Peter Hodges

A Checklist of Must Eating

The Food Network has built its whole business around basic social concepts since its beginning in 1993.

Fans of different shows are often drawn to the host instead of what types of food they cook or how they cook it. I love Mario Batali because he comes across as knowledgeable and funny, in addition to the fact he’s the Italian cook (my favorite food). I am very confident that a night on the town with Mario would be the night to remember.

The Best Thing I Ever Ate is a wonderful case study on how the Food Network capitalizes on the appeal of their people instead of generic subject-specific content. The premise of the show is very simple. A number of the stars from different shows tell viewers about their favorite dishes and the places to find those dishes while sitting in front of a white background.

If you need inspiration about how to talk about your subject in an interesting way, check out a few episodes and listen carefully to how they talk about things.

They use specific and descriptive language. When each person talks about their favorite, they use very specific language to paint the picture of the awesomeness of each dish for you. They discuss textures, spices, cooking techniques and other details to give you a real idea of exactly what they love about their favorite.

They are full of confident passion. Each chef or host also seems to feel a responsibility to persuade you to do what ever it takes to experience their favorite place and dish as soon as possible. The passion they have for their favorite garlic noodles or wood-fired pizza is obvious and very contagious. Do you inspire people in your field like that?

July 19th, 2010 | Category: Confidence, Direct Marketing, Effectiveness, Food, Food Network, How to, Marketing, Peter Hodges, Social Media | Leave a comment

Climb Up The Rock from NeilsPhotography

“Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do.” –Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Smart advice from our German friend.

In a world awash in data, tutorials, classes, seminars, conferences, and other chances to learn about things instead of actually doing them, there is something to be said for lacing up your boots and starting up the hill.

July 10th, 2010 | Category: Artists, Clarity, Confidence, Effectiveness, Happiness, Thesis | Leave a comment

Free Waffles In Frisco, CO

I spent U.S. Independence Day weekend in the Colorado mountain town of Frisco. My agenda included fireworks, grilling and Odell’s 90 Shilling. A fun time was had by all.

Before we left, we decided to drive around and explore the town. The yellow banner on the Ramada Inn caught my attention because of the inclusion of waffles as a part of the advertised free continental breakfast for hotel guests.

I initially posted the photo you see to the right with a slightly snarky comment to my Twitter account and then began the drive home. However, something about the banner stuck in my brain. As I thought about it, I like it more and more.

1. The waffles set Ramada’s continental breakfast message apart - It’s something specific. Free waffles means their breakfast is not just a stale box of cereal and some milk. Someone needs to cook those waffles. While it may not be foie gras and truffles, it’s a step up.
2. Maybe waffles tested well - If I was the marketing manager for the hotel and thought my breakfast menu could be a draw, I would get a few different banners made and see if waffles performed better than “Free espresso drinks” or “Free omelettes” for attracting highway drivers to my establishment.

What part of your marketing mix can you strategically change to see if your current tactics are still top performers?

July 7th, 2010 | Category: Behavioral Economics, Direct Marketing, Effectiveness, Happiness, Marketing, Peter Hodges, Target Marketing, Unique Selling Propositions, Word of Mouth | Comments (1)

"Warhol Art in a Can" from jelene

I recently visited a friend who makes his living as a painter. There are paintings, sketches and other signs of his work throughout his house. Art in various stages of development is everywhere. He has built a large body of work that continues to grow every day. I was so impressed with evidence of his efforts. Once he gets his website back online, I’ll add a link to his work. (The Warhol can isn’t Micheal’s, I just thought it was cool.)

I would like to think that the reason I’ve let my blog become stale is because I am the parent of a young toddler or that my work responsibilities have increased now that the economy is less frightening than it was in 2009. While I have reached the time consuming “goaltender” stage of fatherhood and work has become more involved, the real reason is a lack of discipline.

It’s hard to keep sustained effort going on a blog (or a novel or a new business idea) when it’s easy to let the status quo dominate your day.

Right after visiting my artist friend, I also encountered the following quote from Julius Erving (Dr. J to basketball fans): “Being a professional is doing the things you love on the days you don’t feel like doing them.”

Dang Doc. That’s kind of sums it up.

So…I need to start blogging again. A lot. Even when I don’t really feel like it. Because that’s what professionals do.

July 3rd, 2010 | Category: Artists, Confidence, Denver, Effectiveness, How to, Peter Hodges, Starbucks, Thesis, Twitter, Unique Selling Propositions | Leave a comment

I have two takes on Tiger’s first new ad with Nike Golf after all that’s happened over the past six months. It’s a pretty even split for me.

The Best: After I screwed up as a kid and everything cooled down, my dad would always try to look for a lesson to be learned. It was a way to allow me close the book on messing up, dust myself off and move on. It’s powerful to listen to Tiger’s dad doing that same thing for him after he’s gone.

I also think it’s good that Tiger Woods finally looks human. Kind of tired and a little sad. He is no longer the tenacious winning machine of a few years ago in these 30 seconds.

The Worst: Earl is dead. Tiger messed up. Really, really badly. I know…let’s mash those two things together to pull on the ol’ heartstrings so we can keep selling Nike stuff!! I wouldn’t fault anyone who gets that “lawyer chasing after an ambulance” feeling from this ad.

