Last night WILLiFEST - the Williamsburg International Film Festival - opened at the Music Hall of Williamsburg with some amazing talent!  We have been working with the team at WILLiFEST for some time as they followed the story of an up and coming local band from the Bronx, Graveshift, composed of a team of brothers and sisters who were offered the chance to write the theme song for a nationally syndicated TV show "Live it UP! with Donna Drake."

Frank Radice, our Expert-in-Residence, consulted with the band over the past few months, and agreed to help co-write and produce the song, as he has successfully launched many hits including the Today Show theme song "America's First Family" which ran on the network for eight years. 

After walking the red carpet, being interviewed by Alyssa DiLello from Live it UP!, and taking some pics with the band, we took our seats as the show began.  Producers Robin Adams and Michael Helman of WILLiFEST introduced local politicians, and then Frank came on stage to talk about his work with the band.  And then we were all entertained by this refreshing band's performance of their original song entitled, "The Essence of Life."

Frank Radice with Graveshift


Frank on stage introducing the band.

Graveshift being interviewed by Alyssa DiLello from Live it UP!

The band performing on stage at WILLiFEST!

We are looking forward to more WILLiFEST fun tonight as Locomotive Distribution launches the hip hop horror film "You're Nobody 'Til Somebody Kills You," written by Michael "Boogie" Pinckney and executive produced by Spike Lee at the Knitting Factory in Brooklyn.

Social Media Week is here, and well, we’ve been keeping busy being social.  I recently got the chance to conduct a “6 with D6” Interview with Henry Copeland, founder of BlogAds.com and of the SUXORZ awards, an event that showcases the worst social media campaigns from the previous year.  

When Henry is not selling BlogAds, he says he’s “generally running or playing ping-pong with his kids, cooking with his wife, playing with his dogs, or reading.”   Some of the blogs that he frequently reads within the BlogAds network include ObscureStore.com, Wonkette.com, PerezHilton.com, ReadWriteWeb.com, DailyKos.com, and Drudge.com, although he claims this is more for “taking the cultural temperature than really consuming news.”  

We encourage you to sign up for SUXORZ, which takes place on Thursday, February 10^th in NYC (where Definition 6’er Jon Accarrino will play “Social DJ”), or read more about how Henry got involved in social media.

6 with D6: Henry Copeland

1 - What changes do you anticipate taking place within the blogosphere in the next 3-5 years?

Since we got started in 2002, there's obviously been a giant proliferation of the number of blogs.  And there's also been a lot of professionalization.  But, as folks like Huffington Post disappear into the belly of the corporate beast, I think you'll see a resurgence of small and medium-size blogging, folks who are doing it because they love it, not because they want to cash out for $315 million. There are still lots of folks out there just finding their voice and lots of “unserved” publics.  In some cases, these will be people just doing it to scratch their own itch.  In some cases, these will be 'house blogs' by companies that are passionate about one topic or another.  And in some cases, these will be self-supporting bloggers.

2 -     Both BlogAds.com and you personally have been huge pioneers in the social media landscape.  With all the proliferation of devices like iPad and connected TVs, how much is social media device-driven?  Or is the behavior of sharing and consuming media evolving the device market?

I'm tempted to say I'm not young enough to answer that question.  But I'll take a shot: I think blogs were perfect for PCs...everyone who works in an office or goes to school has one AND has 30 spare minutes a day to create or read content that is 50-500 words long. Now, mobile devices seem to inspire the production and consumption of more micro-content, tweets, check-ins, pokes, etc. 

3 -     If you could go back in time and edit your 2002 Pressflex essay that floated the idea of BlogAds, what would you change?


Ha, I would have been a little less cocky. :) I thought BlogAds was going to change the world OVERNIGHT. I didn't realize it would be two years before we'd sell more than $200 in ads in a single month.  But overall, I'm happy with the way those predictions about how “people-power-media” would explode and completely upend the media and advertising markets.  When you think of all the stuff that's come since then -- whether it's YouTube or Twitter or Reddit or Quora or Facebook -- we're still just beginning to guess all the fun things people can do for, or with, each other when you let them connect in real-time online.

4 - How can marketing agencies like Definition 6 use BlogAds to help our clients?

Two things.  First, we can let you really deliver your client's story across a wide spectrum of blogs.  Second, there's a lot of emphasis at agencies on using the commoditized ad units -- the IAB units you can buy on every site on earth. We think it is very important to use the right unit to tell the client's story. Flashy 300x250s and 728x90s have their time and place, but there are times you want to channel what the community is saying about your brand in Twitter or let the community re-tweet your ad.  So when it comes to ad units, the medium can be the message -- a conventional ad unit that was born in broadcast, often an IAB unit, most likely tells a conventional story that's rooted in the "we talk, you listen" mode of advertising. 

5 - What do you see as a game changer?

Yikes. I think we're still scratching the surface of organizing all the data and relationships that social media is encouraging us to generate. In a sense, we're in an arms race with ourselves, steadily producing more information, then scrambling to create containers/structures to help us keep track of that information, and then having to create structures that contain THOSE new structures.  We've got so many signals, we're creating news.  So at some point, I think we're going to hit a point where the majority of people say, "OK, I'm done, this is good enough for me. I don't need any more filing cabinets for my filing cabinets."  That could be two “Facebooks” from now, or it could be we're just about there right now. 

6 - Tell us more about the SUXORZ awards which are coming up this week. What has changed over the last few years?  What has improved? 

This will be the fourth year of the SUXORZ.  How time flies when you've got terrible social media advertising to laugh at, right?  Since the first couple of years, it appears companies have gotten better about not trying to pay consumers to shill for them.  Or companies have just figured out how to do it more covertly and not get caught.  Last year, the sins were more of omission rather than commission.  Companies implemented half a social media campaign -- Tweets on a billboard! -- but forgot to watch what people were tweeting and ended up with a lot of profanity beside their logos.  We're still sifting through nominations to figure out what the trends will be this year.  You can make nominations on our Facebook page.

It’s that time of year again. A time for reflection and a time for predictions. On the outside chance you did something this year besides monitor your RSS feed from Defining Insights, we thought this would be a good time to reflect on the top posts of the last 12 months.

For those of you that don’t know, Definition 6 has a very open corporate blogging policy. All of our employees are welcome (and encouraged) to contribute to the blog. With a team that spans many different areas of expertise, we find this is a great approach to keeping our customers and other friends up to date on the latest trends in digital marketing and emerging technology.

It’s also an opportunity for us to share successful approaches to unified marketing, helping you develop and leverage strategies that deepen relationships and improve marketing ROI. Without further adieu, here are the 6 most-read posts of 2010:

#1 “Nike ‘Write the Future’ Ad Breaks Viral Video Record” by Jon Accarrino

It should come as no surprise that the leader of Definition 6’s social media operations published the most-read post of 2010. Before joining Definition 6, Jon launched many of NBC’s first social media initiatives, including the Twitter accounts of many of the Today Show stars you know and love.

