Mary's Blog

Online, you get to be a golden God. It's true. Online you get to shed your fears and insecurities. Online you get to be the superhero, rock star, diva etc. you were always meant to be. How else can you explain the phenomena of the early 90s web where every beautiful young girl seeking love on a dating site was an old fat furry man living in his mama's basement? Online you get to have a secret identity that can fight crime and still fry dinner up by 5. Now, I am not suggesting that all you old fat men try to be young beautiful girls. I can't see that one panning out in business, but there are ways to use a "persona" to create an identifiable brand for yourself. What I am suggesting is that you be bold enough to wear a cape and tights, wise enough to go with your gut, confident enough to persuade others what you are doing is the right course of action and most of all powerful enough to leap tall buildings and social networks in a single bound. Find your super hero persona and run with it. Even if it gets you into trouble. And believe me- it will get you into trouble, because every superhero has to go through an awkward adolescence to discover the limits and uses of his/her powers.

How to come out of your alter ego shell and become the superhero you were meant to be.

In order to turn yourself into a super hero, you need to exaggerate all your natural assets, gifts and skills. Make yourself almost cartoonish and completely invincible. Commit to your opinions and shed the fear of offending people with your comments. BE OUTRAGEOUS. Now, there are certain traits all super heros share and you need to bring them out in yourself to become this all powerful figure.

The Alter Ego

Every super hero has a secret identity or alter ego that walks among mortal men unnoticed. The use of secret identities dates back to early 20th century with characters such as The Scarlet Pimpernel and Zorro. This basically means, you have two personalities. When online you are the all powerful super hero you should be fighting online banalties and crime with the daring only the invincible can pull off. Conversely, in the office you can be the mild mannered secretary or executive. Online, I almost never go by my real name, I often use a pseudonym. For example in real estate Mary McKnight is REBlogGirl. In marketing, I am SuperBitch. I also have other pseudonyms in the other industries I work in. It helps me to create a persona and very clearly separate my industry specific pieces from one another and create a super hero mystique that is easily recognizable in the industry.

Though the reasons characters have for having a secret identity vary, some common reasons include:

• Allowing the character to live a normal life when not fighting crime
• Preventing the hero's enemies from seeking revenge on his alter ego or loved ones
• Giving the hero an advantage in crime fighting (e.g. Batman, striking fear into his enemies)
• Gaining insight into stopping crime (e.g. Clark Kent as a reporter hears immediately about crimes for Superman to stop)

The Back Story

All good super heroes have a complex back story. A backstory that explains the circumstances by which the character acquired his or her abilities as well as his or her motivation for becoming a superhero. Many origin stories involve tragic elements and/or freak accidents that result in the development of the hero's abilities. Some are born from aliens or spit out from the center of the earth like Superman and Vulcan while others began as mortal men that were transformed into superheroes by a cataclysmic event like Spider Man and the Hulk. You need to determine your back story before you can know your strengths because you back story could affect your online personality. So come up with how your super hero identity came to be. The psychology of the super hero is almost as important as his/her powers.

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Motivation and Calling

Now you need to find our motivation. A motivation, such as a sense of responsibility (e.g. Spider-Man), a formal calling (e.g., Wonder Woman), a personal vendetta against criminals (e.g. Batman), or a strong belief in justice and humanitarian service (e.g. Superman) is essential. For me, my code and motivation is to rid the Internet of boring content. To fight back with lively, luscious media and content. Find your motivation and cartoonishly fight for it with every exaggerated strength you can muster. Protect innocents and rescue damsels in distress. Find other like-minded people caught in the net and make them your cheering fans.

Costume

All good superheroes have recognizable branding. They wear a cape or tights or a mask. You need to have good branding too. Make sure your brand is recognizable. Trick out all your social media profiles with custom branded backgrounds and be sure to include your branding in your email signatures. Even come up with a few catch phrases or tagline for your profile pages. I like to use the same branding for blog on my Twitter, Youtube and Myspace profiles s that as more people see me they come to associate my name with this purple branding.

Strengths and Powers

You'll need to come up with what your special powers, skills, equipment, etc are. It's important to know which of your skills or assets you will incorporate into your online personality. Although superhero powers vary widely, superhuman strength, the ability to fly, enhanced senses, and the projection of energy bolts are all common. Some superheroes, such as Batman and the Question possess no superhuman powers but have mastered skills such as martial arts and forensic sciences. Others have special weapons or technology, such as Iron Man's powered armor suits and Green Lantern's power ring. Many characters supplement their natural powers with a special weapon or device (e.g., Wonder Woman's lasso and bracelets, Spider-Man's webbing, Wolverine's adamantium, Daredevil's billy club, Thor's hammer, Gambit's staff, etc.) Obviously, my strengths are wit, manipulation, sarcasm and flirting. I play these attributes up online to provide almost an animated version of myself.

Read also: How to acquire legendary stories and life lessons by instigating people at networking events

Weaknesses

All superheroes have a weakness to make them more relatable and fallible and mortal on some level. Find yours and exaggerate it. Be fallible- it helps people to emotionally connect with you. Show your weaknesses from time to time. An online personality is for the brave, the brawny, the bawdy- but the boring, not a chance. Assuming you have more personality than your average wet nap, you already have all the tools you need to have a successful online identity. For example, if you are a flirt, pen playful posts, if you are a little quirky, type those crazy thoughts you think on Twitter, if you have a biting wit, sprinkle sarcasm throughout articles, if you are a closet comedian, give readers a belly laugh with each post, the list goes on... The gist? Let the inner you bust out and go splat all over that blog of yours. People connect with writing that shows your inner self. They want to see you as human and relatable- warts and all.

Read also: Humanizing your blog writing for intimacy

Sidekick

Many superheroes work with a sidekick, somebody that supports their crime fighting ways and may even have super powers o their own. Find a kindred spirit online and recruit them as your trusty sidekick because 2 heads are always better than 1. Use each other to create Blip.fm wars or scandalous dialog on Twitter or combine your networks to get more Diggs to your articles.

Nemesis

Every superhero needs a number of enemies that he/she fights repeatedly. In some cases superheroes begin by fighting run of the mill criminals before super villains surface in their respective story lines. In many cases the hero is in part responsible for the appearance of these super villains (The Scorpion was created as the perfect enemy to defeat Spider-Man, and characters in Batman's comics often accuse him of creating the villains he fights). Often superheroes have an archenemy who is more troubling than the others. Often a nemesis is a superhero's doppelganger or foil (e.g., Sabretooth embraces his savage instincts while Wolverine tries to control his. Batman is serious and grim, while the Joker is flamboyant and views the world as one big sick joke).Larger than Life Personalities in Business and History. Now, thos of you that know me, know I have made some enemies out there and most of the time it was completely on purpose. It created warring factions of people in social media and it worked to my benefit. Basically, I was able to create more emotional engagement in my blog and my work because of this need people had to either align themselves with or against me. So, go out there, attack a few celebrities, industry pundits, executives or bloggers and see what comes of it. See if you can't create an allegiance against evil.

So, are you ready to be a superhero, a legend, a golden God of online media? Then start crafting your persona. Below you will find my secret super hero identity.

Mary's Secret Superhero Alter Ego

Super Hero name: SuperBitch

Read also: Are you a good bitch or a bad bitch?

Back story: SuperBitch was born of mortal parents in a quiet little upper crust town in New England. Her birth name and alter ego is Mary. Amid the din of her suburban life and private school education, the tiny and well spoken Mary was playing with friends that wanted to raise some money from a lemonade stand in the neighborhood. When this first business sadly failed, Mary suggested that they sell tickets to an event the other neighborhood kids might enjoy. What do 10 yr olds want to see? It was all too clear to the soft-spoken and meek Mary, children want to see Barbie burn. After building a pyre and grabbing her Malibu Barbie, Mary and cohorts set her ablaze. A huge plastic-y flame burst forth and enveloped Mary, altering her DNA forever and creating SuperBitch, the sarcastic, witty, buxom superhero who fights online banalities, online meanies, Twitter stalkers, and boring blogs with lightning fast wit, salacious avatars and scandalous blog posts. She can also leap small buildings in a single bound, tongue tie just about any online pseudo-celebrity with a single email and turn an abysmal Alexa rank into gold in a matter of days.

Strengths: SuperBitch is a master at tongue tying bloggers, a mistress of attention grabbing, a dominatrix of web traffic, a ring master of networking and an Empress of shock and awe marketing.

Weaknesses: Geckos. The all powerful SuperBitch can be rendered harmless by any member of the lizard family, from a salamander to a Komoto Dragon. I also have a hot temper which tends to get me into a spot of trouble from time to time...

Sidekick: SuperBitch likes to kick back and relax with other Good Bitches on the Constellation GoodBitch in the galaxy of Sacrilicious and is often accompanied by her sidekick, NikNik. (Yeah, I'm going to get my butt kicked by NikNik for calling her a sidekick...)

Your Nemesis: BadBitch. BadBitch is SuperBitch's dark and evil twin. That lying, spamming, black hatting, Twitter stalking, net gossiping troll whose only goal is to bog down the Internet with boring content and social media slander. Unlike SuperBitch, she does not get along well with other Good Bitches.

Do you have a superhero alter ego? Please share it in the comments of this post.

Because Sacrilicious is concernned for the brains of our readers, we wanted to bring you this very special message from Common Craft for Halloween.  Please, protect yourself and your friends and families from the dangerous threat of Zombies this Halloween.

Read also: Top 10 Sexy Halloween Costumes for Marketing.... ALL YOUR ASSETS

Some people hear the word "bitch" and get offended, I on the other hand, wear that badge proudly. Why? Because, just like there are good witches and bad witches, there are good bitches and bad bitches. Are you a good bitch or a bad bitch? I want to set the record straight, so there is no misunderstanding. Nicole and I are bitches. But, we're good bitches, I swear. Basically, that means that if we have an opinion, we'll defend it. You won't see us patting someone's feeling on the head in a comment if they disagree with us. You won't see us laying a dissenter down on the couch to discuss how the word "spaz" made them feel or massaging our words so they don't cut so deep. No, we are who we are like Popeye would say. We have attitude, we hold to our beliefs and we won't kowtow to social media etiquette. We'll tell you the way it is whether you like it or not. But, on the flip side, we are fiercely loyal, we will fight for others, we are "anti-meanies." And that, my little Pretties, is what makes us Good Bitches.

