become a fan on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter. I'd love any feedback you're willing to share.
Bloggingly yours,
~Jessica
I must note right upfront that I work for Carlson Hotels Worldside -- but the opinions expressed on this blog are not necessarily that of CHW, or of Country Inns & Suites By Carlson. I won't be sharing proprietary information, or anything that the general public cannot see. I WILL be talking about the social media space generally, and perhaps sharing what I've learned from "best in breed" as I've familiarized myself with this industry.
For now -- I encourage you to check out Country Inns & Suites By Carlson's new blog, Talk of the Country, and to become a fan on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter. I'd love any feedback you're willing to share.
Bloggingly yours,
~Jessica
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
