Innovating Search at Warp Speed

When I got into search and SEO a few years back, the focus was on creating a great web page or site and to build that up over time through links, conversions, improving copy and promoting the hell out of it.

Today this is the last thing that I would recommend to a new site. The reason is we are focused on the now, or rather on time. Let's take the recent Iran election as a quick example. If I typed in "Iran elections" into Google, what do you WANT it to return?

You want Google to tell you what is going on in real time over in Iran. You wan the latest news stories - even yesterday's news is really irrelevant due to how fast things develop. If a site that had been optimized over the last few years for the key phrase "Iran election" came up at the top of the rankings, you would be disappointed and would need to keep looking.

Knowing this, Google, and more than a handful of new search applications are moving to a real time web. Perform that search for Iran election (even though as I type this it is now a few days old) and you will see blended results:

(Click the image to enlarge)

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The top photo shows recent Google News selections. These are time updated and crawled to show you the most up to date news on the key phrase. You can also see that organic results from Wikipedia display headlines for the 2009 election. The number one result from Boston.com is from June 15th, 2009 and #2 The Guardian is from June 14th. This gives the searcher the most relevant "new" information on the topic.

The bottom photo shows you blog posts that are being spidered for the terms and are also fresh posts. Lastly you see related searches. These terms are derived from searches that others are making in real time on Google.

Now take into consideration all the Social Media stuff and ways to search topics and keywords on these sites. A Tweet from yesterday, even if super powerful and helpful, is no longer relevant. An article that hit Digg's homepage on Monday is long forgotten by Friday.

How does search keep up?

One cool thing that Google has done is given its searches "search options." On Monday I am going to be giving you guys an awesome video that walks you through Personal and Company branding implications for these "search options." Sorry to make you wait, but the video is awesome and has some cool backend stuff.

What about other engines?

One of the most relevant search engines in today's world is Twitter Search. Josjua Odmark from Search Engine Journal wrote this about Twitter Search yesterday

We all know how important keywords are in content thanks to Google. Twitter is teaching us how important these keywords are in our Tweets. Relationships are created via the keywords that are in the Tweets and people are finding Tweets based on those keyword searches.

He also listed some problems with Twitter search, some that can even be implied into other engines:

• Punctuation - not returning results that have ! and ? at the end of words. Hopefully this will be fixed soon.
• Absolute Matches - Singular and plural forms of words are counted as not the same. Although a trick would be to search for the plural and the singular would be returned as it is part of the plural word. Thus searching for iPhone will not return iPhones but a search for iPhones will return iPhone because it is part of the root.
• Word recognition and typos - Twitter search does not make the distinction between health care and healthcare being the same. It is not getting Google smart and showing "did you mean" when you mispell a word.
• Timing - While you want relevant searches, Twitter only returns the Tweets based on phrase and time. Spammers are taking advantage of this, by putting keywords and phrases into Tweets while promoting affiliate products and the like.

Where do we go from here?

So Twitter Search is certainly not the answer (yet) as the web has so much going on outside of Twitter - videos, photos, news, products, articles, yadda, yadda, yadda.

I found a real time social search engine courtesy of my trusty old source Mashable yesterday - Collecta. This shows results in real time for stories, comments, updates and photos. This gives you a good picture of what is going on right now on the web. Here is a sample search for Gen-Y. You can see it picked up 23 results in the last 2 minutes.

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What about Bing?

So I am not going to say I have played around in Bing like I live in Google, but I did a few searches and here's what I saw. I performed the search for Iran election and below is the screen shot.

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You can see that the related searches on the left seem relevant. The news results at the top are very real time (indexed only between 1 and 2 hours prior to this search). The organic results show a mixed of long time trusted links and new sites. The one I find interesting is IranElection.org. They are a new Meme tracker that popped up during the election process. I think this is a great real time source for information.

Not bad Bing, not bad. (I feel like I am talking to Chandler from Friends everytime I talk about Bing).

So Where Does This Leave Us?

Honestly, for the average person - not much of this is relevant today. The search engines do a fairly good job of displaying a mix of "real time" data and highly optimized content (you know - old school organic, great content and on page stuff, incoming links and Google trust factors). For the techie and geek people, we can expect more experimentation from the Search Engines and new applications and add ons to enhance our user experience.

For SEO types and site owners, the formula is the same, but magnified. If people are looking for content in real time, you need to produce content in real time. If someone wants a video on gardening, that is less than 4 minutes long that was made in the last week, well if you are a gardening site, you need to have content to match that. It means more work if you are going for organic rankings.

Don't panic or go on a content rampage, but some things to consider may be:

• Instead of releasing 10 videos in the same day, spread them over the next 2-3 weeks so you always have fresh videos.
• Properly tag, title and describe things. Tell the search engines what your stuff is about.
• Look in your analytics and see when search engine, twitter and social media traffic is coming to your site. If you see a lot of Twitter traffic coming in the early morning, it would be wise to Tweet at those times with your keywords.
• Get on a regular schedule. Makes it easy to manage.
• Build stronger brand awareness. This way they are doing branded keyword searches rather than generic searches. Much easier for someone to buy from you when they search for "your company name" vs "what your company dies."
• Give your clients/customers/web viewers ways to share your content. Even on static or product pages, let your people share your videos, content, etc and Digg it, embed it and email to a friend.

Search is getting smarter and in turn you need to get smarter too. There is much to gain from search and social media traffic and they are quickly blending together.

Question to ponder:
What do you think of the current state of search? What would you like to see? How is social media effecting your traffic from search engines?

Remember to check back on Monday where we have an awesome video on using the new Google stuff for Personal and Company branding. I think you are going to like it.

-Greg Rollett

This Saving the World Thing is Hard

photo by jaygoldman

Orlando is beaming with excitement right now. In the midst of an NBA title run for the first time in 15 years, we are a few shots and stupid, stupid mistakes from being up 3-1. The town has been painted blue and white. There are posters, signs, huge wall murals, Superman capes and cheezy t-shirts everywhere you look. And while Orlando and Central Florida are optimistic about a title run (even though Kobe might have us in check now) the city is still not ready to accept social change.

With the launch of Talk For Hunger publicly 2 weeks ago, it has been eye-opening and humbling to hear the stories of the vendors in their first weeks of changing not only their lives but the views of the homeless in our community. The vendors, along with Chris and the interns, have heard everything from "I don't support the homeless, they are all lazy panhandlers" to cold shoulders, fake cell phone conversations to down right "NO."

The Struggle For Local Social Change

It has been a bitch to get people to listen and open their minds to new ideas of improving our community. The local Orlando Chamber told us to get a membership and call the Coalition. When pursuing local advertisers we have heard words so downright awful it makes it hard to go into the next establishment. Here's a quote you can use

I hate the homeless, they come in and fuck up our bathrooms.

