YELP

YELP…Yikes or Yay?

July 3, 2012Nina KovnerENGAGE, GROW

“A happy customer is the greatest advertisement.”

Andy Sernovitz, Author of Word of Mouth Marketing

According to the US Census Bureau, 14% of Americans move every year (that’s close to 50 million last year alone). Every year, 12+ million move out of state and another 12 million move to another county in the same state. That’s a lot of people moving around and many will be in search of  “happy customers” to help them find their next great haircut and more.

Enter YELP,  “the fun and easy way to find and talk about great (and not so great) local businesses”.

YELPWith over 54 million unique visitors each month, it’s the place where savvy salons go to tap into online word of mouth and take advantage of this growing (and FREE) source of real world referrals and traffic.  In fact, salons are the 4th most searched for business on YELP, after shopping, home services and restaurants. WOW.

Check out The Power of Yelp, our newest Social Beauty Intelligence Webinar on the Why’s, What, and How’s of YELP.  Our hope is that you gain insight into this powerful referral platform and begin to use it to help attract new clients to your salon, YAY!

http://youtu.be/PCIXyhODf2w

(shared with LOVE from your passionistas Nina + Gordon)

 

 

Brian Solis Engage

The Promise, Kept

June 18, 2012Nina KovnerENGAGE, GROW

“One must have a good memory to be able to keep the promises that one makes.”

Friedrich Nietzsche

 

Brian Solis is one of our digital heroes.  He speaks the truth.  He understands the digital space like no other, and the opportunities it provides to businesses and people if its used in the right way.  Brian Solis is the best selling author of Engage, and The End of Business as Usual, two books we highly recommend if you are seeking a deeper understanding of the social and digital revolution.  He is a disruptor, and we heart disruptors that push to make things better.

While we read his blog daily, this one jumped out at both of us at the same time, without even knowing, and therefore, worth sharing.  “Dear (insert business name here), what is Your Promise”.  Many companies have mission statements and vision statements, many times written in a boardroom somewhere, but what is your Promise?

In today’s VERY NOISY social and digital space, people want to know you, what you stand for, what your promise to them is, and be ready, because today, you will, we all will, be held accountable thanks to Facebook, YELP, Foursquare, Twitter and all the other social spaces that people can speak their mind.

We hope you take the time to read this blog from Brian Solis, you will be very happy you did, as will your team and your customers.

(shared with LOVE from your passionistas Nina + Gordon)

Dad 1966

My Dad, My Hero.

June 17, 2012Nina KovnerHEROES

The Final Analysis Prayer…Dad’s Favorite.

“People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered.  Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives.  Be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies.  Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and sincere people may deceive you.  Be honest and sincere anyway.
What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight.  Create anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous.  Be happy anyway.
The good you do today, will often be forgotten.  Do good anyway.
Give the best you have, and it will never be enough.  Give your best anyway.
In the final analysis, it is between you and God.  It was never between you and them anyway.”

Mother Teresa

Dad

This picture was taken in July 2011, Dad asked me to teach him how to use Twitter.  He always had a passion for technology (and Starbucks).  As a doctor, things such as pagers, cell phones (he had one of the first big clunky ones), and online medical research databases helped him save lives.  He also believed so much in the power of social and digital platforms for connecting people and was part of creating one of the first online communities for people in addiction recovery.

Dad 1966

This super cool handsome picture of Dad was taken in October 1966, the month and year I was born. I love this photo and am fascinated that we have taken to Instagram to get the look and feel of “old school” photography. Awesome.

My Dad and I also shared a passion for music.  For Fathers Day last year, he asked me to make him a Lady Gaga CD.  He had read about her in The Economist and Wall Street Journal online. At 74 years old, my Dad, the coolest guy on the planet, was asking for a Lady Gaga CD.  I made many CD’s for my Dad, but this one was extra special, and I had no idea at the time it would be the last CD I ever made for him.  He wrote me an e-mail after listening to it which said: “Born this Way, what a beautiful message. I think I’m becoming a little old monster”.  He even shared his new found love of Gaga with his fellow doctors.

On December 12, 2011, my Dad went to heaven and the world lost the greatest man I have ever known. I miss my Dad so much today, I miss him everyday.  He was the best Dad in the world, so kind, compassionate, smart and funny.  He was also so excited and supportive of Passion Squared, and even though he never got the chance to see us launch, I know how proud he would be of the work we are doing.

A special shout out of love and immense thanks to my partner in passion Gordon Miller for standing by my side through these incredibly difficult 6 months and for allowing me to honor my Dad today on our blog. I heart you Gordon, infinity and beyond.

Wishing all of the beautiful and awesome Dad’s a very Happy Fathers Day.

(shared with LOVE from your passionista Nina)

Find + Love + Share = Curation

May 30, 2012Nina KovnerENGAGE, GROW

 “There is no delight in owning anything unshared”

Seneca

Curate: to pull together, sift through and select for presentation, as music or Web site content. Dictionary.com

Before there was the social and digital web, most of what we saw as news and inspiration was the result of choices made by a limited number of professional “editors”. Today, that number has increased exponentially as platforms like Facebook have given us all the ability to become “editors” by simply curating (sharing the content that we find and love) for our online friends and fans.

A great example of this shift can be found on YouTube -a social platform featuring “gazillions” (48 hours of content uploaded every minute) of videos that run the gamut from impossibly amateur and uninteresting to highly polished productions (and everything in between).

One of our recent fave video finds is “1950’s Womens Beauty Salon” from Glamour Daze, a YouTube channel with 2.5 million views! We found it while searching beauty salons on YouTube, were hooked from the opening line, “To women, a beauty salon is more than a feminine barber shop”, and immediately knew we to had to share…curation at its best!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfFvJVRcVaE&feature=youtu.be

We also found this super juicy video on “curation” from devour.com (awesome video curation site) that simply and beautifully describes what curation really means and why it’s important.

PS: This blog was inspired by our passion of curating; finding engaging and empowering content that we love and feel compelled share.

(shared with LOVE from your curating passionistas Nina + Gordon)

 

Never Say Never

April 5, 2012Nina KovnerGROW

“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it!   Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”

 Howard Thurman

 

Justin Bieber “came alive” on YouTube, the ultimate video platform to share and engage (and engage he did!).  We are blown away by his historic rise to fame – and the important role that YouTube and Twitter played in making “Bieber Fever” part of pop music history.

The documentary  “Never Say Never” is a powerful lesson in the power of the social web with a huge serving of inspiration on top.  Gordon has seen it once and Nina seven times (are you laughing right about now?)   Is it because we are big Bieber fans?  Maybe…well Nina is for sure, but more importantly we are fans of YouTube which has forever changed the way we consume and share video.

Second only to Google in number of daily searches, here’s a few stats that show the power of this social platform:
· Over 4 billion videos are viewed a day
· Over 800 million unique users visit YouTube each month
· Over 3 billion hours of video are watched each month on YouTube
· More video is uploaded to YouTube in one month than the 3 major US networks created in 60 years
· 500 years of YouTube video are watched every day on Facebook, and over 700 YouTube videos are shared on Twitter each minute
· 100 million people take a social action on YouTube (likes, shares, comments, etc) every week

In 2008, Justin Bieber was discovered by Scooter Braun, who found him on YouTube.  As of today, Justin Bieber has over 2.3 BILLION views and over 1.3 MILLION subscribers on YouTube alone.

Now that you understand our love of Justin Bieber, we hope you will watch Never Say Never.  We highly recommend it as an inspiring social web lesson we can all learn from.

Most importantly, we believe in the creativity of our community – and view YouTube as the new PLATFORM from which artists can share, engage and empower with a 24/7 audience of fellow professionals and consumers.  Ask what makes you come alive, go do it, and remember, never say never.