It happens here: Consumer-centric Innovation in Charlotte and beyond » facebook

Our Chamber of Commerce doesn’t use Twitter just because it’s trendy

Nheeda Enriquez — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 15:58:20 +0000

Last week, I caught up with the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce‘s Julia Walton and Melisa LaVergne. I wanted to learn more about the Chamber’s recent use of social media.

They didn’t get on facebook or LinkedIn or Twitter because all the cool chamber kids were doing it.

Apparently, it was because the 2009 branding budget was slashed. To $0. So to get the word out about upcoming events and communicate all the great reasons to be a member, they had to come up with a marketing plan that was, for all intents and purposes, free. Talk about recession marketing.

LaVergne and Walton added that there are additional benefits beyond saving money. They’ve hosted popular workshops on getting started in social media, bringing even more value to their member businesses. Many members have leveraged these tools to catch podcasted events when they can’t network in person. And they’ve been able to recruit new members like myself, those who might not have run into them if it weren’t for social media.

Check out the Chamber of Commerce’s:

fan page on facebook
LinkedIn group (members only)
Chamber President Bob Morgan’s twitter page. The Chamber also has its own feed.

The irresistible “How well do you know me?” quiz

Nheeda Enriquez — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 23:28:51 +0000

Darn you, Facebook. I thought I was safe when I successfully resisted completing the 25 Random Things You Didn’t Know About Me meme. But then along comes the “How Well Do You Know Me?” quiz, which is similar, but brings a competitive aspect by scoring my answers on a set of multiple-choice questions about a Facebook friend.

When I come across something like this, I think of Paul Saffo’s description of the “Creator Economy,” what he calls this current phenomenon of common users generating content. Each day, we unconsciously build content through searches, feedback, purchases, and sometimes all three (ie, Google or Amazon’s recommendation engine.)

What’s interesting is that it’s just like a survey, but without the pain of a survey. How else might companies collect information that’s in a way that’s automated, effortless, and kind of fun?

I took another quiz-masquerading-as-survey on the Pew Research’s Internet and American Life page, so I could find out what kind of technology user I am. Even if you don’t fall into the same trap, their site’s got lots of great data from all their ongoing projects.