Advercation = Advertising + Education

In the interest of more closely tying the DC Tech community together, I’ve begun compiling a list of DC Tech Twitter-ers. If you’re a DC Tech Twitter-er, and not represented below, please leave a comment on this post your twitter link and i’ll add you. Additionally, please include your blog as a reference as well. Lastly, if you follow someone in DC who is a tech oriented Twitter-er, please throw their link into the comments as well. Oh and follow me!

From BarCampDC’s Twitter:

From RefreshDC’s Twitter (if not included above):

From Peter Corbett’s Twitter (my twitter):

DC Based (if not included above):

Non-DC but worthwhile:

I just recieved a twitter msg from Barack Obama that reads:

twitter: BarackObama: Launching Obama Mobile text messaging; text ‘GO’ to OBAMA (62262) to get a free bumper sticker.

Clearly I texted and got back:

Thanks for joining Obama Mobile. To get a free Obama sticker reply STKR & type your complete mailing address. Txt HELP for help, STOP to quit. Std rates apply.

Lastly, I recieved this text:

Thank you for ordering your Obama sticker & joining Obama Mobile. For more info & ringtones visit http://www.barackobama.com/mobile

Twitter + Mobile + Direct Mail…I like that!

Asking for a full postal address via text is quite a request. I wounder how many folks will opt into this. Maybe there could have been a wallpaper for your handset instead. Updated: Wow. Yeah, there are more than a wallpapers @ Barack Obama’s Mobile Campaign home.

Obama’s twitter has 3320 followers. My guess is that about 20% max will text ‘GO’, which means 640 cell #’s will be added to the database. Another 30% might send their full address, leaving us with 96 folks getting stickers from this twitter interaction. The campaign will be touting this promotion elsewhere (I’m surprised I haven’t gotten an email about it yet) just got the email to “Take the Movement Offline”, 12 hours after the Twitter msg.  I like the fact that Twitter friends of Obama are in the know faster than the general audience.

My favorite feature is the ringtone download. I’m not a ‘big ringtone guy’ but “2004 DNC Speech Rock” ringtone is pretty cool. I justed downloaded/enabled it. I’m going to see what my friends’ reactions are when they hear my phone go off.

Othern notes: Looks like the campaign used Jeroen Wijering’s flash media player for the ringtone previews.

I’ve been struggling to find a case study on how a brand has used Twitter to truly engage their audience.

Thank you Palm Pictures for finally providing me with a great case study on how a brand can use this social media tool.

Here’s what they did:

0) Palm Pictures is an independent studio focused on the acquisition, production and distribution of innovative music and independent film projects.

1) Palm Pictures created a twitter: http://twitter.com/palmpictures

2) They diligently tweet’d away, providing a running commentary on the films and music they were interested at the time. They provided 155 updates in about 2 months time….which was almost too much…and I almost stopped following their updates.

3) However, one day I received a direct twitter message from a Palm Pictures twitterer Rosalie:

“Hey!!! Thanks for supporting Palm on twitter!!! If you are interested in receiving some screeners mail me on xxxxxxx@palmpictures.com”

4) So as an avid indie film/music fan I was overjoyed to see that Palm Pictures was going to hook me up with some cool merchandise…so i naturally replied and basically said “sweet, hook me up with whatever you’ve got. I LOVE 1 Giant Leap so whatever you think I might like based on that is cool with me.” (I also HIGHLY recommend Sex and Lucia and Bomb the System BTW…actually…anything made by these guys is more than likely worth taking a look at)

5) The payoff came in the mail 3 days later:

Now I’ve got some really awesome films and music to check out this week. Not only that, but when my clients ask me “Peter, how can we use twitter to engage our target audiences?” I’ll be able to point to this case study for a really good example of how to do just that. Great job Palm!

Here a simple and fun way to hack a twitter badge:

1) Visit a Twitter profile you liked to hack.  Try Rudolph Giuliani’s Twitter or John Edward’s Twitter

2) Right click > View Source and grab this:

<a href=“http://twitter.com/statuses/user_timeline/5672592.rss”>RSS Feed</a>

3) The 7 digits before the .rss is the User ID for Mr. Giuliani

4) Go to the Badges section and grab the following code to create a flash badge:

<div style=”width:176px;text-align:center”><embed src=”http://twitter.com/flash/twitter_badge.swf”  flashvars=”color1=52275&type=user&id=XXXXXXX”  quality=”high” width=”176″ height=”176″ name=”twitter_badge” align=”middle” allowScriptAccess=”always” wmode=”transparent” type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” pluginspage=”http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer” /><br><a style=”font-size: 10px; color: #00CC33; text-decoration: none” href=”http://twitter.com/RudolphGiuliani”>follow RudolphGiuliani at http://twitter.com</a></div>

5) Replace the “user&id=XXXXXXX” with “user&id=5672592″ or any other user id.

6) Post the new code to a blog/website and you’ll have created someone elses badge.  If you hack a bunch of these together you can create an odd “fly eye view” with windows (badges) constantly updating with tweets.  If you make something like this please comment…it would be cool to see.

Living and working in DC almost necessitates that you become integrated into the political scene somehow.

I’ve largely avoided this reality, but one element of the 2008 campaign has forced me to engage and watch every carefully - the innovative interactive implementations campaigns are using to reach their audiences.

While broadband video was an obvious path to take, and certainly one that should help and hurt candidates this election season, there’s a less obvious tactic being employed; candidates are using Twitter.

Official Twitters:

Barack Obama’s Twitter: http://twitter.com/BarackObama

Note: Confirmed official today by Ravi and Scott Goodstein (who’s running it). Barack we want to see you start using this tool more. If you do, more of us with come to your May 23rd rally in DC.

John Edward’s Twitter: http://twitter.com/JohnEdwards

Note: Staff updates are cool and all. But we’re looking for your posts mostly.

UnOfficial Twitters:

Rudolph Giuliani’s Twitter - http://twitter.com/rudolphgiuliani

Note: Rudy, being the nice Italian American boy from NJ that I am, I reserved your twitter for you so that when you r campaign decides it’s worth using I’ll donate it to you. I had to back Barack this go around thought!

Hillary Clinton’s Twitter - http://twitter.com/hillaryclinton

Notes: Boring.

Mitt Romney’s Twitter - http://http://twitter.com/mittromney

Notes: Double boring.

John McCain’s Twitter - http://twitter.com/johnmccain

Notes: Triple boring.

Satirical Twitters:

Bill Clinton’s Twitter: http://twitter.com/billclinton

Notes: Super NOT boring. Someone has taken Bill’s twitter. Why does that sound vaguely dirty?