What I’d like to see LESS of in Social Media for 2012.

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This list will piss off some of you. That’s not the intention. If you’re doing some of the actions below and you enjoy doing them then continue doing so. These are just my peeves. I’m hoping that you’ll agree with many of them (if not all). And, if this article makes you think about what you’re doing in social media land and you make a change, that’s okay too!

• A dozen friends posting the same photo of a cat or a baby doing something silly.

• Foul or demeaning language on Twitter. Why is this becoming the norm? It’s more creative not to curse. And then of course, I won’t block you.

• Misuse of to and too, your and you’re, and there, their and they’re. There, I’ve said it; hope you’re happy too! But wait…here’s another one I just made a major faux pas on …bare and bear, as in “bear with us”! Yes, I used bare.

• Social Media “experts” and “gurus” who post or tweet constantly but never comment on your posts or reply to your tweets…uh, that’s not social media or engagement folks, more like self-promotion.

• The word rare used to describe a clip on YouTube. It’s not rare if it’s made available to a large portion of the world.

• People who request to friend me on Facebook, they practically BEG me, so, after numerous messages, I oblige… then I never hear from them again. What’s up with that?

• “Share-o-holic” tendencies. I’ve heard a sip or two a day (or is it a glass) can have some health benefits but not to the point of getting “tipsy”.

• Use of personal profiles for business purposes. I’ll say it again and again, get a PAGE and stop trying to market to your friends. Please read this post and you’ll understand my rationale.

• Excessive whining. Yeah, we all have beefs about something. Focus on resolution instead; ask me about how to FIX it.

• Alcoholic beverage in hand for a LinkedIn profile. Seriously, do you think that’s going to help get you a job anywhere besides a liquor store?

• People who follow back none or one on Twitter. Not engaging. Hello, ego.

• Posting your family photos publicly. WHY would you want 800 million+ people on Facebook to see your private gatherings?

• The same post from your personal profile and your business at the same time. And I’ve also seen an occurrence of THREE posts of the same thing at the same time. This goes back to separation of personal vs. business…which IS it?

• Posting Tweets on Facebook with Twitter protocol.  All I can say is #pleasestopthispractice

• Deactivating and reactivating your Facebook account on a regular basis. If you don’t want to post for a while, just post so. No need to freak people out wondering who unfriended them.

• Automatic DMs on Twitter that start with “You’re cool”. How the heck would you know when you just started following me!

• Using an apostrophe with every word that ends with an s. So much possession! Rule of thumb: It is highly more likely that an apostrophe shouldn’t be used, so just leave it out and you’ll be correct most of the time.

• Request to play games, both in Facebook or Google+. You heard it here: I don’t play and I will not start. I’d rather engage you in a conversation, okay?

I WILL, however, respect your opinions whether or not I agree with them. Fair?

What’s on my wish list for 2012? To see more originality and more creativity. More from YOU.

Happy New Year! I wish you all the best. Let’s all make the next twelve months shine brightly!

Black Mountains, AZ. Photographed by me December 2011

Are You Committing Twitter Snobbery?

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“I won’t follow anyone back on Twitter who doesn't have a lot of followers.” A friend made this statement to me a while ago.

Is he seeing Twitter as a numbers game or assuming that this person doesn’t know what they’re doing out there?

It’s definitely not a numbers game, but a matter of how you choose to manage your account. Couple of options:

• Following back most everyone: Your public timeline will be messy though, however, you can control the quality of what you see through lists.

• Being targeted towards only those in your industry and/or those tweeps who would be genuinely interested in your product or service. This works, but do remember that you’ll have less reach overall; fewer replies, fewer retweets.

Don’t assume that they don’t know what they’re doing. Granted, that could be the case, however, keep in mind that people are joining Twitter every day and getting their feet wet. They may only have a few hundred followers, but do check them out. Some things to look for:

• A profile photo, not an egg.
• A full bio of who they are and what they do.
• Intelligent and engaging tweets. Okay to have some humorous ones too!
• A URL to a website that is professional and well organized.
• Lack of spammy tweets. Sharing the URL to your Facebook page is not spammy, but touting teeth whiteners is.
• They’re not a bot.
• Their tweets are interesting to you.
• They’re tweeting on a regular basis; in other words, they’re active and not simply just gathering followers.

Now, about giving them the benefit of the doubt, if they’re newbies, they may not be using Twitter protocol as they should be. I made two incredible blunders when I first joined Twitter. One gent firmly but politely corrected me on one of them; it may have been not using @ when replying. I remember feeling very small, but grateful that he took the time to tell me.

