Flash mobs? I love them!

Yesterday I was talking to a friend of mine on MSN. She mentioned a very funny movie on YouTube. So I clicked on the hyperlink it saw this movie about a flash mob. What is flash mob?
A flash mob is a large group of people who assemble suddenly in a public space, perform an unusual and pointless act for a brief time, and then suddenly disperse. The term flash mob is generally applied to gatherings organized via telecommunicaties, social medial, or email (source:Wikipedia). I really like the spontaneous thought of performing a dancingact in public with enthusiastic people . In fact, my sister (who is a professional dancer) joined one last summer. At that time Micheal Jackson died suddenly. To honor Michael Jackson, a flash mob was organized in Amsterdam. If you click on this link you can see my sister dance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9sSnjVebcw

Flash mobs are very popular at the moment, especially among the young people . Advertisers are finding it increasingly difficult to connect through the media with young people. T-mobile is the first big brand who used flash mobbing in a TV campaign. They created a new campaign with the slogan: the Life is For Sharing. During the kickoff party of The Oprah Show’s 24th season, more than 20,000 people performed a choreographed piece to the Black Eyed Peas “ I Gotta Feeling”. It was a big surprise for an unsuspecting Oprah, and yes she was really thrilled! During the event she filmed the happing with her mobile phone. This advertising stunt turned out to be a huge success. You really should see this movie on YouTube! Here is the link : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqfHkjyC8aM&feature=related

The producer, Australian Michael Gracey, also organized a flash mob dance at a Liverpool train station that was used for a T-mobile commercial. The YouTube movie of the commercial has 17.901.237 views at this moment. Wow! Of course I will give you the link to this movie: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQ3d3KigPQM&feature=player_embedded.

I must admit it is a very smart idea to use flash mobs for advertising purposes. After all, it is a very popular item at the moment. Most people love to watch spectacular flash mobs. I definitely do, because it puts a smile on my face! YouTube is a very easy and cheap way to reach many people all over the world. Hope you enjoyed my weblog! Please leave a comment if you like! Next week another media-related topic to discuss..

Ps. My sister Doree takes part in the new television program Move Like Micheal Jackson on SBS6. The programs kickoff will be on the 6th of March. And of course you can find her on YouTube! Just look for Hiphoplady and watch some of her dancing skills :). I am promoting my sister by using social media.. yeah!

New! Google Buzz

I have been using twitter for 2 weeks now. Before, I had my doubts and I must say I really enjoy this social media. It is a very nice way to connect with your friends and inform yourself about them within a short amount of time.

Today I’ve read about Google Buzz on http://www.dutchcowboys.nl/ . Google Buzz is a new application on Google integrated in Gmail. Users can communicate with friends, family and strangers from different online networks. It looks like a copy of twitter, but it isn’t. With Google Buzz you put a “tweet” online and many more. It goes beyond status messages. It is possible for users to attach images and videos to their personal online messages. These visuals will create a more vivid status message.
These days, it is increasingly difficult to maintain overview, since many people are a member of many websites. Therefore, you can connect to other sites you use, for example, Flicker, Picasa and Twitter. Everybody knows what you do online if they follow you on Google Buzz.
You receive comments in your inbox (called ‘Buzz’) and it is possible to react instantly by sending an email (Gmail required off course). Furthermore, Google Buzz recommends contacts and buzzes that might be interesting for you.

Google Buzz also works on your phone (like Twitter), so you can connect to anyone and anywhere you want.

• You can find a video about Google Buzz on YouTube
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yi50KlsCBio&feature=player_embedded
  
• Here is also an article in NRC newspaper (written in dutch) http://weblogs.nrc.nl/media/2010/02/12/privacybezwaren-tegen-google-buzz/

The possibilities of social media are amazing, but I am a little concerned about privacy and security matters. Google is very powerful medium already and I am wondering what will happen if everyone starts to use Google Buzz. As known Google stores very detailed and personal information of every online user. By subscribing yourself to Google Buzz, it will be obvious you give Google information about all events you are involved in. Your friends, your work, your personal interests? Google will know all about it. Your private life will be revealed to Google even though you are using private account (instead of a public one). I will defenitly think twice before subscribing. What about you? Please leave a comment..

Greetings Elianne

Next week another exciting blog ;)

Twitter use and business

On this Blog I will tell something about the use of new media. My first topic is Twitter!

These days social networks are very important for businesses to connect with customers. One very popular example of such an online network is Twitter. How does it work? Here is a explanation given by the website twitter.com:

Twitter lets you write and read messages of up to 140 characters, or the very length of this sentence, including all punctuation and spaces. The messages are public and you decide what sort of messages you want to receive—Twitter being a recipient driven information network. In addition, you can send and receive Twitter messages, or tweets, equally well from your desktop or your mobile phone.

Companies want to reach as many costumers as possible in order to increase consumption of their products or services. They spend a lot of money on marketing by using expensive traditional media such as television, radio, news papers and magazines. Problem! Small companies in general have small marketing budgets, therefore, they need to seek for cheap alternatives. The use of twitter is free of charge and is a very effective way to boost business! Twitter messages can function as a really short newsletter. It only takes 5 seconds to read and the costumer is "updated". So it is very easy to communicate with customers and inform them about the newest developments. Casual relationships between customer and company will grow! There are many more benefits.. Maybe I will talk about them next time!