Apparently, API stands for All Projects are Implemented, according to some agencies. Marketers are trying to find their way in the Times-Square madness of the Social Media space, but when someone is asking for directions, they don’t really want every street on the whole map.

With Twitter, for example, it’s still important for strategy to drive decisions on tactics. An open API seems to be a maddening siren’s call for agencies and developers, causing them to lose all sense and launch campaigns just for the sake of integrating Twitter.

Let’s learn from these campaigns and stop all the gimmickry.

Skittles

If you haven’t heard of the Skittles.com debacle (which they continue to host), welcome to the Internet. Kidding aside, this web site has thrown away caution and its brand, allowing Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to define its message and its value. Upon launch of this “strategy,” users gamed the sites, associating swear words, offensive posts and negative messaging. Now, weeks later, the aggregate social destination sits passive; the brand message confused and tarnished.

The glass-half-full viewpoint: I should, however, acknowledge the 1 million+ fans subscribed to the Skittles Facebook fan page. It will be interesting to see what, if anything, Skittles does with these subscribers.

FixOutlook.org

This recently launched grassroots site hopes to grab the attention of the Windows Beta evaluators, and send a powerful, organized message to Microsoft before they commit to the sin of continuing to use Word to render emails in the 2010 version of Outlook. I admit, it’s a noble cause. But the twitter implementation at the core site is reminiscent of 90s designers using animated gif backgrounds just because they could. It was a terrible idea, and the addition of a Twitter avatar feed doesn’t change this. This is/was a great opportunity to unite these users in a deeper way.

The glass-half-full viewpoint: The people behind this cause did keep it simple, and don’t necessarily have a need for a long-term view. The virulence of the tweets are visible, and I’ve yet (with 17,489 “tweetitioners”) to see any tweets against the campaign.

Terminator Salvation (Resistance 2018)

The film over-promised and under-delivered, so I suppose we could say the Twitter campaign stayed true to the brand. This Twitter game sent Jumbled words to decode and trivia questions to answer to followers who would earn points. It also incorporated some Terminator-world messages, such as, “You have been harvested by the machines, you lose 5 points.” Games on Twitter are starting to multiply, and this one seemed to have good promise, but the challenges became repetitive quickly, and the burning Terminator face rolling by among my smiling happy Twitter friends weakened the impact of the experience. If this is SkyNet, we have nothing to worry about.

The glass-half-full viewpoint: Games on Twitter are still a new concept, and this early attempt did earn some pretty good reach and buzz. It does foreshadow more robust and solid twitter contest and gaming to come.

Polar Ice

The ultimate in Twitter API gimmickry lives at PolarIce.ca. This flash site pulls in what appear to be completely random Tweets, with a muddled interface featuring confusing functionality creating the ultimate why-am-I-here experience for users. It seems Polar Ice just likes Twitter. But what does this have to do with Vodka, or partying?

The glass-half-full viewpoint: If you have a glass half full of Polar Ice, tip it back and Google your way off this site.

Nike’s The Hookup

Nike’s work-in-progress started with a whimper, but is now, it appears, starting to evolve into something a little more useful. The Hookup tweets local shoe drops to followers, and has other functionality pulling key terms for their fashion product/item/lines called “icons.” Fans are starting to use the tag #thehookup, which may connect to this strategy too, but it’s difficult to say.

The glass-half-full viewpoint: There is a lot of activity around these items on Twitter, and this team has a long-term view. A few changes will lead to success for this program.

(Full disclosure: I work for Organic, with Nike Canada as one of our clients. I haven’t, however, worked on The Hookup)

What’s the common thread here? These API implementations are all ideas conceived based on the brand’s needs, instead of the users’.

If instead, one considers the drivers behind users’ behaviours on Twitter and other Social Media, one realizes that these are surface ideas that don’t serve their preferences, desires and needs. Start with user-centric thinking, think long-term, and ease into Social Media with grace and success.

Filed under: Brands, Marketing, Social Media, Twitter, User Experience, User-generated Content, Web Strategy by Craig Ritchie
4 Comments »

Tags: api, campaigns, fix outlook, Marketing, microsoft, nike, polar ice, skittles, Social Media, strategy, terminator, thehookup, Twitter

1. Facebook tried to be Twitter, with a partnership with CNN. Will this happen more and more? Will Facebookers feel the need to Tweet?
2. CNN.com served 13 million+ streams… but fell behind, and offered lower quality than UStream and Joost.
3. Twitter stayed up, and so did the mobile networks!
4. Whitehouse.gov launched at 12:01pm including a blog, podcasts, video, RSS… but without comments? (Like Obama’s inauguration, it’s a good start)
5. The world watched, Together.

