It seems that incredible, triple-digit growth is not sustainable. Who knew? According to CNN, the number of Twitter users (tweeters?) has finally leveled out. On the bright side, the people using Twitter use it more than ever.
image from kelly Livesay's blog (thanks!)
The wildly successful ElfYourself campaign from Office Max has become a holiday mainstay over the last few years. Something you can count on… like egg nog and shopping mall brawls.
Office Max and JibJab have just launched the 2009 edition, complete with a Facebook Connect component AND a flash mob.
So be sure to get elfed this year. Now, with more social media!
What’s tastier than a pudding pop and less itchy than a sweater? Why, social media of course! Just ask Bill Cosby, the veteran comic who has recently taken the web by storm. With no less than eight outlets, Cosby is more accessible than ever.
He’s even got a Facebook app that lets you dress yourself up in a Cosby-style sweater. Who’d have thunk all the strange and wonderful places we’d go wtih social media?!
Read more about the Cosby invasion here and here. And be sure to follow him on Twitter here.
How do you sum up college in 140 characters or less?
Would-be journalists at Griffith University in Australia could tell us. The academic institution just made Twitter education part of the mandatory courseload.
“Some students’ tweets are not as in depth as you might like. But I don’t know if getting them to write an essay is any more beneficial,” said Jacqui Ewart, senior lecturer at the university.
Let the Tweducation begin!
Attention, Finns! Broadband is now a legal right. In a landmark case, the Finnish government became the first country worldwide to sign a law dictating that every citizen has a legal right to a broadband connection.
In other news, the Federal Court in Australia has recently decided that individual judges may decide (on a case by case basis) if they will allow Twitter coverage in their courtrooms.
And, not to be outdone, our very own CIA has just invested in a social media monitoring firm. The agency plans to use technology to monitor International intelligence shared in public channels to get an early edge on what’s being communicated by influencers.
An app that helps guys “get lucky” with 24 different types of women had Pepsi serving up a mea cola yesterday, but consumers aren’t buying it.
The app, released to promote Pepsi’s AMP energy drink, presents guys with 24 types of girls, including such clichés as “Rebound Girl,” “Women’s Studies Major,” “Cougar,” and “Twins.” The app assures guys that it will be a “roadmap to success with your favorite kinds of women,” lets them create “Brag Lists” of girls they’ve gotten lucky with, and even encourages them to flaunt their conquests via social networking.
Pepsi’s half-hearted apology has left many customers cold and even instigating a boycott of Pepsi goods.
Let’s hope the men out there are scoring with this app, because Pepsi sure isn’t.
“Paranormal Activity” might just be the latest anti-blockbuster not coming to your city.
Taking a page from the Blair Witch playbook, DreamWorks and Paramount are taking a grass-roots approach to marketing their latest horror flick, relying heavily on the assumption that social networking will do the rest.
“Paranormal Activity” opened last week in very limited release (seven select cities), and also released an Internet trailer asking viewers to demand the movie come to their local cinema. The studio is not only hoping social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter will build buzz for the film, but are using feedback to determine where to screen next.
Read more about the marketing tactics here, here and here.
But keep it short, willya?
Desperation may be driving innovation with http://www.myidea4ca.com/ where the California governor is asking for ideas to help solve the budget crisis among other things. All you have to do to participate is tweet your idea and include the hashtag: #myidea4ca
Although many of the ideas involve, well… pot and Harvey Milk Day, you can vote ideas up and down, and one will hope the cream will rise to the top!
CNET asks, “Can the Twitterati help sell your soda pop?” The answer, it appears, is a resounding yes.
@mtn_dew's Twitter feed
The folks at PepsiCo, parent company of Mountain Dew, took to a bowling alley in a hipster-heavy Brooklyn neighborhood to promote their newest product release. Mountain Dew Ultraviolet was mixed with vodka and distributed to the alley chock full of Twittering partygoers. INSTA-TWITTER-TASTE-TEST! And not without incentive: random tweets with the designated hashtag were eligible for prizes like an HDTV or a casino weekend package.
Results? A shocking lack of negative responses and a whole lot of buzz…Or should we say fizz?
According to http://happn.in/la, we started the “Shark Week” twitter trend in Los Angeles last week.
Yay us! Okay, enough self-congratulation. On to other things…