Socialmediaworx

Before 2008 is over, I think we'll look back to see the use of social media tools for social good as one of the major themes of the year. And while there are others who are far more talented than myself in addressing social caueses, I did share my thoughts on the unique relationship social media has in sparking social movements to address issues like microdevelopment, AIDS, climate ...

B.L. Ochman posted a good recap at AdAge of an interesting survey conducted by the Avanade group on the impact of social media for companies. The study reports that in a survey of Fortune 500 companies, 41% say that social media "has potential to transform their customer relationships, improve their reputations and increase sales." Ochman goes on to write: Social media technologies have the potential to transform the way companies ...

Marketingvox published the results of a survey by Sapient that details what CMOs are looking for from their advertising and marketing agencies. Perhaps most telling, was that "more than a quarter of marketers surveyed said half to all their marketing is done via digital channels, and nearly 40 percent foresee that in 12 months from half to all their marketing will be done via digital channels." Greater knowledge of ...

When Penn State University film student Bryan Levi - aka YouTube user Levinator25 - posted a video clip last year to YouTube of the video game version of Tiger Woods walking on water and holing his shot from the hazard. Clearly, a glitch in the game. Well, EA Sports is back, with a response to Levi's video clip: Covering this exchange between Levi and EA Sports, AdAge writes: Steve Rubel, author ...

It's all about being GOOD today. Casey Capalowe at GOOD Magazine recently connected with several students at VCU's Brandcenter about a spot they've put together for the Choose GOOD campaign: Tim, graduate student, VCU Brandcenter: "Khushboo and I came to the GOOD project mid way through our second year of graduate school. At the time we were both interested in creating a piece of communication for a company that contributed ...

The Washington Post published a good article today highlighting local companies who have made blogging an integral part of their marketing strategy. Talking with several local business owners and communication consulatnts including Geoff Livingston, Debbie Weil and Viget Labs' very own Brian Williams, the WaPost recognized that even though tying a blog strategy directly to the bottom line can be difficult, it is a core building blog of ...

Paul Graham at Y Combinator has posted a great list of startup ideas they'd like to fund. Among them - fix advertising. Advertising could be made much better if it tried to please its audience, instead of treating them like victims who deserve x amount of abuse in return for whatever free site they're getting. It doesn't work anyway; audiences learn to tune out boring ads, no matter ...

So today I want to start a new category to catalog some of my favorite creative spots out right now - Hot Spot. Simply for fun - I just want to share creative ads that are inspiring, clever or just downright hot. And since I've been on a bit of a Nike streak lately, I guess it's only fitting that the first one to start the category off ...

Open-source activism continues with this year's Blog Action Day 08. Designed to connect voices around the world through blogs, podcasts and other social media outlets, Blog Action Day 08 hopes to center an online community on the issue of global poverty. Like Call + Response and The Girl Effect, Blog Action Day 08 is harnessing the networked power of people all around the world to raise awareness and inspire ...

Ed Cotton has an insightful take on one of Nike's marketing strategies for the Olympics, which is creating video testimonials and interviews with their lead R&D folks: "It's a reminder that all brands have the opportunity to tell much big stories because the media bandwidth available to do so is that much bigger and costs nothing. Although, these videos currently follow a pretty straight formula, it's like that we ...