I recommend correcting someone via a DM. Save them a little embarrassment. Unfortunately a lot of people just dive into Twitter and try to swim without gaining the knowledge of what it’s about or formulating any strategy first. And many will drop off quickly; others will paddle ahead and some may even start doing the butterfly stroke.

So, what did I say to my friend after he made that statement?

"Give them a break; remember, you were once just starting out too and I'm sure you wouldn't have appreciated that kind of attitude while you were getting your feet wet"

‘Nuff said.

Join modlandUSA on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ …and please do say hello.

A nice place to get your feet wet.

The World’s Funniest Airline? Ha!

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Seriously, have you ever heard a pilot crack jokes during the flight? Do you think flying is funny? Kulula Airlines wants you to laugh in the clouds.

Information on their history is vague. Wikipedia states that the airline started flights in August of 2001 and they’re owned by British Airways franchise Comair. At least we learn a little more via their mission statement; in a nutshell, it’s safety first, simplicity and hey, lighten up!

However, this is an airline that has taken on a most casual twist in a serious people mover business, going beyond the happy, oopsy daisy flight attendants at Virgin that hand out ice cream bars and little rubber duckys.

The “good humour” goes much further. It’s all intended for you to have a good laugh when traveling. And who doesn’t need that? Flights not on time, people pushing to board  (what IS the rush?), being interrogated like you’re entering Fort Knox, taking off your shoes, waiting on lines…need I say more? You already know how unpleasant flying can be.

So, what’s so different about Kulula?  Several unusual twists contribute to their unique branding strategy.

Their planes LOOK funny; actually, the paint job does. One variation cheerfully depicts every element on the plane you need to know about, including “The Big Cheese”. Suspicion arose in 2010 that these planes aren’t real; however, there is evidence on a few sites that indeed, these planes do exist. Their cars look funny too:

The story gets better. Passengers are treated to some rather unusual commentary when the crew communicates with them. Oh, they get the information they need, and much more:
• "Ladies and gentlemen, we've reached cruising altitude and will be turning down the cabin lights. This is for your comfort and to enhance the appearance of your flight attendants."
• "If you are caught smoking, you will be asked to leave the aircraft".
• "Your seat cushion can be used for flotation; and in the event of an emergency water landing, please paddle to shore and take them with our compliments."

Sadly, one review was found where the passenger complained that the humour was toned down. They speculated that perhaps they have flown the airline too much and perhaps have become accustomed to a certain level of laugh factor.

On a positive note, Kulula’s website is one of the cleanest and easiest to navigate that I’ve ever seen. Helpful information, such as the weight of carry-ons is right on the home page; how many times have you gone fishing for that information on a major airline site? The question and answer page, “Flying 101”, put it straight: “We're gonna attempt to answer all those niggly questions that you have everytime you fly.” Have never seen an airline use such laid-back language before!

They have a presence on Facebook and Twitter too.  Their Twitter account appears to be a magnet for complaints; each one is cheerfully responded to.

Unfortunately for us in the States, and Europe and Asia, Kulula only flies to a few cities within South Africa, Johannesburg and Cape Town to name just two. Looks like folks are clamoring for them to fly to London, though.

Oh, as to be expected, their ads are funny. For a sample, click here.

So the question is…does Kulula really exist? Is it a local marketing experiment that may perhaps expand to a more well known airline? Is South Africa simply a test market? Or are all those planes actually the result of someone who is well rehearsed in Photoshop?

The good news is…Kulula is real. Kudos for having a most original brand that invokes excitement and smiles. They may be the only airline that has accomplished that. Kulula understands differentiation; entertaining us while maintaining all those rather somber elements that being an airline requires. Are you ready to pack your bags and fly with them?

Kulula’s very sensible mission statement 

ModlandUSA is on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ ...hope to see you there!

Social Network Enhancement: Hurray for Google+!

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Fans of Google+ (and perhaps future ones after reading this) will be thrilled to hear about a few new features from the social network. It’s almost like an early holiday gift; a far cry from the one that Facebook announced. Oh, you don’t know? Their present is one advert showing up in your newsfeed per day. Hip hip horray!

Starting with Google+ pages, you can now have admins, otherwise known as “managers”! Of course, we knew this was coming; Facebook, as anyone with a page knows, has provided this feature for a long time, but not with the elevated title.

