A group of #VZWBuzz brand ambassadors visited the Verizon Wireless flagship store—an experiential destination at Minnesota’s ginormous Mall of America. It was pretty amazing! You can read more about how Verizon transforms retail stores into rec rooms for tech geeks here.
It was a treat to meet a few of my social media friends for the first time—some that I have followed for over four years. Meet Jason Ramsey, Thomas Clifford and UR Momma!
I checked in Foursquare at our Verizon welcome dinner, and I thought: How funny! It’s only in social media where you can check in on Foursquare and get real drinks from your virtual friends! I want to especially thank Julianne Paulsen for the sweet welcome to her state.
I rarely check into Foursquare as I am leaving for safety reasons. However, since I was with a group of friends, I felt comfortable enough to check in at our destination. The manager of the FireLake Grill House and Cocktail Bar came to our table to ask for Misty McPadden and Ann Tran and left with a mysterious smile on his face. He came back about five minutes later and brought our drinks—compliments of Julianne Paulsen to say hi and welcome.
I am not sure how savvy the manager is with social media, but I could tell by his expression that he thought it was neat that we checked into Foursquare and our virtual friend brought us a round of drinks. Even though this was just between friends, it shows how social media postings can be a powerful way of spreading news via word of mouth for brands and companies. #TechInspired #VZWBuzz #Travel
And what do social media friends do when they meet up? They talk about social media, of course! I particularly like this statement Thomas Clifford made during our conversation, “Gentle pressure, relentlessly applied.”
So true! To be successful in social media, it takes a long journey but especially a long-term investment in our social circle of friends. I always talk about how building relationships is so important, both online and offline, and this is just yet another example to back that up.
A big thank you to Monica Vila for including me in this great group of #VZWBuzz team members. As I tweeted out: BEST #VZWBuzz Live Twitter Chat YET at @VerizonWireless First Destination Store at Mall of America! I look forward to 2014 with YOU, Monica. Cheers!
