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Erika Mauer Was My Neighbor in Berlin

Chris Abraham — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 16:26:39 +0000

Berlin is surely the coolest city on earth. Erika La Tour Eiffel (AKA Erika Mauer) was my next-door neighbor for a while in Berlin. She is an Objectum Sexual and here is her story! (You can watch all of the episodes here):

Don’t let the unique nature of her sexual orientation to turn you off to her. She’s a badass and have accomplished amazing things in her 37+ years. She is coo, she is creative, and she is unique, for sure! I like her, she’s cool and doing cool things and definitely living her life her way.

Erika “Aya” Eiffel is authentic, amazing, and a world-class Olympic archer and was trained in Japan in the art of the Samurai sword and was actually conferred a world title in Soga-Ryu iai-batto-jutsu, san-dan (3rd level black belt) in Toyama-Ryu iai-batto-jutsu, and san-dan in the Zen Nihon To-Do Renmei:

From Erika “Aya” La Tour Eiffel’s Bio
I always had a fascination for weapons. Strange you say? Strange enough, that it lead me to start martial arts. I wanted to learn to use the Japanese katana. My plight eventually took me to Japan to study with the true masters of Japanese sword fighting. A few years ago my back nearly won the battle but after seven months of rehab, I returned and won a World Title and became the youngest instructor in the art of Soga-Ryu iai-batto-jutsu. I continued my love of the Japanese sword and earned the rank of san-dan (3rd level black belt) in Toyama-Ryu iai-batto-jutsu and also achieved san-dan in the Zen Nihon To-Do Renmei. I know, I know, I need start a webpage just dedicated to my other life as a swordswoman in Japan!

How cool is that? Amazing! Well, it doesn’t stop there… Erika “Aya” Eiffel transitioned away from swordsmanship to becoming an Olympic archer using her beloved recurve bow, Lance:

Archer Spotlight on Aya La Brie By Steve Ross
Having only started her archery career four years ago in 1999, Erika “Aya” La Brie had a tremendous year competitively in 2004. She was part of the Women’s Compound Team that took home a gold medal and new world record at the World Target Championships in New York City this past July. At the NAA Nationals, she shot both recurve and compound taking 10th and third place respectively. Aya also shoots the modern Longbow, traditional Japanese bow and is skilled in martial arts. I managed to catch Aya during an archery “holiday” due to a mountain bike accident.
USAA: I heard you recently had a serious mountain bike accident. What happened and will it impact your archery plans for the rest of the outdoor season?
Erika “Aya” La Brie: Well, I prefer to commute on my mountain bike as a form of cross training for my archery and last Wed. was no different. I was crossing a street on the walk signal and a truck came from the outside lane and turned in front of me. He sent me sailing when I tried to veer and brake. I flipped twice and crashed in a heap in the middle of the street. He paused only long enough to see if I was alive and sped off once I sat up.
I ended up with three mashed ribs, elbows, knee and ankle and large scrapes on my back. Fortunately, I always wear a helmet, which cracked. Otherwise, I have no crippling injuries. However, it did put a damper on the IBO Worlds, which I had to fly to the next morning followed by a five-hour drive. I managed to shoot but was in a lot of pain the whole weekend. Since my return, my training has been put on hold for the next few weeks to let my ribs and knee heal. I have never taken more than two weeks off from training and will have to rely on mental imagery until I can shoot again. Mental training helped me earlier this year when I was hospitalized for two weeks. All the experience gained from this year will help put together a good regimen until I’m ready to hit the range again.
USAA: I’m glad you’re ok and will only need a short break. You have had a fantastic year; shooting on the women’s compound team that shot a new world record must have been great.
Erika “Aya” La Brie: “Fantastic year” is more of an understatement to describe the year I’ve had! I started archery with recurve in 1999 and shot for one year before an injury forced me to shoot with a release if I wanted to continue shooting. So I picked up compound and shot for a year until last year when my hand healed and I could shoot fingers again. I switched back to recurve and made the U.S. World Field Team and alternate for the World Indoor Team. However, after shooting the Vegas Shoot this year with compound and recurve I decided I wanted to shoot both bows for NAA ranking. I had already decided I would shoot both bows at the Target Nationals, so I needed to divvy out the USAT events between both to meet the requirements. Indoor Nationals was the first step for my compound and decided the AZ Cup would be the second. The rest of the season would be recurve. Famous last words…
USAA: Tell me about shooting at the World Target event; do you treat it any different than just a normal FITA event?
Erika “Aya” La Brie: I was still in a dream-like state when I arrived in New York after making the U.S. Compound Team. I never ever imagined I would win the FITA and OR at the Arizona Cup, Texas Shootout and Gold Cup! Now I was standing on the shooting line at the World Target Championships!
All my FITA’s up to that point, I had trained myself not to fear the consequences of my shooting because I shot only for me. If I shot poorly, surely I would not shrivel up and die. Now for the first time I felt the weight of being on a team and representing the USA. My teammates were all experienced veterans and after having some difficulties on the first day of the FITA, I was afraid I would not be permitted to shoot the team round as the coach and other members questioned my experience. I pushed myself even harder and achieved several personal bests in the FITA and the matches. Now I felt that I had to prove myself to my team and to my country. To my greatest relief, the coach chose me to be the starting shooter in the team round. Since I was a rookie and had no expectations other than to shoot my best, I feel very blessed that I share a world record and have a gold medal.
USAA: Did you do any special training?
Erika “Aya” La Brie: Two weeks prior to the World Target, I moved to the Archery International Training Center in Carbondale, Ill. I worked on my backup bow and practiced shooting matches and having to deal with equipment failure etc. Good thing because I had to use my backup bow for one of the team matches. But not all my training was for the Worlds. I also had to train for the ESPN Great Outdoor Games, which was held just prior to the worlds. The Games required a speed setup and also a considerably faster shooting style than I use for target.
USAA: I don’t know of many archers who in the matter of just a few years are competing at the level you are. Do you credit some of this to your background in martial arts?
Erika “Aya” La Brie: I have made two world teams in four years with two different bows. I guess it is not common, but I have always felt my archery was a continuation of the martial arts I started many years prior to picking up a bow and arrow.
USAA: From what I understand you were a serious student of Japanese swordsmanship and Kyudo (Japanese archery). Can you describe this training?
Erika “Aya” La Brie: When I started martial arts, I quickly realized that contact martial arts was not a field I should explore if I wanted to preserve my kneecaps. So it seemed reasonable that I should fall in love with weapon’s work. The Japanese sword became my top choice from an arsenal of amazing traditional weapons. Along with training to draw, block and cut, I learned the value of becoming “one with your weapon.” This approach to fighting is where I found the most valuable tool for the mental game I currently use. Being so in tune with my katana definitely facilitated my way to winning the World Cup seven years ago. The katana was not a choice weapon for women. The training was rigorous and dangerous as we used live blades and actually cut in practice. Ask me how dangerous someday!
When I started Kyudo, I found myself getting very frustrated because of a handicap in my right shoulder. Regardless of how much I practiced, my shoulder refused to relinquish the flexibility I needed for certain motions in the shooting sequence. I shot four hours every day on a rooftop range at a Shinto shrine in Kamakura with my Japanese bow (yumi). Six months later I beat my entire school at a dojo tourney. I also was the first female non-Japanese to be inducted into the Ogasawara School of Mounted Archery. However, I knew that the beauty that made Kyudo an art would never be found with the imperfections in my form. I never even cared if I hit the target. I only wanted to shoot with beautiful style and form. I most definitely credit my training in martial arts to my advancement in archery. My bow is NOT equipment but an extension of my own being, just as my katana and my yumi were. My form, also unorthodox in many ways, is a style of my own and one that I am committed to.
USAA: You shoot Olympic style recurve, FITA compound, and various traditional bows. As for tournaments, you participate in NAA, 3-D, FITA and NFAA. Am I missing anything?
Erika “Aya” La Brie: I am still new to 3-D but have competed in a couple ASA and IBO tournaments each. I would like to shoot more 3-D but most are on the other side of the Mississippi. Since moving to Colorado, I have enjoyed shooting in CSAA (Colorado State Archery Association) tournaments and have broken nine state records since last December with all three bows. I am also new to the NFAA this year and was surprised to find a whole different organization with a different approach to target and field shooting as compared to the NAA.
USAA: Do you find it difficult switching between styles?
Erika “Aya” La Brie: This is the most frequently asked question. I learned recurve from a coach in Japan, but I taught myself to shoot compound and recently, modern longbow. Strange enough, my styles are so different from each other that I do not find it hard to switch, even in the same tournament and on occasion, the same shooting line. I find it a challenge to shoot all three bows at the same event, kind of like an archery triathlon.
USAA: Do you have a personal coach?
Erika “Aya” La Brie: When I started recurve archery in April of 1999, I had a wonderful coach for six months: Tastuo Nobori. He was my only coach and was very strict about mental and physical conditioning. But the foundations that he laid, I still use today. I’ve never had a compound coach. I just wanted to continue shooting so badly that I figured out how by applying what I learned with recurve to compound.
USAA:What is your training schedule like?
Erika “Aya” La Brie: I try to shoot four hours every day with focus on repetition of my shot sequence. At the end of training I usually do stamina exercises with my bow followed by a short run. I also cross-train by riding 30-50 miles or more a week on my mountain bike. I also jog 5 miles/run, a couple times per week. Every night just before bed I take a hot shower and stretch for 20 min. NO exceptions! I also do a lot of visual training using former pressure situations as the model.
USAA: Would you like to mention anyone in particular for giving you support this year?
Erika “Aya” La Brie: I never dreamed I would have the support that I do in archery. My greatest being from the Lord above. My sponsors are TechnoHunt, Doinker, Sure-Loc, Golden Key Futura, Carter and Specialty Archery. I would like to thank Hoyt USA for making great compound and recurve bows.
USAA: What are your compound and recurve setups?
Compound: 60# Hoyt UltraTec XT3000 Cam 1½, Easton X-10 500 Spin Wings, SureLoc Supreme, Specialty Super Scope 6X, Doinker² Stabilizer,
Recurve: 44# Hoyt Avalon+ and FX Limbs, Easton ACE 570, SureLoc FITA Extreme

She is also on the 2009 National Team for Archery, Recurve Bow:

The 2009 Senior USAT Team includes:
Recurve
Men Women
Dan Schuller – Mercer, PA Karen Scavotto – Enfield, CT
Joe McGlyn – Floral Park, NY Erin Mickelberry – Bothell, WA
Jason McKittrick – Holton, IN Stephanie Miller – Naperville, IL
Dakota Sinclair – Ridgecrest, CA Lori Cieslinski – Howell, MI
Ted Holland – Westminster, CO Kendra Harvey – Rio Rancho, NM
Jake Kaminski – Edgewater, FL Erika “Aya” Eiffel – Suisun, CA
Timm Hines – Kent, WA Amanda Nichols – Cheyenne, WY
Tyler Domenech – Holtwood, PA *Jennifer Nichols – Cheyenne, WY
*Vic Wunderle – Mason City, IL *Khatuna Lorig – Los Angeles, CA

Here are some more newspaper articles you can check out:

Woman with objects fetish marries Eiffel Tower
Erika La Tour Eiffel, 37, a former soldier who lives in San Francisco, has been in love with objects before. Her first infatuation was with Lance, a bow that helped her to become a world-class archer, she is fond of the Berlin Wall and she claims to have a physical relationship with a piece of fence she keeps in her bedroom.
But it is the Eiffel Tower she has pledged to love, honour and obey in an intimate ceremony attended by a handful of friends.
She has changed her name legally to reflect the bond.
Before returning to Paris for her first wedding anniversary, Mrs La Tour Eiffel visits the Berlin Wall, where her affection for what many Germans see as a symbol of repression leads to an uncomfortable encounter with a member of the staff at the Checkpoint Charlie museum.
She explained that she feels an affinity with the wall: “I am the Berlin Wall. Hate me, try to break me apart, but I will still be here, standing.”

