Never a Lack of Ideas

Let's spice up some things that are traditionally boring: LinkedIn requests and out-of-office emails. Why? Because doing so surprises and delights people, and it raises your cool factor (trust me, I'm an expert in cool factor...). LinkedIn Requests   Every time you request to connect with someone on LinkedIn, the same default email will be sent on your behalf if you don't change it: "I'd like to add you to my professional network." Boring! Why not spend five seconds and change it up? Here are three that I've sent recently to friends of mine: "Oh please, oh please, oh please!" "Let's be frienemies" — I sent this to a friend who is going to work at Yahoo. "Pretty pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeease!!!!" Each one of these emails elicited a response email to me, with a little joke in return. When was the last time someone replied to your default LinkedIn email? Out-of-Office Emails "I'm currently out of the office an...

Get Flocked My twin sister Nichole leads student ministries at the church we attend . Each summer, she leads a group of high school students on a mission trip. To raise money for the trip each year, she implements the greatest fundraising idea ever: Every night during the month of May, our church's group of high school students drives to someone's house (it's usually a church member's) and plant 20 pink, plastic flamingos in their yard. This is called "getting flocked." In order to have the flamingos removed the next day, the owner of the house must donate at least $20 to the youth group. That's pretty awesome by itself, but there are fantastically fun twists: Church members can purchase flamingo insurance for $10 to prevent their house from being flocked. Church members can pay $10 to request the flocking of an uninsured house. An uninsured house can be flocked more than once during the month. There's something for everyone in this fund...

18 Minutes of Fame On April 12, 2013, I fulfilled a longtime goal: I gave a TEDx talk. I was honored to be one of six speakers at TEDx UofI Chicago. Everyone at the event was a pleasure to work with. It would be very difficult to add up all of the hours that went into preparing for my short, 18-minute talk. I think I practiced it enough to remember large parts of it for the rest of my life. I tried to bring my passion for the subject to the stage — along with a little humor and a little know-how. There's always room for improvement, but I think I did pretty well. I'd love to hear your thoughts. I must admit that I had so much fun doing the talk that I just may have to try and do another one someday. I guess we'll have to see if I have any more ideas worth spreading in the future. Add This To Your To-Do List Enjoy my talk! And let m e know what you th ought of it. There's never a lack of ideas.

Sharing is Caring To thank those of you who have taken time to read my new book and share it with a friend, I'd like to send you a nifty button I've created. Check it out there on the right, worn by one of the people to whom I dedicated the book. I'll send you a free button if you do all of the following: Read my book. (Remember, there's a completely free pdf available.) Share my book with someone. I would love if you'd write a review of it, but you can also simply tell a friend about it or share it via social media. (If you share it on social media, please include #marketingpriorities.) Let me know that you did the first two things and where I should send the button. Then, sport it on your clothes or bag everywhere you go. If you take a picture of yourself wearing it and send it to me, I'll upload it to a little photo gallery for everyone to see. I'm trying to start a movement in which organizations no longer invest time and money into market...

What a Week While playing golf in Texas a few weeks ago, my uncle made two holes-in-one within four days. Incredible! (That's him on the right after the first one.) According to Callaway, there are fewer than 150 people who have done this while using Callaway golf balls, like my uncle was. And that includes professional golfers. (My uncle is not a professional golfer.) That got me thinking: Have you ever seen an ad for golf equipment? Every single one of them features a pro golfer. Every single one. Why doesn't one golf manufacturer take a different approach and focus on everyday golfers with incredible stories like my uncle? That's much more appealing and approachable to the vast majority of people who play the game. Sure, there's something to be said for inspiring amateur golfers by showing them that professionals play with their equipment — and I'm not saying golf manufacturers should ditch their professional player sponsorships. I'm just saying that t...

Train Station Take Over In March, the Lincoln Motor Company took over nearly all the billboards in Chicago's Union Station. The ads (examples seen on the right) all talked about "firsts" and invited people to share their firsts on Twitter by using #Linco l nFirsts. Now, I try not to use this blog as a way to critique marketing campaigns very often because as a n observer, I don't know what Lincoln's goals were for this campaign, nor do I know how it performed against those goals. But I can make some educated guesses and I've come to the conclusion that this campaign was an example of marketing priorities gone wrong. Just look at some of the responses Lincoln received on Twitter. I assume Lincoln was hoping for better responses than these actual Tweets : The first time I saw this ad at Union Station I wanted to punch it. The first time I stole a car. The first time I pee'd in a bottle in a car The first time I went to a concert it was PDiddy. A r...

An Idea Worth Spreading I'm incredibly excited to be presenting at TEDx at the University of Illinois at Chicago this Friday evening — Ap ril 12th . I'll be discussing a few of the frame works outlined in my new book , Hey Marketers, Get Your Priorities Straight . I'm speaking at 7:20 pm , which is late in the evening, so I'll do my best to keep it lively and enter taining. TEDx is f or ideas worth spreading, and I hope you'll be inspired by my talk . Tickets for t he event are sold out , but you can tune in via the event livestream . But don' t worry if you can 't view the event live — I'll post a link to the video of my talk after the event organizers post it. See you on the stage!