Lost in twists, turns and black holes

In Wire’s interview, Carlton Case and Damon Lindelof, the executive producers of Lost, discusses  with physicist Sean Carroll the questions that many Lost fanatics have been asking about.

The thought process of the producers has lead to a show full of twists, turns and even black holes.  The show focuses on details from the past and future events to the extent that the show had to hire Gregg Nations to keep up with all of them, according to the article.

But these details are why the show has kept its loyal fans for such a long period of time.  The 39 comments and more than 1,200 retweets that followed the article show the fans need to know “everything Lost.”  It probably doesn;t help that the article is written in circles with clues embedded in the article.

One commenter laweasel 74, pointed out the anagram, Chuck E Cheese, actually meant Cuse He E-Check explained it as a clue that Cuse paid off Wired editors.  This is most likely untrue but it proves how Lost fans dissect “everything Lost” because they love that aspect.

The photograph of Lindelof and Cuse at the beginning of the article has had the readers analysing the placement of every item, the spelling of each word and significance of it all.

Lost fans are involved to the point of obsession, which s the effect every TV show prays to have from the viewers from the pilot episode.

Twitter expanding to new areas

Twitter Editions?

Who knew this day would come so soon?

Now you can not only be connected with Twitter while you read your favorite newspapers but also visit the Twitter edition and see what news people are following and post your own tweets.

The Huffington Post has a Twitter edition for their politics section that shows the users what many politicians are tweeting, what other users are tweeting and allows you to tweet on the site.  It allows comment on most of the pictures, articles or videos.  My favorite part is the “Hot on Twitter” section.  It shows the user what political controversy that people are tweeting about and before the user even clicks to check it out, the site shows how many comments have been made already in big lettering.

The site is informal for a political site but that is what makes it awesome because contrary to rumor, politics are not a topic that only gray-haired people discuss.  I was sitting in a room of twenty somethings last night that were in a heated debate on whether the healthcare reform would help or hurt the U.S.

Twitter editions are perfect for a quick read and browsing for others thoughts and opinions.  This innovative project is another way the media business is showing the public how it is working to create what the public wants.

New ways for reporters to strut their stuff

After reading Pam Fine’s post, Case studies would expose entrepreneurship students to legacy media innovations, on Kansas University’s journalism blog I had to go check out PolitiFact, one of the Web sites that KU journalism department was praising.  PolitiFact is a political Web site that the St. Petersburg Times started to give the public the truth about politics.

This interesting creation proves that the news media still knows how to best deliver what people care about.  PolitiFact is a site that shows the user what is being said in Congress and lets the user know which politicians statements are backed up by action or documentation.  This site is useful for people who want to know what is going on in the political world but do not have the time to go through every politicians statements, votes on legislation and personal history.  But what I love is that it is all fact checking which is a reporter’s forte.

Any newspaper staff could do this or something like this and it would not take much additional skills than what journalism schools have been teaching for years.  This would be an easy task for some reporters who are just now slipping into the digital era and get them accustom to the Web.

Dashboards make monitoring sites easy

After reading Susan Payton’s post, How to : Add Blogger Outreach to Your PR Plan,  I noticed that unless you have a team of people working at monitoring sites it is difficult to properly monitor all the social media sites and blogs because there are many that need to be checked but not enough time to do it in.  But for a company monitoring Web sites could be what makes or breaks their brand identity.  Blogs and unconventional news sites are becoming more popular by the second, it seems, and thanks to the first amendment they can write about whatever they want.

But how does a company effectively monitor  all the sites that may be buzzing about it?

Easy.  Dashboard baby!

After looking at Brian Solis’s post, The Brand Dashboard:  Bringing Conversation to Life, I realized how convenient a dashboard could be to any frequent Internet user. Dashboards bring all the sites to one place so they can easily be monitored by a single person.  A company could have a page dedicated to all the blogs that have its name in the blog.  Or have Twitter updates that is programmed to search for the companies name or product.

Solis talks about companies using dashboards to make monitoring sites easier. But I am a college student and I know I visit almost 50 sites a day just from studying and occasionally checking my social networks. Then I realize that I was only going to increase the number of sites I viewed each day as more and more things become available through the Internet.

So I was thinking that if you are wanting to monitor blogs and social media sites the best way is to make a dashboard so you can have all site updates all in one place.  Sounds like heaven for a heavy browser who has many accounts.  With a dashboard you can choose how to view all your updates.  You can catergorize, move site updates in one easy touch of a button, customize your page to fit your personality.  It is the Internet the way you like it because in a few easy steps you change anything.  The dashboard has the ability to change as quickly as the fickle mind of the average person in 2010.

So to see how effective dashboards are I decided to make my dashboard customized to my needs.  I went to NetVibes.com because my social media professor, Bill Handy, uses NetVibes and considering he looks at these kinds of things all day I decided to trust his instincts and try NetVibes.

NetVibes lets you customize your background immediately after sign up for an account. The first thing I noticed was the search capability from Google at the top. Even if someone like me can’t remember where I stored something I can find it quickly just by searching it. Once an account is made, the user can make as many dashboards as they need. So if they need a personal dashboard and a business dashboard for all their work sites then they don’t have to create a new account. It also allows you to switch from dashboard to dashboard with ease.
Each dashboard has tabs at the top, which pull up new pages. This makes it easy to categorize your interests and only see the sites for one particular interest at one time. But many dashboard creation sites have these features but they don’t have the ability to move the site sections around on each page. This is what puts NetVibes above the rest in my book because I am a loyal site visitor but I like discovering new sites as well. So if I am browsing and I find a site I would like to monitor a little more I can easily create a section for the site and position it higher on the dashboard page.
These kinds of capabilities show that NetVibes was thinking about what kind of features does an average Web browser needs. We want choice in what we view. We want personal customization. And we want the power to be in our hands instead of letting others decide what is important to us.

Using a business model that gives

The idea of cash for publicity that Stuart Elliott’s article, Using Cash as an Enticement in Tough Economic Times, focuses on is a terrific marketing strategy for companies to get great media coverage and customer response.  I think using contests as a tool to attract customers to a business has been a successful strategy for years and not just arising from these tough economic times.  But what everyone IS buzzing about is how much the prizes are worth. 

Elliot mentions the contest that Hershey Company’s Reese candy brand that is giving $2 million in cash prizes and the contest from Groupon that is giving $100,000 to a person who can live off Groupons for one year.  But these companies have realized that the publicity that will receive from these contests will more than compensate for the cash they are giving away. 

McDonalds has succeed with this strategy for more than 25 years with the Monopoly Sweepstake.  The sweepstakes encourages several loyal McDonalds costumers to buy a large drink instead of a small so they can play the game.  

And even though the games pieces are known to be unequally distributed but people don’t seem to care because they believe that after 100,000 times of buying the Big Mac might win them a sports car.

Companies should definitely follow McDonalds model because they have 31,000 locations worldwide and have to be doing something right.

The Power of Social Media

After reading Max Chafkin’s article, Kevin Rose of Digg:  The Most Famous Man on the Internet at Inc.

I could see why Digg is popular.  It allows the user to get feedback from other users rather than shuffling blind through all the interesting things out there.  But what I found amazing was the video clip they did during the shoot.

I love the concept of the using social media to get volunteers to play the part of the mob that is chasing Rose.  It is a win-win situation because those are people, who stumbled upon the Facebook page the photo editor, Travis Ruse, set up and plan to be there were people, who love Digg and DiggNation.  The fans were able to meet Rose and the photographers did not have to pay actors to play such small part.

Groupon could be the new big thing

So after reading Pete Cashmore’s article, Group buying: A billion-dollar Web trend, on CNNTech I was curious about this new trend.  So I went to Groupon to see what all the hype was about.

Group Buying:  Several people buy a product at the same time and everyone gets a discount. Example:  If 450 people agree to buy some gourmet chocolates, treats and drinks at CocoFlow Chocolate then all of the buyers get 25 dollars worth of chocolate for 10 dollars.

The first thing I had to do when I got there was type in my e-mail address for daily e-mails of Groupon deals in your area.

I am initial interested in how the business works because I had never imagine a site with such an interesting service to offer.

Groupon basically connects the customers with the businesses to allow the businesses to get rid of a mass amount of product or service at a discounted price for a specific amount of customers.

