The Digital Life of Michelle Evans | Business, Family, Faith & Fulfillment

Photo: Mark Watson on Flickr

I’ve never been a dog person, but I’m trying really hard to let my kid have a healthy appreciation for “man’s best friend”. I really am. I would like to think my son is a normal, healthy, well-adjusted person, but the truth is… he’s 3 and has yet to be really exposed to a lot of dogs.

He does get nervous around them.

Today after work I took him down to Harbourside in North Vancouver to the Spirit Trail – a great little paved seawall-type spot down past the North Shore auto-mall. I’ve only been using this space sporadically, but I really like it as a place I can take a 3 year old so he can ride a tricycle or a scooter without traffic risks – something that isn’t allowed on the West Vancouver seawall where I like to run.

So we got there today and within about 2 minutes he falls into the grass at the side of the trail… I have taught him that if he’s going to fall it’s better to do it on the grass. Well, unless there’s a pile of dog poop there, that is.

Great. He didn’t know what it was right away and decided to pick up a piece. Awesome. Anything to clean him up with?! Of course not. I’m sure you can imagine the horror of a germophobe like myself at the thought of my 3 year old picking up a piece of excrement… I just thank God it was old and dry and didn’t REALLY stick to him… much. EW.

All I could do was have him carry on promising not to touch ANYTHING other than his handlebars. Nothing. So up the path another 30 feet and there’s half a dozen small rat dogs running around with a couple of big dogs. Couldn’t tell you what kind – not a dog person. So mini-man is a little apprehensive and I’m trying to ensure him they’re just loud and won’t hurt him… they’re not going to bother him he should just choose his line and scoot on through. Well… great… big black poodle-like dog runs right up to him and sticks his face right in mini-man’s face. He let’s out a squeal while running into me for safety.

At this point I’m pretty pissed that the owner of the dog didn’t even remotely try and call her dog or control it in any way. None. But I didn’t want my son to see I was bothered so I didn’t say anything to her and just brushed it off reassuring him, “It’s okay, he just wants to meet you.” We finally get to the end of the little stretch of path we wanted to use and turned around. On our way back through the pack of dogs and women owners, one of the little rat-dogs – sort of chihuahua-ish – came running right over to mini-man. At this point I was losing it and sort of barked, “Get your rats off the road!”

Photo: nrtphotos on Flickr

So then I get all these insane dog-loving women (the ones who will compare their having a dog to my having a child… like they know my life that way – those of you who are parents know the kind I’m talking about) yelling, “It’s a DOG PARK!” Um… what?! I am quite certain my City of North Vancouver taxes would not go to pay specifically for a dog-only park, so I’m relatively certain it’s for general use. “I’m sorry, what? It was created for dogs? Is this specifically a DOG park?” I replied.

So we got into it. They seemed to believe it was created for them when all the posted CNV bylaw signs clearly say:

• Dogs on leash only
• Owners must pick up after their dogs
• Bikes must stay on the path

Now here’s the thing… I really don’t have a problem with dog owners wanting somewhere to take their dogs to run around. But firstly, there’s a GIANT empty lot across the street from the lovely cement path that was CLEARLY not created for dogs (what do they need with the concrete?) Secondly, if bikes have the right to be on the path, that includes 3 year olds who have not been introduced to many dogs. And they have every right not to be violated by an aggressive pooch; nor should they run the risk of landing in a pile of filth. Thirdly, why not let the dogs run on the grass and encourage them to stay off the concrete path… then everyone can enjoy the park. Lastly, as a taxpayer I have every right to enjoy the dog park without being threatened or tripped up by a dirty rat-mutt. Besides, even in an off-leash park you’re supposed to be responsible for controlling your dog. If you can’t control it, it shouldn’t be off leash anywhere… even in an off-lease park.

I don’t care if it’s ‘generally accepted’ that people bring their dogs to Harbourside to let them run off leash. It’s against the North Van City bylaws so tie ‘em up.

