A little departure from the usual today! I was recently interviewed for the upcoming PubCon conference in Honolulu mid-February (see the session grid & register here) and at which I am on a panel discussing Hawaii Social Media. Vanessa threw me what she thought was a soft-ball during the interview – “what places should people try when they are on Oahu?” and I stumbled a bit because we have sooo many fantastic places to eat here, we could have done a more than a hundred episodes on that topic alone. I decided to do a blog post on it to welcome PubCon attendees and give them something else to look forward to!  For those of you not joining us for PubCon, well, let this post serve as an opportunity to whet your appetite.

I crowd-sourced this list with a little help from my friends: @melissa808, @phillmoran @parkrat – thanks guys for your help!

In honor of our social media world, this lists features favorite restaurants who are active in social media; a foodie/social media mashup if you will. We do have great restaurants here who aren’t active in social media, but what fun is that?! Feel free to tweet me (@taracoomans) during PubCon if you want more recommendations!

Before I get into restaurants, let’s talk about what really matters: Pau Hana (after work) if your looking for a happy hour – check out the free app at Happy Hour Hawaii @HappyHourHawaii

Waikiki..or Close To It. 

Tiki’s Waikiki @tikisgrill
In addition to being on the best places to watch our famous sunsets, Tiki’s really rocks the poke (a local favorite, and yours too once you try it). Plus, they warm my heart because they bend over backwards to support our social media community here. Who knows, we might even have to do a Tweetup there! Our last Tweetup there was with Brian Solis and I didn’t hear him complain about the venue, so if its good enough for Brian, maybe its good enough for the rest of us.

Hanks Haute Dogs @hankshautedogs
With two locations, you can choose just off the beaten path or the International Marketplace location. You just HAVE to try the Hawaiian with pineapple relish, passion fruit mustard and grilled sweet Maui onions at the International Marketplace where its an exclusive. Check out the daily specials too which range from Rabbit and Veal to Lobster. Of course, you can get a more traditional hot dog at Hanks, but its these great combinations that have made THEM famous.

Pietro Hawaii @pietrohawaii : I haven’t actually been here yet, but it was recommended to me by @parkrat who is a known foodophile. They are near the Ala Moana area (just minutes from Waikiki). The food is descrived at a fusion of Italian and Japanese. Where else but here would you find that kind of experience?

Good to Grill @goodtogrill: Again, another I haven’t been to. But their breakfast looks amazing and their claim to fame is grilling on Kiawe Wood. Its on Kapahulu which is an easy jaunt from Waikiki.

Outside Waikiki – But worth the trip

Food Trucks..we like’em so much! 
Like much of the country – we have a food truck revolution happening here. And there is no better way to find out which food trucks are nearby that using the StreetGrindz app. It takes all the guess work out of the finding and all you have to do is dig in and enjoy. Follow @streetgrindz on Twitter for food truck updates too!

Soul  @pacificsoul
Soul food in Hawaii? Oh, yes. You’ll be glad you did. This ain’t your Mama’s cook’n..its waaaaay better. I can’t get enough of Shrimp and Cheesy grits..but you can take your pick of whatever warms your soul.

Freshest Fish Around: Nico’s  @nicosatpier38
Sitting LITERALLY right next to Honolulu’s fish market , you just can’t go wrong here. They’ve just opened a new location so everything old is new again…the fish has always been fresh here, so no worries. Just go. And enjoy.

Mavro’s @chefmavro
I hesitate to add this to the list since PubCon is the week of Valentine’s Day and this is a fantastic place to take a date. But maybe if you act fast, you can get that 9PM reservation.  Its a farm-to-table experience that you won’t forget at Mavro’s.

A few of the street trucks are rock’n Twitter too, coincidently, they are all beloved by our local foodies: 

Camille’s on Wheels: “Global Tacos” including Thai Pork, Quinoa, Chimichurri. And they don’t use plastic or styro which we love to see here in Hawaii. https://twitter.com/Camillesonwheel 
Shogunai Tacos: More world-wide tacos including Japanese, Greek and Korean.
Eat Gogi: “Asian-Mexican” comfort food (read: more yummy tacos), they have some excellent salsas too! 
OnoToGo: They serve Misoyaki Butterfish, a white flaky fish broiled with a miso-sake marinade. Totally hawaii!  
Yajima-ya : Japanese Udon, Soba and Donburi. Perfect hangover cures. Anyone?

Kailua

Prima @prima_kailua
I’ve only had the chance to eat here once, but I truly enjoyed it. Its a home-style place to eat, bustling and full of energy. And guess what? We made our reservation via Twitter. LOVE THAT.  The food was great and the service fantastic. Don’t let the distance from Waikiki scare you – its a short trip over the Pali (which is a beautiful drive) and Kailua-town is a great place to spend the day with its beautiful beaches and boutique shopping, Kailua is truly a beach community.

Cinnamon’s @cinnamonskailua
When my Uncle came to visit Hawaii after more than 10 years away, the only place he really want to go back to was Cinnamon’s for breakfast. Not sure what that says about him, but I know what it says about Cinnamon’s: they make breakfast memorable.

North Shore

Cholos Haleiwa @choloshaleiwa
The tweet stream of Cholos alone is enough to make you want to go there. Its wry and witty and slightly dangerous, just like their margaritas. After you hit the North Shore to watch some of those famous winter waves roll in, grab a margarita at Cholos and while fish tacos are a North Shore favorite, I highly recommend the Chile Verde. After 20 years in Arizona, I was prepared to be less than impressed, but they absolutely killed it. Its a great treat..and its actually spicy which I truly crave.

More local Honolulu foodie social media resources:

Ono Kine Grindz Food Blog  @okgrindz
NonStop Honolulu : Follow @melissa808, @nonstopmari

@808melissa recommends this post of her’s for out of town guests 

Its amazing, there are literally thousands of self proclaimed experts, but actually finding one in the wild is about as exciting as spotting a unicorn.  While unicorns are fairly easy to identify when you see one, this isn’t really the case with experts. In a world of so-called experts, how do you define an expert? How do you know if the person your thinking of working with is a hack or really able to be an expert for you?

Its not an easy question to answer, but I thought it would be worthy to discuss what makes an expert so special and how they differ from other professionals in their field. While I typically discuss social media, and these expert requirements certainly apply to finding a social media expert, they aren’t limited to social media experts. If you’re looking to talk to an expert, think about these things before moving forward.

An expert never stops learning:

To be an expert is to be an outstanding student, a natural curiosity. They actively spend time reading and thinking. That means that an expert invests time to improve his/her own skill set to benefit his/her projects, programs and clients. Its worth asking an expert how they keep up with changes, how much time they spend learning. But its even more than that, an expert shares. Why is this important? Because when a person learns information, the single best way to incorporate that knowledge is to share it. That’s why so many people who are considered experts are also speakers and bloggers, writers.  They know the secret to continued thought leadership is to share. They also know that by sharing, they engender conversations, comments and ideas which help them flesh out their ideas and opinions, which takes us back to the fact that most experts are outstanding students.

An expert has had learning experiences and even (gasp!) failures.

If you aren’t taking chances, then you’ve never had a failure. Experts take a risk now and then and they learn from the experience. Finding an expert means finding someone who will discuss what they’ve learned and what they would do differently next time. While experts may not use the language of “failure”, they certainly use the language of “learning lessons”. Show me someone who has never failed and I’ll show you either a noob or a boob.  No expert is perfect and if they can’t find learning lessons in past programs or clients, then they really aren’t asking the right questions.

Experts will ask probing questions.

Asking questions is the very basis to success. Some of those questions will require the client to dig deep to find the most honest answer. Asking questions about your business, your clients, your goals, these are all the kinds of questions that an expert should ask. But if your expert isn’t asking you deep questions, then you’re probably not dealing with an expert. Its the job of the expert to ask these questions so he/she knows how they can help you.  If you aren’t comfortable sharing the answers with your expert, ask them to sign an NDA, an expert won’t mind. An expert will want to get to the deepest part of the challenge and will want to do so quickly.

Experts value your time. And theirs.

An expert isn’t likely to ask you to go to coffee just to chat, and you shouldn’t ask an expert to do that either. Experts are busy people because the business of learning and sharing never stops. While that doesn’t mean an expert doesn’t have a life outside of work, its unlikely that an expert will spend his working hours lounging around at a Starbucks. An expert has typically spent hours honing their craft and you can’t learn everything they know simply by having a cup of coffee with them anyway. An expert won’t waste your time talking about him/herself on an intro meeting instead an expert will spend the time getting to know you, your business challenges and goals.  But more than that, an expert will be able to ask you the right questions and propose a solution efficiently. They also won’t be the cheapest person you speak with and that’s because they invest in you, your project and outcomes. You can hire less expensive people, but you can also go to a horse ranch if you want to see a horse. The unicorn is a rare breed and so is the expert. Working with them will save you frustration and time.

Photo: Creative Commons

Psst: while we’re at it, here’s an article I wrote earlier this year about outsourcing that still holds true: What you should and shouldn’t outsource.

What’s it all about? All this social media marketing? All this chatter about humanizing and engagement? Why bother using social media for customer service?

I wanted to share an experience I had last week with you.  I’ll let you draw your own conclusions, but as a premise for discussion: How would you feel about this company if you were me? And taking it to the next level, how hard would it be to do this for your own company?

11/9/2011 – Sprout Social excitedly announces it newest platform upgrades, a major overhaul, to its users with this email outlining the latest changes. They are clearly excited and hope I will be too! And they thank me for being a customer, right away before launching into details about the upgrades.

11/9/2011 (12 hours later): Oops. Sprout Social’s new release isn’t going so well, there are some unanticipated glitches. A not so glossy email comes out from the CEO, with his personal email address. Its short, its sweet, its apologetic and earnest and its not the slick promotional email I got the other day. It even includes his actual email (which I’ve removed) and it appears to have been actually written by a human if not actually the CEO. But the email is so likable, I’m inclined to want to believe the CEO wrote it.

Another similarly unformatted email follows 4 days later. It includes updates on the specific challenges they’ve been having and reassurance that they are working diligently to make the fixes.  The second email is significantly longer, but Justyn makes a joke about it and says he would apologize a bunch more if the email weren’t already so long.

So for most companies, the crisis is mostly over, situation averted. They had some road bumps, they apologized. It isn’t a federal case, everyone can move on.

But they aren’t done. They’re monitoring. On G+ none the less, the least populated social network out there (but with the highest geeks/post ratio). A couple of days earlier, I noticed this person from Sprout Social started following me. I don’tknow if she found me through keyword search or was simply finding the names of their customers. Either way – I thought it was very cool that one of the companies I purchase from wants to follow ME. Instead of asking me to follow THEM.

And after I comment on a post by Gwen, their rep pops in for a really human conversation…(even though the marketer in her comes out when she can’t tell me the answer to my question):

So, if this was your company:  How would you have reacted? Who would be doing this outreach, if at all? What about using a real email address from the CEO? Would you do it? Interesting question, right? Is your social media person this human? Do you think customer service via social media is a waste of time?

As a customer, how does it make  you feel when you think the business is listening?

Can’t wait to hear from you!

PS: Don’t you think its appropriate we’re talking about customer service on Black Friday?! Since I stay out of that particular fray, let me know if you see any cool examples of customer service on Black Friday…I have some ideas, but I’d love to hear what you guys experience!!

While using social media for business purposes has been around for the better part of 5 years now, we’re reaching a place where businesses are starting to ask “what should I be doing with social media?” Its a fair question. After dabbling in Facebook or opening a Twitter account, the next question is often, “what now?” And much of this questioning is driving the conversation for ROI. But before we dig into ROI, its worth asking some of the tough questions about why we’re even talking about social media.

Why Social Media?

Now, you know that I am an advocate for measuring social media, I also think its also time that we ask ourselves what we are really trying to accomplish with social media. What makes social media so special and how can we really achieve business objectives with it? Every single time I meet a new client I ask “Why Social Media?” I purposely ask the question very broadly, but I also usually get the broad answer of “we want to increase sales.” Its an honest answer. But its also the easiest. Without meeting a single client, without a single email, I already know this answer. But its time to dig deeper, I’m suggesting you dig deeper and I’m asking my clients to also. What are some of the questions we should ask ourselves about the social media opportunities before we get started?

What is our impediment to increased sales?

