LAST FRIDAY ... The New Movie From Ice Cube w/ Chris Tucker, Katt Williams & Mike Epps

"It's Friday, You Aint Got No Job,.. And You Aint Got Shit To Do" .... we all remember the movie FRIDAY with Ice Cube aka O'Shea Jackson & Chris Tucker. Hell, I know me and my brotha from anotha motha Joe Herrera can quote the whole damn thang word for word "its quite annoying to be honest, us two in the same room or space is just obnoxious antics, ask anyone". Anyways,... so I just found out that SMOKEY aka Chris Tucker has just signed up for another edition to the quadrilogy or tetralog if you want to get all smart and stuff.


This latest film will be blessed with Chris Tucker or SMOKEY as you have it, he actually got all HOLY on us back after the 95' movie was released and didnt want to play a character that portrayed a pot smokin smoker from the hood or a thievin hustla from the Car Wash like he played back with Charlie Sheen aka "The Guy Who Can Snort an oz. of Blow and eat a pizza an hour afterwards with no come down", in the movie Money Talks, "which was frikkin hilarious if you havent seen it, DO IT".


It appears the movie will still have a great cast as it always has had, I have yet to find out if my fave character and one of my fave actors John Witherspoon aka POPS from the movie will be in it, ya know... Craigs dad from Friday that always said... "BANG BANG BANG, Das Ma Pleazha" <pleasure but in ebonix. "come on meow". Katt Williams aka Money Mike will be in it playing himself in real life "A PIMP", Mike Epps will also be starring in the film. This is an actor/comedian I have followed since he was introduced on Def Comedy Jam's tour in 1995.


This might be the last one of Ice Cubes Friday movies and I am willing to bet... It's going to top the 1st one no doubt with this cast and the time he has put into this film. Im happy to say,... Good Shit Cube, been waiting for you to drop another one on us, thanks for blessing us with something so great. 

LAST FRIDAY

Sunday Funday In Austin Texas

For some odd reason, what me and Scott discussed at breakfast Sunday morning didnt go as planned. We both said "NO SUNDAY FUNDAY, WE'RE GOING TO DO BREAKFAST AND MIMOSAS AND THEN GO HOME, DO LAUNDRY AND GROCERY SHOP" yah,... that went well... NOT!

We're Terribly Sorry For PARTY ROCKIN ! ! !

P.S. Have You Ever Googled "What Exactly Is Sunday Funday" Pretty awesome how one of the various definitions are explained as :

"Drinking Heavily starting as early on Sunday as physically possible. Sunday Funday Starts with Unlimited Champagne Brunch and continues until you pass out in a gutter, on a bar stool, in the bathroom, or face down in the sand." Via www.UrbanDictionary.com

Social Media Daily Task List

We're all on our own schedule, some priorities are more important than others, but at the end of MY day, I like to know that I have at least paid attention to what is going on within my current and potential community via Social Media. Here is a daily task last I cam up with last quarter, I revise my initiatives every quarter and will be doing so again next week. Take a look and let me know what you did or did not believe to be of benefit.

08:00 am - Check & Respond to emails

08:30 am - Generate/Find Content to Share & Blog about

09:00 am - 11:00 am - Engage on all platforms

* Twitter

- Find 5 things worth Re-Tweeting and RT them ending with via @SomePerson

- Respond to @'s & DM's

- Put 20 people in List's

- Start or Jump in conversations

- Make sure interns markets are being tended to

* FaceBook

- Check for Birthdays & tend to them, (send them a B Day wish via twitter or email and you've really done it) emails found on bottom of their Facebook profile.

- Respond to comments and messages etc…

- Put 20 people in List's

- Find 5 people's post's and respond to them

- Leave comment in any groups that I am in

- Make sure interns markets are being tended to

* Google+

- Check & Respond to new alerts

- Find 5 things (Plus1)ing worthy and Plus1 them and comment or share

- Put 20 people in correct circles

- Share any content G+ worthy (this is not Facebook or Twitter) Check previous tweets ;-)

* LinkedIn

- Accept any invitations that make sense

- Enter and scout out any recent business contacts, cards etc & invite them to your network

- Drop into Q&A's and see if you can respond to 2-3 questions

- Provide 1 Recommendation every week for people you can honestly recommend

- Make profile adjustments if and when necessary (new duties acquired, strategies executed, interns mentored etc…)

*Tumblr, * StumbleUpon, *FourSquare, *SocialCam, *Quora, *InstaGram, * Flickr, *MeetUp, *YouTube, *Tout.

