5 Essential Apps for Your Business’s Facebook Fan Page
If you’ve already searched for some Fan Page inspiration and undertaken the task of building a custom landing page for your business’s Facebook presence, you may now be in the market for some features that will further engage your fans.
A nice feature of the modern social web is that it’s modular. You can plug in and customize pre-made pieces of software (often created by other users or companies), and mix and match what works best for you without a lot of technical know-how. Facebook works the same way with apps.
Many Facebook apps are built for casual use, like the social games and quizzes you may see your friends using in their personal feeds. But there are quite a few apps that are ideal for a business Fan Page. These are useful for customizing your page with greater detail, showcasing your content from other social sites and getting more information from your customers. Here are five essential Facebook apps that your business may want to take for a spin.
1. Static FBML for Your Page Sidebar
We’ve already discussed how the Static FBML app can be used to make your Fan Page a unique destination. But this versatile plugin can also bring some interactivity to the column that appears on the left-hand side of your page.
Vertical, left-hand navigation is something users expect to find on most websites. They will be comfortable looking there for additional links, promotions and contact details. Moving a Static FBML box over to the left-hand column is a great way to exploit this valuable real estate. Here’s how to do it.
If you haven’t already done so, add the app to your Fan Page and make sure it’s functioning as a “Box” rather than a “Tab.” Add content to your box using standard HTML. Graphics cannot be uploaded to Facebook here, so you must reference them from a URL — likely one on your own hosted website or blog.
For a sidebar, think about adding some clean graphic buttons or icons that link out to other destinations your fans would be interested in, such as your company website, blog or Twitter () account. This sidebar will be visible no matter what Fan Page tab your visitors are on, so consider using graphic elements that coincide with your existing logo and color scheme.
Once your content is added and saved, it will appear as a box on the “Boxes” tab. Head over there to ensure that your HTML has rendered properly. If so, click the “Pencil ()” in the top-right corner of the box and select “Move To Wall Tab.” This will display your content in the left-hand navigation of your page.
2. Promotions
Contests and giveaways are a great way to engage people with your brand, especially on the social web. A chance at some free stuff is one of the top reasons people follow and friend brands in the first place. The Promotions app makes it easy to build and publish a contest on Facebook in a way that is inherently social and shareable.
Promotions is different from many Facebook apps in that the content you create for it lives on the developer’s website. This makes it a versatile tool, but you’ll have to sign up for a free account at wildfireapp.com.
Once you create an account and connect the registered app to Facebook, the promotions you generate on WildFire will populate the tab on your Fan Page. Promotions are easily built through a step-by-step process. Provide the dates of the contest, the types of prizes, the fields for the entry form, specific parameters about contest entry and rules, and upload any additional artwork you want to include.
A nice advantage of having contest data centralized on WildFire is that it can be sourced out to other social networks, and even to your own company website. Any changes or additions you make to your promotions will dynamically update on all of the locations where your customers and fans find you on the web.
Note, the cost to publish a basic promotional campaign through Wildfire is $5, plus $.99 for each day the campaign is active. Additional packages with more customization and publishing options are available.
3. Social RSS
If you already have great content from your company’s blog or another social network that you’d like to bring to the fore of your Facebook presence, Social RSS is a smart tool.
You can configure this app to automatically pull in updates from any RSS or ATOM feed and display them as posts on your Fan Page, either on a dedicated tab, a wall tab (on the left side) or as part of your core news feed. It’s a useful way to automate your content and eliminate the need to republish things manually to your Facebook Page.
Take note, however, that fans on social networks are much more responsive to curated content. Especially on Facebook, where people connect to a smaller community of personal friends and family, an unfiltered pipeline of RSS content may not be welcome in all news feeds. If your core customers are already subscribed to your blog and other social accounts, a double-dose of the same exact content may trigger some to hide your updates or “un-fan” you. Consider relegating your Social RSS feed to a tab if this is the case.
Test where and how an app like Social RSS is best implemented on Facebook, and adjust as needed depending on the size and response of your audience.
4. Poll
Sometimes you just need a little feedback. That’s what social engagement is all about, right?