Do we need to create awareness? Do we need to distinguish ourselves from our competition? Do we want to create community? Do we need to drive traffic to a digital or real-life location? Do we have a PR issue to overcome? These are different goals and social media can be used in each case, but its best if we focus on one, at least initially. Depending on the ability for the company to support the objective, we may initially start with one channel. Its best to really narrow this down, because by answering this question as specifically as possible, we also set ourselves on the right track for ROI measurement.

How are we communicating with our audience now?

A strong mailing list is a great start to social media, as is a website  that supports social sharing and perhaps even a blog. If you are a new business, then its all the more important that your website have sharing capabilities and be integrated with social media. And building that email list will probably be one of your social priorities. If you are an existing business, your customers and clients are probably already using social platforms to talk about their experiences with you. Look into those platforms and start building relationships with people who are talking about you-its back to listen first, and then engage.

Who is our online and social audience?

Do we know who influences our audience in social media? There are certain audience segments where people have carved out niches for themselves, particularly in travel, Moms and B2B spaces. Its good to know and follow these people. Social media can help you create a relationship with these people who influence your potential customers. We tread lightly here because we are creating a relationship, not a promotional partnership. We may be choose to partner with influencial people in social media, but let’s start with identifying who they and why our audience is so passionate about them. Listen first. Talk later.

How can we use social media to support existing mediums and marketing channels?

How can we integrate social media into our existing marketing programs: I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again, social media is the farm not the silo. Don’t let your social media program live in the dark and don’t let your other marketing initiatives live without social media. Integrate! Let it work with the rest of your initiatives. If your using print, let’s find ways to integrate or even measure your print impact. Events and social media go together like two peas in a pod, there are lots of great opportunities for those two to work together. Look for ways to tie in a particular campaign across the board!

Are we ready for social media?

Are we open to a culture shift? Social media is more than a marketing channel, it really is a culture, a different way of looking at communication.

Its more transparent, more human than traditional marketing, its more individualized and very, very much about supporting customers so they can support you. Social media’s transparency requires that you consider how all your departments and staff can benefit from and participate in social media. Incorporating social media throughout the company is a great way to spread the work, and as we move forward, we truly are going to have to embrace the fact that each employee can and should take a role in marketing as so beautifully articulated by this McKinsey Quarterly article. Really ask yourself if there is any reason why your company’s employees shouldn’t be engaging current and potential customers. You hired them because they understand your business, shouldn’t they understand your customers too?

About a year ago I started advising my clients to “Stop Thinking Like a Marketer and Start Thinking Like a Human.” In other words, think about what makes YOU interested in companies and brands. Think about how you would like to be communicated with if you were YOUR customer.  Its hard to get out of our own heads sometimes, but start thinking about what would make you read more. That’s the essence of social media communication.

Are we committed or is this an experiment?

I strongly discourage dropping in and out of social media. Its sort of like not answering your phone…in both cases, it does nothing to create customer trust. If you just aren’t sure that you’re totally ready for social media, grab your handles and domain names on as many social media outlets as you can and leave a post or similar that directs people to the channels that you do monitor (your website for example). Also spend some time monitoring the social web for mentions of your company and products, this may help you understand the places you SHOULD go when you’re ready. BUT-and this is a BOB, big ‘ol but- remember that if you are going to start responding and engaging on social media that you should keep it up and also remember that the time to build community is NOT when you have a crisis, or a new product. You want community in place BEFORE you need them, which means you’ve already created the relationship.

Its really important that we get to the bottom of these hard questions before we leap into social media. You may find that answering these questions is a process of listening, learning and testing. Yes, these questions may unearth other questions, but if we’re to reap the full benefits of social media then we’ve got to plant the right seeds to get there.

QUESTION: What questions would you add to this list? Did you do this when your company started in social media? Please, let me know!

Photo Credit: Creative Commons Crazytales562

Remember when LinkedIn started “Recommendations”? Recommendations had and have powerful implications. In fact, rather than check a person’s references, many recruiters just review recommendations as a PRE-QUALIFIER for potential jobs. One reason Recommendations on LinkedIn hold some influence is that its often easy to see the source of a recommendation particularly if the two people concerned shared a common employer, which gives context and weight to a recommendation. This works especially well for those looking for a job and recruiters. For independent consultants, or small business LinkedIn is still useful, but in different ways.

