Kickstart My Heart

July 27, 2012Nina KovnerENGAGE, GIVE BACK

Kickstarter

Crowd Funding
“The collective cooperation, attention and trust by people who network and pool their money together, usually via the Internet, in order to support efforts initiated by other people or organizations.”

We heart Kickstarter.  As the social and digital revolution continues to explode, there are so many great things that have come from it.  Kickstarter is one of those really “great things”.

In three short years, Kickstarter has raised over $119M to fund creative peoples dreams.  WOW!  This is such a cool and innovative way for entrepreneurs and creative types (that’s YOU) to be able to bring their projects to life, and shows so much about the people in our world who will support a total strangers dream if they feel compelled by their message and the projects impact on our world.

Here is one of our favorites, the true passion, love of her craft and creativity in raising funds is just some of the reasons Amanda Palmer raised nearly $1.2 million (her goal was $100K) to fund her music project and passions.

Have you contributed on Kickstarter to help fund a passion?

To learn more about this incredible young women and on how this digital platform is a game-changer, check out Seth Godin’s Domino Project blog post @ http://www.thedominoproject.com/2012/05/brick-by-brick-building-a-digital-platform-right.html

To learn more about how to create a compelling Kickstarter Campaign, check out Seth Godins blog post on the topic @http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2012/06/reflections-on-todays-kickstarter.html

PS: A big shout out of love to passionista Nikki Waller of Red Magnolia Beauty for inspiring this post.

(shared with LOVE from your passionistas Nina+Gordon)

Oh The Places You’ll Go

July 20, 2012Nina KovnerENGAGE

“You’re off to Great Places! Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting, So… get on your way!”

Dr. Seuss

 

Beautiful people making beautiful art from the wonderful Dr. Seuss.  WOW!

The talented team of artists who produced this awesome video is running a Kickstarter campaign called The Dream Box, a project to create a solar powered video booth that records peoples dreams and uses the power of film and the social web to help those dreams come true.

For more info, check out their project @ http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/teddy/the-dream-box

(shared with LOVE from your passionistas Nina + Gordon)

UPDATE: We first published this post on July 20th, 2012, as of August 16th, 2012 The Dream Box exceeded their fundraising goal and was funded on Kickstarter.  Another reason why we are so inspired by the power of the social + digital web to engage and empower people and their dreams.  Awesome.

Cyber Bullying

Bullying Sucks!

July 10, 2012Nina KovnerENGAGE, GIVE BACK

We already know the horrifying stories of kids being bullied at school and have witnessed the tragic consequences.  Now bullying has moved into the social and digital space in a BIG way, thanks to young peoples 24/7 engagement on Facebook, Twitter, and one of the biggest daily activities for teens, texting! This is both a lesson in awareness, how we can do something to help, and in seeing the HUGE shift the future generation has made towards the social and digital web.

While the stats below are disturbing, there are several organizations that are available to help kids hang on through the toughest and darkest of days.  We love Lady Gaga’s Born This Way Foundation, Its Gets Better, The Trevor Project, and Boo2Bullying.org just to name a few.  We can all help, by creating awareness and stepping up when and where we can to put a STOP to BULLYING, both online and off.

Cyber BullyingCyber BullyingCyber BullyingCyber BullyingCyber BullyingCyber Bullying

(shared with LOVE from your passionistas Nina + Gordon)

 

 

 

YELP

YELP…Yikes or Yay?

July 3, 2012Nina KovnerENGAGE, GROW

“A happy customer is the greatest advertisement.”

Andy Sernovitz, Author of Word of Mouth Marketing

According to the US Census Bureau, 14% of Americans move every year (that’s close to 50 million last year alone). Every year, 12+ million move out of state and another 12 million move to another county in the same state. That’s a lot of people moving around and many will be in search of  “happy customers” to help them find their next great haircut and more.

Enter YELP,  “the fun and easy way to find and talk about great (and not so great) local businesses”.

YELPWith over 54 million unique visitors each month, it’s the place where savvy salons go to tap into online word of mouth and take advantage of this growing (and FREE) source of real world referrals and traffic.  In fact, salons are the 4th most searched for business on YELP, after shopping, home services and restaurants. WOW.

Check out The Power of Yelp, our newest Social Beauty Intelligence Webinar on the Why’s, What, and How’s of YELP.  Our hope is that you gain insight into this powerful referral platform and begin to use it to help attract new clients to your salon, YAY!

http://youtu.be/PCIXyhODf2w

(shared with LOVE from your passionistas Nina + Gordon)

 

 

Brian Solis Engage

The Promise, Kept

June 18, 2012Nina KovnerENGAGE, GROW

“One must have a good memory to be able to keep the promises that one makes.”

Friedrich Nietzsche

 

Brian Solis is one of our digital heroes.  He speaks the truth.  He understands the digital space like no other, and the opportunities it provides to businesses and people if its used in the right way.  Brian Solis is the best selling author of Engage, and The End of Business as Usual, two books we highly recommend if you are seeking a deeper understanding of the social and digital revolution.  He is a disruptor, and we heart disruptors that push to make things better.

While we read his blog daily, this one jumped out at both of us at the same time, without even knowing, and therefore, worth sharing.  “Dear (insert business name here), what is Your Promise”.  Many companies have mission statements and vision statements, many times written in a boardroom somewhere, but what is your Promise?

In today’s VERY NOISY social and digital space, people want to know you, what you stand for, what your promise to them is, and be ready, because today, you will, we all will, be held accountable thanks to Facebook, YELP, Foursquare, Twitter and all the other social spaces that people can speak their mind.

We hope you take the time to read this blog from Brian Solis, you will be very happy you did, as will your team and your customers.

(shared with LOVE from your passionistas Nina + Gordon)