Digitize and keep your audience involved

SHN San Francisco, the Broadway touring platform for San Francisco, is doing something new and digital with the usual dance party that occurs at the end of the musical HAIR, which is currently playing in San Francisco. SHNSF decided to record the parties and make them available online for patrons to enjoy and share. Patrons can share videos, tag themselves in specific moments of the videos, and comment on the videos (and comments are posted to Facebook). The website also includes easy to use links for buying tickets.

SHN obviously knows how to get the word out, and its tactics are keeping patrons involved online, which keeps SHN on their minds until the next touring show comes around.

How have you used the internet and other digital methods? Do you have any specific tactics for keeping your audience involved?

A Social Media Cheat Sheet

Visit Sociable Blog (the original provider of this graphic) for the accompanying article.

When does offering personalization go too far?

Can personalization go too far?

MySpace offers a lot of options for personalizing your page, but to the point where it became cluttered, flashy, and immature.

Facebook offers applications and games. At one point, they had separate pages for users - on for information and one for applications and boxes (think "What Disney character are you?" quizzes). Facebook, too, becomes easily cluttered.

Twitter offers personalization for one solid background with a set layout for everything else.

Google+ has very little style personalization and a lot of informational personalization right now.

Who has the right idea? How much should a customer be allowed to personalize their options?

Lessons in branding from Social Media success and failure

One of the keys to successful branding is finding a niche and being the first in to do something unique in that niche. We've seen this develop in different social media outlets.

MySpace allowed you to personalize your page, and it acted as a great center for musicians and artists to promote their work. Unfortunately,

this was never capitalized on, and with the high risk of being hacked, as well as with the rise of Facebook, MySpace has lost its appeal, much like one of the earlier blogging websites, Xanga, lost its appeal when Blogger and Wordpress came around.

Facebook was a cleaner version of MySpace and included more information options. It focused on relationships, and it was successful.

Twitter made its mark by only allowing 140 characters and by owning the word "tweet" in the consumer's mind. It also brought about new ways of getting information out with hashtags, @ abilities, and mobile options.

Now, Google+ is attempting to do something similar by focusing on the idea of "circles," "sparks," and other unique terms. Google Buzz didn't work because it was too simple, too out of the way, far less convenient than Facebook. It didn't have a point. Google+ seems to offer easier organization of friends, and it offers the extra plus of the ability to edit photos.

Will Google+ succeed? There's no telling right now, as it is in its beginning stages. It definitely seems to offer some things Facebook does not offer. We'll just have to wait and see if it's unique enough to stand out as a first, rather than a rehashing of Facebook and Twitter. It's already had enough of a demand to warrant shutting down invites for the time being.

What are some other firsts in social networking?

Brilliant marketing tweets to learn from

HubSpot had an interesting post today on "12 Awesome Tweets to Inspire Marketing Transformation." Here's just a taste (some of my favorites) of the thought-provoking, under 140 characters tweets:

Being in the Yellow Book is like advertising in a book... that is closed most of the time. #transform (via @stacieverbic)

Good marketers have a social media presence, not a resume. A sweet blog is more telling than a degree. #transform (via @RachelGettingIt)

Don't be pushy. "Buy, buy, buy" will result in "bye, bye, bye." #transform (via @elumic)

No time to create content = no time to make money. #transform (via @lightbodymedia)

If Google can't find you, neither can prospective customers. #transform (via @seibways)

What do you think of these tweets? Are they accurate? What are some of the more interesting marketing tweets you've seen?

Read more: http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/11918/12-Awesome-Tweets-to-Inspire-Marketing-Transformation.aspx#ixzz1JL8FEnjx