Archive for April, 2009

RIP, Geocities

April 27, 2009 at 4:42 pm · Filed under Liz Caradonna ·Tagged , , , , , , ,

My second thought upon reading the news that Geocities will be shut down later this year was: that’s kind of bittersweet. My first thought, of course, was: wait… Geocities is still around?!

Apparently, it is. For now, at least. Geocities was purchased by Yahoo! in 1999 for 5 billion dollars. Kara Swisher has a fab retrospective (along with her original article about the purchase) at All Things Digital. While most of the discussion of Geocities’ death this week has revolved around its implications for VCs and the current crop of Web 2.0 investments, the thing that struck me more immediately was the contrast between the hyper-literal Geocities Internet of 1999, and the “everything ends in R” Internet of 2009. Indulge my memory for just a moment…

Geocities began as a personal website hosting service in 1994, in a period of time when most people’s understanding of the Internet relied very very heavily on literal interpretations of analogies. Consider: “world wide web,” “information superhighway,” “bulletin board systems (BBS)”… (this was before the “series of tubes” framework had gained widespread acceptance, by the way).

Accordingly, Geocities took a highly literal approach to peddling web sites – sorry, home pages – by offering users addresses modeled on actual neighborhoods, streets, and house numbers, grouping pages on similar topics in the same neighborhood. I know of no technological justification for this, but I do know that in 1994 it was totally normal to be the only one among your friends and family who had a website, and to explain, “It’s www dot geocities dot com, slash SouthBeach, slash Sands, slash 8990. You can see all my favorite quotes from Friends there and listen to MIDIs of Hootie & The Blowfish songs.”

To Yahoo!’s credit, they discontinued the neighborhood-based structure shortly after purchasing the site. A pretty bold move coming from a company whose original purpose was to create a static, manually-updated directory of all web sites. For nostalgia’s sake, though, here is a list of Geocities neighborhoods of yore. Farewell, Geocities. You were adorable while you lasted… and boy did you last.

Any other cute or hilarious memories of the 1999 Internet? Share in the comments. My own favorite Geocities eulogy so far is by a designer/writer/artist named Atherton Bartleby, and can be found here.

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Man, I Love College

April 27, 2009 at 3:25 pm · Filed under Liz Swenton ·Tagged ,

So on Thursday, May 14th, students from Roger Williams University in Rhode Island will be taking over the March PR office.  What would they think if we started blaring Asher Roth’s song as they exited the elevator? 

A RWU public relations student got in touch with me to ask a few questions about PR for a term paper, such as where I saw the field going in the next few years, how do we help make society a better place and what does a typical day entail.  Off the back of the email Q&A, we set up an orientation to have the class get a tour of the office and shadow us for a few hours, giving them a hands-on experience in the world of PR.

As May approaches, college students are beginning to frantically look for jobs and make any connections possible.  It’ll be exciting to hear the hopes and fears of the RWU college students, possibly helping them head down the path of success for their future careers in PR.

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Social Media Success Summit 2009

April 27, 2009 at 1:43 pm · Filed under Meredith Eaton ·Tagged , , , ,

The Social Media Success Summit 2009 is a live online event starting Tuesday May 26th focusing on how to use social media to attract new customers and grow your business during the current economic downturn.  Social media tools like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn can provide great exposure, site traffic, partnership opportunities, and new business leads.

Social Media Success Summit

Summit instructors will include social media superstar Gary Vaynerchuk, professional blogger Darren Rowse, Facebook business authority Mari Smith, LinkedIn authority Jason Alba, chief content officer for MarketingProfs Ann Handley, Copyblogger founder Brian Clark, Authority Blogger founder Chris Garrett, The Blog Squad co-founder Denise Wakeman, and Writing White Papers author Michael A. Stelzner – all of whom have made great strides with social media campaigns and networking.

With the growing importance of social media, a how-to session with experts such as these, might not be a bad idea – even if you think you already know all the techniques to leverage tools like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

LinkedInThe explosion of social media has been astounding – Facebook has grown so much that if it were a country, it’d be the eighth largest in the world!  Seems like social media is an important bandwagon to jump on, if you’re not already connected. And the current economic climate is just one more reason to get on board since social media is free and extremely effective for growing your business.

Though the Social Media Success Summit is a bit pricey ($297 until May 14th, $497 normally), the price of not understanding how to leverage social media tools and tactics is significantly higher.

