Little Red's Big Ideas

Facebook Adds Email; Look out Gmail, Yahoo and Hotmail

Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg, announced yesterday that Facebook has added a new feature to its comprehensive communications portal which is causing quite a stir in the media world.  According to AdAge.com "Facebook is giving its half billion users an email address -- @facebook.com -- and another reason not to leave the service for Google, Yahoo, Microsoft or Apple. The article continues to explain that "this is a bold attempt to bring email into the Facebook network and unify the way people communicate online into one social inbox. Texting, emailing and chat can now be done as one, united by the big brother of your social graph."

Facebook is not bashful about its desire to take over all aspects of your online and wireless communications.  According to Andrew Bosworth, Facebook's director of engineering, "We are more connected today than at any time previous in history, but our communication is fragmented," said  "In this new system, we would feel a lot like we're more in constant conversation with those that we care about instead of fragmented messages."

More importantly -- in the perfect Facebook world, users will never have to leave to check their email on other sites giving Facebook a "stickyness" like never before.  Read the entire article here to learn about privacy concerns and other aspects of this enhancement.

Look for me soon at jodirudick@facebook.com.  In the meantime, let me know how you feel about this new addition to the Facebook utility.  I think I'm going to like it. 

We laughed, we learned... NRPA Followup: Brilliance of Branding, Digital Marketing

Minneapolis is such an incredible city with it's parks, lakes, sporting events and above ground, fully enclosed (and heated) Skyway System.  Further, the Minnesota weather never fails to spark conversation whether it be heat and humidity (otherwise knows as mosquito season), freezing temperatures (otherwise known as the rest of the year -- just kidding) or hurricane force winds -- like those experienced by this year's NRPA Congress Delegates. 

We didn't come for the weather afterall.  Rather we came together to share ideas, become inspired and learn new strategies and techniques for solving ongoing and emerging challenges.  I was honored to present two workshops this year to hundreds of park and recreation professionals from around the globe.  As promised I'm happy to post handouts from both sessions for attendees and blog readers to review and download.

Feel free to use these handouts to share information with your own staff or group.  Of course, if you prefer, I'd love to come to YOUR town or community to present these (or any of my other 70+ workshops) in my signature high-energy style. 

Ok -- enough with the sales pitch.  Here are the handouts ---

The Brilliance of Branding

Download Brands 2010

Marketing Goes Digital 2010 (This handout contains a quiz to test your knowlege of today's on-line usage.  The second handout includes the answers to the quiz.)

Download Digital Marketing 2010[1]

Download Digital Marketing 2010[1] with answers

If you attended my session, feel free to leave a comment or suggestion below.  If you DO know of a speaking opportunity, please get in touch at littleredsbigideas@gmail.com

Best Examples of Social Networking Strategies

I try not to add too much stuff to my delicious account (the bookmarketing service I use to dump all my "I gotta read this later file."  Today, after two weeks of nonstop travel and speaking at conferences -- I reviewed some of the articles and sites I've marked over the past few weeks and HAD to share a real gem with you posted at Mashable/Business!  

This list, compiled by social networking blogger Peter Kim, who blogs about social computing and marketing, contains 22 social networking tactics (from blogs to wikis) and a couple of companies that are using this tactic really, REALLY well.  I promise this list will save you hours and hours of time looking for the best of the best social networking tactics.

I've said it hundreds of times and I'll say it again... The only way to learn about social networking is to spend some dedicated time looking at what others are doing.  Spend an hour a week over the next few week exploring Kim's examples as you begin to (or continue to) dabble or dive into social networking as a marketing tool for your park, recreation agency or camp. 

If you can't access these sites from work -- grab a sandwich and take a long lunch at your public library which almost, surely, allows free access to the entire Internet (God Bless Libraries and the First Ammendment!).

Here’s a framework of 22 tools to consider with notable brand examples:

1. Blogs (Johnson & Johnson, Delta Air Lines)
2. Bookmarking/Tagging (Adobe(), Kodak)
3. Brand monitoring (Dell, MINI)
4. Content aggregation (Alltop, EMC)
5. Crowdsourcing/Voting (Oracle, Starbucks)
6. Discussion boards and forums (IBM, Mountain Dew)
7. Events and meetups (Molson, Pampers)
8. Mashups (Fidelity Investments, Nike)
9. Microblogging (method, Whole Foods)
10. Online video (Eukanuba, Home Depot)
11. Organization and staffing (Ford, Pepsi)
12. Outreach programs (Nokia, Yum Brands)
13. Photosharing (Rubbermaid, UK Government)
14. Podcasting (Ericsson, McDonalds)
15. Presentation sharing (CapGemini, Daimler AG)
16. Public Relations – social media releases (Avon, Intel)
17. Ratings and reviews (Loblaws, TurboTax)
18. Social networks: applications, fan pages, groups, and personalities (British Airways, Saturn)
19. Sponsorships (Coca-Cola, Whirlpool)
20. Virtual worlds (National Geographic, Toyota)
21. Widgets (Southwest Airlines, Target)
22. Wikis (Second Life, T-Mobile Sidekick)

And use this username check tool to see if your brands/preferred handles are still available.

