Boo!

Twitter launched a Facebook app today that will reportedly allow me to locate my Facebook friends on Twitter, but it's a major FAIL right off the bat. It doesn't work!

So, is it a Twitter problem? Or a Facebook problem? Twitter says Facebook. Facebook, as usual, is a little elusive. What do you think?

Doesn't matter. Doesn't work. Next!

Only 1 out of every 9 scratch offs is a winner - that's 11%.

CurrentMarketing won 4 out of 10 of the coveted Hot Ten Awards from the Louisville Advertising Federation today - that's 40%!

That's right, we're more likely to win than a scratch off!

Congrats to Meredith Will, Megan Snider, Angela Trumbaturi and Ashley Cherep on their big wins today - we're all so proud!!!!

Our own Queen of the Social Sphere, Angela Trumbaturi, will be featured in an upcoming issue of Velocity and the pub arrived today for her pampered photo shoot atop our Jolt table! She looks damned good, if we do say so ourselves - shortly after the shoot, Annie Leibovitz called!

I like to think of myself as an Early Adopter. Generally when a new product rolls out, I'm not afraid to jump in and give it a whirl. I've had the pleasure of being invited to participate in Beta tests for a variety of interesting new technologies and tools. Some great (Hootsuite), some decent (bee.tv) and some flops (Google Wave).

Observing the evolution of social media avenues has been interesting from an Early Adopter's perspective. The newest developments with Facebook and Foursquare have helped me see that Early Adopters are not only critical to the start-up phases of new businesses – but to their ongoing development phases as well.

Facebook and Foursquare are two examples of companies that have seized on the opportunities that come from keeping Early Adopters engaged. Twitter, on the other hand, seems to be lagging behind. With the exception of a few developments on the marketer's side of the product, Twitter is pretty much the same as it was when it debuted in 2006. Why haven't they been more aggressive about keeping their users involved in innovation? Beats me.

As for what's next for Twitter, I have no idea. I only know that it better happen quickly or Twitter will become wholly irrelevant. Not just to Early Adopters, but to everyone.

We recently partnered with Socialight to produce an iPhone app for Kentucky Derby Festival and they gave us some mad props on their blog!

These guys are way cool and on the path to blowin' up!

Last Friday night, Johnson & Johnson made a massive recall of a number of children's and infant's Tylenol, Motrin, Benadryl and Zyrtec products. The release was issued at 9 pm, presumably when mass media could or would not cover it. It wasn't really breaking news, so interrupting programming wasn't an option. 9 pm made it a little too late to work it into late night news packages, not to mention the smaller audiences garnered by late Friday news programs. Nonetheless, it wasn't a topic that could be swept under the rug given the millions of parents who utilize these products.

Twenty years ago, the public would have heard about this story the next day on the morning, noon or evening news...or perhaps in the newspaper. Not today. The blogosphere, Twitterverse and Facebook-galaxy lit up right away, bringing notoriety to J&J's approach immediately.

Parents immediately started dialing the 1-800 number, only to hear a recorded message of a person reading the exact press release that had been issued. I personally visited J&J's website to try to find the serial numbers of the recalled products and found the list buried 5 clicks in through a series of links at the bottom of several pages or deep within paragraphs and paragraphs of industry jargon. Most online users wouldn't be so persistent.

Adage's article on this topic cites J&J as the most reputable company in the United States. So, why can't such a company get this social media thing right? You'd think the most reputable company would have a team in place to respond to the social media pandemonium that ensued this past weekend.

What makes it even more remarkable is that J&J is behind one of the best social sites I have found for parents - BabyCenter.com. The site is amazing - it tracks along with pregnancy and the consequent age of your child to give you timely information as your little one develops. The site knows, for example, that my child is 23 months old and gives me information specific to this stage of development.  And, it's not just the basic stuff - they undoubtedy have educated mommies and daddies writing for them, not just child psychologists.

J&J clearly gets it, based on this robust site...so, why the misstep with a recall like this? Especially since 2009 was the year of the Mom with regard to social media. Mashable identified hundreds of Twitter streams, active Facebook fan pages, blogs and niche social sites, for moms that were huge traffic drivers last year. Seems like an active social media communications department could tap into this network to spread the word in a transparent, positive way, rather than through a firestorm of inquisitive and highly vocal online parents.

But, the real lesson here is the immaterial nature of time, a recent evolution in our society. It didn't matter that J&J released their information at 9 pm on Friday night – we still got it. Even more, we reacted. The two-way communication of social media has made the consumer, rather than the marketer, the messaging engine. And this messaging happens with little to no regard for time of day.

Random blog fun in the hizzee today. No explanation necessary.

I posed that question to the CurrentMarketing team this week, and while there was no consensus on what the emergence of Google Buzz will mean for Facebook, I got some very interesting responses. One one end of the spectrum was this:

"Sorry, Google. There's already an App for that. Facebook, twitter and Gmail all have their place, and I'm not sure they can effectively invade each other's territory. A Swiss Army knife does a lot of things, but isn't the best tool for everything."

The other end: "I can see switching, since I already have a GMail account."

One team member saw Google Buzz as the beginning of a slide into irrelevance for Facebook, in much the same way that Facebook's arrival presaged the decline of MySpace. Whatever the reality eventually turns out to be, it's clear that Google has thrown down the gauntlet. It's Facebook's turn to respond!

What do Betty White, Abe Vigoda and Jim McMahon have in common?
They're all at least 25 years past their prime? Yes.
My mom would love to meet all of them? Yes.
They're all eligible for the senior citizens discount at McDonald's? Yes.
They've still got it? Definitely.

Quick recap of my self-imposed rules for Hyper-Bole:
- Not gonna review movie trailers.
- Not gonna review CBS promos.
- Not gonna touch the Tebow spot.
I can't guarantee the rest of my fellow Hyper-Bole bloggers will adhere to this stipulations. Just putting you on notice there.

Now that we've got that unpleasantness out of the way...my section of Hyper-Bole is gonna be short because the 1st quarter wasn't much to behold.

There are only two ways advertising can move me: humor or tears. Tell me a story that elicits either response and I'll at least take a hard look at the product. That being said, only 4 of the 24 ads in the first quarter deserve recognition:

1. Snickers: You can't pick up a bat and beat a pick-up football game with Rose Nyland and Tessio. I'm allergic to peanuts and I almost sent my husband out for a Snickers for me.
2. Boost Mobile: As a child of the 70s and 80s, I assume this spot is targeted at me. Bullseye. Only one issue - didn't see Refrigerator Perry. Ditka and his 'stache compensated well.
3. Doritos: The majority of the Doritos ads (and there were plenty of them) didn't impress me. I get it - they're addictive. But, the spot with the kid and his mom's blind date hurt my side. Maybe it's a gall bladder or acid reflux problem, but I pretty much tasted Dorito's after that spot.
4. Bridgestone Tires: Humorous payoff - bachelor party. Tearful payoff - saving the whales. Consider that a touchdown and extra point, rolled into one.

Honorable Mentions: Simpsons Coca-Cola spot and Bud Light T-Pain Autotone spot (only because I love the autotone effect)

Honorable Let's-Not-Ever-Speak-Of-Them-Agains: GoDaddy (Note to GoDaddy - there ARE women who handle tech too), Monster.com's animatronic beavers and Doritos' funeral spot

We delivered one heck of a result with an online buy-one-get-one-free promotion we did for a major casual dining client last quarter. In just a few weeks’ time we increased their customer email list by 230%, their Facebook fan page following by 62%, their Twitter followers by 56%, and their online loyal customer database by 41%. It was the strongest period of the year for the client, with nearly twice as many online coupons being redeemed as conventional coupons from newspaper.

Just goes to show the power of digital marketing in our brave new marketing world. And you know who your best friend is when it comes to digital marketing, don’t you? Well…don’t you?