Things That Make You Go hmmm...
Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on March 09th, 2010
In a random act of humour, Conan O’Brien decided to follow one of the 600,000 people that follow him on Twitter. The Chicago Tribune outlines the story very well.
Turns out, the person Conan chose to follow is Sarah Killen (@LovelyButton). She is in her late teens and is from Michigan. And about 15,000 of Conan’s followers began to follow Sarah. Sarah turned this opportunity into something very positive.
She tweeted about an upcoming breast cancer awareness walk, the Susan G. Komen 3-Day for the Cure, sending her new followers to a site where they could donate money to sponsor her upcoming walk. According…
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Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on February 24th, 2010
I had a discussion with a client yesterday about the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics. She is based in L.A. and the only coverage they get of the games is from NBC. NBC, for some reason, has chosen not to provide live coverage of the games. My client is in the same time zone as the games, she has a television in her office, she would have the competitions on if she could—but they aren’t live.
This is a conversation that we have had quite often recently in the AHA Creative Strategies office. AHA partner Paul Holman is a sports fan and…
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Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on February 12th, 2010
I recently read an article in drovers.com that I found very interesting. It seems that Yellow Tail wine, based in Australia, was set to support the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS). However, according to this article, many U.S. wine drinkers and food producers were unhappy with this decision.
At first glance, I wondered why…isn’t helping animals a good thing? It turns out that there are reports that very little of the money that runs through HSUS actually goes to the care and help of animals. The groups that were against Yellow Tail supporting HSUS used social media as a part…
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Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on January 08th, 2010
A new year is always good to review what you, as an organization and as individuals, did well the year before and what you could improve upon. Here at the AHA office, we’ve been doing a pretty strong inventory of 2009. We turn seven in 2010 and while it might not be a typical “milestone” number, we’re quite excited about our upcoming anniversary on April 1. (We know, April Fools Day!)
During our period of “taking stock,” I was also given the task of writing a proposal for a potential new client. I love writing proposals and plans, learning about a…
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Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on December 14th, 2009
Mark Naples has an excellent piece on iMedia Connection: 6 Ways To Sabotage Your PR Efforts. Anyone working with an agency, a contractor, a freelancer, or even with in-house PR should read this and take an honest look at how you work with these people; people like us at AHA!
In the piece, Naples focuses on interactive companies and/or start-ups, but what he writes applies to many organizations and industries. The first point that he makes touches on unrealistic expectations. I think that’s an important topic. I happen to be a strong believer that you need to reach high and go…
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Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on December 03rd, 2009
I think communicators follow scandals like the one that is dogging golf great Tiger Woods with a different mindset. Our focus is on what needs to be done to minimize the damage and what the person in the spotlight could do to save or rebuild their image or personal brand.
Tiger Woods is an international icon and this news, however private, was the lead on most newscasts last night and will be in the spotlight for days to come and online forever. We had a very lively discussion in the AHA office about this situation and what we would advise Tiger.
Now,…
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Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on September 21st, 2009
Have you ever been in a meeting and had a client, colleague or consultant confuse “strategic” and “tactical.” I think it happens more than we realize (or perhaps like to admit) and it’s not always junior staff that don’t understand the difference.
Our friends at Beaupre have, what I think is, the best explanation of the two on their blog. It’s worth a read. (I’ve sent this link out to dozens of people).
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Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on July 17th, 2009
I have been thinking about the new opportunities that will come with Google Wave. This certainly has created some great discussion here at AHA.
The description from Wikipedia is: Google Wave is “a personal communication and collaboration tool” announced by Google at the Google I/O conference on May 27, 2009. It is a web-based service, computing platform, and communications protocol designed to merge e-mail, instant messaging, wiki, and social networking. It has a strong collaborative and real-time focus supported by robust spelling/grammar checking, automated translation between 40 languages, and numerous other extensions. It is expected to be released later in 2009.
Google…
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Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on July 06th, 2009
First off, let me state that I am not going to speculate about why Sarah Palin resigned her position as Governor of Alaska. I am, however, going to put forward a few things about her resignation that make you go hmmmm…
As communicator’s we know that sometimes the news (both mainstream and online) focuses on one big story and may exclude others. In the past couple of weeks that story has been about the death of Michael Jackson. Coverage about how the “King of Pop” died, his will and the custody of his children has been extensive. I found it curious…
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Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on June 09th, 2009
There’s good news on the horizon for those businesses and celebrities that are being impersonated on Twitter.
Apparently, St. Louis Cardinals Manager Tony La Russa sued Twitter. It was reported by the Associated Press that La Russa was “claiming an unauthorized page used his name to make light of drunken driving and two Cardinals pitchers who died, [it] damaged his reputation and caused emotional distress.”
Sports Illustrated’s website SI.com is reporting that the two sides have reached an agreement. Twitter is paying legal fees and making a donation to La Russa’s Animal Rescue Foundation.
These types of impersonations are happening more and more on Twitter.…
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