Ever wonder what it's like to have the Company Executives walk into your office and say, " We're shutting the doors tomorrow." The employees of the Rocky Mountain News decided to Tweet the experience. It's a must read. You get a behind the scenes sense of what it's like to hear,"It's over."
Reporter points out that Dean Singleton, owner of the Post, is in
worse financial shape than Scripps. Boehne responds ask Singleton.
about 11 hours ago from TweetDeck
Boehne: I guess we could have cut both newsrooms in half to make it profitable. Didn't make much sense.
about 11 hours ago from TweetDeck
Tears filling many eyes. A lot of frustration from people who have poured their lives into this organization.
about 11 hours ago from TweetDeck
Many people in Twitter community expressing dismay that Colorado's oldest paper -- older than the state itself -- is closing.
about 11 hours ago from TweetDeck
The Rocky will not continue updating the web site beyond tomorrow.
Twitter and Flickr included. There will be no one here to do it.
Traditionalists may shudder but then traditionalists don't like sending e-greeting cards either. When you are hunting for a job you want to differentiate yourself and make sure your resume impresses the people that need to be impressed.. Allen Merck decided to create a virtual resume with an Avatar.
Has the time come when the traditional resume can be fiddled with? Would you create and send a virtual resume to a potential employer?
It's been little more than a month since Oren Lavie uploaded his virally successful YouTube video,Her Morning Elegance. Since then, it's been viewed around 3.7 million times ( as of this morning February 23, 2009)
While the reaction to the video is often, "It's So Beautiful," and "How Did They Do That?", the real purpose of the video is all business: Lavie is another example of how social media is changing how the business of music is conducted in the United States.
"Video has long been crucial to music marketing. But the rise of social
media means that it’s YouTube, not MTV, which is where this is being
played out. For 41% of consumers now say YouTube is the single most
important community site in terms of music. It’s a 14% jump on last
year that has been gained directly at the expense of MySpace."
Lavie didn't have a contract with a record label so he created his own, A Quarter Past Wonderful,which he used to self-produce his album The Opposite Side of The Sea.
Lavie didn't have a marketing department to promote the music, so he created a MySpace Page which houses the video linked to YouTube.
Lavie released his album on iTunes in 2008 - as of this writing there is still not a physical version of the album and of course he released the video on YouTube.
A simple formula that has been followed by many independent artists. What makes this one different? Lavie is extremely accomplished -- in addition to being a singer/songwriter he is also a playwright and a director.From his blog on MySpace,
Right now the only place to "buy" this album is on iTunes. Lavie is in the process of negotiating a physical release of the music.
Wondering how they did it? From Lavie's MySpace page.
Fun Facts: *
The video was shot all stills - roughly 3225 still photos for the
entire video, using one camera, hanging from the ceiling for the main
body of the movie. *
It took 4 weeks before shooting to create an animated computer
generated storyboard for the video, with 3d dummies for the characters. * It took only 2 days of shooting for the live actors on set to re-create the 3.5 minutes computer sequence, frame by frame. *
Some of the bed sheets used in the video were taken from Oren’s own
bedroom and are now considered collectors items, worth at the moment
not very much and therefore used as bed sheets. *Each
of the wonderfully talented people above have worked on the video for a
fraction of their normal rates (except Oren who worked for his normal
rate of zero).
To learn more about the people in video, Visit Lavie's MySpace page
On Wednesday I ranted about the small towels at my New York hotel. On Thursday, the Director of Public Relations for the Affinia Hotels responded by leaving a comment on my blog.
Hello-
My name is Brooke Jennings Roe, and I am the Director of Public
Relations with Affinia Hotels. I recently came across your blog and
wanted to respond immediately to your concerns. We appreciate this type
of feedback so much and take it very seriously. I have reached out to
our hotels and based on your comments, we are re-looking at our linen
supply company (specifically to help upgrade the towels). In addition,
and I couldn't agree with you more, since one of the many guilty
pleasures in life is to enjoy time in a hotel in a comfy bathrobe, we
will be adding this to our My Affinia program and can be requested at
any time. Hopefully this will allow you to more fully enjoy the other
unique amenities in the My Affinia customization program while meeting
your immediate needs first. Look for the evolved program in the next
month or so and we hope that you will come back and visit soon! If you
would like to reach me directly, my e-mail address is
bjennings@affinia.com. Thanks again for bringing your experience to our
attention.
While I am delighted that the next time I check into an Affinia Hotel I will know that I will have a lovely bathrobe hanging up in the closet, the bathrobe is besides the point. Prior to blogs I probably would have shared my towel rant with friends over a glass of wine when the topics of hotels came up and the hotel would have had little power or ability to respond to my disappointment because I would not have shared it with them. It would have been a lose lose for both of us.
In the old days, I rarely completed comment cards. Like many consumers, pre-social media, I had been conditioned to believe that comment cards hold little or no influence with policy making because rarely heard back from companies and if in the off chance I did, it was the customary form response," Thank you for your comments, we will share it with management." And then, of course, you never heard another word about the situation.
Social media changes all that. Having public conversations about service, quality, or an experience in a hotel is very different than having a customer send in a comment card.
I like to think that the Affinia Hotels responded in such a positive manner to my mini rant because my basic suggestion does have merit.It fits in with their brand and they do have the My Affinia program designed to customize a guest's stay.
A part of me did the mini rant because I was curious whether or not Affinia Hotels is paying attention to what customers are saying about them online. While it might seem like an obvious, there are still many, many companies that don't understand the importance of listening to online conversations. I'm glad Affinia is not one of them, and I'm doubly glad that by listening I'm get a comfy cozy bathrobe the next time I stay there.
A mini rant because I am now wearing a mini towel and I want to be in a luxurious bathrobe. Few things make me happier than walking into a hotel room and seeing a lovely terrycloth bathrobe hanging in the closet .It's comforting. It's civilized.
I do not understand why hotels that are focused on comfy beds and pillows have chosen to ignore the towels. Scratchy towels are simply not acceptable. Towels that are child-sized rather than bath-sized are not acceptable.
Being snugly wrapped in a hotel bathrobe after taking my morning shower in a hotel room allows me to replicate my at-home morning routine. This is a good thing. I regularly stay bathrobe clad for a good 30 minutes post shower. I want that same experience when I'm in a hotel room.
Earlier this week the hotel chain where I'm staying--The Affinia offered me a $50 gift certificate for "hotel extras" for completing a guest profile.They offer lots of fun extras but no bathrobes.
If I want to exercise, they'll have a yoga mat sent to my room. If I want to listen to my iPod as I snooze off, they'll deliver a special iPod pillow. There's even cupcakes. And a rubber ducky for kids. But no bathrobe.
Do most travelers really not care about towels and bathrobes? How can this be?
Where do you stand on hotel towels? Given the choice do you choose towel or bathrobe?
Am I all wet on this issue or am I on to something that hotels need to rethink their towel policy.
Recently on a drive from Tulsa, OK to Dallas we passed by Bob's Good Junk Yard. My friend, who has made this particular drive for many years, said Bob had recently changed the name of his business from Bob's Junk to Bob's Good Junk. Time didn't allow me to ask Bob about the name change. If you happen to know whether the new name is helping drive sales, please share.
UPDATE: In an email interview with Dan Stuart who works for Byat.com - the Middle East's #1 job site, Stuart said their experience is somewhat different than the picture painted by The New York Times.
-
Our surveys and polls on attitudes and perceptions in the region (which we have
a lot of and which confirm people are hurting but its not the end of the world
nor are they leaving en masse )tell us that they are certainly layoffs, but
that companies are moving forward with growth projections, but optimizing and
leaning is the theme for 2009. The flight to quality for staff is going strong
here. "Imploding" is definitely a misrepresentation, in my opinion.
It seems for the past year main stream media was stepping all over itself to promote Dubai which they painted as part Las Vegas/ part Disneyland on steroids. But like Bernie Madoff's investment funds, Dubai's economy turns out to have been a mirage and thousands of expats are being laid off. If they can't pay their bills, they can end up in Debtor's Prison. That's the topic of my post today at BlogHer. Bubye Dubai
Back to the media love fest with Dubai, there have been fewer bigger fans of Dubai than Pulitzer Prize winning columnist Tom Friedman who called it fantastic.,
Dubai is not a democracy, and it is not without warts. But it is a
bridge of decency that leads away from the failing civilization
described by Dr. Sultan to a much more optimistic, open and
self-confident society. Dubaians are building a future based on butter
not guns, private property not caprice, services more than oil, and
globally competitive companies, not terror networks. Dubai is about
nurturing Arab dignity through success not suicide. As a result, its
people want to embrace the future, not blow it up.
Then there was 60 Minute's Billet Deux to Dubai. I fell in love.
<br> Fast Forward to February 2009, writing about the fall of Dubai's economy in The Spine, Marty Peretz says,
Sir Winfried Franz Wilhen "Win" Bischoff, who is to step down as chairman of Citigroup having done such a magnificent job shepherding the gargantuan bank, was the source for a Wall Street Journal story on December 12, 2008, barely two months ago, proclaiming that "Citi Voices Upbeat View on Dubai." Bischoff went on to say that, "This is in line with our commitment to the (U.A.E.) market in general, and reflects our positive outlook on Dubai is particular."
In the New York Times article that reported on the debtor's prison, reporter Robert F. Worth wrote
"Dubai's paper thin society seemed to fool almost everyone."
However, a commenter on The Spine wrote,
Not those of us who've known that, ever since the collapse of the Soviet Union and the criminalization of most of its former constituent state regimes, Dubai has been Mafiya Central. It's where eastern european and middle eastern criminal money gets laundered.
To which another commenter said,
lots of naive Europeans and American (the type that read the fashion sections and believe what's printed there and have no clue about the real world) got fooled.
Meanwhile, there are are now thousands of expats who have lost their job and who now are desperately trying to figure out how to get out without ending up in Dubai's Debtor's prison a place you have to stay until the debt is paid.
jessicalynnie: @amitg99 My work BLOCKS everything. I was trying to pay my Victoria's secret bill one day, and it told me blocked for pornography. Awesome!
A friend was telling me that when he worked at a foundation the IT department department blocked sex and religious sites. Only problem, the nonprofit did work in domestic violence and blocking "sex" sites, blocked workers from visiting sites discussing domestic violence issues. Oh, and that block on religious sites...it was a faith-based organization. Go figure
Hopefully the folks at General Mills follow the adage that there's no such thing as bad publicity. As part of his monologue, Conon O'Brien said that Michael Phelp's sponsors had tweaked their ads as a result of the bong boy photo.
While the bit is very funny, Kellogg's must be lovin' it because O'Brien mistakenly has Phelps on the cover of a box of Wheaties.
What makes it all the funnier is that Kellogg's is the only sponsor to drop Phelps as a result of the weed smokin' incident. His cereal box was Corn Flakes.
My StumbleUpon Page
Recent Comments