You Wanna Have What...???!?!

Typically, this would something I just post to Twitter/Facebook and move on, but I feel like I need a few more characters to avoid some embarassment.

I have a station on Pandora that I call "Just Dance" - I started with Lady Gaga's "Just Dance" as a seed and have given a thumbs up to most high energy dance songs and anything with a slow beat I've given thumbs down.  I use that playlist while I'm working on the Nintendo Wii Fit.

I've given thumbs up to "When I Grow Up" by The Pussycat Dolls.  Well, there's a lyric in the song that I had to recently go and look up because it sounds to clearly like they're singing something that when you hear it you go "Really?  You're singing that?"  So I went and looked it up on KissThisGuy* and was glad to learn I was not alone in my mishearing.   Though I still mishear it every time, even though I know what it should be.  I was, however, embarassed to see that I was probably at least a decade older than everyone else mishearing this lyric (or at least reporting their mishear.  Though I am proud of all the teenagers who have found out about this site.  Pretty sure it's been around as long as I've been married meaning most of these teenagers were my daughter's age - if born at all - when it was founded.  Yeah, copyright says 2006, but it's been around for a *lot* longer than that.)

On the other hand, maybe that means if I keep listening to this station I'll still be relevant when my daughter starts listening to music.  (Will there still be broadcast radio when she's old enough to start getting into music?)

(*As in "Excuse me while I kiss this guy," in case you're not familiar with this fun and very old school internet archive or lyrics that never were.)

Vroom!

Those silly Googlers.  Apparently they recently took the Google camera car onto the Laguna Seca Raceway.  They're in a pack (look in front and behind) of some really nice cars.


View Larger Map

I notice that some of the Lowes logos are blurred and some aren't.  Is this the Google software thinking they're license plates and blurring them?  (Or is it just that even Google knows that The Home Depot rocks.)

Get Over It

I'd like to think you, my dear readers, are a more advanced lot.  Most of you read my blog (and many others) using Google Reader.  Even more of you read it through the Facebook cross-posting.  The rest of you are probably advanced enough that it's unlikely that any of my friends will even see this. 

But, I'm jumping on the Stop Using Internet Explorer 6 bandwagon.  I've added code from IE6NoMore.com which puts a warning banner at the top of my site if you're using IE6 encouraging you to download Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Google Chome or even Microsoft Internet Explorer 8.  As long as so many people use IE6, we're stuck in the 2001 web.  And in web years, that's like superglacial (heck, even in real life, that's ancient.  I didn't have any children then.).

120: A coincidence inhibits the process

Random sentence provided by Google: A coincidence inhibits the process.

It was supposed to be a simple process.  The math was sound, it had been tested 100 times on inanimate objects of varying sizes.  It had even been tested successfully on several small mice.  Unwilling subjects, they had still been happy for the cheese they'd received in exchange for participating in the experiment.  The risk hadn't been great, but it was still an exciting moment for science.  If this worked correctly, time travel would be completely and totally possible.

But now it was hosed.  The power surge right at the exact moment of the first human test caused Rupert to not travel through time, but be copied in time.  So now there were two of him, 15 seconds apart in age, the younger repeating everything the older said.   Quite annoying, really.

Multimedia message

Cold Calls

There's an evil company in Atlanta called The List, Inc.  ( http://www.thelistinc.com/ )  For reasons I can't understand, they've added me to their database.  They claim that everyone on the list wants to be there and that they regularly verify the accuracy of their information.  I can state for a fact that I know this is inaccurate, because I hunted down a phone number for them and called them and asked to be removed from their database, and yet I still get cold calls so completely out of the arena in which I work that it's almost 100% obvious that they have come from this source.  So much now that I don't answer the office phone if I don't recognize the number that's calling.  So, I'm taking a new tactic.  If they're going to cold-call me, this is how I'm going to respond.  Maybe someday it will pay off.

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Hi James,

My name is ............, and I am the interactive client strategist with ......, a marketing agency based in Florida. I will be traveling the next 2 weeks, but would like to set up a time to speak,  Thursday or Friday of next week.

As you know, everyone is talking about Social Media.  Most organizations, though, fall into 2 camps: waiting to see what happens, or attempting to create a presence but not truly approaching Social Media for what it really is: a tactic. A tactic, however, that should be incorporated into your overall marketing strategy.  Only then can it be leveraged to truly drive business.

(You can view a social media video case study for one of .....'s clients.)

And that is what I do here at ......: help our clients leverage their brands online by engaging customers, lately with a specific emphasis on Social Media. As you can imagine, as a tactic, it is becoming more and more important in the mix.

I have spoken at a number of conferences recently on this topic: presentation and interview.

Basically, I work with my clients to use social media to engage their customers. In the case of .........., I am sure you have existing agency relationships, but I would appreciate the opportunity to speak with you and discuss how we can apply .......'s 10 step process to build a social media strategy, and help you leverage the great work you are already doing.

Please let me know whether Wednesday or sometime Thursday morning will work for you, for us to speak.

Thank you for allowing me to interrupt your (I'm sure) busy day.

Best regards,

......

..... .....
Director, Interactive Services Group
..............
............, FL .....
..........-mobile    ...........-main    ...........-direct      ......-fax

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Mr. ..........,

Thanks for your email, I'm sure I'm not the first to tell you how non-profits have been hurt by this economy. 

I'm excited to hear that you'd like to volunteer your time and services to ......... and help the [...].

I am afraid I'm not permitted to directly engage outside services, even if they are being offered pro-bono but I'd be happy to put you in touch with someone who can work with you to formalize the relationship.  In the meantime, I'd encourage you to look over our site to see how we might better use social media, maybe even make a contribution [...], and by all means, if there are quick wins that you can see right away where we should be doing something we aren't currently, please shoot me an email.

Thanks,
James

Woo hoo

Not only have the idiots at the Box network been fired and horribly killed and Planet Express is back on the air (errr... in the air), but the new idiots have done something right... thank you to Fox and the stars of Futurama to the compromise that brings back the original voices.