This summer, Coleman, the outdoor-equipment giant, dubbed its campsite “the Original Social Networking Site.”  More than a cute marketing concept, this claim practically lays down a challenge to our Facebook-Twitter-YouTube-obsessed culture to put down the computers and cell phones and get back to “real” social networking – the kind where people actually do things…together…in person.

So this past weekend, I took Coleman’s challenge: I grabbed some friends and went camping in Middle-of-Nowhere, Mo., where cell phone/Wi-Fi service was nonexistent.  For a full 48 hours, I was unable to check my email, update my Facebook status, send a text or even make a phone call…and to my great relief, I was okay. 

Perhaps it was because I was too preoccupied with activities like building a fire so I could, you know, EAT, but I didn’t once feel the urge to post “Gathering kindling and hoping the rain stops soon” as my Facebook status.  And I didn’t wonder who had emailed me or if I was missing an important text message.   As it turns out, I CAN live sans social networks or cell service (at least for a few days, anyway)!

I take pride in this personal victory considering the New York Times article I ran across last week that revealed many Americans are hopping online soon after, if not before, hopping out of bed each morning.  Whether it’s texting over toast or social networking instead of reading the morning newspaper, this is a trend with which I am all too familiar; I check my email, Facebook and Twitter account via my Palm Pre before my head is even off my pillow every morning. 

But after this weekend of “roughing it,” I can at least take comfort in knowing my morning Internet craving can be overcome.  And you can be sure I’ll keep visiting the “original social networking site” in the future to keep my online habits in check.

Several weeks ago I received an email from a friend who recently applied for an amazing job at a California winery.  This innovative winery is looking for a “Social Media Whiz.”  It’s a temporary (6 month) position that calls for wine tasting, exploring vineyards, learning about winemaking and then reporting off on these experiences online.

The vineyard must have known there would be applicants lining up among the grapes, because they added a unique twist to the application process:  instead of sending a resume to apply, every candidate creates a video about why they are the right one for the job. This means every wine-loving ‘twit’ out there is sending their video to everyone in their email, Facebook, MySpace and Twitter contact lists and asking each to vote for them. Out of hundreds of videos that will be submitted, only ten videos will be chosen by the public as the best. The ten candidates will then be interviewed for the job.

At the end of the voting period, potentially thousands of people will be checking the winery Web site to vote for their favorite candidate. Talk about a great marketing strategy! The selection process becomes a promotional vehicle before the real promotion (blogs, etc.) even begins!  I’d like to see their Web stats after this promotion is over! 

It is our job as marketers to find these kinds of ‘guerilla marketing’ opportunities for our clients, especially in a down economy. Marketing doesn’t have to be expensive – just creative and memorable.  Before receiving the email from my friend, I had never heard of this winery. But now I find myself researching them online, browsing their Web site and checking out their wine selection. Oh and P.S. I did go back and vote for my friend!

Facebook recently announced they will be offering usernames for profiles and pages beginning this Saturday at 12:01 a.m. ET.  This means the URLs for profiles and pages will be able to be personalized to reflect the identity of the user (facebook.com/yourname) rather than the number ID that is currently assigned (facebook.com/profile.php?id=12345678).

Details:

Usernames will be assigned on a first-come, first-served basis.

To be immediately eligible for a vanity URL, profiles must have been created before 3 p.m. ET on June 9, 2009, and pages must have been live before May 31, 2009.  This will help prevent “squatting” on usernames.

Pages must have at least 1,000 fans to create a vanity URL.  UPDATE: Pages with fewer than 1,000 fans will be able to create a username on June 28, 2009.

Usernames must be at least 5 characters long and only use A-Z, 0-9 or a period.  For example:  facebook.com/john.doe

Once a username is created, it cannot be changed or transferred so choose wisely and type carefully!

Privacy settings for your username will be the same as privacy settings for your profile name in Search.

Go here to learn more about Facebook usernames.
For more information on vanity URLs for pages, click here.

Recently, brands like Sharpie, Volkswagon and Tropicana have created their own social-networking sites to complement their marketing efforts on mainstream sites such as Facebook and Twitter.  While I understand why companies would prefer social interaction on a more controlled, branded site, I have a hard time believing these sites will achieve much success after the initial glow wears off.  Personally, I would much rather interact with my favorite brands on a site where I have an established identity and a clear understanding of how the site operates (Facebook) than create an entirely new identity on a site I know little about.  Yes, Facebook Connect could make these third-party sites more appealing, but I’d prefer to interact with brands who come to me (in a non-pushy manner, of course) where I spend my time.  See how Adobe successfully engaged Facebookers in their “natural environment.”  I hope to see more brands take Adobe’s lead in the future.

I have a dumbphone.  I’m not trying to be insulting;  I’m just saying my cell is not what they call “smart.”  That is, I have a plain, ol’ run-of-the-mill cell phone that lets me call and text…and that’s about it.  Which is fine, I guess.  I mean, do I really need to have access to my Facebook account 24/7?  Do I really need to be able to Google something anytime I want?  Do I really need to tweet a photo of what I’m doing while I’m doing it?  The answer is yes.  Yes, I do.  I really, really do. 

Why?  Because having on-the-go, hand-held access to the Internet (and thus social networking sites) has quickly become the best way to maintain one’s online presence.  In addition to being able to interact with online communities at a moment’s notice, mobile social networkers are able to update their accounts more often with more relevant/timely content than those with “stationary” access.  And it’s this constant stream of rich, fresh content that makes these sites all the more useful, informative and fun – for the user and for his/her friends and followers.  Simply put, mobile access takes social networking to the next level.

Which is why I wasn’t surprised to see a new study that found that more than half of U.S. wireless customers access content on their mobile phones, and of those people, most spend more time on social networking sites than, say, looking up news and weather.  So as people like me start shopping around to replace their dumbphones with smarter ones, the number of mobile social networkers will only increase…which will improve the quality of content on social networks….therefore making social networks all the more popular.  So for those of you hoping sites like Facebook are just a fad, think again.  Mobile access is just pushing these sites to new heights.

A couple questions for all you smartphone users:  What content do you access via your phone?  And what smartphones do you find cater to social networks the best?  (I have my eye on the new Palm Pre…)

Just came across a nice analysis of Twitter from our friend and Lotus Rock Star, Rob Novak. In “Three weeks of tweets for a Domino guy,” Rob likens Twitter to going to a cocktail party …

 Twitter and other social media are like going to a cocktail party … I expect to talk to lots of people, care about what some of them have to say, filter a lot of personal stuff that doesn’t affect me while looking interested (how rude!), and come away – if not inebriated – with a few nuggets of great information, some great new contacts, and an idea or two out of the social interaction we have in a group that size. This dynamic – and EVERY networking event you’ve ever attended – is very similar to consistent use of social media in a targeted fashion. Assuming you accept the premise that the cocktail party is like using Twitter…would you skip the cocktail party with your colleagues and new people you don’t know, because some of what you might hear is irrelevant to you? Aren’t the pieces of good information, “intel”, and new contacts worth the filtering you have to do? I personally believe it is, so will choose to close this blog entry and go tweet about it.

Great analogy, Rob. Now I’m gonna go Tweet about it. Wait, I’m not Tweeting yet. Is the @twitterrockstar name still available?

Want to BE a successful blogger?  Then check out some Basic “Be”s of Blogging to find out what it takes to make it in the blogosphere.

1. Be current.
   Don’t let your blog get stale!  Make the commitment to update your blog regularly with topics that are timely.  Set a schedule to post 2-3 times a week and you’ll reward your readers with fresh content that encourages return visits.
2. Be authentic.
   When writing blogs, it’s okay to be informal, and it’s okay to not be perfect.  Getting caught up in editing and word-smithing can inhibit creativity and prevent you from following Blogging Basic #1.   So let your personality shine through and don’t fall victim to paralysis by analysis!  And just in case you were wondering, ghostwriting is a big no-no.
3. Be interactive.
   Remember, blogging is a form of social media.  So, ask questions in your blog to encourage discussion.  Reply to comments (respectfully, of course!) to keep readers involved.  Include links to Web sites that inspired your post to direct your readers to additional information.
4. Be valuable.
   Whether it’s giving helpful hints, releasing breaking news or simply providing food for thought, make sure your blog is of value to readers.  Use your blog to educate, inform and even entertain to get your blog bookmarked.

Check out some more quick tips on blogging here and let me know what you think should be a BE of blogging!

We’re into social media here at Dobies. But unlike the cobbler’s kids who have no shoes, our kids  are social media gurus. That’s why recently when we dove into the world of moms and will-be-moms to research and write a marketing plan for a hospital client’s obstetrics department, I was able to passionately endorse the strategy that we reach new, Gen Y moms via text messaging. Because younger moms text. Heck, now even old moms text. Of course, I’m an old mom – my kids are teenagers and ‘young adults’ (it’s hard not to smirk at that description, but that’s another blog).

I’ve come a long way from the short, one-syllable words that beginners use like yes, no, huh? I’m even able to have complete arguments by text, a necessary line of communication with teenagers.  I even have actual conversations with other grown adults about important stuff. For example, last week, Kelley (who works here at Dobies) and I discussed via text what newspaper ad to run for a client.  I happened to be having lunch with this client at the time, so Kelley sent a text asking me to discuss this particular topic while we ate our chips and salsa. So, I did. Thirty seconds later, we were all content because we had checked something quickly and efficiently off our lists.

But compared to Generation Y women (those aged 9-31), my accomplishment is mundane.  Our next generation of moms has been raised in a world of instant information and connection. To effectively reach these young women, we need to join their world, because they’ve left ours way behind. In this case, ‘joining’ means offering pregnancy and parenting information via opt-in text messaging. I haven’t felt this good about a communication strategy since I texted my daughter to ask her to text a friend to text her mother to ask if she was interested in car pooling. It worked.

From tweeting on Twitter to friending on Facebook, social media is everywhere these days. It’s in the news, in your inbox and in conversations around the water cooler; you can’t escape its presence nor deny that it is transforming our culture. From a Facebook friend saving a boy’s life to a phone company tweeting about outages, social media is changing the way we foster friendships as well as the way we do business.

As someone who has been updating her status on Facebook since 2005, it has been fun to witness social media’s transition from a co-ed’s favorite way to waste time to a CEO’s latest marketing tool. The evolution from dorm room to boardroom seemed to happen overnight, and suddenly “that thing those Gen-Y kids are into” became wealth of legitimate business opportunities. Now, companies from every industry are figuring out what it means to be social and how to use this growing medium to their advantage.

If you are one of these organizations looking to jump into social media, check out a starter’s guide here. And be sure to stop by this blog often, as I will be keeping you up-to-date on news, stats and trends in all things social.