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The PR Benefit of Visionary Patagonia

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Fast Company never disappoints. There’s more blog fodder in a single magazine than reading Mashable every day. In a tiny blurb in the May issue, The Rules of Good Business, the founder of Patagonia is interviewed.

After yesterday’s blog post about the C-suite executive for Chick fil-A and how his views caused horrific PR, look at how cool the Patagonia PR team must feel to be working with a visionary CEO the likes of Yvon Chouinard.

After reading the Fast Company story and my observations:

        • Buy Patagonia
        • Become a sustainabililty consumer
        • Start the learning curve about saving our planet simply by purchasing the right article of clothing

Did you know Patagonia is one of the greenest/cleanest and environmentally savvy companies around? Its founder, Yvon Chouinard, is a green-living pioneer who has put green squarely on corporate and consumer maps.

Patagonia lives and breathes love of our planet. Among its product suite, there are about 40 items the company follows every step of the supply chain to monitor how natural resources are used. The company knows exactly the type of water (i.e. well, irrigated) being used and its effect on the environment.

Chouinard introduced the sustainability index; Patagonia is working with 40 clothing companies, such as Walmart, to put green buying directly into the hands of consumers.

In the near future, smartphones can be pointed at an article of clothing and the shopper can see a clothing item’s sustainability index grade. A pair of jeans may have a score of 10 or 2 based on a variety of factors. How flippin’ cool is that?

Why Buy Patagonia?

When you think of founders of companies, you want to believe each has the best interest of a cause, an issue, Earth, natural resources, children, or something else in mind. With the Patagonia founder, it’s true. His vision for the future of Earth depends on consumers participating and making choices not to buy fabrics made in sweat shops where children are employed or from sheep’s wool or cotton in lands without environmental regulations. He wants our natural resources protected during the manufacturing process, and he’s all about water preservation. (How many people you know swimming in our lakes getting infected with flesh-eating bacteria and staph? Tons.)

Marketing and PR Opportunity

  • Is your company leader a visionary? Can you put that vision into action and develop strategic campaigns to positively influence a global issue?
  • With the top-down strategy, how can PR influence audiences who consume your company’s products or services?
  • When you consider thought leadership programs putting your visionary CEO on the frontlines with impactful messaging and use owned media to push that message, you’ll get your results with so many more benefits, too.

What a difference reading about Mr. Chouinard and Patagonia versus Dan Cathy and Chick fil-A. The former’s efforts toward sustainable consumerism have yet to be trendy, but somewhere the pendulum has to swing to the side of consumers’ green education more than just recycling PETE.

Want to work with a cool company the likes of Patagonia with an even cooler visionary? Then do your research ahead of time; it just may make a difference.

 

(Photo Credit: Jayme Soulati, iPhone 4S)

 

Brand Loyalty And Chick Fil-A User Experience

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Customer service is dead. Right? Well, that’s what everyone says about blogging, and MySpace and Instagram and everything else that’s been taken over or gobbled up.

This post is a mash up of customer service, brand loyalty, personal perspective and a mom’s conundrum

Guess where customer service isn’t dead? At Chick fil-A. I should know because kidlet and I eat there once weekly during the school  year because select soccer and taekwando do not allow a sit-down dinner at home.

 

On Chick fil-A

Here’s what happens at the Chick fil-A restaurant we frequent in Centerville the most:

  • They greet you with a smile every time.
  • They come to your table to ask if you need a refill and if everything is OK.
  • They come to your table to clear refuse even though patrons do it themselves.
  • They say bye when you leave and thanks for coming (when it’s not too busy).
  • There’s a coupon for a free this or that twice monthly, and they text me with deals, too.

All age groups frequent the establishment, and it caters to sports teams, school clubs, senior citizens, fund-raisers, and more. The bathroom is always clean, and so too is the facility.

Differences of Opinion

This is why I’ve had a hard time. By now, everyone and their brother knows the President and COO Dan Cathy has views that may or may not mesh with mainstream America. While I don’t agree with Mr. Cathy on a number of perspectives, his philosophy on a variety of core societal issues is alive and present in today’s divisiveness. But, that’s  his and my business, and I refuse to debate that on my blog or anyone else’s.

Because my user experience is so positive at Chick fil-A, and oh yes, the food is excellent for fast food (how could I fail to mention that minor detail?), I will continue to go there in spite of my disagreement over Chick fil-A leadership. (You know they’re closed on Sunday even in food courts, right?)

