If it’s an 8am meeting with eager conversations about Twitter and measuring ROI, it must mean the Middle School Marketing crew was back in action yesterday morning at the Lab.

We gathered again this month to continue our conversation about bridging traditional best practices in online marketing with the latest trends in social media marketing.  As so many marketing conversations do lately, ours quickly focused in on Twitter (proud new owners of the local startup Summize). When it comes to the bottom line, one person asked if it is worth investing the time and energy into Twitter. (And for that matter, what about the rest of the social media utility world?) While the group had various perspectives on how they used Twitter, without a doubt it’s biggest value was in providing a radically improved tool to help companies do a better job of listening. Nicholas was even kind enough to put together a spreadhseet of helpful services.

Continue reading "Middle School Marketing Talks Twitter, Strategy and Twin Tech"

Not able to attend BlogPotomac? Not to worry - we’ve got all the live video goodness of the event you can handle. Sponsored by Livingston Communications, Viget Labs, and WordBiz.com, Inc., BlogPotomac is this year’s premiere social media marketing event for greater Washington DC. Check it out:

 

Online Video provided by Ustream

Mashable always seems to bring out the DC-area’s best social media crowd, and last night’s Mashmeet DC Remix was no exception. Hosted by Ogilvy’s 360 Digital Influence team and partnering with The Social Times, the event lived up to its remix name by throwing in a new programming twist from their previous networking events by showcasing several presentations in addition to the steady stream of business-card sharing and networking.

Streamed live online by JanMedia, Mashmeet gave Searchles, Voxant, Mixx, Lumifi, and Kluster an opportunity for lightning-round demos of their products and services. However, it was Kluster—fresh off their much-publicized demo at TED—that got the crowd talking. Kluster puts the “wisdom of the crowds” on steroids, allowing companies of all sizes to tap the masses for ideas on just about anything from logo design to problem solving, and then compensates with appropriate cash rewards for participants. As the web rapidly enables companies to better interact with their customers, look for these crowdsourcing services to really take off. In the meantime, Kluster’s creative approach and slick UI sets them ahead of the pack.

Despite audio issues with some of the presentations, and a few that could have benefited from some “gentle reminders” to keep it within their five-minute limit, the remix format was a welcome change to the standard networking event. The DC-area has some incredible up-and-coming talent, and I hope that the next Mashmeet DC focuses on showcasing more of the local emerging technology and entrepreneur leaders.