My first attempt at homemade Portuguese Kale Soup – before/after – success! (Taken with instagram)

Here’s the recipe.

Big shout out for John S. Wolfe for putting this series together. His video blog is a great way to get to know media professionals in the PHX are. Be sure to check out his blog at: www.johnswolfe.com

So with the recent death of my 7 year-old PowerMac G5 tower, and with no substantial funds to buy a new personal computer until early next year, I am going to use my iPad as the go-between for the next 180 days.

This spin-off blog is a daily chronicle of my journey over the next 6 months… www.myipad180.com

Is it Ever OK to Edit Comments on a Brand’s Facebook Wall?

…and then sent out a call for responses for a future article. The following was my response in hopes for a healthy debate since I live in this world every day:

When it comes to protecting your brand identity, whether it be for a company or yourself, the notion of editing comments can be a slippery slope.

I would never EDIT any comments submitted on a Facebook Brand’s Fan Page Wall – nor is that really possible to do – so I’m assuming that this question is really geared towards the notion of deleting comments on a Facebook wall.

That said, my policy on DELETING comments on a Facebook wall is the following:

1.     If the comment has nothing to do with the topic at hand, or does not contribute to the topic in any way, shape or form (example: solicitation, political, or religious viewpoint), then it is deleted immediately with no other comment. My main reason for doing this is to actually HELP the commenter avoid any negative comments or backlash from other fans of the brand – which then turns my, or my company’s wall into a verbal battleground on something like immigration when we simply posted an announcement in an event in AZ. This actually happened to us recently.

Also, we don’t put a block on the offender in this matter, unless they become a repeat offender within the same topic. On second offense, we send a kindly reminder in the form of a Facebook message to stay on topic to avoid other people sending them negative comments or messages. On third offense, the ‘Fan’ or user is blocked from the page, and their content is no longer visible to that ‘Fan’ base ecosystem.

Keep in mind, we’ve only had to block 1 person in 9 months and with over 15,000 fans.

2.     If the comment is negative but relative to the topic or discussion at hand, then it’s best to leave it be and simply WATCH what happens. If you have a large and/or loyal fan base, you’d be surprised of the level of self-policing (call it brand-policing if you will) from your customers. It’s pretty amazing to watch, and it’s no different when you have multiple contributors on a Wikipedia entry making sure everything is accurate. We’ve seen some amazing ideas and discussions come out of this healthy debate inside our comments.

Social Media junkies talk about the latest ideas in blogs, Twitter, Facebook, content management, and a host of other areas in which we all play.

For more information go to smcphoenix.com

Our goal will be to great a big list of areas for everyone to go explore, and it will be even more audience participation than usual. We will try to capture as many of the great ideas as we can for a post after the session. (LINK COMING SOON)

Moderator:
Jeff Moriarty, Director of Social Media Strategy – Sitewire/Chair – Social Media Club Phoenix, @jmoriarty

Panelists:
Kevin Gawthrope, Sr. Manger of Web Services – Isagenix International, @gawthrok
Katie Van Domelen, Social Media Manager – Off Madison Ave, @ktvan
Michael Barber, Digital Marketing Strategist, @michaeljbarber
Kathy Jacobs, Social Media Credit Analyst – The Social Media Party, Kathy@thesocialmediaparty.com, @callkathy
Chuck Reynolds, Strategy & SEO at rYnoweb, @chuckreynolds

Well, I guess it’s only fitting that I write this week’s entry for “50 Brands. 50 Weeks” about Apple – my all-time favorite brand – on my iPad the day after getting it. With the exception of Easter, and the 7.2 magnitude Earthquake just southwest of us, it’s been an Apple-riffic weekend!

Where to begin…

*technical note: I’m using WordPress for iPad app, w/Apple Wireless Keyboard, and iPad upright in the iPad dock.

Background

I worked for Apple in their Retail division off-and-on from 2003 to 2008. I was hired as part of the inaugural team that opened the Chestnut Hill, MA store in May of 2003. I also went on to work in the SoHo, NY flagship store, as well as the Chandler Fashion Center Apple store from 2005-2008.

Working for Apple was always a second job option for me – but I always had the intention of making it my primary gig. However, my plan was to make Apple CORPORATE that gig as a natural career path. However, I soon found out that those two worlds rarely crossed-paths.

Goals

Nevertheless, I had 3 main goals in going to work for Apple Retail as a part-time job:

1. Get back to the customer experience of how and why people shop.

I was working for Staples Corporate (a future ’50 Brands’ entry) at the time, and I was starting to lose touch with the customer. Specifically, their buying habits, motivation, and what made them passionate about a company’s product. Paco Underhill’s Why We Buy can only take the story so far.

