Building a Strategic Promotional Plan

A goal is a dream until you make a plan. And the plan needs to be strategic otherwise it won't work.

A strategy is a direction - a way of heading. This is not something that already has the tactics in place. Think of a chess strategy, or war strategy - these don't have any step-by-step procedures in place that if a single thing goes wrong the whole strategy falls apart. That same thing is true of any strategy, including your promotional one. The strategy isn't a tresure map. It simply outlines the direction. A strategy will rarely change, but the tactics you use to implement the strategy might - and probably will - depending upon what happens along the way.

No matter what kind of business you're in, you need to operate strategically, and that includes the promotional activity you undertake. Too many times a 'promotional plan' is hit and miss. It's buying an ad somewhere or running a competition. If there's no strategy behind the tactics, then it's like throwing fistfuls of money into the air. Here's an outline of the basic steps for creating a strategic promotional plan. It will ensure your promotional activity is targeted, reflects the overarching goals of your marketing plan, delivers awesome ROI, and gives you the best opportunity for success. It works for every kind of business, whether you're a CEO of a startup, a Fortune 500 company or a mommyblogger wanting to take the next step.

Step 1: Situation Analysis:

If you're an operating business, you'll probably have done a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) as part of your business or marketing plan already. That's where you'll have looked at the overall place of your product and its distribution in the marketplace. If you're smaller in scope, you might not have thought too much about it before. That's not a problem - this is where you start to think of yourself as a company! In your strategic promotional plan you'll want to do a specific SWOT analysis on how your promotions are working, should work and how you want them to work. Look purely at the SWOT of your product's promotions and its relationship to competitors promotions. Remember that promotion is a communication, nothing else. It's about messages and activity directly tied to those messages. Outline what is great about your communications, what isn't, what opportunities there are and how these could be threatened.

The second part of the situation analysis is identifying, in the most specific way possible, who you are as a company and product, what budget you're able to work with, who your audiences are and where you're at in the market and as a business. The more information you have at this point, hard as it might seem to face at times, the easier the other steps become and the more likely you are to reach your objectives. You'll probably need to do quite a bit of research.

Step Two: Identify Your Objectives

Once you've identified where you're starting from, then you need to identify where you'd like to go. In the strategic promotion plan, you need to have an promotional objective in mind (click on that link to define what types of things could be considered promotional objectives). You might have one or more objectives.

Because promotion is a communication activity, in developing your promotional objective don't make the mistake of aligning it with anything other than a communication goal - something you can see as being directly tied to communication. If you fail to do that, and you're employed as a communicator then you're creating an environment in which it's hard to prove ROI (return on investment). And to put it bluntly, you'll need to prove ROI to keep your job, let alone get a bigger budget or more business from the client.

For example, don't say a promotional objective is to increase sales. There are far more factors in play in your marketing plan than just communication that impact sales (such as what the product is like, the price point, your competitors, the economic environment, and so on). In your promotion plan, we're only looking at things you can directly achieve with communication.

Ensure your objective is SMART - Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-focused. Something like "Achieve 1,000 people to log onto the website and sign up for the alpha invite before 10 August, 2009" is a good promotional objective. Ensure your promotional objectives are directly achieved with communication, and that they support the overall marketing goals. Never think you'll be able to prove your promotions were directly responsible for an increase in sales - unless you can prove nothing else changed in the environment, business or marketplace. However, your promotional activity should be one aspect which contributes towards an increase in sales. And that activity should have SMART attributes which allow you to prove they were successful promotions (even if other stuff goes haywire).

Remember that Achievable and Realistic are two different things. Sure, sending out 500 samples a week to people in the mail might be achieveable if you never spend time with your family, but is it realistic? Begin with brainstorming some objectives that you'd like to achieve and then start adjusting and tying them down with the SMART criteria.

Step Three: Choose your Tactics:

Think of tactics as tools in your kit that will allow you to implement your strategy, and get to your objectives. There are four general categories of tactics, these are: PR, Advertising, Sales Promotion, Personal Selling (which includes Word of Mouth and online communities - take some time to review each of the links). Some of these have cross over points and grey areas, and when done well, you should use some in combination or at different points in order to achieve your objectives. For example, very rarely do you use a single way of transport to get from one place to another (you might walk, then take a bus, then walk again for example), and the same is true of choosing promotional tactics. You need to select promotions that are directly aligned with your strategy. Think of what each of them will do for you, and then put them together so they become a plan.

