Many blogs posted today about Google’s trouble getting their Mobile App through the Apple application approval process. A process being questioned by many. While some are calling this a huge screw up (which it most likely is) Google is probably looking at it differently.

If I was a Google marketing dept dude my thoughts would be as follows:

Geeze whats the deal with our app not being approved. Those apple bastards! *shakes fist* Wait, there are like a million blog posts about it, everyone is talking about our cool new voice recognition feature. Sweeet. We can wait until Monday

Google should be happy! It’s not every day I blog about them. News of the failure of the app to launch was all over the web today, bringing millions of more eyes to the application. Got to love the social web!

The new app looks awesome, just check out the demo video below. I’ll be checking it out when it should finally launch, tomorrow.

Photo Cred to I am K.E.B

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Social Media is more than just online.

It’s an art show, a group of gossiping friends or a campfire song. It’s creating and sharing of entertainment, information, thoughts or feelings. It’s starting interactions. It’s my travel journal.

On my recent trip to South East Asia, I decided to learn to draw (or at the very least, just draw)  and was amazed at the people I met because of it. I would sit in a park or at a coffee shop drawing and relaxing while random strangers would strike up conversations. I met a bunch of cool people because of it.

So I decided to share it with you here, as a reminder that creating and sharing is important and fun, regardless of the medium, or quality….

Check out the rest of my drawings by clicking my Flickr.

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Digital Natives are more connected, more active and more important than ever.

Thanks to Michelle for the heads up!

Mitch Joel at Six Pixels of Separation recent post titled “Digital Natives Are Here” , got me thinking about my role and my generations role in the world. He writes:

We made it through the Y2K scare, but something bigger is brewing in your business and it has nothing to do with technology and everything to do with your human capital. Your ability to grow your business efficiently moving forward is at stake, but this time it’s about your people and not your choice of software.

He’s referring to the wave of Digital Natives:

A digital native is essentially anyone who was born and raised in a household where there was always a computer. We’re talking about your new employees who have never known a world without a mouse and a keyboard.

The posts centers around the idea that digital natives are increasingly making their presence felt in the business world. You should read the article here : Digital Natives Are Here

As a recent business school grad and early member of the “Digital Natives”, I have a few thoughts on what is slowing down the power of digital natives.

3 things that need to change before Digital Natives really take the stage

1.  School does a lousy job preparing students for the world of “digital natives” .

My Business degree focused on structure and analysis rather than free thought and creativity. The online world is covered in 2 classes max. I never once did a project with another faculty. Cross learning, communication, collaboration, all left off the table. The good thing is we digital natives have other knowledge sources.

If it wasn’t for blogs, web video and, most importantly, my rss reader, I would be lost in today’s digital marketing world.

2. Most “digital natives” don’t fully understand the benefits and power they bring to an organization.

The byproduct of an education system that focuses on tools and structure inadvertently reduces the value put on creativity and innovation. Digital Natives are in the driver’s seat. We have access to information, we naturally communicate online, we look at the world through digitally tinted glasses. All of these skills are increasingly valuable in our world and we need to start showcasing them. It’s never been cheaper and easier to start a blog, a non-profit or a company.

3. Businesses still don’t recognize the benefits of a digital native workforce

Well, most don’t. Many do. Most recognize the challenges of reaching out in what is a changing communications landscape, and they need help.

The 3 Most Important Points

1. Schools: Start thinking digital. If you don’t know how ask.
2. Digital Natives: Realize that you rock and put some of those skills to good use.
3. Businesses: Wake up, we’re here(almost)!

Photo Credit: Wesley Fryer

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Policies can be out of date just like fruit, especially in a world of changing communications. I recently came across this one:

“Under no circumstances should any employee make a statement to the media”

Isn’t every customer interaction a statement to the media? Every communication with an employee? . We stakeholders, executives, managers, employees, competitors and customers are increasingly becoming the media.

The blanket gag order is no longer possible. With social networks and lightning fast, near effortless communications, we are connected, more than ever.

