Fort Hood: A First Test for Twitter Lists

How Powerful is Twitter in breaking news situations? We found out again, sadly, this week in the Ft. Hood shootings. Here are some clips from Megan Garber's story at the Columbia Journalism Review. I urge you to read the entire story:

Journalism and curation—it’s becoming increasingly difficult to determine where the one ends and the other begins. The chicken/egg relationship between the two solidified into conventional wisdom during the aftermath of the Iranian election this summer, when journalists—mostly barred from shoe-leather reporting and other, more traditional methods of newsgathering—were forced to play the role of social-media editors. In the dizzying tumult of reporting-by-proxy, mainstream media discovered what Web-native journalism has always taken for granted: that journalism tends to become richer, more compelling, and generally better when it is the result of collaboration.

We saw this again, after an Army major named Nidal Malik Hasan opened fire at Fort Hood, Texas, killing thirteen people and injuring thirty. Only, this time, added to the real-time coverage of the shootings was a new mechanism for breaking-news updates: Twitter lists. In the immediate aftermath of the shootings, news outlets from The New York Times to The Huffington Post to The Today Show created lists that aggregated the Twitter feeds of, among others, national breaking-news sources (CNN, the AP), official sources (the U.S. Army, the Red Cross, the office of Texas governor Rick Perry), local news organizations, and local individuals.

The lists—which offer a running stream of information, updates, and commentary from the aggregated feeds—represent a vast improvement over the previous means of following breaking news in real time. In place of free-for-all Twitter hashtags—which, valuable as they are in creating an unfiltered channel for communication, are often cluttered with ephemera, re-tweets, and other noise—they give us editorial order. And in place of dubious sources—users who may or may not be who they say they are, and who may or may not be worthy of our trust—the lists instead return to one of the foundational aspects of traditional newsgathering: reliable sources. Lists locate authority in a Twitter feed’s identity—in, as it were, its brand: while authority in hashtagged coverage derives, largely but not entirely, from the twin factors of volume and noise—who tweets the most, who tweets the loudest—authority in list-ed coverage derives from a tweeter’s prior record. Making lists trustworthy in a way that hashtagged coverage simply is not.

Study: Internet use leads to more diverse social networks!

New story out from the Associated Press today quoting the Pew Internet and American Life Project has revealing findings: The Internet and mobile phones are not linked to social isolation.

According to the study, online activities such as e-mail, blogging and frequenting Internet hangouts can even lead to larger, more diverse social networks.

"Social isolation has not changed that much since 1985," said Keith Hampton, the main author of the study professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School for Communication. This means that very few adults - 6 percent of the population - say they have no one to talk to about important matters in their lives.

A Special Request

Would welcome it if you would consider nominating me as them Most Interesting Twitter User to Follow. VOTE NOW

@joebarnes

We Can Move Mountains | Parade.com

As PARADE begins America's Giving Challenge, one charitable star reminds us that together...
Actor Matt Damon, famous as the hero of the three Bourne movies, is also the star of films such as The Departed and The Informant! But the Oscar winner spends a lot of time working for charitable causes.

I got an allowance of $5 a week when I was a kid, but I never spent much money on anything. My mother was involved in all sorts of causes, and when I was about 12, I started sending a little bit every month to one of them. I learned then that you find one thing that matters to you, and it changes your whole mind-set.

Here’s something that matters to me right now. Every 15 seconds, a child dies because of a lack of clean water and sanitation. I should probably repeat that: Every 15 seconds, a child dies because of a lack of clean water and sanitation. A billion people on our planet will never have a clean drink of water. There are 2.5 billion people in the world without toilet facilities. That kind of deprivation isn’t even on our radar in the U.S., but in Africa it’s the central preoccupation of many people’s lives. And the most devastating thing about it is that it takes so little to change it. Just $25 will give someone clean water for life—yes, just $25 will change someone’s future forever.

There’s so much need, it’s so hard to decide where to give. For me, I look at the organizations that are actually doing the work on the ground. I co-founded Water.org, which focuses on water and sanitation. I was in Ethiopia earlier this year, and I watched children taking filthy water out of a hand-dug well and putting it in bottles to take to school. The water was so dirty, it looked like chocolate milk. I wanted to knock it out of their hands and say, “Don’t drink that—it could kill you.” The dilemma is that drinking nothing at all will kill them even faster. Parents in these impoverished areas lose children every year to diseases that could be completely prevented if they had access to clean water.

Pres. Obama Signs the Girl Scouts USA Centennial Commemorative Coin Act

President Barack Obama talks with MacKenzie Clare, 14, and the other Girls Scouts after signing the Girl Scouts USA Centennial Commemorative Coin Act in the Oval Office, Oct. 29, 2009. First Lady Michelle Obama looks on at right. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

This official White House photograph is being made available only for publication by news organizations and/or for personal use printing by the subject(s) of the photograph. The photograph may not be manipulated in any way and may not be used in commercial or political materials, advertisements, emails, products, promotions that in any way suggests approval or endorsement of the President, the First Family, or the White House.

ACA Southern California/Hawaii Rules!

I'm just back from doing two keynote presentations and three breakout sessions with the American Camp Association Southern California/Hawaii .... what a great organization and what a great dedicated group of people.

Thank you to everyone who made me feel so welcome. Topics included implementing social media, producing low cost commercials, what makes successful posts on blogs/Twitter/LinkedIn/Facebook, and of course creating social media ethics.

We were hosted at the incredible Forest Home Ministries grounds at Forest Falls, California which is just an amazing site.

For all of you parents out there, remember the value of camp sessions for children. They gain self-esteem, learn teamwork, learn new skills, learn self-confidence, science, environmental education, and so much more. Camp sessions should be an integral part of every child's education and whether it's a Girl Scout Camp or ACA camp, please take advantage of these once in a lifetime opportunities for your children.

PEW Profile of Tweeters!

According to PEW research, some 19% of internet users now say they use Twitter or another service to share updates about themselves, or to see updates about others. This represents a significant increase over previous surveys in December 2008 and April 2009, when 11% of internet users said they use a status-update service.

Three groups of internet users are mainly responsible for driving the growth of this activity: social network website users, those who connect to the internet via mobile devices and younger internet users (those under age 44).

How to Reach Moms!

Great post on Mediapost.com by Stacy DeBroff is founder and CEO of Mom Central Consulting (www.MomCentralConsulting.com), about how to target moms.

• Moms increasingly go online to connect with like-minded Moms, actively seeking out friendships online to fill the void of a lack of best friend or strong inner circle. Brands now have an opportunity to pull them together in forums with others who share their interests. The result? Increasing loyalty to brands that facilitate Mom-to-Mom connectivity.

Key Take-Away: More than ever, brands should focus on providing Moms with opportunities for connectivity, both online and offline, rather than just information, expertise or coupons. Tactics such as forming Mom Ambassador programs offer them significant opportunities to build relationships and leads them to effusively thank the brand for bringing them together.

• Geo-Targeted Local Gatherings: With the frenzied pace of today's Moms, many women find that friendships and relationships often fall to the wayside. With just 19% living in the community where they grew up, Moms desperately seek new connections and they struggle: 58% report experiencing loneliness in the past month, and 4 out of 5 need more friends in their lives. Offline events give them the opportunity to meet fellow Moms they know from online communities.

Key Take-Away: In developing Mom-focused consumer campaigns, brands have to think locally while reaching globally. Robust geo-targeted programs with both online and offline components enable Moms to relate brands to their daily lives, and offline events help them build local relationships and connections with fellow Moms in their communities.

• Rise in Social Network Participation Due to Friendship Seeking: Millions of Moms turn to sites like Gather.com (Mom groups), along with Twitter (shared passions), Facebook (reconnections with family and friends) and Linked-In (business-related) for connectivity.

Key Take-Away: By facilitating connectivity and community on these platforms, brands can build tremendous and lasting loyalty among their Mom brand enthusiasts.

For a copy of this research study, please contact Tracey Hope-Ross, VP Social Media and Research: tracey@momcentral.com or 617-244-3002. To find out how brands can effectively utilize these insights, please contact Stacy DeBroff, CEO at stacy@momcentral.com or 617-244-3002.

Speaking in Southern California

I’m pleased to let you know I'll be speaking next week at the fall conference of ACA (American Campaign Association) Southern California and Hawaii. I’ve been invited to be their keynote speaker and also facilitate two breakout sessions.

I’ll be speaking on:

· Tapping into the Future of Marketing – The Why - making a case for social media as an effective marketing technique.

· Simple, Effective Marketing Campaigns– The How - practical strategies to engage one’s camp community and keep them coming back.

Breakouts:

Ethical & Social Media Guidelines – how to create procedures & policies for one’s organization to avoid the pitfalls of social media (i.e. negative, inappropriate postings, etc…)

Blogging, Twitter, LinkedIn & Facebook – What Makes a Successful Posting - the practical “how to” for each site as well as how to effectively drive customers to your organization’s page.

Break the rules to boost your business

Great article in Harvard Business Publishing.....Forget what you think you know. Tearing up the rulebook can be the key to unlocking new earning potential, writes John Sviokla. Leveraging "disruptive design" principles to shake up the status quo can help make products radically cheaper and workflows radically more efficient, and that means better value all round. HarvardBusiness.org/The Near Futurist blog

Life's Advice from Bill Gates

This was passed on as part of a speech Bill Gates gave to a high school. Not sure whether that is true or not but wherever it came from... it's an AWESOME list of "rules."

Rule 1 : Life is not fair - get used to it!
Rule 2 : The world doesn't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good aboutyourself.
Rule 3 : You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.
Rule 4 : If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss
Rule 5 : Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity.
Rule 6 : If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault , so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.
Rule 7 : Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.
Rule 8 : Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.
Rule 9 : Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.
Rule 10 : Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.
Rule 11 : Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.

Online Viewers Dislike Video Ads!

Wayne Friedman of Media Daily News has a powerful new story out: "Internet video users distrust and dislike online commercials -- even if they get content for free"

The results come from a new report from eMarketer. This isn't the same dynamic for viewers of traditional TV programming and commercials.

David Hallerman, senior analyst at eMarketer, writes: "The Internet and TV audience are not one and the same. The Internet audience does not necessarily respond to the same ads in the same way they would after viewing them on TV."

Click here for the full story.

Michelle Obama Becomes National Honorary President of Girl Scouts of the USA

Girl Scouts of the USA is pleased to announce that First Lady Michelle Obama has agreed to serve as its Honorary National President.

"It is my great pleasure to serve as Honorary National President of Girl Scouts," said Mrs. Obama. "With their innovative new programming, ground-breaking research, and emphasis on service and leadership, Girl Scouts is preparing the women of tomorrow to be a positive force for change - in their own lives, their communities, and across the globe."

In accepting the position, Mrs. Obama takes her place in a tradition stretching back to 1929, when Lou Henry Hoover became the first Honorary National President of the Girl Scouting movement. Since then, each successive First Lady has served in this post.

Girl Scouts plan to work with the First Lady on areas of mutual concern, such as healthy living, public service and leadership.

"From bullying to obesity to concern over the economy, our nation's girls are facing significant challenges," said Kathy Cloninger, Chief Executive Officer, Girl Scouts of the USA. "Girl Scouts is excited to work with the First Lady's office to ensure that all girls can overcome the challenges they face, and that they have the skills, resources and opportunities they need to become strong, independent young leaders."

"Girl Scouts can help girls from every background develop their self-confidence and leadership ability, and encourage them to make a difference in the world," said Connie L. Lindsey, Girl Scouts of the USA National Board Chair. "The First Lady is a passionate, brilliant and inspirational woman - a fantastic role model for girls across the country. We look forward to an active and mutually rewarding partnership on issues important to girls' lives."

About Girl Scouts

Founded in 1912, Girl Scouts of the USA is the preeminent leadership development organization for girls with 3.4 million girl and adult members worldwide. Girl Scouts is the leading authority on girls' healthy development, and builds girls of courage, confidence and character, who make the world a better place. The organization serves girls from every corner of the United States and its territories. Girl Scouts of the USA also serves American girls and their classmates attending American or international schools overseas in 90 countries.

SOURCE Girl Scouts of the USA

Digital Predictions for 2009!

Geoff Ramsey — CEO, Co-Founder, eMarketer Total Access, is out with his predictions for 2009. Among the highlights:

• Marketers will be cutting back on advertising spending this year.
• Among traditional media, newspapers, radio and magazines will see the worst declines.
• The Internet will continue to grow, though at a far more constrained pace.

If you enjoyed highlights of his predictions, you should also read Geoff’s whitepaper, Digital Marketing Now: Seven Strategies for Surviving the Downturn. Click here to get your free copy.

Be Safe On the Internet!

Girl Scouts of Western Washington has joined the national partnership between Girl Scouts of the USA and Microsoft Windows, called LMK (“let me know”) – an online safety resource where girls are the technology experts on subjects that are often best discussed at a teen-to-teen level, like cyberbullying, predators and social networking.

This girl-led campaign allows girls to share their online concerns with peer "tech-perts" about the issues that affect them while raising awareness about how to help keep girls (ages 13–17) safe while surfing the Web. Additionally, parents have access to a site specifically geared to their needs, equipping them with the tools necessary to understand and act on the rapidly changing world of online safety.

Have your daughter sign the Internet Safety Pledge:

Internet Safety Pledge

Traveling through cyberspace can be fun, but like any trip you take you have to "Be Prepared" for unforeseen things. So, read this before you go any further. Then print this page out and discuss it with your parent or guardian.

• I will not give out personal information such as my address, telephone number, parents'/guardians' work address/telephone number, or the name and location of my school without my parents'/guardians' permission.
  
• I will tell an adult right away if I come across any information that makes me feel uncomfortable.
  
• I will never agree to get together with someone I "meet" online without first checking with my parents/guardians. If my parents/guardians agree to the meeting, I will be sure that it is in a public place and bring my parent or guardian along.
  
• I will never send a person my picture or anything else without first checking with my parents/guardians.
  
• I will not respond to any messages that are mean or in any way make me feel uncomfortable. It is not my fault if I get a message like that. If I do I will tell my parents/guardians right away so that they can contact the online service.
  
• I will talk with my parents/guardians so that we can set up rules for going online. We will decide upon the time of day that I can be online, the length of time I can be online, and appropriate areas for me to visit. I will not access other areas or break these rules without their permission.

Girl Name __________________________________ Date __________________

Parent/Guardian __________________________________ Date __________________

Source: National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.

This is a GIANT! Ads on Homes!

This is BRILLIANT....I'm tell you brilliant. Ads written on a house! Talk about getting word of mouth going.....

At the National Advertisers' Agency/Client Forum in New York, Jeff Goodby chairman and co-founder of Goodby, Silverstein & Partners showed his 117-year-old Victorian house in California, which has lots of words painted on the exterior. (c) 2009 MediaPost.com

Goodby created a Web site about the house, called www.poemhouse.org. Then, he posted it on Facebook. He said people just went crazy.

The Difference Between Women With and Without Kids!

Sarah Mahoney reports on MediaPost.com that when it comes to online marketing there are some real differences between what women with and without kids are interested in receiving. It's coming from a new study by Prospectiv. One example is that moms are more likely to say they want to hear from brands frequently.

When asked what type of information they are most like to receive by email, for example, 45% of the mothers in the survey say "anything that pertains to my lifestyle," versus 30% of the women without kids. And only 25% of the moms say, "Don't send me anything at all," versus 35% of the non-moms.

Mothers are also far more likely to use product samples offered online (47% versus 38%) and use online coupons (40% versus 34%.) Women without kids are more likely to say that coupons and samples have less impact, and 27% of them say they buy products only when they need them, compared with just 20% of the mothers surveyed.

How To Market To The Digital Mom

Great post by Tracey Hope-Ross "How to Market to the Digital Mom." Tracey says moms increasingly view traditional media as intrusive and disruptive. Social media cuts through the clutter. Moms use social media to swiftly pass along ideas and product assessments to others. She says the majority of moms are "social researchers" who seek out online reviews.

She says to connect work realistically within moms' daily schedules. Intimate events and parties can be used as catalysts to ultimately drive sales and attendance to larger brand events in the area. Social media provides creative new ways to establish or augment connections with moms.

Proven Ways to get Retweeted on Twitter!

Dan Macsa at Fast Company is out with a story on proven ways to get retweeted They come from....fascinating! They come from viral marketing scientist Dan Zarrella in "The Science of Retweeting."

1. Link Up (But Don't Use TinyURLs)
In Zarrella's sample, links were three times more prevalent in RTs than normal tweets (19% to 57%).

2. Beggars Can Be Choosers
"Please" and "retweet" were his third and fourth "most retweetable" words, preceeded only by "Twitter" (duh) and "you." Also worth noting: "Check out" and "new blog post" were Nos. 19 and 20, respectively.

3. Avoid Idle Chit-Chat
"There are a number of '-ing' verbs, including 'going,' 'watching' and 'listen-ing,'" that were not retweeted very often, he writes.

4. Don't Be Stupid
So much for abbrevs and emoticons. :-( Zarrella's RTs not only have more syllables per word than normal tweets (1.62 vs. 1.58), but they're also more intellectual: Per a Flesch-Kincaid test, comprehending RTs requires 6.47 years of education, while normal tweets require just 6.04.

5. Semicolons = Satan
A whopping 98% of RTs contain some form of punctuation (compared with 86% of normal tweets), with colons, periods, exclamation points, commas, and hyphens leading the way.

6. Break News
This one's kind of a no-brainer, but original content is way more popular than stuff we've already read.

7. Use Proper Nouns Properly
Most RTs were heavier on nouns, proper nouns and 3rd-person verbs, suggesting that headline-style tweets--such as "Lindsay Lohan Escapes From Rehab Facility"--are more likely to go viral.

8. Bottle Those Emotions
Tweets about work, religion, money and media/celebrities are more retweetable than those invo

Text Messages Can Be a Powerful Sales Tool!

AdAge.com is out with a great story about Chicago's Shedd Aquarium proving that SMS may be the way to go to get customer response to TV ads! At the end of 30-second spots that aired on Chicago's NBC, ABC, CBS and Fox affiliates, the aquarium announced a contest with prizes that included a hotel stay and VIP seats for the Fantasea premiere. The commercials were identical across the networks except for the calls to action: All the ads directed viewers to a website to register for the contest, except one spot, which gave viewers an additional mobile option to enter the contest by sending a text message to a special code. The SMS call to action generated 325% more entries than the web-based call-to-action, making up 52% of the total entries, though it ran in only 25% of the ads.

Girl Scout Gold Award Day Statewide!

Gov Gregoire gives Gold Awards to over 40 Girl Scouts in Washington state today. She also proclaims today as Girl Scout Gold Award Day!

From Girl Scouts of Western Washington.....Since this is the first year of the event, we’ll be honoring girls who have received their Gold Awards from October 2007 through September 2009. The CEOs and Gold Award recipients from Girl Scouts of Oregon & Southwest Washington and Girl Scouts of Eastern Washington and Northern Idaho will also be in attendance. In our continuing effort to elevate awareness and recognition of the Gold Award in our community, we hope to make this an annual event so stay tuned for details on next year’s celebration!

Congratulations to all our award recipients!

Stay-at-home moms dominate social media!

A new study by the Retail Advertising and Marketing Association reports that mothers with children at home are more likely to use social media than any other average person.

It shows more than 60% of stay-at-home moms are more likely to use Facebook, more than 42% are more likely to use MySpace and nearly 17% are more likely to use Twitter. That's compared to average adults.

Nearly 94% of the moms surveyed said they seek advice before buying products or services and more than 97% said they give advice on products or services purchased.

(c) Birmingham Business Journals

Party with Syndicated Radio Personality Delilah!

This is your chance to meet---and party with---two incredible women --- nationally syndicated radio personality Delilah and best-selling author Debbie Macomber.

If you donate $1,000 to the help fund our new Peninsula Girl Scout Program Center in Bremerton you will receive an invitation to this exclusive event June 25th!

This is an opportunity for you to truly make a difference in the lives of young girls by providing a special place to meet and learn where they will be accepted and grow in a nurturing environment. An opportunity for girls to build character and skills for success in today’s real world. A place where they will develop their leadership skills by working together with other girls and committed adult volunteers; a place where they will build skills of courage, confidence and character to make the world a better place --- skills that will last a lifetime.

Community assistance is crucial to the successful completion of this project.

You may contribute via the Girl Scouts of Western Washington website, or through checks made payable to GSWW-Bremerton Campaign, P.O. Box 900961, Seattle, WA 98109.

Powerful Words to Sell the Customer Experience!

If you want to write copy that persuades people to buy a product or service realize that it's an art and a science. First, no copy will ever make up for not providing a GREAT customer experience. That's most important. But after that, how you message your points can be critical. These words are powerful.

YOU: Don't write about the customer as if she/he is some 3rd party. It's about helping "you."

FREE: If you have something of value you can offer your customers for free, as a sample, as an incentive, etc., FREE carries weight, especially in today's economy. People love FREE stuff.

SECRET: Have a "secret" you can share to your readers/followers? Do it. We love secrets and the word has magic IF you actually can deliver on the word.

GUARANTEE: This is powerful. A guarantee is a great way to convince your customer you stand behind your product or service. But what are you willing to guarantee? Their satisfaction? The product? The quality? Your commitment?

The words are just the start. What matters most is the customer experience.

How to Create Great Tweets & Blog Posts!

If you want people to read your tweets and blog posts you need to think more about your readers as "customers." What kind of "experience" do you want them to have when they read your post? They can range from ho hum blah to a great experience where they want to RT you and forward your blog post.

So what's the secret to great posts?
1. Be interesting or be dead. Nobody wants dull, boring and lackluster.
2. Be relevant Twitter. If you are on Twitter ask yourself if anyone really cares if you are on a boat, having a beer, eating a burger, at a ballgame, etc? If they do, that's great. If they don't, don't tweet it! What do your followers care about? Why are they following you? What do they expect to hear from you? Have you considered asking your followers and turning Twitter into a two-way communication device? Create "community." After all, that's what Groundswell is about.
3. Be relevant Blogs: Post relevant and interesting stories. NEW information people can't get anywhere else.
4. If you write about sites include the links.
5. Tell stories! People love examples through real stories and it helps them remember. The best story telling techniques?

• Use emotion and drama
• Keep it simple
• Keep it interesting

More marketers use social networking to reach customers!

New story in USAToday reporting more marketers are using social media to reach customers.

In April, Ford tapped 100 top bloggers and gave them a Fiesta for six months. The catch: Once a month, they're required to upload a video on YouTube about the car, and they're encouraged to talk — no holds barred — about the Fiesta on their blogs, Facebook and Twitter.

Forrester Research reports a survey of 1,217 business decision makers worldwide late last year found 95% use social networks. And 53% of more than 300 marketers planned to increase social-media marketing spending this year.

More than 300,000 businesses — one-third of them small businesses — have a presence on Facebook. Twitter has about 40 million users who each day produce a staggering amount of tweets.

National pizza chain Papa John's added 148,000 fans on Nov. 17 through a guerrilla marketing campaign on Facebook. It offered a free medium pizza to anyone who signed up to be its fan on Facebook. The promotion gained it thousands of customers and drove its Web traffic up 253%.

Four Out Five Americans Online Visit Social Networks

Just in from MediaPost.com they're report on a new study from Forrester Research showing more than four in five U.S. online adults report using social media at least once a month, while half report participating in social networks like Facebook.The most rapid growth is happening among 35+ consumers.

A Forrester analyst said, "This means the time to build social marketing applications is now."

Nearly one-quarter of U.S. online adults are new "creators" -- people who write blogs, upload original audio or video, or post stories online. " these sites, according to Forrester.

The message --- Social applications are necessary in every marketing plan that targets young adults.

(c) MediaPost.com

Sony Launches DigiDads!

AdAge.com is out with a new story all about Sony's launch of DigiDads, a program all about putting its products into a small group of blogging dads in hopes that they'll play with them and write about them.

According to AdAge.Com, the dads are not getting paid for using the consumer-electronics giant's products and will have to return them when they're done. Unlike with journalists, who often receive products on loan from Sony to review, Sony will put together projects for the blogging dads that they can use the gadgets on.

The bloggers include Michael Sheehan of HighTechDad.com; Max Kalehoff of AttentionMax.com; Brad Powel, one of the dads behind DadLabs.com; C.C.Chapman, whose blogs include DigitalDads.com and CC-Chapman.com; and Jeffrey Sass, who contributes to DadoMatic.com, a blog Mr. Brogan founded.

Sony will be evaluating the campaign based on the exposure it gets, including via Twitter, and in comments and links to the blogs.

One of Sony's biggest goals when it comes to social media according to Marcy Cohen, senior manager of communications at Sony Electronics, is "to engage customers in conversation and share the insights we gain from that with engineers, product developers and designers."

(c) Crain Communications

The Most Important Video You May Ever See!

If you watch just one special video this year and let it resonate, this is the one. It's from Eric Qualman, the author of "Socialnomics," How Social Media Transforms the Way We Live and Do Business." You will instantly see the impact of social media on our culture and the way we communicate.

Watch this video and let the facts speak for themselves!

blinkx Joins YouTube, Hulu, and Yahoo! on Nielsen's Top 10 Video Site!

blinkx, the world's largest video search engine, today announced that it has broken into the top 10 most popular video sites, according to a recent Nielsen VideoCensus report of video usage in the U.S.

blinkx has made more than 530 partners and indexed over 35 million hours of video and audio content to date.

YouTube May be Going Long Form!

YouTube is starting things off by showing the flick Ghostbusters this week to mark the film's 25th anniversary. Is this a preview of what's to come? What's more intriguing about this is that the film is being [piped through Sony's Crackle player, which will be embedded on the site.

David Sarno reports that Sony is currently developing Ghostbusters 3. L.A. Times Hero Complex blogger Geoff Boucher spoke with Dan Aykroyd about the film in May. The showing, which will appear in a 16x9 aspect ratio at "high quality" resolution (as opposed to YouTube's league-leading jumbo HD player) will feature seven or eight in-stream commercials. The revenue will be shared between partners Sony and YouTube, with the studio taking the majority of the proceeds.

Thanks!!

Thanks to all of the friends of Girl Scouts who turned out for the great party at my house last Saturday. Fabulous friends, LIVE band (Ghost Lobby), great guest speaker Amy Nevins, and thanks to all who donated to the girls who can't afford to pay for dues, camp fees and program fees!

To find out how you can make a difference contact me joewb@girlscoutsww.org

Social Media Changing Customer Expectations!

Karlene Lukoviz has it right in Marketing Daily when she says social media is changing customer expectations.

In a new study by the Council and its Customer Experience Board results show "The convergence of new, free or low-cost interactive digital media channels, social networks and online communities and mobile messaging devices are not only empowering consumers to bypass once-dominant services and channels, but establishing content-based relationships with which more traditional players cannot currently compete."

"Expectations for always-on access to content on every device and more personalized on-demand services and experiences are forcing service providers to re-think their operational structures, product portfolios, customer handling systems, and strategic partnerships and investments."

Other highlights include:

• Nearly half (47%) of marketer respondents said that the growth of social networking and user-generated content represent the most significant digital lifestyle shift affecting the communications market.

• The biggest sources of customer dissatisfaction are unmet needs and expectations (59%).

• More than half said their company cultures and structures are not aligned around the customer.

Wake Up and Smell the [Social] Roses!

Twenty percent of colleges now use social networking sites to gather information about applicants. What you write now, what you've written in the past, what you write in the future---no matter where online you write it---is a permanent record and is your reputation.

Nielsen Online shows that social networks and blogs are now the 4th most popular online activity ahead of personal email.

If YouTube were a country, it would be the third most-populated place in the world.

20 hours-worth of video is uploaded to the site every single minute.

150 million people around the world are now actively using Facebook and almost half of them are using Facebook every day. This includes people in every continent—even Antarctica. If Facebook were a country, it would be the eighth most populated in the world, just ahead of Japan, Russia and Nigeria.

LinkedIn has over 36 million members and is adding them at a rate of about one member per second. According to ComScore, it’s gone from about 3.6 million unique monthly visitors a year ago to 7.7 million today, Adage, March 2.

Twitter has come to the centre of the stage in a very short span of time. Its phenomenal success can be estimated from the fact that the proportion of marketers using Twitter as a part of their marketing strategy has grown from 3% to 49%. Dell announced that Twitter had driven sales worth $3 million for the organization within two years. Econsultancy.com

Over the past twelve months, Twitter’s year-on-year growth rate has broken the 1000% barrier. Econsultancy.com

The company holds exact numbers close to their chest, but it's estimated that Twitter currently has between 6 - 10m global users and this is growing rapidly. Econsultancy.com

1,000,000,000,000 (one trillion) - approximate number of unique URLs in Google’s index (source)

684,000,000 – the number of visitors to Wikipedia in the last year

Twitter has become more popular than LinkedIn!

MediaPost.com is reporting results from a recent study by Anderson Analytics showing that Twitter has become more popular than LinkedIn among social network users in the United States. Aside from posting tweets, Twitter users tend to blog frequently. Another interesting finding: those who belong to a social net are four times more vocal about products and services than those who don't. More than 20% have their own blog, many of which are about social causes. Anderson Analytics says these consumers make good evangelists for brands.

Brands Increased Spending on Word-of-Mouth Marketing!

Spending on word-of-mouth marketing rose 14.2% to $1.54 billion in 2008, despite the worst economic recession in 70 years, according to new research from PQ Media (www.pqmedia.com). WoM spending is on pace to grow another 10.2% this year, placing it among the fastest growing advertising and marketing segments.

Industry spending increased as the rise in popularity of blogs, social networks and online communities led brands to shift dollars to WoM as part of integrated media solutions in their quest to engage more elusive consumers.

