Thanks largely to evolving technology, change never stops and mashups are one small but growing consumer trend that is changing how people express themselves. Brands have also been embracing the mashup in their quest to build closer relationships with audiences.

A mashup essentially takes APIs from multiple websites and ‘mashes’ them to make a unique, innovative application.

A couple of examples of how brands are embracing the mashup:

Radiohead Reckoner Re/Mix

Radiohead openly embraced its audience’s desire to collaborate at an intimate level by selling ‘strings’ of its music separately and inviting people to create their own remix and enter this into a competition.

The interactivity extends beyond the micro site, allowing people to post their personal remix on their Facebook or MySpace profiles.

Crowdfire by Intel

Crowdfire enhances the music festival experience for people who attend by using multimedia to extend the experience to screens at festivals, and then online.

At the festival, you can upload your pics and videos and sit back while they’re viewed across the festival screens. After the festival, you can go back to the site to see everyone’s photos. Crowdfire acts as the aggregator of the material so people can go to the Crowdfire site and link their photos to their own social networking profiles like Facebook and Twitter.

Mashups aren’t the only way consumers’ relationships with brands are evolving, but they are an effective way of enhancing people’s feelings of intimacy with a brand.

Posted by: Carmen Campbell
Thanks to: Radiohead, Crowdfire

With no shame, Ben Stiller shows the importance of friends in high places, all in the name of Twitter.

Posted by: Carmen Campbell
Thanks to: Ben Stiller, Red Hour Films

The Twitter phenomenon continues. Here’s an example from Vodafone UK on how it can be used in a way that complements an existing campaign, taking the user generated aspect to a deeper level.

To let Vodafone UK customers know that they don’t have to pay global roaming charges while they’re on their summer holiday, Vodafone launched an interactive twitter travel map to invite participation.

People are invited to enter their Twitter details, alongside their postcode and almost immediately they are posted to the interactive map along with hundreds of others.

This campaign works because Vodafone doesn’t forego its brand in favour of the latest hyped technology. Its brand messages and iconography sit alongside the interactive map, while at the same time acknowledging its audience likes to both travel and Twitter!

If you love Twitter, you’ll love these…

There are numerous applications popping up that can enhance your day to day Twitter experience. Some are more useful than others. Here’s just a few:

A place where important people get really famous tweetingtoohard.com

To keep things tidy tweetdeck.com

Questions for the Twitter universe? iknowtweet.com

Create and distribute polls on Twitter twtpoll.com

Thanks to: Vodafone UK, Twitter, Tweeting too hard, Tweet deck, I know Tweet, twt poll

In last month’s interview with Lachlan Brahe on social media, we learnt about the importance of learning by listening. This month, we show you how Dell computers is doing just this – but it didn’t start out that way.

Back in 2005, influential blogger Jeff Jarvis took issue with Dell’s customer support service and penned his frustrations via his blog BuzzMachine. Almost instantly, his frustrations made their way into mainstream media.

What did Dell do? It confronted the negative sentiment head on.

Today, Dell has a social media team with 40 full-time employees dedicated to transforming customers into advocates and advocates into evangelists.

This cultural change sees a number of web led offerings that embrace the people’s voice. Here are just a few:

Ideastorm – extensive site for customers to share suggestions, feedback and participate on a number of new product ideas.

ReGeneration – environmentally themed blog focusing on sustainability and based heavily on community interaction.

Twitter – 34 accounts which are segmented, localised and cover off everything from CSR to Retail. Dell proved that Twitter can be a legitimate revenue stream by taking in US$1 million in sales during the holiday season.

In my view, Dell is a great example of a company that has fully embraced the spirit of social media by first listening and then involving the customer.

Thanks to: Dell, Nick Bryant-Smith, Paolo Modolo, Twitter

For many brands, a presence on Facebook is seen as integral to their connection strategy with customers. But what happens when your brand has multiple non-official identities on Facebook?

In Coke’s case, 2 passionate fans from LA established a fan page dedicated to the brand. Within 4 weeks, the page had an astounding 750,000 fans. Their motivation for starting the page was based purely on their love of the brand and wanting to connect with other like-minded individuals.

As momentum took the fan base passed 1 million, Facebook amended its policy so that brand pages must either be authorised or associated with the brand. Coke was given the option of taking over the page or shutting it down.

Now, this is where Coke proved it was a smart brand. It decided to pursue a partnership with the creators, while also rewarding them with a trip to visit Coke HQ in Atlanta.

In doing this, Coke legitimised the existence of the page giving it credibility and technical support while maintaining its grass roots appeal.

Here is a smart example of how a global brand embraced the role everyday individuals play in the brand’s reputation, demonstrating its willingness to involve its customers and engage in meaningful dialogue.

For many brands, what is being said about them in either offline or online conversations cannot be controlled. Where an impact can be made is through reaching out to fans, championing collaboration and creating a true sense of ownership.

Thanks to: Coca Cola, Nick Bryant-Smith, Facebook, KoiFish

Sometimes, attractive audience numbers overshadow what social media is all about – socialising.

In this interview, Lachlan Brahe, Managing Director of emitch, Sydney, talks about the importance of understanding the social setting before engaging in it.

To find out more about how your brand can embrace social media email lachlan.brahe@emitch.com.au

Thanks to: Lachlan Brahe