Connie Bensen

Thanksgiving is a time to reflect & express appreciation for what we have:

Adam Darowski tagged me on a meme to express 7 things I’m thankful for.

1. I’m thankful for my family & my daughter’s boyfriend. It’s great that our family is growing.

2. Our pets provide comfort & entertainment at times.

3. I’m very fortunate to have worked with THE best people both at the library. And now my co-workers in my present job are wonderful too.

4. I’m very appreciative of having the opportunity to work as a community manager.

5. My network of friends online is invaluable in providing ideas, support & challenging me to keep growing. There is so much to learn in the social media & marketing space.

6. I’m quite thankful to have the opportunity to travel & experience new things.

7. Last but not least, I’m thankful for my growing number of blog readers. You guys are so motivating!

What are you thankful for?

With Thanksgiving just around the corner I want to mention how thankful I am for this new direction in my life. I talk a lot about networking, branding, etc but what is the result?

Lee Hopkins from down under created the graphic & merged me with the ACDSee brand. (In time I will get an ACDSee orange friendly photo!) He provided a specific example of one of my goals: to regain past customers (bring them back into the fold as he suggests). Existing customers & new ones are important too, but past customers are particularly important to me. They have used the product(s) & loved them, but have left for some reason.

Lee explains why he has returned to using ACDSee software:

• it’s lightweight & doesn’t require a lot of RAM
• Lee says "the ease of use that ACDSee has"
• "excellent piece of software"

And he asked some questions which I will get back to him on. That’s my job – to connect customers with answers to their questions. The Community Manager position is a unique opportunity for me to interweave my networking skills, data collection, social media exploration, marketing & customer service skills into a role that serves our company.

Thank you Lee for the compliments on my blogging skills (you’re a great blogger & tweeter yourself!). And the poking on Facebook will continue I’m sure! 

And maybe you’re asking yourself if you need ACDSee software & what is it for?

• Do you have a digital camera?  it manages photos
• Do you have a dslr & process RAW images? ACDSee Pro 2 processes RAW images
• Do you work with digital images that you need to organize? it organizes
• Do you need software that isn’t a memory hog? it’s lightweight
• Do you need a user friendly software that allows you to work in layers? ACDSee Photo Editor is easy to learn & very user friendly as complete photo editor
• Do you need an integrated software for doing technical illustrating? Canvas is an integrated bitmap & vector solution

At present all of our software is PC based but we are listening to the many that have shifted to Mac’s. You social media people are really into your photos & multimedia. (I have noticed this!)

Please ask if you have questions & thanks again Lee!

A few weeks ago I received a message in Facebook that I had won an iPhone. A cause for celebration, right? At first I was skeptical, but a quick google search showed the sender of the message to be the community manager for Wetpaint wiki’s. Now we all know how reliable & dependable community managers are!

Rest of the Story: They had a sweepstakes & everyone that installed the Wetpaint wiki app in Facebook was registered to win. And my name was randomly chosen. Totally feasible. Then yesterday the iPhone arrived. See? You can always believe a community manager.

My husband charged the iPhone & then I called ATT. The rep asked for my zip code. She said we don’t have service there. I suggested that their map did show service. Then she said that I needed to find carriers in the area. I said, yes, we have Verizon, Sprint & Alltel that I’m aware of. But I said I want to GIVE you my money. (Now if you recall I didn’t buy the $60 data plan last month when we signed up with Verizon. But I was willing to GIVE ATT my money). Still no go. So I asked what if I sign up for service & not say where I live? She said that after awhile they would flag my account & shut off my service. That was a great response. So I asked if ATT would partner with one of the local carriers (we do have cell towers here), but no. She suggested I sell the iPhone on eBay. I’m wondering if ATT train their rep’s to offer these not-so-helpful suggestions?

I really only want to use the iPhone as an organizer & maybe play audio books & music. So I connected it to my computer but it’s true that you need to have an ATT account. I debated signing up for one to see how long before ATT cut me off. My sister & I didn’t think that they would quit taking my money, but I’m not sure that I want to gamble with $1500 (the 2 yr commitment) to find out? I also have learned the terms jailbreak, unlock, activate, SIM card, etc & realized that there’s quite a community out there doing those things. 

So what’s the plan? There are a lot of nice Pocket PC’s out there that are wifi capable. That’s really all I need. They don’t cost $1500 either. My Palm is 4 years old & doesn’t hold a charge so it does need replacing. But I don’t have time to get something for my trip next week to my home offices. I will rely on Outlook on my PC (laptop) & program a bunch of numbers into my Verizon cell phone.

I must say a huge thank you to Michael from WetPaint! I will definitely partner with you. I’ve been a Wetpaint fan for quite awhile. Thank you for the iPhone – it was exciting until the reality of the lack of service hit. I’ve heard it’s the #1 electronics device of the year (except maybe if you live in rural Minnesota).

How do I feel about Apple & ATT? Isn’t it cruel to lock out all the aspects of the iPhone? I have a 1.1.2 version – made in week 46. Someone suggested I return it to an Apple store as a credit towards a laptop.. but this experience doesn’t leave me with warm fuzzies for the brand.

Feel free to email me at conniebensen@gmail.com if you have any ideas.

I have a friend & ATT is already taking their money, so that may be a solution?

Twitter users are intuitively on the cutting edge! A couple of days ago I saw someone comment that they wished they could order their take out food by text messaging.

Social media marketers will be challenged on how to help their clients creatively utilize social media tools. Consumers want time saving features & efficiency. But listening carefully to customers could result in some very interesting services that integrate social media tools that people are already using. (I think that’s the key).

Jim Tobin posted this ad by Papa Johns where people can text their order in. Now imagine if the customers that use this service opt in to receive text messages of special offers that were sent out near the end of people’s work days? Would that increase sales?

NPR has a 5 min podcast on Papa Johns & Dominos using text messages for ordering.

gomobo.com is a service for restaurant users to use. It allows users to text their order in & pay, then they receive a text message back stating the time the order will be ready.

Their tab to recruit restaurant owners has very descriptive clip from a Good Morning America spot. Their comment that it’s quite popular with 40 yr old soccer moms was interesting.

Check out their call to action to recruit new restaurants. It’s a very tactful appeal to consumers to take responsibility for recruiting restaurants.

Have you used a service like this? Is it something you’d like to see in your neighborhood & you’d use? What other services would you text for? library, dry cleaner, pharmacy,…?