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• Network With Randall

  

  

  

Have faith in your dreams

I give thanks for my dreams. I also give thanks for yours. I hope you do too.

Because you never, ever know where you will be one year from now.

Here is a great reminder of how, no matter what anyone else says, you just might have a phenominal idea…the only way you’ll ever know is to stick with it! Enjoy it, it’s a quick read and there’s even a fun little video!

Click Here to Read Disney’s Folly

Reality Shows and YOUR Brand

I’ve loved reality shows for years.

It was my “dirty little secret” for a long time, because I felt like I was supposed to be telling people I was watching Nova or something else that would be considered a “smart” show.

But if you really look at it, you’ll learn so much about  the mindset of the entrepreneur from these shows!

1. They KNOW they’re on tv. This is an important part that a lot of people watching forget. They aren’t hidden cameras, they’re right there every minute, you can’t forget about them no matter how hard you might try. This leads me to….
2. Contestants are being the most branded they can possibly be. Some want name recognition, some have bands, some want to be on more reality shows. That means people have to remember you for…something. What the contestant chooses shows a lot about them as a person. I always enjoy the entrepreneurs on “I Love New York” - they have to simultaneously call out how much they love NY, but at the same time get the branding in there for the company.

Do YOU (the big YOU not you personally) love your company enough to profess love for a crazy woman in order to present yourself and your brand in the best possible light? What are you willing to do in order to wear your T-Shirt on national TV (a la the Stallionaires - a three man band that existed prior to I Love New York (the first one) and now on their expensive flash-a-licious website the two that were on the band go by the names New York gave them - Real and Chance - instead of their given names. So they went to the show and wore the shirts to get exposure, and then to make sure people who watch the show come through to them…they keep the nicknames from the show…it’s like one-man cross branding) .

What are you willing to do to get your brand out locally or online? What lengths will you go to and what risks will you take to get known? And if you do something really big…will it pigeonhole you into one niche that you didn’t really want to be in?

I love reality shows, because you get to watch individual entrepreneurs build a brand and share that brand the best way they know how.

Bind Faith vs. Trust

Concealing vs. Revealing - The Marketing Spin

Great blog entry by Seth Godin today about people and the strategy of hiding the negative (or accentuating the positive) instead of just getting everything out on the table and being more full-disclosure about yourself. Or your company.  Or your product.

Since I was just on a networking tear last weekend, I was thinking about how I present myself to the world - do I put my best foot forward so often that people think I only have one leg?

If putting your best foot forward means NOT snorting when you laugh, like, ever, I failed miserably. Which I think is good. People need to see their experts as human, not as some freaky machine that never stops.

I don’t have to be an expert at makeup application, style, laughing without snorting, or any other vast number of things. I’m an expert at interactive (online), emotion-based marketing. That’s the only thing I have to be #1 at. Everything else just gives me depth and color.

Yes, that’s what I tell myself when I trip while walking…I know you were asking yourself… *grin*

It also makes me what I like to call “an approachable human”. That’s important, because many experts hide behind jargon and pithy one-liners and don’t show people who they really are. This means that people have to put their blind faith into the expert when they hire them, because they aren’t going to get human interaction helping them along. When you know someone has real, human personality traits and isn’t roaming the networking forest in a suit with one-liners a-flying…you can build real trust. The kind of trust that exists between two humans.

Blind faith or Trust..which would you rather give? Or receive?

Glenn Beck vs. Dr. Oz - Who has more “Pants Appeal?”

Alternate Title for this Post: Marketing your pants off!

Glen Beck has a great article about Dr. Oz and his magical scrubs. The ones that he wears (in my opinion) to stay sterile around Oprah.

Some may think that Dr. Oz is just SUCH a snappy dresser in real life that perhaps Oprah was threatened that her wardrobe would pale in comparison. Others may think that he’s just trying to be more “dignified” or exert his expert status by wearing the clothing of his trade.

But I know the truth. (Allegedly)

Dr. Oz likes to play with messy things. I’ve seen him with a wheelbarrow full of fat, and that was messy and gross. Not seen in person, of course, I mean seen on Oprah - well, really it was on YouTube, because I don’t watch Oprah on a regular basis.

So, yeah, he’s messy…I figure you don’t want to be wearing a $2k Armani when you’re on Oprah playing with chicken fat. Or any of the other various and sundry things he messes with on the show. If he only wore scrubs when something fun and gross was going to occur, it would be a dead giveaway if he came out wearing a suit 90% of the time and then just came out in scrubs when the messy stuff was going to go down.

And Oprah is all about the suspense. I think. It was when I watched it last.

Either way, I really enjoyed what Glenn Beck had to say about Dr. Oz and his constant scrub-wearing. Enjoy!

Wired Magazine Editor in Chief blocks PR People

WOW!

