A Charity Raises Money for Haiti Through Text Message Campaign
We were all shocked and saddened to hear of the events in Haiti. This poor country never seems to catch a break. In hurricane season it always seem to get a hit from a major cyclone and this can lead to plenty of damage, destruction caused by flooding and an awful number of casualties and deaths. However, even some of the worst cyclones will pale into insignificance when compared with the damage that we are seeing from this magnitude 7.0 earthquake.
As the drama is unfolding, we are coming to the awful realization that this is likely to be one of the worst natural disasters in living memory. We dread to look at the news on a daily basis and to see just how many people are left homeless with nowhere to go, just wandering around with a few possessions, that they were able to salvage to comfort them. Still worse, of course, is the growing death toll. This is likely to be a terrible testament to the wrath of mother nature and as the numbers grow and events unfold, we will be left to wonder how such natural events can happen in a faithful world.
Thankfully, the human race is very philanthropic. We naturally want to look after our neighbor in crisis and somehow this horror seems that much more real to us, as this island nation is very close to the United States, after all.
As with any major event taking place these days, news of disaster spread very quickly through social media, with reports emerging from the region through Twitter posts and other messages. Our upgraded ability to communicate can have a positive effect through all this carnage as well. A number of text messaging campaigns have emerged, through which you can pledge a certain amount of money by just sending a simple text message. This is a really easy way of contributing and showing that we all care and is a whole lot easier than the traditional method of seeking out a website and working out for yourself how to contribute.
We look at our new communication tools, our all-encompassing smart phones and our ability to socially engage with each other and imagine many ways that our “new world” can enhance our lives. Now we can see an additional use, a way to reach out to those who are very much less fortunate than we are, at their time of need.
The Red Cross has already raised more than $8 million as of Friday morning, January 15th for this essential cause. Donations may be made, a $10 value at a time, through a simple texting effort. The donation is added to your phone bill. The Red Cross is also adding $1 million from its international response fund to this ever-growing pile of money that will surely help to make a difference as that country begins the long, long road to getting back on its feet. It’s amazing to hear that the amount raised so far for this initiative is more than double the entire amount raised throughout 2009 via this method - and all within just a few days.
If you want to help, text “HAITI” to 90999 and give a $10 donation to the Red Cross.
Here are some other alternatives as well:
Text “YELE” to 501501 to donate $5 to the Yele Haiti foundation.
Text “HAITI” to 20222 to donate $10 to the Clinton Foundation Haiti Relief Fund.
Text “HAITI” to 85944 to donate $10 to the International Medical Corps.
Text “HAITI” to 25383 to donate $5 to the International Rescue Committee.
Adam Toren
Realize the Potential of New Media
New media surely isn’t new anymore, although if it is new to you, you are in danger of getting behind the curve. In the space of only a few years the power of the Internet has exploded like an ancient volcano, tending to cover a company’s well honed marketing structure with molten lava or ash. In the face of the new media onslaught, you should not try and desperately dig out your old marketing plans from underneath all those layers of ash, but you should embrace the potential and understand that we are now doing business in a very different world.
Traditional forms of media, print ads, television, radio, cold calling, promotional gimmicks and the like will all have their place in our future, but they must not be front and center anymore. It doesn’t matter what kind of business you have, whether it is traditionally a complete “bricks and mortar” style operation, you must now have an online presence and a proactive one at that.
It is somewhat ironic that a medium as “faceless” as the Internet has in many respects turned us all into more personable and identifiable business people. The advent of social media means that there is now a human face to the corporate body and each organization should ensure that it engages social media this way. Never forget the social element, even though you are primarily focused on doing business. You may have a corporate persona, but people want to know about the human side of the business now.
Put every effort that you can into designing your website well. You must be super targeted when it comes to your keywords, the way that you describe your business. In a highly competitive business environment you need to set your organization apart and must focus on specific or long tail keywords and keyword phrases. Construct your website and optimize it so that your business stands out among its competition. Everything points back to your company website from a marketing perspective.
