Tag Archives: engagement
Transform your professional life at events – Build your business: @TrendrInc Grand Prix
The team at Trendr Inc. is out to transform the way you live your professional life. The Montreal Start-up launched their mobile app to facilitate face to face meetings – as people dive deeper and deeper into social, they maintain, there is no substitute for meeting face to face when you’re doing business.
I’d been following Trendr for a while, but had not yet had the chance to really see the app in action. The Trendr team invited me out to their Meeting Zone at the Montreal Grand Prix to check it out first hand, here’s my review.
How does Trendr Work?
Using data from GPS and your LinkedIn contacts, the Trendr app provides a full suite of possibilities for connecting with the people in your network face to face. With a full array of options for visibility, requesting meetings, or simply seeing who is near by, the natural advantage of this app comes into play when you’re at major events.
Some new friends met at Trendr Meeting zone at the Grand Prix Montreal f1
Setting up easy access points for meeting at major events:
The Trendr Meeting Zone
Before this event, I had looked at Trendr from an individual user perspective. It was interesting to see how far my contacts were. When travelling in different cities, I always enjoyed seeing who in my contact list was near by. It made it easy to identify who I should set up meetings with and oftentimes it reminds you that some people you haven’t seen for a while are closer than you think. In a world of business travel and constantly moving people, it really helps to connect with people who are there, now.
A Totally New Approach : Meeting the People You Want to Meet at A Sporting Event
At events where there are hundreds and thousands of people, it is often difficult to connect up with the people you want to see. When I went to the Grand Prix yesterday, I knew there were tons of people there I knew – but connecting would have been difficult.
Peter Davison, @OurManInMTL, CMO of Trendr Inc, walked me through this newest release of Trendr, and I immediately saw the advantages. I knew who was around, I was able to invite friends to join Trendr and invite them to the Trendr meeting zone.
The meeting zone provides a place for people to meet and discuss business. Rather than bumping into people or finding them in the stand where they are focused on the event, it allows people to not only connect face to face, but have a spot to mix a little business in with pleasure when they are ready.
Show Me The Money: Do You Really Get Business Out Of Social Apps?
This is really what everyone wants to know. Many debate whether all these social activities and social apps lead to the bottom line: Dollars. I can tell you, the answer is yes.
If you engage in social media tools to sell, or do so to simply advertise and promote, then it is likely you wont make any money. No body wants to connect with a streaming advertisement, or follow someone who is always broadcasting pitches. Apps like Trendr , or involvement in social networking allow for one thing, getting to know people, learning about people – and for those who are truly genuine business people, this leads to relationships and also learning about how you can help others.
The folks at Trendr reached out to me a couple of weeks ago about their insurance, that was business. At the site yesterday, I had a great discussion with the people at Kutoto, I had never met them before, but after a while of conversing, I liked them, and I liked what I learned about their products, that will lead to business. Not only did I learn about them, but I was able to connect them with some projects I thought they might enjoy.
I heard a lot of business going on at the Trendr tent. For people looking to make new connections and build collaborations, I can say (without revealing the details) I heard some serious business going on. Put yourself at the middle of the action in the VIP zone at the Grand Prix, or any other event, you are going to meet like minded business people. Business and pleasure do mix, and they mix well, because you aren’t there for a pitch, you’re there to enjoy, learn, share and converse. What better way to build ideas, collaborations, and explore possibilities?
@milaspage @markwschaefer Thank you Mila. I was a pleasure meeting you!
— Jiri Bindels (@JiriBindels) June 8, 2013
So to the nay-sayers and those who doubt social, I want to confirm to you – if you do social right that means:
- meet people
- get to know each other
- turn your online into a face-to-face,
- you will drive business
I liked the Trendr app and meeting zone for this. It was pretty cool, and I definitely see some bottom dollars coming from it from everything I heard and experienced myself.
What about privacy?
No problem! If you worry that all of a sudden you’ll be inundated with meeting requests when at these events, Trendr also worked in an invisible option and allows you to control whether or not you have your GPS on, as well as set availability and do not disturb times.
What are you waiting for? Go out and start meeting your connections today!
I’m headed down to the Trendr meeting zone again today at the Grand Prix , to say hello and keep meeting contacts face to face. Yesterday I met the great folks from Whopaid.it and Kutoto, some great people from Australia, and of course the Trendr team! There’s no telling who will stop by the Trendr Meeting Zone today, but if you’re nearby, stop in and say hello because nothing beats a face to face meeting when it comes to doing business and building relationships.
Not sure where the Trendr Zone is, or need help with your app, just send me a tweet – let us know you’re checking things out – The best part of social media is, we’ll see it and connect from there! There’s no better way to put a face to the name.
See you soon!
Cultures of Success:Your Job Is to Make Me Look Good | A Two Way Street
“Your job is to make me look good.”
The first time I heard someone say that, I thought, what an obnoxious saying. Lately, the more I think about it, the more I see it is true. The phrasing is a little rough, but the reality is there, all of our jobs are to make someone look or feel good. If we do this, we will have success.
I’ll take care of you, you take care of me.
- Your clients want you to make them feel valued and while you are at it save them or make them money and help them be successful.
- Your employees want the same thing
- Your company wants the same
- Your Facebook fans and Twitter followers also want this – give them something to share that makes them funny, smart, helpful, compassionate…or smile.
You get the picture.
At the end of it all, you want this too.
You need to surround yourself with people who “make you look good”.
As I was thinking about this, I came across this tweet from tonight’s “Lead From Within” twitter chat:
A10: The people we surround ourselves with make the difference between failure and success! #leadfromwithin
— LaRae Quy (@LaRaeQuy) April 10, 2013
The quote is right on.
Forget about the Jargon : Focus on Community
Forget about marketing, about objectives, about all the jargon that leads you to read more about how to be successful online (and off) and stop for a minute and think about how powerful it is when you have a community around you who cares, who supports you, who believes in you and essentially through all that makes you feel good, which in turn makes you look good.
I am thankful for my communities, for these people every day.
If a brand accomplishes this, then I am beyond “wowed”.
When you take a look around, who is driving your success, and how do you help lift the people around you get where they are going?
How often do you think about that, and how often are you focused on making people look good?
Focus on that. It’s a two way street, and if you focus on your side…the rest just follows.
What do you think?
- When you think about the people around you, about your success, what are your keys?
- More notably, what happens when we don’t make the people around us look good, when there is no support, when people are out for themselves? Isn’t that what really drives the differences between success and mediocrity?
We are living in an interesting time, where social media allows us to live in this environment where people & brands who work as a team, who share and are giving and who recognize others see success – it’s not unlike the “real life world” – it just is a little harder to see. If you take a close look whether it’s in the workplace or in circles of friends, it’s those groups who have the confidence and generosity to spotlight those around them, who provide opportunities and share freely, who create cultures of success and creativity.
It’s not about social media. It’s about leadership, life and curating positive behaviors that attract & keep positive people around us – cultures of success.
5 Ways to Use Video for Employee Engagement
The core of your business: Your Employees
People often spend so much time trying to figure out how to reach their customers, grow sales and use social media for these purposes that they are at risk of forgetting the key members of their community: their employees.
Video is a powerful tool for employee engagement. People often think “video” then limit their thinking on what they can do with it. Companies should not limit themselves to focus on product or service offerings when they have a whole cast of stars within their team.
Here are 5 Ways to use video to spotlight your employees
…and in the process increase their engagement and create opportunity for your community to also get to know your business better.
Breaking Down Social Media : Finding a Soul in Brands
The term social media is largely misused and misunderstood.
You can’t have one social media strategy, or just decide to “do social media”. You have to realize what the term represents, that’s the first challenge I see when I speak with most people considering social for their businesses.
The Basis of Media
When you are speaking about using social media as an outreach tool in the general public the first thing you have to realize is that none of those people are reading “these” articles – the dialogue we all have about it on-line , its of no interest to them.
The people you are trying to reach are living their lives. Reaching them becomes marketing – just as you try and do in magazines or radio ads or newspapers. That’s the media part of the term.
In turn, from a business owner’s stand point, making decisions about social media use has to come from understanding deeper objectives and being in touch with your organization as a whole. Social media is not a new marketing strategy or sales vessel. It’s not a substitute for customer service. It’s not about broadcasting a new logo or flooding a channel with messages, it’s about a mindset.
What is the “Social” Really About?
Social is about this ability for consumers, employees, and all people to be connected. People using the on-line space to further their knowledge, interact with others, do research, play games, express themselves, grow, laugh, be entertained and of course throughout all this to share… The social part is about where you are reaching them and it’s the entire basis of all these pillars of social marketing success.
I think sometimes businesses, people looking into social and marketers forget the why of why you have to be genuine, or why the goal is
The Most Exclusive And Engaging Social Network | @CoupleApp
The most engaging network? It’s a bold statement, but I think if we walk through the important aspects of engagement, you would undeniably agree, this app & network is about everything that works in engaged networks.
- Being genuine
- Feeling listened to
- Keeping open communication
- Sharing moments & emotionally driven messages
The catch? It’s only for two.
The benefit? Finding time in our increasingly digital worlds, and busy lives to make time for the important people in your life.
Social Connections | To Friend or Not To Friend : You had me at Subscribe
My friend and Social Media Consultant, Linda Bernstein came up with a good question on her Facebook status, she wanted to know if people friend people whom they do not know. It’s a great question that many people have varied perspectives on. Some people think of Facebook as a place they are building a community, whereas others keep it simple including only “real life” friends, in some cases, colleagues and co-workers.
Facebook is a very particular social network, and the way one handles it, should be different in strategy as compared to a Google +, Linked In, or Twitter.
Social Strategist and Consultant Gigi Peterkin had a great comment to add to the discussion. You can check her out at http://gigipeterkin.com
Who will you let into your inner circle?
In this post, I am going to focus on the Facebook question as it pertains to individual accounts and not pages.
The first thing I want to clarify here is that Facebook has privacy settings that allow you to keep your information private. Facebook also allows
Changing The Buzz Words in Social Business: “The Impact Equation” Delivers #ImpactEQ
The Impact Equation by New York Times bestselling authors Chris Brogan & Julien Smith is set for release on October 25th. I was thrilled to get an advance copy for review and am so honored to be able to share my experience in reading it with you here.
First things first, a little Q&A on who should read this book. In case you’re wondering if this book has something in it for you.
Q1: I’m just a business person, not a social media expert, is this book right for me?
A: Yes. It’s perfect for you. No social media mumbo-jumbo here. Just practical, real life information that you can understand and apply to your life and business right away.
Q2: I’m in the field, I’m already a “social media expert”, why would I read this?
Ideas: Quizzing Your Way to Support – #NonProfit Strategy Built on Engagement #hungertohope
World Food Day was proclaimed in 1979 by the Conference of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The aim of the Day is to heighten public awareness of the world food problem and strengthen solidarity in the struggle against hunger, malnutrition and poverty. – UN
I’ve been working on raising awareness for nonprofit groups on how to use social media for engagement over the past month via various speaking engagements and blog posts. When I heard about what The World Food Programme was doing in their strategy, I was impressed. The World Food Programme is the largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger. They recognize the importance of reaching new communities and finding new friends to engage and support their mission and cause. The recently used a partnership with Zinga and got the Farmville community to support their efforts, with tremendous success.
What did Facebook games have to do with world hunger? The Farmville Community is a highly engaged community. By identifying the common interests and using the opportunity to partner for social good, this organization benefited greatly, and got to raise awareness in a new community they would not have ordinarily have reached.
