business cards...really?
The other day we rush printed new business cards for some of us heading to SXSW. (Check out my new title!)
You can't go to a major conference like SXSW without cards, right? Wrong. I handed out about four cards. Maybe five, if you include the card that was required to get a free t-shirt at the Veer booth.
And for me, SXSW was all about meeting people. I met hundreds of new people. Some amazing people. Some really smart people. The thing is, they don't need my card. And I don't need theirs. If we made a mark on each other, we know how to find each other - and we've probably already connected on Twitter.
People like Steve Rubel are really proud of the fact that their Twitter ID is now on their card. (We've been doing this for years.) I ask: do we really need cards at all?
We are in desperate need for a universal contact exchange (that people are willing to adopt) that does not involve paper. Plenty of companies have invented this, but no one has created a product that's hit the hot button. Yet. This has to come soon. Maybe Google, Facebook or Twitter will make it happen. Or maybe we'll just keep printing rectangular squares with website addresses on them.
How many pieces of paper have you left behind, recently?
Labels: green, productivity, sxsw, trends, twitter, workplace
posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:36 AM
1 comments
Monday, March 01, 2010
if you like stats, this will rock your pants
Here's a really awesomely animated and illustrated presentation of the state of the internet.
Labels: creativeinspiration, google, trends, viral
posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:07 AM
1 comments
Monday, February 22, 2010
youtube: giving you the edge in college admission
Tufts has added a new option to high school seniors hoping to make the Tufts cut: Send a YouTube video. Making a video is one of eight optional submission options with the new enrollment application.
The results have been fantabulous - clearly giving a handful of students a tremendous edge. Although Tufts says they won't take public comments into account, some student submissions have generated a groundswell of support from existing Tufts students and alumni. They're building fans (and likely friends) before they've even been accepted to the campus.
For colleges, this gives an admissions department a unique look at a student. You can see their talent, their drive, and their comfort with themselves as teens ready for their next step in life.
You can almost imagine that a future progression will be micro-fan-financing. Like my video? Help send me to college.
English teachers: don't freak out. YouTube is an option, after they've completed two 200 word essays. All is right in the universe.
Awesome to see higher education adapting to the world where their audience lives. The internet is here - let's put it to good use.
From @KyleJudah @tsand, @cdorso, @epsteada, and of course, @TuftsAdmissions. (Yeah, they're on Twitter, too.)
Labels: education, trends, youthmarketing
posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:54 AM
0 comments
the future of apparel is all about you.
Always wanted a photo of your dog on your shorts? Or a photo of your local beach? Or your own custom illustration? Done, Done and done.
Shortomatic has brought to the world of boardshorts what Threadless brought to t-shirts, and what Vans brought to sneakers.
Now you can make your own shorts, or choose from a gallery of artist designed shorts. Submit your own designs and earn up to $1000. Everyone wins and looks hot on the beach. Which is really what life is all about, anyway.
We've seen the future, and it's designed by you. Suhweet.
Labels: fashion, productdesign, trends
posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:48 AM
0 comments
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
the future of the library
A California College of the Arts Professor asked his architectural class to explore what a library might look like in the future, if information were no longer accessed through books.
The results are pretty interesting, and include a Google Book Portal (pictured above), Public Access Wifi envelopes, and more.
Labels: architecture, future, trends
posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:33 AM
2 comments
Monday, February 01, 2010
hot bands discovered in your lobby
The lines between real estate development and boutique hotel design continue to blur. The latest example of this trend is Ohm, a new stylish rental building in Chelsea that features a lobby with...a stage.
They've partnered with the Knitting Factory to offer regular in-lobby performances for their tenants.
Labels: architecture, newyork, trends
posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:36 AM
0 comments
Thursday, January 14, 2010
the definition of "cool" has changed.
Carol Phillips has an interesting take on hipsters and how the personality of trendsetters among the millennial generation has changed.
Carol suggests that today's influencers are the "doers" in their groups. So it's much less about fashion, and much more about what they're accomplishing. Doers are fixing, leading, changing, advocating, and entrepreneuring. So influencers are actually making a difference outside their circles of influence, and thereby gaining influence inside their circle of friends.
The Breakfast Club will never be the same. From @PaughGinney.
Labels: fashion, pop culture, trends, youthmarketing
posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:54 AM
1 comments
Monday, November 30, 2009
is mobile the great pumpkin of the ad industry?
Ben Kunz over at Thought Gadgets points out that the mobile ad market is never as big as everyone says it is. Sure, it's growing in leaps and bounds - but it never quite reaches the point that all of the forecasters predict.
So all of those prediction numbers you hear on the business news reports? They're just the great pumpkin of the ad industry...keep waiting. (We're just happy that someone other than us is checking the math.)
Labels: adindustry, mobile, trends
posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:33 AM
0 comments
Monday, November 23, 2009
teens don't own social media
We've been saying this all along. Hooray for Advergirl, who put this into a glorious graphic, suitable for showing in a PowerPoint slide to your boss:
Teens don't own social media. Old people do.
Adults 25 - 44 are the heaviest users of the internet. They also have a lifetime of friends, colleagues and lovers that they need to keep track of using the magical internet tubes. Tweet on - you're better at this stuff than you thought.
Labels: social media, trends
posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:29 AM
0 comments
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
business loves social media
You already know this. But if your boss is still clinging to the year 2002, and you need yet another study showing that people are using social media for B2B, well here it is. Complete with a PowerPoint friendly graph that's sure to enter the skulls of even your most old-fashioned board members.
Impress the entire management team with factoids like:
+ B2B use outpaces B2C use on YouTube, LinkedIn and Twitter
+ B2B use is nearly equal to B2C use on Facebook
+ Professionals working on this devote 21% of their time to it
From CKSays
Labels: social media, trends
posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:03 AM
2 comments
Friday, November 06, 2009
twitter = second youngest of all social networks
ReadWriteWeb has some super interesting perspective on the population of the socialverse. When you look at the median age of each social network's audience, here's how they line up:
Twitter: 31
MySpace: 26
LinkedIn: 39
Facebook: 33
The report also shows that Facebook is getting older, as the retirement class continue to flock to the network. They also report that Gen Y is warming to Twitter - 37% of those 18-24 now use Twitter when only 19% did back in December 2008. Celebrities? Because their workmates are doing it? Who knows. What we do know: LinkedIn is for the super old. ;)
Labels: facebook, social media, trends, twitter
posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:24 AM
0 comments
Thursday, November 05, 2009
how bloggers are sharing video
Sysomos has done some interesting analysis on video streaming and sharing as it relates to video shared on blogs. They examined 100 million blog posts since July of this year, and determined:
Young Males Engage the Most - 20-to-35-year-old males constitute the most engaged demographic group in the study. In total, 77% of users are under 35-years old, while 60% of all users are male.
Asian Users Engage Differently - 90% of the users from Asia and Oceania are under 35-years-old. In comparison, a third of North American users are over 35-years-old. Bloggers in Asia and Oceania are less likely to use services other than YouTube, with 89% of the links and embeds pointing to YouTube.
Engagement Peaks on Tuesday - The most popular day for engaging with video in the blogosphere is Tuesday and Wednesday. The most active engagement takes place between 11a.m. and 1p.m EST.
There's a boatload of additional data where that came from. Read the details from their entire study and learn what's likely to get your video shared, posted on blogs and viewed by millions.
(There's also some slammin' graphs and charts that will make your PowerPoint deck look all juicy when you present this to the boss.)
Labels: analytics, blogging, social media, trends, video, viral
posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:38 AM
0 comments
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
what's happening right now
News from the Herd points to a super cool tool that monitors statistics of the social mediaverse and streams them live. Because you're all about the here and now. Amazing.