The Question

How does a company align it’s policies to these new communications channels? What would a new written policy look like?

New Media Public Statements Policy: 3 Guidelines

1. Understand that you no longer control the communications channels.

The internet has rearranged the way we communicate and consume media. Through social networks, all stake holders in a business are conduits for information and entertainment. Acceptable communication styles are changing (have changed?), moving away from a broadcast “listen to me I’m talking to you” style to a conversational “Let’s add value to our stakeholders” style. Start looking at the world through social media tinted glasses.

2. Provide working guidelines

There are certain things that companies need to keep private and an appropriate policy enforces those important areas. Focus on being specific on what areas are strictly off limits. Maybe your company believes official comments and press interviews should be reserved for the PR guys or that all financial and labeled confidential information is a no go.

Instead of forbiding interaction, encourage the conversation in a positive direction. Tell staff to share their ideas and thoughts on what they re doing and what goes on around them. Provide a place to do this. Zappos is using twitter, some companies use GetSatisfaction or their blog. Give your stakeholders a way to communicate and share with you.

3. Be Proactive

Through tools like google alerts, twitter search, Yotify and a host of other services you can receive emails every time certain key words appear on a blog, in a conversation and the internet. It’s a listening post strategy.

With this information you are not only informed, but given a great opportunity to enhance the conversation. Whether that’s commenting on blog posts, using twitter, facebook or another social network, you are able to help, encourage and interact on a trusted level. People don’t like talking to companies, they like talking to people.

Bonus: Learn to be apart of the conversation

Every time your brand or area of expertise is mentioned you are given a great opportunity to add value to the interaction. Protect your brand in the best way possible through open public replies to complaints, public thank you’s and encouragement for positive mentions and in through understanding of what types of interactions are happening.

What should be included in new media statement policy? How do we align company policies with the changing communications landscape?

Please share your thoughts! I’ll post any other posts related to this one right here:

What Others Think

Further Reading:

• How to Listen to Opportunities on Twitter,
• Zappos on Social Media Strategy
• Track Your Customers Pulse Part: Tweet Tweet Insights

Photo Credit: pupski

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Since the hardest part of any project is the “doing” part I thought I would pass along a great post that magically appeared in my Google Reader the other day.

The biggest challange that i hear from many businesses that are getting their feet wet in Social Media is how?

How do I incorporate regular social media participation into my day? The last Third Tuesday here in Vancouver had a long discussion on the frustration of “too much time needed for social media” Check out Raul’s Live Blog of the event.

Ian Lurie from internet marketing firm Conversation Marketing wrote a great post to show just how easy it is to get into the social media groove. Click to check out his post here for 5 Social Media Builders in 10 minutes.

Ian focuses on a few Social Sites that are fairly generic and indeed will provide a great start.

Remember!

Just remember these few points:

1. Be Part of the Conversation not a broadcaster
2. Add value to the community, not just personal gains
3. Start looking for niche specific areas to interact with (either within the mentioned sites or specific sites for your niche). This could be a facebook or flickr group or a meetup.com group for your specific industry.
4. Just do it!

Photo Credit: iwouldstay

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I’ve been going over notes I’ve taken over the years, you know the really important stuff that we write down never to view again (except I’m actually reading it….wierd)

Anyways, I found a few points from a presenter (I can’t remember his name, sorry!) who was giving advice on public speaking. After reviewing my all important take away notes, I realized that his advice is exactly the advice that anyone waiting to start a blog or begin purposeful social media interaction should hear. So here we go.

Everyone Feels Not Good Enough

This is a point that has come up over and over and , you got it, over again. There isn’t a person on this earth that hasn’t or doesn’t feel “not good enough” at multiple points of their life. I’ve sat across from Doctors, Lawyers, successful entrepreneurs and students who all say the same thing. I’m not good enough.

Well if everyone’s not good enough, then who is? The answer is all of us! We all have something unique to bring to the table. Even if it’s re-posting something we found interesting or adding a comment or two here and there, your unique point of view is valuable.

Mac over at The Viral Garden wrote this related post Removing your ‘Perfect’ Filter.

How Can I Add Value

The key to ensuring that what you write or post is unique and valuable is to ask yourself about your intentions. Am I posting this because I want to add value to the community,the group, my readers or my friends?

If answer yes, continue. Otherwise don’t!

The Most Important Line

This note had multiple stars next to it, and for good reason.

“If you’re in your head you can never communicate to another persons heart”

To me that means, if I’m worried about what someone else is thinking, trying to be too perfect or say something just the right way, I will never be effective in communicating my value. Acting with a passion and desire to add value is the first step to effective communication, regardless of the medium. Gary Vaynerchuck is the master of this one!

G.O.O.P

I love this acronym, because I swim around in that sticky gooey stuff far too often for my liking. I am way to familiar with GOOP.

GOOP stands for Good Opinions of Other People

Whether standing in front of a group or publishing to millions on the web, we humans tend to think other people are much better, smarter, cooler (continue to ad adjectives here) than we, ourselves, are. In any group, some people are (adjective here) and many are not, the reality is it’s completely irrelevant.

By focusing on the question “How can I add value?” We are able to remove the barrier to doing something. Knowing that your inentions are to add value removes the need to be right or better or earthshatteringly insightful, and instead allow you to focus on communicating that value.

So I’ll leave you with a new favorite line that I’m saying outloud right now, just before I publish this post.

I don’t care if they like to hear it or not, but it’s comming from the heart with value as my inention”- Me.

I really do hope you like it though!

(Photo Credits: john curley , Claudecf , QwirkSilver)

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I hold steadfast to the belief that the internet is the best medium for marketers period. Building trust, engaging, communicating and selling are at the fingers of even the smallest business, and I love that.

From time to time we hear the grumbles and moans as traditional advertisers timidly hop on the internet to work their magic, only to be disappointed in low conversion, bad publicity or lack of traction.

To those people I say, SNAP OUT OF IT MAN/WOMAN! .

There are more than enough blogs and articles addressing the differences in approach, in messaging and in interaction that are necessary for success online. So today I thought, that instead of a long rant, I would highlight 3 of the coolest campaigns I’ve come across recently. These 3 Online Marketing Campaigns show the power that the internet paired with creativity can wield.

Marketers, give up your banner ads, your pay per post, your incessant PR pitches and half hearted social media interaction and use the internet to it’s fullest, the creative, interactive and engaging medium that it is.

3 Amazing Online Marketing Campaigns

MoveOn.Org - This is my favorite campaign of late.

The purpose: Get voters out to vote for Obama.

The Campaign: The site allows anyone to email their friends an outlandish “Onion” style video that takes place in the future as results from the election were tallied and outrage erupts over Obama loosing by one vote. It’s not just one vote though, it was your friends vote that ruined the day. When I received the video I was amused by my name appearing in headlines on newspapers, being cursed by old ladies and sheep farmers.

Why it’s so great: MoveOn.org allows each video to be customize by entering in the name of a friend.The integration and personalization of the video is at the heart of it’s appeal. It provides a personal connection to the video paired with humor and a hint of realism, making it a “must forward to friends” site. The video disappears after it’s been played, replaced with copy encouraging us to forward the a personalized video to our friends.

Improvement: My only suggestion would be to make it easier to add friends and share with friends. Maybe a facebook component or the ability to pull from my favorite Gmail contacts. I had to search back and forth for the emails of friends I knew would love it, reducing the number I actually sent it to.

Check out the video with my name in it here: Obama’s Loss Traced to Jess Sloss

(Update: This video has been seen over 15 million times as of Nov. 2, 2008!!!)

Nintendo Wario Land Shake it You Tube Campaign

The Purpose: Impact viewers with an innovative approach that gets people talking and linking!

