Cherry trees

These wonderful spring days, made the popular cherry trees of BBG start to bloom earlier.
A real New York feeling. Many people from all over the world came to see these wonderful trees. So did we.

Which I didn't know, the BBG has more than 200 cherry trees of forty-two Asian species and cultivated varieties. This makes it one of the foremost cherry-viewing sites outside of Japan. What a unique brand!

And: The first cherries were planted at the BBG after World War I, a gift from the Japanese government to the city of New York!

More about cherries:

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/12/largely-forgotten-a-blossoming-gift-of-friendship/

George Zimmerman Charged: How Journalists Used Twitter to Cover the Story

Mashable compiled an interesting Storify post to show how the news of Trayvon Martin-slayer, Geroge Zimmerstor's sentencing was covered on Twitter.

Instagram for Android

The day has arrived for all those Android phone users wanting to join in on the Instagram fun! I guess us Iphone user will have to share our new found photography skills...Click here to read more about the release!

Pinterest & Your Brand

Pinterest is popular, fun and attracting a large volume of visitors to its online pinboards -- according to a recent Huffington Post article, the site had 16 million visitors in January 2012. Pinterest can also help shape your personal brand. How do you express your brand with Pinterest?

See the Huffington Post's slideshow of "27 Gorgeous Pinboards" to follow:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/14/best-pinterest-boards-pinboards_n_1341362.html#s773748&title=Interspecies_Buddying_

Skittles: Will it be a new crisis communication case study?

I remember how I blogged about Skittles and its social performances in my first class of PRFandP (Public Relations, Functions and Practise) last semester. We certainly can qualify their "rainbow" advertising campaign of strange but it was tremendously successful! Note to myself: I still can't believe I posted this video on my first class in PR at NYU...

Now, I will avoid sharing weird Skittles' videos with my classmates and this time I am bringing Skittles into the spotlight but for a whole different reason. After a

having a guest speaker about crisis communication last Monday and having heard a lot about Trayvon Martin's story , I thought it would be interesting to share this article in the PR News with all of you.

The main facts of the story:

• Death of Trayvon Martin
• The shooter claims self-defense
• The only items found on Martin's body: an Arizona Iced Tea and a bag of Skittles

The repercussions:

• Petition with over 2 million signatures
• Thousands of people around the country taken the streets

Where Skittles is involved against their will:

• Protestors are asked to bring Skittles with them to the marches
• T-Shirts being sold and include a bag of Skittles at no cost
• Photos are being posted on SM sites of people donning hoodies with a Skittles bag in their mouth, symbolizing the silence from law enforcement
• and so on...

Clearly a nightmare for Skittles (or any brand) especially that the initial situation in this case was totally out of their reach.

This is a very good case study and I think Skittles parent company, Wrigley is responding well to the crisis so far. What do you think?

WATCH: Rebecca Black & M&M's

(The WATCH element follows the post content.)

Social media's sharing element is what catapulted Rebecca Black's Friday to become 2011's most popular (or "spreadable" might be a better word) internet meme.

Josi recently shared Vitamin Water's viral meme video. Artists, geneticists & die-hard meme aficionados question  blending "viral" and "meme" into one,  however.

Why? Because there's a difference between memes and viral content:

• A meme is a piece of content or an idea that's passed from person to person, changing and evolving along the way. 
• Viral content is something that's passed from person to person but doesn't evolve or change during the transmission process.

So, a meme must always be viral, but viral content doesn't  have to be a meme. In other words, brands can/should create entertaining content, but they should be cautious if their core objective is to create a viral video meme that will spread.

Like the passing of a gene, memes are unpredictable, and the greater culture adopts memes for completely random reasons.  In fact, the term -- meme -- derives from the  link to genetics & genes, first introduced by Richard Dawkins in his 1976 book, The Selfish Gene. (If you're interested in the art/science of memes, Know Your Meme is a good resource.)  

We covered marketing & memes in Using PR as a Marketing Tool. As part of understanding the connection between brands, memes and viral videos, each person created an original Rebecca Black-inspired project.   

WATCH: Rebecca Black's Friday takes on a whole new life here. Let the video run so that the brand integration happens naturally.

Coupled with the M&M's cast of characters, Friday moves from annoying into the almost-likable/charming category.  Thanks to M&M's, this version of Friday makes me smile vs. cringe. 

How would corporate parent Mars respond? That's a completely different story.

Little 'ol Me

I know you're dying to know all about me, so click here and get it over with.