Web Business Woman

By Guest Blogger, Mary Schmidt, Marketing Troubleshooter  

Recently Yvonne asked – via FB – what terms we preferred when talking about social media – did we grok and rock with “social media expert” for example.  My reply (as regular readers would know) is that I don’t like the “e” word.  Anybody and everybody can (and seemingly does, based on Google searches) use it – and no real expertise is required. 

As I’ve noted elsewhere, having a blog (or tweeting or posting on YouTube) doesn’t automatically make anyone a “social media expert.”  I can replace the handle on my toilet, but that doesn’t make me a plumbing expert. (It also took me about an hour and half to do that seemingly no-brainer task.) 

Then today, I get this email with the subject line, “Social Media Experts Wanted.” (Normally I’d delete unopened but I was pondering this blog post so….)

We are working with many internet marketing and social media experts in launching our new site.  Please check out the promo site http://BlastOffNetwork.com.

If you are interested in working with us email me back directly or visit http://ItPays.me

That’s it.  No further explanation.  Just a stone cold email blast.  I assume someone somewhere bought a list of “thousands of bloggers” and my name was on it.  Sigh.  Yet another example of combining the worst of two worlds – old-time interruption marketing and the new “you can’t hide” Internet technology.

These folks must assume I’m breathlessly waiting by my computer hoping for something to fill my time. (Sorry, clueless ad/PR firms – unless you’re Don Draper offering to come to my house with martini shaker in hand…I’m not interested in an outta da blue email pitch.) In this case, I’m expected to go visit  a web site to find out more about something I’ve never heard of…with no reason given as to why I should. (Although, the “itpays.me” address makes my web flim-flam antenna quiver.)

Seems (in a very quick visit to the web site; I’m busy) that Blastoff is another “sell to your friends” network marketing scheme (“Sign up your friends!”) – with a shopping portal mixed in.  You can shop at “hundreds” of online stores. (Um, I already go to Amazon and have my favorite stores, both online and offline.  Why would I want to complicate my online life even more?)  Then there’s:

Blastoff Network is your launch pad to the internet which can be
customized with your favorite news, music, videos, blogs, social
networks and shopping, all in one place!

I can already do that – to the extent I want to…so?

The actual “thing” may even be good, but…a lazy marketer, using outdated methods, has turned me off.  Don’t let this happen to your company or new product launch. Social media – or any other new and shiny thang – is no substitute for real marketing.

(Of course, I’m already seeing Blastoff recommendations/links popping up over at Facebook.  Oh well…“hide” “hide” “hide” [If you're wondering how to hide a friend's status or application, you've got to roll the mouse over the empty white space next to the friend's status and it'll show up.] FB has done a darned good job of hiding that feature.  Gee, wonder why?;-))

This week I was on a conference call set up by Maria Shriver – you know, Arnold’s wife, and a Kennedy at heart? She invited bloggers and 30 of us called in. Now, I’m name-dropping on purpose because Maria has partnered with some key people (celebs and other ‘well-known’ names) to create what she calls A Woman’s Nation, based on The Shriver Report.

So far, so good, right? Wrong.

I can see that Maria Shriver is attempting to do good. I can see that her over 400 page report (who is going to read ALL of that?) has content relevant to women and women’s issues, including wages, home life, and the power women of a woman’s purse. But, her website and her women’s conference turns me off. Why? Because all I see are big names, powerful celebrities, a lot of promoting of Maria and her friends. These are not women reflective of ME!

Interestingly, Melanie Notkin was a bit unhappy with Maria’s conference call and her work, also. For those who don’t know Melanie she is the founder of Savvy Auntie – a powerful group of women who represent close to 50% of the female population in the U.S. These are women who are not *** shock *** Moms! (can I say that? aren’t Moms all powerful? don’t I write about them all the time? yikes…Melanie sure set me straight and I’m now setting you straight)

In Melanie’s letter on her Savvy Auntie site, she takes Maria to task for focusing almost exclusively on the Moms and families that are inclusive of Moms and Dads. She says, “…when speaking of the nation’s women and the economy, women without children who love, nurture and support the children in their lives should be part of the conversation. The women who have discretionary income and time that they spend on our economy should have a voice.”

