carrie*connects

Social Media Impact Explained

This is a clever little YouTube infomercial argument for social media that is very compelling - I hesitate to agree with the producer's enthusiasm for Gen X driving the way the trend is evolving, and I think their concept is a bit reductive in terms of scope, but it does offer great food for thought - especially with the notion that brands need to drive their message directly to their customers.

Video | Do You Need A Social Media Recovery Group?

If you erupt into a mini giggling fit when you watch this video (from Sony Vaio) about Social Media, you may need to seek counseling (like I do).

And You Thought Carrie Bradshaw Was Label Crazy ...

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A recent study group took a look at tweens and their relationship to some not so familiar branding tools such as sounds, logos, smells, and how they relate to products like computers, clothing and food. As you can imagine, the kids were all more tuned in than their parents. This isn't all that surprising to me, they have more time to invest in the various aspects of a brand, and since their buying power is diminished they probably covet expensive products more.  What is a bit surprising is that the kids in this study were found to be more brand savvy than previous generations, leading me to wonder what new cues have been added from just a few years ago. 

Mark Lindstrom, author of the fab book "Buyology,The Truth and Lies About Why We Buy"  explains that the kids are now the prime target of many branding campaigns for things they traditionally wouldn't directly buy.  The reason?  Children are making buying decisions for the family.  According to Lindstrom 67% of cars (purchased for families) were chosen by the children ~ and they make these choices based on what they see on TV. 

Julie Powell Talks Food Blogging With MediaBistro

 
I must admit that I haven't had time to see the new Julie & Julia film starring Meryl Streep and Amy Adams- but it's definitely tops on my to-do list.  Both actresses are my fav's and I love the concept of the movie - an aspiring writer, Julie Powell, desperately in need of some zest in her life decides to blend a love of cooking with her passion for writing.  The result:  Powell cooked her way through Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking and kept a well documented and very popular blog about it.

What resulted was a book and what looks like an amazing film - just goes to show the power of the blog!   Powell talked with MediaBistro recently about her media odyssey - below are a few highlights ~ but be sure to read the whole interview here.

Powell says:  "I was a frustrated writer. I majored in fiction writing in college and wanted to be a writer, and nothing was happening with that. I pretty much stopped writing by the time I was 29 and was feeling extraordinarily unfulfilled. So I had this midnight revelation that I would cook my way through Mastering the Art of French Cooking, which came out of talking about going to cooking school. But I didn't have the money and didn't think I wanted to be a chef or anything like that. I did want to learn how to cook well, and Mastering was obviously a great way to do that.

I had no notion of what a blog could do and what the medium was really capable of at the time. I kind of chanced into it. I just was in the right place and time.

I started on a pretty instant level because I thought I was writing for family and friends. I would write, "Here's what I'm cooking." And then I would have some side notes about what was happening in my life. People ended up being interested in the food, but really interested in the other stuff. Then, I realized that I had all these readers interested in the gory details of my daily life; that's what they were following, and they wanted to learn more about that. "Tell me about how shitty you feel about your job, and tell me more about your pet snake," [readers said]. By that time, this bar had been set in terms of intimacy, which was very important to the development of the tone of the blog."

Also check out Julie Powell current blog.

This is Brill ... The Start A Lie Campaign

Love this idea ~ The Tappening Movement is an educational campaign to move people away from bottled water.  A clever devise they created was this "Start a Lie" website in which you choose from a number of witty, implausible lies about bottled water such as "Bottle water hates Father of the Bride" and "The US Government uses bottled waterboarding" and then spread the word on email, Facebook, Twitter or Digg (what no FriendFeed??)  It's not a non profit, but it is quite clever.

Social Media Marketing ~ How To Infuriate Your Fans & Friends on Facebook pt. 1

About a year ago if I mentioned the concept of harnessing the power of Facebook and Twitter, Tumblr, Flickr, ect as a realistic strategy for marketing a brand, I would generally get a very long "hmmmmmm ....." followed by a very pregnant pause from many of the people I talked to.   A massive question mark would float over their heads as, more often than not, they just couldn't grasp the concept. 

Magically within the past six months however all that's changed with virtually every person I've ever known jumping on (at least) the Facebook bandwagon.  Unfortunately, rather than adopting the evolving norms of social media into the platform, which BTW are based on (1) actual human contact (2) original and interesting ideas (3) reciprocation ~ most Facebook newbies have attached dusty old marketing ideas to their shiny "new media" programs.  

As a result Facebook in particular is being used in some very annoying ways.  I thought I'd start tracking the most insidious behaviors and note them down here (mostly as a venue for venting my angst about the situation)....if you want to annoy on Facebook, here are some ideas:

1)  Businesses who want to really tick off their Facebook fans should be sure to send incessant group emails announcing minor sales, bland product announcements, and other information that is of interest only to their internal sales staff.  As a blogger, I'm used to getting press releases from other PR firms emailed rapid fire via specific email accounts, as such I really have little patience for this type of information sent to my Facebook in-box ~ and I'll lay you odds that I'm not in the minority here.  Even the most casual Facebook user is most likely not interested in being spammed about your 5% off sale once a day - if they are they'll visit your page to see it.  Facebook by definition is a "FACEBOOK" ie: people attached to faces, and personalized messages should only be sent this way. 

2) Keep requesting your friends "fan", join a group, or attend an event 0ver and over and over - even though they've probably repeatedly chosen to ignore your previous attempts for a reason.   Once is more than enough.

3)  Repeatedly poke, send game requests, gift requests, and all manner of the embeddable widget nature to people you've never had any sort of correspondence with and to whom you're a complete stranger - they love that.

4) Post only the dullest and most narrowly defined product photos and information about your company on your Facebook page so that instead of a lively interactive forum with an array of accessible ideas and information, it resembles a yellow page ad.

5) Never correspond with your fans or friends when they post info of their own (you know - the stuff that comes through on your homepage news-feed from them) ~ we know you're the only one that matters!  And when they comment on your posts or go so far as to post items to your page or wall, be sure to ignore them.  People love being treated solely as "consumers" and not individuals - isn't that what "social" means?  Oh it doesn't??  It means engaging and talking??  Whoa ....

Oh....there will be more .... stay tuned.   Yes, the Medium is the Message, but only if you know how to use it.  Otherwise it's just another cyber-armload of junk-mail to toss in the trash unopened.

Paul McCartney Makes a Splash In New York

Imagine you're hanging out at the office, working - Facebooking - Twittering away and all of a sudden some guy starts playing his guitar really really loudly just outside your window.  And then it actually sounds like someone is playing drums and base!!  You rush to the window to offer the dude a few choice expletives and - wow - realize that it's Paul McCartney hanging out on the Late Show marquee playing music. 

Surreal? Yeah - a little - but not so much for the Big Apple.  A fabulous publicity stunt?  Yep!   McCartney's spontaneous concert garnered him pics on all the major news networks and on countless blogs and websites - whereas a similar planned event in Central Park or at Rockefeller Plaza would have been more or less digested into the panorama of constant activity in NYC.  Good show Paul.  Love the shots of the cell phone behind him below, and the images of people looking down on the event from the offices above taking pictures - wonder how many Facebook pages those ended up on. 

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Pop Culture | Holly Madison Marries the Travelocity Gnome

In what seems like a fairly unlikely co-branding partnership Holly Madison hooked up with the Travelocity Gnome over the weekend for a fun spirited "nuptials" ceremony.  The photo opp was in support of Holly's Peepshow at the Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino.  Judging from the photos a fun time was had by all.

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Design PR | Architectural Digest's Reader Submitted Rooms Contest

As long as I've represented designers, contractors, furniture manufacturers, and architects, one of the main professed goals of almost each and every one of these clients has been to get into Architectural Digest in some capacity.  The magazine's reach and influence is legendary - but the collection of designers and projects that it publishes to date has been an intentionally exclusive and cloistered club - one into which very few gain entry.

So naturally I was quite intrigued when I saw that the AD website has now launched a rather egalitarian design contest.  More than 150 reader rooms have been submitted and are now being voted on.  According to AD, the images are being divided up at random into groups of 10 and are being posted this and next week.  The winner will be announced on July 31st - no telling what they win, other than exposure on the website - which in and of itself is its own prize. 

So far the entries range from professionally designed rooms to kitchy, fun spaces that could only have been created by light hearted homeowners.

Hop on over to their site to put in your two cents! 

Fab Promotion | Threadcakes Contest

I love this contest that Threadbare T-Shirts has mounted to promote their seemingly endless collection of interesting and artful designs.  Called Threadcakes, entrants pick out their favorite Threadbare T-Shirt design and interpret it with flour and sugar in the form of a cake.  The contest started June 15th and runs through August 3rd - to date the promotion has inspired some very interesting and creative entries such as "The Apple" shown here.

There are two divisions of the contest 2-D and 3-D - 2-D being the sheet cakes with images created in fondant and icing on top much like a photo - and 3-D more sculpturesque.

An impressive roll out of prizes awaits the winners that includes free t-shirts, baking supplies, and ingredients.  To enter visit here.

via {ifitshipitshere.com}

Bloggers Beware ~ The FTC is Watching.

 
In an announcement that will surely send a ripple of terror through the mom and beauty blogging business in particular, the Federal Trade Commission has accounced it will soon be cracking down on blogs that offer "reviews" in exchange for free merchandise, as well as those that make affiliate commissions without revealing the arrangement.

Troubled by what seems to be a lack of journalistic ethics, the FTC cites the practice that many bloggers employ in which free merchandise is exchanged for positive reviews. 

"If you walk into a department store, you know the (sales) clerk is a clerk," Rich Cleland, assistant director in the FTC's division of advertising practices told the Associated Press recently. "Online, if you think that somebody is providing you with independent advice and ... they have an economic motive for what they're saying, that's information a consumer should know."

"Journalists who work for newspapers and broadcasters are held accountable by their employers, and they generally cannot receive payments from marketers and must return free products after they finish reviewing them," the AP article continues...

"If the guidelines are approved, bloggers would have to back up claims and disclose if they're being compensated — the FTC doesn't currently plan to specify how. The FTC could order violators to stop and pay restitution to customers, and it could ask the Justice Department to sue for civil penalties."

The situation does remind of the Napster flap up a few years back and I predict that a few specific violators may find themselves being held up as unfortunate examples.

Read more about it here>>

Food PR | Appleton Estate's Drink Generator

 
I thought this online drink generator from Appleton Estate was pretty nifty when I saw it this morning.  I was cruising the site after Forbes emailed me with a recipe for a Royal Apertif which is a blend of Appleton's Rum, syrup, lemon juice, and champagne.  It looked good but I was hoping for a larger picture - and then I found the impressive drink generator - sort of a fun mood ring for partiers. 

 

Basically you click on the site, and then pull levers in answer to questions like: 1) How are you feeling right now?  2) What are your plans for the evening? 3) what smells and tastes attract you? 4) How would someone describe you? 5) How do you deal with a rainy day?  and so on ... my answer the first time was the Planter's Punch shown above, which does indeed look like something I would enjoy. 

The Appleton Estate Drink Generator is an interesting, unilaterally accessible version of the personalized cocktail creation service from Liquid Relations that I wrote about a couple weeks back.  It gets consumers involved with the brand in a way that informs them about choices and asks questions in a conversational manner.

This is a great concept for cocktails, but it could also successfully be applied to a range of consumer goods, such as customized fragrances, salad dressings, candles, room fragrances, floral arrangements, china patterns, art work, cake flavors, ect. ect...!  Great concept!

Technology Trendcaster | Become a Sociopath ~ It's the Latest Thing!

I recieved an invitation this morning to join the new social network StyleCaster (which sounds suspiciously like a column that I write called Trendcaster on Bloomacious.com) - naturally I immediately zoomed over to take a look and post my mug on my own page.  

While the site doesn't seem all that different from our own network Bloomacious Cafe it apparently is embedded with lots of watching and listening devices that when explained in the video below makes me yearn for a nice long nap. 

Terms like "associated neuro network"  and "associative dynamics" are a far cry from my favorite phrase "me likey!"  but they mean similar things.

If there's any doubt after listening to this explanation that networks are the new blogs (which are the new magazines) then take a sneak peek at Fashionair which is girding up to launch soon.

Broken down gently, networks allow companies to watch the patterns and flows of their members - whom they friend, what they comment on.  We've done the same thing for the past 6 months through our networks and it's not quite as scientific or reliable as the Sociocast guys would like you to believe. 

Networks do provide a venue in which individuals can enjoy a club-like camaraderie- they also can serve as a TV station, a community blog, a messaging system and a newsletter - and are the next step beyond Facebook and Twitter.