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What’s for dinner?

April 22, 2009 at 5:29 pm · Filed under Nicole Miscioscia ·Tagged , ,

I came across a fun article in the New York Times, Take 1 Recipe, Mince, Reduce, Serve. Maureen Evans, a 27-year old graduate student from Northern Ireland, tweets recipes for fun. When I first started reading this article I didn’t think much of it—it seems everyone is on Twitter tweeting about something. But when I thought about it some more, and read some of her recipes it was amazing to see how she condensed a full meal recipe in to a 140 character tweet.

A favorite:

“Chocolate Cupcakes: cream4T buttr/8T sug; +egg. Sift1/8t soda&salt/6T flour/4T cocoa/.25t bkgpdr. Mix all+4T milk; fill6cups. 20m@375F/190C.”

Maureen’s tweet recipes are fun to read—and even gives good ideas for dinner.

You can check out Maureen’s recipes at twitter.com/cookbook or follow her at twitter.com/Maureen

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The Twit in Twitter

April 22, 2009 at 3:50 pm · Filed under Martin Jones

“We need something modern and snazzy to make the budget a bit more interesting, something like Twitter…lets really embrace this social media phenomena!”

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Probably needed a bit more thought.

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Green is the New Black

April 22, 2009 at 12:27 pm · Filed under Liz Swenton ·Tagged , , ,

Green has always been my favorite color, but I do agree that it is the new black.  It’s chic, it’s cool, it’s now. 

I’d like to personally thank Lillian for keeping the March office on our toes when it comes to recycling.  I am the first to admit that I wasn’t the best recycler until I met her (insert awww’s).  But now I do my part and encourage others to do theirs.  Props to Lil. 

In addition to Lil’s tips on “Going Green,” I saw a post earlier this week on The Christian Science Monitor’s Bright Green Blog on how the Boston Marathon and other road races are going green.  Instead of driving to the starting line, the Boston Athletic Association transported the runners in diesel-fueled buses.  Poland Spring, sponsor of the Marathon, also supplied runners with the newly-designed water bottle, which uses 30% less plastic than the older version.  All cups of Gatorade handed out on the Marathon route were biodegradable and collected for recycling.  I’m glad Boston kickstarted this green campaign around one of the biggest outdoor events in the city.  Just think about the amounts of trash left behind on Heartbreak Hill and Boylston Street as runners throw their bottles and cups! 

It’s really the little things that count in helping to preserve our environment and keep the beautiful city of Boston clean and not looking like a pig pen! 

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In this photo, Kermit tries to convince Miss Piggy that it’s not easy being green.  She’s not havin’ it.

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Kermit the Frog is a Liar

April 22, 2009 at 9:00 am · Filed under Lillian Dunlap ·Tagged , , ,

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As Kermit the Frog famously said, “it’s not easy being green.”  Well sorry Kermie, but I think you’re mistaken.  Today, April 22, 2009  is Earth Day, and there’s no better time to discover the multitude of EASY things you can do to green your life.  There is no shortage of suggestions to be found on the internet for simple ways to shrink your carbon footprint and reduce your negative impact on mother earth.  A few of my faves from Green Style Magazine’s “101 Ways to Green Your Life” include:

  • Buy organic foods
  • Buy local products
  • Use reusable containers to bring lunch to work
  • Skip the bottled water
  • Bring your own grocery bag to the supermarket
  • Buy an insulated reusable coffee mug instead of using paper or styrofoam ones ( and PLEASE don’t use styrofoam cups as cup holders)
  • Get off junk mail lists
  • Take public transportation

And the list goes on, and on, and on!

And this one just amuses me: Buy organic undies!

So remember!  While he may represent a loving and enduring image from our childhood, Kermit the Frog cannot be trusted!  It IS easy being green!  And you can do it!

P.S.  For those of you out there with kids (or if you just happen to be an adult who loves Disney), the Disney Store is supporting Earth Day.  Bring in three plastic bottles, and receive a free gift!

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Datacenter Transformation Summit and Carrier Neutral Data Centers

April 21, 2009 at 12:02 pm · Filed under Meredith Eaton ·Tagged , , ,

The Datacenter Transformation Summit, sponsored by Tier 1 Research and The 451 Group, kicks off one week from today at the Hyatt Dulles in Hendon, Virginia.

