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  • Crowdsourcing an Answer: Social Media Transition Tool

    Erin Blaskie 6:37 pm on November 17, 2009 | Comments Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , Google Alerts, , Social Media, Tim Warland,

    Last week (or was it the week before…) I spoke at The Ottawa Network’s (TON) special event on the subject of “Becoming Known by Using Social Media & Blogs”.  Afterward, I had a lot of great questions come in from people who had attended my talk.  There was one in particular that I wanted to post publicly to get YOUR feedback, support, guidance and advice on as I couldn’t answer it.

    The question is in two parts.  The first one is good – I answered it but it’s the second I need your help with. :)   Thanks in advance!

    ——–

    An e-mail from Tim Warland:

    Thank you for the insight into “today’s generation” at TON last night. I didn’t get a chance to speak with you but have a couple questions:

    1. What is the Google tool you discussed to “stalk” yourself?

      (Erin’s Answer:  The Google tool that I use to stalk myself (haha) is Google Alerts.  You can set them up and have them send you a daily e-mail of the mentions of your name, a keyword, your company name, etc.  Best part is that it is free!)

    2. I think there is a hole in the social media space. Do you know which tool can patch it?

      Two popular social media tools are facebook and linked-in. Although I don’t facebook, it is a place to inform family and casual friends about my life (not specifically my work life). LinkedIn is for my professional network. As a rule, I only connect to people I know well enough to introduce them to other people in my network. That leaves a hole for about 400 people I know. Folks like the person I shared a plane ride to Boston, people from whom I collected a business card at a tradeshow. Maintaining some form of informal connection is important. What tool manages these casual relationships?

      I’d like to nurture these people who, for the most part, haven’t connected to social media. My objective is to create a monthly newsletter that I can email to different tribes (if the term is correct). The 6-paragraph version of the newsletter would be for family and close friends (the facebook crowd). A three paragraph version would be for professional colleagues (the linkedIn crowd). A single paragraph version would go to the hundreds of casual connections.

      The email would direct people to view my blog (which would look like the 6-paragraph newsletter) and suggest they follow me on twitter, or whatever. The idea would be to encourage them to make a connection back to me.

      What tool is available to fill this space as we transition the older crowd (my tribe) to the new media? Any ideas?

      (Erin’s Answer:  I don’t really know… I use Twitter but I don’t know that it’s a great transitional tool.  Let’s put this to the crowd!)

    Thank you in advance!  Leave a comment if you can help answer #2.

     

  • Important Update for charity:water Event

    Erin Blaskie 12:27 am on September 24, 2009 | Comments Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , charity:water, , , , power of social media, Social Media,

    It’s super late here (2:12AM) and I’m buzzing with energy.  I can’t sleep and even though I should be sleeping, I can’t.

    Let me first share with you the power of social media (by the way, this email sells nothing — promise!)

    I’m sitting here at home, hanging out in my living room and I’m chatting away on Twitter.  Next thing I know, a follow on my part leads to a Tweet which leads to a conversation about an event taking place in Ottawa tomorrow which leads to my being invited to said event.

    Needless to say, one of the speakers invited me to the event and while I wouldn’t normally swap out plans last minute, this invite is to the Eastern Ontario Economic Showcase and Donald Trump will be speaking at it with a panel of other amazingly dynamic and uber-successful speakers.

    It’s the kind of opportunity that you can’t pass up, you know what I mean?

    So, we’re going to reschedule the live, 24-hour broadcast to October 8 (beginning at 2PM Eastern) and end on October 9 (at 2PM Eastern) which will give us a bit more time to raise awareness for the event and raise even more funds.

    We’ll do our regular Ask Erin Live (http://www.askerinlive.com) Friday but the charity:water event will be postponed to the 8th of October.

    I apologize if I threw a wrench into anyone’s schedule and I really, really want to thank you all for getting involved and we’ll raise even MORE funds for my favorite charity.  I also promise to Tweet out and blog anything amazing from the event tomorrow.

    Thanks for being a part of this and remember, get on Twitter because the more relationships you build, the stronger your business will be!

    Follow me there –> http://www.twitter.com/ErinBlaskie

     

  • Bruno: The Movie with Important Lessons... Really.

    Erin Blaskie 12:58 pm on July 17, 2009 | Comments Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , , Bruno, Bruno movie, , movie review, Sacha Baron Cohen, Sacha Cohen, Social Media,

    Last night, I went to see the movie “Bruno” and when I Tweeted out the fact that I was going to partake in this activity, I was met with mixed reviews.  People had heard crazy things about it, some had seen it, some thought it was funny and well… others were just plain disgusted by it.

    I had also heard that Twitter bombed Bruno’s opening weekend at the box office.  Not sure the validity to it but even a search done on Twitter provided mixed reviews.

    I have to say that I didn’t love it but didn’t hate it either. Here’s why…

    The movie has a very surface level vibe to it.  The jokes aren’t “deep” and the humor borderlines on somewhat disgusting BUT (and there is a but) I think Sacha Baron Cohen is a genius.  Yes, I realize that’s going far but let me tell you why.

    * SPOILER ALERTS –> DO NOT READ IF YOU WANT TO WATCH MOVIE **

    In the movie, Bruno (a flamboyant Austrian fashionista), takes his show to America and visits with many different groups of people.  The idea behind the movie is really sort of elementary but it’s what he does with his interviews that matters.

    Here are a few of my favorite examples and I’ll explain why I felt they were poignant:

    Casting a Child for a Family Photo Session:  Bruno interviews these parents who are trying to get their child a starring role in this faux photo shoot.  When he is interviewing them, he is asking them a series of really odd questions about what he, as the photographer/coordinator, could do with their children.  He asks if it’s okay for them to be around lit phospherous (the parents agree – “Oh yes! Absolutely, my child actually likes that very much”) and other really, really far reaching examples.

    At a “Straight Dave” Event:  Bruno, during the movie, realizes that maybe his being gay has something to do with him not becoming famous in America.  So, he creates this Straight Dave persona that resembled a WWE or UFC event.  He dressed up in camoflage, sported a mullet and went in front of the crowd cheering about being straight and such.  Then, his previous personal assistant comes in, comes up on stage and they begin to make out and such. People boo, throw chairs, throw drinks and leave.

    So, why are these great examples?

    I feel like Sacha wasn’t just making a movie about stupid, disgusting humor.  I think he was spreading the message about our intolerance and showing just what that looks like on the big screen. I think he was using a platform that could relate to different groups that may not otherwise see that sort of message and I think he did it cleverly.  There was shock value there and there were things that were totally unexpected.

    Let’s look now at why this matters on a business scale.

    In Dan Heath & Chip Heath’s book “Made to Stick” they talk about what makes some ideas stick and what makes others die.  There are key components to this.  The key components are:

    • Simplicity
    • Unexpectedness
    • Concreteness
    • Credibility
    • Emotional
    • Stories

    Bruno, the movie, invoked all of these things.  In doing so, he was able to spread stories around bigger ideas like careless parenting, intolerance to homosexuality, religious extremes and many more issues. He did it in a way that many could relate to and in a way that had shock value.

    I am sure he knew that in order to talk about some of these stories, you had to make people talk about the platform. The platform here being a movie with really dumb humor.

    Some of you may disagree and see his movie as simply dumb humor and you may refuse to ever see it and that’s totally fine.  The movie isn’t for everyone.  However, the people who DO see it are getting these messages in a way that lets them go, “Huh… That’s really what it looks like from this end” and maybe… just maybe, that’ll change some mindsets.

    If you saw it — what did you think?

     

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