This person will be responsible for managing a range of social media efforts for clients, ensuring the agency is effectively leveraging the latest in social promotions and programming. This person will also interact directly with account, creative and planning team members, as well as with clients, serving as a social media strategist and providing support for new business efforts.

Sound like you? Find the full job description here.

I found this article from The Guardian interesting.  You can’t debate it.  The Internet has given people a platform for anonymously spewing negativity and vitriol in a way they most likely wouldn’t when faced with a ‘real human.’

Psychologists call it ‘deindividuation’ – what happens when social norms are withdrawn because identities are concealed.  It’s covert bullying, and it sucks. If you’re a parent of a kid who uses SM and dig into it, you’ll see it firsthand.

But I have found myself inspired by so many stories of how the Internet has been the vehicle for bringing people together for good.

I was struck by a story of a family who, after finding a paystub with someone’s identification hundreds of miles away from the site of a Midwest tornado, used the Internet to track down its owner, formed a relationship and lent assistance to a family who had lost all.  Similarly, I was blown away by the support that poured in to help Bertie County when @ProjectHDesign put the call out to their followers.

Then, there’s the Japan Earthquake that yielded too many social media miracles to count.  There’s organizations like Kiva. Social good websites aimed at kids. Even a program we helped create: 1 Million 4 Anna

There are two sides to every coin.  Here, both are readily evident.

The Internet has changed how we communicate: the way you use it, the way you teach your kids and companies to use it, can change the world…and each of us too.

Then, @Bread_Winners went on to make my case.  Last week, I tweeted that I had seen a wine on the wall at Bread Winners while brunching there.  The wine intrigued me, then I learned the label had earned a spot in a San Francisco MOMA exhibit about wine labels as art.  My tweet only mentioned Bread Winner’s (and even failed to use their correct handle).

Within a day, @Bread_Winners asked if they could help.  I explained that I had looked for and had trouble finding the wine, saying I’d just have to wait to have it there on my next visit.

Bread Winners took the initiative to help.  They contacted a liquor store near me, connected their senior wine consultant with the right wine rep, and told me I could pick up the wine there soon.  In the meantime, they invited me to come for dinner, have a glass and leave with a corked bottle.

They rocked it.  And made an advocate out of an already-fan.

The wine, by the way, is The Supernatural, a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc with hints of passionfruit and honeysuckle.

Bread Winners social media is handled by an undisclosed agency.

So, our gift on this auspicious occasion?  Well, Firehouse was happy to contribute one of the visuals for the 500th post, creating a background by blending key images from posts of the past.  Congratulations again guys.

First off, the keynote and closing speakers were both great picks, delivering unique perspectives that illuminated how to do what creative thinkers do better.

Author, technologist, all-around smart guy Steven Berlin Johnson kicked things off with a talk about the nature of breakthrough ideas – they are rarely a lightning bolt, rather a slow soaking rainstorm, an accumulation. He used the story of John Snow who discovered cholera’s water-born transmission to illustrate the power of “the slow hunch”. You have to give ideas time to grow. Google’s 20% policy, one day a week devoted to free, company- but not job-related thinking, was cited as one example of creating idea breathing room.  Also love the thought of giving staff a reading vacation – work time to read, think, connect ideas (even if what they choose to read is comics or beauty magazines). And like the notion of liquid networks – in short, an unstructured atmosphere for idea sharing (think coffeehouse culture).  Finally:  If you want to innovate, surround yourself with those unlike you instead of you-clones.

Closing speaker Emily Pilloton was downright inspirational. I love this woman. She doesn’t see obstacles, only ways around them.  An architect from San Francisco who moved to relatively impoverished Bertie County, NC, she committed herself to teaching design to high school students in an amazing hands-on way that ultimately helps these kids learn not only skills but self-worth. Implication: All of us have talents that can make a difference if we change our lens on how we apply them.  Emily is the founder and executive director of Project H Design.  Check them out and donate to help fund this important work.  I did.

Breakout sessions I attended focused on The Digital Lives of Multicultural Consumers; The Use of Mobile Tech at Retail; The Relationship of China and the US; The Similarities and Differences Between the US, UK and the rest of Europe; Redefining Aspiration and Aesthetics in a Post-Recession World; and the International Palate and what that may mean for US taste buds. I’ll share only some of the stickier thoughts here:

- Wonder if social media is right for a multicultural target? Was surprised to learn multiculturals pioneered SM in the early ’90s. It’s important is to recognize the motivations that drive engagement for multicultural consumers though. And they’re different.  Think Collectivism, Aspirations, Culture.

- There are a host of tag technologies – from Microsoft tags to Jag Tags to QR codes and several others – beginning to pop up in the retail environment. Don’t worry about learning the differences; natural selection will narrow the field. Instead, think about how to linking to content can provide real value to consumers…that’s the nut most brands seemingly can’t crack.

- The relationship between China and the US will be the one history books focus on in describing our time. We are set on a course I would best describe as symbiotic rivalry.  The Tiger Mom debate interestingly encapsulates so much of the culture clash baked into this relationship. Read “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother” and watch the education documentary “Race to Nowhere.”

- The cultural differences between people of various nations really can be linked back to values. And values would tell you some stereotypes are true.  Americans are fat; the only fatter country is Saudi Arabia.  Germans are anal, okay practical. Brits are really not over-sexed; a real Austin Powers just might bee-have. And, finally, perhaps the French are actually more insecure than arrogant. (Try boosting their esteem to win their elusive affections.)

- Some brands and properties are playing well to post-recession aspirations and aesthetics:  Anthropologie, Pinterest, Ace Hotel, and Club Monaco.  It’s about how they relate to Individuality, Heritage, Simplicity.

- Iconoculture has introduced a new macrotrend (not something they do often) called Mindful Matters™. It’s about people mindfully re-prioritizing what they buy, who they do business with and even how they live. Less can be more if it’s the right less.  Keep an eye out for how that’s manifesting in your world.

- Finally, the Brazilian Cherry or pitanga may be the next passion fruit; fish sauce an increasingly familiar way to achieve Unami.  And, FYI, I don’t recommend salmon jerky.

These are some sound bites. Find me and I’ll be happy to share more. All in all, some stuff you and I already knew, some I was happy to learn, and some I was inspired to hear. Such is the nature of conferences – at least the good ones.

Versus last year, this Iconosphere was more heavily attended by brand people versus agencies.  Guessing the economic climate may be driving some of that. That’s too bad. Lots to learn for those ready to listen.

Our goal was to not only give some money to a great hospital, but also raise the prayer count on www.1millionprayers.com. Every day, Anna continues her battle and we continue to pray, with over 700,000 prayers and counting. As we approach the 1-year anniversary of launching this initiative on April 22, 2011, we hope to reach our goal of 1 million prayers for Anna.

Darah Bonham from Abolish Cancer helped kick off the Twitterthon bright and early on the morning of February 18^th. We would love to thank all the people who helped out by following @abolishcancer, retweeting the message and getting others involved in our goal. Although we started off slow in reaching 500, our momentum kept growing throughout the day. We were lucky enough to receive tweets and retweets from diverse Twitter users, including actresses like Angie Harmon, bands like Eli Young Band, and professional athletes, including Jermichael Finely and Michael Huff. We also received a lot of help (and tweets) from Anna’s sister, Patrice, and Children’s Medical Center.

Although we often use Twitter ourselves and for our clients, it was really awesome to see how this tool can be put to great use. We have been able to use technology to create a virtual prayer chain for Anna that reaches all over the world and find new ways to get our message to new audiences quickly.

We reached our goal around 7:00 PM on Friday night. The generous community of John Paul II High School, Anna’s school, also matched our donation to Children’s with a donation of their own.

Again, we are so thankful to Darah for starting this amazing movement to unite all charities, organizations and people to abolish cancer. In sixteen months, Darah has helped raise over $51,000 for cancer research just through tweeting.

We also want to thank Children’s Medical Center for continually providing expert care for Anna and all the other children battling cancer.

Thank you again to everyone who participated in our Twitterthon. We could not have reached our goal without your effort. Please keep praying and encouraging others to promise  to pray on the top left corner of her website.

Stay strong, Anna! We are still praying (and tweeting) for you!

First of all, the Super Bowl has become somewhat of a sports institution, eclipsing many of our national holidays as the time to get together with friends and enjoy food and beverages. And, maybe it’s because I now have school-age kids who don’t want to miss a minute of the game. Or, because I’m a bit distracted on Sunday evenings, thinking about the week to come.

But, here are some of the other reasons to consider the move to Saturday, some economical and some social:

- Kids could stay up later than they could on a school night
- Super Bowl parties could be even bigger events and would encourage more families (even non-sports fans) to get together. These bigger events would require even more food and beverage purchases – benefiting retail more
- Restaurant and bar traffic would likely increase as well
- No doubt, networks would enjoy a rise in viewership
- International fans could more easily stay up late to watch – on-strategy for the NFL’s globalization strategy
- Less workplace absenteeism come Monday morning
- One person even suggested that the Pro Bowl could be played on Sunday in the same stadium for those worried that the host city’s revenue would be negatively impacted

Now, the NFL has made its position known: the Super Bowl on a Sunday has worked well for 44 years and they don’t anticipate moving it. See SI.com article. But, with NFL games already being played on Mondays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays, it doesn’t seem like such a stretch.

