This is the fabulous Dawn Hampton, performing on June 6th, at her 80th birthday party at Dance Manhattan in NYC. I've had the good fortune to attend several birthday parties in her honor and I hope there'll be many more.

The music she's dancing to is called Bonga.

My prayer for you, me, and everyone we love, is that our 80th birthday parties are as awesome as this one was. And to make sure that happens, please follow Dawn's good advice and Bonga! Swing on Dawn!

Don't miss this tap dance tribute to Dawn Hampton from the party. Rock on.

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And, in case you think this was a trick, here it is another video, and another and another.

What do brain surgeons know about cell phone safety that the rest of us don't?

Last week, three prominent neurosurgeons who were guests on his CNN show, told Larry King that they did not hold cell phones next to their ears. 'I think the safe practice,' said Dr. Keith Black, a surgeon at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, 'is to use an earpiece so you keep the microwave antenna away from your brain.' They don't mean Bluetooth. I use this one.

Popcorn, anyone?

via Food Goddess Ulli

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Grab your suntan lotion, your beach blanket, your enormous sunglasses, and your lipstick because 'a girl can't read that sort of thing without her lipstick.' But whatever you do, read Holly Would Dream, Karen Quinn's delightful new novel. (Yes, It's chicklit, but the good kind.)

Holly Would Dream is big fun, and I'm not just saying that because Benny Bix Ochman Labradoodle Puppy and I are immortalized in it. We both play ourselves, except I have my dream job of running a doggie boarding place. Benny can play himself, and I think maybe Kate Winslet or Bette Midler should play me in the movie. This would fulfill another dream of mine, where Benny works and I don't. Who do you think should play me in the movie?

Holly Would Dream is about a woman who wishes her life could be like an Audrey Hepburn romantic comedy and it feels a lot like a classic Hollywood movie that would star Cary Grant and, maybe, Grace Kelly.

When Quinn's second novel, Wife in the Fast Lane, was published, I created an online contest for her. Among the many fabulous prizes was the chance to become a character in then-unnamed next novel. There was intrigue and fun, cheating, and silliness, but the rightful winners were finally chosen from among more than 750 entries. They were:

Nichole Cannon who wrote the winning essay, and who becomes senior curator of the Costume Institute at the Met in the book.

Candice Broom another top dog at the Met, who did the winning contest video.

Elizabeth Blair, who wrote the winning one-liner and is portrayed as a hottie who tries to join the Mile High Club with Pops. Says Quinn, 'I asked Beth's permission before assigning her to such a floozy character.'

Last but not least, Holly called her character an 'unconscionable trout,' which is what someone called us when we created a funny blog ad maligning Anna Nicole Smith's death.

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Carnival Cruise Lines is in early talks with 'a major TV producer' about doing a TV sitcom, which would likely feature a cruise director in a central role, according to John Heald, [left] senior cruise director and author of an 'unofficial' Carnival Blog that reportedly gets millions of hits.

Heald hosted a special 'bloggers cruise' in January, leading some 700 hard-core fans on a seven-day cruise through the western Caribbean on the Carnival Freedom. And visitors to his blog are invited to make suggestions for the 2009 bloggers cruise.

Carnival needs a little levity, after deaths and illnesses aboard its cruises. But a search of Heald's blog turns up no news about passengers who were sick or any other incidents. It's a god news blog. The problem is, there's an elephant in the room.

What makes a corporate blog effective is to include the bad news with the good, explain how problems are being handled, and respond to readers' concerns in an open and honest way. It's high time for Carnival to get real.

Said one of my Twitter buds, John-Paul Micek 'Carnival shuld have series on A&E called 'Flip This Petri Dish' w # of peeps who get sick on their ships.'

Dell became very familiar with the need to get real very fast when they first started blogging and ignored negative news.

While Heald is charming, funny, and a good writer, his blog clearly is a Carnival blog and the disclaimer is just corporate crap:

Disclaimer
This is a personal weblog. The views and opinions expressed here represent my own (and those of some of the commentators that I have included) and not those of Carnival Corporation

And I'm Queen Elizabeth. Nice to meet ya.
Posted by BL Ochman

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Just because you can print an ad on a dry cleaning bag doesn't mean you should. If you ask me, it's irresponsible of a printer to advertise printing on dry cleaning bags. I'm not naming the printer because I'm sure they're not evil, just not particularly conscious of what's going on in the world. And that's plenty of reason not to do business with them.

