360DigitalInfluence

There seems to have been an unfortunate increase in the number of disasters within the last few weeks. It’s no surprise that some of the most timely coverage around these recent crises comes from non-traditional reporting - tweetpic, flickr, blogs, youtube, twitter hashtags, etc.

It can be hard for those impacted by the disaster to monitor all of these channels in real time, especially for marcom professionals under enormous pressure to respond quickly with critical communications.

While there are many great paid services that monitor across channels,  I recently came across a free solution that helps make sense of real time crisis content. The next time a disaster strikes, be sure to check out CrisisWire - a relatively new site that aggregates blog posts, photos, twitter into one page. Most of the time it’s sparse site, though, in times of crisis, be sure to check in for all of the social media content flowing in from around the world.

Last week an OOH advert on the Chicago El train - from Dentyne -  caught my eye:

I’m not here to critique the creative, although I do happen to like it.  Rather, I’m just a bit surprised we (or maybe it’s just me) haven’t seen more brands use popular social media cues in their marketing communications.

Again, creative aside I like a few things here:

1. It’s current (i.e. shows Dentyne is paying attention to the world around it)
2. The imagery is emotional
3. There is no URL on the ad.  That’s right, no URL.  Think about the call-to-action … “Make Face Time.”  A URL would be a conflicting message.  Glad to see this execution won out in what I can only imagine was a rigorous debate.

The full print and TV campaign is available on Dentyne’s site.  Unfortunately there’s no embed code for the TV spots — seems like a miss.

Have you seen other brands leverage the growing popularity of social media in their offline communications?  Please share.

Join us in Washington on March 4th and 5th for a great high-level event meant to help senior communications officers in brands and government implement communications strategies that respond to the recession.

I will be speaking at the RETHINKING CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS 2009 Conference & Bootcamp which has a terrific roster. Check it out today and register at the Communitelliegence site.

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I am excited to be in planning mode with my co-presenters for an upcoming workshop at WeMedia ‘09 next week in Miami. BlogTalkRadio’s John Havens, Divine Caroline’s Suha Araj, the Washington Times‘ Chuck DeFeo and I will be leading a workshop on growing community in a variety of different business contexts. While prepping for this, I started thinking more about Mack Collier’s thoughts about Why Your Community Building Efforts Aren’t Working. In this post, he hits on the disconnect between what most companies want (to market) and what their customers do not want from a community (to be marketed to).

So what is a brand marketer, digital strategist, or even a brand FAN to do to cross this chasm? continue reading

In case you missed the live streaming broadcast of the 2009 Red Dress Collection Fashion Show, I wanted to share some highlights from today’s exciting event. The show opened fashionably late with everyone’s favorite fashion expert and stylist, Tim Gunn from Project Runway. Tim shared the easy and simple steps women can take to reduce their risk of heart disease while explaining the red dress symbolism to the crowd.

You can still catch the 2009 Red Dress Collection Fashion Show on ogilvypr.com now that the archive video is posted!

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The 2009 New York Fashion Week kicks-off Friday with The Heart Truth’s Red Dress Collection Fashion Show, and Ogilvy PR will be there not only to run the event, but also to provide you live coverage.

Visit ogilvypr.com to watch the live streaming coverage of The Heart Truth’s Red Dress Collection Fashion Show at 10:00 AM EST.

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Recently there has been some talk on a few other DC-based social media consultant blogs about the rise of “Government 2.0″ and whether the so-called experts in the space really deserve that title. Yet for all this attention on expertise in social media (justified or not), those of us who at least work and provide advice in the space have not done as much as we need to offer the ammunition to the people who are really in a position to move government forward into using these tools. These are the web masters, communications managers, PR directors and other such people who are the voices waiting to be unleashed within government offices everywhere.

For them, there needs to be a simple reason to care about social media - and actionable advice to sell it into their organizations so they start focusing on it sooner rather than later. Thankfully, the new administration coming in offers that simple reason in three short crucial words: Get Obama’s Attention. Since government loves acronyms, let’s call this idea GOA.
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So you’ve finally gotten used to seeing the above little logos on a lot of the websites you visit. Maybe you’ve even “Dugg” a blog post, “Stumbled” a website, or “Tweeted” an article. Well, the extent of your foray into social media engagement as you browse the Web has only just begun. The following two logos will start to pop up more and more in 2009:

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In support of our client, the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), and their Heart Truth campaign, I’m encouraging everyone to WEAR RED tomorrow for National Wear Red Day. Tell your friends, family and co-workers to join you in the effort to build heart disease awareness amongst women and learn more about The Heart Truth campaign.

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Bloggers as well as mainstream news media have been closely following the story of Nadya Suleman, the mother who gave birth to octuplets last week. Following ethics questions about the doctors who gave her fertility treatments, people began to question why Suleman was looking for a larger family in the first place since she already had six kids at home. Even baby product manufacturers are staying at arm’s length and haven’t offered any of the donations or support that usually follows famous multiples. In social media, moms are getting nasty about their feelings towards Suleman- a reminder of the dynamic nature of the online parenting network. continue reading