Connect Ann Arbor

Today at LA2M - Lunch Ann Arbor Marketing - we discussed how we could help our lunch host Furrokh, owner of the wonderful restaurant Eastern Flame on Ashley in Ann Arbor. Here are the thoughts and ideas of the smart crowd of 11 marketers:

1. Charlie Kondek - Invite all the local bloggers out to eat the food, review it and write a blog post about their experience. We all like this idea and plan to do it. If you’re a blogger who would like to participate, please comment. Bloggers may want to come out for the new lunch buffet starting May 20.

2. Dee Davey - Network with other like groups to get them to host their lunches or dinner events at Eastern Flame. LA2M has had such good service and food from this restaurant, it’s perfect for other small networking groups.

3. Steve - Eastern Flame needs a new web site, with an interactive menu. Steve and Andy Ross may connect to build this site. Stay tuned…

4. Andy Ross - Volunteered to design the site. Plus suggested we need Belly Dancers at Eastern Flame to liven up the atmosphere. Not a bad idea?!?

5. Jason - Furrokh needs a cart on the street so people can smell all the great smells of bbq chicken, kebabs, and fresh falafel when they are walking through A2. We talked about Cart Mafia and how it’s hard to get a cart in A2.

6. Jamie - Since Jamie is a 3D modeling guy, he thought it would be great to have an Interactive experience showing what it’s like to walk into Eastern Flame. Love the idea. Especially think we should film w/ belly dancers and live music to increase the excitement.

7. Derek Mehraban - I had two ideas. First, invite a friend to LA2M so they can experience the great food and camaraderie we experience at Eastern Flame first hand. And two, Build out a social media presence using Facebook and Twitter. This effort has already begun.

8. Ross Johnson - Email list to send people updates on the lunch specials of the day similar to how Cafe du Jour does it. Also suggested getting out to Taste of Ann Arbor. Furrokh was all over that one already.

9. Nicole Burguess - Suggests we need to Audio Podcast from LA2M lunches. Live from Eastern Flame. I personally dig this idea. Have thought we need to capture the witty banter of our marketing lunches for some time. Must bring mic and laptop to next meeting.

10. Daniel DeMoss: Fan Page on Facebook. Done. Also, we need T-shirts w/ Furrokh photo to do some viral marketing. Who wouldn’t want an Eastern Flame t-shirt?!? I want one right now.

11. Peter Sabbagh - Use a digital campaign to connect w/ teen crowd. Neutral Zone partnership. Heck, Tabbouli and Hummus is healthy for kids. Eastern Flame can provide healthy after school snacks to the teens. We will not allow ordering of Fries of Lebanese coffee to keep the health factor up.

12. Do you have some more ideas…Comment here.

There is a place on Main Street called The Brickyard. You can find it nestled in between Starbucks and The Ark at 306 South Main, Suite LLA. The Brickyard is right below the WSG, Suwanee Leather and Le Dog. Why should you care about this?

The Brickyard houses some progressive folks. A few companies share office space there, as seen in Concentrate Magazine’s story on co-working. There is a conference room, great lounge area, and good fun and discussion every day. John Roos of Roos Roast supplies the coffee. You can be a fan of The Brickyard on Facebook.

Who’s at The Brickyard:

352 Media Group - Declan O’Neil has space here. 352 is a great web design company originally from Florida, and now with offices in Ann Arbor. Declan’s a trip, you can follow him at the 352 blog.

Your Search Advisor - Andrew Miller is at The Brickyard. Andrew runs a very cool SEO and PPC company. He is from the South, and still getting used to Michigan weather. But I think he’s having fun w/ us in Ann Arbor.

Cooney Information Group - Dan Cooney. This company specializes in Information architecture and high end web structures. Dan is very cool and is an important part of The Brickyard community.

Different Chairs - Brian Kerr. There are many different chairs at The Brickyard, and Brian Kerr sits in them all. This company specializes in programming cool applications. They do all types of different things. All cool.

