Uncategorized

Why you should #Unsubscribe. Make your 2011 on-line connections more about quality not quantity.

/ John Ayers / Leave a comment

What I am about to tell you may surprise you and you may ask (since I work in the on-line social media marketing space) why am I writing it?

Get rid of all the irrelevant, time-consuming, digitally delivered information that is not helpful, not meaningful or is not usable.

Button-unsubscribe

The fact of the matter is years ago, it was tough to have too much information, we had to seek it out. But then, eventually it migrated to us and many would eventually over-subscribe to publications getting several magazines, newspapers, and dozens of junk mail items because we were on a ‘list’. This behavior is one that we have all grown up with for the past several years, well, nearly a half a century if you really think about it.

A few newspapers turned into dozens per city, with smaller publications for communities, newsletters for this or for that. And then a few major magazines several decades ago grew into an incredible volume of niche publications for everything from monthly magazines on ‘growing yellow daisies’ to ‘cooking with olive oil’. 

Newsstand

We have seen over this past decade that we are a society that is moving or has already moved to the digital/mobile space and if you are anything like me, you have subscribed and oversubscribed to blogs, emails, digital publications, follow Twitter accounts you’re not sure why, friend people on Facebook who aren’t really friends, and have accepted Foursquare requests from people you don’t know and the list goes on. You wake up with 143 emails in the morning and 135 of them aren’t important.

Lets see what WIKI has to say about UNSUBSCRIBE… which is often called ‘opt-out’ .

As the year comes to an end… and we step into a new decade, I am suggesting that this is a great time to consider the quality of your on-line relationships. Your Facebook friends, your Twitter account(s), your digital  ‘subscriptions’, the blogs your read, the social networks you’re in or on. Be careful of the unsubscribe ‘bait n switch’ where you click to unsubscribe only to find you have just subscribed to something else because you didn’t uncheck a box.  Rather than quantity, consider the quality, go for the content that is really helpful and meaningful to you. 

You will enter the new year with a cleaner slate of valuable information, quality friend connections and relevant content that you can manage, rather than the content managing you. A little insider speak, but marketers (in all honesty) love you for this. It is often referred to as permissive marketing. Which is a fancy way for us to see that you really want the information to come to you. You are permitting someone to tell you something, and that is golden to an advertiser.

I apologize in advance if I purge you from my list, but no hard feelings. :?)
Here’s to 2011 and a simpler, more meaningful on-line experience.
John

I believe Superman is Real. Are you Waiting for Superman? The truth is “HE is WE”

/ John Ayers / Leave a comment
I have taken an interest in helping public schools. It didn’t just happen it was an evolution. One that echoes the film “Waiting for Superman” which I saw opening weekend.

When I walked up to the theater and saw “sold out” at 8pm on a Sunday Night, I thought WOW this film is really making a fantastic impact.  I actually was able to get the last seat,  middle of the theater. The reality was that it was playing in a small (screener sized/30-40 seat) theater here in Los Angeles. Which was amazing, because it came with comfy big black leather chairs. 

The theater was full, but I was curious who was going to this movie on a Sunday night, so I asked. The couple next to me came, because she was a teacher and had worked at one of the schools mentioned in the film. Another gentlemen was the same. He use to teach at one of the schools mentioned in the film.  There was a mix, and I didn’t ask all attendees, but my guess is that people will see this movie for one of two reasons. 

They are an angry and frustrated parent or they are an angry and frustrated teacher.  The problem is that: the inefficiency of some bureaucrats that mess up the system, the segment of bad teachers that don’t give a 100% and the irresponsible parents who probably shouldn’t be raising children in the first place – all of these  – will most likely not see this film, and they should.

So, let me get back to how I got here. over 6 years ago, I sat in a room at a Los Angeles area school as little slips of paper were pulled out of a cardboard box to see if my son was going to go to our selected “good” school. It was my first lottery experience, and it was mind shattering that my pride and joy would come down to a lottery game to see if he would be allowed to what I had researched and perceived to be a good school in our community. With over 90 people and just a limited number of spots open for students, our son did not get in. This is the exact story that is told a number of times in the documentary by Davis Guggenheim.  We turned to our local home school just 3 block away as did several other families that we new from our pre-school the year before. 

What was a moment of anger several years ago, turned into a new (volunteer) career of child, community and educational advocacy. Since that moment nearly 7 years ago, I have taken to task the system. I have fought to better our home-school and in so doing try to inspire others including a generation of new parents to make their own world a better place. 

Believe me, I am not pollyanna about this at all. I know all too well the various black holes that our children fall through; including Unions, State Legislatures, Local Beauracrats, Financial issues, weak Politicians, Parental inadequacies, personal egos and the list goes on. Some teachers get a bad wrap, while others shouldn’t be teaching. The same can be said for parents, administrators, etc.

You want a better school? Get off your backside and challenge – support – help – change – advise – communicate with and make better the school in your neighborhood – And do it NOW. If it is a dead end, realize that and move to an alternative option. Charter, Parochial/Private or other alternatives.  

The point in the movie, I suppose is my point. Stop waiting! In fact, many have stopped a long time ago and in those areas, they have created some say forced change – this is where Superman is Real. Superman is all of us, each of us, together… which adds a tremendous value in and of itself to the teaching of the next generation. Personally, we did not run to a private school at $30,000 a year for kindergarten thinking it would give our kids a better environment to raise a child. 

Finally, what prompted me to post this?

I don’t want to throw a wet towel on the film. It makes an important statement… but I am a bit cynical perhaps because of my personal experience and first-hand knowledge. When I received this email… (below) – I think my first instinct when watching the film may have been confirmed. I ask you… Is #waitingforsuperman documentary filmaking at its finest, or abuse of a serious national need veiled in cause marketing?

The other issue is CHOICE.  If you have two shoe repair shops on the same block – they compete for your business. If poor performing public schools, parents, teachers, administrators, politicians continue (as they have in some areas) then a new school is going to set up on the same block.  That is what charters are. Charters saw a need, or actually responded and developed from a need.  Are they better than public? That 100% depends on the community you are in.  

Within this article there are several additional links to studies, info, research that I suggest you check out as well.
The key here is (in my opinion) choice ? and being a fully engaged parent to identify and understand what your goals are for your child and be certain that you navigate the process to your best ability.

Why is the process so painful?
It’s personal (these are our children) and our future leaders.
It’s financial (this is our tax money) and someone’s job.

John
“dad”

Begin forwarded message:


It's possible. Together we can fix education.

Follow Waiting for “Superman” on Facebook Twitter

Dear Friend of Waiting for “Superman,”
It has been one of the greatest thrills of my life traveling across the country for the last five weeks. I’ve been to over 20 cities across the country, screening Waiting for“Superman” and engaging in passionate conversations with thousands of you. 
The thrill for me doesn’t come from the incredible publicity and attention the film has received, but instead the feeling of renewed engagement from people coming together to fix our schools. There is a sense of urgency that now is the moment we can work together to give every kid in America a great education. The challenge ahead of us is to bring more people into that conversation.
This is why I need your help. Call 10 friends today and tell them about this film. Forward this email and ask them to get involved. 
Last weekend the movie opened in most major cities, which means that we have a short window to get as many people as possible to see the film. I?m sure you agree that there is no better way to get inspired than by seeing Daisy and Anthony?the students in the film. You can argue and debate the politics of the movie, but you can’t deny the tremendous need for the millions of Biancas, Emilys and Franciscos around the country. And they aren?t just “those kids,” they are “our kids.”
Real change is possible. If you agree with me that the moment is now, pick up the phone and call a friend, and email 10 more, then get your friends and family to see the film this weekend. Keep the conversation alive and bring more people to the table. 
Thank you.
Davis Guggenheim
Director, Waiting for “Superman”
P.S. Already seen the movie? Go to the website and take action!
Davis Guggenheim, Director of Waiting for Superman
.
TAKE ACTION
Demand Great Teachers: Write your local school board
  VIDEO FROM DAVIS
Watch this video on WaitingforSuperman.com
Powered by TakePart | ParticipantMedia.com | This message was sent to jdayers@mac.com from TakePart, LLC, a subsidiary ofParticipant Media, LLC. You subscribed at WaitingforSuperman.com.
? 2010 TakePart, LLC, 331 Foothill Rd. 3rd Floor, Beverly Hills, CA 90210 
Privacy Policy | Terms of Use | Unsubscribe

What if our past is our present? Is life moving too fast?

