Seeing as the vast majority of the world now seems to be inclining themselves towards increased social media use, it makes sense that eventually those in political power would have to integrate it into their public image as well. This is exactly what President Barack Obama has done in the run up to this fall’s election and here is an overview of why. He clearly felt the need to connect with a younger demographic, particularly those who have lost confidence in him or were not supportive of his 2008 victory. If he wants to gain their votes, then he must speak their language, as they say, which is where social media comes in.

President Obama recently took part in a digital interview at the White House, that was hosted by Google+. During this time, he answered questions from various members of the public, using this opportunity to prove that he is versatile and keeping up with the times. Digital interviews are always a good idea, as they enable the interviewee to get their message across to as many people as possible. Anyone who wants to can have access to the goings on from their home computers, before playing a game of partypoker or checking their own social media sites. The online “hangout” that President Obama took part in was geared towards the part of the constituency that it appears his popularity has fallen in, and he will be hoping that this has helped his cause.

This digital interview, done by the way of social media, is a good idea which companies should keep in mind. If you want to keep in touch with your customers and receive direct feedback from them, then holding an interview is a good way to do this. If you conduct a digital one, then this also enables many more people to participate than would usually be able to, thus increasing your influence and overall benefit.

Tesco/HomePlus had a goal of becoming the #1 grocery chain in South Korea without opening more stores.

• Solution: Let the store come to the people and turn waiting time into shopping time
• Execution: Subway virtual stores that allow people to shop from their smartphones. The product picture displays where exactly the same as the displays in stores, except  people scan QR Codes to add items to their mobile cart. The food is then delivered  in the afternoon.
• Results: Online sales increased 130%. HomePlus is now #1 in online market and a close second offline.

Often times the Twitter handle that aligns perfectly with your brand or product is taken. For McGraw-Hill, I had to settle for @mcgrawhillcos because @mcgrawhill was taken…Grrrr. However, you may be able to claim an already reserved Twitter ID if your claim meets the following criteria:

1. The user is blatantly impersonating you
2. The user is misusing your trademark (pretending to be your company)
3. The user has been inactive for 6 months or more

Criteria #3 is how I secured the Standard & Poor’s twitter ID – @standardpoors.

These are the steps I followed:

Step #1: Check Twitter’s inactive user policy and Trademark policy to make sure you meet their criteria.

Step #2: Once you are sure that the Twitter ID you want meets the criteria for takeover, raise a ticket.

Step #3: Choose the Trademark misuse form if you’re reporting an inactive account or an account that is impersonating your brand.

Step #4:  Specify that you’re a trademark holder and would like to claim the username.


Step #5: Fill out the trademark issue form. You will need specific trademark information such as trademarked word, registration number, registration office.

Step #6:  In the description, specify if the user has been inactive for more than 6 months. If the issue is brand or personal impersonation, specify how the user is doing this.

Step #7: Submit the claim. You will receive an email confirming your submission. The review process may take 2 weeks or more.

Twitter is constantly evolving and tweaking their process. If you go through this experience and have additional feedback, please add to the comments and I will update the post. Good luck!

A few weeks ago I received an email with the subject line “My broken tooth” from my very talented actor and comedian friend, Jeff Self (see video above).  Below is what he wrote:

Hello friends.

Get ready for the weirdest email you’re gonna get today. So this weekend I broke my tooth. My front tooth. 50 percent chipped in half. Exposed nerves. The works. It’s pretty gnarly. And I’ve attached a photo for your enjoyment. I’ll wait while you open said attachment.

Now I’ll wait while you laugh at my misfortune. Okay, now I am asking for help. I don’t have dental insurance and I was awe struck to find out just how expensive a new tooth is going to be while at the dentist this morning. Beyond a new tooth, the exposed nerves on the broken tooth got infected over the weekend, leading to a root canal this morning. Messy.

Here’s my super 2011 idea.

I’ve set up an online fundraiser website to try and raise the money to pay for this. I’ve made a YouTube video explaining the situation and my pipe dream is that through the power of social media I can pay for this big mess and go back to eating sandwiches and apples like it never happened.

