I first discovered LivingSocial about a year ago. Every morning I receive a bunch of emails announcing current deals. LivingSocial is smart for putting each deal into a separate email – of course this way even if your eyes glaze over, you might still notice something that interests you.
But it seems Beauty is the Beast. I’ve used different types of services and had some great experiences except with beauty-related services.
Here are some examples:
I saw an offer in June for a Shellac manicure. I decided to buy a voucher since the business was not too far from my work. I have called many times since the day after I purchased my manicure and either a) nobody answered the phone, b) I was told there were no available appointments or c) I was told I would be put on a waiting list and called if there was space available. Is it any surprise that You Little Beauty has been all booked in December and will not accept the vouchers after the expiration date?
Now see how it says Three-Week manicure? I since learned that either You Little Beauty of LivingSocial misrepresented what was being sold. According to CND which makes Shellac…its a 14-Day manicure…
Its a manicure…but according to the voucher fine print (those lucky enough to get an appointment if they do exist) must arrive with their nails all clean and ready to go…
When I most recently called a week ago to try and make an appointment, as soon as I said I wanted a Shellac manicure I was quickly advised that they were booked up because the offer was expiring and they’d call me if there were any cancellations. The kicker is that I had not said anything yet about having a LivingSocial voucher…
I had also purchased a certificate for Kajree in Highgate for eyebrow threading and a head massage since I really am on the hunt for a place that does good threading in London. (Oh yes Los Angeles, you spoiled me!) I called the business several times, tried visiting in person and emailed and never receive an answer. From April to October, you can imagine this is pretty frustrating. As the expiration was approaching, I emailed LivingSocial and soon after I received an email from Kajree saying to call them. I still never managed to get in touch. It’s too bad because I really did want to find a place nearby that does threading. For the cost of £12 I gave up.
So why am I yammering on my blog lately about good service and bad service? Well because we’re in a time where people think alot more about value. I’m starting to feel like the money I’ve spent on un-redeemed LivingSocial vouchers will outweigh the savings. It seems to me I’m taking a gamble. This is terrible for LivingSocial because with all the money they surely spend on marketing, why would you want to be faced with these service failures? Well I did a small Google search and it seems like LivingSocial has some dissidents: http://www.sitejabber.com/reviews/www.livingsocial.com
So what do you think? Do you think that LivingSocial should refund certificates if the service offered is misrepresented like a Three-Week Shellac manicure?
What’s a fair solution for dealing with vendors who sell LivingSocial vouchers and then avoid redeeming them by being “fully-booked”?
Filed under: Marketing, Online Advertising, social media, twitter, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
Tags: deals, group coupons, groupon, living social, LivingSocial, online marketing, shellac
What makes a consumer happier than great customer service? Great customer service is memorable. There are so many ways that a company’s employees can bury all the great efforts that have gone into creating a great product or delivering a good service. And these days it seems like bad or oblivious customer service is the norm. So when I experience great customer service, I find its worth sharing. In each story there is a lesson to be learned.
Create an experience…even for the smaller sales.
A couple weekends ago, I was out holiday shopping. I had two missions: one to buy a little office gift with a small price point and the second to buy a little gift for a friend just for the sake of a smile.
At Ted Baker in Covent Garden I found the perfect mug for gift #2. You see my friends are moving to Amsterdam and Angelo is starting a fantastic new job. I found a mug that said, “Ted says don’t get bugged out.” How cute! I went to the register to pay and had to wait a few minutes for a larger more Ted Baker-ish transaction ahead of me. When it was my turn the lady apologized for the wait, asked if my mere simple little purchase was a gift and offered to wrap it up. To me the treatment was just as if I was buying a £300 dress. Fantastic job Ms. Ted Baker service-extraordinaire!
After leaving Ted Baker I headed around the corner to investigate the new Kate Spade store. I love Kate Spade bags: simple with attitude. I went in the store and was greeted with a smile. A few minutes later I was gently asked if I needed help finding anything. I answered no, I was just looking around, but added perhaps I might find a gift for my office gift. The sales lady pointed out a few cute things. I was completely honest that while I was happy to exceed the price limit my office had set (its pretty low) I still couldn’t buy something extraordinary! She smiled and continued to offer suggestions of small yet cute items. I ended up buying a little gift. And you know what? They put it in a gift box, wrapped up with ribbon and asked if I wanted a card to go with it. Rock on Kate Spade!
