Like Tweets and most texts, bubbles are short, with a recording limit at one minute.  But Bubbly has added intimacy – users hear a favorite, well-known, or trusted voice instead of just reading a simple message, which, for celebrities, could have been written by an agent.

While the BBC is leading networks in using Bubbly to release breaking news, the Indian film industry is using Bubbly as a tool to build buzz – and brands.

Aamir Khan and Kareena Kapoor, Bollywood stars who appear together in the film “3 Idiots,” were using Bubbly to promote the film before its release.  Their bubbles soon had hundreds of thousands of followers, and built incredible anticipation over the movie.  The film swept India’s 2010 Star Screen and Filmfare Awards, and has grossed over $86 million – the highest profit in history for any Indian-made film.  It seems the film owes some of its box office success to Bubbly.  And so do its stars.

Bollywood stars aren’t free from Hollywood’s standards of youth and vitality to grab choice roles and maintain careers.  And what better way to appear young than to be among the first to popularize a new social media tool?  In a recent interview, the mid-40s Aamir Khan was asked how he stays young looking enough to play a 20-something college student in “3 Idiots.”  He answered that it’s essential to eat a balanced diet, drink lots of water, and get plenty of rest.  He could have added bubbling to the list.

The list of countries in which BubbleTalk has been launched is limited so far, and there aren’t immediate plans for a U.S. (or U.K.) launch.  So while there aren’t options here now for utilization, there is time to investigate how potential users respond to this new media and the potential impact on communication channels here.  Is enthusiasm for Twitter fading?  Nonprofits struggle with being both media savvy and able to implement new options usefully, could BubbleTalk be the righ solution?  Or is this mode of information dissemination not the right match?  One blogger notes, “ears are for music and for live communication, not for news that I scan more quickly with my eyes.”  Let us know your initial reaction to this emerging tool.

- Liz Arora

Another curiosity is the seemingly broad use of the word “brand” being used to compile the list.  In addition to Valentine’s Day (really!?) there is an eclectic mix of people (Alexander McQueen), products (Apple iPad) and annual events (Super Bowl). Should these topics really be compared to each other from a marketing perspective? Will tracking of such mixed topics really help Twitter’s future monetization? And more importantly will those Justin Bieber followers succeed in taking over the Twitterverse?

Share your thoughts on what trends and behaviors should be tracked on Twitter in the comments section.

The technique was created by a group of students at Hochshule Furtwangen University in Germany, who wanted to “show the whole world that studying does not have to be boring.” They shot a video in which students lip sync to a song, while the camera follows them through campus, resulting in a highly-choreographed musical university tour. This spurred the creation of the “University LipDub Project,” which challenges students of other colleges to produce their own videos and show what their campus has to offer (and to see if their creation is worthy of “going viral”).

What started as a European phenomenon gradually moved over to Canada, where the Université du Québec à Montréal’s “LipDub” video made quite an impression – it became so popular that it was featured on CNN and, to date, has received over 4 million hits on YouTube. Now, U.S. universities have begun to catch on, with Texas State University and Suffolk University being some of the first to embrace the trend.

A prime example that this phenomenon has the chance to transition from a grassroots amusement to a legitimate communications department marketing tool is Johns Hopkins University’s end-of-the-year “LipDub” video. Created to thank their donors for their continued support, it shows how the whole university community can collaborate and lend their voice to promote their community and showcase the spirit behind the brand.

The key to not killing this concept before it leaves the ground is to remain inclusive when it comes to who is primarily representing the university. It is ok for the university staff to have a stake in the video, but don’t lose the student-run feel. As with the popular strategy of featuring student blogs on admissions websites, like MIT does, it is the sense that it is providing an unfiltered, first-hand account of campus life that is the spark behind these videos.

Have other examples of social media trends storming your campus? Share them in the comments section.

-Erin Kelly, Marketing Intern

There’s often a long silence — the kind that makes presenters wince — and then someone raises a hand and asks, “How?” Not how to do it, not how to figure out what to say, but how can we possibly do that, too? In other words, how can we staff this?

That’s pretty much what happened during the Innovation session at the  Greater DC Care’s 2009 Business and Nonprofit Philanthropy Summit and Awards conference. The question came from a small nonprofit, and everyone in the room started nodding.

There isn’t a single, easy, comfortable answer. So, I offered three uncomfortable ones.

Once you’ve decided that channels such as blogs, Twitter, or Facebook really could be important components of your marketing, you may have to court that special staff member who has an incredible and personable voice and is willing to take on the extra responsibility. That staff member could be anyone, including the executive director. That’s the case for a small Chicago nonprofit called Sit, Stay, Read, which uses dogs to help kids learn to read. The executive director is very much the voice of the organization on Facebook and other tools. Mary Ellen Schneider’s style is so distinctive; you can literally hear her voice when you read her entries.

Or you may want to ask a volunteer with a similarly distinctive voice and a passion for the organization. This is controversial. Some fear that activating volunteers means a dangerous loss of control. Others, such as New Tactics in Human Rights, have forged ahead with multiple volunteer bloggers.

In higher ed and larger organizations, the answer may be an uncomfortable four-letter word: hire. Of course that’s tough to do in these economic times. As a result, the answer may be reallocating staff duties, so that real time is available to the person tasked with tracking and participating in online conversations, writing and recruiting others to write for blogs and other channels, and lending social media strategies to the communications mix.

But one thing is clear: a long, deadening silence probably isn’t the solution.

