The Blog

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The Superbowl & Social Media 2012

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It’s finally here… the day we get to eat chili, hot dogs, snack on stadiums made of sandwiches, drink beer, and chat all day with our friends about the NFL Superbowl! Some neat things that are going on in the social media world:

The NFL has a GIANT command center set up, and massive bandwidth has been pumped through the stadium so people can share about the game live with their friends who aren’t fortunate enough to be there. Check this out! and look at this gallery of images from the SMCC. They aren’t just watching to see what is said – over 20 people will monitor to reach out proactively to help people with things like parking info, getting lost in the stadium, getting an answer to a question, etc. even though they have not been directly asked via Twitter or Facebook. This isn’t push marketing – this is amazing customer service! Very, very cool!

Mashable has some ways you can use SM while watching and talking about the game: http://mashable.com/2012/02/05/super-bowl-2012-social-media

And we have set up a mini Tweet Command Center using Intefy today, that anyone can make their own just by logging in and tweeting while watching the search streams in the other columns. Go to http://intefy.com/superbowl if you want to watch it or use it today. Here are some things you should know about using this app:

Login Securely using Oauth to Tweet
Once you login, you can tweet from this page securely and we don’t see your account credentials, dm’s or anything. 

Retweet and Reply from Other Columns
If you mouse over a tweet you’ll see some icons show up under the avatar. Click one to retweet or reply, and the text will pop over into your Tweet box so you can edit and send it to easily communicate with others. (You won’t necessarily see it on this page if it doesn’t contain a keyword being searched.)

Problems with the Page?
If you run into problems, tweet us @intefy and we will try to help. The product is going through a development change regarding the way searches happen – if the page times out today and you see error messages, wait a few minutes and reload the page and hopefully the time will have passed where it will display tweets again. We will soon have a different api from Twitter implemented that will eliminate this issue.

We have no preference for a winner today, since our own beloved Chiefs aren’t in the game, but have fun watching the Superbowl and ads! See you online. :-)

Should You Try Using Different Words to Tell Your Story?

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This simple, but poignant video might help you think of new things to try and do for your business if you’ll sit back and think about where you could say things another way, or give your customers the unexpected.

What words are you using to tell your story?

Thanks for sharing this with us, Jake! (Our client, owner of Pandolfi’s Deli.)

Two New Communities Coming!

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I wanted to tell you real quickly about two new communities we’re forming and how you can participate if either of them are right for you.

#SMbyDesign Weekly Twitter Chat

#SMbyDesign is a Twitter chat I have long dreamed of starting. A Twitter friend named Daryl Woods and I had this discussion probably two years ago but I did not make it happen, though it keeps coming up. So today, another friend, Emily Fitzhugh who is a social media consultant and I decided to make it happen! We’re kicking off this Thursday (yes, day after tomorrow) and will do this every Thursday morning at the following times:

PST   7:00 AM
CST   9:00 AM 
EST   10:00 AM
UK    3:00 PM
KUWAIT   6:00 PM
BANGALORE   8:30 PM
HONG KONG   11:00 PM 

I’ve shown a few representatives from different countries here as we tried really hard to make this time work around the globe. #SMbyDesign chats will cover a few different aspects of social media design:
  • the actual design processes and challenges of branding and doing interesting things for clients or your company on social media platforms
  • great examples of social media channel design we see that is inspirational or pushes the envelope and gets us thinking about new ideas for engaging fans
  • interviews with designers, agencies and marketers who have done a phenomenal job of branding social media channels so we can learn from them
  • strategy and tactics for different platforms for those just starting out in social media (though it will help you to be somewhat savvy as many conversations will be of an advanced nature)
A lot of advice can be found online for how to market yourself on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube or LinkedIn. But advice on maximizing these channels from a design and branding standpoint is not so readily available. To truly do “social media by design” it takes more than a strategy – execution of the brand being extended visually and emotionally is important and yet not talked about as much. Let’s discuss it together!

Girls/Women Who Love MLS Soccer Community

Also in the process of being formed is a social community for women like Sherry, Heather and I who love their pro soccer team here in the US: MLS  pro soccer. Some great sites like http://kickette.com exist but are largely focused on soccer overseas. We noticed a missing presence of female-oriented blogs and personalities, though they exist scattered around the web and social channels… we want to bring these women together and create a safe and fun place to both learn about the sport (a lot of us don’t know the technical aspects and so some reporting goes over our heads) and to show other women that there are crazy, soccer-addicted females all around them that they can relate to. This is not so much to exclude men, as it is to be able to freely talk about things that interest us that don’t interest and usually annoy the men (player hair and fashion IS a very important topic!) Some phenomenal women around the nation are part of the founding group – you’ll get to know them after we launch. The community is open to any female of any age that loves her MLS team and watching pro soccer.

This site will be launched prior to the season opening games. If you’re interested in being notified when it launches head to our temporary site and submit your email to be notified. We will be so happy to meet you and play with you in our new community when we launch!

I hope you’ll join me in the #SMbyDesign Twitter chat on Thursdays or the soccer community if you’ve been bitten by the MLS bug like I have. If you have any questions about either group, let me know in the comments!