When I logged into our M Booth Twitter account on Friday, I was greeted with this exciting message:
It’s cool that we’ve got a sneak peek at the new retweet function before most other people, but I’m not really sold on it. I’m not one of those people who freaks out every time Facebook changes its homepage and I’m really not that averse to change, but I don’t think I’ll use the new retweet system once it becomes universally available. As far as I’m concerned, it has eliminated the most essential part of the retweet — the ability for the retweeter to add his or her own commentary.
I vary rarely retweet something without adding my own note (I usually add it before the “RT,” so it’s clear that it’s from me and not the person I’m retweeting), just as I think it’s pointless to reblog something on Tumblr without adding value to it. Otherwise, Twitter would just be one gigantic echo chamber, and where’s the fun in that? Hopefully, the Twitter folk will figure out a way to allow retweeters to enhance retweets with their own messages before this functionality comes out of beta, or I’ll still just do my retweeting the “old-fashioned” way.
If you Googled anything today, you might have noticed there’s a familiar blue monster with a sweet tooth chomping on the search bar! In honor of Sesame Street’s upcoming 40th anniversary, Google has dedicated its “Google Doodles” to characters from the show — rumor has it, there will be a different character adorning the Google logo each day until the actual anniversary on Tuesday. Yesterday it was Big Bird, and today it’s Cookie Monster. I hope Bert and Ernie are next — they were always my personal favorites!
If you see a chair like this on the sidewalk, grab it! Inspired by the culture of “curb-mining” (finding cool things on the sidewalk and bringing it home with you), Soho furniture store Blu Dot began an experiment to track the journey of these sidewalk treasures. Beginning today, 25 of these chairs will be placed all over NYC, up for grabs for whomever spots it first. Many of these chairs will be GPS-equipped so we can all keep track of where they are and where they ultimately end up. The chairs’ journeys will be updated on the website and on Twitter.
Maybe following the travel patterns of a piece of furniture doesn’t sound appealing to you, but this whole experiment will culminate in a documentary featuring the chairs’ final owners, set to be released during Blu Dot’s one-year anniversary of its Soho store opening.
Personally, I think this is a classier way to get on camera than The Real World or The Bachelor. But then again, I also have a weird fascination with furniture…
Andrew LaVallee of the Wall Street Journalwrote an article yesterday about the world’s first Twitter-dedicated device, developed by New York mobile startup Peek. The TwitterPeek will enable people to post and read Twitter updates on the go. I’m pretty sure that anybody needing to post and read Twitter updates on the go likely has a smartphone, no?
Could this actually make a profit? Is the market big enough? Doesn’t a smartphone negate the need for a Twitter-only device? I can’t actually buy that there are people who want Twitter, but don’t want to surf the Web on their phones. Do they exist?
You know those annoying FreeCreditReport.comcommercials with the guitar-playing guy singing a catchy song about how you can easily check your credit report online? Well, it turns out that FreeCreditReport.com isn’t exactly free (who’da thunk it, with the word “free” in the name and all?). When you sign up to receive your credit report, you have to provide your credit card information, and if you don’t call and cancel within 7 days (and they don’t make it easy for you — I’ve done it), your card is charged $15 per month.
Apparently, many people have been reeled in by the catchy jingle and charged for their supposedly “free” credit report. Now, the FTC is fighting back with their own online videos — complete with a guitar-wielding dude and catchy jingles — to promote AnnualCreditReport.com, which is actually 100% free. The videos are spot-on parodies, and it’s very clever of the FTC to give them a dose of their own medicine.
Virgin Atlantic has released a “Flying Without Fear” iPhone app for travelers wary of flying high in the sky. The “course” is loaded with commentary from Richard Branson - who apparently states the facts over the fictions associated with flying - and offers exercises for relaxing while on the plane.
Not sure what is more shocking…the 98 percent success rate of the program or the fact that Whoopi Goldberg hasn’t flown in 13 years!
Honestly, they didn’t have to develop an iPhone app for this…they could just upgrade panicky fliers to business class, and I guarantee their fears would evaporate by 100 percent.
…about what to blog about today. I thought maybe I should talk about Google Chrome, and its new bookmark-syncing capabilities — but then I realized that I truly have no clue what Google Chrome is. (Let’s be honest, you probably don’t really, either.) And I kind of sort of don’t sync stuff, so that was pretty much out. But I do want to talk about widgets. Specifically, all the cool retailer widgets I’m about to download now that Halloween is over and Black Friday is 25 days away. So, yeah. It’s time to talk shopping, folks.
Gilt Groupe is one of my personal must-shop sites for impressive discounts on the best designer items. But it can be fickle, and thanks to its auction-oriented setup, the best garb goes quick. Just downloaded: Gilt’s countdown widget, providing a real-time countdown to the best sales. Geeeeniusssss.
Not that I do my holiday shopping on eBay or anything (okay, a few times, but just for my B-list recipients), but they’ve got a handy widget that allows you to easily monitor the auctions you’re watching — so nobody will outbid you on the Swarovski crystal duck paperweight you’re eyeing for your great aunt.
Shopping online is also almost always guaranteed to save you some cash, compared to in-store purchases. GoToDaily ensures that you’re always in the know about where to find the best cyber deals — all from the comfort of your very own desktop. Track down coupon codes, promo codes, printable in-store coupons and saving tips for thousands of stores. This coupon widget even comes with a mini search box that allows you to use to find your favorite online stores and coupons by keywords or store name.
There are 50 days ‘til Christmas Eve — get shopping!
Whether you love him or you hate him, Gary Vaynerchuck is obviously engaging. His web marketing book called Crush It is actually crushing the bestseller lists.
Anyway, here’s a clip of him being a lunatic on Fox and Friends.
If you’ve logged into Twitter.com since Friday, you may have noticed an announcement at the top of your homepage that a new feature called Twitter Lists has now been rolled out to all Twitter users (some especially active users got a sneak preview a couple weeks ago). You can now create various groupings of Twitter users that you follow, and share these lists with others. This is a great way to discover new people to follow or organize the people you already follow into various buckets.
It’s also another way to show a user’s influence, but some users — like social media influencer Chris Brogan — worry that the tool is exclusionary and contributes to the “popularity contest” mentality that pervades Twitter (meanwhile, his fellow influencer Robert Scoble thinks those people are crybabies). I’ve been added to 15 lists so far, and thankfully none of those are entitled “Jerks.”
Whether you love or hate the new Lists tool, we’ve created a list of M Boothers on Twitter, for your following ease.
On Monday, The New York Times reported that Forbes planned to layoff a number of its staff members on both the editorial and business sides. No shocker there. The fact that most print publications are like sinking ships in the night right now is no secret.
What I wasn’t expecting was for much of the staff who run ForbesLife and ForbesTraveler.com to also get the boot! Say what? Isn’t the digital/online media realm supposed to be experiencing rapid-fire growth right now (or did I dream that)?
I had a minor conniption when I saw that Lauren Sherman was one of those who were let go. Does this mean no more “ForbesLife Find of the Day”? I can’t deal with this torture. Forbes: I’d like to see some kind of public statement, please. Thanks.
JetBlue and Thrillist saw a lot of buzz over the past week or so with their Jet Mystery trip that took lucky Thrillist readers and an apparent airplane full of bloggers and journalists on a luxe, all-expense-paid trip to Jamaica. Media getting a comped trip, go fig?
As a travel PR gal, it certainly is never a shocker when major publications like Conde Nast Traveler & The Wall Street Journal decline to participate in these familiarization trips to learn about the amenities, culture, attractions, or whatever it is destinations are looking to market. But when Cision’s weekly Media Updates reports the following about a New York Times freelancer….wowza!
Mike Albo, a fashion and travel writer for The New York Times, has been fired by the paper. In what can be considered a violation of ethical standards against accepting free trips, Albo accepted a trip to a media junket in Jamaica hosted by JetBlue and Thrillist.
If it’s not the first-ever Facebook marriage, then it must be the first-ever Facebook marriage where both people, boy and girl, have the same exact same name - Kelly Hildebrandt.
Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen recently partnered with our client JCPenney to launch Olsenboye, their new line of junior apparel debuting on November 6. To build buzz among young, fashionable shoppers, they’re using innovative social mediatactics like Facebook, Twitter, and viral videos.
Volkswagen has created a new iPhone application for the launch of its 2010 GTI model. The free app, called “Real Racing GTI,” allows users to compete by racing others and posting their scores on an online leaderboard. Users can also post their racing videos on YouTube if they wish.
How will Volkswagen’s app compete with other brands using mobile, you ask? By offering free cars!
“Players who download the app will be eligible for the 2010 GTI sweepstakes, which gives away a 2010 GTI Limited Edition Model every week for six weeks beginning Nov. 2nd. Each day that a player finishes a lap in the Real Racing GTI game he or she can enter into the sweepstakes.”
Incentives are important, especially in the oversaturated mobile app space.
File this away under, “Yes, there really is an app for that.”
Think of it like Facebook-meets-iTunes’ App Store. The newly launched AppBoy bills itself as “a social outlet for mobile app lovers.” Got a great app idea? Now you can submit it for review or trial to your online friends, who will provide feedback and vote if they like it. If your idea gets enough votes, you get a portion of the proceeds when your app goes on sale.
Too bad someone already thought of Shazam — I’d be all over that one.