On Facebook, it doesn’t get any simpler than the Poll app. There’s no account to sign up for. Once you connect it to your Page, all the setup and data lives right in your settings panel.
A poll can be a casual way to get a read from your fans about a new product, a new page design, or your business in general.
In the poll settings, simply name your burning question (What do you think of our new spicy burritos?), list your choices (Delicious (), Pretty Tasty, Needs Work, Offensive) and select your publishing options.
Polls can be published to your Page wall/feed, live on a custom tab or be popped into your left-hand navigation where visitors can click anytime they come to your Page. You can invite your friends to take a poll, and they can easily share it out as they would any other post or app. Both you and your visitors can see the poll results without leaving Facebook.
Publishing a weekly poll about new products or changes in your industry is a great way to keep fans coming back to your Page and talking about your brand.
5. YouTube for Pages
If creating video content is part of your business’s social media strategy (and we recommend it should be) you can squeeze more views out of your productions by dedicating a Fan Page tab to your YouTube channel.
That’s exactly what the YouTube for Pages app does. To activate the app, you’ll have to set up a free account at the developer website involver. Once it’s connected to your Fan Page, simply input the YouTube channel you’d like to pull videos from (it could be your own or anyone else’s), pick a few more settings, and you’re all set.
The app “features” your most recent upload or favorite, and displays thumbnails for previous videos on a simple, clean interface. The videos play directly on Facebook of course, so fans can watch without ever leaving your Fan Page. Just be sure to add the tab in the app’s “Application Settings.”
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Blogging’s a Low-Cost, High Return Marketing Tool
TO its true believers at small businesses, it is a low-cost, high-return tool that can handle marketing and public relations, raise the company profile and build the brand.
That tool is blogging, though small businesses with blogs are still a distinct minority. A recent American Express survey found that only 5 percent of businesses with fewer than 100 employees have blogs. Other experts put the number slightly higher.
But while blogs may be useful to many more small businesses, even blogging experts do not recommend it for the majority.
Guy Kawasaki, a serial entrepreneur, managing partner of Garage Technology Ventures and a prolific blogger, put it this way: “If you’re a clothing manufacturer or a restaurant, blogging is probably not as high on your list as making good food or good clothes.”
Blogging requires a large time commitment and some writing skills, which not every small business has on hand.
But some companies are suited to blogging. The most obvious candidates, said Aliza Sherman Risdahl, author of “The Everything Blogging Book” (Adams Media 2006), are consultants. “They are experts in their fields and are in the business of telling people what to do.”
For other companies, Ms. Risdahl said, it can be challenging to find a legitimate reason for blogging unless the sector served has a steep learning curve (like wine), a lifestyle associated with certain products or service (like camping gear or pet products) or a social mission (like improving the environment or donating a portion of revenues to charity).
Even in those niches, Ms. Risdahl said that companies need to focus on a strategy for their blogging and figure out if they have enough to say.
“As a consultant, blogging clearly helps you get hired,” she said. “If you are selling a product, you have to be much more creative because people don’t want to read a commercial.”
Sarah E. Endline, chief executive of sweetriot, which makes organic chocolate snacks, said she started blogging a few months before starting her company in 2005 to give people a behind-the-scenes look at the business.
The kind of transparency is a popular reason for blogging, particularly for companies that want to be identified as mission-oriented or socially responsible.
A typical post on sweetriot’s blog described the arrival of the company’s first cacao shipment from South America and how Ms. Endline met the truck on Labor Day weekend after it passed through customs at Kennedy International Airport.
She wrote about climbing aboard to inspect the goods and then praised the owner of Gateway trucking company, who helped her sort through the boxes so that she could examine the product.
“At sweetriot we don’t use the word ‘vendors’ as we believe it is about partnership with anyone with whom we work,” she wrote.
For companies in the technology sector, having a blog is pretty much expected. Still, Tony Stubblebine, the founder and chief executive of CrowdVine, a company that builds social networks for conferences, said that one of his main reasons for blogging is to show that his business model is different from the typical technology start-up.
