New Year’s Resolutions

If you’ve read through any of my other posts, are following me on Twitter or have met me in offline life, you know I can be pretty sarcastic. And cynical. I like to think I’m a realist, but it’s probably flavored with a lot more pessimism than reality. Part of it is my philosophy that if I expect the worse, I’ll either be pleasantly surprised or at least prepared. The other part is that I’m just convinced that I’m a magnet for disaster. Which may or may not have a bit of a self-fulfilling edge to it.

That being said, are you surprised I’ve gone off holidays? I love Thanksgiving because it’s about seeing people you love and eating lots of food. When I went vegetarian it became a little awkward, but my mother is a creative cook. There’s also the worry and preparation involved in showing up seeing old high school classmates, but all in all, turkey or not, its namesake holiday and I are cool.

Christmas gets more commercial every year, and while I still love it, it’s kind of a let down immediately after. Everything is over. My favorite time is the month between Thanksgiving and Christmas; the holiday spirit and shopping; pumpkin martinis and eggnog lattes.

Other than that, holidays annoy or anger me. Valentine’s Day is depressing, Halloween is too hyped and New Year’s Eve is amateur hour. I’ve also never liked telling everyone I meet how I plan to improve myself for the year. But, if I post it here, maybe I don’t have to walk around verbalizing it. And maybe I’ll feel more compelled to keep them. Here’s hoping!

#1 Write More Blog Posts

This is the more manageable name for focusing professionally. I tend to agonize over posts, making them way longer than necessary and so time consuming that I just give up. I’m always afraid they won’t be perfect, so I just decide not to bother. I need to dedicate more time to work stuff–not shopping–and let go of a little bit of my perfectionism. Nice segue to resolutions #2 and #3.

#2 Be Less Critical

This applies to myself, as stated above, but also other people. I’m snarky about people I don’t know; beware passersby. But I’m also hypercritical of the  people closest to me. I think it’s because I expect great things and want to help them get there, but it comes out way harsher than I intended. @danzarrella is doing some amazing stuff with ReTweets right now (dare I say groundbreaking?) as part of his larger research on viral marketing and how content spreads. Instead of immediately pointing out what could use work, I’d like to be able to explain how cool I think the stuff he’s already done is.

#3 Save More Money

Just noticed the more/less/more theme. Odd. But, back to my least favorite resolution, I have a serious problem. An addiction, really. To shopping. I love bargain hunting, but even that can add up. I Tweet about deals all day, forward coupons to friends and get more store reward cards and catalogues than I know what to do with. I can’t leave a mall without buying something for fear of “shopping blueballs.” If I’m bored and low on funds, I’ll browse CVS or Target. Not in the mood to try on clothes?Off to the grocery store. You get the picture; my spending needs to grow up.

So there you have it, my goals for 2009: work hard, be nice, save money. Sort of a shameless self-indulgent post, but a post, so that takes care of the first one. I said nice stuff, so scratch off two. And if anyone would like to give me a job that combines my passion for clothes and my goal to focus on the professional (with some kind of discount program perhaps?), that’s even better!

Happy New Year! And please feel free to share your resolutions and/or tips to help me meet mine below.

Make your target audience want to be “fans” with a Facebook page

Those of you eagerly awaiting the next installment of my blogging guide, relax, it is coming, I swear. Practice the first steps for another few days and get really good at the basics; we’ll talk SEO soon, I promise. I’ve fallen in love and been busy…well, back in love, with my mistress (or would I have a mister?), Facebook.

I made a lot of fuss when Facebook switched to pages for business, both over here and on my company blog. OK, I made a fuss whenever they changed anything, but you know what? Turns out they knew what they were doing. Because I looooove all the new changes now. Go figure. Yes, they took some getting used to, and I recognize some were intended to make it harder for marketers (ahem, moi) to “abuse” Facebook for marketing and promotion purposes. But a lot of good came out of it, and if you can embrace and work with the new system you will create a better social media marketing or reputation management plan. Even a regular old profile can be made better by utilizing the new functionality and tools.

Facebook page or Facebook group?

Take groups vs. pages. Groups were very easy to invite people to and to join; I used to go through mine every few months and clean out old ones for past fundraising events or lost phone numbers. But I was in a lot of groups, so I looked cool. Ha, yeah right. My profile looked cluttered, and I looked schizophrenic.

When Facebook began transitioning to pages, a lot of people saw it as a way to segment businesses and prevent them from actively participating on Facebook. In a way, it was, but the companies that took on the challenge and found a way to make pages work for them have been far more successful than any that held tight to groups.

Make a Facebook page. Then make it better.

What made me come around was realizing the different investment I had in becoming a fan and allowing a logo to appear on my profile instead of just clicking to join a group and making the name part of a long running list. I have to really like something to make it so visible on my profile; therefore, that page needs to be well done and active, and I need to have a strong connection to that brand. If it passes both of those tests and I add the page to my profile, I’ve self-selected myself has a highly valued target. A group member does not have that guarantee.

Using Facebook effectively for marketing and branding means adding “stuff.” Also known as value.

What does this mean for you (and me) as internet marketers? Take the time to make a page, and make it good (see Victoria’s Secret PINK for a good example; they had 756,794 fans as of this post). Send out updates, provide insider content, develop an app or something fun for your fans to use. Facebook promos and giveaways can inspire huge loyalty. If you assume that most of your fans took the time to search you out, as opposed to being solicited, you owe it to them to make it worthwhile. You’re also getting free advertising every time they interact with your page, so make them work for you.

Just look at the two images in the post. The first is how Facebook pages are displayed in a profile; the second, how Facebook groups appear. Which would you rather show up as?

Business blogging guide: getting started

I just had one of those “ohmygodIknowI’mforgettingsomethingwhatisit?” moments and realized I hadn’t posted on here in like 2 months. Bad, I know, but it’s the same old story of the cobbler’s kid having no shoes, or in this case the blogger not blogging. I get so caught up in ghostblogging for clients that my own blog always gets put on the back burner. I also just redesigned my site (OK, I didn’t, Dan Zarrella did. Thank you!), but that’s still no excuse for being lazy.

However,  I know a lot of people that I blog for or train to blog for themselves go through the same kinds of issues; there is always something more pressing to get done, and blogging just sounds so not serious to a lot of people. Someone (probably me) convinces them they need a blog, for search, or marketing, or branding, or reputation management, or sales…you get the idea. So they agree,  start posting…and then just stop.

To help people overcome this, or avoid it altogether, I came up with a mini-guide to blogging for business. It pulls together what I tell blogging clients, as well as all the internal stuff I do that I never really thought about until now, because while the basic premise of blogging sounds easy—write what you know, provide some useful information, keep it short and simple—the actual practice turns out to be daunting for some. Throw some keywords and a crash course on SEO at someone who’s not real familiar with how search works and maintaining a blog quickly becomes an overwhelming job that is always getting put off until “tomorrow.”

Designate a day for blogging

Admittedly, our own blog gets pushed to the back of the pile when we have client work that always seems more pressing than keeping up with our own site. This is also the reason it took us forever to update this website while creating dozens for clients. But a blog can be great for search without taking up the greater part of your week. I’m big on lists and calendars and I’ve found it helps to set aside part of one day each week for posting, commenting, responding to comments and other general blog upkeep.

Do you need a whole day? Probably not, but it helps to know that Tuesday morning=blogging. Inevitably, meetings and rush deadlines will get in the way every once in awhile, but try to schedule blog maintenance the way you would any other appointment.

You’ve made the time, now where do you start? If you’ve been slacking on the blog, try to start fresh; don’t get too bogged down in what you’ve missed or try to change the dates to look like you’ve been posting more frequently. Pick up where you left off. If the scheduling method works for you, try this checklist of the steps I go through when tackling a new blog post:

Check News and RSS Feeds

You should always be keeping up to date on what’s going on in your industry, but a CNN article’s viewpoint can differ from an industry blogger. You probably know the top stories, but look for the different sides to each. I’ve found BlogLines to be an effective and easy-to-use RSS reader, and I also get a lot of blog post material from Twitter. When I’m ghostwriting blog posts for clients I set up a new folder in BlogLines with all of their industry info, and I also recommend this in their blog training sessions.

