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If you're not one of the 6.5 million to date who have seen the now famous YouTube video of the wedding ceremony that had the entrances of all the participants including the bride and groom choreographed (loosely) to the song, Forever, you might want to check it out before reading further. Even if you don't read further you might want to check it out, for a number of reasons:

It's fun to watch and there is a joy in the ceremony that is clearly infectious.

It's a great example of the viral nature of the Internet and YouTube.

And it's also a great example of what can come of something genuine, apparently without an ulterior motive or long range objective (except for some local exhibitionism). The bride was a dancer or had an interest in dancing, so for her wedding, she wanted everyone to dance into the ceremony. She wanted her wedding to be unique, memorable, to entertain her guests. And it did all that.

But like the best marketing campaigns (which it wasn't) it took on a life of itself. After the wedding, the guests wanted to tell others about it, so someone posted the video on YouTube and sent the link to the guests. The rest is history. It was so unique, that the guests had to share it with their friends and the friends with their friends and so on.

The bride and groom and the entire wedding party were invited on network TV shows. They recreated the opening entrances. And they weren't even selling anything (so far), but they could. Anyway, I digress. What's the point? What's the secret?

It was genuine. It was real. In life and in business, keeping it real is a reward unto itself and may bring other rewards, often unimagined.

I went to an old favorite restaurant the other night that I hadn't been to in a couple of years. Like most every other restaurant around, they were probably feeling the economic squeeze a bit and had probably cut back where they could. The night we arrived, however, the place was hopping, almost packed dining room, private party in a side room, and a line at the door. A line we waited in for too long. Management had decided to save money by eliminating the matre' d and the bartender, so you had to wait too long in a cramped space before being led to your table, and if you decided to wait at the bar, you waited for a bartender that never appeared.

Waiters were making drinks and paying scarce attention to customers at the bar, and making drinks themselves, they were constantly behind taking care of their customers at the tables. The result was a lot of unhappy patrons throughout the restaurant. Not exactly what you want to do when you're trying to generate business. And get customers to return.

It was a fine example of boneheaded, short term thinking. If you're going to run a service business, provide service. If you're going to manufacture or distribute products, do it right. If you can't afford to do it right, get a loan, or close your doors. Everyone will be better off in the long run. When the economy recovers, this particular restaurant owner will wonder why his customers didn't return. At a time when money was tight, and people looked for value on their hard earned or saved money like never before, he had let his most valuable asset, his customers, down.

Just saw a piece on CBS Sunday Morning about detoxing the body, that is ridding the body of all the toxic pollutants that are ingested from the air and the food we eat. A business associate of mine does this periodically, explaining the process in detail whether I ask or not. He swears by this ritual for his health and well-being. I don't doubt its efficacy, however, appearances notwithstanding.

One might think that credit card companies would jump at the opportunity to ferret out potential scam artists and fraud perpetrators. After all, they are constantly reminding customers of the enormous financial drain created by credit card abuse and theft, fueling an entire industry devoted to card security and identity protection. Well, I recently encountered a frustrating situation in which the sheer complexity and magnitude of a Fortune 500’s administrative maze swallowed my attempts to thwart a potential credit card scam.

Let me explain…

In addition to Message-On-Hold production and various other audio marketing services, one of Holdcom's core offerings includes voice prompt production for telephony IVR and voice mail systems. With the advent of our successful e-commerce solution for audio fulfillment, access to our affordable voice talent and recording services is readily available, and thousands of clients are Googling their way to our online audio production store.

As a result of this expanded audience and enhanced exposure, Holdcom's Script Department exercises a heightened degree of diligence in reviewing the content of every submitted script. Such a script ordered via a “powered by Holdcom” branded partner store recently caught the attention of one of our astute employees...not due to unusual content, but because of the suspicious source of the order. After all, it seemed peculiar that an individual with a shipping address listed as an apartment in Brooklyn, NY, with an AOL email address, had requested a set of automated attendant menu prompts for Citibank! This order, combined with a surge in fraudulent email-generated phone schemes designed to capture vital account information, immediately raised eyebrows. Upon initial investigation we were able to determine that the purchaser was not a client of the VoIP provider associated with the branded online store. In addition, our attempts to contact and elicit a response from the “customer” were futile.