What’s really nice about their campaigns is that their focus is not just on the fundraising part, it’s about really reaching out and sharing stories. One of their campaigns features Molly, they tell her story not to raise funds but to create an environment where they can engage people in communities worldwide to understand the work they are doing and make new friends to help support their efforts. One of the cool interactive features of their site is a quiz that helps participants gain a deeper understanding of the cause.
What is really interesting is that when you take their quiz, this action supports the cause! What a great idea! It’s not about taking your money, it’s about awareness and generating reward from enagagement.
In the video below, Bettina Luescher of the World Food Programme, is interviewed by John Haydon. She explains some of their campaigns and outreach strategies, including one campaign where they partnered with the actors from ” The Hunger Games”.
Coming up with creative ideas and partnerships provides great benefits! You reach new audiences and build energy around your cause. This energy creates interesting opportunities to build real relationships with followers or friends, rather than just placing organizations in positions where they beg for attention.
Two Partners supporting World Hunger Day.
To succeed in any campaign, you can’t just rely on the individuals in a community, you have to get the help from sponsors as well. I am thrilled to be participating and promoting the efforts of Razoo and Yum! Brands, the world’s largest restaurant company in support of the World Food Programme World Hunger Day this year. Yum! Brands’ annual World Hunger Relief campaign is the world’s largest private sector hunger relief effort.
You Can Help Too!
Please join us on World Hunger Day this October 16th, check out Geoff Livingston’s post for all the campaign details, or send out this tweet. It doesn’t cost you anything to raise awareness, and it makes such a difference! Please take a moment to click.
A Little Extra:
Just One Day Can Make A Difference!
Want to know what a day of giving can look like visually? Check out what Razoo put together in the video below!
A visualization of GiveMN 2011, showing how Razoo and GiveMN raised more than $14M total in a 24-hour Giving Day.
There are a lot of creative efforts and people joining to make World Hunger Day a success, if all you have to do to make a difference is mark it on your calendar, send out a few tweets, and maybe take a quiz, isn’t it worth it?
“The philanthropic goal encourages people to participate in small acts like a social share or a $10 or $25 donation. These small acts do make a big difference. To give you an idea of how that plays out here:
- – Just $10 feeds children.
- – Just $25 feeds a child in need during school for a half year.” - Geoff Livingston
I hope you will join us on October 16th and be a part of some social media good in action!
For more information you can check out the blogger kit here. You can make a difference just with a few clicks! Thank you!!
Related articles
Social Consumerism and The Great Divide | Social Business Values #Custserv #Leadership #Strategy
As more and more brands are learning how to do social business and integrating social mindsets into all areas – the divide between the traditional business (non-social), and the social business is evident. For the social consumer the differences can be intolerable.
Will the rise of the social consumer change you?
In the video short below “Drive Blog: Episode 1″ , I discuss the difference I see in businesses that demonstrate social values, and share the story of what happened when Chris Brogan tried to get some resolution to an issue on a Facebook Page. What would your response have been if Chris Brogan wrote to you on your brand’s Facebook page, and is this how you would treat every customer?
In exploring the attributes of the Social vs. Non-Social Mindset I found several key differences:
What do you really want? Get Smart with Social Media Contests | #Marketing #Community
“Need more followers? Hey, why not have a contest!” More and more, one of the strategies suggested in gaining readership, fans or followers are contests. You hear about this, think its a great idea, decide what you are going to give away, and you’re good to go right?
You’re counting the followers you’ll gain before you’ve even launched!
If that’s your whole strategy, its a mistake.
I have seen far too many contests pop up, and for the most part, they seem to have very little strategy behind them. The ones that were well crafted stood out and through the contest process helped develop the relationship and encouraged brand loyalty. Here are key points necessary to crafting a contest that will not only benefit the winner, but the community and the brand as well.