And there’s a growing movement of “Move the Super Bowl to Saturday” petitions on Facebook and a number of writers calling for a national holiday on Monday. If you want to join others in petitioning the NFL to move the Super Bowl to Saturday, you can even do that online here.

Besides, we’d have even more time to discuss the Super Bowl ads. So, who’s on-board?

The campaign let us spark conversations with Stripes customers:

And about the brand amongst their customers:

Using Lamar Outdoor’s iSpot technology, the boards were up and streaming tweets almost instantly. And just as quickly, this mashup of social and traditional media was getting attention from followers and the industry. If you’d like to hear more about the campaign, @TrippWestbrook can tell you all about it this April at the OAAA Conference in Miami. See you there.

The fun starts at 6:30 on Wednesday, February 23 at the Granada Theatre. The evening promises some fast-paced enlightenment. To get a taste, check out these videos from past IgniteDallas events. Hope to see you there.

For example: You can start a week working on some super-sweet outdoor boards and by the end of the week find yourself standing in a wrestling ring with 4 giant mascots playing a game of musical chairs at a masked wrestling event.

(Me thinks you won’t see what follows on the next episode of Mad Men.)

Stripes had an opportunity to be the title sponsor for a masked wrestling event in Corpus Christi called “Lucha Libre.” The event fit perfectly with the Ultimate Breakfast Taco Showdown promotion scheduled to be happening in-market at the time. Sometimes the stars just align, rarely does it involve angry men in masks performing a high-flying ballet of violence, but it does happen.

The radio for the promotion fit perfectly with the vibe of the event.

Check it out. [audio:http://thefurnace.firehouseagency.com/wp-content/uploads/Taco-Babies-No-Music1.mp3|titles=Taco Babies No Music]

All in all it was one of those sponsorships creatives dream about: you get free reign of the perfect event for your brand AND there are flying midgets involved.

The first step: hyperventilate. Second step: happy dance. Third step: get to work figuring out how to make this event unmistakably and completely owned by Stripes.

We wanted a presence from the front of the stadium (Whataburger Field) all the way to the ring.

First things first: the entrance. We designed a Stripes booth that would feature a custom “Thumbador” ring where kids could put tiny masks over their thumbs and thumb wrestle like a pro…if there were such a thing. The action was to be streamed live onto a TV mounted on the tent behind them. The idea was to go beyond just a presence and deliver an experience. Here’s how it turned out:

In the tent, face painters decked out folks on their very own Luchador masks (in Stripes colors).

Of course the mascots would need a proper lucha makeover. As luck would have it, Stripes has a seamstress on hand for just such an eventuality. She did an excellent job of bringing our designs to life.

We then had the luchafied mascots greet folks as they filed in the door and past our booth and flanked the booth with our giant Stripes cup.

Inside the stadium, Stripes signage was everywhere and the mascots worked the crowd between fights, keeping the energy level crazy high.

During intermission we staged our musical chairs event billed as the Stripes Mascot Folding Chair Challenge (sounds a bit more dangerous than “musical chairs”). We coached the actors to really get into the lucha spirit and they took the advice to heart…big time.

The taco was scripted to win so the audience could be awarded an exit coupon for one free taco in support of the Ultimate Breakfast Taco Showdown promotion. What was not scripted (exactly) was that he would win by body slamming the beer bottle and then dropping a DDT on him from off the ropes. The crowd totally  loved it.

While the crowd was still on its feet, we started flinging t-shirts into the audience with a giant slingshot. The first couple actually went completely out of the stadium, but we quickly improved our aim eventually taking out an entire row of senior citizens who had mistakenly showed up expecting to see Justin Bieber on Ice (ok, that may not have actually happened).

The crowd was louder and more into the event at this point than at any time during the show including the evening’s main event.

Our exhaustive post-event research has already revealed some surprising insights:

At exit, everyone in attendance received a coupon and redemption is at about 8% as of today (not too shabby).

Go big. That’s just how it has to be when Firehouse does a promotion, we go gonzo, all the way to 11, rip the nob off, light the fuse and walk away looking cool as the whole thing blows up in a beautiful ball of awesome.

Sometimes, we’ll even get tarted up a bit in the spirit of the moment.

Face paint over entire head + 4000% humidity = blissful near-death experience, mild hallucinations.

The next morning, we discovered the press (no doubt notified, annoyed, badgered and possibly threatened by our very own mistress of PR, Kari) had given us a little love.  Bonus w00t!

Mask Warriors logo courtesy of Lucha Libre USA
News clipping courtesy of the Corpus Christi Caller Times