Remember my blog post about Kyle MacDonald’s Storebuyout.com Well, I and many others received the following email this week:
Here’s a video of a chat we had with Hercules.
The original sales receipt is currently being auctioned to help buy
Hercules the store of his dreams. Please spread the word!
http://cgi.ebay.com/
have fun,
Kyle
So, currently the auction stands at $1,025 with the reserve not met. I can’t wait to see what happens. Whether this receipt is sold for heaps or it isn’t I love Kyle’s approach to the world and there is heaps to learn from him so check out www.storebuyout.com and get learning!
We all know Alex Tew, in fact, many of us are green with envy whenever his name is mentioned. Alex Tew is the guy who created milliondollarhomepage and made a million dollars in the process. Alex has also had a number of other viral successes including donothingfor2minutes.com
What some of you may or may not know is that Alex Tew has moved to American to become Product Manager of Monkey Inferno which, according to it’s website is a ‘place where we dream up cool internet projects, develop them, nurture them into successful businesses’. How cool?!
But there is more, Monkey Inferno, is self-funded by Michael and Xochi Birch who sold Bebo in 2008 for a cool $850million! Basically, what this means is that Monkey Inferno can a) never go bust and will b) never need investment.
Alex Tew is a genuinely nice guy who dreams up big ideas and ensures that they happen in practice. I cannot think of a more perfect fit for Alex to be working with Monkey Inferno. A massive congratulations to you Alex!
I am pretty sure that Alex Tew + Monkey Inferno will = a shit load of cool stuff!
All of the above, must be true, it is on Alex’s Twitter bio: @tewy
I currently spend my days managing social media accounts for some pretty decent UK brands. Alongside managing their twitter and facebook accounts I seek to deliver the best social media concepts that I can, in order to make their brands known.
Nevertheless, recently, I have been wondering where the big brand social media ideas are. There have been a handful of big social media ideas that have stood out over time including: Best Job in the world and it’s follow up Million Dollar Memo there have been the classic and viral Old Spice adverts which gained over 30million views on YouTube. Another successful advert was the t-mobile adverts, their flash-dance advert gaining 28million hits. But, where are the current big social media ideas?
If you know of any, please let me know. As someone who works in social media, with the aim of making brands famous online, I am constantly challenging myself to come up with the best and the biggest ideas and one of the ways of gaining these ideas, of finding inspiration, is by looking at what is currently out there. I am looking, but, I am not seeing.
If there are any particular brand viral / big social media ideas that are getting you going right now, please do let me know of them!
Google Offers is launching soon, launching in Portland first. I assume that it will take awhile for Google Offers to get to the UK but many people, around the world will be watching with interest.
This great little video has been released to promote the launch of Google Offers, however, I ma intrigued to know whether this service will be any different from the likes of Groupon and Living Social and, if so, whether the public at large with have deal-fatigue.
Time will tell whether the deal phenomenon is over or whether it will go from strength to strength, what do you think?
Over five years ago I launched a project in Fiji, called Tribewanted. The basic idea was to bring together people from around the world, online, in order to create and develop an eco-island on an uninhibited 200 acre island in Fiij. The result of Tribewanted are, humbly, far reaching.
There are people who have met, through tribewanted, and, subsequently, have got married. Babies have been born as a result. Some people have even moved to the other side of the world and, have barely returned. When I came up with the idea of Tribewanted I could never have imagined any of these things, but herein lies the power of potential.
I have recently come across another project, launched this week, by the serial entrepreneur, Ben Way, called ‘Arc Island‘. Launched on kickstarter with the intention of raising an initial $50,000 seed money, the aim is to build a floating island, the size of Manhattan, in what would be the biggest civil engineering project in history. Ben’s goal is that everything, will be built from scratch, and a new structure of civilization will be created.
When I first heard of this project I genuinely thought, ‘what is the point!’ It sounds like a load of cash and for what purpose? However, having thought about this over the course of a week, my thought process has changed. When I launched Tribewanted many people asked, ‘why?’. Some people didn’t get it and for awhile it was in the ‘weird’ section of the press until it became more mainstream and became a tv programme.
When Thomas Edison set about creating the electric lightbulb, was he fully aware of the effect that this would have, what it would become? Did Thomas Edison know that the lightbulb would light homes, streets, workplaces, providing lighting for cars, did he know that it would dramatically improve the lives of so many? Of course he didn’t. The only thing that Thomas Edison knew is that it could be done and he wanted to prove to himself, not necessarily, to anyone else, that it could be done. After 10,000 attempts later the lightbulb was invented and history was changed. Where would we be without the lightbulb? One of the most exciting and fascinating aspects of human life is that we have the power to create, to create whatever it is within our imagination to create.
At the beginning of the week I read about the Arc Island Project and thought, ‘why?’ and now I am thinking, ‘what if it never happened?’ Just like the lightbulb, could the existence of the Arc Island Project radically change our lives in ways that we cannot even conceive right now? Of course it could!
I believe in the Arc Island Project, not because of what I see, but, because of what I don’t see yet, but what I know is there, it’s untapped potential.
So, with this in mind I am contributing to the KickStart Fund and I hope enough people get on board in order to make this happen. Thomas Edison was one person, who made a dramatic contribution, that changed the way that human being’s live their lives. Imagine what a heap of mini Thomas Edison’s could do, by contributing a small amount of money, and making the Arc Island Project happen, and how future generations may be revolutionised by this very project.
Click on the video below to hear more about the Arc Island Project:
Please add your contribution to fund this project via Kickstarter.