Given June 18th, 2011. Wedding of Greg Miller and Kelly Fellows. R-Ranch, Dahlonega, GA

I’m very honored to be here today. I’m not even sure exactly how to be a best man, but I Googled it and I found out I’m supposed to give a speech.

Hello everyone, welcome and for those that don’t know me, my name is Rob Olague, and I’m the best man. Thanks to everyone on behalf of the bride and groom for coming, and to the wonderful parents of the bride and groom for making this all possible.

Greg, I was going to tell a really embarrassing story about you, but then I remembered that I’m in all of them, and we’re not here to embarrass ME. So let me tell you about the real best man here today, my friend Greg.

Greg and I met back in the 4th grade, and we weren’t always friends but somehow we always wound up getting into the same things. We spent hours on Brak Sector and Halo, and we wakeboarded at Lake Anderson on the “Good Ship Lifestyle”. It was always a good time with Millertime.  We kept in touch through high school and beyond and Greg has been my best friend for over 15 years.

What I know about Greg is that he’s a truly sincere person, intelligent, trustworthy, caring,  kind and witty. He’s someone I’m proud to call my friend.

Which brings me to another friend, Kelly. Kelly and I met back in 2003 at USC. We were pretty good friends and I liked hanging out with Kelly, so I invited her up to the bay area during a break in finals sophomore year.

So we drove down to Santa Cruz and met up with Greg and some of his friends over at UCSC and when Greg pulled me aside to ask about Kelly, I told him everything I knew at the time: Kelly is smart, kind, fun, very cool, from Georgia.. And she’s a Trojan, so what more could you ask for?

The spark from the beginning was undeniable. I just so happened to take a picture that night and Greg and Kelly were looking into each other’s eyes already. It’s an obvious love they have from the beginning, and nothing has changed. I still see the same look they give to each other, the way they are when they’re together. They are individually some of the greatest friends I have and best people I know. They’re also more than that. They’re a testament to kindness and understanding, love and commitment, and the ability to find the bright burning soulfulness of true love.

I may have made the introductions but it’s Greg and Kelly who have done all the work. I’ve been proud to see this relationship between two incredible friends grow and flourish and lead to this day. But I must say this is only the beginning. You two have a wonderful future ahead of you; Together.

Greg is a very lucky man to leave here today with a beautiful and amazing bride, and Kelly is lucky to be leaving here today with …. well, an incredible dress and beautiful flowers.

Greg, Kelly. I love you both with all my heart and I’m honored to be here on your wedding day.

I’d like to ask you all to join me in a toast to the bride and groom’s many years of future happiness. I found a quote that I thought appropriate: “There is no remedy for love but to love more.”

May you find the remedy in each other always. Congratulations.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhFU-VYMewo

My best man speech for Greg Miller and Kelly Fellows. They are wonderful friends, and I hope the speech did them the kind of justice they deserve. Over a year in writing, but a lifetime in the making.

Some film posters might soon have more to offer than graphics and titles.

Disney created the first augmented reality campaign for a major motion picture to promote the Prince of Persia: Sands of Time. If users launch Layar, an augmented reality app available for iPhone and Android, near a specially-marked poster for the movie, they’ll be presented with a character from the film. The character prompts them to watch the trailer and offers the opportunity to play a short game.

If users answer three questions correctly, they are awarded points at Movie Minutes, a website that offers movie-related merchandise and DVDs. The campaign is taking place exclusively in the Netherlands right now, targeting users in close proximity to movie theaters.

Major brands are taking notice of the unique opportunities that augmented reality provides and finding creative ways to use the technology. Expect to see more of the same soon, in a theater near you.

Originally posted at Speaking of Social Media.

Seven hundred million questions, 12 million accounts, and the 61st most visited site in the US (according to Quantcast), one site that is growing in popularity has provided a new way to communicate directly online. A more stealth trend among younger ‘netizens’ is an anonymous questioning platform provided by a service called Formspring.me.

Formspring features a simple to set up to create an account and link it to social networks like Facebook and Twitter. Anonymous users can ask questions of whoever has set up a Formspring page, and the question-ee can choose to respond and make public any submitted questions. While teenagers are using it to ask risqué questions of their peers, some brands have been able to capture the direct-response appeal of the platform to answer their customers’ questions.