11:00 am - Check on Chad & Interns tasks via BaseCamp & SalesForce to make sure of completion and checked off items.

- Inventory check on items we're low on for media packages etc and submit to right department associate.

12 - 1 pm - LUNCH " This Rarely Happens "

01:00 pm - Create 2 blogs & publish

02:00 pm - Read blogs & respond

02:30 pm - Read about new social media related news

03:00 pm - Schedule posts to go out over night and for following day

04:00 pm - Schedule Interns task's in BaseCamp for following day

04:30 pm - Review analytics and insights via markets platforms and mark where changes may be needed.

05:00 pm - GET THE HECK HOME! " This NEVER Happens "

HOW TO OPTIMIZE YOUR TWITTER PROFILE FOR SEO

I often see people getting very cute and creative with their twitter bio. Cute and creative is nice, but ensuring it gets found by searchers should be of most concern. Here a few key things to revise and implement in order to have an effective social media presence on this platform.

Proper Profile picture or branded image ?
-A proper profile photo is key to branding your self or business
-Saving the image as your name is important
-Standard size is 73W X 73L Pixels & File size no larger than 700K

Custom Profile Background ?
-There are several ways to brand your self or business and a custom background is one, at the end of the day, first impressions are everything.
-1800W X 1500L Pixels & File size must be under 800K


Twitter Handle Properly Placed ?
-lowercase letters and all caps make it difficult to see, spell and remember your handle
-you get 15 characters so make it count @AndreMcKayATX looks a whole lot better than @ANDREMCKAYATX or @andremckayatx right? "I know i'm right" ;-)

Facebook URL in BIO ?
-your able to place a @TwitterHandle, #HashTag, and even a URL such as the one for your facebook page. DONT forget to add your website as suggested though in that specific area.

Website properly edited ? http:// not http://www.
-remove the WWW. from your website or url’s http://IsAllYouNeedNow


Keywords properly placed in BIO ? “This is actually your META Description”
Google indexes your tweets and ranks you according to your following and helps you get found by people using keywords in a search. You may like that hilarious quote or one liner now but when it comes to being found by those potential clients, you better believe they’ll find someone else before they find you if your not taking advantage of this key feature.

SOCIAL MEDIA NIGHT WITH THE SOCIAL MEDIA CLUB OF AUSTIN AT THE AUSTIN TOROS GAME

You heard right friends & family, The SocialMedia Club of Austin, TX will be heading up the Social Media night at this month's Austin Toros professional basketball game. The Austin Toros are the NBA Development League team owned and operated by the San Antonio Spurs.

The team will be playing against the Canton Charge. This Social Media March Madness all kicks off Friday, March 30^th at 5:00 PM at the Cedar Park Center. At 5:30 pm the Panel will be discussing Social Media in Sports and this panel is nothing to miss.

Here is what the agenda for the evening will look like…

5:00 pm – 5:30 pm Social Media March Madness Teams Check-in Lounge Area where Tasks and information will be handed out prior to the panel 

5:30 pm – 6:15 pm Panel on Social Media in Sports Lounge Area 

Moderator Austin Toros COO, Peter Lubell 

Panelist: Founder/Editor in Chief, www.NiceKicks.com, Matt Halfhill 

Panelist: Interactive Content Manager for San Antonio Spurs, Ben Hunt 

Panelist: Publisher James Schleicher, a Westlake HS graduate, attended the University of Washington in Seattle and obtained an English degree in 2007. Since high school Schleicher has written about sports for both professional and student run publications. Schleicher now serves as the President of Texan Media, and the Publisher of Horns Illustrated Magazine, a magazine focused on University of Texas athletics.

