by Kristen Malzone

Last night, I got the chance to spend some time with the of the Live Off Groupon contest winner: Josh Stevens (@Groupawned).  I learned a lot about the challenges he has faced so far and how he has utilized social media to overcome those challenges. We ate dinner at Oliva on the Lower East Side and discussed his journey thus far.

The Live Off Groupon campaign began as a challenge to see if anyone could live off Groupons for an entire year. Groupons are essentially discounted gift certificates to local businesses. After hundreds of applications and video submissions, Groupon selected Josh Stevens, a 28-year-old from Chicago, to spend 365 days surviving solely on an unlimited amount of Groupons. Groupon confiscated Josh’s apartment, credit cards, and all of his personal belongings. They provided him with a paper-suit (made from Groupons), a laptop, an iPhone, a digital camera, a Flip cam, and health insurance. From there, Josh was challenged to travel the country to Groupon’s 60 cities with Groupons as his only form of currency. This means that all purchases, from meals to activities to travel arrangements to hotel accommodations, must be paid for with Groupons. He may barter in exchange for goods and services that are not available with Groupons, such as leaving a tip at a restaurant. If Josh successfully completes this year-long challenge, he will be awarded $100,000 (in cash).

Josh blogs, tweets, and posts on Facebook as he travels across the country. He has been networking with social media users to find things to do and places to stay as he goes. It may seem a little risky, but overall he has been really enjoying the experience while making lots of new friends. This campaign truly shows the power of networking on social media. It’s arguable that Josh would not be able to survive solely on Groupons for a year without social media. What do you think? Could you do it?

Josh was interviewed this morning on the TODAY show with Kathie Lee and Hoda. Check out his interview…

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

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by Kristen Malzone

Pay what you want. It’s a risky concept and has proven to be successful for one franchise. Panera Bread Co. recently opened up a store called Cares Cafe in the city of St. Louis. It’s an “out-of-the-box experiment” that has created quite a significant amount of buzz both around the community and on social media. The cafe is run by a non-profit and Panera plans to expand across the country in the near future. This philanthropic initiative hopes to bring communities together and serve as a what could be described as a high-class soup kitchen.

This ground-breaking project is unprecedented in the restaurant franchise industry and has people talking. After searching Twitter, you will see the amount of positive buzz that is surrounding this story. People are sharing the story with their friends and commending @PaneraBread on Twitter. Customers who visit the store are greatly appreciative of the efforts Panera has made to improve their community. One third of customers are actually paying more than the retail value of their meal.

Panera’s social media team could really embrace this opportunity if they’re smart and build relationships with the customers of Cares Cafe. Many have warned Panera CEO, Ron Shaich that this will fail. He thinks otherwise: “The core of my life has been to make a difference. Now, I’m using my business background to make a difference in the world.” In our opinion, he is going in the right direction and other franchises should follow his example.

What do you think of Cares Cafe? How would your community react if one were to open in your city?

by Leo Mikinberg

If you haven’t already heard the buzz, Mark Zuckerberg and the rest of the Facebook team have announced a new initiative that may change the way you interact with Facebook and the rest of the web. The new “Like” button is part of a larger project called Open Graph, which is an attempt to incorporate Facebook into every possible page on the internet. Once you’ve logged in to your Facebook account, you will be able to surf the web and see just how many of your fellow users and friends “like” the website and content you’re checking out. While this sounds harmless, this announcement has ruffled a lot of feathers because it brings with it further changes to the very sensitive, and often controversial Privacy Policy. To clear the air and give a better picture of what is in store for a new Open Graph world here are a few pros and cons of the changes.
Cons:

1) Privacy Policy Goes Gray – The Privacy Policy on Facebook continues to fall into a gray area where the lines between private and public are constantly blurred. With the newest changes a lot of your information, including your name, names of all your friends, pictures, gender, likes, connections and shared content are, by default, visible to everyone.

