A lesson from Denny’s on proofing before printing

Mashable, a blog focused exclusively on Web 2.0 and Social Media news, recently posted a story about Denny’s mistakenly printing the wrong Twitter account name on their dine-in menus. Instead of printing one of the two actual accounts that they have, they printed @Dennys, which currently belongs to an individual in Taiwan. And it doesn’t look like Denny’s plans to reprint the menu anytime soon.

However, even with the menu oversight, Denny’s still has a strong following on Twitter. The @DennysAllNightr account has over 7,700 followers and @DennysGrandSlam has over 4,400 followers. That’s not bad for misprinting your account name on all of the menus. So how are people finding Denny’s on Twitter? Well, Denny’s website links to the correct account, and word of mouth has helped spread the message.

How is Denny’s doing in other social media avenues? On Facebook, Denny’s has over 33,000 fans. Additionally, it has been said that it has more combined followers on Twitter than any of its competitors. Even though the menu mistake hasn’t resulted in major consequences for Denny’s, it is a good lesson on the importance of proofing.

When proofing, it’s always important to have someone review the document that is a skilled editor. Additionally, it helps if that person is seeing the project for the first time. They can give you feedback and edits that you may not catch. Also, be sure that you are consistent with your writing and you follow the same style, such as AP or Chicago. Finally, as simple as it sounds, it is important to check website links, phone numbers, and social media accounts for accuracy. Following these few tips can help save you time, money, and heartache.

To read the original article on Mashable, click here.

Is your customer a promoter or detractor?

We all know that word of mouth is a powerful marketing tool, but do you know how many of your customers would recommend your company to a friend or colleague? Finding the answer isn’t as hard as you may think.

With a simple tool called Net Promoters Score (NPS^®), you can determine how your customers feel about your brand. NPS was first introduced by Fred Reichheld in a 2003 article in the Harvard Business Review. Since then, several companies have used NPS to find out what their customers think so that they can improve their business.

My Super Bowl commercial review

So for years I’ve watched the Super Bowl for the commercials. This year, I thought I’d give you my 2 cents about the creativity and marketing value of each of the national (and non-CBS-promo) commercials that ran during from kickoff to final play, each in a sentence or two. A few hits, mostly misses, not many repeats, but overall not very inspiring. You can watch any of the commercials again here. Let me know your thoughts (and if I missed any!).

Are you anticipating roadblocks?

So it looks like the economy just might be turning around, albeit slowly. (And who knows what news today’s stock market may bring.) With this tentative optimism, most companies are furiously looking for ways to improve sales. But we would issue this warning: be sure you are anticipating potential roadblocks.