Once upon a time, there was a world where social reigned  and where a teacher extraordinaire visited.  His name was Jeffrey Gitomer and he constantly declared simple points in a powerful way.   Then one day at Connect 2013 a magical thing happened.   At the Disney Complex , Jeffrey Gitomer reminded me about the wonder of the ducks at the Peabody Hotel.

So I tweeted about it … “What’s your duck?”   meaning what’s your brand like Peabody has done with the Duck!

Don’t know the story?   For over 80 years, in 3 hotels throughout the US, they have branded themselves with the ducks that march from their “palace” down an elevator to a “lobby pond” and back out again daily!   People from around the world have their ducks on their desk and on the tubs!  (See mine!)

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Now after I tweeted comes the magic.

I was “engaged” by the Peabody in Orlando.  The ‘people’ aka Kate, tweeted me personal messages and invited me to come for a behind the scenes tour.

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Of course i said yes as I was already going to take my kids that night!  Now, there were non believers with me. They said “that’s an automated message” and “there’s nothing special about that!”  until we arrived and as directed in the Tweet went to visit Donald the Duckmaster.

Now a Duckmaster leads the ducks in and out.   He is magical.  I came up to him to ask about the behind the scenes tour and — wait for it — he knew my name, my twitter profile,, and my social graph that linked to his!!!   (He used to be the AT&T account manager on the IBM account a few years before.  Now retired, he joined the Duckmasters!)

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He invited me to be an honorary duck master for the night (my daughter said “Mom you are the coolest mom in the world”).  As I marched behind the ducks to the Duck palace, I thought about the power of the people .. the power of the duck .. all linked to social.

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My conclusions:

  • The Peabody is a hip hotel with the right level of social engagement.  Kate rocked it by being personal, and meeting me in the person as well!
  • The Duck is going Social!  They know live not only in the pond, but in the twitter stream and blogosphere.   It is powerful.    You do need a duck.  What is yours?
  • The Peabody listened and responded.  And they knew my social graph.  Do you know your influencers Social Graph?  Do you know who your influencers are/
  • The Peabody demonstrated that the next generation of organizational productivity is based on unleashing the power of people.   It’s about leadership.   Culture.   Trust.  Transparency.

So, I end where I began.  What’s your Duck?   Do you engage?  The Peabody did.  I did.  And as a Result I am now an official Duck Master!  And the coolest mom in the world!

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Thanks to:

Kate Thomas, Sherri Wallen,  Tatum Jay Delia , and Donald Tompkins