As I sit here in one of my favorite coffee shops, I am reflecting on the incredibly busy week I had last week. I had some sort of plan every night after full 8 hour days, so by Friday I was ready to just relax at home… and that’s what I did!
My favorite thing I did last week was Tuesday, I went to a film screening up in Seattle for the new movie that just opened this weekend: Warm Bodies. Since this is a business blog, I will spare you my review – even though I loved it! – if you want my input feel free to see my review here. What I will write about is how I got to see the movie for free, before it came out, and what an amazing opportunity this is for everyone in business or pretty much anyone who enjoys a free perk (you!).
A new Seattle start-up called BrandBuddee has some very active owners/partners who connected with me on LinkedIn. [If we aren’t connected – find me! Kelly Rates] I’m on there all the time checking out the conversations, articles, events and recent trends. Anyway, I had seen the guys around on LinkedIn and when they contacted me to share more info about BrandBuddee I decided to sign up. It’s a unique referral program that harnesses the power of word of mouth and viral social media. As a business owner, you can put out perks and rewards – such as 2 free movie screening tickets – and designate a number of points needed to earn the perk. You get the points by sharing the deal with your social network via Facebook, Twitter, etc. You get a point for each unique click that comes from your sharing. I only needed 20 points to get those movie tickets and I was so surprised at how fast I got them. I thought for sure they gave me bonus points because it was my first time or something. But nope, that’s the power of viral social media. When I talked on the phone with the owner, he told me that meant that 20 unique people had viewed the deal through my promotion. The movie wins, and I won. You’ve got to check it out – just for the deals alone!
From a marketing perspective, this is fabulous. As a consultant, I’m always looking for tools and software I can offer my clients – especially those that are new and exciting. I like to call this my “consulting tool kit.” Things like Dropbox, Office 360, Hootsuite, BrandBuddee, etc. I have learned a lot about them and can be an advocate or “middle man” to help make my clients’ lives a little easier. For a limited time, since they are in the start-up phase, BrandBuddee is free. So jump on this. Whatever kind of business you are in, you can find a way to use BrandBuddee. Whether it’s giving away a free product or service, we can work together to make it great. Soon they will start to charge for this service, and as an item in my tool kit I’ll be passing the charge onto my clients. The exposure is what really sells. This start-up is already getting huge clients such as these major motion pictures, I say within the next year they will expand even more to where you’ll see more of an enhanced, local offering. Right now it’s a lot of Washington and Seattle, because that’s where we are, but this kind of concept – just like it’s process – is bound to go viral. Add it to your toolkit so you’ll be the first of your competitors to do so! Just don’t try to take my clients 😉
Just to show another example of how great this program works, and plus do a little extra plug: Right now I’m trying to earn 50 points to get a free bottle of wine. I signed up for this deal less than 20 minutes ago and I already have 17 after posting to Facebook and Twitter. I don’t have a lot of money to spend on wine right now so I NEED THIS so click and check it out 🙂
Have a great week, I hope you all are just as productive as I. Thank goodness I don’t have as much planned as last week.
By: Kelly Rates