10/31/2017
My pal Alex Brown is a digital pioneer. He was one of the first to teach social media in a higher education setting when social media was called blogs and message boards. However, his heart belongs to the equestrian world. Alex has written several books on fiction works. Recently he wrote his first non fiction book which takes place the world of racing off course (smile).
Writing a novel seems a little daunting to me. How do you bring characters to life and create a world that people want to get lost in with you? Alex kindly agreed to tell what's it like to write a novel? And what's it like to promote a non fiction book in the digital world? Enjoy!
About Alex Brown By Alex Brown: I have had a career in horse racing, as well as one in academia. Some of my time now, I dedicate to writing.
Diva Marketing: For those who may not know you, your passion has been long centered in the equestrian world. Please tell us a bit of your back-story. Who inspired your love of horses and riding and why?
Alex Brown, Missionville: I rode ponies as a kid, so I have always been involved with horses. I spent nearly 28 years in the United States; for a lot of that time, I worked in the horse racing industry. My role would generally be galloping horses in the mornings, racehorses that are getting ready for their races. I really enjoyed it.
Diva Marketing: This is not the first book you’ve authored. You also wrote the beautiful book Greatness and Goodness: Barbaro And His Legacy. However, I believe Missionville is your first fiction book. Why did you want to go down the fiction road?
Alex Brown, Missionville: I thought it would be an interesting challenge. All my writing, prior to Missionville, has been non-fiction, including the Barbaro book, as you mentioned; as well as covering horse racing for media, including the Cecil Whig and New York Times. I took a creative writing course at a local college, to learn the mechanics of writing fiction. I also joined a writers group, to learn more, and share ideas. The prospect of creating my own world, Missionville, and all the characters that inhabit that world, fascinated me. Finally, I wanted to use fiction to continue to highlight horse welfare issues that I have tried to champion over the past few years.
Diva Marketing: In Missionville you take the reader into the world of horse race through the experiences of several characters including the protagonist, a likeable chap named Pete. Of course I have to ask, how much of Alex found his way into the character of Pete?
Alex Brown, Missionville: Some. Mostly his character arc. I spent a lot of time in horse racing, only worried about horses that were immediately in my care, and not concerned with what happened when I no longer had anything to do with them. The Barbaro episode brought many things to light for me, and set me on a different path. At the beginning of the story, Pete appears to be pretty oblivious to what happens to horses after he and his owner, Ray, lose them through the claiming system. That changes.
From time to time, over the years, I’ve had one or two horses in my direct care, so I understand the training of a small stable. That helped inform Pete’s character. I would say there are a few friends of mine who might see a little of themselves in Pete, if they read the book.
Diva Marketing: Was it a challenge to write for several audiences -- those who understand the world of horse racing and others who may be “Kentucky Derby” viewers? How did you make the book interesting to both groups?
Alex Brown, Missionville: Yes! And both audiences are super important, if the book is going to be a success. The most fundamental thing I did was create a resource section, at the end of the book. For those less familiar with the jargon of horse racing, the workings of the backside, the resource section should help open the book up.
That said, I didn’t want to bog the reader down, through the story, with unnecessary explanation, but some things did need explaining. I hope I got the balance right. One review on Amazon UK, by a lady who knows horses, but not horse racing in America, was very positive about the accessibility of the book.
Diva Marketing: From a review on Amazon – “It's hard-hitting, controversial, and makes one think.” Without giving away too much away, why is Missionville hard-hitting, controversial and makes one thing?
Alex Brown, Missionville: The book takes a hard look at the flow of horses from the racetracks to the slaughter houses. Nothing gory, but this is something that does happen, and I take it on.
Missionville is the fictional racetrack; Owenscreek is the fictional kill auction. I won’t go into detail, but I’m hoping the racing industry embraces the book, but it might get dismissed. It’s hard to write about this stuff, while also wanting to write a book that people will want to read, that’s the biggest challenge. Early feedback has been pretty positive, so I’m very excited about that.
Diva Marketing: In addition to your talent in the riding ring, you also were a pioneer in digital and social media marketing. Let’s talk about how you’re promoting Missionville. What digital and social channels are you using and which works best?
Alex Brown, Missionville: Amazon is obviously my biggest channel for sales. Book shops can order it, via Ingram, but Amazon is where most of the sales will likely come from. The key with Amazon, I think, is to have the book appear on the right lists (i.e. horse racing in this case) and try to sustain sales enough to make sure the book appears on those lists in the top 20, or at least in the top 100, for a good period of time.
I am fortunate to have a large network on Facebook (5k friends) and have set up a Facebook page for Missionville. I have a decent following on Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn. Whenever I get a review on Amazon, I’ll post the review to all these social channels. Sometimes I’ll post a copy of the review, with an image, sometimes I’ll post the copy of the review with a direct link back to Amazon. Trying to experiment with which method works best. I try to post about the book, in the various channels, about once a day, during this early stage of the launch (it has now been out for nearly a month).
But here is where things are tricky. Facebook seems to have a sixth sense, in terms of when it knows you are marketing something. Facebook wants you to advertise, which I understand. So my feed is clearly less visible to my friends on Facebook, than it was prior to the book launch (I think anyway).
The number of followers that see the updates on the book’s Facebook page has dropped off significantly since the book started selling. Prior to sales, I used the book’s Facebook page as a means to build audience for the book, and get feedback on cover designs and so forth. (I do love the book cover!) The engaged audience was larger then.
Anyway, my plan has been, and remains, to start advertising on Facebook, as we get closer to the holiday season. While I have not explored the platform for advertising too much yet, I’m assuming I can really target to my audience. I didn’t want to begin the advertising campaign too soon, and I wanted to make sure there were sales and feedback on the book, before I started advertising, hence the timing of the launch of the book. It’s all a delicate balance, but in this age of instant feedback and data, it’s also very interesting.
Diva Marketing: What challenges are you facing in using digital to get the word out for Missionville that you might not have for Greatness and Goodness: Barbaro And His Legacy?
Alex Brown, Missionville: Back to Facebook, It is more challenging to use that channel for promotion, without buying their advertising. I was promoting my Barbaro book in 2011, things were a little easier then I think. It’s also more challenging promoting something without a clear definition.
With the Barbaro book, people pretty much knew what they were getting; a biography on a horse they loved, or at least had heard of. With Missionville, driving primary demand is much more of a challenge. And frankly, writing fiction, you are competing with the very best, for your audience. I’ll never profess to be a great writer, but I hope the writing is good enough to move people through the story.
Diva Marketing: How important are the review sites like amazon.com?
Alex Brown, Missionville: Amazon reviews are critical I think, and it’s why I wanted to get reviews before the holiday season, and before I started paying to promote the book. I was very nervous, before the first reviews started coming in.
As I write this, I have 13 5 star reviews for the book: seven on amazon.com
https://www.amazon.com/Missionville-Alex-Brown/dp/1999796306/, 3 on amazon.co.uk https://www.amazon.co.uk/Missionville-Alex-Brown/dp/1999796306/ and 2 on amazon.ca https://www.amazon.ca/Missionville-Alex-Brown/dp/1999796306/
It’s a shame that Amazon doesn’t combine all the reviews to one list, nevertheless, I am very happy with the early reviews.
The reviews do two things: they obviously make the book look good on Amazon, and possibly help with the Amazon algorithm when people search for topics, but also they give me content to push out to my social channels, as explained above.
Diva Marketing: You’ve used video in the past to promote projects. Any plans for video for Missionville –why or why not?
Alex Brown, Missionville: I might. I haven’t really thought about how to use video for Missionville yet, but it’s another channel, and another piece of content I can then push out to the other channels. Maybe as we get closer to the holidays I’ll do some kind of q and a, over video. Have people ask questions on Facebook, then answer the questions via video. I know video works on social, so I should be doing something.
Diva Marketing: You are a master at building an online community. How does that base help in getting the word out?
Alex Brown, Missionville: It’s just so important. I am lucky to have a decent sized set of networks, across different channels. I would not have embarked on the Missionville project, otherwise.
Diva Marketing: Please share your top 2 or 3 tips on how to use digital and social media to promote a new book.
Alex Brown, Missionville :
- Be persistent, so I try to get content out there on a daily basis.
- Keep experimenting, so I try to figure out if links, photos, links and photos, works best, in terms of gaining numbers of views, comments, shares and so forth.
- Tailor your content to each channel. Don’t post the same content from Facebook to Twitter, it’s lazy and less effective.
- Don’t get political, you’ll lose some of your audience.
Diva Marketing: As is our tradition at Diva Marketing, we’re tossing the virtual mic to you. Wrap it any way you’d like Alex!
Alex Brown, Missionville: Thank you so much for continuing to support my work. You have been so helpful over the years!!
Diva Marketing: My pleasure Alex!
Connect With Alex Brown Author Of Missionville!
Website | Blog |Facebook | Twitter | Linkedin | YouTube | Amazon
Read Alex Brown's Diva Marketing Interviews!
Great and Goodness Barbaro And His Legacy - Part 1 | Part 2
Non Glory, A Video Series | Podcast - Telling the Stories of Causes Through Social Media
01/31/2017
H
ow to get the word out about your company and products is a one of the biggest challenges facing many small business owners.
As we often discuss on Diva Marketing, the digital world provides a multitude of of opportunities from blogs to social networks to online advertising. For good measure, let's throw in eMail and websites.
Recently I had the pleasure of meeting two guys in Atlanta who have a little different approach on how to promote your business. Lee Kanter and Stone Payton are telling the stories of local metro businesses through a digital radio program -- Business RadioX. There are usually several guests, discussing diverse topics, on each show. In additon to being interview by Lee and Stone, who do the show in tandem, the hosts take great pleasure in initiating networking among their guests.
About Lee Kantor from the perspective of Lee Kantor - I think that having a degree in Advertising from a school of journalism gave me a unique perspecitve to disrupt the media. And as a social entrepreneur, I founded Business RadioX out of my frustration with traditional media's anti-business bias. Some media leans left, some media leans right, we lean business.
We help companies of all sizes get the word out about the good work they are doing for their profession and their community.
About Stone Payton from the perspective of Stone Payton - Just a guy who "hit the lottery" when I stumbled on to Business RadioX ® and met Lee Kantor. In the beginning, as a guest -- and later as a client,
I found this platform to be ideal for building relationships and creating original content -- which of course, helped me serve my market and grow my business. 
Now, as Managing Partner I get to help all kinds of businesses share their story and promote their work -- and now my sole focus is expanding the Network so we can do it all on a much larger scale.
Diva Marketing: Let’s kick this off with a media question. In this age of digital video why produce a ‘radio’ show?
Lee Kantor, Business RadioX®: I think radio or audio interviews are a more effective way to capture authentic, deeper conversations. While some people are comfortable being videotaped, we have found that a lot of people get self-conscious and in their own head with a camera in their face. Video interviews tend to be superficial and sound bitey.
At Business RadioX, the way we conduct in studio interviews is very intimate and comfortable. Within a few minutes, everyone relaxes, opens up and shares their story. Since we are long form the business person’s passion for what and more importantly why they are doing what they do comes out.
Diva Marketing: Lee, what does Stone bring to this party that you do not?
Lee Kantor, Business RadioX®: Stone has taken a lot of the business functions that I am not good at off my plate. He is great at selling and articulating the Business RadioX mission and value proposition to prospective partners and sponsors. His ability to see the client's ultimate objective then reverse engineer an elegant solution that helps them achieve their goals has been critical to our success.
Diva Marketing: Same question for you Stone. What does Lee bring to the Business RadioX® that you do not?
Stone Payton, Business RadioX®: Well, Lee founded the company, developed the original idea, and refined the concept long before I became involved. He had a great lifestyle business going -- helping people and earning a comfortable six figure living working 2 or 3 half days a week when I met him . . . And then, I took him away from all that (smile).
