For better or worse, the next big thing online is the anonymous overshare, and Formspring.me fits the bill. While the site is gaining in popularity amongst businesses, bloggers, media, and nonprofits (yes, we have one), where it’s really finding a stride is with teens, notorious for turning their backs on the biggest names in social media, and they love it.

“Evil, fun and addictive.” That’s what the media analysis site Gawker calls it. And they’re apparently not wrong, because there are more than 27 million people currently using Formspring.me. Basically, Formspring.me allows you to create a profile and then people can anonymously ask you questions.

For the people asking the questions, it’s an anonymous comment box that they can fill with pointed interrogation. For the people answering the questions, it meets countless narcissistic desires, allowing users to revel in their interests, wax poetic on a variety of topics, and bask in the feeling of being desired as some kind of authority on something. Beyond its confessional qualities, it also feeds that shout-from-the-rooftops desire, tying into your Twitter, Tumblr, or Facebook accounts. Every time you answer a question, it will post to your feed. However, this will mostly annoy people on Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr, though, so try to avoid that.

While Formspring.me grows in popularity, it also gains in notoriety, being used as a place to randomly insult people without consequences, find out answers to the questions you don’t have the guts to ask in real life, and so on. In fact, recently, seven Pennsylvania teens were arrested for allegedly planning a “near riot” at their high school using Formspring.me, leading to the site being banned by local schools officials.

Of course, Formspring.me can be used to ask important questions and give meaningful answers…but, so far, it’s more fun than brawn. Want to try it out? Ask us a question!

This idea became even more clear during a discussion by Peter Shankman (@skydiver), founder of Help a Reporter Out - HARO at a recent SPRA luncheon. Speaking about the future of social media in PR and marketing campaigns, his talk highlighted this easy-to-overlook point: emerging generations are used to getting their information in small bursts – 140 characters (micro-blogs like Twitter) or 160 characters (text messaging), which take 2.7 seconds to read.

Too many businesses and organizations have a tendency to over-share and wax poetic about their topics of interest (I know I’m guilty). However, maintaining marketing relevancy demands a new approach.

Relevancy = value, thoughtfulness, and brevity. (And, of course, a kick butt strategy for reaching the appropriate audiences.)

The best way to do this successfully is to highlight key information. There are several devices we use to call out important information, such as typefaces, scale, style (bold, italic, etc), negative space and alignment. The use of too many, however, will cause the message to become muffled – if ten people are yelling in one room, nobody will be understood.

Here are some quick tips for avoiding a visual cacophony:

• Minimize the number of typefaces used. The more faces used, the more confused the audience will be. Think of typefaces as individual personalities – too many would make your piece schizophrenic and confusing.
• Avoid too many variations in type size. Too many different sized words compete with each other for importance. Pick a standard size (8-11pt is ideal) for the whole document and deviate only for bringing attention to the most important parts.
• Use a light touch with stylized emphasis such as bold, italic and underline. Use bold for the most important info, italics for proper grammar use (article names) or for quotes, and underlines for links on the web (unless you just love using a typewriter, join us in the 21st century please).
• Unoccupied space is just as important as occupied space. Hello, white space, welcome to the party. A person’s first instinct is to evenly distribute all elements in a document, but fight the urge! White space lets the eye rest, creates visual interest, and focuses attention on isolated elements.

The most important thing to remember when designing your own documents to: know your audience. What matters to them, what do they need to know, and what can you leave out? Keep it clean, concise and interesting and you’ll make an impact…the good kind.

3fold’s Social Media Policy

As a creative agency, we expect and want our employees to use social media, both personally and professionally. We recognize there is a blurred line between personal and professional use. If you list 3fold as your place of employment in your online social media bio, display the 3fold company logo anywhere on your social profiles, and/or connect with 3fold vendors or clients using your online profile, then you’re representing 3fold professionally.

3fold will never ask you for personal information in regards to your private profiles, such as login information to your Facebook or Twitter pages.

