Continuing on our retrospection of 2009 and Murphy-Goode’s Social Media Magic, I have decided to share with you today the ONE young man who was, in all fairness, slightly distracted by the beautiful Anita during the run for the MG wine country lifestyle correspondent position. Yes. Frank married Anita shortly after Hardy was crowned prince of MG, viking horns and all.
I discovered Frank relatively early in my hunt for the goode guys. His URL was set up, but he was still “creating” himself online as Frank loves wine. Wow. A passionate fellow this one, and a very lucky Anita, for sure! To call Frank a filmmaker would be correct but not appropriate: He is a story teller. This is what Frank wrote when I touched base with him recently asking what he is up to since Murphy Goode:
Hi Andy,
Sorry for the very late reply.
I’m very happy to hear about your new business. I hope it all goes well.
A lot has changed for me this past year.
My latest accomplishment is the video for Conundrum Winery
The ball is still moving and I hope to have more news for you in a couple months.
This little piece of art shows Frank’s mastery of his work: pairing wine with social media. It has been a pleasure to meet up with Frank and one day, I hope to sit with him and his lovely bride and enjoy a glass of creepy wine… 😉 .
Any winery can call itself blessed to enjoy strong ties with Frank Gutierrez, for it is surely to be a fruitful relationship.
Please read this whole blog post – its a bit long BUT – It will CHANGE YOUR MARKETING LIFE!
WHY should you read this now?
Simple this is your chance to get noticed NOW. . . with the Murphy-Goode areallygoodejob campaign, you probably had the feeling that a lot was not really under your control. Submit a video, get a few votes, write a blog post or two and wait for the MG Gods to make a magical decision. But in the end, many matrixes played a role and perhaps you just weren’t the right fit for the people at MG.
The truth is: Murphy-Goode is the first winery to embark on such a social media journey and many, many wineries (and other businesses) are watching to see how lucrative this method of marketing is going to pay out for MG. What does this mean for you?
Well, if you have been involved by submitting a video, chances are, ‘people’ have noticed you! And although you may not have been a goode fit for MG, you may very well be the perfect fit for someone else!
The time is ripe to place yourself for that awesome social media job you know you would be perfect for!
Interested? Keep reading . . .
I want you to take ACTION RIGHT NOW. So here is what we are going to do – I am announcing the drumroll please . . .
We were going to call it . . .
“I’M IN – Get Off Your Butt And Market Now”
or the IMINGOYBAMN 🙂 try and remember that one!
So we will name it:
“WHO IS IN?”
OK lets get into it!
You have already created and submitted your Murphy-Goode Wine Country Lifestyle Correspondent application video.
Now I want you to DO SOMETHING WITH IT!
To start – this is more about the JOURNEY than any big successes.
In this option, we are looking for “action” marketers who can detail / journal each step of the way (what I call mini-milestones). So I don’t care if this is your first day online or if you are a big time marketer – EVERYONE is included . . .
STEPS:
Keep up with the MG campaign and be actively supportive throughout the duration. This is your key social networking that will not go unnoticed!
Pick a niche (any niche will do, but if you want to target yourself for the wine social media, then you will choose something from this industry)
Do something with it – ANYTHING
“Journal” your process / progress (Blog AND Twitter)
This journalis to be seperate from your actual theme blog. For example, if you have a niche blog like Dirty South Wines, then you will want to create an extra blog for the sole purpose of documentation and journaling (like Goode To Be First). Here on your journal blog, you will take your notes, discover what works, what needs tweeking and what does nothing for your campaign. It will also chronical your journey for potential social media employers. Go to wordpress.com or blogger.com and start a free blog to keep your notes on.
ACTION IDEAS (actions to your journal blog in purple, actions to your niche/themed blog in blue):
Do your keyword research (journal your steps / results or even better record them!)
Build a Web 2.0 property for your niche (Squidoo, Hubpages, it doesn’t matter just pick one or even better pick MANY!)
