Disney World

Who Doesn’t Love to Go To Disney World?

Just about one year ago today I was posting about Disney World on a trip with Murphy USA and Collective Bias.  This post was originally posted on my Chat with Sandy blog on 1/30/11. Enjoy the sites of Disney again.

I was asked to attend the Murphy USA National Manager Meeting in Orlando FL (Disney world Coronado Springs resort to be exact) this last week, you might have seen my last post.

They asked six blogger to go to their meeting so we could help educate and sign up their mangers with whrrl and discuss how social media could benefit their business.

We were all paired up with a manager from Murphy USA that we would be traveling with. We were asked to be sure to take lots of pictures and whrrl them along the way. I was paired up with a manager from my area and met her at the airport. Jennifer Davis was my manager.

I had no idea there were 40 Murphy USA gas stations in Ohio. I only know of 2, one in Newark in front of the Walmart and one in Whitehall.  (I’ve not been to that one)

We arrived in Orlando and were all staying at the Coronado Springs Resort. There is a convention center attached to it, so it was perfect. It was so beautiful.

We had a meet and greet with some of the managers before dinner the first night. I am not sure if it was the regional managers, but it wasn’t a huge group (and there were over 1000 managers there). I know the president Hank Heithaus was there and the new president Tom (from Scotland) was there. Hank is retiring and just announced it. This picture was at one of the general sessions where Hank (left) is basically saying goodbye and introducing Tom on the right.

Their theme was “We The People” because they were making sure their managers knew that it was all of them that made Murphy USA successful.

Jay Staggs who I had a picture of in my last post, was in charge of running the show.  They had a good time with it, bringing in Tammy and Tommy through out the conference along with “their parents” for comic relief.

They had a speaker Peter Wahl do a speech/painting… lol  He is a motivational speaker and he painted these 3 paintings during his talk. He would have a music video on the screen while he was painting (in like 2 min) these paintings. He used his fingers (Bruce Springsteen’s hair) and spattered paint… really incredible to watch.

Each of us bloggers had to work a 2 hour shift in the Murphy Whrrl booth in the expo hall on Tuesday. It was a lot of fun. Teaching the mangers how to sign up for Whrrl and helping to try to get them to understand how it could help their business. This was my manger Jennifer on the left.  She had been signed up for FB already and I think even signed up for whrrl.. or did it at the airport. But she was all for it and was great to travel down with. We ended up not getting to really see each other much once we were there. It was crazy for both of us.

We had managers signing up via their smart phones, via text on their phones, or by computer. They could also sign up for a Facebook or Twitter account.

Melissa Garcia from the Consumer Queen had several managers recognize her from her picture being on the pumps or her fun Murphy videos.  Ok.. Melissa on the left.  The Red Strike girl on the right.

John Kim from Whrrl was there to help the managers and he also helped me… as usual with my problematic phone.

The managers could win a $50 gas cards and chances to win this autographed  Slash guitar worth over $900 just for signing up and checking into Whrrl.

I took this picture of Casey from Murphy USA with the Slash guitar and then posted it to Whrrl.  The screen it came up on was just outside the booth in the expo hall.

We had time to go and check out the rest of the expo hall. It was really huge and there were a lot of fun things to do. Wii games were set up, prizes to win… hippies to see

Mars candy and Wrigley’s were there in a both together. Neither of them knew much at all about social media or how it could help their business.  Melissa and I talked to them about it and told them bloggers would love to work with them!

I mean.. really? Who doesn’t love M&M’s?  They had a new candy bar for us to try, actually 2.  There was the new 3 Musketeers Truffle Crisp and the Peanut Butter Snickers.

Here is my verdict.  Loved the 3 Musketeers.  I was actually surprised. Well… I mean I love # Musketeers anyway, but when I first broke it in half. It didn’t seem gooey and it almost seemed… well…boring inside. But… I took a bite and it was so light and it was like the chocolate was so creamy and just filled the whole taste. I loved it!  It gave you the feeling of Dove chocolate (not sure if I should say that or not… but that chocolate is about my favorite.. so it is a big compliment) creamy and light… oh… I WILL be buying more of these. Just not in high numbers since I have really been trying to not eat as many sweets.

I tried 1/2 of the Snickers bar. It was actually in 2 square pieces, so unlike a normal Snickers. I ate half on the plane on the way home and was saving the other half to take a picture of when we got home. But …. my dog found it first in my purse. Oh yeah.. nice.  It was good… the peanut butter wasn’t over powering. But do I think I would pick it over a traditional Snickers… no, probably not. I love the regular Snickers too much.

Here are the 2 reps that were in the booth. Nice guys, but they need to realize how social media can  help them!

Wrigley was giving out packs of their new gum – Prism.

There are 15 pieces of sugarless gum in the pack. This was electric watermelon. I will tell you what. The smell of watermelon is strong, you can smell it as soon as you take the wrapper off the box.  The green foil that wraps the piece of gum looked kind of cool too. Different you know? My mouth was watering before I put the piece of gum in. I thought it was really going to be a gum for kids…. sour and all. But it wasn’t. As strong as the smell was, the taste was nice. I mean it was totally watermelon, but not a sour one. It is good… and with just a hint of that gum mint to it after you chew it for a little bit. (does that make sense).  I know the kids will love it, but it is a refreshing favor for adults.

There were ICEE’s there. I love Icee’s! I have always liked the Coke best. They are coming out with Root Beer float and a blueberry one (oops forget the name of it). I tried the root beer. It is awesome! It really tastes like a float. The foaminess of the Icee is just the right consistency.  I do have a new favorite favor.  You will have to watch for them to be released. (Try the root beer!!)

Dr. Pepper was there… giving away guitars and pictures with a couple cute girls.  What did I like? They had diet Dr. Pepper. It is one of my favorites. Really nice people too… also learning about social media and how it could benefit them. (Yes…. I had 2 diet Dr. Peppers that afternoon.. although there were other drinks I could have picked from.)

Are you used to seeing gas pump handles?  I wasn’t.. I thought they were cool.

What about a full size gas semi?  I wanted to get in and see the cab… but I didn’t.

John Andrews from Collective Bias was there. This is who these people need to talk to about social Media.. he knows first hand how the power of bloggers and social media can benefit the Brands. (That is what Collective Bias is all about)

The announced to the whole group of managers that they were taking us all to Disney World on Monday evening. That was about 3:30 and we had about 45 minutes to get ready to be on the buses.

I got to have dinner with the Collective Bias team that was there, Jerra and John and also with Casey from Murphy USA and John Kim from Whrrl. Also Kerry and Kristine from Nomadic were there.

Us bloggers ran around together at Disney. Mel Lockcuff from MamaBuzz and Leigh Caldwell from Theme Park Mom

Along with Courtney Solstad from My DFW Mommy and Melissa Garcia from Consumer Queen Jerri Ann from Mom~e~Centric was on the trip but didn’t come to Disney.

Mel introduced us to Dole Whip.. it was good.

I also got a picture with Eeyore. what fun!  I don’t know… I guess there is still kid in all of us!

Jerra from Collective Bias looked so cute with Piglet.

We had a full day on Tuesday and they announced all the Murphy USA Circle of Winners. After that they again surprised everyone with a trip to Sea World. I felt terrible because it was pouring rain, and storming.  But they had rented out half of Sea World and 2 roller coaster (announcing there were 2 coaster got a bigger whoop out of everyone than telling them they were going to Sea World).
I didn’t go. Even if it was beautiful outside, my feet hurt so bad (I’m such a wimp) and I hadn’t had a chance to get work done that I need to get done on my computer. So I took the evening off and had a wonderful dinner with Mel and Leigh..and then went back to my room and relaxed.

Thanks so much Murphy USA, Collective Bias and Whrrl.. it was great fun!

Disclosure: My trip was sponsored by Murphy USA and Collective Bias.

Twitter Party Tutorial

 See & Hear About Twitter Parties, But Not Sure How?

Twitter parties can be really crazy and fast.  I think mine will be a good one to start with.  It won’t be as big as some of the others.  But I did want to give a little help for those of you who are new.  I have my tutorial and there are a couple links for other tutorials that might be of great help too.

There are many different avenues you can use to follow a twitter party. I am going to show you my favorite.  I use Tweetgrid.com

The reason being is that I can see several screens going on at once.

Step 1:  Go to Tweetgrid.com and look at your options.

The 1×1 and 1×2 are the number of columns across and down.  I like the 1×4.  Single columns – 4 across.. It is lower on the page and I have it highlighted.  But see what you are comfortable with.

There are helpful links at the top of the Tweetgrid page that can help you too.  Here is the 1×4 tweetgrid set up.  See… just 1 column down and 4 across.

You can delete the info in the “tweet” area at the top.  Then fill in #MonopolyStreet (or what ever your hashtag for your twitter party is – if you are looking at this for another twitter party) This way you don’t have to keep adding the hashtag for every tweet and that saves a lot of time.

Filling out the column headers

Column #1 – Delete the current info in that header (I think it is like @twitter) Put in your hashtag #MonopolyStreets   and hit “Search”   This will now show you every tweet that is being tweeted that has the #MonopolyStreet hashtag in it…so you can follow our party.

2nd column - You can add @OrganizerSandy in there.  You will be able to follow my tweets and it will also show you ppl who are tweeting me.