One key to always delighting your customers is to under promise and over deliver. Nintendo’s YouTube video promoting “Wario Land: Shake it” does just that. It promised amazing footage and it gave way more.

Check it out for yourself: Nintendo’s Innovative YouTube Ad

You can imagine my surprise when the action in the video got so intense that bits and pieces of the website started to fall away. This unique, creative and “send to a friend” worthy campaign has racked up over 3.8 million views. That’s the power of the internet!

Why it’s so great: Over delivers, unexpected, unique and totally worth sending to a friend. It pushes the boundary when it comes to engaging online advertising.

Improvement: I would love to see it on other sites, maybe even my own. Could there be some cool widget that allows users to bash apart my site? I don’t know, but that would be cool!

Woot: Before you Jump out of that window..

The Campaign: With total instability in the stock market, Woot, an innovative online retailer (they only sell one item a day!) took advantage of the attention google searchers were paying to to the stock market. Searchers checking in on stock prices were targeted with Paid search ads from Woot reading “Before you jump out that window, why not spend your last remaining dollars on Woot!” Search is a major part of any online marketing campaign and Woot shows us a way to leverage those few cents even further.

Check out the ad here: Woot Search Ads Shock

Why it’s so great: It’s shocking, the ads lead to huge attention on major blogs such as TechCrunch where they questioned “Are the new Woot Ads Funny or Just Offensive?” The answer doesn’t really matter, I’m quite confident that they drove sales, made money and won over more fans. I loved it (mind you I didn’t loose my shirt in the market!)

Improvement: Any ideas? I think it’s simplicity makes it great? What do you think?

On a local side note, a Vancouver tailor has also taken the opportunity to market to sullen investors, check out Dunn’s Tailors store front “Business Sucks Promotion” here. (thanks @ian_wish for the heads up) Now if they just understood the power of Paid search like Woot, they’d be set!

What do you think?

So there we go, 3 Online Marketing Campaigns that Show the Amazing Power of Internet Marketing. I want to know what you think! Am I right/wrong? Did I miss some amazing ones? Am I full of it?

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I love blogging, and so do many of you. We’re the converted, the choir as it were. I’m sure that many of you, like myself, preach the virtues of the blog and encourage those around us to get going on one. Well this video is just another tool in our arsenal.

My twitter feed alerted me to this awesome video of Tom Peters and Seth Godin, two amazingly successful business people, giving their personal reasons why they blog.

Check out Let’s Hear it for the Blog.

It made me want to blog more, how about you?

On a side note, I think it’s lame that open forum doesn’t allow embedible video, just another reason I LOVE Ted.com

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Too many people, too much crap. That’s the quick, easy and realistic (pessimistic?) way of describing our society. We live in a world of luxuries and consumptions. The underlining mind talk goes something like this, “if I get this or that, I will be whole, better, something or someone!”.

In Western culture, we have a fixation on standard of living:

“A minimum of necessities, comforts, or luxuries considered essential to maintaining a person or group in customary or proper status or circumstances” source.

The problem with that metric is there is no way that maintaining our standard is sustainable. Furthermore, a higher standard of living doesn’t mean happiness.

We have a better measure of our society, Quality of life:

“Those aspects of the economic, social and physical environment that make a community a desirable place in which to live.” source

After spending two months traveling through South East Asia, I’ve made a few observations.

1. Being poor doesn’t equal being unhappy. While I’m sure most citizens of Cambodia would love to have more money, they live happy lives. A life surrounded by community, family and laughter.
2. Having everything doesn’t mean happy. I voted yesterday, the guy behind me was unhappy about the amount of time he was “wasting” in line to vote. He has everything in the eyes of standard of living, but lacks a level of appreciation for simple honors such as democracy.

If our world is going to take a serious approach to poverty we need to look at our excesses and be willing to focus on others more than ourselves.  In business the saying goes, “What gets measured, get’s done.” Lets stop measuring standard and focus on quality.

Blog action day is just one way that you can get involved. My man EngageJoe has a host of other ideas.

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