centre{source}
INTERACTIVE AGENCY
Posts Aboutinteractive-strategy
centre{source} Makes a BANG with the Monthly Interactive Mixer
In the fall of 2008, the Strategy team at centre{source} set out to create a plan for expanding the firm’s reach and involvement in the local Nashville Interactive Community. Over the course of a few months, a strategy was formed that involved looking inwardly for personal development opportunities and looking outwardly for ways to become more active and connected with community members. The cornerstone and most valuable component of this strategy has quickly become our practice of hosting a monthly mixer at the c{s} North Fourth office on the last Thursday of each month.
As the “hostess” and organizer of these events, I was initially unsure of what to expect as far as turnout and reception. As we geared up for the first mixer, held in January of 2009, I must have refreshed our Pingg invite list at least 50 times a day. As we got closer to D-Day and RSVPs began rolling in, I quickly realized that what we initially expected to be an event with attendance of around 30-40 was going to become much more!
A New Kind of Customer Self-Service
How do I fix the red ring of death on my Xbox 360?
Can dogs eat pears?
Why doesn’t H&M sell clothes online?
Can you bring your own alcohol on a cruise ship?
I love Yahoo! Answers. If I have a question, someone there has already asked it… And more than likely, someone else has already answered.
I cannot imagine the number of minutes and hours I have saved customer service representatives by consulting with others on Yahoo! Answers to give my questions answers before sending an email or making a phone call. Sure, the answers are not always accurate, but knowledge is power and there is power in numbers.
Snuggling Your Customers
Here’s a story that serves as proof that Interactive Strategy makes it easy (and valuable) to build closeness with your customers:Last week, we started using Adobe’s Acrobat.com Buzzwords service for document sharing. (Check it out if you haven’t yet – very cool, very useful free online tool that made collaboration on a new project very easy). I was so impressed with it, in fact, that I made a quick post at Twitter.com about how great I thought it was, and how I’ll be using it instead of Google Docs from now on out.
Ready for Interactive? Take a Tour 2.0
I’ve seen this a few too many times now – a business starts talking about interactive strategy. They become convinced that they need to do more with the web to leverage the power of their brand and find new customers. (Yes!) They start to understand that people are starting to spend more of their free time on the web than in front of most other media. (Bingo!) They learn that people are more familiar with how to use a search engine than they ever were with setting a VCR clock. (Huzzah!)But then we start talking interactive: using social networking, integrating with social media, optimizing for universal search, utilizing web productivity tools. You know, the fun stuff. The homeruns. The exciting fresh kind of ideas. And we start seeing some eyes glaze over, and that hesitant “Now what is Twitter again?” question.
Web 3.0: Curing the Information Avalanche
I’m not complaining, but sometimes I feel like Google Reader is running my life.Google Reader is a taskmaster. Sure, she aggregates loads of great information for me, but she can be a little demanding. If I’m away from her for a few hours, I return to find a list of new blog posts and news items. Most days I’m tied up until the evening, and when I pop in to say hello she in turn greets me with 200+ new items to peruse. And she never stops.
