Category Archives: Social media

Proper Product Placement Produces Publicity

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You’ve heard about product placements in TV and movies. Now check out proper product placement in social media and blogs.

As one of thousands of volunteers for Junior Achievement, I receive a volunteer package with instructions, curriculum, classroom materials, and a few brand items.

That includes this banner that volunteers hang in the classrooms.

JA-photo

I happened to shoot a selfie holding the banner to include with other photos I submitted to Junior Achievement.

Lo and behold. Junior Achievement used that photo in their Facebook post for National Volunteer Week.

Facebook Post by Junior Achievement of Sacramento.

Socialcast to the rescue

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Social networking exploded at my workplace with the recent soft launch of Socialcast.socialcast logo
As an internal-use-only social networking tool, Socialcast opens up a conversation space that knocks down territorial walls, expedites knowledge sharing, and builds community.

For example
Just this month, our mobile clinic team began sharing their experiences on the road as they serve various communities, the underserved, the uninsured, and victims of natural disasters. Before, attempts to communicate back to us at corporate consisted of emails with attached photos that bogged down servers, created duplicate copies, and often missed entire departments of interested audiences not served by the email sender.

Now, they post a quick update on Socialcast, add a photo (linked to, not copied a gabillion times), and subscribers immediately see the update.

Resistance is futile
Yes, we do have resistance to this tool. I’ve heard “geez, not another site to go to. I already read email and our intranet.” Or, “I don’t get Twitter and I hate Facebook.” And I understand those fears. Continue reading →

Caine’s Arcade – a boy and a dream go viral

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Imagination. Innovation. Incredible power of social media.

A 9-year-old boy in Los Angeles with a big dream and tons of creativity spends his summer building an arcade out of leftover cardboard, hoping customers to his dad’s auto parts shop will stop and play.

But in this day of online shopping, his dad’s customers shop by mouse click, not by foot.

No one stops to play.

Until one day, a customer shopping for a car door handle stops to play, buys the fun pass, and becomes enamored with the boy’s imagination, innovation, and incredible execution.

That customer, Nirvan Mullick, dreams another big dream, and the rest of the story is how videos go viral.

Watch.

Postscript: More than $100,000 has been donated to a trust fund for Caine’s college education. Imagine the technological wizardry to come from this boy’s imagination.

Draw me a picture (at SXSW)

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Not able to attend SXSW (the South by SouthWest conference), I have to live vicariously through the tweets, blog posts, slideshares, and other conference notes from attendees who happen to be among my social media contacts.

So, this set of hand-drawn notes by ad agency Ogilvy appeals to me on several angles.

First, it’s visual. Colorful. Image-based, more than text-based content.

Second, it’s good for business. Clever that this agency differentiated itself from others, the illustrations open potential business opportunities for Ogilvy, simply because presenters and followers who request a free 11×17″ print might linger, browse, and perhaps do business with Ogilvy.

Third, it’s cleverly different. Unlike the presentations posted on other sites, notes posted on blogs, and photos and tweets, this visualization of the content got my attention.

Prepare to be visually fascinated!
See http://ogilvynotes.com/

What tech can’t you live without?

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Quick. What’s the one technology you can’t live without? Not a day goes by without you using it.

Is it your laptop or desktop computer? HD TV? cell phone? digital camera? GPS device? satellite radio? hand-held game? eBook reader? personal health monitor? universal language translator? transporter? (Oh-ooops, not supposed to tell anyone about that one yet.) Continue reading →

Tips for Photographing a Conference

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captured-geewhizkidSchwarzenfeld Photography guest-posted a great entry at Digital Photography School’s site on tips for shooting conferences.

Tips include knowing the agenda, changing your point of view, and taking the must-have shots.

I happen to agree with many of the points, and engaged in some conversation regarding the topic.
Read the entry at DPS.

100 tips to rise above the noise on Twitter

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Friends who aren’t on Twitter often ask me how to get beyond their “get started” phase. Other friends tell me of the frustrations with Twitter that drove them away. Still others remind me that their busy lives don’t allow them to engage with Twitter as often as they’d like.
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To all of these friends, I may have found an answer. Read this helpful list Continue reading →

Facebook turns itself on its head

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fbook-up I think this interface would pose a challenge for us here in the United States. Two questions:

  1. Would it be easier to use if someone was from “down under?”
  2. Will this create a sudden demand for chiropractors?

Now that you’ve strained your neck to view the page, did you notice the language setting at the bottom of the screen capture?