Read also: How MEAN GIRLS Outed Sarah Palin..and They'll Out YOU too!

The Top 5 qualities of a Good Bitch

1. Stunning

A Good Bitch knows that wits and tits give her the edge, so she never leaves the house in sweat pants and never goes out on the town without her tackle bag of makeup. She is "Stacy's Mom," Gilda and Coco Chanel all wrapped into one package. Why would I place any value on female beauty? Because like it or not, pretty people get more attention. I'm not going to debate this. It is a fact, studies, science and math prove it and if you are ugly, just accept it and move on. (hey, this is a post about bitchiness, get used to it)

Read also: Fashion Tip for Female Marketers: pair a pushup bra with a brain

Resource: Do pretty people earn more?

Resource: Wikipedia entry on physical attractiveness.

2. Attention whore

Every good bitch is an attention whore at heart. She doesn't like to be the life of the party she NEEDS to be the life of the party. Not only does the GB like attention, she knows how to get it. She knows what sets the boys hearts a patter and what makes the women want to keep her close and under their watchful eye. A good bitch can instigate a good event that will eventually turn into a legend that everyone present retells at parties. A good bitch is almost a super hero, she is outrageous and contagious.

Read also: How to acquire legendary stories and life lessons by instigating people at networking events

3. Loved or Hated but Never Ignored

You know that saying "you either love her or you hate her?" Well that holds true for the GB. She is someone you either love with all your heart and would gladly stalk online until she tells you "you're creepin' me out dude" or hate her and wish you could kill her then bury her in your backyard and dig her up occasionally just to make sure she is really still dead. Basically, nobody ever feels indifferent to the Good Bitch. And the kicker is, even if you hate her, you still pay attention to her which kills you... and makes you hate her more.

4. Irreverent

Nothing comes between a Good Bitch and her wit, not even her Calvins (strike that, I mean 7 Jeans or True Religion because a GB is stylish). The GB knows how to tell a good story and punctuate her points with humorous one liners that make everyone within a 10 mile radius blush and chuckle, then come back for more of her special vintage of infotainment.

Read also: Coin Your Own Quote: Make people remember you by using great one liners

5. Manipulative (I know this is a super-power, so we only use this for good)

OK, this one might be hard to explain, but a Good Bitch is a master craftsman and puppeteer. She can pull anyone's strings and get them to do just about anything she wants them to do. A GB will pour so much honey on you and threaten to lick it off that you never realize the vinegar you just swallowed. She will get her way and you'll give it to her and you'll actually enjoy giving it to her.

Bonus Trait: Passionately Loyal

Now, the truly spectacular Good Bitches. Those shooting stars among the constellation of Good Bitch that really stand out carry this singular trait. They are fiercely loyal. They protect their own, their young, their opinions and anyone else that runs in their pack even when they know that person might be wrong. They are loyal to fault and would take a bite out of anyone that messed with their homies. They are the COMMANDING OFFCERS OF THE ANTI MEANIES.

This post is dedicated to Jeff Brown (@BawldGuy) who has the most amazing BitchDar, I have ever seen. He can spot one from a mile away. He claims to have spotted both Nicole and I from 3,000 miles away. I'm telling you, this guy has a factory direct anti-aircraft BitchDar with all the bells and whistles.

Are you bad to the bone?  I know I am.  And I don't really think that is such a bad thing.  For those of you that don't yet know, Nicole Nicolay (another totally scandalous blogger) and I have been in the process of writing a book called Sacrilicious: the art of shock and awe marketing.  Well, as our manuscript grows, our publisher becomes more impatient and we get closer to the end, we thought we'd launch a blog and a YouTube channel (coming in the next few months) to grab some readers, some attention and, well, raise some hell. Of course, what ensued was pure mayhem.  And when I say mayhem, I mean, that kind of mayhem where you are pretty sure you are going to hell and the only thing you start praying for now is that they serve good wine there.  So, with our new Rosemary's Baby live on the NET, we are inviting contributors and readers to join in the fun on the Sacrilicious Marketing website.  This is a main stream marketing blog that is designed to make you blush but to make you NEED to come back with a vicious jones to read our shockingly aweful yet deliciously sinful word on how to market yourself and stand out from the crowd.

If you'd like to contribute or you have suggestions for the site or want to send us love or hate mail, please contact us here.

Obviously, we are still adding all the content, but you can get the idea from the site as you see it in its evil little infancy.

Here are a few posts you might want to check out:

1. Seth Godin Corrected My Spelling of Sacrilicious: Marketers need to be more pop culture sensitive

2. Fashion Tip for Female Marketers: pair a pushup bra with a brain

4. 10 Ways to make yourself Famous on the internet

5. Coin Your Own Quote: Make people remember you by using great one liners

Sacriliciously,

-Mary

Now, since one does not kick off the sacrilicious without a totally taudry post... here are:

The Top 13 Celebrity Sex Tape Leaks of All Time.

1.      Pamela Anderson

Pamela Anderson and then-husband Tommy Lee had various interludes from their honeymoon placed online by Internet Entertainment Group in 1998 as one of the earliest internet celebrity sex tapes.

Pamela Anderson and Bret Michaels (singer of the band Poison) had a sex tape released as a DVD on 7 September 2005. The footage had been circulating on the internet for many years.

2.      Bob Crane of Hogan's Heroes fame made numerous home sex tapes in the 1970s with early VCR technology. His exploits were immortalized in the movie Auto Focus.

3.      Dustin Diamond of Saved by the Bell fame authorized the release of a 40-minute sex tape in 2006 in the hopes that it would bring in profits and provide a boost to his career.

4.      Fred Durst, the frontman for the band Limp Bizkit, had a video of him and an unknown woman having sex leaked onto the Internet by a repairman who had been repairing his computer.

5.      Kelsey Grammer sued Internet Entertainment Group under the mistaken impression that it had purchased from his former girlfriend Cerlette Lamme a sex tape the couple had made. He dropped the suit after IEG counter-sued and stated that it had not bought or possessed the video.

6.      Tonya Harding and her husband Jeff Gillooly had a sex tape that was leaked onto the internet and subsequently became so widely available that the couple decided to legitimately release it on their own. It is commercially sold by Penthouse Home Video as the "Wedding Night" tape, although the wedding gown was actually a Halloween costume.

7.      Paris Hilton and then-boyfriend Rick Salomon recorded themselves having sex in a hotel room, shot in night-vision. Hilton initially attempted to stop the distribution of the tape, but later agreed to its release. She now receives profits from the tape. Unusual for a celebrity scandal, the notoriety surrounding the tape only served to increase Hilton's fame.  This footage, along with additional full-color footage, was released commercially under the title 1 Night in Paris.

8.      Socialite Kim Kardashian confirmed the existence of a sex tape of her made by then-boyfriend Ray J. She threatened to take legal action to block its planned distribution by Vivid Video.

9.      Joanie Laurer (better known as Chyna) and fellow professional wrestler Sean Waltman (aka X-Pac) appeared in a home sex tape sold under the title 1 Night in China. Unusually, the tape was not accidentally leaked, but was actually solicited to pornographic film distributors by the duo, possibly in an attempt at a career boost.

10.  Rob Lowe faced controversy in the 1980s; he taped himself having sex with two young girls, one of whom turned out to be underage.

11.  Nicole Narain and Colin Farrell have a 13-minute sex tape. Farrell confirmed the existence of the tape and successfully obtained a court order blocking its distribution, but in January 2006, copies of the tape appeared on the Internet.

12.  Robert Ritchie (AKA Kid Rock) and Scott Stapp (former singer of the band Creed) appear in a sex tape from 1999 where the two engage in sex acts with four groupies. California pornography company Red Light District planned to release the tape in 2006, but one of the women involved filed to block it. Ritchie also filed an injunction, called Stapp an "idiot", and blamed him for the tape's leak.

13.  Verne Troyer, actor and stuntman, is currently suing over the release of a sex tape between himself and a model, which he claims was stolen and is in the hands of the same film producer that released Paris Hilton's sex tape.

Ever wonder why we were so willing for forgive Marion Barry for getting caught smoking crack with a hooker or why we can't help ourselves in giving Britney Spears yet another chance to revitalize her career and screw up her kids? The psychology of forgiveness is complex. There are people we will forgive anything and there are people we will forgive nothing. Our forgiveness boils down to two very specific things - our love for the person or entity and our overall desire to trust them. Nowhere is this more evident than in our ability to forgive some celebrities anything and others nothing.

What does any of this have to do with marketing?

Reputation management is always a hot topic in marketing- it is where PR crosses paths with shock and awe marketing at Forgiveness Rd. Truth be told there only two real paths to forgiveness in a consumer's mind. Love and Trust. So, how can you earn love and trust through marketing? Take a page from what works and does not work for celebrities.

What are the basic circumstances of forgiveness?

1. We will forgive people we love almost anything. And we LOVE celebrities. It is, in fact, our love for these people that made them what they are.

2. We will forgive the come-back kid. We love to see the small town boy make good, fall from grace and then redeem himself. I call this the Jesus complex. Some celebrities just have a knack for crucifying and resurrecting their careers.

3. We will forgive someone who takes responsibility. We love people that ADMIT when they done wrong, apologize and ask for forgiveness because we all know how hard that can be.

So, let's take a hard look into our ability to forgive Marion Barry of smoking crack with a hooker but not forgive Paris Hilton for being famous for nothing.

Why Can We Forgive Britney Spears for Being a Bad Mother and Lindsay Lohan for Being an Addict?

Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan were just the two of the most adorable kids, weren't they? We just couldn't get enough of them. We wanted Britney to "Do it again" and Lindsay to make those Mean Girls nice. Of course, just as they were hitting the pinnacle of success, the green monsters inside us didn't really want these girls to succeed - why should they live the charmed life? And just as we thought that - they satisfied our need with their fall from Grace. Britney married K-Fed in a shotgun wedding, Lindsay started living the real life version of the movie Blow. It wasn't long before both these girls were tabloid fodder and Page 6 regulars.

But, no matter how far these girls fell, we were always willing to give them another chance. Britney is reprising her role of opening the VMAs and Lindsay is shooting more movies as I type. We want them to do well, they have spun the story of a hard life and now they have EARNED a good life. They have difficult family situations we can all relate to and they have suffered, which makes them worthy of another chance.

Why Can We Forgive Marion Barry for Smoking Crack?

When Marion Barry (former mayor of DC) was caught red handed smoking crack with a former girlfriend in a hotel room, he didn't deny it, he faced up to the charges, did his time in jail and eventually was re-elected. Washington residents love this man, in fact after his second term as Mayor, he ran for a number of other political offices in the midst o more drug scandals and was repeatedly elected and in 2007, he was even chosen by a majority of Washington residents and tourists from Madam Tussauds' "Top 10 Wish List," in a contest that pitted him against Cal Ripken, Al Gore, Denzel Washington, Carl Bernstein, Halle Berry, Martin Sheen, Marilyn Monroe, Nancy Reagan and Oprah Winfrey. What is it about this admitted drug addict and felon that Washington fell in love with? He has all the credentials of a hero. He came from humble Mississippi beginnings, went to college and was heavily involved in the Civil Rights movement and was even shot near his heart during the two-day 1977 Hanafi Muslim Siege in which hostages were held by the terrorists. With his folk hero status firmly cemented, Barry claimed DC's love and trust. His personal foibles only made him more human, less perfect, more relatable and the fact he "manned" up to them, even once running under the slogan, "He May Not Be Perfect, But He's Perfect for D.C." made him all the more loved and trusted and worthy of forgiveness and second, third and fourth chances.

Why can't we forgive Paris Hilton for anything?

Now, take Paris Hilton, for instance. The world tuned in to poke fun at her while the po po publicly carted for sobbing tush off to jail. Why? Because we never connected with her- we never loved her - she is a cartoon, a spectacle, someone who was famous for nothing who we perceive as having no talent or work ethic. We don't want her to have more than we have. We don't want her life to be charmed. Her suffering vindicates our lifestyle of hard work and hard earned money. Deep down, we think "see, you can't be born rich and beautiful and get away with it."

Paris popped onto the public radar through Page 6. After recently being expelled from boarding school in 1999, Paris and younger sister Nikki made waves in the NYC club scene. Her fame is derived solely from our fascination with the rich and beautiful. Pars built a career out of flaunting her excessive wealth and ability to get paid to show up at a club or front a product. She worked hard at being completely un-relatable to the average person in her television show, The Simple Life. Because we cannot relate to her life, we could not feel sympathy for her when her private sex tape was released or when she was picked up on DUI and had to serve time for driving on a suspended license. Without being able to relate to her life or connect with her, we cannot love or trust her and therefore, we cannot forgive her.

What have we learned?

When it comes to the art of getting your brand or company forgiven by your customer base, you need to have to, at one time, built a foundation of trust. That means you need to build the brand so it is identifiable and associated with something people can relate to like a quality product, affordable pricing, exceptional service, etc. This kind of brand building and association will help you when and if your brand or company ever runs into trouble. If you have a smaller company and cannot afford billboards in Times Square or prime time television commercials, you can still build a relationship with your consumer through drip email, newsletter, local print and direct mail campaigns. Consistency is key to any one of these strategies.

The other thing that is often necessary for building a foundation of trust is to raise the profiles of your executives. Allow customers to identify with them. It is a lot easier to trust real people than a company or product. Make sure you/your executives name(s) and profiles are associated with the products and or company itself. Use them in promotions and mention their names regularly in press releases. You want to distribute the trust load across your executives, company, products and brands so should one suffer a credibility blow, the others can step in to mitigate the circumstance.

Now, let's say you do run into a hairy situation. What can you do?

OPTION 1: Spin the sob/redmption story- Make people relate to the back story. Help them to understand the suffering that caused the "situation" to show that you have earned a second chance. This works best in instances where an executive has been caught in an untidy personal or business situation. It is recommended if legalities permit to have the person accept responsibility and ask for forgiveness as well.

Example: Donald Trump is the king of executive version of the Come Back Kid from both personal and business perspectives. As an outspoken public figure since the mid 80s, he amassed millions and flaunted his extravagant lifestyle. He was the embodiment of 80s hedonism, yet still managed to be loved and trusted. His persona was larger than life and often acted as a savior for large scale city lead restoration projects even taking on the restoration of Wollman Rink in Central Park at no charge. However in the early 1990s his much publicized financial problems, creditor-led bailout, extramarital affair with Marla Maples, and the resulting divorce from his first wife, Ivana Trump dampened some of the public trust value. But Trump was able to redeem public trust through his business prowess and public profile. He took responsibility for both his personal and business foibles and was able to restructure his debt and eventually re-emerge as a Titan of Business. He was also able to SHOW his business strengths and familial commitment through his television show The Apprentice where his daughter, Ivanka also shined.

OPTION 2: Take responsibility.If you have a faulty product or customer service has been abysmal or the brand is just suffering general credibility issues, use a trusted executive to publicly take responsibility for the problem and offer a solution. By taking ownership of the problem, explaining it and offering up the solution, you can shift confidence in the executive back to the product.

Example: Lee Iacocca (I love using him as an example). In the wake of a failing, near bankrupt brand that the consumer had lost confidence in, Lee stepped in and not only made internal changes at Chrysler but spearheaded a marketing campaign where he publicly guaranteed his product in TV and print ads. He was successfully able to shift the confidence level people had in him back to the brand by taking ownership of the problem.