We're still a small company, so Lee wears a lot of hats like we all do . . . but I think the two most valuable contributions he makes on a consistent basis are Vision and Empathy. I don't know how to explain it, but I swear the man can see "around the corners and behind the doors." This gives us the ability to consistently ensure we're meeting needs and solving problems for our customers -- sometimes, needs and problems they don't even realize they have yet.
He's remarkably adept at Empowering Others as well. Candidly, that's a major hole in my swing personally -- letting go, delegating . . . and equipping others to get the job done. I'm still working on that one.
Diva Marketing: When I was a guest on Business RadioX ® I found your questions to be thoughtful and well… smart. Your guests come from diverse backgrounds. What prep do you usually do for each guest/show? 
Lee Kantor, Business RadioX®: I try to be an active listener and really be in the moment with our guests. I want to understand what they do and more importantly why they do it. I am not afraid to ask "dumb" questions, because I'm trying to educate our listeners no matter what stage of business they are in.
We like to joke that both Stone and I are both curious and ignorant about so many things that those equalities help us do pretty effective interviews.
Stone Payton, Business RadioX®: Almost none in most cases -- I want the conversation to be fresh and authentic, so I'm going to be asking the same questions our listeners would be asking. My prep is in the inviting. I reach out to people I find interesting and want to learn more about -- always searching for compelling stories that should be told. And I know in most cases -- if we don't share them, they'll go untold.
Sharing positive business stories simply does not fit the Big Media economic model. Unless there's a scandal, fire, or crime to report, most businesses in your community and mine are not going to be invited to tell their story.
Diva Marketing: In terms of how a guest comes across on-air, what makes a good guest for a radio show?
Lee Kantor, Business RadioX®: A good guest is someone who is passionate about what they are doing and is willing to share the good, the bad and the ugly about what they do and how they got to where they are at.
The best guests talk from the heart not from notes or by inelegantly forcing in memorized talking points.
Stone Payton, Business RadioX®: Substance . . . If you're the "real thing" -- actually out there providing genuine value to the marketplace, that will come shining through in a Business RadioX ® interview.
Diva Marketing: What is the value for a guest in taking the time from their busy schedules to come into the studio and be part of Business RadioX
Lee Kantor, Business RadioX®: I think there is a lot of value for the guest. 1- They are given a business centric platform to get the word out about what they are doing in their business 2- They get a long form interview, which means they can talk in normal sentences not in sound bites. They can share real stories not talking points. 3- We are a pro-business earned media network that will not humiliate or ambush our guests, we are there to support and celebrate them.
Stone Payton,Business RadioX®: If someone I invited were to really ask this, I'd simply ignore thequestion or politely uninvite them and move on. They probably shouldn't be a guest on our network. Their value system is not quite aligned with ours -- too transactional (vs. relationship and service oriented), and they wouldn't leverage their appearance properly anyway. But I understand why you might ask the question in an interview like this -- so here's just some of what I've observed . . .
First and foremost, it's an opportunity to serve. If we've invited you to be featured on a Business RadioX ® show, you have knowledge and experience that would be tremendously valuable to other execs and entrepreneurs.
2.Participating in an authentic conversation like the ones we facilitate -- a conversation solely focused on you and your work -- helps you crystallize your own thinking. (You're doing the same thing for me right now.)
3.In most episodes, you'll meet other bright, passionate people with compelling stories. You'll almost certainly learn something -- and in many cases, we've seen enduring relationships evolve from people who have first met in our studios.
4.In the space of 45 minutes of less, you'll capture a great deal of thought leadership-- original content that can be re-purposed in a variety of ways to help you serve your market and grow your business.
Diva Marketing: As some one in the media once told me, without an audience there is no business. What does your listening audience get from the shows? Or the biz question, “What’s in it for me?”
Lee Kantor, Business RadioX®: Business RadioX listeners get a front row seat to stories of real life business people battling every day to make it. We tell real stories, right from the horse’s mouth. We aren’t theorizing about business, we are going deep and immersing ourselves in a business person’s everyday world. If you need to know what is happening in the business world in your community you would be well served to listen to the stories we tell on Business RadioX in your market because they aren’t being told anywhere else.
Stone Payton,Business RadioX®: Original thought leadership and practical ideas from people who are actually in the trenches getting it done.
Diva Marketing: I really liked Stone’s tweet.
Your business model is interesting, different and if I may say so – brilliant in the way you help your guests network with each other. Please tell our community a little about the model and how you developed it.
Lee Kantor Business RadioX®: Our mission is to amplify the stories of business in every local market that we serve. We think it is critically important to support and celebrate the small to mid-sized business people in every community. We believe that every community needs a media outlet that will give them a chance to tell their story and amplify their message.
Our business model serves each constituent in business.
Listeners can access all our interviews for free. If they resonate with what we are doing in their community they can support our mission by nominating guests with interesting business stories and if they want to financially help us tell more stories they can become a member of the Business RadioX community at brxmember.com
Guests can support us by coming on a show and sharing their story. We are earned media and guests never pay to be a guest. Guests can also support us by becoming a member.
Business people who philosophically believe in our mission and agree with us that it is important to have a media outlet in their market that supports business financially support us by becoming sponsors. Businesses can sponsor a series, a show or even a studio. We create custom sponsorships with a handful of clients in each market we serve that helps them elegantly meet the hard to reach people they need to grow their business as well as show the community that they want to help get the word out about the good work that is being done in their market.
In each market we serve we find one or more entrepreneurs that wants to use our platform to capture business stories. This person can be a consultant who want to leverage our brand to just serve the industry they work in or they can be a business person looking for a more meaningful second act to their career.
Stone Payton,Business RadioX®: Yeah -- what he said. Again, I can't take any credit for the core business model . . . I just jumped on Lee's coat tails -- and I ain't lettin' go! I am thoroughly enjoying helping to refine the business model for expansion and scale though . . . That's a great deal of fun -- bringing this platform to other markets.
Diva Marketing: There are two sides to the mic. What skills and talents should a host have to be successful?
Lee Kantor Business RadioX®: I think a level of humbleness is needed, which I think is lacking among most interviewers. I think a lot of interviewers want to be the star, so they monopolize the time, or wax elegantly about how smart they are too often. We encourage our hosts to make the guest the star. Listen well, ask clear questions, one at a time. Dig deeper with follow-up questions when the opportunity presents itself. Ask more why questions.
Stone Payton,Business RadioX®: Emotional maturity to shine the light on the guest (vs. themselves).
Genuine desire to help the guest share their story.
Business acumen can be helpful -- but some of our best questions -- and resulting conversations -- have come from students with little or no practical business experience. I don't know the first thing about aerodynamics -- but in spite of that, maybe even because of that -- I'm confident I could facilitate a very powerful and productive interview with the nation's leading authority in that field . . . And so can you or any of your readers -- if they have the right mindset.
Diva Marketing: What role does social media play in your communication plan?
Lee Kantor Business RadioX®: Social media plays an important role in distributing the content we create. We use Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin to share the stories we collect.
In 2017 we are going to explore using Instagram to share some of the photos we capture in studio and use our email newsletter in a more strategic fashion. We may even play with YouTube by taking some clips of audio we capture and using them as a soundtrack for some photos we capture in studio and making a video. We also sometimes use social media beofre a show to ask our community for some questions they want answered from upcoming guests.
Diva Marketing: Which social media channel is most effective for you and why?
Lee Kantor,Business RadioX®: We lean on Linkedin. We are business people talking to business people so Linkedin is a logical channel to communicate with our community and distribute our content.
Stone Payton,Business RadioX®: Lee's absolutely right if you're going by today's definition of Social Media -- but my answer is "Lunch" . . . or dinner, or the boardroom, or the golf course, or the telephone -- anywhere Execs and Entrepreneurs are actually engaging one another and exchanging ideas to serve their market and grow their business.
Diva Marketing: RadioX ® has been around for a while and in that time I suspect you’ve interviewed thousands of small business owners. How has the small business/entrepreneurship world changed in terms of product/service innovation?
Lee Kantor,Business RadioX®: I think that as technology has become faster, cheaper and more powerful we are in an interesting time.
It's hard to look at things from 40,000 feet when the ground is moving underneath your feet. When we started, smartphones weren't so smart. Now we need a mobile first strategy. When we started it was cumbersome to listen to our content live or even get the recording on your phone. Now I can watch everything from a movie to live NFL game on my phone.
Business owners have to stay focused, stay in their lane and use technology to work for them.
It is easy to get distracted and follow every shiny object that you hear about.
Diva Marketing: What trends do you see happening in marketing media for business owners on limited budgets?
Lee Kantor,Business RadioX®: I see a trend of forward thinking businesses supporting media that are authentic, long form and who creates meaningful relationships with their listeners. There is a wave of socially conscious businesses that have figured out that there is a lot better ROI with fewer (but more engaged) “hearts and minds” rather than with more (anonymous and superficial) “eyes and ears.”
I think the majority of traditional media outlets are desperate and are spiralling down the clickbait path. Sadly this strategy is making them less relevant in terms of influence. Because of the use of this click bait strategy their consumer can’t tell fake news from real news.
Stone Payton,Business RadioX®: Limited budgets are a product of limited revenue, limited thinking, or both. We can help change that -- and I'm delighted to say we provide substantial value at any financial budget from $0, to $129 /year, to $5k /month, and beyond.
As for trends . . . Access is higher, Quality is lower. Distribution is much higher, but tools for measuring haven't caught up. Most metrics in marketing media today are meaningless (impressions, viewership, coverage, clicks,) . . . It's like trying to measure fluid ounces on a bathroom scale . . . in an effort to find the best route to Boise. So we simply measure ROI.
Diva Marketing: As we enter 2017, what are your plans for Business RadioX®?
Lee Kantor,Business RadioX®: We want to tell 1 million business stories. And to help us do that we need to find socially conscious businesses that want to partner with us and help us put studios in markets around the United States. Together we can tell more stories and help more small and mid sized businesses get the word out about the great work they are doing for their profession and their communities.
Stone Payton,Business RadioX®: Increased Access For All . .
1.Expanding the network to other markets
2. More stories, more ways to access what you want, when you want it . . . and we're launching our BRX Member program so more people who resonate with our mission, enjoy serving their community, and appreciate authentic conversations with local business leaders can join our cause.
Diva Marketing: As is Diva Marketing’s tradition, we’re throwing the virtual mic back to you. Wrap it anyway you’d like!
Lee & Stone, Business RadioX®: If you know anyone with an interesting business story please send them our way. We want to interview them and help them get the word out! If you know any sponsors or entrepreneurs who resonate with our work please send them our way as well.
Contect with Business RadioX®, Lee Kantor and Stone Payton
Website |Facebook |Twitter @LeeKantor|Twitter @StonePayton
06/20/2016
Jay Ducote came to my attention when he battled it out last year on the Food Network show Food Network Star Season 11.
For those who might not be food TV fans (a guilty pleasure of mine... take a look at Diva Foodies!) the winner of Food Network Star walks away with the biggest prize in food TV competiton ~ their own show on the Food Network.
Although Jay came in 2nd there was no doubt that he knew his way in the kitchen - indoors and outdoors, had great on-air presence and the fans loved him. Seems the Scripps Networks Interactive brass thought so too because they offered Jay an amazing opportunity to film a pilot for a sister network, Travel Channel.
What makes Jay especially relevant to the Diva Marketing community is his use of social media, aka Social TV, to promote his on-air opportunity on the Food Network and to leverage the social buzz to encourage Scripps Networks Interactive to pick up the Deep Fried America pilot.
In our Diva Marketing interview Jay generous shares his insights on Social TV, how to social media tips, some of his Food Network Star backstory and what it was like to be a dude blogger back in 2009! Enjoy Jay's Story.
