Tag Archives: headoflettucemedia-com

Head of Lettuce Media has scored a Family 4 pack for,  Ringling Bros. & Barnum & Bailey, BUILT TO AMAZE! In Tampa, January 2-6, 2013, which includes  4 $15 tickets, 4 small lemonades, 4 small popcorns, and 4 lollipops. This offer is valid for any performance except those on Saturday, and we are giving it away. To enter just comment on this blog article telling us what you love about the circus, and you will be entered. We will be drawing a random winner from those registered, December 14th at noon est, and will announce and contact the winner that afternoon.

To increase your odds we will also be monitoring Twitter for the Hashtag #HOLMRBBB Tweet some love with a link to this article as well as the tag and we will double your chances. You must be at least 18 to enter, Winner is chosen randomly at the discretion of Head of Lettuce Media.

We have also been given a discount code:

Get a Family Value Pack for just $88.00. This includes 4 $15 tickets, 4 small lemonades, 4 small popcorns, and 4 lollipops. This offer is valid for any performance except those on Saturday. Tickets can be purchased at the Tampa Bay Times Forum ticket office or ticketmaster.com using code FAMDEAL. Here’s a PDF file of a flyer highlighting this special offer.

We will be covering opening night on January 2nd, and tweeting that night on @TBAthingstodo using the hashtag #BuilttoAmaze be sure to tune in and/or join in the conversation.

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This past week I attended the National Association of Realtor’s annual convention and expo, and I was amazed to see how few of the 200+ booths were taking advantage of social media and QR codes, less the 10% had QR Codes. What I found interesting is that I was told by many of the exhibitors that 2 years ago, almost every booth had a QR code. This begs the questions; Are the exhibitors assuming that the attendees still don’t get QR codes, or do they no longer care if they do, because they don’t understand the value of this simple tool. I thought I would share some of the “opportunities” I spotted to help those of you planning a booth for upcoming expos, of course your best bet would be to hire Head of Lettuce media to help you integrate the social media into the design, we have gotten quite good at event promotion and building conversation during an event (end shameless plug).

What’s the goal? First you need to consider the goal of your expo experience and your booth. Are you selling product at the booth? Are you looking for leads to follow-up on after the event? Are you looking to establish brand recognition? I know that in many cases you may be doing more than one of these. Consider how Social Media might come into play, in the mix of your booth. If your booth is crowded a well placed QR code could give attendees quick access to your information preventing them from walking away in frustration, because they could not get answers to their questions. I noticed one company using the QR code to allow attendees to enter to win a Kindle.

While their booth may not have been the most impressive, EXP Realty scored a home run in my book with a large QR code, easy to scan which took you to a mobile site which loaded fast (right picture) where you could register as well as get some questions answered. Unfortunately they were in the minority. The majority of QR codes went to websites, and typically they did not use a url shortener the result was very pixellated codes that are hard for some phones to read, if they are not large enough.

This one, while very detailed was made large enough for a quick read, I did give them the free advice to use a url shortener next time, so that it is easier to read. After this, QR codes just got less and less prevalent. Here are some I spotted.

My personal favorite was the use by Century 21 with the QR code at the top of the really tall banner and the others in their booth, hidden by the giveaways. If you are going to go through the effort of using a QR code, don’t tuck it in the corner like you are embarrassed to be using it, instead make it prominent and easy for anyone to scan from anywhere on the floor in front of your booth like EXP Realty did. Don’t make attendees crawl on the floor like some of the examples above. Keep in mind that even though I am mention these companies, good and bad, they all score for at least trying. Over 90% of the booths at the convention had no QR code at all, and even fewer mentioned their Twitter handle or Facebook page, other then having the logos on their booth artwork, you can only assume that their name is their handle. So I do applaud these few for making the effort.

I should mention that the National Association of Realtors did do an excellent job promoting a #hashtag for the event, my measurement using SocialBro on the #NARannual tag showed almost 500 individuals in the conversation, not bad for an audience thought to not understand QR codes.

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This week Linkedin added a new element to their platform, Endorsements. They are a way of saying amen to the bullet point skills that one is hoping to be seen as skilled in. I have a feeling this will be the new game in town; I’ll endorse you if you endorse me. Who can get the most endorsements, will popularity win? HR folk will have to decide how many endorsements equal one recommendation.  Maybe we can add points, 1 per endorsement per subject, and 25 for a written recommendation? I joke, but I know it is only a matter of time before we hear someone trade endorsements and recommendations to build your Linkedin value, vs earning it. Your picture shows as having endorsed someone, does this encourage or discourage you to endorse? Notice what happens when I hover over my picture on a friends endorsements (snapped the picture from a 3rd party account, as your own picture does not do this for you)

T his could be a good way to be noticed. Now you need to recognize the difference between endorsements of those who really know the person, and people blindly endorsing everyone to increase the possible links to their own profile. I really don’t have an answer for this yet, these are just things to consider, let me know what you think. Feel free to endorse me if you feel I deserve it, and I will reciprocate if I can do it and feel good about it:)

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With the #RNC2012 (Republican National Convention 2012) kicking off this week, it begs the question, how do you take your politics, or social media for that matter. As one who makes a living from studying Social Media I love when anything major happens, because it gives us a chance to study elements of social media at an accelerated pace. A good TV show promoting their hashtag can have the same effect check out #AGT (America’s got Tallent) or #SYTYCD (so you think you can dance) on their respective nights, their audience is very engaged.

I watch the conversation using a few tools, and thought I would share them with you as this week is a great chance to test drive them and find your favorite.

TwitterFall This is one of my favorites, you can enter a few search terms, and each will appear in a different color. I often use this to observe the 45+ twitter accounts I manage personally. Their are simple options, and you do not even need to be on twitter to watch this one.

SocialBro, as I have mentioned before, I like. They are great for monitoring a Hashtag and seeing who the influencers are in the conversation or where the conversation is taking place. They also let you select people from the conversation for following or putting on a list.

Bottlenose is a newer tool in beta that lets you look at a great diagram around the topic, showing the other related tags and you can also tweak it to see topics and who is a leader in the conversation. This is great for spotting conversations that might be related to your primary hashtag. Check out the other tags, as there is a good chance not everyone in those ancillary tags are following the main tag also.

You can also view the data in a few formats, like live

Tagboard another new comer gives you a great newspaper style format. This one is simple to use and great for reviewing material.
SeeS.aw is like Tagboard, but will let you save searches and the stream keeps flowing where Tagboard seems to need to be refreshed (which has its own benefits). 

Geofeedia another Beta provides a map of tweets around a location, or a newspaper format. This helps you see also the conversation in the area of an event, when not everyone is using the event hashtag. I used the Tamp Times Forum as a location, even tho the screen shows St.Pete Times Forum (its name changed).

SocialMention offers a nice clean feed with highlights showing Sentiment, Top keywords, hashtags, users and sources. Great for seeing everything involved in the conversation.

Tawlk another beta is great for a live newspaper feed

Hashtracking is another favorite of mine, they are great for showing you the potential size of your audience as well as a ranking of those involved in the conversation.

These are still just a few of the tools available out there, feel free to share any I missed (my goal here was to give some tools you can use during the convention to follow the conversation).

data-text=”How do you take your Politics? #GOP2012″ data-url=”http://headoflettucemedia.com/2012/08/politics-gop2012/”
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Just recently we had about 10,000, that’s right ten thousand new follows in a 24 hour period of time. While we were trying to figure our what awesome maneuver we did that got so many people to follow us in such a short period of time, our experience and wisdom told us otherwise. We knew something was amiss. Well enter SocialBro one of our favorite tools for analyzing the following on a twitter account. After some tweaking on my searches I lowered the sliders to those with less then 25 followers, who have not tweeted more then .3 times a day and influence under 7. I was able to notice about 10,000 accounts who just followed us with each of the accounts never having tweeted, and each one having under 25 followers with over 1000-1500 accounts each was following. It made me wonder if this was the work of someone who guarantees so many followers in a certain time.  I digress, the point is that SocialBro is a great tool for analyzing your followers, or even the followers around a hashtag. If you are newer to twitter, save this and comeback to it later when you have a better understanding of what constitutes a good follower for you.

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• 4  broken into 2 pairs for the Heroes Salute Gala featuring Darryl Worley http://www.thenashvilleconnection.com/events/gala/
• 4 individual tickets for the Workshops  http://www.thenashvilleconnection.com/events/workshops/

The fine print stuff:

• 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 22nd  at 5pm EST, submissions to enter are due by 11am the 22nd 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.

If you are on Twitter , Tweet this blog with the #tag #NashCon12 for an extra chance in the drawing.

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Earlier this week Techcrunch posted an article by Jeremiah Owyang, Brands Start Automating Social Media Responses On Facebook And Twitter.  In the article Jeremiah talks about the evolution of social media and the needs of companies to look to elements of automation. I liked the article and believe Jeremiah has made a very accurate assessment of the directions which things are going.

My own belief is that automation and AI in platforms like Twitter and Facebook are a foregone conclusion, it is the only way for a company to cost effectively scale their customer service on twitter. What cracks me up is how so many are acting like it will ruin their experience on those platforms and it is the end of the world. The fact of the matter is that “Social Media” is a result of the conversation on Twitter or Facebook. Is your telephone any less of a phone, because you deal with an automated platform in customer service, No, and twitter will be no less social. We at Head of Lettuce Media always tell our clients that the value of twitter is that you decide who you want to listen to, talk to and engage with. This will not change.

The greater issue in Jeremiah’s article is “what value can those elements of automation bring to the consumer’s experience?”. If I am having issues with a company, and I complain via twitter, do I care how my problem is resolved as long as it is resolved to my satisfaction?  No, I don’t, if it’s done properly, they can make me happy, compensate me for my inconvenience and even win me as an advocate.  The true challenge is in the writing and structuring of these accounts.

At Head of Lettuce Media, we do a lot of theoretical testing in twitter, trying to better understand elements of automation and artificial intelligence. Many of the tests are under wraps untill they have run their course. The interesting thing is that many people enjoy interacting with AI accounts as much as they do with an individual, and they don’t seem to notice or mind.  I believe part of the experience with a twitter account has to do with the account being true to its nature and well scripted.

The tale of Social Media RockStar: This past January while emceeing at Ignite Tampa Bay I ended up improving for about 25 minutes, because of technical difficulties in the beginning. Well I decided it was time to spill the beans on two of our AI accounts, Socialmedia_rs and UnfollowedYu.

Watch the Story here

While I want to focus on SocialMedia Rockstar, let’s take a quick look at what we learned from Unfollowedyu. Unfollowedyu tested two elements of interaction specifically to see what their value is on Klout he follows everyone using unfollowers to announce that people are unfollowing them (no idea why, it’s like screaming ”look at me, I am uninteresting, I turn people off), he then unfollows them to get them to mention him, and when they do, he sends them ways to cope with being unfollowed (side note: while I don’t agree with announcing it,  I do think it is a good metric to watch privately as it is an indicator of how your message affects your audience. See also TweetEffect).

Now for those of you rolling your eyes, stop and think for a moment of what we are learning here. He follows people, unfollows them, that causes them to mention him, he then sends them a message, and many still reply to that. This means he has a conversation with every single person he follows/unfollows. Today his Klout is a 34, not huge, but he shows us if you at least say hi, or find some way to talk to everyone who follows you, you will be perceived as engaging.

Getting back on topic, let’s look at SocialMedia Rockstar as he is one of our best functioning AI accounts, who I believe at times could pass the Turing test. Granted he is still a baby, but he is growing in his abilities. Most important, and I believe this applies to any account, he is true to his being, which means he tells you up front who he is (an egotistically self-obsessed “guru”).

Let’s break down what he does, forgetting about the silliness for a second;

• He finds his audience based on their conversation (he does not initiate conversations with individuals as I feel there is a line in the sand there separating him from spamming. Personally I hate automated “welcome aboard” and other messages).
• He puts out content that others find value in, how do we know, well in May this year, he was retweeted 296 times and mentioned 335 times, not great, but not bad either. His Klout is a 51 today.
• He talks to those who talk to him, staying true to his form.
• He is fun and entertaining.

Reading thru the comments with so many people talking like it will be the end of “social media” it made me realize that to many people look at Twitter and facebook as social media, this brings me back to my point, and that is; Twitter and Facebook are not social media, and not everything that happens on them is, but social media is that interaction that happens and flourish in those environments. Thoughts?

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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

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I decided to write this article to give everyone, who is interested, the history and story behind the #KloutDrinkingGame.  The game started as my way of poking some innocent fun at a friend (@mitchneff) and some others at #UsGuys who were taking Klout way to serious. Now, don’t think I am disrespecting Klout, as I am a huge supporter of them and PeerIndex and any other way of measuring social media accounts, especially because it makes it easy for those considering hiring a social media company to know whether or not they are talking to someone who really understands the business. They validate us at Head of Lettuce Media as authentic social media people, unlike the speaker I was contaced by the other day who talks about social media, but only has a Klout of 20, By the way the average Klout score is in the 20′s acording to Klout CEO Joe Fernandez.

"Klout!" and Drink

The game is simple, when a conversation breaks out, or when you instigate one, drink every time someone mentions Klout. The winner is everyone who plays, and it really does not matter what you drink although we do know Joe plays with Whiskey, that’s it. Have fun and don’t get stupid with the game as it is just a game for fun.  Lastly when playing, use the hasthtag #KloutDrinkingGame or #KloutDG so others can join in and play, after all it is a social game. If you don’t drink, consider M & M’s or Skittles

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Ok kiddo’s, recently I have been getting out more and more talking to people about how Head of Lettuce media can help them in their social media needs, and one question seems to keep coming up, so I thought I would share for everyone who wanted to know, but never got a chance to ask, and that is where did I get the name Head of Lettuce.

As I have mentioned before, I use to be the National Speaker for Realtor.com, and I did talks all over the country in every state but 5, well, when speaking I would tell the story of when I use to sell real estate in the early 90′s. I was doing color brochures (for those of you that don’t remember the 90′s, there were no color printers like there are today, and color photocopies were new and expensive) on all my houses and I was paying about $4 per copy for color photocopied brochures, which did look awesome by the way:) . Well, all the other agents were using black and white photocopies, some on stroke inducing neon paper. I would walk in to discuss selling a house and I would throw down the two brochures and ask “how do you want your house sold?”, they would always point to my color brochures and say, “we want that”. My response was always “Good news, I’m the only one doing those”. I would then turn to the agents in the audience, that I was telling the story to, and say even a Head of Lettuce could tell the difference between what I was doing and what my competition was doing.

The fact of the matter is that when it comes to all the elements of “Social Media” there are way to many facets for most people to understand or follow it all as studying social media is a full time study, but even a Head of Lettuce can tell you it is important, and you need to be involved in the conversation. Hence the “Head of Lettuce” was born, now go tell your friends

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