Mammoth Mountain Uncorks a Fresh West Coast Invitational

Two particularly interesting features:

• With the Events Flow Report you can see how content from a social source led to site action, helping fine-tune content and the path to site pages. This is a great visualization to see how a FB post or Tweet creates a site interaction.
• Google’s new Multi-Channel Funnel will be a highly useful tool for tuning e-commerce, panning out to the broader online environment including all interactions leading to a transaction.

This is perhaps the most pervasive digital reporting/analysis modules that has been rolled out to date. Other PR and social media measurement services like Vocus provide a decent surface level view, where Google’s really drills down to show actual outcomes. In addition to functionality there’s another significant benefit: it’s free.

With Insights from Facebook and YouTube for respective channel activity, Twitter listening tools, and this new Google Analytics package, the ability to track and understand online activity has never been greater.

It’s the story of Beyonce. No, not the popular American singer, but a small, stillborn puppy that was brought back to life. Last week, The Grace Foundation of Northern California posted a photo of the miniscule female daschund mix on the organization’s Facebook page.

The Grace Foundation followed this up with a more detailed post telling Beyonce’s story, claiming her to be “possibly the tiniest puppy in the world.” One of five puppies born to an abandoned rescue dog, Beyonce weighed just one ounce at birth and could fit into a teaspoon.

Unfortunately, she was not breathing when born. But following some puppy CPR from her caretakers at the foundation, Beyonce started breathing on her own. Today, the puppy has grown to the size of an iPhone and is getting bigger and stronger each day.

She’s also garnering attention from some of the nation’s most prominent media. After a local TV station picked up on the story, Beyonce began appearing on local morning shows.

That’s when bark turned to bite and national media took notice, with coverage in the Huffington Post, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and across national TV networks, including ABC News.

Perhaps the biggest coup was a call from Good Morning America requesting Beyonce and The Grace Foundation to appear on its show on Saturday, March 24. The airing created such a buzz that Good Morning America asked for another appearance the following Monday.

Something tells us Beyonce’s media tour is far from over, with others inquiring about a segment with The Grace Foundation (stay tuned).

And therein lays the power of social media. A simple Facebook post on a topic near and dear to people’s heart, with updates along the way, captures attention locally, then nationally—all the way up to most popular television news media.

“What’s most important about the story is that people are aware of the tiny, little wonderful miracles that come out of the shelter that sadly are euthanized each and every day,” said Beth Decaprio, executive director at The Grace Foundation.

So there you have it. A relatively obscure organization in suburban Northern California is now the talk among millions of people throughout the U.S. You simply can’t buy that type of advertising, PR, or exposure for your cause or business.

Yes, Likes and Followers are a loose indicators of audience size. And engagement is fairly easy to track based on interactions. But with Facebook reaching only about 44% of US audiences and Twitter a little more than 9% (we won’t even touch on the number of regular users), the limitation of a volume strategy is evident.

We’ve always held the PR philosophy that while a lot of coverage is good, a tangible result is only achieved when a client’s revenue needle is moved. Likewise, a valid social media outcome is not making lots of noise, but how to funnel and convert it into sales.

Fine if your SM plan is geared to getting more eyeballs on a company or product. But once potential customers are looking your way, what will drive them to open their wallets? A social strategy can only take an audience so far, but one that leaves them at the door will fall short of accomplishing the company’s ultimate objective.

Takeaway
With the end-goal of new customers, consider how multiple components of the sales and marketing channel need to link as you develop social media strategy. For example: build audience > content strategy > engagement > call to action > transaction mechanism > sale > delivery. Social media is an important part of this but of equal significance is where it lets potential customers off, and how the marketing machine moves them to action.

It may sound simple or trite, but think about it: how many times have you experienced people working in silos, building walls, and essentially preventing one another—and the company—from achieving a higher level of success?

Whether an organization of two or 2,000, its individuals, agencies or groups—at all levels—must work together for the good of the whole. This is particularly true across marketing/PR, customer service, product development, sales, and even executive management.

We see it every day: customer service is dealing with a problem and by the time it reaches the PR team, the issue is spinning out of control. With more proactive communication and collaboration, PR could help get in front of a potential issue to protect the brand, while customer service continues to resolve the matter. I know what you’re thinking: “DUH.” Right. Then why does this happen so often?

Fortunately, in today’s era of new media, communication and collaboration is made easier for those who are committed to it. Facebook and Twitter are now used regularly to foster communication and strengthen relations with various audiences. PR works to engage followers and spread updates and news, while customer service manages inquiries and issues. That’s a great example of collaboration. But not nearly enough.

