Rob Frappier: Writer, Marketer, Nerd, All-Around Nice Guy

Hey! Sorry for leaving you hanging there. What’s it been…? A YEAR! Holy Hell!

For someone who calls himself a blogger, that’s pretty shameful. Why am I still paying for hosting fees for this blog if I’m not going to write in it?

Well my friends, as Bob Dylan once sang, the times they are a-changin’. I can’t promise regular updates (I’ve got some pretty serious family responsibilities now – more on that later), but I can promise to at least check in with little blurbs from time to time. Hopefully, it’s something that you’ll find funny/useful/insightful.

Back to those responsibilities.

Remember a while back when I wrote that my wife and I were expecting our first child? Well guess what. She’s here! (And has been for a whole six months.)

Her name is Zoe and she’s AMAZING. She’s funny, good-natured, and seriously the cutest baby ever. I may be a terrible blogger, but I make up for it with awesome genes. (My wife’s are pretty good too.) I would share a picture here, but I’m still making up my mind about sharing photos of her on my blog.

The egotist in me says “Do it!” but the privacy-conscious Dad says “What about the Internet weirdos?” I think the egotist will eventually win out.

Anyway, it would be unfair to blame my lack of writing solely on the baby, but she is a factor. Hmm…what else can I blame?

Oh yeah – I’ve got a new job. As some may recall, I previously worked as the Community Manager for Reputation.com. It was a great job and I worked with a great team, but unfortunately, due to some internal restructuring, my position was eliminated a couple of months ago.

As with everything though, there was a silver lining. All of the work I did with Reputation.com and the excellent skills I learned working under an awesome management team perfectly prepared me for my new position as the Content Marketing Manager for Sheffield Marketing Partners.

SMP is a boutique agency in the Chicago area focused on helping businesses improve their marketing communications. Specifically, SMP helps companies translate nonsensical corporate-speak (“scalable efficiencies designed to leverage new paradigm shifts in best of breed technologies”) into narrative-driven messaging.

As Content Marketing Manager, my role will be to help our clients analyze their communications strategies and then develop the most engaging kind of Web content for their particular goals – whether that means commissioning research for a whitepaper, scripting and shooting a funny video, or something cool like a Whiteboard Narrative.

The team at SMP is really sharp and I’ve already learned a lot from them – even though I’ve only been on the job for a day. It’s a really amazing opportunity and I’m looking forward to helping clients of all shapes and sizes cut through the clutter and connect with their audiences in an authentic and unique way.

Anyway, that’s all for me for now. If I don’t live up to my promise to keep writing on this blog, you can always catch me at Twitter or on ScreenRant.com. Talk to you again soon (hopefully).

Yeah, yeah, I know. Everyone already did their Thanksgiving-themed posts last week. I wanted to spend time with my family instead. Sue me. Anyway, in honor of our recent holiday celebrations, I thought I would take a moment to give some much-deserved shout-outs to several businesses that have really impressed me in some way this year.

Working for ReputationDefender these past two years, I’ve come to appreciate the critical role that positive online reviews play in a company’s long term success. But good online reviews should only come from good service. The following companies have kicked ass in one way or another in 2010, and I’m happy to recommend them to you here today.

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Catalyst Ranch – Catalyst Ranch is an eclectic meeting venue in downtown Chicago. I have been there for events on two separate occasions. Once, I was hanging out with the cool kids from Social Media Club Chicago. The other time, I was having my wedding reception. Not only is Catalyst Ranch an awesome place to throw an event, the staff is great and very accommodating. I would use them again in an instant if I actually had a reason to bring 100+ people together. Anybody feel like partying?

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Bank of America – I recently had the displeasure of having my debit card scammed to the tune of $100. I noticed a couple of unauthorized payments and, with the fire of a thousand burning suns, visited BankofAmerica.com to dispute the charges and find justice.

Initially, I expected to run into some hassle. Mind you, I didn’t think I’d have problems because of Bank of America, but because of the problems inherent to all ginormous organizations: bureaucracy. Luckily, everyone I worked with was super friendly and Bank of America’s fraud response team helped me clear up the charges and issued me a new debit card within a week. Needless to say, I was impressed, which is why Bank of America earns my hearty well wishes.

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Southwest Airlines – I don’t fly too often for business (or pleasure for that matter), but when I do I like to use Southwest for two reasons. One, they have a hub at Midway that makes flying anywhere in the country fairly easy. Two, their rates are typically much lower than the competition (not to mention the fact that they don’t charge baggage fees.) When I flew out to San Diego this past summer for Comic-Con however, my satisfaction with Southwest really jumped up a notch. Why? Customer service, pure and simple.

The flight crew on my trip out to San Diego was the best I’ve ever experienced. The lead flight attendant in particular was funny, engaging, and friendly throughout the flight. I’m actually kind of disappointed I didn’t get his name so I could send a note to Southwest singling him out. Yes, the flight was that good. Anyway, kudos to you Southwest for a job well done.

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Travelocity.com – I don’t typically book travel on websites like Orbitz or Priceline (see above paragraph re: Southwest), but my mom frequently uses Travelocity.com. This fall, my mom was booking a flight out to Las Vegas to help my grandmother move. She used Travelocity, as she has done numerous times before, and I watched her punch in her credit card information and receive a confirmation e-mail within minutes. Unfortunately, the following day she received a voicemail from a Travelocity rep saying the transaction didn’t go through and that she would have to repurchase the tickets.

At this point, the tickets she bought were no longer available and the comparable option was several hundred dollars more expensive. After much time on the phone trying to ask reasonably why one would receive a confirmation e-mail for an unconfirmed transaction, my mom gave up and bought slightly higher priced tickets at a much more inconvenient time. It was a frustrating process, and my mom expressed disappointment in Travelocity for the mistake. So, being the good son that I am, I aired her grievance on Twitter, knowing that Travelocity (if they were any good at reputation management) would be listening.

Within a couple of days, I received a response on Twitter directing me to a customer service agent’s e-mail. I sent an e-mail explaining the issue and, lo and behold, my mom got a call the following day offering an apology and a voucher for her troubles. Now, I’m not one to hold companies at ransom online. The squeaky wheel shouldn’t always get the grease. However, if a company accidentally or deliberately screws up, they should make amends in some way. In this case, Travelocity more than made up for its initial faux pas, restoring my mom’s confidence and impressing me enough to inspire the retelling of our saga on this blog. Way to go Travelocity!

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Ace Limousine – Since we were going to be gone for six days over Thanksgiving, Nicole and I wanted to take our dog along with us to visit family. This raised a few issues. One, I had to pay extra to fly with the little guy. Two, it was his first time flying, which made us all nervous. And three, I had to get him to the airport.

As city-dwellers, Nicole and I are both used to taking public transportation. However, (correct me if I’m wrong) you can’t take dogs on the CTA. We do currently have access to a car, so we could have driven to the airport and done the long-term parking deal, but that’s always a pain and it would still require a shuttle to the airport (not an ideal prospect early in the morning). So instead, I decided to hire a car service. It couldn’t be much more expensive than a taxi, right?

After doing some research, I found Ace Limo. They had decent ratings on Yelp and when I e-mailed for info, they offered a fair rate. At this point, it should be noted that I requested a sedan. Well, as luck would have it, when we left our apartment to meet the driver the morning of our trip, the man is standing in front of a white stretch limousine. With an incredulous grin on my face, I told the driver I asked for a sedan and he replied that the limo was “what they had available.” Sweet! I didn’t have to pay any extra, and we rolled up to the airport in style. Way to go Ace Limo! Even better than the free limo upgrade was what happened on our return trip. (No, we didn’t get upgraded to a helicopter.)

Our flight came in late because of some delays out of Atlanta. Some car services will charge extra money if a passenger does not show up at their scheduled arrival time. That’s patently unfair since it’s impossible for a customer to know if their plane will be delayed. Ace Limousine has no such charge and was easily accessible even though our plane came in an hour and a half late and well past midnight. Now that’s good customer service.

My only quibble with Ace Limousine is their website. Come on guys, it’s 2010! Spruce things up a bit. At the very least, use SSL for processing your payments. I’m sure I could point you in the direction of some people who could help.

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I’m sure there were many other companies that kicked ass during 2010, but I can’t think of any more off the top of my head. Maybe in 2011, instead of waiting until the end of the year, I’ll give businesses love every time they do something good. In fact, I think I’ll make that my mini-resolution.

If you’ve had a great experience with a business this year, please feel free to share it in the comments. Alternatively, if you’ve had a negative experience with one of the companies I mentioned, please feel free to share that as well. An open dialogue is important to help businesses learn from their mistakes and grow.

[Header image via Flickr User Jen Collins used under a Creative Commons License]

Dear God. Has it really been almost six months since I’ve written anything substantive in this blog? (My blog post about the Detroit Lions getting screwed notwithstanding.) For somebody who sings the importance of personal branding, I don’t do a very good job of it for myself.

Well, the time has come to put up or shut up. If I’m going to have the gall to call myself a blogger, I better start blogging. Special thanks to my friend and former co-worker Surj Gish who told me that he sometimes checks my blog and is always bummed to see nothing new. (Guilt, it would seem, is my best motivator.)

Of course, there are some problems with climbing back up on the blog horse after a long absence, primarily the fact that I have a whole bunch of stuff to say. So, to save myself the pain of typing out thousands of words describing the last six months (and to save you the pain of reading it), I’ve condensed the most important things that are going on with me into nine easy-to-digest bullet points.

Here we go:

• I got married. Yes, that’s right. I am officially off the market. Just kidding. I’ve been off the market for years. You see, I married my high school sweetheart, a wonderful, smart, supportive, and incredibly caring girl named Nicole Tersigni. She’s also wickedly funny as you can see from her on-again off-again blog Two Girls, One Brain (co-written with her long-time friend Addie.)
• I helped build a house in Hawaii. Swinging a hammer never felt so good as it did this summer when my wife and I went to Kauai, Hawaii for our honeymoon. We had talked about doing something unique for our honeymoon that was also service-focused, so we checked out Habitat for Humanity’s Global Village program. The Kauai trip fit our schedule, and looked awesome, so we signed up. It was a great experience and we made tons of awesome friends, all while building a house that will (eventually) provide shelter for a deserving family. Plus, they talked about us in the local newspaper!
• I still work for ReputationDefender and I’m loving it. Awareness of data privacy and online reputation issues has never been higher, and in my position I get to work with some of the brightest minds in the field of Internet privacy and security. It’s a great opportunity, and I encourage all of you to check out the work we’re doing everyday. While we’re at it, read our blog, follow us on Twitter, and fan us on Facebook.
• I still write for ScreenRant.com and I’m also loving that. Not only did I get to go to the San Diego Comic Con this year (a dream come true), I’ve also had the opportunity to do sit-down interviews with cool entertainers like Tony Todd (aka Candyman, aka Guy Who Scared Me When I Was Little) and the directors and star of the fascinating documentary Catfish. The site is continuing to grow and get noticed by the Hollywood elite, plus everyone on the Screen Rant team is awesome. Epic win.
• I’m working on getting into shape. I was working out for a while doing P90X, an insanely difficult workout routine that consists of 60-90 minutes of hardcore exercise six days a week. I got into Phase 2 of the program and was making a lot of progress before I hit a wall. Since then, I’ve become increasingly sedentary in my lifestyle, which is kind of bugging me, so I’m jumping back on the fitness wagon. (Though I’ll probably wait until after Thanksgiving so I can have one last hurrah with a gigantic meal.)
• I haven’t given up on my web comic…although I have taken a major break. My robot web comic, They Are Coming For Us!, is super fun to write and I’m disappointed in myself that I didn’t keep at it. Unfortunately, I don’t get paid to have robots say funny things and it’s hard to fit it into my schedule. I will start writing more on that blog, however, just as soon as I get things organized. Which leads to…
• I’m trying to be more organized. Keeping a strict schedule is not my strong suit, but I know it’s important if I’m going to get everything done that I want to do. So, expect to see more blog posts here, on the robot blog, and elsewhere as I extend my tentacles across the intertubes.
• I’m growing a mustache for charity. I’ve grown mustaches in the past (it looked great for my 70’s cop costume last year at Halloween), but this time I’m adding the scruff as part of Movember. If you would like to raise money for men’s health research and awareness, please donate to my Movember team here.
• I’m having a baby. Well, my wife is, but you get the point. Yes, I’m going to be a father. It’s pretty heady stuff for a 24-year-old guy, but I have to say I’ve never been more excited about anything in my life. I don’t want to jinx it (fingers crossed) but I think Nicole and I are going to be awesome parents. For more on the baby’s progress, check out our official baby blog.

Well, that’s it. I hope I didn’t bore you, I just had lots of great news to share. If I think of anything else, I’ll make sure to add it. In the meantime, follow me on Twitter. BYE!

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