Like the 3 Musketeers—3fold is All for One, One for All

• Social media while at work is used to promote 3fold – our competence, our creativity, and our culture – in that order.
• Supporting a controversial position is a team decision.
• Using social media to build and/or enhance your communication with clients, not to avoid discussions that require a phone call or email.
• Completing your work creatively and timely.  Fill gaps in your day with social media updates and communication.  In that order.

Disney Got it Right—It’s a Small World After All

• Don’t give away 3fold’s competitive position.
• Don’t bad mouth our competition.
• If it causes you to pause, you probably shouldn’t post it.
• Be authentic, genuine and transparent.
• Let your audience know when you’re promoting a client.
• Value and guard your personal information. Safety comes first!

If it Would Surprise Your Mama, it’s Gonna Shock Your Boss

• Tweet others as you expect to be tweeted.
• Make 3fold proud. Don’t post anything that is not professional or in line with who we are as a company.
• No profanity.
• Don’t be mean. If you disagree with someone online, respond respectfully. And if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.
• If you make a mistake, admit it.

Around the Office Etiquette with Regard to Social Networking

• Your supervisor respects your personal, online privacy and will not ask to join your personal online networks.
• Understand every employee feels different about online privacy. If you ask another co-worker or your supervisor to become part of your network and they do not accept that request, don’t take it personally.

Does your company have a social media policy? Leave us a comment as to where we can find it online!

In crisis communications, timing is everything. For Tiger, waiting three months since the alleged infidelities surfaced actually may help his long term career. Unlike many politicians (who have been quick to ask for forgiveness in order to save face), Tiger actually spoke to how he is working to change his behavior, rather than fake sentiments about what he plans to do in the future. During today’s press conference, Tiger spoke longer and at greater detail that I expected; focusing more on apologies, and touching little on his golf career.

While some have criticized Tiger for not answering questions from reporters, I don’t think his move was inappropriate. As he stated in the press conference–much of the details about his affairs should be discussed with his wife and not the media. The point of his press conference was to show remorse, explain his plans to change in the future, and prove he’s working towards a future comeback in the sport.

It’s important to remember- crisis communication cannot undo a crisis; it simply helps heal the crisis faster than it would on its own. And, like Tiger mentioned in his statement, no amount of communication can heal his marriage. Like Elin, all of us will wait to see if his actions will change. Will Tiger be all talk? Only time will tell.

Last year for Lent, I decided to give up something I had grown to see as an addictive indulgence: Facebook. I failed.

Imagine, me, the social media director at 3fold, trying to give up Facebook. At the time, I thought giving up my favorite Internet pastime was a great endeavor for Lent. I’d have more free time to focus on real people rather than status updates about what old high school friend’s did over the weekend. Instead, I learned a few things I wasn’t expecting.

First, I came to realize just how integrated Facebook was with my career. A very essential aspect to protecting our clients’ reputations has gone online, and Facebook is a central tool to that effort. To manage 3fold’s fan page, or our client’s fan pages, I had to login to my personal account. For a few weeks, I attempted to login to the site but ignore the home page feed with various pictures and personal information, keep it strictly business. Alas, the temptation was too much for my curious eyes to handle.

Second, while often full of less-than-substantive updates, Facebook actually created important personal connections. I realized just how much I’d come to rely on Facebook for keeping in touch with friends when a college friend and his wife had a baby during the first week of Lent. Little Taylor was born very early, and for weeks the couple didn’t know if she’d survive. Each day during Lent, they posted pictures of their daughter, a note about her progress, and a few lines requesting a specific prayer. Without Facebook, I wouldn’t have been aware about her fight for life, or been able to send my love and thoughts to her very scared parents.

While I may have failed in my attempts to fast from Facebook, I did spend much less time on the site compared to usual. I had more free time to be creative, let my mind wander, and read books that had been stacking up. However, while I suppose my Lent season was a bit of a failure, it taught me, on some levels, social media is less of an entertainment diversion or indulgence, and might actually be a modern way to maintain important connections with loved ones and life.

Who can deny technology’s affect on the world and our lives? Maybe Facebook, in a small way, has become an modern version of the family dinner table…and why would anyone give that up for Lent?

Do you practice Lent? Are you giving up something unique this season?

What the Winter Olympics lack in warm-weathered sports I understand, they more than make up for in frosty tech, making the 2010 Vancouver games a wonderful example of the plethora of multimedia options available to us marketing nerds. Yes, NBC’s TV coverage borders on the pathetic. Who cares? Traditional broadcasting is so 20th century. Keeping real-time tabs on the international festival of ice sports has gone uber-social, and NBC is attempting a gold medal performance for its audiences (see what I did there?).

Of course there’s live streaming on www.nbcolympics.com (although, more often of the less popular events, NBC saves the “good” stuff for their TV broadcasts. Lame.). The site also includes athlete interviews, previews, recaps, and photos of every sport.

Beyond that, however, the popularity of social media has made way for a delightful cornucopia for feeding Olympic obsession. Looking for more personal information, or more information in general? There’s  live blogging, sports history, and terms and jargon definitions. They’ve even hooked up athletes who are tweeting and blogging their experiences as they happen.

Socially, NBC offers RSS feed updates, updates from Twitter and Facebook, mobile and email alerts, and even embeddable widgets for streaming video on your own sites.

Want to stalk the Olympians on the go? There’s an app for that. For the iPhone, there’s an official NBC Olympics app and a CTVOlympics.ca app. There’s also apps for Android and WebOS, but rumor has it, they’re unofficial and a bit lackluster.

While far from perfect in both technical and program components (a little figure skating scoring reference there), so far the 2010 Winter Olympics are a large-scale example of the numerous possibilities available for combining media and events. Sure, one could argue NBC’s efforts border on the overwhelming (i.e. desperate), offering far too many elements to be truly effective, but there’s still valuable lessons to be learned.

Creative event planning, even without an Olympic-sized budget, can utilize a variety of integrated media strategies to create a memorable experience for your own organization’s events.

One company using this advertising-with-meaning endeavor well is BMW. With their BMW Performance Driving School, the auto maker demonstrates a true understanding of its customers, and its own brand.

“At BMW, we possess such a profound belief in high-performance driving—and the driver’s right to experience every heart-pounding moment of it.”

The $12 million BMW Performance Driving School Delivery Center and BMW Motorcycle Rider Training, teaches customers how to enjoy “the ultimate driving experience” with a mix of low- and high-speed driving exercises in the latest BMW models. Never a huge fan of BMW myself, even I fully admit this just sounds like fun!

Essentially, this type of campaign connects the brand with an enjoyable experience. For people who, like me, may never have considered buying a BMW…but may now, how valuable is that connection?

Very little gets overlooked any more, and smart businesses have to be prepared to answer for every decision, both in-house and contracted. The days when the largest advertising and legal budgets assured a quiet victory are fading into the shadows of growing online communities and social media’s ever-building power.

Before social media, sites such as DeviantArt would post blog entries identifying possible copyright infringement, whipping their followers into a motivated mass. Now, with sites like Facebook and Twitter, sharing this information and links is instantaneous and widespread. These communities have even developed a micro-blog called “You Thought We Wouldn’t Notice… ,” where vigilant citizens post varying degrees of creative plagiarism for the world to see.

One company who experienced this first-hand was UK-based stationery company Paperchase. At the end of 2009, Hidden Eloise, an independent artist selling on Etsy, discovered a piece she created,  “He says he can hear the Forest whisper,” had allegedly been used by the company without permission for a bag design sold under their label. The artist contacted Paperchase about the issue and the company denied any wrong-doing, telling her they had contracted the design through an unnamed studio.

Lacking the financial means to hire a lawyer to enforce her copyrights, she turned to her supporters and social media. First, she published a post on her blog about the accused plagiarism with an animated overlay showing the remarkable resemblance between the pieces. Then she sent the link out through her Twitter account. The tweet was noticed by fantasy author Neil Gaiman who retweeted it to his own followers. With nearly 1.5 million followers, Gaiman gave Hidden Eloise a major boost. Soon, other devoted fans and independent artists and craftspeople came to her aid as well.

Due to this exposure, Hidden Eloise saw a surge in support from the general public.  Fans and artists flooded Paperchase with angry emails and letters on the artist’s behalf. Press outlets begin requesting comments, and the UK’s Daily Telegraph ran a story which forced Paperchase to publicly address the issue. A public relations nightmare to be sure.

