Gray Dudek

Guys look out. If you’re partner uses this Facebook app and you don’t get her what she wants…look out, as she’s told to finish with you!

Seriously though, this is a nice USEFUL FB app for once.

I reckon this will help us guys…

Official press release tells us:

Fantasie has the perfect solution: tell them what you want this Valentines with Fantasie’s new Facebook application, designed to give them a cheeky little hint.

It’s simple. Select your favourite set of Fantasie lingerie from a gorgeous selection of fresh and beautiful styles – available all the way up to an H cup, designed to support, fit and flatter. There is something for everyone.

Then, select your perfect date whether it is a quiet night in with a bottle of wine, a romantic meal, or a weekend away. All that is left to do is to send it on to your partner and hope that this subtle hint gets you what you have asked for this Valentines – it couldn’t be easier.

If you don’t get what you want, tell them it’s over! Or that they need to try harder next year.

Kinda cool I reckon…guys beware!!!

As an avid user of Tweetdeck I was pretty sure I couldn’t be converted. But when Seesmic Look came along today I did stop and wonder…

I love the Seesmic Look (SL) interface and the design they have used however it just doesn’t do the job for me.

Using Tweetdeck I can operate at good speeds, not spend time waiting for ‘things’ to load and essentially using as a proper Twitter dashboard to keep me on top of going’s on.

I totally see how and why SL was created, it is beautiful and fluid, but it misses the vital point for users such as myself which is speed. The time lines pulse in and out, the Tweets float as if they are alive…did I mention the design was very fluid…?

On entering you’re dropped straight on to the Trends page to show what is going on across Twitter – this suggests you want to know this versus diving straight in to find out what is going on in your part of the Twitterverse (can’t believe I wrote that word…)

The navigation is very easy to use. Click, slide and the various menu’s drop in and out as you would expect of a tool of this calibre. The video timeline is useful (just like Google Waves) as it shows you how stuff has dropped in chronologically. You can also select just your Twitter lists to see who’s said what on that list alone – now that is a useful idea but again…it’s a bit too slow getting to the point!

The channels idea is pretty sweet and I can see a number of brands enjoying getting involved in this. Simple to immerse yourself in one of the preloaded ones and very simple to get around. Check out the Red Bull one and you can instantly get hold of all their Twitter users and see what they are saying – quite nice. Kinda like Interactive TV mini-sites but on a Twitter-powered app.

This is where it does get a little more interesting to me. Interests is a great way to navigate Twitter just like you would a Sunday paper. You find the section of the paper you like – Business, Sport, etc – and then you open/click it and voila – your interest is in front of you. Not too many interests are catered for so you have to have a general interest (much like the Sunday paper) however you can build your own list as an interest and simply view your personal interest that way.

So what do I thin overall and am I going to convert…hmmm…

The problem I have is that it is too beautiful for it’s own good. It’s so nice to use that it gets in the way of what you’re trying to achieve which is a quick fix of what is going on. If you had a good 30mins every hour to use SL it would be a marvellous experience. However I don’t and therefore speed is important to me far over and above beauty.

But, in defence of SL they do say it is ‘designed with the casual user in mind’ so I guess I may not be that person.

So that’s that for moment. I am going to persevere for a few days (if I can afford that much time!) and see what changes but for the meantime…

…I’m back to Tweetdeck to Tweet this blog post because it is much, much quicker…

Ok, so there have been millions of ‘what 2010 holds’ or ‘predictions for 2010′ articles written but to save time I decided to digest all these and then write a succinct list of things I truely believe we should note or act upon.

Many of the ‘lists’ thus far have been truely up for debate and some have agendas I’d say.

So what can we realistically expect to play out, become very real and change the ways in which we must work?

Easy…hmmm…

So, the top ten I believe are as follows:

• The lines have truly blurred. It’s becoming increasingly difficult to draw a line between different forms of communications, especially when considering the online space. So why try and do it? Consider everything within the mix and do not try to separate.
• Successful communications programs need to integrate owned, earned and paid media to achieve their goals. Dave Fleet talked about this Forrester view and it couldn’t be more important through 2010 with reduced budgets and increasing pressures.
• Two-way communication is increasing. Wherever you look, previously one-way information flows are becoming two-way. Mainstream media feed off social media while also driving it. Advertising drives attention but also content strategies.
• Marketing is turning “inbound”.
• Products are evolving into Services.
• Consumer dialogue and co-creation are becoming the keys to Relevance and Brand value.
• Local should be key for a step by step Culture shift.
• Digital Energy will be “liquid”, as opposed to “budgeted”,which necessitates a new type of metrics and expertise.
• Measurement is key if we are to take bold steps within social comm’s.
• Reporting ‘meaningful numbers’ (not followers, members, etc) such as sentiment and comm’s reach.