Photo: davidbriody on Flickr

This coming week I’ll be joining a panel of ski industry professionals to discuss social media’s place in resort marketing as part of the ResortXpo Virtual event. The experience of preparing for this has been interesting. On the one hand, I know I’m immersed in the world of social media for work and in my personal life and I’m proud of the things I’ve accomplished for my company and excited about the connections I’ve made; but on the other hand this process has made me well aware of the things I’m not doing that I wish I were or the things I could be doing better.

I’m a little surprised, actually, when I think of how many more ways I could engage:

• Some I’ve never thought about before
• Some I’ve just never taken the time to set up
• Some I just don’t have the time to dedicate

In order to wrap my head around all the things I’d like to do, I thought I’d write out my thoughts on what I’d do in a perfect world – a world without budgets, deadlines or limited resources. Some of this I’m already doing; some of it has yet to be perfected, but I do hope to get there at some point. Perhaps as the use of multi-directional web connections becomes as mainstream as the telephone these things will all become commonplace elements of guest service for every company.

In the meantime, here’s my corporate social media wish list:

Blogging

• I’d blog regularly about what’s happening not only within my company but within my industry
• I’d recruit several of our key employees to blog and share their perspectives
• I’d recruit a few ambassadors from within our community to share their perspectives on our company, product and  industry like we did with our terrain parks blog
• I’d make sure I had a solid employee blogging and social media engagement guidelines document prepared and circulated but then encourage staff to engage with our guests
• I’d also use my Google Alerts to show me where people are discussing my company or product and make a point of commenting on every single one of them, just to let them know how much we care that they are writing

Photo/Video Sharing

• I’d put all my company’s photography on Flickr
• I’d divide up the content into relevant sets based on different activities and set each with appropriate permissions for use – media would be able to access the high resolution downloads from there instead of using an FTP site and messing with FTP clients or browsers to retrieve them
• I’d do regular searches for new images taken at the mountain and comment on them or say a quick hello and thank people for sharing them.
• I’d put all my company video files on YouTube or Vimeo or Viddler depending on where our guests are
• I’d make sure the profile was customized for brand consistency
• I’d ensure videos were put into proper playlists based on their content
• I’d spend time browsing through and favouriting videos that our subscribers/guests may enjoy and I’d rate and comment on every video that showed content from the mountain and, again, thank the contributor for sharing it.

Facebook

• I’d have a Facebook fan page for the company and for other relevant lines of business or niche segments
• I’d post relevant links regularly for those groups depending on their interest in engagement
• I’d encourage fans to subscribe to mobile updates from each Fan Page as they see fit
• I’d have a custom username for those Fan Pages
• I’d add several of our top Guest Services Representatives as admins on it so they could respond to guest inquiries in a very timely manner
• I’d also ensure every event at the mountain had a Facebook Event Page so people could easily share with their friends

Microblogging

• I’d use Twitter to share important information that isn’t necessarily worthy of an email but is interesting nonetheless
• I’d share information about events, promotions, news, and anything else going on
• I’d respond to every @reply and DM
• I’d re-tweet information of value to my followers and say a quick hello to everyone who mentions my company or product in a tweet
• I’d use Twitter Search to see what’s happening in my industry and set some comprehensive searches and throw the feeds in my reader just to keep track of what’s coming up
• I’d attend company events, take some fun photos, upload them to TwitPic and Tweet them out to show how much fun it is to attend mountain events both as a guest and as an employee
• I’d link my Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube and even my Google Reader to Friendfeed to aggregate everything I share on the web in one place
• I’d check for comments regularly and respond to every one
• I’d go through my Google Reader items at least daily and share relevant links that would be of interest to our community; those would also then show up in my friend feed.

Corporate Website

• I’d ensure our social media touchpoints were clear on our site by adding visible graphic links to our various profiles – our blogs, Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube etc.
• I’d ensure every page of our website had a ShareThis widget to make it easy for people to share our content in whatever way they like to
• I’d ensure our media resources section had web-optimized press releases linking to relevant information, written with a little SEO in mind
• On the topic of SEO, I’d make sure every page of our site was reviewed regularly to ensure keywords, meta, title and URL was optimized and relevant
• I’d encourage people to share information about their visit to the mountain on review sites such as Yelp, TripAdvisor etc. or to submit it to us, post it on our blog, tweet about it or otherwise make it known
• I’d have a mobile website that listed only relevant “on the go” information

