Posts Tagged ‘social media’

Facebook in the time of data collection

Wednesday, May 19th, 2010

By Josh Taylor, graphic designerfacebook

So, the other day my landlord came up to me.

“Hey, Josh,” he said, “I’m going to go ahead and use you in some of my advertising. I noticed the pictures you’ve put up in the house you’re renting from me, and they really fit the look I’m going for.”

Uh…

“Oh, and I’m going to send the information you gave me to some local businesses you visit. They say they wanted to know more about you, and since I’m your landlord I thought it’d be okay. After all, you are living in my house.”

Wait a second…

“And some people are going to stop by from a few stores around town and hang out at your house. I told ‘em it was cool if they wanted to follow you home. I’m not really sure who all of them are, but I wouldn’t worry too much.”

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Lights, camera, ACTION!

Thursday, May 6th, 2010

By Andrea Farmer, APR, account manager

“Any hobbies?”
“Genetics. It started when I was eight years old, and I wanted to genetically alter myself into a mermaid.”

This was just one of the fun facts we learned while interviewing tutors during a video shoot Tuesday for Rose-Hulman’s Homework Hotline, one of Borshoff’s longtime clients. The Homework Hotline provides free math and science homework help to Indiana students in grades 6-12.

homeworkhotline_shoot

A few of my colleagues and I spent the day at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology’s beautiful campus.  We directed our videographer Brian Wells as he shot B-roll footage for media use and more informal footage for video vignettes to be posted on Homework Hotline’s Facebook page and website.

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Want to twiggle? We can show you how.

Friday, August 7th, 2009

By Susan Matthews, APR, principal

All you tweeters out there probably know that your Twitter homepage has sponsored definitions that link to Twitter-related services. Sometimes the names of these sponsors are rather clever, building a new, focused lexicon – or should we say twexicon?

twexicon

In the spirit of the ever-growing World of Tweetisms, I’d like to suggest a few of my own:

  • A twypo is an old-fashioned misspelling, not to be confused with a tword, which is missing vowels (as in “… bd mbrs shld arrive before 5 pm”).
  • A twiggle is a tweet that makes you laugh, so of course a twad makes you sad – or is that mad?
  • What’s a twudget? It’s the limit of 140 characters, as in “it’s extra hard to keep to your twudget in a retweet.”
  • A twoops is when you hit “post” before you want to. I do that every now and then when I’m shortening a link via bit.ly. And I hate it.
  • Tweet meat, my personal favorite, is something meaningful and substantial to say via Twitter. Some people would say tweet meat is an oxymoron, and that there’s nothing to be gained by Twitter.

But I beg to differ. We now have another tool in our communications tool box. And while there’s a lot of babble and boring information filling the Twitter waves, this new social media tool gives us a chance to make new connections, access focused information, and instantly communicate with those who choose to follow us.

Plus, we are in total control of whom we follow and who we allow to follow us. So if you don’t want to engage, or if you simply don’t care – then it’s probably time to twign-off. For the rest of you, I’ll see you on Twitter.

Have your own favorite Twitter words? Share them here or @borshoff.

- Follow @Susan_Matthews if you’re interested in just a few tweets a day, generally relating to branding and communications.

Hitting the target. At least for now.

Friday, July 31st, 2009

by Josh Taylor, graphic designer

In a recent Ad Age article, it was noted that whiskey producer Southern Comfort will be shedding its entire media plan, dropping all print and television advertising, to move company branding completely into the digital realm.

Frankly, it’s shocking. Southern Comfort isn’t the first company to go the all-digital route, but this is certainly surprising coming from a 120 year-old, proven manufacturer of a timeless product. The change makes sense according to the company’s ad challenges: major advertising limitations for the industry, a shifting demographic, and stiff competition (no pun intended). But to completely remove its presence from traditional media altogether still sounds crazy. How can a company of this size and reputation really forego television and print, the great bastions of the advertising world?

Then I noticed some of the places they’ll be putting their content, advertising and sponsorships. Browsing the list, it became clear that this could be a brilliant move. As a member of their proclaimed demographic (21-29), I can’t say that I see too many SoCo advertisements, but if the list is any indication, I won’t be able to escape it any more than any of us can escape death or taxes.

Soco_image2It’s hard for anyone my age to avoid the networking and social draws of Facebook, so as I go to stalk my friends every night, SoCo’s going to be there. When I go to Spin to listen to the top 50 cover songs of all time, SoCo will be there (they’ll even give me 10 free downloads!). (more…)