MTV Looks to LBS to Propel GYT Campaign

• Aug 30th, 2010
• Posted by Ron
• Posted in Foursquare, GYT, LBS, MTV

Fresh off the heels of their Times Square takeover of the American Eagle electronic billboard, Foursquare is teaming up with another Times Square staple, MTV, to help promote their GYT (Get Yourself Tested) campaign aimed at removing the stigma from being tested for sexually transmitted diseases.

The very-social GYT site (which includes links to their Facebook and Twitter above the fold – take note people!) currently says users can check back on Sept. 1 for more information about the sweepstakes, but an AP article had this to say:

NEW YORK (AP) – You can “check in” to restaurants and bars, so how about health clinics while you get tested for sexually transmitted diseases?

Foursquare, the online application people use to tell their friends and strangers where they are, is offering a special virtual “badge” through September to people who do just that.

Source: http://www.komonews.com/news/tech/101853053.html

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Google and The Arcade Fire Team Up for some HTML5 Goodness

• Aug 30th, 2010
• Posted by Ron
• Posted in Google, HTML5, Hipster Music, Memory Lane

HTML5 is everywhere. I know something is getting big when I hear my non-techie friends talking about it over a pint at the Loft. Now, with today’s release of The Arcade Fire’s interactive video (available only in the Chrome browser), a bigger chunk of the populous just got introduced to the coming wave that is HTML5.

There’s a screenshot from the adventure below, which includes a Google Maps-enabled run down the streets of my hometown (kinda – Google didn’t want to drive down all the lonesome roads of Wenatchee and I grew up on a private street) and a section where you write an HTML5-ized version of a post card to the past you.

Here’s the link to the video for my boyhood home: The Wilderness Downtown – Wenatchee Style

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ShareThis Gains +2 Metrics: Social Reach and the Audience Index

• Aug 27th, 2010
• Posted by Ron
• Posted in Uncategorized

As more and more content is put on the Web, it’s increasingly important to know as much about the sharing of that content – including who is doing the sharing. With ShareThis’ new additions of Social Reach and Audience Index metrics to their mix of data, users will be able to have an in-depth look at where their content is being shared and by whom.

Head over to their site for the full info.

ShareThis sharing & social reach data – your social equation

View more documents from ShareThis.

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Social Media by the Numbers

• Aug 27th, 2010
• Posted by Aaron
• Posted in News, Social Media by the Numbers

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Gnomedex 10

• Aug 24th, 2010
• Posted by Rick
• Posted in Gnomedex

I just attended Gnomedex 10, it was my second and quite possibly my last Gnomedex. (more on that later) First I want to thank my generous boss Clay McDaniel, for allowing me to attend the conference and for supporting my own as well as my fellow Spring Creekers’ ability to augment our professional career with our personal passions. Gnomedex is many things to many people and when folks are asked to describe it they have many ways to do so. I think the most common theme that resonates with me is how many people refer to it as the “Poor Man’s TED”, by that they mean that while the TED conference is filled with smart people, with loads of information and ideas, its attendance is limited to those who can afford to attend. Gnomedex on the other hand has tons of smart people and ideas, great content but has removed the barriers to entry with tickets for the 2-3 day conference at $300. The content is no less compelling than the universal, galactic ideas and concepts presented at a TED conference. I feel like the content offered at Gnomedex, is much more local, earthly, and touches people in a personal way. Less about a vast concept, and more about real ideas built on human connectivity.

There was plenty of great presenters and hours of content to absorb. Starting out of the gates, Brian Solis dropped some heavy knowledge about the web and social media role in the way we communicate. Our friend and favorite education advocate Trish Millines Dziko didn’t just talk about ideas of how to improve education she shared what the Technology Access Foundation has been DOING to change the future of education and provide access to young minds who being shaped right now. And when Austin Heap of the CRC took the stage he really opened people’s eyes. Using his technology expertise to help the people of Iran, get around the impossible barriers of government censorship technology to let the peoples voices be heard it helped start a revolution. Todd Welch of TrustTour made us all re-think the word “trust” and what that means in this technological world.