But “Recommendations” can be challenging. I clearly remember the first time that I was asked to give someone a “Recommendation” for whom I wasn’t comfortable giving one. It was awkward and difficult, not only because I liked the person, but I didn’t feel as though I could write a professional recommendation for a variety of reasons. But even that many years ago before Twitter, I was aware of the “I scratch your back, you scratch mine” nature of social media. However, I had to draw the line and I felt like I’d be doing a disservice to others I’d written recommendations for if I wrote one that wasn’t completely honest. None the less, it was an uncomfortable situation.

Move forward to today: If we’re using social media to its fullest potential, we can create and sustain engaged and relevant relationships online. To have relationships, it usually helps to have manners.  For example, I’ve written  that I am proponent of following those who follow you on Twitter.  I really see very little reason NOT TO.  I don’t necessarily feel that way about Facebook, although I’ve been pretty liberal in my own case.  But I know people who just aren’t comfortable blending the professional and the personal and that’s OK  too. But I’ve written many, many posts here about the “manners” of social media, I usually say that “everything you need to know about social media you learned in Kindergarten.” I stand by those posts and the fact that we can all benefit by raising the bar on social media manners. But it IS a fine line between manners and “social media climbing” and let me be clear: I believe that if you don’t feel comfortable writing an endorsement/recommendation for someone, you shouldn’t. If you don’t feel like following a particular person for whatever reason, that too remains your right. However, there is an undeniable culture of “backscratching” on social media platforms.

But the recent emergence of “endorsement” type sites including Namesake and Connect.me, I’ve become challenged and conflicted.  I’ve been participating in these sites quite a bit over the last couple of weeks. I’ve given and received a variety of endorsements. Most of my endorsements have been from those who either have worked with me or can at least speak to my reputation; and I’ve returned the favor for those for whom I can say the same. In other words, the endorsements have been genuine. Yet, I have this sinking feeling that as these sites grow, there will be an inevitable flow of “social media climbers”. When this happens  “Endorsements” will be more about how many a person has versus the quality of said endorsements or even who gave the endorsements.  Interestingly, in this interview last fall, the founders of Namesake say they want to become the Linked in for the “Self Employed”  presumably to help the self employed connect with one another and to give further credibility to self employed people who may or may not use LinkedIn (because they aren’t searching for a “job”). This would suggest that endorsements would become an integral (and protected) part of the network.  They also said that they want to “build out the expertise graph” as opposed to the social graph. There is definitely room for this model, in fact, I personally dig it.  But Namesake’s recent blog post on the topic about differentiations of Namesake vs. other social platforms (Quora, LinkedIn, Twitter) says essentially that their purpose is to create topic based conversations in real time, with those you may or may not know. This is slightly different from being the “LinkedIn of the Self Employed” So, have they changed direction or lost focus? I don’t know. Right now, according to the participants in a Namesake conversation I started on this topic, there are a number of values to endorsements, including being able to search in a particular topic and “weight” a person’s opinion on a subject based on their expertise. But won’t it be fun to search on conversations when certain topics become over run with “experts”, not to mention the fact that the categories are filled with misspelling and duplicates. And to what of the quality vs. quantity of endorsements?

From a professional branding standpoint, if this is to be a site that helps small business owners connect with one another, and help potential clients evaluate potential vendors, then how do we VALUE the endorsements others have? How do we sift through the endorsements people received as a “back scratch” as opposed to the genuine endorsements by those who know?  Users on Namesake are just starting to address this challenge.  I agree with the sentiment that there should be weighting involved in valuation of endorsements on a site like Namesake, but I’m thinking the weighting should be tied to some kind of social graph that (attempts) to verify the strength of the relationship.  Particularly as the site grows and there is an inherent threat to the quality of endorsements. But Namesake is a (relatively) new website, so if technology and social media have taught us anything, its only a matter of (short) time before it changes and/or evolves.

Connect.me is actually still in beta, so we don’t fully know how they plan to utilize or empower their users with the endorsements that they are actively and currently giving.  To date, they haven’t been exactly transparent about their business model or intentions to either the media or those who have signed up. Their blog is geared toward the technical side of their business, rather than engaging potential users and community. They aren’t really off and running on the transparency or social side of things in my book. However, what I do like about Connect.me is that endorsers can choose their OWN descriptions of a person and they can include professional and personal attributes, so if you don’t know a person’s work authority, but you DO think they have particular individual characteristics (generosity, responsibility, etc.)  you can say that as opposed to being forced to endorse someone on a category you may or may not feel comfortable endorsing. Again, however, its a very open concept and how we will address the “back scratching” urge to create value in the endorsements? We have yet to see.

For me,  it comes down to this: for these sites and others like them that are sure to follow,  either the site communities or the sites themselves will have to develop ways to create or maintain value for endorsements. Because collecting endorsements just for the sake of having endorsements is as valuable as collecting Twitter followers for the sake of increasing your numbers. Ultimately, these actions devalue the potential and power of the idea behind the very idea of influence. Endorsement sites are ultimately another way to help social media users navigate the waters by identifying influencers; they work differently than Klout and Peer Index, and thus provide different types of information. Ultimately, having several different resources to identify influencers is good for the socially networked world, so long as there is value in the endorsements.

Do you agree with my concerns about these sites? Are the endorsements valuable for you to receive, give or in helping you navigate the particular site offering endorsements?

Over the last year most of the social mediari have been obsessed with finding influencers for their clients (you). Several services have popped up to help companies cut through the millions of casual social media users and find those who supposedly have influence over others by way of their online authority. The most popular of these services is PeerIndex and Klout. Early on, Klout established itself as the “go-to-source” for online influence. Of course Klout’s algorithm is top secret, but it essentially weighs Twitter posting frequency+followers+mentions to develop a number on a scale of 1-100 (from what I can tell)

Klout is a great starting point, but I maintain that Klout misses several very important elements in its methodology. First and foremost, all influence is contextual. In other words, no matter HOW many followers I have on Twitter, I could never be consider an expert on aerospace engineering, and please trust me when I say, you would NOT want to sit in any plane that I designed. And to that point, a person’s Klout score is likely influenced by how popular their particular subject is on the social web, this can be good and bad. Further, Klout doesn’t (yet) help you really identify key influencers in specific topical areas (areospace engineers for example).  Finally – and this is the most entertaining of my examples (trust me), Klout can’t measure or weigh offline influence. While one might argue that offline influence should be reflected in online influence, let me give you an example where this falls short.

Allow me to enlighten you on Klout’s shortcomings with two examples.

Let’s start with MilSuckee. While I don’t know him personally, I’m just fine with that, to start with, his profile picture looks like a mug shot.  I am glad that there is a lot of internet space not to mention most of the continental US and Pacific Ocean between me and this guy. I don’t really want to meet him in a dark alley, even the friendly dark alley’s of Wisconsin (hey gotta give a shout-out to the state, it is where I was born.)

But it isn’t just his off-line persona that freaks me out. Oh, no. MilSuckee is into “owning” the F-bomb along with just about every other profanity in his Twitter stream. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’ve been known to enjoy an F-bomb cocktail now and then, but, I am able to refrain from using it on Twitter, like, EVER. But, Milsuckee has LOTS of followers (to put it into perspective, 90% of Twitter users have less than 1,000 followers. This piece of work has 11,000+! Apparently, Milwaukee bashing is very popular, and thus, so is our character. Milsuckee is also very active  a Twitter (unemployment no doubt affords this opportunity) thus his Klout score is decently high and if he keeps up this pace, pretty soon, his Klout score will be higher than Chris Brogan. And you have to give Milsuckee credit for keeping it “real” and doing what the social media consultants are always begging their clients to be:  a human. I mean, his musings are definitely NOT bot generated, granted, his tweets might be 5th grade degenerative, but he’s a human. Whoot!  He even uses a real photo (presumably of himself) in his Twitter profile. He’s a regular best-practices poster child.

But does Miksuckee have any credibility? Is this an individual who you really want speaking for your brand? And does anyone really even care if this guy DOESN’T like your brand? How much influence can he really have? Sure, at first glance the Klout score might be intrigui

ng, but after 10 minutes of watching that stream, you’d probably abandon any relationship dreams.

But there is even more gray area to Klout than meets the eye.