So how does anyone begin to implement new ideas and change society?

It starts "one by one." One person that opens up and walks in the door, goes out in the world and talks and then that talking, over time, becomes a tribe.

With blogging, we all work hard, write cool stuff and promote our posts to gain new readers one by one. Some achieve this feat faster than others and some just like finding one new reader a day, a week maybe even one new person a month who wants to hear their views, opinions and ideas.

With a business it starts with one patron at a time. You can't pack the house until that first customer walks through the door. That first customer brags about the service, food, products, etc, and that spreads to the best kind of business you can possibly have.

With your career, it starts with one job at a time. You get that entry level BS job at the firm that is supposed to suck out your life for 40 years, only to see that you are gaining skills, building relationships and preparing yourself for your next career move. Then you start building your career, your brand and your life based on one opportunity at a time.

With Talk For Hunger we only sold more than 10 issues in 1 day once. That's a shot in the gut for us, when we looked at models from South Florida and Chicago where individual vendors were selling 100-200 a day. But one-by-one we are building the brand, spreading a message and letting the readers, businessmen and women and everyone in between know that we are there making a difference.

Being the New Kid on the Block

photo by miskan

It doesn't matter if you are starting a business, helping the homeless or becoming a rock star, the beginning is both fun and shitty. It is exciting to see people like Jun Loayza stay on track despite living week to week. It is inspiring to see someone who panhandled his way to $20 a day, go out and create a life for himself while only making $10 a day. It is awesome to see someone challenge themselves to quit their day job or travel the world all while paving the way for others to do the same.

It's scary to see people leave conformity and comfort in the pursuit of an ideal lifestyle. It's hard to start a mission to save people the world has forgotten about. It's tough to give attention to anyone but yourself when faced with economic stress.

Being the new kid on the block with a mission to enhance lives, including your own, takes some balls, it takes character, planning, determination and will power to see the outcome to the end. That's a lot to ask of anyone, especially one with so many ambitions.

This year I made it a personal goal to employ 50 homeless in Orlando. I made it a goal to make a living doing the stuff that I love to do with the people and companies that I choose. I made it a goal to go overseas and teach technology and communication to the people that can benefit from it most. It is still going to be hard, but who the hell said saving the world was going to be easy?

I'd like to meet that guy.

-Greg Rollett

Eric's Rock Star Tale - From Intern To Internet Rock Star

In life you have the opportunity to do a few things. You can help someone that is looking for help, or you can ignore it and go on with your life. My wife tells me I do too much of the first, always looking to help someone out, teach them the things in my head and help them with their problem(s). Yea, she's probably right. Today I wanted to share a really cool rock star tale with you guys about a good friend and also someone that took the things that came out of my head and totally rocked the entire social media world in a way I never imagined.

It all started...

about a year or so ago in our first office in downtown Orlando. At this point we were just starting out the agency thing and had just merged Rollett Marketing into Endagon Innovations (to make a long intro short). In this process I came along a college student with an incredible internship at a local record label, Eric. Our first chat was about a site we had in concept and he thought it was cool and he said he may have some family investors that would want to get involved. All he wanted was to learn some of the SEO and Social Media stuff I was using for my personal brand as well as for some of our early clients.

I was an asshole.
After a few weeks on board, Eric was now a full member of the EI Team and had been immersed in a few of my trainings, swipe files and tools. Our first client together was the now locally fabled Orlando Ichiban. Eric got the sale and was hot to make them a new site, start creating new media content and run out of the gates. With his questions came my rudeness and ultimately an awesome web copywriter was born!

There is no secret that money is tight in a start up agency and when student loans come knocking, you need to go get yours. An opportunity came around to Eric a few months ago from the affiliate network Clickbooth. After a tough decision, Eric headed out to Sarasota to begin a journey as the Social Media Superstar in their organization.

Always one to put his personal brand aside for the greater good of his clients and company, Eric has killed it over there. Take one look at the Clickbooth Blog Design and you can see how far he has come from his Blogger beginnings (yes, that's even a jab to my own site - I know, I know, switch it over already!). Eric has been able to bring it and rock it with top affiliates like Shoemoney, Johnathon Volk and others and really made an impact to getting the word on affiliate marketing into a fun and positive light. He even let me shine over there, writing a post on not forgetting about the youth market in your affiliate promotions.

From Intern To Rock Star

So how did Eric do it? Well here is one thing to note: Eric is not working for himself. IN fact he works for a company. One that he loves, one that he doesn't mind waking up for in the morning or staying in the office late with.


Eric found something that he was passionate about and found an employer that believed in his mission, his skills and his idea of a great job. Some other things that I think helped him along the way include:

Patience. Eric wanted to jump into everything right away but he saw that a personal brand and developing relationships is not an overnight thing. It paid off nicely.

Practice. For all the long nights we spent working on SEO, HTML stuff, link building and content writing - he has come out stronger. Being a rock star requires practice. Rehearse, regroup, brainstorm and make yourself better every time.

Commitment. This dude was on it like no one I have ever seen. He knew what every Social Media superstar was up to at any given minute, every campaign, why things worked, why things didn't and how to fix them. He lived and breathed it and you could really tell there was a passion there.

Intangibles. There are some things that no one can teach, we'll call those the intangibles. In order for you to be a Rock Star you do need to possess some things that help, motivate and display rock star qualities. Eric had them (and could play a mean bass too).

Now the Sales Pitch
This Rock Star tale is one of many that I have been so lucky to be a part of and through building this relationship, I know have a great friend and someone that I can learn from. I have been 100% intrigued with affiliate marketing from the get-go in my Internet World and now Eric is giving me the extra kick in the ass that I need to make a few extra nickels and dimes. If you are looking to get involved with affiliate marketing I strongly encourage you to check them out, I can say they have been amazing and if you ever have any problems I know where their social media guy lives.

Blatant affiliate link to Clickbooth.

Check it out and if not, well, hopefully you can see a transformation beginning in yourself from "whatever you are now" to "rock star!"

-Greg Rollett

You Don't Have To Be Creative To Be a Rock Star

(photo by juicystyle)

Over the last week I have given 2 presentations to a group of homeless and severely low income individuals in Orlando on how to leverage the Internet to find a job. The courses I taught were not about jobs. They weren't really about careers either. I was talking about confidence, realizations and actions to create the life you want now, as opposed to the life you are supposed to have given your circumstances.

Be honest now...the best personal brands on the Internet are:

• Marketers (Dan Schawbel)
• Social Media Gurus (b/s terminology btw)(Chris Brogan, Robert Scoble)
• Writers (Penelope Trunk, Tim Ferriss)
• PR Peeps(Brian Solis)
• Entrepreneurs(Jun Loayza, Ted Murphy, Guy Kawasaki)

The best personal brands on the InterWeb are not:

• Construction Workers
• Nurses
• Doctors
• Lawn Care Companies
• Pizza Makers
• You Get My Drift

But why not?

After getting to know the crowd I let it fly and started thinking of ways that blue collars, trade professionals and small business owners can capitalize on being an industry rock star, something that is more valuable than the marketing rock stars, the gurus, the egos of the web.

If small businesses and trade professionals jump on the personal and business branding bandwagon NOW - they can control their own destiny and grow their business or reputation.

Is your construction company in the dumps? What are you doing in your marketing to help you get that new contract in the area? Are you really doing everything you can and relying on every resource that you can? Are you expanding your network? Looking for joint ventures? Looking to consult other companies across the globe? Looking to be the first to know about new funding, local development and government regulations?

Here are some things that I told the class to do:
Secure your name online. Sounds obvious, but I can count on a few hands how many local Orlando businesses know what is said about their company online and I can count on 2 of those hands the companies that know what to do with what they see. If all you do is use Google, do a few searches, then you have done more than 95% of your competition in the small business market (*NOTE - that 95% data is make believe, I performed no "real" survey but it's pretty damn close).

Write down 3 things that you can teach someone right now, without having to do any research, but the skills you have in that big ol brain of yours. (Print this and write them down)
1.
2.
3.

Write down 2 things that you can do better than anyone you know. This one was a shocker. Even if you do not know everything about a field, you probably know more than someone who is just getting started, or you may have a secret that even the pro's and experts can utilize. (If you printed this in the last step, then this should be easy!)
1.
2.

I asked the group to write down who their hero is. Then I asked why. This will tell you a lot about the qualities that you CAN see in yourself with the right refinement. (No excuses, your printer is awaiting your print job!)
Your hero is:
He is your hero because:

Lastly, I asked them to decide where they want to be in 6 months from now as well as 1 year from now. The point was to start acting, talking and educating yourself like you are that person right now. Why wait till someone gives you permission to be the best insurance salesman? Why can't you learn from the best and implement innovative strategies now and close more business and be the best you can be today? (Again, you should print this article - its not too tough - and write your answers down)
6 months from now I will be:
1 year from now I will be:

Here is a quick recap of some things that I learned from this group of non-20-something, non marketing, non creative and poverty stricken local Orlando folk, who have never heard of a blog or Twitter before last Thursday:

• I am creating an online portfolio of every construction site I have worked on. I always take a picture at the end and at the beginning. I have pictures of tools, machines, cranes and people.
• I subscribed to every blog on AllTop that had to do with Cooking and Food. I am commenting and hopefully will learn from them and bring that knowledge into a job interview with a local catering company.
• I used that Google Reader thing and got channels for Google News about Orlando Hotels.

That is awesome!

How can you be the Rock Star of your niche?

-Greg Rollett

The Rock Star Philosophy

(photo by Daniesq - ps that's not my band they just looked like they are having fun!)

A few months ago I talked about instilling the Rock Star Lifestyle into as many other people as possible. Over that time frame I have been going back and forth on how to expand this notion and make it

• possible
• repeatable
• teachable
• profitable

I don't have all the answers but know that giving others the confidence, poise and performance measures to live like a Rock Star is something that is very important for personal development and lifestyle design to create successful career paths. Living like a rock star does not mean you have to work for the man (or the machine in the case of a major label), nor does it mean that you have to live freely, location independent or on your own.

Crappy nights in Georgia Still Need Rocking

Living like a Rock Star boils down to having the ability to perform at your highest capacity, no matter the place, no matter the time, no matter the crowd. One of the last shows that I played with my band (StumpP, not the recent retired but called into action Sneakers) was in a small town in Georgia, after an 8 hour drive, where we played for 15 people, including the staff. By all means it had the making of the worst night of our career together, but we lived like true rock stars and tore the roof off the building, sold CD's to every single person in the room, doubled our pay out and left feeling like we tore up a sold out show! That was living like a rock star.

The fundamentals behind living the Rock Star life are by no means set in stone and as I start working on the outline for the course we'll be rolling out, things are bound to change. What I've come up with are 3 distint areas that are the focus behind the rock star lifestyle:

• Skills Assessment & Career Development
• Lifestyle Design
• Building Confidence and Humility

Each piece has differnt influencers that lead to differnt outcomes, with the end goal being able to perform to your highest ability day in and day out. The key piece of the entire course will be the way in which you take action to achive the lifestyle you wish to live. You can talk about change all you want, but at the end of the day your actions will determine your happiness and outlook.

Information for Action's Sake

We all suffer from information overload. RSS feeds, Twitter, Facebook updates, mobile phones that ping your emails, tv, news, papers, webinars, conferences - whatever and however you take in the information, you get so much of it that it makes it hard to digest and turn that information into usable actions.

Even those golden blog posts, "5 Ways To Do Whatever," are usually written without much focus on actionable items that you can perform right now. Think about all the b/s you read every afternoon/morning and how much of that impacts your day-to-day life. I can count on my hands the number of writers that inspire me to take action and make a difference in my life. That equals a lot of wasted time and resources.

In order to live the rock star life you need to focus on core actions that have an impact. In my own life I started slowly, made a plan and started finding the pieces that made the puzzle look like the picture on the box. Some examples may be:

• Start a band, play shows, record and album, sell the album, promote the album, repeat.
• See a problem, create a solution, recruit others, enforce the solution.
• Discover a skill, educate, network, create authority, address authority, work in the field, own the field.

________________________________________________________

Well, it's Friday, and Jun Loayza just let me know our video from his awesome bloggers series is live. That took place on Wednesday of this week and really motivated me to start getting this Rock Star Lifestyle thing going and moving it into motion.

The video is embedded below and you can learn more here. Tomorrow (Saturday) we will be co-hosting Start-Up Saturdays at 2pm EST and 11am PCT. I am super stoked for that. The topic is on company money, funding and all that good stuff that has to do with paying the bills and making your start-up tick.



I know the posts haven't been as fluid lately, but its all part of being that Gen-Y guy trying to find his direction and all that jazz (plus we have some clients who rock hard as well and want this enthusiasm to carry over into their business). In the mean time, catch me posted living like a rock star, helping the community and still not saying NO to any project that looks fun and challenging.

-Greg

This is Officially Personal Brand Week

It seems like this subject should be drilled down your throat by now. Especially if you are reading blogs, participating on Twitter and working to build your network on social media sites. Personal branding is something that has exploded on the scene and something that IS going to become as important as a resume for hot industries and those that are dependent on having the best people.

Companies that are serious about getting out of whatever rut they may be in, need the best talent, the innovative minds, the go-getters and the conversation starters that will ignite energy into a state economy. That talent is being found through network associations, Google searches, blog conversations, Twitter jabs and current career and lifestyle development.

