Archive for May, 2010
@BPGlobalPR
Friday, May 28th, 2010
One last thing to note on @BPGlobalPR whether charity was their intention or not, they’ve been doing an amazing job building visibility for the Gulf Restoration Network. Something inside me hopes that the GRN is behind @BPGlobalPR. If true, it would certainly be one of the most compelling, albeit deceptive, social media campaigns ever.
Update: The identity of the individual behind @BPGlobalPR has been revealed. You can read CNET’s story about it here.
Social Media Today: NBC and Time Warner Tell Apple Where to Stick it, KIN is Tripping (Again), Penn goes Foursquare
Thursday, May 27th, 2010
While many spent yesterday glued to live streams of BP’s attempt at a “top kill,” the world of social media and the Web was churning away. Here are some of the stories that caught out attention:
NBC and Time Warner Say They Won’t Go Flash-less
While Apple’s position on all things Adobe Flash-related is fairly clear, that’s not stopping NBC and Time Warner from sticking with the allegedly bloated and outdated technology.
Apple is throwing their weight behind HTML5 and El Jobso leaves no room for interpretation on his thoughts about Flash.
But, with giants like NBC and Time Warner still on the Flash train to moneytown, it might be a bit longer before we see the world bending to Apple’s will.
KIN Set to Send a Lucky Fan to Meet Their Network
Microsoft’s latest mobile venture, the KIN, is continuing their socially-charged marketing efforts by sending a fan on a journey to meet people from their social network. The campaign originally started with Rosa, an aspiring comedian, who roamed around meeting people from her large networks and finding out if she really would end up liking them (she did).
Most the action for the contest lives on their Facebook page.
Pennsylvania Looks to Boost Tourism with Foursquare
VisitPA, the Pennsylvania group tasked with getting people excited about the Keystone State (which we found out is the preferred nickname because “Pennsylvania is the glue that holds the union together), is partnering with Foursquare to give visitors a little incentive to explore their rectangular piece of paradise.
Visitors can earn badges while checking out Old City in Philly where they’re prompted to use a 2D barcode scanner to decode venue QR codes.
It should be noted that Pennsylvania isn’t the first to do something like this. Chicago had their own Foursquare game a while back.
*Note: Microsoft, maker of the KIN, is a Spring Creek Group client.
Social Media Today: The Privacy is Coming, A Magazine That Doesn’t Suck comes to iPad, Former Facebook Prez Tells it Like it Is
Wednesday, May 26th, 2010
While it’s still a few ticks before 9am here in the Spring Creek Group World Headquarters, the rest of the world has been churning for hours. Here’s what’s been going on already:
Facebook Set to Roll out New Privacy Controls
As if you hadn’t hear about it enough, Facebook is primed and ready to roll out new privacy controls aimed at making your choices a bit easier.
The only question that begs to be asked is: if they could do it this quickly, why not just do it in the first place?
UPDATE: We don’t move quite as quick in the morning. While this post was working its way through the pipes Facebook announced their new privacy updates. Go here for the scoop.
My iPad Just got Useful
Wired Magazine, the perennial geek rag of lore, was one of the first magazines that announced they’d be rolling out an iPad compatible version. Now, a little more than two months later, you can download Wired in all its interactive glory (all 527MB of it) and pinch, scroll, and flip to your heart’s content.
From what I’ve seen so far, the app (and this issue) are incredibly interactive, which is pretty awesome. Not sure how many times I’ll throw down a fiver for a magazine I’m afraid to take to the bathroom, but we’ll see.
Hit the link (to the App Store) to check it out (for $4.99) – Wired Magazine
Sean Parker on Why MySpace and Friendster are Eating Dust
This next piece comes to us from www.socialmediatoday.com, a great site that takes an in-depth look at the social media landscape.
In this piece, former Facebook president Sean Parker talks a bit about how Facebook rose to the top – and it wasn’t because they had a better product, but really because MySpace and Friendster were just doing it all wrong.
