Awhile back, I blogged about books that would provide a great escape from a recession. Though I've finished many more works since then, my favorite is still THE TIME TRAVELER'S WIFE. Here is how I summarized it before: This international bestseller is praised for all the right reasons. It is the most exciting, tamely passionate, heart-wrenching, thought-provoking love story I have ever read. The title is a testament to the plot. This is not a gushy love story but one that makes it hard to deny the existence of love's power and grace. The book is one that appeals to all ages, from teen to retirement. I have never flown through pages as fast as I did with this one. If I was going to choose one book to be a reading snob about and insist on just ONE, this would be IT.
Now, it is coming to LIFE on August 14th staring Rachel McAdams and Eric Bana. Look here for more info. I can hardly wait to tingle and cry. But please, don't let this be a classic replaced by a Hollywood film - read the book before then!
My step dad recently sent me this article about Twitter telling me that it was pretty interesting and I should give it a read. I hesitated, but a rainy day and a sore throat gave me nothing better to do. Now, through gritted teeth, I am writing to tell the world that Twitter is not as lame as I once was convinced of.
I joined Twitter for practical purposes to be about to 'tweet' about a client and get their product out there in the twitterverse. However, I never really 'twit' (?) about myself and my grande lattes or bad hair days (like the realistic comments above). My friends who did made me laugh and about once a week, I would sign on to see what they had been saying all week. Without a mobile phone with internet capabilities and constant Twitter access, I didn't get into it... ignorance is bliss right?
However, after reading this smart article, I am eating my words and rolling eyes about the internet sensation. People once reacted the way I did to Twitter about Blogger and CLEARLY I don't see the problem with a blog. Blogs scared people because they worried that people's attention spans would decrease to only enjoy short paragraphs and their desire for hard news would decrease as well. Twitter only further expands this fear, with its 140 character limit for each 'tweet.' The skeptic reaction to these internet communication trends is that we will soon be limited to only one punctuation mark to express emotion virally. Today I am "!" Tmrw I will be "." (Guess why.) However, now that I am no longer ignorant, this is why Twitter deserves some credit:
It's like a 'suspension bridge made out of pebbles' allowing you to build a substantial thought out of 140 character statements
The 140 characters are the SMS platform limit - used to make Twitter instant (from cell phones)
Creates an alternative to the "Hey, What's up?" phone call - doesn't do away with it
Has a search component to follow a specific topic - i.e. strawberries (What are chefs, farmers, legislators saying about your favorite fruit today, now?) This is brilliant because rather than competing with Googles legitimacy-ranked search, it provides 'real-time' answers about the current perception of the topic of your search
TinyURLs - make 140 character limits limitless when you can supply a billion dollar document in a link with a short message... called a 'pointing devise'
Some governments have begun tracking Twitter to see areas of flu/cold in order to protect their citizens
Activists use Twitter to plan events without otherwise immediate punishment - this is good/bad depending on where you stand, but it does show that Twitter can be a useful tool for more than light conversation {China has blocked access to Twitter for this reason, so much for those billions of users}
Allows @replies to any user (yes, even the White House and Oprah) - truly Global communication and changing our concept of the secluded 'celebrity'
Most interesting about Twitter is that the quickly developed system was not solely created by TwitterHQ. In fact, it was designed to allow users to build off of its platform and create more useful tools for the system to better serve the public - like the @reply.
Twitter allows people to see a 'collage' of tweets on ones home-page (personalized of course) - friends, businesses, celebrities, etc. By choosing to 'follow' someone, you receive a live feed of his or her tweets. This, combined with the search component, allows for a national conversation. While they aren't in the form of living room chats around the news station - they are open, diverse and specialized to one's interest.
So while you'll never catch me 'tweeting' about my cereal choice in the morning or letting you know I just stepped in a giant puddle, I DO appreciate the 'real-time search', the tinyURL component, the user expansion option to redevelop the site at any given point, and the dare it presents people to say something of value to the twitterverse in a mere 140 characters. Tweet on.
There are a lot of critics of advertising out there... they see the images and messages as annoying, unnecessary, invasive and ridiculous. They think of the multi-billion dollar industry as a leech sucking the individuality out of Americans.
I say they are just a bunch of cry babies looking to complain about something, because advertising is a creative strategy based art that aims to sell a product (the key to our economy and way of life). It is used to entertain, inform and contribute to the growth of product use (how else would you know there's a new phone that has a gps or a new line of baby-food that is much healthier for your child?)
However, for all of the well-executed, carefully-crafted ads there are out there, there is one part of the industry that us advertisers like to ignore... the black sheep in the family... the one who rides on our coattails and tries to share in our legitimacy: SALES PROMOTION.
You're lying or lonely if you say you truly enjoy telemarketing and unless someone approaches you on the street with something completely free (at which point you're going to suspect its covered in anthrax or something harmful), you are most likely trained to half ignore every word they say because you know it's laced with some sort of CATCH.
Why are we so pessimistic towards person-to-person sales? Probably not because we hate people' more likely it's because there have been too many scams involved in this type of sale. It's not personable and "a cheaper way to sell," it's INVASIVE and MANIPULATIVE.
I recently applied for a job that tricked college graduates into thinking that this start up company was hiring people to train for upper management at their promotions company. I explained in my interview that I was a creative strategist and would enjoy working with clients and on-site sales teams after developing the best way to promote a company based on their current problem that needed to be solved. They whole-heartedly assured me that this company was the place for me. After borrowing cars and paying tolls and wasting two days of my life, I found out I was at the other end of a joke. They had duped me with their sales skills to come for an all-day final interview where I followed the sales team around selling coupon cards to a local spa and resort. Not only was the card riddled with small print, the team would go door to door and interrupt local businesses to sell the commission-based product: a coupon. I felt like a monkey in a circus and was saddened by every person that fell into their smooth-talking trap. At the end of the day, I had learned a very important lesson: DON'T SETTLE on ANY JOB, no matter the recession!
Luckily, there are still smart people out there who understand the value of a promotion to increase foot-traffic to a company without sucking people's wallets and souls.
GROUPON is a web-based promotions company that through word of mouth, google, twitter and facebook, offers their coupon services to those who approach them. It is an email-reminder service that informs the group members of each day's special and it's their choice whether to click the link to the site to learn more. For instance, the site is Boston-based (although they have sites for Chicago, NY, DC, San Fran, LA and Atlanta) and they sent me a coupon for whale watching 40 minutes outside of the city. Since I am car-less, I deleted the email within seconds... no annoying sales person to try and rehash and get me to reconsider. Today, I was offered a 65% off coupon to a salon nearby for a mani-pedi (every girl's dream!) I wanted it SOOO bad so I read everything searching for a CATCH.
Guess what? Groupon did it; they created a promotional program without ANY catch. Instead, it's realistic. If 100 people participate in the promotion, you get the deal. If not, no deal. It's callled Collective Buying Power - companies agree to lower their prices if they get the return they desire. Today's deal, already has over 600 participants at 10 am. Looks like I'm getting a 20 dollar mani-pedi from a first-class salon!
Still Skeptical/ don't trust your blogger? Check it out here:
So, don't get scammed. I now have an insider view on the whole street team sales thing and will only be buying sodas and ice cream off the streets now. Get with the times and don't get harassed. Let advertising have it's good, innovative name back. (After all, who doesn't love giant interactive billboards or the classic J-E-L-L-O jingle?) Join GROUPON.
