PR move

FUNNY SLOGANS: ATTRIBUTING YOUR PHRASE TO ANOTHER CHARACTER

2009-08-12T22:26:00.007+03:00

Reading Woody Allen's "The Insanity Defense", I think about using his principle while inventing funny campaign slogans.
This book consists of 46 short stories. Many of them have a main character, so that Woody Allen can attribute his own phrases, conceptions, ideas to that character.
You really never know whether this or that phrase is serious or not, whether Woody actually thinks so or not. It is the character who is speaking!
Thus one of his characters, Needleman ("Remembering Needleman"), is aware about absurdity of life: "God is silent, now if we can only get Man to shut up."
Or take this phrase ("Conversations with Helmholtz"): "I don't beleive in an afterlife, although I am bringing a change of underwear."
Inventing funny campaign slogans, you could use this Woodey Allen's principle.

creative writing ideas by nicole krauss: summary

2008-10-14T17:11:00.003+02:00

Let me summarize my last posts on creative writing ideas gained from 'The History of Love'.
1. no antagonist
No antagonist / evil character / bad guy.
2. unconventional start
The very first sentence on the very first page should be eccentric / unconventional / unusual / uncommon.
3. the death topic
The very first sentence of 'The History of Love' refers to death: "When they write my obituary".
4. syncopated rhythm
The rhythm of 'The History of Love' is unusual / irregular / syncopated.
5. identifying with a character
The reader should identify / associate / affiliate oneself closely with a person or group. 'The History of Love' has even three such characters.
6. great sayings
Her ability to produce great sayings / aphorisms / maxims.

creative writing idea by nicole krauss: great sayings

2008-10-05T23:03:00.011+02:00

My last post in this series on creative writing ideas from Nicole Krauss is about her ability to produce great sayings / aphorisms / maxims.

One day the main character, Leo Gursky, is looking out of the window. Just contemplating the sky. Then he thoughts on this situation about himself, with a good sense of humor: 'Put even a fool in front of the window and you'll get a Spinoza' (p. 6).
This scene reminds me of one episode ffom my own life. One night being a boy of about fifteen I didn't sleep at night. So I just got up and stood in front of the window thinking about something. Later, my father told me how he saw me standing in 'such a philosophical posture', as he put it.

One more saying, reminding me of my troubles with my son. 'Perhaps that is what it means to be a father - to teach you child to live without you. If so, no one was a greater father than I.' (p. 262)

creative writing idea by nicole krauss: identifying with a character

2008-10-01T23:51:00.019+03:00

One of the Kurt Vonnegut's basics for creative writing says: 'Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for'.
The reader should identify / associate / affiliate oneself closely with a person or group.
'The History of Love' has even three such characters.
First, Leo Gursky. A writer aged 80+.
Second, Alma Singer. A girl fourteen or fifteen years old.
Third, Bird (his name is Emanuel Chaim, but everyone calls him 'Bird'), Alma's brother about eight years old.
The formal method for making me identify myself with each of the characters is simple using the first person. But that's not all. The deeper point is that you find many thoughts/feelings of theirs appealing to your heart.

creative writing idea by nicole krauss: syncopated rhythm

2008-09-22T22:48:00.005+03:00

The rhythm of 'The History of Love' is unusual / irregular / syncopated.
Look at this: 'When they write my obituary. Tomorrow. Or the next day'.
Now and again we meet short sentences like: 'And yet'. Or: 'But'. Just one single word 'but'. What for? It helps to control the readers' rhythm.

creative writing idea by nicole krauss: the death topic

2008-09-17T23:28:00.011+03:00

A friend of mine, a great public speaker, told me once: "Each audience has its favorite topic. But there are three topics common to ALL the audiences. Those are: love, death and prestige."
The very first sentence of 'The History of Love' refers to death: "When they write my obituary".
And that's not all. What about the second paragraph? "I often wonder who will be the last person to see me alive".
And the third one: "I try to make a point of being seen... All I want is not to die on a day when I went unseen".
Now see the final page: 'Leopold Gursky started dying on August 18, 1920. He died learning to walk. He died standing at the blackboard...'
No, you should not think now the novel is about death. Next time I will show more optimistic sides of it.

creative writing idea by nicole krauss: unconventional start

2008-09-15T22:04:00.007+03:00

The second point while reading "The History of Love" by Nicole Krauss: the very first sentence on the very first page should be eccentric / unconventional / unusual / uncommon.
What is the first sentence? 'When they write my obituary.' Period.
How do you like such an opening?

creative writing idea by nicole krauss: no antagonist

2008-09-14T18:06:00.003+03:00

Reading "The History of Love" by Nicole Krauss.
Though she does not formulate any explicit creative writing ideas, tips or prompts. That's me doing it after reading her novel.
First. No antagonist / evil character / bad guy.
You may disagree now: there is Rosa (Litvinoff's wife) performing some bad action (destroying the book). But you should agree: this is not the important point. This action is too side-issue.
However, this is similar to the real life. Can you tell me now that you are conducting any war against some kind of villains? I think, the answer is NO.
But does it mean there are no dramas in your life?
Because of the absence of bad guys, the main character's situation makes the reader feel involvement / empathy / rapport with the protagonist.

HOW TO INVENT A CATCHY SLOGAN? CREATIVE WRITING IDEA

2008-06-17T21:42:00.013+03:00

SITUATION

I saw a question about slogans. The reader was asking creative writing ideas for:
1. Creating awareness for road safety through wearing of helmets.
2. Conserving fuel energy
3. Preventing noise/air pollution.

Inventing slogans is a challenge, is it not? So we need some way to invent creative writing ideas for slogans.

DIRECTIONS & EXAMPLES

First, I started looking for good slogan examples. 'Nothing runs like a Deere' is a slogan of John Deere (a great tractor manufacturer). Deere – deer. It is a play of words, isn't it? A pun.

Second, it is short. Just four words.

Third, just for the sake of the wordplay: let us use alliteration. No, I don't say it is the only way to build a pun. There are several ways, as in the above example: Deere – deer. But I wish to use alliteration just for the sake of training.

Remember good examples for alliteration? 'Donald Duck', 'busy as a bee', 'good as gold'. And plenty of others.
One more example I found thanks to Seth Godin. "Wanna See my Socks?" - this is a slogan of 'Little Miss Matched', a sock company. Do you hear the alliteration?
By the way, do you see another wordplay here: 'Miss Matched'? And why is it 'mismatched'? Because their funky socks never match.

SOLUTION

OK, let us start with the first slogan. Helmet is in the center. Let us find words with 'h' and 'l'. A helmet is holding. What is a helmet holding? A head? 'A helmet is holding a head.' Maybe. There is another word: a hull. It is not a head exactly, but it sounds good.
'Helmet's holding your hull'

Now the second slogan. It is about energy. I've found three words alliterating with 'energy'. These are the words: enable / encourage / enhance.
I like it like this:
'Enhance Energy Economy'.

Finally, the third slogan: it is about pollution. Let's find the alliterating word to the word pollution. 'Pull', for example. Let's say it like this:
'Pull polluters down'

Those are creative writing ideas for our three slogans.

BLOG MAP, SELECTED

2008-06-09T14:22:00.006+03:00

SHOULD I CONFESS IN THE TITLE? CREATIVE WRITING IDEAS
As you know, today it is common to write various help-articles 'How-to'. There are 1,140,000,000 (yes, one billion) search results on Google about 'how to'.
I am thinking now how to title such an article 'How to?'? Because the standard title 'How to' is too common. Read more

TITLE ANTITHETICAL OR PLAIN? CREATIVE WRITING IDEA
Plain or fancy? Apparent or paradoxical? Straight or contradictory?
I am talking about creative writing ideas for titles / summaries. I have read a question at 'Yahoo answers'. The question is about a title. The girl is writing a story and asking for help about creative title.
Read more

MEN'S BODY IMAGE: HOW TO IMPROVE IT?
What do you think about your own body image? Are you satisfied with it?
There are plenty of men not satisfied with their body images because of various reasons. One because of obesity. Another because of hair on his body. Or because of sweat. Or because of smells. Or he might be bald. Or he might have too many skin blemishes.

HOW TO PROMOTE A BLOG: SOCIAL MEDIA VS SEARCH ENGINE

HOW TO PROMOTE YOUR SITE ON YAHOO ANSWERS ?

HOW TO GET A FREE PROMOTION ON TWITTER?

SHOULD I CONFESS IN THE TITLE? CREATIVE WRITING IDEAS

2008-06-07T23:25:00.013+03:00

As you know, today it is common to write various help-articles 'How-to'. There are 1,140,000,000 (yes, one billion) search results on Google about 'how to'.
I am thinking now how to title such an article 'How to?'? Because the standard title 'How to' is too common.
And now I see the same question at 'Yahoo Answers': Jessica needs a creative title for her essay on 'how to put a baby to sleep?'.
See the problem? How to title the essay about 'how to'? We need some creative writing ideas.

Fortunately, we have a prompt: the author acknowledges / admits / confesses she/he has similar problems during her/his own life.
As this great example of the famous author and child pedagogue Janusz Korczak: "My greatest fault is that I am no longer a child".

Here you see Seth Godin is not ashamed to confess about his 'IDEAS THAT DIDN'T WORK':
That makes Seth a great blogger!

Now I remember how in a public admission in July 2007, Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (= Lula) confessed that he fears for his life when flying under the current safety conditions at the Brazilian aviation.

Let us agree on a few points:
The title should contain a question.
The title not necessary needs to imply the word 'how'.
Let the title imply some confession of mine.

Beyond that I don't know exactly (yes, I confess to not knowing everything).
Have more good examples of great authors for creative writing ideas? Share them.

TITLE ANTITHETICAL OR PLAIN? CREATIVE WRITING IDEA

2008-06-01T21:31:00.014+03:00

Plain or fancy? Apparent or paradoxical? Straight or contradictory?
I am talking about creative writing ideas for titles / summaries. Today I have read a question at 'Yahoo answers'. The question is about a title. The girl is writing a story and asking for help about creative title.
I assume the author wishes to write it catchy, doesn't she? To grab the attention?

What are the known/possible solutions?

As you know, this problem may have several solutions. You may go straight to the point: the principal heroine has such a character (a bad/good temper, an eccentric/normal nature, etc).
Or you may use a rhetorical question: "How to…?" "What do you know about…?"
Or you may scare / shock your readers: "If you don't know this information, you may happen to lose…".

How to choose the suitable solution?

I need to mention: we have more information on the story's main character. Rylie (that's the heroine's name) 'begins her senior year in bitterness that leads to rebellion. Once a sweet, innocent teen now an angry, faithless girl etc.'
OK. So we see a kind of contradiction here. This leads us to using a rhetorical device named Antithesis.

What is Antithesis?

You remember good known examples of antithesis:
"That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind." (Neil Armstrong)
"Man proposes - God disposes".
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times; It was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness." (Charles Dickens's "A Tale of Two Cities").
Brutus: Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more. (Shakespeare, Julius Caesar)
"We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools." (Martin Luther King, Jr., speech at St. Louis, 1964)

How would I title / begin the story?

Maybe like this: "Is Rylie sweet or harsh, charming or nasty, attractive or unpleasant?"
Or: "How can a girl be innocent and impure, spiritual and worldly?"
Or: "Naive but experienced, open but angry, spiritual but faithless…".

Practice it, try other creative writing ideas (antithetical) and get new possible titles.
The above photo is from Flickr

MEN'S BODY IMAGE: HOW TO IMPROVE IT?

2008-05-10T23:28:00.006+03:00

What do you think about your own body image? Are you satisfied with it? I am not so much with mine. Because I am too slim, not muscular like Rambo. Additionally, my nose is big and hooked.
There are much more men not satisfied with their body images because of other reasons. One because of obesity (= increased body weight, fatness). Another because of hair on his body. Or because of sweat. Or because of smells. Or he might be bald. Or he might have too many skin blemishes.

What is the problem with a male body image?

The common bad problem is that a poor image of a male body does not begin and stop just in one's mind. Instead, a man not satisfied with his muscles tries to use anabolic steroids to improve his appearance. A guy with a long nose goes to plastic surgery. Are you sure it is always safe?

What is NOT a solution?

I am not talking about usual diet for fighting obesity. I am not talking about all the stuff on cosmetics you can find on the web without me. I am going to talk about much more important point. I am going to talk on what you transmit to others. What does your image convey to the public? What does it do to the people subconsciously?
My point is psychology / public relations.

What is a solution?

The solution to improve your image is between the body and psychology. It is about the influence your POSTURE makes to your mind / self esteem and then to your image in the public opinion.
For that purpose I put this video here. It is about your posture: shoulders, chin, muscles.

IMAGE TRAINING FOR MEN

2008-04-27T18:23:00.006+03:00

I am proud to announce an on-line training for men's image. The trainer is a woman, Julia Bakhtina, and she knows what she is talking about.
However, it will be in Russian, not in English.
Имидж-тренинг для мужчин. Подробности здесь http://training.myluximage.com/

HOW TO PROMOTE A BLOG: SOCIAL MEDIA VS SEARCH ENGINE

2008-04-19T21:39:00.005+03:00

In this video I am talking about promoting a blog/site.
The main point: I receive the traffic on my blog mostly by social media. 72% of visits to my blog come from Referring Sites, and only 18% come from search engines.
So, if you are not going on social media, you are not known. If you are not known, you are out.

HOW TO PROMOTE YOUR SITE ON YAHOO ANSWERS ?

2008-04-14T20:33:00.010+03:00

Today I am checking one more instrument for linkbaiting a blog on social media. It is Yahoo! Answers. Do you know how it works? People ask questions, and anybody may answer. Once upon a time there was a similar service at Google.
Now what exactly can you do with it? Two things:
1. You read the questions and see the themes being popular.
2. You can submit your answer on the selected theme. Make a link to your site/blog inside your answer. Sure, you don't spam. Instead, your answer should be substantial to the question.
This is an example how I do it. And this is one example more.

So, try this linkbaiting / social media marketing technique. If you have positive results, let me know and get a FREE bonus. You can post in the comments and/or privately to me (at the right side of the screen).

HOW TO GET A FREE PROMOTION ON TWITTER?

2008-04-12T18:24:00.014+03:00

I am pondering promoting my readers on Twitter. It is one of the new social networks. You may call it a viral / social media marketing tool.
Now I have read an article of Jennifer Laycock 'Five Reasons Twitter is an Essential Social Media Tool'. A few of her points I like especially:

Twitter is sort of like a giant dinner party. There are tons of conversations going on and you can easily join one, or you can start a new one. If you start a new one, others can easily join in. You can even carry on multiple conversations at once. It's total conversational freedom.

It's a no-brainer (= simple or easy to understand) that you can send out a tweet with a link to your latest blog post (= actually, Jennifer is talking about linkbaiting).

OK, I have joined Twitter just now. My Twitter name is jacobskir.
Now what do I wish to do?
I would like to make a one time free promotion action on Twitter. My readers can address me by one of the two ways:
1. There is a 'Your Feedback' form on this blog at the right side of the screen.
2. My name on Twitter is jacobskir.

I will see the site/blog suggested and promote it by building a link to it (if it is worth promoting at all).

HOW TO GET A GOOD/HIGH RANKING LINK?

2008-04-09T20:55:00.011+03:00

I have read a useful article of Dinesh B. It is about good link building. The main point: stop focusing on 'little weight' links. Instead, start focusing on links that matter a lot.
Which links do matter a lot? Links from an Authority Website. Especially from the same niche. Why the same niche is so good? Because it means the linking site has content that is relevant to your website.
Needless to say that the issue of good link building is relevant to the issue of social media marketing and/or viral marketing.
OK, now I wish to implement this in practice. The readers of my blog can get from me a one-time service: free linking from Authority Websites. I would take care of writing a post to an Authority Site. Inside my post I would bury a link/anchor to the readers site. Which one Authority Site do I mean? It depends on the Readers site and should be discussed specifically case by case.

Contact me on this issue. Do you see the 'Your Feedback' in the right side of the screen? Go there, click and send a mail to me.

FREE SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

2008-04-03T12:58:00.005+03:00

As you know, the promotion today means social media marketing. If you are not present at a social network, you are 'out'. Nobody knows you.
This is the trend.
But if anybody submits a post to promote your site/blog, then you are on the right side. So you just need somebody go and tell at a social network: 'I know this guy, I know his site, it is so great/interesting/important!'.
It is that simple.
Now I announce: these days I am taking a FREE promotional action for my readers. I will just go to social networks and submit one promotion post for the sake of your site/blog. It might be a comment on a forum you wish. It might be digg etc. The particular points might be discussed in a private mail.
Important: I am talking about not just link to your site, but about much more: a short promotional post linking to your site. To make it, I will take the following actions:
1. Read your site: what is it about?
2. Find an APPROPRIATE social network for your site (or if you have some specific consideration, tell me).
3. Go to this social network, login with my name, write a short post about your site and submit it.
All you need is to contact me on this issue. Do you see the 'Your Feedback' in the right side of the screen? Go there, click and send a mail to me about your site/blog.

BLOG SELLING TECHNIQUES TRAINING

2008-03-29T16:27:00.012+03:00

Dear friends,
I have great news for my Russian readers: Sergey Zhukovsky and Ivan Trapeznikov are going to make a FREE training course how to sell anything to anybody and to earn $1000 during the two-weeks training.
The training program comprises:
What is the main 'trick' of selling?
The '21 contacts' principle.
Blogging is the facility for the contact with the customer.
How to promote your blog?
How to find out your target niche customers?
And much more.
Just go to this link and see.

VIRAL MARKETING FOR THE MOVIE

2008-03-27T14:55:00.025+02:00

Let's take it as a case study for viral marketing.
PROBLEM. Suppose, you have got to promote a movie. Then you need to praise it in all the possible ways, don't you? You need to publish ads etc. OK, this is a conventional way. Still you are thinking about something more creative. You are thinking about something 'viral'. You are thinking about people saying 'Wow!'.

CONTRADICTION. Then you get a sudden / unusual idea: instead of praising the movie - let us do it 'the other way round'. Instead of tedious complimenting - let us criticize it.
Is this already the final solution? Sure, it is not. You may not just say 'the movie is bad'. Bad is just bad - so why are you talking about this movie?
Formulating a contradiction means we are on the right way to solution.

SOLUTION. So we have got the contradiction 'criticizing vs praising'. How can we solve it? Can we praise and criticize at the same time?
The Theory tells: one of the ways to solve this contradiction is to divide the object (= the movie) to the parts. Now one of the parts may be criticized without damaging the whole movie.

REAL CASE. These very days you might see billboards around the city of Dallas – the ones that say: "My mom always hated you, Sarah Marshall" or "You do look fat in those jeans, Sarah Marshall."
Who is Sarah Marshall, and why is someone trying to publicly humiliate her?
If you wondered "Who is spending all this money to hurt Sarah Marshall?," then you fell for a viral marketing campaign. 'Forgetting Sarah Marshall' is the comedy's name. It centers on Peter who is dumped by his girlfriend Sarah Marshall. The movie will play at the Dallas International Film Festival on April, but we see the campaign already now.
So, the initial contradiction has been solved: humiliating one of the characters, still complimenting the whole movie.

The above case study shows the viral marketing example built, first, on the principle of 'the other way round', second, on the principle of dividing the object to the parts.

WHERE TO GET VIRAL MARKETING CASE STUDIES?

2008-03-25T23:21:00.016+02:00

Reading the site of WOMMA (= Word of Mouth Marketing Association), I have found plenty of 'case studies' and viral marketing examples.
However, the WOMMA terminology is a little bit different. They prefer the term 'Word of Mouth Marketing' instead of 'Viral Marketing'. Because they think 'Word of Mouth' is a broader term than 'Viral'. The last is only a part of the first. The 'Word of Mouth Marketing' comprises, in itself, many types of marketing as, for example, 'Buzz Marketing', 'Community Marketing', 'Grassroots Marketing', 'Viral Marketing' of course, and others. As for me, I can add one more term I have found recently: 'peer-to-peer marketing'.

WHAT IS LINKBAITING?

2008-03-17T21:38:00.013+02:00

I have read a useful article on 'Linkbaiting'. Though written in 2006, it is still interesting.
Do you know what 'Linkbaiting' means? 'Bait' is a worm placed on a hook for taking fish. And 'Link' is a link that you wish to get from other sites.
So linkbaiting is about hooking. Link bait is a feature within your website that somehow baits viewers to place links to it from other websites.
The above mentioned article by Darren Rowse is talking about 20 Linkbaiting Techniques: tools, quizzes, contests, humor, etc.
I personally like the technique named 'Lists'. Organize your info in a form of a list: first..., second..., third... There is something about a list that people latch onto and want to pass on to others (check out digg and delicious to see plenty of examples).

Learn good techniques for linkbaiting. It can be an extremely powerful form of marketing as it is viral in nature.

WHAT IS 'GRASSROOTS MOVEMENT' AND HOW TO BUILD IT?

2008-03-15T19:39:00.010+02:00

Do you know what 'grassroots marketing' or 'grassroots movement' is? It is a great tool for PR.
Grassroots movement is one driven by the community itself. The term 'grassroots' implies: the creation of the movement is natural and spontaneous. It is not orchestrated by traditional power structures.
You may call it a brother (or a sister) of a viral marketing.
Grassroots procedures include:
house meetings / parties,
posters,
talking with pedestrians on the street,
gathering signatures for petitions,
raising money from many small donors,
large demonstrations,
reminding people to vote and transporting them to polling places.

However, you need to distinguish between a real grassroots movement and a faked one.
Faking a grassroots movement is known as astroturfing. Astroturfing is named after a brand of artificial grass, AstroTurf. The practice of astroturfing is similar to the practice of grassroots, so it is hard to distinguish. Still, what is the difference? There are lobbyists behind astroturfing which try to hide their agenda and pretend they are just ordinary folks voicing their opinions.

Try (when it is possible) organize your PR / marketing campaign as a grassroots one.

HOW TO MAKE VIRAL MARKETING THROUGH HIRING FOLKS?

2008-03-14T21:46:00.003+02:00

More and more I see this simple & effective viral marketing example: job ads as if a company is hiring folks. What happens? 'Join us', 'Recruitment', 'Vacancies', 'Career' - all this buzz is passing on from one guy to another.
The fresh example is the site of Microsoft Israel R&D Center.
Another example is about Google. In 2004 Google Labs published so called GLAT - Google Labs Aptitude Test. Readers were asked to mail in their answers and promised that they would be contacted by Google if they scored well.
The declared reason was to attract high quality people into their ranks. Actually, it was a clever viral marketing which generated a lot of interest.
How does it improve the company PR image?
1. The public gets the idea that the company (= Google Labs, in this case) is hiring only very clever folks.
2. The public gets the reminder that the company is on the map.
3. You get much buzz, interest and involvement about this point.

Now I remember one example more. In September 2006 the Shin Bet (= Shabak, the Internal Security Service of Israel) launched its first-ever public recruitment drive. The employment campaign was targeting computer programmers.

The viral marketing example for brains, intellectuals and know-it-all guys is declare that you are hiring folks.