“Everyone in Silicon Valley is focused on venture capital funding and having an exit strategy,” he said. “Because I’m not focused on raising money, I can focus on my customers, since they aren’t a stepping stone to some acquisition or I.P.O.”
He added: “I’m trying to create a community of help for small Internet businesses like mine. My blogging philosophy is like the open source model in software. It’s sort of a hippie concept. If I can help other people, it’s personally rewarding. And those people will likely pay it back in some ways.”
Mr. Stubblebine said he gets new customers largely by word of mouth, and he uses the blog as a way to share news with friends and people who wield influence in his industry as well as a reference check for customers. “That’s why I cover the growth of the company.”
David Harlow, a lawyer and health care consultant in Boston, said he started his blog, HealthBlawg, as a way of marketing himself after he left a large law firm and opened his own practice. Besides, he said, blogging was easy to get started and the technology was straightforward.
Now, after about two years of blogging, Mr. Harlow said he was pleased with the results. He gets about 200 to 300 visits a day, he said. He has also become a source for publications looking for commentary on regulatory issues in the health care field and has even gained a few clients because of the blog. In addition, he has formed relationships with other legal bloggers (who call themselves blawgers) and consultants around the country.
Many small business bloggers achieve their goals even if only a handful or a few hundred people read their blogs. But some companies aim much higher.
Denali Flavors, an ice cream manufacturing company in Michigan that licenses its flavors to other stores, for example, is a small company with a limited ad budget. It decided to use a series of blogs to build brand awareness for Moose Tracks, its most popular flavor of ice cream.
John Nardini, who runs marketing for Denali and is responsible for the company’s blogs, said he has experimented over the last few years with different types of blogs to see which would generate the most traffic. One blog followed a Denali-sponsored bicycle team that was raising money for an orphanage in Latvia. Another tracked the whereabouts of a Moose character that would show up at famous landmarks around the country.
But by far the most successful blog, in terms of traffic, turned out to be Free Money Finance, a blog that has nothing to do with Denali’s business. Mr. Nardini’s plan was to create a blog with so much traffic that it could serve as an independent media outlet owned by Denali Flavors, where the company could be the sole sponsor and advertiser.
He chose personal finance because it is a popular search category on the Web and because he knew he would not tire of posting about it. And post he does, about five times each weekday.
He uses free tools like Google Analytics and Site Meter to understand how people are finding the site and which key words are working. Free Money Finance receives about 4,500 visits a day and each visitor views about two pages, which means they see two ads for Moose Tracks ice cream. The effort costs about $400 a year, excluding Mr. Nardini’s salary.
The site also accepts advertising, which earns the company about $30,000 to $40,000 a year, all of which Denali donates to charity. “We run ads because it legitimizes the site; it’s really not about the money,” Mr. Nardini said. “We’re hoping people will go into Pathmark, see the Moose Tracks logo and say, ‘Hey, I just saw that on the Web site I go to every day.’ ”
10 Web Marketing Trends for 2010
Allocating your small business marketing budget to maximize return on investment and minimize the risks of a low or negative return can become a lot more unpredictable when your investments involve trends and emerging technologies. Investing in trends requires smart timing and consumer analysis.
You would think that marketing trends would be closely aligned with consumer trends, since effective marketing depends on getting your messages to appear where the highest concentration of qualified eyeballs are focused. That isn’t always the case, however, because trend-focused marketers tend to place an inflated value on revolutionary technology and early adoption.
Thankfully, the majority of consumers permanently relocate their attention with much less frequency than marketing bandwagon drivers. Still, missing a trend or sticking with a has-been spells opportunity lost at best and negative returns or loss of market share at worst.
Since your trend-marketing returns are only as good as your ability to make educated guesses, here’s some advice to help you avoid turning educated guesses into marketing messes. The following list features the top 10 internet marketing trends for 2010, in no particular order, and tells you whether to invest, test or let it rest.
