for some reason I love it

priceless.

please calm down mr.jobs

Apple wasn't too happy with Ellen's parody, yet it makes sense where they are coming from I guess - they are just stressing over the tons of negative videos about their precious iPad.
I thought it was funny - It's Ellen's style. You wouldn't expect anything less from her. What do you think?

long time, no see...

It's been a while since I've been on here updating all of you guys. From my last post to now I have completed my Advertising Course at SLC, organized and planned the 30th Annual Greg Awards at the College - receiving an award for the best blog (yup, for this one), and am now finding myself frantically searching for a job in my field here in Kingston.. (if anyone has any leads, you know where to find me!)

Anyways, in the mean time I have been perusing the world wide web to see what is new in the world of online social media. I found this website and its quite enjoying to be honest.

Need to bitch about your roommate that steals all your milk? Or those birds that wake you up time after time every morning? How about the fact that your nails aren't reaching the optimum length to give yourself a french manicure because they keep breaking all the time?

Fear no more, BLAH Therapy is here!

www.blahtherapy.com

.. i'll let it speak for itself.

made me smile :)

While suffering from my terrible cold, I have of course been lazying myself in front of the TV.

This commercial came on. It made me smile despite the corniness of it all.

Happy Monday Everyone!

Paper Cup Resume

Resumes are Resumes. Words typed up on a blank sheet of paper. Do you really want that job you are striving to get? You definitely won't stand out with your average joe-shmo paper one. Do something different. Stand out.

Some may wonder who actually makes their resume "non-resume-ish." I know someone who put their resume on a coffee cup, not 8x11'' white paper. That was ages ago. To this day she is still known as the coffee cup girl.

Stumped as to what to do? Do something in your field - like this facebook girl. Her resume is all over the internet now.

Just sit down and write out stuff having to do with your area of expertise. Like all good advertising ideas, the ah-ha moment will come to you at some point.

thanks cosmo for telling everyone...

I picked up the latest Cosmo today after work - Lady Gaga on the cover convinced me to make the $5.49 purchase. While reading, I came across the "Want a kick-ass new job?" article. One of these newly-discovered jobs - a Professional Tweeter.

Cool. Thanks Cosmo for announcing my dream job to the entire English speaking world. Yes, I realize that it really wasnt a secret to begin with, but that many more people now know.

It's not just Tweeting professionally, its a new marketing lifestyle. It's Social Netmarketing.

This is what I LOVE to do. You get to be engaged with the customers, reach out to them, connect with them. I can honestly say that I now have an area that I am truly interested in with advertising and marketing.

Blogging. Facebooking. Tweeting. Here's the "secret" everyone: get into a marketing or PR firm that has or is in dire need for a social networking strategy. Yes, there are TONS of people that can Facebook their way up and down a street, but how many can actually use it to a companies benefit?

For us SLC grads, we know 2 things well: Advertising and Facebook. Well... we can now add blogging to our list ;)

So Saatchi wont take you in as an intern and you "settle" for a local small biz. Use it to your advantage - show this old school company the new social netmarketing ways of the future. An unexpected position is social marketing may just open up for ya.

meat water

Yes, I think its real. Check it out: www.dinnerinabottle.com

Thoughts?

privacy issues in plain english

I recently came across this website: pleaserobme.com
Wow, thieves must be having a hay day right now. Is the purpose of this site to really let people know when others leave their houses and feast upon a freebie smorgasbord?

This site links with your twitter account, and whenever you update where you are - every minute of the day - it lets people know on this site. Pairing up with Foursquare (which I know a recent grad of our program uses quite frequently...) you inform people where you are 24/7 it seems. You have let people know that your house is now empty... feel free to pillage away!

In reality, the site it a "dressed up Twitter search page." Anyone can get this information.

I love the purpose of this site - To inform people as to what they are really sharing out on the web. Going back to my previous post about Google Buzz, I am assuming that the majority of people using these services are not thinking twice before plugging in their current locations and deep dark secrets.

