I like it when I see a local Lake Tahoe business doing a good job with their social media marketing efforts. In addition to our Once a Month Who’s Doing it Best in Lake Tahoe in Social Media and Digital Marketing Series, I’m going to feature a local Lake Tahoe business in our Tahoe Thursday series. If you can think of any, let me know in the comments section or send me an email milena@outandaboutmarketing.com.

Today’s spotlight goes to Tahoe StandUp Paddleboards.

I’m not going to review their website today. I like what they have done with it. I’d like to concentrate on their social networks instead. Some of them are well linked from their website. (Good start) and some I had to look for. (Constructive criticism here – I had a hard time finding their youtube channel).

Let’s look at each one:

Facebook

Active and engaged feed with good interaction with other companies.

Great custom profile photo.

Excellent use of the custom tabs. I particularly liked the Team Tahoe SUP custom tab with my friend Whitney Wall featured at the top. Great way to bring personality into your brand.

Other tabs worth mentioning are the 2012 boards, telling us what to expect, the welcome tab and the Explore Project.

Overall, a visually beatiful Facebook page. Great job! Can they get even more engagement and likes and perhaps introduce Facebook commerce?  Do they have a well put social media strategy in place? If you want to check your Facebook EdgeRank score for free and establish a benchmark for the company, Facebook Edgerank Checker is a good free tool to use for that. For more detailed Facebook Analytics and intelligence, hit me up.

Twitter

Twitter is one of my favorite networks. The Twitter account for Tahoe SUP didn’t disappoint visually. Great custom background image carrying our the brand with urls to other social networks and website assets.

A quick check on Klout shows Tahoe SUP at 21 with topics of influence of construction, plastic and surfing. What is Klout? Klout has positioned themselves as the standard of influence on the web, a very interesting and controversial topic of conversation. They give you a score of 1 to 100 and the higher your score is the most influence you have on the web. They also analyze your conversations and tweets and assign topics to you they believe you are influential in.

With a fun sport like paddle boarding I would imagine that Tahoe SUP can do a lot better on Twitter. To see the entire Twittalyzer dashboard for Tahoe SUP, head over to the this link. Sure, Tahoe SUP can do better with their twitter activity but at least they are not cross posting Facebook to Twitter as many bigger brands wrongly do. (More on this in another post).

YouTube

The Tahoe SUP YouTube account is also customized with their brand. With 8 videos and 31 subscribers, I’d venture to say they can definitely improve their video presence. Although, they are fairly active with 8,635 views to their channel.

I loved their video on paddle boarding with dogs in Lake Tahoe with the dog whisperer as featured on National Geographic. Nicely done. Who doesn’t like going out on the lake with the dog and enjoying the outdoors.

and finally the Tahoe SUP Blog

Prominently featured right on the home page, Tahoe SUP has an active blog. One thing I couldn’t figure out was how to leave a comment on a blog post but maybe I just missed it. If I didn’t, adding comments to the blog will be a good improvement.

I particularly like the integration of photos, videos and the team within the blog. It makes it easy to look around and get a feel for the sport before you jump both feet into it. And as a passionate paddle boarder, I highly recommend it.

Overall, Tahoe SUP is doing a good job with social media. I’m sure they have limited resources to spend online and if their products are flying off the shelves already, then I’m sure they are analyzing what makes the most sense for the company. I see a lot of opportunities and potential to grow their business and connect with paddle boarders around the world.

I hope spring comes soon and we can all go out and enjoy the sport. I know I can’t wait to grab my Tahoe SUP and go out.

Jan 2012 – Tahoe Mountain Sports

I’ve been thinking about starting this series for a while as there are certain local Tahoe companies and businesses that are doing a really good job with their online and social media marketing efforts. There’s no better time to start this series than in the month of January. Once a month, I will feature a local Lake Tahoe business who’s doing an extremely good job with their website, digital, mobile or social media. If you have any suggestions, feel free to send them my way at milena@outandaboutmarketing.com.

Our first selection goes out to Tahoe Mountain Sports and below are some of the reasons for it. In the spirit of Full Disclosure I have to say that this blog post is in no way paid or sponsored by Tahoe Mountain Sports. They didn’t give me any discounts or goodies to write it.

1. Website

Tahoe Mountain Sports website is organized and build with user experience in mind. It is my understanding they are doing all the work in-house. I wish they were using an outside agency as I would hire them right away. Kudos to the entire team at TMS! It’s great to see local talent producing high quality work like this. The website has clear call to actions, it’s easy to navigate, it’s professional looking and has integrated social networks and features really well. I love the fact that you can shop online. So many local Tahoe businesses are completely missing out on the entire ecommerce opportunity. It’s 2012 people! Start selling your products and services online. The site is well organized with items for men, women and kids, plus you can shop by brand, activity and gear. In addition, MTS provides a very detailed information on Tahoe with anything you need for your complete Tahoe adventure from weather and web cams to general information about the area. I like their gift cards availability as well so you can gift someone with an email delivered right to their inbox. I love their Deal of the Day. It’s a great way to bring people back to your website daily. Kudos to TMS for keeping this active. I’m sure it pays well in sales for them.

I decided to test their Live Chat function which integrated with my Facebook account. I asked them a question and received an immediate response. A few pleasant exchanges later, I went on to continue writing this blog post. I can keep going about their website features, like free shipping, secure check out, Amazon payments, etc. In summary, this is an excellent website and I’m sure they are seeing the returns from their efforts in real dollar signs.

2. Blog 

TMS maintains a very active blog which shows they understand the power of search and social. The blog also shows their passion and enthusiasm for the outdoors, sports, Tahoe and their business. Their love for the outdoors is captivating. It’s an engaging blog with interesting articles, product reviews and tons of photos. One of my favorite posts was their recent Yosemite trip with the Tahoe bikini chicks. Now, this is a great way to sell some bikinis in winter and even get the guys interested. Right?

Photo courtesy of the TMS blog

3. Social Media

In addition to the blog, TMS is active on Facebook (2,267 likes), Twitter (324 followers), YouTube (70,959 views to their videos so far) and Google+ (68 people). They are active on their social networks and responding to people not just blasting out messages like some other companies (won’t mention any names) are continuing to do.

milena@outandaboutmarketing.com

Check your page settings. Go to Manage Permissions on your Facebook page. Make sure no country is selected and your age restrictions is set up to 13+.

This should do the trick and now your custom domain name will work properly. I hope this is helpful. Have you checked your Facebook page when you are logged out to see if it’s visible to people? Does it work properly?

A good friend, Troy Thompson from Travel 2.0 is going to be the keynote speaker and I will present on Facebook for business. Let me know what you want to learn.

Out&About Marketing is giving away a free admission to the event. Here’s how to you can win the free ticket valued at $99 before Aug 31 and $125 after.

2 ways to WIN:

1. Tweet with #WinSMGTahoe hashtag in your tweet. You can tweet up to 3 times a day. You will get an entry every time you tweet.We’ll randomly draw the winner.
2. Leave a comment on this blog post and tell us why you want to go.

Contest rules:

1. Contest ends Oct 3rd and the winner will be announced on this blog.
2. The winner will be selected at random and the decision is final.
3. If you have already purchased a ticket, no problem. We’ll give you a full refund on your ticket or you can just give away the ticket to someone who really wants to go.
4. No purchase is necessary to win.
5. You are responsible for your own travel expenses.

Good luck to everyone! See you on Oct 12th!

Thank you to everyone who came to listen to me. You are absolutely wonderful people and a great audience. As promised, below are my 3 presentations from the event.

Here are some best practices for florists on social media. You can hear me present them live on July 7th, at IMAGINE in San Francisco. It’s not too late to sign up.

1. Commit to it. You are on social media for the long haul. Building relationships takes time. Time is the biggest obstacle for many florists when discussing social media (in a survey conducted for IMAGINE 2011, 54% of people answered that time is their biggest challenge). Remember that time is a challenge for everyone no matter how big or small of a company they have. Learn what works best for your business, prioritize, use the right tools and find the time to market your store, yourself, your company. Remember that it will take time to build your followers but they will be there for you when you need them most.

2. You are the EXPERTS! In the same survey conducted, 68% of floral professionals said they have been in the industry for 15+ years. You are in a position to share your knowledge and experience with people who want to learn more about flowers.You are the best in the industry. Share your knowledge and experience online.

3. Content is KING. Stick to the 80/20 percent rule. Create valuable content for your community 80% of the time. Give them things they want – education, information, discounts and offers. Connect with your customers on an emotional basis. Florists are in the perfect position to use social media and enable people to share their happiness and smiles. Leave only 20% for self-promotion.

4. Make it easy to share. Once you have created an amazing floral arrangement or wedding bouquet, write about it, take a photo or create a video. Make it easy to share on the web. On a daily basis, we encounter 3,000 messages on average from traditional marketing, news, social media, emails. If I see something absolutely amazing, I want to share it with my network. Make it easy for me to share it with 1 (one) click.

5. Remove the obstacles. Think what’s easy and convenient for people and make it easy for them to purchase from you. If you have a captcha form on the floral website, make sure people can type in the words they see. If you have a floral mobile ecommerce shop, make sure it works well on all mobile devices. Invest in the technology and make sure you don’t frustrate people on the web. If someone doesn’t see what they are looking for in 3 sec they are leaving to go back to Google and look for your competitor. You don’t want this to happen to you.

6. Have fun! Remember to have fun on social media. Connect with other people. Use humor in your flower messages. Humor sells. If you can make people laugh, they will remember your brand name. People want to have fun online. Don’t forget that.

7. Be authentic and be yourself. Your personality will shine through on social media. Regardless of how big or small your floral company is, be transparent, be real and build trust with people. Social media is about being transparent and being real. Take out the marketing lingo and speak to people they way you talk to your friends. Your floral shop will be better off in the long run.

I’m putting the final touches on my presentations for IMAGINE 2011. Yes, I’m nervous about speaking in front of 1,000+ people. I’m also very excited to share my passion and love for Social Media.I can’t wait to meet more people in the floral industry. I’ll put my presentations online after the conference on slideshare.net/milenaregos. I will also share the results from the survey in a later blog post. Stay tuned and IMAGINE – Dream, Create, Share! Hope to see you there!

What does the future hold? Quora, the people questions and answers forum may replace Google as we count on our friends recommendations a lot more than on robot suggestions. There probably won’t be any more PCs and laptops, just smartphones and iPads/tablets.

I created this short video on social media history, trying to fit the last 40 years in less than 4 minutes to put into perspective where we came from. Let me know what you think.

As I write this, I am thinking about a million different things. Well, maybe not a million, but at least 74.

At this moment in my life I am a full-time photographer with a budding business, I associate- and second-shoot weddings for two different studios, and I nanny part-time.  I write three or four pieces for Tahoe Quarterly every issue, attend a networking group once a week and try to get out of the house with friends at least once a month to maintain some ghostly semblance of a social life. I actively participate in Relay For Life, Star Follies and Boy Scouts. I never say no when someone asks me to donate a photo session to a silent auction for a charitable cause. I’d like to lose 25 pounds. And I’m a 25-year old kid in a long-distance relationship. I barely have enough time to take care of myself, let alone sleep on a regular basis. And anytime I’m awake, unless I’ve paid for a vacation and forced myself to leave the laptop and camera behind, I’m working.

It’s funny that one of the first words we learn how to say becomes so difficult for us later in life. It’s easy to say yes to one thing or another – but it’s a slippery slope. Before you know it you feel like poor Atlas and slowly, but surely, your muscles begin to weaken…

Why do we over-commit? Because we honestly want to help, or we don’t want to be rude. Maybe we fear we’ll lose a good opportunity or hurt someone’s feelings. And saying yes to every offer makes it feel like you can take on the world, until you realize you can’t. Because I am clearly no expert on how not to over-commit, I’ve done a little research with some help from my friend, the Internet, and compiled it here for you in a handy list.

1.   Figure out your priorities. Don’t focus solely on professional goals if you want to spend time with your family. If you want to make your photography startup a success, as much as it pains me to say it, you can’t spend time running around with little kids or freelancing for magazines. Of course, easier said than done.

2.    Set goals that keep those priorities in mind. When you don’t have a concrete vision of what you want to accomplish with your family, career, health, social life, finances…you have no point of reference when your boss asks you to take on more travel or a project that requires an extra 10 hours a week. This’ll help you spot conflicts before they’re right on top of you.

3.    Sleep on it. When someone asks you for your time and you’re not sure, tell them you’ll get back to them. Which is not to say, be flaky. Just take a minute away from the situation to weigh the value of the offer and how much time you actually have. Does it help you with your goals?

4.    Finish what you started. Always honor your commitments, but once they’re done you’re free to go.

5.    That said – buy yourself some time in the short-term by making a list of your commitments and seeing what can be rescheduled, delegated or even cancelled. Combat calendar claustrophobia – once you have some room to breathe you can make your plan.

6.    Schedule time for yourself and stick to it. Call it trite but you know it’s true. The road to hell is paved with what? Make it a ritual – walk the dog every day at 5:00 or take lunch away from your desk – and it’ll keep you sane.

7.    Don’t waste your time trying to please everyone. You’ll be tearing your hair out and in the process you’ll be doing a disservice to all the people and priorities that matter most. Some people are always miserable; refuse to let them take you down too.

8.    If a good opportunity falls in your lap and you don’t have the time for it, refer it to a reliable colleague or friend. With any luck they’ll be gracious and return the favor when they’re over-committed.

9.    Keep, or regain, some perspective. When you’re feeling pressed, take a deep breath and back up a few feet. Pointillists paint myriad small dots to form an image, but unless you’re standing at a distance you won’t know what it is. Remember the big picture and don’t let those small dots get in your head. If that doesn’t help, look up how much space you take up on the geological timeline.

10. Do something fun. Seriously, maybe if you accidentally build in a little extra margin you can have some time for yourself. Remember fun?

Long story short? If something brings you joy or your business money, keep it. If it only stresses you out and there’s no room for improvement, it’s time to cut your losses. Two-year-olds the world over can say it, so it’s time for some verbal rehabilitation. Relish the small victory that is that teeny, tiny two-letter word.

Your turn? What keeps you up at night? How do you Say No? Would you like to see more guest posts?

Dr. Seuss

Running your own business is complicated enough. How do you make sure your customers are happy and they bring you referrals and positive word-of-mouth? Here are 3 tips to follow:

1. Under promise and over deliver. Return their phone call, email, tweet, question within reasonable time.  If you are completely swamped then tell them you will get back to them upon review. Deliver on what you promised. Take it a step further – under promise and over deliver. Make sure you meet the deadline you suggested in the first place. Always go above and beyond to make sure you are over-delivering on their expectations. Just meeting their expectations doesn’t cut it anymore.

2. Be consistent. This means be consistent in everything you do – from your marketing to the way you answer emails. Again, this is based on creating expectations. People doing business with you get used to doing it a certain way. People don’t like change. If you are planning on improving anything, make sure to give people plenty of notice and allow them to opt out. An example is how Twitter and Facebook change their platforms. Twitter allows people to go back to the old version of the platform. Facebook makes the change whether you like it or not. People don’t like change. Be consistent and you have a better chance of making people happy. This doesn’t mean be consistent at under delivering, you will only create a complete failure.

3. Treat everyone with respect and give them special attention. Respect your customers and they will respect you back. People are all individuals an they deserve the utmost respect until proven otherwise. Everybody wants to feel special. You can make them feel special by finding out what they like and jotting it down in your computer. If you have some type of customer relationship program, record it there. Otherwise, attach it to their name somehow, electronically is the preferred method. Remember their birthdays. Remember little things they said in your every day conversation that could lead to a special recognition or gift. For example, if someone likes tea instead of coffee, get them a special tea set for the holidays with a hand written note from you. If you make them feel special, they will remember your business. Once they need your service, they will come back to you.

Happy people spread positive word of mouth – the most affordable marketing your small business can purchase.

Go ahead and make your promise. Just make sure you actually over deliver on it, be consistent and give them individual treatment.

What’s your best advice for small business owners?

I’ve been seeing him for over 15 years now despite of changes in dental insurances and 45 min drive to the office one way. He’s one of these older, nice gentleman who can make you feel very comfortable.Even in the dentist chair.

What I like most about this dentist is his attitude towards his clients and his high and I mean really high standard for customer service.

Dr. Donald Orme (in Truckee, CA) by far wins my award for customer service for a local Lake Tahoe business. He knows how to treat his customers and by that I don’t mean keep their teeth healthy but treat them with respect. He understands what it takes to make them feel good, how to make things right and how to keep his clients happy.

He “gets” how word-of-mouth and referrals work and he practices it every day. I wished more Lake Tahoe small and large businesses would learn from Dr. Orme and apply his unwritten policy: Do whatever it takes to make the customer happy.

I wrote a review about him on DentistDig. If you end up going to see him, feel free to write your opinion as well.

Have you run into a good or bad customer service experience lately? Leave a comment on this blog.