| TRENDING STORIES IN BUSINESS & MARKETING | | | | | | | ALL STORIES IN BUSINESS & MARKETING | | |
| On Intern Sushi, Applicants Submit Videos Instead of Resumes | |  The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here. Name: Intern Sushi Quick Pitch: Intern Sushi is a new way to find, apply for and manage internships in industries that are hard to break into. Genius Idea: Providing a multimedia platform for interns and companies to present themselves through one-minute videos and digital profiles. If you're applying for an internship, the last thing you want is for your résumé to get stuck in a pile of hundreds, or even thousands, of other résumés. Intern Sushi lets you show employers why they should hire you instead of tell them. Through one-minute videos and digital profiles, Intern Sushi allows interns to present themselves to employers in the hardest-to-break-into industries, including film, television, sports, music, fashion, advertising, public relations, web, tech, publishing, theatre and art. The one-minute videos give interns the opportunity to showcase their talents however they like, whether it's describing their talents and goals, presenting their work or even singing a song. "We set out to reinvent the application and hiring process for interns to give them access to companies that they feel are really inaccessible," Intern Sushi founder Shara Senderoff told Mashable in an interview. "We want to drastically change the way of opening the door for students so that it opens in many more ways than they can even imagine." After students complete their digital profiles with information such as their college, portfolio, graduation year and interests, they can apply to internships from more than 1,300 companies directly on the site. They can also track every step of the application process, organize drafts, arrange interviews and accept offers all on the site. For $8.99 a month, interns can get ahead of the competition by signing up for an Intern Sushi premium account. Premium users get a 48-hour headstart to apply for internships and can upload an unlimited number of targeted videos to send to employers. Launched in 2011, Intern Sushi also lets companies create their own digital profiles with one-minute videos that tell a company story or what they look for in interns. Companies also post available internships on their profiles and can use the advanced "scouting" feature to find an intern that is the right fit for their program. When they find an intern they're interested in, they can use the "scout" button to contact him or her using three preset messages or a customized message. Once interns are hired, the site becomes a management tool to help them be more efficient and effective at their new job. For each industry, Intern Sushi has a "Content Section" of original videos that provides interns with insider information about concepts, key terms and players. For example, if you are are hired for an internship in the fashion industry, Intern Sushi has a video that explains all of the fashion events you should know for your job. Intern Sushi is currently in beta and has approximately 10,000 interns from around the world. A few of the top companies that seek interns on Intern Sushi are Warner Music Group, Funny or Die, Lionsgate Entertainment, Michael Stars, Gary Sanchez Productions and DraftFCB. Series Supported by Microsoft BizSpark
The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark, a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S.$1 million in annual revenue, you can sign up today. |
| The $175 Speaker That Lets You Direct Sound Like a Laser Beam | | Thursday, March 22, 2012 10:50 PM | Sarah Kessler |
|  You can already buy a special kind of loudspeaker that directs sound with the precision a flashlight beam. These gadgets can send messages to people on the street without disturbing neighbors or create audio explanations for multiple museum exhibits in one room without worrying about a clash of sound. Or they can make an announcement that is only heard by people who are standing in a specific location -- say, your storefront window. But each one will set you back up to $3,000. The technology could, however, soon get a lot more accessible. A serial inventor has built a version of a speaker in his garage that costs just $175 -- opening up sound-pointing capabilities to the average user for the first time. The inventor, Richard Haberkern, calls the project "Soundlazer." Haberkern's speaker is slightly larger than a smartphone and plugs into a headphone jack. He plans to post the design files and programming information online so that others can hack it to fit their own needs. As is, he suggests it could be used to direct messages on showroom floors or to help bands communicate on stage. It can also just be fun. "I have walked around with it and pointed it at people's heads," Haberkern says, "and they turn around wondering why they have voices in their head." You, too, may have