eROI NYC Interactive Agency

This just came out today. Seems a little late…but I am down with it. I will def try it. On the onset it seems to do everything FB does. I wonder what implications this has for them. More on this as I give it a try. Scobleizer chipped in it for a pretty good read.

Since January 12, 2010 I have thought a lot about how much of an impact social media has had on the relief efforts of the horrible tragedy that occurred in Haiti 2 weeks ago.   I obsessively watched Wyclef’s Twitter page for updates and from Twitter to Facebook to BBM to Text, I was encouraged in a multitude of ways to donate to the Relief Funds.  There’s no doubt that the ease with which people are able to donate money is a Godsend and it certainly contributed to the over $50Million raised in the first few days after the earthquake.  An article in The Nation states that the disaster in Haiti proves the value of Social Media.  I’m not sure how many non-believers were left, but hopefully they were all depleted during the past 2 weeks.

The fact that communication, thoughts and opinions can be transferred in real time is an amazing and immense benefit to this world and I’m a huge advocate for how social media allows more and more people to get involved in global events.  However, in my opinion, nothing can truly replace the “traditional” actions that need to take place in order for some real and powerful changes to be made.   Social media is not a substitute for these actions, it can and should only serve as an aid.  I feel that the last few lines in this article written by Ben Parr in Mashable states it best:

“We have to be realistic, though: new media isn’t going to stop censorship, overthrow oppressive regimes, or heal the people of Haiti alone. Social media has transformed communication, media, and the transmission of information, but it still takes people on the ground to pull people out of the rubble or to fight for freedom.

Just as Paul Revere embarked on his midnight ride to warn that the British were coming, social media acts as both the first warning and the rallying cry for mobilization. In the end though, social media is just a collection of tools. It’s up to us, the people, to make the real impact on our world.”

Christmas trees, hot chocolate, the smell of roasted chestnuts, snow tires, an extra 10 lbs of “winter weight” – these are all signs that the holiday season is upon us.   In almost all households, the terms Black Friday and Cyber Monday have also become synonymous with the holidays and the shopping season.  Although I’m not one for camping out in the mall parking lot, I am a firm believer that this past week was full of some amazing deals on and offline, especially for those lucky shoppers who were there fast enough to see “supplies last”.

Of course 2009 is the year of the savvy consumer (like me!) and many turned to Facebook to check out the latest deals from their favorite retailers and shopping sites.  Likewise, many brands took full advantage of the consumers’ surge to Facebook by providing many reasons and ways to “become a Fan”.   In honor of the season to shop, All Facebook has compiled a list of the 5 brands that can boast fastest growing Fan membership over the past few days.  All of these pages have impressively gained anywhere from 10,000 to 100,000 Fans in only a few days!:

1) Verizon

2) Foot Locker

3) Natural Clothing has been growing like crazy right before my eyes.  The steetwear line has a cool blog and thousands of fans seem to have branched over to their Facebook page.  The fan base increased impressively from 5,800 to over 48,000 in the past few days.

4) Newegg.com has become increasingly popular on Facebook for some time now.  In the past few days, their Fan Page has added around 70,000 new fans – maybe due to their long list of Cyber Monday deals?

5) Kohl’s

For me, the shopping season doesn’t just consist of one weekend.  I have a whole slew of gifts left to buy, but it’s pretty cold out there so I openly invite retailers to come up with more clever ways to engage consumers online.  The more shopping I can plan and do from the comfort of my apartment the better!

I came across something interesting today and it made me think about the nature of what “going viral” means and how something gets there. Almost every conference or event I have been to this year spends some time with this question.  I am almost sick of the term, but alas I am here talking about it.  It started for me like it has many times before….I got a link via email. This link was from a web developer in Portland and it shot me to the vid below.

Pretty dope right. A little long but still cool, especially if you are a fellow fan (This album changed everything for us in HS).  What was even more interesting to me than the video was when I took a look at the stats.  The views for the last three days read like this: 4, 1, 30, 13.9K. Today is only half over and it has 10.6K already. So what happened? That jump is crazy. What percentage growth in views is that? (first to tweet @masagatani or email chris@eroi.com the answer gets a beer on me).  The real question to ask is not what happened but how it happened.  The first thing I thought was to check digg…here are the results of my search there and the vimeo stats. I love the comment from the guy who made the vid:

So it got some love from digg. 40 or so comments so far. But that’s not enough right? (more…)

I loved this editor’s note in the Graphic Design USA newsletter today. With all the hype around twitter its good to hear some from the other side. Perspective is king:

PUBLISHERS NOTE: TWITTER QUITTERS
Being a skeptic of the latest and greatest new media fads is not fun. I hate being that guy, but sometimes the hype becomes unbearable. Twitter is the latest example. Daytime media coverage! Celebrity endorsements! Ballooning traffic numbers! Marketers get on board! Venture capital on the move! This changes everything! Except for one inconvenient truth. Nielsen Online reports that more than 60 percent of Twitter users in a given month do not return to the site the following month; some months 70 percent abandon the service. Why the pitiful retention rate? The Nielsen folks speculate that Twitter may be a fad, and one reason is lack of meaningful content. Ya think? As I write this, Ashton Kutcher, the face of the medium, is generating his longest tweet of the day: “I wonder if people need less sleep in space. It seems sleep is gravity’s vaccine.” Later he’s planning to “kick it with Usher.” Can’t wait to log back in and see what theories that twosome — or their entourages — come up with.
— Gordon Kaye

A lot of times I get in discussions with peeps that don’t understand the power of twitter and how it can help their business. I wanted to provide a real world example of how it can. There are many ways it can make an impact, but this particular example is from the customer service perspective. Chain provided by @vitaloca NYC’s hardest working intern.

~Tweet: thanks Sprint for making me spend my last 50 cuz I “shouldn’t use my phone in the rain”…this is ny…i use my phone 24/7 rain or shine!

 ~Sprint response within 20 minutes: JGoldsborough@vitaloca Work 4 Sprint. Saw tweet on phone not working. Can I help? E-mail details, #. justin dot goldsborough at sprint dot com

 ~I emailed:  I am mad because I have been a customer for over 8 years and a lot of my Sprint phones get water damage because of the rain – so either make better phones that can withstand the most common whether conditions, or just give me a new phone.  I live in New York and when I am walking home late at night in Brooklyn, I am not going to keep my phone in my pocket just because it is raining.

 ~JGodsborough emailed back: Please call Sprint by dialing *2 from your phone and explain the situation.  I am making a note on your account that they will be able to see.  From looking at your account, you are a valued customer and we should be able to help you out by either discounting your next bill or offering you an upgrade.

The best part is that I just got a $150 upgrade on my phone in October.  I’m not eligible for one until 2010, but you better believe I got a $150 upgrade note on my account.  So I’m eligible for one whenever I want.

And in the spirit of customer service…let’s listen to Cassy deal w Arnold. This is great, fav part is when he tells here what kind of computer he has:

Today I had the opportunity to speak at NYU for the DM Club of New York. Truth be told it was my first speaking engagement in New York so I was stoked. I had trouble trying to figure out what to talk about but it all came together for me. I basically took a look at the work we have done with Wacom and presented it in a linear way to describe the Journey a brand can take from email marketing to a full fledged Social Network. The people in at the event were great and offered terrific questions about engagement and our execution. I have embedded my deck below and its available for download here .

I thought the cover of AM New York was so interesting today. Remember the days when we had to convince people that Social Networking and Web 2.0 will sweep the Earth? It is now clearer than ever that Social Networking is woven into our social fabric (you like how I capitalize Social Networking). The Facebook ripple is amazing…

Jeff Mills, Director of Sales and Strategy at eROI sent this around a few weeks ago and I thought I would share. It was interesting to check out some of these sites now and notice the changes. Think about how Facebook alone has at least 5 times that many users. Remember these days?

Hey Nation,
I had a great time at the NYC Tweet-up last night. I cant explain what Twitter is so if you don’t already know you better ask somebody. But the tweet up is a once a month event where users and adopters of twitter meet up in person and give a face to the @.
To be honest, I was so not in the mood to chat before I went out to the event but after a few minutes my attitude and outlook changed for the better. I met a ton of new people all of whom were smart and interesting. Totally refreshing to meet like minded people that are doing cool new things. I met some great behind the scene tweeters as well as some new ones. The event was right off the 8th street NRW near NYU at this Chinese themed bar/restaurant that looked like it had good food actually. I stuck with the Guinness which was tasty.
Thanks for the positive experience Tweeters. Now I better follow up with some of them.