Stan Phelps is a master marketer, author, and soon-to-be-reality TV star. You may recall his awesome book of crowd-sourced research on customer relationship-building and Lagniappe called The Purple Goldfish. Stan’s latest Goldfish is the color of most associated environmental concerns, Hal Jordan, New Orleans, and not coincidentally, profits.
What’s Your Green Goldfish drops this Friday, and Stan was kind enough to share with us a Slideshare presentation of some of the best parts. Please take a look here and share with us your thoughts via comments!
FranCamp– the Social Media conference for The Franchising Industry – is happening May 14 and 15 at the Loews Atlanta Hotel. I am pleased to once again be part of the team organizing FranCamp, this time with theIFA!
If you haven’t yet registered for FranCamp, do so today as space is limited. And now, the numbers…
Number of days: 2
Speakers / sessions scheduled: 20
Education Credits you will toward your CFE accreditation: 300
Number of times in the next two monthsPaul Segretoand I will make a joke that begins: “This one time, at FranCamp…”: 7
Cost: $395
Contacts you will make while networking: up to you!
Social Media marketers and community managers are channeling their inner Churchill.
At the onset of World War II, Winston Churchill needed more hours in the day. Sound familiar?
Being the leader of the free world at the time, Churchill was able to do the impossible and doubled the number of hours in his day.
Each day at around 4pm, he left the office, went home, and went to sleep. Around 7pm he woke up, went back to the office and worked with this war staff until about 4am. Then he’d go sleep until 7am, and start the day all over again! In essence, he did create two working days out of one!
And that’s exactly what many of those managing social media for their organizations are doing. And, without the nap! So many of my colleagues are standing down around dinner time, doing their own thing in the evening, and then jumping back in work mode around 11pm or so.
Do you fit this model? Are you jumping back in late in the evening after your time with IRL friends, family, kids, etc? I would love to hear your take on this.
The International Franchise Association’s annual convention returns to Las Vegas in February 16 – 20. As you get ready for the show, here’s a list of gear you’ll want to remember.
What to bring:
1. Business cards. Yes, we still use those. No one really wants to tap phones to exchange contact information because that’s just weird.
2. Hand sanitizer. You really don’t want this flu bug that’s taking people out of work for a week at a time. It’s killing our economy faster than Obamacare, which is ironic.
Stop by the Engage121 booth in the exhibit hall. We’ll have plenty to share. In fact, let’s all bathe in the stuff.
3. A pen. Because, no, I don’t have an extra pen. You would probably just get flu germs on it.
4. Your power cords. A colleague of mine forgot his and headed off to find the Apple Store in Las Vegas during the 2011 IFA. We’re still waiting for him to return.
5. All of the cash you plan on using. Nothing good happens after going to an ATM in a Las Vegas casino.
It’s just media … messages … communications. We’re putting too much emphasis on “how social” something is. It’s losing its meaning quickly. Also, the faster we can stop saying “viral video” when describing every video online, the better!
2. 2013 is the year of Google+.
Sure, some say Google+ is the perpetual also-ran to Facebook.
Will you use it as much in your personal life as you use Facebook? No.
But, when potential customers search for information, will they see the content you put on your Facebook Fan Page or the content you put on your Google+ profile? Yep, it’s called Google+ for a reason. Get on board now!
3. 2013 is the year Public Relations steps up.
After 5 years of complaining that we’re once again not at the executive table, PR professionals will take a leadership role within most organizations to manage the messaging and manage the relationships with the audiences.
4. 2013 is the last year a CEO thinks Social Media is about reaching “the kids”.
During MTV’s golden age of 1981 through 1986, an annual tradition was the low-budget, slapped together, in-studio Christmas video! Let’s take a look…
Billy Squire “Christmas Is the Time to Say I Love You” 1981
This was the first MTV Christmas video and arguably the best of the songs. The video itself could be replicated now with the phone in your pocket. It set the trend of featuring the MTV staff, most of whom look really high. I think there was a White Christmas in the MTV offices in 1981!
The video set a nice precedent for having A-list artists involved in these MTV-produced projects. Squire was huge at the time, a veritable one-man Led Zeppelin reborn. But that would end in just a couple of years, ironically when his “Rock Me Tonight “ video on MTV killed his rock credibility in less than 5 minutes.
