Pure Thinking

June 30 is Social Media Day!

If you think July 4th is the next holiday, you are mistaken my friend. The holiday that should be up next on your Outlook Calendar is Social Media Day!

Mashable, everybody's favorite social media resource blog, has declared June 30 as ‘Social Media Day’, a day to “celebrate the revolution of media becoming social”, Mashable said.

And just how do you partake in Social Media Day festivities? Why you organize a real-life meetup so that you can tweet, FourSquare and update your Facebook profiles in the company of fellow social media mavens.

Upon announcing this day of internet networking celebration, Mashable set up Facebook pages, Twitter feeds and Flickr albums devoted to the holidaTo make the holiday all the merrier, Mashable will give a prize to those who tweet or post to Facebook about the celebration.

Visit the official Social Media page for more information.

Follow the event on Twitter at @mashSMday

Happy Social Media Day everyone! 

P.S. No, this picture is not of Pureitans - but replace those cups with iPhones and it will be tomorrow!

Is it the Vuvuzela or is the World Cup just hot?

The first day of the Cup, Web usage was punted to an all-time high. Traffic to news sites peaked around noon ET, topping out at 12.1 million visitors per minute, according to measurements from Akamai.

The record holder before that? Barack Obama winning the presidential election in 2008, which notched 8.5 million visitors per minute. That's about a 30 percent increase - a major score for the World Cup.

On June 23, Landon Donovan's goal in the 91st minute against Algeria had reported traffic of 11.2 million visitors per minute. Higher than Obama but not quite opening day of the Cup, this fancy footwork ranked second for spikes in Web usage.

Check out the full article at http://espn.go.com/espn/page2/index?id=5330695

Play me I'm yours

Starting this week, 60 pianos are on display in New York's public parks and plazas, open to anyone with an itch to tickle the ivories.

Part of an art exhibit by British artist Luke Gerram, the pianos will be available from 9 a.m. - 10 p.m. each day until July 5. Upon completion of the exhibit, the pianos will be donated to local schools and community groups.

If you're in the area, visit the project site, print out a map, and go make some music. 

--Kate

Email and Social Media, Competitors or Integration Partners?

I wrote about the future of email newsletter marketing earlier this year when all of the puritans wrote about their predictions for the coming year. I wrote that I thought even with the influx of social media email newsletters would still be king.

On Wednesday I'll be attending the Online Marketing Summit here in Denver. Several topics including the integration of email newsletters with social media. My next post will most likely include my thoughts from this day long conference.

In the meantime here are some highlights from an interesting article I read from emarketer.com entitled "The Future of Social/E-Mail Integration".

A Top Benefit of Integrating Social Media and email: Allow users to sign up for email newsletters directly from social media sites like Facebook. This tactic allows email marketers to grow their lists - cited as the top benefit of integrating social media and email -  by allowing consumers to use their channel of choice and sign up on their own terms.

The same article points out an increase of click through rates from 7.2% to 8.7% when including a social sharing option. And including as many as three different sharing options boosted the rate to 11.2%. That's a fantastic click through rate!

Are you integrating your email newsletters and social media?

My next blog post will have a recap of the Online Marketing Summit.

John Meyer @johndmeyer

Which way to MANver, Colorado?

As Denverites, we rank at the top of lists for the healthiest, greenest, and economically sound cities in America. However, sorry Denver males, you're acceptance of yoga and ability to embrace nice smelling personal hygiene products is killing our chances of making the Mars Inc. COMBOS List of America's Manliest Cities. Yes, I know that sometimes you just like to go to a club and dance and that finding the right pair of jeans feels great, but don't you think that telling your friends that a poll named for a cheese-filled pretzel snack ranked your home the manliest city trumps trousers that hug your curves? Step it up. The official salty and savory snack of NASCAR has standards, and as of now, you're coming in five strokes under par. 

Just what is the judging criteria for a list sponsored by a pre-packaged good with more preservatives that the DAM King Tut exhibit? Well, it takes into account the total number of pick-up trucks, home improvement stores, steak houses and motorcycles per capita. No, tandem bicyscles, Michael's craft stores, tapas bars serving steak tartare, and scooters don't qualify. The fact that you ask drop-kicks you into the "un-manly" category. Well, Denver men, you're best bet now is to become the city with the strongest worth ethic, becuase you have a long way to go before you can even think about getting back to the top of this list.

Well, just goes to show you that sometimes what is more interesting about polls and rankings is where those polls and rankings come from. 

Signing off.

- Allison

Does this make you want to buy a mini-van?

