Interesting success stories in the social media space are far from difficult to come by.  But every now and then a really unique example of the spontaneity of social channels comes through and manages to surprise even us hardened folks in the industry.

That’s why the re-emergence of a 12-year old letter from Ren & Stimpy creator John Kricfalusi is especially refreshing.  Yesterday, the folks at LettersofNote dug up an encouraging letter from John K to at-the-time aspiring child Amir Avni.  The simple and supportive nature of the letter, along with scans of John’s handwritten letter (which, in the age of computer fonts, brings a touching legitimacy) have been enough to skyrocket John K from his quietly steady blogging into a new stratosphere of social media excellence, with Twitter and blogs like Boing Boing waking up to the story in a big way.

The subsequent buzz at Reddit just sweetens the story, with John K himself hopping on the link-sharing site with a brief “IAmA” and diligently answering fan questions, right down to “what is your favorite sandwich?” (Salami, Bacon, Smoked Meat and onions, by the way)  At the time of this post, the discussion has garnered 1157 comments and 2341 votes up.  Oh, and did I mention Reddit changed their logo to honor the cartooning legend?

Perhaps it’s because in the age when so many social media campaigns are strategized and planned to the hilt, it’s nice to see online communities still continuing to still deliver these natural gems, in this case on a private letter written over a decade ago.

Here’s a look at how to use our CES visualizer in a quick video demo

With all the brands, press, and delegates attending and exhibiting at CES, keeping track of all the Twitter buzz can be a herculean affair.  We thought we’d help and create a tool for brands, reporters, bloggers, and consumers, making it easier to find all the brand buzz in one place–and track it visually.

TweetYouThere aggregates CES mentions from across the Twittersphere, categorizes it by brand and allows users to see the latest chatter in custom feeds by popularity, company name, and topic.

Still in beta, we’ve got big plans for the platform, ultimately growing it into a one stop destination for a number of top industry conferences.  We’ll be working with conference organizers to include delegate lists, even more party information, and advanced data parsing tools.

Head over to tweetyouthere.com to check it out and follow the latest news.  We’re also offering summaries of trends and even more info on the TweetYouThere Twitter account (@TweetYouThere)–and please keep up up to date on any bugs you find, as we’re still working on perfecting everything.

Enjoy CES!

To celebrate the season, we decided to get some of our staff together and record a few new takes on some classic Christmas tunes.  Everything you hear here was done in-house in the Fuel recording studio, under the guidance of our multi-talented Director for Fuel Sounds, Rob Plowman.  We hope you find they make a worthy addition to your holiday mix.

To catch a glimpse of the recording process, Alyssa (who you’ll hear as lead vocals on the first track) graciously put together a video chronicling some of the fun we had putting the songs together.  Enjoy!

For so long, technological advancement and spiritual enlightenment appeared to be mutually exclusive, but who better than Microsoft to help change that?

In one of Microsoft’s first Twitter promotions, we helped create an opportunity for tech professionals to clear their minds while Windows Server 2008 R2 helped clear their server frustrations.

The site allows IT pros to create a haiku poem extolling the virtues of R2.  The site integrates with each poet’s Twitter account and tweets their creation to their followers, who can then vote the poem up or down in the ranking.  Most creative poem wins a home theater system and an XBOX 360.

The site has taken off within the tech community and has been featured on AdWeek, DM News, and ArsTechnica.

Exercise your right to peace of mind, and visit www.r2haiku.com.