Do not give information to people who randomly call requesting information about your business. Google does not make a practice of calling to confirm information about your business. There is more information about Google 411 calls here.  Worst case scenario:  you will be scammed of your information and talked into bogus SEO or online services.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ESU_PcqI38

Fed Ex has a response from their Senior VP of US Operations.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ESU_PcqI38

His response has 306 views as of 12/21/2011 at 5:41pm PST. The video of the man throwing the TV / Flatscreen over the fence has millions!

My point? Authenticity. Being candid. The response is great in so far that they posted something immediately, on YouTube, but it still is lame, very lame. One, it should be from the CEO. Two, seeing a Fed Ex employee roughly dressed - unlike their UPS competitors - throwing valuables over a fence doesn’t ’shock’ me. This will most likely hurt Fed Ex in the short and medium run. The only thing that would have really sanitized this situation would have been a candid, non-scripted message direct from their CEO. This video is way too scripted, way to ‘corporate’ filled with generalities and non-measurable conclusions.

Businesses can get ahead of the ‘user review’ curve being candid, frank, factual, heart felt and non-scripted with video responses to their customer raves and complaints online. This includes Yelp reviews, Citysearch, Trip Advisor, Google, Yahoo, etc. It goes a long way to show the quality of the people behind the business, and that makes a big difference.

They are developing a new Asian Fast Casual concept, to be rolled out in about 30 markets nation wide around mid 2011. Check out the article if you’re interested.

Highlights from the article:

“Using the Chipotle service model for an Asian concept and having Chipotle do it will give them incredible credibility”

“They have always been open to the idea that their Food with Integrity model is not specific to Mexican cuisine,” she said. “And Asian in general is one of the fastest-growing categories in the U.S., though it’s very fragmented.”

Read more:  http://www.nrn.com/article/chipotle-open-asian-fast-casual-concept

It’s finally summer here in Seattle!  I have a lot of work to do, so instead of vacation on my mind, I have work.

If completed, I believe we have the best system to de-leverage our clients from traditional advertising and into a new realm of a solid and healthy presence online - comments responded to, articles and user reviews engaged and ‘optimized’, profiles not only established where most aren’t, but optimized as well.  Additional advertising is great where it works, but the first thing a local business should do is take the bull by the horns and manage and “own” their current state of affairs and presence online with a stern and honest hand.  That’s what we do in the case that you or a client doesn’t have the time and / or expertise.  I say if my mother had a restaurant and I was giving her advice for her online management, this is absolutely the first thing I would do - what Buzz Online Media does - and I still believe that.  It’s absolutely true - 100%.

More thoughts later.

So we put an ad on Craigslist looking for a few copy writers.  It’s AMAZING the things that come across ones desk…

We are looking for someone who is grounded, together, consitent, hard working, critical with details, hard working, on top of it…works hard, etc.  And our ad says so.  And we get the following, which can be used, inversely, as a list of things NOT to do when responding to job posts online:

1.  Email addresses addressed as, for example:  “tillman, j”

What’s wrong with this?  One, it’s not a full name.  Two, it’s lower cased.  It’s like “Ah, I’m too lazy to capitalize my own name”.  Now, for a personal account, do what you may, but for a “professional” account or an email account you’re going to respond to job postings for, do the following:  “John Doe”

2.  This was hilarious and irritating at the same time.  Is there a word that combines those two emotions?  Email header:  “holfentein, jack”. “Jack” writes me a nice intro email with some “pop” and I get to the bottom and it’s signed “Simon Holfentein”

What’s wrong?  Again, not capitalized.  But more hilaritating is the fact that this person either has deeper issues that we shouldn’t go into here, or they are sending a professional response from another account, or in this particular case, have two names.  I actually responded “Who is this, Jack or Simon”.  “Oh, I have two names…yeah, sorry about that, people get confused.”  Um…yeah they do!  I mean, really?  So no, SimonJack, we will not be interviewing you.  You need to pick a name…pick ONE.  It’s one thing if the email was “James Raymond” and they signed their email “Jamie” (NO experience doing this:)  But…Simon and Jack isn’t even CLOSE!

3.  No response to the email other than an attached document / resume.  No, don’t do this.  It’s borderline hostile.  I know your busy and I figure your’re responding to a lot of job postings, but at least indicate you’ve read the job description and that you have an onus of interest in actually capturing the opportunity.

4.  This is a copy writer position.  You wouldn’t believe the misspellings and grammatical errors I’m getting.  People, it pretty much comes down to correcting the red lines in Word…it’s just too simple to get it right to not get it right these days.  (Accept when you’re ‘blogging’:)

That’s about it from this round of emails…I’m sure there will be more to report.