The 7 Things Meme:A Few Things That May Surprise You

Alrighty, here we go. Good friend, Ken Burbary, tagged me in a rotating blog meme that states I need to outline 7 random/odd things about me.  I like this idea and think it's a hoot - so here we go. 

On to the 7 Things!


1. I once met John F. Kennedy Jr. As a media intern at the Troy office of McCann-Erickson, my job was to attend the weekly Media Rep meetings. I was the designated body to sit, listen to the sales pitch and gather data for the media team, should they not be able to attend. I usually wasn't the only person at these meetings, but I was the 'set' body. On one particular Wednesday, I wasn't allowed to sit in on the meeting. After a quick call from my mother (she worked at GM), I learned that John F. Kennedy Jr. was in Detroit promoted his magazine, George. The junior media team wasn't allowed to go to the meeting, either. Being 'the intern', I decided to use some of my sub-junior sass and ride the elevators until the meeting was over.  After all, the rest of my department wasn't working, right? Like clockwork, I timed my elevator perusing until I landed on the floor where JFK Jr's meeting took place. There he was, leaving the meeting and held a door open as I walked through. He was so handsome and eloquent in person, that I almost fell over.

2. I sailed across the Atlantic on the Queen Mary 2. After my brief student stint in Lyon, I sailed from Southampton to New York City on the Queen Mary 2.  Of course, I chose to travel at a time of year when the ocean was rockiest. I was so seasick that a nurse had to come to my room and give me a shot in the rear. After a two hour nap, I felt just fine. Those 7 days were some of the most memorable of my entire life.

3. I don't like olives. Crazy, right? Given what part of the world my family is from, you'd think I would gobble of olives like candy. Nope. 

4. I like to do Don Corleone impressions. With the right hat and scarf, I manage to scare my husband into not wanting to come close to planting a kiss on the cheek. Ever since I saw "The Godfather" trilogy a few years ago, I can't get enough of walking around the house and trying to be the best Don possible.

5. I was a Resident Advisor in college. First starting my career at WMU's Garneau-Harvey  hall, then moving on to Smith-Burnham, I was an R.A. and took my job seriously - sometimes TOO seriously. I had an academic scholarship to Western Michigan and didn't want to tarnish anything with not being the best RA possible. My residents weren't the biggest fans of me - though I DID enjoy watching them pour out their Natural Light bottles:). 

6. Jay Leno brought me on stage at The Tonight Show. I was with close friend, Angela, as we had a week-long California vacation. We waited all day to be first in line at The Tonight Show. During his warm up, Jay brought us up on stage and asked where we were from and what we did for a living. At the time, my team at Giant Step was launching the new Maytag web site, so I belted to the audience 'Maytag.com'! Jay followed with, 'Get a life dot com'. Nice.

7. I love ghost stories. Throw in some real American ghost stories and I'm hooked. Thanks to my AP History teacher, Mrs. Voss, for being such an amazing story teller and taking me to Washington D.C. for the first time. I can't get enough history and I love walking the Freedom Trail in Boston whenever I get the chance.

I tag:

The Rules:

  • Link your original tagger(s), and list these rules on your blog.
  • Share seven facts about yourself in the post - some random, some weird.
  • Tag seven people at the end of your post by leaving their names and the links to their blogs.
  • Let them know they’ve been tagged by leaving a comment on their blogs and/or Twitter.

Online Marketing 101:Display (aka Banner) AdvertisingAn Oldie, But A Goodie

Here is the first of many Online Marketing 101 posts I plan on tackling these next few weeks.  The purpose of these mini 101s is to help online media novices and social media practitioners l

Even 'Serious News Sites' Need Advertising DollarsThe Dancing Obama on 20/20's Front Page

As a former Media Planner, I've seen everything. 

I wasn't surprised when I visited 20/20's web site minutes ago. I wanted to see what the segment line up was for tonight's episode, yet I was distracted by the 'Dancing Obama' ad from Lower My Bills. Some media planner at ABC decided to allow Lower My Bills to advertise on 20/20. I'm sure the ad dollars this brings to ABC is lucrative, but the 'Dancing Obama' image near the credit score ad isn't the most 'tasteful' - especially for a respected news organization.


Goes to show - everyone can use a high CPM these days.

What Every Social Media Expert Should KnowYou're In Demand - But For How Long?

I think it’s time to remind the social media analysts, gurus, experts, consultants, mavens, speakers, Twitter celebs and other Web 2.0 folk that you may be making a mistake by thinking and talking about social media as the end all/be all in the world of digital media and communications.

Surely, this is your expertise/your niche - along with the soup du jour when it comes to HR departments. Heck, take a look at this Chicago Craig’s List feed and count the number of times social media or social networking terms are used. As much as this excites someone like yours truly (especially since I’ll be starting a new social media gig with Edelman on January 5th), it also makes me nervous.

Do social media professional really understand the holistic approach to online marketing and digital media?

Some of you work with some major brands but you should always keep an understanding of how other online tools contribute to the success of your client’s goals. If you have a good handle on the majority of the tools below, that’s terrific. If you don’t have a handle on these other strategies, no worries. I’ll be creating some cheat sheets for you to reference as you embark on those meetings. Now on to the list:

Detroit Red Wings v Chicago Blackhawks Viewing PartyDecember 30, Jake Melnick's Chicago

 

To any marketer, blogger, sports fan or curious blog reader, a large crew will embark on Jake Melnick's Corner Tap on December 30 to watch the Detroit Red Wings crush the Chicago Blackhawks.

My initial Winter Classic plans didn't work, but I'll still be watching my boys with red and white pride! 

Events like thes that begin on Twitter are called 'Tweetups'. I find that term to be exclusive at times to those of YOU who may not want to use Twitter. The event is not exclusive by any means, so come on over and say hi. 

  • 6 pm
  • Chicago Red Line Stop
  • Free WiFi
  • 12/30 

Here are some classic pictures as I sat on the glass a few years ago with my husband (the Wings won). I was also live streamed to Detroit, via their camera feed. It was a proud day when my dad saw his daughter screaming like a crazy nut on live television.

CIMA $5,000 Student Scholarship

As a Board member of CIMA, I'm proud to announce the details of the 2009 CIMA Scholarship.


Available to an undergraduate student attending a Chicago university, the goal of the scholarship is to promote the knowledge transfer of online marketing and digital media.

Deadline for submissions is February 15.

Pass this post on and good luck to the students!

Happy Holidays from Mayor Daley

Perhaps it's because I waited in line for two hours to shake the Mayors hand upon his re-election. Perhaps it's because I'm a taxpayer? Either way, it's a fun surprise to get a holiday card from Mr and Mrs Daley. Cute photo!

Google's New Human Search Results ElementOne More Thing for Us to Maximize

If you have a Google account and signed in lately, you'll notice a few new icons next to the natural search results. As a Google user, you now have the power to determine what search results are relevant to you by moving results up, nixing them out completely or adding comments to the given search results. 

Arrow - move the result up
X - remove the result completely, you'll never see it again
Comment Bubble - make comments on the results, which others that are logging in also be able to access.

I like the idea of managing my personal Google account better, but does this add another layer of managing search results? Is this something that we should leave to sites like Cha-Cha and Mahalo or should we take the responsibility to determine what our search results should be? 

This piece of data will also add to Google's information arsenal and the marketer in me has to ask the question: How will they use it?

Il Ritrovo Surprises the Pizza Lover...in the Heart of Sheboygan

Amazing neopolitan pizza from Il Ritrovo - Sheboygan, Wisconsin.

Is Twitter Becoming a Wee Bit Like High School?

Conversations with friends and colleagues in the last few weeks sparked the idea for this post. 


I get a kick out of seeing how online trends and tools effect human behavior. I'm an active Twitter user and think it's one of the most innovative tools when it comes to connecting with people, brands and services online. I discovered new clients via Twitter and even received word of my upcoming Edelman position through a Twitter direct message. Twitter is becoming so widely used that a "Twitter for Dummies" site was established and the "Twitter Survival Guide" was released.

I use Twitter to talk about my daily happenings, (like what I'm cooking for dinner) interesting news about town and send along updated information about my blogs and any new discovery. I also used Twitter to help gain some grassroots support for the SXSW panel my friend, Laura, pitched (it was selected - see you in Austin:). Both the personal and business uses for Twitter are endless.

 I use Tweetdeck and watch the ins and outs of how new people I meet use Twitter. My curiosity was piqued when I saw folks nominating each other for something called 'The Shorty Awards - the best producers of short content on Twitter.'  Our time span is now going to spent nominating people for their 140 character messages - similar to high school prom's King and Queen?  Alrighty then.