vSocial Blog

Definition Of Social Media

brent — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 22:12:43 +0000

For those of you struggling with defining social media, Robert Safuto’s post, My Definition Of Social Media, offers a very simple definition. It is important that we get a handle on all the buzz phrases being thrown around in regards to social media, lest we allow the terminology to get completely out-of-hand (ala Web 2.0 - circa 2005), and the discussions become so convoluted as to make them meaningless.

Can we all agree to get over how smart we think we are and just apply the old adage – KISS?

(Keep It Simple Stupid)

Thanks – really.

oEmbed: oVerkill?

Brad — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 16:44:35 +0000

One of the things we’ve always found to be a pain is getting embeds, such as videos, bookmarks, etc, in 3rd party websites to work neatly. One of the biggest websites of course, is MySpace, who consulted with Adobe to get specific embed tag functionality added to flash 9, and promptly implemented it (linking out of a flash application, for example, is restricted) — and there really hasn’t been a good solution for this. I still don’t think there is — even though some press folks seem to think oEmbed is. It’s not, but that doesn’t mean it’s not very interesting, and worth taking a look at it. Effectively, oEmbed’s goal is to make embedding both media and metadata as simple for a consumer (or service) as knowing/having the URL to specific media. This could be achieved through a few ways, both parsing existing embed codes, or using some kind of microformat (i.e. Video) — this is great from the perspective that I, as the application guy, can parse and get both the content/media as well as metadata about it (although, now that I’ve re-read the spec, I think there should be some more optional things in there… views, arbitrary thumbnails, original file[s] etc.. mRSS has a pretty close approximation of data that could go in this), and from the perspective of an end-user, if they’re on a page, they can post everything about that page/media/node with simply that URL.

We’re going to be implementing it in the newest version of Twiddeo — and, I hope, looking into getting an AIR-capable class implemented for it. It’s very interesting from a technical/proof of concept perspective. I think, though, the issue is two-fold:

1) There are no services, aside from Pownce, using it.

Obviously, this makes adoption tough. With only one service supporting the standard, I don’t want to pour a ton of time and resources behind implementing, standardizing and helping enhance it.

2) Users are used to simply cutting and pasting big globs of HTML. Parsing all of that fun-ness, to then try to poke for an oEmbed, would suck.

Is this the expected behavior? Parse all user input for embed, image or hrefs, then try to match all of those against some provider list, and then try to get a ping? Ugh. No? Really, part of the spec, imho, needs to be a microformat to allow this stuff to get parsed more efficiently. Right now I see a use inside of AIR (or equivilant) clients, or sites that implicitly tell people to input URLs, but for mass adoption the parsing needs to get easier.

All of that being said, I find the proposed spec personally interesting, and we’ll put some 20% time behind what makes it tick and what can make it better.

Brad

Clay Shirky at Web 2.0 Expo SF 2008

Steven — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 06:55:21 +0000

This is a clip of one of my favorite thinkers in the “new media” arena, Clay Shirky (www.shirky.com), recently speaking at Web 2.0 Expo in SFO. In a nutshell, he addresses that perplexing question I so often hear my peers (40’s – 50’s) ask one another – “Where do these kids find the time to fool with all this new Web 2.0 silliness??” The answer – these kids do not waste all their free time being zombies in front of the boob tube being fed whatever nonsense the TV gods would serve up (as I and my peers did at their age). No, they are multi-tasking and it almost always involves a mouse that allows them to engage in true interaction with their media of choice.

Brent

Dancing Dads - Our new intern’s debut

Steven — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 22:20:57 +0000

vSocial is happy to announce a new addition to the family. No, not a new baby. An intern! Jennifer Stash is a recent Marketing grad from Arizona State University. She’ll be posting to our blog as time permits, and we’re glad to have her on the team. vSocial recently concluded hosting a great promotion from Hallmark, Move Dad. As a first post, here’s Jenny’s take. Enjoy.

Hallmark promotions – Dancing Dads

Dads will do anything for their kids; they coach sports teams, scare away monsters from under the bed and watch endless hours of Hannah Montana. Hallmark’s Father’s Day promotion tapped into this element of a dad’s life by creating the “Daddy of all Dance Offs”. We launched the contest on May 12 that allowed dads to upload videos of themselves dancing to “U Can’t Touch This” by MC Hammer.

