LYRICS:
Now Im in the blogosphere, Now I’m in the twitterverse
Fans get so immersed, But I’m a nerd forever
I’m the new Zuckerberg, And since my website
I been cookin dough like a chef servin killa-bytes
Used to be the basement, Back at my mom’s place
Buildin web traffic so that we could sell an ad space
Make way for the, One man businesses
Bail outs finished with, White collar criminals
New sega genesis, Entrepreneur time
Makin big plans, To dominate the online
Yeah, I’m on YouTube, this is one man
Sharin’ google revenue, With songs on my webcam
Science is the new art, Databases day to day
Geeks spreadin’ sheet smarts, Hustle, make the data pay
I could be in Valleywag plus Geekologie
Tell from my avatar, That I’m most definitely

The New Dork,
Social networks – what dreams are made of, There’s nothing you can’t do
Now you’re the New Dork
This V.C. money is brand new, The geek is now damn cool
Let’s hear it for new dorks, new dorks, new dorks

Catch me up in Techcrunch, Right on the homepage
Hell, I’m on Gizmodo, In a photo bout a phone craze
And Im up in Mashable, weekend trip to New York
Bar pitty, 1oak, parties full of New Dorks
Now I’m pitchin business plans, From the backs of napkans
Micro-lend to Africans, Monetize Kazakastan
Catch me up on linked-in, Dog, C.E.O.
You can see where I be, With the I.P.O.
Now I’m up in skinny jeans, Now a hipster’s lurkin’
Used to be a reject, But now I’m steady jerkin’
Now my glasses mainstream, Now the girlies eyein me
Popular kids copy me, The new swag is irony
Comin’ from the small time, Girls couldn’t find me
Now I scale models, Like I climb on top of Heidi
Start big trends, with tweets that I pass on
You should follow me, cuz I’m friends with Ashton
CHORUS

FACEBOOK
http://facebook.com/grasshopper

TWITTER
http://twitter.com/grasshopper

A coffeeshop

A bookstore

A music venue

I spend more time than I will ever admit working, pretending to work, people watching, pretending to work while people watching, enjoying coffee, postponing work to enjoy coffee at a coffeeshop. It is my “haven.” Although San Francisco has its share of great coffee spots, San Jose was a bit lacking. I called home to only two places and served very different needs. But now I am here, in the land of coffee houses. I took it to my twitter page to find out what coffeeshops I must experience before calling one home.

Initially the idea was to:

Try one coffeeshop a week…

Visiting it at least twice…

On both occasions having the basic non fat cappuccino…

Once to go, Once to stay…

My reasoning for this was because the cappuccino is one of the most basic coffee drinks and one of the most often made incorrectly. The balance of coffee, milk and foam needs to be precises and I am a self proclaimed expert. Just ask my mom.

Like I said, I took this to twitter then compiled my list in a Google Excel Doc. With nearly 30 places submitted I knew this idea of one per week would have to be squandered. So here I am, with a list of coffeeshops that I need to get through… Unfortunately, I think I found my favorite during week one but a challenge is a challenge. No calling one home until I’ve tested them all.

Wish me luck!

Coffeeshop  –  Recommended by

• Albina Press (N) — @brittontaylor
• Albina Press (SE) –  @jacobgrier
• Ava Roasteria  –  @jamespolits
• Barista  -  @brookelynnNY
• Baristadors  –  yelp
• Beveland Coffee  –  @rnoah
• Blend  –  yelp
• Capital Coffee  –  @jamespolits
• Cartola  –  @jerryketel
• Coffeetime  –  @verymickey
• Fresh Pot  –  @evoldog
• Heart  –  @jacobgrier
• Insomnia  –  @torriejae
• James John Cafe  –  @evoldog
• Jazz Cat  –  @rnoah
• Kens  –  @verymickey
• Kettleman’s  –  @verymickey
• Manhattan Cafe  –  @calebbryant
• Metro Perc  –  @jamespolits
• Mississippi  –  @evoldog
• NW Coffee  –  @verymickey
• Red E Cafe  –  @jacobgrier
• Spella  –  yelp
• Stumptown  –  @rnoah
• Three Friends Coffee  –  yelp
• Urban Grind  –  @torriejae
• Vivace   –  @torriejae

If you want to add more to my coffee list or join me in a cup of cappuccino, just @ message on twitter @danidotnoah!

Here are my 10 key themes for youth marketing in 2010:

1. Social Creative

Unless your idea is social by nature, you’re pretty much dead in 2010. Brands need to stop thinking about ‘big ideas’ and think more about being socially creative in how they engage young people. As always, youth are attracted to ideas where they see a new reality or a truth, but now it’s about connecting members of the tribe in new and interesting ways.

2. Influence

Influence will be a key buzzword for youth marketing in 2010. Marketers now understand that everyone online has a platform/amplifier to create his or her own wave on influence. Brands which make members of their communities more influential by way of exclusive content, special rewards etc, will gain traction with young people. It’s all about giving youth status within their tribe.

3.   Culture Mashing

The best ideas always mash together two unexpected cultural elements to create a new reality for people. I’m a big believer that ‘culture mashing’ taps into Gen C’s need for surprising spontaneous experiences that occur when they least expect it. Earlier this year we created ‘Cabbieoke’ for Telstra, where we turned the most painful part of a young persons night (the expensive cab ride home) into the best part, by mashing a free cab ride with a random karaoke performance.

4.   Experimental

Being experimental and taking a few calculated risks every year has to be part of your brand behaviour. Red Bull are the kings of being experimental in how they push the limits of human performance. Their latest idea, Red Bull Stratos is a collaboration with Felix Baumgartner to break the sound barrier while free falling from 120,000 feet. Both Red Bull and Nike both know that not every initiative they put into the market will be successful, but they have a Fail Forward approach and continue to innovate.  Try bouncing two different cultural elements together and build off your brand truth.

5. Intrigue

Young people a huge appetite for intriguing new ideas. Being interesting is important, but being intriguing is critical. Your litmus test for youth is them saying ‘Gees, I’d never thought of that’. Doritos in the US, are continually intriguing American youth through their Hotel 626 and Asylum 626 ideas as part of ‘Snack Strong productions’.

6.   Blurred realities

Whether we like it or not, Alternate reality experiences like Nike True City which use mixed reality to provide customer utility are here to stay. Whether it’s actual utility or purely entertainment value like Adidas’ Originals game, we’ll see brands creating mixed reality ideas exponentially in 2010.

7. Empowerment to Generosity

The ‘you can make a difference’ brand bandwagon has been around for over 18 months and it will continue in 2010 as brands look to empower young people through social media platforms. Already this year, we’ve seen One Young World in London and Pepsi’s Hit Refresh campaign, which is off brand, but interesting nonetheless.  I believe we’ll see youth brands shift gears to a brand behaviour which is more about ‘generosity’ within the community at a more micro level eg: how you can help out your close friends with the help of a brand.

8.   NOW-ism

Young people are the Real Time Generation, living at 100 miles an hour and demanding real time access to information and creativity everywhere they go. Immediacy is a must, they are über connected to everything so demand ideas they can play with and put their own spin on. If it’s not live, it’s pretty much forgotten the next time the Facebook status feed rolls over.

9. Collaboration

The brands who engage young people in ideas which create mutual value will win in 2010. As I said in one of my conversations with Graham Brown from Mobile Youth, marketers need to stop treating people as the bullseye or target destination for their messages, instead it’s all about treating them as partners in production and modulation of ideas. Youth WANT to be the media, make it easy for them to share your message/brand experience.  Collaboration isn’t new, but it will become more mainstream as brands understand the need for youth involvement in all facets of the brand.