Joe King Carrasco “It’s a Party Christmas” 1982
This song is truly awful. It’s not only the worst Christmas song of the Modern Rock Era, but is in the running for the worst song EVER. I’ve tried to like it for years in the spirit of being such a fan of the genre. But, c’mon, this sucks. I am embedding the video below, but do yourself a favor and DON’T watch it.
George Thorogood “Rock n Roll Christmas” 1983
Unfortunately this video has been pulled from YouTube. C’mon Lonesome George, really?
Bryan Adams “Reggae Christmas” 1984
By ’84 the budgets were bigger and Pee-Wee Herman showed up. Somehow this give us Canadian Reggae. Yeah, mon, eh?
Jon Anderson “Three Ships” 1985
This is 90125 – era YES lead singer Jon Anderson. It’s indescribable; just watch.
Monkees “Christmas Medley” 1986
Sixties nostalgia reigned supreme in 1986, culminating this part of the Monkees’ comeback. The Monkees were one of the biggest bands of 1986 and capped the year with this video that officially reunited Mike Nesmith with the other boys. Spoiler! He’s in the Santa suit.
And there’s the circle of life for MTV: Nesmith, whose PopClips videos were an inspiration for MTV’s creation appears at the very end of the golden age of MTV via this Christmas video. Within a year, new owner Viacom would gut MTV and begin replacing music with reality shows and other nonsense.
Sometimes when you hear newly-written Christmas songs, you end up thinking, “man, they sure don’t make ‘em like they used to.” But Broken Arrow, Oklahoma’s new favorite son JD McPherson is here to prove that wrong. See, this little white dude who sings like Little Richard DOES make ‘em like they used to. And without any ironic, cooler-than-you sensibilities. Nope, this guy and his band (notably including bassist and musical director Jimmy Sutton) nail their vintage sound so well, you actually just feel like you’re listening to the greatest 1950′s album you’ve never heard. One review of his record said it was “engineered to renew your faith in rock’n'roll” and that is dead-on.
And while you are busy having your faith renewed in rock’n'roll, why not multi-task and have it renewed in newly-penned Christmas songs. This one takes a little something old, a little something new, adds some warm feelings and some holiday cheer, and comes out of the oven with my favorite track of the season. Merry Christmas. .
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Thanks to Atlanta-based singer/songwriter Michael Hodgin for today’s guest post!
Ah, Paul Westerberg. The great Replacements frontman and solo songwriter has been cultivating a reclusive persona of late, only plugging in his guitar this year to put Hank Williams and Gordon Lightfoot covers on a tribute album for his ailing ex-bandmate Slim Dunlap.
But a few years ago, Paul put this little gem on a non-Holiday collection available via download only from Amazon, as he’s been doing with most of his material in recent memory. And what a gem it is. Leave it to PW to put his idiosyncratic spin (and a little Chuck Berry influence) on Christmas and come out the other side with an instant new classic. The Little Lord Jesus never rocked so hard.
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Thanks to Atlanta-based singer/songwriter Michael Hodginfor today’s guest post!
As we all know, Die Hard is one of the best Christmas movies ever made. And as such, it features some perennial Holiday music favorites as well. Of course, it closes with the timeless “Let It Snow,” sung by Vaughn Monroe, but this time we’re featuring limo driver Argyle’s favorite selection on the soundtrack, Run DMC’s “Christmas In Hollis.”
I don’t think I ever actually saw this video back in 1987 but watching it now makes me long for the days when videos actually acted out the lyrics of the song. “We better point to the Christmas tree when he says ‘Christmas tree.’”
Welcome to the party, pal.
Thanks again to Atlanta-based singer/songwriterMichael Hodginfor today’s guest post!
In the UK, “Fairytale of New York” is consistently voted as the all-time favorite (or favourite) Christmas song. In the US, it has become the only song most people can name by the Pogues.
The song itself is one long contrast between beauty and ugliness: cheerful flutes and drunken insults; images of a snowy New York City and the drunk tank; the hope of Christmas and the lonely reality of broken dreams. Have listen here:
