The FTC is keeping a closer eye on blogger marketing outreach programs than you think. Ann Taylor was investigated for offering a “special gift” to those writing about an exclusive fashion preview. Ann Taylor wasn’t fined but this serves as a warning to make sure full disclosure is used when trying to build blog ‘buzz’.
Full story here:
http://adage.com/article?article_id=143567
This “report” kinda infuriated me…
Adults with Chronic Disease Often Offline
Ummm YEAH they’re probably NOT online. Why? Because they’re freakin’ sick. Am I online when I’m sick even with a common cold? Ok, well yes I am. But if I was fighting cancer or had to deal with some other disease I’d probably be much more concerned with trying to make my life more comfortable. I’d probably have mounding health care bills and have to give up my fancy iPhone, high speed internet, and such. So yeah. They’re not online. You can’t reach EVERYone via the interwebs. It’s sad; it’s often forgotten that sometimes you have to TALK to people.
End Tirade. Thank you.
Well I guess it’s that time again. Time to seriously consider what races I’m going to train for and maybe even more importantly which of those I’m NOT.
For those you you that know me I’ve trained for the Chicago marathon for the past three years (and I greatly thank you all for still being my friends). I think I definitely need a break this summer, heck I could use a break now! Between work, volleyball and the current training program I’m in I have little time for anything else. Take a look…
No wonder why I’m so tired all of the time not to mention a persistent pile of clothes to wash! But come summer things should lighten up a little bit especially since I’m NOT training for the Chicago Marathon this year! This summer the focus is going to volleyball first, running second. I do, however, still want to do the Half Marathon training with my running friends from Chicago Endurance Sports but the lower mileage should be much much easier for me deal with. I don’t care what anybody says, an 18 mile run really takes quite a bit outta ya!
Anyways, back to the races I’m running this year. Like I said right now I’m in half marathon training. While I’m not really doing a half for sure yet I know that I AM doing the 199 Mile Relay Race in California the first weekend of May and canNOT wait! It’s a 2 day race with 12 runners each responsible for 3 legs of the race anywhere between 3 and 8 miles per. It’s a little crazy but it’s a ton of fun and I can’t wait to share the pictures and stories with you. The last time I ran this race was 2 years ago already with a great group of folks from Avanade (you know you have great clients when you can spend 2 days running with each other in a stinky van).
January and February were spent getting back into the groove of training having not really run since October’s Marathon. And man has it been a struggle to get back into it. Did you know it’s cold out?!
March brings with it the promise (or tease) of warmer weather, green beer, and of course what’s considered the official start to the running season in Chicago, The Shamrock Shuffle. For last year’s race I remember looking out my window and seeing a heaping pile of freshly fallen snow, thinking “Hell no!” and rolled over to sleep another 3 or so hours. This year however I was determined to not make the same mistake; I didn’t even register. Can’t feel guilty if you don’t even intend to run! Well I ran it anyways and am so glad i did (I’ll admit I feel slightly guilty having not registered but I’ve given Bank of America enough money already). About an hour before the race I texted my co-runner Vanessa to see if she was still running it or not (hoping she’d bail). Running she was! And so I high-tailed it over to pick her up and off we went to freeze pre-race for at least 30 minutes before even crossing the Starting line.
To give you a slight bit of perspective on this race, first you have to understand that 2 days ago it 55º out, it snowed yesterday and this morning it was something like 38º and raining. The other thing about this race I and most other runners I know can’t stand is that they cap registration at 36,000 people on an 8k course. For the marathon the cap is about 45,000 runners! That means that there’s about 5,143 runners per mile. (An 8k is 4.97 miles and a marathon is 26.2 miles!) Ridiculous. But it wasn’t snowing, not like last year! We still complained just about the whole time but in a joking way and all-in-all had a great run.
So that’s it for March; now for the rest of the year:
April-
May-
June-
July-
August-
September-
October-
November-
December-
Wow! What a year it’s going to be!!!! And yes, with all of that running will STILL only be second to volleyball
What do you get when you put together 1 holiday season, 2 SUVs, 4 volunteers, and 180 blankets? If you guessed a warm and fuzzy feeling inside, you’re oh so close! Aside from that you also get Operation: Manifest Blanket Donation. What’s that you ask? It was a whirl wind of a day where myself and 3 other Manifest employees volunteered time out of their busy busy day to trek to a Chicago-area Walmart, purchase, and jam pack 2 cars with box upon box of soft micro-fleece blankets. And when I say jam-packed I’m not exaggerating; take a look yourself…we thought we were going to have to call for reinforcements. In fact, we actually did until we found a few extra crevices for every last blanket (including Liz and Chris’ laps). Why 180 blankets? For the holiday season Manifest donated one blanket on behalf of each of our clients. Great job clients!
All of this was a coordinated effort on behalf of the organization Ten Thousand Blankets founded by Jeff Leitner for Blanket Week, a crazy ambitious, campaign to collect and donate new blankets to those that need them.
But our Operation didn’t end there. From the store we caravaned to our final destination, The Pacific Garden Mission on the Near south side of Chicago. Since 1877, Pacific Garden Mission has been a refuge for those in the area seeking food, shelter, clothing, medical, and dental care. It’s a great and facility and we’re proud to have done something positive for this community.
You can make a donation to Ten Thousand Blankets as well! Next Week in fact is Blanket Week where they’re looking to donate as many blankets as possible between Monday, March 15 and Sunday March 21, 2010. So you can have that warm and fuzzy feeling too.
To see all of our photos check out the Manifest Facebook Fan Page.
Well it’s been an idea in our heads for quite some time but it FINALLY just became a little more real!
This afternoon my fabulous co-worker Kevin Malone and I finalized the initial topics we’ll cover in a Manifest Digital employee podcast we’re calling imMEDIAte. We’ll strive to keep it casual and conversational as the topics will relate to what’s new in marketing, design, and technology. The plan is that it’ll give listeners an inside peek into what we think about the changing world around us, from an “in the trenches” perspective. Employee guest appearances should really keep this interesting as we have quite a cast of (exceptionally smart) characters here.
Stay tuned for an official release announcement in early February as official recording starts next week!
Here’s our test recording with subsequent Garage Band editing. Warning…it’s a little creepy.