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Archives for June 2011

Blogging & #BlueKey: Use Your Influence

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I’m late to the party; what else is new…yet, there’s still time to help founders and planners of the global BlueKey campaign make their mark by June 20, World Refugee Day. Shonali Burke is driving the digital program to earn 6,000 blue keys for $5 each, and Gini Dietrich is riding tandem. Together they’re making a difference, and you can, too.

As a blogger, hit Shonali’s blog and you can lift content from her blog (because she’s provided everything you need to spread the word).
Then, you can launch and post a cute photo like @JennWhinnem did when her  blue key arrived. Or, go directly to the Blue Key Campaign site  to adapt content for your post.

And, so, please read the below excerpted directly from Waxing Unlyrical; Ms. Shonali Burke’s amazing blog. It’s only $5, folks, we can afford that hands down. While you’re there, take a look at the solid digital/PR strategy behind this campaign; it’s one for the text books.

Extracted directly from Shonali Burke’s blog, Waxing Unlyrical:
So I’ve been working with USA for UNHCR on the digital aspects of its Blue Key campaign. It’s very simple:
1. The Blue Key campaign symbolizes the key to the home that refugees may never ever hold again;
2. It’s a $5 symbolic Blue Key pin or pendant that is really very cute – and by getting your own, you’re showing support for the cause of refugees worldwide, as well as for the 6,000+ UNHCR staffers working globally to bring them some relief; and
3. Our goal for this phase of the campaign is to get 6,000 keys out to Americans (they can only ship within the US) by June 20, which is World Refugee Day.

From an SM campaign point of view, I think we’ve been doing some interesting things (but of course, I’m working on the campaign, so take that with a fistful of salt if you need to). We have:
• Refined the “online home” for the Blue Key campaign as much as possible, so that messaging is in sync;
• Reached out to cause-passionate bloggers who are active in social spaces to become Blue Key Champions (you can become one too, just let me know, the main “ask” is for you to publish a post on the campaign between now and June 20);
• Using the #bluekey hashtag on Twitter to amplify the conversation and drive awareness;
• Created tracking URLs for the primary outreach mechanisms, i.e. blog(ger)s, Facebook, Twitter & email newsletters (which USA for UNHCR is sending out);
• Customized the “thank you” email someone gets when they sign up for a Blue Key (or more than one), so that they can choose whether or not to “like” USA for UNHCR on Facebook, follow on Twitter, donate a tweet a day, or become a Champion.

(I really like it when I get to shamelessly copy content from someone else’s blog; makes my work so much simpler.) Please buy a Blue Key (and then head on over to @DannyBrown to get your #12for12K mojo, too).

Thanks! You won’t regret it.

 

Heavy Metal, Teens & Marketing

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You know that jingle you’ll never get out of your head? Mine is “588-2300…EMPIRE!” It’s ingrained in my brain cells from years of waking up to WBBM-AM in Chicago after college. I know you have one, too, and so do your teenage kids.

Apparently, there’s a new study by Emory University scientists and neuro-economists (have you ever heard of a professional with these creds before?) showing the correlation to new music (read that metal) and brain response. Teen brains react positively to various tunes they hear, and according to the study, the popularity and commercial success of a song can be predicted. The study story appeared in today’s Wall Street Journal, “Songs Stick in Teens’ Heads; Research Shows Hit Songs Activate Pleasure, Reward Centers in Adolescent Brains.”

Get this:

* “The researchers usually could tell from the strength of brain activity alone which songs would later sell at least 20,000 copies.

* Five songs in the teens’ neural top 10 sold more than 50,000 copies each.

* Three songs that were not among the top 10 eventually became gold records selling more than 500,000  copies.”

Apparently, there’s a burgeoning field “in which psychologists and economists are using fMRI medical scanners and EEG brain-wave monitors to probe the automatic judgments people make below the surface of awareness that help shape decisions including purchasing and political choices.”

OK, WOW!

