Sep 23, 2008

Hiatus

Marketing Roadmaps is going on a little break. Just a little one - I expect to be back with you on or before October 1st.

Here's the scoop.

First, we are shifting over to self-hosted WordPress sometime in the next week or so. I'd rather save the really great stuff I've got in the pending file for the new URL, not this hosted TypePad one.

Second, I'm pretty busy at the moment with client work and new business development, plus trying to find time to work on my blogger relations book and a new business I am putting together. I don't have the time to devote to the posts here that I require to keep the quality high.

Finally, I'm feeling just a bit burnt out on social media "stuff," in part due to last weekend's BlogWorld Expo. My post about that is on my personal blog, Snapshot Chronicles.

It's time to step back, just a bit.

I'm going to spend some time catching up with the bloggers I love to read and pursuing my other interests, on and offline. Friday the 26th I'll be going out to Denver for Sci Fi Channel's digital press tour, and the following weekend I'll be at the big terrier dog shows in Montgomery County Pennsylvania. Reports from both of those will also be on Snapshot.

But I'll be back in October, with a shiny easier to manage WordPress blog. Perhaps not tanned or rested, but certainly ready to talk about blogger relations, marketing and social media again. In fact, if you are in the Boston area, consider coming to BlogHer Boston on October 11th at the Burlington Marriott. It's shaping up to be an excellent conference.

Posted @ 10:09AM in Mathom Room | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Sep 7, 2008

Some Blogger Relations Mathoms

As part of a fresh start to Fall, I'm cleaning out my email box today. In the process, I've run across a few blogger relations issues that really can't support a full post but deserve mention.

Email addresses

Don't use gmail, yahoo or other free service email addresses to send pitches. People like to know that they are dealing with a reputable person, a reputable organization. Your email address, traceable to a firm or organization through its website, helps convey that information. Related: don't send the email from someone else's account, ie the email FROM: field is one name and the signatory on the email is someone else.  Nothing says "processed using an email database" better than an email sent by one person on behalf of another.

Media databases

Media databases like Cision and Vocus that include bloggers are an okay place to start building a list for blogger outreach in certain high-profile blog categories like tech, parents and marketing, but don't just spam releases without a cover note. Vocus offers an opt-out button, and I find I am using it when it is simply a release with no note. While I am sure there is a work-around if someone affirmatively requests materials, once someone has opted out from an entity, the system isn't supposed to let it send anything else. In other words, no second chances. Now, this might force agencies to actually begin contacting bloggers before emailing them, but I am not terribly hopeful.

Why did you send me this pitch?

If you get an email like this from me or any other blogger, don't take offense. When I do it, it means that the item might be of interest, but  you didn't tell me why you thought I'd be interested. Now, if I'm just a name in a database, and you have no clue why you sent me the item, this does have the effect of calling you out, so to speak. The best course is to apologize. But don't simply offer to take me off the list -- ask me what I would be interested in.

Often as recently happened with a junior staffer at an agency I respect, the rep just gets so wrapped up in the pitch that she forgets to identify the WIIFM. That's why I always advise starting there -- tell the blogger, or journalist, why you thought he'd be interested before you get into the pitch for your thing, whatever it may be.

And finally, a pet peeve.

The true meaning of Unsubscribe. It's the action we take when we have subscribed to something, by choice, and then decide that we don't want to receive it anymore. It is NOT a synonym for opting-out of a mailing list to which you have been added without your permission. Increasingly, however, I've noticed that organizations are using unsubscribe in that context. Even the opt-out mechanism on Vocus has an <Unsubscribe> button instead of <Remove> or some other verb that would be more accurate, and I have seen it used on other PR pitches sent to bloggers.

This really bugs me. Since I did not subscribe to your list in the first place, how can I possibly unsubscribe? I suspect the use of the language is motivated by the CAN-SPAM Act. The thinking probably goes something like this:

   

Adding these people to our mailing list without their permission is probably in violation of CAN-SPAM, but people get so much email these days, if we imply they subscribed, maybe they'll forget that they didn't opt-in to ours and we won't get in trouble.

Sleazy.

---

Related posts:

   
• The secret sauce for the perfect pitch
   
• Where's the beef: the content of a good blog pitch
   
• Blogger relations category on Marketing Roadmaps

Tags: blogger relations

Posted @ 3:09PM in Blogger relations, Mathom Room | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Aug 25, 2008

Mathom Room: Compensation Architect, Media Bullseye, Intuit and relaunch of PBS Parents

The mathom room is that place where I put all the interesting stuff that I want to tell you about but just don't have time to devote a whole post. Here's this month's collection.

---

Compensation Architect is a new blog that I developed for Santorini Consulting, an enterprise software implementation firm. The blog is a guide to designing, managing and implementing compensation systems; its principal author David Kelly is a recognized expert in the field. If you are, or someone you know is, involved in setting or managing sales compensation systems and policies, I urge you to check it out. Design by Leslie Doherty of Catapult Web Development.

---

I keep forgetting to mention that I was a guest on the Media Bullseye Roundtable podcast on August 1st. Sarah Wurrey, Jen Zingsheim and I talked about BlogHer, whether the web is impacting reading standards and the impact of Randy Pausch's life and death on the interwebs.

---

I'm going to have more to say on the JingleGenerator from Intuit as a blogger relations campaign, but for now, just enjoy messing around and creating jingles using this tool. I'm not sure anyone would actually use one of these jingles in a promo campaign but it's kinda fun to create one. And I absolutely love this footnote from the press release:

   

¹Tommy Silk is a totally fictitious character, created solely for the promotion of theJingleGenerator.com because we didn’t have the budget to hire someone famous or use their name without getting our pants sued off. Any resemblance to real music moguls, living or dead, is purely coincidental. So there.

Silk? He's sort of a cross between Austin Powers, Tommy Mottola and Tommy Lee.With maybe a dash of Van Halen. And funny, though not nearly as funny as the footnote.  Enjoy.

---

PBS has relaunched pbsparents with the Supersisters blog written by sisters Jen Lemen, Kristen Hammond and Patience Salgado. I love the idea of hearing from siblings on a subject. One of the most compelling blogs I've ever "read" was 3191 a photo blog by two sisters who lived on opposite coasts, took a photo every morning and then posted the results. I think Supersisters has the potential to be just as compelling. Check it out.

That's it for the mathom room. I'll be back later in the week with more blogger relations, good and bad.

Tags: Intuit, PBS, Supersisters, Media Bullseye, Santorini Consulting       

Posted @ 7:08PM in Blogger relations, Blogging, Mathom Room | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

Jun 19, 2008

My Social Media and Marketing Mathom Room

In the universe of JRR Tolkien's The Hobbit and LOTR: “Anything that Hobbits had no immediate use for, but were unwilling to throw away, they called a mathom. Their dwellings were apt to become rather crowded with mathoms, and many of the presents that passed from hand to hand were of that sort." (Tolkien, cited on World Wide Words)

Going forward, when I have a small collection of various bits that don't quite merit a full post of their own, but which I am not quite willing to throw away, I will be posting them to my social media and marketing mathom room. 

Associated Press takes on the fair use standard - The blogosphere was abuzz earlier this week with the news of takedown notices sent by AP to parody web site The Drudge Retort citing copyright infringement. While it seemed to back down (and yet not) from the hard line stance, the AP party line seems to be that verbatim quotations from AP stories on blogs is not fair use, whereas paraphrasing and linking is. This is a complex issue, and won't be resolved in the court of blogger opinion. It will take the inevitable lawsuit. In the meantime, if you'd like to know more about fair use and implications for bloggers, check out EFF's legal guide for bloggers (hat tip Kami Huyse for the reminder).

In my opinion, AP is paying attention to the wrong problem. Instead of worrying about the potential lost licensing revenue from bloggers using AP content under fair use, it should be thinking about how to reinvent itself in a new media landscape. In the simplest terms, AP is a news aggregator. It has a lot more competition now than it did a few years ago, and establishing a perimeter defense just doesn't seem like the smart move.

Some will advance the quality argument -- a professional organization like AP adds value to the story that cannot be duplicated by Internet sources or citizen journalists. Buffalo chips. Sure, AP has some stellar reporters who write great stories. But the agency is less and less needed to serve this intermediary role when the media, whether social or mainstream, can more easily go to the source.

Which is why I agree with Michael Arrington, Jeff Jarvis and others who suggest bloggers stop using AP stories as source material. Go to the original source. If you must use the AP information, and really, you shouldn't need to, paraphrase and link, don't quote. Unless you want to be the test case in a lawsuit, this is the safer course. And perhaps AP will realize that it should have been more careful in what it wished for.

Link exchange requests: PR's Amateur Hour - Last week, I advised to never ever ask for a link exchange from a blogger. If you didn't believe me then, believe my friend and mom blogger Julie Marsh. She writes this week that link exchange requests are worse than PR spam.

Ranking systems- As regular readers know, I think ranking systems are inherently flawed in that they are created by human beings with biases. As long as we know and acknowledge the limitations, they are not that harmful. If we forget that these structures were created by people with a point of view and are generally anything BUT objective, we end up attaching far more importance to them than they deserve. Robert French has a nice analysis of the Ad Age Power 150 that touches on some of these points.

That's it for this edition of my mathom room.

Tags: link requests, ranking systems, fair use, AP

Posted @ 10:06PM in Blogger relations, Mathom Room, Media | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

Jun 16, 2007

Sing, sing a song

Pal Mary Schmidt tagged me in the "songs that lift your spirits" meme. The goal of meme originator, life coach Hilda Carroll, is a collective playlist.

Mary comments that it is hard to pick just one song because she has different soundtracks for different parts and times of her life.

Yup. How do I pick?

Bob Marley. Aretha. Nina Simone. Eric Clapton. Jimmy Cliff. Warren Zevon. Norah Jones. David Sanborn. Bonnie Raitt. Cream. Blood Sweat & Tears. Chicago. Monk. Billie.  And yes even The Who, Beatles and Stones.

I can get it down to three.

Pretty much everything by Crosby Stills & Nash, but most particularly Southern Cross.

For What It's Worth, Buffalo Springfield

And for the sheer joy of it, Ella Fitzgerald's Berlin version of Mack the Knife.

{spoken} thank you. we'd like to do something for you now.
We haven't heard a girl sing it. and since it's so popular,
We'd like to try and do it for you.
We hope we remember all the words.{}

Oh, the shark has pearly teeth, dear
And he shows them, pearly white
Just a jack knife has macheath, dear
And he keeps it out of sight

Oh, the shark bites with his teeth, dear
Scarlet billows start to spread
Fancy gloves though, wears macheath dear
So there's not, not a trace of red

On a sunday, sunday morning
Lies a body, oozin life
Someones sneaking round the corner
Tell me could it be, could it be, could it be
Mack the knife?

Oh, what's the next chorus?
To this song, now
This is the one, now
I don't know
But it was a swinging tune
And it's a hit tune
So we tried to do mack the knife

Ah, louis miller
Oh, something about cash
Yeah, miller, he was spending that trash
And macheath dear, he spends like a sailor
Tell me, tell me, tell me
Could that boy do, something rash

Oh bobby darin, and louis armstrong
They made a record, oh but they did
And now ella, ella, and her fellas
Were making a wreck, what a wreck
Of mack the knife

{louis armstrong imitation}
Oh snookie taudry, bah bah bah nop do bo de do
Bah bah bah nop do bo de do
Just a jack knife has macheath, dear
And do bo bo bah bah bah nop do bo de do {}

So, you've heard it
Yes, we've swung it
And we tried to
Yes, we sung it

You won't recognize it
It's a surprise hit
This tune, called mack the knife

And so we leave you, in berlin town
Yes, we've swung old mack
We've swung old mack in town
For the darin fans,
And for the louis armstrong fans, too
We told you look out, look out, look out
Old macheaths back in town.

