Brooklyn, New York is a borough that marches to the beat of its own drummer. It’s a musical mix-tape microcosm in its own right with talent always seeping from the seams and, thanks to Joe Revitte, its streets. His lone dollar van is just one in a herd of dozens,  but there is one little difference. As  it makes its way over pot holes and through traffic lights, music artists inside pour their souls out to a film crew, complete with hidden microphones, and the occasional passenger. This is Dollar Van Demos, the brainchild of Joe Revitte and his wife, Iara.

Here I talk to Joe Revitte about Dollar Van Demo’s and the impact social media has had on the production.

SR: For those who don’t know, explain what a dollar van is and how you work with them.

JR:  Dollar Vans provide cheap transportation ($2) to areas under served by public transportation.  They’re basically commuter vans operated by mostly Caribbean immigrants (especially from Jamaica, Haiti and Trinidad and Tobago, but also from several countries in Africa). Since the bus service is slow and the subway reaches only a half-way distance, the dollar vans help transport several thousand passengers per day between their homes to their jobs, shopping, and school.  The vans run only on one route but can stop or pick up riders on any corner. We run with a van on Flatbush Avenue (basically Brooklyn’s “Main Street”) and the dollar vans can be found on other main thoroughfares in Brooklyn and in Queens. We work with a van operated by Black Street Van Lines owned by Winston “Youngblood” Williams, whose company’s vans are legal, insured, and permitted by the Taxi & Limo Commission (TLC) of New York City.  The vans have a deserved reputation of driving at top legal speed, packing the seats full of passengers and pumping great reggae, hip-hop, and soca music from their speakers.

Next to YouTube, what would be your favorite social media site and why?

It’s hard to say, but I like how MySpace allows musicians to completely customize their pages with all of their images and music, I like how Facebook offers smart organization of connections and messages, and I like how Twitter allows instantaneous communication.  We consider every social network to be important to our ever-growing network of connections. One thing I’m really proud of and have a lot of fun doing is re-tweeting and communicating directly with Dollar Van riders on Twitter since some of the messages they send are uniquely hilarious (see our Twitter feed for proof).

How do you go about building such a great fan base on your social media sites?

By working really hard and continuing every moment to work even harder.  We basically make sure we’re continuously contributing to “the feedback loop” where if someone connects to us, leaves a comment, etc. we try to reciprocate with a short, positive reply.

McDonald’s recently borrowed your idea, how did that happen?

After this guy subscribed to our YouTube channel in November, I sent him a message via YouTube thanking him for supporting our channel. He was gob smocked that someone would be thanking a subscriber in such a way and he revealed that he worked for a Chicago advertising agency. He said his client, McDonald’s, was about to launch their new “Dollar Menu at Breakfast” and asked us to collaborate with them. We licensed our concept for two commercials that starting airing nationwide in January starring Joya Bravo and Wordspit. This is proof of the amazing connectivity of the Internet!  The “behind the scenes” footage and the spot starring Joya Bravo can be found here. Read the rest of this entry »

We are taking a break from our regularly scheduled programming today in order to honor (and attend) the Second Annual Shorty Awards! The awards ceremony will honor the best represented personalities and social media elites on Twitter, and all winners will give their acceptance speeches in 140 characters or less. Please join us virtually (or vicariously) by going to the official site to watch the streaming video of the ceremony, beginning at 7:30pm EST tonight. You can also follow the @ShortyAwards on Twitter and Facebook.

For more background on the ceremony, please revisit Rocky’s post on the nominees! Join us later in the week for all of the insider details too hot for other social media news sites (we may even name names and provide photographic evidence of debauchery…).

Stay tuned!

After a long history of hardships, Haitians are now enduring a long and disastrous aftermath from last month’s most severe natural disaster in current history. The death toll is estimated at over a quarter million, the damages exceeding those of the Asian tsunami in 2004, and the costs are billions more than that of Katrina. Being one of the poorest Third World countries, Haiti is no stranger to suffering, with poverty, disease, debt, and a long list of political problems with dictatorship having existed for decades.

With their previous beloved leader, Aristide, sent into exile and the current president, René Préval, walking around in a daze, the Haitian people are short-handed on powerful leaders, and are relying on short form aid instead. Relief efforts for the massive destruction and displacement of Haitians are endless, and the partnering of big brand relief organizations with social media sites could make the overwhelming process more efficient. But for real-time news about the relief progress and inside perspectives from locals in Haiti, social media networks are revolutionizing the way we stay informed. By following local publishers, donors are empowered to make more informative decisions on how to help.

Although the Red Cross has the most branding power and continues to receive millions more in donations than any other agency, there are many more organizations with progressive, innovative approaches that hold a certain expertise. Questioning the legitimacy of an organization with an unknown name is only logical; there are predators who are using this ravaged country as an excuse to wring cash out of well intentioned donors. The less informed the donor, the more likely their funds will go to familiar agencies like Red Cross and UNICEF. There have been debates of pooling U.S. disaster funds to spread the help to other organizations that are more specialized, yet it doesn’t seem like a timely solution to what needs immediate attention.

There are easy ways to donate and some sponsors are doing it for you. If you become a follower of the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund by March 2^nd, Rudy’s BBQ will automatically donate fifty cents to CBHF. (You can participate via the CBHF Twitter account). You can also sport your support with a Fashion for Haiti t-shirt (@fashionforhaiti on Twitter). New York community group To Haiti With Love, is asking artists to create and donate. Art will then be auctioned off via their website, tohaitiwithlove.co.uk. Also, if you are an eBay shopper, you can automatically donate during your checkout.

To read what people on the ground in Haiti are saying and to learn about other ways you can help and become a part of the plan, check out the publishers and citizen journalists below on Twitter:

http://twitter.com/MakHaitian

http://twitter.com/mediahacker

http://twitter.com/firesideint

http://twitter.com/RAMhaiti