Author: Valentina Rosa

Verizon and the Horizon

Posted on by Valentina Rosa

So my Droid is coming in today and the timing couldn’t be better. Today is the last day to sign up for $30 unlimited data from Verizon and as of tomorrow it will cost many times more for tiered data packages. Good timing for me! I intend to use it for GPS and internet radio which over a month would destroy the limit of 5gb per month at the new $30 plan.

I sent an email to Verizon explaining about how what their doing is a very poor decision. They are trying to limit the 20% of customers who use a lot of data for the sake of the network. Their solution involved everyone constantly monitoring their usage out of fear of huge overage fees. Bad feelings translate to a bad company. Data is cheap to provide, and yes I’m aware of the huge overhead changes, but if money is the driving factor then appealing to customers should be the solution. Throttling overusers would be a better solution than this. Something tells me they make money with the current plan and are trying to squeeze more out of greed or because “everyone else” is doing it. Why not stand out as a good guy and win all of the unsatisfied customers from other carriers, instead of creating your own. Marketing 101 Verizon… In the words of Ice Cube, “Check yourself before you wreck yourself.”

But enough about me, oh wait this is my blog post muhahahaha!

Next week we are going to roll out our Customer Satisfaction Survey to a selected list of customers. We want some brutally honest feedback to work with so let us know truly how you feel about TRA360. In case you haven’t noticed, we’ve been making a lot of changes recently for the better- And we are just getting started! Feedback is critical to this process, so if your one of the lucky few who are asked to helped please do- It’s for the good of everyone involved. Stay tuned…

Hubspot and Prompt Communication Goodies

Posted on by Valentina Rosa

I think I have a networking problem. 4 events in 3 days!

Yesterday I went to a TEDx Boston event at Hubspot in Cambridge. There I learned about something called Inbound Marketing (which ironically I’m doing right now) and got to meet three of the brains behind Hubspot: Brian Halligan CEO and Founder, Dharmesh Shah CTO and Founder, and Joe Caruso VC and mentor at TechStars Boston. I learned so much about how the company was formed and the ins and outs of growing a business successful. I learned enough that I could immediately see the value when I was discussing many of the same topics today.

Thanks for the free book as well Hubspot! I’m already 40 pages deep and its a good read for anyone interested in marketing in this century. Find it here at Amazon. Hopefully my millions of readers and the subsequent exposure will cover the cost of printing 😛

Today I got to sit in on an intimate marketing workshop with 7 other lucky individuals. The event was organized by Hazel Butters of Prompt Communications and was invaluable. She gave us many great tips and ideas on how to really get the best results from marketing and PR. I really look forward to the next event with her.

It was great to offer my experience and knowledge as well to fellow businesspeople trying to work with social media. I may still feel like the new kid on the block, but I’m learning fast and I truly think I’m forming to this niche. I couldn’t be more satisfied.

I also got a Droid X today on eBay! This is epic for me because I’ve turned a lot of heads being in social media and not having the internet with me all the time. That and my 8gb iPod nearing capacity were enough to justify the splurge. I can’t wait to try it out and find out what an ap is! These are exciting time for sure.

Corporate Volunteer Council of Greater Boston Honors Harpoon Brewery

Posted on by Valentina Rosa
Janelle Woods, CVC Executive Committee, shares opening remarks
Janelle Woods, CVC Executive Committee, shares opening remarks

I went to the Corporate Volunteer Council of Greater Boston (CVC) Year-End Meeting last night at Harpoon Brewery. Given the time of year, it was a small gathering of about 30 people. What we didn’t have in numbers, we made up for with good conversation, good cheer, good food, and free beer (thanks Harpoon!).

I met Dan Leonard from Genzyme. He’d just come in from Kendall Square on his bike. After stowing his helmet, I said hello, and we were off. Get two bike riders together and they’ll talk about bikes all night. Shortly after, Charlie Storey, Harpoon’s VP of Marketing, joined Dan and me. We chatted some about biking, especially the Harpoon Brewery to Brewery Ride (affectionately known to riders as the “B2B”), the single-day, 148-mile bike ride from Boston to Windsor, VT that Harpoon has sponsored since 2001.
(See my post on the B2B at https://www.tra360.com/?p=2550.)

More to the point of last night’s meeting, Charlie told us that about 180 Harpoon employees donated about 8,200 hours of community service in 2010. The company supports major charities like: Dana Farber Cancer Institute, dedicated to cancer research, treatment, and education; Vermont Foodbank (Vermont’s largest hunger-relief organization), and The Angel Fund, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting ALS investigations at the Cecil B. Day Laboratory for Neuromuscular Research at UMASS Medical under the leadership of Dr. Robert H. Brown Jr. In addition, Charlie also told us that Harpoon donated to over 200 other charities during the course of the year. These are AMAZING STATS for a company the size of Harpoon!!!

Charlie Storey, VP of Marketing at Harpoon Brewery accepting the 2011 Corporate Volunteer Council of Greater Boston Award from Regina McNally, CVC Executive Committee
Charlie Storey, VP of Marketing at Harpoon Brewery accepting the 2011 Corporate Volunteer Council of Greater Boston Award from Regina McNally, CVC Executive Committee

Janelle Woods and Anne Bowie, CVC Executive Committee Members, shared some opening remarks about CVC, its core mission, and appeal for membership. Then Regina McNally, another CVC Executive Committee Member, presented the 2011 Corporate Volunteer Council of Greater Boston Award to Harpoon which Charlie Storey graciously accepted. His words about Harpoon’s commitment to community service since their founding in 1986 were true inspiration to all of us.

TRA360 will be joining the CVC in September 2011. We look forward to getting to know our colleagues and doing more community service in Greater Boston.

Mass Emailing and Future Plans

Posted on by Valentina Rosa

So yesterday we sent out our first mass emailing to our corporate database. It was very excited to start executing the plan we’ve been working on for a few weeks now. The response so far has been strong and already more people are joining TRA360’s social networks. Building brand awareness is a goal of ours and I think we’re growing it successfully. We’re planning on offering free materials and know-how on the site sometime shortly, so let us know what specifically you’d like to see. In addition, work samples for our various practices will be hitting the site soon so we can represent.

The next big project in the pipeline will be a survey for the customers so we can figure out how to be Super-TRA360! I joked with Tim the only options for opinions should be “Good, Very Good, and Excellent.” That way, 100% of the responses will be positive 😉  I’ll do my best to make the survey unbiased so it can be of actual value though because the goal isn’t glorification, it’s improvement.