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At Wing Stop with Patty-kins and @LaniF1. Totally in the mood for wings! Yes!

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Made it back to Cali from the land of salt. Good meeting... Good time... Glad to be home!

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Saying goodbyes @WSIA2010 with @LaniF1 for @MalibuBoats. Great meeting! Extremely informative.

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Beautiful day in Park City with @LaniF1 for @MalibuBoats at WSIA meeting.

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Wine tasting in Park City with @LaniF1. Thanks Matt and @Mitch Belter! Great wine!

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Meeting break in Park City time to grub! I'm so hungry!

I Know I'm Slow, but Twitter Search Rocks!

Ok, I'm slow. I'll never tweet about being a genius, but no matter how dense this post makes me seem, I had to publish. I'm still new to Twitter, but I figured out today that the search tool rocks! I'm banking that there are a few of my Twitter challenged brothers and sisters out there that might appreciate this clue that I just got.

So back to the point. Twitter search... This is the little form field next to the mini magnifying glass located about half way down the right side of your Twitter page. Don't ask me why I never used it before now, but today was the day. I typed in "Malibu Boats", who I work for, and there they were. Tweets... a bunch of them. And most contained references to Malibu Boats. a few of the results were a little off, but not many. I even found this tweet from 10 days ago.

TylerThurston I love malibu boats! http://twitpic.com/5b1b5 Thanks @TylerThurston!

I know I'm little late, but I replied. What a powerful statement about Malibu Boats and without my Twitter Search epiphany I would have missed it completely. I'm searching everyday from now on. I'm also searching any related terms I can think of like "wakeboard boats", "wakeboards" and "wakeboarding" all in search of more friends for @malibuboats. Check out Twitter's Advanced Search for even more tailored results. @kamimauzy [kah-mi-mah-zee] out!

Tags: Amy Mauzy | Malibu Boats | Tyler Thurston | Twitter Search | Twitter | Search | Twitter followers

What Does RT Mean on Twitter? Re-Tweet (Total World Domination)

Learned what RT means on Twitter yesterday. Re-Tweet. Essentially you type "RT" prior to a Tweet that you are re-posting from another Twitter feed. Make sure to include the owner's Twitter handle after "RT". (Ex. @kamimauzy) Here's a Tweet I re-posted (re-tweeted) from the Malibu Boats Twitter feed today in honor of Memorial Day.

RT @malibuboats Remembering Marine Corps Cpl Joshua D Pickard, 20, killed by a sniper Dec 19, 2006 near Fallouja. http://ping.fm/8e68o

Josh is a hero in our area and I thought it was appropriate for me to re-tweet (RT) this sentiment to my Twitter friends (followers).

There's a lot of power in re-tweeting (RT). Your followers don't always follow the same Tweeters that you do. That means they may not have seen whatever amazing 140-character micro-blog post that you did. I follow Malibu Boats on Twitter so I saw the Josh Pickard post, but chances are most of my Twitter friends (followers) did not. So I re-tweeted it. (Secret: I Twitter on behalf of Malibu Boats, cause I work there. So I cheated on this example, just a little.)

If you post something on Twitter that you want people to re-tweet (RT) add something like this to the end of your post, "RT plz".

Thanks to everyone for the amazing response to #savehashtags. We still need your help http://tr.im/savehtags (RT plz)

Check out that link. Hash tags is a cool thing and they need help. If you want to learn about Twitter hash (#) tags too check out my earlier blog post.

Of course not everyone will re-tweet, but depending on the content of your post, you may be surprised. In my limited experience, the posts that tend to be re-tweeted the most are free of cheap advertisements and marketing crap. Most the re-tweets I see in great numbers are genuine, normally, helpful pieces of information.

Now that we know the technical meaning of "RT", let's think about the implications that a simple Twitter tag like this can have on the "big picture". If I post a Tweet to my 108 Twitter friends (followers), then 108 people have the opportunity to read my tweet and learn about me. Cool! But if that same post is re-tweeted by one of my Twitter friends (followers), say @lizasperling who re-tweets (RT) a lot of good info, then all of her friends (followers) could also see my tweet. You may be saying to yourself, "big deal!" But do the math. @lizasperling has approximately 2,223 followers. That makes my tweet visible to an additional 2,223. I just expanded my friend (follower) network by more than 22 times.