Leading up to this year’s World Cup action, Jon had the foresight to write a quick review of Nike’s ‘Write the Future’ ad. As fans took breaks from vuvuzela tooting to search the Web, many stumbled across Jon’s post.

You can read the original post (and watch the video again) here.

#2 “Best Practices for Facebook Pages” by Ashley Reed

Definition 6’s social media team must know a thing or two about producing and sharing content on the Web, because its Atlanta-based social media manager Asheley Reed wrote the second most-read post of 2010, “Best Practices for Facebook Pages.”  Ashley’s post was jam-packed with practical information top brands can use to get more out of their Facebook marketing efforts. If your organization has a Facebook Page (or is thinking about launching one), you may want to check out Ashley’s post here. Of course, you might also find value in here “Why People Like Brands on Facebook” post as well.

#3 “How You Like Me Now?” by Matt Timpson

Matt Timpson gives us a great argument for why companies should open blogging to more employees. Matt doesn’t work in marketing, he’s not a client manager or on the sales team, he works in the engineering department.  But he contributed one of the most-read blog posts of 2010, an in-depth analysis of Kia’s 2010 Super Bowl ad (you know, the one with the Sock-Monkey, Squeak-Monster and the Robot?). With an unassuming title “How You Like Me Now?” (a nod to the music used in the spot), his post climbed the charts. If you are familiar with the commercial, you might find his analysis interesting. It’s hard to believe Super Bowl spots are right around the corner.

#4 “Babes... And Some Other Basic Truths About Re-Connecting With Audiences Online” by Al Leach

Al Leach leads the national strategic communications practice for Definition 6. Needless to say, he has a way with words. While the content of Al’s post is written from the point of view of a veteran communications professional, the lighthearted headline and lead demonstrates a point about capturing attention in a short attention span world. Al’s post presents 4 self-proclaimed “truths” about communicating with audiences today - a great read for any communicator. Read Al’s post here.

#5 “The Gap Logo Fiasco” by Chris Wojda

Work for an iconic brand? Want to generate a lot of buzz this year? Have an intern redesign your logo and swap it out on your website - the blogosphere will go wild and you’ll be top of mind for a couple of weeks (at least). While that’s not exactly how it played out, some suspect Gap’s re-branding efforts from this past summer were a publicity stunt. With ‘serious’ re-brands, you would typically see signs at stores change. In this case, it was really just the logo on Gap’s website. Regardless of what the strategy really was, Gap made a lot of noise with its logo ‘fiasco’ this past summer. One of Definition 6’s leading brand strategists, Chris Wojda, couldn’t resist chiming in with his ‘two cents’ on the whole mess. Read his take on Gap’s logo swap here.

#6 “Unified Marketing: A New Model for a New Era” by Michael Kogon

One of the most significant events for the agency this past year was our own re-branding effort. As most of you know, Definition 6 is now a Unified Marketing Agency. Definition 6 CEO introduced positioning and why we feel so strongly about this model in all that we do. The fact that this post rounded out the top 6 posts of 2010 shows that not only did the message resonate with you, but also that we continue to see coincidences with the number “6” in everything that we do. To get the full scoop on what our Unified Marketing Agency positioning is all about, read Michael’s post here.

Chris Thornton is Chief Marketing Officer of Definition 6 and was recently named “CMO of the Year” by the Technology Association of Georgia’s (TAG) Technology Marketing Association. Chris also serves on the board of the Atlanta Interactive Marketing Association (AiMA). When he’s not blogging, you can find Chris tweeting at @CMORocks.

I woke up this morning to a pretty interesting e-mail that was sent to me by way of my Google profile from someone named David Anderson:

I am making a blog for an online writing class I'm taking through UF, and for a module on search techniques I needed to find a non-mainstream website about my topic (sports bars).  I found your old site, the East Lansing Bar Review, and I loved it so I've written my post for this assignment about it.  I've only made five posts so far, but here is a link anyway: http://sportsbarjunkie.blogspot.com/

This is really crazy in so many ways. The site he is referring to is something I created back around 1995. I was attending Michigan State University and worked part-time in the MSU Network Center to make some extra cash. My official title there was Mainframe Consultant and mostly I helped professors and students to use things like Gopher, Banyan VINES, FTP, configure dial-up PPP access, and learn how to use our Unix-based ELM e-mail client. This was a time when most corporations hadn’t even heard of the web, it had fledgling use by Universities, it was being referred to as a fad, and I had just helped to get Michigan State’s own first web sites up.

I wanted to play around more with this new-fangled world wide web so using a vi editor in Unix, working in HTML 1.0 and armed with a copy of the predominant browser of the time NCSA Mosaic, I decided to create a site that offered a personal review of all the local bars and pubs in the East Lansing, Michigan area. I had a lot of fun creating the site. I had even more fun doing the critical research required to provide the reviews. But it really was bare bones ugly, used hand coded tables, some basic formatting tags, and the most advanced thing it included (which was hot at the time) was an image map that used a monstrosity I created with a copy of Photoshop 1.0.

But so it was born: the East Lansing Bar Review. For a couple of years I kept updating it and occasionally I got really interesting feedback or comments. It even got me a few free beers from local bar owners. When I left MSU my younger brother Mike took over the site and moved it (all 4 or 5 HTML files and all 5-6 images) from my student web account to his. He kept it updated for a couple of more years before he graduated. A couple of years later we got tired of being contacted about it from people asking for updates so Mike posted a note on the site explaining this and since then it’s gathered electronic dust but apparently it’s still there.

15 years from when I created the site, I’m now the CTO of Definition 6 where we create massive high-end brand experiences that include transactional sites with extensive back-end systems integration, hundreds of thousands of pages of content in enterprise-class Content Management Systems, on-line video experiences, mobile web sites, mobile applications and more in addition to spending a ton of time doing Search Engine Optimization, Search Engine Marketing, On-line Display Media, and Analytics.

In an effort for this blog post to have a point and not just be nostalgic rambling or reflection on how far we’ve come in terms of the web and on-line advancements, what really stands out to me is considering how high this site shows up in results for major search engines. If you search for East Lansing Bars it still comes up as one of the top several results on Google. And if you search as David describes he did in his blog post it’s number one. Keep in mind the site was originally written and posted before Google even existed and at a time when Yahoo! had just come onto the scene as a start-up. The very concept of organic search engine optimization didn’t even really exist let alone was it the means of livelihood for the legions of people that practice its art today. I’m sure there are some things to be said for how today’s algorithms treat a site with such a long tenure favorably as well as the tenure of links to that site. And I’m all but certain that the same site published today would not be treated so favorably. But it is probably worth noting that a site hosted at relatively bad URL by today’s SEO standards with no meta-data, no thought to Information Architecture, and bad file naming practices still shows up high for certain not uncommon searches when the content was meaningfully written and relevant to the subject matter of interest. I’ll leave the rest of the analysis to the real SEO experts out there (and my apologies to our Creative Department for even publishing a link to this relic of a site on our blog).

