bring it on

i leave for a worktrip tomorrow for a client's event honoring violence prevention leaders in the state. i am responsible for drafting all the media materials for it (press release, awardee bios, ad copy), then distributing the press release and managing the designer and ad buy. it's always gratifying when the event happens and i submit a final report to the client. concrete products were not a big part of my last job and i always felt so incomplete there.

ok, i feel like rambling.

i had a wonderfully dork-a-licious band weekend (sorry javy...i love the dorky!). i caught the usc band pep rally at the levi's plaza, in town for the stanford vs usc game. they were originally slated to play on union square, but with that ginormous christmas tree and most random ice skating rink atop, there simply wasn't room. i mean, this band required 8 buses and they indeed stopped traffic. tons of usc alumni showed up and it was interesting to witness their school spirit. we didn't really have that at my college because we lacked such things as a football team and a marching band. our basketball team was aight, but tossing blue tortillas onto the basketball court was about as school spirited as we got. sigh, gauchos...

it ain't christmas without george michael and that other guy

this song always reminds me of when i worked at the gap in high school...we played this darn song over and over during the holidays. and yet, i still love it. :)



and since i'm on an 80s kick, i gotta share this human league video (check out those sf shots!):

party your body with blog ads

one of the things i get to do at my job is place ads in a variety of political blogs in california, such as capital weekly, the california majority report, and flash report.

i place ads in newspapers (and their online versions) as well as blogs. it's very loosey-goosey with the bloggers. the vast majority of them don't require a formal insertion order. they have an attitude of "just send it and i'll put it up." it's refreshing but sometimes nerve-racking when deadlines are involved.

many of my clients prefer advertising on blogs as opposed to newspaper websites because blogs are way cheaper and more targeted. one downside is that bloggers oftentimes cannot provide the sort of statistics that newspaper websites can, like click-thru rates, but there are ways to get around that if you've got a programmer (my clients don't bother). also, blog ads tend to pile up and visitors are faced with all these flashing squares...not sure if that really compels visitors to click on any of them.

so blog ads may not be the best way to introduce a new product or service, but it is a good way to maintain your brand (an essential thing to do, as taught in the branding strategies class) with a specific target audience.

sharing stories, sharing the love

one of the many features that i love on facebook is the easy ability to post items and share news articles with friends. for some reason, this week was rife with local animal stories.

i had posted a story about the 150 year old tortoise in cupertino that went missing for 6 weeks but mysteriously returned home just before it was hibernation time. i first heard about the story on local tv news when the owners were desperately searching for their beloved tortoise. after i posted the item on facebook, i learned that my friend in kentucky had been following the story too!

my sister had posted an article on facebook this week about the cat in santa rosa that had been missing for 13 years. a flurry of her friends posted remarks, celebrating the homecoming.

so the moral of the stories? mind your pets. and, even though it seems so rare, there is such a thing as a happy ending.

all this talk of animals has reminded me of my favorite annual holiday event in union square - the sf spca will soon be decorating the windows at macy's on union square and showcasing adorable kittens and puppies! they're now looking for volunteers. i can't wait!

it's raining invites and adds

not sure how everyone else felt in class today, but as we were all creating/logging into facebook/linkedin/twitter/etc. accounts and finding people to add, i got a little dizzy. i completely lost track of how many people i'd contacted (thank goodness mr. internet can track that for me) and now i'm getting emails galore informing me that so-and-so accepted my request. phew. i'm spent.

i know i went a little loco with photos in my last post, but i have one more to add, in the "things that make you go hmm" category. this was taken at a recent trip to home depot:



i can just imagine the person who came up with the name and wrote the copy on this label had a helluva good time.

i would marry signs

i was perusing blogs to comment on the other day and checked out a photoblog posted on our class wiki that reminded me of my love of signs. as such, i'd like to share a few photos i've taken of signs that amused me greatly.

this recent photo was taken at a beach across the street from the uc santa barbara dorms.



message taken: don't panic. NOT.

this was taken back in 2007 during one of our stops on the romantic road tour in germany.



message taken: no to houses, no to cars, no to humans, no to soccer. no, no, no.

and finally, this is on the back of the seats of the "it's a small world" ride in disneyland.



message taken: no party people allowed.

kids these days...

one of the many reasons why i love my job is that i am paid to scan the media regularly for articles relevant to the various projects that i'm working on. and ever so often i find the total random gem.

case in point, i found an article about how law enforcement has reinvented mcgruff the crime dog by using social networking websites. indeed, mcgruff the crime dog has a myspace profile and he blogs! if you actually check out the profile, you'll see that mcgruff is a 28 year old male living in dc. whoever put together the profile obviously had fun filling it out (gotta love mcgruff's interests).



like many optimistic efforts to reach youth, you'll also note in the profile the number of friends (a measly 21) and that most are adults. perhaps mcgruff just isn't cool with the kids anymore. maybe a 28 year old male shouldn't be managing mcgruff's profile. [CORRECTION - mcgruff really is 28, according to his bio on wikipedia]

i mentioned in class that some of my clients are trying to use facebook and myspace in their outreach efforts, particularly towards youth. with one client leading a campaign against gun violence in illinois, we suggested that they hire youth interns to ensure that their facebook group page (ICPGV youth advocacy corp - i'm pretty sure you'll need a facebook account to see it) was authentic and that they pay the youth interns a small stipend to ensure accountability (a word much loved in the nonprofit sector). yes, this was our chance to experiment and fortunately our client went along for the ride.

so the client dutifully did all of the above. they made sure their 3 youth interns had extensive networks (one gal has 724 friends!). and the number of members for this youth-led facebook group as of today? 43. this after 3 months of coaching and support (from the adults) and promises of action (from the youth).

why hasn't this been an instant success? are the youth just lazy? do they dislike being told what to do by adults? or does it simply take time to build momentum and grow the network? we're still trying to figure this one out...

everyday should not be like today's sunday

i had one of those sunday afternoons. you know, just thinking about all the various tasks that i needed to do today. laundry, read some work stuff, blog...but i became distracted for a good chunk of time watching that blasted television.

there i sat in the living room, surrounded by all the things i needed to touch (clean laundry to fold, printed articles to read, laptop to fondle) and AVP was on fx. and i just couldn't pull away. i had completely forgotten that the predators were using hologram technology before cnn. there were these hosts who'd appear during breaks to talk about the making of the film (did you know the movie was filmed in prague? did you really need to know that?).

i felt so guilty when the film ended and more stressed about getting things done. why do i do these things to myself?!? well, at least it was for a quality movie like AVP...right...

don't forget the soundtrack

i am a huge music fan. i keep a log of all the shows i've been to. moving is always a pain in the arse because of my cd collection. i have multiple instruments sadly gathering dust. when i travel, i try to find a show to go to while i'm there (some memorable 'travel' shows include the shins in berlin and the raveonettes in dc).

i attribute this lust for constant music from my days as a band dork. i played clarinet from 4th grade thru 12th grade. i had the great honor of being section leader/first chair for most of that time and my best friend, rachelle, always sat across from me as section leader/first chair of the flutes. it was so wonderful to be around other band dorks and playing such a wide range of music, from the beatles to sousa, from the barber of seville to gonna make you sweat (everybody dance now).

i still keep in touch with friends from this period. we've all gone our separate ways in terms of music tastes and levels of fandom. but we still reminise about our band days and share dorky field show videos like this:

[all you classic videogamers, believe you me, this video is worth clicking on :)]

wall of sound

i've got my after-work beer in hand and i'm ready to blog!

i watched the seth godin video that susan started to show us in class the other day. there was a section about looking at the whole population/general market. forget about speaking to the huge middle because they're inundated with marketing noise/messages, but rather focus on the smaller, more managable audience of early adopters, those who are passionate and will likely spread the word to friends.

i see how this works if you're promoting a service or product, but what if you're trying to change behavior and beliefs? for example, what if you're doing a public education campaign on gun control? you don't want to target the early adopters (e.g., advocates) because they're already there with you. you don't want to target the laggers (i.e., NRA) because they're crazy about their guns and will certainly not change. so you have to go for that middle (e.g., voters, uncommitted policymakers) that has far too many issues fighting for their attention. they're the only ones who could possibly change. somehow, you have to find that 'purple cow' message that makes people do a double-take and say, "hell yeah, i want to know more!" oh the eternal challenge for marketers and communications consultants...

i'll tell you what doesn't work. my office is on a busy block of market street in sf and there are ofentimes people with binders representing various causes, vying for your time and money. today, a greenpeace girl was chasing this guy who was trying to get away. i heard him say, "not today," and she responded with, "well, there might not be a tomorrow." um, yeah, that didn't work for me. and that didn't work for him.

on another topic, since i did mention seth rogen not too long ago, and since he works a lot with judd apatow, who also oftentimes works with paul rudd, i have to share this paul rudd clip from last night's daily show:



i must admit, i've had a crush on paul rudd since he did clueless in 1995...

professional development, or something

i work at i.e. communications and i'm taking these integrated marketing classes to learn new tactics and tools to recommend and implement for my nonprofit clients. another reason is that i've been tasked with managing the complete makeover of our firm's website (working with a copywriter, a graphic designer, a programmer, and a photographer/videographer, aye caramba). currently, our website is sooo "web 1.0" - just an online company brochure.

i've been pushing for us to blog as a way to position our firm and each staff persons' expertise and personality, make the website more fresh, and show that we practice what we preach. but i've gotten major pushback. my co-workers are concerned about having to post something regularly and frequently, that it would be more work to add to our already overflowing to-do list. yes indeed, they persuaded me into believing that it would be better to do a quarterly newsletter that's downloadable as a pdf on the website. however, i am once again convinced that we need a blog. i have to assure them that it won't be time-consuming and that each posting does not have to be a thoroughly researched, polished piece. cross your fingers that i can win this fight!

on a totally different note, i just had dinner with my friend at limon rotisserie (pretty yummy, btw) and i told her about all the things we're doing for this class. i mentioned how our class materials are on a wiki, how we're blogging everyday, how i'm using google analytics to measure traffic on my little class blog...she seemed impressed. i actually sorta feel cool, or something.

new class, new blog

so i've started up this blog for my sfsu internet marketing strategies class. this is my third class in the program. gawd, i love that my classes take place in a mall!

this is my third blogger blog. the other two are private. today's class intro got me thinking about the purpose of a private blog. if blogs are supposed to be all about marketing and communicating to an audience, what does it means that i just want to market and write to myself?

i've heard about twitter a lot and it was nice to see what it really looks like on the back-end. not sure if i could ever really get into that. facebook status updates are about as twitter as i'll ever get, methinks. it would be cool to have some tweets though.

i'm looking forward to going home and reading about seth godin. i initially thought susan was referring to that actor, seth rogen.