Digital Marketing

• I’d advertise every relevant product with targeted Facebook social ads
• I’d have an extensive PPC ad plan in place that also covered every product and service we offer
• I’d include recent social media updates in regular email blasts to our double-opt-in subscribers
• I’d utilize mobile alerts for relevant subscriber groups to share timely information as appropriate

The list above is my start. Obviously what I’ve listed is very top line and I could go into more detail about what to say, what not to say, who to friend, who not to friend, corporate branding, messaging etc. I could also go into technologies and tools I’d love to be using extensively within our organization – Skype, IM etc. or mention how all of this is irrelevant unless you’re listening in the first place… and there are even some great tools that automate the listening for you!

I’d love to hear from others in the industry about what they consider to be some “best practices” with regards to social media use by brands and corporate identities.

I’m sure there is much I still have to learn.

Lately we’ve been making a habit of going to John Lawson Park after work.

Either my husband or I will pick up mini-man from daycare and we’ll meet at the park. Big-man will pick up something to eat or pack a picnic at home and I’ll bring my running gear and enjoy the seawall while the guys play ball, frisbee or just wrestle around.

I think this has become my new favourite thing.

I have missed running; I haven’t done it much lately – only once a week or so for the last few months anyway. Now with this quick jaunt from either John Lawson to Dundarave and back or from Ambleside to Dundarave and back to John Lawson Park to meet up with the family, I’m getting out 2-3 times each week it seems.

Such a beautiful way to enjoy the dinner hours.

What is your favourite thing this summer?

Today I had the privilege of attending the BCAMA Vision 2009 Conference at the Four Seasons Hotel Vancouver. It was a fantastic event with excellent speakers.

I thought I would post my notes here for anyone to reference. Some may not make as much sense as others, but there are some key takeaways I found that I’ll share at the end of the point-form notes for each speaker.

Speaker #1: Ken Schmidt

Former Communications Director, Harley Davidson Motor Company, Leading Fortune 500 Consultant
Topic: Revving up Customers to Make the Big Noise

• In 1900 people could choose 2 modes of transportation: horse or bicycle
• Harley Davidson was born with a vision to adding a motor to a bicycle
• At the same time, Ford was building the first cars
• Bad guys ended up using cars; police ended up using motorcycles
• Big ideas were missed at that time: 1) Motorcyclists liked to gather together, and 2) Groups of motorbikes attracted a crowd
• Motorcycle races became one of the world’s biggest sporting events – racers would go over 100mph with no brakes
• Only Harley-Davidson and Indian survived the depression
• Used the downtime to play with colours and stylistic changes
• During WWII all Harley-Davidson bikes were built to support allied troops in the war effort
• After the war, soldiers who had used motorbikes in the war wanted to ride them for fun
• Pilots were also drawn to riding
• An elite group of flyers were called the “Hell’s Angels” – after the war they focused on motorbikes and started removing all unnecessary parts from their bikes i.e. mufflers (called chopping = choppers)
• Media determined that motorcyclists were to be feared
• Harley-Davidson had always tried to have a brand reputation based on being clean-cut, simple and useful. They tried too hard to show a clean image.
• Honda then appeared on the scene with very good quality bikes and a slogan of “You meet the nicest people on a Honda”. Millions bought Honda bikes.
• By 1985 Harley-Davidson could barely sell 30,000 bikes worldwide
• The media then basically printed Harley-Davidson’s obituary by telling Americans they could get better quality from overseas
• The best way to make change is to simplify. Don’t make it more complicated.
• Harley-Davidson was not creating demand. They were focused only on product: Creating a great product
• Standard operating procedure, as a rule of thumb, is wrong and shortsighted. Don’t do things the same way everyone else is doing things.
• At that time, Harley-Davidson came out with the world’s first V-twin engine – the first new bike engine in 20 years. Media jumped all over it and it graced the covers of all industry magazines but people were still not buying.
• Only tried and true Harley riders were still buying.
• Quality message had no impact because the entire industry was high quality
• Everything they’d done had failed; what would they need to change?
• There was no such thing as a motorbike test ride at that time so they decided they’d take truckloads of bikes to where blue collar guys were congregating and let anyone who was fit enough to ride one take a bike for a spin.
• While they were on the road at these events they talked to people. Loyal customers were upset at where the company had gotten to – the brink of bankruptcy – and wanted answers. Over that time they developed some answers to the questions so they could have those conversations.
• Each test ride was an opportunity for market research, so they asked the question, “What do we need to change to make you want to buy it?”
• Every single answer was something to do with customization – handlebars higher, wider, further forward, further back, lower seat, higher seat etc.
• The key was customization. Ask the customer what they want, build it, then sell it to them.
• The 1986 Harley-Davidson parts catalogue was 56 pages; it is now 1500 pages.
• Customers enjoy giving suggestions; people want to be listened to. They want to be important to you. They want to be heard
• People want someone to do something special for them.
• All things are equal to someone who doesn’t own your product yet
• Every employee models the behaviour of their leaders
• People need to be nurtured and made to feel special
• Create a great culture; people need to love their jobs
• People support what they feel they helped to create (employees and customers)
• Harley-Davidson then started a Harley Owner’s Group club – a social club that gets together at their home dealership. There were chapters all over North America.
• Customers and staff were becoming friends
• Word of mouth ->advocated -> ambassadors
• We go where our friends tell us to go
• We are an invisible species; all of us want to be noticed. Look at me I’m important.
• A new Harley-Davidson slogan was created: “We don’t care how everyone else does it.”
• What are you willing to do differently today than you did yesterday?
• Sales in 1985 were 30,000 bikes; in 1989 they sold out at 70,000 bikes and in 2005 sold 320,000 bikes.