While the number for Facebook pages is unlimited, you can now have up to 50 managers on your Google+ page. Would Ford or McDonald’s run the risk of using all 50? At any rate, newly minted Managers will be informed of activity on the page via notifications. Not sure if that’s different from the notification numbers you see now or not.

And already the “counting” for +1’ing is showing on a page. That’s a count of both those who have +1’d and also added your page to one of their circles. So my example here, for my modlandUSA Google+ page shows 50+, yet only 45 folks have circled the page. That means 5 of those folks have also given the page a +1 …thanks so much!

When I heard about the next feature, I thought of a synthesizer and all that other fun 70’s musical equipment. Yes, long time ago, the word “graphic-equalize” meant something quite different. For Google+ users it means fine-tuning, and you don’t have to be an audiophile to use this feature. It’s simply a slider that can be adjusted, or “slid” to select how much of a particular stream from a circle that you’d like to see in your main stream. Honestly, I don’t know how useful this is going to be, but that remains to be seen after doing some tweaking with it.

There’s new photo tagging features. Personally, I’ve never checked out the old ones, perhaps because most of my friends are on Facebook. That may be the case with you as well. According to Google+, the experience will be “fun and fluid”.  Perhaps the tagging will be more precise than Facebook? How many times have you tagged someone as their arm, and not their face?

Also in regards to photos, Lightbox has received a revamp in several ways.  Lightbox is what you see when you click on any individual photo thumbnail and it bring up a photo with the black background.  It already looks different; if memory serves me right, everything was black, and now there’s a white area for comments and tagging. At any rate, navigation will be smoother and comments easier to read. Okay, so that white background must be new!

And what about those ever popular notifications, officially from what Google+ calls the “red notifications indicator”? They’re adding a feature where you can better preview the information, thus giving you more control as to whether or not you’d like to respond to that post.

Now, here’s the best news…all the new features, if they’re not here already, will be here in the next few days! So, when you want to get away from the twenty plus people making merry in your house, find a quiet corner and check out your Google+ GIFTS!

Had a Ham Sandwich for Lunch: Twitter Babble

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Every wonder about all how many people are chirping out there in Twitterdom? Twitter at 100 million strong, while one of the largest social networks, pales in comparison to Facebook at 800 million. Granted, both figures are impressive, and considering the limitations of Twitter (140 characters, lack of visual), we could say it’s an entirely different animal, uh, bird, in its own right.

Besides the Twitter usage figure, some other interesting facts were revealed back in September by the company:

• Half of all users log in daily. A healthy percentage; likely those who have products and services to tout make up much of that figure.

• 40% of all Twitter users have not tweeted in the past month. Don’t have the stat, but I’m betting that everyone knows of someone who created an account, made one or two tweets, and hasn't been back since. Those folks likely account for much of that 40%.

• 230 million tweets a day. So, if we based that on those who log-in more than once per month, that’s close to 4 tweets per user. That’s a lot of chirping!

• 45% of tweets originate from mobile devices. People on the go! Not surprising. Sure hope they’re not tweeting while driving.

But wait, there’s more:

• According to a recent study by Semiocast, 39% of tweets are in English, followed by Japanese at 14%.

• Sysomos released study results in 2010 that determined a whopping 71% of tweets receive no response and only 6% of tweets are retweeted, while 23% are replied to.

And then there’s my favorite stat, to which I'll bestow the “ham sandwich” award, from Pear Analytics:

• 40.55% of all Tweets are “pointless babble”.

My curiousity took me straight to Twitter, where I found a few gems that fit the mold. No snickering!

• “My stomach hurts and it's making me want to go home and do nothing =/” - Hope your employer doesn’t see this one!

• “I get the stupidest songs stuck in my head then I look like a idiot cuz I sing them all day” - Sure hope you work alone.

• “I'm working on a story, and there are five main characters. I have to kill one of them. Thinking about who to kill off hmm.....”   - Seriously? You HAVE to kill one?

• “Shopping tip: You can get shoes for 85 cents at the bowling alley” - Is this suggesting that I RENT the bowling shoes, then STEAL them?

• “I need a strong man” - Uh, honey, Twitter may not be the best place to look for that.

Perhaps those pointless babblers need to be reminded that this is a public forum? That’s what’s so nice about Facebook and Google+; YOU control how public or private your message is. Twitter, has Direct Messages, sure, but hey, that’s only to one person at a time.

I’m proposing we start a club to stamp out babble on Twitter and make it more intelligent again, similar to what Google+ was until about a month ago.

And how we do accomplish just that? We don’t. It’s a public forum and all those folks eating ham sandwiches for lunch have as much right to be there as anyone else. The sad truth is that unless we take advantage of lists on Twitter or just don’t follow back most tweeps, then we’ll just have to put up with it.

I’m opting for the list solution. For more on that, click here for Twitter’s primer on lists.

modlandUSA is on Facebook and Google+ too!

Fake Profiles: To Create Theirs, Just Steal Yours.

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I spent some time in the eighties performing some very geeky tasks, including designing an input process for a “top secret” research survey for my employer. It needed to be created internally because of the sensitive information gathered in the questionnaire.

Back then, electronic files weren’t as freely shared as they today and my final 30 page document, written in WordPerfect, was distributed to just a few folks on hard copy.

Fast forward a couple of years later; a colleague phoned me (we didn’t use email all that much either), and asked about “the documentation that Sharon wrote”. I was confused and said I’d walk over.

And there it was, right on the cover. The document title was the same, but the author wasn’t me. It was indeed Sharon, who left the company the year before. I told my colleague that I actually designed and documented the process and later that day showed him the original file in my computer. A bit of research revealed that Sharon had a secretary retype it word for word. And the secretary kept it secret, just as she was supposed to do.

Times have changed. Now, thanks to our public lives on the internet, we can easily rip off people we don’t even know and perhaps never get caught.

Case in point: The snapshot included here shows a “lady” named Cathy. Strangely enough, the introduction to her bio reads exactly the same as Frank’s on the right side.

I noticed Frank’s post where he stated stumbling upon this gal; he was amazed that he had 100% of his life in common with someone else! Some comments ensued, with the most reasonable theory being of course, that Cathy is a fake profile created from simply plucking public information from cyberspace. Frank contacted “her” to politely let her know what an honor it was to have his profile “borrowed” word for word.  Her description quickly changed; she emphasized her love of coffee, hot sauce and her sons.

Here’s the scary part. She displays characteristics making her appear legit.

In her bio, under other names, “Mapistrano*” is listed. And there IS a gal with that last name that works for Google that Cathy says is her sister. And while Cathy’s profile pic is blurry, there are other photos of her that are much crisper in quality with friends and a son or two. She seems to be a bit of whiner too, especially when the parking lot is plugged up.

But if she is a real person, why would she lift someone else’s bio? Lack of originality, in a rush, just happened to see it and identified with it?

This raises a few points. Do you read the bios of the folks that circle you or do you just automatically circle back? Perhaps this is why Cathy has followers. I enjoy reading them.

Granted a few may have slipped through the cracks, that certainly happens to me on Twitter as well. And if a bio is not available either because it hasn’t been written or isn’t made available to me, I click ignore. I don’t have a high tolerance for the lack of a profile pic either.

Fake profiles are fairly easy to spot on Twitter: Few followers, pretty or scantily clad woman in the photo, nonsense, obvious spam or nothing at all in the tweets, but it may be a harder on Google+ or Facebook. On Facebook, I’ve received friend requests from guys who pour out their undying admiration for me based on a photo. When I google them, nothing in their sparsely populated Facebook profiles seems to correspond with anything I find…IF I find anything. Had to fix that mess; nowadays, only friends and friends of friends will find me in a search on Facebook. No more “admirers” for me. Oh well.

Suggestion for G-plusers: DO peruse a profile before circling back and consider everything that they’ve revealed about themselves; how does it all add up? The introduction (bio) perhaps weighs heaviest out of all the different elements. What does the bio tell you about this person?

Note: Not everyone makes a bio public, including me (if you’re curious, ask me why), but there may be enough other information provided to evaluate whether or not to circle them back; perhaps some of their posts are viewable by you. Incidentally, my lack of public information hasn’t slowed people down from circling me. When I have a few moments, I read a few bios and follow back a few folks.

* name changed.

Customer Satisfaction, a Big Cable Company, and You.

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Treating customers with respect and courtesy sounds simple enough, no? The consumer buys your product or service, you keep them happy by throwing a sale or a deal out once in a while, promptly answer their questions when they call you, and award them for their loyalty (especially if they hint on bailing on you). It’s not rocket science. It’s relationship marketing.

Well maybe it is rocket science. I recently closed an account with a cable company and their actions were, well, out of this galaxy. Here’s the letter I wrote, changing the name of the “innocent”:


Dear Friends at Phase-Peacener:


Call off the hounds please. Your $51.04 is safe, in fact, here it is.
Now that you’ve lost me as a customer forever, let me tell enlighten you as to what transpired in regards to closing my account at a rental property I own.


