ResortXpo Snowsports Virtual Conference and Trade Show

Live on July 15-16, is the first ever ResortXpo.  Join in http://www.ResortXpo.com/ski

Where can you network and discuss industry issues?
With all the marketing and technology choices out there, what’s the best strategy for your resort?
How can you come up with new ideas and programs for the coming season?

ResortXpo.com will address these questions and more!  The event is designed to help solve marketing, sales, and IT challenges by bringing compelling conference sessions, Base Lodge Chat’s and product and solution exhibits to the convenience of your desktop.

We know that you want the latest updates but need to get them in a convenient and simple way so we’ve designed this expo with your needs in mind.  We’re doing it online and we’re bringing the experts to you!

Top 5 Things You Will Get at this Event and Nowhere Else

-Sessions with industry leading executives including: Samantha Rufo, President, nxtConcepts, Joy Spring, VP/COO, Leisure Trends, Steve Pope, Owner, ePop Studio; Milena Regos, Marketing Director, Diamond Peak Ski Resort; Eric Hoffman, Interactive Marketing Manager, Park City Mountain; David LaPlante, CEO, Twelve Horses; Michelle Evans, Marketing Services Manager, Grouse Mountain; John Siewierski, Owner, Siewierski Consulting

-Lessons learned from your peers in the Connection Cafe Forums with scheduled Base Lodge Chats.

-Updates on the latest technology developments that are shaping the future of resort communications including text messaging, email marketing, social media, and websites.

-Real time networking with product and solution experts.

-Virtual Welcome Reception brought to your by Captain Morgan (Please Drink Responsibly).  Get unprecedented access to the brand team while enjoying some of the Captain’s favorite recipes.

If you have ever missed a seminar or Convention due to travel or cost, this is the show for you!

It’s all happening July 15-16 and right on your computer.
No travel.  No expenses.  Just great information.
You can attend a major conference without leaving your office!

Attend the live event and Enter to Win:
ResortXpo exclusive give-aways.  Including: Captain Morgan Prize packages (jump drives and other cool swag), $500 Kick Start Mobile Marketing Program from nxtConcepts, Kelty two-man backpacking tent valued at $149 from Leisure Trends, Win one of 4 Descente or DNA jackets from RSN Resort TV & RSN.com, and more.  Winners notified through their online profiles.

Exhibitor Hall hours: open 24 hours with live chat’s available between 11am-5pm EST (10am-4pm CT/9am-3pm MT/8am-2pm PT)
Conference Session Hours: 11am – 2pm EST
And the entire event will be available for on-demand viewing for 10 days afterwards.

Brought to you by nxtConcepts, Ltd; North Pole Design; Selectus Consulting; and Captain Morgan

Mobile Advertising – Where and how do 2d codes fit in?

This panel discussion has a slow start but once you get in about 8 minutes it starts to pick up.  Worth watching.
“What cell phone you have says a lot about who you are.”

Return on Engagement

So, maybe I have been hiding under a rock, but today was the first time I’ve heard the expression that “ROE” or “Return on Engagement” has replaced “ROI” or “Return on Investment” (in the marketing universe).

Active vs. passive

So what is ROE?  It’s about focusing on engagement, and relationships, and attracting and rewarding the right kind of brand advocates to help spread your message.  It is getting people involved in what you do and how you do it.  Or at least that’s what I believe it means.  The term is so new, it doesn’t even have a place in Wikipedia yet.

With social media and the new social networks it has changed how we build a marketing plan.  Although social media does not have an upfront price tag like radio or TV, it is labor intensive and has a reputation (just for kids, not business worthy, etc)  it still needs to get past.  Using social networks for business practices is still new.  There are stumbling blocks.  But, for those that figure it out, the return can be big (as the early adopter that everyone else will try to mirror).

Should ROI ever have been used when it applied to marketing?  Probably not.  How do you really determine the ROI of a radio spot?  Isn’t it more about the response?  That’s why I think ROE is brilliant.  It allows us as marketers to clarify a business who our best customers are and what we can do to continue to excite and engage them.  No matter what the means or marketing channel.

Measurement

Here’s the start of my check list for ROE.  Should these be here?  What others should be added & why?

* Value for advocacy: what is the cost per action as applied to advocacy or outreach (branding, education, etc) campaigns. Including being able to access as many people as possible when your version of a Katrina hits or you have a window of opportunity where the issue you’re working on hits the headlines.

* Recruitment: how many friends per week have been acquired?  How many lost?

* Opportunity cost: how many hours per week have my staff or volunteers devoted to spending time in social networks?