‘I married the Eiffel Tower’
Imagine a world in which people seem hostile while inanimate objects appear friendly – even affectionate. Imagine dreading the touch of another human but longing for a passionate encounter with a large public structure. This is the strange world of the “objectum sexual”– a group of people, mainly women, whose intimate lives revolve around objects with which they say they share romantic and sexual love.
As a documentary film-maker passionate about exploring psychological aspects of human nature, I have made films about bigamists, domestic violence and co-dependent anorexic twins. Modern society is a never-ending source of these stories. It is still exceptional for a father to lock up his daughter for 24 years in a cellar, but scratch the surface and it seems that good personal relationships are rare. To fill their emotional needs, people are increasingly turning to a variety of substitutes: from internet virtual reality and food to… well, objects.
On first meeting, Erika La Tour Eiffel appears extraordinarily ordinary. An ex-US Army soldier, the 36-year-old lives in San Francisco. She is also a former world champion in archery – propelled to success, she believes, by her love for Lance, a bow. She now claims to be married to the Eiffel Tower, following a ceremony with friends last year in Paris, at which she promised eternal love to the iron monument and changed her name legally to reflect the bond. “There is a huge problem with being in love with a public object,” she says sadly. “The issue of intimacy – or rather lack of it – is forever present.”

She is currently married to the Berlin Mauer, which is why her name has changed to Erika Mauer.

Lee Hopkins on Email Marketing in Digital PR

Chris Abraham — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 15:40:31 +0000

When I realized that I could download the OPML file from the Power 150 site and then hack it around into a contact list of over 900 of the top advertising, marketing, PR, and SEO bloggers on the planet, I did so.

Ever since, I have been scheduling calls with all of the folks I have been admiring on a daily basis. Two days ago I spent an hour on the horn with Lee Hopkins, “one of Australia’s leading thinkers on communication strategy in an online environment,” who is, in fact, one of the World’s leading thinkers on communication strategy in an online environment. We had a great chat — and amazing talk!

At the end, Lee asked me if he could blog the conversation and I jumped at the opportunity and late last night Lee published Is email marketing still relevant in a 2.0 world? which is not only the most complete description of what we at Abraham Harrison LLC do on a daily basis but it is said in a better, more comprehensive, way than I could even conceive of doing myself. Here it is, in full. Be sure to visit (and subscribe to) Better Communication Results, Lee Hopkin’s blog.

Is email marketing still relevant in a 2.0 world?
G’day – thanks for returning!

I just finished a fantastic conversation with Chris Abraham, the President and COO of AbrahamHarrison.
If you’ve been around the internet for a while, especially in the ‘marcoms’ (marketing communications) space, you would certainly have heard of Chris; if not of the man himself then certainly of one of his marketing and outreach programs.
Chris is one of those select few online marketers who’s text doesn’t read like a traditional online direct mail piece – you know, with LOTS OF CAPITALS and heaps of bold text and yellow highlighting and italics and
bullet
points
a-
plenty
and testimonials by the kazillion…
I could point you to a zillion of those sites – which is not to say that the style of marketing they use is not successful; it is, otherwise they wouldn’t keep doing it. But you know as soon as you see the huge, bold, bright red and often in CAPS headline what to expect for the rest of the (very) long toilet roll of a page.
Chris takes a much softer approach, always has done, and it seems to work for him and his style of copywriting.
Video, the radio star and plain ol’ bandwagon idjuts
With the advent of Web2.0/Social Media there were many ill-informed and just plain ‘bandwagon’ pundits who hailed the death of traditional communication tools such as email, web1.0 sites and – gasp – newspaper, magazine, radio and television.
Much as television didn’t kill radio as force it to rethink its place and find its niche, so too with Social Media. Every new technology platform or societal change brings with it a change in how all that came before it must view themselves and continue to offer relevancy.
Radio didn’t die, newspapers haven’t been killed off, I can still pick up plenty of magazines that appeal to all demographics and both genders from my local newsagent, and email hasn’t disappeared off the radar (if my bulging inbox every morning is anything to go by).
So it was fantastic to finally chat with someone who, like me, believes that email is STILL a fundamental part of the marketing toolkit.
In talking with Chris today, he was genuinely flattered that a fellow copywriter would find his material engaging; I thought it was brilliant reading and his deployment strategies for his clients brilliantly executed.
You see, Chris, like me, believes that email won’t go away, but WILL have to change in order to survive in the new communication landscape. Our shared view is that it will have to evolve in a couple of ways:
Shorter emails will be the best way of getting people’s attention
Long-form emails are best saved for newsletters; trying to ‘sell’ via email will become even harder to excel at.
If you’ve ever received one of Chris’ emails, you will be stunned by several things:
They are short – only 2-3 paragraphs
They link off to a SMNR (Social Media News Release) that gives a far more in-depth level of information (and all the material you might need to help you spread the word or get involved)
If you email Chris or anyone of his team back you WILL get a response, usually within 24 hours (Chris says they try to get back within the hour, but time zones can sometime defeat them)
The emails ‘read’ like they were written by a human being, not by a ‘PR’ flack or a ex-journalist hack; they aren’t full of ‘me, me, me’ stuff telling you how wonderful I (the company) am, but neither do they ‘strip-tease tantalise’ you so that when you do click on the link you end up feeling cheated
You get the very real feeling that there’s someone real at the end of the email.
Here’s an example (taken from my post about the Fresh Air Fund):
Hello again, Lee
On Sunday I asked if you would kindly help me spread the word about 200 inner-city children I have yet to place with host families in August. I apologize for following up so soon, but time is of the essence and you know how funny email can be. To make things simple, everything is collected into an online resource page http://freshair.smnr.us
This appeal comes straight from the top, so please do not hesitate to contact me directly.
Yours sincerely,
Sara
–
Sara Wilson
Fresh Air Fund
sara@freshair.org
www.freshair.org
Sara is a real person, not a ‘fake’ character. I sent her an email yesterday, wondering if her ears were burning, because Chris and I were talking about her:
G’day Sara,
Just finished the phone call with Chris — oh boy! Were your ears burning? They should have been!!!
Kindests,
Lee
From: Sara Wilson [mailto:swilson@chrisabraham.com]
Sent: Tuesday, 24 February 2009 2:02 AM
To: Lee@leehopkins.com
Subject: Re: Fellow Power 150 blogger
Hello Lee,
Just a quick note to re-confirm that Chris will be calling you at 10 am, your time, tomorrow (Tuesday).
No need to reply unless something has come up on your end, otherwise he will speak to you in about 7.5 hours!
Best,
Sara
In reply, Sara said,
Lee,
And I thought it was just hot where I was last night …
It’s very kind of you to mention it, thanks. Chris is a great guy to work for, and generous with compliments, but it’s always nice to know that someone appreciates you, isn’t it?
Cheers,
Sara
Controversy
Because Chris and his team start any campaign with an email-based blogger outreach, some of the ‘holier than thou’ social media purists occasionally give him ‘stick’, or snicker behind his back and call him a ‘spammer’. Not true – the team are very hot on ensuring only a good taste remains in the mouth of any blogger they contact, and of only offering bloggers something of actual value to the blogger.
Which is a behaviour totally unlike the hapless, clueless and insulting PR flacks who regularly show up on The Bad Pitch Blog and who attempt to fill my inbox with material about electronics, or sanitary napkins, or (ahem) extension kits, or pharmaceuticals shipped from Canada. Thank goodness I have SpamArrest to filter them out before they hit my inbox!
Chris and his team have painstakingly built up a list of nearly 35,000 bloggers across several different demographics and topic areas of interest. Visiting their blogs, they harvest their email address. They then politely email them once to offer them something of interest – if the blogger likes it, they very often blog about it; it they don’t then they don’t. What is fascinating is the response rate Chris gets for his clients.
Word of mouth and gossip-sharing amongst internet marketers has the average rate of sales of anything (be it a blog post or an ebook or a ‘course you cannot live without’) as around 0.01-0.05% from an initial mailing, with the follow-up mailings increasing that to, perhaps, 1.0-2.0%…
Chris and his team regularly get a takeup in the order of 5%, which is phenomenal. In addition, once you start developing an email relationship with anyone in their team (as I have with Sara Wilson) then all future mailings will receive much more attention than would otherwise be the case. A case in point is my own, later, post on the illegal cluster bombing being carried out in South Ossetia and The Survivor Corps run by activist and author of the very powerful book, I Will Not Be Broken, Jerry White. It is only because Sara had taken the time to develop a relationship with me over previous months that I read and responded to the material from Jerry White. Without that relationship I would never have bothered with a topic outside of my normal areas of interest.
It is the classic ‘relationship marketing’ that Social Media Marketing pundits claim to aim for but rarely achieve.
Goodness, if I could have a dollar for every new ‘expert’ that’s popped up in the Social Media space I would retire a very rich trillionaire (and at the same time wondering how you could be a trillionaire and not be very rich – I guess if you were living in Zimbabwe you wouldn’t be…).
You wouldn’t believe the number of ‘leading social networking and social media marketing experts’ who have suddenly come out of the woodwork and set up communities in places like LinkedIn, Plaxo, Facebook, etc. Curiously, I’ve never heard of these folks before. Most of them don’t even have blogs, or if they do those blogs have only been around for less than a year. Curious, hey?
But Chris, on the other hand, has been around for a long time, has figured out what works and what doesn’t, and as evidence offers the following case studies:
Energy Bill 2007 Case Study
Financial Services Reputation Defense Case Study
Firebrand TV Case Study
Fresh Air Fund Case Study
International Medical Corps Case Study
Movie Producer Reputation Defense Case Study
Snapple Antioxidant Water Case Study
Survivor Corps Book Promotion Case Study
If you want to see the sort of posts that are associated with Chris’ kind of blogger PR pitch outreach, here are some examples:
Thank You Operation Survivor Bloggers
Thank You All Who Supported International Medical Corps!
Thank You Again Survivor Corps Bloggers
Thank You International Medical Corps Bloggers
Thank You Fresh Air Fund Holiday Bloggers
Thank You Fresh Air Fund Bloggers
Thank You Fresh Air Fund Camp Counselor Bloggers!
The Powerful SEO Benefits of Blogger PR Outreach
Happy Thanksgiving from Abraham Harrison
Here are some examples of client SMNRs from Chris and his team that I especially like:
http://anamigo.smnr.us
http://freshair.smnr.us
http://banclusterbombs.smnr.us
http://freshairfundcounselors.smnr.us
http://survivorcorps.smnr.us
http://iwillnotbebroken.smnr.us
http://internationalmedicalcorps.smnr.us
So what???
The whole point of this post is NOT to fawn at the feet of someone who clearly knows what he is doing.
The whole point IS to let you know that you don’t need to throw out your baby with the bathwater:
Don’t jump on the Social Media bandwagon without educated advice
Don’t take advice from a pimply 17 year old fresh out of high school
Don’t take advice from a less-pimply 23 year old fresh out of university
Don’t ditch all of your understanding of how ‘people’ and networks work
Don’t take advice from someone who doesn’t even blog themselves, or Twitter, or Facebook… (see my post about Social Media Gurus)
Don’t take advice from someone who has been blogging less than 24 months
Instead:
Download Todd Defren’s absolutely superb ‘Brink’ guide to Social Media and Richard Meyer’s great presentation, ‘Social Media : What you’re afraid to admit you didn’t know’ (he also has a great pharma and biotech-focused pdf presentation). Download and read Trevor Cook’s and my ‘Social Media Report’.
Talk to someone who actually knows what they are doing – in Australia that means folks like Stephen Collins, Laurel Papworth, Trevor Cook, Darren Rowse, Gavin Heaton and, humbly, yours truly. If WE can’t help you, we can certainly put you in touch with someone who can. Unlike the USA, where there seems to be a spirit of “You’ll prize my rolodex out of my frozen dead fingers!”, there is no fierce spirit of competition here in Australia – we have ‘co-opertition’ wherein we all help each other out if the ‘fit’ seems better for the client.
Stick to reading the seasoned ‘pros’ of the online marketing and/or business communication space: you cannot go wrong if you start at folks like any of the above, or Shel Holtz, Neville Hobson, Chris Brogan, Darren Rowse, Mitch Joel, Joe Jaffe , Laura Fitton and Chris Abraham himself; see who they link to. Follow your nose from them – all the way along the path you will be reading ‘the good oil’ as we say here in Australia
Examine Chris’ examples above and see for yourself how simple but effective your online marketing can be if you do it with the right intention – of helping out the blogger, not flogging stuff for your client. Get the relationship right and you will flog stuff for your client anyway, trust me!
Technorati Tags: chris abraham, laura fitton, joe jaffe, mitch joel, darren rowse, chris brogan, neville hobson, shel holtz, gavin heaton, trevor cook, laurel papworth, stephen collins, richard meyer, todd defren, sara wilson, fresh air fund, chrisabraham, bad pitch blog, social media, blogger relations, social marketing, email marketing, email, spam, spam arrest, spamarrest, business communication
Currently listening to ‘Next’ by The Necks from the album ‘Next’. Superb jazz funk from one of Australia’s great cult bands.

