Ginny from the Blog

Now that I’m among the thousands of people who get to creep down Interstate 40 on the commute home from RTP, I have few things to look forward to other than a compelling story on NPR or low-flying planes near RDU.

So when something like The LEGO Experience Tour truck passes me on the Interstate, believe me I take notice.

When the semi truck crept passed me today, my mundane drive was suddenly filled with colorful LEGO pirates, spacemen and every character in between. As the truck passed, my mouth dropped. I was on the phone with my boyfriend and told him I had to go. I had to get a picture of what I was seeing. My geek friends wouldn’t believe it without a photo. There on the back of the truck was the URL for “The LEGO Experience Tour” and it was a Blogger address. Yep, plastered on the rear of the LEGO semi was thelegoexperiencetour.blogspot.com.

Seriously, LEGO? Seriously? You couldn’t drop ten bucks and buy thelegoexperiencetour.com and set up a redirect to your Blogger site? Didn’t someone at LEGO see that long ass blogspot URL and raise a red flag? I mean certainly the graphic designer responsible for designing the semi trailer thought of it and passed along the suggestion, right?

And please don’t take offense to this if you have a Blogger domain of your own. That’s fine. I’m not picking on you.

But LEGO is a 51-year-old brand with sales netting $825.4 million in the first half of 2009. Certainly, LEGO can afford to buy a domain, pay for hosting and customize a blog template to communicate a message to the millions of people who see the semi as it tours the country. The blog itself, actually isn’t that bad. It’s clearly written by the lucky 20-somethings who get to pimp LEGOs around the country. It’s raw, it’s simple and it has cute pictures. But it only has 2,161 visitors as of this writing (according to the visitor counter in the sidebar).

LEGO doesn’t even hold its own Twitter domain. @LEGO belongs to a self-described art nerd in San Francisco who has 62 followers. (Flickr fail whale photo from @tveskov).

Ex-LEGO employee Jack McKee did make major headway for the company during his tenure. He helped integrate LEGO into existing forums and websites where grown-up LEGO fans were already sharing building tips, discussing their love for the plastic toys and more. You can watch McKee discuss his efforts in a presentation here. To hear him tell it, McKee made big breakthroughs in convincing the corporation to lighten up and engage its fans instead of trying to sue them. Cheers to that. But McKee has since moved on, and now LEGO’s online strategy seems lost.

Maybe LEGO doesn’t need to engage its customers in mainstream social media outlets. Maybe the company wouldn’t make a dime from encouraging folks to tweet pictures of their latest LEGO creation. Maybe the LEGO Experience Tour will be just as successful with free web hosting and a generic blog layout. But it sure seems like there’s a helluva lot of potential for a social media consultancy to help the longtime brand engage even more customers online. If not for business, then at least for the fun of it.

BTW, you can see the LEGO Tour semi truck for yourself at the N.C. State Fair, which is hosting the tour from Thursday through Sunday. In the meantime,  thelegoexperiencetour.com was purchased tonight, and not by LEGO.

I’m still buzzing from last night’s 30THREADS blogger bash and it has nothing to do with the beer that was flowing.

I’m finding that when Triangle bloggers and Tweeple get together, there’s a certain energy that envelops the room. Faces light up with recognition when bloggers or Tweeple are recognized from their avatars. Bloggers connect with their readers, stories and ideas are exchanged, occasionally interrupted by a handshake or a hug from someone who feels like they already know you.

I connected with some bloggers I already knew, but I also met some whose words and photos I’ve been admiring for months. A brief recap, with apologies for the many moments I can’t squeeze in.

* Met Jeni, the Durham blogger behind I found happy. Turns out we both used to work at The Herald-Sun, so we briefly shared our war stories.

* Noshed on some tasty wings with @RobertFischer, a Durham blogger who reminded me of some funny advice I offered during one of our live Threadcasts. Apparently, I had declared my love for buffalo chicken wings, but warned that if you want to impress someone during a lunch meeting it’s better to order the buffalo chicken salad because it’s easier to eat. Haha. That so sounds like something I would say. (Robert is the one talking in the photo on the left).

* Reminicsed with Lenore about the days when Broad Street Cafe (the venue for our bash) was the funky Ooh La Latte.

* Met some of the anonymous folks behind one of the best Durham food blogs, Carpe Durham.

* Finally had a chance to congratulate Kevin Davis in real life on the recent redesign of his popular Bull City Rising blog. Also caught up with Valerie and found out some of her exciting future plans for We Love Durham.

* Immediately recognized Leandra and Eric, a Durham wine-loving couple I feel like I already know because of their well-written blog.

* Shook hands with a recently-blogged about High School Musical Build-a-Bear and met Jeff Cohen’s two precocious children. Check out this photo that Grace took with her dad’s Nikon D40X.

Other people I met/reconnected with included:

* Paul from That’s No Bull.

* Kate, Jill and Jake, who are among the folks building Raleigh Public Relations.

* Ellen from CoookingEatingDurham.

* Local comedian Larry Weaver.

* Barry Ragin from Dependable Erection (probably not what you think, get your mind out of the gutter).

* Rachel Nabors, a local cartoonist, web designer and overall stylish chick.

And many more.

It was a fabulous evening, filled with new connections and lots of smiles. I think Anora McGaha summed it up well when she wrote this on my facebook wall today:

The bash was amazing. The buzz in the Broad Street Cafe side area was intense, could have lit up half a city.

Thanks to everyone who came out. Hopefully we’ll have another chance to reconnect soon. If you were there and I didn’t list your blog above, please give yourself a shout out in the comments section.

The Triangle is definitely an outstanding hub for social media.

It’s time for another 30THREADS Blogger Bash.

Make plans to pop by the Broad Street Cafe in Durham anytime between 6 and 9 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 7.

The informal bash features light snacks and beer and, of course, a chance for me to meet you. If you’d like, bring a friend. Even if they don’t blog. It’s cool. We like new people.

So here’s what you do. Drive, walk or bike over to Broad Street Cafe. Open the door. Walk over toward the group of bloggers/blog readers (despite stereotypes, I doubt anyone will be wearing pajamas). Smile. Say hello. Grab some snacks. Get some beer (or soda, or water). And wait to be wowed by someone fabulous. There will be an interesting mix of folks, so it will be challenging not to meet one intriguing person. Find out how you can guest blog for 30THREADS. Chat with me a little. Say goodbye. Leave with a smile. Go home and watch the debate.

See, doesn’t that sound so easy and fun?

For more details, check this out.