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One panel that looks particularly interesting is titled, “Leadership Perspective: Where the Cloud Lives – the Carrier Neutral Datacenter.”  Anthony Foy, Group Managing Director at Interxion, is speaking on how the carrier neutral datacenter is one of the four key enablers of cloud computing.  Anthony will explain Interxion’s role in building the Internet infrastructure over the past 10 years, and how Interxion assists customers in building scalable private and public cloud computing environments to meet their market demand and reduce total cost of ownership while enhancing scalability and availability.

The idea of carrier neutral data centers, in general, seems to be a smart business move for companies struggling to fund their internal data center projects since carrier neutral data centers already have the space, cooling requirements, power, and expertise in place – things that would be quite costly for a company to implement themselves – not to mention the IT staff that comes with it.

There are also security benefits of outsourcing to a carrier neutral data center – since they work with anything from 20 to 30 carriers, customers can be confident that if one network fails, their data will be instantly switched over to another without missing a beat.  Bob Scheier’s Tech Trends blog post yesterday gave a nice description of these benefits, noting that carrier neutral data centers also enjoy economies of scale for everything from physical space to power and bandwidth – something that individual companies and coloacation vendors cannot.

Carrier neutral data centers seem like a promising industry trend and is definitely something I’ll be keeping an eye on.

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It doesn’t have to be earth shattering…

April 16, 2009 at 4:53 pm · Filed under Lillian Dunlap ·Tagged ,

Hellooooooo spring!  The sun is out,  the winter coat is at the back of the closet, and it’s almost time to break out the flip-flops.  So what does spring mean besides a wardrobe change?  It means Earth Day is here!  Okay, okay, so maybe Earth Day doesn’t bring with it as much excitement as some other holidays, but awareness is growing.  There are events scheduled nation-wide designed to educate the public and perhaps, if we’re lucky, improve environmental awareness.

Earth Day’s official date is Wednesday April 22, and Boston area events will be held in the days prior to and following.

If you can’t make it to any of these events, I urge to rethink some of your small daily activities.  If you’re going for coffee, bring your own travel mug and save a paper cup.  If you’re going grocery shopping, bring your own tote and save a plastic bag.  If you’ve got errands to do, do them all at once rather than driving to and from home.  Better yet, walk to your errands, or take public transportation.   And I certainly hope you’re ALL already recycling :)

There are little things that people can do every day to make a difference…little things that don’t take much effort.  The changes you make don’t have to be earth shattering, they just require a little thought.

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PR Pick-Up Lines

April 16, 2009 at 3:55 pm · Filed under Meredith Eaton ·Tagged

Steve Slaunwhite’s latest newsletter about scripts used to turn prospects into clients got me thinking about the various “pick-up lines” we PR professionals use to engage someone.  And no, I’m not talking about the usual pick-up lines like “if being beautiful was a crime, you’d be guilty as charged” or “you must be exhausted because you’ve been running through my mind all day.”  But whether they are prospective clients, journalists, or analysts, we all use some kind of introduction that we hope sparks their interest.

Over email, we usually try to make the subject line short and to the point without making the email look like a marketing message or spam, but on the phone, it’s a whole other story.  People can read emails at their leisure, but a phone call needs to be more direct since people seem to have gotten busier and busier over the years and you never know what you’re interrupting.

If you’ve sent them an email initially and are following up by phone, a short reminder of what your email was about should trigger their memory.  However, if it doesn’t, you can either offer to describe it in greater detail or ask if it’d be more useful for you to resend the email.

For a prospective client, Steve Slaunwhite’s advice would be to ask them if they’re locked in with their current agency, or if they can explore other options – and since no one likes to be “locked in,” they’ll usually be more receptive to listening to what you have to offer.  A final question of something like “is this something you’re looking for?” generally tells you all you need to know if they’re interested in working with you or having you follow up with them a few months down the road.

But the best advice I’ve ever gotten is to K.I.S.S. – Keep It Simple Stupid!  Describing your pitch or business proposal briefly, or better yet, asking if it’d be helpful if you described it to them in the first place, will hopefully spark their interest long enough for them to ask a question and keep the conversation going.  And while “pick-up lines” or scripts can be useful, a conversational tone usual holds people’s attention better and keeps you more relaxed… after all, getting them on the phone in the first place is the real battle, so why stress about the call!

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