A Brief History Of Social Media

For those of you living in a cave, SOCIAL MEDIA are Internet sites where people interact freely, sharing and discussing information about each other and their lives, using a multimedia mix of personal words, pictures, videos and audio. At these Web sites, individuals and groups create and exchange content and engage in person-to-person conversations. They appear in many forms including blogs and microblogs, forums and message boards, social networks, wikis, virtual worlds, social bookmarking, tagging and news, writing communities, digital storytelling and scrapbooking, and data, content, image and video sharing, podcast portals, and collective intelligence.  

From a marketing standpoint however, the history of Social Media probably looks more like this:

SOCIAL MEDIA CASE STUDIES [GB_V58.0]

McDonald's gained 60,000 impressions on Facebook with their digital "Kick the Trash" campaign that let fans envision themselves doing amazing football tricks in personalized videos. - Simply Zesty

Not to be outdone by Facebook’s Marketing Solutions platform, Twitter has now launched ‘Twitter Stories’ – a website showcasing Case Studies of some of the most innovative and inspirational uses of tweeting – Website

We love campaigns that integrate real-world social (api) data to enhance the user experience (i.e. Intel's 'Museum of Me' and Toyota's "Your Other You"). ‘TAKE THIS LOLLIPOP' is a PSA for internet privacy however that takes the concept to a whole new level – Website

Warner Bros., Lionsgate, Miramax, Paramount, and others are using Facebook applications to turn watching movies into a social experience. - Ad Age

PepsiCo is connecting fans of "The X Factor" with Pepsi Pulse -- a real-time digital visualization of the conversations taking place on the social web about the show. - Pepsi Sound Off

DSW share how they measure ROI and make the business case for social media. - SmartBrief

The original fundraising campaign only reached $2k of the $20k goal - so they decided to try something different. The results? After just a few weeks and significant buzz - the filmmaker raised $120k and turned his short film into a feature length movie thanks to all the donations! Very impressive work (by OneBigAgency, Amsterdam) - Video

Eddy's Twitflicks Case from OneBigAgency on Vimeo.

Chevrolet used the power of online social networking to literally launch their new car off of a 9-story structure. - PSFK 

IBM discusses how large companies can embrace social to create new business value and opportunities. - Forbes

The Guardian Newspaper has launched a Twitter-based search bot that allows users to search for content on the publication's website by tweeting a question or keywords to @GuardianTagBot. - The Guardian

Volkswagen (Netherlands) www.fanwagen.com (by Achtung Agency) - by allowing users to vote for their favorite retro VW to be rebuilt “socially”. If it wins – your name will be added to the vehicle and you could win it - Website

Rickard's (beer) brand is supporting the Movember cause with a Mo-Duel social game that encourages friends to raise money and challenge each other's mustache -growing abilities - Facebook

L'Oreal is helping salons connect with customers online with their new Salon Facebook program that includes how-to videos, appointment booking services, and more. - MediaPost

Quaker Oats celebrated National Oatmeal Day with a contest on Facebook and Twitter that encouraged fans to post their ideas on what other foods should have their own special day. - National Oatmeal Day

Branded Utility 101 - In this case a simple 'Taco' finder app (by Big Spaceship) that uses GPS and peer reviews to ensure you're never without a Taco. Michael Lebowitz, Founder and CEO discusses the app, the Future of the Ad Agency model and alternate revenue streams at this years Creativity and Technology (CaT) Conference in NYC - http://bit.ly/vld4jC

Creating a Brand as a Social Movement - Psychologically, this sense of community is also one of the major tenants of self-definition, as being part of a group gives meaning, emotional safety, and identification. The influence is also bi-directional and reinforcing - Article

Real-time Marketing is about more than just Twitter - it’s live video streams, Facebook competitions, digital response mechanics in retail and even the unexpected runaway success that is (or was) BlackBerry Messenger. All examples of real-time in action. Here’s an extract from the 2011 Contagious 'Real Time Marketing Report'

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SOCIAL MEDIA CASE STUDIES [GB_V57.0]