For consumers, going green and refusing the bag is the better strategy. For the dry cleaning industry, not forcing consumers to take bags, and certainly not putting one around every item is the greener way to go.

Here's an environmentally friendly, much more profitable option because hangers don't get thrown out after one use. EcoHangers are made with vegetable dies and are almost 100% post consumer content. Yes, they come with ads, but at least they help replace the 100% recyclable and help replace 3.5 billion wire hangers that end up in US landfills each year.

Plastic dry cleaning bags are more than just an environmental hazard, they're dangerous to children and pets, who can be smothered in them. Environmental Outrage has suggestions for steps dry cleaners should be taking:

1. AT LEAST have a plastic bag recycling center in a prominent place in your store.

Posted by B.L. Ochman

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Symantec is in the midst of launching Norton Today, a new wannabe cool 'social media' site for Norton internet security products which - doh! - you don't seem to be able to buy without going to ANOTHER SITE!

Dear Symantec: You need a tab for your products on the Norton Today nav bar at the top of the page and the side and bottom too.

But what really counts is service. Perhaps you plan to bring yours back from India? Or make your renewals actually work through your site instead of forcing customers to call India? Maybe now your software won't freeze computers or hog their memory? And will you also promise that you'll will never again infect millions of computers with viruses and blame it on someone else?

Symantec has made forays into potential coolness before, but its service has continued to suck. That's a deal breaker.

Social media isn't just about being cool. Before you can use social media effectively, you need to deliver on your promises, make products that do what they say they will, and provide good service. Then you'll actually be one of the cool companies and people will want to interact with your company. Posted by B.L. Ochman.

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Sachi and Lee LeFever of CommonCraft strike again with 'Social Media in Plain English.' Bravo!

CommonCraft's product is simple explanation of complex ideas. And they are great at it.

You can follow the blogs of hundreds of self-proclaimed social media experts, (most of whom have not created a single actual social media client projects), you can buy one of the dozens of books that try to explain social media; read a hundred magazine articles about social media; or you can watch this quick, cute, smart video and understand why social media has caused a sea change in marketing, both online and off.

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Yikes! Benny really does look like an Ewok!

via Fleet of Worlds

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Wow! I love, love, love this recommendation that John Counsel wrote about me on LinkedIn.

“If you like creative, ethical, disciplined, personable professionals with a straight-talking, take-no-prisoners style, and if you admire smart, sassy, scintillating, sensitive women, look no further than B. L. Ochman. Intimidating she may be to mortals of lesser clay, but she's the real deal, in every way. And she's a whole lot of fun to have along for the ride. :D” May 29, 2008

Top qualities: Great Results, Expert, High Integrity
John Counsel
hired BL as a Business Consultant in 2,002

After 9/11, John created a website that organized literally thousands of people to help me battle my landlord. He's the bee's knees in my book. Scroll down a bit to read the story here.

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I just shot some disaster porn from as close as police would let me get - about a block away. Spoke to people from the building that was hit. I'm writing about it on Twitter and will post photos shortly.

There's danger that the rest of the crane will fall and they are trying to secure it now.

People tell me their pets are in the building that was hit and they're not being allowed to go in to get them out. Emergency personnel just don't get that pets are family members. That needs to change.

Follow my updates on Twitter. http://twitter.com/whatsnext

More photos on Flickr

Photo: B.L. Ochman

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My friend Lee Hornick picked the restaurant where Clickz marketing columnist Heidi Cohen and he and I had lunch today. We went to Bar 89 on Mercer St in Soho. Salads were great, but the unisex bathrooms, as you can see from the photo, are completely crazy.

As you approach the bathrooms, you see these transparent glass doors. It's fun watching newbies trying to decide if they really have to go that bad. The designer of the space definitely had an offbeat sense of humor.

I can hardly wait to bring someone who's really uptight there for lunch.

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I've been earnestly blogging about hair extensions for a couple of months at the No More Bad Hair Days Blog I created for the makers of Ultima Natural Protein Hair. Traffic has been slowly but steadily rising. Yesterday, a rather silly post about how I'd used Benny Bix Ochman Labradoodle's conditioner on my own curly hair, produced a major traffic spike, doubling our greatest previous number of page views.