6:15 pm - 6:30 pm Question & Answer Session for Panelists 

6:45 pm Social Media March Madness Tournament Begins 

Teams will have various tasks assigned to them through the end of the third quarter. 

9:30 pm (Approx.) Winning team will be announced 

First Place: San Antonio Spurs Private Suite for a game during 2012-2013 Season 

Second Place: Austin Toros Suite For First Round Playoff Game 

Third/Fourth Place: Two Tickets Per Team Members for Austin Toros First Round Playoff Game 

For further information please visit http://smcaustintorosnight.eventbrite.com/ 

PRO's & CON's OF HAVING MULTIPLE BRAND TWITTER & FACEBOOK ACCOUNTS

Having multiple Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Gogle+, Pinterest, YouTube, Tumblr, FourSquare & InstaGram"the list can go on but these are my platforms of choice" can be a great thing when you have the bandwidth aka talent to manage them but as the Director of Social Business for Study Breaks Magazine, Shweiki Media & Study Breaks College Media, I have recently began to think about how much more effective as a Brand we could be if we consolidated our online presence. I have came up with a list of Pro's & Con's to shed some light on the topic that may or man not have crossed your mind.

Pro's

-Effectively engage our current and potential audience online which will increase the amount of readers and clients
-More readers means longer lifetime of advertisers advertising on and offline
-Effectively promote and become ambassadors for our advertisers not only in the magazine but online
-Ability to keep our voice and mission statement trust worthy in the eyes of our readers, advertisers & in house "we do what we say we're going to do when we are going to do it"
-Relationship Marketing is what Social Media is all about, when done correctly and thoroughly it can lead to hot leads, greater brand reputation and wider audience reach
-People buy from people and brands they know and trust its not about B2B or B2C anymore its about P2P (People To People)
-Able to ensure that our messages are strategically updated according to when our audience is actually online with metrics and insight tools that give you real time information of when your updates would have the most likeliness of being read, shared and commented on
-It's impossible to build any influence, trust, relationships and awareness growth when we are not participating in the conversations our readers and clients are having online. WE MUST PARTICIPATE, WE CANT JUST PUBLISH POST'S AND EXPECT DOLLAR SIGNS AND READERS TO INCREASE
-Leads are a whole lot easier to close when potential clients have an awareness of what we do, who we are, and the audience we have now and will gain each and every day
-Ability to set time aside to create more content so that we become the Mashable & Huffington Post of the print, college and media industry.

-Interns are great but ask yourself this… would you send an intern out on a meet & greet with a current or potential client? how about to represent your brand at a convention? heres a better one, lets say someone says something negative about your brand, product or service online, would you allow an intern to handle the situation on the fly? the answer is more than likely NO, "at least I hope it is", this is common sense as we all know. We can't expect an intern to understand how irrational clients and consumers are and can be, especially online. Our online presence is greater than our brick & mortar presence, our voice can be heard globally and there is no DELETE button on the internet so we only get one chance to prove ourselves credible and socially conscious.

Do we have the time to effectively train interns who we not only can't depend on to be here as expected but also come and go considering the high demand for them as paid interns. I didn't learn what I know in 2 weeks, it took years of Community Management, Customer Service, Cold Calling, Customer Complaints, Seminars, Books, Webinars, Conferences, Marketing Courses and a some College Education etc… to get to where I'm at and its a constant battle to stay with or even ahead of the social times.

Social Media is just in its infancy and where it will go who knows, but one thing I do know is that its not the AOL days anymore, long gone are the one way conversations where brands speak down to the consumers. We must learn that the audience lives, works and plays online and in order to capture and retain their attention we must set ourselves apart from the spammers and trolls out there who simply publish 10 Facebook status updates with no interaction with their current and potential audience. How can we expect blog comments, Facebook feedback, Twitter ReTweets, Increase in leads, and build any type of influence if we aren't doing the same for our readers and clients?

 Con's

I cant see any reason this would have a negative effect on a brand so I don't have any Con's but if you do,... please, do share. I would like to hear your thoughts on this topic and please explain if this is for your brand, what your brand does, and how many people you have managing this online presence of yours. 

A GUIDE TO FACEBOOK TIMELINE FOR BUSINESSES & BRANDS

Like it or not, changes are uh comin to facebook’s business & brand pages. TimeLine has finally rolled out for Brands and all this means is a whole new strategy is needed to keep your current audience, and gain the LIKE’s of your potential audience. As of Wednesday, February 29^th Brand pages can opt in for the new TimeLine features. The obvious changes are the new Cover Photo, the ability to edit & update without navigating to a separate page and of course highlighting milestones such as important status updates that you may want to stick around for a bit longer than the other post’s. 

TimeLine definitely makes pages more social. Visiting a page you instantly see the amount of your friends who have liked the company, along with the posts of your friends relevant posts that are public. Local businesses have their virtual map appear in the row of apps below the cover photo.

Starring an important message allows you to highlight a post, which makes it twice as big as the others, and more visually appealing so eyeballs not only view but also actually read or watch your message. TimeLine has given us a much more colorful and cleaner way to navigate and make use of all of the admin features with an insightful panel, which is much simpler to use.  Here you will have features such as notifications, analytics, messages and even a HELP menu that really makes this transition a whole lot more comfortable. 

TimeLine’s new features really enable brands to tell a more engaging & transparent story to their current and potential audience. Viewers have a much easier job of finding a companies information by simply clicking the Info section, photos, apps and map that is all right below the cover photo “impossible to miss”.  Looks like President Barack Obama didn’t wait long to get his page buttoned up and accepted this drastic change to our new online presence. 

As with any change on and off line there will be a great amount of individuals that believe this to be a potential flaw, especially when it comes to brands that have yet to figure out how to provide engaging content. Although we are only able to tell our brands story from as far as the year 1000 some believe that this limits their complete story and history, I mean, is your brand really that old? If so Congratulations, you’ve beat the odds. With all of this being said, brands now have a great opportunity to get very creative with their facebook presence. Remember, first impressions will always be everything!.

Here’s the killing point in all of this though, pages no longer have the ability to welcome new viewers with its most widely used and loved default landing tab which was what non-fans were welcomed with when they visited a page before LIKE’ing it.  Businesses and brands used this powerful marketing feature which gave incentive to viewers on how, where and why one should click the LIKE button with special content such as coupons, contests, eBooks and much more. This required the consumer or viewer to LIKE the page for these promotions and incentives. 

Now that we aren’t told what to do and where to do it, we have to hope that the consumer actually knows where to find the application tab for these special incentives which will of course cost brands LIKE’s, email signups, entries to contest’s and various other key indicators.  That influential Landing Tab was really a great marketing tactic. We had a big influence on the behavior of theconsumer or viewer, which we no longer have other than effectively putting out great and engaging content.

TimeLine’s Cover Photo does allow us to enhance the branding process with out relying on third party apps but this cover photo comes with big restrictions.

What A Cover Photo Can’t Display:

1)   Calls To Action (C2A) “Like Our Page”

2)   Purchase & Pricing information such as “20% off” or “Download at www.SocialSmedium.com

Facebook is clearly cleaning up the way brands and consumers interact with one another. Social Business has changed the way we engage with our current and potential audience, the art of story telling is now the future of keeping your consumers engaged. A man by the name of Scott Cook once said, “A brand is no longer what we tell the consumer it is – it is what consumers tell each other it is.” When we learn to realize that this is absolutely correct, we will then as marketers learn to put ourselves in the consumer’s shoes and step away from the spam sammiches.

A few things to keep in mind that have changed

1)   Default landing tabs are long gone

2)   Tabs are still there & wider than ever at 810px

3)   Consumers can now message brand pages directly “Talk about customer satisfaction”

4)   TimeLine will be in full effect come March 30^th 2012 “How ya like them apples”.

5)   You get a maximum of 12 apps so strategically place your important ones first

6)   Cover Photo specs are 850px W x 315px L

I included as much as necessary for this Introduction to Facebook’s TimeLine for Brand Pages however will be following up in the week to come with a Users Guide to Facebooks TimeLine Features for Brand Pages.