I was born in the ’60’s, albeit in the last 11 months of that decade, but nonetheless, in the ’60’s. I mention this because that decade was synonymous with empowerment of people. Since then it seems that we as Americans have had our attention diverted elsewhere.

On a daily basis our attention is wholly engulfed by the advertising ether in which we swim. This culture of consumerism has somehow foisted huge tigers of paper money that have achieved dominion over subtleties of our conscience; never egregious enough for us to rally, but pervasive enough to quietly form more layers upon our collective cultural cynicism. However, every now and then something comes along that showcases corporate greed in a forum that is easier to confront than two, simultaneous wars. Every now and then greed is so shameless in its attempts that the simplicity of its aims appear to be no more that pure sin. Watch the following and see how money can literally do anything it wants, including stealing the American Dream.

Tracy

Jan 11, 2010 08:26 ET
Powered Acquires Three Leading Social Media Companies to Help Brands Fully Capitalize on the Benefits of Their Social Media Initiatives

With Crayon, Drillteam and StepChange Acquisitions, Powered Becomes First Full-Service Social Media Agency of Scale

AUSTIN, TX–(Marketwire – January 11, 2010) -

read Marketwire

More evidence for the power of social media and constant connection.
-Tracy

By EMILY FREDRIX , 10.21.09, 12:02 AM EDT

MILWAUKEE — Coca-Cola Co. is launching a new social media push that will send three bloggers to more than 200 countries in a year to uncover what makes people happy, as part of the soft drink maker’s “Open Happiness” campaign.

The effort, dubbed “Expedition 206,” marks another venture by a big-name brand to delve deep into social media. Such efforts, which include blogging, posting updates on Twitter and adding videos to YouTube, can generate talk by consumers and sales, companies hope.

The around-the-world journey is ambitious, involving stays of just a day or two in each of 206 countries, all where Coca-Cola ( KO – news – people ) is sold.

The three people – who will be chosen in an online vote starting Wednesday – will spend the entire year traveling. Coke will pay their travel expenses and pay them a salary. It wouldn’t disclose the cost of the venture.

The travelers will meet with locals, tell stories on the trip’s Web site and take part in events like the Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

“It’s not about having the Coca-Cola brand first and foremost, center of the screen,” said Adam Brown, director of Coca-Cola’s Office of Digital Communications and Social Media. “It’s about telling the story that involves Coca-Cola, that involves the attributes of what Coca-Cola is about, optimism and joy.”

The company has been pushing its “Open Happiness” marketing campaign since the beginning of the year. The campaign focuses on soft drinks and is intended to appeal to consumers looking to spend less money. Ads show people enjoying simple pleasures, including a Coca-Cola.

The trip begins Jan. 1 in Madrid. In the first month, they’ll go to 17 countries, including Venezuela, Brazil, Bolivia and Panama. It ends Dec. 31 at Coca-Cola headquarters in Atlanta. The travelers will mostly be on their own but will connect with local Coca-Cola representatives and be escorted in certain countries, Brown said.

When the trip gets going, consumers will also offer suggestions on what the trio will do at their destinations and vote on where they’ll go within certain areas, Brown said.

Finalist Greer Cornish, of Sydney, Australia, has worked as a producer at an advertising agency. She has backpacked for nine months in Eastern Europe, and South and North America, but the 26-year-old said even she’s a bit daunted at the pace.

“It’s so nonstop but I think that’s also a bit of a challenge and something to look forward to,” she said.

“It seems that it is hard to beat the efficacy of social media outlets when it comes to topics topics that are truly ‘water-cooler’ in nature. Social media may not be the cure all snake oil liniment that it is often touted as; advertisers will just as often call foul as they will touchdown when it comes to unearthing viable metrics. But add in a little imagination, or in this case ‘movie magic’ and mercurial social media outlets become the defacto narrative for viral outbreaks. Interesting times we live in for sure. This is a pretty succinct article, breathe it in and marinate on this over your coffee, I believe that for certain clients, this is a necessary firing position to take up in the daily battle of being memorable.”

Thanks for reading,

Tracy

STOUTsource Retweets the following:

October 13th, 2009 | by Christina Warren

Last week, we wrote about the social media campaign Paramount was using with the low-budget horror film, “Paranormal Activity.”