access to this joke should Haberkern's $48,000 Kickstarter project succeed (With 58 days to go, he's raised about $9,000). Soundlazer works by emitting 39 separate high frequency ultrasonic beams. While the pitch is too high to hear in the air, you can hear the waves colliding with the object the beams are pointed at. The resulting sound can be heard by those within a 2-foot diameter from a range of 20 to 30 feet. This is not the time, however, to get excited about an office-appropriate music experience that doesn't require headphones. Though the speaker's sound frequency is too high to hear, it's being emitted at a decibel level that rivals that of a rock concert. What that means: the sound you hear is about as loud as someone talking, but sitting next to the speaker for long periods will probably hurt your ears because of the sound waves you can't hear. "It's loud, but you can't hear it," Haberkern says. "It is more of an experiment in physics than anything." |
| Greece Brings Crowdfunded, Face-Filled Billboard to Times Square | | Thursday, March 22, 2012 9:39 PM | Zoe Fox |
|  A crowd-funded campaign is placing a giant billboard in Times Square Friday, urging tourists to visit Greece. The billboard, which is designed to highlight Greece's beauty, was organized by volunteer group "Up Greek Tourism" on crowd-funding platform LoudSauce. The campaign raised $20,000 in 20 days, exceeding its $15,000 goal. About 50% of donations came from Greece, while the rest came from Australia, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Qatar, Russia, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, the U.A.E., the UK and the U.S. According to Kleivokiotis, buzz spread entirely through Facebook and Twitter. "Greece has a very big cashflow problem," Yorgos Kleivokiotis, founder of Up Greek Tourism, told Mashable. "Tourism is people coming from abroad spending money on the economy. Will a billboard in Times Square make a huge difference? It's not a huge ad campaign, but as more people get to know about it through social media it becomes worthwhile." According to Up Greek Tourism, the tourism industry is integral to Greece's economy, representing 18% of GDP, employing one-fifth of the country's workforce and bringing in 15 million visitors each year. In May 2010, Kleivokiotis, a Greek national who has been living in Dubai for six years, created a Facebook event "Save Greece: Travel to Greece this Summer" in hopes of helping the Greek economy. The event reached 180,000 people, nearly 40,000 of whom said they were going. Building off the Facebook event's steam, Kleivokiotis wanted to do more. He donated to projects on Kickstarter and Kiva before deciding to campaign for a billboard in New York City. He had no idea that Times Square was within his reach. Two of his friends joined his effort and then the team grew to 20 volunteers. They caught the attention of a Greek American who owned a Times Square billboard, which he offered to Up Greek Tourism at a steeply discounted rate. The billboard art was designed pro bono by Greek American Charis Tsevis (known for Steve Jobs portraits made from Apple products). Tsevis' poster features around 400 photos of people involved with the campaign. In addition to the billboard, Up Greek Tourism has created iPhone and computer wallpapers, posters for college dorms and Facebook cover photos. Moving forward, Kleivokiotis hopes they will be able to fund billboards in other major cities, such as Berlin. Do you think this billboard will help bring more tourists to Greece? Let us know in the comments. |
| How 'Small Business Saturday' Helped Main Street Take Back the Holidays | | Thursday, March 22, 2012 3:24 PM | Lauren Hockenson |
|  The Modern Media Agency Series is supported by IDG. The digital/interactive industry remains the fastest growing advertising segment. Smartphone use is exploding and social, mobile, and video marketing are heating up. With an estimated 100 different media platforms to choose from, marketers can be overwhelmed. IDG Communications CEO Bob Carrigan highlights global trends and issues to consider for 2012. Read more here It's no secret that the holidays are prime time for retail businesses. And with the rise in popularity of shopping holidays Black Friday and Cyber Monday, consumers are eager and motivated to snap up the best deals they can for their friends and loved ones. But this environment overlooks a key group involved in commerce: the small business. Credit card company American Express saw that holiday shopping underserved the small business community as big-box stores and online retailers with muscle had the upper-hand in community attention during the holidays. That's why in 2010, the company founded Small Business Saturday-- a shopping holiday held on the last saturday in November that motivates customers to patronize their local mom-and-pops. "The thought was, let's give small businesses a day of their own during the most critical time of the year," says