I was planning to blog about the new Old Spice campaign, in which Wieden + Kennedy’s creative team first seeded Social Media influentials with the idea of tweeting Old Spice pitch-hunk Isaiah Mustafa to ask for a personalized video – and then produced the video “responses” almost in real time. You can read about this amazing campaign here.

But I’m not going to blog about Old Spice. I’m going to blog about my fire, and about how ADT (and others) saved my house.

At 10:06 on Monday morning, ADT, which provides central station monitoring services, detected a fire alarm on the second floor of my home in New Jersey. They called the local fire department, which responded within minutes. Soon, firefighters from no less than 10 different companies – mostly volunteers – were working to put out the fire, which began when wires shorted inside a wall between a bathroom and a closet. No one was home when the fire broke out and none of the firefighters or police was injured.

Because ADT called in the alarm so quickly, the fire damage was confined to a relatively small space. The fire chief told my wife, however, that if we hadn’t had central station monitoring the house would likely have burned to the ground. Since my neighbors were either at work or on vacation it isn’t likely that anyone would have called 911 before it was too late.

As soon as the firefighters finished, we called our insurance company, Chubb. They dispatched a demolition and restoration crew immediately and by that afternoon a dozen people were working to clean and dry out the house. The amount of smoke and water damage is surprising for such a small fire, but while heat goes up, water goes down and smoke and soot go everywhere – especially on a hot day when the air conditioning is blowing. In fact, much of the damage isn’t even close to the site of the fire.

I’m blogging about my fire first, because I want to thank the firefighters and police who burst into a smoke-filled house on a hot July day not knowing what they would find and who used sensitivity as well as skill in fighting the blaze. They could have torn my house apart while trying to save it. Instead they put tarps over the furniture so it wouldn’t be damaged by water and falling debris. Our local firefighters are volunteers and they are at the top of the list of local causes my family and I support.

Second, I want to emphasize the value of central station monitoring. We use ADT and we credit them with saving our house, but any good central station company will do. We were pretty cavalier about our service because we looked at it mainly as a burglar alarm and the house is rarely vacant. And house fires happen to other people. At least we had fresh batteries in the heat detectors. We had changed ours recently and if the fire had happened only a couple of months ago it could have been much worse.

Finally, I think everyone should take a hard look at their fire and casualty insurance policies and make sure that (a) they are adequately covered and (b) their insurance company is willing and able to handle the kind of losses that a house fire can cause. One thing we learned from our fire is that different insurance companies have different perspectives on losses like ours. The Chubb adjuster and everyone else on the team assures us that they have seen far worse than ours. Their overriding message is one that we needed to hear: Don’t worry. Knowing that we aren’t going to have to fight over every penny provides enormous relief at a time of great stress. If you don’t get the same feeling from your insurance company, you need a new one. And if it costs a little more to be confident that you won’t have a battle on your hands if you make a claim, it’s probably worth it.

The Zavee takeaway:

• Central station monitoring can save your house – and perhaps your life.
• Fire insurance isn’t a commodity – get the coverage and service you need and deserve.
• Firefighters are amazing – they deserve everyone’s respect and support. They certainly have mine.

HootSuite logo

The key to making Twitter easier and more efficient is to use one of the free third party Twitter management tools instead of Twitter’s own site. HootSuite and TweetDeck let you do two things that can save a lot of time: manage multiple searches and cross-post into multiple Social Media streams.

In a previous post we blogged about four ways that local businesses can use Twitter. Some involve more time and attention than others. First, we suggested using Twitter as a listening post, gathering information from other users. The net you cast can be as wide or narrow as you want. Use your Twitter manager to set up searches for your industry, competitors, community, etc. If you can’t do all of these, establish some priorities and set up fewer searches. Checking them should only take a few minutes a day.