Let’s compare this guy with another Twitter user, mcneilwilson, the Twitter presence of well known Hawaii-based agency, McNeil Wilson. But this isn’t just any local Hawaii company, its one with an outstanding reputation for its work with major brands both in the islands and around the country. Further, McNeil Wilson has won numerous awards and accolades for its work, in short, rheir off-line reputation is extraordinary. But, alas, their Klout score is a little..mmm..anemic. Why?! How could a company with such a stellar reputation not have a high Klout score? in the case of this particular company, they don’t have much of a Twitter following and they just aren’t THAT active and yes the stream is a little dry and maybe completely automated. So, their  Klout score suffers.

Now, let me ask you. All things being equal, who do you want talking about your company? EXACTLY. So, not only is offline influence still relevant, even to social media users, but the Klout score isn’t even the only measure of online influence. The other “beef” I have with Klout is that it doesn’t give any credit to those who actually create content and therefore have exponential influence ability outside of Twitter and Facebook and LinkedIn.  AND it doesn’t really measure (that I know of) the ability of that influencer to create an action, such as clicking on a link.

So, dear business readers, when looking for influencials, use a Klout score as interesting baseline, but not as an absolute measurement tool.

Much like creating other types of business relationships, before you decide that your business should strike up a relationship with a social media influencer, be sure that the person’s reputation and relevance is on-par with your expectations – and for that, its likely you’ll have to do some good old fashioned homework. Never fear: Google and LinkedIn stand at your ready. (like my shameless links there?!).

Tell me: Have you ever had an experience where the Klout score didn’t tell the whole story?

PS: Don’t forget to join me @taracoomans, @rob and @tweetpea discuss Klout and its use for social media users and businesses at the Hawaii Social Media Summit. Moderated by @roxannedarling, our panel of professional Social Media Club members is sure to be an interesting discussion! If you can’t be there, follow #SMSHI.

Even in a crummy economy, sponsorship remains strong. Why is this?

Well, there are several reasons. For one, sponsorship “bundles” media which means you can have a very rounded out, smart program with a single purchase, which means alot of the heavy marketing lifting (buying media, designing programs, etc.) is done for you. All that’s left for the sponsor to do is come up with a brilliant activation program (easier said than done).

Where I live (Oahu) there was an article in the PacBizNews about the strength of sponsorships in Hawaii. It specifically addressed the upcoming Sony Open and Hawaii University sponsorships. Despite the recent Tiger Woods hoopla, the Sony Open is holding its own with sponsorships. Mainlander’s reading that article will note the aggressive rates for sponsorship here, particularly for the Sony Open where there is national media exposure. If you buy sponsorships in golf, take a look at the Sony Open, talk about value! It is ironic because as several testimonials note, Hawaii businesses “get” the value of relationships that sponsorships offer, yet our sponsorship rates here are quite low.  In general, businesses in Hawaii understand relationships in a way that mainland businesses miss. Sometimes, corporate America – especially in a recession – forgets the value of meet with people face-to-face, in a relaxed and fun environment. Shared experiences create relationships, period. A phone call does not create a relationship. An email does not create a relationship. Going to an event together does. Hawaii businesses don’t need lessons in creating relationships, for the most part, their business IS relationships. Which is one reason why sponsorship remains strong in this market.

Hopefully Hawaii’s smaller businesses (85% of the business community in Hawaii) will take note of some of these opportunities. Whether you choose to be affiliated with a highly visible national event or a highly targeted local event, there are sponsorship opportunities out there. There are some great Honolulu networking events and Hawaii is a destination for several other high profile sporting events that really make for some interesting niche market opportunities.

If you aren’t sure what a good sponsorship opportunity for your company would be, or how to pursue or negotiate a sponsorship,  or if you are a mainlander and would like to sponsor events in Hawaii, call me. I’ve sold and packaged sponsorships so I know what to look for and how to negotiate them.  I can help you find and activate a program that is suited to your budget and your objectives.

Who says its hard to do business in Hawaii? Pssshaw. Who says that there is always someone who ruins the party? Naaaaah.

Well, at least not in the fantasy world I live in. But, apparently, in the paradise I live it, marketing and fun are illegal….or at least by one group’s interpretation. Outdoor Circle (who I won’t give kudos to by linking) has decided that there is nothing better to do than denounce the Weiner Mobile’s tour through Hawaii.