Later on I purchased a gift for a friend online at http://www.gift-library.com/ It arrive a few days later. I opened the package and thought, “Oh its perfect!” And guess what? It had a defect. I discovered the website via American Express, so I tweeted my disappointment. I immediately emailed the company’s customer service to let them know the problem. Within an hour they emailed me and called me and offered to send a bike courier with a replacement within the next hour. WOW!
And even American Express kept up their side of the great customer service story…
Filed under: Marketing, social media, twitter, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
Tags: customer service, Marketing, shopping
People Can Make Your Brand
I’m horrified whenever I hear people say that a customer is not important. I’m horrified, particularly in this economy, when people act indifferent toward customers. Business today is about people. It’s so easy for people to define your brand and your brand value based on their experiences and perceptions. Why? Because they have a voice, the can talk about you online…the good and the bad. And you’re silly if you think what they’re saying doesn’t matter.
Recently I a link popped out on a Tiffany ring I have. It’s diamond ring. I was kind of disheartened because its the second time this has happened. And though I know philosophically “things” don’t really matter that much, this ring matters to me. I decided to embark on a journey to abandon a career in investments/banking where I had a pretty decent salary, company car, benefits to boot and a certain amount of stability. I left this career to go back to Marketing…my love. But not just to go back to Marketing. I decided to go on a global adventure where I would live in a new country, learn to speak French and complete my Masters degree.
One day while on this adventure I walked by the Tiffany & Co. shop-in-shop in a department store in Paris. It was early in the day and there weren’t that many patrons. The employee noticed I was wearing a Tiffany Seville necklace (a Christmas present from one of my closest friends). He offered to clean it. While he was off polishing up my cherished necklace I was happily browsing and saw an absolutely beautiful diamond ring with a very original design.
I decided that I was going to buy this ring when I was awarded my Masters degree. And that every day this ring to me would symbolize and server as a reminder that I can do anything I put my mind to.
When I decided to embark on my global journey I wasn’t sure how I was going to fund it. I worked hard. I saved everywhere I could. I knuckled down and only bought things I needed. It turned out that on this journey I would have to live in a tiny little shoebox called a Chambre de Bonne in central Paris, give up most things I owned to save on storage, give up the luxury of having a car and juggle working 40 hours a week as a marketing consultant while doing studies full time for my masters degree (and learning French and adapting to a new culture). It seemed a ring was a good reward! Especially this ring.
Six months after I purchased the ring it had to be repaired. Can you believe it? A Tiffany & Co. ring needing repair after 6 months? After another amount of time it needed repair AGAIN. And this is where people can make a difference.
In August 2011, I brought my ring to Tiffany & Co. for repair. I was assured it would be repaired by September 3rd. I was pleased because I was leaving for Paris on Sept 8th for a wedding and wanted to wear my cherished ring. I hadn’t received a phone call or email from Tiffany & Co. by Sept 3rd but I nevertheless I went to the store that day to pick it up. After waiting 10 minutes I was told that its repair status was unknown and it was not back in the store. The employee said she would call on Monday (Sept 5th) to give me an update. On Sept 5th she called to tell me it was ready. I left my office and hurried over to the store to pick it up before they closed at 6pm. When I picked it up I noticed that there was turquoise lint all around the edges of the ring from a polishing cloth. Now if there was lint stuck to it, it seemed it would also get caught on cloth fibers while I wore it. I asked the employee about this and she responded, “Is the link repaired? Can you sign the pick up form?” I asked my question again about the link and like a recording device she repeated her question. After a few tries, I signed the form and left a little disheartened. I’ve bought many items of jewelry at Tiffany & Co. for myself and for gifts (and I’ve been there a few times to buy Tiffany & Co. polishing clothes and polisher to make sure my items are in tip top condition). And by marketing terms I’m an aspiring customer. When I can afford to buy more expensive Tiffany & Co. pieces you can be sure as **** I will. I love Tiffany & Co. It’s probably my favorite brand in the world.
Fast forward to September 24th, I came home from the office and noticed something horrifying. There was now a crack 2/3 rds of the way across the band near the diamond setting. Frustrated and worried I would receive shoddy service if I went back to the same store, I went on Facebook and posted on Tiffany & Co.’s Facebook wall and “Liked” Tiffany & Co. in the process.
And then I received the following email response…
All the email included was my original text….nothing else. Yes I was disheartened more. And I wrote back and didn’t receive a response. Even more disheartening!
