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January 27, 2011July 21, 2015

What’s Next DC… Not Just Another Conference

“This is not just a conference, it is an “experience” advertised What’s Next DC in reference to their all-day event on Monday, January 24, 2011. I have to admit I had high expectations of this “experience”. Monday was one of the coldest days of the year and I had to transfer on the Metro subway twice to get to the Georgetown University Marvin Center in Northwest DC. Needless to say, I was none too happy. I don’t like the cold, I don’t like getting anywhere at 8 o’clock in the morning, but I DID like What’s Next DC. Hosted by the Green Buzz Agency, What’s Next DC aimed to give us a unique conference experience while sharing some of the most innovative trends in Marketing, Public Relations, Advertising, and Communications. Tod Plotkin, Principal at Green Buzz Agency talked to me about how What’s Next DC came about.

Shonali Burke, Principle, Shonali Burke Consulting, was by far one of my favorite speakers. She not only talked to us about how we can redefine Public Relations in the 21^st Century, but she included shoes in her presentation. What woman doesn’t love a good shoe story? She is smart and witty and shared with us that “true PR” is about building relationships. She also included some insights on how digital and social technologies are changing the game. I spoke to her about the new PR and the one thing she wanted us all to get from her presentation.

My favorite quote of the day came from KaBOOM!, CEO & Co-Founder Darrell Hammond when he said, “if you want to be remarkable, do remarkable things”… duly noted and added to my “things to do” list for 2011! The speaker who made me shout “hurrah” was Reggie Bradford, CEO & founder of Virtue Inc. Bradford spoke about social media best practices for communicators using Facebook. Don’t tell my Twitter family, but Facebook, by far, is my most useful social media marketing tool. I turn to Twitter for news and fast information sharing but it’s on Facebook that I grow communities and do outreach projects for my client. I use Facebook personally and professionally to promote my own endeavors and that of my clients, AmeriCorps VISTA and AmeriCorps VISTA Alumni. Branford’s pearl of wisdom was “being on Facebook is not about followers but rather best practices and being able to measure success.” Indeed it is.

Not so much a conference but more like a round of quick-fire presentations with networking mixers thrown in throughout day, What’s Next DC offered just the right amount of information to get us interested in the topic but not so much overkill that it made us want to fall asleep or walk away early. Oh, and if you did somehow manage to get bored or if you simply wanted to spend a little more time with a presenter, there was an opportunity to join them in-the-round for a small group discussion. Hats off and a big high five to Green Buzz Agency for a job well done and giving us case studies, strategies and personalized solutions to our most challenging issues regarding “digital marketing in a networked world”. I forget which presenter used that phrase but he is the same one who said we should never use the words “social media” or “campaign” anymore. Of course, in my day job I’m a Social Media Specialist for Campaign Consultation, Inc. I guess I’m going to have to get new business cards very soon!

With the photographer of the day!

Loved the bank of Geek Divas who were live-tweeting at the event. Left to right, Lisa Byrne (@DCeventjunkie) Nakeva Corothers (@nakeva) and Shireen Mitchell (@digitalsista)

Shonali sharing her insights during her presentation

BLOG PDATE: Thanks to Chirpstory.com I read the tweets from #WhatsNextDC and located the unamed presenter who wants us to take “social media” and “campaign” out of our vocabulary. It was Matt Goddard of @r2integrated. You can find his What’s Next DC presentation here.

#WhatsNextDC tweets from Chiprstory.com

January 7, 2011July 21, 2015

A Conversation with Tyrese and His Mission to Save Our Youth

Just before Tyrese Darnell Gibson, also known simply as Tyrese, hit the red carpet for the Kennedy Center Honors, I caught up with him at a Georgetown Hoyas game to discuss a venture near and dear to his heart, “Community in Schools.”