Trend #1: Search Engine Optimization
Advice: Test
Sites with relevant content and credible links will continue to rule the search rankings in the coming year, but 2010 has the potential to reveal a few new standards. As the volume of web content continues to grow, consumers will demand even more relevant and personalized search results. That means search engines will be looking for more relevant and personalized content from publishers and brands. In fact, the search engine algorithms are already beginning to pay more attention to date of publication, geo-location, mobile device browsers, past behavior and social media content.
Don’t abandon your current SEO strategy in search of personalization, but make sure you allocate a portion of your budget to testing content, keywords and links that are targeted toward niche audiences. Test keyword and link placement in social media, local content and mobile websites, and make an effort to more frequently refresh some of the content you devote to search engine rankings. Once the search engines have tested these new search targets and revealed some concrete standards, you should be prepared to invest accordingly.
Trend #2: Paid Search
Advice: Invest
Paid search hasn’t seen a revolutionary trend since the idea of the long tail was applied to keyword bidding. That’s OK, because consumers will still use search engines in 2010 as a primary means of finding products and services to fulfill their needs, and they will still be clicking on relevant ads. Search advertising prices will remain reasonable, and average returns will remain comparably high as larger companies with decreased search marketing budgets continue to allocate resources to lower-cost SEO tactics in hopes of attracting visitors at lower prices. 2010 has the potential for even more downward pressure on price-per-click if Bing can gain enough loyal searchers to attract business away from Google.
You won’t exactly feel like you’re in the driver’s seat when your search marketing placement choices are limited to Google, Microsoft or both, but that doesn’t mean you should shy away from investing in the highly qualified leads that paid search is capable of producing for your small business.
Trend #3: E-mail Marketing
Advice: Invest
It isn’t hard to justify an investment in e-mail marketing when the cost of sending e-mails is so low. The low cost isn’t the only reason to send e-mail, however. Most consumers still consider e-mail to be their primary form of communication, even though there are several alternative ways for consumers to subscribe to periodic content from small businesses.
E-mail marketing will remain highly predictable in 2010 and may even become more powerful as e-mail service providers improve social media integration, search engine access to archived e-mails, auto-responders and new integrated applications. If you don’t already use an e-mail service provider, invest in one in 2010. If you already use an e-mail service, invest in your e-mail list and in producing valuable content to nurture leads and attract repeat customers.
The cost of building a permission-based list is likely to stay the same in 2010 as it was in 2009, but more than one-third of consumers changed at least one of their e-mail addresses in 2009–due to job changes or other economic factors. Spend more time and money in 2010 focused on keeping your e-mail list current when those consumers return to work and change e-mail addresses again.
Trend #4: Social Network Marketing
Advice: Test
Social media has one redeeming quality for marketers–lots and lots of eyeballs. That’s attractive if you’re a major brand, but profitable interaction will continue to be the exception for small businesses in 2010 rather than the rule. A good test of your social network marketing potential is to survey your current customers to see how many of them consider social networking to be a primary form of communication. You should probably experiment with a Facebook fan page and a Twitter page if you find that a meaningful percentage of your current customers indicate an interest in following your business.
Make 2010 your year to test content that attracts repeat and referral business. Your current customers are more likely than total strangers to respond to offers posted on social networks because they already know you and trust you based on their prior purchases.
Trend #5: Blogging
Advice: Let it rest
If you’re writing a blog to help with search engine rankings or to inform existing customers, you should continue to test or invest. If you’re blogging in an attempt to attract new prospects and convert them to customers, however, 2010 will be a year that exposes the blogosphere’s vulnerability to the law of averages. Converting prospects into customers depends on driving visitors to content that maximizes conversions, and that means your conversion rate is only as good as the content on your landing page. If that landing page is your blog and your blog changes frequently, your conversion rate is only as good as your latest blog post.
Instead of blogging to convert your website visitors into customers in 2010, work hard to test and develop great landing page content. When you find something that works, don’t change it.
Trend #6: Web Presence
Advice: Invest
If you want people to see the content on your website, it might make sense to advertise the location of your website content by placing ads on other high-traffic websites. Driving visitor traffic to your website isn’t the way to go for 2010, however. Instead, you need to spend 2010 driving your website content to the visitor traffic.