Not so sure this research is akin to why the Empire carpet jingle will forever be engraved in my brain; however, it certainly gives one pause when you associate the ability to predict commercial popularity with the synapse of a teen’s brain.

  • As parents, we ought to be careful about how our kids are used as guinea pigs in science projects, especially if your kid’s brain becomes tapped as a major predictor of product success.
  • As marketers of music (could the science of scent be that far behind?), run to Emory University and engage their team of neuro-economists (how do you earn that title, anyway) to learn how you can predict the next gold record.
  • As advertisers, get the list of top 10 new bands and songs that elicit the strongest brain response (here are five) and get those tunes incorporated into all the interactive ads you can produce:
  1. Job for a Cowboy, “Knee Deep” (metal)
  2. Lucky Boys Confusion “Atari” (alternative)
  3. Underminded, “Bring on the Flood” (metal)
  4. Tricosta/Fat Joe, “Make it Rain”  (hip hop/rap)
  5. Locash Cowboys, “Boom Boom” (country)
  • As public relations professionals, can’t you just see the possibilities with this? The marriage of technology and science is producing a scourge of opportunity for everyone in our profession. The only way you can ignore it is to unplug, and that still means making music.

Whaddya think?

(image: zazzle)

Multitasking — Yes or No?

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My head is clogged, my plate is full, and all I can do is think about Kaarina Dillabough. She’s the one who said that multitasking is no tasking; that means I’m not concentrating when I sit on a conference call muted and empty my in box, tweet, or find a blog post to read. She suggests that brain power should focus on one thing at a time. Multitasking schmultitasking.

There’s a law firm in San Francisco that agrees with this statement. GJEL Accident Attorneys* works its mojo to inform anyone about the dangers of distracted driving from texting, mobile devices, and the DVD player on the front console (that’s my Highlander).

I already nicely disagreed, well vehemently disagreed, with Kaarina; there’s absolutely no flippin’ way I’m able to do nothing on a dead conference call. Maybe I can clean my desk and contribute uh-huh every now and again; I’m listening, but doing nothing is a time waste.

That’s why I have to tweet a webinar when I’m on one; I can type in real time, so I capture 95 percent of what’s being said and I can paraphrase well, too, for a tweet. Is that stupid multitasking? Or, is that fruitful social media for clients who want to see their name in lights? Not sure.

Maybe we need to look at that personality thing; and, no, I didn’t say personality disorder. I know my friend Jenn Whinnem (whose birthday is today, mind you) will pipe in and call me a letter. And, my other friend Gin Blossom will say we’re the same person and that’s why we’re both type A PR (that’s agency public relations or you can read it the way you started to).

So, I’m gonna ask y’all – is multitasking bad in all circumstances? I will absolutely agree that I can’t define multitasking as checking the crackberry during a meal; that’s just plain rudeness, unless…OK, that’s just plain rudeness.

I think I’m on to something…we can blame multitasking on the digital age. I have no solution for that because as I sit here yakking about my inability to focus on one thing at a time, someone is launching a new app I need to check out and there’s a tweet in my box that just arrived, and I just heard the chimes of a text message roll in, and let’s not forget the lovely sweet sound of kidlet just waking up on the first day of summer.

Is multitasking bad all the time?

(*client)/Image by Crystalinks.com

Strategy for Summer Mompreneurs

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Hello world; I’m a mompreneur in summer. Not a day goes by starting April 1 that mom-owned businesses don’t struggle with June, July and August. It’s called summer in the northern hemisphere, and we who also dual as moms die. That’s right, we die, and don’t tell me you don’t. Let me be equal opportunity and include dads here, too. Dads, you die.

*The kids are off school.

*Camp starts 90 minutes later than the school bus arrives, and ends an hour earlier than after-school programs (-2)

*Taxi service daily required to and from camp and appointments. (-3)

*Bedtime is up for grabs; likely 90 minutes later. (-4.5)

*We may as well just subtract 30 more minutes of quality work time to make it an even five; that’s FIVE HOURS of LOST WORK DAILY IN SUMMER!

    Sorry, I’m screaming; it’s what summer does to me bar none. It’s the biggest lack of routine I’ve ever experienced, and I begin to wish for school about July 1. This year I’m not going to stress out as terribly as I did last year or the year before or the year before that. How will I do that? Not sure, but here are some things I’ve put in place:

    *Hired three people to help pick up the slack in between their kidlets being home for summer and their vacations and their full-time jobs. Heh.

    *Hired the 14-year-old across the street to come 3-days a week from 4:30 to 7 p.m. so I can exercise on the trails and pick up lost work time (that means finding food for the sitter, too, right?).

    *Begun to query moms for play dates in the evenings and perhaps will ask the folks to help out, too.

    *Promised to unplug from social media.  (KIDDING! But, wow, wouldn’t that buy me five hours of time a day, and I’d be back to center?)

      I have no idea how this will work, but it’s a start. What are you doing with your kids this summer when you’re working?

      Is Power Blogging Really The Holy Grail?

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      What is a power blogger anyway? We can call “them” professional bloggers, A-listers, or just darn simply popular. I’m not a power blogger, but being the competitive spirit that I am, I’ve often wondered how I could get on that Ad Age Power 150 list –yikes; it’s a lofty goal.

      For sure these peeps who are powerful bloggers in my circle devote skads of time to their blog; kinda like one person I know who admitted spending 40 hours a week on hers. They have an IT team standing in the wings to re-design this and tweak that. They have a team of writers helping on an off day when the main squeeze is traveling, and the researchers are combing industry rags for all the breaking news so they can make hay about it before anyone else.

      I’m a power walker; does that count? Heh, not really, but it serves as a great analogy. My speed is quicker than most; I have an end goal, usually to move the heart rate up and the time down. I am (trying) to keep a consistent schedule (shall we say daily for all intents and purposes), and I’m competing with (myself) to do it better earn something (loss of calories, great legs, a break from Twitter?).

      Alas, power blogging has its pitfalls which makes these blog owners just like we stragglers, followers, newbies, and awe-inspired wow-ers:

      • Mark Schaefer who writes Ad Age Power blog 48 has invited a cadre of guest posters to author articles while he holidays in Eastern Europe for two weeks. In doing so, he lamented his failure to manage social media and blogging while aiming for a desperate unplug from it all.
      • Gini Dietrich, who writes the Ad Age Power Blog 39 called Spin Sucks (and coming soon, the perfected Spin Sucks Pro) admitted her lack of inspiration coming up with ideas to write a blog post and wrote a blog post about nothing. (And, damned if I just went to get the link to that and there’s 251 comments — ABOUT NOTHING!)
      • Marcus Sheridan who owns The Sales Lion blog recently had one of the most civil, contentious, well–commented blog posts I’ve ever had the privilege of being part of (with perhaps 368 comments as of today), and he had to manage each and every one of those all alone.
      • Heck, Jayme Soulati (that’s me if you forgot) even wrote a blog post This is a No Mojo Blog. (Oh, yeah, am not a power blogger.)

      I leave you to ponder the treasure or empty bucket of power blogging with these final thoughts I’m seeing from just about everyone who’s been alongside me in the last several years:

      1. We’re humans who require sleep, a beverage, hugs from our children, and an unplug during holiday.

      2. We have real jobs that pay the bills, unless your real job is as a professional blogger and thus you should not be reading this, so skitter away, mein Freund.

      3. Passion and inspiration are fleeting when we’re tuckered. Understand that shift, and your readers will be ever more thankful.

      4. No one is telling you to post every day; see bullet three.

      5. Numbers are metrics, but remember, the quality of comments mean more than the number of tweets from the blog (in fact, I get more RTs on Twitter for posts than I do from the tweet button app or Share This).

      What might you offer about power blogging? Is that your goal, or are you standing in the wings watching and whispering, “thank goodness that’s not me.” ? (P.S. I’m trying to heed my own counsel; it’s tough!)

      (image: indexofwallpapers.com)