An interesting customer service/social media story has been developing in the past week.  Some of you may remember that we ordered our crib and dresser from Costco.ca – The Status 2-piece set. We received the two 80 lb boxes last Tuesday. Turns out the product is actually Storkcraft, it’s just been renamed by Costco.  We were very excited to put everything together.  It looks beautiful in the photos, right? We opened the boxes to check for shipping damages. Although there were a few gouges on the outside of the boxes, both were double cardboard and plenty of foam between the pieces, so all was good.

Then we started to take the pieces out of the boxes and realized that unfortunately, a few of the pieces had been damaged before they even left the manufacturer.  It’s a quality set, solid wood and very sturdy, so we were disappointed. We decided to call the manufacturer, Storkcraft, to see about getting replacements. None of this has to do with Costco, as they have a full money back guarantee on all products purchased online. We chose not to return it for two reasons: First, it’s very heavy and the crib box is too large for our cars and second, what if the same thing happened with the next shipment?

I called Storkcraft on Friday Sept 3rd. After a 35 min wait on hold, I did connect with a helpful customer service rep. While waiting on hold, I tweeted about it and was contacted by Adam @StorkCraft - their social media manager, almost immediately.  He offered assistance if needed.  Once I spoke to the live CSR, I told that the parts would be replaced (yeah!) and that all I had to do was to email my receipt.  This is where things get confusing.

I emailed parts@storkcraft.com on Friday Sept 3rd.  Over the weekend, I received a delay message from my email provider (gmail).  On Monday, I received an error message, that the connection had timed out and the message was not delivered. So, not wanting to wait on hold again, I contacted Adam on Twitter. I told him what had happened and he offered his direct email and personal email so that he could forward the message for me. I sent a message to both, the one to his Storkcraft email never went through, but the personal one did. Then I received a reply for Customer Service, (so I can receive some of their messages) requiring more information, since Costco had changed the name of the product to Status 2. I tried to email yet again, and it didn’t go through.  Once again, I had to contact Adam through Twitter, send him a personal message and have it forwarded.  It finally got to customer service yesterday and my replacement order is confirmed.  Interestingly enough, I never received the confirmation from customer service, it was forwarded by Adam.

A long, and very strange story. I still have no clue why my emails were not getting through. I haven’t had any error messages from any other emails I have sent. Thanks to their social media manager, Adam, I was able to get through. The unfortunate thing is that when we put the dresser together on the weekend (it’s the top part that is being replaced) we noticed that the drawers were a different shade of white:

Not sure if you can tell in the photo, but it’s very obvious that the top one is a different colour. So – after all of the trouble it took to get the first parts replaced, we decided to paint the drawer fronts white so they would all be the same colour, instead of trying to get them replaced.

As my friend Chantelle put it, there should be some kind of law against stressing out very pregnant women in their third trimester! I just want it done, taken care of, so that I can put her clothes and diapers in it and figure out what we will still need, as she’ll be arriving anytime in the next 3- 7 weeks.

If you’ve got a furniture delivery disaster story to share, include it in the comments below!

Yesterday, June 23, 2010 was a first for most of us in Ontario. We experience our first earthquake!  A 5.0 magnitude quake with an epicentre just north of Ottawa was felt from Ottawa, west to Toronto, north to Waterloo, south to Detroit and even all the way into Alabama! A quake of this magnitude is not big enough to cause any real damage, but big enough to be felt. I’m not sure how this is possible but I didn’t actually feel it. We must have a very solid building. The reason the quake reached so many places is because it was “conducted” by the Canadian Shield.

As many of you may know, we don’t have a tv or cable and I rarely listen to the news.  So how did I find out about the quake? First, my husband called and the very next thing I did was to check the news on Twitter.  It’s pretty amazing how quickly news spreads on Twitter. I read tweets about people feeling the quake all over Ontario and south of us in the US. There were hundreds of tweets in just a few minutes.  Who needs the news when you can just log on to Twitter?

Interestingly, one of the first thoughts that popped into my head when I heard the news about it hitting Toronto was that maybe it was something more sinister – with all of the security and fear-mongering that has been going on with the G20 summit this weekend, I thought it might have been a bomb. Luckily Twitter cleared that up quickly.  This week has been a very interesting one in these parts, not only with the weather and natural disasters but with all of the different challenges people have had with the G20 preparations. Many of my friends are working from home this week, people are staying out of Toronto today and Friday. It took my sister over 2 hours to get home last night from Brampton to High Park (the outskirts of Toronto) because of highway closures. I can understand why people are choosing to stay home.

My question is – haven’t all of these news people heard about the Law of Attraction? The more we talk about the possibility of something happening, the more likely we are to attract it! It seems like it’s the only topic of conversation these days – and in a way it would almost be anti-climactic if nothing actually did happen. At this point, we are all just waiting for the other shoe to drop, metaphorically speaking.

It has been a challenge to stay away from the news this week – it seems to be everywhere and on every radio station as soon as there is a lull. Do you find it informative or simply annoying to hear all of the potential things that could happen with the G20? Do you feel safe going into Toronto or living in/near the downtown core?  Check in on the comments below.

Have a great day everyone and enjoy if you are working from home!

And if you did survive the earthquake and would like to buy the t-shirt – click here.

I will preface this post with two things:

1. I am not a social media expert

2. I have only been using Twitter regularly since December of this year.  Some of you might remember my first post – Are you on Twitter? Since then, I have steadily increased the number of people I follow and the number of people who follow me. And I have started to notice a few things.

Here is a handy list to help you with a few Twitter niceties:

When someone follows me, I take a look at their profile before I choose to follow them. Some do say that it’s common courtesy to follow everyone who follows you, but I have a different opinion.  Here are the pros and cons:

I will not follow you if the following is on your profile or tweet stream:

• less than 100 tweets (unless I can see that you are brand-new) – not on Twitter if you’re not tweeting regularly
• An automated reply when I follow you makes me suspicious immediately.  “Thanks for the follow” really doesn’t mean anything, since you likely have NO IDEA what I tweet about and if it’s going to add value to your Twitter feed.  And if you’re being followed by a sp*mmer, do you really want to thank them?
• tweets with language or topics that I wouldn’t be comfortable letting most children read
• all of your tweets are quotes (unless that is what you do @quotesnack)
• there is no indication that you have ever replied to someone using @
• all of your tweets are RT (RT other people’s stuff with no original thoughts)
• No picture or logo is not usually good, unless you have a website link, i.e. to your blog
• You are obviously selling something every other tweet
• Your tweets are protected! This makes no sense, twitter is supposed to be an open forum – where you do meet strangers! If you are worried about s*pam, then use an app to verify the person.
• Unless you are a celebrity like @Nasa_Astronauts, you should be following more than 10 people to be really involved in Twitter.  It’s not just about who is following you – it’s about the conversations you create!

I will happily follow you and start a conversation with you when

• You have a great photo and are smiling!
• You have more than 100 tweets and are engaging in conversations
• You have a link to a website that is interesting (or at least inoffensive!)
• You are connecting with some of the people I follow on Twitter, which makes the conversation more fun
• You are tweeting about a topic of interest for me
• You are a celebrity that I value and would like to learn from @_robin_sharma, @Randy_Gage

Finally, here are a few tips to get the most of out of Twitter and to know if you’re REALLY a part of it:

• You do make virtual (and sometimes in person) friends on Twitter. If you’ve got a few people whom you know by their handle, such as @paminottawa who’s post inspired me to get moving on this post or you’ve had a tweet-up with some folks, like @ohsheglows who organized one last weekend.
• You’ve reached over 100 follows and are following around that many.  It starts to get interesting at the point.  I found that with over 100 people to follow, it can be a challenge to see some of the stuff you really want to, so I created a list called favs and add my favorites to this list, so I can click on it and just look at their tweets.
• You think of things you’d like to tweet when you’re out and about (if you’re not mobile yet – my phone doesn’t really have that functionality) or people you’d like to share an experience with.
• You miss it when you’re not on it! You enjoy the conversation, and eavesdropping on other people’s conversations and of course, finding out the latest news.  I found out about the earthquakes in Haiti and Chile, Alexander McQueen, Brittany Murphy and Corey Haim’s death on Twitter first.
• You regularly tweet and retweet- about life, replying to others, making friends, having conversations, clicking on other people’s blog posts and their links to articles (and pass it on with RT)

So, the question of the day is – are you REALLY on Twitter?

Cheers everyone!

What an amazing Friday night at the Olympics! Talk about Own the Podium – Canada leads the Gold medal count with 10 Golds! We are now in 3rd position in the medal standings, with 21 medals, behind USA and Germany.  I am so proud of our Canadian athletes, who have been able to deliver the results under tremendous pressure – and of course tremendous support as well.  And we are still in a position to earn a minimum of at least 3 more medals (Gold or Silver) – details in What to Watch.

