The Social Latte

Jack Smith (A.K.A The Social Media Barista)

Welcome to my coffee-loving, marketing and social media consulting for businesses big & small site! I'm a social media speaker and trainer. When not working with businesses, I can be found chillin at Social Media Club, Ignite Phx or socializing at #EVFN or #EVTM. How can I help you?

Can You Pick The Social Media Expert?

by Jack Smith · Comments

Who's The Expert?

For whatever reason, this topic has been top-of-mind this week and an event finally pushed me to write this post. Hopefully, you will find it helpful when you are looking for a resource to either speak at your next event or conference or, more importantly, hire them to help your business.

So story first… One of my good friends, Nick Miner who is a very talented commercial Real Estate Broker is always sharing social media events and speakers that are speaking in his industry or at other events. Being the curious type and always wanting to connect with other professionals and/or checkout the competition, I always do a little research to learn more about the event and speaker (as you should too!)

The first place I usually look, is their LinkedIn profile because when that is well done, you should have a vast majority of the information you need to complete your research. Upon visiting this ’social media expert’s’ site, I found the following bio.

Xxxxxx is a Social Media Consultant, Strategist, Speaker and Trainer. With over 20 years of experience in marketing, technology and business, Victor engages and encourages companies to recognize and master the profound power of Social Media Marketing.

Victor works with his clients on new ways of maximizing how websites, blogs and social media tools develop new business relationships, increase sales, build brand awareness and much more.

Which sounded amazingly similar to mine! I had been ripped off!

Utilizing over 10 years of experience in marketing, technology and business, Jack engages and encourages companies to recognize and harness the profound power of emerging online technologies.

We are always working with our clients on new ways of maximizing how websites, blogs and social media tools engage people in conversations to develop new business relationships, increase sales, build brand awareness and much more.

While I know that it is said that imitation is the most sincere form of flattery, I have to admit, I was a little irked.

Upon further inspection and while continuing my usual research, I looked for their blog. Myself and several of my colleagues believe that blogging is the foundation of most social media efforts and a great way to learn more about a person/company/organization, their expertise, credibility and how they interact with people online. But alas no blog. NO BLOG! A website, but no blog and they are NOT the same.

Next was looking for the Facebook Fan Page (a must-have for most businesses), but there was none to be found. Only a link to a personal profile, again, not the same thing.

Time to look for some tweets. At this point, I wasn’t sure what I was going to find but I did find a Twitter account and it had been updated recently albeit only to promote his next event. However, the LinkedIn profile stated the company had been in business for 2+ years and yet their twitter account has less than 1,500 followers. That number by itself isn’t the most important one because I don’t believe that Twitter is a numbers or popularity contest, but that you can have a great experience with Twitter numbers in the hundreds. The number that worried me was that they had only tweeted 73 times….. in two years! How can you be an expert or understand a communication and marketing tool that you don’t regularly use yourself? (Note: in 2 years you would have over 700 days in which to post updates)

I want to point out that I don’t believe you need to use every single tool or be on every single network to be a very good consultant, but when you put all of these things together, the ’social media expert’ title doesn’t seem to fit. Bottom line and like any profession, there is no shortcut to ‘expert’, ‘guru’ or ‘consultant’ without doing the work – and at a minimum, using and understanding the basics.

Again, here are my basic steps that I would look for before moving on to this great list from Beth Harte on The 25 Signs You’ve Got a Strong SM Consultant or Agency.

LinkedIn Profile – Complete bio, picture, contact information listed, experience, review testimonials
Blog – Look at frequency of posts, comments, valuable content, design, resources, previous speaking/teaching, testimonials and/or feedback
Facebook Fan Page – Interaction, comments, design, additional tabs, applications
Twitter – Frequency & number of tweets, links shared, interaction with other Twitter users (@ replies), bio, picture, tone, content
Additional sites you may want to review – YouTube, Delicious, Digg

Photo Credit: Flickr DanDeChiaro

Lookout Liberty Market, Here Comes Wildflower!

by Jack Smith · Comments

in Social Media, Twitter

One of my favorite things to do on this blog is to write about businesses using social media in great ways – YES, it can be done! And if you are in the Phoenix area and have not visited Liberty Market in Gilbert or any of Joe’s other restaurants, you are not only missing great food and service, but also examples of great marketing through social media – especially the way they use their Twitter account. Here is an earlier post talking about one example and I have since had several personal interactions and am continually impressed.

