I normally balk at brands or fakesters who hit me with unsolicited follows on Twitter. However this week I’ve noticed an endearing trend. No, not the FaceYourManga-gone-wild avatar antics, but it seems that a growing list of characters from my favorite TV show — AMC’s “Mad Men” — have signed up for Twitter.
It started with Don Draper (Jon Hamm), whose bio link to Sterling Cooper Advertising takes you straight to the TV show’s official landing page. Then I noticed Joan Holloway (Christina Hendricks) (whose hourglass shape, as an aside, to me epitomizes what a real woman should look like). Then Peggy Olson (Elizabeth Moss), followed by Bertram Cooper (Robert Morse) and now Bobbie Barrett (Melinda McGraw).
Now, I have no idea if these character Twitter feeds are AMC-sanctioned or not (I DMed Mr. Draper but I did not hear back) but it doesn’t matter. All of them are tweeting completely in character. There is no break. There are no sneak-ins of the true personality of the user(s). I actually feel like I am interacting with the characters on the show and, as silly as this may seem, I almost feel like I am there with them at Sterling Cooper when I am reading their tweets. Never mind the fact, of course, that I don’t think Don Draper would ever be bothered with Twitter even if they had it in the 1960s…
If you aren’t familiar with “Mad Men” it is an amazing piece of work, from the same guy who masterminded “The Sopranos.” It’s AMC’s first original series and I was hooked from episode one of season one. The setting is a 1960s Manhattan advertising agency and it explores the business, cultural and societal issues in that era in a way I’ve never seen before. All of the characters have equally unlikeable and likeable qualities. This makes them appear real; and it also hooks you into every character because you’re not rooting for one. My grandfather, who grew up and spent most of his working life in Manhattan, has marveled at how on the mark Mad Men is in terms of the style, the intricacies of the settings and characters, and so on. And for me, one who believes she was born to the wrong generation and wishes she was Joan Holloway in 1960, am fascinated by it.
Michael Gladis as Paul Kinsey
If you’re a fan of the show I highly recommend engaging with these characters on Twitter. There’s no spam, no spoilers, no blatant promotion. Just character interaction that brings you into the show. If this was sanctioned by AMC it is simply brilliant marketing. If it’s not, I think the channel should promote the feeds anyway. I’ll absolutely keep following. I hope the characters keep following me and that even more join. I think even more insight into the screwy mind of Betty Draper (January Jones) would be fascinating.
But I have one important gripe. I can’t find Paul Kinsey (Michael Gladis). If you’re out there, Paul, please follow me. I have a mad TV crush on you.
[Update 8/19/08 7:30 a.m. Paul Kinsey is now on Twitter.]
[Update 8/19/08 8:12 a.m. I apparently missed Pete Campbell (Vincent Kartheiser).]
Filed under: Social Media | Tags: fitness, health, marathon, social networking, twit2fit, twitter
A couple of months ago Jason Falls created Twit2Fit, a fitness support network for Twitter users. The network is grouping of tweets organized by the hashtag #twit2fit and has all of the elements of any other Ning network — forums, blogs, etc. It was a phenomenal idea and I just found it today while reading my friend Amanda Gravel’s tweets.
In his blog post introducing the concept, Falls wrote:
I’m calling it Twit2Fit - using Twitter to support and inspire one another to improve our wellness, whether it be through diet, exercise or even spiritual health. Let’s use one another as a check point to keep everyone focused on their goals. Even if it’s just a daily checkin with a Tweet that reads, “Walked 30 minutes this morning. Avoided greasy lunch. Not bad for a Tuesday.” Know that there are folks out there also focused on improved wellness who are supporting you, cheering you on and keeping you honest.
I think this is a phenomenal idea. I, personally, have a hard time staying motivated to be healthy and stay focused on exercise. As an example, I registered in May for the Nike Women’s Marathon in October but really only got the gumption to really start training in late June. It’s been a challenge. Given that I spend a lot of time sitting on my duff for my day job and then spend a lot of time sitting on my duff researching or writing for my side gig it’s easy to stay seated… on my duff. I think considering the amount of time I do spend on social networks it will be great to have a community there who is committed to fitness — no matter how varied our goals and experiences may be — to keep us motivated and encouraged during the tough spots.
