Exclusive: 100-day forecast

by Dan Strum

I went to the beach many times this summer, but I could have gone more. Unfortunately, the friend I was going with put too much credence in weather forecasts – especially in “10-day forecasts”. Never mind that weather forecasts are notoriously inaccurate, she rejected many possible dates because the 10-day forecast predicted rain.

The effect of the forecast on my friend’s plans led me to think of social media. We all want information about what’s going on or what’s going to happen! It doesn’t necessarily have to be right or wrong – it just has to be relevant. In a sense, just talking about hot topics is enough to create a buzz! But be forewarned — over time you also need to add value – if your your buzz is just noise, you just wind up losing credibility.

Anyway, it turns out that I have a knack for predicting the weather. I have no secret — I forecast the “average” weather, and when the pundits forecast that there will be precipitation more than three days in advance, I forecast that there won't be! I have become so confident in my forecasting abilities (and so has my beach friend), that I now announce my exclusive 100-day forecast: January 8, 2011 will be 28°F-34°F, with light flurries in the morning, and sun in the afternoon.

I find I can share more with women than with men.

By Scott Goldman 

Women are from Venus and Men are from Mars. Once upon a time Martians and Venusians met, fell in love, and had happy relationships together because they respected and accepted their differences. Then they came to earth and amnesia set in: they forgot they were from different planets.  (John Gray) 

Women have so many more facets to their lives than men. Even when under tight deadlines, they always have time for good conversation. It could be about a boyfriend, a girlfriend, or the ex-husband. Or there is always the bad date story ("his breath was sooo bad, I had to sit in the next state!").

Women communicate better than men; so you always know where you stand. If they are frustrated, they really open up about it... and  we move on.

Since women communicate better than men, a few tips can help the men. Men really need to learn how to hold a conversation! These are some good questions to ask:
How was your day?
What made your day so crazy?
These are questions that lead to deep conversations. You really get to know them! On the other hand, these are questions not to ask: Where do you live? Where are you from? What do you do? Hold off on the bad questions until the third date, because if you don’t spend some time getting to know her first, the third date will never happen!

For marketing we study the best way to sell a product to customers, men and women.   Women (ages 35-54) represented the highest percentage of websurfers. 
Advertise a product for women require more effort....more information, more study...but...can we loose reaching 143.4 million people?

Few links...

Predicting Your Gender Based On Web Surfing

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=93420263

discover your gender! (It faild to me)

http://www.mikeonads.com/2008/07/13/using-your-browser-url-history-estimate-gender/

• Women in the U.S. spend more than $3.3 trillion annually (purchasing power)
• Women business owners employ 35% more people than all the Fortune 500 companies combined (how many of your clients are women-owned?)
• 95% of family financial decisions are made by women (who balances the checkbook in your family?)
• Women in business will invest $44.5 billion in high tech products this year
• 65% of women in senior management positions have children (they kept their job and are raising a family)  Source: Women and Diversity, WOW Facts 2001 - Business Women's Network 
• 60% of US women work outside the home, earning $1 trillion each year in aggregate (Source: Chicago Tribune, 1999)
• Today there are 9.1 million women-owned businesses in the U.S., representing nearly 40% of all businesses - Sources: NFWBO and SBA

        source: http://stopharass.com/article-women-marketplace.htm

Scott Goldman

The most important trait of a successful entrepreneur

by Scott Goldman

Relationships in general have always been important and will always be important.

Every opportunity to get to sit and talk with someone, take it.

Personal or business, being out with people and socializing is extremely important.

Some people are able to preserve their friendships from childhood. That sounds good to me! I always tell my single friends that they can't meet any one sitting at home on the couch. When I was single and really didn't feel like going out that night to a party, I would make a deal for myself and go for just an hour. If I saw a woman I was attracted to, I would get her number and split – that way at least I would have a date for the next week. I felt good about that.

What does this have to do with social media?

Everything! We talk about social media every day, and every day brings new technologies to let us connect. But I don't want to speak about technology. I want to keep in mind the connections I have with people! Through our connections, we build relationships, commitments, and success.

NEXT... coming soon

I find I can share more with women than with men.

Whose blog is it, anyway?

by Dan Strum

It was interesting to read a recent news story that described the FTC taking action against a PR agency because employees of that agency were posting favorable blog reviews about products offered by that agency’s clients (see full story here).
The FTC considered that the agency was providing a commercial service, and that all employees are “agents” of the agency. It ruled the agency’s clients were effectively paying for any communication produced for the employee. With that in mind, the fact that employees were presenting themselves as unbiased consumers meant that they were engaged in deceptive advertising.

In some ways, this parallels FTC regulations regarding the “special advertising sections” we often see in magazines – editorial content produced for the purpose of promoting corporate views must be distinguished. However, this ruling gets complex when we think of the nature of blogging.

 

Imagine an individual blogger who writes about many things – the weather, activities, impressions, people and products. Imagine that this blogger works for a film distribution company and gets tickets through his office to see a new movie release. Imagine this blogger takes a hot date to that movie! Now imagine this blogger’s blog entry about the evening – anticipation, meeting, the movie, dinner, and ensuing romance. Is it relevant to publish a corporate disclaimer? And if he does publish a disclaimer in which the his company’s name is disclosed, would that not compel the blogger to adhere to his company’s corporate standards (be it from restricting his recommendation of restaurants or refraining from carnal discussion of romance)?

Full disclosure: I am a copywriter and project manager for Scogo Media, and director of the language school NY Smarts!