CDG Interactive Blog

Or How the Internet Helped Heal My Cat & Get Rid of Drew’s Cancer

The topic I wanted to address this week was social media, community and creating change. Originally this post was supposed to be about Blame Drew’s Cancer as a social media phenomenon, and it still will be, but in a different way than I originally intended.

On Monday night I came home on my way to run what I thought would be a quick errand. Rather than being greeted at the door by Bandit, my cat, there was silence. I went looking for him and eventually found him on the floor of my bedroom. When I pet him, he didn’t even pick up his head, so it was obvious there was something really wrong. Into the cat carrier he went, and we were off to the veterinarian for an emergency visit. Once they determined the problem and it was clear that it was serious, they took him in the back to see if they could stabilize him enough that we could go down to the road to the 24-hour pet hospital.

As I was sitting there waiting and worrying, I pulled out my phone and posted an update on Twitter. In short order two of my dear friends were sitting beside me and the time passed more easily with them and the messages of support that started arriving from my Twitter friends.

When we were able to move Bandit to the hospital, it was clear I had a really sick kitty and I wondered if he was going to make it, but I was so glad I wasn’t alone. As we waited for news at the hospital, I posted updates toTwitter and Facebook.

Continue reading "What Social Media is Good For" »

Every week, I get a Google Analytics report containing key metrics for this blog. Scanning through the data is a great way to get insights into who's coming here and why.

Until earlier this month, that is.

Continue reading "Twitter vs. the Long Tail" »

On this 8th anniversary of the still-unimaginable attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, this date that will forever be known by its numerical shorthand, we take a moment to remember.

We remember the lives lost -- some in the attacks, some by those trying to save the injured. We remember where we were: traveling abroad, or at work atop a tall office building with a view of the smoke from downtown, or locked down on a visit to a federal office building.

With its new site, Make History, the National September 11th Memorial and Museum aims to take our memories of the day and use them to create a collective, interactive, living 9/11 memorial.

You can search for others' stories by timeline or subject, and upload your own, whether text, photo, audio or video.

By preserving our memories, we can never forget.

I'm just back from vacation and catching up on what I've missed, and I found some gems that I wanted to share:

Seven Skills to Look for in a Web Analytics Manager from Avinash Kaushik - as always, he goes beyond the obvious and it's a great self-check to see where you are.

From Conde Nast Traveler, The Autobiography of a Tip - in case you were wondering what happens to those dollars you hand out in other countries and what it means to the people who get them.

Seth Godin explains The Problem with Positive Thinking - iwhy don't we do it all the time?

5 SEO Pitfalls to Avoid from the Online Marketing Blog. Fall is a great time to go back and review tactics.

Search Engine Watch talks about Measuring Social Media  and suggests a few metrics.

What are you reading that's inspired you to do something differently?

Once you use Twitter for a while, you discover that among the great twittering masses -- numbering about 6 million, at last count -- there are only about five kinds of people. Give or take.

(Note that we didn't say this is the 5 types of Twitter accounts; after all, the CNN Headlines feed isn't exactly a "person" per se.)

So here's our version of The 5 People You'll Meet on Twitter*:

Continue reading "The 5 People You’ll Meet on Twitter" »

One of the coolest parts of my job is taking everything I already know about the web and interactive and applying it to a new client project, while also trying to add something different and creative.

To put it another way, 1 part Experience + 1 Part Creativity = Innovation.

So how can I draw out that knowledge and spark new ideas? Here are a few methods I like to use.

Continue reading "Experience + Creativity = Innovation" »

While it’s probably not a surprise that 45% of employers reported using social networking sites to research job candidates (according to a recent CareerBuilder survey), it is surprising that 35%
of those employers reported finding information that prevented them from hiring candidates.

Now these are candidates that were actually under consideration for positions – the employers weren’t just reviewing resumes or deciding who to bring in for an interview. These were candidates at or past the offer stage. So that’s pretty significant. Think about your last or current job search and all the resumes you sent, everything you did to get an interview, all the negotiations to get the offer. Then imagine that a random Facebook update or Tweet kept you from receiving that final letter. Or worse -- caused an offer to be rescinded. You can prevent this from happening to you by exercising some good ol’ common sense.

Here are three rules to prevent social media self-sabotage, plus a few tips on how to make your online presence work for you,rather than against you:

Continue reading "3 Ways to Prevent Social Media Self-Sabotage on your Job Search" »

So Twitter was down and out for a couple of hours this morning, leaving many users shocked, saddened and stressed. Well, surprised anyway.

Because Twitter's growth has skyrocketed in 2009, this means a significant number of accounts were created in the blissful recent period during which the service has actually been pretty stable. These folks know not of the fail whale.

But the old timers just sigh and experience a little deja vu.

After all, Twitter was so notoriously unstable in the early days, that the site IsTwitterDown was created to, well, answer the question everyone was asking.

So the next time you feel tweet-blocked, kids, now you know how to quickly find out if it's just you. (There's also the official Twitter Status page which has more details, but less zen simplicity.)

Graphic Credit: Original creator Yiying Lu

Twitter, in its current Shiny New Object media oversaturation phase, seems largely to be considered as useful for one of two things: sharing inane updates ("Eating a sandwich") and following the inane updates of celebrities ("Ashton Kutcher is eating a sandwich").

It's a bit of a bad rap, of course. As we good interactive marketing folks know, Twitter can be a great channel for networking, sharing information with -- and getting it back from -- others in the field, and (in as balanced and non-spammy a manner as possible) publicizing a company's products and services.

But that's not all this ever-evolving channel can do for you. Here are 5 other ways to use Twitter.

Continue reading "5 Other Ways to Use Twitter" »