A Special New Year Begins

You've heard me say it before: Forget January 1 -- the first day of school is real New Year's Day. Always worth a picture.

But today isn't a run-of-the-mill first day of school. It's the first day of Jamie's last year of high school. Turning 18 in October, he graduates Class of 2010.

Maybe that's why, for the first time in his "first day of schools," he beat me to the digital punch.

Grabbing his lunch, Jamie said: "Is it camera time?"

Happy to officially ring in this exciting new year.

Change of Art Plans

I rinsed bottles of liquid watercolor, part of today's shed clean-out.

Run-off blotched my hands fuscia, my mind hugging memories of little boys busy with brushes.

Colorful vestiges of pre-school crafts. Back when art supplies stayed out 24-7. When art trumped almost all. Days long forgotten.

Or so I thought.


"What happened to the paint bottles?" Jamie asked tonight.

He'd apparently spied the bottles in the shed, figured them into a stay-at-home date night with Oli.


Happy with our regained usefulness, the craft corner and I yielded creative alternatives.

Friday-extra: Craving that 9 month break... Again

It's Friday, and by my count there are 5 days until school starts again for my sons... and I am reminded of my essay published 7 summers ago. Back before my sons were teenagers.

So I offer it up now to all parents who, like I was then -- and am now -- ready for school to begin again.

No matter how much they claim its untrue, kids like school. Maybe not the homework. But the energy.

There's always something happening at school. That's not always true for summer days.

Summer doldrums can be hard... on parents, too.

_{(NOTE: The email address on the article is no longer valid.)}

Take-home Trail Lessons

Overheard on today's walking trail:

One woman emoting to another,"This is a precious time. Stop wasting my time by..."

Her voice trailed out of earshot, leaving my walking partner and I to consider the stage, fill in blanks:

Was it one friend telling a story: "And so I said..."

Perhaps advice: "Here's what you should say..."

Or was it an in-the-moment reprimand: "Stop wasting this time together."

Either way, it was food for our thoughts. Personalizing who, what and why.

Then reminding each other where to start:

The mirror.

Do-nothing Day Fuels Imagination

A do-nothing hang-around day. Like all our childhood summer days.

But our museum break had morphed into screen play -- televisions, computers and phones. Aunts, uncles, cousins at Grandpa and Weezie's house.

So we took a walk.


Past Audobon's pond, down the long driveway into Rock Creek Park. My brother, sister and I sharing childhood stories with the others.

We crossed the bridge to a path we'd forgotten. Maybe never known?


A colonial carriage trail later used by a finishing school. Decorative bridges. Creek views. Stone structure partially buried.


Fuel for imagination.

The Power of Curator Editing

It's really too much, all the things the curators jammed into the war exhibit at the Smithsonian's American History Museum. So much that it's hard to know where to start.

Left with the overwhelming feeling that there's just not enough time to do it justice, I felt obliged to race through, casting eyes on pictures, reading snippets of quotes, watching bits of the videos.

Until... I stumbled upon the quiet of the P.O.W. alcove with just uniformed mannequin, living essentials and wall-sized photo of an emotional homecoming.


Powerful.

Effective editing always is.

Stalled Communications, Woman to Woman

A column of poetry punctuated my departure from Carolina's Rare Book Collection reading room.

A bathroom surprise. Tempting, even.

"Yellow door Haiku.
Syllable connections, stalled.
Woman to woman."

But I couldn't do it. Not as student. Not now.

So I remained read-only, left amazed at literary graffiti's survival within this no-drinks, no-food, no noise zone.



Librarians...

Are you in the author mix, forgiving forgotten Haiku rules...


Or blinded by employee-only bathroom status?

Perhaps you applaud from a distance, watching where this poetic trail might lead.

Wondering... next generation "rare"?

Re-living Wilson Reading Room

I could have sat in this very chair. Hard-backed red-oak with a gentle grove on the seat, a slight rise to divide the leg space.

Certainly I looked out these very windows. The asbestos tiles, waxed annually to a protective shine. Red oak bookcases. Brass lamps. All familiar, unchanged.

Walking around Chapel Hill has fueled lots of memories. But these chairs, the long tables, the brass table lamps -- its brought back the experience.

This spot makes me eager to refresh goals, feeling again youth's potential.

Potential I know still lives.

Low-tech College Impact

Just when I thought the Wake Forest tour was going to be all about fun, food and free wifi, our young guide went off-script to talk about the students she'd met, changes she'd noticed in herself since transfering last semester.

"It's easier to remain focused when you have other students around you that are doing the same things," she said. "It's not embarassing to say you're going to Model U.N. because most likely that friend you're talking to is going to Asia club."

I knew it was true. I'd lived that transformation at UNC-Chapel Hill decades before.

School's In. Let the Fun Begin. Again.

I'm back at San Francisco State. My own Summer School.

"Branding" has familiar faces. Many of us have zoomed through the Integrated Marketing Certificate program requirements together but we're about to temporarily derail after September waiting for the final class, which is only available in December.

I'll miss it... even when I was younger I'd start counting down the days from July 4th until school started again.

Here's why: Stuff happens at school. Good stuff. Funny stuff. Bad stuff, too.

Summer was a crap shoot.
Sometimes just the lull between endless school story opportunities.

Social Media 101: Choices

Thanks to my current Intergrated Marketing Internet Tools class, I've been tweeting, updating my LinkedIn Profile, and finally accepting Facebook Friend invites. For days.

Fun. But also time consuming. Which begs the question: Who has time to be e-everywhere and still connect with family, friends and work in the non-virtual world?

Surf for advice and it boils down to this: Figure out who needs to hear from you, where they hang out and go there.

Here's social media guru Brian Person on the subject.

So -- when you're not here, where are you hanging out?

You-Tubular Learning

I'm back searching for free software tutorials.




This time it's Wordpress, blogging software with CMS capabilities I'm using to create my Client Driven Marketing website. Check it out and you'll see -- right now my website looks like just a regular blog. When I finish, though, it'll be more website-like, complete with pages and navigation bar. Next generation stuff. But that's still a few tutorials away.

Meanwhile, I've got plenty of choices, starting with the 250-item wordpress resource list Ants Magazine posted back in April.

What's YouTube been teaching you lately?

Marketing Hope One Closet at a Time

TLC's What Not to Wear is the show that gives one style-disaster a free $5000 VISA card shopping spree based on prescribed fashion “rules” in exchange for all her current clothes.

New clothes PLUS fresh haircut PLUS make-up lessons… almost always equals a younger, cuter, slimmer-looking woman who now walks with the confidence of success, someone more in control of her own – !?! now changed !?! – destiny.

We watch. We relate. We learn. And we ask: Could this work for me?

Welcome to Marketing “Hope.”

And our own potentially higher VISA bill.

Alert: Targeting Boomers

Fact: Many aging Boomer women live alone. They have for some time. And they plan to keep doing that, risks be-damned, right?

Enter Life-Alert with a new twist on an old marketing campaign.

Life Alert 50 Plus: Personal and home security, including video surveillance.



Never mind that the video alone is rich fodder for Saturday Night Live.



Welcome to real-world Client Driven Marketing.

Assuming the decision to target Boomer women living alone is based on market research and not just product development hype.

What do you think... research or hype?

Hacker Search, Social Media Style

This morning, my son watched the CSI-New York rerun "Cabby Killer," where the killer takes blogger Reed hostage... and then Reed blogs clues to Mac.

Meanwhile... in real time, Ty, the teenager with the popular Ty's iPhone Help website, is tweeting about the FBI and hackers who took down Ty's website a fews days ago.
The hackers deleted everything on Ty's site, redirected traffic to porn, then tried to access PayPal money.



Hackers beware: Ty's tweets are getting serious:


Social media in action. Are you watching it unfold? I'm betting the hackers are, too.

_{Note: Ty's site has now been forwarded to his Twitter page.}

Social Media in the Stitled Forest

She's fascinating to watch, a silent but mesmerizing pied piper.

The Internet is dotted with "tree lady" sightings, mostly at hotels, casinos and now the San Diego Zoo. Many within the last 8-10 months. Like maybe she's something knew. Perhaps Stilt Circus going "green." I don't know.



What I do know is that Stilt Circus is a Social Media menagerie. Not so silent, web-wise.

Check out the great pics on MySpace
There's more info on Facebook.

Want the Tribe?

Okay -- so stilts aren't your thing.

Perhaps Social Media could be... jump!

Rethinking Pencil Point Marketing

I get it. It’s shopping, the old-fashioned way. A good thing. Something, worth supporting.



But… a pencil -- standard issue # 2?

This is 2009, the era of client-driven marketing.

Does service really matter to customers purchasing a single pencil? More than convenience, price or fighting the impulse purchase as you push the cart down the school supply aisle at Safeway?

Perhaps it's time to update. Switch out “pencil” for something 2009.

Where on the continuum of 2009 office supply needs would "service" trump all for you?

Something between staple remover and laptop?

Sign of the Times Along California Highway 5

As California Highway 5 cuts south from 580 along the aqueduct road, for a time numerous signs became zero signs, leaving a stellar view of hills, cows and blue sky.

Then the creep begins. Some small. Others large. Several clustered.

Disappointing Lady Bird's legacy.

Still -- the signs do offer food for thought.

Today this unsolicited highway wisdom, staked into a field north of Newman, also made me smile:

"All is not lost if something flops."

Until... one blink delivered sign #2:

"We buy houses."

Positioned as if it was somehow a welcomed benefit.

Permission Marketing, Clown-style

It's Seth Godin's Permission Marketing, the Clown-on-BART Edition.

Easy smiles. Free balloons doled out to strangers like Flower Children share marigolds at a rally.

Spreading love.

All the while patient for... the opening.


"What's up?" asks one new friend mid-tunnel, pointing to balloons.


"This is what I do for a living," the clown quickly offers before resuming crowd banter.