( lyrics found on LyricsFreak)

Before you ask, yes, I am aware that  my three songs are all from the 60s. I like contemporary music and just about every genre, except country music, but the songs I grew up with lift my spirits the most. 

I'm tagging Mom 101, Jeneane Sessum and Kent Newsome. Because I know they'll tell us about interesting music with great posts.

Posted @ 4:06PM in Mathom Room | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

Mar 12, 2007

Twitter?

At New Comm Forum, about half the folks I know were already Twitter addicts, and the other half could be summed up as "yeah, we've heard of it but WHY?"

Well, peer pressure still works, so most of us that were not using it already have been messing around with it today, myself included.

Here are my thoughts so far:  Yes, this could be a gigantic time sink, but I can already see one application -- if you are trying to find a bit of information or perhaps a reference to someone who can help you out with a specific issue, Twitter lets you put the question immediately to a large group of people.

Tags: Twitter

Posted @ 8:03PM in Blogging, Mathom Room | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Dec 27, 2006

New Year's Resolutions

To help my clients meet their communications and marketing goals

To spend more time with my husband and son, with friends and family

To find at least five new clients

To post at least  twice a week on this blog even when I am busy

To stick to my current exercise regime

To finally get the Marketing Roadshow podcast off the ground

To enjoy my connections with marketing & PR colleagues around the world, in both our virtual and real manifestations

And as I sign off for 2006, I would like to leave you with the lyrics of an old song that really resonated for me this year -- May Every Day Be Christmas by Louis Jordan:

"May every day be Christmas
And every day be blessed
Let the end of every day be filled with happiness
And may the Lord be good to you with every rising sun
All through the day have a smile for everyone
[repeats] At night time comes a longing to be with ones you love
To sit around the fireside and dream of stars above
So may God bless you and keep you, come what may
Then every day will be a happy day [end repeat]
May good times come to you every day"

That is my wish for you, dear readers: May good times come to you every day!

Posted @ 8:12PM in Holiday, Mathom Room | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Dec 12, 2006

Five Things You Don't Know

I was tagged today by dear blog friend Mary Schmidt  in what is apparently the latest blog meme going around. You are supposed to blog five things that folks don't know about you and then tag five more people. Here goes.

1. This is the first time I've ever been tagged in one of these memes. Thanks Mary. Really. As Sally Field once said, "you like me, you really like me."

2. I am a closet romantic. No surprise to anyone who reads the blog that I am a huge science fiction/fantasy fan. What you don't know is my shippy little heart. Aragorn and Arwen, Lessa and F'lar, Buffy and Spike, Mal and Inara, John and Aeryn (major swoon) and lately Starbuck and Apollo with a side dish of Adama and Roslin. (For the non-believers, Lord of the Rings, Dragonriders of Pern, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly, Farscape and Battlestar Galactica.) All started with LotR and Luke, Laura and General Hospital in the 70s and 80s.

3. I have a 6-foot cardboard Spike in my exercise room that my mom gave me for Christmas a few years ago. My husband keeps moving him to the basement and I keep bringing him back upstairs. At least I don't put him in the bedroom :-)

4. Bond, James Bond. When I was 12 years old, I loved Roger Moore. He was a great successor to Sean Connery as James Bond.  I also thought he was great in The Persuaders with Tony Curtis, a mostly forgettable series other than the buddy chemistry between the two leads. Back to Bond:  Pierce Brosnan was great.. Less said about George Lazenby and Timothy Dalton the better. Looking forward to seeing what  Daniel Craig has to offer.

5. My most vivid political memories from childhood. There are two. The first is a distinct memory of watching TV in my grandparents' house and seeing the reports that Martin Luther King was dead. I don't recall the rest, but my family tells me that I came downstairs and told them that the King was dead. Since the monarch of Britain was Queen Elizabeth, they were confused. I was only six years old. The second memory is a compound - the Watergate hearings and Nixon's resignation. I was riveted. Probably part of the reason I am a lifelong Democrat.

Okay Andrea, Kami, Todd, Elisa and John, you're up.

Tags: Five things you don't know

Posted @ 9:12PM in Mathom Room | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Nov 13, 2006

A little more on the election

Watch this citizen-generated election advertisement.

Explains last week's election results better than anything I've seen or heard to-date.

Seen on Elisa Camahort's blog

Tags: politics, 06 election

Posted @ 11:11AM in Mathom Room, Politics/Policy | Comments (0) | TrackBack (1)

Nov 8, 2006

Mood: Optimistic

While I make no secret of my personal political leanings, I also don't write about them that often. This is a marketing & communications blog, not a personal political pulpit.

But today, I just gotta say: YAY!!

As of 7 pm this evening, the NY Times election results show a gain of 5 seats in the Senate for the Democrats (including affiliated folks like Bernie Sanders and Joe Lieberman), with one contest (Virginia) still undecided. Last I looked, that race was led by the Democrat, but there's bound to be an official recount. Either way, next year, the Senate is either split 50/50 or the Dems have a 1-seat majority.

And the news is even better in the House and nationwide governor's races. If you are a Democrat that is :-)

House: solid Democratic majority, with Nancy Pelosi likely to be Speaker.

Governors: Six states, including Massachusetts, my state, switched from a GOP to a Democratic governor. 28 states to be led by Dems, 22 by GOP (a complete flip from the previous numbers).

And the day ended with Donald Rumsfeld's resignation.