But today I set off back to the store. At the service desk I was greeted by a different employee who not only listened but responded with CONCERN. We sat down at a desk and she checked every detail of the ring. She measured the size. (Both things the original employee did not do). She completed the repair form in great detail and acknowledged the defects. Then she said magic words, “At Tiffany’s we want you to be happy.”
Thank you!!!!!!!!!
When I left the store, I stopped at a counter and asked if there was a manager on duty. The poor guy looked a little taken-aback. I quickly explained to him and another employee the short version of my situation and said I just wanted to make sure that the manager knew that the employee who had just helped me had restored my image and confidence in Tiffany & Co. I wanted to make sure that she was appreciated for being a stellar employee. Then they smiled (relief) and said they would be sure to pass along my praise and were glad that she had taken good care of me.
People can make or break your brand.
Hopefully the outcome will be good and I’ll be able to update with good news!
Do you have a great example of how an employee can make or break a brand?
Update: October 18th, 2011
On Friday October 14th I received an email that my repair was at the store. On Saturday I arrived and was quite disheartened by the repair. It was nothing like that I would’ve expected from Tiffany & Co. I sat there looking at the ring and all its defects. But on the bright side Tiffany & Co. decided to replace the ring with a new one. Finally I was happy. But I kind of wondered to myself, “When my ring broke 6 months after purchase, shouldn’t it have been replaced then?” That’s up for debate I guess. Several people suggested that my blogging and use of social media led to its final replacement. I don’t know. Only Tiffany & Co. knows. What really matters is that in the end, Tiffany & Co. was true to their history of service and finally came through: I’m once again really happy and delighted.
Filed under: Marketing, social media | Leave a Comment
Tags: brand management, customer service, tiffany
I was listening in on a conversation the other day about leads that are not being followed up on. I wanted to know if the leads were ripe. Apparently in this scenario the sales people are supposed to follow up with every “lead”.
My former-salesperson alarm bell went off in my head, “Wait. Telesales are supposed to call every lead?” Answer: “Yes.” Oh dear.
I wondered to myself, why would you want the Telesales guys to call every inquiry acquired by the website’s lead generation activities?
According to the sales guru Brian Carroll, “Inquiries are merely individuals seeking information or some level of assistance. Thus, inquiries do not equal leads.”
It made me reflect on what I learned from the team of variable annuity wholesalers I worked with at Transamerica – the really good salespeople (whether they called it this or not) used the cherry picking method. They naturally created a process of filtering all possible leads based on what was ripe, what was ripening and what was still green. I like to think of the horrible process of ripening fruit – particularly bananas: you can spray bananas with chemicals to make the skin turn yellow and appear ripe. But astringent-tasting unripe banana fruit covered in a ripe-looking yellow skin is just as appealing as eating a green blueberry, green cherry or green strawberry. Blech.
Photo Courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/wonderlane/
A really good lead generation program can generate a huge volume of inquiries that make Marketers sing, “Hey sales! Look at all the LEADS we generated for you!” And Sales cringes with cartoon bubbles nearly visually apparent that read, “Blah. Blah. Blah.”
The reason I stepped aside from my marketing career was largely that I understood that Sales often does not respect Marketers that have never had the pleasure of following up on inquiries or leads. I learned this first hand when working in Sales. Even in Fortune 500 companies I got list of “leads” to follow-up on that were not qualified in any sensible fashion and were often just lists of names with contact information that had in no fashion expressed an intention to buy. But hey as far as marketing was concerned, an inquiry of any sort is a lead.
My personal reaction to the telesales guy not following-up on every lead is that the qualification process can always be improved. A good salesperson will always naturally promote leads most likely to convert to the top of their pipeline and avoid the least likely for as long as humanly possible. And that’s good. That is the marker of a good salesperson. Now if you want a telesales professional to follow-up on every single inquiry (I feel nauseous) you need to give them a flat salary or salary plus commission with the variable based ONLY on how many contacts they make – with no weighting on how many sales convert to a sale, how many appointments are set or how much new data they can collect.
Stop Calling an Inquiry a Lead
You might say, “Hey that’s semantics!” but calling an inquiry a lead can create the wrong expectation for everyone. If the goal of telesales is to prospect inquiries to qualify them then refer to the contacts they’re given as inquiries because that’s all they are. When telesales identifies an inquiry as meeting certain pre-defined criteria – call it a lead.
