Ignite Ann Arbor part of Global Ignite Week

March 2nd, 2010

March 1st kicked off the beginning of the first Global Ignite Week which is taking place in over 60 cities on 6 continents.

Ignite is a high-energy evening of 5-minute talks by people who have an idea—and the guts to get onstage and share it with their hometown crowd. Run by local volunteers who are connected through the global Ignite network, Ignite is a force for raising the collective IQ and building connections in each city.  And, via streaming and archived videos of local talks, local Ignites share all that knowledge and passion with the world. While Ignite has been around since 2006, this year’s coordinated Global Ignite Week initiative is a first of its kind — with more than 12,000 people slated to attend 72 events spanning six continents — that’s bound to become the talk of the Web over the week, and perhaps after.

global-ignite-week

Ignite got its start in Seattle in December, 2006, as a personal project of Brady Forrest and Bre Pettis. They dreamed up an event where people could share their ideas over beer, and sent word out through their network. From there, it exploded. After the first Ignite, word got out and other communities wanted Ignite in their cities. A little more than 3 years later, we have come to the first Global Ignite Week.

Ignites will be held all over the world, one of these being in Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA. Ignite Ann Arbor has many topics on the menu for the night but one in particular has a major impact on the area. Derek Mehraban will be promoting A2Fiber, which is the city of Ann Arbor’s movement to be chosen by Google as one of the cities they plan to build and test ultra-high speed broadband networks in. A Google Fiber-Optic network would be a big win for one of the technological hubs of Michigan.

Go to the Ignite website to find a Global Ignite Week event near you.

Vacation Property and Home Exchange by 3rd Home

February 2nd, 2010

Do you own a second home? Maybe you barely use it and wish to take advantage of it more? 3rd Home is a vacation property and home exchange club you should take a look at. 3rd Home is comprised of a community of second home owners, just like you, who are looking to expand the use of their vacation houses.

The idea is simple, you join the community and get to experience their vacation homes!

3rd Home - Vacation Property and Home Exchange3rd Home - Vacation Property and Home Exchange

Here’s how they describe it:

3rd Home fills a need expressed by second-home owners to “expand” the use of their second homes. Whether home owners are too busy to visit their vacation homes or simply want a different getaway experience, our goal is simple: To create the finest, luxury, second home exchange program in the world - with the highest standards in the industry. 3rd Home provides exclusive access to the finest vacation homes and villas at some of the most desirable resorts and private destinations in the world.

A big advantage to this way of traveling is the private getaway experience. Imagine that car from the airport taking you to a private mansion instead of that busy hotel lobby. You can vacation with your significant other or family in the decadence of a beautiful vacation home without fighting for a spot at the pool.

This truly is the best way to vacation, and 3rd Home is the perfect gateway to these luxurious travel accommodations.

Check out their website to browse the beautiful properties: http://www.3rdhome.com

They’ve got some exciting exclusive photos on their Facebook Page too: http://www.facebook.com/3rdHome

Or you can follow their updates on Twitter: http://twitter.com/3rdHome

3rd Home - Vacation Property and Home Exchange3rd Home - Vacation Property and Home Exchange

Put your second home to use. 3rd Home is the premier vacation property management and home exchange website. Exchange your second home with other luxurious vacation houses and enjoy exclusive access to some of the most desirable resorts and private destinations in the world.

Experts Share Their Predictions for Social Media in 2010

December 28th, 2009

What will 2010 bring for Social Media? The experts have weighed in.

TrendsSportting Market Research has released its report on 2010 Social Media predictions. The report is comprised of educated opinions from some of the biggest names in the game. David Meerman Scott, Seth Godin, Chris Brogan, Pete Cashmore, and also the team at eMarketer all give their forecast.

The forecast they’re each painting has some common trends.

