As social media continues to grow in popularity as a marketing medium, we’ve seen an increasingly number of companies of all sizes jump on the bandwagon, eager to experience the results other companies have touted. In an effort to capture how different verticals are utilizing this space to drive their business objectives, I will be interviewing industry rock stars who leverage social media for their clients in that specific niche.

This first post is taking a look at how the spirits industry is using social media to connect with its customers. Jason Falls, a branding rock star, was fantastic enough to agree to an interview about social media engagement for his client, Beam Global Spirits & Wine.

Jason Falls is vice-president and director of Interactive and on-line communications at Doe-Anderson, a brand-building agency in Louisville, Ky. He also works closely with Beam Global Spirits & Wine, advising the company on social media. Among the brands he’s worked with are Jim Beam, Knob Creek and Maker’s Mark bourbons, the Sauza family of tequilas and Canadian Club whiskey. He also blogs about social media, marketing and public relations at http://www.socialmediaexplorer.com.

1- What are the spirits industry’s main challenges in entering the space?

No brand in the spirits industry, particularly the Beam Global brands I’ve worked with, wants to do anything that is even remotely close to marketing to people under the legal purchase age of alcohol. That sounds simple, but when sites like Twitter don’t build in legal purchase age (LPA) gateways to keep certain content closed off from certain age groups, it can pose interesting parameters in which you have to work. Almost all spirits brands are member of the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States , a trade association whose code review board is made up of member companies which has some very specific marketing guidelines to ensure strong self-regulatory practices. Adhering to those guidelines in the era of conversational marketing and sharing is certainly challenging, but imperative to help guide the industry to uphold the highest standards of responsible marketing.

2- How have these challenges impacted the strategies you have developed as the Social Media Overseer of Doe-Anderson?
I would say the only impact is ensuring the demographics of the sites we recommend are not just compliant with DISCUS (70% legal purchase age and above) and Beam Global (an added 5% up to 75% legal purchase age and above) demographic standards, but that they are WELL within compliance. This meant for much of last year, we couldn’t recommend activity on MySpace. The other liquor companies played there because it was 72-73% LPA and above. Beam Global adds an extra layer of 5% more compliance standards, so we had to take that into account. Other than crossing our Ts and dotting our Is on where we play, the only challenge has been developing a high level of patience during the review and approval process for the legal teams to make sure we’ve done our homework and are recommending responsible marketing.

3- How do you select the most appropriate sites and approach for your clients while ensuring that you are abiding by all industry regulations?

In addition to the demographic standards I mentioned above, we try hard to ensure that places we recommend playing are where the ideal friend of the brand is playing. If Jim Beam drinkers aren’t hanging out on Facebook, we wouldn’t recommend playing there. (They are, of course.) But it’s also more complex than that. We have to manage a lot of sites and activity with a limited set of man hours to do it with. We can’t be everywhere. Knowing where to be to maximize reach and efficiency is often the key to success.

4- Social media allows multi-directional conversations to occur simultaneously. How does a spirits brand participate in this conversation without violating any of regulations? industry regulations? For example, since Twitter’s demographic is mainly 21+, can spirits brands engage on the site without asking people’s age? If not, how do they verify the user’s age to ensure that they are above 21 on Twitter?

As you know, social media is constantly evolving. The spirits industry is evolving with it to ensure our high standards are met. This is an issue that is currently being reviewed by Beam Global Spirits & Wine. If you read the DISCUS marketing guidelines, though, they require any online brand website to be guarded by an LPA gateway. Their policy on branded content on third party websites revolves around the demographic standard. Such is the world of the ever-evolving digital media landscape. The policies and approaches are being reviewed and revised as we speak.

5- What are key metrics that spirits brands are most interested in when engaging in social media?

It varies, but most spirits brands are focused on driving awareness and “call” - or people asking for drinks using that spirit by name. For each program we’ve recommended, though, the metrics vary.

6- Since this industry is highly regulated, crisis prevention is key. How do you use social media for crisis communications and management?

By just being open and honest with those we communicate with and offering ourselves up as those connected to the brand(s), we prevent a lot of issues right off the bat. When a spirits blogger has a bone to pick, they’ll often times email the PR folks with the brand or, sometimes even me, before they ever run with something because they know us, have grown to trust us and know we’re here to help them. The worst “crisis” situation I’ve dealt with is a poor review of a new spirits brand that we thought might have been a little vicious. I just reached out, thanked the guy for the honest feedback and offered to do a tasting or some other such event in his bar (he happened to own one). A couple days later he posted an apology for sounding so crass and encouraged people to try it for themselves.