Ingenex Digital Marketing - Ross Johnson and Derek Mehraban. This company is the main lessor at the space and focuses on Digital Marketing. Ross and Derek build some cool web sites, run SEO and PPC campaigns for clients and have successful blogs. Build out Social Media Campaigns. And help define brands, language, and design for their clients. Derek is CEO and Ross is CCO. It’s all good. You can hear Ross and Derek @ The Digital Bus blog and podcast.

Friends - we have many friends who stop by our offices. Feel free to stop by and say hi!

Derek

PS. If you’re a friend, feel free to trackback to this post so we know who you are

On March 11 from 5:00 - 7:00 PM you are invited to a (FREE) networking event on Social Networking. If you’re interested in building a social network come on out. Here’s the lineup…

Social Networking from Ann Arbor, East Lansing and Detroit.

What is social networking? How can social networking help your business? How can you be social? Learn the answers to these questions and more from this panel of highly respected experts who have built social networks throughout the United States and the world.

Program Leader –

Derek Mehraban – Around the Way
CEO, Ingenex Digital Marketing
Founder of Connect Ann Arbor

Expert Panel –

Lori Laurent Smith – Ann Arbor
Social Media Evangelist
Digital Marketing Guru

Edward Vielmetti – Ann Arbor
Chief Economist, Pure Visibility
Creator of The Vacuum Blog and SuperPatron Blog

Terry Bean – Detroit
Chief Networking Officer, Networked Inc.
Founder of Motor City Connect

Note: This program will be recorded for a Podcast by Ross Johnson, CCO, Ingenex Digital Marketing.

This program is brought to you by the Marketing Roundtable and Ann Arbor Spark.

Register here

Last week’s LA2M - Lunch Ann Arbor Marketing had an amazing discussion. We discussed a Fast Company article about The Tipping Point and Duncan Watts, and how people can influence trends and brand success. Turnout last week was approximately 10 people. We had a new guest from 352 Media, and many of the usual suspects.

Reminder that LA2M happens every Wednesday at Eastern Flame Lebanese Restaurant on Ashley in Ann Arbor. This is a firm commitment and I will be there every week. As I’m sure will many people who seem to enjoy talking about marketing topics. I hope someone brings a camera tomorrow to capture a nice photo of this event. Tomorrow will be a snowy lunch. Hoping that Mr. McGowan from Enlighten makes the trip downtown.

The topic for our 5th LA2M lunch is: How does a small company (1 or 2 people) sell to a big company (thousands of people)? This is an important question and we will tackle it on Wednesday, February 13 at LA2M. See you there.

Some random notes from our meeting last week about influence and the web:

1. Forums have more credibility
2. Are blogs commercialized to much? Can you trust a blog or is it corporate?
3. Message boards have no commercial interest as opposed to blogs where people want to grow their business or sell google adwords.
4. Forums are more anonymous as opposed to blogs where people’s names are tied to the blog - therefore people can be more honest or trusted on a forum.
5. Edmunds.com is a successful message board.
6. Mailig lists - moderators run role of editor. There are some big, established mailing lists - Association of Computer Engineering.
7. Epinions, rate things, some people chooe the “influences” at epinions and send them products to review, attempting to influence.
8. It’s important for the first reviewers of a product to be positive.
9. Amazon.com - good review can make or break your product.
10. Gaming the system.
11. Demand for audience, they should have a blog - if someone wants to read about it, then they should have a blog. (when should a company have a blog?)
12. Should you start the blog and cut your yellow pages spend? What is the criteria for a business to start a blog? What conditions must exist?
13. I only use businesses that have a web site, they must be in tune w/ customers. (in response to yellow pages talk and url for biz.)
14. Is paper valueless?
15. 80% of people who search for local businesses use Google search.

Dunrie also announced World Usability Day event at WCC on March 31 - April 2.

Hope to see you there!

Derek