Chef Ramsey (more info via wikipedia or his official website) has shown excellence in the kitchen in addition to a controversial, but well liked personality outside of it.
But what does serving up ginger poached Maine lobster with herb linguine have to do with social media?
Keep it simple. Quality > Decoration. Chef Ramsey reminds aspiring chefs time and again that simple fresh ingredients will always stand out above dishes that are drowned out by overwhelming seasoning or fancy sauces that hide the taste of the actual dish. Is your content strong? It is great having all the bells and whistles on your website but users’ opinion of the content will be based on its merit and not the crazy design or shiny widgets around it.
If you don’t communicate you are dead. The line needs to know when the salads go out so they can fire the meat. The vegetable station needs to know when the meat goes on so they can time the arrival of their side dish. The waiter needs to know when the meal has been put together so he can take it out when it is fresh. When different phases of your social media strategy can’t communicate properly your message can be come disjointed or confusing to your customers or followers. Social media can be used in a variety of ways and for a variety of reasons, and the information and conversation from customers needs to find its way to the proper place to be handled in the best way for the company.
Know your s***. There can’t be a Ramsey post without a few four letter words thrown around. A chef without a firm knowledge of all the different variables that make up a dish is doing their customers a disservice. There is a reason for everything. Don’t start a Twitter account because that is what people are doing. Understand the reason that conversations on Twitter have meaning and what a company can get out of monitoring and taking part in these discussions.
Love what you do. It takes passion and dedication to build up one world class restaurant let alone a whole group of them. If a company and its employees show a genuine love for what they are doing people are drawn to that and everybody wins. There is so much to gain personally and professionally by engaging people with shared interests. They are and will become your best customers.
Highlight Midwest showcases the entrepreneurs, innovators, and early-adopters using web technology to grow their businesses, advance their careers, and enrich the regional economy in new ways.
Three of the area’s up and coming social media strategists will present an overview on how the web is changing their cities for the better and how new opportunities for innovation are expanding the importance of web-based technology in the Midwest.
Ideas and Angles has been chosen to present the Kansas City portion of this exciting event bringing together a lot of projects and companies from around the midwest. We encourage everyone to check out HighlightMidwest.org for information leading up to the October 29th event. You can also follow @highlightmw on Twitter.
This is the second post in our “Companies that get it” series that works to highlight businesses that are on forefront of social media using creative and effective uses of emerging technologies to run and improve their business.
Company – Whole Foods
Description – Whole Foods Market is a natural and organic grocer. “We search for the highest quality, least processed, most flavorful and natural foods possible because we believe that food in its purest state — unadulterated by artificial additives, sweeteners, colorings and preservatives — is the best tasting and most nutritious food there is.”
Social Media Usage - Blogging, YouTube, Flickr, Podcasts, Forums, Facebook, Wikipedia and Twitter.
How They Stand Out – Whole Foods uses social media to portray their unique company culture and values to the general public, all while providing quality content that creates value adds for their customers. They hold themselves to a different standard than most publicly owned companies and are almost always rated amongst the top socially responsible companies.
Their unique company culture really makes for an interesting use of social media. It really allows them to engage their customers to a much higher degree. A majority of Whole Foods customers are definitely a select demographic which allows them to really start conversations that allow lots of feedback and customers helping customers. One of my favorite things they do is The Whole Deal in which they allow customers to share how they shop at Whole Foods and do not pay more than other grocery stores. They do not come up with all the answers or throw stuff at you that may raise skepticism. They allow real people to help real people with a “perceived” problem. Addressing many peoples main objection in a public format is a great way to get potential customers to at the very least, come see for themselves.
Whole Foods uses social media in many ways and they all revolve around the company culture which allows the customer to feel like they are part of the company family. Be sure to check out their videos and podcasts to learn new recipes using, what else, products you can find at Whole Foods.
Do you follow Whole Foods through any of their social media efforts? Which ones? What do you think? What could they do better? Do you know any companies that ‘Get It’? Share them with us in the comments.
This is the first in our “What it can teach us” series of posts that explore how everyday things correlate with social media.
Basketball, in my not so humble, opinion is the ultimate team game. The coach comes up with a plan or strategy and the players work hard to prepare and then execute.