Thanks, David, for the trip down memory lane and for giving me some interesting things to think about this morning.

If you weren't one of the lucky few to attend the TEDx Atlanta Re:solve event last week, here are some great quotes I wanted to share with you:

• “The modern approach to movie making is one of mankind’s most incredible and perhaps most underutilized tools for collaborative problem solving.” - Logan Smalley

• “In the modern world, we’re all marketers, we’re all neighbors and we’re all pulling up a chair to the same fire – the Internet.” - Logan Smalley

• “There is a window of opportunity that exists while you’re young to get advice form the smartest people around because they don’t expect you to pay a consulting fee.” - Logan Smalley

• “The Internet of the ancient world was the solar system.” - Farmer D.

• “By 2020 there will be more millionaires in India than there are total people in Canada and Australia.” - David Butler

• “Learn by doing.” - David Butler

• “Hydrogen has the most energy of any element shy of radioactive.” - Mills Snowden

• “The most important part of developing your idea is you have to start.” - Mills Snowden

• “The world conspires to help whn you are up to something big.” - Harrison Dillon

• “Energy time operates in 10 year cycles.  Political time operates in 2 year cycles. [It’s the reason we have such a hard time solving our energy problem].” - Harrison Dillon

• “We have to make sure that our politicians know that we all care about more than what happens beyond the next political cycle.” - Harrison Dillon

• “Everyone has a sea of influence that can be traced.” - Jim Hartzfeld

• “There’s a fundamental difference between curing sickness and creating health.” - Jim Hartzfeld

• “Everybody’s entitled to their own opinion.  Not everybody’s entitled to their own facts.” - Sam Williams

For more information on TED and TEDx Atlanta, visit the TEDx Atlanta site here. You can also view photos and videos from recent events.

I’m proud. 

What’s the biggest buzzword around social networking right now? If you guessed location-based services, it would be hard to argue with you. If we ask you again in six months, chances are good you’ll answer the social graph.

The social graph questions keep coming up in client and prospect meetings. What is the social graph? What do we need to know about the social graph? How can we use the social graph to deepen relationships with customers? So on and so forth...

While I can’t answer every question you have about the social graph, I can help to start framing the conversation for executives struggling to gain a deeper understanding of the impact social graphs will have on their business.

For starters, the social graph is just a fancy way of describing relationships or connections with people, places and things. It’s a map of your social connections and preferences – a visual data model if you will, with hubs and nodes. For you, your social graph could be the Connections you have on LinkedIn, the places you’ve checked in on FourSquare, or the brands you’ve ‘liked’ on Facebook.

For illustrative purposes, there a few dozen lacrosse fans who are my Friends on Facebook. How many of them are from upstate New York? Syracuse fans? Of those, how many also listened to a lot of grunge in college, now live in Atlanta and work in marketing for an integrated interactive agency?

Granted, there’s probably not another one of me – at least not that specific, but you can see the potential. You’ve never been able to slice and dice data with this level of precision before. It’s this unprecedented level of targeting that gets innovative marketers excited, while privacy advocates reach for their pitchforks and torches.

Of course, my example above only illustrates relationships between connections and doesn’t get into activity, preference or myriad other social graphs that can be linked to one another. For example, who likes the same things or has been the same places as me? Who’s reading this article at the same time you are? These are questions you will be able to answer as social graphs get more sophisticated.

Where Did The Social Graph Come From?

Social graph has been popularized by Facebook, the world’s largest social network and the company most likely to serve as the epicenter for social graphs. While Facebook has plans to be the only social graph, recent announcements like its “Open Graph” suggest the company is happy remaining the epicenter of all social activity online. Plus, it’s unrealistic that Facebook could sustain a monopoly over the social graph – we all want to use other stuff.

With offerings like “Open Graph”, any electronic asset online can be linked to an individual’s social graph. In the months to come, look for this to include every place you go, everything you do, and everything you buy.

While Facebook has a lot of influence, there are no rules to the social graph. Any piece of social data can be woven into your graph to provide a more accurate picture of the interdependencies between your relationships and preferences. Privacy concerns aside (a future post perhaps), this stuff is truly amazing.

In the first wave of the Web, we were excited to discover new websites via links to other sites or search results. Early social networks encouraged us to link to one another, which dramatically accelerated our discovery of mutual relationships and made networking (the human kind) much faster – and in many ways enjoyable. Now everything is getting out there.

What’s All This Mean for Business?

For starters, you’ll start to have a crystal clear view into who your potential and current customers are. In the short-term, this will provide you with tremendous targeting advantages over your competition. For the 1st time ever, you’ll be able to customize incentives for all the 32 year old homemaker motor cross fans that have purchased a tofu burger from you in the past year.

Keep in mind, the more accurate you can target customers, the more accurate customers can target you. It is yet to be determined how consumers will react to the knowledge that they are your best customer. How much longer will it be before Foursquare mayors start demanding more incentives for the role they play in your viral marketing? What happens when Blippy users start demanding special incentives for all the purchases they’ve made?
These are good problems to have. Smarter brands and smarter consumers always forces us to innovate and push the needle farther. And who doesn’t love a good challenge?

Bottom line? The social graph takes a lot of the fun out of the guessing game of life – learning about people and things over time. Only time will tell whether or not instant gratification is a good thing or not. As marketers, it’s hard not to get excited about the potential to target with the greatest accuracy, reliability and ease ever. Bring it on.

At the same time, let’s tread forward lightly. We don’t want to create such huge concerns over privacy that regulation and oversight come in to drain the life out of the creative process.

What do you think? Are social graphs a good thing or a bad thing? Do you want people to know what kind of ice cream you like or what kind of car you drive? How much sharing is too much?

 
A friend recently asked me what all the sensation was around Foursquare and Gowalla. These location based services (LBS) now gaining serious traction in the social media space. This same friend had asked me the same question a little over two years ago when I started actively participating and raving about Twitter and Facebook.

The first time I was asked this question, I initially struggled to answer it in a way that would easily explain the excitement and draw of using an online service to tell other people what I was doing, where I was eating, or why I think that (so and so's latest article) was so interesting. 

However, this time the answer came to me rather quickly. "It's all about our interaction with our communities. Mine and yours and how they overlap!" When I see a friend write that the Thai place down the street has some kickin' sushi, I give that more credence than the billboard I see driving to the office. When I see one of your friends talk passionately about their son's kung fu instructor, I take that as a more qualified reference than a yellow pages ad.


So what are we really seeking when we post our latest thoughts on Facebook and Twitter? Or when we check out where our friends are checking in on Foursquare or Gowalla? Are we just vain and think that what we are doing is SO important? Or are we just seeking a way to connect in an ever busy, ever moving, ever expanding world?

We have friends and family and colleagues and people we just admire with whom we go days, weeks or even years without actually laying eyes on each other. Or even more rare, actually sitting down and catching up on what has been going on in our lives, our careers, our family, friends, churches, baseball leagues … our communities.