Another one of my Twitter friends (followers) is @thebrandbuilder who has over 10,000 followers. Then there's @johncmaxwell who has nearly 18,000 followers. Those are just 3 of my twitter friends (followers). Realistically, I would have to post something really really good to have discerning tweeters like Liza Sperling, Oliver Blanchard and John C. Maxwell re-tweet (RT). It could happen, but I think you get the point. With just 3 re-tweets (RT) of my inspired 140-character hypothetical post it could be in front of more than 30,000 tweeters in a matter of seconds. Think about that!

Lesson I'm learning: tweet often and tweet well. Think of others. Try to help. I'm looking forward to an RT.

See, Twitter and re-tweeting (RT) is the doorway to total World domination. Ha... like anyone would want that. @kamimauzy [kah-mi-mah-zee] out!

Tags: Amy Mauzy | kamimauzy | re-tweet | RT | Liza Sperling | Oliver Blanchard | John C Maxwell | Twitter

# Sign on Twitter What's it for? Kristine Wirth Knew.

I have been on and off Twitter for a while, but still wasn't quite sure what the # sign meant when it was placed in front of certain words. I finally Googled it today and found a blog post from Kristine Wirth. She explained it perfectly!

Here's part of what she wrote. Thanks, Kristine. I learn something new everyday thanks to people like you.

The hash mark (#) before a word in a post allows you to tag that post for that word. However, in order to get tracked via a hash tag, you need to opt-in and follow http://twitter.com/hashtags. Once you’re following Hashtags, every time you make a post in Twitter and tag it with a hash mark like so: #iPhone, it will then show up as a real-time post on http://www.Hashtags.org.

If you then visit Hashtags.org, you can click on any tag and it will show you all of the posts that have been tagged with that keyword.

Read more of Kristine's post at http://kristinewirth.com/that-mysterious-sign-in-twitterwhat-does-it-mean/. Thanks for the info Kristine.

Tags: Amy Mauzy | Kristine Wirth | #sign | Twitter | Twitter Explainations

Enjoy the Small Stuff

Enjoy every victory no matter how small. DJ found candy in a pile of old Easter eggs. He enjoyed! I'm learning.

Psychedelic Bat Man

A new twist on an old favorite! Psychedelic Bat Man! Thanks for the shirt Mandy. Matty wore it to school today.

Catching Shit

This title makes me cringe a little. I have two little ones at home and I try not to cuss, let alone type a word like this into a blog post, but I had to title it this way. Today I caught some shit. No, this is not colorful language, a metaphor or an exaggeration. I literally caught shit today. I know it sounds bad, but it did teach me something.

I'm sure you're scratching you head wondering how the heck I'm going to spin shit into a learning experience... told you this blog was crazy. Well here goes...

I was giving my 15-month-old a bath. Most of you with children know where this is going. I normally time my youngest son's baths to avoid bathtub B.M.s. Well today he was being a really good, he loves bathes and he has yet to poop in the tub on my watch. Only my mother-in-law had had the privilege until today.

So I was letting him play in the tub, in his bath seat, and then I noticed he was struggling to get up. I normally don't let him walk around in the tub, but I thought to myself come on, "let him play Amy." He won't, you know. So I got him up out of the chair and let him walk around playing with the fire duck faucet cover and splash in the water. I happen to be messing with my phone trying to get a picture of my cute little Danny, when I saw it; a brown protrusion that wasn't there a minute ago. There it was hanging. What else could I do. I didn't want to have to clean it out of the tub. So... I caught. I literally caught shit from my son.

This kind of stuff happens to all parents at one time or another, but it got me thinking. I need to clean my son and my tub, but aside from that. This event made me think that I don't usually put myself in this position. I normally never give my son a bath when there is a possibility of poopage. I'm so scared of catching shit, I limit him.

I do the same thing with my social media marketing. I limit myself. I feel like I need to restrict the personal info I share and screen everything I post. I need to keep everyone at arms length and always throw some Marketing spin in there. I also worry about cluing the competition in on some advantages by sharing how I bolster public relations and marketing using social media. But by trying to be so careful it becomes work. It's not fun that way and it's not me.

