520 East Brands

Etiquette #2, in case you didn’t hear me on #1.

Shane — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 16:05:32 +0000

I haven’t blogged in a while. Not that I don’t believe in the power of blogging, but because I pretty much spend my days focused on what my clients need and my brand, well, it gets a little neglected.

The last post I wrote was pertaining to online etiquette. Well I’m back with more and this time it gets a little personal.

Think about your life and your social plans. When you go out on a Saturday night with a small group of friends do you call all your other friends and say, “Hey! We are going out with these other people and we didn’t invite you.” No, no you don’t. When you tag friends on Facebook at an event like that, that’s basically what you’re doing.

You know… this whole social technology way of the world is fun. It really is. But just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should. If you wouldn’t do it in “real life”, you shouldn’t do it online, in my opinion.

It’s one thing to tag people at business events or community-wide events. Just think before you tag, that’s all I’m saying.

This goes for blogging too. If you have a blog and spill your guts about your life on there, more power to you. But think before your post. If your post could offend someone you are close to – a friend, neighbor, someone you often call for help, then you probably shouldn’t post about something that could potentially hurt them. Again, if you wouldn’t do it in real life, then just don’t do it at all.

I spend a lot of time online – more than most of my friends, I’m sure, and I see it all. There are very few things people can keep private nowadays – so it’s important we hang on to the privacy we CAN protect, ourselves.

I’ll get off my soap box now and go back to being my regular height (in heels).

Etiquette rules.

Shane — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 17:42:08 +0000

It’s been a while since I’ve posted. To be honest, I’m BUSY! I spend way more time on my clients than on myself.

But here’s something that happened to a client recently, and I think we can all learn from it. I think all too often, people think they can say things and do things online they wouldn’t necessarily do in person. As if just typing something means it has nothing to do with them as a person. But there are some things people do – even on behalf of companies – that Miss Manners probably just wouldn’t approve of.

One of my clients is a local family of coffee shops. Vint is a great place for working, visiting, bringing the kids, grabbing a snack, you name it. I basically live here. I keep a seat cushion (aka a booster seat) behind the bar and I’ve even received mail here. This morning, the owner gave up his seat so I could have my regular perch. Now that’s service.

Recently, a post showed up on their Facebook page made by a local bakery. The bakery was announcing the grand opening of their brand-new store front and was so excited – they wanted to spread the word by asking other local venues to help them out. It was a cute post with a picture of their store, and a comment about their opening date.

Under many circumstances, this would be fine. Vint features products handcrafted by several local companies (Rooibee Red Tea, Annie May’s Sweet Cafe, Najla’s, Creation Gardens, Ghyslain… to name but a few). But this particular vendor does not have their pastries in the case. When I first saw the post, I thought, “Ok, this is their way of reaching out on Facebook, hoping to sell their product to Vint.” But then I happened to drive by the new store. And what I saw was, frankly, disappointing. On the front door was a huge banner that said, “We serve [competitor's name] coffee.”

So let me get this straight – you posted on our Facebook wall and asked us to tell our community about you. But you advertise a different brand of coffee.

In no time at all, I removed the post on the Vint page and marked it as spam. SPAM. In my opinion, this was just plain bad etiquette.

If the bakery took themselves offline for a moment, would they have marched into Vint and, face-to-face, said to the owners, “Hey! We are opening, we want you to tell your friends about us, and.. oh, by the way, we aren’t selling your coffee,”? I don’t think so.

It just goes to back to manners. And the moral of the story (I have two kids… we focus on morals of stories a lot)… is to think before you post. If this online world is going to be where so many of us exist in the business world, we must make it a valuable experience. A respectful, kind experience.

Facebook connections never cease to amaze.

Shane — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 18:19:51 +0000

Facebook connections NEVER cease to amaze me. I remember when I first joined, several years ago, and started finding out that people I knew in high school knew people I knew in college – but back then, we had no idea. It’s only now, when we look at mutual friends that we realize our sorority sister married a guy who went to high school with someone we knew from a youth organization… or something like that. And time after time it happens. And time after time I’m surprised and amazed.

So it shouldn’t have actually shocked me when it happened again last week. But it did. And it wasn’t just because of a relationship I have on Facebook, it was because of Facebook, itself. Allow me to explain.

