Thanks to FARK.com, I have spewed my coffee all over my laptop. Dig if you will, a REAL HEADLINE from a REAL news story.
"David Allen Chapin, who ate the brain of his roommate after he
shot him 30 years ago in an argument over whose religion was best, is
up for parole in June."
Go here to read this so-scary-because-its-true story.
He'll probably get a reality show.
eMarketer is one of my favorite websites. It seems like the news on eMarketer is fresh and I always find good nuggets of information. In my inbox today, eMarketer had a great post on affluent consumers spending time on social networks. Dig, if you will, a preview of the eMarketer article below:
Affluent Hobnob on Social Networks
"While some in the luxury
industry are still debating e-commerce, search and banner ads, the
majority of their customers have leaped into the online dialogue," said
Milton Pedraza, CEO of the Luxury Institute. "Luxury needs to catch up
quickly."
Go to eMarketer's story "Affluent Hobnob on Social Networks" here.
The Oscar Meyer Weiner Vehicle got stuck in the snow. One of my friends (years ago) was a driver for the "giant weiner" vehicle. We gave our friend HELL for years about this job.
I'm daydreaming about the call to AAA for a tow truck. Go here to read this story.
Toby Bloomberg, a marketing rockstar I admire, tagged me last week. Toby is the Diva behind Diva Marketing blog as well as being one of the coolest women on the net. This tag is for you Toby!
7 Facts About Me
1. Wine or beer - Tequila and Beer
2. Dog or cat - Dog (Pug is my dog of choice)
3. Mountains or ocean - Ocean
4. Coffee or tea - Coffee, Make it a Double
5. NYC or LA - LA
6. Summer or Winter: Summer
7. PJs or nothing - PJs
Toby instructed me to tag 7 women to get their answers on the "7 Facts". Here are my victims.
Posh Mama at PoshMama.com, Kristen at Affirmagy, Kristen at Think Positive Blog, Connie at EveryDotConnects, Molly at Disney's Family.com, Wendy at Emoms at Home, and Lauren, the Fashion Kitty at This Next.
Alltop is a "dashboard" that collects stories from all the top sites on the web and displays them on ONE PAGE. Alltop covers all kinds of different topics, from Celebrity Gossip to Sports to Mac news.
As an "A.D.D." adult with the attention span of a flea, Alltop lets me view the web in snack sized portions. I found Alltop a few days ago when my pal Chris Brogan wrote about it. I loved the site immediately.
Go here to read more about Alltop via webware.com
Today I found one more reason to dig Alltop. I saw my parenting blog, White Trash Mom, on the "Moms" Alltop site.
This mama has to pay the bills and so I was psyched to see my blog on the site.
Firefox spreads the word about their product via passionate users (like me). Besides being brilliant at developing cool tools, the people at Mozilla are brilliant at social media and WOM marketing. There are dozens of examples but here's a simple idea that many "brand evangelists" forget to do.
Provide "Talking Points"
Firefox has a micro-site that is completely devoted to spreading the word. Not every brand or concept warrants a micro-site but on the "Spread Firefox" site, they have written some very clear, simple TALKING POINTS. This page gives the community a list of reasons why Firefox is better.
They make it EASY for users to spread the word about Firefox. Giving people the reasons why your brand/product is good makes it more likely that customers will spread the word.
Here is the Spread Firefox website "FAQ" page
Here are some recent articles on Firefox
I don't know what I did before Firefox. I love Firefox and if you aren't using it, here are some reasons you should:
SAFETY
They actively work to keep Firefox safe – Security doesn’t stop once
the product has shipped. The are constantly monitoring threats and
releasing new Firefox updates to stay ahead of the bad guys.
They are constantly refining Firefox with security updates every 6-8 weeks (and more often if a fix is needed to address a critical issue) to stay one step ahead.
CUSTOMIZATION
This is my favorite feature. There are so many ways you can customize Firefox, I believe right now there are over 3,000 different customization "add-ons". It's amazing. You can pretty much "design" Firefox to fit what you need.
INNOVATION
Firefox is a case study in innovation. Mozilla, the company that develops Firefox, is a public, not-for-profit organization. It's grassroots and it's global. It's open source which means they open up their process to anyone and everyone to encourage the innovation and development of exciting new
technologies. Innovation is one of the best things about the world wide web. Mozilla puts in the practice the theory that innovation will move the web forward.
MOZILLA vs BIGGEST COMPANIES on EARTH
As a second generation small business owner, I naturally root for the little companies. A great example of the power of open source is the fact that
Mozilla only has roughly 100 employees, yet is able to compete with
some of the biggest companies in the world because of our amazing
international community.
If you want to read more about Firefox and Mozilla, click here.
Woolworth's stores in the UK have stopped selling a bedroom set called the "Lolita Midsleeper Combi". The "Lolita" was designed for little girls.
It seems that no one in their marketing department had thought it was a bad idea to go with the name made famous by the book and movies about an older man who kidnaps a 12-year-old girl and holds her as his sexual captive. Thanks to Asylum for bringing this brilliant marketing campaign to my attention.
The Gods of Bad Taste are smiling right now. I wonder if this is the same marketing crew that was selling stripper poles for kids in 2007?
Spend more time with your spouse or loved one! Buy a Toilet for Two! I can't believe anyone would buy this product. There are certain things most people would rather not share. Life is weirder than anything people can make up.
Thanks to Business Shrink for bringing this new product to my attention.
Could the "toilet for two" be the solution to the soaring divorce rate in the U.S.?
There are five U.S. cities named as the "Angriest Cities in America.
Anger Class Online has spent a lot of time studying anger trends throughout the country. The people at Anger Class Online compiled a list of the top 5 angriest cities in the country.
The "Top Five" cities were chosen based on several factors:
violent crime statistics
road range incidents
sales statistics (areas with the most customers for anger management products)
Go here to read the article about the "Top Five" winners.
One of the cities on this list (#1) doesn't surprise me! I used to travel to this city for work, I agree with the #1 pick.