Thanks to these online tools, I get to keep up with a larger number of people than ever possible before. And I learn more about their communities and the people and places in them. This in turn, expands my own known universe. It makes me bigger than I could be on my own. My boundaries are constantly expanded, and in a way that is relevant and meaningful to me and my friends (and your friends and their friends). Growth is good, is it not?
 
I live and work in Atlanta. I like to enjoy the occasional tasty local brew, listen to great live music and I also just so happen to really get geeky about the latest and greatest innovations in the .NET developer community. Wonder how many different ways those communities intersect and how they are related? Wouldn't be a cool thing if I could go somewhere and see my friends in these different circles talk about these things that are interesting to me and that we have in common. What if I can be the catalyst to help bring these different communities together in new and interesting ways?



One of the most interesting ways that new media tools have affected me and my community are when my online and offline worlds converge. Last November, I was lucky enough to be given the opportunity to host and moderate a panel for the TAG Consulting Society on "Marketing Your Practice to Build Loyalty and Brand Awareness". I was able to engage 2 panel members through my offline community and reached out to my online community to find the remaining two panel members.

Thanks to my network of friends, I was introduced to two extremely smart and engaging panelists who helped round out a wonderful panel. (Thanks again to @lisa_sherman77  and @johnreed3000). Another example of where my friends reach out to their friends who then become my friends who then can become your friends too.
 
I would like to extend this opportunity for us to become part of each other's community. Follow me on Twitter @andrewmccann or on Facebook or on LinkedIn. From there you can find me on Foursquare and Gowalla and whatever the next big thing is that allows me to connect with my friends and your friends and my friends with your friends.

We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men.
-- Herman Melville

What do you want? Those of you that are CMOs, Brand Managers, VPs of Advertising or Marketing, what do you really want?
 
Whenever and wherever this question is asked, the answer is always the same: Results! You want results and you want them now (it’s the same thing you wanted yesterday, and the same thing you’ll want tomorrow).

If you are in the agency business, you should never lose sight of this basic marketing need. If you are in-house and spend your money on advertising and marketing, I hope this helps you think about how to find people who can improve those results faster.
 
This topic has been on my mind since I got together with a group of marketing professionals earlier this month. We started off talking about how to produce ROI reports for their CFOs and finance counter parts. Ultimately, what everyone really wants to see is results.

How you define results and what value they deliver for your business may vary, but here are some sample measurements based on our discussion:

•    Brand health metrics
•    Units Sold
•    Leads Generated
•    Awareness and Recall levels
•    ROAS
•    E-mail marketing conversion
•    Increased Foot Traffic
 
How can agencies produce results more consistently when results are so varied by each client? Here are six suggestions for ways I think agencies can be prepared to provide a variety of results for a variety of clients and also for the same customer who has evolving needs over a long period of time.

1.    Understand your client's business. If you are not as much a management consultant as an ad person, then I think you will fail in the future. Today's marketing and advertising challenges, impact customer service, public relations, product develop & procurement as well as IT, finance and channel relations. Now, they always have, but now that the world is digitized and visibility is possible; the demand to work on more than just demand is higher.

2.    Understand customer behavior. One of the things I think Agency can do better than most client-side marketers is getting to know the end customer and the customers along the way.  We can and should provide outsider insight into the purchase drivers that lead consumers or businesses to buy from clients. By being involved in the insight business, we can help our customers produce the results they need.

3.    Be more social. So much has been said about this over the last 18 months, so I'll share why I think agencies need to become more social. We are in the business of communications and in connecting companies and customers. The landscape has evolved where the cost of distributing messages is virtually zero and the demand for connection is 100%.  When demand is this high and the cost is so low, there is an unlimited amount of success you can have for you and your customers if you tap into this skill set.

4.    Learn math and how to analyze data. I became a Speech Communications major because it had no math requirement. I bet a lot of people who are in our field did the same thing, I know it.  Math has never been a problem for me, I just didn't care to do any more formulas or equations. Then I got into advertising, and as I did Nielsen store data, GRPs, category management, research, coupon redemption and media plans, it became clear that math was going to be a big part of my life. When I started our Integrated Interactive Agency in the 90s it become clear that math, engineering and analysis would be at the center of much of what we would do to help clients. A strong analytics capability and good math people, programmers, engineers and analysts are essential if you are serious about producing results and proving those results.

5.    Learn how to produce.  Content, code, sounds, event. From branding to social, to broadcast to micro-cast. From visual to technical, and in-home to the 6th screen. A good partner doesn't outsource the doing to sub-contractors, it is no longer acceptable to do the boards, the concept, the design, the plan and then hand it off. In these days and times, buyers expect ongoing interactions and learned messaging overtime. The mediums must be an integrated seamless experience or you will lose sales and revenue for your clients. That is not the result they want.

6.    Ask your clients what they need to thrive. So I end with this, what do you need to thrive in your current marketing and advertising role? We are listening……….
 

Now if this were a documentary and not a blog I’d start out this way:

FADE IN:
Simple white text over black.

viral |ˈvīrəl|
adjective
1 of the nature of, caused by, or relating to a virus or viruses.

2 of or involving the rapid spread of information about a product or service by viral marketing techniques : a viral video ad. 
Creating original and entertaining viral advertising is a unique challenge every time it’s attempted; no matter the agency, the client or the brand. The audience at large has become more and more fickle when it comes to what entertains them, especially online.

Creating something the viewer feels compelled to pass along to a friend? Even more difficult. That’s why I try to make it clear every time I embark on a job dubbed “viral”. It’s not a noun. You are attempting to catch lightning in a bottle...naming it as such doesn’t make it so.
 
So what is the secret formula to this viral video stuff? The secret is there is no secret. Who can explain why one day the Coca Cola “Happiness Machine” is wildly popular and the next the “Death Metal Rooster” or the latest kitten video is all the rage? There are too many mitigating factors to count, let alone to try and prepare for. You can’t make a video spread virally. All the planning and analysis in the world will never trump a great idea. There it is. I knew I had a point!
 
What we do know is people are consuming video online like never before. 141 million people viewed Web video in February. Even more astounding, YouTube announced that users are uploading 20 hrs of video every minute of every day on their site. Man, that’s a lot of kittens!

Gone are the days that just because it’s there people will watch it, never mind share it. But that’s the goal. Sharing. Buzzfeed actually uses a metric on their site to chart viral performance - the formula is based on how actively the content is being shared and spread to chart success. Not just views.
 
As the guys from undercurrent.com so brilliantly said in their SXSW presentation, “internet fame is a social phenomenon, not a magic trick”. So what does that mean for brands entering the space? What can they do to help achieve some internet fame?
 
Firstly, for me as a creative, and certainly as a director, there’s one sure-fire trick to be followed and that starts with a great idea. Look at the most successful viral advertising and web video. I bet it’s a fairly simple idea done really well, usually in the “I wish I thought of that” category.