Thank You Fresh Air Fund Camp Counselor Bloggers!

Chris Abraham — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 21:06:19 +0000

Fresh Air Fund not only needs host families, donations, and children every year, FAF also needs camp counselors to staff the summer camps every year. The Fresh Air Fund and Abraham Harrison LLC reached out and over 120 bloggers and Twitterers responded to the call. We thank you all very much and we appreciate all of your hard work on Fresh Air Fund’s behalf! Much obliged!

Fresh Air Fund Looking for Help via Three Rivers Episcopal
Hiring Camp Counselors for This Summer! via The Abraham & Harrison Blogger blog
Fresh Air Fund via All Said and Done
Fresh Air Fund via Reflective Ponderings
banner via Spectrum, Apex College
Now Hiring: Fresh Air Fund Summer Camp Staff via Assertagirl
Old-School Fun via Half the Sins of Mankind
Fresh Air Fund Looking for Summer ’09 Counselors via Best View in Brooklyn
Wednesday, February 11, 2009 via Ghana for a While
Fresh Air Fund, Non Profit, Now Accepting Applications from Gen Y for Summer Jobs via The Orrell Group
Fresh Air Fund Needs Counselors for Summer 2009! via Chris Abraham
The Fresh Air Fund via Brilliance or Madness
Hiring Camp Counselors for This Summer! via Chris Abraham Social Media PR & Blogging Expert
Hiring For Camp Counselor Jobs via Chris Abraham’s Weblog
The Fresh Air Fund! via Around the World in beautiful Shoes
the fresh air fund JOBS via Around the World in beautiful Shoes
Information via Because I’m Cool Like That…
Fresh Air Fund Now Accepting Applications for Counselors via Danny Fisher
Fresh Air Fund via Chen Chow
Hiring Camp Counselors for This Summer! via April 24th Blogging Basics
Hiring Camp Counselors for This Summer via My Blog
Hiring Camp Counselors for This Summer! via Chris Abraham
Hiring Camp Counselors for This Summer via Chris Abraham Ceci N’est Pas Un Blog
Help inner-city kids enjoy a summer vacation via Christifideles
Fresh Air Fund and saying no to buracracy via My Time in Cape Verde with Peace Corps
Hiring Camp Counselors for This Summer! via Official Colexica Blog
The Fresh Air Fund Needs Counselors for the Summer of ’09 via Make it Happen
Senator John Cornyn;Texas’ Embarrasment! via Dicky’s Doodles &Scribbles
Michael Steele; The Putney Swope Of The GOP via Dicky’s Doodles &Scribbles
From the Mailbag: Fresh Air Fund Needs Counselors for Summer 2009! via Epluribus Media
Rethinking Fresh Air via Rethinking Life
The Fresh Air Fund: Needs Counselors for the Summer of ’09! via Faithful Progressive
Your Money: The Fresh Air Fund via Cute, Cuddly, and Cannibalistic
Hiring Camp Counselors for This Summer! via Fresh Air Fund
Hiring Camp Counselors for the Summer via Fresh Air Fund Blog
Do Something Good: The Fresh Air Fund via Gingerbread Latte: The E! True Hollywood Story
2009: THE FRESH AIR FUND: VOLUNTEERS NEEDED via Tom Glover’s Hamilton Scrapbook
2/4/09 PRESS RELEASE: Fresh Air Fund via Greenwich Roundup: This Just In ……
From Ashton Kutcher to Soup: Super Bowl Giving via Have Fun Do Good
Fresh Air Fund via The Common Room
Fresh Air via The Hosanna Road
Link via Whole
Fresh Air Fund via Rickety Contrivances of Doing Good
Wednesday, February 11, 2009 via In the Direction of my Daydreams
The Fresh Air Fund via About.com Internships
A Peal via Jakartass
Wednesday, February 4, 2009 via Happy at HFC
The Fresh Air Fund Needs Counselors via Jewels of My Heart
The Fresh Air Fund via Following My Heart
THE FRESH AIR FUND 2009 via Whykay’s Happenings
Fresh Air Fund via Keokuk Radio News Blog
Kill Jill Turns One! :D via Kill Jill Goes to College
Volunteering= Good for the Soul via La Petite Fashionista
The Fresh Air Fund Wants You! via I Say Hella
Hiring Camp Counselors for This Summer! via Memes.org
Looking For A Summer Job? Give Back! via Micah Jesse Blog
via Mind Warriors
Fresh Air Fund Needs Counselors for Summer 2009! via Blah Blah Babycakes
Fresh Air Fund via Money Amulet
Philanthropy: The Fresh Air Fund via Movable Hype
The Fresh Air Fund via Beyond the Clouds
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The Hot Club of San Francisco takes audience to a simpler time via Ocolly.com
Make a difference this summer: leave home via Our pdx Network
Monday Afternoon Dept of Failures & Such via Page One
Long overdue… via Fijate que…Life of an El Salvador RPCV
My Favorite Links via Peace Corps Diary: Botswana 2008
Link via Pine Ridge Reflections
Fresh Air Fund Needs Counselors: Summer’09 via Pro Equestrian World Edition
Fresh Air Fund Needs Counselors: Summer’09 via REVISTA PROEQUESTRIAN ROMANIA
Get a Job! The Fresh Air Fund via Punk Rock
Fresh Air Fund Looking for Counselors via Ned Resnikoff
Hot fun in the city… via RoadTurn: Reflections on Life
Hiring Camp Counselors for This Summer! via The Russell Pike Blog
Banner via Salamu Kenya!
FRESH AIR FUND COUNSELORS via Samotalis
Make a Difference – Support the Fresh Air Fund! via In The South, We’re Not Crazy…We’re Eccentric!
The Fresh Air Fund via Shamazing
Hiring Camp Counselors for This Summer! via SMNR Social Media News Room
Wanted: Counselors who enjoy Fresh Air via Star City Harbinger
FYI – summer camp counselors needed via Steph in Burkina Faso
Volunteer as a Fresh Air Fund Counselor via System 13
Banner via Tangocherie
Link via Livin’ la Vida Loca: Peace Corps DR!
Sure, I’ll Support Your Camp, As Long As It Isn’t Jesus Camp via The Political Blog For Cynical Millennials
“Fresh Air” for Children via The Buddha Diaries
LINK via Third Mom
Fresh Air Fund is looking for a few good counselors via Left of Centre
Tweet via Blog Business World
Who says there are no jobs? Get a summer one! With Fresh Air Fund. http://tinyurl.com/6qkwwp via Young Manhattanite
Tweet via Lindsey Pollak
Tweet via Thoughts from Meggie Poo
Tweet via Deb’s Search and Rescue Stories
Fresh Air Fund Job Opportunities via Volunteer Boston: Get On Your Feet
Fresh Air Fund via Winny & B
Fresh Air Fund Camp Counselor Opportunities via Boarding School Blog
The Fresh Air Fund via Novel Inspiration
Camp Out & Change Lives! via Bare Essentials
The Fresh Air Fund needs Summer Counselors via Blogging for Business
banner via Bloody Brilliant
Counselors for 09 Summer Camps Required via Cop Recruiter
Change a Young Life this Summer via Everyday Giving Blog
The Fresh Air up There via Laura in Botswana
HIRING CAMP COUNSELORS FOR THE SUMMER! via Peter Geisheker’s Small Business Marketing Blog
For the kids… via Golfgal
Banner via Gotham Unleashed
Fresh Air Fund Is Hiring Counselors via Granby 01033
banner via Jewish Donor Blog
Doesn’t Everyone Deserve a Breath of Fresh Air? via Mamanista
The Fresh Air Fund is Looking for Camp Counselors via Math Me Thinks
So…what are YOU doing this summer? Here’s an idea…that pays! via The Online Degree Dorm Room
Fresh Air Fund Needs Camp Counselors via Outskirts:Life and Times in Charlottesville
General Discussion Message Board via Ram Nation
THE FRESH AIR FUND IS SEEKING COUNSELORS FOR THE SUMMER OF ’09 via Republica Update
Summer jobs with Fresh Air Fund (now accepting applications) via Secrets of The Job Hunt
Fresh Air Fund Counsellors via Servant of Chaos
A Breath of Fresh Air via TMT
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The World Needs Camp Counselors via Thoughts from Meggie Poo
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Hiring Camp Counselors for This Summer! via The Xyience Diet Resource
Fresh Air Fund via Yoga and Judaism Center
Fresh Air Fund Needs Counselors for Summer 2009! via Young Manhattanite

Will Google Android Move To The Desktop? Maybe Yes!

Chris Abraham — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 20:46:40 +0000

Lots of respectable geeks have been looking into their crystal balls, foreseeing the day, sometime soon, when Google Android, the Google OS for phones — the gPhone — moves up the developmental totem, jumping to the netbook, then to the laptop, and finally to the desktop, resulting in an integrated Google world of Google Mail, Google Docs, Google Reader, Google Search, and Google Videos! Sounds like bloody heaven to me because I run my business on Google (and here’s proof) Via WiredGadget Lab:

Google’s Android operating system is not just for mobile phones. It is coming to netbooks.
Asus, which kickstarted the netbook market with its Eee PCs, has put a team of engineers to work on developing an Android-based device.
The company could have a netbook with Android OS the end of the year, says Samson Hu, head of the Asus’ Eee PC business in an interview with Bloomberg.
Asus already has some experience with Android. The company is working with GPS-based navigation devices maker Garmin to launch a line of new phones, some of which will run Android.
The Android operating system released in October through the HTC T-Mobile G1 phone has already captured the attention of cellphone makers. Handset manufacturers such as Motorola, LG and Samsung are developing cellphones that run Android operating system.
If Asus releases a netbook running Android, it won’t be long before other netbook makers such as Acer jump on the bandwagon.

