21st Century Valentine's Day

Day of love. Such a great thing. I found these little beauts and thought they totally explain our world today. Poor St. Valentine....what turned out to be a recognition of your death turned into a world-wide celebration of love. Although there are many rumors involving the origins of Valentines Day, there is one I'd like to think is true. Third Century. Rome. Emperor Claudius II decided that soldiers were better if they were single. He outlawed marriage and our Valentine priest continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret. Awwwwww.... Cute. But then he was put to death (You'll find other rumors here). Whatever the reason, love the holiday. Just for fun here are some social media valentines....21st century style.

Taste of PR - Kick-off Dinner for PR Conference

Last Wednesday night, I had the opportunity to attend Taste of PR, the kick-off to the PR conference coming up in a couple of weeks. The guest speaker for the event was KSL Social Media Director, Natalie Wardel. She gave some really good tips that I wanted to note that are important for anyone interested in getting better with business or even personal social media outlets. She talked about different things that would classify public relations in the past that included writing and sending press releases as well as calling and kissing up to media. Public relations now (which I am SO grateful for), are more about managing your own message. This includes event planning, managing web content, listening and responding, marketing, blogging and media pitching just to name a few. This is a chance to have diverse opportunities and bypass the newsrooms. This Live News Week Instagram photo brought up another discussion on how social media is starting to be a huge part of our lives. Corporations can be a trusted voice when social media can live on it’s own 50% of the time. One of my favorite things she said last night was that social media is the ingredient and not the solution. Many companies or those not familiar with social media and what it can do think it’s the end-all. This is the driving point that will take them where they need to be. Social media is simply a tool that when combined with other great marketing and promoting effects, can take businesses or your own personal reputation to the next level. When it comes to trust and investing in a business, studies have shown that it’s usually through a friend’s mouth that recommendations are spread. Marketing Sherpa said that 87% trust a friend’s opinion over a critic’s review. Bzzagent, along the same lines, said that one word-of-mouth conversation has the impact of 200 T.V. ads. That is huge when it comes to social media and that it’s not just put out by professionals. WE have the chance to say what we feel and give our own opinions! Natalie also said that the goal is not to be good at social media but rather to be good at your job BECAUSE of social media. She gave 10 signs that let you know you are involved in public relations and the one I connected with the most was, “You find yourself performing other duties not assigned the first week of your new job.” I could relate to that because I LOVE doing the out-of-the-ordinary. Going above and beyond to do what you need to do to help a business or company be effective. Can't wait for the conference first weekend of March!  

Roald Dahl Stamps

I loved Road Dahl books when I was younger. I vividly remember my mother reading The Witches to my sisters and I, leaning on every word when hearing about these horrible creatures, wondering if they were possibly real. So imagine my happiness in seeing these darling stamps. Royal Mail has come out with this series of collectables. And to quote the brilliant author himself, they are, "Wonkalicious Whizzpoppin Swizzfiggling Gloriumptiously wonderful." 

Are they as charming as they seem?

In conjunction with my previous post, I just had to include these little gems. If only Walt knew.... 

Someday My Prince Will Come ...

prin·cess noun \prin-‘sesˈ(usual British)\

1: a woman considered to have the qualities or characteristics of a princess.

She steps out of her coach, glances up at the castle and with a deep breath, slowly begins her ascent up the stairs hoping this is the night she will dance with the prince. After mindlessly viewing every fair maiden in the kingdom, the prince feels he must give up for there is no one for him.  ”Suddenly, he stops. He looks up. For lo… there she stands. The girl of his dreams. Who she is or whence she came, he knows not, nor does he care, for his heart tells him that here…..here is the maid predestined to be his bride.” (sheeersch….record player stopping music.) Okay people. End scene. You get the picture.

Such is the magical world of Disney Princesses. Grace and beauty combined with a strong will and attitude. These heroines have spirit. All these thoughts processed in my mind a couple Saturdays ago when my sister, who works for The Child and Family Support Center of Cache Valley, asked me to volunteer at its 2^nd annual Princess Party. And for two hours, as I lifted little girls on to their princess pedestals to get their picture taken, my mind began to wrap around the idea of where all this started. The “fad” that has carried this multi-billion dollar company to where it’s at today. Why the fascination (and at times obsession) with Disney Princesses?

I think one of the ideas, for now, is today’s society. Women want to be pretty. Women want to be beautiful. They want to feel like they are making a difference in the world. Rather than take real life women for an example, why not take cartoon characters with perfect looks and features? It is also the image of that perfect fairytale ending. The princess finds her prince and…. cue music … lives Happily Ever After. It’s the wish of a fantasy world. The escape from the real world where relationships and marriages aren’t always what they seem … where she gets upset when he leaves his swords and muddy boots all over the castle suite following his hunt with his friends.

In Disney’s newest animated feature, Tangled, the world was introduced to Rapunzel: a spunky dreamer with little experience in the real world. But what I loved about this new role model is that Disney did not create an all-around perfect superwoman. Rapunzel has her faults. Although beautiful in her own way, she is drawn with freckles (something not even imagined before) and a little bit of an overbite. She too is clumsy and may not have all the class and proper attitudes of your average royalty. Nonetheless, Tangled won the hearts of America. In fact, when Disney was swearing off new animated princess films, according to the Los Angeles Times, the outrage of fans was so massive that Pixar Animation chief Ed Catmull issued a retraction on Facebook, promising great things to come. With the film’s opening in November of 2010, Disney found it might not be such a bad thing to leave the thought of noble and brave women behind. The Disney version of retelling the story of the maiden with long locks trapped in the tower, waiting patiently for life to begin, rung in nearly $194 million in worldwide ticket sales.

In the end, a princess is a power, an ideal and a way of life. The Google search of the phrase ‘Disney Princess’, brings up over 45 million articles and makes it obvious how much they are adored. I’m not complaining however. It doesn’t take much to admit that I forced my mom to take me to see Beauty and the Beast nine times in the theaters.  Yes, a tale as old as time…. I too am obsessed. Disney knows how to do it well especially when it comes to captivating both the young and the old. And that captivation comes, most of the time, through these beautiful princesses.

Death of Traditional Media

I recently ran across an interesting video that talked about the death of “traditional media”. This got my mind thinking back to about six years ago when I first discovered Facebook. At that point, media and marketing were all about having a high engagement and high reach to anyone who would listen. Now, where social media has become the center, and if you want to have any affect as a business or corporation, your status and tweets need to be up to date. This is where this video came into play for me. I understood the importance of social media but the way Ernest Barbaric (@ebarbaric), a professional social media marketing speaker and consultant, speaks about it just makes sense.

 In today’s world, it’s finding that target audience and starting out with lower engagement and reach that helps the product or business grow. It seems almost opposite as to what you would want to do but when products are marketed to a specific group of people (low engagement and reach), that specific group will share it with those would like the same thing. Another article I read talked about how it seems that those who create the most visually unappealing and least user friendly websites are those created by newspapers, TV stations and radio stations. They are afraid to change with the times. When it comes to social media, rather than casting all over the net, you work to help consumers find you. By being effective with a social media plan, when you provide a product or service that interests people, those same people will find you if you allow yourself to be found.

Social Media vs. Traditional Media