Your car is on Twitter?

In a recent article celebrating the 200th birthday of the tin can, the Washington Post pointed out that “Al the Can” has a Facebook and Twitter page to encourage recycling. This is surprisingly not the first time we have seen inanimate objects with Twitter handles.

Ford rigged up “AJ” (short for “American Journey”) the Fiesta to tweet updates automatically during its trek across America. The tweets reflect external cues the car could sense, like GPS location, weather, speed, traffic, hills, etc. Followers of @AJtheFiesta receive updates like, “It’s getting pretty dark; time to put the headlights on." or twitpics of test drivers taken by AJ's cockpit camera.

AJ the Tweeting Ford Fiesta (http://www.indiancarsbikes.in/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/wheels-Ford-Twitter-Fiesta-blogSpan.jpg)

Similarly, “Precious” the bicycle has been tweeting during its own American journey to raise money for LIVESTRONG. Precious tweets automatically by selecting from a pool of hundreds of pre-written tweets based on the external factors it senses like, GPS location, weather, road quality, and speed.

While Precious’s goal is to raise money for charity, Ford says that AJ is a first step toward enabling cars to communicate with their drivers. They envision a car that can alert the driver when it needs an oil change, when it is passing an interesting attraction, or perhaps when it is near a cheap gas station. Maybe some day in the future your car will collaborate with your To-Do List iPhone app to plan errand routes or send you reminders when you are near the bank or the dry cleaners.

Why stop with cars? Imagine having a refrigerator that sent you energy-saving tips or an oven that sent you recipes. What if the next generation of television sets sent you a message when your show was about to come on? Would life be simpler if your home alarm clock was synced with your work Outlook calendar so you never missed another early meeting? If we can make a car tweet, there is no end to the possibilities.

Check-Ins, Check-Ins, Check-Ins

A Forrester study released in July announced that a vast majority of online adults (84%) were not familiar with location-based check-in tools like Foursquare, Gowalla and SCVNGR. Only 1% of people reported using the tools more than once a week. Since the launch of Facebook Places, Foursquare has reported a significant spike in sign-ups, but their three million users are still mere peanuts compared to Facebook’s 500+ million users.

Stores partnered with these location-based services reward customers who frequently check in to their locations, yet the services still do not seem popular with the online world. Internet users may be comfortable posting videos of Fluffy in a paper bag or tweeting their thoughts about the summer heat, but they are still a bit wary of broadcasting their whereabouts to the online community. They may even be embarrassed about how often they go to Rainforest Café and want to keep it a secret.

This is where emerging check-in tools like GetGlue, Philo and Miso suffer no resistance. Customers can check in to Chipotle on Foursquare, but they can check in to Dancing with the Stars on GetGlue. These tools are not based on the user’s location; they are based on the entertainment the users are enjoying. Customers can “check-in” to share with their networks what TV shows, books, music, games, or movies they are engaging with in real time.

Dancing with the Stars finale with Kristi Yamaguchi in 2008
http://www.erati.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/kristy_yamaguchi2.jpg

Using entertainment-based services you run no risk of a creepy ex-boyfriend following you to the Starbucks you just checked into. He may find out that you just watched the entire Real Housewives of New Jersey marathon, however.

We have seen Glee as a trending topic on many Wednesday nights, a huge spike in conversation during last year’s VMAs, and social media pandemonium surrounding the World Cup. People like to talk about entertainment, so these entertainment-based services may soon explode in popularity.

Some TV shows are already banking on that possibility. ETV’s Bridezillas partnered with Miso to deliver exclusive photo and video content to fans that frequently check in to their show. In the future, TV shows hope to engage their fans with real-time scavenger hunts, trivia, or challenges while their shows are on air.

First there were location-based check-in services, now there are entertainment-based check-in services. What’s next in this check-in fever? Will we be checking in to the grilled cheese sandwich and diet coke we have for lunch? The H&M shirt and Levi’s we are wearing to dinner with friends? Only time will tell.

Social Media Users as Product Experts?

If you've seen the latest Tempur-Pedic "Ask Me About My Mattress" advertisement or commercial for the movie When in Rome, you may have noticed that companies are trusting social media users to provide recommendations for their products.  The Tempur-Pedic ad encourages audience members to ask their friends via Facebook and Twitter how they like their Tempur-Pedic mattress, and one of several When in Rome commercials mentions praise of the movie from Facebook and Twitter fans where movies usually use analysis from expert reviewers.

Word-of-mouth recommendations have been around for a long time, and savvy companies have used positive customer reviews to add legitimacy to their products for just as long.  The only difference now is that companies are using social media as a vehicle to deliver those recommendations.

I am clearly a fan of social media;  it enables the average person to share information and create relationships with the general public, but I do not think that recommendations-via-social media is a good next step.  While recommendations may be effective when delivered in person, when they are broadcast online some of their trustworthiness is lost.

People can (and do!) say whatever they want over the Internet without any accountability.  Because of this lack of consequences, the Web has a reputation for broadcasting bogus information.  Consumers would sooner trust an official movie reviewer or someone they know because people say crazy things online.  Particularly in the case of the When in Rome movie, viewers may be skeptical that the ad does not feature official reviews because the omission may be indicative of unfavorable reviews.

Giving Through Social Media

Less than 48 hours after a massive earthquake destroyed much of Haiti, the American Red Cross had already received $35 million dollars in donations to the relief effort (according to James Morgan's article for the BBC, Twitter and Facebook Users Respond to the Haiti Crisis).  $8 million of that was received directly through texts to the ARC donation line 90999.  Today the text donations have surpassed $22 million, according to the New York Times, and that amount is largely thanks to social media.

