By Alaina Sheer
Digital Content Strategist

My personal blog reaches thousands of readers every month.

And while the rewards of blogging are too many to list here, one of my favorite treats is the mystery of my Inbox. I never know what e-mails I’ll find.  Like one today from a reader in the United Arab Emirates who wears the necklace we all designed together every day hidden under her abaya.

Others are from marketers (more on those later this week) and then there are the random oddities like an e-mail from a guy named Josh in California.

Josh had been hunting, to no avail, for a life-size E.T. doll for weeks. Then, after he Googled the term, “lifesize ET doll” Josh found this picture I had posted on my blog in August last year.

And that’s when – unable to find the doll anywhere else – Josh sent me an e-mail.

The doll you got for your kid is pretty much exactly what I’m looking for. Can you give me any information on this doll? (manufacturer, details on the tag or anything else you think may aid me in my search for this illusive collectible?

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide!

Josh

After a few e-mails Josh revealed that he wanted E.T. to join him on the front of his bike for a ride in California benefiting the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. After a chat with E.T.’s owner, my son Benjamin, we decided to lend Josh the E.T. doll. I figured packing E.T. up for a trip across the country would serve as an awesome lesson for Benjamin in geography, sharing and being altruistic.

When I told Josh the news he picked up the phone and called me, “I was going to e-mail you but then I thought, well, I’ll just call her. This is so cool! Thank you!”

And it was. So cool. Social media is more than just a way to communicate, it’s a way to connect – to make the world so much smaller.

A few nights after we hatched the plan and after a few poses in the Cement Marketing office

Benjamin and I brought E.T. to the nearest FedEx store and said our good-byes.

Before packing him up

and shipping him off to a far away place called California.

Stay tuned for pictures of E.T. and Josh (his temporary owner) as they make their way across California for the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. Until then, here are some more pictures of E.T.s departure in the Cement Marketing Flickr stream.

In the meantime, ask yourself this – where did your brand go today? How are you encouraging your clients or consumers to interact with your brand using the tools that have become a part of their lives?