The store turned out to be a Price Chopper. The incident was one that we have all probably done plenty of times. A shopper went into the store, was dissatisfied with the produce section and Tweeted it. What she wasn’t expecting, I am sure, is the store to take notice, track down her Twitter profile, use the info on it to contact her employers. The email sent described this shopper as “destructive and negative”, if I recall correctly. Really? Destructive? I happen to find it much more destructive of the social media folks at Price Chopper to track down this woman’s employer and rat her out for something she did on her own time, with a private Twitter account. They even went so far as to insinuate that relations between the two companies would be compromised if action wasn’t taken against the shopper.

You have got to be kidding! I think we should start offering a Breakfast Bootcamp on how NOT to use social media. In this instance it was clearly used in the worst possible way. This story is of course all over the web, and I would not be too surprised to see Price Chopper suffer some internet backlash on this. It was inappropriate at best, and downright stupid at worst.

It wasn’t like she used profanity, under her company name, with the knowledge that it could cause her job to be in jeopardy. She merely stated that :
Every time I go to @PriceChopperNY I realize why they r not @wegmans . Tonight -bare produce area & this sign (twitpic).

She did compare them to a competitor, and nobody likes a negative comparison, but she’s a consumer, entitled to her opinion. It’s one of the reasons people like Twitter. How much you wanna bet they stocked some fresh produce as a result, and are trying harder to keep it that way?

As a business owner, you have to make sure the people in charge of your social media are smart about it. Make sure they know that you don’t run down a consumer, you Tweet them back to find out how to improve their experience with your establishment. You might want to offer them a coupon or something. I bet if that had happened in this case, the Twitter user would have tweeted the good outcome, and Price Chopper would not be receiving the web backlash it is now.

There are a couple of interesting posts up about this, so if you’d like to read on:
http://www.blogworld.com/2010/09/20/social-networking-fail-price-chopper-lashes-out-about-negative-tweet/

http://pricechopperfail.tumblr.com/post/1156969465/price-chopper-attacks-customers-job-over-negative-tweet

Tweetups can be just for fun, or friends, or fans, too. Celebrities have been known to cause accidental tweetups when tweeting about where they are headed for dinner. Tweetups happen in every city, just Google your city’s name and “tweetup” and choose your tweetup!

TKG has hosted several Tweetups, and it has been a great way to get a little “face time” with folks you Tweet with, but have not met, or don’t see often. As always, with anything Web related, be careful about where you are going, just watch out for yourself, and always Tweetup with strangers in a public place.

This can only mean good things for small businesses. Local search is a great tool to promote your business, and there are many, many ways to go about it. One of the first steps would be of course to make sure you have a great presence on the web. Even folks in your area will go to the web to grab a phone number, store hours, or perhaps your exact address. Making that first great impression can really help boost traffic to your brick and mortar, and therefore, sales.

The next thing I’d do is make sure your business is listed in any online listing services, such as:
GetListed.org
YellowPages.com
Google.com/places
Local.yahoo.com
Bing Local Listing
City search

There are many, many more, but you get the idea. Make sure you can be found online, even if you have not yet set up a site. A listing in most of these does not require that you have a site.

Many of these listing sites allow you to set up a profile to get reviews of your products or services. This can be really helpful to people who are new to an area especially if you are a medical professional, home service provider (such as housekeeping or carpet cleaning) or a mechanic – someone who people need a frame of reference in order to establish trust.

Make sure you have your physical address on your site. Our best practice recommendation would have you putting it at the footer of every page (most especially the home page). At a minimum have it on the contact or about page of your site.

When you are doing your on page optimization, be sure to include geographical phrases in both the copy, headers and tags. This will help your rankings when users search for business in your area.

Local Search seems to be taking on a life of it’s own. I’m excited to be a speaker at NE Ohio’s GetListed.org’s Local University on the 30th. Should be interesting to hear from others in field. I’m thrilled that some local business owners will have the opportunity to learn and implement strategies that will help boost our local economy. Hope to see you there!

“Local University is an informative four-hour crash course in the basics of internet marketing–and especially Local Search. It’s largely a beginners’ event that is definitely intended for business owners. Attendees learn Search Engine Optimization tips and techniques that will lead to sustained, long-term search engine rankings–and, hopefully, new customers. ”

They’re taking this around the country, so be sure to find one in your vicinity if you’re not in NE Ohio. This seminar is totally sales pitch free, so no pressure, just come and learn! There will be some very knowledgeable local search experts with strategies for your small business, and it’s only a half day so you can still get some time in at the office before heading home for the day. Sounds good, right?
It’s about to get even better, use the discount code karcher to reduce the already great price to just $79. Can’t beat that, especially when you hear the incredible speakers lined up. So, c’mon, make me, and NE Ohio look good – register for the seminar, and pick up some great ideas for your local small business!

Pete’s Grill & Pizza
401 Cherry Ave., NE, Canton

Register for this fun event!

