Five Things You Might Have Missed!

Welcome to Friday and our little party that celebrates the best in social media marketing, custom content creation and viral marketing. We call this jamboree Five Things You Might Have Missed and we’re happy you decided to drop in!

1.) Miles of Smiles: VW of America launched a clever interactive campaign dubbed “Why VW.” You might have missed the new commercial entitled Smiles, which succinctly explains Why VW’s philosophy. The initiative highlights stories from Volkswagen owners who share their experiences via the company’s Facebook page. Since cars are often featured in our lives’ biggest trips and most dramatic moments, the “Stories” element of the campaign is especially powerful — and using Facebook to house these tales is social media marketing at its finest.

2.) Reddit Returns: If you’ve missed out on using the valuable tool of Reddit, this article on Social Media Examiner really explains how it works. Reddit is a social news platform that helps brands “discover the value of creating, facilitating and leveraging Reddit communities to better connect and engage customers.” Between being able to use Reddit to publicize company blogs and its easy ways to build communities, we’re reconsidering Reddit this fall.

3.) Subway Serious: NYC’s subways and a series of controversial anti-Jihad advertisements are at the center of a battle for free speech involving blogger Pamela Geller. This week, Geller won big when New York City courts allowed her to put up the“Stop Islamization of America” ads in 10 metropolitan subway stations. The ads say “In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man. Support Israel. Defeat Jihad” and are ticking off New Yorkers of all backgrounds. Nevertheless, this story is worth keeping on the radar for the provocative questions it asks about bloggers, advertising and freedom of speech.

4.) Take a Moment: Today is Peace Day and to get the word out they created a “Peace Button” that automatically adds the date to digital calendars and sounds a reminder to stop and think about peace. Not just a great marketing idea but a great way to celebrate the day, too.

5.) Tanking on Twitter: Finally, sometimes the things we miss are the examples of what not to do. Laugh at and learn from these Twitter marketing disasters courtesy of Business to Community… and be glad your name is not on the list.