This social media-friendly press release about the 2008 Ford Focus popped up in my Twitter friends stream this morning. I love it. Ford has neatly packaged together YouTube video, Flickr photos, RSS feeds, sharing options and even tagging suggestions. Applications like this allow information / content to get spread further (and quicker) than the standard “FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE” Word doc.

When reaching out to the social fabric of the Web, what’s your organization’s P.R. strategy?

Apparently NBC’s Today Show is now Twittering.

Yesterday I received a notice that the Twitter user Todayshow was following my feed, which is a gentle way of asking “Hey, can you follow my feed, too?” This is a great example of a large organization that wants to leverage Twitter to promote what they’re up to, but hasn’t quite grasped how to do it properly.

Instead of accusing the Today Show of social network corporate invasion, I thought I’d offer up some advice on how to improve their stream. (This can apply to any organization interested in using Twitter.)

1.) Don’t just force your blog’s RSS feeds into your stream. The (insert post title) and (insert url) tweets quickly become non-human, boring and expected. This makes it seem like you’re only using Twitter as a way to auto-syndicate your blog’s content, and that’s not the stuff Twitter users are into. Twitter-ers like conversation.

2.) Keep the tweets under 140 characters. For instance, we don’t know what this means: “Super Shea and Marvelous Mercer: This morning, Meredith interviewed a very inspirational young woman…” If you want us to tune in or watch your online video content, tell us why she’s inspirational and why we should care in less than 140.

3.) Introduce behind-the-scenes stuff and quirky antecdotes. Tell us what Al Roker is doing right now. Does he drink the office coffee or does he bring his own? What’s Willard Scott’s dressing room like? Convince Matt Lauer to personally type a message. Give your Twitter friends some unique stuff that doesn’t exist in your other communication channels.

4.) Try to keep the tweetcount manageable for followers: Between five and ten per day, please. Only Scoble can get away with more.

5.) Consider the Twitter demographics: They are much more likely to consume technology news, so push tech content in your feed.

To sum up, social mediums must be utilized properly in order to be effective. Signing off.

The founder of Pandora.com will be speaking at the Fourth Street Theatre in Des Moines this Thursday evening. The event starts at 7:00 p.m. and is free to the public, so drop by if you’d like to hear stories about the Music Genome Project and surviving the dot-com implosion. See you there!

Click for directions (Enter through Java Joe’s)

The Greater Des Moines Partnership wants to know why you love DSM, and they want your answers on YouTube. Spreading the Des Moines gospel is critical to the growth and emergence of our city, so let’s help them out — ultimately, groups like the GDMP can’t do it alone.

So, what do you love about living here? Grabbing a basket of tots and a beer at the High Life Lounge? Our local art community and upstart music scene? Unique shops like SMASH and Eden? Whatever it is, grab a camera and some friends, create a video, then upload it to The YouTubes. If it’s deemed coolest, you can even win up to $1,000. (Full details here.)

While we’re on the subject of Des Moines, here’s a nice piece about the city that some of my good pals at Applied Art helped make. Watch “CREATE”:

This weekend I was alerted to stay away from Quechup, a sketchy social networking site. (Thanks Mike @ ConverStations!)

Here’s how it works: You receive an invite from a friend asking to join them on Quechup, similar to how you’d be invited to MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, etc. If you’re not careful, Quechup will then wrap its tentacles around your personal address book and spam all your contacts with unsolicited invites.

Quechup being evil is old news — I’m posting about it because this is a fine example of bloggers banding together and using the power of social media to stunt the propagation of spammy practices.

August 12th: Vlogger Justine Ezarik posts a video showing the absurdly huge (300 page) iPhone bill she received from AT&T. Hundreds of thousands of other iPhone users receive similar massive wastes of paper and postage at the same time. Blogosphere erupts, and within 24 hours the video clip is all over the mainstream press.

August 22nd: All iPhone users receive a txt message from AT&T stating the following:

We are simplifying your paper bill, removing itemized detail.

Once again we’ve witnessed the incredible power of the social web. In just 10 days, a tiny video clip forced lumbering giant AT&T to initiate a major change in their billing process — and 10 days is pretty swift for the newly re-formed Ma Bell.

Image: A pic of my iPhone bill — a mere 44 pages long.

From time to time, clients ask us if we can help edit (or create) a Wikipedia article about their organization. The Official Lava Row Response is as follows: Never write/edit an article about yourself or your company, and never pay someone to do it for you.

