Tis the season as they say.  Already this week I posted about Tom Wilson raising money for LiveStrong (Lance Armstrong’s Foundation to fight cancer).  Well now there is another celebrity raising money. And before Lynn jumps to the conclusion that Drew is from Cincinnati (as she thought the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame was), he too is from Cleveland (Parma actually).  Drew I don’t hold that against you.

For my out of country friends who may not know Drew he is a stand up comedian who went on to have a series success with the Drew Carey Show (with a kick ass theme song from The Presidents of the United States), Whose Line is it Anyway, and now is the host of the Price is Right.

You can help Drew raise money for LiveStrong and it won’t cost you a dime.  Anyone with a Twitter account just needs to follow him.   His Twitter name is @DrewfromTV  (click the name and you’ll go right there).  He is trying to raise awareness and up to $1 Million dollars. For every follower he gets by the end of the year he will donate $1 to LiveStrong. Check out his blog post for his hilarious self deprecating guilt.

Right now he is just under 250,000 followers so head over there and force a celebrity to spread his wealth.

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It’s been a frenetic 7 days of competition since our last mo’gress update and, with just 120 hours of growth time left until we call Movember proceedings to a halt, its time to look at the leaderboard in a little more detail.

However, before we do, lets not forget that this is a charity effort. To date, the US and UK offices combined have raised a whopping $7,058.87 (4,225 pounds) for prostate cancer and LIVESTRONG. However that is still 3K off our grand target of $10,000 (or, depending on how you look at it, $2,000 more than the actual target we agreed before a member of the Mo team got confused, doubled it, then emailed the world.) Regardless, Thanks to everyone that’s donated to date. Those that are still feeling generous, can give to the US team here and the UK team here.

Anyway, back to that leaderboard…

The Leaders

#1: Antony Hynes Esq, Bite San Francisco: despite some stiff competition, Tony’s retaining top spot on the West Coast. He’s been likened to a fast food chef, 70’s sports commentator and truck driver however, with this morning’s adornment of green headwear, there’s only one true comparison.

Tone reconsiders that career as a plumber

The smart money is still on Hynes to take the title.

#2. Thomas Plainview Berry Jnr, Bite London: Tom lost top spot in the regional London heat last week but has regained the lead thanks largely thanks to the rest of the challengers forgetting to submit a pic. Tom is promising extensive grooming, trimming and waxing over the next few days for the final presentation on Monday.

Tom does his best "Day-Lewis"

He has also assured us that There Will Be Blood if that doesn’t help him take top spot overall.

#3. Ari Entin, Bite New York: The week didn’t get off to the best start for Entin being asked on Monday if “Ari was a girls name?” (short for Ariana?) however things have improved dramatically pre-Thanksgiving with him retaining the New York lead and moving into third spot globally. Let’s not forget Ari didn’t even enter the race till November 10th and has still eclipsed most of the pack AND still has a very real chance of challenging for the #1 spot.

Entin and the Bandit

Okay, so the final lookey like was weak but its the best I could do under pressure.

The Challengers

Hovering just outside are these four characters. Judged on volume, consistency and design they’re outside bets for the title but any one could still break into the top 3. 

Lederer - McLernon - Mack - Patel (grimace optional)

Lederer is solid. McLernon and Patel both look like they could wear muzzy’s any month of the year and still get away with it. Mack just looks like he should be kept away from polite society and animals.

And the Rest

The rest of the field presents no real challenge for the official title of “Man of Movember” however we guess you want to see them anyway:

Best of the Rest

And yes, Matt Basford (2nd from top, far right) really does wear a bandana when he’s outside the workplace. Tune in next Monday for the final global update where Bite Communications “Mr Movember 2009″ will be crowned.  We are already on the edge of our seats.

As a footnote, Bite San Francisco held a hugely entertaining Mo Party last night to bump up the coffers. I will, however, save those highlights for a separate post.

So twitter huh? Well if you have not heard of it by now and mentioned it in at least one conversation you must have been living a media free life! If you are a business owner or perhaps somebody within a business that may at some point be asked to take a look at using twitter in an attempt to promote the business, there are many things that you have to consider before taking the plunge. I am going to run through what I feel are the major considerations, hopefully somebody out there finds this useful!