Without time for a traditional print, TV, or online messaging campaign, the ARC turned to social media to spread the word quickly about the 90999 donation line and the necessity of relief donations.   The ARC itself does not have many followers on Twitter, fans on Facebook, readers in the blogosphere, or viewers on YouTube, but they reached out to celebrities, athletes, and even the first lady who were able to make a huge impact in the social media world.  Following their example, everyday social media users started groups on Facebook, re-tweeted the ARC's message, blogged about the cause, and posted YouTube videos imploring people to donate.

http://www.r4mr0dinc.net/R4mr0dInc/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/redcross.jpg

This mobile donation campaign has had unprecedented success that could not have been possible without the vast numbers of people now connected through social media.  While traditional messaging campaigns are still quite powerful, this example shows how powerful messaging through social media can be as well.

Dairy Gets a Booooost From Social Media

It’s hard to make milk a hot, new, branded commodity, but that is exactly what Real California Milk attempts to do with its Happy Cows campaign.  The now ubiquitous “Got milk?” campaign may have been successful in increasing overall milk sales, but smaller milk brands are not known for launching national advertising campaigns.  As a result, a lot of people consume dairy products like milk and cheese with more concern for convenience and price than brand name. 

Real California Milk's national television and online campaign aims to foster brand loyalty among dairy lovers by positioning Real California Milk as a better dairy brand because their milk comes from happy cows.  Their television ads feature a number of cows from all over the world that want to be California cows.  Viewers get to vote on which cow will receive the honor of mooooving to California on the Happy Cows Audition Site.  They hope that the voting will generate online buzz via social media and create awareness of California Milk as a hip, new, quality dairy brand.

Nothing says “hip” and “new” like social media (in combination with a hip and new overall communication strategy, of course).  It worked nationally with Barack Obama.  It worked locally with the Charleston Animal Society’s Spike vs. Biscuit mascot race.  Now it might work with Real California Milk.  It seems that getting customers involved with a brand leads to a more loyal customer base than just throwing advertisements at them.  Customers seem to be involved with the California Happy Cows campaign because many are posting plugs for their favorite cows on the company's Facebook page, commenting on pictures and videos of the cows, and, of course, voting for their favorite cow on the Real California Milk Web site.

Social Ads for Social Media

Facebook does not have many ads on its site, but the ads that they do have are different from most banner ads because they are strategically targeted to an individual's profile, and they are socially interactive.  This type of interactive ad makes sense with the demographic of people on Facebook who already consider the Internet very social.

The ads sometimes give viewers the option of "Like-ing" the ad, becoming a fan of the product or company on their Facebook page, or sending an online RSVP to the Facebook event being advertised.  This might not be that different from the usual click-through ad except for one rather unusual feature.  If you choose to get rid of the ad by clicking the small gray "x" in the upper right corner, you are asked to comment on why you do not like the ad.

Comment box that appears when you try to remove an ad on Facebook.

This comment box serves as a useful tool to create a database of customer preferences and conduct market research.  As Facebook tells it, "Over time, this information helps us deliver more relevant ads to our users."

Facebook already uses a lot of its users' information to segment its advertising like, location, age, sex, keywords, education, workplace, relationship status, relationship interests, and languages.  You can find out more about how Facebook segments its users on the Facebook advertising page.

I know from personal experience that the ads on my Facebook page are very responsive to changes I make to my profile.  Once for April Fools Day I changed my relationship status to "engaged" and I was immediately barraged with ads about wedding rings, dresses, photographers, venues, caterers, and more.  Also, when I was studying abroad in Barcelona last spring, my Facebook advertisements were mostly in Spanish or Catalan.

Facebook's interactive advertising style with the opportunity to remove ads, comment boxes, "Like" buttons, "Become fan" buttons that link to the advertiser's Facebook page, etc., is a new type of online advertising that works well with the site's already interactive nature.  It also reflects a general increase in Web sites integrating "social" options that make interaction between companies and consumers easier.

Social Media and Flip Video: The Perfect Marriage

Traditional media was once the only way people could spread information to mass audiences but new technology and social media have changed all that.  Cheap digital cameras and social networking sites like YouTube and Facebook have enabled common Internet users to become their own media outlet and share information with their social networks.

Just as traditional media shares information with the public, social media shares information with social networks.  The new Flip Video™ digital camcorder is perfectly suited for social media because it empowers people to take and share video more easily.  To maximize on this connection to social media, Flip Video™ has created a "community" using many forms of social media.

Their Facebook page allows Flip Video™ users to share their favorite videos and ask technical support questions from other fans.  Their MySpace page has exclusive videos from the Vans Warped Tour '09, forums, and comments.  Their YouTube channel has videos of "example Flip-able moments" like a flash rave on the beach, two babies playing together, a giraffe, etc.  Their Twitter account posts special offers, discounts, and contests.  They also send out a newsletter to more than 465,725 fans that you can sign up for from their Web site.

Some British girls use the Flip Video™ to record their weekend shenanigans.

Without social media, the Flip Video™ would probably not have as much success.  Social media platforms like YouTube and Facebook enable people to share their videos easily, so a simple, highly portable camcorder like the Flip Video™ just makes the video sharing process easier.

In addition, social media has created a culture of people who like to share information about themselves with their social networks and the public, so they will be more interested in being able to shoot video wherever, whenever.  More private cultures and individuals would probably not be as enthusiastic.