Wear the new Mos Def record

As smooth and creative as his style, Mos Def is promoting and selling his new record, The Ecstatic, on the same format. A tee shirt.

The front of the shirt features the cover art, the song titles are printed on the back and a URL and download code are on the hang tag.

You gotta love an artist (and label) who will take a chance and push the boundaries of conventional marketing and distribution channels.

The shirt drops July 7th or buy the record on iTunes now.

Check out some of the new tracks and watch the video for "Casa Bey".



(via PSFK/ Via Paste)

Ahmadinejad Can't Stop a Twitter Revolution

On the eve of the recent and corrupt Iranian election, the government cut off all mobile and internet connections to the outside world. But, they made a huge mistake by underestimating The People's desire for change. Hope is alive in the streets of Tehran, and Twitter helped broadcast it.

The video above shows the inspiring protest and support of opposition leader, Moussavi. As The Daily Dish reported, a tweet from one of his supporters urged protesters to shout from the rooftops. It's incredible to watch.

There was also a fantastic example of Twitter being used as a media watchdog in the election coverage (via Mashable), as users accused CNN of burying the story. The hastag #CNNfail was used and, since its trending peak on Sunday, CNN has increased their coverage.

For our currently out-of-work marketing comrades...it sounds like Ahmadinejad will soon be needing a new Communications Director. Just don't tweet your resume.

Passion Pit and Harlem Shakes

Last night Noel, Russ, Holly, Anya and I went to the National Theater to see Passion Pit. The show was fantastic. And seeing the opener, Harlem Shakes, was one of the best surprises of the year. Both bands put on an incredible live show.

I also purchased this cool tour poster.






Here's the animated video that we did with Nooka and Passion Pit in case you missed it.

Anyone can be an Influencer

Check out this amazingly fun and enlightening video below from the Sasquatch Music Festival (via Asi). It's a great representation of how anyone can influence behavior – not just high-impact, high-exposure "Tippers."

People are attracted to each other through emotional pulls. It's doesn't matter why each person found their way to the grassy, slanted dance floor. Some joined the "instant tribe" because they love to dance but needed a leader, some thought it would be ironically funny to join and some were wigging out because they took too many tabs and needed to work it out.

This guy genuinely (assuming this was not staged) put himself out there, danced differently and it inspired a horde to join.

Too close?

This ad appeared on my Google Reader this morning. It made me wonder whether our friends at Martin would feel it falls under:

A. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery
B. Lifting a concept
C. Who cares?

Twitter - Cut the Courtesy

There was an interesting online debate yesterday about whether or not to use autofollow. For those who don't know what it is, autofollow is a tool offered by services like TweetLater that automatically follow back people who follow you. The debate centered around whether or not using this tool is a social courtesy.

It seems to me that at its core, Twitter is entirely based on gain. And I don’t like to fool myself and pretend that it exists under a social umbrella of sincerity. The gain benefits everyday people, personal brands, business brands, government, public services, etc. And it's defined by increasing friendships, establishing thought leadership, cultivating brand ambassadors, increasing revenue, tapping information (education and news outlets), etc.

Please understand that I'm not using the word "gain" in a negative sense. I'm using it as Descartes or Kant would have in that we are all first and foremost ego-driven. We may talk about Twitter as "joining the conversation" (or other touchy-feely social phrases), but the reality is that we all have something to gain from it. AND THAT'S FINE.

Personally, I feel autofollowing is less a courtesy and more about racking-up numbers. Increasing the people you follow is one of ways to build followers because it more deeply embeds you into the Twitter community. Some people believe that you should have close to the same number of followers as people you're following. It's spoken about as some arbitrary Twitter cred.
Who cares? Why worry about other people's motivations or numbers? I digress.

"Courtesy" to me is participation - responding to your blog's comments, answering peoples' questions on Twitter and sharing your bookmarks (knowledge), for example. Helping one another. But by banking thousands of people in your Twitter account, your availability for intimacy is obviously diluted.

For the record, I used autofollow as I was learning about Twitter – and I paid for it in tons of spammy tweets. Thank goodness for Seesmic and Tweetdeck that allow us to filter out the noise we created and bring us back to the core value of the service...however you define it.

Build a Social Story

I was reading a great piece this morning by Dave Armano entitled “Kill Your Website.” He writes about how his blog has become a much more valuable (and cheaper) tool in connecting with his audience. So, he shut his website down.

It’s important to keep in mind that Dave is a well-respected leader in the design world, and his audience is highly interactive. So, a blog is the perfect platform for his communication channel. But it's obviously not necessarily right for every brand.

It made me think of how many of the small to midsized businesses that we work with don’t have the same audience engagement level as a personal brand like Dave or a passion-crazed company like Apple. But that’s okay. The important thing is that we evaluate our brand’s aptitude and commitment level to the “conversation,” as well as their customers’ social behavior. That way, we can make grounded recommendations. Too often I’ve seen agencies suggest building social communities or high commitment platforms without any research or foresight. Sure, gut instincts are still important. But with all the research that’s easily available, it’s not solely the responsible approach.

As a strategically-grounded shop, we try to educate our clients on focusing on plans not platforms or tools. Engagement not websites. Interaction not blogs. Communication not Twitter. Community not Facebook. We try to steer them away from getting caught-up in all of “the latest and greatest” social media whiz-bang and focus on their Social Story as a whole. It starts by defining goals and then figuring out the best way to facilitate the relationship with their customers.