Website Marketing NY, Quit Your Day Job (At JetBlue Airlines) But Don’t Forget The Beer, A-Rod Hits 600: What your business can learn from newsworthy bridge burning

Posted by Salem Global on Aug 10, 2010

As the Grateful Dead said: “I’m going to Hell in a bucket baby, but at least I’m enjoying the ride…” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIwSaOBHinQ) Thus said the JetBlue Employee of the century, flight attendant Steven Slater, after getting hit in the head by a piece of luggage that an impatient passenger on flight 1052 arriving from Pittsburgh to New York’s JFK Airport couldn’t wait to get down. But the way that it all went down was so classic that it is already being called “pulling a JetBlue.” So awesome that after arguing with the specific passenger, Slater then got on the PA system, said some profanities, cursed out everyone in the plane and just like James Bond, activated the emergency exit chute, and ran away down the tarmac, through the terminal, onto the bus, into his car and headed for home. But wait – it gets better. I am not exactly sure how this was reported and what Slater was thinking, but the climax of this whole story was that right before he made his dramatic departure, he actually grabbed a couple of beers on the way out. Now tell me folks, is there ANY better way to quit your job?

And tell me folks, don’t you think that as of this writing there are no fewer than 782 related articles when you search for “JetBlue” in Google news? And more blogs and articles are definitely coming. This is almost as good as when Kevin Smith of Clerks/ Silent Bob fame Twittered about being called fat on a Southwest Airlines flight. Social media and the web have done wonders for businesses large and small. And remember it doesn’t all have to be good news. Just news. As the old PR saying goes, any PR is good PR. Just realize how viral this story has gone in the last 24 hours and how much more it will go in the next 24 hours…

So your business should be creative and try to figure out what is going to really shock the world. What do you think that is? I am talking about Ripley’s Believe It Or Not material. This is your homework for the week. What can your company do or stage to get news coverage so vast that everyone is talking about it. That will get more hits to your website than you can imagine. JetBlue is a good company. This guy just got fed up. That’s all. No real harm done. I am sure flight attendants get hit every day in the head. Even more get cursed out. But today’s story takes the cake. There is a debate in my office whether this video is real or not: What do YOU think? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wvxodp-GpFA.

Book of the week: “All In: The (Almost) Entirely True Story of the World Series of Poker” by Jonathan Grotenstein and Storms Reback – http://www.amazon.com/All-Almost-Entirely-Story-World/dp/0312360371/ref=sr_1_8?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1281458326&sr=1-8 – Making me think a little more about how I play my own poker hands. Your business can learn a lot about marketing and business development from this book. Taking risks and chances. Leveraging what you have…

Finally, yes. Alex Rodriguez has indeed joined the 600 club, but I have never NEVER seen a ballgirl (or boy) do this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1liNz3QsAc – Did I mention that this was a ball girl? Oh yeah – the way that I got to this video was because Masato Akamatsu of the Hiroshima Toyo Carp also made an impressive catch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYdpBNonxA4. (But NOT AS IMPRESSIVE AS A BALL GIRL!!!) Ok – last one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RW0bb2wxH5Y, Brian Kownacki Leaps The Catcher for safe at home plate. Btw – check out CORRECT use of YouTube description with the url: http://www.sportingnews.com

So if you want to know more about writing true or false stories about your company, having them go viral, how to promote these stories to the benefit of your company and using social media to get the message out, email me at raphis@salemglobal.com, call my office at 212-993-5828 or check out www.SalemGlobal.com for more information. The call and consultation are free, the benefits could be priceless. (Thanks to Alan in my Tuesday morning Westchester networking group for that tagline – I like it).

Website Marketing Manhattan, Mazel Tov Chelsea Clinton, A-Rod 600, Kohl’s $10 Million, Eat Pray Love, Drink, Play, F@#k: What your business can learn, and take from the larger players

Posted by Salem Global on Aug 3, 2010

So what have I really learned this week about website marketing? Not too much. But then I got a Facebook request to vote for my friend’s school to win $10 million dollars through Kohl’s. A retail store here in Westchester – and probably around the country as well. Now THIS is the way to use social media. Kids. Schools. Money. A winning combination. Please vote for my kids’ school: http://apps.facebook.com/KohlsCares/school/1227181/solomon-schechter-sch-westchtr-lower. This is one of the best examples of huge fortune companies using the web to get more exposure and ultimately increase sales in all of their stores. It is WELL worth $10,000,000. That’s TEN MILLION DOLLARS folks. That got my attention. And now I am promoting it to you and every single school friend and alumnus that I know. That’s word of mouth marketing at its finest. Money talks and on the web, talk is cheap. My kids’ school has been around, I think, for 30 years and if I can get a fraction of those people on Facebook and vote for my kids school to win, that will be an extra $500,000 in our annual budget this year. So please vote for my kids’ school. I would very much appreciate it. Thanks.

Last week I picked up the book on CD “Eat, Pray, Love” by Elizabeth Gilbert. It’s a sad story about a woman who goes through a divorce, depression and then travels to Italy, Indonesia and India for a year. I am only on the 3rd CD so I don’t know how it ends but I can tell you that so far it is excellent and I highly recommend the CD because she has a beautiful voice and to hear her speaking Italian on the CD as opposed to reading the book is really an added bonus. I also guarantee you that the book is 1 million times better than the Julia Roberts movie that will be coming out next week. Movies NEVER do a book justice. Related to this, please do not see the Leonardo DiCaprio movie Inception. I was totally duped by the advertising that called it “James Bond meets the Matrix.” It was more like nobody meets nobody and it’s all a dream within a dream and it mostly all sucks. Yes, there was some action (but no fun James Bond girl sex) but it didn’t make any sense at all and wasn’t exciting for me. I am honestly surprised that DiCaprio would do a movie like this since he usually has better taste…. Yes – Titanic was probably better than Inception… though I didn’t see it. I still have to see Shutter Island since I read that book – which was great.

And then on Friday my friend asked me if I also read “Drink, Play, F@#k.” I thought it was a joke up until my other friend, Google, took me to http://www.amazon.com/Drink-Play-Anything-Ireland-Thailand/dp/0802170528 and realized that it indeed was real. “Drink, Play, F@#k: One Man’s Search for Anything Across Ireland, Las Vegas, and Thailand”, by Andrew Gottlieb is next on my list.

Btw. I got a lot of slack for the New York Mets game that I attended last week. Its one thing to make fun of the Mets for being losers but it’s another to not recognize that going to Citi Field is an experience in and of itself. First I have to thank Alan Berkson of Infomanage (www.InfoManage.net) for the tickets. Second, I have to say that the legroom where I was sitting was more comfortable than any other stadium I have ever been to. Third, if you are bringing kids to a game, it was totally worth it to take a walk behind the outfield with my kids and have them try to dunk the guy into the water, take batting practice and play wiffle ball on a miniature baseball diamond. Oh. And the Mets won that night as well.

Which leads me to A-Rod’s quest for 600 Home Runs. It seems like people aren’t so excited about this since he might be taking steroids. So I ask you… who ISN’T taking steroids in professional sports? So the questions in sports lately have been: is it ok to take steroids and should salaries be capped? Perhaps these are related?

I happened to have been visiting my sister in Poughkeepsie this past weekend when I happened to notice that Chelsea Clinton married her longtime boyfriend Marc Mezvinsky one town over in Rhinebeck. (I did not receive an invitation.) I had some political thoughts related to this but so far have been keeping this blog politic free so you will have to ping me offline to get more opinions. I just want to know if the chicken soup and knaidlach were up to par?

Lastly, SalemGlobal took the night off and visited our client www.StandUpNY.com last Wednesday night and a good time was had by all. http://websitestrategymarketing.com/salemglobal-staff-at-stand-up-new-york-comedy-club

So what has your business learned from the above? First – Facebook rules. Get your company a social media strategy or call me to figure it out. Second. Big names draw big traffic. Chelsea Clinton. A-Rod. I don’t make this stuff up. Use the power of the Internet and social media to reach new audiences and stay in touch with them. Want to know more about internet marketing for your business or non-profit, email me at raphis@salemglobal.com, call my office at 212-993-5828 or check out www.SalemGobal.com for more information.