Yesterday I had the opportunity to chat with MyFoxOrlando on the subject and had a great time explaining what I have been preaching for almost 2 years now! Here is the video:

One of my good online buddies (who I found through networking, duh) is launching his book today. It is called 'Me 2.0' and is all about the art of personal branding. It's hard to search the web in the social media and Gen-Y sector without running into this guy, he's like the Ryan Seacrest of Gen-Y. With postings on Mashable, Cheezhead, Brazen Careerist - a Personal Branding Magazine, Award Series and more "quality content" on the web than anyone I know - Dan Schwabel is now a published author.

I don't need to sell the book for him. He is an amazing figure and has great advice. If you want to generate a personal brand that will put you leagues above the competition, buy the book, say hi to him on Twitter and start reading his blog. It's as simple as that.

Congrats Dan. You have grown a great deal and deserve to hit Amazon #1 today.

Cheers to personal branding - or why I'm the Gen-Y, Social Media and Music guy - or so says my business cards!

-Greg Rollett

Brands and Celebrities Part 2

I saw this ad/video from Tobacco Free Florida and had to post it. It hits home in so many ways and came at the perfect time.



On the heels of Monday's post on celebrities whoring products, also comes the flip-side and brands whoring celebrities, offering sponsorships for tours, videos, albums, movies, etc.

One tour that I remember was the Roots Tour, sponsored by Kool Cigarettes a few years back. The hip-hop purists in the Orlando community threw a concert in protest of the show, a "Hip-Hop is Not Kool" show. The point was that no rapper, artist or celebrity needs the money so bad that they should be promoting products that are dangerous, especially to the younger audience.

There are 2 sides to blame for this blatant attempt at promotion:
1. The artists/celebrities the see dollar signs
2. The brands that are willing to give money/products to anyone with a respectable audience

Neither side is better than the other and it is hard to say if the celebrity is the in the wrong for accepting money to continue to put food on their table and provide for their families, at least in the case of the Roots, who are not mega millionaires, but well off musicians.

Anyway...short post as I'm on the road to the Keys...hope the weather stays nice.

-Greg Rollett

Don't Aim to Be the Next, Be the First

In the sports world, it is common place to talk about being the next somebody. Is Kobe the next Jordan? Is some high school kid the next Lebron?

In music, this is common as well. Up and coming bands want to be the next somebody. Or fill in their shoes. Backstreet Boys had N'Sync. Eminem had Bubba Sparxxx (remember that comparison MTV threw on us). Think about boy bands and pop punk bands.

The thing is, if you are chasing a trend, no matter what business you are in, there is a high probability that you will lose. You will put all your eggs into an "autotuned" masterpiece only to realize that fans are ready to throw up if they hear someone use that damned plug in again.

All of the trends we are a part of today were started by visionaries, by people who were the 1st, not the next. Twitter is killing it right now because it was the first service to utilize SMS based technology and plug it into computers and cell phones, let the community drive its focus through the API and not try to be the "next" Facebook.

While the automakers in Detroit are "this close" to bankruptcy, they are running farther and farther away from the people that can help then innovate and stay away from the next Hybrid, next SUV, next waste of money and create the 1st Electrical Car, the 1st Hydrogen Car or the 1st Car that really changes the way we commute. I think America is ready for a 1st in that department and not another next.

Obama took the presidency by being the 1st President to utilize technology, leveraging young voters and embrace pop culture. The next presidential race will need to have more firsts, not a repeat of this election.

The Zune failed because it tried to be the next iPod. No one wanted another iPod, especially when Apple was making the 1st iPhone. Zune needed to be the 1st gadget to do something remarkable, not another MP3 player in a competitive market owned by a "cooler" company.

When you are plotting your "next" marketing campaign, don't be the next company to do the same thing, repackaged and on the market. Be the first to do something remarkable.

• Are you the first restaurant to take reservations via text message and do it great, so great in fact that all your reservations are now done via texting?
• Can you be the first musician to make more money through online streaming of your shows than income from your physical shows?
• Are you the 1st company to say screw the crappy online ad model and make a business model that will change the way this Web 2.0 bubble is bursting?

How are you being the first?

-Greg Rollett

Youth Trending Sessions 2/17

Wanted to throw a quick update on the Orlando Youth Trending Sessions that we are hosting on Tuesday, February 17th. The website is live with bios and info on all the session leaders.

Check them out here:
Elizabeth Baranik
Alex Minor
Emily Sessoms
Jesse Ambinder
Timothy Green
Greg Rollett
Katie Merrigan
Lee Anne and John
Chris Abbott (coming ASAP)
Michelle Wright (coming ASAP)

And we have a theme for the first session:
What can young people do today to make a difference in their life?

Here is a quick video I threw together to talk about the excitement that I have for the project:

We are going to UStream the entire session and also post the session as a Podcast as soon as I can get it chopped up.

Anyone that wants to get involved in Session 2 of the Youth Trending Sessions, we are looking to expand and want to hear from you. Drop me a line here.

-Greg Rollett

Your Company is Stale Like Bread

photo by McBeth

Graham Brown of Mobile Youth (who I have grown quite fond of his little Slideshare presentations) pointed out the obvious is a not so obvious way.

• The most powerful man in the world is black.
• The biggest selling hip-hop artist is white.
• The richest golfer is black.
• The president of Iceland is a lesbian.
• The best Olympian likes to hit the bong.

The world is changing. More accepting and more diverse than ever before. More mobile and more connected goes without arguement. So why are you playing by the old rules?
Change is hard.
It is hard to accept and hard to measure. In times of recession and economic shit storming it is easy to look back at worked the last time and continue on the same path. Layoffs, cutting spending and ceasing to innovate + wait and see are the themes of corporate America right now. We are losing jobs at record pace, yet our products are still as good as they were yesterday and rent is the same price (if not higher) as it was last week.

How can innovation lead your organization today, in the midst of this recession to get you out ahead? How can listening to concerns of your employees, being more transparent to them and rewarding them help you thrive today.

5 Ways to Ignite Change in Your Business Today

1. Talk to your employees. They are the ones who are the faces, voices and future of your organization. Being transparent with them will only make them produce with greater results and give them the confidence that they are a part of something great. Besides, don't all employees talk shit about their boss, company, etc. What are yo scared of?
2. Give more than you take. In times like today organizations and businesses that find ways to give, whether it be information, education, products, resources and help their community grow will reap the benefits further than an organization that tries to squeeze every penny and resource out of their community before closing their doors.
3. Crowdsource. Whether it is from the mail clerk, the janitor, the CMO or a first time customer, look at the people that represent your company and see how they can add value to your business. Lego listens to their community and builds ideas and inspiration for fanatics, and then works with parents and gives them safe products for their kids. How can someone you don't know help your business grow?
4. Defy the norm. Like the examples above, dare to stand out. If you can rally troops to believe in your product, you will win, even if you are the orange in an apple game.
5. Go back to the start. I know I said innovate, but sometimes innovation happens when you get back to your core. Why did you create your business or product in the first place? If you run a job board, is your focus to nickel and dime or create relationships between companies and job seekers? If you make soda, your goal should be the smile and satisfaction your consumer has when they take their first sip. Do everything in your power to make that moment happen.

Are you still living in the past? We voted for change but haven't changed ourselves. What will it take to get to that point?

-Greg Rollett

Demand vs. Budget vs. Scale

One of our clients is making some great progress using Social Media and engaging with folks online in the local community. They are doing so good that we are having impromptu meetings with the managers almost daily for the last week or so. This is good, but is the attention both sides are giving to a small social media plan worth it?

Here is the thing.
For all the work, going back and forth, re-working policies and trying to make one influential social media person happy worth it for all parties? After all the hoopla, the links, the blog posts, the meetings and headaches, there have been 2 official orders since implementing Twitter @ orders. I think that may equal $30-40 or so.

As the agency, I think there are many things that can be done to improve the situation and use social media in their everyday business. From adding notes on their receipts to adding URL's to napkins or to-go boxes, and adding live screens to the restaurant. I do think this would make a difference in their bottom line and would love to see the impact it has so we can scale it to larger businesses and help other mom and pops out with a tight budget.

So what is the budget?
It's not huge. We're not talking McDonald's money here. We are talking about a mom and pop restaurant in which the owners pull shifts, managers work plenty of overtime and the servers could use a few extra tables to help with the bills. So how do you scale social media to increase sales without taking away integrity from regulars, shifts away from employees and focus away from management? And still be authentic.

This is something that we have struggled with. I'd love to get a 40 inch plasma displaying tweets above the bar. Is a $1,000 investment worth it to make a few sales here and there? I don't think so. Is monitoring Twitter 24/7 to take in some orders, make some folks happy and continue to learn about the tools that were a foreign language only 2 months ago? I do think so. Is continuing to engage and create great content themed around their culture, history and restaurant important? You betcha. Has searched increased since we came around. Yup. Has business increased and produced and ROI. Heck yes.

Training and upgrading
As we move forward with this and other clients, I think employee training is becoming more and more a top priority. Social Media is not a marketing strategy in itself, that much we know. But it is also something that we need to take the plastic off of and really sit in to understand. If employees don't know about your Facebook page, then its a fail. If they don't know about discounts shown on a text message, its a fail. Treating employees as part of your marketing plan and mixing that into social media habits is a large next step for us and for many companies this year. The success Zappos employees have with new media is a great start and success story. Some other clients have really grasped that hand holding is just a band aid.

Small Business Scaling
The bigger the budget the bigger the opportunity. I don't believe that statement for a second. Being small means moving faster. Could you imagine if McDonald's took orders over Twitter overnight after one person said that they should? I don't think so. Being able to have freedom and quickness is an advantage that small businesses have with social media. If this Twitter ordering thing doesn't pan out, there will be another move. No harm, no foul. And if tomorrow we produce $1,000 in sales from Twitter orders, maybe I'll push for that flat screen.

Thanks for the enlightening conversation Ted Murphy, Etan Horowitz, ElRoss and GC Koupaki (I am sure there are more of you too).

What are your thoughts on small business, social media and scaling?

-Greg Rollett

(Photo courtesy of tedmurphy)

Authenticity in Youth Product Placement

Sitting at MPlanet last week (interview with Mary Dillon from McDonald's here) gave me subjects and topics to ponder for months. While listening to Steve Battista from Under Armour, I thought about a recent product placement for the athletic apparel brand on Friday Night Lights. The Dillon High Panthers were in full game mode when a close up of quarterback Matt Saracen revealed a nice and shiny UA logo on his undershirt.

The authenticity that this brand placement has is peak for the youth market. For those that play (or played) high school sports, or college for that matter know that the majority of players choose Under Armour as their performance wear. It was not out of context for the team to be decked out in the gear and using it on the field as they run up the score on some poor Texas team.

Ford is not an Idol
Sitting to Steve's right was Anne Belec from Ford. She was extremely excited for her brand's product placement on youth heavy American Idol. Authenticity fail. The show is known for being a cash cow and will put products any and everywhere to keep their bottom line growing. What place does a car have in a karaoke contest? Exactly, none.

Anne did say that they promotion was a smash, but didn't have many metrics to back it up (not much was asked of it as a disclaimer). I would be interested to see how the young viewers responded to the add (Ford, let me know.)

The CW
One of the top networks capitalizing on this is the CW and their music placements. At the end of every episode they have a brief recap of music that was featured in the show and points viewers to the cw.com to find out more, listen to the tracks and download them. Labels have been eating this up for a few years now and bands have found success on teen heavy shows One Tree Hill, Gossip Girl, Smallville and others.

The Solution
Teens and young adults can see right though advertising these days and product placement is no exception. When drafting up ways to get your brand into the eyeballs of youth viewers, think about the context in how your brand and product will be used and work it into the script naturally. The best product placements are the ones that would have occurred without you spending money to put it there.

What do you think? How can brands appeal to young viewers in their favorite shows and still remain true to the script?

-Greg Rollett

McDonalds CMO Mary Dillon on Music and Authenticity

The official Day 1 of MPlanet was excellent. You can see some pics and a complete wrap up on the MPlanet Blog. At lunchtime Mary Dillon, the global CMO for McDonald's sat with a small group of invited bloggers (will put up the list of bloggers this morning at some point) to chat, learn and discuss what we wanted to know and what we could add to her experience at MPlanet. The conversation waved from moms and health issues to transparency in their subjects to McDonald's view on Social Media and where they stand.

I tried to focus around Gen-Y and youth culture and thought going the music and authenticity route was a good way to get a conversation brewing. My question in a nut shell was

"how does McDonald's deal with authenticity in music for their commercials?"

Mary came back saying that McDonald's has moved away from celebrities in the U.S. to push their products because they don't have to anymore. She also noted that they search for undiscovered talent and use an agency, Leo Burnett, to discover and develop relationships with that talent.

Check out our video below and then 2 commercials Mary showed us during her keynote that deal with subjects from my question.







I hope you guys enjoy and I do want to thank Mary for granting some amazing bloggers and thinkers her time to chat with us and discover that blogging is an influential way to get their word out.

More from MPlanet coming soon!