The difference stems from the fact that content aggregation websites like YouTube are boosting consumer demand for instant gratification and what I like to call “content nesting.” Content nesting allows consumers to browse through content fed to them through a single web page, or nest, so that they don’t have to click on links to individual websites all over the World Wide Web, which takes more time–not to mention that the results can be anywhere from unpredictable to shockingly irrelevant.
To take advantage of content nesting in 2010, your website content needs to be nested in as many content aggregation sites as possible. For example, a lot of people search for videos on YouTube. If you have a video on your website and it’s not also on YouTube, people on YouTube won’t bother searching for your website. To them, YouTube represents the total number of videos available to them on their topic of interest.
Trend #7: Mobile Marketing
Advice: Test
In case you haven’t heard, mobile marketing is all about marketing to people through their mobile phones and smart-phone devices. Small businesses haven’t had much of an opportunity to engage consumers on mobile devices, but 2010 has the potential to change that.
Demand is increasing dramatically for mobile applications and mobile web-browsing due to wider adoption of devices like the iPhone and the Google Android phone. As more people adopt these phones and features in 2010, look for small-business marketing services to start providing lower-cost mobile marketing solutions like text messaging, mobile e-mail marketing, mobile websites, mobile application development and location-based marketing.
Make 2010 your year to collect mobile preferences from your prospects and customers, and use tools like Google Analytics to see how many people are visiting your website on mobile web browsers. If you find interest in mobile interaction among your customers, begin testing simple mobile marketing campaigns such as sending a few mobile coupons via text or building a mobile micro-site for one of your products.
Trend #8: Podcasting and Online Radio
Advice: Let it rest
Online radio is actually on a bit of a growth trend, but that’s just because so-called terrestrial radio is suffering so much that radio advertisers are switching their investments to digital formats. 2010 will be a year of exploration for online broadcasters as they struggle to find and attract loyal audiences. iTunes has long been the leader in podcasting, but there are still no clear leaders in internet radio.
Even if leaders emerge in 2010, internet broadcasters will need to make their media more sharable, more engaging, more trackable and more mobile to attract money from advertisers. If you’re looking to attract an audience by broadcasting or advertising on broadcast media, go with online video in 2010 and wait for radio to finish reinventing itself.
Trend #9: Online Video
Advice: Invest
If a picture paints a thousand words, how many words does a 30-second online video paint? Countless buying emotions and memorable brand moments are possible with video. Until recently, spreading your message with video was limited to the television screen. In 2010, watch for video to become more accessible to small businesses through online outlets. Online video is interactive, memorable, widely accessible, cheap to create and highly shareable. There’s also a lot of investment happening around video, which is sure to create even more low-cost opportunities for small businesses to participate in video promotions in 2010.
Video presents a great opportunity for small-business marketing, but don’t think of video as a replacement for text. As powerful as video can be, it can be more cumbersome than text because you can’t scan a video as quickly as you can scan a page of headlines, links and text to quickly find the exact information you need. Use your investments to find the right balance for your customers.
Trend #10: Coupons, Discounts and Savings
Advice: Test
OK, this one isn’t entirely an internet marketing trend, but it’s important enough to mention because of the economy. 2009 was another tough year for retailers, and consumers are so accustomed to shopping for deals that they might begin to expect the plethora of deep discounts currently available to continue forever. If you’re engaged in heavy discounting to attract sales and survive the economic downturn, you’ll need to spend 2010 slowly weaning your customers off your lower prices, assuming that the economy recovers. Resetting expectations won’t be easy, so try swapping discounts for special privileges like loyalty discounts, free upgrades and other offers that won’t lock you in to price comparisons.
Internet marketing trends develop quickly, so expect many new and exciting trends to emerge in 2010. Don’t be too quick to jump on new bandwagons because consumers move more slowly than marketers and technology. Stay focused on attracting repeat business, deepening your customer relationships and solving problems for people. Those are the trends that never fail small businesses.