It was hard to do that with Staples because a) corporate sponsored retail hours only happened once a year, and b) shopping for office supplies these days is NOT exciting. It’s as about as exciting as shopping for groceries. You just want to get in and get out. Hence the tagline switch in 2002 from ‘Yeah, we’ve got that.” to “That was easy.”

2. Be a TRUE ‘Brand Evangelist’

See, the whole “Brand Evangelist Central” concept wasn’t something that I came up with just this past month, year, or DECADE for that reason. In fact, I was learning what it meant to be a ‘Brand Evangelist’ from Guy Kawasaki – starting with his 1998 CNet WebBuilder conference speech on ’10 Ways to be Revolutionary’ and reading his books since. The icing on the cake was that Guy was a former Apple Employee – and he is an amazing storyteller.

Right away, I knew I had to work for Apple in SOME capacity. So, a few years later when they announced the retail stores, it was only a matter of time before one would open up close by to try out my theory. I was honored and humbled to have been selected out of hundreds of applicants to be a Mac Specialist.

3. Work for Apple Corporate one day

Unfortunately, this last Goal never worked out that well. I tried my hardest for the years I was with Apple to leverage my industry experience, web design & management skill set, and my ‘in’ with Apple to no avail. Many a job description came and went, with constant care and monitoring, and not so much as a phone call. In retrospect, I still wonder to this day if working for the Apple Store actually HURT my chances of working for Apple Corporate. I guess I’ll never know.

Learnings

The job was easy. Now, keep in mind, anything is easy when you know what you’re talking about inside and out and actually CARE about what you’re talking about. The best part was, we were never paid on commission and we were simply there to engage the customer, answer their questions, and allow them to ‘drive’ themselves towards making their own decision – by actually trying out the products in the store – brilliant.

Now there is a very carefully thought out, engineered, and thorough training process around this philosophy that I can’t get into in fear of Steve Jobs personally taking my iPad back, but suffice to say it’s still to this day, then BEST training I’ve ever had in ANY company I’ve worked for.

See that’s what many other retailers are just now getting – sometimes walking into a big ticket item needs to be a ‘transformational experience’. It’s no difference when buying a new car. You’re buying the brand as much as the object that gets you from point A to B. Any jalopy (yeah, I said jalopy) can do that for you – but it’s about the brand you’re wrapping yourself inside of that matters. Why should it be any different with a computer or handheld device,

I also learned early one that I was a part of that brand, an evangelist for that brand, because I wanted to share as much about Apple’s products and services as much as the customer wanted to learn and use them.

After all was said and done, my time with Apple instilled 4 takeaways/values that I’ve been able to use in many aspects of my life, both professional and personal:

• Really CARE about what it is your selling.

Now I know Gary V cares more than anyone on this planet, but believe in what you’re selling. You have no choice in this matter, because no matter what the product is, you’re always selling yourself first.

• Stay up on Technology.

It will set you free. If you haven’t noticed, we’re living in the second coming of the technical revolution and I sure as heck don’t see Moore’s Law stopping yet. The device I am using at this very moment to write this post is another game-changer. I predict that in 2 years, more people will have more iPads than iPhones or iPods – and laptops will be going the way that desktops PCs are going now – towards extinction.

This applies to both work and personal living. If you ‘game’ life like I tend to do, then it’s all about efficiency and ‘leveling up’ – not in title sense, but in the getting through levels of life sense. I let technology and all the wonderful toys it provides guide my way. Anytime I can get something done quicker, faster, or better yet, optimize a process that has stood still for too long, I feel like I get another little chunk of my life back – and that translates into cold, hard, FREEDOM. (Betcha you thought I was gonna say something else…)

• Create a ‘transformational experience’.

Your knowledge is your confidence, and they are measured the same way. Keep in mind that no one knows your product more than you do, and no one can SPEAK about your products as well as you can. You are on the hook to create that transformational experience with your brand to build those brand evangelists – who in turn will help sell for you simply by word of mouth – which is the new world of marketing.

Don’t believe me – think Twitter and Facebook when it comes to selling your brand. It’s about the power of conversation. People are making decisions about your brand before, or without even going to your Web site. You need to be where the conversation is taking place. That’s what Apple has created with their stores. An ecosystem of conversation about one simple thing: Them.

• Move the needle.

Yes, I mentioned above that we never worked on commission – but never ignore the fact that everything is, and needs to be, measurable.

Apple would not be the company that it is today without all the wonderful and revolutionary products it designs and builds. We all know them by their household “i” names. However, just as important is what you build around those objects – the services, the accessibility, the knowledge sharing, and most importantly, the PEOPLE. That’s what building one of the world’s coolest and largest brands is all about – and I was happy to have contributed and been a part of it.

Special thanks to Grant and The RenMen Show (@renmenshow) for allowing me to be a part of this eclectic set of perspectives on social media, mobile, and check-in games on the last night of SXSWi. Great way to finish!

And in true ‘RenMen’ fashion – “Get off the bench!”