ThinStick: How can I have a healthy Halloween?

ThinStick: How can I have a healthy Halloween? Not all treats have to involve high fructose corn syrup! Here are some alternatives suggested on one of our clients' blogs. The company is Metabolic Maintenance Products in Sisters, OR. They make an all natural product, ThinStick, which curbs cravings and helps those who use it lose weight. Not bad to have a little help in this department around Halloween or the upcoming holidays! Check it out at www.thinstick.com.

-Judy (@judycampbell)

Blogging is dead, long live journalism

New research by the blog search engine/aggregator Technorati shows that bloggers are being paid living wages -- an average of $122,222 for full-timer bloggers, in fact. (Surprised? Me too. When I was blogging, you got $20 a post, which for me was sometimes $.04 a word. By the end of my blogging days, they'd upped it to $50.)

But I think this Fast Company writer is trying to rock the boat. Bloggers aren't really getting rich from blogging, so much -- they're doing speaking engagements and setting up conferences. But still, they're professionals who have much in common with journalists, except that the blogger ranks are swelling as the number of journalists shrinks, reporter Kit Eaton asserts.

In other words, blogging is now a diverse, popular and successful enterprise that covers a multiplicity of online writers, from extensive Twitterers to self-described Mommybloggers to tightly written, up-to-the-minute, smartly edited online publications like this one--a "professional blog" by Technorati standards. And it's in that last sense that blogging is becoming a farm system for future journalists, who are apparently riding out the economic downturn pretty well (on average, at least). Think about that for a moment, and then remember how many traditional journalism jobs have been lost over the same period. So here's the radical suggestion: Let's redefine what blogging means. If you're writing self-absorbed or inexpert opinions about the minutiae of daily life, without hyperlinks, fact checks or any pretense at engaging with the news, you're a blogger. You probably fall into the lower categories of pay in the Technorati survey if you in fact make any money at all. But if you're a writer for an online publication, one that takes real-time stories, updates them as events unfold, reference your quoted facts, break stories and produce original writing then shall we just say you're a journalist? An online one, but a journalist all the same.

So where's the line between blogger (no respect) and journalist (formidable force)? Is http://byronbeck.com/ -- former WWeek columnist turned Portland Michael Musto -- a journalist? Are we here at CC bloggers, or are we journos? I like to think we offer some thoughtful and original analysis on occasion ;)

Read the rest at http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/kit-eaton/technomix/blogging-dead-long-live-journalism.

-Adrianne (@msfener)

Another global warming publicity stunt

And one that's likely to be effective, too.

This Saturday, Oct. 24, Portland will join with Tokyo, London, Buenos Aires and hundreds of cities worldwide in displaying the number 350 on shop windows and T-shirts and in every other conceivable shape,size and form. People will form “350” in human chains, hang “350” banners from rooftops, and run 350-meter races. The Masai Mara tribe is even planning a traditional “350 Jumps” ceremony in rural Kenya. And on the banks of the Willamette River, hundreds of kayaks and canoes will form a massive “350” before joining a larger rally at Pioneer Courthouse Square.

Three-hundred and fifty what? Last year, a NASA climatologist a report concluding that a majority of climate scientists agree that 350 parts per million is the maximum safe level of carbon dioxide in the earth’s atmosphere. Draft treaty proposals for the upcoming climate summit in Copenhagen currently use that figure. The global rallies are a way for concerned humans to “tell the delegates in Copenhagen as well as Obama to keep the number in” says Bill McKibben, founder of 350.org, the organization behind the rallies. Read more at http://wweek.com/editorial/3550/13230/.

Publicity!

-Adrianne

Publicity.

In the Maldives, ministers in scuba gear met on the sea bed to draw attention to the dangers of global warming for the island nation.

Just look at the picture above. How cute is that?

Look, you're Maldives. You're a beautiful but small and inconsequential country of 300,000. But as an archipelago in the Indian Ocean, you're feeling the heat of global warming. Superpowers like China and the U.S. bicker over whether they'll participate in global efforts to curb pollution as you watch the sea rise over your lowlands.

I can imagine their public relations firm's pitch. "You guys need to get people's attention! You want the rest of the world to notice more than your beautiful beaches, you've got to do something crazy, but relevant -- something to catch the world's eye and make your point at the same time! We need to get the New York Times out here! We need a WEIRD PR CAMPAIGN!"

