I'm appearing on Bob Knorpp's weekly radio show, The BeanCast, tonight along with Bill Green, Åsk Wäppling and George Parker. We will be talking about Facebook, among other things. It's a topic that can not be avoided today. Even The New York Times can't leave it alone. Yesterday in "Week in Review" the paper framed Facebook's week like this: It was a typically vexing week for Facebook. On the one hand, the …
Upcoming Attractions: The Social Network
The Social Network is a new feature film from screenwriter Aaron Sorkin and director David Fincher. It's due in theaters in October. The music bed in this trailer is Radiohead's "Creep," which helps bring home some of the drama I expect to see in this film. What drama? I think going from a Harvard student to a billionaire in no time at all, comes with some drama. Don't you? …
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Weird But True: Organic Produce Brand Plants In Virtual Soil
In breaking in-game advertising news, Cascadian Farm, which started selling organic crops grown in the Upper Skagit Valley in Washington State nearly 40 years ago, has teamed with FarmVille, the incredibly popular virtual farming game inside of Facebook. According to The New York Times: FarmVille will, for the first time, offer its pretend farmers a specific food brand. Players will be able to plant an organic …
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Tillamook Encourages Fans/Customers To Talk About Ice Cream
Steve Strauss, writing in American Express' OPEN Forum, notes that Tillamook Ice Cream leveraged Facebook to create the brand's new TV advertising. The Oregon dairy asked their Facebook fans what they thought of when they took their first bite of Tillamook Ice Cream. People posted some great stories, so much so that the dairy decided to use those testimonials as the basis for their campaign. Tillamook aslo used …
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Yet Another Facebook Story: Liking What Your Friends Like (That’s Why You’re Friends)
According to The Wall Street Journal, Facebook is aggressively pitching their social-context ads to big advertisers like Ford Motor Co. The ads appear on the right side of a user's homepage, with an image and headline from the advertiser. You can also see if your friends like the ad or the company that paid to put it there. "Marketers have always known that the best way to sell something is to get your friends to …
Yet Another Facebook Story: A Mile Wide But An Inch Deep
Gregory Levey, communications professor and author of Shut Up, I'm Talking, relays the story of how the Facebook page for his book has gained almost 700,000 fans--not because his book is a best seller. His page has numbers thanks to the popularity of the phrase "Shut up, I'm talking." These days, like anyone involved in almost any enterprise, authors are assured that the path to success lies online. But while a …
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How Will Ford Get The New Car Smell To Work Inside Facebook?
Tradition is on the run in Detroit. According to USA Today, the new 2011 Ford Explorer is launching on Facebook instead of at an auto show. "We live in a 140-character society," says Scott Monty, Ford's head of social media, referring to the Twitter character limit. "When we have people's attention, we want to make sure it sticks." Linking the Explorer with Ford's social-marketing strategy could help the brand be …
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adidas Wants You To Pick A Superhero And Play The Game
The Quest, a multi-platform campaign created by adidas and 180 Amsterdam/RIOT invites football fans to engage, interact and converse with other fans from all over the world during the 2010 FIFA World Cup, the world's biggest sporting event. The adidas World Cup trailer leads to the brand's Facebook page where 32 players, one for each team in the tournament, are matched up against each other. Fans pick a favorite …
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