What You Missed at the State of the City Address for Troy Michigan

Today I attended my first State of the City address for the city of Troy, Michigan. I took notes as "Key Takeaways"that I would share with a colleague or manager who was unable to attend the event. And also as takeaways for my team to consider as we are planning our own "State of" event later this year. So if you missed the event, here's what you missed. Feel free to share this with others and add anything I missed with a comment to this post.


PEOPLE
Mayor Dane Slater gave the remarks for the event. At the end, I went up to him and said that my husband and I were considering moving to Troy someday, and his remarks confirmed our plans. It was my first time hearing him address a large group, and I was really impressed.

Council Member Doug Tietz stopped by the Walsh College table to say hello. Such a great guy. Doug and I were once Toastmasters together and we've kept in contact since. Doug's wife Amy is an alumni of Walsh College where she now teaches as an adjunct faculty. They are a great couple and I'm sure they have the whole world and family-life balance figured out. Whenever I see Doug at an event, I know I'm in the right place. Doug is now the District Director for Congressman Dave Trott.

Troy Rotarian and fellow Troy Chamber member William (Bill) Cowger was at the event along with two full tables of Troy Rotary members. Bill filled me in on some of the goals and focuses of Rotary International, where he has been a member for many years. It's on my "someday" list to be a member. Bill is also a photographer that I highly recommend. Great work, great prices, and excellent service.

There were many others from the city and from around the region.

James Robertson (the Detroit resident who made news due to walking 21 miles a day to work) attended the event and it was announced that he now makes his home in Troy, Michigan. Mayor Dane Slater presented James with a key to the city. It was a heartfelt introduction and you could tell how much the warm city welcome meant to James.


THEMES & VIDEOS
Storytelling. Teamwork. Community collaboration. 

Mayor Dane Slater warmed up the crowd by welcoming multiple audience VIPs, including my group from Walsh College as well as many other community leaders and partners.

Following the introductions, the Mayor played a video which told the story of the City of Troy's strategic planning process. Kudos on the video. It was informative, entertaining, and provided simple explanation with engaging visuals. I don't see the video posted yet, but I'll add it to this blog once I find the link. Video was done by Maggie Hughes, said Mayor Dane Slater.

Several videos in the "Dane and Dave" show series were shown to the group. Hilarious, informative, and entertaining. The videos feature Mayor Dane Slater and Councilman Dave Henderson. Please give this page a like and help them get to 100 fans. https://www.facebook.com/Thedaneanddaveshow. As of the time of this post, they are up to 97 likes (up from 91 earlier today).

There was a huge theme of teamwork and collaboration throughout the event. Posterboards throughout the room celebrated team members with their headshot photos and key accomplishments under their leadership. The poster boards will be available for viewing at the Troy City Hall after the event.

A nice shout out to Walsh College plus numerous other businesses and organizations who make their home in Troy, Michigan. They also showed a picture of the Walsh Troy campus renovation. Both mentions made me and the Walsh table very proud. We have been a part of the Troy community since 1922 and it's great to see such a strong partnership between our institution and the City of Troy.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS 
Some key facts about Troy were shared with the group.

• Troy was named the "Safest City in Michigan" again for 2015. Details.
• Troy was named the 7th in the nation as "Best Cities to Live In" by 24/7 Wall St.
• The city is focusing on businesses in Troy on Maple Road in its new series, "15 on Fifteen." Check out the videos on http://15forfifteen.com/. They are rolling the business videos out one-by-one. Clever. So far, there have been features on the new MJR Cinema, Media Genesis, Troy Auto Glass, and a few others. 
• The City is focused on Top 10 Strategies which you can read here. The strategies range from public city to diversity and more. Clear. Focused. 
• The Troy Transit Center's October 14, 2014 ribbon cutting was announced. I've taken the Amtrak train once to Chicago and look forward to my next trip leaving from the Troy Transit facility.
• If you omit Ann Arbor from consideration (which is skewed due to its international student population), Troy is the #1 city for diversity in the state of Michigan.
• The Arab-American & Chaldean Council recently moved to Troy.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Mayor Dane Slater issued one challenge for Troy residents and businesses: help others. 

He suggested numerous organizations including:

• Boys and Girls Club of Troy
• Troy People Concerned
• Troy Historical Society
• Troy Nature Center
• Troy Rotary (seeking new members)
• Troy Kiwanis (seeking new members)
• And many more. 

Also, the City of Troy is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year, and the Mayor invited all of us to save the date for the Saturday, June 20th celebration.

A great time was had by all. Please spread the word by sharing this post.

Marketing Tip: Facebook Pages

I've been blogging for a while about marketing tips. Usually my inspiration comes from things I see, experience, need, or sometimes from other people. One thing I've noticed is that there's a lot of integration and places to find people and businesses on the web.

