Have you ever been part of the “Sandwich Generation”? If you are not sure what this term means, it references being an adult child of aging parents and having your own family.  The struggle is trying to make enough time to meet everyone’s needs.  Usually, your needs are the only one’s not met and you are exhausted however you lovingly help your parents. Shaz’z Organizing Solutions rescued me in 2006 by helping to downsize the family home in preparation for my Mom to go into assisted living. She was so professional and prepared as items were sorted into categories based on my input.  Take a look at the before and after photos. Fast forward to 2018 and it is no longer a one-person operation. They have a great website and work all over the lower mainland of British Columbia.  The majority of this success can be attributed to traditional marketing methods such as cold calling real estate agents and moving companies.  These resulted into referrals along with referrals from referrals.  How does an established business transition fully into utilizing social media marketing?

On Sept 22 my trip to The Toronto Premium Outlets in Halton Hills included a surprise lunch! That day Halton Region hosted an event promoting local agricultural and retail businesses. Grilled cheese, pumpkin soup and pumpkin brittle were amongst the tasty offerings. Next to the complimentary samples there was a “selfie spot” sign for the Pumpkins to Pastries Trail, also known as #p2ptrail which caught my attention. Selfie photos taken at any of the 37 Trail locations (featured on the Halton Region website) and posted on social media with tag #p2ptrail were entered into weekly contests. Gift basket prizes from local vendors have been awarded to the contest winners. This program ran from Sept 12 through to Oct 31, 2016.

Rice Krispies, Special K, Corn Flakes, these are just a few iconic brands from Kellogg’s. I know for over 40 years I have enjoyed a bowl or two for breakfast. Established over 100 years ago, Kellogg’s is a household name in 180 countries around the world today. The company continuously delivers high-quality breakfast foods and attracts consumers through some of the best advertising and marketing campaigns in the consumer goods industry. During the summer of 2013 Kellogg’s wanted to run a 3 month, UK-specific social media campaign for their breakfast cereal Krave. The one difference from previous activities is they wanted to bring this campaign in-house. When bringing a campaign in-house Kellogg’s needed to make sure they had a way to track their KPI’s, and carefully align the social media metrics they were using to their organizational goals in a way that would contribute to the goals’ achievement.