The Office and more in your home…

Do you remember Pam and Jim’s wedding? Or what about the Princess Unicorn Doll? Have you ever checked out Ryan’s Twitter page? Well if you ever have a couple of hours to kill and you are a fan of the office I suggest on checking it out. You can do anything that the characters to on their website. You can play a “who dun it?” game. You can check out the Subtle Sexuality’s newest pics. You can buy Serenity by Jan products. You can sign the registry from Jim and Pam’s wedding and you check out the emails from Dunder-Mifflin. You can also look at Dunder-Mifflin’s website. Anything that was ever mentioned on the show is on the website. It really bring the show to life and makes you feel like the characters are real as well as the company. You know the company may be real…check out the site and let me know what you think.

Gossip Girl Bring You In…

In today’s society everyone wants “in”. What they want in to is up for discussion but everyone wants in. The Show Gossip Girl is a show about the glamorous lives of the people who are “In” but the catch is that there is a person out there who is writing all about their dirty little secrets on her blog. She is known as Gossip Girl. Keeping up with the theme, the creators of Gossip Girl teamed up with Verizon Wireless to create a way for the audience to get “in” to the show. If you go to the Gossip Girl website (http://www.cwtv.com/shows/gossip-girl/) at the bottom is a box that links you “into” Gossip Girl. Here you can sign up to get the Gossip Girl texts when the characters get them in the show. You can also fill out some basic questions and have Gossip Girl post something about you. While answering the basic questions the website asks for a picture and allows you to connect to Facebook to get the picture and publish to your wall what Gossip Girl says about you. This is a show that brings the audience “in” to the world that they have created for the show.

Radiohead's Social Media Site

Well, I am not a fan of Radiohead, however they did launch their own social media platform, w.a.s.t.e.-central.com, last year.  They created it with facebook in mind and shares a lot of similarities with myspace and facebook.  The site includes comments, tour dates, photos, national and area events, and merchandise. So, pretty much...it's myspace.  By the way, it's not a good site nor effective.  First off, they do not offer anything different or out of the ordinary social media site.

I can't really explore too much because in order to do so, I would have to make an account...and I really do not want to bother. The site popped up on the internet without warning (very Radiohead-like.) So, yeah...I guess if you're a die hard Radiohead fan, you probably will enjoy it a little. For everyone else, don't bother...seriously.  I guess I'm a little bias...

Just in case you're interested now...
http://www.waste-central.com/

Shop and be styled on line!!!

Social networking sites are increasing everyday. If you're in Advertising, Marketing, or even Public relations it's very important to stay on top of the main social networking sites in your industry. AdAge recently listed the top social fashion sites that every fashion marketer should be familiar with. Among those sites here are the ones I thought to be most interesting: 

Shopflick combines videos and shopping to create an online fashion and shopping experience through a social community. This site portrays a network upcoming designers to provide shoppers the ability to find cutting edge and unique items. Shopflick also helps these designers engage with current and new customers through branded online stores, videos and much more.

Sense of Fashion is the marketplace for fashion designers that are at the very begginging of their career. It has an eBay-like capability for people to sell their fashion, shop or interact in this social network. Fans can showcase their individual styles and favorite brands. The goal is to connect designers with the people who may inspire them and to provide a platform for users to show off and sell their merchandise.

StyleCaster may become the future number one site of online fashion through optimized fashion advice that is targeted to each user. This is the Amazon of fashion sites. With every click of the consumer they get to know their personal preference and taste. This allows StyleCaster to give educated advice and marketing. This site is a mash-up of social network, editorial content and shopping. Another interesting fact is that this site has just been given 4 million in funding.

Fashion Tweets

Can you influence the world with 140 characters or less? Twitter can. 

Twitter combines social networking and blogging together for entertainment and informational use. While I am not a Twitter fan I certainly see how it benefits a company or a brand to "tweet" about themselves. 

