The Social Path

20 cool uses of Augmented Reality.

I've been remiss in not sharing my colleague David Stutts' fantastic series of case studies called "20 Interesting Things." (I previously posted his list of 20 Foursquare examples.) As Luckie's Director of Brand Planning and digital safari guide, David sifts through tons of information each day and compiles the best into easy-to-read reports.

Today I wanted to share his SlideShare deck on great examples of how Augmented Reality is changing the way we interact with the world around us. Check it out:

20 Interesting Things: Augmented Reality

View more presentations from David Stutts.

To read more insights from David Stutts, be sure to follow him on Twitter and read his updates at Luckie's agency blog, The ReThink Tank.

David Griner is a social media strategist for Luckie and Company and contributing editor for Adweek’s blog, AdFreak.com. You can reach him by e-mail or on Twitter.

How to get your business started with Facebook Places.

As you've probably heard, Facebook has finally launched its own location-based feature, which lets users check in from almost anywhere in America. By checking in, you let your friends know where you are, what you're doing and maybe even what you think of the place.

While there's a lot to talk about from the user point of view — namely what this means for privacy and security — today I wanted to focus on how business owners can get a jump start on this potentially game-changing (and free) resource.

Why should your business use Facebook places? Well, because your customers probably already are. And even if you've ignored other location-based apps like Foursquare and Gowalla, now's the time to get serious about it.

Facebook has 133 million users in the U.S. and 500 million worldwide. When you compare that to Foursquare's 2 million user base, I think it's safe to say that checking in just became a phenomenally bigger deal.

Ready to get started? Check out our step-by-step guide, after the jump.

Mobile is crushing online in ad effectiveness.

Here at Luckie, we recently invited mobile analyst Joy Liuzzo from Insight Express to come share her thoughts on trends and technology. While she had a lot of fascinating insight to share, here's a slide that really blew me away:

Essentially, this chart shows that — based on three years' worth of research data — mobile advertising is twice as effective as online advertising when it comes to ad awareness, and a whopping six times more effective in the "holy grail" category of purchase intent.

Later in the presentation, she sliced it even thinner, showing that for the retail sector specifically, mobile ads were 14 times more powerful than online in the area of aided awareness and 8 times more effective in purchase intent.

I was simply flabbergasted by these numbers, so I followed up with a brief Q&A asking Joy to help put these findings into context. Check out her responses after the jump:

Why is Antoine Dodson funny? Two candid perspectives.

Antoine Dodson. If you don't know the name, you probably know the face, and you almost certainly know his warnings that "They're raping everybody out here."

It's been more than two weeks since a news crew in my hometown of Huntsville, Ala., interviewed Dodson about the attempted rape of his sister by an intruder. Dodson chased off the attacker, but that's not what made him a YouTube sensation. Instead, it was his surreal and candid demeanor as he warned TV viewers that the assailant is "climbing in your windows; he's snatching your people up."

Internet comedians The Gregory Brothers turned the news clip into a catchy song, which has become a top download on iTunes, with millions of views on YouTube. (To their credit, they're sharing proceeds with Dodson's family.)

But for all the laughs, there's still something off-putting about this entire situation. It's easy to find humor in the clips, but it's also easy to see why it has raised questions of racism, homophobia and insensitivity to a sex crime victim.

Because the field of social media punditry can make the National Hockey League look racially diverse, I solicited perspectives from two bloggers who I can always trust for candid takes on how black men are portrayed in pop culture. Check out their views — and share your own — after the jump:

Businesses do not make good Facebook friends.

I thought we were past this, but it's been brought to my attention recently that I was wrong. So, in a last-ditch effort to wipe this approach off the social media map, let me say it on the record: Please don't use a Facebook user profile for your business.

First, a quick chat about the semantics: A "user profile" is the account you use to log into Facebook. It's for individuals only, and it's technically against Facebook rules for multiple people to use the same log-in. A "brand page," meanwhile, is an official Facebook presence for a business, nonprofit, celebrity, etc. Multiple people — dozens, even — can run a brand page.

There are a lot of reasons organizations have stuck with user profiles. Usually it's just a simple desire to stick with what you know, or a focus on speaking to customers as "friends" instead of "fans."

