Promoting Yourself/Clients Through Facebook

I'm not going to spend time in this post talking about "web 2.0" or the importance of leveraging social media as a means to market your brand. I've said it all before, and frankly if you're a)reading this post, or b)anyone born after 1980 you already know it.

Instead I'm just going to point out a fantastic article Charles Hull from Archrival wrote for MediaPost about developing Facebook apps to promote your brand. He's right-on, if you can develop a fun, easy-to-use app that promote your brand without bombarding people with constant updates and notifications, it will become viral and produce the desired effect.

I can't tell you how many brand-promotional apps I've tried that ended up making me angry because they either harvested my profile info to push content to my friends that didn't opt-in, or slammed my inbox with junk. Those have the opposite effect and should be avoided. In any case, a good article so enjoy!

Killer Firefox Apps for PR/Marketing/Web Developers

If you're not using Firefox, you should be. Compared to internet exporer or any of the other browsers, this program offers incredible easy to use features, fantastic spam filtering and lots of cool plugins. Plus, it's free!

They just released a new version, and it has some really hand features, including Fontfinder (helps you identify and grab fonts you like on a website), Colorzilla (an advanced eyedropper that helps pick photos. My favorite is ScreenGrab, a tool that lets you select and copy any section of a screen shot.

You can get the entire list here.

NOLA

Nothing to do with PR today, I've been wandering around New Orleans with my wife on a surprise anniversary trip. Just had to comment about the people who live here. From the streets of the French Quarter to the residents of the Garden District and thw students at Tulane, everyone is incredibly kind, friendly and outgoing. Here's a group of people that has gone through horrible upheavel, yet they're far friendlier than ANY Angeleno I've encountered. Amazing food, fantastic music and an incredible vibe. Love it here. Now if you excuse me, a chorus of raw oysters are calling my name...

PR & Social Media Story Roundup

Going to a wedding in Florida tomorrow and I'll be gone through Memorial Day, so I thought I'd share a few of this week's more interesting PR/Social Media stories I found on the interwebs.

Wall Street Journal: Troubled Dealerships, Amazing Auto Deals

Marketing Daily: Ford Takes Fiesta On The Road For Test-Drives

ClickZ: Social Marketing: Brands Pursue 'Controlled Spontaneity'

Bulldog Reporter: Economy May Be Down, But PR Opportunities Are Up

Facebook Promotion: Fast Company "Involver" Profile

My friend and fellow PR-dude Fazel turned me on to this vid. For those of you who don't know, Robert Scoble is a major pioneering tech blogger and author of the Scobleizer Blog, which made a lot of headlines when he was the main marketing maven at Microsoft.

Scoble shot a series of videos for Fast Company on a fantastic startup called Involver, based in the Bay Area. Basically they have developed a facebook app that allows companies to promote their videos to specific demographic groups using a filtered push tool they've developed. Awesome stuff, check it out:

Aptera Electric Car on Leno

Eagle eyed electric car fans would have seen this outside Starfleet Academy in the new Star Trek movie. I've worked with Leno several times on stories, and met with Paul Wilbur once with my old boss when we were pitching the now-defunct Saleen account. Both are very cool guys, and the Aptera is one helluva cool car. Enjoy.

Ford Social Media Guru Scott Monty on Adam Carolla Podcast

I'm a Stern fan. Always have been. So when Howard left regular radio for Sirius three years ago, I followed him. However I'm also an Adam Carolla fan, and used to love his rants on "Love Line."

So for those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, radio host Adam Carolla took over the Howard Stern slot. Then the network switched all the talk stations to a Top 40 format and they kicked Adam off the air... and he took to Podcasting.

Now, thanks to my friend (and fellow auto-file) Tony Huntimer, I'm hooked on the Adam Carolla podcast. Adam's a car guy (I met him a the Monterey Historics a few years ago) with a BRE Datsun 510, a '72 911 RS and other cool rides in his garage. He's also a social media fan, even if he wouldn't say it like that. He has a fair number of "maven" types on his program... even though I don't like using that word.

You're probably saying: Podcast? People still listen to those? In fact, thanks to his built-in audience from the radio show, Carolla's show is consistently the #1 podcast on iTunes. He has managed to maintain his profile using a garage studio ranting about stuff he thinks is interesting. The perfect example of how anyone can be their own media outlet.

Which brings us to my point. Adam's most recent podcast features Scott Monty, who runs Ford Motor Company's social media program. They're doing some pretty cool stuff at the house of Henry, including the Fiesta Movement I've blogged about before. So on this podcast you get: Carolla, car talk, marketing insight, Ford's social media plans, a little sugary PR-speak and some occasional profanity. Enjoy!

Adam Carolla Podcast w/ Scott Monty

Animoto Is The Fast, Easy Way Path to YouTube Slide Shows

For those of you who didn't see the cover of January's Entrepreneur Magazine, they ran a major feature on a NYC startup called Animoto. The company is run by four friends: two software geeks, a music major and a film student.

Together they cooked up a sweet little piece of software that allows users to upload photos, pick from a pretty wide list pre-licensed music (or upload their own) and hit the GO button. Then Animoto takes over, analyzing the images and music and creating a slide show with slick transitions that match the visuals and sound. Then it gives you a code to upload to YouTube. The entire process takes about 30 seconds.

The process is pretty cool, particularly for those who don't always want to spend time in iMovie cutting videos and would rather post a quick slide show. I did one about a car show a client sponsored just for fun. Check it out:



This was accomplished with the free version of the software. Upgrade to the Pro version (about $250) and you can use higher-resolution photo, make shows as long as you want (the free version is limited to 30 seconds) and it's fully licensed to use commercially. Imagine the promotional possibilities for real estate agents, restaurants, photographers, even car dealers! Just upload your shots, pick some music and BAM, you've got a slick little video to post on your site.

Video feeds the Car Guy's Soul

Sorry for the long delay, it's been a crazy week. My next post will cover some new SEM tactics, but in this post I wanted to share a cool new video one of my clients just posted: