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When it comes to Texting for Relief, the incredible figures the Red Cross is posting for its Haiti relief effort show that a lot of people are on board with this simple, easy-to-do donation process.

But at the same time, many of those same folks don't necessarily trust that their money is going where it should.

Forrester Research asked people if they thought the money donated through texting actually went where it was supposed to and only "16% of 134 respondents said 'yes'. Thirty-two percent said 'no,' and 51% just weren't sure."

Yikes!

Details over at MoBlog.


As a side note, the Charity Navigator site is a great place to make sure your dollar is going where it does the most good.


(Photo by eron_gpsfs)

So the much anticipated iPad got its unveiling yesterday and ... well, the jury's still out.

My first thought, it looks and acts like a gigantic iPhone. Which I'm not against. But there's no phone.

It works like a NetBook, but the user is stuck using Apple-approved applications. Unless, of course, you do everything on Google Docs.

And I realize a keyboard would be clunky, but I'm wondering how well the on-screen keyboard is going to work for anything other than typing emails.

LA Times writer Michael Hiltzik  speculates that, "It's hard to see the iPad as anything other than a mortal threat to Amazon.com's market-leading Kindle reader." (His article is an excellent read, if you have a moment.)

PC World also reports, "There's no multitasking in the OS at all, and not even multiple active web pages in Safari. You can't listen to Pandora while you surf the Web, or switch back and forth between Facebook at Twitter, or write a document in Pages while talking on a VOIP call."

Which is fairly disappointing.

So now that I'm done knocking it, I'll let you know there's a lot that impressed me in the video on the Apple site. For one, the enthusiasm from the people on screen who developed it. You can say they drank the Kool-Aid, or think they really are that excited about their product. (BTW, it's weird to listen to the really poppy instrumental version of The Cure's In Between Days on the video. Just kind of wrong.) The calendar application, the clear definition of The New York Times site, the email app. anhttp://blogs.aquent.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt.cgi?__mode=view&_type=entry&id=2273&blog_id=11d watching the Apple staff demo it, turn it upside down to show a picture to a friend, it makes the damn thing look pretty damn wantable.  

It makes me hopeful, you know?

Not that I'm going to be in line at the Apple store to buy one the instant they come to market.

But hey, it's Apple. I'm sure there will be no shortage of people dying to be first in line to get whatever they're selling.

Now that, my friend, is brand loyalty.


(Photo by mattbuchanan)

Post Script: Yeah, apparently Shelly Palmer over at MediaBytes isn't that impressed either. (Video rated PG for menstrual humor) 

In late December DARPA or the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency held a challenge to help mark the 40th anniversary of the Internet (it was they who, incidentally, did actually invent the Internet).

The agency launched, simultaneously, 10 tethered large weather balloons around the US and set out this challenge: the first person or team to ID all the locations would win a $40K prize. Specifically DARPA wanted to see how social networking could be used to accomplish a "large-scale, time-critical task."

Not so surprisingly a team from MIT won it.

Get this: in fewer than 9 hours after DARPA deployed the balloons.

How did they do it?

Well, their team created a site (of course) and then promised "$2000 per balloon to the first person to send us the correct coordinates, but that's not all -- we're also giving $1000 to the person who invited them. Then we're giving $500 whoever invited the inviter, and $250 to whoever invited them, and so on..."

People communicated the locations to the MIT team and the team verified the locations.

A huge challenge in this process? False balloons and erroneous reports by sneaky opponents.

Here's a line from the team's FAQ on their site:

How do you rule out the dishonest reports of spotting the balloons?

This is one of the most interesting parts to the challenge! We will use sophisticated algorithms from the field of network science and complex systems theories along with machine learning algorithms to identify valid submissions.

When I was listening to Riley Crane from MIT talk about this study on the radio, the host asked him if this contest was held so DARPA could better locate terrorists, bad guys, etc. But Riley, and DARPA, pointed out the contest was held to better investigate the role of "wide-area team building, and urgent mobilization required to solve broad-scope, time-critical problems." Think along the lines of natural disasters, missing hikers, floating balloons with supposed children in them, etc.

Marketing Manager Harish Kotadia's blog had some interesting points about the contest and what it means to folks working in Social Media Marketing.

One of these being, instead of DARPA hiring a group Social Media Pros and getting together and endlessly discussing how to accomplish how Social Networking can accomplish a large-scale task, they "designed a simple, low cost experiment... (which is) more cost-effective compared to time and travel cost of personnel figuring this out."