Scott Krugman, spokesperson for American Express. "It's our way to support small businesses." Mashable spoke with Krugman about the marketing strategy American Express used -- with the aid of digital media companies Crispin Porter + Bogusky and Digitas -- to motivate both small business owners and potential consumers to participate in the holiday and the results of their hard work. What do you think about the Small Business Saturday campaign? Let us know in the comments. Strategy for Small Business and Beyond The campaign to promote Small Business Saturday is inherently two-fold: American Express offers small business tools and DIY promotional material (through their OPEN program) and incentives for customers looking to shop local. These messages were presented in tandem on Small Business Saturday's Facebook Page and @ShopSmall Twitter account. Small businesses were also encouraged to sign up for free Facebook advertising of their brands, paid for in full by American Express. "This is what makes Small Business Saturday so unique. Even though it's something that was created by American Express, it wasn't about American Express," Krugman explains. "We really wanted to help small businesses in getting their brand on social media." But the motivation didn't stop at online tools and message. Krugman says that the company brought the campaign into the real world by offering a $25 statement credit for anyone who registered a card and spent $25 at a local store during Small Business Saturday. Krugman adds that the perks didn't stop with American Express customers -- those without an AmEx card could apply for a $25 gift card for the shopping holiday as well. "We wanted consumers to recognize the real tangible benefits of having small businesses in their community," Krugman says. "Hundreds of thousands of consumers did that." Also, the company didn't have to promote the holiday on their own. Companies like FedEx and Google chipped in their resources, offering their own gift cards and campaigns to help make Small Business Saturday a success. Krugman explains that the concept was so popular that even American politicians began promoting the holiday to their constituents in an effort to jumpstart their own local small business economies. To top it off, President Barack Obama got in on the act, posting tweets with the #smallbusinesssaturday hashtag. He adds that the campaign went beyond a simple promotional one and into a movement to motivate citizens to spend some cash on Main street. "This is an opportunity for consumers to pledge their support to small businesses and find local small businesses and offers," Krugman says, "And, to promote this to other folks as well." Results The marketing campaign was a resounding success for American Express. The company indicated in a press release that more than 2.7 million people "Liked" the program's Facebook page and nearly 195,000 tweets were sent in support of Small Business Saturday throughout the month of November. There were gains in overall awareness of the holiday as well, rocketing from 37% in 2010 (its inaugural year) to 65% in 2011. "Small Business Saturday was able to transcend beyond American Express," Krugman says. But what about the holiday itself? Did the campaign get people to spend (and keep spending) on Main Street? An estimated 103 million Americans shopped at a small business on 2011's Small Business Saturday -- November 26 -- and American Express saw a 23% increase in transactions at small business merchants. Krugman says that the anecdotal feedback the company got from local business owners jived with these estimates -- and some even had great success. "In reading from testimonials and hearing merchants say, 'Because of Small Business Saturday, my year-over-year sales were 40% higher,'" Krugman says, "That's so great." The Future Krugman says that for all the success that Small Business Saturday experienced in the second year of its operation, the program itself is still in relative infancy. But, he adds that he's looking forward to watching it grow and keep momentum all year long. "As great as year one and year two have been," says Krugman, "we're incredibly excited for where this is going to take small businesses." Series supported by IDG
The Modern Media Agency Series is supported by IDG. The Digital/Interactive Industry is Surging! The digital/interactive industry remains the fastest growing advertising segment. According to an IDG Research study, tech marketers expect to spend 50% on digital alone. Smartphone use is exploding and social, mobile, and video marketing are heating up. With an estimated 100 different media platforms to choose from, marketers can be overwhelmed. IDG Communications CEO Bob Carrigan highlights global trends and issues to consider for 2012. Read more here. |
| Etch A Sketch Sales Rank on Amazon Jumps 1,556% After Romney Aide's Remark | | Thursday, March 22, 2012 3:01 PM | Brian Anthony Hernandez |