It is going to be a different world come January, and it's about time.

Tomorrow back to our regularly scheduled marketing topics.

Posted @ 6:11PM in Mathom Room | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Oct 16, 2006

A tale of two shows: High Fidelity and Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey

This past weekend I attended two shows, High Fidelity and the Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus (Red Tour).

High Fidelity is a new musical based on the book by Nick Hornby and the film starring John Cusack and Jack Black. While I have not read the book, I loved the movie, and am happy to report that this musical does a wonderful job of echoing the feeling of the film, without trying to copy it. Edgy but not depressing, it was a great two hours of musical theatre. The performers are excellent, and I urge you to check it out if you have the chance. Right now, it is in a pre-Broadway engagement in Boston. Broadway previews begin in late November, opening December 7th.

I love the circus. Always have. Probably always will. So, we splurged and bought "Circus Celebrity" tickets for the current Ringling Brothers "Red" tour show which finished up in Boston last night. Pretty pricy tickets, you're seated in the first two rows at the center ring, and you get to "participate" in the circus. As I recalled, it was pretty much riding around in a little train thing in the rings, and seeing the circus close close up. I thought my son would love it and was looking forward to doing it with him. 

I was very disappointed. Instead of keeping the family together, for the first 5 minutes or so of the "participation" experience, my husband and son were sent one place (I found out later the center ring to dance with clowns) and my mom and I were shunted off to dance on the edges with some acrobat and a clown. There was no explanation of what was going to happen, no opportunity for my husband and I to switch places so I could go with my son. Which would have made things a little better anyway. Between my husband David and I, I am (or was?) the big circus fan, and would have enjoyed it more. They then brought us together again, and with another family, we got into some sort of teacup thing and rode around the rings a bit, and watched one act from "on the floor."

The saving grace at least was that Douglas enjoyed it, which in the end is what it is really all about for me. But I won't be in any hurry to do it again. I think it is poorly thought out at best to split up family groups who have paid EXTREMELY good money for the experience .Even for a few minutes. And certainly not without an explanation. I wasn't at the circus to see it through my mom's eyes, much as I love her. Or perform. For me, for any parent, it is all about our children. I wanted to do it with my son.

The Red Tour's motto is "saving the day from every day" and on this dimension, I have to say, they didn't come anywhere near close. Poor customer service feels just like every day. Nothing special. And that's too bad, because the circus is supposed to be a magical place for children of all ages.

Not this one on that day.

Now before anyone jumps on me for not giving the circus a chance to respond, I have indeed emailed them with my comment and will post any reply I get. But I am too irritated... still... to wait for the response before I post. Does that make me a cranky bitch? Probably, but so it goes.

Later today...more thoughts on Wal-Mart.

UPDATE: Ringling Brothers got back to me, SAME DAY, so bonus points for promptness. Plus, the reply indicates that they cared enough to actually respond to my specific criticism. Sad to say, that isn't the customer service we get everyday, so well done on that score. It goes a long way to mollifying this cranky person. Not all the way mind you, but much farther than I was this morning :-)

Here's the email:

Thank you for contacting Ringling Bros.

We are sorry to learn that you were disappointed with the Circus Celebrity portion of the show.  We are happy to forward your feedback on to the producers of the show as they start working on next years new 137th Edition.  We will ask that they keep your comments in mind specifically for the Circus celebrity portion of the show. 

Once again we appreciate your feedback, and hope that you were able to enjoy the performance despite your disappointment in this portion of the show.

Sincererly,

Ringling Bros.

Tags: high fidelity, top five breakups, broadway musicals, ringling brothers, customer service, circus

Posted @ 9:10AM in Douglas/Dogs, Mathom Room | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

Oct 2, 2006

Light Blogging Ahead

While this is a heads-up of light blogging ahead, through October 9th, it's also to let you know where I'll be in case any of my wonderful readers are in the same area.

From Wednesday afternoon through Monday, I will be in Montgomery County Pennsylvania attending just about the biggest dog show weekend for terriers in the country. Bigger even than Westminster.

Thursday and Friday morning, I will be at and around the Hatboro Dog Show. Friday afternoon, I'll be attending the Scottish Terrier Club of America's National Sweepstakes. Saturday, I'll be at the Devon Dog Show and then Sunday at the "super bowl" of terrier shows, the Montgomery County Dog Show.

Look for me around the Scottish Terrier ring.

Posted @ 5:10PM in Mathom Room | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Sep 25, 2006

Confession

I admit it... freely.

Proof: My action figures ARE cherry!

Left to right: John Crichton, Farscape (Ben Browder), Spike, BtVS and AtS (James Marsters) and the Doctor (9,Christopher Eccleston and 10, David Tennant). Missing from photo: Aragorn, LOTR (Viggo Mortensen). He wouldn't stand up :-)

Tags: white and nerdy, science fiction, action figures

Posted @ 8:09PM in Mathom Room | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

Sep 19, 2006

Farscape

I know I'm late... very late... to the party, but just gotta say it:

Farscape rocks!!

Tags: Farscape, science fiction

Posted @ 9:09AM in Mathom Room | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

Sep 18, 2006

Flying Monday 9/17/01

Monday September 17, 2001.

I flew out of Logan Airport on my way to San Jose for a week-long business trip.

It must have been the first full day of "normal" flying out of Logan after September 11th.

It was one of the eeriest things I have ever experienced. Everything was "almost normal" even as it wasn't the same at all.

The airport was virtually empty. The plane was nowhere near full, which almost never happens on a Monday morning. The few of us that were traveling talked to each other much more than usual, as though sound could dispel the unreality of flying on this day, from this airport.

I was on American Airlines, and you could feel the sadness of the clerks and flight attendants. And at the same time, they did their jobs as they always did, clearly using normalcy and routine as a coping tactic.

As I suppose all of us who were not personally affected by the 9/11 tragedy were doing at the time.

We all know where we were when we heard about the first plane hitting the first tower, just as previous generations remember where they were when Kennedy was shot.

This is my other most clear memory of that time in our collective lives -- the departure lounge at Logan Airport on Monday September 17, 2001.

Posted @ 7:09AM in Mathom Room | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

Sep 11, 2006

God Bless

Posted @ 7:09AM in Mathom Room | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Aug 23, 2006

"Whip It"

There is something really wrong with kids singing the Devo song "Whip It." 

I don't care if it is Disney and Devo themselves who came up with the idea of Devo 2.0. Every time I hear the commercial, I cringe.

Just my opinion. YMMV.

Posted @ 10:08AM in Mathom Room | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Aug 22, 2006

The Sci-Fi Fan's Curse

I don't watch much television. For any number of reasons. And those of you that really love the shows you watch should be really really glad.

Because just about everytime I start watching a long-running show regularly, it gets cancelled.

I started watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer regularly at the beginning of Season 7. Bye bye Buffy.

I followed my favorite BtVS character Spike to Angel when he shifted over in Angel Season 5. Hasta la vista, Angel.

Just this year, I started watching Stargate SG-1, mostly because it was on after  Dr. Who on the Sci-Fi channel. I discovered I really liked Ben Browder and Claudia Black. Yup, you guessed it... this season (number 10) will be its last season on Sci-Fi. Announced yesterday.

I had watched all of these shows from time to time before I started watching them regularly but hadn't really gotten into them, again for a number of reasons not really relevant to this post. And as soon as I did, the party was over.

BTW, this does not seem to happen when I watch a show from the beginning, so Bones and Dr. Who, the other two shows I enjoy these days, should be fairly safe since I've watched Dr. Who off and on since Dr. Number 3 and Bones since the beginning.

So, if there are shows you really really like, and would prefer I NOT watch, please feel free to let me know in the comments. And if there is a series you'd like to see gone, I'll see what I can do. Unless it is Stargate Atlantis. Can't get into that show at all, so you are on your own. Sandy,  I'll do my best to stay away from Battlestar Galactica.

Anyway, I am now TIVO'ing Farscape repeats and watching my Firefly and Remington Steele DVDs.  I figure that's safe, since those shows are already cancelled. :-)

Tags: Stargate, Buffy, Angel, Farscape, Firefly, science fiction

Posted @ 8:08AM in Mathom Room, Serenity / Firefly | Comments (7) | TrackBack (0)

Aug 10, 2006

Week's end wrap-up, August 10 2006

Things have been pretty serious on the Roadmap lately,  so I thought I'd wrap up the week with some lighter topics.

Starting with my favorite post-BlogHer post: My Thoughts on BlogHer 06 by  Millie Garfield (Thoroughly Modern Millie/My Mom's Blog). I wish everyone could take as much joy out of life as Millie clearly does.

We have a hummingbird in the garden. This may not seem like much to many of you, but with 4 dogs and 3 cats, birds have been known to view our yard with some suspicion. We had a hummer a couple of years ago, so I started putting out hummer food, but this week was the first time I had seen one since that first sighting in 2004. They are the most amazing birds. I will try to get a picture, although I doubt I'll be able to capture it.

Instead, I will share a photo of a Rufous Hummingbird  taken by my cousin, who is an absolutely amazing bird photographer. This photo appeared on the cover of a bird magazine (name of which escapes me.)

photo copyright Thomas Johnson

I'm off tomorrow, and won't be online again until late Sunday, so I wish you all a wonderful weekend!

Tags: blogher, blogher 06

Posted @ 2:08PM in BlogHer, BlogHer06, Mathom Room | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Jul 13, 2006

Wayback Machine: Remington Steele

For a complete departure from our usual marketing and PR topics, today I invite you to step into the Wayback Machine with me, and take a little trip to 80s television.

To Los Angeles and "Remington Steele."

Last weekend, we were in Best Buy picking up some gear for our podcast rig (yes, you read that right, more later this summer once I have time to get everything sorted) and I saw the DVDs of the first 3 seasons of the series on sale for 1/2 price. Of course this is a gambit to build new viewers for the last 2 seasons (out on DVD in August) but who cares. I was a big fan of the series during its original run, so all three DVDs made their way into the shopping cart.

And my friends, I am hooked all over again. I had forgotten just how good it was. Sure the hairstyles and clothes are a little dated. Everyone isn't walking around with things stuck in their ears talking (presumably)on the phone but looking like nothing so much as "Crazy Eddie" talking to the Invisible Man.  Pierce Brosnan and Stephanie Zimbalist have pretty classic styles. Since they have the lion's share of the screen time, 80s big hair and knit ties on the secondary characters don't bug  me that much.

And the stories themselves hold up pretty well, all things considered. The plots rely more on smarts and the flirtation between the two leads than they do on high tech gadgetry so we don't have to laugh too much at "technology."  All in all, Remington Steele is  pretty good screwball romantic comedy with a dash of detective.  As I recall, it wasn't as good in later years, when the stars reportedly weren't too fond of each other, as in the beginning, which is what I am watching now, but it is still better than most. I'm sure enjoying it a heckuva a lot more than the dreck on TV these days.

But if you'd rather pass the time with a cheesy 80s star, I direct you to David Hasselhoff's music videos on YouTube. As I commented this morning on Andrea Weckerle's blog, Hasslehoff just might be living proof that Botox causes brain rot. Or something. Anyway, check out the videos (hat tip to Andrea for reminding me about them in her post today).

And finally stepping out of the Wayback Machine, but still in TV-land, don't miss the French TV commercial for Canal Plus (hat tip to Sandy for this one).

Tags: 80s TV, 80s television, Remington Steele

Posted @ 4:07PM in Mathom Room | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

Jun 26, 2006

Light blogging til July 3rd

On vacation this week in lovely Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia so blogging will be light.

