I was going to write a snarky post about this Onion article and how I’m totally sick of the tired old copy about how “it’s a new way to connect in meaningful ways! Content! Connect! Blah blah blah!” and how I would like one of these new social network upstarts that claim to be revolutionary and provide real-world results to do something that actually translates to the real world…

But then I saw this HILARIOUS book trailer for Meg Cabot’s new novel, Insatiable, and my snarky mood vanished! The trailer manages to describe the plot of the novel while making fun of itself and the genre of teen-hormone-fueled vampire fiction spawned by Stephenie Meyer and her (bloodcurdlingly awful) Twilight Saga. This trailer does two HUGELY AWESOME things for me:

1. It makes me want to read the book. And I haven’t read a Meg Cabot book in 10 years (sorry Meg, I burned out on Princess Diaries).

2. It makes me believe that publishing is not dead. People will want to read this book. They will buy it. Hardcover, paperback, Kindle, iPhone, iPad, Nook, and every other format you can think of. They will buy it. They will read it. And they will want sequels.

So what’s the problem? Why are you worried?

Because so few people are seeing them and even fewer books are using them. If publishers spent more time and energy creating deliciously exciting, funny, enticing things like this, and empowering their authors to do projects like Cabot’s crowd-sourced zombie-couture Fashionably Undead audiobook (co-written by the author and 50 of her Twitter followers, for BBC Audio), instead of having conference after conference bewailing the end of the industry as we know it, they’d be doing just fine. Readers would be excited and engaged, and above all, they’d KNOW about the fabulous books being written ALL THE TIME instead of drooling endlessly over Robert Pattinson fansites.

And now, for your viewing pleasure, some FANTASTIC transmedia projects, book trailers, and crowd-sourced book clubs:

It’s a Book! Trailer, explaining the difference between books in dead-tree vs. ebook form.

Neil Gaiman’s Instructions trailer, narrated by the author.

Meg Cabot’s magnificently insightful blog entry about her Insatiable trailer.

Meg Cabot’s celebratory online Dracula reading group, working up excitement for the new book, complete with prizes!

My personal favorite, the #1b1t discussion group, the first Twitter-wide book club, currently reading Neil Gaiman’s American Gods, started by Jeff Howe, the inventer of the term “crowdsourcing.”

Hear that, publishers? Quit sending your people to nonsense conferences and quit writing articles about how the industry is dying and DO SOMETHING TO SAVE IT.

Or get Zach Galifinakis to be in your book trailer.

I’m not going to be bitter about the fact that I’m not going to SXSW this year. Or that I haven’t been before. Ever. (sob)

But just in case I ever DO get to go, and for the benefit of all the lucky SOBs who ARE going, I want to find out what the best SXSW-targeted apps are.

So far there are the obvious ones like Foursquare (they’ve even got special badges ready), location-based stuff on Twitter, Facebook, etc.
Then there are these:

PlanCast

Hot Potato

Anybody know any other ones? Tell me which ones you like (or hate) and why.

Also, keep in mind the How Not to Be a Douchebag at SXSW panel if you’re unsure of what to do. And here are some parties and events on the don’t miss list. Please go to them and blog about them so I can live vicariously through you! Put links in the comment section (with explanations please) or tweet them!

Following up on Mike’s previous post about Google Buzz, I totally get the furor about it. The service definitely needs work, and Google has definitely made a whole lot of big mistakes.

But hey, it’s new. That’s the downside of a service being released by such a huge, publicly visible company. Twitter and Facebook were NOT famous when they were released. They weren’t globally famous for years after they were founded. They had plenty of time to make changes, fixes, and tweaks based on quiet user feedback. Google Buzz had the disadvantage of going very public, very quickly. It wasn’t finished. And it got slammed. Now I wonder whether Google will have enough time to fix it and realize its potential before it gets laughed out of existence.

I think it would be nice if Buzz went back to beta. Google definitely needs more time to tweak it, and they need a setting to get real constructive criticism instead of media snarking. I still think the service has a lot of potential. I like Pete Cashmore’s take on it. If you insist on using an analogy to define Buzz, try this one. Think of Facebook as the local bar, where you go to hang out with your friends, play some games, and just shoot the breeze. Think of Twitter as the village square where you get all the news and have public conversations. It’s a public forum. Then you have Buzz, which SHOULD eventually become a place to focus detailed conversations on IDEAS. Not news, not people, not “what are you doing” or those awesome photos you took on your trip to Cabo this spring, man. It’s a platform to talk about content and have major brainstorming sessions about concepts and projects.

If Facebook is the local bar and Twitter is the town square, Google Buzz (I hope) will be the local college campus.

I’ve said before that I like Google Wave as a productivity tool–an easy way to keep work projects neat, tidy, and collaborative at the office. I don’t find much utility for connecting with friends about random things. It’s a business thing, and I like it that way. I think Buzz will end up being sort of similar in market, although I hope more concept-oriented and less business-y.

If it lasts that long.

To be completely honest, this should probably be Part 1.5. This isn’t actually a blog (it’s a shopping site, I think) and I don’t actually know what they’re saying because it’s all in Dutch. I don’t speak Dutch. However, I think the animation on this site is absolutely gorgeous. Click on the site and just wait and watch. The animation will start in a second. Really fantastic, I promise. Go ahead, I’ll wait.

http://producten.hema.nl/

Oh my God, did you click? Did you watch? It’s amazing, RIGHT? I have no idea exactly what the little pop-up at the end is advertising, but I just LOVE this concept. It’s like an online Rube Goldberg project. It’s fun, engaging, and visually beautiful. It doesn’t hurt that it shows off the technical expertise of the site builders, as well as the fun aesthetic of the people who own it. I think business would be a LOT more fun if everybody incorporated this kind of sense of humor and attention to detail.

On an only-vaguely-related note, anybody who speaks Dutch want to tell me what the site is ABOUT?

I don’t go gaga over websites too often, but this one just made my jaw drop. From the cutting edge design, to the complete integration from every digital touch point, to the overall inspiration based concept - this digital creation - hands down - wins in my book.

Lego Click: According to adverblog, LegoClick “is a a virtual canvas of ideas, inspired moments, quirky stories, solutions and tips, working as a collaborative plateform to inspire people.” In my opinion it could quite possibly be the best designed site, I’ve ever seen. In addition, the collaboration and brand integrated ethos behind the execution is what is truly genius. A must see for any designer and/or marketer!

Below is the short film that Lego did to unveil their brilliance. Go forth and explore Click! more….

CNBC is doing a special 5 part global series on Leadership and Vision.

We have attached the full hour long episode below featuring some of the most preeminent minds in the Technology sector.
Some key points that are touch upon in the episode:

• Understanding the User is a Top Priority
• Production Mindsets don’t always work in the digital space
• Small is the New Big
• Innovation isn’t always about equating dollars in the short term
• Test Test and Re-Test!

This is just a short post to say:

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!! You can now report spammers on Twitter with just a click–in the actions tab on any profile you can report the profile as spam! YAAAAAY!!

The details are available on the official Twitter blog. On the one hand, ABOUT FREAKING TIME! On the other hand,

YAAAAAAAAAAY!!

Now Graham Spam Spam Spam Chapman can finally have his breakfast without spam.

Check out the clip from XPLANE - The Visual Thinking Company out of Portland. Kudos

If you’re a skeptical business owner or a corporate executive just interested in social media, this clip is a must see. And after viewing this clip, you still think social media is nothing more than a bunch of ramblings by high school and college kids, you better start looking for a new job relatively soon.

As I have said (and countless other people), there is a fundamental change occurring in the way business will be done in the next few years. Social Technologies are drastically altering the business landscapes and how brands communicate in them. And if companies, brands and people don’t get on board they’re lively hood may be irrelevant come 2015.

Now I’m not saying that this is the end all be all and brands should drop everything they are doing and dive in head first. These social channels are another tool to add to the marcom arsenal. By understanding and integrating social tools into your current marketing mix, brands can begin to open new and untapped customer segments that they probably never dreamed they could have reach 2 years ago.

Let us help us help you understand and strategize your business options: nostruminc.com

Thanks Socialnomics for making these insights available and we here at nostrum will continue to help educate the masses as well!

Eric Schmidt defines the term and speaks to Google’s early years and how it has evolved from a company of fun to a company where business matters. Yet, the core of value of “Don’t Be Evil” is and has always been paramount in every single business decision made.

Evan Wittenberg, Director of Google Leadership Development speaks about how Google leads by example at each and every single level. At its core, it all comes back to sharing, teamwork and trust.

I freely admit I don’t golf. I don’t watch golf. I don’t even play miniature, putt-putt golf (unless it’s somebody’s birthday).

I know NOTHING about golf, except that old guys like to dress up in what would ordinarily be considered embarrassing clothes and spend hours chasing a teeny-tiny ball around with a metal stick. And most of that I learned from Robin Williams (warning–NSFW language).

But I do know social media. And the PGA Tour gets it.

For the pga.com coverage of the PGA Championships, they’re using the Justin.tv/UStream model of streaming coverage combined with live chat. You can sign in using your Twitter, Facebook, or MySpace credentials and chat with other viewers. You can chat with everyone watching, or just your friends on whatever social network you signed in with. I realize it’s not a new or complicated idea, but it’s just nice to see it popping up in such an Old Boys’ Club as golf. This is the group that most people see as LEAST involved with social media and the new communications forms popping up on the web, and yet they understand that being able to watch the matches and talk about it with other fans is the ultimate goal here.  For that, the PGA gets serious brownie points. Pompom hats aside.

So the question for other sports (and any other traditional media-based business), if a bunch of old guys in plaid pants and fuzzy hats get it, why don’t you?

Check out what “5″ Gum is doing on the technology front.