Consumers Substituting Online TV for Cable

MediaWeek is out with a new story quoting the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project and the findings are fascinating---"Nearly a fifth of Internet users watch video online almost every day. Women are catching up to men in terms of online video usage. And a growing number of recession-conscious Americans claim they are using the Web as a cable TV substitute." According to the report, 19 percent of Internet users surveyed claim they visit video sites in a typical day, up from 8 percent just three years ago.

And while Web video continues to skew young and male, this year’s report found that 59 percent of women visit video sites versus 65 percent of men.

Video Viewing Online is UP!

Great story on MediaPost.com today that's very revealing....

According to new data from the Pew Internet and American Life Project nine in 10 Internet users ages 18-29 use video-sharing sites, up from 72% one year ago. In fact..get this...watching online videos on sites like YouTube is more prevalent than the use of social networking sites. And there's another big finding: Over the past year, the share of online women who visit video-sharing sites has grown substantially--from 46% in 2008 to 59% in the latest survey.

The Secret to Going Viral!

Want to secret to going viral? Produce a creative video that everyone wants to see. Case in point: Jill & Kevin's wedding entrance at a church in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Now viewed as of this posting over 7-million times on YouTube!

New Ways to Market: Go for Twitter & Facebook!

How pervasive is Twitter and Facebook? Back to school pitches have turned to those two channels in some big cases instead of traditional media.

USA Today is out with a great story today....Case in point, the Britney Spears' new back-to-school commercial for Candie's. It wasn't on TV or in theaters or event on the website for the hip seller of footwear and clothing. The spot was on social-networking sites Facebook and BritneySpears.com and promoted by Spears via social network Twitter. Candie's purposefully launched the ad this way in hopes that millions of girls will send it back and forth to each other.

Last year, cutting-edge back-to-school marketing for the pop culture-driven brand was all about luring young girls to the Candies.com website. This year, back-to-school marketing is all about driving discussion in online social-media "communities."

How To Help Kids Be Safe on the Internet!

Girl Scouts of Western Washington has joined the national partnership between Girl Scouts of the USA and Microsoft Windows, called LMK (“let me know”) – an online safety resource where girls are the technology experts on subjects that are often best discussed at a teen-to-teen level, like cyberbullying, predators and social networking.

This girl-led campaign allows girls to share their online concerns with peer "tech-perts" about the issues that affect them while raising awareness about how to help keep girls (ages 13–17) safe while surfing the Web. Additionally, parents have access to a site specifically geared to their needs, equipping them with the tools necessary to understand and act on the rapidly changing world of online safety.

Have your daughter sign the Internet Safety Pledge:

Internet Safety Pledge

Traveling through cyberspace can be fun, but like any trip you take you have to "Be Prepared" for unforeseen things. So, read this before you go any further. Then print this page out and discuss it with your parent or guardian.

• I will not give out personal information such as my address, telephone number, parents'/guardians' work address/telephone number, or the name and location of my school without my parents'/guardians' permission.
  
• I will tell an adult right away if I come across any information that makes me feel uncomfortable.
  
• I will never agree to get together with someone I "meet" online without first checking with my parents/guardians. If my parents/guardians agree to the meeting, I will be sure that it is in a public place and bring my parent or guardian along.
  
• I will never send a person my picture or anything else without first checking with my parents/guardians.
  
• I will not respond to any messages that are mean or in any way make me feel uncomfortable. It is not my fault if I get a message like that. If I do I will tell my parents/guardians right away so that they can contact the online service.
  
• I will talk with my parents/guardians so that we can set up rules for going online. We will decide upon the time of day that I can be online, the length of time I can be online, and appropriate areas for me to visit. I will not access other areas or break these rules without their permission.

Girl Name __________________________________ Date __________________

Parent/Guardian __________________________________ Date __________________

Source: National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.

Why Seth Godin's Blog is So Successful!

Josh Bernoff, the author of Groundswell, has some interesting thoughts about why Seth Godin's blog is so successful...and there are some lessons to be learned.

"At least once a day, every day, there's a little homily on marketing, or brands, or quality, or something else that makes you say "hmmm" or "that's right" or even "that's wrong" -- but something that's worth your time."

Josh goes on to write the following in AdAge.com about what Seth told him:

I've carefully curated a voice in my head that blogs in a way that appears to resonate with people. I'm guessing (though I have no talent) it's a lot like curating a sound on the saxophone. Training helps, listening to records helps, but mostly you blow a lot until you resonate and then repeat, prune, experiment, prune, repeat, prune until a groove occurs.

One reason I encourage people to blog is that the act of doing it stretches your available vocabulary and hones a new voice. You won't get it for a while, but you'll get it.

I write at least one a day. I queue up the extras, and replace ones I don't love with a new one. This discipline does two things... first, it treats each post as a precious opportunity (which it is) and second, it cajoles me into overcoming whatever little voice in the back of my head says "nahhhh."

When News Goes Too Far!

As most of you know I spent many years in local television news seeing the good, the bad and the ugly. Well now I've seen it all. A reporter in Las Vegas, upset with someone bothering him during a live report, appears to slap the person. You judge for yourself then let me know your thoughts.

What Makes a Great Iconic Brand?

Carla Stratfold has some answers in her post on Mediapost.com.

The reality is, brands don't become iconic by chance. Achieving this status takes careful planning and execution. If you're looking to build the next iconic brand keep in mind the following:

1. Establish brand trust. Most iconic brands have established trust not only with customers, but also with employees, partners and others.

2. Power your brand at all intersections. Iconic brands relay a powerful image and message at all touch points - billboards, ads, and tradeshow booths as well as customer service agents.

3. Create customer relevance. A successful brand connects with its customers in a meaningful way.

4. Infuse your brand with custom photography. Smart companies also invest in digital assets they can repurpose across all channels of advertising - TV commercials, print ads, and in the social media world.

5. Share customer stories. These stories bring meaning and reality to the messages organizations communicate about their brand.

The Power of Product & Service Reviews!

AdAge.com is out with a new story that has great merit. It's about the power of product and service reviews that every marketer should take a second look at---and nurture.

What to do?

1. Embrace the reviews. LISTEN. You will find more information from these customers than anywhere else.

2. Share the information. Make sure people throughout the organization get it.

3. Use the testimonials to your advantage.

4. Respond! Make it a two-way conversation,

AdAge.com mentions that Crate & Barrel kids-furniture subsidiary Land of Nod reissued a $400 activity table with a more-durable wood when consumers complained it was too soft and showed punctures and dents from normal kid use.

Attention Ladies in Puget Sound!

Girlfriends Weekend

Be a Pampered Camper!

Attention ladies in the Puget Sound area. You are invited to join us for a very special fundraiser at Camp River Ranch in Carnation in September. We hope to see you there!

September 12-13, 2009 Camp River Ranch, Carnation WA

Girlfriends Weekend is an exceptionally unique and exciting event offered by Girl Scouts of Western Washington. It is a weekend getaway at beautiful Camp River Ranch for all women who need to escape from life's stresses and reconnect with the youthful spirit that is inspired and empowered by Girl Scout camp. Your attendance at Girlfriends Weekend helps us provide leadership opportunities for more than 26,000 girls in Western Washington.

Join us for a fun-filled weekend at Camp River Ranch without men, kids or work! Relax, rejuvenate, pamper and let loose at camp!

• Bring your friends and make new ones!
• Eat decadent food prepared by a well known caterer, sample wine and don't clean up after!
• Sing along at a campfire you won’t soon forget!
• Feel pampered with massages, workshops and sunrise yoga!
• Energize with activities that include canoeing, kayaking, nature hikes and crafts!
• Or choose to do nothing but sleep late and read while enjoying the fresh air!

Our keynote speaker Saturday night will be NPR commentator and author Deb Jarvis of Seattle. Deb's book, "It's Not About The Hair," is a humorous and inspiring account of her journey through surviving breast cancer. Her talk will leave you laughing, crying and inspired like never before.

Sponsorship Opportunities

Promote your business to community-minded women and enhance your brand image by aligning with the well-known and trusted brand of Girl Scouts. Gain recognition among over 26,000 Girl Scout families and the weekend participants. Most importantly, support Girl Scout programs that prepare girls to lead with courage, confidence and character as they take action to make the world a better place. Learn more about sponsorship opportunities by calling 206/226-5679.

Reservations

Individual tickets for the weekend are $350. “Buddies” (2 women) can register together for $500. An outdoor cabin for four women can be reserved for $1000 and an indoor -unit (heated) unit for 12 women is $3000. To make a reservation or find out more, call 206/226-5679.

The facilities range from rustic camping in old-West style wagons to heated troop houses with electricity. Participants can choose their preferred accommodations. Our beautiful lodge overlooking Lake Langlois will serve as the dining hall.

The NEW Power of Moms!

Good post recently by Lolita Carrico on MediaPost's Engage Moms about the power of moms...and every marketer should read this one.

According to a recent eMarketer report, 50% of moms find online reviews from "others like me" to be a valuable source of information.

So, how do marketers get involved in effective sampling and word of mouth campaigns? Some pointers:

1. Target the recipients of your product
2. Look for a partner with an engaged community
3. Continue to engage with your influencers

Word of mouth strategies are effective on many levels. The key is to be authentic in your outreach and expect authentic feedback in return.

(c) MediaPost.com

Real Friends More Valuable Than Bloggers!

eMarketer is out with a story reporting on a Mintel study on Internet buying. Thirty-four percent of US Internet users who bought a product or service based on a recommendation got that tip from a friend or relative, while one-quarter bought based on advice from a spouse or domestic partner. Lower on the list were bloggers and chat rooms.

The most common reason that Internet users recommended a product or service was price, followed by quality and convenience.

Seattle University Course: Word of Mouth Marketing!

I'll be teaching an innovative graduate level course this summer at Seattle University, Marketing 591-02 "Word of Mouth Marketing." I say innovative because very few colleges and universities across the country have stepped up to the plate in this arena.

The key speaker will be Sean O'Driscoll of Microsoft fame, who now heads up Ants Eye View. The course is based on Andy Serovitz's book Word of Mouth Marketing.

Market at the Mall to Reach Teens!

According to a recent Scarborough study if you want to reach teens, advertise at the mall. Almost 95% of teen mall shoppers see some type of mall ads and 68% of them spend two hours or more at a mall. What works? Posters, hanging banners and TV/video screens and interactive displays/kiosks.

Read the story here.

How to Turn High-Profile Employees Into Brand Ambassadors

Kaplan Mobray has a great article in the latest edition of AdAge.com. Here are the highlights:

To stand out forward-thinking Fortune 500 companies are trying a new tack: They're tapping into the personal brands of their most inspiring public executives. Motivational speakers at companies such as Deloitte, Nike and Pitney Bowes have become their company's most coveted brand ambassadors.

Personal brands can bring to life an organization's culture as no print or digital image can. Bottom line: There's a new and largely untapped resource within corporate walls that can help companies build brand equity, and it's your employees -- specifically those employees with individual personal brands.

Consumers increasingly base their feelings about a company on what they know about its people, rather than what an ad agency's creative team can portray.

Hiring employees who have established personal brands will help companies immediately inherit value and relevance in a crowded market and may lead to quicker results in meeting growth objectives.

It's those employees and their speaking engagements and other ways of reaching out that can help make corporate brands real, trusted and relevant in the minds of prospective recruits and customers.

Promote from the inside out. The company e-mail newsletter or intranet is an effective way to find interesting facts about the people who sit right next to you. Use these vehicles to promote employees' outside interests and accolades, creating tons of internal buzz that will have your company's brand soaring and your people proud to wear your logo.

Tweet your people right. Social-networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook are powerful tools through which companies can discover and promote their personal brands.

© Crain Communications

It's Not About the Tweet, It's About the Relationship!!

Yes, you heard me right. If you're using Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, blogs and all the rest of them, I applaud you. You know the tools and you are using them. But the key issue is what are you doing with the? If you just Tweet and tell the world what flight you took or what the commute is like or that you just had dinner with your friends---who cares? Twitter and all of these social media tools are about building communities. They are tools to build relationships.

If you tweet from a company account do you try to solicit comments from your customers? Twitter is a great two-way communications tool IF you ask questions. Are you just posting comments or are you creating a two-way dialogue with your tools?

Whether you are a non-profit trying to build a relationship with donors or a corporation trying to build a relationship with customers --- use social media tools for relationships.

How to Reach Moms!

Maria Bailey is CEO of BSM Media and author of "Marketing to Moms," is out with a new blog post and it has some important insights about how marketers should strategically think about messaging to mothers.

Her point is that, while moms who blog are powerful, if you want to successfully reach them it requires "an integrated approach of delivering relevant messages through multiple channels of communication." Bailey says, "Marketers solely focusing their efforts on mom bloggers not only execute a partial marketing plan, but also miss two-thirds of the overall U.S. mom market."

She cites some numbers that are impressive:

* According to BSM Media research, 90% of mothers have watched an online video in the past week.
* Moms love to socialize and share. In-home parties or mom mixers are a great way to put your brand in the conversation. 80% of the moms who attend will tell three to five other moms about the sponsor brand.
* There is no other communication medium that keeps up with the pace of mothers better than radio. Moms spend up to 75 minutes a day in their cars with radio.

PEMCO'S Latest Northwest Profile!

In case you missed it PEMCO is at it again. That innovative and creative team led by CMO Rod Brooks has come up with another creative Northwest Profiles spot that's definitely uniquely "Northwest." KING-TV's Evening Magazine profiled a "behind-the-scenes" look at how the commercials are made---then came the world premier of the new commercial.

Reaching Moms Through Schools

Great story today from MediaPost about how to reach moms. Here are some highlights:

Through-school marketing program directed to moms you have one of the most effective ways to build brand awareness and purchase intent for products.

A through-school marketing program cuts through the clutter in the competitive marketing-to-moms space by putting a brand's message directly in front them.

Relevant and receptive environment - Moms at school, or engaged in school-related activities, are in "full mommy mode" - making them particularly receptive to brand messages that speak to their challenges as a busy mom and offer solutions that will help them make their families more successful.

Tips for Executing a Successful Through-School Marketing Program

Plan ahead
It's important to know what a typical school's event planning cycle is for the year. t come August.

Make it relevant to moms
Make sure your program is relevant to moms in the context of the school environment otherwise you might lose the brand goodwill that you hoped to garner by sponsoring a school program.

Give schools a real reason for doing it
The last thing you want to happen is for your program to come across as blatant marketing with no real benefit to the school. Make sure your offer has value to the school and that your key connection in the school (the person or group who will execute the program) can clearly see how the school and the school families benefit from running your program.

State Farm Backs "MommyCast"

MediaPost reports that State Farm is looking to deepen its connection with moms and they've decided the way to do that is by sponsoring a series of videos of the popular podcast MommyCast.

The videos, which will available on a State Farm and MommyCast co-branded channel on YouTube (www.youtube.com/beingthere4family) will focus on topics such as college planning, home buying, insurance and home safety. In the first video, the two moms speak with former Washington Redskin (and current real estate expert) David Harbour about investigating a neighborhood, schools and crime when researching a prospective new home.


(c) MediaPost and Crain Communications

Twitter Proves Worthwhile as Killer App for Local Businesses

Story in adage.com is worth noting....in a recent Twitter promotion brought in 150% of a recent day's business for Naked Pizza in New Orleans, a company hoping to go national.

Adage.com reports, "Berry Chill, a yogurt shop with three Chicago locations, has been using Twitter to send out "Sweet Tweets" -- promos that require users to show they're Twitter followers of the store. In a month, they've logged 700 followers. The last big promotion gave away 1,100 yogurts with sales the same as the day before."

Suggestions:

Don't blast promotions incessantly. Intersperse them with other nuggets of wisdom or news related to your products and industry or neighborhood.

Twitter's immediacy is its biggest strength -- so use it to pump up business during lulls or discount last-minute unsold goods.

© Crain Communications

Paid Search + Display Ads = Success

There's a new study from iProspect that has some revealing findings on paid search. It's reported in mediapost.com.

Here's what MediaPost reports:

The findings suggest that while 31% of people click on display ads, nearly as many -- 27% -- go to search engines to provide a search. More than 20% type the company Web address into their browser and directly navigate to the Web site, and 9% respond by investigating the product, brand, or company through social media.

Robert Murray, CEO at iProspect, Boston, says, "Display isn't dead, but just as many people will perform a search, and you had better have an integrated paid search campaign."

Tapping into a competitor's display campaign, marketers can run paid search ads based on keywords and messaging. Marketers should keep in mind all conversions and clicks the display ad will drive to competitors' sites if they invest in display and not integrate a paid search campaign.

The survey found that of the 52% of Internet users who respond to an online display ad, 48% are familiar with the display ad offering or company but do not purchase the product.

Meet radio's Delilah & author Debbie Macomber Friday

Here's a great opportunity to make a difference and meet two celebrities! This Friday meet nationally syndicated radio personality Delilah (left) and Debbie Macomber (right), the author of over 100 books that have sold over 100-million copies!

The event will be the Peninsula Leadership Luncheon hosted by Girl Scouts of Western Washington. It's happening Friday, May 8th in Bremerton. All proceeds from this event will go to the Peninsula Girl Scout Program Center. Suggested donation is $85. The first $125 of your gift of $125 or more will be matched by the Girl Scouts of Western Washington Challenge Fund. To register go to: http://www.girlscoutsww.org/node/1926

How Personality Can Predict Media Usage

Great story from AdAge.com reporting on data from psychographic-research company Mindset Media. The findings---"personality is often a more effective prediction tool for media usage than age, gender and income."

Here are some highlights:

* People who have a lot of "bravado" -- who prefer to leap before they look -- are 50% more likely than the average person to be heavy consumers of all media.
* Those who chafe at rules and may be sarcastic are 60% more likely than the average person to be high consumers of all media.

According to study findings the Internet is almost more of a mass medium than TV.


© Crain Communications

Women Are Connecting Online For Shopping Research!

According to the 2009 Women and Social Media Study from iVillage, BlogHer and Compass Partners, women are connecting like never before with online communities to do their shopping research and share information. (c) MediaPost.com

• 64% of the online women polled are posting product recommendations to message boards and articles online.
• 79% of women in the iVillage Community are doing so.
• 77% of women polled say these community recommendations impact their purchase decisions.

How One School Makes A Difference With Social Media!

Take the case of Ted Holmes, Director of Admissions and Marketing at Meridian School in Seattle. Here's his story:

For many parents, getting kids to talk about what they did in school is much like pulling teeth.

“You ask them what happened in school, and they reply, ‘oh, nothing,’” said Ted Holmes, a parent and elementary school administrator. “It’s a lot like being in a black hole.”

So Holmes, who is Director of Admissions and Marketing for Meridian School, came up with a novel idea. Give parents a window into the classroom using Twitter, the popular instant messaging site.

Over the past few weeks, teachers at the independent K-5 school in Seattle’s Wallingford District have set up Twitter accounts and are sending periodic tweets from their classrooms. Tweets are meant to be short, 140 character answers to the question: “What are you doing?”

Parents can elect to receive tweets on their cell phones. At the end of the day, the short messages from the classroom can be “a conversation starter” between parents and kids, according to Holmes.

On a recent school day, Kindergarten teacher Julie Hannan tweeted about the day’s lessons. “Today we are scientists. We looked at soil, flowers, and planted seeds.”

Another teacher described the rules of a game called “Crocodile,” which had been invented on the playground that day by Kindergarten boys.

First grade teacher Eilene Glasgow wrote: “We had a fun hour learning a folk dance.”

Paul Fadoul, a second grade teacher, posed this question on a recent dispatch: “Do you know the difference between a planet's rotation and revolution? Ask your second grader!”

The school elected to use Twitter over other social networking sites because Twitter is fast and easy to use, and because the messages by definition have to be short. Teachers already have a lot on their plates, and the school did not want the new assignment to create an additional burden. Not all teachers and parents were eager to embrace the technology. A lot of older parents in particular “didn’t see the point,” Holmes said.

But now that the school’s Twitter accounts are up and running, “it’s interesting to see how many people are eager to get on,” said Holmes.

The school regards its move to Twitter as something of an experiment. Twitter may be all the rage today, but it’s not necessarily the perfect solution to the needs of teachers and families. The only way to really know is to try it.

In general, elementary schools have not been quick to embrace social media, according to Holmes, and that may be a mistake.

“The people who have young, school age kids today are becoming more interested in communicating through social media,” said Holmes. “We want to show that we are not being left behind.”

About Meridian School

The Meridian School is a independent K-5 elementary school in Seattle’s Wallingford We are accredited by the Pacific Northwest Association of Independent Schools and a member of the National Association of Independent Schools. neighborhood with a total of 186 students.

The Meridian School
4649 Sunnyside Ave. N., Seattle, WA 98116, 206-632-7154
www.meridianschool.edu

Social Media is the New TV at Century 21!

From AdAge.com comes this story....Since pulling all its national TV spending in January, Century 21 Real Estate has been making digital the focus of its marketing efforts in a bid to make lead generation more efficient. This week, the company is venturing into the next phase of its digital transition via online radio, social networking and Twitter.

For the past month, the company has been using a new online radio show, a co-production with BlogTalkRadio called "C21 Talk Radio," to brand the conversation around the housing market.

Alan Levy, president and co-founder of BlogTalkRadio, said more brands are tapping into social-media platforms such as online radio because of their ability to create a long-form dialogue. Of course, Century 21 isn't turning a blind eye to Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, all of which are part of the company's new C21 Communities social-media platform. Century 21 is hosting its first Tweetup today, in San Francisco, under the Twitter tag @c21sftu.

Century 21's online 'Mother-in-Law' campaign logged more than 32 million impressions in two and a half months.

© Crain Communications

The True Power of Social Media

Great post by Kristi Faulkner, president of Womenkind, an integrated marketing communications company in New York in MediaPost.com. She tells the story of a message that appeared on Twitter April 8: "Heather and Mike need your help."

Their daughter, Madeline, passed away from respiratory syncytial virus, complicated by her premature birth just 17 months earlier. The entire tragedy played out, in real time, on Twitter.

It began with a simple "Maddie has a cough" on April 5. It was an innocuous tweet squeezed between "Seth Rogen, come here" and "Those are sweet bangs ... I once had bangs." For the next two days, thousands of concerned moms were re-tweeting Heather's updates from the hospital and finally the sad news of Maddie's death.

Let there be no more doubt that the on-line community is, in fact, a community in the truest, human sense. Social media is the uber-gathering space -- better than a beauty shop, supermarket, diner, church, pub, firehouse, school, and town square rolled into one. The scale of Facebook or Twitter is global. Yet, when a human story touches our hearts, we react as intently as we would to a crisis in our own neighborhood.

Heather Spohr's 3,500 Twitter followers instantly activated an outpouring of support from around the world. Almost 700 people expressed condolences on her blog. More than 400 bloggers paid tribute to Maddie on their own sites, and thousands of people donated as little as a dollar towards funeral expenses through a PayPal account set up by a sympathetic follower. In just two days, more than $30,000 was donated to the March of Dimes in honor of Maddie, and 35 teams were formed to walk in the charity's annual drives. Most of these people never even met little Maddie Spohr.

As marketers, we seek to quantify the power and penetration of nascent social platforms. What percentage of the target audience is engaged in Twitter? How many women 34-55 are on Facebook? How many eyeballs does this blog get compared to that one? And for heaven sakes, what's our ROI?

Social media has turned a faceless audience back into individuals, and restored the emotional connectedness of which one-way media robbed us. It doesn't feel odd to think of our Twitter followers as neighbors. We know them, we see them around. Sometimes we chat, sometimes not. But when a girlfriend is in need, we are there. In mass.

Marketers take note: Emotion sells. Especially to women.

(c) MediaPost.com

How to Get the Most Out of Social Networks

Emma Hall has an interesting article in AdAge.com about how to get social media engagement without annoying your users. Here are some highlights.

• Nearly a third of social networkers say they are fed up with the constant requests to join groups and try new applications, according to research by the Internet Advertising Bureau in the U.K.
  
• Marketers will need to work harder and keep innovating if they want to harness the consumer power of social networks and persuade people to join their sponsored sites or pages.
• 31% said there are too many invites to install applications.
• 16% said they dislike social network sites "when advertising isn't relevant to me."
  

The IAB research found that exclusive content, which appeals to 28% of social networkers, and a genuine interest in the message, which attracts 37%, are the keys to a positive response from consumers on social networks.

More People Worldwide Watch More Channels on More Devices

MediaPost.com is reporting on findings from the Accenture second annual Global Broadcast Consumer Survey and the results are quite revealing.....

• TV viewing has grown since last TV channels vs. 35% in 2008.
• 39% watch eight or more TV programs per week vs. 33% last year.
• Respondents who said they would also enjoy viewing content on other devices increased over the last year.
• There were 13-point increases in the number who would watch content on personal
  

David Wolf, a senior executive with Accenture's Media & Entertainment practice, concludes that "Consumers are making choices based on what they've tried, liked and rejected and are now selecting content and its delivery platforms... the modes of consumption that provide an alternative to the traditional TV experience are becoming part of everyday life... "

Despite more alternatives like the Internet and on-screen program guides, 40% of consumers use commercials to find content they would like to watch, 33% channel surf, 30% look to recommendations from friends and family, and 28% to TV listings.

(c) MediaPost.com

The Future of the Social Web

Great report by Jeremiah Owyang on The Future of the Social Web. Here's a highlight from MediaPost:

Transforming the world of online media and marketing, technologies that enable a portable identity will soon allow consumers to bring their identities with them across the Web, according to a deep-dive study on the future of social media from Forrester Research.

What's more, IDs are just the beginning of this transformation, in which the Web will evolve step-by-step from separate social sites into a shared social experience, according to the report's key author, Forrester analyst Jeremiah Owyang.

"Consumers will rely on their peers as they make online decisions, whether or not brands choose to participate," Owyang explains in the report. "Socially connected consumers will strengthen communities and shift power away from brands and CRM systems ... eventually this will result in empowered communities defining the next generation of products."

Brands anxious to exploit the flurry of social activity presently face one key challenge: social information about people, their profiles, and their friends is locked up in separate networks.

But, according to Forrester, the social web is about to evolve from a few social network sites into a consistent backdrop for every online activity. Portable social IDs and the changes they enable will transform how consumers, brands, and social networks interact, according to Owyang.

In the next stage of social evolution, starting later in 2009, technologies like OpenID and Facebook Connect will let individuals traverse the Internet with their social connections along for the ride.

(c) MediaPost
(c) Forrester

How To Save The Newspaper Industry

Kudos to Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia founder for prompting a big discussion about consumer generated media and the future of newspapers. He had a few words to offer newspaper and media companies and he pointed to the Wikipedia business model.

During the opening keynote remarks at the ad:tech 2009 San Francisco, Wales told attendees that newspapers and traditional media companies cannot compete alone in online media.

"I think newspapers should try and invite the community in and take over sports journalism. Avid sport fans write tons of content and there are people who would pay money to have the job of a Sports Illustrated reporter. Many newspapers are transitioning from print to online and incorporate online video, but not many are taking advantage of user-generated content. The industry is in its infancy.

"When I look at consumer-generated video like YouTube, it feels a lot like text did in 1999," Wales said. "It's a lot of individuals posting things they made themselves."

(C) MediaPost

Listen, Build Relationships and Empower

Here's to Manila Austin who has a good commentary in MediaPost about what works and what doesn't in branding. Here are some excerpts...

Millions of marketing dollars are spent trying to understand and predict consumer behavior. Rather than predicting a consumer's next move, marketers should focus on forming meaningful brand relationships by listening to and actively engaging consumers.

No two consumers are exactly alike is a given in marketing. Consumers may represent themselves one way in the LinkedIn business network, and another on Facebook with friends.

Marketers need to listen. Listening is critical for a more meaningful relationship between brands and consumers. Before this happens, however, brands must embrace today's cultural shift toward more open and adaptive communications across the social Web.

Marketers need new strategies and approaches that are built around continuous and programmatic listening.

If you want to understand, engage and sustain, you'll need to embrace three tenets of new consumerism: listening, relationship-building and empowerment.

Marketers too often confuse willingness to buy as evidence of a relationship; it's not. Brands must earn the right to have meaningful relationships with their consumers.

Effective listening must be done with sensitivity to nuances and with a finely tuned ear for discovering unexpected insights. One way to effectively listen to customers is through private online communities where brands can begin to understand how customers negotiate changes in their lives.

Empowerment is the final misunderstood tenet of new consumerism. When you master listening and build a relationship with a consumer, you owe them something in return. And, contrary to conventional wisdom, what they want isn't coupons or free stuff; they want to impact your brand. That's real empowerment for today's consumer.

In the end, consumers are most engaged when they realize a brand -- perhaps yours -- is actively helping them negotiate the changes in their complex lives, from how and where they communicate to what they consume.

Twitter Doubles Traffic!

Thanks to celebrities and Oprah, Twitter.com traffic went from 367 million to over 420 million for the week in terms of pageviews. Meanwhile, unique views went from just over 8 million, to over 10 million. The pageviews on Twitter’s signup page alone went up over by over a million for the week.

Fisher Joins Interactive TV Ad Platform

MediaPost is reporting that Fisher Communications (Northwest) will use an interactive TV ad platform that bounces viewers from TV to the Web. With the technology, viewers who are intrigued by an ad can use their remote control to click an icon -- which prompts additional content related to the spot to be sent to a personal Web site.

That supplemental information -- which can detail special offers or longer-form content -- can then be accessed on-demand.

The TV-to-Internet service is known as Clickable TV and comes from Boston-based Backchannelmedia. Station groups Gray Television and LIN TV are among those that have agreements with the company.

Internet Safety

There's a great social media campaign being waged by Girl Scouts of Western Washington (yes I do work for the organization!). It's called "Let Me Know" and it's about internet safety. It's being done in conjunction with Microsoft Windows and Girl Scouts of the USA. Today's posting features a PSA by a 12th grader "Ebony" who offers her own advice to other girls.

How to be Interesting Online!

Great tips from Jonathan Morrow on copyblogger.com about "How to be Interesting Online." Here are some of his highlights...

1) Be wrong: We long for someone that is willing to do the wrong thing, say the wrong thing, be the wrong thing. If you have the courage to be that person, you’ll find lots of people paying attention to you.

2) Be right: You can also gain attention by being right… but only if you’re more right than everyone else.

3) Communicate what others can’t: As writers, we take ideas from our heads and put them on the page. Sometimes we forget how difficult that is for some people and how valuable that makes us.

4) Do something: Everybody online is trying to say something important, but very few are trying to do something important. If you want attention, dare not to just give advice to others, but to live that advice yourself. Then blog about it.

5) Surprise people: Chip and Dan Heath, authors of Made to Stick, say that one of the best ways to set yourself apart is to break people’s “guessing machines.” Take a surprising position, making outlandish analogy, or otherwise do the opposite of what you normally do.

6) Make people laugh

7) Offer them an aspirin: Some of the best blog posts ever written are simple as an aspirin. Your reader has a headache, you have a cure, so you offer them that cure in the form of a blog post. They pay attention.

Twitter gets the magic touch from Oprah

MSNBC....Officially named “King of Twitter” by Oprah Winfrey, Ashton Kutcher ( @aplusk @aplusk on Twitter) accepted his crown last week when he beat CNN in the race to be the first with 1 million Twitter followers.

Meantime the audience cheered as Oprah wrote her first "tweet"during a taping of her television talk show. Winfrey got messages from George Stephanopoulos, Ellen DeGeneres, Jimmy Fallon and Shaquille O’Neal. According to Twitter, Winfrey already has 75,000 followers.

Bloggers Love Costco

Great story in MediaPost about why wholesale giant Costco receives the best coverage from bloggers. And get this....Walmart, Sears and Macy's don't! Walmart received the largest number of negative blog posts in the industry, and many of these posts were highly critical, calling Walmart "evil."

In the blogosphere, wholesale and club stores receive the most favorable coverage among retailers, while traditional department stores and mass merchandisers trail far

Life Is A Twitter About Social Media

Here's an interesting story from NBC Nightly News about this week's social media "news," including the Domino's pizza story, Oprah joins Twitter, the sudden singing star who gets millions of views on YouTube. Notice the power of social media and how it can be used as a PR tool.

Google Will Place Ads in Online TV Programs

MediaPost is reporting that "Google TV Ads Online," will use the same Google TV Ads bidding platform to plan, buy, and measure ads placed in the advertising breaks of traditional TV shows that are watched online.

Google says it's also revamping YouTube to incorporate more full-length episodes of traditional TV shows and movies, and that advertising inventory for that content will also be accessible via the Google TV Ads Online buying platform.

A Warning for Bloggers---The FTC May Be Reading!

Yes it's true. If the Federal Trade Commission follows through with its proposed plan to start regulating viral marketing and blogs you may have to start thinking twice about blogging! This is NOT the tweet smell of success! Michael Bush writes about it in AdAge.com.

"As part of its review of its advertising guidelines, the FTC is proposing that word-of-mouth marketers and bloggers, as well as people on social-media sites such as Facebook, be held liable for any false statements they make about a product they're promoting, along with the product's marketer."

The FTC guidelines apply only to bloggers and others compensated to promote or review a product. There are no legal implications for social-media sites such as Facebook or marketer sites such as Amazon, where consumers often post product reviews. Before FTC commissioners vote on the revisions this summer, they will review all the public comments.

Important Lessons Continue from Barack Obama

The election is over but the social marketing continues and there are some important lessons to be learned. Michael Bush has a great article in AdAge.Com
about the team behind President Barack Obama.

"The election's long over, yet the e-mails keep coming in. Those who signed up to support Barack Obama during last year's campaign are discovering that they've become part of the "permanent campaign." During the presidential campaign, President Barack Obama amassed a database of 13 million people. Turns out the database has continued to be one of his biggest assets, and the "permanent campaign." Emails go out to these people, many signed by the president himself, including the ones recently seeking support for his proposed budget, which included the phone numbers of the recipient's local congressional representatives."

"The effort also serves as a case study and reminder that e-mail can still be used as an effective relationship builder. Joe Rospars, the man who drove the campaign's new-media effort, said few people have opted out of getting the e-mails because the relationships they built with the president and other supporters didn't end on Election Day. "They are demanding to play a role in the process in Washington and in their communities," he said"

"Thom Kennon, VP digital strategy at Wunderman, said this is the best example of how to effectively use the somewhat lost art of e-mail. "When you gain an immense amount of very well-targeted scale and put that message in the hands of people who are very inclined to share that message with other like-minded people, all of a sudden your advertising and marketing gets an immense amount of efficiency and scale that you otherwise wouldn't have," Mr. Kennon said."

ROI May Be Measurable in Facebook & MySpace

Jack Neff is out with a story in AdAge.com proclaiming that ROI may be measurable in Facebook and MySpace afterall. Here's the theory----

"MySpace teamed with ComScore, which uses a panel of more than 1 million people in the U.S. to track internet usage, and Dunnhumby, which runs loyalty programs for supermarket retailers and has access to loyalty-card purchase data from 59 million people in the U.S. The two panels include 60,000 people who are part of both databases, creating a single-source database that allows a definitive look at how internet ads affect offline purchases."

"One of the first studies was for an unnamed personal-care brand that ran a $1 million campaign on MySpace last year, including a contest in which members submitted videos of themselves and friends for others in the network to vote on. The program also included online couponing."

"By the measure that matters most, sales, the campaign appeared to pay off nicely. It produced $1.28 million in offline sales, as measured by Dunnhumby, which compared purchases among shoppers not exposed to the campaign with purchases among those who were. That amounted to a 28% return on investment, not counting returns from repeat sales among consumers the brand won via the campaign."

Women Over 55 Flocking to Facebook!

Story on CNN today highlights the incredible changes in social media. "While online social networks like Facebook, Twitter and MySpace are known hang-outs for younger adults and teenagers, older generations in recent months have been taking to the medium at a faster rate than any other age group, according to industry reports."

The highlights:

• Women older than 55 make up the fastest-growing age group on Facebook
  
• Expert says the site has hit a "tipping point," causing older people to join
  
• Some older family members use the site to get in touch with younger generations
  
• One mother says Facebook has become her family's "living room"

Twitter Helps Improve Customer Relations!

MediaPost.com is out with a new story about Communications International launching a Twitter page to improve customer relations. Seven company reps take turns monitoring @TalkToQwest around the clock in a quest to provide prospective and existing clients one-on-one near real-time support. According to the article, "Qwest hopes @TalkToQwest will help reps resolve issues on high-speed Internet, billing, pricing, technical support, and more."

This really shows how Twitter has become more than a media relations tool or a way to keep friends updated. Twitter is a way to connect with customers.

Earned vs Paid Media--The Future?

Interesting article in AdAge.com quoting Fred Williams, partner with with Union Square Ventures. He says earned media is THE future and it has huge implications.

"There are still a lot of marketers out there buying their media when they could earn it, and earn it a lot less expensively," he said at the Ad Age's Digital Conference in New York.

While overall spending on marketing may go up, traditional-media outlays are declining, and spending is growing on the creative and technology necessary to implement social campaigns on Facebook, Twitter and MySpace. Agencies have to find a way to continue to make money in this

What do earned-media campaigns look like? A lot like Burger King's "Whopper Sacrifice" effort on Facebook, which resulted in 234,000 "killed" friendships; like Disney's building a following for the Jonas Brothers online and not on the radio; or like the gourmands behind the Kogi BBQ trucks in Los Angeles, which have 14,000 Twitter followers who are alerted when the Korean taco truck is in the neighborhood.

Read about it here.

What? An Earth-Shattering 3 Ads Per Page?????

MediaPost is out with a new story about Facebook's move to put 3 ads on a page. As you may have heard FB has begun testing right-hand side ad space that shows up to five banner ads, more than the normal three ads per page on FB.

This move could help Facebook generate more ad revenue per page, but the move also runs the risk of alienating users who are already unsettled by the social network's latest redesign.

Read about it here.

Why You Want To Embrace Change

Getting Your Online Video to go Viral!

Matt Cutler writes in AdAge that he thinks he has the magic formula. It's not quite that simple but he does have some good ideas. The key seems to be the magic "one million" number---hit that and you're a success. "T-Mobile: Dance" and "Guitar Hero: Bike Hero" have done it.

Seed smartly. So put it where you're most likely to find the right demographic.

Think deep, not wide. Successful campaigns don't distribute their clips to 50 networks at once. Just because you upload it to a site doesn't mean everyone will see it; instead select 3 to 5, buy media to support it, reach out to targeted press and users and aim to climb that "most watched" list at a handful of sites.

Don't spell it all out. From a creative standpoint, you want to leave room for interpretation. Look at Microsoft's Jerry Seinfeld- and Bill Gates-starring "I'm a PC" campaign or Cadbury's "Gorilla" ad. Successful online videos keep people guessing.

Read the full story here.

35+ on Facebook Jumps!

Don’t look now, but the number of Americans over 35 on Facebook is growing fast. In the last 60 days alone, the number of people over 35 has nearly doubled. The biggest growth came among users 35-44. And get this: there are more Facebook users 26-44 than 18-25 today.

Read the story here.

Personal: A Desperate Need---Can You Help?

Girl Scouts of Western Washington desperately needs a pickup truck for camps. The current one has holes in the floor and the driver sits on a cardboard box. If you have access to a new or used pickup truck or know of someone who does, and is willing to donate the truck, it can make a big difference for the camps and in the lives of the girls.

Please contact Joe Barnes, Chief Marketing and Development Officer, Girl Scouts of Western Washington, joewb@girlscoutsww.org.

Thanks!

Twitter and Facebook Faceoff!

Facebook is making Twitter twitch by now letting users open their profiles and speak to people who follow them but whom they don't necessarily know---like Twitter.
Why? Maybe it's because Twitter had 7 million unique visits in February, up 1,382% from a year ago, according to Nielsen NetView. But how many will Tweet on Facebook vs. Twitter? Can the two co-exist? The answer? Yes.
Read the whole story here.