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Starting a Controversy on Your Real Estate Blog to Drive Traffic

Shocking, isn't it?  Well, whether it is or isn't true, it doesn't much matter because it got you to read this sentence.  Why?  It is bold.  It is controversial, audacious to the extreme, unafraid of the consequence and most of all... raw.  It makes a guttural connection with wonder-bread moms that fall slack jawed in disgust and boys from 14 to 54 that are still reading past this sentence to see if there is a story to the headline.  This kind of emotional connection that compels you to action is the power of maverick marketing.

Read also: How to get the most boring post in the world read with a killer title

Read also: What Pamela Anderson can teach you about call to actions

What is maverick marketing?

Maverick marketing is the shock and awe campaign in your toolkit.  It is the power to never allow one single consumer to ignore you.  It is the power to never allow one single consumer to feel apathetic towards you as a marketer or the products you are selling.  It is the singular power that only emotions as strong as love, hate, lust and sympathy can evoke. 

A Profile in Maverick Marketing: Victoria's Secret Fashion Shows

By 1999, Victoria's Secret was already the #1 lingerie retailer in the world with gross revenues over $3 billion.  However, it sought to build its image with a fairly conservative, middle-class shopper and distance itself from the connotations of sleaziness that lingerie might carry.  Savvy marketers devised a plan.  They used "sex" to un-sell "sex."  They used controversy to combat sleaze.  They turned provocative into adorable and in so doing, won over middle market moms.  How did they achieve this monumental feat?  They announced that their already infamous Fashion Show would be broadcast on network television.  The ads were provocative, overtly sexy, and controversial and dropped strategically on a Super Bowl spot, Times Square and popular fashion magazines.   These ads were designed to be incendiary; they were designed to stir every PTA mom to outrage and every red blooded male to triple check that their VCR really was set to record.  People just couldn't help themselves; they simply had to tune in.  In its first year, this show garnered more than 1.5 million viewers.  In the hour long show, those 1.5 million viewers were shown just how adorable 10 Super Models in lingerie and Angel Wings can truly be.  Not to saw that some people still did not walk away with a tawdry taste in their mouth, however the numbers speak for themselves.  By 2007, Victoria's Secret's bottom line boasted nearly $6 billion in revenues and its annual fashion show claimed more than 7.4 million viewers. 

*For a financial snapshot of Victoria's Secret Stores and Direct Sales, please visit Hoovers

Conclusion:

Victoria's Secret pulled off maverick marketing boldly.  They had a brand that could confidently support controversy, maverick marketers with the conviction to withstand controversy and most importantly, the foresight to take the road less traveled.

Are you a maverick marketer?  Do you have the vision to see something new, to implement it to perfection and the skin tick enough to withstand the backlash and the business?

This is my first non-real estate related marketing post.  I intend to do a lot more of these... so beware if you shock easily.  These will be guerrilla marketng tactics for big and small businesses alike.

• SEO your website/blog for first page Google placement
• Write blogs that convert readers to contacts
• Call visitors to action so you can gather more leads

OK, I'm not one on promoting other people's shizzle, but in this case, I highly recommend that if you are tuly interested in SEO and you want to see some of the best minds in the industry speak, you register right now for this Fort Lauderdale area event. This is the real deal. Dave Synder (the ardorably acerbic SEO rockstar from searchandsocial.com) is putting on an event right here in Florida. I will be there and I fully expect a tribe of Realtors to be there to completly bombard da man and his panel of SEO experts with all your questions so I can get a couple of days of peace.

What is Scary SEO?

Scary SEO is a mini-conference at the end of October that is focused on education, networking, and fun.

How much will the conference cost?

At only $200 it is also focused on being one of the best values you will find in a search conference.

The fee includes two days of SEO, SMO, and SEM training, lunch both days, and a networking party on the 25th

Everyone from the seasoned Internet marketer to the small business owner will benefit from this event.

How can you register to attend?

Spots are limited. So please register as soon as possible to ensure your participation.

When is it?

The event will take place at the Hilton Deerfield Beach/Boca Raton on October 24th and 25th.

What will you learn?

• The Code of SEO: Coding and Design concepts that improve your SEO efforts
• Link Building: The Basics and Beyond
• SEM Strategies: How to make paid search work for you
• Protect Your Rep: Online Reputation Management
• SMO Tactics: How optimize social media for use in your SEO
• Importance of Analytics: Beyond clickstream data
• SEO Project Management and Educating Clients
• Information Architecture and Content Creation Plans

Alright, it's the weekend and I totally don't feel like talking geek, SEO, blogging or real estate.  So, here are some of the things I have found on the web that I couldn't imagine living without.  These things either greatly entertain me or make my life/job easier and I think you should know about them too.  Oh yeah, these tools are also totally free, which rocks, 'cause I'm cheap.

1.      Hulu.com - watch streaming TV shows and movies for free

Hulu is just cool.  Watch your favorite TV shows and movies online for free.  Totally legal (because none of us would ever violate a copyright by using the torrents.) because they sponsor to usage of the copyright with ads!  I use this all the time to entertain my son.

Prefer to Download Movies?