2) You Choose Your Privacy Settings… If You Can Understand Them…Sort of -Facebook has always given its users the ability to limit who sees what on their profile. Over the years the options have gotten greater and the jargon has gotten much more confusing. Attempting to limit who can view your Facebook page is no longer a quick fix, but instead is a time consuming, head-scratching process that may leave you wondering what you just did or didn’t do. This becomes even trickier when you are trying to make your information more private. You may take the initiative to prevent people from being able to see that you are connected to Jane Doe, but she may have her settings on default; if that’s the case someone can still see that you two are connected through her Facebook page.

3) Now I Like It, Now I Don’t – With this new found ability to bounce around and “Like” every picture, article, and other piece of content on the internet, some of us who are known to get a little trigger happy may end up liking something that we either find we don’t really like or just don’t want the world to know we like. In the event that you did like something and want to unlike it, the process gets to become a bit of a nuisance. To remove the like you would have to head back to your Facebook profile, find your likes and interests to single out the individual object (which could at that point be one of hundreds) and remove it. If you are not a heavy user of the like button this may only be an inconvenience, but for those who are going to be liking regularly it may become more of an issue.

Pros:

1) Instant Personalization – No clever title needed here. Instant personalization, as Facebook has started to call it, is the best example of what is possible through Open Graph. A handful of websites like Yelp, Microsoft Documents and Pandora are going to be able to connect to your likes and interests so they are better able to customize the services they provide. Pandora can be able to better serve you by knowing what music you already like and are listening to, while Yelp can use your location to bring you more accurate responses. Social Commerce Today gives us a better look at what these three sites are doing with Instant Personalization here. While we may not see too many websites with the resources or the know-how to create this level of Facebook integration in the near future, it is a small window into what a social web can look like.

2) Go Straight to the Good Stuff – Even the best bloggers or newspaper columnists have their bad days. With the new “Like” feature, you will soon be able to see just how many other Facebook users and friends think that an article is worth reading. The same goes with almost any piece of content out there for the public to consume. Assuming you trust your friends’ judgment, you can skip over the stuff that isn’t “fit to print” and go straight for what is.

3) The Early Bird Catches the Worm – The businesses that are moving quickly and taking decisive steps to make sure that they are using the new “Like” feature to the best of their ability are already starting to show strong gains. While IGN is in no way new to cyberspace, it has shown a 20% increase in referral traffic from Facebook since it has begun incorporating the “like” button. This is of particular importance because many businesses that find themselves with active pages on Facebook may be surprised with the impact that implementing the new button will have on the traffic going to their respective websites. This feature is going to be beneficial for those surfing the web as well as the people who are creating the content.

Now that you’ve seen a few of the pros and cons, what’s your take on Facebook’s “Like” button and its Open Graph?

by Devin Sugameli

As proud members of the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA), we were all super excited to see this year’s promising School of WOM lineup. Whether or not WOMMA actually chooses to refer to these panel presentations as “classes” per today’s blog title, we’re confident that the lessons we learn at this conference will do more to further our education about word of mouth marketing both on- and off-line than your standard marketing major course load ever could. Here are the Top 10 sessions we’re most looking forward to:

1. Keynote: Kodak’s 4 E’s of Marketing: Engage, Educate, Excite & Evangelize. There isn’t an intro to marketing student out there who hasn’t heard of the 4 P’s; how better to set the foundation of word of mouth marketing than with Kodak’s 4 E’s? Kodak’s Keynote speaker Jeffrey Hayzlett, Chief Marketing Officer and Vice President of Eastman Kodak Company, will be taking us through Kodak’s experience in using social media to connect and build relationships with customers, plus showing us how Kodak managed to multiply the impact of its marketing programs without breaking its budget.

2. Best Buy—Using Passionate Employees to Help Launch New Business Opportunities. Best Buy was faced with a challenge: how does a “big box retailer” like Best Buy enter the musical instrument category without alienating musicians with already deep ties to music industry-focused retailers they’ve come to know and trust? As the company’s been known to do before, it turned to its employees as the ultimate brand ambassadors, empowering them to start and grow the conversation with customers everywhere in an authentic voice. We believe very strongly here that in many cases your employees can be the most powerful brand resource you have, and we hope to see even more brands inspired to empower their employee bases in a similar fashion.

3. Keynote – Dan Heath. Dan Heath is co-author of the books Switch and Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die. theKbuzz’s own Jenna Lebel is a personal fan of Dan’s, having read Made to Stick and finding it “super interesting” – and we can’t wait to hear more about Switch’s stories of everyday people effecting transformative changes in their families, companies, and daily lives. While not directly related to marketing, Dan’s exploration of the power of united minds is inspiring for social media’s power to bring even more minds together more easily than ever before.

4. Coca-Cola | Putting Coke Zero on the Map. Coca-Cola is a brand that knows how to inspire its fans. If you’ve ever struggled to acquire organic entries to your online video or photo contests, you need look no further for an example of a brand that successfully encourages that content creation and proudly shares it with the world. Roberto Mastracola of Coca-Cola & Sarah Hofstetter of 360i will teach attendees about the keys to building a veritable fan arsenal on social media by including, engaging with, and rewarding them.

5. Navigating Regulated Industries: Learn What Your Next Step Should Be (Parts 1 & 2). As corporate investment in social media marketing has exploded over the last couple of years, regulated industries (think government involvement) are still understandably anxious to throw themselves full force into world with far fewer clear, established legal guidelines than traditional advertising. According to its schedule description, this panel “cuts through the jargon and hyperbole and lays out the risks, rewards and responsibilities of using social media for those in regulated industries”, featuring stories from others working in regulated industries who are already participating in the space.

6. David Beats Goliath. As a rapidly expanding startup ourselves, we will always root for the little guys. This session shows how small business can use social media to “level the playing field”, engage with their customer bases, and compete side-by-side with the biggest brands in their industry despite having much smaller traditional advertising budgets to work with.

7. International Olympic Committee | Attracting & Engaging Millennials to Legacy Brands. First, how can you not be excited to attend a session presented by the International Olympic Committee? And second, we’re excited for the prospect of a session focused around the elusive “Millennial” – members of a unique generation that, unlike other targets, are actually growing up with social media. The IOC will share its challenges, insights, and best practices for attracting and exciting this particular audience.

8. UNO Chicago Grill | Using Social Media in Crisis Communications. Aside from the fact that theKbuzz’s Carrie Kerpen is presenting this panel with theKbuzz client Kimberly Boynton, Director of Marketing, Uno Chicago Grill (though really, that should be reason enough to entice you), we think this is a topic of immense interest for any company facing an internal brand, product, or corporate crisis. Some might have reservations about entering the space at such a time for fear of ruining their reputation. But even in the midst of filing Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, Uno managed to get through it and come out on top! Come see us to find out how!

9. Keynote: How Google Builds Its Brand with WOM? Another undeniably amazing brand is presenting its own keynote speech, this time about the important role of word of mouth in its own emergence. In addition to learning how Google did it, attendees will learn more about Google’s products designed to help you run your own word of mouth marketing and measure the results.

10. Ethically Flawed Social Marketing Programs. One of the best sessions I’ve ever attended at an earlier WOMMA conference was a brainstorming session to revise WOMMA’s Code of Ethics. In this session, panel members will be asked to brainstorm and pitch ethically flawed social marketing programs, receiving feedback from MEAP co-chair Patrick Thoburn. This session aims to drive home the values which support the WOMMA Code of Ethics and Disclosure so that all can go forth in social media marketing with knowledge and full confidence in their tactics.

Learn all about these sessions and more about WOMMA’s School of WOM here – we hope to see you all there!

By Jenna Lebel

The social media world is abuzz with developments from Facebook’s f8 Developer Conference last week. With the unveiling of open graph, like, credits, improved analytics, mobile and more (see full roundup here), there are great things coming (some already there) to Facebook. I was fortunate enough to attend the conference and have a front row seat to a preview of Facebook’s future. We’ve given our analysis of f8 and an in-depth look at what the “like” means for your business, which cover most of the big developments of f8, but there were other smaller developments too. One of the sessions I attended was Focus on Feed. In the session, Facebook’s product and engineering teams discussed the history of the News Feed, their learnings for what makes engaging stories, and ways to use the stream in everyday interactions.

