Best viewed in Google Chrome, the site prompts users to enter the address of the home in which they were raised and images of their neighborhood appear in front of them played to the band’s The Suburbs single “We Used to Wait.”

The multi-browser movie ends with the opportunity to draft a letter to your childhood self. To begin the hyper-personal and somewhat creepy experience, visit thewildernessdowntown.com.

With mounting pressure on school systems and parents, 826 writing centers help bridge the gap for students and families by providing free, one-on-one attention and writing help to all young people ages 6 through 18.

826 chapters are asking everyone to donate $8.26 on 8/26 to support youth literacy in their city. They’ve developed a multi-pronged online strategy to get people mobilized. Here are all the ways they’ve set up for folks to donate:

• Donate via SMS with a mobile device – users can text "WRITE" to 20222 to make a one-time donation of $10 on August 26th.
  
• PayPal integration at 826on826.org that lets users donate $8.26


• Facebook Donation Application – download the app and enter your cell number to dontate $8.26

826 National is also using Facebook and Twitter channels across all regional 826 operations to get the word out. Participants can like or follow 826Michigan on:

• Facebook


• Twitter

Check out the campaign today and donate if you can. This is a great example of how regional and national non-profits are using social media to secure donations and spread the word about a cause.

To learn more about 826 National and its chapters across the US, click here.

Is it possible for a new search engine to stand out against giant Google? Ecosia, founded a few months ago, is attempting just that by marketing itself as a green search engine. Ecosia servers run on green electricity and 80 percent of the search engine's income will be donated to the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). Yahoo and Bing are providing Ecosia with search results and sponsored links. On average, each search on Ecosia saves 21.5 square feet of rain forest. The WWF said in a press release that the average Internet user could protect about 21,500 square feet of rain forest every year by using Ecosia, which is about the size of an ice hockey rink.

There's a great piece on Bulldog Reporter by JetBlue's Director of Corporate Communications, Jenny Dervin, on how the company is navigating its recent crisis. Last week, one of JetBlue's flight attendants fulfilled every working stiff's fantasy of telling off his customers and walking off the job site - in this case, grabbing a beer and sliding down the airplane chute! Dervin nicely recaps both the praise and criticisms of JetBlue's PR response and reveals the company's strategy before ending with a request from feedback from the corp comm community at large.

Applause for Dervin and Bulldog Reporter, and I'd add this is required reading for anyone in our industry. Weightier minds than mine with more experience than I have in crisis PR would better serve this topic but my one quibble with JetBlue's performance so far is that they should have moved quicker, something Dervin admits. Crisis 101 for social media teaches us that since news is real time companies should issue a statement immediately, even if it's only a statement that says they can reveal nothing pending an investigation and that a more detailed statement is forthcoming. Maybe another lesson is that since air travel is an industry fraught with emotions the company should have had a faster response time in place - although who could have predicted this?

I gotta admit, grabbing the beer was a nice touch.

So when JetBlue flight attendant Steven Slater made his dramatic exit from a company plane this week – taking to the intercom and berating passengers before deploying the emergency-exit slide and deplaning with a Heineken in his hand – the airline found itself in an unusual position.

Advertising Age looked at JetBlue’s curiously quiet response to the story.

While the Internets are ablaze with the story, JetBlue has remained almost entirely silent. There’s no mention of the incident on the company’s Facebook page and only a vague reference to it on the JetBlue corporate blog. Meanwhile, the only tweets it’s issued about it are of the “no comment” variety.

"One of the difficulties they are facing is they have to reconcile the contradiction between the public's expectations that they are going to get the full story from JetBlue immediately, especially based on JetBlue's history," said Jonathan Bellinger, VP-social media strategy at Omnicom Group's Ketchum said.

It should be interesting to see how JetBlue reacts to the story over time.

HTML5 is being thrown about as a buzzword to include all kinds of emerging open web technologies. Things like CSS3, geolocation, SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics), Web APIs and even mobile are being grouped in under the umbrella of HTML5. Even Apple's own HTML5 gallery, designed to show off their browser's support for HTML5, famously did little to clarify the situation (only two of their seven demos actually show off HTML5 features). This is definitely not the first time the web development industry has had a potentially inaccurate name slapped on new technology. Just like back in the dark ages (way back around 2004) "AJAX" was the term on everyone's lips. It originally stood for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML, and was basically a method for web applications to retrieve data from the server and update the page without a complete page refresh, but it was inaccurately applied to everything from simple JavaScript animations to glossy button graphics. Despite the confusion, the demand for "AJAX-y" sites enabled programmers to innovate and perfect techniques that have shaped modern web development.