-Greg Rollett
(I apologize to those that sent in questions via Twitter, we ran out of time quickly but I did use some of them to form the basis of my question and some of the authenticity issues that came up in general conversation covered some of the questions as well - I will get the full video up sometime this week as well so you can see that and dissect it!)

MPlanet's Digital Marketing Labs - Mobile Marketing Session

Today kicked off day 1 of Mplanet here in Orlando, FL. As I mentioned before I am one of 12 bloggers that were invited to hang out at the conference, take notes and meet some of the industry's top players. Today was the pre-conference and the Digital Marketing Labs. They were a series of sessions dealing with new media and how we are transforming to a digital world.

No lie, some of the sessions were a little basic, but with good measure. By a show of hands in each of the rooms, many of the marketers and brands had not conducted full scale social media campaigns even though they had heard of many of the tools (Twitter, blogs, Facebook, etc).

My favorite session of the day was Russell Buckley's Mobile Marketing session. Russell is the head of the Mobile Marketing Association and also co-signs for AdMob, one of the largest players in mobile advertising, displaying billions of impressions every month on handheld's worldwide.

This subject came at an opportune time for us at Endagon as we have just partnered with an iPhone dev team and a mobile and SMS crew. So needless to say, these things are taking up prime real estate in the ol brain of mine.

Some quick facts from Russell's session:

• Push technology (SMS, coupons, etc) is a push medium. The user is passive, has to opt-in and there is a SPAM element to the blasts.
• The pull version are mobile sites and applications, where the user is actively participating. There is a prompt for action, whether its watching a video, click to call, mobile ordering or downloads.
• BMW ran an SMS campaign with 120,000 texts. There was a 30% response, $60,000 in costs and $45 million in direct sales!
• Land Rover ran a mobile site targeting males 34-55. They had 45,000 video views, 5,000 dealer lookups and 1,000 click to calls.
• Smart phones serve up 33% of all mobile ads served. This number is growing quickly.
• 30 million people have fixed data plans in the U.S.
• The iPhone serves up the most impressions of mobile ads. The iPod Touch is number 2!
• Food and restaurants have a 29% uplift on mobiles vs. PC's for responses (for more on Hospitality, New Media and Gen-Y, check out our free Whitepaper)

Goodbye to day 1, looking forward to the big sessions tomorrow. I will be doing a video interview with Mary from McDonalds tomorrow on Gen-Y marketing, so if you have any questions for me to ask, act fast!

-Greg Rollett

Recycling Innovations

photo by spike55151

When taking out the trash, we all know to separate our bottles and cans and papers into tidy recycling bins. At least you should. And there are times when a paper gets butchered so much that it really can't be salvaged and makes its way to the dumpster.

But what about ideas? When do they need to be thrown to the wayside?

When you are in the war room - when all of your peers and co-workers are looking at you for an answer to the company or clients' problems, are the ideas that you are cooking up ones that are going to justify an ROI or are they ones that sound good to get someone off your back.

Technology has been driven by innovation and yet most sites or communities that pop up are carbon copies of sites that already exist and really don't have that big of a gaping void to fill other than find revenue. And trust me, if you want to do something, you can do it on Facebook, they have apps for everything.
So when do we stop recycling and start innovating again?
When we listen to our customers, fans and industry people. When we hear what they really care about. One thing I learned is that I am not my target consumer. I don't need to sell myself to myself. I need to sell my goods to the people who buy it and who better to know what the people buy than the people who buy it in the first place (tongue twister - dare you to say it 5 times fast).

I finished a survey today on job seekers at a local job fair. Not one had a blog, nor heard of Twitter and only a handful were on LinkedIn. So why pitch them a social network? Why not innovate the way they look for jobs instead of slapping something together. Why not educate employers on this type of employee?

How can you help to break the mode of recycling? It's good for cans, not for people, right?

You're So Ugly

Minnesota indie hip-hop wonder kids Atmosphere have just launched a new site called You're So Ugly that is based on their album 'God Loves Ugly.' The site is perfect for a quick viral fix and the tools they used are seamless to promote the re-release of this classic album.

The premise is simple, you upload your photo and your face is inserted onto the cover of 'God Loves Ugly.' You can then share the photo with friends, download it to use as your Myspace, Facebook or Twitter profile photo. You can Digg it, submit it to Sumbleupon or Tweet about your ugly mug. Then you can view the gallery of everyone who has cropped their mug to take over from a young Slug.

How they made it easy

• 2 Steps
• Upload a photo from your computer or take one from your web cam
• Easy to share
• Got label mates to pose as well (Murs, Brother Ali, others)
• Show everyone's mug
• Memorable URL
• Rank people's photos from 1-5 stars

If a small indie label from a city with current sub zero temperatures can turn out this site on a budget and get kids to feel a part of the movement, what can you do?

You can leave a link to your ugly mug in the comments so everyone can see it.

Oh, and here's my mean mug!
-Greg Rollett

DNA Energy Drinks Their Way Into Gen-Y

Energy drink mania has taken over Gen-Y and youth culture over the last few years. From Red Bull starting the craze and their smart marketing into youth culture to Monster and then Lil Jon's Crunk Juice and everything in between, playing on the fact that kids love extreme has been a major selling point for the drinks.

A few hours south is an energy drink company built in the grass roots action sports arena that is focused on building brand awareness as well as a long term brand recognition program for their consumers. DNA Energy Drink is a small team of motivated individuals in South Florida making big strides into personalizing their experience not only with consumers at events, but also the stores that carry their products. I recently had the pleasure of speaking with Geoff Armstrong, the VP of Marketing, on Youth Marketing, the Action Sports Scene and how the economy was hitting their operation. (The following has been edited to make it an easy read, but no context has been changed)

Greg: You guys target the Extreme Sports Market, which has a very large Gen-Y and Youth Following, do you see that as your target consumer as well?
Geoff: Our roots are in the action/extreme sports but were finding that the demographics of energy drink "drinkers" has changed over the past couple years. It used to be just the teens or young crowd but now I see guys on my fathers softball team in their late 50's drinking them as well so that's not our only focus. Our roots will always be in the action sports so that is a high priority. The youth tend to be very loyal once they accept a brand and as you know, its tougher to get an older person who's set in their ways to try something new then someone in their teens.

Greg: Does DNA give away free samples at events? How do you get feedback from these types of promotions?
Geoff: Yes, we only do events if we can sample. For feedback, our field reps get people's opinions/feedback when they taste the drink if they can, depending on the event. We also use our sales data in each area to see if doing the events equates to direct sales increases at the area accounts.

Greg: Have you seen any return from sponsoring events, as it relates to the youth demographic?
Geoff: Yes. We have pretty deep ties into the action sports community so we have a good grasp on what works and what doesn't. We have pretty strict guidelines for "sponsoring" or holding an event and will not do that unless our objectives are met. There are many companies though that think just having their banner up or logo on a flyer will sell product on its own. Considering how small our budgets are compared to the red bulls and monsters, our numbers in 7 eleven and circle K are solid. We feel this is a direct result of our grass roots marketing efforts. Nobody is going to buy a DNA unless they have heard about it or more importantly have tried it. There are too many drinks in the coolers for that to happen without leading people to DNA.

Greg: The Internet plays a large role in youth culture, how does DNA reach out to kids online and does DNA have any policies on how you do that? From reading blogs to monitoring twitter or other sites to video promotion and so on.
Geoff: We are currently working on making a very hard push with internet this year. We have the myspace, etc stuff but as a small company the first 2 years many of us were wearing many different hats and time had to be split for different projects. We now have someone who is going to attack it hard. We are not nationally distributed yet, and we are only in a few key states so our efforts have been concentrated on those regions. I feel the internet piece is very tricky too. The Myspace's and stuff are sort of played out. Again, its a very important piece to the puzzle but we want to focus our efforts in the streets more then anything else. That's were the brand awareness and loyalty are made.

Greg: With the economy the way it is, what is DNA going to do in '09 to build brand strength and grow market share?
Geoff: Our philosophy from day 1 is being grass roots and will always be so, no matter how large DNA becomes. Many of our large competitors have lost sight of this and many others do not realize the importance of it, especially in this economic crisis. We do not agree to sponsor events and then just drop product or some T shirts and expect that to sell our product. Our reps are very educated on our product and are at every single event we do to educate and meet the kids/people along with sampling the product. This goes a long way for our customers and accounts and shows we care.

On the corporate level, with the 7 elevens and such, we are working programs with them to help drive business to their stores. They are hurting as is everyone else right now. We have already done successful athlete tours/campaigns with Circle K and 7 Eleven in Florida and California and both have told us we are the ONLY brand to do this with them. We also have a program that launches this next week that will put us next to monster in the coolers at 7 eleven and almost be a dollar cheaper. We are giving the chains the same profit margins as our competitors but at a better value for their customers.

We have beaten many of the odds in just these few short years we have been going and we will continue to stay on course. We are always brainstorming to come up with stuff nobody has done or put our own twist on things. Its hard to reinvent the wheel but we want to make our own path. Sometimes you have to follow certain paths but we are always looking beyond that. With the economy the way it is, people will have every penny under the microscope. We will continue with our grass roots marketing efforts to forge long term relationships as well as value pricing for our customers.

My response
I love what DNA is doing as far as branding their culture. I think they need to get into the online and mobile spaces fast as kids are picking these things up. It could also be a great way to interact and get better feedback at events. Having a kid text in his favorite flavor during the taste test to get a free video download of one of their riders or something. This would get them the feedback, promote their athletes and build a database that can be broken down by region.

Geoff is another to admit that Myspace has lost a step, and although we know that, then brand needs to take the time to realize what they are doing online and what their kids/consumers are doing online. DNA is very authentic and takes a great route to personalization, and the great thing is that there are tools out there to help them continue to be personal, open up communication and grow their brand!

What do you think about DNA, the energy drink scene and how marketing can play in the action sports world?

-Greg Rollett

43 Ways to Engage Gen-Y and Youth Culture

(photo by Zabowski)

This year I have immersed myself in learning, studying and working on awesome projects that involve youth and Gen-Y marketing. Every company wants a piece of this market and their supreme buying power and spending habits. The number will vary and always changes depending on where you get the stats from, but somewhere to the tune of 5.5 million Gen-Y's and $50 billion a year is where we stand to make our mark in the world. That's not a bad crowd to hang with!

Working with large, small and "just right" brands and talking with many others I thought I'd lend some thoughts as to how to engage with this crowd through marketing, Social Media and branding endeavors as you focus on your 2009 plans and initiatives. It's also a good year end kinda post or wrap up of things that I have learned throughout the year. Enjoy and Merry Christmas!

1. When getting into Social Media, have a reason to get into it. It's not for every business and that is ok.
2. Do not interrupt what Gen-Y is already doing.
3. Create a product that is truly amazing and unique. Or one that is better and shinier than your competition.
4. When creating your web site, remember the people who are going to read it, and look at it and have to figure out how to navigate it.
5. Know that if it is a trend, it is not a branding strategy, but rather something that will have a short shelf life.
6. If it's a trend and you are just realizing it, you missed it. Let it go and look for something else.
7. Don't look for the next trend, create the next trend. Don't make Myspace 2, make Twitter.
   
8. Don't be the Zune and play catch up, find an iPod and let people catch up to you.
9. As soon as they come close to catching up, create the iPhone and kick everyone else in the balls.
10. Hire people that care about your brand. They are your advocates first and foremost. If they hate your clothes, products, etc how can they turn a window shopper into a fan?
11. Hire people that aspire to have your job and beyond. Passion trumps skills in Gen-Y, we can learn anything, we cannot, however, get excited for something we dislike.
12. Find the next celebrity, not the "IT" celebrity. Case studies - JUNO and Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist
13. Surprise people by helping the little guy, the small nonprofit that can do more with your donation and will become advocates of yours forever vs the large nonprofits who only care about your bank account. Gen-Y will appreciate that.
14. Get people to answer your phones. You are losing more business than money you are by having that shitty automated system.
15. When a young person learns about your product at a concert or event, and they go to your site, say something about that event.
    
