Author: Brian Lee

Food blogging

Posted on by Brian Lee

In addition to heading Revelation, I also run a dining guide called EatDrinkMadison.com. Today, the local daily newspaper ran a long feature story on the prevalence of food bloggers in town–yours truly included–called “Eat Drink Blog” (I’m hoping that my guide’s name influenced the title of the article).

What’s not printed here that I discussed in my 30-minute interview with the reporter is why bloggers are starting to be taken more seriously:

  • Content has improved over time. We’ve gotten away from the weblog (or journal) and moved more toward reviews and op-ed type blog posts.
  • Bloggers have been better at using multimedia such as photos, videos and even audio to enrich their posts.
  • The advent of social media has changed consumers to producers of the news. That, coupled with shrinking newsrooms of the traditional media, has made blogs and blogging more popular.
  • Blogs reach the hyperniche market. Targeting blogs for earned or unearned media opportunities can be cost effective when you know the 40 or 50 readers are all super fans of whatever the topic of the blog is.

To me, it’s not surprising how many food bloggers are out there. Some do it as a hobby, some for money … I added a blog to EatDrinkMadison.com (and started a Twitter account) to connect more with both residents and visitors of the area.

Creepiest Facebook App Ever

Posted on by Brian Lee

Not many people my age agree with me, but there are times when I think social media has gone too far. Case in point: the Facebook app If I Die.

This app allows you to record a message to send to your family, loved ones, and most importantly, your Facebook friends. Once your death has been confirmed it sends out your prerecorded message to your Facebook friends or posts what you have written to be your last status.

In theory I think this isn’t a strange idea. For those with a terminal illness it might be a useful way of saying goodbye, and people have been writing their loved ones goodbye letters for years. In today’s world, wanting to spread your final words to your timeline seems like a natural progression.

What really gets to me is the app’s new campaign, If I Die 1st.  Essentially, the company has teamed with various outlets and is offering to promote and share the parting words of the first person to die. Morbid, right?

Not only do I think it’s a bad idea to basically encourage people to be the first to die (imagine the problems that could arise with suicide attempts), but it’s the way in which the campaign’s video does it that really makes me uncomfortable.  The video highlights the need for fame, and since most of us won’t be conventionally famous, what’s a better way to make it happen than by having your dying words spread all over the internet?

The video itself is especially creepy, practically glorifying death and positioning the first person to die as the “winner” (Fun Fact: their website has a running total of Facebook deaths since August 2012, along with the estimated time of death of the winner).  When did our society decide that dying in order to broadcast your message to the world via social media was acceptable? I’m sorry, can’t we all just focus on living?

Some people weren’t made to network

Posted on by Brian Lee

This week, I was talking to someone at a networking event, when another person butted in and joined our conversation. A general rule of networking is that you leave two people alone, and that faux pas should have warned me about how rude this person was. After I nicely introduced myself to him, he mentioned his company already has a relationship with another agency, and that he wouldn’t be a good candidate for my business. WOW.

I’m about building relationships at networking events, not doing hard sales. I don’t see many other agency people at events, and the few that are there follow the same rules I do. Thus, I don’t know what would make this guy say that, other than he was just an asshole. Here’s to hoping karma comes back to haunt him.