If you know of Park and Recreation Agencies or Camps that should be added to the list -- please coment below!

AdAge names the stars of YouTube

Advertisers looking to connect to today's youth are increasingly looking to viral marketing to create brand loyalty.   In this era of social networking stardom in which everyone seems to be looking for their 15 minutes of fame -- a few diverse personalities have risen above the rest giving traditional children's and teen onair personalities cause to sit up, click on and take notice. 

In an article posted by AdAge.com(Meet YouTube's Most Indemand Stars) readers can get a taste of who and what have grabbed  -- not just millions of views on YouTube -- but tens of millions of hits.  Quirky, creative, outrageous, funny and shocking are words that come to mind after quickly watching a few of these videos stars including Michael Buckley (right) who has been the online pitchman, of sorts, for several family-friendly brands such as Nickolodeon, Te Teen Choice Awards and the Discovery Channel.

What continues to strike me about do-it-yourself broadcasting is that ANYONE can do it for FREE.  Those of you who feel like your continually wrestling with budget issues have no excuse when it comes to marketing your programs.  Children, teens and adults all watch YouTube.  While you might not be the next start attracting bazillions of hits -- WHO CARES?  What you care about is getting people in your target audience to watch and post videos that promote your programs, services and agency.  Anyone with a cell phone can take a video these days. Most can instantly post these videos (photos, too, of course) directly to FaceBook and YouTube with a click and a signal. Here are some ideas to get you started:

• Why not video customer testimonials after a successful class, game or event.
• Consider posting videos of coaches talking about their love of the game.
• How about talking to business and community leaders about how important sports, recreation and summer camp have been to their lives.

Do you know of park and recreation agencies who are using YouTube in innovate ways?  Comment below!

The Internet by the Numbers

While doing some research for an upcoming workshop I came across an article posted by Pingdom.com which listed statistics related to Internet usage.  According to the site (which includes data through the end of 2009 there are more than 1.73 billion Internet users worldwide (with 18% coming on line in the previous 12 months).

With more than 234 million websites, 126 million blogs, 500 million people on Facebook; it's hard to imagine anyone has time to do anything other than stare at their screens. 

But the really, REALLY big numbers involved email:

• 90 trillion – The number of emails sent on the Internet in 2009.
• 247 billion – Average number of email messages per day.
• 1.4 billion – The number of email users worldwide.
• 100 million – New email users since the year before.
• 81% – The percentage of emails that were spam.
• 24% – Increase in spam since last year.
• 200 billion – The number of spam emails per day (assuming 81% are spam).

I don't doubt the validity of these numbers.  After all, some days I feel as if I get 200 billion spam emails each day from barristers in Nigeria begging to give me millions of dollars from a long lost relative. 

The scary part of these statistics is that they don't even include text messages.  But have no fear -- those statistics are only a few days away.  So stay tuned (as if you could tear yourself away from your screen.)

The (Surprising) Top 50 Websites 2010

I love lists.  I love that someone is out there spending hours and hours figuring out what's in and what's out on my behalf.  Of course, I don't trust everything I read or see or hear in a list -- but it can be a good place to start.  For example Pingdom estimates that as of December 2009 there were 234 million websites with 47 million of those being added in the previous year.  Add to that the estimated 186 million blogs, the 500 million people on FaceBook and you can see how keeping track of all this media is an impossible task. 

While I try to stay current - I sure don't have time to review them all so I'm always thrilled when a reputable source pays their writers and researchers to filter the countless options into a finite list I can tackle. 

Further, when TIME Magazine publishes a list I feel good about its credibility, objectivity and mainstream perspective.  It's never Make sure you set aside some time to take a look at the list (and feel free to share YOUR favorite sites -- especially those that pertain to parks, recreation and camps). 

TIME says their list ranges from "the helpful to the distracting, the big hitters to the unknowns."  The list is NOT the most popular or most visited sites, but the "best" according to the TIME researchers.  For instance, Vimeo is on the list; YouTube is not. 

Click here to see the complete list.  And get ready for some surprises.

