Droid Photo a Day - Jan. 11th. 2 Beauties

I had a lovely lunch with Christine and Molly today.  

Cross Processing on PicPlz.com

Fly On a Wall

I recently had lunch with two of my favorite people in and out of social media ... Zena Weist (H&R Block) and Christine Hamele (Parris Communications).  We met up at Smashburger in Leawood.  It was a lovely day and one of the few over the last two weeks that wasn't raining.   Some how, some way, these two wonderful Kansas City ladies had never met.  It was my pleasure to introduce them.

Right away through regular ol' conversation, they rattled off a half a dozen names of people they had in common and had worked with.  Over the course of the next hour and 40 minutes, they engaged in some wonderful social media/marketing/public relations related conversations that left me feeling crazy fortunate to witness.   Of course they were inclusive with me during these discussions, but I didn't want to muck up the quality.  So I was the quietest I may have been in a very long time.

These are two great minds sharing ideas, experiences and opportunities...   would I have looked ridiculous taking notes?  I really wanted to.  I smiled ear to ear, like the village idiot and soaked up all the goodness they were providing. I was the happiest fly on a wall.

If you want to meet some great minds in Kansas City too, the Social Media Club of Kansas City has done an incredible job of pulling like minded folks together.  It's FREE... check them out.

Thanks Christine for treating us!  Here's our delish spread at Smashburger...

Looking at Regular Things in Different Ways Through Social Media

Big chunks of sea glass... in an ornamental bowl.  Beautiful.  Two rather ordinary things, but putting the glass in the bowl makes it somehow... better.  Much better.  I've been getting subtle hints like this for the last few weeks all around me.  

Like these baseballs in the cage.  I don't know what kind of cage it is... but I like it. I like the small squares mixed with the spheres in the rectangle box.  There's something in the psyche that tells my brain, it's a WIN.

A Christmas tinsel tree as a Valentine tree.  Since my Christmas tree is still up (yes... it really is) I'm thinking this might be more possible this year than ever before.  LOL!

A grey bowl with tarnished silver.  It works... it's beautiful. The combination is pleasing and the colors are calming.  Seperate though, I'm not sure I would have noticed either.

The photos above came from a recent antique show I attended with my crafting maven friend, Amy Barickman.  I enjoyed the show immensly because the vendors are extremely savvy in how they merchandise their products.  Using them in different ways and in different combinations and forcing you to take a second look and recognize the beauty.  Social media kind of does the same thing with regular businesses using branding and marketing in new and different ways.

So... I had one of my clients use social media to play ordinary games on a social network.  A guessing game and a trivia question. Two types of games that have been around since dirt.  @johnnystavernpv asked on Twitter, "For a $25 gift card to us, what year was Johnny's Tavern in Lawrence, established?"    Winner... @Chrissa21 with 1953. Second question... "For a $10 gift card, how many fingers am I holding up?"   Yes... I really asked that. LOL! My children were with me as credible witnesses and @mvanbaale won with his guess of "2". The responses and participation was much better than expected.  37 Players, total of 54 tweets by followers and non followers using @johnnystavernpv name, 12 new followers gained, $35 spent... all within 14 minutes of playing time.   Simply because we took something average and by using it via social media, made it shiny and new again. 

Try it in your business... or in your decor'.  Tell me how that works for you.