Companies are Missing the Point
But the disconnect comes into how organizations can leverage its most valuable assets, Employees, to help build viral expansion loops for its messages.

I was inspired get my thoughts into a blog post in part from watching Shel Israel's FastCompany.TV interview with Biz Stone, co-founder of Twitter. At the minute 9:45 in the interview Biz talks about visiting Nike to help their people understand the tools people are using on online. He asked why and Nike told him, "because we don't let people use them." Okay, that's not good.

Also, prior to that at minute 4:30 into the interview a lead developer said this about Twitter: "The majority of the usage is people to connect with people they already know....Twitter is interesting when the people that you know are using it."

Why Personal Relationships Matter
Okay, so now the picture should start to become clearer. Social media becomes exponentially more interesting when you are connected to people that you actually know and care about. The critical element to making something go viral are the personal relationships individuals have with others, be it online or off.

Ignoring the A-Listers Theory of Viral Marketing
Let's skip the idea of a campaign that targets A-Listers all together and imagine a company of 20 people that are all fired up on their company, its products and all have active Facebook, Digg, Flickr, YouTube, Twitter and StumbleUpon pages where they interact with real friends and like minded individuals.

This company has a policy that encourages and helps trains its employees on using social media, and even lets them do a little social media interaction at work, to stay connected to their peers.

So these employees all have been active in posting on blogs, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, submitted stories to Digg, gave thumbs up to website on StumbleUpon. Not about their company, but about what they are passionate about. One would think part of that passion is the work they do, so there would be some crossover into their field of work.

To be clear, I'm not talking about having each employee be an online expert, I'm saying just get them in involved in connecting with friends and family online, because that is where the real influence happens.

Now, comes the time when the company has a significant cool piece of news, or a product launch, sweepstakes or contest. The company can encourage its employees to let friends and family know about it.

So let's take one employee that has 100 friends on Facebook, 50 on YouTube, Digg and Flickr, 20 on StumbleUpon and 100 followers on Twitter. Let's assume of the aggregate of those connections, there is a 50% overlap. So that's 130 unique people that single individual reaches.

Of those 130 people, let us say 10% actually pass it on to their 130 connections, that would be: 130 x 13 = 1,690.

That's 1,690 people a single employee can reach, and that's just one level of connectedness. Multiply that by 20 and instantly 33,800 people have the potential to interact with your content.

Chris Brogan recently posted "What Comes Next With Social Media" where he states:

"Once everyone understands the tools, accepts that they should be part of the conversation (or moves on from the notion), has accounts and presence where all their customers are spending time, what comes next? What should businesses and individuals DO once they're set up?

If you were advising Ford, who by the way, is looking for someone to sign on to help with their global social media strategy, what would you suggest they do once they gave you the green light?"

My advice to Ford would be to leverage its incredible employee base. Take the time and offer social media classes and get them involved in social media.

It's not enough for Ford to have it's official YouTube, Facebook and Twitter accounts. It must rethink how it can leverage its greatest asset - it's people to move the needle forward.

Reason: If my brother worked for Ford and every once-in-a-while he posted something about Ford asking for feedback on a project, or a video that gave insight to engineering the next car, or a charity function they are doing in my local area, I would participate because I'm following my brother, not Ford.

So what do you think Ford or Nike could do with an socially connected employee base?

Original Video Source

photo source: airbomb.com

Note: Dynamic Bicycles is a Room 214 client

One part of our strategy was to get their co-founder Jon Gaskell signed up on Twitter and start posting updates, conversing and reaching out to influencers and consumers interested in SmartyPig.

Just recently Bailey posted on Twitter, that he liked the SmartyPig idea, but had reservations about it.

Jon responded immediately by adding the person as a friend and direct messaging them about SmartyPig's service.

The next Twit that was made by Bailey: "Just found out that SmartyPig co-founder is on Twitter - that takes away any worry that I have."

Winning over the customers, one client at a time. The idea is for Jon to speak to as many individuals one-to-one as possible. So rather than using mass broadcast media to reach millions, reach out to one person who will then reach out to 1,000s.

My daughter writes to me and my wife in her journal for school every day. Today's letter cracked us up. This is the non-edited version:

Dear Mommy,

I need the world reckerd book! I think that it will be really, really, really fun! Me and Cassidy have thot of really silly things that could be in it like....who can eat the most pizza in 10 seckents, or who can eat the most candy in 10 seckent! I still think that it would be very wonderful to have. I think that it must have 10,900 pages!

Love, Josie

Here's a picture the world's best pizza: Lucali's of Brooklyn NYC. I wonder how much I could eat in 10 seconds?

photo credit: Slice

It was quite the achievement. Brett came into our offices at Room 214 yesterday with the book in hand and a sense of accomplishment.

I have people encouraging me to write a book, but it's one of those goals I've never seemed to be able to reach. It takes some serious dedication to sit down and hammer it out.

The website for the book is: www.directresponseradio.com

If you're looking for answers and insight about radio advertising, Brett's book is most certainly the definitive guide.

You can also check out his Direct Response Radio Blog.

Nice work Brett.

Subscribe here in iTunes: Battlestar Galactica Enhanced Podcast

New this year is Join The Fight, a social gaming experience:

Welcome to the Battlestar Galactica social gaming experience.
Now you can choose a side — Cylon or Human.

On a weekly basis, you will engage in new missions, attempting to accrue wins for your team by taking part in online games and challenges. At the end of each week, one of the teams will be declared the victor. And the prize is more than bragging rights: you'll be deciding the fate of humanity, once and for all.

You can also earn personal points (cubits) on an ongoing basis, giving you the currency you'll need to "pimp" your very own virtual Viper or Raider. Plus, you can comment on each other's pages, upload your favorite photos, and build your own network of friends.

Now that's cool.

Here's the premiere episode:

Poll: Bullshit is Most Important Issue for 2008 Voter

Poll: Bullshit Is Most Important Issue For 2008 Voters

What a day that must have been for those gathered at the Lincoln Memorial.

I love U2 and find a peace and hope in the song Pride. So on this day - April 4, when MLK was assasinated, I hope you can take a few moments of your day to remember a great American.

Happy 50th Birthday

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace_sign

via: Huffington Post

This thing looks like snuck out of a Texas Instruments warehouse that was abandoned in 1988.

Maybe there is something lurking out there that will take the book world by storm, but I just don't see my wife, dad or anyone else I know abandoning their physical books in the near future to carry around some electronic reader. Much less seeking out P2P networks to find pirated books.

found via: Ben Hoyle

  VS 

Imagine yourself preparing to go to a "cocktail party". For some this might increase one's anxiety knowing you'll be in a social scene and will need to spark or join conversations with strangers. Others might look forward to the open and loose environment and be excited about meeting new people and grabbing a drink.

In contrast the 'club meeting' is comfortable, familiar and your status in the group is pretty well entrenched. There are the leaders, contributors, nay-sayers, followers, etc. A lot of people like this familiarity and do well, plus you get a few sodas here, ice if you are lucky.

Cocktail Parties Are for Closers
My take is cocktail parties takes preparation, time and energy to be successful. I find that 70% of the great conversations I get in with people at events are outside the actual event subject matter topic. It's current events, music, books, sports, celebrities, TV shows, movies, family stories, etc.

Years ago I discovered a magazine (yes an actual physical object that can be sent to you through the mail) that plugged me into being comfortable at any cocktail party. It is The Week magazine. It's a weekly publication that covers everything I need to know about to have a relevant and meaningful conversation: the best columns, snippets of news from around the world, people, gossip, cartoons, health and science, arts, books, stage, music, film, leisure, travel, properties, consumer, obits and business.

I took to reading The Week like it was my job. My wife and I actually fight over it when it arrives. Makes for some funny moments.

Club Meetings are a Bore
Put that in contrast to club meetings that I participate in, and to be honest, I can show up, sit in the back of the room, check my email, talk to one person just to have an alibi that I was there and no one cares. The fact that I showed up counts (and is the requirement to stay in the club), but my participation level didn't require me to prepare and be sharp.

Jack and Coke Please
So as usual I agree with Seth. The web is like a cocktail party. You never know with whom you might strike a conversation with or what topics might resonate with you. So being prepared, well read and having a good understanding of relevant, current topics will go a long way to your enjoyment of the web.

Now, if I could only get someone to buy me a Jack and Coke and talk about Pearl Jam, The John Adams HBO Series, The Rockies, heliskiing and biodiesel - that would make a perfect night.

Let start with the fact that social media is constantly changing,  evolving and it requires the tenacity to put oneself out there and try new things. There's Facebook, YouTube, Digg, Flickr, Delicious, StumbleUpon, Twitter, Yelp, Reddit and now FriendFeed, Viddler, TubeMogul, SocialThing and the list is - you guessed it ENDLESS.

Some honesty here, I'm writing this post while on vacation and just yesterday, there was a good set of waves on the beach and my 8-year-old daughter was contemplating boogie boarding. It was scary for her imaging doing it as she was looking out at the surf crashing down. I found my self encouraging her by saying, "The best things in life are the thrills of new experiences." She agreed, grabbed the board and went boggying. She loved it.

Last night my son picked the book Green Eggs and Ham as the bedtime story and when reading it I thought of Josie braving the waves and trying new things, only to find that she really loved it.

For me, I often get fatigued by the thought of trying to manage yet another new social media service or network, but the fact is once I dive in and experience it, I usually enjoy it tremendously.

So as the good Dr. Seuss says: "How do you know you don't like, if you've never even tried it?" 

The name for the blog hit me when I researching different approaches to marketing via Facebook. At one point I had spent about two hours reading articles and blogs, downloading eBooks, watching videos, looking at pictures, cruising through online groups and when it was all done, I lifted my head had not the faintest clue what path took me to all this information and I thought to myself: "This is a frack'n endless wormhole, once you start you can literally go on forever."

For me, that statement was dead on. That is how it all works online. You like one individual's blog and their take on a subject, then that person references a post by someone else, you venture over to the referenced blog and there you are adding that blog's RSS feed to your reader. 

Beyond the links going back-and-forth between blogs, links act like wormholes to other social media universes. One blog links to a video on YouTube, or another takes you into a definition on Wikipedia - which then links to a fan site in Facebook, which takes you to someone's profile and then to their Twitter feed.

The biggest mistake marketers make is looking at social media as one homogeneous universe, when in fact each universe has it own unique elements, reasons for existence and community laws.

Immersion in these worlds can be tricky, confusing and sometimes just a total waste to time.

Consider this blog my Captian's Log from my journey through the wormholes.