Top Social Media-Inspired Halloween Costumes for 2010

It’s beginning to look at lot like. . . Halloween! In 2009, we looked at the top costumes inspired by YouTube videos. This year, we are expanding our scope and recommending the top five social media-inspired costumes. Let us know if you dare to dress up like any of these digital characters – or if you have others to add to the list.

Old Spice Guy: One of the most talked about social media campaigns this year was certainly the Old Spice Guy who created unique videos in response to Twitter @-replies. To achieve this look, fellas, grab a towel and, well, that’s it. Now you are the best smelling man in the world for Halloween.

Happy Birthday Google!

Today is Google’s 12th birthday!

Kanye West’s Top Tips for Digital Communicators

Make no mistake, Kanye West is a one-of-a-kind musician, performer and pop culture icon – just ask him yourself. He has created a personal brand that is all his own and, while his attitude may rub some the wrong way, there are a few lessons we digital marketers can learn from his experience.

Define Your Brand’s Personal Style

Whether or not you dig his shutter-shades and graphic Ts, Kanye’s unique personal style sets him apart from other artists. Just as there are always new musicians trying to make it big, hundreds of consumer brands are hopping on the social media bandwagon trying to get noticed every year. To cut through the clutter, find the online medium where your target audience is already engaged. There, showcase the personality of your brand and highlight the product/service offering that differentiates your company from others.

Scoring Big with World Cup Digital Marketing

During Monday’s World Cup match between the Netherlands and Denmark, 36 spectators were removed from the stadium. They weren’t cursing at the referees. They weren’t causing fights. Their crime was wearing orange dresses. The group huddled in the front row of the stadium and the sea of orange grabbed the attention of several cameras during the game. But these weren’t just ordinary dresses. They were supplied by the Dutch brewery, Bavaria, which means they were in direct offense of Fifa’s marketing regulations.

Twitter Account Spawns CBS Sitcom

I’m guess that most of us are frantically looking for a new show to tune into once LOST concludes this Sunday night. Well, for us social-media-loving folks can rest easy: ‘Bleep My Dad Says,’ a sitcom based off of Justin Halpern’s Twitter account, has just been picked up by CBS.

Launched just last fall, the Twitter account @ShitMyDadSays has garnered more than 1 million followers. The account is simple; Justin posts the blunt, curse-filled and hilarious things his father says to him. Here are a few examples:

YouTube Video of the Week

To help get you through your Wednesday, I thought I would share this video of 12-year-old Grayson Chance singing and playing Lady GaGa’s “Paparazzi” perhaps even better than the original. Since his first television appearance on Ellen last week, his YouTube videos have jumped to more than 30 million views in total. Once you watch, you’ll see why.

Gettin’ Lucky on Facebook

I find it terribly annoying when a brand launches a Facebook page and then doesn’t do a darn thing with it. Particularly for consumer brands, there is not only a huge marketing opportunity for them, but a chance to closely engage with their constituents on a one-to-one level.

I was happy to see that Lucky Magazine has taken Facebook marketing to a new level with the launch of its Facebook Pop Up Shop. In partnership with the Home Shopping Network (HSN), the shopping pub introduced a virtual store for designers like Pade Vavra, Gerard Yosca and F+C.

No Longer Singing LaLa’s Praises

While I might stand outside the majority of online music listeners who love Pandora, I’ve preferred the site LaLa.com for the past year or so. While Pandora is a great service, I always found it off-putting that I couldn’t listen to exactly the song I was in the mood for. LaLa, allows you to build a playlist with any song of your choosing – and they have a great music library of even the most obscure bands. You can listen to any song once for free and you have the option of paying 10 cents to keep the song in your collection so you can listen to it as much as you want, or you can pay 89 cents to download the mp3 track to your iPod or other music player.

Dinner and a Movie with Your Entire Social Network

There are few things that make me transition from buttoned up PR professional to a giggling, boy-crazy thirteen year-old in a matter of seconds. One of those few things does happen to be Twilight (no judging, please).

In less than 24 hours, the highly anticipated Twilight Eclipse trailer has received close to 3 millions hits on YouTube and 1.7 million blog mentions. So here I am contributing to those already impressive numbers.

Surfing the Restricted Net

I attended a conference yesterday on social media for financial services companies. Despite the fact that I work with many of these types of clients on a daily basis and I am well aware of the compliance hurdles these companies face when it comes to promoting their brand via social media, I was surprised to find how much of the Internet is blocked for the employees at work.

Sure, no boss wants their employees tagging photos and skimming blogs about LOST while at work, but when you prohibit your employees from visiting sites like Facebook, Twitter, blogs and other online resources, you may be missing critical information relevant for your company. There have been many instances where I have stumbled upon a relevant blog entry on an industry trend relevant for one of my clients, or a Tweet from a client’s customer who needed an issue addressed immediately. By listening to what’s being said about your company and its industry, you become smarter and more agile when it comes to responding proactively and reactively.