|  On the heels of a viral Etch A Sketch comment from one of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's senior advisers, the Amazon sales rank for the $11.50 Classic Etch A Sketch Magic Screen has increased 1,556% within 24 hours. "I think you hit a reset button for the fall campaign. Everything changes. It's like Etch A Sketch; you can shake it up and we start all over again," Romney adviser Eric Fehrnstrom said during CNN's Starting Point on Wednesday, inciting a wave of political commentary and now apparently stimulating sales online. The time-honored drawing toy sits atop Amazon.com's "Movers & Shakers" list, which highlights sales rankings and percentage changes. Although the Etch A Sketch -- available since 1960 -- had the biggest percentage increase in the past day, it ranks just number 91 among all toys Thursday, up from number 1,507. Sales figures aren't the only numbers to elevate. Etch A Sketch makers Ohio Arts Company saw its stock triple Thursday morning, Bloomberg reports. Etch A Sketch stock is up? Psst, I'll mention Mr. Potato Head next. Buy Hasbro tinyurl.com/6qavupa— Eric Fehrnstrom (@EricFehrn) March 22, 2012 "Happy to see Etch A Sketch, an American classic toy, is DRAWING attention with political candidates as a cultural icon and important piece of our society," Ohio Arts said in a statement Wednesday. "A profound toy, highly recognized and loved by all, is now SHAKING up the national debate." SEE ALSO: Tech Creeps Into Top Toy Trends of Past 30 Years/a> What's your fondest memory of the Etch A Sketch? Did you buy one on Amazon? Let us know. BONUS: 'Mitt Romney: Some Things You Can't Shake Off.' YouTube user DemRapidResponse uploaded this video just hours after Romney's aide mentioned Etch A Sketch on national TV. |
| Turn Your Online Travel Reading Into a Guidebook With This App | | Thursday, March 22, 2012 1:56 PM | Sarah Kessler |
|  Travel writing is often more useful to travelers of the armchair variety than those actually planning a trip. A new app called Dcovery, however, wants to make travel blogs, articles and other writing a more practical resource for actual travel. The app, which began accepting invites for its private beta this week, helps users automatically collect travel outing ideas from websites, adds relevant information such as addresses and syncs them in their phones for later use. Here's how it works: Users install a bookmarklet on their browsers. When they're reading a travel article, they can launch the bookmarklet in order to automatically generate a list of venues featured in the article and add any missed venues by highlighting their names. Dcovery adds important details such as addresses and phone numbers. All of this information, along with an excerpt from the original article, can then be accessed offline through the iPhone app (there's no browser-based access). If users turn their phone horizontally, the venue name and address appears in the local language -- a feature anyone traveling by taxi will appreciate. "We feel there is a lot of good travel information out there, but ultimately people are picking up a guide book because it's too hard to organize and plan from the blog posts," Dcovery co-founder Matt Bellemare tells Mashable. "The research, the Googling, the finding the place on the map... that's the pain." Dcovery uses databases from Google Places, Foursquare, Wikipedia, Wikitravel and Open Street Maps in order to pinpoint mentions of venues in travel writing and match those venues with their location information. When the startup launches its first public version, Bellemare says it will include sharing features for sharing and discovering lists of travel destinations. But the Thailand-based team of Canadians have a long way to go before that point. The development of the app is just getting started -- they don't plan to send invites to the private beta until three or four weeks from now. Dcovery has good company in its desire to create sharable lists of travel destinations. Wanderfly, Triipbirds, gtrot and Trippy all have their own takes on the idea. Pinterest, though not focused on travel specifically, is also commonly used to curate travel recommendations. Bellemare thinks Dcovery can compete with on-the-ground practicality. the question 'how do I get there' is left unanswered," he says. "That's what we're trying to address." Image courtesy of iStockphoto, narvikk |
| Self-Publishing: Why You Could Be the Next Stephen King | | Thursday, March 22, 2012 1:11 PM | Lance Ulanoff |
