Everything we've written about Social Media
Social Media
Social giving
posted by McKenna @ December 23rd, 2008
This year, technology is making it easier than ever to donate to our favorite charities. For example, residents of Columbus, Ohio, don’t even have to drop a few coins in the red kettle – they can just text the word “kettle” to the Salvation Army, and the phone carrier adds $5 to the texter’s phone bill.
Wow.
The economy’s in a slump, jobs are on the line and charitable giving has taken a hit. But that doesn’t mean we have to strike charitable donations from our lists this year.
Here are three great ways to make a difference and donate wisely:
- Around this office, when a coworker needs help, we are often quick to ask how we can help – with food, money, even certificates for massages. I wish I had known about Lotsahelpinghands.com the last time we needed to set up a meal chain for a coworker in crisis. It would have made coordinating our efforts that much easier.
- Charity Navigator has a holiday gift guide that helps you choose the best charity for your buck. It also rates charities to let you know which ones are the most fiscally responsible.
- Charity Choice lets you give someone a gift card that allows them to choose which charity to donate the money to.
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Social Media
…the future of breaking news
posted by Jason Fleck @ December 22nd, 2008
This past weekend, word of a Denver plane crash was first reported through a tweet sent by a software engineer before he managed to escape the burning wreckage. The tweet read:
Holy ******* **** I wasbjust in a plane crash!
No seriously, this is a true story.
Mike Wilson, otherwise known as 2drinksbehind in the Twitterverse, updated his followers through his Twitter stream, keeping them up-to-date on how the situation unfolded.
So long, news agencies.
Social media is evolving in the best way possible — people giving information to other people. Raw and unfiltered. Would you want an account from a reporter standing next to the wreckage on what he or she thinks happened or a report straight from someone experiencing the situation first hand?
Yeah, I thought so.
Just another reason why I use Twitter and social media to get my news.
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AgencyThink • Social Media
For Those About To Blog
posted by Greg Batiansila @ December 11th, 2008
I just read this post from Social Media genius Rohit Bargava about failing corporate blogs, and it makes me cringe a little.
Are we sucking?
I need your help. Let me know what you want an agency blog to look like. More creative? More insightful like insider stuff? Hear about how to be great at marketing? Whether if you roll four ones in Yahtzee if you should keep them and go for the Yahtzee or just reroll? I wanna know.
The goal all along has been to say: hey, we see this…this ad, this trend, this article and it’s interesting BECAUSE and Avicom can help you with it.
Do you mind the salesmanship? Let us know.
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Social Media
Microsoft is catching up with the future
posted by Jason Fleck @ December 3rd, 2008
The world is an ever changing, ever evolving place – even at Microsoft. Earlier today, Ina Fried, a writer for CNET, posted this article on how Microsoft is emerging into the social media market. In her article, Ina states:
Microsoft has started to roll out a series of changes, outlined in November, that give Windows Live a more social networking-like feel. Windows Live staples such as Spaces, Events, and the home page get a new look, while Microsoft is also putting special emphasis on group, profile, and photo pages.
These changes to Windows Live make it more manageable to grow a community around an already existing website and also allow its users to more easily make contacts and connect with others.
…and oh, did I mention you can also import your Facebook contacts?
Everyone recognizes that this is the future and Microsoft is taking its strides to change their design to mirror the “norm.” So what are you waiting for? Take heed and allow us to use our expertise to construct a community around your brand that will keep you at the forefront of this ever changing technology.
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AgencyThink • Social Media
Heed The MommyBloggers
posted by Greg Batiansila @ November 21st, 2008
CEO of Corporation X wants to get in on that…what do they call it?…that “Social Media.” Maybe he can get one of those “blogs.”What else can he do? What else should he do?
Here’s a thought: maybe he doesn’t need a blog. Maybe he just needs to read blogs.
Blogs are about voice. About opinion and dissent. Perhaps our CEO would find the general population is less interested in hearing his voice - and more interested that he hears theirs.
Emarketer.com has an interesting - and informative - article about “MommyBloggers” - women who write blogs. Over 3/4 of them review products on their blogs. Think our CEO needs to hear how his product or company is being reviewed? It’s free, unfettered research.
Social media may not always exist in this form. It may not always be called social media. But it’s efficacy and ability to make connections between CEOs and Mommies is another sign that it has a place in marketing in the days to come.
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Social Media • Trends
The Jesus Shot
posted by Greg Batiansila @ August 27th, 2008
If you want to see the future - at least a huge part of the future - of advertising, check this - and then this - out.
EA Sports created a golf video game. A user found a glitch and made a Youtube video showing the glitch.
Instead of ignoring him or adding a fix or apologizing, EA Sports created a YouTube video response to the user. If you think about it, that’s an already-incredible exhibition of social media. The gaming conglomerate is adept enough to note that someone has commented on their game, and created a video response to have an actual conversation with a customer.
Oh, and EA didn’t even try to broadcast this video. It went straight to Levinator and their own EA Youtube channel. Oh, and EA decided to have Tiger Woods in their video response. Yeah, the golfer who makes 130.00 a minute.
What’s the R.O.I. on what EA Sports did? Is it measurable? Didn’t they just change how gamers think of them? Change the rules on how to reach out to your customers? Pique every gamer’s interest in playing the game, maybe finding a glitch of their own?
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Social Media
A Direct Relationship?
posted by Greg Batiansila @ August 11th, 2008
As a social media guy at Avicom, I think it’s fair to say that there is a direct relationship between this and this. Video is the media of record for this era. It moves people. And really good video makes things happen.
The battle isn’t over - not by a long shot. But video -whose is better, which resonates, which said it best - is going to decide both local and national elections in the future.
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Social Media
Blasphemy Against The Mighty Word Of Mouth?
posted by Greg Batiansila @ July 15th, 2008
There have been books, websites and campaigns about Word of Mouth Marketing. It’s one of the core precepts of Social Media.
So, why is the Senior Vice President for Digital Strategy at MRM ripping Word of Mouth?
Well…she isn’t really. She wrote a catchy headline and a compelling opening paragraph. She’s softened her tone by the final sentence to imply that WOM is something you can’t catch or harness. It’s a byproduct of good marketing.
Oh.
This is akin to Avicom’s strategy of avoiding the term “viral.” Many a huckster will offer you a viral campaign. No one knows what will resonate across the general audience.
On the other hand, we’ve had significant success in creating buzz when we have an intimate look at our audience, their needs and expectations. Which makes buzz a byproduct of good research and smart campaigning. Which means that we agree with Ms. Fou.
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Social Media
Olympic Blogs
posted by Greg Batiansila @ July 10th, 2008
A client approached us to do a website focused on their sponsorship of the Beijing Olympics. One of the ideas we pitched that was not approved was eventually thought of by someone else and is now being implemented by Lenovo. I love this idea. Our idea included video blog, maybe even daily, handwritten “to-do” lists from the athletes. I’m glad someone’s doing it. I’ve already bookmarked it.
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Online Marketing • Social Media
Tweet Your Way to the Top
posted by Jon Tingley @ June 25th, 2008
You may have heard about a crazy new thing called Twitter lately. The truth is, it’s not that new, and it’s not that crazy. Twitter was launched almost two years ago in July and has since gained almost 2 million users worldwide. The number of Twitter users is constantly growing, as is the sites popularity; around 2 million tweets are sent each day.
What is Twitter? Well, as confusing as it sounds, the idea behind the service is very simple. The service is based on the question “What are you doing now?” and from that, you can communicate your own or your business’s status to the world. Twitter was created as a cross-platform tool to communicate your status to friends. All you have to do is create an account, find some people to follow, find some people to follow you, and start tweeting. The beauty of it all is that your followers can choose how they would like to receive your updates, either by text message, instant message, or on the web. You can also update your status from your mobile phone, instant messenger, on the website, or through the multitude of applications and plug-ins that have been created just to tweet. more »
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