Twitter Matters: A Conversation about Foursquare

Below is a real life example of how a company can actively participate and manage conversations about its brands via Twitter. Learn more about and follow gnagesh, Goodakm, and Foursquare on Twitter.

gnagesh @foursquare The "Go here, do this" format makes it seem more like it's aimed at tourists. Cities have more than 12 things to do for locals.

Goodakm @gnagesh (mayor of Atlantic Media Co.) I think the #foursquare "badges" feature is antithetical to the effervescent tourist

gnagesh @Goodakm I suppose the badges would help. But not every store/restaurant/location can be boiled down to one tip & some of the tips are wack

Foursquare @gnagesh We're actually building for locals over tourists. Our thinking: Top 12 = encourages curated lists rather than meaningless reviews.

Goodakm @gnagesh that's why there should be a way to see a "top 10" list of things to do at a venue based on pop opinion of #foursquare community

gnagesh @Goodakm I like that, but it depends on @foursquare reaching critical mass first. I'd rather be free to leave a note or pic at a location

gnagesh @Foursquare That supposes people are constantly ranking locations with respect to others. I just want to comment on where I'm at right now.

Goodakm @foursquare have you thought about a #foursquare zeitgeist based "top 10" things to do at a venue?

Foursquare @Goodakm We'd love to do the "zeitgeist for to-dos" thing. Requires a lot of user participation, but that's the direction we're headed.

The above conversation happened within the span on an hour and helps outline the new face of marketing.

First, marketing is real time. Think less, point-of-sale marketing and more point-of-thought marketing. The Foursquare team reached out to customers in a moment when they knew those customers were thinking and talking about their product.

Second, introducing nano-marketing. The web has made it possible for companies to reach out to customers when they are searching for their products, but Twitter allows for another layer of granularity by signaling when a specific person is thinking about a product. This produces a reverse telemarketing experience for customers where at the moment when they are thinking about a product a representative from the company contacts them.

Finally, your best marketing team members don't work for you. In the above example, two customers had a conversation about a product and that conversation was overheard by everyone who's following them on Twitter. Foursquare chimed into this conversation which basically anointed the tweeting customers as valid spokespersons for their product.

Smart companies will use Twitter and other social media platforms to leverage the natural viral messaging conduits they create to empower existing evangelist, create new evangelist and spread the good news about their products themselves. And not just to the masses, but to the people who already want to be converted.

TV Matters: Shep Smith - "Glenn Beck?"

Shep Smith gives Glenn Beck the credit he's due.

Movie Matters: The Watchman

I wasn't planning on doing a post on The Watchman but then Brian Garback sent me this in an email:

re: watchmen: it took a couple hours to develop all the dark and monstrous characters and in the end i found it hard to empathize with them. unlike batman and harvey dent, the few human emotions they showed were cheapened by their willingness to disregard one other and the rest of humanity, apathetically sleeping around and causing immense collateral damage with little selfless remorse.

Here is my response.

I think the film was first about the dehumanization that accompanies fighting evil. To truly root out evil one has to become the thing that he or she destroys. The film goes one step further to suggest that the only way to really conquer evil is to destroy mankind because mankind is fundamentally evil. This, then, begs the question, why would we want to root out evil if it is in fact essential, or at least part and parcel, to the human condition? Therefore, superheroes, or even average heroes, equipped with powers or the capacity for stepping outside of the human condition and live unaffected by evil are antithetical to human survival.

So what this story finally deals with, and this, I think, makes the graphic novel so important, is why do we need stories about superheroes? I think the answers lies somewhere in our collective idea that if only we could be faster, smarter, stronger, or all powerful we could make all of our problems go away, but when these theories are tested in our imagination, on the pages of comic books, or on the big screen, we are faced with the reality that the solutions to our problems, if there are any, must be found within ourselves.

Movie Matters: Friday the 13th (2009)

I will most likely rent this movie but I really enjoyed Dan Zak's review of the film in the Washington Post.

Money Quote - "If you love America, you will not pay to see [Friday the 13th]."

Movie Matters: Che: Special Screening at E Street

The producers of "Che" starring Benicio del Toro presented a special screening of the film last night at the E Street Theater. I attending this 263 minute screening primarily because Laura Bickford, one of the film's producers, and Benicio Del Toro agreed to take questions after the film. The most important question for a film that asks it's audience to sit still and stay awake for 4 and a half hours is "why the hell is this movie so loooong?" The answer proffered by the film markers was that this was the shortest movie they could make about Che that didn't suck. I get their point, but I would recommend seeing Part 1 in the theater and seeing part 2 on DVD at some point in your life.

The first part is about Che's role in the Cuban revolution. The second part is about Che's failed campaign to bring the same kind of revolution to Bolivia nearly a decade later. It's clear that the film makers are in love with Che's ideals, but in the Q & A session they said they didn't set out to glorify his methods but instead to pose a question to the audience; why did Che see armed combat as the only way to achieve his ideals? This explanation seems like a way to dodge responsibility for the fact that the movie depicts warfare as a noble endeavor to be engaged in if you are fighting for the oppressed. This line of thinking leads to things like the Bush policy of "bringing freedom" to the middle east. As long as we accept that War is alright in some cases then we will continue to see human life wasted on the battlefield. I think Che's story is important and worth telling but the story should have had more context and less fawning of the "great revolutionary."

YouTube Matters: Alphacat, Sara Bennincasa and SNL

Open Letter to Lorne Michaels

Dear Lorne -

It must have been a pain to travel around the country finding the best comic talent for your 31 season hit, Saturday Night Live. The planes, the hotel rooms, the rental cars, the bad food, and those dank comedy clubs - the fact that you stomached it is a testament to your dedication and love for putting the best comic talent on the world brightest comic stage. Now times are changing and America's best talent may only be a few mouse clicks away. This is a huge opportunity for you.

You and I both know that SNL is at is consistently funniest when lampooning American Presidents. To this day the funniest thing I've ever seen on SNL was Darryl Hammond as Bill Clinton addressing the press after he was exonerated; "I am bulletproof." Political satire is what keeps your show relevant. This year has given us the prepackaged hilarity of Sarah Palin, and the fact that Tiny Fey is a dead ringer made her casting a no brainer. But the work of Sara Benincasa as Sarah Palin was spectacular. 23/6, the comedy wing of the Huffington Post (widely considered to be the future of media and recently valued at $100 million) bought the exclusive right to post her material in the final weeks of the election. This was brilliant, not only because Sara B is brillinat, but because Sara B. is cheap. She, along with her friends have created funny without the expenses that accompany a live production. In the world of new media content is still king, but it's also much cheaper.

In the future, Lorne, you will have to augment your award winning cast with a motley crew of ameturs. Check out this clip from Iman Crosson playing President Obama.

I haven't seen a better Obama impression anywhere and I would like to see what he could do on SNL. You still have the biggest comic stage in America and I would emplore you to add some of the brightness light emerging from the most unlikely places.

Aaron

Musical Matters: The Prop 8 Musical

See more Jack Black videos at Funny or Die

You have to watch this in equal portion to the number of episodes of Doogie Howser you've watched, the number of times you've listened to the D, the number of episodes of the West Wing you own and the number of times you've wished you lived in a nation without hate.