The News Feed only shows a subset of the content or stories generated by your friends and other connections on Facebook. This is to keep you from being overwhelmed as a user. But this means that businesses on Facebook now, more than ever, need to make sure their stories are making the cut. Because of this, news feed optimization (NFO) has arguably become the new SEO.

In the session, we were shown the algorithm that Facebook uses for their news feed. Internally they call the equation EdgeRank (formula pictured here) and it determines which pieces of content make it into the news feed and which pieces don’t. The ranking is based on three factors: the affinity score, the weight of the content, and the time decay.

The formula may be confusing to you so I’ll break down here:

Affinity score: The affinity score is the score between the viewing user and the creator of the piece of content. If you interact with a fan page frequently (view the page, post on the wall, comment and like status updates), that affinity score will be higher than pages that you interact with less.

Weight: The weight of the content is determined by comments, likes, tags, etc. I would assume there is a ranking of these factors (i.e. a comment probably weighs more than a like) though they did not confirm this.

Time Decay: The time decay is pretty straight-forward and is based on how long ago the piece of content was created. A piece of content becomes less important as time passes.

The score you get from multiplying these factors is the EdgeRank. The higher the rank, the higher your chance of your piece of content appearing in the news feed. Similarly, the higher the score, the higher it would appear in the news feed itself. This is not particular surprisingly that the more you interact with someone, the more likely you are to continue to receive their content. But it was interesting to see how they explained the algorithm that determines what makes the cut. And it makes a stronger case for people to develop and create content that will elicit interaction and thus a higher affinity score and weight.

If you weren’t at f8, but would like to watch the session, click here. Go to the “Techniques” sessions, and click on ‘Focus on Feed’ and share your thoughts in the comments section below!

by Carrie Kerpen

You can find fifty different blog entries about the goings on at F8 today. Check Mashable, TechCrunch, or AllFacebook, and you’ll see all of the amazing technical advances that Facebook is making with their new concept of the Open Graph. Robert Scoble has an excellent analysis here. Today, here at Buzz Marketing Daily, I will be explaining just a few of the ways that businesses can (and will) use these changes to better their marketing efforts.

1. Social Plugins: So, you tried to install Facebook Connect and failed. OR, you installed it, and users didn’t really do anything with it. With Facebook’s new social plugins, you can use a SIMPLE line of code, and instantly have a like button on anything you want on your website. You can also install a Facebook chat bar, or a “Friends Activity” plugin. What this does, in essence, is make ANY site completely social in nature. Imagine going to your favorite shopping site, and seeing, without having to log in to Facebook, that 3 of your girlfriends “liked” the Kate Spade shoes you were eyeing. That’s what Social Plugins do, and it’s done EASILY.Your site is instantly social.

2. The Open Graph: Okay, back to the Kate Spade shoes. Let’s say you click “like” on those shoes on the shopping website. That like will then be added to the users likes and interests section of their profile. This is INCREDIBLY important for advertisers and ad targeting. Think of the implications of your likes and interests being autopopulated into your profile. Its your entire social structure, housed in one place where you are the most social of all– Facebook. And for advertisers, that means the ability to deliver relevant messaging to those who have openly stated they love your content and want to hear from you. It makes Facebook advertising more relevant, and a users experience across the web WAY more connected.

3. The INSIGHTS:Facebooks insights have been decent, but now, the ability to measure the effectiveness of your marketing has increased tenfold. Now you’ll be able to see where your fans are coming from– ads, the stream, suggest a friend…it’s all documented. As marketers, this makes our job much easier, as the need for data surrounding social programs is greater than ever.

Here’s my Watch me Wednesday video on the exciting happenings!

What did YOU think of the recent Facebook changes and the F8 announcements? Share here:

Watch as Queen Bee Carrie Kerpen reviews the iPad, and experiences it as a mom, as a small business owner, and as a PC user. We’re wondering what our Kbuzz fan base thinks of the iPad? Have you purchased one yet?