Tyrese, an R&B singer, songwriter, rapper, actor, model and former MTV VJ first came to my attention when he did his very first TV interview on BET’s Video Soul. I was a young Senior Producer and he was a model looking to crossover into the music business. Fast forward several years and we found ourselves in a sky box at the Verizon Center in Washington, DC reminiscing about old times and talking about the dire state our youth find themselves in.

While the official announcement won’t be made until next month, Tyrese spoke to a few select DC bloggers and I about his upcoming appointment as the spokesperson for “Community In Schools” and his role as the voice of the youth and the mission of the program.

You may think of him as only a pretty face and a talent singer/actor, but to his friends and the children he represents, Tyrese is a beacon of hope.

At a time when dropout rates are an issue in all communities, The Alliance for Excellent Education, an advocacy group based in Washington, D.C., estimates that dropouts each year cost the nation more than $300 billion in lost income. Community In Schools is making it their mission to beat those odds. Tameka Green, CEO of Community In Schools in the Nation’s Capitol shared with me the program’s mission to combate the dropout rates in Washington, DC.

Championing the connection of needed community resources with schools to help young people learn, Community In Schools goal is to help students stay in school, and prepare for life.

Congratulations and many thanks to Tyrese and Community In Schools for taking on the challenge of decreasing school dropout rates and for their continued dedication to our youth. To learn more about Community In Schools go to their website at http://www.communitiesinschools.org/ and look for the announcement of Tyrese as their new spokesperson coming in February.

January 7, 2011July 21, 2015

Welcoming in 2011!!

I LOVE this time of year! As we start a new year I love to look back on the earlier 365 days to see what has worked, what no longer serves our higher good and what we need to improve on for the year ahead.. Every year around this time I do inventory on where I’ve been and where I’m going in the upcoming year. I read over previous blog posts, intentions, affirmations and goals. I look over my vision board and see what, if anything needs to be readjusted, added or taken off. I don’t make New Year’s Eve Resolutions but what I always do is some serious housecleaning… clearing the old to make way for the new. I follow my housecleaning up with an intention for the upcoming year that I revisit and rework throughout the 365-day cycle. In 2011 let’s focus on what we really want as we embark on this new year. To get us started, here are five things I will no longer waste my time on (some of them are carried over from last year… what can I say, some habits are harder than others to break) and I hope you’ll consider joining me:

“Friendships” that do not serve our higher good- We do not have time for people who will drain our energy or who do not support the highest version of ourselves. I challenge us all to love and respect ourselves, love and respect others, and expect to be loved and respected in return. Accept nothing less for we deserve the best.
“Wishing” and “regretting”– Wishing I did this or regretting I did not do that does nothing to help us build a better future and leaves us feeling powerless to change our life. We either need to do what it is our heart is calling us to do, rework our plan, or admit some things may never be. Reinvent yourself or let it go but leave the past in the past and live in the here and now… right here… right now.
Grudges They keep us stuck in the past and drain us mentally, spiritually and over time, can even make us physically sick. So, accept things the way they are. That doesn’t mean we have to condone or even judge a situation in any way. Rather, it means we realize things are as they are and we let it be. It is our reaction to the situation, not the situation itself that is in our control. So, let us all forgive ourselves and others AND MOVE ONE!
Not being fully present- This year, I will take it ALL in and I challenge you to do the same. We can no longer sleep walk through our lives. It is up to us to create the best life possible and to enjoy every single moment of it, the good and the bad so that we can experience the entire journey and know true joy.
Not living your dreams– Here it is folks, right here right now… the moment is NOW to do, be, have, get, WHATEVER it is your heart is calling for. This is the year, my friends… not tomorrow or next month… TODAY! So, get busy on those vision boards and start living the BEST LIFE EVER!!

July 27, 2010May 31, 2015

The Huffington Post is profitable, although just barely.

According to Newsweek, in an engaging profile of Arianna Huffington, the popular and expanding Huffington Post generates little more than $1 per reader each year. So while it is clearly the winner among Internet media companies a new business model may be in order.

Amplify’d from www.newsweek.com

Charles Ommanney / Getty Images for Newsweek

Arianna Huffington at her home in July.

If you had to declare a winner among Internet media companies today, the victor easily would be Arianna Huffington. Her site, The Huffington Post, attracted 24.3 million unique visitors last month, five times as much traffic as many new-media rivals, more than The Washington Post and USA Today, and nearly as many as The New York Times. HuffPo’s revenue this year will be about $30 -million—peanuts compared with the old-media dinosaurs, but way better than most digital competitors. And HuffPo has finally started to eke out a profit.

Those numbers, however, don’t fully convey the site’s place in this new-media world. What began five years ago as a spot for Huffington and her lefty celebrity friends to vent about the Bush administration has become one of the most important news sites on the Web, covering politics, sports, entertainment, business—along with plenty of tabloidy stuff to drive clicks, like photos of “Jennifer Aniston’s topless perfume ad.” HuffPo’s mission, Huffington says, is “to provide a platform for a really important national conversation.”

Read more at www.newsweek.com

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/83hu

via Amplify.com

July 27, 2010May 31, 2015

Even though it’s now legal to jailbreak your iPhone, Apple warns if you do you will void your warranty

The government has ruled that it is now perfectly legal for Apple iPhone users to modify their phones’ software, in response to a request by the Electronic Frontier Foundation. However, Apple counters that “jailbreaking” as it is refered to will void the warranty. Can’t have a bunch of folks taking ownership of their own phone’s services into their own hands now can we?

Amplify’d from www.cultofmac.com

I just got a call from Apple’s PR department to discuss today’s historical DMCA exception ruling that makes iPhone jailbreaking legal.

Unfortunately, because of the legal issues involved, the Apple spokeswoman would only provide me with the following statement on the record:

“Apple’s goal has always been to insure that our customers have a great experience with their iPhone and we know that jailbreaking can severely degrade the experience. As we’ve said before, the vast majority of customers do not jailbreak their iPhones as this can violate the warranty and can cause the iPhone to become unstable and not work reliably.”

It’s short and sweet: Apple wants to control the iPhone experience to keep things simple and stable. Jailbreaking opens the door to software that can ruin that experience (and maybe steal your identity or spread viruses). For more information about Apple’s stance on jailbreaking, see this support document: Unauthorized modification of iOS has been a major source of instability, disruption of services, and other issues.

It does, however, answer the main question I had: does jailbreaking void the warranty? Yes, it does.

The other question I had is whether Apple will sue companies that publish or market jailbreaking software?

The spokeswoman would only say on background that Apple hasn’t in the past prosecuted such companies or individuals.

Now that jailbreaking is explicitly legal — at least for individual consumers — it’s not unreasonable to think the jailbreaking scene may become a little less underground. It may even prompt a cottage industry of unofficial App Stores, like the unofficial app store Cydia and the now-defunct Icy.

Read more at www.cultofmac.com

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/83h6

via Amplify.com

July 27, 2010August 30, 2011

The Huffington Post is profitable, although just barely.

According to Newsweek, in an engaging profile of Arianna Huffington, the popular and expanding Huffington Post generates little more than $1 per reader each year. So while it is clearly the winner among Internet media companies a new business model may be in order.

Amplify’d from www.newsweek.com

If you had to declare a winner among Internet media companies today, the victor easily would be Arianna Huffington. Her site, The Huffington Post, attracted 24.3 million unique visitors last month, five times as much traffic as many new-media rivals, more than The Washington Post and USA Today, and nearly as many as The New York Times. HuffPo’s revenue this year will be about $30 -million—peanuts compared with the old-media dinosaurs, but way better than most digital competitors. And HuffPo has finally started to eke out a profit.

