Splendid Sundays Volume 39

A handful of splendid finds and interesting tidbits from around the worldwide web:

*Khris Cochran, the author of the DIY Bride blog and series of books, recently launched Plumage, a fashion and beauty resource for plus-size brides.

*Facebook recently made a change that now requires businesses to have more than 10,000 fans to create custom landing pages.

*The harm counterfeit products can cause.

*It's a big deal to your clients.

*Quotable: "You'll never plow a field by turning it over in your mind." - Irish Proverb

Do you have any splendid finds to share?

Social Media Terms Glossary

I've created a social media glossary (a project I can finally cross off the blog to-do list) that defines social media and online marketing terms in easy to understand language.

Some of the definitions are just that: simple definitions. Other have examples to illustrate what they mean and some include my thoughts on how the term fleshes out.

I tried to keep the definitions as tech-free as possible, so if you're naturally geeky you'll have to overlook and forgive the simple explanations.

Future posts that reference the terms will include a link to the glossary page so that you can easily look up a social media term you may be unfamiliar with. The glossary will be continually updated (there are still a ton more terms to add), so if you don't see a word on there that you'd like to know more about, let me know.

Enjoy!

The Value of "So What?"

Large numbers are impressive, but it's important not to take them at face value. What do those numbers truly represent once you get past the surface, and more importantly, what do they mean for your business?

Pretty Lovely Wedding Photography has amassed 17,000 followers on Twitter. So what? How many people are they following? Did they follow a ton of people and then delete a bunch in order to have a broader ratio? Are the people following them paying attention or tuning them out via tweetdeck? Do they engage in two-way conversation with their followers or do they only use Twitter to post their one-way witty thoughts?

A wedding blog has 2,450,000 page views per day. So what? Which pages are being viewed and by whom? What does the average visitor path look like? If you're advertising on a site that monetizes through a CPM model, then these are questions you should be asking.

A wedding blog wants to feature your work. So what? Who is their target audience (remember, "brides" isn't an answer) and is it the same as yours? Do they require exclusivity? If so, will that preclude you from being published in print as well? Is it worth it for YOU to be featured on their blog? The promise of editorial as exposure or "free advertising" isn't enough; evaluate what you are really getting from that particular blog in return. If the blog isn't a good fit for YOU, don't be afraid to turn them down, regardless of their size.

A wedding blog doesn't want to feature your work. So what? Does it mean that your work isn't good? Not necessarily. It may mean that wedding didn't fit that blog's style. One photographer I know submitted a wedding to a blog that should have been a fit and had it turned down, but a high-profile magazine picked it up in a heartbeat. Move on and submit your work elsewhere.

You're slammed with emails. So what? How many of those do you have to handle yourself and how many can you delegate? Can you set up filters and systems to help you manage it better? (The answer to that last question is yes, by the way.) Your self-worth and importance are not dictated by your inbox.

Asking yourself "so what?" whenever something comes up can help you focus in on what is really important and help you make better decisions for your business.

Social Media vs Traditional Word of Mouth

A study was recently released that examined the differences in perceived credibility between traditional word of mouth, personal blogs and corporate blogs.

Some quick definitions:
Traditional word of mouth: a friend, family member or acquaintance making a recommendation
Personal blog: a blog published by an individual
Corporate blog: a blog published by a company

The results of the study showed that people who are active online make very little distinction between the credibility of the three sources. Of the people less active online, traditional word of mouth and corporate blogs carried a heavier weight of authority than personal blogs.

What does this mean for you as an entrepreneur?

First, it means that as more people across all age levels become more active online the lines between these three platforms as credible resources will only continue to blur and become increasingly non-existent. A former bride's referral carries less weight now than it used to. If a bride says one thing about you, but there are posts online that disagree, those sources are now being considered with equal validity. Ignoring social media in favor of word of mouth referrals is no longer a sustainable marketing strategy.

Second, it means that it is important to be visible and referable across all three platforms. If the initial person who contacts you isn't active online, this is a chance to make sure that you're not ignoring submitting your work or expertise to corporate blogs to be featured. Vane from Brooklyn Bride wrote a guest post for Think Splendid on how to submit real weddings to blogs. Two Bright Lights also has a roster of pre-qualified editorial partners to help streamline the submission process for your workflow. 

Third, the blurring of credibility leaves ample opportunity for the ugly side of social media to show its face. False reviews from competitors, defamatory blog posts, etc are now treated with more importance than they were before. These things will happen whether or not you are involved online, but it will be much easier to manage them if you have an active social media footprint and are already involved in the community. If you join social media as a knee-jerk reaction to manage these issues, it will be much more difficult for you to protect your company's reputation.

What are your thoughts on the lines between blogs and traditional word of mouth becoming less defined?



*Note: I purchased this study through a subscription, and am unable to link to it.

Imaginary vs Real Competition

Many times people like to think they compete with certain companies and vice versa. Much of this is based on wishful or misplaced thinking, though, not on actual information.

Make it a point to ask your potential clients who else they are interviewing. You may be surprised (for better or worse) at the answers, but that feedback will help you know how you're perceived in the marketplace and can help you better position your brand moving forward.

Splendid Sundays Volume 38

A handful of splendid finds and interesting tidbits from around the worldwide web:

*Panera Bread has opened a "name your price" store in Missouri.

*Nothing in life is free, except mommy bloggers (feel free to substitute wedding bloggers for this one as well). Thanks to Cathy at Weddingbee for forwarding this article.

*Wedding guests in Britain spend around £10.45 billion per year attending weddings (or about 15.23 billion U.S. dollars).

*Where have the readers of Gourmet magazine gone?

*Quotable: "Most of us can read the writing on the wall; we just assume it's addressed to someone else." - Ivern Ball

Do you have any splendid finds to share?

Splendid Reruns

If you're new to the Think Splendid blog, here are a few of our more popular posts from the archives:

You, Amplified

You Didn't Invent Weddings

Organic vs Rockstar Growth

Passion Manifested

False Praise and Mediocrity

When Social Media Won't Help You

Wine Tweetup at National Stationery Show

The National Stationery Show, the annual tradeshow for papery goodness, is this Sunday through Wednesday in New York. Envelopments, a Splendid client, will be hosting a tweet up, complete with wine, at their booth #2562 on Monday from 4-6 pm. Wine, twitter friends, and paper heaven? What could be better? If you're attending the show, be sure to stop by.

Envelopments has been a favorite company of mine for years, long before I started working with them, so it's really easy for me to love everything they do. They're the ones who invented pocket invitations, which became a craze that is still popular in wedding and corporate invitations, and their line this year is quite possibly my favorite ever. It includes over 230 new mix and match colors and along with their metallic and patterned stocks, they have stocks that can be letterpressed. They also have a new line of favor containers that are available in seven different styles, 231 colors, leaving you with 1,617 possible combinations. Awesome, yes? Grab a glass of wine on Monday and see for yourself.

Perhaps my favorite invention, though, is the Jigster. Even if you're not attending the show, you need to buy one of these if you ever assemble any type of invitations or stationery at all. In a nutshell, this handy device ensures that all the layers of the invite are lined up correctly each and every time (to see how it works, check out the YouTube video). As someone who cannot cut or glue in a straight line to save her life (even with a paper cutter - sad but true story), the Jigster is genius. Every year, Vane from Brooklyn Bride hosts a holiday card gift swap with the catch being that they have to be handmade, and every year I get a little bit panicked at the thought of sending cards that aren't lined up correctly. This year that's not going to be an issue.

If you want to read up on and see photos of who you'll be meeting this year from Envelopments at the stationery show, you can do so on their blog here. They've also been exhibiting at the show for 16 years and attending for even longer, and you can read about their perspective on the show and industry from over the years (and see some flashback pics) here.

If you're following the stationery show on Twitter, be sure to use the hashtag #stationeryshow instead of NSS (which has been taken over with some NSFW material). You can follow Holly from Envelopments on Twitter here, as well as Deborah, Mark and Tom and you can follow the National Stationery Show here. 

Using Twitter to Improve Customer Service

One of the best uses of Twitter for business is to use it as a customer service channel. Listening and observing the conversations happening about your brand and industry can help you develop better marketing and customer relations strategies going forward. If you engage with the conversations happening in an authentic way, it can also help create a better experience for your clients.

A great "real-life" example of this happened recently. Desert Botanical Gardens in Phoenix hosted an event last week and had been promoting it on Twitter and Facebook. Fortunately, the person handling their account went beyond just promoting it and actually paid attention to what their customers wanted. Here is the conversation:

Many companies assign someone to their Twitter account and then use it as a one-way push marketing tool, completely ignoring the conversation of their fan base. Because Desert Botanical Gardens was paying attention, they were able to make a change to their event menu that is most likely appreciated beyond the initial person to bring up the lack of vegetarian options.

How do you use Twitter to listen and engage with your client base?

Speaking at NACE Event in Baltimore

This next Monday, May 17th, I'll be speaking at the Baltimore NACE meeting on how to make social media work for your event business. The meeting is open to non-members as well, so if you're in the Baltimore area, be sure to sign up! You can find more information and register here.

Looking forward to meeting you!

Social Media and the Luxury-Obsessed Consumer

It's no secret that wedding style has long taken its cues from fashion and interior design trends. What may be surprising to some is how these segments of the design industry are leading the pack in other areas as well, including marrying technology and consumer spending.

Gilt Groupe, a fashion retail site dubbed the "darling of luxury-obsessed bargain hunters" by FastCompany magazine, reports that 7% of its weekend sales are made via its iPhone app, Gilt on the Go, which launched last October. In just one day after the iPad was released, the device accounted for 2.4% of Gilt’s sales. To compare, the total revenue from mobile sales for retailers on Cyber Monday last year was only 3.8%.

Last Fall, Gilt ventured into the hospitality and tourism industries with the launch of its sister site Jetsetter, which features exclusive vacation discounts at over 200 luxury resorts and hotels in twenty countries. Also interesting to note? Jetsetter isn't pay for play, meaning the recommended venues aren't paying to be listed in the sales.

This past March, Gilt Groupe hosted a special Wedding Weekend in collaboration with Martha Stewart Weddings, offering sales from luxury designers Carolina Herrera, Amsale and Thread, among others, on everything bridal from dresses to shoes to jewelry, men's suits and even special honeymoon packages via Jetsetter.

iPhone and iPad apps accounting for less than 10% of sales may seem small, but when you keep in mind that the projected revenue for Gilt Groupe this year alone is more than $500 million, those small percentages add up to large numbers very quickly. Not too shabby for a company less than three years old.

Time still remains the ultimate luxury. As people continue to grow accustomed to using mobile phones to do more than just make a call, the ability to research, make purchases, and sign contracts via their cell phones will become a basic customer service expectation rather than a high-tech value add. When a bride can buy her Louboutins via her phone, she will expect that level of convenience across the board. Is your business ready for social media beyond the computer?

Splendid Sundays Volume 37

A handful of splendid finds and interesting tidbits from around the worldwide web:

*Martha Stewart released research this week that shows that contemporary women host more than 325 million social events per year and spend about $200 billion on their events.

*Facebook's gone rogue.

*The first Illegal Wedding Fair will be on June 6th in NYC.

*Social luxury is personal. 

*Quotable: "If you're waiting for a social media case study of a clear winner in your industry, the winner will not be you." - Christopher Penn

Do you have any splendid finds to share?

Interview with Seth Godin on Social Media and the Wedding Industry

Business expert Seth Godin was kind enough to answer a few questions for Think Splendid on social media and marketing as it relates to the wedding industry. Here is my interview with him:

Liene: The wedding industry is dynamic in that it has a very low barrier to entry, is full of incredibly creative people, is largely comprised of solo-entrepreneurs with small budgets without VC funding or loans, and the target client is a one-time sale (hopefully). When talent abounds and the cost to compete is low, what piece of advice would you give to wedding professionals who are looking to be indispensable or stand apart from the rest of the crowd?

Seth Godin: The single most important thing you can do is create a reputation that leads to the following conversation:

Bride, "I just got engaged!"
Friend, "Oh, you need to call [you]."

Once you realize that this is 90% of your future, you will act accordingly. Why would that friend mention you? Because you're pretty good? Pretty cheap? Pretty nice? I don't think so.


Liene: The explosion of professional wedding blogs, which are primarily photo-based rather than text-based, has brought with it some controversy as it relates to intellectual property. While many blogs have a strict submission policy in order to protect copyright, many others have been able to monetize their blogs through advertising by using photos for content that were "right-clicked" from a photographer's site or blog without permission and without paying for the photos. What are your thoughts on the effect of social media on the future of intellectual property and copyright? Is protecting intellectual property a losing battle?

Seth Godin: Well, you can probably monetize through theft a little, but it's hard to imagine someone actually making a significant living doing this. At the same time, it's quite true that there's no longer a lucrative way to charge for photo use online--there are just too many free alternatives. So, you can fight (and spend time and money doing so) or you can race to become ubiquitous. Hard to embrace, but in fact when you do it (see the Shepard Fairey Obama virus as an example) then you hit a home run.


Liene: What are some of the negative effects you feel social media has had on the way people do business, if any? Are there fundamentals from the "offline world" that businesses have forgotten along the way?

Seth Godin: Anonymous criticism is a bane. Drive by attention means conversion is more difficult. Gang warfare with bullies yelling at you is no fun either.

I think the first step is to ignore anyone who is anonymous. Focus on your fans. Elevate them. Pamper them.


Liene: Many people claim social media is about being transparent and as a result often share what is viewed as "too much information", both on a business and personal level. What are your thoughts on transparency and having boundaries online?

Seth Godin: We're still humans. Just because it's a keyboard doesn't mean there isn't someone at the other end, and yes, what you say and do stays out there forever . . . .


Liene: You update your blog daily and are known for saying "ideas that spread, win". Do you have any tips for staying focused and motivated to come up with quality content on a consistent basis?

Seth Godin: It's a little like eating lunch on a regular basis or breathing on a regular basis. Once you make it a habit, it's actually not so hard!

Updated Social Media Statistics

Many of you have seen the first Socialnomics video either online or in various presentations at events. Here is the updated version with new statistics:

Judging a Book By Its Tweet

Do you really hate your children? Hate your job so much? Never want to see a client ever again?

According to your Twitter and Facebook updates, that's all anyone can think based on what you're putting out there. (To be fair, we'll cover the seriously so #blessed people in another post.)

We all have times when we need to talk with people who "get it", but save the commiserating for a small group of friends and a bottle of wine. You may think your updates are only seen by the people who follow you, but they're not. They're indexed in search engines and they stick around long after you delete them. Clients find them when they research you (and potential clients ARE researching you, even if they are word of mouth referrals) and what you say on a daily basis speaks much more loudly than your well-designed website or business card. 

How many of your updates from the past two weeks are complaints? Make it a goal to cut the number of complaints in half over the next two weeks. You might just be surprised at what new opportunities come your way as a result of not being so publicly miserable all the time.

Engage!10 Conference

Engage!10 is coming up at the beginning of June in Grand Cayman and if you work in the luxury wedding market, this is the conference for you. I'll be speaking twice at this event: once on a panel with Ali Phillips, Donna Von Bruening and Harmony Walton on how to get the most out of your Engage! experience and then on a panel on branding and media with Christy Walton and Blair de Laubenfels of Junebug Weddings, Tatiana Byron of The Wedding Salon, Harmony Walton of the Bridal Bar, and Jill Meister, a media consultant and former producer of the CBS Early Show.

If you can't make the June conference, check out the October conference at The Breakers in Palm Beach. Do you have a favorite Engage! memory from a past conference? If so, twitter it and use the hashtag #engage10.

How to Capture and Keep a Bride's Attention Online

Wedding dresses is the most searched wedding-related term on the Internet. In the United States, it's also one of the first purchases a bride makes. The engagement ring will make a bride excited for the wedding, but the oh-my-goodness-I'm-actually-getting-married feeling tends to be strongest when they have found the dress they are going to wear down the aisle. Other top-ranked search terms include wedding invitations, wedding cake, and wedding venues.

