Hank Wasiak gave a talk last week at the Jeff Pulver #140conf in New York that blew me away. In his talk on “Why Madison Avenue Should Love Social Media” he said to “see social media as the greatest disruptive gift you’ve ever been give.” Hank’s talk begins after a brief introduction by Jeff around 2:20 into the clip. Listen to the talk. You can learn more about Hank here.
Why TOMS Shoes and Gen Y Bode Well for our Future
April 25, 2010 By
Emily's new shoes
Yesterday I took my 14 year old daughter Emily to the mall and bought her a new pair of navy blue flats from TOMS Shoes that she has been wanting for a while. Emily wanted these shoes because as she told me “they are really cute and comfortable” and she likes that for every pair of TOMS that you buy the company pledges to give a new pair of shoes to a child in need. According to the TOMS website :
- A leading cause of disease in developing countries is soil-transmitted diseases, which can penetrate the skin through bare feet. Wearing shoes can help prevent these diseases, and the long-term physical and cognitive harm they cause.
- Wearing shoes also prevents feet from getting cuts and sores. Not only are these injuries painful, they also are dangerous when wounds become infected.
- Many times children can’t attend school barefoot because shoes are a required part of their uniform. If they don’t have shoes, they don’t go to school. If they don’t receive an education, they don’t have the opportunity to realize their potential.
The company said that as of April 2010 over 600,000 pairs of shoes had been given away to children in need.
The popularity of TOMS shoes and their “One to One ” program among Generation Y –roughly those born in the 1980s and 1990s and 77 million strong– bodes well for our future. According to marketing and demographic research, Generation Y cares deeply about causes especially involving world issues and the environment. And, as reported by Joel Kotkin in his article for Newsweek titled “400 Million People Can’t Be Wrong” :
Between 2000 and 2050 the U.S. population aged 15 to 64—the key working and school-age group—will grow 42 percent, while the same group will decline by 10 percent in China, nearly 25 percent in Europe, and 44 percent in Japan.
Looks like Generation Y has the heart and the mass to lead us into the future. I for one hope they keep their passion as they age.
Altimeter Report: Social Marketing Analytics Demystified
April 24, 2010 By
Altimeter Report: Social Marketing Analytics
View more documents from Jeremiah Owyang.
Who knew Bill Gross has a blog?
April 18, 2010 By
Who knew that Idealab founder Bill Gross has a blog? I didn’t and I have had a technology crush on Gross since he founded Idealab back in 1996 to “create and operate pioneering technology companies.” Gross has been blogging since 2008 and his most current entry “Ted 2010 in 100 Tweets” provides readers with an insider look at the feel of the conference.
This has been a busy week for Gross. On Monday Idealab’s company Tweetup announced a new Twitter marketplace designed to showcase the world’s best tweeters and enable them to grow a highly targeted following. According to Gross:
“Twitter has such tremendous potential as a real-time information network far beyond what has been realized to date. For most people, though, 80% or more of the tweets that fly by them when they’re searching for something are useless noise. For serious tweeters, the task of attracting interested and relevant followers is equally daunting. TweetUp will change all of that.”
TweetUp is just another example of Gross leading with innovation.
To be Fair, HRBlock responded after 16 hours
April 17, 2010 By
I hate doing my taxes. Every April I pledge to NEVER again do them on my own and every March I am again slogging through all my paper work and once again doing my own taxes. For years I have been using TaxCut now known as H&R Block At Home. On Tuesday of this week I was finally wrapping up and ran into a problem. The return wouldn’t print.
So, since being so successful just two days before with @BestBuy on Twitter, I tweeted @HRBlock.
No response.
I was surprised that just two days before the deadline all I heard from @HRBlock was dead silence and especially after being so happy with Best Buy.
Sixteen hours after my first tweet to HRBlock I tweeted:
I not only heard back from HRBlockAnswers I also heard back again from my friends at Best Buy.
By the time HRBlockAnswers contacted me, I had already finished my taxes and worked around the printer issue. I was pleased they finally responded and that they apologized. As a bonus, I also found out that I was getting $25 back from Best Buy since my washing machine has an extended warranty plan. And more than likely, even after swearing off preparing my own taxes next year, I’ll probably be purchasing another tax preparation software program come January 2011. But, I will be doing my homework on which tax preparation software program delivers the best customer support via Twitter.
Best Buy Responds In 5 Minutes
April 11, 2010 By
This morning the tub door seal on my Whirlpool Duet popped off after a wire popped off underneath. My husband quickly got to work to see if he could fix it and I quickly turned to Google after scanning my Best Buy service plan. Two years before I had purchased the washer online along with the service plan but discovered the link to the receipt no longer worked.
So, I turned to Twitter.
Within 5 minutes I heard back.
After a few more tweets I was on the phone with Jason and a fix to my problem was in the works. Tomorrow the technicians arrive and hopefully everything will go as smoothly as today. But for me, what was important was that Best Buy was listening (on a Sunday morning!) and willing to engage me online to ensure I was pleased with their customer service. Is your Brand listening to your customers?
Do governments lack the will to thwart the piracy of software, music and movies?
April 8, 2010 By
photo credit: World Economic Forum
Piracy of software, music, movies is a huge issue across the globe and the fight against it is being waged on many different fronts. For instance, 41% of software worldwide is unlicensed, counterfeit or pirated. From the recent marketing communications project I participated in, it seems that one approach that makes sense is the intervention by internet service providers (whether on their own or forced by the countries they operate in) to thwart known pirates whether they realize what they are doing is wrong or not.
In October 2009 Greg Sandoval reported for CNET, that “France has adopted a strong antipiracy law, one that may mean those who chronically share unauthorized movies and music online will lose Web access for up to a year.” Sandoval wrote that Dan Glickman, chairman and CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America said:
“Today’s decision is an enormous victory for creators everywhere. It is our hope that ISPs will fully honor their promise to cooperate and that the French government will take the necessary measures to dedicate resources to handle the enormous task ahead.”
In December 2009, Sandoval followed up by looking at where the recording industry was in their fight against piracy and began by writing, ” A decade after the rise of Napster and a year after promising a new antipiracy strategy, the Recording Industry Association of America appears to be floundering on the piracy front.” According to Sandoval “the number of ISPs that have acknowledged adopting the RIAA’s graduated response program is zero.”
Sandoval quoted RIAA CEO Mitch Bainwol “Are we prepared to make an announcement that is broad in scope and cuts across ISPs? No. Are we engaged in significant discussions that we believe will ultimately prove productive? Hell yes.”
In an op-ed piece for the NY Times, Bono said that the people benefiting most from online piracy are those running ISPs “whose swollen profits perfectly mirror the lost receipts of the music business.”
In December 2009, Disney CEO Robert Iger wrote a piece for the Huffington Post discussing “Two Common Sense Ways to Improve the Economy”. In this post, Iger asks Obama for tougher anti-piracy legislation:
“But there are many who use the Internet to profit from pirated content and who have no interest in voluntary solutions that would put an end to their commercial exploitation of the creative output of others. For that reason, there is a role that government must play to stop piracy on those platforms and services unwilling to police themselves. The confirmation last week by the Senate of Victoria Espinel as the nation’s first Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator is a great step. But it’s critical she be given the necessary resources to get the job done.”
The question is since anyone today can pirate a movie as stated by Paramount CEO Huntsberry, do governments have the will to pressure and force ISPs to shut down the pirates.