I\u2019m a big fan of retailers with physical locations integrating social technologies to tell their stories.\u00a0 And not just by adding a \u201cfollow us on Twitter\u201d or \u201clike us on Facebook\u201d buttons to their store windows.\u00a0 That\u2019s all well and good (and if you\u2019re doing interesting things in those channels, great).\u00a0 But those initiatives by themselves are hardly creative or worth remarking on \u2013 they\u2019re now typical.<\/p>\n
So while in Chicago this weekend visiting my girlfriend, something caught my eye as we walked on Damen avenue.\u00a0 It was this friendly looking dog sitting in the window of a shop.\u00a0 My first instinct, of course, was to snap a photo:<\/p>\n
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Only after I took a photo I noticed the following sign to the left of the dog:<\/p>\n
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I looked into the shop, only to discover the owner taking a photo of us.<\/p>\n
So when I got home, what did I do?\u00a0 I had to\u00a0check out the blog, which was as real as the dog.\u00a0 Naturally, our photo\u00a0is there\u00a0(which shows the view from the shop owners angle).\u00a0 The\u00a0introduction tells the story\u00a0of how this phenomenon started, and asks the following questions, which I\u2019ll try and answer as one of the photo takers:<\/p>\n
Where are these photos going?<\/strong><\/p>\n On our blogs, on Twitter, on Facebook, Flickr, or just being used to show our friends and tell a story.\u00a0 The fact that the owner noticed people taking photos of his dog and started a blog the share the other side of the story is the interesting aspect of this.<\/p>\n What are they being used for?<\/strong><\/p>\n To tell stories.\u00a0 I\u2019d challenge readers:\u00a0 do you have a retail location that is in a busy area?\u00a0 How can you use technology creatively in your own way to help tell stories?\u00a0 Why not do something to connect with people on the other side of the glass?<\/p>\n Are people going out to dinner with their friends and passing around their cell phones and cameras to show photos of a dog that they have never interacted with other than through a window?<\/strong><\/p>\n Probably, and for this store owner in particular that\u2019s a great opportunity.\u00a0 My next question if seeing a photo taken of this dog from a friend would be to inquire where it was taken?\u00a0 And, naturally we\u2019d talk about the retailer and how clever they are as well.<\/p>\n In a connected society, marketing is storytelling<\/strong><\/p>\n By observing a social phenomenon that happened organically,\u00a0360SEE\u00a0stumbled upon a creative way to indirectly gain more exposure for their art, furniture and design.\u00a0 It was completely unintentional as far as I can gather, but is a story worth retelling.\u00a0 They are building relationships, inspiring stories and even\u00a0getting some press.<\/p>\n What\u2019s interesting here is not the dog, as much as the aspect of providing something to passer-by\u2019s in the form of a mirror of themselves and their actions.\u00a0 It speaks to the universal phenomenon of what we do with technology:\u00a0 we share things we like, find interesting or worth remarking on.<\/p>\n Are you connecting with your audiences in a unique, creative way, or are you merely following \u201cbest practices\u201d with digital marketing?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I\u2019m a big fan of retailers with physical locations integrating social technologies to tell their stories.\u00a0 And not just by … <\/p>\n