Ease The Stress

So many of my readers have spoken about and asked for help with the stress of caring for someone with Alzheimer’s Disease during the holidays. I decided to reprint these helpful hints from the National Alzheimer’s Association.  From time to time, I’ll include more information directly from them.

The changes experienced by a person with Alzheimer’s disease may produce a special sense of loss for the entire family during the holidays. Caregivers may also feel overwhelmed by trying to maintain holiday traditions while also providing care. But there are ways to help make the season more enjoyable for everyone.

1. If your loved one lives in a long-term care setting, celebrate there. For many people with Alzheimers, a change of environment - even a visit home - may cause anxiety. Instead of creating a disruption, consider holding a small family celebration at the facility.
2. Arrange for a few family members to visit on different days. Two or three familiar faces at a time are likely to be welcome, but more than that may be confusing. Schedule visits at your loved one’s best time of day, as people with Alzheimer’s often tire easily.
3. If you’re caring for a loved one with Alzheimer’s at home, host quiet, slow-paced gatherings.
   Television, conversation and meal preparation may make the environment noisy or over-stimulating.
4. To avoid disorientation, tone down blinking lights and large decorative displays.
5. Avoid candles and decorations such as artificial fruits that could be mistaken for edible treats.
6. Involve the person with the disease in holiday preparations to the extent they’re comfortable. For example, when you bake, let your loved one measure flour or stir batter, or simply watch you work.
7. Open holiday cards and wrap gifts together.

Caregivers also must consider their needs during this often-stressful time of year - you can’t do it all, so don’t try. Bake fewer cookies or ask others to help with meals. Let family members and friends help with cleaning, writing cards and shopping for gifts. Ask if one of your children or a close friend can stay with your loved one while you do something fun, such as go to a holiday party. You can’t control the progress of Alzheimer’s, but by planning and setting firm boundaries, you can avoid needless holiday stress and enjoy the warmth of the season.

These tips and tricks come from Alz.org and are reprinted by permission.

Kids and Alzheimer’s Disease

So you think Alzheimer’s Disease only affects old people?  This year alone, 250,000 children, age 8-18 are caregiving for someone with Alzheimer’s or dementia. Alzheimer’s is one of many serious and scary diseases still without a cure. Alzheimer’s causes gradual memory loss.

I implore you to watch the short film here  and join me in  the 1 Million Memories Project! To find out more and take action, Give $1 to help find a cure andsign up for the 1 million memories RSS feed by email.

Your small donation of only $1 will go miles to raise 1 Million dollars for Alzheimers research and education. Please use the donate widget below or on our sidebar. $1 is a small price to gift for such a large end reward! The 1 Million Memories project uses First Giving for all donations.  First Giving is BBB approved and approved by the National Alzheimer Association. A completely secure method for donations, the 1 Million Memories project never touches your donations, they go straight to the Charity! Please consider a small donation today!

Is It Contagious?

Back in the 70’s when I was in high-school, yeah back that long ago, the following ad made a “splash” in the marketing world! Word Of Mouth Marketing was finally capitalized on national TV.

Fast forward, thirty some odd years and boom!  Word of Mouth Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Viral Marketing are all buzz words in the marketing world. All different ways to share your message and reach out to people to whom you would not ordinarily have had access to.

The “big” boys are in the Word of Mouth game now as well. Kmart and Sears, through Ted Murphy and the folks at IZEA sparked all kinds of comment on twitter and media this last week when they engaged some big time bloggers for a new campaign. Chris Brogan spoke eloquently about advertising and trust, when he became the target of a twitter attack after his sponsored post for the Kmart campaign. But it worked!

Prior to starting its social media campaign (which launched December 2), Kmart’s average SMI index or share-of-voice in November was 12.8, according to Vitrue. For example, on November 11, Kmart’s index was 14.49%, versus 24.81% for JC Penney and 50.67% for Sears.

As of Wednesday, Kmart’s SMI was 23.21% — a 59% increase over its average SMI in November — against SMI’s of 12.45% for JC Penney and 43.09% for Sears.

“Kmart has clearly realized significant gains in share of social media voice through this campaign — in fact, it’s pulled ahead of JCPenney, and has made gains on Sears,” notes Vitrue CEO Reggie Bradford. “Kmart’s transparency in this effort was key, and a good example for any brand looking to use paid sponsorship elements to leverage social media’s power.”

It worked so well that Chris Pirillo, Tamar Weinberg, Aaron Brazell, Liz Strauss, Steve Spalding, Joseph Jaffe, and Chris Heuer as well as Ted Murphy and Jim Kukral participated in the Sears Grant a Wish campaign.I haven’t seen the numbers on this one, but I would presume it’s equally, if not more successful. This campaign is on going until Dec. 23 and you can win a Wish yourself. Get by one of these blogs and check it out!

Wal-Mart has it’s 11Moms, even McDonald’s® is in the fray! Opinions abound about the processes. But, the fact is, WOMM is here to stay! A little controversy always spurs interest, right?

Remarkablogger (Michael Martine)  blogged and tweeted about his fateful auto accident a couple of weeks ago, and the community responded to his “free” seminar in such a big way, by donating to his new car fund, that he was able to almost immediately acquire a “new” car.  Without the power of word of mouth, it probably wouldn’t have happened so quickly! His blog is chock full of great ideas about Word of Mouth Marketing, and Blogging.

But What About The Little Guy?

Before you get worried, viral marketing has nothing to do with infecting your computer or bodily diseases. It is a marketing strategy that helps you spread your message and your branding by engaging others and having them help you spread the message. You want your message to reach many people and replicate like a virus, get it? Viral Marketing! And oh but yes, it IS contagious!

One of the biggest benefits of  Word of Mouth and Social Media Marketing is being able to reach people in your target market that you would not have been able to reach otherwise. When your message is shared virally, people will let others know about you and your offers, helping your message reach many more people.

Social networking is one of the best ways to share your message by Word Of Mouth. This is because different social networking web sites provide you with tools to facilitate sharing messages. For example, on Twitter others can re-tweet your message, meaning they will share it with their followers. When they do this, their followers are going to see information about you and your offer. And, on Facebook there are a ton of tools that help you virally market your business. When someone writes on your wall, for example, the information about this is posted to their page. Now when people come to their page, they can click on your name and visit your profile. If you are promoting a seminar or book on Facebook and someone agrees to register or order , this information becomes visible to their friends. Now, their friends are able to check out your seminar or book or products. On LinkedIn you can set up your profile and interact with folks who have similar interests and job/work skills as you. Join groups, post your resume, grow your business netowork.

Sharing Made Easy

So, how can you use social networking to share your message ? Here are three steps to help you do that:

1. - Have something to offer. Don’t just promote your business; have something else to share. People are much more likely to share a blog post, a product or a teleseminar than just your business web site. If you don’t have a blog with your small business site, get one.  Hire a ghostwriter, if your writing skills aren’t up to par. But get that message out!
2. - Share information. People can’t share information about what you have to offer unless they know about it. Don’t market all the time, but do spend a bit of time on sharing information about what you have to offer. For example, on Twitter it is perfectly fine to twit about your upcoming seminar or blog post or report. While you need to make sure that the majority of your twits are non-marketing, it is perfectly fine to use 10-15% of your twits to share information about your blog posts, articles, seminars and products. Don’t have a Twitter account yet?  Get one here.
3. - Use social networking tools available to you to your advantage. Problogger has a nifty blog called Twitip where he and guest bloggers talk about twitter apps and best practices. There are many tools available to automate your networking. (For example, you can connect Twitter and Facebook and have your twits appear on Facebook without your doing anything extra, thus helping you spread the word much faster. Many of your friends’ actions are visible to their friends. When your friends write on your wall, agree to attend your seminar, join your group, etc - those actions are visible to their friends. You, your group, and your seminars, books and products become visible to friends of your friends through viral marketing.)

No time for blogging, twittering, facebook, LinkedIn or anything except your regular desk job? That’s where we come in! We’re here to help you market your product, yourself and your blog. Lagniappe Marketing is your one stop, for The “little” guy. PR and Marketing, on the web and in the media. We specialise in Word of Mouth, Social Media and all things small business. We can put you in touch with all you need to get your business online, up and running and making money. We’ll even design, install and maintain your blog, if you like. Need a Virtual Assistant? We’ll refer you to the best!  Use our contact form and get more information.

Next Page »