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The Superbowl & Social Media 2012
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.
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.
The @CamryEffect: Toyota’s Twitter Spam Campaign for Superbowl Fans
Today I witnessed something really annoying. I mean, it got under my skin particularly. My friend Scott Stratten, @unmarketing, posted on Facebook that it was pathetic that there were 10 Verified (by Twitter) accounts, all spamming people who were talking about the Superbowl:
https://twitter.com/#!/CamryEffect
https://twitter.com/#!/CamryEffect1
https://twitter.com/#!/CamryEffect2
https://twitter.com/#!/CamryEffect3
https://twitter.com/#!/CamryEffect4
https://twitter.com/#!/CamryEffect5
https://twitter.com/#!/CamryEffect6
https://twitter.com/#!/CamryEffect7
https://twitter.com/#!/CamryEffect8
https://twitter.com/#!/CamryEffect9
You can try looking at the accounts, but within a few hours and lot of griping online about it by some of us, they seem to be unverified (no more logo next to the name) and they are now protected so you can’t see the tweets they’ve been sending. Note: protected, not taken offline, which is standard Twitter protocol in response to enough spam/block reports.
I believe these accounts and the verification were paid for and Twitter was aware of the campaign in advance. Why? Check this tweet out:
That’s one of the Directors of Sales for Twitter, praising how CamryEffect was going to be using Twitter, and then they had 10 accounts sending non-stop spam messages to people who mentioned Superbowl-related keywords (from what I could tell by clicking on lots of their tweets before they closed their accounts off.
So what’s the big fuss, anyway, you may be asking? I’ve had several conversations about this today. There is a fundamental difference in advertising, and partaking in events that result in ad delivery, such as a Google search, watching TV, going to a movie, using a free platform, listening to the radio or reading a magazine, vs. SPAM, which is a direct and personal solicitation to you, using an account of some type that you have (your phone, your social network account, your email.) There is also the concept of “cold” solicitation, which hovers somewhere between the two. If I say I need a dry cleaner (for example) and someone who doesn’t know me – a person, or a dry cleaner – says “Hey, we do that, if you want to check us out we are here” that is a little more appealing to me personally than spam, which is often the result of an automated delivery, and therefore impersonal and meaningless.
What Toyota’s CamryEffect campaign was doing was pure and total Twitter spam. Someone set up bots (someone on Facebook said this was done using http://localresponse.com/#brand which delivers advertising real-time. Their ad agency Saatchi & Saatchi LA has been tweeting repeatedly to watch the ad they created for the campaign, so we might assume they had something to do with this Twitter campaign also though we don’t know. There was a press release about an integrated marketing campaign using something called Shazam. So really, multiple culpable players were involved, at least Toyota who approved it, Twitter who helped enable it by making accounts look Verified and Official, and (maybe??) an ad and/or social media agency who boneheadly decided that what Superbowl football fans REALLY wanted tomorrow is a big old can of SPAM, otherwise known as the CamryEffect.
I feel sorry for the car. It really had nothing to do with this short-sighted money-grab and textbook worthy negative social media case study. And, as always, my concern is for the end users. One tweet about a car today, because you mention watching an event on Twitter, could well be 50 unwanted tweets about everything from zit cream to male impotence products based on watching The Mentalist. Or whatever it is you watch and people think you will buy.
And THAT is the single thing that really could be the death of Twitter. People will stay for ads, they’ll stay if you charge them… but if you suck them in and then sign them up against their wishes for canned SPAM, they’ll go elsewhere.
This didn’t happen when Ev and Biz were running the show. I knew something bad was going to happen when they left. If you care about this stuff, don’t just tweet or Facebook it. Put it in a blog post. Send it to Twitter. Say you don’t mind promotion but you expect them to promote responsibly. Yes, the site is free, but you create the content that keeps this crazy rat wheel turning. Don’t sell yourselves short as the end user. You DO matter! And maybe the Camry is even a good car, I have no idea. Ask your friends if they have one and if they’d recommend it. That’s a good way to find out.
Wake up companies and agencies. This is NOT your oyster. Our accounts are not your free-for-all. You’ll get it eventually because if you keep acting like this, you’ll have to come up with yet more ways to do push marketing because we’ll abandon in droves the sites where you abuse us.
Update 2/5:
As I published this last night, Toyota went and apologized on a blog post at TNW:
http://thenextweb.com/socialmedia/2012/02/04/toyota-takes-to-spamming-twitter-for-camry-super-bowl-promotion
We will be discussing this at the next #smbydesign chat, which is held every Thursday. Check out the times and information and please join us to talk about whether or not you think campaigns like this are a wave of the future we have to accept or we will be able to use our voices to stop Twitter and brands from heading down a wrong path by publicizing their mistakes.
Some great insights on WHY this brilliant scheme may have been cooked up are at Marketing Handy, so read that quick post if you have a minute. I’d love to have him talk to our #smbydesign group about the “viral video” conundrum marketers have when they want to make video but for the specific purpose of having it “be viral.”
https://twitter.com/#!/CamryEffect
https://twitter.com/#!/CamryEffect1
https://twitter.com/#!/CamryEffect2
https://twitter.com/#!/CamryEffect3
https://twitter.com/#!/CamryEffect4
https://twitter.com/#!/CamryEffect5
https://twitter.com/#!/CamryEffect6
https://twitter.com/#!/CamryEffect7
https://twitter.com/#!/CamryEffect8
https://twitter.com/#!/CamryEffect9
You can try looking at the accounts, but within a few hours and lot of griping online about it by some of us, they seem to be unverified (no more logo next to the name) and they are now protected so you can’t see the tweets they’ve been sending. Note: protected, not taken offline, which is standard Twitter protocol in response to enough spam/block reports.
I believe these accounts and the verification were paid for and Twitter was aware of the campaign in advance. Why? Check this tweet out:
That’s one of the Directors of Sales for Twitter, praising how CamryEffect was going to be using Twitter, and then they had 10 accounts sending non-stop spam messages to people who mentioned Superbowl-related keywords (from what I could tell by clicking on lots of their tweets before they closed their accounts off.
So what’s the big fuss, anyway, you may be asking? I’ve had several conversations about this today. There is a fundamental difference in advertising, and partaking in events that result in ad delivery, such as a Google search, watching TV, going to a movie, using a free platform, listening to the radio or reading a magazine, vs. SPAM, which is a direct and personal solicitation to you, using an account of some type that you have (your phone, your social network account, your email.) There is also the concept of “cold” solicitation, which hovers somewhere between the two. If I say I need a dry cleaner (for example) and someone who doesn’t know me – a person, or a dry cleaner – says “Hey, we do that, if you want to check us out we are here” that is a little more appealing to me personally than spam, which is often the result of an automated delivery, and therefore impersonal and meaningless.
What Toyota’s CamryEffect campaign was doing was pure and total Twitter spam. Someone set up bots (someone on Facebook said this was done using http://localresponse.com/
I feel sorry for the car. It really had nothing to do with this short-sighted money-grab and textbook worthy negative social media case study. And, as always, my concern is for the end users. One tweet about a car today, because you mention watching an event on Twitter, could well be 50 unwanted tweets about everything from zit cream to male impotence products based on watching The Mentalist. Or whatever it is you watch and people think you will buy.
And THAT is the single thing that really could be the death of Twitter. People will stay for ads, they’ll stay if you charge them… but if you suck them in and then sign them up against their wishes for canned SPAM, they’ll go elsewhere.
This didn’t happen when Ev and Biz were running the show. I knew something bad was going to happen when they left. If you care about this stuff, don’t just tweet or Facebook it. Put it in a blog post. Send it to Twitter. Say you don’t mind promotion but you expect them to promote responsibly. Yes, the site is free, but you create the content that keeps this crazy rat wheel turning. Don’t sell yourselves short as the end user. You DO matter! And maybe the Camry is even a good car, I have no idea. Ask your friends if they have one and if they’d recommend it. That’s a good way to find out.
Wake up companies and agencies. This is NOT your oyster. Our accounts are not your free-for-all. You’ll get it eventually because if you keep acting like this, you’ll have to come up with yet more ways to do push marketing because we’ll abandon in droves the sites where you abuse us.
Update 2/5:
As I published this last night, Toyota went and apologized on a blog post at TNW:
http://thenextweb.com/socialmedia/2012/02/04/toyota-takes-to-spamming-twitter-for-camry-super-bowl-promotion
We will be discussing this at the next #smbydesign chat, which is held every Thursday. Check out the times and information and please join us to talk about whether or not you think campaigns like this are a wave of the future we have to accept or we will be able to use our voices to stop Twitter and brands from heading down a wrong path by publicizing their mistakes.
Some great insights on WHY this brilliant scheme may have been cooked up are at Marketing Handy, so read that quick post if you have a minute. I’d love to have him talk to our #smbydesign group about the “viral video” conundrum marketers have when they want to make video but for the specific purpose of having it “be viral.”
Should You Try Using Different Words to Tell Your Story?
On February 1, 2012
In Advertising, Brand Experience, Restaurants & Hospitality, Retail, Social Marketing
With No Comments
Permalink
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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!
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.
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:
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!
#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)
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!
