Sarah Austin » Entertainment

Brands Using Social Media

sarah — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 00:21:01 +0000

Disclosure: I have been and am currently sponsored by some of the brands discussed. To see more information about my disclosures go here.

Watch live video from pop17 on Justin.tv

What makes brands different and unique? Are all brands trying to reach the same people? These are a couple questions startups ask when marketing their product and trying to stand out from their competition. In the above video I talk about some of the brands that are using social media as a way to differentiate and reach subculture in social media looking to Ford, Nikon and the NHL as examples. What makes one company different than the next is the companies ability to offer something of value to one subculture over the next based on that brand’s ability to market differently. Each brand has a unique message and market.

In a personal interview with Scott Monty, I asked what makes Ford different? He said, “listening is so important to us.” Social media provides a two way communication for customer care and communication. Ford stands out because they listen and care what people are saying. Testimony to their success, Ford won the prestigious PR Week Award for Best Use of Social Media!

Scott gives credit to Sam DeLaGarza for his excellent communication and management skills working as the Ford Fiesta community manager. The Fiesta Movement Chapter 2 involves 20 teams with 2 people on each team spread out across 16 US cities. Each team is like a micro ad agency contracted for 4 months. They are throwing fun events and parties in their cities while competing with the other teams.

Be sure to tune in tomorrow as I continue this segment with a follow up interview. Mooncricket, aka Beto Lopez, is coming on Pop17 Live to discuss Fiesta Movement Chapter 2. He is one of the few agents selected from Chapter 1, a Justin.tv micro-celebrity and creative genius.

From Lifecasting to Live Shows

sarah — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 06:46:10 +0000

Michael Agnes, Editor in Cheif of Webster’s Dictionary, named the word of 2008 to be “overshare.” They said they chose it because of current trends of sharing current information and the good/bad effects of the practice. Overshare is the equivalent of “too much information,” slips of the toungue, and letting people know about the intimate details in your life. Online profiles show your interestes and habbits so it’s often easy to overshare. The bad part is that the information is there for all to see and can have deleterious side effects on your life.

Oversharers describes it as, “anyone who publicly shares embarrassingly intimate–or gross and disgusting–details of their lives, right out there where anyone can read them.” It’s a pretty funny blog with tweets and facebook posts.

I learned about this word in 2007 and 2008 when I started lifecasting on JTV. Justin Kan offered me the opportunity to stream live to thousands of people watching the ultimate reality TV show. 24/7 raw, live and uncut. Myself and several others became lifecasters on the beta site. This experience changed my life and taught me about live video on the web. It was so cool to be the first to do something so cool! I’m one of the first live streaming lifecasters popularized by JTV. Today, I lifecast in a more professional and brand safe way on various websites. Lifecasting doesn’t have to be 24/7 live video of every detail of your life.

Today I’m here to announce that I’m hosting segments on Justin.tv for Pop17. Pop17 is a web show highlighting trends, internet culture, and micro-celebrity. You can expect Pop17 live Monday-Thursday PST starting this Thursday. I look forward to seeing you there! Here are the best submissions for the design contest:

Vote on the winners in the comments:

A. Branded Kirkman

B. Rudy Cuestas

C. Leon Bacud

I will send the winner a Poken. A poken is your ‘social business card.’ it’s the easy way to share your contact details and online social networks in the real world. just hold two poken palms together – high4! – and you’re connected.

Who I Am And Where I Came From

sarah — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 21:37:54 +0000

As a young child, I was self motivated to learn because I wanted to overcome my challenges. I’ve had the privilege of having great mentors in my life and the drive to succeed when faced with obstacles. My parents brought my family out to Marin County, California, after leaving the small town of Rogers, Arkansas when I was a small child. At the time, both my parents highest education degree were a couple highschool diplomas. When I moved to Tiburon, California because my Dad had a job offer for some construction work, the scene was totally different from Arkansas. Parents in Tiburon had trust funds and college swag for their children before they made it to grade K. The liberal environment of Marin was a change too. The spirit of the community gave me inspiration and motivation to learn and tackle my obstacles in school.

