Twitter, fresh from the oven

Don't get me wrong, I am a fan of Twitter, but not a huge fan like some. However, I came across this story on Iain Tait's blog and it's clearly demonstrated the power of this medium. I love that my local baker would send out messages about what's just come out of the oven for me to race down and buy. Hot, fresh and delicious.

From his post:

Some of the excellent geeks at Poke have hacked together / masterfully crafted BakerTweet. It’s a wonderful hardware / software solution for alerting people to the latest oven output from the Albion bakery. It’s a wireless Arduino thing that can be customised via a web interface to allow for various custom messages to be Twittered at the twist of a dial and the push of a water/flour-proof button. What’s brilliant is The Albion actually using it. And it actually works.

who, Kodak? really....

I have recently started paying attention to Kodak.

I have to tell you it’s not my style. I am a passionate Nikon lover having worked on the account when I lived in New York.

Paying attention to Kodak took me by surprise.

I was re-introduced to them via a friend of mine, Mary, who’s sponsored by Kodak. She is a blogger, presenter and designer starting a new business venture by branching out in the world of social media. Kodak took a chance on her. I really like that a huge company like Kodak would do this: LISTEN and RESPOND to their audience.

They have demonstrated, not just talked about, how listen to the people that use their products. Not only that, they recently co-sponsored the Streamy Awards in the US. Mary covered this event. Again, interesting I thought.

Their CMO, Jeffrey Hayzlett, is on twitter (mind you every man and his dog seem to be these days so it’s not so cutting edge but credit where credit’s due). Again, I thought, interesting. He doesn't just tweet about mundane company stuff. He has a personality. Sometimes I don't agree with him, but hell, at least I can have an actual dialogue with the CMO of a huge corporation. Think Zappos. Big, big points in my book.

Today I needed (wanted) to buy a digital camera under $250AUD. Nothing expensive. I use my iPhone for most snaps. Just a little something that I can shoot video on of my dogs, friends and family stuff. To my surprise, guess where I first looked without even thinking about it at Office Works? (Staples for my American cousins).

KODAK. In the end I didn’t get a Kodak camera because they had sold out and when I buy I need to take it away with me. But sold out is good. Has me think that something is working.

So enough of me banging on, but I want to send a message to Jeffrey Hayzlett and his team: now you have created an open line of communication with me and all the people that use your products, you better keep stepping it up. If you don’t , all that good work will crash and burn like so many other companies that haven’t dedicated enough resources in their marketing budgets to this type of dialogue.