CitizenGulf is Citizen Effect’s project which aims to help fishing families in the Gulf Coast affected by the oil spill to find a new, more sustainable future by providing education resources for their children.

This post is not to urge you to attend your local event, or to donate, or submit your vote for the Pepsi Refresh idea benefiting this cause (Hah! See what I just did there?) This post is about all the positive things I have experienced, courtesy of all of those who have joined the cause in any way, shape or form.

If you follow me on Twitter, it’s obvious I’ve been a one-track mind these weeks. In fact, a friend jokingly said he didn’t think I was tweeting about #CitizenGulf enough… The fact is that from the minute we started to pull all possible resources together, I have not stopped feeling overwhelmingly grateful for everyone who has stepped up to the plate to show their support at the local and national level. To date, I have never experienced collaboration at this level.

This post is to give everyone thanks.

• Geoff Livingston, for the conference calls, the resources, the encouragement, and the fearless leader action.
• Jill Foster, for the push and support to make this happen.
• Social Media Club-DC for all the backstage support.
• Busboys and Poets for agreeing to host us, donating the venue before I even asked, extending happy hour and doing whatever was necessary for our event to come together.
• Jen Consalvo and Frank Gruber at Shiny Heart Ventures and TECH Cocktail, for their kind donations and unquestioning support when we needed it the most.
• Leslie Bradshaw, Mike Jett, and the Jess3 team, for designing and donating the coolest, most gigantic backdrop my eyes have ever seen, and the quickest turnaround in the history of turnarounds.
• CitizenEffect founder, Dan Morrison, for being a leader in this cause, and agreeing to speak at the DC event to share the CitizenGulf story.
• Planet Green, via @MaiaKG, for donating cool giveaways to bring people out to the event.
• @HeidiEKMassey, @GloriaBell , and all the local #CitizenGulf organizers for sharing ideas and for the mutual support.
• @akmcquade, @SterlingsSmith, @TobySturgill, @JerzeyGrrl, @AlexPriest, and @dmbosstone, for humoring me and stepping up to the plate by agreeing to be auctioned off for a good cause, putting their love lives on the line.
• @Nakeva, and @Leilin, for their vision… Photographing our event

Last but not least – thank you, ALL of you for reading this, supporting #CitizenGulf, sharing, retweeting, and not unfollowing me (though we’re still totally cool if you have) even though I have been such a broken record.

I’ll be honest and say that 12 percent of why I wrote this was to share and try to explain why I haven’t been able to shut up about it.

I think I’m all set for the next 17 Thanksgivings

A few days ago I was watching Family Feud (Richard Dawson kind – a.k.a. the BEST kind!) with a friend and he not-so-jokingly said what 3 of 5 Americans* have said at least once in their life, ”I need to get on a game show and make quick money, FAST. The people on there are TERRIBLE!” And because I’m stuck at home, resting my injured knee, I figured I’d do a little research and an amateur infographic.

Family Feud

To be on Family Feud all you have to do is call, do interviews, and get to the studio. You can also audition during the open casting calls. To win you do have to have some common sense – not necessarily to get the survey questions right, but to anticipate how 100 Americans surveyed answered those questions.

Wheel of Fortune

To be on Wheel of Fortune you have to fill out an online application, be of age, you must not have appeared on a show in the past year, and none of your family members can be employed by the parent company or sister game shows. However, unless you break into the studio and rig the wheel, the chances of you winning are a great matter of luck. Your ability to guess consonants in order to guess the phrase does help, but there is nothing that makes you better than the other contestants. Knowing about finances and the stock market doesn’t help you buy the best vowels… Next.

The Price is Right

The Price is Right is statistically impossible to appear on. Only nine contestants are selected from an audience of 325 people. This means you have to get tickets, be in Los Angeles, and get picked. Wining seems fairly simple but no one ever walks away with money that’s as good as other shows. Pass.

Has Will Smith seen "Catch 21"? Brother should help a brother out.

