Music is part of my personal brand.  I’ve written about it before. But for the last six months I’ve created quite a significant illustration of that particular personal brand trait.

As a little joke/hat-tip to my friend, Terry Starbucker, I started tweeting about what was rolling off of my iPod.  Some times it was in the middle of the day.  Some times it was after lunch.  But after a few weeks, I realized most of my melodic tweets took place first thing in the morning.

Why?

Music DRIVES me.  I don’t care if it’s the classic William Tell Overture or a smooth George Michael track, or even the mind-bending, screaming Velvet Revolver; music is never far from my ears.  It’s part of my brand.

So, virtually every morning, from early September 2009, to this morning, I have turned on my iPod and the first song (sometimes the second or third - ’cause who wants to get going to The Wiggles or Raffi?) that rolls off the virtual turntable becomes my “Get-Going groove of the day.”

Music moves me.  And strange enough, I’ve found many of YOU have responded as well. Countless times, I’ve been asked to provide play-lists of my grooves.  I’ve burnt a quite a few of CDs for friends. And I realize The Get-Going groove of the day has touched more than my own personal brand.  Heck, I get emails and direct messages if I’ve forgotten, or the groovy tweet has been delayed even a half hour, so someone has been affected…

So here you go.  The first volume of The Brand Chef’s Get-going groove of the day is listed below. (Tracks/links and Tweets!)

ENJOY!

Piggies - The Beatles:
My Get-Going groove of the day (Saturday Edition): LINK - I’m not sure what’s more disturbing… the song or the video… WOW.

Brick House - The Commodores:
My Get-Going groove of the day: LINK - Lionel before he went to the dark side… WHAT A GROOVE FOR FRIDAY! Have a GREAT DAY!

It Hurts Me Too - Eric Clapton:
My Get-Going groove of the day: LINK - Great attitude tune for the gloomy day! Grrrrrrrr!

Jump Jive An’ Wail - Brian Setzer Orchestra:
My Get-Going groove of the day: LINK — came up on the iPod on the treadmill Sunday… So, I cranked the pace to 9! (dumb)

Carry on Wayward Son - Kansas:
My Get-Going groove of the day: LINK — great 70’s “rock your soul” motivation —> ’nuff said…

Soul Vaccination - Tower of Power:
My Get-Going groove of the day: LINK Since my arm STILL hurts from yesterday’s flu shot… Time to get FUNKY!

Here I Am - Lyle Lovett:
My Get-Going groove of the day: LINK - only album I’ve ever purchased that is remotely close to country… The guy has STYLE!

Life is Wonderful - Jason Mraz:
My Get-Going groove of the day: LINK - One of my new favorite songs… Something to remember EVERY DAY!

Battle of Who Could Care Less - Ben Folds Five:
My Get-Going groove of the day: LINK — Okay Monday, take that…

Pump It Up - Elvis Costello:
My Get-Going groove of the day: LINK - the week is almost over… Maybe Elvis can help us get there?

Rock and Roll is Dead - Lenny Kravitz:
My Get-Going groove of the day: LINK — A little gritty groove for the Monday blues… Get up and get moving!

Basket Case - Green Day:
My Get-Going groove of the day : LINK A little pop-punk in the hope that this will clear the gloom from the morning. And GO!

Working Man - Rush:
My Get-Going groove of the day: LINK … kind of appropriate on a day like today?

Bicycle Race - Queen:
My Get-Going groove of the day: LINK — so much innuendo for so early on a Monday morning… ?

Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I’m yours - Stevie Wonder:
My Get-Going groove of the day: LINK — Classic Stevie…

Something - Paul McCartney (Concert for George):
My Get-Going groove of the day: LINK - From the Concert for George … Watch the whole video… Heartbreaking & inspiring.

I’ll continue to post the Get-going groove of the day - every day possible - to my Twitter and Facebook accounts.  Why?  ‘Cause every day needs a little groove… So stay tuned (every day around 8am) for more!

Until next time…

Keep Cooking! (tasty tunes to tickle your tail lights…)
Andrew B. Clark
The Brand Chef

Having worked in the restaurant industry through most of my adolescence and into my early 20’s, I was well aware of the old adage that went something like:

If a single upset customer tells 10 friends about an unsatisfactory experience, it’s conceivable those 10 friends could perpetuate that report to another 10… and so-on, and so-on… eventually damaging the restaurant’s brand bad enough to put it out of business.

Or, as Máma Brandcheffio said:

“Piss off one customer and you’ve lost 100…”

So, at a very young age, I was forced to learn two very important aspects to marketing.

1. Word-of-mouth marketing is very powerful.
2. The customer is always right.

WHAT? The customer is ALWAYS right?

Máma Brandcheffio used to tell me:

“Even if the customer is wrong, THE CUSTOMER IS ALWAYS RIGHT.”

Even at 15, that concept incensed me.  Today it seems like a complete disregard to human civility (See last week’s post) and is entirely defeatist in nature.

Luckily, I came to my senses.

Chew on this:

Originally, one disgruntled customer could, with good effort, affect the opinions of 100 others with their own word-of-mouth marketing.  In 1983, that was a pretty big deal. With 100 potential customers talking about poor service or a fuzzy hamburger bun, over several days, maybe months, the reputation of the restaurant could be damaged enough to warrant inspections, improvements or to be ostracized out of business all together.

That was 1983 word-of-mouth. (Yawn)

Today, our “upset” customer can take a photo, text a gripe to their iPhone or Tweet it to thousands or tens of thousands before your gazpacho reaches room temperature! If “viral” enough, those thousands can make an instantaneous decision to re-tweet it to their lists reaching thousands more!

Word-of-mouth marketing has reached light speed!

Restaurants, from local and regional to major chains, are taking a “more than cautious” approach to social media marketing.  They want to make sure it’s not a “fad” before jumping in.

Have they lost their minds? Maybe in 1983 that’d be okay, but this is 2009!

Not only are social media tools like Twitter and Facebook the fastest growing user-based tools on the Web, they have moved the “Customer is always right” paradigm entirely into the customer’s control, forever altering the approach to marketing communication and public relations.

Restaurants may not want to get involved in a “marketing” sense, but can you imagine how fast they will have to scramble when the “Chris Brogan” of the restaurant industry sends a damaging Tweet or photos of one of their cooks, in uniform, picking their boxers out of their ass as they walk into the kitchen?

Mmmmm, appetizing…

To put it simply, social media WILL affect your restaurant. Ignoring it is not an option for today’s restaurants, no matter what size.

It’s better to use basic social media tools and participate in a brand management program.  Otherwise, you can watch your brand (and your future) carried away in the beak of that ubiquitous little blue Twitter icon.

Food for thought.

Andrew B. Clark
The Brand Chef

This is how geeky I’ve become in my old age.  Star Trek (yes, the movie) made me think of a great brand engagement solution – well, maybe not specifically Star Trek, but the DVD I purchased this week, TWICE.

Let me explain…

Last night, I found myself standing in line at the customer service counter at a local “Big Box” store - for the second time in as many days. It seems as though a shipment of the new Star Trek DVDs had been damaged; and about 200 upset geeks, including me, found themselves watching Spock, Kirk and Uhura jump from present day to past, to the movie climax, to witty sexual innuendo, to exciting battle scene… about every six minutes.

While it made for an entertaining montage of the flick, after about 30 minutes, I’d had enough (my wife and kids were sick of it after about 10).  So, at 7:30pm on a Wednesday night, I stood in line.  Waiting.  Frustrated with every progressing minute that I wasn’t able to get my geeky fanboy Uhura fix… (mmmmmmmm Uhura).

Then, the social media marketer in me came to the surface (I’ll have to talk to my psychiatrist about this).  I looked around, and in the crowd of nerds, geeks, dweebs and extra terrestrials of all sorts, I saw one dominant feature (besides loose, black, funky sweat pants).

Mobile phones… PDAs, iPhones, Droids… you name it, they were EVERYWHERE!

All I could hear was the clickity-click of sweaty thumbs texting away on mobile devices from the doorway to the service counter. I even had my CrackBerry out so I could update my wife with how long the line was.

I could just imagine what all of the others were texting…

“Honey, the line at Big Box in insane…  get the kids ready for bed… #sorry “

“I can’t believe how long the line is at Big Box! WTF! #Fail“

“Just spent the last half hour waiting for Big Box to replace my #StarTrek DVD! F.”

“Did I leave the popcorn going in the microwave? #nasty“

“Beverly said my sweatpants need to be washed…#luckytobedating“

Poor Beverly.  Now she’ll have to deal with Morgan’s fermented redolence for another night because he’s standing in line…

Then, I looked up to the service counter.  The poor girl behind the register (yes, only one) was darting back and forth from the phone to the counter faster than a hamster on crack and RedBull. She had six DVDs in one hand, a phone tucked precariously on her shoulder, and was trying to talk one poor nerd girl down from the ledge – convincing her that “Big Box” was going to replace her DVD, she just needed to show a receipt… (I could hear the nerd girl’s cerebral cortex shatter like a Faberge egg.)

Oh man, I felt for the customer service girl, though.  I’d been in similar situations.  But when I worked in customer service (20+ years ago), there wasn’t social media.  There wasn’t an army of social media militants standing at the counter organizing their chaos through bluetooth devices.  There was just me, irate customers, a cash register and a phone…  How archaic was that?!?

Then I looked again.  SHE was in the same situation I’d been in 20 years ago! (remind me to check my own cerebral cortex.)

SOCIAL MEDIA TO THE RESCUE!

So, what if…  just go with me on this one… “Big Box” realized the situation and circumvented the ire of the “World Of Warcraft” generation and addressed the issue using…  wait for it…

TWITTER!

It would be a simple implementation.  If “Big Box” had someone monitoring their brand, they would see the conversations going on (I wrote a post about it a few weeks ago).  With that knowledge, they could,

1) address the issue directly to the people making the complaints, or

2) create a hashtag “#” to focus the conversation and keep everyone engaged with solutions as they are developed.

How?

I see it done like this:

“Big Box’s” social media monitor (yeah) tracks a series of red flag statements rolling through the Twittersphere, specific to a certain store.  With speed and efficiency (good luck with that one), they send the message down to store management and then on to the service center to post solutions, instructions and apologies for any inconvenience to their store’s Twitter account under a specific hashtag, like “#BBSouthStarTrekDVD”

At the same time, somewhere around service counter a sign could be posted stating the issue and that “Big Box” was doing what they could within the store to accomodate the customers and solve the issues.  But (and this is the cool part), if they had questions, comments, etc., they could join the conversation with the store and other customers by just using Twitter and #BBSouthStarTrekDVD !

Simple?  I think so.  I think MANY of my co-nerds would have been satiated by just this small gesture.

By the time I got to the counter, in my mind, I’d been promoted from customer service dweeb to “Big Box” CEO and was looking to shop for my next home in the Hamptons; so I didn’t get the chance to offer this advice to the girl behind the counter.  But I think she was a little too busy anyway.

What could your company do to utilize hashtags on Twitter? Could customer service issues be solved with a simple tweet-or-two?  Or do you think it’s still about what Morgan had for breakfast this morning (that quickly found its way onto his sweatpants)?

What other departments could benefit from tracking conversations about your brand?

Food for thought.

Keep Cooking,
Andrew B. Clark
The Brand Chef

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Social media tools are easy to acquire…  Sure.  But just like a sharp knife, you may not want to hand it over to any shlub that walks into the kitchen.  If your company wants to start cooking up some social media marketing, you’d better be ready to do some serious planning.

If social media is like a big cocktail party, let’s think of social media MARKETING this way…

When gathering recipes for your next big shindig, you probably don’t want to mingle the sushi with the snow cones (only at my parties).  So, in the same spirit, why would companies insist on throwing anything and everything into their social media marketing mix?

Many companies are starting to really turn up the heat on their social media “marketing.”  They’ve set up Twitter accounts and launched Facebook pages and groups; but it looks like they haven’t thought of their brand, their target audience or, in some instances, even political correctness. Seriously?

Trust me, a meal consisting of three cups of unashamed self promotion, a tablespoon of ego, 1/4 cup of chaos and a pinch of nonsense will give your target audience nothing but a serious case of indigestion.

Create engagement and value with an integrated social media marketing strategy.

Here are three simple “Brandchef-a-fied” questions to ask yourself before that next tweetfest…

1. Are you working from a proven recipe?
   If you have a marketing plan with goals and targets, see how social media can be integrated into it.  Don’t throw the whole dish out just because there’s a new ingredient.

   Social media is so new that social media marketing is struggling to keep up with new developments, new policies, new technology, not to mention new users.  The right recipe – a proven crowd-pleaser – will help to solidify your position, extend your marketing message and your brand.  Just spice it up using the great tools social media has to offer!
   

2. Does your meal have any nutritional value?
   Empty promises or veiled attempts at engagement, just like empty calories, won’t add value.

   If you have a truly strategic marketing plan (with the customer in mind), your social media marketing efforts should reflect those same values and benefit your audience.  Superficial fluff, inane updates and ego-driven campaigns will only show your audience that you’re in it for yourself and soon they’ll walk away from the table – full, and dissatisfied.

3. How many dishes are in your sink?
   Máma BrandCheffio used to say, “If you have a sink full of dishes, you know you have a house full of happy kids.” The same goes for your social media marketing campaign.

   If you can measure results based on a working strategy, then you know what kind of appetite your audience has.  Set your goals, feed them the first course, and watch for the return. With those kinds of metrics you can make changes to your recipes on-the-fly – assuring an always full sink.

With any soiree, the planner has a lot of responsibilities.  As long as your strategy is truthful, transparent, relevant, unique and engaging, everyone at the party will have a great time,  and soon you will be the talk of the town.

Keep Cooking (tasty social media treats)
Andrew B. Clark
The Brand Chef

I LOVE social media.  It’s the wild west in cyberspace. Not only can I post anything I want on this blog, my Facebook account, my Twitter account(s) or any number of other outlets (look to the right) I subscribe to; but I can search and monitor (virtually) anything anyone else is saying, tweeting, video-taping, etc. as well – and all while talking to others through the same venues about what I’m seeing, reading, experiencing…  (you get the idea).

Now, THAT’s truly social.

Seeing my adoration of social media, a friend of mine posted this article from The Eastern Echo on my Facebook wall.  I assume she did it to rib me a little for what looks like backlash against social media outlets like Facebook, MySpace and especially Twitter for not having more robust security options. But the writer of The Echo brings up some pretty solid points.

The Echo writes:

…like any responsible organization, Facebook finally updated its privacy settings a few years ago after users encountered plenty of embarrassing situations. You can now control which of your friends are able to see those great pictures of you passed out on the bathroom floor with genitals scrawled on your face.

But the truth is, Big Brother isn’t watching anymore, he’s tweeting.
Twitter, too, has security options that can allow users to select who can see their tweets. Unfortunately, people just don’t seem to know about them — or even worse, they don’t care.

They go on to say:

So should we all delete our Twitter accounts?

In my opinion, that would be the easy way out. …

But we can’t continue blaming every new social networking site for our blatant misuse of its technology. The answer isn’t to stop using the Internet, it’s to start using it more responsibly.

And parents? Don’t blame the Internet every time your kid is caught sending naked pictures of themselves to their friends. It’s not Twitter, it’s you.

Sweeeeeet!

So, here’s my take (as written on The Eastern Echo’s article post):

It’s not Facebook’s, MySpace’s, or Twitter’s fault that the “victims” of such horrible, depraved mismanagement of mental scruples are eventually caught.  Social media is exactly that…  SOCIAL.  If you stand up at your next cocktail party and announce that you’re getting breast implants… well…  it’s out there and the repercussions are yours to deal with.  Similarly, you can’t charge Twitter (et al) with keeping idiots form incriminating themselves or filtering content to our children.

It’s simply a matter of ethics. How long has it been since an Ethics 101 course was over-booked?  Can we blame parenting?  Sure, but don’t forget all of the lackadaisical marketing executives, most media outlets and virtually all of Hollywood.

The future of communication is going to be driven through social media. Heck, I even found this article through a friend of mine on Facebook.  So, technically, it’s my responsibility, as a marketer and as a role model for following generations to participate in social media with ethical, reasonable candor.  It’s my responsibility to educate and to foster those values.

Long lost are the days of plopping the kids in front of the boob-tube and call it babysitting.  Because the boob-tube has been replaced with YouTube and we KNOW what can be found there.

There are a lot of unethical, unreasonable people out there.  There always has been.  But we can’t expect the social media developers to protect us.  That’s our job.

Posted and disseminated…

Food for thought.

Keep Cooking (reasonably ethical conversations?)
Andrew B. Clark
The Brand Chef