MySpace Versus Facebook Goes to Facebook

Chris Abraham — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 17:35:28 +0000

Some interesting news about the MySpace versus Facebook competition for number one social network from the gang over at Mashable, Facebook Overtakes MySpace (Again):

MySpace is running out of surveys that still place it as the #1 social network in the US. After yielding the position to Facebook earlier this month in stats released by Compete, today, the social network slips to second place in the latest numbers from Nielsen Online.
According to data from January, Facebook saw 62.4 million unique visitors, besting MySpace and its 60.6 million uniques for the first time in the survey. At the end of 2008, MySpace still held a narrow lead, with 58.4 million unique visitors in December compared to Facebook’s 55.2 million.
As for those engagement numbers that MySpace likes to cling to? It can no longer claim a lead there either – engagement fell to one hour, 35 minutes per user in January, down 32 percent from last year and barely more than half of Facebook’s two hours, 50 minutes per user.
We’ve been documenting the ascent of Facebook versus MySpace on a monthly (if not more frequent) basis, but for some longer-term perspective, check out this post from mid-2007 to see just how big a shift this represents. Back then, MySpace claimed 3x more traffic, 3x more engagement, and claimed to not only be America’s most popular social network, but its most popular website.

Online Reputation Management Needs to Be Proactive

Chris Abraham — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 16:43:00 +0000

We do brand reputation and online reputation management and the number one thing we tell our clients is that if you don’t amplify your brand online — add some signal to the noise, if you will — then someone else will. And, you can do this before you’re attacked or you can do it afterwards as an ORM campaign, which, like going to a plumber when your pipes burst, is generally much more expensive. Better to maintain than to repair. Here’s a great article from over on Online Publicity Journal that you should check out, Be Proactive – Don’t Wait Until Negative Press Finds You!:

The internet has allowed people who have normally been quiet to now have a voice, and sometimes a loud one. That voice can easily cripple your business model and stop or slow down revenues coming like a wrench thrown into the gears. One online complaint can send ripples very quickly through your business model.
Whistle blowing websites are everywhere and frustrated clients and customers are waiting for a reason to shout and make noise if things go sour with their experience. If you haven’t’ done any proactive online marketing and your reputation has not been tarnished yet than that is great. But all it takes one angry customer to ruin that good luck streak and you just never know when it could occur.
Many times it will be from an angry customer you have never even heard from who just didn’t even bother contacting you first to try to fix the problem. If you take a proactive approach right from the beginning you can allow yourself to build up a barrier and wall against new, fresh new negative publicity coming in. It is much easier to build a barrier for you business of positive information before negative press finds it way to your search results.
With consumer confidence down and online customers becoming more and more savvy each day more and more online shoppers want to see a squeaky clean online image. If they see any angry clients or customers it could easily trigger them to purchase or do business with a competitor. Online publicity is a very quick and easy way to start building a clean online reputation.
As others pick up your releases you will effectively add more content to your search results. As these links sit and age they become anchored into the search results making it much more difficult for any Rip Off Report and Pissed Consumer listings to make their way to your search results generated by someone search for your personal or business name.

Aston Martin Revives the Lagonda (Really?)

Chris Abraham — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 18:47:41 +0000

Back in the late 70s and 80s, Aston Martin made a terrible mistake in a modern interpretation of the Aston Martin Lagonda from 1976-1989. It was the first modern Aston Martin. It followed the unfortunate trend in the 70s and 80s when European car makers tried to become more like American muscle cars and tried to appeal to the need of the power brokers of the 80s who wanted bigger, faster, shinier, and more powerful emblems for their wealth. The Lamborghini Countach, the Lamborghini LM002, the Ferrari Berlinetta Boxer, and this model of Porsche 911 are prime examples.

Well, according to Jalopnik, Aston Martin plans to revive the brand:

As rumored, Aston Martin is readying the Lagonda nameplate for an all-newGeneva Motor Show concept. The secret concept, previewing a new brand, is said to be a perfect blend of practicality and performance.
Lagonda was founded in 1906, but was purchased and integrated by Aston Martin in 1947. The Lagonda name has been affixed to Aston Martins since then, and graced the quirky 80s-era Aston Martin Lagonda, but has never been its own brand. According to Aston Martin, the Lagonda nameplate is preparing to celebrate its 100th anniversary next year (no, that makes no sense to us either) and to commemorate the occasion, an all-new concept will debut at the Geneva Motor Show in March.
There’s no telling what this concept could be other than a competitor in the luxury car market filled with Bentleys and Rolls Royces, but Aston Martin is already talking about a production schedule for a 2012 on-sale date. We’ll keep our eyes peeled.
Aston Martin Press Release:
Aston Martin CEO confirms the revival of the Lagonda MarqueAston Martin Chief Executive Officer Dr Ulrich Bez has today confirmed his intention to revive the Lagonda marque.
In a statement today he said, “After my eight years with Aston Martin, four with profitability, and 16 months of independence, it’s time to think about a longer term future. Aston Martin is an honest, authentic brand which builds the most beautiful sportscars combining modern technology with craftsmanship. Next year we will launch the four door Rapide sportscar, and this will be followed by the project ‘one 77′, the most spectacular Aston Martin ever. Aston Martins are currently available in 32 countries but we will remain limited in our market penetration by the pure character of our cars – sportscars.
“We have now investigated and concluded that the revival of the Lagonda brand would allow us to develop cars which can have a different character than a sportscar, and therefore offer a perfect synergy. Lagonda will use a unique design language as Aston Martin does. We will take elements of DNA from the past but will be very future orientated as we are with Aston Martin. With Lagonda offering exclusive, luxurious and truly versatile products with high quality and usability and suitable for both existing and emerging markets, I believe we can be present in more than 100 countries in the world.
“In 2009 Lagonda is about to celebrate its 100th birthday and in its centenary year we are confident that we will show the first concept of a car which could be in the market in 2012,” he confirmed.

I guess this is what another model year of the Aston Martin Lagonda looked like:

I don’t like that one either.

Social Networking Pioneers Launch Audience Machine To Help Online Brands Leverage Shared Interests Across Social Networks

Chris Abraham — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 23:43:31 +0000

My friend Todd Tweedy popped me the following press release that I would love to repeat for him, back-scratching and all. Don’t judge me! For more information, check out the Audience Machine website!

Social Networking Pioneers Launch Audience Machine To Help Online Brands Leverage Shared Interests Across Social Networks

Audience Machine to provide unique social networking technologies and viral marketing services to Brands, Entertainment, Health & Wellness and Education Companies

Los Angeles, CA and Charlottesville, Virginia - February 17, 2009 – Social networking and viral marketing expert, VBMA (Viral & Buzz Marketing Association) board member, and Perceptions, Practices & Ethics in Word of Mouth Marketing author Todd Tweedy today introduced, Audience Machine Inc., a unique technology company helping online brands who want to identify, cultivate and mobilize communities of individuals with shared interest across social networking sites to build their businesses using Audience Machine’s online marketing tools.

Guided by Tweedy, and video technology pioneer and advertising veteran Dan Bates, Audience Machine helps brand and product managers, chief marketing officers as well as ecommerce executives to establish new networks of social networking connections and dialog in support of purchasing preferences and participation in word of mouth referrals.

“Social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace are relationship amplifiers for brands, products and services that can have a profound influence on preferences, referral behavior, information consumption and internet usage if advertisers are prepared to listen to, act on and match the right technology and community practices to support a desired purchase outcome or subscription,” noted Todd Tweedy, co-founder and CEO of Audience Machine. “There is a natural migration of dialogs from offline sources to online social sharing sites. Marketing executives want to embrace customer-facing ad strategies and incorporate social networking processes in their firm’s online marketing DNA that can boost product perceptions and potential sales but many enterprises lack the expertise and resources to realize those objectives. Audience Machine was founded to give online brands unique technology solutions, community development processes, marketing services, analytics, and expertise they need to engage and collaborate with audiences.”

Audience Machine also announced that is has signed a strategic business development consulting agreement that will be led by Provident Financial Management, a prominent established leader in entertainment and media business management.

“Audience Machine is at the heart of an evolving consumer-facing marketing phenomenon that is transforming connections on social networks into a powerful audience generation channel. Led by an experienced executive team and founded on concrete business fundamentals with a number of high-profile clients already on board, Audience Machine is a rising star among our media and communication clients,” stated Craig Sussman, Business Development Director at Provident. We’re excited to support Audience Machine as they grow their technology and services business practices with customers that want and need to expand and sustain business growth by creating networks of social commerce.”

Word of Mouth Communications Opportunity

The eighth annual Burson-Marsteller/PRWeek CEO Survey published in November 2008, which surveys CEO’s about the changing influence of different types of media as well as plans for digital communications including social networking, reported that 60% of CEO’s noted that word of mouth has the fastest growing influence on business in the past three years but that just one-fifth of firms have used social media to communicate with stakeholder groups.

The proliferation of social networking and community sites has transformed viral and word of mouth marketing practices into a practical and necessary communication solution due in part to research findings that note that nearly 80% of consumers trust recommendations from people they know over all forms of advertising and marketing. These authentic and trusted voices serve an important role by distributing compete information for others to act upon across search engines and into indexes of shared knowledge that people can access along with advertiser-generated experiences and evidence whenever 1,463,632,361 internet users from around the world – based on Internet Usage and Population in North American data provided by Internet World Stats – need to research a brand, product or service.

Audience Machine Team

Led by Tweedy, who’s career started in the political grassroots mobilization arena working on Presidential, Senatorial, Congressional, Inaugural and issue-based public relations campaigns, the Audience Machine team has 35 years of combined leadership experience in online marketing, real-time communications, ASP development, video ad technology, viral marketing, search engine optimization, and community development practices.

Dan Bates, co-founder, president and COO brings a vast wealth of knowledge in community technology development, online video, online advertising and a decade’s experience in filmed entertainment and music. Bates previous served as CEO of Avant Interactive, an object-based video ad serving technology provider.

About Audience Machine

With offices in Los Angeles, California and Charlottesville, Virginia, Audience Machine is a provider of unique community technology solutions and online marketing services. Audience Machine works with online brands to identify, cultivate and mobilize communities of shared interest to establish social commerce that CMO’s, brand and product managers, and ecommerce executives can enlist to grow their business. The company is privately held. For more information, please visit Audience Machine’s website – http://www.audiencemachine.com, email info@audiencemachine.com, or call 1.800.573.1536. Audience Machine is presently engaged with several beta customers and will release its first product in Q2 of this year.

About Provident Financial Management

Established over twenty-five years ago with offices in Los Angeles, Woodland Hills, San Francisco and New York, Provident has become a leader in various entertainment and media business management practices. Provident recently established a strategic and business planning department to assist mid sized and emerging entertainment and media companies with their growth and business development needs. Provident Financial Management is part of RSM McGladrey one of the largest and most prominent accounting firms in the world. For more information on RSM McGladrey, please visit http://www.rsmi.com.

Keyword Tags:
social networking, online marketing, viral marketing, audience machine, provident financial management

PR Contact: Todd Tweedy
434.996.6370
todd@audiencemachine.com

##30##

McKinney is a Website You Can Talk To

Chris Abraham — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 19:44:11 +0000

Othersource in Poland partnered with McKinney ad agency to build a Flash 3D engine with artificial intelligence for the McKinney website that’s launching this week.

