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By Beth Warren, September 28, 2009 11:48 am

**I originally posted this on my blog in June 2009 when I first started supporting 12 for 12K.  In light of tomorrow’s big GG24 event for Doctors without Borders, I’ve updated it and reposted on this site**

Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could only do a little.  ~Edmund Burke

One of my favourite things in every career I’ve had (there have been a few..)  is that I’ve had the ability to assist others in some respect.   At one point I worked in not-for-profit and loved it.  During my time in the music business, I organized fundraising events, concerts, food drives and other helpful things.  Often, these were the “best” parts of my job. 

As well as my media/marketing experience, I also have a background in Volunteer Management.  I have both been a volunteer (Girl Guides, Scouts, etc) and organized volunteers.  I enjoy the experience of helping others.  Most of the time when I’ve ended up helping out, it’s because someone had to do it. It’s as simple as that.  We need a parent to work the book fair.. well, someone has to.. I have the time and ability.. so sure.  I’ve had a bunch of charitable experiences.. from sitting on volunteer boards and committees to  being a Brownie leader.. to sponsoring a child in another country.  My experience with volunteering, or with assisting anyone for that matter, is that you don’t do it with any expectation for yourself other than a genuine desire to help.

In about the same degree as you are helpful, you will be happy.  ~Karl Reiland

In June, one of my Twitter friends, Jon Aston (@JonAston on Twitter) was looking for “ten good people” to help out with The 12 for 12K Challenge.  I had seen the logo on Twitter in various peoples’ profile photos and noticed it on their Twitter pages, but really didn’t know a heck of a lot about it, so I asked about it.  And I asked Jon what he wanted these “ten good people” to “do”.

The 12 for 12K Challenge is the brainchild of Branding and Social Media Expert Danny Brown.  The concept is very simple. Using social media the participants would raise $144,000 in 2009.  Each month a different charity would be the recipient of the funds raised. 

For the GO GLOBAL 24 event  September 29th, the charity will be Doctors without Borders. Henie Reisinger (@hennartonline) will be tweeting for 24 hours.. there are sponsored hours, and all donations are certainly welcome. Please get more information here.

We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.  ~Winston Churchill

Here’s why I’m writing this:  all I had to do was commit $10 a month. Seriously. $10. And of course, it would be nice if I could spread the word about the movement. So I said yes.  I can do $10.  Not hard to find.  A few less Tim Horton’s coffees.  A couple less beer, one less bottle of wine..  (ok, let’s not get ridiculous)…

The point I’m making is this: it’s a simple thing to do. $10 once a month. Easy. It’s just a little bit… but if everyone does a little bit, it will be a LOT. And I understand that not everyone has the $10. So do WHAT YOU CAN.

For the GO GLOBAL 24 event, there will be auctions, donations and more while Henie tweets for 24hours straight.  YOU can help. Whether it’s contributing time, money or effort.. YOU can help. Because if everyone helps out even just a little bit.. it all adds up to a lot.

 Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better.  It’s not.  ~Dr. Seuss

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By Beth Warren, September 22, 2009 12:09 pm

A couple of weeks ago I read a post by brilliant radio consultant Jaye Albright of Albright & O’Malley  – it was about a Twitter promotion a station in Texas was doing and how it’s only a matter of time before you see more Social Media contesting. 

Which makes sense.. it’s ALL media.. radio, television, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter.. it’s about connecting with others.  It’s a win/win.

Except for the fact that the majority of Radio fails miserably at Social Media.

Very few radio stations are using social media well.  Most aren’t using it at all. In this economy and the state that terrestrial radio is in, you THINK they’d be all over it.. after all, more listeners = more ratings = more money.

But they aren’t. They are either just not bothering or they are doing it poorly.

There are over 12 THOUSAND radio stations in the United States and only 121 of them are on Twitter. (http://radioontwitter.com/) 

Radio is missing a huge opportunity to drive web traffic, create listening appointments and increase time spent listening.. but they don’t seem to recognize what they are doing wrong.

The 3 biggest reasons:

1. Radio does not engage.

When I was in radio school, not to mention working in radio, the Program Directors would encourage the jocks to talk on air as if they were speaking to their best friend. One on one with another human being. Entertain them. Engage them.

So why isn’t radio doing that with Social Media?  They are breaking their own rules. Most radio stations have a disproportionate ratio of followers to following on Twitter and seem to rarely interact with those “friends” on Facebook. 

I randomly selected stations that I listen to as well as other stations from the U.S. and Canada..  Ninety five percent  of the stations I researched are following less than ten percent of their followers. Some aren’t following ANY.   HINT: The more you follow, the more will follow you back.

Many stations had less than 100 followers. And they’re only following 10 or so. Most of these seemed to be following celebrities and the like. Great for research. Bad for communication.  Dudes… I have more followers than you. And I don’t have a big ol’ broadcast centre.

If radio would become “friends” with these listeners, the listeners would be far more likely to be loyal.  Plus, sending out one “tweet” a day just doesn’t cut it.  Nor does being unresponsive when listeners send messages to you.  Hard to have a conversation with someone when you’re the one doing all the talking. Just sayin’.

p.s. Having your jocks “blog” by writing 3 lines with a link to a cat singing Happy Birthday. Yeah, not riveting.

2. Radio doesn’t promote itself.

I know! Hard to believe! Think about how many followers and friends Joe Average would have if he were on your local radio station every day telling everyone his Twitter handle and/or Facebook address or YouTube link.  Lots, right?  Thousands..maybe even bajillions…

 If radio actually DID such a thing, they would.  Listening to some of these stations, and checking out their websites.. most did not even have a link to any of their social media sites.  Nor did they talk about them on the air. 

Unfortunately, many in radio think that social media sites are competition for hits to their own websites. 

They’re wrong.

Most listeners will go on a social media site at least once a day.. not so much their favourite radio station’s website. Using social media effectively, radio could drive far more listeners to their own websites.

Using tools like Facebook, Radio could have listeners upload their  own content for contests.. much simpler than Buddy emailing a pic and webguy having to then upload it to the station’s site.

Connect the dots people. It’s what links are for.

3.  Radio vastly underestimates Social Media’s value.

Unfortunately, most in radio don’t think social media is a valuable tool for them. However, now I will speak in their language. Demographics.

Looking at the facts and figures provided by Mashable, Neilsen and Quantcast there are currently 14 million Twitter users in the U.S. alone.  Which makes it sound kind of piddly when you realize that Facebook has over 200 MILLION users.

And, my radio friends, sixty-six percent of those using Facebook are between the ages of 18-49.  58% of users make over 60K a year. 54% Female.. 46% male.  Sound familiar? 

Twitter usage has jumped from just over 5 million users to 27.6 million users in 6 months. Twitter is most popular with working adults between the ages of 35-49. Accounts for 42% of their audience.

Seventy-two percent of Twitterers are in the core demo of 18-49.  54% Female.  46% Male. The vast majority of Tweeters are not only regulars, but they are “addicts”.  From February ’08 to February ’09, Twitter usage increased 1382%. 

Go look at the cold hard facts.. www.quantcast.com … www.nielsen.com .  And read this .

Yet, most stations don’t even have a social media strategy.  Why not?

Radio: Let me know if you need help with that.. evilgenius@live.ca

Comments (2)

By Beth Warren, July 10, 2009 4:05 pm

 Infectious and Viral isn’t Always a bad thing…

Viral – a term used to describe anything related to viruses.  Virus – a microscopic infectious agent.

I was online with a friend and we were discussing an online group that we had both joined.  It’s grown very large very quickly and many in the group are boycotting a particular business. Neither of us are sure if  all of the reasoning behind the boycott is sound, but that’s neither here nor there.  We were saying that the business in question would likely see some not so great repercussions from this viral phenomenon.  People were angry and it was spreading.. yup, like a virus. 

We discussed how viral marketing can go either way — can either hurt or help.  The same friend sent me the link to this video which was recorded at festival in Calgary.  It’s essentially a human reenactment of viral marketing.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GA8z7f7a2Pk&feature=related]

Buddy is just enjoying himself.  His “product” so to speak is his dancing… and fun.

He’s just dancing away having a great time, doing the best he can and being quite entertaining ….then he engages a “customer” in essence… another guy comes and joins his dance.  These two guys are having so much fun that a couple of others are drawn in and come over to join… then a few more.. until there’s a rush of people at the 1:30 mark of the video.  Then SWARMS of people are tripping over themselves to be a part of this because practically everyone is doing it and it’s now THE THING to do.  Everyone gets caught up in the feeling.  His enthusiasm became contagious and spread through the crowd within minutes.

Buddy was just being himself and being real.  He was just being the best darn (possibly drunk) crazy dancer he could be.  He didn’t have any kind of slick come on or marketing or ad campaign. His “product” .. what engaged people.. was his fun loving attitude.. a couple people joined, then a few more.. until loads of people were infected with his spirit.. they all wanted a piece of the party. 

It’s very much the way social media and viral marketing both work.. like the old shampoo commercials said “I told two friends, and they told two friends.. and so on.. and so on… ”

If your first customer is super happy with you, he’ll tell lots of other people.  And they’ll tell others.  It becomes contagious.

And if you love what you do and enjoy it and provide a great product, you’ll be “infectious”… people will want to be a part of the fun.

At the very end of the video you can hear a girl say “HOW did he DO that?”.   Just by being real and enthused…  and being the best darn crazy dancer he could be.

Comments (1)

By Beth Warren, July 3, 2009 10:01 pm

I learned all about logos and promo at a very young age… my first “real” job was screen printing tee shirts at a promo company when I was 13.  So needless to say I’ve seen some very good and very bad work done.

After all, your logo is supposed to convey not only what your brand is, but hopefully what your business does or  is trying to sell. It’s supposed to represent.  When I saw the new Sony Music logo I just did not “get it”.  (Sony is not a client, this is my personal opinion.. just to be clear).  Yes, SonyBMG is back to Sony Music after several years and so were in need of a new “face”.  But, what is it? If you just saw the symbol, you’d think it was for a paint store or something.  It’s not offensive or unattractive or awful, it just doesn’t say “hey, we make music”.

Basic elements of a great logo are:

• conveys your brand
• memorable
• looks good in black and white, as well as in color
• simple yet distinctive
  

  NO ONE noticed? REALLY? WTF is right...

• no clutter or distraction
• scalable – looks good large or small
• easy to reproduce and maintain integrity
• keep in mind where it’s going to be used

A point that many miss is whether it’s easy to reproduce. If it’s going to be used for clothing, whether it be screen printed or embroidered, how tough or easy will it be to capture the nuances in colour or the fantastic detail?  What works on the web or in print may not necessarily work for your company uniform or promo shirts.

One of the biggest things so many seem to overlook is “what is this going to look like to my potential clients?” It’s important to get feedback.  What looks stellar to some, once unveiled, may not convey the message you wish to deliver.  After all, the purpose of your logo is to be “Logogrammatic”.

Transfiguration High School's Logo. The person who approved this has been living in a cave.

Logo for Catholic Youth Diocese. FAIL.

The logo that was decided upon. ArtistsHeart Productions - a film & television production company. What do you think?

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By Beth Warren, June 13, 2009 11:19 pm

For several weeks now the big news was that at midnight last night Facebook would be offering vanity URL’s to their users. 

I know several people who were planning to stay up late to make sure they got their preferred names. I wasn’t planning on being one of them.. I just really wasn’t all that concerned.  There are a lot of “Beth Warrens” on Facebook and if I had to pick a different name… then no big deal. 

I use Facebook for fun, not for “business” or anything of that nature.. it’s a way to stay connected to my friends around the country and around the world.  It’s “personal” for me..  more of a  free time fooling around kind of thing.  Most of what I post is fairly humourous and tongue in cheek.. so if I had to go with something else.. I could live with it.  evilgenius maybe?  funniestgirlintheworld (my hotmail addy)?  Honestly, didn’t really give it much thought.   In fact, midnight came and went and I totally forgot about it and went to bed.

I was actually surprised at how many people were going a wee bit crazy over the whole thing.  Apparently within an hour a million user names had been registered. 

This morning I remembered that the URL’s were available and asked my kids if they were going to put vanity URL’s on their Facebook pages. First, they had no idea what I was talking about. Then, they confirmed that I was both addicted to the internet and that I was a geek.  (Uh, duh.)  And then they completely ignored the whole thing.

I logged on to FB and tried it out.. first try, http://www.facebook.com/bethwarren was available.. and I took it.  There are a LOT of Beth Warrens on FB so I’m really quite surprised I got it. 

I’ve taken a look through my friends’ profiles and some have added a personalized URL, some haven’t.  Most just used their own names. But some got creative. My favourite is my friend Avril’s… http://www.facebook.com/laughaminute (uh, I’m still the funniest girl in the world.. just so you know, Av.). 

But bethwarren will do.. after all, it’s my name.. oh, and evilgenius was taken.

(Take a look at this one.. this is hilarious.)

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By Beth Warren, June 4, 2009 11:57 am

Many years ago, I was tagged with the nickname “Evil Genius”.  I can’t remember quite how it started.. but it’s kind of stuck over time.. mostly because I have refused to let it die.  That being said, please keep in mind that I generally use my powers for good…generally.

I’ll be using this blog to comment on marketing, promotion, public relations and the like. My background in such is mostly music based.. (see ABOUT page if you like…)  but I’ve had a lot of different gigs.. and I’m a consumer, so I know both sides.  And I have lots of opinions that I can rarely keep to myself..

Cheers!