Talia, She Wrote

Okay, so I don't want to cast aspersions on this process but...

The voting has been crazy. Doing my super-PR girl thing, I got the word out there about me. There have been over 500 clicks on my link - bit.ly/adgal (which is why I use bit.ly, they let you track clicks) but I am landing on the 8 or 9 page! EVERYONE in the contest has only 2 stars with the exception of one girl. She has three stars and has been sitting pretty as #1 in the contest for over a week. That is pretty strange considering that no one has stayed that steady in this game. Her shot is alright but I doubt she has more friends voting than all the rest of us who have been blogging, Facebooking and Tweeting about it. I am pretty positive that the only people who have been voting are friends of contestants and Maddicts. It is clear that everyone is going around ranking themselves a 5 and everyone else a 1. This, though logical, seems silly and unfair. There are pictures that do not capture the essence of this competition ranking in the top 20, and that is silly!

It's turned into one big f-you fest and I don't like that. It's who's friend network is bigger and who can find auto-voting software to outsmart AMC. :( Very disappointing.

I hope the powers that be take a good look at the votes before picking the winners.

All that being said, I am not a sore loser. I had fun doing this and would do it again and I do, desperately want to play in the costume room for the show sometime (okay, maybe the props too).

So please, vote for me. We have until Monday. Again, my link is bit.ly/adgal

So the BRILLIANT minds behind Mad Men and the clothing line, Banana Republic have come up with a fab contest.

Submit your best "Mad look" and win a walk on role one Mad Men...

Well, since I A. am addicted to Mad Men and B. am a Mad Ave gal myself (okay, not NYC but I am a PR/Marketing professional in Denver) and C. have a very special affinity for the 50's/early 60's... especially in fashion, I am entering the competition.

I will send out the link to my page when I submit so stay tuned. AND please vote for me! :) After looking at the 400 or so pics they have up now, I am confident in my photo shoot! :)

Well, it has officially happened. Twitter has taken over the world.

In the past week, I have had 10 friends join twitter who were anti-tweet before. Why the change? Why now?

The Denver Post ran an article in the Sunday A&E section about Twitter - http://www.denverpost.com/entertainment/ci_11899588
And on March 3rd they ran this Twitter article - http://www.denverpost.com/entertainment/ci_11826126
Two articles about Twitter in less than two weeks!!!!

Clearly, the press is jumping all over twitter and as it comes out that John Mayer is tweeting nasty about Jennifer Aniston during a concert or Shaq clearly doesn't know how to spell because his tweets are illegible, Twitter has become fodder for the mainstream. AND it is becoming a news source. People in the plane that crashed into the Hudson were tweeting live from the sinking plane and on the ferries. CNN's news isn't breaking anymore because I read it from the people who are experiencing it on Twitter.

Twitter caught my attention in the middle of 2007. At this point I can't remember who urged me to sign up but I had an account and then I read a story about an American kid in Egypt who got thrown in jail. He tweeted, "Arrested" and kept the world updated with his short tweets. The country was mobilized on his behalf in just a few hours and he was released. All because someone, his Tweeps, found out that he was in jail. I wonder how Twitter will figure into court cases and missing persons searches... "Well, Captain, she tweeted that she was meeting a guy out on cty rd 4 at 11:37pm and hasn't been heard from since." That plus GPS in cell phones should help locate missing tweeters.

But back to why the surge in members. I blame Facebook. So we all know by now that Facebook changed their interface and there are articles all over the web about how much it sucks and what people like or don't like (and then there are the people who don't really understand the Web 2.0/3.0 revolution and make up for it by calling those of us who do understand front end and back end systems and all that idiots and dorks and time wasters... I bet you in a month or two they will be calling us to help them get set up on Twitter or Facebook). I'm not here to discuss the pros and cons of it (because frankly, I don't have the time to and it was done really well here - http://www.alternet.org/story/131866) but I think that the new "Twitter-like" Facebook interface helped make Twitter go mainstream but pissed off the Facebookers.

Here's the logic -
Facebook users who are Twitter users saw the similarities immediately. SO we all started Status Updating that and talking about how much we disliked it. That plus the abundance of media coverage about Twitter pushed these people over the edge and they signed up.

