18 Apr, 2008
In this new frontier of social media marketing, some brands know how to harness what’s out there. Others are like lost puppies nipping at every mailman that walks by for potentially encroaching on their brand’s territory.
Under Armour is a brand that gets it.
A few months ago I wrote a post on my agency site (iStrategyLabs), about a Facebook Page experiment I was conducting. I secured a number of branded Facebook Pages, and sat back silently watching the fan bases grow.
In my post, I said:
If you’re a brand manager for any of the above, just drop me a line and I’ll coordinate with Facebook to hand you over control of the page. This exercise was not built in order to squat on these pages permanently and it would be silly to delete them at the end of this as the fan base would be disbanded by that action doing more harm than good in my opinion.
So, I got an email from Nate an Interactive Art Director at Under Armour, and he appreciated my brand evangelism and willingness to hand over the fan base (~1200 or so fans). I did so, and Under Armour was kind enough to send me a bag full of sweet gear. You can join their page here.
So, thank you Nate/Under Armour. I look forward to seeing more great campaign from you guys. I shall remain one of your loyal brand evangelists.
23 Nov, 2007
Me.Dium is a social app that connects web browsers with one another by tracking their surfing behavior, and displaying their current locations for others to see. Yes this is creepy, but it is certainly interesting to see the web ’socialized’ in this manner. Me.dium also provides an easy way for you to chat with people who are viewing the same sites you are at that time.
From a marketer’s perspective, you could feasibly use this app to introduce Me.dium users to your blog/product site by surfing to the site you’d like people to come to. If you have a big enough friend base, this feature would allow you to draw a large ‘crowd’ of users with you as you travel the web. The larger your sphere of influence, the more pronounced your effect on web traffic would be. Think about how someone like Michael Arrington would effect web traffic patterns if we could see where he is surfing to all day? You’d click and follow along right? I would.
On a related note, it looks like Statisfaction is powering Me.dium’s customer service feedback mechanism.
While I knew Lane Becker and some other West Coast digerati (see “Team Satisfaction” in the right sidebar) were working on a better way for companies to provide customer service, I wasn’t aware of how much progress they had made. Their ‘novel’ idea is to actually listen to customers and act on their feedback. DING!
They’ve already signed up Twitter, Pownce, AT&T, Growl, O’Reilly Media, Google, JumpCut, Apple, Nintendo and a bunch of others. I haven’t really dug deep into this tool yet, but on the surface it looks to be creating a lot of value for customers and companies of all kinds. With a focus on empowering people this way, what’s not to like?
16 Jul, 2007
I’ve recently contributed to what may be a first-of-its-kind collaboration via the internet - more than 100 thinkers have joined together online to write The Age of Conversation, a book focused on social media.
After months of preparation, The Age of Conversation was published today and is available for purchase (All proceeds from sales of the book will be donated to Variety, the Children’s Charity).
The book can be purchased here:
Here’s are some articles about the book:
Coverage of the book in Advertising Age
An article in Social Computing Magazine
19 Jun, 2007
Frank Gruber of TECH Cocktail has sent out a little sneak preview of what he’s been work on at his new gig at AOL.
From the look of the video, myAOL’s new interface may be a little sexier than iGoogle and MyYahoo! I’m looking forward to seeing this in action.
13 Jun, 2007
I posted a little while ago about my co-authorship of www.allfacebook.com.
Since its launch two weeks ago, we’ve seen huge traffic to the site and have received a ton of great feedback.
We were especially happy when Facebook emailed us to give us props for the work.
Today we got a nice endorsement from www.wallstrip.com, which was recently acquired by CBS for $5million.
Howard Lindzon said:
“I like allfacebook.com as a blog for keeping up to date on Facebook. I have been spending some time there after my friend Mike mentioned it this morning. Please recommend others. Everybody in the Facebook pool 
“
Many thanks to our readers, and especially Nick O’Neill for all his hard work setting up the site, and blogging until his fingers go numb!
24 May, 2007
Woolly Mammoth Theatre has a show coming up about what you could learn about someone if they died and you found their cell phone. We decided that the best way to engage this on-the-go audience was to create a new kind of mobile campaign. Here’s what you do:
1) Text “get woolly” to 24421
2) You’ll get an SMS back…reply with “get fun”
3) You’ll get a call in number to record a message of something you’ve overheard (keep it rated R/PG-13 if possible)
4) If your msg is cool, we’ll post it to the www.deadmanscellphone.com and/or play it in the theatre prior/after the show.
There are some pretty funny messages up there already. Check it out [Dead Man’s Cell Phone]
23 May, 2007
On May 10th, 2007, I produced and co-hosted a Blattner Brunner Brand Energy Workshop entitled: “The Non-Profit Marketing Plan Walkthrough”. This session focused on teaching small non-profits how to think like marketers so they can connect with potential donors, volunteers and clients.
As a passionate alturist, I was happy to create the following doucment with the help of Mark Adams and Greater DC Cares.
Click the image to go to Scribd.com - a nifty document sharing site:
Direct link to The Non-Profit Marketing Plan Walkthrough
23 May, 2007
It’s interesting to put down roots in a place like Washington DC and to watch it evolve.
One important change is the birth of what could be called Silicon Hill - a city teaming with digitally armed influencers.
This month saw a few events worth mentioning that I hope will continue to grow in strength as the days go by. Here is a summary:
1) World Wide Web Washington (aka WWWW or The Four Ws)
Notes: The WWWW focused on…you guessed it…The Web. We were sponsors of the show [Blattner Brunner / BBDigital]. Somewhere between 250 and 350 folks showed up. Annual event.
2) Mobile Mondays - DC Chapter
Notes: If you want to talk about mobile applications this is the meet up for you. Every 3rd Monday.
3) Social Media Club - DC Chapter
Notes: Always a good meetup. Put entrepreneurs, social media hounds, agency folks and an IP lawyer or two together and you’ll get an interesting dialog going I promise…
4) DC Open Coffee
Notes: First meetup was last week and had a great turnout. Passionate entrepreneurs, startup junkies, internet strategists, and coffee….sweet.
5) Tech Cocktail - DC Chapter
Notes: Very well attended kick off event. Looking forward to the next one.
I’m sure I’ve missed some events. I’m trying to go to eveything all the time and that can be tough.
IF I MISSED SOMETHING PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT.
5 Apr, 2007
Social Mapping is not new. But Google MyMaps is.
I just created one for DC and sent it to some friends. I wonder what kind of craziness will pop-up: DC is a Hot Mess MyMap
I can hear the nails driving into the coffin of Platial and other social map apps as we speak…