Catch 21

Catch 21 is a relatively new show on GSN hosted by Carlton (a.k.a. Alfonso Ribeiro). To play all you have to do is email, know how Blackjack works, and brush up on your pop culture knowledge. For naming the show after, Catch-22, one of the greatest satirical books of all time, the questions are ridiculous (read, Homer Simpson “doh!”). If you are reading this, you go on, and WHEN you win the $25,000; I demand a 40 percent cut.

Who wants to be a Millionaire

It would appear that being a millionaire is easier than guessing product prices, playing Blackjack, answering survey questions, and guessing phrases. All you have to do to be on Millionaire is audition – and there are a few ways to do that. The trick is to then be selected and play. To win, you need to know a little bit of everything à la Slumdog Millionaire or enough to put things together and at various points, make educated guesses.

Are you Smarter than a 5^th Grader?

Other than the usual restrictions and the fact that you have to spend a whole week in Hollywood in order to wait out the selection process, all you have to do to be on this show is fill out a seven-page application. If you are selected and you DON’T win… you are dumb and we can’t be friends anymore.

Don’t Forget the Lyrics

Apparently this one is coming back with Sugar Ray’s Mark McGrath as host. My favorite part about the eligibility requirements for this show is the fact that contestant can’t be candidates for public office or run for office within a year of appearing on the show. They must have added this when Blagojevich did the Elvis thing (watch below, you’re welcome). Aspiring contestants ALSO have to send in a video tape of them saying what they would do with $100,000. The people who’ll be supporting them from the audience stands have to make a cameo too. According to About.com, they “must be willing to submit to a background check, as well as medical and psychological exams at the discretion of the producers.” SHEEEESH!!!!!

Jeopardy

Other than the usual restrictions, all you have to do to be on Jeopardy is take on online test, audition, and go through interviews – if you get selected out of the thousands of geniuses who also apply to be on the show. And to win, you have to be more a genius than the other two geniuses.

Take-aways

I don’t really remember where I was going with all of this but I’ve already done quite a lot of research, writing, and the infographic is ready to go. But I will say that I have learned two important things here:

1. Being a contestant on game shows appears to be a very time-consuming process, but even more time-consuming is researching how to be a game show contestant.
2. Not all blog posts have to useful or insightful. Sometimes, they are a great way to pass time while your injured knee rests on a chair and to acquire useless knowledge that might later come in handy… in a game show situation, for example.

*Not a real study.

But my job is not done.

My big BlogHer epiphany came to me late at night when I was showing my friend my RIDONCKULOUS (sp?) bag of swag.

Image from Table for Five

At registration, everyone at the conference got an environmentally-friendly @Gettington bag (one of my favorite sponsors, by the way) filled with goodies. Normally I would bury my head inside and go through everything to see what new things I had, but I didn’t because there were just too many things in there.

After breakfast my plan was to sit down with my laptop somewhere but my breakfast buddy, a two-time conference attendee, led the way to the expo space and crazyness ensued. We didn’t get in right away because the space didn’t open until 10am, but as soon as we did I learned why all the attendees were so eager to burst through the doors…..

Now, this is just an approximation, but there were a SHIT TON of brands and booths at the expo. And they all had the coolest swag to give away, lots of great prize drawings, decked-out booths, and things to keep everyone entertained and very happy for hours. There were brands there that I wouldn’t have immediately linked up with women bloggers, but it simply came down to the fact women are THE decision-makers. Admit it, dudes.

At one point I saw a woman carrying three big totes around, but this is not a story about hoarding…  I know she will review her goodies and blog about some of the products and brands. Hence, this epiphany is about just how so very much coveted the female blogger population is.  I’ve read many of the  studies that reveal that women dominate social media, read posts about “mommy blogging” — here is one I really enjoyed, published in 2008…  Insight much? — I even wrote a research paper for graduate school about BlogHer! But only in retrospect did it hit me that Texas might want to let women bloggers have the “Don’t Mess With…” tag line.

And for any brands that have yet to do their research in order to figure out how to best reach women bloggers or that still think that is not a segment of the blogger population that they need to or should be interested in building relationships with… you are so very wrong. I have now confirmed it.