Far from a customer-complaint forum, Formspring’s user culture of anonymous Q&A provides an opportunity to answer questions in a casual way. The users are mostly unidentified, and the answers tend to reflect a sense of humor or personalization behind the brand face. Fiat in Brazil set up a page for the launch of the Uno, and Red Bull US is using the service to answer questions that range from the mundane, “What was the happiest moment in your life?” to the more combative “Why are you **** riding the Celtics so hard?” with a flair and personality of its own (“Have you heard of a Red Bull athlete named Rajon http://redbullusa.com/rondo? Our turn: Are you a Lakers fan, or something? =) See also http://j.mp/LooseBall — next Q!”)

Authenticity is a keystone for brands engaging in social media.It takes a strong stomach to solicit anonymous questions, but for the brand that’s willing to take the risk, the payoff is increased credibility.

Article originally posted at Speaking of Social Media.

The most followed accounts are generally those of media outlets and especially celebrities. In perhaps the most unsurprising study yet released, Sysomos has done a study of followers’ influence based on retweets and follower quality, and found that celebrities’ followers have the least influence.

Because celebrities’ followers are inherently listeners, rather than authorities or influencers, they do not have the same value as followers of the New York Times or other media outlets. Sysomos identified rankings of “follower authority,” defined as those who are more apt to comment or make their own judgments on current events and share those opinions, via retweet or reblogging.

The quest for followers does have some use in validating the newsworthiness of the information from a particular twitter account, but chasing follower numbers alone is a poor metric of performance when using social media. Pay attention to the quality of followers you attract as well as the number to spread your message online.

Find more information on this study at Mashable.

Originally posted at Speaking of Social Media.

Yap stated that Asia’s virtual economy is five times the size of the United States’ – and it is growing quickly. This means faster evolution on the web of new business models due to fragmented and evolving consumption modes. Mr. Yap said that Singapore is focused on creating networks where they are needed, in areas such as health, transportation and employment. This will create simplicity for everyone from everywhere and digitize physical interactions. Yap described his concept of an “information shadow”, the idea that capturing physical interactions with the world could create corresponding data online, fueling the kind of information that can create new insights and industries.

Singapore is uniquely situated to capitalize on this digital revolution by orchestrating elements of social networks, design, businesses and creative works. Michael Yap says cross-discipline and cross-border collaboration is not just the future of Singapore, but also the outlook for the world.

Read more Notes from TEDxUSC.

Recently, I attended the second annual TEDxUSC event and participated in an exciting day of speakers, artists, and an interactive reception.

Maja Matarić introduced to the audience the concept of socially assistive robots. By creating non-contact assistive robots, Matarić hopes to solve part of the healthcare problem. Her robots have had success in being companions for people with special needs, such as the elderly, stroke patients, and children with autism spectrum disorders. She found that stroke patients who needed to complete a daily exercise regimen were far more likely to do so with one of her robot “coaches” than someone who was asked to do it on their own. She envisions her robots of the future as personalized one-on-one coaches, monitors, motivators, and companions. Her initial results sound like a positive direction for both health motivation and a practical application of robotic technology within the healthcare arena. Learn more about her work in this article from the New Yorker, or visit the USC Robotics Interaction Lab.

Read more Notes from TEDxUSC.

The increasing connectivity to the internet via smart phones has given rise to another always-on technology: location-based services. Juniper Research’s newest report on mobile services estimates that mobile location-based services may reach revenues of $12.7 billion by 2014.

The most popular location-based services of the future will be timely, rewarding and useful. In a study by eMarketer, 88% of female internet users would be interested in targeted offers from brands they trust. Discounts and coupons are already popular on smart phones, and Foursquare has made their business out of offering “Mayors” special deals. Cellfire also offers on-the-spot coupons to customers. Location-based services are an opportunity to match brands and customers based on their proximity to points of sale.

Location-based services also serve other, more utilitarian needs. Yelp offers restaurant and store information for nearby stores, while Sit or Squat offers restroom reviews. Happy Hours will find the closest happy hour for after-work revelry, and Rocket Taxi will find a nearby taxi to take you home after.

Other location-based services, such as Whrrl and Twitter‘s location feature, offer the opportunity to provide locational context to sharing information such as photos and status updates. These services might create digital communities of those who regularly visit the same real-world locations.

The ubiquity and utility of always-on devices ensure that location-based services continue to grow in adoption. Although privacy concerns will be prominent, the experience that providers will offer and augmented reality apps such as Layar will provide an even more seamless experience hard to resist.

Article originally posted at Speaking of Social Media.

How much does traditional news media still matter? A recent report from the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism found that more than 99% news stories in blogs linked to outlets such as broadcast networks and newspapers. BBC, CNN, the New York Times, and the Washington Post were responsible for 80% of all blogged links.

The Pew study gathered a year of data on top stories discussed on blogs and social media, and seven months’ of data on Twitter. The report outlines the major differences and similarities between social media and the traditional press.

As expected, the report found that social media moves quickly and focuses on breaking news. The attention spans of consumers were short, and major news stories were usually off the top stories list by the third day. In the mainstream press, 50% of top stories are still news the next week.

The agendas of each platform varied significantly. Researchers found that the lead story of mainstream news and blogs were the same at most, 13 of the 49 weeks studied. Other outlets such as Twitter, shared the same lead stories in just four of the same weeks.

Most original reporting is still being done by mainstream news outlets and journalists, but the agendas of discussion are being shaped online. The traditional media provides a platform upon which social media builds and diverges, and the crowds are creating a new consumption model that will ultimately shape the kinds of news that is reported.

Visit the Pew Research Center for more information on the study.

Article originally posted at Speaking of Social Media.

As Facebook’s numbers continue to grow, a huge shift in the site’s demographics is underway. According to StrategyLabs,  who have archived data provided by Facebook through it’s self-serve ad system since 2007, the six months from January 2009 to June 2009 saw the addition of almost 5 million new users aged 55 and over.

The rapid growth of the platform may have led some of the first supporters of the site, college and high school students, to abandon it for greener (and younger) pastures. The newest data available shows that self-identified high school and college students’ numbers have dropped by 16% and 21%, respectively, and growth for the 18-24 segments have slowed to a trickle of 4.8%, compared to the rapid expansion of the 55+ segment, growing at an astounding rate of 513% over the same 6 months. Some marketers might be left wondering where all the kids have gone.

Facebook boasts 71 million US users, and continues to grow in every age demographic. The 18-24 set still accounts for 25.1% of all users on the service. However, only six months before that, it was 40.8% of all users. Some caveats are that Facebook’s numbers are rough, and there exists some possibility of fewer users self-reporting their school affiliations or that a saturation point has been reached for younger users.

However, it is more likely that the aging trend will continue, and the audience of Facebook will grow progressively older. This presents new challenges, but new opportunities as well, to appeal to an increasingly tech-savvy and more sophisticated older consumer.

Read more from ReadWriteWeb.

Originally posted at Speaking of Social Media.

It’s a picture that has become a staple of online social networking. The self-portrait-in-a-mirror cell phone camera picture adorns Facebook and Myspace pages of young people almost everywhere.

Recognizing the opportunity that the ubiquitous “mirror shot” presented, Diesel Spain installed booths in their dressing room areas. The touchscreen boxes let shoppers take pictures of themselves in their Diesel clothes and post them on Facebook, getting instant feedback on their styles from Facebook friends. The picture includes a Diesel logo in the corner, so it’s clear where these clothes are from.

While most businesses are trying to figure out how to drive traffic to their Facebook pages, Diesel has taken another approach and brought Facebook into their store locations. Have you heard of another clever use of Facebook in a retail space?

Facebook isn’t the only place Diesel has engaged customers online. A one-day event at their flagship New York store offered special prints of tee-shirts to customers who checked into Foursquare within a three-block radius. The campaign netted 44 check-ins and 17 tweets. It was a low-key introduction to Foursquare’s capabilities for the brand, and eschewed some of the common tactics used, such as special badges or a longer duration.

Check out the video of the Facebook box:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=_P-zA90yI64

Read more from All Facebook, or check out Mashable’s writeup of Diesel’s other social media campaigns.

Originally posted at Speaking of Social Media.