Tag: marketing

‘Free’ digital bulletin board

Business / Hardware / Marketing / Software / Technology

Last year I was trying to figure out how to build and display a ‘digital bulletin board’ on Main Street USA. The idea being that it would be remotely updated with text, video, graphics, AND would pull from RSS feeds, or just show scheduled content, and be easily updatable. The idea was to mount a flat-panel monitor or TV against a large window where there’s lots of foot traffic to catch the eye of visitors and residents when they were in town. It took a while, but I …

Please Just Say "I Don’t Know"

Business / Customer Service

I suppose it’s human nature to want to look smarter than you really are. But when it comes to customer service, there’s nothing worse than having someone try to help you when they know less than you do. People often fall back to circular talking, trying to say the same thing in different ways, mainly because they don’t know the answer to the question – but they don’t want to concede that fact. Something I learned very well as a Guest Relations Host at Disneyland was that it’s …

Retail businesses and their websites…

Blogging / Business / Customer Service / Marketing / Technology / Websites

Over the years I’ve help a lot of small business owners get their web presence started. One of the biggest mistakes those business owners have been to setup a website with too much of a focus on “timely” content. When writing the content for a website, and more specifically a retail business, it’s important to write generically enough that your site doesn’t look old and outdated in a few months. Using phrases like “We’ve been a leader in water filtration and purification for the past 2 years” means …

Social marketing and the small business…

Blogging / Business / Customer Service / Distribution / Email / Marketing / Technology / Websites

It’s been a good five years since “social marketing” really took off in a big way. Big, no HUGE corporations use it in one way or another. It likely doesn’t help their bottom line, but Coca-Cola, Microsoft, NASA, General Electric and even Yahoo and Google use Facebook. So WHY don’t small businesses who actually NEED the help? The simple answer is: knowledge. Most (not all) small business owners are intelligent go-getters who want to succeed in their chosen area of commerce. Those in the retail sector should be …

Facebook feature idea: Check Ins

Blogging / Hardware / Marketing / Phones / Technology / Websites

Facebook has done a good job of letting people “Check In” at businesses with Facebook Places. Aside from seeing if friends are at the same location or even nearby, it’s a great opportunity for businesses to connect with current or potential customers. There is one feature that’s missing though… allowing people to “Check In” to movies and TV shows. Currently, a person can only check in to a business that has an address or location. The GPS functionality in the phone keeps people from randomly checking in to …

Disney on Facebook

Blogging / Marketing / Microsoft / Technology / Websites

Years ago when I worked at Bing.com, I got frustrated at Microsoft for not taking advantage of social marketing and not making it easy for their customers to find their products in the “social world”. Specifically, almost none of their product websites had social media icons that would allow consumers to find THE official pages for Microsoft’s various products. See my post titled “Zune on Facebook”. I see the same issue today with Disney. They have a TREMENDOUS following, with amazing potential for reaching out to fans (consumers, …

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