Last night, my friends, Madeline and Steve, my husband and I attended the Green Day concert at Madison Square Garden. Unfortunately, we missed the opening act, the Kaiser Chiefs, which I would have liked to see, but the Korean BBQ place on 32nd Street and 7th Avenue took longer then we anticipated.

In any event, the concert was probably the best concert I have seen in a long time! It was high energy from the time the pink bunny came out drinking a bud, to the end of the three hour show, which ended with Good Riddance (Time of Your Life).

At one point during the show, Billie Joe Armstrong, brought up a 12 year old kid from the audience, “Trevor,” who acted out a part during East Jesus NoWhere and sprayed the audience with a super soaker. (Billie Joe papered the audience with an electric toilet paper dispenser.)

When the song was over, the crowd chanted Trevor’s name until Billie Joe kicked him off the stage. (What a thrill for this kid, huh?) A few songs later, Billie Joe asked the audience who played the drums? who played the electric guitar? and who played the bass? (As it turned out Trevor also played Bass and was brought up again to play in a newly formed band!) It was pretty cool! I had never seen that at a concert.

The concert reminded me of a Ramones concert at CBGB’s back in the early 80′s. There was not one person in his seat the entire show. Everyone was up dancing and bopping to the punk beat!

Green Day really rocked the Garden! When we left, I was still hearing the music…. As a matter of fact, I woke up hearing Green Day too!

Here’s the set list from last night:

1. Song of the Century
2. 21st Century Breakdown
3. Know Your Enemy
4. Murder City
5. East Jesus Nowhere
6. Holiday
7. Static Age
8. Before the Lobotomy
9. Are We the Waiting
10. St. Jimmy
11. Boulevard of Broken Dreams
12. A Quick One While He’s Away (The Who)
13. Hitchin a Ride
14. Welcome to Paradise
15. Stop, Drop, and Roll/ Eye of the Tiger
16. FOD
17. When I Come Around
18. Going to Pasalacqua
19. Stuart And The Ave./ Who Wrote Holden Caulfield?
20. Iron Man riff
21. Brain Stew
22. Jaded
23. Knowledge
24. Basket Case
25. She
26. King For a Day
27. Shout/ Earth Angel (The Penguins)/ Christie Road
/ I’ll Be There
28. 21 Guns
29. American Eulogy

30. American Idiot
31. Jesus of Suburbia
32. Minority
33. Macy’s Day Parade
34. Tell Me When It’s Time to Say I Love You (AI b-side)
35. Good Riddance

Image via Wikipedia

The famous Dr. McCoy quote, “I’m not a (you say it), I’m a doctor!” is one that I think of often when I talk about social media sites. I often find myself saying, “I’m not a techy, I’m a marketing professional!”

The other day, I had an issue with Twitter. I clicked on one of those links that said more followers in 100 days or something like that. (There are tons of these sites on Twitter.)

When I went to the site, I was signed in as EONY (Entrepreneurs Organization NY Chapter). The site grabbed my information and started to spam all of the followers of EONY. How frustrating is that!

Since I hadn’t originally created the site, I didn’t have the email address that linked to the site. Therefore, I ended up creating another unique site with a different user name and password. (The new site is EONYC. I think it’s more applicable anyway….)

At a recent social media seminar that we had in our offices, we had a woman who kept asking us technical questions on ACT and other database type programs. Kristie Galvani, Senior VP, and I shook our heads. “We’re teaching a class about marketing, business development and social media not about how to organize your databases,” we said to each other after class.

So the next time someone asks me a technical question about a social networking site application, I’m going to say, “I’m not a technician, I’m a marketer!”

Related articles by Zemanta

• Are Introverts more active in social media than Extroverts? (jonggunlee.tistory.com)
• Twitter does not deserve a Nobel Peace Prize! (sylwiapresley.wordpress.com)

My friend and colleague, Arthur Germain, Principal and Chief Brandteller of Communication‘s Strategy Group in East Northport Long Island, asked me to write a post for his blog, Brandtelling on questions people ask me about social media. Here are the questions and answers from my post:

How do I find the time for social media?
Social media takes a lot of time and diligence. It’s not something that you can start, walk away from and return every so often. It needs to be cultivated and maintained in order to get results.

Is social media enough?
Social media is an important part of your marketing mix but it is not the magical marketing tool that will bring you immediate results. It’s important to include social media as part of your marketing mix. When including social media, remember to focus on a few social networking sites, linking the sites together, microblogging at least 3 – 5 times a day with relevant thought provoking information, blogging daily, using an audio or video podcast and making sure that there is some consistency. In addition, include social media in your marketing mix but also consider traditional publicity, direct mail, advertising, email marketing, mobile messaging and more.

Why does anyone care about what I am eating?
Social media is about making that personal connection. With the use of technology, we have lost site of the personal connection that we had when we knew the grocery store owner, the barber and the butcher. Social media allows us to go beyond the superficial networking scene that we have become accustomed to. It enables us to learn more about each other on a more personal level so that we can make that connection and conduct business with people we like.

Isn’t this all just a fad anyway?
When people ask me this question, I say, “Was TV a fad?” Social media is here to stay. Facebook and Twitter may be popular now but may not be popular in 2012. However, another site will take its place and be used for business. Those who think that Facebook is just for “kids,” are missing the boat!

Won’t I get a lot of negative comments and feedback if I have a Facebook page?
If you have a store and you have a confrontation with someone in that store, that person can tell all of his friends not to frequent your store. All of a sudden, your sales decrease. You wonder why? Social media allows us to address our critics in a non-defensive way. In addition, Criticism is important. It enables us to change what we are doing wrong. Take each situation as it comes and remember feedback is good.

Not to be self-promotional here, but a lot of the answers to more of your questions appear in my book, “Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Social Media but were afraid to ask…” It is currently available on line at Borders, Barnes & Noble and Amazon. You can also get a copy in the bookstore by requesting it.

Image via Wikipedia

Image via Wikipedia
Don Tapscott‘s book, “Grown Up Digital” takes an in-depth look at people ages 11 through 31. He calls them the net generation (net geners). It’s a fascinating book about how net geners learn, work and relate to family.How many people do you know under the age of 30 who reads a traditional newspapers? Most of the people in that age group, my son excluded, read the news from their mobile devices. People who were born in 1979 through 1998, grew up with computers and technology and therefore, it is second nature to them.

Educators must understand that when it comes to learning, net geners need to be taught differently then the way we were taught. Employers must understand that when it comes to working, net geners have different work ethics then we had. And, parents must understand that net geners relate differently then we did. (Mr. Tapscott writes in the book that if we were mad at our parents, we ran out of the house to escape. If net geners are upset, they run to their computers and social networks to escape.)

One of the most interesting chapters was on net geners as consumers. The net generation tends to listen to each other and not to the traditional media, as we did growing up. Some of the important guidelines that Mr. Tapscott mentions in the book includes”

• Engage consumers
• Create customer experiences
• Stop advertising on Broadcast media (net geners aren’t seeing them)
• Rethink your brand
• Be honest and transparent
• Forget about the four “P’s” — Product, place, price and promotion. Instead replace with ABCDE – Anyplace, brand, communication, discover and experience.

If you are in marketing, advertising, public relations or sales and you want to see the big picture going forward, then I would recommend getting this book. It wasn’t an easy read but it was worth the time.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Social Networks and the Net Generation at Work (megoagain.com)
• The Next Step For Net Geners (openmode.ca)
• Grown Up Digital (farisyakob.typepad.com)

Image via Wikipedia

I try to do something special for my staff twice a year — once in the summer and once during the holidays. This year, we held our staff summit yesterday and today, we went for massages in Wading River, had a nice relaxing spa lunch and headed to the Vineyards on the North Fork of Long Island.

I felt a little like David Cassidy driving my husband’s SUV with every seat taken on the three rows, but it worked out great. (In past years when the economy was better, I would take a limo.)

The first winery we visited was Martha Clara. I had a gift certificate for a wine tasting there that I got when I was awarded a top 50 women award from Long Island Business News. The sommelier poured us five or six glasses of wine and told us the whole history of Martha Clara. She even teared up a little when she spoke about Martha Clara not seeing her grandchildren.

Not to sound hard, but I really didn’t care. Ellen Heydt and I were giggling at the end writing notes back and forth to each other like we were back in grade school. This woman would not shut up! I didn’t even hear what she was saying at some point, all I heard was waaaaa…. waaaaaa…. waaaaaaa…. waaaaaaa.

After the tasting we went on to visit two or three other north fork wineries before heading back to the office.

Lori Alexy, VP, drove Lisa Gordon, supervisor who heads up the Rochester office, to the airport to catch the next plane back to Rochester. Jillian Beroza, our Art Director and Kristie Galvani, our Senior VP, headed home. Ellen and I went into the office to check the mail and our phone messages.

Kristie lent us the key to get into the building. When I put the key in, it wouldn’t come out. So, we left it there. When we came back down, we still couldn’t get it out. We were saying to each other to just leave it in and leave, but we kept trying. About 10 minutes went by and Ellen finally got the key out of the door.

Wow, success at another staff retreat.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Taste Camp East; Long Island Wine Country – A wine Region Away (hvwinegoddess.blogspot.com)
• One Woman Winery in Southold, New York (eastcoastwineries.blogspot.com)