"There Is Really Nothing New About Social Media..."

My good friend Todd Feldman just wrote a great blog post that I wanted to share. It's called Getting Real About Integrating Your Brand with Social Media.

First, a little about Todd. He and I worked together on the Emerging Channels team at circuitcity.com. More than just about anyone I know, Todd gets social media and how it can be used for e-commerce and marketing. He likes to say "Social Media should be viewed as a powerful ingredient that enables the connection of every department within your company with each other and then directly to your customer."

That would look a little like this:


...or perhaps we can think about it like this:

Social Media is a lot like Manhattan. It's an island. Not the lonely, inaccessible island the 48 survivors of Lost call home. On the contrary, Manhattan is booming with traffic and connected to land on all sides by a complex system of bridges. The folks in your company who are struggling to accept Social Media because they see it as an island...show 'em this map.

In his blog post, Todd wrote "Word-of Mouth Marketing is the oldest form of marketing, right?" He then came to a very insightful conclusion..."There really is nothing new about Social Media, except that now we have technology on our side." I couldn't agree more. The "new" part, I would argue, is the new importance in excepting the need for transparency.

Let's face it, big-business is borrowing social technologies from the general population. If we are going to have any real success in this field, we're going to have to spend some effort discovering what makes Social Networking work in the real world. Consider this, the most influential bloggers, tweeters, facebook friends, ect...they are the ones that allow themselves to be exposed online. They share with us their real experiences...and they are rewarded with our loyalty and trust.

How can you be more transparent in your viral branding? What can you share about your business that will create a bond of trust between you and your online followers? Discuss those questions in the comment section below. Maybe your answers will help us all.

Tech Sandwich: Episode 017 - The Best (& Worst) Of CES 2009.The Final Tech Sandwich Podcast.

(Note from the editor: For archival purposes (and in keeping with our DIY viral marketing philosophy), I'm reprinting a series of articles originally written for circuitcity.com.)

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It's called TECH SANDWICH (a tech news and gadget information PODcast by Circuit City.) Each Thursday, our crack team of Circuit City experts gather to inform, educate, entertain and interact. We discuss top tech information and explore the latest gadget rumors...and we always invite you to join in the discussion.
This week on TECH SANDWICH:
A review of CES 2009.

To Download TECH SANDWICH..."Right Click" and "Save As" HERE!

Try This Tool:WiFi Digital Camera

Last week at CES (Consumer Electronic Showcase in Las Vegas), Sony introduced "the world's first Wi-Fi digital camera with Web browser". The Cyber-shot DSC-G3 will allow you to take a picture or video and (if you have a Wi-Fi connection) upload it directly to the internet.

The photos/videos can be uploaded directly to Photobucket, Shutterfly, Picasa, YouTube, Dailymotion and more, meaning you could set up your blog to instantly post this photos within seconds of actually taking them. This could take your mobile blogging to a whole new level!

DIY Sighting On A Cold Sunday.

DIY is such an important part of internet success...success in everything for that matter.

I just saw a father working on the roof on his house with his young son...teaching him the DIY spirit.

Good job dad!

A New Year. A New...

Make on Snapvine | Copy This

Thanks for the gadget i got for Christmas: Samsung BDP-1500

(Note from the editor: For archival purposes (and in keeping with our DIY viral marketing philosophy), I'm reprinting a series of articles originally written for circuitcity.com.)

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Originally published at circuitcity.com on December 30, 2008
Written by ScottyWhy?

(This week is "Thanks For The Gadget" week on the Circuit City Blog. We want to pay respect to Santa Claus by sending him letters of appreciation for the great gadgets he brought us this holiday season. We invite you to play along by sharing your thoughts in the comments section of this blog post or by joining the discussion in the Circuit City Forum. I'll start things off by writing the first letter.)




Dear Santa,
I love my new Samsung Bluray player! This thing rocks!!!
My wife's parents gave me a Samsung BDP-1500 for Christmas. They are fantastic folks and really didn't have to give me anything this big (but I'm sooo glad they did.) I have to tell you, I couldn't wait to get home and hook it up. I already had a free HDMI cable running through my wall (an act of wishful thinking I guess.) It took a total of 5 minutes to get this thing out of the box and all wired in. I was watching HANCOCK on Blu-ray before my wife finished unpacking the car (just kidding, Wife.)

The picture quality on my HDTV is hypnotic. It's hard to turn away...even during the head-in-the-buttocks scene. The Samsung upconverts standard DVDs, so Dr. House looks extra cranky when I put in an old copy of "House-The First Season". I can't wait to see what "Thirteen" looks like on Blu-ray in the later seasons.

This thing also has "DTS-HD Master Audio", which means I probably should have kept that Onkyo HT-S3100 5.1 Home Theater System that I got for my parents. Guess that gives me something to hope for next year.

So thank you Santa (and my parents-in-law too) for making this a great Christmas!

Have a Fantastic New Year.
ScottyWhy?