Church of the Customer Blog. The Social Customer Manifesto: Heading out to the USS Abraham Lincoln. “This e-mail/letter confirms your participation for the Distinguished Visitor embark aboard USS Lincoln, from Sunday, April 25 to Monday, April 26.” Whoa. It’s happening. Back in January, I was invited to to go on an embark aboard the USS Stennis, on a trip similar to this one taken by Guy Kawasaki and others. (Thank you, again, USNavy for the invitation, and Andy Sernovitz for facilitating.) However, the storms hammering the West Coast changed the plans, and that embark was canceled.
The trip is now back on, and a number of bloggers and other social media/community types are gearing up. Kevin Thornton (Walmart) Mark Yolton (SAP) Rob DeRobertis (Analog) Phil Nieman (Gaspedal) Scott Gulbransen (Intuit) Jake McKee (Ant’s Eye View) Len Devanna (EMC) Amanda Congdon (Sometimes Daily) Robert Coombs (CALCASA) Will Mayall (AllTop) Christopher Carfi (Cerado) Am I stoked? A little intimidated? More soon. Here we go… We chat with Sean. Mountain Dew Releases 3 Fan-Created Flavors. Pepsi Co. brand Mountain Dew has been using its social media fan base to create, brand and market three experimental new flavors that are hitting shelves across the United States today.
The flavors are out now and the one that performs the best — both online and in the real world — will become a permanent part of the Mountain Dew product line. What's more interesting than the new flavors themselves — Distortion, Typhoon and White Out — is the story behind how they came to be and the tenacity of fans on social media platforms to determine the winning flavor. DEWmocracy 2, as the campaign is referred to, dates back to July 2009 and happens to be one of the most aggressive social media campaigns we've seen to date.
The Making of Flavor Nations In phase two, Mountain Dew selected the top three flavors and organized the testers and DEW Labs participants into members of Flavor Nations — one nation for each new flavor. Pitch the Nations Introducing the New Flavors Mountain Dew Distortion. Why So Few Women in Silicon Valley? CANDACE FLEMING’S résumé boasts a double major in industrial engineering and English from Stanford, an M.B.A. from , a management position at and experience as president of a small software company. But when she was raising money for Crimson Hexagon, a start-up company she co-founded in 2007, she recalls one venture capitalist telling her that it didn’t matter that she didn’t have business cards, because all they would say was “Mom.” Another potential backer invited her for a weekend yachting excursion by showing her a picture of himself on the boat — without clothes.
When a third financier discovered that her husband was also a biking enthusiast, she says, he spent more time asking if riding affected her husband’s reproductive capabilities than he did focusing on her business plan. Ultimately, none of the 30 venture firms she pitched financed her company. “I didn’t know things like this still happened,” says Ms. Fleming, 37. For women, though, that narrative often unfolds differently. Is online real life? « Ask Spike. If you haven’t read this short and oh-so-sweet post from Dan Patterson (the guy in charge of the digital platform development for ABC News Radio) then go. Read. I have two favorite sections of his post, the first being this: Social media and the web, of course, are NOT inherently bad. But I do have some angst about the hyperbolic and insular nature of the web and it’s advocates.
I have a sneaking suspicion that many social media evangelists know f***-all about being social, let alone media. Dan is speaking my language. From ilovelambasbread via flickr I’ve met some of these people face-to-face and in real life, and they are completely different from when they sit behind that computer screen. Here’s the second: Social media exhaustion – the inability to keep up with the Digital Joneses – is the next real trend online.
Insert applause here. Look, I’m not an online hater. So is online real life? Have a great social media vacation, Dan. History Channel Launches Foursquare Campaign and a New Badge. America might be one of the youngest geopolitical nations around, but we've still got some interesting history to discover. Thanks to a partnership between Foursquare and the History Channel, some Foursquare users will learn a lot more about the history of their checkin locations over the next couple of months. According to the History Channel's brand new Foursquare page, the initiative was concocted to promote America, The Story of Us, "an epic 12-hour television event that tells the extraordinary story of how America was invented. It is an intensive look at the people, places and things that have shaped our nation, and the tough and thrilling adventure that is America's 400-year history.
