Today's post is a Two-for-One. It's Friday Fun - Friday Fun is Diva Marketing's virtual happy hour from cosmos to
Jack to lemonade. A waiting for the weekend 'playground' time to be
sophisticated-silly. Or sometimes just plain silly. Combine with Biz Blog Profile - Biz Blog Profiles! is a behind the scene look at how corporations, non profits, higher education institutions and the arts are using blogs to support their marketing goals.
Take a brand with an image challenge. Add a unique positioning strategy targeting a new segment. Overlay it with the limitations (people and money) of a not for profit. Sprinkle with an innovative, never been done before social media strategy. Toss in a few vintage dresses.
Mix well. Welcome to the world of the
Goodwill of Greater Washington.
About Goodwill of Greater Washington Goodwill of Greater Washington provides job training and employment services to people with disadvantages and disabilities throughout the greater Washington, DC region. We fund our mission through diverse lines of business including our chain of nine retail stores, two e-commerce sites, landscaping, pest control and janitorial contract services, as well as a small amount of traditional fundraising (about 10%).
About Brendan Hurley
I have been a marketing professional for 15 years, with a BA in Communications and an MS in Marketing. I spent most of my career in the “for profit” sector, working primarily in the radio industry marketing for a variety of radio groups including Clear Channel Communications. I came to Goodwill as the VP of Marketing when Clear Channel’s Regional Senior VP became Goodwill’s CEO in late 2003. What I enjoy about Goodwill is that it is a charitable agency that helps the community, but also runs more like a business than a traditional non profit.
Toby/Diva Marketing: Vintage shopping is great fun but Brendan, I must admit when I think of diva, cool places to discover cute clothes Goodwill is not top of mind. However, you not only are changing the image of Goodwill of Greater Washington but are creating a new positioning for the organization … from thrift shop to vintage fashion.
How and why did an organization, that is not known for innovation in marketing, decide to step into the world of social media to support and promote that new direction?
Brendan Hurley: There is an interesting disparity in the vintage and classic fashion world. If you spend $150 on an outfit at a high end vintage retailer, it’s considered hip, but if you buy the same outfit at a Goodwill store or “thrift” store, many consumers perceive it as old and used.
We didn’t want to alienate our core customers, many of whom are bargain shoppers, but we needed to find a way to grow a secondary market segment for Goodwill that we felt we could impact with the right positioning: young, professional females, who tend to be a primary market segment for vintage retailers. Ultimately we felt that a social media strategy would help us address this need.
Toby/Diva Marketing: In a recent guest blog post on The Buzz Bin you said something very interesting:
It wasn’t until I started developing our 2007 strategic marketing plan that I finally figured out my problem: I was trying too hard to develop a social networking strategy instead of incorporating social networking into my marketing strategy.
It’s the concept that I’ve been trying to help marketers understand. Would you please discuss that a bit more? How did you “get it.”
Brendan Hurley: Like many marketers (I think), I didn’t fully understand social networking as a “tactic” incorporated into a strategy. I kept wondering how we could integrate social networking into our marketing plan (trying to force it) rather than identifying our organizational challenges and applying the best marketing methods to address those challenges.
Once I did that, the answer became clear: The use of social networking would achieve multiple strategic objectives. It was like a light bulb went off. An integrated social networking and new media plan would help us reach the audience we were targeting without alienating our core shopper, drive traffic to our virtual fashion show that we knew would convince visitors we had a good product, then provide them with an easy portal to our online retail store to make a quick purchase. By integrating mission messages into each step along the way, we could also educate the population on the nature of Goodwill’s mission, thereby developing greater passion for our cause while generating brand loyalty. The flow seemed very natural.
The only problem was that while I had read blogs before, I had never written one, so I didn’t understand the strategy behind it and how to make it compelling and sustainable. Fortunately, I knew Geoff Livingston of Livingston Communications from a marketing committee we both serve on at the Greater Washington Board of Trade and I asked him if he would consult us on finding appropriate vintage fashion websites on which to advertise, and on launching our blog.
It was Geoff that taught me that we had to treat the blog just like any other product with a mission statement, logo, positioning statement, etc. Doing so has helped us stay focused and forced us to maintain product integrity so that the blog doesn’t become another blatant advertisement that will simply turn off any half educated reader. The content has value and I believe that is what keeps readers coming back.
Toby/Diva Marketing: Let’s talk about your exciting initiatives.
First the Goodwill Fashion Blog. Was it difficult to get buy-in from your board and how was it presented to them?