By Jenna Lebel

Mobile location technology was a central theme at this year’s SXSW. Although foursquare was the breakout app at last year’s conference, it was still a main focus this year resulting in a huge surge in the service’s growth. This Wednesday, the location-based social network announced that almost 100,000 users have signed up in just the past 10 days. With growth like that, it is no wonder that businesses are teaming up with foursquare to create customer rewards programs. Here are 4 examples of how companies are using foursquare to provide value to their biggest fans. What’s your take? Is foursquare the ideal customer loyalty program platform?

Tasti D-Lite

Social media has changed the way rewards programs are executed. Just ask Tasti D-Lite, the first company to leverage foursquare for a rewards program. The New York-based frozen treat company created “TastiRewards,” a rewards program that encourages people to link their Twitter and foursquare accounts to their Tasti D-Lite membership cards. When customers register their TreatCards, they can opt-in to link to their Twitter and foursquare accounts.  By linking to their social accounts, users are able to automatically update their Twitter, foursquare or other social sites every time they make a qualifying purchase at a participating Tasti D-Lite location. Through this rewards system, customers win points regularly (in fact, they earn 1 point per purchase for each social network connection set up) which are redeemable towards a free medium cup or cone.

Starbucks

Frequent Starbucks trips now have their perks! Though there is no financial incentive or free coffee just yet, visitors who check in at the several Starbucks locations on foursquare can unlock the “Barista Badge” after five check-ins. Starbucks is new to foursquare, but sees the benefit of the location-based mobile service. They plan to use foursquare as a testing ground for reward strategies. In the works is a kind of uber-coupon: they plan to offer prizes such as invitations to special events, photo-sharing or online reputation scores. Starbucks committing to foursquare might open the possibility for other companies to follow in their footsteps.

ZAGAT

The restaurant reviews guide ZAGAT partnered with foursquare in early February. Users earn a “Foodie” badge when checking into any ZAGAT-Rated restaurant in NY, LA, Chicago, Boston, or San Francisco. That’s not all! In an attempt to bring the foursquare community together with ZAGAT’s dining expertise, users can benefit from insider tips in all five cities and have the opportunity to be featured on ZAGAT.com in their “Meet the Mayor” series.

Bravo

TV station Bravo recently partnered with foursquare. Bravo explains, “Bravo fans do more than sit on their couches and watch Housewives. They eat where Top Chefs eat, they shop where the Housewives shop and they foursquare!” Their foursquare deal comes with a variety of Bravo-themed badges and a guide to “Bravolebrities’ picks for the best restaurants, bars and stores in your city!” The TV station is turning its well-known personalities, from popular series such as Top Chef and The Real Housewives, into content creators. These celebrities share tips and to-dos which people can then follow. Bravo even created 20 second TV ad spots promoting foursquare (see below).

By: Shannon Aronin

This year I am so excited to be attending SXSW Interactive, along with our Chief Buzz Officer Dave Kerpen and Director of Small Buzzness, Mallorie Rosenbluth.

If you are a newbie to this amazing conference this year, my advice would be to dress comfortably – especially shoes, the Convention Center is huge! Austin weather is unpredictable this time of year so prepare for anything by bringing layers. Use the SXSW tools. Upload a profile picture and fill out your contact information, follow industry contacts you know or would like to know, and pick the panels you plan to attend. Make sure your smart phone is set up with any apps you have been meaning to use but haven’t gotten around to setting up yet. Don’t forget your power cords to your phone and computer!

I’m really excited about the people, panels, parties and tools. The 5 things and panels I’m most looking forward to are:

1. Using QR Codes. This is so cool it’s unbelievable. It’s also why it’s really important to flesh out your profile. Before the conference make sure to download the QR Reader to your phone. Registrants will all be assigned Quick Response bar codes that will display on their conference badge. If you snap a picture of someone’s bar code using the Reader, you will auto follow that person on my.SXSW, allowing you to retrieve their contact info later.

