Alberta Business Marketing

Greetings from Florida everyone.   David and I are in Tampa this week meeting with clients and partners of our Calgary-based Internet Marketing firm, Ulistic.  After washing away the ice and snow from our United Airlines flight in Calgary we were on our way through Denver and eventually Tampa, Florida.  A long day in the air however the flight crews and staff with United Airlines took great care of us and we got here with no major challenges or delays.

When we arrived at our destination on the east end of Tampa we had to go out and check out the local sites.  Plus I have never been over to St. Petersburg or Clearwater especially after working with firms like Tech Data for so many years who has their US headquarters in the Clearwater area.  David and I picked up our rental car and started to explore the wonderful sites of the Gulf coast.  Those bridges across the bay are amazing, the sand was delightful and we didn’t see any oil washing up on the shores of West Florida.

After a drive and walk around the beach we decided to get some dinner and found a wonderful beach front cafe/restaurant.  I have to share with you our awesome experiences at Frenchy’s South Beach Cafe on Gulfview Blvd in Clearwater.  It was great and plenty of food to feed an army or at least enough for my kids to eat.  The service, food and staff are simply amazing and our server Jenny provided us with an overall pleasurable experience.  Frenchy’s is just a stone’s throw from the Gulf of Mexico and the sights and sounds of the sea add to the enjoyment of our night out before a couple of business days in the Bay area.

The food was great and in typical American style, way too much food for this Canadian boy.  I am sure the servings are at least half to double the size of what we are used to in Canadian restaurants.  Not a bad thing but you have to go in hungry.  Also, the Key Lime Pie is great and something you have to experience.

Why are we sharing our feedback with our experiences with this restaurant on the beach in Florida.  We believe in sharing our experiences with local business (they are the glue holding together our economy right now) and also sharing something great when we see it or experience it.  There is way too much negativity in our world today and this slight shot of something positive in our blogs, day-to-day business dealings and wherever or whatever we do helps us feel good about what we do and why we are here to do it.

If you are ever in Clearwater, Florida or even Tampa it is worth the drive, walk, cab ride to check out Frenchy’s South Beach Cafe.

Tags: Calgary, denver, Film, florida, food, Frenchy's South Beach Cafe, Grease, Gulf of Mexico, Hospitality/Recreation, Internet Marketing, Jenny, Small Time Crooks, Stuart's ramblings, tampa, Tampa Florida, UAL Corporation, ulistic
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United Airlines is becoming the friendly skies – sort of

I recently return from a trip to Phoenix, Arizona and during my travels on United Airlines which I normally travel because I collect Aeroplan points and since I am a Star Alliance Gold member it just makes sense for me to travel on the airlines that allow me to collect points and keep my status. I actually enjoy the lounges at the airports and I noticed this time around that United is really trying to become friendly.  I made this observation a few times during my travel.

During this trip United started advertising their “connect to us on Twitter” as part of their in-flight entertainment system and really encouraging people to connect with them on Twitter.  Kudos to you United. United may now be understanding the importance of offering other ways to connect with their customers especially in our socially connected world in which we live in today.

It can also be a brand reputation activity as well.

Good start with Twitter, United

No #Fail from me, still have work to do though

However, does the big bloated company culture spill over to the social media space? It is no secret and something that is not unique to United, all big firms suffer from a certain degree of being bloated.  I would guess the older corporate culture still plays an important role and it really doesn’t matter what the tool is. If your firm has problems returning a phone call, replying to an email or offer poor customer service when dealing face-to-face with people, what makes you think you can reply better with Twitter?

Corporate culture still plays an important role. When I arrived in Phoenix I tweeted about my great trip to Sky Harbor via Denver but then realized my suitcase was still in Denver after my first tweet on the pleasurable trip I was on.  United Airlines never did retweet my good comment about my experience nor did they get back to me on my tweet about my bag not making it to Phoenix.

Let me make this clear, the staff at Sky Harbor were awesome in dealing with my lost luggage.  No complaints what so ever, I am just focusing on the culture around social technologies and if you are going to use them you need to embrace the culture.

United is on the right track, just need some tweaks.

Tags: Aeroplan, Airline, Arizona, denver, Open Travel Alliance, Phoenix, Sky Harbor, social media space, social technologies, Star Alliance, Star Alliance Gold, Stuart's ramblings, travel, Tweet, Twitter, Twitter Inc, UAL Corporation, United Airlines, World Wide Web
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