Last I checked, the Rodeo Houston fanpage had nearly 80,000 fans. This pretty much kicks the pants of other fan sites from in and around Houston. This fan base even beats the Houston Texans, who have a respectible 50k fans. The only major Houston fan pages that are above the Rodeo Houston's 80k (and growing) fan base is the Houston Astros and the Houston Rockets.

The Houston Rodeo has been in exhistance for 78 years, but their fan page is a wee FIVE MONTHS OLD! Seriously. This means that the page has grown 16,000 fans per month. That's nearly 600 fans per DAY. This is an amazing feet for any organization.

What I find personally awesome about this, is that I actually met the PR/Marketing Director Johnnie Westerhaus in a web promotional class about five years ago. She was the lone ranger with one(ish) web designer just learning how to enter metadata so people could find the rodeo line up. A few weeks later, I met Leroy Shafer at a direct mail association conference. He gave the history of the CRM system for HLSR, and how its evolved throughout the year.

I was drinking the kool-aid from that moment on. I have to admit my boots have had more dust than dirt on them, I could never pull off one of those awesome rhinestone belts, and most people can't even detect a Texan accent. I'm doing this cowboy nation zero justice, but I've got to be HLSR's biggest fan. And a fan because of their business (and mine) of marketing. These guys really know what they are doing. They have gone from posting non-searchable PDFs on their webpages, to eighty thousand fans of their facebook, twitter, youtube, mobile contest, and an incredible innovative website in just a few years.

You may have never thought of turning to the cowboys for your how-to guide of social media and marketing technology... but its definetly time to take notice.
*My companies fan page Atos Origin North America is 200 members strong after almost a year of promotion. Maybe we should be more closely related to the Houston Rodeo? :)

Wow, where have I been?! Apparently, Girlfriend Getaway is the new term for "staycation"... and Chevrolet has got the market covered in that arena. http://www.girlfriendgetawayhouston.com/

I've heard the radio commercials that offered free massages for a test drive. Good for them I thought. But why haven't I heard of the Girlfriend Getaway?! Who knows, but I'm glad I did. The gig, find several metro based women to drive a Chevy branded car and blog, twitter, facebook, and vlog all about it on about it in front of the camera.

Now, I don't need a car for four weeks, but I sure could use a marketing high for a month! MAN! what a fabulous campaign. My hats off to Velocity Marketing for spinning this campaign. I really can't wait to see the ROI from this. The branding among women is phenomenal.

Looks like the first campaign was Mommy Madness in Houston. They had the Traverse to test drive. They were a bunch of soccer moms... pfft. I want a cool car. I'd like to take out some clients, video some of the "hoity-toity" women around our Houston Galleria office... Let's see what these chicks really think. The car looks fabulous. Would they even know what they were getting into? It would be cool to have a "hidden camera" type video blogging. I'd like to take a bunch of these IT geeks around. What do they think about the gizmos? I'd take my 16 year old daughter out with her friends... is it cool enough for them to be seen in? Will the valet guy leave the Malibu all shiney and up front at the Hobby Center? Will the Malibu go with my Cheetah dress when I go on date night with Toddy? Ah... maybe I should just do a secret campaign if I don't get picked. I'll do my own test drive! :) That would be awesome.

Anyway, its a great campaign. Get some known social media experts with legit backgrounds and steady stream of acceptable comments and reviews. Even if I don't get chosen (which you should totally pick me) I'll be watch the stream of comments from the campaign. But man! with all this campaigning... shouldn't you be easier to find? :(

With love, Future Marketing Engine --I mean Malibu Test Driver :)