Second, we discussed using Twitter to build your brand. This is the most time-consuming aspect of making Twitter work, and while we think it’s worth the time not everyone will agree. This is where cross-posting can come in handy. You can use your Twitter manager to publish your Facebook posts as tweets – same content, two streams. You can do the same with blog posts (every Zavee Thinking post is automatically tweeted as soon as it’s published). Cross-posting isn’t a substitute for frequent tweeting, but it’s a reasonable compromise between committing to a major brand-building campaign on Twitter and ignoring your brand altogether.

Third, we pointed out how Twitter can generate leads. There is a passive and an active component to using Twitter this way. The passive part involves setting up searches for keywords that potential customers are likely to use when tweeting. The active part involves tweeting with those same keywords. Not enough time to do both? Just set up and monitor the searches and see how that works. You may need to adjust the search terms but that still should take less time than actively tweeting to gain leads. As you get better at finding potential customers on Twitter, however, don’t be surprised if you find yourself spending more time building those relationships online.

Finally, we recommended using Twitter as a customer service channel. At a minimum, you should use your Twitter manager to display mentions of your business on Twitter. Whether and how you respond to tweets that mention your business is up to you, but there is no reason not to see what people tweet about you.

We think that this minimalist approach to Twitter is a good way to start, especially if you don’t think you have a lot of time for Twitter. We also think it’s likely that you will ramp up your Twitter strategy as you gain experience with the medium. Take an hour or two on a weekend afternoon to get familiar with one of the Twitter management applications and play around with both searches and cross-posting. Let the technology do some of the work and you can get value out of Twitter without putting in more time than you want.

The Zavee takeaway:

• Use a third party Twitter manager for multiple searches and to publish Facebook posts on Twitter (and vice versa).
• An active tweeting strategy takes more time than reading relevant tweets, so if time is an issue focus on using Twitter passively – at least for now.
• Don’t be surprised if you find yourself spending more time on Twitter than you expected – not because it wastes your time but because it builds your business.

The Washington Post (via Dion Hinchcliffe)

The article cites Nielsen data that 70% of Internet users trust online recommendations and reviews (we cited the same study here), and quotes a Boston University professor as to why: “[C]onnecting with other consumers is more helpful [than traditional ad messages]. It’s more fun. Consumers love to interact.” The article also reports that digital word-of-mouth marketing is expected to top $3 billion a year by 2013.
The article describes at some length how marketers and agencies are using Social Media tools to influence customer perceptions, including by sponsoring posts and tweets. This is a controversial subject that has been discussed extensively online, including by us. Sponsorship raises issues about the nature of Social Media, including whether media such as Twitter will eventually become less effective if sponsored tweets become more prevalent.

Sponsorship also inevitably raises the issue of disclosure: when and how prominently to disclose, and whether even full disclosure can prevent consumers from losing trust in the communication and, by extension, in the marketer itself. All of the agencies mentioned in the story claim that they fully disclose any sponsorship, either with a hashtag such as “#ad” or some other signifier such as “(sponsored)”.

Interestingly, however, the Post reporter seems openly skeptical about whether the average user understands that these communications are sponsored. A writer for Time voices similar concerns. This is a perspective that we all would do well to keep in mind. Much of the online commentary about sponsored tweets and posts seems to focus on issues other than whether the consumer comprehends the disclosure. If it’s true that casual users might actually be misled (as opposed to merely annoyed) by sponsored tweets and posts, marketers should be extra cautious before launching a Social Media campaign that involves sponsored communications.

The Zavee takeaway:

• It’s official: Social Media Marketing has arrived.
• Users trust online recommendations and reviews. Let’s keep it that way.
• Sponsored tweets and posts raise a lot of issues. If the risk of misleading consumers is one of them, it’s time to think twice about the tactic.

One of the things that is working well is our merchant search capability. Every Zavee user – merchant, shopper and cause – is precisely geo-located, so Zavee can center a search on a specific shopper and display the merchants within a true radius. This capability lets us do a lot of interesting things. One thing we can do is promote merchants to shoppers based on distance.

Our new “Featured Merchants” capability, which we are introducing this week, highlights specific merchants for a week at a time. However, to keep relevance and interest high, shoppers will see only those Featured Merchants within the radius they specify. In other words, shoppers in Fort Lauderdale will see a different list of Featured Merchants than shoppers in West Palm Beach.

This week’s crop of Featured Merchants provides a wonderful cross-section of the forward-thinking merchants who have joined Zavee:

Minuteman Press in Boca Raton is a full color commercial printing house that can produce a wide variety of printed materials, from brochures and catalogs to corporate letterhead and business cards to signs and banners. Minuteman is one of the few South Florida printers with the expertise to operate the world-renowned Heidelberg line of full-color presses.

Custom Vision Care in West Boca specializes in the most advanced techniques and technologies create a customized visual rehabilitation program for every patient. Above and beyond conventional lenses and treatments, Dr. Marotte and his staff maximize patients’ visual efficiency, visual comfort and safety. Visit Dr. Marrotte for a personal eye exam and visual needs consultation.

Ultra Cleaners Pointe at Wellington Green is the west county location of one of South Florida’s premier dry cleaners. Ultra Cleaners is continually improving its processes, investing in new state-of-the art equipment, and constantly recruiting skilled employees. Not near Wellington? Search on Zavee to locate Ultra’s other convenient locations.

Jimmy’s Bistro is one of the best-kept secrets in Delray’s exciting restaurant scene – but it won’t be a secret for long. The owner, Jimmy, has a resume that would be the envy of any chef in Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale or Miami. Jimmy worked in New York for 10 years at world-class restaurants such as Aureole and Le Chantilly. He also is one of the few American chefs in South Florida who worked for a year and a half at some of leading restaurants in Paris, including famed brasserie Zephyr and trendy bistro La Robe et le Palais.

Coral Springs Flowers & Events has supplied flowers and floral arrangements for some of the area’s most elegant events. With an outstanding reputation for the freshest products and the most creative concepts, Corals Springs Flowers & Events should be at the top of the list for everyone who is looking for a high-end floral solution.

Coral Springs-based David Seidner, P.T., D.C. says, “You’re in pain, I can help.” As the only dual-licensed doctor in all of South Florida with professional medical expertise as both a Physical Therapist as well as Chiropractic physician he can assure you that you will receive extraordinary treatment and care supported by the most advanced equipment and technology.

Located in North Lauderdale, A.S.E. Car Care Specialists is a complete auto repair facility. A.S.E. technicians can handle not just the usual tire repairs and oil changes but are fully qualified to perform complete engine rebuilding and electrical rewiring and repair. Wonder where the “A.S.E.” name comes from? Every one of their mechanics is certified by the prestigious National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence.

From fires to floods, ServiceMaster Clean by Robinson is Broward County’s disaster recovery specialist. Based in Fort Lauderdale but willing to travel anywhere, ServiceMaster Clean operates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year to insure timely disaster restoration response to restore your home or get your business back in business!

Watch for more new features and capabilities coming soon!

Anyone who has kids, or who was one fairly recently, will remember Sesame Street’s Lugosi-eque math whiz, Count von Count. The Count would count anything, anytime, anywhere. And he was much better at it than, say, The Spanish Inquisition:

Imagine, then, what the Count – let alone the Inquisition – would have to say about this: a Flash-based application that provides a real-time count of Social Media activity. Courtesy of Gary Hayes’ Personalize Media blog, here is Gary’s Social Media counter:

Visit Gary’s blog if you want to know about his sources, but the details are almost beside the point. Spend even a minute watching the numbers cascade and you are sure to be convinced – if you weren’t already – that Social Media is a communications channel (or group of channels) that marketers cannot afford to ignore. If you are marketer with a small company and a small budget, Social Media is perfect for you. If you are just starting out, take the simple advice that you’ll get from everyone: listen first.

And if you would like to learn about a Social Media marketing program exclusively for local merchants, feel free to get in touch with us here at Zavee.