Record a video of yourself (or use a slideshow or screen-capture) promoting your niche market and submit it to Youtube AND put it on your blog too!(take notes to your journal on how well it was received, how to improve…)
Write an article (or a press release) about your niche and submit it (Ezinearticles, etc)(journal what worked, how the timing was, did the strategy come off well, what was bunk…)
Find another MG candidate, winery or offer that would work with your niche and write about it (even better PROMOTE it and journal your results!)
Look for opportunities to guest post to other blogs within our circle of participants.
– Key: keep connected with each other and make sure you keep your profile up and active within the MG campaign – the more successful the MGWCLC is, the greater your exposure to those wineries watching on!
BLOG ABOUT YOUR PROGRESS
If you have not already done so for the MG gig, create a NEW blog for this niche–your take on wine.
Link to the ‘I’M IN’ lense at squidoo, use this link — http://www.squidoo.com/imin from your niche blog (this is where we hope to all point the wineries to so they can see the pool of awesomeness you all represent within the Wine Social Media networks we have going).
Start blogging by telling YOUR STORY.
How long you have been marketing, your experiences, your successes, your failures – if this is your first niche project or your 100th. Remember newbies are more then welcome! Tell us who you are and why you are IN in your marketing! (this belongs on your journal blog or if you can wrap it up in a wine story, then you can publish it to your wine niche blog).
Blog updates on what you are learning in researching and promoting this niche – be as specific as you can and post as often as you can.
Blog about your “growth” during this process and how much you are accomplishing. Remember EVERY step matters and every little action item is a SUCCESS!
Link to (on your niche AND on your journal blog) ALL of your Web 2.0 properties, article submissions, videos, etc. EVERYTHING you are putting online for each niche. This is the CRITICAL step that future employers will have an eye out for! To see your progress / work. You will present it differently on each platform, be bold and boastful on your journal blog but also analytical.Wrap it up in a story on your niche blog or have a page with your outer-blog accomplishments.
Talk about your successes – did you get a page / Web 2.0 site indexed by Google? (take a screenshot of it) did you see any traffic? Blog it!
TWITTER YOUR PROGRESS:
Twitter about your progress and add links in your Tweets to your blog, your Web 2.0 spots etc.
Twitter about others who are also in the network, about their blogs and web2.0 spots.
All Tweets MUST include the hashtag: #imin to be included on the squidoo page “I’m In”.
* this is CRITICAL so future employers can track AND judge your progress!
– Example Tweet / Format:
Check out my new Web 2.0 site I just
hit for the “Dog Walking” niche [LINK HERE]
#imin
SCREEN CAPTURE YOUR PROGRESS: (This is all for your journal blog) (or this can be thought of as BRAGGING)
A key element of understanding “I’m in” marketers (in addition to your Blog & Twitter posts) will be based on how detailed (and how often) you post screen captures of your progress / journey.
If you have Camtasia or another screencap program feel free to use it. If you don’t we suggest this FREE screencam / capture software its AWESOME – JING Project (click here)
Take screencaps of your Google rankings
Do videos reviewing your Web 2.0 sites, how you are promoting on Twitter, ANYTHING and EVERYTHING related to this one niche.
Video & talk about EVERYTHING from your keyword research, to engaging in social networks like digg, stumbleupon…, to articles, etc. (again this is IMPORTANT)
How to get noticed?
Be “REMARKABLE” marketers — think of Seth Godin’s Purple Cow
This is as much about the “journey” and how detailed you are in your Blog posts, Twitter, and IMPORTANT – screen captures (videos).
Aim for innovation and ACTION (a real effort) No small item is insignificant – everything is an accomplishment (mini-milestone) to be praised! This is for newbies AND experts alike!
IMPORTANT: Every “I’m in” participant who Blogs / Tweets will receive access and exposure on the Squidoo lense, I’m In, setup with the sole purpose to let all you wine social media whizes strut your stuff and bring you together for the wineries to have a hub from which they can see who is in and who is active. The Buzz you generate can be captured through many different avenues on the Squidoo lense. For more information on how the Squidoo lense works, please read this post and give me your suggestions, tips and critiques. I will update the format on a regular basis.
