Posts Tagged ‘photography’

Thank You Readers! Thank You World!

Posted: 25 June, 2012 in Public Speaking
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Thank You Readers! Thank You World!

I want to first say thank you to everyone who shared a link or tweeted my blog or re-blogged my post and most importantly, everyone who downloaded my books on Amazon! I cannot be thankful enough for that! This weekend has been the best for me since the time I published my books!

I had made a promise the first day of the giveaways to let you all know how everything transpired and now I wanna honor the same! Here is the breakdown: On the first day, hundreds and hundreds of readers downloaded my books. What surprised me was this observation: readers in the UK, Germany and Spain downloaded more copies of my second book [Across The River] than my first book [My Life Sentences - A True Story]. That was turned upside down on the last day!

In North America however, more and I mean more than a thousand readers downloaded my first book [My Life Sentences - A True Story] more than my second book [Across The River]. Personally, I have no conclusion as to why that happened but one thing is for sure; the outcome was epic!

Sometimes I look through pages of my books and cannot believe my eyes what I see! I normally ask myself, how on earth did I even write that? Of course the answer is, well, a smile and a feeling of happiness inside. The fact is this: those books would mean nothing without those who go to Amazon and download them and most importantly, read from chapter to chapter! Thank you so much!

Last but not least, I reached another milestone which might be tempting to ignore but equally important! The total visitors to my blog reached 4,000 and within two days, it is now over 5,000! That is humbling! Sometimes I run out of stuff to post but when I think about my eager readers, I just get off the couch and do something..right? That is the spirit! (I started this blog a little over two months ago).

Why did I choose to write books anyway? It all started when I was in high school……NO! I will not extend this longer than it is already, I care about your time! See you next time! Thank you and stay in the path of your dreams, so that when time comes, you will be ready to catch the vision!

Please remember to subscribe to my blog on the right of this page(Home)! If you have questions on writing and publishing books, don’t hesitate to ask me through the comments section. I will respond to them with your value in my mind! Adieus! Peace!!

You can still download my books My Life Sentences – A True Story and Across The River ! Cheers!

 

This is written by Elisha Chirchir

elisha.java@gmail.com

 

Game on: Sports Marketing in the Social Media Arena

Posted: 26 March, 2012 in Social Media
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Moderator: Mitch Germann (@MCG5) Vice President @EdelmanDigital, Seattle

Daniel Hour (@DHourUW) Manager of New Media & Recruiting Services @UWAthletics

Jeff Richards (@JeffRichardsSea) Director of Marketing @Seahawks and @soundersfc

Gregg Greene (@RealGregg) Director of Marketing @Mariners

Carrie Krueger (@carriekrueger) Director of Communication @seattlestorm

“Twitter is kind of like being at a party – the first and most important thing is to listen.” Gregg Greene, Director of Marketing with the Mariners, knows that in order to reach your customers and fans, you need to be aware of how they use social media to interact with your business. Your brand has a unique opportunity in the social media age to reach out directly to consumers through various digital media sources. Taking the approach of listening and then responding will not only meet your audience’s needs but will engage them in a way that can build loyalty and word-of-mouth growth. Be cautious of who your brand ambassadors are. When making posts or responding on social media, be fully aware that “Once it’s out there, even if you delete it later, it doesn’t fully go away,” advised Gregg.

A “Twitter fit” Carrie Krueger advises, should be handled right away and with a personal touch. If a fan is at your event and has a bad experience, it’s quite likely they will quickly be vocal about it on Twitter right in that moment. If you have a brand ambassador monitoring your feed and interacting with attendees, you can actually reach that fan and offer a solution immediately. “It’s important to be responsible and proactive, it helps keep people engaged,” said Carrie. Also, the proactive approach will impress your existing customers and you’re more likely to create brand evangelists because of your quick and thoughtful solutions.

As these sports marketing pros use social media to reach out to their audience, they are keenly aware of the impact they may or may not be having through their online interactions. When Mitch Germann, Vice President at Edelman Digital asked about the shift in marketing from traditional media to digital media, Gregg Green said, “Yes, we are shifting from traditional to digital media. The Mariners were the first team in the nation to have a website, the first team to broadcast online, and the very first team to sell game tickets online.”

The Mariners organization was quite innovative when compared to its peers in being willing to utilize digital media in its infancy. Gregg shared a great story about the first person to purchase the very first online ticket for a Mariners game. After the transaction was complete, Ticketmaster called the purchaser to ask what had made the individual want to buy their ticket online. The purchaser’s response? “I don’t like talking to people on the phone and I don’t like talking to you!” … and he hung up!

Digital media is providing many solutions for customers on many levels! Another fun idea the Mariners now offer during games is their @MarinersDJ Twitter handle that allows fans to send song requests to be played at breaks during home games. It’s free, easy to use, and encourages the fans to stay engaged! Striving for great concepts that you can utilize within your brand is key to standing out and staying relevant.

“Your branding through social media should be measured through a dollars and cents analytic,” advised Jeff Richards. “However you do that, it’s important.” Find out what your audience is and is not responding to and revise tactics accordingly. If certain posts aren’t getting much attention or very many “likes” — try a different strategy. Jeff is working on an idea to begin having the Seahawks and Sounders players make announcements through digital media and have them involved in breaking news to their fans. He believes that this select touch will help their organizations reach their audience on a personal level and will engage them as well.

Daniel Hour believes that the University of Washington’s website is different from many other collegiate websites in the nation. The focus is to use recruiting content as the base makeup of UW’s online presence. They want to reach out to the best student athletes in the nation and believe that by merging content to reach fans, as well as those athletes, they are able to effectively serve the UW’s sports programs.

As a large organization, Daniel also believes that when engaging with fans through social media, it’s important to maintain the voice of the “brand” and not the brand ambassadors personally. This has helped them stay focused on proper content and abide by the written policy UW has regarding the use of social media for its organization.

In all, these pros feel it’s important to add some “color” to tweets, have fun engaging your fans and followers, and pay attention to your content. Brand loyalty can grow tenfold using great and engaging content strategy and social media can bring a personal touch to your business or organization. Whether you are a sole entrepreneur, a medium- or large-sized company, or a giant organization — utilizing social media platforms to engage with your customers can have a brand-building impact that will have lasting results.

As a small business owner, I am finding that incorporating my personality into my social media outreach greatly benefits me in the same way that large organizations benefit from adding a personal touch to their brand interaction with fans and followers. In this game of life, though we interact via computers to a large extent, people are still human and crave personable interaction. I have found Twitter, Facebook, and other social media sites to be a conversational “at bat” I hit out into the virtual park and bring into home plate with an eventual in-person exchange.

It was a pleasure listening to these local sports marketing authorities talk about their social media game plan. I am happy to be not only a fan, but also a social media player.

Special thanks to Jill Hashimoto, Safeco Director of Private Event Sales & Marketing and the the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce for hosting this sports marketing social media event!

~written by Trishann Couvillion (@fire_eyes) Fire Eyes Photography ~ Corporate & Special Event Photographer, Nationwide. http://www.fireeyesphotography.com

About trcouvillion

Best corporate event photographer and business & head shots photographer in Seattle. Many top Seattle and Silicon Valley companies work with Trishann Couvillion of Fire Eyes Photography. Well-known individuals such as Steve Ballmer (CEO and President of Microsoft), Dennis Miller, Christopher Gardner, Michael Lewis and many others have been photographed by Ms. Couvillion. Check out her corporate website @ http://www.fireeyesphotography.com

VMS-Washignton – Social Media, Part Two … Tell Me a Story

Posted: 21 March, 2012 in Business, Social Media
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On Tuesday, I shared the first installment of my article recounting Social Media Day  — an event sponsored by the teams at GTX Marketing and Fresh Consulting. I was honored to share the piece not only with my readers, but also folks like Mike Whitmore and Kathy Ireland. I was thrilled to see Part One circulating on Twitter and shared via friends on Facebook. Once again, the themes put forth at Social Media Day were brought home to my front door. If you share it, they will come.

When we re-convened after lunch, Jenny Kuglin (@jenkuglin) content manager and social media maven for Fisher Interactive, shared a story about news anchor, Kathi Goertzen. Kathi’s story highlighted the human connection people associate with a brand. In this case,KOMO News and Fisher Communications. Kathi had been off-air for some time in recent years as she battled (and continues to fight) a brain tumor. Kathi was hesitant to return to a place in front of the camera due to disfigurement from her disease. Jenny knew that people were curious about Kathi so the communications team at Fisher helped Kathi launch a Facebook page, which as of this article, has over 71,600 fans. She can also be found on YouTube, Twitter (@InspireHopeCure), and via her website. Nothing tangible is being exchanged, but Kathi has a story to share and people want to hear it. Content is king.