The U.S. Labor Department is teaming up with Facebook to form a Social Jobs Partnership that will help connect the jobless with companies that are hiring - LA Times

Dunkin' Donuts is inviting their Twitter followers to share photos of their best jack-o-lantern creations with hashtag #carveDD for a chance to win a $50 gift card - The Sacramento Bee

The Evolution of 'Participatory' Marketing - As tactics rise and fall, a more sophisticated approach is emerging - Article

Toyota's new Facebook game lets users test drive their new vehicle, create and host their own races, and compete in community-wide competitions with other fans - All Facebook

Razorfish Report on Connecting with the Digital Mom - Report

Lenovo's Space Lab initiative is challenging teens to design a science experiment that can be performed in space. The videos can be submitted to their YouTube channel and the winning experiments will be streamed live as they are conducted in space - ClickZ

How Do Google AdWords Work? -Infographic

To promote the upcoming release of their action-comedy "Tower Heist," Universal Pictures is giving away up to one million Facebook credits by hiding them all around the social network on various characters' pages for fans to find and collect - Ad Age

Volkswagen (by Red Urban) adds some serendipity to a static print campaign for the new Beetle using Augmented Reality (#AR) – Overview

Beeri - This tech mashup uses Siri's voice recognition, Twitter, an Arduino Uno w/wifi and a Twitter API querie to 'pour' beers (albeit crudely) for employees.  Check out the video below.

Beeri from redpepper on Vimeo.

The Weather Channel is developing new ways to reach their local audiences using Twitter, Facebook, video, and a new, interactive iPad application - Lost Remote

Have you ever wondered what online channels you should be targeting in order to reach the perfect audience for your product? Check out “Social Consumers and the Science of Sharing” – Infographic

The CONCEPT: Building brands as Social Movements. The BOOK? Leo Burnett’s “HUMANKIND” - advocates focusing, not only on advertising, but on people. Moreover, letting human activities and beliefs actually drive brand strategy – More

Burberry kept fans up-to-date during London Fashion Week by hosting a "Tweetwalk" on Twitter, streaming video and interviews on Facebook, and actively posting on Instagram - The Social CMO Blog

Nestea has a new Facebook application that lets fans create videos to inspire friends to embrace something they haven't done before - PSFK

Just in time for Halloween, Sony is featuring a collection of horror films that encourages fans to watch, rate, discuss, and keep count of their favorite horror moments on the Crackle entertainment network - Dread Central

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NOTE:  For more articles and posts from the last week please visit us on Twitter @goodbuzz.  If you have info, articles, case studies, or other examples of (TTL) participatory marketing bliss - please feel free to either post via Facebook or send via e-mail and we’ll take care of it for you. ;)  Please identify if you find a dead link (as they were all live at the time of this posting).

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WHAT IS 'PARTICIPATORY' MARKETING?

To be clear, we’ve heard ‘it’ called 360˚, integrated, through-the-line (TTL) marketing and numerous other terms.  Whatever you call ‘it’ - it builds and adopts cross-channel tactics based upon user behavior, context and reaction to past content and consistently delivers the most compelling message (and experience) to each customer at the perfect moment through the perfect channel – across inbound and outbound, online and offline, or traditional or emerging.

As tactics rise and fall, a more sophisticated approach is emerging.  Instead of thinking tactic by tactic, marketers are beginning to think strategically across three major areas of social content:  owned (what they create), earned (what customers create), and paid (what marketers spend money for.) 

OWNED

Media, content, and channels that the company directly delivers, has control over, or owns.  For example:

• Traditional – Direct Mail (DM), call center, branch/store, ATM, Kiosk/POS
• Digital – Email, website, microsites, blog, Facebook.

EARNED

Media, content, and channels delivered through a 3rd Party without exchange of payment.  While your control factor is low, credibility is high.  Examples include:

• Traditional – Public Relations, generated new, analyst coverage.
• Digital – Twitter, Blogs, Product Reviews

PAID

The most familiar terrain for most marketers; this is media, content, and channels that are delivered through a 3rd party or intermediary in exchange for payment.  For example:

• Traditional – TV, Radio, Print, Out-of-home (OOH)
• Digital – Display ads, PPC, Sponsored Content.

What emerges is a non-linear, integrated, interactive, and immersive (platform-agnostic) approach to marketing that is driven by real-time data and intelligence. 

ACTION

Our chief task as Marketers, both internally and externally, is therefore to get people to engage with and be active participants (i.e. play, create, and share) in our brand story.  Interacting effectively with customers in the digital era has implications beyond marketing products and services. Customers can now find out where and how a company makes its products; how it treats its employees, retired workers and suppliers; how much it pays its top executives; how seriously it takes its environmental responsibilities and the like. This knowledge can affect their buying decisions. Each company has a corporate ‘character’ or ‘personae’ – the differentiating attributes that make it a distinct enterprise. In other words, what an organization stands for is as important as what it sells.

Savvy marketers therefore need to focus on relationships, not just transactions. They need to become change “agents”, drive innovation, push their companies to reboot, and teach our peers how to listen and how to talk to customers.

SERVICES

To help CMO’s facilitate this task, Goodbuzz Inc. has partnered with (Toronto-based) Brand Strategy think-tank LEVEL 5 to capitalize on their world-class proprietary Brand DNA Mapping.  We have additionally partnered with (New York City-based) Buyology Inc. to utilize their MindLink™ measurement and analytics platform for understanding brand relationships. From this mapping, Goodbuzz articulates a comprehensive social brand ‘character’ or ‘personae’ that acts as a template for all partners when engaging along participatory channels.  

To further investigate this mapping and articulation process, please contact us directly.

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SOCIAL MEDIA CASE STUDIES [GB_V56.0]

The Mayo Clinic set up a video booth to record their patients, staff and volunteers' favourite moment, story, or memory of the center and published them as a three-part video series on YouTube - Mayo Clinic

In addition to "fan appreciation day" (where 1,000 fans were invited to attend a private screening) USA Network is engaging fans with a new meme and Tumblr blog to promote their comedy/drama "Psych." - ClickZ

Pedigree focuses on saving abandoned dogs from their 'Last Walk' by urging users (via website - http://bit.ly/nd1tz2) to take a dog for a virtual walk around the Internet (and Pedigree will donate £1 to the adoption drive.) -Brand Republic

If you use trending hashtag's to amplify your tweets - you'll appreciate this free tool. TRENDSMAP extends real-time twitter trends from anywhere in the world – www.trendsmap.com 

U.S. GOVERNMENT agencies National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration, Centers for Disease Control, Unites States Geological Survey, and NASA are now using YouTube to get their message across to the public - Mashable

Pepsi’s co-viewing (aka social TV) platform ‘Pulse’ is designed to get the most out of their "X-factor" sponsorship by extending viewers a way to interact with each other and the show – Overview  - A corresponding Pepsi 'Sound Off' platform (modeled after Twitter) is a place for fans to connect during shows and incorporates a gaming mechanism.

WALMART is using a new Facebook application that localizes marketing for each of their stores to give customers more relevant communications about deals, events, and products -Ad Age

We love campaigns that integrate real-world social (api) data to enhance the user experience (i.e. Intel's 'Museum of Me' and Toyota's "Your Other You"). ‘Take This Lollipop' is a PSA for internet privacy however that takes the concept to a whole new level – Website

VOLKSWAGEN (Canada) "Art Heist" UGC campaign has fans who participated and "stole" the paintings sharing their story on Facebook and Twitter under the #VWArtHeist hashtag - PSFK

Luxury brands BERGDORF GOODMAN, GUCCI, MERCEDES-BENZ, JIMMY CHOO, and more are connecting with fans in new ways on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and blogs -Luxury Daily

If weather is all one cares about, Virgin’s app lets you specify the exact type of weather you want on vacation and maximum budget – and the app serendipitously suggests your travel destination to ensure the perfect weather. Simple. Branded Utility courtesy of the ever impressive Miami Ad School – Case Study (embedded below).

REI discuss how they utilize social media sites for each REI store to develop a better local connection with their customers - Vimeo

Through We Are Social (London) the HEINZ "Get Well Soup" campaign lets Facebook users select a flavour and enter the name of their sick friend. They can then send the can of soup, with the usual Heinz label altered with a message saying 'Get well soon Bob' (the service costs £1.99). Bob will receive his soup in three to four working days – Article + Simply Zesty

Increasingly consumers seem to be defining themselves by what and whom they associate with. Brands therefore represent an integral part of people’s identity by association. Scion ART is a successful foray into creating such a movement – Case Study

Toyota's 'Social Network Racer' (by agency Party, Tokyo) is touted as the first social racing game (that transforms Facebook into a 3D race course). The app pulls in info like Facebook photos and friend updates to create the surrounding environment, including billboards, tunnels and other signage – Facebook App

Walkers is using augmented reality (AR) (via Blippar) on its potato chip’s (‘crisps’) packets to give its customers access to real-time weather forecasts. One might argue that brands should look to extend branded utility that reinforces its brand attributes (as opposed to ‘soft’ association like whether consumers should eat their crisps indoors or risk going out.) – Article 

NOTE:  For more articles and posts from the last week please visit us on Twitter @goodbuzz.  If you have info, articles, case studies, or other examples of (TTL) participatory marketing bliss - please feel free to either post via Facebook or send via e-mail and we’ll take care of it for you. ;)  Please identify if you find a dead link (as they were all live at the time of this posting).

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SOCIAL MEDIA CASE STUDIES [GB_V55.0]

Consumer-goods companies Mars, Kraft Foods, Anheuser-Busch, Unilever, and Procter and Gamble are using online ads to drive traffic to their Facebook fan pages - Ad Age

Tesco's latest uses Blippar's Image Recognition + Augmented Reality (AR) technology to focus greater attention on their print ads. Whether the execution itself is a real 'wow' or not - we applaud the attempt to enhance the print experience – Video

TV Networks Showtime, ABC, Syfy, and CBS are promoting their fall shows using online games on Facebook, Twitter, and iTunes - ClickZ

RNZAF 'Step Up' Challenge let you Navigate a NH90 helicopter over rural New Zealand. Airlift comms’ supplies to mobile outposts before a storm cell moves in. It's part advergame, part digital installation and part scale model controlled through the YouTube game – YouTube

And you thought the only way to have sex was in person. That's so 2010. Now with Durex's "Digital Love" website (www.digital-love.org) you can have as much sex as you’d like using you computer. That’s the premise behind this clever website (by BUZZMAN TV) with a number of personalization options (including the ability to prank your friends) – Website

Looking for a (free) real-time social media search and analysis tool? Check out http://www.socialmention.com/

This year's PR News Digital PR Awards winners included General Mills, Discovery Communications, AT&T, American Heart Association, and more for their fantastic work - PR News

IBM’s 2011 CMO Survey is out with some interesting results.  Everyone seems to agree that the worlds changed - Survey

Wells Fargo, IBM, and other banks are using social media to elevate their brand, build communities, conduct product research, and connect better with their customers - UBM TechWeb

Vodafone's "Buffer Busters" AR Mobile App is equal parts technology, brand, and engagement. There are creatures called Buffer-Monsters. They are known to cause traffic congestions, slow Internet connections, train delays… Buffer-Monsters hide in plain sight, but we haven’t been able to see them before – until now – Case Study

Clorox discuss how they are empowering their community of consumers to develop ideas and build buzz around upcoming launches - Vimeo

USA TODAY and Facebook are teaming up to give fans the ability to choose, rate, and share their favorite commercials during the Super Bowl - Lost Remote

MGM Resorts is releasing a social media game similar to Farmville, but with the players acting as casino moguls, in an effort to attract more online gamblers to their Vegas casinos - The Wall Street Journal

Oscar Mayer's ‘Delifresh’ brand has launched a new Hispanic Facebook app that lets fans build their own sandwich with a personality and share with friends online - Hispanic PR Blog

