Social media tools have become like Starbucks runs. If you don’t visit one at least once a day, something is seriously amiss.
Social media tools: we all use them. So why not celebrate them?
Mashable.com created Social Media Day to do just that.
Today, June 30, Mashable.com invited fans of social media websites and networks to join together and praise the technology that links us to each other.
Mashable.com, a website devoted to social and digital media, technology and internet cultural news, created Social Media Day in 2010. Although it is a relatively new (and unofficial) holiday in the US, Social Media Day has garnered attention and support around the world. The state of Arizona, New York City and eight other cities (Victoria and Vancouver, B.C.; Las Vegas and Reno, Nevada; San Carlos and San Jose, California; Dublin, Ireland; and Toronto, Canada), have officially proclaimed June 30 as Social Media Day. Pretty wild, eh?
Social Media Day happened everywhere. Mashable.com’s Meetup page boasted a vast array of participating cities. From San Francisco to New York and from Antwerp to Buenos Aires, people from all over the globe showed interested in meeting (and Tweeting) in celebration of social media.
Although some city Meetups were more organized than others- San Francisco’s celebration took place at the indoor trampoline park House of Air—all social savvy tech users were encouraged to meet up in some way and say “Hooray!” to updates, virtual walls, news feeds and alerts.
The hosts of these updates go by recognizable names: Twitter, Tumblr, Flickr, Foursquare, Yelp and of course, the irrepressible Facebook. These websites have become as integral to our daily communication as actual face-time conversations.
Social media not only connects us to each other in real time but also to information, events, trends and possibilities. In spite of distance, weather and time (elements that would naturally divide us), social media users remain closely knit in the bonds of community, friendship, business and common interests.
With this in mind, why wouldn’t we celebrate such a wonderful, revolutionizing tool?
Did you celebrate Social Media Day? We want to hear how social media has impacted your life and communication, so tell us about it!
It’s a common problem: you love work and what you do, but sometimes you just can’t help but fall into the same old routine day after day. So where is the fun? The creativity? The innovation?
We all know how this goes, but how can we change it? Well, according to YouTube, taking just a few simple initiatives can help change your tired day into a success. Here is what they have done to reinvigorate their company:
1. New Ideas Week – Designate an entire work week to new ideas, where engineers can try and discover new things without the pressure of performance.
2. The Awesome Cup – Reward innovative thinking with a trophy that defines awesome. When someone does something worthy of the trophy, he or she keeps it until it is passed along to the next coworker who does something equally as awesome.
So around 11pm last night, I fell into a trap that I encounter at least once a month. I logged on to the internet with simple intentions (in this case, I was looking for a David Gray video) and then, three hours later, I look at the clock and wonder where the time went.
There are probably much more productive things to do with my time, such as sleeping, than watching third-rate cover versions of songs performed in a dorm room but sometimes I can’t help but click on some of YouTube’s “Suggestions” only to travel down that never-ending path of tangentially related videos. You know what it’s like: you find music videos from the artist then you find live performances which have too much crowd noise so you find a better recording after which you find an acoustic cover…it never seems to end!
The thing is, when I do go on one of these multiple-hour web binges, I never go scouring the web from topic to topic. Instead, I usually spend hours looking at essentially the same thing. I wonder if a website’s suggestions/related items feeds into my OCD tendencies? In the past, I’ve also been guilty of losing track of time while:
Browsing Flickr: I’ll see a contact’s recent upload and check it out and then I’ll see what groups the user put the picture in and then it’s all over. I start looking at group submissions and find all of these random groups and discover new photographers.
Facebook Hunting: Sometimes I’ll get inspired and try to remember as many people from my past, like high school, and then I can spend hours trying to find them on Facebook. Don’t tell me “Facebook stalking” isn’t one of your pastimes!
Cleaning iTunes: I do this so rarely that when I do commit to doing it, it’s a huge ordeal. I need to make sure every song has cover art, every title is capitalized appropriately and I even check that the volume levels are equal. I can’t explain the level of satisfaction I get once I’m done!
This post is part confession but hopefully also the start of a support group for people who find themselves doing the same thing. I can’t be alone in this — What sort of sites do you get trapped in when you’re online?
Inspired by Richard’s post about YouTube’s “Life in a Day” project, Chris (my husband) and I put together a little video. Here’s how we spent our July 24, 2010.
And while I’m at it, a shameless plug about my own blog. Nothing more than photos, videos and recipes documenting our days…check it out » www.styleandsyntax.com
YouTube just announced a new video project called “Life in a Day.” In a nutshell, on July 24, they’re inviting the public to become film directors and create video snapshots of their lives on that day. The most compelling submissions will then be edited by Oscar-winning director, Kevin Macdonald, into a documentary, executive produced by Ridley Scott, that is scheduled to screen at Sundance next year.
This is a great idea and all but this sort of seems to be pretty much a rip-off of “One Day on Earth.” My old college roommate is actually producing that project and told me about it months ago. Check out their trailer:
Can you say knock-off?! Am I crazy to think this is way too similar? I know “One Day on Earth” has a lot of great videographers participating on that day. I’d be curious if, by the nature of YouTube, the “Life in a Day” project might have more banal submissions of day-to-day life.
Either way, I hope that you check out both projects and, if possible, support both with your videos on the respective days.
We’ve been having an absolute blast with the Awesometown campaign for Valencia, California. Recently, a contest was held asking folks to submit videos, songs, poems, stories and photos that illustrate what makes Valencia such an awesome place. The winners were announced this past Saturday, and we thought we would share a few favorites that have kept us smiling here in the office.
I’m back in Long Beach and I’m still coming down from information and idea overload I experienced at the Web 2.0 Expo this week. I started digging into my tote bag of handouts and other goodies from the Expo Hall to pass out to the right teams, and I still have a lot to sift through. I’ll probably need to do a series of blog posts or something with more interesting tidbits from the week. To start, here’s something insightful from my last day in SF.
I went to a session on about Brands and Customer Communication and one of the speakers was Ilana Rabinowitzfrom Lion Brand Yarn. When you think of a yarn company, you might not think of a company that’s on the forefront of social media, but I love how the Lion Brand Yarn uses their social media presence as a way to connect with their customers. Ilana spoke about the fact that, at the core, all of the decisions they make are based on emotions, including their buying decisions. At the craft store, their products are just one section of a huge wall of yarn; social media lets them create that emotional bond with their customers.
Go to their Facebook page to see how they’re creating a community surrounding their brand. They aren’t just racking up “Likes” for the sake of having a large number; their fans are commenting on posts and contributing to the community. In late April they asked a simple question – “What’s your favorite rainy day crochet or knit project?” – and they received over 860 responses. Similarly, their blog posts give customers the opportunity to share their experiences and points of view. A good example is when they asked which activity “makes you better,” knitting or crocheting. Browsing through the hundreds of comments, you’ll read some simple and some emotional words about what knitting or crocheting brings to a customer’s life. And those emotions are immediately getting attached to Lion Brand Yarn who gave them this forum to share. (You can check out some top responses in this later blog post. (more…)
Here’s a super cute video that I stumbled upon last night. The Break Up is a great depiction of what happens when advertisers don’t meet the shifting needs/wants of the consumer. The video was created by bringbackthelove.com (coming soon). Great quality, great message – give it a go!
Do you remember “Parisian Love”, the wonderful Google commercial that aired during the Super Bowl this year? Now you can go to YouTube and create your own “Search Story” and share it with the world! Check out this amazing one I found for some marketing firm in Long Beach!
Check out this weirdly inspiring and therapeutic video that condenses 24 hours of global air traffic into just over a minute.
Just think! Each glowing dot represents hundreds of people, many of them strangers, all of them putting their faith into these tiny metal tubes that somehow miraculously glide over continents and traverse entire oceans in mere hours. Who says the pioneer spirit is dead?
Gunn/Jerkens Marketing Communications is based out of Long Beach, Ca. Stop in frequently to see what’s happening, share your stories, questions and perspective.