Is the idea and, in turn, the content quality? Is it original, smart, funny, heartfelt, genuine, or is it simply content for content sake? Will it entertain? Will it engage? Will it encourage advocacy - meaning, do I feel compelled to share? As a brand, the Death Metal Rooster is probably not something to aspire to…unless you’re Purdue maybe...which is just plain weird.  My point is that brands can’t chase “Chocolate Rain” or “Star Wars Kid”…I mean, come on, that kid would totally destroy you!
 
Two, duration. If you want to harness the power of the people sharing a great idea, keep it short and get to the hook early (around 2 minutes is our sweet spot) but if you insist on going longer, for the love of all that’s holy, raise the stakes and the funny*, escalate things to keep them engaged. *(oh, the funny, like "more cowbell", always helps).
 
People are being entertained across an ever-growing number of mediums and everyday consumers become more media literate. I will always passionately argue that just creating content is simply not enough. Content is king, sure, but now quality is job one.

Not to say that only means production value. That’s part of it of course. I’m the first to push back on folks that say things like “internet budget” or “it’s only being produced for a tiny screen, it should be really cheap right?”, or my favorite, “it’s only for the Web”, argh…don’t get me started!
 
Now, spoiler alert; time for a little self-tooting…wait for it. "The Happiness Machine" was a great idea. The fact that it has such a broad appeal is not a fluke. It’s a simple concept that delivered the desired effect; to put a smile on people’s faces. It’s on brief, on brand and elicits a genuine emotional response. Lucky for us, Coke saw that early on and they deserve a LOT of credit for preserving the core idea. The final product as it exists is very, very close to the initial creative. That is rare.
 
So, back to that trite open of mine. If you do your job right, the derivative of viral becomes an adverb, “virally”, because it has performed that way. People shared it and hopefully, became active participants with your brand.

Now, I don’t have all the answers. I’m just a guy that spent two days inside a vending machine so what do I know? What I do know is viral, much like any other successful advertising, is still about the big idea. Don’t think small because the aspect ratio is. On the contrary, think bigger because your audience is growing every day.

I love the idea that the only difference between a community and an audience is the way the chairs are facing. You can produce a million dollar spot and seed it or spend your million seeding a low budget video featuring nothing but a farting sock puppet, if the concept sucks there goes your million and your audience. (note to self: write million dollar sock puppet treatment, post haste!).
 
It’s no longer just about views or clicks, it’s about becoming part of the cultural zeitgeist. People share, discuss, rate, comment on, discuss, tweet, blog and even spoof or parody your creation. That’s viral. Your idea spreads rapidly beyond your control through every channel.

For brands, it means the consumer becomes your biggest advocate and as we have come accustomed to saying, BOOM goes the dynamite! You’re viral. Just stop calling it that. Cool? Thanks.

 “The key question isn't "What fosters creativity?" But it is why in God's name isn't everyone creative?” –Abraham Maslow

The idea of creativity is held in high esteem by a great many people. When you see a fantastic work of art, or see a new piece of technology that blows your mind, you can’t help but feel appreciative of the creativity that went into making it. You may also feel envy. “Why can’t I be that creative? My world is too structured to be able to do those sorts of things.”

In my position at our creative advertising agency, it's my job to "be creative", but the truth is that anyone can, and everyone should, be creative. In many ways, I believe people are more creative than they give themselves credit for. It is easy to appreciate grand gestures of creativity: the Gugenheim Museum in Bilbao, the XBOX Natal project, Avatar. But you must realize that those large expressions are merely the accumulation of small frequent expressions of creativity. The people behind them are disposed to looking beyond the boundaries of the everyday. By opening yourself up to the idea that each choice you make can be infused with the unexpected, you will begin to see your life and your business enriched with the individuality of creativity.

So what does it mean to “be creative”? You may not have a gift for the arts, but that in no way hampers your ability to be creative. Simply doing something or seeing the world in a new way is the very essence of creativity. Break free of what you know and get outside of your comfort zone. In its purest form, creativity is anarchy. Of course that type of creativity is only useful in an abstract sense, wielded as a hammer to break through a wall of convention. Truly inspired creativity brings about brilliant new ideas within the constructs of necessary guidelines. For example, I can strap an accordion to a rodeo bull and record the “music” as it tries to throw its rider, but likely that will only result in a painful accumulation of noise. It certainly would qualify as a creative act, but that creativity would be wasted in the final product. It’s important to break out of our familiar way of thinking and acting, but do so while still respecting the natural boundaries of human perception.  Creativity is a delicate balance between spontaneity and limitations. Often “new” ideas will be criticized as derivative. That may be true, but that in does not diminish the achievement. No matter how “out of the box” you get, it is still related to the box in some way. Anything that ignores all conventions is only interesting in the abstract. A relationship to the world we live in and the conditions our lives and businesses thrive in is a necessity for success.

Not everyone can throw away convention and embrace the unknown, nor should they. Clearly, some level of control and stability is necessary in business and in life. But being comfortable with the unexpected will allow you to make more creative choices, and, perhaps more importantly, accept and encourage creative choices in those with whom you work. Start small: re-arrange your office, take a new route home, or run a meeting differently. These things have little risk, but will force you to see things in a new way. It may take you longer to get home, but you may see or experience something new that spawns new ideas or growth in your life. Each small act will make you more open to new ideas and change. Many consultants will tell you that a repeatable process is necessary to create an environment of measurable success, and that is certainly true, but innovation is equally important to business. Repeatable process is the antithesis of innovation. Even the most successful business will ultimately stagnate if it does not embrace change. Indeed you must go beyond simply rolling with the changes of industry and be an initiator of change to truly rise above the rest.

Whether you are a designer or an accountant, a CEO or a secretary, make an active effort to infuse creativity into your life. Train yourself to be open to the new and unexpected, whether it be a new, but accurate use of your brand or an off the wall execution for a social media strategy.  It will make you at least a little uncomfortable and anxious (it should or you are not doing it right), but even the smallest of gestures will also enrich you, both professionally and personally. Where should you start? I don’t know… be creative.

I recently read that the White House has chosen an Open Source CMS (Content Management System) to develop their government Web site. This announcement caught my attention for several reasons--not only are many agencies moving their clients to open source and praising it's virtues, I also started using Drupal this past year and found it remarkably fast and easy to setup and maintain my own Web sites with quality results. Despite some criticism of open source over the years--more and more commercial (and government) developers are choosing it.

It's hard to argue against the benefits of free software, especially when results show that the software does what we expect, often exceeds expectations, and provides more opportunities for expansion than many proprietary products. While relative newcomers Drupal and Wordpress lead the pack for CMS offerings, open source mainstays such as Linux and Perl have been around for many years--not only surviving, but thriving over time. In a study by Amit Deshpande and Dirk Riehle of SAP Labs, LLC, Total Growth of Open Source results have shown that "the total amount of source code and the total number of projects double about every 14 months." Open source enables freedom for both users and developers to move & change quickly when needed, as well as providing more flexibility with software decisions such as to upgrade or not to upgrade. It's really no surprise that businesses and individuals are moving to open source at exponential rates.