I’ve been trying to understand PR lately. I’m told it’s completely different than marketing, I’ve seen the lines blur…but stay intact…for a while now. But to stay up to date I figure the smartest thing I can do is learn about PR.

So today’s Google Alerts comes in and I was astounded! The Editor-in-Chief of Wired Magazine (one of my looooong time favorites) listed, on his blog, the email addresses of the people he feels have sent him inappropriate pitches in the last 30 days.

There are about a gajillion people on the list. Go take a look at his post “Sorry PR people: you’re blocked”

There are also over 300 comments on the blog post. Some from PR people on the list, some from PR people not on the list and a whole bunch of people cheering him on for what he’s done.

So…I’ve learned that PR is volatile *grin*

Also, I think that newbies may have a good chance here - to learn how to do it the right way from the beginning. Make some calls, ask some questions, be polite…I mean…there are so many news outlets all looking for news. You have news. At some point there has to be an intersection between the need and the deliverable.

On the bright side, the company Marketing Curve uses for our clients’ PR needs was NOT on the list! WooHOO! (I mean, I knew she wouldn’t be, but you never know….)

cinema advertising industry revenues of CAC membership grew by 15 percent

You may already know this…but the best place to find commercials these days is at the local movie theatre!

The Cinema Advertising Council www.cinemaadcouncil.org released a report a couple weeks ago (that I missed and…did you miss it too?) showing the increase in revenue.

NEW YORK, OCTOBER 15, 2007 — The Cinema Advertising Council (CAC), today unveiled its 2006 report on cinema advertising revenues. According to the association’s report, cinema advertising industry revenues of CAC membership grew by 15 percent to $455,661,000 in 2006 as compared to a total of $394,830,000 in 2005. Cinema remains among the fastest-growing advertising mediums for 2006. The announcement of the report – which was independently tabulated by Miller, Kaplan, Arase & Co. LLP – was made today by Clifford E. Marks, president and chairman of the CAC. (Read full press release HERE)

The more people acquire TiVo and the more people that sign up for DVR service, the more lucrative advertising on the “big screen” is going to be. It’s a captive audience. Totally captive. Sure they can get up and go to the restroom, get a refill on popcorn, or buy some candy - but the odds are they won’t. Because most people get candy, etc. before they go in and sit down. Not after.

I’m wondering if they’ll go back to having “Intermission” like they do between the movies at the double-play drive-in movie theatre. That would give them a chance to air fifteen straight minutes of commercials. Ones that would be heard and most likely seen by over half of the audience.

Thanks movie theatres. Because of you, I can now indulge my propensity for arriving places 7 minutes late…knowing full well I won’t miss a minute of the movie…or the previews. But I will probably miss a couple Coca Cola commercials, a car commercial, some self promotion for the theatre company, and a reminder to turn off my cell phone. (Don’t worry, I never forget to turn off my cell phone in the movie theatre!)

Social Networking - Still not convinced?

I was watching my most guilty-ist of pleasures a little bit ago and it just hit me that it’s really a new breed of television show.

We all have TV shows we watch now, or used to watch, that we’re not particularly proud of…so I’m just saying…don’t judge *laugh*

I’ve been watching Gossip Girl on the CW - I *think* it’s a “tweener” show. But I’m not entirely sure. I know that they’re mostly supposed to be high school seniors, but there is a pretty intricate backstory (and plots!) for all the adults as well. They’re not just “wah wah wah” characters like Charlie Brown used to have. That’s what I tell myself when I’m watching it and thinking about how darn young most of the main characters look!

So, enough about my tawdry TV habits - the point here is that the entire premise of Gossip Girl is a blog. A blog about the “elite of New York” (more specifically Manhattan’s Upper East Side) with all the posts signed (you guessed it) Gossip Girl. The intro and out-tro are both voiced by “Gossip Girl” as well. It’s used very subtly in the show, they don’t say blog or talk about Gossip Girl…it’s just something that “is” in this world of excess on the CW.

Seriously. A blog.

If you visit the site you’ll see even more bells and whistles. An interactive menu, fashions available at Victoria’s Secret, complete with picking a character and getting specific item suggestions (if you want to see how to execute a cross promotion in a world where commercials are mostly optional…this is a good site to check out.) There’s even a video game where you can pretend to be one of the characters. Wait, I’m not sure on that…in the interest of research I’ll have to check it out right quick.

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Ok, I’m back. OH MY GOSH! If you’ve read my previous posts you’ll see that I’ve blogged about the online video game Second Life a couple of times - well guess where the Gossip Girl’s hometown is located in cyberspace?? You guessed it again! Second Life!

Second life had some problems recently, but it really seems to be making a resurgence - this time among the masses instead of geeky gamers (like me) and other Internet snobs that found it a while ago.

