St Patrick's Day Weekend & Social Media

As we (3V Business Solutions) venture into the social media and marketing industries on St. Patrick’s day weekend 2012, our world has dramatically changed over the past 3-6 months.

The world is now dominated by social media, it is everywhere, and it is our responsibility to recognize, understand and practice social media for our community and for our customers.

The opportunities for people, for businesses, for organizations to voice their agenda and promote their brand is unlimited. For the purpose of this article, we would like to walk you through this past weekend in the eyes of someone who is fascinated with social media.

Early in the week we asked if we could set up a social media kiosk in front of the River’s Edge Gallery to; a) co-promote/co-brand the gallery and our company and b) have an opportunity to meet our people in our community. We received permission on Friday morning; thought to self – “Oh no, this is real, we only have 8 hours to prepare”. So our IT (information technology) and social media principals set out to prepare for this event.

“What gear and equipment will we require?”

1) 42’ Panasonic Plasma TV (this is not a plug for Panasonic, but truly is the best quality plasma picture you can find – the sound is less than desirable)

2) HP Dr. Dre Beats i5 processor laptop refined for rich media presentation and fast performance

3) Bose Companion Multimedia System – The granddaddy of multimedia stereo systems, INCREDIBLE (we resolved the Panasonic sound problem!)

4) Miscellaneous equipment and accessories – table, chairs, promotional literature

“How will we present our promotion?”

1) Custom webpages developed on, and served from, our hosting platform.

2) Custom Webpage - No time to fool around with formatting using Joomla or Wordpress, better get those HTML, CSS and Javascript skills out of the closet.

3) Presentation – Facebook page feeds, Twitter feeds, embedded YouTube videos, FlickR feeds, website feeds and a host of promotional graphics.

The Objective

Interact with the public, promote the gallery and promote our company. Our ‘hook’ was to promote the public to ‘Check In’, ‘Like’ or ‘Tweet’ about the gallery in return for an art gift. The gift was provided by River’s Edge own Jeremy Hansen (who happens to have been invited to an exclusive art show in London this summer – YES, a Detroit artist invited to an exclusive show in London!). We did not set out with numbers in mind, but the simple desire to promote as many social media interactions as possible.

The Results

We are still waiting on Facebook insights to exactly measure the participation from the community but preliminarily our numbers look like 10-12 ‘Check Ins’, about 40-50 ‘Likes’ and a handful of ‘Tweets’. These numbers are not what we were hoping for, they were down from the previous month’s indoor promotion, but this can be partially attributed to the huge turnout for the exhibition opening last month, which was heavily promoted before hand.

The Conclusion

Qualitatively the numbers were not as forecasted or hoped for but qualitatively it was a huge success. As previously mentioned, the number of ‘Check Ins’, ‘Likes’ and ‘Tweets’ were lower than the previous month, but the fact that the gallery was the only merchant utilizing social media (on the street with a kiosk) definitely emphasized the point that the gallery is willing to invest in technology and be a leader in the art world when it comes to social media. The seed was planted in the community that the gallery is heavily vested in social media and desires to be a leader in the local community, to be a social media voice of Detroit.

As far as our company goes, some VERY valuable lessons were learned;

Lessons Learned

1) PREPARATION, PREPARATION, PREPARATION – We had only 8 hours from the time of receiving permission, to the time of the event. Next time, be prepared as if permission was already granted.

2) GOALS AND OBJECTIVES – Interacting with the public can quickly shift focus to ‘social’ rather than ‘marketing’. Although social media is a combination of both socialization and marketing skills, keep your eye on the ball. Develop realistic and attainable goals when working on a campaign (i.e. [x] number of ‘Check Ins’, etc.) and do not lose focus. Literature, promotional items, business cards and other marketing material should be well thought out ahead of time.

3) CONTENT – Our observation was that the public was very interested in the streaming Twitter feed and to a lesser extent the Facebook feed. The YouTube video from the exhibition opening also attracted a lot of attention. Our conclusion; Twitter (microblogging) is a sensational tool for live promotions – short, sweet, to-the-point and provocative.

4) PERSONAL TOUCHES – Technology will only take you so far, personal interaction (i.e. shaking hands, discussing the product, discussing the technology) is just as important as the technical ‘wow factor’. Practice the dialog that you intend on having with the public, envision different dialogs, be prepared for unusual questions and represent your clients professionally.

