By: Leslie Fischer

The American Heritage Dictionary defines the word paranormal as something that is “beyond the range of normal experience or scientific explanation.” Paranormal, then, is just the adjective to describe the marketing campaign behind Indie-Turned-Paramount-Success-Story, Paranormal Activity, described here in this article from Ad Age. When an independent horror flick with a $15,000 budget grosses $107.9 million in the box office and stands alone as mega-giant Paramount Pictures most profitable production yet, marketers and publicists the world over are left wondering if there is any other word left to aptly describe this seemingly unexplainable phenomenon, save paranormal. Social media gurus, however, are not surprised. In fact, this response generated through Facebook and Twitter is nothing short of normal.
Independent filmmakers can make this Cinderella story the norm for their home-grown babies at little to no cost purely through social media. By speaking to the interested, taking risks, personalizing the process and staying true to the message, indie films can make getting mainstream recognition, hype and profits anything but paranormal.

Posted By: Jared Cook

I would like to thank Cindy Yantis for featuring Valerie Jennings and Jennings Social Media Marketing in her post on tips to elevate your personal brand.

50 Seriously Great Tips to Elevate Your Personal Brand
By Cindy Yantis

I love connecting with extraordinary people; it’s part of my amazing journey in this life. And, in my current stead of helping people build meaningful and successful careers I have had the esteemed pleasure of running across remarkable folks who are really out there DOING IT, people who have exploded their personal brands!

48. Be REALLY effective on Twitter!

“Google’s real time search has changed the way the search engine finds tweets. Now, tweets must include keywords that your clients, prospects and press use to find information about products, services and businesses. For these reasons make sure you: run a Google keyword report on search trends and use these keywords in your tweets; use Trendistic.com – A Twitter application that allows you to search for what’s trending on Twitter; review Twitter trends daily and incorporate these trending keywords and phrases into your Tweets as long as they are relevant to your target audience, otherwise it’s spam! Use #hashtags to #SEO your message via Twitter so you can be discovered; use simple language that offers advice, how to’s and important information that is Google-friendly to real time search.” Valerie Jennings, jenningssocialmedia.com

Click here for the entire article

By: Billy Griffin

I would like to share a contest further proving that social media greatly influences the sustainable fashion industry and advocates the green movement.

Treehugger.com, one of the largest websites in the world and the leading media outlet dedicated to driving sustainability mainstream, releases the nominees for the Best of Green 2010 Readers’ Choice Awards. Treehugger’s editors and writers put their heads together to name more than 170 winners across eight topics, naming the people, places, products, companies, and ideas that are pushing the green movement forward. Now, Treehugger.com invites readers to pick the cream of the crop. Through April 2, readers can vote in more than 40 prize categories across our eight main topics. The Readers’ Choice winners will be announced the week of April 12.
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By: Billy Griffin

Social Media offers designers the chance to promote their own eco-friendly fashion lines, as well as share the green methods in which they create their garments. The social media sphere as a whole offers a place for the green advocacy movement to create awareness. The sustainable fashion is not just a trend, not just hippie potato sacks and Kumbaya, but instead a wearable, fashionable and profitable permanent niche within the overall fashion industry.

websites like Ecouterre.com, an online community devoted to the future of sustainable fashion design, provides evidence that going green is not a trend. According to their mission statement, “Organic clothing, produced without toxic pesticides and dipped in low-impact dyes, is gaining popularity across the globe. In 2006, retail sales of organic cotton products reached $1.1 billion globally—85 percent higher than the year before, according to the Organic Exchange.”
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