My experience over six years of publishing What's Next Blog and blogs I've created for other clients is that a spike often leads to a permanent traffic hike. The kinds of posts that spike traffic include those that:

o Tell a story by personal example
o Include helpful advice
o Have a sense of humor
o Are not common knowledge
o Are self-effacing
o Include cute photos or videos
o Include lists :>)

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Using her Flip camera, Toby Bloomberg of Diva Marketing Blog, has been running around the country asking marketers 'What does social media mean to you?' When she and Connie Reece were here for dinner, she asked me:

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Knotheads.com and Bag Borrow or Steal are two little companies who are betting that a combination of Internet marketing and traditional PR can be their ticket to stardom.

Knot Heads launched March 19, 2008, selling a bendable hair accessory meant to replace rubber bands, bobby pins, barrettes and the dreaded claw! Bag Borrow or Steal's been around since 2004, has venture funding, and is hoping to hit the big-time thanks to a 10-second mention in the 'Sex and the City' movie.

Knot Heads, the brainchild of Jessica Law, a hairstylist, and her orthodontist husband, Scott Law, Internet marketing newbies, who seem to have good instincts. Thanks to their hard-working publicist, they've already been on 'Dancing with the Stars,' and in Shape Magazine, and will soon be featured in Seventeen, and Modern Bride.

'We're trying to make the best business decisions,' says Law. 'QVC and Home Shopping Network want Knot Heads, and there's interest in Japan and from lots of large distributors. She says their site will be re-launched on May 28th, since the current flash-laden site was just 'thrown up.'

'Posts in blogs have been the absolute best way to drive traffic to our site,' she says. They're doing promotions with a host of blogs, including What's Next Blog. You can get 15% off Knot Heads with the code next if you use Google Checkout. Instructions are at the end of this post.

Bag Borrow or Steal, founded in 2004, recently raised an additional $15 from Steelpoint Capital in 2007. It has 450,000 members who can borrow from 3,000 authentic styles of handbags, 650 styles of jewelry from more than 100 designers, including Chanel, Gucci, Prada, Louis Vuitton, Coach, Stephen Dweck and Vera Wang, and coming soon, designer sunglasses.

In the 'Sex and the City Movie,' Bag Borrow or Steal execs told the Wall St. Journal that Carrie's assistant admits she borrows her expensive bags from Bag Borrow or Steal. The company is hoping that one 10-second line will cause a huge boost in its business - the way Carrie penchant for Manolo Blahnik's did for the pricey stilettos.

To prepare for what they hope will be an online onslaught, they've added a Sex and the City Shop to the site, and added extra server capacity in case of a rush of orders. It's also possible that they end up over-ordering or running short, since they don't know which items made the final cut into the film. They ran a Sex and the City YouTube video contest that got only 60 entries, probably because it was not well-promoted.

The Wall St Journal story is likely to start a flood of publicity, but unless they do expert SEO and start advertising and promoting on other sites and blogs, they could have a hard time driving traffic to the site.

Here's how to get the No More Bad Hair Days Blog readers' 15% discount on Knot Heads:

1. Make your selection at the Knot Heads online shop
2. Click on'Google checkout' when you are ready to pay


3. Type in the word next in the discount code box when you check out and the discount will be applied.

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While visiting a friend, we ended up at the Guttenberg, NJ Memorial Day Parade. A (left) a Major in the NJ National Guard 50th Combat Infantry Team which will be leaving for Iraq before the end of summer, stands before the town's Veteran's Memorial next to the town's oldest living World War Two veteran.

There was singing, and twirlers; boy scouts, fire engines, the sheriff, and the police; plus soldiers and Marines from the town. And the speech that brought it home:

The sister of a young man who died in Iraq told us about her brother. He had given up his leave to take over for another soldier who had a death in the family. 'Because,' she said, 'soldiers take care of each other.'

Her brother was one of five soldiers killed that day by roadside bombs. She said that when she heard the knock, and saw the soldiers in dress greens, she was doubled over screaming before they even said 'We regret to inform you....'

Then the Major, who looked about 25, with his young son beside him at the podium, told the assembled crowd that half of the NJ National Guard - 4,000 men and women - will be deployed to Iraq before the end of summer.

I know that each of them believes he or she is doing to right thing for our country, and I support them with all my heart. But that doesn't stop me from hating the war or the politicians who wage it.

All I could think about when the young Major spoke was the announcer on NPR this morning who mentioned that President Bush recently said that he wanted to feel that he had sacrificed something for the war, so he gave up golf for the duration. 'The president said he didn't want families of dead soldiers to see him enjoying himself on the links.' You can't make this stuff up. The president, that moron really said that.

Related: On 9/11, for the Boys

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That's my Australian Labradoodle puppy, Benny Bix Ochman, this morning in Central Park.