Filed under: Facebook, Future, Social Media, Twitter, Web 2.0 by Craig Ritchie
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Tags: #inaug09, cnn.com, Facebook, inauguration, joost, obama, streaming, Twitter, ustream, whitehouse.gov

My 1,700+ followers on Twitter may have caught a few of my tweets recently about my frustration with Twitter’s 2,000 follow limit. That is, one can only follow up to 2,000 people until one’s own followers has caught up to that number.

As it turns out, one’s followers only have to reach 1,850 before one can add more follows. (For those of you that don’t really understand what I’m talking about, please join twitter and follow me, and I’ll be happy to explain further. Or, watch Commoncraft’s ‘Twitter In Plain English’.)

I learned this new information last night, as I saw that I had surpassed 1,800 followers and was also now following 2,013 tweeters. This ratio had apparently been “approved” by the twitter code and database, allowing me to continue to find more great people to tweet with. I understand that Twitter needs some type of processs or security against spammers, who generally follow hundreds of tweeters without reciprocal follows using scripts and other techniques. For this reason, new twitter users soon learn the value of gauging the ratio of follows to followers, filtering for spammers. Basically, if you don’t “earn” the followers, you’ll be limited to 2,000 people…

Also last night, the Twitter team chose to eliminate accounts they judged as spam accounts. I woke up to about 90 less “followers” and was only now following about 1,975. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to follow or be followed by spammers, but this couldn’t have happened at a worse time for me. I’m now once again struggling with the 2K barrier designed to thwart spammers — and only because all the spammers were removed.

Every community needs spam and abuse measures. However, Twitter’s 2K barrier is an over-simplistic measure that should have other checks and balances that don’t limit power users like me. If followers see that my follow-to-follower ratio is suspect, they can choose not to follow me. This is allowing the community and users to self-police.

I should be back up to 1,850 soon enough, but a little more thought should have been put into this measure. Say, once a user has passed the 1,850 mark, dropping under again no longer applies; or, before the Twitter team hits the big trapdoor lever to dump spammers, they could have thought about how this would affect their user types… With such “simple and elegant” functionality, one would think that this wouldn’t be too long a conversation.

Filed under: Community, Social Media, Twitter by Craig Ritchie
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Tags: 2000 follow, Community, spam, Twitter

Who might you meet (in person! wha?) at a Toronto tweetup? I was honoured to meet someof Toronto’s finest Twitterers at a great pub last Friday.

The intrinsic nature of Twitter allows for quick planning and somewhat viral spread of “tweetups” — a phenomenon that will surely gain momentum as Twitter further penetrates the mainstream. Now, people of somewhat like minds can organize a casual event involving more degrees of one’s social graph.

Among others, I had great conversation with @isfan, @rlangdon, @communicable, @Merlene, @conniecrosby, @photojunkie, @stevesaylor, @danielerossi… and look forward to continuing the conversation.

What were the themes of conversation? Twitter. Marketing. PR. Hey, it’s what we had in common. My only issue? The word “Tweetup.” It’s difficult for me to use with non-twitterers, prior to the event. (I wonder if @chrisbrogan and @mitchjoel have gotten used to saying “tweeple” and “tweetup” out loud…)

@johncpiercy uploaded pictures here and here.

If you’re wondering if there are tweetups coming up in your area, I recommend search.twitter.com. Also, get over to twitter.grader.com and follow the Twelite in your city.

For those who were there, I invite you to leave a brief bio and your twitter link in the comment area below. Thanks!

And thanks to planner Dave Delaney (
@davedelaney) — Toronto ex-pat turned Nashville resident (Go Titans!).

Filed under: Twitter by Craig Ritchie
1 Comment »

Tags: toronto, tweetup, Twitter, twitter grader

Yes, this is another blog post about Twitter.

It looks like Twitter’s ready for your brand. Is your airline, coffee franchise, financial services organization, non-profit, car dealership, landscaping company, ad agency, funeral home or laundromat ready to Twitter?

From a social media marketing analysis standpoint, the conversation has changed from questioning Twitter’s viability as a channel to acceptance of the tool, its audience stability and growth. The question now is, how does a brand use it without (as the internet-savvy say) EPIC FAIL?