John Arnold’s no-nonsense marketing advice is featured in his well-known marketing books, including Web Marketing All-In-One Desk Reference for Dummies, E-Mail Marketing for Dummies and the forthcoming Mobile Marketing for Dummies. Arnold is also a leading marketing speaker, trainer and consultant who specializes in do-it-yourself marketing advice for small businesses, franchises and associations.
Top Ten Date Movies for Men
No.10 - Jerry Maguire (1996)
Tom Cruise, Renee Zellweger
Back before he went completely insane, Tom Cruise was the biggest box-office star in Hollywood and the charisma and screen presence that allowed him to climb to this lofty position is on full display in this hybrid romantic comedy/sports movie. Directed by Cameron Crowe (Almost Famous, Singles), Jerry Maguire tells the tale of a ruthless sports agent who suffers a sudden change of heart and turns his back on the money-crazed industry.
3 reasons she’ll love it: Jerry Maguire has the three pillars of success as far as date movies are concerned: Pre-crazy Tom Cruise, it’s a love story in which the average-looking girl gets the “hot” guy and kid so cute you’ll want to punt him.
3 reasons you’ll love it: There’s great sports action, tons of fantastic cameos (from Glenn Fry to Troy Aikman) and a surprisingly hot sex scene with Kelly Preston (all date movies should be so blessed).
No.9 - The Apartment (1960)
Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine
You can advance your career through hard work, long hours and ample ass-kissing. Or, if you are Bud Baxter (Lemmon) in this classic among 1960s date movies, you just let all the executives use your Manhattan apartment for their illicit trysts. That’s the premise of this long-forgotten comedy from legendary director Billy Wilder (Some Like It Hot). Things go along swimmingly for Bud until he falls for the mistress of his boss — which understandably makes things awkward.
3 reasons she’ll love it: The hilarious backward attitudes toward women will make her happy for today’s more progressive mindset, she’ll giggle at the style — handsome men in thin ties, and Shirley MacLaine’s ditzy, whorish character will make her feel morally superior.
3 reasons you’ll love it: Lemmon’s sad-sack, faceless corporate drone will let you look at your predicament and remember that it could always be worse. The Apartment provides a look at the good old days when cigarettes were smoked in your office and women were called “dames.” You’ll also earn major bonus points for introducing her to a hilarious silver-screen classic that helped shape the genre of date movies.
No.8 - Belle Epoque (1992)
Penelope Cruz, Miriam Díaz Aroca
Show off your cultured continental side and rent this 1994 Oscar-winner for Best Foreign Language Film. It tells the story of a Spanish soldier who deserts the army and ends up in a villa with an artist and his four serious hot Spanish daughters. Hmm, risk your life on the front lines or hang out with four farmer’s daughters? It’s sexy without being raunchy and funny without resorting to poop jokes — just as all date movies should be.
3 reasons she’ll love it: Your date will love the gorgeous Spanish scenery, the sensual sex scenes and the cute guys with even cuter accents.
3 reasons you’ll love it: It’s basically a two-hour cinematic version of the age-old farmer’s daughter fantasy, when your date takes a pee break you can freeze-frame nude scenes of Penelope Cruz, and of course, there’s Penelope Cruz.
No.7 - About a Boy (2002)
Hugh Grant, Rachel Weisz
For many women, dating is really just a job interview for prospective fathers. So, your girl will undoubtedly be watching how you judge Hugh Grant’s character in this pleasant little flick. He starts off as a lazy, womanizing boy-toy, but after becoming an unlikely and unwilling surrogate father to a bastard child in this date movie bloodbath, he turns into a model adult man.
3 reasons she’ll love it: For once she gets to witness a man who can be changed for the better, the female lead isn’t a size zero with porcelain skin, and the cute, awkward lead boy.
3 reasons you’ll love it: You’ll envy Hugh Grant’s bachelor pad, enjoy the soundtrack (performed exclusively by Badly Drawn Boy), and Rachel Weisz.
No.6 - Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005)
Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie
Make-up sex is just about the best kind of sex you can have. So, imagine how good the sex is between Brad Pitt’s and Angelina Jolie’s characters after they spend 20 minutes trying to kill each other. That sexual tension, combined with many more phenomenal action sequences, make this one of the best date movies to come along in a long time. With an A-plus cast comes huge expectations, but even with that burden, director Doug Liman (Swingers, Jumper) delivers.
