Tuesday, July 20, 2010

US Airways Held a Trivia Contest on Twitter

US Airways ran a trivia contest on Twitter yesterday to celebrate their #1 ranking in May for on-time performance, baggage handling and customer satisfaction. Personally, I was excited to participate because they were giving away three $300 US Airways gift cards and well, I like to travel.

I missed the first question but participated in the second trivia question. I responded swiftly but realized I was the fourth person to tweet the correct answer and they were awarding the prize to the first correct answer. Oh well, I tried. But then it got interesting.

US Airways took almost an hour to announce the winner for the second question. I then checked out the Twitter page of the person who responded first and realized why there was a delay. In my opinion his tweets were inappropriate. He was making fun of people who were questioning his answer to the trivia question. He was making fun of US Airways and what he would do with his gift card. Then his tweets turned sexually graphic. I understand our right of freedom of speech and believe people should invoke that right. However, what does a company like US Airways do when something like this happens?

I was very curious how US Airways was going to act or respond. They did so quietly. Announcing the winner but not linking directly to his Twitter feed (like they did for the other two winners).

US Airways used Twitter yesterday to engage with their followers, elicit excitement for their brand and promote their recent successes. Considering the amount of people who participated by tweeting answers to their trivia questions and the amount of new followers they picked up yesterday, I can only imagine they deemed the Twitter contest a success. US Airways also uses Twitter as a customer relations tool and I think they are utilizing Twitter in the best way they can.

It's a very real possibility that you weren't even aware of the contest I am referring to. However, as social media has proved time and time again, this particular contest has people thinking about using social media as a marketing and public relations tool and the challenges many people and companies face when taking their messages and brands to such a public and uncontrollable environment.

How would you have handled the situation US Airways faced yesterday? Do you think US Airways handled it well? What would you have done differently?

*EDIT October 28, 2010. We have moved our blog to http://blog.roundedcube.com and you can now comment on this specific post at http://www.roundedcube.com/WhatsNew/Blog/us-airways-held-a-trivia-contest-on-twitter

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

The World Cup's Affect on Social Media

Breaking news has always been a part of social media. The Egyptian arrest of American James Karl Buck in April of 2008 was the story that introduced me to Twitter. I learned of George Steinbrenner's passing this very morning from a friend's status update on Facebook.

What I am trying to say is nothing earth shattering but my simple point is this: social media has given us a new way to receive the news we want to receive, communicate about it (among other thoughts and things) and connect with people and businesses (some we don't even know in real life) in ways that continue to evolve. Social media is redefining relationships as we know them.

Over the last month, the World Cup became one of the hottest topics in social media. I remember saying to myself on Friday, June 11th, "Is Twitter broken?" The first game of the World Cup had started and Twitter was over capacity. Twitter addressed the issue on it's blog and then throughout the rest of the World Cup we witnessed the affect the World Cup was having on Twitter. Tweets-per-second were at an all time high and Twitter records were broken weekly.

But World Cup followers weren't only in love with Twitter. My Facebook news feed was flooded with World Cup score updates, comments on blown calls, and pride for various nation's teams. I have a disclaimer though, I played Division I collegiate soccer (many many years ago) so my Facebook friend list skews "Soccer Lovers," however I do have non-soccer loving friends who were commenting on the World Cup as well ... and get this, they were enjoying the soccer conversations.

It was a week or two before the World Cup that I saw Nike's "Write the Future" video online:



That video gave me goose bumps for many reasons. First, I am a fan of the sport and the video ignited World Cup fever throughout my body. Secondly, Nike's execution of that video is simply brilliant. I was amazed by the comprehensive thought process that went into its creation. Thirdly, I instantly knew people would be talking about that video. To date, nearly 20 million people agree and have watched it. Nike knows viral. The "Write the Future" video summarized Nike knows exactly what they are doing and they know they are doing it right.

And then came Wednesday, June 23rd. The USA vs. Algeria game. The final match in group play and the outcome of the game would decide whether or not the US team advanced. The anticipation and chatter about the game was intense. Landon Donovan's goal in the 91st minute sent a shock wave through the soccer community. It also produced this video by college senior:



Another World Cup inspired video that captivated soccer fans ... and went viral.

Interestingly enough, the World Cup and its affect on social media got my brain spinning more than when I was glued to Twitter during the 2008 Presidential Election and more than while I was (shamelessly) watching LeBron James' decision last week and reading about the aftermath on different social media outlets. In my mind, there were no winners or losers in the World Cup social media discussions. It united fans, nations, and the world for one month. And I look forward to seeing how its social media success affects us in the future.

*EDIT October 28, 2010. We have moved our blog to http://blog.roundedcube.com and you can now comment on this specific post at http://www.roundedcube.com/WhatsNew/Blog/the-world-cups-affect-on-social-media

Thursday, July 01, 2010

The Return of One of the Original Five

It's funny how your life can go full circle at times. After a four year career detour, I'm happy to return to Roundedcube as the new programmer on the block. As one of the Original Five employees at Roundedcube, it's good to be back and to work with friends from the start of my programming career. The company has grown a lot while I was gone. We're up to 16 employees now with many new clients while still maintaining relationships with many of the clients I have worked with in the past.

I think the coolest change I've seen (besides the new building of course) is that all of our teams consist of more than one person now! There are dedicated project managers, designers, sales-ers (?), and a large programmer pool. It's nice to be able to know what your team is working on and have a defined role in the process and definitely improves performance and the final product.

As a developer, the opportunities to learn new technologies and business practices are great. Much of the business now is directed towards Content Management Systems, specifically Sitecore. While I'm sure there's a learning curve to CMS development, the solutions we can provide to our clients make for interesting projects so I'm looking forward to working on my first CMS-based project.

One of the challenges in returning to a place you've worked before is figuring out what you need to remember from your previous time there and what you have to forget. In many ways it's harder than starting at a new company because you find yourself slipping into familiar habits of the ways things used to be done instead of thinking about how to do them now. I think it's better to do something, even if it's wrong, then to sit around and wait for someone to hold your hand. Well, that's assuming that it doesn't take too long to clean it up later.

*EDIT October 28, 2010. We have moved our blog to http://blog.roundedcube.com and you can now comment on this specific post at http://www.roundedcube.com/WhatsNew/Blog/the-return-of-one-of-the-original-five