George Moen

HST vs No HST - A New Poll - A New App

Tue, 24 May 2011 06:38:18 -0700

HST vs No HST - Take A New Poll

Social Media has provided a new platform for the

average citizen to engage in all forms of discussion

in social, business and political issues. We in BC are

faced with a vote in June 2011 to give our opinion

on the HST.

What I have done is a set up a Poll with some very

cool and new software I am testing call Quik Piq.

It is real easy and only takes a few minutes. I set

up the poll right from my iPhone in under 5 mins.

I have been running a couple of fun polls over the

past while and decided to use it to see what people

are really saying about the HST.

Take Poll here - it is simple as a click!

Support / Don't Support HST:

http://quikpiq.com/jzwhvq4h

Here are a couple of more links that you might find

of interest if you get a vote. If you don't vote you

don't get to bitch! There are people around the world

that are fighting in the streets for the privilege many

in Canada take for granted.

HST Public Forums: http://www.hstpublicforums.ca/

About Quik Piq: http://quikpiq.com/polls/home

Download App: http://bit.ly/mNQc4l

In conclusion, I like the fact that I can take my own poll

and don't have to wait for the "traditional" sources to

send me the info. We live in interesting times.

Permalink | Leave a comment »

The George Moen Guru List - How I Struck Gold

Sun, 27 Mar 2011 07:10:00 -0700

The George Moen Guru List - How / Why It Happened!

Over the years I have assembled a list of people known and unknown

that I recently called "My Guru List". I found when I was looking for

information and trying to figure stuff out I would read , meet , talk to

this group. Many you will know and I simply don't have direct access

but can read their thoughts and opinions. Others are folks who I live

near and can meet for coffee or run into at different events to get their

take on things from the economy , politics and most recently one of

my passion-social media.

Over the past few years I learned a very valuable lesson and it is one

that took me some time to learn. I listen to the likes of Paul Krugman

Richard Russell , Nouriel Roubini , Meredith Whitney , Jim Rogers

and more. What happened is that I sold real estate at the right time,

then the stocks at the right time, sold income trusts at the right time,

bought bonds at the right time and boy did I buy gold and silver at the

right time. The net results was every year including 08 / 09 & 10 have

all been positive years to the investments I have.

I do not say that to brag or prove I am a shrewd investor. But I did not

get lucky...I listened. When the "conventional" world was saying

stuff and much what the clients wanted to hear these folks mentioned

above were painting a different view and had you listened anyone

could have done what I had done.

I guess the point I am trying to make is this. At the end of the day

it comes down to me. If I do not let in other opinions and do not

constantly test what I think to be true I run the risk of running with the

herd and we can see where that got us aka "meltdown 2008".

So a while back I started to share this brain trust with the world in

a list on Twitter I call "My Guru's":

See List: http://twitter.com/#/list/georgemoen/my-gurus

You can follow them or even follow the list. It is the best few clicks

you can do for brain food.

Then when "Paper.Li" came along I could create the "George Moen's

Guru Daily": Here you can see their best stuff each day in a online

newspaper format. You can even subscribe to remind you to go read.

I do even to my own paper and I find gems everyday. It allows me

to filter down to the relevant stuff on twitter.

See Paper: http://bit.ly/i0WlzJ

And most recently I have now launched my Guru section on my Dot

Tel so I can provide even more information on the Guru Group. I will

be adding 1 or 2 a week over the next few months. My first one is

Paul Krugman. He writes for the NY Times and is probably what will

encourage me to buy a subscription ( they are going paid version ) and

it's not cheap as subscriptions go..couple of hundred a year.

The Sample: Krugman - http://paul-krugman.the-guru-list.georgemoen.tel/

The Section: http://the-guru-list.georgemoen.tel/

I will continue to add to the list. I get to meet a lot of fascinating people

in what I do and everyone has a story and something to say. I find

listening and reading is way more valuable and profitable. I hope you

find your gems. And most importantly go be some one's Guru!

Permalink | Leave a comment »

PNEC2011 Are Universities Doing Enough?

Sun, 06 Feb 2011 06:27:00 -0800

PNEC2011 Are Universities Doing Enough?

This past weekend I was invited onto the Venture Capital &

Entrepreneurship Panel to talk and answer questions. The

audience consisted mostly of students and a few folks from the

rest of the community. My fellow panellist were awesome

group and I find I tend to learn as well as chat in these sessions.

I have developed a bit of a profile for each one of them here.

Learn More About PNEC 2011 Here:

http://pnec2011.past-events.speaking.georgemoen.tel/

The Venture Capital & Entrepreneurship Panel Here:

http://bit.ly/hJXIcd

One of the questions we got from the floor was from a VC in

the room ( he asked a bunch of great questions ) was the
Sauder School of Business doing enough to connect the students

with the Business Community. I got the feeling he did not

think so. If you asked me that 10 years ago I would said "no way".

I have done a 180 and I would say they are doing a great job.

Over the past couple of weeks I spoke at this event ( PNEC 2011 )

and at a Sauder sponsored Networking event downtown. I am

also speaking at two more over the next few months. This did

not happen in my time at Sauder.

Also, what I was impressed with is that these events are run

by the students themselves. I am not sure if they have any folks

standing in the background or mentoring but I have yet to see

that at the two events I have attended.

Further, these events are as well run as any I have seen in the

city. In fact they really have their stuff together and lots of

of the students are involved when I was on site. ( Great training ).

I have to applaud the Sauder School of Business for their efforts. I

have been in the past a critic of most educational institutions

disconnect but I have to say this no longer the case. Is there still

more to do sure. I think there is room to improve particularly in

teaching students the "art of biz to biz networking" that is a huge

gap and a skill that is very important in business today.

I am speaking at a couple of more Sauder School events and am

looking forward to connecting again. Check Out:

The Me Inc Conference: http://bit.ly/hRj2i1

Style In The City 2011: http://bit.ly/idMVDo

The student today is not the student of my time. We were not

bad.. but these young people today are focused , smart and talented.

We are in good hands .

Thanks to Kim Nguyen , Jason Heng , Adam Millard , Chloe Gow-Jarrett

and the rest of the team @ PNEC 2011 for having me. I had a blast.

And thanks for giving me the opportunity to hang out with you all.

As I said above I always learn as well as share knowledge at these

events. Thanks Again.

George Moen - Sauder School Grad.. ( even more proud of it ).

Permalink | Leave a comment »

Scott Stratten - The Best Marketing Tip He Never Gave!

Sat, 29 Jan 2011 09:57:00 -0800

Scott Stratten - The Best Marketing Tip He Never Gave!

In December of 2010 I have the privilege to sit on a Panel

with Scott Stratten @unmarketing & Gillian Shaw @gillianshaw

and we talked about Social Media..I had a blast going back

and forth with these two fine minds!

Typically when I speak or do panels I arrive early to get a

feel for the audience and event. I got there just in time to

see Scott do his presentation and he was great..the guy

knows his stuff. Get his book its worth the investment

in your marketing efforts.

Details Here: http://unmarketing.my-library.georgemoen.tel/

However the great marketing tip I took away was not from

the talk or the book ( I do use many ) but was what he said

about the use of cell phones during the talk. He said take

them out, tweet, post, do facebook or even blog what ever

and if you like something talk about it in real time. So like

many in the room I did. Who does that..all our life we are

told to put the dam things away. I instantly saw the marketing

brilliance. I could not wait to try and see if it worked for me.

Well I did not have to wait long.

Fast forward to Jan 27, 2011. I am the keynote at the

Vernon Chamber of Commerce @vernonchamber and after

the audience was told to put their phones away and on

silent I start my speech going against my hosts requests

( they were OK in the end ). I gave them all permission to take

out their phones of what ever model and if you use social media

post in real time during my speech. Out comes the phones on

mass. I mean I look around the room earlier and many

are doing the "sneak under the table check" ( anyway..

come on.... we know we all do it at some point ;)

Here is the good news...I can show you what happen as

a result of this new experiment in Social Media. It is really

cool and I have to tell you this will be incorporated into all

my presentations. It is good for the hosts, in this case

the Vernon Chamber of Commerce and it is good for me

because I am getting real time feedback and testimonials.

( I would never get most of this anyway ). We both got a

ton more of brand extension, they got as much if not more

from my talk as a result and I got a lot of feedback I can

share in the future. Here are couple of links that really

give you a feel of what I am talking about.

The Host: http://bit.ly/hUE4VA

The Feedback: http://bit.ly/g5KjUi

The Twitter Stream: Search http://bit.ly/ea7Gab

#Vernon George Moen ( It's Impressive )

I got great blog feedback, Pictures of the event and a lot

of brand recognition on both facebook and twitter.

As a speaker I can provide a lot more value to host and

their audience can share with even a wider audience the

benefits they are bringing to their members and community.

I did not count the number of impressions and views but

it is safe to say it is the 10's of K or 100's of K with the

amount of posts and RT's on Twitter.

We are in a different time and we have a vast tool kit at our

fingertips...time to break some rules :) We intend to do

that at our #BlenzRedBand Launch on Feb 1, 2011 in Yaletown

Check Out: http://www.blenzredband.com

Event: http://on.fb.me/hvjprt Feb 1, 2011 5:00 PM

Posting / Tweeting / Foursquare all in facetime join us for yet

another grand Social Media experiment.

Special Note to the folks in Vernon. If you have any content

I have miss and want a link on the Feedback page let me know

and I will get you up there and besides link backs are good

for your SEO..:)

Again thanks to the team @ Vernon Chamber of Commerce,

President Deb Leroux of Harris Flowers and a special thank

to Val Trevis who reached out to me via Social Media, built

this relationship and brought me to Vernon...had a blast!

George Moen

Permalink | Leave a comment »

Come In For A Blenz Coffee - Leave With A Date!

Sat, 22 Jan 2011 07:05:00 -0800

Come In For A Blenz Coffee - Leave With A Date!

Now there is a competitive advantage if I have ever heard of one! And soon

( starting Feb 1, 2011 ) we are going to do exactly that at our Blenz Coffee

Stores across British Columbia. It is call the Blenz Red Band Promotion and

the program was inspired by a young lady by the name of Yuliya Talmazan.

Learn more here: http://blenzredband.com/the-team/yuliya-talmazan/

So here is how it all happened. She connects thru Twitter with a direct

message and say's hi and she has this marketing idea she wanted to bounce

of me. Typically this is always done by our marketing department but some-

thing just told me do take the meeting myself. She told me later that she

had no idea I would meet her and within a few days she was in my office

telling about this cool promotion.

The old saying goes "If you keep doing the same thing - you will get the

same results" and I am looking at our brand and saying you know we want

to be different so let's start doing some different stuff. This totally fits the

program.

A coffee place today is a lot of things. It's a place to get a drink. some food

, have a meeting , park your butt between meetings and a lot more. Over

the years it is a place to hang out and also meet a new person ( date ) and

simply connect. Social media is starting to support even a deeper connection

you can see that big time with Foursquare. The Foursquare So Media platform

has really taken hold in our operations...we have mayors! If you want to learn

more about this cool engagement

tool check it out.

Learn more here: http://foursquare.com/

So we went to work and started to scope out the promotion and build the

Blenz Red Band program and has this taken a life of it's own. Now it has

become a major promotion and is what we called a complete "Integrated

Marketing" initiative with a lot of moving parts. So I got to thinking why

not talk about that and while we running this promotion I will drop the odd

blog about what and how we are doing it and specifically how we are using

many aspects of Social Media in support.

You see I am convinced that Social Media is a game changer. More

importantly individuals and small companies can use the power of Social

Media and have a huge impact both on sales and their bottom line. Never

before in the history of business has the tools been made available to

compete globally and or locally for the SME / SOHO markets.

All that said..many are still trying to figure it all out and how it works.

Well we will share some of that with you over the next 5 weeks. I will dive

into some of the components and you can track this online. Will it work...

sure hope so! But ask me in March. ( you will know I have posted by

notices popping up in the my twitter account ).

Check out Blenz Red Band Here: http://blenzredband.com/

Press Release Here: http://bit.ly/gH6ECx

George C ya on the side of this one ;)

Everything about me is here: http://www.georgemoen.tel

Permalink | Leave a comment »

George Moen Launches Daily Newspaper

Sun, 02 Jan 2011 09:16:00 -0800

George Moen Launches Daily Newspaper Jan 2011

Kinda a catchy line don't you think and totally real. I have some of the best reporters

in the world. They write everyday about some of the coolest and intelligent topics 24

hours a day 7 days a week - It's Free to Read and it's Free to produce..What it is!

The George Moen Daily Guru.

http://paper.li/georgemoen/my-gurus

It is produced on a new platform from paper.li they describe their platform like this:

"Read Twitter and Facebook as a daily newspaper" and it's true. You can take a

couple of approaches with it. What I did was took my "Guru List" on Twitter and

have their posts ( tweets ) organized in a online Newspaper format. It brings in

online content in the form of text, photo's and videos. It quite unique actually.

You can schedule as many issues as you want , track views and even allows you

to develop a subsciber list. Once it is generated you can have it post to your Twitter

account and this is all done automatically once you have set it up and that only takes

a few mins. After the initial set up your done. ( unless you want to change frequency ,

reporters etc .)

I was not sure at first and wondered if it was just more spam. Then a funny thing

happened. I started to read it. When I caught a headline I liked I read it. I found that

it quite useful to track the content produced from the list of thought leaders I have

put together. ( See Guru list link below ).

Then I found that it started to get views and a couple of people have already

subscribed. I get to build my brand awareness while at the same time organize the

news the way I want. Kinda like PointCast if you remember back to the late 90's

( I miss that platform...this is not the same but has elements. ).

I have no idea where this goes but I like it.

I also find that links to stuff I post on Twitter is starting to show up in other people's

Newspapers, if can call them that. So I again is an extension of my posts on Twitter

gaining yet more reach.

Anyway, it's all good and I suspect there will be a wide range of opinions about this

new strategy but you just have to appreciate the creative mind of man.

More About The Platform Here:

http://paper.li/

Made it to my list of social media tools I use here:

http://social-media-tools.social-media.georgemoen.tel/

So who made my Guru list?: Guy Kawasaki , Ryan Holmes ( Hoot Suite ) ,

Shane Gibson, Gillian Shaw ( Van Sun ), Nouriel Roubini , ( He's Very Cool )

David Chalk , Pete Cashmore ( Mashable ) , Rich Patterson and a few more

very intellegent people worthy of a follow. Check out the complete list here.

( or you can read them everyday if you subscribe to the feed ).

http://twitter.com/georgemoen/my-gurus/members

So, the only resolution I kinda made was to post more to my blogs..so Jan 2, 2011

I get started. Let's see how I do. Got lots of cools stuff in the hopper including one

using Social Media in a Blenz Valentines Day Promo...stay tuned and I hope 2011

finds you well.

George Moen

http://www.georgemoen.tel

What's New:

http://what-is-new.georgemoen.tel/

Permalink | Leave a comment »

Dot-Tel - Why Are Digital Business Cards Gaining Steam-Fast!

Sat, 20 Nov 2010 07:45:56 -0800

.Dot-Tel - Why Are Digital Business Cards Gaining Steam-Fast!

I recently completed a series of Interview with an internet based

show called Fuel Radio. http://twitter.com/fuelradioinspir

Check Out: http://fuel-radio-dot-tel.george-moen.in-the-news.georgemoen.tel/

The host Rod Janz ( http://www.twitter.com/rjanz ) asked me to explain how

my .Tel ( Dot Tel ) fits into my Social Media strategy and I explained how it

really is the "Hub" or central place on the net.

The specific interview can be heard hear. So if you want to find an affordable

solution check out this interview...it is about 14 mins

The Interview: http://fuelradio.com/?p=1433

Learn More About .Tel here and find out if you your name is available...I urge

you to protect your brand.

Search Your .tel: http://hobn.registertel.com

Enjoy.

Learn all about George Moen @ where else http://www.georgemoen.tel

Permalink | Leave a comment »

Blenz Coffee Giving Away iPad & Free Advertising To App Developers

Tue, 13 Jul 2010 08:22:34 -0700

Blenz Coffee Giving Away iPads & Free Advertising To App Developers

Blenz Coffee wants to connect with British Columbia Based iPhone & iPad

App developers. From July 19th thru Sept 4th or so we will be running a

major promotion. We are going to be giving away a couple of the hard

to get iPads ( 3 G enabled ) with our Promotional Partner Simply Computing

( Canada's largest Apple dealer ).

Here are just a couple of Apps that have been developed in our own

back yard:

Carrot Lines: http://bit.ly/dtf1Xc ( Blenz nutritional information is now

being placed on this platform. Very smart lady and very cool app. )

Metro News: http://bit.ly/amkzbT Metro and Blenz continue to team up

with innovative programs..miss my paper can grab it here.

Hootsuite: http://bit.ly/ahnOJx To build any serious Social Media platform

you need Hootsuite. I use it constantly.

Included in that promotion Blenz will feature apps for both the iPad and

iPhone platforms. The companies we select will be provided a lot of free

advertising on the Blenz internal digital network. See link below.

See Blenz Digital Network: http://bit.ly/aJJVgZ

The promotion will run both on the the Customer Display Units ( CDU's )

where you place your order..2 in this pic and on the Poster Digital display

( the screen on the right side of this pic ). We develop the Ad you get

the final approval and then all our customers get to see your work. It is

that simple.

If you know anyone that fits this have them connect us @ Blenz Coffee

by phone 604-682-2995 or have them track me down via my .Tel See

http://www.georgemoen.tel

We have other cool giveaways from Simply and we will let you in on this

later. They will also be holding free training sessions on how to use both

the iPhone and iPad in Biz...again more on that later.

George Moen

Permalink | Leave a comment »

Blenz Coffee Giving Away iPads & Free Advertising To App Developers

Tue, 13 Jul 2010 08:17:00 -0700

Blenz Coffee Giving Away iPads & Free Advertising To App Developers

Blenz Coffee wants to connect with British Columbia Based iPhone & iPad
App developers. From July 19th thru Sept 4th or so we will be running a
major promotion. We are going to be giving away a couple of the hard
to get iPads ( 3 G enabled ) with our Promotional Partner Simply Computing
( Canada's largest Apple dealer ).

Here are just a couple of Apps that have been developed in our own
back yard:

Carrot Lines: http://bit.ly/dtf1Xc ( Blenz nutritional information is now
being placed on this platform. Very smart lady and very cool app. )

Metro News: http://bit.ly/amkzbT Metro and Blenz continue to team up
with innovative programs..miss my paper can grab it here.

Hootsuite: http://bit.ly/ahnOJx To build any serious Social Media platform
you need Hootsuite. I use it constantly.

Included in that promotion Blenz will feature apps for both the iPad and
iPhone platforms. The companies we select will be provided a lot of free
advertising on the Blenz internal digital network. See link below.

See Blenz Digital Network: http://bit.ly/aJJVgZ

The promotion will run both on the the Customer Display Units ( CDU's )
where you place your order..2 in this pic and on the Poster Digital display
( the screen on the right side of this pic ). We develop the Ad you get
the final approval and then all our customers get to see your work. It is
that simple.

If you know anyone that fits this have them connect us @ Blenz Coffee
by phone 604-682-2995 or have them track me down via my .Tel See

http://www.georgemoen.tel

We have other cool giveaways from Simply and we will let you in on this
later. They will also be holding free training sessions on how to use both
the iPhone and iPad in Biz...again more on that later.

George Moen

Permalink | Leave a comment »

How To Use Social Media To Raise Funds For Charities & Non-Profits!

Tue, 08 Jun 2010 06:25:00 -0700

Over the next 48 hours we @ Blenz Coffee are supporting a very interesting

initiative that I wanted to share with you today. It involves using Social Media

to raise funds for the "Make A Wish Foundation".

The concept is simple. Set up an account with a new platform in this space,

Kasu Funding.

See: http://www.kasufunding.com/

Have a cause: In our example we will use the Make A Wish Foundation.

See: http://www.makeawishbc.ca/index.php

Then working with a group of supporters spread the word using Social Media

directing them to a specific campaign. The Specific Funding event,

In the Social Media platforms it is donate $20.00 and inform your community

about what you did..simple really.

See: http://funds.kasufunding.com/24hrCampaign/WishitForward

Learn more about the platform behind this project:

See: http://www.kasufunding.com/?q=node/15

Over the years I have seen many of my friends and business associates

support a large number of great causes. With the advent of Social Media,

Non-Profits they can now get the word out to a much wider audience using the

various Social Media ( ie: Twitter, Facebook etc. ). - simply a very affordable

marketing alternative.

Today there is a Meetup hosted by Shane Gibson @shanegibson and Kasu

Funding @kasufunding where you can learn first hand how this strategy can be

used from child's sports team to any Charity of any size. Do you belong to an

organization that is in need of more funding? This may provide you with some

ideas to take back to your community.

Note: I will be posting some of our SocMedia along with Shane Gibson on both

our personal and corporate Social Media platforms ( ie Twitter @georgemoen

@shanegibson @blenzcoffee ). over the the next 24-48 hours.

Here are the details of the Networking Event to launch the "Wish It Forward"

event. See how others are doing it!

Date: June 8, 2010 from 5:30pm to 8pm

Place: Ceilis Irish Pub (Rooftop Patio) Smithe Street

Join: http://vancouvertweetup.com/events/make-a-wish-tweetup-organized

Come and network with some of Vancouver's top Social Media folks and learn

about how you can raise funds for the organizations you support.

The 1st beer is on the Boys'

See You There: George Moen - Blenz Coffee

Permalink | Leave a comment »

Why Did 100 People Wanna Look @ My A Pic Of My AM Coffee ?

Tue, 25 May 2010 21:19:00 -0700

Why Did 100 People Wanna Look @ My A Pic Of My AM Coffee ?

My Twitpic Account: http://twitpic.com/photos/georgemoen

If you told me a year ago that 107 people and counting would look @ a picture of a cup of

coffee I had one morning ....I could have come up with a couple of quips...like you have to

be Sh__tin me! Well the link below will prove my point...come on you know you wanna!

Click on it! Be 108 :) It is a pretty cool cup of coffee !

See My Coffee :)

http://twitpic.com/1liteq

If you don't I will not be offended..trust me! I went thru a wide range of thoughts first after

my kinda Duh moment...which brought me to ahhh....another Social Media tool. I take a

quick picture on my new iphone..post it to my Twitpic account ..which automatically posts

it to my Twitter account that starts the viral ball rolling or so I think anyway.

Now opening a Twitpic account is about the easiest thing you can do and it as most of this

stuff free. Take a pic...send it via e mail and presto ...you are marketing as in my case or

can send you friends pics... of your life stream whole lotta uses actually.

See Twitpic:

http://twitpic.com

In my case and and the in the case of Blenz Coffee, my focus is generally business

applications and so far it is quite interesting. Just recently, as mentioned in my previous

posts we have launched a new drink Category - Protein Shakes and I was mentioning

how we are using Social Media in our stores and took a picture of our Customer Display

Unit. ( it is the video screen that faces you as a customer when your order is being

taken by one of our team members. ). The picture was simply a screen capture of how

we run an in store Twitter contest and mentioning our sponsors. That one kinda really

hit home with over 230 views in just a few days.

See Social Media - In Store:

http://twitpic.com/1p7oan

What I like about this type of marketing is simply the ROI. Take a picture, send an E Mail

and type out a short one liner and your are viewed by 230 plus people so far. And I am a rookie.

Other Cool Applications:

Now it is just not me that is generating the traffic. Picked this up on Twitter a few days

ago. This is someone else mentioning our brand on Twitter using a Twitpic App. This is

what the post said:

@TheStyleSpy: Spotted @blenzcoffee in South Granville @JSchaeffle

r - this one's for you! http: // twitpic.com/1qgl0m - that's funny

Picture Of A Very Cool Cat: http://twitpic.com/1qgl0m

Now this pic on Twitpic got 300 plus views @ the time of this post. Very cool indeed! And

a number of winners in the marketing process...Blenz went along for the ride. ( Earned

Media ..my fav. ).

Even When Your Not Looking:

Just a few hours before I wrote this post my good friend Rich Patterson - Big Coast Brands

had a grand opening of his new Biz and someone posted this.

Well it is official with John Furlong cutting the ribbon #BigCoastBrands is open! @pattersonbrands

See John Furlong: http://tweetphoto.com/23963630

Presto...even more exposure...45 people who were not at the party including me click on it to

see John Furlong hangin with Rich ( name dropper ;). Anyway, you get the idea.

Where do I go from here...pretty simple really, take interesting pictures send to your social

media platform and see what the world brings back I guess. Since I now have my Twitter

feed connected to my Facebook & LinkedIN accounts I am getting that reach also.

One thought is that I want to tell my story about Blenz in a more interesting way and this is

just one of the Social Media tools in our overall marketing strategy.

And if you look at the picture of my breakfast...I may have issues but you just joined me ;)

My Twitpic Account: http://twitpic.com/photos/georgemoen

George Moen...out!

Permalink | Leave a comment »

LinkedIn Vs Twitter or Both - How To Build Social Media Interconnectivity

Sat, 22 May 2010 07:48:23 -0700

LinkedIn Vs Twitter or Both - How To Build Social Media Interconnectivity

I decided to take a break from posting about our Protein Shake promotion efforts

and chat about a little gem I recently stumbled upon by accident tinkering with

my various social media platforms. It involves marketing my Twitter account and

LinkedIn accounts together in a very simple but effective marketing effort.

First, as with many folks using social media, I have my Twitter posts feed into both

my LinkedIn & Facebook accounts. In other words, when I post something on

Twitter some, if not all, my posts find their way into my L'IN & FB info feeds. In

the media business they would call this greater reach. ( def. below ). You may

want to consider if this fits into your marketing strategies... What I like about it

is that it allows me to maintain some kind of activity in these other platforms

without having to constantly maintain all three. Twitter works for me and I can

build Facebook and LinkedIn almost by default.

Side Note: I have noticed in my particular case that both build "deeper and

trusted" relationships...than does Twitter. ( as of this post ).

Anyway, here is the Tip:

It stated with a little post and all it said was:

On Linkedin ? http://ca.linkedin.com/in/georgemoen Feel free to connect!

In very simple terms it was informing anyone following me on Twitter that

I had a LinkedIn account and it was OK to request a connect. I had no idea

if it would work or not it was a simple post to Twitter and I was on to my next

thing what ever that was..

I checked my E mail a few hours later...10 requests. Whoa, I got 10 requests

a week maybe...( I opened an account and 75 percent were incoming requests ).

To say I was a passive LinkenIN user would have been an understatement :)

OK, one time thing-maybe...a few days later...same kinda post...5-6 requests....

then I started a "weekly" post and same thing...settled in at 5-6. Last night I was

trying to set up my "Hootsuite" scheduled post and hit submit by mistake and

within a few mins. boom 6 requests.

So, the strategy now is to send out 2 posts ( like the one above ) each week.

spread a few days apart and see what happens. So far so good.

At this point given my schedule and what else I do this is about what I can

handle. I am a firm believer in redundancy and having "multiple touch points".

Hey, one or more of these platforms which I pay nothing for could simply go

away and all this personal capital I have invested is then wasted. By having

the "interconnected" social platforms built like this I am getting now further

reach in my networking while at the same time reducing my downstream risk

of it "ALL" going away.

OK, maybe I am the only one that did not know this or not...no matter there

ya have it. Social Media is like an onion and you just have to keep peeling off

the layers....

Saturday AM blog post done...back to trying to figure this out. I may try the

same tactic in Facebook - we`ll see.

See Interconnectivity: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interconnectivity

See Media Reach: http://www.answers.com/topic/media-reach

George Moen

http://www.georgemoen.tel

Permalink | Leave a comment »

Part 6: Blenz Protein Shake Launch - What Is Posterous-New Social Media Tool !

Sat, 15 May 2010 08:17:26 -0700

Part 6: Blenz Protein Shake Launch - What Is Posterous-New Social Media Tool !

( where The medium is the message " )

It was not that long ago that on my self imposed education regarding Social Media

I stumbled across Posterous. In simple terms, it is a blogging platform that I immediately

liked for one very specific reason...I could type an E mail in Gmail and hit send and within

a few seconds it was posted as I set it up in the E Mail. I realized I am kinda at that

place where I want results and not have to learn yet another piece of online software

to get to the end game...Posterous delivers that to me.

OK that was cool. I still had to write an intelligent blogs...which is still up for debate.

Then I started to see the stats come in and more importantly I started to get a "following"

( You can subscribe to my Posterous Blog .. it is a very interesting feature ). Results

begets more bloggin I find ;).

Key Links

Here Is My Public Link:

http://posterous.com/site/profile/georgemoen

You can see my "Subscribers" Here

http://posterous.com/people/subscribers/georgemoen

A few people I know but most I don't some how found me. The list grows slowly but

it is growing.

The Traffic:

OK here was the BIG surprise...every post I send out now gets over 100 views within

24 hours. I have no idea if that is a lot or not but within a few days it grows into

the 100's ( The back end admin has a traffic counter...good stats program by the way ).

What I find as I grow the site the past posts seem to continue to gather viewers of

previous content quite well.

Getting Started:

Here is a link to a piece on Backweb 2.0 you might find useful:

http://www.blackweb20.com/2009/07/08/getting-started-with-posterous/

FAQ On Posterous:

http://posterous.com/faq

Action Item:

I really don't like loosing any of my brands online and I would suggest everyone grab

their personal brand and/or company brands while the grabbing is good. You can

manage multiple accounts from the same master account and I have to admit I "reserved"

a few for future use...lots of very good "keywords" are available.

How Does It Tie Into Our Social Media Protein Drink Launch Strategy:

And Oh Ya...What is it connection to our latest online Social Media Experiment. I have

used it to track the Blenz Protein Shake roll out posting information on our various

Social Media strategies..as the the late Marshall McLuhan said " The medium is the

message " I took the advice right out of the gate from @shanegibson that the sales

pitch was going to fail in social media. ( he was right ). We avoided that for the most part.

We decided right from the start of our Social Media strategy that we aligned our self to

the notion that people buy from people/companies they like and trust. ( Thanks Howard

Olsen ) I know I do. So we talk about the Protein Shake promotion and our strategies

behind it while a the same time create awareness about this new category @blenzcoffee .

So we provide some value in "how we do it" so others may judge for themselves if they

works for them while at the same time build some social capital...we are pretty sure it

is working ;) So there ya have it.

Network and share without expectation...the world generally reciprocates over time...

which has been my experience to date....

Let's see how this turns out: You can join us in person:

http://blenzcommunity.com/?p=654

Or you can join us online Monday May 17th 4:00 pm to 7:pm

http://www.blenzcommunity.com/live/

We will be broadcasting live from this site. ( More on that here )

http://bit.ly/b7XMQy

Conclusion:

I now consider Posterous to be one of my/Blenz tools in our Social Media Strategy.

My feeling is that this may reach a tipping point and get a lot bigger fast. It took

Twitter and Facebook a while to ramp up and I feel Posterous has a chance of doing just

that. That said, it is already delivered value to me and got me Blogging where in the past

it was very spotty. At some point, I can take control of the domain and have a custom one,

but for now this works for me. It is free, sets up in a few mins., and best of all it works.

So there ya have it!

George Moen

Part VII - Coming Soon

http://www.georgemoen.tel

Permalink | Leave a comment »

Part 5: Blenz Protein Shake Launch Where Social Media Meets Video-Live ;)

Fri, 14 May 2010 15:52:34 -0700

Part 5: Blenz Protein Shake Launch Where Social Media Meets Video-Live ;)

On Monday May 17th 2010 4:00 pm to 5:00 pm we will be streaming live

from our Blenz @ Bentall 5 in downtown Vancouver to bring some more

attention to our Blenz Protein Shake Launch. I have been working with

video streaming technology in various business Ventures for the past

5-6 years and am constantly amazed at the effectiveness of this medium.

The difference this time is that we are combining the actual stream and

Tech with a Social Media marketing campaign that we hope goes viral

the day of the event. ( best laid plans)....the outcome is still not certain

but here is how we are trying to juice the results.

First, we are bringing in well known local business networking and

Social Media folks Marc Smith @ Amuseconsulting and Marylin Anderson

@ mande2. The TV Hosts ( as we call them ) will be interviewing guests

at the Launch Party so they can talk a bit about themselves and their

company. It will be a free flow for a period of 3 hours.

Our tech partner for the project and sponsor is a company headed by

long time friend and past business associate Ed Clunn from MegaSoft
DVB. They have been testing their backbone and streaming software

to make it easy and affordable to small business and this is kinda their

coming out party to give the local business community a sneak peak

at what they do. They are working to have the "streaming software" on

a laptop connected to a video camera where anyone or any business

can now stream live content ( then it can be archived )...to their website

for a fraction of the costs. It will be a "hosted/service" solutions for many

applications including marketing like this. In other words any company

can have their own "TV Broadcasting" services when and how the want

it...and they have said it will be affordable to the SOHO world....too cool!

So here are a couple of Marketing tactics we are deploying.

1) Started today to chat about it on both @georgemoen & @blenzcoffee

Twitter sites.

2) Using @hootsuite to make sure it connects to our respective Facebook

and Linkedin accounts for more reach.

Note: We have set up these other platforms to grab our twitter feeds

( one time thing...powerful tool ).

3) Make our "site develop" live and get feedback on what is working or

note.

-Found out it SilverLight works well in Explorer / Opera browsers.

-Needs a plug in to work in Safari ( Mac ).

-Had to throttle to feed speed to make sure we eliminate buffering

I am sure we will be find other gremlins over the weekend but that

is why they call it Beta Testing ;)

4) Ask if a few of our key Metro Blenz News Squad to post the link

a few hours before and during the event. They can send them

here:

http://blenzcommunity.com/live/

5) Live Twitter posts on the event and especially who is being

interviewed. ( in real time ). with a link back to the site.

6) Then after the event is over...we will have "archived" the show

and it will be available on the site shortly after the event is over.

So that is the plan. Will we pull it off? Tune in Monday May 17th

between 4 pm and 5 pm PST and find out. ( The link above )........

Special Note:

You can actually see the live stream of downtown Vancouver between

now and the live broadcast to check your viewing capabilities.

Till the next post. Part V1 Soon1

George Moen

Permalink | Leave a comment »

Part 4: Blenz Protein Shake Launch - How We Use Dot Tel In Marketing

Tue, 04 May 2010 07:44:19 -0700

Part 4: Blenz Protein Shake Launch - How We Use Dot Tel

First, I want to provide some background on .Tel. Dot Tel ( .tel )

is one of the newest high level domains that came out in 2009.

It is many things, but I usually explain it as the world's first digital

business card.

Previous Post on Why I got a .Tel here:

http://georgemoen.com/?p=55

We found that a .Tel was an important factor in improving our SEO

particularly with Google. We think it is the http://www.blenzcoffee.tel

that helped us to to the top of the search engines for the key words

- Coffee Franchise. ( google.ca ).

Check out Google: Search Coffee Franchise.

There are many benefits to have a .Tel in your marketing mix and

one of them is the ease of which you can run in with current promotions.

Over the next few days we will update each of or store pages ( like the

sample below )...with our protein shake info and providing the link to the

Twitter contest page. The idea is to first, have new folks follow us on

Twitter to build our Twitter following and second provide an opportunity to

have folks participate in mentioning our brand on the Twitter social media

platform.

Blenz Store - Horseshoe Bay Sample:

http://horseshoe-bay.west-vancouver.blenzcoffee.tel/

See previous Post on how we use Twitter in Contests:

http://georgemoen.posterous.com/part-3-how-blenz-runs-online-twitter-contests

We have been building out our .Tel over the past number of months and

it continues to impress us with the traffic it helps generate. You can see

the number of links this has generated back to our brand.

Search Google: blenzcoffee.tel and you get the picture.

I have to thank Webnames and the folks @ Telnic ( the owners of .Tel )

for their on going support. It only costs $20.00 per year for both domain

registration and hosting. There is no better money spent in marketing than

this platform...period.

There is a lot of confusion and Dot Com fatigue and as a result .Tel is

still our best kept marketing secret. We won't have this all to ourselves

for much longer...( this post does not help that ;) .

Check Out Webnames - They rock and are a great help in shaping this

part of our marketing efforts: Telnic is the group behind the .Tel Domain

( based in the UK ).

See Webnames: http://www.webnames.ca/tel/default.aspx

See Telnic: http://www.telnic.org/

Blenz .Tel: http://www.blenzcoffee.tel

George .Tel: http://www.georgemoen.tel

In simple terms drop the $20.00 to protect both your personal and

company brands. I know how much the ROI is for us and do not

plan any projects with out it. ( see Metro Blenz News Squad )

MBNS: http://www.metroblenznewssquad.tel

We are still finding useful ways to work the .Tel into our various

business processes and marketing efforts. So there you have it

the .Tel stuff.