10. Agitation

Agitation is my personal wish for youth brand behaviour in 2010. Too often in 2009, brands just went with the status quo and didn’t create culture. Apart from BK’s Whopper Sacrifice and Diesel’s Be Stupid, there weren’t too many brands that really agitated culture. Agitation is about starting something, lighting a fire in culture that gets a fresh conversation going. It’s about taking a look at cultures set of rules, and seeing how you can agitate the status quo. The boys at Crispin are masters of agitation.

dfdfd

• Moved myself to Oregon. No family to help, no friends to bribe, just myself and some movers.
• Made the epically long drive from San Jose to Portland in one sitting by myself.
• Learned how to play Texas Hold ‘Em Poker by a professional player. I was a bit disappointed by my poker face (I had such high hopes in it) and I cheated but it was a lot of fun!
• Just Say Yes February: This was actually what my planned “One Thing A Month I’ve Never Done Before” and the most silly and interesting. For February, any young man who asked me out on a date received a yes. Big or small, weird or cool, I gave it a go. I went on 5 dates and had to cancel 2 because of the move which took longer than expected.

I am SO excited for March, I already have my “One Thing” planned but I am open for more suggestions! Feel free to send ideas in my comments or email to info (at) daniellenoah (dot) com.

—

Twittenger Hunt

Twittenger hunt made didn’t even make it pass round one. It was deemed “too cute” from all of the manly men while the girls liked it.  Seeing as I am a girl, I liked. Seeing as I designed it, I loved it. Reason #1 I gave up design: I fall in love with my work.

Blood Alcohol Testing Coasters

These coasters made it to round 2… and I think could have made it further if I pushed it more. They were designed in the early stages prior to our brand conception and I think we worried too much of the logistics of how to make it then the idea. In the end, our money was better spent in other areas. I would like to give a little shout out to Veronica Mars for the inspiration!

Microsite

This microsite was my love child. Inspired by Modernista, designed for Remember Tomorrow, we made our site be a media hub for all social media access. Basically, we wanted to keep you on our site for as long as possible without you realizing you were still on our site. Being a trickster is one of my best qualities! This microsite did make it into our campaign but as it was my love child, I felt it was lost in the noise… but that is just me being a stage mom. Anyone else will tell you that it was prominently featured. [Click the first image and then use your keys left/right to scroll]

There are more pages that interact closely with myspace, twitter, facebook, youtube, going, flickr… etc… but I will save you the trouble. You get the jist. When all is said and done… and a year in the past… it was a fun experience. We had a great team and memories. But I am SO thankful it is long and over!

Name: StepChange Group

Location: Portland

Website: http://www.stepchangegroup.com/

Clients: Nestle, Match.Com, Gold’s Gym, Southwest Air…

—Yesterday I blogged all about the luncheon that I attended called “Marketing in Facebook” and today’s post is all about the agency behind the discussion.

StepChange’s mission is to “Partner with brands and agencies on Social Marketing strategy, development, measurement and management.” Basically, they create innovative campaigns that rely on social networking and from what I understand… mostly on facebook. You know that small change of $50 million that Pepsi was taking away from traditional media? Well they are the type of agency who Pepsi would go to. I love the idea of the agency but didn’t really see the profit in it… until yesterday. I had no clue I was limiting facebook to status updates. Honestly, the social media possibilities are endless.

Why I like StepChange: They are creative and innovative in an area that is relatively unknown and under appreciated. Social media is hard and hardly talked about like a commercial on the Superbowl. Also because their area is difficult to measure they have to win clients over by without solid numbers to back them up. Let just say, their work is cut out for them.

Below are a basic outline of my notes, sparknotes version:

Facebook Facts:

• 400 million active users
• 50% of active users log in daily
• 20 million users fan a page daily
• Average users spend 55+ minutes on Facebook daily

Facebook’s Mission: Give people power to share and make the world more open & connected. Their goal is to facilitate the connection to brand & consumers.

