I seem to go through annual cycles of Internet obsessions.
In 2008, it was social communication platforms, like Twitter. In 2009, it was services that make microblogging easier, like Hootsuite and Ping.fm. In 2010, it was location-based mobile apps, like Foursquare and Gowalla. And this year, it’s social marketplaces.
The concept of “collaborative consumption,” also know as the “sharing economy,” completely enthralls me. The fact that I don’t need to book a hotel, buy a car or invest in a drill is amazing — instead, I can just borrow these things from regular people from my neighborhood or from around the globe for a small fee. Now, that’s something worth getting excited about.
So, what types of things can you collaboratively consume? The list goes on and on, but here’s a snapshot of some of the most interesting things you can find on social marketplaces:
Even more exciting is the potential for meeting awesome people via social marketplaces. You don’t get that experience with traditional marketplaces — Zipcar, I love you, but it’s just the truth.
Along the way, I’ve met some amazing people (Stefania in Catania, I’m talking to you!) and cats (Darcy, Yuki, Ernie and Sabi, you know you’re all the cat’s meow). What’s not to love?
The social economy is where it’s at for me this year, and I have a feeling it’s going to spill over into 2012. So, what was your tech obsession this year? Let me know in the comments below!
Thursday, September 8 marked the third annual Fashion’s Night Out. The brain child of U.S. Vogue Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour and the Council of Fashion Designers of America, Fashion’s Night Out was founded to help boost the economy by bringing together fashionistas to support the cause of paying full retail prices.
Fashion’s Night Out 2011 was supported by stores in more than 250 cities across the United States and in 1,000 retailers in New York City alone.
But the night is as much a celebration of splurging as it is of fashion. This year, two innovative East Villagers took it upon themselves to challenge that norm.
Designer Kate Goldwater and partner Alexandra Sinderbrand of AuH2O Thriftique, an East Village boutique that sells recycled clothing, celebrated the evening in their own fashion — by inviting customers to take part in “Thrift’s Night Out,” their very own celebration of cheapness.
Goldwater explains, “Alexandra and I are kind of turned off by the whole ‘Spend spend spend!’ concept of Fashion’s Night Out. Shopping gets expensive when you’re paying retail prices, so we wanted to offer our customers an affordable Thrift’s Night Out experience.”
Around noon on September 8, Goldwater sent out an email to the store’s mailing list entitled, “Thrift’s Night Out (is cooler than Fashion’s Night Out).” It read:
“As you probably know from a million Lord & Taylor ads all over amNY and on the mini TVs in cabs, tonight is Fashion’s Night Out. To encourage people to shop ‘for the fun of it,’ all stores in the city are staying open until 11pm tonight and providing free drinks! And AuH2O is no exception! Though we think it’s really much more fun if you can afford it, so instead of participating in the regular Fashion’s Night Out’s ‘international celebration of fashion,’ we’re hosting the East Village’s celebration of cheapness: Thrift’s Night Out.
Come by the shop for some delicious (and probably very strong) punch, healthy and unhealthy snacks, and our standard cheap prices, especially our $5 and $10 racks. We won’t have celebrities like Justin Bieber, but we WILL have my mother Amy Goldwater, and if you’re lucky, she may do the splits.”
You’ve got to love that counter-culture spirit. And Goldwater’s mother did show up and wow the boutique’s customers with her flexibility.
Next year, the shop hopes to help make the East Village a destination for “Thrift’s Night Out” by inviting other retailers on 7th Street to participate in the fun.
Kudos to AuH2O for keeping it real!
How did you spend Fashion’s Night Out (or Thrift’s Night Out, if you will)?
For such a capitalist country, the United States does a horrible job of preparing its youth for the reality of life, where success is highly based on financial achievement.
My financial education was pretty much void until I hit college, and even then, it was my own decisions that made it possible, as I proactively chose to attend undergraduate business school at NYU Stern. I was raised in the deep South, where jobs were hard to come by and many struggled to provide the basics for their families.