NEXT STEPS / TO BE INCLUDED
To participate: Post a comment (in this Blog post). Include your name, email address (not in the comment area, in the admin area) and your Blogspot/Wordpress blog (setup as per the above) and Twitter URL
I will review your Blog and Twitter for updates on a regular basis (but you have to post them in a comment on this blog below or I won’t be able to find you!)
If you have something cool to show us – then DO IT! Leave another COMMENT in this blog post below (include your name / email and Blog and of course the action items you want to impress us with!)
Note: The niche HAS to be from a wine related theme if you want to be included in the squidoo „I’m in“ page. You CAN pick multiple niches (we would love you to!). But each niche should be its own Blogspot blog (you can use the same Twitter account for multiple niches)
By participating, you are agreeing to the rules. Click here to read the rules & disclaimers
YOUR NEXT STEP
Are you IN?
You already know what the benefits are:
(exposure to the wineries who are NOW looking, planning and observing the Murphy-Goode Social Media campaign.)
Step #1 Create your Blogspot/Wordpress blog to track your “journey”
Step #2 Leave a comment on this blog post BELOW so we all know you are IN and we all can track your progress
(include your name, email address, Blogspot URL, & Twitter URL)
I look forward to seeing how REMARKABLE you can be! And I look forward to seeing you go on to the wine social media Hall of Fame!
Ok, for all you visual people out there, here is a new and funky search engine. Spezify. I tested it for the terms “areallygoodejob” and “murphy-goode” and had a great time seeing many trusted faces and noticing a few new people, posts, pics I have yet to discover!
Last Sunday night, I went shopping for two airline tickets to Russia. After I found my desired flight, I was all ready to check out. I input my credit card, and was one happy camper until… my card got rejected. What?? It certainly wasn’t my credit limit or the price of the ticket. “Ah, it must be because it shows up as a foreign vendor, and Bank of America (my card company) just wants to make sure that I am cool with this transaction,” I thought. After receiving horrendous customer service online and via phone, and unable to unlock my account, I ended up losing my airfare deal. Within 30 minutes, the price went up, as is often the case, and 3 hours later I still couldn’t get BofA to unlock my account.
Why am I telling this story and why should you care? While all of this was going on, I tried to find BofA on Twitter, but wasn’t successful. So I sent out a couple of tweets mentioning BofA, hoping that anyone monitoring Twitter from BofA would find my rants (note to readers: that is a practice of the best community managers). But no such luck. What did happen amazed me. I was tweeted and retweeted around 50 times, until someone pointed me at the BofA twitter handle. What amazed me was how quickly other tweeps jumped in with their negative sentiment of BofA and we formed a conversation around it. If BofA was watching these exchanges, they would know that they need to spend some time getting back to these disenfranchised customers, because there was quite a bit of dissatisfaction out there. And because the brand wasn’t interacting with us, we formed our own “BofA hate club”.
As I am writing this, I am sitting at the 140 Characters Twitter Conference produced byJeff Pulver. An earlier panel was discussing how brands are working with their consumers on Twitter, and how great customer service is the new marketing. Just take a look at the following customer service accounts from some of the most beloved companies: @zappos_service, @jetblue, @askseesmicand@comcastcares, among others. These companies are so well-loved on Twitter because they provide excellent customer service and they have their “ear to the ground and “finger on the pulse” of the Twittersphere. If you are on Twitter, it is not enough to just broadcast your company news and blast all of your followers with product information. Twitter is not the right channel for that. Rather, Twitter is about creating and encouraging a 2-way conversation. Because word or mouth spreads virally and lightning-fast, it’s imperative to establish delightful experiences for clients by discovering conversations, taking part in them, jumping in with helpful answers when there are questions, addressing issues and making upset customers “whole” again, as well as rejoicing with happy ones. The truth is, your customers are out there talking about you, not necessarily to you, and it’s up to you to join the conversation in an authentic, empathetic and non-spammy way.
As a voracious student, observer and participator in social media, I am always watching how companies are responding to these customer service issues: are they turning the possible liability into an asset and are they doing it in a way that’s authentic, helpful and empathetic? Just today I was lucky enough to listen to and capture conversations about this very topic at the #140Conf, including a keynoteby Gary Vaynerchuck (or @garyveeas he is known on Twitter). The resounding bottom line that Gary drives home is that you need to listen, you need to care and you need to engage. You need to stop obsessing about the number of followers and focus on the quality of the conversation.
So what happened with my BofA episode? Well, I sent a @ message to the BofA twitter account, and they eventually responded the next day (during normal business hours of course), and the only reason they responded was because I @ replied to them, i.e. they weren’t actively monitoring the sentiment. A true community manager would be able to pick up these rants via Twitter search tools and would respond to “tweeps” beyond the ones who send a direct message or an @ reply. Moreover, a good community manager doesn’t tweet between the hours of 9 and 5; a community manager is on whenever people are talking about their brand, all over the world.
Why am I posting this on a blog associated with A Really Goode Job? Well, because a successful Lifestyle Correspondent will need to not only pump out relevant AND entertaining social media content (blogs, vlogs, tweets, guest blogs, etc), but also grow and nurture a community around Murphy Goode, wine making, the wine culture and Sonoma lifestyle. Whew! That’s quite a tall order, but I know there are folks in this process who can certainly pull this off.
For some companies, there is so much twittering that has to be done, that they may need to hire an additional person. Do it! It’s worth it! Especially with tools like CoTweet, you can have more than one person “listening” and tweeting on behalf of your brand. As a rule of thumb, any brand that wants to be successful in social media, must listen first and talk second. Just like individuals, businesses should act as if they have 2 ears and 1 mouth. But first, you need to make listening part of your corporate culture and provide the right infrastructure for your employees to be effective community managers.
***************
Thank you Maria for this great lesson in customer service! I think I am gonna be learning quite a bit from your posts over at your blog. But first may I let everyone in on your application video?
Thanks to Paul and the guys at VinTank: you are true sports — now people, let us roll up our sleeves, we have some super savvy web2.0 magic to do for one fortunate Murphy-Goode Wine Country Lifestyle Correspondent!
Four weeks ago, Murphy-Goode Winery announced its search for an outgoing, web-savvy, articulate communicator to tell the story of the great mountain vines and artisan winemakers of California, tasting the “goode” stuff and experiencing the spectacular Sonoma wine country. The search has been covered by CNN, FOX, NBC, ABC, CBS and in hundreds of major daily papers and newscasts from London to India, thousands of blog and Twitter sites, and has drawn crowds when winemaker Dave Ready, Jr. visits select cities.
Throughout the course of the job the successful applicant will learn about viticulture, winemaking, Sonoma County and Murphy-Goode wines. He or she will prepare and post dispatches on their experiences through social media tools such as Facebook, blogs, internet videos and Twitter as well as traditional media.
It comes as no surprise that there are many hopefuls taking this job application and turning it into a competition. Coming with the salary of $10K/month, in fact, many find that they are “made for the job”. The question we are all asking ourselves is: How to actually land areallygoodejob?
Here are my top 10 Tips for getting the social media job.
10. Get over your ego. It is never about the person applying for the job. It is about: the people, the process, the grapes, the juice, the life, the passion and the spirit of all things Murphy-Goode.
For myself, I can only say, it has been my pleasure and privilage to meet some pretty awesome people online during this application process. Sure, some are out there seemingly tooting their own horn, but there are a few very special people out there who are genuine and I think Murphy-Goode will have a fine handful of applicants to choose from.
How exciting to discover these gems in the field and watch as the process is pushed on.