So literally, I’m asking folks who watch the video to donate a dollar two or ten or whatever you’ve got. Also, if you feel so inclined share with anyone you know in real life or Facebook or Twitter or where ever who might have two bucks and a desire to help some dude they’ve never met get a new tooth. I hope you don’t find this email and overall idea too forward or crass or weird.

Happy 2011 and thanks for reading. Here’s the link: http://www.indiegogo.com/Jeffery-Self-Needs-A-New-Tooth?a=72944&i=addr

Now, feel free to forward the attached photo to anyone who might need a laugh today.

love - jeffery

8 Tips for Web Fundraising

Jeff raised over $3,400 from 183 donors in 3 days! Sure, being an internet celeb helped. He does, after all, have over 11k subscribers on YouTube, a show on the Logo Network, 5k friends on Facebook and close to 4k followers on Twitter. But with a little bit of creativity and social media savvy, you can raise dough for your cause too. Below are a few ideas to get you thinking about how you could tweet your way to a new tooth, donations to your charity or even tuition.

1. Get creative with how you tell your story: In Jeff’s case, he did what he does best – a funny email and even funnier pictures/videos.
2. Leveraging your personal social framework vs. creating a social framework for your cause: Depending on length and size of your campaign, you might choose to just leverage your personal social network or create a social framework exclusively for your cause (e.g. dedicated blog, Facebook page, Twitter account, YouTube channel, etc).
3. Use donation sites to make it easy for people to contribute: Examples include IndieGOGO, FirstGiving, and ChipIn.
4. Keep donors engaged: Aggregate donors’ emails in a Google Spredsheet and send them occasional email updates about your cause. Use MailChimp if you want to get fancy with email design and metrics.
5. Ask donors to share with their friends: Make it easy for them by having pre-written messages with links that they can copy and paste to Twitter and Facebook.
6. Thank donors in a public forum: Most people like donate to a cause to say they did. Write regular blog posts thanking recent donors. You can also use a donation site that keeps a scoreboard of donors like IndieGOGO.
7. Email Campaign: You can scrape emails from your Facebook friends and track them via Google docs. It’s tedious but email is still what people check most frequently.
8. Outreach Influencers: Reach out to bloggers or other sites that might find your cause relevant enough to share it with their readers. You can find top blogs by category using Alltop.com.

These are just a few ideas to get you started. The possibilities are endless so do some research. Google “fundraising with social media” and see what you find. Do you have any additional ideas or examples of individuals getting creative with social media to raise cash?

If you text as much as I do (~2,000/month), these nifty text gloves might come handy. Get them at Urban Outfitters

Picture credits: @kennysullivan

A brief presentation on the use of social media, particularly blogging and crowdsourcing, for CSR.

I’m not sure if I should be upset or happy about this. Actually, I don’t really care. After all, Good Burger doesn’t offer any badges or incentives on FourSquare for my committed weekly calorie fest. 4Food on the other hand, was recently featured on the WSJ as one of the most social restaurant. They have iPad-toting waiters, a massive FourSquare/Twitter feed scoreboard and regular special offers via FourSquare.

I’m taking my burger addiction elsewhere. Do you have any suggestions for a good burger in NYC near 49th and 6 ave?

Here’s a clever little poem by Patrick Durando about his iPad (aka The Precious) and his favorite Apps (most of them free):

And now I must take the Precious shopping. The Precious demands to be fed apps and media.
The Precious shows me pretty pictures. (top 10 photo apps)
The Precious sings me to sleep (iPod) and wakes me in the morning (Night Stand HD)
The Precious tells me what to wear (WeatherStation) and what to eat (Epicurious)
I can talk to the Precious. The Precious understands me. (Dragon Dictation)
The Precious let’s me watch other people while they work (Webex, GoTo Meeting)
The Precious responds to my touch. (Penultimate, Notetaker HD)
The Precious tells me what to say. (Teleprompt+)
The Precious tells me who I should be friends with (Facebook)
The Precious reminds me how small and worthless I am in its Universe (Google Earth, Observatory, Star Walk)
And in my darkest hour, The Precious lights my way (Flashlight)