Hallmark held three local contests at festivals in Oregon, Texas and Indiana that put dads up on stage to dance. The dances were recorded and some highlights along with the winners were posted on the contest homepage, MoveDad.com.
Other dads across the country were able to upload their videos directly to MoveDad.com.

Giving Dad a spotlight to show off was Hallmark’s purpose in creating this contest. We were there to host the site and make sure things ran according to plan. vSocial developed the platform that powered the social media tools necessary for the videos to be uploaded and viewed. Hallmark has a strong following, but in order to remain a top-of-mind company, having a promotion that encourages its customers to interact is necessary. Using social media to achieve these goals will give Hallmark the chance to create a stronger brand identity and following in its user community.

A slow start confirmed that some dads were nervous to enter the contest and that others still had not even heard about their chance to shine. As the days went on, more and more fathers braved the camera. One winner and two runners up were chosen at each of the three festivals. Ten finalists from the online competition were selected by a team of Hallmark judges and their videos were available to be voted on through MoveDad.com. We monitored the voting from June 2nd through the 6th. On June 5th, Hallmark recorded 128,159 page views. In order to increase the number of votes, emails were sent out by Hallmark to its user base and a commercial aired to entice more people to log on and laugh along with Martin A-Go-Go, Super Dad and Old School.

A total of 1,018,676 page views were recorded on June 6th and ultimately, Paul Stickler from St. Joseph, MO took home the most internet votes. The high increase in traffic on Friday June 6th teaches us that the key to a successful contest is promotion, promotion, promotion. People can’t enter a contest if they don’t know about it. While it is hard to reach everyone, over one million page views after emails were sent out and a commercial aired shows that the promise of a laugh from a dancing dad will bring people to the website. The Hallmark promotion helps users to connect with the brand as well as with each other. Social media is the catalyst to create brand communities and enhance their effectiveness.

Is your audience using social media?

Steven — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 21:52:17 +0000

Groundswell, a new book on social media by renowned Forrester Research social media analysts Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff may have the answer. In the tradition of social media itself, Charlene and Josh are sharing the answer. At least some of it. Click here to use the Forrester Research Social Technology Profile Tool and find out.

Steve

Move dad; the dads are a’dancin!

Steven — Fri, 30 May 2008 23:14:07 +0000

Hallmark’s Father’s Day promotion, Move Dad is picking up. As usual in promotions like this it takes time to pick up speed. Potential entrants wait to gauge the competition, but once they’ve sized them up they come in like gang busters. Click the thumbnails below and head to Hallmark’s site to check out these dancing dads.

1) A little Micheal Jackson, Charlie Chaplin, and a few Robot moves to boot.

2) Obviously an ex-backup dancer for Hammer himself

3) The funky chicken?

ZAGG Inc Wins our Social Media Contest!

Steven — Wed, 28 May 2008 18:09:30 +0000

Cameron Gibbs and ZAGG knocked it out of the park to win our ad:tech promotion. Cameron must’ve called all his friends, sent a company-wide email, and asked everyone in Salt Lake City (where ZAGG is based) to vote for him. Well done Cam!

See the official story over in our press section here.

Move Dad! One Dad doesn’t get it

Steven — Tue, 20 May 2008 06:36:40 +0000

Last week MediaPosts, Marketing Daily (registration required) did a peice on Hallmark’s Move Dad promotion. For quote, they found the one guy who doesn’t know the cross-generational power of MC Hammer’s “U Can’t Touch This” to make you move your booty.

vSocial launches Hallmark “Daddy of all Dance-Offs”

Steven — Mon, 12 May 2008 16:43:35 +0000

We launched live the Hallmark “Daddy of all Dance-Offs” campaign today at 6AM. We are hosting the entire site except three direct links into Hallmark’s site - find a store – Hear Cards with Sound and new Recordable Cards with Music. http://www.hallmark.com/movedad

Brent

Steve adds:

Hallmark’s agency, Kicking Cow, is responsible for this forward thinking social media strategy. While other agencies are just now cracking open the books, Kicking Cow is racing ahead.

vSocial has done a few campaigns like this for Kicking Cow, they’ve seen firsthand the impressive ROI our platform has allowed them to deliver to customers and they want more. Look for more forward thinking from Kicking Cow in the future.