A public service message from Team Boston
Please support our efforts to cure cancer. http://bit.ly/bostonbeatcancer
What is Movember?
You may have noticed people walking around with additional (or in my case bigger and stranger) facial hair. These people are not trying to get in touch with their inner Joe Namath, they are involved in the fight against cancer. During the month of November, many of us have decided to band together and battle against men’s cancer. November is Movember.
The quick and dirty legend is that a group of guys were sitting together enjoying a few pints. Half were talking about giving back to the community and the other half were saying you know, I could grow a better Mo (moustache) than you can. You got your chocolate in my peanut butter and your peanut butter is in my chocolate. Wham. Movember is born.
Everyone Has a MOtivation
Everyone has their MOtivations. On the fun side, people style their Mo after someone ridiculous or famous. At the end is a gala where you dress up as your MOtivation.
We also have personal motivations. This year I learned that my uncle has stage 4 cancer throughout most of his body. It’s in his lungs, brain and spine among other places. He started with a melanoma on his neck and they thought they were able to take it all out. Unfortunately, it spread. I am fighting to improve treatments for others in a hope that we can keep them from suffering the way my uncle has and is.
Please consider donation of ANY amount. $1 $5 $10 $1000 $5000 $10000. If your company has a corporate giving program, I would love to talk to them. I will perform spectacle, create video or exchange time for donations. Want me to shave my head or go Brazilian? I’ll do it for $10K corporate donation. Be creative. Those of you who know me know that I am willing to do / eat just about anything for a laugh or just to create fun content to prove a point.
Team Boston
This year, we’ve assembled a group of marketers and social medialites in Boston to battle the forces of Team Austin. It’s billed as a competition, but it’s really a group of like minded souls who want to help bring attention to the need to destroy testicular and prostate cancer.
We started by shaving down to nothing
And we’ve all been shaving a little less than usual in an effort to raise money to fight this horrible disease. For the record, here are the team members and their Movember Space pages. You can donate to any of them and it supports Team Boston and cancer research.
I recently had the opportunity to represent Allen & Gerritsen in Marcia Gray’s Marketing and PR class at Boston College. The class was made up of about 45-50 juniors and seniors who are studying Marketing as part of their business curriculum.
Conversation
I started the class by talking about conversations. I told them that I was not there to lecture, but that I was a consultant and that I am used to having dialogues with my clients where they challenge my thinking. I assured them that I am not a social media expert by any means, but that I have some experience using social media that they could possibly benefit from. I then swallowed hard – half expecting that they would end up teaching me a thing or two. They did not disappoint me.
Poll
I started by polling them.
Who is using Facebook? 100% of the class raised their hands including Marcia and I.
MySpace? No one was willing to admit they own an account.
Foursquare? Huh?
Gowalla? Gowhatta?
The surprise was when I asked: Who is using Twitter?
Not more than 5 people. I expected 30-40%. I was off base. I bit my lip, fighting the urge to tell them why I thought that twitter was a necessity for them, and asked them why they weren’t using the platform. Here’s what they said:
- I’m already on Facebook. Twitter is just another platform. Why should I bother?
- It’s yet another distraction from school and real life.
- My friends don’t have anything interesting to say on Twitter.
- It’s tough to get started on Twitter. I don’t really get it.
- I don’t give a ______.
- You need to constantly leave Twitter to consume content.
- One person sighted a cost in Europe for cell phone bandwidth.
I told them that their reasons for avoiding twitter were fascinating. I encouraged them to join twitter because it would open doors for them that they might not otherwise be able open. I told them that it would give them the ability to find like-minded individuals that they would like to get to know, network with or do business with. It would also give them a platform to build an interested niche audience.
I think I got them thinking about using free tools to build relationships, promote themselves and potentially establish themselves as opinion leaders in subjects for which they are passionate.
Thanks Rebecca Sullivan for making it happen.