Labels: facebook, social media, trends, twitter
posted by darryl ohrt @ 8:04 AM
1 comments
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
more people use social media than email
There's an interesting article in the Wall Street Journal that supports what we've been saying all along: email is old school and sucky.
Only the Wall Street Journal says it more intelligently. Here's the most interesting factoid:
In August 2009, 276.9 million people used email across the U.S., several European countries, Australia and Brazil, according to Nielsen Co., up 21% from 229.2 million in August 2008. But the number of users on social-networking and other community sites jumped 31% to 301.5 million people.
(That Twitter bird is really smiling now, and eating email for lunch.) From Brett, via Twitter. Duh.
Labels: social media, trends, twitter
posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:34 AM
1 comments
Thursday, October 08, 2009
stop lurking, and join the fun.
A new study from Deloitte confirms that plenty of people are just lurking rather than participating in social media, which presents a challenge to the marketers who are there to engage them.
Some of the biggest challenges in creating a community include getting people to:
* Join (24 percent)
* Stay engaged (30 percent)
* Keep returning (21 percent)
More cool numbers to put in your PowerPoint pipe and smoke! From Steve Rubel.
Labels: social media, trends
posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:41 AM
0 comments
Thursday, September 17, 2009
that computer in your pocket has magnificent powers
You'll have to take four minutes and watch this wonderful video from our friends at XPlane.
Four minutes that will help you realize what an amazing time we're living in and how the possibilities for awesomeness are being multiplied by a hundred every day.
Labels: creativeinspiration, technology, trends
posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:42 AM
0 comments
Friday, September 04, 2009
blogging will end the recession
Yet another survey for you to summarize in your PowerPoint presentation to the board. Now you'll increase your interactive budget by gazillions of dollars.
A survey of 1531 HubSpot customers (half that blogged, and half that didn't) shows that businesses that blog see 55% more visitors, 97% more inbound links, 434% more indexed pages. Nuff said.
From Matt Singley.
Labels: blogging, search, social media, trends
posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:04 AM
0 comments
Thursday, September 03, 2009
gah!! teens are on twitter!
Here's a new development in the never ending, non-stop tweeting about who's on twitter.
Teens are not on Twitter.
What??? Teens are not on Twitter?? I thought teens owned the internet??
Nope. Teens don't use Twitter.
This just in...
According to some new data from Comscore, those in the 12-17 and 18-24 year-old demographics – are Twitter’s fastest growing audience segment.
Teens are on Twitter! Quick, hide your tweets!
Labels: social media, trends, twitter, youthmarketing
posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:32 AM
3 comments
Tuesday, September 01, 2009
a brief history of film titles
Annyas has created a stellar archive of movie title screens. It's pretty awesome to browse through the sets of stills from as far back as the 1920's. What a great reflection of pop culture, design, technology and the film industry. Found on idsgn.
Labels: design, film, pop culture, trends
posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:38 AM
2 comments
Monday, August 24, 2009
local tv news is ready to die now.
We've seen the music industry implode. Newspapers close down. Local TV news is the next industry deserving a nice kick in the pants.
Local news stations have a bunch of issues:
+ Their stories were reported on the internet yesterday
+ Their weathermen think we're amazed at maps that zoom into a street as if we've never seen Google Maps
+ Video of a house fire every day is only so exciting, year after year
This clip from WJW in Cleveland is either a hilarious joke or proof that local news needs to be replaced by re-runs of Facts of Life. Or the A-Team. (That would be awesome.)
Labels: creativeinspiration, trends, tv
posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:49 AM
2 comments
gamers get old, fat and lazy.
Wired reports about Computerworld reporting on a new study from the Center of Disease Control (!) that shows that pretty much everyone is a gamer. And we're all getting fatter.
The surprise that may exist in this study for marketers is the fact that gamers aren't just teens. In fact 25% are 50+.
The study also reports that gamers say they're overweight and have more "poor-mental-health days." (PMH?) Keep this in mind when you're composing that photograph of the living room scene for that new ad, and end up casting the 12 year old to play XBOX. Might not be as close to reality as you think.
posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:36 AM
2 comments
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
send this to the teen driver you know
This isn't funny, entertaining or cute. It's a "scared straight" type of PSA geared toward showing the potential effects of texting while driving. It's only a short clip of a 30 minute piece that's shown to students in the UK. It's disturbing.
Once, while on the Plaid Nation tour this year, I counted the number of drivers on a loooong stretch of highway who were NOT texting or talking on their cells. The count rarely got higher than five consecutive "safe" drivers. Not science, just my own informal survey. I never found ten consecutive "safe" drivers.
Bill Green suggests we take it a step further, and create a campaign Ignore It or Turn It Off, (LOVE THIS) and have it funded like the drink responsibly messaging.
Until then, you can send the video edit above to the drivers you know. Especially the ones who love to text.
posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:33 AM
3 comments
Thursday, August 13, 2009
everything is social
Google just stepped up the socialness of their iGoogle product - the start page for millions and millions of internetizens.
Right now, it's got a social graph, activity feed and applications. This could be an interesting place to keep tabs on your social self. Right now it's a bit clunkly and unintuitive, but if evolved could indeed become the center of everythingness. Go google.
Labels: google, social media, trends
posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:50 AM
0 comments
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
go to playboy.com. it's work...really.
Ben Kunz over at Thought Gadgets points us to the new Playboy site. Not because there's almost naked girls on the site - but as an example of the changing landscape in the publishing industry.
As Ben points out, the main broadcast networks have sold $1 billion less in primetime upfronts this year, down from $9 billion in 2008. And we all know what's going on in the newspaper/magazine industry.
How to survive? Provide creative content and integrate your advertisers. That's what Playboy is doing. They've allowed the MadMen brand to takeover the site - and tailored their history of relevant content around the brand.
They've integrated their advertisers into the content (see the Southern Comfort screen shot above.) And they've backed it up with deep content. You can browse every issue of Playboy from the 1960's, page by page - including ads - which are just as entertaining as the pinups. For real. Sadly, you can't link to individual pages - which would have been awesome to show you some old Hathaway or Wrangler ads. Now you'll just have to "explore" yourself.
Go ahead...it's work.
Labels: adindustry, publishing, trends
posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:32 AM
4 comments
Tuesday, August 04, 2009
business cards: over.
One of the kabillion things that we observed while on the PlaidNation tour this year is an interesting trend in trading contact information: business cards are over.
We paid visits to over 20 companies, brands and people in ten cities across the U.S. We met with start ups, individuals and Fortune 500's. We handed out about 3 business cards.
What people want instead: your Twitter handle. Your email. Nothing else matters. If you have my Twitter handle, you can get anything you need.
Most of the time you'll hand out business cards in situations where etiquette or tradition dictate that it's necessary. Like when you sit at a conference table, with a team of people that you haven't met before. It's like we're all programmed that "now is the time we exchange business cards." But really - all they need is your email address. Do they really need a piece of cardboard?
We discovered this because tour meetings eliminated traditional meeting culture. And once the culture of a meeting is eliminated, people fall back on actual needs instead of habits. Only a couple of people that we met "needed" business cards. Everyone else traded Twitter names.
Try it at your next meeting. Ask for a Twitter name or an email instead of a card, and enter it into your smart-device of choice. And eliminate the cardboard that gets tossed, lost or mangled the moment you leave.
Labels: identity, social media, trends
posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:54 AM
12 comments
Thursday, July 09, 2009
the blog replaces associate press
Andy Sernovitz points out an interesting development he noticed when Google announced their new operating system yesterday. They did so with a blog post. One of the largest technology companies in the world announced a new product that affects one of the other largest technology companies in the world - potentially big news - and they announced it in a blog post.
Andy thinks that traditional news organizations should be freaking out. (We have a feeling that many already were.)
Labels: blogging, news, social media, trends
posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:38 AM
1 comments
Tuesday, July 07, 2009
people don't learn much from banner ads
A new Harris Interactive poll shows that 37% of Americans say that television ads are most helpful in making their purchase decision while 17% say newspaper ads are most helpful and 14% say the same about Internet search engine ads.
Interesting...but let's be careful not to mis-interpret here...this is a comparison of ads. Not online research, engagement, social interaction, branded tools or other experiences that users partake on the magical internets. Shouldn't be a huge surprise - when was the last time you learned anything from a paid search ad??
(The photo of coworker @spadachris getting dizzy on a spinning teacup has nothing to do with this post. Just an interesting graphic to keep you entertained while you read a bunch of boring numbers and statistics and attempt to make sense of it all.)
Labels: adindustry, trends, tv
posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:38 AM
2 comments
dad's on facebook. let's bolt.
iStrategy Labs just released some analysis of audience demographics from Facebook's Social Ads platform.
There's an amazing increase of 513.7% of the 55+ users. The bad news? 16.5% less high school students and 21.7% less college users.
If you review census data, there's a drop in population of high school students this year and next year - could this be the net effect? Or, if Facebook has become all about celebrating your past - perhaps kids don't have enough past to make it worthwhile?
Whatever - in the meantime, realize that most marketers of 55+ products and services AREN'T doing anything valuable in Facebook. Opportunity is knocking.
Thanks Ben Kunz!
Labels: facebook, social media, trends, youthmarketing
posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:23 AM
1 comments
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
how girls got slutty in 1964
Copyranter has scanned a Fredericks of Hollywood catalog from 1964. Nothing but awesomeness. And plenty of these dresses are totally hot. (But that's just an opinion.)
The girl on the cover better watch out. That dude's eyebrows and white gloves have serial killer written all over them.
Labels: adindustry, fashion, pop culture, trends
posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:31 AM
0 comments
Monday, June 22, 2009
how to apply for a job in 2009
Murphy-Goode is a family-owned winery in Sonoma County. They have a short term position for a someone with stellar social media talents. And they figured they'd go about the selection process in a social media way.
Candidates submitted video applications, and now you can vote on your favorites. The only down side to this process is that it pretty much excludes anyone who is currently employed from applying...(pretty sure that you wouldn't want your boss checking out your application video.)
Otherwise, this is an interesting way to get to know a handful of candidates. We suggest that the people at Murphy-Goode seriously consider social media superstar Heather Herr. She's a long time SM friend of Plaid, who we finally had the pleasure of meeting in person at SXSW this year (yes, people really do meet in person.)
So we voted Herr. And not just because she taught us new drink concoctions while in Austin, TX. We suggest that you vote the same.
posted by darryl ohrt @ 8:06 AM
2 comments
Thursday, June 18, 2009
report: 90% of our waking time is spent staring at rectangles
This is funny. And sad. And true. We should design circular internet browsers just to throw everyone off.
Labels: pop culture, trends
posted by darryl ohrt @ 8:06 AM
1 comments
news reporters realize that twitter is cool
Because people that are in love with Twitter love to talk more than 140 characters about Twitter, they've created a conference for them. 140 Character Conference brought together a bunch of Twitter lovers and media stars to do what they do best: talk endlessly about the Twitterverse.
One cool concept that apparently came out of the event is the possibility of a Twitter News Network - or TNN.
Ummmmm.....DUH. This is something we suggested back in May, and the folks at TwitterGrep created (which now sadly appears to be defunct.)
Here's an idea: CNN, NBC, whoever: instead of waxing over the possibility, why don't you create it? Next week? The tools are here (TwitterGrep was proof of concept) and the opportunity exists for a valuable tool branded with your network's name on it. (Call us if you really don't know how.)
Oh, and if you didn't make the conference, but have a secret crush on Ann Curry like I do, then you'll love the beautious shots that Brian Solis captured at the event.
Labels: cnn, news, publishing, social media, trends, twitter
posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:48 AM
1 comments
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
only old people install software on their machines
Not to be outdone by Google and the many other online office tools, Adobe has officially launched Acrobat.com, a suite of online tools that let you write documents, create PDFs, store files and share it all with your friends and coworkers.
Remember in the olden days, when you had to spend $600 on a suite of office tools to type a letter? Yeah, that was silly. More on Ars Technica.
posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:42 AM
0 comments
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
ibm says it's ok to use the cloud
If you work in the type of corporate environment controlled by an old school IT department that won't allow new technology until everyone else has moved onto something else, today may be your day.
IBM just announced that it's ok to use cloud computing.
That's kind of like the Gap selling skinny jeans and cool t-shirts. Or McDonalds selling the most delicious cupcakes. Rejoice cubicle drones, a new world is upon us. This internet thing is really going to catch on. From When More PR?
Labels: technology, trends, workplace
posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:57 AM
0 comments
Tuesday, June 09, 2009
social media for journalists
Wow. Leah Betancourt, the Digital Community Manager at the Star Tribune in Minneapolis has a smart post for your friends in the newspaper business. The cool thing is that you can replace the word "newsroom" with your company's name, and the reasoning mostly holds true.
How Social Media is Radically Changing the Newsroom talks about the necessity of social media tools in the news business, how journalists need to integrate it into their lives, and the responsibilities that come along with its use.
“Just like the telephone didn’t replace the face-to-face meeting over coffee, and e-mail didn’t replace the telephone, social media doesn’t replace other forms of connecting with people. It adds to them,” says Serra Media CEO Mark Briggs.
There's a bunch of great advice here that you can most certainly pass to your friends in the corporate bubble, too.
Labels: publishing, social media, trends
posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:36 AM
0 comments
Friday, June 05, 2009
everything changes all the time
You might need to rethink your web metrics as search engines evolve. Online Media Daily has a good post on the effect of Microsoft's new Bing engine, and the results it has on your analytics.
Keywords shmeewords. Just create loads and loads of awesomeness and the world will come to your doorstep.
posted by darryl ohrt @ 8:03 AM
0 comments
Tuesday, June 02, 2009
like a white paper, only cooler.
ScenarioDNA has "issued a position statement." At many firms, that means that an agency CEO hired a copywriter to smooth over a bunch of senseless ramblings into a white paper that attempts to make him look smart. But not in this case.
ScenarioDNA introduces The Transformer Generation. They've successfully identified a generation and their attributes with the Transformers. Yeah - those Transformers. Super interesting perspective with a bunch of smart detail to back it up.
(We assume that they also have tickets to the new film's opening.)
posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:45 AM
2 comments
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
that's stuff "for you kids"
You have to read the exchange between Nick Kinney at American Copywriter and his mom.
You'll find this absolutely hilarious, and likely completely indicative of the battle you're fighting in your own organization. Trying to get the company old schoolers to understand and embrace new internet tools and ways. Even when they know they have value. "That's for you kids."
When will the curmudgeons just leave?
Labels: apple, apps, iphone, pop culture, trends
posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:42 AM
0 comments
tweets on tees. because it had to be.
We just received some advance tees from the coolest new partnership on the internet: Threadless + Twitter.
Buy these for all of your twitter friends, and then give them out at the next tweet up, and then wear them around for your outside world friends to be even more confused by your twitter shenanigans. Sweet. (I mean tweet.)
Labels: fashion, pop culture, trends, twitter
posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:22 AM
0 comments
Wednesday, May 06, 2009
more numbers and graphs for your powerpoint pleasure
Because your boss still thinks this internet thing won't last. And he believes social media is a fad. And you need a bunch of numbers for your PowerPoint presentation to convince him otherwise...
Another study gives you the numbers as proof. People are using social media to communicate. Whoopee. Let's dance in the streets and tweet about it.