- Lee Reilly, Vice President, Interactive

Remarkable work is taking place at the Rosenstiel School – one of the signature research and education programs of the University of Miami. They are looking at climate change, coastal ecosystems, fisheries and aquaculture, hurricane prediction and tracking, and other “hot button” issues. And as we talked with the new Dean – Roni Avissar – and his colleagues about the role of social media in creating awareness of and understanding about the remarkable contributions that the School is making in these critical research areas, I had a flash of insight.

It struck me that the ocean contains a perfect metaphor for the complex environment of user-generated content and social media. It’s been described in the past as a rainbow or a flower or a garden – all useful descriptions but somehow incomplete. What the blogosphere and social networking sites resemble more than anything else is a coral reef – a remarkable and glorious construction made up of billions of individual units (polyps, in the case of the reef, and posts and comments in the case of the social network) that collect and fuse together into structures of remarkable size, complexity, diversity, and outright beauty. What is Wikipedia if not a vibrant, living, and growing “reef” of evolving content? What is Alltop if not a field guide to a constantly evolving ecosystem of ideas? And who hasn’t felt the need to take a deep breath before diving into the dense and fascinating world of social media?

Just take the plunge.

- Rob Moore, Ph.D., Managing Partner

The point: Voluntary collectivism, such as Wikipedia and tools for sharing, such as Flickr, are powerful signs of cultural change. At at time when Iranian activists are using Twitter applications to get around government censorship, the article appears prescient.

- Lee Reilly, Vice President,Interactive

I did evaluate all the submissions, though, and gave my recommendations to the committee.  And what struck me most about the proposals we reviewed – nearly 100 in all – was that more than a third of them focused around web 2.0, social media, and related topics.

The word “tweet” hasn’t been tossed around this much since the last Looney Tunes cartoon fest.  But for any smart marketer – as for Sylvester – the issue not just sighting that elusive prey, but figuring out how to wrap our claws around it.  Thufferin’ Thuccotash! 

The key is to discern not just what can we do – because the options are truly staggering – but what we must do.  Resources – both cash and time – are scarce.  So how do we determine which of the many social media opportunities we should invest in and which are just a passing fancy?  My answer, for now, is straight Machiavelli:  “I must see where my followers are going so I can lead them.”

In which formats are your target audiences engaged?  And is this all unadulterated UGC or are they receptive to – clicking or tagging or digging – a more “institutional” voice in their desired format?  Are they involved in serious exploration of content – as relates to critical decision-making – or are they surfing the ripples?

On a site I spent some time on recently – www.mynextcollege.com – “The Dean” balances comments between snarky and solid, all grounded by his signature “does it look like I work here?”  And then there are all the sites that are pure UGC – www.ratemyprofessors.com, www.collegeconfidential.com, www.studentsreview.com, www.myusearchblog.com, and their ilk – and the 900-pound gorillas of Facebook, Myspace, YouTube, Flickr, and (a baby gorilla) Ning.

Any “final” resolution now would be absurd to project; new platforms crop up almost daily.  There are some that are nearly the “price of admission” to be considered in the game at all – notably, the upland gorillas mentioned above.  But there are some things to keep in mind as you develop content for these venues:

•    Focus: Your audience will tell you.

•    Voice: All research shows that today’s prospective students are very aware of when they’re being “marketed.”  And the research also shows that they don’t necessarily mind being the target, if the outreach is funny, relevant, and fits their interests.

•    WOM and viral: The ultimate goal is to be so in the middle of the conversation that people digg you forward – as happened with the University of Minnesota with their “science of Watchmen” video on YouTube that got more than 1.5 million hits.  And was this successful because people wanted to know about the University of Minnesota? Of course not – it’s because they’re geeks for Watchmen.  Give them something that they’re interested in, and they’ll center it in the discourse.

•    ‘Tude: You gotta have ‘tude, dude.  Whether you’re talking with prospective or current students, alumni, or web wanderers, you have to put forward some sort of characteristic energy and stance that make people sit up and take notice, laugh, get mildly offended – or just notice you.

•    Integration: Your social media presence has to connect to everything else you’re doing – as in any brand communications initiative.  If you create a presence in social media, or establish a personality, you have to “pay off” that presence and personality in your website, direct marketing materials, publications, and the like.  Otherwise, you’re just confusing the market, and nobody can afford to do that.

So, I’m not tweeting yet – having been intimidated by the Chicago tweetmaster who has posted 20,000 times since the first of the year (once every six minutes, 18 hours a day, seven days a week) – but if you want me to I’ll start.  Just let me know and I’ll try to figure out what to say.  (Hey, it’s six minutes later and I don’t have any new thoughts!  Uh-oh…)

- Rob Moore, Managing Partner

More seriously, when Colbert asked Stone why celebrities and politicians are such prolific users of Twitter (a half million people subscribe to Shaquille O’Neal’s Twitter feed), Stone explained that Twitter is a way for them to control their own messaging.

There may be a lesson here for nonprofits and other organizations. Twitter could be a great tool to control messaging when rumors are flying, or to build up anticipation (and support) in the midst of controversy or times of crisis (like our current economic situation.) For instance, the City of Chicago could be twittering right now, tracking the proceedings  and pumping  up interest in advance of the Olympic Committee’s first public statements about Chicago’s controversial bid to host the 2016 Summer games, which is happening tomorrow.

But of course in that case, Chicago’s communications problems have certainly been known for a while now.

- Elizabeth Farrell, Marketing and Communications Manager