Although the goal of 1,000,000 requests for wide-release was met, the real test of the campaign’s success came over the weekend. The results? Spectacular. The film expanded to 160 screens and averaged $49,379 per screen.

That’s the highest per-screen average ever for a film playing in more than 100 theaters. These results would be impressive regardless of the marketing method used, but the fact that the campaign has been very, very Internet — and especially social media focused, makes this story that much more interesting.

As Paramount vice chairman Rob Moore told The Economic Times:

“We all spend a lot of time talking about Facebook and Twitter and our ability to communicate. Here’s a case where it allows people to rally around a movie they care about and for them to have a sense of participation, then tell other people, ‘Hey, this is something you should see, too.’”

This certainly fits with a trend we saw this summer, as word-of-mouth buzz over Twitter impacted box office numbers. Where “Paranormal Activity” differs from something like “District 9″ (which had a viral campaign going back for more than a year and the association of Peter Jackson) is that much of the campaign, from promotion, to release planning has been done using social media.

Opening first in college towns at midnight shows and then expanding to cities based on Internet feedback, Paramount has spent about $2m thus far on marketing the $15,000 film and seems to be on the verge of creating a cultural phenomenon.

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Blast from the Internet Marketing Past

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It’s hard not to draw allusions to 1999’s “The Blair Witch Project.” After all, both low-budget horror films (although the budget for “Paranormal Activity” was significantly lower than that of “Blair Witch”) gained traction in large part because of the Internet.

With “Blair Witch,” the Internet was used less as a direct-marketing device and more as a way to build up the buzz about the origin of the film. The “is this for real or not” buzz about the film before its release had viewers flocking into theaters. The continuous hype around the phenomenon itself kept them coming.

In the ensuing decade, several films have attempted to take on “Blair Witch’s” viral success, but few have succeeded into becoming cultural footnotes. With the continued success of “Paranormal Activity,” it will be interesting to see if the buzz holds as the film prepares for wide-release and in the process, becomes the first “social media marketed blockbuster.”

This is a good article about big money buying bloggers. You knew it had to be happening. How many stellar product reviews can you read before becoming suspicious? If you follow a blogger and value their opinions, how do you know if they are shooting you straight scoop? How much of what is being said out in the ether is real, objective information and how much of it is someone singing for their supper? Read on. It seems times, they are a changing. Let’s hold our breath together… Tracy

By TIM ARANGO
Published: October 5, 2009

FOR nearly three decades, the Federal Trade Commission’s rules regarding the relationships between advertisers and product reviewers and endorsers were deemed adequate. Then came the age of blogging and social media.

On Monday, the F.T.C. said it would revise rules about endorsements and testimonials in advertising that had been in place since 1980. The new regulations are aimed at the rapidly shifting new-media world and how advertisers are using bloggers and social media sites like Facebook and Twitter to pitch their wares.

The F.T.C. said that beginning on Dec. 1, bloggers who review products must disclose any connection with advertisers, including, in most cases, the receipt of free products and whether or not they were paid in any way by advertisers, as occurs frequently. The new rules also take aim at celebrities, who will now need to disclose any ties to companies, should they promote products on a talk show or on Twitter. A second major change, which was not aimed specifically at bloggers or social media, was to eliminate the ability of advertisers to gush about results that differ from what is typical — for instance, from a weight loss supplement.

For bloggers who review products, this means that the days of an unimpeded flow of giveaways may be over. More broadly, the move suggests that the government is intent on bringing to bear on the Internet the same sorts of regulations that have governed other forms of media, like television or print.

“It crushes the idea that the Internet is separate from the kinds of concerns that have been attached to previous media,” said Clay Shirky, a professor at New York University.

Richard Cleland, assistant director of the division of advertising practices at the F.T.C., said: “We were looking and seeing the significance of social media marketing in the 21st century and we thought it was time to explain the principles of transparency and truth in advertising and apply them to social media marketing. Which isn’t to say that we saw a huge problem out there that was imperative to address.”