I had a learning disability called dyslexia. For me, the words would move around the page and I couldn’t get them to stay still in a straight line with my eyes. In 2nd grade I started to attend special education classes outside of regular class. Thus, I was working twice as hard as my peers and constantly falling short in the classroom. (Dyslexia is actually pretty common and many great minds have struggled with it like Albert Einstein and Winston Churchill, for example). It took a while for the school to figure out what was going on with me, but because of their fine resources and small teacher to student ratio I was able to get the help and assistance I needed early on. At the time the California school system had funding and dedicated those resources toward my education. Ironically, I wasn’t able to read until 4th grade, however, by 6th grade I graduated special ed and my teachers started to give me B’s and C’s for my work without additional help. I have my mother and the once funded California school system to thank.

In 9th grade I was recruited to apply for a leadership and mentorship program targeted at low income/high potential youth called Summer Search. I applied and was accepted for telling my story and being myself. It was pretty great! The founder, Linda Mornell, personally mentored me through high school. She gave me scholarships for summer learning programs, a college counselor, and after school tutoring for my college aptitude tests. Upon graduating high school I wrote my college essay about how Summer Search was like a family.

By the time I finished high school, much of which I spent home schooled, at Stanford University and a in the wilderness, I graduated with honors and was awarded seven scholarships to Ivy League’s and Colleges back east like Emerson College and Mount Holyoke. Linda Mornell and my college counselor, Sandy Pebbels, encouraged me to attend Mount Holyoke so I went!

Today I value my accomplishments in school. I have a 3.85 GPA as I’m currently getting my MBA in Business Management at Dominican Universities Pathway program for working professionals. Dominican has the most perfect program for me and is located close to my home town in Marin County, California. Ironically, it was my father’s suggestion to go back to school because, while I was away at college on the East Coast, he went to a similar program at Saint Mary’s College of California where he earned his BA in Business Management.

If it were not for the encouragement I received from my community in Marin County, my mentor Linda Mornell, and all of Summer Search I probably would not have had the opportunity to overcome my learning disability and go on to higher education. If I had stayed in Arkansas I would have found little motivation to learn because I wouldn’t have had the stimulation there. As I complete my MBA at night and on the weekends, I decided it would be a good time to take on anouther mentor. I’d like to proudly announce my new mentor, Larry Kramer.

Larry Kramer is local to Tiburon, California and a pioneer in digital media. He served as president of CBS Digital Media and prior to that founded MarketWatch. I’m so lucky to have the opportunity to work and learn with Larry.

The Image Of A Woman

admin — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 19:15:17 +0000

The human capacity is a twisted thing. Women’s self concept is the result of society’s attitudes towards women. There is too much room for exploitation in the media, porn and the acceptance by society. Sadly, the media promotes, exploits and contributes to the vicious cycle. The cycle involves the message, conditioning and reinforcement.

I remember when Vanity Fair Magazine published a controversial article and photo spread of Miley Cyrus, a popular teen celebrity, wearing nothing but a sheet. People responded negatively to the photos and argued the pictures were inappropriate for her age. These people said Vanity Fair Magazine and Miley Cyrus were promoting the exploitation of women. The message sent out to millions of Miley’s fans was that in order to be sexy girls should take off their clothes. Unfortunately, this scenario is the fault of the conditioning the media as a whole has forced upon young women.

You should check out Greg Wilker‘s post about thishere.

The media is affecting young women and girls. The more self-conditioning by the group and society, the more we see exploitation of women. Porn is one form of media that adversely conditions females and forces the message upon society that women are the play toys of men. Porn is intended to cause sexual arousal and does have that effect. Similarly to Miley Cyrus, Riahnna’s most recent album cover displays her without clothes wrapped in barbed-wire, like a suffering victim. Is that supposed to be attractive? Perhaps it’s the fact that she was in an abusive relationship with Chris Brown and is conditioned to believe that she is worthless and the only value she has to offer is sex. Riahnna’s conditioned by Chris Brown to have a low self-esteem. She is reinforcing the message to her fans with the album cover saying women are the trapped objects of men.

The media and porn is affecting women more and more by self-conditioning by the group and society. Self-esteem is shaped by one’s own life experiences and, unfortunately, messages about women in the media creeps into these critical moments in our lives. Unless we do something about the way women are portrayed. I am not arguing for the illumination of porn. I am arguing that women and society start to view women as equals to men. For example, camera angles from below looking up at a woman shows the woman is powerful whereas a shot of the woman from above her head looking up shows her subordinate.

Society will be affected because the role of the women and men will be more masculine overall. The conditioning and acceptance is what will increase a masculine state. Exploitation of women will, in the end, reinforce the message because they will be conditioned to accept that they are less valuable than their male counterparts.