Monday, November 16, 2009

Man on Fire

I haven't blogged in a while and after coming across an article in Marketing News about blogging I realized I need to get back in touch. I'm trying to figure out the best method to leverage blogging to help create a word of mouth buzz about The National Alliance. I suppose locating our current users who blog is my first hurdle. We already have plenty of satisfied customers, now we have to directly communicate with those who blog so we are on their minds, and in their blogs.

But enough about that. Back to the Man on Fire.

Friday after work, I set about cleaning, doing laundry and just generally tidying up. I had plans to go to a friend's house in a little bit and was just preparing to leave. All of a sudden my smoke alarm goes off -- and it is LOUD. But there is no smoke, and no fire. So I hurry up and try to figure out how I am going to disable it. I have tall ceilings. I have no kitchen table. Thus, no chairs to balance on. I have a stool, a short stool. Doesn't quite do the trick. I'm trying not to panic, but the shriek of the alarm makes that hard to do. So I grab the plastic bin that stores my summer clothes and put the stool on top of that. I gingerly climb atop this delicate makeshift ladder. (I know you think you know where this story is going, but no, I did not fall, and the story is just beginning.) I get up and dismantle the alarm, but alas, I realize it is not the smoke alarm, but the building fire alarm that is on my wall.

Realizing it might be someone else's apartment on fire I run outside. Meanwhile mentally preparing what in addition to my dog and cat I will rescue if necessary ... All I can come up with is shoes. I see a young man downstairs and ask him what happened. He says he had a kitchen fire but it's out but he's got a little burn. So I run back inside and grab the lidocaine. I really feel like a nurse to the rescue until I get downstairs with the spray and upon closer inspection realize the skin is bubbled and melting off his right arm. Yep, guess lidocaine won't really do the trick here.

But this young man is taking this very well for as bad as his arm looks. Not to mention his legs are speckled in black as the fire singed (sp?) his leg hair. He says his arm hurts. Duh. He has already called 911. So I attempt to distract him, since there is nothing else I can really do until the ambulance arrives and I can imagine the intense pain. I can't even look at the wound, or think about it now, without cringing. So we chat about where he's from, his daughter (who thankfully wasn't there), my pets, etc. until the firemen arrive.

Jason, I think that was his name, was taken away and I still haven't run into him since then. Hopefully he is doing better, I feel terrible for him. Not to mention that his apartment was flooded from the sprinklers.

But what is my take away from this story? Besides the obvious fact that I do well under pressure ;) Don't try to fry your own food. That's how the fire started and I have heard that story many times. If you want fried fish go to freakin' Red Lobster!

Monday, September 28, 2009

Back to life, back to reality

So the tradeshow in California went well for the most part. From what I heard attendance was down, but that is to be expected in this economy. We'll have to do an ROI study in a month or two and really evaluate if it was worth it. The hotel was pretty expensive, but quite nice.

The really interesting part was Friday night.

My co-workers and I dined at a fancy Italian restaurant on the property. I'm pretty sure we lowered the class level in there at least a couple notches with our loud chatter and hyena-like laughing. Oh, maybe that was just me. But we had a great time and after dinner headed to the night club that I was told would be "the spot" to be. My Memphian friends will appreciate when I say it was less like L.A. and more like Bartlett. Oh yes.

Regardless, we drank and danced, quite amused by the motley crew on the dance floor. There was a lady (I use that word loosely) who really thought she could dance like Beyonce. But not so much. Then she proceeded to jump on stage and had to be escorted off. Then there was Miss Bumper Car, so named for repeatedly bumping into my friends and I while attempting to dance seductively. Well then Miss Bumper Car attempts a very challenging acrobatic freaky dance move with her friend and they both go tumbling to the floor. Miss Bumper Car didn't have much of a dress on to begin with, but now that dress was more like a top and Miss Bumper's coochie cover was on display. Because she seemed to be having such trouble standing back up, she gracefully decided to play it off and gyrate on the floor for a bit.

I think that is when we decided to get some air.

Outside we were already reminiscing about the hi-jinks in the club when poor little Bambi approached us. I call her Bambi because I can't remember her name and she looked like a newborn deer trying to walk around on her skinny little legs. Well little Bambi was upset because the bouncer had supposedly thrown her out of the club for no reason. So we all chat for a while then she asks if we'll walk her up to her room. So I help her up and then she launches herself at me and attempts to make out. Only, she is half kissing my chin and I am looking at my friends for help, and of course they are just laughing hysterically.

Poor Bambi. We learned after we dropped her off at her room that she left again and who knows where that girl ended up. Drugs are bad, mkay?

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Let me tell you about Palm Desert, CA

I kind of thought this would be a boring kind of California town. It's not near the beach, it's really small, it's no LA. HOWEVER, I landed at the airport and had to walk outside to go to baggage claim, my very first impression of this place is a beautifully landscaped outdoor concourse with at least a dozen honeysuckle bushes. Honeysuckle is one my very favorite fragrances. We had lots of honeysuckle in our yard growing up and the scent was just magnificent. As I'm heading to baggage claim, I look to the right and there is this architecturally interesting structure named the "Sonny Bono Terminal". I started to think this might be a pretty cool place after all.

After I got my bag, the car service picked me up. Tamara, a very nice lady, drove me the 20 minutes to Palm Desert, just outside of Palm Springs where the airport is. Tamara told me that this place, and the JW Marriott where I'm staying in particular, is the hottest weekend spot for everyone from LA. She said the pool here is like Rehab in Vegas and the nightclub on the property is where everyone goes. I am just getting so excited. I am here for work, but I needed this break.

The resort is gorgeous and I just got in last night and crashed. But this morning I got up and ran a 3.5 mile loop around the property and it was so beautiful. We are tucked away in this valley with little mountains surrounding. Gorgeous!

After my in room breakfast I headed down to the expo hall to get registered and set up our booth. I managed to get it set up with no problem, only took about 20 minutes and now I have some free time on my hands. Since I'll be working the convention on Saturday, I don't think it would be a bad idea to get a little rest by the pool. Shhhh.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Tradeshow Strategies

I am so excited for this upcoming tradeshow in California this weekend. We have some cool new strategies to increase ROI. It is so difficult at tradeshows because you typically give away promo items and collect business cards and network. All that is well and good but considering how much you spend, it might not be worth it. I am testing out a social media strategy to this tradeshow. I have been posting on our Twitter and Facebook accounts to mention the tweet/post for a chance to win an IPod. I am curious to see if people who will be attending the show are receiving our social media messages. Also, at the show I will have a laptop opened to these social media channels and encourage people to sign up to interact with us right there. Then, I will update/tweet at the show, take and post videos and photos, and hopefully get a significant increase in social media participation. We are also taking advantage of a new tradeshow technology where when participants come to our booth, they have a name badge with a bar code which we can scan and gather their contact info electronically. In addition, we will have interest forms to be filled out if they want to receive more information about our programs. This will get them into our automated prospect marketing procedures. They get entered in, and we don't have to do a thing. We set the parameters, what they receive, how they can opt-in or opt-out, and the number of marketing pieces they receive before they are taken off the prospect list. All this with little effort on our part. Technology rules!

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

I'm going going back back to Cali Cali

That's a Biggie song, in case you were wondering. Headed to Palm Desert, California Wednesday for an insurance expo (wooo!) We have a booth and I am trying to think of creative ways to stand apart from other exhibitors. Ideas?

Maybe I should just skip the whole thing and head to the beach... yeah that sounds better.

Monday, September 21, 2009

The Reverse-Marketing Twitter Checklist: 8 Steps to Marketing Success on Twitter

http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/5085/The-Reverse-Marketing-Twitter-Checklist-8-Steps-to-Marketing-Success-on-Twitter.aspx/?source=email-magnet11b

Check 1-2 1-2

So, I'm just testing out this bloggy thing for my work actually. Plan to post blogs for The National Alliance, one for the President, Dr. Hold, and another for the "Ask Bettie" column of Resources magazine. Trying to figure out if I should make two separate blogs or if I can categorize one blog for all National Alliance related blogs...