Begin with the four big categories and the links I've attached to them. Then make a list of what reasonable types of activity you could consider to use, given your budget and situation, that will help you implement your strategy and get to your objectives. PR could include conferences, speeches, media activity, etc. Sales Promotions you might consider are sampling, competitions, etc. Personal Selling includes training your internal staff, internal recognition programs, and these days, word of mouth and user community. Spend some time brainstorming different things. Let me repeat, these four different areas of tactics are very broad and do not have defined constraints. They are, however, foundational points for sparking your thoughts about different activities you can do to communicate messages to different target audiences, and receive information back.

When you have chosen some tactics, put them in order of when you'd like to undertake them. There has to be real consideration given to when is the most effective time to use a particular message and a particular tactic with your market. Remember that promotions are defined as short-term activities. Ads get old fast. So do competitions. Happy Meal toys get rotated every month. Effective promotions don't run for an extended period. Make them short, targeted and focused for great results.

That's how you create a plan that is strategic. If you needed to go from your house to your kids' school, you wouldn't take an aeroplane, even though it would probably work. It's not a well considered tool for the job. In fact it could backfire - how would your kids' friends feel? Your neighbours? Choose the correct tools for the job, to move you along the strategic path toward your goal.

It is really very useful to use a timeline for this. Put a beginning date and the end date (which will align with achieving your objective). Then mark in what activities you're planning to use, and when you'll use them. Again, the more specific you are with activities, how they're going to work with each other and especially, what each of them has been chosen to achieve as part of your strategy, the more likely you are to be successful. Don't do something just because it's easy, or the latest trend.

Step Four: Monitoring and Evaluation

This is the trick step. I should probably have started with it! From the very beginning of your planning to after the objective has been achieved you'll be monitoring how your plan is going. That way you'll know if you're sliding off the path at all. It's far easier to identify where things are going wrong if you do it regularly than looking back over the experience at the end and wonder what happened. You'll also be able to make alterations to your tactic selection to get back in line with your strategic path if that's necessary.

When you choose your tactics, it's based on the information you have on hand right now. Also, it's done with some expectations about how effective other tactics you choose are going to be. Just say you decided to run a competition as one tactic to get yourself an additional 100 people to try something or visit your blog - and it ended up falling flat. Well, when you're actively monitoring and evaluating your plan on a regular basis, you could decide to change your next tactic to pick up the pace and get you back on track. You'll also probably review future competitions and see what you need to change about them or whether to ditch them altogether. You'll be listening to your audience, but keeping your eye on what your objective is. Your strategy won't change, but your tactics might - and probably will - as you move along.

Planning your promotional strategy plan will take you some time, energy and thought. Far more so than simply placing an ad somewhere, or running a random competition. But the outcomes will be infinitely better. So what are you waiting for? Get strategic!

World Championships Speed Stacking

Yesterday we went along to the World Championships. Of course, if we didn't live half an hour from the venue, I doubt we'd have gone along. That said, all four of my kids have had fun cup stacking. It's a bit addictive. I even enjoy it. It's great for working on hand-eye coordination, fine motor skills, teamwork... all that good stuff.

Please note *our* focus is not on being the fastest in the world. It's more about beating your own best times, in a type of drag-race against the other team. In my view, only one person gets to be the fastest in the world. (At the moment it's a guy named Steven, who is incredibly fast.) But if that's all the focus you give to it, then you're ripping yourself off from the fun that can be had in simply doing it to get better at it.

It's this approach which I think makes the kids keen to try new things - sports, meeting new people, etc., and takes the pressure off them to do it better than anyone else. Enjoy our little video!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sci5b_hm10M]

Why my family loves Boulder

I never dreamed I'd live anywhere other than Sydney, Australia.

When you've got a good job, a house you're constantly doing 'something' to, kids, dogs, routine... the last thing you think of is moving. Anywhere. Least of all to a country you've never been to before. But then I came home from work one day and Jed told me his start-up dreams weren't done with itechne. He had a bigger one. To go to the US and launch what was to become scribetribe.us.

And I said okay, we'll Skype and email.

But he had a different plan. He convinced me to take (another) chance.

We packed up and moved to Boulder, Colorado in August 2008.

Now, lots of people have written about the great things Boulder has to offer in terms of nightlife, culture, the outdoors and the tech scene. And it's all true and fantastic. I am loving being a part of all of those things. But above everything else, I'm a *proud* mum. And Boulder is an amazing place to raise kids.

Harry and Charlie are aged 8 and 11 and have come to Boulder with us. They have swapped their Sydney private school blazers and ties, frenetic life-by-the-clock, mum out teaching three nights a week, no friends within walking distance, and a home where they weren't allowed to play out the front due to the traffic - for this:

A lifestyle that is similar to that I remember as a kid. One I thought you couldn't give your kids any more, because "times have changed."

They'd never seen snow before we moved to Boulder. Here they love it.