Cornhole is a time honored tradition at TKG. Anyone will tell you I’m always up for a little friendly cornhole competition, and if that happens to include a little socializing and great food, I’m there! Come help us get summer started!

Jennifer Geh starts off February giving the Keynote Speech at the Green COC Business Lunch Forum.
February 10th Corey Hammond will be speaking with Kristie VanAuken from the Akron Canton Airport at the Stark CVB Breakfast.
Also on February 10, from 1pm to 3pm is the JBCC Peak Presentation where both Jennifer Geh and Corey Hammond will be speaking. The topic for the afternoon will be : Utilizing Social Media Networks in the Business World: the Real Place for MySpace!
Aaron Geh will be a panelist for the Society of Professional Marketers in Cleveland on the 18th.

If you have ever heard any of our speakers, you know they’re not really all talk. We like to listen and learn, too. We really look forward to each event, each one teaches us something new, so we look forward to seeing some folks out at some of these functions. If you need the info again, here’s the short list:

• 2/9/10 – Green COC Business Lunch Forum (Jen Geh)
• 2/10/10 – Stark CVB Breakfast Presentation (Corey Hammond and Kristie VanAuken)
• 2/10/10 – JBCC PEAK Presentation (Jen Geh and Corey Hammond)
• 2/18/10 – Society of Professional Marketers in Cleveland (Aaron Geh)

We’ve been doing SEO Seminars for years. We love doing them and get great feedback and participation, but we’re too busy with our actual jobs to do them as frequently as we’d like. So we started the Bootcamp series which is made up of quick 2 hour sessions on various topics related to Web Design, Social Media, Search Engine Optimization, etc. Plus some free food which never hurts.

The full list of Social Media and Marketing topics is right here. If you’re in the area and want some free food and some free marketing advice, I’d recommend you stop in for one or more of them.

It’s an open format, so if you already know your stuff and are willing to share your experiences with other participants, that would be great too.

Breakfast Bootcamp, March 12, 2009. Our Social Media Marketing Specialist, Corey Hammond, will be talking about how to market your website using social media sites like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and others. He’ll also talk about blogging, including some pointers to help determine if a blog is right for your business. Space is very limited so be sure to reserve your spot today!For more information, visit our SEO Breakfast Bootcamp page or email Collyn Floyd to sign up.

Aaron Geh will be speaking at The 2009 AAM Summit: Marketingpalooza will be held in Austin, Texas in June of 2009.

Geoff Karcher, President of TKG, will be speaking at the Canton Chamber’s Fast Break Breakfast on May 8, 2009. The topic he’ll be discussing is “Working with Young Professionals, How to Attract Them and Keep Them Happy.” Very fitting as Geoff has become an expert at fostering the young talent that we have here at TKG. From those we’ve met in the After Hours program to interns and full-time staff alike, our company is full of young professionals! They have not only learned a lot from Geoff and his company, but have stayed to help his business grow.

This event is being held at the Courtyard by Marriott:
4375 Metro Circle NW, North Canton

For more information visit the Canton Chamber or contact (330)-456-7253

I won’t go into all of the differences in these groups with regard to how they work and what their expectations are of an employer. There are plenty of authorities on that topic that can provide much better explanations than I can. Generally speaking though it became clear in our discussion that each of these groups has very different expectations in what an employer will provide them, and in how they should be allowed to do their job. What it did get me thinking about though, is how these very different age groups use technology in their lives and what their expectations are in terms of how they should be communicated to.

An example

I was recently meeting with a prospective client; one of our area’s furniture retailers. They were considering upgrading their website because it’s not performing in the search engines (incidentally, it’s an all flash site so very easy to diagnose). In our discussions, the topic of their current customer base came up, and the fact that they’d really like to reach a younger market. The bulk of their customers currently are baby boomers and older. They’re struggling to bring in the gen-xers (those in their early to mid 30s with young families).

After taking a look at their website and their marketing efforts, it becomes very clear why they have this issue. Their marketing is done primarily through traditional media (newspapers, billboards and radio). Very little focus on the web at all, let alone search engine marketing.

This is a prime example of not understanding the expectations of different generations and meeting them. If this particular company is smart, they’ll consider moving a significant portion of their marketing budget from traditional media into things like the web and search engine marketing. Gen-xers have an expectation of being able to be in control of their time. They largely ignore the vast number of shotgun type marketing messages, but respond well to relevant information that is delivered to them at the time and place they are looking for it.

This same concept ties very well into social media marketing. Everyone’s excited about social media right now, so much so, that industrial manufacturers are wondering if they should have a Myspace profile. My advice, think about who your market is. How old are they, what are their habits, how do they communicate with each other, how do they learn etc. If you answer these questions, you’ll have a much better chance of marketing your business properly. Hopefully avoiding wasted time, money and energy “advertising” to the wrong people.