In France, they have a long tradition of creating big, almost impossible, projects that people talk about. Take for instance the Eiffel Tower, ever a topic of conversation, even 120 years after it was built.

A Frenchman with a fantastic knack for great viral marketing projects was André Citroën. From 1925 to the mid-30s, he used the Eiffel Tower as a giant illuminated sign made of 250,000 light bulbs. It was a big project that was the talk of the town at that time. Since then the tower has been lit up many times at special events or anniversaries.

Now that the tower celebrates 120 years and Citroën its first 90 years as an automaker they do it again, with modern lighting and sound technology. This is hard to miss if you are in Paris. And everyone talks about it – obviously even blog about it.

/ylva on behalf of Lorentz Österling

This Tuesday, IDG wrote an article about how to measure social media. The article discussed different aspects of what should and could be measured when it comes to social media.

So, should we talk about ROI (trad), ROI (Risk of Ignorance) or ROE (Return on Engagement)? And how should we actually measure the effects? Well, first of all, we need to know what to measure, and for that we need a strategy and a clear vision of what we want to accomplish. We also need an understanding of how and where our target group is active. Then, we need to understand the dynamics of social media: What’s more valuable? A high number of followers or the level of interaction?

We recently conducted a study for a power company that I wrote about in my last post and the study showed that companies use their social channels to push information, not to create a dialogue or relationships with their users or customers. Many companies start groups on Facebook or LinkedIn, but aren’t very active after that, when, in fact, it’s at this point that it’s all the more important to listen and interact.

And even though I personally think we should talk ROE rather than ROI (trad), for all of you who want us to show you the money, well, here they are:
Socialnomics
/ylva.

I was brought up to believe that I live in the so called developed part of the world, while most countries in Africa and Asia were to be considered developing countries, a more politically correct way of saying undeveloped. Anyways, they had a long way to go to be as good and developed as we are and we were as developed as we could possibly get.

The danger of such an attitude is that you get too comfortable; that we stop being creative and innovated, that we’re stuck inside the famous box. As it turns out, the not-so-undeveloped are catching up and sometimes even ahead of us. Mobile operators in Sri Lanka are offering services we haven’t even heard of, the primary device for surfing the Net in Kenya is a mobile phone and the Japanese have been using QR codes for over a decade.

Fredrik Härén, writer and lecturer, says that it is more common that people outside the western world use the web for more than reading their favorite newspaper online or buying and selling stuff on eBay. He gives examples of people learning languages, studying at foreign universities over the web - things that most of us are too lazy to undertake.

Is it the same phenomenon of convenience leading our companies to use social media for pushing out their messages instead of creating a dialogue with their customers? I recently conducted a study together with Twingly in order to take a look at how a company, its competitors and branch were perceived and active in social media.  And even though the bigger companies are active and have blogs and web TV, etc , it’s still the inside-out thinking that dominates. Hopefully, the more they get to understand and appreciate the effects of using social media to its fullest, we’ll start seeing more useful and interesting sites and applications in social channels instead of just a lot of corporate BS.

If I get to choose, I’d rather be developing than developed, ‘cause I don’t want to stagnate. And, hey, please comment this post. Let’s get social!

/ylva.

Soon you will get the chance to experience what the whole world (basicly) has been waiting for.

It will be big.
Bigger than the Cannes festival.
Bigger than Berlin.
Even bigger than Göteborg film festival.
Cancel the walk in the forest, the dating or the dinner with family and parents in law.

Next weekend, 13-14 November, you will experience
THE BICYCLE FILM FESTIVAL !!!!!!

Here at Cordovan, we have always dreamed of marketing a really big event. Yes, why not the Cannes Film Festival.

Now we take the chance. Without anybody having asked us, we do a little viral marketing of the event Gothenburg Cycle Film Festival 2009 November 13 to 14 in the Cultural Centre Underjorden (Underground). Sounds exciting, doesn’t it.

It is the small bike club Komet Club Rouleur from Gothenburg with 20 members who are of the organizers. The club has a pleasant laid-back approach to bicycling and close their rounds preferably with a beer or a coffee.

Want more?
Here’s a descirption of the club.
And here you can download the festival program.

Take it easy out there, bikers!
/ylva – on behalf of Lorentz Österling