Minneapolis Boutique Shops FTW

Minneapolis boutique shops are getting some rockin' press this week. AdAge talks about the New Creative Order and the local Strib gives a hat tip to Ginger Consulting. Keep it up, guys!

Philips Tackles the Twitter Product Review

Forget Twitter (and other social spaces) and focus on product reviews? I'm not so sure. AdAge dropped this article over the weekend and while product reviews are undoubtedly a fantastic way to gain customer feedback, Twitter can be used to directly gain product feedback and in a much more creative way.

@PHILIPS_VS is a great example of a brand using 140 characters to directly ask consumers for ideas on new product features and how to test their current products. At www.philipsvs.com people can submit "140 characters of genius" and if Philips digs it, they'll make it happen. The contest started a little over a week ago and players with the best ideas will have a chance at winning a sexy big screen.

A major concern from retailers is that social conversations, notably the ones on Twitter, are not structured enough to extract the information needed to directly impact sales. In this case, Philips created their own structure for what would otherwise be chaos in comparison to traditional product reviews. From "I love five dollar footlongs" to "I hate Comcast", people are naturally sharing their opinions on Twitter and other social sites. Creating an avenue for the conversation will open the door for new product feedback that would might never be addressed via traditional product reviews.

IHF to @nguyenduong for the tip

Q: What is a Broswer? A: No one cares

In their attempt to promote Chrome, Google has given us a great little video that is a nice reminder that the majority of people don't care about the technicalities of the Internet. People care about accessing their email, connecting with friends on their favorite social networks and accessing any piece of information they care to find. People are perfectly happy without knowing the exact definition of browser, why would they need to?

My Digital Media Resume

A conversation with the lovely Alicia led me to today's post topic. As we talked about gaining experience in our industry, and the fact that "new" media isn't really all that new to our generation, I began to think back to my own use of "new" media. For me, "new" media is actually quite old, and although it continues to evolve, I have evolved right along with it.

I learn, share, create, comment, discuss, and interact on a daily basis, and have been doing so since I was a little girl.

Below I've listed my "Digital Media Resume," to highlight major adoptions in digital media throughout my life. I would LOVE for others to share their resumes, so get to thinking!

Susan E. Garcia
Facebook.com/susan.e.garcia * twitter.com/suze_g * linkedin.com/in/susangarcia

Age 7

• Part of the Babysitters Club (book series) online newsletter (at the time, we had Prodigy as our internet service, which had all of 5 options).

Age 10

• Began using AOL games online.

Age 11

• First Hotmail account for email.
• Created MSN Messenger profile, began to use it religiously after school to connect with friends.

Age 13

• Began using free Web site service (can not remember the name!) to make “funny” sites among my group of middle-school friends. Features included taking polls, and posting glittery animated graphics (oddly enough of leprechauns and American flags).
• Began using online chat rooms with friends

Age 14

• New MSN Messenger profile includes adding your “interests, photos, favorite quotes” thus making updating that weekly the popular thing to do at Omro Middle School.
• Began chain e-mailing of surveys (i.e. “Pass this on to your friends and fill out about yourself)

Age 15

• Created Yahoo! messenger profile for brief stint.

Age 16

• Got first cell phone, downloaded personalized ringtones and wallpaper. Began texting.

Age 17

• Created a Xanga page (much like MySpace). Took down Xanga page one month later.
• Perfected the “texting during class without getting caught” skill.

Age 18

• Received camera phone, started texting photos.
• Used the Wisconsin State Track network RSS feed to check updates on regional athlete stats. • Applied to UW-Madison through a created online profile. Found out about my acceptance to UW-Madison online BEFORE receiving the official letter.
• Joined MySpace, began doing silly surveys about myself.
• Joined Facebook to “meet” my new roommate at University of Minnesota.

Age 19

• Maintained a MySpace and Facebook page. Used them to connect with new friends, stay in
touch with old friends.
• Created AIM profile to chat with new UMN friends.
• New .edu email for school. Included MyU online profile, e-grades, online classes, and Web
Vista for online homework. Could now monitor progress for classes all year long.