Imagine PR, marketing and customer service having direct, ongoing conversation about customer feedback on the most—or least—popular features of a product or service. For PR, this opens up opportunity to hit the “sweet spot” and hone in on what is drawing customers to their company, brand, product, or service. Or on the contrary, identifying potential issues can engage development teams to fix them. Is the issue the messaging? That can be easily remedied once identified.

As a customer, who doesn’t want to be heard? And as a company, who doesn’t want to have an easy-to-use product or service? The cycle of communication, collaboration, and change drives both.

It’s a circle. If we collaborated more often, we’d not only have less confusion but also create more fans and evangelists. Reaching more influencers seems to be the current, favored measurement yet I wonder how many are solely working in their siloes to drive this.

What’s better: leaving it to PR to constantly ping the same influencer or and over, or multiple channels delivering a message to the target consumer? One is saturation, the other is effective brand building.

Now let’s bring in sales, perceived to be the driving force behind every company. Do any of you wonder where the term “sales and marketing” went?

While it makes sense geographically to have sales-only offices across the world, often times the feedback sales receives in the field never makes it back to marketing or customer service—with the exception of 1:1 conversations or quarterly meetings.

Typically, shortly after a product launch, the development and marketing teams have moved on to the next generation. Think of the opportunity for improvement (and revenue!) if a week or month after a product is launched, the marketing and PR teams solicited feedback from sales by asking: “What is most appealing about the product? What are you having the hardest time explaining to potential customers about the product? What do we need to help you convey?” It’s an ongoing cycle that not only makes us more knowledgeable, but also more efficient. Plus, it makes us more valuable.

As for executive suite, maybe you can’t schedule a meeting with the CEO that easily, but you can still create communications that make it to the top. If there’s an opportunity to present ideas, thoughts, recaps, or takeaways that matter to the company—take it. If there isn’t an open door, knock. The company or client will be better because of it.

We all know that key to PR is communication. In 2012, let’s challenge ourselves to put collaboration on par.

• We’ve said it before and will say it again: Good photos are a must-have. Be sure you have quality, interesting pics of your brand and products
• Use images located on the websites, blogs, or other destinations where you want to direct site traffic
• Set up Pinterest boards aligned with general categories, but be specific with names. For example, in the “Food & Drink” category, naming a board “French Wines” depicts a sub-category, while “Wine Reviews” provides greater specifics
• Start an image description with a dollar sign ($) to include a product price. This is a great tactic for promoting sales or special offers
• Multiple people can easily manage a brand page. Through a simple “settings” menu, you can authorize contributors to your board
• Highlight text on a page before pinning it and that copy will populate as the description

One of Pinterest’s great strengths is how easy it is to rearrange and fine tune, so the key is just getting underway.

Bonjour, Lucas, how is Provence and the South of France treating you?
It’s COOOOOOOLD! We flew in the day a massive cold storm hit most of Europe. We’ve barely seen temps over freezing and have had some fun run-ins with snow and black ice!
That said, I’ve slightly hardened myself by moving to Colorado, so I think I can handle it. Knowing we are in a beautiful place with such an immense amount of history helps take the edge off.

LPR: Sounds like perfect weather for copious espresso and Rhone region adult recovery beverages.

How long will you be over the pond and what’s planned?
Over the past two years our team has worked hard to ride well in Europe and the proof is in the invitations we are getting to some high caliber races in 2012. We’re slowly transitioning to full time in Europe with stints of racing in North America for the bigger events. Team Spidertech has picked a base in Kortrijk, Belgium where they will run the team, but riders will be scattered in a few other cycling hot beds of Europe such as Girona, Spain and Lucca, Italy.

LPR: That’s a waffle, paella and pasta trilogy of awesomeness.

You recently decided to call Boulder home and bought a house. Knowing how much you’re on the road, what does it feel like to have some roots in the ground?
Part of my decision making process included finding a place I could call mine and always know it was there when I needed it. I was tired of not only living a lifestyle full of traveling, but having to live like a modern nomad when I was back in the States. This is the next phase of my life and in order to take my career serious I have to play my entire life on a similar picture. A house gives me a small taste of stability in a very hectic lifestyle.

LPR: And a place to store all your bikes while draining your bank account. Congrats!

Between Boulder and Napa, we know who has better wine, but who has better coffee. Your must-sip locales in each?
Boulder. I love Napa, but what Napa has in wine Boulder has in both coffee and beer! In Napa, I love a nice easy spin with the boys to Bouchon Bakery to enjoy a cup in the sun. In Boulder there are so many to pick from, but local roaster’s Box Car Roasters are very impressive and share storefront with my former teammate Will Frischkorn’s new shop Cured.

Do people recognize you without your glasses?
NO, and the fact that I grew a beard immediately after really threw people off. I had to remind close friends who was while standing right in front of them!

