Word-of-Mouth of course.  If you disagree, please, I’d love to hear why in the comments below.  Word-of-mouth is the most authentic and effective because for it to occur successfully, there must be more than a minimum level of trust established.  Let me explain.

If I don’t trust you I will never take your advice on anything, let alone a product I will be purchasing.  On the contrary, if I trust you a lot (an influencer in my life) I will take your word on what I should buy over any marketing message no matter how clever it is.  

Trust = influence.

As fast as we can share our opinions on Twitter, Facebook, blogs etc. I can’t fathom why more businesses haven’t created incentives for customers to share their delightful experiences online for others to see.  EXAMPLE: Foursquare is becoming a very useful tool for me, now that people are sharing their opinions openly when checking in.

Your brand isn’t your website, store, logo or your OWN perception of your company.  Your brand is what other people say about you and the internet makes it much easier to say anything about your company, positive or negative.

This is your warning, it’s only going to increase, how are you encouraging positive word-of-mouth?

Engage Post in Social Networks

Hide Sites

Related posts:

1. Who Are You?
2. Do I Foursquare or Gowalla?
3. You can’t hide your reputation

On September 16th the Executing Social Media conference will be held in Regina at the Queensbury Convention Centre.  Now I may be a bit biased but I think they have a great lineup of speakers.  Some locals and some from abroad all taking about our favorite topic, online media.

Besides myself the list of speakers includes:

Kip Simon – President, 22 Fresh

Mike Klein Senior Online Communications Strategy at University of Saskatchewan

Philippe Leclerc, Interactive Communications Manager at the City of Regina

Adam Herstein - Partner, Pitblado LLP

Doug Walker - President, WebWalker

Ryan Lejbak – CEO & Co-Founder, ZU

To see all the speakers and presentation outlines click here.  Let me know if you are attending as we may organize a small Tweet up the night of the conference.

BEXDM5AZVCKN

Engage Post in Social Networks

Hide Sites

Related posts:

1. Different Dog, Same ol’ Bark
2. Fire the Marketing Department
3. Marketing Regina

The other day I filled out a survey from the Regina Regional Opportunities Commission (RROC) asking about what they are currently doing and what they could do better, it got me thinking.  Now I’m not being critical of RROC, I think they’re doing a great job, especially when you see them picking up talent such as Grant Langford who I worked with on the Saskatchewan Pavilion project.  I’m writing this as an idea generator, without knowing the ins and outs of RROC this is how I would go about marketing our beautiful city.

First, I would put packages together making it SO incredibly easy to come to Regina that you would literally need to click your mouse three times on the website, enter a credit card and WHAMMY you have your holiday booked.  Why?  Because humans are lazy and the easier you make it for people to come here, the better your chances are of actually getting them here.  I know there  are some offerings through the Stay and Play promotion but I think they could take it a step further.

Second, put packages together that allow tourists to experience Regina in a different light.  We don’t have World renown attractions but we do have some of the best people ready to put on a show for whomever is in the audience.  There are some very unique things that people would be more than delighted to experience in our fine city.

For example:

• Hotel accommodations, a massage, dinner at La Bodega, then off to a Redsox game?  Or maybe to the symphony?
• A round of golf then off to Globe Theatre for a performance and a catered meal.
• How about a ghost tour of old Regina ending at Cold Stone for ice cream?
• In the different seasons, put packages together surrounding events which would include hotels, some meals, transportation and various activities.
• The “Fire and Ice” or “The New Years Eve” package in the winter.
• The “Summer Invasion” or “Patriotic” package in the Summer.

Plan everything out for our lovely out of town visitors so they don’t have to worry about a thing once they arrive.

Third, enable every visitor who has had a great experience in Regina to share their story somewhere online.  Be it a blog, a video-blog, a picture story on Flickr or on the RROC Facebook wall, somewhere that will allow RROC to amplify the story.  Soon enough that blog, video-blog or Facebook wall will be filled with authentic stories from people who had a wonderful experience in Regina.  Those stories will be available to anyone searching for a vacation in Western Canada and soon become the most powerful marketing tool for potential visitors to our city.

Ok, I’ve shared, now it’s your turn.  How would you market Regina?

Engage Post in Social Networks

Hide Sites

Related posts:

1. 56 uses of social media in Saskatchewan
2. Permission Based Marketing
3. Different Dog, Same ol’ Bark

I hate lineups.  For anything really. I’m impatient and I usually want things as fast as they can humanly be delivered to my hands.  I’m pretty sure no one likes lineups so it is a perplexing issue to me that as humans (lineup haters) we don’t do everything in our power to minimize, shrink, or do what every we can to demolish these horrible things that eat up our time.

I don’t believe it is the general public’s or customers fault that there are lineups, it all has to do with the choice of architecture of the lineup.  These companies and organizations that under estimated their own traffic and how long wait times would be now must look to alternate methods of satisfying the demand at a minimal cost.