Let's face if worst comes to worst and I end posting something too telling, I'll catch shit, just like today. But you know what? It wasn't that bad. Caught it, flushed it, washed the baby, washed my hands, and it was over. Took all of about 5 minutes. It was stinky and gross, but it was a small price to pay for the fun my little guy was having.

I feel that way about all of this. I could continue to carefully pick and choose my posts until I suck all of the fun out of blogging, tweeting and facebooking. The closer I get to that the less I post. Or, I can let my stinky brown protrusion hang out. Ok, I have taken this comparison too far. You get the point.

I'm going to let it all hang out here. I hope to post useful content, but I may post some crap from time to time. That's ok. It's going to be honest and real. I want you to know me. I hope to learn from you and I hope I can help you learn. And I want to have some fun socializing on this medium. I'm crazy about it... Kamimauzy out!

Tags: Amy Mauzy | social media | social networking | marketing spin | learning social media | public speaking

Malibu Boats Twittered into a Column

Just found this column by Lisa Cruz on PostCrescent.com. She writes about Twitter and mentions Malibu Boats along with companies like Southwest Airlines, Dell Computers and Zappos. That's pretty good company!

This kind of exposure is a nice little benefit of participating in new ways to communicate online. Go social media!

Thanks for the digital ink, Lisa! You can bet I'm gonna Twitter this.

Tags: Amy Mauzy | Malibu Boats | Lisa Cruz | Twitter | Southwest Airlines | Dell Computers | Zappos

Content Drives Action Online

“Great content in all forms helps buyers see that you and your organization, ‘get it.’” David Meerman Scott, The New Rules of Marketing and PR. This is a great book. Check it out.

Examples of content driving action for Malibu Boats. When web visitors originated at these supplemental social media content locations these are the changes in traffic we saw.

• Malibu: E-newsletter
• We saw 37% more leads the week of a Malibu e-newsletter release.
• News releases can work this same way.
  
• You can send a social media news release and see these same results.
  
• Malibu: YouTube.com Channel
• People coming from our YouTube channel spent 1 min 15 sec more time on average
• Malibu: Malibu Boats Blog
• People coming from our blog spent 3 min 44 sec more time on average.
• People coming from our blog spent 3 more actions per visit on average.

Tags: Amy Mauzy | social media | David Meerman Scott | content | Malibu Boats | YouTube | blogging | e-newsletter

How Do You Track the Effects of Social Media and PR on Sales?

I was e-mailed this questions a few times after the webinar earlier today so I thought I would answer the question on the blog. Here’s a brief overview of the analytics process we use at Malibu Boats to track our effectiveness with PR and social media online.

Here is a list of the tools we use. Nothing fancy and nothing too expensive.
GetClicky $100 per year (www.getclicky.com)
Google Analytics (free)
Channel Blade Technologies (lead management)
warranty card submissions

So we analyze the traffic to our web site with Clicky and/or Google Analytics. We look at where people are coming from and what part of our site their going to. For example... Are they coming to the Malibu Boats web site as the results of an e-newsletter we sent out, a news release, or are they coming from the Malibu Boats YouTube Channel or the Malibu Flickr gallery. We also pay attention to whether or not they fill out a lead. If they did, we track that lead via our lead management system to see where it ends up in the buying process with our dealers. Then we crosscheck that lead with our warranty card submissions to verify a sale.

This is pretty round about, but we have found it is accurate in getting us ROI for our PR and social media efforts. What this process doesn’t tell us is whether or not these types of PR were the only determining factor in the buying decision or if they based their decision on other influencers like the nearest dealer, a friend, magazine advertisements, etc. Of course, in reality that could all be considered PR. We assume that they are learning about Malibu Boats through several sources so we take the social media ROI data with a grain of salt.

It all comes down to managing relationships. If the customers you talk with, or communicate with via the web, are generally happy with your product and services that is a big indicator of your success, our analytics process simply gives us the number of actual sales that were affected by our online PR efforts. currently we still use other type of Marketing and PR to get the word out about the Malibu Difference.