The experts are betting we’ll see a stronger push into mobile landscapes and location based networking & marketing. Transparency will continue gain steam as the most important thing for brands to keep in mind, and it’s no secret everyone will be paying much more attention to Social Media Measurement and ROI in  2010. Many people are predicting a shift from the enormous social networks we know today, to smaller and more segmented communities.

You can check out the entire slide show right here, then let us know your thoughts in the comments:

Social Media for the Evolving Business

November 20th, 2009

Social media is slowly changing the face of how businesses get, respond, and discover new information. Those that do not adapt will simply die, but the ones that embrace social media, will undoubtedly succeed and be seen as leaders in that field of business.

Courtesy of @Mashable, here are four ways that social media is altering businesses:

1. From “Trying to Sell” to “Making Connections”

Show some personality, that is part of your brand. Engage with your customers by telling them what’s going on when the 9-5 job ends. If you’re transparent and “put yourself out there,” people feel more comfortable about doing business with those companies.

business social networking

2. From”Large Campaigns” to “Small Acts”

Less is more.

Less is more. It bears repeating. The cliché of the decade, but it couldn’t be more true, especially when opting to use social media in your business plan. Focus on the niche mediums that your target audience utilizes. This allows you to better connect and track them; you won’t be wasting millions of dollars blasting your message to world, not knowing who saw it and if they responded to your call-to-action.
People share stories through the web. It is much faster. So if your customer has a negative experience, you need to make sure you address their concerns before it becomes too viral. It pays for companies to pay attention to the one-on-one customer relationships forged via social media.

3. From “Controlling our Image” to “Being Ourselves”

This reinforces rule #1 — personality. Don’t control your employees so that your company is portrayed as this squeaky-clean, monotonous factory. Allow your employees to write and talk about hobbies that they’re passionate about outside of work.
Take a page from Google’s 70/20/10 rule, which allows employees to spend 20% of their time on “Innovation time off” pursuing their own ideas that relate to Google and then 10% of their time on stuff completely unrelated to Google. “By doing this, Google gains a loyal employee by allowing them to do whatever they want without Big Brother looking over their shoulder.  At the same time, it captures innovative thinking due to random stimulation.” (the99percent)

4. From “Hard to Reach” to “Available Everywhere”

People want to interact with and engage businesses via their chosen means of communication, whether that is Twitter, Facebook, discussion forums, etc. Company telephone numbers and e-mail addresses will not suffice any longer. If I’m loyal to a brand, and I see that they use Twitter or Facebook often, it makes me feel more comfortable knowing I can communicate with their company through those means. Allow customers to communicate through their chosen means, not yours.

Don’t be dinosaur and stick with what you’re comfortable with (i.e. old media). You’ll go extinct like they did. Instead, jump ship to where the future of interactivity is going.

LinkedIn and Twitter Join Forces

November 13th, 2009

Earlier this week, social networking mega-sites LinkedIn and Twitter joined forces. Why it didn’t happen sooner is anyone’s guess.

Both companies, now synced, earn ample benefits from their respective partners, such as data exchange and worthwhile business intelligence. LinkedIn users will able to update their statuses more frequently and appeal to a younger demographic. Twitter can gain access to LinkedIn’s influential and growing user base.

In your LinkedIn settings, you can link your account to Twitter to allow for every tweet to be posted as your LinkedIn status, or just the ones that include either the #li or #in hashtag.

Where this ends up is anyones guess, but for now, enjoy the new networking feature.

Delicious Organizes Your Favorite Websites

November 6th, 2009

Social bookmarking site Delicious.com helps you keep track of all the sites you want to remember. It’s free and easy to use.

Simply register for a Delicious account and upload the “Tag” button to your browser. This will make it quicker and easier to bookmark pages you find interesting.

Suppose you’re trying to find information on Google Ad Words. You search the Internet and find a page you like. Tag the site, and a window will open asking for new information. This is where you can input relevant keywords, or tags, that will allow you to return to this specific Web site link after you’ve accrued different Web site links

Say you tag one article as “Fundamentals,” because it’s a useful site about getting started with Google Ad Words.

