Hot, New, Social Media Case Studies

Hey Everybody,

Social media seems to be getting hotter than the sun these days and that means new case studies. So throw out all your boring, old slides on Motrin Moms, Blendtec and ComcastCares for some of these newbies. I have included links and short descriptions below to a few new ones that I have been reading about (many are stories from Mashable). So make sure that when you present Web 2.0 case studies to new clients or your boss, you are current and interesting. Oh, and here’s a social media case study of my own that you might remember.

Check these out:

1. Cadbury (the candy company) recruits “secret agents” in their Operation Goo, who create Cadbury content for the chance to win $30,000+ in support of their Twisted candy bar. Check out the case study here.

2. SeaWorld channels the barroom favorite, photohunt, in a viral photo comparison game that leverages Facebook, Twitter and iPhone apps. It’s a whale of a conversation campaign. See the case study here.

3. Vitamin Water pits Kobe VS LeBron in a Facebook promotion. This one allows fans to track and discuss a basketball battle for the ages. Check out the case study here.

4. Us Weekly sells their Facebook page for advertising to State Farm. Check out the case study here.

5. Here is a link to 10 more that are pretty cool. Including Target, Chuck, Threadless and Ford. Thanks Thoughtpick.

And check out a whole wiki of social media efforts and campaigns from the BeingPeterKim.com.

Thanks for stopping by and if you have links to any other good social media case studies out there today, share them. Lets grow a big collection together.

Best,

Will Flavell

Skate Parks in Omaha

Hey Everybody

It seems that I hear more and more people saying that there is nowhere to skate in Omaha. Well, check out this site: http://www.nebraskaskateparks.com/.

Above: Roberts Skatepark.

So get out and skate everybody.

Best,

Will Flavell

Seth Godin at TED

Hey Everybody,

One of my favorite idea guys is Seth Godin. I just saw that his speech at this year’s TED conference was available. I thought that I would share it with you.

Check out the video here: http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/538.

Best,

Will Flavell

BIG Omaha Rocked

Hey Everybody,

If you are from the Midwest and reading a blog then you probably heard about BIG Omaha. It was happened last Thursday night and all day and night Friday. It was amazing.

Here is a brief description of the event from the BIG Omaha site:

What happens when the country’s foremost creatives, entrepreneurs and innovators descend on one place? That place explodes. Which is precisely what we plan for Omaha.The energy will be impossible to contain. We will begin building communities, companies and friendships. We will inspire new thoughts and completely new ways of thinking. We will develop visions: personal, shared, and civic.
Speakers will come from some of the most innovative companies in the nation. And you’ll hear fantastic stories from numerous emerging businesses.In the end, you’ll take away a network and an energy that will propel those new connections to greatness. For you. For your business. For your community.
Come to the heart of the Midwest. And let’s rebuild this country from the inside out.

I have to agree, the energy and the connection of an event like this can really spark a community. I am really excited to see what will come in the next few weeks. I wanted to write a quick post to say thanks to Jeff and Dusty for putting this event together. Thanks guys, you really made your vision come true.

I also wanted to share a few quotes from some of the speakers that I really liked. So here goes. A little wisdom from BIG Omaha, in case you couldn’t be there:

Jason Fried of 37Signals
“You know more about a project while you are working on it, then you do before you start.”
“Whenever you make something, you make something else. We are in the business of byproducts. Ruby on the Rails was a byproduct, our book was a byproduct.”
“What can you share? What can you teach?”
“Pay attention to what won’t change. Think of Amazon, they invest in customer service, shipping, selection. Don’t always be chasing the next fad.”
“Nobody gives a shit about Dell.”

Adriana Gasciogne of Girls in Tech
“Of all the fortune 500 CEOs, only 8 are women, but women make up 46.5 percent of the US workforce.”

Micah Baldwin of Lijit Networks
“We all say ‘it was a learning experience’ — no it wasn’t it was a failure.”
“Sometimes the best way to learn to duck is to get punched in the face.”
“It’s about being open to the idea that your plans will change.”

Ben Rattray of Change.org
“If your company didn’t exist, would anyone really care?”

Gary Vaynerchuk of Wine Library TV
“The Internet, this platform is going to fundamentally destroy everything (media)…TV is fucked.”
“The middle man is losing the game because the Internet as a platform is changing things.”
“One good business strategy — WIN.”
“I can’t beat math.”
“Everything that I believe in didn’t exist five years ago.”
“If you don’t go out and get it. I will.”

Here is a list of the amazing speakers that came to BIG Omaha. Thanks guys:

1. Gary Vaynerchuk of Wine Library TV
2. Jason Fried of 37signals
3. Jeffrey Kalmikoff of Threadless
4. Adriana Gascoigne of hi5 and Girls in Tech
5. Ben Rattray of Change.org
6. Micah Baldwin of Lijit Networks

Best Wishes and see you there in 2010.

Will Flavell

Twitter Out Loud

Saw this hilarious video the other day and wanted to share it:

Watch Real Life Twitter and more funny videos on CollegeHumor

The Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder’s Blog

Hey Everybody,

This is me as Bill the Blogger.

If you are a long time reader than you know that I also write a few blogs for clients. One of my favorite projects is coming up this weekend.

It is blog that I write for Borsheims that follows the Annual Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder’s Weekend in Omaha, NE. It is a really great experience. My job is to shoot video, stills and write posts on all of the events of the weekend. I try to provide a surrogate experience to all of the shareholders who can’t come to the event.

The event gets huge numbers of attendance. This year they are expecting more than 35,000 people. It is also a really fun time. Berkshire and Warren Buffett are big search terms during this time period and this blog allows our client to contribute to and gain from some of that high search traffic. Needless to say, the blog gets a lot of hits. Check out this case study from last year’s performance.

Anyway, if you are a reader, I hope that you will check out the blog. And if you are in Omaha, NE this weekend, maybe you will see me at the event.

Best of luck,

Will Flavell

The Internet is Full

Hey Everybody,

Every once in a while you read something that really makes sense and/or rings true with what we are doing. This article by Jason Cohen, was exactly that for me this morning. It is one of the best articles on marketing that I have read in a long time. It has a little history, some case studies, real advice and more. I hope that you will read it and enjoy it too.

The article that I am talking about is called, Why you have to engage in social media, even if you don’t want to. With so many self-serving, marketing speak articles on social media circulating today. This true interesting article is a nice reprieve.

Here is a short excerpt:

How do you “win” the Internet? No one knew, and even those geeks who indirectly convinced the world to live on the web didn’t foresee its massive effect. The Internet was not, in fact, “just another form of media” — it created opportunities where Amazon is 34x bigger than Barnes & Noble, where NetFlix destroyed Blockbuster, and where Skype is worth $2.6B while telecom companies drop like flies.

It’s not just a new media, it’s a completely different world. Business models are changed forever.

Flash-forward to today, and the same pattern is emerging, just in a different guise.

Thanks for the great post Jason and keep up the great work

A totally connected world.

Hey everybody,

According to recent stats, roughtly 1.6 out of the 6 billion people on earth are Internet users. Every day the Web becomes a resource for more and more interests, and everyday more and more people are going online. What are we heading to? This line of thinking invariably leads to the following question. Essentially what will the world be like when we have 100% connectivity?

I think that the answer is more interesting and more beautiful than we can imagine today. Image what the creative potential of all of humanity working together. All of the differences and eccentricities of each separate culture coming together on an equal playing field to build a stronger world. Imagine erasing discrimination with personal knowledge. The more you know of people, the harder it is to hate them. The Web is now opening the lines of communication across cultures, across seas and deserts. It is helping to eliminate the distance and the difference between us. It allows us to build communities and friendships that never could have existed in the past.

I think that we are heading into a time where some of the dreams of our past will finally become realities and where we will be able to dream up ideas that are beyond our current imagination. Where everybody’s a genius.

Just a nice thought for the day. What do you think will happen?

Will Flavell

Recession Question

Hey Everybody,

Just like everyone else, I have friends who are out of work because of the recession. I also work as an intern coordinator and interviewer at my current job. What do these two things have in common?

Answer: I talk to a lot to people who are out of work and looking. There are tons of posts out there on how to find jobs in a recession. There have been a lot of suggestions floating around to help you find work to pay the bills: more part-time work, more freelance, switching careers, and go back to school. Just to name a few. But I have something else to say whenever someone asks me about how they can find work. This is my advice:

Go home and write down on a piece of paper your five favorite things to do in a the world. Don’t sugar coat this with work-like activities. If you like watching pro wrestling, write it down. If you like knitting, write it down. Then look at that list. Did your last job let you do one of those five things? Did the job before that?

For most of us, the answer is invariably no. Well if the answers is going to be no at the next job, don’t take that job. Start your own business. Go work in the field of what you love doing. This will always be more profitable. It will make your life more enjoyable and you will naturally network more easily when you are happy and comfortable.

It seems to me, that all the best success stories that I have heard have started with a love, a passion, or at least the search for something interesting.

Go find what you love and get a job in it. If it doesn’t exist, create it. Life is too short to do what you hate.

Just an idea.

Will Flavell

Where can you meet/see me?

Hey Everybody,

To prove that I exist outside of the Internet and to spread the good tidings of social media, I often speak to business groups and others in the Midwest. So where can you find me? Well, here is where I will be speaking in the month April (2009). If you can make it, swing by and check me out.

William Flavell

April 9:
I will be at speaking on Blogging at Bozell’s Sausage Factory Seminar Series in Des Moines, IA. We will be at the Embassy Suites on the River from 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

April 14:
I will be speaking on Digital Word of Mouth to the Bellevue Chamber of Commerce in Bellevue, NE. We will be at Confluence, from 10-11:30 a.m.

April 15:
I will be speaking at Infotec.

I hope that you will check me out. If you are looking for a social media speaker who with a experience in a variety of online mediums and companies. Give me a call. I have been a social media specialist for about three years for Bozell. I have done a lot of things from blogging, twitter, youtube contests and more for clients.

Anyway, hope to see you soon.

Best,

Will Flavell