Brendan Hurley: Our board LOVED the idea. They believed that the use of new media was quite innovative in the non profit sector. And certainly the use of fashion to help educate others on our mission was a very unique strategy. While they seemed quite confident, my team and I were responsible for the execution of this complex initiative, so I was a a bit nervous having never launched such an effort before. Fortunately, I have a fantastic team. Our blogger, “The DC Goodwill Fashionista”, is an employee, Em Hall, who is very keen on fashion. She loves writing the blog and is very talented.
Toby/Diva Marketing: Did you establish success measures or goals and if so what were they?
Brendan Hurley: We set financial goals for the fashion show, which we’ve already achieved. We also set a goal on the number of unique visitors to the fashion show (10,000) which we are close to hitting now and we haven’t even posted the video on YouTube yet. Right now, the only place the fashion show can be seen is on our website.
We have a financial goal for our silent auction, but it hasn’t ended yet, so I can’t tell you whether or not we’ll hit that number. However, I can tell you that we’ve already successfully converted better than 14% of our fashion show viewers into Goodwill online shoppers. That is a number I had no idea we’d achieve. Our brick and mortar retail sales increased measurably as well in the two weeks since the fashion show launched. However, I can’t say whether those numbers are sustainable at this point and how much the virtual fashion show and blog influenced that growth.
As for the blog, I would have been happy with 100 visitors a week and a retention rate of 25% after less than 90 days, but we’re presently averaging about 700 visitors a week and a retention rate of close to 40%. The blog has also become the second largest referral source for our fashion show.
Toby/Diva Marketing: Did you perceive any risks in stepping into the blogosphere with a blog that has open comments? What strategies are in place to mitigate risk?
Brendan Hurley: When we decided to pursue a blogging strategy, it was an easy decision for us to establish a policy of posting both positive and negative comments, provided they were not inappropriate. No comments go live without our review first. However, I am a firm believer in transparency and integrity and if someone criticizes us, it will be seen.
Toby/Diva Marketing: The DC Goodwill Fashionista seems to be having such fun with her posts but why did you choose to go the anonymous blogger route?
Brendan Hurley: That was a strategic decision to protect the long term sustainability of the blog. We decided to give the blogger an alias because at some point, the author of the blog may change.
Brendan Hurley: For three years we have held an annual Goodwill Fashion Show that was designed primarily as a fundraiser and secondarily as an attempt to help change perceptions of the quality of fashions available at Goodwill Stores. Unfortunately, while the unique fashion show received some good publicity, only a limited number of people could attend the event because it had a high ticket price attached to it.
By converting our live fashion show into a virtual fashion show that we could post on our website and promote through social networks, we believed we could reach a broader and younger market segment by providing entertaining and compelling content that would interest and excite the viewer. This would also make our sponsors happy because we’d be reaching thousands of people rather than a few hundred who could attend a live event.
Creating a fashion blog and pages on social networking sites like MySpace would not only help drive traffic to the fashion show and our online auction site, but also give us access to influential social networks that may help position Goodwill as a knowledgeable resource on vintage and contemporary fashion, while also positioning our stores as untapped destinations for inexpensive vintage and contemporary fashions, rather than stores for low income shoppers. So far the virtual fashion show has been a big hit!
Toby/Diva Marketing: How is the eBay Auction working for you? Sidebar: Today - 9-28-07 - is the last day of the auction.
Take a break and do a little virtual shopping for a few cute vintage pieces .. at bargain prices! Send me a photo of you in your new outfit and I'll post it on Diva.
Brendan Hurley: Since the auction hasn’t ended yet, I can’t tell you if we’ve hit our financial goal, but I believe we will. We’ve got a lot of watchers on our site. Our fashion show has become the second biggest referral source to our eBay store behind eBay itself.
Toby/Diva Marketing: Were there any surprises along the way in terms of what people bid or perhaps who bid?
Brendan Hurley: Yes, there are people bidding on some items I didn’t think would get much interest and other items I thought would be popular that few people are watching. We did discover through some additional research that a Versace china collection is worth much more than we had originally thought. The interest in that china has really skyrocketed. There is also an interesting vintage circa 1920s clutch purse that I am not personally fond of, but is getting a great deal of interest from eBay shoppers. Then again, I don’t know a lot about purses.
Toby/Diva Marketing: Hmm .. eBay today .. perhaps Second Life next year. A few diva-typequestions .. Who were the models?
Brendan Hurley: The models were fantastic. They were all local and supplied by Tu-Anh. Tu-Anh is a locally based, but internationally experienced fashion designer and consultant who volunteered her time. She runs a professional fashion consultancy called Polished. She knew exactly who to ask and all of them modeled for free.
Toby/Diva Marketing: How were the garments chosen and who put together the outfits?
Brendan Hurley: All of the items were literally taken off the racks from our nine DC area Goodwill Retail Stores by Tu-Anh and her staff. It didn’t take them long. I think they were only hunting for a few days before they had an entire collection. What can I say…the stuff you can find at Goodwill is pretty good! You just need to look.
Toby/Diva Marketing: How will you sustain this new positioning and does social media fit into the Goodwill of Greater Washington’s long-term marketing strategy?
Brendan Hurley: I suspect that we’ll see a bit of a drop off once the auction ends and the initial excitement over the fashion show starts to fade, but we’re committed to a long term blogging presence and will very likely do another virtual fashion show next year. The challenge now is sustaining and building upon our early success.
Toby/Diva Marketing: What were a few of the lessons learned?
Brendan Hurley: First, treat your blog like a product, not a strategy. Second, to be successful at a blog you need to be willing to make the commitment. A blog requires much more research and time than I would have ever thought.
Toby/Diva Marketing: What advise would you give a not for profit who wanted to step into the social media space?
Brendan Hurley: I would tell them something that sounds like a cliché: Think out of the box. If you want to engage a new audience and educate them on your mission, you don’t necessarily have to force your mission upon them.
Engage them using a common interest. If your cause is homelessness, maybe think about developing a blog about homeowner related issues and weave your mission into the blog content. You’ll reach a broader variety of people, develop a personal relationship with them and then gain their trust and support. The population that is already passionate about your cause is going to support you anyway. Use the blog as a way to acquire new untapped supporters.
Brendan Hurley On Social Media Your take on using social media as a marketing / business strategy. Your get the last word (smile)
I’m amazed at how others are willing to market your product or service for you if they feel it has value. Build an online product with significance and treat it with the respect you would give any more tangible product or service. If you do, you won’t have a problem finding people willing to help you communicate your message.
I love planes so when Josh Hallett, Hyku, presented the opportunity to talk to the Civil Air Patrol (CAP) I jumped at the chance. CAP held its inaugural Public Affairs Officer Academy in Hot'lanta (very hot 'Lanta!)last week. I had the pleasure of speaking to a wonderful group of volunteers who are making a huge difference in our country and influencing the lives of thousands of kids. I met people who had been volunteering for over 20-years. They told me the most heart warming stories of how CAP has changed lives .. especially kids in the cadet program. CAP is meant for social media. Julie, Kim, Steve and Jim you were great!
Got to the Marriott Marquis in time to catch the speaker before me. Always a good thing to do - to have a reference point of where folks were before you come on. It was a session on traditional PR. After the slides on how to plan and media relations a slide on Blogs popped up. Oh oh .. over lap I thought. The speaker's concluding remarks on the topic ran something like .. Interesting idea but you don't want to put it on top of your list. Keep in the idea file if you have time. You have too many other more important things to do before you add blogs to the mix.
Girlfriend, I had to bring in another point of view. The Civil Air Patrol is meant for social media. Fascinating to me was after my talk a group of people came over to chat that included 20 somethings to 70 somethings. It was a 71-year old gentleman who was the most enthused about going home to Dallas to talk to his WING about blogging. I,of course, sent him to Millie Garfield's My Mom's Blog for a peek into senior blogs.
Sidebar: Millie's on network TV .. ABC News no less! Not bad for 81-year young gal from Swampscott, MA!
Okay, I admit to taking a sip or two from the koolaid so let's take a closer look and see if CAP is really meant for social media.
CAP's mission is connecting with and helping people. - The most powerful value of blogs is the functionality to develop relationships through conversations. CAP has the most amazing stories to tell. Each WING (CAP Chapter) could write its own book.
CAP's mandate is also to education. Podcasts, vlogs, blogs each offers unique (and fun) ways to provide information and peer-to-peer interaction. Using YouTube and iTunes as distribution channels can increase reach.
The WINGs don't have a lot of money. - Blog platforms, like Blogger and Wordpress are free.
One of CAP's challenges is to reach diverse audiences: prospective cadets, cadets, adult volunteers, media, corporate sponsors, parents, community supporters, businesses, pilots .. to name a few. - Multiple social media strategies are a way to provide content that addresses specific needs of members of their community. Podcasts, multi author blogs and online photo albums area a few more ideas.
As one might expect the cadets are all over social networks. There are amazing Flickr photos, YouTube videos, MySpace sites and Facebook groups. There's even a Facebook group for girl cadets. However, it's not all under twenty somethings who are using social media to reach out to other volunteers and people who share their passion. Adults are there too. - Hang out where your people are .. why not a WING Myface page and/or Facebook group?
Since there are CAP members involved in social networks and blogs listening in on those conversations - and then joining in - would be a terrific way to obtain informal feedback and first step research.
Yes, Divas sure seems to me that CAP is meant for social media.
Lessons Learned: Keep an open mind to new ways of doing business .. or new ways of doing life!
With a
dirty martini in hand and wearing your hot polka dot bikini
TiVo Fellini's La Dolca
and head over to Getting To The Point where Katya Andresen, is hosting this week's Nonprofit Consultant's Carnival.* The theme is Your Top Five .. Anything.
What does a dirty martini, a hot polka dot bikini and a Fellini film have in common? At first glance not much but each in its own time and place was considered edgy and even innovative. And Katya is giving special treatment to posts that contain one of the following words: bikini, martini or Fellini.
My Top Five .. Anything: Internet Marketing Strategies That Were Once Innovative But Have Since Become Mainstream
My heart
goes out to Virginia Tech's extended family .. students, parents, facility, staff and beyond.
There will be many who analyze the situation and review the hows and whys and what shouldas. In her post, Virginia Tech: Social Media in Crisis Planning, Marianne Richmond takes a different view. Based on how students in the year 2007 communicate ..
Students at Virginia Tech used mobile phones, digital cameras, social networks such as Flickr, Facebook and MySpace, blogs and video to communicate with each other and to document the tragedy in real time.
Marianne offers a simple but brilliant solution that every school should include in their crisis management strategy: Twitter. Create Twitter groups to relay important information during disasters.
Sidebar: Twitter is a mobile text messaging systems that allows groups to be formed without regard to provider. The history of the content is retained on a web page which can be public or private.
If I were a betting kinda diva, I'd say that the majority of college
students have cell phones. Those who don't have cells phones would learn about the
situation through friends, as well as from the buzz happening on campus. Faster, more effiecient than email or blog posts.
Last week I spoke at the Center for Disease Control and Preventaion about promoting public health through blogging. After the panel discussion some of the CDC's EMarekting team and I explored how Twitter could be used as a crisis communication tool. They immediately saw application in using this type of simple technology in remote areas during a disaster or disease out break. Overlay Google Maps and you have a visual Free alert system.
Crisis management in the year 2007 and beyond must incorporate processes and systems that reach people in ways in which they communcate. And then make it easy for those who have the information to extend it to those who do not. What would have been the result if Virginia Tech had a Twitter Group in place this week?
I encourage, no I challenge marketers involved in healthcare, education and the non profit sectors to step out of your comfort zone and present these types of new solutions to your clients. Not only will you appear innovative but you may just help to save lives.
Friday Fun is Diva Marketing's virtual happy hour from cosmos to
Jack to lemonade. A waiting for the weekend 'playground' time to be
sophisticated-silly. Or sometimes just plain silly.
Those non profit marketers sure get to have fun! In her role as VP Marketing for Network For Good, Katya Andresen, has been working on an innovative strategy that integrates celebrities, the web, viral/word-of-mouth marketing, traditional and social media PR and the Sundance Film Festival.
SixDegrees.org is about using the idea that we are all connected to
accomplish something good. It is my hope that Six Degrees
will soon be something more than a game or a gimmick. It will also be a
force for good, by bringing a social conscience to social networking. Kevin Bacon
He's ask his celeb friends to this party - Kyra Sedgwick (Natural Resources Defense Council), Nicole
Kidman (UNIFEM), Ashley Judd (YouthAIDS), Bradley Whitford and Jane
Kaczmarek (Clothes off Our Back), Dana Delany (Scleroderma Research
Foundation), Robert Duvall (Pro Mujer), and Jessica Simpson (Operation
Smile).
And he's encouraging everyone to be celebrities for their own
causes by joining the Six Degrees movement. Not only is Kevin Bacon giving his name to the cause but he's matching charitable dollars raised by the top six non-celebrity fund raisers with grants of up to $10,000 each.
Lucky Katya is on her way to the Sundance Film Festival to meet up with Kevin Bacon where they will launch the program. Girlfriend, you know what this means? I'm One Degree From Separation From Kevin Bacon .. and you are only Two Degrees From Separation From Kevin Bacon. Awesome!
Lessons Learned: A silly game can inspire a creative marketing program. We should - or rather we must - learn to color outside of the lines again.
Sidebar: Diva Taughnee gave the web presence a "little sparkle" .. including the final touches to the logo which was designed by Kevin's daughter. I understand that Typepad will be adding the ability to post charity badges as a widget.
The Sun enters Aquarius the
sign of groups Sat. 1/20. This would be a fabulous time to form a
Master Mind group to grow your business by brainstorming new ideas.
This is also the sign of humanitarianism. How can you make a difference
in the world? How can you make a contribution to your
community?
On Mon. 1/22 Jupiter squares Uranus. This is the
first of 3 – 5/10 and 10/9. If you are invested in the Stock Market,
pay attention, as there could be volatility. You could also be
experiencing restlessness and an urge to change something in your
business. You won’t like the any restrictions. With Jupiter in
Sagittarius, exaggeration is always a possibility. Try to remain calm.
Don’t act on impulse. Think over every detail first.
Every once in awhile you might have a dream. Just a small dream. But with a little help from a friend or 2 or 3 that dream explodes. Your vision takes on new dimensions and grows into something bigger than your original thoughts.
Original Dream - Utah/United States Film Festival. Sterling van Wagenen, a Brigham Young University film school graduate, and John Earle, Utah State Film Commissioner envisioned a film festival produced by the Utah Film Commission to entice filmmakers and tourists to Utah.
Dream Exploded - Park City, Utah Jan 18-28, 2007. The 25th anniversary of the Sundance Film Festival. In 1985 Robert Redford's Sundance Institute, founded to help young film makers, took over the Utah/United States Film Festival. (In 1991, the festival was officially renamed.)
However, instead of a way to grow the Utah film industry, Sundance became an event that championed the independent film maker. And 2 people's dream became a catalyst for thousands of people's dreams. And the rest, as they say Girlfriend, is history. The website 2006 won a webby and this year's site is rich with content including video interviews wth the artists. Too bad they're not downloadable.
Heard from Susan Getgood, Marketing Roadmaps, that as a sponsor*, HP is again helping Sundance with its social media strategy. Susan is one of the bloggers of the Backstage at Sundance blog. Sidebar: Couldn't find the blog link from the home Sundance Film Festival page. Too bad. I had to click on the HP logo which took me to the micro site. *Sundance is a non profit organization.
Marketing Sidebar: Interesting that the branding aspects of the Backstage at Sundance blog is totally HP .. it's not a co-branded look and feel. Seems a little disjointed to me. Wonder why HP chose to go in that direction. Perhaps Eric Kintz can give us an insight on this one.
In addition, check out the Snapshot Diaries contest - a photo contest. The winning entry will be turned into a short movie by film director Matt Pope. Cool grand prize is a trip for two to Sundance 2008 (airfare, hotel and event tickets), and there are 3 great runner up prizes of HP gear. Contest begins January 15, 2007 and ends January 28 2007.
Lessons Learned: If you have an idea don't be shy about bringing in people to help you. That includes your customers too! You might be surprised where their suggestions lead.
Update: Thanks to Eric Kintz and Susan Getgood for passing along my question to Karen Cage, who is responsible for Backstage @ Sundance blog. Karen kindly commented (see below) explaining that HP was in a rush to launch the blog and the look and feel will soon be updated to reflect a more consistent branding. One problem solved!
My first time was in a crowded school room near Beacon Street in Boston. Finally I did it. I felt important and so very grown-up.
Growing up in Boston it was something that everyone talked about all the time. Right Polli? Oh, when I finally did it my folks were excited too. As a little girl I remember watching my mom and dad do it and thinking one day I'll get to go behind the curtain.
Do You Remember Your First Time is an innovative PSA campaign from Women's Voices. Women Vote. to encourage young women to vote. Gotcha!
Did you know that in the last presidential election the largest block of non-voters was 20 MILLION single women? Can you imagine the impact that these women can have on the
future of our country .. of the world .. if they cast their votes?
Women's Voices. Womens Votes. has released a series of public service announcements, featuring some of American's best known actresses, encouraging women to vote. The PSA campaign includes Tyne Daly, Rosario Dawson, Lauren Graham, Angie Harmon, Marg Helgenberger, Felicity Huffman and Regina King telling about their "first time," voting.
Often women involved with social media / blogging (this one included) rant about women's lack of visibility within mainstream media. Let's put our energies to work to encourage women (and men) to voice their opinions at the voting poll. For the social good .. let's make a Big Difference. I challenge all bloggy divas and divos to dedicate a post to getting out the vote.
