It's Just My Pussy Doodles...

OK- it's been weeks, maybe months since I originally saw this clip from Tim and Eric Awesome Show. However, it is so utterly hilarious and simple in it's ridiculousness, it simply never gets old. Enjoy!

Click here to view the video:
Pussy Doodles

Inspiration: Why Am I Doing This?

There are what often feels like a million great blogs about marketing, SEO, social media, the interwebs and the various topics I am writing about. What can I possibly add to the conversation?

While I have many years of marketing communications experience behind me, I am learning Social Media and SEO as I go. Honestly, I think that's is still the case for a lot of people, at this moment in time, 4/25/08. I'm not particularly thrilled with the work our outsourced SEO firm is doing. It's fair, not excellent. A lot of link building, but little else. The links aren't on industry-related sites. The article content- don't get me started. I think I can probably do better, time permitting. I am passionate person, which extends into my work.

My Dad is on Facebook is my opportunity to learn the best way I know-- by doing. To stretch my writing skills above and beyond corporate jargon and press releases. To write about topics other than work. To share amusing things with my family and friends, and maybe even some strangers. To finally get the code correct for the stumble upon and del.icio.us icons at the bottom of my posts in Blogger, which is annoying me. To grow, stretch my legs, stumble and pick myself back up.

Twitter is Still a Tween

The world is suddenly abuzz about Twitter. Twitter is just about everywhere. In actuality, the microblogging service has been around since 2006. However, Twitter has suddenly reached its tipping point and experienced a recent surge in popularity.

Twitter is a simple application with a 140 character limit that asks "What Are You Doing?" Enabled for Web or Mobile devices it is so simple and versatile it's brilliant. Full reveal- I actually had an account sitting vacant for months before I figured out exactly what to do with it. :) Find and follow some people-yes! They follow you back, you start a dialog. Now it's getting interesting.

To compare Twitter to a human in development stages though, I would say that twitter is in it's tween years. It has successfully grown from infant to strong child but is still hiccuping it's way towards the teen years to adulthood.

Why is Twitter a Tween? Besides the fact that the alliteration sounds cool? For starters, Twitter has amazing potential as a communications and networking tool. However, most marketers and communicators are still figuring out how to leverage twitter as a tool for major businesses.

Twitter has been highly adopted by tech/social media/marketing//communications/writer/ artist types. However, other industries are only beginning to scratching the surface. Recruiters, health care professionals, musicians, gardeners, etc- come out where ever you are and join the happy bandwagon.

There have also been some recent Twitter hiccups reminiscent of tween-type growing pains. Last Friday-Monday Twitter experienced a mass outage, broadcasting what seemed to me to be about 25% of the actual twitter posts from those I follow. Worse? Twitter itself did very little to communicate to users on it's blog or homepage about the outage, what they were doing to resolve it, or when it was expected to be back up.

Then news broke today that some very personal private direct messages were exposed for at least one twitter user (probably lots)- third party twitter application GroupTweet was the likely culprit. Yikes!

Twitter may not be responsible for the failure of a third party application, but these third party applications are still so new that users cannot separate the good from the bad, the fail proof from the buggy.

I love my twitter, but I think it's a tween. I can't wait to see what it grows into!

I Am the Lorax, I Speak for the Trees!

The Lorax Returns! In honor of Earth Day, today's post is dedicated to one of my Dr. Seuss favorites. He was, after all one of the original environmentalists, publishing The Lorax over 35 years ago..

Back in my days working at "The Lab", my Lorax T-shirt, a gift from my now husband, was an office favorite. I have no idea where the shirt was purchased, but it is chock-full of Seuss graphics, in the ubiquitous thin cotton t-shirt fabric, replete with the phrase: I Am The LORAX...I Speak For The Trees.

Random House, the publisher of Seuss's environmental masterpiece (in my opinion) has teamed up with Conservation International on the Lorax Project, designed to help raise awareness of environmental issues and inspire earth friendly support.

Also, children and grownups alike will also enjoy the Lorax Movie. I know I did!

Cat Plays a Theremin

For the first installment of "Crazy - Awesome Web Video Monday" I bring you this clip... there isn't much to say but...LOLZ. Cats and Music- two of my favorite things!

Don't Get Mad, Get Math

Irritated with your cell phone/ISP/Cable provider? Love to hate their customer service? Use your frustration constructively and get creative like this person did. Fight back with... math! I can only imagine what their billing department did upon receiving this payment.



Thanks for the pic Mom!

Sock Puppets in the Echo Chamber

Early in my career, I had a rather wacky boss that was fond of saying "the last original idea is the wheel." Another famous expression- there is no bad press. It may seem that there is, but on the web, controversy generates more links and viewers.

Having worked in Marketing Communications for over ten years, I have recently taken interest in Social Media Marketing in all its forms. Entering the game somewhat late gives me I a slightly different perspective on all this. As I observe the industry blogs and tweets frequently generate a running commentary on each other and the industry itself in order to produce more content and experts, with the hope that the cream will rise to the top. Industry term: the echo chamber.

A primary study of the echo chamber at work: the Shel Israel/ Robert Scoble/ Loren Feldman sock puppet video mockery debacle, made worse by publicity from TechCruch. GreyWolf summarized the situation on his blog well and Tyme White did a great critique of the situation on her blog to which Scoble responded. Shel also commented on the situation on his own blog. This is all very interesting for a Social Media Newbie or anyone remotely connected to PR, communications or the web to read.

Sure, Loren's sock puppet parody videos of Shel are amusing and funny- but the sock puppet idea is not exactly new. The bigger question is this-- if Shel (and Scoble) didn't exist, would the sock puppets? Would Loren's new media star shine as brightly without Scoble and Shel (or someone of their ilk) illuminating it?

If the major new media innovators don't produce content, good and bad, for us to comment and critique would we still hear the echo in the forest? We are all still learning to some extent, and that my friends, is the point. The interesting part will be to see what Shel does next. Can he turn a little sock puppet mockery his favor? I hope so. I'm sure Loren will find someone else in the chamber to turn his puppets on by then.

Me? I'm in the echo chamber myself.

One More Reason Apple Is Doing it Better

First confession: I hate the mall, and avoid it like the plague. I purchase almost everything online. But a once or twice a year an expedition to the mall is a necessity. Kind of like the dentist.

On my latest trip to the mall with my husband, we stopped in the Apple Store to purchase a cover for his new iPod Touch. As a marketer, I must say Apple does so many things right I won't bother to list them. I drool--really, it starts with their products. Minimalist eye candy adorns the store and even if you don't adore technology you want to play with everything. It's so EASY and cool.

What floored me the most wasn't the store layout, tots playing learning games or the MacBook Air. It truly the simplest thing. When we checkout out, the sales assistant asked if we wanted our receipt printed or emailed to us. Slightly stunned, we said email, of course.

How many receipts do you get every week? Can you even count? From the grocery store, lunches, ATMs, gas, miscellaneous items small and large. How much paper does that add up to? How much money do Apple stores save by not printing everyones receipts, many of which wind up in the trash. How does this impact their carbon footprint?

If all the major retail outlets in the country adopted this simple technology, what would the cost savings be? How much paper would be saved? OK, so my tree-hugging roots are exposed here for a minute. I don't mind. However, I actually would much rather have receipts from all my purchases in email. I might actually keep and track them that way.

Plus, from a marketers perspective, Apple gained an additional bonus - our email address.

Absolut Kafuffle: Advertisers, Bloggers and Aftershocks

I came across an article in AdAge today that got me thinking. To make a long story short, this country-specific Absolut Ad from Mexico was found amusing by the original blogger, Laura Martinez, who posted to her site on March 31. See her original blog post here.

The result? Hundreds of furious blog comments, stories in the LA Times and Austin American Statesman and finally, a public apology from the makers of Absolut on April 4. Timeline? 5 Days.

This ad depicts Mexico's original borders. For Americans, does it provoke strong feelings for people on various sides of the immigration debate? Of course.

This ad ran in print publications in Mexico only. But in today's global communication landscape, words, images and photos spread virally across the internets at lightning speed. Organizations (and individuals alike) simply cannot operate under the impression that something shown in country X won't be seen by country Y.

Absolut likely angered many people and lost customers during this process. However, they also got tons of free press because of a chain reaction started by a blogger. Will customers stay angry enough to stop buying Absolut? Time will tell, but my guess is no.

What exactly does great advertising do? It grabs your attention and provokes an emotional response. Mission Accomplished.

And Laura? You have a new fan.

My Dad Is On Facebook

I work in eMarketing, but for various and sundry reasons have resisted joining the behemoth social networking site Facebook until about two weeks ago. Sure, it was the privacy issues, ha. Imagine my surprise when I finally set up my account when I found that my Dad already had a Facebook page. OK, so he didn't have photos or a long profile posted, but he still beat me to the punch.

Some background here, first. My father is in his fifties and a branch manager for a hydraulic engineering firm. He does work for NASA and the military and loves computers, yet is very slow to embrace technology in his personal life in many respects. He carried a beeper (yes a beeper!) until LAST YEAR (2007), when his company finally forced him to carry a cell phone. I don't think he has ever actually used an ATM machine, as my mom takes care of all the finances. He didn't get call waiting until it was forced by the phone company when they moved to Florida in 1998. Here I am in my thirties, work in eMarketing for an IT company and Dad still beat me onto Facebook, which I find both hilarious and awesome.

Now that I'm finally using Facebook, I like it. Yes as the rest of the world already seems to know, it can be strangely addicting. So why have I avoided the social networks for personal use so long, even though I work in the industry? Maybe I am more like my Dad than I realized.