Obsessing Over the Outlander Series

OUTLANDER

Each book is about as thick as the Yellow Pages (physical ones from days gone by) and about the same font size.  It's a challenge to go on about daily life while reading all 9 (soon to be 10?) books, by the amazingly talented and smart smart smart author, Diana Gabaldon.

I'm deep inside book 6 right now. I'm not sure how I'll be able to handle the end of this series.  Readers must have been saying this since the first book came out in 1989 or so...  perhaps this is a never ending story. I'm all for that.

Meet Jamie Alexander Malcolm McKenzie Fraser.  He's actor, Sam Heughan , a real Scot with a deep voice and a Gaelic lilt that will keep you hanging on to every word that drips from his lips. The STARZ television series of the book has been wildly popular.  It's easy to obsess about this main character.

#Outlander #hubbahubba #Jamie #Claire #TimeTravel #Scotsman #FrasersRidge #Clan #Sassenach #HistoryLessons

Do Brands Talk With You on Social Networks?

I can't stand when a brand, no matter what the size, simply posts on a social network and walks away.

I try to explain to my clients how social networking is like a cocktail party.  It's going on 24x7 and you can enter it at any time.  People are always there.   You can't simply walk in to the party and broadcast something about yourself (the brand), turn around and leave the party... and then do it again the next time and the next time and the next time.  Everyone will groan and roll their eyes at you, when you do that.  You'll be THAT person everyone dreads at a party.  They'll ignore you.  This is when brands decide social isn't working them.  

You don't go to a party and just talk about yourself. You have to ask people about themselves first.  Get to know them.  Then you earn the right to say what you do when a party goer asks, "so tell me about yourself".

Here's a great example of a very large brand engaging with a fan.  The beautiful part is, the fan made this unsolicited tweet on their own, better yet, included the brand's Twitter address so they would be easily "heard".   They were.

See how easy this is.  Twitter is  my favorite listening tool ... listen and respond.  It makes being a community manager so much more fun.  Everyone wins.  Everyone. 

Get into the mix daily and dagnabit, be a great guest at the party!

~Alexis Ceule

Social Media Mamapreneur

FREE Chiefs Tickets for Chargers Game: How To Get Them

If you want 2 FREE tickets & a parking pass for the San Diego Chargers game on Sunday Nov 24th...  and you're objective, plus you care about the experience the average person has at a Chief's game (from the parking to purchasing a beer) and you're observant...  these can easily be yours.  Plus, you will be available for tickets toSporting KC games and the other Chiefs games remaining.  Think: detail oriented, observant and objective.  

 

  Service Scouts is a company The Chiefs use to "mystery shop" their facility on game day.  You can bring a friend to join you on this "shopping" experience.  Service Scouts will tell you exactly what you need to observe, where and to who.  If you put some effort in early on when you arrive, you'll be done by kick off and able to enjoy the entire game.  

The following is the request from Tracy Keller of Service Scouts, "I am looking for shoppers to complete evaluations at this event. Parking is reimbursed. Two tickets will be provided along with either a parking pass or reimbursement for parking."  (I've received the parking pass each time with the tickets)

 

This is my son, Jackson who went with me, meeting up with some of the cheerleaders before the game. 

He and I had a blast and of course with the Chiefs playing so well, everyone else at the stadium is having a great time too.  

There is is some time online after the game is over, that must be completed within a certain timeframe.   Being observant and objective are key.  Take notes and photos with your phone to use in your report.  The sooner you begin to complete the online evaluation of your experience, the fresher it is in your memory.   So my advice is to get online as soon as you get done with the shop.

Tracy will be doing a phone "training" session on Friday, Nov. 22nd at 4 pm central.  So contact her immediately to get on this call.   I'll be at this weekend's game with my co-pilot, Jackson, again.  We're ready for some laughs again.

Here's her contact information:

Please email me at Tracy@ServiceScouts.com                   

If you are interested in this shop please log in to:

https://servicescouts.report-central.com

Good luck and see you at the game!

Alexis

Fan Photo of actor, Michael Fassbender

It's Michael Fassbender!

See him there, behind Brad Pitt and these two fans?  


Brilliant.

Jayhawks, Get Ready for Your Close Up

Jayhawk friends, are you ready for your close-up... via Skype?  Rock Chalk!

(an email I got)
I'm a casting associate from Warner Bro's/Telepictures, "Let's Ask America".  We are currently looking for participants with great personalities for our show. We thought the Jayhawk community (both present and alumni) would be a great spot to look since we not only are we looking for fun, outgoing, high-energy, charismatic people for this, we're also looking for people to properly represent different communities and states from across the country. We have a STRONG KU fan base amongst contestants currently involved and we'd love to expand on that. Our last season, we even looked into possibly having specialty episodes where super fans/ fanatics/ and representatives of football teams were present. 