While your corporate website should adequately reveal who you are, what you do and why people should buy from you, including the ability to do so (a sales funnel), you should also have an educational and informative site for your business, through the maintenance of a top-quality blog. This is your opportunity to show just how much of an expert you are in your niche and don’t hold back when it comes to giving good advice, education or information. Your objective here is to reveal that you are “good guys” and that people should trust you, ultimately, to buy products or services to help assuage their needs.
Interact with social media platforms and do it well. You should have a Facebook page for your business, a Twitter presence, even your own branded YouTube where you show videos of products, services, solutions – video is a hot medium these days. Set aside time to maintain your social presence on a very regular basis. Don’t just set it up and believe that you have done everything you need to. These platforms and channels can work well for you, if you work at them.
Create good content, regularly and distribute it for maximum marketing effect. Once again, the more that people begin to realize that you know what you’re talking about, through the provision and distribution of such targeted content, the more they will believe that they should trust their hard-earned dollars to you when it comes to buying your associated products or services.
Are you still digging ash, or engaged?
Matthew Toren
A Picture Tells a Thousand Words
When you see some of the most creative infographics around today, it’s little wonder that they say that people skim through webpages, focusing on graphics, rather than getting themselves absorbed in all the text. This should tell us all a story, as while the written word is certainly always “king” as we know, if we jam too much of it into one particular visual screen, then the eyes of our dear viewers will tend to glaze over it. Always intersperse your text creatively with graphics and photos and don’t forget that captions can be very powerful, as the eyes will almost certainly focus on the explanation for the presented photograph on page.
Infographics represent intelligent and very creative ways to explain subjects that are, in some cases, rather difficult to get your mind around. We present some of the “cooler” ones here for your consumption.
Over at Digg Labs, the creative guys and gals there have come up with a colored wheel which allows you to interact and select a day, month and year, to be presented with the top 10 stories by category on any given day. Check it out, but be warned you could spend a lot of time here!
While we know that Twitter is hot stuff, did you know that only five of 100 community members can be classified as really active? Maybe this graphic and the information here will help you to visualize it better?
Still on the subject of Twitter, how does it stack up against the big daddy, Facebook?
This graphic sums it up very succinctly. For example, did you know that Facebook has almost as many members as there are people living in Indonesia?
If you maintain an active blog, as hopefully you do, you may have wondered where those blog posts actually go to and how pinging services interact with your post once you have created it. We found this great interactive graphic tutorial at wired.com, which should actually be required reading or viewing for all Internet marketers. It really helps you to get a handle on the lifecycle and might help you to prepare your blogging campaigns more successfully.
The Conversation Prism is an inspirational creation, designed to graphically depict the art of listening, learning and sharing. It is visually very attractive as you can see and is available to buy as a really neat wall poster should you wish. Each one of the leaves represents an element of communication and a social media resource, with the inner circles depicting the style of communication and method, all leading back to the central brand. A great creation by Brian Solis.
Explore the social media landscape at fredcavazza.net and see which sites are linked according to purpose or intent. A handy little graphic to remind you which social media tools or services would be most appropriate for your needs.
Have you spied any cool infographics? Let us know.
Adam Toren
Technology Highs of 2009
Doesn’t it seem as if the pace of technology change is accelerating? We live in exciting times as we are actually seeing the way that we interact and communicate change before our very eyes. Who is to say where we will be in 10 years time at the end of this new decade, as so much has happened in the world of technology in 2009 alone.
Twitter, as a way of communication, has become mainstream, as witnessed by search engine giant Bing’s revelation that Twitter was the second most searched topic of the year. Companies are really finding how powerful this medium can be, so long as they’re able to dig through the irrelevancy that can threaten to overtake it and get through to their targeted markets. Twitter still faces a challenge to keep the attention of those who initially expressed an interest, as only 5% of Twitter users can be described as being deeply involved.
