The social phenomenon that is Nike+ came as a complete surprise to Nike. They created some social tools for what they thought would be already-connected people to use. They really were an add-on. It was the way people used the technology tools to create vibrant new networks – both local/IRL and virtual – that was so surprising. It just exploded.

Because the users were already talking to each other about the product and the lifestyle, Nike jumped in and used them as a kind of input generator that produced great results. Nike played the product / sell pretty lightly and really showed a lot of respect for the lifestyle. The result is a small army of Nike-loving ambassadors.

Somewhere on this great big Internet of ours, there’s a wonderful film about a Nike+ users group meeting / run that Nike hosted – to their great credit and great profit HINT HINT MR PUBLISHER!

Cheers.

Great insight into using these applications in a more forward-thinking fashion for news. I think too much of news thinking returns time and again to approaching technology as another way of doing what we’ve always done, instead of seeing it as a way to grow and expand into doing something we’ve never done before.

It’s the new thing that will attract audiences, not the clever way of getting us the same old same old.

Mark