A Collection. Links for Your Inner History Nerd.

Mai 22nd, 2012 • Links, We like
Tags: Blogging, Creativity, Facebook, history, Links, pinterest, Twitter, World

People who know me personally also know my enthusiasm when it comes to bizarre niche history knowledge. History is hardly a hot topic across the web. History (as well as my other favorite topic politics) traditionally has not got a reputation for being extremely digestable…or even entertaining.

This has changed a lot lately. More and more people with a very distinct taste in niche history topics popped up recently and created impressive, inspiring and sometimes just very interesting places for people like me (and potentially you). Most of the people driving the following links are not just very entertaining but extremely knowledgeable in their specific niche.

Even though I follow so many inspiring history nerds I would just like to highlight a couple of sources that I regularly use and that I find absolutely remarkable. Of course this cannot even come close to a comprehensive list. But I am always happy to learn about entertaining, smart historical online sources that I haven’t heard of. Just leave a comment underneath this article (please).

Four great blogs on history

Of course I have to start up any list of my favorite history sources with Retronaut. The blog is a steady stream of quality historical content – sometimes random but always smart and interesting. Its focus definitely lies on the last 200 years, primarily snippets from the lifes of ordinary people as well as celebrities.

Retro Future has a slightly different approach to history. Its founder Matt Novak has launched a platform that exclusively features future visions from the past – a history that never was. Paleo Future is now part of the Smithsonian family of blogs. And Matt has additionally started to feed a very interesting Youtube channel around the same topic.

Letters of Note again follows a completely different route to explain and feature historical events. The site collects and displays some of the most remarkable and – at the same time – least known letters of famous people. It is simply a delight to find out that even Abraham Lincoln had very worldly problems when he recommended his bankrupt step-brother: “You are now in need of some money; and what I propose is, that you shall go to work, “tooth and nail,” for somebody who will give you money for it.” Touché Mister Lincoln.

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The Awesome Slideshow. 20 Deeper Truths on Twitter.

April 28th, 2012 • Twitter, Underway
Tags: Amsterdam, Funny, Gerald, PR, Presentation, theass, Twitter, Underway

Two days ago I had the pleasure to present during The Awesome Slideshow at Amsterdam’s Boom Chicago. Tom De Bruyne, co-founder of Sue Amsterdam, was so kind to ask me to present ‘something connected to twitter’. And the following little deck was the result.

The starting point for this presentation was a simple thought: Twitter is far more than a digital tool. It is a philosophy machine – a thing that creates realities. And the following selection of some of my 20 most favorite tweets proved that.

Only Today. KLM tweets with a Living Alphabet.

September 20th, 2011 • 4 comments Brands, Twitter
Tags: Brands, Campaign, Cool, Funny, Ideas, KLM, Netherlands, Social Influence Marketing, social network, Twitter, visual

KLM tries hard to become the social web’s favorite attacker brand. After staging a bunch of interesting campaign micro-ideas they launched something more complicated today. As Social Times reported a tweet from KLM earlier today said…

The result: live customer service replies that are shaped by a living alaphabet made up of 140 KLM employees. Yes it is live and it reacts to customer tweets but only today (and only as as reaction to a few selected tweets).

Live Reply tweets are being uploaded to KLM’s Youtube Channel and shared on Twitter. So far they’ve sent video tweets to about ten people, but they’ve still got a lot of hours left in the campaign. The example below is one of them…

The whole campaign is funny but completely useless. Anyway, it’s again a great very short-term promotional stunt to spread the word about KLMs social platforms and to position KLM as a social-media-savvy brand. In this regard: Well done, KLM. I am looking forward to the next useless stunt.

google Plus. Why it’s not about becoming another Facebook.

Juli 2nd, 2011 • 6 comments Social, Strategy, Tools, Trends
Tags: Facebook, Foursquare, google, Social, Social Networks, Strategy, Tools, Twitter

Unless you have been hiding under a rock you probably have heard about google+ or you are already registered user. And just in case you hid under a rock, I let the guys from NMA News explain what google+ is…simply because I love their videos.

So after testing google Plus for two days I am as positive about it as most others I talked to. google simply built a platform with more Pros than Cons. Something you can imagine to use in the future because it combines some of the best features of everything you already use and wraps them in one platform. Ooooh…and a couple of nice new concepts come with the package: google hangout for example (definitely a winner). And I guess Facebook really jumpstarts now to get the Skype cooperation up and running. Among other things.

Stupid debates usually start with terms like (fill blank) killer. Can you remember one game changing product that was announced as the iPhone/Facebook/whatever killer and lived up to it? Not one product out there. And I think the industry has become smart enough not to put this into the focus of discussions around google+ too much. Simply because it is pointless.

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Web Videos. Evian Rollerbabies vs VW’s The Force.

Februar 22nd, 2011 • 1 comment Social
Tags: Brands, Creativity, Evian, Experimental, Facebook, Sharing, Social, Social Influence Marketing, Social Networks, Twitter, video, Viral, VW, youtube

Even though I would like to shoot myself every time I hear the term ‘viral video’ there certainly is a social trigger that turns TV commercials into something users like to share online. Some of the most successful examples over the last two years were Evian’s Roller Babies and VW’s commercial ‘The Force’.

Check out how much reach these two ads generated. Particularly interesting – Evian definitely had more Youtube views, but interaction with VW’s film seems to be much higher (via Griffin Farley).

Quora. Twitter gets a Jeopardy Update.

Januar 6th, 2011 • 9 comments Social, Tech, Trends, Twitter
Tags: buzz, Quora, Social, Tech, Tools, Trends, Twitter, Viral, World

Quora. Currently my favourite example of an overbuzzed platform and I strongly recommend to follow the bizarre network effects that are taking place these days.

Quora is a knowledge platform that was founded in summer 2009 by Facebook’s former CTO Adam D’Angelo and Charlie Cheever. Quora received some funding in March 2010 and is in closed beta since summer 2010. Quora basically is a polished version of a forum. It merges forum functionalities with social platforms such as twitter or Facebook to generate a new type of Q&A platform. That’s not dramatically new but it’s a nice, well presented concept.

Quora turned red hot in late December 2010 and early January 2011. And it seems everyone tries to get on board asap. On January 2nd Techcrunch mentioned Quora as one of the 7 technologies that will rock 2011. Quote: ‘Quora will have its twitter moment’:

…2011, which I believe will be the year Quora has its Twitter moment and start to really take off. Quora represents a bigger technology trend, which is the layering of an interest graph on top of people’s social graph. On Quora, you can follow not only people, but topics and questions. It defines the world by your interests, not just the people you may know or admire. This is a powerful concept and is not limited to Quora (both Twitter and Facebook also want to own the interest graph), but Quora is designed from the ground up to expose and help you explore your interests.

I agree that Quora is a great platform. It nevertheless is not the reinvention of earned media. And I don’t see how a Forum 2.0 + Digg functionalities should come close to a general, broad interaction platform. Anyway for a couple of days the tech press keeps on posting about Quora day in and out. Did you for example know that the former AOL chairman is posting on Quora as if there was no tomorrow? No? I didn’t as well. And I don’t care.

The reason why Quora is so successful is definitely related to it being a helpful, well set up platform. But the momentum behind the current craziness is based on some superstars of the scene pretending Friendfeed, Plancast, Foursquare Quora is the reinvention of anything digital. Oh, and if David Armano and Jeremiah Owyang are posting there as well…we all follow, right?

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KLM Surprise. How to effectively stage a small social idea.

Januar 5th, 2011 • 7 comments Brands, Experimental, Mobile, Social, Twitter, We like
Tags: Airline, Amsterdam, Brands, Cool, Creativity, Foursquare, Funny, Ideas, KLM, klmsurprise, Location, Netherlands, Social Influence Marketing, Tech, Tools, Twitter

Big ideas? Well sometimes you can make a difference with a nice little idea that costs $100 and makes people smile. What happened was simple – KLM Surprise follows passengers who tweet or login to Foursquare while they wait for their flights. KLM has checked out their profiles in advance and gives little personalized travel presents to them. Total costs? $100? $150? A small team with a low end social listening solution. And even though I doubt it was a highly effective campaign idea it at least generated this image video below. Something you would have called a TV commercial in 1994. A TV commercial about a caring, tech-savvy airline. Well done KLM. (via)

Twittertim.es. Yes, this is my favourite app right now.

August 24th, 2010 • Underway
Tags: App, Apps, Gerald, Page, Tools, Twitter, Underway

Just a quick personal update – Page Online, one of Germany’s leading design magazines put my supersized head on the frontpage today (which is a little bit creepy). I was asked to recommend my favourite application. And I think it is twittertim.es as it gives me a very handy overview of what’s hot among my followers. The article is in German only, but if you are interested in its essence – use twittertim.es.

Telekom. Witness my Personal Shitstorm Live.

Juli 29th, 2010 • 10 comments Brands, CRM
Tags: Brands, Mobile, Service, Telekom, TMobile, Truth, Twitter, Underway, World

This morning I checked my German bank account and found out that 1,400 Euro were missing. The reason? My former telecom provider Telekom had withdrawn the money. I had terminated my iPhone contract months ago. So why did they withdraw so much money?

In Germany you usually have two year mobile contracts.

• If you cancel your contract prior to this two year period, your telecom provider is nice to you, offers new handsets, special conditions etc. to make you return to him
• If you forget to terminate the contract it is automatically prolonged for another year without a real option for you to get out

Sounds bizarre? Yes, absolutely. Actually we all know that keeping a pleased client is much cheaper than acquiring (or reacquiring) a new one – but telecom providers in Germany don’t seem to think that far.

Back to the 1,400 EUR. Where were they? In April 2010 I found out that I am moving to Amsterdam to start a new job. I immediately withdrew from my iPhone contract which was still in effect by September 2010. In other words – I had to pay at least 4-5 more months.

Later I realized, there is  a way out of this little problem. Simply because I moved abroad – Germany’s Telekom could not offer their services in the Netherlands. A German law gave me the right to instantly terminate the agreement  if this is the case. So, in June (while already being in Amsterdam) I sent them another letter, withdrawing from my German mobile contract with instant effect.

What I did not know was – by withdrawing for the second time my first contract termination was considered as inoperative. The result…

• Telekom disconnected me instantly
• But (as I withdrew ‘too late’) they prolonged my existing contract for one more year and
• Made me pay for this prolongation for the whole prolonged year = 1,400 Euros

Very twisted ‘reality’. Of course I instantly screamed at a poor guy from customer service who promised me to solve the problem asap. And as usual, nothing happened. I called up my bank and got the money returned…but of course the problem with Telekom was not yet solved.

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Promoted Tweets. Finally explained in 140 Seconds.

Juli 8th, 2010 • Media, Tools, Twitter
Tags: Diy, Media, Promoted Tweets, Social Media, Tools, Twitter

Promoted Tweets are already live for about two months now. But I (as most of you) did not have the chance to take a deeper look at it by now. Check out this crisp little tour to our kind-of-favourite new social advertising vehicle…or whatever you make out of it. (via)