However, it is possible Paperchase wasn’t even aware of Hidden Eloise’s work on Etsy. As a large stationary company producing and selling products throughout the world, how many artists and agencies must they contract with for artwork? While they arguable failed on their due diligence, it is easy to imagine the company was simply unaware there was any other work with which to compare their product.

The story presents two sides of an interesting public relations issue. Hidden Eloise demonstrates the power of grassroots outreach and social media might. Paperchase shows a failure in crisis communications management. Although no longer selling the product in question, the company passed the buck to the contracted designer and admitted no error on their part. The lack of responsibility in any way ensures the angry masses will keep the story alive and continue to damage the company’s reputation, deserved or not.

With easy access to thousands of works by new artists available online, the marketing and business worlds have seen a growing epidemic of knock-offs being presented as independent work. Fortunately, artists now have many additional means for fighting back than in the past. Alternatively, companies working with contracted artists can find themselves embroiled in unexpected controversy due to the questionable practices of those hired to create work on their behalf.

As technology and social media give more power to independent artists, it could easily become a double-edged sword. The more difficult reputation management becomes in the wake of these online grassroots campaigns, the more we may find companies reevaluating the risks of hiring outside artists.

Non-profits can push URLs, facts and opportunities to parties who opt in to such lists. Your only limit is in your organization’s creativity. Some suggestions for potential audience engagement:

• Announcing volunteer opportunities
• Releasing breaking news
• Polls and calls for suggestions
• Questions and answers
• Requests for information
• Sending directions

One of the best uses for SMS – for organizations and businesses alike – is customer service. Questions, feedback and complaints fit wonderfully into a 160 max character medium. SMS allows for conversation – question and response – and offers users a quick, easy way to respond and get responses.

A few numbers to keep in mind as this all percolates: as of December 2009, 72% of Americans with cell phones had a texting plan – that’s 203 million Americans who are potential SMS audiences for your next campaign. Will it be easy? No. Could it be worth figuring out? Definitely.

The overview:

For Gmail, Buzz is built right in on top of other conversation features like chat and video chat.

The 5 key features (according to Google):

1) Auto-following. You auto-follow the people you email and chat with the most.

2) Rich, fast sharing. Same Gmail UI and keyboard shortcuts with special attention to media.

3) Public and private sharing. Allows things Google can index and private messages.

4) Inbox integration. Comments get sent right to your inbox.

5) Just the good stuff. With so much social data, it filters the noise.

Also included: thumbnail photos with posts; connects with social media sites you already use – Twitter, Picassa, Flickr, and Google Reader; real-time updates; and interesting post recommendations.

Beyond Gmail, Buzz integrates into Google’s homepage. So pulling the site up from your cell phone allows Buzz to find your location using the phone’s GPS. This allows your searches to be ranked by relevancy based on location, creating real opportunity for local businesses to reach their customers in the time and place most likely to produce action.

Buzz will also come in app form for Android phones and iPhones. This app streams Buzz items, showing all the public conversations close to you. If you’re at a concert or play, you could hit “Nearby” and see what everyone else is saying about it in real time.

Finally, Buzz integrates with Google Maps for mobiles (Android, Windows Mobile and Symbian today – other phones to come later), geotagging your location and showing you white chat bubbles of Buzz on the map.

What does all this mean?

With 146 million users on Gmail as of July 2009 and Apple’s iPhone alone controlling 25.3 percent of the smartphone market, this new tool creates interesting possibilities both online and on the go.

At very least, there are new opportunities for businesses, nonprofits, and marketers to reach location-targeted audiences, as well as participate in real-time conversations about brands, news and information affecting their communities.

More info: Google Goes Social with Google Buzz (Mashable)

There’s definitely real money being spent in this emerging technology, but is their real success to be found?

Of course there is. But probably not yet if you’re a small- to mid-size nonprofit.

For Nonprofit Fundraising

One of the most prolific examples of the sky-is-the-limit mobile campaigns came on the heels of the Haiti earthquake crisis. Passing the unbelievable $31 million mark on the Red Cross’ #90999 texting campaign shows just how phenomenal a powerful fundraising effort can be over basic texting.