The first event of the evening was the Gold medal match in Women’s Curling, Canada vs Sweden.  The Swedish skip is the defending Gold medalist, World Champion and has a 76% winning record in over 200 international games.  A tough record to contend with.  Cheryl Bernard, Canada’s beautiful and very talented skip, was a rookie coming into these games.  I will admit, I have a new respect for curling after watching this match. It was a great game! Canada actually stole points from 2 different ends, and ended up with a 6-5 lead in the 10th end.  A mistake by Canada allowed Sweden to tie.  They went into an extra end, Canada with the hammer (last shot). Sadly, it was not to be, and the Swedes had 2 rocks in the house when Bernard took her last shot, she cleared one, but didn’t have enough to clear the other. Silver medal for the Canadian team.  You could see the disappointment in their faces when they accepted their medals.  It’s a tough position to be in – in team sports the Silver medal is actually the loser (Bronze had to win their game for the medal).  It’s the first time Canada has ever gotten the Silver in Women’s Curling and for Bernard’s first visit the Olympics – we are so proud of what she accomplished!

The main event started a few minutes later, Men’s Semi-Final Hockey, Canada vs Slovakia. WHAT A GAME!! Things looked really good in the first period, Canada off to a great start with a 2-0 lead after the 1st period.  The Slovaks played tough game, really crowding the neutral zone and making it nearly impossible for Canada to break away.  The Canadians still out-shot the Slovaks nearly 2-1 through the 2nd period.  End of the second period, Canada leads 3-0.  As the 3rd period wore on, you could tell that the Slovaks were down, but not out. Just the opposite, they seemed to be gaining strength and the passion they are known for was really shining through.  As the crowd started to cheer “we want U.S.A.” (i.e. to play them in the Gold medal game), Slovakia scored.  The game continued, the puck moving from one end to the other, Canada taking the shots but nothing in the net.  A short time later, Slovakia scores – again! Now we are starting to feel it – 3-2, with about 5 min left in the period. They were not going down with a a very tough fight. The last minute of the game was a total nail biter. It was amazing (yes, we were yelling at the screen).  As the seconds dwindling and the puck was dangerously in the Canadian end, we held them off and the buzzer sounded. I believe there was a sign of relief from the crowd.  Canada wins, 3-2 and moves on to the Gold Medal game against the USA.

Meanwhile, our men were dominating in Short Track speed skating.  Having yet to get a medal, they were hungry.  We are known for our very powerful short track speed skaters and this year is no exception.  During the intermissions of the hockey game, we watched the men’s races.  First, the 500 m sprint.  Two Canadians in the final, Charles Hamelin and Francois Louis-Tremblay.  Ranked 1 and 2 in the world, respectively. The famous Apolo Ono from the US was also in the race.  Short Track is such a crazy spot with really strict rules about passing, touching and interfering with other skaters. About 20 m from the finish line, the Korean wiped out, knocked Louis-Tremblay down with him and Hamelin stumbled across the line first, Ono behind him for silver.  The Korean skater actually slid across the line on his side, followed by Louis-Tremblay.  It looked like it would be Gold for Hamelin and 4th for Louis-Tremblay.  The officials reviewed the tape of the fall, and ruled that Ono had impeded the Korean skater. He was disqualified, which meant that now the Korean skater received the Silver and Louis-Tremblay, the Bronze.

Still on a high from their double medal win in the 500m. The Canadian Men’s team dominated the 5000m Relay a few hours later. It’s like roller-derby on ice if you haven’t seen it before. I love it! All of the team were VERY careful in this race, not to get DQ. There were 5 teams in the final, which makes it quite crowded. Canada, Korea, China, USA and France.  About half way through the race, the Canadians took over the lead position and never looked back. They had a great strategy of doing their exchanges on the opposite side of the rink from the Koreans (in 2nd) and it really worked in their favor, especially in such a crowed race.  Another Gold medal for Canada!!

Total for Friday night: 2 Gold, 1 Silver and 1 Bronze and the Men’s Hockey advance to the final.

What to watch:

• Speed Skating Men’s Team Pursuit Final, Canada vs US, 3:30 EST
• Curling Men’s Gold Medal Game vs Norway, 6 pm EST
• 4 man bobsleigh sitting in 2nd place after 2 runs
• Jasey-Jay Anderson, Snowboard Giant Slalom starting at 3 pm EST
• Sunday – Men’s Hockey Gold Medal Game, Canada vs US 3:15 pm EST

We are guaranteed 3 medals, either Silver or Gold.  What an impressive last two days of the games.  Where will you be on Sunday afternoon? We’ll be watching on our big screen, with friends and family, as Canada meets the USA again, this time for the Gold!!