Have you ever visited TED.com? In a nutshell, TED offers all of us a way to get inspired by some of the world’s greatest public speakers by posting their presentations on their site. One of those presentations I’ve watched over and over again. It’s by Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook, and it relates to women in business – why there not enough of them at the top and how to get there – should you choose to do so. If you haven’t seen it, take a few minutes and watch it. No matter your career goals (corner office, entrepreneurship or none at all), this will inspire you to get to where you want to go in your life. I promise.

See? Told you.

So about a week ago, one of my clients, a national board member from the National Association of Women MBAs called and said she’d seen that video and could we possibly get the COO of Facebook to be the keynote speaker for their September conference in Dallas? And… she said… if I could get to her via social media tools, she’d buy me a ticket to go to the conference and meet her.

Say no more. I immediately went to wikipedia and searched for Sheryl Sandberg. I started reading how she is from North Miami Beach, FL (NMB as its commonly known by those of us who went to the University of Florida) and that she went to Harvard University. I kept reading. She has a different last name than her husband. So… Sandberg is her maiden name. And then it clicked. I’m two degrees away from knowing the COO of Facebook.

Stay with me. I’ll explain.

When I was a kid, I went to summer camp in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. Because the winter offices of the camp are located in South Florida, lots of kids from Florida attend the camp as well. I’m still in touch with many of my summer camp friends – even moreso now that Facebook has facilitated our reconnecting. One girl with whom I lost touch was a Michelle Sandberg. Years later, hanging out in the dorms, I started playing the “do you know” game with my new friend, Pami. Pami knew Michelle from high school (they were both from NMB) and she told me that Michelle followed her siblings to Harvard. And that was it, we probably never brought her up again. That was 1991.

Flash forward to 2011. I’m realizing that I may actually have a connection to Sheryl Sandberg. I immediately texted Pami to find out… “Is Michelle Sandberg’s sister the COO of Facebook?” I simply asked. She wrote back, “Yes.” So I searched for Michelle on Facebook, friend requested her and sent a very long, convoluted email to her asking if there was any way in the world she could connect me to her sister. After first checking with her sister, she was kind enough to do so.

I contacted Sheryl directly and – she wrote me back!

Not that many years ago, doing this kind of research and getting a response from people would have taken weeks… maybe even months. This entire process happened within 24 hours.

Unfortunately for NAWMBA (and me), Sheryl is already booked the week of their conference, but the organization is working with Facebook to find a different speaker.

It just goes to show, you never really know how many degrees of separation you are from someone. And now, I consider myself only 1 degree away from this amazing woman.

Shut up and listen – and then respond.

Shane — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 21:49:28 +0000

When I tell people who I am and what I do, I first usually explain who I’m not and what I don’t do. First and foremost, I’m not a “techie” – I can’t build you a website. In fact, I’ve been known to tell my own web designer more than a few times that I believe she and others with her knowledge rule the world. They understand fully what’s going on behind the curtain of our website. I couldn’t tell you the first thing.

Here’s what I do do. I talk. I have been told time after time that I have a big mouth. And finally… that trait has gotten me somewhere in life. My clients all know that if they share information with me, they have to tell me what CAN’T be published on Facebook, Twitter or Linked In because otherwise, I’ll put it out there faster than they can say, “wait don’t tweet that yet.” But that’s what I do – I talk online. And that’s my career.

But there’s another very important part of what I do – listening. Just like when you are engaged in conversation face-to-face, it’s important to listen to what the other people are saying – and then respond appropriately. Facebook pages are not meant to be print ads. They are not supposed to just “yell” sales, discounts and company information. They are pretty much “alive” – and meant to be responded to.

So when I post on a Facebook page and ask a question, or make a comment, I don’t like when I’m ignored. Even if the response to what I’m saying isn’t favorable to me, go ahead and tell me. I’m a big girl, I can take it. Earlier this week, I posted on the Facebook page of Louisville Magazine. They did a great job of highlighting some of the best places to eat and shop – and some of the best locally made products here in my hometown. But they left some out and at least one of those is a client. And yet, they still haven’t responded. And I posted it 4 days ago.

The magazine does a great job as a print medium, and I look forward to reading it each month. But I really wish they’d at least respond to my post on their Facebook page. To me, that’s what Facebook is all about.

My clients rest easy knowing that people who post on their pages or tweet them get a response – a timely, courteous, appropriate response – even if the answer isn’t what the person wants to hear.

Remember to say thank you!

Shane — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 00:50:03 +0000

Next up in the “get to know my clients” series: Ah Whatta ‘Bout Mimi. I know… unique name, but I’ll get to that (I asked the owner where it came from… hang tight).

So to know me is to know that I’ve morphed through several iterations of being my own boss. Social media marketer is what I’ve evolved into. However, since anyone who’s seen “The Social Network” (or, you know, read the book) knows, Facebook isn’t that old.. and Twitter is even younger. So until I found this career, I did a few other things.

When we first landed in suburbia, for many reasons we decided I needed to start a business and work from home. So I began with a gift basket business – Complete BasketCase was born. It was a lot of fun staying up until 3 am for two weeks straight right before the winter holidays shrinkwrapping fruit baskets, chocolate baskets, one-of-a-kind gift baskets and then boxing them, tagging them, shipping them, delivering them. One year I think my husband and I each put 1000 miles on our cars delivering the gifts. As time went on, we hired a delivery service, but working with perishables in my basement soon proved to not be cost-effective or manageable (once I had babies, you know).

So things evolved and years later, here I am.

A couple of months ago, I spoke to a group of business women about social media – why they should be participating, how they should go about engaging. And I walked away with a couple new clients – one of which is Ah Whatta ‘Bout Mimi. And what does she do? Well.. she makes customized gift baskets! How cool is that? I’ve been able to send along leads to her based on my gift basket rolodex. And I know exactly how to tell people what she does – because I’ve been there. But she’s taken it to the next step – well.. let’s be honest, she’s taken it many many steps ahead.

She also started at home, and eventually found space in downtown Louisville – right in the heart of town. Not only does she do gift baskets – and customize them to customers’ unique specifications – but she does chocolates, flowers, balloons – even balloon arches for goodness sakes!

She’s more than just gift baskets though. Martha, the owner, has a long history with Louisville-based KFC. She knows what it’s like to be in a large corporate setting. People just need to feel appreciated, they need to be told thank you now and again. Martha works with companies large and small determining a plan for the best way to easily say thank you on a regular basis to their employees.

She’s taken employee gratification to a whole new level. And yes, she still does the personal, individualized gift baskets you may want to send for Easter or Mother’s Day or Valentine’s Day or whatever day you pick!

So the name. I had to know… where’d this interesting name come from? Well, Martha, as a child, was nicknamed Mimi. And “Whatta ’bout Mimi” refers to the support staff, the administrator, the help that someone might refer to and say, “Whatta ’bout Mimi? Don’t forget to thank her!” And “Ah?” Well… A is much closer to the beginning of the alphabet than “W.” So there you go.

For great tips on how to say thank you, and awesome pictures of some of her creations, please join us on Facebook and Twitter.

To contact the company directly to place an order, please email whattaboutmimi@msn.com or call: 502-773-5730.

The product. The cause. The woman. Learn about Vintage Body Spa & Eco Baby Botanicals.

Shane — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 20:40:24 +0000

A few years ago, I developed some serious skin allergies. I had never been an allergic person before and this was all very new to me. For about six months, I had painful, swollen lips. It was embarrassing – and did I mention painful? I went through allergy testing at a dermatologist’s office and determined I’m allergic to about 8 different topical items.

The lead ingredient I’m allergic to is Paraben. Whether it’s listed as Paraben, Methyl-Paraben, Ethyl-Paraben… doesn’t matter. And it reacts via my lips. Meaning if I shave my legs with shaving cream that includes a paraben, my lips swell up – immediately.

So I’ve gone completely Paraben free. I actually feel better knowing I’m using all-natural ingredients now, because after learning that Paraben is literally in EVERY product I was using (Jergens, Cetaphil, liquid soap, makeup, toothpaste and more), I also learned that parabens have been found in breast tumors. So it may sound weird, but I walk around with my own liquid soap in my purse that I use whenever I’m out and need to wash my hands.

A few years ago, I met a woman named Alyssa. Actually, we originally met on Twitter. And I learned about her line of all-natural, paraben-free, synthetic-fragrance-free products. And then I found out she lives in my hometown.

I’ve gotten to know Alyssa offline and in-person over the past couple of years. She and I have attended some women’s business networking events together. And I find her to be a savvy, smart, creative, determined woman.

Her products are one-of-a-kind -and, of course, Kentucky Proud (which makes me proud). I love the all-natural scents she’s mixed together: Lavender Bergamot or Mojito Sugar Scrubs, Lavender Rosemary or Lemon Poppyseed Soaps, Lemon Lavender or Ginger Cardamom Cream Whipped Shea Butter. And there are more. Of course, I’m a lavender fan so I had to give those examples. The list and options go on and on.

She’s now extended her line to include Eco Baby Botanicals, an all-natural, vegan, skincare line for babies and children. I love the Herbal Baby Bottom Balm – so much better than putting all those chemicals on a baby’s tush. The Talc-free baby powder, lotions & soaps are all just lovely additions.

Alyssa first started handcrafting these all-natural products because her daughter has a skin allergy as well. For Alyssa, she takes her personal experiences and figures out a way to make the world a better place. One of the biggest contributions by Alyssa’s company is her foundation, Behind the Curtain. This foundation gives funds to organizations that support women and children in domestic violence situations. This is an issue very close to Alyssa’s heart. Having heard her story directly from her, I am so honored to now work alongside Alyssa, helping people to learn about not only her brands, but about her foundation. She is a true survivor – no exaggeration – and everytime we introduce her brand to more people, it’s a privilege.

Join us in our online communites:

Vintage Body Spa Facebook page, Eco Baby Botanicals Facebook page and on Twitter: @VintageBodySpa and @VeganBabyCare.

The purpose of fun is to have some.

Shane — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 20:36:19 +0000

I met the team at Mint Julep Tours recently and wow – are they fun! Mint Julep Tours is a locally-owned touring and transportation company in my hometown of Louisville, KY. I was introduced to them by my friends at Rooibee Red Tea and we’ve been working together ever since.

My background is in event planning. Long before I started spending my days hidden behind a keyboard, I planned conventions and tradeshows all over the country in all different industries, as well as crazy-creative corporate events. So when Lisa and Sean (husband-wife team) and Charlotte (#3 in charge) told me about what they’re doing, and where they are headed, I was in.

Their corporate tagline is “The purpose of fun is to have some.” I love that. I started working with them by cleaning up their Twitter list. One of the things I’ve learned, and have blogged about previously, is that numbers are not always key – we want to follow people who will follow us back and engage with us. Additionally, we want to engage with people who are potential customers. Afterall, the point of all this is to boost your bottomline, right? To find new customers and keep them as well as past customers engaged with your brand.

Mint Julep Tours offers something for everyone – tours of Bourbon Country, Historic Louisville, Horse Farms and more. They’ve got custom tours going all the time and what I’ve enjoyed doing the most is reaching out to travel writers who can help us spread the word even faster about the brand.

They are truly a great team to be on and we are definitely on the same page with post ideas and schedules. I knew I’d like them when in about my second week with them they sent me a joke to post on a Friday afternoon. Here it is:

A group of 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders, accompanied by two female teachers, went on a field trip to Churchill Downs to learn about thoroughbred horses and the supporting industry, bourbon, but mostly to see the horses.

When it was time to take the children to the bathroom, it was decided that the girls would go with one teacher and the boys would go with the other. The teacher assigned to the boys was waiting outside the men’s room when one of the boys came out and told her that none of them could reach the urinal. Having no choice, she went inside, helped the boys with their pants, and began hoisting the little boys up one by one. As she lifted one, she couldn’t help but notice that he was unusually well endowed. Trying not to show that she was staring the teacher said, ‘You must be in the 5th grade.’

‘No, ma’am’, he replied. ‘I’m riding Silver Arrow in the seventh race, but I appreciate your help.’

Now this is a fun group.

If you aren’t from Kentucky, I hope you’ll come visit soon – and take a tour with Mint Julep Tours. Either way, make sure to join us in our communities on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

Get to know… Rooibee Red Tea

Shane — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 00:53:27 +0000

Welcome to a new series of blogposts in which I’d like to introduce you all to my social media clients, one by one. I will tell you about the brands, themselves, but I also want to give you some insight on my personal fandom of each of these companies. Allow me to start with one of the first, and the one who has had the biggest impact on my business from a growth standpoint.

First, the product: Rooibee Red Tea is the only organic, naturally caffeine-free Rooibos (red) tea ready-to-drink tea available in seven flavors.

Here’s the story of how we met: Back when I was first launching this part of my business (about a year ago), my friend Allison called me up and told me I had to meet her friend, Heather Howell – that Heather was an incredible businesswoman and I needed to know her. So Heather and I had this whirlwind phone conversation and scheduled a morning to have coffee. Naive me, I thought we were just two women having coffee. Next thing I know, Heather’s introducing me to the founder of the company she just joined, Rooibee Red Tea, and they are asking what I can do for them.

{Enter deer in headlights}.

Rooibee Red Tea gave me the opportunity to really catapult my business from trying to figuring out what to do to being a full-fledged professional social media marketer. I work directly with their director of Public Relations, supporting the overall marketing plan. Essentially, I’ve become the voice for the brand out there in cyberland.

