Between a Rock of Love and a Hard Place.

As somebody once pointed out in some ditty on some long player, “I’m working hard for the weekend.”

Or lyrics to that effect.

It seems to go without saying that every waking hour is taken up by somebody or other wishing to pay either us or Wheeling a visit. The memory of languid weekends with my feet out-stretched waiting for the back of my knees to seize up just prior to the onset of pins and needles is a distant one.

Then again, I didn’t exactly do much Sunday afternoon.

And valuable leisure time after a week’s work is one thing all those young snappers out for their prom, or homecoming, or whatever reason you give these kids to go out looking like modern day Crystal Carringtons, will soon be looking forward to.

Everywhere you turned there were couples and groups dressed with a certain glorious awkwardness that only younger folks possess when trying to be adult. And the whole of Wheeling seemed to be swarming at around 6pm with the blighters.

Fortunately, we weren’t privileged to a full night of the proms as we went for a full greyhound card at the dog tracks.

$4 for a Bloody Mary – now that’s what I call progressive.

Now we don’t do the prom thing in the UK, so I don’t understand the cultural significance of it other than references to it in every single American show / movie I’ve ever watched. It seems as if it’s one of those things that must seem earth-shatteringly important at the time and incredibly lame once you look back on it twenty years later.

You know, a bit like twitter and facebook. (I jest!)

But, I wonder how many of the young gentlemen with their prom dates tried the Bret Michaels pulling technique as displayed in the finale of Rock of Love. For those not in the know, Bret Michaels was / is the lead singer of soft rock combo Poison during the 80s and he’s now trying to find himself the love of his life via the medium of his own TV show. Week after week he’s had to whittle his bevy of beauties down one after another until he got down to his final two.

His second finalist had to endure the old here’s-how-you-save-me-from-ceratin-death-should-I-happen-to-go-into-a-diabetic-coma routine by showing her how to inject insulin into his right buttock.

And how it worked like a charm as she managed to claim first “prize” of Bret as prospective boyfriend.

Now swizzling a girl out of her virtue isn’t that much different to various marketers trying to swizzle you out of your advertising budget with some new fangled social media tool that you’ve never heard of let alone tried.

Then again, to a lot of people just dipping their toes into the world of Web advertising, many of the terms and concepts seem quite alien and confusing. And why would you want to throw more good money at another marketing channel that you aren’t overly sure about in this current climate.

You’re probably thinking of spending less overall as opposed to increasing your budget.

But, as with all advertising and marketing spends, it should be about better returns on what you spend as opposed to spending as much as you can afford and seeing what sticks.

The simplest distinction between various forms of online advertising and marketing and offline efforts is that potential customers and clients are looking for you. Well, maybe not you exactly, but for somebody who can offer particular services. People are searching for you or the services and products you similarly offer, opting in to receive information in the form of email, or subscribing via RSS to hear about what you offer.

The customer is in control of what they want to consume and when they’d like to receive that information. It’s literally at their fingertips. There’s no marketing genius in the idea of making TV advertisements more intrusive and less targeted than they already are by turning the volume up.

We’re now entering a time where you can do potential customers a favor by presenting them with the information they crave.

Online, they’re already switched on and reaching out instead of reaching for the remote and switching off.