There are many more for us all to consider but try as we might we can only head of a few over the coming months of planning and executing.

So above are my top ten that I’ll be focussing on to either consider, integrate, change my thinking or execute.

Wishing you all a happy and thought-provoking 2010.

I’ll post my next ten in March (if I can crack the above by then!)

And I am not joking.

VitaminWater has just announced that its newest flavor will be called “Connect”, complete with a Facebook logo and a full paragraph description loaded with references to untagging, friend requests, and photo stalking. It’s black cherry-lime flavored, with caffeine and “eight key nutrients”. And it’s coming to stores nationwide in March.

The new flavor and label were a result of a contest VitaminWater has been conducting on its Facebook page over the last few months that invited fans to design their own flavors (check out the video below featuring Steve Nash for an intro). Here’s the message VitaminWater used to announce the news on its Facebook page. You can blame them for the lack of capitalization:

unlike the never-ending debate over whether it’s rock-paper-scissors or paper-rock-scissors, based on your votes and your designs, the latest flavor of vitaminwater has FINALLY been decided… introducing the black cherry-lime flavored vitaminwater named… connect! check out this new package- flavor & ingredients, name & label design- all inspired by you- our fans. it’s got 8 key nutrients plus caffeine. thanks for all your help- especially to the grand prize winner Sarah from Illinois and the four other finalist http://budurl.com/q27w. vitaminwater connect will be available in stores nationwide in march this year- so until then, stay hydrated- and keep your eyes here for news, updates and special offers for connect, including a possible sneak tasting opportunity. and btw… it’s rochambeau!

One amusing thing worth pointing out: the bottle’s label prominently features a fingerprint on it, which isn’t really something you’d normally associate with sharing or a safe online environment. And it will look especially odd if Facebook’s privacy fiasco ever comes to a head.

(via @TechCrunch)

Amid the endless hype about about ‘social media’ – often shortened to “social” these days by consultants trying to sound like they know what they are talking about – is the reality that social media is not a solution to all your problems. It can do a number of things for you but there are somethings that it seriously can’t do – trust me…

Social media can’t:

• Substitute for marketing strategy
  A Twitter campaign, or a Facebook page that announces your weekly specials is not a marketing strategy – this is sales promotion and no sound-minded business runs on this alone.
• Succeed without management buy-in
  Social media requires a way of thinking that includes willingness to listen to customers, make changes based on feedback, and trust employees to talk to customers – get listening using tools such as Social Radar first of all and then act.
• Be viewed as a short-term project
  Social media is not a one-shot deal. It’s a long-term commitment to openness, experimentation, and change that requires time to bear fruit. Be aware that once it’s hard to get out because your new boss says so!
  
• Produce results quickly
  One of the complaints about social media is that it can’t be measured. This is quite untrue with tools such as Social Radar in fact there are many things that can be measured: including engagement, sentiment, and whether increased traffic leads to sales. Those results can’t be produced or measured in the short term. Like PR, social media marketing often produces its best results after 6 or 9 months of involvement have been achieved.
• Be done in-house by most businesses
  A successful social media campaign integrates social media into the many elements of a business such as marketing, research, customer service, etc. But to get all of this interwoven correctly there is no match for experience, and the best social media marketers now have more than 10 years of experience incorporating interactivity, blogs, forums, user-generated content, etc into businesses.
• Provide a quick fix to the bottom line or a tarnished reputation
  Social media can sometimes provide quick results for a company that’s already a star. When a well-loved company like Zappos, or Google employs social media, its loyal fans and followers pay attention. However, there’s a lot of desperation in a lot of businesses these days, and many companies seem been convinced that a social media campaign can provide a quick fix to sagging sales or reputation issues. It can help in a number of areas but if your product or service is simply crap, think again and fix these areas first.
• Be done without a realistic budget
  Building a site that incorporates interactivity, allows user-generated content, and perhaps also includes e-commerce doesn’t come cheap from anyone who knows what they are doing. Even taking free software like WordPress and making it function as an effective interactive site, incorporating e-commerce, creating style sheets that integrate with the company’s branding, takes more than time. That takes skill, experience, and dare I say a sensible budget – remember, you pays for what you gets!
• Guarantee sales or influence
  Unless your effort can pass the “who gives a toss” test – and most don’t first time – your efforts will fall flat. Patience is a virtue and these days you Play to Play, not Pay to Play like days of old.
• Be done by “kids”cos they ‘grew up with it”
  Businesses trying to run social media without experienced consultants waste time, money, and reputation on their efforts. And then, sadly, many decide that this new-fangled approach doesn’t work because they gave the wrong person the brief – you wouldn’t ask your kids to fix your Sky+ box just coz they grew up with it…you need experienced people.

So now we know what it can’t do just think how much it CAN actually do – start listening, start integrating and start acting…

[Source: What's Next]