Tag: Business

2011 has been a fascinating year for Marketers, and for me especially. Businesses everywhere are opening their eyes to the inescapable truth that social communications are now essential for success, and with this change comes a tremendous shift in the way businesses conduct themselves and communicate with their communities. Looking at the usage stats, this is hardly surprising.

Social communications are altering the way we do everything. Facebook, as the largest social network, has ingrained itself in to the daily life of virtually everyone in North America, in one form or another. Even if you personally don’t have an account (which seems highly unlikely), everyone around you does. We are ALL impacted in some way by social communications, and to deny it is simply naive. It’s changed the way we keep in touch with those in our lives. It’s changed how we express happiness and how we make our outrage known. It’s changed how we think about our personal privacy, and what our rights are.

It’s changed our culture.

Throughout the year, I’ve stumbled across hundreds of excellent insights written by hundreds of brilliant people. I thought about scouring my Twitter archive and digging up a handful of the most potent articles from the year, but I quickly realized that this would be a nearly impossible task. There’s simply too much good stuff to sort through. So, I thought I’d just go through my own stuff and choose a handful of my favourite articles that were no doubt inspired by all that great stuff. It’s an easy compromise, I suppose, but I’m ok with that.

So, here’s a short list of some of my own personal blog posts that I’m proud of this year. They’re not necessarily the most ‘commented on’, or the ‘most shared’ posts I wrote, but they’re the ones that really resonated with me when I wrote them. I hope you enjoy them!

1 – The Twitterized Classroom

This article looks at how I attempted to use social communications to enhance the learning in a college classroom setting. Social media is stereotypically looked at as nothing more than a pervasive distraction by teachers, but I think the results of this might surprise you!

2 – Social Strategies for Uncommon Businesses

This article was written for all those companies who look at Social Media and think “I get how it works for Starbucks, but what am I supposed to do for MY business??” There’s a lot of different options and approaches, so this is intended to help you choose where to begin.

3 – Powerful Brand Experiences – The Story of Two Coffee Shops

I get a bit nostalgic in this one. I look at how brand-building goes beyond a logo or Pantone colour and consists of a complete sensory experience. My own experiences with two fantastic coffee shops illustrate just how strong these connections can be.

4 – 3 Lessons About Social Media Learned From Transformers

This one was fun. Inspiration can be drawn from anywhere, and therefore anything can be turned in to an analogy. Here I take a few anecdotes from the classic ‘good robots vs. evil robots’ battle for the universe that helped define my childhood.

5 – Getting a Head-Start Through LinkedIn

Historically, your career began on graduation day. Now? It begins the moment you set foot on campus for the first time. The connections you make, the activities you participate in, the internships you take, and the faculty you impress are all part of building your ‘personal brand’.

Well, there you have it! 2011 was a tremendous year in marketing, and I foresee 2012 being even better! This ‘social’ roller coaster hasn’t even crested the first hill yet, and I’m pretty sure we’re in for one heck of a ride next year!

Jonathan on Google+

December 5, 2011

The Twitterized Classroom – Bringing ‘social’ in to the curriculum.

by Jonathan Barrick

I recently taught a Marketing Strategies class at my alma mater, Georgian College, for their Snow Resort Operations program. I was tasked with injecting more life in to the curriculum and making sure that students got as much exposure to the current state of marketing as possible. Hence, a great deal of time was spent discussing the applications and, more importantly, the implications of social communications for business. It was at this time that an idea was formulated to bring social media in to the classroom. Not just in discussion or in a slideshow, but in real-time and with student participation.

I made it clear at the beginning of the course that usage of social communications during class would not only be accepted, but actively encouraged. I wanted them to feel comfortable with the fact that if they hear something that resonates with them: Share it. Post it to your wall, Tweet it, whatever. There are a few reasons I encourage them to do this:

1 – It reinforces their learning: If they feel the desire to share something, it’s far more likely that they’ll remember it.

2 – It’s permamently archived: Once you put something out there, it’s there forever.

3 – It’s easily searchable: Whether they need to find the info again to study from, or a friend/classmate wants to use it as a reference, it’s easily findable.

4 – It helps them start to build up their personal brand: By sharing the stuff that they agree with, disagree with, or have an opinion about, they begin to showcase what their business personality is. The more they share, the easier and more clear it is for others to know what you’re all about.

The second step I took to incorporate “social” in to the class material was to co-ordinate a special event with @samfiorella and the team at @senseimarketing who manage the #bizforum weekly Twitter chat. I proposed a ‘special edition’ of the #bizforum chat that would occur during class hours and would focus on topics relevant to Social Media usage in the tourism/recreation industry.

This concept of conducting a live Twitter chat during class with some of the top business minds in Social Media provided several benefits for everyone involved:

a) The students got to see what Twitter (and all types of Social Communications for business) was REALLY capable of, and it broke through the typical stereotypes associated with it

b) They got to interact with some of the most vibrant business professionals on the specific topic they were studying at that time

c) The Twitter participants got to discuss a topic that had not been previously discussed in any #bizforum chat

d) #bizforum and the team at @senseimarketing built up some great goodwill with the students, the college, and the Twitter community

Here’s a screencap of the Hashtracking report gathered at the conclusion of the in-class #bizforum Twitter chat:

Overall, the inclusion of a live Twitter chat in to the class curriculum was a tremendous success. It gave the class a newfound appreciation for just how powerful these new communications tools can be. It gave them an opportunity to directly communicate with and learn from dozens of experienced business professionals. It gave them real-time feedback on what’s happening in the Tourism industry TODAY – not just when the text book was written.

Social Media in the classroom doesn’t have to be the distraction that it is currently perceived to be. It can be an amazing enhancement to the learning environment, PROVIDED the instructor and institution chooses to use it as such. Of course, HOW you use social in the classroom is entirely dependent on a series of factors such as the nature of the topic, the students’ comfort level with social communications, and of course the existing school policies.

That being said, it is crucial that educators come to terms with the fact that social communications are not going away. Learning effective ways to engage in these channels early in the education process of the next generation of business professionals will be a major advantage once they enter the post-college world. I’d encourage all educators to consider the potential benefits of incorporating social communications in to the classroom in whatever capacity makes sense for their institution.

Special thanks to @samfiorella, @senseimarketing, and everyone who participated in the special edition #bizforum chat we conducted!

#bizforum regularly occurs every Wednesday evening at 8pm EST

This post originally written for http://crowdshifter.com

Jonathan on Google+

November 23, 2011

19 Signs Your Social Media Approach Might Suck

by Jonathan Barrick

You’ve seen them out there. You’ve shaken your head in disbelief. You’ve vowed never ever to be like them. And yet, every now and then, even for just a brief fleeting moment, we all have done at least ONE of these things that drive us nuts when we see other people do them. So sit back, sip your coffee, go through this list, have a laugh, and hopefully you’re not guilty of too many of them. Enjoy!

1 – Your profiles are empty.

Equivalent to: Showing up at a cocktail party wearing a fencing suit. Faceless, and with no distinguishing markings, nobody has any idea who you are, or why you’re there.

2 – Everything is linked and synchronized.

Equivalent to: Your telephone ringing all of your friends every time you make a call. Not everyone wants the same information, at the same time. Treat your social networks the same way.

3 – Everything is automated.

Equivalent to: Being a robot. You’re not a robot, are you?

4 – There are comments on your Facebook wall from weeks ago with no responses from you.

Equivalent to: Leaving halfway through a conversation with no warning. “Hey, where’d you go?”

5 – You follow people, then unfollow if they don’t follow back, then follow them again, then unfollow if they don’t follow back, Ad Nauseam.

Equivalent to: That little dog Chester from Looney Tunes who just wants to be tough Spike’s friend SOOOOOO BAD, he can’t event stand himself. “We’re friends, aren’t we Spike? Huh? Huh? Aren’t we? Aren’t we? I like Spike because he’s so big and strong. Yeah.”

6 – Your blog hasn’t been updated in a year.

Equivalent to: A one night stand. This relationship meant nothing to you, and I’ve moved on.

7 – YOU TYPE EVERYTHING IN ALL-CAPS AND USE MANY EXCLAMATION POINTS!!!!!!!!

Equivalent to: Shouting. All the time. About everything. Stop it. You’re hurting my ears and upsetting the kittens.

8 – #you #are #mired #in #hashtag #hell

Equivalent to: There’s no real-word equivalent to this phenomenon. If you talked like this in real life, you’d be beaten regularly.

9 – Your Facebook page loads to a splash landing graphic instead of your wall.

Equivalent to: Shoving a flyer in the face of every friend who stops by your house for a visit. Classy.

10 – 90% of your tweets preach engagement, but you let countless mentions go by unanswered.

Equivalent to: Do as I say, not as I do. We can all be guilty of this from time to time, but it’s a terrible idea to build your empire on it.

11 – Your LinkedIn page is a barren wasteland.

Equivalent to: Not updating your resume since 2001. Seriously? You haven’t done anything worth talking about in the last decade?

12 – Your profile picture is you, only from 30 years ago.

Equivalent to: I’m just as cool, hip, and trendy as I was in college. Also, that leather tie kicks ass.

13 – You announce your Klout score every time it goes up a notch.

Equivalent to: That guy on the golf course driving range who shouts ‘Did you SEE THAT!?!’ every time he hits one farther than 100 yards.

14 – All you can think of when asked about ‘good social media examples’ is your own stuff.

Equivalent to: “Everyone is stupid except me.” – Homer Simpson

15 – You never check or use Social Media on your mobile device.

Equivalent to: Putting a pie in the oven, and then leaving the house for three hours. No, you don’t need to stare at it until it’s done, but you need to check on it regularly so it doesn’t burn. Nobody likes burnt pie.

16 – When a new social network rolls around, your default response is ‘That’s stupid.”

Equivalent to: Look at that idiot, Henry Ford. Everyone knows the REAL money is in horse diapers.

17 – You use different names/handles, different descriptions, and different vanity URLs on each social media channel.

Equivalent to: Multiple-personality disorder. Seriously, which one ARE you?

18 – You change your profile picture on an hourly basis.

Equivalent to: Constantly changing clothes and hairstyles. It’s annoying, and no one can figure out why you’re doing it.

19 – You flat-out beg for followers, likes, and retweets.

Equivalent to: Ooooh! Ooooh! Pick me! Pick me! Pleeeeaaaaassse?!?

Can you think of any to add to this list that I’ve missed? Let’s hear ‘em!

Jonathan on Google+

November 7, 2011

Social Strategies for Uncommon Businesses

by Jonathan Barrick

Finding the right path for your company in the world of social media isn’t as hard as you might think.

Some companies have a very clear, obvious path in social media. Starbucks and Coca Cola, for example, had massive existing communities of fans who flocked to their social media platforms with very little prodding. For other companies, especially those in industries that are more obscure and less high-profile to the public, their path can lie hidden from view like the lost city of Machu Picchu. But just like that lost city was found back in 1911, the path can indeed be discovered for any business, even those that the general public has never heard of.

Regardless of what company you work for, what industry you are in, or what product or service you sell, there are several steps that you can use to uncover your path to success in social communications. It just won’t end up being the same as the path someone else takes.

We may not all use social communications in the same way, and that’s part of the beauty of these new platforms. Social communications are what you make of them, and by trying to ‘copy’ what another is doing instead of finding your company’s own unique approach, you’re really missing out on the true power of these new tools. The real power comes from unlocking the special knowledge and skills that are inherent in your company, and using those to your advantage to give your community something they can’t get anywhere else.

In an email exchange with one of my Twitter friends, @pegfitzpatrick, we discussed how B2B companies who participate in essential, albeit somewhat less public-facing industries, could participate in social communications in a way that provides real ROI and competitive advantage.

