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How to Engage Your Fans and Advocates:

- Recognize their contributions
- Reward them for it
- Give them tools to spread the word
- Make it fun

Is it just me, or is the connection between Taquitos and Sherlock Holmes tenuous at best?

Frankly, it surprises me that 7-Eleven went along with something so ham-fisted. I thought what they did with "The Simpsons Movie" promotion was brilliant (the connection there was obvious of course) and the marketing and design around the Domo promotion was great. But this?

Maybe the point is to create something so bizarre that it gets people talking. If that's the case, then for me at least it's a win. More likely this is a corporate arrangement that just makes the creative departments through up their hands and say, "We can do something with Taquitos?"

Mayors Across America is a new and tremendous idea that all mayors need to be aware of.　 It seems that everyone is looking for leadership today, and environmentalism has taken many distracting routes.　 Mayors often talk about Green initiatives in their communities, but taking real action is not as simple as it sounds. Mayors Across America is the first step that all mayors need to take to make sure their offices, communities, and cities become authentically Green.

Green leadership is very important to encourage others to Go Green as well.　 We are struggling right now with-in a period of Greenwashing tactics and an "Easy Green" attitude that will actually buying a Green certification off the Internet.　 What is needed is a program that does not "Dumb Down Green," but encourages people, families, businesses, and organizations to step up to a respected standard of Green Practices

The Green Business League transcends local Green programs that are well-intended but not capable of creating the kind of program that can change our nation and our world.　 While every little bit counts, we also suffer from a discordant array of Green promotions that lack the size and vision found in the national (and International) program of responsible and holistic Green Practices that millions of people and companies can achieve under a common system.

We encourage every Mayor to join Mayors Across America, and take the leadership in their community for what is happening in other cities across America.　 The fee, of course, is extremely modest.　 The public relations value is also very obvious.　 But, the signal that this effort sends is invaluable to the community.

The Green Business League offers a true "Plug and Play" type of approach.　 Bringing a Green program to your city is easy and well-conceived.　 Our trained Certified Green Consultant will provide all the necessary support required.　 She/he will coordinate with your existing projects to build a system that creates Green business, Green communities, and Green events.　 Why create the wheel over again?　 The environmental crisis is not served by well-intended but casually-implemented programs like a patchwork across America.

Setting a standard that carries more than local recognition will enhance your city's commitment and success.　 The Green Business League has more than 300 Certified Green Consultants nationally.　 There is probably one in or near your town who can easily assist the Mayor's office in the program. We ask only for a modest endorsement of the Green Business League program as we encourage businesses and organizations to participate in a Green business network that will also stimulate local business buying from businesses.　 There seems to be no losers in this project, because while there is a cost for each certification, the actual savings will increase profits in any business.

Mayors Across America offers the opportunity for any Mayor's office to earn the GBL Green Business Certification for the small fee of certification.　 What is important, now, is that community leader’s step up to this challenge as an example for others to follow. To help promote the value of this program, we are going to create a massive Internet syndication of each and every mayor's office in the program.　 This includes hundreds of syndicated articles, a media campaign that reaches the major news agencies in the country, and a good number of high-value links resulting from this effort.

Any mayor's office wishing to join this initiative is encouraged to contact our office, and we will have a trained Certified Green Consultant follow up with them as soon as possible.　 The process starts with an assessment of all Green Practices currently in place.　 Points are assigned for all such improvements.　 The assessment will highlight other Green Practices that will allow the business to attain the 100 point requirement.　 Since this program is not an honorary or shallow certification, an assessment and audit are annually conducted to encourage Green Practices in areas that fit the company's situation. 

Facebook has recently developed guidelines for any promotions being announced or held on the Facebook platform.

With such growth in popularity and participation over the past year or so, more and more brands and companies are joining Facebook to get closer to their employees, customers and peers.

As more Facebook programs have been developed, Facebook now sees a need to establish a few guidelines for brands, agencies and companies to follow moving forward.

Before starting a new Facebook program, be sure to take a look at these new promotion guidelines and talk to a Facebook representative if you have any questions.

Here are 5 things you should know about Facebook’s new promotion guidelines:

1. Promotions will only be considered for review/approval by existing Facebook clients - through either direct or inside sales. (e.g. need to pay for advertising before being considered for Facebook promotions)

2. All promotions (including contests, sweepstakes or competitions) in which Facebook participants are eligible to win must be approved by a Facebook representative (plan for a 7 day approval timeframe).

3. All promotions must be hosted on a third-party site and through an opt-in application developed specifically for the promotion. Promotions using general Facebook features such as photo uploads, wall posts or discussion boards are not acceptable. Winners of these promotions cannot be contacted through Facebook, either.

** For example: a winner cannot be chosen based on their participation in a discussion board or an upload of a photo to a Facebook album - instead, a specific photo sharing application or discussion submission application would need to be developed for this promotion. This application should also include collection of participants contact information, so that the winner(s) can be contacted via email - and not Facebook message. (Facebook is happy to refer you to a number of third-party developers with whom they have worked with in the past to help develop a specific application.)

4. As to be expected, promotions can’t be targeted to anyone under 18 years of age and those under 18 cannot be allowed to participate. Promotion of gambling, alcohol, firearms and tobacco is strictly prohibited. Please note, as of today promotion of prescription drugs, dairy products and gasoline is also prohibited (although is scheduled to be discussed in a Thursday meeting with Facebook’s legal team).

5. Promotions that are hosting completely off of Facebook can be announced on a Facebook page without prior approval from Facebook, however, the term “Facebook” should not be included in the promotion copy, or in any of the promotion’s rules - for that matter. Additionally, all promotions held on Facebook need to include the following disclosure:

“This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook. You understand that you are providing your information to [recipient(s) of information] and not to Facebook. The information you provide will only be used for [disclose any way that you plan to use the user's information].”

Based on these new guidelines - a key takeaway for future Facebook promotions is to plan ahead and allow for a larger promotion budget to include the development of a Facebook applicaiton or a third-party promotion page on a brand Web site.

When developing these promotions, keep in mind that ads driving traffic off of Facebook reach around .1% click-through rate (the industry average), whiles ads that drive Facebook participation usually perform at least 2-3X better. It is my assumption that it will be the same for promotions - with Facebook applications seeing a higher participation rate than sending Facebook users off to a third-party site.

This afternoon Facebook posted an update about all the television networks that have integrated Facebook Connect, including ABC who has two new exciting integrations. The first is a promotion for the series “FlashForward” which takes advantage of Facebook Connect to integrate your profile data into a promotion. It’s similar to other promotions we’ve seen such as the Doritos promotion and the Prototype XBox game trailer.

In contrast to MySpace, who also has their own identity service, Facebook has been focused on striking large media integrations with Connect. Not only do these partnerships help increase engagement on the partner sites but it also helps Facebook expand the reach of Facebook Connect. Google has been heavily promoting their own service, Friend Connect, which is similar to Facebook Connect and they’ve already successfully generated 8 million communities.

However Facebook’s model is a smart one as they are going after high profile sites which end up generating more press coverage, building buzz for Facebook Connect. In addition to ABC’s FastForward trailer, ABC will also be launching a new video player tomorrow which leverages Facebook Connect to created a social experience as visitors watch full episodes of ABC content from the ABC website.

This sounds somewhat similar to Hulu’s integration, however it appears that this may be more integrated with the actual video player. We won’t know for sure until tomorrow, but this definitely sounds like what we would expect out of a truly interactive social viewing experience. Facebook is also highlighting a number of their other television integrations in today’s blog post.