Outdoor Circle is local nonprofit who over a century ago, was responsible for banning billboards in Hawaii in an effort to ensure that Hawaii’s outdoor splendor isn’t marred by intrusive advertising.  Hawaii is one of 4 states that ban billboard advertising. Nobel goal indeed (preserving the beauty of Hawaii). Their mission thus full-filled over a 100 years ago, they set about ensuring that the good folks at Outdoor Circle always have jobs…and today the good people at Outdoor Circle spend their days finding reasons to justify their existence

Not only do they seek to enforce the law in an over-reaching way, but perhaps more sadly they do so in a threatening manner. Outdoor Circle wouldn’t know Aloha if it hit them over the head with a billboard…but no threat of that happening anytime soon.

Its a good thing that Outdoor Circle doesn’t have plans to expand to the mainland anytime soon, or Hawaii’s highly successful national bus tour would be banned too!

Like I always say: “If you can mar-ket here, you can market annnnnywhere….”

Read about it here: Pacific Biz Journal

Although the economic crisis is having a critical impact on tourism and travel, Marriott and its Hawaiian business partners aren’t letting it stop them from one very successful marketing campaign. The campaign, a road tour, dubbed the “Spirit of Aloha” includes Hawaiian travel and tourism executives, 3 dancers & 2 musicians on loan from the Polynesian Cultural Center as well as Maui’s Camile Velasco of American Idol fame.

The group got lots of together time as they moved along middle America on a 45-foot bus. The cost of the campaign was approximately $350,000 with Marriott covering hotel expenses and partner Hawaiian airlines covering flights. Once the team was on the mainland, it was “all bus, all day” as the caucus went from early morning local shows to day-time meetings with travel and tourism promoters bringing Aloha and sunshine at each stop. One of the more colorful venues included a bowl-a-thon with Professional Convention Management Association (PCMA) members. To stir up interest with the consumer side of things, stops along the way included Costco to hand out shell leis.

Originally, the plan included visits along the California coast (where many of Hawaii’s domestic U.S. visitors originate from) including San Diego and San Francisco, but the results were so immediate the tour was extended to a total of 6 1/2 weeks and included stops across the country including Chicago and Washington, D.C.; it wrapped up February 26th.

Along the way, Spirit of Aloha gathered such interest, they started a blog, to keep everyone up to date. The entire program generated much interest in tourism circles.

The result? Marriott Hawaii bookings are up 40%. Maybe travel and tourism will will be the next segment to utilize the power of event marketing.

P.S. The bus is already onto it’s next adventure: a NASCAR driver is using it.

Although the economic crisis is having a critical impact on tourism and travel, Marriott and its Hawaiian business partners aren’t letting it stop them from one very successful marketing campaign. The campaign, a road tour, dubbed the “Spirit of Aloha” includes Hawaiian travel and tourism executives, 3 dancers & 2 musicians on loan from the Polynesian Cultural Center as well as Maui’s Camile Velasco of American Idol fame.

The group got lots of together time as they moved along middle America on a 45-foot bus. The cost of the campaign was approximately $350,000 with Marriott covering hotel expenses and partner Hawaiian airlines covering flights. Once the team was on the mainland, it was “all bus, all day” as the caucus went from early morning local shows to day-time meetings with travel and tourism promoters bringing Aloha and sunshine at each stop. One of the more colorful venues included a bowl-a-thon with Professional Convention Management Association (PCMA) members. To stir up interest with the consumer side of things, stops along the way included Costco to hand out shell leis.

Originally, the plan included visits along the California coast (where many of Hawaii’s domestic U.S. visitors originate from) including San Diego and San Francisco, but the results were so immediate the tour was extended to a total of 6 1/2 weeks and included stops across the country including Chicago and Washington, D.C.; it wrapped up February 26th.

Along the way, Spirit of Aloha gathered such interest, they started a blog, to keep everyone up to date. The entire program generated much interest in tourism circles.

The result? Marriott Hawaii bookings are up 40%. Maybe travel and tourism will will be the next segment to utilize the power of event marketing.

P.S. The bus is already onto it’s next adventure: a NASCAR driver is using it.