Note: If you live in the Vancouver area there is a Dot Tel Meetup

group where you can learn from some of the top folks in the area.

( great networking also ;)

Meetup: http://www.meetup.com/dottel/

Part V - Soon.

Permalink | Leave a comment »

Part 3 - How Blenz Runs Online Twitter Contests - Protein Shake Case Study

Fri, 30 Apr 2010 07:25:32 -0700

Part 3 - How Blenz Runs Online Twitter Contests - Protein Shake Case Study

Following up from my previous post regarding using Twitter in our promotions

I want to share with you how we run our Blenz Twitter Contests. When we first

got on Twitter I connect with @shanegibson. Shane had been involved in Social

Media a lot longer than I, and provided what turned out to be some real great

advice. Engage and don't sell was the key piece I picked up in the first part of

our conversations. He had just completed his latest book Sociable with co-author

Stephen Jagger and was packed with current and useful information.

See Sociable: http://www.sociablebook.com/

Follow these guys you will find it very useful. You can get the first chapter by

going online to the above site..worth a read.

Shane Gibson: @shanegibson

Stephen Jagger: @sjagger

Sociable: @Sociablebook

Based on his input and some testing we came up with Blenz version of a

Twitter Contest. It was/is very simple. Mention our Brand in your tweet and

you have a chance to win a gift card. Our Interactive team randomly picks a

winner and announces it on Twitter. Sends ( if we are being followed ) a

DM ( Direct Message ) directing them to the price page where we can get

their contact information so we send them their winnings. Usually it is Blenz

Gift Card and sometimes it can be a sponsored prize. We have sent out

Gift Cards to Anduccis's Restaurants, DeDutch and even Whistler Pocket

Choclates to name a few.

Building on our past success with previous campaigns we have added this to

our Protein Shake Promotion and started this during our "Pre-Launch" phase

and will run it from April 29 thru to July 4. The official launch of the program

will be May 17th but it is our feeling this will be one of the "Support" programs

to create greater in store support once the majority marketing kicks in.

One further thought is that using this initial traffic also helps our team

members in the stores train and turn out a better product when the world

starts showing up to test and sample our New Protein Shake category

( May 17th ).

For the Protein Shake promotion to win you need to mention "Blenz Protein

Shake" in the post or can be a retweet of any of our or others posts that

reflect this promotion.

Here are the steps we take:

1) We set up the contest page to direct winners to the site to fill out their

contact information so we can send them their prize ( prizes )

http://www.blenzsweepstakes.com/proteinshakes/index.html

2) Daily, our team picks a winner and sends them to the above link

-we do this in a "public" post in Twitter and also DM them.

We get between an 80-90% redemption of the rewards.

3) Once we get the confirmation with the winners we then do the following

-Write a personal letter ( which I sign )...thanking them and send out

their prize.

-Post the winner on the site above ( see bottom of page ).

-Announce winners on our in store digital screens. ( to help awareness

of promotion with our existing customers - more later ).

The objectives are simple...help build a viral program which is in support of

our ultimate goal to achieve the "earned media" support for the promotion.

Does It Really Work? Oh Ya!

The cool thing about marketing today is that it is really quantifiable. We

kick this off less that 24 hours ago ( time of this post ). And you can see

we are already getting the desired results online. Just go to Twitter and

search Blenz and you get the same results as we get to track our Brand.

http://twitter.com/home#search?q=blenz

We get to engage our customers, future customers and the Social Media

world in general. So there you go and how we do it. We like the results

we get and are looking to tweek as we continue to learn. Hope it was

helpful.

Part 4--Soon

George Moen

http://www.georgemoen.tel

Permalink | Leave a comment »

Part 2: Twitter Leads The Charge In The Marketing Protein Shakes @BlenzCoffee

Thu, 29 Apr 2010 09:06:00 -0700

Part 2: Twitter Leads The Charge In The Marketing Protein Shakes

One of the elements of our new drink category ( Protein Shakes ) is that

it is a lot of work than our typical promotion. As I mentioned in my previous

post it required a lot more R & D and then a major new training program to

teach our team to craft a great drink. Further, we also had wanted to get

some real life experience before we invited the world. This really paid off. But

how do you bring a product online and not really promote it. A few years a

ago this would have been problem.....not today.

We now have a lot more tools and platforms at our disposal-one of them

is Twitter. Our Twitter strategy is one for the brand and one for the

President ( me ). We started both accounts about the same time.

Blenz Twitter Account: http://www.twitter.com/blenzcoffee

George Twitter Account: http://www.twitter.com/georgemoen

The decision was made was to bring on the Shake @ our corporate store

at the Vancouver Library. We want to make sure we take all the pain of

development and take out any surprises before we got to our Franchise

Partner Network. We quickly worked out the details and then started to

work with some key Franchise Partners.

At this point our Twitter strategy started to kick in. It was pretty simple.

I started to make comments of the process on my personal Twitter Account

and post ( believe it or not - a picture of one my drinks )....and posted it to

twitpic.-- It has had 54 views at the time of this post. You be the judge ;)

Using Twitpic with Twitter: http://twitpic.com/1gas2j

Note: I use Twitpic to load pics from my new iPhone to load right to the

net while on the fly. ( it is a free service and can be used by anyone that

has a Twitter account ). I am pretty amazed at the views..my latte is the

winner so far with 80 plus views ( it's a good latte pic thou LOL ).

On the corporate Twitter account we are now posting a couple of times

a day letting our customers know which stores are now on the grid with

selling Protein Shakes. We have really picked up the pace in the last

few days and will be doing this for the next few weeks leading up to the

17th of May 2010 when we really start our in store promotion. ( and other

stuff I will tell you about later ).

So here is a sample of the post that let's our customers know which

stores are now online with a link back to our website where we have

more store details ie: locations/pic/maps.

Had a Blenz Protein Shake yet? can now at Blenz Davie

- 1203 Davie Street (at Bute) http://bit.ly/bgBKRm

Note: we use bit.ly that takes a long URL and shortens it in Twitter posts

this was the actual link but they go to the same place. We can get more

in the post and also track the "Click" thurs for stats purposes. We can find

out if people are actually clicking thru and helps us to shape future strategies.

http://www.blenz.com/stores.aspx?city=Vancouver&store=10452

Now the most exciting part is where you get "Earned Media" which is one

of the key objectives of this type of strategy. We have started to see this

kick in. We are getting "Re-Tweets" where others are sending your information

to their followers. You can see from the posts below where this worked. I

have provided a couple of "samples" from the past 24 hours.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Vancouver Places has 421 followers ( @ time of this post ).

