Meatheads Burgers Listens

Twitter and Foursquare and all those apps are just toys, right? I mean who cares where you had dinner or what you ate? These are questions/comments I hear frequently when I talk about the power and utility of these tools. So, how about a real life example…..

Thursday, Sept 16, I stopped at Meatheads Burgers & Fries on 75th st in Naperville for a quick bite before an evening appointment. I checked in on Foursquare & had a Tweet sent out about the check-in. I ordered a bacon burger and a chocolate shake. Within a reasonable amount of time, the burger arrived, sans shake. I asked the server and he came back a few minutes later with it and apologized for the delay. For some reason, my expectation is that the shake should come either before or with the food. No biggie.

Mid-day Friday, I get a Tweet from@meatheadsburger – see below. An exchange of tweets followed about the experience. I’ll share the end result at the end of the post.

Here are my observations -

• Meatheads Burgers & Fries uses Twitter to monitor what people are saying about their brand
• They care enough to follow up with you (in a public forum no less) about your experience
• If your experience does not meet whatever internal criteria they have, they act on it! In this case, letting the local manager know about it.

This is a real life example of using “Social Tools” to help monitor and manage and PROTECT their brand and its quality. They are listening to the conversation that is going on electronically, engaging their clients as a result of the messages they hear, and following up. They are showing that they care about what their clients experience. Does it make their burgers or shakes taste any better? Not really – they are already near the top of my list in that department. Does it separate them from the other 50 choices I have as I drive through the area? Definitely!

I did not have a bad experience at their store, just a slight irritation. I would have returned again anther time. But they cared enough to make the effort to ensure it would be better. So thanks, @meatheadsburgers, not only for the good food but caring about the experience. Consider me in your Raving Fan category.

There was one more Tweet regarding the experience. It was a Direct Message (DM) to show to the cashier the next time I visit their store. (I am not posting the image – someone might try and copy it and use it.) If you are in the area, stop in and enjoy a great burger.

Twitter Guidelines

The following is part two of a recent submission to a Real Esate publication’s request on tips and guidelines for using Twitter and other Social Media.

If you join the world of Twitter here are a few key things to remember and some tips to help find value in the time you spend there.

1. Remember, you are building your personal and professional brand by being present and active in this social medium. What you “say” is permanent.
2. Put a personal, friendly picture as your avatar, one that people will recognize.
3. Use some version of your name as your handle – again, recognition.
4. Install a helper application such as TweetDeck, or Seesmic, or Digsby. These will help you organize tweets, follow trending topics, follow conversations in groups of people you define, follow key words, i.e, Real Estate, Naperville.
5. Tweet about and “retweet” those comments that you feel are notable. Showing interest is more important than being interesting, and will gain you followers.
6. Thank those who retweet your comments. Showing gratitude builds social capital which builds a following.
7. Follow those who Tweet about subjects that interest you. Engage them, interact with them. Quiet observance will not gain you followers. Follow the superstars and your competitors. Follow related business folks, mortgage people, builders, associations, etc. You will be surprised at the information you can glean (and contribute) from the conversation stream.
8. Following Back There are multiple schools of thought on this subject. Some say follow every one, even the porn stars, because the bigger base you have the larger the opportunity. Others say treat it more like your sphere – prune, trim, follow only relevant folks. My personal practice: I check people’s profiles and look at:
   1. Are their tweets a mix of business and general/personal? I don’t want to add someone to my stream who is going to just bombard me with pitches to buy their product of service. I do want people who are interesting, knowledgeable.
   2. Number of tweets: Do they regularly engage in tweeting? I had one former colleague who started following me. He followed a number of folks and had followers. He also had zero tweets. What value do you think he is bringing to the Twitter community?
   3. Ratio Is the ratio of Followed to Followers fairly even?
9. #FollowFriday Participate in this fun. On Fridays people recommend those to the Twitterverse that they particularly enjoy or feel offer good value. Go first, include “#followfriday” in your tweet and the twitter name of those you are recommending. They may be funny, intelligent, friendly, whatever the reason, give recognition and kudo’s. It will return to you. And, always thank those who include you in their #followfriday’s. Just watch the twitter stream, it’s easy to pick up the protocol.
10. Tweeups Attend a Tweetup and meet others who Twitter. Or schedule one. Or join a Tweetride (cyclists who Twitter meet to ride). Be creative and interactive.

Here is a great summary from Nicole Nicolay in her e-book “Twitter for Real Estate Twits: “@nik_nik’s chapter 7 summary: Be the same person you are offline when you’re online. Same rules apply. If you wouldn’t flash your neighbor, then don’t flash twits. When it comes to real estate, behave with the professionalism that your clients expect from you. And, if you do make a mistake or ever fart in an elevator, just say “sorry”.

Again, these are my thoughts and practices. There are other protocols that work well for others. Keys to remember, participate, offer value, play nice, & mix up the social and business.

Social Media Etiquette

I was recently asked by a Realtor publication to contribute to an article being put together on Social Media and how agents just getting started could use it effectively. After some noodling and refining, it’s pretty apparent that these are guidelines that could apply to anyone seeking another avenue to stay in touch. So here are Tony’s Guidelines for Social Media Etiquette.

1. Participate: If you are going to join a network by all means participate. Your keystrokes are your voice. It’s how people get to know you. Stunning good looks and prior reputation will not get much attention in a medium of this nature. There are superstars everywhere.
2. Play Nice: Negativity does not get much mileage in this environment. Blocking/hiding/unfollowing are so easy to do if someone is annoying.
3. Add Value:  Give more than you receive. Respect and attention/retention is given, not a given. In the end, people will communicate with and converse with those who offer value to the community.
4. Be Real:  We are all multi faceted individuals with different characteristics that attract others. Be that multifaceted person. Single focus folks don’t last. People who are all business all the time will be turned off by the community they are trying to attract. Remember, it is a SOCIAL medium.
5. Participate: Spend time, stay with it and participate regularly. Be a presence in the environment you choose to be involved in. I had a colleague at a former firm I worked with follow me on Twitter. He has double digit followers and follows a double digit number of people. Has Zero updates – i.e. no comments, no interaction. Ask yourself how much value is that agent going to get out of Twitter?
6. Be Two-Way:  Interact, reach out and touch those in the social community you are involved in. If you blog, read others related blogs and comment. (Be sure to leave your real name and web/blog link – good Google juice) If you are on Twitter, tweet in response to others tweets. Tweet your thoughts on subjects, news items. Don’t block your updates – how are others going to get to know you? On Facebook, let others see you, write on walls of friends, comment on pictures.
7. Respect Others: If you disagree with something, that’s normal, comment without flaming. Remember what you put out there builds your reputation.
8. Be Social: Act as if you are at a party or networking event. These tools are about connecting with others on a frequent and regular basis. You have been doing this for years in different mediums. Your behavior should be the same here.
9. Participate: It takes time and participation for others to get to know you and you them. There are social networks out there for just about any interest. If you join and participate, you will connect with more people. You will build your personal network. You will have fun. You will enjoy. You will get value to the degree you give value.

I cannot stress enough, if you are going to be involved with or choose to use Social Media or networks you have to be involved, you have to use it. It’s really like anything else you join: Participate and give value and it will be returned.

National Blog Brawl Update

It was fun while it lasted. And I learned a bit about blogging in the Virginia Association of Realtors National Blog Brawl and the people in the business. People who are not only re-shaping how an industry interacts with it’s clients/customers/universe, they also (in my humble opinion) are the living embodiment of social networking & media in real life application. (no I am not going to see how many buzz words or acronyms I can plug in here).

The winners of Round II moved on to the semifinals – they were: 

fostercityblog.com beats locomusings.com 
blogbythebay.com beats mynapervillehomesblog.com 
liveandplayinchicago.com beats mytucsonblog.com 
theagenttrainer.com beats lanebailey.com  
realestatezebra.com beats nrvliving.com — only one Virginia blog remains! 
phoenixrealestateguy.com beats realestateweenie.com 
miamism.com beats thefrontsteps.com 
intowninsider.com beats theyoufactor.com

In six out of the eight contests, the blog with the longer name won. What does that mean? Nothing!  

In the semi’s, fostercityblog.com overcame blogbythebay.com, theagenttrainer.com beat liveandplayinchicago.com,  realestatezebra.com bested phoenixrealestateguy.com,  and miamism.com won over intowninsider.com.

Looks like it is miamism.com vs fostercityblog.com in the finals!

Social Media – What is it and why should I care?

You hear about it more and more lately – social media, social networking, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Flicker, blogs, and on and on. Are they timewasters for kids, cliques for uber geeks, places for people to exhibit themselves, brag or expound on any given subject? The answer could be yes, but I am finding it is so much more, if approached with an open mind.

We are social beings. We like connecting with others, communicating, exchanging ideas, news, sharing experiences, pictures and tidbits of our lives. We belong to clubs, organizations, associations, school groups, alumni groups, churches, all different types of communities. Within the realm of those groups we connect – in real life (IRL ßsocial media term) face to face or via phone and email. We interact for common cause, to achieve a goal, or just to socialize with those we are comfortable with or want to get to know better. Some might even define that today as “Social Networking“.

Social Media, as I view it, is the tool set some choose to use to connect with friends/family/colleagues. I became a Twitter user (@TonyLazz) last December when I attended a seminar on the use of these types of tools in real estate. In the 3 ½ months since then, my Twitter first level sphere has grown to over 350 people (those I follow or follow me). The second order sphere (friends of friends) has grown to over 2.5 million. I follow people in real estate, social media, spiritual folks, positive energy folks, leading edge thinkers like Seth Godin, & Guy Kawasaki. I follow cyclists and conferences like TED. Over the past 3 days I have dropped in via Twitter and other video links to RETS – a real estate technology conference held near Atlanta, and AEI – a conference in Colorado Springs for Real Estate Association executives.

In following people on Twitter I get to know their thoughts, some of their personality, hear about events as they happen – when the plane crashed in the Hudson river in January, I had just been followed that morning by Janis Krum – who sent the world the first photo’s of the plane in the water from his I phone later that afternoon). In following conferences I get gain knowledge and insight that I would most likely be unaware of otherwise, or read about much later. I engage in conversations with new folks, find common interest, relate, and expand my sphere of friends and associates and cohorts.

Steven Hodson, in a blogpost talked about Social Media in this way, “…is a belief that through the use of technology and real openness we could see incredible changes in our society. Social Media allows us to create powerful individual voices that can’t be dismissed the same way that they use to be in the past; and it is with those voices that change will come about.” Is that a little far fetched, or an accurate prediction? No one can really say, yet. For me, it has expanded my universe and knowledge. And that is good. Peace.

(Ok, this went longer than planned and did not cover all that I intended, so….more to come on the subject.)