CaliberPulse

I received some disturbing news last month about Arizona's economy during the University of Arizona's Eller College Economic Outlook luncheon. I learned that Arizona is ranked 50th for job growth and the state's unemployment rate is expected to rise to more than 10 percent in the first quarter of 2010. I also learned that Arizona is bankrupt with no good plan to balance the state's budget in the next few years. Unfortunately, Arizona's legislators have been unable to compromise on important budget decisions, primarily because of extreme political differences. After the luncheon, I spoke to several clients and business owners about the bad news and asked them if the state's economic and political woes would alter their business plan for 2010.

Hit a link and hit the jackpot? Well, maybe. No one knows for sure about the jackpot part. But one Southern Arizona salon is betting it will boost business by increasing relationships and referrals using social media. Gadabout SalonSpas has jumped into the Facebook and Twitter communities to enhance its top strategy for attracting new clients—word of mouth marketing. Starting this year, Gadabout has attracted 1,950+ Twitter followers and 450+ Facebook fans and a dedicated company blog readership. It figures. As Megan Davis, marketing director at Gadabout, points out, today’s social media platforms fit right into the classic relationship Gadabout clients have with their hairdresser.

My business partner and I attended an Agency Management Roundtable (AMR) meeting in early November with some pretty savvy marketing and public relations professionals who own small agencies across the country. These entrepreneurs meet semi-annually to share best practices designed to improve the performance of their businesses. After two days of swapping new ideas and advice about their agencies and doing business in a recession, it became clear that most of these agency owners face many of the same business challenges I do. Our discussion also reaffirmed that we need to plan for what likely will be the new “normal” way of doing business, even long after an economic recovery. Here are a few of what we marketing types call the BGOs, or “Blinding, Glaring, Obvious” takeaways from my AMR experience. Many of these BGOs are not new concepts. But all are worth revisiting as we adjust our business plans for 2010:

I'm a huge fan of the Corporate Curmudgeon, a syndicated columnist who appears locally in our Arizona Daily Star doling out wry advice to the green, unsophisticated or just plain clueless employee. Yesterday's column touches on an art form that, to me, is highly underrated:The fine art of the "soft sell." Why, might you ask, should a marketer/copywriter/pr practitioner/social media guru/flack/hack/car salesmen care to know what a "soft sell" is? Well, my dears, because we as a society are burned out. And when audiences burn out, they shut their ears.

As Marketing Director since 1999, Michelle Livingston has been overseeing marketing, advertising, graphic design, public relations, promotions and the online presence for Buffalo Exchange, a national chain of hip resale clothing stores based in Tucson. Michelle has participated in the impressive growth of Buffalo Exchange to 36 stores and 2 franchises in 13 states, with $56.3 million a year in sales. Currently Buffalo Exchange has 5,414 MySpace friends, 3,606 Facebook Page fans, 1,193 Twitter followers and 222 Flickr photo favorites posted by other members.

Sam Brace takes the audience through the smorgasbord of social media tools they can use to build their brand's reputation. Caliber superstar Sam Brace gave an enthusiastic and informative presentation on social media this morning to the Northern Pima County Chamber of Commerce at Ventana Medical Systems. For those of you who haven’t had a chance to attend on of Caliber’s many Smart Marketing Workshops, you can download a PowerPoint of the presentation at CaliberGroup.com

So if a misguided tweet occurs in an office cubicle and a boss isn’t around to hear it, did a twit, in fact, tweet? As with all new toys – the Internet, e-mail, instant messenger, text messaging – there comes a time in an employee’s life when said employee has to decide: will my company […]

If a conversation happens in a forest and you're not there to be a part of it, did it really happen? In the online world of social media - you bet your bottom dollar it did. And an entire network of friends, fans and followers heard it, participated in it and repeated it to their friends, fans and followers. When I worked for a small town newspaper right out of college, we often joked the biggest threat to being scooped was the gossip that took place at a quaint diner downtown. There's no message tool more effective than word of mouth - especially when the topic is heated, controversial or sensational. That's how I like to think of social media. It's not really all that new to those of us who understand how gossip works - it's fast, can often be misleading (think the children's game of telephone - the more you repeat something, the more inaccurate the message becomes) and sometimes damages someone's reputation.

A shout-out to our friend Abbie Fink in Phoenix who shared this entertaining video at the Public Relations Society of America - Tucson Chapter luncheon on Tuesday. This fun video is both enlightening and eye-opening - especially for those businesses who aren't in the game.

Everybody knows somebody who shares information that should be kept to themselves. I like to call that person "The TMI (Too Much Information) Guy." Typically they are somebody you know at work or interact with in social settings. Now that social applications like Twitter and Facebook are bursting at the seams with new members, The TMI Guy is now your friend or follower. Not only can this make your social media experience a not-so-fun one, but it can also hurt your online reputation with other friends and even employers. Imagine if TMI Guy starts blabbing about something embarrassing you did - it's in their personality to share everything. This is definitely a trend. Here are some tips to consider as you build your online networks, whether you know a potentially dangerous TMI Guy or happen to be TMI Guy yourself (shame!).

A popular argument in the business world against social media is that employers would have to pay employees to blog, tweet or post video and photos to YouTube and Facebook. The "man/woman-hours" is the expense.

A recent study on social media shows that taking the time to personalize your profile and targeting followers who are peers and influencers could yield better results than using your brand name and logo and waiting for consumers to come to you. While the study focuses on insomnia and a fictitious pharmaceutical brand, the results really translate for any business looking to build awareness and/or educate consumers using social media.