Not Michael James Slattery

In the last month, industry ethical and business industry issues have been front and center on The Wedding Marketing Blog. There have have been a number of posts related to Bella Pictures, its overall business model, changing personnel at the top level of the company, questionable public relations, bad bridal advice, and philisophical differences in their leadership ranks.

Today, former Bella Pictures photographer, Michael James Slattery, launched a blog lambasting the company. Slattery did not just arrive on the scene. He has shot over 500 wedding events for Bella Pictures; first as a contracted freelancer, then as an employee.

The change in his relationship with Bella Pictures begin in April 2008 when George White, co-founder, VP Photography was replaced by Tahra Makinson-Sanders. Suffice it to say, the relationship between Makinson-Sanders and Slattery became frosty, over time, resulting in his termination about a week ago.

Comment: The curious issue for me is how a veteran of 500 wedding events could suddenly become so easily discarded. You’ll find his emails to be both angry and aggressive. His tone reached this level in emails, essentially because he could found no satisfaction in phone calls. It is his belief that he was not getting straight answers or explanations, and. well….. he went off.

Draw your own conclusions by reading Slattery’s blog which posts his overview and an extensive exchange of emails.

Why I’m still interested in this issue:

Please read Slattery’s blog post, and post your comments here.

Andy Ebon
The Wedding Marketing Blog

written by Andy Ebon \\ tags: Andy Ebon, Bella Pictures, bridal advice, Jenny Lefcourt, Michael James Slattery, propaganda, Public Relations, Tahra Makinson-Sanders, Wedding Marketing Authority

Do you have any Grey Poupon?

As I was reading every possible book and resource on blogging, I came across the great title: No One Cares What You Had For Your Lunch: 100 Ideas for your blog It turned out to be one of the most important marketing lessons, about blogging, micro-blogging (Twitter), social networking (Facebook), and business networking (LinkedIn).

The essence is this: In all forms of advertising, marketing, social media, and networking you are vying for people’s attention within brief and/or limited time constraints. It is important that your words and images be pithy, crisp, motivational, interesting, and memorable. To ramble or post about topics that don’t pass the ‘Who cares?’ test is not just a waste of a reader’s time, it increases the likelihood that they will tune you out in the future.

So what is Ham Sandwich Marketing? It is my buzzword phrase, inspired by the aforementioned book. It is my notation of meaningless posts and status updates that are meaningless to virtually everybody but the person who initiated them.

Example: “Just had lunch at Wolfgang Puck with Susie, Johnny, and Big Al.”

My response (by Direct Tweet or Public Facebook Wall Post): “Did you have a ham sandwich?”

Wolfgang Puck

It’s my not-so-subtle sarcastic way of nudging the poster or blogger with the subtext: “I read your item. Am I supposed to know who Susie, Johnny and Al are? Am I supposed be impressed that you lunched at Wolfgang Puck. Why don’t just tell me you had a ham sandwich. That would be equally unimpressive and unnecessary?”

If you’re lunch was incredible, take a picture of the ham sandwich. post about the incredible Dijon mustard, the soft fresh-baked roll, and what variety of ham was involved. That has the possibility of being entertaining. Otherwise, you’re just engaging in Ham Sandwich Marketing.

In today’s fast and furious world of communications, being boring is a big crime. Being irrelevant is a felony offense.

Don’t waste people’s time. Be interesting or be gone.

Andy Ebon
The Wedding Marketing

written by Andy Ebon \\ tags: advertising, Andy Ebon, blogging, Facebook, Ham Sandwich marketing, limited attention, LinkedIn, marketing, post, social networking, Twitter, Wedding Marketing Authority

Click to follow me

The fine people at Hubspot specialize in optimization and testing of various kinds. Previously, on the site, I have recommended Website Grader, a free service that analyzes and helps you tweak your website.

More recently, Hubspot has introduced similar services to better understand your Facebook, Blogging and Twitter performance. As part of the Twitter Grader service. Without disclosing the exact scoring algorithms, Hubspot explains that your Twitter Grade is based on Followers, their ReTweets of your Tweets (forwarding to their followers), and various other levels of interaction and relevancy.

When I checked my Twitter Grade, it came up at 96.6, which seemed pretty high (out of 100). As The Wedding Marketing Blog is a niche business blog, comparing it to general consumer sites doesn’t typically play very well, as that is an Apples and Oranges situation.

Within the Twitter Grade service, there is Twitter Elite (Top 50). There are various subsets of Twitter Elite. Just for fun, I thought I’d see how I compared to the TOP 50 Twitterers in Las Vegas, NV. To my surprise and amazement, this site (and I) ranked #46, just a couple of slots below MGM Grand and the Tony – CEO of Zappo’s; just a couple of slots above the world famous Las Vegas Sign.

What does that mean to me?

It means this: In order to have influence, one must have an audience. In terms of my goals, it means have loyal readers on this blog. Twitter and Facebook, in particular, are part of my social media plan to direct focus toward The Wedding Marketing Blog.

None of that works unless the content on this blog is interesting and helpful to its readers. Clearly, the stars have aligned as June 2009 is this blog’s best month ever.

The challenge to you: What is it, you can do, to make your blog and website the thought leader in your industry, in your market?

Think about it, make a plan to leverage awareness of your brand, and go do it!!

Andy Ebon

The Wedding Marketing (and Twitter) Authority

written by Andy Ebon \\ tags: Facebook, Hubspot, MGM Grand, search engine optimization, SEO, Twitter, Twitter Elite, website grader, Wedding Marketing Authority, wedding marketing blog, Zappos