Unwrapping Your Christmas Prank With Social Media  

Posted by: Alena Koch:) in , , ,

So, you have a great idea to prank a friend. You go through all the preparations and it is a success, but only a handful of people know about it. Now add a YouTube video and the power of social media sites like facebook, and the world gets to see the Christmas Prank that keeps on pranking!

Enter Adal Rifai and fellow improvisers, armed with 35 rolls of wrapping paper and eight hours of fun wrapping everything from Louie Saunder's clock on the wall, his sofa cushions, bath towels, and food in his fridge, among other things. Saunder's was out of town and gave Rifai a spare key. Little did Saunder's know doing that would result in a winter wonderland of Christmas at his Chicago apartment.

I first heard about the prank, when my friend Rifai posted it on his facebook page. I checked out the video on YouTube. At the time it had 311 hits. I thought it was hilarious and merrily executed. I posted it on my facebook page for my friends to see. A couple of days later I was talking about the prank and checked out the video again. At that time it had over 13,000 hits! At the time of writing this, it has 292,632 hits and the video was just posted on Dec. 13, 2009!

Because of the cleverness of the prank and the obvious timeliness, the video went viral. People have been twittering and facebooking the links. Then news organizations starting hearing about it. MTV contacted them, and CNN showcased it on a segment where they look at holiday videos on YouTube. Add to that, being featured in numerous blogs, and traditional mediums such as the Sun Times newspaper, the video is a huge hit! It is leaving many people wondering, how will Saunders retaliate!

This is just a prime example of how powerful social media can be. How will you harness the power?



Tuesday Question of the Week-How Do You Feel About Automated Twitter Responses?  

Posted by: Alena Koch:) in ,

So, you just followed someone and already got a direct message from them. Wow, that was fast! Then you realize that it was one of those automated Twitter responses. So, how do you feel about it?

Tuesday Question of the Week-How Much Money Did You Spend Online on Cyber Monday?  

Posted by: Alena Koch:) in ,

How much did you spend? If you bought stuff, what did you buy?

I myself ended up buying nothing this Cyber Monday. I looked at a few sites, but most of the deals I wanted were sold out by the time I went to look at them.

According to Coremetrics, the U.S. online retail sector reported strong sales results on Cyber Monday (Nov. 30) 2009 compared to the same period last year. Interestingly enough, sales were up 24.1% compared to Black Friday of this year.

Tuesday Question of the Week-Do You Wish There Was a Dislike button on Facebook?  

Posted by: Alena Koch:) in ,

Do you wish there was a "dislike" feature on facebook? Why?

Post your comments below. I want to know what you think. This is the start of a regular blog post called Tuesday Question of the Week (TQW.)

Gary Vaynerchuk's Bookstore Appearance  

Posted by: Alena Koch:) in ,

Gary Vaynerchuk author of Crushing It spoke candidly about his "spiel." He began with his beginnings, gratitude, and his mid-life crisis at 30.

I found his words very inspiring. Here is some great bullet points I took from the 30 minute video he posted on his twitter.

*"Content is at an all time high." Your personal brand is your most important brand. It will cost you mostly "sweat equity." Most people will not win at this because they don't have patience. Everybody is busy looking at their analytics and stats. When he first started his Wine Library TV, "nobody cared" for the first 18 months, but he never gave up.

*Content and customer service is most important, not twitter, facebook, and google wave... But you need to respect a thing like twitter and facebook if you are in business... Word of mouth is what closes in business, not advertising" 8 out of 10 times.

*In the end "the best storyteller wins."

*"The internet is the most underrated thing in our society...We should all be in the content business. Why let someone else have it." Now everybody's opinion counts and matters.

*"Your legacy is better than currency." What will your grandkids think of you? Because it will all be logged on the internet.

*"This is not an age game, it is a dna thing."

Check out the whole video here and let me know what you think. :)

Catch the Google Wave?  

Posted by: Alena Koch:) in

First you may be asking yourself, what the bleep is a google wave? A wave is a hosted conversation. According to the Google Wave page: 

"A wave is equal parts conversation and document. People can communicate and work together with richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more.

A wave is shared. Any participant can reply anywhere in the message, edit the content and add participants at any point in the process. Then playback lets anyone rewind the wave to see who said what and when.

A wave is live. With live transmission as you type, participants on a wave can have faster conversations, see edits and interact with extensions in real-time."

A wave is best used for group projects, photo sharing, meeting notes, brainstorming, and interactive games. If you have 80 minutes to spare, there is a long video on what a google wave can do for you or your business. But if you are like me and want to see the shorter video first, check out this video.



Seems interesting for the right situation. Not sure how I feel about the twitter function on google wave. So far, I have not caught the google wave. Have you? What are your thoughts on it?

Crushing It with Your Brand  

Posted by: Alena Koch:) in

I just caught the newest edition of the New Media Minute with Daisy Whitney, where she talks about "Crush It," by Gary Vaynerchuk. She talks with Gary about how important it is for you to build your personal brand, even if you love your corporate job. According to Gary, you need to build your brand around what you are passionate about. Through social media you have the ability to do that by going directly to the consumer!



Based on this video and Daisy's endorsement, I can't wait to get my hands on the book!

If you are not following Daisy Whitney, and you are interested in the business of online video, you need to. She is a wealth of knowledge on "new media," as well as being a writer, producer, podcaster, on-air correspondent and all around cool person. :)

Tweet While You Work! Twitter is hiring!  

Posted by: Alena Koch:) in ,

It is really hard to believe that Twitter, one of the most powerful social media websites out there, has less than 30 employees. Yes, that is not a misprint! Twitter is a small company with mega power. Are you looking for a job?

"Though we're small, we offer the things you'll find at a big company—like competitive salaries and full benefits. We even have an HR department (her name is Krissy), if you have questions about your 401k, flex spending, health, dental, vacation, stock options, and all that stuff. Plus, everyone gets a meaningful stake in the company's long-term success."

If you are in San Francisco or wouldn't mind relocating, than head on over and check out the job opportunities from receptionist to software engineer.

Maybe the additional employees will help twitter from overloading! http://www.twitter.com/jobs

Welcome to the Social Media Madam Blog  

Posted by: Alena Koch:)

Hey, I'm glad you are here. Is social media your thing? Whether you are a guru or a novice, let's try to explore social media and the internet together. This is the official first post for this blog because every blog needs one. :)
However, it is still a work in progress, and will by ready to begin the conversation with the blog world soon.