Sent a check for $92.24 on 10/24/11. That appeared to be the final invoice, since my account was closed; however, I received another bill for $51.04.


So I called around the end of November; sorry, don’t know the date. Was on the phone quite a while; the gent I spoke with was very friendly and helpful.  Apparently, my check, #2646, never made it to you. He verified that, and while on the phone with him, I went into my bank account online and checked. It was never cashed.


Your rep explained that I was credited back $41.20 at some point, so my new total was $51.04. We both agreed that it would make sense to wait a bit longer to see if my check from 10/24 would arrive. If it did indeed wind up being cashed, then a refund would be sent for $41.20. Makes sense, no?


Sending another check right away would just increase the amount owed back. I really didn’t want to hand over more money to Time Warner Cable when I already was AHEAD. Apparently, the rep never made any notes in my account about the SNAFU.


Now I receive a bill from a collection agency. SERIOUSLY? Did you think I ran off to Brazil with less than $100?  That amount wouldn’t even get me on the plane, let alone pay for a snack and my luggage fees. Do you really think that I wouldn’t pay? I’ve paid without fail, for years! 


It’s amazing how quickly an account that “owes” a handful of change gets turned over to a collection agency. After the fees you’ll be paying them, perhaps $20 is what you’ll get? And with all that paperwork just to turn over the account to them, it’s likely you’re out more than $51.04.


In summary, your lack of customer care cost you:
• A few dollars
• Time wastefully spent for an employee or two.
• The possibility that I will share this event with others.
• Loss of my ever using your services in the future. So please stop sending  junk mail to me.


Best Regards,
(signature) 

Clearly, no one assessed the situation; the account was automatically set out for collection. That was a big mistake. As noted, someone who never missed a payment probably isn’t going to abscond with the money. The rep made an error by not making a note in the account as to why it was outstanding. A simple program or even a human (imagine THAT?) could have touched the account prior to sending it to a collection agency. Their process appears to missing a few steps; not hard to include a few.

But what are the consequences? Loss of one account. Eh. DO note I stated “the possibility that I will share this with others.” The internet enables my blog post to travel. Quickly. It could result in some more accounts lost, as those who are contemplating a change decide to get a dish.  The viral spreading of these words turns my $51.04 “issue” into a global event. That’s a far cry from chatter at the local coffee clutch in days of yore.

The power of Social Media makes customer satisfaction critical to any business. Beep beep.

Holiday Snail Mail, Hallmark, and You.

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Do you still enjoy opening the door of a metal box with paper stuffed in it to see what treasures await you? And what’s inside? Mostly bills and sales flyers from stores you don’t frequent, right?

Imagine my surprise when I received not one, not two, but THREE Christmas cards in one day! Another one arrived the next day; more excitement ensued. Next day, nada. Now, nothing, for the last three days.

Is this the decline of popularity for those real, touchable, hang-upable, personal expressions with hand written seasonal greetings and signatures, otherwise known as holiday cards?

Made me think about that whopper of a card company, Hallmark; can they make up for the perceived lack of interest for paper greetings by hawking $20 Keepsake ornaments? A quick evaluation of the Hallmark brand reveals that:

• Their stores are called Hallmark Gold Crown; the word card isn’t there.

• Hallmark was the first greeting card company to advertise nationally (1928). Now that’s cutting edge!

• They’ve been a global company since the mid-sixties.

• Hallmark’s cable channel includes original productions aimed at those who love weepy movies. Especially enjoyed the flick with Michael Imperioli and applaud him for showing his sensitive side. Oops…that was an Oprah production shown on ABC!

• Hallmark owns several recognizable brand names, each appealing to different target audiences. Surely you’ve heard of Shoebox, hoops&yoyo, and Maxine?

• They’re still a private company and boast over 13,000 employees. Who would have thought that the largest greeting company wasn’t publicly traded?

• They own Crayola LLC. Who hasn’t colored with a Binney & Smith Crayola periwinkle crayon?

• The Hallmark Hall of Fame program on NBC has been on air over 50 years, winning 80 Emmy awards.

• Surprise! Hallmark Channel USA’s Facebook page has more fans than the Hallmark page: 660,000 vs. 400,000. And Maxine’s page is closing in, boasting 355,000 fans.