Though, in the words of Rod Brooks (@NW_Mktg_Guy) “Content is gold. Kings die; gold lives forever.” The theme of the afternoon was story and Jenny, Rod, and Paul Anderson(@ProLango) did a wonderful job of introducing the sociable side of social interaction. Yes, we were all on social media because we run businesses or work for companies where marketing and social presence matter. But few of us participate in social media with the intent to NOT make friends, as many of us enjoy when our interactions move off-screen to the in-person realm.

Rod stated, he is 90% personality, 10% business when it comes to social media. His advice, “Bring yourself to work.” Be genuine. Travel. Engage with the world. Be quirky and interesting. Rod talked about the wild success of the Northwest Profiles series of commercials and cards based on stereotypical Northwest personality types. Pemco realized that people didn’t necessarily want to talk about insurance, but you know what? “People want to talk about the neighbors,” said Rod. That became the key to Pemco’s marketing success and social amiability.

Jen, this time Jen Houston (@JHouston89) of Waggener Edstrom’s dynamic communications team, stepped on stage and delivered another talk relevant to the theme of story. “Content is the currency of influence,” said Jen. People still desire eye contact and human connection. Among her many morsels of social media advice, “Be a content guerrilla.” Pics, travel, drawings on napkins — capture your life and essence of who you are — this is your brand and your story. Know who your audience is and track where those people are. Monitor your brand and be engaging. “Nuance is necessary to engage.” Choose the channel that  best allows you to tell your nuanced story and bring value to your audience.

Jeff Dance (@Jeffdance) of Fresh Consulting delivered a talk about creativity and storytelling. Logging ideas is good for our brain. Drawing images is also good for our brain. Basically, we should strive to engage in a dance that complements both hemispheres of our brain. (Think  of the “Liger” from the famous movie, Napolean Dynamite.) People are craving meaning and simplification — and people remember stories. Where can we tell our stories, beyond the social media platforms discussed up to this point? In the About Us page on our websites. On WordPress analytics, the About Us page was the #1 most-visited page besides the homepage. Customers want to know who you are and what you bring to the proverbial table. Jeff closed with the sage advice, “Be educational, be useful, be entertaining … or be ignored.”

Heidi Miller (@heidimiller) was the final guest speaker and imparted valuable wisdom about the social media exchange. “Be yourself, share a picture of yourself, and don’t be a jerk,” she advised. Heidi reiterated what Rod had said — there’s no need to be all business. Share your integrated self, ask questions and engage in conversation with others. Don’t delete comments — EVER! As mentioned by Mike and other panelists — you must monitor your brand your social presence constantly. If an issue should arise via your social media network, one to two hours for a response is ideal, but more than twenty-four hours is too long. Heidi illustrated examples of TSA and Domino’s Pizza properly responding to customer feedback via a very public platform. There are polite ways to engage with even the most angry customer and your image depends on your response and handling of a situation.

Social Media Day was a blast to attend and and honor to photograph. I gained so much valuable information that my assistant and I have been working overtime trying to implement all the tidbits, buttons, and tags that we learned that sunny afternoon last weekend. Technology is changing the world we live in and I welcome the opportunity to keep up and engage. Thank you for reading and “walking with me” as Kathy Ireland stated at the event. If content is gold, I am feeling pretty golden right now and I can’t wait to share more stories, photos, and backs of napkins from my upcoming travels and photo shoots. If you’re new to Twitter, remember to follow the people mentioned in this piece (via the links provided or “@” symbol after their name). Of course, you can find me onFacebook, YouTube, Twitter, and Pinterest.

Catch you on the social side.

~Trishann Couvillion (@fire_eyes) Fire Eyes Photography

About trcouvillion

Best Corporate Event Photographer and Business & Headshots Photographer in Seattle. Event Photography for many top Seattle and Silicon Valley companies work with Trishann Couvillion of Fire Eyes Photography and well known individuals such as Steve Ballmer; CEO and President of Microsoft, Dennis Miller, Christopher Gardner, Michael Lewis and many others have been photographed by her. Check out her Corporate Website @ http://www.fireeyesphotography.com