All Posts By

Marijean

Jan 12
Love0

Social Media: A Shoe Story

By Communications

SCARPA, a boutique shoe store, well-known by women in Charlottesville, Va. and beyond, understands the value of social media.

Case in point: it was New Year’s Eve when SCARPA tweeted about a silver, sparkly pair of shoes perfect for fancy evenings out.  The shoes, pictured at left, were tweeted first by the store and re-tweeted, shared, and shared again by friends on Twitter throughout the area.

The Twitter community is strong in Charlottesville, so it was only a matter of time before a group of a dozen women or so decided to do a lunchtime shoe-shopping tweet-up at SCARPA. Via Twitter, the women, all influential local business women and active users of social media let the store know they would descend en masse the following Tuesday afternoon.

Amy Gardner, founder, proprietor and online representative of the shoe store prepared for the Tweet-up providing finger foods, Prosecco and generous goody bags for the mid-day party. (Thank you Amy!)

The resulting benefits of the in-person engagement with shoe shoppers continue far beyond the event itself. First, the store was able to introduce itself to people who had previously not shopped there. Amy’s relationship with her customers is a big reason her loyal following returns again and again; meeting a new crop of potential shoppers and solidifying that relationship with a positive experience is a gift that keeps on giving. For many of the tweet-up participants, it was their first time to shop and buy at the store.

The gathering (disclosure: I created the Twitvite to invite my Twitter followers to the event) resulted in further coverage with the weekly CBS-19 feature C’ville Plugged In sharing the story of the tweet-up, a post by fashion blogger Dana Hollar and, I suppose, this blog post as well. Add that to the tweets, twitpics, Facebook updates and of course, the women wearing their new shoes around town and telling the story of tweet-up shoe shopping fun with their friends and you have a customer loyalty and satisfaction story that has legs!

Follow www.twitter.com/thinkscarpa for shoe news and sale updates.

If you have a local business, consider the power of the social media community in your region; do you know how to reach and mobilize them?

Jan 11
Love0

Don’t Wait Till You’re Job Hunting to Engage on LinkedIn

By Communications

I have a new client (let us all take a moment for the celebratory happy dance). Part of what I will do for this client and for any client I work with is to help manage the client’s online reputation.

What does that mean? I am doing an audit of the client’s online presence and providing recommendations for updates to key elements, such as the client’s LinkedIn profile and bios. In addition, I identify opportunities to enhance that reputation. Is there an opportunity for blogging or contributing articles to key industry publications? Are there speaking opportunities? Could there be recommendations available from colleagues or customers? This is all part of giving the client an intentional path to follow in the effort to reach their personal and professional goals.

We were talking specifically about LinkedIn yesterday. I often hear that people don’t think of LinkedIn until they’re job hunting. Whole books have been written on the importance of a social network when you’re looking to make a career move.

I, however, encourage clients (and everyone, in fact) not to wait till you’re desperately seeking a new position. The time to expand your social network, manage how you appear online and take steps toward realizing your best professional self is now. Today.

What will you do today on your intentional path?

Jan 07
Love0

My First Wonderful Week as an Entrepreneur

By Uncategorized

It’s Friday, the first full work week of my new life as an entrepreneur. I started the day at 4:30am with lots of coffee; I will end it by meeting up with a friend for a beer.

It’s been a great week, although I am still adjusting to my new employer. I made some headway on some ongoing client projects but a lot of time this week was spent setting up new office equipment and managing other startup administrative tasks.

Everyone I’ve seen has asked, “How are you feeling? How is it so far?” A friend even said that I looked like “the weight of the world has been lifted from your shoulders.”

I am feeling pretty good and enjoying a new sense of control over my destiny. I like that, and the change it has made in my attitude toward life.

It has also been very energizing to hear from new people or those who have long been a part of my social network. I’m really grateful to all the wonderful people, clients, colleagues, community members and friends who have provided support and encouragement as I get started on this path. I’m also very grateful to my family, but especially my husband (who is probably trying to adjust to the fact that I’m not traveling constantly anymore!).

On my first day, I asked my friends for entrepreneurial advice — some good stuff here:

It’s also nice to know that I have so many good, successful contacts in my network who are business owners! As I continue this adventure I will ask for advice from time to time. I’ll also probably continue to share the story of how this business progresses and (hopefully) grows.

Thank you for continuing to follow me and enter into the discussion. You all are a big reason why I’m here and why I’ve chosen this road. I’ll see you along the way!

Jan 06
Love0

When Tweets Turn into News or, My Perez Hilton Moment

By Media

I tweeted something yesterday that in hindsight, I regretted.

I was working in a coffeeshop and spotted one well-known public figure having lunch with another well-known public figure. To me, that kind of sighting is tweet-worthy. So I tweeted, providing names and location, even poking a bit of fun at myself for being a gossip tweeter. It was, as my friend Ashlyn said, my Perez Hilton moment.

Less than ten minutes later, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a news crew (videographer and reporter) enter the coffeeshop. At first I thought it was unrelated, then the reporter approached the pair and requested an interview.

I wanted to disappear. I felt terrible! I had no idea my tweet would result in such an invasion. Fortunately the reporter was polite as were the subjects of his interest. They politely declined his request and he left immediately, to my great relief.

I have worked with the media throughout my career in public relations and also as part of it, writing for a newspaper and on television as a social media expert. I regularly provide news ideas and information to members of the media and think I have a pretty good relationship with the local teams. I was surprised, then, that the reporter hadn’t direct messaged me on Twitter, where he clearly got the tip (or called, or e-mailed or smoke signaled).

What’s interesting is that I found myself amid the very issue I’d blogged about a few weeks ago in All the News that’s Fit to Tweet.

I learned something from this and I hope you will, too. In my case, yes, the media is paying attention to what I tweet, and I have a responsibility to make sure I’m anticipating reactions like yesterday’s attempted coverage. It’s likely I’ll never publicly tweet something like that again, unless, of course it is my intent to attract news coverage. This is a lesson for others as well — the media is paying attention to our tweets, and following up on those that seem like potential news — often without contacting the source.

I feel bad about unintentionally interrupting a private lunch between two public figures. I also feel bad that a reporter and camera-person wasted their time driving across town for a story that wasn’t a story.  If the reporter had contacted me, I would have steered him away, and tried to come up with another bit of news for him to use, instead.

It’ s a sticky issue, but a conversation I think needs to be opened. What do you think? Should I have refrained from tweeting, or should the reporter have contacted me?

Jan 05
Love0

The One-Time Only Plan Development Workshop

By Communications

That’s right – I mean it – I’m only offering the Digital Communications Plan Development workshop once.

Why?

It’s my way of giving back to the Charlottesville community that has been so good to me in the five years since I moved here. To celebrate that, and help area businesses and nonprofits I’m offering this affordable three-hour boot camp to jump start your social media efforts in 2011.

You will:

  • Learn how you can be using social networking and social media to benefit your career and your business
  • Walk away with the infrastructure of a 2011 integrated communications plan for your business
  • Have focused attention and access to the most experienced communicator and social media expert in Central Virginia

The workshop will be January 13, 2011 at 9am at OpenSpace – more details.

I’m limiting participants to just 10 (3 seats left at this writing) to devote enough attention to each of you.

Sign up today or forward on to someone who you know will benefit from this workshop.

Register Now!

I hope to see you at OpenSpace on January 13!

Updated 1/12/2011: This workshop has SOLD OUT. Please stay in touch for future training opportunities.