1 – Decide what you want to achieve!

Many a business has made the mistake of opening up a twitter profile, firing out a few tweets and before they know it they run out of things to say and lose any initial engagement that they may have gained. You have to work out what you are considering using twitter for.

Your first thought may well be – ‘I want to use twitter to drive traffic to my site and of course increase sales revenue’ sounds ideal right? Well achieving this will be much harder than you think. You should work around a basis of raising awareness of your business/product/service, but what else can twitter do for you?

• It can open up a new customer service outlet for you, one that allows your customers and potential customers to engage quickly with you (they will of course expect a quick response!). Now obviously your customers can complain via your twitter so make sure you respond quickly and publicly to any criticism and ensure the matter is resolved.

• Brand awareness – your twitter profile will give you a strong presence in the online sphere if you use it well and regularly

• Word of mouth and advocacy – people can easily pass on your tweets via re-tweeting meaning your messages can be viewed by their followers and the twittersphere in general and spread like wildfire should you hit the right note with somebody

• Of course if you play your cards right and blend interesting tweets with well thought out promotional messages you can achieve sales from your twitter activity. How to go about that is a whole different blog but a well practiced method is using twitter exclusive promo codes to attract trackable sales and spread some noise.

2 – Find your voice

Your brand is a living breathing thing and it should have a voice. Deciding your tone of voice on twitter is very important, it should reflect the ethos of your business and consider your target market/audience, how do they expect to be spoken to by you?

Try this exercise – A tweet is 140 characters long, try to describe your business in an engaging fashion and a way that reflects its outlook and aims without using more than 140 characters.

Not easy huh? When you set up your twitter profile you will be asked to complete your ‘One Line Bio’ which can be a very important tool in attracting people to interact with you on twitter. This can be up to 160 characters long so you have a little bit more leeway than the 140 characters (this is the maximum length of a tweet) I got you to use above. By doing this I think it gives you a strong idea of how your tone of voice should take shape as the bio will sum up the essence of your brand which you should be looking to reflect at all times.

US organic food store Whole Foods has a very nice tone of voice and with over 1.2 million followers are a superb example of how to use twitter for business. Check out their profile here

So you have thought about your tone, now you need to work out what you are going to say. An endless stream of promo messages is highly likely to be ignored, the twitter community is not a fan of spam and over advertising. You need to create a blend of tweets, perhaps link to web content that relates to your business or try to educate the audience. How you play this is up to you but make sure everything you do reflects your twitter aims in some way. Consider using twitpic to post images that will resonate with your audience or perhaps give them a glimpse of life within your business. Once you have worked this out, begin to work in some clever promo messages, try different approaches and make sure you make them measurable!

A golden rule – if you don’t have anything interesting to say, say nothing at all. Don’t tweet for the sake of tweeting.

So who is going to tweet for you? Well you need to have somebody in control of your profile that knows your business inside – out and understands the tone of voice you have chosen. Is that going to be your CEO (or equivalent?) or your worker on the front line? Only you know who the best public figure for your business is. I would recommend starting with one person and over time considering devolving your stream to others within the business. Twitter users need to feel they are talking to real people from within your business so avoid templated responses /messages and show the character of your brand.

So to sum up the above:

• Find your tone of voice and make sure it reflects your brand

• Work out what you want to say and how you are going to say it

• Chose the right person or people to interact with your twitter audience

• Be human and engage well!

3 – Go set up your profile

Setting up your profile is quick and easy and before you know it you will have a tool that allows you to broadcast to millions of people. I feel it is important to create a tailored profile that reflects your brand and visual identity. I am a fan of the simple colours and use of text in the Livestrong charity profile. By creating a tailored background you can display more text than your bio allows, but take care not to put too much on there, the twitter world is a fast paced environment and users don’t want to have to read too much.

Make sure your use of colour reflects your brand and of course include your logo (don’t over do it!). Take some time to have a look around twitter and take note of those that you like and use them as inspiration. If may be worth your while using a background service such as twitterbackgrounds.com to ensure a nice looking profile.

4 – Integrate!