Coming down from the for the greater good soap box, and on to a marketing perspective. Take a look at the elements of the campaign: viral buttons, blogger relations, video on YouTube and awesome creative. Great example of how to market to women.
Toss of a pink boa to filmmaker Julie Bergman and to Women's Voices. Womens Votes for showing us that PSA do not have to dull and boring and non profit marketing can be innovative and on the edge.
Friday Fun is Diva Marketing's
virtual happy hour from cosmos to Jack to lemonade. A waiting for the
weekend 'playground' time to be sophisticated-silly. Or sometimes just
plain silly.
School's out for the summer and it's time to pack it up and head out for that well deserved holiday. Hope that it includes a drink or two with a little umbrella!
Girlfriend, don't forget to bring your cute pink iPod. MP3s are not only for tunes and interviews to help with airport down-time. Pod City Guides offers free tours you can customize.
At MOMA/NYC and MOMASF you can download information about the exhibits. Savvy MOMASF turned this into a creative marketing and $ saving business strategy. Great idea for museums and other cultural venues. Non profit marketers dropping by Diva take note! Very cool.
Save $2 on Museum admission Present your MP3 player loaded with the current SFMOMA Artcast at the Museum box office. One discounted ticket per MP3 player.
Audissey Guides $ - targets Generation X travelers with an irreverent blend of dramatization and local celebrities. Samples of Boston's North End and Paul Revere's midnight ride. Sidebar: Diva Marketing's post on the North End.
Soundwalk $ - lets listeners walk in the shoes of locals for an uninterrupted hour. Sample of Soundwalk's Chinatown tour. Slate Audio Tours Free -delivers an articulate history and analysis of the major Washington monuments from architecture critic Witold Rybczynski.
Art Mobs Free - Marymount Manhattan College students take you for a tour of New York's Museum of Modern Art in critical, cynical, and comical lights. (go to "browse audio guides.")
iJourneys $ - Narrator Elyse Weiner leads travelers through a selection of European cities. Sample of iJourney's Rome tour.
Biz Astro Tips business astrology for fun By Diva Astrology Bloggers Paula Dare & Donna Page
Are your deadlines not going as expected? People changing their minds over what they want? Is someone you know trying to control everything?
Pluto, the planet of power and control, and Uranus; the planet of unexpected changes are showering down their vibrations. Where do you need to let go and trust that you have done all you can? Is there something in your business plan that would benefit from change? Stay open to exciting and new creative ideas that are ready to jump into your consciousness.
With Uranus turning retrograde you may find it hard to sleep or your dream state may be activated. Keep a recorder or journal with you to record your genius. The energy will shift into a more relaxed flow with the summer solstice on Wednesday.
Friday Fun is Diva Marketing's
virtual happy hour from cosmos to Jack to lemonade. A waiting for the
weekend 'playground' time to be sophisticated-silly. Or sometimes just
plain silly.
OnDiva Marketing I toss the word Diva about like confetti at a party. After reading about Holly Morris and
her Adventure Divas, on Jennifer Rice's What's Your Brand Mantra, I began to ponder. (Yes, ponder. Just because it sounds like it belongs in a Victorian novel instead of a cyberspace blog .. well, it's a cool word.)
What makes a Diva?
For Holly Morris it is the amazing things women are doing that you never hear about.
Holly is on mission to find and documentthe unsung divas.In ink. In film. In cyberspace. In partnership with her mom Jeannine, Holly produced a PBS series that sought out divas who were creating positive change in their worlds through their passions and frequently convention-defying actions. She traveled to Cuba, India, Iran and New Zealand. What an amazing diva adventure!
Jennifer's post points out that the Adventure Diva site is currently lacking in social networking communications .. blogs, podcasts, RSS, consumer generated content; however, in a comment from Jennifer we learn the Adventures Divas have plans to incorporate that in the near future. The site is rich in content including interviews, articles, video clips and some back-stories about the women in the series. A Resource Page provides travel information including links to 4208 cybercafes in 140 countries.
What makes a Diva? The answer is as diverse as the women of the world!
Giving back is one way. For Diva niece Jessica Robyn and her Phi Sigma Sigma sisters at Quinnipiac University's (CT) Zeta Zeta chapter it's a Rock-a-Thon (rocking in rocking chairs) for 24-hours to raise money for the Phi Sigma Sigma Foundation.
On behalf of the Divas at Phi Sigma Sigma, if you'd like to show your support, please send your check payable to Phi Sigma Sigma to: Diva Jessica Robyn
P.O. Box 154
Canton MA, 02021
Of course, I do not want to neglect the wonderful divos, like Stephan Spencer, who are giving back too. Stephan recently launch a new type of blog Changes For Good. A repository of ideas for making the world a better place. Keep a watch on this one.
Biz Astro Tips business astrology for fun By Diva Astrology Bloggers Paula Dare & Donna Page
The Full Moon in Sagittarius falls on Sun. 6/11/06. Is your business in alignment with your beliefs or is it operating the way you want it to? If not perhaps you’re not looking through clear lenses. Maybe you are focusing in the wrong area.
The Moon is applying to conjunct Pluto, which should help bring issues that you haven’t wanted to deal with rise to the surface. Take the week to mull over anything problematic.
Sometimes bloggers have the coolest opportunities to have fun and do good too. Blog buddy Susan Getgood, Marketing Roadmaps, is helping HP with an innovative fund raising project for Habitat for Humanity...an eBay auction of autographed photos, printers (yes printers!) and more. HP's sponsorship at Sundance Film Festival provides access to celebs galore. To support the project HP launched a blog - Backstage at Sundance - real people blogging their experiences at the festival. Great use of blogs. The auction begins Feb 6.
Finally - experience counts! The non profit organization Civic Ventures is doing more than just celebrating innovative ideas from an overlooked segment: people over 60. Civic Ventures is looking for 5 people 60+ who are "taking on society's biggest challenges..and creating new opportunities, programs and making lasting changes." Civic Ventures are showing them the money! The Purpose Prize Awards $100,000 to each innovator. Submission deadline is Feb 28.
Conferences are about networking and knowledge, and if you're living right, a new business lead or two. Michael Rubin, Word of Mouth Marketing Association, dropped me an "e" last week that he hopes to start a new trend. At the January 2006, Word of Mouth Basic Training conference, giving back is part of his model.
WOMMA is auctioning 20 tickets to the conference on eBay. The goal is to bring in $20k through word of mouth marketing. Good for WOMMA and good for the charities:
Sidebar: How can you spin Michael's idea for your business? Is there a way that doing good can help produce word of mouth marketing for your brand? And is there a way to extend the strategy? For example, are any of the charities involved in the promotion? How about tapping into the volunteer base? How can you make it easy for people, who are already passionate about a cause, to chat it up?
The American Cancer's innovative blog - Blog For Hope joined the blogosphere today. Congrats! Lisa, ACS and Yahoo! for the courage to open comments. (You do have to have a Yahoo! account.) When you've battled cancer a few negative or off topic comments are mosquito annoyances.
Yahoo! will feature one blog per week across their networks. Celebs are bravely sharing there stories: Fran Drescher, Peggy Flemming, Senator
Hillary Rodham Clinton, Jill Elkenberry, Lance Armstrong, Sam Donaldson
and more to come. Read the comments and you'll find that most people appreciate the support. One more powerful example of people's need to connect and "social network." Wish there were blogs around when my family was fighting cancer.
Better click quick if you want to contribute to Blog For Hope - it's part of a month long awareness campaign and will only be live for a short time.
Corporate America wake up and smell the blogs! (ohh that sounds weird...). The American Cancer Society is once again ahead of the profit world curve when it comes to blog innovation strategies.
Lisa Meyers Brown has developed another creative use of blogs. Blog For Hope is a partnership program with Yahoo!and celebrity bloggers. Celebs who have an intimate connection to cancer - patient, survivor, relative of cancer patient, you get it - will tell their stories.
The celeb lineup includes: Fran Drescher, Peggy Flemming, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, Jill Elkenberry, Lance Armstrong, Sam Donaldson and more to come.
Sidebar: Diva Marketing's Biz Blog Profile includes an interview with Lisa about her Fabulous At 50! blog program. Sidebar: While you're playing following the links visit two or my fav "Indentity" blogs (learned that term at BlogHer.) Cancer NewsWatch and Too Sexy For My Hair.
A bare stage. Lights go up. Dancers' movements take focus. Wheelchairs blurr into the background. The first performance of Full Radius Dance begins.
Jay Tribby, the ED of VSA arts of Georgia, kindly invited me to Friday night's holiday performance of Full Radius Dance. Full Radius Dance is a unique company that weaves dancers on foot with dancers in wheelchairs to create technically demanding, visually exciting choreography works. Inspiring. Powerful. Elegant. And surprising. "Wheelchairs don't dance, says director Douglas Scott. "It's people that dance." These talented artists danced their with hearts and souls.