Have a great weekend everyone and I’ll catch you on Monday for the recap.

What a different experience this Olympics has been, especially in terms of technology. Two years ago, during the Summer Olympics, Twitter was still in its infancy.  iPhone was still new to Canada. Streaming web live was still a bit painful. Fast forward to the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games: iPhones seem to be everywhere, Twitter has truly become a global phenomenon, and the live web stream provided by the CTV/Rogers Media consortium has been excellent.

One of the things I have really been enjoying is connecting with people from all over the world, in real time, on Twitter. There is something about feeling like you are connected not only across Canada but to Canadians in other countries when you are cheering GO Canada GO! from your living room.  And it’s great to see others cheering for their countries and their athletes.  It’s all about the perspective I mentioned in an earlier post.

Last night should have been called Terrific Thursday.  Gold medal game – Women’s Hockey – Canada defeats USA 2 – 0.  Three Olympics in a row! The men looked on – and they look HUNGRY for their own Gold Medal. And Joannie Rochette won a Bronze medal in Women’s Figure Skating.  I did stay up to watch her skate, it was hard not too.  What a phenomenal accomplishment! Anyone else remember when Elizabeth Manley won the Silver medal in 1988? That was the last time a Canadian woman stood on the podium in singles Figure Skating.

Setting up today and tomorrow – wow – we still have many medal opportunities.  Here’s the summary for you:

• Canada vs Slovakia – Men’s Hockey 9:30 pm EST
• USA vs Finland – Men’s Hockey 3:00 pm EST
• Canada vs Sweden – Women’s Curling 6 pm EST
• Short Track Speed Skating – 500m Men’s 9 pm EST
• Short Track Speed Skating – 5,000 m Men’s relay 10:50 EST
• Other events today include 4 man Bobsleigh, Alpine Skiing (slalom) and Snowboard Parallel Giant Slalom

Should be a great few days to cap off an already amazing Winter Games for Canada.

Stay tuned, I may publish another post tomorrow as we move into the final days of the games to keep you all up to date, in case you’re not as obsessed as I am.

Quick reminder – email me to register for Networking With Excellence and Integrity on Thursday March 4th, 7 pm @Burlington Central Library.

Have a super day and catch some of you on Twitter!

What can I say about Women’s Wonderful Wednesday? After an amazing day by our women in the Olympics, we are tied with the US and Germany with a total of 7 Gold Medals. Maybe it’s not too late to give up on Own the Podium?  And the domination of our Men’s Hockey team against Russia really was the icing on the cake.

Now I do realize that there are many other important things going on in the world, there is still a disaster in Haiti, we are still dealing with a recession and housing crisis and the winter weather is still playing havoc in the US and Canada – but isn’t it way more fun to enjoy the Olympics right now?  I think that more than anything, we all needed a feel-good story. 2009 was a very difficult year for so many people, especially my generation who had yet to live through a recession (almost depression) as adults. There has already been a change of energy in 2010, and you can feel that people are more optimistic and more open to taking a bit of risk and having more fun too!

I have to admit, I am really blessed to have a split schedule, so that I can watch some of the events in the afternoon when I’m not teaching that afternoon.  Yesterday, I found it hard to tear myself away from the computer (where I watch the games thanks to CTV) and even spent time watching tv at the mall in between clients! Anyone else having the same issues?

Just in case you missed it, or live under a rock, or aren’t as obsessed with Canada – here are the highlights from Wednesday Feb 24:

• Women’s Bobsleigh Gold – Kaillie Humphres and Heather Moyse
• Women’s Bobsleigh Silver – Shelly-Ann Brown and Helen Upperton
• Women’s Long Track 5000 m – Clara Hughes
• Women’s Short Track 3000m relay – Marianne St-Gelais, Tania Vicent, Jessica Gregg, Kalyna Roberge
• Canada vs Russia – Men’s Hockey Quarter Final- 7 -3 Canada!

Clara Hughes is truly a phenomenal athlete.  She is the only athlete in the world to win multiple medals at both the Summer and Winter Olympics. What a way to end her Olympic career!

What is even more special is that we have many more true medal chances in the last few days of the games. Here are some of the highlights of what is coming up:

• Women’s Hockey Gold Medal Game – Canada vs USA 6:30 pm EST
• Curling Semi-Finals – Women’s vs Switzerland @ noon EST
• Curling Semi-Finals – Men’s vs Sweden @ 5 pm EST
• Joannie Rochette skates the long program in Women’s Figure Skating, 8 pm EST – She is currently 3rd
• Men’s Aerials Finals – 3 Canadians competing at 9 pm EST
• Friday night – Men’s Hockey Semi-Final Canada vs Slovakia (big upset here as well – Sweden is out) 9:30 EST
• Short Track – there are events for both women and men on Friday, starting at 9 pm EST

Hope that helps you plan out the next two evenings. Time to get back to work! Don’t forget – next week is the Networking with Excellence and Integrity seminar, on March 4th.  Email info@julieboyer.com to confirm your spot.

Here’s to a Terrific Thursday for Canadian Olympians!

For some of you, you may not even know what Twitter is.  For others, you tweet first thing in the morning. And then there is everyone else in between.  I definitely fall into the in-between category. Nope, I am not an expert in any way, shape or form, but I thought I’d just share a few of my experiences so far.

Although I signed up for Twitter almost exactly 1 year ago today, I didn’t really start to use Twitter until December.  At first, I was updating my status on Twitter, or tweeting, using Ping.fm – which is a service that can update all of your social media the same time. There is also something cool call TweetDeck – but I have just recently downloaded it, so I’m not really sure how it works. But it looks cool. If someone has some input on TweetDeck, please share it in the comments. At first, I thought that updating my Tweets once a day like Facebook would work.  Found out that’s not what Twitter is all about – in fact, it is a completely different application than Facebook or LinkedIn for example.

I hesitated for some time about hopping on to the bandwagon, but eventually I did, and have been really enjoying the conversation.  And that truly is what Twitter is all about – when you first click on the home page, it says “Join the Conversation”.  It’s almost like a virtual watercooler, with the possibility to connect with people around the globe.  It really is about being a part of the conversation.  Just like Laura Roeder mentions in her blog post, you have to engage with your Tweet peeps in order to make things happen. Randomly posting quotes and articles can be helpful, but you also have to be a REAL person.  Now, I’m not always interested in what you had for breakfast, but if you tried a great new shake recipe and it’s delicious, please share. And although I might not be interested in how fast you ran your 8 miles this morning, it’s always interesting to see how many active people there are on Twitter.

Twitter can be time consuming, and it’s not important to spend all day tweeting.  It’s fun for me to spend 15 – 30 min on it per day and follow the conversation.  I’ve met some great people and even purchased product from someone I follow (yummy Glo Bars) – without them having to sell me anything.  As I said before, I’m no expert, but here are my tips for Twitter:

• Be a real person, not some robot who just spews out quotes and business tips
• Engage in the conversation, learn what a RT is and #FF for example
• Take the time to connect with people and create relationships, just like you would offline
• Twitter is a place where you can talk to strangers, and it’s ok. I keep FaceBook for people I know or have met in person.  FaceBook is another topic anyhow. See @unmarketing for tips on FaceBook – love this guy!
• Read things that others share, if it interests you, and comment back to them or on their blog. The law of reciprocity- be genuinely interested in others and it will come back to you.
• And if you wonder why I’m not following you or have unfollowed you, I refer to @snipeyhead’s blog post.

So, if you want to join the conversation with me, just click here.  And I promise you won’t see the automatic reply: I’m looking forward to our tweets!  Who knows if your tweets will be interesting or not?

Happy Friday and we’ll see you on Monday for the Week #4 update.

I finally get it! Now I understand why Twitter is so addictive.  Last night, I was home alone watching the World Junior Hockey Gold Medal Game between Canada and the US.  Dan was at volleyball, so it was just me watching on tsn.ca.

What’s pretty cool is that I had Twitter open and was able to interact with people all over Canada as the game was watching. People were sharing their reactions and excitement together.  It was something I’ve never seen before, but it helped me to feel like I was watching the game with a much larger group of people! And I met some interesting people too.

The game was excellent.  Our boys played their hearts out and earned the Silver medal.  The US had a stronger team last night, and their 2nd string goalie played extremely well.  I don’t often watch hockey, as we don’t have cable, but this game was one to watch. Congratulations Team Canada and don’t worry, we’ll bring back the Gold at the Olympics.

Highlights can be found here: http://www.tsn.ca/

Julie