Who would of thought gum, AR, and electronic music would all meet in the middle.  So many options for this type of technology IF you have the right audience to serve your message to.

Thoughts?

While everyone continues to tout that Social/Digital/Interactive Media are the next greatest things, then why do businesses fall into the same rut as they did back in 20th Century.
Businesses continue to assume that they must produce things within an industrial age construct where production on a mass scale is revered to almost a god like state. By scaling on a mass level, price and efficiencies are surely gained, but at the expense of what: the expense of the original product AND servicing the people who are directly engaging with those products .

“In the 21st Century the challenges of building great businesses differed than those in the 20th century, and at the core of success is responding to the consumer.” John Gerzema expands to his thoughts in his post in regards to re-thinking how businesses need to be built in today’s economy. “Scaling (businesses) becomes an operation unto itself, with entire businesses built up around the idea of scaling as a goal. Scaling is not the goal, the goal is providing the customer with the product they need at the time they need it.”

Why then do businesses continue to operate within this robber baron mindset? Fear, Memories of the Dot-com Bubble, Lack of Historical Data, Uneasiness with the Concept of Change - Probably a bit of them all, but it is high time that business understand that mulling things over for the next big scaled objective is going to be the demise of their Executive Positions. Web 2.0 and furthermore 3.0 have already seeped into corporate cultures across the globe, and if a business hasn’t acted on this, their competition has - Digital Darwinism at it’s finest.

That’s why businesses need to adopt and understand these 5 essential pillars in today’s Enterprise 2.0 Economy (all of which are expanded upon in detail in Christopher Vollmer’s paper Digital Darwinism):

1. Turn Consumers into “Prosumers”
2. Build Bi Lateral Brand Experiences
3. Place Context on Par with Content
4. Master the New Calculus of Communications
5. Collaboration is King

So going forward, instead of worrying about what we had and trying to protect it, lets look what we are doing on the innovation and collaboration front and make sure we stick to the goals (people)  that got us here in the first place.

The article titled Digital Darwinism is something I saw that really made me think about the state of the digital media space.  IMO a must read for all digital marketing heads.  I’ll be doing a post in a few days to address.  Hope you all enjoy….

We’ve all seen trompe-l’oeil paintings in neighborhood Italian restaurants and antique shops. My favorite nail salon has a great painting of a Tuscan vineyard. It’s fun to look at, but nothing special, right?

Wrong.

This video of an installation at a German museum shows what happens when trompe-l’oeil gets a 21st Century makeover.

Talk about augmented reality. I don’t know how anyone could find the motivation to go inside–I’d just sit there and watch the museum change shapes.

Today it was announced the Amazon.com acquired Zappos for 10Million shares in AMZN Stock and an immediate $40Million cash injection in AMZN stock and cash to Zappos employees. The approximate cost to AMZN is $900Million+.

Guess the big question is why? Makes sense to us - its the customer stupid!

How many times have you placed a call to a customer service line and an automated system picks up; or received a branded email message saying Buy This but do NOT reply; or wished that the company had a twitter account so that you could tweet your positive emotions about their brand and come to find they don’t have one?  We have and it has irritated us to no end.

Zappos (as we all know) is all about customer service and that is what (seemingly) Amazon is buying.  Amazon may have felt a little competitive threat from Zappos, but I think it was more about tapping into the “Zappos Culture” more than anything. Amazon identified this as a key to thrive in this new business economy.  Why not then purchase the company that understands it best.   By servicing the customer on every conceivable level Zappos has built extreme customer loyalty through facilitating a superior user experience and Amazon wants to be the premiere e-tailer in the world - a symbiotic relationship in cyberspace.

The key to this relationship is how Amazon takes over the reigns and what is done from a top down approach.  At this time, Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh is saying nothing is going to change and the relationship should be said like the jingle “Zappos and Amazon sitting in a tree…”

Time will only tell - but here are a few thoughts from Jeff Bezos on his take of his purchase.
What do you guys think?

I came across this video from programmer James Alliban who is selling his services through showcasing ARG technologies.  The second I saw it, uses for clients came flying out of me faster than a twitter stream seconds after an international incident: Personalized messages for specific promotions; Virtual recaps of sales calls, Up Sells; Call Reminders; Previews to new launches….the list goes on and on.

Anyway…Just wanted to share this and see if you had any other suggestions or ideas as to how this could be used for businesses?

The SekaiCamera app is all about function and bringing the user experience to life in both the real and virtual worlds.

This was prototyped at TechCrunch’s Top 50 Conference a few months back and from what was written, it was the talk of the conference. You can see the actual presentation that was done here.

Anyway, we came across this execution in our research and just thought it was so amazing.  Plus, the team here just started rattling off potential uses and ideas around this app.  Honestly the possibilities are endless!

But we see one major obstacle to overcome: Tagging.

As noted across countless blogs and by industry insiders, this will be crucial in facilitating mass adoption of these types of technologies.  If we don’t have a “Dewey Decimal” system of sorts for tagging we all will get lost in the virtual shuffle.