The Brand Chef » Josh Fleming

Snow Day Social Media Fun – February 2, 2011

TheBrandChef — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 19:43:59 +0000

What do YOU do on a Snow Day in central Iowa? Well, if you’re at all involved in social media, you get online and jump into the conversation (ANY conversation). There’s always a chat, a dialogue, a debate or simply silly talk going on within Twitter.

As an experiment, I decided to create a screencast of the conversations that took place with and around me (@TheBrandChef) this morning.

Featured in this little conversation are friends and associates (and some people I’ve NEVER met, but I consider friends anyway):

@JoshFleming (Josh Fleming)
@abrudtkuhl (Andy Brudtkuhl)
@ketelsen (Katie Ketelsen)
@JuliaThompson (Julia Thompson)
@JustBrady (Justin Brady)
@theChesterfield (Strategic America)
@Kworalsoa (Simeone S. Spagnoli)

Enjoy!

Music credit goes out to Ben Folds for including these audio loops on the last CD I bought!

Keep Cooking (creative things to do when the world seems to shut down…)
Andrew B. Clark
The Brand Chef

Conquer Writer’s Block – Save The World!

TheBrandChef — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 15:55:51 +0000

Life spins around us pretty fast. It’s astounding that when we sit down to write, create, work, or whatever; the world comes to a screeching halt. Of course the distractions, the annoying emails, the tweets and post alerts seem to continue, but when creating really matters, you freeze. My last post talked about the need to conquer this writer’s block. If you don’t want to click back to read the whole post, here’s an excerpt:

It kills me every Wednesday night. While I’ve known all week that I have a personal deadline set to post every Thursday morning; I wait until Wednesday night (or later) to actually start writing. I take notes, jot ideas, scribble and doodle all week, but when it comes to Wednesday, I open TextEdit and just sit.

CRAP…

Suddenly, tonight, a voice in my head said “What the hell are you doing? Just start writing, you moron!” So I did. I wrote, “You’re going to die anyway.” and POW, the words started rolling.

So I challenged you to write the title of a future post for me – to kick-start some of the juices. And to my surprise, you stepped to the challenge (yay).

Now we – more to the point, YOU – get to vote on which title will be my next post! Read the entries below and vote for your favorite. You have until the end of the day (6:00 pm CST) Monday, June 21st to make your decision.

I will take the most popular title and interview the person that submitted it to get “the full story.” Who knows? It may reveal something about one of our fellow community of readers or it may just be cool to hear how they came up with the title. Any way we look at it, it’s going to prove to be interesting and challenging.

So, vote away! I look forward to seeing the results!

Keep Cooking! (free-flowing creative that saves the world!)

Andrew B. Clark
The Brand Chef

Competition, Cooperation In Social Media – What A Week!

TheBrandChef — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 18:38:32 +0000

When it comes to a little friendly competition, I’m all game. I love the challenge. I love the strategy. And obviously, my friends over at Lessing Flynn advertising agency, think the same way.

At the end of what was an extremely busy social media week for Central Iowa, we were made aware of a little competition brewing in the advertising agency social media ring.

The competition?

In short, there was a Michael Glass poll created asking, of 45 ad agencies listed, who had better social media reach? Who had true social media skills? (click the image below to go to the poll)

As the poll started to grow legs, it was evident that the two overwhelming leaders in the group was an agency out of North Carolina by the name of Media Two and our own Ad Mavericks (Lessing Flynn) from little ol’ Iowa.

For me, it started Thursday afternoon when I saw a tweet… innocuous at first, but in its tone was more of a challenge, thrown down to all central Iowa social media professionals, purveyors and hobbyists. As I continued to monitor the conversation, the tone became, well, more of a battle royale. Here’s a sample…

You can check out Ad Maverick’s complete Twitter stream here.

The game was on.

Some of the contenders never had a chance, but as Mr. Glass’s poll grew from a couple hundred respondents to well over 600 (at the time of this post), the competition for “Social Media Agency of the Month” was obviously between Media Two and Ad Mavericks. The two pulling away with double and triple the number of votes of other agencies.

What was driving the polls? Well, social media, silly!

Both agencies had a reputation to define and defend. So much so that Media Two, in typical, politicized, mud slinging fun, posted a (sightly) myopic commentary on the viability of social media surviving in the Midwest, trying to discredit Ad Mavericks. (shame on you Media Two…)

With true, Midwestern grace and poise, Ad Mavericks responded with their own post, or should I say call-to-arms; making a great argument for their cause as well as some of the best examples of social media success one could think of for Iowa and the Midwest as a whole. Iowans – social media savvy businesses, compulsively connected individuals, huge social media celebrities – have made the medium truly viable for the “fly-over” states. In contradiction to Media Two’s tongue-in-cheek jab at Iowa, Ad Mavericks raised the flag of social media superiority for the state and solidified the reputation Iowans have taken pride in – humbly and honestly.

I encourage you to review the poll entries. Weigh your thoughts on both Media Two and Ad Mavericks and vote your conscience.

With that, what a week it’s been in Iowa.

On top of the usual social media buzz Iowa generates, Iowa’s week started off with an astoundingly successful Highlight Midwest, where entrepreneurs, techies and the social media strong merged in downtown Des Moines to spread the good word, educate and perpetuate the great things that are happening with technology and social media throughout the Midwest. Even more specific to advertising agencies, Love Scott & Associates just sponsored the DSMCVB Social Media Marketing Workshop where top Iowa businesses converged to discuss social media as it applies in marketing, public relations and human resources (more here). And promotions for the upcoming I_Blog Conference started hitting the social media stratosphere in earnest to bring businesses and individuals together to create an even stronger force in Midwestern social media.

Competition is good. Cooperation is better.

Social media fosters both competition and cooperation in a way that traditional media has never been able. While the competition on Mr. Glass’s poll is fun and driven by silly jabs at the competitors; the nature of the poll is serious. Who does have true social media chops? Is it a Midwest vs. East coast competition – Iowa vs. North Carolina?

Or what if we took this week’s experiences and made it social media driving the greater good through communication within and between our respective communities?

Food for thought…

Keep Cooking!
Andrew B. Clark
The Brand Chef

P.S. As a side point, if there were a write-in option for the poll, this post would be solely about The Brand Chef and the silliness between Ad Mavericks and Media Two would be a moot point. I wish luck to both agencies. They’re both great social media purveyors and advocates, providing great value to the medium. May the best agency win.