Graeme Thickins on Tech

Reflections & analysis about innovation, technology, startups, investing, healthcare, and more .... with a focus on Minnesota, Land of 10,000 Lakes. Blogging continuously since 2005.

Category: Marketing/Branding/PR (Page 15 of 29)

General Mills, Target, Best Buy, and Fingerhut Bare Their Social Media Souls

May 15, 2008 / / 1 Comment

I blogged about a big event here in Minneapolis last night, featuring four of our larger hometown brands (well, three, plus one pretty big direct-marketer you may have also heard of). The topic was social media, and you can tell it was hot by this shot I grabbed with my iPhone of the very crowed room. Mimasocmedia051408
My post about it is over at my NewMediaWise blog, because that’s where I talk more about marketing and all the changes happening in that field. The session was excellent, if for no other reason than I felt the panelists were sincere and candid in their remarks, and yet had as many questions as answers. It wasn’t fluff or BS — I think we heard what’s really on their minds, and they got us thinking about how much more still needs to be done….by big brands as well as small.

Thanks to our great local interactive marketing organization — MIMA.org — for putting on this gig.  They said it was the largest of any of their regular monthly meetings to date.  Hot topic, and lots of good networking before and after.  I had the opportunity to chat at length with two of the panelists afterwards, Jim Cuene of General Mills and Gary Koelling of Best Buy, and also to meet several other folks as well.

Tell ya what, after experiencing Minnebar on May 10 and MIMA on May 14, I’ll say this…..this town is rockin’ this spring!!

Can Twittering Add Value?

May 13, 2008 / / 4 Comments

Apparently so, based on two recent studies.  In the first, I’m once again honored to be included in a ranking by the Technobabble 2.0 blog, which is written by Jonny Bentwood, an analyst relations guru at Edelman PR in the UK. His latest ranking is called the Top Analyst Twitters (Micro-Bloggers).  Topanalysttwitterslogo
Earlier this year, my blog was chosen (for the second time) as one of his Top 100 Analyst Blogs, and now it’s great to be recognized in this newest ranking — at #18. As Bentwood said in his latest post, "It is not a massive shock that the people who have scored highest are the same as those who use blogging to great affect."

Technobabble’s methodology for its Twitter ranking was based on four data points, which were then weighted. Topanalysttwitterslist_2
The data points were 1) number of followers; 2) number of updates, which is what posts are called on Twitter; 3) conversation, or how many people have engaged in conversation with each analyst; and 4) "Technobabble points,"  the only personal, subjective measure in the algorithm, said Bentwood, with those scoring the highest in this category "having frequent, relevant, and high-quality content — asking questions, posting links or commenting on discussions." The following weightings were then used to come up with each analyst’s score: Followers=30%, Updates=15%, Conversations=30%, and Technobabble Points=25%.

In an earlier study, a few weeks ago, Louis Gray asked What’s Your Twitter Noise Ratio?  He said this in his blog post, explaining how he came to do his study: "I feel there are different categories of Twitter users, from those who
have a listening audience, measured by a high ‘followers’ to ‘updates’
ratio, those who are engaging, seen with near equal ‘followers’ and ‘updates’, and those who are more noisy, with a lot more ‘updates’ than
actual ‘followers’."

He explained how he did his analysis: "Taking a look at 48 Twitter users I either
follow or engage with, I found the average number of ‘tweets’ per ‘follower’ was almost exactly 1, measuring at 1.02. But the ratio of
updates to followers varied widely, from the sleepy 0.06 to the firehose-like 9.75."  I left a comment on Louis’ post, noting I was very glad to see, upon calculating my tweets-to-follower ratio, that it was 4.84, ranking me quite high in his "Converationalists" category.

In another article just published today, How Valuable Are You on Twitter?, Daniel Terdiman of CNet examines the topic from some other angles, including Twitter coverage of the China earthquake, and citing the opinions of other some leading observers and Twitterers in regard to measuring the value of this new micro-blogging medium.

What do you think?  How do you use Twitter?  Is it valuable to you?  In what ways?

Minnebar ’08 Schedule Announced – It’s Hot!

May 7, 2008 / / 1 Comment

The program for our annual Minnesota Barcamp — Minnebar — was just released late yesterday. The event is being held Saturday, May 10, at the Coffman Union on the U of MN campus. Here’s a look at where things are so far, and note that it’s subject to change.

Minnebar08sched1

Don’t miss the panel at 12:00 noon: "State of the State: Technology in Minnesota" in the theater on the first floor. Panelists include:
• Doug Olson, who heads a Microsoft developer team in MN
• Jamie Thinglestad, Mpls-based CTO of Dow Jones Online 
• Michael Gorman, Partner at VC firm Split Rock Partners
• Robert Stephens, founder of Geek Squad (a unit of Best Buy)
• And Dan Grigsby, our infamous local rabble rouser at Unpossible.com 🙂 and original lead organizer of Minnebar/Minnedemo.
Minnebar08sched2_3
Note the "Lightning Demos" at 4:00 and 5:00 — which I think will be especially good!  These are five-minute presentations available to new or existing startups, or anyone who has a new idea or favorite topic to talk about. If you want to add yours to the list (which is not yet published), just send an email to event co-orgnanizer Luke Francl at look (at) recursion (dot) org — telling him your name, company name, and what you’ll be talking about. Minnebar08sched3_3

See you Saturday! This will be fun — how could it not be, with a frenzied crowd of some 400 of your fellow MN tech enthusiasts? 🙂

I’ll be there Twittering and shootin’ pix all over. And I’m also part of the Minnov8 team, who’ll be Twittering as well. But, trust me, there’ll be plenty of hot networking in between!

Geeks, Entrepreneurs, Designers, Angels, VCs, and Marketeers ….. Let’s Mix It Up!

May 4, 2008 / / 0 Comments

Minnebar is Saturday, May 10!  MInnesota’s all-day annual Barcamp event is not to be missed.  New venue this year (bigger and better): the gloriously redone Coffman Union at the U of MN (cool place if you haven’t checked it out yet). To sign up, just go the event site (a wiki page), hit Edit Page, and add your name and links. Minnebar(Minnebar is held once a year, while evening "Minnedemo" sessions are held in each of the other three quarters.)
Already, almost 300 of your compatriots have signed up for this year’s edition of Minnebar, and many more will be as the week progresses. It’s free! That’s right — the whole damn thing! (thanks to the sponsors) … including breakfast, lunch, reception and beers following. You even get a free event t-shirt! And you can come and go as you please, choosing just the sessions that interest you — though I would highly recommend hanging out all day for the networking, which is really the biggest benefit. You can do your own session if you and/or some colleagues have something to say (and if there’s still room). Hit the link that says MinneBarSessions, click Edit Page, and add your title and session description while you still can. In the coming days, the organizers will be cutting off new entries and publishing a full schedule with all the breakout sessions. That should then be available at the event site, or you can pick up a hard copy on your arrival. Come early — the event kicks off at 8:30 am.

Attention Startups and Angels: Note the "Lightning Talks" Session
On the MInneBarSessions page, scroll down and look for a link to apply to give a five-minute pitch.  Ideal if you’re a startup, whether just forming or further along. An entire hour is being devoted to these rapid-fire presentations. This is a great way to see what’s going on out there in our state, hear the latest business concepts and startup ideas, or get updates on the progress of local startups you may have already heard about. [This will be like the DEMO conferences I know so well. My advice: hone the message hard, and practice well!] Minnebar07crowd

This event is gonna be killer, I promise you. If you want to know what’s really goin’ on in tech in Minnesota, you have to be here. Bring lots of business cards, a camera, your laptop (we’ll have mondo wi-fi!), wear your favorite tee, and get ready to learn, share, network, gab, blog and Twitter your brains out, and meet tons of fun, like-minded people.

Hey, in my book, it definitely beats sittin’ on some cold lake fishing!  🙂

This Blog’s For You, Bud

April 26, 2008 / / 1 Comment

I love this blog post so much, from my other blog, that I just have to post it here, too.  Well, a least a link to it.  Put it up a little earlier today.  I’ve never done such a thing before, double up like this, but I just have to make an exception for this one.  I mean, how often does a guy get to talk about beer and blogging in the same sentence? Hmmm, I wonder how many beers the employees get to have every day at Miller Brewing?  Okay, excuse the day-dreaming….

Anyway, read the full post — it’s a great social media and marketing story.

Nmwthisblogsforyou

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