Take me for example. You can find me on:

Bloggers should consider setting up a
Facebook page to cross-promote your blog. ~ Brenda Meller

• LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/BrendaMeller
• Twitter at www.twitter.com/BrendaMeller
• Facebook (sorry - I'm not sharing my personal page here. I only accept friend requests from people I know. But now thanks to my FB friends you can follow my Meller Marketing blog by liking the page www.facebook.com/MellerMarketing)
• YouTube at www.youtube.com/TheBrendaMeller
• Pinterest at  http://pinterest.com/summerbren/

Plus on my two blogs. The one you're reading now, http://mellermarketing.blogspot.com/ or my LinkedIn blog, http://15minutesadayonlinkedin.blogspot.com/. 

I started poking around my marketing blog the other day and discovered I have one blog post that has over 18,000 views. I'm still trying to figure out how/where it might have been picked up. The blog topic was about a great experience I had at a Tim Horton's drive-through, so my guess is they may have shared it somewhere. 

But this got me thinking about how I'm promoting my blog. Right now, I mainly do cross-promotion on LinkedIn, Twitter, and occasionally Facebook. My blog is just a hobby for me. I enjoy marketing and like helping others. I'm not using it for serious business promotion like others are doing. 

This got me thinking -- what if I really wanted to make my blog more widely read? And what about the other people out there who want to gain blog readers, but really aren't sure how to do it? 

Which led me to my next conclusion - Facebook. It's where people hang out. If you're reading this, there's a good likelihood you found this post on Facebook. (tell me if I'm right by posting a comment to this blog)

I'll admit - I log and check into LinkedIn maybe once every day or so, poke around, read some posts, look in the groups, then I'm outta there. Twitter is something I dabble in from time to time and lately I've been using for digital notetaking (that's a blog topic for another day), but I don't spend a great deal of time there. 

But Facebook - what fun! I can have virtual conversations with all of my 498 closest friends. We share stories, highlights of our day, posts from other websites, jokes, pictures of our families, videos, etc. etc.  And I will proudly admit when I have the time, I'll spend (not waste) a good hour on Facebook just hanging out. It's kind of like eating junk food though - I can take it only in small doses at a time, but I'll indulge when I can. 

My guess is you're like me when it comes to Facebook. There are a whole other active/inactive group of people on Facebook whom I'll call "readers" (rather than lurkers). They see the value of Facebook, but either for personal/privacy or professional reasons, are only a spectator and don't participate in conversation, "likes" or any of the other stuff we do while on Facebook. That's totally okay, too. These people are among my FB friends and might be blog readers, too.  

So back to Facebook page for your business. If you aren't a marketing professional, why set up a Facebook page if you're only using Facebook on a personal level? 

Did you know you can set up a FREE Facebook page for your business?

Did you know you can set up a FREE Facebook page for your blog?

Did you know you can set up a FREE Facebook page for your organization?

Did you know you can set up a FREE Facebook page for your cause? 

Do you see a pattern here? You pick what you need to promote. Facebook gives you a place to do it free.

And if you're like me, you may not want to accept friend requests from people you don't know, but you use FB for personal and professional reasons, and you want to provide a way to engage with people you don't know well. 

PLUS: If you struggle with website design because you're too small, don't have a designer, or don't have the desire to spend (not waste) the time and money into creating a website, use a Facebook page instead. 

It's really easy to do. 

1. Start by visiting www.facebook.com/pages/create.php. Click the obnoxious green button that reads "Create a Page."
2. Follow the step by step instructions. Facebook makes this process super easy. And if you make a mistake, you can always go back and edit your information. You'll choose a major and sub category, then select a product or company name, then agree to terms and conditions.You an upload a picture or skip it for now, write a short description in the "about" section, add in additional address, website info (I pointed my page to my blog), or skip this for now. Choose whatever best matches your business / blog / cause. Facebook will not deny you access if you choose the wrong category. :)
3. Save your changes.
4. Gain page followers. After you save your changes, you'll now be able to start inviting friends to your newly created page. You'll want to promote on your personal page and encourage people to give your page a "LIKE." 
5. Give your page a simplified username. Once you get to 25 "likes" on your page, you can personalize the page address to something that is easy to remember. As a page manager, you'll see in your "Insights" section at the top of the page how many people have liked your page. And once you receive 25 likes, you'll see the link to give your page a username. Choose something that is as short and easy to remember as possible, like this: www.facebook.com/MellerMarketing 
6. That's it! If you're a blogger like me, consider reposting a summary of the blog topic and a link to the blog in your Facebook page. 