So, while some developers argue that we need to clarify the difference between the hype and the technology, maybe the misuse of "HTML5" as an industry buzzword isn't a bad thing after all. Ultimately, what could be an annoyance to developers could end up being the saving grace of the open web. Seattle area web developer, Jeff Croft, sums it up perfectly: "But who cares? Ultimately, the coining of "AJAX," and it’s (mis)use got us into building a lot of awesome things that are useful to regular people. Today, "HTML5" is doing the same thing. That’s something to be stoked, not upset, about."

Developers at Twitter found the stock image and decided to use it on their 404 page. The Twitter team thought it was a fitting depiction of their efforts to solve scalability issues, replacing their former 404 image – an LOLcat.

Unfortunately, the Fail Whale has become an image of frustration for many, which was never Lu’s intention.

“I hate the name Fail Whale," she said. "Really, I do hate it … I’m like, ‘It’s not a Fail Whale, it’s like, originally, just a message for my friends far away and it has absolutely nothing to do with failure.' "

I’ve been involved in the hiring and management of interns and AE-level positions before and I see a definite trend occurring. Here’s what I think the well rounded PR professional should have these days when it comes to social media, recognizing that not all candidates for entry level positions will have had a chance to try their hand in all areas, and here’s where I’m seeing the most experience on the applicants I’m reviewing. If you can use this as a checklist for your own skills or the skills of those you should be hiring, I’ll have contributed something valuable indeed – after all, I think the nature of our work on the digital side of PR and communications is evolving so rapidly that no one has had a chance to nail down what comprises the “compleat” professional.

1) Personal social media use. This one’s a given. Used to be that when we’d ask applicants about their experience in social media they’d always disregard their personal use of it as irrelevant. Not so these days. It’s more common to hear that applicants are personal consumers of blogs and blogging, Facebook, Twitter and others.

2) Content creation. Often, this is where applicants shine. They’ve been taught to write and sometimes produce video and graphics in school and have had a chance to produce materials either as students or young professionals. News and feature writing at college papers (print and online), email newsletters, blogging (professionally or as a hobby) are in evidence on the resumes I’m seeing.

3) Community management. Another area where entry-level applicants seem to have the most experience. I’ve noticed that often, daily management of Facebook and Twitter pages are seen by some companies as a junior function. I sometimes feel companies go, “I don’t get our Facebook page or see much value in it – give it to the intern.” A lot of the entry-level applicants I’m seeing have babysat and sometimes driven the strategy for these platforms.

4) Client training and policy development. A good opportunity for professionals at this level to grow is in the development of documentation for clients on what social media is and how it can be used. To be sure, at firms like ours the POV paper or official social media policy is a document involving the highest level of skill, authority and collaboration. But I’m seeing a lot of applicants that had to determine what some aspect of social media was and write up a memo for their supervisor or client and provide training in its use.

5) Outreach. This is a skill usually missing in the applicants I see. Maybe it’s that few firms seem to do influencer outreach aka social media relations the way we here at MSL Digital do, but very few people I interview have “pitched bloggers” and other influencers to any great degree. Now, I’m a big believer in training, coaching and mentoring and believe anyone can be taught, but when I’m looking for someone to contribute to our pitch teams I’m usually more drawn to someone from a traditional media relations background, someone that loves to pitch (and many PR people, ahem, do not love to pitch). We’ve had a lot of success adapting traditional practitioners of this craft to social media.

I have a confession to make. I've been poking fun at the social media blogosphere for its numerous blog posts with this theme - X things Y can teach you about social media. I've derided them for their lack of creativity and repetitiveness. But I like them. I have a hard time keeping up with all the valuable insights and information in the blogosphere on our industry and I have to admit that Z things-themed articles make it easy for me to digest good ideas and give my own creativity a little jump. I can always pursue specific ideas that these articles bring to my attention through search and networking with my peers, or file something away for later.

