Linking in the Light

Posted by Laura McCulloch on May 24th, 2011 at 09:30 AM | Comment!

You guys all know the old adage about winking in the dark. You know…doing business without advertising is like winking in the dark. You know you’re doing it but nobody else does. We can update this axiom for the new millennium by adding social media to the mix. It’s got to be done. And we’re doing it. Again. Today. BridgePoint Creative is now LinkedIn. Since LinkedIn went public last week, we figured we should too! Take a look at our BPC Company page, or connect with Laura and Suzy on LinkedIn. And be prepared for incoming as we reach out to connect with YOU!

Email by the numbers

Posted by Suzy Vitello Soulé on May 22nd, 2011 at 07:51 PM | Comment!

25 years ago, according to a recent Fast Company article, the very first automated email list management software was developed by Eric Thomas. That software, Listserv, is still in use today, but the climate of electronic communications is vastly changed.

Here are the numbers referenced in the article:

Worldwide email accounts

1989 | 1.8 million
1996 | 100 million
2010 | 3 billion

In 2010, email use by Seniors increased by 28%  &  decreased 59% in Teens

The average businessperson sends 33 emails each day.

89% of all sent emails are spam, the majority of which are pharmaceutical promotions.

In 1985, 90% of all emails were business related. Today, just 8% are business related.

In 2010, there were…
107 trillion emails sent
170 billion pieces of mail sent
36 billion photos shared on Facebook
25 billion tweets posted

The Facebook evolution (in users):
2004 | 1 million
2010 | 600 million

The AOL decline:
2004 | 23 million
2010 | 4 million

Trade-in your gadgetry for Amazon credit

Posted by Laura McCulloch on May 19th, 2011 at 06:16 AM | Comment!

Amazon.com has expanded its trade-in store by adding a program allowing customers to trade in their used electronics for Amazon gift cards. Now you can can trade in certain electronics like tablets, cellphones, MP3 players and GPS devices, regardless of where you originally purchased the products. In order to participate, you must verify that the specific product is part of the program, select whether the item is in like-new, good or acceptable condition, then print out the shipping label to ship it free to Amazon. Once the product is received, inspected and approved, an Amazon.com gift card will be deposited into your Amazon.com account within 48 hours.The electronics trade-in store expands the company’s existing trade-in program, which includes textbooks, video games and DVDs.

Getting fit—online!

Posted by Suzy Vitello Soulé on May 18th, 2011 at 10:40 AM | Comment!

Long ago, in the dark ages of the 80’s, I emerged from college with a degree in nutrition and began a series of jobs in hospitals, where I balanced the food selections of patients on special diets. It was like math class for 8 hours a day. Protein, potassium, sodium, calories, fat, all calculated and optimized while trying to accommodate a given patient’s breakfast, lunch and dinner choices.

Fast forward 20-something years, and, though carbs remain 4 calories/gram, the technology surrounding their calculation has made quite a leap. This past month, two situations have brought this to light. In the first, I was just introduced to The Living Cookbook by Joyful Noise Child Development Center Director, Alice Smith. A few months ago, JN instituted a wholesale revision of their menus, bumping up fruits, veggies and whole grains, and decreasing fat and sugar. They brought me in to help analyze the menus, and check in with the classrooms to see how the change was being received a cycle in.

I’m happy to report that the kids were actually eating things like lentil soup, sweet potato and black bean chili, and “homemade” chicken nuggets (real chicken with a whole grain breading, baked). Sure, there’d been some initial fuss, but things had calmed down and were cleaning their plates. Best, for me, was instead of calculating all the nutrients by hand, or using a cumbersome reference book, the Living Cookbook software did it all for me when I punched in the ingredients—making the analysis and any recommended changes super easy.

This week (thanks to Groupon) I started a new exercise class called Fierce Fitness. It’s an intense hour, three days a week (at 6:30 a.m.) of kickboxing. There’s a nutrition component too, which incorporates the whole protein shake thing along with balancing carbs, fats and protein to optimize the results. The workout is incredible (and by incredible, I mean ass-kicking), but here’s the thing, they handed out paper “food logs” that are to be filled in each day and turned in once a week, all calculated out, etc.. With the limited time I have these days, I knew immediately that wouldn’t fly, so off to my iPhone I trod, and immediately found this great app.The My Fitness Pal website and app is incredibly robust, has an amazing database of common foods, and is as user friendly as it gets. Being the loudmouth I am, I immediately broadcast the tool to the Get Fierce Facebook Group. Hey, why not spread the love?

Brene Brown on The Power of Vulnerability

Posted by Laura McCulloch on May 17th, 2011 at 06:45 AM | Comment!

