The Big Boys and Girls in Social Media and me

Pictured left to right: Carol Rossio, Ed Borasky, Ken and Wilma Doane.

The SoMe Awards—Pacific Northwest Social Media Awards—night was a fast-paced adventure of meeting new people, making first time connections with Twitter followers, rallying for future meet-ups, and waiting to find out if I won the Scrappy & Engaged category.

I LOVE marketing people. They know how to make you feel good. I'd social media'd my birthday party into a blood drive for Southwest Washington Blood Program and I was running with the big boys and girls. I received an email from organizer Sean Lowery stating I was a TOP FINALIST for a SoMe Award.

My present? Standing toe-to-toe with the men and women of social media agencies who deftly crafted winning campaigns for Intel, Air New Zealand, Travelocity and local Portland businesses such as Hotel Max and networks such as Portland Fit.

I arrived ten minutes early with my posse (Mom and Dad) ready to move the People's Choice Award votes to Carol's Save a Life Birthday Party. My parents have no idea what social media is, and while trying to explain it on the way over, Mom gazed out the car window as we passed Propstra Stadium, and said wistfully, "Look at the baseball players."

Yes. Baseball they understand. Social media makes my posse A.D.H.D.

Ed Borasky, met us at registration swearing he wanted his money back if I didn't win, which brought my fan base to four (counting me), but you have to minus two because Mom and Dad don't have iPhones, let alone a concept of Twitter, and the People's Choice Award votes would be tabulated using a hashtag.

When I patiently began my explanation of a Twitter hashtag, Mom glanced desperately around the room for a ball player, or anyone in uniform. She grabbed the sleeve of a Multnomah Athlete Club employee and held on until he'd guided her to the dessert bar. Chocolate. Lemon. Vanilla. A vast array.

I ran into Jeff Bunch, Web Editor of Columbian.com, and we traded a few quips on web tactics. Our engaging conversation enveloped jazz singer Carol Rossio a friend of Carri Bugbee, president of Portland's Social Media Club. Carol didn't bring a phone, I noted and concluded, no votes from her.

Two big screens promoted the finalists by client and hashtag. I fingered my glass. Jeff plus Ed and me equals three votes. I downed my wine, and left the safety of the high-top table to work the room. I flitted from group to group asking, "Who are you voting for?"

"Ourselves!" said 90%.

I raised my brows, curled my hand into a fist, thrust it their direction for a fist bump, and enthused, "I hope you win something!"

If they paused too long, I suggested, "Vote for me, I'm #SM24. Carol's Save A Life Birthday Party."

"Okay!" noted one very nice stranger.

I scrutiznied her face to see if she was joking. I realized I knew her. She was a Twitter follower I recognized from her avatar. We introduced ourselves, orienting each other to our jobs and other people we had in common. She pulled out her phone and voted. I gave her a huge smile, thanked her for her hastag, and floated off musing, Ed, Jeff, Carmen Hill and me. That's four. Good grief. I could shamefully lose this People's Award for lack of proper scheming, er, planning. I flipped through my Twitter stream and noticed that Step Change had promised that supporters would be entered into a raffle for a pony. Dang, why didn't I think of that?

#SM24 was short lived.

An astute audience member noticed duplicate numbers. The big screen screeched to a halt for course correction. I got knocked from #SM24 out to #SM26. Adriane assured me she'd counted my four votes before she made the change. I scanned the room, conversations buzzed in a happy roar. I could not insert myself into everyone's private space again, so I quietly slunk off to find my seat.

Music, snappy introductions and awards flowed with cheers and laughter.  Rob Sample, crooner and emcee, did a fabulous job. He dove straight into the internet ocean with a SoMe rendition of the Love Boat theme. When he leaned in toward Dad, his voice slowing into a smooth vibrato, and warbled, "♫ exciting and new," I thought I might bust a gut. 

Proving that results count, Anvil Media shone as a great example of creating a winning social media strategy. Their fabulous campaign for Hotel Max produced 4,000 retweets, 80 guests, and a 37% increase in hotel revenue, which they detail in this after party video.

Those results won them an award, The Scrappy and Engaged category.  Congratulations!

Can social media motivate?

The Pacific Northwest is known for beautiful landscapes, diverse, rough-hewn history and nature-loving populations with large hubs around Seattle, which boasts 3.3 million coffee lovers, and farther north a hub of 2.3 million around Vancouver, British Columbia which can boast about not being original.

Vancouver, B.C. has the dubious distinction of usurping the name 'Vancouver' from the original: Vancouver, Washington.

My city.

A slightly smaller grouping of people, barely over 400,000 in the entire county.

Vancouver, Washington grew organically from the outreach and marketing of the Hudson's Bay Company, the oldest commercial corporation in North America and one of the oldest in the world.

Vancouver, Washington benefits from the proximity of Portland, Oregon, a mere 2.2 million, and just an interstate bridge crossing away from great modern day advertising agencies such as Wieden + Kennedy.

I swim in that pool. Advertising. Marketing. Media.

Marketing is a staple of our lives. Millions of messages pound at us everyday. Experts try to estimate how many. Who can be sure? It's pervasive in every part of our lives. So, how can any ONE be heard?

Brian Solis, principal of Future Works, suggests in his blog post The 10 Stages of Social Media Business Integration that we find a voice and a sense of purpose. Someone in Seattle found their voice and spoke to me. Sean Debutts of the Puget Sound Blood Center asked me to spearhead a local event. Our connection came through social media. I decided to dive deeper into social media, use it, test it for this event, and discover if social media can motivate someone else to take action.

I chirped, twittered and cajoled the Portland/Vancouver hub to celebrate my birthday by donating blood. A month later, I'm wondering how many more would have come forward had we used traditional media. Actually, that's a lie. I'm not wondering, I know. A series of ads in the local paper, a jingle on a targeted group of radio stations and public service mentions on any of the local television stations would have pumped up the numbers. But this event had no dollar budget. Only time and complimentary venues.

Irregardless of the results that traditional media provides, businesses are flocking to social media as if it's traditional media's dynamic replacement. But it's not. It's not targeted (yet), it's not controllable (yet), and message frequency is not viewed as a good campaign, it's viewed more akin to spam. It's like standing inside the ramparts of Fort Vancouver (pictured above) with a single shot rifle and trying to connect with one 'prospect' at a time. It takes a lot of effort and determination as you fine tune your aim.

My blood drive event was a mash-up of crazy shots as I tried every gun in every arsenal within reach. The results? I had a blast.

My efforts placed me as top finalist for a SoMe Award – Pacfic Northwest Social Media Award. Included on my resume are many awards from PNNA, Pacific Northwest Newspaper Association, and I'm proud of them, but all happened when I was in sales and madly dashing from 'post to post' trying to create something spectacular to motivate businesses to market together. There's strength in numbers. If everybody fires a lot of shots we will hit something. I guarantee it.

The number of participants in the blood drive was very small. But, I think we can say there's strength in those small numbers, too. The potential affect on the overall community for each person who participated as a blood donor is priceless. Each donor's gift could save up to three lives.

Saving one life makes a stronger community.

Social media is our new community. It's still an untamed venue whose impact has not fully been explored, exploited or fully exported into traditional marketing campaigns. It's also very personal. It's a conversation. It's putting the advertising gun down, coming out of the tower and having a conversation with the person you want to connect with. It builds a stronger relationship.

Okay, wish me luck. SoMe winners are announced tonight. We get two drinks and dessert. I hope one is coffee, and when it's all said, awarded and done, I know what I will come home with—more connections, more friends and more victims to hit up for my next blood drive.

What motivates you to use social media?

Four pint success!

Another really cool Carol stops in to party at the blood donation center

The First Annual Carol Save a Life Birthday Party was a four pint success! Me, @OntieC another Carol I met on Twitter (pictured above), Julie a job candidate who showed up early for her interview, and my sister all donated blood to SW Washington Blood Center in honor of my birthday.

My heart beat a steady 72, blood pressure a tad escalated, but birthdays make you nervous, don't they?

The venue is prepared to be relaxing, oversize cushy recliners with your own TV, full service snack bar and a full array of beverages. The chat fest got rolling and we were having such a good time we almost forgot to get the blood flowing.

I like to do everything fast and cut the usual ten minutes donation time down to seven minutes, so it hardly gave me any time at all to catch up on Perry Mason, but really, how much could have changed from last season to this one?

Once they unhooked all the paraphernalia I spent the afternoon greeting guests, drinking coffee and eating chocolate-chocolate cake. Two pieces.

In between we fired up the internet, took a look at my blogs, peeked in at Twitter, and @OntieC and I gave the phlebotomists a quick lesson in social media.

This was a first class operation. They had the center decked out in birthday decorations, bought me a cake, sent me a video thank-you from Seattle as the event kicked off and retweeted the pictures I was sharing on Twitter to bring the community into our unique, birthday event. 

I'm waiting to see if Julie got the job and probably just as cool is that our PR efforts inspired another donor to volunteer to celebrate her June birthday the same way. That's a present I didn't expect.

Hope I get invited. You can donate every 56 days.

Interesting to note, the center takes drop-ins, so if you couldn't make it for my party and happen to be in the neighborhood. Don that superwomanish cape, stop in and save a life.

SW Washington Blood Program
9320 NE Vancouver Mall Blvd
Suite 100, Vancouver, WA 98662
 Schmap to the Blood Center 

 Google map to the Blood Center

Prefer an appointment? Call 360-567-4800.

Your turn! What fun thing are you planning for your upcoming birthday?

It's party time! You coming?

It doesn't happen very often, but I'm having a party. It skews slightly vampirish because I'm asking all my friends to bring their blood. It's a social media adventure started by @SWBlood on Twitter. They sent me a direct message asking if I would spearhead a drive. I gave them an enthusiastic yes and started pressing friends and strangers into service.

The online appointment scheduler has a couple of open spots, so get yourself signed up! We want to fill the day to keep the Puget Sound Blood Center-Vancouver busy. And while you're laying there saving lives you can think about all the presents you gave someone they never used.

I realize this gift costs you something—your gas, your time to get to the center, maybe a little anxiety, but what does it cost if we do nothing? It costs a life, maybe more, because your donation can save up to three lives.

And if you can't come to my party, I promise there'll be another one. The Blood-Mobile shows up at some of the finest places with juice and cookies, rockin' music and friendly smiles. But today, you'll get to party with me, and that doesn't happen very often.

Please come!

Carol's Save a Life Birthday Party

Puget Sound Blood Center - Vancouver
9320 NE Vancouver Mall Blvd
Suite 100, Vancouver, WA 98662

Follow the Schmap to the Blood Center
Follow Google map to the Blood Center

Make your appointment online: http://bit.ly/9MBoxg

Want to, but can’t on the 31st?
Call 360-567-4800 for an alternate date.

EACH DAY our community needs 900 people to donate blood.

1. Eligibility: http://www.psbc.org/programs/blood.htm

2. First Time Donors: http://www.psbc.org/programs/drives_first_time.pdf

3. Donation FAQs: http://www.psbc.org/programs/faq.htm

If you would like to see the lives that are touched by blood donation visit the Puget Sound Blood Center patient videos page.