A young lady named Violet Blue took the stage and talked about human sexuality, technology, awareness and censorship, and received a standing ovation. Film maker Melissa Pierce talked about following her passion and taking chances to make her documentary film Life in Perpetual Beta. Larry Wu illustrated the jump from the world of Food invention to Macro Trends. Another set of friends of Spring Creek Group, Shauna Causey and Melody Biringer not only talked about women in technology, they launched their website live on stage. Check techmavens.com. There are so many highlights it’s hard to keep this post short, but will mention that Matt Inman aka The Oatmeal provided us with the comic relief, helping end a great conference on a cheerful note.

The speakers shared their knowledge, wisdom and ideas with the audience. But they are just one side of the coin; they are the light that attracts the moths. The real magic of Gnomedex is the gathering. Everyone got a chance to meet in a friendly social setting, share ideas, chat, and enjoy the positive vibes. Sure there is a lot of the obligatory networking, schmoozing, some people trying to hustle their business or service, some folks looking to maybe find work, but that happens in any sort of social setting. But once the introductions are made and the mingling begins you see folks talking about what they just saw and learning about one another. I know it sounds corny and all but there really is truth to the notion that when you put passionate people together in a room their energies flow, and you feel it, your energy increases, and you feel renewed.

The good energy, the good connections and bonds with others you make, and the great content make/made Gnomedex what it was. Sadly this year Chris Pirillo announced that he is most likely not going to put on another Gnomedex conference in this format or scale. Although we understand we are disappointed. It is not an easy task to organize, manage, fund, and make an event like this happen by yourself. So if there isn’t a Gnomedex11, I feel so blessed that I have attended 9 and 10, and I have met so many very good people in two short days, of these events, and feel so enriched, and I look forward to the next, if not Gnomedex, future of Connected Human Circuitry-based event that will most certainly evolve out of the primordial silicone ooze.

I want to make a very special shout out to the crew of www.omnitechnews.net. These guys are not only the future of web journalism/social media but they are showing the rest of us how to do it now. They came to Gnomedex and live streamed, live tweeted, live blogged; they showed no fear and did all themselves. Truly one of the great inspirations of the conference!

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Andy Come Lately

• Aug 20th, 2010
• Posted by Andy W.
• Posted in "That's so 2000 and late", Music, summer jams, tumblr

I am loath to admit it when I am not on the forefront of a new trend. Unfortunately for me, this happens a lot so I have to keep my mouth shut most of the time. But today, I’ll bare my soul about two things that I’m embarrassed to say I picked up on after the fact.

First things first: Miike Snow. OMG! I know, I know, that song Animal was the Summer Jam of 2009, but you can still hear me blasting it, quoting it, toting it and tweeting it all the time. Don’t believe me? Ask @kimervin. Yesterday I got their debut record, and it is full of hits! I certainly expected this from Bloodshy and Avant who were also behind Britney Spears’ megahit Toxic but I didn’t think it would be this good! Also, these guys are Swedish and everyone knows that the Swedes do everything better, e.g. hotels (ice), beaches (topless), herring (giant). Okay, admission one: check. I feel like a great weight has been lifted off of me. FYI: Miike Snow is coming to Seattle on October 13th. Do me a favor and buy me a ticket — I’ll pay you back.

The other thing that I discovered the other day is Tumblr, and I’m loving it! Some folks here at the office have been using this microblogging service for a couple of years now so I’m getting a lot of tips and tricks on using it. Why do I like it so much? Because it’s a media-rich version of Twitter. Share video, text, pictures, audio and HTML code all in one easy to operate dashboard. Once you get your bearings, you can start “tumbling” to other people’s blogs and reblogging them. It’s a very fluid and intuitive social media channel that may have some great brand applications. I’m sure I will discover more and more how companies use it and report back on that later. One pitfall: “tumbling” can get out of control. How I started following so many potheads, I don’t know. Luckily, the Unfollow button is very accessible.

These are my two admissions for the day. I’ve bared my soul, now don’t break my heart. And if you have a Tumblr blog, please post it here because I’d love to check it out.

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Social Commerce: Never Shop Alone Again

• Aug 19th, 2010
• Posted by Isabella
• Posted in Shopping

Social media is all about sharing. Sharing news, sharing photos, and sharing what you ate for breakfast. Recently there has been a huge growth in social commerce websites, e-blasts, and mobile applications which allow you to share what you want to buy, where you are going to buy it, and why you think others should buy it too (or buy it for you). If you are terrible at making decisions by yourself (guilty), you can now breathe a sigh of relief. The growth of social commerce is a natural development as marketers continually search for new ways to take advantage of various social media networks to advertise products and services. So… who is getting it right?

Wishpot

While there are many social commerce websites out there, Wishpot seems to have encompassed the broadest set of helpful features and the most opportunities for marketers in terms of social sharing. Users can create wish list of items they want to purchase and “pick lists” of items they recommend to their friends. Users can add items to their wish list from anywhere on the web using a “Wishpot Button” that lives on their browser. The wish lists can be shared through social media networks making gift giving and product recommendations easy and efficient. Brands can also add their products to the site’s search database and link to social networking sites.

LivingSocial and Groupon

These websites send out daily e-blasts to registered consumers that feature a quickly expiring deal on a local activity (which, for some reason, is often yoga), restaurant, or bar. Both these services facilitate social sharing through Facebook and Twitter and have built out iPhone applications to take advantage of the mobile space. In fact, besides just facilitating social sharing, the sites encourage it by providing incentives for getting friends to participate. On Living Social, the deal is free if three friends buy it. On Groupon, you only get the deal if enough people join in on it. Warning: Besides promoting social sharing, these sites also encourage impulse buying with the ominous deal countdown clock.

Shopkick

This mobile application is garnering a great deal of buzz on social media tech sites because of its automatic check in feature. Rather than the manual check-in required on applications such as Foursquare, Shopkick uses a unique signal sound-based technology to automatically recognize when a consumer enters (or walks by) a store, presenting them with a set of applicable product offers, coupons, deals, and/or “kickbucks”. Shopkick is partnered with Simon Property Group, which is one of the biggest retail real estate owners in the country. Simon Property Group will be launching Shopkick in 25 stores where the application will recognize when a shopper walks by a store and consequently offers them a digital coupon. Shopkick is also partnered up with Best Buy; shoppers are presented with offers, deals, and “kickbucks” when they enter the store. Users can redeem “kickbucks” for downloads, cash back rewards, and other freebies. Best Buy is getting ready to outfit 257 stores in the U.S. with the new program.

Social commerce is incredibly effective because it is a win for the consumer and a win for the brand/marketer. Through social commerce, the consumer gains access to the latest deals, offers, and product reviews. When the consumer shares information about their purchases through their social networks, the brand benefits from WOM marketing which is often coupled with a direct call to action (read: buy this now). As more and more consumers are going online to make purchasing decisions, social commerce will continue to evolve and develop to meet the demands of consumers.

For information about even more social commerce applications, check out Clay’s post about social shopping trends on Mashable.

Resources

• http://www.marketingvox.com/best-buys-new-app-counts-shoppers-with-no-check-in-047493/?utm_campaign=newsletter&utm_source=mv&utm_medium=textlink
• http://mobile.venturebeat.com/2010/08/03/shopkick-best-buy/
• http://edelmandigital.com/2010/08/06/friday-five-smart-social-commerce-programs/
• http://mashable.com/2010/08/16/best-buy-shopkick-rewards
• http://www.marketingvox.com/digital-coupons-beamed-to-shoppers-cells-in-the-mall-047532/?utm_campaign=newsletter&utm_source=mv&utm_medium=textlink

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RE: NEW SCG POLICY: MANDATORY BELT INITIATIVE

• Aug 19th, 2010
• Posted by Cody
• Posted in Belts, Belts Are The New Black, Dress Code, Fashion, Jaunty!, Lookin' Like a Fool, Official Memos, Pants, Uncategorized

MEMORANDUM:

To: SCG-ALL

Date: August 19, 2010

A single comment about Clay’s jaunty orange belt has spurred an office-wide movement to thwart any possible wardrobe malfunctions – all employees not wearing belts have been strongly encouraged to don some form of SCG-branded pants support system. 

Thanks to the continued intrepid efforts of honorable SCGers such as these: 

NONE OF THE BELTLESS SHALL ESCAPE.

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Facebook Places: What’s On Your Mind and Where are You?

• Aug 18th, 2010
• Posted by Ron
• Posted in Facebook, Foursquare, LBS, Location, Uncategorized

Note: This was written in real-time and might not read like our normal stuff. Apologies for the errors and no apologies for the timeliness.

Foursquare users around the world have been hearing that Facebook would roll out a location-aware feature, but today is the day they finally get to see what it’s all about. In a short time (I’m writing this in real-time) the world will tune in to Facebook’s newly-launched livestream application and hear, straight from Palo Alto, about the new location-based elements of Facebook. Since we want our readers, friends, and colleagues to be informed not only about the news, but what it means for them, we’re staying late here at SCG to bring you the coverage…

4:44 p.m.

I just finished writing that opening paragraph, so there’s nothing to new report other than the fact that there are a ton of people in the chat asking when it starts.

4:50 p.m.

I submitted a question through the “Ask a Question” box, but it just disappears and doesn’t give any indication that it’s been received or anything. So, we’ll see if they answer my question I guess.

4:55 p.m.

In order to match the location shift (so subtle, Facebook) the journalists on location went through, I moved to Feran’s desk across the pod.

5:11 p.m.

Randi Zuckerberg was audible for a second, but then went away. Now she’s back. Looks like we’re ogin to hear from execs, then devs, then  a Q&A. The scene behind her looks like it could be filmed in a college dormitory common area.

5:13 p.m.

Worst. Hold. Music. Ever. Also, the furniture in whatever building there in looks it belongs on the front porch of someone’s summer cottage.

5:23 p.m.

Zuck is on stage! He’s talking about the tradition of launch nights being something bigger than an employee or partner event, but about the community (including journalists and other people). Now he lost his train of thought.

Talking about how Facebook works to create new tools on Facebook (no deadlines?).

It’s called Places and has been in testing for a couple months. Zuckerberg is telling a story about being out in Menlo Park with his GF and showing her how it works. His GF noticed that their friends were nearby and said “hey, let’s have dinner with them.” Wow.

Facebook’s location tools are about:

1. Helping people share in a social way
2. Connecting with others
3. Discovering new places

5:27 p.m.

Video about places which is very, very Apple-like. Lots of cool looking people connecting with other cool looking people. The word serendipitous has been used three times so far in this livestream.

A big emphasis put on creating a trail and having it for all time. Going back on your timeline and seeing what you were doing 10-15 years ago at a certain spot.

5:29 p.m.

Product manager for Places Michael Sharon is up on stage. The new features will be available on touch.facebook.com and a new iPhone application available later tonight.

Places are listed as what Facebook feels will be most interesting to you.

The general use of the application looks and feels a lot like Foursquare, Whrrl and Gowalla.

“It’s not about broadcasting your location to the world, it’s about sharing where you are with your friends”

Here Now is a listing of who is where you are at that time (friends and others).

5:33 p.m.

The Places addition lets users tag friends who are with you wherever you may be similar to tagging people in status updates.

Having tagging makes it easy to incorporate people who may not have a smartphone with them, but stil want to be a part of the story.

5:36 p.m.

Differing levels of security broadcasting levels “Allow” and “Not now” make it easy to change how you are sharing your info.

Separate privacy controls are available to change who can see your actions.

You have to be checked in somewhere to tag a friend there (so you can’t say your friend is at a strip club if you’re not there too) and you can always remove tags.

As a final kill switch, you can change your privacy settings to disallow all tagging.