To give you an idea of what I mean by ‘less public-facing’ industries: Peg is the Director of Marketing at a multinational company that produces a variety of chemicals used in the dry cleaning industry. I am the Marketing Manager at a company that produces paint finishing equipment for the automotive, aerospace, and manufacturing sectors. Neither of these is what you’d call a ‘high-profile’ public-facing industry, yet we’ve both seen significant beneficial impact from social communication activities.

There are a few simple steps that any company in any industry can use to build a thriving social media presence. Here they are:

1 – Identify what’s already happening out there: Before you begin, it’s wise to scan the landscape for any clues that already exist to determine how you should proceed. Using tools like Social Mention, you can scan the web for any mentions of keywords, brand names, or product names from your company or others in your industry. By determining where the conversations are happening, what people are saying, and who they’re saying it to, you can begin to figure out how you should be communicating with them, and where.

2 – Determine the inherent social value in your organization: There are three things that create an incentive to follow a company in social media. I like to call them the Three E’s:

   •   Education – ex: Teach them something new, helpful advice, tips & tricks, etc.
   •   Entertainment – ex: Make them laugh or think ‘WOW, that is cool!’
   •   Exclusives – ex: Give special offers they can’t get through any other channel.

If you’re able to provide all three, there will be no stopping you. But you need to provide at least one of them. Think about your company, think about the expertise your company has, think about the people in your company, the personality of your company, and the nature of your customers. Use these to determine which of these categories best suits your resources.

3 – Choose a small handful of channels first, then expand: Every social media channel uses a different format. Some are similar, but there are always differences. Based on where your existing communities are, and what kind of content your organization is best suited to sharing, choose the channel that best fits with these two factors. Once you’ve determined this primary channel, choose one or two ‘complementary’ channels that tie in to it. The idea is to keep things simple to avoid being spread too thin, but to also begin building communities in a variety of locations to connect with different kinds of influencers.

4 – Share as often as you can, but do it CONSISTENTLY: Your community will quickly become accustomed to the pace with which you share content. If you start posting blog posts every week, tweeting 20 times a day, and posting a new gallery of images to Facebook every few days, you have to make sure you have the resources to maintain that stream of content. It’s far better to start out at a walking pace and build up to a jog than it is to go full-speed out of the gate. This is a marathon, not a sprint. By being regular and consistent with your content, you develop a routine with your communities. If they know when to expect new stuff, they’ll check back far more regularly than if it’s inconsistent and hard to predict.

5 – Identify who possesses the social skill set in your organization: All too often, companies focus too much on the ‘what’ and the ‘where’ of social media and not enough on the ‘who’. Just like it is essential to identify who your community is, it is also necessary to identify the best person(s) inside your organization to interact with those communities. Social media success hinges on the personality of the people participating in it, so take a good long look at the people you have and figure out who the most ‘social’ among them is. Remember that this person will become the face of your brand in the social space, so choose someone who’s dedicated, professional, knowledgeable, and most importantly WANTS to do this. Their desire to connect with the community is just as important as their technical knowledge.

In summary, what you do should be determined by the nature of your company and the nature of your customers. Don’t try to copy someone elses approach. Every company has strength, and a personality that can be highlighted by social communications. it is that personality that helps you effectively build your community. The direction that you need to take is already set before you. You just need to travel down that path one step at a time.

This article originally written for http://crowdshifter.com

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Jonathan on Google+

September 9, 2011

Social Media needs a Mantra, and this should be it.

by Jonathan Barrick

We’ve never seen a business environment like this before. How will your mind choose to approach it?

I started this day by listening to a playlist I hadn’t heard in a long time on the way to the office this morning. Two or three songs in to the mix, I heard something mind blowing. It was a song that’s been in my collection since its album was released in 2001. Ten years ago. Today, I heard it again and something clicked in my head. The entire song only has 7 lines, but that is enough to completely encompass what I believe it’s like to be in Marketing now that the world has embraced social media & communications.

The song is ‘Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger’ by Daft Punk, released on the ‘Discovery’ album back in October 2001. Here are the lyrics that made me smile:

Work it harder.
Make it better.
Do it faster.
Makes us stronger.

More than ever
hour after hour
work is never over.

