2008 December | Justin Levy

Let’s Welcome Colin Browning to the Pirate Ship

December 31, 2008 By Justin Levy Leave a Comment

It’s official. Colin Browning has joined the pirate ship. Colin is joining our team after 3.5 years at Prospero and Mzinga. If you don’t already know Colin, he was the Director of Business Development at Mzinga. Colin rounds out our core team who will be leading the charge at New Marketing Labs. He also has a really cool blog, Constructing Social, that you should check out.

To celebrate, Chris Brogan, Colin and I are all headed out to Las Vegas for CES from Tuesday, January 6th to Sunday, January 11th. Besides checking out all of the cool new toys and going to some great parties, we really want to meet with people about possible business opportunities. We want to meet with people who fall into one of these categories:

Event partnerships, exhibitor and/or sponsorship opportunities: In case you didn’t know, we are running 4 New Marketing Summits in 2009. We also have immediate plans to run 10 New Marketing Bootcamps (website coming soon) with the possibility of many more. Throughout 2009 we will also be hosting several meetups around the country along with a few other events we have under lock and key right now.
Social media strategy and execution: In 2009, we will be providing social media strategy and execution to our agency clients. If you’re a company who is wanting to get involved in new media marketing but not sure where to start or have already started and want to catapult your success, let’s talk. We have already signed some awesome clients who you’ll find out about really soon. Let’s grab a beer while we’re in Vegas and talk about what your needs are and how New Marketing Labs may be able to help you.
Social media practitioners: We are looking for people who are passionate about all things new media ranging from blogging to community management to social media execution. Looking beyond just passion, we are looking for those people who put their passion for new media into solid execution. We are going to be working with awesome clients and want your help. If you meld passion with execution and are interested in possible opportunities, let me know so we can chat. Also, please take a minute to fill out our practitioner interest form.

But, you’re not going to CES and still want to chat about one of the above opportunities. That’s great! Please reach out to Chris, Colin or I and we’ll be happy to chat. Make sure you connect with all of us on Twitter: @chrisbrogan, @crbrowning and @justinlevy.

Here’s to a fun, exciting, sleepless 2009! Cheers!

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Photo by: Simon Willison

Filed Under: New Marketing Labs, Social Media, Social Media Strategy Tagged With: newmarketinglabs, Social Media, Social Media Strategy

Grocery Store Goes Hi-Tech with Personal Scanners

December 30, 2008 By Justin Levy 6 Comments

handscanner-headshot A few weeks ago I was at my local Stop & Shop grocery store and noticed some new stuff around. They had upgraded the self-checkouts and there was also a docking station that had several personal scanners. In a rush I couldn’t play with the shiny new toys. But, over this past weekend I went back in and took these personal scanners for a ride.

The idea is simple and brilliant. Scan your membership card to unlock a scanner. Then walk around with the scanner, scanning and bagging your items as you shop. Once you’re done, dock the scanner at the self-checkout, pay via your chosen payment method, and you’re done. To accommodate this, Stop & Shop also has installed new scales at several locations throughout the produce section. This allows you to quickly weigh your produce and print out a barcode for it.

One of the things I found interesting about using the scanner was that as I walked around it let me know of sales. Also, at any given time I could see how much I had spent, how much I saved, and the details of everything I was purchasing.

Overall I was really impressed with the shopping experience. The only inconveniences were due to the implementation being new and the need to still retrofit the shopping carts with a dock for the scanner, as well as the addition of more bags throughout the store.

I can think of so many reasons why this is great from a business perspective but am really curious to hear your ideas. So, in the comments below let me know what you think about this concept from a business perspective. What do you see as being good? What problems do you see with this type of technology?

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Filed Under: technology Tagged With: technology

Social Media and the Las Vegas Strip – How MGM Mirage and Luxor Are Taking Advantage

December 29, 2008 By Justin Levy 6 Comments

Recently I had the opportunity to interview Brandie, known on Twitter as @LuxorLV. Brandie is in charge of interactive marketing at the Luxor and social media initiatives at MGM Mirage.

I first met Brandie via Twitter when I was in town for BlogWorld Expo a couple months ago. I was sending regular tweets, as usual, about what I was up to, what session I was at, the parties I would be attending that night, etc. One night I received a notice from Twitter that @LuxorLV was now following me. Interested, I decided to check out the profile and noticed that there had been several tweets about special discounts and events available to BlogWorld attendees. I came to find out that Brandie had been monitoring the BlogWorld stream on Twitter Search and was reaching out to attendees via Twitter to let them know of night activities that they could go to.

The fact that Luxor was using Twitter to listen, stay updated on what was happening on the Strip, and engage visitors really impressed me. It is great to see another company using Twitter, as well as other social media platforms, as a way to directly communicate with customers in this way.

I probably would’ve never stayed at Luxor previously. Not for any particular reason, I just always seem to stay some place else. But, next time I’m in town I will definitely take a look into staying at Luxor because of the great service Brandie showed to me when I was just one of tens of thousands of people frequenting the Las Vegas Strip that weekend.

Without further ado, here are the few questions that I asked Brandie, along with her response:

Please provide a brief description about yourself and your role at Luxor Casino:
I’ve worked for MGM MIRAGE and Luxor for the past 2.5 years and currently handle all the Interactive Marketing for Luxor. This runs the gamut from email marketing to online advertising, SEM, SEO, website management, Web 2.0, mobile advertising and marketing and social media. Basically, anything that’s not “traditional” marketing falls into my realm. Recently, I also took on social media and relationship management for MGM MIRAGE.

It appears as though Luxor Casino is one of the few casinos that are embracing social media. What are some ways that Luxor utilizes social media (and other forms of interactive marketing) and how has this helped the casino?
Our number one priority is customer service. Social media has allowed me to easily and quickly connect with past, current and future Luxor guests to better understand how we can offer guests a better, more ultimate Las Vegas experience.

Customers will often ask for recommendations on places to eat or things to do. They enjoy receiving immediate answers from sources that know Vegas intimately. Moreover, I often proactively respond to questions about Vegas. Twitter Search is a wonderful tool for listening and being able to help customers solve problems.

You can find where we are in the social media space here: http://www.luxor.com/contact/contact_social.aspx

Have you begun to see other casinos on the Strip getting involved with social media after seeing what you’re doing at Luxor?
Yes. We typically test Interactive initiatives with one or two properties and then roll it out to all other interested properties. Currently, MGM MIRAGE participates in social media through the Vegas Beat Facebook Fan Page and @VegasConcierge.

What is your recommendation to those who may not be using social media?
There’s not one “perfect” way to use social media. Do what works for your business model and where your customers are.

If you aren’t already, make sure you follow Brandie and Luxor on Twitter and on their Facebook fan page.

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Photo by: David Alter

Filed Under: Interview, Social Media, Twitter Tagged With: Interview, Social Media, Twitter

How to Use Google Reader Like a Pro

December 27, 2008 By Justin Levy 3 Comments

Yesterday you learned how to become a Twitter power user and today I want to show you how you can consume tons of information from your RSS feeds in a short period of time. I think this is a critical skill especially if you want to follow a lot of different feeds and don’t want to spend your entire day doing it. One of the questions you’ll hear asked of the A-listers is how do they manage their time throughout the day with all of the content they create and that they consume. This is one of those ways.

My preference for an RSS reader is Google Reader. I like Google Reader because it allows me to use keyboard shortcuts so that it increases the speed at which I can go through my feeds. It also allows me to link up with other people and read what they find interesting and choose to share with me. This cuts down on some of the feeds I have to subscribe to and also exposes me to other new feeds that may be of interest to me. I currently subscribe to about 200 or so feeds and usually scan/read between 300-600 posts per day. Of those I try to share the best and leave comments on a handful of them.

Two videos helped me to increase the speed at which I’m able to consume this much information and I think they will be helpful to you as well, especially if you’re just starting out. Check out these two videos, one from Chris Brogan and the other of Robert Scoble being interviewed by Tim Ferriss.

Please enable Javascript and Flash to view this Blip.tv video.

Please enable Javascript and Flash to view this Viddler video.

I hope these videos were helpful to you in some way. Do you like these types of posts? If so, what other types of hacks, tips and tricks would you like to learn about?

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