This growing brand is such a ball to be a part of. We have a a great tea(m) and I truly feel like I am an equal player. We’ve grown their page from 417 fans to 1820 (as of the time of this writing) in less than a year. We’ve infiltrated areas of the country where the product is moving next and have been able to capture fans – and engage with them. More important than those numbers – the fans of this brand are really fun to play with because they talk back – they answer us. And that makes my job fun.

Rooibee Red Tea started as a small, farmer’s market brand and is now about to go nationwide. It’s amazing what Jeff and Heather are doing, and truly, I’m just honored to be a part of it. There’s a trust there, on a personal level, that we speak each other’s language – I know the ins and outs of their business but know what’s appropriate to scream from the rooftop, and what I just yap on the phone about with Heather in our many phone calls which tend to start with, “I just dropped my kids at carpool – did you? Can we talk?”

If you haven’t tried Rooibee Red Tea, you should. And I’m not a fan of telling people what they should do. But Jeff Stum, founder of the company, has created an amazing, healthy product – get on the bandwagon.

So taste it, then join us on Facebook and Twitter. And follow along with our online scrapbook on Tumblr.

Just how loud can a negative comment be?

Shane — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 15:49:35 +0000

Last night, I had the privilege of speaking to the Louisville Chapter of NAWMBA (The National Association of Women MBAs). The topic was social media and the charge was to give an overview of how these businesswomen can utilize online communities for their companies’, as well as their personal, branding.

I must admit, I was a bit nervous. I explained to them that I typically speak in 140-character phrases and spend most of my day hidden behind a keyboard. The thought of speaking to them – live and in person – for 20-30 minutes was daunting. But I survived and had a great time meeting some amazing women.

The part they seemed to enjoy the most was regarding negative comments – what do you do with them? Do you respond to them? Do they really matter? And to show them just how loud a negative comment can be, I shared with them the following video. Check out the number of views.

Click here to view the video: United Breaks Guitars

My response is clearly, YES. You do not delete them – you respond. Respectfully and with courtesy, you respond. Your fans care enough to … well… complain… do what you can to make it right. Even if they don’t like your response, it shows you can listen. In this case, United Airlines didn’t listen and paid a price. Taylor guitars, I understand, ended up sending the artist TWO new guitars.

For more videos on the topic, search YouTube for “United Breaks Guitars.”

It’s not all about the numbers. And I’m not just saying that because I’m afraid to do math.

Shane — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 16:12:29 +0000

It’s true. Numbers scare me. Figuring out a tip? Determining the cost of my total purchase while standing in the dressing room? Forget it. I don’t like to do it. I’ve been known to use the calculator on my iPhone for just such occasion. So it’s no secret that math isn’t for me (I definitely scored higher in Verbal skills on my SAT).

But in the case of Twitter, this isn’t a personal fear. It’s a philosophy that I think those on Twitter should adopt. Some people get on Twitter and try to just “up their numbers” by getting more and more followers and making that number look really great. But I don’t buy into this idea. There are others out there who want to get a million followers, but only follow 2 people. What this basically says is, “I want you all to listen to what I have to say, but I’m not going to listen to you, engage with you or have any back-and-forth communication.”

I say adjust your opinion of the numbers. Yes, it’s good to have a lot of people follow you – but it’s better when you follow back those that make sense for your brand, and engage with them. When I start working with a client who has an existing Twitter account, the first thing I do is log onto Friend or Follow to see who we are following that is not following back and I start purging. Not to sound crass, but if someone I’m following isn’t going to follow me back, AND they aren’t necessarily beneficial for the brand, I unfollow them. Honestly, they are taking up valuable space in the follow list. I’m listening to them but they aren’t listening back.

There are always exceptions to the rules. Certainly, there are large organizations, media agencies or famous people who say pertinent things that apply to our brand and we want to know what they are saying. But following celebrities just to follow them? I save that for my personal account, not my clients.

Another quick tip about Friend or Follow – when I start going through that list and I find someone that could potentially be a buyer, or a blogger, that would help the brand, I give them the benefit of the doubt that maybe they missed the notice we were following them, maybe they just forgot to follow back. So I reach out and say hi – just a reintroduction, usually in public, but sometimes by direct message. And usually, they follow back and engage.

The point of Twitter is not just to talk. It’s to listen. It’s to be open to communicating with others. Don’t get wrapped up in how many followers you have – make those followers quality followers. That is the key.