Read that a couple of times, then continue on to the rest of this article.

Let me break down what those words mean to me, line by line:

Work it harder. – We used to have a handful of channels. TV, Radio, Print, etc. Each had very set, defined rules that were dictated by the owners of each medium. We had to play ball by their rules, or go home. Now, you’ve got all those, plus Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Quora, Google+, and many more. The rules are no longer defined, and the way you approach them is in a constant state of flux. You have to work harder in the world of social media just to stay relevant.

Make it better. – I feel a bit silly in even trying to explain this one, as it should be pretty obvious. However, ‘better’ is a subjective term, and what’s better to one of us could be considered awful by the next. In my opinion, ‘better’ means meeting our promises every time. A quality product that does what we say it will. Customer service that responds when we say they will. Constantly finding ways to deliver more of what they want, and less of what they don’t.

Do it faster. – Immediate response is no longer optional. It’s essential. If you’re not catching every issue, every question, every problem immediately, you leave the door open for one of your caring, thoughtful, helpful competitors to do it for you. There is no time-delay in the world of social communications. You can’t hit the ‘bleep’ button before the message broadcasts to your audience. You have to be faster than you’ve ever been.

Makes us stronger. – We learn from others. From their successes, like Zappos and Starbucks, and from their failures, like Kenneth Cole and Chrysler. Social communications allows us to communicate to more awesome people than ever before. The communal library of knowledge that is now available to all of us is incomprehensible in scale. We have the ability to connect with the great people, and completely ignore the poisonous ones. By choosing to surround ourselves by awesome people, and shutting out those who prove to be toxic, we all get exponentially stronger.

More than ever, hour after hour, work is never over. – I combine the last three lines because they form one, thunderous message: SOCIAL MEDIA DOESN’T STOP. It doesn’t shut down at 5pm EST. It’s not confined within the pages of a magazine. It’s not crammed in to a primetime TV slot. It’s not a few days in Vegas at the convention center. It permeates everything we do now, and if you choose to only view it as a Mon-Fri, 9-5 activity, you’ll be left in the dust.

What does all of this ultimately mean? To me, it’s quite simple: The emergence of social communications has created a more challenging environment for Marketers. An environment that demands better products and services. An environment that requires immediate response to every query. An environment that enables the great people among us to become greater, and creates fossils of those who refuse to adapt and evolve. An environment that never stops changing.

Jonathan on Google+

September 8, 2011

Social Media ROI – A Book Review

by Jonathan Barrick

You can only go on for so long with a social communications program in a business before you absolutely need to quantify the results of your actions.

If not because your CEO or CFO is demanding it, then at least to prove to yourself that what you’re doing is actually accomplishing something. And by ‘something’, I don’t mean ‘making you feel good’. I mean some kind of tangible benefit that you wouldn’t otherwise have.

This topic is a divisive one in the world of social media. There are many who say that trying to calculate ROI of social activities is like trying to calculate the ROI of your best friend, or your mother. Others still cling to the classic ROI calculations of traditional media: impressions, clicks, views, etc. Neither of these approaches is going to get you very far in social media. The first approach simply ignores the fundamentals of being in business at all, and the second gives you a mountain of raw data with absolutely no context.

Say hello to Olivier Blanchard. AKA: @thebrandbuilder

He’s authored an unrelenting book that will not let you get away without realizing that the measures of Social Media go far beyond ‘Likes’ and ‘Follows’, and that YES, IT DOES have a measurable impact on the bottom line of a business. In this book, Blanchard leaves no area of social communications ROI untouched, and beautifully illustrates how every business function can benefit from these new channels, not just Marketing.

By taking a ‘company-wide’ approach instead of walling it up inside one particular business function, Blanchard shows how the returns a business can achieve as a result of social communications grow exponentially as it becomes more ingrained in to the entirety of the organization.

Social Media ROI isn’t a ‘preachy’ book. It’s overflowing with usable examples and gets right to the ‘meat’ of how to look at the effects of your actions. By the end of it, you will easily be able to say ‘By doing THIS, we hope to achieve THAT, and will measure it by looking at what happens to X, Y and Z’. The approaches outlined in this book will allow you to pull the data you need to show anyone in an organization how they can or have benefited from certain social media activities, whether it be your marketing intern or your CEO.