What's a Username on Facebook?
It's a simplified page address.
~ Brenda Meller

As of right now, I have 39 likes on my page. That's in just about 3 hours. And I promised I'd give a shout out to the 25th person who liked my page. It was pretty close, between my friends James and Christy. Christy works for Gift of Life Michigan, which works with the organ donor registry program. Please consider signing up with them if you can, and give their page a like: https://www.facebook.com/GiftOfLifeMichigan

Now I have 41 likes on my page. This is more exciting than an ebay auction! In comparison, prior to posting this blog, I had 15 followers. I'd say my blog test was a pretty successful project. Hope it provided you with some insights, too.

Please share your FB page in "comments" and I'll give your page a "LIKE" on Facebook, too. 

Free Marketing Tip for Bakeries (Pi Day)

My day started with a tweetup, or rather, a #pieup at Grand Traverse Pie in Troy, Michigan. 

"Mmmm...pie on Pi day!" ~Brenda Meller

I met a half dozen other people (including  @DaveBenjamin @DaveMurr @kevin_mclogan @Urbane_Media and a few others), for pie and coffee to celebrate the day that is linked with my favorite baked good: pie. 


Today is March 14, or rather, 3.14.


You may remember Pi from high school geometry. The area of a circle is equal to Pi times the radius squared. If you need a refresher, check out the Pi wikipedia page. Or ask any 16-year old.


Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised to read the Facebook post from Grand Traverse Pie a day beforehand, promoting their celebration of Pi / Pie day on 3.14 at 3:14 p.m. One of their franchises took this a step further and gave away free slices of pie at 3:14 p.m.! This was not the reason that I visited their location, however, as I've been planning this along with a few connections for weeks. 


Those who know me well know that my baked good of choice is pie. I'm not sure what it is. Probably the combination of crust and filling. I dunno. A crust can make or break the pie, though, that's for sure. And my mom baked some excellent homemade pies when I was growing up.


But anyway, I've been very involved in social media and networking since I began my job at Walsh College, and this is the third year in a row I've tried to participate in the #pieup on March 14. I've been successful two out of three years. 


While at the PieUp, I was discussing with others how March 14 is such an excellent opportunity for every pie bakery to take full advantage of the day as a marketing tactic. They can tap in to their social web followers and find people like me who appreciate the clever connection between "Pie" and "Pi." And they can find super connectors who (like me) will invite others to join them via Twitter (a "tweetup"), via a Facebook event page, or by rewarding their VIPs on Foursquare who check in for Pie on Pi day. (sidebar: I earned 8 points on my Pi day Foursquare checkin!)


I'm hoping that you're the owner or manager of a bakery reading this blog post. If you are, please consider promoting the heck out of Pi day next year. Here are some suggestions how to do this:

1. Make sure you designate March 14 as "Pie / Pi day" months in advance. Communicate this with your employees. 
2. Come up with a promotional offer. Maybe it's buy a whole pie, get a piece free, or buy a piece, get a piece free. The better the offer, the more likely you'll get picked up by your local media. The better the offer, the more likely you'll gain a LOT of new traffic that day, too. 
3. Promote the offer: add a mention in your sales receipt footers. Put a sticker on bakery boxes a month or so beforehand. Or print flyers and leave them on your counter by the registers. 
4. Post this on your social web community pages, including Facebook and Twitter. And LinkedIn and YouTube if you have pages there, but those pages are less important, in my opinion. You don't have a social web pages on those sites? Chances are, all of your employees are active in social media. Pick someone and give them the title of social media manager and ask them to help you with your presence on these sites. Yes, you can trust them. It will be okay...
5. Create an event page on Facebook. Invite your customers who are fans of your page to RSVP to the event. You can make it as specific as asking them to come to your store at 3:14p in the afternoon, or as broad as all day long. Have fun with it, and get those customers involved!
6. If you have regular customers who come in with their laptops and tweet, see if you can figure out if they participate in tweetups. Ask them if anyone is planning a tweetup on Pie / Pi day, or March 14. 
7. Create a YouTube video and tell your story about how your store is celebrating Pie / Pi day. Post it on your Facebook page. Tweet it. Make it amusing - that will help its passalong value. 
8. When people come into your store on March 14, greet them with "Happy Pie Day" and inform them of your special offer that day. Bonus points if your cashiers are super enthusiastic!
9. Take pictures of people who participate in your Pie / Pi day celebration. Post their pictures on your Facebook page. Tweet their photos.

Above all, have fun. People like visiting establishments where they are welcomed and celebrated. Not to mention places that sell delicious baked goods like pie. 

Happy Pi day to everyone! I celebrated with strawberry rhubarb and it was delicious. How about you?