Brand hijacking a la Twitter ... get on board

Note: As of August 26, AMC has restored these accounts--yeah for companies who get it!

Companies are starting to acknowledge twitter as a communications channel, and a number of them, including Starbucks, Graco and Whole Foods, are getting on board the "brandstreaming" express.

But along with the adoption of twitter by legitimate companies has come the adoption of twitter by people who are pretending to represent legitimate companies. Earlier this month there was quite a bit of buzz about the fake Exxon account set up on twitter.

Now it seems as though the entire cast of characters from the series Mad Men also have their own twitter accounts ... but you guessed it, the accounts are fake. They've been shut down, although new ones are popping up.

Too bad AMC didn't think of this to begin with--it's such a brilliant idea.

Presence, in the stranges of places

I've always found it fascinating how presence makes its way into the digital realm. How do we leave traces of ourselves? How do we integrate bits of the "now" into our online activities?

I've run across a few examples lately which I find really interesting.

First, there's the launch of the new Avenue A | Razorfish corporate site. Every office shows a status much like Twitter and Facebook. For example, "New York is gonna grab a slice." How brilliant is that? Also, if you choose a location, you'll see a feed of the office. While it is not live (and would be cooler if it was), it does provide a feeling of being teleported to that location. It's not intrusive yet provides relevancy.




Second, a colleague of mine working on Microsoft's search, Live.com, just showed me their recent work. When you go to the site, there is one, gorgeous photograph of a current event. This week, there's been great Olympic shots. It's beautifully done--not distracting from the clean user experience in any way. In fact it's additive and suggesting.



Do you have other examples? Please send them my way!

Vote for me at SXSW Interactive ... pretty please ;)

SXSW's Interactive Panel Picker opened today and it allows everyone, whether they are attending the conference or not, to vote for the panels they like best.

I submitted the following panel and have an amazing group of speakers lined up, including Trace Cohen, Amy Vickers and Margaret Hanley:

My Network My Data: New Social Media Models
What happens when MySpace becomes my space? Many of us belong to numerous social networks, but they're owned and operated by others. When members truly own both their communal space and their social data, a new experience will emerge.


I've also been asked to speak on the following panel submitted by Rachel Lovinger:

Content Content Revolution: The Rise of Content Strategy
What’s Content Strategy, you ask? Navigation, publishing guidelines, taxonomy, syndication, style guides, UGC strategy, the semantic web? All this and more! Come hear some of the leading content strategy professionals discuss where this emerging discipline came from, why it matters, and where it’s going.

If these look exciting and worthwhile, please go to the picker today and vote! Thanks!

Open ID Growing

I've written a bit about identity in the digital realm--its challenges and potential solutions. One of the solutions for multiple identities across sites is OpenID,which allows users to sign in across many sites using only one user name and password.

Of course, for this to work well, many sites needs to adopt this exchange, and ultimately, the web should adopt a standard. This will most likely take some time, but we're certainly getting there. The following chart shows the growth of OpenID, which 18,000 sites, including MySpace and Yahoo, now provide as a sign-in option. (Source: http://janrain.com/)