Mar 17

Ben Berkowitz on Twitter, branding and the importance of being genuine

One of my favorite things about attending We Media, is going in consecutive years. I love catching up with familiar faces and hearing about what they’ve been up to in the past year. I learn about new technologies, new functionality on existing products, and even entirely new companies being created out of the ashes or on the shoulders of what I previously associated with the people who attend.

This year, I caught up with Ben Berkowitz, founder of SeeClickFix, which won the for-profit category of last year’s PitchIt! competition and empowers anyone to report and track non-emergency issues online. The service is having an effect on many local governments as it enables ordinary citizens to easily and efficiently hold them accountable.

As a believer in the opportunities provided by Twitter, I quickly registered the account @SeeClickFix while Ben was up on stage accepting the prize with his team. I apparently startled him a few minutes later when I told him that I grabbed it for him and - well perhaps we should just let him tell the rest of the story.

During a break between sessions last week, and the morning after a sleepless night of helping this year’s finalists refine their pitches, Ben talked about how they’ve been able to use Twitter to help their site grow, where branding fits in and the importance of being genuine.

Ben Berkowitz on Twitter, branding and the importance of being genuine from Genuine Interactive on Vimeo.

GENUINE INTERACTIVE: So a year ago you just won the PitchIt! competition and you had no idea about Twitter? Is that right?

BEN BERKOWITZ: Haha ya, I had no idea. But really I knew what Twitter was, I just didn’t know the purpose of it. So we won, we got off stage to visit the restroom and when I came out there was an eager gentleman by the name of Chad. "I got your Twitter tag!" I thought "Holy shit this guy is holding this thing for ransom." But he was kind enough to give us the SeeClickFix Twitter tag and our presence in the Twitter- sphere was born and it’s been really valuable using Twitter since.

In the last year we have been able to assess the potential competition and our position in the market place, and we have been able to put our stake in the ground to let people know we are here who would not have known that we were in their network. Most recently we used Twitter to send messages to the city of San Francisco 311 department, so we are actually using it as form of communication for generating service requests and they tweet back at us on those issues.

So Twitter has had many implications. It was interesting to see there has been much less tweeting this year (at We Media), I think there are changes happening, last year there was certainly more back channel, but maybe more people are paying attention in real life, so that’s good that more people have their heads up off the computers than last year.

GENUINE INTERACTIVE: I wanted to ask you a question about the growth and the evolution of SeeClickFix, I’m guessing it kind of went from building, building, building with your head down, to looking at a much more branding focus. Is that a fair assessment?

BEN BERKOWITZ: I would say that would be a fair assessment of the next piece. We did a redesign in August and we got a user group and focus group and it really, really helped us. I think there are still a ton of things with the UI that could improve and so we have tackled a lot of the engineering fees like translation and smart phone applications and across most of the smart phone platforms. Now I think there is a battle of these big things and then you have to simplify all the big things and then add more big things and then simply. At least that has been our experience and process so far. I think the next couple of months of SeeClickFix we will be simplifying and making changes to the content we have out there and making the tools more accessible.

GENUINE INTERACTIVE: In terms of your audience, is being genuine important to maintaining your audience?

BEN BERKOWITZ: Yes absolutely. I personally have been an evangelist for the open government space as well as a participatory media and community web 2.0. to use a cheesy term. I think if you don’t believe in your world, and sing it from the roof tops or be celebratory every time it happens, you know it’s not going to be genuine. You absolutely need to be genuine and I think that there are people that have thought about participating in our space and it was clear they were not genuine and it has affected their potential reputation.

GENUINE INTERACTIVE: What has been your biggest accomplishment in the last year?

BEN BERKOWITZ: God, there have been so many. I think collectively, if you look, I sent a tweet out when we were about to be on stage of the SeeClickFix challenge month with IBM smarter cities, it was about 40 posts of people who have used the site SeeClickFix and have had some very positive experiences where some part of their life or community was improved because of the site. It’s a really nice testimonial section, really representative, there have been a ton of specific moments. For example a neighborhood in New Haven that addressed a mugging situation, not by freaking out and running away but by forming on SeeClickFix over the concern of muggings, then forming neighborhood groups in real life and then rallying around SeeClickFix in real life to get the mayor to implement better lighting in the neighborhood. I think those are the kind of stories and it’s what keeps us waking up in the morning.

GENUINE INTERACTIVE: Great!

BEN BERKOWITZ: It has been really exciting!


Jan 20

NECCO Sweethearts' Sweet App! Genuine Creates iPhone App for NECCO Sweethearts

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.


Dec 29

Why Should I Become A Fan of Your Facebook Page?

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.


Sep 10

What can we say… people love buffalo wings!

Whether you call them Buffalo wings, hot wings, chicken wings or just plain wings, they are nothing without the main ingredients: delicious butter and Frank's Red Hot Sauce. As the chart below details, people begin searching, buying, making and consuming buffalo wings during the start of the football season in September. This indulgence reaches a pinnacle in late January just in time for football’s big game.

 
Here’s a perfectly timed game day grub recipe for Savory BBQ Buffalo wings. The Wing King uses butter and Frank’s Red Hot Sauce and so should you!
 

Mar 11

Woolite and Stacy London help Genuine become a fashion diva

Genuine has a fierce fashion face.  (Growwlllll.)  We know a lot more about fashion thanks to our recent "Find the Look, Keep the Look" project which features "What Not to Wear" star and fashion expert Stacy London.  Everyone from Genuine who worked on the project wore strappy-strappy sandals and cute n’ sporty tops with when working on the project. (OMG we are sooooo cute!)  On Friday’s we wore simple black dresses which should be the staple of ever digital person’s wardrobe. (Obviously, people.  PAlease.)   And we take great care of our fiercest looks thanks to Woolite.  You see? 

Check out the campaign featured in today’s Wall Street Journal thanks to Schneider Associates.


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