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By Vegasbab, November 30, 2008 8:33 am

I’m curious what goes through the male brain when some of the below phrases are uttered. Have they been successful in the past? Do they really think a woman, besides a hooker, will say, “yes”?

Below are just a few of my favorite sketchy phrases:

1. “Hi. You look hot. Can we have sex?” This message is often found in your MySpace inbox, Twitter Direct Messages, etc. Has this ever gotten the desired response? Seriously, what’s the point?
2. Bartender serves you drinks and dinner by saying, “Here you go piggy.” After his shift ends, he swings by to chat and leans in to kiss you. Really? I don’t think “piggy” is a compliment in any language, so no, I will not be reciprocating your kiss or giving you my number. Don’t act surprised.
3. Man walks by, grabs a breast and says, “I bet my friends they were real. Clearly, I won. Wanna f*ck in the bathroom?” Ummmm, NO. I’ll be using Escape Route #1 thank-you-very-much.
4. “Hey baby, grab a friend and let’s have a threesome!” There are two times when this phrase is okay: (a) you’re married, you’ve talked about spicing up your sex life and you’ve set ground rules (b) you’ve dated for awhile and want to have some fun. Any other time, the chances of you have a threesome is minimal. The chances of you making girl #1 feel worthless? High. The chances of you having sex whatsoever? Low.
5. All the men who post in Craig’s List Casual Encounters. Do women legitimately respond? If so, did the men really take them up on it?

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By Vegasbab, November 27, 2008 8:53 pm

It’s been such an insane month at work that I haven’t had much time to be brilliantly insightful Tonight, I’m forgoing brillance for a list of current favorite/interesting links. Do with them what you will.

1. Social Media Index by Vitrue. As @mleis says, it’s fun to pretend that they’re racing each other.
2. 15 Awesome Advertisements. They held my attention long enough to watch them all.
3. Secret Tweet. The idea is cool and similar to Post Secret. Now if only more people utilized it.
4. Create your own toolbar. I’m curious to see if this will take off.
5. Two Cities. One Place. Great idea by British Airways. I wonder if they’ll expand it to “twin” other cities.
6. Most complete list of companies’ forays into social media.
7. My favorite up and coming corporate twitter account is @fairmonthotels. Their twitter stream is really cute and personable. Although, their tweets seem to brand them as a boutique bed and breakfast vs. a collection of luxury hotels…
8. I’m curious to know how many people use it and how frequently, but Amazon’s Text-Buy-It is a thing of beauty. It’s worth buying something just to experience the full transaction.
9. When in need of a quick, insightful chuckle, head over to Indexed. There’s a new one every day.
10. Looking for a gift? Agent Provocateur provides fun for anyone
11. The vote is still out on 140 Twitter Tools no one really needs and Mr. Tweet, but both are fun to check out when bored.
12. Shape Writer is a new way of typing. It chooses the word by the pattern drawn. I wonder how accurate it is?
13. In just 48 hours, Twitter and Tweetsgiving helped raise $10,696 to build a classroom in Tanzania.
14. Bonus: At first look the Hancock Banner Ad (below) is a thing of genius – video clips, games, purchasing and the ability to share all in one. But, then you realize that everything just clicks off to somewhere else. Close to being a next gen banner ad, but no cigar. Also, interesting to note that they’re linking to Amazon for purchase. Wonder who’s getting the kick back for that

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By Vegasbab, November 27, 2008 8:26 am

I love the spoof video, When I Grow Up I Wanna Work in Advertising, but since I refuse to post any video longer than one minute, it’s never made the cut. However, I finally stumbled on the shorter version. It’s quick, universal, funny and cute all at the same time.

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By Vegasbab, November 27, 2008 12:27 am

It was the chicken’s day off!

Happy Turkey Day! Hope it’s a great one.

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By Vegasbab, November 25, 2008 8:17 am

I’m impatient and too busy to actually blog, so…. Below is the article I wrote for Project 100. I’m sure the other 99 are just as fantastic, so go buy the book when it comes out!

Everything I Need to Know About Social Media, I Learned in Kindergarten

Sometimes, I wish I worked for an unknown start-up company. Instead, I work for one of the most indulgent, talked about cities in the world… Vegas. If you haven’t been there for a shotgun wedding, a crazy bachelor party or your 21st birthday, your friend has.

As of November 15, 2008, 2,210,092 Flickr photos, 92,000 YouTube videos and 153,640 U.S. Facebook profiles are tagged “Vegas”. Moreover, Las Vegas trip reviews far outweigh those about any other tourist destination, including Orlando and New York City combined!

Despite its popularity, Vegas is not the only thing people talk about. Today, both the real and virtual world are saturated with advertising messages. How do you break through that clutter? Whether you are an individual, a start-up business or a highly talked about Fortune 500 Company, everything you need to know about breaking through the chatter you learned in kindergarten.

SHARE EVERYTHING
If you don’t share, who’s going to share with you? These days, more is garnered from ‘sharing’ than ‘searching’.  Similar to push versus pull marketing, the new goal should be to inspire people to share information instead of searching for it. Make your contribution to the community at large by improving, facilitating and sharing in the conversation. Share anything– ideas, your newest ad or the link to the research study you’re reading. Trust me, if you’re already thinking about it, by the time your competitors catch up, you will be onto the next project.

SAY YOU’RE SORRY WHEN YOU HURT SOMEBODY
The conversations that scare marketers the most are the real gems. Embrace any reaction about your brand, take the leap and respond. There’s no “perfect” answer. Not even those who market for the largest hotels in the world (15 of the 20 largest are located in Vegas) have one. Be honest, admit when you’ve “hurt somebody” and thank those that offer help and suggestions.

The best part about applying the Golden Rule to social media is that online conversations become offline realities. Previously, new ideas, new products and new ways of doing things took years to attain and implement. Today, with the help of Social Media, these things are garnered faster, and as an added, but invaluable bonus, new friendships are obtained as well.

Maybe spending time on the playground was luckier than any of us ever knew.

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By Vegasbab, November 21, 2008 12:33 am

As the head of Engagement Media (among other things) for a Fortune 500 Company, it was refreshing to read Scotty Monty’s interview about Ford’s Approach to Social Media. No matter what companies do, they get blasted – Pepsi doesn’t use UGC for their new logo, they get shit for it. If they had used UGC, they would have gotten shit for that too.

My favorite question/answer of the whole article was:

With the overwhelming amount of tools available, how do you determine which fit with your overall outreach strategy?

For us, it’s largely about mainstream. Joining a large company has helped me to understand that much of the social media experts/evangelists have their heads in the clouds with respect to the technology. We’re so far ahead of the curve, it’s not funny. For my audience, blogs & Facebook are safe havens, and Twitter is pretty advanced. If I said “Plurk” in a meeting, I’d be laughed out of the room (or asked if I was feeling okay). And for our customers – people who buy cars – are the mainstream.

Interactive marketing people need to remember that a lot of online tools still only cater to the bleeding edge. When you need to put 40,000 heads in beds and 10,000 butts in seats EVERY DAY, well you need to reach out, embrace and LOVE the mainstream. And yes, that means still doing Email Campaigns and Direct Mail pieces. Whether you want to admit it or not, we’re ALL in the money making business. The mainstream generates the money I need. The bleeding edge? Not quite yet.

An easy example of this is the Motrin Mom debacle… If you asked social media evangelists, the whole world knows about the Motrin campaign that was taken down due to Mommy Bloggers. Hate to break it to you, but I’ve mentioned it to several friends, family members, coworkers and marketers. The result? Blank stares and shaking heads.

Moral of the story? Stop giving companies shit for still just dipping a toe into social media. These companies are attempting to embrace what to them and their customers is still a Brave New World. Welcome them with open arms, praise them when they do something you like, gently tell them what they’re doing wrong and offer suggestions on how to improve. Do this and you’ll see more big boy toes. Blast them like you did Motrin and you’ll see a lot more backs.

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By Vegasbab, November 17, 2008 11:42 pm

I’m trying to be really patient and not post what I wrote for Project 100. I think it will last all of one more day. Anyway, one subject I touched on in the article was, “more is garnered from ‘sharing’ than ‘searching’”. Since I only had 400 words and I was going in a slightly different direction, I didn’t have time to expand. But, I do now.

And, what better day to expand than today? I couldn’t ask for a more perfect example than what happened over the weekend. If I had been ‘searching’, I never would have stumbled over the FABULOUS Motrin ad. I currently don’t have a headache, back pain or PMS, so no need for Motrin and hence no need to search nor visit their site. However, I was ‘sharing’ this weekend and so were many others. And boy, did all the sharing suck you in, even if you didn’t want to be. While I DO NOT agree with the sentiment that was shared, it was so powerful that Motrin rescinded the ad. Not only did they take down the ad, but they also put an apology note on the homepage of their website and reached out to the noisiest Mommies individually. I’m sure someone can come up with an example, but I can’t remember the last time that search alone forced a brand to pull an entire advertising campaign.

So why did this situation get so much traction? Well, that’s a post for another day.

The semi-exciting part? A lot of people finally understand that a lot more can be garnered from ‘sharing’ than they originally thought. Now, there’s a tangible example that C-Level Executives can potentially grasp.

And yes, as much as it will pain me and all of us, this example will be used ad nauseum in the months to come just like the Obama campaign.

PS – For the record, I LOVE the ad. In fact, I’ve never bought Motrin before, but I’m going to now… just to piss off all the Mommy Bloggers

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By Vegasbab, November 17, 2008 11:37 pm

Okay, so after asking the Twitterverse, I think my theory is slightly off, but I’m running with it anyway…

I stumbled upon the below twitter chart via Ogilvy’s twitter presentation. I was surprised to see that 56% of tweets came from the web interface. If you add twhirl, TwitterFox and IM, that’s a whooping 74% of tweets that come via a web interface. Personally, I send 99% of my tweets through SMS. I also frequently use twittermail, twitterberry and twhirl (but mainly because I manage 4 accounts and have to separate them somehow).

I think this chart is really telling. Everyone talks about the “year of mobile” and how the iPhone has drastically changed how people consume media. But, even if you add SMS updates (5%) and twitterific updates (7%) that’s only 12%. Clearly, people aren’t consuming as much media on their phone as we’d all like to think. And, these people are the so-called early adopters and thought leaders. If early adopters aren’t consuming massive amounts of media on their phones, how can we assume the mainstream is?

Do I think the new wave of iPhone-esque phones will drastically change how people do things? Yes. Do I think we’re still a long way off from what many of us are envisioning? Yes. Do I think it’s still important to play the game? Yes. Do I think this is going to be the year of mobile? No.

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By Vegasbab, November 17, 2008 5:43 am

This bothers me to no end. In fact, I’m so annoyed I’m writing another post about it: People who go on and on about what brands should be doing on twitter. The catch? They don’t twitter as a brand! None of their clients have twitter accounts and they have no real data to back up their arguments. These people only have their opinions on what’s “right” and “wrong”. As I’ve said before, there’s no “right” way to use twitter and I don’t think there ever should or will be.

My advice? SHUT UP. You are not Zappos or British Airways or Home Depot or Dell Outlet. Surprise, surprise, not all brands are the same. They have different demographics, different target markets and different goals.

Let’s take Dell Outlet for example. According to ”experts”, Dell Outlet is stupid and sucks. They use twitter incorrectly. They don’t participate in the conversation. They don’t follow their followers. And, they only “blurt” out promotional messages. But, guess what? They have 2,250 followers. That’s two THOUSAND. How many do you have? Yea, I thought so. In addition, according to a presentation by Ogilvy, they hit sales of $500k. Hmmm, $3,759 for each of my tweets doesn’t sound too bad (as of this post, @DellOutlet had 133 tweets… do the math).

In case you’re wondering, why do I have a right to bitch and moan about this? Well, in addition to a personal account, I twitter for TWO major brands. The two brand accounts are 180 degrees different from each other- one engages, one doesn’t. And yes, we have tracking on everything. Yes, we have a few ROI metrics for twitter. And yes, BOTH accounts surprisingly hit those ROI metrics.

What you don’t like other people clearly do. So SHUT UP. I think any brand on twitter provides value to those who choose to follow it.

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By Vegasbab, November 16, 2008 11:00 am

Thanks to twitter, I heard about Jeff Caswell’s Project 100: 100 authors, 400 words each, 1 collaborative book on “Marketing in the Social Media Era” with all the proceeds going to Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Research and Awareness.

I’m excited and humbled to be accepted as one of the authors of the book (at least in the initial cut). I’m especially stoked that the proceeds are going to Susan G. Komen, as that’s the philanthropy my sorority, Zeta Tau Alpha supports. Leveraging a network of 238 collegiate chapters, 250 alumni chapters and thousands of women… well, I can only imagine the possibilities.