The Unofficial IKEA Web Journal

IKEAFANS is now on Twitter and Facebook! Be one of the first to get daily news and updates about IKEA and IKEAFans!

And while you’re following us on Twitter, check out our Follow Friday Recommendations:

@ikeadublin ~ IKEA Dublin, the first IKEA store in Ireland, will open its doors at 0800 on July 27, 2009!
@ikeaglasgow ~ We are IKEA in Glasgow. We get up to all-sorts. Want to keep up to date? Follow us!
@IKEA_Oz_East ~ Providing IKEA fans with the latest news and hottest offers from IKEA stores in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne.
@IKEATampaFans ~ This is the Twitter fan page for IKEA Tampa.
@IKEAKitchen ~ IKEA Kitchens by Dyer Studio

Announcements Facebook, Follow Friday, IKEAFANS, Twitter

Totally cool story about how social networking through Twitter saved the day for one IKEA customer. Story told by OzDJ (@OzDJ) on his Phlog and retold by LaurelPapworth on her Social Media Blog: the business of being social.

Long story short:

1. @OzDJ needed some shelves. 
2. @aDB was at the local IKEA.
3. @OzDJ bribed @aDB with some IKEA food and instant karma to check on the stock.
4. Less than an hour later, @aDB posted a picture on TwitPic as evidence of available stock.
5. Social Networking for the WIN!

I actually saw these tweets go by in my twitter stream, (!!) and having witnessed the same on IKEAFANS on many occasions, I nodded and went back to work. The difference here is IMMEDIACY. Within an hour, OzDJ had posted this picture of said stock:

Now, THAT’s the power of social networking. I always knew IKEA fans are just the best kind of people there are! Now, proof.

Check out the evolution of TwitterCaching that grew out of this exchange: #twittercache and OzDJ’s post about it here: Forget the Obama Inauguration – this is the first ever #twittercache.

Communities, People, Weblogs #twittercache, @aDB, @OzDJ, Social Media, Social Networking, Twitter

IKEA’s campaign, EmbraceChange09 is inventive, as are most IKEA campaigns. This one is a multi-media campaign consisting of a website, www.embracechange09.com, which will allow visitors to furnish the Oval Office with IKEA furniture. There’s also a standing offer to President Elect Obama and the First Lady to furnish any room in the White House for free. 

IKEA said, of the campaign expenditures,

the campaign’s significance is on par, if not greater than promotions for new store openings.

Billboards and posters plastered all over the metro system in D.C. have caused a bit of a backlash on sites such as adrants.com. The campaign also includes metro-area bus wraps, the staged Oval Office complete with Secret Service agents staged in Union Station in Washington, D.C. seen above.  Overall, ApartmentTherapy.com viewers are rating the campaign, Hot!

A controversial mock motorcade has spawned a Twitter petition @IKEAGreen – the first petition of its kind on the Social Media site, Twitter.  See Petition IKEA to Go Green with EmbraceChange09 Campaign at the IKEA Fans blog for more information on the controversy over the motorcade which will motor through Washington D.C. for 2 days later this week.

The interactive website (www.embracechange09.com) set up by IKEA for this campaign will be active on the 16th, and in addition to decorating the Oval Office, visitors will be able to enter a sweepstakes to win one of three $1500 IKEA Gift Cards. Wish me luck!

[Photo by cpayne via Flickr - thanks!]

Advertising & Marketing ApartmentTherapy.com, EmbraceChange09, IKEA advertising, IKEA campaign, IKEA Interactive Websites, IKEA Oval Office, IKEAFANS.com, Twitter