Last week my friend and colleague, Sheila Graves, generously shared with me this TED Talk by Dr. Brene Brown on The Power of Vulnerability. Brilliant and brave. Thank you Sheila! I am now a fully subscribed Dr. Brown fan. I’m following her on Twitter, subscribing to her blog and newsletter and ordering up her books from the library.

Experimenting with SM Boosters

Posted by Suzy Vitello Soulé on May 16th, 2011 at 06:00 AM | Comment!

Marketing techniques like sweepstakes and contests are all the rage with writers these days, A chance at winning, say, a book, or some book-related swag in exchange for viral buzz is becoming as common as the old cliche of balled up paper ripped out of old Smith Coronas.

After taking part in a couple recently and seeing how they work from the inside—and, actually winning a couple—I thought I’d put one together myselfhttp://www.letstalkaboutwriting.com/2011/05/chronolgy-of-water-giveaway.html. So far, after 24 hours, I’ve spiked my stats on my writing blog about 25%. But that could all die down, so I’m not inking results just yet. Over the next couple days, I’ll tweet the contest daily, post it once more on Facebook, and, of course, I’m referring to it on this blog.

But, here’s the thing. I’m really not just doing this to market my own writing. First, I really love the book I’m giving away. Second, it’s important, in my line of work, to understand online behavior, so I guess I’m using this as a focus group experiment for viral buzz-building in general. And third, yes, I really do want to build my platform for a book I’ve written and hope to sell in the next few months.

Put another nickel in the National Jukebox

Posted by Laura McCulloch on May 12th, 2011 at 07:43 AM | Comment!

If you are in the mood for a diversion, try listening to some scratchy old records! Earlier this week the Library of Congress, in conjunction with Sony Music Entertainment, launched The National Jukebox. The new site streams 10,000 sound recordings from the historic Victor Records collection circa 1910-1929.  All the songs on the National Jukebox can be listened to free of charge, but they cannot be downloaded.  Sony Music Entertainment owns the rights to the historic Victor Records Co. collection, and has licensed the collection to the Library. The site allows users to create playlists without having an account. Users can also save, share, embed and submit their playlists to the Library to be featured on the site. Genres include Classical Music, Ethnic Characterizations, Popular Music, Religious and Spoken Word. Users can also find recordings by date, so you can see what songs were recorded on your birthday. Well, probably not your actual birthday, since these recordings were made between 1910-1929, and if you were born during those years, you’re probably not reading this blog post.

Here are a few choice selections from The National Jukebox followed by a video of Harry Connick Jr. at the launch party!

Wreck of the old 97
You may be fast but your mamma’s gonna’ slow you down
Alcoholic blues
Oh! How she could yacki hacki wicki wacki woo

last grown-up in the woods

Posted by Suzy Vitello Soulé on May 11th, 2011 at 07:26 AM | Comment!

Author Richard Louv made a huge impact with his 2005 breakout book “Last Child in the Woods.” Coining the concept of nature deficit disorder, Louv made a compelling argument for getting kids to go outside as an integral part of their upbringing.

Now, six years later, along comes its companion, “The Nature Principle.” This book is targeted at adults in a culture that’s increasingly sedentary and tech-dependent. Louv is giving a talk in my fair city tonight, in, of all places, the zoo. I won’t be there. I’ll be up the road at one of the many soccer tryouts slated for my 12-year-old this week. In our house, getting my kid to come INside is more of an issue.

Louv, no doubt, will be preaching to the choir up here amongst the firs. His books are favorites in a town that boasts the largest contiguous city park in the country. And yet. There are days that go by when the wet, mucky ground looks as inviting to me as a stagnant cesspool. And I’m so dependent on my iPhone, that the few times I’ve left it at home I get phantom limb syndrome, reaching in my purse or pocket reflexively for the rubber-covered wafer that tethers me to minutia.

At the end of the day, though, I’m totally a member of Louv’s choir. Last year, at this time, we bought a house that sits on the edge of one of Portland’s many green spaces. Our chickens cluck each morning to remind us they need to be let out of their coop to free range. We have bird-feeders, field guides, a hippie bus that we routinely chug off to campgrounds in. We climb mountains, hike along beaches. Last weekend my husband and I slogged through miles of mud to witness whales migrating up to cooler waters. There were eagles in our sights. And my smartphone got no reception (yet, there it sat, in my pocket, impotent and dumb).

We live in a world that embraces contradictions. We’re posting our treks through nature on our Facebook walls often, so that we might savor them in the context of knowing that our friends “like” that we’re out there, in the gloaming. It’s all so silly, isn’t it? And yet.