3rd column – Add @EAPlay there.  That is the Brand following for EA Games/Hasbro who will be joining us tonight.

4th column – This is where you will put your own twitter name @(and your name).  This way you can see if someone is talking directly to you.

After you have this filled out you have to log in (or you can log in before filling this out too) Look right above the columns and underneath where you tweet your message from.  You will see user … look over to “log in”.  Click that.

Hit “allow” and it will take you back to your tweetgrid page. You name will then be in the “user” space. You are ready to go.

I will be tweeting out several questions.  They will be labeled Q1, Q2 etc…  This is discussion.  This is not going to be a race to answer the question type of twitter party.  So relax….

I’d love it if you would RT the questions too.

I will be picking winners 2 at a time.  I will use Random.org to pick the winners.  It will be off the rsvp list.  I will check to make sure that person is actually attending the party. So even if you are overwhelmed…be sure to do some tweeting so that I know you are here.

You won’t be able to read every tweet – things move fast.  Just do your best, follow what you can and look for the questions to answer.

Twitter Tips

Eleven Important Twitter Tips

Twitter is something that some people love and use all the time, or something that people just don’t get.  I didn’t get it at first either. But soon realized the reach and potential it could give me.  

Working recently with Ted Rubin for cbSocially I have learned a lot of things that I didn’t know from Ted.  I did know that you need to engage and talk on Twitter and I strive to always be positive.  I do not like to use twitter to grip. There might be a time and a place it is appropriate, I’m not saying that – but I do not like to engage in “fighting” on twitter. Not cool.

Engaging with others is key!
Twitter is a two way street… it isn’t a one way street meant for you to just shout your message out and not pay attention to anyone else is writing.No         one wants someone shouting at them all the time. If you only tweet out YOUR stuff, that is what you are doing.  Talk to them. Respond!

Be Positive!
Be encouraging, inspiring and up beat.  Who wants to hear someone complain all the time?

Use Their Name 
Look for the person’s name in their profile. Use it when thanking them. Thanks Sandy for the RT!  It is much more personal.

Keep Your Tweets Shorter than 140!
If your tweets are less than 122 characters, it is easy to RT them. If the other person has to take the time to shorten a tweet, chances are
they won’t take the time to RT the message.

Don’t ever begin your tweet with the @ sign! 
If you do, then it doesn’t go into the main stream. It only goes into the stream of the person you are addressing.  Use a word or RT, or if nothing
else use a period before the @ sign. For instance  .@OrganizerSandy

Respond to Every Tweet Directed To You.  
Thank them for their RT’s.  Say Your Welcome if they are thanking you for following them. In real life you would respond, if someone
was speaking to you… So respond! (If the tweet is inappropriate I do not respond. If nasty I will unfollow or block that person)

 Do Not Use the RT Button on Twitter!
It will not show up in Your stream. Copy & paste if you are on Twitter. This way you get the added benefit of your tweet being seen again by your followers. More traffic, means higher klout scores. On Tweetdeck, HOotsuite or Seesmic make sure it is set “Old Style RT”
You want every tweet to help in your stats.

Using a Hashtag 
If you have a group that you follow that uses a # then be sure to use it. We are using the #cbias  for our community. Why? Because it is a way
to easily identify the tweets our community members tweet.  RT’ing each other is simple and builds relationships. Being able to find your
friends tweets is simple and will increase your chances of engagement.

Don’t Over Use Hashtags    
When someone sees a tweet with 3 or 4 hashtags in it, it is only a turn off. Limit hashtags to one or two at most.

Follow Back 
Follow back those that follow you.  I don’t follow the spammers, porn, foul mouthed or languages I don’t understand ; but I try to follow everyone
else. Your tweet goes into their stream and is seen by their followers.  Why wouldn’t you want to follow back as many people as you could? Plus
if someone is trying to grow their handles (like I’ve been doing with the cbSocially handles) then they will unfollow those who do not follow
them back.

DM & Validation services
I have become really frustrated with DM’s.  I rarely use that feature anymore and don’t even check it often.  It has become just full of spam and auto DM’s.  Auto DM’s are where people have read somewhere that it is a good idea to send out an automatic message to anyone that follows them.  They have also been told.. better yet link up your blog or your FB page because then everyone will follow you there too. In my personal opinion I think that is terrible advice.  I will not click on any link that is DM’d to me unless I actually know and trust the person. There is too much spam.  It has totally taken over my direct message box to the point I don’t use it anymore. Sad.   As for the validation services, they are a pain. I do not take the time to go in and click a link and put in a code in order to follow you.  Really? What are you really validating…. that you are a person and not spammer? To me it is almost another piece of spam. Again… fail in my personal opinion.  