Also… attend BlogHer — you will stand corrected and will be perplexed.

Image credits: Table for Five, BlogHer

August 7, 2010 5:49pm update: I’m sitting in the Grand Ballroom listening to the closing conference keynote, featuring “Need to Know” PBS anchor Alison Stewart moderating a panel with: Marie Wilson, Founder and President of The White House Project, author and activist Gloria Feldt from Heartfeldt Politics, and P. Simran Sethi, Emmy Award-winning journalist, blogger and environmentalist. The topic of the panel is: “Use your voice, your platform, and your power.” Gloria Feldt just said that she was not prepared for the amount of swag she got at her first BlogHer conference. Her epiphany back then was… “Yes. Women have a voice. Marketers understand that… but do we?”

*Gloria hits nail on the head*

Check out the closing keynote live blog.

Also, check out @katebuckjr’s picture of her own bag with ridiculous amounts of swag. Dang!! Right??

Hi, my name is Andi Narvaez and I’m addicted to LOST. Like some of you, I was told by the rest of you, “you HAVE to watch it. It’s sooo good.” And not only did I watch it, I’ve devoted the last seven weeks of my life to catching up from the very first episode. That’s right. If there are six seasons, a total of 121 episodes, each 45 minutes long… you do the math. The sad thing is that after the second season, it wasn’t even worth it. But like a good addict, I couldn’t quit it.

Is this sounding familiar? That right. Social media. Hey, if I’m going to make those 5,445 hours (holy waste of time Batman! I wish I hadn’t done the math) worth my time, you bet your life I’m at least going to get a blog post out of it.

LOST is like social media in many ways.

If you think of the island as the Web, think of the passengers on Oceanic Flight 815 as everyone who ends up here either intentionally, by accident, or fate – who knows really. Some of them die. Some survive on shore (the people who get on Facebook, open a Twitter account, but you ultimately stick with Facebook and quit Twitter because it’s stupid and who cares what you had for breakfast, right?) Some of them move into caves and start living on the island rather than surviving on it (most people who use some of the basic social networks and update them pretty frequently). Finally, others explore the island and they find the hatch. They move in and the island becomes home (people on Facebook, Twitter, those who blog, upload and share media, etc.).

And though we sometimes thinks the Web belongs only to us because our experiences via social networks and niche sites are increasingly more personalized, the reality is that there are Others who also live here (and have lived here longer too!) and they do their own thing. But we can only learn that by exploring the Web and bumping into what’s out there. Then we learn that by creating our own realities within this virtual space, we affect the lives of others’ in many ways even if we do not see it.

And then season 3, 4, 5, and 6 happen and we don’t know whose live ends where.

When a show jumps the shark that many times we need to ask ourselves, “why am I still watching this?” And the answer is – those characters and that island. Social media has had its ups and downs too. We’ve seen social networks come and social networks go. We have had to adjust to changes on our social media platforms. Most recently, our privacy has been the victim of a social network’s fickle terms of use.

But six seasons later, we’re still here because we know and love the characters and we care about our island. And in one way or another, we think of ourselves as candidates.

Some weeks ago Mike Schaffer, the proud owner of this blog, asked which LOST couple we like the most. I jokingly said “Hurley and Charlie” but I’d like to officially take that back and say, “The people and the island.”

The final episode of LOST will air on Sunday, May 23. None of our questions will be answered. But at least we’ll still have social media where we’ll endlessly debate and ask the infamous question – WTF?

UPDATE: The final episode aired but I only saw it a few days ago because I’m out of the country. I’m still wondering WTF.

Instructors are challenged on a daily basis to find innovative ways of enhancing student learning experiences. In traditional classrooms, distance, collaborative or independent learning environments, students and faculty explore a variety of techniques and tools meant to improve the overall academic experience. The Innovations in Teaching and Learning (ITL) Conference showcases and celebrates the creativity and dedication of University instructors who have demonstrated excellence in their teaching endeavors.

Enter Help a PR Pro Out (HAPPO).

HAPPO is designed to help connect PR job seekers with employers looking for top talent.

The conversation has really taken off on Twitter. Using the #HAPPO hashtag on designated dates as well as on a regular basis, public relations job seekers and employers are benefiting from each others’ participation.

I’m preparing to do a graduate study on the uses of the #HAPPO hashtag. Please help me out during the initial phase of the study by answering one question: Regardless of how frequently you use Twitter or participate in HAPPO, Why (for what purpose) do you use the #HAPPO hashtag?

Submit your answer(s) in the form below. If you use the #HAPPO hashtag for more than one purpose, I want to know all about it. Feel free to be as concise or elaborate as you’d like. All answers are confidential.

THANK YOU!

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Each group picked a brand and wrote a case study that illustrates how social media humanizes brands and helps them be a part of the same communication process and the conversations that everyday individuals, like you and I, engage in. Please check out their brief abstracts below and vote for your favorites! The authors of every case study that earns at least three votes will earn 2 extra credit points on their FINAL course grade. My students’ fates are in your hands!

Let me know if you LOVE an abstract and wish to publish the full post on your blog. The full case studies are archived under the “social media case study” category on the COMM 2301 and COMM 2901 class blogs. Thanks for contributing to my students’ education! Don’t you love molding minds?

Now for the good stuff:

The Miley Cyrus brand

Brand name is a powerful tool and the more recognizable it is, the more success it has. This is especially true for entertainers like Miley Cyrus. Miley is a product of the Internet generation and her brand marketing reflects this. Her use of social media brings the Miley Cyrus name alive to anyone with a computer. She connects with fans on a personal level and interacts the way a friend would online, thus humanizing her brand in a real way.

Pepsi: Rockin’ it new school

Pepsi has emerged as one of the most successful international food brands. Our college acts as an example of this prominence, boasting to be “a Pepsi campus”. Taking full advantage of social media outlets to promote their brand, Pepsi has been able to promote themselves to a larger audience. Networks, such as YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and mobile applications are able to provide information and advertisements that would otherwise not be accessible to our “on the go” society.

The King and you

It seems like every marketing tactic we see today is exactly the same. Other companies advertise products in mundane ways that have already been used a myriad of times. Burger King though has broken away from this strict routine. Anybody who has seen a Burger King commercial can agree that they are all odd in every way possible, yet each one leaves a distinct effect about the brand on the viewer.

Starbucks: Creating a bolder world

Since Starbucks’ appearance on the coffeehouse scene in dreary Seattle in 1971, they have become a coffee powerhouse, now owning over 16,000 stores worldwide.  While much has changed since Starbucks’ humble beginnings, the company has adapted to these social changes with ease.  So how has Starbucks controlled the coffee industry for so long?  Their success can be attributed to their capability to change with the times, to incorporate their name and logo into today’s social media age.

Bieber Fever

What is it that has teenage girls, some grown men, and menopausal women going crazy? Is it a new Apple release? No! It’s the new teenage sensation Justin Bieber. The 16-year old who makes Miley Cyrus look like a thing of the past. From his innocent and playful singing voice, to the side sweeping hairstyle that you can’t help but to love Bieber is slowly taking over the technological world. Having various media outlets for fans to reach him Bieber is never far from the public eye.  Whether it is Twitter, Facebook, or YouTube, it’s Bieber TIME!

Ben & Jerry’s: Happiness in a cone

Chewy. Gooey. Sweet, and cold– what more could you ask for? Ben & Jerry’s offers a one-of-a-kind ice-cream experience. And thanks to Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, mobile applications, and much more, you can figure out where to grab that cone of Cherry Garcia, learn of Ben and Jerry’s philanthropic activism, never miss a Free Cone Day, and even discover a new flavor and its nutritional information! Get the best treats from Ben & Jerry’s tweets.

Think Verizon, Think big

Can you hear me now? Good.” The infamous communication network, Verizon is a company that provides home phone, cable, internet, and cellular phone services for millions around the world. Verizon has been successful in reaching its customers through various forms of social media. With over 872,848 fans following Verizon on Facebook to daily conversations regarding their products and services on networks such as Twitter, Youtube, and Flickr, Verizon has become incorporated into people’s everyday lives.

Chipotle Mexican Grill

The Mexican food frenzy that has swept the nation began with a man, an idea, and a promise for food with integrity. Establishing itself as a cultural phenomenon, Chipotle Mexican Grill has become integrated into every aspect of society, from online ordering, to blogging, to even the celebration of holidays, all with the help of social media and smart marketing. Keeping the spirit of the burrito alive, Chipotle is sure to make your mouth water.

Sephora

Ladies, can you honestly say that you woke up looking this gorgeous?  And come on guys, we know you didn’t smell this good after that 6 am workout.  Sephora is a brand that reaches out to both men and women, to improve their appearance and boost all levels of self-confidence.  I mean, who doesn’t feel sexy when wearing the latest scent from Vera Wang or those insanely bright OPI nail polishes that make you visible from a mile away.  Sephora reaches out through multiple channels to customers, which allows it to be not only user friendly, but accessible from almost anywhere.

Rita’s Italian Ice

A presence in social media is no longer an option; it is an obligation. Rita’s Italian Ice uses different social media sites, such as Twitter and Facebook, to reach its customers in a variety of ways.  Through its use of social media, Rita’s has humanized itself, allowing the company to communicate with individual customers in a friendly and engaging way.  Rita’s solid foundation in social media is a critical component of its successful business model.

McDonald’s

As technology has leaped forward over the past decade and social media has become part of everyday life, McDonalds has stayed on the cutting edge of technology. By harnessing the power of the internet and social networking sites McDonalds is able to address concerns, take suggestions, and create a more personal relationship with its customers.  The phrase “I’m lovin’ It” no longer applies just to the food it serves, but to the way McDonald’s is reaching out to its customers.

Doritos

Doritos is a company that has been established since 1964. Although the 60s seems so long ago the Doritos incorporation stays up to date with the time eras and their consumers through social media. The blogging, social sites, and multimedia allows them to keep their consumers informed with their products why also getting their feedbacks and some new idea. Social media has become more than just advertising, it’s a source and way of communication.

BioWare

BioWare is a developer and publisher of video games. Since 1995, the company has developed many popular titles. In particular, Dragon Age: Origins and the Mass Effect series are two recent role-playing game (RPG) titles that are widely popular among gamers. Alike other major digital entertainment companies, BioWare has branched onto social media networks (e.g. Facebook and Twitter) in order to further reach their fans on another channel, outside of the games.

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Two years ago, my best friend came to visit my home country of Ecuador for the summer. One night, we went to a bar because an Ecuadorian soccer team was playing the semifinals of the 2008 Copa Libertadores. The final score was 0-0, which helped Liga de Quito, the Ecuadorian team, advance to the finals where they destroyed their Brazilian opponents and won the cup. Needless to say, this was the most anticlimactic day of my best friend’s life. And to this day she can’t understand how it can be possible for people to get as rowdy as we did that day when, for 90 minutes, not a single point was scored. Basketball has spoiled her.

In 59 days and less than 10 hours — give or take — the moment I’ve been anxiously waiting for four years will finally be here. And my friend couldn’t care less.

The 2010 FIFA World Cup is the greatest sport tournament in the world to me. And after a semester in my “Global Public Relations” course in graduate school I finally have an argument to support this statement that is not, “because soccer is the best sport in the world… and shut up.”

For those of us in public relations and social media, the world matters. Others matter. The beautiful thing about culture and diversity is that they make the world we live in a lot less boring and predictable; however, that is also the greatest challenge we face.

The FIFA World Cup gives us the rare opportunity to learn more about other cultures by either observing or, in my case, participating in UBER fandom. I’m talking body-painting, screaming, perspiring, crying, drinking, cursing… fandom. You might be thinking, “umm, it’s called the Olympics! Hellooo!” But to that I say, nay. The thing about soccer is that people live it and breathe it. Back home, in Ecuador, businesses shut down for it. Additionally, the researcher in me thinks that the World Cup is our chance to see all attributes of all the different cultures under the influence of a single variable — soccer.

