JG etc.

There are good conversations being had around data portability and companies leveraging clouds to create their own, er, clouds.

The idea of creating an extensible social network is not new, but more than ever I think there are tools to harness this data and create new communities built on people’s prior connections and networks. For brands, this is the evolution of engaging with consumers online and should replace the “we need a viral video on YouTube, Facebook App, or a killer microsite” meme that has dominated the thinking around how to create an engaging message that becomes popular on the internets.

Create platforms that add value and allow people to easily synch with their identity and communities, and; they will.

conversations your customers have about your product/service… And increasingly those conversations are mediated via the Web.

That and “Emails are opportunities!” are probably the two most used phrases with my working hours lately.

Why do I bring this up?
For that first phrase. Awesome, awesome site put together by a friend, Noah Brier, called Brand Tags. And congrats to him for his write up in the Wall Street Journal.

What brand is this below?

Via 37 signals:

- If communication can fail, it will.
- If a message can be understood in different ways, it will be understood in just that way which does the most harm.
- There is always somebody who knows better than you what you meant by your message.
- The more communication there is, the more difficult it is for communication to succeed.

And I particularly like his observation that anytime there are two people conversing, there are actually six people in the conversation:

- Who you think you are
- Who you think the other person is
- Who you think the other person thinks you are
- Who the other person thinks he/she is
- Who the other person thinks you are
- Who the other person thinks you think he/she is

I would like to go to a communications coach/counselor. Fascinating stuff.

We raised some money:

BusinessWeek —> Federated Media Raises $50 Million (and a Few Eyebrows)

AdAge —> Federated Media Nabs $50 Million in Funding

PaidContent —> Confirmed: Federated Media Receives $50 Million Third Round; Interview With Battelle

MediaPost —> Federated Media Garners $50 Million Investment

CNET —> Federated Media closes on $50 million

Why is all this news good?

It allows us to do programs, like the one below, put together by John Shankman.

The RadioShack Invention Lab

There will be more to come on this campaign, including an interview with John and what it means to sell ads at FM or for that matter, how ad sales is changing…. Forever, maybe. :->

For now, I leave you with a quote from the site, No Revolution:

I found this by clicking an ad banner (e-gad!) on boingboing - the gadget site - because my good friend and UXD expert Mike Brooks sent me a video link.

So, there you have it. Social interaction leads to spontaneous discovery leads to brand renewal for an “old” retail brand. There’s hope for this whole “Net” thing after al

Always awesome to see people appreciate good work. Here is a Twitter from Dave Morin, Senior Platform Manager at Facebook, talking about a campaign that the team out West at FM(Lester Lee & Matt Jessell) launched with BMW and Graffiti:

Check out the campaign here –> Graffiti Car Contest - “What drives you?”