Ok, so I went out and bought the new PS3 Game, Uncharted 2 today. I was excited to try out the built in Twitter functionality that I wrote about a few weeks ago. Well, I popped it in and set up everything including my Twitter credentials and proceeded to tear into it. The game is excellent but I guess that’s not really what I’m supposed to be talking about, the thing is that the Twitter functionality is broken. I double checked everything several times but no matter what it wasn’t updating. So I did some searching and found that Naughty Dog, the games developer, pulled the functionality from the game after hearing that the frequency of tweets was way too high. That point right there was my main concern when I first heard that they would be integrating auto updates. Adding social media functionality to new mediums is essential for the platforms to continue to grow and I fully support it, but at the same time you have to be responsible to your users and their experiences at the same time. There are a ton of services already that succeed in being particularly annoying, auto DM’s come to mind, we don’t need more.

Now, Naughty Dog says that they’re going to patch the feature back into the game and they’re tweaking the update frequency to be less intrusive. I appreciate their innovation and look forward to testing and telling you about the the functionality when it goes live. I have a feeling you’ll all let me know if my status updates from the game get to be too annoying.

This content from: Freelance Social Media

Twitter Updates Disabled in Uncharted 2

Technorati Tags: Social Media, uncharted 2

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Great American Beer Festival

Two weeks ago I was lucky enough to attend the Great American Beer Festival (GABF) in Denver, Colorado for my third year in a row. The GABF is a collection of American breweries and their best beer at the Colorado Convention Center for the enjoyment of 49,000 imbibers over a three day period. I have enjoyed beer and more specifically craft beer since I’ve been of legal age (perhaps a bit before to be completely honest), I’ve been a home brewer for 4 years and generally appreciate all things beer. This year’s GABF was particularly exciting for me as it marks the first time that a real time social media network (namely twitter) has been widely used by the public. I have been on twitter before it was mentioned on every morning show and NPR broadcast but I can’t say I had used it to it’s full potential, kind of how a pool party isn’t as much fun without someone to splash around with. This year’s GABF had me excited to see how social media would enrich the experience.

Breweries all around the country have embraced twitter as a very effective medium to interact with their users for quite a while now. I follow many of my favorite breweries to find out what is coming out on tap, what they have in their tasting room or just generally how much fun they’re having. Some examples to pay particular attention to are Odell, Sierra Nevada, New Glarus, Cascade Brewing, and Free State. I love hearing what these breweries have to say and I know that they’re going to tell me all about the very best they have to offer but at an event where there are 457 breweries I have to edit somewhat and I want to know what the users of the event suggest. In this case I want user generated suggestions for what to drink.

I happened to show up in Denver a few days early to spend some time with family. The GABF runs one session nightly on Thursday and Friday and two sessions on Saturday. I had tickets for the Friday night and the Saturday afternoon session so I was spending time with my niece and nephew while the first thirsty crowd attacked the Colorado Convention Center Thursday night. About 10:30, when the GABF was shutting down, I fired up my Tweetdeck to make a search for #GABF and see what the users were saying. I was not disappointed, I was fed a steady stream of people that were overjoyed with their experience and more than willing to share their favorite breweries and hidden gems. I didn’t necessarily write down every suggestion I saw but if I saw a suggestion more than once I made a special note of it. I created a to-do list on my phone with an attack plan of must drink breweries so I could check them off as I stumbled through the fest.

Now I should mention here that I like to think that I know beer and I don’t typically need help finding good things to drink, but this years GABF, with the help of Twitter, was amazing. Armed with the suggestions of fellow twitterer’s I felt I had the secret map to the 2009 GABF. I felt truly ninja-like when I was able to suggest to my group of friends a small brewery in the middle of an area we would typically never venture to and have it turn out to be a dynamite suggestion. Typically, I would walk by many of these “hidden gems” in order to visit a larger brewery that may not distribute in my region that already has plenty of buzz around them. In previous trips to the GABF I would rely on either my previous knowledge of a brewery’s work or I would listen to what a few friends that had been there in the nights before. Now with twitter, I had literally, hundreds of friends’ opinions on the best things to drink.

Actual Hophead

I’d like to tell you at this point that I spent a good portion of my evenings at the GABF reciprocating the sage advice and secret handshakes to the next evening’s patrons. I have to admit that I did not. My twitter contributions to the people following the #gabf feed over my time spent there consisted of slurred ravings and blurred photo’s snapped from my phone and twitpic’d. I’m not proud to say that I went there and used the great advice but did not reciprocate. I ended up spending the bulk of those nights with my friends that were there with me talking through social media 1.0. In a way, I guess this is how web social media is designed, you don’t have to give and take equally for it to be a valuable platform.