VancouverPlaces RT @BlenzCoffee Blenz Pacific Centre

( 609 Granville Street) now serving PROTEIN SHAKES

... http://bit.ly/... http://schmap.it/siZ3Cf?a <--MAP

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

jminter has 728 followers ( @ time of this post ).

jminter @blenzcoffee @georgemoen the protein smoothies are v

tasty but I can't find any nutritional info on the website about them?

is there?

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

These are just a sample and it is starting to pick up as we

increase our posts regarding the Shakes. If you want to check

the progress and the conversations check back and just search

"blenz" or "blenzcoffee".

Further, your followers may make comments like this:

jjbreakspear Protien shakes @Blenzcoffee? Cool!

( Thanks Jennifer ) who sent this on to 212 of her followers ( @ the

time of this post ). As soon as I find the time today I will "reply" and

thank her for the mention. It is this process that now allows me to connect

directly with our customers or potential customers. Twitter has make

"direct" connection to a customer a lot easier for senior management

of companies that typically have a lot of layers between them and the

people who actually pay our salaries. I like this part of my gig.( a lot ).

Here is my post to Jennifer.

@jjbreakspear thanks for the mention Jennifer about our new

Protein Shake program. Getting ready for May 17th official launch.

The goal was to engage our followers and hope if we got it right they

would earn their support or achieve "Earned Media". With the samples

above they mentioned our Protein Shake to over 1,000 followers.

We use an Integrated Marketing Strategies / Integrated communication

and Twitter is just one of the components..but it is always used in

each of our major marketing initiatives.

So that is it for today! Part 3 of the series soon where will provide more

insight into our marketing components around this promotion.

George Moen

http://www.georgemoen.tel

Permalink | Leave a comment »

Part 1: How My Marketing Mind Works- A Real Life Example!

Wed, 28 Apr 2010 07:04:26 -0700

How My Marketing Mind Works - A Real Life Case Study: Blenz Protein Launch

I have decided over the past few days to share some of ideas and components of

the launch of Blenz Protein Shakes on my blog for a couple of reasons. First, it is

the major promotion where were have brought together all our marketing platforms

using both traditional and new media ( ie Social Media ). If you saw a previous

post of the difference between "bought" "owned" and earned "media" you will understand

how we now break down our campaigns. ( thanks to Gurval Caer, CEO of Blast Radius ).

Some Background: Blenz has gone thru a very long soul search to define our brand.
First, we thought we were going to "Re-Brand" but really what happened was we decided

to "Re-Focus" the Blenz Brand. Many of the initiatives including our Latte Art program

started back in late 2007 early 2008. Over time we started calling Blenz a "Beverage

Company". It was from this strategy that the Protein Shake category was born. I

won't get into all the research but many retail units are in this space, the product tastes

great and is good for you and we quickly found that our customers wanted it. Our world

has/is changing and people are on the move..but want to take better care of their

health and watch their eating habits..heck I am one of them. I found myself early on

dropping into a Blenz for a Protein Shake as a meal or to hold me over if I was on

the run.

This was not a hard stretch for us we are in the business of "blended" beverages and

have most of the ingredients and equipment to make this shake...we already have

smoothies. However, we wanted to do something different. We wanted to use real fruit

and high quality ingredients. In our chocolate recipes we use real Belgian chocolate chips

( or Matcha ) as an example. We have some really talented people in the R & D side

headed by our VP Tak Aramaki...he is amazing.

So we went to work: Developing the launch recipes for 5 drinks, making sure all the

stores had the equipment, develop special packages for the core ingredients going

to the store and a whole lot more..this took us months. Then we went in training

mode to make sure we get it right in each store and get ready for official launch.

( May 17th )...we call this our "pre-launch" phase particularly for our marketing efforts

while we make sure we have all the stores on the starting grid come the launch

OK, at some point you gotta say..we are ready and we go! This is where we need to

bring marketing to speed. All our marketing team was on board day one even in product

testing and training...but now we need to tell the world. This is where I have most fun.

I call myself the "Marketing President". You get one shot to get a new product or

in our case a new product category right...lots on the line and lot to gain if we get this

right for the customer.

So, we start...Over the next few weeks, time permitting I will share some of those

components and tools on this blog that some may find helpful in their business. There

are more tools available today to everyone no matter the size of your company. Even

if you are the company and the chief marketing officer.

So there you go. Part 1: ....Part 2 soon!

Permalink | Leave a comment »

Blenz Digital Art Show

Tue, 27 Apr 2010 04:35:00 -0700

Permalink | Leave a comment »

Blenz Launches Digital Photo Art Show - In Store!

Tue, 27 Apr 2010 04:09:00 -0700

Blenz Launches Digital Photo Art Show - Where Coffee And Art Come Together!

Over the past couple of years we have taken a real close look at our Brand

( @blenzcoffee ) and one of the things we have been working on is Latte Art.

Tough to pull off but we have made great progress. Latte Art on in coffee is

kinda like the cherry on top where each step has to be perfect to get you to

your final step the art. Our team across the chain has worked hard, we have

won some awards and have step up our game to provide our customers with

an overall better experience. We are not finished but well along the way.

One of the many ways we wanted to celebrate this new direction was to do

some different things in the community and we found ourselves working with

a really fun group known as the Vancouver 12 x 12 Photo Marathon. 12 theme's

over 12 hours. They use the Blenz in Yaletown as the base of operations. I

had a chance to hang out with them a bit in Dec of 2009.

One of the things we promised we would do is showcase the winner and

once we were thru the Olympics and got our in store digital platform fully

deployed we were ready. This past week we started to "rotate" the winners

in all our stores across BC. So the next time you drop into one of our

stores you will see them being displayed. ( The Digital Art Show in Blenz runs

between April 20 and May 7th 2010 )

This is what it will look like in the stores: http://bit.ly/awEuIS

Learn all about the 12 x 12 Group: http://bit.ly/bnp2MP

The Vancouver Photo Marathon folks are planning to have another one soon.

I look forward to working with them again It was a blast.

George Moen.

Permalink | Leave a comment »