I highly recommend Twit2Fit if you’re sometimes challenged to find the time to maintain a healthy lifestyle or if you’re like me and trying to get in better shape or train for an endurance event. I haven’t started fully using the site yet as I’ve just signed on today but I definitely plan to join the forums and use the blogs. If you do sign on, be sure to find me over there or leave me a link here in the comments.
Filed under: Comedy, Random, Social Media | Tags: 3d ultrasound, humor, james spader, makemebabies, mashable, patrick marleau, snoop dogg, unnecessary
Move over 3D ultrasound — MakeMeBabies is here.
Or not.
This blog post is a bit off the cuff for me as I generally try to write about social media trends that impact business or are interesting to enterprise users, but I’ve been giggling over this for two days. On Tuesday, Adam Ostrow at Mashable wrote about MakeMeBabies, a service that allows people to “preview” what their children might look like. They can either upload a picture of their partners or choose from a gallery of celebrities or even grab friends’ pictures from Facebook and MySpace.
The thing is, I can see the use of this service getting way out of hand. Girls who used to sit around and draw hearts and smileys around a guy’s name will now be constantly uploading to and refreshing MakeMeBabies. Terrifying, really. More terrifying is this quote from the MakeMeBabies site that attempts to justify the service:
“Dating services and marriage agencies add value to their services by allowing visitors have extra fun or make a lifetime decision.”
After my eyes reduced from their ultra-widened response to this sentence I started laughing hysterically at the idea of having a guy show up to a blind date with print-outs of what our children might look like (it’s a digitized scene of Kate Hudson’s scary faux character in “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days“).
Since Ostrow was bold enough to cyber-procreate with Kate Beckinsale I figured I would do a little experiment of my own. I didn’t want to harm any real, accessible people in my experiment (nor did I want to horrify anyone I know) so I stuck to celebrities.
First up is the spawn of me and the man of my dreams, otherwise known as James Spader. I’ve been in celebrity love with him since I was a pre-teen so why not make a digital baby?
See, by doing this I learned something about James. He snorkels. I don’t — so clearly the kid got it from him.
Next up is a digital diaper wearer created by yours truly and my favorite hockey player (go SHARKS!), Mr. Patrick Marleau.
I’m actually disappointed that little Baby Marleau did not get any of Patrick’s hockey talent. Perhaps he (or she? I can’t tell… such a bad mother I am) will inherit my writing skills instead. Hard to visualize, however.
And finally, just for kicks:
I honestly just wanted to see if Snoop Jenny Jen would come out wearing her father’s low-brimmed hat.
With the experiment complete, I’ve learned that my children will not be cute, will have exceptionally large foreheads, and will all appear to view the world from behind a veil of unabashed cynicism. See, they get that last bit from me. *beams*
All in all, my little experiment with MakeMeBabies was a fun one. But I can’t see anyone seriously using this service (sorry, MakeMeBabies founders). Can you?
Note: My sincere apologies to Mr. Spader, Mr. Marleau and Mr. Dogg.
Filed under: Nonprofit, Social Media | Tags: aaron strout, charity auction, chris brogan, geniusrocket, geoff livingston, greg verdino, hubspot, joseph jaffe, leukemia and lymphoma society, team in training, tnt
It’s been a little over two weeks since the close of the Social Media Charity Auction to raise money for Team in Training / Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Many have asked me who won and how much I raised but I wanted to wait until we had all of the back-end details sorted before I said anything. And now it’s time.
Two companies won the services of five social media gurus who were on the auction block:
GeniusRocket, which enables its clients to generate creative content by harnessing a distributed network of creators, purchased three of the experts:
Joseph Jaffe - Brainstorm/consulting dinner in the New York City / Connecticut area
Geoff Livingston - Two-hour phone consulting and brainstorming session
Aaron Strout - Two-hour phone consulting and brainstorming session
HubSpot, an Internet marketing software firm, captured the two biggest opportunities that were up for grabs:
Chris Brogan - Speaking engagement anywhere in the U.S.
Greg Verdino - Speaking engagement or keynote anywhere in the U.S. or Canada
So how much did they help raise? The auction brought in…
$6,582.51
Hooray!
Bringing the total raised thus far to…
$8,122.71
Can I get another hooray? Hooray!
Big thanks again to the five gents and two companies listed above for their participation in the auction. My goal is still to raise $10,000 by October and I’ll be trying to think of some creative ways to do so. Any ideas? Please share them. Donations are always welcome, too. :-)
