My Mother and my Grandmother at lunch recently

Here is what I am reading today:

“Most of the University of Kentucky’s marketing dollars are allocated to undergraduate student recruitment in Kentucky and in neighboring states. Knowing that those prospective students are active on social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter, the school has integrated both social networking and online advertising into its marketing mix. Kelley Bozeman, marketing director, said the integrated, tech-based approach is a far cry from the traditional means of reaching out to prospects. “We’re doing a lot of out-of-the-box marketing here,” said Bozeman. “This isn’t your television ads, direct mail, and billboards approach.””

Weber Shandwick released new research Wednesday, suggesting that “the crowd” knows a thing or two when it comes to corporate social responsibility (CSR). The study, conducted last October by the PR firm‘s Social Impact speciality group in partnership with KRC Research, interviewed 216 executives from Fortune 200 companies involved with philanthropic or community outreach to determine the value of crowdsourcing and social media to CSR.”

“Dawnmarie Souza, a former employee of the American Medical Response of Connecticut, and the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) agreed to settle a lawsuit over Souza’s firing, which occurred after Souza used Facebook to criticize her boss. The NLRB took up the lawsuit last year, arguing that Souza’s Facebook comments were protected by federal labor laws. The Connecticut ambulance company said that it fired Souza after receiving complaints about her work. According to the NLRB, because Souza made the Facebook comments on her own computer and during her personal time, her words constituted protected speech. Federal law allows employees to openly discuss working conditions, wages and other work-related topics.”

Every year I used to write an article about the upcoming trends an article that I know many are looking forwards to. But, this year there is a problem; Everyone seems to have been publishing 2011 trend articles. Just to name one, you have “100 Things to Watch in 2011.” While many of these articles are very interesting, they all lack one fundamental element – focus! “100 predictions” are useless, because it says that everything might happen. It doesn’t provide you with any value. You need to know what trends that are the really important ones. If you want be successful in 2011, what should you focus on?”