Big Brands and Social Media
IBM owns more than 100 different blogs, a dozen islands in the virtual world of Second Life, several official Twitter accounts, and a popular forum called developerWorks. It publishes a machinima series (a cartoon video made in Second Life) on YouTube, and several employees upload presentations to the media-sharing site SlideShare.
Dell has tapped the power of social media with its hugely popular IdeaStorm website, where users add ideas for new product lines and enhancements, vote them up or down, and comment on submissions. Because of the site, Dell has started to ship computers with Linux installed, and has added community support. Starbucks has also started to use this model to some success with its My Starbucks Idea site.
Burger King has made headlines time and time again with its innovative viral and social marketing campaigns, most recently with the "Whopper Sacrifice." The burger chain offered Facebook users a free Whopper coupon if they would "unfriend" 10 of their social network connections (see Figure 1-1).

Figure 1-2. Viral videos demonstrated how to pick Kryptonite bike locks with only a Bic pen.
Cable giant Comcast has begun to salvage its tarnished reputation with a customer service outpost on Twitter led by Frank Eliason, Comcast's "Director of Digital Care," and his @comcastcares account. Whenever someone tweets negatively about the company—and ...
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