Fred Abaroa

Many years ago I used to tell my boss, "If you like it, I did it. If not I have know idea where it came from." It was my way of lowering risk. A month ago I changed my twitter handle from @CostaVidaFred to @TMIFred. I asked the advise of many tweeps about the name change. The response was don't change it, unfortunately I knew that Costa Vida in South Portland would be de-franchising and would change its name. I also knew I needed to make some money to support my family and would have to leave this almost pro-bono work. I had searched long and hard to find a name that would make a great transition. And then it hit me TMI. For the majority of the English speaking world TMI=Too Much Information but for me it was The Marketing Imagineer. So one night very late I changed, bummer is that I just had more business cards made with CostaVidaFred. It took about a week but my plan was perfect. What I wanted to happen was for people on twitter to talk about the TMI. I would innocently tweet out TMI=The Marketing Imagineer. This would trigger the TMI=Too Much Information conversation. I'm sorry if I deceived anyone into thinking I really didn't know what TMI was, but it made for a great conversation starter.

Many savvy marketers do this all the time to start the conversation or create buzz. Another example was a business card I received from someone local (Maine). The area code for the phone was 801. That is in Utah so I had to ask. This person told me it was a VOIP number and they could pick any area code so decided on Utah because it starts a conversation. The twitter names themselves are sometimes very cleaver. Business cards can come in various shapes these days. A friend Jeff Mateja, a Real Estate consultant, business cards are the size and shape and style of a Monopoly property card.

Want help! Call on me...

Fred Abaroa aka “CostaVidaFred”
The Marketing Imagineer

fred [@]costavidafred.com 

Twitter:
@FredXpress
@TMIFred

Blogs:
www.CostaVidaFred.com
Podcasts:
WordOnTheTweet.net
MakingMountainsOutOfMoleHills.com