Archive for September, 2007
Posted September 27th, 2007 by admin
According to Sam Sethi from Blognation UK a new Facebook IM client is going into beta this Friday. The new app will not require downloads, installs or registration, and all of your friends in Facebook will be able to use it immediately.
Will people love it?
I think so. By the looks of it, you will only be able to chat with your friends (notice how the picture shows offline and online buddies). This eliminates random stalkers from being able to swing by your profile with, “how YOU doing?” messages. At the same time, MySpace has an IM function and I’ve honestly never heard of anyone use it. But then again, who even uses MySpace these days. There was a massive outcry against Facebook’s feed last year but after a few months people got used to it and learned to embrace it. We’ll have to wait and see how our fellow Facebookers will react to this new IM client.
The company behind it: Techlightenment
Posted September 24th, 2007 by Neha
Rumors that 14 year old Disney star Miley Cyrus is pregnant circulated around radio waves bright and early this morning. The radio program, Matty in the Morning, had assistants frantically trying to confirm these rumors. Once upon a time, when a rumor needed to be verified, contacts at print publications like US Weekly were on speed dial. Yet, this morning the contact that was bombarded with phone calls and email was none other than the most notorious blogger.
Listeners were assured that all efforts were being made to contact Perez Hilton to solve the mystery of the alleged pregnancy. Kerry, a member of the Matty in the Morning team, proudly stated that she had Perez Hilton’s cell phone number and another team member was simultaneously flooding Perez’s inbox with inquiries.
A brief post on Perez’s blog quelled the rapid rumor and put it to rest. But one thing remains true - a shift became apparent this morning when traditional media turned to social media for news and content. The blogger used to generate content by scouring magazines and gossip columns in newspapers but now Perez Hilton, the king of gossip, has emerged the ultimate source of
Hollywood chatter.
Posted September 21st, 2007 by admin
Come have breakfast with Larry Weber and the DIG team! Digital Influence Group will be hosting Social Media Breakfast 2 on Wednesday, October 8th at 8:00am at our headquarters in Waltham. The breakfast will be power charged with engaging discussions lead by social media influencers. Larry Weber will also be discussing his new book, Marketing to the Social Web. Expect a signed copy!
Bryan Person had his inaugural breakfast last month with huge success, and expects SMB2 to be bigger and better.
Details on the event are below. Click below to register and see the list of attendees.
*************************************
Please RSVP through Eventbrite.
*************************************
The Social Media Breakfast is a free almost-monthly Boston-area breakfast organized by Bryan Person, where social media experts and newbies alike come together to eat, meet, share, and learn.
Marketers, PR pros, entrepreneurs, bloggers, podcasters, new media fanatics, and online social networkers are all welcome to attend.
Social Media Breakfast 2 is being hosted and sponsored by Digital Influence Group, a social media marketing agency in Waltham, Massachusetts. (see driving directions )
Agenda:
8:00 Registration, reception, and plenty of mingling
8:25 Welcome from Bryan Person
8:30 Breakfast presentation on social media (topic TBA) from Larry Weber, chairman of the Digital Influence Group and author of the new book Marketing to the Social Web
8:45 Q&A and discussion with Larry
8:55 Option I - Break-out group (topic(s) TBA)
8:55 Option II - More mingling!
9:25 Event wrap-up
Resources:
* Join the Social Media Breakfast Google Group
* Recap of first Social Media Breakfast
* Flickr photos, tagged Social Media Breakfast
* Twitter mentions of the Social Media Breakfast
Technorati Tags: Social Media Breakfast
Posted September 20th, 2007 by Scott
This is a reprint from my blog at Blogger Says What?
I’m a huuuuge advocate of the virtual world Second Life so when I saw this article needless to say I was eager to read more. Wagner James Au is no stranger to Second Life and frequently covers the virtual world happenings. On his blog he highlights the protest:
“The union is expecting hundreds of avatars of Italian IBM workers, as well as IBM staff from around the world, and other trades unionists, to converge flash-mob style later this month, to demonstrate and spread the word about the dispute.”
Au has been in contact with the IBM protest leaders and posted a brief Q & A on his blog found here regarding the SL protest.
What does this mean for Second Life?
There are several people that believe Second Life is a “fad that has come and gone.” A few months ago I posted here how I believe SL is still in its early stages. This just helps illustrate that fact and shows major corporations are utilizing SL and connecting their employees globally - supported by the anticipation of IBM employees from over 18 countries to participate in the protest. IBM plans on handling this protest as it would any other which shows exactly how much influence “virtual picketing” has on the brand. This will be an interesting story to follow so stay tuned…
Posted September 20th, 2007 by Char Lyn
I just read a great article in a paper I’ve never read before thanks to the Freakonomics blog. It was an inspirational story about a professor at Carnegie Mellon University who has pancreatic cancer and is unlikely to live more than a year. In the article, he quoted something the assistant football coach told him in high school when the head coach kept yelling at him for his mistakes:
“When you’re screwing up and nobody’s saying anything to you anymore, that means they’ve given up on you.”
While the article touched me, that one quote stuck. I started to think about the work we do at DIG and the number of companies afraid to engage with their customers through social media. Businesses are so often afraid of their customers “yelling at them,” but they forget that people only yell because they are engaged—they haven’t given up hope that the company will give them what they want. If they want something within your power to give, then you can gain loyal followers by giving it to them. If customers want something they aren’t getting from you, their lack of yelling means they are getting it somewhere else.
Freakonomics’ recent move to the New York Times blog is a perfect example of this idea. When they moved to the NYT, they lost the full-post RSS feed. The readers, 90% of whom were reading through RSS readers, revolted in the comments of every post for at least the first week. The authors were open in their communications about the reduced feed through three posts on the topic here, here, and here. They were not able to make everyone happy and lost some readers (customers), but the NYT readership should compensate for the loss.
So, where is your company at? Are you on the field getting yelled at, and getting the cheers when you make the touchdown? Or are you still sitting on the sidelines of the real game and only playing in the safety of the friendly flag football game at the company outing?
Posted September 14th, 2007 by Andre
Here’s a quick new app. that I just finished for the F8 platform:
It’s called SoDex, short for Social Index.
It’s quite easy to use: all it does is allow you to list links to your profiles in other social networks. Simple, isn’t it? Interestingly, one of my colleagues asked me if there was such a thing and I hadn’t seen it implemented previously. So here it is, SoDex!
![]()
The concept was to create an application to test out the F8 platform and what it can do to help us as web marketers. The result was about 400 lines of code that created an incredibly simple yet useful application.
Facebook allows developers to build upon their existing platform and to create applications complete with ready-to-use forms, buttons, and even tabs; all of which use Facebook’s signature blues to blend perfectly with the rest of the site.
I’ll admit, their documentation for the platform leaves quite a bit to be desired. But, if you are proficient with PHP, or another supported client library, you just might want to look into it.
If you feel so inclined, check out this page for a quick step-by-step guide to getting an app up and running.
And for more information check out their developer resources page.
From time to time, I’ll post updates on how we integrate the F8 platform into our digital marketing and how you could leverage this new platform for your own uses.
Posted September 12th, 2007 by Char Lyn
The NY Times Bits blog outing of John Ordover’s Marry Our Daughter prank site made me recall the hour I spent at work horrifically fascinated by the male pregnancy site. In both cases I was relieved when they were confirmed hoaxes. From a social media perspective, sites like these are the accidents on the side of the road during rush hour traffic. One can’t help but slow down to gawk, then talk about what was seen around the water cooler. Unfortunately the Britney debacle wasn’t a hoax, but it received the same type of viral reaction.
As a group here at DIG brainstormed campaign ideas for a current client after having seen the Marry Our Daughter site, I was once again reminded of what makes media viral. Like the virulent germs they are named after, explosive campaigns need a little bit of shock to create a pandemic. The shock can take many forms: disbelief that requires verification from all your friends (Marry Our Daughter), unexpected craziness (Carlsberg beer and Will It Blend?), remarkable/silly but useless talent (Stride gum), and yes, sexy still sells (do you really need links to prove that?).
Fortunately, campaigns don’t have to be virulent to work, and going viral doesn’t guarantee revenue. There are many campaigns which promote steady growth over time without shocking or offending potential customers such as the Coke Zero campaign, Cisco’s Human Network and Visa’s Fan with a Plan. They provide reliable information to quality customers and still provide entertainment.
What people often forget is that the product or service being sold must have customer value. If the product doesn’t live up to the value proposition, the most viral campaign in the world can’t guarantee product success.