Category: The Head of Lettuce

I was recently interviewed by Ryan Parsley from Cloud Plumbing a Linxter Production. You can hear the interview here…

Antony Francis, CEO of Head of Lettuce Media, talks with me about automation in social media.

data-text=”Talking Automation with ryan parsley, CloudPlumbing Pod Cast” data-url=”http://headoflettucemedia.com/2012/08/talking-automation-ryan-parsley-cloudplumbing-pod-cast/”
data-via=”" >

Often we have small businesses ask for assistance with their social media, but they find our one on one coaching to be to much, so we are glad to offer some group classes that will deliver quality education at an affordable price for small businesses. The first of these programs is being offered in our own backyard of south west Pasco ( Trinity, New Port Richey).

There are two options:

Option one is a two hour class where you will learn about the different types of social media and the cor principles that will help you build your following and connection with your consumers and future consumers. http://holmnpr1.eventbrite.com/

Option two is designed to follow what we deliver in our one on one coaching program, with the goal of you being self sufficient in your social media. We will train you over 4 weeks on what to do, and how to do it with each classes building on the previous weeks class. Our goal is to not overwhelm you, but share the love of social media, that so many have, and more importantly how to use it in your business. http://holmnpr4wk.eventbrite.com/

Keeping with our strong belief of giving back to the community, there are seats reserved in each class for charitable organizations, call us for details.

data-text=”Social Media for small business” data-url=”http://headoflettucemedia.com/2012/08/social-media-small-business/”
data-via=”" >

That’s right friends, as one of the event Sponsors and Speakers for @PRSATampabay, Head of Lettuce Media has scored 2 tickets to give away. These Tickets are for the Conference only. They do not include Travel and accommodations, and do not include pre-conference activities.

Simply comment on this post your intrest and you will be entered. Tweet the article with the #Sunshine2012 tag and you will be entered a 2nd time. We will be accepting entries until this Friday the 15th at noon EST. We will then choose 2 winners who will each be given one ticket. Winners will be announced by 3pm Friday here on this post as well as on Twitter.

This event is ideal for those in PR, You will Learn new and exciting methods for extending your own public relations practice while increasing your clients’ ROI.

data-text=”Head of Lettuce Media’s ticket give away for PRSATampaBay’s #Sunshine2012″ data-url=”http://headoflettucemedia.com/2012/06/2-tickets-give-prsa-tampa-bays-sunshine2012/”
data-via=”" >

• 2 for the Heroes Salute Gala featuring Darryl Worley http://www.thenashvilleconnection.com/events/gala/
• 2 for the Workshops  http://www.thenashvilleconnection.com/events/workshops/

• Please be prepared to travel and stay in Greenville SC, at your own cost,contest includes tickets only.
• We will announce the winner of this contest June 7th at 12 noon EST, submissions to enter are due by 11am the 7th of June.
• If you want to win, you must leave a comment on this blog and also mention if you would want a gala or workshop ticket.

data-text=”Nashville Connection Ticket Drawing!!!” data-url=”http://headoflettucemedia.com/2012/06/nashville-connection-ticket-drawing/”
data-via=”" >

We are proud and excited to be the social media sponsor for TEDxPoynter Institute this coming Friday, and we have a total of 6 tickets to give away.

We will be giving away 2 on Twitter, 2 on Google+ and 2 here on this blog post.

For twitter, tweet us at @HOLMedia with #TEDxHOLM to be entered.

On Google+ comment on the thread talking about the ticket give away, and to enter here, comment on this post.

We will do the drawing at 10am, and we will announce the winners here Thursday by noon.

data-text=”Head of Lettuce Media’s TEDxPoynter ticket give away!” data-url=”http://headoflettucemedia.com/2012/05/head-lettuce-medias-tedxpoynter-ticket-give-away/”
data-via=”" >

This past Feb. 6-7^th 2012 was Social Fresh East and we at Head of Lettuce Media decided to join the event as a Sponsor, and when given the chance to have a booth, we decided to trade the booth in for some tickets (Special Thanks to Jason of Social Fresh for assisting in this unique request) that we could give to some deserving up and comers in the social media community who could benefit from a free ticket…ok, the tickets were not free, I asked the chosen to give me a blog on what the three best things were that they came away from the event with, well here is what they had to share. – Antony

—————————————————————————————–
The people that benefited the most from the Social Fresh East conference came early and stayed late, were open to new ideas, and got involved in on-site and online networking. If you don’t ask a question, you won’t get the answer. Those answers came from social conversations and during presentations. Social Fresh as a company and this conference’s amazing speakers are still answering and posing questions. They are still “being human” and providing social media content that “has value.”

The concept of being human and providing social media that has value were brought up by Scott Monty, of Ford Motor Company during his keynote. He also introduced a concept that I wrote down and need to keep in mind. His goal of integrating the “earned”, “owned”, and “paid” social media for his campaigns. “Earned” is the most exciting of the three, as it involves being re-tweeted, quoted, and a part of traditional news sources. It also would pertain to YouTube sensations whose videos have earned them viral status. Being human and providing value help with the earned.

The theme of targeting current fans of the product or company also was evident in talks by Scott Monty, Jay Baer of Convince & Convert, Christopher Penn of WhatCounts, and other speakers. Mr. Monty stated a brilliantly simple thing that “people like what they like.” That’s probably not an exact quote, but he built on this to say, you probably won’t “like” or “follow” Ford in social media if you didn’t already have a positive experience with them. When working on my own social media, and with the clients I assist, I plan to reach out to current customers more than people who have never heard of these companies and brands.

Also evident and important was blogging often, including guest blogging. I have been following some great blogs by Social Fresh, HubSpot, Argyle Social, WhatCounts, Convince & Convert, and other companies who were represented by very personable, funny, and knowledgeable speakers. I list the companies, but could just as well say Jay Baer, Christopher Penn, Eric Boggs, etc. because, they write blogs that are human and have value when representing their company.

Thank you Antony Francis and Amber Osborne (MissDestructo) of Head of Lettuce Media for selecting me as one of your distinguished attendees, Jason Keath and Corey Creed of Social Fresh for your hospitality and continued dialog on Facebook and Twitter, Shauna Causey of Nordstrom for the inspiration and friendship on Pinterest and Clipboard, and Chris Penn of WhatCounts for your LinkedIn connection. Chris, what you know about Google Analytics and analyzing ROI for campaigns, e-mail, and social media is truly something that I appreciate and aspire to develop in my continued studies.

Jason Longo
———————————————————-

Social fresh Tampa came through town this past week and I had the opportunity to attend (kudos to Antony Francis of Head of Lettuce Media and company for the ticket).

So what the heck is Social Fresh? Social Fresh is a conference that has been touring the country for the last few years that promotes..well, all things social. Facebook, twitter and a whole host of social networks you may of may not have heard of as of yet. All together, there were thirteen speakers over the two day seminar. The complete list can be found here http://socialfreshconference.com/event/east-2012/. There was really was an incredible amount of great information and ideas at the event.

On the first day of the event, Kipp Bodner from Hubspot talked about b2b leads for social media. He started off by mentioning that 73% of CEOs do not believe that marketing drives business. This is an in incorrect assumption. Marketing is all about generating leads and a constant supply of fresh leads is the very force that drives the growth of companies. One issue with marketers as he points out is that marketers are creative people and have to become more revenue focused. There is a fine line between focusing on revenue and keeping the creative juices flowing when it comes to marketing. Kipp also mentioned three key elements that are absolute must haves as far as social media goes.

First, we must build our social media footprint. We must follow, friend and connect as much as possible and also leverage existing contacts that we may have missed. The content has to be relevant and engaging or people will not care or pass the info to their peers.

Second, every time a new blog or article goes out, let everyone know across all mediums, email, LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter at the very minimum, the more the better. On average, people are exposed to over 5000 ads a day, so the larger your network, obviously the better.

Finally, we must ask for people to take action. This applies to all things marketing, not just the social side. Everything that goes out to the social networks needs a strong call to action. Give away a free eBook or an audio interview or have a contest. Just ask for the customer to take action and measure the results of that effort. Learn from these actions and move forward.

On the second day of the event, the speaker I enjoyed the most from was Jay Bear of socialpros.com. Jay stressed the importance of connecting Facebook and email. He went further to advise that new (Facebook) is not necessarily better and most of us suffer from shiny object syndrome. It keeps us from moving forward and being productive if we allow it. Jay went on to compare email and Facebook in an interesting fashion, email is Madonna and Facebook is Lady Gaga, an interesting but effective analogy.  Basically email got a fresh coat of paint in the form of Facebook. Email however is still the proven standard. Although the seminar was very informative, I personally see social media as just a small piece of the marketing pie. It’s best used as a tool for consumer feedback and perhaps brand building. It is best to stick with the tried and true methods and to measure and test all efforts. I would give no more than 10% to the R&D department. The bottom line is to sell something or get the customer to take action somewhere along the funnel. We need to build trust and relationships and strive to provide solutions that the customer needs. Provide constant value and you’ll have happy customers for life.

Bryan Hill
bryan@getlocalmojo.com

—————————————————————————————

Social Fresh EAST offered a fast paced, in-depth look at Social Media management from industry leaders. With 14 speakers from a variety of different backgrounds and approaches, each presentation offered a unique approach to using and expanding traditional efforts in social media.

Social is Equal Parts Words & Numbers. Argyle Social’s Eric Boggs, day one presenter, detailed social media facts and statistics. SMM monitoring and tracking was a big theme throughout the event. It quickly became apparent that with a growing list of tools and services, knowing Social Media trends for your company or brand is essential.

Engagement is Key. Having frequent call to actions is just the start. With social media, interaction is the success to community building and brand advocacy. Scott Monty of Ford Motor Company said, ”Comments aren’t conversation.” Its about offering content and engaging followers.

Trial and A/B Testing. Even the best Social Media campaigns require a little trail and error. Christopher S Penn from What Counts explained, “You can hear millions of ‘best practices’ or ‘experts’ but you need to test for yourself, always.” Meanwhile, Jay Baer from Convince & Convert suggested using A/B testing for email lists.

Pinterest: The New Social Media On the Block. Its not like Facebook, Twitter or Google+, instead its a visual approach to sharing. Shauna Casey of Nordstrom spoke about this phenomena on Day 2 of Social Fresh. Since this speech, the buzz around Pinterest has steadily been growing with brands flocking to make their presence known.
Ultimately, Social Fresh EAST showed that social media management need not be a mystery. With the right training, monitoring tools and testing techniques, Social Fresh EAST proved that there is no longer an excuse to “just wing it” when it comes to your brand and emerging social community.

Author Bio: Catherine Williams, is a freelance SEO content writer. You can learn more about her writing and rates by visiting http://UrgeContent.com 
Connect with Catherine on Twitter: @GwinevereRain and share fun interests on Pinterest.

data-text=”Social Fresh Winners Share Their Take-aways” data-url=”http://headoflettucemedia.com/2012/03/social-fresh-winners/”
data-via=”" >

This past week we took part in the Clear Music Jazz Series with Eric Darius, and had an incredible time.  We Sponsored the event assisting with their promotion and social media needs, We also gave away some tickets via Facebook and Twitter. One of our winners, Cyndee Haydon wrote a beautiful blog about the event and we just had to share it, WTG Cyndee, enjoy

Elegant Clearwater Music Jazz Series – An Evening with Eric Darius

data-text=”Clear Music Jazz Series” data-url=”http://headoflettucemedia.com/2012/02/clear-music-jazz-series/”
data-via=”" >

Amber, aka “The Blue Cheese” will be speaking in Chicago this week at Talent Net Live. She just had a blog post come out on Monster.com today! Check it out!

data-text=”Missdestructo goes to Chicago” data-url=”http://headoflettucemedia.com/2011/11/missdestructo-goes-to-chicago/”
data-via=”" >

Early October, Antony was interviewed by The Pittsburgh Technology Council‘s Audrey Russo and Jonathan Kersting for TechVibe Radio  104.7 FM News Talk . You can catch the full interview here.

data-text=”Head of Lettuce Interview on TechVibe Radio” data-url=”http://headoflettucemedia.com/2011/10/head-of-lettuce-interview-on-techvibe-radio/”
data-via=”" >

Recently we were invited to attend a few prestigious local events, such as, the Duran Duran concert at Ruth Eckerd Hall and the Tampa Bay Lightning season opener game. Both events recognized the importance of social media and the local community influencers in Tampa Bay.

In my experience at the Duran Duran concert I was blown away by the interactivity not only before the concert with the #DuranSocial hashtag but live at the concert with the #DuranLive hashtag, the band themselves encouraged the audience to tweet during the concert. Not to mention it’s darn cool to see your tweet scroll by while Duran Duran is playing, making the audience a temporary Rockstar.

Tampa’s local hockey team the Tampa Bay Lightning (@TbLightning) started the #BeTheThunder hashtag this season, for the season opener they invited almost a hundred local twitter users encouraging them to tweet during the game. As you can see the results say it all, in the matter of 24 hours they generated enough buzz to power one of the new Tesla coils in the recently renovated St. Pete Times Forum.

 See full report from Hashtracking

One of the biggest questions we get at HOLMedia is “Well, we did that hashtag thing you told us to do…but what does it matter to us?” Here’s where it matters, not only are you giving the event attendees a way to filter other messages from the event, but you are giving the event a measurable component through using the hashtag. “But how can we measure a hashtag?”, at HOLM we recommend using Hashtracking.com it’s an easy way to see the following.

•       Number of Tweets Generated

•           Number of Impressions

•           Reach of Audience

•           Top 10 Twitter Users by number of impressions

•           Top 10 Twitter Users by number of tweets.

As you can see our very own blue queen of buzz, Amber Osborne aka Miss Destructo (@missdestructo) takes the runner up in hundred of thousands of impressions right behind the official twitter accounts of @duranduran and @tblightning. In just a few hours of an event you can have a community of influencers getting more potential eyeballs through twitter using a hashtag than the number of people in most decent size cities. Treat your local community well, educate them how to use hashtags for your event and they will in return create an army of buzzing twitter bees spreading your praises.

Again, huge thanks to @DuranDuran and @TbLightning for embracing social media, being aware of your passionate communities and inviting us out for these memorable experiences. Also thanks to Hashtracking.com , as they have been very helpful in tracking these metrics with us.

data-text=”Using Hashtags to Track Your Event” data-url=”http://headoflettucemedia.com/2011/10/using-hashtags-to-track-your-event/”
data-via=”" >