And there’s more: Hallmark owns the world’s largest Christian greeting card company, a rewards/incentive/recognition programs company, a children’s doll franchise, and even a department store.

Who knew?

In short, Hallmark has kept with the times. They’ve wisely expanded their brand through their own creations while also quietly buying up smaller companies with established niche markets, remaining true to their core greeting card empire in the process. Brand image is strong, with instant recognition of Hallmark and an association with greeting cards, diversity of products has not eroded that imagery.

Oh, the card market does live on with an overwhelming array of choices; going far beyond prose, design and style. Greeting cards with the ability to play a song for you and others you can put your own recording on are great for vocalizing your feelings to that special someone. And here’s some good news: According to a recent study, the card industry declined 0.3% from 2006 to 2011*. For now, cards are still popular.

Despite all the positive initiatives coming from Hallmark, there’s room for improvement, namely in the area of social media:

The Hallmark blog hasn’t seen a fresh entry since January! Here’s where the brand can be stretched further, with recipes, holiday decorating ideas (recycle those old cards), traditions, and historical information.

Twitter followings on three accounts are surprisingly low: @hallmarkPR, @hallmarkchannel, and @hallmarkbiz. Is it necessary to have separate accounts for public relations and business? And where are Maxine and hoops&yoyo? Just imagine the sassiness of Maxine on Twitter!

No presence on Google+. Sigh.

Hallmark, you’ve taught us how to use one way communication effectively; we know you're the ones to come to when we care about sending the very best, however, it’s time for you to engage more with us!

Join ModlandUSA, MODern Marketing 4 U on Facebook and Google+ 

* IBISWorld’s Greeting Cards & Other Publishing market research report

The Marketing of Mistletoe.

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Nowadays, it’s common to go food shopping and see, for example, branded chicken…Perdue, Foster Farms. But there was a time when chicken was just plain old chicken. And Eggs were simply eggs, without red lettering boasting Eggland’s Best.

Will mistletoe be branded someday? Imagine going out to shop for that high quality sprig, available exclusively at Neiman Marcus because you’ve just got to have mistletoe by “King Pristine’s Romance Ranch”. And nope, the common stuff by “Joe & Sam” that Kmart is hawking isn’t going to provide the necessary element for that important kissing spot in your home.

So, what will we name the very first mistletoe brand? Since this plant originated in Europe, perhaps we’ll take that into account. While not native to America, there is a variety here, found from New Jersey to Florida and then to the west as far as Texas.

Mistletoe, besides serving as an item for locking lips under, apparently likes to “hug” too, and can actually harm the trees it grows on! Um, that makes it parasitic.
But wait! It gets even more romantic.

Mistletoe is poisonous. Don’t eat it; don’t let your kids eat it. The more minor symptom is a belly ache. No need to mention the rest.

And, it is toxic to cats, dogs and horses. Now it’s understandable why it’s traditionally hung up high.

So how did we come to start kissing under mistletoe in a doorway, anyway? Pick a story; Druids or Vikings or Greeks.

Britain, around 100 A.D. The Druids considered mistletoe to be a miracle drug of sorts and priests would ceremoniously cut mistletoe from trees either towards the end of the year or early in the new year for hanging in homes to keep evil spirits away. While cutting this sacred plant from the tree, care was taken so that the cuttings wouldn’t touch the ground.

Now the story takes a twist*.

Many sources say that the kissing tradition started in Scandinavia where mistletoe is considered to be the plant of peace. In Norse mythology, Frigga, the protective mother of Balder, cried tears that became mistletoe berries when her beloved son was killed by Loki from an arrow he made out of the wood from the plant.

Mistletoe was the only plant that could harm Balder, since Frigga had made sure that all other plants would not. Sadly, she didn’t approach mistletoe with her request. The arrow, once removed from Balder, was given to Freya, the goddess of love, and from these events the tradition of kissing under the mistletoe stemmed.

But what about the Greeks?  They associated mistletoe with fertility and originally included the plant in the festival of Saturnalia, and later with marriage rites.
More fuel for passion: Did you know that the name of this plant comes from the Anglo-Saxon words mistal and tan which translates to dung and twig? Gotta love that!

Ah, back to the naming of our new mistletoe brand. Let’s see, descriptors include kissing, parasitic tendencies, poison, dung, and twig. “Cupid’s Finest” or “Ding-a-ling-a-ding dung” won’t work. “Toxic Holiday Romance”. Nah; all of these are barking up the wrong tree. Okay, I’m stumped!  Sure glad I’m not representing mistletoe growers.