Nurturing the Unripe Astringent Bananas
You never know when an unripe inquiry will become a lead. But let me ask this, does it frustrate or annoy you when someone calls you and tries to sell you something because you were doing a little research? I read many white papers and it drives me crazy when people actively try to convert me into a lead. It’s annoying to me and it’s a waste of resources for their company. I don’t mind automated follow-up emails asking if I need anything else and offering other related resources. That’s fine, that’s a good inbound marketing response. Calling me because I downloaded a white paper or brochure is usually too aggressive. In fact this method is akin to why so many people fill out forms with false data. When I was managing lead nurturing I had a series of email templates in Salesforce.com to follow-up on every inquiry. After X number of emails I returned the inquiry to marketing for further nurturing. A solid percentage of people responded to the emails, letting me know if they were just researching and occasionally asking for more information. A lead is born!
I know Brian Carroll might disagree with me here because his company’s services will provide services to call the high-hanging fruit. In fact, I’d love his feedback. But what you direct telesales to call depends on their goals and resources.
Filed under: Marketing | Leave a Comment
Tags: b2b marketing, b2b sales, lead funnel, lead generation, lead nurturing, sales funnel
I love the idea of LinkedIn Answers. Its a great opportunity to get…well…answers from the community and share resources. The problem I have with LinkedIn Answers is that people mis-use it (IMHO). I’ll give you an example:
So let me ask this question…how were any of these responses really helpful? They failed to answer the question at heart and for many were a means of promoting an off-topic product. Does it come off as being professional? No. There is the option to reply privately and that’s what I think each of these people should have done. They should have asked why the original question was limited to a select few. If they readers had taken the time to look at the profile of the Gary Einstein from Falcon Software they would have learned a little about his company and maybe realized why he was asking the question. I’m guessing that since Falcon Software implements WCM he was perhaps trying to start a conversation about these particular WCM and get feedback from the community about how people perceive these software mentioned: http://www.falcon-software.com/en/Services/Our-Web-CMS-Solutions.aspx
Making LinkedIn Answers more useful…
Don’t be THAT guy – stay on topic. Don’t be self promotional. Don’t hijack the question as a means to plant a link or hard sell your services/products.
Explain Why – you can probably get more useful answers if you explain the reason for your question. When the question is really open ended you’ll often get answers all over the map as the community guesses at WHY you are asking. And many won’t take the time to figure you out.
Engage – In days gone by many people were frustrated that people focused on self-promotion and didn’t bother to respond to the spam. But you’ve got a voice too! When it happens, ask the community to stay on topic and clarify your question. If people keep answering off topic it will highlight their unprofessional behavior and highlight those who are indeed trying to help you.
Ban those who persistent answers off-topic – Let’s find a way to encourage LinkedIn to ban those who spam the Answers. Add some features such as like/dislike. I think many feel bad about flagging as inappropriate…
What are your ideas for improving the LinkedIn Answers community? Please add your comments. I’d love to update this post with some other great ideas.
Filed under: Marketing, Online Advertising, social media | Leave a Comment
Tags: community, forums, linkedin, linkedin answers
Isn’t it an ever increasing worry that marketers have? With so many ad serving services available and different programs with different vendors its difficult to have as much control as you’d like over advertising placement. But sometimes the placement is so bad…Kimberly can’t help but blog about it…
RIM reports 2000 job cuts and is advertising jobs on LinkedIn
These 2000 job cuts account for 11% of RIM’s Canadian workforce. Why do I still have my BlackBerry? Well its cheaper than upgrading to a different package and I have yet to find another phone that is easy to text on…but I am enjoying my iPad2! RIM I hope you get your act together before the headlines are shouting RIP RIM. As for LinkedIn…well that’s an interesting study in where content management can take us in future years. Wouldn’t it be cool if there was an algorithm that wouldn’t list jobs on the same page as negative news about a firm? Oh oh oh…always so much room for the developers to be inventive!
Filed under: Marketing, Online Advertising | 3 Comments
The California Milk Processor Board recently launched a new campaign that has stirred up quite the controversy. The campaign targets men by pitching milk as a PMS symptom reliever. So what’s the problem with that? Well apparently they’ve taken the humor further than some like. Well you can’t please everyone. I learned about the campaign because I received an email today from Change.org asking me to sign a petition asking the California Milk Processor Board to stop the campaign.
Now truth be known, I love Change.org. I however do not sign any petition without learning about what the controversy is really about. So I looked around the web to learn more about what the huff was about. It’s easy to see why the campaign is so controversial. But I can’t help but play devil’s advocate on this one. Yes, I get PMS and since I don’t use over the counter drugs and avoid prescription drugs at all cost (that’s a whole other blog post!) I’m always curious about more “natural” means to alleviate that which makes me uncomfortable!