True. The prize was $40K for this, plus putting together a site and a team. Most likely far less expensive than flying in the Pros (then taking them to dinner, putting them up in hotels, giving them coffee, etc.)

The second, "it is important to reward not only (the) individual member for their winning contribution, but also those who brought them to the network, thereby extending (the) reach of (the) network and making Crowdsourcing a reality."

That second point reminded me of (not to plug too much here, but it's on my mind since I'm creating training around it for the company) the Rewards Program that we have.

Essentially, any Talent already working with Aquent can tell us about another person (or job opportunity) and is given points for the referral, which can then be cashed in. In the case of a Talent they've referred, the Referrer automatically gets points for the referral. Then, if that person interviews with us, more points. If that person actually gets a job through us, points accumulate every hour that person works (up to a certain number). So essentially a reward is given for just suggesting someone, but the reward is much, much greater if that referral is stellar. (The reward for the referred is obviously getting a gig.) The whole idea is based around the thought that we consistently get our best Talent as referrals from Talent we're already working with, so rewarding for that makes good sense.

I have no idea who came up with the program, but my hat is off to them, because it's seems close to what DARPA is thinking.

Not that I always agree with the military.

Any other thoughts from your social media folks out there and the applications of this in your field?

I'd Tweet this, but I'm pretty sure this is over 140 characters.

(image from DARPA Website)

When I was at university, my all time favourite subject was Consumer Behaviour.I loved learning about the relationship between organizations, their brands and their customers.In those days though, most marketing messages were delivered via a one-way street - broadcast from company to consumer.

Today, the dynamic growth of digital channels, and in particular social media, has truly shifted the communication paradigm. Marketing as a conversation has arrived!

There's no better example of this than the recent case of Vegemite iSnack 2.0. I'm sure there isn't anyone in Australia that is unaware of this saga but for our friends elsewhere I'll give you a quick overview:

Vegemite (http://www.vegemite.com.au) is an iconic breakfast spread that has been enjoyed by Aussies since 1922.They recently decided on a brand extension, adding a Vegemite and cheese spread.As was the case when they named the original product all those years ago, they decided to choose the name of the new product through a competition. iSnack 2.0 was the winning name but it didn't resonate well with the public. (http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/1101797/Backlash-kills-off-iSnack-2.0)

The new name was revealed last month during the Football (AFL) Grand final.I was enjoying the game but also had an eye on Twitter and saw an avalanche of protests appear before my very eyes. Not long after the social media uproar commenced, traditional media jumped on the bandwagon and for days the naming of this product was headline news.

This story got me thinking about a case study we had looked at in class years before. It was the Cola Wars and Coca Cola's introduction of 'New Coke' in April 1985.Coca-Cola did the unthinkable and changed their secret formula.They too received an 'instant' backlash. Consumers wrote letters of complaints (Remember them? They got delivered by snail mail). They phoned the company and talk-back radio stations and wrote letters to newspapers. The outrage was enormous!

(http://www.thecoca-colacompany.com/heritage/cokelore_newcoke.html) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Coke)

There are a lot of similarities in these two stories. One could argue that decisions were made without enough research and consultation with their customers. Anyway, both cases required a reversal of decisions made by the marketing and management teams.The difference in the stories is the speed of reaction:

- Time to change Coke back to its original formula = 3 months
- Time to change the name of Vegemite iSnack 2.0 = 3 days!

If you're a 21^st century marketer, engage in conversations with your customers! The powerbase has definitely shifted and consumers are speaking - are you listening?

PS - The new Vegemite product was renamed Vegemite Cheesybite. How was the name chosen? By an online poll :)

Heck yeah, we still celebrate Rocktober. Through the good times and the bad, Rocktober, my friend, is here to keep us company.

Wasn't it Led Zeppelin who said: "Good Times, bad times, you know I've had my share. Well, my woman... something, something, something, something, something... seem to care"?

Yeah, they don't write them like that anymore.

If you call in, our hold music will be chock full of AC/DC, Stones, Pink Floyd, and oh so many more classic rockers.

And no, we don't mind if you just call in to be put on hold.

It might be the best radio you hear in LA.


(Photo by Brent and MariLynn)

You know, it seems like we're seeing more and more design-related conferences like the "A Better World by Design" one being held in Providence, Rhode Island this weekend.

Here's the pitch from their site: "The conference will focus heavily on design, integrative thinking, and social and environmental change, to excite professionals and students alike on the potential of ideas and collaboration across disciplines."

I have to say, I love these - and the fact that a group of students from RISD and Brown are putting this together makes it all the more lovable.

And the speaker list is fairly impressive:
* Jan Chipchase, principal engineer at the Nokia Research Center
* Michael Braungart, founder and partner of McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry and the Environmental Protection Encouragement Agency
* William Drenttel, founder of Winterhouse Studio and Editor of Design Observer
* Stuart Harshbarger, program manager and system integrator for Johns Hopkins University's Revolutionizing Prosthetics Program
* Kigge Hvid, founder and CEO of INDEX
* Emeka Okafor, creator of TED Africa and founder of Maker Faire Africa

Plus panels on Appropriate Technology, Affordable Housing,
The Integration of Design and Business, and Emerging Markets.

If you're in the area, I encourage you to check it out and give us feedback on the event.

All the details are here.


(photo by Robert S. Donovan. Trophy design by Aran Mun.)

God do I hate resumes.

Distilling your entire career into one page? 
Maybe two pages if you have over 5 years experience? 
12++ pages if you're a C++ Developer?
Creating a first impression on paper?
Engaging an audience of one from a sea of other resumes?

You have a 30 second window to convince the reader to spend another 30 seconds reading more.  And don't get me started on cover letters.

The problem is there are no silver bullets, golden rules or magic tricks.  Anyone that tells you they exist is selling you something.  Your resume is ultimately only as good as the pair of eyes reading it.

The biggest favor you can do for yourself is abandon the old rules, start fresh and create a document you're proud of.  That way you're at least assured to please your most important critic, yourself.

Let's tackle this practically speaking.  You're more likely re-writing an existing resume than you are writing a resume for the first time, right?  Wrong.  

Every time you think it's worth your time to write a new resume, WRITE A NEW RESUME.  Don't slap a bandage on the old one.  If you add a new paragraph every time you complete a new position your resume is going to sound iterative.  Like a collection of snapshots.  Unrelated, unstrategic, where's that next resume again...?

If it's time to update your resume, it's time to re-evaluate your goals, reflect on how you've evolved and apply all of that to your resume.  BTW, if you haven't grown in your last role? 

That might explain why you're looking for a new job.*

From there, redefine the purpose of your resume.

Your resume is NOT about the work you've done.  
It's about the work you want someone to hire you TO DO.

Your resume is a marketing piece; your annual report, your homepage, an iPhone app all about you.

You need to aim this tool at the right audience and orient it to meet their needs.  You know what this means?  You're not just writing a resume.  You're writing multiple resumes.

Most job searches include a variety of roles.  If yours does not, see above.*

Do you want to create a blanket resume that encompasses all of your experience or do you want to create a line of sight right through your career that leads the reader to the conclusion, This person solves my problem!  If you carpet bomb with your resume you're going to get the sloppy results that follow.

One final thought.  Tie everything to revenue that you possibly can.  In this economy, more than ever, you want to help the employer see how you've enabled your previous employers to either generate or save money whenever possible.  These numbers are often available to you; most folks just don't think to collect the data.  

If you're a designer and you brought projects in ahead of a deadline with fewer revisions, how much money did that save your client?  
If you're a copywriter, how did enrollments increase after your brochure was shipped?  
If you're a project manager, how did your procedural adroitness impact the bottom line?

If you can insulate your already impressive experience and skills with some impressive numbers you make a critical double impression.  First, look at the money you saved/generated for your last employer, wow!  Second, this candidate was savvy enough to think to include this information, now that's impressive...

Lastly:

I assume you have references available upon request, if not.*

No one cares what you did in high school, no one cares about your hobbies and interests, no one wants to see a picture of you on your resume.

That's why they have Facebook.  

That's a whole other story.

Kirin Beverage has scored big time with yet another sales record breaking marketing campaign combining three Japanese passions: The every day: Green tea, the cute: A panda bear, and the mechanical: Vending machines.

Green tea is to the Japanese what carbonated drinks are to the Americans, only with a long history dating back hundreds of years. It is also no secret that cute things sell like hot cakes in Japan, Hello Kitty probably being the most recognised cute character coming out of these parts. And there are just as many vending machines in Japan as there are people if not more. Just about anything can be sold in machines here: From snacks and drinks to eggs, rice and even socks, underwear and adult literature. Yes, you heard right.

To promote yet another green tea brand (most beverage makers here have a full line up of them), Kirin beverage designed a Panda bear that comes in a recyclable plastic bottle. Yes, the stuffed cutie is stuffed in a see-through bottle, the same container in which the beverage is sold. The ultimate objective is for consumers to buy tea, of course, not the doll itself, so the doll has been made purposely unavailable to further fuel the Namacha Panda Sensei (Green Tea Panda Master) frenzy.

At the launching event in the young shopper's district of Shibuya in March, hundreds of people lined up to get a free sample. There was more interest in the bottle stuffed Panda (or Panda stuffed in bottle) than the tea itself. The "doll in a bottle" is available at selected vending machines from one end of the archipelago to the other, but, wait a minute, the company will not disclose the locations! This has sent hordes of collectors scrambling to find the little thing.

Why the name Namacha Panda Sensei (master)? Well, along with the equally cute flesh and bone TV personality that also endorses the tea, the Panda educates the public about the benefits of drinking green tea on a daily basis. At a time when more and more young Japanese are getting hooked on sugary carbonated drinks (mostly promoted via cool advertising campaigns), beverage manufacturers are making efforts to emphasize the pluses of the millenary drink: No calories, loads of vitamin C, no sugar, cheaper to produce and simply healthier and good for the body.

Will you become as cute as a green panda if you drink tea daily? Why not just chew on tea leaves? Why would someone put a doll in a bottle? If the doll is in a bottle, how can you play with it? Do you just stare at it? I asked my 11-year-old daughter the same questions and she just replied: "Who cares? The doll is sooooo cute!!"

There you have it. See for yourself: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBCoUdJoJu8

Image courtesy of: ajGAZMEN GucciBeaR

Do you tweet? Like MyFace, Spacebook and LinkedIn before it, Twitter is the new 'micro-blogging', social-networking phenomenon that has taken on a life of its own over the past few months.

Millions of people worldwide are literally falling over themselves to tell anyone who cares (people rather poignantly called 'followers') what they are having for dinner, why they prefer Coke over Pepsi and all about their overseas trips planned for 2022, all within 140 characters. What is perhaps more surprising is that there appears to be many people out there who are interested in the fact that you're having Crème Brulée for dessert.

Not me though.

But enough about me (you can read all about ME on my Twitter feed). The reality is that, from Oprah Winfrey and that other 'celebrity' Ashton Kutcher, to mainstream media outlets, Twitter is attracting a wide and diverse audience and is 'so hot right now'.

But will it last? An interesting study has just been released by Nielsen Online suggesting that, contrary to all the hype surrounding Twitter, the service's retention rates are not as high as one might think and that perhaps peoples' lives just aren't that interesting to warrant regular, on-the-hour, often trivial updates. The Nielsen Online study suggests that more than 60 per cent of US Twitter users fail to return month-on-month and that Twitter's retention rate is approximately 40 per cent, compared to retention rates of 50-60 per cent for Facebook and MySpace when they were in their early stages of growth.

I once had a Myspace page, and it was fun ... for a little while. Then I grew tired of people spamming me with invites to parties on the other side of the world and strangers extending their hand of 'friendship' only for me to be a mere number to whom they could send their junk. Before I knew it, months had passed since I had logged in. Now I can't even remember my password.

All social networking services need to evolve in order to hold their users' attention. The trouble is that Twitter can't, in its present form, really evolve much more without becoming something completely different and thus losing the appeal that attracted so many people to it in the first place. Remember the uproar when Facebook redesigned its user interface a few months ago? Feedback was so scathing that the powers that be were forced to release several statements, including this one:

'The new Facebook home page is one step in the continued evolution of the site, designed to give people more ways to share and filter all types of content, such as status updates, photos, videos, notes and more. We are grateful to have 175 million people worldwide using Facebook to connect with the people and things they care about most, and we take their feedback very seriously.'

Facebook didn't take its users' feedback so seriously, however, to backdown completely and revert to its original layout. The whole debacle did demonstrate that Facebook, in contrast to Twitter, has more nous to hold its users, regardless of what changes it makes to its Terms Of Service (which previously included questions over who actually owns your content once it is uploaded to Facebook, just one of many reasons why I don't have a Facebook profile). Then again, it might be a little unfair to compare a glorified online short message service (SMS) like Twitter to Facebook, which allows your friends, colleagues and peers to see just how many pints you downed at the local on the weekend, and the rather unfortunate events that followed.

Time will tell whether Twitter can hold its new bevy of devotees but any uncertainty doesn't appear to have dampened Apple's spirits, who have reportedly entered into talks to purchase Twitter for a rumoured US$700 million; not a bad price to learn what people like to have on their sandwiches.

What do you think? Are you a fan or foe of Twitter? And what might be the next big thing in social time-wasting? Leave a comment below; 140 characters only please!

Image courtesy of: dayglowill