What would YOU name it?

Here’s a silly skit about mistletoe; click here.

Stop by and say hello on Facebook and Google+ !

*Note: found another completely different story as well!

Hotel Rooms, Clouds, Data, and You.

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As I sit here in a hotel, I can’t stop thinking about safety and security, especially when it comes to my computer and all the information on it.

Thankfully, while I haven’t heard of anyone I know having their computer stolen from a hotel room, I DO know of friends whose laptops have been stolen from their homes. In all cases, the information was backed up. Whew!

Also noticed that computers just don’t fit in hotel room safes.

But wait a minute…I don’t even see a safe in this room, though it is a swanky place. And should I feel secure just because some semi-retired person glances at me as I stroll to the elevators?  SOMETIMES they ask to see my room card. So technically, anyone can slip by and go wherever they want. Security? Ha.

But wait! You can prevent the worst from happening to you. Nowadays, there’s something called Cloud Computing. Oh, it’s been around awhile, it just didn’t have a name. Basically, it’s the ability to access your data and / or software from anywhere; think of it as being up in a cloud in a big beautiful sky. For many years, I’ve been able to access software and databases that I’m subscribed to via any computer; I just need to sign on and do what I need to do. Even your email accounts such as Hotmail and Gmail are a part of Cloud Computing.

Great! So what does this mean? It means that you can back up the data on your computer into a cloud. Now how convenient is THAT? In the near future, we won’t be lugging around laptops anymore and accessing our data from “wherever” …so why not start now?

What are the other options? An external hard drive for starters, however, if you’re someone who accumulates masses of photos like I do, you could easily run out of space in a short period of time. And yes, you could buy another hard drive, but isn’t this starting to sound complicated?

Another alternative is saving data on jump drives and discs; both very limiting. Remember when we thought that floppy disks were amazing?

Why DO we have so much information nowadays? Because we can! Take photos, for example. Used to be that you had to line up that ONE good shot because you only had 20 on the roll.  Your prints were either good or bad, but you shared them with everyone regardless. Nowadays, with digital, you can take 20, 30 or 40 of the same object from various angles, etc. and pick just one.

Do you save the remaining 39 or do you delete them? The storage space erodes very quickly if you hang on to them all.

Of course, data backups translate to data as well; spreadsheets, word docs, PowerPoint presentations. Luckily, the first two don’t take up a lot of space, but presentations can, dependent on how graphical they are.

Now you’re probably worrying about all that data on your computer. According to recent information from Kroll Ontrack, while most folks place high importance on the information in their computers, close to a quarter do absolutely NO backups and about two-thirds back up their data less than once a month.

Scary.

Now you know why I’ve written this. Perhaps getting the message out can prevent some unwanted aggravation.

In respect to cloud computing, click here for a tune about how “clouds got in my way.”

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Two Brands, Four Names: Marketing Marvels.

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Who doesn't like ice cream? Have you ever tried Dreyer’s, I mean Edy’s? Little did I know when I moved from one coast to another that I’d have to become reacquainted with two products and call them by another name. Why IS that?

Edy’s ice cream came to be in 1928, and surprise, the partners were Joseph EDY and William DREYER. They opened a retail shop in Oakland, California to sell their frozen delights and are credited with the creation of Rocky Road in the late 30’s. Expansion included supplying ice cream to restaurants in and around San Francisco. The partnership lasted 19 years and retained the name of Edy’s until the Dreyer’s son took the reins in 1953 and decided that HIS last name should be on the products.

The company started offering their products in supermarkets during the sixties. The early Eighties brought big change for Dreyer’s as they the Edy’s name was reinstated for use with products sold east of the Rockies. Seems that a “little” company called Breyers had a strong foothold with their frozen delights and potential confusion for consumers strongly influenced the name decision.

Apparently the choice to move forward with two brand names for the same product, same packaging, proved to be a profitable choice. The company enjoys continued success today.  However, Breyers DID expand across the country in the mid-eighties, so it is possible to find Dreyer’s and Breyers next to each other in your local grocery store.

Moving on to another creamy concoction…

I recently landed on the website www.bestfoods.com. A video popped up about holidays, turkeys and Hellman’s mayonnaise. Hellman’s website is mentioned while the home page sports a big Best Foods logo. Huh? A tale of two companies colliding.

Richard Hellmann, one of many in the wave of Western European immigrating to the United States, opened a deli in New York City in 1905. His wife’s mayonnaise, a featured ingredient in his wares, proved to be tasty enough to sell separately. Originally, two recipes were sold. One was the famous “blue ribbon” version that lives on today. While Hellmann is credited with selling the first commercially available mayonnaise, believe it or not, this creamy product originated in Europe during the 1700’s.

While Hellmann grew his empire, Best Foods was cooking up similar products on the West Coast. BestFoods traces their roots back to the 1800’s when American Linseed was established in New Jersey. In 1917 American Linseed acquired Nucoa a manufacturer of butter and mayonnaise. The purchase included the Best Foods subsidiary.  Their mayo product, labeled Best Foods enjoyed healthy growth in the West Coast states during the 1920’s, paralleling Hellmann’s westward expansion.

1932: Best Foods buys Hellmann’s. One can surmise that Best Foods was likely the larger of the two corporations, and perhaps Richard Hellmann was ready to retire, but who knows?

By that time, the two brand names were firmly established in their regions. Best Foods made the decision to retain both names and that stands firm today, with Hellmann’s enjoying popularity roughly east of the Rockies.

While the Best Foods mayo retained the same name, Best Foods the corporation underwent a few name changes over the years. Purchased by Corn Products Refining in the late fifties, becoming Corn Products Company, 10 years later known as CPC International, which split off Best Foods in 1997 and christened it BestFoods (one word), and finally acquired by Unilever in 2003. Are you dizzy yet?

The takeaway, (besides our continued enjoyment of tasty products) of the story is: The power of consumers and brand names can create some unusual branding decisions. Which products are in your neck of the woods? Edy’s or Dreyer’s ice cream? Best Foods or Hellman’s mayonnaise?

Click here for a more recent commercial for Hellmann’s that has the jingle that I remember as a kid.


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Why I Won’t Be Friends With You On Facebook.

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Got a friend request yesterday. Have no clue who this fellow is, but we had 18 friends in common. Is that a good enough reason to accept the request? Not for me. I thought I’d message this gent and see why he wanted to friend me. That option was not available, but I had a partial view into his profile and the wall had this:

• Changed profile pic seven times in last two months
• Posted a link to his blog on someone’s wall in October
• Posted an article about music teachers on October 19
• Overhead pics included a young boy, Steve Jobs, himself, and a basketball player

The info page reviewed little except that he has a media company.
Strike One. Nothing happening here. I now noticed that we had 22 friends in common.

Moved on to the website; it boasted many clients and all the stunning social media work they’ve done. I didn’t find a link to a Facebook page. A quick search revealed that this company that helps folks with social media for a living doesn’t HAVE a Facebook page.

Strike Two. Sorry, but if you’re in the social media business, how can you NOT have a Facebook page?

Moved on to Twitter and found an account.  Close to 3,700 following, but only following about 1,300 back. Tweets were okay and made sense, averaging about six a day. Some days had zero tweets. I noticed I was following him. NOW I could contact this fellow. We’re now at 25 people in common.

I sent two direct messages:

Hi Sam*, thx for the FB friend request. I don't connect with people unless I actually know them. 


You are welcome to like my pages on FB...
... http://t.co/2V881Pv and http://t.co/lwiNDoJ ...nice to meet you! 

Got this reply: No worries!

Then I thought, let me take a look at LinkedIn. He had a few recommendations and his profile could have been filled out a bit more, but I thought, eh, he’s local, I’ll hold out the olive branch.

So I sent another DM:
LinkedIn is groovy is you want to connect there. But I have certain rules for Facebook that work well there.

Got this back:

yeah I totally get it I have changed up my Facebook policy and opened it up a bit more but was same way forever no sweat

My conclusion: Another person who is going to use a personal profile for business and is more interested in people collecting. This is just plain wrong! Get a room; oops I mean, get a page!

Here’s a few reasons why you shouldn’t be conducting business on a personal profile:
• No limitation on a business page. Personal profiles cap at 5,000.
• Who wants to be “friends” with a personal profile masquerading as a business and possibly let them see all that personal stuff of yours? Not me.
• Do the “friends” on your personal profile match who your target audience is? Probably not.
• Demographic and usage information is available for your business page; and personal profiles? NO stats. Nothing. Nada.
• Business pages have the advantage of advertising on Facebook

As of this writing, we now have 27 people in common. He has not “liked” either of my pages, nor have I received a LinkedIn request. And I haven’t accepted the friend request.

Couldn't find a song on people collection, but click here for one on star collecting.

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* not his real name.