Join me in the PickensPlan Virtual March
On April 1-3, the New Energy Army, that’s a team of Pickens activists, will virtually march on Washington. I don’t know exactly what this entails but I do know that I am supposed to spread the word about this. And so, here it is, your invitation to join the New Energy Army by joining PickensPlan and specifically by signing up for the Virtual March. Nearly 2 million people have signed up so far. Why not be one of us?
You can start by visiting the Virtual March website and registering with the site to sign the petition. The site lists the activities Pickens is seeking from you, which includes things like crafting a letter to your Congress folk, or even visiting them. I have never done this before but it is time.
If you are on the fence about the idea of signing up or getting involved with another site or movement, let me offer some words of encouragement. First off, if you are an Internet Marketing Specialist of any kind, you want to join PickensPlan. You will see first hand what social media, video marketing, and email marketing can do for an organization with a good cause and some money. PickensPlan is inspirational in this sense. Second, this is for your country, the U.S. of A. We need movements like this from the citizen sector. Our country is in dire straights largely because we have left it up to government to pave our future. PickesnPlan offers not only a patch to energy independence, but sets a new precedent in how the Internet can be used to create positive change.
March with me.
People often ask me how I find time to do all the things I do. My response lately as been something on the lines of, “Just break out of the space-time continuum. Time is not real.” Interestingly, most people get that, but often I find they aren’t clear on how to do it.
Well, the reality is, you can’t. At least not in this physical world as far as I know. But, that doesn’t mean you can not do things because you do not have the time to do them. Sure there are limitations to what you can pull off and when, but truth is if you genuinely want to do something you find the time to do it, or create it really.
One such thing for me for which I am striving to create more time is the PickensPlan. This energy independence effort for America is a new movement started by T. Boone Pickens, a Texas oil man, last year during the Presidential race. PickensPlan has quickly and effectively spread its word using a balanced mixture of Internet Marketing, T.V. and lobbying. Because of its robust online presence (Pickens uses Ning as its primary website), I have been able to keep in the loop of its activities and growth. My mission as of late is to get more involved and serve more as an activist. Like many Americans, I believe the energy independence is the best path and the right path for this once great nation.
PickensPlan a winning brand in the 2008 Presidential Election
Hands down to T. Boone Pickens.
Earlier in the day Tuesday I received an email from PickensPlan with the subject, “What you do right now matters to the entire Army”. It was an invite to their e-Rally after the election tonight. The email prompted me to RSVP for the rally.
Three days ago I received a similar email from PickensPlan with the subject, “3 days until the e-Rally with T. Boone!”. It was the initial invite to their e-Rally after the election Tuesday. The email prompted me to RSVP for the rally.
Tonight after the McCain/Obama town hall debate, the first commercial run was T. Boone Pickes himself inviting viewers to come discuss.
The 2 emails were complete with information and a call to action, but not overwhelming. They were a god blend of text, imagery, and video. The emails rallied 40,000 RSVPs prior to the debate. Curious to know how many attended and were possibly added.
There are some key practices being applied here that we want to see from car dealers and believe can be accomplished.
Automobiles can be vital to peoples’ interests and identities. Dealerships that can reflect this in their sales process gain an edge on the competition. Some examples include…
# Build a cause and engage the audience
A cause for a dealer can be something local, ideally something popular, entertaining, and/or beneficiary to the community. For instance, we are working with an auto group and their sponsorship in auto racing.
# Plan and coordinate events that involve attendee input
Planning and coordinating events can range from e-rallies as Pickens did to webinars and on-site events from training, education, to entertainment.
# Develop an effective capture method strategy that uses multiple media types to engage, such as TV and email.
Using multiple media types such as television and email to engage your audience and ensure their participation can be an effective way to capture peoples’ attention and sometimes their imagination.
Of course much of this is easier said than done, but Pickens really has its act together with utilizing these tools constructively.
PickensPlan – Saving America with Alternative Energy Sources
A couple weeks ago there was an ad on television of a Texas gentleman by the name of T. Boone Pickens. It was a good ad on the subject of Alternative Energy Sources. It started off with sound bits and slow-moving imagery of presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama. The advertisement alternated between the two making statements about the United States’ energy situation. Then Pickens himself chimed in.
Pickens is a senior Texas oil man apparently. As Senator Joe Lieberman has stated,
Pickens is somebody who’s in the oil business. He arrived in time to tell us we can’t drill our way out of this problem. He’s for using oil and gas as a bridge to what he, quite directly, says is the “non-hydrocarbon energy future.” He is ahead of us in Congress, so I thought his testimony was educational and, I hope, motivational.
In the ad, Pickens stated that America needs more than talk about our present energy situation and Alternative Energy Sources. We need action. But not just any action. A Plan of Action. And that is exactly what Mr. Pickens has…a plan and it is called PickensPlan.
PickensPlan is no joke. It is a “less than 10-year” plan to save America more than $300 billion dollars a year by shifting our exiting energy usage into new areas and replacing it with alternative energy, primarily Wind Power. I won’t bother re-iterating it here because you can visit the official site and watch a 6-minute video about it, or you can watch it right here, right now.
Now this leads to the other reason I am psyched about PickensPlan for Alternative Energy Sources. Whoever is behind PickensPlan from the Online Marketing standpoint is friggin on his game. PickensPlan starts its Alternative Energy Sources message with its website on the social network Ning. It has a straight-forward video that puts everything in perspective right there on the home page. It is clear and simple. PickensPlan also has a blog where they are reporting on their progress daily. If you look at the bottom of their blog, or in their email campaigns you also see links to places like their MySpace page, their Facebook profile, their Twitter, their LinkedIn page, their YouTube, etc.
Pickens has it. They get it. I don’t know how much they are investing into this and how many people or organizations are involved but whatever they are doing is working and working quickly. In just their first 2 weeks of rolling out, more than 150,000 people have joined the cause and T. Boone himself is hitting the big time networks, Washington, and the Web with his TRUE plan to save America with Alternative Energy Sources.