Here's a little about the show (which airs on NBC41):

"Let's Ask America" is currently on its 2nd season. The show allows four contestants to possibly win up to $50,000 dollars without even leaving their homes. People across America have been polled on a collection of fun-subjected topics and if our contestants can guess what America is thinking from their Skype account, they "walk away" with the prize!

Anyone that is interested is welcome to contact me through e-mail (tam.nguyen@letsaskamerica.tv)
Or they can apply through our website at:http://www.letsaskamerica.tv/contestant.shtml
Our webpage is http://www.letsaskamerica.tv
Clips of the show can be seen at: http://www.youtube.com/user/letsaskamerica

Feel free to offer my e-mail for any questions and concerns, as well! 

Best,
Tam Nguyen
Associate Casting Producer
Let's Ask America
818-972-8503

The View... Kansas City

Here's my view of Kansas City this morning before I was to partake on a panel discussions about "how not to burnout doing social media".   The Social Media Club of Kansas City is an amazing group.  Great fun. 

It looks like we're not a one horse town, but rather a one car town.  It was early... what can I say.

Alexis

Henry Cavill & Kaley Cuoco Together... Inevitable

There's no doubt that Kaley Cuoco is attracted to Henry Cavill and vice a versa ... she was Wonder Woman after all. 

Here's hoping they both have some laughs together.

Perk #3 of Working From Home: Getting the Funk Out!

Today, January 27th, in Kansas City it is 70 degrees at noon and dare I say downright HOT if you're in the sun. 

 I'm throwing all the windows open and airing out the house. Getting the winter funk out of here before the temps drop to the teens by the 29th again.

My pic on Instagram. Follow me: alexisceule

Confession #4: I WANT to Live In a Glass House

I dream about houses.

Quite frequently.

All kinds of houses from contemporary to colonial, California ranch to stone and gigantic castle like houses.

There are 6 that seem to make the rotation in my head at night but the one I like the most is an all glass house.  It sits high in huge Sycamore or maybe it's an Oak tree, in the woods....

The house is all glass: floor, sides and ceiling.  Like a greenhouse or solarium.

 

 

Despite being run down...

It has beautiful bones.

 Several beautiful crystal chandeliers hang throughout to light up the night and add sparkle during the day.

The trim around each window is dark, so it really sinks into the dark night woodsy setting and it's like I'm hovering in the air, in my amazing tree house

The windows are mostly old but in good shape to keep out the rain and cold.

Thanks to Pintrest.com  for helping me define it in photos.

I would look most forward to watching the squirrels chase each other around the tree, from up close.

How To Avoid the $1 Spam Messages on Facebook

Unless the idea of getting spammy messages from people who don't know you on Facebook is appealing, prepare to change your settings.

When people you don't know have sent you a message on Facebook before, it may have gone into your "other" message box as opposed to your regular inbox.  Now however, Facebook is experimenting with a low percentage of users who will pay $1 to send messages to strangers.  It's bad enough Facebook now allows users to pay $7 to promote their own post to reach people they don't know.  It's like Facebook is trying every back door to create revenue and forgetting what this social network's popularity was based off: Friends connecting.

We suggest you switch to the "strict filtering".  At least it's an option for now. Stay with "basic filtering" and see how it goes.  It'll be a social experiment.

A NEW Facebook Feature You'll Like

While social networking for a client, I saw this nifty new "reply" feature in regards to comments left on a status update for fan pages.  

In this case, it was visible on the Lawrence Public Library but I couldn't find it on any of the other Facebook pages I administer or ones I checked from my personal account. I think it's a good idea for a feature so you can directly respond to a specific comment to a post. It will most certainly help organize the thread visually.  

Have you seen this option yet?

Social Networking for Large Brands Feels Like This...

This is what it feels like working/consulting with international large corporate brands regarding social networking.  They are so stifled only by themselves. Meh.

(I've interacted with some lovely large brands that do a fantastic job through social networks. I also find they are have a history of bravery and creativity online. Bravo to them!)

The Busiest Time on Pinterest Is...

Did you know the busiest day and time for pinning, repinning and perusing Pinterest is... Saturday morning?  Yeppers.

Happy Pinning.

Election Day LIKES

I saw these guys in line today at our voting site, a sweet little church in Prairie Village, KS.  A gentleman with a walker and behind him, a young man who rode over on his skateboard. Both in line to vote.  Wonderful.

I found some cool graphics today as well.

and a favorite

Here's a cool sidewalk chalk drawing

I hope you voted.  I did.

What are Your Favorite Photo Editing Apps & Sites?

If you blog, social network, do marketing, merchandise through photos, are a photographer, or promote anything or anyone using photos you took...  which photo editing app or site do you rely upon?   

This was taken and uploaded to PicMonkey which is my favorite website photo editing page.  Great options and right now it has very clever Halloween ideas for your photographs.  Hats off to my husband, Matt Ceule, who let me vampire up his handsomeness.