Tags: Amy Mauzy | Malibu Boats | public relations |social media | analytics | ROI

Spoke in a PR Webinar for Vocus and PRSA Today

I was part of a PR webinar today. Pretty cool. The other speakers and myself presented some really interesting information about the New Role of PR for Public Relations. You can listen to a recorded version of the webinar free at the Vocus web site.

Here's some brief information about the webinar...

How has the role of public relations changed over the past few years and where is it headed? How can you prepare for and take advantage of new opportunities? Tasked with building corporate image, managing brand recognition and complementing marketing and other company initiatives, public relations now extends far beyond its traditional role.

Join Jeffrey Julin of PRSA, Jerry Swerling of the USC Annenberg Strategic PR Center and Amy Mauzy of Malibu Boats for “The New Public Relations Role; Connect to Strategy.”

More and more public relations professionals today are reporting to the C-suite and supporting the company’s strategic planning and growth. Hear from our panel how the public relations function has expanded to help align and lead other company initiatives and will continue to grow moving forward.

Topic:
The New Public Relations Role; Connect to Strategy

Speakers:
Jeffrey Julin, APR, Chair and CEO, PRSA Board of Directors
Jerry Swerling, professor, USC Annenberg Strategic PR Center
Amy Mauzy, public relations manager for Malibu Boats

Tags: Amy Mauzy | public relations | social media | Vocus | PRSA | Malibu Boats | GAP Study | Jeffrey Julin | Jerry Swerling

Use Del.icio.us to Increase PR Coverage and Sales

At first glance del.icio.us seems like over kill. Why create a web site to house bookmarks? My browser does that. But bookmarks are only a part of del.icio.us. The real power is in tagging and sharing.

Using del.icio.us in your PR strategy can increase your company's coverage in the media and give retail customers a more complete picture so they can make a more educated buying decision. By categorizing your bookmarks with tags and publishing the URLs to your various tag categories in your news releases, you can make your media contacts' jobs easier. By cutting down on the leg work journalists and media contacts have to do when creating an article on your company or product you will increase your media penetration. By capitalizing on del.icio.us tags and bookmark sharing you will also give your customers a more complete view of your company and products during buying research.

Take a look at these bookmarks we collected to go along with a news release about Club Malibu members getting VIP treatment at the Malibu Open this July. We have also publicized the RSS feed for this page so media and individuals see any additions made to this page in the future. We have added bookmarks to this page and tagged them with the "ClubMalibu" tag if they have can offer additional information on Club Malibu. As new web pages are created as a result of the Club Malibu VIP news release we will add those bookmarks to this del.icio.us page and tag them with "ClubMalibu" as well.

Media Benefits:

• Focused research: A list of del.icio.us bookmarks fine tunes your media contacts' research so they can get more relevant information.
  
• Saving time: del.icio.us gives journalists a list of links to follow for their research they do not have to create this list on their own.
• Third-party coverage: Bookmarks pointing to third-party coverage of your product gives your media contacts the tools they need to corroborate your claims.
  
• Continued updates: As your bookmarks are updated subscribing media contacts can visit those additional web pages and have the ability to publish continuing coverage of their own.
  

Customer Benefits:

• Focused research: A list of del.icio.us bookmarks fine tunes a buyer's research so they can get more specific information on the product they are interested in.
• Complete picture: The del.icio.us collection of bookmarks will give customers a more accurate view of your company and product.
  
• Third-party coverage: Your bookmarks pointing to third-party coverage of your company and products adds credibility to your information.
  
• Continued updates: Customers can subscribe to your del.icio.us RSS feed to see an updated list of bookmarks on a particular topic and ultimately have access to more information about your company and product.
  

Explore del.icio.us and see what it can do to increase your media coverage and sales.

Tags: Amy Mauzy | Delicious | social bookmarking | news release | PR | Social Media News Release | media coverage| sales

Press Release Grader

Just tried this Press Release Grader I read about on WebInkNow.com. What a cool tool! It still has a few little bugs, but those will be worked out soon.

The people behind this utility are really on it. I just offered some feedback and almost immediately Dharmesh replied to me and on a Saturday no less. You can tell they are interested in making this thing work well.

Here's a link to the Press Release Grader report for my Club Malibu VIP release. My grade is only a C right now, but after a few of the bugs are worked out, I'm hoping that will climb. The Grader was having problems with my e-mail links and marking me down because of that. Dharmesh is on it.

I ran this press release through the tool just to check it out. Even though this one already went out I wanted to grade it. I'm glad I did. I learned a few things.

1. I need to think more about my anchor text. I didn't even understand what anchor text was. I looked it up and found a great blog entry describing the term as well as the best way to optimize it for search engines. TamingTheBeast.net published
   It's not just being linked, but how you link - anchor text. This raised my grade.
2. I should use keywords in my link text. According to the Press Release Grader report, "Press releases should generally contain one or more links that use anchor text incorporating relevant keywords." I wasn't aware of this, but it turns out I did a pretty good job in this area. Who knew?
3. I also learned that I should ### at the end of my releases. I always used -end-, but this works too. Correcting this raised my grade.
   
4. One area I did well in was "Gobbledygook Words". I was surprised by this. I always thought I made these errors, but not in this release. Cool!

This tool worked well in analyzing a traditional press release, but I am getting into social media news releases. I wondered how it would work with those types of releases, so I tried one. Works great! I analyzed the SMNR version of the Club Malibu VIP release and got more great feedback. I am a PR Grader fan. Can't wait to keep testing.

Tags: Amy Mauzy | PR | Press Release | Social Media News Release | Press Release Grader | SEO | anchor text

My Employer Actually Cares

Believe it or not I work for a company that practices caring more than policy.

I just read Seth Godin's post for today, Pretending that you care, It actually made me feel really good. Once you read his blog entry for the 27th, you will be asking yourself, why? How could the lack of caring and courtesy he describes make me happy. You're right it is a little depressing, when taken at face value, but when I read something like this I feel proud and happy about my job and the company I work for. Posts like Seth's remind me how special Malibu Boats is and how fortunate I am to work there.

Malibu Boats is World's #1 selling water sports boat. The company was started by Robert Alkema back in 1982. Since that time Bob and the people he employees have worked hard to build the best boat. But the cool thing about Malibu isn't the great boats we build. It's not about the boats. It's about the people.

Starting with Bob, the founder and CEO, the people at Malibu Boats care. We care about each other. We are a family. I have only been at Malibu for the last ten years and in that time I have witnessed countless examples of this caring. (I say "only" because I am still new by Malibu standards.)

About a year after I started at Malibu I went through a divorce. I was 23 and extremely upset. Now in a 500-person company I would expect that the people closest to me would offer sympathy and help, but I never would have imagined that the CEO of the company would care. Bob called me into his office and basically told me everything was going to be ok. He didn't have to. It probably wasn't a smart move as far as "policy" was concerned, but he did it anyway.

The caring is not limited to Malibu employees. It covers everyone in the Malibu Family, which includes boat owners, dealers and vendors. I know this sounds like a PR warm fuzzy, but it's true. We operate as if everyone buying and selling the boats are family. I'm not saying we are perfect. We have had some customer service hiccups, like any company, but the difference is Malibu makes it right. The reaction to these problems is never based on policy. Everything is handled on a case by case basis while showing the customer the compassion and respect we would show our own families.

Don't believe me? Take a look at this thrid-party Malibu owners site. Post something... ask the question about Malibu. Do they care? You'll be amazed by the responses. You may get a few decenting opinions, but if our customer service department gets wind of those people, they will be attended to.

I could list a ton of cool stories about how much Malibu Boats cares, but I think this one says it all. Check out the this post on the Wakeboarder.com forum. Keep in mind that we manufacture and sell new boats. This post is about a boat that is six years old and was purchased used, not from Malibu.

Thanks for bringing this up, Seth. Writing this post reminded me how fun it is to work for a company who cares.

More Than a Baby Mama

My ambition, creativity and curiosity didn't fly out of my womb with my kids. I am still the same person I was before I was a mama. Don't get me wrong, my life is better now that I have a family, but my kids and my husband don't define me. They are a part of me, a big part of me, but there is more here. And I don't think I should feel guilty because I like the parts of me that are not about being a mother and a wife. If I had to choose among the versions of me, I would choose my family, hands down. Luckily, I don't have to choose. None of us do. We can have it all. I am a more than a baby mama!