Facebook Could Overtake Google!

Yes you heard true! This comes from analyst Ross Sandler of RBC who says at its current growth rate, Facebook will surpass Google in size by 2011-2012. 19% of Google sessions now come from Facebook, up from 9% a year ago. Read the full story here.

Social Media on the Rise!

According to a new Forrester Research survey of 145 global interactive marketers the use of social media as a marketing tool is on the rise. And over half the marketers surveyed say they will increase spending on social media marketing in the coming months. The reason? Lower costs. Almost all marketers surveyed were already using some form of social media.

Latest Social & Demographic Trends!

The Pew Research Center is just out the a great report on the latest social and demographic trends. You MUST go to the website. It is full of great content to help you in marketing. Here are some samples:

• Nearly half (46%) of the public would rather live in a different type of community from the one they're living in now.
• There isn't one American middle class now, there are four.
  
• The Top of the Class: Predominantly well-educated males.
  
• Struggling Middle: Primarily women and people of color.
• Satisfied Middle: Has everything but money.
  
• The Anxious Middle: The most dissatisfied and downbeat of all 4 groups.

Using Twitter to Improve Brand Perception

Interesting article by Tom Martin in the latest online issue of AdAge all about Twitter. Let me share some of his comments:

Tom Martin

The week before Mardi Gras, I invited you to "Come to Mardi Gras. My Tweet." What I didn't share was the goal of the experiment -- to see if I could positively change the brand perception of Mardi Gras.

Truth is, there is a whole side of Mardi Gras that non-New Orleanians never see. It is very family-oriented and looks more like the world's largest tailgate party than a scene from "Girls Gone Wild."

And here is what I learned about how to use Twitter to shape brand perception:

Relationships matter. To help me spread the word, I recruited my "Select Six." The strength of my "relationship" with these folks spans the spectrum.

Consumers will follow you for content. Prior to the experiment, I had 759 followers. By my first tweet(4 days later), I had 1,610 and by the end of Mardi Gras I had crossed over 1,700 followers.

Content humanizes. I'm convinced that my Mardi Gras tweets helped me develop a stronger relationship with my followers.

You can change perception using Twitter and embedded journalism.

Social Networks & Blogs Pass Email In Usage!

Yes you heard right! Just out from The Nielsen Company may be the biggest news....In 2008, 67% of people online around the world visited what Nielsen calls "member communities," which include both social networks and blogs---ahead of personal email.

And that category grew twice as fast as any of the other four biggest areas, including search, portals, PC software and email.

Fascinating New Study -- When/Where We See Ads Online

Just out from MediaPost a study by Microsoft's Atlas Institute looks at when and where consumers see ads online which in turn gives us info on the planning of marketing campaigns. You could build awareness on new products/services by starting campaigns on sites like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter--then follow with pay-per-click campaigns on major sites like Google.

Interesting study findings:

• Users of social media visit sites to connect and share experiences with friends and family.
• Most ads influence consumers as early as 60 days prior, but about half of the ads get conversion credit under the last ad and last click model within the final five days.

Yes You Can Buy America!

It's True. In America you can buy a piece of almost anything these days as cities and schools look for new sources of revenue: the side of a bus, the walls of a high school gym, construction scaffolding, the bottom of a high school swimming pool, and yes...even signage at a parking lot.

As one person put it: You can't fight city hall but you may be able to buy and ad on it!

Proponents say it's good visibility. Opponents say it's no place for junk food advertising.

Read the story here.

Twitter Gets a Facelift

This Tweet just in.....
Twitter is rolling out some new changes...
View the top trends
Featured users

Read the changes here.

What Will Criminals Think of Next?

Those damn criminals! They always seem to get in the way of the world don't they?

If you didn't hear about this get ready....little Brownies and Girl Scouts innocently selling cookies in Kitsap County, WA this past weekend when hit by counterfeiters. As many as 17-19 troops were hit. The poor kids...all they wanted to do was raise money for camp. But an interesting thing happened along the way. In this era of caring and sharing, as news coverage hit Seattle, then the state, then the nation, people started asking how they could help and people across the country wanted to send in $10 here, $20 there and it has been amazing. As I told a Seattle Times reporter: "The girls already learn to give back to the community. Now, they're seeing the community giving back to them.

http://www.king5.com/topstories/stories/NW_030209WAB-fake-money-girl-scouts-LJ.1aad3e6f.html

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008808754_cookies04m0.html

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/us_world/2009/03/03/2009-03-03_girl_scouts_troops_ripped_off_when_scamm.html

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29470647/

What penalty do they deserve? http://polls.linkedin.com/p/25415/bjopj

This Is What People Want Right Now!

When it comes to marketing and advertising, this is what people want right now. Build your themes around these, and they will resonate with your customers:

• People want hope.
• People want a sense of community and connection. Help them do that.
• People will get behind a cause if they feel they can truly make a difference.
• People want to make a difference for one thing, not generalities. (Example: They are more likely to donate for something specific vs. an organization).
• They are open to bridging class divides (see the films that are popular right now).
• They are open to escape.
• They are open to parallels to the depression era and what was popular then.

The Secret To Get Killer Publicity!

Here's the scene...I get a copy of an email from a Girl Scout volunteer talking about how she was driving home one night, saw a car on the side of the road, woman in distress, and she stops to help. One thing leads to another, she finds out this woman is a diabetic, calls 911, and the next thing you know she is pulling Girl Scout cookies from the trunk of her car to "save the life of this woman."

How can you have a better headline than: Girl Scout cookies save a life!

I contact a TV News Director friend, his newsroom covers the story, and the rest is history!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMqkF1bMNm8

How You Can Help A 9 Year Old Girl

I’m working closely with 9 year old Lexi from here in Puget Sound, whose mom is incarcerated. I’ve adopted her for cookie season! Lexi is part of our special program called Girl Scouts Beyond Bars. Each month we take Lexi to visit her mom and spend quality time with her for a day.

Lexi is selling cookies this year to raise money to go to summer camp but she needs your help.

Would you please consider buying some cookies from Lexi? They are only $4 per box and it would make a huge difference in her life. It would raise her self-esteem if she could sell enough boxes to go to summer camp and spend time with other girls learning about environmental stewardship, ecology and so much more.

Here are your choices:

_____Lemon Chalet Cremes: Featuring a design of a Chalet in Switzerland, a beloved Girl Scout® World Center, this sandwich cookie has a touch of cinnamon-ginger spice that evokes the warmth of a fireside chat on a snowy evening.

_____Trefoils: Delicate-tasting shortbread that is simple and satisfying.

_____Do-S-Dos: Crisp and crunchy oatmeal cookies with creamy peanut butter filling. No artificial color or flavor.

_____Samoas®: Tender vanilla cookies, covered with caramel, rolled in toasted coconut, and striped with a rich, chocolaty coating.

_____Dulce De Leche: Inspired by the classic confections of Latin America, these sweet, indulgent cookies are rich with milk caramel chips and stripes.

_____Sugar Free Chocolate Chips: With Sugar Free Chocolate Chip Cookies, those who need or prefer sugar free products have a new way to support Girl Scouting — and a scrumptious new snack at bedtime ... or any time!

_____Tagalongs: Tasty cookies topped with creamy peanut butter and covered with a luscious chocolaty coating.

_____Thin Mints: A thin wafer covered with a smooth chocolaty coating. Made with natural peppermint.

http://www.littlebrowniebakers.com/cookies/cookiepages/lemonchalet.html

I will collect the orders for Lexi and ask that you send me your money. I will send that to Lexi. She will place the orders and get the cookies to me. I in turn will get them to you. Please let me know how many boxes of each kind of cookie you want at $4 per box then send me a check made payable to: Girl Scouts of Western Washington. I will do the rest.

Thank you for supporting Lexi.

Sincerely,

Joe Barnes

Chief Marketing and Development Officer

Girl Scouts of Western Washington

601 Valley Street / P.O. Box 900961 / Seattle, WA 98109

joewb@girlscoutsww.org

Imagine if we could change the world with cookies. YOU CAN! Don’t forget to purchase YOUR cookies from February 27th-March 15th.

How Facebook is Taking Over Our Lives

Fortune Mag is out with a great article about Facebook that I highly recommend you read. Some key article quotes:

• If Facebook were a country, it would have a population nearly as large as Brazil's.
  
• It edges out the U.S. television audience for Super Bowl XLIII, which drew a record-setting 152 million eyeballs.
• The newest members are more mature types who never thought they'd have the time or inclination to overshare on the web.
• The addictive quality keeps Facebook's typical user on the site for an average of 169 minutes a month, according to ComScore.
  
• Compare that with Google News, where the average reader spends 13 minutes a month checking up on the world, or the New York Times website, which holds on to readers for a mere ten minutes a month.

More Americans Using Twitter!

This just in from the Pew Internet & American Life Project....As of December 2008, 11% of online American adults said they used a service like Twitter or another service that allowed them to share updates about themselves or to see the updates of others. As with many technologies, enthusiastic users have used Twitter for more than just answering the question, "What are you doing?" Twitter has been used to help organize and disseminate information during major events like the 2008 California wildfires, the recent American elections, the Mumbai massacre and even the January 2009 crash of US Airways flight 1549 into the Hudson River. 14% of users who access the internet wirelessly via a laptop, handheld or cell phone have used a service like Twitter, compared with 6% of users who go online but do not do so wirelessly.

Read the study here.

A Special Survey for Women in Relations with Men

I am writing a book about how men and women communicate. It is primarily about how men are frequently lacking in the area of communications, romance and other important areas important in relationships. With that in mind, I have created a special research survey on Survey Monkey for women to take about their relationships with men. I would very much appreciate it if you would agree to take this survey. It will take about 20 minutes. Feel free to forward this on to other women in relationships with men. I need to get well over 1,000 women to take the survey.
Thanks,
Joe Barnes
Instructor
University of Washington, Seattle University, and City University of Seattle

The survey link is: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=YUDJ_2fEbz1V387w3vVtrdng_3d_3d