Marketing Melodie Speaks: Veterinary Specialty Hospital Symposium

I’m always honored to speak and teach social media to professionals who are eager to learn and continue their education in order to be more successful in both growing their business and connecting with their customers. This Sunday, May 19th, 2013 I have the pleasure of teaching social media to a new audience. I’m hosting a social media workshop that’s part of the 3rd Annual Veterinary Specialty Hospital Symposium called: Social Media Branding for your Veterinary Business.

The audience will be comprised of professionals in the veterinary industry who work tirelessly to help our animal friends. The event is located at the University of San Diego campus and is open to anyone who works in the industry or who may be interested in the topics presented to veterinarians.  I have presented and hosted events at USD before. The campus is beautiful so I’m happy to return. You can still register here. 

I look forward to speaking in front of this group because I know they are all passionate about what they do and because it makes me happy to see so many industries understanding and embracing social media. If you are interested in having me speak at your next event, please contact me via my speaking page for rates and availability. More recently I have been presenting to Fitness and Yoga professionals since I’ve combined my passions for marketing and yoga into my career but I am open to speaking to any group interested in learning about the benefits of social media and how using it strategically can businesses grow and connect with customers.

Win Tickets to the Second Annual Chocolate Festival on the Bay

Attention Chocolate Lovers! I’ve got a sweet treat for you! This weekend the Maritime Museum of San Diego hosts the Second Annual Chocolate Festival on the Bay and I’ve got your golden ticket to this delicious event. Any event on the bay is awesome simply for the gorgeous view. I’ve hosted yoga events on the bay and attended other food and wine festivals on the bay so I’m excited to go back this weekend! First here’s some info:

The two day tasting and educational chocolate showcase along San Diego Bay features food, wine and a variety of chocolate treats. This delicious event brings together the world-renowned Maritime Museum of San Diego with many other vendors including Mars Chocolate North America.

We love eating chocolate but sometimes it’s fun to learn about what we’re eating too. A team of Mars Chocolate History Ambassadors will tell the historical bean-to-beverage story of chocolate using authentic tools including cocoa pods, cocoa beans and nibs, a hot stone metate, winnowing baskets, chocolate drink pots and stirrers throughout the day. Attendees can touch, taste, smell, and experience chocolate as it was enjoyed by early Americans at every demonstration by sampling American Heritage Chocolate.

This event is family friendly so there will be something for everyone! Kids can build their own chocolate pizza, make crafts, play games, and go on a scavenger hunt to win prizes. Adults can enjoy wine and chocolate pairings, view chocolate-focused demonstrations and learn kitchen tricks with chocolate. Everyone can experience chocolate at vendor booths.

Wine, Cheese and Chocolate: A Festival for your Palette is a 21-and-over event being held on Friday, May 3 from 7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. The main festival takes place on Saturday, May 4 and Sunday, May 5 from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. The Chocolate Festival is included in the cost of Museum admission that weekend. Details and tickets can be found here.

I have a pair of tickets to give away to the festival. The tickets allow you to go to the festival either on Saturday or Sunday. I want to give these tickets away to the biggest chocolate lover in my community so here’s how to win:

1. Write a comment on this blog post and answer the following questions: 1. What is your favorite chocolate treat? 2. Which chocolate company do you feel has the best social media presence and why? Each answer gets you 1 entry. You are welcome to answer both questions for 2 entires. 

2. Each person will receive an additional entry if you follow me on Twitter @MyMelodie and Retweet this post!

I will announce the winner on Friday evening so hurry up and enter! Good luck and I can’t wait to hear about your favorite chocolate treats and learn about what chocolate companies are doing it right on social media.

Adventures of Flying in San Diego + Sony Walkman Winner!

