Skittle-Twitter

I thought the Skittles Twitter promotion was a great idea mainly because it started a new type of conversation around the brand. Yes Skittles gives up a lot of control when it comes to the conversation/content. And yes it will probably be hard to quantify what the long term value is for the brand by doing this type of promotion. And who knows how many more bags of Skittles were sold because of this but at least they're attempting to connect with customers in a new way by pushing what's possible for the medium, the customer and their brand.

LinkedIn + Twitter + Saving Polar Bears = Contxts

It was only a matter of time before someone began to standardizing the digital business card. The people at Contxts (http://contxts.com) have developed a practical tool that stores your business contact info in a SMS format. It's part LinkedIn, and part Twitter to help grow your business network. In my experience it has worked seamlessly with my iPhone and saves me the trouble of constant data entry from new contacts. 

The user experience is simple and intuitive while the brand voice is just clever enough to convince me that signing up might help a polar bear or two.

Social Distortion

After browsing through a handful of agency blogs and reading the year end reviews it's pretty clear that almost every shop is trying to figure out how to leverage social media for their clients. I was more heavily involved with social media a couple of years ago and there was an underlying tension between agencies and clients because nobody couldn't really agree on how to use it. Not only was it literally changing by the day, most agencies were still figuring out how to integrate online and offline initiatives. But as I sit here with my iPhone downloading apps to make my mobile life more fluid you can feel the shift that social media is making into everyday communication and (brand) relationships. 

These three trends from the OgilvyPR blog (http://blog.ogilvypr.com) connect the social media engagement into tangible results.

- In crowdsourcing, My Starbucks Idea reported receiving over 75,000 suggestions since its inception in early 2008; the company has implemented several of those including complimentary wi-fi at stores

- In microblogging, Dell Outlet reported selling over $500,000 in refurbished items through Twitter promotions

- In applications, Acuvue reported greater brand awareness and an 18% sales lift in the quarter following the introduction of a creative corporate Facebook application: Acuvue Wink

Even the local deli is getting into the social media game and I particularly enjoyed Dan Shust's blog entry about Twittering Pastrami. http://blog.resource.com/2008/12/twittering-pastrami/

A spin on the 4P's that I thought was relevant for social media I came across on Mark Stinson's blog (http://brandinnovator.blogspot.com/2008/12/6-fundamentals-of-branding-in-digital.html). Mark suggests extending the "4P's" idea into Personal support. This is one area I think social media can play a huge role in connecting with customers beyond the typical (and reactive) customer service call center. 

If everything in social media is happening too fast for you Big Spaceship does a great job of taking a step back and looking at the big picture: "Way back when, email was scary too. Maybe in the near future, social media will be thought of as just another office tool." Read the full entry at: http://think.bigspaceship.com/2008/12/16/think-before-you-twitter/

Until then you can follow me at http://twitter.com/smithdidit

361 Days and Counting

Chicago has been chosen as one of four cities in the world competing to become the host of the 2016 Olympics. The Chicago 2016 organization is reaching out to the people of Chicago to help tell the story of Chicago in its bid to host for games.

To share a story with the world visit http://chicago2016channel.com.