Of course, Open Source has always been very much associated with Free, although there are other solid reasons to choose it beyond its cost. The pool of development resources is not limited to a specific company or provider, but instead is seemingly unlimited. As a specific open source project becomes popular, more and more developers start contributing, growing and adding to the code. Not only do they enhance the software to make it better for everyone, but they also create markets for their own support services. The better the code is--more people will use it-- and the more support is needed. Large developer communities have evolved around each software project, contributing to its growth, and administering its support. These open source communities are continually coming up with new innovations, powerful add-ons, extensions, and effective tools.

With so many open source choices available, even the ubiquitous LAMP stack (Linux, Apache, MySQL, and Perl) has come to be accepted as generic term for any completely open source application stack--substituting interchangeable parts from other sources that include "PostgreSQL, SQLLite, Apache Derby," as well as "PHP, Python, Ruby, Groovy and JavaScript." Even behemoth Microsoft has entered the game with their own Open Source CMS Platform.

Additionally, interactive ad agencies are able to offer their managed computer services at lower rates when developers take advantage of Open Source technologies. This enables clients to do more within their budgets. Every size company can now take advantage of Website integration, online advertising, and interactive media development due to the emergence of open source and accumulation of knowledge brought to us by the developer community. Businesses across industries are now embracing these technologies, taking advantage of interactive media, and using a more integrated approach to marketing with the vast number of new tools that are now available from these creative, innovative communities of developers.

I've been hearing the phrase "Drinking from the fire hose" more often than usual lately. The curious thing is that it's coming from Interactive Media Professionals (including myself), as much as from end users. With the exponential growth of the Internet and its related technologies, we now have access to more information, in more places, in more ways than ever before. Web 2.0, Social Media, Application Software Development, Mobile and related technologies are having a profound impact on Interactive Marketing Strategies. Many agencies are capable at traditional & online media marketing, or they may have strong technical capabilities--but, it is rare to find an agency that has all of these abilities and deep technical resources such as Definition 6.

To follow the fire hose analogy--anyone faced with that situation would get out of the way. The high volume and velocity of incoming data require some type of control and direction to be useful to ourselves, our clients, and our business.  Developers, interactive designers, and marketers are faced with the same questions as consumers--how to manage the onslaught of incoming information. Interactive Ad Agencies are faced with the additional responsibility of creating new tools to distribute information in a clear and meaningful way. These interactive professionals are the firemen holding the hose. 

At the height of the dotcom boom, an old colleague used to remind me that technology is simply a way of doing things. As the old broadcast model of advertising becomes obsolete, and user discovery & social interaction drive engagement, the function of marketing itself must now change to meet these communication challenges. This new model now poses new questions about where marketers should be, how they communicate, and when that interaction will occur.  I still remember the first  7-Eleven convenience store that opened in my neighborhood, and discovering that name comes from its operating hours—--it was a big deal to be open until 11PM! Marketers didn’t create more ads to attract customers from 9-5, they simply changed to meet customers on their own terms.

Integrated interactive marketing campaigns must be open and immersed in the culture to create value and be relevant. Successful marketers are positioned alongside their target market, making use of tactics such as Branded Content and Branded Entertainment to engage the user, enabling them to discover that value on their own, and decide what truly fulfills their needs. This is not an easy task, and creating meaningful user interaction grows out of qualified analysis of users and their interactions. Those of us in Media and Advertising have been exposed to these ideas before, but never before have these been more important to interactive design. Today's consumer has become a partner in the design process, and defines how we approach our interactions with them. Social media tools such as MySpace, Facebook and Twitter provide marketers with a limitless cache of information to help segment, target and engage users as never before— which only highlights the need for efficient processing of data.

Our obligation to clients is to find the relevant information, manage and organize it, and disperse it to potential customers.  To do this, we interpret client requirements and translate those requirements into a meaningful Interactive Experience. We need to collect and analyze enough user data to create strong, branded messages that reach the intended target. In addition, we must combine data with the tools and applications that make it meaningful to those target consumers.

In this new age of discovery, the true Integrated Interactive Agencies are taking the time and effort to find the tools necessary to do the job, or when needed, create them. With information coming constantly from every direction, those who are efficient at organizing, managing, and presenting it will be successful. Otherwise, we're just spraying a fire hose.  If we attempt to do that, consumers will just get out of the way.

Intuition can guide you to the place of innovation, and analysis guides you to the method of innovation.

Driving down costs is the goal of every business in every industry. Identifying and nailing down Cost Drivers in a Interactive Media Agency is one of the most challenging aspects of Innovation due to the service model and diversity of projects. The more diverse the services and the more capabilities an organization has, the harder the cost drivers are to innovate. This is the challenge.

Create Measurability

In order to analyze data, you need to collect data. The first step is to establish a normalized set of information, and discover commonalities that you measure over time. It's difficult in service business models to identify measurable practices since commonality between projects may not exist. In contrast, it is much easier to find measurable actvities within consistent services. For example, in the realm of public service such as law enforcement, response times can be measured which can lead to innovation in terms of communication technologies, route mapping, and routine patrolling route generation to optimize the response times and measure improvements. In the same light, commonality and metrics need to be put in place so that you can innovate. Without this baseline set of metrics, most improvements are subjective and can be hit and miss.

Measurability and Interactive Marketing

Interactive marketing strategies and improved search engine optimization follow the same metaphorical principle. Because optimization is always a moving target, you have to establish a control on your marketing practices and only change a few independent variables at a time, such as keyword density, or keyword targeting in ads, in order to see their effect. In the case of organic search results, the effect of changes may take weeks or even months before they actually show results. To top it off, search algorithms and prioritization change "without notice." To discover these changes requires a scientific mindset for the search engine optimization consultants.

The cost drivers in Search Engine Marketing involve keyword market prices. Camping a commonly used keyword for PPC can cost you a fortune. Using longtail strategies and finding ways to effectively identify your product, service or company is the innovation point, and only good analysis and keyword research will get you there. Consistency is the rule of the game to establish and maintain hold of brand loyalty, market share, market segment, and also online in terms of keyword ownership, and search engine rankings.

Internet Application Development

With Internet Services, the identification of cost drivers needs to be built into the process by abstracting out parts of the process that show commonality and measurability. This should be the starting gate through which your innovation charges. Like online marketing, application development is a moving target. New technologies explode onto the marketplace on a regular basis, tempting you to change how you do business. Again by using a scientific approach, by controlling your process and making sure you change a few things at a time, you can drive changes from the right point of view rather than hype, and effectively make improvements on your cost drivers.

Despite recent articles claiming the decline of adoption for social networks like Facebook and Twitter, social networking is an ever-growing, ever-expanding beast. Consider for a moment, that MySpace and Facebook really just got the whole thing started. Now there are networks popping up everywhere, corporate networks like Yammer, entrepreneurial  networks like ParnterUp and advanced social aggregation tools like the promise of Google Wave.

