He’s a Prepper, She’s a Prepper, wouldn’t you like to be a Prepper too?

Prepper Lifestyle

A lifestyle trend that I have observed is “Prepping” or more popular vernacular with the preppers is S.H.T.F. scenario.  (Google that if you don’t know what it means, but I will stick Preppers for this article).  This trend is completely grass-roots and is often characterized as people that are weird and only focus on the end of the world.  The first thought of a prepper is someone in a cave or an underground bomb shelter.  That visual is actually spot on, but a little misleading.

The term “prepper” is really the same term used years ago “survivalist”, or a term that is still used today “boy-scout that is always prepared.”  Another would be “environmentalist” The website im a prepper describes the term as; “A prepper is someone who is uncomfortable relying on others for the basics of survival and protection.”

There are many different levels of preppers too.  Many people that are very frugal and live life very simply may call themselves a prepper since they are only using what they need.  Others that buy only “green” products also think of themselves as a quasi-preppers by helping out the Earth.

DID YOU KNOW… Ready.gov has information for preparing for Natural Disasters, Pandemic, Terrorist Hazards and more?  

One better definition is “In short preppers are those that hope for the best, plan for the worst, but make the most of each day as it comes.” (Blakesley.N.D)

I have always thought of “preppers” as something much easier to understand, “traditionalists”.  Just this past weekend at a soccer game in Virginia with my daughter, I met a guy we will call Joe.  Joe and I spoke on a couple different occasions about how life used to be.  I had read the question for this assignment last week but I never put the two together until Monday morning of this week wondering what I would write about.

DID YOU KNOW…FEMA lists six basics every home should have to be prepared for a basic disaster?

Prepping has become a trend that many people do not usually talk about due to the looks they get in return.  If you hear someone talking about the cache of supplies they have in their bunker, most people will end that conversation quickly.

In my case I grew up as a prepper. (Wait did he just say that).  Yep, (well sort of) my family has always thought about the future generations and what they will have when they grow up.  My family has always had farms and tools to make what you need, grow what you need, take what you need and share what you don’t.  If you were to ask any of them they would say “no that is just tradition”.  So whatever label you put on it, it has been done for years, but the current generations are not participating much anymore.

“Well, the truth is that the motivation for prepping is different for each person.  Some preppers believe that a complete collapse of the economy is coming.  Others saw what happened to so many during Hurricane Katrina are are determined not to let that happen to them.  Some preppers just want to become more independent and self-sufficient.  There are yet others that are deeply concerned about “end of the world as we know it” scenarios such as terrorists using weapons of mass destruction, killer pandemics, alien invasions, World War III or EMP attacks.” (EAD.com 2012)

Now, back to Joe.  Joe and I talked about what it was like to grow up in the Va. W.V. area.  How we used to think that taking the tent to a local camp ground and fishing or hiking all weekend was a great vacation.  We oddly bonded on the fact that we both use to camp in a near-by campground and the fact that neither of our daughters knew what it was NOT to stay in an upper scale hotel.

Preppers Evolve

The reason I chose to write about preppers is that it’s not on the radar.  You will not find big studies on the prepping community.  There is no big-box-store named PreppersRus.  Or maybe there is  The Common Sense Prepper

This is all by design.  These people are always specifically “under the radar” literally and figuratively.  The one thing about the lifestyle is it is very private.  That is why talking to a random guy like Joe was a fascinating find.

DID YOU KNOW…FEMA has a “Best Practices and Case Studies”section on its Plan and Prepare page?

Joe is an average looking soccer dad.  He wore a Virginia Tech. hat and normal soccer dad attire.  He didn’t really stand out from the crowd at all by just looking at him.  But talking to him I found he was a smart articulate person that believes one day that our society is going to take a drastic change for the worse.  His thoughts are not really of a nuclear bomb, terrorist attack or the other more doomsday scenarios.  Rather his thoughts were that the economy will tank and that eventually people will be out of work and the “haves” will become the “have-nots” because money will not be worth anything.  Joe and his family however will be safe with at least a years’ worth of food, living on the outskirts of the city, with enough protection from anyone that wants to steal what he has stored away.

The evolution of this “movement” or “trend” is pretty apparent. Click on the word preppers in Google and see how many companies have jumped on board.

Though this trend is decades old there are always new gadgets and new theories of living through the doomsday and rebuilding society.  The preppers themselves have evolved by using the World Wide Web to order supplies and build online societies of other preppers.

This website End of the American Dream explains more of the evolution;

“the prepper movement is clearly growing.  Today, millions of Americans are converting spare rooms into storage pantries, learning how to grow survival gardens and stocking up on everything from gas masks to auxiliary generators.”

The Progression of Preppers

What we used to once call “that crazy guy that collects things down the street”, is now not so different than most of you reading this.  A study that the Salina Journal did on preppers portrays the progression of preppers.

“It was a diverse bunch. [The preppers were] all different shapes, sizes, ages, gender and political persuasions. Some were ex-military. Some never served. Some were unemployed, some had jobs. A few were retired.” (Fielder G.D. 2011)

The quotes that you will often hear the preppers say are

“Failure to prepare is preparing to fail”

or

“It’s better to have something and not need it than to need something and not have it”.

Each has many different versions but they all mean the same.  Prepping is akin to wearing a seat-belt, you don’t want to wreck but you are preparing just in case you do.

What you need to know about the new hit movie The Hunger Games…sort of

Tonight, or this morning at 12:01 A.M. was the huge premiere of the long awaited movie The Hunger Games.  My daughter and I bought tickets 3 weeks ago. While watching the previews there are now also commercials that run in between them.

One commercial came on that was for who?  You guessed it Microsoft.  The commercial starts playing and is noticeably NOT in HD.  It’s not even in the normal movie 16X9 format.

The commercial specifically targets young users (that were packed in their seats eagerly awaiting the big show) but these young people were not impressed, and audibly so.  One girl behind me said, “Internet Explorer, nobody uses that anymore”, a guy on the other side of the room yelled out “Safari”!  The commercial ran its course and ended.

An overall gasp fell over the room as a picture of a little baby appeared on the screen.  More and more pictures, the audio under the pictures was a young dad talking about how his wife told him to quit taking so many pictures of their new baby.  He said,  “I just couldn’t help myself”, he goes on to say “then one day, the pictures were all gone, everything that I took were lost, I had taken all of the pictures on my phone, and I lost it”.  The young watchers were silent.

Then the screen fills with pictures again as the guy explains that the pictures were not gone.  That all of the pictures he had taken were all on his Google+ account that were automatically synched when he took the pictures.  The screen fades to white and the Google+ logo comes up.  One girl actually applauded, another said “That’s sweet”.

So, I guess you can see Google and Microsoft know where to market themselves but only one of them understands the values that make their brand shine.

Oh, and what you need to know about The Hunger Games is, go see it!  You will thank yourself, and maybe me.

Watch the Google+ commercial here.

Luckily for you I could not find the Microsoft commercial but I did find this one which probably would have went over much better.

Hey Microsoft, if you need any help I am just a phone call away.

Spam, Ice Cream Trucks, West Virginia & Google – how are they related

Spam is a kind of tinned luncheon meat, made largely from pork.  As much as Spam (the meat) is loved by many countries (really) it is hated in its other definition of the word, “a message that is both unsolicited and bulk”.  Luckily for you we are going to be talking about the latter form because I could go on for days about Spam the meat (ok, not really, this time).

There are conflicting stories on Spams’ beginning but scholars think Spam (the electronic type) has its origin dating back to 1994, when a pair of husband-and-wife attorneys sent an e-mail hoping to drum up some immigration business for their firm.  Although they received many angry responses they also raked in almost $200,000 from a single e-mail.  Whip that little bit of information out at your next dinner party and impress someone.

For my West Virginia peeps you might be interested to know that Senator Robert C. (pork king) Byrd once said he eats a sandwich of SPAM and mayonnaise on white bread three times a week.

Here is another little nugget of info for you; if a spammer sends out a minimum of 1000 emails in one day, odds are that one person will actually purchase or at least click through to find out more.  Guess what happens then.  The spammer gets paid enough from that one “click” or “buy” to justify the other 999 emails.  Do it enough times in a day, bada-bing-bada-bam, well you get the picture. With today’s technology one spammer can send out thousands of spam an hour.

But really isn’t this the same methodology of junk mail (the stuff people over 30 will remember that you used to get in that little black box in front of the house).  Funny how our email programs also use the term “junk mail”.  Or is it? I think it is just “what was once old is new again”.  Or the new word for that phrase is “repurposing”.

You all know how it is, hold onto a favorite jacket or jeans for 15 years or more and you can be sure that the style will come back around.  (I am still waiting for the parachute pants to come back around, I am prepared)  It is the same with marketing.

When I think of how something is marketed or pitched I like to think of the lowest common denominator.  What is being sold? And what is the method?  Google adsense and SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is nothing more than the guy that used to stand on the corner yelling “extra-extra” read all about it, … man bites dog” (I hope someone gets that reference).

Also these online methods are, in an extreme way, like the ice-cream truck playing nursery rhymes loudly where kids are playing.  What is being sold? Ice cream.  What is the method? Go where kids are and attract them by playing songs they already know.

Again, I hope this is not too much of stretch for you to consider that these are the same methods being used in Google adsense and SEO.  This is just a different medium, but the same delivery. The basic theory is this, cast a wide enough net and you will catch something. Check out this article about Ice Cream Trucks.

Spam, in its two forms, Ice Cream Trucks, West Virginia and Google, related, well sort of.

I love it when a plan comes together!

So you are plugged in. You have your thumb on the heartbeat of social media. You understand that promotions on your social media hubs are a big draw.  And you want to cash in on this seemingly free advertising wonder. So you have a plan?  Does it have a beginning. middle and an end? No?  Therein lies your problem.

If you read my last blog about measuring your successes then you know that there are many parts to a good campaign.  But nothing is more important than a good plan.  We all know that we want to achieve something, and usually know how we want to start.  But having a beginning middle and end can prove to be very beneficial if you want to achieve the set goal.

OK, let’s say the objective you pick is get to more followers or “likes” for your Facebook page and to do this you are going to attempt a Facebook promotion with a prize for the people that “like” your page.  So we have an objective. We have a beginning plan.

What is the middle?  (Be sure to read the Facebook promotions guidelines if you actually decide to do this).  The middle could be to keep people engaged and have them spreading the word, at the same time you are cross marketing to other sites.  Remember not to leave other social media sites out of your promotion, cross-promote as much as you can.

Giving the people something of value is an important way to hold their attention.  If they come to your site and you can hold their interest on a daily or weekly basis then they see you as a place for information or at least a place with personal value.  This is where you start to gain residual followers and fans. (FYI, this is the underlying goal)

We have a beginning, middle and now we need an end.  We know the end is a prize.  How do you decide on what the prize is?  The key is to make it useful or at least memorable.  What is something your average fan or follower would use or find useful?  (You might want to stay away from tangible items due to endless liabilities.)  Coupons for groups or things people can download like free apps seem to be something simple but useful.  But whatever the prize is make it unique and tailored to your company’s message.

The one non-tangible thing that makes a long lasting impression is to give an experience for the prize. For example, if you were a radio station, tickets to an upcoming concert is cool but to also be a DJ for a day would make a lasting impression. That experience would not only make a lasting impression with the winner, but friends, family and other listeners would enjoy it as well.

Finally remember that the objective is reached only if you follow through with the plan. Once you get through one campaign, you too will be saying, “I love it when a plan comes together”.

“Measure twice cut once.”

Market, Market, Market…then what…  Well the next step would be to , measure, measure, measure.  One thing that most creative’s can forget is to market AND measure.  We (always thinking fanatics) as a whole understand what it is to get things out and market them to death.  Tell them what you are going to tell them, tell them, and then tell them what you told them.

It is easy for us to get a one track mind of telling but not seeing if it works.  If we get a little feedback here and there we think, “must be doing something right”, the problem is at the end of a campaign you have to answer to the bean counters (no offense bean counters, some of my best friends are bean counters, you know who you are).  And what they are going to want to know is did it work.  Did the effort spent, the resources used have a roi?

So having a good handle on the measurements from the beginning will help you in the end.  Knowing the overall market, what are their concerns, their knowledge of the product you are marketing, do they trust it, and do they buy (into) it? Where does the product stand BEFORE you start your campaign?

Knowing the statistics of your brand before, during and after your marketing effort will let you know if your plan has worked.

Planning to implement a campaign includes the measurement and the marketing.  “Measure twice cut once.”  This old adage still rings true today.

Top eleven social networks and the best 3D place in the “world”

We all know about Facebook and Twitter but are you a member of Linkedin or Google Plus?  Social networking is a huge phenomenon right now.  People are flocking to their favorite clan of people every night.  We all feel the need to be part of a group.  Being part of a pack is a natural feeling and now that the internet can fill that void we are linking back up with lost friends and old schoolmates at a staggering pace.

But now there are groups inside of groups.  I personally belong to a few groups on Facebook that include people I used to work with at WOWK TV, and I am a proud member of the Dunbar Bulldog group as well.  The feeling of belonging is innate.  It feels good to know people that experienced the same things you did and usually with you.  It is a bond that is hard to break.

If you lived in Italy, Spain, France or South America you would most likely belong to Badoo.  If you were ahead of the game years ago, you were most likely a member of MySpace.  But one of my favorite new Social sites is Pinterest.  There you can look at things that “pinterest” you and pin them to your wall for people to see.  It is sort of a Facebook without commentary.

If you are in India or Brazil you are most likely a member of Orkut which is translated into 48 languages.  You should have this one on your radar!

Tagged, XING and Hi5 are more locally targeted networks that are growing much like Facebook.  Again these may be your next stop when you get home.

In SHORT there is no SHORTAGE of places to see and go, but just like everything, keep it all in perspective. Also remember there is a place that is like no other and it is just a few steps from where you are sitting.  AND IT IS IN 3D!   Get outside and enjoy the world, it misses you!

How to use Social Media for good, not evil!

It’s 2012 and we are just on the periphery of a technology explosion.  We now have the answer to almost every question we can come up with literally within the palm of our hands.  If you say the phrase “I will just google it” at least once a day, you already know what I mean.

Social media sites are growing exponentially as are their members.  But just like everything else in life there is an etiquette to being social.  Many people get this, and many don’t.  We all know the people that put out T.M.I. (too much information), we understand how to deal with them. But this article is about those people that use Social Media for their business.

If you have ever owned a business you will know that networking is a huge part of and business.  It’s not who you know, it’s who knows you.  Networking has always been important, that hasn’t changed.  What has changed is how we do it.  Years ago you would always see your “insurance man” or local “furniture man” at the high school football or basketball game, they were almost a staple. It was a social gathering, a place where even people you just sort of know would be (sound familiar).  Those sales people were smart, they knew where to be, and they knew you would be there too.  (Again, sound familiar).

Now the Social Media sites are flooded with people pushing their products.  It used to be a passive thing, seeing your grocer at the parade or plumber at the mall.  With the internet it is in your face.  Friends that own businesses make the mistake of using their personal Facebook or Twitter account for selling their wares.  Sure you have to have a base of some sort, but should you put your friends in that position?  If you are one of those people, listen up!

Doing business in any economy is expensive.  The use of Social Media just seems to be the low cost option.  But not at the cost of your friends.  Some business people get it, they create business pages that you have the option of “liking” or “following”, that gives you the option of “opting out”.  But most networkers fuzz the lines of friends and customers.  They then advertise to new customers that they have X amount of followers or friends.  Kind of misleading don’t you think?

Sure we want to be your friend, for friends’ sake, not for your business.  It is sort of an ethical issue as well.  Why would you subject your friends to listening to or notifying them of your livelihood?  Why is it that you can’t draw the line between business and friends?  Yes we are interested in how you are doing, or things that are important to you. But a 24/7 advertisement is a little over the line. Think about what your friends do for a living.  Would you want all of them to be trying to sell you something day in day out? If the answer is NO, then think about what you are doing, reevaluate. If that isn’t enough of an argument, it is also against the rules, read Facebook’s help page for more.  Also here is a list of business social pages that might work a little better for you.

So in closing please use your Social Media sites for good not evil.

What is your Google age?

According to my browsing history and other habits on the internet, Google thinks I am a 25-34 year old male. Hey that works for me!  If you are a frequent Google user then you probably have a profile too.  Just click Ads Preferences to see yours. The “ads on the web” system that Google has in place is an opt-out only “service”.  And by “service” I mean invasion of privacy.  Sure I don’t mind letting the cookies hang out on my computer, it makes things I like show up faster in my searches.  Wait…or are they telling me things I like, then I like them.  Ok this is confusing.  Let me get this straight.

Google learns what you like then systematically shows you advertisements you might be interested in and makes my searching easier by telling me things I already know, or might be interested in learning depending on my profile … Do you see the problem here?  Let me put it another way.  If you were to go to a friend’s house and use his computer to “Google” something.  Did you know that you will get different results than if you used your computer?  Try it.

For the record I am a male but a touch older than 34 (although I look 29, ha ha).  The things it has listed for me are pretty close to what I search for quite often, which is a bit scary.  Just in case you are interested, check this out, Google’s Privacy Update: What You Need to Know. 

Most people think “well Google is free, they should make some money”, and you are right, kinda.  The services are free but you and I both pay with personal private information.  Google uses its knowledge of what they know about us and sells it to advertisers.  The advertisers then (through magic of course) show up in our searches and on sidebars and where ever there might be some space.  Privacy firm Reputation.com says your personal info could be worth anywhere from $50 to $5,000 per year to market researchers and advertisers.

So the next time you are looking for that awesome new fishing pole and you get an email about new trout fishing trips, or go to your favorite website and there is an advertisement for “BRAND NEW POLES UNDER $20”, remember THEY KNOW WHO YOU ARE

The World Is Watching

This past weekend I had the opportunity to sit in as the “corner-man” for a local fighter and friend at a Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) show in Kentucky.  The fighter DJ Toney has been training for this Spartan Fighting Championship for about a month.  Many friends and family members couldn’t attend this fight so we decided to document the weekend using Facebook.  In this picture DJ Toney is signing on the dotted line for the fight the following night:

People from all over the U.S. and one in the Philippines watched patiently as we uploaded information and pictures to the site.  Also the fight was carried live via Pay Per View on the Spartan website.  As you can read from the site, people were able to watch the fight from a different angle than just a seat in the auditorium, and if you couldn’t watch the fight live people are able to go back and watch a replay.  Here DJ  is waiting patiently for the weigh-in with his trainer M. Flowers;

Was the Superman shirt a foreshadowing of the fight to come, or would the  locally known foe ruin DJ’s undefeated record, with a pocket full of Kryptonite.

The weigh-in’s were streamed live for everyone to see.  After the weigh-in’s more and more people were texting and calling our team to  help pump up DJ for his fight only hours away.

The following day we planned for DJ and Flowers to go to an indoor shooting range to take his mind off of the night to come;

We had a great day at the shooting range, everyone had smiles from a relaxing day of tearing up some targets.  The time had finally come. The preparations begin.  DJ and Flowers are backstage at the event getting the hand-wraps ready for the gloves.

As I upload the pictures, more and more people are texting and “liking” the updates as time grows near.

Fighter after fighter are coming back-stage battered and bruised.  Rookie  fighters watch the backstage monitors with eyes wide open, taking in every move of the ones that have gone before them.

We all joke with DJ about his fighting shorts as we all know the striking of the bell, the screaming fans and the loud music are just moments away.

We wait backstage for what seemed to be an eternity.  The promoters change the fight card to put DJ and his hometown opponent closer to the main event.  The air was thick with enthusiasm as the sounds of the cheering crowd beyond the curtain blended with the pounding of gloves hitting practice pads everywhere you turned.

This was it!  The officials rush DJ, Flowers and myself to a room made of ten feet tall black curtains surrounded by Monster drink logo’s and flashing lights.  The hometown fighter had just went into the Octagon.  The lights went out and the walk-in song for DJ came on.  The look on the face of DJ was intense and focused, Flowers looked determined but also like a proud father.  Flowers had his hands on DJ’s shoulders holding him back for a few seconds as the anticipation grew.    Then like a flash, DJ was gone!  Running down the entrance way through the crowd and to the Octagon.  He was ready to fight!

I was now in “corner-man” mode, no more texting, no more up-loading, it was fight time.  My iPhone was in my pocket the entire fight, it buzzed a few times as the announcer goes through the official banter before the fight.  But then the iPhone was silent…people all around the world were watching.

Fast-forward 30 minutes later…the fight is over, we walk with DJ back to the trainers room, the opponents hometown crowd are standing, applauding, high-fiving, knuckle-bumping DJ as he walks away from the cage.  He has won some fans tonight.  But the fight didn’t go his way.

A month of hard training, a weekend of anticipation, a world watching your every move. What could have been another MMA match in “Any-State-USA”, was an example of how new media is changing the way we live, interact and entertain.

The World Is Watching.

The Immersion of Emerging Media

It was a typical day.  There I was looking out the bus window wondering what town I was in at that moment.  A look out of the bunk tells me we are almost at the gig as the drummer is warming up with his sticks rhythmically making his way down the long hall of this steel horse.  Wait! (sound of screeching record) Where am I? Who am I? Did I die and comeback as Jon Bon Jovi?  Sadly the answer is a resounding NO.  This particular weekend I was invited by a friend to go out “on the road” with an up-and-coming country music duo that is taking the U.S. by storm!

I had the opportunity to be a fly on the wall of a mobile marketing machine.  As I ride with the band, meet-and-greet, to the hotel, to the stage, to the bus, I notice something is different about what I would normally think about time on the road.  Each musician carries something with them that rarely leaves their side, a smart phone.  During a break after sound check, while eating a quick meal, each member is thumb typing or taking a quick picture to send out to a fan or a family member.  These musicians are connected to the world 24/7.

As I sat talking to the “dynamic-duo” front men, I asked them about their use of social media and what it means to them.  They both, almost on cue, say, “it is one of the most important things we do.”  They each go on to explain that Twitter and Facebook help them stay connected with their fans and help them spread the word about what is going on with the band, where they are, where they are going, what is happening in the near future and what to expect at that night’s show.

What used to be a job of 4 marketing people it is now done in real-time with a true immersion of emerging media.

This real-time conversation promotes their music and creates never-ending touch points with their fans.

(Hint; click on the links to see who the band is, Thanks LCC)