We recently had a good reminder that social media monitoring still requires the human touch.
A quick search on our company name, GasPedal, used to give us all we needed to know.
Until Toyota’s gas pedal problem. Now there’s 99x the volume, and none of it is about us. (Although, after 11 years, people finally get the accelerator metaphor in our name.)
Now we have to carefully and personally sort through comments that are relevant.
It’s a good reminder that social media is a conversation between real humans, not some automated keyword blast campaign.
I’m excited to announce that my companies, GasPedal and the Social Media Business Council, will be opening up an Austin office and I’ll be moving down there this summer.
Our Chicago office remains home base. All of our awesome people are still here. Kurt Vanderah is stepping into the role of General Manager for the Chicago office (congrats, Kurt!). We’ll be a two-office company, hiring and expanding in both locations.
Why?
Austin is booming and it’s a great town for small business.
The social media/startup scene is very hot there and we want to share in that energy.
I’ve been in big cities for the last 20 years, but I grew up in Milwaukee and want to raise the kids the way I grew up.
Better BBQ. (Sorry, Chicago.)
We’ll be hiring all sorts of folks (in both cities), especially social-media-savvy salespeople and community managers, a COO, and the world’s greatest executive admin. It’s a little early, but feel free to contact me and tell your friends.
P.S. Anyone want to trade houses? 60614 for 78731?
One of the great ironies of word of mouth is that we don’t want to talk about popular things. We want to be special. We want to be first. We want to be smarter.
How did Gmail get so big? Because you were only allowed to invite 5 friends.
Customers suddenly felt important. They had the power to decide which friends got an invitation. They made sure that those friends really signed up, so no invitation was wasted. It felt good to be an insider.
After ordering from eBags, they send me a little note:
Is this order a gift that is being shipped directly to the recipient?
If so, send a fast & FREE eCard Gift Announcement via email. Click here to learn how.
I get to this fantastic, simple page (click for a close-up):
With one low-tech ecard, they’ve done a few big things:
Brought me back to the web site for a second visit.
Got me to send a well-branded promotion to my friend (who might have not known where the gift came from).
Check out the first post and watch this video to see what it’s all about.
It works! Read these great posts from our speakers. Notice how they are writing about the conference in detail instead of just a quick tweet.
Allan Schoenberg
I was intrigued by the box that was delivered to my office last week from GasPedal. Holiday candy? A new tech gadget? No, wait…Andy sent me another copy of his book! No. I unwrapped to my dismay a very large, yellow, personalized t-shirt. Thanks Andy. The obvious idea behind the t-shirt is to promote the “Word of Mouth Supergeniuses” conference taking place right here in Chicago on December 16. And it worked. Read more …
Andy Nulman
The day is a major-league learning opportunity. Case studies from mega-brands like Coke, Starbucks, Domino’s and Maker’s Mark bourbon. Numerous social networking experts. Live “Will It Blend” demos from Blendtec’s George Wright. Timely, too, given the aforementioned network launch. (And any time I can hang with fellow speakers Mitch Joel and Saul Colt, and my Chicago-based buddy Jim Fannin, well…) Read more…
Saul Colt
Now my Mom isn’t the only one who thinks I am a genius. There are bunch of people who do it very well and a big chunk of them will be speaking (with myself) at the World of Mouth Supergenius event in Chicago on December 16. Shameless plug aside this post isn’t bout the conference and more about what the organizers did to promote the event… I love offering discounts to people who read my blog and perhaps like to follow what I am up to. It makes perfect sense that a conference about Word of Mouth marketing would do something Word of Mouth worthy so for that I am getting on the bandwagon and joining folks like Jason Falls and writing a post about my shirt…but unlike Jason I can’t show you a photo cause my shirt is being held at Canadian Customs or something so I just made my own Read more…
Join me at the Word of Mouth Supergenius conference in Chicago on December 16th. I’ll be one of a dozen speakers with case studies too good to miss. Hear from some pretty terrific authors too. Find out how PEMCO tuned in to their customers’ wants and needs to build relationships with their fans. And you can save big if you read the secret (well not really secret) words on the big shirt that I’m wearing. Hint: RODISMYHERO
We’re bringing together an all-star group of word of mouth marketers for Word of Mouth Supergenius: The “How to be Great at Word of Mouth Marketing” Conference on December 16 in Chicago. We’ll feature 12 how-to classes, 12 real-world case studies, and 6 brilliant authors. You’re going to learn practical, hands-on techniques to get people talking about you the next day.
Our lineup of speakers includes word of mouth supergenius and and Telligent founder and CTO, Rob Howard. Rob will be presenting a case study based on how Texas Instruments’ E2E Community is driving productivity through increased engagement and shared these three ideas as a preview:
Communities make it easier to communicate with customers. One of the biggest and most immediate benefits of a strong community is that it makes it easy for quick and efficient communication between you and your customers.
Communities help scale your support. By consolidating all the information about your products, all your support staff, and all your customers, your communities can be a helpful resource that customers can use again and again.
Complex business challenges are where collaboration is best. Rob says that often you’ll find the real knowledge about your products and services aren’t in the heads of those that work for you, but rather with your customers who use your stuff every day.
Hear Rob’s live Supergenius preview (and check out our Facebook page to see all our interviews):
It works! Read these great posts from our speakers. Notice how they are writing about the conference in detail instead of just a quick tweet.
Jason Falls
Learn Word-Of-Mouth With The Supergeniuses: When I got home Thursday, I had a package waiting. It was from Andy Sernovitz, the Word-Of-Mouth guru. Andy has invited me to speak at a one day event he’s putting on in Chicago Dec. 16 called, “Word of Mouth Supergeniuses.” You can learn more on the event website, but keep reading first. Read more …
Paul Gillin
A Bit of Inspired Word of Mouth: “I’m participating in the Word-Of-Mouth SuperGenius conference that’s being run in Chicago next month by Andy Sernovitz and his crew at GasPedal. It’s been a kick to watch the organizers drink their own Kool-Aid whilst promoting the event. The buttons, banners and custom discount code were nice, but the T-shirt that arrived in the mail yesterday was truly inspired. Talk about one-to-one marketing! Read more…
Lindsay Lebresco
So right-I’m stooping to a new low people- I’m advertising a conference on my shirt! Actually I thought this was a fun idea & I’m a fun gal so I figured I’d give it a go. It’s for an upcoming conference I’m speaking at called “Word of Mouth Supergenius” and it’s a great, how-to conference about implementing social media & word of mouth marketing strategies. Great group of “SuperGeniuses” to learn from and chat with. (Read her Facebook post …)
We’re bringing together an all-star group of word of mouth marketers for Word of Mouth Supergenius: The “How to be Great at Word of Mouth Marketing” Conference on December 16 in Chicago. We’ll feature 12 how-to classes, 12 real-world case studies, and 6 brilliant authors. You’re going to learn practical, hands-on [...]
Did you see how I met the FTC guidelines in the last post? One simple sentence that discloses my relationship with a client (and what kind of ladies’ clothes I wear).
You don’t need some giant legal statement to do good, honest disclosure. Just tell people what your deal is.
Here’s another easy example: Put the word [...]
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Birthdays are excellent times to both reach out to existing customers as well as earn some new ones.
1> Get [...]
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