Fried Gnocchi
A cautionary tale. Don't fry your gnocchi. Really. Don't. Evar.
(via urlesque)
Metrodome Roof Collapse snOMG!
If you haven't seen it yet, here's your chance.
Worst Web Meeting Evar
A little creation of my own, collecting all the head-shaking moments as a web developer in one meeting from hell.
Friday, December 17, 2010
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Social Media: State Farm, Tempur-pedic, and Leveraging PR
Tempur-pedic & State Farm have both been doing something in the past several months that I have seen NO other companies doing and I wanted to bring it to light.
Perhaps you've seen this commercial from Tempur-pedic?
"Ask me," they tempt you. "Go to Facebook," they say.
Or perhaps the "People Trust People" commercial from State Farm:
"Talk to State Farm ...but not yet."
Both of these commercials are taking a single idea, leveraging social media, and coming out more transparent and credible for it.
The idea is this: The guy/gal selling you something has words staged to sell. If you hear "X Company is awesome" from them, it doesn't carry NEARLY the weight of hearing "X Company is awesome" from a friend, friend on Facebook, or as a testimonial from an existing customer.
And these companies are taking a chance: if you're looking for negative views of Tempur-pedic or State Farm, you can find them on the internet. They're staking a claim on the positive reviews of their clients, and because they both have a solid product that people are generally happy with, they have faith that YOUR friends or other people you don't necessarily know will speak wonderfully about what they have to offer.
(Side Note: the psychology behind justifying a large purchase that's better than what they had [Tempur-pedic] or "nothing going wrong when nothing happens" [State Farm] is not being addressed here.)
The great thing about these campaigns is that it's a design every small business can emulate (as long as you don't have a backlog of unsatisfied clients).
How does it work for small business? Easy.
When you're networking, when you're selling yourself, when people ask (and they should): Why should I choose you? You answer them by saying "Here's what makes us special..." AND "We can do what you need to increase value to your company, but here are a couple people/companies that know what we can do. Talk to them first. If you're still interested, my number's on the card."
You, too, can leverage organic PR to grow your business. You just didn't know you needed to do it yet. Now you do. Make it happen.
Perhaps you've seen this commercial from Tempur-pedic?
"Ask me," they tempt you. "Go to Facebook," they say.
Or perhaps the "People Trust People" commercial from State Farm:
"Talk to State Farm ...but not yet."
Both of these commercials are taking a single idea, leveraging social media, and coming out more transparent and credible for it.
The idea is this: The guy/gal selling you something has words staged to sell. If you hear "X Company is awesome" from them, it doesn't carry NEARLY the weight of hearing "X Company is awesome" from a friend, friend on Facebook, or as a testimonial from an existing customer.
And these companies are taking a chance: if you're looking for negative views of Tempur-pedic or State Farm, you can find them on the internet. They're staking a claim on the positive reviews of their clients, and because they both have a solid product that people are generally happy with, they have faith that YOUR friends or other people you don't necessarily know will speak wonderfully about what they have to offer.
(Side Note: the psychology behind justifying a large purchase that's better than what they had [Tempur-pedic] or "nothing going wrong when nothing happens" [State Farm] is not being addressed here.)
The great thing about these campaigns is that it's a design every small business can emulate (as long as you don't have a backlog of unsatisfied clients).
How does it work for small business? Easy.
When you're networking, when you're selling yourself, when people ask (and they should): Why should I choose you? You answer them by saying "Here's what makes us special..." AND "We can do what you need to increase value to your company, but here are a couple people/companies that know what we can do. Talk to them first. If you're still interested, my number's on the card."
You, too, can leverage organic PR to grow your business. You just didn't know you needed to do it yet. Now you do. Make it happen.
Friday, December 10, 2010
Friday Videos: Star Trek Sitcom, Papa Johns Freakout, Transformers, Google Search 2010
Star Trek: The Sitcom
A few years old, but bumped into it again this week. Brilliant.
Papa John's Freakout
Pizza can never be completed quickly enough for college-age Veruca Salt.
Transformers: Dark of the Moon
Official trailer!
Google Zeitgeist 2010
How the world searched in 2010
Have a great weekend!
A few years old, but bumped into it again this week. Brilliant.
Papa John's Freakout
Pizza can never be completed quickly enough for college-age Veruca Salt.
Transformers: Dark of the Moon
Official trailer!
Google Zeitgeist 2010
How the world searched in 2010
Have a great weekend!
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Flashback Nostalgia: The 286 & Hindenburg
I came across this historic video of the Hindenburg disaster and my nostalgia circuits lit up out of my mind:
Back in what must've been 1990 or 1991, I was about 13 and our first home computer was a 286 PC. I still laugh at the words the salesman at the computer store pitched to my father: "This thing has 40 MEGAbytes of hard drive space - you'd never fill that in your lifetime!" (Note: At the time, modified for data explosion, 40MB was like 4TB for home use.) He wasn't lying. He just didn't have any idea about Moore's Law.
I remember helping set up this computer and being so excited and one of the first things we did was access the Encarta encyclopedia program through the DOS operating system (I later was able to install Windows by modifying batch files to drop other BS and allocate necessary memory). My parents and I and one of my sisters clicked around and found ...VIDEOS!?!?!
The point being: the VERY FIRST video I ever saw on a computer was an Encarta file that must've been about 150 pixels wide of the Hindenberg disaster. I think we found a video of Hitler screaming something terrible in German after that. But as weird as it sounds, it was a defining moment in my life. I was energized with what computers had the potential to do and at the same time my post-modern referential file was opened at 13: "Oh, the humanity!" entered my lexicon before most of my peers and, well, I'd guess many Americans probably couldn't tell you the source of that quote to this day.
Hindenberg opened my eyes in many ways that were never imagined when that blimp went down in flames. And I guess it's iconic that the the highest tech of my time united me with the highest (dirigible) tech of that time.
Yay computers!
Back in what must've been 1990 or 1991, I was about 13 and our first home computer was a 286 PC. I still laugh at the words the salesman at the computer store pitched to my father: "This thing has 40 MEGAbytes of hard drive space - you'd never fill that in your lifetime!" (Note: At the time, modified for data explosion, 40MB was like 4TB for home use.) He wasn't lying. He just didn't have any idea about Moore's Law.
I remember helping set up this computer and being so excited and one of the first things we did was access the Encarta encyclopedia program through the DOS operating system (I later was able to install Windows by modifying batch files to drop other BS and allocate necessary memory). My parents and I and one of my sisters clicked around and found ...VIDEOS!?!?!
The point being: the VERY FIRST video I ever saw on a computer was an Encarta file that must've been about 150 pixels wide of the Hindenberg disaster. I think we found a video of Hitler screaming something terrible in German after that. But as weird as it sounds, it was a defining moment in my life. I was energized with what computers had the potential to do and at the same time my post-modern referential file was opened at 13: "Oh, the humanity!" entered my lexicon before most of my peers and, well, I'd guess many Americans probably couldn't tell you the source of that quote to this day.
Hindenberg opened my eyes in many ways that were never imagined when that blimp went down in flames. And I guess it's iconic that the the highest tech of my time united me with the highest (dirigible) tech of that time.
Yay computers!
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