Labels: social media, trends
posted by darryl ohrt @ 8:06 AM
0 comments
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
mayors geeking it up
Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz recently held a bloggers breakfast. Not because bloggers are hungry and need food, but because he wanted to give bloggers the same respect that politicians used to give to media like newspapers.
And now perfect hair dude/San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom chats with the hot girls of Geek Entertainment TV about geeky stuff. Even before all of that, our own Mayor helped us take over the city of Denver.
Mayoral trend? We hope so. Perhaps Mayors are the new social media. And Bloggers will control the earth. And RSS is the way to salvation. Or something like that.
Labels: blogging, politics, social media, trends
posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:54 AM
0 comments
social media to replace microwaves?
A new study from those uber smart research dudes at Pew shows that fewer people claim TV to be a necessity. In fact, today's study shows the smallest share to call a TV a necessity since the question was first asked over 35 years ago.
What Adverlab fails to point out is that people also no longer consider microwaves a necessity. Clearly, people have replaced their microwave use with Twitter.
Labels: social media, trends, tv
posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:40 AM
2 comments
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
r/ga is up to something.
This is what real internet geeks do for fun, when they're not at the office:
R/GA Creative Director Richard Ting is experimenting with RFID tags and a bar code reader. He's hooked everything up so that his 20 month old daughter can swipe tags with a scanner, and it automatically sends a tweet.
This is cool. This may provide endless opportunities.
+ Runners could swipe at mile markers in races, and auto tweet their position in a race.
+ Kids could swipe when at school/at class
+ Party attendees could swipe and auto announce "I'm here. Let's drink beer."
+ Your package could tweet that it just arrived on the UPS truck
+ Think of the countless opportunities where an easy swipe could send a tweet to let your family/friends/world know what's happening.
Time to head to Radio Shack, for parts.
Labels: social media, technology, trends, twitter
posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:30 AM
0 comments
Monday, April 20, 2009
many brands still oblivious.
Pingdom did a poll of the Top 100 Fortune 500 IT companies, to see who had registered their names on Twitter. Surprisingly, 67% of them were not registered, or used a more difficult searched name than their brand.
Sadly, I believe this. Our agency pitched a major beer brand about a year ago, and realized they hadn't secured their Twitter name. I did this for them, and then handed over the passwords to the account in the pitch meeting. They have yet to take it over, even though the account gets new followers every day. C'mon, brands!
Labels: social media, trends, twitter
posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:50 AM
3 comments
Friday, April 17, 2009
the spectrum of online friends
Have you struggled at attempting to describe your online friendships to your Amish friends who just don't understand the power of Twitter?
Thankfully, Mike Arauz has made this difficult topic even easier to understand with his spectrum of online friends graphic. Print a bunch of these, and just hand them out to your meat-space friends who don't understand. From News from the Herd.
Labels: facebook, social media, trends, twitter
posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:01 AM
0 comments
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
twitter hashtags seen in the wild
Twitter hashtags are used to sort and combine tweets around a particular topic. Putting a hashtag after a tweet (like #brandflakes) would allow Twitter search engines to pull together all tweets regarding that particular topic. The practice is popular among tweeters who are chatting within any meme.
And now, it's jumped out of the Twittersphere. Caffeine Goddess reports on Land Rover ads asking people to tweet about their brand, and use the hashtag #LRNY. You can see the results here.
Labels: adindustry, ads, social media, trends, twitter
posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:06 AM
0 comments
Tuesday, April 07, 2009
silly media people, all a twitter
It's funny when you see your local news anchors talk about Twitter - and they have to kind of say it with a chuckle - because "it's so silly."
Current TV just had some fun looking at the news media Twitter overload, and the silly, silly anchors being all Twitteriffic. Sigh. Thanks, Whitney!
Labels: news, social media, trends, twitter
posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:27 AM
0 comments
Wednesday, April 01, 2009
tweet your energy usage
This involves science, math, and electrical engineering, so don't expect any creative explanation from me...but the people at The Green Thing are tweeting their electricity usage for events.
