Monday, March 21, 2016

#LoveTwitter - Twitter reaches the BIG 010 - Happy Tweet-Day to you (March 21, 2016) - Thanks everyone for making history!



See Twitter's 10th Birthday video thanking everyone.

TWITTER LOVES EVERYONE! Happy 10th B-Day Twitter #LoveTwitter

Twitter thanks everyone on it's 10th birthday for making history! Twitter has a very thoughtful and symbolic video celebrating 10th birthday.


Still no definitive business model nor any $ profits yet Twitter continues to spread wings, ripple effects and much intrigue!

Why can't politicians be like Twitter?

Wishing TWITTER many more twitterers, tweets and TweetDays!


According to Stan Schroeder, writer of Mashable, Twitter's B-Day is today -- last year I was wrong, I thought it was March 22nd, but it's indeed March 21st -- the first day co-founder Jack Dorsey tweeted his very first tweet.

Here is Schroeder's article from Twitter's 6th (back in 2012), Happy 6th Birthday, Twitter!


Twitter hasn't changed much with the exception of it's phenomenal growth which is currently at 320 million users (February 2016), a usage increase of over 11% vs. last year and +60% increase in the amount of tweets per day.

Last year Twitter recently reported they have 288 million active monthly users and 500 million tweets per day https://about.twitter.com/company.

This year, according to DMR stats, Twitter sees 100 million users log in each day and as of February 10, 2016 there are 320 million people using twitterand 1.3 billion registered Twitter users.

Surprisingly, less than 1/4th are U.S. (23% or 62 million), and over 3/4ths of these users (77% or 209 million) are outside the U.S. According to many resources including Mashable and SocialMedia, Twitter had about 200 million accounts a year ago (2014), and averaged 400M tweets per day. While this statistic may be debatable since others including Mashable indicate that Twitter has over 500 million, Twitter itself has reported that as of February 2013, they have 200 million users. Not surprisingly, 80% of Twitter active users (400 million) are mobile.

Below is the original blog post written back on September 22, 2009 all about Twitter:

Twitter, a micro-blog with a 140-character-limit blurb known as a “tweet” having potential to create a chain of social media networking events that can lead to exponentially larger alterations of social media networking instances. Twittering appears to have maximized the power of connecting. In less than 4 years, it is  estimated that there are over 250 million twitter accounts worldwide.

But if you think that Twitter and the bird’s far reaching effect is enough to make your media campaign a success, try spreading your wings and flying. You just might find yourself in a nose-dive!

Of course, everyone is twittering, with hopes of creating shifts in perspectives that will lead to greater connections, better businesses and stronger communities.

It’s been said that a sea gull’s simple flap of a wing can change weather, and so too a simple tweet can create ripple effects in the customers, employees, friends, colleagues and even those people and entities that you have never known and now suddenly have become your followers.

Why then are there still no analytics for measuring effectiveness, or tried and true processes and marketing solutions from this bird?

Although Twitter’s wide massive appeal has grown so quickly in such a brief time, it is still considered new. Twitter became available to the public in 2006 but really gained momentum in April 2007. According to Wikipedia “The tipping point for Twitter's popularity was the 2007 South by Southwest, SXSW, festival. During the event usage went from 20,000 tweets per day to 60,000.” This all occurring after the Web 2.0 buzz of 2006, which arose 2 years after the first Web 2.0 Oreilly Conference, October 5 – 7, 2004, at the Hotel Nikko in San Francisco, CA.

Today, there are many factors that contribute to the success of a social networking marketing campaign and Twitter is just one of the many digital integrated marketing tools. Besides having experience, skill and passion about what you are communicating, successful social media marketing requires a well thought out, detailed, marketing plan and timeline. Even with all this, there are still no guarantees; What works for one company or person  may not be as effective for another.

While there are no magic bullets that will guarantee the overall success of your campaign, below you will find a listing of some helpful tips to guide you through the process of integrating twittering into your corporate digital marketing programs:

1. Create momentum with effective communications and set up kick-off meetings well in advance of your deliverables

2. Optimal participation is key. Schedule regular (weekly or bi-weekly) meetings (virtual or in person) and involve as many employees/departments in your organization.

3. Ensure that your meeting handouts include guidelines for branding specs, e.g., having company logo included on all tweets, regardless of whether a company is using different blog/tweet names for different products,/themes, etc., appropriate tone, buzzwords, keywords, etc.

