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By Vegasbab, January 11, 2011 10:26 pm

Hysterical and brilliant all at the same time. Enjoy the laughs.

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By Vegasbab, December 4, 2010 5:21 pm

Today was supposed to be my day to be part of the3six5 project – 365 days, 365 views. Unfortunately, wires got crossed and they posted someone else’s post. It’s a great project and one I was really excited about. It was one project that I had been waiting over a year to write for, even though I had no idea what the day would be like

Below is the post that never got published

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I’ve thought about this day for almost a year now. Excited, nervous, anxious. What would I write? What city would I be in? What would my life look like? When I picked the date, I was unsure. From a career perspective, we had just been acquired and I knew it was an opportunity for change.

Today’s National Dice Day, apropos for someone working with Las Vegas casinos. Today is also the Great Santa Run, where 10,000 marathoners dress in Santa costumes and run The Strip. It’s the adult version of Disney, where everything is magical & surreal. Nevertheless, for me, the lights have faded. Today, the wind of Chicago is my version of Vegas lights.

The other thing today is? 361 days of what could be called unrequited like. Foolish? Romantic? You decide. All I know is he’s the one I’d take along for my ride around the sun.

Oh yes, I’ve dated others. I love the thrill of meeting someone new as much as the next person, maybe more. In fact, I even started this project, 10 Guys, 10 Drinks. The premise was to go on ten dates and on each date have a different drink, so even if the date was a bust, at least I got to try a new drink. Long story short, I stopped just shy of #10. I wanted to save that one for someone special.

Despite the men I’ve dated, when I think about the person I want to confide in, curl up next to or come home to, it’s him. It’s funny; I used to say he’s not my type. I’d take one look at his picture and wouldn’t think twice. He’d probably say the same about me. Yet, he’s said it himself – we fit well together.

It may not be the “perfect” moment, but today I’m using this post to tell you what I didn’t say well before. I want more. I think us can work. I want a chance. I want you to be #10. How about it? How about a “real” date?

I’m pretending that I am brave. That I do not care if you react to this. It is only pretend.

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The writer is a 28-year-old interactive marketer, who believes in the impossible, playing by rule #76 & is looking for love.

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By Vegasbab, November 21, 2010 9:11 pm

In the past few months, I’ve started to give major kudos to Gap, only to say, “wait…” and scratch my head.

I won’t even mention their logo debacle. But, if you want, you can make your own here.

Then, I stumbled on the below Gap commercial. For Gap, it’s different, yet fits its brand and previous holiday commercials. Then, the genius sets in. If you “like” the commercial on Facebook, Gap will donate a $1 to one of the charities mentioned. Sure, it might sound silly or simple, but it’s still impressive for a big brand. They are marrying the two things people are really into lately – social networks and doing something easy through a social network for charity. And, they are doing it through a traditional medium, TV.

So where’s the failure? The failure is sadly on multiple levels, all that should have been, “duh’s”:

1. As far as I can tell, they don’t promote the video on their own Facebook wall. Okay, after double checking, they do promote it on the main tab, but you have to click on a banner (with no call to action to the charity component) that doesn’t give you any insight that you’ll watch a video
2. The YouTube video doesn’t click to their Facebook page at the end. Sure, back in the day, this was difficult or near impossible, but now it’s easy cheesy. Why wouldn’t you revise the video slightly to be clickable to your Facebook page. You’ve either lost people to thinking that they need to “like” the video on YouTube itself, or they have no idea to find the video on Facebook.

When putting your “traditional” commercials online, stop and do the “easy” things that make sense for the medium/channel you’re posting within. These days, it’s kinda like buying paid search for your Superbowl ad or the url for your company name before announcing publicly

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By Vegasbab, May 25, 2010 5:27 am

Just like the White House and Pope are kicking butt and taking names in the interactive space, so is Coca-Cola. When such a large brand can think about social media in these four, simple and real ways, it makes me wonder, “Why can’t we all?”

At a Blogger Outreach presentation, Coke talked about four “truths”:

• They don’t own their brands – people do
• Every day is election day – woo the audience constantly
• Fish where the fish are – be where you should be
• Success revolves around genuine and compelling content

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By Vegasbab, May 18, 2010 11:59 pm

I had the pleasure of sitting in a “special” presentation today. It was one where the presenters had intimate knowledge of some key audience members and yet, structured their deck to go above every one’s head. They talked social and search. They threw in “scary” graphs with steep trends both up and down. And, they threw out names of people that no one in the room understood the connotations of. Except me. The wild card of the presentation. My favorite part was when their Executive VP of Social Strategy said, “I live and breathe Mashable.” Clearly, it was true. Everything he spewed out in the presentation was a direct thought or idea from Mashable.

The comments got me thinking… the easy way to tell if someone’s full of social BS? They mention Mashable in a bow-down-to-the-all-seeing-all-knowing-god. Yes, I read Mashable. But, I sure as hell don’t live and breath by the thoughts in that BLOG. In fact, I take most of the articles with a grain of salt.

Think about it.

Sadly, even today, an easy gauge on how much someone knows about interactive can be based on whether they use the term “hits” or “visits”. While the terms seem to mean the same thing, they are in fact drastically different.

I’ve long said I don’t trust anyone who uses the term “hits” in the wrong context. Today, I’ve added to that philosophy. Today, I still wouldn’t hire an interactive person who uses the term “hits” when really meaning “visitors”. But, I also have no intention of turning my social media strategy over to someone who “lives and breaths Mashable.”

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By Vegasbab, February 28, 2010 9:17 am

Not early as engaging as the Socialnomics videos, but nevertheless a fun one:

JESS3 / The State of The Internet from Jesse Thomas on Vimeo.

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By Vegasbab, February 6, 2010 7:44 am

It always irks me a bit when posts talk about social media not delivering on “promises”, that it “disappointingly” hasn’t grown up yet and it’s not an “enterprise” function of a business because it resides in marketing. All three statements point the blame to social media and some non-existent enterprise department. All three statements are baloney. Social media hasn’t delivered nor grown up because as marketers it’s YOUR fault. Social media hasn’t been seen as more than a marketing function because marketers don’t see it as more than that.

Let’s tackle the easy one first – social media not delivering on promises. Bullshit. Total and complete bullshit. It hasn’t delivered because (a) YOU (aka the marketer) didn’t set campaign objectives and (b) YOU didn’t come up with a measurement. If you launch a campaign with no goal and then tell your executives, “Well… it did great! We got lots of positive mentions.” Ummmm… I’d think social media failed too. But, in reality, YOU failed. You failed to set expectations and you failed to sell how successful the campaign was.

Now, onto the one that requires a little more thinking. Why does social media often sit with marketing? Well, not only do marketing departments market, but they also hold the keys to the brand and ultimately what an entire company embraces, or doesn’t. As the head of marketing, not only are you responsible for external marketing, but you’re also responsible for INTERNAL marketing. Think about it. What’s your company culture? Who came up with the tagline? Who designed the materials to internally promote that tagline? (Side note: Yes, I’m well aware that simply having a tagline does not equal company culture.) Aside from the President, which Executive is in charge of crafting that message? Oh yes, no company-wide initiative would work without the support of ALL Executives, but, who’s in charge of selling them on say, social media as a company-wide business plan? YOU. The Marketer. If ALL your employees aren’t on board – and I’m not saying they have to “get it” like “we” do – then YOU have failed, not social media.

It’s tough. Back in the day, marketers only had to market. Or, as agencies like to believe, marketers sat back and drank while the agency did the heavy lifting. But, not today. Today, the role of a marketing department has evolved into so much more. Today, it’s time for marketers to grow up. Today, it’s time for more marketers to start leading and stop “just” marketing. If marketers can’t do that, then social media is never going to “grow up”.

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By Vegasbab, January 31, 2010 11:03 pm

In the last few months, I’ve been amazed at some of the innovative ways companies are aggregating and using information from social networks. From Bravo’s use of Foursquare to We’re All Fans, wow. It seems like the economy has slowed the innovation of “new” and allowed marketers to really harness what’s out there. And, harness it quicker than ever before.

Surprisingly, tonight’s Grammy’s was the first event that twitter both spoiled and enhanced for me. Everything online, from the MSN homepage to twitter was reporting and commenting on the Grammy’s in real time. The comments made me excited and frustrated. I wanted to see the outfits and performances my “friends” were commenting on. But alas, being on the West Coast, I was three hours behind. For me, it was an interesting and new experience. And yes, it made me wish I was living on the East Coast that much more

One of the coolest parts of the Grammy’s was their use of social media. An institution that’s been around for 52 years continues to innovate and stay relevant. From an iPhone app to We’re All Fans, kudos to the marketers behind the show… We’re All Fans was one wicked cool and beautifully done aggregater of what fans we’re saying.

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By Vegasbab, January 23, 2010 8:41 pm

Looking back on my posts from last January, I stumbled on this one. I thought it might be fun to update the project with my tweets from 2009. So, here it is, with @replies removed again. Thanks to TweetScan and Wordle for the fun and insights!

Worlde of Tweets from 2008:

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By Vegasbab, December 13, 2009 9:56 pm

Foursquare and how people are using it intrigues me to no end. From a personal standpoint, it’s creepy as hell.

Here’s some of the things that make me scratch my head:

• People will “friend” anyone, including brands. Why? It’s amazing that people are okay with friending random people, but don’t want targeted ads. The idea of privacy has certainly come a long way.
• Taking privacy a step further, most accounts are tied to a cell phone, email address or both. Really? You’re going to open up your personal cell to random people?
• With twitter, you often hear, “Why should I join? I don’t care what you’re eating for lunch or the rest of your mindless dribble.” Yet, Foursquare is EXACTLY that. People (including myself) update when they’re at the grocery store, gym, Starbucks, work, etc. Maybe I don’t follow enough people, but rarely does someone give a “shout-out”, let alone a shout-out that includes a link to an interesting article or something funny. What do the shout-outs usually include? The mindless dribble people give as the reason for not liking twitter
• Sure, many argue that with a tighter circle of friends (assuming you only friend people you know), your message is more impactful. But, when will the messages matter enough to be important?

From a business standpoint, I LOVE Foursquare. There are certainly some great opportunities, especially as more people join and the Foursquare team continues to make updates and open up their API. However, I don’t think we’ll see people abandon Twitter to solely use Foursquare any time soon. But, I do see both of them playing very nicely together.