Former Dallas Cowboy Dead at 40

Speaking as a 40 year-old woman who needs to drop some weight and exercise more, the sudden death of Frank Cornish IV is pretty darn sobering. According to news reports, Cornish died in his sleep Friday night due to complications from hypertension.

Hopefully something good will come of Frank Cornish's unexpected death thanks to the quick work of the DFW team. Take a look at the story Claire and Bill helped secure on the CW33.


As ever, this sort of unsettling news is a good reminder of the importance of our work -- and that we (me!) are not only staff but part of the target market.

Addendum: Tod left a good question in the comments section (Thanks, Tod. Glad you asked.). The story drives viewers to the CW33 website "for more information about your heart attack risk." As I suspected, the news site backtracks to the AHA's Heart Attack Risk Assessment Tool.

Twitter Helps Feed the Hungry

Still on the fence about the ability of Social Media to make any real/lasting impact? Take a look at the Tyson Foods Hunger Relief campaign which relied on wom marketing via Twitter to

drive traffic to the Tyson blog. Tyson committed to donating 100 lbs of protein to the Capital Area Food Bank for every comment a visitor left on the blog.

In addition to adding credence to the power of social media, this PR tactic also underscores what I wrote about in a post last week: it's about two-way communication. Social Media or Social Networking works because it requires people to engage and to communicate. That's why I've been bugging you guys to not only read these blog posts but also to comment on them.

Let me know what you think: good, bad or ugly.

Stuck? Shy? Here's a topic: how could we imitate the success of this campaign using one of our causes and sponsors? Looking forward to your ideas.

steph

September Messaging Platform: Childhood Obesity/Alliance for a Healthier Generation

Attached is our latest messaging platform information. September’s theme is Childhood Obesity/Alliance for a Healthier Generation.

Final Sept Alliance CHO - Upload a Document to Scribd

Read this document on Scribd: Final Sept Alliance CHO

Look for opportunities to use these messages as you communicate with various audiences. Integrate the messages into existing communication tools or use them to create new communications, such as e-mails, to your audiences.

Use these messages wherever possible. We know that the AHA has other initiatives to promote each month, but these platforms are not designed to take focus away from these activities. Instead, they are created to help staff think about opportunities to integrate some consistent messaging into existing communications.

In this Messaging Platform document, you will receive:· Key messages· Calls to action · Sample messages for various customer groups

All messaging platforms are posted on the Intranet. You can go to this link to find messaging platform information from previous months.

Your feedback on successes in using these messages is helpful. Please e-mail Robyn Landry with your comments or suggestions.

What? No BCC?

Okay, this was news to me so I thought it was worth sharing: BCCing multiple media contacts on an email is not cool.

In fact, it's downright UNcool.

Spamming media contacts with emails has always been a bad idea but I am guilty as the next guy or girl who has cleverly sent a press release to numerous contacts by sending it to myself (my email in the TO field) and then blind copying media contacts. I don't typically do this but I've done it when in a hurry.

PWR (@pwrnewmedia), a Chicago-based PR firm, PWR, shared some insight into Why B.C.C. Is B.A.D. on their "Release It" blog about new media releases and communications in the digital world. There's a ton of great information about using technology to reach media and drive impression results.

Good stuff.

And, yes, I found them via Twitter!

Storyboarding on a billboard

Just found another great marketing blog, Drew's Marketing Minute by Drew McLellan (@DrewMcLellan)of the Des Moines, Iowa-based McLellan Marketing Group.

The current post features a rule-breaking, award-winning and attention-grabbing outdoor campaign that (most importantly) drove business results. Take a look at the blog and then post some comments here for how we might think about storyboarding our cause campaigns. Don't confine yourself to only thinking about this creative strategy for billboards. Instead, consider how we might apply similar ideas across other platforms.

Love,
Angel in a (Go) Red Dress

Social Media White Paper

Paty attention kids, we're about to play six degrees of separation, social media style!

Thanks to Tim Mahoney (@Texas1st), one of the rock start IT dudes at National Center (aka: Mr. Goodwrench or Support Specialist for those with less creative minds), for Tweeting about a white paper Allison Harvey (@allisonharvey) , who is the Director of Donor Marketing and Development Initiatives at National Center, posted to the secret (ssshhhhh) blog, Heartsmarter: the Official blog of the unofficial AHA Social Networking Core team.

Got all that?

Okay, all you really need to know is that there's a great white paper, How is Social Media Changing the Face of Marketing? available for your perusal. It's only three pages and shouldn't take long to read.

I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Gotta run...Patty is giving me the stink eye...CMAPP training is about to begin.

p.s. I suggest you follow these other National Center social media gurus on Twitter. Look for Christian Caldwell (@xian3000) , Specialist for User Interaction and Usability and Kristi Walling Miller (@krash63), Strategic Planning Manager.

Social Media in an Emergency

The American Red Cross is a great example of a nonprofit harnessing the power of social media to drive the goals/mission of the organization.

Why do I believe they are such a good example? Because I clicked through two of their tweets this week to learn more about issued that could affect me and my life:

1. U can maximize Twitter in a disaster. Stay safe with social media. Visit our blog for info from @DavidStephenson http://www.redcrosschat.org/
2. Learn mouth to snout rescue breathing for an injured pet. Seriously, we teach that too. New pet safety info on http://www.redcross.org/.

What AHA activities can we tweet about??