Divas, it's a wild crazed world and holidays add to the madness. It's important to make the time to find some Friday Fun that will inspire and feed your soul. Sometimes you find magic in unexpected places. Thank you Jay for an lovely surprise!
Sidebar: VSA arts of Georgia provides access to the arts for people with disabilities and those who are economically disadvantaged. And as Jay says, "We're creating new art forms."
Great incentive to clean out your book shelves and pack up a few of the old classics you haven't look at since college days. STG has a suggested list of books but your welcomed to send others as well.
Sidebar: STGis a network of bloggers who have joined together to raise money for micro-charities. One blogger...one dollar (or in this case one book) at a time...we can make a difference. This is the first cause marketing strategy to leverage the viral influence of blogs.
Received an update from Gab Sedor. Gad and her husband Mike are travelers on an adventure. By visiting 320 national parks, monuments, state capitals in the lower 48 and top U.S. metro areas they hope to raise awareness of childhood cancer. For details see past Diva Marketing post - It Should Have Been A Blog.
Greenfield Online is their corporate sponsor and has promised to develop a blog (hurray!). In the meantime, take a look a the website for some wonderful photos of Gad and Mike's hike into the Grand Canyon.
Read More About Cause Marketing
According to a study recently published by PRWeek/PainePR , Maximizing Cause-Related, corporate sponsorships are projected to increase 17% in the coming year.
Although cause marketing can be an effective strategy, it comes with its own unique set of challenges. Keep in mind that two different organizations, with very different cultures, are attempting to blend goals and resources. Following are a few tips based on the PRWeek/PainePR research findings.
Strategies For A Successful Corporate Cause Marketing Program
-Recognize and Embrace Differences (between corporations and nonprofits). To prevent miscommunication, be clear with goals, priorities and activities.
-Maximize PR Opportunities. The PRWeek/PainePR survey findings indicate that PR is the number-one way that nonprofits demonstrate the value of a cause-related partnership to the corporation.
-Be Realistic About Expectations. More than 75 percent of nonprofits reveal that corporations expect more value for their sponsorship than one year ago. When the relationship first starts, both parties need to outline in writing their value expectations.
-Consider the Impact of Size on Available Resources. Not all nonprofits are created equal - especially when it comes to total revenue and staff capacity - so it is important to consider the organization's size when working with them.
-Know Why Relationships Don't Work. When a partnership fails, it is usually for mutual reasons, the primary one being when both sides under utilize PR opportunities (according to 58 percent of respondents), closely followed by corporate partners having unrealistic expectations of how the partnership will benefit its business goals (according to 53 percent of respondents).
-Adapt to an Increasingly Competitive Market. With an expected increase in corporate support for nonprofits in the immediate future, it will be all that more important for corporations to make their organization and sponsorship packages stand out.
-Clarify Your Introductory Approach. Eighty-two percent of nonprofits actually approach corporations for support. Approximately 30 percent report that public relations agencies on either side make the introductions, and approximately 25 percent report that corporations approach them directly.
And who are the most admired corporations for their support of nonprofits?
An Atlanta-based Advocacy Center for children is looking for an experienced (4-6 years) fund raiser.
The successful candidate will have an exciting opportunity to manage all aspects of fund development including cultivating donor relationships, corporate partnerships and special events. Strong communications skills, computer proficiency and the ability to juggle multiple tasks is what it takes to join the dedicated team of this non profit organization. And of course the salary is competitive.
Please forward your resume to: Search Committee at 2211 Austell Road Suite B Marietta, GA 30008 or via eMail Deadline is September 10, 2004
I have been a marketing professional for 15 years, with a BA in Communications and an MS in Marketing. I spent most of my career in the “for profit” sector, working primarily in the radio industry marketing for a variety of radio groups including Clear Channel Communications. I came to Goodwill as the VP of Marketing when Clear Channel’s Regional Senior VP became Goodwill’s CEO in late 2003. What I enjoy about Goodwill is that it is a charitable agency that helps the community, but also runs more like a business than a traditional non profit.
seems to be having such fun with her posts but why did you choose to go the anonymous blogger route? 
Creating a fashion blog and pages on social networking sites like MySpace would not only help drive traffic to the fashion show and our online auction site, but also give us access to influential social networks that may help position Goodwill as a knowledgeable resource on vintage and contemporary fashion, while also positioning our stores as untapped destinations for inexpensive vintage and contemporary fashions, rather than stores for low income shoppers. So far the virtual fashion show has been a big hit!
questions .. Who were the models?