There is some research being conducted around lineups and how to minimize wait times but this research is mostly for grocery stores and Wal-Mart.  I think the research paid off, the “Express Line” at Safeway, the “12 items or less line” at Superstore and the newly adopted number system at Wal-Mart where they herd everyone into a line and a lovely women over the loud speaker tells you which till to go to once you reach the front of the herd.  All in an attempt to save their customer’s time.

It is very easy to find the organizations that don’t believe in “line reduction research”.  Craven Country Jamboree, Tim Horton’s, and my bank TD Canada Trust.

If I was to conduct my own research within these organizations here is what I would try.

Craven: Offer an express lane for vehicles only, no trailers.  As well, have line marshals that insure the line is constantly moving.  If it begins to bottleneck somewhere the line marshals must keep the vehicles moving.  Seems like a not bad solution to a problem that 25,000 people complain about every year.

Tim Horton’s: Offer an express lane to people who just want coffee.  Tim Horton’s could charge a quarter more in the “caffeine line”, I’d pay more for my coffee if I could have it right now.  Have a thermos?  How about an automatic coffee dispensary for all those who don’t mind serving themselves.

TD Canada Trust:  Again, offer an express lane to people who have no questions, that know exactly what they need to do and won’t take any longer than a minute.  The line gets bottlenecked when those REALLY friendly people come in and need to strike up a conversation about anything but their bank account.  TD knows that they can not compromise customer service so just have two lines, one for questions/conversations and one for banking.

Treating your customers better is a proven strategy to increase customer loyalty.  Caring about your customers time is obviously an undiscovered facet of customer service.  As our world keeps progressing and we get more busy, our time increases in value.  Finding an innovative way to tell your customers you care about their time could have a lasting effect on how they perceive your brand.

What do you think?

Engage Post in Social Networks

Hide Sites

Related posts:

1. Lottery Kiosk Choice Architecture
2. The Best Marketing in the World is….
3. An Honest Car Shop?

The other day I found myself in a very interesting conversation about strangers.

Her: “I always try to be as nice as possible to strangers”

Me: “Really?  Why?”

Her: “Well, you never know who that person is and what if they’re the most important person in the World?”

Me: “So you assume everyone you meet/talk to is the most important person in the World?”

Her: “Precisely”

Me: I didn’t say anything just had a small explosion go off in my head.

My boss has always told me when going to a small town bar, make sure you treat the waitress like gold because she probably owns the place.  I think this is a great metaphorical life lesson.

The person who I know who is the best at dealing with people does this all the time.  You can see it when he talks to anyone, yes I mean anyone, he gives them the time of day, he truly cares about what they think and he makes them feel like they are the most important person in the world.  It doesn’t matter what industry you’re in, this strategy works wonders for building your personal and professional relationships.

Where can you start?  Remember peoples names more often.  To anyone the most important word in the english language is his/her own name, if someone remembers it, it’s a sign of respect.  Here’s a few tips on how to remember better.

If you have a story about treating a stranger really well that resulted in something amazingly spectacular I’d love to here about it in the comments below!

Engage Post in Social Networks

Hide Sites

Related posts:

1. Don’t be an Asshole
2. You can’t hide your reputation
3. University of the Future

There’s an event that happens every July in Regina that would give Chuck Norris a boost of Testosterone.

The Coveted Cup:

20 guys, 10 teams, 3 days, 6 sports, 2 champions that get 363 days of the best bragging rights ever.

We start off the weekend with a home run derby.  Second comes the beer dart tournament after a friendly BBQ.  Saturday morning comes quick if you’re not prepared, 9:00am head to the beach volleyball court for some early morning two on two.  Break for lunch then off to the tennis courts for a four hour long debacle, people say it’s comparable to a tournament called Wimbledon.  Nicknamed “Slaughtering Saturday” because of the fierce competition endured, we wind down with good ol’ poker tournament.  The final event of the weekend is out at the beautiful Dear Valley Golf Course.  Oh I forgot to mention, the last placed team gets kicked out of next year’s Coveted Cup.

A portion of our entry fee goes to Kidsport, so we are giving back a little as well.

The scoring algorithm  our good friend Trevor Galon came up with would rival that of university mathematician.   Trevor plans the entire Coveted Cup and our hats go off to him for one of the best weekends of the year.

2010 Winners:

Home Run Derby: Baron/Badger

Beer Darts: Baron/Badger

Beach Volleyball: Bozak/Solomon

Tennis: Baron/Badger

Poker: Tran/Rink

Golf: Galon/Maystruck

Overall Champions:

Badger/Baron/Lausch*

*Lausch golfed with Badger instead of Baron.

Engage Post in Social Networks

Hide Sites

Related posts:

1. How To: Get Me to Hate Your Organization
2. What Inspires You?
3. Fire the Marketing Department

You know what really grinds my gears?  When people try to sell something on Twitter. A growing culprit of this? Real Estate Agents.  No, they’re not the only ones but why do they insist to put their listings on Twitter?  Does anyone else tweet about their products including the price?   Have you ever sold a house via Twitter?  It just seems ineffective and lazy.

