Being an E-Cig Ambasador

[bassnut]

One of my several jobs (sign of the times) is playing bass in a classic rock band 3 nights a week at a small bar in Arcadia CA. Been doing it for 5 years now....it stills feels fresh (at my age).
Anyway, people smoke there. It's against the law but they do it anyway. Every night. The bartender too.

I've been vaping for 3 weeks now. Analog free.
I vape at the club. People see me vape and want to know what I'm doing. The guys in the band dig it too.
What can I tell them other than what I've experienced? Not everybody is used to doing on-line research. I give them website addresses and e-cig model names but in return they give me helpless looks that beg: "Please do it for me."
I can't possibly do follow-up without being a dealer or dealer's rep myself. I'm over my head already with what's on my plate. How can this be made easier?
Is there some sort of non commercial Hot-line (..or Cool-line) of volunteers to walk people along the path to find a positive intro to vaping? Many hard-core smokers aren't used to internet forums or internet purchasing.
Contrary to how comfortable we feel here at this forum, communicating as we do, this is in no way how most people relate to the world or even the internet. We are very elite...and I don't mean in that in a good way. It's a matter of circumstance
I've found that I'm a great pitchman for E-Cigs but I just can't do the follow-up. No time.
Help!

It's very late and I'm too tired to edit this. Please accept as is, warts an all. It's the best I can do right now

 

[candre23]

Send them here: good-ecig.info

 

[schaedj]

Gotta tell you, I've told dozens of people about e-cigs and where to find out information about them. It seldom works (maybe once). On the other hand, If I keep a disposable on hand and give them one, they become vapers immediately, and stay that way. If you really want to have an impact, buy a bunch of disposable kits (you can find then at several places for under $10), offer to sell them one for $10. Most people will bite. Then give them a card with a couple of web site addresses (ECF, your favorite supplier), and the rest will be history. FYI, don't offer a hit of yours, even with good friends. Most people are at least slightly germophobes, so If they do accept your offer, they won't really take a drag, and it will seem anemic to them.

 

[subperceptual]

...
I've been vaping for 3 weeks now. Analog free.
I vape at the club. People see me vape and want to know what I'm doing. The guys in the band dig it too.
What can I tell them other than what I've experienced?

Hmmmmm.... First off, good for you and congrats! Secondly, I think you are doing just fine telling them what you experienced, and there is no reason to think that you should have to tell them anything else. After all, if someone is interested in dropping analogs, seeing you get satisfaction from it, and hearing your reasons/experience would be enough to provoke them to to their own research and shopping.

But I'm following you on this idea....

Not everybody is used to doing on-line research. I give them website addresses and e-cig model names but in return they give me helpless looks that beg: "Please do it for me."
I can't possibly do follow-up without being a dealer or dealer's rep myself. I'm over my head already with what's on my plate. How can this be made easier?
Is there some sort of non commercial Hot-line (..or Cool-line) of volunteers to walk people along the path to find a positive intro to vaping? Many hard-core smokers aren't used to internet forums or internet purchasing.

How can this be made easier? Good question. If I understand this correctly, what you're saying is that you are very excited about your experience and success vaping and when someone asks about it, you want to be able to offer them info and resources to help them take the next step. Correct?

Well, I'm definitely a believer that what you sow is what you reap... maybe even a little more convicted than alot of people I know - so let me throw this out:

1) It's just plain awesome that you and many other people feel passionately enough about vaping and its benefits versus smoking to even want to steer others in the right direction. No matter how minor your effort, it seems like a worthy cause to share, and I can't disagree that it is.

2) I understand what having too much on your plate is like since I feel much the same way most of the time - but I have to say in all honesty that anything we can do or say to help, improve, exalt, or better someone else is worth making the time to do and follow through on.

3) We are all "front-liners". Early adopters in a relative way and we will be for years to come. We are in the unique positions to effect the direction of this trend, the legal issues that emerge, and the industry being born around it all. Most of us already have a good impression of where vaping could lead and many of us are also quick to willingly suggest it to others.

With that, I will put my name in the hat to help make "Being an E-Cig Ambassador" easier if you are willing to kick in too - and if we can get at least a few others here to volunteer a little time and effort into the same.

Contrary to how comfortable we feel here at this forum, communicating as we do, this is in no way how most people relate to the world or even the internet. We are very elite...and I don't mean in that in a good way. It's a matter of circumstance. I've found that I'm a great pitchman for E-Cigs but I just can't do the follow-up. No time.
Help!

It's very late and I'm too tired to edit this. Please accept as is, warts an all. It's the best I can do right now

So how about we start churning out ideas on what we can do to empower this little elitist conclave we have here to do some significant good and inform people that might want to consider ditching analogs for vaping? And make it easy to boot.

I will volunteer to design distribution media. If someone wants to come up with a catchy domain, I will even volunteer hosting and site development/design - somewhere we can pool info and propaganda that isn't associated with any vendors or other interests - maybe even offer suggestions to sincere vendors (hardware and juice) as to what they could be doing to help out.

I think we should start with the obvious hurdles and address the common questions people have - I have seen little cards that try to explain briefly and directly what vaping is - and that is awesome, but maybe we can take the idea further - I have a couple of ideas.

Giving a smoker a chance to experience vaping on a quality device with good juice will also go a long way too - at least in my opinion it would. So maybe think of ways we could make that happen.

I'm not opposed to individual folks aligning themselves with vendors to share an experience of products - as long as it is done ethically and with an open interest - meaning they are not trying to sell someone on a specific product, just on the experience, and I would suspect any vendor willing to kick in on that type of effort would find massive support from the existing community - if it is done honestly and a great product is offered for sample.

But these are just some thoughts - let's see where this discussion leads - Good one bassnut!

 

[trukinlady]

I carry with me a small supply of blank carts still in the wrapper. If someone wants to try vaping, I give them a fresh cart they can open themselves. The only problem is the juice. Johnson Creek has a package of one use samplers in different flavors, but I'm not sure if there is a limit on how many you can buy. If you were a distributor, it would be different.
Just MHO. Great idea!

 

[quasimod]

[...] Not everybody is used to doing on-line research. I give them website addresses and e-cig model names but in return they give me helpless looks that beg: "Please do it for me."
I can't possibly do follow-up without being a dealer or dealer's rep myself. I'm over my head already with what's on my plate. How can this be made easier?
[...]

These are the people that will have to pay a premium for gear and supplies at a mall kiosk, or a company that takes telephone orders (like the much-maligned "Smoking-All-Over-The-Place" type companies). That type sales has a lot more overhead than an internet store, so they will have to charge more and use a different business model. If they charge more to pay their sales force, ECF and other forum's members will trash them viciously.

I think suppliers are missing a big opportunity with this demographic, but I don't know what the solution is. I've given it some thought, because I'm the unpaid go-between for 3 people. It's starting to feel like a job.

EDIT:

I'm not sympathetic to SE.

If you count my family members, then I'm the unpaid go-between for 5 people.

 

[Israfil]

I've been considering opening a storefront (maybe just a kiosk) myself as I lack employment at the moment anyhow. Maybe the best solution as every single kiosk in the malls as well as any smoke shops that sell vaporizers are carrying the njoy type ecigs (way more expensive than can be justified). They also (mostly) carry no juice bottles, only prefilled carts. I'm thinking if I DIY the juice I can cut the overhead down enough to warrant sale for maybe 15 a bottle at the storefront. Maybe me and a friend run it. I've still gotta run the numbers on all this though.

It's important that people not get turned off of ecigs by paying up to 200 dollars for an inferior product.

 

[bestthingever]

It's important that people not get turned off of ecigs by paying up to 200 dollars for an inferior product.

I agree with this wholeheartedly. It would be interesting to know how many people have tried those inferior products, and then decided that vaping was unsatisfying.

 

[bassnut]

.... It would be interesting to know how many people have tried those inferior products, and then decided that vaping was unsatisfying.

Plenty!


WTF?
"Please lengthen your message to at least 10 characters"

 

[Moonflame]

Coming up with a couple page long pamphlet that each of us could print out with facts vs myths along with some general usage tips and info on where to find more information would be a great help to those of us who are helping non-internet savvy folks to switch to e-cigs too. It would go great with a website that gave even more information.

 

[rosesense]

Interesting thoughts. I have found that I have to take time and explain it and do follow ups for people to even stick with it long enough to learn. Seems these days folks get impatient and frustrated easily. Of the 10 I have helped get started, not one of them has followed my advice to check out ecf for info and support. These are people who use the internet daily so not like it is foreign to them.

 

[bestthingever]

Wow, Rosesense, that is discouraging.
I'm not an impatient person, but had I not visited a forum like ECF, I don't think I would have transitioned to vaping as easily as I did.

 

[subperceptual]

Coming up with a couple page long pamphlet that each of us could print out with facts vs myths along with some general usage tips and info on where to find more information would be a great help to those of us who are helping non-internet savvy folks to switch to e-cigs too. It would go great with a website that gave even more information.

Yeah - that was what I was starting to think - a web resource for us to use to collaborate on and pool collateral materials and propaganda of all kinds - maybe somewhere that we can show vendors and offer ways that they can support/be involved in the process - but I think it will all need to be handled in an unbiased fashion through folks that vape and have no association or affiliation with vendors.

Now - for immediate introductions for non-vapers - I think we could come up with a couple of things real quick - like a info postcard or pamphlet. I could design something pretty quick - but I would need time to write some content - unless anyone wants to swing that for and I can make it look pretty (and printable off inkjets, etc...)

 

[strkaholic]

Gotta tell you, I've told dozens of people about e-cigs and where to find out information about them. It seldom works (maybe once). On the other hand, If I keep a disposable on hand and give them one, they become vapers immediately, and stay that way. If you really want to have an impact, buy a bunch of disposable kits (you can find then at several places for under $10), offer to sell them one for $10. Most people will bite. Then give them a card with a couple of web site addresses (ECF, your favorite supplier), and the rest will be history. FYI, don't offer a hit of yours, even with good friends. Most people are at least slightly germophobes, so If they do accept your offer, they won't really take a drag, and it will seem anemic to them.

As soon as I'm able to do this, I plan on it..thanks for this. I've talked 2 people into trying them now, using another method someone said in here as well. I put a new cart on it and let them try it. In a very short period of time, I've become determined to be as big an advocate of vaping as I can possibly be and if investing a bit of funds when I'm able to is what it takes, that's what I will do.

 

[Tampa2]

Though I cannot go into the reason why, many people in local flea markets have tried the more popular (much cheaper model) and immediately seen how much better the cheaper model was than the "inferior" $200.00 Mall e-cig. When they actually push the button on the manual battery and get great vapor they cannot believe it. Nor can they believe that they paid $200.00 for an inferior model when they got the great vape from one that costs a fraction of the Mall model. People are out there. And You would be surprised at the conversions you can make. Those "free e-cigarette offers" on the radio have given the e-cig market a bad name too. They are much worse than the Mall e-cig.
The bottom line is that you can reach a lot of people at flea markets and parties. But you better take a bunch of cartridges with you because many people want to try the e-cigarette.

 

[Bluerooster]

I usually send them to the local tobacconist, they carry a disposable, which will allow them to "test drive" without having to order online.
They are then, "hooked", and next thing ya know, they're analog free.
That's how it happened for me.

 

[Lumiis]

There is a thread around here somewhere about commonly misconceived e-cig claims that would be helpful to stick in there, I'll look around and report back.

http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/general-e-smoking-discussion/86700-anyone-else-feel-like-e-cig-ambassador.html

http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/general-e-smoking-discussion/43970-information-cards.html

http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/e-cigarettes-public/69681-best-opener-striking-up-conversation-about-vaping-smoker.html

Edit: Didn't find what I was looking for, but found some additional useful information.

 

[candre23]

Just give them this URL: good-ecig.info