Key Take-Aways

It’s about customization. People want something that’s cusomized for them and they want to be a part of the process. They want to know their ideas are not only heard, but found to be valuable and implemented. People take ownership over things they are involved in creating; they want to be on the inside. If you involve them in the processes, they will be loyal to the outcome. This applies not only to consumers but to employees. People model the behaviour of their superiors, so if you have a behavioural problem, it’s quite possibly a top-down problem. If you lead by example and embody the corporate culture, people will follow suit and create success.

Speaker #2: Brad Gamble

Senior Director of Marketing, McDonald’s Canada
Topic: still lovin’ it

• In 2001 sales were trending down within restaurants; sales growth was coming only from new restaurants.
• McDonald’s was operating under the philosophy of “build it and they will come”

What needed to change?

• They needed to increase sales at each location; they needed to be more customer-focused; they needed to build a rock-solid foundation; they needed to ensure the right organizational structure
• and they needed to make their brand more relevant.
• Growth comes from being better, not bigger.
• Five drivers of superior customer satisfaction: people, products, place, price, promotion
• New products were brought in: salads, angus burger, ciabatta buns, sandwiches etc.
• New décor that was more inviting “come and stay a while” feel
• Those 5 drivers would be the way to achieving enduring profitable growth

What were the results?

• 6 straight years of same store growth
• 25% increase in guests served; now 58M daily
• In 2008, same store sales growth was 7%

Building Brand & Retail Energy

• Surprise and delight the consumer
• Challenges: navigating new and ever-shifting landscape; consumers are equal partners in brand formation; raised bar on flexibility and transparency; everything moves at the speed of light; your brand is global
• How do you build a true relationship? Create a connection, an intimate bond. Be relevant – trends, build on emotive connectivity. Become their favourite. Make them say, “I like what they offer.”
• Think like a brand; act like a retailer. Provide retail solutions that fit their needs.
• Internal – perfect execution, commitment to improvement, engaged staff, collaboration at all levels
• External – all touch points must reinforce brand vision: design, menu, packaging etc. Positive talk value = personal endorsement ->brand loyalty. Do the unexpected
• Surprise and delight = Retail Energy
• Transform brand ‘friends’ into brand ‘lovers’
• Cannot create enduring profitable growth by discounting
• No one touch point will do it; it’s a process

Key Take-Aways

I didn’t particularly care for this presentation. Don’t get me wrong, I can see how McDonald’s is a very high profile brand that has worked very hard to grow and maintain market share in an ever-fragmented world, but I felt it was a bit self-congratulatory. If there were any take-aways for me they were change, evolve, stay relevant.