Here are some of the recent thoughts, proofs and discussions:

1. Dell expands Twitter strategy
2. Dell explains their strategy on YouTube
3. Zappos (@zappos) has 400+ employees on Twitter (and amazing online reputation/WOM momentum), and here are the employees: twitter.zappos.com/employees
4. Bryan Person (@BryanPerson) is collecting “BrandsOnTwitter” Delicious Links
5. Jeremiah Owyang (@jowyang) analyzes at the Brands that have been unsuccessful on Twitter
6. Fortune Magazine highlights Twitter’s potential

Let me know if you find more analysis to help brand planners and marketers understand Twitter.

Follow me here: @craigritchie

Update: Jeremiah Owyang has posted his recommendations for Brands on Twitter.

Filed under: Brands, Marketing, Social Media, Twitter, Web 2.0, Web Strategy by Craig Ritchie
1 Comment »

Tags: brandsontwitter, dell, fortune magazine, Twitter, zappos

Web conferences have become host to the new wave of viral tools and technologies that are enhancing community and business meetings. Carlson Marketing calls this next-gen conference style ‘Meetings 2.0.’ As a worldwide enabler of business meetings, Carlson has added mobile tools and social networking to their meetings and events offerings, which expands the experience from just ‘During’ to include ‘Before’ and ‘After.’

Twead carefully during your keynote

Recently, at the Toronto Mesh web conference, a lot was revealed about the future of conferences. Specifically, the massive impact of mobile devices and social media tools on these types of get-togethers. The communication vehicle of choice? Twitter, of course. During the two-day event, power-tweeters (frequent users of Twitter) introduced the power and benefits of micro-blogging to dozens of twuddites. (Twitter luddites)

What was the call to action for these new adopters? Easily a quarter of the audience members in any given session had laptops open, and half of them were twittering amongst themselves, expanding the presentations and panels to deep discussions in the seats.

Twemes, a Twitter API implemetation, further enabled the conversation between tweeters, as Mesh attendees or ‘Meshies’ tagged their 140-character-or-less comments with ‘#mesh08,’ allowing the community to follow the discussion in real time as the comments rolled by. You can see all of these comments aggregated here.

I recommend trying out Twemes.com: ideally, follow a “hot pick” in the top right corner (these are usually conferences) and click “start live update” to see the topic-tagged twitters roll by. You can imagine the additional engagement this provides for events and conferences.

The added value of the Twitter conversation backchannel was obvious. During the conference, Meshies were using Twitter to discuss the future of music as a business model, and taking the liberty of re-branding Saturn’s awkwardly named social network ImSaturn (the marketer from Saturn tried desperately to point us to the correct URL, but stumbled through the difficult address).

Do we even have to attend anymore?

ScribbleLive was unveiled at Mesh ‘08, a live blogging platform with real-time updates. In this forum, ScribbleLive users live-blogged forums and presentations, allowing multi-taskers and attendees in other sessions follow multiple discussions. For a great example of the group blogging output, check out the live blog of Steve Jobs’ Keynote at the WWDC, including his announcement of the new iPhone 3G.

My mobile meeting manager

Mesh ‘08 also boasted an impressive, although slightly off-the-mark blackberry app. The technically-oriented (crackberry-addicted) audience presented an optimal opportunity for Sweet Caesar to offer a free downloadable guide to the event. The features and user experience of the app were quite valuable, even though it just left me wanting more.

Among the features were a venue map, schedule and presenter bios. Unfortunately, this information didn’t update over the two days and was incorrect (as conference schedules go) as soon as the first keynote began. Overall however, the implementation demonstrated the potential for great value in the future. Now event planners must consider “What is my mobile strategy?” “What is my web strategy?” Maybe next time we’ll see the integration of Twitter, ScribbleLive and social networking tools to enhance our next Mesh (or your next conference’s) experience.

Look for Part 2 of my post on the evolution of Meetings and Conferences: Meeting virtually in real life (Part 2): Entertain us, we’re bored and twittering.

Filed under: Future, Marketing, Social Networking, Twitter, Web Strategy by Craig Ritchie
2 Comments »

Tags: app, blackberry, carlson marketing, conferences, imsaturn, iphone, meetings, meetings 2.0, mesh, mesh08, Mobile, scribblelive, strategy, sweet caesar, twemes, Twitter, Web Strategy, wwdc