Positive karma is amazing. As I announce my winner of the Sony Walkman W, I also get to share new Sony products that I received and an amazing adventure I had thanks to both Sony and Klout! To pay it forward I hosted a contest to give away a Social Media/ Fitness Swag Bag. Since the contest was launched around Earth Day and I wanted to both learn and share more tips for going green, I asked the question: “How are you going green?” as the ticket to entry for the contest. I learned so many new tips that I’ll be compiling in a future post so thanks to everyone for participating. And now to announce the lucky winner…CONGRATS TO:

JEFF SMITH! Winner of the Sony Walkman W and Social Media/Fitness Swag Bag

Now you’re probably wondering about the rest of this blog title, Adventures of Flying in San Diego?! Yes, last Friday I literally flew! Here’s how it all went down and how I ended up in the air. Klout perks have won me over in the past. I’ve received so many goodies from them and last summer they sent me on a weekend getaway at the world class resort, Terranea. This time Klout invited me to Sony’s Digital Imaging Workshop.

I enjoy capturing memories by taking photos but I’m certainly not a photographer in any way. So when Sony invited me to their Digital Imaging Workshop at the gorgeous Estancia Resort in La Jolla to learn how to take better photos and video while also offering me the new Sony Nex, plus the Sony Action Cam to practice on and take home, I was beyond grateful and all in! We started the afternoon by getting acquainted and enjoying a nice lunch at the Estancia. There were media folks, photographers and other online influencers.

After lunch, we were ready to learn. The best part of the workshop was getting all of our goodies though. It really felt like Christmas in April .

The best way to learn is by doing, so immediately after the workshop we took a walking tour of the resort to practice our photography skills. There were so many vibrant colors from nature, beautiful architecture and plenty of sunshine for us to practice our shots. The tour was nice and relaxing, but our day didn’t end here.

Sony and Klout were very smart to plan more adventures for us that would allow us to practice our newfound photography skills. I felt like I was on a very exciting school field trip as we a hoped on a bus to the Birch Aquarium. The Birch Aquarium offers one of my favorite viewpoints in San Diego so I spent a little time getting different shots of the view. I also practiced getting the perfect panoramic shot. Next I toured the aquarium and captured so many great photos  of sea life.  Our time here was limited though because we had to hop back on the bus and head to the Torrey Pines Glider Port.

This stop was an absolute thrill and once in a lifetime opportunity. I first signed a 20 page waiver….never a good feeling knowing there is a reason for such a long waiver. Then I was strapped into my equipment and seconds later I was lifting off! I felt my heart skip a beat an then quickly starting elevating higher and higher. I felt like I was in a dream while flying in San Diego and as soon as we got a little more stable up in the air, I began to calm down and was able to enjoy the beautiful view from an angle I’ve never seen before. It was an amazing experience and I captured it all on film with my Sony Action Cam! The videos came out so crystal clear and in such good quality despite my shaky hands. My only hang up with the Sony Action Cam is that I can’t actually see what I’m filming or review the footage on the actual video camera. I understand it’s intended to be small but I would like to have even a small screen to review the video on the spot. Regardless, it’s still awesome.  Check out the video, you’ll feel like you’re flying too!

After flying in San Diego, things settled down a bit as we made our way back to the Estancia to wind down with happy hour and get ready to test our food photography skills with a gourmet five course dinner. I’ve admitted before that I’m absolutely addicted to cooking shows and food porn. I take tons of food photos  but I really never understood the best way to make it look professional. I learned about different lighting strategies, angles, plating techniques and how to make my food look even better. By the end of dinner, I was stuffed, exhausted and very happy with my new tech toys and an amazing story to tell about flying in San Diego!

 A huge thank you once again goes out to both Klout for inviting me and Sony for setting up our day to remember! If you’re interested in having me attend, promote or feature your event on Marketing Melodie, please feel free to contact me. I’m open to any opportunities and adventures that are a fit for my lifestyle and will often write a blog post about it to share and document my experiences.

How to Copy & Paste to Land a Job at Sothbey’s Inc.

It’s late at night. I was working on another blog post but came across one of the funniest Craigslist Ads I’ve seen in a while. I know someone will catch this and it will be gone in the morning but here on the internet, everything is written in permanent ink thanks to our lovely screen capture capabilities. The “Best of” flag was definitely raised for this one.

Years ago, I wrote a post about things you can do on Craigslist and one of the things on my list was hiring. Craigslist is know for its wide variety of job postings. Apparently if you can copy & paste you’ll be ahead of the curve at Sotheby’s Inc. in New York and they are currently hiring  an “Administrative assistant”. Here’s the job link http://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/ofc/3774684960.html. Keep in mind this link might be gone by the time you read this. Here’s the job description:

The job description seems pretty normal, until you read right below the description and find instant messages between a manager and another lady who I’m guessing  may be the current Administrative Assistant. Perhaps they are replacing her to find someone who can copy & paste.

 I thought this was the end of it, but wow this ad just kept going and going… I warn you to pace yourself because you’re going to be scrolling down quite a bit!

Dear Sotheby’s Managers, please train your staff on computer basics before letting them post things on the internet. To make it easier for your next employee, here is a quick copy & paste tutorial. I even show you two different ways to do it.

The Right Click Method

Use the mouse to highlight the text you want to copy. Then right click and scroll down to “Copy”.  Move the mouse over to where you want the text you just copied. Right click again and go down to “Paste”.  Please note that this may vary depending on your operating system but should work for most cases.

Keyboard Shortcuts Method

This is my favorite method when it comes to copy & paste. It’s the most efficient and will save you a lot of time.

Select the text you want to copy with your mouse.  Then follow the below guide:

Windows: Hold down the CTRL key then click

• C to copy
  and
• V to paste

Mac: Hold down the Command key (⌘). Then click

• C to copy
  and
• V to paste

That’s all there is to it. Do you think you can handle being the next Administrative Assistant at Sotheby’s after my quick copy & paste tutorial? Good luck and let me know if you get the job.

GIVEAWAY: Tell Me How You’re Going Green to Win a Sony Walkman + Other Cool Swag!

It’s been a while since I’ve hosted a giveaway and there’s no better time to do another one than now. In the past I’ve given away things such as Legoland tickets, social media swag bags and tickets to social media educational events. Today I’m giving away an awesome social media/ fitness swag bag which includes a brand new Sony Walkman W. I’m very fortunate to receive an abundance products, samples and swag from marketing, social media and fitness conventions I attend, gifts I receive and companies that want to get their products in the hands of online influencers. As a way to give back and pay it forward, I’ve put together the ultimate social media/ fitness swag bag just for you.

As I just mentioned, the featured item in here is a throw back to the Sony Walk Man, but we’re kicking it up a notch from the old school version. This is a 2GB W Series Walkman. It’s a water resistant MP3 player and you’re getting the Meb Keflezighi edition pictured below. It’s perfect for running and working out at the gym. I know that someone out there will appreciate this music device and be inspired to workout with it!

Among the other items in the giveaway is a plethora of swag I’ve accumulated and want to share. They are things that will help with your fitness ventures or are related to social media in some way. Yep, even in my giveaway I’m combining my passions for social media and fitness. Here are some other goodies you’ll get.

• YMCA/ FriarFit Pedometer- Track your steps and encourage yourself to take the stairs instead of the elevator and walk to the store across the street you normally drive to.
• Beyond Yoga Headband- Keep your hair out of your face and make sure you’ve got something to keep your forehead clean when you’re working up a sweat
• Yelp Sunglasses- Who doesn’t need an extra pair of sunnies with summer coming up?
• 2 Limited Edition Foursquare Water Bottles- Stay hydrated with these collapsible water bottles.
• Red Bull- To give you wings when you work out!
• All of the prizes listed and pictured (plus maybe even more) will come in a nice reusable bag that I encourage you use when you go shopping rather than wasting paper or plastic.

HOW TO ENTER- I’m hosting this giveaway to pay it forward and share the abundance in my life so to enter please comment on by answering this question: What are you doing to go green? This question is inspired by the Earth Day post I wrote this year on 5 ways to go green while marketing your business and the post I wrote last year on 12 ways to go green at work. Since I’m paying it forward with this contest, I want all of you to pay it forward to the earth we live on. If you read my posts and are already doing some of those things, then write that in the comments or perhaps you’re doing something else I didn’t list. Either way, share with me what you’re doing to help create a more sustainable earth!

ADDITIONAL ENTRIES- All entrants must leave a comment on this post to win. Each person can enter up to 2 more times by Tweeting this post and sharing it on any other social network. Please make sure to include my Twitter handle @MyMelodie when Tweeting so I can track your shares.

