JetBlue is getting very, very friendly!

JetBlue, long considered the social media maven with nearly 1.5 million followers on Twitter…but what’s this? A measly 60k on Facebook??? This can’t be! So what’s the popular airline kid to do when they have no friends?

Easy, bribe them!

JetBlue is doing just so, and dang it, everyone is wishing they did it first, but will undoubtedly follow suit. Sooner rather than later, but we, the wannabes frantically friending JetBlue will end up the winners regardless.

Here’s the deal: JetBlue Facebook wants more friends, and to get them, they’re offering a carefully engineered campaign to add more – a lot more, quickly and with as much PR as possible.

A fan focused campaign, named buffet-style All-You-Can-Jet Fan Sweepstakes thrives on the age old gimmick of FREE STUFF. What’s old is new again!

Become a facebook fan and you can win free round-trip tickets, comped airfaire and a vacation for you and — get this — three friends for 5 days and 4 nights. Or, the grand prize of unlimited free travel on JetBlue for a year. A YEAR!

Simple and easy: a marketing dream come true. Become a fan of JetBlue and submit a ballot via the JetBlue Sweeps Page tab (read more).

JetBlue gets the friends they’re looking for, and we get the chance to dream a little dream of traveling on someone else’s dime.

Hey, that’s what friends are for, right? (Up to 73k at this posting…and counting!)

The consensus of Westchester County business leaders is that — no surprise here — 2009 is a year best left behind.

So says the Business Council of Westchester (BCW), arguably the largest and most influential business organization when they released results (Click Here) of the fourth quarter 2009 economic survey, which tracks local business trends and overall confidence rating.

BCW member DataKey Consulting, LLC conducted the research and analysis, providing the results of nearly 150 local CEOs and business leaders on the state of the local economy, citing 68% of responding companies project flat to mostly declining sales for 2009 vs. 2008.

Light at the End of the Tunnel

The slide has stopped with 71% of respondents expecting their revenue to either remain the same or increase over the next six months compared to last quarter. Of those who anticipate growth, 53% have enhanced customer service, 53% reduced expenses, and 22% introduced new and improved products to battle the recession.

“Marketing and advertising are important,” said one business owner who projects growth. “I invest more wisely now than ever before, but delivering high quality output and focusing on customer satisfaction will lead to positive word of mouth, and can be the very best advertising possible.”

Since when is a 52 a good grade?

Overall business confidence has doubled since December ‘08. Out of a possible 100, the Westchester Business Confidence Index for the fourth quarter of 2009 scored a 52 (with 50 being equal number of businesses optimistic as pessimistic). Last year at this time, the confidence score was a dismal 27. In comparison, that 52 is looking better and better.

Recession? What Recession?

Here at InSight Marketing, believe it or not, we’ve seen a significant increase in business. Mostly new businesses ready to direct their marketing dollars wisely. Times are tough, so we offer excellent value; great, if not excellent, word-of-mouth marketing; and teach clients to harness the good in their local economy, which can only bode well for clients, and subsequently our local economy.

Now in shaky economic times, these businesses understand the need to aggressively market to keep their business stable, and more importantly, to be well-positioned for the significant growth when the economy turns around. And it will! Promise.

To talk or not to talk? That is the question, but with nothing but dodging from Florida, the blogosphere is more than happy to answer.

While Tiger maintains his silence, or his roundabout explanation that fuels guilt and scandal yet explains nothing, has this mega-superceleb squeaky clean sure thing fallen like … like … Kobe and Phelps and Serena and Michael Vick and Britney and Chris Brown and Kanye and … and … well, you get the drift.

Celebrity endorsements mean a big cha-ching for product placement and sales. Celebrities are a brand onto themselves, as corporations are quick to scoop up the good ol’ boys and girls to be their shining star. But who calculates the missteps? What is the cost of damage control — the necessary clean ups in Aisle Life – when the star crashes to earth?  Or into the neighbor’s tree?

Tiger screwed up (or perhaps he didn’t). We don’t know how or why or when or what, but his silence is deafening. And the corporate bigwigs are squirming big time. Buick, Nike, Gatorade, Gillette, TAG Heuer, Accenture, AT&T.  Is this fixable? What’s it going to cost?  What’s plan B for when the best and brightest prove to be all too human? The brands Tiger represents are now running through the “what if” scenarios, praying for a minor character flaw and not a shock and awe to their brand image.

Sure, celebs of yesteryear were only human too. But that was before Twitter, Facebook, TMZ, MySpace, breaking news all night and all day, and with a buzz of a CNN update, dirty laundry is spilled for all to see.

Speak now, Dear Mr. Clean, or others will speak for you. The blogosphere is erupting. If Tiger doesn’t talk, others put words into his mouth and ergo, the mouths of his sponsors. And the many, many customers are just waiting and listening, wallets in hand.