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The first form of twittering? Church style

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Posted via email from Media Collective -Social Marketing, Advertising And Nerdy Things MindShare & Beyond

Unpaid bloggers not protected by Shield Law

By Andrew LaVallee

A recent amendment to the federal shield bill being considered in the Senate will exclude non-”salaried” journalists and bloggers from the proposed law’s protections.

Associated Press

Sen. Charles Schumer

The law, called the Free Flow of Information Act, is intended to prevent journalists from being forced to divulge confidential sources, except in cases such as witnessing crimes or acts of terrorism. The amendment, introduced by Sen. Charles Schumer (D., N.Y.) last week, limits the definition of a journalist to one who “obtains the information sought while working as a salaried employee of, or independent contractor for, an entity–

a. that disseminates information by print, broadcast, cable, satellite, mechanical, photographic, electronic, or other means; and

b. that—
1. publishes a newspaper, book, magazine, or other periodical;
2. operates a radio or television broadcast station, network, cable system, or satellite carrier, or a channel or programming service for any such station, network, system, or carrier;
3. operates a programming service; or
4. operates a news agency or wire service.”

Journalism organizations noted the narrower scope of the bill, which appears to exclude journalists and bloggers who are not paid for their work by a separate entity. “The amendment is a sharp departure from Schumer’s previously preferred definition, which focused on the covered person’s engagement in the practice of journalism rather than employment status,” wrote Cristina Abello, a legal fellow at the nonprofit Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.

Nieman Journalism Lab’s Zachary M. Seward, who previously noted the House’s different definition of journalist, also expressed concern. “The shield law obviously needs a definition that limits its scope, but the professional definition, which now seems inevitable, would exclude student journalists as well as bloggers with a day job,” he wrote.

It’s not over yet: The Senate Judiciary Committee delayed its vote amid concerns from both Republicans and Democrats.

via blogs.wsj.com

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Seth the Blogger Guy jumps on his sword for the good of AT&T

via brandfreak.com

In a world of instent communication this is a good example of customer service on a national scale, Where obviously social media negative or complaint comments prompted the same format media to deliver a message back to its market community.

Before twitter, facebook, friendfeed or others many customers felt like they were in a vacuum of a half full glass.

Not anymore
As this example shows, an individual does have a voice and combined together via the social speak stream, companies will notice.

Companies glass half full
While some companies are intimidated by the social speak others see it as an effective opportunity to quickly engage their markets concerns, service issues and to let their customers know that there voice had been heard.

Posted via web from Media Collective -Social Marketing, Advertising And Nerdy Things MindShare & Beyond

Snapple shakes up its under-the-cap 'Real Facts' info-nuggets

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September 02, 2009

Snapple shakes up its under-the-cap 'Real Facts' info-nuggets

Snapple's marketing people have been dealing with a conundrum of late: How to update the brand without losing its essence? The solution is to pick and choose aspects of Snapple that make sense. So, out goes Wendy the Snapple Lady, but the company's under-the-cap "Real Facts" not only get a reboot, they now have the inevitable Web tie-in as well. Snapple, which is now owned by the Dr Pepper Snapple Group, introduced "Real Facts" in the late '90s. The idea, according to Bryan Mazur, vp of marketing, was to take a gulp of Snapple, read the cap and then relay the bit of info to the person next to them. A decade later, dedicated Snapple drinkers may have come upon many of the 672 "Real Facts" before (No. 1: "A goldfish's attention span is three seconds"), so Snapple is phasing out the old "Real Facts" in favor of new ones, which it will be unveiled every day on Facebook and Twitter. (No. 885: "Vultures can fly for six hours without flapping their wings.") You can't do any kind of marketing these days without some Facebook or Twitter component. It's a fact.

—Posted by Todd Wasserman

Published on September 2, 2009 | Permalink

Comments

Snapple shakes up its under-the-cap 'Real Facts' info-nuggets

Snapple's marketing people have been dealing with a conundrum of late: How to update the brand without losing its essence? The solution is to pick and choose aspects of Snapple that make sense. So, out goes Wendy the Snapple Lady, but the company's under-the-cap "Real Facts" not only get a reboot, they now have the inevitable Web tie-in as well. Snapple, which is now owned by the Dr Pepper Snapple Group, introduced "Real Facts" in the late '90s. The idea, according to Bryan Mazur, vp of marketing, was to take a gulp of Snapple, read the cap and then relay the bit of info to the person next to them. A decade later, dedicated Snapple drinkers may have come upon many of the 672 "Real Facts" before (No. 1: "A goldfish's attention span is three seconds"), so Snapple is phasing out the old "Real Facts" in favor of new ones, which it will be unveiled every day on Facebook and Twitter. (No. 885: "Vultures can fly for six hours without flapping their wings.") You can't do any kind of marketing these days without some Facebook or Twitter component. It's a fact.

—Posted by Todd Wasserman

View the entire comment thread.

via brandfreak.com

While brands need to constantly innovate to retain customer engagement a second thought should be considered when altering a "expected" within the product brand or of the physical product itself.

Snapple in its forward movement is phasing out the "Snapple Lady" where this character is part of the media mix consumers are used to "spokes people" changing and the "Snapple Lady" is not so closely identified as "Jack" is for Jack In The Box.but Snapple is also removing the in cap "Factoid" to move those factoids to online social venues such as Twitter & Facebook. The reasoning being is consumer attention span..

Snapple consumers are used to digesting the "Factoid" with a twist of the cap.
Snapple trained its consumer to look for the tid bit there , the consumers engagement happens within a matter of seconds. From a marketing prospective removing such a "Expected" is akin to Cracker Jack removing the in box surprise. Also this is a unique identifier and use of the cap and Snapple was the first to contain in cap facts.

"Attention span" reasoning by Snapples marketing is not only altering a "expected" by the consumer but also loosing a possible opportunity to marry the physical and virtual interaction of its consumer base.

Why? Not all consumers are connected at time of consumption, nor most likely a majority of Snapples market regular tweeters or facebookers (as much as we would like them to be) they are losing the immediate contact & engagement that has developed.

Instead of removing the message they should continue to engage their audience at every opportunity, don't remove channels of engagement just re-purpose them. to accommodate the new added channels
For example:
Run a twitter campaign, "Get A Lid On Your Tweet" run a contest to post a winning tweet on the inside of the lid (surrounding the lid w/ twitter id & fb page)

How about whats under the lid event, where consumers have to create a "made up story" with factoid sentences on the inside of the lid. Then post it to facebook to win? think "mad libs"

It will be interesting to see what happens with Snapples decision, hopfully they will reconsider removing the facts from inside the lid as I for one enjoy them, and from a marketing, engagement standpoint I think removing instead of using it int combination with their new direction is a huge missed opportunity.

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