Make sure you let people know that you are now on twitter. Allow them to follow you easily via your official website. Consider implementing your twitter feed in to your site so people can get a snapshot of what is being said about you. If you are running blogs, forums or have presence on other social networking sites such as Facebook or flickr look to use them to direct people to your twitter profile, join it all up for a rounded social media business sphere.

5 – Start the conversation!

So you have worked out your twitter aims, tone of voice and what you want to say, now is the time to start talking and gaining followers.

Make sure your first tweets are introductory and tread softly, don’t overdo it and make it interesting! The basis of twitter is ‘following’ you need to attract followers to your profile who will be able to view your tweets as and when they happen. These are the people who will make or break your twitter legacy so treat them with respect and make sure you follow them back and thank them for following you.

You may want to find people to follow before they have engaged with you. Be very careful here and do not under any circumstances just shotgun follow people. Use the twitter realtime search function and search for your brand name/products and follow people that have mentioned you in their tweets. Of course you may not have anybody talking about you on twitter, in this case think of search terms that you can use based around what your business does for example if you are a hotel in Chicago, look for people talking about taking a break etc in Chicago. Once you are using twitter make sure you use the search to track what people are saying about you on twitter!

When you do start to build up a dialogue with people on twitter make sure you maintain a steady pace of response and conversation. Once you are in this arena people expect you to stay there so treat it as a long term relationship and not a fling! People do want to engage with their favourite brands or businesses that they have used and have had a good experience with, so don’t think you have nothing to say to the millions of twitterers out there, the chances are you do!

Take some time to think about all of the above and map out what you want to achieve from your twitter strategy…

Prepare to engage!!!

Believe it or not the author of the world famous Ziggy cartoon (Tom Wilson) also lives in Cincinnati.  My we are a talented bunch.  And a generous one. 

I mentioned before that Tom had written a book called Zig Zagging: Loving Madly….Losing Badly…How Ziggy Saved My Life.  I bought the book several months ago and read it in one sitting.  It delves into Tom’s personal battles with survival both after taking over Ziggy from his father when he became ill to dealing with his wife’s battle with cancer and her ultimate death from it. 

Not an emotional person but twice this year something I read or saw has made me cry unexpectedly.  The first was watching UP and the second was reading this book.    It is a great book and what makes it even better is that to celebrate his wife’s life, Tom is giving all the proceeds from his book between November 18, 2009 (the anniversary of her death) until January 19, 2009 (her birthday) to LiveStrong (The Lance Armstrong Foundation).

Go here to read more from Tom himself and click here to order the book.  

I created a fan art toon to promote this great cause.  So if anyone needs a gift for a cartoony loving friend/family member, get this book.

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I listen to these commercials every single day.

Then the work begins. Pushing myself like I’ve never done before. My whole life.

For the first time, I am the last to leave.

And when the day ends. I go home. Sleep.

Then I wake up. Do it all over again.

With the recent news of the controversy of breast cancer early detection, there isn’t a better time for you to learn more about how breast cancer effects so many lives. 

Tom Wilson II, cartoonist of Ziggy, lost his wife, Susan, on November 18th, 2000 to her battle with breast cancer.  Last spring he bravely released his memoir of this painful and spiritual journey through Zig-Zagging: Loving Madly, Loving Badly…How Ziggy Saved My Life (Health Communications, Inc 2009).

Tom Wilson recently announced he is donating 100% of his personal royalties of his book from November 18th (Susan’s death) until January 19th (Susan’s birthday) to LIVESTRONG.

From Tom Wilson:

Dear LIVESTRONG Friends,

My wife, Susan Shephard Wilson, died in my arms on November 18, 2000. She was forty-four years old. From the moment she was diagnosed with Stage 3b invasive breast cancer, Susan, who had always been my strength, began to teach me what it truly means to LIVESTRONG.

“From the first day we discovered this arch villain called cancer had struck at the very heart of our life together, I witnessed the one constant in my life, my beautiful, sweet, gentle “Tweety Bird” become a hawk so fierce that General Patton himself would have saluted her. Susan went into battle with more strength and courage than any fictional superhero could possibly muster…”

Zig-Zagging: Loving Madly, Losing Badly…How Ziggy Saved My Life, came from the journaling I did in an effort to make sense for myself of the seven years my family battled the consuming, insidious disease that is cancer. The decision to publish the raw, emotional, and painful story of our personal war against cancer and my personal struggle against the crippling grief, was in the hope that telling it might bring comfort to someone else struggling along a similar path of cancer diagnosis.

