Conner's Blog

So I’m posting it today because I want to post something. Here is the response I wrote to Womfire after they responded to the email I wrote to Chili’s marketing department.

Thanks Howard,
I wasn’t really concerned about my email address, my biggest concern was the grammar skills shown by your representative. Additionally, as someone who is passionate about social media I had a hard time with your campaign. It didn’t feel genuine to me at all. Plus, as most of the comments pointed out, free chips are kind of funny considering you get free chips at every Mexican eatery other than Chili’s.

One last thing that I wanted to point out. Though I appreciate you enjoying my blog, I’m definitely not your target market. My blog is full of posts and links about local, sustainable, and healthy food. Your client, Chili’s, is one of the last places I would ever choose to eat. As someone who is passionate about social media, blogging, and marketing, I would hope that if you are doing a campaign like this you would be doing a quick search for “food” in blogs you want to contact. It wouldn’t have taken much time to see that I was more likely to make fun of Chili’s than promote them.

Again, thanks for taking the time to respond to me. I’ll post a comment on the post noting that you responded genuinely and addressed most of my concerns. I do wish you success in your campaign with Chili’s.

They addressed my concern about my email address, they had found it on my blog. They also apologized and advised they wouldn’t contact me again. I’m considering the issue closed.

Dear Businesses:

This is a quick note to thank you for existing. Without you I would be forced to do everything myself. Make my own soap, spin my own thread, and bury my own Internet cable. So thanks.

However, I have a gripe; many of you seem to be entering a world I’ve existed in for quite some time. It’s sometimes referred to as social media, but in reality it’s just another place where conversations can happen. It’s a virtual water cooler that is full of whatever beverage happens to be sitting near at hand.

Some of you get it, and by get it I mean you don’t make me want to throw whale blood on your storefront. The rest of you need to step back and think about what you are doing (or what your consulting company is doing). So here are three questions you should ask yourself one week after launching your social media strategy.

1. Have you engaged with anyone in a multi-reply conversation?
2. Are you targeting the right people?
3. Why are you doing this?

Question 1 addresses whether you are engaging with your audience in a meaningful manner. Anyone can send out messages, good social media should make your customers your conversation partners.

Question 2 might use the word targeting, but it’s a good one to think about. In the last few months I’ve been followed by coffee shops from St. Cloud, businesses from Chicago, and in one case every store that a certain company has regardless of where they were located. Geography is just a part of this of course; just remember that just because it’s free to follow someone doesn’t mean it’s a good idea.

Question 3 is one you should have asked before you launched. Even if you did, on day seven you should ask it again. Is it to broadcast your message? Then make it obvious you aren’t there to engage. There is nothing wrong with broadcasting your daily specials (though it’s less effective), but make it clear you aren’t there to answer your costumer’s complaints. If you are engaging, are you engaging as the business or as an individual? This is an important things to consider and something to decide on right now. It’s annoying when businesses suddenly change their manner on a social media platform for no apparent reason.

There is a lot more to this of course. Even the best planned strategy can fall on it’s face. Still, if you catch things quickly, whether you are doing it in house or paying a so-called expert. You can avoid irritating an influential customer base.

Sincerely, Conner

Hi Omar, Todd, and the rest of the crew:

I’m writing this letter because  I’m a huge fan of your beers. From Coffee Bender to Cynic, they are all delicious.  I’ve introduced a few friends to Furious, a couple to Bender, and one or two to Cynic and I intend to continue this.  You have a rabid fan base, and a growing market share.  I know there is a big waiting list for liquor stores that want to carry your beer. I’m happy for you, you’re local, a good company, and very much not mainstream. All of which make you awesome.

But you have a problem.  Your public relations or lack of PR is hurting you.  You may not notice it, and you may not notice it for years to come, but it will come back to bite you if you want to grow.  In the last few months, I’ve had three experiences that would have possibly kept me from continuing my patronage of your beer if you weren’t local and didn’t brew such good beer.  Now neither of these directly affects the quality of the product, but it does impact the perception of your company.  In a few years, if you want to continue to grow, this may be important.

The first happened a few months ago, around the time you released Hell for the second time.  First, at the time I, a new Surly drinker, thought this was your first release of this beer.  I headed off to Moto-i, excited to try out this new brew.  Well my friend and I walked into the bar, and it was apparent from the start that no one quite knew what was going on.  Only one bartender really knew what the plan was, the signage was minimal, and things just didn’t seem organized.  Things went smoothly overall, thanks to some great staff at Moto-i, but I was disappointed in the event, I expected a bigger deal to be made of the beer, maybe some giveaways, or at least some effort to make it a party.  Again, maybe I should not have had these expectations, but when an event is billed as a “Release Party”, the party aspect seems like a legitimate expectation.

The second thing that happened followed this very closely.  I’ll admit I was disappointed in Hell.  I wrote about it on my blog, and then commented on a post written over at The Captain’s Chair.  I stated that though I liked Hell, I was disappointed because I had expected something crazy and instead got a light, though tasty, beer.  During a back and forth on the Captain’s Chair’s post though, we continued to get defensive responses that seemed to complain about the perception we all had and that it’s not fair to you for us to have this perception.  Those of us commenting really wanted to give you advice to help and instead we got defensive answers.  Of course, the readers of Captain’s Chair are going to be big fans so I doubt you lost any drinkers, but an exchange like that with less enthusiastic fans might lose you a few customers.

Finally, Monday night I went to the Darkness Release Party at Hell’s Kitchen.  From the moment I walked in the door, it was obvious that at yet another release party, no one really knew what was going on.  Our bartender only knew he was selling Darkness, from what my companions said when the Surly reps came in the door you seemed confused and didn’t know how the bar was laid out.  Other than a band in the restaurant side, you wouldn’t have known anything was going on.  Also, like at Moto-i, no one from your brewery stopped by to say hi, even though I was at a table of six people all enjoying Darkness.

So, here is what I recommend.  Hire someone who knows a thing or two about public relations and event planning.  Your events should be exciting.  When you bill something as a release party it should feel like a party.  Giveaways are not necessary, but at least make those who set aside a Monday night to enjoy a glass of your beer feel like they are not just there to buy your product.  You also need to work on your public responses.  It is great that you do your own PR and you want to keep you voice as inline with your company culture as possible.  Just try and do this without sounding defensive.

I also think you need to look at your marketing.  As I mentioned when I wrote about Hell, I had a misperception due to the name that caused me to be unimpressed with Hell.  This would have been easy to avoid had you either named it something differently, or just spent a little time promoting what you were trying to do with the beer.  You are a company that has built itself into a box by brewing big beers.  You can get out of that box, just make sure your customers know when you step outside of that box so we aren’t surprised.

I am no expert so my advice may be complete crap, but I hope it’s not.  Keep up the good work and keep making great beers, just pair it with some better events and public relations.

Warmest Regards,

Conner McCall

Not that there was ever any question, but today I received more confirmation.  Google served me this ad.

I rarely read ads, but I took the time to figure out the pseudo code on this one.  Someone apparently knows how to get my attention.

I’ve always known PETA was crazy.  I’m all for treating animals with respect, but when you have decided that renaming an entire class of animals is necessary you’re not just crazy your batshit crazy.  At what point do we stop, do we start calling cattle Grass Kittens, calling pigs Mud Kittens?  Isn’t this confusing for our children?

Sorry about this pointless post, but I couldn’t help myself.

I tried online dating about a year ago and had no success.  I’m not sure what I was doing wrong, but after sending out numerous messages and not netting a single response I decided to stop.  I tried a bunch of strategies, sending questions, being clever and funny, and especially being myself with no success.  It was an interesting experience but I didn’t really feel it was right for me.

Since I just stopped visiting dating sites but never  canceled my memberships (well at the free sites at least) I still get occasional emails trying to lure me back.  Here is what the profile of the person I was matched with today said,

“I love to watch and play sports. I enjoy being in the outdoors. I like to camp, fish and hunt and am not afraid to get dirty.”

First, I want to be clear that I like a girl who enjoys sports and don’t want a girl who screams whenever a little dirt ends up on her shoes.  But I don’t really wants to date a girl who fishes and hunts.   I’m not that into the outdoors, granted I enjoy hiking, and occasionally will jump on a four wheeler and get covered in mud, but most of the time I would prefer going to a museum, checking out a show, or enjoying a nice dinner.  My idea of enjoying the outdoors involves a camera not a fishing pole.

I’m not saying that this girl wouldn’t interest me, but if the site wants to show me how great it is, especially after I know I filled out questionairs and a profile, it might want to consider tweaking some algorithms.  Then again, maybe I really do want a girl who can skin a deer and gut a fish.  At least I would get to learn how to cook the wildlife.

I saw a post on another blog linking to the voting page for the NBA All-Star Game.  I could not tell you the last time I voted for an All-Star game in any of the major sports let alone watched one from start to finish.  Here are a few ideas to get fans engaged.  Hey, this might even get non-fans to watch the game.

Start Voting Later

Generally voting for the All-Star game starts too early.  The NBA All-Star voting has already started and they have not played 10 games.  Voting should start at the halfway point from the beginning of the season to the All-Star Break.  For the NBA this would be right around the 20 game mark, for the MLB the 40 game mark, and in the NFL it wouldn’t start until week 11 or 12 because the playoffs need to be factored in.

