Robocalls are when a pre-recorded message is created and sent out to a large assortment of phones, using an autodialer. This tactic is generally associated with politicians who are looking to reach the greatest number of people. Because nothing sells your message like a robotic sounding telephone recording.

If you’ve ever received one of these messages, you know it can be irritating. It’s hard to get revenge, like Seinfeld was able to pull off with an actual person trying to sell him something.

However, there’s now a way to send your own robocall back to these politicians. It’s called the ‘Reverse Robocall‘. If you don’t mind spending a bit of money, and taking a few seconds to record a message then you can give them a taste of their own medicine.

The premise is quite simple. When you visit the website you’re given a large assortment of politicians, each of which you can send your own pre-recorded message to. Want to give the candidates in the upcoming presidential election a piece of your mind, but don’t want to actually talk to them, you can easily do it. For more detailed instructions, here’s an official video from ReverseRobocall.com.

The site was created by privacy activists Shaun Dakin and Aaron Titus. The idea came about due to Titus receiving a robocall at 4:30 am from his child’s school district. They’re also trying to build awareness for a piece of legislation titled ‘Mobile Informational Call Act of 2011 (HR 3035)‘, which will “amend the Communications Act of 1934 to permit informational calls to mobile telephone numbers, and for other purposes.“.

Funny enough, you can send your own reverse robocall to everyone who is supporting the act.

Since this is the 25th anniversary year of the Legend of Zelda, it’s no wonder why Nintendo has gone to such lengths to release so many games. What better spokespeople than Robin Williams, and the daughter he actually named Zelda? The duo conducted the original advertisement a few months ago for the release of Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D (which looks amazing on the handheld).

The lone commercial has now turned into a multiple ad campaign. With a commercial for the Legend of Zelda: Four Swords game which is a downloadable title for the 3DS.

And the latest commercial, which is for Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. Releasing in November for the Nintendo Wii.

As someone who’s been a Legend of Zelda fan since the original, I have fond memories of actually sitting down and playing it with my mom (she was the one who actually beat Ganon). Seeing these commercials brings all the great Legend of Zelda memories back again. Almost can’t wait for the next game release to see some more commercials. Genius.

In the first post, the Obama 2012 team explains that they want the Tumblr to become a collaborative effort, one where people from all over the country can submit their experiences working for the campaign or upload relevant photos like one they captured of someone wearing an Obama shirt.

They also said that the Obama 2012 Tumblr would consider reblogging other Tumblr posts.

The Obama campaign foresees some issues that could arise from their latest venture, but have addressed the “trolls” in this fashion:

There will be trolls among you: this we know. We ask only that you remember that we’re people—fairly nice ones—and that your mother would want you to be polite.

Thanks, Tumblr. We’re looking forward to getting to know you.

The importance of social media in the upcoming presidential campaign is not lost on Obama and his team, as they continue to work hard to keep Twitter and Facebook an integral part of communication with the internet community. With Tumblr, Obama looks to expand his social media presence into a space that is yet to be tapped by many others in the race.

I’m sure that he’d like to see the kind of support on Tumblr that he has on other social sites – for instance his 10.7 million Twitter followers and 23.7 million Facebook supporters.

Since creating the Tumblr blog, the Obama campaign has posted a photo of campaign staff packing up cellphones in Ohio and made a short post about the President’s jobs plan.

Upon watching the video, I wonder if “It starts with us” will be a campaign slogan moving forward. Along with the video, there are prominent links to President Obama’s Facebook and Twitter accounts. You can sign up for email updates, and there’s already a store to purchase 2012 gear.

The heart of the site looks to be the “Get Involved” page, which features a list of the most current updates involving the campaign, upcoming events, groups, fundraising information, and volunteer information. On the latest updates list, you’ll find the two announcement tweets from President Obama:

From a purely objective standpoint, President Obama’s campaign site is exceptionally well done. It features quick navigation, with a simple layout. As with all sites which rely on donations, the “Donate Now” button is prominently featured without being too in-your-face about it.

Obama’s online presence is believed to be one of the important factors of his victory in 2008. He won the attention of the people through viral campaigns, and becoming a hit on the social networks. If this initial site redesign is any kind of barometer to go by, the same online savvy which benefited the President in 2008 will look to continue during his reelection as well.

And here’s the backstory:

Fresh off his appearance during a tv spot during the Superbowl, former ASU 1996 Rose Bowl wide receiver Isaiah Mustafa, reprised his role as the manly Old Spice Man and has caused a coup in social media circles.

In an industry that’s been increasingly filled with social media experts whose claimed to fame has been writing books about building a huge following on Facebook or Twitter, or building buzz, or sometimes seem like the Internet marketing equivalent of a Paris Hilton “I’m famous for being famous”, the Old Spice Man has brought a breath of fresh air to the social media scene.

On Tuesday, he took questions from multiple social media channels – Twitter and Facebook – and a team compiled the questions and had numerous personalized responses posted on YouTube, which were then emailed, retweeted and circulated around the Internet.

As of now, there are 205 videos posted on the YouTube channel with more content being progressively added.

Before you jump in with a preliminary judgement that this is a case of new-fangled efficiency in aggregating multiple channels, take a moment to watch the finished product.

The Old Spice Man comes across as:

• Attractive to both genders – women want to be with him, men want to be like him.
• Intelligent: He’s got the chops to reply with astute answers, compared to the incessant laughing and rambling common with some lifecasters.
• Funny: He doesn’t take himself too seriously and his humor is infectious.

Except for a few critics, he’s largely won over the bulk of his followers, including Digg founder Kevin Rose, actresses Alyssa Milano and Demi Moore. His biggest win could possibly be the 4chan community, a rabble-like elite community which has spawned memes like LOLCats and RickRolling.

What helped make this a winning campaign. Some of the key details:

• A successful marriage of social media practitioners and a tech team
• Trust from Old Spice’s parent, Proctor and Gamble, for the ad agency to have a free hand in scripting and going live with responses to queries, without the typical multiple layers of management vetting and approval
• Picking the right person to play the Old Spice Man and front the campaign.

The missing ingredient in most social campaigns is an air of sincerity, playing it straight with the audience and an essential star quality and x-factor which all but a few lack.
Isaiah Mustafa possesses all the following attributes in scads.

Watch the videos and you might just get a taste of the future of social media.

Old Spice Man replies to Digg’s Kevin Rose:

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Alyssa Milano tweets her delight.

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Old Spice Man replies to Demi Moore

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Rather than trying to get you to "defriend" the people you don’t think you know, the campaign asks a much more interesting question. If you had the chance to meet your online friends in real life, would you learn they were really your friends, or little more than strangers? To find out, the company found a girl named Rosa and decided to send her on a journey across the US to connect with her online friends in real life. They armed her with a KIN, a new phone which seems to be either made by Verizon, Sharp or Windows (they don’t really say) and recorded video of her travels.

It’s a marketing campaign that fits squarely in between the concept of a documentary and a social experiment, but it works because you want to know what Rosa will discover. Not only for her, but because it has some meaning for each of us who keep these virtual relationships and wonder what they really mean. It’s not that often that a marketing effort can turn the lens back onto a cultural phenomenon that we are all living through right now. This succeeds brilliantly at that and is worth watching.

From a marketing point of view, however, the campaign equally brilliantly demonstrates how a lack of connection can make life confusing for a consumer. Details like the KIN Studio or the KIN Spot are features that sound important, but are shared on Facebook without any real explanation of what they are or why someone should care. Ultimately the Facebook page relies on product imagery and placement to make you aware of the product and make you want one.

The connection to how the phone might actually help you better filter your network or find out who your real friends are (both things the campaign focuses on) are missing to connect the phone to the bigger message they are sharing.  What this leads to is that the campaign may stay in people’s mind for the questions it raised and the story it focused on telling, but the phone (and company behind it) will be easily forgotten – like a subtle product placement in a TV series that you might notice, but never really makes much of a difference.

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Last December, Dell claimed $1 million in sales that the company could directly attribute to their use of Twitter.

Dell offers refurbished laptops, desktops, workstations, servers and storage, and monitors and printers from Dell Outlet in the USA, with its  @DellOutlet account on Twitter a primary channel to notify followers of the latest offers.

Yesterday, Dell said that the total value of sales attributable to their presence on Twitter – both refurbished equipment as well as new systems – has now exceeded $3 million.

[…] Since we started back in 2007, we’ve earned more than $2 million in revenue at @DellOutlet, attributed directly to our Twitter activity.

We’ve surpassed $2 million in revenue in terms of Dell Outlet sales, but we’re also seeing that it’s driving interest in new product as well. We’re seeing people come from @DellOutlet on Twitter into the Dell.com/outlet site, and then ultimately decide to purchase a new system from elsewhere on Dell.com. If we factor those new system purchases that come from @DellOutlet, we’re actually eclipsed $3 million in overall sales.

That’s quite a metric, one that shows what you can achieve when your use of Twitter clearly is strategic and integrated into your overall sales, marketing and communication activities.

[…] Deal-hunters are especially attracted to Dell’s Twitter presence. Dell Outlet sells refurbished Dell products at great prices, but inventories fluctuate, making it difficult to know when products are available or on sale. Dell Outlet uses Twitter as a way to message out coupons, clearance events and new arrival information to those looking for Dell technology at a discounted price.

Dell has extended its direct-selling model on Twitter to Dell Outlet online stores in other markets, notably the UK ( @DellOutletUK) and Ireland ( @DellOutletIE).

[…] But @DellOutlet continues to be the most popular Dell Twitter property. We’ll try to keep it that way by offering a mix of Twitter-exclusive offers, Dell Outlet deals and Outlet-specific updates and information.

Dell currently has a global team of around 40 employees whose roles include engaging with customers and others interested in Dell via Twitter.

Earlier this month, I had a conversation with  Richard Binhammer, a senior communicator at Dell’s US headquarters, and  Kerry Bridge, Head of Digital Media Communications, EMEA and Global Public Sector at Dell’s UK office, about the company’s use of Twitter.

That conversation will be published as an FIR Interview podcast soon.

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Hitwise reports a 1332% increase in web visitors on March 3rd.

Alexa–put the rotten tomatoes away–confirms this jump in traffic:

And Google Trends saw a spike in the number of people searching for “skittles.”

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To keep it simple, let’s look at some areas that you can change very quickly:

     1. Change your title and meta descriptions for the main pages on your site. If you have never looked at them before, then this is even more important. Not only do the engines consider the title tag one of the last of the on-page factors that are still relevant, your marketing message might have changed and your site could be behind the times. I tell folks to review these areas on a quarterly basis and make sure that your messaging is on point relative to your business goals.
  
   2. Change your level of involvement. If you are one of those folks who is completely on top of their Web site’s search marketing, then more power to you. I can safely say, however, that the overwhelming majority of site owners in the SMB space have not looked at their most important SEO factors in a very long time. SEO requires regular attention by someone in the know. It is not a "one and done" practice. Be sure you are ALWAYS involved in building new one-way inbound link partners. If your SEO efforts have been inconsistent, then it is likely that your reputation with the search engines has suffered.
 
   3. Change your agency. Wow. I can’t believe I just said that but it is something that should be considered often. There are many client-agency relationships that slip into a catatonic state, sapping the essential creativity needed for SEO success. You have the right to demand that your agency do what YOU need for success and not get caught up in a monthly set of deliverables that are routinely spit out to meet lax contractual obligations. If you are paying for creativity, then demand it or tell your current provider to pack their bags and take a hike.
 
   4. Change your clients. For you agency folks this may come as a shock but there are bad clients out there that drain your resources and turn unprofitable after some time. If that is the case, fire the client. What? Yup, you read that correctly. Fire the client. Agency relationships that are on auto pilot hurt both client and agency alike. If your client has been unresponsive, or unwilling to invest the resources for success, then guess who is at fault when the client complains about results. The agency will always be wrong. Avoid that by cleaning house of bad clients and looking to do good business with those who value your knowledge and time.
 
   5. Change your attitude. This is the big one. We are in uncertain times but your attitude toward your SEO efforts should correlate directly to the level of success you have. Search engine optimization is extremely attractive in an economic downturn. Efficiency and measurability make for very wise marketing budget spending. If you go for broke now, you stand to be in or near the front of the pack when things pick back up. Expect to win.

So it’s time for change. Take control. Make some money. Smile a little. Change can be good.

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However, his smartest move to date could be the launch of the FightTheSmears.com web site. The site–actually it redirects to a page on the my.barackobama.com web site–is Obama’s initiative to address the many rumors that circulate the internet about him.

Here’s an example:

So why could this be his smartest online move yet? As we explain in Radically Transparent, in the absence of an official response, stakeholders–in this case voters–will fill the gaping void with rumor and speculation.

In other words, if Obama continued to let these rumors spread and grow, they would become facts in the eyes of the voting public. While some may say that you should not shine your own spotlight on a negative rumor, my advice is always to address it head-on. Just because you ignore a slanderous remark, doesn’t mean it will go away.

There’s another huge benefit Barack Obama will get from the launch of Fight The Smears. He’s now hosting the conversation.

Hosting the conversation is at the top of my list of recommendations, for anyone facing a reputation attack. Trying to respond to rumors on individual blogs and forums is akin to playing a game of whack-a-mole–the moment you respond to one rumor, another appears. Instead, by creating your own platform for response, you’re inviting everyone to come to you. It will be much easier for Obama’s campaign to respond to rumors, if the media and voting public know where to find the official response. In fact, the site goes one step further by inviting you to email the “truth” to your friends.

A few months ago, it would have been trite to say that Barack Obama would win the Presidential election because of his online campaigning. With Fight The Smears, Obama is demonstrating he really is the candidate that is not afraid to change the rules.

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