7- Can you provide us with an example of a brand that used social media effectively?

There are lots of examples. My favorite is probably the issue Canadian Club faced with a fan page on Facebook that was not set to filter out those under the legal purchase age of alcohol. Instead of what other brands may have done and issuing a cease and desist (he was using the logo and product shots), we reached out to the administrator, thanked them for being such a big fan, then asked them to ensure under LPA folks couldn’t see the content. He was so flattered we were checking out his page, he turned over administrative control to the brand.

8- What key tips would you provide a spirits brand prior to entering the social media space?

Whatever you do, uphold the high standards of marketing the industry demands. This requires some patience, the willingness to work through a world of concerns, but if you don’t uphold the high standards of our advertising guidelines, the entire industry suffers. We market to those of legal purchase age who want to enjoy our products responsibly and that’s all. Period. End of story.

For more information on this topic, Jason Falls wrote an excellent post discussing how regulated industries use social media.

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Social Media Club (SMC) is an organization that connects people together to share knowledge and build relationships. I really believe in their slogan, “If you get it, Share it.” Like I have said so many times, “Social Media is about being Social.” It is about sharing information and helping one another. The reason why people refer to it as social media as opposed to the “internet” is because people are now able, even encouraged, to share their opinions, thoughts, and feelings with their friends.

When I was at SXSW in March, I ran into the founders, Kristie Wells and Chris Heuer. I shared with them my interest in relaunching SMC in St. Louis and building it to be a hub for all social media users to exchange knowledge and develop relationships with people they chatted with online.

Todd Jordan and I joined forces and decided to recruit some talented people in St. Louis who can help us in our effort. Below is our Board of Directors for Social Media Club St. Louis (SMCSTL):

Reem Abeidoh: Managing Director, @rabeidoh

Lisa Young: Operations Director, @naturalwoman

Brad Hogenmiller: Development Director, @javastl

Chris Miller: Promotions Director, @idonotes

Todd Jordan: Membership Director, @tojosan

Please email me at rabeidoh@gmail.com if you are interested in joining the Social Media Club St. Louis as a member or volunteering for future events.

We are hosting monthly events on the third Thursday of every month in different venues in St. Louis. We will be organizing panels that cover different topics about social media, and they aren’t all business-related. If you have an idea for a panel topic, please email us! If you are a speaker and want to be on a panel, please let us know! If you are interested in sponsoring an event, please contact us! We really want your feedback!

Please go to our Ning site and follow our twitter profile to get updates on what’s coming up.

Relaunch Event

The relaunch event was on May 21st at Atomic Cowboy. We had a panel, that I moderated, with social media agency masters – Dan Curran from NGAGE Digital Marketing, Brian Cross from Elasticity, Chris Buehler from Scorch Agency and Eliot Frick from BigWideSky. We had over 150 people attend! We even got coverage from the Riverfront Times and STL Beacon!

Upcoming Event:

This Thursday, June 18th, we are having another great event! The panel topic will be about Social Media and Small Business. We are excited about our speaker line-up with Chris Reimer from RizzoTees.com, Dixie Gillespie from Pure Synchrony, Greg Bussmann from Executive Business Products, and Jim Durbin from Durbin Media Group.

Please RSVP on Eventbrite for the event!

We look forward to seeing you there!

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In celebration of my blog’s third birthday, I wanted to share with you details about it.

1. I started blogging in June 2006 to learn about online marketing
2. My blog started as Introspectus on blogspot! Eeeek! I talked about politics and general affairs once a month. My loyal readers were mom, dad, and my best friend
3. I moved my post to Wordpress in October 2007 because Tanner Hobin and Lisa Young made fun of me for using the Blogspot platform
4. Twitter and StumbleUpon send the most traffic to my blog
5. My most popular post is the one I authored about a restaurateur who threatened a Yelp reviewer. It was submitted to Digg and quickly rose to the front page. Although my site crashed within 15 minutes, the post is still being mentioned in articles and posts, and I still get comments!
6. Comments on my blog mean a lot more to me than traffic. I feel like comments tell me what my readers think and provides me with a different POV to my own. My readers who comment tend to be or become loyal readers and I LOVE THAT!
7. I am trying my best to find a way to fit blogging into my crazy schedule, as you can tell from my whiny posts about this topic
8. I have been sharing videos on my blog, but would love to experiment with v-logging
9. Before my next birthday post, I want to have a new blog design. Although I’ve been th.i.s close to having the redesign completed twice, it’s time to actually get ‘er done! Actually, the banner above was created in the first attempt. If you are interested in helping me out, PLEASE let me know!
10. I have no immediate plans to put advertising on my blog. I want it to be a place for me to share my thoughts and to document what I’ve learned through personal observations of and discussions about the emerging media world

Happy Birthday, Social Impressions!

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** This is my first video editing attempt. Go ahead, you can laugh…

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Do you remember when you first started blogging? Weren’t you enthusiastic, eager and willing to spend hours on a blog post to make it perfect?  Ah, those were the days! I remember them well!

I am a big advocate of blogging. I believe in its value.  However, it has become increasingly challenging to blog as often as I used to because of my busy schedule. My friends reprimand me with sarcastic IMs and tweets: “How about you blog more often, Reem?!?!”

I am extremely honored that I have loyal readers who enjoy my content. I wish I had more time to allocate solely to blogging. I am sure I am not the only person who battles with their conscious when their blog has stale material from a month ago <insert guilty look here>.

Blogging Isn’t Just Writing

Blogging is time consuming because it includes many factors, not just writing. If you want to have a successful blog, you have to:

1- Come up with good ideas that you know your readers will enjoy
2- Write the posts
3- Edit the posts to make sure they don’t have too many grammatical mistakes, the tone is consistent, the message is clear, etc.
4- Tag and publish the posts
5- Promote them on social bookmarking sites and twitter
6 - Monitor comments and contribute to the conversation

Although some of those factors aren’t as demanding time-wise, they can still appear daunting when your to-do list for work is two pages long! However, I feel like blogging should be part of your to-do list!

Reem’s New Approach to Blogging More Often

For many of you struggling with the same problem as me, I thought I would share a technique I have decided to start using as of today!

1- Brainstorm during the week for blog ideas
- Conduct your research
- Ask questions on Twitter
- Talk to friends
- Read blog posts

2- Write and edit your blog post on the weekend
- You don’t have to type it right then and there. Write it in your notebook if you are out and about

3- Pick a day that isn’t usually very hectic and publish on THAT day
- Being consistent is always a good way to gain and keep your readers

4- Promote your post as soon as you publish it
- User Poprl as a URL shortening service so you can monitor how many people clicked on the link
- You can ask a friend to submit it to social bookmarking sites, StumbleUpon, Mixx, Sphinn, Digg, etc.

5- Monitor your comments and contribute to the discussion at your earliest convenience
- Download a plugin that allows your readers to subscribe to your comment feed

Let me know if you use this approach and if it works for you!

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In our discussion, Wayne and I discuss SXSW, brightkite and the social media space.

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There are many identifiable brands online. If you mention the names of Chris Brogan, Liz Strauss, Pete Cashmore or Darren Rowse, many users immediately nod in recognition. These online super stars have secured solid positions in the space and have earned the respect of old and new users. To reach that level of popularity, there is a lot of effort that needs to be invested.

Although it is unlikely that I will blog as frequently as any of the aforementioned gurus, my goal is to build a solid brand online. I’ve consulted others on how to build personal brands, but my journey feels different because it’s personal. It’s me.

Having started my journey in late 2007, below is a documentation of all of my efforts up to this point:

Phase 1: Immersed myself in the online culture

When I started learning about social media, fellow users recommended that I spend time in the space. Since I am passionate about becoming a member of this community, I jumped in full force. I immersed myself in the culture, interacted with the veterans, and participated in the conversation. I joined all the recommended sites like, Digg, Mixx, Reddit, Stumble Upon, Twitter, Flickr, Facebook, MySpace, etc. I contributed to each site as much as I could for approximately a year. The result of my efforts - I learned the online culture, built solid relationships with fellow users and was fluent in the lingo. However, there were still a significant portion of the community who still asked, “Reem who?”

Phase 2: Revised my goal

Spending adequate amounts of time on all those sites is quite the challenge. If you have a full time job (that isn’t in social media,) it can be hard to build up a solid profile on all the sites. Although mass participation might gain you followers, it won’t help you build a solid and identifiable brand.

I decided that my personal focus will be to build a solid brand online. In order to accomplish that, I set the following goals:

1- Continue to learn about the evolving online space
2- Position myself as a knowledgeable social media strategist
3- Speak at more social media-related conferences
4- Write more guest posts and participate on guest posts

Phase 3: Selected the sites that helped to leverage my goals

In an effort to accomplish my 2009 goals, I limited my activity to a specific type of social media sites. I decided that I would actively participate on Twitter, Facebook, blogs, and podcasts. Below are the reasons why I selected these sites:

Twitter: Engaging with fellow users on Twitter is an excellent way to build a brand. It allows me to share insight, and have interesting conversations. I’ve used Twitter many times to come up with blog post ideas. Users are always willing to help and support me.

Facebook: This is an excellent site that allows online friends learn all about me. With all the incredible applications available for installation, facebook serves as a hub of all my social media activity. My friends can enjoy (or mock!) my weekend pictures, watch my funny videos, read my posts and respond to my tweets.

Blog: My blog is the brains of my operation. It shares my thoughts, opinions and ideas on specific matters. It is also a good idea to guest post for other blogs within my niche! I have been fortunate to guest post for Problogger and Searchfuel. I look forward to finding the time to do it more in ‘09.

Podcast: It is another excellent way to showcase my knowledge and personality. Podcasts have a unique benefit - it allows people to tune in on and offline!

Continual: Measure, Measure, Measure

In order to gauge how successful your efforts are, it is important to keep an eye on your numbers. I set the following metrics for myself:

Blog: Levels of reader engagement, traffic and referring sites

Twitter: Number of followers, responses and retweets

Facebook: Interaction with my status updates and notes, and new friend requests

What have your efforts been like? Do you have any advice for me to follow in my journey to establishing an online brand?

* Image includes: Reem Abeidoh and Jeremy Wright

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One of my favorite things to do is go to the movies. I’ve always wanted to spend the entire day at the movie theater watching films and eating unlimited amount of my special medley - popcorn and Whoppers. It is as though all the stars aligned when Lisa Young said, “Yo, AMC theater is conducting blogger outreach. I need someone to go with me to spend the entire day watching Ocscar-nominated movies. You want to come?”

Only a “special” type of person would absolutely love to do something like that, and I guess I am that person. I enthusiastically accepted Lisa’s offer and agreed to be her “date” for this event.

I am currently waiting in the lobby of Chesterfield’s  AMC Theater waiting for the first movie to begin. Although AMC did not provide food (other than unlimited refills of popcorn), the bloggers still have a positive attitude. Scott (aka moviegeeks) even said something to the effect of, “Hm, I dont know if popcorn is really a breakfast item.”

The Oscar-nominated movies that are on today’s schedule are:

10: 30 a.m.:  MILK

1:05 p.m: The Reader

3:45 p.m.: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

7:15 p.m.: Slumdog Millionaire

9:45 p.m.: Frost/Nixon

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Since I am not facebook friends with many of you, I would love for you to get to know me personally. So, I’ve decided to share my “25 things about me” on my blog!

1- I love mixing popcorn and whoppers together. I only do it when I go to the movie theater. It just doesn’t taste the same anywhere else
2- I was born in Jerusalem, but I lived in UAE, Cyprus, Egypt and Morocco before coming to the US
3- My 2007 New Years goal was to remove all toxic and emotionally/mentally unhealthy people from my life. I have renewed that goal every year since because it has made me a happier person
4- All my life, people used to say that I’ll know when I meet “the one.” I always doubted it, until I met my fiance
5- I am more excited to be Howie’s wife than the actual wedding. I believe too many brides-to-be get caught up in the celebration and forget about the partnership
6- I LOVE vanilla ice cream with cinnamon sprinkled on top
7- I believe that one great friend is much better than 20 acquaintances
8- I recently lost 25 lbs. I also quit smoking 6 months ago!
9- When I make a mistake, I am harder on myself than anyone ever will be
10- I am a workaholic and don’t think there is anything wrong with it
11- The most beautiful country I ever visited was Malaysia. My mom and I had the best trip/adventure to date!
12- I become very irritable and bitchy when I am hungry and/or tired
13- When something really sad happens, my first reaction is to smile or laugh. It isn’t because I find it funny, it is just my way of protection
14- I am a perfectionist. I can’t settle for average
15- I truly believe things happen for a reason and is part of our journey through life
16- I have a major shoe addiction… like really, it’s serious!
17- I get upset when my dogs, Dakota and Amira, ignore me and run to their daddy
18- Last month, I discovered that red wine actually tastes a lot better than white wine
19- I know the lyrics to ONLY one song, “Fly me to the moon”
20- I played the piano for 10 years, until I came to the US 9 years ago. One of my biggest regrets is not pursuing it
21- I hate that I love watching “Housewives of Orange County/New York/Atlanta” Those ladies are ridiculous, but it is so addictive
22- When I go to NY, I bring with me the craziest clothes. NY allows… actually ENCOURAGES … you to be creative, adventurous and daring! I LOVE NYC!
23- I feel like there is a purpose for everyone on this earth
24- I get SO peeved with ignorant and racist people, especially those who share opinions and make blanket statements without knowing what they are talking about
25- My proudest moment to date is graduating with my master’s degree in media communications with a 3.95 GPA