Social Media Today: Yahoo Acquires LBS, Wendy’s Gets Frosty, Google Hates Productivity
Tuesday, May 25th, 2010
While it’s still a few ticks before 9am here in the Spring Creek Group World Headquarters, the rest of the world has been churning for hours. Here’s what’s been going on already:
Yahoo! Buys Location-based Service, No, Not a Well-known One
Fresh off CEO Carol Bartz telling Arrington to eff off, Yahoo announced their acquisition of a company involved in one of the hottest areas of social tech – location based services. The only thing is, it wasn’t Foursquare, Gowalla, Whrrl, Loopt, or even Wheretheladies.at.
The company is called Koprol and is based in Indonesia, which might lend itself to Yahoo’s focus on Asia, but more integral (probably) is Yahoo’s working relationship with cell powerhouse Nokia.
One thing is for certain, Yahoo isn’t resting one bit. If Bartz’s fiery interview with Arrington taught us one thing, it’s that Yahoos work hard during their time and expect big things… or that Bartz isn’t afraid to go toe to toe with the jerks of Silicon Valley.
Frosties for Foster Kids
With Summer fast approaching, Wendy’s is rolling out a new campaign centered around their iconic Frosty treats. Using the likes of Twitter, Facebook and Foursquare, Wendy’s aims at tying together user experiences with the treats to tell stories and eventually give away some fairly cool prizes (Kindles, iPads, etc.).
The philanthropic aspect of a socially-charged campaigns came into play when Wendy’s promised to donate 50 cents for every social action (using the #TreatItFwd tag, a virtual Frosty FB gift, a Foursquare checkin at a Wendy’s, or a Father’s Day e-card created on Frostycard.com) to the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption.
The meatspace doesn’t miss out as Wendy’s also plans to donated 50 cents for every Frosty purchased in-store between June 19-20.
Google and Pac-Man Gobble up Productivity Pellets
Almost as soon as the Pac-Man doodle went live on Google’s search page, the Twitter stream was filled with guesses as to how much money would be lost from workers clicking away trying to eat those tiny yellow pellets.
Luckily for us, The RescueTime Blog cares about such things and took the time to analyze the situation and assign a dollar amount (based on site visits, etc.) to the damage:
$120,483,800
Spring Creek Group in the Windy City for School of WOM
Tuesday, May 25th, 2010
I am in the windy city this week with Andy and Grant for #WOMMA’s School of WOM to hear some case studies, meet great people and throw a party or two.
It’s especially exciting because I have recently been appointed as co-chair to the @WOMMA social media monitoring subcommittee and will have the opportunity to work with other agencies, technology partners and brands to develop and share measurement tools, methodologies and best practices with other members.
We will be posting highlights, videos, and photographs from the conference this week. If you cannot make it to the School of WOM you can listen to some of the keynotes online or post your comments and we will do our best to scout the answer.
PS. If you are attending the School of WOM conference, we will be hosting the unofficial after party tonight at 9:00 pm at 10pin Bowling Lounge (details below). Hope to see you there!
- Location: 330 North State St., Chicago. It’s adjacent to the Hotel Sax and across from the House of Blues in landmark Marina City.
- Flash your badge and your first drink is on us!
- We will be raffling off a free social media brand audit.
Any questions about the party? DM us @SpringCreekGrp.
Social Media Today: FarmVille Enters the Meatspace, Twitter Says “nuh uh” to Outside Advertising, Zuckerberg Admits Facebook Acted a Fool
Monday, May 24th, 2010Is it only Monday? You wouldn’t have guessed it based on some of the news that’s already hit the virtual presses this morning. Here’s a quick rundown of three stories we’re tracking:
FarmVille + 7-11 = <3
It’s been a busy couple week for social gaming juggernaut Zynga. They just inked a five-year agreement with Facebook saying they’d use Facebook’s currency (which I’m calling the Zuckerbuck), but they’re also launching on MySpace shortly.