.... rumors have it that good old Fbook will be adding location sharing to their plethora of services as well..

oh goody.

buzz this

So you have all heard about Google Buzz, and I figured I may as well write a little bit about this new fan dangled program.

Google Buzz uses the people you email and chat with most often and makes it into a network. You can show pictures to the world, update your status and post links. Sound Familiar?? It essentially takes all the sites you already use (except Facebook) and puts them in one convenient location so you aren't having to visit a million pages one after another.

In a nutshell - It's a new app that makes your Gmail account into one mega social-sphere.

Although, there have already been a couple problems from this Facebook-imposter. Everyone is aware of the numerous privacy issues with Fbook, but Google Buzz takes it to a new level.

1. Buzz picks your network at first and allows people to see what you have posted to other people. What happens when a stray old abusive bf makes it into this group that you don't want to deal with? Sketch.
2. When you log into Buzz on your mobile phone, you give them access to your location info. Sketchy.
3. Check out people's "Buzzes" (Status updates) and under their buzz you will find their exact location of the posting - yes, street name and number, city, and state. SKETCHIER!!!

As of now, 175 million Gmail and Buzz users are spilling their info out for the world to see. Found beside the "Share," "Retweet," and "Digg This" buttons you can now find the "Buzz This" button. Talk about market saturation overload.

But in reality - How many of us have actually gone into our Facebook accounts and changed the privacy settings to prevent this information spillage?

Aside from the fact of nuclear-powered-information-spillage by clueless people, is Buzz a threat to Facebook? Is it just a poor attempt from Google to stay in the social-loop? Or is it the future - where we will all eventually be forced Google ourselves to death as it slowly takes over the internet?

cut the fat by gaining more?

I just came across this campaign that Burger King put on at the start of the year...

Friendship is strong, but the Whopper is stronger.

... simply delete 10 friends off your facebook account and you get a free burger. Oh, you also have to install their "Whopper Sacrifice" application to your list of many useless Fbook apps already. Every time you cut a friend loose, it announces your decision to the world.

With the many years you have been on Facebook, how many people have you met during a 5 minute convo and decided "hey, I met you - aaannnnddddd you can be my friend now.click."
Don't try to deny that you have never done that. Ever. Because you and I both know that it has happened at least once.

I deleted 200 people in 5 minutes. 200 people that I haven't talked to in ages, haven't met, or don't recognize because I met you for 2 minutes at that party last month. What could I possibly do with 20 Whoppers? I just cant even fathom the idea... wow, I used fathom. Blogs really are making me more smarter!

So in the end you are trimming that excess friend fat to simply add it onto your own bulging belly. But hey, who doesn't like free stuff?

Facebook = Power

When something large changes in our lives, we tend to lose it - whether its a good change or bad.

Pop my computer open. Open Firefox. Open Facebook. (my general routine no matter what time of day)

Oh God - Guys, Facebook changed. Is yours like this? This is dumb, why did Facebook have to change again?! ... run to next table. Guys! Is your Facebook different? no?! Why is mine the only one that's changed?!?!

True Story. That just happened. Not even lying.

It's pretty sad how Facebook has that much power over us. The power to send us running to tables and make us shout out to others across the room to announce these epic changes.

For those who have not experienced these epic changes yet, take a gander. You are probably thinking " It's a test on a couple people to see how it works out." But no. It's coming for you.



Facebook changes, we freak. iPad is launched, it stirs everything up. Superbowl commercials are busting out "sneak peaks," we get excited.

It's kinda sad, but it happens.

... by the way, today is Facebook's 4th Birthday. Thanks for changing stuff up for us as a celebration Fbook. You are awesome.

is social media a fad?

fad or future?

2009 grammys and social media

... just thought it was interesting how even the Grammys are getting more involved with social media. Their whole campaign for this years show is based around the social aspect, which I think is amazing. It's being crowned as We're All Fans.

Check it out here and let me know what you think about the Grammys new image

Heres a little tid bit of their campaign... love love love lady gaga <3
... and for those of you who detest her, there are videos for everyone from Dave Matthews, Kings of Leon, and Taylor Swift

you knew this one was coming...

Farmville. Just a Facebook application that has hit every one of us in one way or another. Some got completely engorged in the game (cough.. myself), and others just laughed at the ones that were being sucked in.. people like myself.

Who knew that the virtual sales of super pumpkins, mystery chests, and pink flamingos would account for $2 billion in sales last year?!

In a little over 2 months, 11 MILLION Facebook users plow their fields daily. That's the highest rise in users for online gaming EVER. Closest was World of Warcraft, who has 11.5 million players... but that number took 4 years to get to that point.

Going back to my first post - even though this area has been in business for a while with video games - is this the future for making that extra dough through selling your product? Video Games have product sponsors all through them, look at Grand Theft Auto and Need for Speed. So what's so wrong about getting into online Facebook games. No matter how stupid an idea may seem, you would make a killing doing it. I mean come on, $2 Billion on pink flamingos?!

Now excuse me, I need to go tend to my crops... enjoy this video

a cruel experiment

Everyone knows that if you want to bring attention to something fast, announce it on the internet. This will ensure people find out right away, and the uproar will commence almost immediately.

Starting a new campaign? Internet launch it. Ground breaking news? Internet.

I wanted to see how fast word would spread on Facebook alone with a simple relationship change to "engaged". Just how many people would know at the end of a 24hr period? This may have been a mean trick to some people, but holy crap... when word gets out, WORD GETS OUT!

Results between the two "fiancées":
1 min after status change - first comment
34 status comments
15 facebook messages
11 facebook chat messages
23 text messages
6 in person comments
= at least 89 people


After the 24hrs was up, it was all removed. Gone from internet history forever. 89 People commented, who knows how many impressions were made in that short time frame.

Word spread like wildfire for something so little in importance, compared to large company product launches. Social Media sites are able to provide that upper edge to your generic website launch as it gets the customers involved, allowing them to comment and provide their input.

Now the real question... is there anything better than social media to get your info out fast? Social Media may be the "it" thing right now, but what's the next step once people get sick of Facebook? (We all know it will happen sooner or later - look at MySpace...)

facebook flavoured vitamin water?

Ok, so the new flavour of Vitamin Water isn't actually called "Facebook," but its pretty damn close...

January 8th, "Connect" was launched as the new flavour for the drink's line. Vitamin Water created the new contest specifically to Facebook in which you could go to the flavour creator lab and make your own concoction. The application allowed you to create flavours, design the label, and vote on your favs. The winner would take home $5,000 of sweet sweet cash.

What took this campaign to the next level? You were able to monitor the social media buzz on the top 10 flavours through Google News, Twitter, Flickr and Foodgawker. Everyone's tweets, blog posts, searches and images ultimately helped the winner win.

What do you guys think about the never-ending list of social online campaigns that companies are creating? Is it just an easy way to gain engagement and buzz around their company?

the difference between marketing, pr, advertising and branding

Thought you guys would enjoy this one... if you cant see it that well click here

a fresh start to an overdone beginning

So here it is... I'm a 3rd year Advertising IMC student at SLC and it's pretty much crunch time. Time to choose what area you want to become a mastermind in before graduation, which isn't too far away now. I got thinking... what's new and interesting out in the world, what's changing the way we advertise our junk to make it seem that much better. How do we grab people's attentions and keep them where we want them in a world of corny commercials and ads?

Social Online Marketing... or Social Netmarketing?

Someone asks you to promote their company. Your first thought - Facebook and Twitter. It is the cheapest and easiest way to involve your company with your customers, but can easily become overdone. Twitterholics, Twittercide, Twitterdiction, Twitterosaurs? (urban dictionary for the win) - we have heard it all. The problem? Peole don't know how to effectively use these mediums to their benefit. It all just ends up looking like one last desperate attempt to get your name out there. There are so many ways to use these mediums to your advantage... and it's easy as hell too. Maybe people should learn how to get the most out of their sites before they just jump on the junky bandwagon...