On the other hand, not every organization (or, arguably, any other organization) will match this success. At the present time, fundraising via texting is out of reach for almost all nonprofits.

The current state of texting-based fundraising includes some major barriers for small to mid-size 501c3s. Unfortunately, it’s not as simple as calling one of the big four US carriers and setting up a short code. Some of the (significant) road blocks:

• Use of mandatory foundations and ASPs (application service providers) to interact with carriers
• Organization must be a 501c3 with revenues of at least $500,000
• Stringent vetting process to become accepted
• Limited donation amounts of $5-$10 (the average for 2009 on Network for Good was $92)
• Limited short codes
• Expensive – monthly fees with the service mGive start at $400 with a $500 set up fee, and
• Shared costs with partners (in some cases, the wireless carriers) – Up to 5-10% of the amount raised goes back to the Foundation and the ASPs for the short code, reporting and messaging costs associated with campaigns
• Limited function integration

And after that hullabaloo, organizations must then market their appeal. Essentially, with required revenues set at half a million dollars, these campaigns require a major event – celebrity request, concert,, or catastrophe – to compel large numbers of donations. And, in the end, organizations get a check from the carrier, with no ability to interact with texters or collect contact information.

For most organizations, the future is literally where fundraising by texting awaits, as much in the way of technology, service, requirements and usability must change before it becomes realistic.

In case you forgot to exist on Wednesday, you’ve probably heard that Apple has announced the launch of the – unfortunately named, in my humble opinion – iPad. A sleek 9.7”, 1.5 lb tablet, this little beauty holds the hopes and dreams of many an Apple investor in 2010. But, is it really worth all the fuss?

Yes.

It’s the Jan of Apple’s bunch, and say what you will, middle children do have their place. When you want more speed, power and size than an iPhone can provide, but don’t necessarily want to tote your heavy 15” Macbook Pro from meeting to meeting, the iPad is your man (well, gadget).

No.

Spoiler alert! It’s not perfect. The infinitely long list of wishes by Apple’s many fanboys and fangirls find many left unchecked. No multitasking, no Flash, too many adapter cables required, no camera. The first-generation iPad is incomplete for sure.

A bit of the good:

• It runs iPhone apps. This is, of course, more interesting to iPhone owners who, for example, have 11 screens worth of apps on their 3GS and don’t want to pay for them again. It also has the potential to inspire a whole new development industry for iPad-designed apps.
• $10 iWork apps. Pages, Numbers and Keynote (the Word, Excel and PowerPoint equivalents for Mac) can run right from iPad, very inexpensively. You can take notes, build a spreadsheet and run a presentation without lugging in your heavier laptop, and look darn good doing it.
• It’s fast. Word is the Apple A4 chip is smoking speedy, bidding farewell to the lag of traditional (including the iPhone) smart phone devices.
• Prices start at $499 (16gb with WiFi). This is half of the rumored $1000 price tag we all thought it’d be. Depending on storage and whether you want 3G capabilities, the price steps up accordingly, topping out at $829 for 64gb with WiFi and 3G.
• Opportunities. For organizations, businesses, publishers, and designers, the iPad takes the potential strated by the iPhone app to a bigger scale – literally. The possibilities for creating communications tools in app form are exciting and endless.

And some of the not-so-good:

• Multitasking: Seriously, Apple? You want to take on and destroy the army of netbooks, you have to include multitasking. For those who may not be familiar with the annoying one-app-only capabilities of the iPhone operating system, this means no listening to iTunes or Pandora while surfing the web. One thing at a time, such a quaint, and inexplicable, concept.
• Still no Flash. Again, you can’t take on netbooks without offering the most basic features users expect. Without Flash, you’ve removed important functionality from countless websites and denied users the ability to stream videos and television programming. Not cool.
• 3G unlimited plans will cost you $30 per month…at AT&T. Only at AT&T (US). Even the lack of a contract requirement and an unlocked product doesn’t make Apple’s decision to keep AT&T as the sole service provider easier to swallow.
• No camera. Not in the front, not in the back, no video, no still photography. Nada. All my dreams of having face-to-face staff meetings over Skype while sipping a latte at a Starbucks while the rest of the team looks on enviously from the office have been dashed.
• Too much pressure. The publishing and news industries are already looking to the iPad as their potential savior. Mac lovers had dreams of magical technology fairies dancing in their heads before the gadget was even announced. I’m sure there were even some that hoped the iPad would end the recession, create millions of new jobs, stop world hunger, and fix the environment. Alas, it will not be able to do any of these things…yet.

Having personally experienced every single generation of the iPhone, I’m more than familiar with the room-for-improvement release of a new Apple product and the subsequent decision-making confusion – buy now, wait for the next generation, find an alternative, or stick with what you have. But let’s be honest, where’s the fun in waiting to see if something better comes along? Life is short and technology will change; so just keep reminding yourself, there is always hope in the next software update.

For better or worse, we at 3fold are looking forward to the iPad’s release (which you know if you followed us on Twitter on Apple event day). While it may not be all we hoped and dreamed for, you can be sure we’re still going to be clamoring to play with it…er, use it for important business things.

Want to know a bit more: Check out Mashable’s Apple iPad: A Comprehensive Guide.

For those of you who haven’t watched an episode of Oprah lately, Nate is Oprah’s go-to designer for her amazing home makeover and home decorating tip shows. He’s also a host on Oprah’s radio network, and has his own line of products to hock on HSN. So, Nate has earned some legitimate street cred, and knows what he’s talking about.

The reason he’s captured my particular notice, though, is by uniquely integrating (already one of my favorite things as a marketing strategist) his offline and online product promotion.

Nate recently jumped on the Twitter bandwagon, and saw an opportunity to provide custom designed Twitter backgrounds for us less gifted designers. The custom designed backgrounds are directly inspired by his new line of sheet patterns that he’s releasing next month. In his own words (from his website www.nateberkus.com), “ I caught on that everyone was personalizing their pages. Me being me, I thought I’d make mine match what’s going on in my line. So my team and I took the bright, pop color sheet patterns that debut in February on HSN and turned them into wallpaper for you to use in personalizing your own page.”

So, thanks to Nate, you can literally have a Twitter background on your computer during the day, and matching pattern on your sheets in bed at night. Too much, you say? Yeah, perhaps – but I love how he’s using his existing product line to create a free and value-added service for his fans. It’s a great real-world example of integrated marketing done strategically, something our team strives to create for our clients every day. So, hats off to Nate.

You can download your custom designed twitter background page from Nate’s Facebook fan page — or read his full interview with Mashable’s Christina Warren.

In the past few months, a new frontier in social media geotagging (adding location-specific information to your media and communications) has come of age. Gowalla, foursquare, Yelp, and newbie MyTown are positioned to shake off their “game” label and become the next big thing for the social savvy businesses.

These services started out as addictive pastimes for early adopters, allowing them to alert friends of their whereabouts and compete for virtual mayorships of their favorite bars and restaurants. However, we predict in the coming year, location-based services will evolve into global platforms for individuals and businesses to create social power and capital.

First, though, you have to know and respect the networks. Here’s a breakdown of the (current) location-based platform leaders:

• Gowalla: Like a virtual passport, this location-based travel game that rewards you for visiting places with your iPhone. As you visit places, you earn “stamps” from all the places you visit. In addition to collecting stamps from real-world locations, you can gather virtual souvenirs, or icons, that can be traded with friends or hidden for others to find. Basically, Gowalla encourages users to travel, from extraordinary to ordinary places, exploring neighborhoods and looking at their surroundings as opportunities to experience new things.
• foursquare: It’s like telling people, “Here I am, come join me!” Say you visit Grange for dinner. Use foursquare to “check-in”, telling people your whereabouts. Your foursquare friends (or Twitter followers if you choose to Tweet your check-ins) will know where they can find you and recommend places to go nearby. Check-in at all kind of places – cafes, bars, restaurants, parks, homes, offices. For businesses, foursquare creates an opportunity to reward people by recognizing their exploration as they earn points, win mayorships and unlock badges for trying new places and revisiting favorites.
• Yelp: Already one of the premier user-generated review sites, Yelp has recently turned on check-in capabilities for members. It doesn’t (yet) offer the same level of game-like points and achievements for contributing social life location metadata, but it does offer a deep set of existing data surrounding place information and user ratings and opinions.
• MyTown: If Monopoly married Twitter, it would produce something like MyTown. Basically, this App for the iPhone is a GPS game that involves buying and owning your favorite local shops, restaurants, and hangouts from your phone. Check-in at real-world locations to unlock rewards, then buy and “own” real-life places. During the day, you can collect rent when people check-in to your shops. The more visitors that come to your stores, the more it raises your properties’ total value. While this site has only existed for a little more than a month, it has already signed up 500,000 users.

Now that you have an idea on what geo-location networks exist, here’s how your businesses can get connected with location-based users, and earn some PR respect in the process:

• Crowd-source action, ideas and information: Draw on these involved customer bases to get feed back, encourage suggestions, find ways to mobilize events and spread important, value-driven information to their social networks.
• Rewarding loyalty and customer visits: If they’re coming to you to earn points and status on their service of choice, why not show them your appreciation? Not only will it inspire repeat business and garner loyalty, you’ll also encourage others in the network to get involved.
• Turn check-in points into currency or donations: Think frequent flyer program with a pre-existing infrastructure you don’t have to build yourself. Nonprofits can partner with businesses for points-to-donation participation, restaurants can offer heavy users (who are happily spreading the word about your business) with points-to-dollar discounts.
• Build communities: These communities are by-products of the social networking movement, and, therefore, are already forming loose communities. When location-based services exist to encourage members to explore their neighborhoods and local businesses, there are great opportunities for developing full-fledged, active groups made up of members of your target audiences.

As rescue crews and humanitarian workers were just beginning the difficult and heartbreaking job of helping the injured and inspecting the damage, the rest of us could only look at the images and listen to the stories on our televisions, radios and online. However, unlike past disasters, the emergence of social media’s crowdsourcing power in the past year gave people the tools and resources for a massive public response.

Led by the Red Cross, one of the first large-scale texting campaigns focused on a specific cause was launched within hours of the disaster. Recruiting the social media-friendly Obama Administration, information about the organization’s $10 texting donation option was loaded on the U.S. State Department and White House websites. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton mentioned the #90999 texting number in a speech, as did President Obama, setting up a fast and easy way for the public to confirm the campaign as legit. A similar texting campaign launched by Haitian-born musician Wyclef Jean called Yele Haiti, allowed texters to give $5 by texting “DONATE” to #501501.

Additionally, information about both campaigns went viral on Twitter and Facebook, spreading the word en mass and quickly. But the thing that truly brought success was the ease of donation – for the Red Cross, you simply text 90-999 on any cell phone, type “HAITI” in the message, and send. Within minutes a request for confirmation is texted back, the user confirms with “YES,” and voila, $10 get charged on your next phone bill. It captures donors in the very moment their emotions are highest and requires very little effort. Makes traditional online donation forms seem prehistoric.

In less than 48 hours, the Red Cross’s texting campaign raised almost $5 million in donations from texting alone. A week later, it was closing in on $18 million.

Facebook users also did their part, with 39 percent of US, UK and Australian users donating money or goods through the platform. Another 20 percent say they will be donating, according to a joint survey between Facebook and Nielsen.

Admittedly, extraordinary circumstances produce extraordinary response. The relative lack of competition for texting donations and the desperate readiness of Twitter and Facebook users to prove their social power (2008 elections, Iranian elections, DARPA balloons), created a perfect storm for this practically first-of-its-kind campaign.

While future crisis and causes will most assuredly follow in the Red Cross’ footsteps, and will more than likely fall far short of the Haiti earthquake response, there will still be a response. In the wake of tragedy, the Red Cross and social media have reinvented the art of cause giving.

Deadliest Catch: Sig Hansen on the Northwestern – essentially a solo captain in the pilot house. All decision-making is done isolated and alone. You bark out orders to the crew on the dangerous deck below you. You and your team are completely at the mercy of the elements, and your day-to-day basically consists of managing the incredible dips and tremendous highs of the waves shattering all around you.

Cake Boss: Similar to Buddy Valastro, you’re constantly in the middle of the chaos – but you get the job done with your team. You’re the expert and provide overall vision and direction. When the job is done right, you celebrate with your team; if something goes wrong – you jump in and fix it.

Project Runway: You’re the Tim Gunn of leadership, basically swooping in and out with vague encouragement or admonishment to your team while constantly reminding them what’s at stake. Your team has either guessed right, and you’re pleased with the outcome or the outcome isn’t what you were looking for, and the jury will have the final say (in this case – your customers).

The Biggest Loser: You drive your team harshly, similar to Jillian Michaels “in your face” style. Goals are clearly communicated as is the path to accomplish the goals. Your team may hate you in the moment, but when they accomplish their (and your) goals, all is easily forgiven until you move on to the next challenge.

Lesson #1: A Name is not Just a Name

Fact: The Snuggie is an imposter. In fact, the Freedom Blanket and The Slanket came out first. But, honestly- who would buy a product called The Freedom Blanket? The name makes me think of wrapping myself in a fuzzy flag, or cuddling with Betsy Ross. No amount of marketing can take a weak brand name from “so-so” to successful.

Lesson #2: Find your Connectors

I’m going to go out on a limb here. Without seeing sales figures yet, I would guess young people, particularly teens and college students, fueled the Snuggie fire. The infomercial, created by Allstar Products Group, was intentionally made to be humorous. Young people quickly began mocking the commercial in YouTube spots, of which there are now over 300 parodies. At the same time, the advertising displayed people of all different ages using the Snuggie in a variety of ways. The result, everyone from kids to seniors thought the Snuggie could be a funny (and practical) gift for the winter season.

Lesson #3: Offer Something Unique

As Malcom Gladwell points out in his book The Tipping Point, a surge in sales can often happen when a product is only offered to boutique stores. (ex: Airwalk tennis shoes). For much of 2009, the Snuggie was only offered online or by phone. This fall, the product was released to mainstream stores in colors not offered before—pink and leopard print being the most popular. The Christmas sales surge occurred because of an entire year of publicity, PLUS, introducing a “new” product selection to stores across the country. (Sidenote: My prediction is, like Airwalk, the Snuggie’s sales will now quickly decline after reaching its peak popularity.)

Lesson #4: The Price is Right

This lesson is simple: the Slanket and Freedom Blanket were priced too high for a slow economy. At $14.99 or two for $20, the Snuggie captured cheapskates hearts. This Newsweek writer nailed it- a recession combined with cold weather are just the right ingredients for a crappy piece of felt to surge to popularity. (If you want a good laugh, view the article for an embedded video where the reporter has people in Times Square compare the Snuggie and its competitor, the Slanket.) Sometimes, marketers just get lucky…if you can call the recession luck.

For a few other good Snuggie reads, check out: this AdAge article, and this New York Times article.

This holiday week I’m here to share a very quick tip for using Google’s new Browser Size to your advantage. (Because, let’s be honest, you’ve got wrapping and buying and tinsling and caroling to get done).

What is it? According to Mashable, the site “aims to help website owners solve one of the most fundamental problems in web design: How should I lay out and design my website for higher engagement and conversions?”

Here’s how it works: Click this link. Then, once your on the page, enter your website or blog address. Voila! You’ll see a transparent overlay showing the percent of vistors who can see various content on your site. As the app points out, if you’re a nonprofit with a “donate” button that only 20% of people can see on a first visit, you’re in trouble.

On a high level, Google’s Browser Size will help inform your decisions in building a website that keeps your visitors engaged, finding what they’re looking for, and coming back in the future.

See? We promised we’d be short and to the point! Onward to the eggnog!

[[Show as slideshow]]

• B Street Theatre – CMS website
• CARES – CMS website
• CGP, LLC – CMS website and blog
• People to People – ASP.net microsite
• River City Food Bank – basic website
• Are You the Difference? Campaign – basic website