Street Team Marketing is Key to Brand Launch

California Park and Recreation Society (CPRS) conference delegates were introduced to a new branding campaign at their annual conference in Palm Springs.  The brand - Parks Make Life Better!^SM was launched at the conference general session and continued to be visible throughout the conference.  Hands down, however, the most critical component of the brand's launch was the use of a Parks Make Life Better!^SM Street Team.

 

What's a Street Team? Borrowing a concept from the independent music industry, street team members are fans who spread the word about a band, concert -- or in this case a BRAND. The nine member Parks Make Life Better!^SM Street Team was very successful in their efforts too share their excitement for the new brand.

In the end, almost 70% of al conference delegates completed a contact form during direct interaction with a Street Team Member.  The secret to a street team's success is a combination of enthusiasm, passion and energy.  In this case the Street Team was charged with the task of sharing information about the Parks Make Life Better! brand and inviting contacts to stop by the CPRS booth. It also didn't hurt that Street Team members competed with one another to connect and collect the most leads among conference attendees. 

Congratulations to Street Team Members Brian Enns (Fresno) and Aliah  Brozowski who brought in the most contact forms and won themselves a sample kit chock full of Parks Make Life Better! gifts and goodies.  You can see a catalog of the types of things they won by clicking here.

 

With less than three hours of training -- using both a pre-conference webinar and on-site meeting -- the team people chatted, schmoozed, talked and collected interest forms from almost 70% of the conference attendees.  This is no small feat since Street Team Members didn't just passively distribute forms.  They truly engaged and connected with most of the conference delegates in a very personal way.  Street Team Marketing is a very effective form of WOM (Word of Mouth Marketing) and can be used by any organization to promote everything from special events to summer camps. 

Learn more about how to use Street Team Marketing in your own agency at an upcoming Parks Make Life Better Workshop.

Top 20 Most Popular Networking Sites Revealed - Are you keeping up?

The numbers are in and, while there aren't any big surprises, social networking sites are continuing to attract users exponentially.  In an article posted this week at eBizMBA.com, Facebook continues to crushed the competition in terms of usage, visitors and profiles.  The 20 Most Popular Social Networking Websites are ranked by using a combination of sources including Alexa, a leading web analytics and information service.  The article includes this disclaimer: "Although no traffic metrics are completely accurate we do believe the data below to be useful for gauging relative audience size."

As I reviewed the list, it struck me that some sites are particularly relevant to the parks, recreation and camps. For example, Classmates.com (#5 on the list) is a fantastic place to look for groups looking for indoor and outdoor places to hold reunions, events or gatherings.  The rest of the top five sites are as follows:

1. Facebook (wanna be my friend?  Facebook me, Jodi Rudick)
2. MySpace (still very relevant for younger audiences, musicians and indie culture. An important site for those promoting concerts and pop culture events.)
3. Twitter (follow me by clicking here (https://twitter.com/ParksMarketing)
4. LinkedIn (Have you joined the Park and Recreation Professionals Group, yet?  Why not? (Add me to your network  
5. Classmates.com

To see the entire list click here.  Spend some time exploring one or two of the lesser known sites and let me know which you think should be part of the must-participate list for the recreation professional. 

Direct Marketing Leads Marketing Expenditures

Marketing expenditures are in a state of flux as illustrated by this chart which shows direct marketing leading the pack of media options.  Whether you are a park district, department, camp or other organization -- you are, no doubt, using direct marketinglike never before.  In the "olden days" of marketing before Twitter, texting, apps and wikis -- direct marketing was often synonymous with direct mail.  Today, however, direct marketing refers to an every expanding explosion of media options and applications.

I came across an interesting offer for a FREE "whitepaper"(sure, you have to fill-in some quick contact info) that does a good job exploring where direct marketing is headed in 2010 and beyond.  It explains how new technologies and changing  consumer preferences are impacting options and opportunities to reach your customers.   Download the paper to learn how you can leverage new trends to access the customers you want, gain more visibility, grow market share and boost ROI.  Some of the methods explored are:

• Mobile Marketing
• Social Media Integration
• Personalized and Tailored Marketing
• Marketing Automation
• Integrated and Targeted Direct Mail

Download your complimentary copy of this valuable whitepaper,
"5 Direct Marketing Trends to Watch," now.

Teens and Twitter - Uncool!

According to a new report released Wednesday by the Pew Internet Project, only 8 percent of online teens have embraced Twitter, a notable low for a generation so passionate about technology. Think of the millions of text messages that teens send. Think of their endless hours on Facebook.

Twitter has not caught on in nearly the same way -- and experts suggest the difference is that most teens want to socialize with their friends and peers, not broadcast to the larger world.

Read more about the study as covered by The Washington Post