That Time I Hashtaged a Hot Dog in Nashville…

I gotta say, there’s nothing I love more than a good hotdog on a sunny day in Nashville. (I hear you chuckling! Let’s just get those dirty thoughts cleared away right away.)

I recently frequented Nashville’s beloved Hot Diggity Dog, and was pleased by not only their amazing menu, but by their social media suaveness. I Instagram’d a hot dog sign pic proclaiming my love with a #hotdog emoji (Thank you, Apple iOS 9.3!).

Later, I discovered @HotDiggityDog reposted my pic, giving me some love in return. They also followed me and “liked” my post. Just that little bit of social affection from them makes me love them even more. So of course, I had to tell you all about it! ‘Cause that’s how social media strategy works ;)

Here’s what they are doing right:

Social Signage:
In addition to all of their hot dog themed signage, Hot Diggity Dog has signs displayed throughout their location (on the wall, table tents, everywhere!), listing all their social media profiles and encouraging follows.

#OmniNashville's Tweet-tastic Grand Opening

Pictured with Jay Cooney at Omni Nashville Hotel.

Sometimes being a socially savvy "in the know" Southern girl has it's perks. I was honored to be among some of Nashville's online influencers invited to a VIP dinner and tour of Nashville's newest luxury hotel…and participate in the #OmniNashville Twitter party at the same time!

Monday Sept. 30, 2013 Omni Nashville Hotel celebrated it's Grand Opening with an hour-long national Twitter Party & VIP Nashville gathering, hosted by @OmniNashville and @OmniHotels. The #OmniNashville hashtag was filled with pictures, facts and giveaways, including a stay at Omni Nashville.

For me, the best part was spending time with Jay Cooney, who manages Social Media for @OmniHotels from a corporate level and meeting Kellie Keyes, who manages social media for @OmniNashville (among other marketing duties), as well as others from Omni's marketing & communications team. My "marketing geek" hat was on as I learned all about how they planned the opening and manage communications as an internal team.

Nashville Networking: Lessons learned from "New Business Networking"

I thought I knew a lot about networking until I read the book,  New Business Networking, by Dave Delaney. Seriously, my friends refer to me as the "queen of networking" in Nashville. Of course, I don't  claim to know everyone or everything, but I have met a few people along the way in creating and growing  Social Media Club Nashville.

Dave Delaney, author of New Business Neworking

New Business Networking has tons of stats mixed in with tips on using the latest social media and web tools. It is also peppered with stories of Dave's networking journey in Nashville. Similar to Dave, I made my way to Nashville via Jackson, TN and networked to meet friends who later ended up becoming co-workers. Small world!

I often refer to Nashville as a big small town where you are two degrees of separation from anyone you want to meet. I enjoy being a connector of people, organizing Social Media club Nashville events, and bouncing ideas off of others as I guide my Marketing career.

I'm pretty skilled at networking (if I do say so myself) but there's always more to learn!

Nashville's Thinkers and Doers: 2 Degrees of Separation

Nashville, TN is a big small town, which according to The New York Times article, "Nashville's Latest Big Hit Could Be the City Itself", is the new "darling" of the nation. Yep, they like us, they really like us!

For me, Nashville is the land of opportunity. A place to connect with like-minded folks, share ideas, and make S**T happen.

Just this week, I was sitting in a Social Media Nashville (@smcnash) planning meeting - doing the above mentioned, when a Tweet came across from @AAFNashville: Nashville's ‪@davedelaney‬ is speaking now on BlogTalkRadio with ‪@DebCE‬ here - ‪http://ow.ly/gGvlD ‬ He's mentioned ‪@crossga‬ ‪@NashvilleAMA‬.

Flattered and curious, I tweeted to Dave to send me a link to the podcast.

Marketers: Get Your Head Out of the Sand and Into the Digital Age!

Throughout this Summer, I have been networking and interviewing with several Nashville-based companies only to find that I seem to be “on another level” than the typical corporate marketer in my approach to an integrated marketing strategy that uses technological trends to deliver relevant content to customers.

Forgive me while I step onto my soapbox and shout for a second:

If you are a “Marketing Director” or “Marketing Manager” in today’s technology, consumer-driven marketplace, it’s your freakin’ job to understand how digital and social media marketing fit into the landscape of who you are marketing to and how your marketing messages are being communicated.  It’s just another part of the marketing mix.

Memorial Day LUV: Get Social with U.S. Army and National Guard!

 In honor of Memorial Day, I'm highlighting of some social media sites that show the lifestyles of U.S. Army and National Guard troops in today's social world.

The U.S. Army is invading Pinterest!

LOVE THIS PIN! Source: http://pinterest.com/pin/157837161910914462/

According to a recent article from The Atlantic Wire, the U.S. Army seeks to reach a broader audience via Pinterest. Below is a quote from the article explaining the intent:

"We saw that would be a way that we could potentially reach an audience that we don't normally reach with our other platforms," Major Juanita Chang, Director of Online and Social Media for the U.S. Army told The Atlantic Wire. "We know pinterest is highly dominated by women... A lot of people that follow the military are men because that's the majority of the military. We want to connect and reach out to the female population and maybe the Army spouses and family members -- the people who wouldn't have any other reason to follow the military otherwise."

I'm honored to live in a country where our military leaders not only serve and protect our country, but have a pretty awesome social media strategy.

Google+ freaks me out, but I like it!

I've been playing with Google's new shiny toy, Google+, more and more since learning more about it at PodCamp Nashville 2012 and from the Google team themselves at the #G4eNashville event.

Just like any emerging social network, I see a little buzz around it, so I sign up for it to see what all the fuss is about.

Personally, I like connecting with people and ideas that inspire me and love sharing resources and ideas with others. As a marketer, I'm always looking for examples of how brands are using technology to reach and engage audiences and create communication channels for customer service and brand advocates.

What I've discovered I like about Google+:

Circles of organization: I've been collecting people, brands, and topics I'm interested in and putting them into categories of "circles" - I love organizing, so this is helpful- and it is another way to brand myself by the categories and people I follow.

#Nashville's #TechVille 2012 Social Media Cheat Sheet

Tuesday, May 15th is #TechVille 2012 in #Nashville! 

If you are attending Nashville Technology Council's 2012 annual conference, TechVille than you are about to find out why Nashville, TN has been named by Forbes Magazine as #3 on the list of the "Next Big Boom Towns in the U.S.". It's not because of our booming music scene, but because we have some of the brightest companies and minds in technology.

If you haven't already figured it out, we're kinda a big deal! (As if Google coming to town wasn't a clue.)

I am honored to be covering the TechVille conference as a "SocialITe", along with a few fellow Nashville marketers and fellow Social Media Club Nashville Members. We will put all the good content coming from the event onto the social networks for the world to follow along.

Here's a little social media cheat sheet of some of the topics, speakers, companies, and presenters we'll be tweeting about throughout the day:

Conference Hashtag:  #TechVille

Yo Mama's So Social…

It's mother's day in Nashville, Music City and there are a lot of "mom" tributes on the social networks today from Facebook wishes to Instragram pics to FourSquare check-ins with moms…and guess what? Most of the moms are on the networks are commenting back!

I would have to point out as a disclaimer, that it depends on how old your mom is and what your lifestyle is like. Not all moms are using social media, but the numbers are pretty big, especially for younger moms with children under eighteen.

#HASHTAGS: Teachers hate them, Marketers love them

With the rise of social media usage has come the popularity of hashtags. If you do not know what a hashtag is, you have probably at least seen it in an ad campaign, on a Facebook post, or even in a text or email (by the way, they don’t work in text or email).

Hashtags originated as a way to group conversations, topics, or events within searchable streams in social media. They are most commonly used on Twitter and Google +. I’ve seen hashtags on everything from TV shows (#madmen, #TrueBlood) to general slang (#swagg, #ohsnap) and the ever popular #FF – FollowFriday.

I recently had an interesting conversation with a teacher about how her 8th grade students are using hashtags. She told me students use them everywhere: on homework assignments, in general conversations, and even requested she accompany the lesson plans on the chalkboard each day with hashtags. She hates them because they are overused and misused. This could be a translation issue with youth. Her frustration is understandable.

Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive: My 2009 Highlights

I’ve been reflecting upon the positive things that happened to me this year, despite being in the job market twice this year due to the economic times and nature of the advertising industry. I’ve managed to be pretty productive, even between jobs. I am thankful for the successes I’ve had and the friendships I’ve made through networking in 2009. Here’s a recap of my year:

- Received American Advertising Federation (AAF) Nashville’s President’s award for my contribution in rebranding the ad club’s website, email newsletter, and creating social networking sites for the organization. I’ve had my eye on that trophy for a couple of years…so it was a personal victory to have my name etched on it!

- Co-Founded Social Media Club Nashville with Jessica Murray, who I met at Dave Delaney’s Geek Breakfast. We had several successful, well attended meetings of SMC Nashville, including topics on Social Media’s use for non-profits, healthcare, and Nashville Predators. I’ve met so many people with the same interest in social media and marketing!

Networking when Networking wasn’t Cool

I was networking when social networking wasn’t cool. (To the tune of “I was Country When Wasn’t Cool”) - hey, I live in Nashville- what do you expect?!

I came to Nashville in 2002 with one goal -to work in advertising- and no clue how to make it happen. I read a few career books about networking and working in the advertising field. They all said to set up informational interviews to get to know the companies and the people who run them.

There were no social networks like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter (if they existed, I didn’t know about them). At the time, I didn’t even have a computer or the internet. All I had was a phone, a phone book, and a determined attitude.

Spotlight on Social Fresh’s, Jason Keath

Who is Jason Keath, what is Social Fresh, and why should you care?

I first heard about Social Fresh a few months ago. As part of Social Media Club Nashville, I wanted to get involved in this social media conference that was announced to be coming to Nashville, TN January 11, 2010. I volunteered to help out with the event and promoted it through Facebook and Twitter. 

It wasn’t until a few weeks ago that I really did a double-take on the magnitude of national connections to the social media and advertising industries Social Fresh’s founder, Jason Keath, has. I was reading ADRANTS, a popular ad industry pop-culture bog, created by Steve Hall- that I’ve been following for at least five years. There was Jason Keath, Chris Brogan (who I met when he came to Nashville to talk about his social media book, Trust Agents), and Steve Hall in a feature article about a Social Fresh Cruise for the who’s who of social media. That put Jason Keath on my radar, so I called him up to get more info about Social Fresh and what he hopes to bring to Nashville's advertising and marketing community.

NASHVILLE’S Ones to Watch (and learn from): Companies who “get” Social Marketing

> Paramore|Redd
Masters of online marketing and social media, this company practices what it preaches. Lead by a preacher’s daughter, no less! Paramore|Redd is a one stop shop for online marketing- from websites to web banners, online media buying, social media, e-mail newsletters, SEO, and more. They don’t just get it, they share it. Hannah Paramore’s team of marketers provide frequent and relevant company and client updates, and marketing tips.  The company’s smart and spunky personality shines through in their e-newsletter and frequent blog, Twitter, and Facebook fan page posts. Hannah is a frequent speaker on the topic of online and social marketing. In the past year, Paramore|Redd consulted with both American Advertising Federation Nashville and Nashville American Marketing Association in developing online communication plans to connect and grow Nashville's advertising and marketing communities.

Check out Paramore|Redd’s Website | Blog  | Twitter | Facebook

> Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce
Yes, the city of Nashville can tout that we have the best chamber of commerce in the US. The Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce was named 2009 Chamber of the Year by the American Chamber of Commerce Executives. The Nashville Chamber is a strong supporter of the technology and marketing communities in Nashville, supporting events like BarCamp Nashville 2009. Through the Chamber’s  Informed and Inspired Speaker Series, Nashville’s business community got to learn firsthand about social media from Paula Berg [@paulaberg], Manager of Emerging Media for Southwest Airlines. The Nashville Chamber regularly Tweets, updates its Facebook fan page, YouTube Channel, and has huge support from its members in promoting the value of membership in their own e-mail newsletters. The Chamber also hosts a member-only Social Media Marketing Special Interest Group (SIG).

Check out Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce’s Website | Twitter | YouTube | Facebook

 Watch Paula Berg's Presentation at The Nashville Chamber