What defines a good day for you? For me, if I can say, “wow, I got a lot done today,” then it was a good day. So when we decided to do “nothing” for our second anniversary last weekend, I became restless by the thought. At first.

Since oh, say, mid 2008, I’ve been running around like a mad woman, adapting to the new rules, working smarter, working harder, working just to make it work. I look back at pre-2008 when business was easy, clients were spending money, they were referring other clients, and I was spending money.

I’d be booking travel to somewhere fabulous and romantic. We’d be rushing to pack, to catch a flight, rushing to have fun and relax.

Now, everything has changed. Adapting has been challenging, and manic, yet if I stop and think about it and stop feeling sorry for myself, I’m actually happy to rid my life and my business of the excess. Life just seems to be simplifying.

My husband and I are both self-employed and nurturing our businesses out of a tough economy. It is just not possible to take off on a getaway. When we made the decision to stay still I decided to be OK with it.

We live in the mountains after all. When I lived in Seattle I would have rented the house I live in now for a vacation and felt like I had died and gone to heaven. So why am I so anxious to escape it? Because I need a change of scenery. Because I’m restless, and because I have a travel bucket list and need to cross some of the items off. The solution: what are the things you have never done in your own town or city because given the time to do them, you’d be out of town?

My bike and I rest in the shade

We made our list: (yes, I still had to make a list, I couldn’t let it TOTALLY be. baby steps)

• Mountain bike to Lake Colburn
• Kayak the Pack River
• And we planned our meals (that’s right. I made a second list), and shopped beforehand so we had everything we needed.

And we went on vacation in our own house. I refuse. absolutely refuse to use the current buzzword. You know what I”m talking about.

The Rules:

• No chores
• No phones
• No computers
• No news
• The only reason the TV went on was to watch The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo. (really good!!!!)

Just like I am in business, I adapted to living smarter.

We stopped at Pack River General store, where I had never been and packed lunches in our kayaks that we rented from Outdoor Experience.

The second I pushed off the shore onto the stillness of the river, I felt everything plummet; heart rate, blood pressure, sensors. I honestly don’t think I can remember being so still, or so in the present. We paddled some, we floated a lot, and let the river take us. When do you do that? When do you just go with the flow, the path of least resistance? I spend so much time fighting gravity, climbing mountains, starting a business instead of staying in my job, aspiring….. striving for more.

As for the the brain, I let that flow too. With no stimuli to distract other than beautiful scenery, the creativity runneth over. We talked, and not talked. We planned and not planned.

We got back to the car, went home, made grilled pizza and margaritas and sat on our deck and I had never felt so refreshed and excited to get back to the business of running like a mad woman and fighting gravity.

When training for a marathon, it is important to take a rest day, all the more reason to do so when trying to take over the world.

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We devour books, movies, get addicted to TV shows, consume blogs, and online media. Why? because we love a good story. We want to escape, imagine, learn, hope, aspire.

As a business owner, we want to be a part of that consumption i.e. the conversation. We want our videos to go viral, and our visits to skyrocket. As restaurants, wineries, hotels, resort properties, we want media and influencers to visit our properties and “write about us”. This is an excellent tactic,  yes, but have you taken it one step further? Have you given thought to your story? What makes you interesting, educational, inspirational? How can you appeal to your audience (writers, journalists, bloggers, community members, stakeholders and employees) and engage in positive conversation about you?

Craft and tell your story (ies). In PR speak we call this key messaging. I prefer storytelling.

1. Find your story: Ever do a retreat, attend a conference, get out of town and just step in a new world? This is a must. I attended Counselors’ Academy for the first time in 2009. It’s a conference for PR agency owners and CEO’s but that doesn’t’ matter here to you. I was in a brand new environment, with all new people. At every introduction, I was telling my story without realizing it. As I progressed, I refined it based on the feedback I was getting. “I run an small PR firm in Sandpoint Idaho and work with clients in the outdoor recreation and lifestyle industry yadda yadda yadda.” CEO’s of global firms were envious. Everyone seemed to love what I was doing. I thought, really? me? what? Because it’s my every day. it’s what I know so it must be boring and humdrum. Not true. step away from it and write your story.
2. Please, make it interesting to others. Don’t forget to use the why-should-I-care filter. ( The “I” being your audience of course). For example, you might think you’re new state-of-the-art reservations software is exciting, after all it’s going to make your business more efficient and your life much better (ideally),  but you know your audience won’t care, right? If you’re not sure, test it in your social and professional circles. Just like I did unwittingly in Step 1.
3. Benefit – whats in it for me syndrome – does your story have a moral, does it teach, does it inspire? It should do at least one of the above.
   • Educational story – what can you teach potential customers and clients. If you are a winery, you teach them different things about wine making or wine appreciation. If you are a restaurant, you teach them seasonal cooking techniques, or how to cook using local ingredients, if you are a real estate community, you can teach them about new regulations in lending. tell them how to protect their home from pests or natural disasters. Educate your audience so they become more knowledgeable and purchase more of your product.
   • Inspirational story - maybe it’s a great story on where you got to be where you are today. We all want to be inspired, to feel hope. If you have something neat to share with us, we want to do business with you. We want to be associated with your brand and we want to share your story. I can’t really tell your for sure why this is, maybe we just hope it will rub off!!

Then share the story with journalists, bloggers, your facebook and twitter audience, perhaps it’s for your YouTube channel, or your blog. The distribution channels are endless, but that’s a topic for another time.

In the end, we all love a good story. When I see my husband at the end of the day, instead of, “how was your day?”, he says, “tell me a good story.”

The End

I’d love to know what you think. anything to add?

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My last post on PR/Blogger Relations prompted this response from a client: “I don’t understand the value of bloggers from a business perspective.” He went on to say that it seems inexperienced bloggers can be extremely disruptive to businesses when they are misinformed or inaccurate. Anyone can be a blogger, how do I know blogger outreach will be beneficial to my business?

Excellent questions. The short answer is you can never be 100% sure it will be beneficial and that’s no different than traditional media relations. But blogger outreach should be a considerable component in your PR efforts and here is why:

Let’s start with the value of bloggers:

Blogs are growing in popularity and power (influence). This is a fact. A 2008 State of the Blogosphere study conducted by Technorati, the #1 Blog search engine reports that blogs had between 77.1 and 94.1 million unique visitors in the US alone. I didn’t take the time to find a more updated number. We can assume quite safely that this number has grown dramatically since then.

Bloggers blog to share expertise. Through their knowledge and influence, they become thought leaders in their subject matter, and garner a loyal following.  A loyal following subscribes to the posts (again, no different than a magazine or newspaper). My mom loves to cut news articles of interest and mail them to me. That allows her to share the article with an audience of ONE.

Now, subscribers share the posts with their individual audiences via social bookmarking sites such as delicious and stumble, and facebook and twitter. The audience has potential for exponential growth.

Let’s talk about travel blogs specifically. One of my favorite travel blogs is The Vacation Gals because they tell great stories and blog about a variety of wonderful destinations and adventures for families, girlfriend and romantic getaways.  Kara Williams is the Coloradogal. Here is what she had to say in response to my question, what value do my clients receive in working with bloggers?

1. We usually write for more than one online outlet :: more links for your client, higher search engine ranking results. (i.e. travel bloggers often guest post on others’ blogs, even if they are not actively pitching other sites for paid assignments).
2. We’re de facto travel agents for our readers (and our friends/family). At The Vacation Gals, we often get, “Where should I go for my honeymoon in Florida” or “What’s the best theme park for preschoolers in California?” If your clients are top of mind (if we’ve visited) we often recommend.
3. We’re blogging as we go – instantaneous coverage (no six-month lead time for print magazines)
4. We share the same goal as you and your clients – we want eyeballs to our blog (more page views=more we can charge for advertising); you want eyeballs to the coverage of your hotel/resort/destination. (LG comment: I love this part – it goes back to our relationship of collaboration. it’s about helping each other, it’s not a one-way relationship)

Tom Johansmeyer echoes Kara’s Number 1 above via twitter. Clicks for the client. You have very measurable impact via clicks to your website, retweets, and the level of interaction. You can see his blogging genius at top travel blogs Gadling and Luxist (to name a few).

I’ll add a few things here: Blogs have very real and large readerships, the stories stay on the web forever driving traffic to your site and coming up in searches.

Vetting the bloggers. Now to part two of the question and making sure the blog and the blogger are the right fit for you as the business owner.

Reading recommendation: The New Community Rules: Marketing on the Social Web. In this book by Tamar Weinberg, she tells a story that not only illustrates the influence of bloggers, but also the power they have if they are inaccurate or misinformed. In a nutshell, Engadget (an influential gadget blog) reported (falsely, it later turned out) in 2007 that Apple was delaying the launch of some new products. Engadget was the only news source to report this, and Apple’s stock plummeted, costing the company a reported $4 billion.

It can happen to the best of us, and certainly this is a real and valid concern. Here is where you rely on your ever competent and knowledgeable PR lady (shameless plug) to ensure you are entering a mutually beneficial relationship. (See PR/blogger Relations Manifesto).

Your goal in media outreach (whatever that media format may be) is to find influencers who have the power to drive their audience to take action and purchase your product.

Steps to do this include:

• Subject matter and fit with audience
• Level of audience interactivity on blog, twitter and facebook (if appropriate)
• Reputation, quoted in other news sources? guest blogging elsewhere? (means exposure to new audiences)
• Important: it’s not the job of the blogger to give you exposure. You are helping them with content for a story that is of interest to their readers. No one wants to feel like a pawn in your marketing scheme.

Some of you have asked me for links to other top and favorite travel blogs. Here are a few:
Deliciousbaby
WorldHum
National Geographic’s Intelligent Travel Blog
Elliot – (Chris Elliot’s blog)
BrooklynNomad

There are way too many great ones to list here, and I hate to leave out friends and colleagues, so please add your favorite to the comments section.
Any additional value points to add regarding bloggers?

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I just returned from the Travel Bloggers’ Exchange Conference (TBEX) in NYC. I learned a lot of things and met a lot of great people in both travel writing and PR. At the “Working with PR” panel, it was eye-opening to discover that many bloggers don’t understand the role of PR. I was dismayed, however, to discover that many are loathe to work with PR. I would venture to say that they, too, don’t understand the role of PR. Or let me rephrase: they don’t understand what the role of PR should be.

The relationship between a blogger and PR pro can be a beautiful and mutually productive one. Travel bloggers/writers, please don’t feel like you have to go wash after you’ve worked with us.

Our relationship should be one of collaboration; an understanding of each others goals, and how we can help each other to achieve them. You want to travel and tell stories of the places and people. We want to encourage that. We have destinations and products that can help create experiences. You have a dysfunctional business model. If you are trying to generate revenue, you can’t possibly afford to experience everything you write about it if you had to cover all your expenses. We can help bridge that gap.

The truth of the matter is, there are good writers/bloggers and there are bad writers/ bloggers. There are good PR reps, and there are lame PR reps. Our jobs are to scope each other out and make sure we are each dealing with the “good” and not the “bad”.

PR and writers having fun together

I’ve created this Good PR/Good Blogger Manifesto aka The Eight Step Program to a loving PR/blogger relationship:

1. Understand Each Others Goals Part 1: (understanding travel writers’ goals) In the Saturday morning TBEX10 panel, Travel Writing: Upping Your Game, travel, writers Don George and Alison Stein Wellner said that good travel writing is not about recounting the situation, it’s about telling the story. Your goal is to weave a story, a lesson. My role as PR is to facilitate that, and get out of the way. We’ll establish that in our initial communication. How can I help you find your story? I’ll point you in the right direction, or set up an introduction, and then I’ll get lost.
2. Understand Each Others Goals Part 2: (understanding PR’s goals) I have to show my clients the value. This will never go away. I’m guessing this is why some of you hate us; because you are an artiste and are opposed to defending your worth. I understand that. But you are also a business, and my clients are a business. So we have to “sink to this level” and make sure we’re a fit. If you are contacting me, I need help understanding who you are and who your audience is. Just like I do my research before I pitch you, please do yours and let me know that this indeed can be mutually beneficial.
3. Research before Reach-out: If I’m contacting you, it’s because I’ve been following you and I’ve done the research. I enjoy your stories and I think my client might have something interesting to offer you and your readers. Rene Mack with Weber Shandwick said it. “We are not trying to reach an audience of a million people.” We are trying to reach an audience of 10 who will take action based on your stories, then tell their stories to ten others, and so on and so on. (wait, isn’t that a shampoo commercial?)
4. Just say no to Group Fams: I know you hate them. I do too.  If I wouldn’t want to go on the trip, why would you? Where’s the story in THAT? the reader doesn’t want to hear about how the OTHER journalist on the bus spilled his coffee all over your lap ruining the day and all the museum tours for you.
5. Spam sucks: A good PR person promises to never spam and mass email lame press releases. I do send pitches out, and news updates. It’s a great way to keep in touch, and I do my best to make sure they fit. I won’t send you, the sustainable travel blogger a pitch on an ATV tour. I might, however, send you something about refillable wine bottles. I don’t expect you to act on every one of my updates/pitches. HIT THE FREAKING DELETE BUTTON AND MOVE ON. sheesh.
6. PR does not control the story: I never require visiting writers to write about something specific. I know, and my client knows, we don’t control the story. We trust you won’t take advantage of us because we’ve had lots of communication prior to your arrival. Of course you wouldn’t accept our offerings if you knew it wasn’t a fit for your audience. If you have a negative experience, we know you will write about it. That’s the risk we take.
7. We Love What We Do: the good writers and the good PR people just love what we do. I am passionate about my clients, you are passionate about your outlet (blog, podcast, etc). I swear, I am not a cheeseball talking head. I am a normal, fun person to work with. I get to make new friends, and share with them destinations and products that I truly believe in. I get to meet you for wine, coffee, a bike ride, or a ski day. I introduce you to people you might find interesting. I listen to your needs and plan appropriately.
8. You; appreciate it by being a friend back (ok, well, we’re not ALL going to be friends), and sharing your stories with your audience (the good and the bad). You don’t ask me to be your babysitter or your concierge. I know you can look up the weather yourself. I also know you know how to use google maps.

If we have a deal, sign on the dotted line, and let me help you create great content.

Lisa

Do we need to anything to the list?

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Grove Park Inn – site of Counselors Academy 2010

How do you spark the passion and fall in love again? Well, many couples might take a second honeymoon or romantic retreat. And what about in our work lives? Don’t we need some sort of romantic retreat with our careers? I’m referring to a working, creative and transformational break surrounded by industry peers, away from our co-workers, employees and clients. When is the last time you hit the reset button in your business?

I just did. I am energized and excited to hop back into things with a fresh perspective, new ideas and an amazing support group with whom to do it.

For me, my professional getaway is Counselors Academy. This is my second year attending. A chapter of the Public Relations Society of America, the 3-day conference is intended for CEO’s and owners of PR Agencies. The sessions and conversations are centered around the business side of running an agency. For you, your professional vacation is, (fill in the blank with your industry specific event).

I had so many excuses not to do something like this for myself.

Its expensive, I’m too busy to spend that much time away from the office. It’s a risk. How do I know this is going to be worth my time and money?

As I learned from Michael Gerber in his book the e-Myth Mastery,  it was time for me to stop being a technician and put on my entrepreneur hat.

And now, I have seen the light. I have drunk the kool-aid. Here is what I learned on my professional vacation:

• I can do this. I’m not afraid to admit that when I hit a bump in the road, I can feel pretty tempted by that barrista job at the local coffeehouse. I became inspired by peers in my industry and what they are accomplishing. Yes, in another room, at another time, “peers in my industry” would mean competitors, but that’s not the case in this environment.
• Think about throwing a cocktail party: Design and build a culture into your business. Don’t let it happen by default. Surround yourself with clients and employees you enjoy working with and who bring value to the conversation.  Tom Gable of Gable PR suggested that we think of our business much like we would think of throwing a cocktail party. Great concept – I plan the guest list, the menu, the theme, the decor all around a desired level of engagement I’d like to achieve.
• Learn from the ones ahead of me, mentor the ones behind me. wow. Elise Mitchell blew the crowd away when she shared her experience growing her agency. I learned a ton from her, but there is one thing in particular I’d like to share here: I will never again be hesitant to impose on people smarter than I for advice. We all need it from those with more experience than we have. But how can I repay them? By being successful and paying it forward.

Now I have work to do, visions to clarify, plans to develop and actions to implement. How do you renew the passion for what you do?

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Luxury sport utility vehicles loaded with three thousand dollar mountain bikes pulled into Phil’s Trailhead outside of Bend, Oregon as we geared up for our ride one early May Friday morning. As I looked around, I couldn’t help but wonder what all this mountain bike tourism would do for my own town, Sandpoint, Idaho.

Managed properly, tourism is a very eco-friendly industry on which to hang your economic development hat. I benefit directly from it, and I’d be hard pressed to find anyone in this community who wouldn’t be affected if tourism went away altogether.

Managed properly. That means having a plan, and clarifying the brand. The brand is the product and the overall experience. It is not a logo and a tagline. The brand is how we are perceived by our visitors. We can try to put makeup on it (logo and tagline) by people tend to be resistant to the influence of marketing language. Our visitors are going to think what they want once they come and experience it.

So let’s develop the product, the infrastructure, the experience. Let’s give our visitors exactly what they want.

What type of destination are we? Everyone will have different opinions on what a particular destination is (art, outdoor recreation, mountain biking, skiing, semi-retirement ….) because we are many things to many people. No single tagline will be able to capture that. Our job as a tourist destination is to make it easy for a visitor to come and experience their personal experience.

Back to my mountain biking example: Look at Moab, Fruita, Durango, Bend. I am not aware of a logo, a tagline, or a commercial for any of these towns. Who knows? Maybe they have one, but it doesn’t have any influence over my travel decision. If you don’t mountain bike, you may not have heard of them. And that’s ok. Anyone who does, has. And we all spend our working lives plotting our next trip to these destinations. Why? Simply because they have exactly what we want: great trails with beautiful scenery, a few good restaurants and bars, a good bike shop(s) to help us with local info and supplies, and other shopping and entertainment. I will spend my money in all those places. (Contrary to what many think, mountain bikers have cash to spend, thus my observation earlier at the trailhead)

Build trails, and people will come. Map them, get the word out, invite the media, collaborate with the bike shops and the local businesses. People will come. Get sponsorship money, build more trails and related amenities. More people come. Hotels will see their bicycle occupancy increase, and they will do more to accommodate this audience. More businesses will move to the area to cater to the audience. Even more people will come.

The experience will continue to improve. Visitors will go home and post their pictures on their social media networks. We’ll be sure and make it easy for them to post them on our social network pages. More people will come.

Now that is great branding and it brings tears to my eyes. Apply this technique to the other categories listed above and repeat. Help manage the logo population.

Technorati Tags: tourism, National Tourism Week, mountain biking, Sandpoint, Idaho, Moab, Fruita, Bend, Durango, branding

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It’s happening right now. People you have never met are reviewing your business online. Are you aware of what they are saying? and do you realize how many people are making decisions whether or not to patronize your business based on these very reviews?

As I write this, I’m on a flight home from Oklahoma City where I spent five days as a visitor and a guest at a wedding in the small town of El Reno, 40 minutes west of the city. I was not only a tourist, but I also needed services and goods while there. I needed a 24-hour dry cleaner in a small town, a men’s dress shirt, tennis rackets, public tennis courts, a great breakfast suggestion and a non-chain, neighborhood dinner in the city. I wanted to break out of the barrier that keeps tourists in one area and the locals in another. I wanted to find the authentic place.

I am your customer. And there are millions just like me.

I found everything I needed through the travel app yelp on my iPhone along with my GPS system in my car. (others use foursquare, TripAdvisor, gowalla and urbanspoon) I didn’t look at any print ads in any magazines, and i did not crack open a tour book. If you are not present on these apps, you are seriously missing the boat. And when I say you, I mean you. My friends who own a second home in Sandpoint used yelp to find a plumber, someone to repair the tile in their shower and a place to take their kids on a rainy day.

What does this mean for you, the business owner? I know many of you are pushing back on the idea of having a presence on facebook and twitter because you fear the amount of time it will take. And you’re right. It takes a lot of time to create a presence and attract your customers. If nothing else, you should be on these location-based social sites. Go where your customers already are, where they are talking about you and engage in that conversation.

Five things you should be doing (or rather, four things you should be doing and one you shouldn’t be doing)

1. Set up your page: Go to each of these sites and search for your business. There are likely already reviews of your business on there. Unlock your page by clicking on is this your business? and set up your page with a complete description. Include any specials, weekly happenings. Upload photos. Keep it updated regularly.
2. Respond to reviews: Publicly or privately. This is your opportunity to switch negative reviews around. Offer them an apology, and a return invitation, perhaps even a gift card or complimentary item depending on the gravity of the situation. If you respond to it, your prospective customers will see it and understand. Things happen. Learn from the feedback.
3. Encourage reviews from your loyal customers: Use your email database, in-store interactions, your facebook fan page and your website to encourage customers to review. Be sure and include a link straight to the page. Make it as easy as possible. The more reviews you have, the better it makes you look.
4. Learn from all this valuable data: You can now track traffic to your business page and learn all about your customers. When you have enough positive reviews, you’ll receive badges you can post on your website.
5. Don’t be a poser!!! Whatever you do, do not pretend to be a customer and post reviews on your own business. This is so totally uncool and you will be caught. And it will be embarrassing.

From a consumer perspective, we are in love with these sites because it allows us to better research where we want to spend our hard-earned dollars. From a business owner perpective, you should love these sites because it easily, allows you access to your customer base. for free. I’m sorry Yellow Pages and tour books, I’m not sure if we need you anymore.

What did I leave out? What other sites and apps do you use to find businesses?

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Millions of people are active on Twitter daily to learn, teach and network. If you, as an organization, are on Twitter to broadcast your news, sales and promotions alone, then you have likely been frustrated about “getting it”.

Following are some tips to help you build your community, and deepen relationships with your current and potential customers. This should be your primary goal for being there. Sales growth is the objective.

But first, some fundamentals. What is your strategy? Who is your target audience, and what do you want to accomplish? When I ask that, I don’t just mean “to increase sales”. That’s a given. Make a plan for what type of information you want to share with your audience. How can you be of help to your customers so they will purchase your service or product?

Secondly, a great profile pic (avatar) and a compelling online bio along with a link to your website or blog are a must.

A quick look at an organization’s twitter page and I can make a snap decision if I want to be following their stream or not.

Here is how I decide if I want to follow you:

• Is there relevant content in your twitter stream? Content that interests me, educates me, and/or entertains me?
• Are there any @ symbols in your twitter stream? This shows me you are interacting with us as individuals – answering our questions, engaging with us. If there are none, you are what I call Output Only. The boring guy at the cocktail party that talks non-stop about himself and then walks away. Sometimes I make an exception and follow these twitter streams, but with rare exceptions – like @breakingnews, for example.
• Who is tweeting on behalf of the organization? There should be a person behind the brand. I don’t want to tweet with a thing, I want a person and a personality to go with it.
• Is your feed full of links to your blog and YouTube videos? There’s a fine line between sharing your blog and videos, and again, mixing it with interaction. If you are using twitter simply to drive traffic to your blog, etc, you’ve lost my interest. If I want to subscribe to your blog, I’ll do that.

Are you harnessing the power of Twitter?

• If you’re using the web-based Twitter application, you’re missing out on many powerful features to help you reach your goals. Download tweetdeck or hootsuite. I promise you, you’ll start to get it now.
• Set up search columns for key words to your organization and industry. This will help you to respond to questions directly related to your business by people you are likely not following. I’ve seen a number of questions go unanswered locally, including my own, because you aren’t paying attention to the twitterverse.
• Watch what your competitors are doing on twitter. Set up a column pertaining to them, and their keywords.
• Go out and actively follow people. Use a directory such as twellow and search people to follow based on geographic location, or key words in your potential customers’ bios.
• Conduct market research: once you have a decent, loyal following. Ask them questions that help you understand your customer better.

Lastly, and I can’t say it enough: Don’t just talk about yourself. Balance with the following: Ask me what I’m doing, share news from your industry that I might find interesting. Retweet what others are talking about. Tell me something personal but not mundane – I love a good story.

Does this help?

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I am really looking forward to watching this scenario play out: Pepsi will replace it’s spendy Superbowl ads with a $20 million dollar social media campaign to make the world a better place. Remember how Coke wanted to teach the world to sing in harmony? It sounds like Pepsi is putting its money where its mouth is.

If this is news to you, read more about it here.

Now that is one vote of confidence for social media if I’ve ever seen one. I get a lot of questions here in the region, in our smaller communities about the longevity of social media. “Is it just a fad?”

Social media is not a fad. The technologies are.

According to Larry Woodard’s article, Superbowl ads reach 95.4 million viewers, or 42% of homes. Social media reaches 85 percent of the golden 18-34 demographic.

It’s more targeted and it’s more meaningful.

Of course, execution will be key. The $20 million campaign will center around their Refresh Everything website where, starting January 13th, you and I can submit our projects for funding. Site visitors can start voting February 1^st. The campaign will run for a year, rather than 30 seconds. Of course, after I submit my project, I’ll be plugging it for votes on all the social media outlets.

This signals a major shift in marketing strategy and I love the direction.

• Brands will have to be more interactive and develop more meaningful relationships with their customers in order to compete. Social media technologies make this possible and in fact, mandatory.
• It means no more talking at me, and telling me what to do.
• Maybe brands will see I don’t need a rock star to entice me to buy your product.
• Make me think, make me feel, make me be proud to support your brand.

What do you think? are you as excited as I am or am I just a geek?

Do you like Pepsi’s strategy? Any predictions on its success? Can we apply this lesson to our smaller communities and budgets?

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train wreck

Originally uploaded by woodleywonderworks

Is it over yet? Can I open my eyes? Sure, a lot of you did well in 2009, but I’ll be honest, the year was a train wreck for me and I am pretty happy to ring in a new year with some good lessons learned and a strong action plan in place.

I thought I’d share some of those lessons learned, and what I intend to be my recipe for success as I focus on my 2010 planning these last two weeks of December. They apply to any organization or sole proprietor, really.

Please add your ideas in the comments.

• Work ON my business: not just in it. I’ve increased the percentage of hours I spend working ON my business to about 25% of my time. It turns out this wasn’t hard to do since I lost a lot of client work!

• What is my vision? What do I want my business to look like in five years? I’m talking big picture stuff here, not the details. What type of clients do I want? Who specifically do I want on my client list? Where do I want to be geographically and do I want to add staff?

• Revisit and refine my positioning: I pulled out that business plan and walked myself through the exercise again. Where are the opportunities and threats? What markets are doing well right now? What industries? Why would someone choose me over everyone else? In other words, what is my positioning statement?

Based on that, I asked myself:

• Where are the Weak Spots? I love doing business development, and writing proposals. But I realize I haven’t been winning new business from those with whom I don’t have an established relationship. I am not winning trust from new contacts. Ok, then what’s wrong with my pitch documents? I’ve asked a few people I know and respect to critique them for me. It’s not easy to ask people for help. I worry about putting them out. But I’m honored when someone asks me, so I’m guessing they feel the same way.

• Expand my credibility and my exposure: I’ve defined my goals, my specialties and my target clients. Now it’s time to demonstrate my expertise. I am actively seeking speaking positions on pr and social media. I’m in the process of rewriting the copy on my website. I finally launched this blog.

• Tools in place, now lets actively use my networks to find that business. I can use all my efforts to drive traffic to my blog and my website. I’m finding strategic partners, and I’m reconnecting with old colleagues via traditional and social media outlets.

So I guess there is a bright side to this. 2009 has taught me to work smarter.

Please weigh in below in the comments section. What are some of the lessons you learned in 2009? What are you doing to turn it around? What advice do you have to share with me, and others in a similar situation?

Happy New Year!

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