Let Players and Coaches Vote

The All-Star games are supposed to be a popularity contest.  Unfortunately, this keeps some of the best talent in the games out of the league’s talent showcase.  Instead of having coaches choose just 1 or 2 players, let every player and every coach on each team cast a ballot.  These ballots should be weighed more than fan’s ballots.  Players are better judges of talent then fans, allowing them a say would allow fans to see the best players and give name recognition to deserving players that otherwise may be overlooked.

Change Up the Opponents

Get rid of East/West, North America/World, AL/NL, and AFC/NFC.  Do something unique every year.  U.S.A. vs. the World, Teams who made the playoffs vs. those that did not, players from high payroll teams vs. players from low payroll teams, animal mascots vs. others, the possibilities are endless.

Let the Fans Coach

How many more people would watch if they could vote for coaching decisions?  This would the most fun for football but other sports could join in the fun.  How cool would it be if you could vote for Manny Ramirez attempting a suicide squeeze in the 7th inning.  We have the technology for instant responses from an online audience, this would not be that hard to implement.

Shorten the Games/Change the Rules

Why do the All-Star games have to follow the regular season game format?  The Pro-Bowl should have 8-minute quarters and start every drive with a 1st and 5. The MLB All-Star game should start each inning with one out already on the scoreboard.  The NBA should eliminate traveling or add a four-point line.  No one tunes into an All-Star game to cheer for a team, they tune in to be entertained, make it entertaining.

Vote for the Score

Why isn’t a 450-foot home run worth more than one run?  Let the fans in attendance vote within 30 seconds of a play happening for the score a play deserves.  LeBron James makes a miraculous shot from behind the backboard; he gets 5 points.  Adrian Peterson walks into the end zone in behind his O-Line; reward him with 4 points.

I know none of these will ever happen; the leagues worry too much about tradition and playing it safe.  Still, with attendance and television ratings lagging, would it hurt to make the one meaningless game people watch fun?

This post on Tombuntu, regarding the sites server move included a link to Linode.com.  They are a hosting provider, offered virtual servers running on Xen.  On top of being a very reasonably priced, they have a done a very good job marketing themselves to their target users.  Unlike most hosting providers, their home page isn’t flashy web 2.0ish or chock full of ads for their various services.  The pricing structure on the home page is the price per month, not the price you will pay per month if you sign a 5-year contract.  It is a very clean, simple, and refreshing site.

I wouldn’t just write about their site, but I found something that put this over the top for me.  On the features page I found this gem.  ”The Finnix recovery distribution occupies no disk on your Linode account and is useful for recovering from screw ups.”  This might not be the most professional language to use, but it’s refreshing to see a company just come out and admit that yes you will “screw up” and here is the tool we provide to fix it.  

Disclaimer:  This is not a recommendation of Linode.com’s services. I have no experience using Linode and know no one that has.  Please do your own research before purchasing services from any hosting provider.

I saw these at the farmers market in Bozeman last week.  They had some very clever tee shirts.  This was my favorite from the shirts I saw at the farmers market.

The FAQ is worth a read, my favorite line “Every tee is inspected for awesomeness. Each shirt is made with love…lots and lots of love…and rubber gloves.”  Oh, and the last question I can attest to, at least if the girls running the stand at the Farmers Market were the girls who run the business.  :)

Mac and Tees

When I was in Montana last week, my family and I went to The Garage in Bozeman, MT.  No website, so you will just have to trust me when I say it exists.  The Garage is  a soup and burger joint located just off main street.  Apparently it’s usually busy, and on the night we went it wasn’t full but it was busy for a Tuesday.  There was plenty of patio seating which made the experience great, unfortunately the sun was directly in my eyes for the first 15 minutes or so, they did have some shade, but the sun was peaking through at first.

The first thing that stood out was the menus.  The design itself wasn’t phenomenal, but they came bound to state licenses plates.  This is a great touch.  Not overwhelming, but unique enough to be remember on a future hungry night.

Their food was pretty good.  I had a burger that was topped with spinach, bacon, and swiss cheese.  It was excellent, not as good as a Five Guys burger, but still excellent.  The best part of the meal was their coleslaw.  Normally I’m hesitant to order coleslaw, but decided to take the risk.  It was well worth it, the coleslaw was cabbage, red onion, and I believe sesame seeds.  The dressing was great, it was oil based and really tasty.  My brother ordered the fries, and it they were pretty good, but nothing to crow about.

On great thing about Montana is most restaurants have a large beer selection.  The Garage was no different, having a good selection of local and national brews to choose from.  I opted for a Skinny Dip from the New Belgium brewery in Colorado and it went well with my meal.

Their soup selection appears to be what they are known for locally.  Unfortunatly it was a hot day and I opted to skip the soup.  They have a soup bar during the winter months and I hope to be able to return in December and give it a try.