April 8th, 2010 | Category: Community, Effectiveness, Marketing, Marketing Mistakes, Nike, Peter Hodges, Social Media, Target Marketing, Tiger Woods | Comments (1)

Vintage Storefront from Vintage Collective

If the users of Facebook were citizens of a country, all 400 million of them would make up the third largest nation on the planet. And with over 50% of them logging into the site every day, developing a Facebook presence or maximizing your existing page is becoming an important part of the overall marketing mix for businesses of all sizes.

Not sure where to start? Here’s my two cents:

Create your personal profile: If’ you’ve not signed up for a personal account, visit www.facebook.com and create your personal profile right now. I can wait for a minute. If you’ve avoided joining for any number of reasons (privacy concerns, “I’m too old,” etc.) sorry…you need to see firsthand how the site works for the people you’re trying to reach. You don’t have to add tons of photos of your vacation or update your status every hour, but you do need to find your way around and the only way to do that is to jump in.

Now create your Fan page: While people have profiles, businesses and non-profits have fan pages. Because fan pages are public sites, make sure to fill out the requested information with as much detail as you can to get the attention of Google and other search engines. There are a number of smaller businesses using Facebook as a main web presence instead of building a stand-alone website.

Spread the word: Once 25 people become fans of your business, you can choose a custom URL for your page (www.facebook.com/YOURBRAND). Spend a minute thinking about your URL because you cannot change it once you pick one. When your custom URL is active, add that address to all of your customer facing contact information (business cards, email signatures, contact information on brochures, etc.).

Get to know the rules around contests: Facebook has set the bar fairly high for using their platform to promote contests and giveaways. Here are the rules straight from Facebook and here is a good take on translating the rules into plain English from 360 PR Blog.

Don’t SELL anything: Facebook marketing is a bit of a paradox. While people opt-in to receiving your content updates by clicking a button to become a fan of your page, aggressive marketing frequently does not work and can even damage your online reputation. Unsubscribing from your page is just as easy as was to become a fan, so make sure to keep things low pressure, fun and informative.

Share useful content: If you need to ease off the sales pitch to be successful, what should you do? Focus on delivering useful content for your fans. The content you share does not have to be original for Facebook (but some exclusive content now and then adds perceived value to being a fan of your page). Here are some possible content sources you can add to Facebook:

• Blog — If your business has a blog, you can easily repurpose that content by giving it a quick edit and manually reposting it or you can set up an RSS feed that automatically publishes new posts to Facebook.
• Twitter — Are you using Twitter as well? Again, there are a number of choices to republish your Twitter feed on your fan page. Make sure the option you choose to publish your tweets looks good in Facebook. Some Twitter RSS widgets include a lot of extra stuff that will clutter up your page.
• White papers — If you offer white papers on your main website or blog, those are great content offers to pass on to your Facebook audience.
• PowerPoint decks — If you have some presentations that can be understood without you having to talk me through things, consider signing up for www.slideshare.net and post your best talks as another perk for your fans.

Add photos and video: Always have a digital camera ready to capture stuff to share with your fans. Heading to a tradeshow? Post pictures of your booth once you’ve set up. Working a community event? Share some video highlights of the day. Photos and video will often be the content that receives the most views or comments from your fans.

Share other stuff you find online: If all this talk of creating content has you second guessing getting involved on Facebook, an easy shortcut is to share other content while you are taking time to create some of your own. If you’re an accountant, post a link to an interesting tax story from CNN/Money.com. If you run a landscaping business, share a YouTube video about how to keep your trees healthy between trimmings.

Get fans involved in content creation: Encourage fans to post pictures on your wall. Ask your community for feedback on existing products or invite them to give you their reactions to newer ideas that are still in development. And if a fan says or posts anything, make sure to reply as soon as you can. Especially if it’s negative. Other fans will be watching how you handle the occasional complaint.

What’s the return on investment? Great content is your ticket to the top of your fans’ consideration set.

If you were going to order a pizza for dinner tonight, which pizza places jump into your mind? Those pizzerias make up your pizza consideration set. And as the average Facebook user spends over up to 55 minutes a day on the site, the more you can become a welcome part of your fans’ Facebook network, the bigger piece of those fans’ consideration set you can capture.

February 19th, 2010 | Category: Community, Direct Marketing, Effectiveness, Facebook, How to, Marketing, Peter Hodges, Social Media, Target Marketing, Thesis | Leave a comment

You can’t. So don’t.

January 5th, 2010 | Tags: How to, Peter Hodges, pjhodges, Social Media, Twitter | Category: Effectiveness, How to, Marketing, Peter Hodges, Target Marketing, Twitter | Leave a comment

Rufous Hummingbird by brendan.lally

Twitter encourages you to post short, 140-character status updates (“tweets”) that are sent to the people who have chosen to follow your messages and to the rest of the Web.

Twitter is a great way to stay connected with customers, vendors and colleagues and send brief bits of relevant information to those who are interested in your business.

