Now that we’ve recently launched our M BoothFacebook page (please “like” us, by the way!), we’ve been trying to add all sorts of fun features to it, to keep M Boothers and friends posted on what we’re up to. So far, this includes everything from information on open positions, to photos from our parties and softball games, to posts from our two blogs (this one and Better4You).
Unfortunately, it was tough to find an easy way to import both of our blogs’ RSS feeds to the page. Facebook recommends doing it through its Notes application, but you can only import one blog and it wasn’t updating regularly for us. There are other applications that allow you to add a “Blog” tab to your page but again, it only allows one blog feed to be imported. We really didn’t want to have to manually put up a link every time someone blogged, but we were having trouble finding another option.
Luckily, Rob happens to follow a 13-year-old technology wunderkind named Jack DeFuria, who mentioned a free tool called dlvr.it on Twitter the other day. Rob asked me to check it out and I promptly fell in love (with dlvr.it, not Rob…or Jack). Not only will dlvr.it import multiple blog feeds to your Facebook page (and Twitter, LinkedIn or Google Buzz too, if you so desire), it also provides analytics on how many people are clicking through on each post. Now each of our M Boother-penned blog posts seamlessly shows up on our Facebook page within minutes. Problem solved!
Earlier today, MillerCoorsannounced a partnership with EA Sports and the legendary Madden NFL video game franchise, two brands that millions of American consumers have come to love over the years.
The partnership includes a national promotion and sweepstakes that kicks off on September 1, which will feature a number of exclusive prizes, including the opportunity to be featured as a character in next year’s game, tickets to the Madden Bowl XVII party in Dallas during Super Bowl week, and other prizing from EA Sports. On a local level, Coors will engage local accounts (a.k.a. bars) to organize Madden tournaments for consumers to play each other and NFL alums. Sounds like a great idea, doesn’t it?
Unfortunately, there is no information on the Coors or Madden websites (the link in the press release doesn’t work) and there are no tie-ins on the Facebook pages of Coors or Madden. According to the release, there will be a texting component to the sweepstakes, but details are unclear.
The great John Madden once said, “The only yardstick for success our society has is being a champion. No one remembers anything else.” Would Madden consider this partnership champion-worthy? It seems like it has the potential to be great, but the opportunity to engage their audience is being missed by not engaging via social media.
Yesterday, Sheila Shayon of BrandChannel posted the above video from Facebook’s official YouTube channel, which attempts to explain the new addition to the site, Facebook Places.
According to The New York Times DealBook blog, “Facebook’s Places borrows heavily from location-based social networks like Foursquare and Gowalla, which allow users to check in at places and broadcast their location to friends.” Mike Lazerow of Buddy Media also shares what Facebook Places means for marketers in an article in Ad Age.
How does Facebook Places resonate with you? Is it a natural extension and part of the evolution of Facebook, or is it a fad that will quickly pass?
As Sheila Shayon put it, “Facebook Places further secures Facebook’s supremacy as the social media space where all things virtual and physical converge. It will be fascinating to see if Facebook users and marketers adapt to geo without going loco.”
Mashable’s got the scoop on Delta’s latest Facebook foray — booking your trip directly off of the carrier’s Facebook page in order to share travel details with your friends.
It’s an interesting idea and a valid way to perhaps get more fans to its page. It also makes perfect sense from a group trip-planning perspective — “Check out my Facebook pages to see my flight times, etc.”
However, Mashable brings up a good point regarding the service: will people really book on Facebook or continue to comparison shop via online travel agencies? Will other carriers follow suit? Only time will tell…
Facebook is still the happy social networking community where either you like a status update or simply don’t comment. (Note: There are a small percentage of folks who wish they could go against the grain and hit a “dislike” button that would live adjacent to that happy, thumbs-up “like” button.)
There was a ‘dislike’ button designed for the all the Facebook-family Grinches out there. But, alas, that turned out to be a scam, according to a recent New York Times Gadgetwise blog post from Riva Richmond. To download the “dislike” button, a user would have to complete a survey in which they unknowingly agree to recurring cell phone charges.