Much as I hate to do it, he'll get a summer haircut in a few weeks.

Taken with Nikon D80, loaned to me in Nikon's Blogger Outreach Campaign

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I was interviewed by Twitter today because I'm a devoted business and personal user of the service. Julie Haddon, who's been Twitter's director of Marketing & Business Development since March, contacted me over the weekend, emailing:

'We're excited to tell you about a new Marketing campaign were working on over at Twitter and we want you to be a part of it!

Next week, we're going to be filming and interviewing some of our Twitter fans for a small compilation trailer reel that we'll be showcasing on our site (potentially other places on the web, conferences, etc.)...And we'd like you to include you.'

Also featured, :>) was IAMCJAY, who's shirtless in his Twitter photo, fabulouslaura, and Alana Taylor, an intern at the Tyra Banks show, who tweeted that she sang a song about Twitter on camera. Sure to be an interesting mix of viewpoints. I guess I was there as the grownup.

Julie used my camera to shoot this little video that I edited with iMovie. I had hoped to ask questions about Twitter's recent major outages, but, maddeningly, she insisted she wasn't the right person to answer questions from me and other frustrated Twitter users who sent me their questions before I went to the filming.

Happily, Twitter developer Alex Payne wrote a post about Twitter's architectural challenges, and Jack Dorsey posted about the issues in Twitter's blog, which has previously been evasive on scaling issues. He suggests, heh, that we follow Twitter's official account on the service, which is down about 1/3 of the time lately. Follow me on Twitter.
Bonus Link - The ultimate social network?

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Depending on who you talk to, Twitter is either a revolutionary new communication utility, a waste of time, or both. Personally, Like many bloggers, corporate CEOs, journalists, and organizations from the Red Cross to Dell, Zappos, Southwest Airlines, and H&R Block, I love Twitter, and use it daily as a source of news, resources, advice, events, fun, and trends.

Nonetheless, Twitter's almost daily outages and frustrating burps lead to much grumbling among the digerati. In fact, it's reminiscent of the days when we sat in front of our computers for protracted periods of time waiting for our dial-up connections to open a website or our email. It's annoying, to say the least, but what new platform isn't?

Why stick around? Many of us have a great deal of time invested in Twitter's revolutionary new platform. And, after all, it's free, so we put up with Twitter's ups and frequent downs: so far.

Yesterday, that came close to changing.
Twitter, which has been mysterious and unresponsive about its frequent technical issues, finally realized that a tipping point had been reached. The choice: respond, or risk mutiny.

Better late than never, Twitter employees responded in a way that demonstrates how much the relationship between companies and consumers has changed.

An error message on Twitter.com directed members to another social network,GetSatisfaction.com, where they explained the database problems they're experiencing while trying to scale up the platform. Get Satisfaction's is 'a neutral space to support customers, exchange ideas, and get feedback about their products and services.'

As social media has demonstrated, companies that listen to customers, and who respond by making changes, or, at the very least, explaining their side, have much to gain and little to lose and much to gain.

The benefit is that when your company becomes a trusted member of an online community, you can easily respond to the concerns of customers, media, analysts and other stakeholders because as an active participant in social media, you can listen and be heard. Otherwise, you're toast.

Related:
The Beauty, Secret and Utilities of Twitter for Business
Steve Baker, BusinessWeek 'Why Twitter Matters'
Mack Collier: Twitter Goes Down, No One Tells Is Why...

Follow me on Twitter

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For the second time today, I encountered a site that made visitors upgrade to the latest version of Flash (9.0) before they could see a new feature.

The first was Jacquie Lawson's latest e-card and the second was TacoBell, which has a way cool interactive rap rhyme game to promote its low prices.

Given that 93% of computers already have Flash 9.0 installed, requiring the latest version of the software shouldn't be a big deal. But, as Lawson said in an email, 'it's the remaining 7% that we're worried about.'

'...there comes a time when even technological dinosaurs like us have to move on, and the latest version of Flash would enable Jacquie and the team to draw much smoother, more realistic and convincing animations, as well as making it quicker and easier to view the cards,' Lawson wrote, adding 'Please be assured that to do so is perfectly safe and free of charge.'

For all the geeks online, there also are millions of senior citizens; technophobes; people who've never downloaded software themselves and who are afraid they'll break their computer if they do.

Think about them next time you add a really cool feature to a website. Make sure the instructions are completely clear to non-geeks. After all, you don't want to end up preaching only to the choir.

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via Karen Strauss

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