Thank You, Random.org

Yeah, we’re going a bit OT today. If you don’t want to get Whacky, come back next time.

The world is a cruel place, and my fabulous readers have found that out this week. In spite of some stellar efforts that made my stats (which I really don’t obsess over, Tei) do cartwheels, not a one of you has left the required quotation in the comments of last Thursday’s amazing review of a life-altering work of non-fiction.

You won’t mind my telling you, stats or not I was miffed.

Plus amazon wants my money, because Jeff Bezos and I are like this, and he’s been watching the (distinct lack of) drama.

What to do?

(Read the full post about ‘Will the Real #10 Please Stand Up!’…)

If you love yogurt, if you hate yogurt, you will love this Sarah Haskin’s take on the marketing of yogurt –specifically the targeting of yogurt to women.

I discovered the video while reading BlogHer’sSuzanne Reisman’s Post ,C’est Bon?

(Read the full post about ‘If You Believe The Commercials,Yogurt Is The Official Food of Women’…)

Note to unknown,clueless PR hack: mentioned in Toby Bloomberg’s blog: you should be checking out Hallmark today and seeing if there are any appropriate cards thanking a blogger for not outing your unprofessional and rude behavior.

Toby– a blogger who is listed as one of the top 30 social media bloggers– has recently been writing about Blogger/PR relations.

It is not a love fest.

First, Toby wrote a post suggesting that PR people and bloggers should be  friends. 

Her next post shares a game of email ping pong between herself and a clueless PR type which shows why its going to take a long time before most bloggers and PR types are BFF.

PR Person: Hi.

(Read the full post about ‘PR Hack Owes Toby Bloomberg A Big Fat Thank You Note’…)

Is It Quicksand?

Are you talkin’ to me?

Launching a new product or service? Expanding? Taking advantage of the slowdown to get your message out with less competition? If you’re a small business owner, you’ve got to make a plan, and get the word out about what you offer—and you need to do it every day.

Like the rest of your Positioning, your marketing strategy must be carefully tuned to your audience. Too few messages and you may not be remembered; too many, and your prospect will tune you out.

Monday, we talked about the danger of driving away customers who are already sold on you; Tuesday we dug into the customer’s Perception of a withholding campaign.

Yet somehow, there are “success” stories being told:

“My friend Bert says he does great by sending out loads of email,* with little drips of information, over a long time.

(Read the full post about ‘Building an Empire on Resentment’…)

When a Third-Grader Can Do It Better, Please, Fire Your Marketing People

Have you heard about my love of champagne, which last week I attempted to combine with my love of a good discount?

Only it wasn’t a good discount. Click here to read about it. It’s real short, I’ll wait.

Are you back already? Wow, you read fast.

So my kid, who is vaguely aware of my love of bubbles in green bottles, says to me last night when I tell her of the unused coupon,

They should have just called it 15 bucks off $110. They get the same amount of money, but you would have bought three bottles to get that, Mama.”

The kid knows me too well.

(Read the full post about ‘Tip of the Week: How You Can Get Me to Jump Over my Granny’…)

So You Want Us to Beat a Path to Your Door?

An Awesome Promotion IS:

Designed entirely from the customer’s perspective, for convenience and delight.

Truthful. With no requirements, no small print, no confusion, no trickery, it enhances the company’s credibility.

A giveaway that will be talked about, both before and after it happens: something so rare, it becomes a buzz-worthy event!

A sampling of what the company offers, introducing them to new guests and rewarding loyal customers with a free treat.

More than a sales drive: an awesome promotion is a great Customer Experience.

I’ll Have Mine Well-Done

Today, a great story of promotion done to perfection, from comments on Saturday’s Tip of the Week.

(Read the full post about ‘Giving the Cow Away, but the Milk’s Not Free!’…)

Wednesday Words

To Go Where Your VisionPoints, a few inspiration points for you and your business.

Too many people think only of their own profit. But business opportunity seldom knocks on the door of self-centered people. No customer ever goes to a store merely to please the storekeeper.
—Kazuo Inamori, founder of Kyocera Corporation

Grow and be well,

Kelly Erickson

Or, Why I Carry a Pen and Paper, Even on a Date*

¿Habla Español?

I speak Spanish. Pretty fluently. Not natively, but I get along in a rusty kind of a way. Though my speech is a bit slow, the hearing works just fine, thanks.

Many of you are also bilingual (though not necessarily in Spanish), and you may be asking,

“What does this have to do with Customer Experience, Kelly?”

I may have forgotten to mention I don’t look Spanish, mainly due to the fact that I’m not. (Note author photo, at left. Nice Irish Experience Designer. Not Irish Experiences, mind you… well, yeah.

(Read the full post about ‘3 Essential Points for the Business Bilingue’…)

It’s a question that Businessweek is asking  as part of its followup to its breakthrough 2005 article on blogging in an article called Beyond Blogs. In particular they are looking for resuwitters from CEOs and celebrities.

HE 140-CHARACTER RESUME

We send out a few posts on Twitter (they’re called "tweets") asking people how social media are changing their work. Scores of responses pour in. People learn what colleagues are up to, inside and outside the company. They see trends. They make contacts. They learn. Some even sell. A Dell (DELL) employee who goes by the Twitter name of Ggroovin tells us that Dell’s service on Twitter has brought in half a million dollars of new orders in the past year.

(Read the full post about ‘Can You Twitter Your Resume’…)

Spark Your Creativity With a Little Time-Travel

I took time off from “real” work yesterday evening, pulled out some tools I haven’t worked with in a long while, and totally changed the direction I was going with a project.

A few bottles of ink, some lovely old pens. Revisiting line and form and backing away from the computer. I back away a lot and I recommend you do it, too, but I don’t usually back all the way into the past!

While I worked I thought about the pen, the ink, the feel, (the difficulty), all the generations who worked this way and didn’t know any other; I thought of the hours I used to spend practicing and the projects I did; I thought about old manuscripts I’ve read, old quotations I love, movies and titles and hand-written signs.

(Read the full post about ‘Tip of the Week: Learn Something Old Every Day’…)