Those who have never been to a Chick fil-A more than a few times are hard pressed to form the opinion I have. When my choice as a mom is McDonalds, Taco Bell or Chick fil-A in a pinch, you can guess what I’m choosing.

 Blog Comments

Every blogger has been enraptured with the PR debacle of Chick fil-A. As is my wont, I am not the first mover when it comes to new apps, channels, or breaking news (well, I do sometimes break a story). I let the other guys pave my way, and oh boy, did Gini Dietrich’s blog do a yeoman’s job. 

(I’ll write about the highjacking, not good old blog jack, Kaarina, of Spin Sucks in comments another time.)

And, so, I’m a tad disappointed with myself for not supporting my own standards; does this make me a  hypocrite? I don’t know; I’ve not come out and  forcefully stated my opinions publicly like the founder of Chick fil-A. Was that a PR stunt? Lesser things have happened.

Visionary CEOs

Tomorrow, I’ll write about another CEO who does have vision and is trying to support Earth with his eco green actions.

So, my brand loyalty to Chick Fil-A has been tarnished. But, my brand loyalty will soon begin for Patagonia (until tomorrow, dear readers!).

 

Meanwhile, what say you on this issue? When customer service and food excellence outshine the shenanigans of the C-suite, what do you do?

How Much Transparency Is Too Much?

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My pal I miss so much because she works full time and can’t banter with the best of us has decided to visit here again with a spot-on GP (that’s guest post). Please welcome a familiar face from this community and someone I love dearly, Jenn Whinnem (who recently tied the knot in ever so much secrecy without inviting us to the party; look there she is on her special day!).

Jenn Whinnem says:

I lost my glasses recently. They were either in my home, or at the lake on the property. Several searchings of both turned up nothing. Until, a week later, one of my neighbors turned up with the glasses in hand! “My granddaughter found them while she was snorkeling,” she said.

Yes, dear readers, I went swimming with my glasses on. How on earth I managed to do this is still making me worry about my brain.  Now the lenses are foggy and I need new ones.

This, and , got me thinking about transparency. Please note upfront: I’m not in the habit of blaming the victim, ever. It’s simply not on his account. I’d wager that someone is very sick, but I’m not qualified to diagnose. Whoever this person was, they had a lot of information about Danny and his life. Danny has been pretty open about many of his life details (again, not blaming the victim). And that’s what got me thinking, again.

About two years ago, I wrote a post for Jayme about having cystic fibrosis. Jayme had asked me to write it, and I wanted to help out a friend, forgetting that the internet is mostly not a secret place. That post ended up getting much more traction than I intended. Usually I don’t make that information so public, because I worry it will prevent employers from hiring me. An ugly reality.

Since sharing that, and worrying about the repercussions, I’ve been careful with what I share. I don’t mind telling you a story about swimming with my glasses on, as bone-headed as that makes me seem, because I think it’s funny, humanizing, and something others can probably relate to. Not many people are going to use that against me for anything other than a joke at my expense.

I read a post a few months ago where someone used the Batman/Bruce Wayne example to discuss how, thanks to the internet, nobody gets to have a secret identity anymore. (A Google search is not helping me find this post, because apparently there is a song called “I am not Batman.” If you know it, tell me, I’ll update the post). I vehemently do not agree. I advocate for a persona, and for never confusing the persona with the self.

Back to those glasses. I can see through them, but they’re just blurry enough that I really shouldn’t drive with them on. They’re a great model, though, for the kind of transparency that makes sense on the internet.

Danny Brown Got Hacked

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Danny Brown. If you’ve been on the social media sphere these last several years, then you know who Danny Brown is; he’s a social media leader, an A-lister (although he’ll vehemently deny that), a teacher, an innovator, founder of 12for12K.com now taking hiatus, and big dude over at Jugnoo, and blogger banterer about sheep and “Miss.” Beyond that he is the first to try to remove himself from social networks that ethically suck with proof points as to why (see Klout), and he has issues with Facebook, too.

So, do you know Danny Brown now?

Well, last night he took a paltry few hours to enjoy his family; it was Sunday, after all. During that time, , and I mean so hacked that friends of Danny’s also fell victim to the cowardice and jealousy of this anonymous individual who took Danny’s identity and proceeded to post lies publicly and privately about Danny, his wife, his job, and his children, among other topics.