When I recently had the opportunity to meet with the staff at the LIVESTRONG Headquarters in Austin, Texas, I saw an extraordinary chance to allow this terrible tragedy in my family’s life to do something truly positive for fellow survivors and co-survivors.

ZIGGY’s MILLION DOLLAR LIVESTRONG CHALLENGE is OUR opportunity to come together to make a real difference! Through this campaign starting November 18, the anniversary of Susan’s death, to January 19, her birthday, I am donating 100% of my personal royalties to LIVESTRONG, and coupled with the HCI affiliate program, that averages out to roughly $4.50 from every purchase of Zig-Zagging to the LIVESTRONG organization when ordered from this link. My HOPE is that together we will raise a MILLION dollars (or more!)for LIVESTRONG over the next two months!

With love,

Tom Wilson

…and Ziggy

I have read this wonderful book.  If you haven’t, isn’t now the time to do so?  It is not only a gift to yourself, it is a way to give to a wonderful charity.  Holidays are almost here, I am confident there is someone on your gift list that will benefit with a gift from Ziggy.  After all, who doesn’t love Ziggy?

Read an excerpt from Zig-Zagging - click here.

Order Zig-Zagging today! 

Click here to subscribe to my articles and read more.

Also on Examiner.com

More photos of the UNDFTD / Livestrong – Nike AF1 collaboration.

The theory of large numbers goes something like this – the larger the sample size the greater the probability that what you are seeing is real.

So it follows that when a supplemental data analysis from an additional 600,000 women results in new recommendations for breast cancer screening it has a very high probability of being correct.  Higher than before.

Then why all the gnashing of teeth surrounding the new recommendations from the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force against routine breast cancer screening for women 40-49 years old?  The American Cancer Society has decided to ignore the new recommendations as has Livestrong.  The Susan G. Komen for the Cure has posted a more balanced position.

The reason – cancer is big business.  Awareness has increased, money is flowing, non-profits are growing…whoops, we don’t need this monkey wrench thrown into the mix.

But, this is the way it is supposed to work isn’t it?  Recommendations should be periodically reviewed, supplemented with new data and modified as necessary.  Ultimately, the physicians will be the ones who make the call.  And they will do so based on the data.

One can’t ignore the theory of large numbers.  Pure and simple.

Mr. Nesbitt,

Thank you so much for thinking of Southwest and for sharing your ideas. We appreciate your kind thoughts and words about Southwest. As an Air Traffic Controller, you certainly have a unique view of Southwest!

Andy sent me your ideas as my group has been approached by the Foundation with a very similar idea. We have also been approached by several other organizations to paint our planes in honor of breast cancer, heart disease, military veterans, and many other causes. All of which are great and worthwhile ideas. Unfortunately, we cannot do them all and it would be so hard to pick just one. With 31,000 Employees and millions of Customers, there would be certainly be another opinion offered to do the same for another cause or issue. Southwest continues to support these organizations in many other ways with donations of tickets and volunteerism, but simply cannot paint our planes.

It isn’t the answer you were hoping for and your enthusiasm is fantastic, but I hope you understand our rationale. Thank you again for thinking of us. Keep our red bellied planes in sight there in Austin!

Sincerely,

Debra Benton
Director of Charitable Giving and Community Relations

Dear Peter,

We appreciate your thinking of Southwest Airlines as a potential sponsor of the Lance Armstrong Foundation, but I’m afraid that we must disappoint you with our answer. The unprecedented challenges that our industry currently faces have resulted in our ceasing virtually all new discretionary spending. While we continue to support The Ronald McDonald Houses and other charitable causes that have historically been recipients of our assistance, we’re just not able to add a new sponsorship to that list. We apologize for any disappointment.

