#40 The Future of Marketing is...Social.

Audiences today do not want to be talked at. They want to be engaged in conversation. Social media gives us the power to do this, allowing us to define and control our brand. There is a shift from corporations and institutions to individuals and communities. Here are a few tips to take advantage of social media.

• Facebook. To help spread the word about a new campaign, why not ask employees to change their Facebook status to announce your latest campaign? If you have 20,000 employees, most likely 10,000 of them have Facebook. With the average person having 100 friends, your announcement could receive over 1 million impressions for free. Ask employees to include their LinkedIn Profiles – now you have 2 million impressions for free


• YouTube. Create a YouTube channel dedicated to teaching people more about your industry. This channel would feature a series of short, focused videos that educate your audience on related topics that help position you as an industry expert. The videos could highlight benefits and features of your products.


• Twitter. To help build and establish your company as an industry expert, top executives should create Twitter accounts to help position your company’s executives as thought leaders in the industry. Tweets should be business-related topics that talk about industry trends and forecasts. Zappos CEO has 1.6 million followers and is following almost 400K people. A total of 430 Zappos Employees have Twitter accounts. This presence helps Zappos engage and participate in conversations about their company.


• Flickr. Flickr is a great way to help promote events that your company sponsors. Photos can be optimized to show up in search results and increase brand awareness. Using Flickr to increase branding opportunities for KeyBank’s sponsorship of a 10K race, the Key “Bank to Bay” gallery has alone received 6,000 views following the event.

W6M: People visit social media sites every day, why not join them in what they are already doing?

#34 Choose Your Own Ending

Digital Buzz: YouTube campaigns are changing and so are the ways you can develop interactivity with video. Since the introduction of video hotlinks we’ve seen more and more “interactive” videos & story telling campaigns emerging. This new campaign called “Choose Your Own Ending” by DropTheWeapons.org is an interactive film that allows you to decide what happens next. You can interact with it, choose what to do and decide how it ends!

W6M: This is a fresh idea that you will start to see more of. If you grew up reading "Choose your own adventure" stories, you are really going to appreciate these. The campaign created by DropTheWeapons.org is outstanding.

#23 Everyone is Bumping

The new iPhone app, called "Bump," transfers data from one iPhone to another simply by bumping each other. While one person holds an iPhone, he "bumps" hands with another user holding her iPhone. Then detailed contact information or just select data, such as a phone number, is shared.

W6M: Sign up for this, then tell your friends. This App is going to be huge. I love checking out new Apps and will share cool ones when I come across them. If you have any cool Apps that we should know about, let me know.

#21 PhotoFunia

I recently discovered a new website called PhotoFunia.com. Again, when I say new, I mean new to me. Basically, Photofunia is an online image editing tool that allows users to insert their pictures into fun shots.

W6M: You really just have to see this to believe it. No real explaination needed. This site is very cool, very viral. Don't be tricked by your friends that created pictures using PhotoFunia.

If you have any similar sites that you would like to share, let us know.

#17 Photo Booth - Event Marketing

I haven't had a chance to do this yet, but if you are looking for a cool idea for your clients next big event, you may want to try to set up a photo booth for attendees. The idea is to have people take pictures in a booth (perhaps provide them props to make it interesting) and have the photos appear on TVs or projectors through out the event. This is a great way to entertain guests.

W6M: If you want to do this right, set up a landing page to drive people online the next day. People will visit your website the next day and perhaps email their friends a link to their pictures. For a little extra branding, consider adding your logo or url to all the photos.

#8 Running From Camera

The rules are simple: Muggezifter puts the self-timer on 2 seconds, push the button and try to get as far from the camera as he can.

W6M: I had to include my man Muggezifter on my blog. I found his site a couple years ago and keep returning to check out new pictures. He has a unique style and it works. When you are working on projects for your clients, try to keep Muggezifter in mind. Not suggesting you copy his style, he likes to call those people out "It ain't me babe". But rather do something unique that makes you stand out against the crowd. You will know you made it when people start to copy you.

#6 Electronic Graffiti - Laser Tag System

In its simplest form the Laser Tag system is a camera and laptop setup, tracking a green laser point across the face of a building and generating graphics based on the laser's position which then get projected back onto the building with a high power projector.

W6M: A while back I found Evan Roth's Graffiti Analysis website and loved the work. I have been trying to pitch the concept to my clients, but not having much luck. I think even using the projector to get a video on the side of a building would be cool. Let me know if anyone had any luck pitching to their clients.

#5 Create Your Own Word Cloud

Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share with your friends.

W6M: I have not used this as a design yet, but I thought it was a pretty interesting idea. Its important to always be on the look out for the latest design trends. It's also important that you evolve your brand as design styles change. Being ahead of the curve is even better, but you never want to be behind the curve. Let me know what you think.