Okay, enough of Friday! We were so amped up from the promotion on Friday, energy was going to be a problem on Saturday. We had previous commitments with friends to celebrate St. Patrick’s day downtown at a watering hole then watch the collegiate hockey championship (CCHA) at ‘the Joe’, Joe Louis Arena. My focus had shifted from ‘pleasure’ to ‘business’ early in the day, I am hooked on social media and marketing. Everywhere we went I was consumed with studying and analyzing promotions and marketing throughout the city.  My preparation for this event was;  a) 'Tweet' in the morning about where we are going and what we are doing, and yes then post the tweet on my Facebook and b) I guess I had better shower (reminds me of a quote from my favorite movie, Fletch - "I don't shower much.")

We started at a small coney island across from Cobo Hall, Six Pack and YES it is a strange name for a coney island. Our objective, grab a beer before the game. After quenching our thirst we walked through the spiral stairs and across the tunnel over the Lodge freeway. I am still overwhelmed and consumed with social media and marketing and quickly realize that since this event is a collegiate event, the majority of the crowd are students and YES that means we have to be extra careful not to run into all the people focused on their smart phones and mobile devices who are not paying attention to where they are walking. It was mobile device Mecca!

As we enter the arena, we must have accidently had our photo taken a dozen times by people using their phones then sharing their experience with friends back on campus. MEDIA everywhere! SOCIAL MEDIA everywhere! ADVERTISING everywhere. WOW, I am in marketing heaven! We get to our seats and it is immediately obvious that traditional marketing is not going anywhere anytime soon, every piece of space in the arena is consumed with advertising, AMAZING! I have to walk to the rest room, and pass promotion by promotion on every pillar and wall that I pass. I enter the stadium and I am met with ‘instadium.com’, a company that solicits advertisements in restrooms at arena’s, AMAZING! Why didn’t I think of that?

Our next objective, go back to the house and walk over to the little pub across the street, thought to self “good no more designated driving for me!”  We arrive at a little pub in Wyandotte, Quit-N-Time, and yes, MORE promotions, MORE advertising! There are waitresses donning attire promoting their favorite beverage, branded napkin holders on the table, signage throughout the entire establishment. A quick look around, 1/2 of the patrons have their face buried on their mobile devices at any given time, are they here to have a good time or are they here to share their experience with everyone in their life and promote their person on social media? Who knows. By now my friends finally realize something is wrong with me; “Why are you so quiet?” I did not explicitly answer their question, I was too consumed with this life-changing experience and my fascination with social media and marketing.

Okay, now it is time to disengage from my new obsession and prepare for a barbeque at Lake Erie with family and friends; WRONG. I am still obsessed. I wake up to an email from a local online newspaper that has requested to publish our blog in the online version of the editorial section; REALLY? Three months ago we were still working in corporate America, and now we have been invited to blog about technology in a local online publication? WOW! Okay, time to focus.

* I say “we”, but I really mean Ginger Miller our social media expert, she does the majority of our writing (and this post probably explains why!)

I get to the lake and the first thing I have to do, of course, is ‘Check In’ and then a brief 'Tweet', we really feel as though the rest of the world cares about our adventure. We have to set up a picnic table and drag it across the park since they are still secure for the winter season. Once we done setting up, it is time to let the dog off the leash and run to the lake and watch her swim in the freezing water (no we are not bad puppy parents, she is a Golden Retriever with a voracious affinity for water and a thick coat of insulated fur so this is what she does!) Oh NO, I left the phone at the picnic table, better run back and grab it so I can take LOTS of pictures, of course with the intent of posting and sharing a bunch of meaningless photos. The remainder of the afternoon was much of the same; cook a meal, take pictures, play some sports, take pictures, pack up the gear, take pictures, walk back to the car, take more pictures, drive home, take more pictures! We drop off the dignitaries, drive home and walk in the door about 9:30 – TIRED? You bet. But not tired enough to edit, upload, comment and share over 130 pictures, we do not finish posting until near 1:00 am.

YES - WE ARE HOOKED!  

3V Business Solutions is a metro Detroit social media, marketing, SEO/SMO and web design company in downriver Detroit, Wyandotte Michigan.  We are focused on providing our community with social media and marketing news from leading sources in the industry.  Our social media and marketing offerings are flexible and scaleable enough to accommodate any size project, no project too big no project too small!

See more images from this weekend here on FlickR

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