Mar
12th

Detroit Goes to Austin

Posted by Leah Singer on March 12, 2010 at 3:49 pm

Photo Credit: Nick McGlynn

The South by Southwest Interactive (SXSW) festival officially kicked-off today in the Texas state capital of Austin.

If you are unfamiliar with SXSW, here’s a blurb from its website:

SXSW Interactive features five days of compelling presentations from the brightest minds in emerging technology, scores of exciting networking events hosted by industry leaders and an unbeatable line up of special programs showcasing the best new websites, video games and startup ideas the community has to offer.

A little social network company called Twitter received an enormous amount of attention after its unveiling at the festival three years ago. And just 12 months ago, location-based service Foursquare continues to enjoy its time in the limelight after the company was showcased.

This year, General Motor’s Chevrolet wanted to partake in the fun. Not only is the company a major sponsor, the Detroit-based automaker decided to become part of the action too. According to a USA Today article, here are just a few of Chevrolet’s SXSW social media campaigns:

- Chevrolet partnered with Austin-based location service Gowalla. Gowalla (a competitor of Foursquare) users who “check in” to various Austin venues, can try to win virtual goods, which can then be redeemed for free Chevy rides.

- People who download the Chevrolet augmented reality iReveal application to their smartphone can unlock 3-D models of Chevrolet vehicles.

- Chevrolet also supplied eight vehicles to popular bloggers and social media users who documented their travels from their hometowns to the festival. Before the roadtrip, which started Monday, Twitter users submitted ideas to @chevrolet for the travelers to participate in while on the road and document on their social media channels. One featured traveler, Nick McGlynn, who traveled from New York City to Texas, uploaded videos, photos, and text updates to his blog.

Chevrolet came up with very cool and innovative ideas for a company (and a city) that could certainly use the Texas sunshine.

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Feb
11th

Olympic Athletes Have Social Media Rules Too

Posted by Leah Singer on February 11, 2010 at 10:39 am

Starting this weekend, not only do Olympic athletes need to follow the rules of their sporting event, they’ll also need to follow rules the International Olympic Committee enacted regarding athletes using social media channels like Twitter.

The IOC issued the IOC Blogging Guidelines: for Persons Accredited at the XXI Olympic Winter Games, Vancouver 2010. According to the guidelines, Olympic athletes are allowed to blog and use Twitter, however, they must adhere to several rules. Some of those rules include the following:

+ No Sound or Moving Images of the Games
Basically, Olympic athletes can’t post video or “sequences of still photographs which simulate moving images” onto their blogs as the IOC claims it is part of its intellectual property rights.

+ Still Picture Limitations
Athletes can post still pictures of themselves within “Accredited Zones” as long as they don’t contain any sporting action, or the photo is not taken during the Opening, Closing or Medal Ceremonies. There is no real clarification as to what is an “Accredited Zone.”

+ Olympic Symbol Limitations
Athletes cannot use the Olympic Symbol on their blog. So athletes can’t have an Olympic themed Tumblr or Twitter background. But athletes can use the word Olympic and other Olympic-like words, whatever that means.

There are several more blogging rules for the athletes, but that gives you a taste of what they can and cannot do until March 4th.

Last week, some athletes became confused with the IOC guidelines. American alpine skier Lindsey Vonn posted on her Twitter profile on that she wouldn’t be touching the micro-blogging platform until after the games. The next day the confusion seemed to be cleared up. She even posted as recently as yesterday on her Facebook profile (which is linked to her Twitter account) that she is very stressed about her recent shin injury.

What are your thoughts about these social media Olympic rules? Are they too strict or too lenient?

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Oct
20th

Technorati Asks: Who Are The Bloggers?

Posted by Keirsun on October 20, 2009 at 10:45 am

One of the many arguments that traditional media makes against the blogosphere often involves a statement similar to this:

Bloggers are primarily teens and 20-somethings who have little to no knowledge of traditional journalistic principles, but lots of time to share subjective rants on any topic they desire—which are then mistaken by their readers to be factual news.

Technorati, the world’s first blog search engine, is working diligently to prove that the above statement is anything but true.

In an attempt to lift the thinning veil of misinformation about the blogosphere, Technorati has released this year’s State of the Blogosphere series of reports.

I'm blogging this t-shirt The series itself has been around since 2004 and aims to chronicle “the rise and evolution of the Blogosphere as we know it”. With the recent rise in popularity of micro-blogging sites such as Twitter, Technorati has its work cut out for it.

Kicking off with Day 1: Who Are The Bloggers? SOTB 2009, Technorati reveals a treasure-trove of blogger demographics, including:

• 75% have college degrees

• 40% have graduate degrees

• 1 in 3 has an annual household income of $75K+

• 1 in 4 has an annual household income of $100K+

• 68% have been blogging for 2 years or more

And what may come as a surprise to some people:

• 35% have worked within traditional media as a writer, reporter, producer, or on-air personality.

Technorati will be publishing additional State of the Blogosphere reports all this week, including topics such as brands in the blogosphere, twitter & micro-blogging, and how bloggers are impacting global events.

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Mar
4th

Follow the Bouncing Smiley Face… to Corporate Transparency?

Posted by Keirsun on March 4, 2008 at 2:56 pm

One of yesterday’s StraightUpSocial News Links points to an excellent New York Times article entitled, “Wal-Mart Tastemakers Write Unfiltered Blog“.

The article details some of the posts on Wal-Mart’s new corporate blog: Check Out. Now I will be the first to say that I’m not a Wal-Mart fan, but I have to give the big box retailer credit for putting the keys to the blog-mobile in the hands of Wal-Mart product buyers.

walmart sign And these buyers have been busy writing authentic blog posts that include their honest opinions of the products they are responsible for putting in the hands of Wal-Mart consumers. Even when their opinions include negative feedback on well-known products.

The New York Times article cites one Wal-Mart blogger expressing disappointment in Microsoft’s Vista operating system, a complaint which has seemingly echoed in the halls of Redmond since Vista’s release. Another blogger referenced in the article refers to one of the recent Star Wars movies as a “debacle.” Both the movie and Vista-bundled computers are available for purchase in a Wal-Mart near you.

Is Wal-Mart unexpectedly pushing forward with the next wave of consumer empowerment? “Sure, Ebert gave the movie a thumbs up, but Stan at Wal-Mart says the DVD will probably be in the bargain bin by the end of next week!”

Pointing to a recent post about Wal-Mart’s decision to choose BluRay over HD DVD, the NYT article infers that Wal-Mart’s bloggers may become a strong source for information on company decisions that have a significant impact on consumer goods markets.

It was a blogger on the Check Out, after all, who first disclosed last month that Wal-Mart would stock only high-definition DVDs and players using the Blu-ray format, rather than the rival HD DVD system. The decision was considered the death knell for HD DVD.

Check Out’s blog topic categories include: