Hey Mark,

It’s your boy from Minneapolis and North Dakota State who created a website with profiles for his dorm mates in 2002.

There are some “social media experts” asking you to step down from Facebook. Don’t worry about it. They are just old bloggers who jumped on the bandwagon about three years after you started it.

Facebook for everyone outside of the marketing profession is about keeping up with friends. Not much more. It’s an awesome tool for posting pictures and allowing friends and family members to view them.

Yes, the sweatshirt at the F8 conference was weird, but seriously none of my friends on Facebook cared. They will all still go on facebook tomorrow with at least two invitations to parties happening downtown that they care nothing about.

I know people are also giving you grief about privacy settings, but honestly, if one cared enough about the subject, they would have figured it out.

Keep up the good work,

Allan

To follow up my last post, it appears as though USC is selling hope for the 2016 season with the verbal commitment of a 13-year-old, David Sills from Delaware.

I wonder if Lane Kiffin still be a USC in 2016? The Orlando Sentinel reported Kiffin recruited a 13-year-old while at Tennessee. I wonder what that kid is thinking now? I hope the NCAA steps up with the regulation here.

Watch Videos of USC Commit David Sills:

What do you think?

Erik Qualman of Socialnomics.net released another very informative video about the return on investment of social media marketing.

Noted Statistics:

2. Gary Vaynerchuk grew his family business from $4 million to $50 million using social media. Gary’s eccentric personality and offbeat oenophile knowledge have proven a natural path to success with his Wine TV Library.

3. Vaynerchuk found first hand that $15,000 in Direct Mail = 200 new customers, $7,500 Billboard = 300 new customers, $0 Twitter = 1,800 new customers.

6. Lenovo was able to achieve cost savings by a 20% reduction in call center activity as customers go to community website for answers

7-8. Burger King’s Whopper Sacrifice Facebook program incented users to give up ten of their Facebook friends in return for a free Whopper. The estimated investment for this program was less than $50,000 yet they received 32 million media impressions which roughly estimated equals greater than $400,000 in press/media value. Which to put in context is somewhat like reaching the entire populations of 19 states (understanding this doesn’t account for unique vs. repeat visitors, etc.)

Time for blogging, social networking and contributing to online conversations has been hard to manage recently with major events going on in my life. I wanted to give a quick check-in of a few trends I am watching.

• The Twitter Explosion. Three years ago, new media marketers predicted mobile marketing would be the future and here we have it. The growth chart has hit the proverbial exponential upswing and if your not on Twitter it’s time to figure it out. Basically, people can broadcast what they are doing from their mobile phone. And for businesses, they can do it too. It’s nice.
• MySpace is officially past it’s prime. Just this week, comScore came out with numbers that indicated that Facebook was bigger than MySpace.  I’m afraid, not even Borat can save this one.
• Social media marketing is becoming more and more integrated with customer service departments. Check out what Zappos.com is doing on Twitter.
• For my healthcare followers, the all important mom of the household decided to check out Facebook and abruptly decided it was more for their kids.
• Done with SEO, most companies have moved to more advanced marketing tactics like developing useful applications for mobile phones.
• Crowd sourcing using web technologies has and will continue to drive business decisions at innovative companies.

Please feel free to let me know if you think I missed some important social media marketing trends.

I was searching online for a event checklist for holding a fundraising run/walk. Much to my suprise my searches were not that successful. Most of the checklists for planning a run/walk event were only available through signing up for a fundraising help website.

Needless to say I spent a couple of hours putting this together. This checklist should only be used as a starting point for your planning your own fundraising run/walk, not the bible for how to do it. 

If I forgot any important steps, please let me know by leaving a comment. 