3 reasons she’ll love it: Your date will love the spectacularly decorated suburban home, the rare and empowering presence of a hit woman and, as usual, Brad Pitt.
3 reasons you’ll love it: You’ll love the coolest weapon arsenal seen on the screen in some time, the amazing car chase (between BMWs and a minivan) and, as usual, Angelina Jolie.
No.5 - Say Anything (1989)
John Cusack, Ione Skye
Lloyd Dobler (John Cusack) did more than just bag the hot popular rich chick while wearing a trench coat; he also gave hope to helpless nerds the world over. And this ’80s date-movie classic tells the tale of how he did just that. You can’t help but cheer for Dobler because not only is he the consummate underdog, he’s also a father figure to his little brother and boasts the coolest ghetto blaster in movie history. So, to see him win in the end will melt even the coldest heart.
3 reasons she’ll love it: No woman can resist the young and charming John Cusack. She’ll also like the endearing father/daughter relationship and the hilarious ‘80s fashion.
3 reasons you’ll love it: You’ll like the hot chicks wearing hilarious ‘80s fashion, the retro soundtrack and the sport of the future.
No.4 - Intolerable Cruelty (2003)
George Clooney, Catherine Zeta-Jones
Not all date movies have to come slathered in cheesy romance, especially when they star two of the hottest actors this side of 2000. George Clooney plays a hardened divorce lawyer who falls for a client (Catherine Zeta-Jones) and tries like mad to get in her legal briefs. It’s filled with cheating husbands and gold-digging ex-wives, which could make you ask why it belongs on this list. Well, aside from being one of the wittiest romantic comedies out there, it also captures the same flirtatious energy both you and your friend are hopefully feeling on your movie-watching date.
3 reasons she’ll love it: Obviously, she’ll like People magazine’s twice-named Sexiest Man Alive, George Clooney, a female character that can go toe-to-toe with the slimiest lawyers and con artists out there, and all the cheating men who get their comeuppance.
3 reasons you’ll love it: You’ll love it for the rare and dignified beauty of Catherine Zeta-Jones, the Coen Brothers’ eclectic style and an asthmatic contract killer.
No.3 - The Wedding Singer (1998)
Adam Sandler, Drew Barrymore
Usually, lead singers of wedding bands are the kind of guys you’d like to drag out behind the banquet hall and strangle with a microphone cord, but Adam Sandler’s Robbie is entertaining enough to avoid such a fate. He and a less-annoying-than-usual Drew Barrymore star in this charming romantic comedy and play star-crossed lovers who find themselves engaged to the wrong people. Sandler and Barrymore stick to the moral high ground and wait for the inevitable happy ending to begin their relationship.
3 reasons she’ll love it: She’ll revel in an unrivaled ‘80s soundtrack, be thankful her fingers will never get tangled in a mullet and laugh at the horrific bridesmaid dresses.
3 reasons you’ll love it: Guys will appreciate the realistic portrayal of life as a freshly dumped dude, like the hot girls (if you consider girls with feathered hair and neon sweatshirts hot), and love the fact that the movie ends after 95 minutes.
No.2 - Bull Durham (1988)
Kevin Costner, Susan Sarandon
Sports movies usually make good date movies, thanks in part to their combination of action and romance. This baseball flick, however, adds some spicy sex and above-average dialogue to elevate it into the classic realm. Kevin Costner plays a career minor league catcher called on to mentor a dim yet talented prospect (Tim Robbins). Along the way, the two fight over the affections of Annie Savoy (Susan Sarandon), a townie with a thing for ballplayers.
3 reasons she’ll love it: Your girl will like the liberal female lead who’ll make her feel empowered (which could make things very interesting if things get a bit frisky), the cute baseball players, and Kevin Costner’s list of the important things in life, which range from hanging curveballs to high fiber, and ends with an admiration of “long, slow, deep, soft, wet kisses that last three days.”