|  Let me tell you a secret: I published a story on Amazon. You can buy it and read it on your Kindle today. That makes me, I guess, a published author. There are lots of people like me bridging the gap between amateur writer and published author. This is the future of publishing: your story, an easy-to-use platform, and direct access to an audience that may be willing to pay. Obviously, the simple fact that platforms like this exist -- and Amazon's is by no means the first self-publishing platform -- is no guarantee of success. However the crucial difference between publish-and-self-distribute platforms of the past (like Lulu and Blurb) and Amazon's is, well, that it's Amazon. The online retailer has a potential audience of millions and millions of Kindle owners (who read Kindle books on eReaders, tablets, smartphones and PCs) just looking for the next great read. My silly little $.99 story is sitting in there waiting to be discovered. SEE ALSO: How to Self-Publish Anything Online The rules for what does and does not get published are in a state of flux. Kindle Singles, the vast majority of which, according to Amazon, are published through Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing platform directly by authors, would normally be considered short stories. National venues, however, for those kinds of tales are relatively limited, and most people, if they're very lucky, sell their essays to one publication for a fixed price -- there's little chance they'll make more than a few hundred dollars. With self-publishing ebook platforms, any story, of any length (or any quality) is fair game for the open market. You are the author and the gatekeeper. KDP's low-risk, no-barrier-to-entry platform is attracting all sorts of would-be star authors -- some better known than others. Recently I found, for instance, Andy Borowitz's tale of intestinal difficulties, "An Unexpected Twist," and actor/writer Fred Stoller's "My Seinfeld Year," which recounts his year writing for the classic '90s sitcom. Borowitz is something of a known quantity, so a $.99 Kindle Single from the humorist is a no-brainer. I bought both, however. Stoller's topic was just too intriguing and I noticed that he had amassed hundreds of ratings and dozens of reviews. So even though I'd never heard of him, I paid $1.99 to instantly download and read his somewhat entertaining, behind-the-scenes tale. Clearly, I was not alone: Stoller has even been on NPR talking about the surprising success of his short story. Self-publishing offers up the exciting possibility of an unlimited revenue stream for any story. While most self-published stories won't -- like mine -- be downloaded at all, there is a growing list of success stories. This includes Stoller's work and that of 31-year-old author Kerry Wilkinson, whose self-published three-book detective series sold a quarter of a million copies on Amazon. It's the kind of heady accomplishment that's encouraging others to take the self-service publishing leap, and more companies, which usually get a small cut of every ebook sold, to waltz into the DIY publishing arena. Earlier this year, Apple unveiled iBooks Author. This self-publishing tool was primarily pitched as a platform for creating education tomes, but it's also equally adept at high-quality, touch- and gesture-ready book creation. As with Amazon's self-publishing platform, enterprising authors can add their books as free or paid offerings in iBooks. Whether you use Amazon or Apple, these platforms tear down the traditional publisher barrier and put control firmly in the hands of you and me. I wonder how this will impact big name authors and their publisher parents. Will writers like James Patterson start self-publishing books and short stories on Amazon? Why not cut out the middleman publisher and take nearly all the profits? One reason might be the most obvious: concerns over quality. Authors who go straight to their readers, even with the shortest story, run the risk of sloppy writing and typos. Even the most experienced writers can use the keen eye and steady hand of a pro-level editor. The Kindle singles I've read are usually average to mediocre. In other words, in this DIY publishing world, only the truly talented will survive. That's not to say that only those with editors or perfect writing will thrive. I think a hot topic or an especially good yarn can still captivate and overcome flaws. Heck, look at the Twilight series. The writing is -- well -- let's just say it's not my cup of tea, but the tale itself is so engaging that the series has sold millions and millions of copies. I think anything published to Amazon has that same potential. Self-publishing is, in the end, both retro (Guttenberg Press, Thomas Paine and his pamphlets) and disruptive. Giving anyone the ability to publish professional-looking ebooks and place them on a highly trafficked web store is the great publishing equalizer. Trust me, the next Stephen King could very well be you or your neighbor. This May we'll be exploring the future of publishing and many other digital trends at our signature conference, Mashable Connect. See below for all the details. Event Information
Our annual destination conference, Mashable Connect, brings our community together for three days to connect offline in an intimate setting at the Contemporary Resort at Walt Disney World®. It will take place in Orlando, Florida from Thursday, May 3 - Saturday, May 5. Registration is now open.