Back next week.

Posted @ 9:06AM in Blogging, Mathom Room, Travel | Comments (0)

Jun 12, 2006

It's all in the name...

Brangelina really should have consulted somebody on the name for their newborn daughter. Bad enough that they used the masculine form Nouvel, versus the feminine Nouvelle, but the blogosphere has coined a nickname for poor Shiloh-Nouvel Jolie-Pitt --  Shovel.

It would be awful if it weren't so funny, n'est-ce pas?

(from CityRag, via Fashiontribes)

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Posted @ 11:06AM in Humour, Mathom Room | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

May 30, 2006

762

Yeah okay. I bought painting 762. (via Boing Boing)

Tags: 1000 paintings

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Posted @ 9:05PM in Blogging, Mathom Room | Comments (2)

Apr 7, 2006

Hear ye, hear ye, Boston-area pr/marketing bloggers, lend me your ears

A couple of geographical items.

First, Elizabeth Albrycht is in town speaking at the American Association of Museums Annual Meeting at the end of the month. Let's get together for a Boston Blogger Meet-up on Saturday evening, April 29th. Leave a comment in the blog or email me if you'd like to come. Once we know how many and who, we can figure out where.

Second, about a year ago John Cass and I started talking about developing a Mentorship program for the Boston chapter of the AMA. Well, we are finally, nearly, almost ready to take the covers off the program, and start recruiting mentors and accepting applications from students and young professionals who'd like a senior marketing mentor. If you'd like to know more (and especially if you are willing to be a mentor), drop me a note and I'll fill you in. Non-binding :-)

Tags: blogging, Boston, PR, marketing, mentorship, Boston chapter AMA

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Posted @ 7:04PM in Blogging, Mathom Room | Comments (5) | TrackBack (1)

Mar 30, 2006

It doesn't get much better than this

Ella Fitzgerald: Mack The Knife, The complete Ella in Berlin

Jacques Brel, l'Olympia, 1961 & 1964

Tags: music

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Mar 21, 2006

Bright side of life

Spamalot.

Funniest musical ever.

<whistles>

Posted @ 11:03PM in Mathom Room | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Mar 6, 2006

It's all in the name...GetGood...Goodlink

POST UPDATED APRIL 6, 2006

It's all in the name.

About six-eight months ago, I started getting support calls for something called  GoodLink. Apparently a mobile phone software product of some sort.

We were stymied. We had no idea why people all over the country were calling GetGood Strategic Marketing for support for some product called GoodLink.  It wasn't tons of calls, maybe one a month, but it was a mystery.

I even asked one caller how he got my number. "From your website," he replied. I was confused but I just couldn't put it together.

Until last week when I received an email from a college professor, which said:

"I have no idea how a program “GetGood” with an automatic link to your site got installed on my Treo and I cannot find a way to delete it since it doesn’t seem to show up in the applications list.  Can you help me?"

All of a sudden, things started to make some sense. I'm still not sure, but what I think has happened is:

A company called Good Technology has a product called GoodLink that runs on mobile phones, specifically the Treo.

I'm betting that the file (either the program or an .exe) is called GetGood. Don't know for sure because I don't have a Treo, but that's my guess.  Because I can't believe that the file actually LINKS to my site...

Some people must see the filename, wonder what it is and do a 'net search' on "getgood".

Hhmm. I wonder if there is any documentation..

Anyway, the top results on that search deliver my Web site or my blog. They get to my site, find a phone number, or in this last case, my email, and they look no further.

And it wouldn't matter because the search on "getgood" does show the sites of other Getgoods lower down, but last I looked, it doesn't deliver GoodLink or Good Technology.

I've sent an email to Good Technology asking that they consider changing the filename from someone's surname, but I don't hold out much hope for a response. Or any change.

So I am writing this post, hoping that this post will rise high enough in the search engine results so that future searchers will find it, and get the answers they need.

So here's the scoop. If you are looking for strategic marketing consulting, you've found the right place. Send me an email at sgetgood@getgood.com or call me at 978-562-5979. I'd love to chat with you.

If you have a Treo mobile phone and are looking for information about your GetGood file or GoodLink, you probably want Good Technology.

Their address and phone:

4250 Burton Drive
Santa Clara, CA 95054
United States

Phone: +1.408.327.6000
Fax: +1. 408.327.6001

A rose by any other name....

UPDATE 4/6/06: Mystery solved by yet another customer call (never heard from the company): the Web site for "over-the-air provisioning of Good Technology's software" is at http://get.good.com (no "www") but people are so trained to type the www that they end up at my Web site http://www.getgood.com.

Tags: getgood, goodlink, treo

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Posted @ 9:03PM in Blogging, Customers, Mathom Room | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Feb 28, 2006

Whew.

Posted @ 11:02AM in Mathom Room, Politics/Policy, PR, Web/Tech | Comments (0) | TrackBack (2)

Feb 27, 2006

Yes, Virginia, there is good news!

Forget about all the A-list rigamarole and Technorati's problems with authority.

Start your week off right with this news report about an autistic high school student's well-deserved moment in the spotlight. From YouTube via TailRank.

UPDATE 2/27 at 11:30 AM:  And then wander over to check out What if Microsoft designed the iPod box? (YouTube video, seen on Scobleizer)

UPDATE March 1: From BoingBoing, CBS "pulled an NBC" on the YouTube video of the autistic basketball player, but you can still download the movie at this mirror. That's how to raise the ratings, boys, pull the feel-good story of the year off the net, where it is probably getting more exposure for your anchor than he got ALL LAST YEAR.

Posted @ 11:02AM in Mathom Room | Comments (3) | TrackBack (1)

Feb 3, 2006

Today's Blogthing 3 Feb 06

Happy Friday everyone.

Your Five Factor Personality Profile

Extroversion: You have high extroversion. You are outgoing and engaging, with both strangers and friends. You truly enjoy being with people and bring energy into any situation. Enthusiastic and fun, you're the first to say "let's go!" Conscientiousness: You have high conscientiousness. Intelligent and reliable, you tend to succeed in life. Most things in your life are organized and planned well. But you borderline on being a total perfectionist. Agreeableness: You have medium agreeableness. You're generally a friendly and trusting person. But you also have a healthy dose of cynicism. You get along well with others, as long as they play fair. Neuroticism: You have low neuroticism. You are very emotionally stable and mentally together. Only the greatest setbacks upset you, and you bounce back quickly. Overall, you are typically calm and relaxed - making others feel secure. Openness to experience: Your openness to new experiences is high. In life, you tend to be an early adopter of all new things and ideas. You'll try almost anything interesting, and you're constantly pushing your own limits. A great connoisseir of art and beauty, you can find the positive side of almost anything.

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Jan 17, 2006

On a clear day

Forget about A-lists, Web 2.0 and all of that jazz. Here's what we did today:

View from mid-trail, Mt.Wachusett

My son Douglas learning to ski

Take a break... it makes all the difference in the world.

Posted @ 9:01PM in Douglas/Dogs, Mathom Room | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Jan 16, 2006

Football avoidance

For a change of pace (no A-list or Web 2.0 here) I thought I'd share what I did this weekend to avoid the NFL Playoffs.

Understand a couple of things: my husband is a HUGE football fan. All football. He was raised in Pittsburgh and we now live outside Boston. I on the other hand, just don't get it. I much prefer hockey and basketball. I will watch the Super Bowl, for the ads as much as anything, but all the games leading up to it? YAWN!

So, Saturday night I took my mom out to dinner at Number 9 Park and then to see Little Women at the Boston Opera House. The play was very good, although I agree with the Boston Globe reviewer who said that none of the songs was a break-out hit (I'd  link to the review online but the Globe.com site is so hard to navigate, I can't find it). And you needed to know the story; without the knowledge from the Louisa May Alcott book or at minimum one of the movies, it would be hard to follow. Good news of course is that most girls in the US read Little Women as a matter of course, and this was definitely a "chick play."

Sunday: Brokeback Mountain finally made it to the local theatre, and away I went. If you haven't seen it yet, GO!!!! It was one of the best films I have seen in years.

One thing that occurred to me after seeing both of these: the folks that adapted Little Women took a pretty fat book and condensed it to about 2-1/2 hours. And the folks that adapted the short story by Annie Proulx took a slim story and made it into a film just about as long. Luckily, neither seemed too long :-)

Next week, I'll be taking my son to see Chronicles of Narnia.

Posted @ 6:01PM in Mathom Room | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Jan 12, 2006

The difference between an online poll and a statistically valid survey

Earlier this week, SciFi Wire (part of SciFi.com) launched an online poll asking fans what they though writer-director Joss Whedon's next project should be: another Serenity movie, a movie featuring Buffy/Angel character Spike, or WonderWoman. Much as I love the Serenity/Firefly 'verse, I voted for Spike. Not because I had any illusions that the poll was scientific, or prescriptive for Whedon. Just for fun, and because I know he does listen to fans. Why not let him know that fans still love Spike?

Occasionally during the week I checked the poll. At some point the various Whedon fandoms mobilized to get out the vote, and to my knowledge at least one group of fans figured out how to "beat" the poll. And of course if one group knew (and posted it), they all knew. Instantly.

Apparently it was not that hard to figure out how to vote more than once - just delete the cookie. And with pretty motivated Whedon fans, not hard to imagine that more than one fan voted more than once.

Well, SciFi.com didn't like it and replaced the poll with a new question. They had a brief explanation (no longer on the site) that the Whedon poll was pulled down because fans manipulated the vote.

Really.... isn't that taking everything just a bit too seriously? Personally, I think voting more than once is silly, but these sorts of online polls are just for fun, aren't they? So who cares? They aren't statistically valid at all. And if you really wanted to make sure that people could only vote once, wouldn't you make it a bit harder to "vote early and often." For more on this specific incident, check out this post on Whedonesque.

Okay, I hear you saying - we know you're a Whedon fan. What does this have to do with marketing?

Statistically valid surveys and polls have methodology and technology behind them to ensure accurate, valid results. Objective questions. Random samples that represent the target population. Answers that mean something. If they are conducted online, the technology prevents multiple voting. Sure, the person conducting the survey has an objective, even an agenda, but the scientific methodology prevents total bias from coloring the result.

But quickie polls on Web sites, whether about Whedon or wikis or Windows, are entertainment. Giving them any other interpretation or taking them seriously is just silly.

The marketing lesson: Don't confuse the two. If you want to do a quick poll on your Web site or blog to entertain the audience, by all means do it. But don't use it to prove anything. If you want quantifiable "proof," spend the money to do the survey right.

And the relative importance of Joss Whedon's next project and whether Patrick Stewart is too old for the next Star Trek movie (the current poll question)? Not going to end world hunger or bring world peace. Who cares if the fans fooled with the poll. As one of the commenters on Whedonesque pointed out, the traffic on SciFi Wire and the number of ad impressions probably increased exponentially by getting the Whedon fandoms riled up.

Which in my opinion is what they wanted in the first place, so they shouldn't have gotten their knickers in a twist when they succeeded.

Posted @ 10:01AM in Marketing, Mathom Room, Serenity / Firefly | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Sep 25, 2005

Serenity, HP Charity Auction

Just a couple of housekeeping things.

First, a reminder that the Joss Whedon film "Serenity" goes into general release this coming Friday September 30th. Whedon did an interview in today's NY Times (tip of the hat to Whedonesque and warning, spoilers). You can find many links to other articles on Whedonesque.