Compared to other sites in the Semantics category, this one has an unusual level of interactivity. Users can ask the site questions, via the keyboard, using everyday language and expressions, and the proprietary “conversation engine” will decipher them and then fetch relevant results.

This means the user becomes liberated from the navigation. You no longer need background information to search the site – you just ask it a question.

Also, the site is completely index-able, bookmark-able, etc… from every page – even the video thumbnails have a unique URL. And every single page is a printable PDF, laid out for A4 or newsletter.I also found a nice blog post about it over at AdLab, Agency Site With a Chat Bot:

McKinney has built a Pandorabot-based chat bot (aka “conversation engine”) into its brand new site with a somewhat trippy interface. See if you can catch answers that were pre-scripted to make the machine sound particularly intelligent as opposed to the generic chat bot cop-outs like “Say what?” or “Come again”. – thank you, Michelle

Here’s the proper press release from McKinney.com:

McKinney.com – A Website You Can Talk To

Warsaw, Poland (February 10th, 2009) — Warsaw-based interactive agency Othersource announced today the launch of McKinney.com, a groundbreaking website created in partnership with the awardwinning advertising agency, in Durham, N.C.
Conversations with a website
Using cutting edge technologies, the new McKinney.com is reinventing the conversation had between the ad agency and its audience. Compared to other sites in the Semantics category, the site possesses an unusual level of interactivity. Visitors are able to ask the site questions, via the keyboard, using everyday language and expressions, and the proprietary “conversation engine” will decipher them and then fetch relevant results.
The functionality is groundbreaking. The back-end employs a 3D Flash engine with artificial intelligence, and the interface design is cutting-edge, making it one of the most experiential and unconstrained agency sites on the Web.
Unique tech mix
Othersource worked with linguists who understood, on a high-level, the structure of language. They also enlisted programmers familiar with semantics to help develop the sophisticated algorithm. “Creating the conversation engine’s ‘brain’ was quite labor intensive,” said Othersource Managing Partner Thomas Krotkiewski. “We enlisted two linguists (one a PhD from the University of Oxford), to analyze questions provided by McKinney, and to supply us with all possible ways the questions could be posed. If this search method fails, a backup proprietary tag search function will launch and search matching content. And finally, if the answer is still thought to be inadequate, the question is forwarded to McKinney for human processing. To be sure the conversation engine learns from its mistakes, there is a conversation history log on the proprietary Content Management System. This level of integration between conversation engine and website is completely unique,”
“We were looking for a production partner who would not only bring our vision to life, but enhance it,” added Keith Ciampa, who served as McKinney’s interactive creative director on the project. “Most true innovation happens on the fringes of the industry, by people who are passionate about what they do and willing to take risks. When we explained our vision for a conversational site, based on a completely open architecture, which could grow and become smarter the more it was used, Othersource knew we were asking for something that had never been done, and they couldn’t have been more excited to help us figure it out.”
Conversation-driven search
A proprietary tag search was built into the back end of the new site so search results can be presented dynamically, and not just direct visitors to a static page. For example, a visitor can ask a question like, “show me TV campaigns for client X from November last year” and an animated 3D tunnel will appear, with search results as moving thumbnail images, that the visitor can fly through. “As far as we can tell, this functionality is unique,” said Krotkiewski.
Like gas molecules
The site has an advanced 3D graphical interface. “The key to the 3D interface is the ‘cloud view,’ which shows a cloud of graphical thumbnails, moving like molecules in a gas, bouncing randomly off each other while also reacting to mouse input. The cloud can be filtered by the visitor to only show thumbnails representing certain types of content,” said Martin Ignaczak, Account Director at Othersource.
Flash without drawbacks
The site has overcome the limitations of Flash: “The site is fully searchable by Google, each page can bookmarked and linked to, and each view can be downloaded as a printable PDF,” continued Ignaczak. Working in the virtual
New technologies were key to organizing the project. Othersource used video-conferencing, VoIP, instant messaging, e-mails, and other electronic means of communication to coordinate the work with McKinney. “We only met face-to-face after the launch, which proves we are able to run even very complex projects completely in the virtual,” added Krotkiewski.
“We are honored by McKinney’s decision to partner with Othersource for the production — we were competing with some quite well-known US interactive agencies in the pitch. Being chosen in spite of being based overseas is quite a feat. We hope this project is the beginning of a long relationship with McKinney. We also expect it will generate more opportunities for us in the US overall,” said Krotkiewski.
“Partnering with Othersource on this project was both a rewarding and challenging experience,” said McKinney Interactive Technology Director Trevor O’Brien. “The biggest hurdle was taking existing technologies and customizing them to work together in ways they were not initially intended to. Othersource helped deliver a site that is an experiential and innovative place to interact online. It’s exciting to see what two like-minded teams can create together.”
About Othersource
Othersource provides interactive services from strategy to production to companies around the world. In 2008, the agency participated in projects for companies such as MetLife, The National Constitution Center in Boston, Accenture Poland, Puma, Imation Europe and others, in Poland, Sweden, Holland, the UK and the USA. The majority of its clients are Advertising and Interactive agencies that need support in creating campaign strategies, creative concepts and interactive production for their clients. About McKinney McKinney is an independent advertising agency that’s focused on reinventing the conversation between people and brands. Our goal is to lead the convergence of offline and online (today, 35% of our revenue is interactive and 88% of our frontline staff is actively engaged in the digital space), to identify relevant applications for new technologies and to deliver game-changing ideas that deliver extraordinary results for our clients, their customers and our people.
Founded in 1969, the Durham, NC-based agency’s clients include Coldwell Banker, Gold’s Gym, Major League Gaming, The NASDAQ Stock Market, Partnership for a Drug-Free America, ProShares, Qwest Communications, Sherwin-Williams, Travelocity, Virgin Mobile USA, Virgin Atlantic Airways, and Brown- Forman Corporation brands Bonterra, Chambord, Sonoma-Cutrer, Southern Comfort and Tuaca.
Most recently, Virgin Atlantic Airways and McKinney took top honors at the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s MIXX Awards that celebrate the “mixx” of creativity and effectiveness in digital marketing. Virgin Atlantic’s experiential launch, “Love from Above,” won a Gold MIXX in the Mobile Platforms category for the company’s first-ever WAP site.
For more information, visit our website at www.mckinney.com or the McKinney Newsroom by contacting Janet Northen at janet.northen@mckinney.com.
Additional information:
Thomas Krotkiewski
Managing Partner
Othersource
+48-601-145398
thomas@othersource.com
Timezone: GMT+1
Janet Northen
Partner & EVP, Director of Agency Communications
Janet Northen
Partner & EVP, Director of Agency Communications
McKinney
+1 919.313.4062
janet.northen@mckinney.com

My Top 91 Social Media Blog Posts

Chris Abraham — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 03:30:11 +0000

I am not willing or able to say that the following 91 blog posts about social media, blogging, new media, social networking, etc, are the definite top-91 posts because I didn’t have the time or attention to go through all of my 5,437 blog posts:

The Powerful SEO Benefits of Blogger PR Outreach

Chris Abraham — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 18:06:05 +0000

When I sell Abraham Harrison‘s blogger outreach and blogger PR services I tend to focus on the initial promotional and profile benefits associated with having hundreds of highly targeted organic earned media blog posts show up almost overnight on behalf of our clients. If you would like to know what this sort of campaign looks like, check out our case studies.

That’s not it, there’s more. As I have mentioned before, unlike SEM, these blog posts, reviews, and mentions are permenant and not ephemeral.

Finally, there is the issue of the powerful and amazing SEO benefits associated with having over 100 bloggers choose to write about your brand, product, campaign, or service.

Unlike pay-for-play services like Review Me, PayPerPost, or IZEA, the blog posts written by the bloggers we reach out to are not pay per post, they are earned media. When my team and I reach out to our A-Z list bloggers along dozens of verticals targets, it is up to each blogger to choose to accept our message and decide that what we’re offering is worthwhile to post or Twitter.

There is real power associated with this sort of thing. Like any journalistic or consumer-generated promotional pitching, results are not guaranteed; however, we have done this for over two yearsd and our penetration, success, and results have improved over time.

If you want to see the sort of posts that are associated with this kind of blogger PR pitch outreach, here are some examples:

I am always to allow these things to be as transparent as possible. What’s more, linking back to all of the fine blog posts that bloggers have shoehorned into their busy days is sort of a link love thank you.

And, to be honest, Google thinks were the bees knees because the content that our messaging drives real content. In all cases, we’re at the mercy of the blogger — if we’re not smart, generous, engaging, charming, positive, responsive, and even supportive, we’ll get tarred and feathered, and so will out client.

We’re better than that.

With each blogger outreach that results in a hundred or more organic earned media, highly-textual, brand-centric, keyword-dense and diverse, and often times almost completely based on the Social Media News Releases (SMNRs) we create for the client, the level of powerful Google, Live.com, Technorati, Ask.com, and Yahoo! love is not only formidable, but, over time, and much sooner than you think, both our social media new releases as well as our blogged content can challenge our clients for top-spot, which is OK because we’re not their competitor.

Here are some examples of client SMNRs we especially like, feel free to check them out:

I have almost ten-years of SEO experience and have always done things the right way, and Social Media and Blogger PR is the right way. None of us coerce any of our bloggers into blogging, we’re just able to figure out how to appeal, how to give, how to engage, how to message, and how to ask for what we want from our long tail list of upwards of 500 A-list blogger and 30,000 B-Z list bloggers.

Anyway, if you’re interested in learning more or getting on a call with my Director, Dan, my CEO, Mark, and/or me, pop me an email and we’ll sort it out.

(Via Marketing Conversation)

Social Media Reputation Management

Chris Abraham — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 21:32:53 +0000

My buddy David Gelles writes for the Tech section of the FT, my favorite paper. Check out his latest article, New corporate firefighters. Sadly for me, he can’t shamelessly promote my company, Abraham Harrison LLC, because he has ‘journalistic integrity;’ however, it is awesome he works there because he writes awesomely-accessible articles about my space, including social media marketing, social media PR, blogger engagement, Twitter, and also the world of online and social media crisis-response. It is amazing! I beat up Pepsi Max over on AdAge and a couple weeks later, Gelles writes an article about the space. I am both amazingly proud and a little paranoid!

