by Lauren Huston on May 14, 2013
I’ve written quite a few blog posts about social media etiquette. I don’t believe any of them have been geared towards business owners, though. Why not? I made an incorrect assumption that business owners would never torch their own brand through a public temper tantrum via social media. Why would they? That doesn’t make any sense to me.
That seems to be exactly what Samy and Amy Bouzaglo are doing to their restaurant, Amy’s Baking Company Bakery Boutique & Bistro, though. The Bouzaglos are in the middle of a full-fledged meltdown and if they manage to stay in business after this, I will be shocked (but stranger things have happened). I’m going to assume that the restaurant’s Facebook page will be taken down at some point in the near future and the link in the earlier part of this sentence will lead to a dead end. However, their public rants will forever be [click to continue…]
by Lauren Huston on April 24, 2013
I need to manage the pressure that I’ve put on myself over the past two days. Less than 48 hours ago, I entered a social media competition to win New York Rangers tickets or gear. I’m a huge New York Rangers fan so winning would be absolutely amazing. This is something that I want for personal reasons but as the contest relies solely on my Facebook and Twitter influence, it’s also become a test of what I can do professionally.
I have no analytics. The people hosting the contest have those. I have no information other than how many points I have and where my name falls on the scoreboard. I know that I earn points based upon the number of people who view the links that I post about the contest but I don’t know how I’m doing in comparison with the people who are currently in the top spots. I don’t know what my pace is compared to the other contestants. I don’t know where I stand but I’ve stopped thinking about my competitors [click to continue…]
by Lauren Huston on April 5, 2013
I was going to post an abbreviated version of this piece as an update on my Facebook page but I realized that what I have to say would probably be too long for a status update. In case you don’t know, when you go on and on and on with what you write on Facebook, people tend to scroll right over your post. I didn’t want that to happen!
When I first started blogging, I was buried by blogging tips, suggestions, and information. I wondered how I would ever absorb it all. I immersed myself in learning how to blog (from creating a concept, to writing, to publishing as flawlessly as I could) and I apply what I have learned to each and every article that I write, whether it be for one of my own sites or for someone else’s.
When I was new to blogging, I received the same piece of [click to continue…]
by Lauren Huston on March 25, 2013
Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, there was a girl who bought a Keurig brewing system. She loved her Keurig as it brought her caffeinated goodness quite reliably each and every day. The girl was very particular about her coffee, though. She did not like her coffee to taste the same any two days in a row. This meant that she had to shop! She had to buy different coffee flavors AND different flavors of coffee creamers to fulfill the requirements of her habits. There was vanilla! There was gingerbread! There was hazelnut! There was pumpkin spice! There was caramel! Each day brought a new combination of coffees and creamers and, as I said above, the combination was never, ever the same two days in a row. Some might have called the girl neurotic but she liked to think of herself as purposefully methodical.
There are many different types of coffee brands that make K-Cups to be brewed in a Keurig system. The girl, in the far away land (also known as New Jersey), tried many of them and decided that she strongly preferred Green [click to continue…]
by Lauren Huston on March 8, 2013
I have been using Google Voice with increased frequency and I love it. When somebody leaves me a voicemail, Google sends me a transcript of what the person said. That transcript comes to my email address and I can also find it in the Google Voice app on my iPhone. This is a great feature for times when I can read an email but can’t listen to a message. It’s actually quite nifty.
Another Google Voice feature that I like is that you can block certain people from reaching you. If you don’t want a particular number contacting you, you can go into your Contacts on your computer and tell Google Voice that the number in question should go to voicemail, go to spam, or be blocked. You read that last sentence correctly. You can mark certain callers as spam on your computer. Anyway, if a caller is blocked and that person calls again, he or she will receive a message saying that the phone number they have dialed is not in service. This is a function that [click to continue…]