Delicious Organizes Your Favorite Websites

A few weeks pass and you accumulate more links.

Let’s say you want to return to the introduction to Ad Words article, the one tagged “Fundamentals.” Click the tag on the right-hand sidebar that says “Fundamentals,” and immediately, your list will consolidate to show just the links you tagged with “Fundamentals.”

Now lets see why Delicious is “social bookmarking.”

There are lots of other marketers and advertisers using Ad Words, and they’ve probably come across some useful sites that you’ve missed. Delicious’ bookmarks are made public. This means peers can see your bookmarks and use your tags; your bookmarks can benefit other people.

Delicious takes the most-clicked on article from that keyword and shifts it to the top. So the most applicable and trustworthy site is the first one users can select. Because they’re all public, everyone discovers new and relevant information. Together, this creates a steady stream of useful Web sites, all linked together by tags.

The lesson is that social bookmarking takes a world of chaos and make it orderly and helpful for other people.

Changing Media Lanscape - Shift Happens, Fall 2009

November 3rd, 2009

Did You Know 4.0?

You should.

Did you know that newspaper circulation is down 7 million over the last 25 years? But in the last five years, unique readers of online newspapers are up 30 million.

While traditional advertising continues its steep decline, mobile and Internet advertising are up 18.1 and 9.2 percent, respectively.

More video was uploaded to YouTube in the last two months than if ABC, NBC and CBS, had been airing new content 24/7/365 since 1948.

Those statistics were just in the first minute. If you those are startling, watch the rest of the video.

LinkedIn Keeps Growing

October 14th, 2009

LinkedIn’s blog is reporting they now have over 50 million users worldwide. They say it took almost sixteen months for LinkedIn to reach its first million users. Their last million? Only took 12 days. This comes on the heels of even more good news, as Compete reported a 5.68% growth in traffic for LinkedIn during the month of September.

LinkedIn stats from Compete

LinkedIn says that while 50% of its users are based in the US, 50% are international. An impressive stat that speaks highly to the power and success of LinkedIn. If you have somehow managed to stay away from LinkedIn to this point, now is as good of a time as any to jump on the wagon. Business is being done here, and soon every business man and woman will have their profile on LinkedIn.

Social Media Success for Ford Motor Company

October 5th, 2009

Ford Motor Company has embraced social media quite well. They are definitely generating more chatter and buzz about their brand than any of the other “Big 3″ have.

Today we’re taking a look at their Ford Fiesta Movement as it nears the end of the six month campaign. Remember when this grassroots social media campaign started? Has it worked?

To promote their Fiesta model, Ford gave 100 social “agents” a Fiesta and had them promote the new vehicle through all kinda of social media avenues, such as Twitter, blogs, videos, and events. So did they make it work without spending a dollar on traditional media?

Ford shared some interesting statistics today. They recorded:

  • 4.3 million YouTube views thus far
  • 500,000+ Flickr views
  • 3 million+ Twitter impressions
  • 50,000 interested potential customers, 97% of which do not currently own a Ford

These numbers obviously indicate interest in their brand and product. It’s essentially priceless to have over 8 million eyes see personal advertising. When it’s all said and done however, Fiesta sales will have to determine whether it was a successful marketing plan. Those 50,000 interested potential customers will have a large impact on social media campaigns going forward.

Socialnomics and The Social Media Revolution

August 24th, 2009

By 2010 Gen Y will outnumber Baby Boomers

96% of them have joined a Social Network.

80% of companies are using LinkedIn as their primary tool to find employees.

The largest growing segment on Facebook is 55-65 year-old females.

78% of consumers trust peer recommendations, only 14% trust advertisements.

Social Media isn’t a fad, it’s a fundamental shift in the way we communicate.

Watch this video for much more eye-opening statistics!

(statistics and video are from Socialnomics blog)