This actually made me think of the co-op my aunts and Nana  are in through CulturalKitchen.com. They have to spend at least $750 to get a truck to come out to Western Oklahoma but it is for a whole months worth of foods so that is not a probable for the massive amount of ladies, who would rather buy organic food than anything at local grocery store.  The ladies then can buy their food for wholesale price instead of the high prices from the one health food store in the area.  They must pay a yearly membership fee of $25 and a small percentage of what they order goes to a club fee but that does bother them one bit.

This trend of group buying did not start with Groupon but they are definitely on to something with a little more variety and a larger target audience that could be more than they ever dreamed.

Brand Identity: The Companies with the Best Icons

After reading Stuart Elliott’s article, Old Campaigns That Won’t Die or Fade Away, I couldn’t help but think of the brands that I know just by their logo.  So I decided to make a top 10 brand identity list that shows how important choosing the right identity can be.

1.  McDonalds-  Most kids in the world can recognize the golden arches from miles away. 

2.  Twitter-  The little blue bird flew into the lives of several people around the world and it is no plan

to leave anytime soon.

3. Scrubbing Bubbles-  Dow Bathroom Cleaner hired the Della Femina Travisano & Partners to create the little

scrubbers and they have stuck in people’s brains for more than 40 years.

4.  Smokey the Bear-  The Smokey the Bear Wildfire Prevention campaign was created in 1944 and is the longest

running advertising campaign in the U.S.

5.  The Energizer Bunny-  Durcell Batteries created the Energizer Bunny campaign in the early 70s and the campaign

keeps going and going.

6.  Nike Check-  The ad agency, Wieden and Kennedy, made the monumental campaign, Just

do it that has set Nike for more than 20 years.

7.   Tony the Tiger-  Kelloggs created Tony in 1951 for the cereal, Frosted Flakes.  Tony may

learns some new moves but it is still the same tiger.

8.   The Apple-  The logo was created in 1984 for Macintosh  computers and has basically taken over the world since the Think Different ad campaign launched in 1997.  Every iPod, iPhone, iPad and Mac computer has the Apple logo already and with the innovative thinking that Apple has been doing the last decade I don’t think the Apple epidemic will stop.

9.  The Pilsbury Doughboy-  General Mills created the Doughboy in 1965 and he has been bringing breakfast with a

giggle ever since.

10.  The Michelin Man-  Edurode Michelin saw a stack of tires that resembled a human form, which kicked of the Michelin Man campaign in 1889 in France.

MMM… Share your Wine

Gary Vaynerchuk.  If you don’t know of him you should.

He started sharing his passion for wine in May of 2006 on YouTube and has uploaded 830 videos since then.  Wine Library TV has more than 3,000 subscribers and close to a million views, which in my opinion is a large audience because his shows are only about wine.  Each episode Gary picks a wine and tells a little about the wine, what goes with it, where its from and its price range.  Some episodes he will travel away from his home studio and take the cameras to an actual wine tasting event.

Gary’s Wine Library is successful because he keeps up with what is working for Internet business especially e-commerce. At the Web 2.0 conference he talks about the days when he sat in the liquor store all day bored with his life but now he shares his love for wine with other wine lovers as  Wine Library TV.

The Internet is changing many aspects of business with new media tools where anyone can be heard and have a promising chance of success.

Sharing Crafts: A Good Situation

The Common Craft Show basically gives tutorial videos on how to do a variety of things that can be confusing for people who are not tech savvy.   A majority of their videos cover how to use the innovative technology and new tools available through the Internet.  The two owners, Lee and Sachi LeFever, use little paper picture people and an analogy that the common person can understand to show that Internet tools are easier to use than many people think. They use the phrase “In Plain English” to let the audience what their service is in the first few seconds that they stumble upon on of the videos.   They have around 18 videos on YouTube of their explanations of Twitter, Wikis, Google Reader, Google Docs and how to escape a zombie attack  that have over a million views.

The Common Craft Show has expanded its business by basically sharing their services for free on YouTube.  On their Web sites they have over 20 videos that can be accessed by anyone.  But they have combined some of their videos check into packs that they sell to companies, who need help explaining how Internet tools can be used effectively for their businesses.

So sharing a little for free they have created a loyal client base that even extends out to professors at universities.  My social media class have look at a few of their videos to get a better grasp on the concepts and tools used for social media.

This video is one of the ways my professor used to explain to my class.  So they are not only in the corporate world but also sharing their knowledge with college professors and their students.