About Jay Ducote According To Jay Ducote
I’m a friendly, fun loving guy from Louisiana who loves to celebrate food and beverage culture. I’m a chef, writer, speaker, entertainer and hugger. I’ve got a product line available called Jay D’s with a Louisiana Barbecue Sauce, Louisiana Molasses Mustard and Spicy & Sweet Barbecue Rub.
Diva Marketing: Before we dive into how you’re using social media to support the Travel Channel pilot for your pilot of Deep Fried America, let’s set the stage for the peeps in our community who may not now But are soon to be (!) avid food TV viewers.
Not to be snarky, but there are so many food shows what makes Deep Fried America different and a must watch... in addition to the awesome host of course?
Jay Ducote, Deep Fried America: Deep Fried America presents a great mix of drool-worthy food, talented chefs and fun travel.
I’m going to be in the kitchen helping prepare (and eating of course) some amazing food, the caveat is that something in it has to be cooked in a deep fryer.
But we aren’t just looking for normal fried foods, we are talking to chefs who are being innovative and creating new dishes using the fryer.
Diva Marketing: The concept of Deep Fried America was taken from one of your Food Network Star show challenges. On Food Network Star you were positioned as the BBQ guy who developed his cooking chops (pun intentional) from tailgating parties at LSU. Fried foods seems like a step in another direction. Why a fried food focus? Say that fast 3 times: fried food focus/fried food focus/fried food focus!
Jay Ducote, Deep Fried America: The short answer is because the Network loved it and wanted it. They pushed Eddie in the BBQ direction and had me go toward the fried foods.
To be fair, while I did some grilling on Food Network Star, I never really got to do any barbecuing or even make a version of my BBQ sauce. I tried to one time, but our groceries got swapped and Eddie ended up making the BBQ sauce instead (4th of July challenge).
On the culinary improv episode of Food Network Star I fried calamari and gave a line to live audience including people from the Network that being from Louisiana, anything that flies, crawls, walks, slithers or swims, we fry it. From that point on I think the Network liked positioning me as a fried foods guy.
All that being said, I definitely have a special place in my heart and stomach for deep fried foods. Fried Chicken would be on the plate if I got to choose my last mean. A beignet in Louisiana is the perfect breakfast. At tailgate parties you can rest assured that we had an outdoor deep fryer right next to the grill!
Diva Marketing: Let’s talk blogs! I’ve been active in the blogosphere for over 12 years and have known some great food bloggers. Although most chefs are men, most food bloggers are women.
Do you think being a dude in that world gave Bite & Booze, launched in 2009, a competitive advantage? Why or why not?
Jay Ducote, Deep Fried America: Without a doubt, 100%.
I think that being a large, bearded, masculine man with a love for barbecue and beer and whiskey and fried foods helped set me apart in the food blog world.
While I would be just another guy in the kitchen, taking the food blog route helped differentiate me. I can remember going to food blog conferen 
ces and the audience being 80-90% women and 10-20% men, and of those men, rarely was there another guys like me.
So I stood out in the world. And I was able to make a name for myself in that world. I got more and more opportunities to speak or to be on camera because of that. It definitely helped grow my blog and my brand.
Diva Marketing: Blogs are ever evolving and where you begin is not necessarily where you end up. How has the focus of Bite & Booze changed from back in the 2009 days?
Jay Ducote, Deep Fried America: My blog, Bite & Booze, started as a personal food journal. I wrote a blog about what I had for lunch that day just so I could keep track of it. I was working an office job in downtown Baton Rouge and I wanted to something to cure me of my boredom.
I knew right away that I would want it to focus on supporting local restaurants and chefs, but I had no idea it would grow into what it has become.
I now speak of Bite & Booze not as a blog, but as a culinary media company. The website is still primarily a blog, but we also do a radio show (since 2011… in 2014 it won a Taste Award as the best food or drink based radio broadcast in the country), podcasts, video production, lots of social media stuff, events and more.
Diva Marketing: What tips on how to create compelling blog content that builds a loyal audience can you give us?
Jay Ducote, Deep Fried America:
1. Stay consistent. Whatever your theme or brand is, stay consistent with it.
2. Also be personal. I find that people really like to feel like they get to know the blogger or the person behind the posts.
I don’t do a whole lot of recipe blogging, but has been part of my strategy. I support and celebrate the entire local food scene wherever I am from farmers to chefs and restaurants to people making cool products.
Diva Marketing: When doing research for our interview I came across an article from The Advocate. The headlined caught my attention.
Jay Ducote's ‘Deep Fried’ pilot to air on Travel Channel June 25; future depends on viewer engagement
How important will the social buzz be to impact the Travel Channel's decision to pick up your pilot and why?
Jay Ducote, Deep Fried America: There are a couple ways to give Travel Channel good, immediate feedback on the show.
The first is for people to actually watch and set their DVRs to record the broadcast. The people in charge will see those ratings and get that data.
Secondly, social engagement absolutely helps. If @travelchannel is bombarded with tweets during the broadcast, they’ll know that not only are people watching, but they are also engaging. That’s powerful information for them to be able to take to advertisers who would purchase air time during my show.
At the end of the day this is a business, and producing great content is only good if it can be sold to sponsors and advertisers.
So the social buzz will let Travel Channel and potential advertisers know that there will be engaged viewers if they pick the show up for multiple seasons.
Diva Marketing: Let’s look at what is called “Social TV” on a more global basis.
Although Nielsen includes Twitter and now public Facebook into its TV ratings, in your opinion, to what extent do most producers/TV food media companies bring active social media into their digital marketing/out-reach mix?
(By active social media I mean, authentically engaging with the show’s fans versus broadcasting messages about the show or network.)
Jay Ducote, Deep Fried America: I feel like a lot of brands/people could truly be more active, especially when a show airs.
For pretty much every episode of Food Network Star last summer my team and I were live tweeting with fans during the episode. You never really see that from the big stars or the networks themselves. But I think they should.
The ability to now engage directly with the fans while a show is airing is pretty incredible.
Doing it live can be pretty tricky for sure, but I find that it is worth it!
Diva Marketing: I totally agree Jay! Now, a very basic but important question Jay – what benefits does social, done well, bring to the table?
Jay Ducote, Deep Fried America: 4 Social Media Benefits
1. Social media gives everyone the opportunity to grow a brand in ways that weren’t possible before.
2. It gives fans a chance to get an inside glimpse, connect with a personality or follow their journey.
3. It also gives people like me a platform beyond the mass media outlets like TV or Radio.
4. So when it is done well, it is possible to build and retain a fan base outside of the traditional media outlets.
Diva Marketing: What are your thoughts about the benefits/importance of food TV personalities, chefs and contestants, live tweeting during their own shows?
Jay Ducote, Deep Fried America: I do it. It makes sense. It helps build and audience and grow a brand. It can be tough to make time for it, but it is so worth it.
Diva Marketing: If you were King of a food media company how would you use social media aka Social TV?
Jay Ducote, Deep Fried America:
I’d make it part of my social media plan to use social to support on-air content and use on-air content to push people to social.
I’d make it to where a large part of my social strategy would be live-tweeting shows and posting on other platforms about new programming that is on the air. I’d make sure I had a team of people to actively engage with social rather than just be shouting into the void.
Diva Marketing: In addition to blogs, you’re active on multiple social media channels and have been leveraging them to support Deep Fried America. How do you play to the strengths of, let’s say the Big 3: Facebook, Instagram and Twitter?
Jay Ducote, Deep Fried America:
Facebook: Provide links, pictures, video content. Ask questions and get engagement in a thread.
Instagram: Photos are key. Use pictures that resonate in one way or another.
Twitter: Inform and engage. Short format messaging. Connect with the audience by engaging in conversation.
Diva Marketing: Are you looking at insights/metrics and if so (1) which are most valuable to you and (2) what tools are you using to measure?
Jay Ducote, Deep Fried America: Probably not as much as I should. I look at some Facebook data but that’s about it. I see engagement on Twitter and Instagram but I don’t go too deep into analytics.
Diva Marketing: Although text/image driven channels like Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook can include links to videos they are a “still world.” How did you build your personal brand to authentically bring Jay Ducote to digital life, so to speak?
Jay Ducote, Deep Fried America: Instagram is great for short little videos and Facebook is awesome for videos. I haven’t really done a whole lot yet with live streaming or other video content like that.
I kind of let my other content speak for itself. Though I do think that doing a little more live stuff or short videos would be a good idea.
Diva Marketing: Let’s go back to Social TV in food media. Who do you think in terms of a TV chef gets it and is doing it right?
Jay Ducote, Deep Fried America: I think Alton Brown does a really good job with this social media. He is active and engaging.
Diva Marketing: What are a couple of tips you can pass along to your TV food chef pals in terms of how to do social right to build their personal brand and support their TV shows?
Jay Ducote, Deep Fried America: 4 Social Media Tips
1. Just a little effort goes a long way.
2. Think about it in advance.
3. Use services to schedule content in advance rather than wait until the show is airing to even think about it.
4. Make it a priority to have social engagement as part of our overall brand strategy.
Diva Marketing: I love how Alton Brown uses cartoons that are shown against tweets when he live tweets Cutthroat Kitchen. We’re thinking optimistically, when Deep Fried America is on-air how will you use social media to support the show? 
Jay Ducote, Deep Fried America: Well crap, I didn’t see this before I answered with Alton Brown earlier. Yes, I like that too.
I’m obviously going to do all the things that we’ve mentioned before. Beyond that, who knows! We’ll have to see what happens.
Diva Marketing: Guess great minds think a like, or something like that! Jay, how can we support you in ensuring Deep Fried America lives to be part of the Travel Channel’s lineup?
Jay Ducote, Deep Fried America: Watch it, set DVRs, ask your friends to do the same, live tweet the show and tag @travelchannel and @jayducote and #deepfriedamerica. Do the same thing on Facebook and Instagram.
Diva Marketing: As is the tradition of Diva Marketing interviews, the guest always has the last response. Wrap this anyway you’d like.
Jay Ducote, Deep Fried America: I’m certainly hoping that this turns into something much more than a pilot. It is a really exciting time and opportunity for me, but I won’t be pleased with the results unless the show gets picked up for a season. And then another. And then another.
I know I’ve got a lot of work to do ahead of me to continue to pursue my passion and chase my dreams. The TV side of everything I do is actually just a small part of my overall business model.
Bite & Booze, my culinary media company that started as a blog in 2009, and Hug Jay D, which is my product company that launched in 2014, are just the beginning.
Coming in 2017 will be my first restaurant, Gov’t Taco, a gourmet taco shop in Baton Rouge, La. And I’m sure there will be much more coming down the line as I continue to grow all of my brands and businesses.
Deep Fried America has a chance to be a huge part of that growth, so all the support and encouragement is definitely appreciated. Let’s make sure the Travel Channel knows that people out there want the show!
Connect with Jay!
Jay Ducote: Website | Twitter | Instagram
Bite and Booze: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
Hug J D: Facebook
Saturday, June 25, 12:30 CT, on Travel Channel
05/09/2016
To celebrate Diva Marketing's 12th Blog Birthday (!) ... an extra special interview on a topic that is sizzlin' hot -- Influencer Marketing with Danica Kombol founder of Everywhere Agency.
Seems you can't turn a corner in the digital world without bumping up against an influencer marketing post or campaign. Influencer marketing's roots began in the blogosphere programs of what we called blogger relations.
However, with the onset of multiple social media channels e.g. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Periscope, Blogs, YouTube, Snapchat and technology that provides in-depth metrics, more brands are creating marketing promotion and content initiatives that include people who have significant followings and well -- influence.
Although the relationship aspect of today's influencer marketing campaigns are still critical, campaigns are more sophisticated than in the days of blogger relations.
