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    Wednesday
    10Mar2010

    Small Business Uses Foursquare to Increase Sales 110%

    AJ Bombers, a Milwaukee burger joint, recently harnessed the power of Foursquare to assemble a flash mob of 161 hungry patrons, resulting in a 110% increase over the typical Sunday sales. How's that for social media ROI?

    Owner Joe Sorge was asked to help raise money so the Milwaukee Social Media Community could host an event at the popular South By Southwest (SXSW) Interactive Festival in Austin, TX. Joe says the idea came when he realized how many of his restaurant's patrons were getting into Foursquare, the location-based app/game that allows users to earn points and special badges for "checking in" at various locations.

    One of the harder Foursquare badges to obtain is the Swarm Badge, which requires over 50 other users to be checked in at the same location at the same time. So Joe used Twitter and Facebook to encourage people to come out to his restaurant and check-in via Foursquare in order to obtain the Swarm Badge and help raise money for the Milwaukee Social Media Community at the same time. The idea took off and was quickly disseminated through the social media networks of the restaurant's fans.

    Watch the video (below) from the event, or check out Joe's Flickr photoset.

    Want to know more? Check out this Q & A with Joe Sorge where he talks about how he pulled it off.

    Cross-posted on the bfg blog.
    Tuesday
    09Mar2010

    Different.

    "Different" is something I've been thinking about a lot lately. It's a word we use often and one we often think we understand. But what does it really mean to be different?

    I've come to believe that if you have to do very much to explain why something is different then it really isn't that different after all. We are often victims of being unable to see things outside of the context we bring to them. I think that's what Seth Godin was getting at when he said, "Internal vision is always blurry."

    There are several reasons I can't wait to read Youngme Moon's new book, Different; not the least of which is that the video trailer (above) is one of the best I've ever seen for a book. Great work from Xplane.

    Monday
    08Mar2010

    I'm the New Zuckerberg

    Um, yeah. This parody of Jay-Z and Alicia Keys' song New York is just way too funny not to repost. If you work in or around social media, just press play, sit back, and enjoy three minutes of fun.

    Friday
    05Mar2010

    What's the Story with ChatRoulette?

    What would happen if MySpace and Skype met at a speed dating event, hooked up, and had a kid? ChatRoulette. (Warning: F-bomb near the end of the video.)

    Internet chat rooms (à la 1996) have finally crawled from the primordial soup and climbed to the next rung on the technological evolutionary ladder. Someone please make it stop.

    Cross-posted on the bfg blog.
    Wednesday
    03Mar2010

    The Next Big Viral Video

    Yesterday afternoon when I bookmarked the new video from OK GO for today's post it had been viewed just over 100,000 times. As of the time of this posting (less than 24 hours later) it has been viewed almost 900,000 times. This one is definitely going viral.

    You may remember, OK GO became an overnight internet sensation four years ago with their homemade treadmill dance video for "Here We Go Again". Recently, the band was involved in a disagreement with their record label EMI over the issue of allowing videos to be embedded by fans on blogs, websites and social media profiles. However, it seems that with this latest video, this is no longer the case.

    I really like two things about this video. First, it reminds me of playing the "Mousetrap" board game as a kid; I was always fascinated by the intricacies of Rube Goldberg machines. Second, the whole video is done without any special effects and in one continuous camera shot. Check out the four Making Of videos below.

    Cross posted on the bfg blog.