I’d highly recommend anyone involved in social communications to give this book a read. It will allow you to formulate cohesive approaches to measuring the effects of your actions, analyze the data you obtain, and present it in context to those people which it matters most. A great book!

Buy the book.

More from Olivier Blanchard.

NOTE: My copy of Social Media ROI was purchased, and this review was not solicited in any way.

This article originally written for http://crowdshifter.com

Jonathan on Google+

August 18, 2011

4 Simple Steps for Starting A Social Media Presence

by Jonathan Barrick

You have the key, and there’s gas in the tank. You just need to start it up.

YES – there are still businesses that haven’t yet made a move in to the world of social communications. It may be hard to believe, given the sheer volume of discussion about social media happening everywhere, but it’s true. For every socially-savvy business out there rocking the world of Twitter and being fascinating on Facebook, there are dozens more who are struggling to figure out what they should be doing, and where they should be doing it. There is a large portion of business owners who KNOW they need to be participating, and yet take one look at the vast array of social media tools available to them and think “Where do I possibly begin?!?”

It is for those people that it’s so crucial to provide simple, effective approaches to getting started in these communication channels so that they get off on the right path from the beginning.

Step 1 – Search for discussions

Social Media is all about generating conversation and interaction between your business and its communities. Rest assured, that no matter what product or service you may provide, someone somewhere is talking about you. You just need to search for them. Use search tools like SocialMention as a compass to point you in the right direction, and to get an idea about where the action is occurring. This tool will tell you on what sites the conversations are happening, and also an overview on whether they are typically happy, angry, or neutral about the topics of discussion. Once you’ve found where people are talking, proceed to Step 2.

Step 2 – Read the content

Now that you’ve found where the conversations are happening, whether it be on blogs, Twitter, Facebook, or somewhere else, the time has come to listen intently to every word. Before you can start posting your thoughts, it’s crucial to understand how these communities are talking to each other, and about you. Jumping right in with a ‘BIG SALE THIS WEEK!!’ message might be the worst possible thing you could do. You want to COMPLEMENT the conversations and CONTRIBUTE to them, not shout over them with slogans and your daily specials.

3 – Determine what value you bring

As mentioned in Step 2, in order to be well received by the community, you need to complement the discussions taking place, and contribute to them. How you do this depends entirely on what value you bring to these conversations. Most people follow brands and companies for one (or a combination) of three reasons:

Entertainment – Videos, photos, blog posts, links that amuse or impress, etc.
Education – Helpful tips, tricks, advice, troubleshooting, etc.
Exclusives – Deals, specials, or giveaways not available anywhere else.

If you can’t provide any of those, you’re not looking hard enough. The simplest way for most new businesses to contribute to the conversation without having to give discounts, or pretend to have a sense of humor (especially if your business doesn’t) is to be a helpful expert. Take the knowledge contained in your business and share it with your community.

4 – Share, and share, and then share some more

Once you’ve found the value you bring to your community, let it loose. Don’t hold it back, but give it freely and openly. Become the expert on your topic. Share the awesome photos you’ve accumulated over the years. Give your communities a special appreciation discount code. Every time you share, you generate value you didn’t have before. Every time you make them smile, you’re generating positive brand awareness. Every time you answer their question, you take away the opportunity for a competitor to do the same.

So there you have it. A simple 4-step approach that can be used for any company, anywhere to get a handle on how they can approach social communications. The real clincher to this strategy is Step 3 – Regardless of the channel you choose, you need to provide value. If you’re not giving your community something they wouldn’t otherwise have, in a format that makes them want to see it, all you’re doing is advertising to them. If they get the sense that this is what your social media content is all about, don’t be surprised if their fingers move to that ‘Unfollow’ button before you even have a chance to say ‘hello’.

