“If this isn’t a true definition of community,
I don’t know what is.”

-Bobbie Davis, Family Friend

The Scenario

Nineteen year old Michael Treinen is in the fight of his life. Suffering a relapse of Acute Myeloid Leukemia, he needs a $500,000 bone marrow transplant, but his $1M lifetime insurance limit has been exhausted.

With only a few days to raise money to cover the costs, the Treinan family turned to email, asking friends and family to donate $20 within three days and forward the email to 20 friends. By day 2, several people at Brainstorm had received the plea from the nearby community; some from up to 4 different sources.

More than Enough

The message quickly spread beyond the immediate community and donations came in from across the country. By day 3 the family had raised $175,000. By 3pm day 4, $355,000. By 7pm that day, over $400,000. And by day 5, the deadline, they had raised over $700,000. Today, a week later, the count is $856,000.

The media’s coverage of the grassroots campaign resulted in a state insurance program approving an expedited high-risk insurance policy that would cover 60 percent of the transplant cost.

More than Money

Social networking delivered something else, too. At last count Michael Treinen’s Caring Bridge blog showed 169,670 visits and 3,677 people had left messages via the guestbook. What better encouragement to lift Michael’s spirits?

More than Email

Success in social networking is inspired, launched and sustained by the trusted connections between people. The Treinen’s email pleas were sent from friend to friend; had they been sent from strangers or generated by faceless scripts, the Michael Treinen story wouldn’t have happened.

Whether you make widgets or offer something more philanthropic, social networking demands transparency and an ongoing investment in others. Then, when the time calls for it, your friends—and even people you don’t know—may respond when called upon.

Anticipate More

Under the circumstances, the Treinens couldn’t have dreamed of, much less considered what to do should they exceed their expectations. It’s being placed in a trust fund to cover Michael’s future medical needs and they’ve said any overage will be donated to charity.

The lesson being, be prepared and model outcomes to scale in proportion to the potential explosive power of online social campaigns.

[ Image: Kazze ]

Think of it as a TinyUrl with residuals.

Short, but Sweet

LinkBlip is a new URL-shortening service perfectly suited for micro-blogging sites like 140-character max per message Twitter. As an added plus, when someone clicks on a LinkBlip-shortened URL, the link creator is automatically notified via email with the user’s general location (city and state).

Future Growth Opportunities

Matthew Inman, the developer of LinkBlip, is looking to add functionality, saying, “I want to add multiple URL tracking and the ability to be notified every time someone clicks a URL, not just once.”

Pros and Cons

Unlike TinyUrl where a click creates a shortened URL in your clipboard, LinkBlip does not, yet. And use of a third-party geoIP database sometimes serves up the user’s ISP location instead of the user’s.

LinkBlip does provide a browser button, and the minor inconvenience of adding your email and copying the new URL is offset by the potential benefits LinkBlip’s feedback provides.

Think of it as a TinyUrl with residuals—worth the paste. We think they’re on to something.

Click on http://lburl.com/f3bhf, Brainstormbrand.com’s small URL and let us know you stopped by.

A quote from a VentureBeat Q&A interview with Blake Commagere—a top third-party Facebook developer:

“Naturally I’m going to try out OpenSocial. It certainly has the potential to turn into a gold rush. And as a developer, I love that I only have to learn one new set of APIs.”

As the interview went on, Commagere left the door open to embrace both Facebook and Google’s OpenSocial. Read the rest of his insights in the Venture Beat piece.

[via: Guy Kawasaki]

A thought about modern day brand and market reach from David Meerman Scott (paraphrased):

Old Rules: Buy your way in with advertising, or beg your way in with PR.

New Rules: Publish your way in with content.

[via: Todd Defren ]

“I’m always about having the No. 1 shows, albums, fragrances and clothing lines.”
—Diddy

Sean ‘P. Diddy’ Combs

Puff Daddy, Puffy, P. Diddy, Diddy, his many names share one common distinction—accomplished marketeer. And as if to prove it, Sean ‘P. Diddy’ Combs announced his appointment as Diageo’s Ciroc Vodka Brand Manager and CMO in an Ad Age Q&A interview this week.

The role is “too big for one title,” he told Ad Age, but, he added, “I’ll be taking the lead on all the things traditionally a CMO or a brand manager would do, just doing them my way. Marketing in a way that is truly unique.”

Savvy Product Placement

Having Diddy both vested and invested in Diageo’s marketing objectives transcends typical endorsement relationships. Before Diddy—a product and brand himself—launches his first marketing directive, he’s already a walking talking media channel for the Ciroc Vodka brand. Not your standard brand agent hire.

Assuming the world’s big enough for both Diddy and Diageo to coexist, this could prove to be a very savvy real life product placement.

Read the entire Ad Age article here.

[via: dgirlp | image: 6e]