This type of market research is the reason so many bridal magazines and wedding websites prominently feature dress advertisements and photo galleries. Their content and ad strategies aren't developed from guesses or assumptions on how brides buy; they are developed from real data on what will sell and drive traffic.

Does your blog feature more of what couples are searching for online or does it focus more on what you want to talk about? A good rule of thumb for an offline wedding business using a blog for online marketing is to keep the topics at a 60/40 ratio: 60% searchable, relevant interest to engaged couples, 40% about you, your work and your stellar personality. This means that if you are blogging about last weekend's weddings, your kids, your pets, your latest product for sale, or the argument du jour with your spouse more than four out of every ten posts, then you are missing an opportunity to capture and keep a potential client's attention on what matters to them the most. Remember, brides don't care about how awesome you are, they care about how awesome you can make them. Talking about yourself all the time is not awesome for anyone.

Does this mean that everyone should write a blog post tomorrow about wedding dresses and cake? Of course not. It does mean however, that companies marketing to engaged couples should be more mindful of what they are actually looking for online and why.

As a professional who has worked on countless weddings, you probably have an opinion on an array of topics, even if it falls outside your niche. Use your blog to educate couples on what works at a real wedding and what doesn't. At the end of the day, all the inspiration a bride finds online won't mean anything if she can't translate it to something that works in real life in an affordable way. How can your expertise make her wedding better? Write about that.

Racial Profiling and the Economic Impact of Politics on Events

The governor of Arizona recently signed a controversial bill into law seen by many as one that makes racial profiling legal in the state. Designed to stem illegal immigration, the law allows police to ask for identification from anyone they deem acting "reasonably suspicious." Regardless of which side of the issue you fall on, the impact this law is already having on Arizona's event tourism industries is huge.

As of this past Friday, 19 meetings totaling 15,000 room nights had been canceled as result of boycotts, causing the state to lose more than $6 million in revenue.  Arizona has also been vying for either the RNC or DNC conventions for 2012 and for the privilege of hosting next year's Major League Baseball All-Star game. These events are also now considering other host states as a result of the law. Not only will revenue be lost from those events, but from all the ancillary social events that go along with them.

Scottsdale and Phoenix have built a lucrative corporate event industry, attracting companies from all over the world to spend their convention and corporate incentive event budgets in Arizona. These cities were hit hard by the economy as corporate event spending dropped off and have only recently started to recover.

Wedding tourism will be affected as well, as Scottsdale is among the top ten destination wedding locations in the country. There are 43 businesses involved in an average wedding in the United States, which means that 43 businesses will be financially impacted for each wedding Arizona loses because of this law.

While the law has been analyzed (and skewered) across the traditional media outlets, social media has also played a large role with many people calling for boycotts through Twitter, Facebook and blogs. The Arizona Hotel and Lodging Association has even set up its own anti-boycott Facebook page to encourage people "not to punish 200,000 tourism employees because of politics".

The bottom line however is that politics ALWAYS affects business. Know the issues and vote when given the opportunity, even in the "small" elections. Not having an informed opinion on politics does not work if you're an entrepreneur.

Splendid Sundays Volume 36

A handful of splendid finds and interesting tidbits from around the worldwide web:

*China has awarded Youku.com, a video website, the exclusive rights to broadcast the World Cup and all related programs, which shows that online video websites ARE the new television in China. To compare, this would be like Hulu or YouTube beating out NBC, CBS, FOX or another broadcasting company for the rights to air the games.

*Facebook's Eroding Privacy Policy: A Timeline.

*If you are using a version of Tweetdeck older than v0.33, it will not work after June 1st because of changes to Twitter's API. Be sure to upgrade this month.

*Do women who take their husband's last name make less money? (Thanks to Weddingbee for passing along this article.)

*5 Key Luxury Trends from McKinsey and Company

*Quotable: "Spoon feeding, in the long run, teaches us nothing but the shape of the spoon." - E.M. Foster

Do you have any splendid finds to share?