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As the social media space is growing, one can find many sites that appeal to every interest and lifestyle. As soon I got engaged a year ago, I wanted to learn as much as possible about planning my wedding. As usual, the interwebs did not fail me. Not only were there sites to help me learn what is involved in the planning process, the vendors were also active on these sites. Although it seems like the wedding 2.0 industry is still relatively young, I believe that it is going to take the online world by storm.

Social media hasn’t only been a research vehicle for me; it has also served as a way for me to connect with my potential and current vendors. I believe that if they know you better, then their work will reflect your personality. Many of the vendors I met were extremely knowledgeable and can execute my vision to perfection. The element that set them apart was their personality. Although one-on-ones are a great way to meet people, I feel like I learned more about them by reading their tweets, blogs, and checking out their facebook profiles. In the end, I hired the vendors I clicked with!

Below is my online journey with some of my vendors:

Wedding Planners:

Due to my busy schedule, I realized that planning this massive celebration would be very challenging. Although I wanted to maintain creative control, I couldn’t take care of all the details, do all the research, and do all the legwork.

In order to identify top wedding planners in the St. Louis region, I visited review sites and forums. Based on the comments written by other brides about their experiences with the wedding planners, I was able to pinpoint five potential candidates. Unlike hand-picked testimonials posted on websites, I believe that comments on forums are more legitimate and credible.

Meeting with them wasn’t enough for me to make a final decision. I really needed to know if I could have a relationship with them for the next year. Hoping they were social media users as well, I looked online to see if they had any profiles. As soon as I saw Shelli Alred’s pictures and profile on Facebook, I fell in love with her spunky, creative and gregarious personality. I immediately knew she would get my vision. She was hired the following day and I have yet to regret my decision.

Dresses:

While working with Shelli, I have been able to make quick and informed decisions. How many women can say that they picked their wedding dress after visiting ONE store and buying the THIRD one they tried on? Me, I can!

I believe that the many hours I spent online viewing dresses really helped me make my decision. I was privy to the latest fashion designs in the wedding industry. I even bookmarked a picture of my dress to share with dear friends who want to see it. Ok, fine, I admit that I sneak peaks at it at least once a month.

Invitations:

I really liked the idea of customizing my invitations to match the theme of my wedding. Since our wedding is reminiscent of the 1001 Arabian Nights, I wanted to make sure that it was an integral part of the final design. During my meeting with Melissa Haley, we worked together to design my invitations, save the dates, menus, agenda, etc.

The first thing I did after receiving the quote from Melissa is check online on sites like on Wedding Paper Divas to make sure that I am getting a competitive price. I was so excited to see that there wasn’t much of a price difference!

Photographers:

The most challenging decision I’ve had to make thus far is picking a photographer. I am a big fan on the photojournalistic style. I searched for a photographer who can document the love my fiancé and I share. I noticed a major trend while visiting different photographers’ sites. They don’t only feature picture galleries, they also blog! I filtered out many of the photographers based on whether I connected with their blog.

One of the photographers who really grabbed my attention was Joanne Kleine. I was really disappointed to find that she was not available to shoot my wedding. However, we connected on facebook and had a long chat. Thanks to our conversation, I was referred to a few other top photographers in town. I look forward to closing the deal on this portion on the wedding planning really soon.

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