4. If your social marketing media campaign calls for multiple bloggers and twitterers, make sure your respective tweet names match respective tweet blogs; This information should all be mapped out (e.g., spreadsheet) and incorporated into your digital marketing plan alongside all of the other marketing tools you will be integrating

5. Use common sense and discuss best practice to ensure employee tweeters know their leaps and bounds when contributing to avoid compromising your blogs/tweets integrity and reputation

6. Tie in tweets with your company’s blogs – an example is how Martha Stewart’s tips, ideas, etc., from her blog into tweets – again, not necessarily coming from someone from her company, but created such a brand following that followers as well as employees include her ideas in their blogs

7. Understand and learn of the importance of following potential customers, existing customers, vendors, suppliers, etc.

8. Incorporate short and simple auto-respond tweets for new followers – assuring real-time reply in the event no one is able to respond immediately; Although the majority of folks recommend not using auto-responds, my suggestion is to test the waters but keep auto-responds short, thanking them for connecting and sharing relevant information.  If you feel auto-responding is working against you, simply remove it. At least you can say you gave it a try.

9. Understand the importance of hashtags and other application enhancements and use them carefully. E.g., including hashtags in your tweets, e.g., #followfriday; and applications, Tweet Meme, etc. There are pros and cons to hashtags - some folks feel the short 140-character blurbs get distorted from the #hashtag symbol while others are embracing it. So far, I haven't been incorporating hashtags into my tweets. I plan on giving #hashtags a try soon.

10. If you are interested in following please feel free to follow me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/gbdaly

"Twitter reaches the BIG 009 today! Happy Tweet-Day to you!" is part of the "evergreen marketing insighter" series by Gloria Buono-Daly This blog is updated every year on Twitter's birthday and was originally written by Gloria Buono Daly (c) 2009.

Sunday, March 20, 2016

Hello World. Happy 2016th Palm Sunday(March 20th) and 2016th Easter, Sunday March 27th




“Do not abandon yourselves to despair. We are the Easter people and hallelujah is our song."
~~ Pope John Paul II
sometimes called Blessed John Paul or John Paul the Great, born Karol Józef Wojtyła (Polish: [ˈkarɔl ˈjuzɛf vɔjˈtɨwa]; 18 May 1920 – 2 April 2005), was Pope from 16 October 1978 to his death in 2005. He was the second longest-serving pope in history and, as a Pole, the first non-Italian since Pope Adrian VI, who died in 1523.


Hello World! Happy 2016th Easter America. Happy Name Day and Palm Sunday Mom.

Palm Sunday has always been a very special day for our family.

My late mom was born on Palm Sunday (March 28, 1926), which is why my grandmother named her "Palma."
This 2016th Palm Sunday would have marked my mom's 90th birthday. Happy birthday to you mom and happy name day. I know that you are at peace and in a much better place and you are always in my thoughts and prayers.


Wonderful keepsake photo of my late mom with her mother, Grandma Elvira. They resembled each other so much.

They were so beautiful and similar in many ways - great cooking, baking, entertaining, etc. Everyone was welcome in their home.


Another great photo of my late mom with John Tesh. Mom was so fond of this photo. Her smile radiates everywhere regardless of her age. In this photo she was in her late 70s. Amazing!
Photo collage of my late mom (TOP L-R, with her youngest grandchildren, Mariel & Anthony; granddaughter Mariel's lovely "get-well card; mom upstate New York holding me as an infant). (BOTTOM L-R, me & mom celebrating another bon-voyage cruise; mom in either CA or OK at a wedding; mom with her mom, Grandma Elvira.

Mom as the most beautiful bride with her handsome groom Dad during their wedding day, September 5, 1948.


Palm Sunday 2015 brought quite a few chuckles when much to my surprise, two wild turkeys strutted in my back yard and left quite an impression! Gobbling, trotting and pecking around.
Enjoy the Wild Turkeys Take 1 video !



Second video Wild Turkeys Take 2
or visit these links for Wild Turkeys Take 1 and https://youtu.be/ev8dcSwQtE8


About Easter

Easter (Old English Ēostre; Latin: Pascha; Greek Πάσχα Paskha, the latter two derived from Hebrew: פֶּסַח‎ Pesaḥ) is a Christian festival and holiday celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ on the third day after his crucifixion at Calvary as described in the New Testament.

Easter is the culmination of the Passion of Christ, preceded by Lent, a forty-day period of fasting, prayer, and penance.

Easter is for everyone, for adults it brings back memories of childhood days filled with beautiful spring flowers and fabulous Sunday celebrations.
Easter, like Christmas, is for children. Celebrating Easter with children is truly special – from colored Easter Eggs, Chocolate Easter Bunnies to Easter Egg hunts and parades and bonnets make this day extra magical.