If you are starting a new twitter handle, a good way to get conversation going is to thank your followers.  Use their name, make a comment about something on their twitter page or blog link.

The most important thing to remember  is to talk to others on twitter… don’t shout out your one way message. Put your message out there, but respond, be a real person. If no one actually talked to anyone on twitter and only put their “commercial” out there.. would you use it?  Would you watch TV is there were no shows, just commercials? I don’t think so.

I’m @OrganizerSandy on twitter. Would love to have you follow.

 

My Blog is Back!

Evidently I Was Linked To A Site That Was Being Blocked

My site has been down since October 4th.  I guess some people could get into it, I was still receiving some comments etc.  My blog designer worked on it for over a week before I heard back from her. She said she couldn’t find anything. She went through all kinds of files and finally deleted WP and reinstalled and had to reinstall all my plugins.

Then I had to go through the process of submitting it to Google for reapproval.  I’ll tell you what, this is where my “untech” comes in and I get so frustrated.  I’m trying to find how to do this and I kept getting information pages, I was looking for a form. Then it came up that I didn’t have my sites verified. What? Are you kidding? I’ve done that!  Ding Dong me finally realized that I was signed into the wrong Gmail as I was checking all of this.

Finally figured out how to submit it and waited….but nothing.  I waited over 48 hours and then contacted Chris from where I work. He got in and looked at it and said, “Do you have a link to Standard Post Card .com”   I said, “No, I’ve never heard of that”.  But I went into my site ( I could still get in the back end of my blog the whole time) and decided to check a button I had in my sponsor spot. They had paid for a spot months ago.  But it was for PS Sprint.  First thought was… nope.. that isn’t it.  But I looked at the html code of the link and guess what! Yep…. it had that Standard ….  link in it!!  I was SO excited!  I deleted it Chris resubmitted to Google for me and I’m up about 12 hours later!!

I wanted to let you all know just in case any of you have issues, be sure to check your widgets and links.  I’m so thankful he was able to help me!

cbSocially

cbSocially and Collective Bias

I’ve had several people ask me for some more specifics on what my new job is about, or what I actually do.

Collective Bias has a corporate office in Bentonville, AR and will soon have one in NYC. Here’s a description taken from www.CollectiveBias.com to describe what they do.

“Collective Bias facilitates the creation of real shopper media by connecting groups of social media influencers to the brands and retailers they use in their daily lives. Our Social Fabric™ community drives conversations on a wide variety of social media platforms in order to build consumer engagement and brand loyalty that ultimately lead to sales conversion.”   

The community of over 1,100 bloggers is called Social Fabric .  It is in Social Fabric that we maintain all of our communication with the bloggers.  Shops that are needed are posted, the blogger is able to pick and choose what shops or activities are applicable for them.  We don’t send products to the bloggers for review, which is very typically what you see in most communities. CB sends the bloggers out to shop for the actual products, so the entire purchasing process can be noted by the blogger.  Did they have trouble finding something? Was it on sale? Did they see something they preferred better etc..

So what do I do?  Well, CB has been growing so fast and doing so well that they brought in Ted Rubin as the Chief Social Marketing Officer.  Ted  and John Andrews founded what is now called cb.Socially which is a new division of CB.  cb.Socially is the engagement and outreach component that will use Twitter, Facebook and other venues to develop or amplify the Brands.

I am the Social Marketing Manager for cb.Socially.  I currently am running the 16 twitter accounts we have, cbSocially FB page and helping with CB’s FB page.

It may not sound like much, but I’ve been putting in an average of 12 hour days (6 days a week) to keep up. Working on growing the twitter accounts each day, collecting and modifying the tweets – running a group within Social Fabric with over 200 bloggers and a number of other duties that are required (won’t bore you with them all) is timely.

I’m loving it though!!!  Being able to watch the growth and knowing that what I am doing is helping the Brands, helping our bloggers (because we ask them for tweets on their blogs) and helping CB is awesome.  I’ve been wanting to work for CB for over 2 years and I’m thrilled to now be working my dream job!

Yes….I’m just like you!  I want to “do it all” but I have to realize that with many things in life – something has to give.   My blogs are going to be what is the “give” for me right now, so hang in there with me!

Life takes many paths and curves. Who would have thought I would have a full time social media job three years ago when I began blogging?  Isn’t it cool?

Here is a list of the twitter accounts I’m running. These twitter accounts have from 2,600 to over 14,000 followers on them. I’d love for you to follow them and chat with me!!

@cbsocially
@cblifestyle
@cbglamour
@cbpets
@cbgardening
@cbGoGreen
@cb_Tech
@cb_family
@cbDIY
@cbTraveling
@cbHealthy
@cb_Food
@cb_Deals
@cbEntertaining
@couchcritics
@OrganizerSandy