I’ll be taking part in a panel discussion on social media on November 17, and if you live in or around Greensboro, NC it would be great to have you attend. I look forward to sharing my social media experiences from both a political candidate and business standpoint.

There are three other panelists, all of which bring unique talents to the table, and they include:

Sue Polinsky, owner of TechTriad
John Robinson, editor at News & Record
Stephanie Skordas, Account Executive at RLF Communications

The official title of the event is “Local Business & Social Media: Is it working?” What do you think… is it? Let’s talk about it on November 17, from 5:30 – 6:30 at the Broach Theatre. Following the discussion there will be a networking event at Studio B (right next door) so make sure you plan on attending both.

The evening is being organized by the fine folks at Linking Greensboro.

During a recent conversation I was having with someone they kept referring back to what someone that appeared to be a “social media expert” had to say. This “expert” gave a short social media talk at a seminar and for whatever reason the person I was talking to was giving their comments a lot of weight.

After the conversation I did a little research on this “expert,” and the results, as you may imagine, were less than stellar. Take a moment to watch this short video I made about “social media experts” and things to look for.

This is the first video post of this nature – just thought I’d try it out.

This was a response post to “Embracing Social Media May Be Dangerous for Your Members.”

As it turns out, Credit Union Times would like to run my response to the Op/Ed in their November 4 issue. I’ve politely pulled the post so that it can be shared with a broader portion of the credit union industry. I’ll repost the info after it is published. Thanks for understanding.

In short, the writer was way off base. By the way, if you’d like an easy way to catch the new blog post on this site simply subscribe to the RSS feed or email by clicking here.

Targeting your marketing efforts has always been important, but it’s even more important when it comes to email marketing. We live in a time where consumers are becoming less and less inclined to give out their email address, so making sure emails are relevant should be high on the priority list. Here’s an example.

I like to shop at GUESS and remember giving them my email address during the checkout process several months ago. They had just launched their rewards program and it seemed like a good idea so I didn’t mind giving over my info.

Last night when I got home I noticed that my friends at GUESS sent an email. The subject line was, “Trend Alert: Leggings & Tunics + Shop New Handbags.” I immediately put my marketing hat on and thought to myself, “Surely there will be something for guys in this email.”

I proceeded to open the email and to my surprise it was 100% female focused. Guess what happened when I clicked on the graphic ad? Yup, it took me to the Women’s section of their Web site.

I would have thought a company of this caliber would be a bit more on top of things, especially since they seem to be doing things right in the world of social media. And what’s worse is that I actually like shopping at GUESS. Had they sent me something relevant it would have been highly likely that I would have paid closer attention to the email and took some time to look around on their Web site. Instead, the email resulted in me trashing it and posting the following message on Twitter,

“Given that a GUESS email just told me “leggings and tunics keep your look sexy,” I don’t think they target their emails.”

Target your efforts and you’ll not only help yourself, but it will be appreciated by your customers.