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.