The most important thing to keep in mind when participating in social communications is ‘Am I helping myself, or my community?’. The answer to this question is much easier to determine than you’d think. Just look at what you want out of the companies that you personally follow, and realize that your business’ community is no different. Keep that mindset, and you’re already on your way to social success.

This article originally written for http://crowdshifter.com

Jonathan on Google+

August 7, 2011

3 Essential Twitter Chats for Business

by Jonathan Barrick

Twitter Chats let you get info, insight, and real-time interaction with the brightest minds in the Social Media universe.

Twitter chats are an invaluable source of insight, discussion, and debate. If you’ve never participated in one, they can be quite overwhelming! The stream of tweets in a Twitter Chat is actually more like a class-5 rapid. It’s difficult, if not impossible, to actually read every single tweet that goes through on a certain hashtag, but for the most part, the real gems of discussion will undoubtedly appear more than once as they get retweeted or quoted, so the key topics are always easy to spot.

Twitter Chats typically recur on a weekly basis, same day, same time, and cater to a very wide variety of topics. There are chats for any subject of interest that you could possibly have, and I’d like to point out three key Twitter Chats that anyone in business can definitely benefit from. Here are the ones that are 100% worth a look:

#bizforum – The newest of these three, Bizforum has been operating for a couple of months so far, and the results have been (in my opinion) incredible. Bizforum takes the form of a Twitter debate, posing a topic to the group each week, which consists of 4 sub-topics discussed throughout the chat. Things can get heated, as the moderators encourage you to avoid the ‘It depends..’ point of view in favor of stating your opinion and your reasons why. It’s a rapid-fire learning experience that brings the best of both sides of an issue in to the limelight.

#bizforum recurs every Wednesday evening, 8pm EST

Moderated by @samfiorella and the team at @senseimarketing – more details here: http://socialroadmaps.blogspot.com/2011/05/bizforum-is-born.html

#brandchat – If you have any questions about branding, this is the chat that will answer them. Brandchat has been operating longer than I can remember, and has a substantial following including some of the greatest minds in the world of branding. Topics change each week, but the overarching subjects fall in to one of four categories that rotate each week including Small Business Brands, Personal Brands, etc. #brandchat is a great chat to get involved in if you’re working to build a brand of any type. The content that gets shared here is always top-notch.

#brandchat recurs every Wednesday morning at 11am EST
Moderated by @brandchat and the team over at http://brandchat.info

#blogchat – One of the longest running Twitter chats in existence, Blogchat is the brainchild of Mack Collier. It’s focus, of course, is Blogs and everything to do with them. In addition to simply providing solid tips and great advice for bloggers of all skill levels, Blogchat actually reviews blogs throughout the chat discussion that have been submitted by anyone who wants their blog looked at. This is an amazing opportunity to learn from the best, and get tips to take your blogging efforts to new heights. If you’re a veteran blogger, or a newbie, there is always something that you will learn here and be able to apply for immediate results on your blog.

#blogchat recurs every Sunday evening at 9pm EST
Moderated by @mackcollier – more details at http://mackcollier.com/social-media-library/what-is-blogchat/

I’d encourage anyone looking for a forum to throw around new ideas, get advice, tips, and help for anything related to business in the online space to check out any or all of these Twitter Chats. With the quality of discussion I’ve experienced personally, and the great ideas that present themselves every week, I’ve got the distinct feeling you won’t be disappointed!

This article originally written for http://crowdshifter.com

Jonathan on Google+

August 5, 2011

Powerful Brand Experiences – The Story of Two Coffee Shops

by Jonathan Barrick

What makes a brand experience so powerful that customers will drive a half-hour just for a cup of coffee?

I love coffee. That’s no secret, to be sure. Lots of us do. But for me, and for many others, the whole ‘experience’ of coffee stretches way beyond just what’s in the cup. It’s a sensory experience that complete with sights, sounds, smells, and of course the taste of the great coffee.

This is why Starbucks is so successful at charging a premium for a simple ‘cup of coffee’. Their customers place additional value on the environment and the experience that Starbucks provides, and they are some of the fiercest brand advocates you’ll ever meet. Long before I discovered Starbucks, however, I was fortunate to have experienced a similar brand adventure at not just one, but two independent coffee shops. Each one had a totally different approach, but they both turned me in to one of their most dedicated customers.

The first coffee shop that earned my brand advocacy occurred a long time ago. It was a little coffee/cigar shop in the downtown area of Barrie, called Lil’ Habanas. I discovered this place through a high-school friend after he raved about how great the coffee was. We went down there one evening with a group of friends, and what an evening it turned out to be!

It was a totally new experience for me, as I’d never really been in a cigar shop before. The smell of a Cohiba and Montecristo cigars filled the air, mixing with the aroma of fresh brewed coffee. Classic literature filled the shelves, ready to be picked up and thumbed through. Chess boards and leather lounge chairs were setup near the humidors in the back. Lighting was strategically placed where it needed to be, but not so much that it was too bright in the place. The owner of the business was always behind the counter, ready to guide you through their selection of both coffee and tobacco. It was a complete sensory experience unlike any other.

The crown jewel of the Lil’ Habanas experience, however, was a unique coffee that you couldn’t get anywhere else. It was called ‘Chico’s House Swill’, and it was mind-blowing. See, this coffee was created only once in a while. When some of the bean canisters of the different flavours would get nearly empty, Chico would take all the miscellaneous leftover beans and toss them in to one canister, grind ‘em all up, and brew the results. For some reason, this ended up as the best coffee I’ve ever had, even to this day. It was different every time you had it, and you were never disappointed. It was magic.

Sadly, Lil’ Habanas closed its doors after a handful of years, but I’ll never forget the experience of walking in the door, being greeted by the familiar scents of coffee and tobacco, and being overjoyed that one of the coffee pots proudly displayed the ‘House Swill’ label.

The second coffee house that had me at ‘hello’, was called Coffee & All That Jazz. If you live in Toronto, you might be familiar with it, as they still have a location operating on Howard Park Ave. But the location that captured me wasn’t the one in Toronto, but in the small town of Cookstown, about a 45 minute drive north of Toronto, and about 25 minutes south of Barrie. The Cookstown location was in an old home on the main intersection, entirely converted in to a coffee house.

The environment couldn’t have been more different than Lil’ Habanas. Bright windows, eclectic artwork by local artists, gorgeous vintage coffee bean canisters, and the entire home was filled with the greatest in classic and modern jazz tunes. Funky mugs featuring retro coffee brand ads, great baked treats and snacks, and a Baskin Robbins-esque selection of flavours that ensured you could try a new taste almost every day for a month. It was great, and there was nothing like it in Barrie.

Now, at this point you might be asking “You drove almost a half-hour just for coffee?” – My answer: You bet. Did it almost every weekend. It was one of our favourite places for my wife and I back when we were dating. I remember vividly driving down highway 27 in the fall, past forests full of gold and red trees, the cool air blowing through our open windows. Then, walking in to the coffee house, greeted by John Coltrane and the smell of fresh espresso.

I’ll never forget being downright depressed when we heard the Cookstown location was closing. It meant a lot to my wife and I, and we always used to admire the photography on the walls and would say ‘We should buy that picture for our first house.’ Well, a few months before Coffee & All That Jazz closed the Cookstown coffee house, I drove back by myself, ordered a cappucino, and asked them if I could buy one of the photographs on the wall, as a gift for my wife. The one I chose: A black & white shot of the vintage coffee canisters. It was the one image that always popped in to our heads whenever we talked about that place.

This image borrowed from http://coffeejazz.ca/

Reminiscing here about these two long-lost coffee shops has been both a wonderful experience for me, and also enlightening. It speaks volumes about how incredibly powerful a unique brand experience can be. It creates fierce advocates, who speak with admiration of your business. It creates dedicated brand loyalists who will drive almost a half-hour for a $2 cup of coffee. It creates memories that shape how your customers will view every other similar business they ever walk in to. By creating a powerful brand experience, you can set the standard by which all others are judged.

I miss those coffee shops, but I’ll sure never forget them.