If it were really possible to utilize a "twitter plug," this would be a cool idea for events to feature a badge on their website, showcasing actual energy usage for the event. A clear announcement that they care, and are taking steps to reduce usage, with a live read on what's actually happening.
Is this what the kids did in science, while we were in art class?
Labels: green, nonprofit, technology, trends
posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:48 AM
0 comments
when snuggies attack
This is no April Fool's joke - some mom's are now wearing their babies like monster appendages.
In the future, babies will be made on the internet, and carried around in USB drives.
posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:36 AM
0 comments
Thursday, March 26, 2009
it's not about control
Thinking of implementing a social media marketing campaign? (Better yet: Thinking of staying in business?) Check out this excellent post on Mashable about control and conversation.
Excellent advice, and a nice case study featuring our buddies at Flying Dog Brewery. From NealStewart.
Labels: beverage, social media, trends, yummyfood
posted by darryl ohrt @ 8:03 AM
0 comments
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
get a car at ikea, and then put furniture on its roof
If Detroit completely implodes - not to worry. We can all get cars at Ikea. Yeah, apparently Ikea is launching a car in April.
Either that, or they've launched a pretty fun hoax to get everyone's attention. Will you have to put it together yourself? With an allen wrench?
Labels: automotive, trends
posted by darryl ohrt @ 8:00 AM
1 comments
Monday, March 23, 2009
the right way to protect your brand
Pass this onto your PR firm, to your Brand Manager, to your legal team. Caleb Kramer writes about how awesomely Burger King handled the brand jacking of their brand on Twitter. While a company like Snickers does just the opposite and fails. Yummy.
Labels: branding, social media, trends, yummyfood
posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:03 AM
0 comments
how the iphone will create its own economy
This is a little scary, because it reminds me of similar stories about the micro economies within Second Life during its peak. Mashable has an excellent post on how the new iPhone capabilities could indeed launch a new mobile economy. But at least people are using their iPhones.
posted by darryl ohrt @ 6:57 AM
0 comments
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
detroit: new art city?
Here's a cool trend. Artists are buying up $100 houses in Detroit. Looks like Detroit is the new Portland.
Image by Sophia Martineck, from the New York Times.
Labels: architecture, art, economy, trends
posted by darryl ohrt @ 6:59 AM
1 comments
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
facebook driving more traffic than google
Advertising Age has an interesting piece on how Facebook is starting to drive more traffic than Google, for some sites.
Facebook already gets a little more than a third of Google's unique visitors in the U.S. (50 million vs. 149 million in January, per ComScore says AdAge)
How is this happening? Why do two gossip sites show up on the list of places that Facebook is driving better than Google? Because people aren't searching. They're finding.
This isn't about advertising or SEO. It's about relationships. Facebook is indeed the place people go to hang out and catch up with their friends. And their friends are sharing items of mutual interest. Like funny posts on gossip blogs.
So - how do you get some of this Facebook juice to your site? Create content (not a bunch of banner ads) that people want to share.
Labels: facebook, google, social media, trends
posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:59 AM
0 comments
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
it's good for you that big brands are getting social
There's a great post on Mashable about why it's cool for all of us that big brands are using social media. Read the list and you'll realize just how much business has changed - and will continue to change in the foreseeable future.
Transparency = quality product = stories = relationships = community. Nice.
Labels: branding, facebook, social media, trends, twitter
posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:17 AM
0 comments
Thursday, March 05, 2009
how p&g rocks through tough times
BrandGymBlog points out how P&G is planning to rock the house during the depressacession. For those too lazy to click through, here's the hot three tips:
1. Cut costs, not corners.
2. Follow the money.
3. Steal share of voice to help steal share
Of course you'll have no idea what those bullets mean without reading the BrandGymBlog. So now you have to click through. Go ahead. We'll be right here. (Oh, and aren't the toilet paper bears cute??)
posted by darryl ohrt @ 8:16 AM
0 comments
