By Angela Morabito

Over 3,000 miles from the United States’ closest Eastern boarder, a tractor-like robot branded as ‘Chalkbot’ pneumatically sprays electric-yellow messages in water-soluble paint along the Tour de France route. If this is the first you’ve heard about Chalkbot, you can check out the video of how it works, here.

This July, Digital Royalty was honored when we learned founder Amy Martin’s five-word message to Lance Armstrong had been painted on the streets of France. But Amy’s message is just one of many reasons the Digital Royalty team is so excited about Nike and LIVESTRONG’s Chalkbot and its 40 character messages.

The messages, which will number more than 100,000 in total and are no more than 40 characters each in length, have been written to give hope and inspiration to cancer survivors and riders. Authored by a combination of average joes and luminaries from every corner of the world, the messages have a single common thread in regards to their origin–they were all submitted online. Some on LIVESTRONG’s Facebook page, others via the Chalkbot application.

The tradition of chalk-like messages of support and inspiration being written along the Tour de France isn’t new, but the delivery medium is. The Chalkbot, a now two-year old attendee of the Tour de France, is a high-tech and widely relevant take on a generations-old practice that was traditionally only relevant to two audiences–the 200 or so riders in the Tour de France and it’s spectators. It’s new audience? Everyone.

The Chalkbot is much more than a so-and-so ton robot scribbling messages. Instead, Chalkbot is the embodiment of a powerful trend: the convergence of the virtual world and the physical world. Although different in appearance, the Chalkbot campaign is same in theory as to what made the Digital Royalty-created concept of Hide and Tweet with clients Shaquille O’Neal, the White Sox and others, so successful: people want to see the virtual and physical world collide.

The concept that online messages can become physical messages is in itself powerful, but here Chalkbot goes a step further. The process comes full circle by taking now physical messages and putting them back online–this time in the form of TwitPics tweeted via Chalkbot’s very own Twitter account. What’s more is that the folks at Nike and LIVESTRONG behind Chalkbot have pre-identified influencers, labeled them as such, and put the TwitPic of their message in each influencer’s hands. That’s powerful. Not only is it powerful, but it’s smart.

The campaign not only encourages engagement on Nike and LIVESTRONG’s official touch points, but leverages social media influencers. Take our very own Amy Martin, and professional surfer Kelly Slater. Combined, the two have a presence of over 1.4 million directly-accessible impressions across Facebook and Twitter. And when the two tweet or post their Chalkbot message to their followers, awarenesss of Chalkbot is spread to a larger audience than would ever have been feasible.

It may not be a new concept to pitch reporters via Twitter, but our office does a jump Hi-5 when that tweet turns into a news story without a press release anywhere insight. Traditional media relations as we used to know it, has drastically changed over the past two years, thanks to social media services like Peter Shankman’s Help A Reporter Out (HARO), and communication tools such as Twitter.

We are constantly monitoring the social media ecosystem for opportunities for our clients. To prove yet another power of Twitter and listening, here’s an example of how we recently used it as a public relations resource:

Sunday, June 27:
6:47PM Local ABC 15 reporter, Tim Vetscher sent a tweet seeking a source for his Foursquare story
7:05PM I sent a tweet in response to @Tim_Vetscher tweet
7:40PM Email sent to Tim Vetscher

Wednesday, June 30:
12:45PM TV segment shot with Amy who shared case studies
6:15PM Segment aired on ABC 15

Talk about a time-saver for everyone involved. The days of spending hours to draft a pitch or press release are limited. Now we’re drafting 140 character “pitch” tweets and DMs. More and more reporters have turned to Twitter and social media for a resource to gather information and sources for the stories they are writing. Twitter may be a powerful listening tool for consumers and potential customers, but lets not forget about the folks that are writing or producing stories about our brands.

So, shouldn’t we be listening closely for these golden opportunities? There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t see a tweet from a reporter or a blogger looking for a source or information for a story they are working on and if you aren’t listening, it’s likely your competitors are. Most media outlets have directories which allow us to easily identify who to silently stwalk.

Coming from a public relations background, I can appreciate how difficult it is to get a response from a reporter on an email pitch, let alone a phone call. So I am rejoiced to have another form of communication, and due to the nature of social media, we have the ability to communicate (in a more personable environment) with everyone and anyone we chose to, including @The_Real_Shaq or even @KingJames!

To watch how Amy’s interview with ABC 15 played out, visit: http://bit.ly/a8FHUC

On the flip side, brands also have the ability to announce breaking news via these new communication methods. For example, Tony Hsieh, Zappos.com CEO, announced the Zappos/Amazon marriage with a tweet linking to this open letter: http://blogs.zappos.com/ceoletter. This gives companies the ability to control the message and content, before it hits mainstream media.

A few hours ago, I watched “The Decision” on ESPN and Lebron made his announcement. He’s Miami bound. So, I decided to click over to the Heat’s official Twitter page to see what they had to say and I discovered the unimaginable. They were speechless. Hadn’t tweeted a peep in over six hours.

Where were they I asked? How could they not show up to their own party? Did the NBA make them sit on their thumbs? Nope, because other NBA teams were active even though things didn’t net out as they’d hoped.

This was their time to shine. The spotlight doesn’t get much warmer than this. It was important for them to have a presence especially in the HEAT of their moment. The team just spent nearly $300 million on three people and the World was talking about them.

This was a land grab. Brand new eager fans and old fans with renewed hopes were ready to take a step up on their loyal fan ladder. They would have loved to hear from the official voice of the team. Instead, they heard an outdated message. The Heat’s Twitter page was still trying to recruit D. Wade who announced 48 hours prior that he was committed to their team along with Bosh.

What happened to the human behind the brand? Did the social media intern go on vacation? Thumb sprain perhaps? Maybe the Twitter password was misplaced? Nope, because Facebook was the same. I was expecting to see a virtual pep rally or live video of Will Smith performing “Welcome to Miami.” but instead I heard crickets.

Wouldn’t it have been nice to have Chris Bosh and D. Wade streaming live from the court? Maybe a little Miami Thrice music playing up and under? J. Lo could have popped in to do the happy dance with crowned Heat dancers? They could have RT’d all the celebs who were celebrating, or simply expose the emotion inside the office. The Miami Heat was the glue to make a production like this happen and tell the story . . .  virtually . . . live.

There were missed sponsorship opportunities as well. The Heat could have sold their twitter background, integrated marketing partners who are welcoming King James with open arms (and open checkbooks).

Then about an hour later, they arrived. Well, kinda. They shared the same quotes from their coach that we’re also live on TV. Fans want photos, exclusive video, things nobody else can hear, what insiders are saying, what it’s like to work in the front office right now . . . these are things that only the Heat could have provided. Nobody else on this planet had access like they did. Opportunity missed.

Lesson: This space is alive and it doesn’t turn off. You can’t disappear all of a sudden because fans will stop trusting you. Fans are GRADING you at all times.

And, the way Lebron and Dan Gilbert handled this is another post.

So you just drafted a lovely Facebook status, attached a snazzy photo and shared it with all of those awesome people who “like” your page; but did you know that some of those people will never see your hard (crafty) work because they are hiding from you?

Yep, it’s true. And you can find out exactly how many by following these steps:

1. Go to your Insights page and look at the bottom-left graph.
2. Select Total Fans/Unsubscribed Fans
3. Check the yellow “Hidden from Newsfeed” box.

Now that you have this information, what percentage of your brand’s fans are hiding from you? In our experience, an average of 3-8% don’t see your content in their News Feed. This percentage is something to keep your eye on.

If your percentage is higher than 10%, that could be a sign to rethink your Facebook strategy and tonality.  Here are some tips to consider when posting on Facebook, back to the basics:

Content: The key is delivering VALUE when, where and how your fans want to receive it. Share interesting, entertaining, informative and relevant content. It’s best to include a visual such as an image, video or thumbnail when posting. Keep it fresh and avoid re-posting the same content. Sound basic? It is. Yet we’ve all been victims of the paragraph-style text only updates that take up four inches in our feed. The hide button is just too tempting when you only have a hot second to check your Facebook feed at work. The essay updates can be a buzz kill.

Frequency: When people “like” your page they are subscribing to get updates from you on a semi-regular basis. This is a privilege and shouldn’t be abused by bombarding fans with updates. You don’t want your brand to seem desperate like it’s trying to hard or has too much time on its hands. (You know what we’re talking about here. We all have family members who fall into this category.) To most, this Facebook behavior results in an automatic “hide” button or even a (gasp) “unlike”. Do you know how many updates you post a week? Do you know how many fans you gain a week? Is there a correlation? Yes, it’s very likely. Pun intended.

Engage: Your fans love to hear about what is going on with you but also ask them what is going on with them. And then, LISTEN to the answer. Ask questions, respond to questions, and overall just be social with your “likes”.  They’ll, uh, like it. Many brands don’t respond to comments. So, the expectation is that. It’s an easy way to wow your fans and make them “like” you more. (Then they’ll tell their friends to “like” you.)

Make sure to monitor the “total fans” to “hide” ratio.  And the “unsubscribes” (or “unlikes”) to “hides” ratio. The early adopters are likely to be your loyalists and therefore you should experience less “hiders” in the beginning.

Something very common happened recently on U.S. Airways Flight #544 from Vancouver to Phoenix. But what happened afterwards is something truly noteworthy. I left my very beloved iPad at seat 15A. Besides the iPad being a gadget many people would love to get their hands on, mine also contained sensitive information. That is when I went from a customer to a customer that needed service.

In a state of panic and with a tinge of hope, I sent this tweet:

Reaching out to US Airways on Twitter might, just might, get me my iPad back. Afterall, as a loyal Southwest Airlines customer and follower, I’ve seen customer service in action via Twitter. In fact, @SouthwestAir was actively assisting their customers throughout the day on that Sunday, while @USAirways had not sent a tweet in four days and hadn’t responded to a customer-service oriented tweet in five days.

What happened next was less expected. Hundreds of people started responding to my virtual distress signal. People were sending me phone numbers to US Airways and to airports customer service departments and giving me advice on how to get it back. Kind friends from Dallas (where the plane was headed next) volunteered to drive to the airport to retrieve my iPad. While dozens of others reached out to the @USAirways account on my behalf.

In the middle of this outpouring of generosity, came one tweet-in-shining armor under the handle: @This_JustIn_. And this Justin saved the day. A couple phone calls on my behalf and the news came in: my iPad would be riding with the captain back home to PHX where we would be happily (and gratefully) reunited.

There are many lessons to take from this story. For one, don’t leave your unlocked iPad on a plane. (It’s now password protected, by the way.) But one of the most valuable is the power of humans helping humans. There are huge opportunities (thanks to powerful communication tools such as Twitter and Facebook) for ‘titans of industry’ such as US Airways to humanize their brand. Imagine if @USAirways was listening-around-the-clock (since they do fly-around-the-clock) instead of only “listening during regular business hours” (as their bio line says). They not only had the opportunity to give amazing customer service but to do it in front of hundreds of people who were actively listening. People were literally rooting for them to succeed!

And the kicker? It was such an easy win for @USAirways. Why? For one, they had a Captain flying the plane who cared enough about his passengers to temporarily take custody of my iPad and return it to me personally at the Phoenix airport.

So where did they go wrong? They weren’t listening. It is no longer up to the brand where or how they want their customers to communicate.  Imagine if US Airways decided they didn’t want to use the phone as a communication device and stopped answering the phone for five days.

Something very common happened recently on U.S. Airways Flight #544 from Vancouver to Phoenix. But what happened afterwards is something truly noteworthy. I left my very beloved iPad at seat 15A. Besides the iPad being a gadget many people would love to get their hands on, mine also contained sensitive information. That is when I went from a customer to a customer that needed service.

In a state of panic and with a tinge of hope, I sent this tweet:

Reaching out to US Airways on Twitter might, just might, get me my iPad back. Afterall, as a loyal Southwest Airlines customer and follower, I’ve seen customer service in action via Twitter. In fact, @SouthwestAir was actively assisting their customers throughout the day on that Sunday, while @USAirways had not sent a tweet in four days and hadn’t responded to a customer-service oriented tweet in five days.

What happened next was less expected. Hundreds of people started responding to my virtual distress signal. People were sending me phone numbers to US Airways and to airports customer service departments and giving me advice on how to get it back. Kind friends from Dallas (where the plane was headed next) volunteered to drive to the airport to retrieve my iPad. While dozens of others reached out to the @USAirways account on my behalf.

In the middle of this outpouring of generosity, came one tweet-in-shining armor under the handle: @This_JustIn_. And this Justin saved the day. A couple phone calls on my behalf and the news came in: my iPad would be riding with the captain back home to PHX where we would be happily (and gratefully) reunited.

There are many lessons to take from this story. For one, don’t leave your unlocked iPad on a plane. (It’s now password protected, by the way.) But one of the most valuable is the power of humans helping humans. There are huge opportunities (thanks to powerful communication tools such as Twitter and Facebook) for ‘titans of industry’ such as US Airways to humanize their brand. Imagine if @USAirways was listening-around-the-clock (since they do fly-around-the-clock) instead of only “listening during regular business hours” (as their bio line says). They not only had the opportunity to give amazing customer service but to do it in front of hundreds of people who were actively listening. People were literally rooting for them to succeed!

And the kicker? It was such an easy win for @USAirways. Why? For one, they had a Captain flying the plane who cared enough about his passengers to temporarily take custody of my iPad and return it to me personally at the Phoenix airport.

So where did they go wrong? They weren’t listening. It is no longer up to the brand where or how they want their customers to communicate.  Imagine if US Airways decided they didn’t want to use the phone as a communication device and stopped answering the phone for five days.

So what’s this ‘Hide and Tweet’ thing we’re always talking about? Hide and tweet is more than just three words, but a concept we developed awhile back in effort to bridge the virtual world with the physical world. That’s when the magic happens. Watch the video as we show you how it plays out. Sometimes 20 people show up in less than five minutes. Other times, 2,000 people show up within an hour. Either way, we tell the story virtually so everyone can experience the act and see how attainable prizes are … that is, only if they follow carefully. Whether we’re trying to drive foot traffic to a marketing partner’s store, increase awareness about an event or promote a new product, the Hide and Tweet concept always resonates with fans and pushes them up the loyalty ladder.

The video above shares one day full of Hide and Tweet stunts from start to finish. This is a glimpse into the Summer social media campaign we’ve developed for the UFC called “Hunt4UFC.” The campaign was a result of us listening to fans. They’re constantly asking us to bring our Twitter games to their city, so we did. We’re hitting up 13 markets in the United States and Canada this Summer.

By Alana Golob

It may only be my sixth week at Digital Royalty, but I’ve been deployed on a three-day road trip from Chicago to D.C. riding side-by-side in a small confined area with a giant green-dino looking thing. Yeah, you read that correctly. Yesterday the MLB Chicago White Sox along with Southpaw the mascot, kicked-off the D.C. or Bust Road Trip. Southpaw and the crew (me included) are traveling from Chicago to D.C. for Friday’s series against the Washington Nationals. The Road Trip includes several fun, and slightly awkward stops along the way. Given that the Chicago White Sox are President Obama’s favorite baseball team, we may just have to pay him a visit when in D.C.

What do you pack when heading out on a three-day adventure with Southpaw? Here’s what I brought:

• Laptop
• Flip Camera
• Digital Camera
• Video editing software
• iPhone battery pack
• Chargers
• 3G Wireless Card
• Red Bull and a loads of Pop Chips
  

I am riding along with Southpaw capturing all of the crazy moments throughout the trip, through the use of Flip video, Twitvid, YouTube, Twitter, and other social media touch points. Digital Royalty developed the road trip concept and the idea to leverage the presence of social media throughout the trip, as a way to engage with fans and give them the ability to be apart of the road trip experience, by following along on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter (@Southpaw, @InsidetheSox, @DigitalRoyalty and @AlanaGolob), and the MLB Chicago White Sox Road Trip website. Fans can also follow our path via Twitter Search with #SoxRoadTrip in the field. Fans have already helped contribute to the Road Trip Cooler and we have a feeling they will be picking our playlist along the way too.

Without giving out all of our secrets, here is a sneak peak at the agenda for the next few days and expect some surprises along the way:

Day One (Wednesday):

• Farewell, Chicago! http://www.twitvid.com/AO1L8
• Suader Village in Ohio
• Cleveland Indians vs. Mets Game at Progressive Field

Day Two (Thursday):

• Heading to Pittsburg, PA
• Duquesne Incline
• Living Treasures Animal Park
• Pittsburg Pirates vs. Chicago White Sox at PNC Park

Day Three (Friday):

• Heading to Harrisburg, PA
• Special Statehouse meet-and-greet
• D.C. sightseeing tour with Southpaw
• Washington Nationals vs. Chicago White Sox
• Presidents’ Race featuring Southpaw

Check back for our daily “From the Road” posts and videos and follow along by following Southpaw, InsidetheSox and Digital Royalty, and myself Alana Golob on Twitter.

The Digital Royalty team developed and implemented a cross-platform social media campaign to deliver worldwide happiness leading up to the launch of Zappos CEO, Tony Hsieh’s first book, Delivering Happiness. The book, ranked #1 on The New York Times Bestseller List just a week after its launch, demonstrates the power of focusing on company culture and customer service, which has led Zappos to $1 billion in gross merchandise sales annually, and make Fortune magazine’s annual “Best Companies to Work For” list.

The goal behind the cross-platform campaign, was to make use of the organic nature and reach of social media, to not only generate exposure for the book, but to also create a dialogue and a happiness movement that everyone can be a part of, no matter where in the world they are located. The movement is less about encouraging people to purchase the book, and more about the quest to deliver happiness through the path of profits, passion and purpose.

Below we’ve outlined the campaign’s concepts and results:

Livestream Events:

For eight weeks, we hosted a series of Delivering Happiness Virtual Happy Hours from a different city each week. The Happy Hour was broadcasted live on the Delivering Happiness Ustream and Justin.tv channels and was focused on one central theme–happiness….oh and not to mention, featured a baby kangaroo as a guest, drinking dice, karaoke… just to name a few.

Delivering Happiness Virtual Happy Hours were viewed by more than 300,000 people from around the world, and those viewers consumed 340,000 minutes of Delivering Happiness.

Blogger Program:

No matter what their platform or page traffic, bloggers were encouraged to apply on the Delivering Happiness website to become apart of the Delivering Happiness Blogger Program. If selected, each blogger received two advanced copies of the book – one for themselves, and another to give away . In return, they would write a blog post/review of the book the week of the launch and anytime prior.

By the launch of Delivering Happiness, there were 800 total bloggers in the Blogger Program who helped promote and review the book.

Facebook:

Facebook was leveraged to encourage interaction among fans, as well as encourage those who had advanced copies of Delivering Happiness to post photos of their ‘Happy Place’ on the Facebook wall, whether that happy place is on the beach or from their own backyard. Two winners were selected for their photo submissions and announced on the day of launch. One winner’s photo was from the sandy beaches of San Sebastian, Spain, while the others Happy Place was with his college-ruled spiral notebook. Both won a free autographed copy of Delivering Happiness and a Delivering Happiness t-shirt.

Delivering Happiness received photo submissions from all over the World in the three weeks prior to the official launch of the book. The contest built a strong momentum, and despite the fact the contest has concluded, Delivering Happiness continues to receive photos from fans and followers.

Twitter:

Delivering Happiness partnered with the LIVESTRONG crew and set a goal to raise $33,333 by the launch of Delivering Happiness on June 7. Leveraging Twitter, we encouraged followers to join the Delivering Happiness and LIVESTRONG movement by making three promotional pushes leading up to the launch party.

Combined, Delivering Happiness and LIVESTRONG raised $50,000 to help support the organization. A base of more than 5 million Twitter followers was created by pulling together influential tweeters such as @LanceArmstrong, @Zappos, @LIVESTRONGCEO and @DigitalRoyalty, among others.

Meetup Everywhere and Sponsored Meetup Book Clubs:

Meetup.com recently launched a new platform, called Meetup Everywhere, which allows likeminded people from around the world to organize groups and events in their own community. To celebrate the launch of the Delivering Happiness book on June 7, people were encouraged to organize a Delivering Happiness Meetup group and join the Delivering Happiness team on June 7 to watch the livestream coverage of the launch party in New York. Each group was sent complimentary copies of the book, so that their groups could chat about the book and everything happy. We even had a Delivering Happiness group all the way in Ireland, Malaysia and Peru.

A total of 133 Delivering Happiness Meetup groups joined the movement and hosted events from locations around the World. Each group watched live coverage of the launch party in New York via livestream. In addition, Delivering Happiness has sponsored 100 Book Clubs across the country on Meetup.com with access to more than 43,000 people.

DailyBooth:
DailyBooth was a great platform to encourage people to submit their Happy Place photos with the book, including people like Ashton Kutcher. More essentially, DailyBooth allowed author and Zappos CEO, Tony Hsieh and the Delivering Happiness team to put a face and personality behind their names, by uploading photos of themselves.

Delivering Happiness currently has more than 6,600 followers on DailyBooth.

Delivering Happiness officially hit stands on Monday, June 7 and in it’s first day it was ranked #1 on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Not bad, considering none of us have ever launched a book before. What’s next on the agenda for Delivering Happiness? We’re hitting the road on a cross-country bus tour to promote the book and more importantly spread happiness throughout the country.

Digital Royalty came up with the idea to have readers tell us, via social media, where the happy bus should stop along the tour. Readers are encouraged to submit a short video, photos or 100-words or less telling us why, the bus should stop in their city.

And fear not, you won’t miss a beat, because we will be live streaming along the way. The fun has just begun, so stay tuned for more details about the Delivering Happiness bus tour–BIG things to come.

The Digital Royalty team developed and implemented a cross-platform social media campaign to deliver worldwide happiness leading up to the launch of Zappos CEO, Tony Hsieh’s first book, Delivering Happiness. The book, ranked #1 on The New York Times Bestseller List just a week after its launch, demonstrates the power of focusing on company culture and customer service, which has led Zappos to $1 billion in gross merchandise sales annually, and make Fortune magazine’s annual “Best Companies to Work For” list.

The goal behind the cross-platform campaign, was to make use of the organic nature and reach of social media, to not only generate exposure for the book, but to also create a dialogue and a happiness movement that everyone can be a part of, no matter where in the world they are located. The movement is less about encouraging people to purchase the book, and more about the quest to deliver happiness through the path of profits, passion and purpose.

Below we’ve outlined the campaign’s concepts and results:

Livestream Events:

For eight weeks, we hosted a series of Delivering Happiness Virtual Happy Hours from a different city each week. The Happy Hour was broadcasted live on the Delivering Happiness Ustream and Justin.tv channels and was focused on one central theme–happiness….oh and not to mention, featured a baby kangaroo as a guest, drinking dice, karaoke… just to name a few.

Delivering Happiness Virtual Happy Hours were viewed by more than 300,000 people from around the world, and those viewers consumed 340,000 minutes of Delivering Happiness.

Blogger Program:

No matter what their platform or page traffic, bloggers were encouraged to apply on the Delivering Happiness website to become apart of the Delivering Happiness Blogger Program. If selected, each blogger received two advanced copy of the book – one for themselves, another to give away. In return, they would write a blog post/review of the book the week of the launch and anytime prior.

By the launch of Delivering Happiness, there were 800 total bloggers in the Blogger Program who helped promote and review the book.

Facebook:

Facebook was leveraged to encourage interaction among fans, as well as encourage those who had advanced copies of Delivering Happiness to post photos of their ‘Happy Place’ on the Facebook wall, whether that happy place is on the beach or from their own backyard. Two winners were selected for their photo submissions and announced on the day of launch. One winner’s photo was from the sandy beaches of San Sebastian, Spain, while the others Happy Place was with his college-ruled spiral notebook. Both won a free autographed copy of Delivering Happiness and a Delivering Happiness t-shirt.

Delivering Happiness received photo submissions from all over the World in the three weeks prior to the official launch of the book. The contest built a strong momentum, and despite the fact the contest has concluded, Delivering Happiness continues to receive photos from fans and followers.

Twitter:

Delivering Happiness partnered with the LIVESTRONG crew and set a goal to raise $33,333 by the launch of Delivering Happiness on June 7. Leveraging Twitter, we encouraged followers to join the Delivering Happiness and LIVESTRONG movement by making three promotional pushes leading up to the launch party.

Combined, Delivering Happiness and LIVESTRONG raised $50,000 to help support the organization. A base of more than 5 million Twitter followers was created by pulling togethere influential tweeters such as @LanceArmstrong, @Zappos, @LIVESTRONGCEO and @DigitalRoyalty, among others.

Meetup Everywhere and Sponsored Meetup Book Clubs:

Meetup.com recently launched a new platform, called Meetup Everywhere, which allows likeminded people from around the world to organize groups and events in their own community. To celebrate the launch of the Delivering Happiness book on June 7, people were encouraged to organize a Delivering Happiness Meetup group and join the Delivering Happiness team on June 7 to watch the livestream coverage of the launch party in New York. Each group was sent complimentary copies of the book, so that their groups could chat about the book and everything happy. We even had a Delivering Happiness group all the way in Ireland, Malaysia and Peru. 

A total of 133 Delivering Happiness Meetup groups joined the movement and hosted events from locations around the World. Each group watched live coverage of the launch party in New York via livestream. In addition, Delivering Happiness has sponsored 100 Book Clubs across the country on Meetup.com with access to more than 43,000 people.

DailyBooth:

DailyBooth was a great platform to encourage people to submit their Happy Place photos with the book, including people like Ashton Kutcher. More essentially, DailyBooth allowed author and Zappos CEO, Tony Hsieh and the Delivering Happiness team to put a face and personality behind their names, by uploading photos of themselves.

Delivering Happiness currently has more than 6,600 followers on DailyBooth.

Delivering Happiness officially hit stands on Monday, June 7 and in it’s first day it was ranked #1 on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Not bad, considering none of us have ever launched a book before. What’s next on the agenda for Delivering Happiness? We’re hitting the road on a cross-country bus tour to promote the book and more importantly spread happiness throughout the country.

Digital Royalty came up with the idea to have readers tell us, via social media, where the happy bus should stop along the tour. Readers are encouraged to submit  a short video, photos or 100-words or less telling us why, the bus should stop in their city.

And fear not, you won’t miss a beat, because we will be live streaming along the way. The fun has just begun, so stay tuned for more details about the Delivering Happiness bus tour–BIG things to come.