Age 20

• Mastered the Facebook “remove tag immediately because this picture makes me look
______” skill.
• Began to watch TV online (ABC.com), and used Fuse.tv online forums to find new music.
• Subscribed to the NYTimes podcast to listen to on the bus every morning.
• Used Facebook to update friends while in Washington DC for summer. Created group for the summer interns to organize get-togethers.
• Used Washingtonian.com blog to find new things to do.

Age 21

• Joined Google Reader to keep my RSS feeds in one place, and share with friends.
• Created GMail account, routed all email to one place, and started GChatting.
• Joined Twitter (@suze_g), began by tweeting insignificant observations.
• Began religiously following music blogs.
• Began use of Pandora.com, and Hulu.com
• Created Tumblr account to share art and music.
• Created the short-lived "OMG Remember This?" blog on Blogger with fellow intern, to speak to all things 90’s.
• Created LinkedIn profile. Connected with old and new colleagues.
• Created MNArtist.org profile for gallery I was interning for, to help it network with local artists.
• With my first Macbook, began to use iChat to consolidate all messaging services.
• Began regularly commenting on blogs.

Age 22

• Joined the fabulous YAYBIA! crew as a PR liaison.
• Created Muxtape mixtape.
• Began using Twitpic to tweet photos.
• Created new Tumblr to display my resume and writing samples.
• Became member of PR Open Mic, a public relations student network.
• Assisted in the creation of a highly interactive campaign for the 2008-09 NSAC team.
• At internship, pitched bloggers on a variety of subjects.
• Began social media monitoring for brands.
• Began using Twitter to share links, create conversation.
• Used LinkedIn to find entry-level job opportunities, and make and maintain connections in the PR industry.
• Became social media intern, and now eat/sleep/breathe social media daily.

Notable Skills:
YouTube watching and sharing, Google Mapping anything and everything, keeping my Google Reader at below 1000+ items, retweeting at least one link daily

I'm sure there are digital resumes that top this one, so hope you share! KTHXBAI!

Who You're Really Talking To

Christian at Idea Drunk shares this pearl of wisdom:

I’m not saying that it isn’t correct to have an aspirational target. I’m saying that you shouldn’t forget that the majority of [your target] doesn’t live in the city where you’re making your advertising. The majority of [your target] doesn’t frequent hipster bars on Ossington and shop at H&M. They drink beer at their campsites, shop at Wal-Mart and go to Boston Pizza for a nice meal. And sometimes, they have handlebar amazing moustaches.

Couldn't agree more. So often we are marketing to the people we'd like to buy our product, but we ignore the people who actually do. Fortunately, it's getting easier to identify our true fans.

Facebook Insights is now offering in-depth looks into the people who are using Pages and interacting with brands. Insights has been rolling out new metrics regularly, so I hope top interests and keywords will soon be a component of the analytics. In the meantime, why not take a random sample of Twitter followers and Facebook fans and figure out who's really listening to your messaging? If it's die-hards who will fight to the death about Pizza Hut vs. Domino's, offer incentives to share stories and media. If it's college kids looking to score coupons, show them some cheap pizza love. But figure out who you're talking to. It's never been easier to do it.

Twitterquette

So... I tweeted a link today to share a video with the Twitterverse, and one of my followers (who shall remain unnamed) shared the same link shortly after. Now, this is no newbie to Twitter. He/she knows the lingo. So why no RT @aliciahouselog? Is this just me being a snobby attention whore or is this bad Twitterquette?

When is it acceptable to ignore the RT? When is it vital to use the RT? I know I was probably not the ONLY person on the planet to share the video, but it was quite obvious that he/she was RTing my tweet. Thoughts?

(P.S. I would have accepted an IHF wholeheartedly.)

So, what did you do on Friday night?

Well, I set my alarm for 10:45pm, stayed in, and watched the countdown on my screen in my living room with Erin and Libby. That would be the screen of my Facebook account, where thankfully I got to register my domain of www.facebook.com/carina

200,000 people registered in the first 3 minutes (go geeks, go!). 1 million in the first hour. What is the big deal? It isn't about this SEO thing people are talking about - it is all about branding. 

Then, after I got super excited, and tweeted my Facebook URL, I realized how bad I was doing at branding myself. I am a connection mess:

@NICKNAME

facebook.com/FIRSTNAME

linkedin.com/in/FULLNAME

So I fail. Brands, do as I say, not as I do. BE CONSISTENT.

One hashtag that I saw started (I believe by Facebook employees) is #/isthenew@.  Is it now just as essential to get your brand's /brandname as @brandname? Likely, if not even more. Facebook has been around longer, and gets more traffic than Twitter. That alone is enough to make most any brand want their own /brandname.  Now, Facebook is not putting up with squatters, and brands could register ahead of time with their registered trademark number, starting early last week. BUT I want numbers on how many were actually fast enough to do that.

I went and checked a few popular brands:

www.facebook.com/coke redirects to www.facebook.com/coca-cola

www.facebook.com/pepsi redirects to www.facebook.com/refresheverything

(BUT, http://www.facebook.com/apple is a 404 and someone is squatting on http://www.facebook.com/appleinc)

So it appears there is some more special treatment for brands going on, but I am guessing those are the brands that paid for their vanity URLs back when they were only available when you shelled out some $$$ for a branded Facebook page.

The next rush comes on June 28th when anyone can register a unique domain for their profile or page, even if they signed up for facebook after 5/30 or if their page has less than 1000 fans.  I recommend all brands get moving on this. Now. Get started now so that by June 28th you are ready.

#squarespace - Really for the Fans?

Right after the WWDC on Monday I noticed tweets with #squarespace and "iPhone" trending high and popping up in my feed. My memory was a little fuzzy about the Squarespace name, so I checked it out to be sure of what it is. Squarespace is a DIY website builder with some high profile users - Ecko and Element to name a few. Anyway, while the geeks were geekin' about WWDC, Squarespace was busy plotting a Twitter contest to give a "gigantic THANK YOU to all of our favorite Squarespace fans." All their fans had to do was send a tweet with the #squarespace tag to be eligible to win a new iPhone. That's great and all, but it's quickly turned into a hashtag fest with hundreds of thousands of non-fans just in it for the goods.

So I'm wondering: How do you separate the fans from those that just want to get their hands on a free iPhone?

To thank users, there are better ways to leverage Twitter than a flood of tweets from people who will never use Squarespace:

• Current users could post success stories, favorite features or job-winning portfolios on Twitter, still using #squarespace, to highlight the brand's name AND functionality at the same time.
• @squarespace could send tweets showcasing the unique ways people are using the platform. People could then be entered into the contest by voting via Twitter for their favorite designs. @extendr is doing a great job of showing off their users' profiles in order to gain more fans.
• Facebook is also another great space to connect with existing fans because it gets others interested in what's going on. Fans could post status updates, notes or even photos expressing love for Squarespace in order to win a new phone.
  

It's also likely this "fan" contest was really a move to gain awareness through Twitter. Giving away new iPhones at the exact moment that Twitter was buzzing about WWDC was a smart move. But if that's the case, don't disguise it as a thank you to your true fans.

ProtoType Experience

Prototype, a Xbox360 game coming out this month, turned to Sponge Alternative Marketing Agency in Brussells to create a simple, interactive microsite to give people a preview of the game. Using Facebook Connect, the site pulls information and photos from your Facebook account and injects them in the game preview. My favorite part is that they render the information so it appears that it actually was intended to be a part of the preview, as opposed to being sloppily slapped in there. That photo above is from my Facebook album, but I can tell you that that is not what it actually looks like. It gives a personal feel to the experience, without being overwhelming. Some may find it a tad creepy, but I find it subtle and interesting. At the end, you answer two questions in order to be eligible to win an Xbox360. I don't know if sharing this link will help or hurt my chances at winning. You'll see what I mean by that after you check it out - which you should.

GOOD LUCK, CHARIOT!

On behalf of the Yaybia girls who are now the Ghosts of NSAC Past, I want to wish the best of luck to the 2009 team at Nationals this week in Washington, DC.  They have worked so hard and we are incredibly proud of them!  Now bring home a victory, ladies!