Advertising Age just reported on an initiative to organize mommy bloggers that are fed up with bad press. Blog With Integrity is designed to support mommy bloggers with journalist-like standards.
It’s reported that over 200 mommy blogs signed up during the first 24 hours.
What do you think? Leave a comment!
We have company in our home this week. On Friday morning I rose early and drove to Albertsons to pick up some needed breakfast items. It’s close to my home, so I continue to shop there—especially if I’m in a hurry.
Over the past couple of years I’ve noticed this Albertsons’ demise. Less and less choices. More and more food items either past or close to their expiration date. Prices that feel twice as high as Wal-Mart or Super Target.
Then, the kicker… I hate those self checkout lines. The whole scanning deal never works for me. Every time I’m forced to do it, it takes forever. I end up standing there waiting for an employee to come by and punch a bunch of buttons to clear the scanning error.
In other stores, I have a choice. Self check, or wait in line. I’ll wait in line 10 or 15 minutes to have a checker’s help. But at Albertsons, many times there’s no choice. They simply open the five or six self-check registers and have one employee monitor them. Again, Friday, I had no choice.
I could no longer hold back my irritation. As I walked from the store to my Honda Element in the parking lot—grocery bag in one hand and iPhone in the other—I tweeted, “The Albertsons store in my town sucks. Can’t understand how they stay in business. High prices w/ no service. Old food. No choices.”
It felt good. Having read how other big companies use Twitter to monitor what’s said about them, I half hoped I would get an immediate response tweet like, “hey @jack_hadley… thanks for voicing your displeasure… please call sally at (xxx) xxx-xxxx so we can make things right”.
The tweet never came.
Later that day, I searched the Twittersphere for other tweets about Albertsons. There were lots of them! They ranged from pleased to displeased to simple general references like, “meet me at Albertsons”. Sort of what I expected.
Then, I decided to see whether or not Albertsons was listening. My research on Twitter, Google, and their corporate website led me to believe that they’re absolutely NOT listening.
Too bad.
I did find one store in La Habra, California making an effort… Good for you.
So what’s up with this? How can corporations the size of Albertsons be so unaware of the business, marketing, and PR opportunities afforded them by these simple tools? I’m sure it’s not easy running a chain of grocery stores in a very competitive space. I get it. All the more reason to be aware of the things that could help.
What do you think?
Several months ago, I had the pleasure of meeting Jessica Hagy at the VizThink conference in San Jose. Bright, energetic, and engaging. I had been following her on Twitter and enjoying her clever blog for a long time prior to meeting her.
Jessica has perfected the power of the 3×5 card through her remarkably simple illustrations. If you love visual thinking, subscribe to her blog and/or read her book of illustrations. Each work of art will cause you to stop whatever you’re doing for a few moments to reflect.
Here is her most recent post:
Most people, when they see her work, say, “That’s so true! I knew that! And she drew it! Wow.”
What do you think?
How could a mega company like Disney think they can manipulate the social media space? They can’t. And, our guess is that they know that.
Today, Mashable reported that the trailer for the new Tim Burton Alice in Wonderland with Johnny Depp had been mistakenly released. In quick order, Disney directed YouTube to pull the video down. Other services fell in line and the trailer quickly became hard to find.
Our guess is that this is likely a well-planned marketing strategy to create buzz about the trailer, and in turn, about the film. Smart thinking. Put it out there, then pretend it was a mistake and pull it all off. Create a scarcity mentality. Cool.
Then again… In case we are wrong… Here’s the vid… Enjoy.
What do you think? Smart thinking or horrific blunder? Leave us a comment.
