Who Will Have the #LastWord? It’s Stephen Colbert!
Social Media Consultant Tom Martin and Emma Email Marketing set out to convince Colbert to share his views on digital media
NASHVILLE, Tenn. Sept. 6, 2011 – After 31 days of voting, members of the global online community have decided that Stephen Colbert is the thought leader they’d most like to have the #lastword and answer the question, “What’s next in digital media?”
The #lastword campaign is the brainchild of social media consultant Tom Martin, founder of Converse Digital, and email marketing service provider Emma, Inc. The hashtag marks the title as a keyword on Twitter.
The campaign is part of the Emma-sponsored “Talking With Tom” blog (talkingwithtom.com), where Martin interviews leading digital thinkers and posts videos of them answering the “What’s next” question. When complete, the “Talking With Tom” project will consist of 52 videos—one posted per week throughout 2011. The 52nd video will be posted on in December. In an effort to show that “technology is accessible and affordable,” Martin uses only an iPhone 4 to shoot, edit and publish the videos to his blog. All posts are written and published via the iPhone as well.
“We handed the reins to you, the online community, to tell us who you’d like to hear talk about the future of digital media. And you picked a doozy,” said Emma CEO Clint Smith. “But that’s part of the fun. The challenge now will be to reach out to Colbert exclusively through social media and convince him to be part of the video interview goodness.”
Colbert was chosen from a list of digital heavyweights that included Bill Gates, Arianna Huffington, Steve Jobs, Marissa Mayer, Kevin Rose, Chris Sacca and Sheryl Sandberg. Write-in votes were encouraged.
Colbert received 37 percent of the online votes, with Jobs coming in second with 24 percent, and Huffington rounding out the top-three with eight percent. Write-in contenders included Jon Stewart, Alvin Toffler and Jon Stewart, among many others.
“To quote Yoda, ‘Do, or do not. There is no try,’” Martin said. “It’s get Colbert on camera or fail. I don’t expect it to be easy. I imagine I’ll need to spend a large portion of the rest of the year trying to get Colbert to agree to give the last word.”
To follow Martin’s progress as he tries to nail down an interview with Colbert, subscribe to the “Talking With Tom” blog (talkingwithtom.com). Martin will be posting updates on the quest periodically. You can also follow @TomMartin or @EmmaEmail on Twitter or the hashtag #lastword.
Contact: Jeff Bradford/Erin Gagnon, 615.515.4888, info@bradfordgrp.com
About Tom Martin
Tom Martin is the founder of Converse Digital (conversedigital.com) where he helps companies understand how to monitor, create and engage in digital conversations to grow market share and/or improve loyalty.
About Emma®
Emma is an email marketing service that helps small and midsize companies, non-profits and agencies market and communicate in style. Founded in 2003, Emma makes it easy to create attractive email campaigns and online surveys, send to large opt-in audiences and track the response in real time. Based in Nashville, with offices in Portland, Denver, Austin and New York, Emma’s 100+ employees serve more than 30,000 organizations worldwide. To learn more, please visit myemma.com.
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