Brainstorm Your Blog Post

There’s a lot of news buzzing around the internet; don’t try to cover all of it, at least not at first. After scanning your RSS feeds and whatever else you use, take a minute to think about what you’ve read. Chances are, one or two articles piqued your interest more than others, probably because you have some specific knowledge or experience with whatever they’re talking about. Figure out what you can add to the material that’s already out there. For instance, I love Facebook and do a lot of social media marketing with the site, so whenever they change something I think about how that will impact what we’re doing for clients.

Write First, Post Later

Some people find outlines helpful, but I’ve never been a fan so I just dig write in. I might jot down some notes on things I want to cover or bookmark links to articles I want to reference, but for the most part, all the planning is in my head. Teachers didn’t like this, but it works for me. If you need a written outline, go for it; it might help you focus, especially at first. If not, or once you’ve done this, just start writing. I do all my blog posts in Word so I have a copy offline; I’ve also had some unfortunate incidents where my post was “lost” in the blogging program. Bottom line, it’s nice to have a second copy somewhere should something get lost online.

Make It Sound Like You

My “just start writing” philosophy also helps with making my posts sound more like me and less like research papers. Blogs are part of social media; they’re meant to be conversational. To that end, I also leave off subheads until the end (see above). I jump around when I talk, and therefore when I type, so I’m never sure where a paragraph will end up. Instead of writing to a headline, I write a headline to fit the content. Same goes for the title of the post. I’ve heard a lot of authors say that the title of a book, movie, essay, or other written work was the hardest part to get, and the last thing they came up with. So I think I’m in good company.

Format Your Post to Be More “Bloggy”

Once you’ve got your post written, copy and paste into whichever blogging client you use. One caveat: lots of programs don’t like Word’s formatting, so you may want to strip it out before pasting. I copy and paste into Notepad first and format entirely in the blogging program. What is this mysterious blog-ness? Adding links, writing subheads, bolding key phrases, adding images where appropriate. This makes it easier to read, more pleasing to look at and conveys a general blog feel, as opposed to a white paper or news article.

As I’m sure you noticed, this post is rather long, longer than I would advise most people to write. And I didn’t even cover keywords or writing SEO blog posts; this is the bare bones basics to blogging. But, I’ve also set myself up for the next couple of posts to cover using a blog for SEO and getting into the details of making your post “bloggy.” So stay tuned!

Why I hate MySpace

Working on making a game(ish) website and matching application “go viral” (ironic quotes necessary) on Facebook and MySpace, so I’ve been forced to go back to my roots and play in MySpace. I forgot how much I hate it.

I searched for applications and couldn’t find the damn things at first. Once I did, in order to avoid super MySpace-y stuff that will try to make me buy stuff, solicit sex or listen to singing smileys, I chose to browse the “Dating & Relationships” applications. I should have known better.

The fact that I have a visual definition for something reminiscent of this sensory overload social network should have been warning enough. If you’ve ever used the site, I’m sure you can conjure up a similar mental image: shiny, digitally sparkly, screaming in volume and garish colors, and CAPS LOCK which is cruise control for AWESOME, as Dan Zarrella likes to say.

But for whatever reason, I thought I’d find some sappy romantic quotes lined with frilly hearts, another MySpace staple, and one of which my profile is among the guilty. I must be getting old, because here are some of the descriptions of these relationship-inspiring applications, my first impression of a virtual matchmaker that I’m supposed to believe will help me find my soulmate:

Kiss

Who KISSED you? Find out. Kiss your sexy friends and other hotties. Over 20 million kissed.

Virtually kissing random people sounds like a great idea on this pedophile’s paradise.

Matchmaking SURVEYS!

Make FRIENDS with SURVEYS!!!!!!

You make more if you fill them out in all caps. No, really.

Would You Have Sex With Someone On Your FriendList

Try this survey if you are older than 18 and want to find people who want to have sex?

Is that a question? Shouldn’t the title be the question? I like that they’re looking out for my age standards, but I’m not sure how asking me if I’ve ever thought about my friends “in that way” turned into a solicitation.

Tag Me

Tag Me - get TAGGED, be POPULAR, make FRIENDS! Find out what makes you unique!

My favorite. The coolness of the CAPS, with the implication that getting tagged on a website will translate into real friendships, plus the guarantee that something on MySpace makes me unique. 

