Oscarina: digital + social

Advertising Week 2010: Final wrap-up video

Great week covering advertising and marketing in New York City. Here is the final wrap-up video with Mel!

Mel Carson on Building Communities Online

My friend and colleague Mel Carson did an interview on building communities--do mention it to him and he'll buy you a beer.

http://econsultancy.com/blog/6310-q-a-microsoft-advertising-s-mel-carson-on-building-communities

I love his quote on making time for social. Personally, I don't think he sleeps much.

Books on my nightstand

These are the books on my nightstand. They're not ranked in any particular order, nor does a spot in the stack mean I'll actually read it. These are the books on my nightstand I'd like to finish.

I've got a nice combo of summer reading books, biz books I should finish, books to improve my work/life balance and books I find feed my inner geek.

I've started reading four of them and suspect that I'll finish them sometime this year...or not.

When I travel I try to bring along a book, but my own personal craving for hard cover or the so-called coffee table books makes me a shoe-in for the additional weight baggage fee. I'm struggle to keep my luggage light as it is. I swear most times I pick my bags up at the baggage carousel only to find a neon orange tag affixed that boldly declares HEAVY in ten languages.

But back to the books--here they are in order from top to bottom:

1. The Girl Who Played With Fire by Steig Larson
2. Made to Stick by Chip Heath and Dan Heath (on a side note I saw one of the authors speak...such simple concepts that work brilliantly)
3. Take Back Your Life by Sally McGhee
4. The Visual Miscellaneum by David McCandless (love, love, love this book)
5. The Art of Possibility by Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander
6. Lovemarks by Kevin Roberts
7. Eyetracking Web Usability by Jakob Nielsen and Kara Pernice

What's on your reading list?

Facebook: Should it be in your social marketing strategy?

My mother works for the Morale-Welfare-Recreation Program of the United States Army--she called me the other day to ask how to set up a 'fan' page in Facebook similar to the one set up by Family MWR on Facebook. Over the past decade my mother often calls for support in graphic design, some copywriting or marketing ideas. Sometimes it's just to be a sounding board as she tries to manage programs for young soldiers stationed across the world. In return for a few hours of work she sends me a gift card to my favorite yoga studio. It all works out.

So I asked her: what will you do with a Facebook page? What purpose would it serve for you to have a Facebook page for MWR? She was stumped. "Doesn't everyone need to have one?" she asked. Sure, if you can understand what you're going to get from a Facebook page.

Facebook is a walled garden--eveything you do in Facebook circles back to Facebook. As long as your audience uses Facebook then using it as a medium makes sense. Here are a few more tips to make sure that your page is successful.

1. Keep it updated and engaged. Facebook works best when it's used. We've all got friends who are active posters--making status updates almost non-stop. You need a friend like that to be the one running your Facebook campaign.  
2. Get a dev resource. Some of the best Facebook interactions occur with games or gimmicks developed on Facebook's platform. Think about Farmville or Bejeweled Blitz. The idea is to keep your fans involved in your page.
3. Encourage participation. Hold a contest. Allow voting. We all love to vote and rank; and with the expediency of the web it's easy to do it immediately. Make is simple.

Finally--make sure that you're taking advantage of the Facebook Insights. See who is visiting your page, liking your updates, viewing your content and sharing your information. This is a great way to peek under the hood to rate success.

Ultimately, using Facebook is an inexpensive and potentially viral way to reach your audience. Just make sure that it makes sense for your audience.