A few weeks ago, I was asked by Lisa Lacy on behalf of ClickZ why MTV’s Jersey Shore has become so popular through social media and conditions for the “perfect storm”.
The show’s basic premise is similar to over 20 preceding seasons in MTV’s Real World franchise, yet Snooki, Vinny and the rest of the gang have reached an unprecedented level of cultural saturation. According to Nielsen, 1.4 million viewers tuned in to the premiere on December 4. And numbers have steadily risen since then, culminating in 3.6 million viewers tuning in on January 14.
That’s thanks in part to MTV’s efforts to harness organic buzz and create branded content. The company has launched a Twitter integration, exclusive online videos, and is preparing new features such as a character generator and an iPhone app.
Once upon a time, a woman complained about a job offer on her Twitter account and earned the scorn and ridicule of the world when an employee of the company in question cornered her with a series of tweets.
For those of you who missed the fall of Cisco Fatty, here’s the run down: a woman by the Twitter username @theconnor, tweeted: “Cisco just offered me a job! Now I have to weigh the utility of a fatty paycheck against the daily commute to San Jose and hating the work.”
Not long after, a long-time Cisco employee, @timmylevad, replied: “Who is the hiring manager. I’m sure they would love to know that you will hate the work. We here at Cisco are versed in the web.” He went further with more tweets about the applicant’s naivete, contacted bloggers to write about the incident and asked followers to retweet his comments. Read the rest of this entry »
Well, the folks at KARMA Media Labs thought we’d demonstrate through some short videos. Part 1 of many (and thanks to one KML’er in particular for suffering a red face for the sake of social media).
Not long ago, KARMA Media Labs launched our Twitter profile @karmamedialabs and blog BROADB®AND as a place to share factoids, ramblings and things we find interesting in the land of social media and beyond.
Once launched, the KML team looked at me and my partner somewhat quizzically and asked if there were limits or rules for what to post.
My answer? Anything you find interesting.
As far as who should post: Anyone who has something interesting to say.
We believe its not only important to have interesting content, but it’s important to get other people’s perspective, knowledge and interaction on our blog and externally.
Some things we keep in mind:
Be social! Read/comment on other blogs
Send an email or comment if you like something
If you want to have a blogroll, add things you really like
If someone posts a comment on your blog, reply to them as a comment
Invite other people to guest blog
And speaking of that last point, KML is always looking for guest bloggers to share what social media means to them personally and professionally. We get excited when we have the chance to learn more about other people’s philosophies, challenges and opportunities.
Interested in sharing your opinion? Send me a note.
PS. If you’re wondering how to be a good guest blogger, check out this great article.
Yes, that happens to be KARMA’s tagline. But it also defines Word of Mouth — and much like KARMA, it can be both positive and negative.
As a business, individual or company, you want word of mouth to be positive, but the reality is through new social media platforms and exchanges, consumers have more ways to amplify their experiences– the good, the bad and the ugly.
Take, for example, my recent restaurant going experiences over the weekend. Not one, but two restaurants (that shall remain nameless for the time being) slipped in extra entrees on our bill, hoping we would not check. And we almost didn’t.
In the first instance, since we were taking a family member out for their 65th birthday, we didn’t want to cause a scene and just ate it. Annoying.
In the second and far more annoying instance, a restaurant, where my husband and I are considered “regulars”, slipped in an extra entree, the entree we usually order when we’re there but didn’t this time. Was this a random error? No, they figured since we usually get the same thing every time, they’d try to sneak it in. When we called the waitress over, body language had “oops we’ve been caught” written all over it. We won’t be going there again.
My point with the above, is as an irritated, frustrated, and somewhat direct consumer, my first inclination was to go wherever possible online to warn people not to go to these two restaurants. My Facebook and Twitter updates mentioned this annoyance, and look, here I am blogging about it. I’ve decided to not name the restaurants, but if I truly wanted to cause some damage and give these two places the consumer F%&* YOU, I’d be a little more specific.
Consumers like tell others how much they like or dislike products, services and experiences. eMarketer reports that 65 million adults in the U.S. are talking about products and services and 27 million of them are doing it online via forums, blogs, consumer review sites, social media sites etc. That trend is only going to increase.
Sure, businesses should try to do things right in the first place to garner positive reviews, but they shouldn’t be afraid of the bad ones. It’s possible many of them can turn this around to be a positive by connecting with their target audience, hearing feedback, and understanding their audience’s perception.
So I’m not sure if Pace in Laurel Canyon or Tasteon Melrose will do anything about my experiences to make it better, but if they were smart, they’d not only keep in mind that consumers like to blab about shifty practices, but they should pay attention to what’s being said.
Oops! I slipped the names of the restaurants. Kind of like how they slipped in those extra entrees.
When actor Michael Cera got his hair blown out by Jersey Shore’s DJ Pauly D in a cross-promotional effort for Cera’s new film, Youth in Revolt, it was a new high for MTV’s hit reality show.
Once upon a time, a woman complained about a job offer on her Twitter account and earned the scorn and ridicule of the world when an employee of the company in question cornered her with a series of tweets.
Not long ago, 
Yes, that happens to be KARMA’s tagline. But it also defines Word of Mouth — and much like KARMA, it can be both positive and negative.