The Social Media Mystery

This morning, I attended a Buffalo/Niagara Public Relations Society of America seminar titled, "Facebook, Twitter, YouTube & More: A Guide to Social Media & How It Applies to PR Practitioners." According to PRSA's website, the purpose of the event was to inform attendees of, "the basic applications of social media for their own organization, but also how to monitor them and respond effectively."

The turn out was phenomenal, every seat in the room was full. Social media is certainly a buzzword these days, but few people understand what it is or how it can be applied to business. PBS published a story today about getting journalism students to buy in to Twitter. According to a New York Times article, advertisers are still struggling with how to reach their target markets. According to Time, members of Congress are jumping on the Twitter bandwagon and causing quite a stir.

My point is that social media is huge, but the vast majority of the population is still in the dark. Events like the one today are helping to shed some light on the subject and encouraging those who are still puzzled by the whole thing to ask questions. I think this was one of the most relevant topics PRSA has ever covered and the number of attendees proved that people want to learn more.

That's why I was shocked to read WNYMedia's take on today's seminar. The author of that post was perplexed by one woman's inquiry as to whether or not Facebook was just a tool for teenagers to socialize. He equated one person's misinterpretation of social media to all PR professionals, which was unfair, irresponsible and wrong. Obviously, this woman doesn't have a clue about social media, but her question was an honest attempt to get one! If people can't come together in a friendly learning environment to ask questions without being criticized, how will they ever learn?

In my opinion, all three panelists at the event were engaging, informative and knowledgeable. They provided information to educate social media users of all levels and were patient enough to entertain questions from some obvious beginners. Kara Kane from Medaille College spoke about the benefits of Facebook, including creating a group or fan page for your company and targeted paid advertising. AJ Diciembre, founder of BuffaloMe, discussed various aspects of his Buffalo-oriented social networking site and other sites, including Twitter and MySpace.

The most entertaining panelist by far, Kevin Lim, self-titled cyberculturalist/social cyborg stressed the importance of listening to what's happening in the social media world and how to break through the noise. His quirky presentation included a hilarious review of the different responses by Kellogg and Subway over the Michael Phelps incident and how much social media traffic it generated. (Side note: In my opinion, even though Kellogg pissed off some people by letting Phelps go, I don't think it's going to bother their core customer base. Most families aren't going to stop eating Corn Flakes because of this.)

Overall, the event seemed to be a huge success, despite one person's criticism. I consider myself somewhat knowledgeable on social media, with active accounts on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace and BuffaloMe, but there's still so much to learn. I hope to attend more events like this to better learn how to explain social media to by clients and get them to buy in to it's benefits.

Stella McCartney Designs Beatles T-shirt for Charity

Stella McCartney, daughter of Sir Paul McCartney, has designed a t-shirt featuring her father and his three famous band mates with red clown noses superimposed on their faces. It's just too cute. The original photo was taken by the late Linda McCartney.

The £9.99 shirt is available at TK Maxx in the UK (British version of TJ Maxx), with at least £5 of every purchase going to the British charity Comic Relief. The t-shirts are part of Red Nose Day, a fundraiser pairing comedy with raising money for charities.

Unfortunately, the shirts can only be shipped to addressed in the U.S. (blast!) However, I'm going to try to buy one on ebay and donate to Comic Relief anyway, in order to be a responsible, fashionable, Beatles-loving citizen.

Etsy is My New Besty

Maybe I'm behind the times because everyone else seems to know about this already, but I just discovered an awesome new website called Etsy. It's an online marketplace for handmade goods. They have everything from jewelery to pottery to photography to greeting cards, made by independent artists all over the world. Most items are very reasonably priced and shipping is crazy cheap.

I also just discovered artist Ashley Pahl, who sells all sorts of cool note cards, stationary and other things. Ashely has a contest going on her blog to win a $10 gift card, good for the purchase of something on her Etsy page. Check it out. I want this card and this one, they're so pretty.

Not-So-Super Ads

Football is the greatest sport in the history of the universe and the Super Bowl is the greatest day in the history of the greatest sport. I love the Big Game for many reasons- the game itself, the parties, the stories behind the players and coaches, the history and most of all, the commercials.

You see, although I'm a huge football fan, I'm a huger marketing nerd. Clever, targeted advertising fascinates me. My favorite part of graduate school was reviewing examples of great ad campaigns, looking at print ads, watching commercials and discussing their strengths and weaknesses.

That being said, I was sorely disappointed with the Super Bowl ads this year. In 2008, we had jewels like Bridgestone's "The Scream," E*Trade's "Baby Trading 1" and "Baby Trading 2" (my personal favorite,) and Pepsi's "Magnetic Attraction" featuring Justin Timberlake, which made me squirt a beverage out of my nose. Those commercials grabbed my attention, kept me engaged, made me laugh and most importantly, I remembered the product.

Maybe we can blame it on the economy and companies not having the budgets to let their agencies get the creative juices flowing, but I just wasn't impressed this year. Maybe I was just upset that Peyton Manning didn't make an appearance and the E*Trade baby golf ad wasn't that funny. Whatever the reason, I only enjoyed a select few and think they deserve some attention.

I thought Bridgesone had another winner in 2009 with "Taters." I was intrigued my Mr. & Mrs. Potato Head driving down the road, so I wanted to keep watching. The product was prominently featured and Mrs. Potato Head's angry eyes were darn funny.

