Bonfire=Tradition=Nola

Save the Bonfire! Is what the buzz is in the Mid-City section of New Orleans. The residents of Mid-City teamed up and fought together to save the annual bonfire that is held every year for the New Year's celebration. The New Orleans Police Department and the New Orleans Fire Department tried to say "we", Mid-city residents were out of control last year. Also, they tried to throw the "no permits" code at the residents as well. However, us residents argued with each department, but we decided to agree and obtain these permits and also to agree to their three main rules.
1) No fireworks thrown in the bonfire or any firework action surrounding the bonfire.
2) Respect the NOPD and the NOFD.
3) The NOFD is in control of stopping and lighting the bonfire.

This is one of the traditions that is still in existence since Hurricane Katrina. Some say this is race oriented, some say it is too dangerous, and some say officials are trying to take away tradition from New Orleans. Nonetheless, this is a tradition with out incident. A tradition that has been held since forever in a quiet "safe" area. They tried taking Endymion from us, but residents fought and conquered. And once again, the Mid-City residents fought and conquered the New Orleans officials. The bonfire is still on and will always be our Mid-City tradition.

Disney Picked ME!!

As a part of Disney's new viral video campaign, I decided to join in and pass this video along to you. I think Disney is a clever company, but I like this campaign because it makes an ordinary person feel special. It may be used as a joke, but it has the Disney brand all over the place! Disney is sending the message that no matter who you are, Disney cares about you.  

The quality is amazing. The ending of the video just hits the spot! Goofy pronounced my name loudly, clearly and it made me smile! I mean, yes I would love to have the Magic Kingdom have of day dedicated to just me, but this video is pretty cool. You can pass it along to friends and family or just place your name in and you can smile too!

Have a magical day!

Coupon Crazy

Are you an online shopper that never has a promotional code at the time of checkout? Well, there is a site designed just for you! Coupon Craze is a site that has many categories from cooking to new electronics that offers the coupon codes for certain online stores. The coupon codes change frequently so if one of your favorite stores isn't listed on the site then check back with the site and may be it will be listed another day.

Some stores that are listed on the site today are: Apple, American Eagle and Babies R US. These are just a few brand name stores that has their store deals on this site. Each brand name store might not be the one who is officially putting these deals on the site, but having these deals and coupons on the site helps bring in traffic to sites and stores like Apple, and people will buy when they can save a little money. This site is designed for the people who are on a budget or who would like to save money while holiday shopping. The site also helps those particular companies or online stores make some sales, whether or not these stores intended to be placed on the site.

It's a two-way win for the consumer and the company. Besides we all like bargains and coupons! It's free, so check out what Coupon Craze has to offer!

Search Me

Just recently I came across a visual search engine site, SearchMe, that allows you to see the different search results as an image. As you start typing, categories appear that relate to your question. For example, if you type "photoshop brushes", at the top right different categories appear as small icons. You can review these pages quickly to find the information you're looking for before you click through each result listed as a link like other standardized search engines. 

The About Us section explains that SearchMe is new and the company is looking for ways to improve the site. SearchMe has a feedback section for the users to add suggestions for the site. SearchMe also has a section for recruiting team members for the company.  It has a list of different ways to get involved with the company either by adding a suggestion, reading or writing a blog, becoming a partner with the company, seeing photos, and applying for a job with the company. 

This is a new way to search for things that you are looking for. It's a visual search engine that allows you to scroll through, like a photo album, the results related to your search and see what the site actually looks like and what content it contains before you click on the website itself.

It's a pretty cool site, and it seems like this may be the start of a new trend on the Web. The graphics are great and the fact that the company is opened to ideas from the public to help SearchMe improve just means that this site is going to be very successful because they care what we, as users, think and feel.

Seems the CW is getting it right.

If you explore the Facebook pages, you know the ones that individuals can become "fans" of like "Michael Phelps", well the CW has it own Facebook page. On the CW's Facebook page, there is a list of all the current running television shows that are aired on the CW. For example, 90210, One Tree Hill, and Gossip Girl are just three of fourteen shows listed. The page also has a fan section, a schedule of the air times and days, CW widgets and videos. 

The CW's official website also has on its "shows" tab a Facebook section saying "Visit us on Facebook" and under the headline there is a "make friends" link you can click that directs you to the Facebook page. If the user is not a current user of Facebook, then he will have the opportunity to sign up and become a "fan" of a show on the CW or a "fan" of the CW itself. And, Facebook gains another user.

On each show's Facebook page, there are fan sections, post messages, videos, news, and a merchandise section selling items, like DVD series, on the page. The CW uses Facebook to direct traffic to and from Facebook and their official website. Also, to use a page that only promotes itself and advertises itself seems like a pretty good deal.

Funny how most of the CW's shows have 100,000+ fan members belonging to different CW shows. Clearly the CW knows that Facebook is the place to be at the moment.

Cha Cha? A mobile marketing solution?

So just recently, my cousin introduced me to a website, Chacha.com. Dancing lessons? Not quite. This is a site that introduces you to a mobile marketing solution or to a "smart friend" within your cell phone that you didn't know existed. Not a person literally, but advanced technology that instantly answers any question that you text to ChaCha.

How this works?

Simply text your question to 242242 (that spells ChaCha) from your cell phone to ask any question.

The people behind the website receive questions 24/7 and the most knowledgeable person on the topic of your question asked will answer it. ChaCha's "Guide" community will answer your question by sending a text message answer back to your cell phone.

The "Guides" of ChaCha.com are individuals who work for this company and who had to take tests to verify that they are actually capable of being apart of ChaCha's community. ChaCha actually has a Search University that these Guides have to go through before they start working.