Well, this week I was pleasantly surprised to see another one of my favorite companies using social media to connect with customers and fans – Wildflower Bread Company. In my quest to stay up-to-date with the ever-changing social media landscape and become a better blogger, I have been setting time aside to read more blogs and provide thoughts and comments when I feel I can add value. One of the blogs I enjoy reading is the Sitewire Agency Blog (smart people work there) and the article I commented on was Of Wonder Bread, Wildflower & William Morris.

Without stealing Josh’s thunder from his article, he discusses the trials and tribulations of balancing human interaction with automation and the results that are produced in regards to search campaigns.

While I’m no Luddite or naysayer when it comes to technologies or tools that improve efficiency –the fact that search engine marketing is still both an art and a science — I feel as though human management and attention to campaign intricacies produces superior results.

In this article, he goes on to talk about the difference between Wonder Bread and Wildflower bread.

If I were in the market for a loaf of bread, I have tons of options available to me from mediocre mass-produced loaves like plain old white Wonder Bread to a flavorful, handcrafted, artisanal loaf produced by local master bakers at the Wildflower Bread Company.

Since I found the article and topic very interesting and a great read, I left the following comment for Josh on Feb 15th:

Sitewire Agency Blog Comment

Then, to my surprise, I received a Tweet from Wildflower CEO on Feb 16th which is a different account than the Kristen Wildflower account which I was already following.

Wildflower CEO

I had already met Kristen because she took the time to support and lend her advice and experience to other Phoenix businesses through a panel discussion on Small Businesses Using Social Media at Social Media Club Phoenix. So now I was really impressed that Louis took the time to say hello and thanks. But it got better.

On Feb. 17th Louis left the following comments on the Sitewire blog to myself and Josh:

Wildflower Comment To Me

Wildflowr Comment To Josh

WOW! And I think Josh’s reaction was great as well.

Final Comment From Josh

I totally agree that brands, whether they be big or small, need to engage with their customer base. But the key to Josh’s message is “in the channels & means which they prefer to communicate in”. Do you know what those channels are for your target audience?

Wildflower has made a commitment to the Social Media audience and they have taken action. It was great to see Kristen taking time to share the trials and tribulations they have experienced via Social Media Club and then great of them to reach out to Josh and myself via the blog and Twitter. Do I prefer those methods, you bet I do. Is this a great strategic move by Wildflower to comment and engage with not only the author but also a reader of the blog and a fan of their product, ABSOLUTELY!

I think Wildflower did a bunch of great things here and I hope there are lessons other companies can find and implement in their own way. I know that it takes time to do and can at times be overwhelming for business owners, but when you get it right and can connect in a meaningful way with your target, the results can be worth it.

Thank you for the breakfast offer and know that I’ll be back many times after my gift card runs out.

Do you know of other Phoenix-based companies knocking it out of the park with social media? What do you think of Wildflower’s engagement with Josh and myself? Looking forward to your comments.

Tempe Chamber Announces The Business Solutions Clinic

February 12, 2010

Business Owners: How Are You Making Yourself Or Your Business More Valuable in 2010?

If you don’t have an answer to that question or a path to achieve it, I encourage you to consider this event. At the very least, take 10 minutes to review Part 1 of the Jim Rohn video to the right of [...]

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Why and How To Use Twitter – Why Twitter Will Endure – NYTimes.com

February 8, 2010

I can remember when I first thought seriously about Twitter. Last March, I was at the SXSW conference, a conclave in Austin, Tex., where technology, media and music are mashed up and re-imagined, and, not so coincidentally, where Twitter first rolled out in 2007. As someone who was oversubscribed on Facebook, overwhelmed by the computer-generated [...]

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