For those that are very much into fashion they choose to "follow" certain companies or brands for the simple reason of staying in the loop and never falling short of knowing everything to know to stay trendy. For example, Lady Gaga...... now her fashion sense may be a little out there for most but in places across Europe, Lady Gaga is a fashion icon. One of the companies that Lady Gaga follows is London Fashion. London Fashion (LDNFashion) tweets about models, launches of new collections, and the people in the entertainment world that are wearing the latest and hottest trends. They serve as fashion news and style advice. Lady Gaga can be seen in many of their "twitpics". 

If you're really into a certain type of category, such as fashion, movies, gaming, etc., my question to you is does following a company really have an affect on you? Think about it...... You're constantly seeing their name, their activity, and the many name droppings they use to get your attention. 

Big Box Bookstores & Social Media

I spoke earlier about some St Louis-area indie bookstores and how they're implementing social media, and I've been thinking about the big chains. What's their presence on Facebook, Twitter, or blogs? Here's a rundown:

Twitter:
None of the searches brought up actual accounts from any of the major retailers, but they are being talked about. Oh, wait: the Borders Facebook page includes a link to their Twitter feed. It includes a good mix of random thoughts, article links, replies to others' comments, and retweets; 35,000 followers. Pretty good.

Facebook:

• Barnes and Noble seems to be doing pretty well:  nearly 50,000 fans, author discussions, guiding you to their website, 500+ comments to wall posts such as "Finish this sentence: All I want for Christmas is _____"
• Borders: the first hit on Google is for a England-specific fan page, but the second hit is the real deal. And it appears to get the process, with 90,000 fans; comments about the holidays; video clips of authors' appearances; book excerpts

Blogs:

• There is a Borders blog website, but so far there are only two: one for science fiction (Babel Clash) and one for romance (True Romance), and it's hard to determine who's blogging for them. For Babel Clash, it may actually be authors, but again, it's not specifically mentioned (or if it is, and it's now archived, it's not easy to see). Additionally, it was hard to find the blogs in the first place, and they're very narrowly focused--and they don't appear to be popular (no or very few comments).
• I can't find anything for Barnes and Noble blog-wise

Overall: both get good points for Facebook, and Borders is ahead for Twitter. But I don't know what's worse: the fact that Barnes and Noble doesn't have a blog, or that Borders has blogs that are somewhat problematic.

Ever wonder what you would look like as a Zombie?

If you haven’t seen the movie Zombieland which came out on Oct. 2, 2009 I suggest you get onto your computer and find the nearest theater that is still playing it and go see it. After you do that I suggest going to the movie’s website: http://www.zombieland.com/. Here you can check out things from the movie such as the rules, zombie kill of the week, and you can take the quiz to see if your loved one is a zombie. The Best part of this website is the zombify yourself. There you can upload a picture and then add all of the wonderful components to make yourself into a zombie.

All the News That's Fit To Print (or Blog)

For quite some time now, traditional news sources have had websites to publish more up-to-date news stories. Newsweek, The New York Times, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch--all have websites which update on a regular basis throughout the day. This allows traditional publishing times to fly out the window.

No longer does the Post-Dispatch only print stories that happened yesterday, or Newsweek only stories that happened in the last six days. Stories can be updated as they unravel, completely changing how print media works. No longer do the television news sources have the up-to-the-minute breaking news advantage.

Some news sources exist only in cyberspace. Some are blogs, run only by one or a few people, others are fully actualized news websites, the only difference between them and "traditional" sources being the lack of actual printed content. Slate is a good example of the latter.

In addition to constantly updated websites, news sources now push their content into their readers' awareness. Email updates, RSS feeds, Twitter, Facebook all allow readers to get informed of news stories without even opening a browser and checking out the website.

Another benefit of the online presence is the ability to publish content only available online--it's not featured in the newspaper or magazine. This can range from further commentary to related slide shows to articles not picked up for inclusion in the published version.

Some printed versions will acknowledge the online content, and others will merely assume that the reader will seek it out if interested. Newsweek has a small section in each weekly magazine of what the most popular online stories were for the previous week.

Additionally, some news sources permit the general public to read an article for only a limited time--a few days, a week--and, in order to view older articles, one must be registered. The registration may be free, may be included with subscription to the print version, or may require a specific subscription.

These innovations are great for the consumer--easy access to updates, more current information, access to additional information--but they may quickly spell the end of traditional print news.