Slowly but surely, even traditional companies, with traditional practices and traditional mindsets, are realizing the importance of social. Don't believe me? Here's a real world example: 2 months ago I felt like the last person on earth that hadn't engaged in some form of social media. My friends, my wife, my family and my coworkers all had MySpace pages, Facebook pages and Twitter accounts. I was proud, a renegade, a leader, not a follower! Now look at me, as I write this blog, I'm monitoring Yammer communications from Definition 6, Tweets from my favorite people, I've checked my Facebook page twice and I just submitted a request to Google to be a beta tester for Google Wave even though I know I'm too late. Believe me, social media is relevant!

Okay, now what? Well, before you go building out your social media strategy and corporate policy, take some time to understand what impact social is currently having on your online presence and your brand. My suggestion: start simple, work with your website analytics team and develop a baseline. What volume of traffic comes from social networks? What is the bounce rate of those visits? What is the conversion rate of those visits? What is the retained visit conversion rate? (thank you Brandt, awesome article about meaningful conversion metrics!) And, if at all possible, monetize clicks from social. Odds are, there will be some form of expenditure for your social media strategy, baseline these metrics before you begin or you may never know if you're succeeding.

Don't rely on website analytics alone! Imagine this scenario. Scott, Jeremy, Jack and Mitch are looking for the best Vegas dinner destination prior to Frank's bachelor party festivities. Jack gets a promotional email from your restaurant describing the best Saturday night drink deals in town. Scott has been watching Twitter for "Vegas Restaurant" tweets hoping to get an indication of the best spot. Jeremy has been on a dozen restaurant review sites. They all come together in Google Wave to discuss. They invite other friends and family to chime in on their last Vegas experience. They finally decide on your place because of the drink deal (good choice). Mitch calls in the reservation and the Vegas plans are set. In all, across numerous networking sites, there were 21 mentions of your brand, 14 people commented about your restaurant, 13 other people hadn't even heard of your restaurant before conversation "Wave". And a $500 dinner was booked at your restaurant...all without anyone ever going to your website!

Hard to measure the impact of social media if you're just looking at website analytics. You've succeeded at integrated online marketing, but you may never know it. Work with an interactive agency capable of measuring, baselining current social impact (website and elsewhere), as well as the capability to develop a social media strategy that meets your objectives and expected ROI.

If I haven't convinced you yet that you should spend some marketing time and money by focusing on the Hispanic population, let me try again.  Media Post has several great articles on the subject.  Here is another one by Diana A. Terry-Azíos called "Brand Loyal, Yet Unbranded".

As a general rule, Hispanics are more brand loyal than other groups.  They are less risky with their purchases and stick to brands that have provided good quality products.  However, when many of them move to the U.S., they are likely not going to find their familiar brands here.  So they have to start shopping and they have tons of choices to choose from in the U.S.

Another issue is that they are not as compelled to buy "Made in USA" as other U.S. citizens nor will they be compelled to buy products endorsed by people they don't know.  If Hispanics don't know who Michael Jordan is, then he isn't going to help Hanes sell more underwear to them.  And Brett Favre isn't going to help sell more Wrangler jeans to them.

Here are some key points to marketing to the U.S. Hispanic population.

- You have to prove that your product is of good (or the best) quality.  Hispanics will often spend a little more if they are getting the best quality.
- Start a marketing campaign that will speak directly to Hispanics, perhaps with Hispanic stars, but definitely with Spanish content (and not just English content translated directly to Spanish).  Your marketing campaign needs to address quality, convenience and emotion.  But also keep in mind that the growing young Hispanic consumer considers himself/herself as Latino AND American.
- Use multiple touch points to stay in contact with Hispanic consumers. For example, studies have shown that Hispanics are more likely to respond to text messages than other groups.

For more Key points, see the article I am referencing.

Oh, and by the way, here are some interesting facts about the growing Hispanic population.

45.5 million -- The estimated Hispanic population of the United States as of July 1, 2007, making people of Hispanic origin the nation’s largest ethnic or race minority. Hispanics constituted 15% of the nation’s total population. In addition, there are approximately 3.9 million residents of Puerto Rico.

About 1 of every two people added to the nation’s population between July 1, 2006, and July 1, 2007, was Hispanic. There were 1.4 million Hispanics added to the population during the period.

3.3% increase in the Hispanic population between July 1, 2006, and July 1, 2007, making Hispanics the fastest-growing minority group.

Want more?  Here are some interesting facts.

So what are you waiting for?  The growing Hispanic population is waiting for you to give them a good reason to buy your products and to tell their friends just how good you are.  As word spreads through their community, your profits should start growing at a faster and faster pace.

We can help you.  We are an Atlanta interactive advertising agency.
 
Definition 6 is an interactive media agency that creates marketing initiatives that engage people.  We capture and analyze relevant metrics from web analytics, email marketing, online media, and social media campaigns to continue to test and refine marketing plans.  We’d like to help you meet the challenge of addressing the new expectations of consumers.

I read an article on MediaPost that showed how 2 major retailers, The Home Depot and Best Buy, targeted the U.S. Hispanic community.  One company failed while the other is gaining more sales.  What is interesting to me is that it appears that they both took the same approach, got back the same unexpected results, and then went in two different directions.

Both companies created a "U.S. Spanish" website.  Their target was U.S. Spanish speaking consumers.  What they discovered was that they were getting a lot of non-U.S. Spanish speaking visitors to their websites.  These visitors wanted to buy online just like U.S. consumers.  In many cases, the non-U.S. consumers were either visiting relatives or friends in the U.S. or were Mexicans crossing the border to shop.  The prices in the U.S. were cheaper than in their country and so they wanted to get their items in the U.S. and then bring them back home.  So what is the problem with that?

For Home Depot, the problem is that they did not take the foreign credit cards on the U.S. Spanish site.  Best Buy on the other hand embraced the additional and unexpected consumers and did allow the foreign credit cards.  Best Buy is finding that, even though they don't ship overseas, people will order online and ship to friends or family where they will pick up the items later.  They also have found that U.S. Hispanics are using the website to print out information before they go to the stores to purchase the items.  In many cases it is easier for them to understand the information in Spanish.

One of the more interesting sides to this story is that The Home Depot has stores in Mexico, they have a Mexican website (in Spanish, of course), they have an English Canadian website and they have a French Canadian website.  So they are marketing to everone across North America except the the growing number of Spanish speaking Hispanics in the U.S. and those Spanish speaking visitors who wish to purchase in the U.S.

Not knowing the full details of the costs involved, it would be interesting to see the cost for Home Depot to maintain the U.S. Spanish site and the revenue the site could bring in (if they allowed foreign credit cards) and the revenue brought in by those in the U.S. who used the site to gain more information about products they wanted.  It seems to me that 4 months of running the U.S. Spanish site is not enough time to determine its impact and that if Best Buy can make it work for them, The Home Depot should be able to make it work, too.  Besides, if a French Canadian site can work for Canada, why can't a Spanish U.S. site work here?  I wonder if Home Depot is looking for a way to recreate the U.S. Spanish site in a way that will embrace those consumers that liked having the site available.

