MEGO: My Eyes Glaze Over

Social Media Marketing Best Practices

Aug 30, 2008 Blogs, Marketing & Communication, Social Media, social networks

Mitch Joel of Six Pixels of Separation is spearheading an initiative to collect the Best Practices for Social Media Marketing. And, what good would a search for best practices in social media be if the search weren’t social itself – so Mitch is asking other bloggers to contribute.

Shortly after reading the Six Pixels’ post I came across a “viral” video. I use quotes because I am unsure at what point something becomes “viral” – 500 views? 300,000? 1 million? maybe 2 million views? Or, is something automatically called “viral” if it was created to be just that? Or is just something so entertaining, or captivating that it makes “enough” people want to share it! I suppose defining what makes something viral could be a post on its own…so I digress!

This is the video:

Cute video. Great tune. Important message. I admit I have a phobia of bees. I got stung once and so I am one of those people who runs around waving her arms when I see a bee or wasp (not the right thing to do, I know).  Despite the phobia – I understand how important bees are. So I bite, visit the website. The web URL “helpthehoneybees” makes me think that the video has been done by a charity or association for saving the bees.  I reach the site only to discover that the site is compliments of Haagan-Daz Ice Cream. I am immediately soured to the experience, feeling tricked by the brand.

Why did Haagan-Daz choose not to identify themselves with the video? After the controversy surrounding Wal-mart’s “Wal-marting Across America” and the Unilver “Wigg Out” video – you would think a brand would choose to be open and transparent. Don’t they want people to know about the good work they are doing? Perhaps, build the brand awareness around their “social responsibility” efforts? I wouldn’t feel any less compelled to save bees if I knew it was Haagan Daz behind the video! It wouldn’t stop me from sharing the video with friends. And, I still would have visited the website for more information. In fact, I suspect I would feel all “warm-and-fuzzy” about Haagan-Daz knowing they were taking on a caring approach to something very relevant to their brand. Instead, as a consumer I feel tricked into visiting Haagan-Daz’s site. And, as a marketer I learn from their mistake!

My Social Media Marketing Best Practice is be honest, identify your brand, and of course be transparent. Whether you are posting a video on You Tube, creating a blog for your brand, answering questions on forums, or discussing your brand on Twitter- openly identify yourself with your brand. In this way you build relationships and awareness with customers, something you can’t do by hiding behind unclaimed cute videos and fluffy blog posts.

You can suggest your Social Media Marketing Best Practices for Mitch Joel. Here are the instructions (simplified by Chris Brogan)

1. Blog it.
2. Link to Mitch’s blog
3. Tag it “social media marketing best practices”
4. And then tag someone else with the meme.

I will tag two people.

One: Mom on the Run, not a marketer by occupation but a mom who spends a lot of her limited free time using social media tools.

Two: Jen, founder of a fantastic online community – Urbanmoms.ca. She does a great job integrating brands into the community.

Technorati Tags: social media marketing best practices,Six Pixels of Separation,Mitch Joel,Social Media,MEGO,Mom on the Run,Urbanmoms.ca,marketing,blogging,haagan-daz,bees,you tube

Popularity: 3% [?]

Baby! Baby!

Aug 27, 2008 Blogs, Family and Friends, Parenting and More

I am embarrassed to see that it has been one month since my last post. I could once again list my excuses:

• Still haven’t found an option to Live Writer (ahem…haven’t attempted again to set up the two solutions suggested to me after my last post!)
• Up until August 11, I was tired due to pregnancy
• After August 11, I was tired due to new baby

Or I could admit defeat for August, and hope for a better fall of blogging. If it makes my faithful readers feel any better I have been neglectful of Twitter, FriendFeed and Facebook as well. I have no idea what my real friends are up to on Facebook, or my social media friends are doing and writing about on Twitter and FriendFeed.  So, I will aim to do better this fall. I normally attempt to write to Blogs -  this one MEGOAgain dedicated to work, marketing, social media and general business; and Okbabybear a blog about my family. I am not sure I will have time to keep up both, so you may see a few joint posts (like this one!) – I hope that they won’t bore anyone.

So baby is here.  And below is the story of his arrival, and of course some pictures!

My first son was determined to beat his due date, and arrived three days early, in what I thought was a quick labour. My second son, apparently was willing to wait until his due date but wanted to one-up his older brother by coming into the world at a super-fast speed.

The week prior to Zachary’s birth I went for walks, ate spicy foods, did some gardening (this worked with Owen!) – anything to move things along. Two days before my due date the doc said I was 2-3 cm dilated, and I could go into labour the next day or stay that way for a week! Great.

So his due date- August 10 passed with no arrival. At around 12:45 I had my first contraction. The first three were 9 minutes apart, and lasted only 30 seconds.  No need to rush to the hospital. Generally they don’t want to see you until they are five minutes apart and last a minute. So we called my in-laws so that they could start heading over to watch Owen (they had a bit of a drive in the middle of the night!). Within an hour my contractions had gone from 9 minutes apart, to 8 minutes apart, to 7 minutes apart, to five minutes apart. We called a friend to come over since my husbands parents would still be a couple hours. At 2:17 (according to my Tweet I logged in on the drive to the hospital) we were on our way to the hospital. During the short drive I had three contractions, including one at the door to Emergency.

Signed in to stay at hospital. Oddly at this point the contractions all but stop.  That is until the Doctor visits, at which point I have a contraction that is literally off the chart.  8 cm dilated.

Can someone get me an Epidural? Morphine? Something?

The nurse tells me it is likely too late. I will need to start pushing soon, and they won’t have time to do some blood work and get the doctor in the room to administer. Anyone, who knows me – knows I had very serious plans to have the Epidural. I dislike pain, and my first birth was a breeze due to the wonderful Epidural.

4 am. Time to push. At this point I won’t continue any details. Needless to say I never want to go through that again. Unbelievable pain. Felt like it went on forever! However, if you look at the below picture at the time on the wall – you will see that it couldn’t have lasted long. (yes, that is right the clock should read 4:17, Zachary was born at 4:16)

These wonderful birth photos were taken by my friend, who also happens to be a fantastic photographer – www.digitalheirlooms.ca. Yes, I had a someone taking pictures at the birth other than my husband. I had never thought of having a photographer at an event like this, but when Karina showed some beautiful examples – I thought it would be a wonderful keepsake.  Having gone through one birth, I knew how easy it was to forget what had gone on, the memory of your first look at your baby disappears (just as you easily forget the pain…). It turned out that having another mom at the birth was a bonus in itself! Husbands are wonderful – mine makes a terrific coach, “breathe, remember you need to breathe” “ok hold your breath and push!” – but another mom shares your experience.

So here is Zachary.

And this, was my first son at the same age:

Popularity: 4% [?]