16. Better yet, make a mobile site or microsite based solely on that event and how they can get involved, buy your product or learn more.
17. Train your event staff and hourly employees better than the spokesperson in your commercials, they are the ones interacting with kids at the mall.
18. Find local trends. The internet makes this possible. What teens like in Orlando is different than teens in Paducah, KY.
19. Listen, don't respond, listen some more.
20. Gen-Y doesn't buy cars based on your commercials. Car commercials are some of the worst commercials ever made for turning anyone into a brand advocate.
21. Phones that do everything are the future, if you do not have a way for kids to access you on the go, you will lose to the company that is.
22. When advertising on a Social Network, make the ad relate to what we are doing. If you advertise on Pandora, make us a cool playlist or introduce us to an artist that you care about.
23. Stop hiding. We do not like walls.
24. Get us involved. Email the cool blogger and invite them to brainstorm for your next ad, blog post or podcast. Find a great photograph on Flickr and ask the person to do a shoot for you. You will get results that are not so cookie cutter like every other ad agency.
25. Seek out great talent. Don't wait for that great resume to find you, find the next great person in your organization through building relationships, and knowing your ideal candidate.
26. Be transparent. Lying is for George Bush and we see right through his crap.
27. Do not place products in music videos if it doesn't work. It makes us hate the band too and that doens't help you out in the long run.
28. Find the thing that makes your brand GRAB our attention in between the millions of logos, interruptions, commercials and brand names we hear every day.
29. When the youth grab your product and make it part of their culture, find a way to keep the momentum withouth chastizing every last penny out of it to make quarterly goals. Instead, grow organically and you will see long-term success and a brand that grows for generations. Look at Levi's or Dickie's.
30. Realize that just because you gave away some cool free swag at Warped Tour or the X Games, it does not make you cool. How did that product relate to Gen-Y, make their experience better? How can they get back in touch with you when they need what you offer?
31. Myspace is dead, sorry. Again if you are just getting on the train, you missed the one with the cool kids.
32. There are going to be more smaller groups that make an impact with Gen-Y, than one big group. How can your brand be a part of many groups without ruining your image?
33. Realize that kids are going to talk about your brand in ways you never imagined. They will pick on you, call you names and ignore you on the shelf. How you bounce back the next season is important. Think the not so cute girl who grows up a bit over the summer and comes back to get the QB.
34. Mash-ups are a great way to grab an audience that you want.
35. Create a culture, not a logo.
36. The co-sign is dying. Co-signing is term that was used in hip-hop when an artist came into the game on the strength of an aquaintence. Basically, it boils down to the fact that you need to stand on your own feet and get respect without that of major backing. Think Scion, it would survive to Gen-Y without Toyota's name due to the culture it built.
37. Free is not a solution. We will pay for things that we believe in, but if we can find it for free, more than likely we will use that price point. What is so awesome about your business that is going to make me BUY.
38. There is more competition than ever. Optimize your enite business plan. The youth search for things any and everywhere and way. Optimize your content to show up everywhere that we are, ahve an RSS Feed, Twitter account, Facebook page, mobile site, iPhone and gPhone app, SEO for Google, etc.
39. Get back to basics. Why do you want to reach the youth? What do you gain by focusing on them? What do you lose if you miss?
40. Get back to focus groups. Again the Internet makes this easy and powerful. Mercedes did a good job of getting teens involved in their brand focus and it seems to be working.
41. Get offline. Sponsor events that matter, but don't just cut a check, get involved and really be passionate about the things you invest in.
42. Educate your staff. If you have an iPhone app and your employees have no idea it exists, then why have it?
43. Care about what you are doing.
    

I hope some of this resonates and lets a light go off. It is only a fraction of what we are doing to help brands in Gen-Y marketing. It's also what every other brand is going to be doing in '09. How you position yourself in this economic climate will determine how and when you get out of it.

For even better ideas than mine, head over to Mobile Youth, where Graham Brown has introduced 50 ideas to tap into the Mobile Youth in 2009 and was part of the inspiration for me to make this list as well. Graham is also a nice guy in the fact that he named ths blog a top 20 Youth Marketing Blog. Thanks!

Throw your tips in the comments and anything that I fall in love with will make its way back into this post with a link to you and your site. There are so many great ideas and opinions out there, no one is right or wrong, and the mroe uniqueness we get, the better we can deliver great results for our businesses, our clients and really for the youth who are buying them.

-Greg Rollett

Is Gen-Y Having a Traditional Christmas?

If you listen to eMarketer and other reports it would seem that Gen-Y is still spending in droves. A Maritz poll even found that Gen-Y saved Black Friday, showing that as a whole we spent more money that any other generation.

While there are quite many Gen-Y'ers who are spending their holiday with new big screen's, Wii Fits and some Paper Denims, some are taking the time to give back to their community, save some money on presents they can buy on any other day of the year or get in some quiet work hours for their startup.

I know, because I am doing all 3.
Tonight, I am hosting the 1st Rock For Hunger XMas Party for the Homeless in Downtown Orlando. We are serving our traditional Monday night meal and then showing Elf for all of our guests in the Middle of Lake Eola. We are very excited for it and hope that everyone who spends some time to share with others in need, will have a great experience as well.

My wife and I have also decided not to do presents. This may come as a shock, since anyone who knows me, knows that I like things, and getting new clothes, shoes and gadgets is usually at the top of my list. And really, that is just the thing. If Jen or I really want something, we grab it. On a Tuesday. We do not need to the holiday spirit to rack up credit card debt, we do that all year round. We really want the holidays to be about family and spending time with each other.

And then comes the time killer...the startup. While I could certainly take some time off and throw up the feet on the patio (its still in the 80's in Orlando) I would be doing myself and my company a discervice. In the last few weeks as companies have been getting in their new budgets, looking at goals and trends, our phones and emails have been off the hook with people taking their ad spend and looking at Social Media. And that stack of ideas and proposals will not get done with a Miller Lite in hand.

So, I wanted to see if there were any other Gen-Y'ers who were doing alternative things this holiday season and see their reason for it, be the economy, their job, their lifestyle, traveling, whatever it may be.

Here is some of what I found:

• Rock For Hunger supporter @peggg said that "I made gifts, volunteered, and made plans to have Christmas be focused on quality time with my mother"
• Lea Woodward of Location Independent said, "Hubs & I are not doing gifts, not eating trad Xmas dinner & will prob do some work too. It's not so Xmas-y here in Dubai"
• Holly Hoffman shouted back with "No travelling. No presents. Indian-style dinner. Working. ;)"

Now, this is no supreme research report, but rather asking some friends on Twitter if they had alternative holiday plans. I would gander to say that with the influx of emails I have for volunteering for the Rock For Hunger event tonight that many young professionals are looking to give back and help those in need this holiday season. There have been more layoffs, stock losses and startups going under in the last 6 months that it is hard not to know someone effected by the economic mess.

I remember a post from Ryan Healy a few months back on Gen-Y inheriting the Boomers debt. I think that there are players in Gen-Y who truly believe that we can make a difference. I do think that there are many more Gen-Y, however, that think that Cribs, Paris Hilton and the MTV-ness of celebrity are really important players in the way they view society and will spend every dollar they have and then some.

There is a preview I saw at the movies over the weekend for "Confessions of a Shopaholic." It's about a girl who thinks credit cards are magic and racks up a go-gillion dollars in debt and has to get a job to pay it off. Unfortunately, I think this is something that is very prevelant in Gen-Y'ers. Look at the success of My Super Sweet 16. Do you think that made any of the girls think about community service, national debt, poverty, green cars or any other relevant matter.

This is turning into more of a rant than anything. Get back on track.
With the abundance of Alternative Spring Breaks, I see trending towards Alternative Christmas's coming in the future. Locally, we have the Baby DJ Fund, that gives toys to underpriviliged kids in Orlando. They get most of the toys from fun happy hours and end of the year parties that require a toy for admission. This is a start.

If you are having an alternative XMas or Holiday Season, let me know. I want to see how young people are doing more than gift giving. And if you are only gift giving, well have fun and take lots of pictures.

-Greg Rollett