survey at BD's asking about service and encouraging customers to join the email club

The experience makes all the difference in the restaurant industry. If I have crummy service and decent food I’m not going to want to come back. Deliver great service with decent food and I’m probably still going to come back.

Recently I had dinner at bd’s Mongolian Grill where I was pleasantly surprised by the energy as well as the commitment to marketing from the staff.

We encountered many point of purchase marketing messages that encouraged long-term relationships. An example of this would be the survey at the end of the meal  that asked if we were told about joining the email club – which we were invited to and did join. While bd’s was trying to encourage the long-term relationship they missed out on one very important factor.

Not all of bd’s customers use email as a primary way to communicate. To really create long-term relationships with their customers bd’s needs to be available on the platforms that their customers use.  Once I got home I decided to dig deeper into bd’s social plan and found that they have limited presence on several platforms including Facebook and YouTube. Having a presence on a platform is easy being active and creating conversation as well as community will really help establish long-term loyalty. There is also a significant amount of chatter on Twitter with no corporate responses to questions or customer satisfaction issues. It is OK to use a social media platform as a listening tool and respond as needed verse leaving your customers hanging.

My recommendation to bd’s is to take the strong in store marketing online. Make it easier for me to stay connected and keep your restaurant top of mind the next time I’m thinking about dinner. Always keep in mind that a good marketer will find their audience and speak to them on the platform in the language that will foster long-term mutually beneficial relationships.

I’m a huge fan of Groupon. I often purchase gifts for friends based on the daily emails I receive. Today however I’m going to pick on them for a mistake that was made 4 hours ago and has yet to be corrected. The Groupon today was for a dry-cleaners … I mean pizza place…. wait I’m still confused. Read the email for yourself and you will clearly see that the content of the email doesn’t match the heading or the actual offer.

Mistakes happen but most can be prevented. Next time you send out an email blast take 5 minutes to reread before hitting send. That 5 minutes could save you from a problem that will take more time to fix than it would have taken you to just proof your work in the first place.

Remember not all mistakes can be prevented. Own your mistakes and you can often times create an even more loyal set of followers.

Hopefully Groupon apologizes to their readers and the businesses that they have let down later today in order to keep their loyal fan base engaged.

stuff from my actual survival kit - just as important as the stuff in my blogging survival kit

I’m gearing up for a trip of a lifetime – the Inca Trail and Machu Picchu in Peru. Hiking the trail has made me think about preparing myself for anything that could happen. I’ve assembled a small kit containing survival items for the trip and now it is time that I  prepare my blog.

Here’s what’s in my blogging survival kit:

Plan in advance

Use the publish on date functionality to add content while you are unavailable.

Call in reinforcements

Guest content is great it brings in a new perspective, a new subject matter expert and hopefully extends your network of followers by leveraging the guest bloggers connections.

Consult the experts

No matter what subject area you blog about there are experts you can turn to. Some of the experts I refer to:

• Probrogger
• copyblogger
• The Marketing Tech Blog
• SEOmoz
• social media explorer

What motivates you? What motivates your corporate bloggers to blog? You need to dangle the metaphorical or I guess perhaps actual blogging carrot in front of your bloggers. It’s OK to incentivize for setting goals and reaching them. Just make sure that the goals you set are measurable and impactful with an incentive that matches the value of the goals impact on your corporate blogging program.

Measure Your Corporate Blogging Goal

If you can’t measure the goal then it’s not really a goal – it’s just something that you think would be cool if it happened. You measure your online marketing activities right? If you don’t then measurement should be your new top priority. Make sure that you have a free analytic package installed on your blog at the very least. A basic analytics package will let you see where people are coming from and what they are engaging with once on your blog.

Make Sure Your Goal Creates Impact

Don’t just make the goal about reaching a number of posts. You can end up with crappy content this way. Make sure that the goals you set will help create and add value to your overall program.

Example of a great goal: Improve the read time on an individual’s blog posts by 5% over the course of the month. Increasing read time (aka engagement) should lead to an increased number of conversions on your corporate blog – thus improving your overall blogging ROI.

The Blogging Carrot Should Match the Impact

The value you provide your bloggers for reaching a goal needs to match the impact that reaching the goal has on your corporate blog. Harder goals to reach will require bigger carrots perhaps even real carats (a girl can dream right)!

Image acknowledgment: bookgrl

Don’t lie. I know you’ve done it. We all have and should. No I’m not talking about picking your nose (come on now grow up) … I’m talking about Googling Yourself.

According to December 2009 research commissioned by Microsoft, only 29% of job seekers (in the US) are very/somewhat concerned with their online reputation, yet 79% of recruiters are reviewing candidates online reputation.

Yikes! What does this disparity mean to you? If you aren’t in the 29% that care then you need to be and if you are already concerned then take time to optimize your online reputation.

Take the time and see what your Google results say about you. One of my friends did not take the time to Google herself before a job interview for a company that focuses on search. Guess what her interviewer found? Her full name was used in a blog post that contained photos that she would have never wanted to share with a coworker. While it was an embarrassing situation for her it fortunately didn’t cost her the job. She was able to describe to the recruiter what measures she would take in order to clean up her online reputation and it actually helped her get the job!

What happens when I Google myself? My online reputation clearly communicates my accomplishments including some of my past corporate blogs, social profiles and social network content. My favorite item on my search results is a listing for Corporate Blogging for Dummies available in India.

I challenge you to Google yourself and take the time to clean up your online reputation.

References: Image & research commissioned by Microsoft prepared by Cross-Tab Marketing Services