The return of my mother and my brother from their time in Hong Kong, my productive breakfast at Lole Atelier, and a 5 minute conversation with a really nice dog owner with a 4-month-old black shiba puppy has been rejuvenating in a way I never really seem to expect, which is good, since it wouldn’t be so effective if I expected it to happen.

Highlights from:

Matt Archambault: Social media and branding

• SEO-wise, it’s not frequency so much as time and consistency, and we’re looking at an increased look at engagement metrics
• Yelp is an under-utilized platform for retail businesses
• Build your online reputation before someone else does

Lauren Krasasek: Influencer marketing and paid media

• When seeking out influencers to work with, find ones that are genuine and credible, not just ones with millions of followers
• Practice real-time marketing; social media is a conversation
• Contests’ work to reward ratio is smaller than the Surprise & Delight

Andrew Fried: Video and organic growth

• YouTube and video content earns engagement
• You want an organic reach
• Creativity only matters when it’s towards a firm objective

And then I stepped out because I wasn’t technically supposed to be there in the first place (the event was for retail managers…and I got cold feet when I thought about talking to Lauren Krasasek about MWW because of my lack of relevancy) and was almost immediately comforted by a girl and her new puppy.

Speaking of puppies, Mr. Chokkattu took Bloo to work again, and again he left him to do unscrupulous things. Boys, sigh.