Blogcation 2011

It's that time again....blogcation. As usual, instead of scheduling a week's worth of posts to run while I'm gone (ok, who am I fooling...if I blog once a week these days I'm doing well) here are a few posts from the past six months that you may have missed the first time around:

• Why I'm Breaking up With Apple. Can't say I've missed it since switching to an HP laptop. However, you'd have to pry my iPad and/or iPhone out of my cold dead hands...so maybe the title should have been "why I'm breaking up with my Macbook."
• 2010 Movie Recap. In case you're looking for summer rentals. I think I'm up to about 30 movies so far in 2011.
• Are Mobile Apps a Waste of Time for YOUR Association? Because I took the time to add an image to that post and all.
• My 20 Truths. Ok, so this post was from 2010...sue me.
• And a little something from my other, almost abandoned blog--behold the Ghetto Big Mac. I wrote that post in January and I swear I STILL have that song stuck in my head. Be sure to watch the video--but don't blame me when you can't get the song out of your head either. And have to run out to the drive-thru to get a Big Mac.

See you people on the flip side.

5 Ways Exhibitors Should Market to Attendees. And None of Them is a Postcard.

This year I'll be going to ASAE's Annual Meeting & Expo for the first time.  When I registered, I was asked if I preferred to receive communication from vendors via email or regular mail. Since I can't keep up with email as it is, I opted for regular mail and didn't think much of it at the time. Fast forward a few weeks and suddenly I'm being deluged with mail--invitations to private events, save the date cards for sessions, and offers to "bring this card to booth X to receive a free gift."

While I have nobody but myself to blame for opting in to this frenzy of direct mail, I can't help but wonder how, in today's digital/mobile world, vendors can think that sending a postcard to attendees three weeks out from the event is effective marketing. I mean, am I supposed to just amass a folder of these postcards--most of which  contain some messaging like "bring this card for [swag of some sort]"--then haul it to St. Louis and somehow make my way through the exhibit hall and remember which card goes with which booth? Am I stupid and this is how others do it and I just need to get with the program?

Maybe my expectations are too high and this is just "best practices" marketing in the association world. But I don't think so. Maybe it used to be, but now how can spending money to print a postcard or other mailer and pay postage, then expecting recipients to remember to bring it with them several weeks later compete with, say, tweeting during the event "visit booth X and show this tweet to receive [swag of some sort]"? Granted, I realize that not everyone in the world is on Twitter, but then again, not everyone in the world understands how to juggle a ream of paper and postcards during an Expo either.

Here are five ways that I'd rather be marketed to by exhibitors:

1. On Twitter. Especially for this conference, which has not only a pre-established hashtag but also a Twitter roll. During the event, when people are on site, instead of weeks ahead of time.
2. In the mobile app. ASAE has not one but TWO mobile apps for this meeting--one for mobile phones and one for the iPad.  Want attendees to visit your booth? Build it into the scheduling function. Granted, right now the scheduling feature is just for sessions, but I think it would be awesome to have some kind of "specials" tab where exhibitors could post the same messages they're now sending via US mail on a postcard. Something that will make me remember to visit their booth while I'm on-site, because a postcard sure won't.
3. QR codes. Say what you will about QR codes--that they're confusing, don't work well, or just stupid--I still say they make more sense than a postcard that says "bring this card to our booth for X." How about if you're compelled to do a postcard ahead of the event, instead of telling the recipient "bring this card to our booth in three weeks" say "scan this QR code to follow us on Twitter and follow our tweets during the event for a chance to win X"?
4. Foursquare--ok, so granted, you will only reach those attendees who use Foursquare, but still--it's worth at least trying. You're a lot more likely to get me to your booth via Foursquare than via postcard.
5. SCVNGR--instead of me explaining about how to use SCVNGR, a mobile scavenger hunt app, just read this. We used it at the ASHA convention last year and it was a great success and drove a lot of traffic to participating booths.

Streamed Out

Google+. Spotify. Google Music. Branchout. BeKnown. Pinterest.

Seriously--how much time is one person supposed to have for online socializing? I am officially tapped out. It was bad enough when it was just Facebook and Twitter--both my own personal accounts and the accounts I manage professionally. Oh, and Linkedin. Now I'm supposed to find time to add Google+ to the mix? And check out Pinterest and all the rest of them. Because that's what you have to do if you're a social media "expert"--right?

I'm no expert but here's one thing I know--there are only 24 hours in a day. Just because Facebook is making billions of dollars doesn't mean that their however many million users (I'm not even going to Google that stat; knock yourself out if you're dying to know) are willing and able to now also spend time on dozens of other, similar sites. Connecting with the same people and sharing the same information. It's not like any of these networks are either/or choices; we're expected to just continue to add profiles on social media sites and to then build our circles or networks or whatever they'll be called and spend time interacting, redundantly, on a daily basis.

Good thing I'm getting ready to go on vacation because honestly, Google+ has tipped the apple cart for me and I find myself just wanting to avoid the computer altogether. Which is not like me at all. Google+, my family thanks you.

New Look for Mizz Information

You may have noticed that suddenly, this blog looks totally different. I started tinkering with it when I switched from the old commenting platform I was using (Echo comments) to Disqus. Why did I switch? Because Echo recently started charging $10 a month and since this blog is only for fun and not a money-maker for me in any way--not to mention the fact that I barely ever get comments--the idea of paying for a comment platform was just stupid. I wish I could use Livefyre but for now it doesn't work on Blogger. I talked to someone from Livefyre at BlogWorld NYC and I believe they said it's coming soon for Blogger...but maybe that was just wishful thinking? That was such a crazy two days that I honestly can't remember.

At any rate, while I was debating over whether I should just migrate the blog out of Blogger to Wordpress so I could use Livefyre, I admit that part of me was curious to see what new features the "upgraded" version of Blogger included. I then discovered that Blogger users can upgrade now by using Blogger in Draft. So I did that, and while doing so, figured I'd change my template while I was at it. I'm sad to report the number one feature I was hoping Blogger would include in the upgrade would be the ability to opt to have links open in a new window from the text editor....but sadly, you still have to do this by messing with the html. Which is why my links usually don't open in a new window...I usually just don't take the time to go the extra mile to go insert a bunch of 'Target="blank"' tags after I compose a post.

Anyway, since I've recently taken to reading books via the iPad Kindle app in bed and appreciating the black screen/white text feature I figured I'd try it here. Not sure if I love it, and not sure how readers like it--how do you like it?

One good thing about switching to the new template--it allowed Google's "share bar" to show, something that didn't work using my old template. So now I don't have to have separate retweet and "like" buttons at the bottom of every post, and I have a +1 button.

So there you have it...because I know it was killing you not knowing why I'd suddenly changed the look of Mizz Information! Please let me know if this black background/white text is really annoying; I'm personally on the fence about it.

UPDATE: Thanks for the feedback! Apparently black background with white text is only good for reading in bed; I've reverted back to white background with black text. I don't love the background image or the color green, but it was as good as I could get customizing the free template. In my next life I'm going to pay someone to design me an actual logo and non-out-of-the-box blog template.

Want a Google+ Business Page? You Better Already Have a "Real Rich History of Being Active in the Social Sphere"

In case you haven't read enough blog posts about Google+ this week, here are two more you shouldn't miss if you have a business interest in using Google+: Google+ Brand Pages Coming in Two Weeks and Nonprofits Adopt Google+ Social Network Early. What's so great about these two posts? Well, they're important to me because they're totally at odds with each other, for one thing. Should businesses be "hacking" to set up business pages now, if Google admits that they are "actively going through and actively taking profiles down"? Is it worth the time setting up a business presence and establishing circles only to have Google delete the whole thing?

I personally say no. Sure, familiarize yourself with Google+. Submit the Google+ Entity Profile Application so when Google officially starts allowing businesses to set up shop on Google+ you're already in line to get started. But be forewarned: if you've dragged your feet getting your business involved in social media, this is apparently where it could come back to haunt you; the initial business page roll-out will be limited to business with "a real rich history of being active in the social sphere, brands that have strong, loyal audiences and are proactive and engaging and who want to spread it out a little more," according to the AdAge article. This Google+ roll-out says to me that the future of social is about rewarding early-adopters and penalizing those who have thus far resisted getting involved in social media.

Why I'm not Giddy Over Google+

If you're a geek, you already know what Google+ is. If you're not, this seems like a decent primer (I admit I just Googled it and picked the first link, so apologies if that's actually a flawed or otherwise not great explanation. After all, it's July 4th.) Basically, it's supposed to be Google's version of Facebook, but better because of privacy stuff and the ability to segment friends into "circles," rather than one mass "friend" list like Facebook. Except you can already do that in Facebook via lists, but I digress.

I would have thought I'd have been more excited about Google+, since if you read this blog you know I'm no Facebook lover. Actually, that's putting it mildly, I'm mostly a Facebook hater. However, I have to say that after spending a very limited amount of time in Google+, I'm not only not wowed, but find myself almost in Facebook's corner, if you can believe that. I know I can't, but it's true.

The biggest thing Google and others seem to be hawking about Google+ is how it's all about privacy, where Facebook obviously isn't. Again, if you know me or read this blog you know my #1 beef with Facebook is the way it exploits people's privacy--the quizzes and games that users think are merely quizzes or games but are, in reality, just ways to capture user information; the repeated "oops" moments where Facebook claims they "accidentally" opted all users into some new privacy exploit; the way they sell user information.

But I don't know how Google can suddenly claim to be all about user privacy--I mean, any Gmail user can attest to the way the ads are magically synced to the content of supposedly private email messages. Then of course there's the FTC investigation of Google that's currently underway. It's also not like Google didn't totally mess up the privacy thing when they briefly launched Buzz last year. So why we're suddenly supposed to cheer about great Google is about privacy is beyond me.

Then there's the weirdly elitist way Google has rolled out Google+, making it available only to....well, who knows how they really did it. All I know is that it can't be an accident that Google+ has so far only seemingly been open to tech "influencers," who are falling all over themselves talking about how great it is. I'm no tech influencer, but all I have to say is that so far I am totally underwhelmed by Google+, which seems to be nothing other than a less-fully featured and poorer UI'd version of Facebook. And Facebook's UI is terrible, so that's not saying a lot. For all I know I'll end up loving Google+ and eating these words, but for now, it just seems like kind of a time sink to me.