2. Debunking the Myth of Social Media Fundraising. I am always interested in how social media can make a bigger difference for nonprofits. Plus, this panel features friend and client of theKbuzz, Stacey Monk, Executive Director of Epic Change. The panel also features some other folks I’m excited to hear from including Brooke McMillan with Livestrong, and Jodie Kolkowski from the American Heart Association.

3. Crowdsourcing Innovative Social Change. This panel features several friends, and brilliant minds that are constantly exploring effective nonprofit use of social media. Beth Kanter, Amy Sample Ward, Holly Ross, David Neff, and Kari Saratovsky make this a panel that can’t be beat if you’re into social change. These experts have written a lot about the topic, so be prepared for this session to explore the difference between using social media to serve a nonprofit’s mission and using it to drive widespread cause driven change.

4. Blogging and Live Tweeting. For me personally, live blogging isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. You will get a more coherent, well thought out post on what I learned at SXSW here next Tuesday. I WILL however be live tweeting. You can follow me @ShannonAronin to read the best gems from sessions, meetings and parties. If you want to follow everyone tweeting at the conference, be sure to watch the #sxsw and #sxswi streams.

5. Being LOCAL! Although I originally hail from New York, I live in Austin, so the entire SXSW festival (which includes music and film in addition to the interactive portion) is a huge deal for the city. I love Austin, and I love watching people from all over the country fall in love with this great city. So please, if you’re in town and want to know where to eat or what to see (and you haven’t already been fully informed by Yelp!, Gowalla or Foursquare) please ask me. Welcome to Austin!

By Jenna Lebel

Social Media is about listening, joining a conversation, and entering a dialogue. It is no wonder that classrooms are relying on social media to enhance students’ learning experiences. From live streaming Twitter feeds to a digital classroom portal, educators and students alike are finding a benefit in the integration of new media into the classroom. Here are 5 examples of how social media is becoming the newest teachers’ aide. Do you think social media has a place in the classroom? Can you think of other great examples? Share in the comments section below.

Stanford University

Stanford University uses its fan page on Facebook as the ultimate resource for students. Students have access to faculty and student projects and can get inspiration for their own projects there. But that’s not what makes this case unique. Stanford leverages Facebook to host faculty office hours. Students (fans) post questions to the wall for a specific faculty member and that faculty member answers the questions during his/her assigned “office hours” via video or the wall. Stanford’s online office hours do not replace in person office hours at the university, but they do make it easier for students to find answers to questions quickly, without leaving their dorm room.

Purdue University

Purdue University uses the Hotseat application which integrates Facebook, Twitter and text messaging to help students communicate during class. Students simply use social networks or SMS to comment and ask questions on the class material as the class proceeds. The messages are projected onto a screen, allowing everyone in the class including the professor to see the messages. So far, the new media component in Purdue’s classrooms has been well received by students and faculty. Professor Sugato Chakravarty sees social media as a valuable tool for enhancing learning. He explains, “The students are engaged in the discussions and, for the most part, they are asking relevant questions.”

University Laboratory High School, Illinois

High School teacher Steve Rayburn wanted his students to read Dante’s Divine Comedy and get excited about it. His non-traditional assignment was called “Twitter in Hell.” Students were required to read the Dante classic and write 140-character tweets describing each level in hell as if they were Dante writing to his beloved Beatrice. Rayburn claimed that his kids instantly took to the project.

Marquette University

Through Skype, Spanish students at Marquette University participate in a virtual language exchange. Each student is assigned an English-learning counterpart from South America and engages in frequent webcam chats with their digital pen-pal. Professor Janet Banhidi claims that by using Skype each student gets an authentic experience and has access to their own personal tutor.

University of Texas at Dallas

History professor Monica Rankin has employed the “Twitter Experiment” to her classroom lectures for over a year now. She sets up Twitter accounts for her 300+ students and uses Twitter to encourage participation among them and organize and transmit topics, discussions and questions. In her syllabus, she assigns a hashtag to each class discussion topic making it easier for students to search and index those topics. During each class, the live feed of all tweets using the designated hashtag are projected on a large screen for all to see.