3 reasons you’ll love it: You’ll chuckle at Nuke LaLoosh’s cliche-ridden interviews, but you’ll enjoy how the movie portrays life in the minor leagues, and the old-fashioned, dirt-on-your-uniform, pine-tar-in-your-hair baseball action.
No.1 - Hitch (2005)
Will Smith, Kevin James
There are life coaches, financial consultants, career counselors, and all other sorts of people willing to offer their services, but is there any help out there for a hapless dweeb with no clue about women? There is in this surprising rom-com, and it is in the form of a silky-smooth Will Smith who mentors Kevin James on the subtleties of dating in the new millennium. We mentioned that a good date movie should have laughs, and this film has a black book full of them.
3 reasons she’ll love it: She’ll like Will Smith doing his Will Smith thing, Kevin James’ attempt at dancing and the flick gives an inside look at the inner-workings of a man on the prowl.
3 reasons you’ll love it: You’ll like Eva Mendes, the truly valuable nuggets of dating advice from a master and Eva Mendes (no, that’s not a misprint).
Helpfull Hints from Joanna Fuchs for Writing Your Valentine
Valentine Treasures
Valentine treasures are people who
have often crossed your mind,
family, friends and others, too,
who in your life have shined
the warmth of love or a spark of light
that makes you remember them;
no matter how long since you’ve actually met,
each one is a luminous gem,
who gleams and glows in your memory,
bringing special pleasures,
and that’s why this Valentine comes to you:
You’re one of those sparkling treasures!By Joanna FuchsThis Valentine poetry has a Valentine’s Day saying that is sure to please. The Valentine message in this Valentine rhyme will make the recipient feel special! This Valentines Day saying is a short Valentine verse that will linger in the memory with pleasure. It’s a short, sweet Valentine poem.
Wherever I May GoYou’re in my thoughts and in my heart
Wherever I may go;
On Valentine’s Day, I’d like to say
I care more than you know.By Joanna FuchsValentines poetry comes in a variety of formats. Valentine messages can be Valentine’s Day rhymes, or they can be written in free verse, as this happy Valentine poem is. This Valentine message can be sent to family, friends, co-workers, anyone! It’s a Valentine saying that says enough without saying too much.
Special PeopleOn Valentine’s Day, we think of people
who have cheered and encouraged us,
who go out of their way
to be kind and caring,
who have enriched our lives
just by being themselves.
You are such a person.
I’m so happy you’re my _____
(friend, aunt, co-worker, etc.)
Happy Valentine’s Day!By Joanna FuchsThere’s no end to the different kinds of Valentine poetry available. Valentines Day poems, sayings, rhymes and verses can be short or long. This short Happy Valentine’s Day poem is perfect for a card Valentine verse, and the Valentine message is appropriate.
Special ConnectionValentine’s Day is for expressing affection;
Fond thoughts are coming your way;
We’ve always had a special connection,
So Happy Valentine’s Day!By Joanna FuchsValentines Day poems for friends and family are in demand. You can send this Valentines Day poem to a group of people, such as a family, by changing singular forms to plural, such as “I” to “We,” etc. It’s a good Valentine card poem.
Pleasant Thoughts of YouWhenever likable people cross my mind,
I always have such pleasant thoughts of you.
You bring me so much happiness and joy;
Those who lift me up are very few.On Valentine’s Day I want to tell you this:
Knowing you is an extraordinary pleasure;
Your caring heart is always quick to give;
You’re unique, a rare and very special treasure.By Joanna FuchsContemporary Valentine poetry usually doesn’t rhyme. This general Valentine poem in free verse (it doesn’t rhyme) could probably apply to a number of people in your life. It could be a Valentine’s Day card verse to be used as a Valentine message. It is a Valentines Day saying sure to please.
Valentine GiftOn Valentine’s Day,
I’m thinking about
the special ways
you have made my life better,
the little things,
the not-so-little things…
your kindness,
the way you always listen
and pay attention to me.
You make my world
brighter and richer.
You’re a gift to me,
and I thank you
for being you.By Joanna Fuchs
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