It is no big secret that Toyota has had their share of problems in the last little while. Some people may have written Toyota off as a viable car option because of their latest catastrophe. But what's better than to block some of that seriousness with a little humor?! While I am not in the market for a mini-van myself and would have completely no use for it, I do give Toyota props for their "Sienna Family" commercials. They say that videos are best at 90 seconds, but watch all 2:35 of this one and you won't be disappointed.

-Courtney

http://www.youtube.com/user/Sienna#p/c/30DA2DAB5702C7D1/7/ql-N3F1FhW4

The Newest Pure Intern

(No, they don't really do that to me!)

Hello Pure Thinking readers!

My name is Courtney and I am the newest intern here at Pure. I was very excited to start here, which was about two weeks ago. Every day since then I have thought about how lucky I am to have such a great opportunity to learn and have fun here at Pure. I was also happy to hear that I added another Tar Heels fan to the agency and now there are two people to bug Larry about it!  

I am 21 years old and originally from Greenwood Village, CO. I now live and go to school in the beautiful city of Boulder. This fall, I will be a senior getting my degree in marketing with minors in advertising and Jewish studies. I teach 6th grade religious school at a synagogue and am president of Hillel, a Jewish student organization on campus. These are two things I truly have a passion for. Advertising is the industry I strive to be in and I hope to one day be in account management or media, like my peers at Pure.

Fun Fact: I continuously watch the 10 seasons of Friends over and over and over again. Oh, and when I drive to work, I like to sing Taylor Swift at the top of my lungs.

I’m so glad to be a part of the Pure team!
 
-Courtney

Build the relationship first, ask for money later

It's not really very new or different from traditional sales methods is it?

But as studies will suggest, nonprofits are continuing to struggle in their efforts to make social media a donation-generating tool. Until now, that is.

Meet Jumo - an organization started by one of Facebook's co-founders, Chris Hughes. According to its site, Jumo aims to connect individuals and organizations working to change the world. Chris' advice for nonprofits?

"Giving money is really what happens last – the first two pieces are helping people understand why an entity is important, and keeping up with it through email, Facebook, MySpace. You have to get in front of people as often as possible, foster relationships, build understanding."

So far, Jumo seems only to have made it to the "getting in front of people" stage, asking questions on their Facebook page and linking to relevant content. But with nearly 10,000 followers and dozens of responses to each post, it looks like they're off to a great start. I look forward to seeing what Jumo has in store for us.

--Kate

Is Social Media The New Junk Mail Or The Best Communication Tool Since The Invention Of The Telephone?

 

As I scroll through my "news feed" on Facebook I wonder how people keep up with this, or if they do, when they have thousands of friends/fans/likes. I have my core group of friends and I also join many B2C and B2B companies to watch how they are using, or not using, Facebook as an interactive marketing and communications tool.

Some of my favorite brands do a great job; Dell Small Business, Gaiam, Mashable. Unfortunately there are many, many others who just send out a press release once in a while. The latter are similar to my friends who let me know what they had for breakfast and never reply back when I ask what else is going on in their life. The companies that are truly good are using Facebook as a communication tool, not just promoting a product but in someways a lifestyle, in other ways providing information to help your business be successful.

So is it junk mail, or the greatest communication tool since the telephone?  At least with Facebook it is very easy to "unlike" and then my newsfeed is clear of their messages. Unlike real junk mail where the flyers continue to stuff my snail mail box.

I've used the "unlike" feature a lot lately. ; )

John

@johndmeyer

 

Now imagine this:

You are a senior-level executive working in the advertising industry. You are sitting in your office. Your calendar is open. Your inbox read. The latest issue of Ad Age is old news. You’ve got a few extra minutes, a high-speed Internet connection and a comfortable chair, so why not Google yourself? You type in your name and with a quick click of the mouse you’ve got nine pages of results to go through. Funny thing is, the first result isn’t your LinkedIn profile, but a direct message to you. How are you feeling now? Wondering if setting up a Facebook page to check in on your kids was a bad idea? Waiting for Ashton Kutcher to pop up with the “Punk’d” crew?  Maybe just a little bit intrigued? You click to see what this is all about and find out it's a job seeker who purchased a Google advertisement that shows up when your name is searched. Only slightly disappointed that you missed out on meeting Ashton Kutcher, you think about how really ingenious this character is. Meh, it’s worth giving him a call. Got your attention.

Alec Brownstein obviously had something going for him here. Based on the comments alone, depending on who you are, there could be all kinds of things showing up when you Google your name. Is this where the future of communicating with employers is headed? More than that, is this where the future of getting anyone's attention is headed? Let's just say it got my gears turning.

- Allison