The right and wrong way to us social media
It should come as no surprise to anyone reading this that social media has become a very large part of a companies marketing strategy. Sites such as Facebook and Twitter provide companies with an unprecedented opportunity to stay in contact with their customer base. However, while social media does in fact provide a great chance to make things right with customers, it can also cause problems when not used correctly. Below are two examples of using social media, one for the better and the other for the worse.
Right
On August 17th Peter Shankman was flying to Newark. Like most airline passengers today he wasn’t exactly fond of the food on offer. So he did what many people do when they are bored waiting to take off. He sent the following tweet “Hey @Morton’s – can you meet me at newark airport with a porterhouse when I land in two hours? K, thanks. 
”.
Lo and behold, upon arriving at Newark airport a gentleman in a tuxedo stood waiting for him. That man of course, was a representative of Morton’s Steakhouse and he had in fact brought Peter a porterhouse steak as per his Twitter request. It definitely didn’t hurt that Peter has over 100,000 followers on Twitter but it makes for a very good customer service story none the less.
Wrong
Not every tweet is handled with the care and outright awesomeness as Peter’s though. On October 10th Allison Hiromi was dining at the Downhouse Restaurant in the Heights. For whatever reason she decided to send out a tweet that called the bartender a “twerp”. Ordinarily tweets such as this go unnoticed by most people. That wasn’t the case here though as a hawk eyed manger of the restaurant was sitting at home with apparently nothing better to do than monitor Twitter for references to his restaurant.
Upon reading the tweet the manager called the restaurant and requested to speak to Allison the phone. Over the phone he told her she needed to leave the establishment immediately. Now to be fair, the manager is well within his rights to refuse service to anyone for any reason, other than protected ones of course. However, being this sensitive over a tweet is just plain silly. Allison’s comments didn’t contain any real malice towards anyone and much like most tweets probably didn’t have a long thought process behind it.
So what are we to take away from these two examples mentioned here? For starters, we need to always be aware that everything we do as a company is monitored by the outside world. Places such as Twitter and Facebook have brought about the age of instant notifications. This can either be used to our advantage or disadvantage. And ultimately, every company that utilizes social media should have some sort of guidelines set forth for their employees when handling situations such as this.
http://shankman.com/the-best-customer-service-story-ever-told-starring-mortons-steakhouse/
Starbucks Free E-Books Are Not Free
This particular story somewhat disheartens me. I’m a big fan of Starbucks and also enjoy reading e-books on my Barnes and Noble Nook. So when Starbucks decided to start offering up free e-books on a weekly basis it got me a little excited. Starbucks has been offering free weekly Itunes downloads for awhile now and that has worked smashingly. It has helped introduce new bands and music to a new audience for free. Surely this is a win a win. With that in mind surely this free e-book thing will work just as well, won’t it?
With the release of their first free e-book offering The Night Circus by Erin Morgestern we see that this deal is not as good as it would seem. It would appear that those people lucky enough to download this title for free found a bit of a catch when they got to page 330 of the 400 page book. Upon reaching this page the reader is greeted with a message that informs the reader to buy the book if they want to see the final 70 pages.
Now the blog posting introducing this new idea does actually say that the book is an extended sample. However, this is not noted anywhere else including the cards that are given out in the stores. This may not be a situation where Starbucks is acting in a shady manner but it still leaves a sour taste in my mouth. After all, one can browse the Barnes and Noble e-book store and come out with hundreds of free samples of books. Overall it makes sense that they are not offering an entire e-book for free given that they cost ten times what a song will. It’s really my fault for getting my hopes up. Oh well off to Starbucks anyway.
http://mynorthwest.com/11/545861/Starbucks-free-ebook-offer-irks-some-customers
Warren Buffet’s Ten Rules
Warren Buffett is without a doubt one of the most successful business men in the world. Like many others that reach his heights he began understanding business at a very early age. He even counted his bicycle and watch as a tax deduction when he filed his taxes at the age of 14. There is no doubt a lot that can be said about this man. His ten rules for success provide a clear understanding of his philosophy in life.
1. Reinvest Your Profits. This makes sense not only in the stock market, but in a small business as well. Entrepreneurs who bleed all the profits out of a business find that they may struggle to grow the business into something larger and more valuable.
2. Be Willing to be Different. Buffet didn’t make his fortune by following the crowd. Instead, he invested when everyone else was panicked, and sold off when everyone else was buying. That strategy always beats the market. Doing what everybody else is doing – the same way they are doing it – is the recipe for becoming average. Nobody pays extra for “average”.
3. Never Suck Your Thumb. After you gather the information you need, make a decision. To Buffet, any time wasted to get to a decision is just “thumb sucking”. Success comes from immediately grabbing every opportunity that you can recognize.
4. Spell out the Deal In Advance. Your bargaining position is never stronger than before you are committed. So, advantage of that opportunity to spell out the details and specifics of any deal before you start. This is especially true when working with friends or family.
5. Watch Small Expenses. In the investment world, this translates into watching not just the returns offered by investment funds, but also the fees charged by the fund managers. This is so true in every aspect of small business and personal finance, as well.
6. Limit What You Borrow. Buffet claims to never have borrowed a significant amount of money. His advice is to remain debt-free, and then save and invest money. This is a very counter-cultural (see #2) contrast to those who preach getting rich using Other People’s Money.
7. Be Persistent. This is an advantage that the small entrepreneur has over larger, more established competitors. Persistence and ingenuity can, and often does win against large odds. If you’ve done your research, taken care of the details, watched your expenses and stayed out of debt, your success through persistence may only be a matter of time.
8. Know When to Quit. Don’t throw good money after bad. Resist the temptation to salvage a bad deal with a last-minute home run.
9. Assess the Risk. Buffet recommends thinking through both the best-case and the worst-case scenarios. This helps clarify the risks and rewards for any venture, which is critical to the decision making process.
10. Know What Success Means. Buffet doesn’t measure success in terms of dollars. As he says, “When you get to my age, you’ll measure your success in life by how many of the people you want to have love you actually do love you.” Here is wisdom.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7280569.stm
2011 Consumer Action Handbook
The Consumer Action Handbook is published annually by the Federal Citizen Action Center. The book includes information on topics such as dealing with telemarketers, resolving air travel problems, nutrition, and filing consumer complaints. The book also contains an in depth list of contact information for many companies around the world. This book deserves a look from everyone as we are all consumers and can benefit from the information included. The book can either be ordered from GSA from this link or viewed online in pdf form here.
Fox Cities Fortune 500 Companies
According to the 2011 Fortune 500 list there are 9 companies on the list in the state of Wisconsin. Of those, two of them are in the Fox Cities area. The companies are Bemis in Neenah which comes in at number 462 on the list and Oshkosh Corporation in Oshkosh which comes in at number 252 on the list. You can view the complete list of Fortune 500 companies here.