Easter is a moveable feast, meaning it is not fixed in relation to the civil calendar. The First Council of Nicaea (325) established the date of Easter as the first Sunday after the full moon (the Paschal Full Moon) following the March equinox.

Ecclesiastically, the equinox is reckoned to be on 21 March (although the astronomical equinox occurs on 20 March in most years), and the "Full Moon" is not necessarily on the astronomically correct date. The date of Easter therefore varies from 22 March to 25 April inclusive. Eastern

The precise date of Easter has at times been a matter for contention. By the later 2nd century, it was accepted that the celebration of the holiday was a practice of the disciples and an undisputed tradition.

Easter is linked to the Jewish Passover by much of its symbolism, as well as by its position in the calendar. In many languages, the words for "Easter" and "Passover" are identical or very similar.

Easter customs vary across the Christian world, and include sunrise services, exclaiming the Paschal greeting, clipping the church[12] and decorating Easter eggs, a symbol of the empty tomb.

Additional customs that have become associated with Easter and are observed by both Christians and some non-Christians include egg hunting, the Easter Bunny, and Easter parades.

The Easter parade is an American cultural event consisting of a festive strolling procession on Easter Sunday. The parade is somewhat of an informal and unorganized event, with or without religious significance. Persons participating in an Easter parade traditionally dress in new and fashionable clothing, particularly ladies' hats, and strive to impress others with their finery.
The Easter parade is most closely associated with Fifth Avenue in New York City, but Easter parades are held in many other cities. Starting as a spontaneous event in the 1870s, the New York parade became increasingly popular into the mid-20th century—in 1947, it was estimated to draw over a million people. Its popularity has declined significantly, drawing only 30,000 in 2008.

Many Americans follow the tradition of coloring hard-boiled eggs and giving baskets of candy. The Easter Bunny is a popular legendary anthropomorphic Easter gift-giving character analogous to Santa Claus in American culture.


On Easter Monday, the President of the United States holds an annual Easter egg roll on the White House lawn for young children. New York City holds an annual Easter parade on Easter Sunday.
Easter eggs, also called Paschal eggs, are special eggs that are often given to celebrate Easter or springtime. As such, Easter eggs are common during the season of Eastertide. The oldest tradition is to use dyed and painted chicken eggs, but a modern custom is to substitute chocolate eggs, or plastic eggs filled with confectionery such as jelly beans.
Eggs, in general, were a traditional symbol of fertility, and rebirth. In Christianity, for the celebration of Eastertide, Easter eggs symbolize the empty tomb of Jesus: though an egg appears to be like the stone of a tomb, a bird hatches from it with life; similarly, the Easter egg, for Christians, is a reminder that Jesus rose from the grave, and that those who believe will also experience eternal life.

The precise origin of the ancient custom of decorating eggs is not known, although evidently the blooming of many flowers in spring coincides with the use of the fertility symbol of eggs—and eggs boiled with some flowers change their color, bringing the spring into the homes.
Many Christians of the Eastern Orthodox Church to this day typically dye their Easter eggs red, the color of blood, in recognition of the blood of the sacrificed Christ (and, of the renewal of life in springtime). Some also use the color green, in honor of the new foliage emerging after the long dead time of winter.

The Easter Bunny (also called the Easter Rabbit or Easter Hare) is a fantasy character depicted as a rabbit bringing Easter eggs.

Originating among German Lutherans, the Easter Hare originally played the role of a judge, evaluating whether children were good or disobedient in behaviour at the start of the season of Eastertide.

The Easter Bunny is sometimes depicted with clothes. In legend, the creature carries colored eggs in his basket, candy and sometimes also toys to the homes of children, and as such shows similarities to Santa Claus, as they both bring gifts to children on the night before their respective holiday. The custom was first mentioned in Georg Franck von Franckenau's De ovis paschalibus[2] (About Easter Eggs) in 1682[3] referring to a German tradition of an Easter Hare bringing Easter Eggs for the children. In many church services on Easter Sunday, a live rabbit representing the Easter Bunny, is brought into the congregation, especially for the children's message.

An Easter Bonnet represents the tail-end of a tradition of wearing new clothes at Easter, in harmony with the renewal of the year and the promise of spiritual renewal and redemption.

The "Easter bonnet" was fixed in popular culture by Irving Berlin, whose frame of reference was the Easter parade in New York City, a festive walkabout that made its way down Fifth Avenue from St. Patrick's Cathedral:



"In your Easter bonnet
with all the frills upon it,
You'll be the grandest lady in the Easter parade."
by Irving Berlin

At the depths of the Great Depression a new hat at Easter, or a refurbished old one, was a simple luxury.


Will you be celebrating Easter? Showing off your Easter bonnet or attending an Easter Day Parade?
















RESOURCES:
♦ The 29th Annual Easter Bonnet Competion by the Theatre Development Fund, takes place on April 20th and April 21st at Minskoff Theatre, more info at https://www.tdf.org/shows/9214/The-29th-Annual-Easter-Bonnet-Competition (last year The 28th Annual Easter Bonnet Competition by Broadway Cares http://broadwaycares.org/easterbonnet2014)
♦ Easter Day Parade http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter_parade
♦ Easter Sunday on Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter_Sunday
♦ Easter 2015 from Calendar 365 http://www.calendar-365.com/holidays/easter.html‎
♦ Easter Egg Hunts http://www.easteregghuntsandevents.org/
♦ Easter Parade and Easter Bonnet Festival in New York City http://gonyc.about.com/cs/holidays/a/easter.htm
♦ Easter Parade – Fred Astaire and Judy Garland on YouTube


Please visit this blog frequently and share this with your social media. Follow me @gbdaly Thanks.

Thursday, March 17, 2016

Happy Saint Patrick's Day! Try My Irish Soda Bread Easy 1-2-3 Recipe


"A best friend is like a four leaf clover : hard to find and lucky to have!"
~~ Anonymous Irish Quote

Slàinte
(pronounced: slawncha, like "lawn-chair" but with an "s" in front of it, is how one would say Cheers in Irish Gaelic)
My favorite Irish soda bread, as posted every year. Enjoy!

Happy Saint Pat's Day!
This year it's Thursday, March 17th! With many being bit by the leprechaun earlier in time for the many parades through the country beginning today. The oldest and largest of the St. Paddy’s Day parades in the Western Hemisphere, dating back to 1762 -- New York City's St. Paddy's Day Parade -- and this year marks NYCs 225th St. Patrick's Day Parade! NYC's 2016 Parade can be viewed on 5th Avenue between 44th Street and 79th Street. If you are not in NYC, you can watch the parade at this website beginning at 11:00am on March 17th.
Like many households on Saint Patrick's Day, in the center of our breakfast table you will find tasty, Irish, soda bread to celebrate the luck and charm of the Irish. I baked this easy Irish soda bread earlier today and just had to share my easy recipe by posting on my blogs. The great thing about this is the prep time was slightly less than 5 minutes and it baked in an hour.

INGREDIENTS:
► Flour 3 1/2 cups
► Sugar 3/4 to 1 cup (or try sugarfree alternatives; e.g., splenda or equal)
► Baking powder 1 tablespoon
► Eggs 2 medium size
► Milk 1 cup
► Melted butter - 1 stick
OPTIONAL:
► Raisins 1 cup
► Caraway seeds 2 tablespoons
► Be imaginative. I used Flax Seeds

Step 1 : Soda Bread Dough (3 min)
► Prepare oven at 375°; In large bowl combine dry ingredients
► Flour
► Sugar
► Baking Powder
► Optional ingredients - I added 1/2 teaspoon Flax seeds
► Add remaining ingredients - Milk, Eggs, Melted Butter


Step 2 : Knead Dough (2 min)
► Knead dough and divide the dough into 2 round loaves
► Sprinkle flour if dough is too moist and sticky
► Using a cake knife, mark the top of each dough loaf with an X

Step 3 : Place loaves in 375° oven (60 min)
► Wait at least 10 minutes before slicing

Total time - 1 Hour and 5 Minutes





“Every man desires to live long, but no man wishes to be old.”
--Jonathan Swift (1667-1745), Irish author and satirist.


Additional resources:
St Patricks Day 2016 - Calendar
Saint Patrick's Day parade schedules: Where and when, Washington Times
New York City Saint Patrick's Day Parade
Saint Patrick's Day Parade NYCgo.com
Saint Patrick's Day Parade New Orleans



Please visit this blog frequently and share this with your social media. Thanks.

Gloria Buono-Daly

Tuesday, March 8, 2016

Women around the world are celebrating the 105th International Women's Day with theme #PledgeForParity - Wants You to Put Your Gender on the Agenda


117 Years to Gender Parity? What's your pledge? My pledge is to always celebrate women leadership regardless of cultural, political, and economic differences. Make your mark, and pledge here!

“If particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies, we are determined to forment a rebellion and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice or representation.”
~~ Abigail Adams, Abigail Adams, U.S. First Lady, 1776 (née Smith; November 22 [O.S. November 11] 1744 – October 28, 1818) was the wife of John Adams, the first Vice President, and second President, of the United States, and the mother of John Quincy Adams, the sixth President.


Did you know that March 8, 2016 is the 105th anniversary of International Woman's Day?


Google has celebrated 2016 International Women's Day with a lovely "gender-parity" global themed doodle #OneDayIWill.

The video shows women all around the world sharing their goals and aspirations with words in their native language beginning with "One Day I Will ..."

From becoming scientists to speaking to Pope Francis, their actions and words are inspirational.

See snapshot below:



In 2015, Google celebrated with an inspiring and engaging doodle.

Here's a snapshot below:



Google posted a very charming doodle to celebrate IWD 103rd (see right).

Also for it's 102nd, see below.
Happy 105th Anniversary to International Women's Day! Also, did you know that March is Women's History Month?

International Women's Day (IWD), originally coined International Working Women’s Day, is marked on March 8th every year.

The UN theme for International Women’s Day 2016 is "Pledge for Parity." #PledgeforParity.

Worldwide, women continue to contribute to social, economic, cultural and political achievement.

117 Years to Gender Parity? In 2014, The World Economic Forum predicted it would take until 2095 to achieve global gender parity. Unfortunately, one year later, 2015, they estimated an even slower progress and the gender gap wouldn't close entirely until nearly 4 decades later, 2133.

Be it helping women and girls achieve ambitions, advocating for gender-balanced leadership, respecting differences, or rooting for workplace bias, International Women's Day wants everyone - men and women -to take concrete steps to help achieve gender parity more quickly.
Women's equality has made positive gains but the world is still unequal.

International Women's Day celebrates the social, political and economic achievements of women while focusing world attention on areas requiring further action."

In many countries, International Women's Day is an occasion to honor and praise women for their accomplishments.

Join International Women’s Day on Facebook at facebook/internationalwomensday and for breaking news follow #womensday.

International Women's Day is an annual day observed in many nations around the world on March 8 each year. (Jumping Woman photo above by kongsky / freedigitalphotos.net)


President Barack Obama proclaimed March 2011 to be "Women's History Month", calling Americans to mark IWD by reflecting on "the extraordinary accomplishments of women" in shaping the country's history.


Also, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton launched the "100 Women Initiative: Empowering Women and Girls through International Exchanges", on the eve of IWD.


Photo above left taken by U.S.Army Photographer: Spc Tobey White, is of U.S. Army Lt. Col. Pam Moody, 319th ADT, and resident of Indianapolis, Ind. Here she hands out pencils to Afghan women at the International Women's Day gathering held in Khowst City, Khowst Province, Afghanistan, March 8, 2011.

Every year events take place on March 8th to commemorate the anniversary of International Women's Day. In 2011, IWD's 100th anniversary, 100 countries participated in events.
Kudos to all women for all we do!

Do you have a theme of your own to celebrate International Women's Day? IF so, share it on the International Women's Day website.

Resources for Women’s History Month:
http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/data-mine/2015/03/08/international-womens-day-inequality-in-charts
Make your #PledgeForParity sponsor
http://womenshistorymonth.gov/
http://www.nwhp.org/whm/index.php
http://www.nwhp.org/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women's_History_Month
http://www.infoplease.com/womens-history-month/
http://www.history.com/topics/womens-history-month
http://www.gale.cengage.com/free_resources/whm/

Sunday, March 6, 2016

Actor and Comedian, Lou Costello would have been 110 today: Happy 110th Birthday Lou Costello


Happy 110th birthday to actor and comedian Lou Costello, born Louis Francis Cristillo (March 6, 1906 – March 3, 1959). He passed of a heart attack 3 days before his 53rd birthday.

"I think I'll be more comfortable." ~~ Louis Francis Cristillo's last words to his private nurse at Doctors' Hospital in Beverly Hills, California.

What was your favorite Abbot and Costelo show?

Mine was "The Time of Their Lives" when he played ghost Horatio Prim. I recall his ghost girlfriend Melody calling for him "Horatio, Horatio, here I am Horatio..." hilarious. And I do believe in ghosts.

On June 26, 1992, the city of Paterson, New Jersey—in conjunction with the Lou Costello Memorial Association—erected a statue of Costello in the newly named Lou Costello Memorial Park in the city's historic downtown section. It shows Costello holding a baseball bat, a reference to the team's most famous routine, "Who's on First?".