Posted May 15th, 2008 by Char Lyn
We’ve been busy here at DIG and haven’t had as much time to post as we’d like. We love this blog, but our client work comes first. While we don’t normally talk about our client work here, this month we have a rare exception. Occasionally we have a project that touches our hearts in a way that changes our lives and our attitudes. Burma: It Can’t Wait is one of those projects, and with the recent cyclone and the need to get aid to the citizens of Burma (also reported as Myanmar in the news), this campaign is even more important. If you want to learn more about the campaign, please take a look at the site or add the application to your Facebook profile and help us raise one million voices of support for Burma.
As part of our commitment to the people of Burma, Digital Influence Group will contribute $10 to the U.S. Campaign for Burma for each unique, non-spam comment or trackback to this post, up to $5,000 total. The deadline for commenting is May 31, 2008, because for Burma: It Can’t Wait.
Posted April 14th, 2008 by Kristin
Her Majesty Queen Rania of Jordan has her own YouTube account. On March 30, she posted her first video which already has 1,261,389 views. She believes YouTube is a great platform for dialogue and has asked that viewers respond with their questions and stereotypes of the Arab world so that she and other YouTubers can address them.
It’s not uncommon these days for people in the political realm to jump on the YouTube bandwagon claiming they want to start a dialogue. I find most of them lacking in charisma and authenticity. However, I’m intrigued by Queen Rania. Yes, it no doubt helps that she is quite stunning. But she’s also renowned for her advocacy for women’s rights and her philanthropic work in education reform. I hope she openly and informally responds to viewer’s questions. Misconceptions of the Arab world abound. If she truly invests in cultivating a discussion with YouTubers, she may be able to help break down some of those stereotypic walls.
Posted March 28th, 2008 by Char Lyn
In the world of social media, we often hear of the wisdom of the crowds—present a problem to the masses and they are likely to find the best solution. Today, Justin Wolfers suggests that rather than supplying wisdom, the masses may be crowding out the true wisdom of the experts in his Freakonomics post on the lack of academic commentary on the current state of the economy.
Crowding out: The wisdom of crowds is at its heyday and experts have lost market share in the public square. Everyone with a blog and ten minutes to spare is offering a view (including yours truly), and this is crowding out thoughtful discussion.
It seems everyone is talking about the current economic situation in the US and the world. And when everyone is talking, how do you as an individual identify the truly relevant information? Do you rely on the masses by getting your news from DIGG, Reddit or another aggregator with user rankings? Do you rely on some secret sauce coded algorithm such as Google’s page rank or Technorati’s blog rank that balances the crowds voice with hidden metrics? Or, do you rely on an influencer to tell you what is really happening?
The truth is, it’s easy for your message to get “crowded out” without the right influencers behind you. At DIG we emphasize a marriage of marketing and outreach to get a message to the masses so they can share it with the crowd. Then the crowd gets the chance to see the wisdom you share.
Posted March 4th, 2008 by Adam
In a recent post, Gary Koelling of Best Buy talks about Blue Shirt Nation, an employee community he developed with counterpart Steve Bendt. The idea was to create a place where employees could talk to each other. Through the chatter, they hoped to tap into insights that would improve customer service and marketing within the stores.
With little funding behind the site (built for free with open source software), Koelling and Bendt set out upon building the community. Following the June 2006 launch, they visited Best Buys around the country and talked to employees about the site. They used employee insights to improve the community. They encouraged users to join and post about what they liked (and disliked) about the site. In facilitating the dialogue, they began to address the biggest complaint that employees had: “My opinion doesn’t matter”.
The community now includes 20,000 members and has been influential in affecting changes to the email policy, improving enrollments in the 401k program and setting up systems for employees to communicate between shifts. In his post, Koelling calls the success a “fluke”. Building a community is not easy and it takes time. Even then, not every community will succeed. But Koelling and Bendt made the most of the opportunity by listening to employees and treating them like valuable members of the Best Buy family. By empowering them to get involved with their feedback (positive or negative), it addressed their biggest concern – that their opinion did not matter. Employees now felt a sense of ownership in the community; it wasn’t just another form of “corporate-speak”.
And it paid off. Best Buy now has a community teeming with opportunities to improve the customer experience and employees engaged in helping them get there.
Previous Posts