The education systems in many of the Southern states — my home state of Arkansas included — are well below the national average, making matters worse. But even the best of the best in America can’t compete on a global scale. In a 2009 study, the U.S. ranked 25th out of 34 peer countries in math and science.
If we can’t even get the basics right, how are we going to teach our children how to properly manage their finances, create sustainable businesses and stay out of debt?
One of my former NYU professors, Orly Sade, recently teamed up with award-winning writer and former BusinessWeek editor Ellen Neuborne, to co-author a book for tweens (ages 9-12) about finance and entrepreneurship.
Along the way, Ella learns about key business concepts, such as market research, competitive analysis, word-of-mouth marketing, guerilla marketing, costs, revenue, profits, loss, leadership, partnerships… and the list goes on. She also learns about the many types of financial products, including stocks, bonds and loans.
The authors manage to explain difficult financial and business concepts in a way that makes them easy to understand. Many of the lessons originate from wisdom imparted by Ella’s parents, who work in business and law. Ella adds her own creativity to the lessons, and with the help of her friends and family, she’s on her way to owning a brand new electric guitar.
Reading the story, I couldn’t help but wonder how my life might have turned out differently if I had been aware of these business and financial concepts earlier on.
Yes, I was taught to budget and save, but that took the form of me putting money in a bank account and spending it when I had saved enough for the product I was saving for. I wasn’t aware of the other financial products I could have employed, and I certainly didn’t understand what a stock was, even in high school.
Our nation has racked up $15 trillion in debt — obviously our leadership isn’t doing much better than we are as individuals.
And so, community, it is up to us to arm the next generation with a financial education. Sharing books like “How Ella Grew an Electric Guitar” with tweens is a good start.
What ideas do you have for increasing our children’s financial proficiency level? Share your ideas in the comments below.
I’ve written a few times about infographic resumes on Mashable, and each time, I feel like a hypocrite, because I don’t have an infographic resume. Well, folks, not anymore!
Freelance designer Snow White Powers designed my new infographic resume (embedded below). I enlisted her help, because she did an amazing job redesigning my business cards last year. I asked her to maintain my business card theme in the new resume template, and I’m really pleased with it.
Use the zoom buttons to see it more clearly. What do you think? Let me know in the comments!
Many of the pitches that I receive from PR professionals are irrelevant to my work, but every now and then, a gem of a pitch will surface in my inbox. Great PR people know how to put together a fitting pitch. Some of the essential elements of a great pitch include:
Relevancy: Nobody wants to read an email that doesn’t apply to them. Instead of sending blanket pitches to everyone in your address book, make an effort to understand the coverage area of each journalist you contact. That way, you’ll be more likely to strike a positive chord when you send out related news.
Succinctness: We’ve all heard of the elevator pitch. If you can sell your product or idea in just a few sentences, you’re armed to pitch it anywhere, even in only 15 seconds or so. Use that same philosophy with emails. Keep the pitch under three or four sentences, and you’ll save yourself and your reader a lot of time.
Directness: Assume that your reader knows nothing about the product or service you are pitching. Furthermore, explicitly state why the product is a fit for coverage on his or her site. When you clearly explain why his or her readers would be interested in the news, you make it easier tp visualize why it is (or isn’t) a fit.
Below are five examples of great pitches that I’ve received over the past year as a journalist at Mashable, a social and digital news site. The pitches are listed with the subject lines of the emails and include a few pointers about what made them so effective.
1. I Loves Exclusives: “Exclusive for Tues – Social Breakup research”
The sexiest word in PR language is “exclusive.” When I receive an email with the word “exclusive” in the subject line, my eyes light up and I click with glee to see what could be in store for my next piece.
Not every “exclusive” pitch is a fit, but it is always impressive when a PR professional takes the time to choose one media outlet to give the honor of reporting first on a piece of news. My day gets a little brighter when I am the reporter on the other end of an exclusive pitch, whether it’s a fit or not.