This gourd photo was taken with my Droid phone app, Instagram.  It's strictly a phone app and not a website to manipulate photos, unfortunately, for I really like the options.

What do you use?

Perk #11 of Working From Home: Wahlberg, Football & Strangle Hold

Has Technology and Social Media Given the 2012 High School Seniors the Lowest Reading Scores in 40 Years?

Is technology and social  media adversely affecting our tweens and teens in school or... are they just evolving faster?

A rather jolting report came out yesterday, Sept. 24th, 2012, about how unprepared our 2012 high school graduates are for college.  The Washington Times hammered it home by pointing out "Perhaps even more troubling than the college readiness number are the 2012 READING scores. The average score on the SAT's reading portion fell this year to 496 out of a possible 800, its lowest mark since 1972 and down from last year's 497."  Data: High school students aren’t ready for college - Washington Times http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/sep/24/high-school-grads-reading-skills-hit-new-low-most-/#ixzz27UIr3Czr 

My knee jerk reaction is to point a finger the huge surge in cell phone use over the last 5 to 7  years and the ebonics it takes to communicate quickly and efficiently through texting.  In fact if we all strtd typin in textanese, it wud come off a lil mor lik dis form of shorthand n not full words. Cud u handle that? F ur a tween or teen, u cud.   As an adult, I still have to read my 14 year old son's texts out loud.  I suppose if I saw these styles of writing every day in communication with everyone, I'd be pretty darn good at it too.

I heard this summer that nationally, high schools aren't assigning novels that exceed 200 pages anymore, because the students can't maintain the attention for that long.  Sad, strange, makes me furrow my brow and I wince at what they are missing.  However... is this us evolving?   Is it simply we are adapting the way we communicate using our environment of rapid fire technology and availability to so many people at once?  Are our attention spans shorter or are we merely wanting as much information as possible?

I think youth adapt embraced changing the way they communicate because they can. They aren't bogged down with mortgages, insurance rates, raising other humans. They are at a glorious age where they don't fully appreciate or understand the power of effective communication... yet. It's the whole frontal lobe still developing and not understanding the power and consequences of their words, the angst of youth, it's all about  me, I want it now type egocentric lifestyle they are submersed in. Ah, the good old days.  Eventually, they'll want to read and re-read a great novel, a love letter that you want to hang on to for the rest of your life, a poem or a speech that will rattle you to your core.   It's just not their job right now. So they can take traditional methods and tweak them as they see fit.  I don't even think they know we are watching.

    

Our society is certainly more visual than we've ever been.   Instagram and Pinterest's lightening speed rise to popularity are a clear testimony to that effect.  Using a photo in a post on Facebook has proven more than likely to yield greater engagement from friends/followers.  This excites the Facebook algorithms and you're rewarded by getting more of your  messages out to a larger portion of your fans/followers. Even as adults, we are so stretched with our availability, multi-tasking and multi-communicating, we don't really have time to read, but we do have time to see an image.  Infographics are a fantastic summary of a study with graphics, all on one page. See the one at the bottom of this page by http://www.commonsensemedia.org/teen-social-media-infographic .  Great information in a short space. Yes... I have time for that.

If you're an adult and you're reading this, what are you doing?  Are you evolving with technology and with the teens to twenty somethings?  Are you sitting back in  your chair with your arms smugly crossed over your chest and smirking because you think it won't affect you?   Are you kicking and screaming with full on resistance to your keyboard?  Where are you and what is your plan to continue to communicate effectively with the world, with generations, as it evolves around us?

For more thoughts, Here's a blog I posted 2 years ago about how typing classes may be replaced by texting classes. Soon a s d f and ; l k j will be M.I.A.  

Gentle Reminder...

Basic Reasons Pinterest Will Appeal to You, as it did ME

Are you on Pinterest yet?   Do it.

It's motivation, inspirational, hilarious, sultry, informative, educational, delicious... really, which of things do you not want?

Motivational.  You've got it. Love this one. It's on my "Life" board. Take a gander at the motivational photos too.

Sultry. Loads of gorgeous men and women.  Like the handsome Matt Bomer in this photo. The debate for who will play Christian Grey in movie version of the book, Fifty Shades of Grey, is a hot topic on Pinterest. Here's my board "My Boys" so you can see many more men that make our hearts skip a beat.  You're welcome.

Inspirational.  You can't log on without finding inspiration from everywhere. Like this one from my "Garden" board.   I'm always looking for ideas to reflect my family inside the home and OUT.

Humorous photos are always a favorite. This one just makes me smile. I've put it under my favorite category, "Weird Things I Like"  mostly because I didn't know where else to put it. You'll like this board.  It's the board of misfit toys.

.
When you first go to the Pinterest home page, it'll ask you to submit your email for a message to join. If you'd like to cut through all of that, give me your email and I'll send it to you immediately. If you have a Pinterest board you particularly enjoy, I want to see it! Post it for me here and I'll follow you.

Happy pinning!
Alexis