Danica Kombol graciously agreed to give us the scoop on what makes a successful influencer marketer program from the point of view of the brand/agency and the influencer. In her usual style, Danica includes so much more. Enjoy!
About Danica Kombol: - I’m an entrepreneur, a mom, a pie baker and passionate about communications. I run the social media marketing firm, Everywhere Agency. We launched in 2009, focused primarily on social media and helping major brands get into the social media space. At that time, we were novel and unique, and big brands like CNN, Lexus, Lexis-Nexis and others needed our services.
This day and age, most brands get it and have built out robust social media teams of their own. Now a major focus of our agency is influencer marketing. We connect companies like Macy’s, Carter’s and other major consumer brands with influencers to help amplify and tell their story.
Diva Marketing: The term influencer marketing seems to be the hot buzz world. A Google search pulled up 20,800,000 links. Let’s start at Influencer Marketing 101. How do you define “influencer marketing?”
Danica Kombol: With influencer marketing, influencers become the vehicle to deliver your marketing message. However, it’s way more complex than that. The question really becomes, “How do you use influencers to deliver that message and what type of influencers do you seek out?”. At Everywhere Agency, we practice the ancient art of storytelling. By that, I mean finding influencers who can naturally and organically communicate a story about a product or brand.
Diva Marketing: Influencer Marketing is a service that your agency Everywhere Agency offers. How and why did you come to include it in your offerings?
Danica Kombol: In 2009, Everywhere Agency won the Guinness World Record for the most socially networked message in #BEATcancer. We launched that campaign at BlogWorld (now extinct) by getting influencers at the conference to all tweet out #BeatCancer, and eBay/PayPal agreed to give a penny per tweet for every mention. Those funds went to cancer serving charities.
We were trending on Twitter within the hour and remained that way for three days. At the time, we wanted to send the message that social media could be used for social good. In retrospect, I realize that was our first experience galvanizing influencers, and those who participated in those first hours of sending out tweets are friends to this day.
After that, brands kept coming to us looking for novel, non-advertising ways to promote their events or their products. We knew all these influencers, many who had a natural affinity for certain brands. We realized we could leverage influencers to share positive stories about brands the same way we got influencers to deliver a positive message in #BeatCancer.
Seven years ago, we were keeping all these influencers in Excel spreadsheets. As more and more of them worked on campaigns, they began to talk to one another and say things like, “I’m part of Everywhere.” We realized we had to move all these amazing folks out of spreadsheets and bring them into a community.
That’s when we launched Everywhere Society – which is a community of influencers who work with our agency and opt in for brand campaigns. And it really is a community. Our influencer network has grown from those early years of the geek bloggers who used to attend BlogWorld to a vast community of 2,500 influencers coast to coast who write about lifestyle, fashion, technology, food, DIY, parenting, and well, just about anything.
Diva Marketing: On a high level, why do brands invest in influencer marketing programs?
Danica Kombol: According to Nielsen, 92% of consumers trust recommendations from other people – even if they don’t know them personally – over promotional content that comes directly from brands, and 74% of consumers identify word of mouth as a key factor of their purchasing decisions.
Essentially, influencer marketing is word of mouth advertising in the digital sphere. It’s easier for consumers to connect with a brand when they see it through the eyes of a real, relatable person.
Diva Marketing: Let’s drill down to the “influencer” which might be more complex to determine. Before we get into the weeds of the elements ~ for you, what makes an effective “influencer” for a brand campaign?
Danica Kombol: Ha! We debate about this often. An influencer is really anyone who is persuasive over a great number of people. An influencer is that person you know who tells you about the best hair salon or movie to see. In Malcolm Gladwell, Tipping Point-speak, these people are the “mavens,” or people we rely on to connect us with new information.
Most of us have many different subgenres of influencers in our lives. For example, I seek parenting advice from my friend Paula and technology advice from my friend Lina. In the “olden days” we’d have a phone conversation with that influencer seeking their advice on, say, the next gadget to buy. Today, we see his or her Facebook post, and we take action or are influenced by them.
Diva Marketing: Is there a secret recipe that Everywhere Agency created to determine if a person is a digital/social media influencer? By that I mean is a percentage of reach, followers, Klout score, engagement , etc that is used? If not what does Everywhere take into consideration?
Danica Kombol: Sure, and contrary to my response above where I define just about anyone with influence as an influencer, at Everywhere Agency we are specifically looking for “digital influencers” or those folks with an extremely large digital footprint and a very engaged audience. So yes, we look at numbers.
If they are a blogger, we look at their UMV’s (unique monthly visits), but in this day and age, we’re as likely to look at their Instagram, Vine, Snapchat or Twitter reach. Most important of all is what the influencer writes or talks about. There has to be a real match for the brands we represent.
Diva Marketing: In the Public Relations world celebrity marketing has been a tactic for a very long time. How does influencer marketing differ from celebrity marketing?
Danica Kombol: Ha, ha. It’s not so different anymore! Because I’ll tell you, a lot of these YouTube influencers are now celebrities in their own right! Celebrity marketing is an aspect of influencer marketing. At Everywhere Agency, we’ve worked with celebrities, but the core of our activations revolves around digital influencers.
Diva Marketing: Would you share a successful influencer marketing campaign with us e.g. what made it successful, how did you determined which influencers to use, etc?
Danica Kombol: We recently did a series of Twitter chats for Macy’s. We were promoting the fact that Macy’s carries plus-sized clothing in their stores and embraces women with curves.
Macy’s teamed up with SuperModel Emme to do a series of fashion shows in their stores featuring plus-sized models and influencers. We found curvy bloggers who write about fashion to model and then joined forces with Emme to have Twitter chats where we talked about body positivity, fashion trends for curvy women, and the power of embracing your curves.
The conversations were amazing (even leading us to trend on Twitter). The impressions, which are how we measure our social conversations, topped 36 million. What was evident to us in these chats was that there are all these women who want to have this conversation, and we were proud to help facilitate it. Did I mention we won an AMY Award for our efforts?
Diva Marketing: What metrics do you usually use to determine the success of a campaign?
If can share any tools that would be great!
Danica Kombol: We look at a variety of factors – and every campaign has a different goal, so success doesn’t always look the same. Some clients are more concerned with the quality of content and photos than the amount of eyeballs that see it. Generally, we consider a campaign successful based on the number of impressions, a.k.a. the number of people who potentially saw a post, and the level of engagement or interaction the posts received.
Determining these statistics can be tricky, but we currently use a platform called Tracx to keep tabs on how our influencers are performing.
Diva Marketing: What 3 tips would you give a brand manager new to influencer marketing?
Danica Kombol:
1. Don’t expect the influencer to do a carbon copy of your brand message. Realize the benefit of working with influencer is that they tell your brand story in their own voice. Give them the tools to tell the story, but let them tell it on their own.
2. When you’re compensating an influencer, you must follow FTC Guidelines, which debuted in 2009 and are continuing to evolve. If confused about them, seek guidance from the Word of Mouth Marketing Association.
3. And finally (and I’m not just saying this because I run an agency but), “don’t go it alone.” Finding the right influencer is only half the battle. Agencies like mine specialize in doing the negotiations, building out the story architecture, tracking the influencer and making sure all FTC guidelines are met.
Diva Marketing: What advice would you give that brand manager if an influencer goes ‘rogue?’
Danica Kombol: See tip number 3 above, where I encourage a brand manager to “not go it alone.” At Everywhere Agency, we’ve been working with the same 2500 members in our network for years. We know their strengths and weaknesses. WE ONLY work with influencers who meet deadlines and follow the brand mandates. An influencer who “goes rogue” is an influencer who was poorly chosen.
Diva Marketing: Let’s change direction and talk a little about influencer marketing from the influencer’s point of view. Number one question people want to know: Is this a financial exchange? In other words how should an influencer expect to get compensated?
Danica Kombol: By and large, any influencer with a large following gets compensated for their work. The good influencers have a healthy ratio of sponsored versus non-sponsored posts, and the campaigns we bring to influencers are all sponsored campaigns.
In other words, we are paying the influencer to write (in their own words) about a brand, event or product.
Diva Marketing: Understanding that each campaign is different, what are some of the common aspects an influencer can expect when participating in an influencer marketing program?
Danica Kombol: An influencer can and should expect clear direction from the brand. What specific messages must be included in your blog post or social shares? What’s the goal of the campaign? The influencer should also stop and ask if this campaign is a match for their audience.
The surest way for an influencer to lose their audience is to fill their content with advertising messages their readers don’t want to hear.
Diva Marketing: As is Diva Marketing’s tradition, we’re tossing the virtual mic back to you. Wrap it up anyway you’d like.
Danica Kombol: McKinsey & Co says that word of mouth is the primary factor in 20% to 50% of all purchasing decisions, so influencer marketing isn’t something that’s nice to have – it’s a critical component in this era’s marketing landscape.
There’s power and passion and energy in influence that you don’t see in advertising. Go forth and be influential in your marketing efforts!!
Connect with Danica!
Everywhere Agency Website|Everywhere Agency Twitter | Danica Kombol Twitter | Danica Kombol Instagram| Danica Kombol LinkedIn
05/27/2015
I've often said the social web gives more than it takes.
Meeting people who may be outside of your usual network is one of its best 'gifts.' Alex Brown and I are worlds apart. We met in the "blogosphere" in 1999 when he was managing one of the first and most innovative online communities for Wharton.
Needless to say Alex is a pioneer in digital media. But Alex has another passion .. his love for horses.
He was able to combined his marketing talents and social media skills to build an amazing horse advocay community. It was not unusal for posts to pull in 500, 700, 1000 comments. Unheard of back in the day and even more so today. He's also the author of a brilliant and beautiful book - "Great and Goodness Barbaro And His Legacy." 
Alex describes himself as -- " I am a horseman, who is also an internet marketing "geek." I have ridden horses all my life, and I have been using the internet for teaching and marketing since 1992."
Fast forward to 2015. Video is where many see the growth of digital media. When Alex told me about an innovative video project he was launching for a rather controversial topic that once again combined Alex's love of horse and social media I was excited to learn more.
Diva Marketing, Toby: Your latest project is a video series on YouTube, it seems a bit of a departure from the development of a book. Why did you choose this medium ?
Alex Brown: My goal for this project, Horses: Sports, Culture, and Slaughter, is simply for content consumption, rather than distribution.
I wanted to create some content that would be easy for audiences to find, and then consume. No friction. With a book, your audience has to buy the book, and even after purchase, there is no guarantee that the book is read. I fear that quite a few people who did buy my book have not get read through it in detail.
For this project, I had messages I want to get out there. This made more sense. I also wondered, if I created an online essay, would people read? Would it have the same credibility, sharability, and so forth. I settled on a video series, and YouTube as the platform.
Diva Markeitng, Toby: To go the route of a well made video series may take even more effort than a book. What messages are you trying to convey that are so important to you in this project?
Alex Brown: The horse slaughter issue is very controversial, here in the United States. I think it is an issue that should be resolved, one way or another, in the near term. I believe it exists because most horsemen (gender neutral) and horse lovers really don't understand all the issues related to the subject, and quite honestly many do not want to know.
So I wanted to create a resource that examined all the issues, both for and against horse slaughter.It is comprehensive, basically a brain-dump of everything I know.
Diva Marketing, Toby: Although an important, but controversial topic, one might think that many people would be turned off by the subject. I might even think that most people would just avoid your hard work. Is that a concern?
Alex Brown: That is the biggest problem, for sure. Slaughter is visually dreadful, regardless of animal. I don't watch slaughter videos online. Only animal rights people watch that stuff I think, so really it becomes an echo chamber of the same people talking to each other, rather than getting the message out to broader communites.