Now, I will say that of these people who just registered, many have only tweeted once and the tweet read something like, "Trying this Twitter thing out" or "Signing up for Twitter!" But that's okay guys, just hang in there. I think it was a full year after signing up that I got Twitter-active (now I have 600 some followers and well over 2,000 tweets, I average 16 tweets a day). It took going to the NPAC arts conference in Denver last year to really get me going. I realized I could tweet the wisdom I was getting and share it will my tweeps. It was great!

Anyway, here is another really great blog post on the evangelising of the anti-tweeters - http://www.sarahlacy.com/sarahlacy/2009/03/guest-post-a-facebook-addict-gets-twitter-religion.html

So, needless to say (I think), Twitter is becoming main stream and the early adopters (I like to think of myself as one) will be moving on to the next best thing. And Facebook, you are not it. I'm kinda happy with the change in Facebook... now my addiction is disappearing. Instead of checking it every half hour or so, I maybe check it once or twice a day! Whoo hoo!! I guess I don't need that 12 step for FB after all...

Okay, I don't have an addictive personality BUT I am totally easy prey when it comes to social networking. I don't know why. I never got addicted to smoking or drinking or anything... except social networking. I mean to the point where I check it on my phone at night in bed and tweet "Good morning, Tweeps" in the morning.

On the surface, you may think that seems sick but it gets worse. I manage accounts all over the social networking world for various groups that I represent. That means that more than half my day is spent logging in to Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, Linked-in, etc. Rarely, (but it does happen) I get SNICS (Social Networking Identity Confusion Syndrome ... I just made that up) and comment on a friend's picture while signed into the wrong account but usually I only do what needs to be done for that group. I do, however, make all my personal friends be friends with those identities on FB. :-)

Right, so let's guess that I spend two hours of my work day on social networking sites (for my main job with Ballet Nouveau Colorado), two more hours a day researching new ways to network & reading articles and an additional five hours a week on sites like YourHub.com, Denver Metro Mix, and This Week in Denver. Break out your calculators kids, that is 25 hours a week spent online networking...

One could say that I have a problem if half my week is spent digging online but I disagree. My intimate knowledge of the way Facebook and Twitter work has only enhanced my ability to do my job. I sat at the National Performing Arts Convention (NPAC) in Denver last summer and listened to well established companies complain that they can't reach the newer generation. The generation that wants to "Go Green" and save the planet, the ones that refuse hard mailings, who are the newest philanthropists and theatre-goers, who can't remember what color the yellow pages are and Google you before they meet you... my generation.

You see, my need to devour information and be an early adaptor for technology has served me right as the PR Director for Ballet Nouveau Colorado. I didn't know I wanted to do PR until I realized it is what I do everyday anyway! I devour articles on the internet and in magazines. If someone has a new program... Friendster, Myspace, then Facebook... I want to be a part of it. I taught myself HTML coding so I could make my profiles look nice in the earlier days before they had the easy profile maker that inserts HTML for you. Anyway, I feel like I am going off on a bit of a tangent here. What I really wanted to say is, you can do it too.

Look, there are three steps to how I work.
Seek. Post. Trend.

Seek - You always have to be looking at what's next. Where are people getting their ideas from? How did you hear about this restaurant or bar or theatre group? Google a popular group in your town and find out where they have their events posted. THEN -

Post - Everywhere. I am not kidding. You better be on all the popular sites but get on every free listing you can. Goodness knows someone looks at it! THEN -

Trend - GET GOOGLE ANALYTICS ON YOUR WEBSITE! Or something comparable. Google's is free and easy to figure out. So, see what the trends are. Are you getting a bunch of hits off a website you never heard of? Go there. Figure it out. Post there.
Seek. Post. Trend.

So you read my rant about "new media experts." I am not claiming to be one but it works for me. The biggest thing I tell any group that approaches me for advice is this... if you are a generation or two above me, while not impossible, you may find this type of work daunting (I'm not being mean here... my boss was the one who said it). Hire a recent college grad who either currently knows your org or can learn about your org and have them manage this. The onus of responsibility does not rest solely on your shoulders. You don't have to learn HTML or tweet all day but you need to have someone in your org doing it for you!


Oh and P.S. I heart Facebook especially because I have found friends that I lost touch with over 22 years ago! Don't underestimate the power of the net, homeslice!

P.P.S. I hate that spell check wants you to capitalize "internet" I don't think it needs it anymore...