Community Mobilization

Small Urls and Tracking

One of the most telling things about the web is that it can tell you everything that happens. From a marketing stand that is exceptionally useful information and knowledge. In an idea situation you can dial up and dial down specific campaign elements based on actual conversions and attention.

The prime challenge is knowing what is worth tracking and more importantly what the success metric is. In working with clients the success metric is one of the most difficult pieces of information to nail down. Providing clients the most valuable and pertinent statistic to measure does not always guarantee that they will choose to measure what is worth measuring. With these small URLs in action something so previously difficult to understand, origination location, could become the hottest new metric on the market.

FourSquare and social media

From the folks that brought you the now defunct Dodegeball come a new and even more amazing system - Foursquare. Continuing the play yard theme, foursquare is a mobile phone application that allows users to leverage the power of their GPS enabled device to participate in active adventure in urban areas.

Similar to dodgeball Foursquare allows users to denote their geographic location and then it pings the users friends and friends of friends within a short distance. Improves is the unlock and discover features that are embedded in the system. As you participate you learn more about user suggested hot spots and places of interest - almost like an insiders guide to the universe of New York City.

Parking

I have recently seen a few articles about individuals selling parking spaces as comodities, and using the internet to get it done. I think back to the times when we went to festivals like Jazz Fest, and football games and were jealous of the folks who lived close enough to walk. Then I saw the advent of people selling parking spots in the lawn.

Parkingspots.com and parkatmyhouse.com are two neat solutions to helping people who need places to park and people with spare parking find each other. Even more aprapo is the opportunity for intown dwellers to rent thier parkingspots in their high rise buildings out during work hours on the weekdays when they are out of them anyway.

Twitter your food

I am really not sure how ou can describe a chow truck that roams the streets and lures in customers using twitter to update its location. Kogi is using twitter to alert luck folks in LA where its chow trucks are throughout the city. Very cool idea - just like the music box on top of the polar cup / icecream van!

Taking Social Media Ratings Offline

I just came across an interesting advertising and marketing tactic being employed by a pizza company in SF - they are taking all of the low one-star ratings their pizza shop is getting on Yelp and putting them on T-shirts ... and forcing their staff to wear them.

I love the idea because it is not only a nod to the power of social media, but it also puts the thoughts of the least happy customers in the face of the service providers. It helps to motivate them to address the criticism and rise above it. Thanks Bits and Bites.

Moving Products Through Bolgs

I just read an interesting article about BrandGirl, and collaboration between the blogoshpere and product producers. BrandGirl as a marketing concept. BrandGril features a top line product review and then drives traffic to a more complete review on a partner site. BrandGirl then encourages readers to return to BrandGirl and enter into contests to win product give-a-ways.

The way that the system drives traffic to partner sites and then gets them to return to BrandGirl provides an exceptional ammount of cross-site traffic, but it also provides strong conversion data. By reading the back endanalytics the partner sites can see the real impact BrandGirl is having on thier website traffic as well as the overall interest in their prodcut based on the volume of samples sent. This is an intelligent and stong way to monmitor and track conversions and ROI impact.

Social Networking With RFID

As technology become ubiquitous there are bound to be more and more opportunities to take online social networking offline. I was so amazed to see the system because of its simplicity of design and interface. The poken makes exchanging social network information in the real world simple and easy. Using RFID and super cool plastic creature tags, the poken allows you to swap id information with other poken users when you meet them.


By design the Poken tags are easy to spot in the open, and that helps encourage the sharing aspect. Poken is an access point for all of your social networks , so when you meet people in the real world you can use the Poken tool to share information and easily make connections on popular social networks like Facebook and Myspace and others.

I love the concept that this is not another social network, but a tool to help users bridge the step between finding people through directories and friends after you meet them in real life. Sadly they seem to only sell them in Switzerland, unless you order them online. I like the idea of a 12 pack ... give them away as party favors!

OXFAM Uses Collective Intelligence From Elders To Beat The Recession

In the United Kingdom OXFAM is empowering the greatest generation to share their recession beating tips with the rest of the country through consumer generated media. Below Barbara Warmsley, Oxfam's Green Granny, continues her series of tips and ideas for saving money and living better. Here she talks about a great website for generating recipes from leftovers and shows how simply flicking a switch can save you cash.

The program is an ingenious way to capture knowledge and share it at a low cost for the benefit of the community at large. The challenge is that most of us have little to no experience in managing a slowing economy the way that prior generations do. With the current global economic slowdown it is apparent that we have a lot to learn from them.

The Value of Identity Online

In working with one of my clients, I have come to understand the value of protecting your identity, and this morning in sitting in on a seminar I began to think about the value of online identity as an equation

 value = online reputation (good -negative) x action

I feel the 'action' component of the equation is an important but overlooked piece. Involvement and engagement are critical components because even if you have an unblemished reputation your participation, or lack there of, leverages your reputation. Zero action yields zero value.

Part of my thinking comes from my own observation of forums and online discussion groups where prominent figures take extended leaves and return to see their own value diminished not for a bad reputation event, but for lack of involvement.

I also began thinking of solutions for individuals to help repair their online reputation. There are a number of Credit and ID theft recovery services on the market, but I have yet to see a service that will repair online reputation. It can be tricky managing online reputations beyond good Amazon ratings - it is the intangibles that can have the most impacts and the management of those is what can make or break your value. If nothing else, a class on how to manage your online reputation in the face of challenges.

DIY fashion for teens

There is a new online DIY fashion service that is targeting teens and tweens. EST. Today is a compelling site that encourages the exchange of ideas amongst its fashionista teen user base.

The site leverages the power of interactive community driven social media and incorporates do it yourself excitement. The production of the content and fashion rests on the shoulders of the participants making the idea exchanges that more interesting. No doubt this is certain to become a fashion hunting mecca as designers and clothing producers lurk to see the next up and coming trends so they can bring them to mass market.