My series is "NON GORY" and I make that very clear right at the beginning of the series. It is basically a 55 minute interview of me, discussing at the issues and context surrounding the topic, that is then overlayed with "b roll" of places I have visited etc. that are relevent to the conversation. My dog, Harriet, even plays a cameo roll.
Diva Marketing, Toby: We like that your pooch Harriet plays a role! Max might want her paw print autograph! Seriously, so you create a great piece of content, that might be uncomfortable for some people to watch. You bring a wealth of experience in social media marketing, the big questions are how to you get the video out in front and what's your distribution strategy?
Alex Brown: I have been able to develop a pretty healthy social media following over the years. First with the community developed on timwoolleyracing.com and then alexbrownracing.com as we followed Barbaro's progress at New Bolton Center.
From there the book helped me further build the community. I now have more than 5k followers on Twitter, 5k friends on Facebook (that's the limit for a personal page) as well as a new Facebook page for my Advocacy work. From this page I was able to purchase a Facebook ad (post boost at $20, which I will probably repeat during subsequent weekends, on the assumption that people have more time to consume content on the weekend). I am also pretty active on LinkedIn (some of that is due to my consulting work in the social media space). Basically I have quite a decent platform to launch content.
Diva Marketing, Toby: Initial distribution, seeding, is important, how have you tried to get the series to spread?
One of my goals was the timing of the launch. I wanted to get it out there during the Triple Crown series. This is important because it is the time of year that horses are on the national conscience. Media are covering our sport. We know when we explore the science behind "viral" content, an important factor is to design content that is part of the current conversation on the internet.
Even in the video design, I ask at the end of the series for those who "liked" the series to post it on their social platforms. You have to be very deliberate about this stuff. I have also been able to reach out to my network of media connections, to try to help spread the word.
Again, you have to be very deliberate and go after every connection you have. You then need to try to track conversations about the series, in what I call the "free marketing" space. Any comments, you respond. Even negative comments, engagement is very important.
Diva Marketing, Toby: Totally agree. Without the engagement factor you might as well keep content on a website. The series has been out for little more than a week, how has it been received?
Alex Brown: So far, the three videos have received 1,000 views, according to YouTube. I think that is a pretty good start. I have had some media coverage, one of which really did help get the word out.
Now I am continuing to try too engage with media, and now directly with friends on Facebook to watch the series, and then post about it. I think that is important.
I don't just ask people to spread the word, it is KEY that someone watched the series first. That way, the person can talk specifically about the series, as she promotes it. I think that sends a much stronger message.
Diva Marketing, Toby: What tip would you give people who want to step in to video? Bringing it back to digital marketing, are the results really worth the effort?
Alex Brown: Step in, experiment, fail forward (learn from your experiences) I am still experimenting with the medium, and am working on a couple of other projects for other clients, and the format is very different, short two minute clips focused on singular key ideas.
Finally, SEO is critical. What are the important keywords, and how are they included in the title, description and so forth.
And be passionate, because passion can overcome challenges.
Diva Marketing, Toby: I love that last thought!
Alex Brown: Yes, very critical. I have two passions, horses and the internet, my worlds collide! Horses - pre industrial revolution, technology - post industrial revolution. Now we are trying to use the technology to save the horse.
Diva Marketing, Toby: As is our tradition, on Diva Marketing, we're tossing the virtual mic to you Alex. Wrap it anyway you'd like.
Alex Brown: Thanks Toby. Early reaction to the series has been positive; I just really hope it helps move the conversation from one among animal rights groups, to one among horsemen and horse lovers throughout the United States.
Connect with Alex: Website |Alex Brown Racing | Non Glory Video |Twitter |Linkedin
Diva Marketing Talks to Alex Brown! Interview about the story behind Great and Goodness Barbaro And His Legacy| Podcast with Beth Kanter "Tell The Stories Of Causes Through Social Media
02/04/2015
Doctors heal patients in many ways ... some even through rock n roll!
N.E.D., an innovative rock band of 6 U.S. cancer surgeons, tours the country using their music to create awareness about women's cancer issues.
As Doc/Musician Nimesh Nagarsheth told us in this Diva Marketing interview, "Through our music we are able to reach thousands at a time getting our our awareness and education messages and quite honestly have a great time doing it."
N.E.D's heartwarming story inspired award winning producers from Spark Media to become N.E.D. groupies (of sorts) following the band for over three years. The end result was an award winning film - N.E.D. The Movie.
There is more. Today on World Cancer Day Regal Cinemas is showing the film (schedule). Awesome and amazing. Hope you are as inspired as I was by this story. Please enjoy this inteview with the producers and Rockin' Doc Nimesh.
About N.E.D (No Evidence of Disease): A rock band made up of 6 women’s cancer surgeons with the goal of raising public awareness of gynecologic cancers through music and the arts.
Our Story Tellers
Nimesh Nagarsheth, M.D. / Drums, Percussion: Dr. Nagarsheth is on faculty at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City and Englewood Hospital and Medical Center in Englewood, New Jersey.
“You can learn a lot from patients with cancer. And they see the world in a way that’s much different from the way that someone else sees the world.”
Andrea Kalin, Director, Executive Producer: Andrea Kalin is an Emmy Award Winning filmmaker and founder of Spark Media, a production company dedicated to producing films with a social conscience.
Karen Simon, Producer: Producer Karen Simon has worked on several Spark Media documentaries, including Prince Among Slaves, Soul of a People: Writing America’s Story, and Partners of the Heart. She also led the innovative national educational outreach effort for Partners of the Heart.
Diva Marketing/Toby: I get the overall mission of N.E.D. is to increase awareness of GYN cancers and that music is a universal experience ... but why a “Doc Rock Band?”
N.E.D./Nimesh: Music and the arts are extremely effective forms of communication. While our day jobs as a women’s cancer surgeons are extremely rewarding – we are most often working and making a difference with one patient at a time. Through our music we are able to reach thousands at a time getting our our awareness and education messages and quite honestly have a great time doing it.
Creating and performing original music is extremely therapeutic for us. I truly believe our music is special because our unique background and experiences as cancer surgeons is reflected in the music we create.
Diva Marketing/Toby: From the world of music who inspires you Doc Nimesh?
N.E.D./Nimesh: My strongest influences are RUSH, Foo Fighters and U2. However, I truly appreciate many kinds of music and often visit the Jazz clubs in NYC as well as other music venues.
Diva Marketing/Toby: Dr. Nimesh, you do have an eclecitc music tastes! Let’s talk a little more about the band. Since the ‘doc-musicians’ are located across the U.S. How often does the group get together for practice?
N.E.D./Nimesh: There have been some years where we have 7 or more shows in a year. When this happens we usually practice one or two days before each performance. Often we will review our old songs and add one or two new songs we have been working on during the rehearsals. Everyone in the band prepares incredibly well for the rehearsals so we often are able to be extremely productive even at short rehearsals. When working on a new album, we will typically schedule a weekend rehearsal with our producer for preparation for recording in the studio.
Diva Marketing/Toby: Are any of the practices held virtually e.g. on Skype of Google+?
N.E.D./ Nimesh: Yes, many times 2 or 3 of the band members may work on parts vis Skype.
The N.E.D. - Rocking Doc Band!
John Boggess - Guitar, Lead Vocals
Joanie Mayer Hope - Lead Vocals, Guitar
Nimesh Nagarsheth - Drums & Percussion
William [Rusty] Robinson - Bass Guitar, Harmonica, Vocals
John Soper [Sope] - Guitar, Mandolin
Will Winter - Lead Guitar
Graphic credit: nedtheband.com
Diva Marketing/Toby: Were any of the docs in garage bands during their high school or med school days?
N.E.D./Nimesh: I have been in bands ever since junior high school. One of my earliest rock bands was Three For The Road. I joined and /or formed bands when in college, medical school, residency and fellowship and even now as an attending physician.
My local NYC band is Come Together (a Beatles and Rolling Stones cover band that has played at venues thoughout NYC and even twice at the Wynn Resort in Las Vegas.
Diva Marketing/Toby: Love that you're helping keep 'clasical rock' alive. Is N.E.D's music original and if so who are the composers?
N.E.D/ Nimesh: N.E.D. writes, records and performs original music. Everyone in the band has written and contributed to the song writing but for the latest recording John Boggess, Will Winter, and Joanie Hope have taken the lead on the writing.
Link to music samples
Diva Marketing/Toby: Is the music part of a fund raising effort? If so where can we buy/download the tunes?
N.E.D/Nimesh: Yes, the music is large part of our fundraising efforts. Typically, we make the most impact in fundraising at our live performances through tickets sales, corporate donations, and merchandise sales. Our music is available on itunes and amazon.com.
Diva Marketing/Toby: The idea of a documentary about N.E.D. is intriguing. Who came up with the concept and how did you make the film compelling for the audience?
No Evidence of Disease (Trailer) from Spark Media on Vimeo.
N.E.D/ Karen & Andrea: Spark Media learned about the band from it’s co-creator, a fellow GYN oncologist who brought the rock doctors together. They happened to be playing at an awareness raising event in Washington, DC, where Spark is based, so we got them together to talk for several hours around a table, and realized we had 6 fascinating, Type A+ people out to change the world in ways big and small.
We heard their passion for their patients, and their commitment to music as a powerful tool not only to raise awareness but also to heal. Add to that their personal commitment to reach their patients beyond the O.R. and we knew we had a story. We started following them around with cameras that same day, and didn’t stop for 3 ½ years.
Stylistic and engrossing, our film unfolds in harmony with the music of the band whose songs set the tone for each scene. Lyrics resonate with universal themes, that are cyclical, revolving around living and dying, body and soul. Our cameras reveal how cancer can bring out the worst and best in people, rip lifelong friends apart, but also pull families together closer than ever.
- This isn’t a linear story, but a sequence of many stories, and emotive moments thematically cut with honesty and compassion and with a POV that’s intimate and relatively unfiltered.
The pace and tone of the film reflects the immediate, volatile, intensity of the cancer experience—the music is a release valve in their complex lives and a way of healing for all they cannot control. Story and music combine for maximum impact in ways that importantly serve our cause as we engage, dispel fears and invite viewers into a deep, purposeful engagement with a women’s health issue shrouded in unnecessary shame.
Diva Marketing/Toby: Since Diva Marketing is about digital and social media marketing let’s explore those avenues. When did N.E.D. realize that it had turned into a ‘brand?’
N.E.D./Andrea & Karen:
- Actually, when you hear audiences chant: “N.E.D. N.E.D. N.E.D….” we realized it was the audience who branded the band and the film.
N.E.D. -- such a powerful and positive concept: No Evidence of Disease. We put a face to that concept, a movement to that concept, music to that concept, and the branding of the human experience began. We chose an impactful photo of Jennie McGihon who had lost her hair from her chemo treatments, but despite that, you could feel her strength and poise, still appreciate her beauty that radiates from inside out. She, to us, represented all women going through raw, difficult time.
Digital and social media have been powerful tools for us. We have captured over 500 hours of footage, and a large swath of that footage did not end up in the feature length cut. So, we have produced dozens of short pieces that are self-contained and powerful in and of themselves. We put those on social media and YouTube, and some of them will be on V.O.D. along with the film.
We use Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and now Thunderclap, Google Hangouts and Reddit AMA in our outreach and audience engagement, extending our reach to individuals and groups all over the country and the world. Arming women with knowledge, the film and its emerging awareness campaign help to preserve dignity, and to channel discussions about women’s health needs into the public sphere.
Diva Marketing/Toby: Sounds like you certainly have the digital conversations covered! Who does N.E.D. hope to reach with its music and as we say in marketing, what are its goals?
N.E.D./Nimesh: First and foremost we want to reach our patients and their loved ones. We believe that music has some incredible healing qualities and our patients have told us time and time again that they feel this as well. Beyond our patients our music is really for everyone. We believe everyone has been touched (either directly or indirectly) by cancer and that our music can equally touch people.
Graphic: Twitter Cover
Diva Marketing/Toby: How important is using social media/digital marketing in reaching those goals?
N.E.D./Andrea & Karen: Social and digital media outreach was crucial in helping our collective groups crank up the volume, and sustain a noisy, national movement to break through walls of silence.
Soulfully and cathartically dissolving taboos through feisty storytelling, combined with intricately planned and networked multilevel longitudinal engagement featuring live music performances, educational modules to convey What Every Woman Should Know, hip and diverse outreach using humor, and targeting at risk communities such as African Americans, Latina and Ashkenazi Jewish women through any all platforms where these groups convene.
We were screen and platform agnostic.
Diva Marketing/Toby: What are the digital/social media tactics that have been most successful in terms of creating awareness for the film, as well as, the band?
N.E.D./Andrea & Karen: Both the film and the Band have tried to draw in a wide, diverse audience and we understood from the outset that this would mean taking a shrewd approach to a difficult topic.
From the filmmakers perspective, we concentrated as much of our energies into the art of telling the story as we did in facilitating cutting-edge advocacy that would assure the film go beyond the screen to reach out to women, families, and the medical community on a grassroots level.
- We believe weren’t just producing a film but igniting a movement.
From our early days in development, we ran a Kickstarter Campaign, online Auctions with Charity Buzz, Give back campaigns with Facebook, Giving Tuesday campaigns on Twitter, Work-in-progress screenings in theaters, stylized merchandise and hundreds of thousands of uncountable hours of grit and passion to network and turn any opportunity on any platform… even in the most unlikely situations into an opportunity.
- There’s no magic bullet, nor platform or tactic that we can single out that was overwhelmingly successful, more so it was our openness to try anything and perseverance to believe in the long tail of success.
Diva Marketing/Toby: What lessons have you learned from incorporating social media in your communication strategy that you can share with us?
N.E.D/Brad Wilke of SmartHouse Creative: Though social media doesn't offer a magic elixir for all of your marketing challenges, it does provide a robust infrastructure within which you can integrate each and every piece of your go-to-market strategy. By keeping social media top of mind from planning through execution, you vastly increase the probability of "happy accidents," such as celebrity RTs, incidental media outlet coverage, and other seemingly random media hits.
For instance, with N.E.D., we were able to utilize social network analysis tools (such as NodeXL) to determine our subject matter influencers around the country, and, therefore, better target our conversations and content. Social media is not only a resource multiplier, but an essential component of any serious product release strategy, including independent films, music, and related creative projects.
Diva Marketing/Toby: Even though the docs in N.E.D. are teaching us about GYN cancer, we all learn from our experiences. What has being a member of the band taught each of the docs?
N.E.D/ Nimesh:
- I have learned to be a better listener when taking care of my patients. I have also learned how to cope with the stresses of being a doctor through my creative role in the band.
Diva Marketing/Toby: As is our tradition, we’re passing the mic back to the extraordinary docs in the band. Please wrap the interview anyway you’d like.
N.E.D/Nimesh: I would like thank all of our amazing fans and supporters throughout the years that have helped us make N.E.D. an incredible success!
Connect with N.E.D. Twitter | Facebook | N.E.D Website |N.E.D. The Movie
Some how it seems appropriate to link to Jefferson Starship's "We Build This City On Rock And Roll." Wouldn't it be fabulous to build a cure for cancer with the proceeds from rock n roll?!
11/06/2014
Breast cancer still impacts too many lives. Advocate Health Care launched a unique program to bring attention to breast cancer prevention, treatment and support.
Understanding that women gain strength and the comfort from the stories they share and are shared they used digital and social networks to tell the #StoriesoftheGirls . Through the following interview Christine Piester, VP Marketing and Christine Bon, Manager Digital Marketing and Communication graciously provided us with a case study of the program.
This post is dedicated to my sister Susan who I know is dancing in the stars. 
About Advocate Health Care. Advocate Health Care is the largest health system in Illinois and one of the largest health care providers in the Midwest.
Advocate operates more than 250 sites of care, including 12 hospitals that encompass 11 acute care hospitals, the state’s largest integrated children’s network, five Level I trauma centers (the state’s highest designation in trauma care), three Level II trauma centers, one of the area’s largest home health care companies and one of the region’s largest medical groups. As a not-for-profit, mission-based health system affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the United Church of Christ, Advocate contributed $661 million in charitable care and services to communities across Chicagoland and Central Illinois in 2013.
Our Story Tellers
Christine Priester, VP, Marketing
Christine Bon, Manager Digital Marketing & Communication
Diva Marketing/Toby: How did the idea of #StoriesoftheGirls evolve? Was it a difficult sell to management including the hospital administrator?
Advocate Health Care: Christine Priester/Christine Bon: Obviously, the idea of #StoriesOfTheGirls remains a very edgy concept. Anytime you introduce a double entendre (“the girls”) as part of your campaign you take a risk. However, the Chicago health care market is noisy and we had to figure out a way to break through the clutter. Not only did we have to sell this concept to the health system leadership, we had to convince the 12 hospital presidents that this was the right idea, at the right time and with the right audience.
In order to gain the necessary buy-in, our CMO hosted numerous sessions where she outlined the campaign and addressed any questions and concerns. The vast majority of our internal leadership were overwhelmingly supportive, there were a few unsure outliers, but they soon became believers once they saw the results.
Diva Marketing/Toby: What was success for the campaign and how was it measured?
Advocate Health Care: Christine Priester/Christine Bon: While we wanted women to join the conversation at StoriesOfTheGirls.com, we really wanted women to take advantage of our patient added-value proposition.
We were the first in the market to offer same-day, no-referral mammograms. This breaks down access barriers and allows women to schedule their mammogram on their terms, when they have some extra time as life might be too busy to schedule this test a few weeks out, months out, but there is no time like the present.
- So, that said we measured the growth in mammogram appointments (up over 10% across the system), web site visits, and engagement in the conversation (social media).
Diva Marketing/Toby: The micro site is rich with content about breast healthcare. For many visitors to the site, I’m guessing the most compelling content is the video stories told by the breast cancer survivors and physicians. How were these women indentified? What were their reasons to publically participate in #StoriesoftheGirls?
Advocate Health Care: Christine Priester/Christine Bon: Advocate Health Care treats more breast cancer patients than anyone else in Illinois, and more of our patients become survivors than any other system. Through our over 30 mammogram locations across the system, we were able to tap into our internal resources to identify patients with compelling stories that were willing to participate in the campaign.
And, we had, and continue to have no problems with patients wanting to tell their story. All of our survivors say if telling their story can just save one woman’s life it was worth it. They also appreciated the real tone and voice of the campaign.
- They have all grown tired of the traditionally depressing look at this disease and wanted to show that women’s relationships with “the girls” is much more than a cancer diagnosis.
This year we have some wonderful new videos that include not only survivors, an update on one of last year’s featured patients, but patients currently going through treatment, Sue even shaved her head on the video as her hair was falling out – emotional stuff!
Diva Marketing/Toby: I would love to be able to chat with these amazing people. Did you explore incorporating real-time conversations through social networks, perhaps a Tweet Chat or a G+ Hangout?
Advocate Health Care: Christine Priester/Christine Bon: Glad you asked this question. New in the 2014 Stories of the Girls campaign is a message board prominently on the StoriesOfTheGirls.com microsite. We knew that we had to take this campaign to the next level in terms of the conversation so this is an exciting element this year (just launched on 9-15-14). Here, you can chat with survivors, you can talk with other families and their friends going through this journey with a loved one, you can ask our doctors questions, and you can simply ask about other breast health issues from puberty and first bras, to breastfeeding, boob jobs, and changes during menopause. Anything goes! We’d be happy to put you in touch with any of our featured survivors, check out their amazing stories through these videos.
theta theta girls video
Diva Marketing/Toby: The most exciting social tactic I saw was a #StoriesoftheGirls Instragram contest. Would you explain the concept for the Diva community?
Advocate Health Care/Christine Bon: The #StoriesOfTheGirls contest was another extender of the conversation. We wanted women to share their inspiring photos, but also just women in general living healthy lives. Women were encouraged to share their photos and in turn were entered to win a gift card to a specialty bra store in Chicago. Since we had just launched our Instagram account the month prior, this was a great way for us to gain some new followers and boost engagement.
Diva Marketing/Toby: What was the most surprising aspect of the Instagram contest?
Advocate Health Care/Christine Bon: Through the contest, we uncovered some very inspiring stories and one that we are now featuring in this year’s campaign: Kia. We also saw a side of our own associates (employees) who shared their breast cancer journey through photos as well. We were excited to see how quickly we gained new followers who were interested in our content and still engage with us on the social platform.
Diva Marketing/Toby: In addition to Instagram what other social media tactics were included? Which one was your favorite and why?
Advocate Health Care/Christine Bon: In addition to Instagram, we also used Facebook as a social platform to drive awareness of breast cancer by creating a daily calendar of trivia questions about breast health. There was a new question posted each day. Once the daily question was answered you were automatically entered to win a handmade breast cancer awareness crystal bracelet. You were able to enter a total of 31 times for a chance to win the grand prize of gift card to a specialty bra store in Chicago.
We also used Facebook as a platform to share all of our patient’s incredible stories, and also to promote our Instagram contest. Both of our social promotions were well received and we got some great submissions and are continuing to engage through new social promotions with the campaign this year as well and we are seeing even greater results!
Diva Marketing/Toby: How are consumer generated stories/photos being used to extend awareness of #StoriesoftheGirls and breast cancer health?
Advocate Health Care: Christine Priester/Christine Bon: Our videos and patient stories have been picked up by many local media outlets as further promotion. Our patients also blog and are the subject of many stories on our brand journalism site ahchealthenews.com View some of them here.
We also have a partnership with the Chicago Cubs, Bulls, and Bears and we are able to leverage those relationships to have breast cancer awareness events where are patients are honorary captains, sing the 7th inning stretch, and more! It’s a year-long commitment to keep breast cancer awareness at the forefront, not just during October.
Diva Marketing/Toby: The #StoriesoftheGirls campaign kicked off October 2013 to support Breast Awareness Month and appears to be continuing into the summer of 2014 and beyond. As one might say in the theatre, what makes this a long-running show?
Advocate Health Care: Christine Priester/Christine Bon:
- This campaign is authentic and real and that’s what gives it staying power.
Act 2 of the show is in market now and we couldn’t be more excited. An element of this campaign remains in market year-round, however. We want to make sure we’re promoting early detection of breast cancer through mammography 365 days a year. And, we want to make it easy for women to get their mammogram and new this year they can find out their results in less than 24 hours – talk about reducing worry that often times accompanies the wait on this test.
Diva Marketing/Toby: What lessons did you learn and can pass along to others in healthcare that maybe considering creating digital/social campaigns?
Advocate Health Care/Christine Bon: Take a risk, it’s worth it!
Content is critical.
Don’t tell your consumers about new equipment, this or that accreditation, they don’t care.
Make your campaign about them, not about you.
Speak to your audience how people have conversations in their real life and reach out to them how they like to receive the message (social media, email, direct mail), everyone has a preference, learn it!
- And, amazingly, you do this, they will talk back to you, and then you have a two-way, engaged consumer conversation and you create brand loyalty.
Toss of a pink boa to Sarah Scroggins for her help in coordinating this interview. 
08/13/2014
There's a new dude in town.
Well in the world of the American Marketing Association. Russ Klein recently accepted the role of CEO for AMA and with that he now leads North America's largest professional marketing association. Of course, AMA dropped a media release which details Russ' credentials (impressive!).
I was curious about the man-behind-the-logo. I felt I had a bit of a vested interest since my AMA affliation has a deep and long history from chapter president, to serving as facilitator of interactive and social media workshops and managing AMA's first virtual communities. One might even say, AMA set me on the road to social media when I chaired its first conferene on blogs in 2004 into 2005.
Russ graciously agreed to a Diva Marketing interview. In the following conversation he offers:
- his view on the future of marketing in a disruptive world,
- a peak into his vision for AMA,
- the importance of volunteers and his plans to ensure continuous engagement .. and more.
Toby/Marketing: It sounds almost trite to say that marketing is in a state of disruptive chaos and change. Russ, having been in the center of creating marketing plans for some of the largest consumer brands, you can appreciate that our tool boxes are overflowing with new tactics and strategies.
How does a brand, any brand, ensure that its marketing is relevant and adds value for the customer?
Russ Klein/AMA: That’s not an interview question, that’s a theme for a book! Well certainly relevance and value are two watchwords that are the right ones to guide any marketers actions.
It’s not about what’s possible, despite all of the amazing technological advances we all see. It’s still about what is relevant. The main thing many marketers lose sight of is that merely being different is not necessarily relevant to consumers.
- Creating differences that matter in the lives of consumers is what’s relevant.
I think the more mysterious question lies with the question of value. I am an ardent believer of Rifkin’s theory of near zero marginal costs that he asserts is imminent as a result of the internet of things and the remaining connectivity potential that is in our future. When you have a knowledge-based enterprise like the AMA competing in a world of open sourced innovation, a sharing economy, and lateral economies of scale, there are tremendous downward pressures on the costs of information.
MIT has posted its entire 1800 course curriculum online for free. So the AMA is not only challenged with delivering relevant thought and service leadership to its constituents, our products and services must be peerless to command some level of sustainable pricing power. This is why I am so excited to take on the challenges facing the AMA. This is the ultimate strategic gauntlet for any CEO to navigate.
Toby/Diva Marketing: Totally agree Russ it is a ‘big’ and not easy question. Perhaps we should put that book on our to do list!
However, the American Marketing Association is more than just another brand. One might say the AMA is the North Star for marketers. What do you feel is AMA’s North Star?
Russ Klein/AMA: Great question. My belief is that the academic gravitas and scholarly distinction…is to the AMA, what Mickey Mouse…is to Disney.
More specifically, by Mickey Mouse, I mean film animation. If you remove animated film credentials and the institutional/cultural effects associated with them, Disney is just another film company…no Disneyland, no Disneyworld, no transcendent lifelong emotional attachment with its consumers. If you remove the AMA Journals thought leadership and the esteemed academic status of being published in them, the AMA is just another conference company or speakers bureau.
Toby/Diva Marketing: Moving into the future how will the organzation ensure its does not lose its foucs in a vast sea of chaos?
Russ Klein/AMA:
- Chaos is opportunity for those that can stay poised and focused.
I view it simply as a matter of strategy, because strategy is all about choice. That’s something I’ve never been uncomfortable with. It goes back to what’s relevant, not what’s possible. It’s my job to help the organization identify opportunities and set priorities that can advance the AMA enterprise, and discard those that don’t.
The AMA culture must be one that values decisiveness and managerial courage to take stands in a civil and respectful way. If we stay focused on how we figure into the lives of our constituents, our stakeholders, and our users we will stay relevant and compelling.
The AMA is about improving the way marketing is practiced around the world. In so doing, we will be a vital catalyst spurring improved commerce and prosperity in communities and everywhere.
Toby/Diva Marketing: In your opinion Russ, what is the most critical aspect of marketing that is ‘broken’ which AMA can help ‘fix?”
Russ Klein/AMA: Two things. There is profound lack of 1) Training and development of talent and 2) Managerial courage.
First, CEO’s and CMO’s can’t expect talent to come to them with all the tools and skill-sets necessary to become a world-class marketer. Even if they have those assets when they arrive, the need for lifelong ongoing training and development plans never ceases.
As a CMO I felt a personal obligation to create learning cultures where curiosity and teachable moments were valued. I always felt if I wasn’t spending at least 25% of my day improving the professional capabilities of my people, I was failing. My observation and experience is that this isn’t happening nearly enough.
Second, business in general and marketing in particular is simply not black and white. As much as I believe in disciplined marketing science, there is also marketing art.
Managers are almost always presented with a spectrum of management decisions that range from “no-risk” to “high-risk” with corresponding rewards. Too many corporate cultures, including the marketing cultures inside them, are built around fear of failure and fear of appearing wrong. Or there’s the “go along to get along” mentality which is responsible for more mediocrity than I care to admit I’ve seen.
- My advice to every marketer, young and old, is to re-examine your capacity for the courage of your convictions. You can’t inspire greatness or excellence without periodic principled “stands” for what you believe to be the right thing to do.
Toby/Diva Marketing: With your background as CMO for major consumer brands, as well as, award winning agency work you bring a prestigious CV to the party. However, nonprofit associations have some different and unique challenges. What most excites you about the opportunity to lead the AMA?
Russ Klein/AMA: I believe the one thing I bring is a ferocious passion to compete. While nobody would ever want to characterize the AMA as a bloodthirsty competitor, I do believe we are nonetheless competing with other formidable knowledge-based enterprises.
The need to identify and leverage competitive advantage is just as relevant in a not-for-profit arena as it is in the for-profit world. I suppose the most obvious difference is the amount of resources available to the AMA to advance its vision versus other better heeled for-profit and scaled up companies. Conversely, those companies seldom can call upon thousands of volunteers and advocates for whom their volunteerism is both a source of personal satisfaction and a calling to be of service to others. I believe the opportunity to hold up a shared vision as a source of inspiration can power the AMA when dollars can’t.
Toby/Diva Marketing: We like to think of AMA as The premier association in terms of marketing sciences thought leadership. Recently it appears the perception is AMA has lost ground to marketing content house like MECLABS, MarketingProfs, eConsultancy, SmartInsights, and of course, to marketing bloggers. What are your thoughts?
Russ Klein/AMA: On one hand I welcome the increased attention that many other enterprises are bringing to the practice of marketing science. Conversely, no one can deliver the academic thought and service leadership, the chapter level engagement, and the volunteerism that distinguishes the AMA. The so-called competitors out there should serve to motivate us to sharpen our competitive advantages in a way that, if we were uncontested, we probably never would.
The esteem with which marketing practitioners, academics, and students are viewed should be on the same level as those who choose medicine or science as their pursuit. The AMA is uniquely positioned to elevate marketing science in this way because of its academic credentials.
Toby/Diva Marketing: Do you believe that the AMA should reclaim some of that 'thought leadership position' and if so how?
Russ Klein/AMA: I would never say that we couldn’t improve our thought leadership position. Knowledge is a fluid and perishable product. If I didn’t think our best ideas for thought leadership are ahead of us I couldn’t say our best days are ahead of us; and they most definitely are!
Toby/Diva Marketing: Although not professional associations, CEB and MECLABS have recently made acquisitions (Iconoculture and Marketing Sherpa respectively). It’s a different path to follow, but what are your thoughts about the possibilities of strategic acquisitions to grow the AMA and supplement areas where AMA does not have a strong reputation or extensive experience?
Russ Klein/AMA: My fundamental belief is that a healthy business model needs to identify organic growth first. If there are adjacent growth opportunities that can enable or accelerate the AMA vision through acquisition or strategic alliances I imagine we’d want to take a hard look at them.
Toby/Diva Marketing: AMA has traditionally served many different types of marketers: students, academics, practitioners, and researchers. What are your views on how that should be managed in the future? Do you think AMA should continue to try to serve everyone or focus more on one or more groups?
Russ Klein/AMA: I have always been an ardent champion of sharp, vivid focus on core users of a brand.
In the case of the AMA our core users just happen to cut horizontally across like-minded practitioners, academics, and students all of whom are engaged in the pursuit of original and best practices in marketing science. That said, there are still important ways of closing the aperture to create more focus for which we have ideas that remain part of our confidential strategic planning process.
Toby/Diva Marketing: Since AMA members make up part of Diva Marketing’s community and I am an AMA past president of the Atlanta Chapter, let’s talk a bit about the heart and soul of AMA ... its volunteers. What will be the role of professional chapters in the future?
How will the relationship between HC and Chapters evolve - or not?
Russ Klein/AMA: Also a great question. If the academic prowess of the AMA is its strategic advantage, then the thousands of volunteers are the unsung heroes that are responsible for converting that AMA advantage into an AMA experience. Understanding that it is the volunteers who are responsible for delivering the first formative AMA experience to new members is a critical recognition for the so-called headquarters of the AMA. There is just no substitute for “being there” and starting with me, I plan to become a familiar face to as many of our chapters as possible.
- Politicians and Rock N’ Roll bands both know that the secret to build true loyalty and engagement is by being in the markets; stumping or playing music to their constituents.
I am a big believer in local knowledge and that collecting it in person is the best way to learn about the unique minds and moods of the membership and volunteers.
It might be a good idea to change the “headquarters” language to “support center” which better describes the service leadership we are responsible for providing. Simple ideas like that send culture messages to the organization…but we have to be able to walk the talk. I’m sure we are, but we can always be more present at the chapter or event level.
Toby/Diva Marketing: Professional associations struggle with membership attrition and AMA has its challenges in this area. What are your thoughts on how to engage AMA members, and as important, how to keep them engaged with the association?
Russ Klein/AMA: Engagement is the operative word. Our goal must always be to convert a user’s connection with the AMA, no matter how it begins, into an engaged relationship wherein the AMA is providing the thought and service leadership that can help that individual experience to advance their personal objectives; be that research, publishing, knowledge acquisition, professional training and development, career networking and camaraderie, problem solving, or identifying marketing strategies and best practices for growth. If we’re creating value in these ways, membership growth and attrition will take care of themselves.
Toby/Diva Marketing: Dennis Dunlap, immediate past AMA CEO, began an international expansion which involved China. What are your thoughts/plans about growing the association’s footprint both on a global and national basis?
Russ Klein/AMA: We are not about planting flags unless we can get the commensurate returns from a scaled up presence. The opportunity to grow membership and engagement inside the U.S. alone is more than enough to satisfy our needs for growth; so it will require a judicious balance and allocation of resources on our part.
With that in mind the AMA will continue to examine thoughtful expansion outside North America where it makes sense. There’s no question, that not unlike American exports of film and music entertainment, American marketing is viewed as a global standard for which the appetite is large.
Toby/Diva Marketing: What are some of the lessons you bring with you from your time in the fast food industry that will help support your success in this exciting new role?
Russ Klein/AMA: The fast food industry is the most competitive industry in the world, simply because so many companies are competing for the largest consumer dollar in the world; the food dollar.
I’ve already shared my belief that I will bring a very energetic sense of competitiveness to the AMA. Beyond that, the other element the fast food industry has taught me is that the restaurant manager trumps the brand manager every time.
- Likewise, it will still be our chapter-level execution in delivering a world-class professional experience that will define the AMA, not what my team located in Chicago dreams up and posts online.
Toby/Diva Marketing: Since, of course, Diva Marketing is ‘social media’, which means people-talking-to-people, we’d love to get to know a little about the person behind the AMA logo.
7 Fun Fact About Russ!
1. Briefcase or backpack…backpack
2. Tablet or laptop…laptop
3. PC or Mac…Mac
4. Favorite word…grateful
5. One of your ‘bucket list’ to dos…build a tree house on my ranch in Colorado and have a family reunion there.
6. Favorite social network…Facebook personal/LinkedIn professional
7. Must have when traveling…running shoes
Toby/Diva Marketing: It’s a Diva Marketing tradition to toss the virtual mic to you and give you an opportunity wrap the interview. Is anything you’d like to say to our community about marketing, digital/social media, AMA or ????? It’s your turn Russ!
Russ Klein/AMA: There’s no better time in business history to be a marketer. Get involved with the AMA and I guarantee you will get back many times over what you devote to it. Together, we’re going to light the path to improve marketing originality and best practices and make it the best profession you’ll ever love!
Positively, Russ
Toss of a pink boa to AMA colleauges who offered interview question ideas. Sybil Stershic, AMA Board Chair and current AMA training/event instructor, president of Quality Services Marketing; Debra Semans, current AMA training instructor and national AMA board member, Dana Van DenHuvel current AMA training instructor, president of Marketing Savant.
07/28/2014
The U.S.A. won against Belgium in the World Cup game.
Well .. not really .. but sort of.
The Waffle House, an American, iconic, southern, restaurant company, walked away with the social media trophy.
Paying not one of the 75k dollar sponsorship fees, the Waffle House's followers organically helped score them the win via a social media waffle battle: sweet versus Belgium waffles.
Many saw the battle unfold on Twitter but I wondered ... what was the back-story? How did it begin and what course of action did the Waffle House plan? Meghan Irwin, Waffle House, agreed to tell us what it was like during the heat of the Belgium Waffle Battle. Some of her answers might surprise you.
About Meghan Irwin - Our story teller, Meghan, has been working for the Waffle House, Inc. for almost three years.
She is part of the Communications Department where her role focuses on social media management and event execution.
About Waffle House® Restaurants - Headquartered in Norcross, GA, Waffle House restaurants has been serving Good Food Fast® since 1955. Today the Waffle House system operates more than 1,700 restaurants in 25 states and is the world’s leading server of waffles, T-bone steaks, hashbrowns, cheese ‘n eggs, country ham, pork chops and grits.
Toby/Diva Marketing: I read that the now famous Belgium Waffle House Tweet wasn’t planned. In fact, there was no committee or even social media team brainstorming on how to get into the World Cup social conversation. Would you fill us in on the who-what-why of the back-story?
Meghan Irwin/Waffle House: Goodbull Hunting actually initiated the idea by tweeting at us upon hearing Team USA was moving onto the next round in the World Cup. When asked for our opinion of Belgian waffles, we replied with “We dominate them.”
TMZ Sports got word of this tweet then contacted us to ask more about it. On Monday June 30th, TMZ published the story and we kind of ran with it. So yes, this wasn’t planned.
Toby/Diva Marketing: Not only was Waffle House the darling of the social media world but main stream media picked up and moved your story along. Who was the first media outlet that contacted you?
Meghan Irwin/Waffle House: Van Lathan from TMZ Sports reached out to us on Friday June 27th. Boycotting all things Belgian was a hot topic, so they asked if we would support that. Of course we would! We’re America’s place to eat!
Toby/Diva Marketing: What was it like at work when you began receiving calls and requests for interviews?
Meghan Irwin/Waffle House: Surprisingly, we weren’t in the office for the majority of the day. The team was at a press conference for our valued partner Smithfield. We took most of the calls in our Waffle van to avoid any background noise. It was actually pretty amusing. We’d see emails for requests and we’d take turns by hopping in the van.
Toby/Diva Marketing: Did the excitement and buzz trickle to the field restaurants and if so what was their reactions?
Meghan Irwin/Waffle House: Yes, we received positive feedback from Area Vice Presidents. We also educated the public and our customers that our waffles are not Belgian waffles. They’re sweet cream.
Toby/Diva Marketing: With all of the conversation and RTs that were happening, did the Waffle House tap additional people to monitor the conversation?
Megan Irwin/Waffle House: We work as team in the effort to engage in conversation with our fans.
Toby/Diva Marketing: We saw you were engaging with your community in RTs and responses. For many companies listening is a struggle in terms of the right tool and the time commitment. Would you share how the Waffle House approaches tracking, listening and reporting?
Meghan Irwin/Waffle House: We are one of those companies. We struggle just like everyone else in terms of time commitment and listening. We’re in the process of doing a trial with a couple companies now to see what fits best with our company.
Toby/Diva Marketing: There didn’t seem to be a unique hashtag from @WaffleHouse. Was this intentional?
Meghan Irwin/Waffle House: There wasn’t a need for a unique hashtag. This was an organic conversation with a fan. By adding a unique hashtag in this mix, we feel you lose the genuine feeling of the conversation.
Toby/Diva Marketing: Interesting idea Meghan. Perhaps we can encourage brands to be less "hashtag happy."
In addition to Twitter and Facebook were other social media tactics were included and if so which networks and which worked best to move the engagement?
Meghan Irwin/Waffle House: We focused on where the majority of our community is. We have a strong, vocal fan base on both Twitter and Facebook therefore our efforts to engage was focused on those two channels.
Toby/Diva Marketing: What was the most surprising aspect of the experience?
Meghan Irwin/Waffle House: The fact that our community responded with this playful boycott and ran with it. Also, we saw media outlets that don’t normally cover Waffle House, ending up covering this tweet.
Toby/Diva Marketing: To put your responses in context, what does social media mean to the Waffle House in terms of branding, awareness and customer loyalty?
Meghan Irwin/Waffle House:
- To us, social media means continuing the conversation with our customers after they have an experience with our brand. It continues well after they leave the restaurant.
Toby/Diva Marketing: How large is your social team and who does it report up to?
Meghan Irwin/Waffle House: As it falls under Communications, we work as a team.
Toby/Diva Marketing: As we discussed, the response Waffle House received was fantastic. What do you have in mind to build it?
Meghan Irwin/Waffle House: We want to stay true to the brand’s personality and maintain the engagement with our fans. Like I mentioned before, it’s all about keeping the conversation going with our customers.
Toby/Diva Marketing: In retrospect, is there any thing that you would have done differently?
Meghan Irwin/Waffle House: Nothing at all. This tweet allowed us to grow our community and spread the word that Waffle House is on social.
Toby/Diva Marketing: What lessons did you learn that you can share with our community?
Meghan Irwin/Waffle House:
1. Be responsive.
2. Talk back to your fans if they engaged with you.
3. You never know what ideas you’ll come up with when engaging with fans. We were able to use the USA waffle photo by engaging with one of our fans. 
Toby/Diva Marketing: It’s become a tradition to toss the virtual Diva Marketing mic to you and give you a chance to add anything else you’d like.
Meghan Irwin/Waffle House: Our community is the reason this happened. We enjoy engaging with our fans and customers and will continue to do so.
- Getting to know your community is the best thing you can do on social media.
- We do it for the fans and for the bacon.
More About The Waffle House - Website, Career Opportunities, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest
Toss of a pink boa to Dorothéa Bozicolona-Volpe for her help in arranging the interview.
07/11/2014
Picture this.
It's been a stressful week and you're looking forward to a night of vegging out. The telly goes on and perhaps there is an adult beverage or two nearby. It's a scene played-out in many homes for nearly 70 years.
Over the past few years a there have been a few changes in How we watch TV.
On goes the TV set, you flip open your tablet and smart phone ready to watch. Only now you can chat with your friends about the show, play a few Walking Dead games and perhaps even buy that cute dress one of the actresses is wearing. Welcome to Second Screen TV and SocialTV. .
A couple of weeks ago Joel Rubinson, President and founder of Rubinson Partners, Inc., and CivicScience took to the reseach road to learn more about second screen viewing. The results, which they shared with the industry, TV Viewing and the “Second Screen” – What Audiences are Doing with Mobile, Tablet Devices, is a report based on the CivicScience data collection and research platform. Joel conducted the analysis and partnered in formulating the research questions.
Joel kindly agreed to answer a few questions and give us his views on the future of second screen TV and socialTV.
Diva Marketing: The Insight Report you did with CivicScience indicates that multitasking is the name of the game for 45% of respondents who acknowledged using a ‘second screen’ (smart phone, tablet or computer) while viewing traditional broadcast TV.
It was also interesting to me that 80%, were not engaged online with content related to the show.
In your opinion is this a trend and if so, where does it leave content producers in terms of advertiser value?
Joel Rubinson: Hi Toby, thank you for your question. First, let me clarify that it is 45% of everyone watching TV who multi-task so it is actually a higher percentage of those who own an internet access device and watch traditional TV.
The fact that 80% or more of multi-taskers are doing so in unrelated ways means that media might have the wrong idea about what people want to do with the device in their hands. They are more interested in passing dead time than they are in enriching the TV experience.
- Will this change? Perhaps, but media will need to offer more enticing experiences to get viewers to engage.
The value of this research we did using CivicScience’s data is understanding that the current crop of synchronized tools are not yet substantially changing viewing behaviors. Yet media and marketers desperately want it to work because it would add value to media ad inventory and impact to marketer advertising efforts. In the meantime, marketers should look for synergistic opportunities for their advertising on unrelated websites.
An exotic sounding but quite doable idea is for marketers to use real time bidding engines to bid for inventory at the precise moment that their advertising is airing on TV. Hence, if I’m seeing a commercial on Judge Judy and happen to be on a news site with RTB inventory at the moment, an advertiser could make sure I am seeing a display ad for the same brand.
Diva Marketing: In the report there was mention of “synchronized second screen experiences.” Would you please explain the concept and the opportunities as you see them?
Joel Rubinson: Synchronized experiences refers to using your internet device in a way that is related to the TV program you are watching.
This could be answering quizzes about what you think will happen to Rick in Walking Dead as he is face to face with a horde of Zombies (via an app for the show), or voting on Twitter for who should get kicked off American Idol or The Voice.
In contrast, unrelated multitasking is when I’m checking e-mail or messaging a friend on Facebook while watching a show.
I think the biggest opportunity is to build interest in real time viewing rather than recording the show on a DVR and potentially fast forwarding through the commercials. Synchronized experiences only work in real time.
Diva Marketing: How do you see the intersection of broadcast TV and online content being mutually beneficial for (1) audience/ratings growth , (2) advertisers and (3) viewer experience … or do you?
Joel Rubinson:
I believe that over the past 5-10 years all networks had to decide if online content was a threat to program ratings.
- I believe they all came to the same conclusion that online viewing does not cannibalize TV viewing appreciably and actually builds ratings indirectly by getting someone more into the show.
This has been presented by Alan Wurtzel the research lead at NBC regarding the Olympics.
Online content was mostly viewed by those who wanted to relive favorite moments and seemed to go hand in hand with more TV viewing hours, not fewer, for the Olympics. Overall, the great majority of video content is still viewed in real time on the TV even with 5-10 years of significant growth of DVR use and live streaming over the internet.
TV watching is still the 800 pound gorilla (or at least 720 pounds) but watching content online is also a reality, it is growing and all progressive media companies need to embrace it and make it work for them.
The researcher in me wants to point out that one simple payback is realizing that the dot.com parts of TV networks have the ability to better track viewer interests via online digital behaviors, yielding first party data that can result in very powerful insights and promotional targeting.
Diva Marketing: Thanks Joel! I'm off to make sure my ipad, iphone and laptop are charged and I know the Twitter handle of the show.
More About the methodology, CivicScieince, Joel Rubinson and Partners
CivicScience is the provider of the real-time polling and consumer insights platform used by Joel Rubinson in this study. The second-screen questions were added to thousands of other questions running through the CivicScience polling platform and published via hundreds of web and mobile websites, and the data from the anonymous respondents were aggregated and mined using automated data science technology.
CivicScience's platform is used by consumer brand and media clients to quickly and deeply understand consumer sentiment and behaviors.
Joel Rubison is President and founder of Rubinson Partners, Inc. marketing and research consulting for a brave new world and a member of the faculty of NYU Stern School of Business where he teaches social media strategy. Started in 2010, Rubinson Partners, Inc. (RPI) has already helped position several clients for success in a digital age.