Not linking ‘cuz they’re not worth it, but, like a train wreck you can’t look away from, I’ll be playing with these silly apps all day. I’ll share the best (i.e. worst) on Twitter, so follow me there for updates!

Simple breakdown of social networking sites

My previous post gave a basic overview of social networking for the older generation less familiar with social media: what it is, how to use it and what you get out of it. I’ve also come up with an introduction to the three major social networking sites I mentioned (MySpace, Facebook and LinkedIn) and a breakdown of what’s good and bad about each. But perhaps the most useful information comes at the end of this post, a very basic user’s guide if you will, that explains how to maintain and monitor your profiles. I’ve also talked about this in my post on the 5 Facebook applications you need for business.

The good and the bad about each social networking site:

MySpace

Strengths

• Allows users a lot of freedom
• Advertiser friendly; potential to be in front of many pairs of eyes
• Still the biggest social network in US and the first major one to take off
• Diverse group of people
• Ability to tweak and add whatever you want to customize profile

Weaknesses

• Too much freedom; profiles look cluttered and messy; sensory overload
• Hard to search, navigate
• Seen as less serious
• Lots of spam profiles, fake friend requests and bad links in posts
• Aggressive advertising can be too in-your-face

Facebook

Strengths

• Consistent profile template makes it easy to use, keeps clean layout
• Easy search capabilities; each piece of profile links to others with shared interests
• Built in networking capability by location, education and job
• Easy to use, figure out
• Groups, events, notes, pages, applications
• Privacy settings to control who sees what
• At a glance updates and notifications to show what’s going on w/ friends

Weaknesses

• New layout is harder to use/adapt to
• Unfriendly to businesses; pages are hard to use and less fun than profiles
• Bound by certain profile limitations; cannot make profile as unique as you want
• For every well done application there are a dozen bad ones

LinkedIn

Strengths

• Serious, business only network
• Lots of restrictions in place to keep users on task
• Everyone there for exactly the same reason

Weaknesses

• Not much leeway to do anything with profile except maintain it
• Focus is on sheer number of connections; not what you do with them
• Many users take themselves too seriously, look down on newbies

In order to really use and get the most out of your social network you need to be an active user; update your profile, interact with other users, engage in discussions, bring up things of interest to you. But don’t do it just because it’s what you need to do to “make this work;” become actively and genuinely engaged with the community on the site if you want to see any real benefit. This will also help you learn the site better (and faster).

The more you use the site, the more you will show up on the radar of those in your network; this is very important, especially if you’re looking to utilize these profiles for business. Again, there’s a lot that you can add and manipulate to make these profiles your own; this is just a basic overview of what you need to know to stay on top of things and manage how you are perceived online, within your network and without.

Maintaining Your Profile

• Update frequently; keep it relevant and keep yourself on the “new stuff” screen of friends
• Play with privacy settings to control what friends, coworkers, people you don’t know can see about you
• Briefly explain who you are and why you are requesting a new friendship/connection; don’t send a blank or generic request
• Check out profiles or ask for clarification before accepting someone else’s request

Monitoring Your Reputation

• Search for your name within each site to see which groups, photos, notes, etc. it is associated with
• Ego surf to see what search engines return for a search of your name; sometimes other people’s profiles or groups will rank for your name as well
• Set up an RSS feed (only possible with some sites) to get updates when someone mentions your name
• Turn on all email alerts and create filters to be notified when people add you, tag photos, post on wall, etc.
• Set up privacy setting to require you to approve all publicly posted messages before they appear live

I’m sure there are tons of other pros and cons to these networks, as well as countless other strategies for maintaining and monitoring a profile, so let me hear them. Leave a comment below that I can use in Social Networking for Over the Hill Idiots: Volume 2.

Facebook for those over 40

I was recently asked to define and explain social media to an audience of 40-60 year old professionals. Here’s a crash course in social networking to the over 40 crowd:What exactly is social networking?

Social Networking is a major part of the larger (and still growing) field of social media. Loosely and basically defined, social media is the use of the internet, through various sites and tools, to communicate and connect with people around the world to share and discuss information. Social networking is a segment of social media that relies on profile-based sites such as Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn to help users “meet.”

Social networks are almost always offered free of charge, or at least one level of service is, and are supported by advertisers who recognize the huge potential audience available on these sites.

What do you do with a social networking site or profile?

The basic premise of all social networking sites is to create a community that a user can interact with, within certain parameters, in any way they like. Each site sets up their own guidelines, but each strives to allow a certain amount of user creativity and freedom; you make the site what you want it to be with how you use it and who you talk to.

All social networks begin with a profile; this is intended to go beyond a screen name, email address or handle and present a very detailed and accurate depiction of the user, through photos, basic A/S/L (age/sex/location) information to dating profile-type interests to in-depth details on personal likes and dislikes. Most sites also offer unlimited photo uploads, offering the opportunity to, literally, present every side of yourself. The important thing to remember with social networks is that they were sprung from a generation that prides itself on a lack of privacy boundaries; most users are only too happy to divulge all the juicy details online, making most profiles quite exhausting.

Each site has its own phrasing, but the overall idea is that you meet people through the sites by connecting and becoming friends. You can search for people you know in “real” life, e.g. coworkers, classmates, etc. or browse for new friends by searching for people with similar interests, e.g. same field of work, favorite movie, etc. You can the contact the person through a variety of methods provided by the site, such as an internal email-type message, a live chat or a posted message on their profile.

What’s in it for me?

The obvious benefit of building a social network is the channel of communication it opens up; you can reach a wide range of people, who all have something in common with you, and talk about anything you want. Social networking lends itself to a lot of business applications as you can discuss work issues and entertain solutions from outside sources, network with other professionals, get the scoop on new jobs opening up, create a name and presence for yourself online, pre-screen interview candidates, develop your profile to make an impressive first impression…the list is endless.

As for which network to choose, or how to use different ones, there are a lot of similarities but a few fundamental differences.

LinkedIn is very business focused and as such can appear as a more stripped-down version of the other social networks; it lacks the bells and whistles of screaming songs and bright colors of the flashy, “fun” sites and presents an overall more serious look and feel.

MySpace is the exact opposite and allows users a lot of freedom to play media, add colors and features, adapt the basic profile structure and generally make their profile look however they want, without sticking to much of template. The result is a lot of loud, colorful profiles that do not resemble one another and often feel cluttered and overwhelming. MySpace has a reputation of being slightly skewed towards teenagers, bands and spammy porn profiles, making it less than desirable for business use.

Facebook, my personal favorite, has held tight control to its profile restrictions and falls somewhere in between the two, making it the perfect place to network for business and let your personality shine through. The new redesign makes it a little harder to navigate but cleans up the screens, making each page look more alike and organized. What started as a tightly closed network of colleges and universities has expanded to let people of all ages join; they’ve even developed Facebook pages (as opposed to profiles) to let businesses in on the action. However, they are not super-business friendly so tread carefully if you are looking to represent a group and not a single entity.

Quite obviously, there’s a lot more to any of these sites, and to social media in general, than I could even begin to talk about here. People have, literally, written books on this stuff. The best way to get involved and learn how to use these sites effectively is to jump right in and try them. After all, they were founded on the idea that they are what you make of them. So start making something.

If you want to see what I’ve done on any of these sites, check out my Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and Twitter profiles.

Facebook chain letter hoax

Finally got the Facebook chain letter hoax that had people so “worried.” Nearly 2 years ago.  My first reaction was to laugh–to myself though, this was not actual LOL quality humor. It was more of a smug, internal chuckle that people still believe these things and continue to pass them on without thinking, or out of fear that the big bad email will magically curse their love life or mysteriously delete their account.

Here’s what the Facebook message said:

Attention all Facebook members.
Facebook is recently becoming very overpopulated,
There have been many members complaining that Facebook
is becoming very slow.Record shows that the reason is
that there are too many non-active Facebook members
And on the other side too many new Facebook members.
We will be sending this messages around to see if the
Members are active or not,If you’re active please send
to 15 other users using Copy+Paste to show that you are active
Those who do not send this message within 2 weeks,
The user will be deleted without hesitation to create more space,
If Facebook is still overpopulated we kindly ask for donations but until then send this message to all your friends and make sure you send
this message to show me that your active and not deleted.

Founder of Facebook
Mark Zuckerber

My first thought: if this was really from Mark Zuckerberg (notice the misspelling of the supposed author’s own name), why didn’t he simply put it on everyone’s news feed? Or be annoying like Mr. MySpace, “Tom,” and send a message to everyone? Or post it on the Facebook blog?

My second thought, as I pasted this here and actually read it more carefully, was who would believe something so poorly written and edited came from a legitimate company? The structure and wording of these chain letters is what is almost always a dead giveaway that they are, in fact, fakes. And while a well done hoax can be amusing, even if you get taken by it, a poorly executed fake is just annoying.

Facebook used to be immune to chain letter shenanigans, fake friend requests and hacked wall postings but I’ve noticed a lot more of this MySpace-like behavior lately. There are a lot of people talking about the subtle shift on Twitter, and Facebook groups and apps against this Fbook spam trend are popping up.

The “Stop Facebook Chain Letters” app caught my eye, but I wonder if this just perpetuates their reach by keeping people talking about them. If you are so annoyed by an email forward or Facebook chain letter and talk about it or install an app, even to say how you much you hate it, you have still helped it spread. This app only makes more people aware that these chain letters exist, and, assuming this was the creator’s intention, are doing their job of annoying people. To that end, this post is further spreading the hoax as well.

Dan Zarrella talks about the viral nature of content and why people forward chain letters in his series of Protoviral posts. His research has shown that “those who typically forward chain letters are typically less savvy users” and, essentially, do not know any better.

My question is, are chain letters and rumors inevitable as something becomes more popular? And why didn’t I see this until now? Is that a testament to the types of users on Facebook? Are we seeing Facebook become overrun by chain letters and spam accounts because it has reached a certain level of popularity, or because it’s time as the “it” site has run out and it’s now fallen prey to the same antics as MySpace?

Five Facebook applications for business

By now, a lot of businesses have figured out that there are a ton of social media tools that can boost business tremendously. Using social media at all will make you look like you “get it;” using social media effectively can help gain you more clients, better employees and a bigger brand.

So where should a potentially social media savvy business start? Facebook is relatively easy to learn, so I’d recommend starting there. However, to create and maintain a good business profile or page you need a few other things first. So, uh, I guess you really need to start somewhere else.

Start a company blog. And use it. There’s not a whole lot left to say about blogs; if you’re reading this you know what they are, so I’m sure you know all the benefits as well. The only advice I have is to make sure you know what you’re talking about before you start; a bad blog is worse than no blog.

Set up a Twitter account. Use that, too. Twitter is great for reputation management, seeing what people are saying about your brand, product, company, CEO–whatever. Use a tool like TweetScan to see who’s talking about you and what they’re saying: the good, the bad and the blah. If you want to be really adventurous you can respond as well. It can also be used as a recruiting tool if you’re looking for new hires.

Of course, you can set up a Facebook account without either of those, but my must-have apps integrate both of these things so… My point is your profile, and therefore your image online, will look a little sparse if you don’t do more than slap a generic Fbook profile up.

Assuming you have a blog and a Twitter account in place, set up a Facebook profile AND a business page, then add these:

• Twitter App You can set this to automatically pull your Tweets into your Facebook status, and it puts a cute little Twitter-themed box on your profile, so everyone knows you’re cool enough to be on Twitter. Also saves you time in updating AND ensures profile activity to keep you relevant. 243,450 total users; 4,869 daily.
  
• Blog RSS Feed Reader I tried a ton of blog and RSS apps out and I found this one offered more functionality, better customization (you can pick an image to make your Facebook mini-blog look like more your actual blog) and a greater sense of control. 28,350 total users; 567 daily.
  
• TwitterSync App Works pretty much like the real Twitter app, which I prefer, but has one advantage over Twitter; you can add it to your page, whereas the Twitter-sponsored app only works with profiles. You can also specify your own propend verb so your status says “is twittering:___.” 14,300 total users; 429 daily.
  
• 30 Boxes Really, any decent calendar app will do, but I found this the easiest to use. If you have (or set up) a 30 boxes account you can sync the two to update the app with all your actual events, as well as any Facebook event invites. Very handy if you host or attend a lot of business events. 222,000 total users; 2,220 daily.
  
• Something fun Add some personality to your profile with a fun or silly application that shows you’re not all work and no play. Facebook is about connecting with your audience, so make your profile look like a real person’s, someone that other users would want to friend.
  

Once you’ve got all that set up, you just need to monitor and maintain everything. It doesn’t need to take a tremendous amount of time, but it does need to be done; you can’t just set these up and let them go. If you can’t manage them and you’re lucky enough to have an intern, see if they can help. Or hire a freelance social media person. I know of at least one

Celebrities sell cars, coffee, kibble…even the kitchen sink

Anyone else noticed the recent upswing in celebrity “voice overs” or narration or whatever you want to call it? So far I’ve heard:

• Kevin Spacey for Honda
• John Corbett (Aidan on Sex and the City) for AppleBee’s (Way less annoying than Wanda Sykes, thank you!)
• David Duchovny for Purina (Which no one believed for a long time…probably ‘cuz most non X-philes don’t know who he is.)
• Patrick Dempsey for StateFarm (Swoon, I’m sold, but he is wasted behind the camera…put him on screen!)
• Stanley Tucci for ATT
• Gene Hackman for Lowe’s
• John Goodman for Dunkin Donuts (The worst ads I have ever seen. I love Hill Holiday but they need to start over. There’s no saving this campaign.)

So what’s the deal with all these talented actors going behind the camera to do voice work? I’ve always thought of that as something you start with and work your way out of, not back to. These may not all be huge stars or timeless actors, but they’re all fairly recognizable names. Kevin Spacey and Gene Hackman each have two Oscar wins, Goodman’s got a Globe and an Emmy, Tucci’s got a Tony nod…the list goes on.

My first thought was “writers’ strike,” but some of the campaigns started running before the strike began. Are they just that hard up? I doubt Gene Hackman needs to do commercials at this point in his career; he could surely find a role he likes, and if not, he’s probably not strapped for cash.

For the celeb, a commercial is easy money for easy work, and they can command more than a voice actor. They also get the chance to lend their vocal chords to a product they love or a cause they support. It’s something different for them, and I’m guessing an ego boost to be asked to be “the voice” of something.

As for the companies hiring stars for their famous phrasing? First, they can afford a bigger star for voice work than they could as an on-screen spokesperson. But the real power in using a famous voice is the “inside joke” it sets up with viewers. If you can correctly identify your favorite celebrity in a commercial, you establish a bond with that product.

I would never give State Farm a second thought if it weren’t for Patrick Dempsey. But the instant I heard his voice, they became the “cooler” (at least in my head) insurance company. State Farm also made me cooler, because I was in on the joke. Where some “less cool” viewers just heard a commercial, I heard a brand being built.

Heard any other celebrity commercials? Let me know who, or better yet, leave a link so I can check it out. Also love to hear more theories on why they do this, or the effect it has on you.

UPDATE: Michael Clarke Duncan for Quizno’s

Is alcohol advertising drunk-think?

‘Cuz I can totally see someone, hammered, having this incredible revelation that “we should advertise on the moon!” And then sobering it into Rolling Rock’s Moonvertising promotion.

I drove by the Boston Moonvertising billboard several times (it’s on my way to work) before I remembered to Google the term. I’ll admit I was duped into thinking some ridiculously cheesy advertising/technology company was going to try to buy/sell ad space on the moon. Yep, look up “gullible” and you’ll find my picture. In my defense, I drive too fast and don’t have the greatest eyesight, so I couldn’t really make out the logo.

But I did go to the site eventually, so their old-school outdoor ad worked. Kind of.

The Moonvertising site dropped the ball, in a lot of ways. It’s slow, kind of confusing, and not nearly as cool as I’d hoped. A lot of hype, not a lot of hip. I like where they’re going with the full moon parties, but they’re only in 3 states (I think; the scrolling action was really bad) and I’m not driving to Jersey for a beer I don’t really have any affinity for.

But, I love the Rolling Rock brand for trying, so I stayed on the site and hoped it delivered the cool factor I so desperately was waiting for. It didn’t. Just a few not-so-funny videos and the amusing realization that people think they are actually going to try to beam their logo onto the moon. With lasers. (Insert Austin Powers joke here.)

I love them for trying, and the creativity is great, but the website is disappointing, to say the least. They obviously wanted to create a viral campaign that would get people talking (there’s a lot of uncertainty about whether they will attempt a Moonvertisement on March 21st; my guess is no).