Second, the HP charity auction that I did a fast viral campaign for ends this Thursday, September 29th. While some fan bases have bid certain photos into the stratosphere (Bono at the Super Bowl and Elijah Wood), there are some bargains still to be had, especially if you were thinking of buying an HP Photo Printer anyway.

Posted @ 12:09PM in Charity, Hurricane Katrina, Marketing, Mathom Room, Serenity / Firefly | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Jul 7, 2005

Roadmaps Round-up: decision making, pitching bloggers and Gartner's Magic Quadrant.

Finishing up with my blogroll for this week:

From Andrew Lark, Tomcruiseisnuts.com I needed something light after the news of the bombings in London, and this fit the bill.

Another great post from Kathy Sierra at Creating Passionate Users - You're emotional. Deal with it. She covers the surprising news (VBG) that decisions are most often based on emotions, not logic, regardless of how we choose to justify the decisions. Of course this won't be a surprise to marketing folks and most women I know, but news like this just might rock the world of a few tech CEOs.

Tom Murphy has an excellent post that lists posts from PR bloggers on the right (and wrong) ways to pitch bloggers. The post that triggered his, from Anil Dash, on how not to pitch a blogger, closed with an admonition about my favorite peeve: PDFs. About four weeks ago, I ripped into someone (privately) who sent me a pitch about a book with at least 3 PDF attachments plus a huge graphic in the HTML email.

Get a simple website, people, post your information there, and include the links in your emails. If you don't have the technical ability to do this, find someone who does, like a college student or fourth grader. The people getting your pitch -- whatever it is -- DO NOT want their email bogged down with tons of attachments that they DIDN'T ASK FOR!!!!! It doesn't matter whether they are on dial up, broadband, corporate network or a blackberry. They don't want 'em.

BONUS RESOURCE FOR US FOLKS: If you don't have your own child to help you with this tech stuff, techstudents.net can help you find a college student to do this work for you.

Also from Tom Murphy, I learned about changes Gartner is making to the infamous Magic Quadrant and a new blog (new to me that is): Analyst Equity.

We'll have to see how it plays out, but I don't really see how these "changes" are going to make the whole Magic Quadrant process any less capricious. It still sounds like a "black box" where the analyst doing the Quadrant will decide the key elements based on his or her own opinions and biases, and the companies involved will have a devil of a time figuring it all out.

Posted @ 11:07AM in Blogging, Humour, Marketing, Mathom Room, PR | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Jun 29, 2005

Roadmaps Round-up

Adrants on the promotion campaign for the John Twelve Hawks' book The Traveler.  Program includes a character blog, and as I said in my comments on Adrants, I've long believed that fans of books/tv/film will embrace well written character blogs. This is slightly different, as it is promo for a new book, not a build-on to an existing franchise, but it will be very interesting to watch this play out. From my quick glance, the program looks very well done, and there is certainly no subterfuge.

Amy Gahran over at Contentious has a great idea for a unique gift: the gift of conversation.

From Creating Passionate Users, Featuritis vs. the Happy User Peak  Main takeaway: give the right features and make them usable as well as useful. Don't provide a feature just because you can. Make sure it is something that your user actually wants.

Finally, from Jim Logan, some thoughts about CRM -- CRM is an attitude and a set of processes, not a piece of software   Main takeaway: Focus on doing active customer relationship management, using whatever software tools you want, versus on a piece of software as savior.

Posted @ 12:06AM in Blogging, Business Management, Customers, Fake/Fictional Blogs, Integrated Sales & Marketing, Marketing, Mathom Room | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Jun 21, 2005

Been to Texas...

Posting has been light for the past week as I have once again gone "off grid." This time, we went to Austin, Texas for a family friend's Bar Mitzvah, and then took a couple of extra days to take our 5-year old son to SeaWorld San Antonio.

I brought the laptop in case something came up, but resisted the temptation to go online. :-)  I do promise to get back into a regular posting schedule but in the meantime, should you be planning a trip to Austin/San Antonio, here are some of our highlights from this most recent trip.

Austin: The Texas State History Museum and Zilker Park / Barton Springs. Hotel: Mansion at Judges' Hill

San Antonio: At SeaWorld, if you can, Dine with Shamu. It gets you quite close to the whales for an extended period of time, but warning: it is NOT the show with all the feats of daring, so make sure you see the regular Shamu show as well. And touristy though it may be, you have to eat at a place on the Riverwalk at least once. People watching at its finest. Hotel: Marriott Riverwalk.

That's it for the travelogue. We will return to our regular marketing topics later this week.

And I will leave you with a quote from Davy Crockett. After losing re-election to the Congress in his native Tennessee, the 50-year old Crockett said:

"Since you have chosen to elect a man with a timber toe to succeed me, you may all go to hell and I will go to Texas."

Posted @ 5:06PM in Mathom Room, Travel | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

Jun 13, 2005

Summertime blues

It is hot... damn hot ... here in Massachusetts.  I cannot wait for the hardwood pollen season to end so I can go out of my house again for more than 10 minutes at a time.

Random rant on: We all know it is possible to simultaneously love and hate a tech gadget. Today it is my iPod that I despise. Why? Because through an initial operator error (mine) followed by what I will call bad software design, the laptop (empty library) wiped out about 20 hours of music on my iPod. Including four CDs which I just can't find, and rather than tear my house apart, I just re-ordered. Which means of course I will find them the day after the Amazon order arrives... All compounded by the fact that I have first generation iPod with the crappy battery, and all Apple offered in the class action settlement was $50, which could not be used at iTunes. Hmm.  Anyway, suffice it to say that my iPod no longer automatically synchronizes.

So should I just scrap it, use the $50 bucks toward a new player for my music and just use the old one for podcasts? Advice m