I’m the founder of BIGfish, at night I masquerade as a professor of social media and marketing at Emerson College
Go here to contact me: about.me/DavidGerzof
Photos of David's Media Class
by the Wall Street Journal
My Company: BIGfish
My Latest Presentation: Integrating Social Media into Hotel Marketing Programs
MILK is POISON to BABY OLIVER. Great video of my friend and fellow entrepreneur James Siminoff and his work with Children’s Hospital to combat Galactosemia.
The amazing story of one man’s photo (of himself) used around the world without his knowledge - Thanks to TNW for sharing
Cool Pics from the Wall Street Journal Photo Shoot with the social media class I teach at Emerson College
Image Credit: SEAN THORENSON
It is almost impossible to find major brands without a presence on Twitter nowadays. Every recognizable consumer facing brand seems to have at least one handle, if not more by now. The one type of brand you will not see on Twitter is over the counter medications like Nyquil and Ambien. Because the prevalence of over the counter drug abuse is well documented, you may think that these brands would join in to help promote correct use of their product.
Unfortunately for brands like Nyquil, pharmaceutical regulations actually require that every time they see a mention of improper use of their product, they must educate the individual on proper product use. Essentially the brand would be required to educate users for every public tweet of their products misuse.
A quick search of “Nyquil sleep” on Twitter showed 20 tweets in the last three hours, over half of which promoted improper product use. Managing responses at that rate across Twitter alone would be extremely costly in terms of time and money.
The regulations make sense in many contexts, but probably not when it comes to social media. These regulations hold brands back from properly promoting safe use of their products and reaching out to people misusing their products. The job would simply be too overwhelming. Amending regulations for certain circumstances in social media should be considered to better address over-the-counter drug misuse in real time.
Our February snow removal bill was $4,600.00, nearly four times more than our total snow removal expenses for all of 2010. This extraordinary bill got me thinking: New England’s series of relentless snow dumplings has been manna from heaven for our down-economy stricken agriculturalists and landscapers, who put their equipment to use clearing our roads, lots and sidewalks. That was until I received a late-night SOS email from Will Gilson, chef of Garden at the Cellar.
The proverbial manna from heaven accumulated on the roofs of his family’s four greenhouses and, one by one, flattened them to the ground. This year’s snow fall turned out to be Shiva (the Hindu destroyer of worlds) for the Gilson’s Greenhouses. This brings me to Will’s SOS email. Will is good friend to my @EmersonCollege #ESM & #MK356 courses and numerous charities and I humbly request you read his desperate email below and think of ways you can help - this includes all the snow removal crews who have been literally shoveling money in this year. You can contact Will directly at wdgilson1@gmail.com
PLEASE READ THIS:
Dear Friends,
I apologize for the large, mass email here, but I need to contact as many people as possible quickly. As some of you may or may not know, this past thursday evening my mother, Jodie Gilson, lost all of her greenhouses under the weight of the snow that has fallen over the past month or so. Many of us have been harshly affected by the recent storms, however my complaints of little parking and sore shoveling muscles are entirely petty compared to the pain, loss and devastation that my mom is dealing with. To add insult to injury, her insurance will not cover the damages because of the type of structure and the lack of consistent heating necessary to justify continuous use of the space. This business and those greenhouses were here only source of income and the heart of her business. Anyone who knows local agriculture and especially the potted plant sector knows that the window for success in that biz is selling all you can right around mothers day weekend. Being prepared, able and strong during that time defines whether you hit or miss. The timing of this could not be more terrible…and that is why I am asking for your help now.
Many of you probably don’t know my mom, but you all know me. You know my commitment to my family (given and chosen alike), my friends and my community. As I sit here in look at the calendar and lose count of all the charitable events that I and my restaurant will be a part of in the next year, I can’t help but think that I would trade all of those and everything that I do for people I have never met, just to be able to help my mom get her life put back together. Many of you copied on this email are the organizers of many of these charities. As a chef, I donate my time, my staffs time, and product from my restaurant to help make these events beneficial for our causes. I do not in any way want to take anything away from the beneficiaries of your work, and without you and the rest of my crazy chef community, many people would go hungry and non-profits would lose momentum and purpose. To all of you I tip my hat and can only hope that in my family’s current position I can approach this challenge with the same courage that you all do every day. But, I still need your help.
Many of you own your own businesses and I’m sure can relate to the feeling or the fear of having you livelihood stripped from you while you helplessly stand there and watch. I grew up in those greenhouses. I helped build those greenhouses. Those greenhouses and my family paid with their profits and tears for me to be where I am today. Those greenhouses are gone.
All thats left is the determination and dedication (some may call it old yankee stubbornness) to pick up the pieces and rebuild. Jodie does not want to give up. She does not want to feel sad and pout. She wants her life back. And this is where your help comes in.
Some of you may know that lately I have started a new venture and have been creating pop-up restaurants and food festivals with my business partner Aaron Cohen. These events are made possible by the guests who are excited and by my friends who are always there to bail me out when my ideas are bigger than my reach. These pop-ups have gained attention, respect and buzz very quickly. We will continue to do these and make them fun, however right now my attention is on using that attention to get that audience to help.
What I am asking of any or all of you, and to help me put on an event that is going to a new charity. None of you have ever worked with this charity, but I can assure you it is legit. Whatever funds we can raise will go directly to one person…my mom. I have ideas about how we can create this event and how we can help her, but this community is stronger and more capable than me alone. I am not asking anyone here to open their pockets. I’m asking you to open your minds and your hearts and help me help someone very close to me. Whether you can suggest a means to an answer or you can put us in touch with people that can help us, anything and everything is appreciated. I hate asking for favors, but this favor is not for me and that is why I am asking for your help.
Please feel free to contact me directly. I will filter and forward all information to my mom and the other people that will be helping us conquer this. Again, I can’t thank you enough for all you do for me and for others on a daily basis. On behalf of myself and my mom, thank you for the help.
Sincerely,
Will Gilson
With the increasing amount of large companies using social media (79% of the top 100 Fortune 500 companies use Twitter, Facebook, YouTube or other serviceshttp://mashable.com/2010/02/23/fortune-100-social-media/), there is an increasing demand for marketing firms to implement successful social campaigns for businesses. This demand often falls onto an outsourced marketing company, usually an advertising agency or PR firm.
But who should you ask? The Creative Ad Agency? or the Copy-writing PR firms?
Case for the ad agency: It’s not just about ‘being there’ anymore. Companies are expected to create original content that gets people excited and creates buzz. Many of 2010’s top campaigns involved original content, like the Old Spice video and tweet campaign, that was fun and engaging. This type of creative content creation is best suited for ad agencies to handle over PR firms. Ad agencies also have the benefit of handling the other marketing channels (print, television, radio, etc), which also helps brands easily integrate social media with their existing traditional advertising campaigns.
Case for the PR firm: One of the most important uses of social media has become customer service. Twitter in particular has become a place for brands to answer questions directly from their customers. This instant response has given many brands a chance to build stronger, more personal relationships with consumers. To do this an effective voice must be established across all platforms, which is best suited for PR firms to handle, as they already draft forward facing messaging. When a crisis comes hits (think @KennethCole), the people you want managing the issue are already at the helm of platforms where instantaneous responses are necessary.
There is no right answer between the two for who’s winning the business of managing brands’ social media platforms. Right now it seems fairly split, with some brands tasking ad agencies and others having their PR team run it. Eventually this will come to a head and one side or the other will gain ground as the appropriate firm to manage and execute social media campaigns and engagement; that day has yet to come.
Which outside organization do you think should manage social media? an ad agency or a PR firm?
CBS News interview with David Gerzof at the BIGfish Market office and Tank Design on the New Facebook profile
Just discovered Wee Places - very cool, Apparently I check in in Brookline, MA a lot - helps that I live and work there. The data visualization reminds me of a mashup of a bunch of 80’s video games. I can only imagine what it would look like if Wee Places mapped everyone. Marketers will love this if they can focus on multiple users in a specific region at a specific time.
Michael Jackson Beat It Parody - iPhones vs. iPads - love the line: We’re all micro-bloggers with a device”
Great video promoting the new New Yorker iPad App featuring Jason Schwartzman and directed by Roman Coppola.
Of all the companies to come up with a totally unique and interactive YouTube campaign, white out maker Tipp-Ex would not be near the top of the list. But they have managed to create an interactive, truly fun, and viral (over 9.9 million channel views for the intro video) set of videos.
In the video a bear is eating from a tent, and a hunter holds a gun up to shoot him. After deciding he is unable to shoot the bear, he reaches off the screen, grabs the giant Tipp-Ex roller and whites out the ‘shoots’ in the ‘A hunter shoots a bear.’ The viewer is then asked to put words into where ‘shoots’ was. For example, if you type hug in, and hit enter, a video of the hunter and the bear in a long embrace appears. There are tons of videos created, so go ahead and type in any amount of fun words and see what they do!
While the initial video obviously isn’t an actual YouTube page, Tipp-Ex has create a frame to put on top of the page that looks very authentic. This will most likely be a trailblazer for YouTube interactivity campaigns because of its combination of humor and originality.
What do you think of the campaign?
See the video here: http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=tippexperience&annotation_id=annotation_980821&feature=iv
Before There was FaceBook, there was HandBook - Favorite Slide from my latest Social Media Presentation, Photo by Pablo H Caridad of Ancient Cave Painting in Patagonia, Argentina.
Just goes to show how people wanted to connect and belong to groups back before the days of the Internet.
