Grounded In Reality

This Wednesday, Rachelle Spero (SVP Digital Media) will be participating in a webcast titled, “Mastering the Four Essential Elements of Conversational Marketing: Listen, Relate, Create, Aggregate.” The Webcast, which is put on by the American Marketing Association (AMA) and sponsored by SAS (a Cohn & Wolfe client) will cover the essentials of social media marketing, including how to effectively:

o Build a listening infrastructure
o Identify market influencers and join the conversation
o Create engaging content and experiences
o Aggregate people and content to build branded communities

SPEAKERS:
Jeff Gilleland, Global Strategist, SAS
Rachelle Spero, SVP of Digital Media, Cohn & Wolfe
Bob Pearson, VP of Communities and Conversations, Dell

EVENT DETAILS:
Day: Wed, Aug. 6th
Time: 1pm ET
Length: 60 min
Register: Registration Page

Andrew Foote, Andrew Silver and I are at BlogHer 08 Conference this weekend in San Francisco. It has been aware that posting to Twitter in 140-character format has been much more popular than full blog writing. Well, get back to your blogging roots ladies because Twitter’s Fail Whale is in FULL FORCE. I am not sure if Twitter planned this or they are just simply unaware of the popularity the application has among the women influencers online, but this is the most inopportune time for a shut-down.

If you look at the top Twitter search trends for the past 3 days, just under the new Batman movie is #BlogHer08. Moms are on Twitter, and I am honestly waiting for the day that mommybloggers go on strike against Twitter…and I have a feeling its coming soon.

‘The Andrews’ and I will be back a little later with conference updates, but for now, I can say that these women are amazing and the learning curve is steep. Be ready to step up.

After a terrible week of grey New York weather, myself and the rest of the New York Digital team were thankful for a bit of sunshine at the AIDS Walk in Central Park on Sunday. The AIDS Walk is the largest AIDS fund raising event in the world, and with over 45,000 participants in New York, it raises millions of dollars annually for those affected by HIV and AIDS.

For me, being new to the city and a Brit, it was a good opportunity to see more of New York, and I was excited to check out Strawberry Fields and the Dakota apartment block, the scene of late Beatle, John Lennon’s, death.

Of course, we also made use of some new technology and shared photo updates in realtime on Andrew Foote’s Twitpic page. If you want to keep up with the latest developments in mobile social networking, download Twitpic, a new Twitter application which means you can now Twitter with pictures and video. It’s great fun and designed so that you can update your friends with pictures, video and a short message direct from your mobile. I am definitely a convert!

Thanks to family, friends and all at GCI who sponsored us. Our first foray into fundraising was pretty successful and we managed to raise over $1,000 for charity. Oh, and for those that didn’t get a chance to sponsor us this time, there will be plenty more fundraising initiatives from the digital team later in the year, so watch this space…

—————–
Charlie Hart
GCI Group Digital

Google’s recent spectacle of lights in NYC was impressive. If you missed it, earlier this month the company turned the meatpacking district into a canvas of psychedelic video projections to celebrate the introduction of 70+ iGoogle artist themes.

Stunning projection technology aside (Obscura Digital did the work), I love that Google used an offline event to spark interest online. They could have stuck with the standard homepage promotion and logo re-design (aka Google Doodle) to announce the new iGoogle themes. Instead, they brought the designs to life and created a memorable experience.

Search superiority and intuitive services aside, Google is loved because it has mastered the ability to humanize a 100% online brand. Everything they do is centered around the user. Check out this post by David Armano about Google’s razor sharp focus on user experience.

For me, user experience means every touchpoint with a brand, whether it be online, offline, functional or observational. Google understands the importance of a 360 experience, both from the design side and the human interaction side. Other excellent examples are Google 4 Doodle and this video contest.

The takeaway: User experience is about delivering exceptional brand navigation and story flow online. It’s also about extending that story beyond the screen and into the physical world to strengthen brand affinity.

Interesting read here on SocialButterfly related to defining Health 2.0. I found this post most valuable because of the examples of online resources related to Health 2.0, especially because it’s hard to grasp the concept of the amount of health info online. It’s not a complete list, but it will give the general consumer a good sense of what’s out there related to Health 2.0 websites, podcasts, wikis, social networks, blogs, video sharing and online forums. Check out the post if you’re interested in a quick read and some great online health resources.

The author raises some solid questions related to Health 2.0 and its future. The first, “Is Health 2.0 helpful or harmful?” This could be debated for days, but as we’re a society that thrives on evolution, we should embrace Health 2.0 and the potential positives for patients and physicians. Yes there will be setbacks, but that’s how we learn. Sermo, for example is a positive example of Health 2.0 because physicians can discuss real world clinical issues and make changes to their practices based on online consensus.

What are your thoughts on Health 2.0 being helpful or harmful?

Few would argue that the Internet and blogs (as platforms) lend themselves rather well to facilitating the ability to share personal perspective. So, in that spirit, we’ve got a one-word opinion of Buzz Bissinger we’d like to share: blowhard.

If you haven’t been keeping up with the latest scandals to rock the sports blogging world, you may have missed the recent HBO special on the role of the Internet in the broader world of sports journalism, society and, well, seemingly everything else in the world. Earlier this week, Bob Costas welcomed Deadspin founder/editor Will Leitch to join what was likely pitched to him as a “panel discussion,” alongside renowned author H.G. “Buzz” Bissinger of Friday Night Lights and (somewhat out of left field, or whatever the appropriate football-related pun) Cleveland Browns wide receiver Braylon Edwards. What ensued on “Costas Now” was an ambush that bared no resemblance to any sort of discussion.

However, somewhere between the venomous expletive-laced tirades of “old-school Buzz” lies infinitely fertile ground for countless discussions relevant to modern media, blogging, the role of the Internet and what it all means for PR, marketing and the like. Instead of launching into a dissertation on the topic, take a look for yourself at some of the very cogent, passionate and revealing sentiments from some of the most popular sports blogs on the Web including Fire Joe Morgan (also featured in HBO segment intro), Every Day Should be Saturday, Awful Announcing and Leitch himself (also here). Mainstream journalists have also latched onto the story from Richard Sandomir at The New York Times to Aaron Barnhart of the Kansas City Star (alas, it’s on Barnhart’s…[gasp]…blog!).

So, take a read and form your own opinion. The number of angles from which can tackle this debate are infinite, but one thing is clear for PR professionals. The writing is (and has been) on the wall. Whether anyone likes it or not, blogs, if not the prevailing new media, represent a channel that cannot be ignored. Of course, we all already knew that. Wonder what kind of week Bissinger’s PR folks are doing today? Talk about an interesting “fly on the wall” situation.

——
Steve Bonsignore
GCI Sports

One of our Digital Media interns, Taylor, shared this great HorsePigCow post on how companies can use Twitter to share information and have conversations with customers. We’ve all been experimenting with Twitter for a while now, but only in the past six months have we really seen it take off — suggesting some cool and useful applications for our clients. Lionel Menchaca and other Dell employees twitter Dell news, Direct2Dell posts, industry events and often just what they’re up to (Dell is a GCI client). M.D. Anderson just started twittering cancer news, and it’s a really good way to stay up to date on new studies (M.D. Anderson is a GCI client). This post shares good examples from Zappos and JetBlue as well.

This post also shares some really practical advice — like making sure to balance promotional tweets, conversational tweets, personal tweets and contests, as well as outbound and inbound tweets (i.e., it’s important to follow and listen, too). There’s a great list of Stuff to Tweet About and How to Tweet Without Losing Your Soul (i.e., save time). On that topic, we’re big fans of Tweet Scan, which lets you search for keywords in Twitter. Very helpful for monitoring what people are saying about your brand, your competitors and hot issues you care about.

Thanks, Tara. Great post.

TechCrunch writes a great post about how social media (particularly Twitter and FriendFeed) is becoming too much to handle… so much so that Robert Scoble is even cutting back on his number of Twitter subscriptions. The TechCrunch post concludes:

“So where is the startup that is going to be my information filter? I am aware of a few companies working on this problem, but I have yet to see one that has solved it in a compelling way. Can someone please do this for me? Please? I need help. We all do.”

In a response to this post, Maple Leaf 2.0 seems to differ. Their stance is that TechCrunch just isn’t using the tools right. Another differing opinion comes from Alexander Van Elsa’s blog. (I like his stance best.) He posts that the truly cluttered sensation from ‘too many updates’ only affects the Tech elite. Most users are able to join the conversation when they like, then pop out and smell the roses of the real world.

My personal take on this?

Twitter has been the most recent addition to my social media mix. I had a hard time using the service at first, but after adding the Twitter Facebook application, having Twitter updates sent through my Google Talk (or GChat) account, and being more selective with the users I follow, I find I use it more.

As far as update overload goes, I think I had a taste of that with Twitter. When I first signed on I only followed my friends and co-workers (the few who have joined the service). I then decided to follow a few high profile bloggers on Twitter (who shall remain nameless) because I liked their blog and figured I’d want to see what they twittered about. This is where the trouble came. My Twitter page was always so busy that I found I couldn’t keep track of conversations and quickly lost interest. I think this is what Elsa was talking about in his post: the ‘tech elite’ I was following was too active for my lifestyle.

Just this week I decided enough was enough and I stopped following them. I find I get much more joy from the tool by keeping my feed to a smaller number of users who post at a rate I can handle. Only time will tell if I truly become an adopter of Twitter, but I’m willing to give it a shot.

Summary: If you are worried about information overload the answer is simple, edit-edit-edit. Keep your lists/feeds/subscriptions/follows down to manageable level.

Earlier this week, several colleagues and I discussed the elements that make web widgets successful. Some of the basic factors mentioned were:

• Utility: first and foremost, does it perform a valuable function for the user?
• Enchantment: does it keep people engaged and coming back for more?
• Community: does it facilitate conversation?
• Usability: does it have an intuitive and user-friendly interface?
• Multi-platform: is it compatible across personal pages, social networks, blogs, and mobile devices?
• Share-ability: does it allow people to spread the word?

What else makes a widget successful? Self-expression seems to be at the core of most. Some of the most popular widgets, such as Where I’ve Been, Slide, and iLike, are all designed around personalized storytelling. Call them what you want: vanity widgets, ego badges, blog-bling. The fact is that people crave tools that help them project their personal storylines. For instance, the Project Playlist widget is something I customized with my favorite music and have synched to my Facebook profile. It’s high in utility because it lets me advertise my taste in tunes. For me, the appeal isn’t the functionality. It’s what it says about me.

When developing branded widgets, marketers should consider how to harness peoples’ desire for expression and individuality. Think about their promotional needs first before you think about your own.

Some of the best moments of the Ad Age Digital Marketing Conference were the “Digital Shorts” – 15 minute case studies presented by creative execs from top interactive shops.  My favorite was a demo of Sharkrunners - an online game created for the Discovery Channel’s annual “Shark Week” series.

The gist of the game is that players take on the role of marine biologists conducting shark research. Participants select a virtual boat and crew and begin charting their course in search of great whites.  Here’s where it gets interesting: the game is virtual, but the sharks are real.  The shark movements in the game are controlled by real-world white sharks with GPS units attached to their fins.

This is a fascinating illustration of how alternate reality games can incorporate real-world situations and locations.  The game is also multiplayer, so participants compete with rival boats for research dollars and prestige. Players can even receive email and SMS alerts during the day when their boat is within range of an encounter. Kevin Slavin, Co-Founder of Area/Code (agency behind the project) talked about the success of this game and how it raised the bar for branded storylines.  On the surface, searching for sharks online doesn’t sound very compelling, but adding in the real-world element changes the entire dynamic. According to Slavin, the game has had a tremendous impact in engaging users and increasing participation and involvement in Discovery’s Shark Week. Props to the Area/Code team for a job well done.