Speaking of the beard, what’s with the secret agent disguise? Movember was supposed to end November 30…
The beard takes the edge off of that icy cold Front Range wind. Plus I keep getting compliments.

LPR: Aha, a mountain and ladies man.

What makes you laugh the hardest?
Right now, the accent my Quebec teammates have. I know it sounds mean, but the way they get going sometimes is hilarious! Sounds like Woodstock from Peanuts.

To fill out your size extra small bibshorts, how many calories do you eat each day?
As many as I can! Mostly of pancakes and bacon!

You’re pretty handy in the kitchen. When you have time and no dietary restrictions, what would you make?
I am, but sometimes it’s super hard to be motivated after a 6-hour ride to cook a big meal. I am a huge fan of cooking things ahead of time like big curry dishes or hearty stews that last for days. I love the crockpot. Put a roast in their before the ride and when I get back I throw some rice in the rice maker, take a shower and viola–it’s an amazing post ride meal. I get a lot of my tips from “The Feed Zone Cookbook” by Allen Lim and Biju Thomas.

What does your typical winter “work week” look like? How many hours of bike practice? What and how much time out of the saddle?
It’s really a never-ending job. From waking up to countless emails, doing interviews, interacting with sponsors, handling social media, eating properly, riding, recovering properly, writing more emails, eating more, and making time for everything else it’s a heck of a lot more than just “riding a bike.” It’s not a job, it’s a lifestyle.

Most epic day on the bike EVER? Could be a race, training ride or just tooling around
Seven hours, 265km, 5000 KJ’s at the World Road Race Championships in Varese, Italy in 2008. That and the first 3 stages of Paris-Nice in 2008. The race is typically from Paris to Nice, France, hence garnering the name “The Race to the Sun.” First 3 days were freezing temps and rain and I just remember wearing enough clothes to keep a small village warm. There were crashes on the slick roads everywhere and with so many clothes on it was like a slip n’slide. I’m sure the list can go on, but we tend to ride in just about every condition out there. Rain delays don’t exist in cycling!

When you got hit in 2009 it physically almost ended your career. When you got hit again in 2010, it took a major psychological toll. But you’re back and stronger than ever. Where do you find the resolve and determination?
It’s easy to focus on the minor details and get caught in this cycle of trying to micro manage each and every one. Ultimately we realize the things that change our lives are the things completely out of our control. Putting my life into perspective was exactly what I needed, having a re-check wasn’t exactly necessary, but I have learned to take things a little easier and when life starts to get stressful there is a reason and the only one that can fix it is you. I once heard a quote that resonated to the fact I have to take my life into my own hands, and give it the respect it deserves: “The only thing we have to do in life is die, everything else is a choice.”

After getting hit three times on the bike, what message do you have for cyclists? Motorists?
Respect each other. If you have time to wait three hours on a good dinner or spend time in line at the coffee shop, you have a few seconds to respect another human life. Make the choices that reflect you as a human being.

LPR: Great advice. As with everything in life, taking a deep breath before acting would avoid a lot of circumstances.

Lots of people struggle to get out of bed and motivated for their job. What inspires you?
The thrill of what is next. Life is exciting and if you’re out their meeting new people and trying new things who knows what may come your way. I live for that feeling of finding something new and interesting, and growing my own personal human kind!

Flat Lucas debuted at the Tour of California in 2010, people were constantly saying “Hey, that’s Lucas!” What’s your secret to being so congenial?
I love meeting new people. Everyone has a story and I’m always curious to figure it out. I’ve come across some incredibly inspiring stories that way.

Three best tips for up-and-coming riders with pro aspirations?
“Just Ride… Just Ride… Just Ride” – Fausto Coppi

What’s the state of cycling? Don’t think too hard, whatever comes to mind.
Stagnant. Cycling is in desperate need of a new image. It’s a glorious sport that showcases athletes at both their highest highs and their lowest lows. That needs to be captured by the media and given to the fans in a new light.

LPR: I think media exposure is key part of that; there’s more depth to the sport than often portrayed.

Pro or non-pro, which cyclists or athletes inspire you the most and why?
Levi Leipheimer is a huge inspiration. One of the best in the world and still has time to give back to his local community and help young guys in the sport.

What did you want to be when you grew up?
I never had any crazy aspirations as a kid, just always enjoyed being a kid. When I started riding at 13 I knew that was something I wanted to do for a long time. As time progressed I was on this path to be a professional and I just rolled with it. It always felt like my natural path.

If someone were to play you in a movie, who would it be? Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson comes to mind…
Ideally Ryan Gosling, however it would probably be Daniel Radcliffe.

LPR: We’re going to go with Ryan Gosling on that one – you have the charm and good looks. That is, once you shave the beard.

Thanks for your time and good luck with the season. Maybe we can “Hangout” on G+ when you’re stateside.