This image from the creative team at Vistaprint showcase some additional creative ways that businesses can utilize their business cards beyond the contact data.

Some of my favorites include:

• using the reverse as an appointment reminder (my dentist does this and I love it)
• showcasing customer testimonials
• leveraging the reverse for coupons

How do you use your business cards?

One of these rare instances happened on Tuesday afternoon when I came across this video from Nike as a teaser for the roll-out of their apparel contract with the NFL:

After watching the video, not only did I get super amped about the NFL, but I also forgot about the start of the MLB season. More importantly, I was hooked and ready to tune in for the reveal on my social networks for information and imagery to trickle out over the course of the day.

First came the fan apparel then came the on-field gear capped off with a player who endorsed Nike from each team donning the new gear.

Sure it might not seem like a big deal since Nike is a mega-brand with deep marketing budgets, but below the surface was the athletic giant’s biggest win. Confused?

You see, behind the shiny lights, recognizable faces and swag, Nike was able to hammer home the core theme of the company’s brand: top of the line innovative sports equipment for top tiered athletes.  At the end of the day the launch was just a large commercial for the brand and served as the proof for the company’s commitment to innovating and providing the best products for athletes. After all would you expect the NFL to use sub-par equipment?

“When you look at Nike and you look at the NFL, we both believe in better,” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said. “The players believe they are going to perform better and I think they will.”

While I am sure there will be case studies on the sharing and how well the hype played out, this post is more to thank Nike for making me feel like I was in a candy store and six years old again. Well, that and for not going with the “leaked” version of the Ravens uniforms a few months back with white helmets.

So all that’s left to ask is are you ready for some football?

This post contains video, please click here if you cannot view.

This final post in the lessons from Disney series takes a look at the importance of stepping out of our comfort zones. When was the last time you stepped outside of yours?

On a recent trip from Disney I contemplate one of their best practices – exiting through the gift shop. This is the second installment of a three part series.

This post contains video, please click here if you cannot view it.

Last week, I spent some time in Disney with my wife and noticed a number of things that they do very well that we can all steal from in our day-to-day job functions. This is the first of three Vlogs that focuses on building an experience.

Have you built an experience around your brand?

Some key takeaways included:

1. Understand your business goals
2. Understand your customers’ needs
3. Set rules of engagement
4. Be rigorous on your measurement
5. Choose the right tools for the job

On July 28, I arrived at the discreet offices near Yawkey Way and was shuttled into a conference room with 10 other members of the Sox Twitter community. During the hour plus that we were sitting in the offices that overlook the 99-year old ballpark, nothing was off-limits. The Sox’ social media team asked the focus group of their Twitter community what we liked, what we didn’t and what they could do better.

One thing that really stood out to me during this group was that there was no way for social media to scale in an organization as big as the Red Sox. Unlike many companies who make it a point to respond to each and every person who reaches out to them on the social Web, the Red Sox just can’t do that. They have over 116,000 followers on Twitter, they are a Major League Baseball flagship franchise that generates a lot of buzz, and a quick search of #redsox on Twitter yielded over 100 results in a two minute span. Responding to everyone is just not possible.

The Red Sox social media team understands this, but wants to make sure that when they do connect with a member of their community that it is something that is truly worthwhile. Events like tweetups and the focus group allow them to keep a pulse of the community in a somewhat scalable method.

After the event I headed over to the ballpark with other members of the focus group including Joselin Mane, Christine Major, Dave Cutler and Stephanie Silverstein. We discussed the event that we had just attended. We agreed that while the team is doing some great things in the space, they are still just scratching the surface. It would be great to see them implement some of the changes we suggested, like more behind the scenes action, contests and facts of the day.

I know that I will be keeping an eye on their accounts over the next 12 months to see what they roll out. It will be interesting to see how a team with such a rabid fan base continues to engage and grow their social properties. I would also gladly come back in for another focus group to chat with the team on social media.

If you are a fan of the Red Sox, what would you like to see them add to their social media activity? If you aren’t what would you like to see your favorite sports team do in social media?

Disclosure, in exchange for our time in the focus group we were giving a standing room ticket to see the game on the 28 of July. No blog posts were required or asked for. This was unsolicited.

Who am I to argue with the darlings of my life?

When we were headed to the movie theater, I was expecting big things from this perk, basically because it was done in conjunction with Disney, but left the event with a mixed bag of things. Below is a list of the positives and negatives from the event:

Pros

• Extremely kid friendly
• Movie volume offset kids crying or talking
• Great movie and Loch Ness Monster short

Click here if you can’t view the video.

Image – Trailershut

Naragansett Beer from Providence, RI is currently running a contest where they are giving away their product to the tune of a case of beer. While the promotion may sound cool on the notion of free beer, it is also part of a campaign to extend local awareness of the brand so that they can build a brewery to brew the tasty lager in Providence.

Now I am not going to lie – I love beer. I also was a fan of the brand before winning a case of beer in this promotion, but that was not what impressed me with the campaign. What had me smiling more than the case of tallboys was when the company asked to film me to increase the social awareness of the campaign and the company. Unlike many breweries twice or thrice their size – they get it and I am very happy to see what these guys do in the future and am looking to chat with Zac from their social team in the near future for an interview on this campaign and their overall social efforts. So stay tuned.

The interactions on Facebook are truly impactful for any business, the problem is your company does not own the customer experience, conversation or content – Facebook does.  (See Facebook’s T&C)

The concept of making Facebook your central hub and presence on the web is sickening to me. If you are putting in the blood, sweat and tears to build up your web presence for your business or building a blog you want to have ownership of it.

You also need to know that no matter how uber-popular Facebook is, it has still experienced downtime and bugs. If a customer heads to your page at that time and can’t get in, chances are that they’ll head to a competitor’s website where they can make a live connection or get information. Now this is not to say that websites don’t have their downtime, difference is that if you are paying for a service, you can call your hosting provider to get an ETA of a fix and bitch and moan about it. With Facebook, you are at the mercy of their developers and servers.

There is also the small little issue that as a race, we humans are fickle. We are always looking for bigger, better or newer. In the social media realm, we’ve seen players be the apple of everyone’s eye only to fall to the untouchable class – remember when Myspace was sitting on top of the world?  I don’t have a crystal ball, but I can say with certainty that we cannot assume that Facebook will always be numero uno in the social space despite what Mark Zuckerberg would like us to believe.

Please don’t confuse this with saying that you shouldn’t utilize Facebook or its network. Once you’ve built up the content, shopping experience, etc. push it towards your own cultivated community that plays on the world’s top social network.

A common misconception in this ever-evolving space is that social networks will replace traditional means of business. In reality, they are just another spoke that ties back to a hub. If the fish are there, drop a line as it can help drive things back to your core business but if you think that this is totally off base and that companies should put all of their eggs in the Facebook Easter basket or advise clients to do so, please let me know in the comments below. I would love to hear why.

Image - Martin Neuhof

For more information on the stats, check out the full release here.

Now the purpose of this blog is not to wax poetically about gastronomical goodness, but rather conversational media. If you look at Boloco’s website you’ll see that “Join the Conversation” is center stage with a steady stream of tweets (well off-right, but whose keeping score) and if you happen to walk by one of their stores, you’ll see a chalkboard reminding you to check in on foursquare and noting the current mayor, who also gets free menu items on Mondays.

Given my love affair for their burritos and their social media efforts, I wanted to reach out and meet the person who sat behind the account. After countless back and forth’s on things through the months, I finally met Sara Steele-Rogers at the Mega-Tweetup a few months back and had been tweeting back and forth about random things. One thing led to another and I asked her if she’d be willing to peel back the foil and take us behind the scenes of Boloco’s social media strategy.

How did Boloco start out in social media?

Listening to guests has always been a huge part of the boloco brand. John, our CEO, is an early adapter, and joined Twitter a little more than three years to listen and engage. Promotion via social media is not our top priority, although it is helpful with spreading the word about in-store promotions, events we’re a part of/sponsor, non-profits and charities we support, etc.

How did you become directly involved in the efforts?

I joined the boloco team in June and have been directly involved with Twitter, Facebook,Buzz@boloco.com, and guest relations since day one.

Do you have a mission statement for your social media efforts?

Not a technical mission statement. As I said, our objective with social media is to listen and respond to every one of our guests. Ever guest deserves a response. Whether the feedback is positive, negative, or neutral, we just want to create a dialogue and let them know we’re interested in what they have to say.

What networks are you active on and what is your favorite one?

Twitter and Facebook are our primary social media channels. We are also active on Yelp and reply to each and every Yelp review. I wouldn’t say I have a favorite. They’re all useful for different things.

How are you measuring success?

We don’t have any strict parameters when measuring “success”… and we know we can always do better. We know we’re on the right track when we get recognized for our social media efforts- whether it be a blog post, being asked to guest speak to local college classes, etc. If we can make just a few people’s day better, whether it be by adding an extra freebie on their boloco card so they can bring a friend with them (for free) on their birthday, or having our crew send over a free cookie after seeing a foursquare check-in, those are all examples of success!

How many people are on your SM team?

The team consists of me and our CEO John Pepper who occasionally chimes in on the conversation.

What are the engagement levels like?

Our goal is to respond to every form of communication, whether it be Facebook, Twitter, or otherwise. Our number of @ replies and RTs far surpass any promotional messages. I’d estimate we interact with at least 20 guests on a given day through all forms of social media.

What do you see as the biggest wins for social media?

Social media is just another way for us to let our guests know that we’re listening and open to any and all feedback. We’re no longer limited to email or phone; Tweets, Facebook, Yelp, etc. are just as important. Allowing us to learn about the guest experience, what we’re doing right, and what we’re doing wrong, allows us to make changes (and huge improvements) to our company based on the feedback. In a sense, it can also be looked at as free market research – feedback on products, music, flavors, service… all very important things to us.

Why should companies utilize social media?

Companies should use social media to listen and interact with their guests. It should be a tool to assure guests that “we’re always listening” and what guests have to say really matters, no matter if it’s good, bad, or indifferent. Less importantly, social media is a great way to promote – our in-store promotions called Friends with Benefits, Snoloco specials, survey our guests (ask about preferences in flavors, beverages, etc.), and tie-in social media with non-profits or charities we are promoting.

I want to complete a number of things for me and my family. Some of which include:

• Not working as late, baby Espo is on his way so I want to be there and not miss the little things
• Make sure Baby Espo has everything he needs
• Write a book (cliché, but a long-standing goal from high school)
• Increase time unplugged by 20%
• Increase blog traffic by 10%
• Meet more of you during the year face to face

Sure these goals are great; I am just having a problem setting benchmarks to put up as indicators of success and how to make sure that I am on track.

Do you set personal goals? If so, how do you benchmark?

Image – Lisa Van Alstyne