As Christmas draws near, I thought I’d share some fun online sites you might like to share with your children this holiday season. Of course a quick Google search will yield you thousands of results, but here are a few I’ve enjoyed with my kids.

My 4 year old especially likes these. For him as a child that is growing up with on-demand video and the internet, it seems only natural to incorporate some of what Santa does online.

• Countdown to Christmas features a daily video message from Santa, and a chance to ask St. Nick questions in real time.
• Santa Update features daily “press releases” from the North Pole keeping everyone up to date on the days leading up to Christmas Eve.
• Portable North Pole lets you create a custom video greeting from Santa featuring your child’s name, photo, and location, a sneak-peek at the Naughty/Nice List, and even an update on the toy the wished for.
• Santa Live features live webcams from inside Santa’s office, and outside the workshop.
• NORAD Tracks Santa is the granddaddy of them all and features real-time tracking of Santa, with video updates and a Google Earth option. You can also follow the Twitter Stream, Facebook Page, and Picasa Web Album. If you are an On-Star user, you can even get hourly updates in your vehicle on Christmas Eve.
• Track Santa on your mobile device – Google Maps offers NORAD’s Santa Tracking on supported phones.

Merry Christmas!

(CC licensed image via The Sierra Club)

After all, Amazon.com really does it right in so many ways.

Border’s new online storefront will have one benefit that Amazon.com can not offer – retail locations. For me, the killer feature is the convenience of purchasing online, but getting products same day by swinging by a local retail store for pickup.

As Border’s moves to its new face-out shelving strategy, the reduction in inventories may reduce the usefulness of what could be the new site’s best feature.

I’m launching a quant study to fuel two pieces of research: 1) The first is focused on identifying the levels of maturity among interactive marketers across industries. When finished this report will define the different interactive marketing maturity levels, the characteristics of firms at each level, and also present a roadmap for growing from lower to higher levels of maturity; and 2) The Interactive Marketing Channels To Watch in 2008. This piece is an update to our annual study examining which interactive tools marketers are using, piloting or planning to pilot in 2008. We’d love your input on this study. If you or one of your colleagues is involved with interactive channels (e.g. email marketing, search marketing, display ads, social networking, blogs, widgets, mobile) we would love your input in our research.

https://deploy.ztelligence.com/start/index.jsp?PIN=139WBA5JZDB56

Here are a few quick checks to get a feel for how much your company really understands what is happening in social media:

1. Is your company blogging? I don’t mean employee blogs about what their kids are doing (and yes, I have one of those too) but is someone really speaking openly and honestly to customers via a blog. Does your CEO blog?
2. Still pushing stodgy Press Releases or have you adopted a strategy for Social Media Releases?
3. Does your company think that their customers are not a part of the social media landscape – that its just a small percentage of people on the fringes of the Internet?
4. Does your company have a YouTube Channel?
5. Do you have a Social Media Newsroom?

If none of this sounds familiar, you owe it to yourself to read Brian’s excellent summary of the future of PR and Marketing.

The key, of course is engaging your customers in the network, but the challenge for many companies is casting off the old ideas and realizing the world is changing.

Make sure you keep your eyes open to the communities your customers are creating online. It’s the future of your company they are building.

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Via(Demand Satisfaction)