I have always liked Shaq because of how candid he is and how much he smiles and has fun in life. I am not a huge NBA fan, but I am a sports fan and keep up with what is going on. It is just so neat to see social media expanding to so many, no matter their status. A lot of social media has an interpretation of being technical or someone being technologically “savvy.” The beauty of how social media is evolving is through sites like Twitter that are super easy for anyone be join and get as involved as they want.
Will Shaq interact with his followers? To me, I do not care if he does. He will with out a doubt receive lots of replies and DM’s, to which he will never to be able to keep up with. We all have to keep this in mind and not be quick to bash him, or anyone for that matter. Using Twitter, is kind of like having a cell phone. Is it for your convenience or for everyone else’s convenience? What I mean is, do you carry a cell phone so anyone can reach you at any time or do you carry a cell phone so you can connect with other people whenever you want? We have to keep this in mind when someone of his celebrity status uses a social media site such as Twitter. Just be happy that he is using it. Follow him if you want. Remember, you do not have to follow him or listen to anything he says if you do not want to or if you are offended that he does not respond to your efforts to reach out to him.
I am excited to see Shaq on Twitter because it will be a launching pad to introduce Twitter to many new users who would not necessarily know about Twitter. Tweet on big man. I am following and interested to see what life is like for a giant man with a giant celebrity status.
Follow @THE_REAL_SHAQ on Twitter. If you do not believe it is actually him, check these out:
What do you think of Shaq being on Twitter? What are your thoughts about Shaq interacting with his followers? Is there anyone else on Twitter with a celebrity status that we should know about?
I was really happy to get a notice in my inbox today of a new user following my twitter account. The Kansas City Public Library.
We are lucky to have a library system in our community that is so proactive in so many ways. Last month they recieved a 2008 National Medal for Museum and Library Service, the nation’s highest honor for museums and libraries, at a White House ceremony.
Using Twitter to try and get out the information about the wide selection of events going on at the library is a fantastic move. They have also benefitted from a recent website design featuring a blog on the front page, open for comments and user interactions.
People in this city are starting to “get it” in regards to social media and the results are going to be very exciting to see.
Whitney provides an excellent breakdown of a recent campaign to show off the opening of the AMC Fork and Screen Theater in Olathe. There was a lot of effort put forth to reach out to local bloggers and the results were very positive. Be sure to check out her post and the interesting way in which the metrics for success are presented by Spiral16’s software.
AMC took a bold step and realized the way to communicate the excitment about their new facility was in opening the place up and letting it speak for itself. Instead of forcing marketing speak on customers and having to control the conversation they put local influencers in a position to create the conversation and were rewarded in rich content that they didn’t even author and targeted exposure of their brand to customers.
With the happenings of the event so well covered we wanted to post a few thoughts on other things that we took from the experience.
We are not alone. Sometimes in this journey we feel like we have been speaking another language. Bringing these emerging technologies to new people is a fun process but it can be tedious at times. It was comforting to see that others are passionate about social media and ideas to ignite companies new and old. Other people are going through some of the obstacles Ideas and Angles faces as an upstart technology firm.
Even better than being energized by people that have the same loves and interests we do was seeing those synapses fire for people who were not previously exposed to a lot of the ideas presented at Highlight Midwest. During the presentations at the evening session I stood towards the back of the room keeping an eye on some of the people I had met who were there as outsiders looking in. You could see the light bulbs go on, and the gears start to turn.
The post event chatter has focused a lot on the excitement in the relationships built between all the attendees from the different cities and how to keep those relationships strong. Using our shared experiences in a supporting role to lift all boats up at the same time. As amped as we are to have all these smart people as allies we would like to encourage everyone to keep striving to find ways to connect with people who don’t know about emerging technologies. Work to be the bridge that lets someone discover the power of social media and upstart entrepreneurship.
Thanks to everyone for the conversation, laughs, ideas, and inspiration.
Still gathering some different media to show everyone what a giant success Highlight Midwest was, expect a post soon. We have been busy collaborating with insanely smart people from around the country to keep on top of what is happening in the world of social media and emerging technologies so we can pass on that expertise to businesses and people in Kansas City. There has been a lot of positive feedback from the presentation Chris gave at the Kauffman Foundation about the great work by Kansas City technology start ups as well as the expert panel discussion Zach was a part of.
No matter how busy everyone gets social media’s expanding role in this city keeps showing itself…
Kansas City based heavy hitter HR Block gets some serious love for its work in using social media for brand positioning across many networks. Below are some of the results of the campaign.
- 43% more awareness of H&R Block’s digital products from 2007 to 2008.
- 52% increase in awareness of the TaxCut product
- 1 million unique visitors to Digits since its creation
- 60,000 interactions through widgets and tools created for the campaign
- 6 million impressions in the blogosphere
We can’t help but cringe (just a little bit) at the emphasis in bean counting to measure the reach of a social media campaign. We wrote recently about some different ways to measure effectiveness but those are still some eye opening numbers and we applaud HR Block for their ability to implement such a program in such a large corporate structure.
In other news we were really pleased to show up on the radar of a really influential figure in the Kansas City social media scene. Jeff added us to a list of companies to watch for businesses looking to dip their toe in the waters of emerging technologies.
Remember, keep creating and keep sharing. Your customers are begging for you to connect with them in a genuine manner to help them use your products and services.
Welcome to all of our new readers from Highlight Midwest. We look forward to your contributions.
Ideas and Angles cofounder Chris Culbertson speaks with Highlight Midwest Conference attendees at the Kauffman Center. Kansas City, MO.