We realize this answer can be frustrating to someone who understands the important benefits of getting referenced in Wikipedia. (Brand popularity, awareness, high traffic volume, etc.) The wiki regarding conflicts of interest sums it up best: “Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, not a forum for advertising or self-promotion.” Attempting to edit one’s own article can result in public embarassment and negative press for the organization, as members of the Wikipedia community are bulldogs at sniffing out self-serving edits.

This week, a new application called WikiScanner launched (created by CalTech grad student Virgil Griffith). WikiScanner gives everyone the ability to check exactly who is behind a Wikipedia edit. Remember, transparency is a good thing. It serves as a reminder to marketers and P.R. people (ourselves @ Lava Row included) that we ultimately do not control brand images — customers do.

This reinforces the need for every company to bust their asses in creating positive, meaningful relationships with their consumers, both online and offline. Letting the customer write your story shouldn’t be scary, as long as you’ve made them a happy customer.

Second Life — the media darling of 2006 — is now being roundly criticized by publications left and right. Wired and Forbes have both recently posted articles about Madison Avenue’s “wasteful” involvement in the online world. Yes, backlash is inevitable for any popular web application. (MySpace has already been through this.)

There are some basic truths here: Marketers, by nature, always want to ride the wave of what’s next. SL represents an exciting shift in how we communicate online, making it chum in the water for advertisers and brand managers worldwide. There was a point where just establishing a presence in SL alone was enough to get hype for your organization, even if you did nothing with it.

My advice with Second Life is that you can’t put your virtual toe in the water and then run away a week later when things don’t go as expected. Remember, SL is still relatively new-ish technology. For a brand to successfully make a splash in-world, creativity, curiosity and (*gasp!*) patience are required. And, quite simply, it’s just not for everyone. Using it as a mainstream, broad-stroke marketing vehicle will never work.

I’ve said it before, but Pontiac truly *gets* it with Motorati Island: an immersive, branded experience. Meanwhile, Second Life remains relevant to the millions of residents who call it their second home, while fostering a vibrant, growing micro-economy — with or without the presence of outside marketers.

Perhaps SL’s biggest proponent/critic is Warren Ellis, who writes a weekly Second Life dispatch for Reuters. I highly recommend it. Reading Warren’s column, I always learn something new, bizarre and/or exciting about the possibilities contained within virtual worlds.

Last Thursday I spoke with an Iowa State University class inside Second Life. The course (Management Information Systems taught by Associate Professor Brian Mennecke) encourages students to assess possible e-commerce strategies and business models within SL.

Unlike a traditional college class, all course interaction takes place in an open-air “classroom” inside Second Life via virtual avatars and chat. Although I did note some similarities to my University experience: A few students showed up late, while others needed help finding the room.

Many of the students wanted to know how to successfully leverage Second Life for existing businesses. While there is no exact formula, my answer is this: Organizations must create opportunities for SL residents to truly become engaged with their brands and products. The prime example is Pontiac’s Motorati Island, a virtual racetrack and garage where gearheads and auto enthusiasts can create their own car projects and take them for a spin.

Pontiac has remained true to what makes Second Life popular: Allowing users to create personalized content. On top of that, Pontiac gets a window into the consumer’s imagination, seeing what they really want out of an automobile. Just think of it as inexpensive and hyper-insightful R&D.

In the past, television has impacted — okay, influenced — presidential elections. (Clinton on Arsenio, the John Kerry “swiftboat” TV ads of ‘04.) With the emergence of the Web as THE most powerful communication tool of all time, and the public’s increasing disgust toward political ads, it is certain that social media will play a huge role in 2008.

Smart candidates will leverage social applications in interesting and effective ways. Others will fear it, not get it or just plain ignore it. So which candidate is scoring an A+ in their use of social media so far? Barack Obama. He’s using Twitter frequently, and two buzzworthy pro-Obama (prObama?) videos have popped up on YouTube. While nobody can tie these vids directly to the Obama camp, we highly suspect they’re behind it. Or at least encouraging it.

Below is our favorite, “I Got a Crush…On Obama.” Also, don’t forget to check out “Vote Different,” a mashup of Apple’s “1984″ ad and Hillary Clinton.

How else can politicians leverage social media to engage voters? The always-insightful Danah Boyd has some great suggestions.