Facebook has been at the forefront of the driving targeted fan engagement since the Platform first opened its doors to third party developers. The evolution of the Fan Page has created a  new avenue for marketers to reach consumers who have expressed a positive interest in their brands and properties. As a result, the studio behind the Twilight movies, Summit Entertainment, sought a conduit through which they could reach fans with exclusive content before the release of Twilight’s sequel, New Moon. Sounds easy enough – just leverage the existing community of millions of fans on the Twilight Facebook page.

But it’s not that simple. Summit Entertainment wanted to reward the fans who made Twilight a household name.  And they wanted to do it fast, in order to build the buzz leading up to the film’s pre-Thanksgiving release.

Enter Buddy Media and the Buddy Media Platform.  Our team worked tirelessly for 7 straight days, keeping vampire hours in order to develop and launch a New Moon tab on a hyper-expedited timeline. The result is a page that highlights the film’s trailer and spurs fans to spread the word about New Moon by taking polls, sending virtual gifts, and sharing tweets. The end result – hundreds of thousands of interactions with the page in just under two weeks – thanks to a cross-platform strategy that involves posting updates to Twitter and the Twilight Facebook Wall.

We’re beyond proud of our work on the New Moon page. Check it out – it’ll dazzle you!

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The ‘In the Can’ module leverages an irreverent double entendre embedded in Newsfeed and Wall Post messaging to spark viral visits to the Bud Light Lime page. Facebook users who receive a  virtual gift will be surprised by the risque story that accompanies the can of Bud Light Lime on their Profile Wall.

So check out the page now, choose a friend to receive a virtual Bud Light Lime, and give it to them in the can.

- Street Chic Gallery which highlights ‘woman on the street’ photos of real ladies wearing the season’s hottest fashions.

- Elle Gifts, a virtual gifting platform that makes it easy for fans to share the latest fads and must-have trends with their Facebook friends

- Elle News – a dynamic feed that publishes the latest stories from the Elle Magazine blog

- Follow Elle on Twitter – an aggregate feed of all Elle tweets and Twitter-mentions

- Elle Videos which include interviews, fashion show highlights, and advice from fashion and beauty experts

- Polls that allow Elle fans to weigh in on the latest styles and trends

So strut down the runway and head straight for the nearest computer to check out our latest creation – the Elle Magazine Public Profile.

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10. The Atlantic’s Shrimp Population wins the  ‘You Only Live Twice’ award. Two lifetimes wouldn’t be enough to polish off the mound of aquatic delicacies which seemed to keep multiplying in the largest martini glass I’ve ever seen. The ocean called…they’re running out of shrimp.

9. Katherine Bateman and Lu Montague, winners of ‘The World is Not Enough’ award. These two frantically transformed Buddy Media HQ into Las Vegas East, equipped with blackjack, roulette, and craps. Somehow, they also managed to keep the night running smoothly, while seemingly enjoying themselves just as much as everyone else. Bravo!

8. Jeff Ragovin, who wins the night’s ‘Live and Let Fry’ award, for donating his office/Fortress of Solitude to the catering staff. A scented candle the size of Rhode Island won’t be big enough to eliminate the smell of hot oil from the room, but Mr. Jeff agrees that it was all worth it – if only for the tasty beef cigars and mini-Monte Cristos.

7. Patrick Stokes wins the ‘Thunderball’ award for taking off his poker face and placing a suckers bet on the roulette wheel. Of course, he hit big. He was last seen wrestling with the pit boss, who tried to convince him that the chips he had spilling out of his pockets were not exchangeable for cold-hard cash.

6. Chris Dessi, who wins the ‘Guy Who Loved Me’ award. This guy did more schmoozing than a politician at a funding drive. At one point, I saw him sketching a mock-up of a Public Profile in a giant bowl of guacamole.  Ole!

5. The ‘Doctor No’ award goes to Mike Jaindl for letting his hair down and surviving an evening without charting each hour’s milestones in Basecamp.

4. Will Gallego, who put on a suit that was concentrated awesome. Honestly, I’ve never seen the guy wear anything but a T-shirt, and last night he was looking C – double O – L.  As a result, he went home with the ‘License to Will’ award.

3. I don’t like to pat myself on the back (even though it’s quite easy with my extra-long arms), but based on the amount of positive feedback I received, I’ve given myself the ‘Man With the Golden Voice’ award. One guy even called me melifluous.

2. The ‘For Your Sighs Only’ award goes to all of the Casino Night invitees, who went home empty handed. Sorry, folks, better luck at our annual X-mas extravaganza.

1. Of course, the night couldn’t have happened without the Lazerows, winners of the evening’s ‘Goldfinger’ award – for throwing a raging bash and providing each Buddy with the opportunity to work for the coolest company in the world.

This post wouldn’t be complete without an extra special thanks to all of our clients and friends who made Buddy Media Casino Night an evening to remember. Diamonds are forever, but the relationships that we’ve built over the last two years are truly eternal. Thanks for choosing not to gamble your media dollars and instead going with the surefire path to a social media jackpot!

Based on the beloved children’s book of the same name, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is a brand new animated 3D film from Sony Pictures.  In order to spread the word about the September 18th release of the movie, Sony Pictures teamed with Buddy Media to launch a fun, interactive experience for fans from Swallow Falls to Singapore.

We leveraged the virtual gifting module from our Social Page Management System to create a digital food fight which allows Facebook users to hurl virtual delicacies at their friends in an all-out, no holds barred, social melee.  Profiles of the film’s characters, as well as Tweets by Flint Lockwood (the movie’s erstwhile protagonist), and video trailers complete the fan page experience.

Watch out for hot dogs, candy corn, and chocolate donuts…because their flying across Facebook and heading right for your profile.  Check out the Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs page now and start flinging some food of your own.

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The New England Patriots wanted to set themselves apart from the rest of the NFL pack by rewarding their die-hard fans with a platform that is naturally interactive and super engaging. That’s where we came in…Buddy Media developed the ultimate social media experience for New England’s fifty year old franchise and its full of cool stuff that’s fun for ALL football fans!

The New England Patriots Facebook Fan Zone features ‘Game Face’ messaging that helps fans get stoked for each week’s games, a detailed events calendar to keep the masses updated on the weekly NFL schedule, and a polling interface that let’s fans weigh in with their predictions for the season. Close to fifty Patriots-themed virtual gifts complete the Fan Zone, which will be regularly updated throughout the NFL season. But don’t head for the exits yet because the Fan Page is just a gateway to the ULTIMATE fan experience: The New England Patriots Fantasy Forecast and Trivia application.

The Fan Zone Fantasy Forecast provides football fanatics with a chance to predict a wealth of statistics for each week’s Patriot game. The Pats will reward the week’s top prognosticators with official merchandise from the team store.  But we kicked it up a social notch, by including a recruitment reward for fans who invite their friends to participate. So, if I recruit my buddy MJ and he’s the week’s top fantasy performer, I win too!

Don’t start doing a touchdown dance yet because there’s more.  The Fan Zone Trivia Challenge provides satisfying diversion between NFL match-ups.  The Patriots provided some of the most challenging team trivia questions I’ve ever seen.  Just check it out for yourself and see if you can earn a place at the top of the leaderboard.

We’re incredibly stoked to bring this unique social platform to Facebook users across the country.  While the Fan Page might be for the New England Patriots, the experience is for all football fans – no matter what color jersey they wear on Sunday afternoons.

Go to the Public Profile on Facebook

Go to the Application on Facebook

Buddy Media has created an engaging outlet for fans to access promotional content and social activities designed to spread the word about the glories of the Horseshoe Casino. Two customized navigational tabs are stocked with videos, virtual gifts, and photos.  Horseshoe’s music hall, The Venue, features prominently in a shareable calendar which highlights upcoming events, shows, and concerts – while linking to an open-web reservation engine for further information and ticket purchases. Users can even share information about the events with Twitter followers using a customized ‘Tweet This’ tool.

The entire Horseshoe Casino Facebook experience was developed using the Buddy Media Social Page Management System. As the campaign progresses, Harrah’s representatives will be able to intuitively edit, update, and maintain content on their Public Profile with both speed and flexibility. This will ensure that Horseshoe Casino Public Profile is scalable and sustainable for the duration of this campaign and well into the future.

Check it out the Horseshoe Casino page. We guarantee you’ll leave a winner.

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Digital cameras and Facebook certainly made it easier to weed out the blurry and the boring, and subsequently share those images with friends – but a fundamental problem still existed – scores of photos to browse through without any indication of which pictures were the best of the best.

Buddy Media and Starwood have developed a solution to the problem. Never again will you need to sort through those mind-numbing thumbnail menus featuring a thousand people and places you could care less about.  SPG TripShare borrows the highly successful ‘Top 5′ application concept and repurposes it to suit the travel vertical.  Facebook users just need to enter the application, choose their five favorite vacation photos and share them with the world. Photos can be tagged by activity or location, which will make it easy for friends to find specific photos without browsing through countless Facebook albums.

SPG TripShare features an incredibly simple concept that will make it easier than ever to share memories or even get ideas for planning your next vacation.  Visit the app today, plan your next trip with Starwood, and share your top five vacation photos with the social world.

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Our team worked closely with the Imagineers at Disney Parks to design a magical social media campaign that will delight Disney fans – both young and old.   We created a Facebook application as a companion to Disney’s Celebrations promotion, occuring at their theme parks all over the world.  Disney Parks Celebration Gallery is a simple way to send ’shout-outs’ to friends – with celebratory balloons shaped like the famous Mickey Mouse sillouhette. Disney afficianados can even inform the world of their very own reasons for celebration by publishing a Mickey Mouse balloon with personal messaging to their Profile Walls. A gallery of past celebrations lets users see what their friends are celebrating and even gives them a peek at what Disney-philes from around the world have to be happy about.

Sometimes your dreams do come true – and when that happens, you want to share that joy and elation with friends. Check out Disney Parks Celebration Gallery now to start the party!

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comScore released the latest social networking growth and usage statistics for July 2009.  Both Facebook and Twitter have experienced significant growth in unique visitors and time spent on site, demonstrating a continued trend towards mass adoption and increased user engagement.

•    Facebook experienced its highest growth rate in July 2009 – 87.7 million unique visitors in the US
•    Time spent on Facebook increased 36% in July, to a total of 15.8 billion minutes
•    Twitter grew by 6% in July 2009 with 21.2 million unique visitors in the US
•    Time spent on Twitter increased 26% in July, to a total of 4.75 million minutes

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As traffic increases, so do the chances for brands to build social brand advocates.  There are currently 225 million Facebook users worldwide, and over 8 million of them become fans of Public Profiles every single day.  This growth translates into millions of opportunities for brands to engage in dialogue with users, thus creating long-term relationships with them.

Through Buddy Media’s proprietary technologies – Builder, the Social Page Management System and the Twitter Management System – brands are able to engage their audiences and easily leverage the power of the social communication platform.  Buddy Media creates smart social media solutions that include app-vertisement campaigns, public profile pages, widgets and iPhone apps, among many.

J.Crew has always been one step ahead of the competition when it comes to reaching legions of devoted consumers.

The brand has created amazing top of mind awareness–in any channel–be it online, catalog or old school brick and mortar, so it should come as no surprise that J.Crew was eager to stake a claim on Facebook when news began to break about the power and reach of Public Profiles.

J.Crew worked with our development dynamos to craft an engaging and valuable Public Profile that offers users a wealth of unique content, exclusive to their Facebook page including:

• A selection of J.Crew virtual gifts that will expand and evolve with the changing seasons
• Social polls that give users insight into the inspirations for this season’s looks
• Photo Galleries that are chock full of user-generated pictures of real people modeling their favorite J.Crew styles
• Promotional modules that provide consumers with indispensable advice about the latest fashions available from J.Crew

The J.Crew Public Profile represents the perfect example of a brand leveraging the power of the Buddy Media Social Page Management System. The page was conceived to be a constantly evolving interface, with freshly rotated content to keep brand advocates engaged and informed. So, check it out now and start shopping for the season’s most fashionable apparel and accessories.

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When word came through that we would be working with WONKA® Candy on a Facebook campaign, I jumped out of my chair (which I share – head to toe – with three surly old coots) and danced a jig. I might not have found a Golden Ticket, but I certainly felt like I was the winner of a spectacular Chocolate Factory tour.

You see, I’ve been a fan of WONKA® Candy since I was a wee lad, chasing the ice cream truck through the mean suburban streets of Long Island. I’d spend all of my hard-earned cash (remember when three dollars in quarters seemed like a lot of money?) on Nerds®, Lik-m-Aid® FunDip, and Gobstoppers® – happily imagining that these very sweets were crafted by armies of Oompa-Loompas in Willie Wonka’s magical utopia. Now, I have a chance to share my WONKA® mania with all of my Facebook friends.

WONKA® Candy and Buddy Media have teamed up to give fans a SWEET social experience with the launch of a WONKA® Candy Public Profile and Faceboook application. The Public Profile (developed with Buddy Media’s Social Page Management System) keeps users up to date on the latest WONKA® News via a customized Twitter module. Candy-philes can send virtual WONKA® Candy to friends, watch WONKA® videos, and participate in WONKA® polls. 

The Public Profile also serves as a conduit to WONKA® My Sweetest Friends application. My Sweetest Friends is a simple social app-vertisement that lets fans assign WONKA® Candy personality descriptions to five Facebook friends and subsequently publish the results to Profile Walls and Newsfeeds. All in all, the campaign is a colorful and fun experience that even a slug like Slugworth could enjoy.

So drop your Fizzy Lifting Drink and swim the chocolate river to WONKA® Candy’s Public Profile and WONKA® My Sweetest Friends application. You’ll soon see that Buddy Media and WONKA® have created a world of social imagination.

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Busch Entertainment  predicted the coming of a social media revoloution long before other brands jumped on the Facebook bandwagon.  The theme park giant was our first client and they’ve returned again, for yet another social engagement.  Halloween is months away, but it’s not too early to scare up some excitement for the spookiest time of year. So in preparation for the annual scarefest at Busch Gardens parks, Buddy Media developed a customized Facebook Public Profile that, in its initial incarnation, only hints at the theme of this year’s event.

This campaign is unique, in that we’ll be rolling out new modules over the next several months. Each new feature will offer clues into the twisted world of Ms. Vayne, a mysterious and dangerous vixen who has a taste for fashion…and blood. Our initial launch includes some basic social elements, that will generate awareness and excitement amongst the legions of Howl-O-Scream fans around the United States.  Users can shock friends with shareable screams, send stylish virtual gifts to die for, view frighteningly fashionable videos, and browse through a photo gallery of images from last year’s spine-tingling Evil Twins promotion.

The Howl-O-Scream Public Profile also features a newly released quiz that helps users determine what role they are meant to play in  The House of Vayne.   Quiz content will be updated frequently, until All Hallows Eve, so check back often for new frightful sights and sounds from Busch Entertainment’s Howl-O-Scream.

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- Debra Aho Williamson, eMarketer

Compete web analytics have released the latest social network traffic numbers for June, 2009, with impressive growth seen across the board.  Some of the highlights for the month include the following:

•    Facebook received 122.6 Million Monthly US Visitors (up 10% in June 2009)
•    Facebook Connect received 79 Million Unique Visitors
•    MySpace received 60.9 Million Monthly US Visitors (7.2% growth in June 2009)
•    Twitter received 22.99 Million Monthly US Visitors (16.5% growth in June 2009)

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As traffic increases, so does social brand advocacy.  There are currently 225 million Facebook users worldwide, and 8 million of them become fans of Public Profiles every single day. This growth translates into millions of opportunities for brands to engage in rich dialogues with users, thus creating long-term relationships.

Through Buddy Media’s proprietary technologies – Builder, the Social Page Management System and BuddyBrain – brands are able to engage their audiences and easily leverage the power of the social communication platform.  Buddy Media creates smart social media solutions that include  app-vertisement campaigns, public profile pages, widgets and iPhone apps, among many.

Our Social Page Management System makes it easier than ever for companies to reach their brand advocates on Facebook Public Profiles. This week marks the release of four of our newest creations.

1. National Jean Company

National Jean Company sells the hippest, hottest fashions on their website and at brick and mortar locations throughout the east coast. Buddy Media designed a Public Profile page that allows fans to check out the latest trends and styles – and subsequently share NJC content with Facebook friends.

A robust virtual gifting platform allows fashionistas to share 7 For All Mankind denim miniskirts with their fad-obsessed social contacts. A live newsfeed keeps users updated on the latest product releases and celebrity fashion sightings, while a Twitter module lets users read and share the latest NJC tweets. Facebook users can even earn coupons by referring friends to the National Jean Company page.

2. The Shoebox

The Shoebox, a sister brand to National Jean Company, began as a single retail location on Long Island in 1954 and has since expanded to locations in New York City and Florida.  Their e-commerce site sells the latest ‘it’ shoes to women around the world. 

Buddy Media’s Public Profile design began with a dynamic Newsfeed that features regular updates to The Shoebox product line, along with ‘Share’ functionality that lets users post product images and descriptions to Profile Walls. Ugg boots and Diane Von Furstenberg sandals can be sent as virtual gifts and users can participate in dynamically updated polls. Once again, the social aspects of the Facebook Public Profile were leveraged to offer fans bonus coupons for referring friends to The Shoebox fan page.

3. Mixing Bowl

Mixing Bowl leverages the wealth of content on the Mixing Bowl website — a Better Homes and Gardens web community that features thousands of recipes and contests for seasoned gourmands and amateur chefs — to provide dedicated advocates with a platform to share recipes and cuisine-relevant content with Facebook friends.

Our Public Profile design features a live Newsfeed that pipes in all the latest recipes featured on www.mixingbowl.com and makes it simple to share via Profile Wall post. Cooking polls provide Meredith Corporation (Mixing Bowl’s parent company) with valuable consumer insights and opinions, and virtual sweets can be sent to friends without the guilt or calories! Most importantly, each virtual gift links back to Mixingbowl.com, so users can prepare the ‘real thing’ using the original recipe.

The Mixing Bowl Public Profile is the first phase of our work for the brand, with a customized application due to launch within the next several weeks.

4. Parents Magazine

Parents Magazine, another Meredith Corporation property, has a strong web presence , but lacks the effective social hooks that would encourage the sharing of content with friends.

Buddy Media designed a customized Public Profile that features the latest content from the website as well as some new bells-and-whistles that will help the publication gain traction amongst the legions of new parents on Facebook. We created a highly specialized Newsfeed that displays the latest posts from the Parents Magazine blog, as well as the most recent baby and pregnancy photos uploaded to www.parents.com. 

A Parents Poll provides new Moms and Dads with popular answers to common parenting questions, and contest call-outs drive traffic to the Parents Magazine website. Once again, the Parents Magazine Public Profile represents the first phase of an extended engagement with the brand, that will include the implementation of additional robust fan page modules, as well as the development of a customized Facebook application.

Buddy Media Social Page Management System

These projects wouldn’t have been possible without the hard work of the Buddy Media Development team, who created the Buddy Media Social Page Management System (SPMS). The Social Page Management System provides these brands with an intuitive back-end interface that allows them to update content and messaging on their pages in the wink of an eye.  Of course, our experts are always available to handle the heavy lifting and the more complex technological implementations, but the SPMS makes it incredibly simple for brands to gain control over their Facebook Public Profiles.

We’re incredibly proud of our work on these four ‘fan pages.’ They represent the end product of countless manhours and caffienated beverages. We’re certain that Facebook Public Profiles represent the future of social media marketing and we’re honored to provide companies (big and small) with an outlet to reach loyal brand advocates with interactive content that is useful, engaging, and fun.

With the world’s top professionals teeing off at Bethpage Black this week, golf is on just about everyone’s minds. The Buddy Media team has been working non-stop to get our latest application ready for the sunny, temperate days ahead. SI Golf Nation is a social app-vertisement that can be found on multiple platforms; that is, it has a home on Facebook, Apple’s iPhone, and a GOLF.com microsite. Unlike any other golf application, all three platforms are linked together using Facebook Connect, which will provide golfers with a seamless transition from mobile, to open web, to social network. While the cross-pollination of content and messaging will provide users with application functionality wherever they go, the real value comes with the amount of useful tools and features included within.

First time application users will be prompted to choose a home course from the National Golf Foundation database, as well as the type of equipment that they carry in their bag. Once their personal customization is complete, users enter the main interface where they are presented with a wealth of goodies that all hackers and seasoned pros can use and enjoy. Golfers can input their latest scores from any course within the NGF database and track tons of other statistics within a GOLF.com dashboard interface. The data tracking is so complete, that golfers can use their iPhone as a scorecard while on the course, and upload their stats directly into the application. Dynamic leaderboards track everything from recreational handicaps to greens in regulation and allow for personal goal benchmarking as well–but that’s nothing compared to the amount of trash-talking possible amongst friends who can challenge each other to a one-on-one throwdown for golf supremacy no matter where they are in the US.

But that’s not all! GOLF.com wanted the application to be social in nature, so we took it a step beyond stat comparisons and application leaderboards by allowing users to find other golfers in their area, join groups focused on their home course, and set tee times with friends, directly from the app. The added 19th Hole functionality lets users send drinks and messaging to friends before, during or after their round (sponsored by Grey Goose Vodka) from either the web or their iPhone. Golfers can also choose to have their GOLF.com actions published to the Facebook Newsfeed and their personal profile. This includes the ability to upload photos into the application directly from the iPhone! Rounding out the functionality, Buddy Media developed a live feed that pulls in news, photos, and video directly from the GOLF.com website.

When all is said and done, golfers around the country can use SI Golf Nation as a one-stop shop to score, share, and communicate with fellow linksmen through a robust and intuitive multi-platform interface, that won’t limit functionality to just Facebook users. The GOLF.com microsite will allow the uninitiated to enjoy the application as well.

So grab your clubs, throw on your collared shirts, charge up the golf cart, and visit SI Golf Nation now!

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- Joe Couceiro, Busch Entertainment Exec VP CMO on Buddy Media’s Sea World & Busch Gardens Photo Adventure

The US reach of social networks has steadily increased through May 2009, according to the latest statistics from Compete.com.  Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter have all posted impressive numbers:

•    Facebook received a total of 113 million US visitors (up 8%)
•    Facebook Connect received 65 million US visitors (up 14%)
•    Over 40% of the US Internet population is using Facebook every month
•    US MySpace traffic increased by 2.39%, to 56.8 million

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As these numbers continue to grow, so do the opportunities for brands to leverage them.

Does your brand have a presence in social media?

Through Buddy Media’s proprietary technologies – Builder, the Social Page Management System and the BuddyBrain – brands are able to engage their audiences and easily leverage the power of social media.  Buddy Media creates smart social media solutions that include app-vertisement campaigns, public profile pages, Twitter management, widgets, iPhone apps, and more.

We’ve made a splash before with Facebook app-vertisements for Busch Entertainment properties (Sea World Splash Blast, Aquatica Motu’s Island Hop, and Busch Gardens Escape the Twins), but our latest work for the brand is a tidal wave of social media innovation. Worlds of Discovery Photo Adventure is a cross-platform social application that leverages a tried and true game concept to promote all of the theme parks that fall under the Worlds of Discovery umbrella. The app brings you so close to the thrills available at all the parks, that you’ll be sure to need that umbrella to protect yourself from the wet and wild action depicted in the game’s collection of photos.

Can you spot the differences?

In short, Photo Adventure application users are tasked with spotting the five differences between near-identical photos taken at Busch Entertainment theme parks. Busch Entertainment supplied all of the photos, so the application is filled with whimsical shots of celebrities like Justin Timberlake and Rod Stewart interacting with the menagerie of animals that live in all of the parks. The functionality of all three apps is consistent and the game play is engaging and addictive. But the real ‘Wow’ moment comes when you realize that players on all three applications have their high scores listed on a single cross-platform leaderboard – you can compete against friends while at the parks or from the comfort of your living room. This was accomplished with a Facebook Connect implementation that ensured that the experience would allow users to move seamlessly from social network to open web to mobile device.

We launched the Busch microsite and Facebook application together, with a roll-out of the iPhone app coming within the next several days.  So toss on your wet suit, grab your snorkle and fins, and dive into Worlds of Discovery Photo Adventure.

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On the chosen day, the teams were assigned – eight groups set loose with naught but five score clues and fifty bills of fare. Apollo’s golden chariot hung in the celestial heavens surrounded by an azure sky.  Champions all, upon departure, hope drove them forward – hope for success, hope for victory.

‘Set forth,’ she said, ‘be fruitful, and may your steps be rapid, as fleet-footed Hermes. The clues you hold shall be your boon and wisdom shall be your guide. Do not look to me for aid, for I will not provide it. You shall not see me again until the anointing of champions at the ritual feast.’

Off they set, scattered like chaff in the wind. From Columbus Circle they flew, dispersed to all points on the compass. They rode on mounted stone thoroughbreds and set adrift in boats of steel in the city’s great park. They searched for treasures in the city’s great museums. They conversed with strangers, a trustworthy lot who recorded their feats with newfangled daguerreotype.

When all was said and done, one team emerged victorious. While teams rushed about from landmark to landmark, these champions quested for apples. Eve’s gift to Adam proved to be most valuable, for each image added to their Olympian score. Oh Muse, sing to me of loopholes, by which one team may triumph, whereas others fail.

Oh Muse, forget the singing and leave that to Buddy Media’s tired warriors, for they proved themselves worthy of adoration by the masses of groundlings at Hill Country BBQ. For you, oh Muse, could not sing as enchanted a song as Eugene Ventimiglia, who charmed the crowd like the great Eros. The voice of Matt Zarzecki cut through the din, preaching the gospel set forth by Canada’s most famous crooner. Spurred by Dionysus himself, Abby Lauterbach chanted a hymn known to all. Our humble leader proved himself savvy at rhythm making, while his wife strutted to his steady beat. And let us not forget about Patrick Stokes and Luke Taylor – like the mighty Hercules and Achilles, the two brought down the house.

As mysterious Nix filled the evening sky with a cloak of darkness and Diana hung her crescent lantern amongst the constellations, we were left in anticipation of the next chance to prove our worth. For the oncoming sowing season will bring us to battle again, with naught to separate us but a red ball and the color of our tunics. Oh Muse, it is called a scavenger hunt, but we did not feel like Hades accursed carrion birds. We felt like gods born all.

The latest stats in April 2009 from Compete web analytics show that the growth of social media continues its steady upward climb. Facebook, Facebook Connect, and Twitter all posting consistently impressive growth.

Some of the highlights for the month include the following:

• Facebook recevied 104.1 million US visitors (up 4.6%)
• Facebook Connect received 60 million US visitors (up 40%)
• Twitter received 19.5 million US visitors (up 38.5%, 1,192.13% annually)

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As traffic increases, so does usage.  Facebook currently holds a 6.5% share of all of the time spent online within the US—translating to 3 billion minutes of usage each day!
Social networkers aren’t only uploading photos and updating their status – they’re also regularly interacting with their favorite brands.  Facebook users are becoming “fans” of Public Profiles at least 3.5 million times, every day.

Through Buddy Media’s proprietary technologies – Builder, the Social Page Management System and BuddyBrain – brands are able to engage their audiences and easily leverage the power of the social communication platform.  Buddy Media creates smart social media solutions that include  app-vertisement campaigns, public profile pages, widgets and iPhone apps, among many.

Rejoice time-strapped fitness wanna-bes!  Reebok has developed a brand new athletic shoe targeted at those striving to get in shape for summer without hard work and a pricey gym. The Reebok EasyTone was designed to provide a thorough workout  – on the go – for manic moms, working women, and ladies who lunch.

When the time came to spread the word among social networkers about these revolutionary new sneakers, Reebok returned to Buddy Media for a healthy Facebook workout. After the splash we made with last year’s ‘Talkin’ Krazy’ campaign, we were excited to strut our stuff and show off what an additional year of app-vertisement experience and ingenuity could provide. So we cooked up a killer new branded app that perfectly communicated Reebok’s over-arching campaign goals for the EasyTone shoe, while leveraging the power of social brand loyalty.

The Reebok EasyTone Facebook application makes it easy for fitness-fearing ladies to get a regular workout. It’s a simple concept with a sparkling execution. The application helps people keep track of their day-to-day movements around home, work, and the town so they can see how much excercise they’re getting. Users simply enter an estimation of their daily activity level and a step goal. The app will show them how many steps it takes to burn off a cheeseburger or an ice cream sundae. Facebook users can even team up to ’step’ across the Grand Canyon or to the top of the Empire State Building.

So walk, don’t run to start your social media workout.

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For over thirty years, Charles Schwab has been providing high quality financial services to individual investors and savers. The company is dedicated to serving the interests of the common man, rather than bottom line of faceless corporate behemoths.  So, it should come as no surprise that Schwab was quick to jump on the social media express. Is there a better place to reach people with sound financial advice, than Facebook and YouTube?

Buddy Media developed a two-headed monster of a strategy for Chuck – a branded YouTube channel and a customized Facebook Public Profile. The YouTube channel lives in a Charles Schwab branded “skin” and serves as a repository for interviews, informational videos, and the library of innovative ‘Talk to Chuck’ commercials. A prominent ‘Share’ module lets viewers send individual videos or embed the entire channel on their personal website or blog.

The Facebook Public Profile is the latest in our canon of interactive, custom designed profile pages. Our development team leveraged the power of the Buddy Media Social Page Management System to sculpt an engaging Facebook experience for investors of all styles and stripes. A dedicated Tab houses the Peer Comparison Tool – a personalized survey that shows users how their financial decisions compare to those of people within their demographic. Is there anything more appropos of a social media experience than comparing yourself to an audience of your peers? A second dedicated Tab hosts the Talk to Chuck contest – an ongoing marketing initiative that lets users fill in a ‘thought-bubble’ with creative and original financial advice for a chance to win a monthly prize, a $1,000 Charles Schwab investment account. More Schwab videos and links to several open-web resources complete the Public Profile reboot.

For a financial kick in the pants, talk to Chuck on Facebook and YouTube today.

Go to the public profile on Facebook

So it was welcome news that Forrester Research, in a report released yesterday, became the first independent research firm to encourage clients to use social applications and think “long term” in social ad campaigns.

“To enhance an ad campaign with social elements, interactive marketers should know their audience’s behavior, commit to the communities for the long term,” Forrester’s Sean Corcoran wrote in the report’s executive summary and outlined five different ways that brands can enhance their ad campaigns.

I’m not authorized to share the entire report. So you’ll need to purchase the report yourself,  to see the five ways. But all five ways are core to Buddy Media’s mission to help companies market more effectively in the social media ecosystem.

At the core of Forrester’s recommendation is the idea that social media marketing is not turned on and off like banners, buttons and traditional digital marketing. It’s an always-on program for marketers.

Social media is about using your marketing to build always-on lines of communications with customers and potential customers. The old model is one-way communications that you “rent” from media companies by blasting messages to consumers. The new model is using those media properties to drive people into your community.

Social media is about CRM and tapping into existing communities and customers to spread your brand benefits. Why start from scratch when you have existing communities already at your disposal?

Social media is also about realizing that you brand doesn’t exist just on your web site and in your stores and your marketing. It lives in Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and other platforms and you need to take your brands there in a meaningful way.

Ultimately, social media is about making your marketing dollars  go further by turning each touch with a consumer into a longer-term dialogue. That’s what apps do. Buddy Media has proven this with more than 85 programs for the world’s largest brands. And I’m excited that Forrester has finally given this successful approach a big thumbs up.

Just sit right back and you’ll hear a tale, a tale of a fateful trip, that started from a tropic port aboard a great big ship.

Welcome aboard the Norwegian Cruise Line Countdown Clock, our latest application for adventurous world travelers bound for exotic ports of call. The Buddy Media team has been hard at work polishing this simple, easy-to-use utility that allows vacationers to count down the days to their voyage on Norwegian Cruise Line ships. The concept is simple: set your destination and travel dates, choose the name of your ship, and AHOY, you’ve got an official NCL Countdown Clock that you can post to your Wall or set as a permanent fixture on your profile.

The application is much more than a simple ticker that lays out your travel itinerary. You can choose from a detailed list of ship-board and beachside activities, see cruises that other Facebook users have planned, and share your cruising itinerary with all the peeps in your social circle. You can go directly to the NCL website to book passage on the same cruiseships as your friends or travel straight to the Norwegian Cruise Line Public Profile for photos, videos, and more from past NCL voyages.

So throw on your life vest, slap on your captain’s hat, and check out NCL Countdown Clock now! It’s the ship.

After the resounding success of our two previous engagements with Anheuser Busch’s Bud Light brand, it should come as no surprise that the King of Beers came back for more Buddy Media inspired social media genius. Bud Light Gifts may sound like your every day, run of the mill, virtual gifting application, but look closer and you’ll see the that it’s been given a Buddy Media creative boost.

A branded interface wraps around official sponsored Bud Light schwag – which users can send to any friend in their social circle. But, we’ve taken a step beyond creative super injection with this application. The Buddy Media development team has optimized the application to leverage all social integration points so that when users send a Bud Light gift, all of their friends will hear about it – an obvious catalyst to viral and social growth.

We’ve developed a really unique strategy behind the launch of Bud Light Gifts that we’re sure is going to provide the application with sustainability and return engagements. The app-vertisement has been created to sustain a prolonged roll-out – meaning that the gifts will change to reflect the season or to promote a special event. We’ve launched the initial run with a variety of St. Patricks Day gifts to get Facebook users in the spring spirit.

So check out Bud Light Gifts today and again in the future – because there will always be new virtual gifts to send to your Facebook friends.

Go to the application on Facebook

One month ago, we rolled out a ’spring training’ version of Intel’s Me InTru 3D. The initial launch included basic creature customization functionality with the promise of great things to come when the app-vertisement was ready for the major leagues. Over the last several weeks, the Buddy Media team has been working to flesh out the creature creator, while adding a ton of new features for today’s March 10th full-scale launch. Well, opening day has arrived. Wait until you see what we’ve been brewing for the folks at Intel.

Intel’s Me in Tru3D still has the same ground-breaking avatar creation technology that early adopters of the application have been enjoying over the last four weeks. But now, the creature creation is only a gateway to a much more robust application.

Once users have finished customizing their monster in the Intel labs, they’ll have several social options for interacting with both their friends and their friends’ creatures.  To begin with, the app-vertisement now includes two minigames that will challenge both mind and reflexes. Users will be able to send animated versions of their creatures to friends–perhaps sharing their inner creatures! The recipient will be treated to funky dance steps, hugs and kisses, or even more bizarre and dastardly actions. In the application a minicam will even allow users to take pictures of their creations, so that they can post them as their Facebook profiles.

This application is like nothing we’ve ever built before. Sure, we’ve built engaging app-vertisements in the past, but Intel’s InTru 3D is our first masterwork. It was specifically designed to appeal to a wide range of Facebook users with content and functionality that’s fun, interactive, and social. Check out the application now to get your creature on.

Go to the application on Facebook

It comes as no surprise that marketers are under increased pressure to do more with less. Every time Buddy Media meets with brand marketers and agencies, our number one goal is to help them engage people on social networks in a cost effective way.

On that note, we launched a new budget calculator that allows marketers to analyze their online marketing budgets and compare the cost of different solutions and how effective they are at generating engaged users. Give it a whirl and see how many users you can engage with your current budget.

The calculator comes in conjunction with our latest research report Social Math: The Economic Case for Branded Applications. The report arms brands with the data necessary to decide how to more effectively invest their online social media budget. We aggregated data from more than 80 Buddy Media app-vertisement programs for 60+ clients and compared it to public data on digital display campaigns and data provided by clients, partners, and other publishers.

We believe strongly that engagement will be the key metric used to measure the effectiveness of social media campaigns. And Facebook

Our development team was excited to integrate Facebook Connect functionality with the Buddy Media website and we shot around a lot of ideas about how this technology could be appropriately implemented. We decided that leveraging the capabilities of Events in conjunction with Connect would be the smartest strategy, as it would allow us to spread the word to the Facebook community about conferences and gatherings that we sponsor or attend.

The addition of Facebook Connect will let visitors to the Buddy Media corporate site indicate whether they’re attending an event. The interface also displays profile photos of all registered attendees. The user can then choose to spread the word about the soiree by posting their response to the Facebook Newsfeed – which includes a link back to the Buddy Media Events page.  This increases exposure for our corporate events by seamlessly aggregating our audiences from Facebook and the open web into a single transparent group.

Feel free to check out the Buddy Media Events page and let us know what you think.

The wind howls as you approach the gates of Intel’s Secret Labs. The moon casts a ghostly blue light that illuminates your path. A monstrous shriek cuts through the night, piercing your heart with terror. The doors open with a belch and acrid air disperses with the foul stench of creation. You repeat the mantra ‘There’s no such thing as monsters, there’s no such thing as monsters…’ You actually believe it, until a horrible form rises up and covers you in shadow. What in the world is going on here? What is Intel up to?

We can give you a sneak peak with our newest Facebook app-vertisement, Me InTru 3D. Intel has developed ground-breaking InTru 3D technology that will begin to hit movie theaters this spring, so they wanted to DRIVE AWARENESS AND CREATE A LOYAL FOLLOWING  OF THIS TECHNOLOGY before the things are rolled-out for public consumption. OF COURSE, THEY came to Buddy Media for concept, strategy, development, and execution of a Facebook application that would educate consumers about InTru 3D within an interactive and engaging environment that would be both fun and entertaining–AND SHOW THE TECHNOLOGY IN LIVING COLOR. Our Innovations Department quickly fleshed out an idea that aimed to take a popular Facebook concept and make it better.

Character and avatar creators have been making the rounds for many years and several shops have made forays into making the idea social. But our idea was to take the concept and give it a blast of InTru 3D. Thus, the Intel Creature Creator was born. The application, which will launch with basic functionality in place on February 1st, will allow users to create their own 3D creatures – from the tips of their pointy horns to the bottom of their hairy feet. Rather than just dragging and dropping flat 2D elements onto a paperdoll template, Me InTru 3D will give users a 360 degree view of their creation. All physical characteristics will be fully editable and will even stretch and warp to fit the contours of the three dimensional creatures.

But that’s just Phase One of the Me InTru 3D launch! Our developers are hard at work on a virtual environment to house all of these creatures. Once Phase Two launches, users will be able to guide their creations through the Intel Labs, where they can interact and even play games with other creatures. It’s a huge step forward in social media technology and we’re eagerly anticipating its release. Check back to the application often for details on Phase Two’s release date.

So put on your lab coat, wind up the power generators, and prepare yourself to scream “It’s ALIVE!” If anything can make you feel like Dr. Frankenstein, it’s Intel’s Me InTru 3D.

Go to the application on Facebook