On top of all that, the (public) school they go to has the best educators I've ever had the pleasure of meeting. They have been wonderful in helping my kids move to not only a new home, but a place where feet and inches, and American history are completely different for them. They've made the transtition incredibly smoothly - and it's largely due to the school. (I've already celebrated Bear Creek Elementary in an earlier post.)

For me? The start-up widow? I've swapped a lifestyle where the drive to work each day took an hour of fume-laden highways, teaching in this college at Granville:



For being a part of the University of Colorado, which is slightly more attractive.



And on top of everything else, my husband is throwing himself into his life's dream. He's happily working on seemingly endless adrenaline, at all hours. But he tries to take a run each day and instead of it being beside a road where it's simply not safe after a certain hour, it's up around NCAR where deer graze.

So I guess the thing is, when you think you're settled and couldn't think of moving, think again. A bit of unsettling could be the best thing you do for your family. Especially if Boulder is where you end up. If you're in tech and thinking about moving to Boulder, get in touch with the guys at Boulder.me.

Time to get humble

It's unfortunate to see the response to the closure of newspapers around the USA. There are myriad closures, staff retrenchments and newsroom faces full of sorrow. The half-hearted, ineffective attempts by print organizations to move online have not achieved the goals. As Clay Shirky says, they weren't humble enough to believe they would really be 'threatened' by a new format. They didn't prepare the old-school journalists for reality. They treated the changes as 'novelties' or 'gimmicks' rather than real attempts for survival, and journalists who really tried to get with the program were marginalized or attacked for their attempts. The old-school journalists continue to believe, even with the world crumbling around them, that the old ways of doing journalism - the 100 plus-year traditions - should survive.

They sincerely believed that Jefferson's statement about prefering newspapers to government literally meant newspapers. In, as my husband says, a format that relies on spreading ink on crushed trees. In any case, Jefferson's point is decontextualized in this oft-quoted piece. He follows it with "But I should mean that every man should receive those papers and be capable of reading them."  Hmm.  "Every man should receive those papers..." Doesn't that kinda mean news should be free?

And if we're saying Jefferson was literally referring to newspapers in that single format, then surely we can also say he only really cared about men being able to access them, not women. Right?

Of course not. Jefferson was talking about the value of news and the need for all people to access it. He was, of course, writing before any other mass media format existed. Doh!

I feel sorry for those who believe Denver's loss of the Rocky Mountain News was the only cut that would happen. They think only one paper will be supported. I'm predicting closure of all printed news media in these smaller markets. The Denver Newspaper Agency is already starting to do this. Maybe they'll continue to tweet the funerals of their own papers in the same way they thought it was appropriate to Twitter the Funeral of a 3-year-old child.

Humble yet?

A completely new form and hope for democracy

I do wish people would stop analysing the 'death of print' and focus on the future of journalism. There are so many traditional media with stories like the nicely titled "Is democracy written in disappearing ink" which attempt to say journalism will die along with the traditional formats. While I like the title, the answer if obviously "only if you guys want it to!"

Suck it up people. Democracy is alive and well, and professional journalists have never had a better opportunity to tell all the stories they need to tell. The web gets rid of all your publishers, advertisers... financial concerns which could be seen to impact on your 'professionalism'. If your primary focus is to make money, then I'm putting it to you that democracy doesn't sit well with that.

If the key to democracy is myriad voices gaining exposure, then democracy has never been better served.

Start-Up Widow

While I'm quite popularly known as Mediamum (a brand and name I'm proud to have, and it's one I live every day); I am also the Start-up Widow. I have posted about being the Start-up Widow on my blog, and it's time to formalise my role.

I've been married to my Start-up man for 10 years and we've actually been together for coming on to 14 years. And what a journey it's been so far. If you check out my earlier post you'll see my reasons for making the jump from Australia to the US to launch a new startup. I guess I should update that post with some more info.

You know you're a start-up widow when:

1. You need to call him and you have no idea what state or country he's actually in today. (I mean geographic state, not psychological/drunk/emotional.)

2. He walks in the door at 11pm and announces he's going to *another* country/state at 4am.

3. He asks everyone to be quiet while he makes phone calls for work. At 10pm.

4. You need to make an appointment with the office to get him to attend a family dinner. And if you didn't personally also enter it into his Notes calendar, then it's your fault he didn't turn up/know about it.

5. He has no understanding of the word "vacation."

6. He thinks weekends are when he can get some real work done.

7. You say you don't have enough money for groceries and he says that's a good thing as it stops you spending money, but he complains when there is no food in the house.

8. He comes to bed at 3am and wakes you up - to ask you to wake him up at 6.30am when you get up. He then goes straight to sleep, while you lie there for half an hour having been shaken awake.

9. He says "Remember, I have to be in blah blah on that day..." to everything you try to arrange. (Remember, like he ever told you anything that's actually going on).

And for an international start-up widow, these days it's all of this, except he's straddling two time zones. So double all of the above, happening potentially a day and a half apart. So for example, he says he's in one country from tomorrow until next Wednesday. He thinks he's told you everything. But he actually means he's leaving the other country next Wednesday and won't be home until Friday. Stuffing up the parent/teacher interview you'd arranged for Thursday.

Fun!

No, really. Where's the vodka?

What Twitter means to me

I joined Twitter on my first trip to the US, in 2007 at the Web 2.0 conference in San Francisco. And I remember thinking it sucked. I had no connections other than the conference channel - which was tweeting  basically nothing. That sucked.

Segway (does it have a ue?): I'm a tertiary level teacher of marketing and journalism in Oz, and every Christmas break (5 weeks long) I commit myself to a private research project. That year I committed myself to social media - particularly, Twitter. And I got back on board.

With a vengeance.

I joined @STUB and met other Sydney based Twitterers in real life. I extended those relationships online and people all over the world are now part of a network I'm happily claiming to be my friends. Not even in air quotes.

So my summer research has now, 2 yrs later, become a network of over 1650 people. Many of whom I know care about me just as they do other friends in their life. And if you are, at this point, thinking "is she going to talk about me", then you're one of the people I feel most close to.

Far from making me a desperate online loser, I sincerely believe online communities are the families and friends of the future. Durkheim - I love looking at your crap, but you're a bit wrong. We are distanced, but we are strong.

To all my friends who started with Twitter, I am so grateful to have you. You have changed my life for the better. What a great summer project you were. What an amazing present and future you offer.

Thanks.

Win family tickets to Disney on Ice in Denver!

Taking the family out can be tough when the economy is having a downturn and there's more month than money.

That's why I'm really excited to give you the chance to win a great prize in my blog's very first competition! And if you don't win, I have a code which will give you the opportunity to buy your family of four or more tickets for just $11 each!

If you live in Colorado, the lucky winner will receive a family pack of four tickets to Disney on Ice, being held at the Denver Coliseum from March 12. The family four-pack prize is good for either the first or second night's show.

There are a few ways to win. You can do as few or as many as you like:

1. Comment on this post with your email/twitter ID (1 entry).

2. Tweet a link to this competition and let me know about it by putting @mediamum AT THE END of the tweet (1 entry).

3. Post a picture of glorious Colorado ice/winter/snow (tweet the link, or add link to your comment, or BrightKite or TwitPic it). Again, if you tweet the link you need to let me know abou tit by putting @mediamum AT THE END of the tweet (1 entry).

So, there are ultimately 3 entries you can choose to have! Go for it! I'll be announcing the winner on the evening of Sunday 1st March here on my blog and on Twitter too. Good luck!

If you miss out, here's the code - and you can share this with everyone, including your school so everyone can benefit! Go to www.Ticketmaster.com, go to the Mom Central box and insert the code: MOM to get four tickets to any of the Denver shows for just $44! That's less than you'd pay for a movie!

Show Dates
Thursday March 12 at 7:30pm
Friday March 13 at 11:00am, 7:30pm
Saturday March 14 at 11:30am, 3:30pm, 7:30pm
Sunday March 15 at 11:30am, 3:30pm, 7:30pm* *Spanish Performance
Get 4 tickets for just $44 offer is good on all performances, minimum purchase of 4 tickets required; additional tickets above 4 can be purchased at $11 each. Not valid on Front Row or VIP seats or combinable with other offers.

igniteboulder3

The future of print journalism is social

Traditional print media's attempts to embrace an online presence has been lacklustre, and in fact has helped kill their brands.

Most print MSM have incorporated blogs as part of their delivery mechanism. They have made their existing, print-trained reporters produce content for a medium they are not familiar with. It's like having a trained print journalist produce television. There are differences. Traditional journalists who are already overworked due to company lay-offs have had varying degrees of ethics and purpose when producing content for their blogs. Most appear to not really know why they're doing it other than 'to show we're in that space'. And because of the time involved, the overall quality of everything they do can suffer.

When blogs are put up by traditional media, the masthead appears as the banner to the blog. Anything produced under that masthead reflects on the brand. For a media brand, if it's not journalism or well produced, that's damaging. MSM has treated the internet as though it's a massive printing press and anything and everything can run. At last, there's no restrictions of cost of paper, distribution, etc. Stories which perhaps shouldn't be written or run are given a second chance online.

Recognising the Web 2.0 social aspects, print media has incorporated Reader Comments sections in their online brands which allow all manner of diatribe, ill-informed opinion and complete drivel run for pages and pages - often longer than the stories themselves. Most of this 'reader comment' would never have seen the light of day if it were offered to print entities, but due to lack of staff, it runs away with itself unless flagged by another reader. I would suggest if it's not fit for print under your masthead then it's not fit for online publication under your masthead either - and as news organisations of many years' standing, you have a responsibility to control these comments before your readers - particularly on hard news. By making the reader comments section open slather, it's as if a peanut butter brand opened the lid and said "got anything you want to add? Sure thing, just chuck it in there."

Online should be giving print media the opportunity to give readers a more in-depth experience with the type of quality reporting often limited by cost of paper and distribution. It should be expanding their brands. All stories should be including internal links to sources, further information, etc that are well researched and allow the reader a complete experience.

Print media believes writing for the web means writing all the information in a shorter way and presenting it well. Often simply repurposing content. For example, J-schools train up and coming reporters in how the eye looks at a screen, and gets them to rewrite a print story for the web. That's kinda like getting a print reporter to rewrite their story for tv. It's garbage. Great print media, in adopting an online presence should be all about giving extra information through the links they provide. It's about being truly transparent. And in a Web 2.0 environment, it's about being social.

Being a social media entity does enable everyone to be part of your efforts. Web 2.0 is community. But when you add that masthead to the top of your online efforts, then you have a responsibility to the survival of your professional brand as a business as well.

If you want to use Web 2.0, you need to do so responsibly to help your medium survive. Recognise that you have a community of readers who regularly want to respond. Why not approach those people to see if they'd like to have their own blogs rather than sullying up every story you run? Only add reader comments if you can moderate them, and only to particular stories. Invite people to provide additional links rather than simply their opinion! Identify exactly what it is that is driving you to make your print journalists write blogs too, when you have a whole community of people out there? There are plenty of ways to be effective in Web 2.0. It's social. It's about people you don't employ. And they're a community who could add value and credibility to your brand when you control the infrastructure within which they contribute.

If your masthead isn't that important to you, then you deserve what's happening to you.

Climbing with Harry

This week we went indoor rock climbing with a friend of mine who took time out to show us how it's done (thanks!). While I stupidly forgot about my fear of heights (remembered when I looked down from about 8 feet up), and Charlie decided it hurt his hands and feet too much at just one foot up, Harry proved once again that he'll give almost anything a go. Here he is having a go at the 30 foot wall!

[youtube=http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=btqhQjFVNQ4]

Breastfeeding in America

Recently many Twitterers (and their associates) contributed to my survey on American women's attitudes to breastfeeding and its representation in the media. I promised to share the outcomes of my research and the survey, which this post seeks to do. For those interested, the entire paper (30 pages plus 15 page complete survey result appendix) is available by emailing me or asking on Twitter and I'll get it to you straight away. If you'd like to see the summary of survey responses, this link takes you to the final Survey Monkey summary.

American Breastfeeding Rates

America has a dismal breastfeeding rate. The World Health Organization and the US's own CDC recommend babies be exclusively breastfed for the first six months of their lives, and then breastfed with additional food until they are two years old and beyond. The American Government then worked with the CDC in 2000 to develop the Healthy People 2010 initiative. It includes breastfeeding goals which fall short of the WHO and CDC's own recommendations - that rates of breastfeeding be targeted to 75% initiating breastfeeding at birth, with 50% at six months and just 25% at one year.

Each year since 2000, American media has been fed press release diatribe on how successfully this plan is being implemented. And mainstream media have unquestioningly spurted it back at the general public. Headlines like "Breastfeeding rate soars" (USA Today 2002) and Reuters 2007 story headlined "US breastfeeding rates rise to record high" disguise the real issue - that even after 8 years of a government promotion to increase breastfeeding in America, 25% of women never even try. In 2005 only 11% of American women exclusively breastfed for 6 months (as opposed to the WHO recommendation of 100%) and in 2007 a quarter of women who initiate breastfeeding at birth have introduced formula within the first week of their child's life.

So what's the problem?

Media loves boobs - as long as they're shown in a sexual way. We're all familiar with advertising and other images of breasts. For example, this 1993 cover image of Janet Jackson on Rolling Stone won critical acclaim. The story focuses on Jackson and her embracing of her sexuality. The focal point is her breasts.

But a full 13 years later, BabyTalk magazine's cover created outrage. No less than 700 complaints were sent to the editor over a cover promoting breastfeeding. So getting it straight, a magazine committed to mothering and babies, getting flak over a cover which promoted - mothering and babies.



 

 

 

 

 

 

In my paper I explain how I believe this has occurred. The movement of women into the public sphere has seen them embrace their femininity in a new way. There's a whole "look, I'm in the boardroom and I have breasts" ferocity which has been associated with feminism. Women don't like being confronted with images which remind them of the roles their mothers had. Feminism's abject failure through the 1980s and 1990s was its devaluation and disempowerment of the importance of nursing.

Yes, I argue that the feminist movement has contributed to a sociey where even women more readily accept images of breasts that celebrate them on a sexual rather than a mothering level. This is reflected in media too. TV programs such as Sex and the City, Desperate Housewives and Ally McBeal feature women who embrace their sexuality and power as successful. Women who hold traditional mothering roles are less successful, frustrated, angry or just plain stupid.

And then to have the audacity to bring those breasts, feeding infants, into the general public? No wonder women in general lead the call for 'discretion' and 'hooter hiders'.

The survey

I hoped to get about 30 responses. The survey went viral and in three days I received 128 responses. More than a third of respondents added extra information to each of the basic four questions asked. Women have strong views. In my paper I relate this passion to religiosity. The religion of breastfeeding meets all the academic standards of definition. No longer is breastfeeding normal, usual practice. And I find that distressing.

While 95% of respondents did not believe media has any influence over their own ideas about breastfeeding, more than half believe media should show it more often. Clearly, women believe media has an influence over someone (if not themselves). One key response was along the lines of "media doesn't influence my ideas about breastfeeding because it's not shown in media." My assertion is that this absence has just as much influence as if it were shown.



Moving forward

So what does this mean for feminists who embraced the bottle as their key to freedom from the ugliness and backward past? It means that the general public can look at American women and say "hey, are you women so stupid that you need to be told to breastfeed? And after eight years, you still aren't getting the message?" It means that heck, if you're an educated woman you need to recognise everything about you that's powerful, not just breaking through the glass ceiling.

 



If media showed breastfeeding as part of normal life on television and other media. If it made it present and normal - not a focus of a storyline, but just part of the everyday life of families with babies on tv, then could we begin to see this overtly sexual obsession with breasts change? Could we begin to see women being more accepting of their breasts as being a special part of a relationship with their child, not just as part of the relationship with their sexuality? If, in a similar way to Hollywood reducing smoking in movies, we began to insert breastfeeding into them... what would happen? And what about the international impact this could have? Hollywood movies are seen worldwide.

Certainly our only hope can be to improve on dismal American breastfeeding rates - and who knows where it could end.

Our visit to Vail

Yesterday we took a road trip to Vail. It's just two hours away. I found a great sledding area in Vail courtesy of a website which lets you locate good sledding runs (free) in your neighbourhood. We entered the address in the GPS, and off we went!

The day cost us nothing apart from the car's petrol and wonderful pizza we ate for dinner. We've discovered the following:

a. I need snow pants. Now. Because when I have a frozen wet bum I get grumpy.

b. Charlie is a daredevil on the flexi-sled. He's worked out that he needs to keep his whole body off the ground and entirely on the sled for the best run and for speed. He flies and cares little about danger... or direction.

c. Harry seems to be a natural snowboarder. He doesn't even own a skateboard, but managed to stay upright for a long way on his new snowboard. His balance is amazing and he just loves it.

d. Vail is spectacular. We are definitely going back, and will probably make it at least an overnight trip. The whole place is like a gingerbread storybook land. You can see a little in my video![youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbvpgLfHMuY]

Hiking with Harry

Harry loves to hike through the Rocky Mountains. There are more trails around here than you can poke a ... hiking staff at. (Sorry.)

Harry's decided to do a series of Hiking with Harry videos, which will show everyone a little bit of what new things he's experiencing in hiking in a completely different environment. This is his first one, where he is seeing his first ever frozen lake. The quality of the video and editing limits this talented young man because it's done by his mum! But I'll get better, I promise! :)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoXjCFYMt-I]

Day of the Dinosaurs

Colorado is not just about snow (the lack of which in 2008 is duly noted). Colorado has some absolutely incredible dinosaur excavations, including stuff that's still being dug up to this day. That's something I didn't know until we went on a day-long excursion/adventure this week.

First stop was one of the sites about half an hour from where we are living, at Dinosaur Ridge. The dino footprints have been preserved and you can walk up and see them! While the Ridge is on the side of a roadway, the road has now been blocked off (except for the little tour bus), so you can safely walk up.

[caption id="attachment_146" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Looking at Dino tracksThe tracks have been coloured black and go right up the side of the cliff"][/caption]

The rock is shale, and the history of this part of Colorado is that it used to be a sea. After the landforms changed the sea disappeared, and the dinosaurs were preserved and fossilized within the shale. It was great stopping at this site first because we looked first-hand, and touched the shale in the mountain. The layers of the rock were really cool.

From there we took a drive for another hour and a half to the Rocky Mountain Dinosaur Resource Center (RMDMC) at Woodland Park. It features lots of exceptionally cool stuff for adults as well as kids on the Dinosaurs they've found, how they preserve them, and lots of those cool skeletons. You can even see the paleontologists at work preserving the fossils! It was great because they described the shale excavation and some of their discoveries came from exactly where we had just been.

  The RMDRC has interactive kid activities, free hourly tours of the centre, two movies running all the time, and full displays of how they create the casts, and preserve the remains. Everything is presented in such a great way, it kept every one of us enthralled. There was no whingeing at this one! This was a day trip well worth taking!

Kids reaction to our first snow in Boulder

Being true blue surf, sand and sea Aussies who have lived on the Eastern coast of Australia forever, our kids have never seen snow.

Australia definitely has it though. But it's about a 5 hour drive to the ski fields from where we lived, and the price to stay, ski or whatever was incredibly prohibitive, especially given we're a large family. And the snowy mountains only has snow for about 8 weeks of the year anyway.

So we never did it.

And now we've moved to Boulder, where it snows from October through to about April(?) This video captures Harry and Charlie's first reactions. Enjoy!

[youtube=http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=yWOcHWPUpEA]

Disclosures

Here I disclose absolutely everything that I consider could be deemed (by a reasonable person) to influence what I talk about or how I talk about it. I'm not seeking to monetize this site, but I recognise that my social equity is building and my branding has some value. I see the future of media is not in the vast number of clicks, but in the quality and resonance of the audience that interacts with me. I'm not looking to build my audience using any means possible - I really don't care that much for people visiting as an accident because they clicked through someone else first. I'd much rather have people actively seek *me* out for conversation, or to see what I've got. Advertisers are not caught up on that yet. So far, I've been offered a few free 'link to us and we'll link to you' deals that I'm not taking up. I will, of course, keep you posted. :)

Research, Papers and Presentations

My first ever public presentation was at PubCamp 2008. I undertook an unconference session in Sydney looking at the quality of media reporting of stories online as opposed to its traditional format. A few days later I delivered a more wide-ranging presentation at PubCamp in Melbourne, which was filmed and put here (if you watch it, please allow time for buffering so the slides begin with the speech). Of course, I think there are some great points in this presentation, but I believe I could do it so much better now. :)

I am currently undertaking my Masters in Mass Communication Research at the University of Colorado at Boulder. I'm working on research papers covering the following areas:

1. The mediation and mediatization of breastfeeding and its relationship to societal norms. On February 18, 2009 I presented a segment of my research at Ignite Boulder. Ignite is an awesome fun opportunity where presenters have 5 minutes and 20 slides that are on auto advance, with 15 seconds for each slide. You can watch the fun here.

2. The integration of Web 2.0 strategies with professional journalism and associated ethical issues.

3. My thesis is moving towards studying the strength of online communities formed using social media. My current semester's research is on the use of speech acts (hashtags, @ and retweets) and discourse/turn taking on Twitter.

I am going to endeavour to be as transparent as possible here on my blog, and post my outlines for relevant things I know associates who read my blog may be interested in. I would really appreciate feedback, contributions, questions, opportunities to present my work, and free coffees (not necessarily in that order).

MSM journalism and Twitter

Moving online has caused Mainstream Media (MSM) quite a few headaches. I explored this a little during my Pubcamp presentation earlier this year.

Unlike many, I believe there is still life in MSM yet - they just have to learn to adapt to the new environment and, staying true to their code of ethics, make the most of new media in a way which better serves the audience.

Too many MSM consider they are making use of new media by simply having an online space. Quality of MSM journalism has taken a nose-dive as the stress of creating content (repurposed or not) on a continuing cycle for the online entities has reduced the time available for researching and fact checking. The seemingly limitless amounts of space online, and the audience demand for updated news combines with the advertisers' demand for minute-by-minute hit ratios.

Any ethical news organisation would reasonably buckle under that pressure. And many have.

It's time for MSM to look beyond coming up with new 'stories that aren't' and flimsy angles on old agendas in order to maintain their readership. It's time to revisit your mission, reconsider who you serve, and then integrate new media to that end.

The whole reader comment thing is really iffy for MSM. I believe in brands. Whether online or in print, MSM is professional and has a branding that reflects their years of commitment. A stamp of professionalism if you like. When you run a slurry of reader comments online under news stories you invite commentary that is neither professional nor reflects your branding. We are seeing stories that are 300 words long but which have 2000 words of reader comments, most of which is simply diatribe - or worse, just plain offensive bigotry.

Who does that serve?

Additionally, you have your reporters running their own blogs which are nothing more than a bit of fluff that nobody, not even your MSM journo's themselves, take seriously. Honestly, you're getting it wrong. If it's not fit to print then why do you believe it's fit for the web?

No wonder your sales continue to slide.

The Rocky Mountain News (RMN) and a few other organisations are to be congratulated for looking further into new media. The RMN is trying to use Twitter. But so far MSM hasn't got its head around the possibilities of social networking tools, and it's falling a bit short.

So if you're listening, here's what you need to do.

Train your journalists in social media and focus on the social aspect. Twitter can be used as a broadcast tool, sure, but that's not its limitation. In fact, why not tell your audience that you'll be at a certain event, and ask them to get online and use the journalist as their eyes and ears at that event? Yes, Twitter goes two ways!

I can see a really great potential here for MSM to make a mark using social media, and for the professionalism and integrity of journalism to get a real kick back on track. MSM can offer its very wide audience the opportunity to be part of the democratic, authentic, balanced journalism the public seeks. Sure you can use Twitter as an advertisement link to other news stories, but that's simply advertising. Why not integrate the tool in your reporting and at the same time bond with your audience?

Now that's something I'd love to see. That's something that will get people believing in you again.

The Start-up Widow

This is the second of my posts relating to Randy Pausche's wonderful Last Lecture. He said that while it's great to achieve your own childhood dreams, it's wonderful to help others achieve their own childhood dreams.

For the last eight years I've been a start-up widow. You've heard of golf widows? Well, I'm a start-up widow.

Jed started itechne eight years ago here in Sydney. Today the company has over 150 clients across the nation and we're about to move to Colorado to launch the company and its core products in the US market. So Jed's not getting much downtime.

In fact, we sat down together for a cup of tea yesterday and he said to me (jokingly) "Hi, who are you?"

I'm glad that these days I can laugh with him over that, instead of resenting it. I think there's a special maturity in realising that supporting your spouse in achieving a childhood dream doesn't detract from your own ability to achieve. Or your own worth or value in the relationship.

After eight years of being the start-up widow, I now wake him up in the morning with a cup of tea and the words, "Get up! Multi-nationals don't run themselves." (That's sort of a joke... sort of.) I no longer monitor the dinners he misses or times he gets up at 4am to catch a plane interstate that I know nothing about. It's all part of the reality of being a start-up widow. I wish I'd have known what to expect in the beginning.

Being a start-up widow has been lonely a lot of the time. There are no start-up widow clubs, forums or chat rooms. No flylady for start-up widows. My mother thinks I should be sainted. I think my friends believe I'm superwoman. But that's not the case at all. For the first four years I spent a lot of time really upset and resentful. There's still a mark on the wall from an apple I threw at Jed's head one day. (He deserved it.)

There are numerous ways of dealing with the reality of being a start-up widow. Now I think I've found it. I have found my own areas of success. I went back to Uni and completed my Bachelors degree as well as a Grad Dip in VET. I'm a great teacher and student, and pretty darned fine mum.

Recognising my own strengths is something I would never have done without being a start-up widow. It's pretty hard to be married to a guy who is achieving a childhood dream without wanting to realise some of your own. So while I have had very little involvement in the hands-on creation of itechne other than signing on the dotted line, making tea, etc, I'm holding it all together at home and being inspired by what Jed's accomplishing. I'm inspired to do even better at something I knew I'd be okay at.

[caption id="attachment_75" align="alignleft" width="128" caption="My first Graduation"][/caption]

I am fulfilled in seeing him working every single day on something I know he loves, has commitment to, and passion for. It doesn't matter if the destination is reached or even guaranteed - if you get to have a spouse who is doing something every day they have a passion for, then that's better than anything. And it rubs off. It makes you want to achieve more. It challenges you, in a positive way, to aim higher.

Awkward and ironic thing is, that makes the spouse want to aim higher too.

So now I'm packing up our house, and looking at selling it. I've taken leave without pay from the best job I've ever had, and I'm leaving some kids and dogs behind in Australia while we go launch ourselves on the USA. (Don't worry, the kids are staying with family here. I'm not just letting them run wild.)

[caption id="attachment_74" align="alignleft" width="128" caption="Bec and Max are staying in Australia"][/caption]

Maturity in being a start-up widow means I'm prepared for what this move involves. I've got my own plans for the US - and I have no expectations of Jed other than he'll work his butt off. When being the start-up widow means I get to share some of that passion, then I'm a pig in mud.

I'm "Hung on a cliff, in search of something big." (Thanks Neil Finn, for writing the best lyrics ever.) Even I don't know what the 'something big' is. And to all those people who are telling me how "lucky" I am to be doing this, I say "well, what's stopping you?"