Mind you that I am traveling to Minneapolis today (I'm on the flight now) then back tomorrow night. Newark to Austin Friday, then back Sunday night with a layover. Needless to say, 5 airports in 5 days = a crazy me and I want things to be easier.
This did it. Delta has mobile check-ins with a QR code that was texted to me once I checked in. No need to print. Just scan my phone and I'm on the plane. Apparently Continental does this too which is great as I fly them Friday.
I blogged yesterday about the Expedia app (client of mine) that is also worth a read to manage multiple itineraries and lessen the chance of screaming at a child on your flight. :)
New York’s flashier industries, including big media and Wall Street, have long dwarfed the tech sector here. And the dot-com implosion only reinforced that reality. The fledgling tech scene that was just beginning to hum in the late 1990s flatlined as dozens of Internet companies folded, pink slips replaced party invitations and venture capital firms took their investments elsewhere.
Reviews are golden these days. Consumers have the power to praise or destroy brands by giving them one star or 5 stars based on experiences and interactions. If you tweet or blog about a problem, the likelihood of getting a response from a customer service rep on social media has increased by far over the past year. I can go on and list examples, but you can also look for them on Google. (Kevin Smith Southwest search term is a good start)
By putting your company and brand out there, you immediately open yourself up to comments, feedback and everything else the consumer will say. You have to be ready to take it all in. I'm a strong supporter of this and recommend that our clients put themselves out there and interact with their customers. We've seen great success, fixed problems before they became bigger and gained some great followers and brand ambassadors for them.
But, as wel always need to do: Let's look forward for a minute. Will we hit a point where enough is enough? Do we think that the day will come when brands will say "I'm done" and take down all customer service presence in social media because the reviews and customer service questions and rants become too much?
Review site Yelp has been under scrutiny lately for a lawsuit claiming that Yelp salespeople call small businesses that have been reviewed on the hugely popular business review site, and offer to let them manipulate the reviews if they pay to advertise with Yelp. A recent BusinessWeek interview with CEO Jeremy Stoppelman includes points to clear that up and provided for a brilliant quote at the end of it questioning the same thing I am.
BW: Danny Sullivan, a respected search industry analyst, thinks the only solution is for Yelp to let companies opt-out entirely. That way, only basic information on the company would appear, but no reviews. What not do this? It would go a long way towards proving to businesses that you’re not interested in extorting them.
Stoppelman: Why doesn’t BusinessWeek let me opt-out of having a story written about me? It’s a new generation of people out there (that want to communicate and share opinioins). Some of the content that appears on Yelp might have been created by a newspaper in the past—-say, a review by a restaurant critic. It’s a clear question of free speech. If someone said a reviewer couldn’t write about a particular restaurant, there would be an outcry—how dare he be silenced!
I don't think the opt out trend will happen anytime soon as some companies are just now starting to jump on the response bandwagon. They still see that need, and so do we, that the benefit to doing this is huge and worth the investment. That said, we have to be ready and figure out what will be next.
I went to The Shorty Awards last night. We work with Suze Orman at Attention so I was there to support her (yep, she won in the Finance category!) and mix and mingle and hang out with Sesame Street puppets.
The Lowdown:
Grover was there. Yes, that Grover. From Sesame Street. He also won an award. Well, Sesame Street did.
The Shorty's got Kanye'd by a drunk guy. I still don't know who he was but he rolled around the floor on stage. Does anyone know who it was?
Downstairs in the Cocktail lounge you had a choice of three things to drink: Brooklyn Lager, Sparkling Wine and Maker's Mark. It's like they WANTED us to get drunk. (I blame these drinks on my current status of joining in on this crazy event in May.)
All in all, good job Greg and The Shorty Awards. I'll be there next year.
Bonus. Here is the spoof video done by Suze Orman herself:
SO this happened. Thursday night I came home, poured a glass (or two(three))of wine and typed away on my laptop. With Snowpocalypse happening outside, I decided let's be cheeky and snap a shot for Tumblr. Because, as we all know: Tumblr is where you do this. Here is the original.
Enter my colleagues to have a little fun with this and spread it around the Internet. Well played folks. WELL PLAYED.
Full photo set below including Yuna Park, Taylor Newby, Molly Washam, Stephanie Startz, Ryan Lawler, Caroline McCarthy and Alyssa Galella. Others to be added as I AM SURE more people will join in.
Ken Davenport writes a fantastic blog each day from the view of a Broadway Producer. So fantastic that I actually subscribe via e-mail to it. He's the only blog I do that for.
Today, his post is not just for the aspiring screenwriter or actor, but the busy workers in all of us. The many of us dealing with deadlines, clients, plans, updates, you name it. The ones that could always use a bit of a push in the system or break up our daily routines to keep things organized.
Ken calls it the "Adult Homework System" or AHS. I like it.
Here's how it works:
Find yourself a friend, a teacher, a shrink, or even a random person online.
Describe what you want to accomplish (complete a script, a song, or whatever).
Make that person give you your homework with a due date.
Do it in the allotted time.
Rinse and repeat.
It's holding yourself accountable for things outside of the usual deadlines. So, for us all in the client service industry or agency land, your person would normally be your client. Instead, work someone else into the picture and have them be your "teacher". Break the mold of the normal and you'll think a bit differently.
After months of waiting, I finally saw Hair on Broadway last night with my best friend Jay. I've been dying to see this show. The music is just amazing, Gavin Creel, Will Swenson and Caissie Levy are favorites of mine and the "fun factor" of the show and engagement with the audience has earned chatter since opening night.
Broadway is one of those events that I tend to keep my phone in my purse. For one, you can't have your phones out during the show as you'll get a stern talking to from the usher. Second, it's just rude to have it out and live tweet when you have performers on stage acting and singing their heart out.
That said, I did do SOME of my normal internet stuff and there's a lot of opportunity moving forward that shows can take advantage of.
Foursquare: Upon arriving at the theater, I checked in at the Al Hirschfeld Theater. Tips were normal, go see Hair and dance on stage. Would have loved tips or back stories about the theater. What else had played there? has the theater been renovated? All of these theaters in New York have some sort of history to it, would love to know more.
OMGICU: BroadwaySpace.com has a special Twitter account whenever people spot Broadway celebs on the street-BroadwaySpotted. Integrating this with OMGICU would be awesome and help track all of them.
Social media and Broadway is a world that has done some amazing things this past year and is quickly becoming a perfect example of keeping fans excited about the show before they see it, after they see it, and hopefully encouraging them to buy tickets again.
Hair's social work is represented by Situation Interactive, an agency I have always admired for doing amazing work socially in the entertainment world. Hair has a Twitter account with charity auctions and contests, they set up the awesome Facebook page and recently launched the "Hair eParty" where you can tag the video of the audience dancing on the stage at the end of the show. (I'm still waiting for mine to go live today as I was OBVIOUSLY one of the first ones on the stage--come on!)
Situation has done such a fantastic job, because they're dealing with events that you can't "live tweet" or live update from, a trend that helps other brands events really gain momentum. Bravo to them for it doing it so successfully. I'm excited to see what they do with the upcoming American Idiot show, based off of music by Green Day. (They already have a Twitter and Facebook set up)
Ken Davenport (uber talented producer on Broadway and founder of Broadwayspace.com) wrote this great article in Mashable a few months back. It's all still relevant. Take a read.
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