So:

President Mohammed Nasheed and 13 other government officials submerged and took their seats at a table on the sea floor -- 20 feet (6 meters) below the surface of a lagoon off Girifushi, an island usually used for military training. With a backdrop of coral, the meeting was a bid to draw attention to fears that rising sea levels caused by the melting of polar ice caps could swamp this Indian Ocean archipelago within a century. Its islands average 7 feet (2.1 meters) above sea level.

It's cute, but it got the message across. Publicity stunts work. (And they're fun -- CC's is currently scheming a mini-Santacon invasion at an upcoming event. Hey, we're a full service PR firm.) Read the full story at: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/10/17/world/AP-AS-Maldives-Underwater-Cabinet.html?hp

-Adrianne (@msfener)

"The Vermonster"

September 14, 2009 is a day that challenged the reality of the American Dream that Matt and Renee Nadeau have been living in Morrrisville, Vermont. It's a "monster" of an issue. Small The Nadeau's, Owners of Rock Art Brewery, have a legal trademark case on their small business plates that began with the name of their 10-year celebration ale, "The Vermonster". The Nadeau's case hits close to home for a small town girl like me. As the daughter of a small business owner, a current consultant for small B2B companies with some even smaller clients - there is no way I could turn my head to the Trending Topic on Twitter today, #boycottmonster. If you don't have a Twitter account you can still search hashtags and keywords in Twitter. Here is a link of a Twitter search for #boycottmonster, the trending topic that caught my eye. Even a Google search results in quite a few articles and blog postings about the recent news of Monster vs. Rock Art Brewery. Media To get the official details of how this has unfolded, The Nadeau's have posted the cease and desist (c&d) order and their formal response on the Rock Art Brewery website. Matt Nadeau stated in a YouTube video entitled, "Matt and 'The Monster' Rock Art Brewery vs Monster Energy Drink" (also posted on the Rock Art website) how wonderful the support has been from across the country, which is all a result from utilizing the media to plead his case. As stated in the Nadeau's response letter, Hansen's Natural Corporation (owns Monster) wants to get into the alcoholic beverage industry, and that's why they have asked Rock Art Brewery to c&d their Vermonster beer - and not asked Ben & Jerry's to c&D their Vermonster ice cream. Many other 'Vermonster' titles exist, including a corn maze, monster truck and a musician. Principal The Nadeau's were told they would ultimately lose by default in court, and have to change the name of their beer. The professional recommendation? To change the name of the "Vermonster" and move on. But Matt stated with passion in the YouTube video, "I have to stand up for this. Change the name and move on. No, I can't do it." The verdict is unknown, but what we do know from Matt Nadeau - we can all stand up for what we believe in... no matter how deep (or shallow) our wallets are.

-Jacq (@jacqsmith)

American Marketing Association Oregon MAX 2010

Feel like you've accomplished something big this year? The Oregon chapter of the AMA is taking submissions for its 2010 awards in: -Integrated Marketing Campaign B2B -Integrated Marketing Campaign Consumer/Retail -Integrated Marketing Campaign / Nonprofit and Government -Public Relations -Single Medium Advertising As well as Marketer of the Year and Rising Star. If you're not ambitious enough to enter, at least consider attending the Feb. 25 event. With clients cutting budgets and dropping out of the game, as well as more clients used to advertising shifting their budget to PR, there's no doubt there will be some interesting entries. I'll definitely be curious to hear about strategists other Oregonian publicists have cooked up (and curious to know who will be Marketer of the Year).

It's been a rough year out there and we know you've had to be more creative than ever with limited budgets and resources—we can't wait to see your amazing work and celebrate your remarkable successes.

Enter at www.maxaward.org by Friday, January 15th (early deadline) or Friday, January 22nd, (late deadline entries). Mark your calendar now for the MAX Event: February 25, 2010 • 4:00- 7:00 p.m. Ziba Auditorium • 810 NW Marshall in Portland, OR

-Adrianne (@msfener)

Search engine optimization for Google News

Follow the link above or click below to have a listen of how Google search ranks news stories. Bob Garfield interviews Brent Payne, director of search engine optimization for Tribune Interactive. While searching for Garfield's Bio, I found this great one-liner, "Bob Garfield isn't exactly a media whore, but he's extremely promiscuous." Also linked here is the video Google posted on Google News, featuring Maile Ohye, Developer Programs Tech Lead. Ohye focuses on three main points during the video: 1. Ranking Factors, 2. FAQs from SEOs and Publishers, and 3. Best Practices to Publish. Cheers!

