Tag Archives: social media

Day 78: Gerry Hicks, The Trail House

Posted on March 19, 2015 | Leave a comment

Day 78

I made a bicycle embossed card for Gerry! I didn’t have a stamp of a backpacker or a campfire.

You saw in my post on Tuesday that I was up in Frederick, MD doing some work. I’ve got a few thank-yous to write. Here’s one to Gerry Hicks who opened The Trail House with her husband Clyde in 1984.

It’s a great outdoors shop and you’ll love the people who work there. If you’re in Frederick, stop in and say hello. They gave me a cool Nalgene water bottle – I’ve promised to photograph it some place interesting. I don’t rock climb or do a lot of hiking, but I have made about 100 skydives, so maybe I’ll take this thing to 14,000 feet and enjoy a cold, refreshing beverage on the way down. Stay tuned for the photo!

Day 78-2

 

Dear Gerry,

I just wanted to drop you a note to thank you for taking time to speak with me last week about The Trail House and your experiences with social media. I enjoyed our discussion and meeting your staff. I thought a lot about our conversation since Tuesday and how your business has changed since opening the store 30 years ago.

Your Facebook post on Tuesday evening sharing Jennifer Pharr Davis’ course on preparing for a hike of the Appalachian Trail is a perfect example of the 80/20 rule I mentioned – giving your audience something they can use.

Keep up the good work. Let me know if I can ever be of any assistance.

All the best,
Reed

P.S. Be on the look out for some photos of me with The Trail House water bottle!

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Day 76: Downtown Frederick Partnership

Posted on March 17, 2015 | Leave a comment


Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

I had the pleasure of spending Tuesday in Frederick, MD working with several companies on elevating their social media through the power of storytelling. So much of the social media that you see from companies focuses on their product and not on the real hero of their story – their audience. And I say audience deliberately instead of customers. With social media, we need to focus our messages toward the people who believe what we believe, and not those who want to buy what we sell. It sounds counterintuitive but it works.

I had a little fun and embossed the front of this card with a city skyline.

I had a little fun and embossed the front of this card with a city skyline.

After my talk in the morning, which competed with the 8am rise and shine “Kegs and Eggs” festivities two blocks away at the local Irish watering whole, I then visited five local companies and sat down with each of them to work on crafting their social story.

It was a fun day chock full of thought provoking conversations. I enjoyed getting to know each of the businesses I worked with and am thankful to the Downtown Frederick Partnership for making it all happen. They’re a fantastic organization working to enhance, promote and preserve the charming downtown area of Frederick. The next time you’re there, please stop into these five businesses and say hello. Tell them Reed sent you.

Gerry at The Trail House
Richard at Earthly Elements
Murray at Hunting Creek Outfitters
Maria at Unique Optique
and Lianne at Nido’s

Day 7576

If the address on the envelope isn’t crystal clear – you need to visit Dr. Maria at Unique Optique!

 

Dear Kara, Brittany and Danielle,

Thank you so much for inviting me to speak at the Competitive Edge Series today– I thoroughly enjoyed meeting you and so many of the wonderful people that represent the companies from your vibrant downtown business district.

I particularly enjoyed meeting one on one with some of the businesses and working with them on creating an effective social media presence. I look forward to keeping in touch with them – as well as with each of you.

Thanks again,
Reed

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Day 73: Rich

Posted on March 14, 2015 | Leave a comment

RichCardOnce again my Year of Giving and Year of Letters lives have intersected. This past week I received a handwritten letter from Rich from Phoenixville, PA. We’d been in touch five years ago when I was unemployed and giving $10 away every day. He’s an interesting (his business card even confirms that!) and creative guy who has several well written blogs worth checking out: 1 Picture 217 Words, Rich’s House of Vinyl and The Dichotomy of the Dog. He also makes custom notebooks – check’em out.

Thanks for the letters this week everyone – keep them coming!

Day 73 Rich

Dear Rich,

What a pleasant surprise I had yesterday when I discovered your handwritten letter in my mailbox. Thank you! I do recall our exchange from when I was doing the Year of Giving – I was touched by the tribute you were doing with raising funds for the American Cancer Society in honor of your father.

Clearly we both place an immense amount of importance on family. I see it through your blog writings – from your complex (and humorous I might add) relationship with National Lampoons Christmas Vacation to donating proceeds from the Dirty Dancing notebooks to your great aunt Ellie’s shot glass!

Your blogs are well written and inspire creativity. I’m in awe of your passion and knowledge of music. I wish I had that kind of relationship with music but with the exception of a handful of artists I pretty much just go with the flow of whatever is playing whether it be Bach or the Beastie Boys – just no Justin Bieber please.

I was not familiar with Lincoln’s unsent letter to Gen. Meade – thank you for sharing, I will certainly look that up and I agree it would make an interesting post on the Year of Letters. Furthermore, your thought of doing a tour at Laurel Hill, or anywhere for that matter, and enriching the experience through the readings of letters and diaries is an excellent idea. I hope you pursue that.

Rich, I’m glad that possibly the Year of Letters has played a small role in igniting that spark inside you to return to letter-writing after decades of not writing. Keep it up, trust me, it’s rewarding.

Sincerely,
Reed

P.S. I will let you know if I am in the Phoenixville area – I have friends who live in nearby Spring City. I recall Bridge Street – charming downtown area where I’ve eaten a decent Mexican meal at Hacienda La Michoacana as well as enjoyed a few tasty beers across the street at Iron Hill Brewery.

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Day 27: Nicky

Posted on January 27, 2015 | Leave a comment

I asked the Twitter world yesterday who I should write to today and got a response back from a friend and former coworker in Oklahoma City who thought his son would appreciate a letter.

Screen Shot 2015-01-26 at 10.50.45 PM

I love the fact that he checks the mailbox every day – I used to do the same thing. I remember how excited I’d get when I got a letter in the mail which usually only happened around my birthday or the holidays.

I hope he enjoys getting the letter and I look forward to hearing back from him!

YoL-3-2

Dear Nicky,

I am a friend of your father’s and he told me that you like to receive mail – me too! I like to send and receive handwritten letters. In fact, I have made a promise to send a handwritten letter to someone every day this year. You are the 27th person that I have written to!

YoL-4-2I wrote to another boy in Oklahoma – his name is Cade and he lives in Yukon. He wrote a letter to every NFL team. I thought that was pretty cool.

I heard that you are in kindergarten. Who is your teacher? What is your favorite part about school? Do you like sports? I bet you like OSU – I think your mom and dad both went to school there. Do you have any brothers or sisters?

I live in Washington, DC. It’s an amazing city full of historic monuments and important buildings like the White House where the president lives and also the Capitol where the congress meets. Have you been here? If not, maybe your parents will bring you some time.

I have to go now. I hope that you will write me back.

Your friend,
Reed

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Day 16: Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook

Posted on January 16, 2015 | Leave a comment

Photo: zagg.com

Photo: zagg.com

I recently stumbled upon a Washington Post article from about a year ago that was about Facebook Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s goal to write a thank-you note every day in 2014. Pretty cool! I can’t find any articles that follow up on that to see if he in fact was able to do it. I can tell you, it’s harder than it sounds!

I thought that Mark and I were friends on Facebook. I swear! When I first signed up years ago I thought it was kind of automatic that you became friends with Mark…you know, so you weren’t lonely on Facebook. But I just double-checked and sadly we’re not friends on Facebook – yet! Maybe he unfriended me.

Despite being a pioneer in the digital world, I hope that he appreciates the handwritten letter as much as I do. Who knows, maybe he’ll write me back or post to my Facebook page?

Mark Zuckerberg Mark Zuckerberg-2

Dear Mark,

I just read that last year you made a goal to write one thank-you note each day – I love that idea! In fact I just embarked on a year-long journey to write one handwritten letter every day for a year (facebook.com/yearofletters). I was curious about two things. First, how did it go? And second, do you have any advice me.
I look forward to hearing from you.

Your Facebook friend,
Reed Sandridge

P.S. Nice work on launching Internet.org in Colombia!

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