Nov 0812
I used to think that twittering was for individuals who wanted to broadcast their whereabouts and activities to friends and family. Most of my tweets have to do with where I am, what I’m reading, yada, yada. But I’ve found a growing number of companies using Twitter to raise awareness, reach new audiences, raise money, and disseminate news.
I can’t think of a more fitting match between Twitter and CNN’s breaking news. My god, Twitter is nothing but a bunch of headlines! Today, nearly 54,000 people follow CNN’s headline news on Twitter.
The National Wildlife Federation does a great job of using Twitter to promote events, broadcast NWF news and mobilize people to do something (vote, send an e-card, donate, watch a video). Over 1,600 people follow NWF on Twitter. Read the rest of this entry
Nov 0806
President-elect Obama has a lot on his plate. Perhaps most importantly, he’s got to get the economy moving again. I’m not convinced that getting people to spend money should be the top priority, but let me tell you about Mike, a shoe salesman I met at Nordstrom at Pentagon City last weekend.
I was looking for navy shoes and Mike was my guy. While I was trying on shoes, I asked him about business. Mike said that in his 15 years in the shoe department at Nordstrom, this is the worst he’s seen. I looked around, the store was packed. The food court had been packed. A couple of weeks ago, Tysons Galleria was packed. How could business be down?
Mike said, “look around, nobody’s carrying bags.” And you know what? He was right. Very few people in the store were carrying shopping bags. I was obsessed with people watching the rest of the afternoon and Mike’s words kept ringing true. Few people were carrying bags.
As Mike rang up my purchase, he said, “don’t be a stranger.”
Nov 0804
Every election, I give everyone in my office the corny speech about how I grew up under martial law in a country where people couldn’t vote, how voting is a privilege, how every vote counts, yada, yada. Well, this is the first year where everyone on my staff is interested in the election. I think nearly everyone eligible to vote actually voted. We had a staff meeting at noon today and only people who voted (or who are not eligible to vote) got free pizza.
I polled my staff and asked them for their favorite election resources. Read the rest of this entry