Where I think McDonald’s does do a fantastic job is in their commitment to operational excellence and consistency. Having said that, as I sat with an old colleague of mine we couldn’t help but notice the brand new coffee cup they have just rolled out (which they left for each delegate) is non-recyclable and has a cute little drawing on it showing it should go in the garbage can. That kind of rubbed us both the wrong way in this age of environmental responsibility. I also have a hard time getting on board with marketing that aims to sell food products that have made a huge impact on the North American population’s obesity epidemic, but that’s a whole different discussion I guess.

Speaker #3: Jim Carroll

Futurist & Marketing Trend Consultant to Fortune 500
Topic: Innovation in the High Velocity Economy
Jim Carroll’s Website
Jim Carroll on Twitter

• Cell phones, blackberries, iphones to become the credit card of the future
• People are looking for inspiration; we need to know things are getting better
• Broadcast and entertainment industries are changing rapidly
• Location intelligent professionals; technology is being used to create competitive advantage e.g. using google earth to do market research and target communications by house size
• For people completing science degrees and trades, ½ of what is learned in 1st year is obsolete by the time they graduate. Technology is changing that fast.
• Product lifecycles are significantly reduced. The typical digital camera has a product lifecycle of just 3 months before it will be rendered obsolete by the next development.
• The world is evolving. How do we respond fast?!
• Regular ongoing terrorism in the press – economy, layoffs, stock market, mortgage crisis, swine flu etc.
• We have been here before; recessions are not new.
• We always overestimate the change that will occur in the next 2 years and underestimate the changes that will occur in the next 10.
• What can we predict with 100% certainty? Economic growth. We just don’t know when.
• When do we innovate? Now or once the economy starts to rebound?
• We have to innovate, change and adapt faster than we’ve ever done this before in order to survive.
• The time to innovate, change and explore new opportunity is NOW.

Future Trends & Opportunity

• Relentless focus on growth; find a new growth opportunity every day – business or personal
• Need an ability to respond faster to market change; business cycles are way faster than they used to be e.g. a new video game launch produces 55-75% of it’s profit within the first 4-5 days of launch. Everything MUST be in order.
• Ask, “Are we seeing increased signs of velocity in our business? Are we able to respond as fast as the velocity change?
• How?” 1) Faster time to market, 2) Rapid ingestion of new technologies/methodologies, 3) Rapid refocusing of resources for opportunity or threat, 4) Operational excellence
• Customer service is more important than EVER
• Response to volatility
• How do I structure my team? How do we transition products, image and experience to remain relevant? Evolve product, image and experience.
• Brand image will be continually refreshed and re-enforced at every touch-point
• Hyperconnectivity. Experience will be far more engaging
• Rapid experimentation with price and product mix with operational excellence
• We’re going to increasingly take our digital lifestyles outdoors
• The world is a global idea factory – look around
• There’s a changing source of innovation from North America to Asia
• Leading R&D is taking place in India and China
• A shift from corporate R&D to open R&D – global ideas machine. Open source. Crowdsourced?
• Smaller organizations work faster and accelerate development
• There’s a shift from hidden innovation to public innovation
• Re-orienting our creativity will allow us to move faster and respond quicker
• Brands are like people: they get stuck. They resist change and become irrelevant. They have lost touch with their core essence.
• Your brand is not what you say it is; it is what THEY say it is
• It costs substantially more to maintain brand relevance today; interactivity is the most significant part of brand image
• Invest heavily in experiential capital – take the risk to try something out
• Experiential capital = we’re not sure what’s right but we’re investing anyway
• Don’t wait until the economy picks up

Ten Steps

1. Observe
2. Think
3. Change
4. Dare
5. Banish (banish idea killing)
6. Try
7. Question
8. Grow
9. Do
10. Enjoy!

• Learning is what most adults will do for a living in the 21st century

Key Take-Aways

I loved this session. Even thought the key take-aways seem quite simple, it was a very inspiring presentation. It made me feel like I’m on the right track with my goals and philosophies. So here’s what I got from this: Now is the time to innovate. Evolve your brand. Move towards mobile. Connect. Engage. Try new things. Keep learning and changing.

Speaker #4: Richard Bartrem

Vice-President, Culture and Communication, WestJet
Topic: Five Secrets to Success

• Airline industry is tough – net loss of 14B over the last 58 years. It has not made money.
• 63 Canadian airlines have gone under in the history of passenger airlines
• In the mid 90’s, WestJet’s founders looked at Southwest Airlines and wondered why no one was using that business model in Canada; they visited and studied them and learned.
• There are 7800 WestJetters (employees), 1200 unsolicited resumes received weekly, 270000 guests per week, 4,150,000 cookies consumed each year.
• The coldest day ever for TAC (turn around crew) was -54C
• Management and executive help out with TAC at Christmas
• They have had 432 marriage proposals on board WestJet flights
• All new staff get a 3-hour presentation from the company President and various VP’s
• Hire intelligent people and then empower them to decide where they can be loose with the rules and where they should be tight with the rules
• Their fastest ever aircraft turn time is 6 minutes. Every WestJetter traveling on any plane whether for work or pleasure cleans up the plane before deplaning – including management and exec.

WestJet’s Paradigm Shift

• New way to price fares – simple with few rules, cost structure allowed massive reductions and breakthrough pricing; competition unsure how to react
• The right language – Team Leaders (vs. Supervisors), People (vs. Employees), Promises (vs. Policies), Guests (vs. Passengers)
• Unique culture of care – understanding what your people need to succeed: 1) appreciation, 2) sympathy to personal problems, and 3) feeling “in” on things
• All employees have a mission/vision/values statement on their lanyard at all times and refer to them during the decision making process
• Their culture supports a great guest experience, which delivers great business results
• “We succeed because I care” – mantra of all WestJetters

The 5 Secrets:

1. We Care to Plan – Culture Department
Create a remarkable experience – CARE Department (execution arm of Culture Department). For every WestJetter who has a death in the family, new baby, marriage, graduation or special moment, each receives a hand-signed card from the President and all VPs.

2. We Care to Share
Employees share purchase plan. Owners try harder; over 80% of WestJetters are shareholders. Profit share parties – their people have earned over $155M in profit share since inception – twice yearly party where a % of profit is divided amongst WestJetters

3. We Care to (REALLY) Listen
Listen to their people: culture connection, tech talks, airport visits, test ideas – uniforms, commercials, snacks on planes etc.
Listen to guests: e.g. every commercial is tested with guests and WestJetters before going to market

4. We Care to Design
Design all experiences and processes to 1) make sure our WestJetters can be proud and successful, and 2) ensure our guests are getting value in everything we do
WestJet Care-antee

5. We Care to Celebrate and Have Fun
Profit share, kudos, birthday parties, new destination launches, incorporating family, fun is part of the fabric of our culture

Key Take-Aways

Wow. WestJet really leads the pack when it comes to treating people well – looking at people in a way that is so fundamentally different than how traditional business looks at people. This session got me thinking about how engaging people online is really just an easy way to build relationships and talk about stuff. When that stuff is business it’s a win for the company. Again, it’s all about people – people being made to feel special. People going out of their way to create great experiences, people being encouraged to share questions, concerns and suggestions and being really heard. It will become absolutely imperative if it isn’t already.

Speaker #5: Brian Scudamore

President & CEO, 1-800-GOT-JUNK?
Topic: Corporate Culture Turns Local Entrepreneur into Awarded International Brand

• A company is a group of people; a brand is a group of people working together towards a common vision
• You can never compromise on the quality of people
• Business became boring because he had no vision
• Print the picture, tell the story, get everyone on board. Don’t worry about the how, just look to the vision
• Tough times are the impetus for change; innovate now
• All new employees read the story before doing anything else; they need to be on board
• Always know what you stand for – what you’re about
• If you don’t have a vision, how will you get there? How will you know where ‘there’ is?
• You can’t motivate people; you can inspire them to take action
• They use a “Can You Imagine” wall of ideas. You can add your idea to the vision and it can be a really big dream, but you have to put your name to it and it’s there permanently.
• It’s all about people; at one point in the early days, he fired his entire staff of 11 people and started over.
• “It’s all about people” became an accountability statement; it’s what they stand for
• People don’t fail; systems do
• Know your values. Values are who you already are, what you’re about.
• Systems are results by design
• Communication was the #1 problem during growth.
• Every day they have a 10:55am huddle – good news from the field, celebration of successes, new business intelligence, update from one department (different each time), Q&A, good news and then a group cheer (teambuilding)
• Systemize your priorities. Every employee should have top 3 priorities for each week and adhere to them; don’t give in to the pressure to complete less important tasks because they’re easier

