February 24, 2008

From: Jan Risbergs, Jr.
To: Dr. Mani

The Question: 

Have you ever helped rescue an entire country?

Details at: Dr. Mani Helps Rescue Riga, Latvia

Have you ever received the gratitude of 167,000 patriotic, enthusiastic, English speaking expatriates around the world (87,000 US, 20,000 Can, 20,000 Aus, 40,000 GB)?

We need your help.

Latvia is currently #5 of 68 countries selected on the World Monopoly Contest.

The challenge: How to convince Hasbro to open up the voting again by February 29th?

What would you do?

An entire nation is grateful to you.

Thanks,
Jan Risbergs, Jr.

The Answer:

5 minutes to save a country!

Wow, what an exciting challenge.

And if it worked on me, I suspect that same slogan would work to pique the curiosity of anyone who receives an email or other communication with that slogan/message, don't you think?

So your message to people could read:

 "YOU have 5 minutes to save a country!"

3 days left, so you can't rely on slower SEO methods.

Here are some quick suggestions:

Build a website with a STORY.  Link from it to

Dr. Mani Helps Rescue Riga, Latvia

Use video, if you like, but the site should tell a QUICK story, using words too, for the '5-second visitor'

= = = = =

e.g. "I Gave Him 5 Minutes To Save a Country..."

And this is what the 'Marketing Director' of Riga,
Latvia came up with.

Hasbro, maker of the famous boardgame Monopoly, is inviting votes to decide which of 20 countries it will include in the latest version of 'Worldwide Monopoly'... and Riga, Latvia is now ranked FIFTH.

The next 72 hours will see a rush of last minute votes from other countries - and we're trying to

   SAVE A COUNTRY - In LESS THAN 5 Minutes
  You can help.  How?  Cast a vote.  Click here.

Why should you do this?

Let me tell you about little 'Johnny'.  He was born in Riga, Latvia.  Grew up in ____.  But his heart was still back home.  He always dreamed of the day the world would hear about his lovely hometown.

So, with limited time at his disposal, he decided to take this chance - to put Latvia on the world map... through Hasbro's new edition of MONOPOLY.

If you vote for Riga, Latvia, you'll make little Johnny happy.  And there's little that can make him happy these days... and there's precious little time... because Tommy doesn't have long to live.

In that time, it will make his dream come true if you help him put Latvia on the MONOPOLY board.

Won't you spare 5 minutes to cast your vote - and invite a friend to do it - to make a little boy smile?  Please?

Thank you.

= = = = =

Now, this is only a representative example of where you can go with this.  It will backfire if you engineer a 'Johnny' out of nowhere - but you can tie it in with a similar touching story, involving a PERSON with feelings and that tugs at the heartstrings of a reader, giving them a compelling reason to ACT today.

And tell a friend.
That's how it'll get viral.

Now, once your story is ready, you need to set the ball rolling and get momentum going - FAST.

Some ideas online:

- If you know someone who is an advanced user of StumbleUpon, ask if they'll help 'stumble' your story - it could go viral... very fast.

- If you know a power-user of Digg, that's another way to get red hot very soon.

- Set up a Twitter account.  Follow as many people as you can.  Most will follow you back in return.
After you've got 50 followers, post notes about your work.  With luck, it'll grab people's
attention and spread

- List a link on all social bookmarks like Delicious,
BlinkList and more - you'll find a list at
http://www.OnlyWire.com

- Start a blog.  Go with Blogger.com as it gets ranked on Google very fast.  Post about the
project.

- Go to Google Hot Trends -
http://Google.com/trends/hottrends/

Identify terms that are hot - esp. ones that are SPICY, VOLCANIC or RED HOT, and within the last 8 hours.  Post to your blog about these items, and ping your blog on http://Pingoat.com or http://www.Pingomatic.com and also submit it to Digg.

On the top and bottom of the blog post, make an appeal to vote for Latvia - as a banner or text link.

- Run a Press Release - and if you have the budget, go for the paid SEO version on PRweb.com (it costs around $250 and will get your story included in Yahoo news, give high PR links to your page, and more) - and any outlet could pick up your story and run with it.

- Offline ideas:

* call your local radio or TV stations and offer to be interviewed

* run short ads on cable TV (it's often quite affordable)

* Call the US presidential campaign and ask what the candidate thinks about Latvia...
and make the answer part of a press release, that ties in with the vote

(not sure how these will work in such a short time, though)

= = = = =

Once the momentum builds, and especially if you can get participants to sign an online petition or join a mailing list, you can then contact Hasbro's representatives and explain how you've got so many people supporting this - and see if they'll extend your voting period.

Hope this is of some help.

Incidentally, I just noticed my hometown of Chennai, India, listed as one of the wildcards. And am thinking - should I use the advice I just gave you to run a vote-gathering campaign for this too?!

Thanks for the stimulating mental challenge,
Jan.

Please keep me posted about how your campaign goes.

All success
Dr.Mani