Spooky Not Creepy

Success!

It appears I will have an opportunity to meet Robert Stephens. I'm thrilled! Now, I have to work on not being too creepy.

Not that it was my ultimate goal to see what worked, here's the low down on which methods were successful and which were not for those of you who are curious,

What appeared to work (tracking through Google Analytics and bit.ly):

It appears @Twelpforce was the tipping point. Thanks to @agent3012.

I also had a couple hits thanks to Tim Brunelle.

What didn't work as well as hoped:

Google AdWords: Two initial hits, but as feared because of Google's quality site score, my ad no longer appears. Still learning about manipulating Google's ranking formula. If anyone wants to drop me a line, I'd love to learn more about this.

LinkedIn=Failed.

Thanks for everyone's help!

Ways to Connect

Multiple channels will be used to attempt to reach Robert Stephens. Each method will be tracked to see which produces the greatest interest and hopefully results in me obtaining an interview. Google Analytics and bit.ly are wonderful tools for that.

The methods of contact are as follows:

1. Google AdWords: depending on my "quality site" rating, when Robert Stephens googles himself, my ad linking to this site will appear.

 

2. My twitter account @spookynotcreepy will follow @rstephens and retweet some of his tweets in case he searches for mentions.

3. I will attempt to utilize Best Buy's @twelpforce, "a collective of Best Buy technology pros offering advice in Tweet form."

4. E-mailing Robert Stephens' assistant.

5. Sending a letter old school style to Best Buy corporate addressed to Robert with a link to this page.

 

6. Posting an ad on LinkedIn. LinkedIn provides up to 3 ways to limit your target audience. I've selected seniority, geography, and industry to focus my ads to 1,382 LinkedIn members.

7. Send an e-mail to Tim Brunelle, CEO of Hello Viking, who organizes CATFOA events to see if he would be willing to forward my link on to whoever might know Robert.

My Inspiration

At the last Conversations about the Future of Advertising event sponsored by MIMA, Dan Beranek of Target and Robert Stephens, Founder and Chief Inspector of Geek Squad, spoke about "Retail in the Age of Empowered Consumers."

Robert said he hires for the trait of curiosity, and that he's timed completing crossword puzzles with participants having access to search engines. He also said an employee should never say "I don't know." Finally, he talked about the advantage of being spooky versus creepy in the pursuit of enticing customers.

On a recent retweet, Robert mentions Alec Brownstein's Google Job Experiment.

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Costs of Methods Utilized

Getting Started:

    Domain Name (GoDaddy)    10.87

    Blog (Typepad)                     8.95 (for 1 month)

Method of Contact:

   Google AdWords       up to - 10.00 (plus $100 promotional coupon)

    LinkedIn ad               up to - 10.00 (pay per click)

    SnailMail                                .44

    Twitter                                  Free

    E-mail                                   Free

Tools to track effectiveness:

    Google Analytics                  Free

    bit.ly                                     Free

Tools to create site content:

    Easy Screen Capture            Free trial

    Xnote Stop Watch                 Free trial

    NYT Crosswords                  15 day trial

TOTAL COSTS NOT TO EXCEED:  $40.26 and may be less depending on number of clicks

   

   

   

My Geek Squad Job Application