Key Take-Aways

You need to have a vision. You need to make that vision public. You need to paint the picture, tell the story, work towards the vision. Imagine it. Believe. Know where you’re going and make sure everything you’re doing is advancing that goal. Everyone has to share the vision because it is all about the people.

The Yahoo! Big Idea Chair: Panel Discussion

Kerry Munro, General Manager, Yahoo! Canada
Ken Wong, Acclaimed business professor, author, strategist
Maggie Fox, CEO and Founder of Social Media Group (Maggie on Twitter)
Clare Meridew, VP Creative Director Interactive, GREY Canada

Intro from Kerry Munro:

• Why do companies not have ratings and reviews on their websites? That shows a lack of interest in your customers and a lack of engagement with them

Initial statements from Maggie Fox:

• Origins of social media: connecting with people who share like interests
• You need to know what you want to accomplish with social media for it to be effective
  Ex. Yamaha corporate blog explained the 8month recall process which, in turn, significantly reduced negative online buzz
• Social Media press releases can net huge returns as they did for Ford. Give people the tools to share your information with the right info and images.
• Social media is not cheap; it’s only slightly cheaper than face to face

Statements & opposition from Ken Wong:

• Opposing view of social media use – parable: Everyone agrees it’s important to be in top physical condition; we all know how to obtain top physical condition; we have not all committed to do that.
• How to market in a recession:
  1) Do NOT cut price
  2) Do NOT cut spending
• 30-40% of companies will cut marketing spend in the face of a recession to justify price cuts
• What this tells us is that CEO’s believe marketing is a business expense, which means it must be made up this year. It’s not seen as an investment in the future.
• If we make a promise and don’t keep it, it’s a lie. Marketing has to impact operations.
• Hold steady with budgets and plans; the economy will begin to pick up in 2 quarters (plus a lag for unemployment, which is the last thing to be reversed)

Intro and Show & Tell from Clare Meridew

• Stop interrupting what people are interested in; be what people are looking for
• Dare to be different. Be brave, but be relevant.
• Augmented reality ads; interactive is not just on computer screens anymore:
  Case: GE Plug Into the Smart Grid
  Mini Cabrio augmented reality magazine ad (Video here in case the one in page doesn’t work)
• Viral example: Whopper Sacrifice – Facebook Campaign

General Panel Discussion:

• What’s Hot? Social responsibility/cause marketing, recession marketing (making things cheaper, last longer etc), mobile, personalization
• Where are we going? Screens merging, there will be one single platform, content will be (even more) personalized, pay for performance?
• Answer the question “How are you creating value?”
• Traditional segmentation is useless
• Average Facebook user is mid-30’s; fastest growing segment is women over 55
• How do we buy media now if stereotypes/demographics don’t work anymore?
• You need an insight channel; get the information from the web but do something with it
• There is so much insight to be gained but you need to implement change as a result.
• You must have the right person on the ground to implement corporate social media engagement; they need support, budget and staff
• We need to retrain marketing teams – universities don’t teach marketing well at all i.e. most students will receive 90 minutes on market segmentation when it’s one of the most important concepts
• We make excuses for the brands that ‘get it’ i.e. WestJet, 1-800-GOT-JUNK… because it’s too hard, too daunting, too challenging and calls for change
• If frugal is the new black, blatant materialism is not going to cut it
• Back to the original question: why aren’t you putting your customer service surveys online?
• Negative feedback is generally self-moderated by the community of loyal brand enthusiasts; it’s an opportunity to address a legitimate customer service concern.