HOW TO GET YOUR BUSINESS STARTED ON TWITTER

> Sign up for a personal account: Twitter has its own jargon and social etiquette that you’ll need to become comfortable with before launching a business account. Make sure to fill in the bio, add a picture and then take a few weeks with your personal account to learn the ins and outs of how to interact in 140 characters.

> Become familiar with search.twitter.com: Every tweet posted to Twitter (unless a user chooses to “protect” their updates) creates an individual web page with a unique URL. The advanced setting of search.twitter.com allows you to analyze the mountain of tweets added each day by keywords, geography and more to see what’s being said right now about what you care about.

> Choose a desktop Twitter program: While there are a number of free Twitter programs available, the current choice of most Twitter power users is TweetDeck. The main benefit of TweetDeck is the ability to sort users and search terms into separate columns. The columns create a dashboard of current activity that you can quickly glance at throughout the day.

> Find other people and businesses to follow: Visit search.twitter.com each day for two weeks, run a search for relevant terms to your industry and then follow the other users that you find posting interesting content. Only follow between 5-20 people a day to avoid looking like a spam account.

> Post to Twitter on the go: Twitter’s power comes in the real-time nature of the updates. If you are in a tradeshow, send out a tweet with your booth location. Offer a discount to your Twitter followers if they place an order on your website in the next 48 hours. There are a number of Twitter applications for BlackBerries and iPhones that make it very easy to manage your account throughout your day.

WAYS TO USE TWITTER FOR YOUR BUSINESS

> Be interesting: One of the main objections to Twitter is the perception that it’s a big accumulation of chitchat. In fact, a study of 2,000 tweets from Pear Analytics in August 2009 classified 40% of the tweets gathered for the survey as “pointless babble.”

Combat this by sending out content and updates that position yourself or your business as an expert. Because other Twitter users need to choose to follow your updates, it’s important to present your business as smart, successful and useful. Become a resource your followers turn to, keep them up-to-date with new developments in your area of expertise and you’ll quickly stand out above the noise.

> Reach out to your local market: Naked Pizza in New Orleans used a Twitter promotion to set the one-day sales record for their two-year-old pizzeria. 41% of their customers on their “Eat Like an Ancestor Day” promo on May 29, 2009 came from Twitter.

Naked Pizza wanted to focus on residents who live within three miles of their store and have been so successful reaching out to customers with Twitter that they have replaced the phone number on the billboard above their store with their Twitter ID.

Use the geographic search feature in the advanced setting of search.twitter.com to see who’s in your neighborhood.

> Listen in on what’s being said and join in: If you see a tweet complimenting your business, post a quick reply thanking them for their kind words. Send an apology and an offer of help to a complaint. Add your opinion about news stories that apply to your field.

> Ask questions: Twitter is a very useful venue for asking questions – whether it’s a recommendation for a new vendor or troubleshooting a computer problem. Questions also engage your followers and get them involved with your account. Make sure to thank anyone who takes the time to reply to your query.

> Retweet posts that will benefit your followers: When you come across an interesting link or a funny tweet from a user you are following, add “RT” in front of the post and send it back out to your followers. This is known as “Retweeting.”

Retweeting is a great way to recognize someone you follow for providing good content and to add quality information to your updates that may be out of your area of expertise.

> Include your Twitter User ID everywhere: Once you’ve decided to get started on Twitter, you need to add your Twitter ID to just about every piece of forward facing communication you send out.

Add it to your email signatures; post “Follow us on Twitter” links on each page of your website; add your User ID to the contact information on your business card; post a “Follow us on Twitter” sign in your retail location, include a “Continue the discussion on Twitter” link to your email newsletter, etc.

Twitter makes a bad first impression. If you keep with it, post a few tweets and find a few fellow Twitter users to follow each day for two or three week, I’m confident you will soon be using this new tool to expand the reach of your business into social media.

November 17th, 2009 | Category: Community, Direct Marketing, Effectiveness, Google, How to, Marketing, Mobile Marketing, Peter Hodges, Twitter, Word of Mouth, iPhone | Leave a comment

If you’ve been thinking about getting started in social media but are not sure what to say, check out a few episodes of the SyFy Channel’s show Ghost Hunters for inspiration. Why? Because Jason, Grant and the rest of the TAPS crew are a great examples of being interesting by just creatively explaining what they do.

Jason and Grant are two Rhode Island plumbers who have turned their ghost hunting hobby into one of the most popular shows on cable television. All they do in each episode is conduct their investigation of different haunted locations and explain to the audience what they are doing as they try to capture proof of paranormal activity.

But what if you’re in a profession that isn’t as cool as paranormal investigation? I would say your success in blogging or social media depends on how you frame your content. Most people hire accountants because they don’t like to do accounting and if you focus on the mechanics of accounting, they will tune you out (unless they are fellow accountants).

But if your audience is made up of other business people and your content shows them how a trained accountant can save money, free up time in their day to focus on other priorities and protect them from an IRS audit, what you have to say suddenly becomes very interesting.

October 6th, 2009 | Category: Community, Effectiveness, Fun, Ghost Hunters, How to, Marketing, Peter Hodges, Social Media, Twitter | Leave a comment