DEADLINE TO ENTER- I’ll announce the winner in a week on Monday April 29th at noon. I’m choosing a Monday because most people don’t like this day but you will if you win my prize! If the winner is local in San Diego, we can arrange a prize pickup. If the winner is outside of San Diego I will ship the items.

I do my best to provide value to all of my readers so if you’re interested in hosting a contest of your own, I wrote a post a while back with tips on hosting a successful contest on social media. I really want this contest to inspire people to make every day Earth Day and start creating healthier habits in the way to live our lives. I’m really grateful to have items to give away and am excited to learn some more ways on going green. Best of luck on winning to everyone.

Celebrate Earth Day with 5 Ways to Go Green while Marketing your Business

Happy Earth Day everyone! I love celebrating a day that honors the place where we all live. In 2012 I celebrated Earth Day by sharing 12 ways to go green at work. My go green tips even got me featured on NBC San Diego. This year I attended the San Diego Earth Fair at one of my favorite places in San Diego, Balboa Park. The idea to write this post came to me while I was at the event.

There were tons of vendors and businesses showcasing their goods and services in hopes to attract new customers. Some vendors did a great job capturing the essence of creating a more sustainable environment on earth day and others were still producing a lot of waste with their marketing and promotional campaigns. My goal for this post is that everyone reading this will learn at least 1 go green tip they can implement into their marketing strategy which at the same time will help us keep our earth a wonderful place to live.

1. Go green promotional items- Many businesses have gotten really smart with their swag and rather than giving away useless tchotchke items they are giving out products that are actually useful. I recommend that if you are going to spend money on giveaways, spend a little extra on things that will be used over and over again so that your logo and business is constantly getting exposure. These items include reusable shopping bags and refillable water bottles. Not only are these things that will last, but they also encourage people to go green.

2.  Accept digital coupons- Rather than creating paper waste by requiring people to print out coupons for your business, accept digital coupons. You can do this by emailing coupons or having a link to them on your website, then encouraging people to redeem the discount you’re offering simply by showing it on their phone. More and more people are getting smart phones and at the same time, less people are buying printers. The easiest way to implement a digital coupon is to have a coupon code associated with the deal. This way when a customer comes in to redeem the digital coupon, all the employee has to do is type in the code. Having a code also helps cut down on any confusion as to what  ”Foursquare Check in deal” is or a “Yelp Deal” is when the customer is redeeming your offer.

3. Make print material small and have a call to action- I was sad to see how much print materials was being passed out at the Earth Fair this year at Balboa Park. Brochures and flyers often go straight to the trash. Sometimes printing marketing material is still necessary. You may be an event and want to give out coupons or a discount code for your website, flyers to an upcoming event or business cards so people can connect with you again. My recommendations for cutting down on paper waste with print marketing material is to make it small and give an incentive to someone receiving the print material to connect with you online. Make sure to include your website and your social networks on all print material. When connecting people to your social media, include the icon of the network and the actual URL of your sites so people don’t have to search for your page. You can also encourage people to connect with you to receive a discount or promotion. Think, call to action to get your customers online every time you create a piece of print material.

4. Create digital content- Every time you create digital content, you reduce the need for print material. Have downloadable material on your website such as brochures, white papers and e-books. Even blog posts! Most digital content will take time to create but cost little to no money to produce (versus expensive printing costs) so not only are you helping the environment, you’re also saving money!

5. Create a photo op- The old saying, a picture is worth a thousand words works for this tip. People love looking at photos. They’re a digital souvenir so if you’re able to create a photo op that also captures your logo or something that represents your business, then you’re not only creating a marketing opportunity for your business, but you’re also creating memories for your customers. This can be done by having a photo booth that will email the photos taken in the booth, having your logo on a back drop where people are taking photos (think red carpet photos) or having something at your event worth taking a photo of. Check out the photo I took of the Raptor Institute’s booth at Balboa Park’s Earth Fair. This was definitely the most popular booth I saw with everyone waiting to take photos. The little owl you see there (common barn owl) is real and perching right in front of the organization’s logo/sign so the mobs of people who took photos of that owl, also captured the organization’s name and logo.

If you found any of these tips valuable, please share this post so more businesses know how to green their marketing! Also let me know in the comments if you have any other tips for going green either at work or while marketing your business.

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