5:40 p.m.

Not only is this a new application for users, it’s a new API that will be available to partners (read, write and search – in closed beta) like: Gowalla (surprise), Foursquare (wow, again) and Yelp! (remember them?), and Booyah (creators of MyTown). The Foursquare guy definitely took a bit of mic time and talked a lot about future things for Foursquare. Yelp will also be pulling your Facebook friends places into their iPhone application in the near future (tomorrow). Booyah is creating a new product called InCrowd which will be half-game half-social utility (built in three weeks) based on the Places API.

Check out the dev info here: http://developers.facebook.com/docs/#places

5:50 p.m.

Chris Cox (VP of Prod. Management) gets up on stage and makes a poor joke about sociology. Then actually breaks it down: home (where you wake up, go to sleep, where your family is, where you eat, and where you reflect on your day) work (the economic engine of society, where you work your brains and muscles, where you invest in creating something that’s greater than ourselves), the third place (the bar, the restaurant, the library, the street outside, the barbershop, the newsstand, the places where we go and share our lives with each other — the most-important). Oldenberg made a hypothesis that the technology of today is in danger of destroying the third place.

Facebook Places aims to be the opposite of that. “Technology does not need to estrange us from one another.”

Cox gives a story about what might come in the future and it seems pretty awesome: sharing stories, sharing memories from your friends and getting recommendations – our collective memory. OK, he just said “that’s dope.”

OK, this is getting a bit sappy… talking about our children visiting somewhere in the future and their phone letting them know that their parents had their first kiss there and shows pictures, comments, etc.

5:58 p.m.

Q&A time! Questions about privacy, monetization and more. I’m not going to write these out, but I’ll throw a link in here later if they release transcripts.

Holy cow, they actually have traditions that are pretty awesome. Gong. Launch switch. Watch the video and check them out!

That’s it!

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License and iPhone, Please: Insurance Gets Mobile

• Aug 16th, 2010
• Posted by Ron
• Posted in Insurance, Mobile

Now, I’m not one to really call on my auto insurance that much (except for the occasional traffic stop on my way to Pullman – thanks Colfax and your stupid 25 m.p.h. speed limit), but the fact that I can now tote my car insurance with me via my iPhone (among a number of other things) is pretty darn awesome.

I just re-wrote my car and renter’s insurance through my long-time agent in Wenatchee and was very pleased when he immediately emailed me telling me of the new mobile capabilities for State Farm – maybe he reads my posts.

Here’s what I found out after trying out the app…

Insurance Card

I normally am very good about taking my two cards I get from State Farm and putting one in my glove box and the other in my wallet, but having a copy of my exact insurance card on my iPhone is pretty great. After talking with two Seattle Police Department officers, they both said they would accept that digital representation as proof of insurance in a traffic stop. You can also easily access your agent’s information from the app.

Claim Submission

If you ever get in an accident, the application makes it easy to record information (including pictures) about the accident and submit a claim via email. You can even recreate the scene with the “Draw Scene” section.

After the Accident/On the Road

Once the damage is done and everyone is safe, the next thing you’ve got on your mind is getting your car fixed – the app can help with that too. The app taps into your GPS and snags the location of nearby body shops. Once you’re back out on the open road, you can also use the app to locate nearby hotels, gas stations, tow trucks, taxis, locksmiths (for when you pull the old “locked your keys in the trunk”) or a rental car if you feel like recreating scenes from Days of Thunder (rubbin’ is racin’).

I’m showing some bias in only really going in-depth on my State Farm app (since I don’t have access to others), but rest assured that the GEICOs and others of the insurance world have similar applications. All in all, I don’t see a reason why all services that are either based on our enabling people to be mobile don’t have mobile applications which help users access their information in a quick and easy way. Hopefully this continues to gain momentum (looking at you Bank of America… WA and ID residents would like a mobile banking application too!).

*Please note: In the state of Washington you must be able to produce proof of insurance when asked by an officer. For more info, check out http://www.dol.wa.gov/driverslicense/insurance.html

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