Additionally, we have made a conscious decision to restrict the subjects of our “theme” aircraft, if you will. Aside from the two aircraft painted in connection with our partnership with SeaWorld (the Shamu airplanes), we have restricted our unique liveries to celebrate some of the states that we serve and special Company milestones. Unfortunately, there are many worthwhile subjects for these aircraft, and we don’t want to be put in the position of arbitrating each subject’s worth. It just would not be fair to say yes to some groups and no to others. Also, there are additional expenses involved in the painting and the maintaining of these “one-off” airplanes. As a carrier devoutly dedicated to keeping our costs low so that we may continue to offer the low prices that allow the “Freedom to Fly,” we just can’t afford a whole “fleet” of differently colored aircraft.

We wish you the best of luck with your fundraising efforts and as a rider in the 2009 Austin LIVESTRONG Challenge. Even though we couldn’t respond favorably to your request, please know that we will be at the finish line in spirit cheering you on! We hope to welcome you onboard soon.

Sincerely,

Allyson
Southwest Airlines

For the month of November, it’s all going on at our official Mo blog here.

Week 1 - Smoooooooooth

Along with colleagues across the globe, and thousands of others, I am spending the month of “Movember” refusing to let my top lip come into contact with a razor blade. Growing facial hair is a previously unattempted feat and, to be honest 14 days in is going better than i ever expected. Yes it is patchy; yes there are large amounts of ginger and blonde flecks but most importantly YES – there is definitely hair.

Week 2 - Handlebars....

Movember is seemingly massive in the UK & Australia but has yet to catch popular attention in the US. Regardless we have raised over 3K in the last couple of weeks for Prostate cancer and LIVESTRONG – The Lance Armstrong Foundation. We have a Mo Party fundraiser in San Francisco in a couple of weeks time but still desperately need dollars to help raise an additional 7K before the month ends - those generous souls who want to give but haven’t yet done so can do so here.

Present day - Unkempt and Ginger

Hopefully the above pics give you some idea of exactly how the humiliation is shaping up.

Register’s Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa.

Seven days to cross Iowa by bike.

Oldest, longest and largest bicycle touring event in the world.

I am doing it, and so is 10,000 other cyclists.

I will be riding with Team Livestrong.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIkNup2_S8U

I will try and update you through my blog how fundraising is going.

Sound interesting, check it out yourself!

As we enter the second week of Movember, no doubt you’re all wondering how Tash’s are progressing across Bite’s respective geographies. As expected, the packs are separating into the mens men and the boys boys. To allow easy evaluation of muzzy development we have included day zero pics alongside today’s (day 11). In some cases, it’s not easy to spot the difference.

A office by office account of progress can be found below. If you have yet to donate, we would hugely grateful if you could support the brits here and the yanks here on their respective quests for crumb catchers.

Bite New York

(Attempted) handlebar is clearly the theme on the East coast as Walker and Mills (middle) have both opted to try and grow hairy droopers. Basford has gone for a slightly more fashionable trimmed jonny depp effort while Willis (bottom) got bored and shaved his off yesterday for being too “mossy”. Will will probably be the only man to have grown two mustaches for charity this month

Noo Yoik

Bite London

The competition in Europe is really split down the middle. Clearly the youth of the British side is holding them back, however some of the veteran competitors are helping the field make some positive progress. Berry (top), Stewart and Lederer (see “best of the rest” below) are all already presenting themselves as the real threats and have a respectable top-lip covering only a week and a half in. We’re questioning whether the other guys realised Movember means they need to stop shaving.

London

Bite San Francisco

The strongest showing to-date is unquestionably coming from the West coast of the United states. Mack (top) has an air of frenchman with his unashamedly wispy effort. Rank outsider Clark (2nd from top) has proved that even the smoothest men can muster the fuzz while McLernon (bottom) is a ‘hairs’ breadth away from claiming the “Man of Movember” title with a full two weeks left to play.

Frisco

The Best of the Rest

So there were several folk who, through sheer laziness, missed out on week 1 pics. These handsome gentlemen are highlighted below and, as you’ll see, there is some SERIOUS competition from all locations. Interestingly the race for the wooden spoon (that’s finishing last for you Americans) is already underway with CEO Clive (center) and Global Director Grant (bottom right) duking it out for the title of “least hairy face in christendom’. Ari on the other hand (bottom left) is so confident of victory that he’s shaved for the last two weeks to give everyone else a fair crack of the whip.

more hairy (and hair-free) men of bite

Race to the Mo looks like it could be going down to the wire. More updates to follow.

Lance Armstrong and Nike have united to create  STAGES, a global art exhibition to raise funds and awareness for the fight against cancer. Although I have my wonders about Lance’s recent relationship activities, I do believe he has done a lot in helping to further research for fighting cancer. A few years ago, I couldn’t walk around the streets without seeing a yellow wristband on every person who walked by. It was odd, but all for a good cause!

More than 20 renowned artists have donated their time and creativity to enhance the message and raise funds for the Lance Armstrong Foundation. Many of the pieces of art are fascinating alone without factoring in the deeper meaning behind each piece - making the experience more valuable and emotional.

STAGES is more than just another NYC event with a celebrity name attached to it - it is a unique celebration of human potential. It also manages to unite the often separate worlds of philanthropy, art and sport.

All work is available for purchase with proceeds directly benefiting the Lance Armstrong Foundation.

Join the fight.

STAGES New York at Deitch Projects
October 31 – November 21, 2009
489 Broome Street

I used to use The Daily Plate regularly, then I stopped.  I am back on the wagon as of the start of November, and I’ve noticed that instead of having a Snickers mini, I will have the water that I purposely put on my desk because it’s better for me and I know I am too lazy to get up for food.  This is good.  I am too lazy to get up to eat junk food, and I am too lazy to eat a Snickers mini because I know I’ll have to enter it into my Daily Plate log.  So…laziness is my motivation for how astoundingly healthy I have eaten this month so far.  It is NOT the motivation for me to work out.  The reason I have been working out is because I like to see my deficit (calories eaten minus calories burned).  I am driven by the lack of calories  still hanging around in me at the end of the day.

Whatever it takes, right?  That’s my motto!  lol

Here is a link to The Daily Plate via Livestrong.com in case you want to check it out, and you SHOULD.  Even if you think you might be eating healthy, you probably aren’t.  And if you actually ARE, then you can tweak your carb, protein, and fat intakes based upon your type of workout, and your calorie intake if you’d like to lose a few pounds or up your protein…whatever you want to do, you should check it out.  The worst that could happen is that you don’t like it and don’t use it.  It’s free! Just click on the Livestrong logo below!

Continuing with its string of LIVESTRONG initiatives, it seems like Nike will be preparing for a new Air Force 1 rendition of the popular Black/Yellow color scheme alongside premier retailer UNDFTD. The shoes feature a pattern similar to the one on a previous Undefeated Air Force 1 project with laser etching on the midsoles reading “ONYOURBIKEKID”. Stay tuned for more details.

First up is the Air Force 1 Undefeated x LiveStrong Supreme Edition. There is no set release date or price point & they’ll prolly be a superquickstrike & will never see these but on Ebay but these are very dope…

Last for this week is detailed pics of the Air Jordan VI White/Black Colorway that is set to release sometime March 2010. These will retail for $150. Stay tuned for more info!

But, not for long! Forbidden religious symbol, “cause” jewelry, or other? Whichever it was,  American Morning co-host Kiran Chetry shed her red bracelet shortly after the opening shot. Perhaps, Jamie Kraft or a subordinate producer whispered in her ear: Regardless, she inexplicably took it off forthwith.

As to “cause” bracelets, co-anchor John Roberts sometimes wears his vivid yellow Lance Armstrong “LiveStrong” cancer awareness one. Ergo, it would make little sense that Kiran could not wear hers. However, she may not have wished to fully embrace that particular cause in public quite yet. (Red bracelets have been associated with AIDS, heart disease, diabetes, cancer awareness, and, bizarrely, even with anorexia (pro). [No the author does not think that Kiran has anorexia nor advocates it.]

With regard to a religious symbol, was Kiran possibly wearing a Kaballah red wristband or, perhaps, a Hindu one? As to Kaballah (a Jewish mystical sect formerly adhered to by her music idol Madonna), she was probably not wearing its red string wristband because it would have been properly worn on her left wrist. As to the Hindu religion, being born in Nepal, “the world’s only Hindu Kingdom she may have been tardily and covertly celebrating the Teej festival (where married women dressed in red “pray for a long life and the well-being of their husbands).” Or, even a subtle salute to her inner Sitka or both.

Did AM’s spicy hostess have a much more mundane motive? Perhaps. Perhaps, not.