So with tongue firmly in cheek and my apologies, I give you: Eight Lessons the Wu Tang Clan can teach you about social media. Please watch for my future BlogWorks articles: "11 Business Truths Revealed by the Talking Heads" and "James Brown's Five-Point Innovation Manifesto."

1) A Game of Chess is Like a Sword Fight; You Must Think Before You Move.



Obvious, really! Cull insights from relevant sources and develop a clear strategy before engaging in social media.



2) My Peoples Are You With Me Where You At? 



Identify the influencers, evangelists and advocates relevant to your attack. I mean, program.



3) Killa Bees, They On a Swarm



It's true. Social media participants often operate in large numbers that resemble a cloud of deadly insects.



4) Cash Moves Everything Around Me - CREAM! Get the Money, Dolla Dolla Bill, Yaw



Keeping client relations and a sustainable revenue stream foremost is of great benefit to one's business. Bottom line, really, keep your eye on it, Tical.



5) They Call Me The Ol' Dirty Bastard, Cuz There Ain't No Father to My Style



Social media demands true originality. In truth, push the envelope and do something unique, yet effective. Shame uh yuh, for anything less.



6) Protec' Ya Neck!

Define clear goals and ways to measure success. Seriously, you don't wanna get your head chopped off. That is, you don't want your KPIs aversely affected.



7) Everybody Wants to Talk About the Good Ol' Days, the Good Ol' Days



Nostalgia! A powerful force and reference point.



8) Where My Killer Tape At?

Once you earn an influencer's trust, don't abuse it. Seriously, how you gonna lose Meth's tape when he let you hold it?



In April 2010, custom social network service Ning decided that it is going to start charging and do away with its free service. Beginning August 20, Ning will charge for usage of their custom social network platform:

As you can imagine, this decision by Ning caused (and is still causing) quite a stir among users and administrators of such networks. Even if it’s only $2.95, many administrators of smaller groups are unwilling to pay for it, and many are struggling to find effective Ning alternatives, especially nonprofits and “cause” networks.

Well, have no fear, activists -- Switzerland-based Amazee is stepping up the plate and offering FREE Ning migration service to its platform.

What is Amazee, you ask? Though it hasn’t caught on in the United States (yet), it’s a popular custom platform for projects and reaching goals, whether it’s fundraising or non-monetary aspirations. It’s very popular in Europe, South Africa, and elsewhere in the world.

Here’s a quick video Amazee made explaining the benefits of migrating to their platform:

Welcome, Ning refugees! from Amazee on Vimeo.

From Amazee’s blog:

First of all you’ll get a lot of the features on Amazee which you’ve been accustomed to on Ning: You’ll be able to post blog entries, upload pictures and embed videos, you’ll have your own forums for discussion, and have a good overview over who’s doing what in your group and on the platform.

Next to that we are taking your Ning experience to the max: There is no limit to the number of members a group can have (Ning only allows for 150), there are no limits on storage and bandwidth (Ning only allows you for 1GB and 10 GB respectively), you’ll be able to set up events and have people rsvp directly in your group (this is not possible at all at Ning) and you can add an unlimited number of RSS feeds and content boxes to your group (Ning has 1 and 3 respectively).

Furthermore we allow for maximum online collaboration and promotion by supporting a solid Facebook integration: You can easily recommend your group on Facebook, if you like you can even sign in to Amazee with your Facebook account. And the icing on the cake: You’ll get a reliable and competent community management on top of all that. For free, of course.

I’ve had an account at Amazee for over a year and have been (minimally) involved on this platform with a few projects in South Africa, and absolutely love the functionality of it. There are other Ning alternatives, like GroupSite and Mixxt, but personally, I don’t find the others very conducive to the needs of collaborative activism. Amazee, on the other hand, was designed for that very purpose.

So if you’ve got a cause-based community on Ning, don’t fret -- head on over to Amazee and they’ll make migration easy, painless, and free.

As a PR practitioner, with over eight years experience, now working in digital PR, I often find myself evaluating these pitches from a different point-of-view than most other bloggers.

Here at MS&L, my main responsibility is to pitch our clients’ products and services to bloggers. I work hard to craft clear, concise and compelling pitches. That’s why I am so shocked by how many bad pitches I receive.

Because I’m in PR, I try to give each and every pitch I receive (even the bad ones), the benefit of the doubt; because, I know that most times the product or service is a good one. Unfortunately, most bloggers aren’t like me. They’re not in PR, so they probably don’t even read the pitch because, on the surface, it doesn’t seem to be a fit, for their blog.

If you or your company has a product or service that you feel would be of interest to bloggers, take note of the following.

When sending a pitch, DO NOT:

Send a form pitch letter - I cannot stress how important it is, for your pitch to be individually catered to each and every blogger and their blog’s content. I’m not saying that you have to craft a new pitch every time, but adding some specific intro copy, would be good. For example, just this past week, I received two pitches for products for little girls. If they would’ve just spent a few minutes, looking around my blog, they would’ve realized that I have a 4-year-old boy and known not to send me the pitch.

• Ask the blogger to go to your website for more details – Most bloggers you pitch get several pitches per week. Some also have “real” jobs, in addition to blogging. They don’t have time to search around for information on every product that’s pitched to them. Always try to include all pertinent information, in your pitch.
• Send a pitch, with no call to action – Recently, I was emailed a press release for a product that I was really interested in. But the email didn’t include a request for product review. When sending a pitch, be sure to ask yourself, “Why would the blogger be interested in this product?” Be sure to include the answer, in your pitch.

Follow this advice, and hopefully, you’ll have more success pitching in the blogosphere.

Happy pitching!

Checking Facebook at work is about to get a whole lot easier for users of Outlook, as Microsoft prepares to launch new social integration features of the email client. If you’re willing to link your company email address to your account (which many people must in order to join professional Facebook networks), your status updates and profile image will appear along with any e-mail correspondence.

The ability to glean Facebook-housed information about a media contact or client could potentially be a great tool for public relations professionals, but it will have to be used carefully. The more public your profile becomes, the more carefully it’s content must be crafted (or censored).
For more information, read the Mashable exclusive here.

Whether you are thinking about self-publishing a book or trying to make a business case to a publisher, there's a quick way to evaluate the market for your book or e-book:

1) Go to Google's AdWords Keyword Tool

2) Type in the keyword phrase that best describes your topic

3) Google will tell you the approximate number of times that people search for your topic every month

For example, if you're considering to write a book about "growing bananas," you'll find that almost 2,000 people in the U.S. search for information on this topic every month, yet there's no book in print with this title.

Afterward, gorged on beans, rice, tamales, enchiladas, cookies, we had a go at busting a pinata on our back porch. With perhaps unexpected results. What must the neighbors think!

Part One:

Part Two:

So what does one have to do to stand out in a crowd of billions and billions? That’s a great question without a great answer. However, we did attempt to investigate it by scouring the Web high and low to pick out a handful of sites that have something on their site that really stuck out. Indeed our hypothesis was correct; there is, in fact, no magical formula to creating a killer website. But check out some of the ones that really stood out to us below. Are there any that you’d add to the list?

Cpbgroup.com
Why is this site so cool? It’s clean, it’s simple and yet packs a lot of cool and fun stuff into one location. Since most of the site is aggregated from various other sites, CP+B have very little control over it, calling it a “digital experiment.”

Almost.at
Why is this site so cool? Because it allows people to experience and “attend” events when they can’t physically be there. David, the site owner, picks random popular events/conferences/games/etc. and pulls in tweets, photos, videos and links related to the event. Cool part is, even if you miss the event live, you can relive the event at a later time using the timeline feature.

BooneOakley.com
Why is this site so cool? The site is a series of clickable YouTube videos. Not sure how that’s even possible, but try it out for yourself.

Prioritymail.com
Why is this site so cool? At first glance, you may be thinking...uh why? But, we put this on the list because it’s one of the first sites to integrate augmented reality, and for a good useful purpose too. Basically you use your webcam to pick out the right box size for the item(s) you’d like to ship. Genius.

DontClick.It
Why is this site so cool? Because it has no buttons! You literally use your mouse to navigate around the site, hovering is similar to clicking. Neat idea, but can you resist the click?

Pilothandwriting.com
Why is this site so cool? Ever wished you personally had your own font? You know, one that resembled your actual handwriting? Well, this site allows you to do just that. Using a print out that you write on, plus your camera you can type using your own handwriting as a font...and send handwritten notes as e-mails. The blend of traditional and digital is fantastic.