-Jacq (@jacqsmith)

Bloggers required to give full disclosure

People used to think of the internet as a vast jungle, a massive tangled network of tubes, a decentralized library of information with infinite shelves. We assumed this frontier could never be regulated.

But it turns out that the internet is quite manageable. The government in China has successfully blocked a huge swath of unapproved web sites for most of its users, as an extreme example. And people are more frequently being held accountable for what they write.

The latest is an FTC ruling that bloggers must disclose their relationship with advertisers or companies that have paid them to endorse products. There is a minor uproar in the blogosphere from writers who say the new rule would require them to disclose a review copy of a book as an advertiser relationship. But in fact, a lot of obscured endorsement goes on. I used to write for a prominent environmental blog that paid its writers to pen positive posts for advertisers, which would not be labeled as such and were mixed in with the impartial "reporting," things we chose to write on our own for which we were paid "competitive blogger compensation" -- $20 per post.

The F.T.C. said that beginning on Dec. 1, bloggers who review products must disclose any connection with advertisers, including, in most cases, the receipt of free products and whether or not they were paid in any way by advertisers, as occurs frequently. The new rules also take aim at celebrities, who will now need to disclose any ties to companies, should they promote products on a talk show or on Twitter. A second major change, which was not aimed specifically at bloggers or social media, was to eliminate the ability of advertisers to gush about results that differ from what is typical — for instance, from a weight loss supplement.

My take is, hey bloggers -- with power comes responsibility. Your increasing relevance means increased scrutiny. The internet is no longer lawless; accept it. Read the full NYT story here.

-Adrianne (@msfener)

Viral marketing your promotion

The overwhelming response to Oregon Chai's "Give Me Oregon Chai" promotion this weekend that caused them to run out of samples in four days was thanks to social media!

Timeline:

Thursday: Oregon Chai has budgeted a certain number of free samples for this promotion. Stacia sends me an email asking me to push out the word on the social networks first, so that our friends there will get first dibs.

Friday, 10:00 AM: The first notice is posted on Oregon Chai's Twitter, Facebook and MySpace pages.

Friday, 10:45 AM: We send the word out to freebie bloggers and promo trackers on Twitter.

Friday, 11:45 AM: Second notice posted on Twitter and Facebook.

Friday, 1:40 PM: Third notice posted on Twitter and Facebook.

Friday, 3:15 PM: Fourth and final notice posted on Twitter.

Saturday and Sunday: The http://givemeoregonchai.com is retweeted dozens of times and two dozen Facebookers "like" and comment on the promotion.

Monday, 11:00 AM: Judy gets a call from Oregon Chai saying that the promo web site has been swamped with visitors requesting samples. More than four times the number (and it was a large number) of samples budgeted were requested just on Monday. Stacia, who is the account manager, had not circulated the press release yet. "What did you guys do?" Judy asked me and Stacia. The wonderful folks at Oregon Chai said they would try to get more samples ready and shipped.

Tuesday, 8:00 AM: Oregon Chai called to say they had been able to scrounge up enough samples to meet the extra requests but would have to shut the promotion down, just four days after it went live. The http://givemeoregonchai.com web site was updated to say:

"So it seems a lot of people love Oregon Chai as much as we do. Due to a wonderful, overwhelming response for free samples, this promotion has ended...for now. Keep your eyes open for future offers from Oregon Chai. And in the meantime, visit your local market or oregonchai.com to get your hands on some 'me time.'"

Few things are tougher than ceasing a viral message. We put out the word today on the social sites, but people are unlikely to spread around the message in the same way.

Lesson: Social media is FAST. If you plan to promote something virally, you need to be ready for high demand over a short time. Fortunately Oregon Chai was happy and able to step up its offer and accommodate those who had already requested samples, and ended up shipping out almost SIX TIMES what they had originally planned. Love those guys!

-Adrianne (@msfener)

Informative links

Have you ever tried to Google a social media question? But, you never found a quick and understandable answer? Maybe one of your questions were: How to create a background for your twitter account? How to measure social media? Or, maybe your were just looking for new design inspiration, or new follows on twitter to mix it up? Via Google, I found a great link collection that can answer those questions and 29+ other questions related to social media! All on one blog post from Stefanm, my link collection, Websites I visit, personal link collection. Enjoy!

-Jacq (@jacqsmith)