You know the great thing about blogs on April Fools Day?Google indexes blogs in about 5 minutes so you are able to use a blog to pull an April Fools or practical joke on someone.
The key is to use a unique search term or string of words that is unique so that your post will come up first when your "victim" searches to get the "real story".
This way the "April Fools" moment is presented through the use of a Google search instead of in person!
Let's try a District 53 Toastmasters example... hmm, who should be our "target"?
Someone with a sense of humor, of course.
Someone who perhaps does not read this blog as often as he or she should ... what better way to introduce them to the Divison A blog?
How about Colleen Yarter and Bruce Cornwell, the co-chairs for the Fall '07 conference last November in Fishkill, NY?
So, to get it started, I will put variations of the "key phrase" which we will use for the joke into this blog post...
Things like "Colleen Yarter named Best Toastmaster Ever" or "Bruce Cornwell selected Best Toastmaster Ever" or "Colleen Yarter, Best Toastmaster Ever" or "Bruce Cornwell, Best Toastmaster Ever" or "Yarter & Cornwell named BTE!"
... with these specific phrases, the odds are good that my blog post will pop up at the top of a Google search for those exact terms (or very similar)!
We can also improve my chances by adding tags such as "Bruce Cornwell", "Colleen Yarter", BTE, Best Toastmaster Ever and Toastmasters.
Let's try it .... (I just posted this and will wait a few minutes to see if the Google search works).
It worked ! Now to put our plan into action with a telephone call or email ....
April Fools, Bruce & Colleen ... from Division A !!!
Seriously though... Thank you Bruce & Colleen for all your work on the Fall '07 conference and we hope you will take on new leadership opportunities in the coming year !
P.S. Darren LaCroix also has a sense of humor... check out today's post on his blog and be sure to wish him luck with his Disc Golf resort ...
P.P.S. Even Google themselves are getting into the act... Check out their new "GMail Custom Time" feature which "utilizes an e-flux capacitor to resolve issues of causality" so your emails can go back in time. Pretty neat!
3 comments:
What if you add a name to this blog post via a comment post... like Will Ryan or Karin von Kaenal or Marsha Kiley... would you be able to pull the same joke on them ?
Let's see... (waiting 15 minutes before trying Google search).
Dave Wheeler
Well, Will, Karin and Marsha's names are featured so often on this email that the "comment test" was superceded by all the other times they were mentioned on the main page (not this particular post).
Let's try .... Peter Lane, the President of Socially Speaking Toastmasters. Pete Lane has a good sense of humor so I'm sure he will get a kick out this!
(waiting 15 minutes to see if his name shows up in a Google search)
Darn... the "adding names to the comment section" does not seem to work. If you would like to nominate someone for "Best Toastmaster Ever" on April Fools Day, please leave a comment here and I will add a paragraph at the end of the actual post with their name!
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