Never a Lack of Ideas

I did it! I reached 500 contacts on LinkedIn. It's the highest number of contacts reported by the site — it only shows "500+" contacts from here forward. I've been watching my total ever since I hit 450 and I've been getting increasingly excited about hitting 500. When I hit 500 today, I expected a congratulatory email, a new view of the site, or maybe some other cool surprise when I logged in. But instead I got... nothing. Any Excuse for a Party LinkedIn is missing a perfect opportunity to reward its power users with something special when they hit 500 contacts. It would have been so easy for them to send me an email to say thank you for using the site. Or they could have Tweeted a congratulatory message to me today. But instead, my big moment was anticlimactic. I'm an important user for LinkedIn: I've given them tons of information about myself, and I'm on the site a lot, so I see a lot of ads. It's in their best interest to keep me co...

A Very Merry Christmas Close to midnight on December 24th, 2010, SpanAir surprised passengers with Christmas presents delivered through a baggage carousel. Every gift was hand wrapped and addressed to each of the flight's 190 passengers. I applaud the airline for employing such a fun idea to spark positive word of mouth. The airline has put together videos of the gift-giving event in both English and Spanish, and they have combined for a half a million views on YouTube to date. What would it cost for Spanair to buy a half a million brand impressions on tv? Certainly more than what it cost them to give out 190 Christmas presents and put up a video on YouTube. This was a win-win situation for both Spanair and its passengers. The most powerful form of marketing is a recommendation from a friend. With these presents, Spanair made 190 people happy and found a way to get those people to tell all of their friends and family about how great Spainair is. Then they put up a great video on ...

A Bundle of Joy I have previously written that bobblehead dolls make perfect gifts because they are personalized and they symbolize meaningful relationships. For Christmas, my wife and I gave my wife’s mother a bobblehead doll of herself (see the pictures on the right). The doll is wearing a shirt that says, “#1 Grandma.” That’s right — we used the doll to tell her that we’re going to have our first baby next year. Bobblehead dolls don’t just make great gifts — they make great announcement vehicles, too. My wife’s mother will now be able to bring the doll with her to work and show everyone in her office that she’s going to be a grandmother. In a way, we gave my wife’s mother a word of mouth marketing tool to help her spread the message that she’s going to be a grandmother. How fun! Add This To Your To-Do List My advice is the same as it was after the first time we bought a bobblehead doll: Give someone a bobblehead doll! Will it be the retiring executive for a long-time client? Your l...

Florida or Bust Orlando, Florida is the only place on Earth in which you can buy a glass of official Butterbeer, the imaginary drink that author J.K. Rowling wrote about in each of the seven Harry Potter books. You can only buy Butterbeer at Universal Studio's " Wizarding World of Harry Potter " exhibit, part of Universal's "Islands of Adventure" theme park. Rowling was personally involved with the creation of the recipe for Butterbeer. Certainly, she and her business partners had offers to license the product and sell it online and in stores around the world, but she declined all offers in an attempt to make the theme park the only place in which the drink can be bought. In doing so, Universal Studios has created exclusivity for Butterbeer. If you want some, you're going to have to go to Orlando to get it. If You Brew It, They Will Come Having a product or service that is exclusive to your business is a very powerful word of mouth marketing tool. It gi...

Yes, I'm Talking About Yo Mama Saha is a fine dining, Arabic fusion restaurant in San Francisco. Everything about the place is classy — the food, the atmosphere, and the service. Yet, Saha has an item on their dessert menu called "Slap Yo Mama" (see photo of the menu on the right). When I asked our server why the dessert was called Slap Yo Mama, she said, "Because after you try it, you'll slap yo mama for never cooking it for you when you were younger." Hilarious! We tried it and it was delicious. And anybody who tries it will tell all of his friends about it (just like I'm telling you). It's memorable, catchy, and just the right kind of silly. Add This to Your To-Do List Even if you work for the most buttoned-up organization in existence (well, maybe except for the IRS), you can always find some small way to do something a little different -- perhaps even a little silly -- to get people talking about you. Clever things are just so much more memo...