Not How, but What to do with Social Media

Scott Stratten has over 50,000 twitter followers and had more than 60 million hits on on his video nooooooooooooooo.com. Scott recently spoke at the Travel Media Association of Canada's annual conference in Ottawa and here are just a few of the things I found so great, I just have to share.

Stop marketing in the same old ways we've done it for decades - it's too hypocritical and customers know it.
Marketing is not a task - marketing is. It just is. It's a way of being. Everything we do from smiling at a stranger we pass on the street to a phone conversation to talking to customers - everything we do and say is always increasing or decreasing our impression to others. We are our front line to our customers/followers/friends. So, what is your brand impression?

Am I talking about on-line or in person? Both. In fact, we tend to be passive in person and aggressive on-line - think about it, there is a false sense of privacy when you can't see a person face to face, but the marketing power is still the same. Not to worry though, Scott explains, "To be great at customer service you just have to be average." Which means there are too many people not paying attention to customers, if you do, you win.

It's all about, Know - Like - Trust

With social media you can get to know and trust people, but with that comes some caution. Social media is not the place to flog crappy advertising. I you use the same concept as tele-marketing on social media, people will tune you out and you loose the trust. That means no pop-ups, commercials or anything that will get in people face. It also means - don't post your events or commercial messages on other peoples facebook!!! For all those who post on my wall and I've always found it annoying, now's my validation to tell you - stop it!

So what do we do? Well, ask yourself what you do every day to get people to like and trust you? - you talk! and talking is tweeting. But another caution - don't tweet about garbage! Who cares if you had tuna for lunch? Well, now I'm feeling bad because I shared my lunch experience with all my friends yesterday, but - in my defense I can say that I certainly wasn't expecting a meal on a VIA Rail train to be right up there with deLuca's Restaurant or On The Twenty or other fine dining eateries. I think my meal was awesome! And that's what your suppose to tweet about - only the awesome! SPRED THE AWESOME! You don't have to change what you talk to people about - just the way you talk to them.

So if you would not normally tell anyone you had tuna for lunch - DON'T TWEET IT! If you don't want your words to appear on a Billboard, don't tweet it!

If you tweet about awesome, people will retweet and share your tweet.

So how much time should you spend on social media? Well, how about only when you have something awesome to say? That's how you get people to trust you and want to follow you. Don't have a strategy of frequency because you end up saying stuff people don't really care about and you become one of those people at a party that no one wants to talk to.

So what media platform should you use? Connect them all together. It's not your job to tell people how to consumer your messages, it's only important that they do. Everyone is different so you'll get some who follow you on twitter, some on your blog, others on facebook, etc. Connect them so you're available to the largest audience. Now mobilize yourself with something like wetouch or wptouch (didn't hear very well). It's a free program, just download it and you'll be mobilized to reach a greater audience.

Did you know about TROLLS. they're not complainers, they spread hate. Don't reply to them, you're time is far too valuable building great relationships than to try to win someone over that has no interest than to spread hate. Make it your business to build good relationships.

Remember, people thrive on interaction but only the kind that makes them happy. Don't make them fill out a form with any personal info at all - you'll loose them. I know this because when faced with a stupid form - even if it is to send a simple email from a website - I refuse and go to another website. I know collecting demographics sounds like something you might like to do but remember what I said in the beginning - Stop marketing in the same old ways we've done it for decades. Social media is about trust and relationships.

So build your platform in what ever way you want, say only awesome things and build it one person at a time. Those that have thousands of followers started with one and don't believe them if they say it didn't take time and patience. If you want to get something out of this, you need to put something into it. Social media doesn't change the fact that relationships take time.

You must be PRESENT on social media and CONSISTENT. Reply immediately, if it takes longer to reply than to mail a letter you're not doing it well.

If you are your authentic self on social media, you will have no competition!

There's a Twitter Guide Book free on-line - get it! Read it!

Wine Books for Local Food Donations

Tis’ the season for giving and that’s exactly what Niagara Cooks is hoping to do. Author Lynn Ogryzlo has purged her wine library of over 100 titles and offering them up for a donation to The Craig Award.

Here’s how it works. You pick a title you’d like and it’s yours for a donation. Some titles have a $10 price attached to them and that’s the least amount of donation accepted, others with no amount you can have for whatever you’d like to donate.

The books are lovingly read and lightly handled so most of them look as good as new, there are however, a few with a look of being thoroughly loved.

Choose from the eclectic pile that includes anything from The Oxford Companion to Wines, by Jancis Robinson to Wine Tastes, Wine Styles by Andrew Jefford. There are books on South Africa and others on health, like The Save Your Heart Wine Book. There are some by Simon & Schuster as well as William & Sonoma. There are books about cooking with wine, tasting wine, learning about wine and lots of coffee table style books from the experts; all great for holiday giving for an aspiring student, an eager enthusiast or a winetasting pro.

The Craig Award is a new research scholarship program funded by the Ogryzlo’s and run through Niagara College. It’s to financially encourage students and farmers to work together on innovative agricultural projects that have a positive outcome for Niagara’s local food culture.

Please join the Ogryzlo’s this holiday season, give the gift of wine and food reading while creating a stronger local food community in Niagara.

For a listing of the books, go to www.NiagaraCooks.ca

Catching some Silver Bass

If you live in Niagara s I do it’s there’s always something new to eat, something special to discover. This week I got a call from Rod Minor in Port Colborne.

Rod is fisherman and he fishes the waters of Lake Erie. There’s nothing better than the fresh, clean flavours of lake fish. I tend to prefer them to the oily, density of salt water fish. I find them easier to cook with because you can add some verjus and no matter what accompanies with lake fish, it all offers clean, fresh flavous.

This week Rod pulled some beautiful Silver Bass from Lake Erie. So I told Rod I’d take 3 whole ones – no filetting, just clean them and I’d cook them whole. I was feeling like a little dinner presentation was in order.

Wow, when I got to Minor Fish (176 West St) the 3 fish were so large I began wondering who I’d have to invite for dinner. One of the Silver Bass alone would feed both my husband and I.

On the way home I sorted out what I’d do with them so I made a quick detour to the grocery store for a few boxes of coarse salt.

I washed the fish inside and out, put a few herbs and bit of verjus in the cavity and laid them on a 2-inch bed of salt. Then I covered them with an inch of salt. I left the heads and tails exposed for presentation, then I roasted them for almost an hour.

When they were ready to serve, I chipped away at the salt crust, brushed away any remaining salt, peeled away the skin and began eating the flesh. Oh my gosh!! This fish was succulently juicy, the tender meat flaked beautifully and my husband and I devoured one in the blink of any eye. It was a big one though, so we were very full.

Tonight we’re taking the other 2 to my uncles house for dinner. I’m taking the pickerel cheeks also. I just couldn’t resist, when I was waiting for my Silver Bass to be packaged up, I saw these silver-dollar sized pickerel cheeks. I’m going to bread them and cook them up with some bacon and herbs – perhaps I’ll fry up some sage chips. Them I’ll make a spicy aioli to dip them in – they should be good.

If you live in Niagara I highly recommend a beautiful drive out to Port Colborne to Minor Fish. The 3 large Silver Bass only cost $6.75! A feast to last 3 days and at shockingly low prices – get out there before Rod reads this email and contemplates raising his prices.