After discussing the results of our internal “investigation” it was decided that a call to Citibank would not only be appropriate, but, as good corporate Samaritans, expected. After navigating through the typical automated IVR interrogation encountered at many financial service call centers, I finally found my way to a live representative. “Account number, please…” was her greeting. She politely listened to my explanation that I wasn’t a Citibank customer and was calling to report a potential case of fraud. “One moment, I’ll transfer you to our Fraud Department”, was her response. After a few seconds of less than productive, blaring music on hold I was greeted by another voice…”What’s your account number?” Again, I explained the nature of my call, only this time in more detail. “Oh, you need to report this to our Early Fraud Detection Division…please hold while I transfer you.” OK, so just as I’m getting ready to apply the “3 strikes and you’re out” rule, a new voice greets me…”Do you have an account number?” Summoning up what little was left of my good corporate Samaritan; I delivered what by then had become my “elevator” speech. “Well thank you for calling about this, Mr. Fishman... only I’ll have to have a Fraud investigation specialist get back to you.” After leaving several contact numbers and our company email address, I hung up feeling less than convinced that I’d get a follow up call.

That was a week ago and I have yet to hear from Citibank.

So…the next time you receive an email with a purported Citibank 800# directing you to call and provide your account information, beware! And, if you do call, and you do get an automated announcement, “Thanks for calling Citibank”, it just might be a scam…but it won’t be a Holdcom production!

I was about to shut off my computer and head to sleep when I found an article, 10 Amazing Sand Artists and their Artwork, on Digg.

One artist in particular, Ilana Yahav, stood out.

She doesn't manipulate with chisels or shovels, nor does she craft her art on the beach. She throws handfuls of sand on a fluorescent material and uses her fingers to create suns, sheep, doves, anything and everything.

Her art takes the medium of sculpting outside of its natural habitat. Instead of smushing millions of grains of sand together to make hardened sculptures, she creates work that changes every second. Traditional sand sculptures are static, while hers moves and flows, capturing the elusive qualities of sand. Her art is more of a performance than a final product.

Both presentations highlight the ephemeral nature of sand: the sculptures erode in a matter of hours because of the tide, while the latter can be shaken and dispersed, or a breeze could smudge the image.

This is what we need to do in business
This is what we need to do in life.

Evaluate the competition, study the medium, but always test our limits; look at projects from different angles, identify posssible problems, and figure out which solution would best fit.

Precedents don't work very well. They are cheap and easy. Each new day is individual and needs a new set of eyes.

Who knows, it could be high tide.

Checking up on the same blogs gets tiring after a while, so I decided to give myself a challenge. I wanted to find websites/blogs that provide unique services.

Demogirl is a prime example of a website that has capitalized on the Internet explosion of social applications. Demogirl "creates screencasts that help users get familiar with new web software", or in other words, they create a dummy account and test-drive applications, then share and review their findings.

Iminta acts like an RSS "Queen Bee" feed, where all of your social applications' updates gather. It resembles the "My World" page in Flock, as described in our previous entry Sound Wisdom: Flock Web Browser.

Profilactic is not what it sounds like (but it does offer protection from confusion!). You can find over 186 social applications and businesses listed in a presentable and easy-to-access display.

Just think, none of these services existed two-three years ago!

As the Dow uneventfully nudged its way into the third quarter today, one highly anticipated report from the automotive industry failed to meet expectations, much to the (temporary) relief of General Motors' investors, employees and executives. Many analysts had predicted that, for the first time ever, Toyota would trump GM in total US car sales for the past quarter. Surprisingly, and despite the dramatic Prius proliferation on American asphalt, GM retained its crown by a comfortable margin. I later discovered that Toyota's marketing and limited roll-out strategy for its flagship hybrid may have pulled in the reins on the photo finish forecast. So, at least until the next race, GM will hold on to its title and struggle to maintain its first place lead. Unfortunately the same can't be said for its waning market capitalization.