Speaking of the torrents, thePirateBay.org is my favorite, closely followed by seedpeer.com.  For the uninitiated - Torrents are peer to peer networks (meaning my machine and your machine can search each other) where you can download movies, images, software, music etc.  Because I go old school from time to time, I also like eMule (although it freaks me out it is written in Visual C++ which basically means that it s held together with rocket science theory, Miracle Whip and scotch tape.)

2.      Actionext.com - create and listen to free music play lists

Actionext.com Killer site that allows you to search for songs, listen to them and create playlists.  It also has an open wiki-like tool where you can get lyrics to the songs you are listening to.  I love being able to find the songs, build the playlist, share the lists (see the embedded widget on the left of my blog - totally annoying, right?  Another reason you should NEVER have music playing when a visitor lands on your site!!!) and even read the lyrics in one place.

Want to share music socially and see other's playlists?

Other music search and playlist sites you might like: 8tracks (another playlist site), Tagoo.ru (terrific site for finding hard to find songs online - lets you search and download from other people's machine's).

Try Blip.fm if you want to share music and fid other people that like the same kind music you like.  It's life streaming for music - you can even connect it to your twitter account so you can share your music with all your followers.

3.      Jing - record screencasts with voice overs and capture images from your desktop and share online

LOVE THIS.  I can record screen casts with audio and publish them to the web.  Very easy to use and high quality!  Think of Jing as a supplement to all your chat discussions, email threads, forum posts and blog entries. It sits nicely on your desktop, ready to capture and share your stuff at a moment's notice. Simply select an area of your screen, capture it as an image or record it as a video, and then click Share. Jing conveniently places a URL to your content which you can paste into any of your conversations.

Download Jing now!

4.      Skype - make free phone calls, conference calls and even video calls

We all love something for nothing. With Skype's free software - by the way, it works seamlessly with your internet connection - you can chat away with free Skype-to-Skype calls and never worry about cost, time or distance. Share the love and get your friends to download Skype so you can talk, chat or make video calls for nothing. You can also make local, long distance and international calls to phones and cell phones at great rates too. Additional features include instant messaging, file transfer and video conferencing.

Check it out and SKYPE me at REBlogGirl or simply search for Mary McKnight on Skype!  Click te logo below to download Skype.

5.      Audacity

Do you want to import, export, edit, mix, record, add sound effects or analyze voice, music, sounds, etc?  Then Audacity is the program you need. 

Download it for free from Source Forge at:

Audacity at Source Forge

Audacity is a free, easy-to-use audio editor and recorder for Windows, Mac OS X, GNU/Linux and other operating systems. You can use Audacity to:

• Record live audio.
• Convert tapes and records into digital recordings or CDs.
• Edit Ogg Vorbis, MP3, WAV or AIFF sound files.
• Cut, copy, splice or mix sounds together.
• Change the speed or pitch of a recording.
• And more! See the complete list of features.

Other Stuff I Just Love!

6.   Txt2day.com - free text messaging

Txt2day.com is the premier free manual messaging website.  Send Free Text Messages. Add text messages to your MySpace. Works with most cell phone providers. Stop Paying For Texting!  I use this all the time because when I text from my phone I make too many typos and I am usually sitting at the computer anyway.

7.   Eyejot.com - record and send video to friends and family via email

Eyejot is a video messaging platform in which there is NO software to download.  You record the message and the receipient of the message is notified via email that they have a new video message.   It offers everyone the ability to create and receive video messages in a self-contained, spam-free environment. With no client to install, you can start using Eyejot immediately with any browser, on any platform. It even features built-in support for iTunes^TM (and iPods^TM), mobile devices and social networks like MySpace^TM. Watch Eyejot video examples.

8.      Twirl - Funky desktop Twitter ap you can use to

Couldn't keep my Twitter conversations updated without this nifty little desktop widget! twhirl is a desktop client for the Twitter microblogging service. Most of the features available on the Twitter website are accessible through twhirl, too. Plus, a lot of usability enhancements have been added.

If you have an iphone- Twinkle is the way to go!

9.      Spamyourenemies.com - I can't help myself - this is just fun to do when somone pisses you off

Spamyourenemies.com - If you are not that technical or not really that pissed off, this a great solution to a little immediate revenge.  Doesn't really hurt anything, just fills their inbox with a whole bunch of weird spam.  Of course, if the person you are spammng is more technical than your average lab rat, their spam filters will catch this before it annoys them, but it still gives you that sense of justice and self satisfaction you need in those moments of ire. 

NOTE TO ALL - If you have ever been spammed, it wasn't me.  This is just where I direct people that come to me and ask me to do something evil to their main competition's website.  I'm a sociologist- I understand that if I don't give a suitable answer and they can't get immediate satisfaction, they may go to somone who would link bomb another site.  I find this to be a reasonable compromise for all parties when therapy is not an option.

10.  Rememebr the milk - Online to do lists!

The old-fashioned to-do list, which lets the brain concentrate on the task at hand rather than on others in the future, remains one of the world's best productivity tools. These fresh new sites let you keep track of your obligations and prompt you to keep up the pace.

RememberTheMilk reinvents the to-do list in a snazzy interface that lets you make lists in configurable categories, all laid out on the front page as tabs. Adding to-dos is easy, though adding deadlines, notes, and time estimates is unintuitive.

You can add to-dos using natural language such as "Call Ted next Thursday," sync with your calendar via the widely supported iCalendar format, and set tasks such as "Pay credit card bill" to recur. RememberTheMilk sends reminders through instant message, e-mail, text message, or a combination of these. You can also upload tasks via a special e-mail address that the site gives you.

It's a tremendously well-rounded free product, with neither more nor less than you need to get and stay organized.

The first rule of understanding Google is that Google is not psychic.  It doesn't know where your website or new pages are unless it can find them by following a link from a site already in its index to your new page.  (yes, you can ping and submit a sitemap, but direct access from Google is not the same thing as a crawl!) So, now that you get someone else to link to you and Google has found your site, you need Google to crawl, index and begin to trust your site.  That means YOU need to link to both other pages on your website and link out to pages on other websites.

Think of Google as the ultimate game of 6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon.  Somehow, your website should be connected to other important websites (i.e. websites that Google trusts) in order for Google to discover and begin to trust your site!  One of the most critical things you should learn about SEO, is how to think like a search engine.  Most people never consider HOW Google crawls the web, and because they never consider HOW- they never assist it in doing so.  And that is one key to becoming a FOG (Friend of Google). 

How a search engine crawls the web

Basically, a search engine crawls the web to discover new pages by starting with the websites it already knows and trusts and following links on these trusted pages to other pages.  Search engines begin their crawl of the web with a list of completely trusted sites (i.e. sites that would never link to spam - we call these "seed sites") These seed sites are the MOST trusted sites in the search engine's index and where it will begin its crawl of the internet (essentially - seed sites are the Kevin Bacon of search - we all are somehow connected to them!)

Google crawls the Trusted Seed Sites first, then starts crawling all the sites these seed sites link to

Trusted Sites: There are a few very trusted domains out there.

Example: DOJ.gov, LLI.org

When these sites link out to other sites they link to:

• 100% quality sites
• 0% spam sites

This second level of sites is called -1 Trust Distance sites. (1 link away from a Trusted Seed site)

After the engine crawls these sites, it then goes out and crawls all the sites they link to

Example: Wall Street Journal, Harvard.edu

When these sites link out to other sites they link to:

• 95% quality sites
• .1% spam sites

This third level of sites is called -2 Trust Distance sites.  (2 links away from a Trusted Seed site)

After the engine crawls these sites, it then goes out and crawls all the sites they link to and so on and so on

When these sites link out to other sites they link to:

• 70% quality sites
• 10% spam sites

As you extrapolate that out to -3, -4 Trust Distance, you will see more and more spam sites being linked to and thus the value of the site loses credibility and Trust.

Resource: Trust Rank Algorithm

Read also: Use Trust Distance to avoid the Sandbox, Boost Rankings and Basically Spank the SERPs with your real estate blog

Why do you care about the inner workings of a search engine? 

Because when you write for your site, you need to consider how Google is going to keep moving through your site.  One of your jobs as a webmaster is to ASSIST a search engine to not just crawl you, but to crawl the rest of the web.  You want to make your pages comfortable and reliable for a search engine, giving them plenty of places to move on to other pages on your site and other pages off your site.  How do you do this?

• 1. Avoid Creating Orphaned Pages

An orphan page is a page that is not linked to by any other page on your site or on the internet (i.e. that cannot be reached from anywhere on the site or any other page on the internet) and thus cannot be found by a search bot unless it is linked to externally.  Basically, this is a page that nobody can find, not even Google!  Why?  Because GOOGLE ISN'T PSYCHIC.

How to get your orphaned pages adopted by the Angelia Jolie of Search (Google)

EASY SOLUTION:  immediately after you write your post - go over to your AR blog and link back to your new post in an old article or use a directory or RSS submission tool to build at least one backlink to your new post.

• 2. Avoid Creating Dead Pages

A dead-end page is the one that has no outgoing links, thus creating a "dead end" for a search engine. Dead pages are unnatural on the web (a web page should be connected to other pages) Most importantly, a dead page leaves both the robot and the visitor no choice but to abandon the site since they have no natural way to get off the page.

Read also: SEO terminology: dead pages

How to breathe new life into dead pages

Just make sure you place at least one link out to another page on the web and one link to another page within your own site.  I like to give readers textual or visual cues as to whether I am keeping them on my site by saying "read also" or sending them off the site by saying "resource."

Read also: Formula for a Successful Blog Post

NOTE: do not rely on sidebar or top menu bar navigation for links, Google is not always fond of navigation/site-wide links.  You want to make sure in the content of every post you include links out to other site and links into other pages on your own site.  Try to link to trusted (meaning Government or Educational or high PageRank sites on the internet- DO NOT CALL ME UP AND TELL ME "I DO LINK OUT TO OTHER SITES - I LINK TO MY WEBSITE FROM MY BLOG IN EVERY ARTICLE."  You need to link out to various, related resource sites that have authority with Google - it likes to see you trust other sites it trusts! - (For example, if you write a post n FHA loans - link out to hud.gov as a resource for readers and engines.)

TIP: Never rely on navigation to help Google "discover" your pages, always use links in the body of your posts and content. 

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