The Twitter Experiment
But, what is Twitter? What does it do? Why should I care? Do I need to tweet?
As a team with 14 members, we couldn’t answer these questions. In this business, that’s a scary proposition.
So, we decided to experience it. And the Twitter Experiment began.
Our challenge? Join the more than 2.9MM users, actively participate, and start to answer some of the questions for ourselves. Here are the highlights from week 1:
Acclimation
• We found it surprisingly difficult to actually get up and running – creating a profile, establishing our followers/following, and getting educated on the functionality and applications.
• We are all in the infancy stage of interaction – still sharing the trivial information of what we’re doing and where we’re going (hard to break some Facebook habits).
Building a Community
• Currently, none of us has a network of more than 20 people…yes, so very sad. The bright side? We could all see the value in creating a large community – not only for heightened interest levels, but to be more socially aware, learn something about ourselves and others, and add to the conversation.
Social Voyeurism
• We all, overwhelmingly, prefer ‘following’ to being ‘followed’. Fear of putting ourselves out there? Thinking we’re not witty enough? Lazy? Voyeuristic? Yes!
We obviously have a long way to go, and we’re up for the challenge. So, the Twitter Experiment continues as we grow our communities, share more relevant content (hopefully), educate ourselves on all the applications, and continue to have fun.
We’ll keep you posted along the way – and eventually may actually teach you a thing or two.
Seven for the Season
As people look to pay less, retailers have to figure out how to cut prices while providing more value. With conversation and word-of-mouth being critical to holiday success, retailers will need to add value with their communications viewing marketing as much as a service as it is a way to communicate sales.
Looking Back, to the Future
Do you remember these scenes from Back to the Future II? As any self-respecting child of the 80’s should easily recall, BTTF II was arguably the weakest of the trilogy but had the redeeming quality of those delightfully freaky-fun 2015 future scenes. Right before this clip, Marty’s 2015 teenage son is praised for “watching a little TV for a change,” a witty evolution to the old “reading a book for a change?” quip you might have heard from a Boomer (or older) generation parent. I remember scoffing at the time, thinking, “well that’s funny but seriously, how could TV ever be replaced??” Short-sighted for an 11-year-old, yes…. and now it’s actually happened. The internet certainly looks to be the new TV for kids today, whether as their primary medium of choice or battling for attention amongst young media multi-taskers.
It’s interesting to look back at old pop-culture visions of the future as their dates catch up with us. While it now appears unlikely that 2015 will look like the somewhat cliched, sensory-overload vision portrayed in this movie, some of their futurisms aren’t too far off. Thumbprint readers are slowly being used commercially, Nike recently released a pseudo-replica of the self-lacing McFly Sneakers, and the television Marty Jr. watches in the film—hundreds of channels, any show available on the watcher’s whim— looks a lot like Digital TV. So, BTTF II may have had some wisdom amongst the misses. Which leads me to wonder what a DeLorean trip to 2045 would look like.... what preferred technology will Gen Y’s children take a break from to “surf the internet for a change?”
Really I just hope we can get those Hoverboards to market.
Rollo's Favorite Site of the Week
We all have our favorite sites, some stick around and others fall into the hear today gone tomorrow category. My site of the week this week (alltop.com) tops my list more for what it's structure (or site strategy) represents which is... link aggregation. Think of it like your ultimate homepage for any topic of interest (i.e. parenting, finance, autos, entertainment...). It gives you the ability to scan the top 5 headlines from all of the top sites all at once, and yes they accept advertising. Check it out, let me know what you think. Right now their monthly site traffic is low (approx 250k visits per-month), but that's nothing a good media plan can't solve :)
Twitter...In The Moment Advocacy
If you just heard a big thud it was most likely the sound of our very own Brandon Murphy hitting the floor. Why? Well Brandon has been trying to get me to post something (anything) to our 22squared blog for some time now and I never have... until now. So why haven't I posted something before today when I change/update my Facebook and Twitter status (multiple times) daily? ANSWER: It takes too long (and you need a computer).
I can update my Facebook and Twitter status (even sync the two together) anywhere, anytime with either my computer or my cell. So what is Twitter? Twitter's main function allows users via various interfaces to update people who are "following" them on what they're doing in 140 characters or less. The great thing about technologies like micro-blogging (Twitter, Pownce) for businesses is that tools (search.twitter.com) enable you to type in your brand name like ”Publix" or ”Toyota" and see what millions are talking about. Good companies do this, but savvy companies take it one step further and act upon it. Which one are you?
Currently there are over 2.9MM active Twitter users and Barack Obama is the most followed of them all (over 122k). Here is a great link to a blog post by Guy Kawasaki on how to be a better Tweeterhttp://blog.guykawasaki.com/2008/11/looking-for-m-1.html
Enjoy!
Age of Consumer Control
“Consumers are beginning in a very real sense to own our brands and participate in their creation,” said A. G. Lafley, chief executive at Proctor and Gamble. “We need to learn to begin to let go” and embrace trends like commercials created by consumers and online communities built around favorite products.
I thought this was a great introduction to something that Tom McMahon shared with me today about our latest Buffalo Wild Wings commercials. Consumers and Sports Radio Hosts have been using our commercials as a reference point when describing a horrible call in any sporting event. Comments like, "what is this... a Buffalo Wild Wings commercial" are spreading into popular culture and regular everyday usage.
We are very happy to show that consumers have taken control of our commercials and "mashed-up" their own version based on a poor (or deliberate) decision from a real life ref:
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