I received tickets to Monster Jam courtesy of rbb Public Relations.

Since I was a kid, I’ve always wanted to go to Monster Jam but never asked my parents because I didn’t think they’d take me. I’ve always liked cars and destruction – this show is a perfect combination.

On Saturday, February 20, I arrived at Sun Life Stadium before the show to check out the Pit Party. I tried the BBQ Nachos – I’m sorry, I didn’t try them, I annihilated them! A basket of nachos loaded with cheese and pulled BBQ pork, gone within five minutes.

I walked around the pit and admired the monstrous trucks. There were immense lines of people beside each truck waiting to get an autograph from the driver. I didn’t care much for an autograph because I didn’t know the drivers, but if I had gone to the Pit Party after the show, I would’ve been the first in line for El Toro Loco.

El Toro Loco quickly became my favorite as I watched the giant, orange, horned beast in awe… from my ninth row seat! I can’t thank my best friend enough for giving me ear plugs before the show because my naive self didn’t think twice about the amount of noise the show would create.

The first part of the show where the trucks raced each other was OK. Then came the freestyle motocross daredevils whose tricks made me hold my breath. The next spectacle was by far one of my favorite shows and one that left me wishing I’d grow up to be one of those drivers: the demolition derby.

About eight cars raced each other while driving around the track with no rules whatsoever. With an everything-goes mentality, these drivers crashed into each other pushing each other off the track and doing anything they can to get ahead in the race. How much fun would it be to be a demolition derby driver?! I think I’d win

The grand finale of the show featured the massive trucks ramming into anything in their way and pulling off as many tricks as possible within an allotted time frame. Some trucks took it to the max and ended up popping off tires, flipping over and just causing flat out destruction. What an amazing show!

I’m now a fan and will be first in line for El Toro Loco next year! Thanks Natalie and rbb!!

Today, I took a look at the confirmation email and noticed that the expected delivery date is Friday, February 26 – that’s four days from my purchase date!!

I became more frustrated when it took me a good 14 minutes to find a phone number on Amazon.com. They pretty much tell the consumer to contact them via other mediums BUT a phone call. I don’t want to send Amazon an email. I want to speak to a human on the phone and get my issue resolved immediately.

Eventually, I found their customer service number and my call was answered within two minutes of calling – obviously, my calling resulted in a quicker response.

I told the representative about my paying for one day shipping and finding out I had to wait an extra three days and how unacceptable that was. He pointed me to a sentence beside the product image that read, in green, “In stock but may require an extra 1-2 days to process.” Ok, where did that sentence come from? Why is it green and not red? Why is it next to the product image and not in the section where I choose my method of shipping?

I was very upset and told the representative that I have no choice but to wait to receive my camera, but that camera would be the last purchase I make with the company. He then went on to pitch other in-stock cameras to me! I don’t need to be pitched on something that’s not what I want.

He put me on hold to speak to his supervisor and came back with a solution: they would refund me the amount I paid for one day shipping, but they couldn’t expedite the actual delivery of the camera. I accepted their offer. It only seems fair that I not pay for what I’m not getting. Regardless, I’m going to have to wait to receive my camera.

While I’m not 100% happy with the phone call, I’m glad they took my frustration into consideration and offered some kind of solution.

Amazon, I know how revolutionary you’ve been with your check out process, but it baffles me that you wouldn’t put messages such as “In stock but may require an extra 1-2 days to process” within your “Choose your shipping options” page. I understand that as a consumer I should read everything on the page before purchasing, but a little help from you in repeating an important message like that would be extremely helpful. Also, if it’s important, maybe using red as opposed to green as your font color would be more attention-grabbing.

As friends, we tend to listen to each other and support one another in times of need. Some of those needy times are when we’re stressed and need to vent. What if the venting is work-related? How would hearing so much negativity from someone on the “inside” affect our perception of their employer?

A company’s biggest asset is their employees.

After reading each comment from last weeks’ post, I tried to imagine the opposite effect:

“Employees are arguably the BEST brand ambassadors for any company,” wrote Cristina Sotolongo. Imagine if these brand ambassadors are unhappy and complaining about their boss, the company and the way things are run.

“This goes back to the need for ‘authenticity,’” wrote Brian Breslin. Being that our brand ambassadors are our friends, we’ll believe them and more than likely take their side and look down on the company that makes them so unhappy.

“Even if we aren’t altogether familiar with a company or how it works, I think we have a tendency to give it a chance if people we trust are working in its behalf,” wrote Eileen Spiegler. Again, if the people we trust aren’t happy, we’ll more than likely put the blame on the company.

“Thanks for wanting a front row seat to our new ventures!” wrote Mallory Colliflower. If our friends are happy and are excited to work at a company, we’ll get excited to hear about new developments and become loyal fans, but if they’re not happy, we probably won’t give that company any thought.

We’re always hearing about Word of Mouth and its power. In my opinion, negative Word of Mouth is much more powerful and spreads quicker because people find it juicy.

All in all, companies need to be very careful, more so nowadays with Social Media, to ensure their employees are happy. I know you can’t always please everyone, but employers need to make a conscious effort to listen to their employees. There are several cases where companies have noticed their employees complaining about their job via Social Media and fired them. Then there are the companies that see these complaints and take the necessary measures to make the disgruntled employee happy – those are the companies I admire.

Several friends of mine have gotten some really great jobs in the past few months at big-name companies. For example, Cristina Sotolongo now works for the Miami Science Museum, Lori Marie Todd now works for John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and Mallory Colliflower now works for AutoNation.

I’ve known about these companies well before my friends started working there, but it wasn’t until they were hired that I felt compelled to hit that “Become a Fan” or “Follow” button. I wonder how many people react the same way I do. I can think of a few reasons for taking action once they’re hired:

1. I want to support them and the company they now work with.

2. I know the greatness they’re capable of and want a front row seat to all their projects.

3. I now feel a more personal connection to the company or organization.

That personal connection feeling is what I find very interesting. In all honesty, I can’t really analyze that feeling and was hoping for some other perspectives. What are your thoughts?

Please go to 12seconds.tv and post your Social Media predictions for 2010. How do you think the industry will change? Which network do you think will lead in popularity, usefulness, etc. Any thoughts you may have, we want to hear about it. PLEASE REMEMBER to use the #SM2010 hashtag. And make sure to come to the event to see your predictions discussed in a panel.

We need your Social Media predictions! #SMCSF #SM2010 on 12seconds.tv

Social Media Prediction: Rise of video #SMCSF #SM2010 on 12seconds.tv

Want to meet the SMCSF board? Make sure to follow Alex de Carvalho, Angie Henderson Moncada, Denise Jacobs, John Prieur, Matthew Chamberlin, Michelle Catin, Neil Bardach, Toby Srebnik, Ulises I. Orozco.

I need to write my bio for the Association for Women in Communications, South Florida and had a thought: ask all my friends to help me write it! I have an idea for everyone’s cooperation, but first, I need comments.

Check out the first half of my idea:

NOTE: Please keep your comments professional. This project is professional and any comments that are outside of the realm of profesionalism will be deleted.

Thanks in advance for your help!

For example, I listen to NPR every morning during my commute to my office and whenever I hear Niala Boodhoo and Bridget Carey come on to talk about Social Media, not only am I eagerly nodding in approval with everything they say, but I tweet them as soon as I get to the office. I send them a tweet about how much I agreed with what they said and enjoyed hearing their story.

I’m cheating a little bit with Boodhoo and Carey’s case because I met them before hearing them on the radio. I became a fan of their work after meeting them in person and then looking them up. Hearing them on the radio only added to my excitement of being their fan, and connecting with them through Social Media helped boost my being a fan into more of a friendship.

How I met Kenny Malone is a little different. Maybe it’s the fearless publicist in me or the solid implementation of Social Media in my every day life that made me feel like it was OK to shoot him a random email expressing my opinion after hearing his report on Sesame Street (look for “Follow that (Big) Bird: Memories of ‘Sesame Street’, 40 years on” next to 11/20). His story left me in shock at how true it was and I wanted to tell him how I felt. To my surprise, he responded almost immediately with what seemed like a private follow up to his story.
Earlier this week, Malone did a story about StoryCorps and asked Miami Herald/WLRN staff members if they’ve ever cried during the four minute show. Naturally, I felt compelled to email him and tell him about how much I cry during that show and ask him if he reacts the same way – if you’ve ever heard StoryCorps, you know how heart-felt the stories can be.

It’s Social Media that encourages and facilitates conversation. It’s Social Media that makes it easy to connect with pretty much anyone online. It’s Social Media that helps fans feel more like friends. And it’s Social Media that helps build invaluable relationships.

Dear Tech Support,

Last year I upgraded from Boyfriend 5.0 to Husband 1.0 and noticed a distinct slow down in overall system performance, particularly in the flower and jewelry applications, which operated flawlessly under Boyfriend 5.0.

In addition, Husband 1.0 uninstalled many other valuable programs, such as Romance 9.5 and Personal Attention 6.5, and then installed undesirable programs such as NBA  5.0, NFL  3.0  and Golf Clubs  4.1.

Conversation 8.0 no longer runs, and Housecleaning 2.6 simply crashes the system.

Please note that I have tried running Nagging 5.3 to fix these problems, but to no avail.

What can I  do?

Signed,

Desperate.

——————————————–

DEAR  DESPERATE,

First, keep in mind, Boyfriend 5.0 is an Entertainment Package, while Husband 1.0 is an operating system.

Please enter command: ithoughtyoulovedme.HTML, try to download Tears 6.2, and do not forget to install the Guilt  3.0 update.

If those applications work as designed, Husband 1.0 should then automatically run the applications Jewelry 2.0 and Flowers 3.5.

However, remember, overuse of the above application can cause Husband 1.0 to default to Grumpy Silence 2.5, Happy Hour 7.0, or Beer 6.1.

Please note that Beer 6.1 is a very bad  program that will download the Farting and Snoring Loudly Beta.

Whatever  you do, DO NOT under any  circumstances install Mother-In-Law 1.0 (it runs a virus in the background that will eventually seize control of all your system resources.)

In addition, please do not attempt to reinstall the Boyfriend 5.0-program. This is an unsupported application and will  crash Husband  1.0.

In summary, Husband 1.0 is a great program, but it does have limited memory and cannot learn new applications quickly. You might consider buying additional software to improve memory and performance. We recommend Cooking 3.0 and Hot Lingerie 7.7.

Good  Luck!

Tech  Support

Tonight, I was driving on I-95 again during rush hour and had to stop short, the girl driving behind me didn’t react in time and rear-ended me. Again, my car was impeccable! I small panel along my back bumper was pushed in and her white car paint was smeared on mine, but I wasn’t hurt and the car was left in almost perfect condition.

After being loyal to Volkswagen for over six years, I’ve been toying with the idea of switching to a Mini Cooper in June, when my lease expires, but looking back at all the terrifying situations that little German piece of machinery got me through, I’m loyal for life!

From accidents to hydroplaning and from spinning out of control (just once) to even veering away from a crazy man who decided to run across I-95 (yes, that has actually happened!), Volkswagen has my devotion.

Volkswagen, not only do you make me feel safe, you actually keep me safe. Thank you for being so awesome.

Happy New Year everyone! Please ring in the new year safely and responsibly!

Cheers!!