Still, sites like Twitter and Facebook, as well as blogs, have offered companies new opportunities to pitch products with endorsements that carry a veneer of authenticity because they seem to be straight from the mouth — or keyboard — of an individual consumer. In some cases, companies have set up product review blogs that appear to be independent. One such case involved Urban Nutrition, a seller of supplements, that ran Web sites like WeKnowDiets.com and GoogleDiets.com. The National Advertising Review Council, which governs the industry’s self-regulatory programs, said the sites were “formatted as independent product-review blogs.”

Jonathan Zittrain, a professor at Harvard Law School and co-founder of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society, said, “the rules are looking ahead to a quite possible future when there is a market to buy ‘authentic’ public endorsements.”

Some marketing groups fought the changes. “If a product is provided to bloggers, the F.T.C. will consider that, in most cases, to be a material connection even if the advertiser has no control over the content of the blogs,” said Linda Goldstein, a partner at Manatt Phelps & Phillips, a law firm that represents three marketing groups, the Electronic Retailing Association, the Promotion Marketing Association and the Word of Mouth Marketing Association. “In terms of the real world blogging community, that’s a seismic shift.”

Ms. Goldstein added, “We would have preferred the F.T.C. to work closer with the industry to learn how viral marketing works.”

The new guidelines were not unexpected — the commission gave notice last November that it would take up the matter. They will affect scores of bloggers who began as hobbyists only to find that companies flocked to them in search of a new way to reach consumers.

About three-and-a-half years ago Christine Young, of Lincoln, Calif., began blogging about her adventures in home schooling. It led to her current blog, FromDatesToDiapers.com, about mothers and families. The free products soon started arriving, and now hardly a day goes by without a package from Federal Express or DHL arriving at her door, she said. Mostly they are children’s products, like Nintendo Wii games, but sometimes not. She said she recently received a free pair of women’s shoes from Timberland.

Ms. Young said she had always disclosed whether or not she received a free product when writing her reviews. But companies have nothing to lose when sending off goodies: if she doesn’t like a product, she simply won’t write about it.

“I think that bloggers definitely need to be held accountable,” said Ms. Young. “I think there is a certain level of trust that bloggers have with readers, and readers deserve to know the whole truth.”

Local companies embrace social media to bond with customers
by Martin Moylan, Minnesota Public Radio
September 15, 2009

LISTEN

St. Paul, Minn. — The prospect of being able to reach so many people has many companies all atwitter about using social media, somehow, to bond with customers.

We’ve heard a lot lately about the power of social media services like Facebook and Twitter to connect people, spread news and even influence world events. Tens of millions of people are signed up for one or more of these services that connect folks with shared interests or concerns.

When it comes to social media, Richfield-based Best Buy is an acknowledged pioneer. The consumer electronics giant has authorized thousands of employees to respond to customer questions posted on Twitter.

To drive home that point, the retailer has been airing a series of ads in which customers seek guidance from a stadium full of blue-shirted Best Buy employees. Viewers are told they’ll find such employees on Twitter, for real.

Jason Parker is one of them; he answers customer questions via his computer or smart phone.

“They can send a tweet to Twelpforce, get an answer sometime during their workday, check it later and have the answer they need without having to invest any more time than it takes to type 140 characters,” Parker said.

Best Buy has about 10,000 followers on Twitter and 830,000 fans on Facebook.

Social media’s proponents in the business world say it’s all about talking with people, not at them. Companies can cement customer relationships and better understand their customers, too.

“It’s a great way to get plugged into what is going around you,” Barry Judge, Best Buy’s chief marketing officer, said. “We’re doing it for more than the followers we’ve achieved. We’re doing it to help start to change the orientation of customer service within this company and change how the way people think about us and our helpfulness. What we’ve done so far, we’re just thrilled with.”

Target, Best Buy’s cross-town neighbor, is also bullish about social media. It’s not on Twitter yet. That’s coming. But Target’s official Facebook page has over 500,000 fans.

They offer both kudos and criticism of Target. Some plead for Target to open stores in their towns. Others even post photos of cute kids in Target shopping carts.

Target has tapped those fans for input on matters such as improving the retailer’s offerings in men’s clothing.

Spokeswoman Leah Guimond said Target is still exploring what to do with social media.

“Social media in general is still something we are still exploring,” Guimond said. “We [do] think it is a way for us to reach our guests and a way for us to have them connect with us in a different way, and Just this as we look to integrate it into more of our campaigns. It’s definitely up there on the list of marketing tools.”

General Mills is keen on social media, too. Through its MyBlogSpark network, the food company distributes product samples to hundreds of blogging moms. The moms’ products reviews seem to be overwhelmingly favorable, generating valuable word-of-mouth promotion for General Mills.

Many other big Twin Cities companies are quite interested in social media, but they haven’t made a big push so far.

Cargill, the agri-business giant, for instance, has about 300 followers on Twitter.

While individuals might join Twitter without giving it a second thought, companies are cautious. They worry about potential minefields, like impostors creating fake Facebook accounts or loose-lipped employees spilling corporate secrets.

Carol Russell, CEO of Russell Herder, a Minneapolis advertising agency, said top executives within a company often thwart efforts to embrace social media aggressively.

“The kind of comments that I hear are: ‘We really want to do this. We want to do it well. But I just can’t get my boss to look at this. They are afraid of it,’” Russell said.

Punch Pizza knows no fear when it comes to social media.

Punch uses Facebook and Twitter to keep in touch with thousands of dedicated patrons of its six local Neapolitan pizzerias. Punch often uses Twitter to publicize free pizza deals, counting on fans to pass on word of the offer to their friends, who’ll pass it on to their friends.

“People actually do the work for you,” John Puckett, a co-owner of Punch, said. “If they like our brand and like what we’re doing with pizza, they’ll help us spread the word. It is a very efficient way to market.”

Puckett said he’s given away thousands of pizzas and figures a freebie can turn someone into a lifelong paying customer.

If more companies succeed with social media, we can probably count on other business trying to cozy up with us online.

NFL adopts game day social media policy
Posted by Mike Florio on August 31, 2009 4:08 PM ET

The National Football League, ten days from the start of the 2009 regular season, has rolled out its policy regarding the use of social media (such as Twitter and Facebook) on game days.

Per the release from the league office, the NFL has advised the 32 member teams that coaches, players, and football operations personnel will be permitted, with club permission, to use these devices on game day during specific time periods before and after games.

The prohibited window starts 90 minutes before the game begins and extends after post-game media interviews have concluded.

The phrase “with club permission,” however, allows the teams to (in theory) apply broader rules on the use of social media.

At some point, the matter could become a subject for collective bargaining. (Actually, the NFLPA might contend that the league-imposed policy in and of itself represents a condition of employment that cannot be unilaterally imposed.)

“The use of these sites . . . is not permitted during the game, including halftime,” the release states. “No updates are permitted to be posted by the individual himself or anyone representing him during this prohibited time on his personal Twitter, Facebook or any other social media account.”

The league also has blocked referee Ed Hochuli from tweeting apologies for his next blown call; the policy prohibits NFL game officials and the officiating department from using social media at any time.

There’s also an aspect that applies to the media.

“Longstanding policies prohibiting play-by-play descriptions of NFL games in progress apply fully to Twitter and other social media platforms,” the release states. “Internet sites may not post detailed information that approximates play-by-play during a game. While a game is in progress, any forms of accounts of the game must be sufficiently time-delayed and limited in amount (e.g., score updates with detail given only in quarterly game updates) so that the accredited organization’s game coverage cannot be used as a substitute for, or otherwise approximate, authorized play-by-play accounts.”

But while it will be fairly easy for the league to slam the door on play-by-play accounts posted by the likes of beat writers, accredited national media, and assorted Internet slapdicks like yours truly, we wish the league office the best of luck in keeping Joe Schmoe in Kokomo from trying to become the Twitter and/or USTREAM version of Al Michaels.

And that’s where the rules become unfair and/or unrealistic. Someone sitting in the press box will be prohibited from tweeting a play-by-play account of the game. But the guy or gal sitting only a few feet away in the paid seating area will be able to tweet to his or her heart’s content.

There’s no way that the NFL will be able to police this. Our guess is that, in the end, the league will to stop only those offenders who become the most popular and/or notorious.