Cybele Diamandopoulos of FOLIO Communications Group recently sent an exclusive pitch regarding a recent social media study. The pitch was actually addressed to another Mashable editor, but it was forwarded my way, as it was a better fit for my coverage area (business and marketing).
The pitch was a perfect fit for Mashable as it outlined the top reasons why consumers unsubscribe via email, Facebook and Twitter. Naturally, I read on.
Diamandopoulos’s email was enhanced by the fact that she outlined a few key findings from the research and noted that the full release would come packed with infographics, which would add visual appeal to the story.
2. Embargoes Welcome: “EMBARGOED GOWALLA INFO – SUNDANCE”
When an exclusive on a story isn’t possible, the next best thing is an embargo.
A news embargo is a request from a source that a particular piece of news not be published until a certain date and time, or under certain specified circumstances. Embargoes enable a journalist to reduce reporting errors by giving him or her enough time to research a news item before the agreed upon publishing time.
The downside to an embargo is that other news outlets are also given the heads up on the news. On the positive side, though, if the embargo is kept by all outlets, no one has the advantage of “getting the scoop first.” Sadly, there are a number of media companies out there that don’t honor embargo times and decide to publish prior to agreed times. In a perfect world, that type of behavior would be punished by PR professionals, who would then withhold future news from perpetrators. It appears that PR pros aren’t cracking down the whip, though, as the same publications continue to break embargoes.
I always look forward to receiving pitches from Frank Filiatrault of Allison & Partners. I have never received a pitch from him that wasn’t a fit for our site. This is a huge accomplishment, as most of the pitches I receive are irrelevant to our site’s core topics.
Filiatrault usually sends embargoed press releases complete with related images and a personalized email about why he’s sending the news to Mashable.
When he pitched an embargoed piece about a recent partnership between Gowalla and Sundance, he included a bullet point list of the key details. When I took on the piece, he was quick to send along the full press release and answer all of my clarifying questions.
3. Readers Come First: “Lot18 Funding Announcement (w/ Mashable invites)”
Mashable readers are the most important factor in all decisions that I make when choosing stories, writing and editing. I constantly ask myself, “Is this what our readers want/need?”
As a result, it is imperative for PR professionals to directly call out why a particular story is of value to our publication’s readers. In some cases, that means simply stating why the story is a fit for our audience. In other cases, it can mean offering our readers a perk that they won’t find elsewhere.
When Snooth Media‘s Engagement Manager Jesse Chemtob pitched me on the launch of Lot18, a sample sale site for wine, he offered up 1,000 invitations for Mashable readers. Being that Lot18 is exclusive and requires that hopefuls be invited by existing members, Chemtob’s offer was a pretty sweet deal for our readers.
Even better, Chemtob’s email was a total of five sentences in length to make it easy to digest. He attached the press release for further details.
I was happy to write the piece, as it was a fit for our site and had added value for our readers. Apparently it was a hit — within a few hours, all 1,000 invites were gone.
While the pitch wasn’t an exclusive or embargoed, it was relevant to Mashable‘s coverage and was very succinct. Luu explained the implications of the launch and outlined key details about the product, while also including a YouTube video which explained the product thoroughly. The video was a critical piece in answering some of the questions that I had about the product.
Extra resources, such as videos or product screenshots, are usually quite useful. I recommend sending them alongside a pitch, as long as they help showcase a product’s offerings and don’t clutter up the email.
5. Straight From the Source: “Mashable and Altimeter’s Upcoming Report”
In a four-sentence email, Altimeter Group‘s Industry Analyst Jeremiah Owyang piqued my interest in covering an upcoming report. His email began, “Are you interested in having a sneak preview of Altimeter’s next report (next week)? I’m open to letting Mashable have the exclusive if it makes sense.” The following two sentences explained the premise of the report. Easy peasy.
Key words: next report, sneak preview, exclusive
Not only was this a highly targeted exclusive pitch, but it came directly from Owyang, one of the analysts working on the report. Granted, not everyone has time to pitch his or her projects — that’s where PR professionals come in. But when an analyst has the time to contact a journalist directly, it makes communications easier, as there isn’t a middleman (or woman) to communicate through.