He waits until he's exiting BART at Rockridge before zeroing in on new friends-to-new customers conversion:

"I'm Kenny the Clown. kenny-the-clown-dot-com...See me tomorrow at Fisherman's Wharf."

Assignment: Blogging

There are 20 of us in the 6th floor computer lab overlooking the Docker's Store at San Francisco's Westfield Mall. 20 keyboards click-click-clicking blog posts. Ready or not, everyone suddenly immersed into the land of social media.

That's right -- I have been pushed out of my recent 93words silence by Assignment #1 of SFSU's Internet Marketing Now class, the 3rd class I've taken this summer towards earning the SJSU Internet Marketing Certificate, part of my re-entry into the work world plan.

Daily posts. 12 days. Inspired or not.

Are you ready?

When Target Markets Easter

They cost slightly more than 76 cents a head -- literally. At Target, $2.29 buys 3 hollow Batman head "treat" containers. For Easter.



"Remember the "Jesus is my Superhero" Sunday School theme - what better post-craft activity than a Batman head hunt?


Like Sunday school edge? Go with theme #2: "Sacrifice one for the Team."

Cars? Theme #3 is perfect: "Win the Race to Jesus."




It's Christmas Stocking meets Birthday Party Favor Bag, with buyers trying to match egg-shape to kid personality, current interests.

Like it's critical to the Easter experience.

Does Forbes "Influential Twitterer" List Fuel Spam?

Study Forbes' Most Influential Twitterers but think before signing up -- these huge "Follower" lists may attract back-door “direct mail” advertisers.

Me? I clicked “follow” on several. Almost immediately, Twitter emailed – "new followers" for me.

That felt good for the same 3.4 seconds it takes to figure why you got the jewelry "party" invite.

What now?



#1 -- “Block” rogue Followers, an easy Twitter tool.


# 2 -- “Follow” sparingly. Know the best Re-tweets. Lurk via twitter.com.

Real solution:

Curtail Ads ... Or Catch next Rave. This one’s getting noisy.

Career Sense amid the World Wide Rave

It’s a welcome moment of career clarity.

Caught by David Meerman Scott’s “World Wide Rave,” my planned corporate re-entry should be as Corporate Storyteller, Information Packager, Brand Journalist, Narrative Marketer, or whatever new moniker next pops up.

It’s a job that requires social media enthusiasm, feature writing flair, editorial confidence, freelance-honed creativity, real-world business acumen, marketing know-how… and a decade of corporate client management experience to best leverage the rest. My background.

No lie.



Think free e-book, coming soon. Possible blog spin-off.

One small rave should do the trick.

I.C.U. -- But Now I don't

There’s an immediate kinship among I.C.U. patient families, everyone living hospital-staged dramas, individuals cast in supporting roles of various ranks.

Between 2-at-a-time bedside visits, I.C.U. sentinels befriend one another in the waiting room, chat by the elevators, share cafeteria breakfast tables. Personal concerns, blended.


Everyone flung into the same leaky lifeboat.


Yesterday, I received Dad’s post-surgery thank-you-for-being-there note. More than anything, I felt lucky. Ours was a happy ending.

But it made me wonder – what about those we’d left in the I.C.U. ...

Did they make it to shore?

Testing Information Confidence

Information Confidence:

Ability to find -- and use -- the right information.


What my teenager knew – midnight, Saturday:

(1) He’d left calculator under Oakland school desk after SATs - not his school
(2) Classroom number
(3) Teacher’s name on blackboard – not proctor
(4) Guy next to him played on school's basketball team, recognized proctor

Within minutes my son emailed teacher and principal, and identified basketball player (alas, no Facebook address)

Sunday, Principal emails “you can look” 8am Monday meeting offer.

Result: Calculator found, still under the desk.

How did you leverage your Information Confidence to solve a problem today?

Part of the Rave

It started with needing Air -- a break from Dad's hospital room. A walk to George Washington University’s bookstore.








Marketing fun-read.


Dad goes home. Back in California, I log onto David Meerman Scott's blog and tap free World Wide Rave download.

I resuscitate twitter account, tweet about free book and am immediately Re-Tweeted.

Now feeling "social," I decide to "follow" more. I add Patti Digh. She's just FollowFriday’d @CCSeed. (Richard Reeve).

Reeve’s top post today? Scott's Rave presentation format at SXSW Interactive Conference. Yesterday.

Dizzy? Or... are you used to riding Raves?

Social Media Means No More Excuses

Using iPod Touch as Kindle, I've just read World Wide Rave, by David Meerman Scott, downloadable free through Sunday.

It's a rally cry to tap low-cost social media as soft-sell communication tool, fostering relationships with would-be clients/customers by offering important information, free -- thereby building credibility and crowd-sourced internet buzz. All of which translates into business success while diluting traditional media and deep advertising budget power. 

True --  social media has amazing potential.

But what about this: Now when our ideas fail, products languish, careers stall... who's left to blame? 

_{Note: Sorry for the silence. Excuses... unacceptable.}