All that said, our new friend (and we don’t mean that sarcastically) Chad Ochocinco is on notice — there will be no player tweeting during games.

Social networks leak personal information, study finds
Spying eye Facebook social networks tracking cookies privacy risk security research study LinkedIn Myspace Twitter Hi5

.retweet= http://bit.ly/qRnba.
A new study suggests so-called tracking cookies used by social networks such as Facebook and Twitter may help reveal users’ sensitive personal information to third-party advertisers, hackers and online criminals.

In our 2009 State of the Net survey, roughly 13 percent of people using social networks such as Facebook and Myspace reported being subjected to some kind of abuse and 17 percent of all online users reported having recently experienced identity theft online.

Now a new study (PDF) raises another, possibly more serious threat to users of social networks: the leaking of their personal information to third-party tracking sites that run banner ads on those social networks.

Such tracking sites are known to compile, over a period of years and using cookie files on people’s home computers, anonymous records of users’ online behavior. For example, they track which web sites people visit. Having the ability to tie those anonymous records to the identities of social network users would all but eliminate their anonymity.

The study, co-authored by a researcher at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute, examined the practices of 12 social networking services, including Bobo, Digg, Facebook, Friendster, Hi5, Imeem, LinkedIn, LiveJournal, MySpace, Orkut, Twitter, and Xanga.

Those social networks tag each user by assigning him or her a unique identifier. Normally, such a tag is used internally by the social network to access the user’s personal profile. But if an outside tracking site were to obtain that tag, it could easily locate personal information in an individual’s social network profile.

What the researchers found is this: When a social network communicates with a third-party tracking site, typically for the purpose of displaying a banner ad on the user’s screen, the social network is disclosing the user’s tag to the tracking site. It’s not known whether any tracking site has abused such a disclosure. But one could, by combining the personal information obtained from the social network with its own records of that user’s online behavior to compile a dossier on that individual, including his or her name.

Many social network users have access to privacy controls that can protect their personal information from such tracking sites. But, the study found, on some services such sensitive information as the user’s name, gender, age, and location remain unprotected by privacy controls. The study also estimated that between 55 and 90 percent of the users of the social networks hadn’t taken advantage of privacy controls to limit access to their profile information. As a result, much of their personal information was widely exposed. (Besides being of use to third-party tracking sites, such detailed information could be useful to online scammers and other criminals.)

The bottom line: Social networks should offer users a wide range of privacy protections and make sure those are enabled by default. Users of social networks shouldn’t assume their identity and personal information is private from advertisers and scammers, and should take all necessary precautions to protect themselves.

I’ll cover those recommended steps in a follow-up blog. —Jeff Fox

Interesting…..T

This is a re-tweet from one of my most valuable resources http://patrickjonesmba.wordpress.com/


August 10th, 2009 | by Adam Ostrow
There have been a number of cases where an employee’s misuse of social media has lead to their dismissal. However, it appears that these aren’t just outliers, but the result of a serious crackdown by corporate America on tracking their employee’s online activities.

According to a new study by Proofpoint, an Internet security firm, of companies with 1,000 or more employees, 17 percent report having issues with employee’s use of social media. And, 8 percent of those companies report having actually dismissed someone for their behavior on sites like Facebook (facebook) and LinkedIn (LinkedIn). That’s double from last year, where just 4 percent reported having to fire someone over social media misuse.

Some other interesting findings from the study:

15 percent have disciplined an employee for violating multimedia sharing / posting policies

13 percent of US companies investigated an exposure event involving mobile or Web-based short message services

17 percent disciplined an employee for violating blog or message board policies

There’s likely two factors at work here: employers more closely monitoring social media sites, and employees continuing to not use common sense when posting about work life, either by sharing sensitive corporate details, or simply by making foolish remarks about their employer. This epic exchange between an employee and her boss on Facebook from TheNextWeb is a perfect example:

Even if you do use common sense in your postings, however, it’s important to remember that when you’re behind the corporate firewall, there’s a good chance that anything you write in email, IM, or social media is being monitored. Thus, it’s best to keep the commentary offline, at least unless you’re absolutely sure both your privacy settings and IT setup make sure that whatever you’re saying will only be read by its intended audience.