Netflix Decides Not To Split After All

To the relief of many Netflix customers, the company announced that it will not continue with plans to separate its DVD and streaming services into two different websites. This decision comes after Netflix received a large amount of criticism due to its recent changes- first a 60% price increase, and then the announcement of the separation of DVD services into Qwikster.
Mashable.com reports that Netflix CEO Reed Hastings released a statement on the Netflix blog saying that "two websites would make things more difficult." Therefore Netflix has decided to keep the services together as one brand. The CEO also announced that they are done with price increases- which greatly deflated their number of subscribers.
It seems that Netflix got the message from its customers, who were extremely vocal about their opinions on Facebook and Twitter. Since the announcement of price hikes in July, conumers have been increasingly unhappy with the decisions made by top executives at Netflix. In September alone, Netflix's stock price lost half of it's value.
The cancellation of plans for Qwikster might be somewhat of an apology from Netflix to its consumers. The company has definitely responded to the negative reaction toward its decisions and now can move forward and try to rebuild its reputation.

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Want to Take Justin Timberlake's Profile Picture? Enter the 'Every Second Counts' Contest!

AdAge reports that in order to promote his upcoming film "In Time," Justin Timberlake has teamed up with digital agency Talenthouse to create a photography contest. The promotional campaign requires photography submissions that reflect the idea of making every second count.

The winning photo will ultimately be chosen by Timberlake and his firm, and it will be featured as Justin Timberlake's profile picture for the month of November. There is also a voting process, which is meant to bring forward the top contenders. The top nine finalists' photos will be featured in a pop up exhibit at the premiere of "In Time."

Each time someone submits a photo for consideration, they will be shown a trailer for "In Time." Talenthouse's general manager said they hoped to generate 500,000 views of the trailer from the contest alone. Timberlake has also been promoting the contest via his twitter account, where he has upwards of 6million followers.


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In Defense of “Insourcing” – Keep Social Media Efforts within a Company

The business world is all about results – if a corporation doesn’t see results from a new employee or tactic, why continue to fund those efforts?

I would argue that social media is a bit different.

Some – especially social media experts – might defend the outsourcing of social media efforts. These people are trained to garner Twitter followers and Facebook fans for a company.

The company’s overall discourse must be changed from a declaration to a discussion, and social media is one of the cheapest, easiest and most interactive ways to do that.

If the discourse is to be changed, a conversation has to start. A conversation is a personal form of communication, and for a personal tone, the communication must come from within the company.

I spoke with Dena Alspach, Group Publisher at Tiger Oak Publications, while working an event hosted by Wisconsin Bride, one of the magazines Tiger Oak publishes.

In an engaging discussion about social media, publishing and the nature of the journalism field altogether, Alspach stressed the need for messages to come from within the company.

Seeing “promoted” tweets generally turns consumers off from your product or brand, Alspach said. Many social media users avert their gaze when they see tweets that are “official” or “corporate” in appearance.

I agree with Alspach – no matter how completely someone is trained in the ways of a company, a third party will never be able to adequately dictate the personal tone that could come from an employee within the company.

Alspach also said that she, along with many others at each respective publication, have access to that publication’s social media outlets. She can update the Wisconsin Bride Twitter account, but so can the art director.

A profit-driven company can see results in social media outlets even without outsourcing their efforts to a third party. Because it is more personal, “insourcing” promotes a conversation with followers.

Social media sites can add to the productivity of a company, but should be “insourced” to keep a personal feel and promote conversation.

By: Jackie Pecquex (@jackiepecquex)

NYC Burger Joint goodburger & Social Media Marketing

NYC burger joint goodburger is a perfect example of an established restaurant chain that has decided to throw their hat in the social media marketing ring to create buzz, gain new fans, and hopefully increase sales. In recent months they have become increasingly active on their Facebook fan page interacting with fans daily, running t-shirt giveaways, and generally commenting on burger related news on a regular basis. goodburger has also become increasingly active on their Twitter feed (@mygoodburger), commenting regularly on the burger business as well as the food industry and reaching out to fans. Additionally, goodburger created a foursquare presence for each of their 6 NYClocations with a rewards program. Foursquare mayors are rewarded with a free goodburger every Monday that they check in to goodburger during their mayorship and all foursquare users are rewarded for checking in to goodburger with a free order of fries every 5th check in. Not bad for simply "checking in" on mobile device. Most recently goodburger has started their own goodburger blog which can be found on the goodburger website (www.goodburgerny.com). The goodburger blog is the place to go for all things goodburger, from the mouth of owner Tom Galis.

Social Media has become a natural piece of any good marketing or pr campaign pie and it's nice to see established restaurants like goodburger that understand the direction that things are moving in and want to be a part of the future or pr & marketing.

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Mashable Awards: 5 Big Brands that are Rocking the Social Media Space

As part of the Mashable Awards, Mashable is taking a deeper look at the 5 big brands that they deem as "Rocking the Social Media Space". These 5 brands are: Starbucks, JetBlue, The History Channel, Whole Foods, and Dunkin' Donuts.

Starbucks, with it's standing as "the most liked brand on Facebook" ranked #1 on the Mashable list.

Ranking in at #2 is JetBlue for it's brilliant use of social media to offer insider promotions and deals including the famous and highly sought after All-You-Can-Jet Pass.

#3 is The History Channel with their unexpected twist to the Foursquare space by offering miniature history lessons that are tied to locations that you check in to.

At #4 is Whole Foods for its 300 niche Twitter handles for local stores so that consumers can be offered location specific experiences and information.

And finally #5 is Dunkin' Donuts with their constant use of social media contests to keep their customers engaged.

To see the full article on Mashable click here.

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Meet The New Mayor... Of The Moon...Thanks Foursquare!

In case you haven't heard yet, an astronaut by the name of Doug Wheelock just checked in on Foursquare from outer space...amazing!!!! He is the first to unlock the NASA Explorer Badge...does that also make him the mayor of space now?!?!?!?!

I am so intrigued and amused by this story. The badge, meant for NASA enthusiasts to check in to NASA related venues, has truly fulfilled it's purpose. How foolish will you feel now when you use it to check in at Kennedy Space center and you know that NASA astronauts are using it to check into actual outer space, crazy. Looks like Foursquare might need to build a new badge.

What a development, I mean yes, astronauts have been Tweeting from space for over a year now, but wow...I'm still processing this story to be totally honest. "One small step for man; one giant leap for Foursquare."

Check out the story on Mashable!

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MySpace Makes Another Effort to Compete in the Social Network Marketplace

In what is, in my opinion, an effort to compete with Facebook (the king of social media networking), MySpace is demoing a completely redesigned version of its profile pages.

A MySpace rep said, "We’re testing a new look and feel of our site among users and the response so far has been positive. As always, we’re interested in hearing feedback from our community as we roll out enhancements to the user experience and look forward to sharing more details with you in the coming weeks.”

At the moment, it would appear that MySpace is rolling the new profiles out to a limited number of users in order to gather feedback before a larger, site-wide launch, and so far, the user reaction has been mixed. Whether the new profiles can help turn things around at MySpace remains to be seen, but it’s a certainly a step for the struggling networking platform.

I think the real question that MySpace needs to address though, beyond aesthetics, is what they have that Facebook doesn't. What is there ace in the pocket? The answer, it would seem, is MySpace's strong music presence. When people are looking to listen to a new band for the first time, they most likely go to MySpace to form an opinion before downloading or purchasing music. Record labels as well still seem to be investing in artist MySpace pages to introduce new artists to the public.

Though Facebook offers the capabilities to build artist fan pages, it's certainly not their focus. Instead of MySpace trying to figure out how to compete on every level and making aesthetic changes, there time might be better used trying to figure out how to create a niche networking model focused on connecting musicians with their fans.

Just a thought.

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