This is also true for companies and social media. In order for social media efforts to be effective, their must be support from upper management, there must be a strategy or plan, and the employees need to be well informed and execute. All departments have to work together in order to put each other in situations where they can succeed. The research and development team needs to work with the marketing team who needs to work with customer service, each tied into social media to discuss with customers in order for each to do their respective jobs well.
This is just like a play that the coach draws up in which one player must handle the ball, another sets a good strong pick, and then the ball is delivered on time and in a manner that allows their teammate to get a good shot off.
Basketball is one of the few sports major sports in which each player is required to play offense and defense. The game is fast paced and players must adapt quickly.
This is true with anything regarding technology, especially the newly developing social media. You must be a creator of content, but then respond to existing conversations. You have to be able to push things forward, but know when to slow down and let things develop. The better you can see the entire floor, the easier the game will seem.
Septempber Kansas City Bloggers Meeting
Marketing efforts must stay strong during difficult times, otherwise how will customers find you when their pockets begin to fill again.
(Via Webware)
If you think Tweetburner sounds like a way to track the uptake in the online world of your Twitter posts, you got it in one. Tweetburner does three things you probably want if you’re using Twitter to tell the world about web sites:
Shortens URLs. Twitter’s 140 characters make many Web URLs unworkable. Tweetburner, like other URL shorteners, squeezes verbose URLs into bitsize links like http://twurl.nl/p6rtus.
Tracks which of your Twitter links get clicked. To test this, I twittered Friday about “Twittin’ Secrets: The 100 World’s Greatest Twitter Tips” via a Tweetburner link. I got 10 clicks within an hour. For marketers and consultants this is pure gold. Better example: Laura Fitton of Pistachio Consulting has created 275 Twurl links via Tweetburner and gotten a staggering 22,257 clicks.
Tells you what’s hot. While there are a variety of ways of seeing what subjects are getting twittered about, such as Tweetdeck’s keyword tag, Twitterburner shows you on its home page the most popular Twurled links clicked in the past hour and the Twitters they came from.
Integration with another online social network, FriendFeed, is planned for rollout next week.
Kansas City born Duct Tape Marketing is representing team USA in the The Ryder Cup of Word of Mouth, Buzz and Viral. Does it get any better than using social media strategies to represent your own city and country?
I first heard about DT from Aaron and we were impressed with the paradigm for success John Jantsch has provided.
More about the list below…
Why not pit the top 36 bloggers from the USA that speak on the subject of word of mouth, viral, buzz, influence and the engaging brand against the top 36 international bloggers that muse on the same subject?
Unlike some of the social media- and tech dedicated marketing and media bloggers, these broad-minded bloggers and company heads (below) have distinguished themselves by helping visitors understand how ideas spread, online and offline, through a range of different strategies and tactics and each recognizes the importance of having brands getting noticed, talked about and advocated in a 2.0 world.
This exciting opportunity is happening at the Boulevard Brewery. The workshop will be Thursday, September 25th and will cover negotiation and marketing & sales. The speakers will be Bill Garcia, Negotiating for Success and Bob Sullivan, the Chief Sales and Marketing Officer for Boulevard Brewing Company. They both have tremendous backgrounds and very interesting stories to share. It should be a great time.
The best part, if you mention Ideas and Angles upon registration, you will get a discount of $50! Bringing the total price to $149 down from $199. Be sure to drop a line to @IdeasAndAngles on twitter or christopher.culbertson[at]gmail[dot]com if you use the price break and plan on attending.
Although the workshop itself does not involve social media, we would like to organize a breakfast the day after to discuss topics from the workshop and how they can be applied through social media.
So, recap. Thursday, September 25th, an all day workshop on negotiation and sales & marketing with lunch included and a $50 discount for mentioning Ideas and Angles. Then Friday, September 26th, 7:30am breakfast at First Watch in Westport to discuss how to apply social media to the key points discussed at the workshop.
An important part of social media is finding ways to apply regular business lessons and practices through different mediums. Have you learned something from a workshop or speaker that you were able to transition into social media? Please share it with us and we hope to see you at there!
You can get more info about the event and sign up information by clicking here. (PDF)
