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By Vegasbab, March 15, 2009 10:52 pm

We wait all year long for Girl Scout Cookie season. We wait patiently. Some cities get Girl Scout Cookies earlier than others. We start to hear the rumblings about Thin Mints and we get a little less patient. We get downright anxious and excited. We start hounding our coworkers and friends who we bought from last year.” Are they here yet? Are they here yet?” Instead of shopping at our usual grocery store, we frequent the one that we know sold Girl Scout Cookies last year.

The Girl Scout Cookie marketing / selling method is interesting. By selling only once per year, supply and demand is kept high. They also do not make it easy to purchase. Here’s a few examples:

Only cash (sometimes check) is acceptable. When was the last time you carried more than $20 in cash? Now, if you want more than five boxes and/or to make a charitable donation, you’re limited to $20 or taking the time to go to the ATM before purchasing cookies.

At first sight, the Girl Scouts seem to embrace technology. They have a Facebook Application, a MySpace profile and a Flickr stream. However, they don’t allow full, online transactions on their official site and ban any troop from doing so. Don’t you think you’d sell a tad more boxes that way? I do. Why the ban you ask? They don’t consider it “safe.” Yet, going door-to-door without adult supervision is? Ummm okay.

In fact, when an 8-year-old Digital Nomad had the idea to promote and take orders (NOT a full transaction and only from people within range for a personal, hand delivery), her YouTube video and site were quickly shut down. You know a jealous, competitive parent tattled Personally, I think it’s LAME. And, it’s certainly not in the spirit of entreunership, which is one of the lessons cookie sales are supposed to teach.

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By Vegasbab, March 15, 2009 7:08 pm

Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me

I don’t mind not being the smartest person in the room. Actually, I enjoy it. I get to learn new things, be challenged and have something/someone to look up to.

However, I do hate one thing. I hate being made the fool. I should have known better. I should have listened to my gut. I should have known I was being used and manipulated. I just didn’t want to believe it.

While I can’t go back, I can go forward. This time around, I won’t be so foolish.

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By Vegasbab, March 15, 2009 10:33 am

While I have a lot of “rules”, they’re mostly old ones. My rules are timeless and have, for the most part, stayed status quo. I don’t make or add rules lightly. In fact, the last time I added a rule to my repertoire was almost three years ago; when I moved to Vegas.

This weekend, I added a new rule.

While practical, the new rule will be the hardest to obey and the most painful to break.

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By Vegasbab, March 12, 2009 9:30 pm

I totally forgot to write the follow up to my Idea Grabber, so here it is:

Every one “grabs” ideas differently. It’s been really cool to watch and guess what people will do. Most of the time, the way they approach grabbing an idea fits their personality perfectly. It also fits the way they approach life both personally and professionally.

Here’s the four main ways people approach grabbing an idea:

Giving Up:
I wanted to start with this one first because it’s the one I dislike the most. These people aren’t quite sure what to do. They nervously approach the task and give it a half hearted attempt. When the music ends, that’s it. They give up. They don’t ask to try again. In fact, they don’t ask anything. They accept the loss and walk away defeated. Truthfully, these people gave up before the task even started.

The Anaylst:
You guessed it. These people are usually your analysts, database managers or finance people. Before starting, they take several minutes to study the task from all angles. They read the fine print / instructions on the controls. They study the claw and the toys looking for the one that is most grab-able. They make a few practice moves with the controls. Only after research do they drop in the coin to start the music. Nine times out of ten these people quickly and efficiently grab a toy. Having a plan and taking a step back to see the big picture pays off.

Try, Try Again:
These people are some of my favorites. Most of the time, they jump right in, attacking the task. Because they jump right in, they don’t take time to read the fine print. They spend valuable seconds trying to figure out how to work the controls, what works, what doesn’t. Because of this, they usually run out of time. BUT, here’s the key: they try again. And again. They try until they get the prize. These people do not get defeated, they get determined.

Superstars:
Like life, grabbing an idea comes easy to this set of people. These people process things faster and just get “it”. This group is The Analyst and Determined Person rolled into one. Quickly, they analyze the big picture. However, they don’t spend nearly as much time doing so as The Analyst. This person gets enough of the project and takes off running. Unlike The Analyst, they don’t need to research every “what if” situation. This person is also determined and confident; you can see it in their faces. This type of person has no doubt that they will successfully grab an idea. Of course, they always succeed. In fact, they usually dominate before the music/time stops.

What’s your style? Stop by my office to find out

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By Vegasbab, March 10, 2009 11:41 pm

For the last three months, I’ve watched Queensland Tourism kick off its new marketing campaign with The Best Job in the World contest. It’s a thing of genius. It makes me weep. Thirty-five thousand (34,684 to be exact) videos about my product within 2.5 months? Videos viewed an average of 560 times? Being the #1 viewed site in the travel industry? Yes, please.

Job Details:

• - Be the Hamilton Island “Caretaker” for six months
• - Salary = AU$150,000 (roughly $120,000 USD at the start of the campaign. Now about $96,000 USD)
• - Live in a 3-room gorgeous house
• - Blog once a week about your experiences

Application Process:

• - Submit a 60 second video on why you would be the best person for the job
• - No if’s and’s or butt’s. Submit a sixty second video through their website or don’t bother applying.

Efforts Behind the Program:

• - Contest kicked off their new, 3 year, $1.7 MM marketing campaign.
• - Perfectly timed and well thought launch. Info showed up in newspapers, etc. worldwide on a dreary Monday morning when unemployment was at a high.
• - Awesome use of twitter by @Queensland to answer questions/problems with job applications and spread news updates in real time.
• - Facebook page. It’s hot.

Downfalls:

• - Site is mainly flash and slow as hell. After two months of massive traffic you’d think they’d figure this part out and fix it and/or better prepare for the traffic and uploads occurring.
• - Again, lots of site and server issues. In fact, the site even crashed on the final day of the contest. Lots of procrastinators were pissed off that their upload didn’t take.
• - Surprisingly, they never openly leveraged YouTube’s site for video viewing. I understand wanting to keep people on your site, but when it’s down, why not drive more traffic to YouTube for viewing. Also, while they branded their Twitter Background and Facebook page, their use of YouTube is slightly odd. They have one branded channel. On the same day, it looks like they created 40+ other accounts (numbered sequentially) but never branded those. Maybe YouTube only allows a certain number of videos to be uploaded per account? Since the campaign was based on VIDEO submissions, you’d think they’d jazz up their YouTube presence.
• - Lack of preparation. I’m not sure how many videos they were expecting. But the full strategy was lacking. For example, it seemed like they joined twitter on a whim about three weeks into the campaign. After another week, they switched their twitter handle from @anywherebutqsld (or something similar) to @Queensland.

The Big Question? If and how they are going to leverage the 35,000 videos submitted. Okay, that might be a BIG question, but it’s not the REAL question: Did / will the campaign generate more travel to Queensland? Eh. While the campaign raised my awareness of the islands, I didn’t book travel. I bet most of the unemployed people who applied didn’t either BUT, I still love the campaign. I wish I had thought of something similar.

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By Vegasbab, March 8, 2009 11:42 am

Quotes like, “technology changes, humans don’t” and “human nature doesn’t change, human behavior does” are quite popular these days, especially if you’re talking to someone in the interactive space.

But, what does it mean in terms of how people continue to connect? According to Mark Zuckerberg’s interview on the Today Show, Facebook is growing by 700,000 users a day. Holy cow! Thirteen hours of video is uploaded to YouTube every minute. Woah! An average of 42 tweets are sent every second. Yowza! Those are some impressive numbers. Clearly, not only are we consuming information these days, but people are also more comfortable producing AND publicly publishing their creations and feelings (90% of Twitter accounts are not locked).

But, are we really mass communicating? Do we have more “real” friends? Have our circles grown? Or, do we continue to interact in niches?

While the way we communicate has changed (human behavior), our nature has not. Dunbar’s Number, what I call the 150 theory, still weighs heavily on us. While Facebook users average between 120 – 500 “friends”, they only interact intimately with an average of 24, or 5-10% of friends. If you remove the outliers (i.e. @chrisbrogan) and Corporations (i.e. @jetblue), the average number people follow on twitter is 150. Seems similar to the average number of “friends” people have on Facebook. While you may follow 150 people , how many of those do you @ reply or DM? I bet that stat is similar to the Facebook one – intimate interaction whittles down to only 5% of your network.

You can’t change a leopard’s spots. Can you change human nature? Will humans ever intimately interact with more than 5-10% of their network? Personally, I don’t think so. But, only time will tell.

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By Vegasbab, March 6, 2009 9:58 pm

I have a lot of rules. I have a few cardinal rules. I broke every one of them this past month. I’m paying for it now.

So I never forget again…

1. Trust no one. Everyone leaves or throws you under a bus to save themselves… even so called Back Alley Friends.
2. Don’t do it if you’re one percent unhappy about something. Being unhappy will rot every part of your life.
3. Don’t get excited about future events. Similar to “don’t count your chickens before they hatch,” getting excited for something that’s on the horizon is just not smart. The majority of future events don’t happen. Getting excited about them just allows for greater disappointment down the road.

Maybe one day I’ll finally learn that there are NEVER, EVER exceptions to your own rules. Until then, let the punishment continue.

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By Vegasbab, March 4, 2009 10:42 pm

I’m currently annoyed with trying to update my Facebook Fan Page via the new design. I’m sure part of it’s user error (it always is ), but here are my initial thoughts about the redesign:

Eh. Not Excited Yet:

1. It puts the wall front and center. Note, you can have non-fans default elsewhere. I think you can have fans default elsewhere too, but thus far, that option isn’t working for me. Unless you’re a Prom King brand, your wall doesn’t get much action. Why make the fact that no one has written on your wall for days or months so prominent?
2. It puts the wall front and center. Aka it also puts the updates you’ve made to your page front and center. Same reasoning as #1. Will brands feel the need to update their page more?
3. Pages now have status updates. Like regular profile page updates, these show up in your fans’ news feed. If you’re thinking SPAM, we’re on the same page. Will this encourage/force brands to update more? Will twitter make their app work for fan pages so you can tie your twitter updates to your Facebook status? Will this help twitter gain additional popularity?
4. Page status updates now show up in fans’ news feed. Again, are you really interested in what a brand has to say over what your friends have to say? How many users will be more selective over which brands they become a fan of? How many users will tweak their settings to have Page updates not show in their news feed?
5. You can’t move all your boxes like you used to. In the old design, all your boxes were movable. This meant that you could put your fan box at the bottom if you wanted. With the new design, similar to regular profile pages, some boxes are not movable. Trust me, no one cares when my brand was founded.
6. Some tabs aren’t movable. The Wall and Info tab are always #1 and #2. Does anyone really care about info? No. They want pictures and the fun stuff. The stuff you created via FBML (aka facebook’s version of HTML).
7. Insights remained the same. I wish they would make it easier to see the metrics by month or week vs. only comparing and showing day to day metrics.

Things I’m Excited About:

1. Like regular profiles, you can break your page into tabs. This makes it easier and faster for a user to navigate. No more scrolling to find pictures in a tiny box. Now, pictures, videos and events all have separate tabs.
2. Status updates now show in fans’ news feed. If used well, this is awesome. Previously, no one knew if you updated your page, added an event, pictures, video, etc. unless they visited your page or you sent out an update. Seriously, how often do you visit the pages you’re a fan of? Yea, that’s what I thought. And those updates? I know for a fact you don’t read them immediately and you certainly don’t act on them. Hopefully, this will help fan pages become more valuable for brands and utilized more by fans.
3. Facebook is starting to help and cater to brands. They are continuing to find better ways to integrate and welcome brands into their world.

After the bugs are fixed and all fan pages switch to the new look, we’ll see where this takes us. How much would you like to bet that this change pisses users off and groups are formed in protest like last time

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By Vegasbab, March 3, 2009 2:35 pm

Yep, sometimes I’m a lemming too. I’m not the biggest fan of chain letters, but since I did the Album Cover one, I figured I’d do this one as well. This “game” caused such a stir that it made the WSJ and NY Times to name a few.

So… 25 Random Things about me:

1. I love Tootsie Rolls. I’m convinced it stems from my days of swimming lessons. After each lesson you got a Tootsie Roll as a reward.
2. I’ll eat the same thing over and over again until I get completely sick of it. Then I won’t eat it for months.
3. My dad and I are very much alike. It’s scary. Instead of saying, “I’ve turned into my mother” when I grow up, I’ll be saying, “Ugh. I’ve turned into my dad.”
4. I LOVE basketball. Especially watching it live.
5. When I was younger I could dunk a basketball. Seriously. I wanted to do it before my brother could.
6. If you didn’t guess from #5, I’m extremely competitive. Not 100% sure where it comes from.
7. I have a crazy memory. I can repeat back whole conversations I’ve had years later.
8. I suck at opening up. I keep everything bottled up inside.
9. I only set any alarm to odd numbers excluding 5. Don’t know why, but I’ve never broken the superstition.
10. I have a really short torso. So much so, that most bras don’t fit me. It drives me crazy.
11. I have to have red numbers on my alarm clock. Since few alarm clocks come with red numbers these days, I’ve had the same one for years.
12. Every Sunday during football season my Dad and I bet the day’s games. I still use the method that I used when I was five.
13. I hate following the crowd and flashy designer labels. I think being flashy is incredibly tacky and the reason I’ll never have a Coach purse, a Louis Vuitton belt or a Tiffany necklace.
14. I’m Irish. I have a wicked quick temper. Your best bet is to let me simmer for a few minutes. I’ll be back to happy-go-lucky by then. Otherwise, you might have to call the cops to save you from my beating
15. I want to retire to St. Thomas and spend my days surfing, water skiing and swimming. Throw in some umbrella drinks and it will be my little slice of heaven.
16. When I rub your back, I always write a message with my nails. Don’t try to figure it out, it’s always in code.
17. As a present for my brother’s first birthday, I got my ears pierced. It was my gift to him. I was very proud of it.
18. It took me over two weeks to write this. It’s the longest I’ve ever spent on a post. I blame it on #8.
19. In elementary school I had detention every day. For real. I choose it over not chewing gum. My fifth grade teacher finally suggested I try chewing paper instead. I declined and sat my ass in detention every day.
20. I’m stubborn. I believe #19 attests to that. Don’t ever tell me, “no”, what I can and can’t do or how I should feel. My stubbornness will kick in.
21. I have circle scars on both my knees from falling on the pool deck when I was younger. I was chasing a boy I didn’t even realize I had hurt myself until I looked down while riding my bike home. Both knees were gushing blood.
22. I go by my middle name. You’ll never discover my original first name.
23. University of Miami was my back up college. I was convinced I wanted to go some place cold. I changed my mind after spending two weeks skiing in Vermont. I’m glad my dad “forced” me to apply to a Florida school “just in case”.
24. I’m a sucker for random, useless trivia.
25. When everyone else was dancing on their dad’s feet, I was water skiing on them. We’d get up at the crack of dawn and go. He taught me a good amount of “parlor” ski tricks and how to barefoot.