It’s World Water Day ! Help me help them on Social Vibe

Hello !

Today is World Water Day.

As such there’s a viral social good campaign going on on Twitter: people are sending tweets to help charity:water.

If you want to have a look at the feed, click here: http://ow.ly/1pu9e.

Jack dorsey, aka @Jack, creator, co-founder and chairman of Twitter (as says his bio) has taken on the cause and tweeted it. From there on, predictably enough, news spread fast worldwide, with people passing on the message he sent out.

So to join this global movement, please take a few minutes to click on Social Vibe on the right sidebar: we’re being sponsored to help collect funds for charity:water — and it’s not just today, as you know.

Thanks !

To help, click over here ——>

Here’s a video of an art installation I just shot this evening at Palais Royal in Paris, France, for World Water Day.

Social Media World Forum kicks off ! What to look out for…

 Social Media World Forum kicks off in London in a few hours from now.

So, yes, I’m in London, staying with my friend Laura D. (thanks a lot for letting me crash !), ready for what promises to be a big day, regardless of the quality of the forum — which is what a lot of attendees are waiting to see: real added value or just a fluke ?
And aside from that first question, the program is indeed so vast that the ambition to just check every single thing is either an insane illusion or utter madness.

On my part, I’ve decided to focus on the Social Media section, including a) the exhibition to check for the latest developments just entering or about to hit the market; b) the conferences, c) the workshops where I’m hoping to learn a thing or two as well… and d) the networking shindig tomorrow evening ! When I say Social Media, I mean specifically as related to public relations, marketing and advertising.

Within those topics, I’ll be looking at social media “good” from a business perspective as in how it can be integrated as part of an overall business strategy rather than remain a stand alone, for non-profit activity.

Just a quick example: look at Mozilla. The latest version of its web browser is called “Namoroka” (pronounce “Namuruk”) after the name of a region in Madagascar (hence why I know how it should be pronounced: I’m partly from Madagascar and was actually born there. Yes, I do speak Malagasy). Mozilla actually supports the preservation of that area. But now, I’d like to know how this articulates itself into the bigger company picture and its business. So that’s one of the angles that I’m willing to explore.
How does it help the Namoroka national park to be associated in name to Mozilla ? What (and how) does Mozilla harness its web power to help that part of the world ?

Looking at design as integrated into Social Media will also be a focal point for me. I’m yet to define how I’d like to see that.

Anyway, here’s an update on the open list I launched on Twitter for those who are either just interested or coming to the Social Media World Forum today and tomorrow  here in London: I’m happy to count 98 people on the #smwf open list

To add yourself, simply follow the list at: http://ow.ly/1gOaz or http://twitter.com/merrybubbles/smwf. And please RT !

Again … if this post sounds cryptic to some of you, I strongly recommend you join Twitter altogether and start using it for pleasure, work, or information purposes. There’s a lot out there to benefit from, I promise.

See you later for the forum itself.

Social Media World Forum: join the open list on Twitter !

A note to those of you who are either just interested or are coming to the Social Media World Forum in London, March 15-16th.
I’ve created an open list on Twitter, just add yourself by following it at: http://ow.ly/1gOaz or http://twitter.com/merrybubbles/smwf

Join the crowd of like-minded Tweeps !

There’s a bunch of us so you should be pretty well covered in case you’re not coming. It looks like the hastag will be #smwf.

Please RT !

… and if this post sounds cryptic to some of you, I strongly recommend you join Twitter altogether and start using it for pleasure, work, or information purposes. There’s a lot out there to benefit from, I promise.

The Pepsi Refresh Project: a bold 20 mln usd Social Media Bet

It’s social media fest out there.

The facts
In February, Pepsi took a bold step by deciding NOT to sponsor the emblematic Super Bowl event but instead to shift to social media and devote 20 mln usd to its new digital campaign: the Pepsi Refresh Project.

That in itself, created a worldwide buzz for the soda maker and proved to be great publicity: a brand that decides to turn to new forms of user-engagement sounds like an amazing pledge to the consumers of Pepsi.

The question
What people (you, me, consumers, onlookers), corporations at large, but also PR, advertising firms – you name it – want to know is, how can this new stance drive revenue growth ?
Did that just sound like I said a rude word ? Well, no, it’s not and I did not.

It’s simply the bottom line. The riddle is of course that in today’s landscape, the acts of selling, maintaining customer satisfaction AND gaining momentum to increase sales … have become both easier and a challenge.
Easier because with social media, companies can tap directly into the ideas, wants and needs of their end-users/customers/consumers to design their products and offers.
More challenging because with social media, companies need to learn to listen to and engage their end-users/customers in order to go forth.
Great riddle. Doesn’t this sound like the chicken and egg story, in the end ?

Pepsi Refresh: What it is
So finally, what is it ? Last month, I shared with you Coca Cola’s social media strategy so here is the Pepsi Refresh Project.
The motto is “In 2010, we’re giving millions of dollars to fund ideas that will refresh the world. Your ideas.”
Pepsi is calling on consumers to present their digital pro-social ideas in the form of an interactive competition where anyone can vote to elect the best ideas. In turn, those winning ideas will receive Pepsi funding — they call them grants — to be implemented into reality. The grants range from 5,000 usd to 205,000 usd, depending on whether the contender is an individual, a group of persons or organizations and also the size of the bounty depends on the size of the organizations.
Categories: Health, Arts & Culture, Food & shelter, The Planet, Neighborhoods and Education. The competition kicked in on March 1st.

Sorry folks, the video embedding code provided by Pepsi does not work (!!). But you can go watch the Pepsi Refresh Project video HERE .

Ideas can be submitted on the Pepsi Refresh website and those that get validated will be voted upon for the grants. The process renews itself every month. Companies like Mashable are jumping on the bandwagon, promoting the Pepsi social-media race by offering their readers to submit ideas through them and thereby benefit from a 50,000 usd grant as an organization instead of going solo. Read about that initiative
here

Refresh The World ? Global or U.S.-only ?
Back to Pepsi Refresh and the motto: “…ideas that will refresh the world. Your ideas.”
So far, it looks like U.S. residents only are allowed to enter the competition. I have gone through a few of the submissions and, quite logically, it also looks like the projects are about improving America locally or on a national scale, in each of the categories I mentioned above.
So does Pepsi intend to open up the competition to the rest of the world at some point ? Or is “the world” they refer to solely limited to America ?
I’m sure global fans, consumers and on-lookers will have a say about that. But hey, I’ve no idea of Pepsi’s concrete geographical spread and market shares.

Let’s see how this bet turns out for Pepsi. Stay tuned.

PS: remember YOU can participate to doing GLOBAL SOCIAL GOOD too by clicking on the Water charity box in the right sidebar. Thanks !

HushPlush Bubble + Danone + Carrefour = 10 meals for the poorest. You can do it too !

Great news on the Social Media Good front ! Even better news: you can do it too, whether you speak French or not.

Following up on my Sunday post on Social Media + CSR (read HERE), I wanted to thank the sponsors, Danone and Carrefour, for taking HushPlush Bubble’s post into account in their campaign.

This morning, I awoke to find an email confirming that the HushPlush Bubble post had earned 10 meals for this year’s campaign of Les Restos du Coeur — ie restaurants with a / of the heart –, an initiative to provide food to impoverished populations in France.

“Nous avons bien reçu votre mail et nous vous remercions de supporter cette action. Grâce à votre billet, Danone et Carrefour offriront 10 repas offerts aux Restos du Coeur.” –> We have received your email and thank you for supporting the initiative. Thanks to your post, Danone and Carrefour will offer 10 meals to the Restos du Coeur.

Great, THANK YOU !

So, people, it’s very little but please pass it on, 1 post on your blog = 10 meals for Les Restos du Coeur

To sponsors Danone and Carrefour: does this second post earn another 10 meals ?