Public relations and social media professionals should pay special attention to what will go down in about two months. In fact, start paying attention now to how FIFA is communicating about this event and turning it into not just a soccer tournament, but a global public relations phenomenon and case study:

Por ejemplo:

(a blog post AND a Spanish lesson?? You’re welcome)

• FIFA has a hospitality program set in place, ready to welcome everyone who comes to South Africa for the World Cup. This the the first time an African nation is hosting the World Cup and FIFA is making the most of this opportunity by showcasing a culture and embracing everyone who will come into contact with it for the very first time.
• Over the past few years, the most amazing stadiums have been built for the soccer matches. South Africa’s infrastructure has benefited from this event. Jobs were created. Tourism will bloom. And that, folks, is how a soccer tournament becomes a public diplomacy mission.
• Although the World Cup is a competition, if everyone has fun it doesn’t matter who wins in the end. Ok… I’m not even buying that one. Still, it’s interesting to see how FIFA and the fans deal with rivalries while still promoting togetherness.
• Coke and Hyundai, two major sponsors, have already launched worldwide initiatives with crowdsourcing and digital/social media components. The values of cultural diversity and togetherness are both present in these campaigns. Global public relations FTW.

I leave you with the official song for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Now, if this doesn’t inspire you to take your public relations practices to the next level and think outside of your own culture’s box, I don’t know what will.

PS: The guy singing in Spanish is David Bisbal, a winner of Spain’s “Operación Triunfo” (a.k.a. American Idol). Boom. Right when you thought I would end without a global pop culture lesson.

Just as I was racking my brain for a social media-related homework assignment that would help my students see the same light I saw about two years ago thanks to my teacher, Vidya Ananthanarayanan (@mapetite) … I get a DM from @MikeSchafer

I’m having my students (who are GREAT writers) write short case studies to illustrate how social media humanizes brands and makes them part of the same communication process and the conversations that everyday individuals, like you and I, engage in. They will write these posts in groups (I’m trying to get them to use Google Docs or some other site to collaborate on papers in real time )

Each group will pick a brand, company, music artist/band, television show, service, organization, etc. and find:

• The brand’s social media profiles
• Mobile applications associated with the brand
• Three blog posts that mention the brand
• Three tweets that mention the brand
• Three examples of multimedia content (audio, video, or images) featuring or mentioning the brand

Finally, each group will write a short discussion based on this evidence.

Here is where YOU come in!

I’d like to offer my students the opportunity to publish their work as guest posts (idea, courtesy of @MikeSchaffer). If you have a blog where you write about social media, will you let me know?

On April 4th I will post abstracts of my students’ posts on my blog. I’ll share them with the hope that you’ll be interested in publishing any one of those on your blog. The authors of every case study that gets selected for online publication will earn 2 extra credit points on their FINAL course grade. My students fates are in your hands! (Like how I just passed that on to you? Haha!) Please share this with your fellow social media bloggers

Thank you! See you here on April 4th!

If there is something this whole Google Buzz episode has taught us, it is that the community of early adapters that is connected by social media REALLY wants to see things improve and move forward for everyone . Whether or not they will use this product themselves is irrelevant… someone else might find that it’s the perfect fit and that is reason enough.

Lots of respect.

Check out the Google Buzz update by Steve Rubel ( @steverubel ) and the extensive thread of comments  and this collection of the best suggestions for Google Buzz from Doriano Carta ( @paisano ). Please consider leaving comments on both of these posts so that their authors can relay your suggestions for how to improve Google Buzz over to Google.

Social media skeptics, this is what it’s is all about.

Google, you guys are lucky social media folks have a lot of love to give. Though you tend to be consistently top notch and you have the resources and the talent to create products to help advance communications and society, you must not take our love for granted… or it will be off with your heads (shameless plug, I really want to see that movie when it comes out March 5th).

Image source: CodePolice.net