* Viral benefit of social networks: if you have a network in place, you might increase your chances of reaching a lot of people to spread your news. Most social networks are set up to enable communications with a lot of people quickly.

* Demographics: is the audience you’re recruiting from the social network appropriate for your organization?

* Message control: your message is likely to get picked up by others, and to be successful, some amount of message control will likely need to be sacrificed.

* Investing in the future: Maybe the younger demographic of the social networks will be interested in your organization in the future, so start building awareness now.

How NOT to Do a Presentation

Twitter Tools Review

With the explosion of the popularity of Twitter, comes new tools and websites promising everything from helping you to make money to simplifying your life.  So, the biggest question on my mind, is “just because it is free, is it really is worth using”?

I went with a simple grading system:
-is it easy to start using
-will it save me time
-does it really do something unique and useful

If the product got a yes to all three questions above, they get listed in the “Hot” Column, if not, well, then they are “Not”.

Hot	Not
Twibs Find, follow and interact with businesses, apps and services on Twitter.	Twitpay TwitPay is a simple way to send payments via Twitter.
Why: Easy to follow business listing directory	Why: Doesn’t seem very secure and only works with Amazon payments.
TwitPic TwitPic lets you share photos on Twitter. You can post pictures to TwitPic from your phone, the TwitPic home page or your Twitter account.	GroupTweet Send private Twitter messages to specific groups of friends.
Why: Simple to use and a great way to easily tie-in to your Twitter account.	Why: Need to create a new account for each group.  Seems like I could do that directly thru Twitter too.
Mr. Tweet A personal networking assistant for Twitter, helping you identify relevant followers, recommending you to other users and regularly computing your Twitter usage statistics.	Twitter Alerts Keep track of conversations that mention you, your products, your company and anything else, via hourly email updates.
Why: Finding people you really want to follow can be difficult, so this kind of help is appreciated and a time saver.	Why: After setting up the account, I realized it uses Twitter Search.  So, why not just use Twitter Search?
TwitWall With TwitWall, you can embed your favorite videos and widgets and upload your photos, MP3 music, podcasts, you name it.	StrawPoll StrawPoll is the coolest way to follow the opinions of people on Twitter. With this app, you can create your own poll.
Why: Adds some 3d to the otherwise plain Twitter profile page.  Was up and running in minutes.	Why: I like the concept but had a hard time figuring out how it works and how to track results.
UnTweeps Unfollow Tweeps who have not posted tweets recently.	Twitter Friends Network Browser Browse through your Twitter friends, your friends’ friends, your friends’ friends’ friends.
Why: It seems the way to the best ratings on Twitter is to have more people follow you than you follow others.  So, using this tool might help increase your ratings.	Why: Although it looks cool, I couldn’t get it to do anything but get more confusing.
Twitter Grader Twitter Grader measures the power of your Twitter profile. How high do you rank?	Twittertise Twittertise allows you to advertise on Twitter and track the success of your branded communications with customers.
Why: Since I am competitive I like this.  Nice way to see how your postings compare to other similar profiles.	Why: Seems like what they offer–post a special or coupon–could also be done directly into your profile.
TwitterSheep Enter your twitter username to see a tag cloud from the ‘bios’ of your twitter flock.	Twitterless Twitterless tells you who stops following you and graphs your follower history over time, displaying the info in a variety of useful views.
Why: Looks cool and is functional too.	Why: Love the idea but I think the developers got overwhelmed with response.  Didn’t seem to be working.
Just Tweet It Just Tweet It makes it easier for tweeters to find other tweeters with similar interests.	Have a “Not” you would like to add? Contact me.
Why: Another cool directory that’s not just for business.
Twitter Search Search Twitter is an excellent search engine that allows you to find out what’s happening in the world beyond your personal timeline.	Have a “Not” you would like to add? Contact me.
Why: THE way to search for comments, people, hashtags, and more on Twitter.
twhirl Most of the features available on the Twitter website are accessible through twhirl, with usability enhancements.	Have a “Not” you would like to add? Contact me.
Why: When following comments and posts gets too hard to follow thru the web, this is a great next step.  Also has tools to shorten URL’s, add pics, and more.
TweetDeck TweetDeck aims to improve the existing functionality of Twitter by taking the abundance of Twitter feeds and breaking it down into more manageable bite-sized pieces .	Have a “Not” you would like to add? Contact me.
Why: Are you a serious Twit?  Than this software is for you.  Makes managing large numbers of followers possible.
Twitalyzer is a tool that calculates your influence based on your signal-to-noise ratio, generosity, velocity and clout, and it also allows you to calculate a score for any other Twitter user you want to keep tabs on. Since it displays increases and decreases to your influence over time, it is also a way to test the positive or negative impact of new Twitter strategies .	Have a “Not” you would like to add? Contact me.
Why: There’s not much analytics yet for Twitter, but this is about the best you’ll find at the moment.

As a side note, there is one thing that does concern me.  Almost all the related Twitter websites that offer these tools want you to give them your username and password in order to use their services.  That seems like a big problem waiting to happen.

Please let me know if you agree or disagree with my reviews.  Have a few to add?  Just let me know.

Skittles the Un-Website

Ok, for the last month or so I have heard people talking about “what Skittles did” and the huge controversy.  I just figured it was more of the usual website hype.  Until this morning.  Now I understand what the hoopla (who says those words anymore?) is about.

In a nutshell, if you also have not followed the Skittles talk, they replaced their regular website that had content, product information, and the usual company fluff, with a portal atmosphere that brings in many of the big social networks.  That’s right, they got rid of their website and are using YouTube, Twitter, Flickr, Facebook and other network spaces instead.  WOW.

They have essentially said, “you our customer know how you want to interact with us, so we are handing you the keyboard” (my quote not theirs).  I personally think this is brilliant.  Skittles is going where their customers are.  They are truly “giving power to the people”.  They have however gotten quite a bit of criticism from marketers and business people.  One blog post I read called the move “crazy“.

According to Skittles, their goal was to “consolidate access to all social media around the brand.”  I applaud them.  They are a bit ahead of their time.  What they did is what I consider a stab at web 3.0.  What’s that?  It’s where businesses and brands will be able to harness and make the current social media landscape usable and personal.  Friendster and ping.fm are just a few examples of organizations already trying to do this.

Good or bad, there’s a few things we can learn from this:

1. The first one there owns the game. Skittles will get the most publicity and launch excitement because they tried it first.  Others that follow will have a hard time getting the coverage that Skittles did.  Since they did it first, they also get to create the rules and build the business model.

2. Integrated branding. Skittles is focusing their time on creating their company profiles across the social media channels online and their traditional marketing offline.  They are approaching new media with new thinking.  They are creating an entire brand experience from each part and funneling everything back to their website URL.

3. Optimization. Talk about high ROI.  Skittles will be able to gain higher visibility and link-ability on the web faster and easier than any website before it.  How?  They are letting their customers do it for them.

4. Mistakes happen. Is the Skittles new concept perfect?  No, of course not.  By trying to legally protect themselves with a dialog box asking your age before you can visit the site they seem to be turning off site visitors.  But, this is how they and those that follow behind them will learn.

So, as I wrap up this post for the day,I am left thinking, who else would this concept work for?

What is your time worth?

If you’re a consultant, non-billable time (the time you spend doing things that you can’t actually bill for) may be the biggest drain on your cash flow. Here’s a few suggestions on how to minimize this hidden expense.

What is Non-billable time?

a) Marketing (as in personal networking, preparing and mailing direct-mail letters, writing proposals for new business, phone solicitation, etc.)

b) Bookkeeping and record keeping

c) Office maintenance (filing, cleaning, organizing, etc.)

d) Taking care of customer questions, issues, etc.

Although important, non-billable time can eat into your profits. For instance, if you spend 40 hours a week “working” at your place of business, and you charge $30 an hour for your services, you have the potential of making$1,200 per week. However, if you spend 10 hours a week performing non-billable work, you’ll be able to bill for only 30 hours. That means you make $900 instead of $1,200 — a $300 dollar difference. Over the course of 50 working weeks during the year, that would mean the difference of $15,000 in your total income!

There are several ways to eliminate or at least minimize this reduction in your income.

1. You can simply raise your fees, based on how much non-billable time you spend. For instance, if your rates are $30/hr. as in the example in the previous point, raising your rates to $40/hr. would mean that the 30 billable hours you spend each week would result in a total income of $1,200 — the same amount you would make if you didn’t have any non-billable hours.

2. You can hire assistants or contract outside help to take care of the non-billable tasks, allowing you to get back to what makes you money. The assistants will, presumably, be paid less than you charge per hour, letting you make up the difference.

3. You could look into ways to speed up the time you spend on non-billable projects. Perhaps a new computer program could help speedup your bookkeeping, or help you organize your schedule. Look for ways to streamline your activities in every way possible.

4. (Most effective overall) You can become more aware of the non-billable time you’re spending each week. Try to cut down the time you spend on such tasks, or bite the bullet and take care of them after work hours or on weekends when possible. Often, simply becoming aware of how badly non-billable time is eating into your income can help minimize the problem.

Do you have any tips or stories about how you saved money or increased your take home pay?  Let me know.

A good way to kill time

Well, then, here you go http://www.boingboing.net

Just today I found:
-lizard attacks girls wearing meat hats...go

-Standing room only proposed for airlines…go
(maybe those tight seats aren’t so bad after all)

-TSA horror stories…go

-Hole opens in home and swallows man…go
(Looks like the Amityville Horror has moved to California)

Head on over to BoingBoing. You can find plenty more. Otherwise, back to work!

Sam]]>

Wish you had one place to go for all the strange and unusual information you could stand?

Well, then, here you go– http://www.boingboing.net

Just today I found:
-lizard attacks girls wearing meat hats…go
-Standing room only proposed for airlines…go
(maybe those tight seats aren’t so bad after all)
-TSA horror stories…go
-Hole opens in home and swallows man…go
(Looks like the Amityville Horror has moved to California)

Head on over to BoingBoing.  You can find plenty more. Otherwise, back to work!

Paid vs. Free

Is a free blog really worth it?

In my eyes, no. For the past year and a half I have tested numerous types of blog software and services. From free services such as blogger and MSN spaces to pay for hosting and set up like plog or Typepad.

In the beginning, the free one’s really seem fantastic. They are fast, free, and easy to start and get going on. It’s only after you work with them for awhile that you start to realize that “free” may not be all it’s cracked up to be.

Here’s a quick review of my problems with the “free” blogs:
-many have hidden extra fees that pop up when you least expect them. i.e. you start using too much of their server space.
-many have no easy way to upload images, voice, or video. Or, if they do, you will need to pay extra.
-the bells and whistles in the free blogs such as the RSS get outdated fast and there is little development going on to fix broken whistles. You get stuck with something that has problems with little choice of what to do about it.
-there are NO back-ups. I know, who cares about back-ups? Well, we all do when we realize all the thoughts, comments, images, and time we spent working on our blogs disappear.
-there is NO easy way to get your information out of the free blog’s. It took weeks of copying and pasting info from the free blogs when I decided to leave. Talk about being held hostage!
-invasion of ads. Free blogs are inundated with advertising. Nothing like having a “get bigger breasts” ad next to a smiling picture of your child.

Is there a place for free blogs? Yes. They are great to get people started and great for personal musings. However, if you actually plan to keep up your blog over the long haul or are a business person looking for the marketing value that blogs can offer, cough up the few dollars. You’ll be much happier in the long run.]]>

Is a free blog really worth it?

In my eyes, no.  For the past year and a half I have tested numerous types of blog software and services.  From free services such as blogger and MSN spaces to pay for hosting and set up like plog or Typepad.

In the beginning, the free one’s really seem fantastic.  They are fast, free, and easy to start and get going on.  It’s only after you work with them for awhile that you start to realize that “free” may not be all it’s cracked up to be.

Here’s a quick review of my problems with the “free” blogs:
-many have hidden extra fees that pop up when you least expect them.  i.e. you start using too much of their server space.
-many have no easy way to upload images, voice, or video.  Or, if they do, you will need to pay extra.
-the bells and whistles in the free blogs such as the RSS get outdated fast and there is little development going on to fix broken whistles.  You get stuck with something that has problems with little choice of what to do about it.
-there are NO back-ups.  I know, who cares about back-ups?  Well, we all do when we realize all the thoughts, comments, images, and time we spent working on our blogs disappear.
-there is NO easy way to get your information out of the free blog’s.  It took weeks of copying and pasting info from the free blogs when I decided to leave.  Talk about being held hostage!
-invasion of ads.  Free blogs are inundated with advertising.  Nothing like having a “get bigger breasts” ad next to a smiling picture of your child.

Is there a place for free blogs?  Yes.  They are great to get people started and great for personal musings.  However, if you actually plan to keep up your blog over the long haul or are a business person looking for the marketing value that blogs can offer, cough up the few dollars.  You’ll be much happier in the long run.

Finally!

That means I can get back on track ranting, raving, and amusing all three of you that read this blog. :) Just kidding. I know there's quite a bit more. Unfortunately, few ever venture out and leave a comment. That means most of the time I think I'm writing to myself.

Care to tell me I'm wrong?]]>

It’s been a painful and long move, but we are finally settled in to our new blog home.

That means I can get back on track ranting, raving, and amusing all three of you that read this blog.  :)  Just kidding.  I know there’s quite a bit more.  Unfortunately, few ever venture out and leave a comment.  That means most of the time I think I’m writing to myself.

Care to tell me I’m wrong?