Since Apple launched its iPhone, the face of personal communication technology has changed almost out of all recognition. Telecom giant AT&T can in large part thank Apple for this invention and for the exclusive deal that allowed AT&T to market the iPhone and really turn around the company’s profitability. During 2009 alone the iPhone has exploded into popular culture and the ubiquitous “app” has become almost an addiction for many. Tens of thousands of applications are available for the iPhone or the iPod on almost every conceivable topic or subject. The other smartphone providers are really scrambling to catch up.
Cloud computing really started to capture our imagination this year. We think that it will accelerate as we go through 2010 as it gives users a tremendous amount of flexibility and allows them to further break away from the shackles of a desktop computer system. Surely at some time in the not-too-distant future we will be using third-party service via the Internet to run all our applications. Would you bet, with Google, that the operating system of the future should be essentially just a glorified browser? Cloud computing allows users to access only what they need, can be scaled relatively simply and quickly and can be a great way to operate your business by trimming the fat and only using what you really need.
When Microsoft and Yahoo collaborated to form Bing, it wasn’t too long until it was announced that real-time search results would be available, through a collaboration with Twitter. Google followed quickly thereafter and Facebook is in the picture too, as our social media revolution continues to gather steam.
Helping to quench our ravenous thirst for information, the enterprising Amazon introduced us to Kindle, a cool piece of technology that allows us to download full-length novels wherever we should be, several at a time if need be and to read them at our leisure. The Kindle device fits neatly in the palm of your hand and you can adjust the size and rendition of the text according to your comfort level. Amazon reports that its customers bought more Kindle books than physical books on Christmas Day this year, as the downloading frenzy continues.
What buzzed your interest in ’09?
Adam Toren
Unusual Uses for Google Wave
Google Wave continues to enthrall and confuse at the same time. This is a whole new line of communication and is fundamentally much more than just a revision of the basic e-mail concept, as some have said. E-mail as we know it is basically a static concept – distributing notifications back and forth, where they reside in a “box” as a dead object until somebody responds by creating a similar static object, which in turn is distributed for further action. A wave is more like a collaboration, which can be in real time, between interested parties. The concept can be discussed, elaborated, enlarged and supported and made available for input from any number of interested parties. While we are only just getting used to the concept of social communications through the likes of Twitter and Facebook, a wave is likely to represent a far more interactive and real-time collaboration between participants. For many people, it’s concept is still somewhat alien and in truth we have nothing to compare it to as yet.
Google Wave is still in the process of development, but a number of really cool uses have emerged to support its potential. While the heading of this blog refers to “unusual uses,” the fact is that every use of this emerging medium is innovative and while some are still trying to decipher how to really use a wave for best effect, others seem to have hit on some productive reasons.
Topically, the group responsible for distributing H1N1 vaccine for the dreaded swine flu realized that they were allocating a considerable amount of time and wasted resources to meetings and other disjointed two-way conversations. They relied heavily on e-mails, instant messages and so on between distribution points, administrators, scientists and overseers. By setting up a wave, they would all be able to work simultaneously on an issue, cutting through all those duplications and the needless checking of documentation, allowing the message to get out to the public and other interested parties very much faster.
At a tech savvy conference called Ecomm, wave accounts were doled out to attendees who could then collaborate in real-time and interact with content as it was being presented. Fundamentally, a wave would first be created by an audience member and then others could edit its content on the fly. This resulted in a far more detailed and richer transcript, enabling fresh thoughts and points of view to be recorded while they were most appropriate. This type of approach will undoubtedly result in a much more accurate and productive rendition of an interactive conference.
In an airport, so much information needs to be shared between so many people and can be the subject of critical safety awareness. An air traffic control wave could incorporate real-time weather updates, particular ground delays or situations, construction problems or data from other parts of the country affecting arrivals. Generally, being able to keep everyone abreast of situations as they arise (or even before) can only help to achieve efficiencies within such a time critical environment.
Potential applications for waves are almost limitless, as soon as the public in general becomes more comfortable with the actual concept. Adoption is likely to take some time, though.
Do you currently “wave” at anybody?
Matthew Toren