I just saw Second life in CSI:NY a while ago (I know, my DVR is filled with shows you’d call [sardonically] “nuttin but class”.) There’s a CSI:NY section in Second Life as well - or so I was told by the eight thousand commercials telling me to go solve the crime now! Wow. Last time I went there were no people (except those trying to get naked - for journalistic purposes I tried to get a job in Second Life but all that was available that I could find was stripper or escort…not my style…so you haven’t seen a blog post about it.)

Maybe I need to log back in and see what’s going on in the world of the Lindens. It seems they may have lost a lot of gamers…but wow…they may just capture the world instead. Interesting, indeed!

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Last but not least, in searching for an image to use for this entry, I stumbled upon something I think is amazing. The show Gossip Girl is based on a series of bestselling novels (written for teens) - and I think we all know how I feel about books…

My guilty TV pleasure may turn into a guilty book pleasure. Strictly for research purposes…of course…

Does smoking make a difference?

Sometimes the simple answer is the best answer.

The other day I went to lunch with a friend of mine. I like diners. It’s no secret how much I like diners. From way back in the day when there just wasn’t anywhere else to go and hang out with your friends at two in the morning, the diner gave us a place to have coffee and continue the conversation. Some of my best memories of friends will always contain a backdrop of awful vinyl booths and those disgusting cakes and pies in the rotating glass case.

One of the things that made these establishments so popular with the young’uns is that they could smoke there. No one checked for ID, and I had a great number of friends who smoke (and some still do) - smoking was always an integral part of the ritual. They’d have coffee, soup, and smoke while we all talked until sunrise.

There were two very large competing diners (and a third which remains open…but doesn’t get special mention) along a strip of well travelled highway. What made one better than the other? I have no idea…but some people swore by Around the Clock, and some swore by The Purple Steer. We, of course, had our own nicknames for the places…but this is a family blog…

Our favorite was always Around the Clock, because they had the “famous” lemon rice soup. Really, if you’ve never had lemon rice soup you might want to give it a try. It’s a cream soup…with lemon. Other than being a chemistry experiment (why doesn’t the lemon curdle the milk?) it also tastes really good. It’s what kept us going to Around the Clock when The Purple Steer was just down the street.

Recently Around the Clock went through a renovation - into something that looks vaguely like a Cracker Barrel or something out of a Texas Chainsaw Massacre movie. I have no idea what they were thinking, but it really looks quite awful. Dark, lots of wood and metal objects-de-art on the walls. It’s supposed to be a “down home on the farm” kind of remodel, I think, but what it accomplishes is being claustrophobic.

Oh yeah, and they changed to non-smoking.

So what are the young, angsty smokers going to do? Forego their cherished lemon rice soup to go down the street to the renamed “The Steer” restaurant (seems the Purple was no longer necessary…) in order to smoke?

Which is more important? A favorite food….or the ability to smoke?

And then on a trip to The Steer with my smokin’ friend I saw this picture…

Looks like there isn’t a difficult choice to make after all.

The Steer looked at what it’s customers wanted, lemon rice soup and a smoking section…and gave it to them. Also, there is now a new place to go if you DON’T want to deal with any smokers at all…I think both businesses will find they have increased their niche market share based on these decisions. The non-smokers will put up (gladly!) with the darker interior of the refurbished Around the Clock in order to eat and relax in a smoke-free environment. The smokers will flock to The Steer for the soup, coffee, and socialization that has always been the hallmark of the young, angsty “diner crowd” - and everyone has someplace to go when they’re hungry that they feel caters specifically to them.

Good job, diner owners….good job!

(I’d love to see how the receipts play out after a year of no smoking at Around the Clock and lemon rice soup at The Steer, my guess is both diners will see an increase in profits…but there is no way to know for sure.)

1-800-GOOG-411

How COOL is this?

Are you part of Google Local Listings yet?

If you are, then you too can be found when someone calls 1-800-GOOG-411 to find you!

411 must be a little worried about this…I mean…1-800-GOOG-411 is free, after all…and even if there’s not a real live operator on the other end of the line…that means I’m not paying for one.

And we all know that I streamline wherever possible.

Now my mission is to figure out how to get higher up in the results list.

My other mission is to figure out what GOOG-411 is saying half the time. It has some communication issues. But I’m sure those will improve with time. It’s just such a fun/cool tool!

The Dawn of the “New and Improved” Press Release

Even when most people know their content has to be engaging and readable for others to care about it, press releases are still getting neglected.

Over at PR 2.0 there’s a very nice (and long) blog post about how press releases need to change, and the first step is accepting that PR is changing in a very real, user/reader driven way.

My favorite quote from this post is

No matter how tricked-out your press release is with “extras,” if it is still full of garbage, then we’re only placing our trash in a fancier container.

I think the same holds true for many things on the Internet: Social Networking sites that are basically “phoning it in” - websites - even print media with bright colors and no message.

But press releases have so much potential power, it’s imperative that we all start thinking differently about how we deliver information to media outlets.

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