But at this stage in the social media game, Facebook's brand page system is simply too powerful and flexible to pass up. Need more reasons to switch? Read on.

With Facebook pages, you can:

• Publish status messages that appear in your fans' news feeds. 
• Create custom tabs with special offers, applications, coupons — just about anything.
• Have multiple administrators with easy access to the page, which makes transition easier in the event that a Facebook-managing employee leaves.
• Maintain the privacy of your admins. Fans can't see the names of a page's administrators. 
• Have an unlimited number of fans (while user profiles are limited to 5,000 friends). 
• Have access to robust (and free) analytics explaining fan growth, engagement, and traffic. 
• Advertise and promote affordably through Facebook.

But these benefits barely scratch the surface when it comes to the strength of brand pages. So how about a quick case study?

A few months back, we were chatting with the great folks at Alabama's Lake Guntersville State Park. It's a tremendously popular destination, and they were already strong on Facebook. But the park was still using a user profile instead of a brand page, and they wanted some advice on switching.

Their biggest fear, understandably, was losing the 1,000+ friends their account had accumulated. So we advised simply placing a link to the new page on the old profile, but keeping it around just in case. Three days later, the park had more fans than friends. Today, thanks solely to organic growth, the park has 6,600 fans.

I'd say a 500% increase in your audience size is a pretty good reason to make the switch.

And I should mention, you're violating the laws of Facebook when you create user profiles for businesses, and the social media police will come for you. Well, maybe not. But you could have your profile deactivated if Facebook finds you to be violating their Terms of Use.

Moral of the story: Facebook has created an impressive way for businesses to set up shop in the world's largest community (500 million residents and counting). The advantages are increasing in leaps and bounds as Facebook improves, and it's high time to get on board.  

If your business is using a user profile, here's a simple three-step plan to switch:

1. Make sure you have a real, legitimate personal Facebook account for yourself. You can use this to administer the Facebook Page, without even having to "friend" your coworkers. Absolutely refuse to create a personal account? Then try a business account, which is like an ultra-light account made solely to run pages and advertising.

2. Log in through your personal account and create a brand page. You can add as many admins as you want, inviting your Facebook friends or typing in e-mail addresses of non-friends. 

3. Post a comment on your old business profile, letting friends know where you've moved. The best thing to do is link directly to your new page by typing the @ symbol, then spelling the name of your brand. This will pull up a drop-down list of options and create a live link within your status update:

Sure, switching to a page can take a little time and effort, and you might even feel like you're starting from scratch. But have a little faith in your brand and take the growing pains; your brand will benefit from this modest investment of social media legwork.

Kammie Avant is a social media planner for Luckie & Company. You can contact her by e-mail or follow @KammieAvant on Twitter.

Voting has begun for SxSW topics, including ours.

The massive South by Southwest Interactive festival is still a good seven months way, but organizers are already crowdsourcing the decision on which panels to include in the March 2011 event.

I try not to ask many favors of my friends, colleagues and fellow social media enthusiasts, but I would definitely appreciate your support in the form of a thumbs-up for my presentation with Dan Shust of Resource Interactive.

Our proposed topic is "Your Social Media Campaign Sucks. (And yours doesn't.)" This would be a sexier, updated version of our recent case study presentation at the Internet Retailer Conference, where we had a great response from a crowd of about 4,000.

To vote for us or any other potential panels, just create a Panel Picker account and then start sharing your feedback. You can click here to show your support for me and Dan. 

Here are some handy links to ours a few other presentations that, in my opinion, might be worth your vote:

David Griner and Dan Shust: "Your Social Media Campaign Sucks. (And yours doesn't.)"

Keri Maijala: "9 1/2 Months: My Affair with Content Strategy Consulting "

Leigh Householder: “Turn Your Head and Click: Practicing Digital Medicine"

Jeannie Walters: "X Marks the Spot: Mapping the Customer Experience"

Michael Krotscheck: "Toolkit Showdown: The Holy Grail of Software Development"

Andrea Phillips: "Hoax or Transmedia? The Ethics of Pervasive Fiction"

Alexandra Nicholson: "Cause 2.0 - Growing Cause Movements with Social Media"

Matthew Santone: "The Real World Wide Web – Digital & Physical Collide"

Do you have a presentation topic on the Panel Picker? Share it with me in the comments and I'll try to add it to the post.

