My sister sent me this cool link and I thought I would pass it along, since I found it really interesting. Converse shoes launched a really creative campaign called the Converse Spelling Bee.

Here’s how it works. You click on the url, which takes you to a video of a shoelace (LOL) who tells you the word you need to spell.

Once you hear the word, you have to open a search engine in a new window and type in the word. If you get it right, you’ll see a Google Ad link which will take you to the next video and the next word. I’m not sure if you’ll be able to make it out below, but the first word was “ludicrous” and the link can be found on the top right hand side of the screen.

Very clever! What a unique way of using search engine links to generate interest. I won’t tell you the rest of the answers- you should go and try them yourselves, but you end up at the converse official site. Now, whether or not the campaign sells any shoes has yet to be determined, I can guarantee you that they are getting a lot of brand exposure and buzz online. Besides, as my sister pointed out, after you play and you’re on the site, you’re probably going to take a few minutes and have a look around. I know I did.

I love seeing campaigns like this because it illustrates that untapped space still left to explore and the opportunity for innovation. As the social media space continues to evolve, I am very curious to see how viral campaigns will tie in other tools like SEO to create a unique web browsing experience for their consumers.

The web’s favorite dancing traveler is back with another installment of the hugely popular “Where the hell is Matt?” video. Sponsored by Stride Gum, this video takes Matt all over the world, as he dances his signature dance, but this time, invites other people to join in on the fun. As of this posting, the official video on YouTube has over three million views, not to mention the loads of other sites that are hosting it. I am so envious of all the cool places Matt got to see and it’s definitely ignited my own wanderlust!

You can get more information about Matt at his website here.

One of the best things about the web is the whatever you’re doing for, someone, somewhere is an expert. The worst thing about the web is that whatever you’re doing, someone, somewhere is an expert. I recently had an interesting conversation with a few friends about online reputation and managing the fall out if you do something wrong.

Little did I know, that a few days later I would have a chance to practice what I preached! Last week I co-hosted an episode of CommandN with my friend Amber Mac. It was my second time on camera in a hosting capacity (the first time was the Foush Reports) and I was super nervous!

Anyway, one of the stories I talked about was the Copy Act article and some of the restrictions it contains. So the first time around, I say everything normally, but for some reason or another we had to redo the story, and by third (and final) take, I had jumbled up some of the words in my mind, and instead of saying “Canada’s version of the DMCA act,” I said, “Canada’s DMCA act.”

Now I didn’t even notice this, until one of the CommandN viewers pointed it out to me, which made me so glad  since I’d much rather know that something is wrong than continue on unaware. So I was faced with the dilemma of what to do. Do I ignore the comment? Just pretend it never happened and go on with my blogging?

That didn’t really feel right to me. So I thought that I would tie both the conversation and what had happened into a mini-case study of what I recommend doing if you make a similar misstep.

1) Apologize, but don’t give excuses or pass the blame

2) Give people the necessary information

3) Learn from your mistake going forward.

I mean the reality of the situation is this: when you put everything out on the web, you’re bound to make a mistake. As long as you are quick to correct it and take responsibility for it, you should be ok.

So, it should look something like this:

CommandN - Retraction

On Episode 137 of CommandN I gave misspoke during one of the stories. Instead of saying “Canada’s version of the DMCA” I said “Canada’s DMCA.”   What I meant to say was that there is a bill being introduced to amend the Copyright Act, and make it more similar to the United States’ DMCA.

Here is some information on the Copy Right Act

For an actual expert on the topic, check out Michael Giest’s Blog.

Thanks to the CommandN viewers who pointed this out! I will definitely be extra diligent when communicating these types of stories from now on.

When to not respond

Now among the nice and constructive comments there always seem to be those few people who enjoy just making mean remarks. Don’t respond to those. As long as the comments are well intentioned then you should respond, otherwise, just move on.

I had the pleasure of speaking with Mitch Joel at SES Toronto 2008 Conference about social media success and engaging consumers in a meaningful way. Mitch had plenty to say and gave me some great tips that I thought I would share. Here’s the first IDEA NINJA!

For companies who are getting started:

If you’re a company that wants to get started with a blog, the first thing you want to do is make sure that there is an audience who is interested in engaging with you before you make any big investments. So start on a site like blogger.com or wordpress. Park your domain name so that you can use it later if you decide to go forward. Then just see how it goes.

This method can prove to your board or executives that that people were generally interested. You can also start a social community on Ning.com. It’s free. It might not have all the functionality but you’ll be able to validate your need for an investment.

Then, when you’re ready, you can move. And if people are engaged, they will follow you wherever you go.

For Bloggers Wanting to Increase Audience

You can use Google Reader to share interesting pages and links. If you do this, then Google reader will set up a little page just for you entitled “So and So’s shared pages” that will have it’s own RSS feed. You can then add the url of that page to your blogroll and people can subscribe to your shared items. It’s a great way to let people know about the things that are capturing your interest. You will also be able to grow community in an organic way.

On having or building a following:

Having a set of x number of friends is not the same as having conversations. Friendships are built by authenticity. There seems to be two sides, it’s like a nun/whore relationship in Social Media where one set of people are using these tools to get inspiration and collaborate to bring the industry forward, and the other is a vacuum that sucks value by focusing on link-baiting and inauthenticity in an effort to improve rankings.

On what should drive strategy:

What’s happening is that people are looking at the “what.” (What are we doing on Facebook? What are we doing on Myspace?) There is a rush and people forget the why. Why is more important. The Why is strategy and the What is tactic.

I always use the Bic Pen analogy. Who cares about a pen? None one cares and no one wants to be in scenario where they are being sold stuff. Bic built a community around the power of the written word, and writers loved that stuff. It’s about sharing your passions with people.

On Building Relationships:

Yeah, I have 2,000 Facebook friends. The value of those relationships go both ways. You will never stay my friend if you break that trust. The fact that I get links from this is secondary, my role is to provide and give back good content. I mean I can’t have a strong business without a strong community. And if people try to call bullshit on it then I tell them to prove me wrong. When have I ever not given something back when I good? I blog almost every day, I do a weekly podcast on my own time, I am always available is someone needs help with something.

But at the end of the day, you can’t be friends with someone if you don’t like what they are saying. Mass media is changing into a very personal and direct model. I look at those networks as being a cookie to a great conversation. The great conversation is dinner. Dinner is only amazing if the food is great.

On the balance of the online community:

These social channels are about individuals. Social media marketing is about real interaction between real human beings. If either of components of that equation aren’t there the entire thing quickly falls apart. It also takes time to build. So if anyone tells you that something can be a quick fix it’s a lie. There are no quick fixes in the space. That’s why it works so magically, it’s because you have to take the time to build and trust. You might get results in the short term, but it’s only the short term.

At the end of the day, if that’s your goal then it’s still spam.

To Get More Mitch:

Mitch’s Site

Mitch’s Twitter

Mitch’s Facebook

Mitch’s Podcast

Having been in this space for a while, I am so happy to say that I have found a great number of teachers and mentors. That’s one of the things I really love about the web, is that it allows you to connect intimately with so many interesting people that are just brimming with ideas. Being extremely inquisitive I have been searching the web, finding some of the best thought leaders. I am calling these people IDEA NINJAS.

I’m going to start tracking these people down (which might be hard due to their NINJA stealth. (I insist on always spelling NINJA in caps because I think it adds mystery and drama, lol)

Anyway, I definitely have a list of people in mind but if you know someone who should be on this list, shoot me an email or leave a comment below and I will check them out.