Rusty Online

Foursquare Delivers!

I am very excited that today, I received my first round of FourSquare window decals for my clients store-fronts. I think this is a great way for FourSquare to continue to grow their network and allow businesses to begin capitalizing on the platform even more.  Did anyone else get theirs today? Here it is! I can't wait to get it "installed"

 

One more time: Online vs. Offline (From the Brains on Fire Blog)

I've never done this before, but I honestly could not think of a single thought that could get this point across clearer than Spike from Brains on Fire has done. Read below and subscribe to the brains on fire blog.

So tell me this: Which do you think is more powerful?

This:

Or this:

Are all of your efforts being focused on your “online strategy” right now? Look, I get it. It’s important. But we can’t stress enough that your online has to drive your offline and your offline has to drive your online. You want online to be powerful? Then use it as a tool that enables face-to-face. Remember, 90% of word of mouth happens OFFLINE.

Oh, you’ll have bragging rights if you have 100,000 followers or friends or fans (only SM fanboys will be impressed), but if it doesn’t drive offline, then what is it really good for? Integration is the key. And if you can’t see the difference between the two images, then you’re blind. Which group do you think has the more powerful stories? Which group do you think has stronger emotional connections? It’s one thing to sit at a desk and type - almost a kind of passive participation. But to get up from behind the computer screen, get out of your house and go be a part something - to literally participate shoulder-to-shoulder - that’s powerful.

So, yes, online is important. But offline - that’s where the real stories are created. It’s where they live and breathe because that’s where we live and breathe. Know it. Believe it. And live it.

How Fast can YOU make $100k

While you are all sitting at your desks, working 80+ between paychecks, I thought you would like to see how quickly pro-athletes are earning $100k. In the case of Alex Rodriguez, try one at-bat (about 5 minutes). Below is a list of other notable professional athletes and their race to earning $100k.

 

Via WSJ Online

Do Teens Really Not Use Twitter?

There has been a lot of discussion recently about whether or not teens are using Twitter. In a recent article, the New York Times shares some interesting statistics about teen’s usage of the popular micro-blogging platform as well as other social media sites. The New York Times sites that just 11% of Twitter’s users fall into the teen category.

 

While 11% is indeed a small make-up of the Twitter population, when compared to teen usage of other online networks its in perfect line with typical trends. Teens make up only 14% and 9% of MySpace and Facebook user base respectively.

Social Media Revolution

Do you think social media is a fad? This video does a great job at dispelling that misconception. Much in the same way that Did You Know described the changing landscape of media in our culture, this video explains why social media is important and not something to be ignored. Watch the video below and leave your thoughts. We would love to hear how you feel about it.

This post also appears on the MGH WOM Blog at http://mghwom.com/blog/2009/08/17/social-media-revolution/

The New Face of Twitter

Yesterday, Twitter unveiled its brand new home screen, and it seems as if they are well on their way to changing the page's focus from a social networking tool to the prime source for keeping your finger on the pulse of what's going on around the world.

If you can remember, the old home screen focused on you creating personal connections and sharing "what you are doing" with your social circles. The new home page has totally flipped that view upside down. Instead of asking what are you doing, Twitter tells you to "Share and discover what's happening right now, anywhere in the world".

Naturally, the new look feature's Twitter search tool prominently with that call to "see what people are saying about...". The new page also integrates current trending topics as well as most popular topics over the last week and month.

A couple of months ago, Gary Vaynerchuk said that Twitter search is the single most important site on the internet. With the new facelift, Twitter is driving that point home even more. The site has removed the emphasis of creating personal connections, and has instead positioned itself as the place to be to find out what is going on in the world.
Now to convince all of the late adopters that Twitter is more than telling the world you are eating breakfast.

This post also appears on the MGH WOM Blog at http://mghwom.com/blog/2009/07/29/the-new-face-of-twitter/

BREAKING NEWS: People Trust Pesonal Reccomendations

In a recent Nielsen Global Online Consumer survey, it was revealed that 90% of online consumers are highly trusting of personal recommendations made by those close to them and 70% of the consumer group consider online reviews as reputable information sources.

While these numbers are certainly impressive, I don’t think that they should really come as a surprise to anyone. It’s no secret that sites like Twitter, Facebook and every site that allows user interaction has contributed to the excess of opinions on any topic, and the openness and transparent nature of these sites leaves little room for brands to hide their dirty laundry.

The study also goes on to point out that the plethora of consumer-generated media has also forced brands to be much more honest with their traditional advertising. This fact has created a situation where consumers are now even looking at brand-sponsored advertisements as a much more reputable source of information than they did before.

Does this mean brands are starting to “get it”? It’s something that we have been talking about for a long time now, but it’s great to see the power of social media and how it has influenced not only purchase decisions, but the way advertisers market their products as well.

This post also appears on the MGH WOM Blog at http://mghwom.com/blog/2009/07/09/breaking-news-people-trust-personal-reccomendations/

Riding the Google Wave

Yesterday, Google announced another game-changer in the world of online interaction. Their brand new Wave system will undoubtedly completely alter the way people communicate online for years to come.

Ben Parr, at Mashable has put together a great walkthrough of all of the features of Google Wave. In an attempt to not be redundant upon his article, I urge you to read his complete guide to Google Wave to get a full feel for all of the features Wave offers.

Google Wave gives users the opportunity to participate in real-time discussions with any number of people in their networks. What may begin as an email between two colleagues, can transform into a collaborative, wiki-type document that can be simultaneously contributed to by a whole team of people.

By creating a Wave, you are able to share photos, documents, links and videos by simply dragging and dropping them into the Wave. Due to the open API within Google Wave, you will be able to embed it into your blog or website where visitors are able to interact within the wave directly from your page.

"It is what email would look like if it were created today, not 40 years ago", to quote Lars Rasmussen, the lead developer of Google Wave.

Google Wave is filled with great productivity tools like a very intuitive spell checker that takes the context of your sentence into consideration before determining if a word is misspelled, a very useful playback feature that shows all of the changes made to a document and by whom over time, and a translator that translates your message in real time as you are typing.

I strongly recommend you take the time to watch the live demonstration of Google Wave, you will see the power and potential that the system offers. Congratulations Google, you are the winner of 35 MGH WOM points for Wave!

This post also appears on the MGH WOM Blog at http://mghwom.com/blog/2009/05/29/riding-the-google-wave/

Google Unveils New Search Featurs

Yesterday, Google rolled out a whole new tool box of search options that will prove to be nothing short of a game-changer. Users will now be able to search for terms based on relevancy, recency, content type, reviews, etc. This means that sites like Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, and review sites will have a much larger impact in the search world.

In addition to refining your search, Google has now integrated rich snippets. "Rich snippets could include things like the average review score, the number of reviews, and the price range for a local restaurant". This puts user-generated content much more into the forefront of any given search.

This new iteration of Google search continues to prove the value of user-generated content. The companies who will make an impact in the early stages of this evolution of search are the ones who are already harnessing the power of their customers by engaging them online and encouraging them to share their thoughts and experiences.

Here at MGH we are obviously strong believers in letting consumers be heard, and are extremely excited that their voice is now an even more integral part of search results. Go do a search for your favorite product with Google's new search options and see for yourself the power of customers talking.

This post also appears on the MGH WOM Blog at http://mghwom.com/blog/2009/05/13/google-unveils-new-search-features/

Welcome to the Twittersphere!

Although I love Twitter, and this is the kind of information I am constantly trying to discredit and instead defend how valuable Twitter really is, I can't not share when I find something as good as this!