CareerBuilder's "Tips" reminded me of Bridgestone's "The Scream" from last year. Any commercial featuring a woman screaming her lungs out is sure to grab attention, but the key is to make it funny and not obnoxious. They succeeded, making me laugh hysterically because I could relate to daydreaming about porpoises and wanting to cry everyday because I was so disrespected and hated my job so much. (Not my current job!)

Teleflora's "Flowers in a Box" also got a giggle fit out of me. From the annoying, overweight woman who complains that she never gets flowers to the line, "No one wants to see you naked," I laughed from start to finish. The ad made a lot of sense too - you never know what flowers in a box will look like when they get delivered, it's so much better to send fresh ones!

My favorite ad campaign of Super Bowl 2009 had to be the Miller High Life one-second commercials because the premise was so clever! According to an article in the Boston Herald, Miller was blocked from buying Super Bowl ad time by Budweiser's exclusive contract. So, they bought air time in one-second increments on local NBC affiliates carrying the game. The ads were a continuation of a spot that ran last year featuring a delivery man ranting about Super Bowl ads.

I suppose those who didn't know the history behind the campaign were confused by an angry man yelling, "High Life!" on their television screens and perhaps thought they were seeing things. Miller got so much free publicity surrounding the campaign though, I think it was worth it. They got around the competition, spent a whole lot less on advertising and got their message across to those who knew what was going on. Oh yea, and it was hilarious!

Lions, Potatoes and Electric Toothbrushes, Oh My!

I have always had an active imagination. Sometimes that's a good thing, but more often than not it leads to some pretty crazy dreams. Some of those dreams qualify as nightmares, as I'm also the biggest scaredy cat on the planet.

It's been happening since I was little, these crazy dreams. My family thinks I'm off my rocker when I tell them the stories. I have a recurring nightmare in which something terrible happens, I run to dial 9-1-1 and the call won't go through. My dream book tells me this signifies a feeling of helplessness. I've also had many dreams in which I'm running at top speed and suddenly find myself in the air. Not really flying, just running above the ground. There have also been a few about falling, but I always wake up with a start before I hit the ground.

The dreams get much stranger than that, though. Once, I dreamed my entire family turned into giant hairy potatoes and tried to kill me. Another time we lived in a swanky penthouse apartment and my father brought home a lioness as a house pet. I remember feeling so terrified it was going to eat me. In yet another dream, my grandparents took me on a mining expedition underground and we traveled by donkey.

For awhile, I was having heart-stoppingly terrifying nightmares that were the creepiest things I've ever experienced. In my dream, I would see a scene from my bedroom with some kind of critter flying around in it. Sometimes it was a shadow, sometimes it was a spider running across the ceiling, other times it was a bat (that comes from the real-life time there was a real-life bat in my bed).

My dreaming self would see this thing, freak out and wake myself up while having a heart attack. It's a very unpleasant way to wake up. When I opened my eyes, I'd be looking at the exact same scene that I saw in my dream, minus the critter. I'd leap out of bed and usually run down the hallway, slamming the door shut behind me to keep the critter inside. It took me a few steps to realize that I was dreaming and in fact, there was no critter. This got really old for my family after awhile.

Slowly, I graduated from running down the hallway like a maniac to just leaping out of bed. Eventually, I'd still wake myself up having a heart attack, but I learned to calm myself down and realize nothing bad was really happening much quicker than before. I haven't had one of those in awhile, but I'm sure it will happen again.

Even though the critter dreams have stopped, I still dream vividly on a regular basis. Sometimes, timely events show up in my dreams. Just this week, I found myself part of a convoy driving to an abandoned house in the desert with McSteamy from Grey's Anatomy as our prisoner. When we got to the house, he killed everyone except me and one other person, then forced us to drive him somewhere. There was also something about an electric toothbrush kit, but I don't remember how that came up.

I'm quite sure McSteamy showed up because of a Grey's Anatomy preview that showed him hunched over, veins bulging as he screamed out in pain. It startled me (not really scary, I know, but this is how my brain works) and so, my imagination turned him into a bad guy. I also went to the dentist last week and she suggested I switch to an electric toothbrush.

I'm going to start using this blog as a dream diary. Partly, to share the things that my crazy imagination comes up with and provide entertainment for the two people that read this blog. I'm also hoping to keep track of these stories and identify trends. I've already spotted a few. Maybe someday I'll learn to control my subconscious thoughts - anyone know a good hypnotist?

E*TRADE Baby is Back!

Adgabber posted a link to outtakes from the new E*TRADE Super Bowl commercial and the baby is back! This is great, "I want to punch the economy in the face."

Lost Keeps Me Awake at Night

I'm usually a zombie on Thursday mornings because of the Lost adrenaline rush that hits me every Wednesday between 9 and 10 p.m. Kind of makes it hard to go to sleep at a reasonable hour when your heart is pounding from smoke monster attacks, disappearing islands and a shirtless Sawyer. The two-hour season premiere this week did not disappoint, it was full of things to make you jump out of your seat, hit rewind on the DVR and say, "What in the name of Daniel Faraday is going ON?!"

NineDaves posted about the New York Magazine list of Twenty Questions the Fifth Season of Lost Must Answer. The smoke monster is number one on my list. I have nightmares about it. Leave it to me to be afraid of the most irrational aspect of the show. Also, WHAT was up with the church/laboratory scene at the end of the episode? I used to think the island was Purgatory, until the Oceanic Six ended up back in the real world. Unless it's not the real world they're actually in. Maybe it's hell. And they're have to go back to Purgatory. Maybe I'm completely wrong. Now they're bringing this religious aspect back into it and I'm all confused. I just want to KNOW!