There are many different things you can do on Twitter I just don’t think selling or bragging about the thousands of houses you sold last week are giving the best impression to your followers.

So what could you be doing on Twitter?  Offer me something no other Real Estate Agent can.  How about you tweet your favorite Real Estate blog post each day.  Offer me housing tips that will help me save money or time.  Offer me your expert advice on buying a house, get into detail and really create a digital asset that can help many other people in the Regina market.  Forget selling houses for a day and help others with whatever it may be they are tweeting about.  There are many options of what you can do on Twitter, just don’t try to sell me a house.

Finally, here is an example of a Real Estate agent who got creative with a video camera and offered something different to his followers (click the picture to watch the video):

Twitter is not a one way communication medium, it’s a conversation medium, use it wisely.

Engage Post in Social Networks

Hide Sites

Related posts:

1. 56 uses of social media in Saskatchewan
2. Different Dog, Same ol’ Bark
3. Chicken Legs: $1.19 /lb

Anytime you cross someone in a bad way they will remember.  Your reputation is your business.  We have the ability to communicate online with thousands of people instantly, it is what those people say about you that becomes your reputation.

Humans remember the bad things much longer than the good, if you have broken someone’s trust in the past I’d suggest working on making it better soon because it’s going to take a while.  Think of the last person who broke your trust, have you worked with them since?  How do you feel about him/her?

Trust is a peculiar trait, difficult to earn but once trust is established amazing feats can be achieved.  On the contrary, if you lose someone’s trust it is extremely difficult to earn back and you probably ruined the relationship you had with that person.  In the small business landscape that Saskatchewan is, you can’t afford to break someone’s trust, word spreads too quickly.

Remember:

• you can’t hide your reputation
• acquiring and keeping ones’ trust will be one of the most important things you ever do in business
• bad things spread much faster than good
• people who really do trust you will defend your reputation as if it were their own
• if your business is not based on integrity you will lose in the long run

Engage Post in Social Networks

Hide Sites

Related posts:

1. The Most Important Person in the World
2. Who Are You?
3. Don’t be an Asshole

Cause marketing is utilizing a non-profit organization as a means of putting a for-profit brand or product in front of someone in return for fundraising and awareness.  Anytime you partner with a charity for anything it is a win-win situation.  The charity gains funding and exposure to a group of people it may not have been able to touch and the company gets to show people that they actually do care by helping out a charity.

Cause marketing is growing in part because some large players are getting involved such as Pepsi with it’s refresh project.  Other companies have the charity aspect as a part of their day to day business like Toms Shoes, their fascinating business strategy is worth a read.

The example I love to tell people about is a local company.  Coda Clothing & Shoes (@CodaClothing) throughout the year does not promote the store or sales via any mass media type other than the large billboard on the side of their building shown here:

Instead of telling everyone in Regina to come to Coda, they host Charity fashion shows where a large amount of money is donated to a specific charity and Coda gets to show off their new line of clothing.  It’s difficult not to like companies like Coda that are active in the community, that care about your city, and that want to give back.

I love the concept behind cause marketing because in this ever-changing marketing world you can never be certain as to what is the best medium to be broadcasting your message on.  Cause marketing works because it’s like putting a huge sign on your company’s building that says, “WE CARE”.

So when you’re thinking about the next big ad campaign to roll out with, why not pair up with a charity and try help them too, you’d be surprised at what you can do.

Engage Post in Social Networks

Hide Sites

Related posts:

1. Small Business Marketing
2. Marketing a Super Hero
3. Fire the Marketing Department

Helping out at Regina’s Canada Day in Wascana Park I met a young gentlemen who was volunteering for the day.  Blain, a quick-whited kid, just a bit younger than myself, had an adorable dog named Dewey with him at all times.

Just after sunset in the park, a man rushed over to Blain and I, he had a severe problem on his hands.  Here is how the he started the conversation, “I have to go to the washroom but when you close the outhouse door you can’t see anything in there and the Legislative building is locked, I need to go to the washroom, what should I do?!?”   Without missing a beat in a condescending tone Blain snapped, “well I could guild you!”  Trying as hard as I could not to laugh at what just occurred in front of me, I helped this guy explore his washrooms options, apologized to him for not having lit outhouses,  and he went on his way.  It was a very interesting moment for me.

You see, Blain is blind but that doesn’t really stop him from doing anything.  He can golf, get to and from places on his own (via talking GPS device), volunteers in the community and can go to the washroom in the dark on his own.  Blain doesn’t complain very much and he makes the most out of life.  I think if we saw the world through Blain’s eyes we wouldn’t be so quick to complain over a dark jiffy biffy.

So smile, we have it pretty good.

Engage Post in Social Networks

Hide Sites

Related posts:

1. What Inspires You?
2. The Most Important Person in the World
3. The Complaining Generation