Wednesday, April 27, 2011
We Have Big Problems To Solve Amercia!
Written by Selena Spencer-Lipscomb
I am not going to take a lot of time talking about the press conference today. President Obama addressed the chatter very presidential-like and really made the "birthers" look like silly playground bullies! Enough is enough. Like President Obama said, "It is time for this kind of silliness to end. We have BIG Problems to solve. We live at a serious time. America will come out on top, but we have to be serious to do so!"
We must stop spending time on frivolous things and get back to what really matters. Our children are watching and to tell you the truth, they don't feel very confident in the adults running this nation. The 2012 election is right around the corner. It is time to talk about the issues and what is really going on.
Who is responsible for the high gas prices? Who in Congress has been an advocate for Big Oil? Call them out and make them famous Mr. John McCain. Be of your word!!! The president said we went into Libya because of the atrocities that their leader was allegedly going to do. If that is so, let's talk about Congo, Sudan, South Side of Chicago, NE and SE DC, East Cleveland, Ohio and the list goes on and on and on!
Food prices are extremely high, so that means that many are going without eating. Is there enough in the White House garden to feed the hungry children of the DMV? Any local farmers willing to feed our hungry families living in the District of Columbia?
If they build another road.... Many of the children in the nation's capital haven't even drove on these roads, so it really doesn't impact them. We need clearer/transparent solutions to solve today's growing problems here at home. CONGRESS must take time to listen, but they won't if we don't demand that they do so. What will it take?
We have real problems and we can no longer waist time talking about what doesn't matter and has no basis. What a waste of time. We must demand MORE from Congress. We also, must be willing to speak truth to the Powers that be. ARE YOU IN?
Will we allow CONGRESS to continue to distract us? It takes more than the president to pass a bill or make a change. If CONGRESS isn't working, President Obama can't work for the American people - YOU!! Let's get Congress working and hold each one of them accountable for what we need for America to be on top! May God Bless America!
Selena Spencer-Lipscomb
@blsuccess on Twitter
Join Facebook/I'mInDC http://www.facebook.com/pages/Im-In-DC/207714105917714?sk=wall
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
BET's 106 & Park app impresses with promotion and social network integration
BET's 106 & Park app impresses with promotion and social network integration
There were a few interesting apps demonstrated at the LA AppShow last night, but the one that most interested me was an app that Black Entertainment Television's Brandon Lucas showed off:the official app for the network's 106 & Park music video show. BET teamed up with developers Bottle Rocket to make it, and I don't think I've seen a more interesting combination of old school media (in this case, a popular cable network) and new school mobile programming.
106 & Park is a daily music video request/pop culture show. Lucas described it as the BET version of MTV's Total Request Live (which itself was the MTV version of Casey Kasem's radio countdown show). 106 & Park (named for the original studio location in Harlem) runs for two hours every weekday, and Lucas said his company wanted to design an app for their very mobile-aware viewers that could be used not only to promote the show, but also to drive engagement with the network at large and to "go for a whole new level of interactivity" with the way these things are done.
So what they decided to do was deep dive into how their viewers watched the show and interacted with each other. From that came a whole bunch of fascinating features, from some really surprising social media integration to even a "fame lottery," which allows their on-air personalities to directly connect with app users.
The app took one year to build, says Lucas, and once it was done, BET spent an unprecedented amount of airtime promoting and selling it to viewers -- the on-air personalities talked about and promoted the app for 30-60 minutes every day for a week during the 106 & Park programming.
People watching the show can, of course, vote for videos, but BET and Bottle Rocket took it a step beyond just pressing a button. Viewers who want to vote for videos are given a scratch turntable, and however many times they can scratch the table in a time limit is how much they're allowed to vote for their favorite music videos. In essence, the whole process is gamified, pushing engagement and encouraging users to come back the next day, not only to vote but also to try harder.
The app also works with various QR codes that are shown on the screen during music videos -- by holding their iPhones up to the screen and capturing the codes, users can be sent to web pages, other videos or anywhere in the app that BET wants them to go. "We wanted to be ahead of the game on this," says Lucas, and indeed, while QR codes are showing up in all kinds of places lately, BET's implementation is very impressive.
But it's the social integration of the app that's most astounding. BET's viewers are heavily into Twitter, and during the show each day, the hosts actually call out a special hashtag for that day's tweets. That hashtag is integrated into the app itself, so anyone tweeting from the app gets BET's hashtag on their tweets. And Bottle Rocket also built a really amazing in-app Twitter wall; it shows users what tweets are out there in real-time, and it also matches the show's on-air presentation. It all works smoothly, and the design is great.
And finally, BET also built in a location-based social service that allows users to see an in-app heatmap of where their fellow app users are at any given time. And even better, the hosts on TV have access to that heatmap, and can even "zoom in" on it to see specific users on screen. From there, they can directly connect to certain users via phone, as in the on-air hosts randomly choose a user on the heatmap, and then the user's phone rings and connects to the on-air studio. Lucas called it a "fame lottery" -- app users who are watching the show might get a call and get pulled into an on-air conversation with a music video star.
I asked Lucas if BET had only released the app on the iPhone, and he said that, yes, while the version out now is iOS, the company has plans to bring it out for Android. In fact, since the demographic is seeing huge growth in other smartphones lately, Lucas said that Android would have been a higher priority if development on the app started right now. He also says there's not a big call for an iPad version of the app yet, even though that's a platform that television has been pushing as a "secondary" engagement device.
It was a very cool presentation for a very cool app. While the app obviously has a limited appeal to anyone who doesn't watch 106 & Park, the implementations with various social networking services and iOS technologies are really impressive, and the whole setup is a great example for anyone trying to figure out how to use Apple's platform to promote other media.
Monday, April 25, 2011
Weber Shandwick - Insights - Thought Leadership - Thought Leadership - 2011 - Five Rules for Socializing Your Brand by Harris Diamond, Marketing News, March 28, 2011
Weber Shandwick - Insights - Thought Leadership - Thought Leadership - 2011 - Five Rules for Socializing Your Brand by Harris Diamond, Marketing News, March 28, 2011
Harris Diamond is CEO of
Weber Shandwick, a global
public relations firm in New York.
The world has entered a new place where people interact with brands pretty much anywhere and everywhere. We are seeing every day how social media allows people and, in some cases, whole companies to have a real dialogue around products and services. How people value a brand today has vastly expanded to include their perceptions and interaction with brands and products, and it comes unvarnished and from every angle. Companies need to focus on better socializing their brands so they can resonate with influential online communities. To market a socialized brand today you need to think about how to speak directly to consumers’ needs and satisfy them fully on an emotional level. The following are some guidelines to effectively create and manage socialized brands:
• Create a community of advocates. Today’s brand community is a place where people get to share their thoughts or feelings about a brand and product. Dialogue is now wide open and inclusive. It can happen on your site, your Facebook page, your Smartphone or anywhere your customers are talking with each other, such as a mom community or fan site. These spaces welcome dialogue and ignore one-way messages that are directed at them by companies or brands. Sometimes these communities also are built in person such as at events, trade shows, in-store demonstrations, retail counters or even Meetup groups. With today’s channel agnostic consumers, the best communications must focus on reaching the right people online or offline, and encourage them to join your network of advocates.
• Move beyond “Likes.” Increasingly, Facebook is not just a destination for consumers but a part of a larger fabric of the Internet. The “Like” button shows up on content from news sources to product pages. Company Facebook pages are rapidly changing from a secondary to primary source of interaction with consumers, with the company website still relevant and important, but oft en less current. However, “Like” is similar to a free admission to the carnival—people will walk past the uninteresting booths and won’t play. Getting large numbers of people to “Like” your page is not the end goal; it is the starting point. If you can get customers past the equivalent of “Like” and engage them, you will create affection, affinity and ultimately advocacy for your brand and products. One-to-one engagement that can be scaled easily is a mandate for any company hoping to build and manage a successful socialized brand.
• Protect your brand’s reputation. We’ve all seen the challenges presented when a brand reputation is damaged online. The negative stories in major media that start from blogs, Tweets and user-generated videos can overwhelm the steadiest of brands. Companies need to be more proactive about monitoring their online reputations and be prepared to act quickly and strategically to the viral spread of rumors, misinformation and hear say that can erupt overnight. Online crisis simulation before you need it, as Weber Shandwick developed in our product FireBell, can help mitigate these types of crises and activate your dedicated community of advocates ready to go to your defense.
• Socialize your C-suite. More executives now recognize that the Internet has swept through corporate corridors and boardrooms, transforming the media landscape. A growing number of them at all levels are starting to consider taking advantage of these newer social channels to tell their company and brand stories. As storytellers and narrators of their brand promises, C-suite executives will gradually become more socialized and willingly participate in video on their websites, Facebook and YouTube company-sponsored channels and will demand that their speeches and interviews get repurposed through the many channels now available online.
• Be relevant. Make sure the campaign being created is relevant to your audiences and that expectations are based on achievable goals. Compound the interest in your brand and products by not only repurposing existing content, but by adding value to your communities of interest wherever they may be. Creativity moves people, and focusing on delivering creative ways to engage your customer can have a tremendous impact on people’s perceptions and behaviors when it comes to your brand and products. Work to find as many ways as possible to add value first and be confident that an engaged base of customers will follow. This core will allow you to build a bigger base over time.
Even by following all of the above, your customers today will still always be more connected, spread out and unified than your brand can possibly be. The key is to give them better access to relevant information, timely answers to the questions they ask and the means to protect reputation at all times. If you create engaged communities and give customers a place to congregate and interact, you will mitigate challenges that arise in real time. Your advocates can help you; they’ll answer questions of other customers and ease your load in trying to manage millions of peer-to-peer interactions. That’s the real social savvy we all aspire to.
BY HARRIS DIAMOND
hdiamond@webershandwick.com
Five Rules for Socializing Your Brand
Harris Diamond is CEO of
Weber Shandwick, a global
public relations firm in New York.
The world has entered a new place
where people interact with brands
pretty much anywhere and every-
where. We are seeing every day how social
media allows people and, in some cases,
whole companies to have a real dialogue
around products and services.
How people value a brand today has
vastly expanded to include their percep-
tions and interaction with brands and
products, and it comes unvarnished
and from every angle. Companies need
to focus on better socializing their brands
so they can resonate with infl uential
online communities.
To market a socialized brand today you
need to think about how to speak directly
to consumers’ needs and satisfy them fully
on an emotional level. Th e following are
some guidelines to eff ectively create and
manage socialized brands:
• Create a community of advocates.
Today’s brand community is a place
where people get to share their
thoughts or feelings about a brand and
product. Dialogue is now wide open
and inclusive. It can happen on your
site, your Facebook page, your smart-
phone or anywhere your customers are
talking with each other, such as a mom
community or fan site. These spaces
welcome dialogue and ignore one-way
messages that are directed at them by
companies or brands. Sometimes these
communities also are built in person
such as at events, trade shows, in-store
demonstrations, retail counters or even
Meetup groups. With today’s channel-
agnostic consumers, the best commu-
nications must focus on reaching the
right people online or offline, and
encourage them to join your network
of advocates.
• Move beyond “Likes.” Increasingly,
Facebook is not just a destination for
consumers but a part of a larger fabric
of the Internet. Th e “Like” button shows
up on content from news sources to
product pages. Company Facebook
pages are rapidly changing from a
secondary to primary source of interac-
tion with consumers, with the company
website still relevant and important,
but oft en less current. However, “Like”
is similar to a free admission to the
carnival—people will walk past the
uninteresting booths and won’t play.
Getting large numbers of people to
“Like” your page is not the end goal; it is
the starting point. If you can get custom-
ers past the equivalent of “Like” and
engage them, you will create aff ection,
affi nity and ultimately advocacy for your
brand and products. One-to-one engage-
ment that can be scaled easily is a mandate
for any company hoping to build and
manage a successful socialized brand.
• Protect your brand’s reputation. We’ve
all seen the challenges presented when a
brand reputation is damaged online. Th e
negative stories in major media that start
from blogs, Tweets and user-generated
videos can overwhelm the steadiest of
brands. Companies need to be more
proactive about monitoring their online
reputations and be prepared to act
quickly and strategically to the viral
spread of rumors, misinformation and
hearsay that can erupt overnight. Online
crisis simulation before you need it, as
Weber Shandwick developed in our prod-
uct FireBell, can help mitigate these types
of crises and activate your dedicated
community of advocates ready to go to
your defense.
• Socialize your C-suite. More executives
now recognize that the Internet has swept
through corporate corridors and board-
rooms, transforming the media land-
scape. A growing number of them at
all levels are starting to consider taking
advantage of these newer social chan-
nels to tell their company and brand
stories. As storytellers and narrators of
their brand promises, C-suite execu-
tives will gradually become more social-
ized and willingly participate in video on
their websites, Facebook and YouTube
company-sponsored channels and will
demand that their speeches and inter-
views get repurposed through the many
channels now available online.