Planning a Fundraising Run/Walk Event Checklist:

Pre-Event Planning

1. Determine Date & Location
   i.      Get the necessary permits from the city. 
2. Map out exact race route.
3. Create volunteer committee
   i.      Set committee meetings
   ii.     Determine volunteers needed
4. Determine Registration Logistics
   i.      How will people pre-register?
   ii.     What information do we need to gather?
   iii.    Signed Liability Waiver Approval
5. Determine Race day set-up.
   i.      Determine timeline for Set-up
   ii.     Where will people park?
   iii.    Where should we place the registration table?
           1.      Determine sign-in process and numbering.
           2.      Hand out timing buttons.
   iv.    Where should we place the medical tent?
   v.     Where should we have water stops?
   vi.    Where should we have the award ceremony?           
           1.      Obtain race medals
           2.      Determine ceremony host.
           3.      Determine A/V needs.
           4.      Write ceremony script. 
   vii.   Determine where we need signage.
           1.      Design Signage
           2.      Print Signage
   viii.  Set-up place and time for sponsors to drop of bag filling cache keys.
           1.      Gather volunteers and have bag filling get together.
   ix.    Find a volunteer photographer or videographer.
    

Marketing

1. Confirm Naming
2. Create & Approve Logo
3. Create the “why” story
   i.      What challenges are faced that drive fundraising?
   ii.     Contact poeple who have or will benefit from fundraising and tell their story.
4. Create Brochure & Registration Form for Runners/Walkers
   i.      Distribute brochures to running stores or places of interest
5. Create Brochure & Registration Form for Sponsors
   i.      Determine Sponsorship Levels & Incentives
6. Create Posters/Flyers for Distribution
7. Create Website
   i.      Allow people to register online
8. Additional Marketing Online
   i.      Create YouTube Video Channel
           1.      Make video promoting event
           2.      Shoot video at event to promote next year
           3.      Gather stories of people who have benefited.
   ii.     Create a Flickr Account
           1.      Post pictures online.
           2.      Create social networking profiles
           3.      Create Events
           4.      Make Friends
9. Design & print volunteer & racer t-shirts. Add to racer bags.
    

Fundraising

1. Gather list of potential donors
   i.      Send Brochure
   ii.      Hand brochures to every forseeable participant or sponsor  
   iii.     Make follow-up phone calls
2. Determine how money will be collected.
    

Race Day Operations

1. Set-up 
   i.      Registration
           1.      Hand out numbers & timing censors & goodie bags
           2.      Coat check, bag check?
   ii.     Signage
   iii.    Watering Stations
           1.      Water must be pre-purchased
           2.      Volunteers in place
   iv.      A/V, Award Ceremony
            1.      Electricity must be available, figure how much you need.
   v.      Handout radios for on-site communication 
   vi.     Medical tent
            1.      Find volunteer medical staff
            2.      Gather ice & supplies
2. Run the Race
3. Post results for serious runners.
4. Tear down the event
    

Follow-up & Evaluation

1. Match goals with actual results
2. Follow-up communication with racers and volunteers
   i.      Send out report on how money was used.
   ii.      Promote next year’s race

A couple final notes: When planning a 5K or 10K remember that you are going to need plenty of water. Take the amount of water you think you’ll need and double it.

Additionally, it is very smart to hire a company or person to administer the timing of the race.

Amidst the current economic hard times, the New York Times wrote an article about the increased sale of SPAM, a gelatinous 12-ounce rectangle of spiced ham and pork.

Sounds like a great opportunity for SPAM, right?

Well as the article points out in the seventh paragraph, SPAM’s parent company, the Hormel Food Corporation “declined to cooperate” with the writing of the article.

What could have been an article focused on the proud history of the product, was instead an article focused on the amount of overtime workers were working in order to meet the increased demand for the canned meat.

The only individuals from SPAM the New York Times reporter could find to interview were factory workers made available through the workers union. Not that these individual were not capable, but they really only tell one side of the story, which consequently was what the article focused on.

Midway through the article, Andrew Martin writes “Even as consumers are cutting back on all sorts of goods, Spam is among a select group of thrifty grocery items that are selling steadily.” This is what I believe the reporter was trying to cover from the beginning. It instead went off in another direction.

By “declining to cooperate,” Hormel took what should have been a huge win for their public relations or marketing department and failed terribly at making the most of the opportunity.

Lessons Learned 
Take every opportunity requested by the media to answer their questions. Make sure it is the right person within your organization. If not the CEO or president, it should be the director of communications or public relations. Make sure that person is trained and skilled at talking in front of a camera.

Read the Article
Read the article here: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/15/business/15spam.html
If that link doesn’t work, SPAM: PR Case Study.

Update: Please see comments below.