Well, who can argue with that? Not me. I know many PANKS, as Melanie calls them (Professional Aunts No Kids). I so agree that Melanie and I discussed this issue on the phone and I will share that with you next week. We had quite the conversation.

In the end, Maria Shriver did what the wowowow gals did – they tapped into celebrities, big names, famous people, women of influence in business – good women, all. But, not reflective of me. Not, dear reader, necessarily reflective of you.

There is no diversity in this movement; it lacks the very substance it promises to deliver. Ok, it may be chock full of stats and reports, and while it reflects the world we live in today, it does not help us solve anything.

Because beyond the report, Maria and her ‘friends’ are stuck in the box the U.S. likes to put women – a box that not only ignores PANKS but ignores me. I’m a Grandmother – divorced and living with my partner, Tom. I’m an entrepreneur. I’m a woman who lives in the real world, with you, all of my Lip-sticking readers. And, if Maria wants me to ‘join’ her movement (A woman’s nation changes everything), she needs to include women like me on her panel, in her website, and especially on her homepage(s). At present, the “box” she lives in contains Moms with children of indeterminate age, and usually, a Dad… the predictable American Family.

Before I join, before I participate, I need to see you there, dear reader. I need to see women who are as diverse as the big outdoors. We are all different. We are all powerful in some way. We are not all Moms (let’s define that – today, a “Mom” is a married woman with children, who is between the ages of 25-35, IMHO; she’s the one the brands are pursuing like crazy!).

WE, the women of the U.S. I live in, are also PANKS and GrandMoms and gays with children. We’re women of influence because we are out there helping our sisters be all that they want to be! We have come a long way – just on a different path than the celebs Maria culled for her movement. Our path is one that leads to creating leadership out of talent, not celebrity.

Let’s tell Maria we’d like to be included in her movement, but she needs to invite some of us in to her inner circle – to give voice to the large number of women her report that her “woman’s nation” ignores. 

Here’s my last word (until you get to listen to my podcast with Melanie): I do not want women who have never walked a day in my shoes to read stats and do research and then tell me how I feel and what my life is like. I am open to embracing the cause – it’s a good one. But, when they clearly do not understand me, or many of my closest friends, I have trouble believing they can, or want to, help me.

My cynical nature says they want to be applauded for stepping up – and bringing their fancy friends with them.

p.s. to all the partners at a woman’s nation: hey, niche blogs like mine and sites like Melanie’s are also worth your attention – we can reach the real women who need and buy your products.

As the month of October is starting to wind down we’ve all probably seen our share of “Pink Promotions” with October being known as Breast Cancer Awareness month. Back towards the beginning of September I wrote this post about the cause in which I highlighted a great online promotion — a t-shirt design contest developed by Hanes, the apparel sponsor of Passionately Pink for the Cure which benefits Susan G. Komen for the Cure.

There are many brands that have become supporters in one way or another to help
create awareness and raise funds for breast cancer research. However, there are also those that are capitalizing on the “Pink” in order to sell product and are contributing to the cause very minimally. So as consumers we always need to be aware of the differences. Yes, these are some of the issues we would rather see the FTC focusing on than us bloggers. But that’s another topic!

Anyhow, I like to write about the positive marketing campaigns being done for this cause. Here’s a local promotion running in Tempe, Arizona (where I lived for a year B.C. kids), which I just had to share. It doesn’t use any new whiz-bang technology. It’s just really innovative and funny.

Fulton Homes, a large residential home builder in Arizona, teamed up with local radio station, 98.7 The Peak, and the county Sheriff, Joe Arpaio, to raise funds for the cause. All month Peak listeners have been encouraged to purchase a pair of Sheriff Joe’s legendary pink boxers. The Peak has been promoting the promotion on their website as well as utilizing social media such as Twitter and Facebook.

From what we’ve been told Sheriff Joe is notorious for making inmates wear pink underwear as a method to control inventory. Ironically, these boxers have created quite a demand among the public so Fulton Homes got the idea to sell some with proceeds going to Susan G. Komen for the Cure.  

Sheriff Joe has made himself available for some public appearances where he has signed these limited edition pink boxers and has stated “I am proud to support this wonderful organization and encourage people to take action by buying a pair of pink boxers.”

 You can still purchase Sheriff Joe’s limited edition pink boxer shorts and contribute to the cause by going online here.

I mentioned in my last post on this topic that my mom is battling breast cancer, so this is a very personal cause to me and my family. I received quite a few comments from that post, so I realize many of us have personal stories to share. I’ll be heading down south in a couple of weeks to visit my mom and dad. They’ve had a rough past month. So pray for all those living with cancer every day and try and support those brands that are true to the cause. Thank-you.

We discuss women’s issues here, in addition to social media advice, and marketing to women online. The issues I tackle are ones I consider too important to ignore, and this is one.

I hope all of my readers are acutely aware of the gang rape incident which happened to Jamie Leigh Jones while at her job at Halliburton/KBR… where she was not only assaulted in the worst way, but she was locked in a shipping container without food or water, for a full day – to PREVENT HER FROM REPORTING the attack.

Last week, Sen. Al Franken helped pass an anti-rape-lawsuit amendment essentially stating that the government, OUR government, will NOT do business with contractors who deny employees their right to sue over sexual assault allegations. This came from Jaime’s bravery, once she was released from her job and had returned to the U.S., to open her mouth and speak about this atrocity.

If you’re asking, WHY? WHY do we need this bill…why is reporting rape not acceptable? You are echoing a lot of other women’s, and men’s, voices. More amazingly… 

Here’s the kicker – the amendment was passed – 68 -30. That’s right, 30 senators voted against it. 30 Republican senators (and you know what, I’d be writing this if they were Democrats – with more vehemence, but they weren’t – they were Republicans and they were far more worried about Halliburton than about the horror this young woman went through – and the fact that her right to report it had been not only openly but physically, denied!).

I turn you over to Dory Devlin at the Yahoo! Shine network, where she asks, “How could righting something as clearly wrong as this prompt ‘no’ votes from members of any party?”

Indeed. For a good commentary on the issue, I offer Jon Stewart’s “rape-nuts” rant from The Daily Show. He brings the story true focus, and leaves us (me) wondering what century I’m in.

by Guest Blogger, Lena West, Chief of Social Media Strategy at xynoMedia

Back in June Facebook allowed their account holders to create
customized URLs (what Facebook called usernames and people also call
vanity URLs). So instead of sending people to this link:

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=0000000000

You can send them here: http://www.facebook.com/lenawest

However, if, like millions of other people, you had better things to do
and were otherwise engaged on June 13th, 2009, you may have missed the
opportunity to snag your vanity URL on Facebook.

Here’s one quick and easy way to get around that:

Head over to GoDaddy or some other such domain name registrar and grab
an easy-to-remember-and-spell domain name like FacebookJaneDoe.com or
JaneDoeFacebook.com. Once you’ve registered that domain name, activate
domain forwarding on the “user friendly” domain to the looooong URL. If
you don’t know how to use domain forwarding, call up the company where
you registered your domain and have them walk you through it. It’s free
and will take about 5 minutes.If you can click a mouse, you can do
this. No tech degree required. Promise.

If you want to see whether or not you can still grab your Facebook
“username”; log into your Fabeook account and then head over to this
page: http://www.facebook.com/username/ If your username is already set up, it will tell you what it is and if not, you’ll see a way to set it up.

HINT: Even if you don’t plan to use Facebook, you might want to
grab your vanity URL to make sure you preserve your brand’s integrity.
Plus, it’s a great way to build up Google Juice.

If you happen to have a copyright and someone is “squatting” on your vanity URL, you can let the Facebook team know, by clicking here, and they’ll be on it like the Green Hornet (hopefully).