Twitter + iPhone + Micro site = sweet success.

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways in 25 characters or less. 25 characters is the new 140 characters for this sweet NECCO Sweethearts iphone and Twitter app we created.

Download the free iphone app to customize the famous NECCO Sweethearts with your own message on up to five hearts. Your custom box of Sweethearts will be sent to your lover to shake, open, and read your messages of love, lust, or just plain goofiness.

Also, this is a very unique application in that there is an integration with Twitter that allows users to display or deliver their boxes of custom Sweethearts to their followers. Our goal was to create a cross channel social media promotion that also had an iPhone tie in. The combination of mediums is a testament to how we try to leverage synergies between all digital opportunities.

The social web is not just Facebook. It's every element of a brand’s digital strategy. Check out what USA Today and Twitter CEO Biz Stone and Mashable - The Social Media Guide think about the app – we sure think it's sweeeet. 

UPDATE:  January 26, 2010 - AdWeek article "Twitter With a Twist" reviews how NECCO Sweethearts iPhone App inspires users to share content in new ways.

Genuine Interactive client Boston Harbor Cruises was highlighted on last night's American Idol season 9 premiere when contestant Mike Davis auditioned in Boston.

Davis, an 18-year old actor from Boston, works in the summer as a driver on BHC's Codzilla - an entertaining, thrilling boat ride that blares music and cruises across Boston Harbor at 40 miles per an hour. 

Last year, American Idol averaged 24.9 million total viewers and since the show aired last night, people have been flocking to Google and searching for both Mike and Codzilla as BostonHarborCruises.com has seen a 700% increase in site visitors and Codzilla's Facebook fan page has received a 50% increase in fans.

Congratulations to Mike Davis and BHC!

As 2009 comes to a close, more and more clients are asking whether or not they should create a Facebook fan page. That inquiry is usually immediately followed up with, why should I become a fan of your Facebook page? What value are you going to be providing to your Facebook fans?

I’m not going to tell you NEED to have Facebook fan page, because I don’t believe that is entirely true for every business. If you don’t have a concrete strategy and plan to not only acquire Facebook fans but also keep your fans interested and engaged with your brand, product, and/or service than you probably shouldn’t waste your time. You can’t just create a Facebook fan page, post some photos, and write a few witty wall posts then expect droves of fans to want to become your fan. You have to approach Facebook from your fans’ point of view – what’s in it for me?

People love free stuff. When it comes to Facebook, the actual dollar value of that free stuff really doesn’t matter. Whether you are running a large sweepstakes or offering a simple money-saving coupon for a consumer product, there needs to be something given to your consumers that adds value to their experience of becoming your Facebook fan.

Also, the value you provide through Facebook shouldn’t end after you acquire each fan. Your Facebook fans should be offered continued value and treated differently from the masses for as long as Facebook remains the social media mecca - as noted by it's steady growth to 350 million active users.

If you’ve haven’t started your Facebook fan page strategy, don’t feel out of the loop. There are still many big brands that are just getting started with Facebook. As an example, Subway Restaurants launched their official Facebook fan page on Dec 24th.

Why should someone become a fan of Subway's Facebook fan page? Well, Subway is running a promotion to give away $50 gift cards to 10 Facebook fans a week from now through the end of January. They are advertising their gift card give-away promotion using targeted Facebook ads and also leveraging the immediate viral power of Facebook to promote the give-away. As I began writing this blog post, Subway Restaurants had 39K fans. When I got around to posting it about an hour later, Subway Restaurants had over 60K fans. I told you people love free stuff.

Finally. The long standing battle between meta keyword stuffers and relevant search results is officially over. Google does not use the keywords meta tag in their search ranking.

Matt Cutts, Google Software Engineer, confirmed the end of the battle with his latest "Google doesn’t use the keywords meta tag in web search" post on his blog and a YouTube video.

Genuine applauds this news as we've seen too many sites out there with too many irrelevant meta keywords on pages trying gain a cheap search ranking advantage. We've always thought that Google is smarter than that, but now we know for certain. Google is all about relevancy, and the elimination of meta keywords is only going to help relevant sites rank highly for appropriate keyword searches.