If you thought Murphy-Goode was playing high poker with their $60K gig, then have a look at these grapes:
We believe [Murphy-Goodes social marketing take] is a healthy step for a winery and the buzz they have garnered online is representative of the success of the medium. To show our support and to help ensure the success of this program online, VinTank will be choosing 4 of the applicants as “our picks” (one for each partner) and if any of “our picks” are chosen, we will donate $100K of consulting services pro bono to that candidate. Yes, $100K of our strategic consulting services for FREE! This will be helping them develop a strategic plan and key business development help to make their six month job super effective and successful for them and Murphy Goode. This is truly our way to support these people for their hard work and for helping wine succeed online!
Another week has passed as we continue the search for our new “Wine Country Lifestyle Correspondent.” Lots of new videos have come in, and it seems that many of you are already checking them out and picking favorites. As you know, we think wine is important, but so are friends, family, and of course football. Speaking of that…what’s up with Brett Favre? But back to the point… one of the key considerations in hiring our Wine Country Lifestyle Correspondent will be their ability to fit in with the Murphy-Goode team. So, if you see folks in the videos that look like a good match, select them as your favorite. [To be clear, that might mean that you do not pick me!]
With all of the interest in the Really Goode Job, Dave Ready Jr., our winemaker, is on the road visiting local restaurants, events and wine shops. Check out his schedule under Join In/Events at www.murphygoode.com. Dave is a really fun and charming guy. He’ll be happy to talk to you about our wines, sports or his thoughts on the “goode” life. This week, he’s in San Jose, Denver (Greenwood Village) and Las Vegas. If you see him, tell him Lorri said to watch out for those guys from Tuesday’s poker night. (Apparently, they’re looking for him!).
As always, if you’re planning a trip to Sonoma County, please stop at the Murphy-Goode tasting room to say hello. We can help you with trip suggestions…great food, places to stay, and must-see spots for visitors. If all this reading has made you thirsty and you can’t visit us in person, just visit us online.
Cheers,
The Gang at Murphy-Goode
[Source is an email to all who subscribe to MG news. So go out and have a good look at the hopefuls and give your vote for the best person to fit Murphy-Goode.]
The young, strapping gentleman from Murphy-Goode Winery, Dave Ready gives a great radio talk with the goode guys at Wine Biz Radio… Want to learn a wee bit about the makers of fine wine? Enjoy the talk!
As the Winehiker observes, “Wine brings people together, communicating from the heart. Technology brings people together too, though it can seem fractured and soulless. Kaz & Randy easily strip away the barriers between wine and technology with not only a personable irreverence that makes a new understanding of wine quite fun, but by leaving in their wake a very human appreciation of both technology and wine. Give ’em a listen.” (And give Winehiker a read… personally, I would love to follow this guy through wine country! Gorgeous!)
Want to know when you can connect with Dave Ready?
Check out the LA Winehouse on Sundy May 17th! From 2-4 pm you can taste the Fume Blanc, Chardonnay, Zinfandel, Cabernet and the Merlot — the best is yet to be mentioned: you can interview with Murphy-Goode! No reservations needed, so spread the word and if you go, let me know, I would love to hear about your experience!
Is it really a goode job or an ingenious PR stunt? Regardless, the Goode Guys have created a global buzz and quite a few people are dreaming up their personal Jackpot, as the chances of actually “winning” are better than with the lottery.
We at the Murphy-Goode Winery got to thinking about the new age of communications and we figured it was a pretty good thing. So to get going, were looking for someone (maybe you) who really knows how to use Web 2.0 and Facebook and blogs and social media and YouTube and all sorts of good stuff like that — to tell the world about our wines and the place where we live: the Sonoma County Wine Country.
Strut your stuff and pimp yourself for 6 glorious months in the vineyards of Sonoma County Wine Country, in exchange for what? Long hard days of crap liar’s dice, good living and a liscence to blog your happy soul away. Oh, yeah, they even want to pay someone to do this: a six-month jobpaying $10,000 a monthplus accommodations!
Seeking a social media whiz (your title will be Murphy-Goode Wine Country Lifestyle Correspondent) who will report on the cool lifestyle of Sonoma County Wine Country and, of course, tell people what youre learning about winemaking.
May the best man correspondent win! Do you have your application Video ready?