Before I go any further I have to say…a lot of the articles I have read bashing the campaign give very little credit to men. If I’m suffering from PMS, (yes including changes in temperament) my significant other has one stance, he understands. From his perspective its a fact of life. Its not something to be ashamed of, embarrassed of, or even frustrated about….its just one of those conditions that affects the human race. And there are much bigger things in the world to make a big deal about…but acknowledging when you’re other half feels like “crap” because of changes in hormones is as normal as smiling because someone is smiling at you…
Will some men make fun of it and poke fun at women? Yep. But those are the same guys that will ask, “What’s wrong with you, do you have your period?” anytime a women is not all smiles or is fighting for what she knows is right in the boardroom. And you know what, sometimes they might be right because during our child bearing years we have a continual change in hormones. And for those men that want to be daddies one day…well they’re likely to live a little more peacefully if they just accept the obvious, right? In one of my first jobs (age 14) I worked at Shopper’s Drug Mart in Toronto, Canada and I felt a little sheepish when men or women were buying tampons and sanitary napkins. I hated buying them myself! But you grow up (hopefully) and realize its just part of life. I was embarrassed to buy condoms in my younger years. Now we all know how stupid THAT is right? (By the way, the Monoprix at Metro St. Michel in Paris has a fabulous collection of condoms for sale….LOL) ANYWAY….why do women feel embarrassed about PMS? Do we not perpetuate the problem by playing into the notion that we should somehow be embarrassed? Maybe two years in France made me a little bit too open. Maybe. Uh….NO!
What’s Missing From the Campaign?
Where the agency might have failed the campaign was to bring about a sense of education. I think the campaign should continue. But they should spin the next phase to making fun of men that make fun of women for having PMS. Here’s my first stab at a sequel….
Got Man?
Scene: Two coporate men sitting across from each other at a desk.
Characters: Man behind desk, Mr. Jones, grey-haired, formal, gentlemanly, the Chief Executive Officer. The man sitting across from the desk, Ted, the guy looking to take on a greater managerial role, 30 something, less formally dressed.
Mr. Jones: So Ted, I understand you would like to be a leader in our organization. A Vice President. A department head.
Ed: Yes. Mr. Jones I feel I have the skills, command authority and would be able to lead this team to great accomplishments…
Mr. Jones: Feel? Ted do you really have feelings?
Ed: Well yes…
Mr. Jones: You do? Well I heard that you were making fun of Susy because she was a little bitchy the other day. You jumped all over her in a meeting and rolling your eyes at everyone…why did you FEEL this way toward Susy?
Ed: Well Mr. Jones, you know how women can be (shrugging) when you know…the girl thing….
Mr. Jones: Girl thing? You mean to say menstruation? The monthly cycle. Is that what you’re referencing, Ted?
Ed: Well yes Mr. Jones, you know how women…
Mr. Jones: Ted, you want to be a leader. You’re telling me you can get the most out of your team but you are telling me right now that you are incapable of ACCEPTING of female physiology and instead MOCK fellow employees because of how their hormones change?
Ed: Well no sir, I mean Susy, she just gets this way (gesutures with hands) and its (Mr. Jones cuts him off).
Mr. Jones: Ted. I already gave you my answer. If you can’t understand something as simple as the physiology of the opposite sex and understand that hormones can make women’s temperament change…or as you say bitchy, make them feel uncomfortable, bloated, get headaches, backaches….well Ted you just can’t lead them. You can’t get the best out of your team if you can’t understand the basics of the human condition. Ted get out of my office.
Door slams on Ted’s ass.
Final title screen: BE A MAN TED. Learn more about women at: (insert education website link here).
Learn more about the campaign here:
Got Discussion? (The California Milk Board’s response and links to various opinions)
Change.org Tell change what you think about the campaign.
Filed under: Marketing, Online Advertising, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
Tags: change.org, got milk
Last year I blogged about a new business that had opened in the neighborhood. I kept the name of the business concealed to respect the business. The business has now closed as has one that opened up around the same time next door. Both had good concepts. So why did they fail?
Here’s my observation/speculation…
The market in my neighborhood is fairly saturated with places to buy food. Neither of these businesses seemed to really take off. But studying both would be good for other would-be business owners.
Nutshell
The first business pitched itself as a purveyor of nuts and dried fruits in bulk. Nuts seem to have a very high turnover in the market in London. You can find them at the cashier at places form Starbucks to M&S. They’re available in the grocery store in many different sizes – roasted, dry-roasted, salted, natural, mixed, shelled, seasoned….the list seems never ending. So if you are going to buy bulk, would it be for a snack? A small quantity of a special variety for a special occassion? To try something new? Well Nutshell didn’t seem to know its market.