ChaCha offers quick tips like jokes and the local weather. If you text "joke" to ChaCha (242242), ChaCha will send a joke to your cell phone. If you text "weather" with either your zip code or city, ChaCha will send you your local weather to your cell phone.

For example, If I wanted the weather from my home town, I would text "weather" New Orleans to 242242. And I would instantly get the weather sent to my cell phone.

ChaCha.com also has a section to leave a comment about how you feel about it or what you think about the whole concept of ChaCha. That section is called "ChaCha Confessions." Another interesting section is the "Events" section. It tells you what ChaCha is going to be participating in, like "ChaCha at Sundance", just for the fans to text in some questions and instantly get the answers. ChaCha also sells "ChaCha" t-shirts to promote this mobile company.

So with all the elections going on right now, ChaCha is prepared to answer questions dealing with candidates and issues. ChaCha also has recent news updates from local and national media for people on the go. Say you heard the end of something on the radio or through word of mouth about McCain or Obama and you wanted to know what it is or at least the headline about it, well it's so easy to take out your cell phone and text "October 22, 2008 and McCain" to 242242 or "news today about Obama" to 242242 and you can instantly get the news that you had missed sent to your cell phone.

ChaCha is mainly a mobile solution for people on the go or away from the Internet to gain information or just answers to general questions that a person might have. And, it's all FREE!

So you should really try it out! So go ChaCha!

The Internet Presidential Race

I am an everyday user of the social networking site, Facebook, as some of you may already know. I use other sites such as Myspace and Twitter also. Lately I feel like I am being bombarded by political ads! I think every website I use or happen to come by has some sort of political ad or section/tab. For those Twitter.com users, the Election 2008 tab is a nonstop microblogging section for users to update and leave comments or statements about how they feel about certain political issues, candidates, and anything dealing with the 2008 presidential race. 

You have to be a member to check out Twitter, but it is a free networking site that is becoming more popular each day. You should sign up. On Twitter, on each individual's profile one can choose to write a one line biography about himself. It's optional, so other users can know a little about the person's profile that is being viewed. Well, my one line bio is "Love being a conservative New Orleans Greenie. Currently trying to enter the integrated marketing comm. world" (same as my about me) and just from that bio and having one word, conservative, I have organizations like RedState, a conservative news and community group, MilitaryChild, a coalition to support children of military families, and Dateline_DC, a general news feed group, following me on Twitter. I also got some followers who are mainly using Twitter for political reasons, from both sides of the presidential race. I find it interesting that organizations and users find others who have similar interest in common, like target marketing, so when they promote websites, links, and/or events those with similar interests and who are following them can respond positively and gain supporters. 

• Twitter
• Election 2008
  

Along with Twitter.com, Facebook is also promoting the presidential race. The advertisements that come across my profile are ones like "John McCain 08 T-Shirts", "Ready to Vote?", and "Dear American Voter" are just a few of the ads. The "Dear American Voter" ad has a caption asking "What is the most important issue in the upcoming election? Tell us!", this ad is promoting the site linktv.org, which is a place that people can post blogs, videos and comments about issues that they are concerned about or want to know more about for the upcoming election and they will receive feedback on that particular issue. 

• Facebook
• Link TV

These are websites promoting other sites and organizations, but Television also promotes political websites. My sister watches Greek on ABC Family. As the commercials are ending, and right before the show continues, the cast of Greek are shown wearing "VOTE" t-shirts from a website called, Declare Yourself. The cast is telling the viewers to vote and to go to this website to register to vote. The t-shirts are white with "VOTE" in black, so not promoting one candidate over another. It's a pretty neat website. It allows individuals to read about issues, to post their thoughts and questions, and to register to vote. It is a site to allow a person to gain their own perspective on a candidate. It doesn't bash any political side. It gives both sides of a certain issue. I think it's a great website for the younger crowd to visit and explore. I would have never known about the site if it weren't for the TV promotion. The site is also known for the "VOTE" t-shirts made by American Eagle Outfitters. 

I know we all get overloaded with advertisements everyday, but I can't help but notice all the political ones. It gets annoying seeing and all the same content everywhere! But some of these ads that are being promoted are working for the organizations who are putting them out there. So good for them, I guess.  And, I don't know about you, but I can't wait till they no longer exist! 

Discussion with others while watching a TV show.

Having a Facebook account, I can decide what applications I want to display on my profile or which ones I can be apart of. Well, my favorite TV show is One Tree Hill, although season six isn't starting out to great, and I joined the One Tree Hill "fan page" on Facebook. I use Facebook daily and I sometimes notice the advertisements in the side columns and sometimes they don't catch my eye. Today, I noticed one that was advertising Clippertv.net and its headline was "Fan of One Tree Hill." It was letting me know that I am able to chat live during the actual TV show. Like a live forum to share your thoughts with other fans from all over the U.S.

So, someone can chat online with others discussing what just happened on the show or one can discuss after the show aired. When you click on this ad it takes you to Clippertv.net's home page and the home page contains many other ads from other companies. It also tells you how a company can advertise on the site. This site lets fans interact with each other in the form of a chat room, unlike the official TV show's site. The CW has a site for One Tree Hill but it isn't set up as a chat, it is set up as a forum for leaving comments. One Tree Hill is being promoted through Facebook to target audiences who might actually use Clippertv.net and Clippertv.net is used as a tool to promote other companies and itself at the same time. I think this is an effective marketing ad because this ad is targeted to viewers of One Tree Hill on Facebook. The marketing team for One Tree Hill knows how many fans there are on Facebook. And, so can Clippertv.net. These viewers are also users of Facebook which makes them potential users of Clippertv.net because Facebook has a chat application that members use, so they could possibly join Clippertv.net and use theirs as well.
http://clippertv.net/