According to Richmond’s blog post:
The hook comes in a status update from a friend reading “I just got the Dislike button, so now I can dislike all of your dumb posts lol!!” or “Get the official DISLIKE button NOW!” which includes a link to a rogue Facebook application.
Installing the button gives the scammers permission to access your public information, post to your wall and retrieve your data at any time they like – in addition to the recurring cell phone charges. Buyers beware!
So, all of you “dislike” folks out there, you still have to keep mum about your disapproval of a status update – or you could end up shelling out some cash for voicing your dissatisfaction.
On Friday, I read an article on PCMag.com about how Facebook launched Facebook Live, a video streaming channel that was created to keep Facebook enthusiasts up to speed on what’s happening behind the scenes at the social networking site headquarters. The new feature was not created as a platform for Facebook users to upload and share their own videos. Instead of it being a 2-way street like YouTube – where you can upload your own videos and watch other people’s videos – Facebook Live is simply a 1-way street.
Personally, I was as excited to read this announcement as I was to see Farmville and Mafia Wars all over my newsfeed (hint: not very excited). Seeing what goes on behind the scenes in Palo Alto is not how I want to spend my time online. If I find a few free minutes during the day where I can sign into Facebook, I’d rather go on a friending spree or look at the photos of someone I haven’t spoken to in over a year (don’t judge, you know you do it too!).
My initial judgments aside, I’m sure there are plenty of curious people among the 500+ million users on the site who would be interested to know what happens at the Facebook offices.Facebook Live is an extension of the Facebook blog, which is another avenue for the company to highlight new offerings and showcase its strong presence in the social media landscape. Example: America Ferrera was the first celebrity to be featured on Facebook Live when she swung by to chat about her new movie, which is being promoted through social media channels. Facebook – 1.Traditional Media – 0.
Will Facebook Live be a success?Will other social media sites take notice and start document behind the scene videos?You’ll have to tune in to find out.
Thinking Hotel: From design strategist Maria Ana Neves comes “The Thinking Hotel” – a hub for innovative thinking and collaboration with locations sprinkled throughout major cities. She is actually opening a 24-hour experimental one this weekend in London.
Taking Names: In India, police officers are using Facebook to issue traffic violation tickets (we guess anything is possible). A page has been created where users can upload images of vehicles breaking the rules and cops then decide if a ticket should be issued.
What’s Your POV?: As their final project, two students from the Chelsea School of Art and Design created an anamorphic type installation that we love. Exhibit-goers can only read the messages standing at one particular angle.
Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce Lands Six Accounts: The New York Timestoday announced that six Unilever brands (Dove, Breyer’s, Hellmann’s, Klondike, Suave and M Booth client Vaseline) are creating Mad Men-inspired advertising vignettes. We can’t wait to see what La Draper would do for a Klondike bar. (via Sheldon Silver)
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Don’t Send the Wrong Message: Have you ever asked your cubemate to read over an email to make sure it “sounds okay”? Has there been a time when you’ve reread an email and realize you came off like a total B? In a world of text-based communication, words and phrases commonly get misinterpreted. So, here to save the day is ToneCheck - an interface for Outlook that checks the tone of your email.
Ah, Push It: Amid all the mosquitoes in Florida, cake shop Sprinkles Custom Cakes was able to pump out a top-notch idea bug-free. They recently introduced a cake shooter – three layers of cake and icing in a push-up pop.
Butter-Fy Yourself: Yesterday, The Midwest Dairy Association launched a new Facebook app that allows you to – of all things – create a butter statue of yourself. Who knew churners could have such a sense of humor? (Seriously, did anyone know this?)
Anthroposts: Digital artist Noah Pedrini started a web project involving my one true love, Post-Its. He feels in a digital age, the beauty of handwriting is often lost, so Pedrini collected notes he found on the street, scanned them, and put them online for us to see.
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In his presentation about growing an audience for your business at today’s BDI conference, Matt Gentile, Century 21’s Director of PR and Communications, provided several key takeaways for the audience:
Define targets
Establish objectives
Select appropriate platforms
Measure for success
Adjust for optimization
Gentile mentioned this post from Brian Solis on Mashable, and walked the audience through Solis’ 10 Stages of Social Media Integration and what the brand is doing on platforms like Facebook and YouTube.
Okay, okay, so that isn’t the point of this story…just a brief takeaway that I find absolutely fascinating.
The point is that love them or hate them, Starbucks has proven more than successful in utilizing social media to keep the brand continuously talked about through ongoing engagement. While it’s obviously a mega-brand able to keep fans engaged, the Starbucks Facebook page is never stale. There is always content, always an incentive to go into a shop and, most importantly, always a reason to check back in.
Congrats, Starbucks, on your 10 millionth follower…you’ll get Vin Diesel soon enough!
-Sally
P.S. You can send my free latte voucher to my office address.
Show Us Your Pizza: Domino’s is unhappy with current pizza marketing – they think pizza doesn’t need to be retouched in advertisements to look good – and as a result of these anti-Photoshopping feelings, Domino’s is launching a “real beauty” campaign this week. As a part of this, all TV, print and online ads won’t be Photoshopped and consumers are encouraged to upload their own pizza pictures with the chance of winning ca$hmoney if their shot is featured in an ad.
Old Mr. Zuckerberg Had a Farm: Farmville, Facebook’s online social game, is running a promotion where its items are being sold physically in stores. In 7-Elevens, you’ll find the branded goods and earn codes to use online to get special items.
30 Dates, 30 Nights: Brian is new to the Big Apple and an inexperienced dater – so how should he meet people in a city of 8 million? Well, he’s going the crowdsourcing route. Brian launched a site, Dating Brian, as a social experiment where he will attempt to go on 30 dates in 30 days with the sole help of users via his site, Twitter and Facebook.
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Coldstonelaunched a cool Facebook app today where you can actually give a real ice cream sundae to a friend. As a sundae freak (hint, hint), I can definitely appreciate this. What’s interesting is that the app sends the recipient a code to redeem at one of their 1,300 retail locations. This is a great way for a brand to take advantage of e-commerce on Facebook — and an even better way to help a friend beat the heat!
Prince thinks the internet is “completely over” - and though we know what a tech visionary he is, let’s keep blogging as if that weren’t true…
Subscribing to (then promptly unsubscribing from) a mailing list. Ordering the latest trashy beach read from Amazon. Poking your crush on Facebook. Sending that generous Nigerian your bank info so he can get around harsh government regulations and let you earn millions (hello, easy money). Chances are, if you’re reading this blog, you’re already pretty entrenched in the internet. Well, here’s some news for you: YOU’RE NEVER GETTING OUT.
While there are services that can help you hunt down every cookie and megabyte of data that is tied to your identity, they are in no way comprehensive, removing only 80 to 90 percent of personal information from the World Wide Web. You can try to do it yourself…and I don’t know about you, but I barely remember what I ate for lunch last week, much less every single website I’ve visited since my family finally installed AOL 2.0 (dial-up!) some 13 years ago.
But let’s say I’m one of those people who only check out “the Yahoo” mail (hi Mom!) once in a while. Even if I could list out every URL I’ve ever typed or clicked, the company or organization at the other end may be hesitant to help me delete whatever information I’ve left behind on their servers. In their eyes, this data is their asset, helping them create more tailored advertising and marketing strategies.
This doesn’t really bother me, as I never really planned on quitting the internet and I’m pretty used to Big Brother, but I can see how it would concern those with privacy concerns. What about you guys? Do you see yourself paying someone to scrub the interwebz clean of your identity?
Con: That Zuckerberg will probably know more about you than your future spouse.
Pro: Falling victim to the Praetorians may not be so easy now.
“Some have questioned why Facebook and its story was worthy of a film, let alone a film from A-level writers and directors. Well, think about just how much Facebook dominates the online communication space today. Think about how much bigger it is than it was even a year ago. Now consider that it was started only six years ago. Its overwhelming success and the fact that it has become important enough to drive ongoing discussions regarding privacy and data ownership is indicative that it is a force.”
If you had to pick someone to cast as Mark Zuckerberg, who would it be? I know I would most likely choose a young Joe Pesci. I think it would add to the intrigue.