Adding to the virtual deals, Zynga also dipped a toe in the real world with a deal that matches 7-11 branded products (Slurpees, etc.) with FarmVille. Users not only get a tasty treat, but they also get a little in-game challenge to obtain the virtual item as well.
So, look forward to a summer filled with weezin’ the juice and finding lost cows in your corn fields, people – social gaming is apparently here to stay.
Twitter Likes Parties, Just Not Third Parties
In a recent blog post, Twitter officially put third-party advertising networks on the blacklist for their ever-growing party of Twitter users.
This isn’t too big of a surprise given that Twitter recently rolled out their promoted tweets news.
As of now, the API restrictions only apply to the likes of Adly and other services that insert tweets into the public timeline, which means celebs paid to tweet about products and events can still collect their outrageous fees (we’re lookin’ at you, Stephanie Pratt).
Zuckerberg: OK, We Messed Up (Kinda)
In the wake of threats of a mass exodus from Facebook, CEO and Founder Mark Zuckerberg took to the place where every plugged-in, techno-savvy reader looks for the biggest news on the Web – The Washington Post. Zuckerberg’s 528-word piece read more like a statement about Facebook’s policies and intentions, but did contain a very important sentence admitting that Facebook was responding to recent concerns about privacy controls on their ever-expanding social network.
We’ll have to wait and see just how simple the new privacy controls are.
Got a take on any of these stories? We’d love to hear it.
Spring Creek Group and Friends Beat the Bridge to Fight Diabetes
Sunday, May 23rd, 2010A quick thanks to our friends at T-Mobile, UI Evolution, Photobucket, Philips Medical, Microsoft, Big Fish Games, and all the rest who joined us last weekend as “Team No Runner Left Behind” got our running game on for this year’s “Beat the Bridge” festivities.
Team "No Runner Left Behind" Pre-race
We’ve put together a team for this race for a number of years now, so it was great to have our largest turnout ever. If you haven’t previously done the Beat the Bridge race, I highly recommend it. Rather than your typical 8k slug fest, this race has a twist. At the 20:00 mark, the University Bridge, which is about at the 2 mile mark, goes up. if you haven’t crossed yet, you end up stuck on the wrong side, looking longingly at the runners who are continuing on their way. After about 5 or 6 minutes, you can finally get rolling again, but far far far behind the rest of the pack.
While unfortunately “Team No Runner Left Behind” had some of our runners, well, left behind, we’re proud to say that all of our healthy in-shape Spring Creekers made the crossing with time to spare.
We made it...
However, while we tried, we weren’t quite able to check-in via Foursquare at all the spots we passed on the 5 mile journey. (And we call ourselves social media people…..)
Consider the gauntlet thrown down – We are issuing a 2011 Beat the Bridge challenge out to all the other Social Media, Advertising, and Marketing firms, where the team with the most runners to cross the Bridge wins. Who’s in?
Team "No Runner Left Behind" aftermath...
I’ll show you mine if you show me yours
Friday, May 21st, 2010ately there’s been a lot of chatter about Facebook privacy, many are worried that the site is sharing their personal information with the world. Some also feel that there has been a breach of trust with this latest privacy shakeup. What really chaps my ass about this bellyaching is the fact that you have a choice over what you want to share on Facebook and who you want to share it with. Your account is not permanently set to share all of your personal information and status updates with the world. Personally I don’t share anything on mine. I’m amazed that I even have friends on Facebook considering my wall is hidden, my photos and videos are private and I never do status updates. I got my sh*# on lock.
But some people use Facebook like Twitter, they make all of their posts public and (fingers crossed) are careful with what information they include in their profile. If you haven’t seen the Openbook website yet, it aggregates posts by users who share all of their updates with the entire network. This site is meant to be a wakeup call to users about what Facebook is sharing. In my evil little SMM mind I see it as a cool tool for measuring conversation on Facebook (thanks guys!).
Finally there are the people who just don’t know what they are sharing. I recommend that anyone who’s not sure use this tool to analyze exactly what information of theirs is leaking on to the internets: http://www.reclaimprivacy.org/
Remember folks, what you share is your choice.
Breaking away with twitter
Thursday, May 20th, 2010
We are all familiar with blog posts and articles discussing the use of social media to promote your brand, sell your ideas and reach customers.
Today, let’s look at the flip side.
For the purpose of this post let’s explore my enthusiasm for the world of cycling. Every spring I get the bug and start keeping track of cycling events and what not in anticipation of the Tour De France. Fortunately I found access to so much cycling news through twitter that I am totally immersed now.
May is American Bike month and tomorrow, Friday May 21st, is Bike to Work Day (#BTWD) here in Seattle. There’s lots of news about events, pro cycling teams, new bikes and gear. News headlines include Lance Armstrong racing again, cities discussing bike friendly ordinances and local bike events.
This year in cycling there has been a perfect storm of sorts for discussion. The adoption of twitter by many of the top pro riders, without the heavy handed NFL or NBA instituted prohibitions, makes accessible your favorite riders. Combine this ease of access with overlapping events such as the Giro D’Itaila, the Tour of California and Bike Month, it’s the perfect time to enjoy tweeting and reading about the world of cycling.
Disclaimer: Yes I am a cycling nerd.
I joined a fantasy cycling league with a friend and former co-worker for fun. I found other similar “enthusiasts” on twitter and followed them. The league started, and suddenly the guy who created the fantasy league website, VeloGames, started a twitter
account:
Now everyone in that league can all communicate (it was kind of anonymous and disconnected before). As related to the real life cycling world, I can read tweets about race updates from the riders, fans onsite and from blogs and news posts from all over the web. Seeing awesome first hand photos from people tweeting and posting almost in real time.
2 years ago, the most interaction I would have would be watching the race at home or maybe going to a local Seattle pub to shout at the race on TV with other like-minded folks. But now I have a connection to a huge community that interacts and shares. We are not just viewing and consuming, we are sharing and contributing and as a result I have a deeper connection to this little world of cycling now.
As a result I have been exposed to so much more than just the showcase of elite pro racing. There is so much connected with cycling that goes way beyond Lance Armstrong and the Tour De France. Websites and scrappy DIY blogs are started by people interested in cycling, bikes, peddling or whatever someone wants to title their passion as. There are blog posts and tweets discussing racing, pros, fitness, commuting, the environment, local sustainability and even beer.
Through my connections I have uncovered a tremendously robust community connected together through the subject of the bicycle.
As an enthusiast, I am in a state of wonderment.
My point is that no matter what your hobbies or passions are, social media channels such as Twitter, Foursquare, Yelp, YouTube, Facebook and all the rest can help connect you to the things you are most interested in. Although I work in social media I enjoy playing in it as well. So don’t be afraid to follow, friend or watch your favorite activity, after all you deserve to enjoy all the internet has to offer.
Some of my favorite cycling related folks to follow on twitter:
- @lancearmstrong
- @LeviLeipheimer
- @BicyclingMag
- @cyclingweekly
- @Ride_Argyle
- @LIVESTRONG
- @VeloNews
- @HTCColumbia
- @grahamwatson10
Bike-related blogs I read:
SMC Seattle May Event: How to Call BS on a Social Media Guru
Thursday, May 20th, 2010
Learn how to differentiate between a social media guru and a social media hack as writer, speaker and former Microsoft manager Scott Berkun talks about the new world of social media. Berkun will take a critical look at gurus, both generally and within the social media space and answer some of the tough questions out there – what’s real, what’s not, and how you can tell the difference.
There are only a few more days left to secure your ticket to the SMC Seattle’s May event taking place at Hale’s Palladium, a festival-themed warehouse in the back of the Hale’s Brewery on Tuesday, May 25 from 6-9 p.m. Ticket price is $15 per person and includes a drink and appetizers (don’t worry, a cash bar will be available).
This should be an entertaining evening of eating, drinking, learning and of course a little networking.
For more information or to register for this event check out http://smcseamay.eventbrite.com/
