Matt Singley | Social Media Optimization

Earlier in the week I had the opportunity to see the fruit of many, many weeks of labor.  Microsoft teamed with Cirque du Soleil to present the Project Natal event at the Galen Center in Los Angeles, which kicked off the week for E3, the biggest gaming convention in the world.

First, a brief explanation of my role in all of this.  Our company, M80, is the social media agency of record for Xbox, and as such we get to do some wicked-cool things with them, but this was one of the best.  For several weeks we’ve worked with teams inside and outside of Xbox to come up with hashtag programs,contact and invite people to the event and just to create general “buzz” strategies around all of this.  We use social media to amplify messages, and this event was no exception.  Without going into granular detail, I will just say that the teams at M80 and the other groups we worked with spent countless man (and woman!) hours working  to create excitement and conversation around something that most people had no detailed information about…they just knew it would be grandiose and awesome.

The event was put on two nights, Sunday the 13th and Monday the 14th, each identical to the other, and each designed to reveal the new name and features of the long-speculated and anticipated “Project Natal”.  So, at 9pm on Sunday the 14th the name was officially released to the world: the new controller-free gaming and entertainment system for Xbox will be called “Kinect“. (more…)

I’m looking for a photographer that is in San Francisco (or close enough that they could easily get here) for a shoot lasting most of Saturday, September 5th.  I think the ideal photog would be somebody that has a little history with taking pictures of people and places, but hasn’t broken through to the big time yet.  The project will be taking pictures of me and my kids for most of the day, and in return I’m going to promote the heck out of you.  Here is the deal:

The Gig

On Saturday, September 5th I’m going to be hitting some cool points of interest in San Francisco with my four kids.  I would really like to capture it all with pictures, but I’m getting tired of lunking my own camera around everywhere, and frankly it’s a little challenging to get in any of the pictures with them.  We’re going to be going to Alcatraz Island around noon, and after all of that we’ll go for a quick hike/exploration in The Presidio, ending up at an old gun battery pretty near the base of the Golden Gate Bridge.  I’m not really wanting posed photos (although a few would be nice), but rather would have candid shots of the experience…me and my kids, them doing things that kids do…the good and craziness of life with four kids in San Francisco.  The total time commitment for this would be from 11am to about 6pm (maybe a little earlier). (more…)