If it bleeds it leads? The Power of the Flowerchat Nation - where is it?

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bloomz

bloomz

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I was sorely disappointed tonight to find out that Erlene didn't win the local business contest.

I went back thru the thread here
http://www.flowerchat.com/forums/showthread.php?t=16566

and I think I count 11 or 12 votes.

How many people participated in the "let's band against 800 flowers so they stop advertising free shipping"?

I think it was close to a couple hundred? (not sure) There's 23 pages of commentary on that thread! YEAH, LET'S GO LET'S BAND TOGETHER!!! IT'S A HORRIBLE THING - COUNT ME IN!!!

And someone please remind me how much that helped us all? What did the "Real Florists" gain?

a quote from that thread
last night I read that of the top 300 web merchants - 43% offer Free Shipping
Click to expand...

They just switched it to Free Vase (just as false as free shipping) and didn't miss a beat, or lose a single order.

http://ww4.1800flowers.com/product.do?baseCode=17622

I'm not as much picking on that "campaign" as much as I am picking on the lack of interest and participation in doing something positive with our "power". That "campaign" was a great demonstration of the numbers we have here, this one one for Erlene? - a sad demonstration of the exact opposite.

This goes along with the Review Brigade - how many have bothered to do that? Cathy and I and a couple others tried to get it going, it was an awesome project we could have done, but it didn't bleed, and it wasn't about dissing wire services, just building us up, so who's interested?

I think I got about 4 reviews out of that wonderful idea. It could have caught fire and there's no reason we all don't have 25 or 30 or even 50 reviews by now. Alas - I think my biggest one has 7, and 2 of those I did myself. The other couple of them have like 3 reviews (you guessed it - 2 of my own)

I passed out around 20, but when reciprocation wasn't forthcoming very well, I fizzled on it as well.

I got a gaggle of pages in response to the new FTD program, plenty of energy there when it comes to b1tching about wire services, many by non-members.

We're often talking about the power we have up in here - well where is it when we could have done something positive for a member? The next member we could have helped could have been you.

This isn't just a member, it an example of the apathy that comes of positive ideas, and the firestorm that comes with negativity.

WTF?

Negativity is not good for the industry. I believe that to the bottom of my core as a professional florist.

But helping fellow florists, one by one can we create so much better, one florist at a time. And we could so easily have made her win this contest.

She didn't want me to post this particularly - she's ok with not winning and has a good attitude about it.

But I insisted, and I hope this doesn't embarass her, cuz she's not a sore loser in any way shape or form.

I'm not ok with it, I'm sorely disappointed at the lack of interest in spreading positivity, and truly helping one another. And I am wondering what this power is good for, if we can only use it to be negative.

This reminds me a bit of when Mother Theresa was asked to participate in an AntiWar rally she refused but said any time they have a Pro-Peace one she would be there.

If you didn't take the 2 minutes it took to vote on that post...

shame on you!
 
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Bloomz is right, if we don't help each other out no one will do it for us. The wire services sure aren't....There should have been votes form everyone there, as well as great comments on peoples google, yahoo and city voter listings. I have seen my web biz increase for the last 5 months because of the great comments my customers left...I did an email campaign fishing for compliments from my former brides and customers and got a bunch and have gotten some from people on FC, some I have done biz with and some I have not...I hear on a daily basis that people chose my shop because they feel they could not go wrong with a florist who has national recognition and comments from people as far as 3000 miles away...It shows them that we have integrity and care about our work...I already have seen one shop go out of biz in my town because she didn't have the technical end of the biz intact and could not grab the virtual customers and 2 more are struggling, all because of the internet and not being cutting edge, this is the future of our bsuinesses, like it or not, we have to embrace it or go under because of it....Help your fellow florist out and get going on reviews and virtual voting, who knows you might just need to send these people your orders someday...
 
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So Sorry I would have voted if I had seen the thread sooner. I didn't even realize it existed.
 
I think it's human nature to respond agressively and passionately to bad stuff; it's not as easy to be the same about the good stuff.

Should we expect more from each other? Yes!
Do we need to remind each other - unfortunately yes.

The hard part is sometimes hearing about a story like Erlene's, so we really rely on each other to share that info. Like Shannon, and CHR's employee getting into the finals for the design competition in Flowers& .... I would have given it a passing glance, but now that I have a personal connection, I'll look more closely, even submit a ballot.

I'll personally try harder - I know my reviews have slipped, though I made a point to try and stay on it early in the year .... thank you for the tap on the noggin.

Erlene - you are the winner in my book!
 
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I hate to plead ignorance, but I tried twice, and read through all the article and couldn't get it to work for me. As for the rest you have a very good point. My apologies. By the way Erlene, congrats on the profile, and you deserve recognition.
 
JB - You laid out a lot of different topics, so I'm gonna address them one at a time.

- The biggest challenge for voting in Erlene's case was wading through all the nominations to find hers. It wasn't easy. I found two but had to dig deep and read very carefully.

Also, the thread was posted during the height of the M Day holiday, when no doubt folks read it, meant to get back to it and then just forgot (and that easily happens to me too during a holiday.) The threa should have been bumped a few days after the holiday.

- As far as the 'free vase' goes with 1-800, if they ship it, they can use 'free' in advertising, just as PF and FTD can. There are certain limitations, but I believe all three companies meet the legal requirements.

What FTD (or any other national marketer) cannot lawfully do is advertise 'free' vases on florist delivered products unless they have agreements with the florists. I believe they are trying to get away with it by putting the 'free vase' in the product descriptions on Merc transmissions. If a florist fills the order, they seem to tacitly agree. It's very, very sneaky - and if the florist disagrees and REJs, FTD still makes money. I believe the ad campaign can be successfully challenged.

- As far as reviewing other florists goes, I know for a fact that some florists aren't aware their companies have been reviewed. Reviews can end up a at least 5 different sites and the identity of the reviewer isn't always obvious.

I didn't start the brigade as a quid pro quo "you review me and I'll review you" thing. It was about saying nice things about quality fellow florists. No matter how much I like some FC members, if I don't know their work or haven't dealt with them professionally, I'm not in a position to review their local services.

I do hope members take the time to say something positive about florists who do a great job for them. For FCer's who haven't already, why not start today?
 
that was my prob too, same as Ivys. Sorry Bloomz, sorry Erlene. I'm not too bright with computer stuff.
 
CHR said:
My guess is most folks read and only jump in if they want to add a different POV. If they agree, they're likely to think it's already been said.
Click to expand...
Yes - I get tired of the "me too me too" posts, so frequently I add nothing, unless it's a different opinion.

Gee, I guess this qualifies as a me too post. Go figure.
 
While I did vote, I must admit the process was seemingly never ending. As time is at a premium most days I'm sure people did look at it as too time consumming.

V
 
Erlene has been very kind to me so I took the time to vote for her. Yes, it was a bit difficult to get to her business amongst all the other businesses being nominated, but it was worth it and SHE is worth it. Thanks to all who voted.
 
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I guess there's just too much chaff to spot the wheat.

I know one member told me he has about a 10 thread tolerance before he gives up for a few more days, and I too have a heckofatime wading thru all the stuff.

I'd like to keep all the forums read, and sometimes at night I just spend half an hour or an hour clicking then back button trying to get rid of them, yet today I see I have 3 pages of unread posts yet again. If I mark all forums read, then I may miss something valuable, but it gets lost in the birthday posts and new member introductions and all that other stuff, that, tho "fun" (maybe) isn't important.

Boss told me a way to double click a forum to mark just that forum read, but I can't figure out how to make it work, so I have been left with dump them all or spend an hour wading thru junk (IMO) to pare it down to new stuff that may be interesting or helpful.

I agree it came along as an inopportune time, with MD, but I should have kept bumping it I guess.

Still rather sad tho that we didn't manage to push one member over the top - it could have been a great exercise in helping each other.