Wow, that anonymous individual really knew a lot about Danny Brown’s public face. That’s not the point. The point is this, and I’ve written about this before – there is so much hatred in this world and it is exacerbated by anonymous cowards.

My friend and peer blogger, a Muslim, was attacked in comments and had her blog pissed on by others. She survived and is speaking about it in some circles while I elevate it beyond her community to share that there is blogger abuse. Anyone and everyone can fall to the horrors of identity theft; this person took it a step further and became Danny and soiled relationships for many unsuspecting connections.

Danny? I’m so sorry your personal life was subjected to this hatefulness. When your lovely wife is included and your babies are also, it becomes more than just hackers dinking around; it becomes a situation for the internet police to track this “shitidiot” and “douchecanoe” (to use two of Danny’s faves) and blacklist the heck out of him or her.

I wasn’t around Sunday night to support Danny, but a boatload of his friends were. And, so, I’m showing my support right here, right now with ‘raderie in the hopes that this jamoke will get a comeuppance.

XO, Danny Brown.

How To Write Twitter Profiles With 10 Tips

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I was drawn to Twitter.com last week for something I don’t recall and decided to follow a bunch of peeps who had kindly followed me. I can really only do this en masse via Twitter’s platform and not via HootSuite, my app of choice.

Reviewing about a few hundred profiles all at once to determine if someone was fit to follow was a cringeful (yep, that’s a word) experience. I was taken aback that peeps still aren’t writing Twitter profiles with substance.

Here’s what I saw that I didn’t like:

  • Locked profiles. Why do this when were all trying to engage? If you’re afraid, maybe you shouldn’t be on Twitter anyway? If someone is stalking you, then just delete that individual profile instead of turning away everyone else.
  • I Love My Wife. Are you so sexy that women are asking for your phone number, Guys? Should I say “single and seeking” on my profile and should my friend say “In love with my hubby?” I wonder if this is a statement to appease the wives who wonder what the heck their husbands are doing online all the time and with whom? Too much personal for me.
  • Nothing. For goodness sakes, add something to your profile. Add some key words that describe your job, who you want to follow, your hobbies, where you live, if you’re a student, or something descriptive.
  • Wacked avatar. I’ve written about this in the past; you need an avatar someone can align to, can feel comfortable about, that is not an animal or a building. We’re communicating on a very social platform; show me your face!
  • Caps. Please don’t scream at me. I don’t need to see your profile in all caps, especially when you’re spouting off about yourself, too.
  • Sales Pitch. Folks selling products? Fine, I respect that, but please be more creative with the profile. Rather than carry on about the product features, tell my why I should engage with you? I’m gonna pass you by because you’re a product and not a person.

What else have you seen that I didn’t add above?

10 Tips

So, here are 10 tips for how to write a Twitter profile (just short of turning all the above around into positives):

1. Be personable and show me who you are with key words that give me a sense of your profession and interests.

2. Limit family talk but not all the time. If you want to talk about your family, please do, but don’t ever assume you have to add the number of children in your household (unless you’re a mommy blogger or mom seeking same and then you’re probably not going to follow me anyway?) or whether you’re in love with your spouse. This goes into your goals (see below) for Twitter — personal or business?

3. Keep politics out of your profile unless you’re running for election. That will be the death of your brand. The U.S. is too divided today to accept either side of the aisle in casual tweets.

4. Share something about your aptitude. Maybe you work for a living as a professional? Maybe you teach? Maybe you’re a pro boxer? Musician? Whatever, Share that as it gives someone an opportunity to follow you with a common thread.

5. Always provide your . I seek that often in someone’s profile and am disappointed when I can’t find it. Hmm, I better to ensure it’s there!

6. Please add an avatar of your face? It is so frustrating not being able to visualize someone on the other side of a tweet after so many years of tweeting together. (I’ve been told people hide for various personal reasons.)

7. Can you show me some personality? You’ve got a short space to describe who you are, but challenge yourself to be creative and show as many sides of yourself as you can.

8. Take your profile to Twellow and We Follow; register yourself to connect with like-minded Tweeps. When you synch your Twitter account, your profile is how you attract new followers.

9. Write a profile with the goal of attaining something – new business, a job, a guest blog post, or something. If you’re seeking a spouse, head to Match.com.

10. Set goals for your Twitter experience (different than a goal for your profile). Are you on Twitter for business or personal reasons? Write content in alignment with  your goals. A profile is a mirror of that ultimate strategy.