Social Media Engagement Turns Lemons into Lemonade
Try as we might, we just can’t get Gina Trapani at LifeHacker to write about our clients at NEAT Receipts. Even though she often writes about “getting organized,” we haven’t cracked the code yet.
The latest shut-out came in December of 2007, when Gina asked her readers, “How do you organize your tax receipts?” Since Gina wanted her readers’ input, it’s arguable that NEAT Receipts “deserved” a mention here, but keep in mind that this was just the latest in a string of defeats…
This time around, we decided to surrender: Gina clearly didn’t want to hear from the PR crowd. But, we asked one of our our client contacts to get involved in the Comments section of the December post. In the comment, our client identified her affiliation and briefly outlined how NEAT Receipts has helped its customers at tax time.
As we monitored for any reaction to our client’s comment, we soon noted a follow-up comment by Justin Martin, a writer for FORTUNE Small Business. Justin seemed intrigued by the many suggestions of LifeHacker’s readers. When we called on him, Justin remembered our client’s comment at the LifeHacker blog and readily set-up an appointment with our NEAT Receipts contacts.
Result? Big-time profile of a NEAT Receipts customer in the COVER STORY of the March edition of FORTUNE Small Business.
We’d still love to convince Ms. Trapani to give NEAT Receipts a whirl, of course. In the meantime, it’s nice to be able to point all of our clients to a prime example of the benefits of enagagement in the blogosphere.
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Comments
Great work, Todd. Your experience demonstrates that SM requires continued attention to be successful - and also requires good old fashioned PR skills.
Posted by: Colin Mckay | March 18, 2008 09:05 AM
Aren't those oranges in the photo? :)
Posted by: Mike Keliher | March 18, 2008 10:46 AM
Excellent work. I think sometimes the journos get a little gunshy of doing anything with PR people. Stubborn?
Posted by: Russell Page | March 18, 2008 12:46 PM
That is an amazing hit, Todd.
That is the way you have to play the blogosphere. Once you and your clients are involved in something as simple and easy as commenting, it can lead to much bigger and better things.
Congrats.
Posted by: PepperDigital | March 18, 2008 01:19 PM
Hats off to you. But couldn't you get the client logo on the front cover? You're clearly not working hard enough ;)
Seriously, I need to get me one of those NEAT Receipts before I drown under unclaimed expenses.
Posted by: Michael Cooper | March 19, 2008 10:16 PM
Doesn't it feel great when it works?
Posted by: Sherrilynne Starkie | March 21, 2008 06:21 AM
Todd, great example of SM's unexpected and very worthy results. Thanks for giving hope for all of us out there who keep plugging and hope for a breaking point.
FYI- Wanted to let you know that the NEAT Receipts link isn't working.
Posted by: Jamie Giller | March 22, 2008 09:49 PM
Thanks, all, for the comments. Especially to Mike, for not letting me get away with the oranges v. lemons. Grr.
Posted by: Todd Defren | March 24, 2008 08:09 AM
Todd, congrats on your media hit! While this is a great example of the power of social media, the fact that one of your clients commented about the company was the key. Smart move!
Posted by: Tatiana Tugbaeva | March 25, 2008 03:00 PM