The term ambient intimacy is more than just a definition- it’s a construct that helps make sense of why the usage of social media appeals to the masses. Many often struggle in rationalizing SM’s value in corporate board rooms and company meetings everyday- or even when you’re talking to your friends. And it’s common for people to throw questions at you like; I don’t get why people use Twitter? Do people even read your blog? Isn’t social media just a bunch of narcissistic noise? Why do people use that website?

First, let me share a quick story about a friend, Sam Meers. Until recently- Sam and I had never met. However, we shared a mutual friend. She recommended I Google him and consider getting to know him better. Sam and myself share common interests in that we both blog and work in the agency world. Beyond that, we’re really quite different people. I started reading his blog and instantly was hooked at his ability to be such a graceful story teller with his words. I posted comments and my thoughts on blogs and we became acquaintances that was limited to just interactions online. Now- fast forward- the company I work for, engaged Sam to provide us consulting in regards to our marketing and brand. It was only then that I met him face-to-face for the first time. Yet, the first thing we both agreed was that the first question he asked, “What have you been up to?” was really irrelevant because of the interactions we share online. We already knew the answer to that question yet were only meeting for the first time! Our conversation was greatly augmented because we are able to jump right into relevant conversation we’re interested in.

Ambient intimacy is about being able to keep in touch with people with a level of regularity and intimacy that you wouldn’t usually have access to, because time and space conspire to make it impossible. In the case of Sam and myself, it is a perfect illustration about how social media facilitates this term, ambient intimacy.

• Facebook helps me see what my friends are thinking, doing, projects they’re working on and what they did this weekend.

• Twitter tells me what websites to check out and the opinions people have about news and current events.

• Flickr lets me see the latest family photos or pics from a recent trip. And it also shows me their latest haircut.

• Friendfeed tells me their activity stream of my friends online, what they’re looking at, what they’re reading and videos they’ve favorited on YouTube.

So who cares? @leisa summarizes it well; It helps us get to know people who would otherwise be just acquaintances. It makes us feel closer to people we care for but in whose lives we’re not able to participate as closely as we’d like. Knowing these details creates intimacy. (It also saves a lot of time when you finally do get to catchup with these people in real life!) It’s not so much about meaning, it’s just about being in touch.

When people have asked the ways social media has helped me- I always make it a point to mention that social media has the power to greatly augment (not destroy or lessen) existing relationships you have with friends, family and businesses (corporate use) you have in your life. Like anything, you must understand how to integrate it appropriately- but once you do, it’s powerful stuff.

Take my mom for instance, she’s likely my biggest fan of my flickr feed and video blogs (note: she lives in a different state). It is almost down to a routine for me to get a phone call from her once I upload something. Furthermore, I myself regularly reference in conversation with her, “Did you see that photo from my trip? [insert story here]“. She enjoys the ways my usage of social media provides intimacy even though the physical distance exists between us.

So if you think that “my mom” isn’t good enough justification- social media works wonders for businesses too. Take a look at the recent revenue Dell is making by using Twitter or the successful brand ambassadors Cirque Du Soleil has.

In my opinion, the term “Ambient Intimacy”, is an important psychological and communication construct that provides the WHY in how the technologies can enhance peoples behavior for the better.
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I had a chance to test out the “ButtKicker” home theater kit- it’s a motor that shakes your couch while you watch movies. Overall, it’s a great product- but I think it’s really geared for hardcore movie goers or video gamers. Disclaimer: I want to make a point to tell you that the company that makes this product sent this to me for free after seeing my AMC Mainstreet video blog. This company outfits AMC theaters with ButtKickers and this product is the same, but designed for your house. I decided to put together a vblog review on my own and was not paid to do this.

What is the ButtKicker? It’s a device that shakes your couch using the low frequencies that your sub woofer outputs. Basically, if your sub woofer is playing- the ButtKicker will vibrate to shake your couch so you can ‘feel’ the bass in addition to hearing it. After testing movies out with my DVD player, I will say the ButtKicker makes already intense action scenes even better and movie soundtracks are much more entertaining. You can literally feel the gun shots fired in a movie and the explosions.

The setup of the ButtKicker was painless (which I found shocking, I thought it would require assembly of elevendy billion parts). It took me 20-minutes to put together the entire kit. You can see in my photos, the ButtKicker goes under one leg of your couch, but the instructions also show you can mount it inside your couch if you’d like. Watch my video blog for more visuals /commentary on how you connect it to your stereo system- it’s really easy.

I really like that when you have the volume down, the ButtKicker still works- which is awesome for those late night movies you don’t want to wake anyone up, but still want the full movie experience. It comes with a wireless remote which has adjustable “intensity” so you can increase or decrease the levels. I couldn’t really tell a difference when I increased /decreased the levels, but I will say this thing is so powerful that it does shake your entire couch without making any noise (you can’t hear any motor or fans coming from the ButtKicker).

Keep in mind, this device isn’t always on shaking your couch. If you’re watching the movie “You’ve Got Mail”, you’re likely not going to feel the ButtKicker at all It’s only the ‘action scenes’ that have loud low explosions or noises will you even feel the ButtKicker.

For anyone who thinks they have every component of their home theater setup- this IS the finishing touch. The bottom line is this is for the hardcore- techy, video gamer or movie goer this is a must-have. For the average person, likely not for you unless you’ve got money to spare. If you want to buy a kit- you can on their website (it retails for $399, but there’s a coupon that I will post later (or email me) that gives you a discount to decrease the cost to $289).
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This weekend I attended the grand opening of The Jones Rooftop Pool in downtown Kansas City. This is about 6′ish stories high, right above Cosentino’s Market. It’s the newest addition to the Power and Light District. There’s 12 private cabanas, full cocktail service, swim-up bar, as well as a daily DJ and concierge service.

I’ll admit I was a bit skeptical of this pool being installed downtown, it’s something you typically see in New York, LA or Vegas. But, after walking in and looking around, I assure you- it’s legit. The layout and setup is bigger than I thought it would be. The view of course, is awesome. The KC downtown skyline surrounds the entire pool. Something interesting I thought I’d mention- it’s named “The Jones” because The Jones Store used to be located in the same spot from 1902 to 1998.

The membership costs at the pool are what I think are completely ridiculous. They’ve tiered out the costs to:

• Platinum: $1,000 ($400/3 months)
• Executive: $750 ($300/3 months)
• Premium: $400 ($150/3 months)

However, membership isn’t required- so you can just show up and purchase a day pass (the more logical thing to do given those prices). These are at least priced competitive with the other place in town that is considered the ‘adult ultra pool’ (e.g. Woodside country club).

Non-members prices are on Saturday and Sunday is $15 for guys and $10 for girls. Admission prices go down after 7PM and is $5 for both ladies and gentlemen. They are open on Fridays from noon to 3am, Saturdays from 11am to 3am, Sundays from 11am to 8pm.

My thoughts? Membership prices to The Jones are insane. The setup and view however, are great. But- all-in-all, it’s a plus for downtown Kansas City. While it’s not for everyone, it’s yet another option of something to do in KC. I’m not sure what to predict as for the size of the crowds that will be there as the summer progresses, but it’s a cool place that I think you should at least check out.

(P.S. Shout out and thanks to Will Gregory PR for access and entrance to the event! Thanks dude!)

I posted to flickr some photos I took while at the grand opening of The Jones Rooftop Pool in downtown Kansas City (view the slideshow here). This pool is the newest addition to the Power and Light District. There’s 12 private cabanas, full cocktail service, swim-up bar, as well as a daily DJ and concierge service. I’ll be posting a video blog about this soon

Last week, a website project I managed won an unexpected national award (we didn’t even enter it into the contest!) and I wanted to share the great news! I know that many of you are familiar with the video blogs I do for fun– but by day I’m a web consultant at Digital Evolution Group. We’re a 30′ish person e-consultancy in which I lead and manage the strategy, development, creative design and deployment of Projects (largely socially website focused).

A few months ago, we were tasked to redesign the corporate website for Entertainment Properties Trust (EPR). They are a publicly traded REIT and is the largest owner of entertainment related real estate in North America, owning megaplex movie theater properties, entertainment retail centers and other specialty properties in the US and Canada. Their portfolio has over 7.1 million square feet of properties and over $1.4 billion of assets. Translation? They’re a pretty darn-big-deal. Chances are if you have ever been to an AMC, you walked on property they own. Specifically here in Kansas City, they own the AMC 20 in Leawood, AMC 30 in Olathe and Snow Creek.

Anyways- I’ll jump to the good news. The website was awarded second place (silver) by the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts (NAREIT). One of the more exciting parts is that all REITs and publicly traded real estate companies were included in the competition. The “best website” category was the 1 of 3 captions they honored. Furthermore, we didn’t even enter it into the contest! NAREIT discovered it on their own!

For this project- it was a bit of a challenge. Think about it- how do you make a Real Estate company compelling? Buildings and land isn’t necessarily sexy stuff. We first set out with some ambitious Project objectives. Then we took careful time following our persona methodology and getting that right. One thing I’d like to note, we mapped out the expectations and context of visit to the website between a retail investor and an institutional investors or analyst. This uncovered some gaps of resources that needed to be present on the website, as well as influenced the naming convention of sections and pages of the website. These are two of our primary personas visiting the website, and while there are overlapping needs- there’s also clear differences in what they expect to find. One final note about the process, the entire Project team made sure the creative execution captured the personality of the brand that is greatly influenced by the leadership team. Anyone who has come in contact with the gentleman who run this company know it’s an experience in and of itself (meaning, in a great way).

Check out the website and judge for yourself. Be sure to check out the interactive flash properties map. I was pretty pleased and proud of the output. We’ve got some work to do to make it even better- but it’s a great start.

P.S. for what it’s worth, the 1st place winner Avalon Bay and 3rd place winner Post Properties aren’t even CLOSE to the quality execution of www.eprkc.com but that’s just my opinion.
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I recently shot a video blog of Jazzoo and I wanted to share it as well quick thoughts about this vblog. For the past few years I’ve attended Jazzoo- a fundraiser to help the local Kansas City Zoo and it’s programs. It’s a great creative black-tie formal event held every year.

When I vblog or event cast- I’m usually able to balance capturing good footage of the event while still having a fun attending it as well. But, I’ll admit- it wasn’t easy to do this at first and took a while to master this (it’s easy to get caught up in just shooting footage).

That said, I wanted to preface this video blog with the disclaimer that I wasn’t able to get all the footage I wanted. Not even close. In fact, I got so little- I was only able to scrape together bits and pieces. In my mind, this is WAY below average execution for me. Enjoy it for what it’s worth, but I thought I’d at least tell you first. I’m still posting it since I strongly believe in supporting our great Zoo here in Kansas City (disclaimer: they are a client of the firm I work for).

This past weekend I snapped a couple photos while down at the “Taste of the Crossroads” event here in Kansas City. I’m a huge fan of The Crossroads area since many of the businesses are KC originals/local establishments. More importantly, they serve some of the best food KC has to offer. I posted more pics to flickr, check out the slideshow of photos here.

Today, I gave a social media presentation to the American Institute of Architects and didn’t get a chance to elaborate on a finding that I found fascinating regarding a finding about “continuous conversation”. So I figured, I’d blog about it . During my portion of the presentation (powerpoint here), I cited a report published every year called the Edelman Trust Barometer. It is a survey conducted every year to measure consumer trust in businesses, government and other industries. Within that report there’s a finding that concludes, “Regardless of channel or voice, the majority needs to hear a message 3-5 times to believe it.

Whoa! Did that just blow your mind like it did mine!?! 60% of people need to hear information about a company 3-5 times before they believe it. If you deconstruct this a bit more, you can see how as a company, while you may be marketing 1 message (or shouting it, if you will) in order to really be effective, people must here this message echoed before they really believe it.

Think of this from a more integrated communication strategy (e.g. online, print, face to face). If your message or information needs to be reiterated, multiple times, by multiple sources- employing a strategy that reaches out across multiple mediums is essential. The long-term goal would be that people will promote/discuss that message or information for you with others (who you could call your “cheerleaders”).

There are a lot of elements that people evaluate in order view someone as trustful. However, I found this finding somewhat of a “Seinfeld eye-opener”, that illustrates you should never rely on 1 communication channel to achieve a goal. Things are all integrated and it should all be consistent (golden rule: consistency facilitates recognition). Given these findings, I believe that utilizing social media (which is a set of communication tools) you can reiterate that message in several areas in order to fulfill that 3-5 time requirement in order for people to believe it.
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This weekend was the launch date for the new Palm Pre, so I walked over to my nearest Sprint store to check out the phone and vblogged it (note: this vblog wasn’t intended to be technical or a walkthrough of all the features, just a down and dirty here’s what it looks like).

Yes, this phone has received a lot of hype. I’ll admit, I was skeptical. But after using it- it’s a worthy iPhone competitor. However, I do think this phone would have done MUCH better if was released in February. Other touchscreen phones will have their place in the market share, this might be the phone to do just that. Or maybe not. We’ll just have to see. Judge for yourself and watch the video blog to evaluate it for yourself.

I’m not supportive on throwing out and using ubiquitous buzzwords too often, but I thought I’d share what I thought was a fairly well cited explanation of the phrase “Web 3.0″ (this is from an article about the website Twine)

[ Web 3.0, a "semantic Web" where sites can understand the quirks and relationships in the data they mine, much in the way that humans differentiate between cheesy nachos and cheesy pickup lines. ]