Love hate relationship with my newspaper

I have this love hate relationship with my newspaper subscription to the Globe & Mail.

On the one hand I love picking it up off my porch in the morning and smelling the newspaper print, it's like picking up a new suspense novel every day, you never know what's going to happen next.  It makes me feel smart knowing what's going on in the world and the crossword puzzle (especially in the Globe) gives my brain a run for it's money.

I hate it when I can't keep up with it though.  Usually because I get really busy at work and don't have time to read it and it just piles up and piles up.  Then I feel like I don't know what's going on, like I'm skipping chapters in a novel, and that I'm wasting precious environmental resources.

The order in which I read my paper:

• First section with all the Breaking, Local and World news
• Globe Life
• Report on Business
• Globe Review
• The Obituaries section on the back of the Sports section (they feature a person who recently died but contributed extraordinary things in their lifetime)

Anyways, that's my story for today.

Businesses, Social Media & Risk

Organizations are still trying to figure out how social media will fit into their overall marketing fabric. And that's not an easy question to answer.  There are all sorts of risks associated with social media. Social media has an air of openness, frequency and connectedness.

The very essence of social media can pose many risks to organizations because there is a lot less control over the message.  Does that mean you shouldn't do it?

Some tips on avoiding risks and being successful in social media:

• Frequency - people signed up to your blog/twitter/fan page for a reason.  They want to keep up to date on what you have to say.  Don't abuse this but don't be lazy either.  If you update too often you're bombarding them and they will unfollow you.  Update once a year and either they'll forget you are there, or take you off their list for adding no value to them.
• Be real and empathetic - As a company, you don't want to air your dirty laundry but it's important to address what the public thinks and feels.
• Listen - this is probably the best use of social media for companies but also the riskiest.  I read an article how someone twittered about Jet Blue and within hours Jet Blue was following them on Twitter.  Understanding what the public really thinks will save you.  You can't correct what you don't know is wrong.  Have a plan in place to quickly address issues, not EVERY issue you see people complaining about, but unanimous issues because chances are if it's come up more than 5 times you can bet a lot more people feel the same way who don't have access to technology to scream about it.
• Set up controls - many social media channels now have tools that can help organizations get on board while managing risks. Blogs, for example, have settings that allow you to approve comments before they are published.  Warning: be careful about unapproving posts though, allowing legit complaints on to your blog comments are essential in "being real".  Responding to the legit complaint is a way of showing acknowledgment of the complaint and also that you value their opinion and are taking necessary steps to correct it.

Look back and laugh... thats all you can do

I had a streak of bad luck in San Francisco...

• First I got scammed out of $300 on the SF bus.
• Then I twisted my ankle walking down the stairs going to the exhibition hall at OpenWorld's Moscone South
• Then I lose my blackberry at the Deloitte Sun event at the Bently Reserve
• And to end it all off, I went clubbing and a guy harassed me and my friend for 2 hours.

The next night, instead of going out, I went back to the hotel and stayed in in an effort to try and stay out of trouble.

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What kills me is this picture, taken 5 minutes before I left the Bently Reserve.  Look verrrrry closely!! As Monique and I are goofing off with the camera and lights, there is my blackberry sitting in the background on the table behind me!!

Bye Curve... we had some fun times... I hope your new owners treat you well! :(

Frida Kahlo: SF MOMA

Frida

Blown away! I have seriously fallen in love with Frida's work.  It is so powerful. I saw the movie about her life, as I'm sure a lot of people did, back in 2002.  Salma Hayek was great in it, loved the movie but never really gave her art much thought since then.

I'm in San Francisco for Oracle OpenWorld right now and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art has a Frida Kahlo exhibit on right now so Monique and I went to go see it.  Sold out, we had to purchase the tickets for 2 days later and even then when we went it was packed.

Her work is mainly about her life, her ideas and her feelings.  Pieces ranged from her feelings of living in America, frustrations of being in an accident, sadness over her miscarriage, Mexican patriotism, and also her love and brokenheartedness for, and at times inferiority to, Diego Rivera.

They thought I was a Surrealist, but I wasn't.  I never painted dreams. I painted my own reality - Frida Kahlo

FridaDiego

What I love about her work is that it's so moving, you can feel her emotions, her pain and frustrations jumping off the canvas (and literally in a couple of her pieces, she paints onto the frame).  It's usually jam packed with symbolism and tiny details (like this painting of the 2 Frida's, the Frida with the blue green dress is holding a small picture of Diego when he was a child).

You can see from her work she's an incredibly strong, opinionated and passionate person.  But also that she's frail, insecure and vulnerable.

All in all I absolutely loved this exhibit.  The audio tour was good, I wish I had more time and that it wasn't so crowded.

Eat or be eaten: San Francisco is everyone for themselves

I keep replaying it in my head how I got conned $300 on a San Francisco bus today. I used to hear these stories from other people and wonder how can you be so naïve? I would never be duped like that. And I knew it was a scam too but by the time I could stop it, it was too late.

Don't even say it... I know, I'm smarter than that and I don't know why I went along with it. I almost don't want to say cause its so embarrassing. But I'm a story teller and I can't stop myself.

This guy had 3 cups with a little red ball under and he kept asking people to guess, I wasn't even looking and when he couldn't get the people beside him to play along he moved. He started asking me to 'pick, pick, where's the ball.' I thought it was a magic trick cause he kept saying I'm not asking for money and he even gave me a dollar.