David Griner is a social media strategist for Luckie and Company and contributing editor for Adweek’s blog, AdFreak.com. You can reach him by e-mail or on Twitter.

Truth trumps viral: JetBlue Steven vs. White Board Jenny.

As most everyone with an iota of skepticism expected, "White Board Jenny" was revealed this morning as a hoax by humor site TheChive.com. In case you missed it, "Jenny" had purportedly quit her job by e-mailing a series of photos that exposed her sleazy boss as a FarmVille-obsessed hypocrite.

While tremendously entertaining, the photos were simply too well done for most to believe that they were the work of one frustrated aspiring broker. And indeed, TheChive posted another photo series today explaining that Jenny is in fact an actress named Elyse Porterfield.

Some people might be disappointed by the big reveal, but most of us are used to these kinds of "too good to be true" Internet moments being, you know, too good to be true.

But what's truly fascinating about this viral hoax is the fact that it can barely hold a candle to that of another workplace renegade: JetBlue flight attendant Steven Slater. Because he meets the ultimate criterion for being a modern folk hero: He's real.

Fed up with verbal abuse from an irate passenger who hit him in the head with a luggage bin and called him a "motherf__ker," Slater famously used the flight's PA system to thank the good passengers and curse out the bad one, shortly before he grabbed a beer from the galley and made one of history's most dramatic exits via the plane's emergency slide. He then went home and was arrested while reportedly having "sexual relations." In those brief few hours, a folk hero had been born.

While I'm not one to fully romanticize Slater's actions, there's still no denying that he is an icon whose actions resonate with hard-working people around the world. He's a seemingly normal guy, pushed to his limits by the inconsiderate dregs of modern society, and he decided it was time to take a stand. Or at least a slide.

Had she even been real, White Board Jenny couldn't have come close to Slater's wide appeal. She was young and attractive, tired of having her workplace Internet use monitored and being seen by her supervisor as "a hot piece of ass." Understandable, sure, but not exactly a scenario that the whole working world can identify with.

A year from now, will we remember both these stories? Hard to say, but recent history has shown that, once outed, fake moments of greatness tend to lose a vast majority of their cultural cachet. 

In the end, the timing of the Jenny hoax helped prove the hierarchy of Internet fame: A fictional folk hero can become a viral sensation, but these days, you have to be real to become a legend.

David Griner is a social media strategist for Luckie and Company and contributing editor for Adweek’s blog, AdFreak.com. You can reach him by e-mail or on Twitter.

A North American odyssey, built one connection at a time.

This is the story of two friends who set out in their 2008 VW Rabbit, "Burt Reynolds," to explore their world both geographically and socially. 

In September 2009, Toronto friends Alex and Luke decided to set out on an adventure to experience every state and province in North America. But how could you ever decide on an itinerary for such an epic journey? It’s easy if you leave it up to the social media masses to be your virtual and real-life tour guides through the trip.

Alex and Luke post polls online allowing people to vote for their next destination. Similarly, what they do once they arrive depends on the recommendations and connections made through social media channels, particularly Twitter — as well as shaking hands and making friends the good-old-fashion way on the streets they visit. In turn, they are sharing their experience and invite you along for the experience. 

Unfortunately, I found out about this project too late to catch them in Alabama (which they loved, I might add). However, it's a fascinating case study in the power of social-media-built relationships and the ever-shrinking world we live in.

Alex and Luke departed home in March of 2010 and have since covered 32 states and 6 provinces to date but they still need your help. Follow them on Twitter, Facebook, and GoWalla, watch them on YouTube, and vote on their website.

Most importantly, if you have the means, make a donation to their project. 25% of each donation to the trip is given to a cause defined by the region in which they are currently traveling. Check their pledge page to learn more.

Kammie Avant is a social media planner for Luckie & Company. You can contact her by e-mail or follow @KammieAvant on Twitter.