New corporate firefighters By David Gelles

When advertisers launched a campaign last September for the pain reliever Motrin, they hoped to attract the attention of mothers whose backs might be sore from wearing baby-carriers. The advertisements implied that while baby-carriers might be fashionable, hauling a child around could be painful.
Mothers were not amused. Soon after the ads were released, anti-Motrin campaigns appeared on Facebook and blogs. Outraged mums, furious at the suggestion that their babies were a hassle, posted rebuttal videos on YouTube. Through Twitter, the micro-blogging service, thousands of people attacked the company.
Motrin was caught off-guard. For days, no company representative replied. Critics accused the company of being not only insensitive but also unresponsive.
Eventually a marketing executive at McNeil Consumer Healthcare, the subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson that markets Motrin, e-mailed individual bloggers to apologise for the campaign. But the damage was done.
Jeanette Gibson of CiscoThe “Motrin moms” episode illustrates the power of social media — the expanding network of websites that allow users to interact with each other and, increasingly, with companies. It also demonstrates the perils for enterprises that are unprepared to interact with social media.
But now a growing number of companies, including Ford Motor, PepsiCo, Wells Fargo and Dell, are creating new high-level jobs to ready themselves for engagement with social media, with titles such as director of social media, head of communities and conversation, vice-president of experiential marketing and digital communications manager. The role of these new executives is to monitor and influence what is being said about their companies on the internet.
Johnson & Johnson made its own appointment in the wake of the Motrin debacle. Having already dabbled in social media, in December the company promoted Marc Monseau, a 10-year company veteran and former director of media relations, to director of social media. “My responsibility is to work with the corporate office and the individual companies to better interact online,” Mr Monseau says. “It underscores the fact that we realise this is an important audience and one that we need to develop relationships with.”
These new jobs represent a broad shift in media relations strategy at large companies. “Corporate communications has radically changed,” says Andy Sernovitz, chief executive of the Blog Council, an organisation for heads of social media at big companies. “It’s no longer just companies talking to the press, and customer service talking to customers. All these other people showed up in the middle. They may not be press and they may not be customers, but suddenly their collective voice is bigger than the traditional channels.”
The essence of social media is conversation. Rather than a one-way stream of information, where companies make announcements to the press and customers, social media enables a great deal of interaction, where companies are in constant dialogue with the public. “We’ve seen a shift from doing things the old way to now having conversations with our customers,” says Jeanette Gibson, director of new media for Cisco Systems (pictured).
Ms Gibson, who began her job in 2007, says there is now a mandate at Cisco that all staff be attuned to what is being said about Cisco online. “It has definitely shifted how we’ve done communications,” she says. “Our executives are video blogging every day. Everybody’s job is now social media.”
Dell, the computer maker, has one of the most robust corporate social media programmes. Bob Pearson, former senior vice-president of corporate communications, became vice-president of communities and conversation for Dell in 2007.
He now has 45 people working for him. The core team works on “blog resolution” — trawling the web for dissatisfied customers, then attempting to contact them to make amends. Others on Dell’s social media team manage the company’s 80 Twitter accounts and 20 Facebook pages. Still others manage IdeaStorm, Dell’s forum for customer feedback.
Dell is taking its customer feedback seriously. When the company launched the Latitude laptop last summer, six of the features, including backlit keyboard and fingerprint reader, were ideas that came from IdeaStorm. “It’s always worth talking directly with your customers. It’s always worth listening to them,” says Mr Pearson. “It’s the wisdom of crowds.”
Peter Shankman, a social media expert and founder of Help a Reporter Out, a service that broadcasts reporters’ requests to a network of experts, says many companies are still reluctant to get involved: “Companies are slow to adapt because they’re still not 100 per cent sure they can make money with social media,” he says.
Yet Dell, for one, has made a business of it. By broadcasting discount alerts on Twitter, it says, it has generated more than $1m in sales. And in the US, 59 of the 100 leading retailers, including Best Buy and Wal-Mart, now have a fan page on Facebook, according to Rosetta, an interactive marketing agency.
Other savings can be realised through the Web’s ability to reach many people at once. “If you solve someone’s problem on the phone, nobody knows,” says Mr Sernovitz. “If you solve that same problem in writing on a blog, it costs you no more, but thousands of people are satisfied. And then, if 100 people never call because they found the answer, you very, very quickly get to multimillion-dollar savings.”
Other companies are using Twitter to douse public relations fires before they erupt. Scott Monty, head of social media for Ford Motors, used Twitter to appease users who were angry after the carmaker sued an enthusiast website that was selling unauthorised Ford merchandise. When fans of the enthusiast site posted angry messages, Mr Monty “tweeted back” to explain the company’s position.
Bonin Bough, who was appointed director of social media for PepsiCo last year, also used Twitter to defuse a brewing crisis after the company released a series of advertisements depicting a cartoon calorie character committing suicide.
“Social media is much more than getting out there and having conversations,” says Mr Pearson of Dell. “It transforms a business if you use it correctly.”

Online Social Media Marketing is a Must

Chris Abraham — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 18:05:58 +0000

I am not telling you anything you don’t already know since you’re reading this. Since you’re reading this, you’re either my friend or you follow one of my blogs — so I have probably chewed your ear off about the benefits of both social media marketing as well as social media public relations. Here’s another example that this trend is growing and becoming mainstream. Lauren Cook hooked me up with this article from the Houston Business Journal, “Online strategies, responsibility are becoming marketing ‘musts’” (Via Marketing Conversation)

The latest trends in getting company names into the public eye are catching on quickly, and marketing professionals say those who don’t adapt may be left behind. The following are examples of marketing that experts say companies can no longer afford to ignore:
Using ‘social media’
Blogs, forums, chat rooms, Flickr, Twitter, Youtube.com, Facebook.com and MySpace.com are emerging as powerful marketing tools.
“People who are experts on or passionate about a particular topic or interest may start their own Web site, generate a blog or post videos online,” says Cindy Marion, president of Marion, Montgomery Inc. “Over time, bloggers and social media contributors continue posting more subjects, articles, videos or sound clips related to their specific interests. This is good for conversation and for search engine optimization.”
According to a recently released Cone Business Survey, 93 percent of Americans believe companies should have a presence on social media sites, and 85 percent believe these companies should use these services to interact with consumers.
“The people have spoken but the wheel hasn’t been reinvented,” Marion says. “Because although the medium may be new, proven marketing strategies remain. Consistent messaging and frequent communications are key to creating perception, influence and persuasion.
“When people want to know about something, they typically ask their friends,” she says. “Now they often search for it online. If a company has a Web site, that’s a good start to gain a base knowledge of the product, but if an unvested third party touts that company’s products and services, then the company’s reputation gets more credit. If an online friend or trusted source touts it, all the better.”

Barack Obama Inaugration Party in Berlin

Chris Abraham — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 15:53:04 +0000

I received an invitation from Corbett Santana to attend what sounds like a super-cool inauguration party — if you happen to be celebrating in Berlin, Germany! I will be in DC for the inauguration but I thought I would pass this on.

Barack Obama Inaugration Celebration/Party in GOYA
Goya, Nollendorfplaz 5 in Berlin
January 20th 2009
Come celebrate with “US”
LIVE from Washington D.C. on BIG screen!
The Inauguration Ceremony of BARACK OBAMA.
16:30 Doors open and we will project the entire Ceremony on a large screen in GOYA.
16:00 The ceremony starts at and ends at 20:00 (according to a press release from Washington D.C.)
20:00 Guest speakers from the different American abroad organizations. There is the POSSIBILITY the Governor Mayor of Berlin will make an appearance. THIS IS NOT CONFIRMED AT THE MOMENT!
21:00 Live Music from FOLKADELIC who played at the BABYLON Theater Election Party
22:30 DJ “Daddy-O” after playing Funky Soul Classics.
Tickets: 10-,€ & 6-,€ after 21:00
To reserve a ticket send a message to chair@demsinberlin.de
This is a by-partisan event all are welcomed!
There will be an after party at SURPRISE Club & Disco for those of you who find GOYA too expensive & stuffy. A shuttle vehicle will be available to transport you door to door from 22:00 till 12:00. Entrance and shuttle ride is free when you have a ticket for the Event in GOYA.

Stand By Me Sung Around the World for Playing For Change

Chris Abraham — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 21:23:53 +0000

Call me sentimental and a sucker for this sort of thing, but Aimee popped me this link and I watched the whole thing through, and you should too — will make you feel much lovelier this Thursday… stand by me:

From the award-winning documentary, “Playing For Change: Peace Through Music”, comes the first of many “songs around the world” being released independently. Featured is a cover of the Ben E. King classic by musicians around the world adding their part to the song as it travelled the globe. This and other songs such as “One Love” will be released as digital downloads soon; followed by the film soundtrack and DVD early next year.
Sign up at www.playingforchange.com for updates and exclusive content available only to those who…
Join the Movement to help build schools, connect students, and inspire communities in need through music

Boing Boing Wolves Take Out a Comment Spammer

Chris Abraham — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 19:06:04 +0000

I was just farting around Boing Boing Gadgets, enjoying the fine work over there, post amusement over seeing my business partner become immortal in a Boing Boing post and referred to as “a globe-trotting alpha male who spends winters rubbing elbows with bikini models down in Mauretius and summers either indulging in sport in Berlin or piloting yachts around Cape Horn.” Well, I started reading comments and there were some funny ones, and then an obvious comment spam about the Motorola Krave. Then, the wolves circled and the entire comment thread started mocking the shiller. Ultimately, Joel Johnson wrote the following awesome blog post, entitled, Motorola, could you please tell your viral marketer to get out of our comments?

Motorola, could you please tell your viral marketer to get out of our comments?
In John’s post about Steve Jobs’ purported tantrum, a commenter “MGOODE08″ made this remark:
I’m so glad my boss isn’t like that! I’m working with Motorola right now, and became a huge fan of the Krave (motorola.com/krave). I especially like the full touch screen display and html web browser. It’s awesome!
On the 14th, he made this comment:
Oh man this looks awesome! I hope they release a version for the Krave by Motorola. Ever since I started working with Motorola I have became a huge fan of the phone (motorola.com/krave). With a full list of features, like a full touch screen, I can’t stop obsessing over it.
“M Goode” loves this phone so much that he posted this at GigaOm:
This is a very good idea. I think it could be applied to any phones with a similar format. Ever since I started working with Motorola I have become a huge fan of the Krave. It has some of the same features, and I think a built in micropayment system would be great. It’s a fairly new phone, so if you haven’t seen it yet it’s online at motorola.com/krave. I wonder if they will jump on the bandwagon when/if a micropayment system is implemented.
When he’s not on tech sites, though, “M Goode” loves to relax with a good game:
I wish this game would get released for a mobile gaming platform, especially the Krave. I have been a fan of this franchise since it’s first release, and would love to have it on a cell phone, especially the krave. Ever since I started working with Motorola, I have become a huge fan of the krave. Has anyone else seen it?(motorola.com/krave) It’s so loaded with features, most important of which is the full touch screen layout. It’s DEFINITELY worth checking out.
He’s also really into the indie gaming scene:
I can’t wait to see this on a mobile phone platform! it would be so cool to see ti on a Krave! Has anyone else seen it? (motorola.com/krave) It’s a flip phone with a touch screen, 2 MP camera, full html browser and bluetooth functionality. Definitely worth checking out.
But uh oh! He might be considering switching from a Krave to the new Nokia:
My favorite phone right now is the Krave by Motorola. I became a huge fan of the Krave once I started working with Motorola. You can check out the full spec list online at motorola.com/krave. It’s definitely strong competition with it’s full touch screen
(He is also apparently working for Cirque Du Soleil, but we’ll let them pass for the moment because I love acrobats.)
“Follow the money,” they say, but in this case we don’t have to, because all we have to do is follow the link. Motorola, if you could be so kind as to tell your viral marketer to fuck right off we’d sure appreciate it. Perhaps you could spend the money instead on making your phones something that people actually want to buy.
P.S., I love our readers. Check out the replies they immediately started making:
I’m so glad my boss isn’t like that! I’m working for Burger King right now, and became a huge fan of the Mushroom and Swiss Steakhouse Burger. I especially like the cheese and mushrooms. It’s awesome!
I’m so glad my boss isn’t like that! I’m working for a pimp on the corner of wellwood and barrington and became a huge fan of Allie and her turrid backstroke technique. I especially like the pop and rock. It’s awesome!
I’m so glad my boss isn’t like that! I’m working with Cryptozoologia right now, and became a huge fan of the Trepanasaurus (Cryptozoologia.com/ Trepanasaurus). I especially like the way that, after the dinosaur-anteater hybrid rips off the top of a person’s head with its sharp teeth, it can suck out its victim’s brain with its nose. It’s awesome!

Thank You Operation Survivor Bloggers Encore

Chris Abraham — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 11:37:41 +0000

While I have already thanked all of the wonderful, generous bloggers who have blogged about Operation Survivor since Labor Day, there has been a countinued outpouring of support. As a result, I have added all of the new posts, banners, Twitters in addition to the initial posts — as of 25 November, this is everyone.

5 Minutes Around the World via 5 Minutes for Mom.
Banner via A Disgruntled Republican.
Survivor Corps Program-Help! via Swimming Against the Red Tide.
Survivor Corps: Founds Operation Survivor Project to Assist U.S. Military Combat Veterans in Transitioning to Civilian Life via A DC Observer.
Survivor Corps. Rise Above. Give Back via All 4 My Gals.
Banner via American and Proud.
Support ‘Survivor Corps’ this Veterans Day via American Thinker.
Support ‘Survivor Corps’ this Veterans Day via Americanthinker.
Returning Troops…a Noble Cause via Dodgeblogium.
Indigenist News Items for: 11-14-2008 via Inteligentaindigena Novajoservo.
They don’t go away when Veterans Day ends via Around the Island.
Survivor Corps via Assoluta Tranquillita.
Survivor Corps via Jake’s Life.
Banner via Bearing Drift.
Vast Write Wing via Be Logical.
Survivor Corps Operation Survivor: A Worthwhile Cause to Consider via Mount Virtus.
Someone alerted me to the good work that Survivor Corps via Big Bark.
Standing up for Max Cleland on Veteran’s Day via Big Bark.
Twittered via How to Change the World.
Do Not Abandon Our Vets via understanding the effects of unresolved abandonment issues.
Help Our Troops This Veterans Day via Locust Fork Blog.
Soldiers Angels Web Surfing via MySpace: Kathie’s Soldiers Angels Account.
Banner via Blog Mommas.
An Appeal via Don Surber’s blog.
Survivor Corps: Help a veteran break the cycle of violence via Hormone-Colored Days.
Support the Survivor Corps via Burbsblogs.
Veterans Day via Bodhi Baby.
Supporting Our Troops via Booker Rising.
Operation Survivor via Britannica.
As Per Request via Budget Nomad – US Ex – Pat on the Move.
Per a Request via Budget Nomad – US Ex – Pat on the Move.
Help veterans through Survivor Corps via South by Southwest.
Remembrance Day via Around the World in beautiful Shoes.
Veteran’s Day via Danny Fisher.
Survivor Corps via Charming Just Charming.
Veterans Day via Chip’s Quips.
Please Help Me Support Our Troops on Veteran’s Day via Chris Abraham.
I Will Not Be Broken via For the Heck of It.
Ray via Notes from the Cookie Jar.
Survivor Corps Helps Injured Vets Cope via Connecticut Bob.
Help Our Troops This Veteran’s Day via Culture11.
Supporting Our Troops: Operation Survivor via Culture Kitchen.
Supporting Our Troops: Operation Survivor via The Daily Gotham.
Donate to help our Troops via Make it Happen.
Survivor Corp-Returning Troops via What’s Delmer Look Like?.
Banner via Popcorn and Sushi.
Banner via Supercozy WorldHome.
Supporting Returning Troops via Donklephant.
Operation Survivor-Survivor Corps and TroopTube via Where the Hell Am I?.
In Their Boots via Holly’s Fight for Justice.
In Their Boots via Holly’s Fight to Stop Violence.
Banner via Gapers Block.
Banner via Gary Presley.
Operation Survivor via The Political Junkie.
Veterans Day via On the Fringe.
Survivor Corps Supports Returning Troops and Their Families via GoMekong.com.
Support Our Troops NOW via MamaBugs…Homeschooling Where the Air Force Sends Us!.
Soldiers Angels Web Surfing via Hooah Wife & Friends.
Breaking the Cycle of Violence via Another Opinion.
New Book from the founder of Survivor Corps via The IAVA Blog.
Some Odds and Ends of the Election via The Liberal Life of a Navy Wife .
cross-post via Personal Injury and Social Security Disability Blog.
Banner via Iraq The Model.
In Honor of Veterans’ Day via James Kotecki.
Survivorcorps.org via Jelly Mom.
Banner via Into the Woods, Living Deliberately.
Survivor Corps via A Leg Up.
Standing up for Max Cleland on Veteran’s Day via Informed Comment.
Helping Veterans (a day late) via Just Enjoy Him: Ramblings of a Mid-Life Mom.
Soldiers Angels Web Surfing via Mail Call! Supporting the Troops.
Survivor Corps via Kung Fu Monkey.
Banner via Kim Stagliano.
Survivor Corps via Knee Deep in the Hooah.
Banner via Kentucky Progress.
Courage via Last One Speaks.
Banner via Leucadia Blog.
Iraq snapshot (The Common Ills) via Like Maria Said Paz.
Banner via Lisa’s Cookbook.
For a Good Cause via The Local Crank.
Banner via LooneyBin4Sure.
Tis the season to help our troops via Manatee’s Military Moms.
Thoughts of a conservative mind: A worthwhile charity via A different kind of Conservative Blog.
Banner via Married to the Army.
Veterans Day via State of Ohio Blogger Alliance.
Veteran’s Day via Weapons of Mass Discussion.
Operation Survivor via Big Blueberry Eyes.
Survivor Corps offers peer support to injured vets via Media Dis&Dat.
Survivor Corps via Tanker Bothers – Soldiers in the War on Terror.
Survivor Corps via Tanker Brothers.
Miss Beths Victory Dance via Miss Beth’s Victory Dance.
Survivor Corps via Miss Cellania Blog.
side bar Banner via Mommy Bytes.
Survivor Corps. Help for Surviving Troops via Mommy Does it All.
Operation Survivor via My American-Iraq Life.
Banner via Myrtus.
Mine removal personal ambition for Missouri State instructor via News-Release.com.
Survivor Corps: Support for returning heroes via News Blaze.
Veterans Deserve Your Help via New Zeal.
Supporting Returning Troops via Northloop Neighborhood.
Read Terrance D.C. via Oh Boy it Never Ends.
Banner via only red head in taiwan.
Banner via On the Upside.
Banner via Papamoka Straight Talk.
Banner via Pardon Me For Asking.
Survivors of War via Ponderings on a Faith Journey.
posted link on blogroll via Political Grind.
Survivor Corps: Operation Survivor via Political Reps.
A Day To Honor Those Who Have Served Their Country via Political Vindication.
Banner via Praise and Coffee.
Banner via Preemptive Karma.
Survivor Corps Supports Returning Troops and their Families! via Progressive Independent.
cross post via Quick Quotes Online.
In Banner Rotation via Redline.
Veteran’s deserve not just a word, but also a hand: Operation Survivor via Rich Kirkpatrick.
Survivor Corps Supports Returning Troops and their Families! via Right Michigan.
Banner via Rightwingchamp.
Katrina Vanden Heuvel is an Idiot via Ruth’s Report.
Katrina vanden Heuvel is an idiot via Ruth’s Report.
Survivor Corps via Sanbans Lymphorama.
Helping the Walking Wounded on November 11 via Serge the concierge.
Banner via Seven Wheelchairs.
palin, survivor corps, heroes and more via Sex and Politics and Creeds and Attitudes.
Links, Awards and Other Good Blogishness via She Lives.
Peace, be still. It’s Armistice Day. via Short Woman.
Sick of It via SICKOFITRADLZ.
posted Banner and review of I will not be broken via Writing in FaithWriting in Faith: Previews and Reviews.
Banner via Socialism.
Survivor Corps – Electronic Media News Releases via Soldiers Angels Network.
Survivor Corps via Soldiers Angels New York.
Survivor Corps via Soldiers’ Angels New York.
Need a little Inspiration? via My Life As A Military Spouse.
Banner via Stepping Right Up!.
Survivor Corps via Straight, Not Narrow.
Veterans Day via The Adventures of Super Mommy & Spitup Boy.
Support ‘Survivor Corps’ this Veterans Day – American Thinker via Survivor.
Operation Survivor – excerpt from website via Arthriticyoungthing.
posted Banner via Screw Politically Correct B.S..
Banner via The Political Jungle.
Survivor Corps via Tao of Katie.
Help veterans through Survivor Corps via The Reaction.
The bridge, the sacrifice, more via The Common Ills.
Banner via The Inside Dope.
A Belated Veterans (Day) Post via The Moderate Voice.
A Belated Veterans (Day) Post via Funny Blog.
Veterans and PTSD via Where There’s a Will There’s a Way.
Tuesday, November 11. 2008. via This French Life.
we posted? via This Fucking War.
Survivor Corps Website via Untreatable Online.
cross post via News Updated Frequently.
Survivor Corps via Unveal Blues.
Banner via VDog and Little Man.
Banner via Virginia Left Wing.
cross post via Today on Vot3r.
Banner via mikesmercurialmaddness.
As Long as We’re Bailing Out CEOs… via World-O-Crap.
Wake Up Americans via Wake Up America.
Survivor Corps via Wake Up America.
Xyence via The Xyience Diet Resource.
Please Help the Veterans via Yaw and Mog.
Survivor Corps Supports Returning Troops and their Families! via Young Philly Politics.
Survivor Corps Supports Returning Vets and Their Families! via Zimbio.
Mojo Mom says thank you to military families via Mojo Mom.

I daresay we’ll be get more so there might very well be another thank you email. Again, both Abraham Harrison and Survivor Corps thank you very much for all of your continued generosity and support!

Thank You Operation Survivor Bloggers!

Chris Abraham — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 17:10:01 +0000

Veteran’s Day this year is especially poignant since it has been 5 years since the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan began. Thank you to everyone who helped Survivor Corps get the message out about Operation Survivor and all the amazing work that Survivor Corps does for vets, for returning troops, and for their families. Here’s a list of all of your fine work:

Please Help Me Support Our Troops on Veteran’s Day via Chris Abraham.
banner via On the Upside.
Veterans and PTSD via Where There’s a Will There’s a Way.
Support Our Troops NOW via MamaBugs…Homeschooling Where the Air Force Sends Us!.
Peace be still. It?s Armistice Day. via Short Woman.
Do Not Abandon Our Vets via understanding the effects of unresolved abandonment issues.
Helping the Walking Wounded on November 11 via Serge the concierge.
Support ‘Survivor Corps’ this Veterans Day via Americanthinker.
Veterans Day via Bodhi Baby.
Veterans Day via The Adventures of Super Mommy & Spitup Boy.
Operation Survivor via Britannica.
Veteran’s Day via Danny Fisher.
Donate to help our Troops via Make it Happen.
Remembrance Day via Around the World in beautiful Shoes.
Operation Survivor via Big Blueberry Eyes.
In Their Boots via Holly’s Fight for Justice.
In Their Boots via Holly’s Fight to Stop Violence.
Veterans Day via Chip’s Quips.
Help Our Troops This Veterans Day via Locust Fork Blog.
Banner via Socialism.
In Banner Rotation via Redline.
Veteran’s Day via Weapons of Mass Discussion.
Help Our Troops This Veteran’s Day via Culture11.
side bar banner via Mommy Bytes.
Veteran’s deserve not just a word but also a hand: Operation Survivor via Rich Kirkpatrick.
Survivor Corps: Help a veteran break the cycle of violence via Hormone-Colored Days.
Veterans Day via On the Fringe.
The bridge the sacrifice more via The Common Ills.
Someone alerted me to the good work that Survivor Corps via Big Bark.
Survivor Corps Supports Returning Troops and Their Families via GoMekong.com.
Support ‘Survivor Corps’ this Veterans Day – American Thinker via Survivor.
Helping Veterans (a day late) via Just Enjoy Him: Ramblings of a Mid-Life Mom.
Survivor Corps: Operation Survivor via Political Reps.
Survivor Corps Website via Untreatable Online.
Survivor Corps Operation Survivor: A Worthwhile Cause to Consider via Mount Virtus.
Veterans Day via State of Ohio Blogger Alliance.
A Day To Honor Those Who Have Served Their Country via Political Vindication.
Courage via Last One Speaks.
banner via A Disgruntled Republican.
An Appeal via Don Surber’s blog.
Mojo Mom says thank you to military families via Mojo Mom.
Survivor Corps via Miss Cellania Blog.
For a Good Cause via The Local Crank.
Operation Survivor-Survivor Corps and TroopTube via Where the Hell Am I?.
In Honor of Veterans’ Day via James Kotecki.
banner” via Into the Woods Living Deliberately.
Survivor Corps Supports Returning Vets and Their Families! via Zimbio.
Please Help the Veterans via Yaw and Mog.
posted banner and review of I will not be broken” via Writing in FaithWriting in Faith: Previews and Reviews.
banner’ via Pardon Me For Asking.
Veterans Deserve Your Help via New Zeal.
I Will Not Be Broken via For the Heck of It.
Per a Request via Budget Nomad – US Ex – Pat on the Move.
banner’ via Blog Mommas.
banner via Myrtus.
banner via Married to the Army.
Survivor Corps. Rise Above. Give Back via All 4 My Gals.
Re: Vast Write Wing – November 2008 via Be Logical.
Survivor Corps. Help for Surviving Troops via Mommy Does it All.
Survivor Corps Supports Returning Troops and their Families! via Right Michigan.
Indigenist News Items for: 11-14-2008 via Inteligentaindigena Novajoservo.
banner via Gary Presley.
banner via Seven Wheelchairs.
Operation Survivor via The Political Junkie.
Need a little Inspiration? via My Life As A Military Spouse.
Banner via Preemptive Karma.
Operation Survivor – excerpt from website via Arthriticyoungthing.
banner via Rightwingchamp.
Survivor Corp-Returning Troops via What’s Delmer Look Like?.
posted banner via Screw Politically Correct B.S..
palin survivor corps heroes and more via Sex and Politics and Creeds and Attitudes.
banner via Bearing Drift.
banner via Kentucky Progress.
Supporting Returning Troops via Donklephant.
banner via Gapers Block.
Katrina vanden Heuvel is an idiot via Ruth’s Report.
Supporting Our Troops via Book Errising.
Survivor Corps – Electronic Media News Releases via Soldiers Angels Network.
A Belated Veterans (Day) Post via The Moderate Voice.
posted link on blogroll via Political Grind.
They don’t go away when Veterans Day ends via Around the Island.
Survivor Corps offers peer support to injured vets via Media Dis&Dat.
Survivor Corps via A Leg Up.
Supporting Our Troops: Operation Survivor via The Daily Gotham.
Survivor Corps: Founds Operation Survivor Project to Assist U.S. Military Combat Veterans in Transitioning to Civilian Life via A DC Observer.
banner via Iraq The Model.
Survivor Corps Supports Returning Troops and their Families! via Young Philly Politics.
banner via The Inside Dope.
Survivors of War via Ponderings on a Faith Journey.
Survivor Corps via Charming Just Charming.
Survivor Corps via Knee Deep in the Hooah.
Tis the season to help our troops via Manatee’s Military Moms.
A Belated Veterans (Day) Post via Funny Blog.
Support ‘Survivor Corps’ this Veterans Day via American Thinker.
Supporting Returning Troops via Northloop Neighborhood.
As Per Request via Budget Nomad – US Ex – Pat on the Move.
Some Odds and Ends of the Election via The Liberal Life of a Navy Wife .
Returning Troops…A Noble Cause via Dodgeblogium.
Survivor Corps Website via Untreatable Online.
Standing up for Max Cleland on Veteran’s Day via Informed Comment.
Standing up for Max Cleland on Veteran’s Day via Big Bark.
Read Terrance D.C. via Oh Boy it Never Ends.
Katrina Vanden Heuvel is an Idiot via Ruth’s Report.
Iraq snapshot (The Common Ills) via Like Maria Said Paz.
Tuesday November 11. 2008. via This French Life.
Survivor Corps Program-Help! via Swimming Against the Red Tide.
Survivor Corps via Kung Fu Monkey.
banner via Leucadia Blog.
banner via Bearing Drift.

You have done an amazing thing for the vets and also for the mission of Survivor Corps domestically and around the world. Thank you for your posts and for your banner placement. Never hesitate to contact me personally or my team at Abraham Harrison. Also, always please feel free to contact the entire Survivor Corps team.

Thank You All Who Supported International Medical Corps!

Chris Abraham — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 01:19:05 +0000

On behalf of the International Medical Corps and Abraham Harrison, thank you so much for all of your support over the last four weeks to get the vote out to help get the International Medical Corps into the top-five of the Members Project and then for securing the $100,000 from American Express, to be used to feed hungry children worldwide. Here’s a thank you video blog entry from Paige Strackman, who was the PaigeS who submitted IMC in the first place under the title, Saving the Lives of Malnourished Children.

Here’s the official, final, press release you can read, directly from International Medical Corps:

International Medical Corps Wins $100,000 Grant from American Express to Save Malnourished Children
October 14, 2008, Los Angeles, Calif. –International Medical Corps (IMC) has been awarded $100,000 through the American Express Members Project. The grant will be used to treat malnourished children worldwide. IMC is one of five organizations to receive funding in the nationwide campaign where American Express Card members submit and vote for projects that are meant to bring people and organizations together for positive change.
The funding will be used to implement the project, ‘Saving the Lives of Malnourished Children.’ Submitted by American Express cardmember Paige Strackman, the project focuses on treating malnutrition through nutrient-rich, ready-to-eat food, which International Medical Corps provides to more than 35,000 children every month through a network of 215 supplementary and therapeutic feeding sites in some of the world’s most food-insecure environments, including Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Sudan, and Somalia. The project was selected by an elite panel out of 1,190 others and received more than 14,000 votes in the final round of competition.
“I submitted this project because, as a mother, I cannot ignore that five million children under five die every year due to malnutrition,” says Paige. “This funding will save thousands of malnourished children around the world who otherwise may not have been reached. I am so grateful to everyone who supported this project and helped make it a reality.”
While the project was submitted by one individual hoping to make a difference, it gathered public momentum. The project’s message was shared in the media from Los Angeles to New York, on nearly 200 blogs across the Internet, through thousands of emails and on social networking sites, including Facebook, My Space and Twitter.
The grant from American Express comes at an opportune time when rising food costs are driving millions deeper into poverty everyday while trying to afford basic staples. As a result, hunger and malnutrition kill more people each year than HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria combined.
“We are incredibly grateful to Paige for not only submitting the project, but also for fueling it with the passion to make it so successful,” says Rebecca Milner, Vice President of Institutional Advancement. “There are approximately 178 million children around the world who are malnourished and only 3 percent get treatment. This funding makes it possible for International Medical Corps to reach more of those children who desperately need our help.”
In Democratic Republic of Congo alone, International Medical Corps’ supplementary feeding centers admitted 3,500 new children in the past two months. At one center for severely malnourished children, IMC has a 35-bed capacity, but is accommodating 82. Another 30 children await treatment. This trend is symptomatic of the food insecurity affecting East Africa and much of the developing world. The World Food Program estimates that 15.7 million of those in need are in East Africa, and another 8.6 million are in Afghanistan.
With a mission that focuses on training, International Medical Corps works to empower individuals and communities, providing education on how to treat malnutrition, identify warnings signs, and intervene before malnutrition worsens. Health care workers and parents are educated on proper diet and hygiene, and communities are equipped to grow their own food and reduce their vulnerability to rising prices.
*The ‘Saving the Lives of Malnourished Children’ project can be viewed here: http://www.membersproject.com/project/view/OZH1P1
**Videos of children’s dramatic recoveries from malnutrition can be seen on International Medical Corps’ YouTube Channel: http://ca.youtube.com/user/IMCMembersProject
For more information visit our website at www.imcworldwide.org.

Also, thank you to every single blogger and social media maven who was so generous as to help us spread the word out and get as much attention as possible for both the Members Project as well as for International Medical Corps as well. You were all more than generous and all of us at IMC and AHLLC would love to thank you for being so generous and selfless.

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Dora, the sheep droppings explorer via The French Mountain Dweller.
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Abraham Harrison Case Study of International Medical Corps

Chris Abraham — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 21:22:33 +0000

CHALLENGE: This was a two week, high pressure campaign focused on getting International Medical Corps (IMC) into the final five of the American Express Members Project $2.5 million giveaway competition. 1,190 projects were nominated for participation in the competition, Amex cardholders could vote for their favorite project, and the top five projects receive a portion of the $2.5 million in grant money.

The challenge that Abraham Harrison faced was to take IMC, a relatively low-profile $100MM per year organization that gets all its money from government grants and had essentially no support base among the general public and activate a mass wave of support and votes for the organization – in two weeks.

International Medical Corps is a global, humanitarian, nonprofit dedicated to saving lives and relieving suffering through health care training, relief operations, and development programs.

STRATEGY: Abraham & Harrison has developed strong relationships with a large group of bloggers interested in humanitarian issues who in turn act as influencers in their communities of readers. The goal, as with all online influencer outreaches, was to earn these bloggers’ support and their willingness to act as repeaters and amplifiers of our client’s message, get their implicit or explicit endorsement, and motivate their readerships to action – in this case to vote for IMC in the Amex Members’ Project competition.

Abraham & Harrison was in constant consultation with the client, advising International Medical Corps on their message copy, their use of widgets, their posting of banner ads, and guiding their broader strategic decisions.

TACTICS: Abraham & Harrison reached out to close to 4000 bloggers across a spectrum of demographics. The Abraham & Harrison team reached out to these bloggers multiple times over the course of two weeks directing them to the Members Project website and the helpful, blogger-friendly Social Media News Release that made blogging on the topic an easy cut-and-paste action. http://internationalmedicalcorps.smnr.us/

Abraham & Harrison also turned to its strong presence on Facebook, Twitter, and several other social networks, building groups and messaging followers as well as the broader Abraham & Harrison community. To drive SEO and further traffic, every one of the over 190 blog posts was posted on Digg and several other social bookmarking platforms.

RESULTS: Within two weeks the team at Abraham & Harrison had achieved close to a 10% response rate to the outreach emails, leading to over 190 blog posts with more trickling in daily. Millions of impressions were made, and given the permanent nature of blog posts and the resultant presence on the search engines, impressions will continue to be made into the future.

International Medical Corps was able to fend off challenges from those organizations in 6th and 7th place, finally finishing in the top five, guaranteeing them a portion of the $2.5MM in grant money.

"Abraham & Harrison has been a tremendous asset to International Medical Corps during our American Express Members Project campaign. Their online strategy and outreach helped introduce International Medical Corps to many new audiences and raised our visibility during this time-sensitive campaign. International Medical Corps was written about in more than 170 blog posts.
"Abraham & Harrison brings a unique approach to online public relations. The worldwide web is a vast space, yet Abraham & Harrison has found a formula to reach out to target audiences, effectively raise awareness and get online readers and activists to take action.
"The entire Abraham & Harrison team has been fantastic. Each team member brings creativity and passion to the cause. Without a doubt, International Medical Corps would engage Abraham & Harrison for another campaign."
Rebecca Milner
Vice President, Institutional Advancement
International Medical Corps