/ John Ayers / Leave a comment

What if our past is our present? Is life moving too fast? 

We have all heard the phrase “we have to know where we’ve been to know where we’re going.” But what if ‘where we have been’ is ‘happening right now’?

If it’s happening now, and become history a moment later, and then the future has changed as that occurred, where does that leave you? Hmmm… follow me here.

Just watched this TED talk from Steven Johnson: Where good ideas come from? and it got me thinking.

Be aware that when you post, blog, tweet, friend, geo-locate, text and go mobile… you still should have personal/real relationships and interaction. Those that don’t turn out to be a Uni-Bomber named Ted Kazinsky. So be careful. Stay connected, stay current, but don’t forget that we all live on the same playing field. Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Matt Zuckerberg and you and I… Yes we all only have 24 hours in a day. It is what we do with it that is something to consider.

John

“Local Social” – the way small and large brands can authentically reach their target audience.

/ John Ayers / Leave a comment

Major brands are finding it ever more difficult to effectively reach their target audience. Mass media can do some of the work, but as we become a ever more digital and mobile culture, we also become more cynical of ‘advertising’ and want to be in control of our purchasing decisions.

Enter social media, which (ironically) over the past few years has quickly become mass media, where large corporations are buying on-line ads to target a large audience or even to refine the target to be certain they are getting to their customer. 

So is it working? Are big brands reaching their audience through traditional media and digital media? Maybe the question is what is the best way to speak with your target audience in todays landscape, regardless of the media used? How do you motivate someone to change a behavior, to believe in a service, to buy your product, to think positively of your organization?

The answer is direct personal contact. Yes, actually one individual or small group who is valued in a community to share the word about a product or service. I am not talking just about an international on-line community (facebook)- though it can be, I am also speaking about a real community – as in a neighborhood often partnered with an on-line community.

I call it Local Social. It is more authentic and builds a real-world experience. A relevant environment where each and everyone is part of the discussion. It is really what drives word-of-mouth marketing and builds effective crowd-sourcing and personal conversation. But how does a national or international corporation reach their target market in this environment? 

Answer: Not the way they have been. They need to adapt new techniques in the local social space. Engage community advocates for their brand. Brand evangelizers in a given market can be the difference in success or failure of an awareness campaign. Those more savvy, can sniff out an ad vs a discussion from miles away. So be careful or they will turn on you!

I know very well the importance of local social because of a community effort I have co-founded in Los Angeles. We have created a family of local social networks that continue to grow organically from community member involvement. You can find more about what we are doing at http://openneighborhoods.net/  As a creative marketing consultant, I am also involved with brands and organizations that are in development of similar awareness campaigns to engage their community. I see this being a serious trend in effective marketing as we move forward in the digital space. Not an old concept, but rather the same idea in a new era.

John

Pete’s team over at Mashable just posted a great story about the general concept and it discusses it in terms of a “community manager”.

As the world of dominant brands becomes more fragmented, established companies and startups are hiring community managers to cultivate an engaged community in a digital world where customers? experiences with the product is amplified through social media, whether good or bad. And it?s not just the experience that users value; the relationships and connections they are able to make with companies and fellow consumers are just as important.

As a result, engaging users online and off has become evermore important for both companies big and small. That?s because social media has revolutionized the idea of word-of-mouth marketing, providing not only an opportunity for companies to expand their brands but also creating the risk of a customer service nightmare.

Community managers, who come in all shapes and sizes depending on the company and its mission, are often the online face of their companies, and more increasingly, offline as well. They?re the social strategist, community builder, storyteller, marketer, product manager, designer and evangelist rolled all into one. But most importantly, they?re responsible in projects and initiatives that strengthen the community of consumers, users and customers of the company.

Though there?s no silver bullet to being a successful community manager, for those aspiring to become one, we?ve gathered some tips from community builders on what it takes to land a job and be effective at cultivating community.

read more here…

Tom Brokaw’s The Greatest Generation may have been The Greenest Generation too.

/ John Ayers / Leave a comment

For the past three weeks, I (with my wife & kids) took a remarkable and beautiful trip around a good portion of the United States. We camped at Grand Teton and Yellowstone. Watched herds of bison grazing and even saw a bison swimming across the Yellowstone river in Hayden valley. We watched cut-throat trout spawning, saw Old Faithful… and saw a great number of elk including one that was a 16 pointer. One morning I was startled by a deer passing thru our camp-site. We continued on to see Devil’s Tower, got caught in a rain and hail storm on our way to Mt Rushmore. We then camped near the developing sculpture of Crazy Horse and drove through the Black Hills and the Badlands. In South Dakota, we saw a black bear wild preserve, and watched for miles upon miles the richness of farmland producing corn, wheat and other crops seemed to be flourishing. Huge sky, big clouds, green pastures and clean air, just as it was growing up in the Midwest.

Img_8018_2

As we continued on – across the top of our nation’s wonders, we made our way to a vacation and family visit in Wisconsin. After this truly wonderful trip to get to my home-town – what was remarkable was how eco-conscious my elderly parents are. I have witnessed them for years being cautious of their over-use of ‘things’.

This visit it dawned on me that it went way beyond that. It is part of who they are, not who they are trying to be or become.
They will reuse a napkin on occasion. They have one small (tiny) trash can in the kitchen and naturally recycle, or compost everything else. The empty peanut butter jar could have been sent back to the packing plant to refill – they scrape it so clean. The dishes aren’t done with water running, but rather with a small bit of soapy water in the sink. The backyard is full of raspberry bushes, flowers, green beans, onion, tomatoes and more. They don’t water the lawn., they cut it and let nature take it’s course through the seasons. Never will you see a bit of food thrown away. The lights are only on if needed.

Witnessing their innate responsibility made me look at our own generation and the younger generations as well. My conclusion is that we have all been pretty fat and happy for far too long, and it is time that we take a serious look to prior generations to see how they lived. Ask any elderly person who actually lived through the depression of the 1930’s and I can assure you they will recall the times where they had to reduce, reuse and recycle not because someone told them to, not because it was chic or because they were trying to make a social statement. It was because it made sense to their well-being.

What I also noticed is that farmlands are turning into wind and solar farms. Among the 1000’s of acres of crops we drove passed, I often witnessed wind-farms among the rows of corn and wheat. Additionally, I saw a number of small communities with solar panels being used for a remote location, be it a farm house, an outpost off the freeway and even some solar farms.

Img_8742_2

Growing up in the midwest, I was born and raised in a natural environment and having gone on this trip brought back some wonderful memories and provided a perspective for me that I wanted to share. The bottom line, I suggest you dig in the dirt and plant a garden, turn off the light when you leave the room and finish all of the food on your plate.

:?)

Today’s Menu? Fresh Solar – Washing panels and harvesting veggies.

/ John Ayers / Leave a comment
Growing up in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, it seems we always had a garden in our backyard. Most everyone did. It just was the way it was in my neighborhood.  Green beans, radishes, raspberries, rhubarb, carrots, sunflowers, pumpkins, corn, the whole works. No we didn’t have a cow, but we did have bunnies, dogs, and chickens I recall.

I miss so many aspects of the garden, and one of the reasons over the past few years our family has planted our own. Digging in the dirt, seeing the origin of the plant pop up through the soil, nurturing nature, and ultimately harvesting the produce with my family… it is all so rewarding and fulfilling.