" When users check in around various U.S. cities, they can find historical tidbits about their location and unlock the limited edition History Channel badge (pictured on the right). Foursquare inked this deal back in February as part of a larger string of partnerships with big media brands. Your Weekly Address. 40 of the Most Stunning iPhone Developer Websites. It seems to be a pre-requisite that, in order to be a successful iPhone developer, you must have a wonderfully designed website. The quality of a developer’s website is often a good indicator of the care taken in the design of the app, so it’s important to get right! Today we’ll be taking a look at 40 websites of iPhone developers, highlighting those that pay particular attention to the design details of their software. After all, good software is beautiful software, right? Bjango Ramp Champ Mixr Acrylic Apps Bowtie Classics Tapplox Tripmix Paraply Ecoki Cellar Barista Cultured Code Atebits Firetask Spoonjuice 8Interactive Headquarters Broadersheet Tea Round Buzapp Kodu Spiffing Apps Attic Finger Transmissions Outside Bills Twitterrific Reeder Toffeenut Design Ego Keymote Inquisitor Edovia Server Density Momento Tap Tap Tap Share Your Favourites!
It’s great to shine the spotlight on app developers from time to time, so feel free to share your favourites in the comments. iPad claiming .03% of all 'net traffic already. iPad printing: solved. The Brads – a comic about web design » The Brads – Test How Your Site Looks on the iPad. Project: Rant! - Download free podcast episodes by www.projectrant.com on iTunes. Hell freezes over: Opera Mini for iPhone approved! Google CEO Disses Blogging - Eric Schmidt - Gawker.
Photo Download: "Infographic" Tattoos, coupons and loyalty. « Ask Spike. What defines loyalty? Is it becoming a “fan” of a brand on Facebook? Is it getting a tattoo of a brand’s logo on your skin? Maybe not. And here’s two examples why: 1. What do you think the number one reason people become a fan of a brand on Facebook is? So they can get free or discounted stuff.
That’s right. In other words, they don’t join your Fan Page because they are your fan, but more of a fan of discounts. 2. In a recent WSJ article, that’s what San Francisco Mexican restaurant Casa Sanchez has done in the past – and is reviving again. We’ve heard the stories about Dell using Twitter to sell thousands of computers. Free Stuff, Contests, and Giveaways From John P! | One Man's Blog.
Hey everyone, I just did the drawing for the iPad about an hour ago, and we have a winner. I’ll be announcing the winner shortly in a blog post. Thank you ALL for participating! It was fun, and I’m happy we’ve got a winner. I will say that running a Twitter based contest is quite hard, because you have to do so much manual tracking. So for next month’s prize I’m going to come up with something a little easier to administer. Stay tuned, and after my blog post about the iPad winner I’ll announce a new contest, which will be more fun and interactive!
Thanks again, John P. Hey folks, it’s been a while since I’ve given away any goodies, so it’s time for another round! Here’s How To Win! You must be following me on Twitter @johnpoz. If you are the winner, I’ll notify you by DM. What If I Don’t Want The Prize? Don’t want the prize, but still want to help out? As always, if you’ve got comments, questions or requests for what I should give away next, just drop them below. Fox News On U.S.-Russia Nuclear Pact: Cue The Mushroom Cloud. The Story of Bottled Water (2010) We Rule for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad on the iTunes App Store. COUNTRY Chief Operating Officer Named One of Illinois' Most Powerful and Influential Women. April 6, 2010 Barb Baurer, COUNTRY Financial chief operating officer (COO), has been named one of Illinois’ Most Powerful and Influential Women by the National Diversity Council.
Council members chose Baurer based on her leadership excellence, impact on company revenue and profitability, commitment to the local community and adherence to high ethical standards. Baurer joined COUNTRY in 1977. She has served on the management committee since 1989, and has been COO since 1999. She is a member of the Board and Executive Committee of the American Institute for Chartered Property and Casualty Underwriter.
Baurer also serves on the board and is the past chair of the Griffith Insurance Education Foundation. She is a member of the Eastern Illinois University College of Business Advisory Board. Baurer is past board chair and a member of the finance committee for BroMenn Regional Medical System. Apple Holding Special Event To Preview iPhone OS 4 This Thursday. Apple has just sent out invites to press inviting them to a special event on Thursday April 8 where they’ll “Get a sneak peek into the future of iPhone OS”. The event, which obviously comes just after the launch of the iPad, will showcase the new features coming with the latest release of the iPhone/iPad operating system, giving developers time to plan for and integrate the new features into their apps.
There have been rumors for months that this new update will include the ability for certain third party apps to run in the background. Apple has been holding these developer preview events since before the App Store launched: there was one in March 2008 where the iPhone SDK was announced, and last March Apple gave a preview of the iPhone 3.0 software update. Historically (by which I mean, the last two years) these updates have been released alongside new iPhones in the summer (the iPhone 3G came out July 11 2008; the 3GS was released June 19 2009).
How To Beat Up Anything. Think Progress » McCain falsely claims no American servicemembers have been killed or wounded in Iraq in the past three months. What will iPad magazine covers look like? HBR Answer Exchange - HBR Answer Exchange. Locomotion - Golden Age of Locomotives - Royal Hudson 2860. Paula Berg: 4 Tips for Measuring Social Media: It's Not All About The Numbers. In 2006 the responsibility of Southwest Airlines' social media efforts fell into my lap. I knew nothing about social media at the time - I didn't read blogs, Twitter didn't even exist, and I playfully mocked a couple of ex-boyfriends who were on MySpace. But, with my new assignment, I had no choice but to make it part of my life. So I did the only reasonable thing. I locked myself in my office every night with a bottle of wine and tried to figure it out. Everyday provided a new lesson and a new challenge. It was clear that in order to do social media successfully, we needed more...well...everything.
Measurement and reporting were among our most powerful tools in justifying our needs - but even for a company that completely bought in to social media, changing minds wasn't always that easy. In July 2007, Southwest Airlines joined Twitter. We were completely deflated, however, when one of our colleagues suggested we not report our findings because the number "was so small.
" The challenge. Facebook To Release A “Like” Button For the Whole Darn Internet. There will be lots of news leaking about Facebook’s product announcements at their upcoming F8 Developer Conference in April. That’s because they’re already starting to test out a lot of the new stuff with third party developers, and once two people know a secret, it isn’t really a secret any more.
Evan Handler: The Best Bad Thing to Happen in a Very Long Time. The U.S. Congress seems to have taken the first steps toward offering government protections to American citizens in regard to their health care. This is being accomplished via an extremely imperfect set of inconsistent regulations, cobbled together as a result of courage, compromise, and cowardice, in ways that will infuriate many, but which will help millions. I'm not much of a praying man, but I say Hallelujah and Amen. Do I think it's a good bill? Hell, no. It's tragic that progress in this country can sometimes take so long. Many will continue to suffer, and some will suffer anew. So, celebrate briefly, if you're celebrating at all. But we're a hell of a lot closer to it than we were yesterday, or have ever been before. Evan Handler's latest book is It's Only Temporary: The Good News and the Bad News of Being Alive. EvanHandler.com. Healthcare Vote Results LIVE: Breaking Updates, Video.
Obama watched the vote in the White House's Roosevelt Room with Vice President Joe Biden and dozens of aides. When the long sought 216th vote came in — the magic number needed for passage — the room burst into applause and an exultant president exchanged a high-five with his chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel. "We proved that we are still a people capable of doing big things," the president said later in televised remarks.
"We proved that this government — a government of the people and by the people — still works for the people. " “This isn’t radical reform, but it is major reform,” Obama continued. “This is what change looks like.” IgniteMpls #1 - Jennifer Kane presents "Douchebag Zen" Tea Party protesters yell “nigger” at Rep. Lewis and “faggot” at Rep. Frank - Jack & Jill Politics. Well this is one hell of a way to return to the blog. I’ve been traveling for a few weeks, so pardon my absence. Ahead of tomorrow’s vote on healthcare reform, several people representing the so-called Tea Party movement staged protests on Capitol Hill and aggressively harassed Democratic members of Congress.
By “aggressively harassed” I mean “spit on and called nigger and faggot.” Let’s lay this out. Demonstrators outside the Capitol, angry over the proposed health care bill, shouted “nigger” Saturday at Rep. Protestors inside the Capitol also used a slur to refer to Rep. From Huffington Post Preceding the president’s speech to a gathering of House Democrats, thousands of protesters descended around the Capitol to protest the passage of health care reform. From Fox News After the rally, Tea Partiers plan to confront undecided Democratic lawmakers in their congressional offices and convince them to vote against the bill . Let’s talk about why this is important. Keep SXSWi Weird. Fisher Price Launches iPhone Apps For 2-Year-Olds. EXCLUSIVE: Increasing Network Capacity at AT&T. YouTube Is Huge: 24 Hours of Video Now Uploaded Every Minute.
Ant's Eye View > The Anthill is Growing for More Listening. Dachis Group and Socialtext Announce Partnership -- PALO ALTO, Calif., March 11. Share Files in a new way on Twitter. Data Shows: Articles Published on the Weekend are Shared on Facebook More. Lego my jpg-o. GoToWebinar : Webinars Made Easy. Award-Winning Web Casting & Online Seminar Hosting Software. MySpace Co-Presidents Reveal Company’s Plan for the Future [INTERVIEW] Nikon D300s Giveaway.