Key to success on Facebook is Presence, Activate, Amplify. Currently marketers are using custom tabs on fan pages to take the place of microsites and Facebook’s behavioral targeting is allowing brands to target specific people with ads based on their fan pages. For example Gold’s Gym wants their ads to appear on a person’s facebook page that is a fan of 24 Hour Fitness and Working Out.

In creating a social media campaign there are different areas or levels to incorporate: Wall Posts >> Custom Tabs >> Engagement Applications

• Expect to spend money on ads. (In comparison to traditional media it is low in cost and easy to start/stop)
• Use real estate right (Target fan page users)
• Plan beginning, middle and transition for campaign. (Example: What happens when the coupons run out or contest ends?)
• Integrate with other media
• Create amplifiers (What will make it so someone passes it along or posts it on their wall?)
• Build for lasting momentum

For great examples of brands using Facebook you can look at:

• Dunkin Donuts
• Best Buy
• Match.com
• Traveocity
• Gold’s Gym

Although Facebook just relaunched their homepage there are talks of upcoming adjustments as soon as 3 weeks away. I’m keeping it on the hush so I can pretend to be an insider but the changes will be great for marketers allowing for richer data and access to users.

The moving experience from California to Oregon was… traumatizing, to say the least. Between the 11 hour drive, movers from hell and saying goodbye to my 9 years in California I am a bit worn out. The good news is I have made it to Portland, my furniture is some where between the Silicon Valley and the Silicon Forest and the weather is absolutely beautiful it still feels like I am living in San Jose.

To keep with my transition theme I am reworking my online presence as well. Between my main homepage, photography and design pages they are all being revamped and prettied. Also, this blog (the one you are reading right now) won’t be updated daily like prior to the move. Instead I am going to be shooting for multiple times a week and pushing the smaller posts to my tumblr account (danidotnoah.tumblr.com). Tumblr allows me to quickly reblog my favorite posts from all of my blogs that I subscribe to on google reader and is a lot easier than transfering it and making it look nice for here. Instead, this blog is going to be strictly my words and thoughts. Of course I will recommend you follow both but as long as you are connected to my twitter (@danidotnoah) you should get a reminder of updates.

Outside of online, I am still on the search for a full time brilliant job. I am looking for account management opportunities within advertising agencies or brand management within businesses. In the meantime I am fine tuning my skillset and networking whenever possible.

I can’t wait to share about some exciting events I have been apart of  recently and continue to update you as I go from in transition to settled. Portland is a welcome change regardless of being unable to pump my own gas!

As many of you know, my ultimate dream is to be apart of a stellar advertising agency…to be specific, I want to be a contributing part of that agency. I am willing to start in the mail room if that means getting my foot in the door but I might pull a Michael J Fox in The Secret to my Succe$s and take over an executive’s office.

It is easy to get comfortable in the life you live. For someone so young I have been able to live quite a posh life. But life is a little more fun when living in the uncertain. (Also a bit more stressful, but I am trying to be optimistic here!) I am wanting and needing a challenge.  So I am packing up and driving Club Rav up to Oregon.

I have no job… which means I have no money.

I will be crashing at my parent’s house… which means I will have a mild social life.

But I do have an amazing family, my dog Jake, time to look for a job and some killer shoes to boot.

I have decided to live with gracious uncertainty.

For those that I am leaving, thank you for making my home a home. The only thing I am sad to leave behind is you. Which is why I am as frequently looking for jobs for you as I am myself. I can confidently say that our adventure isn’t over, it is merely expanding territory.

For those that I am joining, if I become grumpy feed me red velvet cake and all will be well. Everything else is relative.

For my followers, if you so much as touch my foursquare mayorships I will fly down there and break not only your kneecaps but every bone in your hands… and there are a lot! You think Chuck Norris is tough? He hasn’t met me yet!

For my future followers, game on.

Peace, Love & Bubblegum

Danidot

PS. As this transition takes place, this blog will be taking a short hiatus. If you are miserable without me, which I completely understand, please find ways to connect on the right hand panel towards the top. You may also follow my mini blog at http://danidotnoah.tumblr.com/