A Social Media Snapshot:Sallie Mae Goes Viral

With the economy in the throes of the longest recession since the Great Depression, a lot of college students and their families are looking for ways to get more value out of every dollar spent on education. For those of you with a kid on campus, please note: this year the average tuition for a state college runs about $6,600 and $25,000 for a private university. That doesn't include room, board, or textbooks. Ouch.

Some families are opting for less prestigious schools with lower costs. Others are finding ways to save money elsewhere within the family budget, money that can be funneled to college expenses. Whatever you may be doing, Sallie Mae, formerly a government-sponsored entity, now independent, who specializes in student loans and college savings plans, wants to know.

More importantly, they want you to tell everyone you know how your family is saving money for college ... and it could be worth $5,000.

In a clever attempt to harness the power of user generated content (UGC) on the web, Sallie Mae is sponsoring a contest that will award a $5,000 scholarship to the best 30-second student video. Entrants are encouraged to post their video on the Sallie Mae site and then tell their friends, fans, and followers to vote for them. Those receiving the greatest number of votes will be vetted and evaluated by a panel of Sallie Mae-appointed judges who will determine a list of finalists. In an American Idol-style vote, the finalists will have their videos subjected to the wisdom of the crowd, and a winner will be crowned.

By going viral with a cavalcade of videos, Sallie Mae hopes to bring more attention to the plight of cash-strapped college students ... and their families. The strategy could also be good for Sallie Mae stock holders, who since 2004 when the company's ties to the government were finally cut, have been quick to invest in this well-regarded member of the Fortune 500. Getting the word out is part of Sallie Mae's strategy to sell more stuff, and UGC seems to be the foundation of their viral strategy.

To date there have been 279 videos entered into the contest which ends on August 25, 2009. Not surprisingly these videos run the gamut in terms of their production quality and themes. Take a look for yourself.

In the interest of full disclosure, I don't own stock in Sallie Mae, but I do have at least one college student in the house who has entered the contest with high hopes of making it to the final round. Because of my background in textbook publishing, her financial challenge (and mine) is complicated by the fact that we discourage the purchase of used books. (More on that in an upcoming blog post.)

So while I detest blatant self-promotion, I'm not beyond promoting the work of someone very close to me. Have a look at the work of Sydney Brake, and vote for her for goodness sakes ... every day until the contest ends. Sallie and Sydney will thank you.

A Social Media Snapshot:Street Food Meets Social Media

If you're hungry in New York City and want something quick, find a food cart vendor. These ubiquitous wheels with meals serve up a wide variety of surprisingly good things to eat. Once you've found a Big Apple vendor you really like, however, the challenge is finding him again.

Unlike restaurants with addresses and yellow page ads (remember those?), food carts can't always be on the same corner. So if yesterday you enjoyed your Jamaican jerked chicken with peppered rice on the corner of 48th and Avenue of the Americas, there's no guarantee you'll find the same food cart there tomorrow.

But now, thanks to Twitter and some social media-savvy food cart vendors, there's no need to let your lunch on the street be left to luck. A growing number of street food vendors in the city are using Twitter to keep satisfied customers coming back ... or two blocks east of where you were yesterday.

Vendors are tweeting their customers details about what's for lunch. Some even include pictures. (Indeed, a thousand words may be worth more than 140 characters when you're hungry.) Come 11:30 and a tweet comes up from a favorite noodle cart touting the special of the day and the cart's location ... well, there's a good chance that's what's for lunch. But more than that, these vendors are combining social media with street smarts in a traditional strategy of retaining customers by making it easy to buy again. And it doesn't take 50,000 followers to make it work. As long as you've got the right followers, the world can be your oyster ... or green chile pork burrito as the case may be. Read more...