Are you looking to build a website to market your products or services to the fast growing U.S. Hispanic community?  Definition 6 is an Atlanta interactive marketing agency that can help you.  Besides doing website development and web application development, we can manage your Search Engine Optimization, your Search Engine Marketing and your email marketing campaigns while providing web analytics that ties everything together.  As we gather more and more valuable information about your consumers, we can tweak all methods of marketing to maximize your dollars.  Contact us and let's get a plan in place for you.

I've compiled a small list here of Social Media success stories.  One of the interesting things that I find about most people who have already started marketing and consumer communications using Social Media is that they often say "don't be afraid to try something new" and "don't be afraid of failure".  Some failures have lead to even better campaigns.  If these companies (and more) can try a few ideas, so can you.  Most people familiar with social media agree that if you really want to connect with your consumers and help establish or reinforce brand recognition, you need to get on Social Media outlets now.  For one thing, it is often very cheap to do this while being able to reach out to thousands or even millions of potential and long-standing customers.  So please review these stories to see how easy some of them got started and the great successes that they had.

1. Taco Mac on Twitter
Followers of Taco Mac can follow the individual Taco Mac location of their choice.  They get updates on Taco Mac's latest specials and reminders of special events.  Taco Mac gets a lot more people attending special events because many of them might have forgotten.  On Pint Night they are running out of free pint glasses in 1 hour instead of 3 hours like it was before Twitter.  What else could your company do if you were sending constant "reminders" to your customers?
(http://www.ajc.com/business/taco-mac-uses-twitter-102656.html)
(http://twitter.com/TMacLindbergh)


2. Masi Bicycles on Blogs, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube
New Masi Brand Manager, Tim Jackson, was given a very small budget and they were already spending much of that on some magazine ads.  So he had to come up with an inexpensive way to better market the Masi brand.  The easy (and cheap) way for him was to create a blog that he regularly posts to.  This actually helped him to establish good relationships with some of his vendors.  He is also actively using Twitter and Facebook and is moving toward podcasts and video.  With a new "cult" following, sales are really starting to grow.  What's really interesting is that Tim had never done any of this before.
(http://mediahunter.typepad.com/media_hunter/2008/07/social-media-su.html#more)
(http://twitter.com/MasiBicycles)


3. CNN with Facebook
CNN had a huge success when they teamed up with Facebook to present the Presidential Inaugaration and Michael Jackson's funeral.  21.3 million live video streams!  That's a lot of people.  Oh, and guess what?  CNN's first attempt failed (The Primary Debates).  But they figured it out before the inaugaration.  What can your company do that would attract watchers, even if you don't get 21.3 million?  Maybe a live fashion show for a new line of clothing?  Perhaps a live demonstration of how your product works or a new product offering? Or maybe a conversation with your CEO?
(http://vmarketingblog.com/2009/07/31/cnn-and-social-networking/)
(http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/01/21/inauguration.online.video/index.html)
(http://mashable.com/2009/01/20/cnn-facebook-inauguration-numbers/)
(http://newteevee.com/2009/01/20/facebook-cnn-is-future-of-tv/)


4. Zappos on Twitter, Blogs
Customer satisfaction and relationships.  That is what Zappos is all about.  QUALITY interactions.  Not only do the CEO and COO get online, but many of their other employees do too.  It is like they are your friends.  What would it be like for your company if people considered your brand as their friend?  Zappos has come to the realization that your brand isn't what you say it is, it is what the consumers say it is.  They proudly look for and respond to negative comments about them.  They are all about "making things right".  They want people to be comfortable not just with Zappos' products, but with Zappos' employees.  How would people respond to your employees if they were responding to and interacting with consumers online?  To quote from the article below "we may not always remember what someone tells us, but we generally remember how we felt when we were interacting with the person. And when people feel respected and engaged, whether it is in-person with a co-worker or online on a social network, they have a natural desire to tell other people about the experience."
(http://mashable.com/2009/04/26/zappos/)
(http://twitter.com/zappos)


5. Common Wealth Credit Union (CWCU) on YouTube
CWCU wanted to target a specific demographic.  People between the ages of 17 and 25.  They wanted a way to keep the buzz going while acquiring new customers for life.  They created a microsite for this campaign that is managed by someone who is 17 - 25 years old and use YouTube to upload videos that will appeal to people their age, usually videos of themselves.  People can interact with the website by answering poll questions, watching videos, sharing pictures, submitting job postings, adding information about free stuff in their communities, and of course, applying for a chequing account.  The site "spokester" also blogs about money with fun little YouTube videos.  They opened up 2400 new accounts in the first 8 months after the campaign started (Note, the article does not say how that compares to previous months, but it must be good because they are still going and have a new "spokester" with lots of new material).
(http://mediahunter.typepad.com/media_hunter/2008/08/social-media--1.html#more)
(http://www.youngfreealberta.com/)


So those are just a few examples of companies making the most with Social Media.  In many cases it involved very little cost.  In other cases there was quite a bit of time, effort and money put into it, but the results were out of this world.  Given that there are several very active social media sites, it would be a smart move to get your company out there and in touch with your current and potential customers.

If you are looking for great ideas, let Definition 6 help you.  We are an online interactive marketing agency with experience in Social Media efforts.  There are so many good online marketing techniques and we can help you find the one (or more) that are right for you.  If you go to www.definition6.com, you can check out our new game that interacts directly with Twitter called TwitterINGO.  Or you can check out how we integrated AutoExtra's campaign with MySpace.  We can also help you with mobile marketing strategies.

If any of the above stories don't convince you to get on the Social Media bandwagon, then check out Mashable.com's "10 of the Smartest Big Brands in Social Media".

Recently I visited the doctor for a single respiratory CT scan in which AFTER insurance I ended up paying close to $1,500. Upon seeing the exorbitant bill I headed straight to the nearest Mc Donald in an attempt to convince myself that ordering from the “Dollar Menu” could be a long term strategy to help me subsidize the 10 costly X-Rays (I think it’d have been cheaper for them to simply open my chest and take a look rather than spend 30 seconds photographing my lungs).

During the car ride home, in which I ate all of my fries before reaching the front doorstep, something dawned on me. As I attempted in vain to wipe the french-fry grease from my hands I came to the realization that when you combine something that’s good AND cheap it can make anyone’s day better.  Granted my cholesterol/MSG high only lasted for but a moment, I decided in the spirit of giving I’d share the same free and good satisfaction with those of you in the blogosphere.

As every aspect of business slowly moves into the clouds, businesses have been turning to website integration platforms such as SalesForce.com. Many businesses are unaware of the Sales Force app exchange, and those who are often times don’t realize there are a plethora (I’ve been dying to use that word) of extremely useful and FREE applications that help to make Sales Force a complete online marketing and sales tool.

So on behalf of myself and Definition 6, an interactive media agency in Atlanta, I present you with the top 10 FREE Sales Force applications that every business can benefit from. In no particular order;

1. SalesView: