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!
On the train this morning, in the midst of straphangers wearing Dr. Dre-issued helmets for warriors of the digital age, there was one standout: guy with Kindle. Since attending Wharton’s Future of Publishing Conference (an M Booth client) earlier this year, the state of publishing has been on my mind and specifically, the wonderfully portable devices that have arrived to save the trees.
Just this month, AT&T Inc.’s emerging devices president, Glenn Lurie, who oversees the carrier’s relationship with Apple Inc., said we’re “going to see those 10-inch pieces of glass become full-on computers.” As a Gen Y-er, I ask myself, what about now? Sure, five years down the road sounds like a hop and skip for anyone not on Twitter, but I’m concerned with what’s available now: iPad and other tablet/e-readers.
Yesterday, The Wall Street Journalreported on a study that found 40% of e-reader owners said they read more now than they did with print books. Collectively, the American Federation of Teachers and parents everywhere sighed en masse. So now that they’ve been hailed as the salvation (sort of) of America’s educational quicksand, I think that above all, creative content will lead to greater adoption and ultimately a legion of device-carrying consumers.
It’s important to note that these devices have the potential to serve as a platform for all types of media, from newspapers to books to magazines. Having said that, it’s true that simply loading textbooks and existing content onto these devices is a good start, but why not re-conceptualize how we think about books and content? From the author to the publisher, the content should be thought of as interactive.
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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M Booth’s very own Digisquad and our social media mentoring program were featured in the August issue of PRWeek!
M Booth & Associates created a group called “Digisquad.” It meets weekly about social media and includes at least one employee from every practice area. Account supervisors and SAEs within Digisquad are part of the agency’s social media mentoring program, in which the junior staffers show SVPs how to use social networking for personal use.
“We took a personal approach to social media because SVPs are already very smart strategists,” says Josh Rosenberg, SVP and director of FirstWord Digital at M Booth. “They just need to experience the value of communicating this way.”
Fleet Week: In London this week, a fleet of scented taxis will hit the streets – and no, the scent will not be “dirty laundry.” English perfume house Penhaligon’s is sending out scented (and adorably decorated!) cars; each one will smell like a different perfume and the driver will be trained to talk about the product.
New Use for Parking Meters: In an effort to collect money for Montreal’s homeless, the city is using retired parking meters as piggy banks. Passersby are encouraged to drop coins in – and in the past three years they have raised CDN $23,000. This year they revamped the meters – local celebs and organizations were asked to adopt and paint them for a more personal touch.
Dan 3.0: In the newest attempt of crowdsourcing life, Dan Brown (of “How to Solve a Rubik’s Cube” fame) will be putting his life in the hands of YouTube users. For an entire year. He has laid down some ground rules: he won’t dump his girlfriend or do anything illegal or harmful to others (odds are he WILL ice a bro, though…), and he does have veto power. We hope our request for him to bake 1,000 mini red velvet cupcakes and send them to us here at 300 Park Ave South, New York, NY 10010 doesn’t get turned down.
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You know how after going on a shopping spree, you take the items out of the bag at home to show your roommate (or friend or mom) all your great finds? Well, teens these days do the same thing, but for thousands of people on YouTube. As Andrew posted about back in March, “haul” videos are one of the hottest current trends for mallrats with webcams.
Some smart fashion brands targeting teens, like M Booth client J.C. Penney, are now engaging top “haulers” by providing them with gift cards and free transportation and lodging to shop near JCP HQ in Texas. Leveraging a viral trend that already exists is a great way for brands to show they have their fingers on the pulse of their target consumers. Oh, and I’m totally making a haul video of my own after our next office sample sale.
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’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.
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.
Last week, we worked with our client, The Macallan Single Malt Scotch Whisky, to host a progressive Twitter tasting throughout the city of Dallas, Texas. While differing in format from our previous Twitter tasting last June, the marriage of Twitter and Scotch continues to be effective, allowing us to simultaneously interact with local enthusiasts and consumers worldwide—a much larger group than traditional tastings allow for.
To get a better idea of the tastings’ format and ambiance, watch the segment above, which aired last night during Dallas’ local CW news broadcast.
Our very own Maria Rinklin, M Booth’s Digital Media Strategist and Queen of the Digisquad, was featured in Mom Central’s newsletter today! Maria shares some of her social media knowledge and talks about the work M Booth has recently been doing in the digital sphere. And, of course, mentions her killer matchmaking skills!
The Digisquad was well-represented in the M Booth pie-eating contest at our company summer party last night — Tom and I both put our dignity on the line for our teams. It was difficult to determine who actually won (although the consensus seems to be that it was Tom), but the clear winners were our colleagues who were laughing hysterically at us. It has been proposed that it become an annual event — hope that means I’m off the hook for next year, though!
It’s an exciting day here at M Booth! We are extremely excited to join the Next Fifteen family. And don’t worry, we’ll still be the same M Booth you know and love.
The picture above is from M Booth’s tasting for The Macallan, which took place this past Wednesday at a restuarant called eightyone (which is amazing, btw).
While we’re old pros at organizing tastings, this was slightly different, as we asked those who attended to live-tweet their experience so that people around the country could follow along and get a sense of The Macallan. Jean Aw from Notcot.com wrote a fantastic article about her own experience here.
We’re really excited about the response we’ve received and we’re really excited for the next one!