Owyang sent me the report in its drafted form and we set up an interview to go over any remaining questions I had. It’s as easy as that, folks.
There are a lot of mediocre PR pros out there, but I’ve been lucky to work with a handful of talented individuals who truly do make my job easier. Their pitches are always targeted, succinct and clearly written.
The above five examples represent some of the best pitches I’ve received over the past year.
Let me know which pitching tips you’d add in the comments below.
As a writer, I’m blessed to have PR peeps contacting me 24-7 about the latest, greatest news. Quite frequently, however, their pitches are bland and unrelated to my work. Many of the pitches I receive fall under one of the following categories:
Irrelevant: Mashable is a tech and digital news site, why do I get pitched by health insurance providers and car dealers?
Poorly Written: Typos are passable (not really), but please do not ramble. It’s confusing. Get to the point.
Too Lengthy: If all pitches could be less than four sentences, the world would be a better (more productive) place.
Boring: ENTERTAIN ME, PEOPLE! I stare at two computer screens for a living. Give me some action; don’t put me to sleep.
Annoying: If your pitch sounds like this (“Buzz word. Buzz word. Buzz word. Buzz word.”), I will delete it immediately.
After nearly a year at Mashable, I’ve accumulated a hefty load of email and tweet pitches and have developed a keen hate for a few overused phrases. Please help out the world and never use the following phrases in pitches to your favorite reporters. (Note: actual examples included below.)
1. & 2. “Circle Back” / “Follow Up”
Example: “I wanted to circle back with you and see if you had a chance to review the details below regarding our latest initiative.”
When a PR rep emails a reporter and doesn’t get a timely response, usually he or she assumes the reporter’s “email may not be working” or that perhaps the “email was caught by spam.” Usually this isn’t the case. Most likely, the pitch was dry, confusing or lengthy, and the writer didn’t have time yet to contemplate what in the world the message was.
In any case, hasty reps usually resend the email, in an attempt to “circle back.” Circling back (or following up) usually entails back tracking, though. You’ve just put yourself on my “annoying” list, lady.
3. “Put Out Some Feelers”
Example: “Just putting out some feelers to see if you’re interested in covering our startup.”
Gag. Are you a lobster? An ant? A slug? Ick. Please keep your feelers to yourself, creeper. Feel free to get back to me when you’re a human again.
4. “Gauge/Re-Gauge Your Interest”
Example: “Following up with you regarding our email exchange below to re-gauge you’re interest in speaking with [Company X].”
Much like putting out those good ol’ feelers, PR professionals often like to “gauge” a reporter’s interest on a particular topic. If the reporter doesn’t happen to respond, a follow-up email may ensue, in which the PR rep attempts to “re-gauge” the writer’s interest.
Yes, we’re glad that you’ve got our best interests in mind, but if we were truly interested, we’d probably be knocking at your door first.
Example: “Our startup is revolutionizing mobile video delivery to make it easy, fast and fun.” (From a little known startup that was founded in 2007.)
PR peeps love buzz words. “Hey! Let’s say our service is industry leading, revolutionary or groundbreaking! That will get ‘em to write about us!”
No. No, it won’t. That will get us to promptly delete your email or respond with a short “not interested.”
It’s especially saddening when a pitch is full of typos or requires me to read it thrice in order to understand it. Here’s one I received last winter: “This new line of Batteries are revolutionary that provide an opportunity for retailers to offer strong green stories and for consumers to do their part to help the environment without taxing their wallets to do so.” Yikes.
8. “Did you get my email?” / “I noticed you didn’t respond.”
Example: “How have you been? Did you get my email? I can resend it.”
If all other tactics fail, the average PR professional has one last option: resending… over. and. over. again. Usually, this method is accompanied by some amendment that asks if the reporter has received the email. Then, the PR rep tries to figure out what might have happened during the transmission process. Here are a few common excuses that PR pros use for resending pitches:
The PR rep fears that the reporter’s email provider might not be working correctly.
His or her crappy pitch might have fallen into the spam filter.
The reporter may have been too busy to read it, so they wanted to “put it back on her radar.”
The reporter might have accidentally deleted the email.
Message to all PR folks: email works. And when it doesn’t work, the email provider usually sends a message explaining the delivery error. It’s not the email provider, it’s you.
Conclusion
If you work in public relations, it a good idea not to completely annoy the reporters you work with. Try to limit the PR jargon and just be a human.
For some additional tips on pitching tech reporters in particular, check out this video from a panel I spoke on last winter about “Demystifying PR for Startups: Identifying Your Target Message and Your Reporter.”
Readers, let me know which PR pitch phrases you hate in the comments below!
Over the years, I’ve accumulated hundreds of t-shirts. Last year, I had the bright idea of turning them into t-shirt quilts. There are many quilters that focus on making t-shirt quilts — it turns out that it’s a big market, especially around graduation and winter holiday times.
After gathering all of my shirts together and separating them into categories, I researched about 10-15 t-shirt quilters online. I settled on T-Shirt-Quilts.com, which is owned by Blue Ribbon Quilt Co.
Co-owner Linda Lawson worked with me to choose quilt sizes, t-shirt order and material colors for the quilts. In the end, I settled on having four quilts made for distinct parts of my life: social media, travel, New York University and Paragould High School. Take a look at the quilts below and let me know what you think!
I put my social media swag to great use with this t-shirt quilt.
The largest quilt I ordered fits on a queen-sized bed and contains 36 t-shirts from my NYU days.
I used 30 of my high school t-shirts for this full-sized quilt.
While I’ve been to many more places than the ones represented on this quilt, I wanted to have a travel quilt made that focused on orange. Ta da!
Have you ever been invited to a party, but not realize it because it was sent only on Facebook? Or do you loathe the friend that just won’t stop IMing you during work for no reason (Maria, I’m not talking about you; I care about everything you say — it’s someone else)? Or does it pain you to call your grandma, when you’d rather be sending a weekly e-mail instead?
It seems as if every friend, family member and co-worker has a preferred method of communication. Check out the video above, created by comic animator Allen Mezquida, which addresses that problem quite humorously.
I’ve been a fan of Etsy, the marketplace for handmade goods, for quite a while, but until last week, I had only perused its pages. Well, my friends, I’ve become an official Etsy user, having purchased a luxury silk eye mask from Etsy seller BibBon, who makes her sleeping masks to order.
I received the mask last night and tried it out. It passed my quality assurance test with flying colors. The silk backing is smooth against my skin and eyes; the two adjustable straps made the fit just right; and the extra padding under the eyes isn’t just a gimmick — it actually does help shield out light.
I’m happy to finally say I’m an Etsy user, besides the usually browsing and gawking. Do you remember your first Etsy purchase? Share your story in the comments!
Morgan Johnston, Manager Corporate Communications at JetBlue, shared the company’s public 600-word “Blog and Social Networking Policy” with me. Take a look.
A comprehensive list of brands that have partnered with Foursquare to contribute location-relevant content.
About Me
Welcome to my blog! I’m Erica Swallow, an editorial assistant at Mashable.com. This blog is a collection of stories that I find intriguing. A lot of my posts center around my interests — the internet, food, wine, free stuff and events. If you have any questions or would like me to cover a particular topic in a post, email me at ericaswallow(at)gmail(dot)com.
For such a capitalist country, the United States does a horrible job of preparing its youth for the reality of life, where success is highly based on financial achievement.
Many of the pitches that I receive from PR professionals are irrelevant to my work, but every now and then, a gem of a pitch will surface in my inbox. Great PR people know how to put together a fitting pitch. Some of the essential elements of a great pitch include:
As a writer, I’m blessed to have PR peeps contacting me 24-7 about the latest, greatest news. Quite frequently, however, their pitches are bland and unrelated to my work. Many of the pitches I receive fall under one of the following categories:
