A woman who received an epidural about seven months ago has been blogging about how her insurance company would not cover it, even after paying $800 per month for health insurance. After some suggestions about what to do, the woman began blogging about it. In response the insurance company has written her a check to cover the remainder of her bill.

It is interesting to see how fast the insurance company responded to her once their media department found out about her blogging. I guess they didn't want to start a conversation among their customers much like the Dell customers did about "Dell Hell."

BrandWeek and Web 2.0

An article on BrandWeek's website discusses everything we have covered in class. In a way I think the author is months behind getting some of this information out but it is still important for others that do not already know to be informed. Anyway, the article covers blogging, word of mouth and the effect it has on companies and the right way they should deal with negative comments.

Magazine follows Radiohead's Idea

Paste magazine recently has followed Radiohead's idea of letting their customers pay as much as they want for a subscription to their magazine. A magazine to follow is Premier Guitar. Premier Guitar will be wrapping 10,000 copies of the December issue with a "pay what you want subscription card" that allows customers to pay anything they would like for their 12 months of reading. Their goal is "create exposure for a relatively new magazine," increase subscriptions and internet audience.

Hopefully this new idea that has proven success with Radiohead will show the same positive results with the magazines.

Blogger Strike

In response to the writer's strike in the entertainment business, some 21 entertainment bloggers will "go dark" this week in support of the writers.

"Some people thought we'd be against the writers because our favorite shows are going away, but we wanted to show that some things are more important than a few shows airing full season," says Glowy Box blogger Liz Pardue, who organized tomorrow's "blog strike."

AintItCoolNews has also showed its backing for the writers by posting a supporting petition that has 44,000 signatures.

The protests now are not just people with signs swarming areas of cities to get their point across. Their persuasion and activism has now spread to the internet making it easier for others to show their support.

Great Christmas Gift

As I was browsing the New York Time's news I came across an interesting article about a new cookbook that one can make online. Kamran Mohsenin, founder of Ofoto, took note of how popular customer made books and calendars are. Now, one can get online and choose 100 recipes to be included in a cookbook as well as a colorful cover. The recipes can come from their online site, your own personal recipes, or those from other sites. One can order a cookbook by going to TasteBook.com.

DEWmocracy

Mountain Dew is now turning to their consumers to create the next Mountain Dew in a campaign called DEWmocracy. In their consumers journey, they have the power to create the color, the flavor, name, logo, label, and tagline. When one enters the contest, they are taken through seven different chambers allowing you to meet characters, answer questions, and play games. Each chamber takes you through your creation of the next Mountain Dew as well as play games and join different teams whose drinks most closely matches your own. All teams will vote on other teams. Those with the higher amount of points will allow greater visibility for others to vote on it. Ultimately, the winners drink will be taken from an idea to the real world.

The way Mountain Dew has presented this campaign is interesting. They have created a story and made it more involved rather than just saying "go make a new drink." It looks like the target audience they are trying to address is definitely a younger, more internet saavy, group. I wonder what type of new drink will be created and marketed in stores. It will be interesting to keep an eye on this campaign and see what comes out of it.

A Shopping Feature Soon to Come to FaceBook

An article I found on Adage from yesterday states that the ever popular social networking site, FaceBook, will soon be adding a shopping feature. When a FaceBook member buys something they will be able to let their friends know about it, let them know if you like it or not, and possibly even send a coupon to you. The article states that "the service will bring a sort of easily tracked viral element to online shopping."

There were challenges brought up in the article as well. Dave Balter of BuzzAgent says that the application that would be put on FaceBook is only limited to online shopping therefore the number of products is limited. Also, he says that most people talk in person about products and that discussion is missing.


Although Balter's comments are respectable, I believe this is definitely a smart move for FaceBook and those shopping sites associated with it. I will agree that many people discuss and show products in person, but the amount of people conversing online is astounding. The word of mouth in person only reaches a limited amount of people who may or may not choose to pass it along. Your word of mouth online will reach numerous amounts of people that you may never know.