The Who
Who’s Next
Track / Decca / MCA
1971
Arguably the greatest album of the 1970s. This is an MCA 1980’s cassette version I bought in high school and played approximately 1 Million times … especially “Baba”!
Dire Straits
Brothers In Arms
Warner Brothers Records
1985
Released in May of 1985, this was THE most played cassette by pretty much anyone I know in the summer of ’85. This was also the first cassette I ever saw in the clear format … they had that weird oily smell to them when new!
Meat Loaf
Bat Out Of Hell
Epic Records
1977
This album is 45+ years old and we still can’t categorize it. And I still love it.
Monty Python
Instant Record Collection (US Version)
Arista Records
1982
If you spent your youth trying to catch a bit of Monty Python on your local PBS station, this collection of the group’s best bits from their UK comedy records was a prize. Wink, wink, nudge, nudge, say no more!
Not: 2 things about this cassette scream 1982 … “Qualitape” (whatever that was) and also it’s in beautiful Arista Red!
Cheap Trick
Lap of Luxury
Epic Records
1988
This was the “comeback” album for the world’s greatest LIVE band, although I don’t think they ever went away. And they still play out 100+ night per year 35 year later!
Lap of Luxury had the band’s only number one song, but also a bunch of rockers.
Guns N’ Roses
Appetite for Destruction
Geffen Records
1987
Wrapping up the year of rediscovering cassettes with my favorite album of all time. Before the CD, before the download, before the streaming, and before retro-vinyl find, this cassette got played so much that the lettering is hard to read.
Note that Sides A & B on this original release are labeled Sides G&R!
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
Change of Heart
From the album Long After Dark
Backstreet Records / MCA
1982
This is one of my favorite Petty tunes and was released on red vinyl in 1982. Due to the stickers on the label, this copy was obviously stolen from a radio station, most likely in the 1990s. I don’t know who would do such a thing.
The Beatles
(Live) At The Hollywood Bowl
Capital Records / Apple Records
Recorded: 1964-1965
Vinyl release: 1977
Digital release: 2016
Usually I go for the vinyl version of any record, but in this case the digital re-release is far superior in audio quality and has several extra tracks.
But reproducing the original cover would have been cool instead of the new cover tying the album to the new Ron Howard documentary, Eight Days A Week.
One or Many?
For several years most successful digital marketers with multiple locations or franchises have “gone local with social” and built a social media page or account for each location. This continues to be the winning strategy with Facebook.
But a trend I’m seeing from brand marketers is to merge multiple local Twitter accounts into one account for all brand awareness, news, and customer feedback for the entire brand. The areas where Twitter is currently most useful are increasingly being housed centrally instead of for each individual location.
What about all of the other platforms and channels? Which are best for a local presence versus a national brand voice? Here’s my recommended number of pages your system should have:
Facebook: 1 brand page + 1 page per location
Google+: 1 brand page + 1 page per location
LinkedIn: 1 company page per brand
Instagram: 1 account per brand
Snapchat: 1 account per brand
YouTube: 1 channel per brand
Twitter: 1 account per brand
Why is there a difference for Facebook and Google+? Why should these two – and only these two – have multiple pages? It’s the local or regional presence that is resonating on Facebook with local engagement and converting search results on Google to local store traffic. Think of Facebook and Google+ pages in the same way you would think of websites for each individual location or franchisee. Even for service brands like cleaning and maintenance services without a storefront, conversations and conversions are happening locally through these two platforms. But, the other platforms are skewing to centralized, national brand engagement and conversations.
Multiple Departments?
What about multiple Twitter accounts for multiple departments or functions within a brand? No – not even a separate account for “customer service.” Your brand on Twitter is your entire brand. Customers don’t care about your fiefdoms!
The multiple Facebook and Google+ pages should only be location-specific and nothing else. From a national level there should only be one page. Far too many franchisors still employ separate Facebook pages for consumer marketing and franchise sales marketing. As discussed at this year’s IFA convention in the Facebook for Franchise Sales session, don’t have a separate page for Fran Dev! Use targeted ads and boosted posts to hit candidates with specific messages about owning a franchise.
Tweeting your booth number = Junk Content
You know it’s getting close to the big annual conference in your industry when every supplier starts Tweeting their booth number.
My team, colleagues, and friends are gearing up for #IFA2016 from the International Franchise Association and we’re seeing it all over the place.
These companies don’t share anything all year then suddenly think, “Hey it’s nearly convention time. Now what was that Twitter password…?”
They’ll log into Twitter to let the world know they’ll be at booth #123. Oh and they’re giving away an iPad, because everyone will flock to the booth for that. And then they’ll go silent for another 11½ months.
Twitter is dying my friends. And it’s mostly because of junk content like that.
If Not The Booth Number, Then What?
A few weeks ago, my Social Geek Radio co-host Deb Evans and I discussed some other things to share on social that might give some more value to your fellow conference-goers. Here are a few from our podcast:
But What About That Booth We’re Paying For?
Can you slide in a mention or two of your promotion? Absolutely! But I always suggest your social content be at least 80% about OTHERS and at most 20% about YOU. So after 4 or 5 updates on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook about the conference or other people participating, go ahead and share something about your promotion, contest, giveaway, or trade show activity. As long as this isn’t the only thing you’re pushing out, it’s cool.
I’ll be Tweeting a couple of booth numbers later this week for the IFA Convention myself, to let anyone interested in the Social Geek Radio podcast know where they can join us live. In fact, I’ll post it now! We’ll be at the Manalto booth (#461) on Sunday 2/21 and at the 1851 Franchise booth (#134) on Monday 2/22. Now that that’s done, it’s back to more posts about Others. See you at the show!
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