With the Olympics less than a year away, partners such as Samsung, 24 Hour Fitness, and British Airways are using location-based check-ins, Facebook apps, and blogs to get fans excited for the 2012 games - The Big Lead

Coca-Cola shares how they are counting on their fans to spread the love through "dynamic storytelling" and online sharing - ClickZ

NOTE:  For more articles and posts from the last week please visit us on Twitter @goodbuzz.  If you have info, articles, case studies, or other examples of (TTL) participatory marketing bliss - please feel free to either post via Facebook or send via e-mail and we’ll take care of it for you. ;)  Please identify if you find a dead link (as they were all live at the time of this posting).

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SOCIAL MEDIA CASE STUDIES [GB_V54.0]

Shoppers and owners of the Ford Sync system are doing all the talking on the revamped website that features user-generated content and video testimonials -MediaPost

Beck's ‘Sobriety Test’ Mobile App lets you prove you are sober by inserting a key into a moving keyhole (you need to keep the key in for 25 seconds). If you cannot make it, then the application will automatically call a taxi that will come to pick you up and drive you home - Overview

In lieu of recent announcements, Blockbuster discusses how they are using Twitter to woo Netflix's unhappy customers -The Wall Street Journal

Charity 'Swearbox' Twitter App is a donation-based site that provides Twitter users with a way to rectify their bad language online. You can login with your Twitter details where the app will detect all of your recently tweeted swear words and suggest a donation related to your profanities – Overview

Stumped on what to be for Halloween this year? Target has a new Facebook application that lets your friends help you decide -Facebook

Heinz is building their brand's social loyalty by rewarding their fans on Facebook with coupons and bonus discounts for sharing with friends -Jamie B

LYNX's 'Auto-Romeo' App lets users answer a few questions about the ladies in your life (i.e. eye colour, hair colour, when you met, etc.) and the app will automatically send personalized messages that tend to your flock on your behalf - Overview

Baseball fans can still stay connected during the post-season through the MLB's Fan Cave. It's a central social media hub in New York City complete with live Twitter feeds, video content creation of existing players, interactive technology, and art to keep the spirit of the game alive -Forbes

Zurich Bank is connecting financial institution professionals online with the launch of their new social networking community, "Financial Risk Talk." - Zurich

NASA is hosting a series of Tweetups to give their hardcore social media fans the opportunity to meet with scientists, engineers, and astronauts at their facilities and public space launches -NASA

Boeing's photostream on Flickr is keeping fans from around the world up-to-date during the release of their new 787 airplane -Flickr

Warner Bros. is giving fans the chance to star in their new web series, "Aim High," using a personalized Facebook viewing application -Lost Remote

Microsoft shares how they leveraged both internal and external social media sites to better manage their vast customer network -Vimeo


NOTE:  For more articles and posts from the last week please visit us on Twitter @goodbuzz.  If you have info, articles, case studies, or other examples of participatory marketing bliss - please feel free to either post via Facebook or send via e-mail and we’ll take care of it for you.  ;) Please identify if you find a dead link (as they were all live at the time of this posting).

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SOCIAL MEDIA CASE STUDIES [GB_V53.0]

Estee Lauder has turned their YouTube channel into a social beauty school with video clips of cosmetic how-to’s, behind-the-scene’s looks, skin demos, and more - YouTube


HP Labs, shares how they are using social media research to predict sales weeks before a product is released - Social Media Examiner


Think you've got what it takes to be the Ultimate Displaced Fan? DIRECTV is calling all football fans to submit videos, photos, and essays on Twitter and Facebook to prove their worthiness - Business Wire


Trident® Chewing Gum (Brazil) ‘wired’ up a phone booth that records users antics (at a Rock festival) and uploads them to the brands YouTube Channel.

The CMO Club™ (Toronto) Event - Thursday, 13 October 2011 at 18:00 - Level5 Office, 18 King Street East, Toronto, ON M5C1C4 - more Info.

SAP discusses how eight years of experience has matured their social media program - Vimeo


Innocent's 'Tweet and eat' Twitter Promotion - Aiming to generate some #goodbuzz - for a four week period, the more tweets Innocent gets with the hashtag #tweetandeat, the bigger the discount it will offer – Website

If approximately 86% of people (who use mobile Internet) use their phones while watching TV - it stems to reason that savvy brands would capitalize upon this trend. The best example we've seen to date? AKQA's Heineken 'Star Player' App – Video

Nokia's Serendipitous FourSquare-powered 'Gift Machine' - Here is a nice interactive installation from Nokia, playing on their ever increasing “Random Acts of Kindness” vision that allows anyone to simply check-in to one of the vending machines via Foursquare to release some sort of surprise – Video


How does your target audience engage your brand technologically? Find out using Forrester’s profiling tool.

Budweiser created a weather-driven app (Tribal DDB London) that gave Irish users a free pint when the outdoor temperature reached 20°C. There’s also a €2 discount when the outdoor temperature exceeds 18°C, and €1-off when it hits 16°C –Video

Unilever's Dove brand is showcasing young female DJs in their new campaign that gets fans involved through Twitter photo contests and real-time chat parties, interactive music games, and sharable music mixes on Facebook - The New York Times

Skoda left clues in its TV idents on Channel 5 every week and participants had to solve each week’s puzzle and enter the answer on Skoda’s YouTube channel to progress to the next stage of the mystery trail – YouTube Channel.

Orange's Glastonbury 2011 App- Providing a textbook lesson in how to create branded utility, Orange - France Télécom produced the official mobile app for this year’s Glastonbury (UK) Festival. A GPS-enabled map also included toilets, bars, and on-site ‘chill ‘n’ charge’ areas - Website

The Facebook Friend Audit - Of all your 'friends' on Facebook, how many of them actually engage your content? The Facebook Friend Audit (from BBH) signs on to your account and uses the Facebook API to go through your last 300 wall posts to compare the friends who have "liked" them with the total number of friends you have – website.

KLM's 'Live Twitter Reply' Promotion - KLM Royal Dutch Airlines has just launched their latest social media campaign. If you send a tweet to KLM anytime during the next ten-or-so hours you may be the lucky recipient of a ‘KLM Live Reply’ – Video

Olympus Partners with JetBlue to Kick off 'The PEN Ready' Project - Olympus (via Mullen) also engaged in social influence marketing by giving 100 influential bloggers a PEN E-PM1 to use on their own blog – Video

Ben & Jerry's is supporting Fair Trade initiatives in a big way by putting fans' unused tweet characters to good use - Promo Magazine

Virgin Mobile FreeFest's 'Echo Temple' - Equal parts Kinect hack and experiential bliss - Virgin's 'Echo Temple' installation (by Mother NY) promotes innovation by allowing users to play virtual musical instruments by moving their body in front of motion-tracking cameras – Video

Imagine if you could wreak havoc on your office building or home with a giant robot?  State Farm’s ‘Chaos in Your Town’ cleverly uses Google Street View for the background scenes to create a customized blockbuster film featuring the address of your choice being blown to smithereens – Website


The Swedish Post's 'Safest Hands' Competition - Åkestam Holst's incredible body of work for the Swedish Post (http://bit.ly/oAMaTa) never ceases to amaze. Here's their latest magic - an app (http://bit.ly/qZL9ba) that asks players to virtually "deliver" parcels – Video

Twelve Great MS Kinect Hacks


Traffic is never fun, but Audi's new "Road Frustration Index" helps lessen the pain with a real-time report on road conditions using Twitter sentiment - Simply Zesty

Nike's video play on "Back to the Future" landed them at the top of viral video charts last week with five million + views - Ad Age


NOTE: For more articles and posts from the last week please visit us on Twitter at both @goodbuzz.  If you have info, articles, case studies, or other examples of participatory marketing bliss - please feel free to either post via Facebook or send via e-mail and we’ll take care of it for you.  Please identify if you find a dead link (as they were all live at the time of this posting).

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