Missing 14 Year Old GA/NC/SC – *FOUND*
Thanks to all who passed the word along. The situation has come to a very happy closure and she is now home.
Your SXSW Vote Appreciated – 2 days left!
Like many other voices in the social media echochamber, I am part of a panel that us up for consideration to be included in the 2009 edition of SXSW Interactive. The Viral Garden’s Mack Collier has assembled some humbling company for a panel that he calls:
Co-Created Marketing: Embracing Your Customer Evangelists Online
Helping brands, associations, social change initiatives, and any other group of people with a purpose identify and embrace their evangelists is something about which I’ve learned a lot – through both successes and mistakes – and I would love the chance to share some of that live in person.
I am not sure what I could say about fellow panelists LinkedIn Chief Blogger Mario Sundar and Church of the Customer / Society for Word of Mouth‘s high priestess Jackie Huba that Mack did not say better here, so I will simply leave you with the info on the panel and a request for your vote. The Panel Picker will close August 29!
1. Go to http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/users/register
2. Fill out the form and submit it
3. Check your email and follow the verify link
4. Go to http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/ideas/view/2006
5. Give the idea 5 stars.
Hope to see you there.
Lessons from PR Week
I was lucky enough to talk to Tanya Lewis from PR Week a few weeks ago and to have my headshot and a few paragraphs appear in this week’s PR Week. The article profiles 4 “creatives” promoting greater understanding of social media in PR. Because of the Aug 4 timing, I was very excited to do this as I could discuss the work my team will be doing covering real long-tail athlete stories on the ground in Beijing over at http://summergames.lenovo.com and at www.twitter.com/lenovo2008.
The online article is behind a subscriber-only firewall and the print article is on Page 13 so, being new to PR, I pretty much assumed this would be the veritable tree falling in the forest. Not so. Here’s what I learned this week:
- Print is alive and well in certain sectors – evidently, I have a lot of colleagues and friends who comb every page of PR Week.
- News of print coverage travels fast online through social media. Change blogger and former colleague Qui Diaz was quick to tweet her congratulations and I have received emails from a range of folks I hadn’t heard from in a while.
- But most interesting? Everyone who wants to be perceived as creative has their headshot done in front of a brick wall. ALL 4 individuals from the article had done this. I was lucky that mine looked slightly different as it was taken in front of a “Beware of the Dog” mural in an alley in Greenville (thank you Brains on Fire). Evidently, I’m going to have to think of something really nutty – swinging from a trapeze? – to set me apart from the rest of the “creative” PR set. Any suggestions?
Presidential “Word Cloud” in Print WashPo
Today’s Sunday Washington Post features a comparison of the “word clouds” created by John McCain and Barack Obama’s respective blogs. The immediate point is that Obama is the biggest topic for both blogs, but that’s not why I care. 
We know that reporters use blogs for story ideas and leads on quotes, but seeing something as run of the mill in Web 2.0 as a tag cloud appearing in the Sunday print edition is a very visible example of convergence. Now if only I could somehow use the print terms to sort reading the rest of the zillion pages in the Sunday edition, we’d really be in e-business.
UPDATE: I forgot to mention that these lovely clouds are the creation of Wordle.
Viral vineyard vines
As the Miracle clan prepared for our beach trip this week, I moved from mildly amused by the colorful new vineyard vines store in Georgetown to borderline obsessed. While I had admired the slice of Martha’s Vineyard life offered in the store since its opening and had even directed visitors staying with us to check it out, I hadn’t taken the purchase plunge myself.
Once I started buying, I couldn’t stop. Why? The store is not just about the merchandise, nor is it just about the Vineyard lifestyle (or the “Good Life” as they call it) – it’s about being a part of a great entrepreneurial dream. In the words of founding brothers Shep & Ian:
“In 1998 we started vineyard vines on Martha’s Vineyard, and we’ve been having the time of our lives ever since. We’re brothers who decided to leave corporate jobs in New York City to pursue the American Dream. With no money and little experience, we set out to make ties that represent the finer places and things life has to offer. We’re pleased to have expanded beyond the shores of the Vineyard and now offer much more than just ties”.
I can guarantee this is a critical part of their merchandising, because they tell “Our Story” across all customer touchpoints – catalog, in store, on almost every single page of their website, and even the polo short tags read “vineyard vines by shep & ian”. On the 
section of their website, you are transported out of e-commerce and into a robust online realm that is what vv is selling beyond clothes including:
The Dream – media clips and videos that show the brothers telling their story. A great Entrepreneur clip shows them going from $2m in sales in 2002 to $372m in 2006.
Customer Community – photos of everyone from Violet Affleck to everyday other vv customers wearing the clothes doing everything from getting married to boating with Walter Cronkite (no kidding). You are invited to send in yours too.
Whale Tales – the stories of notable customers told with photos of them modeling their favorite vv outfits.
This is a remarkable case of a business sharing its story – not just by telling it, but inviting you to participate, meet them, come to their events, and contribute your own stories and photos as customers are also a part of “Our Story“.
I wonder how many other business I patronize also have remarkable stories that they aren’t telling? Or do they just not want to invite me in?