I went in to try some nuts – each bin had a different price and had to be bagged separately – no mixing allowed. As I blogged before, there never seemed to be any standard hours. The store window was constantly filling up with items I deem from the 80s – not really things that help sell nuts. What was the value proposition?
Cafe Rex
I absolutely loved Cafe Rex at first. I was the mayor on Foursquare for a long time. I made a point to visit this business frequently to get coffee on the go and to enjoy my favorite English Breakfast. But the food prep was very inconsistent. Sometimes it was great sometimes it was terribly cold and greasy. I got tired of politely trying to notify the staff. And then I heard the same from neighbors as well. I did keep going. But then about the time the VAT in the UK rose 2.5% back to its normal rate before the economic crisis – Cafe Rex increased its prices. The item I normally purchased increased from £4.95 to £6.25 and the business hadn’t been open for even a year. I called it quits even though I really like the owner. This business had some great branding but couldn’t seem to get people to buy into posh British Café. They had a Cordon Bleu Chef create the menu but maybe the harsh economic times weren’t right. Another thing I noticed that many cafes seems to get wrong – noise. Oh noise. Cafe Rex tried adding some dividers to muffle the noise. I wish more food businesses would think about the noise aspect of the atmosphere. If you’re in a neighborhood where people may want to linger they might not be more noise-adverse. This neighborhood is pretty diverse with people of all ages, families, mums meeting for coffee, elderly, singles…they don’t always mesh well in a small noisy place. Didn’t Starbucks figure out that we were willing to pay a premium for an experience and when business dived they found that consistency was also key.
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I love a good challenge. I learned at a young age just how fragile life is. It’s unpredictable and you can coast through it or you can really live it. I think I’ve definitely done this. Through many adventures, snakes & ladders – I found my way to the world of the web. Well granted I was an early adopter. As soon as Sympatico in Canada went live…I had dial-up. In fact, I was the first person in my “Creative Advertising” program to have internet at home. In the recent years/months/weeks/days I have had the fun of witnessing the pulse of the web constantly changing. To me this means my job as a marketer is constantly changing too. And though some people have made it clear to me that they think I take my work too seriously, don’t sleep enough and should spend more time living living their chosen lifestyle (work 9-5 go home and forget about the job they have no passion for)…
…what can I say? I love working between the worlds of web technology and online marketing. The social media revolution (for example) is as much a part of social studies, philosophy, political science, economics, and business as it is a part of marketing. Social media is exciting because it is changing how we communicate, who we meet, how we build relationships with people that have common interests, people we do business with…everything.
Some people search night and day for a cure, some people paint painstaking details onto canvas, some people like Olympians dedicate themselves to the perfect physique…I happen to like everything related to social media and inbound marketing. So this is an open message to those who say I work too much. I hope that one day you find a career that you are passionate about because you only live once and it must really suck to go to work every day and not be able to put your heart and soul into it and ultimately enjoy the guts and the glory.
Check out this video….
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#RB the new #FF?
I’ve been trying my hand at Empire Avenue. For personal (Ticker: KIMKIM) and business (Ticker: Sitecore). It seems that that ‘game’ is an inaccurate portrayal of Empire Avenue. It’s a game in the sense that the currency isn’t traded on stock markets and stocks have no ties to Sarbox or FINRA. But what Empire Avenue does is provide a new representation of “social currency”. If you list your stock and do nothing…your stock will slide. If you list your stock and ENGAGE…your stock will likely climb. But one trick might be a constant approach to ENGAGEMENT. Shall we say Commitment?
I wonder if Tiffany& Co. will start trading Eaves?
If you want to find out more about engaging on Empire Avenue, google Chris Pirillo or search for his videos on YouTube. He’s got some interesting tips.
I’m wondering if #RB (for Recommended Buy) will be a good replacement for #FF (Follow Friday or Friend Follow depending on who you ask)? Sometimes #FF can seem to lack value if you have little reference as to why you should follow someone. Empire Avenue let’s you get a deeper view of how socially engaged someone (or a brand) is. So what do you think? Is #RB the new #FF?
Guy Kawasaki’s Empire Avenue profile…
I have a lot of catching up to do….
Here’s a sample of “Achievements” you can earn…
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Tags: eaves, empire avenue, social media