Conclusion

Over all I was really happy with the event. I left with a really great feeling about much of what I’ve already started doing in my business life. Now I want to create a Jerry McGuire style manifesto that’s either going to inspire a leap into the future, or it’ll have me looking for a new job

Good morning! Well, um, at least it is now… it’s been a bit of a rough start this morning. Now that I’m sitting comfortably, I can tell the story of yesterday a little. If you have no interest in hearing about this cleansing process I apologize, please feel free to skip to another post.

Day 1 on the Lemonade Diet

Yesterday was Day 1 on the Master Cleanse and things went quite smoothly… the salt water flush worked very effectively and quickly. I started drinking the litre of salt water at 6am on the nose, finished it about 6:20 (I’m aiming for quicker – hoping to get it down within 10 minutes in future), it kicked in about 6:35 and it was all over by about 6:55. A lovely one hour process.

I have to say it was not pleasant, but there was nothing uncomfortable about it.

At 7am I had my first glass of the lemonade. It’s made with 2tbsp of fresh squeezed lemon juice (about 1 organic lemon), 2tbsp of organic grade 3 dark maple syrup, 1/8th tsp cayenne pepper and 80z of water. It doesn’t taste like lemonade… in fact I found it worse tasting than a bottle of salt water. It’s okay, though, I’m sure within days I’ll be craving it.

Some time that morning I developed a splitting headache. It may be from caffeine withdrawal, but it seems to be related to tension in my shoulders. I can’t seem to relax… that might be a result of being pretty cold for the last week or so. I’m usually cold, but when I cleanse I’m FREEZING. So I think being cold has caused me to hunch my shoulders thereby causing the headache.

Anyway… I went on about my day: took mini-man to daycare, came back had a 2nd glass of lemonade at 9am, went to drop my car off for servicing, and came home and decided to lay down for a nap – it was about 10:15am. My phone rang about 10:35 and I ignored it, but then it rang two more times in succession and I knew something was up. It was the daycare – mini-man had fallen and split his head open on the floor.

We gathered up his factor (he’s a hemophiliac and we happened to have some at home that we had been given to take to Mexico when we went in January), grabbed him from the daycare and headed to Children’s Hospital. Over five hours, 2000 units of factor, 2 popsicles, loads of stickers and snacks and 3 staples in his head later we were on our way. Unfortunately for me I didn’t get a chance to make any lemonade to go, so I went from 9am to 5pm with nothing but water. I was most definitely not feeling well when I arrived home.

So when we got home I immediately mixed up two drinks and drank them as fast as I could. I then mixed up another two about 6pm knowing I needed to drink at least 6 of them in a day. The second mixture I didn’t finish until about 8pm. In that time, the cayenne pepper had a chance to steep a little and despite my not enjoying spicy foods, I think I enjoy the maple syrup less. The more peppery flavour seemed to mask the syrup a little, so it is actually more palateble hotter. Ideally, though, you drink it within 10 minutes of making it because the lemon enzymes are still alive.

Day 2 – so much to learn

Well I had been tired last night, but when I got up this morning things went downhill. I woke up feeling dehydrated. I obviously didn’t drink enough yesterday – I had 6 cups of lemonade and 4 bottles of water.

This morning, I thought I would use that thirst to help me get the salt water down. I worried that if I pounded a bottle of water I might be too full to get the flush down, besides, I can’t help but think if you drink more water with it it will ruin the effects. The point is you’re supposed to have the water saltier than your body so it can’t be absorbed. If it’s not salty enough, it’s like soup and you’ll just absorb it. I REALLY didn’t want to consider absorbing a litre of salt water, so I opted to just drink it when I was already thirsty. Wow.

Let’s just say things went slower this morning. The flushing began before I even touched the salt water, and then I couldn’t finish the whole thing. I left about 2-3 oz in the bottom of the bottle but felt sufficiently cleaned out. I kept laying down waiting for more movement. In that time I was getting more and more tired.

I really should have watched the clock to make sure I had a lemonade one hour after the flush.

Instead I ended up snoozing all morning in a narcoleptic-like state, completely unable to respond – so tired. As if I had a flu, I could not open my eyes for anything. I finally dragged myself up just before 9am and guzzled a lemonade and a bottle of water.

I felt instantly better.

I need to plan things really well for tomorrow morning because I’m back to work tomorrow.