Now living in Southern California, it seems there is a renewed energy (pun intended) to plant a garden. Maybe it’s the ‘in’ or ‘hip’ thing to do. Maybe it’s the economy. I’m not sure, but I am happy it is making its way into urban environments. Last year, we had more lettuce than we knew what to do with, this year a surprisingly large pumpkin plant has taken over a good area of the garden.

Around the time of last years harvest I installed solar panels on my roof as part of a community solar program I helped organize. In fact, we are about to launch another one in the coming months for the Los Angeles area you can check out more info here.

Today, I took a few minutes to hop on the roof and (Ed Begley Jr style) wash off my panels. No, I’m not a crazy ‘greeny’. I just embraced a few ideas, welcomed back some old habits and ushered in some new habits that make sense to me.

John

Img_0283Img_0282

[iPhone4] Latest info and best iPhone4 news and reviews for you – all in one place.

/ John Ayers / Leave a comment

A few years ago – I bought, (actually my wife bought me – for a gift), the original, first generation iPhone. She knew I wanted one, I have been an early adopter, and although I have been a bit cynical and critical of Steve Jobs and the Apple attitude for the past decade or so, when the iPhone was release, I saw it as actually being a real shift in technology. Similar to what had happened in (desktop) print publishing 20 years ago, and (digital) music publishing 10 years ago… and now it is happening with human mobility. Or maybe we can call it “personal publishing.”

At a recent Digital Hollywood conference, I saw a great deal of iPads floating around, I would look over someone’s shoulder, say “hey how’d you like your iPad?” they always smiled as if a kid in a sandbox with the toy that the other kids wanted to play with. A few weeks back I also heard Jon Stewart blast Apple and Jobs about the iPad being nothing more than a bulky iPhone, but you can’t make a phone call with it.

For me… I’m still holding my first gen iPhone in hand, I look to you and others who have adopted the 3G and now the new iPhone 4. Do you like em? Are they revolutionary or rather evolutionary of the revolution that has already occurred. Don’t get me wrong… why not get all the latest, greatest gadgets. The other day, I saw the line outside the Apple store 5 days in advance of the iPhone… 5 DAYS!!!

Anyway… as you and I determine the true value of mobile technology in our own lives and how the iPhone 4 fits into it, I thought I’d share some of the latest info regarding the new iPhone 4 (the upgrade)

If you already have one… please share your thoughts.
@johnayers

Mashable: Reception issue http://tinyurl.com/2dhn489

PC World: Antenna Problems http://tinyurl.com/23jwd52

Apple: iPhone is great http://www.apple.com/iphone/

USA Today: iPhone 4 sales solid in first day http://tinyurl.com/362zbaq

Engadget: iPhone Review http://tinyurl.com/3yx28lh

Huffington Post: Worst things about iPhone http://tinyurl.com/2377l66

PTech: iPhone – Top of Class http://tinyurl.com/32xe9ae

cNet: Reviews http://www.cnet.com/apple-iphone.html

Macnn: Jobs responds to Reception http://tinyurl.com/2gy46fx

CapitalTalk: iPhone Tech Problems http://capitaltalk.org/read/2973/default.html

The Next Web: Battery Life http://tinyurl.com/36tu9y6

ComputerWorld: FaceTime (videochat) http://tinyurl.com/27xtbz9

How do YOU view a page on Facebook and do you think Facebook advertising works?

/ John Ayers / Leave a comment

So you woke up this morning, logged into Facebook to check your friends updates, you decided to share a funny story from the other day, navigated a few other pages, then went over to your email, came back to Facebook to post a video someone just sent to you, shared some info on a news piece, connected with a colleague and sent a FB message to a family member.

You’ve been looking at Facebook for over 30 minutes… you have clicked on dozens of pages, links, walls, posts. Maybe made a comment, “liked” something, or started a new group.

But here’s the question: have you seen any of the ads?
Do you see it like this image below? Where you are reading only what you want and completely disregarding all other information?

I want to know what you think about the effectiveness of Facebook advertising?

Tweet me thoughts at:
http://twitter.com/johnayers/
@johnayers
#facebook

Facebook me thoughts at:
http://www.facebook.com/ayers
JohnAyers

Facebookreality