• Be relevant. Make sure the campaign
being created is relevant to your audiences
and that expectations are based on achiev-
able goals. Compound the interest in your
brand and products by not only repurpos-
ing existing content, but by adding value
to your communities of interest wherever
they may be. Creativity moves people, and
focusing on delivering creative ways to
engage your customer can have a tremen-
dous impact on people’s perceptions and
behaviors when it comes to your brand
and products. Work to fi nd as many ways
as possible to add value fi rst and be confi -
dent that an engaged base of custom-
ers will follow. Th is core will allow you to
build a bigger base over time.
Even by following all of the above, your
customers today will still always be more
connected, spread out and unifi ed than
your brand can possibly be. Th e key is to
give them better access to relevant infor-
mation, timely answers to the questions
they ask and the means to protect repu-
tation at all times. If you create engaged
communities and give customers a place
to congregate and interact, you will miti-
gate challenges that arise in real time. Your
advocates can help you; they’ll answer
questions of other customers and ease your
load in trying to manage millions of peer-
to-peer interactions. Th at’s the real social
savvy we all aspire to.
BY HARRIS DIAMOND
hdiamond@webershandwick.com
Five Rules for Socializing Your Brand
ew
Five Steps to Building Your Network
Five Steps to Building Your Network
Great article by Douglas R. Conant, President & CEO of Campbell Soup Company. Um Um Good Read!!
Five Steps to Building Your Network
FEATURED PRODUCTS
One morning in the 1980s, I went to the office as usual and was told that my job was being eliminated. I packed up my personal effects and left the building by lunchtime.
I was, of course, in shock. For 10 years, my whole world had consisted of my work with this company and my young, growing family. Now half of that world had disappeared. I was angry and bitter and I felt remarkably alone.
Fortunately, the company set me up with an outplacement counselor who gave me very good advice about building a network — advice that I follow to this day. I not only found a new great job that helped me get my career on track, but I built relationships with hundreds of friends and advisors who have stood me in good stead for decades.
Here's my step-by-step guide to building your own successful network.
Step #1: Identify your network cluster. First, figure out where you want to focus your efforts. Do you want to work for a large corporation, a medium-sized company, or a startup? Are you interested in marketing, sales, manufacturing, IT or any other specific function? What are your geography limitations? Then, create a list of contacts within those parameters — not just executives within a chosen company, but also executive search specialists, consultants, and anyone else who can help within your areas of interest and expertise.
Step #2: Ask for ideas and advice. Contact each person on your list and say, "I was recommended to you by [so-and-so]. I'm hoping to get your ideas and advice for my job search, and would appreciate 15 minutes of your time." During your interview, give them your brief elevator pitch outlining your background and skills, and then ask for their ideas and advice. Remember, this meeting is not about asking for a job. It's about being very sensitive to your interviewee's time, and listening carefully to what they have to say. As the meeting wraps up, ask for names of a couple of people they recommend you talk to. With each interview, you will gain two more leads. Within a few months, you will develop a large number of leads in your areas of interest.
Step #3: Follow up immediately with personal, handwritten thank-you notes to everyone you encountered during the meeting — not just your interviewee, but also to the executive assistant and even the person at the front desk — and mail it the day after your interview. Doing so signals that you are a quality person, that you care, and that you are on top of your game. This is an opportunity for you to establish a distinctive job search — make the most of it.
Step #4: Follow up with regular emails. Set up a tickler file and send a brief email on a regular basis to each or your interviewees saying, "I just wanted to let you know my search is becoming productive. I have spoken with [so-and-so you recommended], and thank you again for the contact. Meanwhile, if you hear of any opportunities, I would appreciate your forwarding them along to me. Thanks, and I wish you continued success."
Step #5: Keep your network alive. Once you find your job (and you will), keep your network cluster intact by checking in. I'm still in regular touch with many of the people in my original cluster. I try to reciprocate their generosity whenever possible, and they have continued to support me when I most needed it.
Whether you are looking for a new job or assuring that you stay abreast of changes in your field, it pays to build your network carefully and keep it intact. You will find that people's generosity is amazing if you treat them respectfully too.
Douglas R. Conant is President and CEO of the Campbell Soup Company headquartered in Camden, New Jersey. He is the co-author, with Mette Norgaard, of Touchpoints: Creating Powerful Leadership Connections in the Smallest of Moments (Jossey-Bass, May 2011).
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