Those numbers, however, don’t fully convey the site’s place in this new-media world. What began five years ago as a spot for Huffington and her lefty celebrity friends to vent about the Bush administration has become one of the most important news sites on the Web, covering politics, sports, entertainment, business—along with plenty of tabloidy stuff to drive clicks, like photos of “Jennifer Aniston’s topless perfume ad.” HuffPo’s mission, Huffington says, is “to provide a platform for a really important national conversation.”

Read more at www.newsweek.com

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/83hu

July 26, 2010May 31, 2015

A New Paradigm For Modern Dating? Combining the Real World and Internet World With One Flirty Card

I’m single and yeah, OK, I’ve thought about internet dating. However, I have a whole mental block towards hooking up with someone from a dating site. I’m not sure what my aversion is. I live, work and play online so one would think this would be a natural transition. Still, there’s something about meeting someone on a dating site that creeps me out. The idea of a “flirt card” creeps me out even more! Yes, I’ve heard the eHarmony commercials about how they have matched up thousands of couples and how their matches have lead to more marriages… blah, blah, blah. Still, it just makes me very uncomfortable. Meanwhile, can you just imagine someone handing me a black card that says: “Let’s hook up”. Can you say “where is the trash can”?

Amplify’d from www.intent.com

Imagine that you are chilling by yourself in some coffee shop or bookstore. A non-creepy good-looking stranger–who may or may not have been eyeballing you or the book you have been reading for the last ten minutes–passes by your table and nonchalantly places a small black card next to your cafe drink before heading out the door. The card says: ”I’m hitting on you” and below, a website code for looking up the your admirer’s profile to learn more or to send a message.

Super-creepy? Or a little intriguing? Consider it the flirty equivalent of a Facebook poke in real time.

According to this recent article on the New York Times, passing along a flirty card with an online code to your personal profile may be the next dating trend that combines real world encounters with online interaction. Cheekd.com is one website that provides a paid membership for users who want their own personalized cards with their personalized internet code to discreetly pass along to any alluring-looking cutie or hunk that catches their eye–be it on the subway, a club, a bookstore, or yoga class. As the article goes on to explain:

Users receive calling cards to dole out to alluring strangers they encounter in their everyday lives, be it in a club or in a subway on their morning commute. Recipients of the cards can use the identification code printed on them to log onto Cheekd.com and send a message to their admirer. A pack of 50 cards and a month’s subscription to Cheek’d, where users can receive messages and post information about themselves, is $25. There is no fee for those who receive cards to communicate with an admirer through the site.

Each Cheek’d card has a sassy phrase like “I am totally cooler than your date,” or, for those with no regard for subtlety: “I’m hitting on you.” Ms. Cheek is dreaming up specialized card sets, too. One for New York City singles will have lines like “I live below 14th Street” and “I hope my five-story walkup won’t be a problem.”

Flipmedating.com is another dating website that markets the same concept: a pack of 30 cards and a three-month membership for $24.99. Each card is printed with the message that reads way cooller in written form than spoken outloud: “I’ve said ‘what if’ too many times … not this time.”

Read more at www.intent.com

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July 24, 2010May 31, 2015

Huffington Post well on it’s way to becoming an Internet Newspaper

At a time when traditional newspapers and publishing as a whole are facing some of their most challenging times, the Huffington Post has found a way to remain relevant. Positioning themselves as an “Internet Newspaper” is a brilliant idea in my book or rather… iBook.

Amplify’d from www.thewrap.com

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Last summer, when the Huffington Post was prepping the launches of its sports, tech and books sections, Arianna Huffington told me – and anyone who would listen – that her goal for HuffPo all along had been to create an Internet newspaper.

“We always knew that with our core values of news and opinion and community, we wanted to cover more than just politics,” Huffington said. “We needed to speak to more than that, to move like an Internet newspaper.”

On Wednesday, Huffington inched even closer, launching a travel section.

The section, HuffPost Travel, will be edited by Kate Auletta, the daughter of New Yorker writer and author Ken Auletta and former assistant features editor at “WSJ.” – the Wall Street Journal’s luxury magazine.

Read more at www.thewrap.com