Real time social media search

I'm playing around with a real time search engine for social media called Collecta.com. It's pretty cool - it gives you a waterfall of real time results from twitter, blogs, comments, Flickr photos and online news. Like twitterfall, but for more social media channels than just twitter.

There is a bit of tailoring, you can select between 1 to 4 sources:
1. Blog posts and articles
2. Comments on blog posts
3. Updates on Twitter, Jaiku, Identica
4. Photos on Flickr

I like the the fact that there is a box out of the detailed post/update.

I can see this being used a lot for real time issues monitoring and for tracking back channel conversations at conferences.

Pitching via a social media treasure hunt

My colleagues in Turkey recently took part in a very nifty pitch for Turkish Airlines that involved following clues in social media channels. The airline used the tag THYbrief and left clues in a variety of social media channels from Friendfeed and Flickr to blogger and tumblr. The McCann Turkey digital dudes followed the digi-trail and found the password embedded in the source code of a blog.

I must admit, this seems a much better way of sussing out whether a pitching agency knows their onions, compared to a lengthy RFP. Plus much more fun for the pitching agencies.

Social media on the Beach: 02

I think the 02 Scrum on the Beach nicely sums up what social media is all about: authenticity, fun, getting everyone involved. The England rugby team are 'playing' [if that's the right word] on beaches around the UK this summer, getting people involved in rugby and judging by the video, generally having a laugh. Details here

Consumer vs advertiser

An old but even more relevant video illustrating how some advertisers treat consumers.

Free: new book by Chris Anderson

Looking forward to Chris Anderson's new book, Free, which explains how Free is a valid business model, created by the internet and social media in particular. I believe the general idea is that if you give something away for free and have a superior product that people can buy, then the Free bit encourages them to buy the superior product. I don't think I'm explaining it very well as it sounds awfully like Product Sampling. Mr Anderson explains it much better in the video below:




Or in the Wired article here.

In the spirit of the theory of Free, Mr Anderson and his publishers are giving away an abridged version for free. This cut down version is three hours long in an audio book, while the full monty is six hours.

I can see the logic of the theory of Free, once I've got my head around how it is different to sampling. I think the example he uses in the article of a brand sponsoring a Tube Line and letting people ride on it for free illustrates the theory best. Although I pity the brand who sponsors the Northern line.

Boy with girl parts social media campaign

A very bold move by P&G to create a story around Zack, the boy who wakes up one morning with girl parts.
It seems to be really well done [I watched 3 mins but then got bored] and the dialogue is not particularly cheesey. Its got a MySpace feel to it. Have a gander here.



It's early days for the campaign so I guess I'll wait and see how effective it is. At the mo, I've definitely got it in the 'strange and odd' social media campaigns box.

Social media for internal comms

Deloitte Consulting won a Gold Quill at IABC this year for a cool internal comms initiative that uses social media. The aim was to retain and recruit more Generation Y employees by getting them engaged with the company and sharing what it's like to work for Deloitte via social media.They ran a Film Festival asking employees to make 3 min film answering the question "What's Your Deloitte?".

Employees posted videos on a Youtube channel, and I imagine, on their intranet. The video below was the one that had the most view on YouTube.



More details of the campaign can be found at IABC here. In summary:
- 372 films were submitted, by 2000 film makers, which equates to 5% of Deloitte's staff.
- the gallery where the films were show was viewed over 400,000 times.
- the winners got a experiential trip e.g. Sundance Film Festival or a cash prize.

I don't know how the campaign has impacted on their Gen Y retention and recruitment [if anyone from Deloitte reads this, then any results you could share would be fab].

The reason I like this is because it's not using social media to sell more widgets, or attract more voters, like many of the text book campaigns, but to get people to share their feelings and opinions on what it's like to work somewhere. Plus, [and no offence to Deloitte] Big Five management consultancies aren't well known for experimenting with new things or giving up control.

So, big hand to Deloitte for this and congrats on your award.