How about we rev up that review brigade again? I'll send PM's to the people I review, some of them I don't know anything about but those like say Mikey (dunno if they work in Canada) and say Joe just to mention a couple, tho I have not had direct dealings with - I know them to be highly professional florists that deserve a good rating from me.

And yes, reciprocating would be good form.
 
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bloomz said:
Boss told me a way to double click a forum to mark just that forum read, but I can't figure out how to make it work, so I have been left with dump them all or spend an hour wading thru junk (IMO) to pare it down to new stuff that may be interesting or helpful.
Click to expand...
OMG I am, like, so excited to help you with a techie thing!

Go to the forum main page , where it lists the individual forum categories, and sub categories. See the big folder thingy at the left of each forum category?If it's green, there are new posts. If it's grey, no new posts. Double click on any folder you have no intention of reading, though it sounds like not too many for you.

HTH!

How about we rev up that review brigade again? I'll send PM's to the people I review, some of them I don't know anything about but those like say Mikey (dunno if they work in Canada) and say Joe just to mention a couple, tho I have not had direct dealings with - I know them to be highly professional florists that deserve a good rating from me
Click to expand...
. This was my basis for reviews as well. I even reviewed some of my local weddin vendor friends & co-horts. It's all good!
 
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CHR said:
Ted -

My guess is most folks read and only jump in if they want to add a different POV. If they agree, they're likely to think it's already been said.

Others may have a POV but don't want to say so here out of fear a WS may get wind of it and cut off their incoming order flow.
Click to expand...

This is a true angle, but I think Bigted makes a valid point. A lot of times it does seem like it's the usual suspects and a bunch of lurkers.

I agree with Bloomz in that rallying around the positive should be more of a priority. I voted for Erlene, and yes I agree the it was a tad confusing but at the same time I didn't think it was rocket science either. The bottom line is that the winner had more votes. It seems that the power of the FlowerChat community could have put her over the top but it didn't.
 
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I appreciate everyone voting for my business. The companies that were selected were very deserving and that pleases me a great deal.

Cathy, you're right, the poll was not formatted as well as it could've been. Tight budget in the grassroots effort of the Buy Local organization and perhaps inexperience setting it up.

I agree with Jonathon's statement regarding negativity and jumping on board to help each other out. I think we can all do a better job of that.

I, too, am as guilty as the next person about sometimes not taking the time to make a positive impact. Perhaps that's the lesson here.
 
I have seen this pop up a couple times today and last night.

I absolutely missed the original thread because I was busy with Mother's Day stuff.

Erlene, had I had the time and knew what was going on. I would have been a voter. I assume the vote was something positive for you, per jb.

joe

ps. jb, you are a good person.
 
First of all congats Erlene,

I know I go sometimes days hell sometimes weeks when I don't even log on. It isn't that I don't care about the other folks on here. A lot of us have been on FC for years. I wasn't here in the very beginning but have been for a good long time. I like to think of FC as a family. Sometimes we all get along and when one of us is in a pickle it is nice to know that you have folks to go to that really do give a crap and want to help. Sometimes when we need our keester kicked the family is there for that to. lol Apparently when I wasn't a raving fan of JTV and a few other things that has been the case. So be it. It doesn't mean that we aren't all family it means that the family dynamic and relationship is stronger than immediate petty differences.

We all have busineses to run and sometimes I think we get a little side tracked by green dots or what FTD or TF or who ever has done to us this week.

We do need to organize and stick together and when ever possible support and protect each other. THE REAL INDEPENDENT BRICK AND MORTAR FLORIST. Not the basement OGs or "online florist" etc etc ...

There is a core group here that is on day in and day out and seem to have time to watch every thread and every issue and for those that have shops that well run to have that kind of time. I really salute you. I hope sometime to be able to do that myself. But for now I carry a fire hose everyday just so I don't have to run back to the truck to get one to put out the constant small business fires.

Sorry for the long rant,

Bob
 
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