22 Jun 2010
I wonder if James Surowiecki thought that crowdsourcing was poised to become an internet hot topic when he wrote The Wisdom of Crowds. Whether or not he knew, his book certainly got to the strategic core of the why’s and how’s of the power of the crowd. I read that book in 2004 and I was simply passionate about it. I wanted to understand how to better harness the concept of aggregate thinking (not crowd thinking) to make better decisions.
Throwing money into the abyss?
I was quite excited when Kiva first opened its (virtual) doors. Kiva harnessed the power of storytelling, as well as ease of online payment, to help online individuals make a difference they felt connected to. I was equally excited when I watched the rise of crowdsourced funding in the startup world. I believe there is value in this. I know some people who argue that it’s just…
...Continue Reading
16 Jun 2010
Last year Room 214 became one of two enterprise level partners of Crimson Hexagon, a leading provider of real-time market research. Crimson Hexagon is powered by technology spun primarily from Harvard University Professor and Crimson Hexagon Co-Founder, Gary King.
I recently caught up with Gary for a podcast, and am sharing a condensed version of our discussion with you as part of this post. Additionally, I’ve included my “Top 5 Things to Know” based largely on my experience and discussions with Lauren Maynard, who works with the tool almost daily as Room 214’s Director of Research.
...Continue Reading
25 May 2010
I believe that you need to properly identify and reach out to individual influencers. It’s something we do for all of our clients. It’s an extremely important part of building relationships, and it’s a nuanced art. But people often miss the importance of understanding and reaching out to the groups or mediums most influential for a brand. Understanding the aggregate influencer is crucial to creating, honing and sharing content that really matters, and getting others to share it for you.
A Complicated Journey
When a brand creates a piece of information, that piece has a twisted, convoluted and often times unexpected set of adventures across the vast world of the interwebs. Once upon a time, this was the simple vision for the internet.
40 years later and things are not so simple. Interesting information about a brand can be shared on blogs, Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, email, Buzz, text and a wide variety of…
...Continue Reading
13 May 2010
Sharing/Oversharing
I vividly remember my first Facebook status update; I felt like I was crossing a dangerous threshold. This past January, I had an acquaintance tell me he enjoyed that I was always in his news feed, regardless of time of day. I took that as a bad sign, and had flashbacks to reading Emily Gould’s piece Exposed, which detailed her addiction to sharing online. Her job, and thus her life, was online, and over time her sense of privacy crumbled to a point of no return; every action was chronicled via blog, and every reader comment became part of a life-defining feedback loop.
The New York Times did an interesting piece this weekend on the “Tell-All Generation”, chronicling a small shift as early 20-somethings realize their online persona is also their virtual resume. Yet, just as some freshly-minted college grads are realizing the discrepancy between their resume interests (volunteering, photography) and their Facebook…
...Continue Reading
AndyinColor:
dominicdimarco:
bencastelli:
JasonCormier:
BrandonSings:
peterahall:
JamesOClark:
Room_214:
lpmaynard: