Karen Rubin's Ramblings

This morning I woke up to a fantastic surprise, I was picked as one of the Wild Web Women's Top Marketing Girl Crushes!!! I have to say, there was much dancing around my place when I saw who else was on the list, 

Arianna Huffington
Miley Cyrus
Ann Handley
Susan Bratton
Mari Smith
Charlene Li
Heather B. Armstrong
Lisa Stone
Susan Boyle

 Can you believe it? I made a list with Arianna Huffington and Miley Cyrus!! I am sure they were both dancing around their homes because they were on a list with, *gasp* Karen Rubin!

 Much thanks to the Wild Web Women and Rebekah Donaldson for making my morning. 

P.S. There is a vote, for the #1 girl crush, and if you wanted to vote for me...I wouldn't mind.  

Parking garages are pretty standard. You drive in, push a button and get a ticket. Then you wind your way up the ramps looking for the perfect parking space. If you are in my family, you don't settle for anything that isn't near a stair case, even if this means driving around for 45 minutes. 

 In any case, you park your car, lock it up and leave it, only to return to the parking garage hours (or days) later and...

I was recently at the airport in Providence, and they have found the solution to this problem!

It's brilliant and simple and you know what, I remembered where my car was 2 days later when I returned. Try to make life easier for your users and you won't leave them wandering in the parking garage with a gold fish and Jerry.   

My husband sent me this video the other day. The video is a little long, but I watched the whole thing and have been thinking about it for a couple days. Two things are clear, passion for what you do helps sell and I have to try the cucumber soda! 

A friend of a friend wrote a great piece in Vanity Fair about getting fired for tweeting. He points out that "tweeting your mind and keeping your job can often be incompatible," and that this might be because "tweets tend to be banged out on a cell phone or BlackBerry in a matter of seconds." Essentially, people don't think before they tweet! 

 Just ask yourself this one question before you send a message out to the Twit-o-sphere. "Would I say this to my boss's face?" If the answer is no, slowly step away from the keyboard. 

I am off to San Francisco for the Marketing Sherpa B2B Marketing Summit. It sounds like it's going to be a pretty exciting event with tons of cool speakers and case studies. I am headed out there with HubSpot.tv to interview all the interesting people who are in attendance. 

If you can't make it out to sunny California, you are in luck because we are going to be live streaming a couple of the presentations on HubSpot.tv! You can watch the following presentations right here on Wednesday September 23rd!

• 8:50 -10 AM PST - More Revenue for Less Money-The Top Five Ways To Increase the Performance of Your Lead Gen Program
• 1:45 - 2:15 PM PST - Using Social Media to Create Lead-Rich Online Communities 
• 2:15 - 3:15 PM PST - Social Media Panel-Focus on Lead Generation
• 4:15 - 4:45 PM PST - Re-engage Inactive Customers, Grow Lead Flow, Win with Sales

Here is another fun ad for your enjoyment. This one comes out of Germany, where we know the ads are more risque.

Being a fan of "Ghost" you know I have to remind you of the scene that inspired this one. 

 I think the ad is brilliant. Not too over the top, but enough to make you remember. 

Thanks to @abdinoor for the clip! 

 Seeing as that most everyone enjoys a good inappropriate ad as much as I do, here is the latest from Budweiser. 

 AdAge had nothing good to say about the ad, but it did make me laugh and jokes have been flying around between the 20-somethings here about "liking it in the can." What do you think, did Bud hit their target audience, or is it just a tasteless ad? 

Call me lazy if you will, but I got back from vacation and haven't had the energy to pick up with my tweeting and blogging because I have been dealing with an inbox and reader that look something like this.

However, I will share some photos I took on my iPhone. Based on the recommendations of Steve Garfield and C.C. Chapman, before heading to Colorado I purchased AutoStitch. It was totally worth it! Here are some of the panoramic photos I put together. 

Denver International Airport 

 I think this was in Edgar CO

Beaver Lake up in the hills behind Beaver Creek Resort   

 I-70 on the way to Glenwood Springs

Hanging Lake  

Lyons CO, this is the view from my Aunt and Uncle's house

The schedule looks fantastic, and I am very excited to see a ton of HubSpot.tv alumni including, C.C. Chapman, Marta Kagan, Chris Penn.

Mike and I are also heading up two conversations. The first is on Sunday at 11:15AM with Steve Garfield. We are going to be going over the equipment you need to know about if you are interested in video podcasting and it should be a very exciting discussion. 

The second conversation is on Sunday at 1:30PM and we will be talking about how you can use video podcasting for B2B marketing. I can't wait to hear everyones ideas on this one since there are so many different directions you can go in!

 If you haven't signed up and are interested in learning more, it's time to get going! Hope to see you there.