Held in a unique location away from everyday distractions, Mashable Connect is a rare and valuable opportunity to be surrounded by digital leaders across industries. You'll spend time with Mashable's passionate and influential community, hear from top speakers who will provide insight into the the technologies and trends that are shaping the next era of digital innovation, and get to spend time with the Mashable team. To keep Mashable Connect as intimate as possible, only a limited amount of tickets are available. A Look Back at Last Year's Mashable Connect Supporting Sponsor Sponsorship Opportunities A limited number of sponsor opportunities are available for Mashable Connect. This is an excellent opportunity to get in front of Mashable's passionate and influential audience. Contact sponsorships@mashable.com for opportunities. Image courtesy of iStockphoto, theasis |
| 14 Community-Driven Tips for Better Customer Relationships | | Thursday, March 22, 2012 12:21 PM | Christine Erickson |
|  The Customer Experience Series is supported by Webtrends. Unified digital marketing maximizes return on every campaign, every digital channel. Watch the video, get the whitepaper. Like any other relationship, the foundation you establish with your client or customer is crucial to how the business relationship will develop over time. It requires taking the time at the start, going the extra mile and paying attention to detail. Technology has made it easy to copy, paste and send out a mass email to hundreds in minutes. But if you think your customers can't tell the difference between a personal email and one that's generated, you're doing it wrong. Establishing a relationship with a customer can be more timely and costly than maintaining one, but the payoff is worth it in the end. Customers are more likely to give you their loyalty when they experience consistency and transparency from the initial pitch. They appreciate you being genuine and upfront about your policies -- no one likes an half-hearted response or to feel like they've been tricked. The following are some tips and tricks on how to build relationships with your customers from leaders in communications, PR and social media. From the Beginning "Understanding your clients is so important to building a good relationship - not just trying to fit them into marketing templates - but truly appreciating where they are in the marketplace and how to get them to the next level from the very beginning. The best way to do this is to know them inside and out - it is why we start all our engagements with a Foundation Stage." - Cortney Stapleton, executive vice president at BlissPR "Be a partner, not a service provider. Make sure you understand your client's business on the inside and out. Sit with the product team to fully immerse yourself and have a deep understanding beyond the talking points." - Brooke Hammerling, founder of Brew Media Relations "It's more difficult and expensive to gain a new fan than to keep existing fans by engaging them with content. When we do a promotion that we know will result in new fans coming to our page, we alter our content to welcome new fans. We introduce them to our page and show them what we offer. " - Christina Dick, community manager at The Martin Agency Transparency "If there's a potential customer I've been talking with via customer service or on social media, I often will give them my personal email address and encourage them to get in touch directly if they want a demo, have questions, or just need more encouragement. It's a little thing that goes a long way - when people feel like they have a dedicated contact at a company, they're much more inclined to stick with you." - Sarah Rapp, community manager of Behance "The information you give as a community leader must always be 100% accurate and verifiable, and your policies clearly defined for the audience. If you find yourself bending on the policies or unable to stand up for them, it's time you reexamine those policies and create something you can stand behind." - Morgan Johnston, manager of corporate communication and social media strategist of Jetblue Airways "Be open-minded. We all have favorite ways of doing things but people respond to openness. If a client really wants to do something one way (or has always done something a certain way) - hold a brainstorm session with folks from all different levels and specialties to groupthink new solutions. Don't just try to push one way of thinking; sometimes you are there to be a curator and cultivator not always the creator. " - Cortney Stapleton, executive vice president at BlissPR "Encourage honesty with both your customers and employee participants. Customers will only read product reviews if they feel they can be trusted, and that trust needs to be earned. No one will buy a dress with a 5-star rating from a site that seems to only approve 5-star reviews!" - Maggie Glover, head of community at ModCloth Consistency "Be consistent with your information or policies and their execution -- few things will frustrate someone more than wondering why someone got a different response from them." - Morgan Johnston, manager of corporate communication and social media strategist of Jetblue Airways "If your community encourages employee participation like we do at ModCloth, be sure to call that out so that users don't feel "duped" by employee-generated product reviews and comments. At ModCloth, employees sign all of their product reviews and comments with '_ModCloth.'" - Maggie Glover, head of community at ModCloth Personality "It's the little things that are the big things -- seriously, go that extra mile. Respond to a tweet IRL and mail it to your customer. Include a personalized note. Go beyond just listening and let your actions show you truly care in an honest and thoughtful way." - Dave Brown, director of digital strategy at MKG "Be genuine and be yourself. Sometimes it can be tempting to try and take on a certain persona you think the client might respond to but people/agencies can never keep that up. If you are genuine and true to who you are as a thought leader and a firm then you know they are buying you and your ideas; as a counselor this is critical." - Cortney Stapleton, executive vice president at BlissPR "Always have a point of view - be valuable to your clients. Don't just be a yes person." - Dena Cook, managing partner at Brew Media Relations "Whether in an email, tweet or phone call, try to figure out why this person specifically would benefit from your service. Read their Twitter bio or Google them so that you'll have some info unique to them to go off of. People sometimes have a hard time translating general information about a company or product into 'What can this do for me?' So, it's effective to do it for them and let them know how you and your service can help." - Sarah Rapp, community manager of Behance "Acknowledge the positive contributions made to the community by users. Point out the consistently stellar users, and highlight the good behavior. A community lives or dies based on everyone's interest in participating. If people don't feel valued for their contributions, they're more likely to stop." - Morgan Johnston, manager of corporate communication and social media strategist of Jetblue Airways Series supported by Webtrends
The Customer Experience Series is supported by Webtrends. Start optimizing your digital offers by presenting your users with the most relevant content and personalized experiences possible. Want to get started? Get the whitepaper. Image courtesy of iStockphoto, webphotographeer, alxpin, MarsBar, Flickr, marcomagrini |
| Sony's Wes Anderson TV Spot Imagines Tiny Robots in Your Phone [VIDEO] | | Thursday, March 22, 2012 10:26 AM | Todd Wasserman |
|  Sony's Wes Anderson-directed TV spot is here and, well, it's pretty much what you might expect if you got Wes Anderson to direct a commercial for a cellphone. The director, known for live-action films like The Royal Tenenbaums as well as the animated The Fantastic Mr. Fox, uses stop-motion animation to illustrate one boy's conception of how Sony's Xperia smartphone works. In this case, the boy imagines three tiny little robots who drive tiny cars and record media like music and movies on themselves and then "shoot it out" through the phone. The fact that Sony has enlisted an A-list, albeit quirky director to make its case shows it's serious about re-introducing the Android-based Xperia phones. Though the Xperia line has been around since 2008, the new Xperia U and P models come after Sony swallowed whole its arms-length mobile partnership, Sony Ericsson, which is now going by the name Sony Mobile Communications. In a press release, Sony is billing the campaign as its "return to the smartphone market." As for Anderson, he's directed commercials before for American Express and Hyundai, among others. This ad also comes as his next major release, Moonrise Kingdom, is set to premiere on May 16. What do you think? Does this spot work for you? Would it make you consider an Xperia? Sound off in the comments. |
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