D.I.S.C. Event - Olympic Athletes & Their Doctors

Enjoy a Q&A with Matt Fuerbringer about his personal experience training for the 2012 Olympic Games and what he does for preventing common injuries.

It's not very often that you get to meet a World class professional volleyball player in the flesh, but Thursday 31st Matt Fuerbringer is teaming up with his doctor, Jim Wang, DPM, D.I.S.C Foot & Ankle Specialist, to speak about his personal experience with foot and ankle injuries and ways to treat them without compromising his training schedule.

Don’t let a nagging pain creep up and prevent you from training or competing… Join us for a fun segment on the most current prevention and treatment. Topics include:

• Stress Fractures
• Achilles Tendonitis
• Sprains
• Shin Splints
• Planter Fasciitis
• Bloody Toenails

The event is Free and there will be a Q&A with Matt about his personal experiences training for the 2012 Olympic Games and what he does for preventing common injuries.

Meet other LATC members and DISC Doctors.

Food and drinks will be served.

When:  Thurs, March 31^st @ 6:00- 7:30

Where: DISC Sports & Spine Center
              13160 Mindanao Way, Suite 300
              Marina del Rey, CA 90292

If you have any friends who might be interested in the event then share on Facebook HERE

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Social Marketing - Do I Need To Be On Twitter? Part III

For the past two days we've been answering the question, "Does my business need to be on Twitter?"

To recap, we've already uncovered two things to think about before we answer this question:

1) Is your audience there?
2) What do you want to achieve?

Now we look towards a more pragmatic issue, "Do you have the time to interact?"

3) Do you have the time to interact?

If you don’t have the time to answer a direct tweet, please get off Twitter (I’m sorry but this is something I feel very strongly about).  If you schedule tweets that offer nothing to your audience, please get off Twitter.  If you want to ignore a complaint on Twitter because you don’t want to ‘get into it,’ please get off Twitter.  If you want to shoot out twenty Tweets a day with no interaction, please get off Twitter.

There are no hard and fast rules on how much time you should spend tweeting.  Many Celebrities will Tweet once a week, sometimes less, and still achieve their goals.  There is however a general consensus that interaction should score high on your list of do’s and don’ts. Most of us are on Twitter to achieve openness, a better customer experience, to resolve issues. This takes time, effort and true interaction.

An example of why you should interact? It is all very well sending special offers out into the Twitterverse, but if you don’t answer a query regarding the offer then you’ve wasted your time.  This is not a one-way street - INTERACT! 

4) Are you prepared to listen to your audience?

If we don’t listen effectively then we can’t interact effectively.  Please remember - This is Social Media, not Tech Media.

People follow Brands on Twitter for personal gain e.g., for latest news, deals, to communicate their experiences and to voice their satisfaction/grievances.  As the voice of your company/brand on Twitter you better be ready to listen or your going to fail miserably.  Use the tools out there to monitor what people are saying about you and react accordingly.  If someone is complaining about your service make sure you try and resolve the issue and learn from it.  If you don’t show that you are listening then your customers are going to feel like they are talking to a brick wall.  This is not good and renders your time on Twitter worthless.  Listen - Learn - Adapt.

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Social Marketing - Do I Need To Be On Twitter? Part II

Yesterday we asked the question, "Do I need to be on Twitter?" Checking that our audience is actually there, we now ask ourselves "what do we want to achieve?"

2) What do you want to achieve?

So lets say you own a dry cleaning service.  You’ve found your audience is active on Twitter.  Why on earth would they follow you on Twitter?  What do you want to achieve?

Scenario 1 

You want your Dry Cleaning service to appear current and tech-savvy for that competitive edge and you’ve been told that your company will implode if you don’t have a Twitter Account.  You start your account; begin adding as many people as possible and start shooting out Tweets, most probably along the lines of:

“Come to our Dry Cleaning business”

“Visit our Dry Cleaning business”

“HEY, WE ARE A DRY CLEANING BUSINESS SPEND YOUR MONEY WITH US”

The main offenders of these types of tweets, from my experience, are bands (although it’s more about their latest album than their dry cleaning business…obviously).   

Scenario 2

Your Dry Cleaning service is looking to promote exclusive deals and coupons for your customers (OK, I’m intrigued).  You respond to direct messages from your followers to provide a better customer experience (OK, so you are real). You will openly interact with a Twitter follower regarding a complaint (OK, so this is a new forum for customer relations and satisfaction).

Scenario 2 shows exactly what you want to achieve – more customers, and satisfied ones.

Conclusion: Make sure you know what it is you want to achieve.  Once you have your objective you can make an informed decision on whether or not Twitter will reach these objectives.  If you don't believe you can reach your objectives by using Twitter...then don't use it.

Examples of companies that have clearly asked themselves what it is they want to achieve:

JetBlue Airways – JetBlue provides their followers with the latest updates on in-flight services, new travel routes, fare sales and even answer questions regarding their travel services.

TrackThis – TrackThis provides their followers the ability to track any packages sent through mailers such as UPS, FEDEX and USPS.

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Social Marketing - Do I Need To Be On Twitter? Part I

“Oh you MUST get on Twitter.  Everyone is!”

The above declaration, especially in light of Charlie Sheen’s rapid rise on the platform, does appear to hold some truth.  Celebrities are being paid to recommend products; ‘trends’ reveal consumer demands and even revolutions have been coordinated on the platform.  It truly does appear to be ‘the age of the micro blog.’

But let me ask you this, “As a business, do you need to be on Twitter?”

With more and more blogs writing about the do’s and don’ts of Social Marketing it can feel that, for your brand/product to have any chance of survival in a rapidly changing landscape, you must have a Facebook Page, Facebook Group, Twitter Account, Blog, YouTube Channel, Foursquare Account, and a MySpace account…or is it delete your MySpace account?  The jury is still out on that one.

So what is Twitter?

According to Wikipedia, “Twitter is a social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read messages known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the author's profile page and delivered to the author's subscribers who are known as followers.”

This definition, although factually true, doesn’t explain Twitter’s pragmatic function.  For businesses, the beauty of Twitter is its immediacy, search ability and transparency.  Conversations are happening on Twitter, and some of them can make or break you. 

“So I do have to be on Twitter then?”

Well yes…and maybe no.  Before you start registering your account and begin tweeting ask yourself some very important questions:

1) Is your audience there?

2) What do you want to achieve?

3) Do you have the time to interact?

4) Are you prepared to listen to what your audience has to say?

1)   Is your audience there?

We have coordinated many successful campaigns over Twitter and some, as the platform was developing into what it is today, not so successful. In the early days we were learning just like everyone else but through analysis of our results it was clear why ROI just wasn’t there; because the audience just wasn’t there.

It doesn’t matter how effective you are at constructing the perfect tweet, if no one reads it, you’ve wasted your time.  Clients who see a massive ROI on their Facebook page might not see any positive results coming from Twitter.   That’s why it is always best practice to ensure your target audience is using Twitter first, especially since Twitter can consume so much of your time (more on that tomorrow).

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