This content from: Freelance Social Media

Twitter’s Guide to Great American Beer Festival

Technorati Tags: GABF, Social Media, Twitter

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Not actually part of the game

I just downloaded the Uncharted 2 Demo on my PS3 to take a look at what is touted as the best graphics the system has seen to date. When I got inside to check out the options I was greeted with something I certainly didn’t expect; Twitter. This is the first instance that I’ve seen of a console game integrating the social media service into it’s product. I haven’t messed around with it yet but it appears that you input your twitter credentials and then it will tweet your milestones and achievements while you play. I’ll mess around with it and let you know what I think. If you see some weird tweets about Nathan Drake in my account that’s where it’s coming from. I think this is a great way to use the service and I will guarantee that we will see more developers using this feature in the future: I’m looking at you Modern Warfare 2, take notes.

This content from: Freelance Social Media

Social Media and Video Games

Technorati Tags: Social Media, uncharted 2

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Musicians have historically been good at embracing the web. They understood the importance of being on Myspace and connecting on the same platform as their fans. Just look at what the internet did for the Arctic Monkeys back in 2005.

Justin Timberlake and his people are mastering the concept of engaging with fans on their own mediums.  He’s on the more traditional social media platforms such as Myspace, Facebook, and Last.fm.  And he’s also taken to Twitter and a newer platform called Robo.to, which is basically a status update via video.  Timberlake has hosted staring contests and dance offs using hashtags #staredown and #danceoff on Twitter which encourages fans to use Robo.to to compete.  He also does question and answer type sessions on Twitter every now and then.  It’s very cool to see a guy who’s obviously busy connect using these tools.

So if you’re a band or artist, take some notes from Timberlake and gang.

This content from: Freelance Social Media

Justin Timberlake Loves Social Media and You Should Too

Technorati Tags: justin timberlake, Marketing, music, roboto, Social Media, Twitter

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Welcome to the world of Socialnomics

This content from: Freelance Social Media

Social Media Revolution

Technorati Tags: Social Media

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Trendwatching.com has a list of half a dozen consumer trends in 2009.  One of them making the list is Feedback 3.0.  The company that I work for is just now talking about getting into the game.  Of course, it had been suggested over a year and a half ago that they have product reviews and allow their customers to rate products but they were afraid of them saying something negative.  Which is where being transparent is important.

Anyways, I enjoyed how they broke down Feedback 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0…

• FEEDBACK 1.0 (one of those early web phenomena) saw outraged individuals posting scathing reviews, feedback and complaints, often to the delight of other netizens. Brands remained unaware or chose not to listen, dismissing these outbursts the way they’d dismissed any kind of customer dissatisfaction for decades.
• FEEDBACK 2.0 (which we’re in right now) is about these rants—and some raves—having gone ‘mass’(no, make that MASS!). The long-predicted conversation is finally taking place, albeit amongst consumers and not, as intended, between corporations and consumers. Companies have started to take note, but to a large degree still choose to listen, not talk back, trying to ‘learn’ from the for-all-to-see review revolution. Which is surprising, to say the least, since a quick and honest reply or solution can defuse even the most damaging complaint.
• FEEDBACK 3.0 (which is building as we speak) will be all about companies joining the conversation, if only to get their side of the story in front of the mass audience that now scans reviews. Expect smart companies to be increasingly able (and to increasingly demand) to post their apologies and solutions, preferably directly alongside reviews from unhappy customers. Expect the same for candid rebuttals by companies who feel (and can prove) that a particular review is unfair or inaccurate, and want to share their side of the story.

This content from: Freelance Social Media

What’s new in 2009? Feedback 3.0

Technorati Tags: E-commerce, Social Media

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Butterball has gotten into the social media game this holiday season with its “turkey texts.”  For those of you needing cooking advice you can sign up to receive tips on your cell phone.

Sign Up for Turkey Text Messages

Sign up to have text messages from Turkey Talk-Line experts sent straight to your phone. There are four easy ways to sign up:

1. Enter your mobile phone number on the homepage.
2. Visit www.butterball.com on your mobile phone and enter your mobile phone number on the homepage.
3. Or, text the word “TURKEY” to the number 36888 from your phone.
4. If you have created a profile on Butterball.com, sign up on your profile page.

Receive Turkey Text Messages

Once you’ve signed up, you will receive text messages from November 3 to December 31, 2008.* Each message will include:

* Tips on how to prep and cook a turkey.
* Reminders on when to buy and start thawing your turkey.
* Shopping list alerts for new recipes.
* Features to instantly connect to the Butterball Experts
o Click to call 1-800-BUTTERBALL∗ directly from within the text message to speak with an expert.
o Or, click through to the mobile site to quickly get more information.

This content from: Freelance Social Media

Butterball Does Social Media With Turkey Texts!

Technorati Tags: Social Media

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Have you noticed anything different on Google’s search pages?  You can now rank search results to cater to your personal preferences.  According to Google’s blog, “With just a single click you can move the results you like to the top or add a new site. You can also write notes attached to a particular site and remove results that you don’t feel belong. These modifications will be shown to you every time you do the same search in the future. SearchWiki is available to signed-in Google users. We store your changes in your Google Account.”

This content from: Freelance Social Media

SearchWiki: The Digg of Google Search

Technorati Tags: Social Media

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