Then he's like see you won? But you have to show me what you have to win the equal so I said forget it and ignored him. There were 2 other guys who got really into it and they kept winning and when I said no no the 2 guys started saying 'oh my gosh but its so easy'

So he saw I had $100 and he said here I'll show you he grabbed the $100 and asked me to pick again. I was like WTF is going on but he wouldn't give me my $ so I just picked. Of course I lost and I freaked out and he's like okok I'll give double or nothing but again you have to show me you have $200. I was so mad about my $100 I wasn't thinking so I showed him the $200 and again he took it from me (idiot move I know). Just then the bus stopped and when I went to grab my money he pretended to fall backwards. But he was pushing the door open and ran off and the other 2 guys ran off w him.

I'm so stupid because I knew it was a scam too I KNEW IT.

Everyone who gets scammed says the same thing, it happened to fast!, and I used to think whatever, naïve! But now I get it! It seriously happened so fast! And when they ran off not one person helped me. Most of the other riders even knew it was a scam no one said anything!

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On a separate note: I always hear about San Francisco and how great a city it is but honestly their homeless problem is off the hook!

I did not expect that for such a wealthy, large city. There are 3-4 homeless people per block, not exaggerating. And they ride the bus and are loud and love to talk to you and leer at you when you walk by.

Walking 10 blocks I get asked for money at least 20 times.  I wouldn't feel safe living here alone.  How does the mayor just sit there knowing such a large population of his city is homeless?

Google Chrome - Initial review

I downloaded Google Chrome, Google's debut web browser, last night and I've been playing with it a bit.  I probably haven't experienced it in it's entirety but I already have a short list of my likes and dislikes: Likes:

• Being able to drag tabs from 1 Chrome window to another
• It apparently loads fast, I didn't find Internet Explorer all that slow, but maybe it's because I rarely stray from my handful of websites
• Loving the tabs page, with pictures of your most visited sites
• Incognito mode.  Being able to surf pages without being tracked on the computer you're using

Dislikes:

• Unable to double click top left corner to close a window.  You have to use the [X] in the top right corner
• Chrome doesn't recognize the scroll bar feature on my laptop touchpad.  It will let me drag the page down, but doesn't go back up
• Not able to remove most visited sites items from the tabs page.  I should be able to right click and remove.  Even better would be options to 'Never put on tabs page again' and 'Remove only this time'
• Doesn't support WYSIWYG for TypePad. Grr

That's it from me for now.  Will post again as I use it more and find more things.

Companies that have it close

Yesterday, I blogged about companies that put out ad campaigns that don't match the company's core values. Today I wanted to talk about companies that I think are close...

1) I'm not a mac user, but Apple has got it going on.  Their advertising hits all the sweet spots of their company, it actually represents their culture and mission.  They're fun, hip, innovative, easy to use.

Honestly some of their ads are so innovative.  My favorite is the iPod Shuffle.  Having no screen on an MP3 player was almost a guarantee product killer.  Give it a name like the Shuffle, advertise... Ta Da! it's random, and suddenly you have a category killer.

2) Deloitte.  It's not perfect and I might be bias because I work there but I feel that the branding really does represent the company's core beliefs.  The brand is clean, it uses a lot of whitespace and abstract perspectives.  It's traditional with a contemporary twist.  It communicates our values of integrity, casual, approachable, not stuffy.

It's important to make sure your brand image matches your client experience.  Otherwise it's like over-promising and under-delivering.  The ads lure in the customer and they expect a certain experience and when it is different from their expectation it leads to dissatisfaction.

You know how it is, where you watch a great movie trailer and you hear all this hype, you go and watch it and your expectations are so high, the movie rarely meets your expectations.  Honestly, I love going to see movies I know nothing about.  I always end up loving those movies.

Guerilla Marketing

It's hard to gain mindshare, we are so bombarded by advertisements that the only way to cope is to block it out. Which only goes to push marketing to be that much more in your face. Consumer marketing regularly uses guerilla marketing tactics (people with screens on their backs, larger than life posters on the side of buildings, wrapped around cars, murals, just to get you to look.

Who says B2B marketing has to be boring? I want to shake up the way B2B does marketing and have always wondered how and if these tactics could be effective in B2B settings.

I just feel that B2B marketing is starting to over do it with the sell sheets, case studies, whitepapers. The impact is not as strong as it used to be, similar to the way billboards and lightboxes are losing its impact on consumers.

It's difficult though because often times it's a service we are selling. How do you posterize something that is invisible?

BlackBerry OS 4.5

Forums can be such a tease sometimes.

Sometimes they help you through tough problems you can't find in help files for apps, and sometimes its just a hotbed for rumors.

I've been waiting (oh so patiently) for the new 4.5 OS and at first I read on forums that it was coming out in April 2008 (Orange in the UK already had it), but April has come and gone, and now we are in September.

All for what? HTML email? Video recording capability? Sounds minor but HTML email would be kind of nice.

And of course, Rogers has to add to the tease by making 4.5 available for practically every model (Pearl, Bold) except for the Curve. I already couldn't get the 6GB plan because it doesn't apply to BES service you can't even give me the new OS? *shakes my fist*

I did manage to find an unofficial version on the net but its a bit buggy. My video record doesn't work, and still no HTML email, but I think that has more to do with my BES than the OS, so basically I should have stuck with my old OS since the 2 things I want don't even work. The browser is better though, I guess that's some consolation :)

Either way, being a gadget geek I'm just satisfied that it says 4.5 OS on my version screen.

Choice is not always a good thing

So as you can see I've started a blog, and a twitter thanks to my friend Mona who also recently started.

So I started looking at blog sites and there are a million I swear!  So my commitment phobia kicks in and I'm overwhelmed because *gasp* what if I don't like the one I signed up for and find another one that I like better!?

Yes these are the kinds of crazies that run through my head.  Plus I'm trying to find one that will let me blog from my blackberry.  Typepad has a blackberry app but it won't install right now *grr*