Today's focus on cars also featured a story about our most wanted four wheel "friends" and their increasingly expensive appetite for gasoline (Jacqueline Mitchell, Forbes.com). As the most-wanted sedan, we'd expect Toyota's Prius to lead the pack, particularly in light of its 46 mpg EPA rating. And that it did. However, would you believe that the gas-guzzling Lexus LX Series full-size luxury SUV took the 2nd place most-wanted position? Well, it did. I suppose anyone who would wait on line to fork over the $74,700 purchase price, would have no qualms about frequent refills for this 14 mpg "hog". Talk about extremes!





By Jacqueline Mitchell, Forbes.com

Audiomarketer has reaffirmed the necessity and value of speech in delivering effective communication (see "My Mother The Car"). But one questions whether technology is challenging its position in the hierarchy of human interaction. After all, "texting" is the rave...and youthful users seem to prefer this mode of digital "conversation" in lieu of their analog vocal chords. And so it is with instant messaging, which has enabled a generation of multi-taskers by stifling the spoken word and eliminating the need to listen. Not to mention that it completely removes visual stimulus (i.e. body language) which comprises a substantial and essential component of "whole" communication. Like food for the masses, our mass communication is hyper processed. The truncation of sentences, phrases and words is deconstructing our language. The art of communication is being transformed, and traditional oral and written conventions are being replaced by new icons conveying new meanings.

On the flip side, however, technology is fueling new opportunities for speech-enabled applications and solutions at an historical pace. Our audio marketing catalogue of products and services has expanded and diversified in ways we never imagined, driven by VoIP voice mail platforms, developments in IVR speech recognition and Telephony call processing; along with rich media websites, Internet audio, Flash and PowerPoint presentations, audio for Virtual Tours, E-training, etc. etc. So, when all is said and done, although technology has provided short cuts and efficiencies that may have contributed to linguistic abuse, it has also enabled new, improved venues for business communications and social networks.

I attempted to research web browsers and signed up for a one-day crash course, but it spontaneously ended at 4:04 pm.

What I gained from the course was invaluable information on what web-browsers not to use: Internet Explorer is passé and safari has the stability of an egg dropped on to a concrete sidewalk from 50 stories up.

Mozilla Firefox initially took the Internet by storm, supporting a built in email client, Thunderbird. It was fast, easy to use, but lacked innovation: cue the invention of hundreds of additional (mostly superfluous) applications that lay out web loopholes (such as downloading youtube videos, tracking multiple RSS feeds and converting file formats). Though it appears simple, finding user-friendly applications and incorporating the email client is a hassle.

Mozilla Firefox 3 has just been released and broke records, with almost 80 million downloads in the first 24 hours. However, upon reviewing its “new” features:

-comprehensive popup controls
- a tab browsing mode that lets you open several pages
- integrated search (powered by Google);
-a streamlined browser window

I was disappointed and chagrined to discover...well...a lack of things to discover!

I slammed my head against the keyboard several times in frustration. Somehow, I had typed in www.flock.com and to my surprise, it led me to a new web-browser.

In all seriousness, Flock is the dark horse of Web 2.0. It is the most productive, user-friendly, and up-to-date web browser. With a click of a button, you can subscribe to blogs, view media websites, save articles, and check up on social networking sites while browsing the page of your choice. Three distinct sidebars (that you can hide at any time) for media, blogs, and applications like twitter, Facebook, or Flickr, provide second-by-second live updates. You can drag and drop images to post on to the sidebar and poof! They appear on your website! Flock is as fast as Mozilla and doesn't crash like safari, and Mac or PC can support it.

Caution: This web-browser is specifically catered for internet-reared generation Y: the “social animals, shutterbugs, bloggers, media junkies, and news hounds”. Though at times the instant accessibility proves distracting, within a day you can adjust. This web browser blends business with pleasure in a productive, efficient, and fun way.